In The News: Sunday

Iranian Warships In The Mediterranean

Iranian warships have entered the Mediterranean Sea for the second time in two years, this time after having docked at the Saudi port of Jedda.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Iranian navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari in reporting Saturday's movement of the ships through the Suez Canal on Saturday.

The destroyer Shahid Qandi and the Kharg supply ship were docked in Jedda two days ago, the AFP news agency reported.

IDF Doesn't Stay Silent In Wake Of Rocket Attacks

Southern Israel’s residents are spending the night near shelters and protected spaces, after a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza...

At around 10:30 p.m. (Israel time) on Saturday night, IAF aircraft attacked a rocket production site in Gaza. The IDF Spokesperson said that the aircraft scored direct hits on their targets.

The second IAF attack occurred around 1:45 a.m., this time on a terrorist base and a weapons storehouse. In this attack, as well, direct hits were scored. All aircraft safely returned to their bases.

On Friday there were several attacks on southern Israel by Gaza terrorists that prompted the IDF to move to high alert. One rocket reached the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council district. The other exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council district.

Iran Threatens "Crushing Response" If Attacked

Iran has threatened a “crushing response to Israel’s slightest move” as the United States raises the volume against a pre-emptive strike. Iran also has announced new war games for next month.

The Obama administration has been jaw-boning in the media against a military strike, claiming that harsh sanctions against Iran are working and that Israel should wait. the dilemma for Israel is that most military and intelligence officials warn that postponing military action will close the “window of opportunity” as Iran continues to race ahead towards nuclear capability, especially at its underground nuclear facilities.

The BBC reported Sunday that Iran appears to be preparing to speed up production of enriched uranium, a key ingredient of a nuclear weapon. It announced last week it has installed an additional 3,000 centrifuges in its underground nuclear plant near the city of Qom.

Security Advisor Tom Donilon to Jerusalem for talks with government and military officials.

The Obama administration is increasing pressure on Israel...

Iranian Warships Pass Through Suez Canal For Only Second Time Since 1979

Iranian warships have reportedly sailed through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea as speculation continues to grow that a conflict between Iran and Israel could be on the horizon. The passage, only the second by Iranian forces through the canal since the Islamic republic’s 1979 revolution, was first reported by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency Saturday. BBC Newsreports on the advance:

“The destroyer Shahid Qandi and its supply vessel Kharg have passed through the Suez Canal but their destination remains unclear.

Two Iranian navy vessels entered the Mediterranean in February last year. Israel called it a ‘provocation.’

The news comes as tensions between Iran and Israel appear to be reaching a breaking point, with many speculating that Israel may strike Iran to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.CNN reports that Israel has also blamed Tehran for attacks on Israeli targets in India, Georgia and Thailand.

Muslims Stone Christians On Temple Mount

A mob of some 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christian tourists atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Sunday morning. Three of the Israeli police officers who acted to protect the Christian group were wounded

The attack is believed to have been instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri, who told Palestinian media over the weekend that Jewish groups were planning to break into the mosques that occupy the holy compound and desecrate them.

Sabri urged all local Muslims to protect the mosques from "the Israeli conspiracy against the city and its holy places."

Because of the constant threat of Muslim violence, and despite the fact that the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth to Jews and many Christians, the Israeli police comply with Muslim demands for harsh restrictions on non-Muslim visitors to the site. For instance, Jews and Christians are forbidden to carry Bibles atop the Temple Mount or to utter even silent prayers within its walls. Jews and Christians are regularly detained for violating these conditions.

In other violence, Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a Grad-type missile at the southern Israel city of Beersheva on Saturday. The projectile landed in an open area just outside Beersheva and did not cause any injuries or damage. Two more short-range rockets hit nearby Israeli towns.

Palestinian forces fired at least two rockets at southern Israel - one at the coastal city of Ashkelon

Bird Flu Research To Be Published

Two studies reporting what makes the H5N1 bird flu virus transmissible in mammals should be published fully, with no details left out, say flu experts meeting at the World Health Organisation in Geneva.

They say the benefits to public health outweigh the risks of bioterrorism, but they concede that publication should be delayed so scientists can "engage in public communication" aimed at preventing "unnecessary anxiety".

The decision to publish comes just a few short weeks after the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the US's top biosecurity panel, asked these virologists not to publish the research in detail.

The NSABB worried that bioterrorists would use the information to make dangerous, transmissible H5N1 – or that other, less careful researchers would repeat the work and let the virus get away.

The issue has become a lightning rod for debate because the only thing standing between H5N1 bird flu, which infects birds in half a dozen countries in Asia and in Egypt, and a nasty pandemic is that the virus is hard for humans to catch. But we now know it can it become easily transmissible, in mammals anyway. Last year two labs created versions of the flu that transmits fine in ferrets, the best stand-ins for people.

Most worryingly, one of the labs, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, discovered that as few as five mutations made H5N1 as catchable as ordinary flu, while remaining as lethal as bird flu is now – and it kills around half the people who get it. This, says Keiji Fukuda, the WHO official who chaired today's meeting in Geneva, "changed our perception of the risk from H5N1".

Our Father, Who Art In Washington

Images can be powerful. We have all seen films of the Nuremburg rallies. The torchlight processions, the banners, the chanting crowds: all purposely staged to elevate one man to a status as something more than human, a benevolent leader who promised fairness and payback against the evil enemies of the people. All things were possible through him. The trains would run on time, the capitalists and bankers would pay for taking advantage of the people. Social justice would finally be achieved if only the people would pledge themselves to him.

Juxtapose those images with a 2008 party rally in a Denver stadium. The Greek columns, the giant television screens, the laser light show: all dedicated to elevate a man who promised the wars would end, the earth would heal, and the oceans would halt their rise. Peace and justice at last. He was the one we were waiting for. Goebbels would have been proud.

"But the Constitution protects our freedom of religion!" Really? We haven't seen the Constitution jump up out of its glass case and do anything. It's just a piece of paper. Its only power comes from citizens acting on its behalf. Don't think the administration doesn't know this, either.

Many have argued that the left is fighting for freedom from religion. No, there will always be religion. Fundamental change was promised; change from God given rights to state granted rights are being delivered. When the state eliminates God, the state becomes god. And the state is a jealous god, especially when it takes guidance from a book dedicated to Lucifer.

Hatred Versus Occupation

The most rudimentary analysis of the Palestinian Authority's position on Israel leads to only one conclusion -- the most influential element in the Palestinian Authority attitude toward Israel and to the Jewish people is blind hatred. Hatred mobilizes the Palestinians to close the door to peace and to coexistence with Israel.

Unfortunately, not the world at large, nor the U.N., nor even Israel's closest ally, the U.S., condemns Palestinian hatred for Israel and Jews. Instead, everyone focuses on condemning Israeli occupation of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) as the source of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

But the occupation isn't the source of the problem. Even if Israel

withdrew from 100 percent of the West Bank tomorrow, it would not begin

to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because Palestinian hatred for Israel and for Jews stands in the way. The hatred the Palestinians feel for Jews and Israel is the rod in the spokes of negotiable coexistence and peace.

States March Forward On Anti-Detention Campaigns

The arguments still are raging over whether several provisions in a national defense appropriations act authorize warrantless detentions of American citizens who may be described by Washington as “belligerents,” but states aren’t waiting for any final determination.

The Virginia House already has passed – overwhelmingly – a “bill to prevent any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency of the armed forces of the United States in the conduct of the investigation, prosecution, or detention of a citizen in violation of the United States Constitution, the Constitution of Virginia, or any Virginia law or regulation.”

Just two days after the 96-4 vote Tuesday on HB1160 in Virginia, the Arizona Senate Border Security, Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee approved on a 6-1 vote SB1182, which brings the bill to the verge of a full vote in the Senate.

The Arizona plan “prohibits this state and agencies of this state from participating in the implementation of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 and classifies the act of attempting to enforce or enforcing these sections as a class 1 misdemeanor.”

“The very fact that so many legal experts come up with so many diverse readings of those NDAA sections should give us all pause,” he said. “The language is vague and undefined. Are we really going to trust the judgment and good intentions of Pres. Obama or whichever Republican sits in the White House to protect us?

WND reported earlier when Rep. Daniel P. Gordon Jr. drafted a resolution in the Rhode Island legislature to express opposition to the sections of the NDAA “that suspend habeas corpus and civil liberties.”

Opinions on the legislation signed by Obama vary. Commentator Chuck Baldwin, who himself has been the target of smears by the Department of Homeland Security-related apparatus, explained the law, “for all intents and purposes, completely nullifies a good portion of the Bill of Rights, turns the United States into a war zone, and places U.S. citizens under military rule.”

“When signing the NDAA into law, Obama issued a signing statement that in essence said, ‘I have the power to detain Americans …

Also see:

Contraception Misdirection

Buchanan Liberated From MSNBC Constraints