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Thank you, Vladimir Putin! It won't be apparent immediately, but Mr. Putin has done the United States a great favor. No longer is the United States under the strictures and tyranny of the United Nations and so-called international law. Mr. Putin has exposed the fact that any permanent member of the UN Security Council can unilaterally resolve its international disputes and grievances and block any UN interference with its veto. Russia's actions in Ukraine show the way to getting rid of nuisances like Asshat in Syria (and then any successor regime not in America's interests), the Castro brothers in Cuba...

At least 28 Senate Democrats plan to spend hours Monday night and early Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor in a push for congressional action on climate change. It's a strategy that's been in the works for several months, organized by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who've been seeking to raise awareness about their concerns on and off the Senate floor. Adopting a strategy used in the past year by some Senate Republicans, the Democrats will begin speaking Monday night after a series of votes and continue until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to...

Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg minced few words in discussing the interview that President Barack Obama gave him on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's latest visit to Washington. Speaking with Charlie Rose, Goldberg equated Obama's threat to stop supporting Israel in international forums to the talk of a mafia don. Obama told Goldberg, that if Israel doesn't cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, "our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited." He added, "And that has consequences." That statement, Goldberg noted, was a "veiled threat" and "almost up there with, 'Nice little Jewish state...

A Georgia Tech graduate student who set himself on fire while apparently experimenting with bomb-making elements in his apartment last month has died, officials confirmed Thursday. Saamer Akhshabi, an Iranian national, had burns on more than 90 percent of his body following the February 4 explosion in his apartment near the university, where Akhshabi was studying in the College of Computing. Law enforcement officials investigating the case found in Akhshabi's apartment an apparent Molotov Cocktail and multiple plastic bottles filled with gasoline and kerosene. Following the explosion, 26-year-old Akhshabi was taken in critical condition to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta,...

by John Urban | Top Right News The bad news just keeps getting worse for disgraced Sen. John McCain of Arizona.In January his own party stunned McCain by censuring him in a landslide vote in response to his betrayals on everything from illegal alien amnesty, to caving on ObamaCare, to support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria. It was an unprecedented and humiliating political act. And now a new poll reveals McCain is the least popular senator in the country of those surveyed by Public Policy Polling, with low marks from members of his own party, independents and Democrats.

It is hard to express how comprehensive and important this address is. Questions people have been posing for decades are discussed here. You will also see two major points that will not be discussing in the upcoming council. It is well worth reading in its entirety. (Ecumenical Patriarchate) - Your Beatitudes and most venerable Brothers in Christ, First-Hierarchs of the Most Holy Orthodox Churches, and honorable members of your entourages, Welcome to the courtyard of our Church, the martyric and historical Ecumenical Patriarchate, this humble servant of unity in Christ for us all. From the depths of our heart, we...

The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years. Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars. “The smaller and less capable military outlined in...

Iran "will investigate how it was exposed, will stop smuggling to Gaza for months" after exposure, source adds. At any given time, Israel's defense establishment is monitoring Iranian arms smuggling and terror-financing networks, a security source revealed on Thursday, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian attempt to smuggle powerful rockets to the Gaza Strip on a commercial ship off the coast of Sudan. Currently, IDF Military Intelligence is managing investigations "no less significant" than the Iranian attempt to bring Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Gaza, the source added, describing the covert investigations as part of a far wider...

The United States intelligence services and military worked with Israel to track the Iranian ship carrying missiles to Gaza, which was apprehended Wednesday, according to AFP. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington started to work with Israel through intelligence and military channels and at the national security advisor level as soon as it knew the shipment was on the move. President Barack Obama also directed the US military to work out contingencies in case it became necessary to intercept the vessel, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Throughout this time our intelligence and military...

In the same week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted a Gaza-bound shipment of Syrian missiles from Iran, President Barack Obama is asking Congress to reduce U.S. funding for Israel's missile defense programs by $200 million, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed on Wednesday that "the Israeli government interdicted a shipment of illicit Iranian arms," adding that the US was ready to act before Israel made its move. "The White House directed the Department of Defense to monitor the vessel," Psaki said, adding that the US prepared to take "unilateral steps" to stop the shipment. Israel volunteered to handle the ship itself, she added. The transfer of arms would amount to a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Psaki noted. The Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian arms smuggling ship carrying dozens of long-range rockets to...

The grainy footage shows the Klos C, labeled as Panamanian but carrying Syrian missiles and warheads on a Tehran-built ship, being surrounded by Israeli forces as it floats along the Red Sea. Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon revealed that the ship had embarked from Bandar Abbas, Iran and was en route to Port Sudan.

(Reuters) - The Israeli navy seized a ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied rockets made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, the military said. The disclosure came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to press his case for tougher international action against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and support for Islamist guerrilla groups. The Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel Klos C was boarded in international waters without resistance from its 17-strong crew in a "complex, covert operation", military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told...

BREAKING: Israeli Navy Captures Iranian Boat Loaded With Syrian Missiles Destined for Gaza (VIDEO) MARCH 5, 2014 8:53 AM 9 COMMENTS Benny Gantz Ram Rothberg Israeli Navy KLOSCIran Gaza KLOSC Shayetet 13Israeli navy commandos KLOSC arms shipM-302 missile Iran Gaza StripM-302 missile Second Lebanon WarMoti Almoz Israeli Navy KLOSC Iran Israeli Naval commandos on Wednesday intercepted an Iranian ship in the Red Sea weighed down with missiles that was en route to the Gaza Strip, the IDF said in a statement. The boat, named KLOSC, was stopped by the elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13 as it was heading to...

Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iran’s Support for Terrorism Worldwide Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa 2172 House Rayburn Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Mar 4, 2014 10:00am

An Iranian parliamentary team has embarked on a six-day trip to Cuba and Venezuela despite attempts by the US to disrupt the visits by denying its airspace to the Russian plane carrying the lawmakers.

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said on Monday that his country expects all economic sanctions against Iran to be removed immediately, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported. “There have been important developments. President Hassan Rouhani has openly declared that Iran has no intention to develop an atomic bomb,” Margelov said. ”Furthermore, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has issued a decree that prohibits the building of a bomb, calling it ‘a sin.’ ” As a result of these public statements, Marglov concluded, “The conditions have now been met to justify the full lifting of sanctions on...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was surprised by a forthright expression of support for the Jewish state from Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting last month in Moscow, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Friday. Netanyahu had flown to meet the Russian leader in a last minute effort to prevent an interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers from being signed. During the meeting, Netanyahu asked Putin to withhold support for the convening of a Nuclear Non Proliferation Conference the stated purpose of which would be to rid the entire Middle East of nuclear weapons, according to the report....

Simferopol, Ukraine (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of making up reasons for intervention in Ukraine, saying Tuesday that "not a single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims." "Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not," he said while on a visit to Kiev. He condemned what he called Russia's aggression in Crimea and urged the country to withdraw its troops. "We would like to see this de-escalated. We're not looking for some major confrontation," he said, while still promising sanctions on Russia if it refuses to step back....

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says Russia is “on the wrong side of history” in Ukraine and its actions violate international law. Obama told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that the United States is considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia. The president called on Congress to work on an aid package to Ukraine and make it the “first order of business.” Obama said continued military actions in Ukraine “will be a costly proposition for Russia.” Russia called for the adoption of a national unity deal in Ukraine even as it tightened its stranglehold over Crimea,...

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media say government forces are advancing in battle and tightening their grip on the last rebel stronghold near the border with Lebanon. The SANA news agency said on Tuesday that troops have made significant gains in the battle for the opposition-held town of Yabroud. It cites a field commander in the mountainous Qalamoun region along Syria's border with Lebanon who says President Bashar Assad's forces captured several hills and strategic positions on the town's outskirts. Backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in Qalamoun since December, trying to sever a...

Ed Miliband is personally to blame for the crisis in Ukraine, senior Conservatives claimed last night. Allies to David Cameron and George Osborne made the extraordinary claim after Russian president Vladimir Putin authorised military action within the country. There is a "Direct link between Miliband's cynical vote against Syria motion & Russia's actions on Ukraine," Treasury minister and close aide to the chancellor, Sajid Javid tweeted, adding that this made the Labour leader "Completely unfit to lead Britain". He was joined by planning minister and close ally to the prime minister, Nick Boles who said that Miliband's "weakness" had caused...

The recent violence and political upheaval in Syria put the spotlight on the strong alliance the Assad government has with the Islamic Republic of Iran. No sooner than protesters threatened to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, did Iran step up its defense of its Syrian ally both in words and in actions. This left many observers to wonder why Iran reacted so strongly to the possibility of Assad's demise, when it has not done so during the downfall of Gaddafi or Mubarak in Libya and Egypt. To understand why, and to determine the best course of action for the...

<p>Los Angeles gang members have joined the fray in Syria. The gang-bangers are reportedly fighting alongside the regime forces.</p> <p>MEMRI posted the transcript.</p> <p>A video-clip recently posted on the Internet shows two Armenian Power gang members from Los Angeles fighting in Syria. One of them, Wino Ayee Peeyakan, also posted a picture of himself in Hizbullah garb on his Facebook page.</p>

From Putin's op-ed on Syria, in the NY Times, September 11, 2013 " We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression."

Let’s all give thanks to Obama and his magical “reset” button. The whole world is on fire. Hope and change. Lots of change. “Israeli Navy reports Hizbullah has acquired and deployed Russian cruise missile,” Special to WorldTribune.com, February 28, 2014 (thanks to Christian) TEL AVIV — Israel has determined that the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah acquired an advanced Russian cruise missile.

The Anti-Defamation League, one of the US's most powerful Jewish organizations known for its advocacy on behalf of Israel, criticized Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday for comments he made in Munich regarding the negative consequences that Israel can expect if efforts to achieve a two-state solution break down. In a letter to Kerry, ADL chief Abe Foxman said that while he appreciated Kerry's efforts to move the peace process forward, the remarks about Israel's likely ostracism in the event that no deal is reached will only spur the pro-boycott elements and the Palestinians to become further entrenched in...

Click the link for an interesting 3 minute video interview.

Christian leaders in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, captured by an organization formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda, have signed a submission document this week banning them from practicing Christianity in public in return for protection by their Islamist rulers. The document, dated Sunday and disseminated through Islamist Twitter accounts, states that the Christian community in the province of Raqqa, captured last March by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), was recently given three options: to convert to Islam; to remain Christian but pledge submission to Islam; or to “face the sword.” They opted for the second of...

Report: Israeli Strike Destroyed Missiles Potentially More Powerful Than All Hezbollah’s Rockets Combined FEBRUARY 26, 2014 2:20 PM Joshua Levitt An unnamed senior Israeli security official told TIME magazine that Israel destroyed surface-to-surface missiles in a Hezbollah convoy, crossing from Syria into Lebanon on Monday, which were extremely dangerous because of their ability to carry very heavy warheads. TIME wrote on Wednesday that the “Israeli official indicated they could carry warheads heavier and more dangerous than almost all of the tens of thousands of missiles and rockets Hezbollah now has pointed toward Israel.” According to TIME, the strike was “the...

Threatened by al-Qaeda-affiliated extremists, community in northern city of Raqqa chooses ‘dhimmitude’ over conversion or death

In a Wednesday interview with Andrea Mitchell, Secretary of State John Kerry resisted Mitchell's assertion that "genocide" was taking place in Syria: QUESTION: I want to ask you about Syria. For three years, we have watched horrific pictures. You spoke of this when you were a senator. Obviously, now you’ve got the lead role on it. Horrible pictures. I looked at video of a child weeping over his mother’s body after a barrel bomb was dropped on her and other civilians by the regime. Just today, this picture on the wires from Yarmouk, from the refugee camp in southern Damascus....

A jihadist group in Syria said Wednesday that Christians in the city of Raqa will have to pay taxes and hold religious rituals behind closed doors, under a set of rules. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), listed 12 rules which made up an "agreement" with Christians in the northern city to provide "protection." ... Christians must pay a "jiziyeh" tax, as imposed in early Islam on non-Muslim subjects. ... also demands Christians "do not put on display a cross or anything from their book, anywhere on Muslims' path or markets" and that they should not "use...

Half as many Americans view Iran as the United States’ greatest enemy today as did two years ago. As a result, China now edges out Iran and North Korea atop the list. After the top three countries, 9% of Americans mention Russia, 7% name Iraq, 5% Afghanistan, and 3% Syria. Gallup first asked this open-ended question in 2001, and opinions have shifted over that time. In the 2001 survey—10 years after the Persian Gulf War but before the 2003 Iraq war began—Americans named Iraq as the greatest U.S. enemy by a large margin. …

MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday. Shoigu said the list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries. “The talks are under way, and we are close to signing the relevant documents,” Shoigu told reporters in Moscow. The minister added that the negotiations cover not only military bases but also visits to ports in such countries on favorable conditions as well as the opening of refueling sites for...

SNIPPET: "Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg is among four people who have been arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, police have said. Mr Begg, 45, who was held by the US authorities for almost three years, was arrested earlier with two other men and a woman in the West Midlands. He was detained on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas." SNIPPET: "Mr Begg was arrested in Hall Green in Birmingham. The other people arrested - a 36-year-old man from Shirley, a 44-year-old woman and her son, 20, both from Sparkhill - are being...

In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.” And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%. Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood. Yet...

It's happening in Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand, Bosnia, Syria, and beyond. Revolutions, unrest, and riots are sweeping the globe. The near-simultaneous eruption of violent protest can seem random and chaotic; inevitable symptoms of an unstable world. But there's at least one common thread between the disparate nations, cultures, and people in conflict, one element that has demonstrably proven to make these uprisings more likely: high global food prices. Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned us that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be...

Western sources: Israel Air Force hits SS-21 batteries, first attack in Syrian war on nuclear-capable missiles Western military and intelligence sources report that Israeli Air Force strikes in Lebanon and Syria overnight Monday, Feb. 24 came on the heels of the first use in the three-year Syrian war of a Russian-made nuclear-capable Tochka (Point) surface missile - NATO-coded SS-21 Scarab - which carries a 480-kilo warhead with a range of 70 km. These missiles were fired earlier Monday in the Syrian-Hizballah battle for Yabroud. There was no information about the effect of the Israeli strikes.

Abu Khalid al Suri, whose real name is Mohamed Bahaiah, has been reportedly killed in a suicide attack in Aleppo. Al Suri's death has been confirmed on several Twitter feeds managed by Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front. Al Suri, a longtime al Qaeda operative, was a founding member of Ahrar al Sham and a senior leader in the organization at the time of his death. Ahrar al Sham is arguably the most powerful rebel organization within the Islamic Front, a coalition of rebel groups that was formed late last year. Hassan Abboud, a top official in Ahrar al...

A Kurdish group captured a town in Syria from Islamists on Saturday, in a battle in which at least 28 fighters were killed, most of them Islamists, Reuters reported, citing a monitoring group. If the Kurds can keep hold of Tal Brak, on a highway between the cities of Hassaka and Qamishli, it would mark a significant advance in their quest for wider control in the northeast. Online Islamist activists said fighting was still going on, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish People's Protection Units had taken the town. Syrian Kurds have been fighting Islamist...

The recent upraising in Syria may have claimed a new victim–al Qaeda. Since the death of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda have been without a strong leader to keep the terrorist organization unified. Documents obtained from the raid that killed Osama revealed earlier divisions. Divisions One of the main causes of division within the terrorist factions involves a central leadership which calls for moderation, believing that worldwide uncontrolled terrorism is giving the organization a distorted image. Al Qaeda itself is competing with a fanatical jihadist organization known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The ISIL is a...

Reuters) - The size of Iran's most contested uranium stockpile has declined significantly for the first time in four years following a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in November, the U.N. atomic watchdog reported on Thursday. As a result, Iran's holding of uranium gas enriched to a fissile purity of 20 percent - a relatively short technical step away from the level required for nuclear weapons - is now well below the amount needed for a bomb, if processed more. That stockpile is closely watched: Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, warned...

Visiting in Israel ahead of continued talks with Iran, US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said it is “possible that Iran might have a small, discreet enrichment program.” Elaborating on the possibility, Sherman said “the objective (of talks) is to ensure that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and that its program is exclusively peaceful. Whether, in fact, Iran will have a domestic enrichment program is part of the negotiations.” …

Syrian state TV says government forces have captured two rebel-held areas on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The report, citing a military official, says troops and pro-government gunmen captured Saturday the areas of Rasm al-Hour and Rasm al-Sad, south of the town of Quneitra. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory For Human Rights confirmed troops were on the offensive, adding that the air force was taking part in the attack. …

General Denis Mercier, The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, is visiting Israel this week. According to the Air Force website, so for into his visit, the General has met with the Israeli Air Force Commander in Chief Gen. Amir Eshel, who introduced him to the day-to-day challenges of the skies of the Middle East, and discussed the strengthening of cooperation between the two forces and examining the interests which are common to both. Later on, the general was impressed by the IAF capabilities presented to him at Tel Nof Airbase and the Southern Hatzerim Airbase, where he...

US Senator Tim Kaine, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, said he expects the coming presidential elections in Egypt to be impartial. During a meeting with a number of journalists at a Cairo hotel Thursday, Kaine denied that the US let down Egypt in its war against terrorism, highlighting that the relations between the two countries are strong and that Washington will support Egypt in the coming period. Responding to a question on the US stance regarding the candidature of Defense Minister Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in the presidential polls, Kaine said that there is no problem at all...

Reuters this evening published photos taken earlier today showing “Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif… lay[ing] a wreath at the grave of assassinated Hezbollah military commander” Imad Mughniyeh, a terrorist who was killed in 2008 after having spent literally decades killing Americans and others on behalf of his paymasters in Tehran. Celebrating a mass-murdering terrorist is a bad choice for any Foreign Minister, but the decision by Tehran’s top diplomat to so brazenly honor a terrorist like Mughniyeh, who killed hundreds of Americans, within hours of inking an agreement with the US and members of the P5+1 sends a very...

Jihadists have released a video of a British fighter who carried out a suicide attack in a recent assault on an Aleppo prison conducted by the Al Nusrah Front and the Army of the Caliphate. Abdul Waheed Majeed, the British suicide bomber, is seen just before he rams an up-armored dump truck into the prison. A decade before traveling to Syria to wage jihad for the Al Nusrah Front, Majeed was a student of Omar Bakri Muhammad, the radical jihadist cleric who once wrote statements for Osama bin Laden and who formed al-Muhajiroun, which has been banned in England for...

Obama's New Asylum Decree Favors Muslims Over Christians Egyptian Coptic Christians protest a spate of recent attacks on Christians and churches in Cairo. AP View Enlarged Image Immigration: As President Obama offers asylum to "minor" terrorists providing "limited" material support to terrorism, he's slamming shut the door on thousands of Christians fleeing terrorism in Muslim lands like Egypt. In another end-run around Congress, President Obama has unilaterally eased immigration requirements for foreigners linked to terrorism. He ordered the State Department and Homeland Security to ignore a post-9/11 law barring entry to those giving political or charitable aid to Hamas and...