Why Was Security Stripped in Benghazi?

Clare Lopez 

Data points continue to accumulate about the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. The picture that is beginning to emerge from connecting those dots is deeply concerning on multiple levels. Two related issues dominate this analysis: The stripping of security protection from the Benghazi mission prior to the 9/11 anniversary attack and the refusal to send or even permit local help on the night of the attack.

As Fox News Bureau Chief of Intelligence Catherine Herridge suggested on the “Mike Huckabee” show on Oct. 27, both of these critical subjects may have been driven by a perceived need to cover up the existence of the role being played by the U.S. mission in Libya to serve as a command hub for the movement of weapons out of Libya to Syrian rebels fighting to bring down the Bashar Al-Assad regime.

Benghazi vs. Reykjavik

Karen Lugo

As in the days of the Soviet Empire, the world faces a dark, totalitarian threat. The forces of Sharia domination are trying to extort Western appeasement in military planning, law enforcement, civil liberties and personal freedom.

This weekend marks the thirty-third anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Embassy hostage crisis; there is much about the current Benghazi debacle reminiscent of what happened in Teheran all those years ago.

As a response to both events, the world's superpower acted surprised and then confused. Next, it dithered and mumbled. Historians say that the lack of decisive response to the Iranian hostage crisis led to a subsequent series of tests of American will -- the attacks on the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, the USS Cole, and the Khobar Towers, and the first 1993 Word Trade Center bombing, among others -- and ultimately to the Al Qaeda attacks of 9-11. The Benghazi 9-11 slaughter is just the latest entry on the list.

Obama’s Wars Aren’t Over

Daniel Greenfield

On the campaign trail of a war-weary nation, Obama is running as the man who successfully concluded three wars. This assertion, like so many others, only works if you close your eyes, stick your head deep in the sand and count to a few million.
Wars, unlike elections, do not begin and end on schedule. They begin and end when the enemy says they do. While Obama asserts that three wars are over, Al Qaeda has a different point of view on the matter. And as long as it remains able to carry on its war, then the war isn’t over.

Prophet Mohammed’s tomb to be razed…by Saudi’s

creeping 

And Muslims who whine, riot and murder over cartoons, videos and words won’t even wage their faux inner jihad. via Saudi Arabia to raze Prophet Mohammed’s tomb to build larger mosque — RT.

The key Islamic heritage site, including Prophet Mohammed’s shrine, is to be bulldozed, as Saudi Arabia plans a $ 6 billion expansion of Medina’s holy Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque. However, Muslims remain silent on the possible destruction.

­Work on the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, is planned to start as soon as the annual Hajj pilgrimage comes to a close at the end of November.

After the reconstruction, the mosque is expected to become the world’s largest building, with a capacity for 1.6 million people.

And while the need to expand does exist as more pilgrims are flocking to holy sites every year, nothing has been said on how the project will affect the surroundings of the mosque, also historic sites.

The Specter of Taxmageddon Rises

Amy Payne

October 31, 2012

On this Halloween, a truly frightening specter is looming.
No amount of garlic, crosses, or exorcists can help us—only Congress and the President can chase this ghoul away.

It’s Taxmageddon.

A horrifying combination of expiring pro-growth tax policies from 2001 and 2003, the end of the once-temporary payroll tax cut, and just a few of Obamacare’s 18 new tax hikes, Taxmageddon will be the largest tax increase EVER to hit Americans. It’s nearly $500 billion in one year, starting January 1. That’s two months away.

At Long Last! An Explicit Admission of What Obama Middle East Policy Believes

Barry Rubin

At last, a perfect description of the Obama Administration’s Middle East policy which—unintentionally—shows why it is heading for disaster. Now what place would be so simultaneously uncomprehending and over-confident to give us that image? The New York Times, of course, in the person of Middle East correspondent and reliable apologist for revolutionary Islamist groups, Robert Worth.

First, let me repeat what I’ve been saying for almost four years: The problem is that the Obama Administration and its numerous supporters in academia and the mass media keep saying the following:

--Only al-Qaida is a real threat because only al-Qaida wants to attack the United States directly right now.

--Al-Qaida has been defeated due to the great policies of the Obama Administration.

--The remaining revolutionary Islamist groups are potential friends. After all, [sarcasm warning] they only want to seize state power, overthrow all existing relatively moderate regimes, create Sharia dictatorships, suppress women’s rights, persecute Christians, wipe Israel off the map, and drive U.S. influence out of the region.

War over; we won. Who needs security in Benghazi? Who's afraid of the big and not-so-bad Muslim Brotherhood?

Paying The Ultimate Price with Joy

Nurit Greenger

Someone asked me the other day, who is my hero? I had to think for a moment and then say that there is no one who comes to mind who I can call "my hero."

Then I was thinking what is a hero?

This week I met a hero and his name is Yosef Mendelevich; a real 'gibor Yisrael' (Hero of Israel), a hero of the entire Jewish nation. He and all the people who, in perpetuity, fought for the release of the Russian Jewry from the Soviet Russia claws, under the Banner 'Let My People Go', are modern days heroes.

The Syrian rebels and the media embroilment

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid
Ashwarq Alawsat

A group of Syrian rebels in the Azaz region stand accused of kidnapping Lebanese journalist Fidaa Aytani. This journalist risked his life to enter Syria and he is not the first media figure to be detained by the Syrian rebels. This renews talk about how long we can be silent about the abuse of our professional colleagues who are only doing their duty to cover the Syrian revolution?

Facebook Censors Navy SEALS to Protect Obama on Benghazi-Gate

AWR Hawkins 

Over the weekend, Facebook took down a message by the Special Operations Speaks PAC (SOS) which highlighted the fact that Obama denied backup to the forces being overrun in Benghazi.

The message was contained in a meme which demonstrated how Obama had relied on the SEALS when he was ready to let them get Osama bin Laden, and how he had turned around and denied them when they called for backup on Sept 11.

Obama’s Courting of the Mullahs

P. David Hornik

It turns out that soon after taking office, President Obama tried to make friends—totally—with the mullahs’ regime in Iran.

The aim was to start with the opening of interest sections in Washington and Tehran, then progress to “full diplomatic ties, including U.S. and Iranian embassies and ambassadors in each other’s capitals, security cooperation…, [and] direct flights between the U.S. and Iran….” All this amity, it was presumed, would get Iran to give up its nuclear program.
So, at least, reports the Israeli daily Maariv (Hebrew original here; English report in The Times of Israel here), basing itself on “two Western diplomats very close to the administration.”

PE: Voting Jewish Values

Policies proposed by Mitt Romney, especially on education, are antithetical to fairness and compassion

By Randi Weingarten

Mitt Romney listens as his running mate, Paul Ryan, speaks during a campaign rally in Powell, Ohio, on Aug. 25, 2012. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

 

It should come as no surprise that the latest Gallup poll shows that President Obama is carrying a 70-25 percent lead over Gov. Romney among Jewish voters. Once the undecideds break for a particular candidate, it looks like Obama will garner roughly the same percentage of Jewish votes as he did in 2008 against Sen. John McCain.

Cameron must keep Bibi convinced on sanctions

Despite having very little foreign policy experience before Number 10, Cameron has shown a solid grasp of statecraft, ably supported by a very capable Foreign Secretary

Cameron needs to remind Netanyahu that sanctions are working

Ross Cypher-Burley

 

 

Moving to Tel Aviv in July was a stressful time for my family and I, though not particularly for the reasons that we envisioned.

From the driver’s small talk in the taxi from the airport, to watching the evening news, and to my first glass of beer with bright young Israeli policy makers, there was a palpable and growing sense of apprehension over Iran.

The country was divided over whether the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent, in his view, the Ayatollahs acquiring the capacity to build a nuclear weapon.

Every day newspapers were full of stories and quotes from leading Israeli politicians and generals, emphasising the IDF’s ability to carry out such a strike. As I commuted to work, I passed car parks being converted to impromptu bomb shelters. Stalls were set up in shopping centres where families could acquire gas masks. I received stark text messages on my phone informing me of the whereabouts of the nearest shelter.

Nigeria, Russia, and a private-security ship

theoptimisticconservative 

A few comments on what’s going on at sea.

Earlier this month, Nigerian authorities seized a ship operated by the Moran Security Group.  In the usual manner, the ship, M/V Myre Seadiver, is flagged by the Cook Islands, was built in Norway in the 1960s, was Norwegian owned and flagged for most of its life, and is now owned and operated by Moran Security Group in Moscow.  The entire crew, according to media reporting, is Russian.  The ship is accused of arms trafficking.
Myre Seadiver’s ship type is “standby safety vessel.”  Moran appears to keep it in respectable condition (click through the gallery to Myre Seadiver, the last two photos), and lists a number of services provided for maritime operations, including:

Egyptian child preacher calls for destruction of Israel

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6255

 

Egyptian child preacher calls for destruction of Israel

Child preacher appears on Egyptian Al-Rahma television station, says martyrdom is a religious duty for Muslim believers and refers to "the accursed Sharon, Bush and Obama," according to translation provided by MEMRI.

 

Israel Hayom Staff

Child preacher on Egyptian television says martyrdom is a religious duty for Muslim believers. Photo credit: Youtube.com

 

A child preacher identified as Ibrahim Adham called for the destruction of Israel on the Egyptian Al-Rahma television station this month, according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"Proceeding"

I realize that many of my NY readers, who took the brunt of the storm, may be without electricity now and for some undetermined time into the days ahead.  May they all be safe and able to return to reasonable normality before too long.  Full recovery of the city will be a long and heavy haul.

 

 

Credit: NYPost

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hamas continues to remain in the news, and I think it's worth taking a look at a couple of things here. With the resumption of rocket attacks yesterday and the day before, it's important to note that it was not renegade groups that had refused to cooperate with an Egyptian-negotiated ceasefire that were claiming credit.  It was Hamas itself.

U.S. Supreme Court Bars Further Holy Land Trial Appeals

creeping
via The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report

The Investigative Project is reporting on the refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal by defendants in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) prosecution. According to the report:

While Monday’s refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal by defendants in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) prosecution effectively closes the case for the defense, it could open options for the government.

In addition to the five defendants, HLF as an organization also was convicted in the case. As we reported in December 2008, there are potential enforcement ramifications stemming from the HLF case beyond the five convicted defendants. This is particularly true now the appellate process has been exhausted in favor of the prosecution.

Diplomatic dhimmitude: Obama’s Oslo Syndrome

October 30, 2012, 8:47 am

 Richard L Cravatts, PhD, is the author of 'Genocidal Liberalism: The University’s Jihad 

In their third and final presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida, on October 22 – this one focused on foreign affairs — neither President Obama nor Governor Romney, somewhat inexplicably, addressed a still-nagging question on the minds of many, both Republican and Democrat: Why, for some two weeks after the lethal attack on the US consulate in Libya, did the Obama administration continue to explain the attacks as a random madness of Muslim protesters incited by an innocuous video clip on YouTube, rather than a pre-planned, deliberate attack by well-armed terrorists commemorating 9-11 with spilt American blood?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick to point out that the anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims” was “inflammatory, despicable material posted on the Internet,” and “an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with,” trying to distance both the administration and the US government as a whole from the film.

The Arab Spring and Israel

Michael Curtis 

The song of the Arab Spring has ended, but the malady lingers on.  Even the most well-intentioned optimist has to acknowledge that the events in the Middle East over the last two years have not succeeded in introducing anything resembling democratic societies or political structures to replace the existing authoritarian regimes.  Those events have not so much reinforced traditional politics in the Arab countries as served to underline the failure of regimes based on secular politics to emerge.  The path to modernity has not been followed; indeed, the reverse has happened, with a greater prominence of religious doctrine and the fragmentation of some of the Arab states.

Al-Qaeda's Strategy of a "Thousand Cuts"

Soeren Kern

"Fire Is One of the Soldiers of Allah."

Spanish police have arrested six members of an al-Qaeda cell in Barcelona that was dedicated to providing a related terrorist cell in Germany with large numbers of stolen passports.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said the police action, dubbed Operation Comet, was carried out on October 13 in Barcelona and the nearby town of Vilanova del Camí, and entailed police raids on at least four homes of Muslim immigrants involved in the network. Police found large numbers of stolen passports and identity papers issued in many different countries.

Those arrested were from Algeria, Belgium and Morocco, and all were carrying stolen passports that included their own photos attached to the personal data of dozens of individuals from several different countries.

PE: The Innocence of Obama

Daniel Greenfield

Ten years ago most left-thinking liberals were constantly worried about the erosion of civil liberties under the War on Terror, though they could rarely name an instance where an American citizen had actually experienced such an erosion.

This was, after all, before the days when naked scanners and drone strikes had entered the vocabulary, and the best they could do was to haul out Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al-Muhajir, ACLU’s choirboy of the month, a Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who was being held in jail for no reason at all except aiding terrorists and plotting to build a dirty bomb.

Ten years later the lefty civil liberties types were proven right. The War on Terror did erode our civil liberties, and America’s first political prisoner in generations has spent a month in jail for making an inconvenient movie at an inconvenient time.

The Socialist Democrats: An Election Primer

Matthew Vadum

The socialist wing of the national Democratic Party is larger and probably more powerful than it has ever been.

But its numbers depend on how you define the term socialist and how you measure influence.

Labels can be misleading. Since the 1960s and the ascent of the so-called George McGovern/Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale wing of the Democratic Party, being a socialist, or fairly close to a socialist, has become the norm in the party. The days in which a Democratic elected official could be slightly left-wing (i.e. favoring a mixed economy that was more capitalist than socialist) and at the same time pro-defense, as in the case of President Harry S. Truman and Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, are long gone.

 

Nowadays it is generally safe to presume that a Democratic lawmaker is a socialist unless evidence suggests otherwise.

Islam’s Insanities -- All Just a ‘Hoax’?

By Raymond Ibrahim

 

You read something immensely disturbing concerning the Muslim world—say, that some Muslims seek to legalize sex-slavery or destroy Egypt’s Pyramids or approve of sodomy-suicide-missions or crucify infidels. Your mind—exclaiming “tell me this is a joke!”—finds it difficult to accept such news. Then, somewhere from the bowels of the Internet, relief arrives. The much welcomed word “Hoax!” appears, reconfirming your worldview. All is well again.

But is it? Are such accounts mere hoaxes? Or is this just another strategy by those who apologize for Islam’s insanities—a strategy that relies exclusively on the fact that the Western mindset cannot fathom such news, anyway, and thus is all too willing to accept the hoax charge without a second thought?

To determine if a practice is Islamic or not, first determine if it is in the Quran, Hadith, and the rest of Islam’s voluminous literature.

Recall the news that Salafi parliamentarians in Egypt were pushing for a law legalizing necrophilia. This information first appeared in Egypt’s most circulated newspaper, Al Ahram, followed by Al Arabiya. The news went viral, prompting Western dismay. But then a cutesy Christian Science Monitor article titled “Egypt ‘necrophilia law’? Hooey, utter hooey” tried to return us to the status quo. Its author, one Dan Murphy, admonished the many websites that disseminated the necrophilia story: “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet, kids. At least until there’s like, you know, some proof.”

CIA hosts training by Muslim Brotherhood leader and Hamas supporter

 Breitbart
Now that supporters of the jihad against the U.S. are training the CIA, traitorous hard-Left pseudo-journalist Spencer Ackerman must be popping open the champagne and crowing, "mission accomplished." "CIA Hosts Training by Muslim Brotherhood Leader and Hamas Supporter," by John Guandolo for Breitbart, October 24 (thanks to John):

Over the last several years, the presence of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) operatives working inside the federal government advising our senior leaders has been definitively documented (see articles here , here and here).  This penetration of our system is shocking and constitutes an immediate danger for American citizens.  The success of the MB’s influence operation from within our government is now manifesting itself with national and global implications for the security of America and its citizens.  In July of this year, the CIA hosted a 2-day training program at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Workshop for the National Capitol Region.”

Bulgaria: Thirteen Muslim scholars, imams and teachers on trial for misunderstanding Islam, al-Qaeda links, preaching against democracy

 Jihad Watch
How did these Islamic religious scholars, imams and teachers miss all the passages in the Qur'an about love for and peaceful coexistence as equals with the Infidels? So many misunderstanders of Islam -- it's on ongoing puzzle! "Bulgarian radical Islam trial hears witnesses amid nationalist demo," from AFP, October 29 (thanks to Maxwell):

PAZARDZHIK, Bulgaria — A trial against 13 Bulgarian Muslim religious leaders for preaching a radical form of Islam heard key witnesses Monday, while nationalists demonstrated at the court in the southern town of Pazardzhik to protest "Muslim pressure" on its work. 

The 12 men and one woman -- imams, mufti Islamic scholars and teachers -- have been charged with founding a local branch of the extremist Al Waqf-Al Islami group in the southern regions of Smolyan, Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik.
The Netherlands-based but Saudi-funded organisation is suspected of links to Al-Qaeda.

The 13 were charged with preaching a radical anti-democratic ideology based on hardline Salafist teachings during prayers at mosques, lectures, sermons and cafe meetings between March 2008 and October 2010 and with seeking to impose a caliphate state.

All defendants have pleaded not guilty and several witnesses have so far refused to confirm their initial written testimony.

Another key witness, who once worked for the Al Waqf-Al Islami foundation also rejected his testimony on Monday. Muafak al-Assad, a Syrian national who once studied in Bulgaria, also said he was pressured by state security agents to refuse an interpreter and not to appear at the trial at all....
About 300 nationalists meanwhile demonstrated at the court with Bulgarian flags and signs reading "Bulgaria is a secular state" to protest what they said was "Muslim pressure" over the court during its previous hearings.
A crowd of long-bearded men and women wearing long black dresses had then gathered outside the courtroom to support their religious leaders but their outfit, which is not traditional for Bulgaria's Muslim minority, sparked a controversy. They were absent on Monday, however.
"We want to avoid conflicts," Bulgaria's deputy chief mufti Birali Birali, who was present at the hearing, said.
Bulgaria, whose population of 7.4 million is 80-percent Christian Orthodox, also has the highest percentage of native Muslims in the European Union, at about 13 percent.
They include Turks, Muslim Roma and Pomaks, like the accused, whose Christian ancestors were forced to convert to Islam during the country's Ottoman domination between the 14th and 19th century. The Pomaks are the most devout of the three subgroups, minority experts said.
Most experts also warned that, regardless of its outcome, the trial risks raising tensions between Bulgaria's Christian majority and the Muslim minority, who have lived together quietly since the fall of communism in 1989.

Yes, the trial will raise tensions. Thirteen Muslim leaders preaching hatred of the Infidels and the need to subjugate them under Islamic rule -- that doesn't raise tensions. Only trying them does.

Benghazi's Tough Questions

Sultan Knish
The story of how the Obama Administration failed to secure a US consulate and then failed to send in support while it was under attack may turn out to be the biggest scandal of this administration. But that will only happen if Benghazigate is the subject of a thorough and rigorous investigation. And that means basing stories on facts or on reliable reports, rather than on speculation and internet rumors that no one would take seriously in any other context.

I have received dozens of emails in the last few days claiming that General Ham was fired for trying to go ahead with a rescue operation. The story appeared in the Washington Times. The source for the Times' story was an anonymous comment on Tiger Droppings, a forum for LSU football fans, from someone in Louisiana working in "Self Employed/Restaurants/Catering" who claimed that the story came "from someone inside the military".

Now for all I know this story is true, but an anonymous comment on a football fan forum is not enough to run with a major story. It's certainly not enough to start treating it as an established fact.

Former Chair of Democrats Abroad Israel Comes out for Romney (VIDEO)

Daniel Greenfield

Democrats Abroad is the Democratic Party’s overseas party comprising American voters who live outside the United States. Democrats Abroad has chapters in many countries, including Israel. And Bryna Franklin, the former chair of of Democrats Abroad in Israel has just come out with a commercial for Mitt Romney.

Byrna was a Missourian who moved to Israel in 1993 where she has volunteered at a soup kitchen and worked with special needs children. Now 80 years old, Byrna was a Master’s level college graduate back in the 1950s, when it was less common for women. In a Jerusalem Post editorial, she explains her unprecedented decision.

What is the Truth about American Muslims, Part 1

The First Amendment Center, the Muslim Brotherhood and assorted leftists at the Interfaith Alliance have produced a polished piece of apologist propaganda for Islam. It has been getting a lot media play, because it says all the things the public would like to believe about Islam. It is a textbook summary of arguments made by Islam’s apologists and serves as a teaching example of how to refute this propaganda using the scientific method.

The theme of this propaganda brochure is that “truth” about Islam is all about opinions. But, the truth of Islamic ideology is found in the Koran, Sira (Mohammed’s biography) and the Hadith (his Traditions). Mohammed’s acts and words are the perfect model of actions (Sunna) for all Muslims.

The Real Islamophobia

Sam Westrop

"Islamophobia" is not, as claimed by some critics, just a concept invented by Islamist organizations to distract from their own fundamentalism; it is is a form of prejudice, exacerbated by governments, university faculties, the media and even interfaith groups. The greatest threat to moderate Islam and its assimilation with democratic values are those people who, too fearful to make a stand against radical Islamists, ignore the pleas of pro-Western Muslims and instead choose to "engage" with the extremists. Real Islamophobes are those who abandon secular Muslims and turn a blind eye to the human rights violations committed against innocent Muslims by Islamist governments and terror groups.

Many critics of the West's policy in the Middle East and Western attitudes towards the Islamic faith are keen to invoke Edward Said's theory of Orientalism, which posits that our study of the East is unavoidably distorted by the West's inherent ideological biases. It is clear, however, that if such an absolute predisposition exists, through their support for "moderate" Islamists and rejection of secular Muslim liberals, the Europeans who regard themselves as defenders of the East are the true perpetrators of such prejudice.

Another Reminder that the Palestinian Authority has No Legitimacy

Daniel Greenfield

 

Western media outlets insist on referring to Mahmoud Abbas as the President of the Palestinian Authority, even though he’s currently on the 7th year of his four year term. Ever since Hamas showed its political strength, the Palestinian Authority has avoided holding elections for fear that Hamas will win.

Abbas has no political legitimacy since his term expired in 2009. Salam Fayyad has even less legitimacy since he was never elected by anyone and his appointment to Prime Minister was never even confirmed by the Palestinian parliament, who have no legitimacy either because their last election was in 2006.

Shame on Democrats-you are not the party I once was in

Democrats and Somali voter fraud in Ohio

Posted on October 29, 2012 by creeping

via Is voter fraud being committed in Ohio?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two volunteer poll workers at an Ohio voting station told Human Events that they observed van loads of Ohio residents born in Somalia — the state is home to the second-largest Somali population in the United States — being driven to the voting station and guided by Democratic interpreters on the voting process. No Republican interpreters were present, according to these volunteers.

While it’s not unusual for get-out-the-vote groups to help voters get to the polls, the volunteers who talked to Human Events observed a number of troubling and questionable activities.

A source, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a volunteer outside the Morse Road polling center. She has witnessed Somalis who cannot speak English come to the polling center. They are brought in groups, by van or bus. The Democrats hand them a slate card and say, “vote Brown all the way down.” Given that Sherrod Brown is the incumbent Democrat Senator in Ohio, one can assume that this is the reference.

According to the Somali Community Association of Ohio’s web site, over 45,000 Somalis live in Ohio. Only 40 percent have become citizens of the United States, and only 25 percent speak English well enough to get a job.

Mother places suicide belt on her child: "I will put it on you and you will go to your death,"

on Fatah-Lebanon Facebook page

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7704

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Facebook page for Fatah in Lebanon has posted this picture of a mother dressing her young son with a suicide belt. Palestinian Media Watch has documented the ongoing glorification of violence and Martyrdom by the PA. This picture was posted on the Fatah site together with an imaginary conversation between the son who is being sent to his death and the mother encouraging it. "Why me and not you?" the child innocently asks his mother, who answers that she will continue to have more children "for the sake of Palestine":

COP: Bracing for Hurricane Sandy

Matt Mayer and Rob Bluey

October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy is battering the East Coast this morning, expected to wreak havoc for millions of people from the Mid-Atlantic to northern New England. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are affected by the storm. Please take care and be safe.
Because of Sandy’s timing this late in October, the confluence of multiple items could make the hurricane a 100-year storm. Specifically, with colder air moving east and south from Canada along with a full moon over the weekend, the storm surge could be far larger than normal and the post-landfall storm could turn to snow and ice.

That means Hurricane Sandy brings three different potential problems: flooding in coastal areas and low-lying places, wind damage, and a strong likelihood of power outages in the Northeast.

A Short Guide to the Benghazi Issue: What is it Really All About?

Barry Rubin

The attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the murder of four Americans there has become a huge issue. There are many stories and rumors that are still being debated and more information is coming out. What I’m going to try to do here is to analyze the enduring themes raised by these tragic events.

Why Do They Hate Us?

There is a debate over the causes of terrorism and anti-Americanism in the world. One possible view is that the principal problem is that of genuine conflict. The adversaries hold certain ideological ideas—say, revolutionary Islamism—to which American society and policies are antithetical. The collision (as with Communism, Nazism, and aggressive Japanese militarism in earlier decades) is inevitable. The United States is inconveniencing the totalitarians both because of what it does (policies) and because of what it represents (freedom, democracy, capitalism).

Report: Intel found on slain Hamas official led to Sudan strike

U.K.'s Sunday Times cites military intelligence reports that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, assassinated in Dubai, was in possession of an agreement between Iran and Sudan from 2008 that permitted Iran to manufacture weapons in Sudanese territory.

Yoav Limor and Israel Hayom Staff

Satellite imagery of the Yarmouk facility, before the bombing. | Photo credit: AP

The Sunday Times reported that eight Israeli warplanes participated in the attack on the Yarmouk military complex near the Sudanese capital Khartoum. According to the report, planning for the operation began as a result of documents found on the body of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose assassination in Dubai in 2010 prompted worldwide speculation that it was a Mossad operation.

The Liberal Man's Burden

Sultan Knish


One-hundred and thirteen years ago, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about the American enterprise in the Philippines. The title of that poem has since become a byword for racist colonialism and yet its text is a sardonic recitation of the dim virtues of the "Savage wars of peace".

"Go bind your sons to exile, To serve your captives' need;" Kipling wrote. "To seek another's profit, And work another's gain. Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease."

This moral imperialism has never gone away, though it is no longer thought of in racial terms. For over a hundred years, the United States has gone on trying to feed and cure the world, sacrificing for others and seeing nothing in return.

The Benghazi Sharia Factor

Nonie Darwish

According to Sharia law, it is a capital crime for a Muslim to shoot another Muslim to protect a non-Muslim. To jihadists, Obama is just another disbeliever American President who should not be trusted. Not only did the Obama administration never receive even a promise of peace from the Muslim world; the murder of Ambassador Stevens and the three other heroic Americans never even occasioned an apology from any Muslim leader or cleric.

Americans need answers as to why the Obama administration had no response to the eight-hour terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and who was involved in the decision not to go to their aid despite their repeated requests for help. And why is the producer of the "Innocence of Muslims" video still in a California jail cell, allegedly for violating his parole, while none of the people who refused to rescue Ambassador Christopher Stevens and these immensely courageous former Navy SEALS has been even been named and charged with negligent homicide, or even reckless endangerment?

Why Our Forces Were Told to ‘Stand Down’ in Benghazi

Daniel Greenfield

To understand what went wrong in the Benghazi mission, it’s important to begin by looking at what was so unique about it.

When the Islamist mobs began their September 11 rampage, they found embassies with high walls, heavy security and police protection. Even in Tunis and Cairo, where the Arab Spring Islamist regimes have been accused of collaborating with their fellow Salafists, there were credible military and police forces capable of preventing the kind of full scale assault that took place in Benghazi.

The mission in Benghazi, however, was an American diplomatic facility with few defenses in a city where the police were virtually helpless against the Islamist militias and where the national government had announced that it would allow the Salafists to destroy Sufi tombs rather than intervene.

 

On September 1, I wrote that the real implication of these remarks was that the Libyan government had given the Islamists a free hand and would take no action no matter what they did. And bloodshed was sure to follow. Ten days later it did.

Obama is less dangerous than Romney!

Emad El Din Adeeb

Emad El Din Adeeb

US President Barack Obama emerged – with difficulty – from the third and final presidential debate, which mostly revolved around foreign policy, with better results than his Republican rival Mitt Romney.


In the third debate Obama was able to come up with that ‘magic mix’ combining “poise and strength”, whilst Romney had no poise whatsoever and continued his policy of angrily attacking his opponent without putting forth any practical argument that qualifies him to be the next US President and Commander-in-Chief and of the most powerful army in the world.

Foreign policy is a very important issue for the American voter, although American culture, with regards to its citizens, is based primarily on the premise of withdrawing within and focusing on domestic issues.

Not Where, But Who, Colin

MyRightWord

Colin Shindler attempts to stem the tide of irrational hatred, ideologically-inspired Judeaophobia and outright anti-Semitism, all couched in a convenient label of anti-Zionism by Europe's Left in a NYTimes oped.

But a central part his explanation is problematic:

AMID this rising hostility toward Israel, the French philosopher and political activist Jean-Paul Sartre advocated a different way forward...He understood the legitimacy of Israel’s war for independence and later commented that the establishment of the state of Israel was one of the few events “that allows us to preserve hope.” Yet Sartre also strongly supported Algeria’s fight for independence from France.

The Most Israeli Answer to a Question Ever

Oh, and the Sudan-Gaza link

By Adam Chandler

Smoke Billows Over Khartoum Following an Attack on a Weapons Factory (Reuters)

Sudan has been doing some saber-rattling in the general direction of Israel since a weapons factory in Sudan was mysteriously bombed. Earlier this week, the Yarmouk complex, a state-owned weapons manufacturing complex in Khartoum and potentially a great name for a novel, met with an unfortunate accident when, according to Sundanese officials, four planes bombed it to pieces.

Maariv: Obama offered to reestablish full ties with Iran

TIMES OF ISRAEL

Israel was told about and opposed president’s diplomatic incentives package, initiated soon after he took office, and Iran rebuffed it, according to Maariv
Soon after he took office, President Barack Obama began a process ultimately designed to reestablish full US diplomatic relations with Iran, including a reopening of embassies, an Israeli daily reported Sunday. The initiative, part of a wider shift in America’s diplomatic orientation, aimed at reaching understandings with Tehran over suspending its nuclear program, Maariv claimed, citing “two Western diplomats very close to the administration.”

The initiative led to at least two US-Iran meetings, the report said. Israel was made aware of the contacts, and opposed them.


But Iran rebuffed the “diplomatic hand” offered by the White House, Maariv reported. The Islamist regime “opposed any sign of normalization with the US, and refused to grant a ‘prize’ to the Americans,” according to an anonymous Israeli source quoted by the paper.

The Real Foreign-Policy Failure

A response to Doug Feith and Seth Cropsey.

By Andrew C. McCarthy 

Last week, Doug Feith and Seth Cropsey co-authored a very interesting and important op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “A Foreign Policy Failure to Acknowledge the Obvious.” It is about President Obama’s denial of the Islamist threat. In it, they zero in on two “strategic misjudgments” the administration has made:

First is the refusal to accept that the terrorism threat is part of a larger problem of Islamist extremism. And second is the belief that terrorism is spawned not by religious fanaticism but by grievances about social, economic, and other problems for which America bears fault.

This is largely right. If it were internalized by a Romney administration, it would be a step in the right direction. Still, the essay goes awry in significant ways.

PE: THE WASHINGTON POST HITS OBAMA!

Finally, the Washington Post speaks out on Obama! This is very brutal, timely though. As I'm sure you know, the Washington Post newspaper has a reputation for being extremely liberal. So the fact that its editor saw fit to print the following article about Obama in its newspaper makes this a truly amazing event and a news story in and of itself. At last, the truth about our President and his obvious socialist agenda are starting to trickle through the “protective wall” built around him by our liberal media.
 I too have become disillusioned
By Matt Patterson (columnist - Washington Post, New York Post, San Francisco Examiner)
Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.

Who ordered US military to 'stand down' in Benghazi?

Just when you thought all the dirt about 'Benghazigate' was out of the bag....

No, the biggest story is not that the incident was a terror attack and was not caused by a B-grade.

The biggest story is that someone ordered the US military to stand down when the embassy came under attack, and that someone's initials just might be BHO.

 

Here's Fox News:

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to "stand down," according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to "stand down." 

Israel Constantly Reinventing Itself

 Nurit Greenger

My mother used to say, "no one will knock on the door seeking you; you always have to be out there meeting the world."

Life is a dynamic course in living and is forever an introduction to new people, new ideas and new things. Only if you are out there doing the rounds with open eyes.

Last week was one of those learning moments.

Muslim bomber kills 8, wounds 100 in attack on Nigerian Catholic church

creeping 

via Suicide bomber kills 8, wounds 100 in Nigerian church | Reuters.

A suicide bomber drove a jeep full of explosives into a Catholic church during morning mass in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least eight people, wounding more than 100 and triggering reprisal attacks that killed at least two more.

There was no claim of responsibility but Islamist sect Boko Haram has bombed several churches in the past in its fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria where the 160 million population is evenly split between Christians and Muslims.

The Innocence of Obama

Sultan Knish
Ten years ago most left-thinking liberals were constantly worried about the erosion of civil liberties under the War on Terror though they could rarely name an instance where an American citizen had actually experienced such an erosion.

This was after all before the days when naked scanners and drone strikes had entered the vocabulary and the best they could do was to haul out Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al-Muhajir, ACLU's choirboy of the month, a Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who was being held in jail for no reason at all except aiding terrorists and plotting to build a dirty bomb.

The West's Deaf Ears for the Real Arab Moderates‏

Barry Rubin

One of my most fun professional memories was when I walked endlessly,  circling round and round and round that hall in Algeria in November 1988 with a burly, no-nonsense, and brilliant newspaper correspondent named Youssef Ibrahim, who was then working for the New York Times.

Friendly, funny, sarcastic, and with absolutely no illusions or romanticism about the absurdities of Arab politics and the idiocies of Arab political ideology, Ibrahim’s only shortcoming is that there are not one thousand more exactly like him. If he was the kind of person leading Arab countries and people they would be far more prosperous, peaceful, happier and democratic.

Humanitarian Hypocrisy

Raymond Ibrahim
Investigative Project on Terrorism

http://www.meforum.org/3366/humanitarian-hypocrisy

The world's double standards concerning which peoples qualify as oppressed and deserving of help are staggering. Two recent stories illustrate this point:
First, a report exposed, in the words of the Turkish Coalition of America, "Turkey's continued interest in expanding business and cultural ties with the American Indian community" and "Turkey's interest in building bridges to Native American communities across the U.S." Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., even introduced a bill that would give Turks special rights and privileges in Native American tribal areas, arguing that "[t]his bill is about helping American Indians," and about "helping the original inhabitants of the new world, which is exactly what this legislation would do."

The Iranian Deal-this week?

Yisrael Ne'eman
 
The Iranians are engaged in serious brinksmanship throughout the Middle East but are on the verge of a comeback.  They are neither as stupid nor as destructively dogmatic (in the short term) as many assume.  Indications are emerging that after the US elections in less than two weeks Washington will engage Tehran is a series of discussions aimed at halting their nuclear program.  Dismantlement is not the issue.  One can expect the ayatollahs to agree but at a hefty price even if the West refuses to "officially" comply.  For Iran the Israel card goes into deep freeze waiting for re-activation at a later date.  Suspending their nuclear program in the face of Western sanctions allows the Iranians to shore up other no less important fronts on the verge of collapse.

Successful Test of Electromagnetic Missile US company conducts test of missile that disperses radiation, disrupting enemy electronic systems

 

Arie Egozi 
http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=1709
 
Boeing has successfully tested a new weapon, a missile that does not carry a warhead laden with explosives, but rather a device spreading radiation which jams the electronic systems used by opponents.
 
The missile, named CHAMP, was launched with a predetermined trajectory, and disrupted electronic systems stationed at a range in the state of Utah whileon its route. Seven targets stationed at the range were successfully disrupted in the framework of the test which lasted an hour and saw the launch of several such missiles.

"How About That!"

The news broke yesterday that Likud, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, and Yisrael Beitenu, headed Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently foreign minister, have decided to run together in the election, with a joint list.

 

Credit: guardian

 

The logic is obvious:  After the election, the party that has garnered the most mandates (seats in the Knesset) will be asked by the president to form a coalition (a number of parties that together have 61 or more mandates), which will constitute the new government.  

 

There has been considerable talk on the left/center about a joint party -- possibly including Tzipi Livni,  formerly head of Kadima; Shaul Mofaz, who currently heads Kadima; Haim Ramon, who had jumped from Labor to Kadima and then quit Kadima; Yair Lapid, who is supposed to be forming the new party Yesh Atid; even Ehud Olmert of Kadima (although this is now unlikely) -- Shelley Yacimovich, how head of Labor, may have been in on that as well. The notion was that this new party would garner more seats than Likud, thus pushing out Netanyahu. 

Benghazi Timeline

FactCheck.org

The long road from "spontaneous protest" to premeditated terrorist attack.

Posted on October 26, 2012

Summary

The question won’t go away: Did President Obama and administration officials mislead the public when they initially claimed that the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi began “spontaneously” in response to an anti-Muslim video?

The question surfaced again on Oct. 25 — more than six weeks after the incident — when government emails showed the White House and the State Department were told even as the attack was going on that Ansar al-Sharia, a little-known militant group, had claimed credit for it.

We cannot say whether the administration was intentionally misleading the public. We cannot prove intent. There is also more information to come — both from the FBI, which is conducting an investigation, and Congress, which has been holding hearings.

But, at this point, we do know that Obama and others in the administration were quick to cite the anti-Muslim video as the underlying cause for the attack in Benghazi that killed four U.S. diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. And they were slow to acknowledge it was a premeditated terrorist attack, and they downplayed reports that it might have been.

Sudan: Israel is 'Legitimate Target' Now

East African country says it has proof Israel attacked its munitions plant.

By Gil Ronen 

Sudan's Information Minister, Ahmed Bilal Osman, has warned that his country would take "resolute steps" against Israeli interests following the bombing of an ammunitions factory in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Osman told the BBC that his country now sees Israeli interests as legitimate targets for attack. He said that Sudan possesses proof that Israel is behind the attack on the Yarmouk weapons factory, and said that experts who combed the location of the blast sound evidence that Israeli arms were used to destroy it.

Hamas Leader: Palestinian Stance against Israel Unchangeable

TEHRAN (FNA)- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh underlined his nation's irrevocable stance against Israel, stressing that Palestinians will never ignore even a single span of their land.
 
"We (Palestinians) will never overlook even one span of Palestine's soil because Palestine is an endowed land and no person, leader, organization or group is entitled to the right to ignore this land," Haniyeh said in a meeting on Saturday with the members of 'Miles of Smiles 17' aid convoy and an Indonesian delegation visiting Gaza.
"Israel has no future in the Palestinian lands and our motto is that we will never recognize the Zionist regime," he said.

Yitzhak Rabin 1922-1995

MFA

On Sunday, October 28, 2012 (12 Heshvan on the Jewish calendar), Israel marks the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. 

 Yitzhak Rabin: A Biography
 Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies
 Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Page (The Knesset)
 CNN Coverage of Rabin Funeral - November 1995
 The Song for Peace

 A letter to Leah Rabin
Bat-Chen Shahak was 13 years old when she wrote the following poem, shortly after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. She was killed in a terrorist bombing at Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv on March 4, 1996. It was read at special memorial service held in Oslo in November 1999.
Three shots and it's all over -
Now one talks about him in the past tense.
Suddenly the present becomes the past.
And the past is only a memory.
We are standing, crying.
We want to believe it never happened,
That it is all a nightmare.
And when we wake up the next morning - it will not be so.
Instead, we wake up to a warped reality,
Where pain is laced with hate.
We cannot digest the enormity of this loss,
And we cannot comprehend its severity...
Yitzhak Rabin's widow, Leah, died on November 12, 2000. Former PM Ehud Barak: "After his assassination, she carried the torch in the battle for peace."

Is this the Issue? WANTED FOR MANSLAUGHTER AND TREACHERY

Daniel Greenfield

Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, said in an interview, “And apparently even the State Department had a live stream and was aware of their calls for help.  This was my son, he wasn’t even there.  He was at a safe house about a mile away.  He got the distress call.  He heard them crying for help.  That’s why he and Glenn risked their lives to go that extra mile just to take care of the situation.  And I’m sure that she wasn’t the only one that received that distress call: “Come save our lives.”

When I heard that there’s a very good chance that the White House as well as other members of the military knew what was going on, and obviously someone had to say, “Don’t go rescue them.” Because every person in the military, their first response is, “We’re going to go rescue them.” We need to find out who it was that gave that command.”
So who gave that command?

 

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that three urgent requests from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack nearly seven hours later were denied by officials in the CIA chain of command — who also told the CIA operators to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

New Iranian TV channel to challenge Tehran leaders

Asharq Al-Awsat

London, Asharq Al-Awsat - As the power struggle in Iran intensifies ahead of next year’s presidential election, cyberspace is emerging as a key battleground with much of the fighting done through satellite television. In that context the launching of a new opposition channel, broadcast from Europe, may not be great news.

However, the new channel, named "Raha TV" claims to be different by serving as a link between the “reformist” faction in Tehran and opposition groups that work for regime change in Iran.

Raha means “unfettered” and its founder Amir Hossein Jahanshahi claims that it will be different from the dozens of other channels run by Iranian expatriates in Europe and North America and beamed to Iran.

Opposing Narrative: Leaving America weaker in a more dangerous world

After almost four years of Obama's presidency, not only is America’s standing in the world weaker, the world is also more dangerous than before

Luke Coffey 

Defending President Obama’s foreign policy track record is no easy task. After almost four years of his presidency, not only is America’s standing in the world weaker, the world is also more dangerous than before.

Obama has not made his view of America’s role in the world a secret. As The Heritage Foundation has previously pointed out, from the very beginning, arguably even before taking office, President Obama began laying out the tenets of a doctrine that would enable his Administration to remake America as one nation among many, with no singular claim to responsibility or exceptionalism.

In sum, the Obama Doctrine is a policy of leading from behind in global affairs, presiding over dangerous defense cuts that leave America weaker in a more dangerous world, and placing “hope” above reality when dealing with countries like Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea – each presenting unique threats to America’s interests.