Egyptian court sentences Christian family to 15 years for converting from Islam

 

The 15-year prison sentence given to a woman and her seven children by an Egyptian court for converting to Christianity is a sign of things to come, according to alarmed human rights advocates who say the nation's Islamist government is bad news for Christians in the North African country.

A criminal court  in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef  meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow planned to convert her family back to Christianity in order to obtain an inheritance from her family. She sought the help of others in the registration office to process new identity cards between 2004 and 2006. When the conversion came to light under the new regime, Nadia, her children and even the clerks who processed the identity cards were all sentenced to prison.

Samuel Tadros, a research fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, said conversions like Nadia's have been common in the past, but said Egypt's new Sharia-based constitution "is a real disaster in terms of religion freedom.”

"Now that Sharia law has become an integral part of Egypt's new constitution, Christians in that country are at greater risk than ever."

- Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice

"The cases will increase in the future," Tadros said. "It will be much harder for people to return to Christianity."

President Mohamed Morsi, who was elected last June and succeeded the secular reign of Hosni Mubarak, who is now in prison, pushed the new constitution through last year.

Tadros said the constitution limits the practice of Christianity because “religious freedom has to be understood within the boundaries of Sharia.” He added that the constitution prescribes that the highest Sunni authority should be referred to as an interpreter of the religion clause contained in the constitution.

Opponents of the constitution, including Coptic Christians and secular and liberal groups, protested at the time against passage of the document because of the mix of Islamic-based Sharia law and politics. Roughly 10 percent of Egyptians are Coptic Christians.

A government spokeswoman told FoxNews.com she would determine “who is responsible for this and covers this issue in Beni Suef,“ a city of 200,000 located about 75 miles south of Cairo. She did not offer further comment.
The case is the latest example of the increasingly dire plight of the nation's roughly 7 million Christians, say human rights advocates.

"Now that Sharia law has become an integral part of Egypt's new constitution, Christians in that country are at greater risk than ever," said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice. "This is another tragic case that underscores the growing problem of religious intolerance in the Muslim world. To impose a prison sentence for a family because of their Christian faith sadly reveals the true agenda of this new government: Egypt has no respect for international law or religious liberty.”

Morsi has been under fire for failing to take action against rising violence inflicted on Egypt’s Christians. In August, the roughly 100-family Christian community in Dahshour was forced to flee after Muslim neighbors launched attacks against the Christians’ homes and property. Morsi said the expulsion and violence was “ blown out of proportion.” Radical Salafi preachers -- who have formed alliances with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood -- called  for Muslims to shun Christians during Christmas.

Sekulow urged U.S. diplomatic intervention in Egypt to promote religious freedom. Morsi is scheduled to meet with President Obama, possibly in March.
”The U.S. State Department must play more of a role in discouraging this kind of persecution," Sekulow said. "The U.S. should not be an idle bystander. The U.S. provides more than $1 billion to Egypt each year. The State Department should speak out forcefully against this kind of religious persecution in Egypt.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/16/egyptian-court-sentences-entire-family-to-15-years-for-converting-to/#ixzz2IB9iCvH2

PM hits back at Obama: I know what's best for Israel

 

A day after US columnist Jeffrey Goldberg quoted US President Barack Obama as saying that Israel under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not know what is in its own best interest, Netanyahu visited the Gaza border Wednesday, was told that December was the quietest month in the last 12 years, and essentially replied to Obama: "Yes I do."

"I think everyone understands that only Israel's citizens will be the ones to determine who faithfully represents Israel's vital interests," Netanyahu said on a visit to an army base near Gaza in his first direct response to Obama's reported criticism. "Over the last four years we stood up against strong pressure, and I will continue to do so for Israel's security.

Netanyahu, who was joined on his visit by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and top IDF brass, was told that according to the security establishment's figures, December was the quietest month in the south since January 2001.

"I am very impressed by the advanced technological means, and even more so by our young soldiers operating them here," he said. "The IDF, Shin Bet, and security force are doing very important work here. They are maintaining the quiet which has been kept since Operation Pillar of Defense."

Netanyahu said that no one had any delusions, and that the quiet could be shattered at any time. But, he said, the IDF was prepared for any scenario. "We will do everything necessary to defend Israel's citizens here and everywhere else."

Senior Likud officials had already accused Obama on Tuesday of leaking sharp criticism Netanyahu’s leadership in order to sway voters in next Tuesday’s election.

Sources close to Netanyahu responded carefully, saying that the prime minister would continue to protect the country’s vital national security interests in the coming government that he would lead. The sources noted that Obama had said Israeli-US defense and security cooperation were at unprecedented levels, which was evident in US support for Israeli missile defense systems and diplomatic backing during Operation Pillar of Defense.




But Likud officials accused Obama of “gross interference” in the Israeli election and said the president was “taking revenge” against Netanyahu for his perceived intervention in the November US election on behalf of unsuccessful Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The officials said Obama had been swayed against Netanyahu by President Shimon Peres and former prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Goldberg told The Jerusalem Post that he was amused by the reactions of Israeli politicians, especially accusations that he had conspired with the Israeli Left to maximize damage to Netanyahu. He said what he had written was consistent with statements Obama had made in the past about the need for Israel’s friends to hold up a mirror and tell the truth.

“In the administration, they saw that after Obama supported Israel in the Gaza conflict and at the UN, the next day Netanyahu wanted to build a new settlement in E1, and they threw up their hands in frustration,” Goldberg said. “I have picked up this chatter about the White House over the past two weeks, so I wrote it. I’m a journalist, writing about what’s happening, not trying to steer an Israeli election.”

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=299796 

I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY! Missouri Lawmaker Wants Tax on Violent Video Games

 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Republican lawmaker from rural Missouri is calling for a sales tax on violent video games in response to a deadly Connecticut school shooting.
Rep. Diane Franklin, of Camdenton, said Tuesday that the 1 percent sales tax would finance mental health programs and law enforcement measures to curb mass shootings.
The tax would be charged on video games rated teen, mature, and adult only by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Franklin’s proposal is the latest in a string of measures in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 students and six adults. Another Missouri Republican has filed a measure allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
Similar legislation to tax violent video games failed in Oklahoma and New Mexico in recent years.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/01/15/missouri-lawmaker-wants-tax-on-violent-video-games/

Is New York Preparing to Put Gun Owners in Mental Hospitals?

New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Democrats and Republicans have worked out a tentative deal on rolling back the Second Amendment in the state. They have also proposed declaring gun owners mentally ill.

Lawmakers will debate aspects of the new proposals today in the Senate and Assembly, according to NBC in New York.


The deal would further restrict so-called assault weapons and limit the size of rifle magazines from the current 10 to seven bullets.

In addition to mandating the sort of weapons and the size of magazines the government will allow the state’s residents to possess, legislators want to enact a law that would allow “civil confinement” of people considered a threat.

Civil confinement was advocated by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The procedure allows the state to commit sex offenders to mental hospitals for life.

New York has signaled it will now apply the procedure to gun owners it deems a threat.

The standard of proof in committal proceedings is generally lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard stipulated by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

Short of actually confining gun owners, the law may be used to deny targeted individuals the right to own firearms after a court determination. For instance, in Oregon, individuals who have been committed are forbidden from owning, buying, or possessing firearms.

http://usahitman.com/nyppgomh/

23% is more like the real unemployment rate, BUT HE IS THE BEST PRESIDENT WE EVER HAD! RIGHT?

NEW YORK – The real unemployment rate for December 2012 is closer to 23 percent, not the 7.8 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to economist John Williams.

Williams, author of the Shadow Government Statistics website, argues that the federal government manipulates the reporting of key economic data for political purposes, using methodologies that tend to mask bad news.

In the BLS news release Jan. 4, the unemployment rate for December 2012 was reported to have remained unchanged at 7.8 percent.

Williams recreates a ShadowStats Alternative unemployment rate reflecting methodology that includes the “long-term discouraged workers” that the Bureau of Labor Statistics removed in 1994 under the Clinton administration.

The BLS publishes six levels of unemployment, but only the headline U3 unemployment rate gets the press. The headline number does not count “discouraged” unemployed workers who have not looked for work in the past four weeks because they believe no jobs are available.


Williams has demonstrated that it takes an expert to truly decipher BLS unemployment statistics. For instance, in Table A-15, titled “Alternative measures of labor underutilization,” the BLS reports what is known as “U6 unemployment.”

The U6 unemployment rate is the BLS’s broadest measure. It includes those marginally attached to the labor force and the “under-employed,” those who have accepted part-time jobs when they are really looking for full-time employment. Also included are short-term discouraged workers, those who have not looked for work in the last year because there are no jobs to be had.

Since 1994, however, the long-term discouraged workers, those who have been discouraged for more than one year, have been excluded from all government data.

While the BLS was reporting seasonally adjusted headline unemployment in December 2012 was only 7.8 percent, it was also reporting the broader U6 seasonally adjusted unemployment in December 2012 was 14.4 percent.

In his subscription newsletter, Williams contended the “headline changes” reported by BLS for the December 2012 unemployment rate of 7.8 percent “lack statistical significance.”

“To the extent that there is any significance in the monthly reporting,” he said, “it is that the economy is not in recovery, and that unemployment has made a new high, at a level that rivals any other downturn of the post-Great Depression era.”

The only measure BLS reports to the public as the official monthly unemployment rate is the headline, seasonally adjusted U3 number.

Williams calculates his “ShadowStats Alternative Unemployment Rate” by adding to the BLS U6 numbers the long-term discouraged workers, those workers who have not looked for work in more than a year but still consider themselves to be unemployed.

Williams believes that his ShadowStats Alternative Unemployment measure most closely mirrors common experience.

“If you were to survey everyone in the country as to whether they were employed or unemployed, without qualification as to when they last looked for a job, the resulting unemployment rate would be close to the ShadowStats estimate,” Williams explained to WND.

The headline BLS unemployment rate has stayed relatively low, because it excludes all discouraged workers, Williams argues.

As the unemployed first become discouraged and then disappear into the long-term discouraged category, they also vanish from inclusion in the headline labor force numbers. Those workers still are there, however, ready to take a job if one becomes available. They are unemployed and consider themselves to be unemployed, but the government’s popularly followed unemployment reporting ignores them completely.

Here is a more complete unemployment table that includes the seasonally adjusted unemployment percentages for U3 unemployment, as well as the same for U6 unemployment, followed by the ShadowStats Alternative Unemployment rate for both December 2011 and December 2012:



Increasingly, critics like Williams believe the seasonally adjusted U3 numbers reported by the BLS as the official monthly unemployment rate do not give a reliable picture of the true magnitude of unemployment in the United States.

The definitions used by the BLS exclude from the calculation of the monthly U3 unemployment rate anyone who has not looked for work at any time during the past four weeks. Those workers are considered to be “discouraged” and “not in the labor force.”

In the U6 calculations, the discouraged workers are only those who have actively looked for work in the past year.

The BLS definitions don’t consider those who would look for work if there were a reasonable chance they could find employment.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/heres-the-real-unemployment-rate/#J78ZquiASJ2T2MYK.99

HEY GOVERNOR YOUR PEOPLE ARE STILL BEGGING FOR SANDY HELP! WHY ARN'T YOU FIGHTING FOR THAT ISN'T THAT MORE IMPORTANT? New York governor signs post-Newtown gun restrictions into law

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Tuesday gun control legislation banning military-style rifles and imposing tighter restrictions on ammunition. The law includes new stipulatons meant to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
The bipartisan measure was passed Monday in a 43-18 vote by the New York Senate, then made it through the Democratic-controlled Assembly 104-43 Tuesday afternoon.
Within an hour of the law's passage through the state legislature, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law, making New York the first state to pass new gun restrictions since the shooting massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 people dead, 20 of them young children.
“This is a scourge on society,” Cuomo, who also proposed the legislation, said Monday night about the shooting. “At what point do you say, ‘No more innocent loss of life.’”
In an attempt to reduce gun violence – especially mass shootings – New York legislators have been working together to impose greater restrictions on the sale of deadly weapons. The new law further restricts assault weapons by defining them based on a single feature, rather than two features. Under the replaced state law, assault weapons were defined based on having two “military rifle” features, such as a muzzle flash suppressor, a bayonet mount, a pistol grip, or a folding stock. By reducing the qualifications to only one feature, more guns would be considered “assault weapons” and would therefore subject potential buyers to tighter background checks.
New Yorkers will no longer be able to buy assault weapons over the Internet, will be subjected to a background check in order to make a purchase from a private dealer, and will be charged with a misdemeanor for failure to store their weapon safely.
“This is not about taking anyone’s rights away,” said Bronx Sen. Jeffrey Klein. “It’s about a safe society … today we are setting the mark for the rest of the country to do what’s right.”
The new provision also mandates a police registry of all assault weapons. Current owners are now required by law to register such weapons. New York will now enter all information into a statewide gun registry, altering the current system in which each county or municipality sets its own standard.
New Yorkers are also now limited to purchasing magazines that carry seven bullets, a reduction from the limit of 10.
To reduce the chance of the mentally ill acquiring weapons, therapists who believe their patients might have intentions to use a gun illegally will be required by law to report this to their mental health director, who will then report it to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Additionally, penalties for gun crimes will now be more severe than in the past. Taking a gun to a school, for example, would result in higher sentencing than previously.
Some opponents of tighter gun control regulations believe the changes to the law are unnecessary, and in some cases, unconstitutional.
“We have taken an entire category of firearms that are currently legal in the homes of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. … We are now turning those law-abiding citizens into criminals,” said New York Sen. Greg Ball.
But Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos of Long Island believes the bill’s restrictions will make the country safer without violating any rights.
“It is well-balanced, it protects the Second Amendment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has created a gun control proposal that is also expected to soon pass the state legislature.
“There is a sickness in our country. That sickness is gun violence,” O’Malley said Monday at a gun violence summit at Johns Hopkins University. “Perhaps there is no way to completely prevent the next Newtown tragedy. But then again, perhaps there is. None of us can predict the future… And, yet, we know every life is valuable.”
Like Cuomo, O’Malley plans to ban military-style “assault weapons” and limit the size of permitted gun magazines. He would also require tighter background checks and take steps to prevent guns from landing in the hands of the mentally ill.
The two governors have been leading figures in the post-Newtown gun control debate. While New York was the first in the nation to adopt tighter regulations after last month’s deadly massacre, other states may soon follow in Cuomo’s footsteps.

http://rt.com/usa/news/new-york-gun-control-056/

NASA Images Show Thick Toxic Clouds Over Beijing

In case you missed it, the air quality issue in Beijing is no joke; playing out like a scene from some 20th century environmental disaster novel. Flights are cancelled, roads are blocked with pile-ups, and emergency rooms are packed with residents gasping for air like doomed carp pulled from a local lake.
Pictures of Beijing and its thick bank of poisonous cloud/fog cover have been circulating for a few days, but these just released photos from NASA's Terra satellite offer a perspective seen nowhere else.
With its immense population driving a vital economy, China's under no illusion about the seriousness of the situation. Factories are already ordered to scale back emissions, which means production, and workers are getting sick from their commute.
Seen from here in New York, knee-deep in earnings season, with Wall Street wondering how many iPhones China will buy in the coming months, the pictures tell a startling story. If China can't continue burning the fossil fuels and crop stubble it's enjoyed getting where it is today, it could mean a genuine shift in its economic drive.
The shots progress from clear skies with lingering smog and haze on the ground, to dense cloud cover filled with the yellow/gray tint of air pollution. The metric ratings and toxins levels are explained here by NASA, but at its peak Beijing was breathing air three times more toxic than what's "hazardous to all humans."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-photos-of-chinas-air-pollution-2013-1#ixzz2IAjDG6wY

Iranian president calls for all-out ties with Syria

 

TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Tuesday for enhancing relation with Syria in different fields.

Urging comprehensive ties with the Arab state, the Iranian president said that "The relations between two countries in different areas is for the advantage of both nations and the regional people."

Iran and Syria should use their economic potentials for the benefit of their people, he said in a meeting with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi here Tuesday.

Al-Halqi arrived in Iran's capital Tehran on Tuesday to exchange views with Iranian officials on matters of mutual interest as well as regional and international issues.

Referring to the hard times of the Syrian people, the Iranian president expressed hope that the "plots" against Syria will come to an end "soon" and peace and security will be restored in the country.

With no doubt, the Syrian people will come out of the current hard situation, he said, adding that the best solution to the Syrian crisis is to stop conflicts and to hold free elections.

For his part, Al-Halqi said that after successive failures in Syria, the enemies of the Syrian nation have resorted to the destruction of infrastructures in the country.

The Western countries are seeking to put the Syrians under the economic pressure, but the the Syrian people will stand against them, he added.

Before meeting with Iranian president, the Syrian prime minister also met with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Saeed Jalili.

In the meetings, both sides condemned the Western intervention in the Syrian affairs and expressed hope that the country to overcome the current difficulties.

DAMASCUS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of people were killed or injured Tuesday when two rockets struck the main university of Syrian northern Aleppo city, activists and local media said, as mortar shells rained down districts of the capital Damascus, killing one person and injuring others.

The twin rockets hit the faculty of Information Engineering in the University of Aleppo, ripping off the facade of the faculty and filling its vicinity with mounds of debris, broken glass and pools of blood, according to a footage aired by the state TV.   Full story

DAMASCUS, Jan.15 (Xinhua) -- Syria, which once helped Iraq in its oil-for-food program that was endorsed in 1996 to help alleviate Iraqi people's suffering caused by economic sanctions, is now seeking some countries' help to follow Iraq's suit and meet its people's need of food stuff and necessities.

Deputy Minister of Economy Hayyan Suleiman disclosed that his government signed a protocol to swap oil for food, noting that the subject is currently being discussed between the companies that are desirous to do the barter and the foreign trade institution.   Full story

  BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Monday expressed satisfaction with last week's trilateral meeting on Syria's protracted crisis in Geneva, while a loud explosion rattled a district of the Syrian capital of Damascus overnight. 

The latest Geneva talks, held last Friday, drew UN-Arab League joint special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns. The three stressed the need for a speedy end to all forms of violence in Syria.   Full story  

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-01/16/c_124235499.htm

Morsi says...'We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews,' Morsi said in 2010

 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s attitude toward Israel is under scrutiny after two videos exposing his anti-Semitic past have resurfaced.
The New York Times reports that, since his campaign for president following the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, Morsi has worked hard to gain the approval of President Obama by affirming the 1978 Egypt-Israel peace agreement.
However,  the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi also made comments in early 2010 that include anti-Semitic slurs and a call to “nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred” for Jews. According to the Times:

As the chief of the Brotherhood’s political arm before becoming president, Mr. Morsi was one of the group’s most outspoken critics of Zionists and Israel. He sometimes referred to Zionists as “Draculas” or “vampires,” using demonizing language historically associated with anti-Semitism. Although he explicitly denigrates Jews in the recently exposed videos, Mr. Morsi and other political and Brotherhood leaders typically restrict their inflammatory comments to the more ambiguous category of “Zionists.”
The anti-Semitic statements that have come to light this month both date back to 2010, when anti-Israeli sentiment was running high after a three-week conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza the previous year.
In the video footage … Mr. Morsi addressed a rally in his hometown in the Nile Delta to denounce the Israeli blockade of Gaza. “We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews,” Mr. Morsi declared. Egyptian children “must feed on hatred; hatred must continue,” he said. “The hatred must go on for God and as a form of worshiping him.”

http://freebeacon.com/videos-show-egyptian-president-inciting-hatred-of-jews-israel/ 

Refugees Are Fleeing Mass Rapes In Syria

Rape is being used as a weapon of war in the Syrian conflict to such an extent that many refugee families are citing it a as a primary reason to flee, according to a new report.

The study of the nearly 600,000 people who have fled the country since the start of the civil war stated it was a "staggering humanitarian disaster".

On top of those in neighboring countries, mainly Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, 2.5 million had fled their homes but remained in Syria, while 4 million people were in need of help.

"The extent of the bloodshed, devastation, displacement and suffering inside Syria cannot be easily or precisely measured, but it is certainly extraordinary in its magnitude, and it is steadily worsening," the report for the US-based International Rescue Committee said.

"Millions of Syrians are in desperate need and have little if any access to humanitarian relief."

Their overall comments reflect widespread feelings that despite promises from across the world not enough assistance is reaching the often bleak and frozen refugee camps on the country's borders.

However, while there had been allegations of rape and sexual abuse before, the scale suggested by the refugees was shocking.

Women were in particular danger of being dragged away and raped, sometimes gang-raped, at checkpoints set up by armed groups. The report did not single out either side as responsible, but the biggest network of checkpoints is in regime areas and the most serious allegations of human rights abuses have been made against regime troops and in particular its "Shabiha" militia.

"Many women and girls relayed accounts of being attacked in public or in their homes, primarily by armed men," the report said. "These rapes, sometimes by multiple perpetrators, often occur in front of family members.

"The IRC was told of attacks in which women and young girls were kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed.

"The IRC's women's protection team in Lebanon was told of a young girl who was gang-raped and forced to stagger home naked."

With no side currently making major advances, and efforts of the UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to find a peace deal petering out, there is no end in immediate sight to the refugees' suffering.

A major regime push on southern and eastern suburbs of Damascus, which have been fought over for months, has killed scores of people in the last few days alone, including eight children and five women in an air strike on Monday morning.

The regime has taken to using an ever more extreme array of weaponry. In recent weeks it has begun employing Scud missiles – unguided land-to-land missiles – and, most recently, land-fired cluster bombs, on top of the aerial cluster bombs it has been dropping for several months, according to Human Rights Watch.

Rebels who seized an airbase at Taftanaz near Aleppo at the weekend, after months of fighting, also found a hanger containing a row of prepared "barrel bombs", home-made devices that can be dropped from planes and helicopters.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/rape-in-syria-conflict-2013-1#ixzz2IAfmAW3m

US downplays report confirming Syrian chemical attack

Account in Foreign Policy about agent deployed by Assad forces inconsistent with what America ‘believes to be true,’ says spokesman

The White House early Wednesday cast doubt on, but did not outright deny, that a secret State Department cable had confirmed accounts of a chemical weapons attack orchestrated by the Syrian regime in the city of Homs in December 2012.

“The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program,” said Tommy Vietor, a National Security Council spokesman, in a statement released on Tuesday.

The comment came close on the heels of a report in Foreign Policy Magazine to the effect that investigations by US diplomats into a Syrian army attack in Homs on December 23, 2012, found that President Bashar Assad’s forces had used a chemical known as “Agent 15″ or “BZ.”

The conclusions were sent to Washington in a diplomatic cable signed last week by the US consul-general in Istanbul, Scott Frederic Kilner, the report said.

After the attack, rebels released video showing alleged victims gasping for breath and vomiting, raising speculation that Assad had ordered that chemical agents be used in the bitter civil war which has claimed some 60,000 lives in under two years.

The use of unconventional weapons by regime forces in Syria has the potential to broaden the conflict in the war-torn country. US President Barak Obama in August said that the deployment of chemical weapons would be a game-changer.

“We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that’s a red line for us, and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front, or the use of chemical weapons,” he said at the time. “That would change my calculations significantly. That would change my calculus; that would change my equation.”

According to the Foreign Policy report, investigators spoke to doctors and activists before sending the cable with the damning conclusions. The report cited a US government official who had apparently seen the communication.

“We can’t definitely say 100 percent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 [a chemical weapon] was used in Homs on December 23,” the official was quoted as saying.

Wired Magazine’s national security blog, The Danger Room, explained that Agent 15 is a hallucinogen rather than a lethal compound. During the Cold War, the US military tested the agent on its own soldiers, but there are no previous reports to date of it being weaponized, the blog said. The Danger Room said Assad was not known to be in possession of the agent.

Vietor, the White House spokesman, reiterated Obama’s warning that the use of chemical weapons would provoke a response from the US.

“The president was very clear when he said that if the Assad regime makes the tragic mistake of using chemical weapons, or fails to meet its obligation to secure them, the regime will be held accountable,” he said.

However, last week Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that it would be nearly impossible to prevent the Syrian government from using its chemical weapons. He claimed that the US must instead rely on deterrence and continue warning Syria that using such weapons would be unacceptable.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-downplays-report-confirming-syrian-chemical-attack/

 

 

Syria Dropped Hallucinogen Weapon on Rebels, Secret Cable Says

The Syrian military used an exotic chemical weapon on rebels during an attack in the city of Homs, some U.S. diplomats now believe.
That conclusion — first reported by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin and laid out in a secret cable from the U.S. consul general in Istanbul — contradicts preliminary estimates made by American officials in the hours after the December 23 strike. But after interviews with Syrian activists, doctors, and defectors, American diplomats in Turkey have apparently rendered a different verdict. It’s important to note, however, that this was the conclusion of a single consulate within the State Department, and there is still wide disagreement within the U.S. government over whether the Homs attack should be characterized as a chemical weapons incident.
“We can’t definitely say 100 percent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 was used in Homs on Dec. 23,” an unnamed U.S. official tells Rogin.
Agent 15 is similar to 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ, a powerful hallucinogen that the American military tested out on its own soldiers during the Cold War. Its emergence on the Syrian battlefield would be nothing short of bizarre. While Syria is well-known to have a massive supply of chemical weapons, international observers haven’t ordinarily included BZ on that list.
Over the years, there have been rumors of BZ being used on a battlefield — including one that Iraqi insurgents were dosing themselves with the drug to pump up their aggressiveness. If the cable is accurate, this would be the first confirmed case of BZ employed as a weapon. At the moment, however, the cable’s claims are not confirmed.
“The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program,” White House national security council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “If the Assad regime makes the tragic mistake of using chemical weapons, or fails to meet its obligation to secure them, the regime will be held accountable.”
President Obama has called the use of chemical arms in Syria a “red line” that could trigger outside intervention in the civil war that has killed more than 60,000 people. It’s unclear whether the White House would consider a BZ strike to be a step over that line; Agent 15 isn’t nearly as deadly as a nerve agent like sarin. Last week, America’s top military officer said preventing a chemical attack by the Assad regime would be “almost unachievable.”
American and allied intelligence services have been watching the Syrian government’s acquisition and possible use of chemical weapon components for years. They’ve blocked the importation of precursor chemicals and equipment into Syria when they’ve been able, and immediately reported to the White House when the Syrian military began mixing those precursor chemicals and loading them into munitions for a possible attack.
But when U.S. officials first caught wind of Syrian rebels’ chemical weapons claim, the officials didn’t make much of it. In graphic videos uploaded to YouTube, opposition activists said they were hit by a gas that was “something similar to sarin,” a deadly nerve agent. The videos showed victims howling in agony and barely able to breathe. But the symptoms, as gruesome as they were, didn’t seem like the one produced by sarin.
There were complaints of strong smells in the videos; sarin is often odorless. There were reports that the victims inhaled large amounts of the chemical; a minuscule of amount of inhaled sarin can be fatal.
“It just doesn’t jibe with chemical weapons,” one U.S. official told Danger Room at the time.
Later accounts from Homs more closely match what one might expect from a nerve gas victim. Rogin spoke with Dr. Nashwan Abu Abdo, a neurologist from Homs, who talked about victims with pinpoint pupils, “choking on their own secretions.”
Abdo’s descriptions, however, don’t correspond with the conclusions of the State Department cable. A hallucinogen like BZ is unlikely to produce the effects Abdo outlined; such drugs typically cause pupils to grow, for instance, not contract.
Something horrible happened in Homs on December 23. Exactly what that horrible event was still isn’t clear.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/syria-agent-bz/

Washington ignores “compelling” evidence of Syrian chemical warfare

A leaked State Department report by US diplomats in Turkey, which made a “compelling case” that Bashar Assad’s forces had used poison gas, was cited by the online magazine Foreign Report Tuesday. It was dismissed by National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, who said there was no evidence had taken new steps toward using chemical weapons.

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3470/ 

WE PAY the bill for the protection For Obama's Kids, Where are our kids armed guards????

MORE PROOF OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THINK! WH shoots down secession petitions.

The White House politely shot down the secession petitions circulating on the White House petition website late Friday, dashing the hopes of malcontents who have submitted petitions to allow their states to withdraw from the union in the wake of President Obama's reelection last November.

"Democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that's a good thing," wrote Jon Carson, director of the White House's Office of Public Engagement. "Free and open debate is what makes this country work...But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart."

Carson offered the would-be secessionists a history lesson, explaining that the Constitution guarantees "the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot - a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it."

He also invoked the sad history of the Civil War as a cautionary tale for those who would so casually seek a repeat of our bloodiest conflict, writing, "More than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States."

"So let's be clear," Carson wrote, "No one disputes that our country faces big challenges, and the recent election followed a vigorous debate about how they should be addressed."

"We will need to work together - and hear from one another - in order to find the best way to move forward."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57563647-10391739/wh-shoots-down-secession-petitions/ 

Endtime News Updates 1-16-13 with Hummingbird027

Obama announces 23 exec actions

France to triple troops in Mali after no agreement on African force

France pledged to triple size of its 750-strong force fighting an Al Qaeda-rebel force threatening to overrun Mali after West African army chiefs failed to agree on the deployment of the 3,300 troops promised by the region at a meeting in Bamako Tuesday. The regional force was to have taken over from France. President Francois Hollande accordingly ordered the French force to be increased to 2,500. DEBKAfile: This number is a drop in the sand for contending with well-trained, highly mobile al Qaeda and rebel forces equipped with high quality weaponry in he vast desert state of Mali.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3467/

Palestinians lob 9 pipe bombs at Israeli force

In the most violent attack on the West Bank in years, a group of Palestinians hurled nine pipe bombs and 4 bottle bombs at the Border Police unit guarding the Rachel’s Tomb shrine in Bethlehem Wednesday. None of the officers was hurt.

 

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3475/

Netanyahu: No return to 1967 borders

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will stand by the refusal to return to the pre-1967 war borders and make certain to keep Jerusalem united. He will continue to stand firm against international pressure. These were his associates’ comment on an article by Jeffrey Goldberg quoting Barack Obama as saying Netanyahu does not know what Israel’s best interests are and is driving Israel into grave isolation. Israelis go to the polls for a new parliament and government in six days.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3468/

List of executive actions Obama plans to take as part of anti-gun violence plan

The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence.

• 1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 
• 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. 
• 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. 
• 4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. 
• 5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun. 
• 6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers. 
• 7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign. 
• 8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission). 
• 9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations. 
• 10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement. 
• 11. Nominate an ATF director. 
• 12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations. 
• 13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime. 
• 14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. 
• 15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies. 
• 16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes. 
• 17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities. 
• 18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers. 
• 19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education. 
• 20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover. 
• 21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges. 
• 22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations. 
• 23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/16/list-executive-actions-obama-plans-to-take-as-part-anti-gun-violence-plan/#ixzz2IA1IFOuE

If Israel did not have Netanyahu looking out for them, it would be another Nazi War, The whole middle east is calling for their anhilation! The Citizens their need to thank God for Their PM! Israel advances settlement plans after alleged Obama rebuke

After report that Obama privately criticized Netayahu's settlement policies, tenders issued for some 200 new homes in Kiryat Arba, Efrat in W. Bank; Yacimovich, Livni slam PM for damaging relations with US.

The Housing and Construction Ministry issued tenders for some 200 new housing units in the West Bank on Wednesday, a day after a US columnist released comments allegedly made by US President Barack Obama in which the American leader harshly criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanayahu's settlement policies.

According to Channel 2, the tenders are for 84 new housing units in Kiryat Arba near Hebron, and for an additional 114 tenders in the West Bank settlement of Efrat.

 

Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg on Tuesday quoted Obama as saying “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are,” in regard to Israeli plans to advance new settlement construction, including that in the controversial E1 corridor.

 

“With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near isolation,” Goldberg wrote.

 

Sources close to Netanyahu responded carefully, saying that the prime minister would continue to protect the country’s vital national security interests in the coming government that he would lead.

 

The sources noted that Obama had said Israeli-US defense and security cooperation were at unprecedented levels, which was evident in US support for Israeli missile defense systems and diplomatic backing during Operation Pillar of Defense.

 

But Likud officials accused Obama of “gross interference” in the Israeli election and said the president was “taking revenge” against Netanyahu for his perceived intervention in the November US election on behalf of unsuccessful Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The officials said Obama had been swayed against Netanyahu by President Shimon Peres and former prime minister Ehud Olmert.

 

The publishing of tenders for new settlement units on Wednesday drew condemnation from Netanyahu's political opponents.

 

The Tzipi Livni Party blasted the plans, saying "Netanyahu is destroying Israel's international relations and is sacrificing national interests for political considerations right before an election."

"The Netanyahu government's order of priorities is set by its 'natural partners,' the extreme Right and haredim, not the Zionist, sane majority in Israel," the party added.

 

Livni's party stated that Netanyahu's policies lead to a double loss by isolating Israel and weakening settlement blocs by building outside of them.

 

Similarly, Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich criticized Netanyahu for ignoring Obama's advice and isolating Israel.

 

"Instead of listening to criticism, Netanyahu is behaving irresponsibly and provocatively a week before the election," she stated. "The battle against [Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali] Bennett is more important to Netanyahu than facing Obama. Netanyahu is desperately trying to distract from his failures, which were revealed again this week when we saw he has no control over Israel's economy, and is trying to work in the diplomatic field, where he is also a failure."

 

According to Yesh Atid, Netanyahu is proving once again that he prefers settlers over the middle class.

 

"Instead of investing in housing, education and lowering the cost of living, the prime minister chooses, a moment before the election, to invest in settlements and is further isolating Israel," the party stated. "In the competition between him and Bennett for votes, Netanyahu chose to wink at the extreme right instead of protecting national, social and economic interests."

 

Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said of the new settlement plans that Netanyahu had responded to the "American warning" on settlements "with Chutzpa that will end up costing us dearly."

 

Strong Israel leaders Arieh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari said that "it's too bad there aren't elections twice a week," "If Netanyahu would have built in his four years in the government the way he's promising before the election, there wouldn't be a housing crisis in Israel and the attempts to establish a Palestinian state would be considered science fiction."

 

Eldad and Ben-Ari accused Netanyahu of trying to "steal" settler's votes, while saying he is committed to establishing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. The two expressed hope that those faithful to the Land of Israel know not to give their votes to someone who plans to uproot them from their homes.

 

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=299755



Citizens File Articles of Impeachment Against Obama

 

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

There can no longer be any doubt – the forces of tyranny are running wild across our once great Republic. The time has come for all good men and women to rally to the aid of their country. We have now entered a historic crossroads that will decide the destiny of the United States. Arrogance and corruption has long festered in Washington DC, but the last decade has seen an extreme acceleration of criminal looting and attacks on liberty – every freedom is under sustained assault.

We the People, the rightful masters of this Republic, will either rise up through Congress and the states or we can trade in our birthright of liberty for the chains of a technocratic slavery. Below we list some of the more egregious acts of seditious treason against the Republic of the United States. Anyone who wishes to continue to live in a free country and to pass that birthright on to their children must research this document and then lobby state legislatures and the Congress to do their duty and remove the would-be dictator.

The time has now come for a bill of impeachment to be introduced and debated in Congress. Obama’s crimes are public, and the debate in the House will serve as a court in which to display the tyrannical activities of President Obama and his cohorts. As in the case of Richard Nixon, the exposure of Obama’s crimes may cause him to resign in disgrace. If he does not step down, the full House will then vote to begin the impeachment trial in the US Senate. The time has now come to make your decision – to stand up to evil or get on your knees as a willing slave.

- He has clearly communicated his intent to eviscerate the second amendment rights of American citizens by pursuing executive orders to curtail the right to keep and bear arms without congressional authorization and in violation of the second amendment.

Below, Congressman Stockman has pledged to move for impeachment against Obama. I am standing up against Obama right beside him, will you?

“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation,” reads a statement by Rep. Steve Stockman. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.”

- He has aided America’s enemies, violating his oath, by sending funds to insurgents in Syria who are being commanded by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

- He has violated federal law by overseeing a cover-up surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the transfer of guns to Mexican drug cartels direct from the federal government.

- He has lied to the American people by overseeing a cover-up of the Benghazi attack which directly led to the deaths of four American citizens. The cover-up has been called “Obama’s Watergate,” yet four months after the incident, no one in the administration has been held accountable.

- He has brazenly undermined the power of Congress by insisting his authority came from the United Nations Security Council prior to the attack on Libya and that Congressional approval was not necessary. “I don’t even have to get to the Constitutional question,” said Obama. This is an act that “constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution,” according to Congressman Walter Jones.

- He has ignored Congressional rejection of the cybersecurity bill and instead indicated he will pursue an unconstitutional executive order.

- He has signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act which includes provisions that permit the abduction and military detention without trial of U.S. citizens, violating Habeas Corpus. Despite Obama claiming he would not use the provisions to incarcerate U.S. citizens, it was his administration that specifically demanded these powers be included in the final NDAA bill.

- He has enacted universal health care mandates that force Americans to buy health insurance, a clear violation of the Constitution in exceeding congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. Obama has also handed outpreferential waivers to corporations friendly to his administration.

- He has declared war on America’s coal industry by promising to bankrupt any company that attempts to build a new coal plant while using unconstitutional EPA regulations to strangle competition, ensuring Americans see their energy costs rise year after year.

- He has violated the Constitution’s Takings and Due Process Clauses when he bullied the secured creditors of automaker Chrysler into accepting 30 cents on the dollar while politically connected labor unions and preferential others received better deals.

- He has violated Article II of the Constitution by using signing statements as part of his executive usurpation of power.

“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment.”

Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas.

For these, and other offenses which constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, including perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming and refusal to obey a lawful order, we call for the immediate impeachment of Barack H. Obama.

http://www.infowars.com/citizens-file-article-of-impeachment-against-obama/