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Ignorance is not bliss.  We have learned that  members of the mosque attended by Nidal Hasan are telling the media that they "have no pity" on the people murdered and wounded by Hasan, and we are finding out that Hasan was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force last year.  Now we are finding out that Hasan worshipped under the same radical Yemini imam as 3 of the 9-11 terrorists.  We cannot afford to ignore what is going on in the Muslim world.   There are those who do not understand what I have meant...

And so a personnel file already teeming with red flags gets another giant one. If you’re wondering how a British newspaper managed to track down this information when the U.S. military apparently couldn’t, you’re not alone. There’s no question now that we need congressional hearings into how the army missed the warning signs on Hasan, especially given the suspicions as to why they might have looked the other way. Chop chop, Messrs. Boehner and Cantor. Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in...

Swiss Muslims Open Mosque Doors Swiss Muslims hope to promote better understanding of their religion Muslims in many parts of Switzerland have invited the public into mosques - three weeks before a vote on whether to ban the construction of minarets. Muslim organisations say they hope their open day will counter what they say are fears and prejudices. The conservative group that initiated the vote - the largest party in the Swiss parliament - says minarets are a symbol of Muslim political power. Opinion polls suggest the proposed ban will be rejected by voters. A Muslim community leader in Zurich,...

From The Sunday Times November 8, 2009 Army Wants To Retreat in Afghanistan Christina Lamb, Jonathan Oliver and Stephen Grey in Musa Quala ARMY CHIEFS are drawing up plans to withdraw British troops from outlying bases in Afghanistan. In what would be a significant change of strategy against the growing Taliban insurgency, they are considering abandoning several bases including Musa Qala, the scene of bloody battles that claimed 15 British lives. Army forces would attempt to hold only the larger towns in Helmand province. It is understood the new “retrenchment” strategy is backed by the head of the army, General...

Obama Envoy Wanted by Lucknow Police 8 November 2009 LUCKNOW: An Obama diplomat is wanted by the Lucknow police. Presently enjoying the status of an ambassador by virtue of representing the US in the United Nations Management and Reforms Committee (UNMRC), Jide Zeitlin was slapped with criminal charges like cheating and dishonestly, including delivery of property and criminal breach of trust, in case crime number 743/08 lodged with the Aliganj police station here in 2008 end. The criminal case has been lodged under Section 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by a group of 16 telecom sector...

After meeting with the FBI and the Defense Department about their investigation into the Fort Hood shooting, President Barack Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to again offer his condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured. On Thursday Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan opened fire on soldiers at a medical processing center on the Fort Hood, Texas military base killing 13 and wounding at least 38 others. Hasan was shot four times by security personnel at the base and was still alive as of Saturday. Obama said that while the “crime against our nation” exemplified...

As word spread that a gunman had opened fire at Fort Hood leaving a trail of carnage, a chilling realization swept across the U.S. Muslim community: He has an Islamic name. From a professor who just testified in Congress, to a White House adviser appearing before a Jewish group and a former Marine driving home from work, Muslims across the country were shocked, angry and afraid that the attack would erode efforts to erase anti-Islamic stereotypes. Many Islamic leaders said the Fort Hood tragedy that left 13 dead and 30 wounded including the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, could...

A senior Iranian politician said Saturday the country would not ship low-enriched uranium out of the country, which is a major part of a pending nuclear deal between Iran and international powers, according to semiofficial state media. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chief of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the proposed deal to send uranium out of the country is "called off," Iran's semiofficial news agency ISNA reported. Boroujerdi, an influential member of the parliament, said he does not see the uranium shipment happening. ""Iran is not to give any of its 1,200 kilograms fuel to the other party...

'Diary of a Kremlin insider reveals the hold Soviets had over Labour politicians'

Honduras, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he has pulled out of a deal struck to end the country's political crisis. Speaking to local radio Friday, Zelaya said the deal with the interim government led by President Roberto Micheletti was off as far as he was concerned, The Wall Street Journal reported. "This deal is dead. The other side has failed to uphold their end," Zelaya reportedly said. Under the terms of the deal, a government of national unity would be created and the Honduran Congress would be allowed to determine if Zelaya could return to...

President Barack Obama has RSVPed "nein" to Chancellor Merkel's invitation to Germany to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. National Review Online asked Michael Rubin and a few other experts what this snub reveals about Obama. Rubin: "Symbolism is incredibly important. When Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire," the reverberations within the East Bloc went far beyond what Reagan's own supporters realized. Likewise, the moral clarity evident in Reagan standing before the Berlin Wall and declaring, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" did as much as tens of millions of dollars poured...

Palestinians Right to Water by Ari Bussel A lecture Downtown Los Angeles by a self-declared “Palestinian from Palestine” was titled: Israel’s control of water as a tool of Apartheid and means of ethnic cleansing.” Following the talk, I was asked for my opinion. I replied: Nothing should surprise me any more. According to the speaker, America’s counterpart, Israel, is thirsting the “Palestinians” out of “their own” land. There is much to learn from Israel about water: from reclamation to desalination methods, from agriculture in arid areas to existence in the desert. Israel has perfected over the last century age-old methods,...

With her head held high, applauding and with a beaming grin, Christina Schmid did not look like a typical war widow as she watched her husband's coffin parade through the streets of Wootton Bassett this week. The brave wife of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, who died dismantling a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, even managed a thumbs-up as she watched her husband of two years return home. Yesterday she revealed that after the homecoming parade of 30-year-old Sgt Schmid, known as Oz, she cried so much that she did not have an ounce of make-up left. But she said he had...

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri will announce a new national unity government to include Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in the next few days, politicians said on Saturday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies. Politicians from both sides said Hariri had now clinched a deal with the opposition on the new government's make-up. A government acceptable to all main parties is seen as key to maintaining stability in a country facing sectarian...

A senior police chief spoke out tonight about the worrying rise in gang rapes, as disturbing figures showed almost 100 attacks in the capital within the last year. Meanwhile the age of victims has fallen, with 64 per cent aged 19 or younger in the last financial year compared with 48 per cent in 1998-9. The Metropolitan Police has commissioned research from Dr Miranda Horvath, a lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Surrey. She is focusing on the 'cultural context' of gang rape and speaking to officers from forces across Britain and the United States. Jennette Arnold, who...

> "That is one of the great advantages of the British health system," said Dr. Steve Field, president of the Royal College of General Physicians. "We have a list of all the names of patients who qualify to be vaccinated." >

An Army major behind the murders of 13 US soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, expressed sympathy for suicide bombers and support for terrorists waging war against US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Police shot and wounded Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, after he went on a killing spree outside a readiness center for troops preparing to deploy to Iraq. Hasan, a Muslim American, opened fire with handguns on soldiers at the center. Eleven US soldiers were killed and 31 more were wounded before Hasan was shot by members of a SWAT team and detained by police. Initial reports indicated...

I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about US Immigration law, but I do know the process, the legal one that is. I met my wife while she was attending a medical convention on Down syndrome in New York. She is from Brasil and was here on a visitor visa. As they say, the rest is history. What I know about the legal immigration process came from personal experience that eventually saw my wife become a naturalized American citizen after nearly nine years of filing forms and jumping through hoops. One form in particular caught my attention. I don’t recall the...

NAIROBI — Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga Saturday criticised a walkout by African states during climate talks in Barcelona as "grandstanding," and said it did not help developing countries' case. "I believe for example that grandstanding ... like walking out of meetings like African delegations did in Barcelona just doesn't help. You cannot just run away from this problem," Odinga told AFP in an interview.

“That doesn't qualify as a terrorist attack,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at University of Richmond who analyzes terrorist investigations across the country. Understanding the Ft. Hood Attack: America’s the Bad Guy This I Know, Because My TV Told Me So By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.org My teenage daughter watches the “Bones” series and described the latest program to me. An American soldier who had served in Iraq is found dead in the United States. FBI agents discover he was in a battle where U.S. soldiers had stormed a house and one of his friends was killed by...

I just received this e-mail message from my daughter. If anybody wishes to donate in honor of the Fort Hood victims, you may do so by mailing a check to the Fort Hood Chaplains' Fund, Bldg. 44, 761st Tank Battalion Ave., Fort Hood, TX 76544. I am not entirely sure what the money will go toward as far as specific victims go -- although you can designate a specific purpose for your gift. All memorial services, etc., will be paid by the Dept.s of the Army and Veterans Affairs. But, I do know what the chaplains' fund is used for...

Kirkuk's Provincial Reconstruction Team Public Diplomacy Officer, Stacy Barrios (seated left), speaks with teachers and students during the opening of the new Chemin Primary School in Kirkuk province, Nov. 3. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Douglas, 1st Cavalry Division. KIRKUK — Replacing the traditional mud-hut schools here with safe, modern, well-equipped buildings is a high priority for the Iraqi government and U.S. forces. The village of Chemin commemorated the opening of a new primary school, the 28th project completed out of a planned 48, with a ribbon cutting ceremony here, Nov. 3.Attending the ceremony was Deputy Director General of Education,...

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

Fort Hood Shootings: Gunman Used 'Cop Killer' Weapon In Massacre At US Army Base The US Army major who carried out the Fort Hood massacre sprayed more than 100 rounds at his comrades using a gun nicknamed the "cop killer." Nick Allen 07 Nov Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, used an FN Five-Seven, a semi-automatic pistol popular with SWAT teams, that can fire armour-piercing bullets. A total of 13 people died in the bloodbath at the Texas military base and 38 were wounded. Hasan had bought the weapon legally at a gun store close to Fort Hood in August and...

Muslims At Fort Voice Outrage and Ask Questions Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times Sgt. Fahad Kamal participated in Friday prayers at the mosque of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen outside Fort Hood. More Photos > By MICHAEL MOSS Published: November 6, 2009 KILLEEN, Tex. — Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community here expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque. But some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque said the military...

"..They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Ft. Hood showed America and showed the world..." I’d like to speak with you for a few minutes today about the...

Blaming America - Planting Discord in Los Angeles by Ari Bussel Downtown Los Angeles is composed of many districts – jewelry, fashion, toys, flowers, produce and others. A concentration of skyscrapers, uncommon to the Southern California landscape, differentiates it from the vastness of the Greater Los Angeles area. It was during the last decade of constant increase in real estate prices that old buildings, often from utilities or institutions, were converted into affordable lots. Once dangerous and unwelcoming, Downtown went through a process of revitalization, its face today unrecognizable to past visitors. Back in 1984 I elected to go to...

Wary of a Kosovo-type fate, Colombo wants to adopt a cautious approach to the issue of political settlement of Tamils, a senior Sri Lankan official told The Hindu here. “We need to move forward on the process of empowerment. But one problem with federalism in a small country is that it is more subject to splitting. Take Kosovo. They [The West] said give autonomy and we will guarantee unity. But two years later they supported independence. Clearly a promise should be a promise. We have to be careful,� said Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Rajiva...

LTTE arms moved overland from China to NK for almost a decade by Shamindra Ferdinando Chinese arms consignments for the LTTE had been moved overland to North Korea across the China-North Korea border before being transferred to the terrorist group’s ‘floating’ warehouses on the high seas close to Indonesia, for about a decade, The Island learns. The LTTE had obtained its first Chinese arms consignment way back in 1994/1995 during the then People’s Alliance (PA) administration. On-going inquiries, well informed sources said, revealed that the China-North Korea overland transport of arms for the LTTE had operated for almost a decade...

President Barack Obama will leave the country for a four-nation tour of Asia starting Wednesday despite a host of domestic concerns, including the massacre at Fort Hood, a sharply rising jobless rate, his health care legislation stalled in the Senate and his Afghanistan troop decision still pending. He planned his Nov. 11-19 trip around the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore, but added stops in Japan, China and South Korea. The itinerary reflects the growing importance of East Asia — especially China — to everything from financing U.S. debt and powering the global economic recovery to climate change, disease...

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

Until the mass murder at Fort Hood intervened, I’d intended to write about Thursday’s bingo night to benefit the Girl Scouts. It was a cold and stormy night. Almost all of the summer visitors are gone. We thought there’d be sparse attendance at the monthly charity bingo game put on by the Rotary Club. But the place was packed, wall to wall. Dozens of Brownies and Girl Scouts in uniform were scurrying about, serving the players. Final figures weren’t available on the spot. From prior experience, however, I’m sure more than $1,000 was raised for the Scouts. How ordinary is...

Taking candy from a baby: A consortium of Chinese and American companies goes to Washington and announces plans to build a $1.5 billion windmill farm in West Texas using $450 million in U.S. Stimulus funds, which will create 2,330 jobs – 2,000 of them in China. The baby – Washington -- doesn’t cry or whine or spit in the consortium’s face. That’s what’s really wrong with this story. So accustomed to being bought and sold, Washington simply begins processing forms so it can hand over your tax dollars to create jobs in a turbine factory in the city of Shenyang,...

MIDI - SOUND OF SILENCE Hello Christians, hello Jews...it is a war we didn't choose Suicide bombs are exploding...who is doing it's worth noting Look around you...you can hear the sounds crushing dreams...children scream It is the sound of Islam They claim that peace is what they seek...in the Koran just take a peek Women must learn subjugation...that's the path to their salvation Look around you...you can hear the sounds crushing dreams...children scream It is the sound of Islam Wake up before it is too late...it's a cult that's filled with hate Can you recognize perversion?...you must choose death...

TEHRAN, Iran – Senior Iranian lawmakers rejected on Saturday any possibility of Tehran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to reject the U.N.-backed plan altogether. Prominent conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran won't ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments, a compromise suggested by some government officials, under any circumstances.

Spending the better half of one day and one night searching the internet for information on the Ft. Hood Muslim shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, I have found this disturbing 2009 video from the online archives of C-Span in which the terrorist appears. There has been some reference to this video in US media but not widespread it seems. It is located HEREat C-Span.Nidal Malik Hasan was apparantly an invited guest to a public address in Washington by the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor. Shooter Hasan took a seat in the second row nearly across from the...

When Nick Griffin told BBC One’s Question Time that he found “the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy”, he may have been thinking about a traumatic adolescent experience. In an interview with The Times, Mr Griffin claimed that a former deputy leader of the National Front (NF) offered sex to him when he was still a teenager.

Every Veterans Day presents an opportunity to commemorate those who served in some faraway place long ago, many of whom paid that ultimate sacrifice. World War II offers its share of remembrances: Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941; Normandy, June 6, 1944; the Battle of the Bulge, December 16, 1944; to name a few. Sadly, however, one series of battles continues to be ignored. On June 3, 1942, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor, located at the Aleutian Islands, west of the Alaskan peninsula. Three days later, they landed on the islands of Kiska and Attu, culminating in the only battles of...

One thing not being mentioned openly about the Fort Hood massacre of 13 American soldiers and the wounding of 30 others, is whether this was a version of suicide bombing. That is, was the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, something of a Jihadist "sleeper" intent on replicating a suicide bomber to maximize his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? We don't know ... yet ... but it's a spectre so alarming one hardly dares contemplate its possibility. All that is acknowledged about Maj. Hasan (he was promoted last spring) is that he's a Muslim whose parents are Palestinian...

It makes no sense to see Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, as represented in at least one family account, as the victim of "harassment" by fellow soldiers (and therefore a candidate for "understanding"?) He's an officer. Soldiers don't harass officers. It makes no sense to suggest he'd been traumatized by narratives he had heard concerning the awfulness of combat in Iraq and therefore resisted the idea of deployment there. He's an Army psychiatrist, not a rifleman. Since when, anyway -- read "The Iliad" for confirmation -- has combat been other than awful? It makes sense to ponder deeply -- I...

A Russian military plane crashed into the sea during a training exercise in Russia's Far East region, leaving all 11 crew members missing and presumed dead, officials said on Saturday. The Tupolev Tu-142 plane disappeared from radar as it was coming to the end of a training mission on Friday over the Tatarski Strait that divides Russia's Far East island of Sakhalin from the mainland, the defence ministry said. "Given the conditions under which the catastrophe took place, we can presume that all the crew aboard the Tu-142 were killed," a source in the emergencies ministry told the RIA Novosti...

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great!") committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam. What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of nondenominational shoplifting. This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's...

In his eagerness to please international opinion, President Obama has taken a small but significant step toward censoring free speech. It was nice to hear Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton say on October 26, "I strongly disagree" with Islamic countries seeking to censor free speech worldwide by making defamation of religion a crime under international law. But watch what the Obama administration does, not just what it says. I'm not talking about its attacks on Fox News. I'm talking about a little-publicized October 2 resolution in which Clinton's own State Department joined Islamic nations in adopting language all-too-friendly to...

Zowie! AP says that there has been "immediate" anti-Muslim "backlash" following the mass murders by an Islamic jihadist at Fort Hood! Good gravy, what happened? Did armed bands of furious Islamophobes throw molotov cocktails at mosques? Did ferocious white supremacists maul fragile little girls in hijabs on their way to school? Did angry bigots spit at pious imams quietly going about their business? Has there been any report of any innocent, random Muslim being attacked in a "backlash" after the Fort Hood jihad? Nope. Not one. Americans are decent people. Americans believe people are innocent until proven guilty. But Ibrahim...

On November 3, the fairy tale died. The election results in Virginia and New Jersey dismantled the self-satisfied, just-so story that Democrats have been telling themselves about last year’s election. The story goes like this: In 2008, Americans voted for change not just in the nation’s leadership, but in its fundamental political orientation. They wanted a shift to the left not seen since 1932. The nation’s political map had been utterly transformed. Barack Obama owned the suburbs and independents, and laid claim to formerly secure Republican states. An outdated GOP had been reduced to a rejectionist husk clinging to rural...

VIENNA, Austria, NOV. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Real religious freedom is not freedom from religion, says a historian writing in response to this week's European court decision discouraging crucifixes in Italian schools. Martin Kugler, an expert for the human rights network Christianophobia.eu in Vienna, offered 12 theses to unveil the mistaken thinking of the court, which decided in favor of an atheist mother who protested the crucifix in her children's school. Kugler explained: "The right to religious freedom can only mean its exercise -- not the freedom from confrontation. The meaning of 'freedom of religion' has nothing to do with creating...

SNIPPET: "Iraqi officials in Al Kut are seeking four suspected Iranian Qods Force operatives behind attacks on security forces. Members of the Iraqi security forces put up wanted posters with photos of the Iranian operates on the streets in an effort to detain the men. The Qods Force agents are wanted for "armed operations against Iraqi security personnel and civilians," an Iraqi security official told Voices of Iraq. "The security authorities in Kut appealed to local residents to report these dangerous persons who are wanted on charges of involvement in terrorist operations in Iraq." The campaign was announced the same...

Israel's warnings that it will not tolerate an existential threat in the form of a nuclear Iran should be taken seriously, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon warned in an interview with the Britain-based Sky News on Friday. "The one who's bluffing is Iran, which is trying to play with cards they don't have," Ayalon told the news network. "All the bravado that we see and the testing and the very dangerous and harsh rhetoric are hiding a lot of weaknesses." ...

Iran Refuses To Send Enriched Uranium Abroad by Jay Deshmukh TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran is refusing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing, the influential head of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee was quoted as saying on Saturday. "We do not want to give part of our 1,200 kilos of enriched uranium in order to receive fuel of 20 percent enrichment," Alaeddin Borujerdi told the ISNA news agency. "This option of giving our enriched uranium gradually or in one go is over now. We are studying how to procure fuel and (Ali Asghar) Soltanieh is negotiating...

South Korea recently uncovered a North Korean plot to obtain South Korean electronic warfare equipment. North Korean agents, operating in China, sought to connect with South Korean business and government officials travelling in China, in order to see who could be bribed to help obtain the desired equipment. As a result of this, South Korea again warned their citizens, especially those working for the government or defense firms, to be careful who they deal with in China. To emphasize the danger, the government also announced the arrest of a former army officer, only identified as Mr. Lee, who had been...