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Sunday, June 29, 2008

FOLLOW UP ON WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE

COMMENT:

“It’s more than that. She (Danielle Allen) subscribes to the notion that the congregation of folks on the Internet who adhere to one political philosophy (almost always conservative) is dangerous and should be opposed”.

RESPONSE:

Danielle Allen's attitude has just been echoed by Islamic Iran’s President, Ahmadi-Nejad the Turd. He said that “ if the proliferation of computers in the country continues as it is now, it will destroy the country (meaning the regime) within THREE years”!

Obviously bloggers, Emails etc., despite the Mullahs having reduced the speed to as close to a crawl as they can, still allows for quick communication nationawide.

The Mullahs snatched the Soviet/(Khomeini) 1979 revolution from the Marxist-Islamist Mojaheddin and Fedayeen Soviet representatives because after strikes and social disobedience had shut down the organized government, the MOSQUES were the only national network (via phone in those days) that remained and gave the power to the Mullahs.

Now, the Internet may end up being the downfall of the Mullahs by providing a national network to help run the country when they lose power. Double edged sword but a notable one.

For instance, when Abas Palizdar, the whistle blower who outed some 51 clerics and senior adminisration officials with a detailed list of their corruption (eleven have been arrested - unavoidably, as their transgression was impossible to deny) - when Palizdar was arrested, there were immediate demonstrations in several cities as a reaction to his arrest.

Sidebar: the Abbas Palizbar who was first arrested (based on a single, private party complaint) turned out to be a wrong one! Same names. After the antimullah demonstrations in a handful of cities protesting the arrest, they released the ‘wrong’ Palizdar, who was accused in retaliation for corruption in the dairy industry.

A couple of days later they “re-arrested” the one they had originally targeted.

We have not had time to check the date and whether it refers to a prior but recent edict that owners of luxury cars would no longer be allowed to buy fuel for their vehicles at the subsidized prices nor receive ration cards.....

The price of gasoline was apparently suddenly upped from the equivalent of well under a $1 per gallon to reportedly four times that.

When people woke up to this change, there were immediately protests in teh streets that once other cities heard about it (Internet) they also held their own demonstrations.

The reason for our lack of clarity till we get a couple of calls back, is that this coincides with Western efforts to impose sanctions to prevent the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel to Islamic Iran.

Which, unable to refine enough inside the country, imports nearly half or it’s gasoline requirement from outside.

Double whammy if it works. Blocks movement for the populace (not for the regime) and incites riots by upset people.

This would potentially more clearly identify/separate military and civilian movement/traffic for our satellites.

Just as the sudden movement to reposition missiles by the Mullahs, has hopefully pinpointed where the missiles now are, even if we were not sure before they were moved.

Since the above was written, new regulations, ration coupon amounts and use and distribution of gasoline and diesel fuel in Iran that were drawn up, have been announced and are being put into force.

Details will be posted when received.

FLIP FLOPPER

CheOba


By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Flip Flop
It's back and forth for Barack Obama.

The candidate of change has changed some of his own positions in recent weeks, raising the risk he'll be labeled a flip-flopper on hot-button issues that look as if they will play a central role in the general election.

First it was his about-face on public financing.

Last week, Obama insisted "I never said that I was definitely going to be in the public-financing system."
But his statement that he would "aggressively pursue" a public-financing deal with the GOP was widely reported when he made it at the start of the primary season.

Obama blamed a "broken" system and rivals who are "masters at gaming" it for his sudden turn in direction - not the enormous advantage he'll have over Republican front-runner John McCain in fund-raising.

Next up was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - a bill that would protect telecommunications companies from lawsuits for cooperating with the federal effort to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects.

The bill's provision for "retroactive immunity" raised hackles among Democrats in Congress.

Last year, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said: "Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity."

As recently as February, while campaigning in the Maryland and Virginia primaries, the Illinois senator said he refused "to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty."

Fast-forward to June 20: Obama's far-left base was shocked to hear the candidate announce his support of new FISA bill because of the "legitimate threats we face."

Even his pledge to "carefully monitor the program" from the White House didn't mollify many of his outraged liberal backers, including MoveOn.org, an Internet group that has done a lot of fund-raising for Obama.

Obama's campaign staff has denied he is moving to the political center in a bid to steal votes from McCain.

But Obama's carefully nuanced reaction to Thursday's Supreme Court decision striking down a 32-year-old ban on handguns in Washington, DC, seemed designed to split the controversial issue down the middle.

"I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms," Obama said after the ruling,

"But I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through commonsense, effective safety measures."

His waffling set off a fusillade of press releases from McCain's camp. "Does [Obama] believe that the DC handgun ban was constitutional or unconstitutional? We can't tell, and [he] won't say," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

Obama offered up another carefully worded response earlier in the week when he sided with conservative Supreme Court justices who opposed a ban on executing child rapists.

"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said after the decision. But back in 1996, he had said that capital punishment "does little to deter crime."

Saturday, June 28, 2008

BECKWITH RESPONDS TO WASHINGTON POST

As an Obama supporter -- Danielle Allen says:

"I started thinking, 'How does one stop it?' "


STOP FREE SPEECH? STOP OPINION YOU DISLIKE? STOP ENQUIRY INTO FACTS? DISCREDIT FACTS PROVIDED BY OBAMA FAMILY MEMBERS? BAN CERTAIN TOPICS YOU DISFAVOR?

BY USING INNUENDO SHE ATTACKS FROM OTHERS? WITHOUT PROVIDING AUTHENTIC REFERENCE FOR HER KEY OBAMA "FACTS" AS SHE ACCUSES OTHERS OF DOING?

Lots of attribution to background matters but not about salient Obama details, wih which she tries to make her accusatory case.

WHY DID SHE NOT PUT MATTERS SOMEWHAT TO REST BY RESEARCHING AND PRODUCING A REAL OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE INSTEAD OF THE PHOTOSHOPPED ONE PRESENTED ON THE WEB?


Beckwith responds to The Washington Post.
The first thing I have to say about "An Attack That Came Out of the Ether," published by The Washington Post on June 28th, is that at NO time was I ever contacted by this woman, Danielle Allen.

As an Obama supporter -- she had met the senator while she worked as a dean at the University of Chicago -- it made her angry. And curious.
"I started thinking, 'How does one stop it?' "

Allen, who is an Obama shill from Chicago and who has contributed $2,750 to Obama (going back to 2004), obsesses about the "Muslim" Obama stories, but steers clear of Obama's relationships with communists, Marxists, socialists, terrorists, racist reverends and convicted swindlers.

The trick she attempts to use is to knock down one or two or three items so the other four thousand don't count.

Alan note: Exactly the kind of "disinformation" she attributes to anyone not impressed with Obama.

I spoke to two male Post reporters, who spoke to me over the phone for a period of months. The first contact was in the fall of 2007. They told me they were trying to track down the source of emails they considered negative to the Obamamessiah.

Allen obsesses about the "Muslim" Obama stories, but steers clear of Obama's relationships with communists, Marxists, socialists, terrorists and convicted swindlers.

The trick she attempts to use is to knock down one or two or three items and the other four thousand don't count.The following notice appears on my website's "About" page: "I don't write this stuff -- I cherry-pick it and publish it here -- every attempt is made to provide attribution and/or links to the original source -- if you don't like the writer's viewpoint -- send them an email -- not me.

If the reader finds content that is incorrect, I will correct or delete it upon the submission of two links to an independent source with more accurate information.

"And I mean just that and I do just that. I want The Obama File to be able to withstand the type of attack that Allen attempts in this article.

When Allen quotes me: "If 20 percent of what's on my Web site is true, this guy is a clear and present danger," she left out the whole quote.

I told her reporters that I believed that The Obama File content was better than 95% accurate, but that If 20 percent of what's on my Web site is true, this guy is a clear and present danger. I still believe that.

Allen writes, "There was 'Beckwith,' whom she pegged as a veteran from Boston, old enough to vote for John F. Kennedy, in uniform by 1964, and host of a Web site that devotes considerable space to an 'Obama file' that says the senator is 'by birth, blood and training, a Muslim.'

"That statement is true. Just ask Obama's sister Maya. In an interview with the New York Times, published on April 30th, 2007,

Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s younger half sister, told the Times, "My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim."

I assume Maya thinks of her brother, Obama, as a member of her family?

Even if Maya didn't make such a statement. Islam is patrilinear. The son of a Muslim is a Muslim (birth, blood) and Obama did study Islam, the Quran and the Hadith at the Besuki Primary School in Jakarta, Indonesia for two years (training).

Further, he attended mengaji classes where he studied the Quran in its native Arabic.

In his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama mentions studying the Quran and describes the public school as "a Muslim school."

He wrote, "In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies."

According to Tine Hahiyary, one of Obama's teachers and the principal from 1971 through 1989, Barry actively took part in the Islamic religious lessons during his time at the school.

His teacher was named Maimunah and she lived in the Puncak area, the Cianjur Regency.

"I remembered that he had studied mengaji" (recitation of the Quran)" Tine said.

These facts can account for the startling statement Obama made on February 27th, 2007, when he said the Muslim call to prayer was "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth."

In an interview with Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times, Obama recited the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, "with a first-class [Arabic] accent."

The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet...

According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim.

This simple yet profound statement expresses a Muslim's complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam.

Obama knows this from his Quranic studies -- and he knows the New York Times will publish this fact and it will be seen throughout the Islamic world.

Regardless of Obama's religion, what message is he sending the world's 1.2 billion Muslims?

I suppose it's easy for Obama to remember the Shahada for the 35 years since he left Indonesia -- and in 'first-class' Arabic -- especially since he believes the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth." -- no matter what religion he belongs to, or not, those Muslim prayers run through his head, and often -- what does that really make him?

And although I do have a Boston accent, of which I'm proud (you can hear it on the webcast at the link on the main page), Allen gets in a little ethnic stereotyping by calling my accent a "... thick Boston brogue" -- Bostonians don't have brogues -- my antecedents from Ireland do -- it's a good thing I don't have a chip on my shoulder and charge "racism" at such obvious stereotyping -- like some folks might do.

And there is no "unnamed 'colleague' in Europe" -- that's probably my friend and fellow FReeper, ExpatGuy, who operates the "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" blog (a truly great resource).

But, what the heck, Europe, Southeast Asia, they're all foreign places.

Allen is also incorrect when she writes, "His initial goal was to take swats at the liberal left. 'Then this new guy comes along called Obama,' he said." -- All one has to do is to read the "About" page on my website to get it right -- "The Obama File is a spinoff of http://www.freedomsenemies.com/ where it started out as a single page.

Freedom's Enemies documents the relationship between the political left and Islamofascism. Along comes Obama -- with a foot in each camp -- and The Obama File just evolved.

The reason I spun off The Obama File is that I did not want the Freedoms Enemies website a pejorative to the information I was compiling on Obama.

This sentence is also false -- "Beckwith said he built a Web site that features hundreds of pages of material intended to undermine Obama." --

There are 18 pages on my website. Because I take pains to document and provide attribution for everything, those 18 pages link to thousands of source articles, primarily from mainstream media sources (including The Washington Post), and my intention is not to "undermine" poor Barry -- it is to "oppose the most liberal (read "left-wing") member of the U. S. Senate sitting in the Oval Office" -- just like it says on my "About" page.

I suppose it could have been more of a hatchet job, but what amazes me is Allen's obsession with the Muslim thing -- that rumor is a year old and has been fed more by Obama and his family more than anyone else.

Why hasn't Allen attempted to knock down Obama's relationship with communists, Marxists, socialists, terrorists, convicted swindlers, and, dare I say it, DHIMMICRATS!

Could it be that those long-term relationships are just too easy to document?

ALSO DANIEL PIPES offers this summary:

As Barack Obama's candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate's integrity.

Obama asserted in December, "I've always been a Christian," and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. "The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country [Kenya]. But I've never practiced Islam."

In February, he claimed: "I have never been a Muslim. … other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for 4 years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion."

"Always" and "never" leave little room for equivocation.

But many biographical facts, culled mainly from the American press, suggest that, when growing up, the Democratic candidate for president both saw himself and was seen as a Muslim.

Obama's Kenyan birth father:

In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child.

Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Only Muslim children are named "Hussein".

Obama's Indonesian family:

His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also a Muslim. In fact, as Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng explained to Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: "My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim."

An Indonesian publication, the Banjarmasin Post reports a former classmate, Rony Amir, recalling that "All the relatives of Barry's father were very devout Muslims."

Barack Obama's Catholic school in Jakarta.

The Catholic school: Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports that "documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim" while at a Catholic school during first through third grades.

Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was "listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school."

A blogger who goes by "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" found that "Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name ‘Barry Soetoro' serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry's religion was listed as Islam."

Barack Obama's public school in Jakarta

The public school: Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times learned from Indonesians familiar with Obama when he lived in Jakarta that he "was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended."

Haroon Siddiqui of the Toronto Star visited the Jakarta public school Obama attended and found that "Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim."

Although Siddiqui cautions that "With the school records missing, eaten by bugs, one has to rely on people's shifting memories," he cites only one retired teacher, Tine Hahiyari, retracting her earlier certainty about Obama's being registered as a Muslim.

Koran class:

In his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, Obama relates how he got into trouble for making faces during Koranic studies, thereby revealing he was a Muslim, for Indonesian students in his day attended religious classes according to their faith.

Indeed, Obama still retains knowledge from that class: Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times, reports that Obama "recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them [to Kristof] with a first-rate accent."

Mosque attendance: Obama's half-sister recalled that the family attended the mosque "for big communal events." Watson learned from childhood friends that "Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque."

Barker found that "Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers."

One Indonesia friend, Zulfin Adi, states that Obama "was Muslim. He went to the mosque. I remember him wearing a sarong" (a garment associated with Muslims).

Piety: Obama himself says that while living in Indonesia, a Muslim country, he "didn't practice [Islam]," implicitly acknowledging a Muslim identity.

Indonesians differ in their memories of him. One, Rony Amir, describes Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."

Obama's having been born and raised a Muslim and having left the faith to become a Christian make him neither more nor less qualified to become president of the United States.

But if he was born and raised a Muslim and is now hiding that fact, this points to a major deceit, a fundamental misrepresentation about himself that has profound implications about his character and his suitability as president.

Apr. 29, 2008 update:

This article builds on two prior ones on the matter of Barack Obama and Islam. First, "Was Barack Obama a Muslim?" considered the implications of his Muslim childhood; second, "Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam" responded to a critique of the first article.

This third one brings the evidence together in a single place.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

ISLAMIC EXTREMISM FOR DUMMIES

Islamic Extremism for Dummies

by James Zumwalt

Facing the most challenging and dangerous time in our history, American voters in this year’s presidential election can ill afford to put in office a leader lacking foreign policy experience.


Our next president must understand at the outset much of the world’s turmoil today, whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, etc., originates in Iran -- either directly or through proxies.

Presumed Democratic Party presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made clear, when a questioner proposed meetings with leaders such as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions, his ignorance of these nations and their leaders.

He reasoned, “that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.” Even fellow Democrat Senator Joe Biden found fault with this approach, stating Obama gave the wrong answer.

Since then the Illinois senator has fuzzed up his previously, unambiguous declaration, saying some low-level preparation would first have to be done. Obama also suggests even President John F. Kennedy was willing to talk to the Soviets without preconditions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, avoiding war by doing so.Obama’s JFK analogy conveniently omits two important points:

it was Kennedy’s perceived weakness that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis; it was not his negotiation talents that extracted him from it.

When Kennedy took office in January 1961, the Kremlin was unsure of the metal of the Free World’s new leader. They did not have to wait long to find out. Less than three months into his term, Kennedy made a tremendous foreign policy blunder.

Having approved a CIA plan to invade Cuba and topple Fidel Castro, having promised US air support to the Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion force critical to its success, the young and inexperienced US president panicked at the last moment.

As more than a thousand anti-Castro fighters stormed Cuban beaches, Kennedy withdrew the promised air support. Almost the entire force was killed or captured. It was the absence of Kennedy’s backbone in the Bay of Pigs invasion that then led to the Cuban Missiles Crisis the following year.

Emboldened by Kennedy’s earlier misadventure, the Soviets secretly positioned missiles in Cuba -- drastically reducing US response time in the event of a missile launch by Moscow.

This led to a test of wills between Moscow and Washington that brought the two superpowers to the brink of war. It was high-stakes poker. The Soviets were ultimately forced to back down, but not because of Kennedy’s courage.

Unsure whether Moscow was willing to go to war, Kennedy was able to see what cards the Soviets held.

A courageous Russian spy working for Washington in Moscow by the name of Colonel Oleg Penkovsky provided Kennedy with his answer. Kennedy bluffed his way through the crisis. The information later cost Penkovsky his life.

Inexperience and naivete in the White House would come back to haunt the US again seventeen years after the Bay of Pigs disaster.

An American public anxious for change voted into office a US president whose later actions paved the way for Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

As civil unrest hit Iran in 1979, Jimmy Carter pressured Tehran’s pro-US Shah to abandon his country to a man Carter believed to be Islam’s Mahatma Gandhi -- the Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

This “Gandhi” turned out to be more like Attila the Hun. Khomeini embarked upon a purge grander than the reign of terror introduced by the French Revolution’s Robespierre almost two centuries earlier.

Carter’s naivete provided Islamic extremism with a national flag and a breeding ground for exporting Islamofascism abroad and into the 21st century.

America’s reward for Carter’s assistance was the seizure of the US embassy and hostages there, followed by Tehran’s designation of the US as the “Great Satan.”We have been in a perpetual and undeclared war with Iran ever since.

It is interesting to note Iran has behaved only when it perceived a forceful American president occupied the office. Within hours after Ronald Reagan took the oath, our hostages in Iran were released. Similarly, as the US prepared to invade Iraq in 2003, the Iranians toed the line out of fear the invasion may not stop there.

It is doubtful the Iranians will perceive as “forceful” a US president who is on record as saying he will meet them sans any preconditions.

Of course, the Iranians already knew, from Obama’s earlier actions, he would be a weak-kneed leader. They gained this insight last year when Obama refused to vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which sought to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- the organization of holy Islamic warriors that has left its violent footprint throughout the region -- on the grounds it constituted “saber-rattling.”

Color as “weak” -- from Iran’s viewpoint, and ours -- any US leader who refuses to officially label a terrorist group as “terrorists.

”Even our European allies are concerned about Obama’s stance towards Iran. While it has been difficult to present a unified front, on one point all agree -- no direct talks with Tehran unless it first suspends its nuclear enrichment program.

This demand has been enshrined in every UN resolution passed on the issue. If anything, European leaders are even more hard-lined on this precondition due to all the lies and delays by Iran over the years.

Meanwhile, Obama disparages the multilateral process in approaching Iran and the European contribution. His position will not endear him to our European allies.

Ignoring the fact the only times Iranian extremists reined in their adventurism was in the face of US resolve, Obama believes he, as president, is capable of talking rationally with an Iranian leadership incapable of doing so.

It is inexperience that causes one to boast he can do what three-decades of domination by theocratic extremism in Iran’s leadership and the failure of the international community in curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program tells us cannot be done.

The next occupant of the White House must possess a doctorate degree in Islamic extremism and, in particular, in understanding Iran’s role in spreading it worldwide.

We simply cannot afford to vote into office at this critical time, a president who has yet to read “Islamic Extremism for Dummies.”

Alan note: more importantly, unlike Obama, the new President must NOT BE a Dhimmi, pro-Islam facilitator. Remember Islam resembles Communism in multiple facets so Obama's leftist mind set bumps fit well into Islamist extremism hollows.

Nor like Hillary have a deep rooted Al Qaeda operative constanty joined to her at the hip and always with her.

Take that to mean what you wish as various aspects apply in that person being too close to classified information and able to extract it from Hillary and Bill.

James Zumwalt is a retired Marine who served in the Vietnam and Gulf wars. He has written opinion pieces on foreign policy, defense and security issues for dozens of newspapers. He is president of his own security consulting company.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

OBAMA FLIP FLOPS VIE WITH JOHN KERRY





By: David Limbaugh

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Barack Obama is aggressively trying to reintroduce himself to voters, echoing the spin of Obama's advisers that not everyone knows him yet.

In reality, Obama's major campaign challenge will not be to reveal, but to conceal his true identity.

Obama is not trying to introduce himself to unreached voters, but is engaged in damage control with many he's already reached — and insulted and disillusioned.

As long as he was soaring above the fray with the lofty rhetoric of hope, change and unity, Obama could masquerade as a quasi-messiah figure. But once forced into the nitty-gritty of contested issues and debates, his false visage began to crack.

Those cracks expanded into campaign-threatening fissures when voters learned about Obama's sordid associations and left-wing elitist snobbery toward small-town America.

The Post says that in his reintroduction, Obama has "offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become . . .: an ambitious gamer of the electoral map, a ruthless fundraiser and a scrupulous manager of his own biography in the face of persistent concerns about how he is perceived."

What the Post left out is that Obama has also shown himself to be an unscrupulous master of the politics of calculation and expedience.

Whether on public finance, NAFTA, Iran, Iraq, Jerusalem, special interests, Cuba, illegal immigration or the decriminalization of marijuana, Obama has demonstrated a propensity for flip-flopping that could embarrass the grandmaster himself, Sen. John Kerry.

But here's what's scary: For all of Kerry's reputed smoothness and Eastern intellect, he often tied himself in knots trying to reconcile his absurdly opposing positions.

Obama can flip and flop with unmatched alacrity and facility and with the absence of self-consciousness and accountability of an accomplished sociopath.

This guy doesn't even acknowledge he's changing positions; he does it without breaking a sweat and never looks back.

Of course, Obama benefits enormously from a favorable press, one that, in furtherance of his electoral cause, will tolerate almost any degree of preposterousness from him.

In addressing Obama's stunning position shift on public financing, the Post gropes for the best possible spin. The flip, says the Post, reveals Obama's "determination to press his financial advantage, even at the cost of handing his Republican opponent the opportunity to raise questions about the sincerity of his rhetoric on reform."

We are to accept Obama's change on public finance as a positive because, according to the Obama supporters the Post favorably quotes, it dispels the myth that Obama is naive and proves he is tough enough to take heat for his change. I get it.

We should be grateful for Obama's willingness to reverse himself on the issue of money and corruption in politics, which he led us to believe involved a nonnegotiable core principle, because it shows he's got courage — courage enough to stare down the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Unbelievable.

But if pressed, even the slick Obama will have trouble squaring his new stance with his September 2007 statement that he would agree to public financing if his GOP opponent would and his February 2008 statement to Tim Russert that he would sit down with Sen. McCain and try to agree to a system fair for both sides.

But his shift on public finance is hardly shocking when taken in the context of his many other major (and some minor) flip-flops.

I just ask you to consider the common thread underlying all of these turnarounds (though just a partial list):

a) his condemnation of union contributions to the Clinton and Edwards campaigns as "special interest money" but his eager acceptance of such money for himself as coming from representatives of the "working people";

b) his flip on ending (January 2004) then retaining (August 2007) the Cuba embargo;

c) his March 2004 statement that opposed a crackdown on businesses hiring illegal immigrants, compared with his Jan. 31, 2008, debate statement endorsing such a crackdown;

d) his advocating the decriminalization of marijuana in January 2004 versus his Oct. 30, 2007, position opposing its decriminalization;

e) his jaw-dropping same-day flip on having Jerusalem remain the undivided capital of Israel;

f) his shameless reversal on NAFTA;

g) his nearly immediate backtracking on whether Iran poses a serious threat to America;

h) his progressive position shifts on Iraq — as documented by Peter Wehner and Michael Barone — from "don't go in, stay in, and get out";

i) and his vigorous defense then abandonment of both his pastor and his church. The common thread, in a word, is expedience.

It is not toughness;
it is not savvy;
it is not gravitas;
and by all means, it is not admirable.

Barack Obama is every bit as politically calculating as Bill Clinton but twice as smooth. And if that doesn't jolt you, you're sleeping.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author, and attorney. His book "Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party" was released recently in paperback.


To find out more about David Limbaugh, please visit his Web site at www.davidlimbaugh.com .

Monday, June 23, 2008

NEW DISRUPTIVE CIVIL TECHNOLOGIES CAN IMPACT USA

In a world, where Islamic sharia (religious) law, soft target Terrorism, suicidal Hojatieh sect leadership in a soon to be nuclear Islamic Iran and a global melt down of monetary standards and economies, loom greater than ever, estimating technological challenges that could impact the USA, may seem a reach of faith but makes good reading.

CLICK ON TITLE TO GO TO ARTICLE.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

OBAMA'S BIRTH CIRCUMSTANCES REVIEW

Courtesy texasdarlin.wordpress.com

Following up on previous posts in the past couple of days about Barack Obama’s “birth certificate,” here and here, I became more curious about Barack’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (known as “Ann”), and spent several hours reading about her. In particular, I was searching for information about the circumstances surrounding Barack’s birth.

It seems reasonable to ask at this point: Is it possible that Barack Obama, Ann’s son, was born someplace besides Honolulu?

Alan note: Obama's brother, sister and Kenyan grandmother all insist he was borh in Kenya,

Note the Birth "document: provided by "Obama" (or on his behalf) shows it was FILED Augus 8th FOUR days after his given birthdate of August 4th.

This matches reports his mother was prevented from boarding a flight from Kenya to Hawaii at her late stage of pregnancy (normal restriction to avoid births during a flight), had her baby, flew immediately to Hawaii and LATE registered his birth as if it had taken lace in Hawaii.

Here’s a rough sketch of the timeline I’ve pieced together so far based on information available on the Internet, but I could use some help filling in the blanks. Questions are presented at the end.

Spring/Summer 1960 – Ann Dunham, at the age of 17, moves with her parents from Mercer Island, Washington following her high school graduation, to Honolulu Hawaii, where her father, Stanley, has a new sales job in a furniture store.

Fall 1960– Ann starts classes at the Univ. of Hawaii’s East West Centre, a well known center of leftist thought, and shortly thereafter meets Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan student, in a Russian language class.

Oct/Nov. 1960– Barack Obama Jr. is conceived.

Dec. 1960/Jan. 1961– Ann, now 18 years old, and Obama announce to their families plans to marry. Both the Dunham and Obama parents are unhappy with the news. By this time Ann’s mother Madelyn Dunham has become a bank president in Honolulu.

Feb. 1961– Ann reportedly marries Obama Sr., but it’s unclear where this took place, who was present, and whether the marriage is documented.

Aug. 4 1961– Ann gives birth to Barack Obama Jr.

Late Aug. 1961– Ann visits high school friends on Mercer Island with newly born baby Barack.

My QUESTIONS at this time focus on the circumstances surrounding Barack’s birth:

1. Where did Ann Dunham live while she was pregnant with Barack, especially the 6 months from Feb. to Aug. 1961? Reportedly her parents were embarrassed and upset about her pregnancy. Obama Sr. was reportedly living in a dorm at the time.

2. Where did Ann deliver Barack? His “birth certificate” doesn’t say, and I guess he’s lost the original? (Although, it’s very interesting to note that Obama provides details of his birth weight in Dreams From My Father — where did that info come from?)

Wikipedia and other sources say that Barack was born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, but are there any records of this? (Wikipedia allows information to be added virtually "at will")

3. Why does Barack’s “certification of birth” say “Date Filed” at the bottom, when the other Honolulu birth certificate on the same form that we found says “Date Accepted”? (See them both here.)

4. Is it possible that Barack was born someplace outside Honolulu, perhaps someplace outside the country (maybe someplace closer than Kenya), and that Ann applied for a “late arrival” birth certificate after-the-fact, which the State of Hawaii apparently allows under certain circumstances?

5. Is it possible that leftist/Marxist foreign friends of Ann’s at the Univ. of Hawaii referred her to a location outside the US to complete her pregnancy and deliver her baby?

(Fascinating side-note: Ann became a serious student of Communist and Marxist theories back in high school thanks to some radical teachers and administrators at Mercer High).

6. Did Ann drop out of the University when she was pregnant? If so, for how long?

7. Does the fact that Ann was a minor when Barack was conceived relate to these events? What was the legal age for getting married in Hawaii in 1961?

8. Who was with Ann at the time she delivered Barack? Parents, Obama Sr., both?

9. Why did Ann travel to Mercer Island with her newborn, and did Obama Sr. or her mother accompany her?

10. Why hasn’t the Obama campaign made Ann’s mother and Barack’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham (now 84), available?

Don’t presidential candidates at least minimally introduce immediate relatives to the general public? It seems that Obama is treating his grandmother like a big mystery.

11. Why did Barack Obama make a big to-do about, and act as CO-SPONSOR for, legislation in early 08 that was introduced by his supporter Claire McCaskill resolving questions about McCain’s eligibility to be President?

Is it true (as a reader commented) that “the bill that Obama wanted didn’t have the military part in it” — meaning that Obama favored a law that would allow any citizen born outside the US to be eligible for POTUS?

Why did McCaskill, rather than a Republican, introduce this legislation?

NOTE: Some readers are confused. Citizenship is NOT the issue here (although some have suggested that Obama has dual citizenship).

The issue here is eligibility to be President based on the constitutional requirement that the President be natural-born.

In passing the legislation allowing children of the military born outside the US to be eligible, Congress has made an exception to the rule for John McCain’s benefit, but would it be constitutional for Congress to pass a law doing away with the natural-born reqirement all together?

Here are some more angles needing an answer:

Aug. 4 1961– Ann gives birth to Barack Obama Jr.

Late Aug. 1961– Ann visits high school friends on Mercer Island with newly born baby Barack.

QUESTIONS at this time focus on the circumstances surrounding Barack’s birth:

1. Where did Ann Dunham live while she was pregnant with Barack, especially the 6 months from Feb. to Aug. 1961?

Reportedly her parents were embarrassed and upset about her pregnancy. Obama Sr. was reportedly living in a dorm at the time.

2. Where did Ann deliver Barack? His “birth certificate” doesn’t say, and I guess he’s lost the original?

(Although, it’s very interesting to note that Obama provides details of his birth weight in Dreams From My Father — where did that info come from?) Wikipedia and other sources say that Barack was born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, but are there any records of this?

3. Why does Barack’s “certification of birth” say “Date Filed” at the bottom, when the other Honolulu birth certificate on the same form that we found says “Date Accepted”? (See them both here.)

4. Is it possible that Barack was born someplace outside Honolulu, perhaps someplace outside the country (maybe someplace closer than Kenya), and that Ann applied for a “late arrival” birth certificate after-the-fact, which the State of Hawaii apparently allows under certain circumstances?

5. Is it possible that leftist/Marxist foreign friends of Ann’s at the Univ. of Hawaii referred her to a location outside the US to complete her pregnancy and deliver her baby?

(Fascinating side-note: Ann became a serious student of Communist and Marxist theories back in high school thanks to some radical teachers and administrators at Mercer High).

6. Did Ann drop out of the University when she was pregnant? If so, for how long?

7. Does the fact that Ann was a minor when Barack was conceived relate to these events? What was the legal age for getting married in Hawaii in 1961?

8. Who was with Ann at the time she delivered Barack? Parents, Obama Sr., both?

9. Why did Ann travel to Mercer Island with her newborn, and did Obama Sr. or her mother accompany her?

10. Why hasn’t the Obama campaign made Ann’s mother and Barack’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham (now 84), available? Don’t presidential candidates at least minimally introduce immediate relatives to the general public? It seems that Obama is treating his grandmother like a big mystery.

11. Why did Barack Obama make a big to-do about, and act as CO-SPONSOR for, legislation in early 08 that was introduced by his supporter Claire McCaskill resolving questions about McCain’s eligibility to be President?

Is it true (as a reader commented) that “the bill that Obama wanted didn’t have the military part in it” — meaning that Obama favored a law that would allow any citizen born outside the US to be eligible for POTUS? Why did McCaskill, rather than a Republican, introduce this legislation?

NOTE: Some readers are confused. Citizenship is NOT the issue here (although some have suggested that Obama has dual citizenship). The issue here is eligibility to be President based on the constitutional requirement that the President be natural-born

Friday, June 20, 2008

THE JIHAD CANDIDATE

The Jihad Candidate
by Rich Carroll

Change

Conspiracy theories make for interesting novels when the storyline is not so absurd that it can grasp our attention. 'The Manchurian Candidate' and 'Seven Days in May' are examples of plausible chains of events that captures the reader's imagination at best-seller level.

'What if' has always been the solid grist of fiction.

Get yourself something cool to drink, find a relaxing position, but before you continue, visualize the television photos of two jet airliners smashing into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and remind yourself this cowardly act of Muslim terror was planned for eight years.

How long did it take Islam and their oil money to find a candidate for President of the United States?

As long as it took them to place a Senator from Illinois and Minnesota?

The same amount of time to c reate a large Muslim enclave in Detroit?

The time it took them to build over 2,000 mosques in America?

The same amount of time required to place radical wahabbist clerics in our military and prisons as 'chaplains'?

Find a candidate who can get away with lying about their father being a 'freedom fighter' when he was actually part of the most corrupt and violent government in Kenya's history.

Find a candidate with close ties to The Nation of Islam and the violent Muslim overthrow in Africa, a candidate who is educated among white infidel Americans but hides his bitterness and anger behind a superficial toothy smile.

Find a candidate who changes his American name of Barry to the Muslim name of Barak Hussein Obama, and dares anyone to question his true ties under the banner of 'racism'.

Nurture this candidate in an atmosphere of anti-white American teaching and surround him with Islamic teachers.

Provide him with a bitter, racist, anti-white, anti-American wife, and supply him with Muslim middle east connections and Islamic monies.

Allow him to be clever enough to get away with his anti-white rhetoric and proclaim he will give $834 billion American taxpayer dollars to the Muslim controlled United Nations for use in Africa.

Install your candidate in an atmosphere of deception because questioning him on any issue involving Africa or Islam would be seen as 'bigoted racism'; two words too powerful to allow the citizenry to be informed of facts.

Allow your candidate to employ several black racist Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan followers as members of his Illinois Senatorial and campaign staffs.

Where is the bloodhound American 'free press' who doggedly overturned every stone in the Watergate case?

Where are our nation's reporters that have placed every Presidential candidate under the microscope of detailed scrutiny; the same press who pursue Bush's 'Skull and Bones' club or ran other candidates off with persistent detective and research work?

Why haven't 'newsmen' pursued the 65 blatant lies told by this candidate during the Presidential primaries?

Where are the stories about this candidate's cousin and the Muslim butchery in Africa?

Since when did our national press corps become weak, timid, and silent?

Why haven't they regaled us with the long list of socialists and communists who have surrounded this 'out of nowhere' Democrat candidate or that his church re-printed the Hamas Manifesto in their bulletin, and that his 'close pastor friend and mentor' met with Middle East terrorist Moammar Gaddafi, (Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)?

Why isn't the American press telling us this candidate is supported by every Muslim organization in the world?

As an ultimate slap in the face, be blatant in the fact your candidate has ZERO interest in traditional
American values and has the most liberal voting record in U.S. Senate history.

Why has the American main stream media clammed-up on any negative reporting on Barak Hussein Obama?

Why will they print Hillary Rodham Clinton's name but never write his middle name? Is it not his name?

Why, suddenly, is ANY information about this candidate not coming from main stream media, but from the blogosphere by citizens seeking facts and the truth?

Why isn't our media connecting the dots with Islam?

Why do they focus on 'those bad American soldiers' while Islam slaughters non Muslims daily in 44 countries around the globe?

Why does our media refer to Darfur as 'ethnic cleansing' instead of what it really is; Muslims killing non Muslims!?

There is enough strange, anti-American activity surrounding Barak Hussein Obama to pique the curiosity of any reporter.

WHERE IS OUR INVESTIGATIVE MEDIA!?

A formal plan for targeting America was devised three years after the Iranian revolution in 1982. The plan was summarized in a 1991 memorandum by Mohamed Akram, an operative of the global Muslim Brotherhood.

'The process of settlement' of Muslims in America, Akram explained, 'is a civilization jihad process.'

This means that members of the Brotherhood must understand that their work in 'America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.'

There is terrorism we can see, smell and fear, but there is a new kind of terror invading The United States in the form of Sharia law and finance.

Condoning it is civilization suicide.

Middle East Muslims are coming to America in record numbers and building hate infidel mosques, buying our corporations, suing us for our traditions, but they and the whole subject of Islam is white noise leaving uninformed Americans about who and what is really peaceful.

Where is our investigative press? Any criticism of Islam or their intentions, even though Islamic leaders state their intentions daily around the globe, brings-forth a volley of 'racist' from the left-wing Democrat crowd.

Lies and deception behind a master plan - the ingredients for 'The Manchurian Candidate' or the placement of an anti-American President in our nation's White House?

Is it mere coincidence that an anti-capitalist run for President at the same time Islamic sharia finance and law is trying to make advancing strides into the United States?

Is it mere coincidence this same candidate wants to dis-arm our nuclear capability at a time when terrorist Muslim nations are expanding their nuclear weapons capability?

Is it mere coincidence this candidate wants to reduce our military at a time of global jihad from Muslim nations?

Change for America? What change? To become another 'nation of Islam'? Is mainstream America now so liberal that we can't think? We, as a country, must wake up!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

DRACONIAN ISLAMIC IRAN - MARRY OR LOSE YOUR JOB

Single workers at one of Iran's major state-owned companies have been told to marry by September or face being fired, Iranian newspapers have reported.

The Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company employs thousands of people, mostly young men, on Iran's Gulf coast.

Being married is a job requirement, a directive from the company is reported as saying.

Correspondents say the ruling appears to be an attempt to reduce the number of prostitutes working in the area.

The company controls Iran's large network of gas and petrochemical facilities around the coastal city of Assalouyeh on the Gulf coast.

Its directive, according to the Etemad newspaper, says that despite requests "some of our colleagues did not fulfil their commitments and are still single".

It continues: "As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all the female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty."

In the same vein, the governor of the eastern province of North Khorasan ruled recently that only married people would be hired for official posts in the region.

Economic difficulties in Iran have led many people to postpone getting married, despite sexual relations being illegal outside marriage.


Alan note: the Islamic Iran marriage "penalty' stems from the high cost of putting a roof over your head. Renting or more remotely buying an abode.

Single men or women can continue to live with their parents and get by with each contributing to the now multiple member households.

Or can gather with others of the same sex and share the very high cost of rent and living by cramming into dwelling spaces.

Nobody expects freedoms for the populace in Islamic Iran but forced marriage by order of the government?!

And we have people who want to negotiate with this kind of mentality? No conceivable bridge is long enough to span the gap that exists between the Islamic Mullahs and the West.

Marriage requires a separate home as mixing together men and women of different or unrelated family relationships contravenes the religious sharia rules of morality.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS

Deer in the Headlights

Obama lost the working-class vote, the women's vote, the downscale vote, the senior vote, the Catholic vote, the Hispanic vote, lost the big primaries, the swing states and got 200,000 fewer votes than Hillary, so Democrats are convinced he's their strongest candidate. He's completely united half the party!

Four years after Jimmy Carter got creamed, Democrats thought their best shot against the Gipper was to run Jimmy Carter's veep. Democrats thought beating Nixon in '72 would be a cakewalk if they ran George McGovern, so they did.

After getting clobbered on the crime issue election after election, Democrats finally picked a sure-fire winning ticket: Michael Dukakis and Willie Horton.

After 8 tawdry years of Clinton scandals, the Democrats' idea of bringing needed "change" to Washington was to run Al Gore.

With the nation at war against Muslim fanatics, Democrats -- sick and tired of losing on national security -- thought they had the perfect solution: Antiwar John Kerry and sissy John Edwards! The steamroller Gigolo/Sissy ticket steamrolled to defeat.

Apparently, to send voters a clear strong signal that they're serious this time, the party bigshots selected the least qualified candidate for Commander-in-Chief in U.S. history.

Democrats set up the 'superdelegate system' (in keeping with their idea of "democracy") to keep voters from saddling the party with George McGovern losers, so now they're stuck running a Muslim-turned-halo-sporting-God-Damn-America-"Christian" left-winger whose middle name is Hussein even while primary voters preferred Hillary.

(This should assuage worries that Democrats aren't ready to run the country.)

The DNC and the media are convinced Obama is qualified for president, pointing to his empty oratorical skills. Yet, while zipping back and forth across the 57 states recently, Obama has scrupulously been reminding voters why he isn't presidential material.

But solely on the basis that he can read syrupy speeches from a teleprompter after several rehearsals, Democrat honchos insist he's qualified to be leader of the free world.

Back during the 2000 campaign, liberals pretended to worry about the 'gravitas' Bush supposedly lacked, and droned on and on that he didn't have enough 'heft', so now their brilliant corrective is running thoroughly weightless Obama, who can't even command the news cycle despite his chums being in charge, much less be leader of the free world.

Even after "clinching" the 'nomination,' poor little Obama was still struggling even to stay relevant against all the news about the dominatrix who beat him up so badly, he had to be wheeled on a gurney across the finish line by a frantic crew of superdelegates.

The Obamatrons spent the whole week complaining hysterically that Hillary had spent the whole week not congratulating Obama for barely 'winning' the nomination.

This, even after his leaving dozens of phone messages for her (just to show he's 'in charge')! By now, even some of his Kool-Aid drinkers sense he's a wimp, and expressed relief that Hillary was at least open to letting Obama pick his running mate. And that the running mate doesn't have to be her.

Then, Thursday night, she beckons and he answers the call! Obama "met privately with Hillary Rodham Clinton, a likely vice presidential candidate," is how the AP put it. Little Obama's campaign hacks had to frantically deny this was Hillary auditioning Obama at her place, but rather that the meeting occurred without preconditions in some "undisclosed location," which means she probably first summoned him to her place.

Picking Hillary as his running mate makes Obama look weak because he's weak. Not picking Hillary makes him look weak, too, because he's weak. When you're running as a blank resume wrapped in an empty suit inside a dinky bubble, that's what happens.

Oddly, Obama's 'Change Without Experience' chant isn't lighting a fire under him in the polls either. The housing "crisis", $4/gallon gas, the Iraq war/Bush Lied, Kids Died, 172% saying the country's on the wrong track and the best Obama can do is run even with fascist warmonger John McBusHitler, who's barely campaigning.

And during those rare ventures into policy, the ace ignoramus blunders into Iran being an itsy-bitsy "tiny" threat on one day, to Iran being a serious threat the next; Jerusalem being the undivided capital of Israel on Wednesday, then on Thursday "it's up to the parties to negotiate" its status, then it's Friday's clarification of Thursday's clarification involving no backtracking from Wednesday's clarification, etc.

Same deal with his fixer Tony Rezko, who just got convicted on 16 felonies, even with one felony tied behind his back. First, Obama hardly knew the chap, hazy memory at best. The chap crawls out from under one of those spots of amnesia, and suddenly Obama knew him very well, but "this isn't the Tony Rezko" he barely remembered knowing pretty well 20 years ago.

If Obama thinks this is any way to run in the general, it'll kill him to find out November's voting isn't by rinky-dinky caucuses crammed with latte Maoists but rather fifty big ol' secret ballot elections, where the poor sap routinely flops. Even worse, no Howard Dean bailing the arugulan loser out by magically invalidating his loses either.

But, don't worry, if Hillary keeps shrinking Obama with 'ready to endorse Obama from Day One' 'endorsements' while the 'will-she, can-she, won't-she be his veep?' hangs in the air, 'round election time, he'll be lucky to hold on to Illinois.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

ISLAM CAN BE HILARIOUS IF YOU KNOW IT WELL

by Baron Bodissey

First of all I’d like to remind readers that all of my essays can be republished online or translated into other languages by anybody who wants to, as long as I am credited as the author. If you like this essay, I encourage you to republish it at your website.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Iranian Islamic leader the Ayatollah Khomeini once said that “There is no fun in Islam.” I disagree. Islam can be quite funny; it just isn’t intended to be so. I have long said that Islam’s weakest point is mockery. Any enemy will reveal what he fears the most, if you listen to him closely. Muslims fear criticism or mockery of their religion more than they fear death. Well, if mockery is what they fear above all else, maybe that’s exactly what we should give them?


http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/04/funny-side-of-islam-muhammad-and-hadith.html

Monday, June 02, 2008

KURDISH GROUPS FIGHTING MULLAHS EVEN INSIDE TEHRAN

By Samnak Aghai

In the latest round of armed battles between the armed wing of the Kurdistan’s Pajak ‎party and the Islamic government Passdaran Revolutionary Guards, the forces of the group ‎attacked the Command Headquarters of the Air Force in Tehran killing three officers and ‎wounding others, according to a number of reports circulating in Iran.

Boroojelat news ‎agency wrote that this was the first time that an armed wing of a Kurdish party had ‎engaged in military operations in the capital of the country.‎

Armed clashes between the military division of the weapons carrying Pajak party with ‎the Passdaran during last week in areas around five Kurdish towns in the West of Iran left ‎tens dead and injured.

According to Kurdish sources, in addition to this, there were also ‎clashes between the armed Komeleh group and the Passdaran guards which also left a ‎number of dead and injured people.

Reports indicate that the clashes between Pajak and ‎Passdaran still actively continued around the mountains of Western Iran.‎

Government news sources have announced 8 Passdaran deaths and 6 Pajak deaths in the ‎recent round of clashes.

The PR office of Pajak also announced that its forces had been in ‎armed clashes with the Passdaran and claimed to have killed at least 50 government ‎guards (Passdaran) during last week in its retaliatory attacks.

It also published the names ‎of seven of its members who had been killed in the battles.

The recent round of armed clashes between Pajak and the Passdaran began in the early ‎days of last week following Pajak’s military operations in villages around Sardasht. ‎

According to reports, the conflict began when an explosive trap set up by Pajak went off ‎killing four Passdaran guards and wounding one.

The Passdaran responded by ‎dispatching a large number of its forces to the scene but a second explosion killed another ‎seven guards and wounding others. None of the sides have announced accurate figures on ‎the number of wounded in these armed clashes.‎

Following the Sardasht incident, at 10 pm local time on Tuesday a more violent battle ‎took place around Kamyaran as a result of which a number of forces on both sides ‎suffered death and injuries.

Government sources have not published any news on this ‎incident while Pajak has claimed that during this round five Passdaran vehicles carrying ‎Passdaran guards were attacked and set on fire, killing and wounding their occupants. ‎

Around the town of Kermanshah in Western Iran too similar clashes took place between ‎Pajak and the Passdaran in which at least 13 guards were killed as their vehicle was ‎travelling towards the border accompanied by a military vehicle. For of them were local ‎inhabitants.‎

Yet another clash is reported to have taken place around Khoi which also lead a number ‎of dead and injured on both sides. Pajak claimed in its statement that “36 Passdaran ‎guards were killed during the 2 day operations and a total of over 50 guards during the ‎whole week.”

In retaliation to the attacks, the Passdaran on Tuesday shelled the villages near the border ‎with its artillery, which continues as this report was filled in.‎

What is alarming is that the reports of armed clashes with government forces were not ‎confined to those announced by Pajak.

Kurdish news sources also claimed that another ‎Kurdish armed group Komeleh also engaged the Passdaran in battles. According to their ‎reports, three members of the Komeleh engaged in armed encounters with government ‎forces in separate incidents.

No details were available. Another report confirmed the ‎Komeleh-Passdaran clashes on Tuesday in the villages around the town of Baneh as the ‎group attacked a Passdaran base leaving one guard dead.

Government news sources have ‎not reported on this report, clash or the casualties, except for one or two references while ‎Kurdish sources make detailed daily announcements on them.‎

The clashes have created havoc for the residents of the villages on the border and the ‎battles have reached levels that the retaliatory attacks by both sides are threatening the ‎innocent and unarmed residents in the region.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

PREACHING CHRISTIANITY NOW AGAINST THE LAW IN ENGLAND?


A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham.



The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned.


The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.



Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, both full-time evangelical ministers, have launched legal action against West Midlands Police, claiming the officer infringed their right to profess their religion.



Mr Abraham said: "I couldn't believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel."

Last night, Christian campaigners described the officer's behaviour as "deeply alarming".


The preachers, both ministers in Birmingham, were handing out leaflets on Alum Rock Road in February when they started talking to four Asian youths.


A police community support officer (PCSO) interrupted the conversation and began questioning the ministers about their beliefs.


They said when the officer realised they were American, although both have lived in Britain for many years, he launched a tirade against President Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Mr Cunningham said: "I told him that this had nothing to do with the gospel we were preaching but he became very aggressive.


"He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message. He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station."


The preacher refused to give the PCSO his address because he felt the officer's manner was "threatening and intimidating".


The ministers claim he also advised them not to return to the area. As he walked away, the PCSO said: "You have been warned. If you come back here and get beaten up, well you have been warned".


West Midlands Police, who refused to apologise, said the incident had been "fully investigated" and the officer would be given training in understanding hate crime and communication.


READ Christian COMMENTS at FreeRepublic below the above article.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024426/posts#comment

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