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Are things so bad in Iraq that the government in Baghdad would like U.S. troops to return? Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed to President Obama for the U.S. military’s assistance on Friday, after his country suffered its most violent month in over five years. Just under 1,000 people — overwhelmingly civilians — were killed in sectarian violence across Iraq in the last 31 days, making October the deadliest month since the height of the Iraq War in April 2008. The majority died via that hallmark of the Iraqi insurgency, the car bomb. It’s the high-water mark for a rising...

An explosion of violence in Iraq risks turning the troubled country into a political liability for President Obama. During last year's reelection campaign, the president managed to both earn credit for withdrawing all U.S. troops and avoid blame for the deteriorating security situation. But a surge in terror attacks this year that has left more than 7,000 people dead has drawn bipartisan concerns about Obama's Middle East policies -- concerns that broke out into the open during Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to the White House this week. “By nearly every indicator, security conditions in Iraq have dramatically worsened over...

On Monday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton bizarrely devoted his regular "Nice Try" segment to Dick Cheney denying that he and Wyoming Republican Senator Mike Enzi are "fishing buddies," which the former Vice President did on Sunday's ABC This Week during a discussion of daughter Liz Cheney's bid for the Senate. As he mocked the former Vice President, Sharpton managed to bring up the Iraq invasion and repeated the false assertion from the left that Cheney had claimed Iraq should be invaded because an Iraqi agent met with one of the 9/11 hijackers. Sharpton: Is Cheney finally admitting that a...

Japan-China: Four Chinese military aircraft --two H-6 bombers and two Y-8 surveillance aircraft -- flew southeast from the East China Sea to the Pacific Ocean over waters between the Okinawa main island and Miyako on Friday afternoon, according to officials at Japan's Joint Staff Office. The Japanese Air Self Defense Force scrambled fighters. Later, the Chinese aircraft returned on the same route. Japanese officials said it is the third time that Chinese military planes have been spotted flying over waters between the Okinawa main island and Miyako Island. Last Wednesday, five Chinese navy ships passed between the two islands and...

One thing that the past few weeks have accomplished is the total destruction of Obama's "towering intellect" persona.This is one the standard lenses through which Obama is viewed, with differing but complimentary angles from each end of the spectrum: the liberal "reigning intellect of his age" as opposed to the conservative "master chess player with a plan for destruction."The basis of Obama's reputation for intellectual superiority lies in a mixture of Democratic propaganda and PC indoctrination. The Democratic stance has been steadily maintained for years and prevails in some circles impervious to embarrassment or shame. Obama was an Ivy-league man!...

Early last year, the Erdogan government blew the cover of up to 10 Israel agents in Iran who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers. This story was published in The Washington Post, by David Ignatius, who has excellent connections in the US capital, Thursday, Oct. 17 – the day after a two-day conference in Geneva between six world powers with Iran on its nuclear program. A chorus of Western powers led by the US hailed the event as “substantive” and “forward-looking.” But on the quiet, the WP story was directed against Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu...

IRGC and the spiritual vacuum of Latin American leftists The following is a glimpse of the kind of thing I often see while researching the activities of the IRGC (writ large) in Latin America. Communism fails to provide for the spiritual needs of leftwing political activists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have done a pretty good job of inserting themselves and the Khomeinist version of Shiism into that void. (Either that or the IRI is throwing lots of money around and the leftists are whores, which is certainly possible, but for the moment I'll take the more...

NOBLE Energy, operators of the Block 12 offshore licence, has reportedly renewed a proposal for piping gas from the Aphrodite well for the purpose of domestic electricity generation. Daily Politis writes that the Houston-based energy company has quoted a delivery price of $9 or $10 per million btus (mmbtu). That’s significantly lower than the price offered by Itera during the ‘interim gas’ tender procedure. Itera’s offer is understood to have been around $15.5 per mmbtu. Politis said the cost of electricity generation – and thus the price of electricity to end-consumers – could on paper drop by 15 to 20...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Southern California doctors and health officials will be on the lookout for Muslim pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia with flu-like symptoms in the wake of a reported outbreak of a SARS-like virus in the Middle East, according to a report. L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Jonathan Fielding told the Los Angeles Times severe coughs or other similar symptoms could signal the arrival of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, to the Southland. While MERS-CoV has so far only been reported in the Mideast and Europe, doctors and emergency departments will be...

Virus Hangs Over Islamic Pilgrimage To Mecca Health officials in the U.S. will be on the alert for anyone returning from the Middle East with symptoms of MERS, a mysterious and potentially deadly illness. Laila Shifa, left, helps her daughter, Homaira Hamid, center, and husband Jahan pack in their Northridge apartment for their hajj pilgrimage. The couple are bringing face masks to help guard against the MERS virus, which has been detected in the Middle East. By Eryn Brown October 9 After they got married last year, Homaira and Jahan Hamid decided they would embark on the hajj pilgrimage to...

A medical test being developed by Kuwait will be used to 'detect' homosexuals and prevent them from entering the country – or any of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), according to a Kuwaiti government official. GCC member countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – already deem homosexual acts unlawful. This controversial stance is being toughened, with members of the LGBT community stopped at the border and banned from entering the country, according to Yousouf Mindkar, the director of public health at the Kuwaiti health ministry.

India-Pakistan: Indian military authorities report a week-long series of gun battles has been taking place in the central region of the Line of Control in Kashmir. Some 30 to 40 fighters crossed the Line on 24 September, up to 12 of whom have been killed by Indian soldiers. Five Indian soldiers have been wounded. The infiltrators holed up in an abandoned village, which appears to be the location of the gun fights. Although General Officer Commanding of the Army's 15 Corps Lt Gen Gurmit Singh had said it will be premature to say whether the Pakistan Army was involved in...

This is the first part of a 3-part article by our guest writer Stephen St. George, a Catholic born in Iraq who now lives in the United States, and who knows through direct experience what it means to be a Christian in a Muslim-majority country. Here he describes his early experiences in Iraq. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If I throw a small pebble into a huge body of water like an ocean, it will make small waves that have almost no effect and fade away in no time at all. Surely, if a thousand people were to each throw a pebble at the...

JERUSALEM — Mortified that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don't be fooled by Tehran's new leadership. Netanyahu contends Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb.

New York City (AFP) - Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for Israel to put its suspected nuclear arms under international control ahead of a landmark meeting between foreign ministers from Iran and western nations. Rouhani also said he believed a deal could be made on his country's nuclear drive within three to six months.

A senior Iranian official welcomed the "moderate and respectful tone" of US President Barack Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly, as newspapers hailed a new path for the Islamic republic. "It seems a new climate has been created with the rise to power of a new Iranian government, and all international parties are trying to react to this new climate,"said Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi. "For example, Barack Obama has tried to use a more moderate and respectful tone," he said, quoted by ISNA news agency.

Air strike with SU-25, from chechen war SU-25 used FAB 500 (1102.31 lbs) bomb, and NURS

It has been said a million times (and now a million and one) that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And now, just like sixty years ago, the United States has allowed Russia to claim a great victory and become the real power player in the Middle East. Today, the blame for that can be confidently laid at the feet of American politicians and their myopic understanding of the region’s new dynamics. Those politicians are led by the Obama Administration, plus two Republicans, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Their obsession with achieving “democracy” in...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – According to AAA, the average cost of gas has been more than $3 per gallon for 1,000 days straight. It’s the longest streak ever for gas prices at this level. Right now, the average in Minnesota is $3.50 per gallon, slightly lower than the national average of $3.54 per gallon. Bob Darbelnet, president and CEO of AAA, says kiss the days of cheaper gas prices goodbye. “Paying less than $3 per gallon for gasoline may be automotive history for most Americans, like using 8-track tapes or going to a drive-in movie,” Darbelnet said. “The reality is that...

Her research on Syria influenced key lawmakers—but Dr. Elizabeth O’Bagy wasn’t who she said she was. For the first time, she tells Josh Rogin she was never even in a PhD program. Elizabeth O’Bagy, the Syria researcher at the center of a week-long controversy surrounding her academic credentials and her work with the Syrian opposition, admitted for the first time to The Daily Beast she was never enrolled in a Ph.D. program despite representations she made to the press and multiple organizations for whom she worked.