The last missile system the veteran was trained to operate is no longer used by the military.
Back in 1993, Bandel took the option of leaving the Army without retirement. This could be why he is being called back to duty, since he possibly didn’t do his eight-year military service obligation (MSO) if he was enlisted. Another option is that if he was an officer, well, unless he retired formally, by sending a resignation to Human Resources Command, then they can call him back however, even if that is done, I know some pilots that have been “un resigned” and brought back, especially since their reserve commitment is different from the enlisted.
Calls to the Army and the Pentagon about how many men and women in their 50s are being called back to duty were not returned Wednesday to the news station.
Bandel’s wife plans to move in with her elderly parents until his return, due to Bandel’s income being cut in half by returning to military service.
ARMY SHORTAGE
The Army is currently on track to grow to 547,000 active-duty soldiers next year, up from 482,000 before the war. Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford says the service needs 580,000 soldiers “to meet current demands and get the dwell time,” referring to the amount of time soldiers have at home between deployments to train, rebuild and spend with families.
DRAFT TIME?
Nixon abolished the draft in 1973 however, some seem to want it back.
Rep. John Murtha (D) said in December that he opposes the all-volunteer army and that a military draft, based on a lottery with no deferments and no exceptions, is necessary during wartime. Rep. Charles Rangel (D) has also called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, who Bush picked as a deputy national security advisor with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policy makers in Washington. has said on the matter, “And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another.”
So much for the promises of the US getting out of Iraq and bringing the troops back home.
Then it was banks who got bailed out and used the money to buy other banks, meanwhile increasing homeowners mortgage payments.
Then insurance companies became banks to get helping hands.
Then it was 2 of the Big 3 who got bailed out just so the UAW could pay its retirees health benefits and pensions.
Moneywise, more than $1.5 trillion in FDIC loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist tot he lending arm of General Electric Corp. is given out.
$1.8 million in cash, tax breaks and loan guarantees from the Treasury Department to financial institutions and credit companies.
$300 billion for homeowners from the Federal Housing Authority
$25 billion in cash assistance for auto companies.
And $5 trillion worth of new money, loan guarantees and lending requirements from the Federal Reserve Bank.
For a grand total of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout “items”, yet we as the wallet holders can’t see the exact details of all these deals according to the Feds.
NOW,
The newspapers want bailed out.
The Governors of 5 states want $1 trillion in federal assistance.
And the US Steel Industry wants bailed out.
And all this while, the taxpayer stimulus package is still on the backburner while foreclosure rates increase and unemployment increases. So how’s your year looking?
Can I just have my Federal tax refund this year and not an IOU?
STATE BAILOUTS
The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin – all Democrats – urged the federal government to provide !1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits.
The initiate is for a two-year package and was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on Obama to help them.
Gov. Paterson of NY said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.
The latest package calls for $350 billion to create jobs by building or repairing roads, bridges and other public works; $50 billion to maintain educations; and another $250 in “counter-cyclical” spending such as extending unemployment benefits and food stamps. The remainder would be used to fund middle-class tax cuts, stimulate the housing market, and stem the tide of home foreclosures through a loan-modification program. [Yea, we’ve seen how well those loan-modification programs are, with increases of $300 a month to a homeowners mortgage.]
STEEL INDUSTRY
Industry executives are pleading for a huge public infrastructure investment program – of up to one trillion dollars over two years – under Obama’s proposed stimulus plan.
“What we are asking,” said Daniel DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corporation, a giant steel makers, “is that out government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a buy America’ clause,” the New York Times quoted him as saying. Only two U.S. steel makers are in the top steel producers of 2007.
Basically, the steel industry is petitioning Obama for major infrastructure development, thus stimulating the steel industry.
Brazil, home of the “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro atop Corcovado Mountain while also home to the Brazil Carnival bringing opposite ends of the spectrum together in one city. And also in Rio de Janeiro there are are haves and have nots, with basically only two social classes, and no middle class. The president of Brazil seems to have the answer, in his mind, to the world’s economic problems via “redistributing income” thus “reducing social inequality”. Or is he giving a smoke and mirrors story?
Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva says “More government is the solution, not the problem” according to Newsweek article.
As I told the U.N. General Assembly in September, now is the time for politics, for governments to use public control and oversight to halt the economic anarchy. […]
The abuses and errors coming to light daily are all evidence that our existing system of international economic governance has broken down. To develop a better one, the world’s major developing countries should be called on to join the debate. We have plenty to contribute. Take Brazil. We are ready to do our part, and our economy is better prepared than most to confront the crisis. We have said no to macroeconomic adventurism. Inflation is under control and we are growing steadily. We have plenty of foreign reserves and owe nothing to the International Monetary Fund. […]
Brazil is also better prepared to deal with the social and economic dislocation that may ensue. Consider: since I took office in 2003, more than 10 million Brazilians have joined the workforce. Some 20 million have risen out of absolute poverty. […] Above all, we are redistributing income and reducing social inequality.
Silva also fails to mention that two of the largest banks in Brazil, announced a merger in November creating a bank with combined assets of 575 billion reais ($263 billion). Officials have also moved to shore up the banking system. The government has reserved the right to take stakes in struggling banks, via the two big state-owned ones.
Silver seems to have forgotten that on Oct 29 the US Federal Reserve announced a deal with Brazil, Singapore, South Korea and Mexico under which it will provide up to $30 billion to each of them.
In October, there was a sell-off of Brazilian shares and the currency as foreign investors rushed to cover losses elsewhere. The sell-off triggered unexpected losses on foreign-exchange derivatives that were meant to limit the exposure of Brazilian companies to currency moves but have exacerbated it instead. The Brazilian press estimated that some 200 companies hold such contracts.
External funding has dried up. Figures from the central bank show that credit lines to finance trade, normally considered low-risk, are running at about half the level of mid-September.
Consumer credit is becoming scarcer as banks anticipate a rise in bad loans. The monthly payments demand for everything is rising.
At the end of October, Paulo Bernardo, the planning minister, confirmed that the government had reduced its target for the primary fiscal surplus (the difference between revenue and spending before debt payments) for 2009 from 4.3% to 3.8% of GDP. This plan depends on private investors being able to raise credit.
In the free-trade zone around Manaus, in the Amazon, a dozen companies have told their staff to take unpaid leave. Jobless claims rose unexpectedly in November, rising from 7.5% to 7.6%, must lower than a Nov 2007 rate of 8.2%.
In December, output, new orders, employment and purchases all contracted at series-record rates as confidence and demand fell sharply. Inflation rose. The PMI dropped to a new low of 40.0 in December with the PMI registering below the no-change mark of 50.0 for three consecutive months.
In late December, 2008 that new measures to help Brazil counter the effects of the economic crisis will be announced by Jan 20. He said the country is “strong economically” but will act immediately to keep the “perverse effects” of the crisis from affecting the nation. There were no details during his past weekly radio address, with him only saying that the government will start 2009 working hard to boost the economy.
RANT ON
So if your country is all hunky-dorey and is immune from the economic problems that everyone else in the world is suffering, why is there a plan to boost the economy? I mean seriously. Previously $50 bucks a month in welfare makes the difference between poverty and middle class in Brazil? Sounds like to me, the “perverse effects” are already happening, were happening before the market dropped out in October and Silva’s blowing smoke to cover his country’s problems. The president of Brazil needs to keep his Socialist cover story with lies and his Socialist ideas within Brazil.
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is a Muslim group founded in 1971, via the Muslim Students Association (MSA), as an umbrella group for South Asian-oriented mosques and Islamic centers.
When ICNA was created, it was to act as the American counterpart to the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). JI envisions an Islamic government in Pakistan governed by Islamic law. It opposes Westernization – including capitalism, socialism, or such practices as bank interests, and liberalist social mores. In the Islamic state it seeks, however, only Muslims would have ruling positions.
Today, ICNA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Towards the end of 2007, a website was created by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) that was used to help propagate the group’s extremist activity within the United States.
In the United States, according to the IRS, under its “Ban on Political Campaign Intervention,” “For an organization to be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) it cannot participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
Obviously this organization is serious about converting everyone to Islam.
But this isn’t the organization that is in question at this moment. That one is ICNASE, with SE meaning SouthEast, located in Atlanta, Georgia.
ICNASE dot NET recently posted what appeared to be a political site advocating for the 2012 reelection of Obama, a blatant violation of ICNA’s status as a tax-exempt organization. Up until last week, as recent as Dec 25 according to Google cache, icnase.net was being used as a political campaign site for the 2012 reelection of Obama. Across the top of the site’s webpage hovered an official Obama campaign banner. Also on the homepage was a video entitled “Obama 2012.” It discussed the accomplishments of the first Obama administration – how Obama made health care more affordable, how he made it easier for Americans “to live the American Dream,” and how he brought soldiers home from the war. All this, while Obama hasn’t even begun to serve his first term yet. The video ended with a boy on a bicycle asking the question, “Can we keep this country moving forward, if we reelect President Obama?” and a chorus of children replying, “Yes, we can.”
The webpage has been removed, however it can still be seen via Google’s cache. The video is still playable from the webpage, and is hosted on YouTube. The organization who uploaded the video is “MoveOn.org”, a liberal advocacy group that was set up against President Bush. This video seems to have come from MoveOn’s contest “Obama in 30seconds”, paid for by MoveOn.org’s Political Action group, for the best user-contributed 30-second-spot Obama commercial. This video however, did not win the contest.
Now, according to the IRS, “Violating this ban [of using a tax-exempt organization for political campaigning] may result in denial or revocation of the organization’s tax-exempt status.” Obviously if ICNA is the registered owner of the domain, with ties to ICNASE, then the organization is in violation of said law. However, this does not seem to be the case, and yes I am disputing what Joe Kaufman has published.
DOMAIN REGISTRANTS
icnase.net According to Network Solutions WHOIS database, the registrant of icnase.net is an woman named Zakiya Omar of Decatur, GA, with an email address of lawrenceatl@gmail.com and is hosted by 1&1 Internet Inc out of Chesterbrook, PA.
According to her bio on Associated Content, she is a “48 year old mom of 4 with a wealth of experience in the fashion/beauty related industries.” Her LinkedIn profile says she owns “sistah!” in the Greater Atlanta area. According to Manta, the Sistah S Boutique is located in Newton, GA has 2 employees, and has measly yearly sales of only $86,000. According to Geni, from where the picture is found, this is the correct Omar, from Decatur, GA, and her full name is Zakiya Ahzar Omar. Her profile can also be found on Genebase.
Omar is also the registrant of the website of the organization Muslim Americans for Obama ‘08 [now defunct and unable to find a cache version]. Muslim Americans for Obama had a blog on the Obama & Biden campaign website. Many websites state there was originally a blog about “the Senate pro-Israeli zionist hawk Joe Lieberman,” however, it seems that entry is no longer on the blog. In that blog was sharp criticism aimed at Obama for getting too cosy with the Israel lobby. As stated on the blog, that last part was derived from information founded on Electronic Intifada (EI), a terror apologist website based in Chicago, Il. According to the site’s co-founder, Ali Abunimah, Senator Obama once told him, regarding Abunimah’s anti-American and anti-Israel writings, to “Keep up the good work!” Omar also has a blog on the Obama & Biden campaign website.
At Militant Islam Monitor, an article describes what was on the “Muslim Americans for Obama ‘08” website:
On the Muslim Americans for Obama '08 site, one will find a list of upcoming events, issues and solutions, details on how to join, a links section to sites of interest, and of course, a link to the blog. There's even a toll-free number to call for more information.
Within the events section, a number of the listings pertain to conferences and conventions being sponsored by organizations that have a number of extremist and/or terrorist ties. One is the 44thAnnual ISNA National Convention, held in Rosemont, Illinois.
ISNA or the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was recently named an "Unindicted Co-conspirator" for a Dallas trial that dealt with the funding of millions of dollars to Hamas. Beginning in December of 2003, ISNA was the subject of a Senate investigation into the financing of terror groups overseas. The group currently uses its website to propagate violent hatred against Jews and Christians.
Another of the events listed is the 32ndICNA-MAS Convention, held in Hartford, Connecticut. ICNA or the Islamic Circle of North America, in August of 2006, was the top donor to a Pakistani charity that, at the time, had given $99,000 to the head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal. As well, four people associated with the ICNA-related ‘Houston Taliban' were arrested and charged with jihad training with firearms, for the purpose of joining the Taliban to attack Americans overseas.
MAS or the Muslim American Society, like ISNA, uses the web to spread violent hatred against non-Muslims. In April of 2004, MAS's Communications Director, Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his activities within the ‘Virginia Jihad Network,' a group that was conspiring with Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) to attack Americans and Indians abroad.
Yet another event listing is the 2007 MANA National Convention, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. MANA or the Muslim Alliance in North America was founded in May of 2000, in response to the arrest of cop killer H. Rap Brown, a.k.a. Jamil Al-Amin. The President (Amir) of the organization is Siraj Wahhaj, an individual that was named by the U.S. government an "Unindicted Co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
According to Muslim Americans for Obama '08, it took part in "VOTER REGISTRATION/INFORMATION BOOTHS," at each of the above venues. Taking that into consideration, since Muslim Americans for Obama '08 is officially part of the Barack Obama for President team – or as the campaign puts it, "Community" – one can conclude that Senator Obama and/or his campaign had sanctioned its attendance at these events.
And that would mean, as well, that the following "Issues & Solutions" found on the site have also been approved by Obama and/or his campaign, possibly soon to be incorporated in his speeches:
Institute a Law to allow Muslim Employees to take an hour off from work for Friday Jummah Prayer.
Make the 2 Eid's recognized National Holidays on Calendars with days off from work.
Provide prayer areas suitable for Salah and Jummah, in public and private facilities. (i.e. Malls, Airports, Universities and government buildings.)
Found on the right side of the website's homepage are a series of links, most of which deal with information about Senator Obama and the campaign. One of them, though, is a link to Aswat Al-Islam, a radical Islamic multimedia outlet. Muslim Americans for Obama '08 lists it as "Quran (Audio) English Translation."
Aswat Al-Islam features the works of such Islamist luminaries as: "Uninidicted Co-conspirators" of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Siraj Wahhaj and Bilal Philips; anti-Christian bigot, Ahmed Deedat; pro-wife beating author, Jamal Badawi; suicide bombing supporter, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi; and the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, who has called for the murders of Jews, Christians and Americans and has described Jews as "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the killers of prophets, and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs," Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais.
According to Muslim Americans for Obama '08, Senator Barack Obama "is the BEST candidate for the job in 2008." But being the best candidate should have as a requisite keeping company that is worthy of respect. Recently, Obama has been cited for having a racist and anti-Israel pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and a campaign advisor that has expressed sympathy for Hamas and Hezbollah, Robert Malley.
icnase.com and icnase.org According to Network Solutions WHOIS search, the registrant for icnase.com and icnase.org are the same person, Ali Salim of Marietta, GA, ALSO hosted by 1&1 Internet Inc out of Chesterbrook, PA, the same company as icnase.net.
The com domain was created in 2003, changed in 2008 and expires in 2010. The org domain was created in 2008, last updated in 2008 and expires in 2010.
According to DomainTools, Ali Salim owns about 15 other domains however, this information is only available via purchase.
QUESTION
Perhaps ICNASE is not responsible for the posting on the dot net domain, since they are owned by different people however, it is interesting to note that all three websites are registered to two people in the greater Atlanta area, and both are managed by 1 and 1 out of Pennsylvania. And a dot net domain is generally not used for non-profit organizations, dot orgs are however. But again, they are owned by two separate individuals. As of this moment, the only connection that can be made between Salim and Omar is the use of the letters “icnase” and the use of the same hosting company. But it’s interesting to note, they are using the same hosting company, based out of Pennsylvania, for two people who both live in the greater Atlanta, GA area.
I haven’t however, found anything to show that Omar is active in ICNASE in Atlanta, or with ICNA in the United States.
Sounds like there is a radical running around in the ICNASE, but ICNASE isn’t innocent either, in the larger picture.
ICNA AND TERRORIST TIES WITH JI, BIN LADEN AND HAMAS?
[Hat Tip to Joe Kaufman however, for much of this information.]
ICNA seems to have ties to the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islam group who spawns numerous radical movements around the world, charged with the responsibility of spreading Islam across the world to create an Islamic world order. [How interesting that ICNA seems to be pushing an ad campaign in cities for Islam.] One of the Muslim Brotherhoods main organizations underneath it, is Hamas. Because Hamas is on the State Departments list of terrorists, any group who helps finance it, is to be shut down, according to law.
Today, farrukh.net is being used to showcase the works of Maulana Muhammad Yusuf Islahi, a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader. And ICNA does not seem to hide this fact they have a relationship with Islahi. In an article from Nov, 2008 titled “ICNA Welcomes New Muslims to Radicalize”. This article is pretty damming about ICNA.
The central strategy of Islamists in the West is lawful Jihad or soft Jihad.
One of the key tools used by Islamist to spread their message and recruit individuals is that of aggressive proselytizing – thus distinguishing Muslim converts who are on a spiritual mission to Islam from those being indoctrinated towards a political ideology is a key task.
The language restates the doctrine of a website run by Jamaat-e-Islami Hindi, the Indian branch of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a major Islamist political party based in the countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as India and the South Asian immigrant diaspora.
The desire to “establish” and “propagate” Islam in the public sphere by both ICNA and JI, is a clear indicator of its theorcratical political intentions.
Moverover, links between the two organizations are easy to confirm. Maulana Muhammad Yusuf Islahi, sits on the central board of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind website, and is also on the board of “Why Islam,” a project of ICNA. Islahi also leads Muslims in prayer in a Why Islam produced video at the end of July called ‘Why Islam Introduction.’
Why Islam also has a website that provides information to the public about Islam. Such efforts at dawah (Islamic proselytizing) are utilized by ICNA to spread its message that Islam has the answers to society’s problems, as it’s mission statement suggests. The problem is that it also promotes anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia.
In summary, ICNA is a front for JI, a violent movement that advocates revolution and the erection of an Islamic order.
In 2000 at a “Unity Meeting” that took place in New York between ICNA and and its Baltimore-based rival, Jamaat al-Muslimeen. [pdf] Speaking for the side of ICNA, in his native language of Urdu, was none other than the President (Amir) of JI, Qazi Hussain Ahmad (who is still the head of JI). During the meeting, he stressed the need for “participation in Jihad;” he stated that “Islam must be translated into political dominance;” and he said that “the sword and the Quran go together…” His sharp rhetoric was not unusual, given his public support for the Taliban and his numerous get-togethers with Osama bin Laden.
Ahmad’s communication with the head of al-Qaeda are serious, but his organization’s dealing with Hamas are much MUCH more dangerous. And ICNA’s involvement in this is apparent, as well. Jamaat-e-Islami has a charity located in karachi, Pakistan called the Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF). AKF touts its work in such fields as: education, health care, and distribution of medical and food supplies. On Aug 17, 2006, JI announced on its website that AKF had presented a check for six-million rupees [about $100 grand] to Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas. In addition, JI stated that it “delivered a special message” from JI President Ahmad to Mashaal. The announcement went on to say, “Khalid Meshaal thanked Pakistani nation for sending the donation to the Palestinian brethren in this hour of need. Hamas leader assured the delegation that struggling Palestinians will not relinquish their just Jihad and continue to wage it until the First Qibla [Jerusalem] is liberated from Zionist yoke.”
In order to provide money to Hamas, AKF had to raise it. So the question becomes where did it get the money from? The answer is on AKF’s website, where the charity lists its donors. ICNA Relief USA and ICNA Relief Canada are it’s two top donors. ICNA’s Helping Hand is also on the list. Additionally, the Al-Khidmat Welfare Society (AKWS), AKF’s sister organization, lists ICNA Relief and Helping Hand as “partner” organizations (along with their logos), out of a list of only three organizations, the final one being Muslim Aid UK, a London-based JI charity.
Providing material support to Hamas, a State Department designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, is illegal. Given the admission by Jamaat-e-Islami that it has provided significant funds to Hamas through its charity Al-Khidmat Foundation and given that ICNA, the American affiliate of JI, is the top donor of AKR, should conclude that ICNA should be shut down due to its terrorist ties.
OTHER INTERESTING COINCIDENCES WITH TERRORISTS
In 2003, insinuations of links between JI and al-Qaeda were also alleged. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisel Saleh Hayat spoke about alleged links between JI and al-Qaeda, "All of the activists and terrorists who have been apprehended in recent months have had links to the Jamaat-e-Islami, whether we have arrested them in Lahore or here or Karachi … They have been harboring them.”
In 2004, Naeem Baig, Secretary General of ICNA lauded convicted terror supporter Fawaz Damra at a press conference. Damra, a fundraiser for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the founder of al-Qaeda’s headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, prior to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had been found guilty, of providing false information on an immigration form when he obtained American citizenship in 1994. He would be later deported. Baig stated, “He is a well-respected imam in the Muslim community. We respect his scholarship and we invited him to the program and we would like to listen to him and what he has to say.”
In July, 2007, there was a protest on the US to freeze ICNA’s funds and to place Jamaat-e-Islami on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The protest was held outside the center where ICNA and the Muslim American Society (MAS) were celebrating their 32nd Annual Convention in Hartford, Connecticut. At the time, Naeem Baig, Secretary General of ICNA stated, “Islamic Circle of North America is a U.S. based Islamic organization. We have no relations – no links – to any organization or any country outside the United States.”
RANT ON
So, the page with the Obama for 2012 isn’t necessarily attached with ICNASE however, it does seem that a radical Islamic is within their midst, but that would be nothing unusual based upon ICNA’s relationships with known terrorists and terrorist groups.
And ICNA’s main purpose, along with its '”associations” with JI and the Muslim Brotherhood, seem to be to “save” us all by converting us to Islam. [Yea, can anyone who knows me see me walking around in a veil and keeping my mouth shut? Yea.. AS IF. I might be crazy, but I’m NOT stupid enough to be interested in being subservient to every man on the face of the planet. Just one thank you..]
What I do not understand is why if there is a direct link to ICNA donations being sent to Hamas, why the State Department didn’t shut them down prior? And the same for Helping Hands.
And I find it interesting that ICNA believes that only Muslims would have ruling positions, who pushed for Obama being elected in the last campaign and one person is already pushing for the reelection of Obama for 2012, using the ICNASE abbreviation, amid all the claims that Obama is a Muslim, yet he states he has always been Christian, well.. at least as long as Reverend “KKK” White has been in the picture. Isn’t that interesting……….
T his guy, believe it or not, lived in Hilliard Ohio. The video below was recorded yesterday on Egyptian Al-Nas TV preaching Jew hatred along with forthcoming destruction and deaths of Americans.
In the beginning of the video, Sheikh Salah Sultan says that the Payload Specialist of the Space Shuttle Columbia was a murderer who commanded the campaign against Jenin in 2003. The Payload Specialist was Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
Sultan goes on to tell a “story” about the space shuttle being launched and just a few minutes later while the Shuttle was over Texas, exploded, which just happens to be President Bush’s home state, killing all aboard. He claims the Shuttle fell, “of all places” in the city of Palestine, Texas, obviously trying to say it was all Allah’s doing and a sign from Allah. [This theory seems to be a quite a wanna-be conspiracy theory, even with the Jews, that it was a call from God to the leaders of America, Israel and the world to repent for their intention to divide up Israel.]
Video and more about this man’s connections with Hamas!
There’s a few little problems with his story. Columbia did not explode on the way up, as he tells it, it exploded on the re-entry after being in space 16 days. For Ilan to be involved in anything with the Israeli Air Force during 2003 is impossible, as he had been at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX from July 1998 until the Columbia mission on January 13, 2003. I wonder ihow Sultan would feel, if he knew that 37 pages from the diary that Ramon had with him while aboard Columbia survived, with all the paper remaining white and not charred, which included a copy of the Kiddush prayer.
What he has to say about the US is that because America gave Israel everything it needs for battle, we will “suffer economic stagnation, ruin, destruction, and crime, which will surpass what is happening in Gaza. One of these days, the US will suffer more deaths than all those killed in this third Gaza holocaust. This will happen soon.”
SCARY STUFF ABOUT THIS MAN
But what is really scary about this man, is that he lived in the United States, and still comes to the United States! Sultan was brought to the area by the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus and was hired as their fiqh research. He was also the religious director for the Hilliard-based Islamic school, Sunrise Academy, where he also conducted teacher training. And later, Sultan served as the resident scholar at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard, working directly with Hany Saqr, a Muslim Brotherhood member.
He is also a former professor and president of the Islamic American University in Michigan. He previously worked at the Islamic Center of Greater Worcester in Massachusetts and at the Islamic Open University in Washington, D.C.
According to his resume, he also serves on the board of trustees of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, and is a member of the Council of Indian Scholars and of the Association of Scholars in Germany.
What does “the Cause” mean to you? And what does it mean to your children? … How much do they know about these tragedies? Did we mention to them that the Children of Zion over there cut open the wombs of mothers. As Khalid M. Klhalid mentioned in 1992 when he visited Shamir and saw on his desk a strange ashtray. He asked him, “What strange ashtray is this? Shamir told him that this was the skull of an embryo. The skull of an embryo? An Israeli soldier opened the womb of a Palestinian mother, took out the embryo, cut off his head, and gave it to him as a present. He gave it to him as a present! This is the method of the Jews. Killing a Muslim or any other non-Jew does not matter to them. Because their motto is, “If you come across a non-Jew kill him!”
He was also president of the American Institute for Religious and Cultural Studies, and active in the European Council for Fatwa and Research, headed by Yousef Al-Qaradhwai who he calls “our great scholar”. If ya didn’t know, Qaradhawi in listed by the US government since 1999 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Just a little thing there, ya know, nothing REALLY important.
I mean, its not like the time in 2006 that Sultan said that 9/11 was the work of Americans based on the movie “The Siege” as a pretext for terrorizing the world. One final quote from that interview, “The U.S. remains the only country to determine who is a terrorist, and what is the definition of terrorism, and it can pin it on anyone. The most recent instance is the case of Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been accused of terrorism, even though he is know worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons.” Al-Zindani is Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a Yemeni mentor of Osama bin Laden who preaches jihad at Iman University in Sanna.
Or its not important that according to his profile at Discover the Networks, he is an advocate for suicide bombing:
During the 1999 annual conference of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a group which terrorism expert Steven Emerson has characterized as Hamas’ “primary voice in the United States,” Sultan encouraged young people to strive toward martyrdom. “I want every child,” he said, “to sleep on the wound of Palestine and the actions of martyrdom, just like that mother in the country whose son wrote to her that they are to meet in Paradise.”
On Solomonia, according to Soltan’s own webpage, he is for the violent destruction of Israel and the deportation (or worse) of its Jewish inhabitants. The original link on Soltan’s web site was here, however, it is now a 403 “Forbidden” access page.
… There is no doubt about the fact that the Jews usurped the Holy Lands of Palestine and it is not permitted to bargain with them over anything except the means of their departure from the lands that they usurped by means of violent force and through the killing of hundreds of thousands of people…
Question: My husband does not want me to the store even when I need something emergently (sic). He likes me to be in close doors all the time. Is it permissible for a woman to go tot he market place without informing her husband?
Answer: … The husband and wife should cooperate with one another to fulfill the requirements and basic needs of the house. If the woamn likes to go to the store and does shopping with her husband or alone, when needed, then she should agree with her husband on that. It is not allowed for the woman to go to the store without informing her husband, who might mistrust her if he knows. Therefore, I recommend the woman to discuss this issue with her husband and try to get a general approval of getting her basic needs with or without him going with her. If the husband does not agree, she is supposed to listen to him.
Oh, and if you want to hug, kiss, or hold hands in public with your husband.. forget it.
Question: Some Islamic websites may publish photos of Muslim men kissing their wives on the cheek to demonstrate that Islam orders men to be kind to women. Of course both parties are committed to Islamic dress code in the phtos. Does Islam allow this kind of act in public? Kindly explain this to me in detail.
Answer: Islam stresses privacy of matrimonial life. It is not allowed to show what is supposed to be covered in the first place. Intimacy or even showing love between husband and wife in terms of kissing, hugging, etc. are to be covered and never exposed to any of the children inside the house – what about showing it in public or even over the internet?
I do not think it is a good technique of making Da’wah in this way. In Islam, even if our intention is to show the beautiful teachings of Islam towards women and family, the means used to achieve that must be in accordance with Allah’s laws.
1. It is the right of the Muslim husband to get married to another woman. Seeking the permission of the first wife is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended because of the harmony and unity of the family Islam is keen to preserve. So, if your husband married a second wife without informing you, then he did was was not proper to be done, and not what was forbidden to be done…
…4. If your husband still wishes to keep you, then I advise you to get pregnant as soon as possible as children give a different taste of marriage and strengthen the relationship between spouses…
In March of 2007 he fled to Bahrain when his U.S. citizenship application was denied after he appeared at a Hamas rally in Turkey in 2006 and where a kidnapped Israeli solder was praised. He has also been seen at a conference honoring HAMAS leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi, in Doha, Qatar.
According to his online resume, Sultan’s “vision” is: “To live happy. To die as a martyr.”[The man actually has his own website, which is in Arabic and English.]
WHY IS THIS MAN ALLOWED IN THE UNITED STATES?
What DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE, is that this man was STILL allowed to enter and move around the United States before this video was aired. In fact, in the month of December 2008, he was back in Ohio touring Columbus-area mosques. Umm HELLO, Department of Homeland Security? FBI? State Department? Are you paying attention? Is this guy REALLY going to be allowed back in the United States after these statements, as a known associate of Hamas?
But, this isn’t the first time Sultan spewed his rants. Check out “Central Ohioans Against Terrorism” for more info where you’ll find out this guy has more friends in Hamas and al-Qaida than Time Magazine has issues in circulation.
Can I call him a schmuck and get away with it? [A schmuck is an insult for a stupid person, or an unwanted guest, which he is BOTH. I can’t help it if in Yiddish (Jewish) the definition of a schmuck is a dick.]
Say goodbye to 2008. Never to be here again and hello to 2009. New Years Day, a new year, a new day, and a time for new hope. And with that, why wait to begin the misery of what might be in store for next year. What say you?
I happened across a strange prediction for our wonderful new year of hope. It’s probably not what you want to hear, but hey, since when do I ever tell you what you want to hear, but instead write about what you should think about.
Now, I’ve never heard of this organization before. I don’t know anything about them. But.. well.. what they have to say is rather scary to even think about.
How about the notion of topping Great Depression numbers of 20-22% across the nation? What if I said someone is predicting 30-40% unemployment by September 2009? How’s that for scary?
This commentary comes from a “We Beat the Street” commentary, an Investment Strategy company, via KITCO. The author is Roger Wiegand, who I’ve also never heard of before and don’t know too much about, other than his biography on We Beat the Street and a bio on IIC. But , lets take a gander into his crystal ball, shall we? [Hat Tip to Nightblogger]
Our new president is determined to hand out $860 Billion to One Trillion dollars in a Herculean effort to literally buy a new economic recovery. While some of his ideas are noble indeed the overall plan will have little effect and Great Depression II shall take hold in 2009 with crashing stock markets in May and September-October 2009. We think the worst of the worst hits in late September 2009.
Hey, what do you know, the one year anniversary of when millions lost nearly all of their 401(k)s when the market dropped out. What a time to choose! But I’m getting ahead of myself… lets hear about spring. A time of green, fresh air, and everything coming back to life. But the death of the stock market according to Wiegand.
During the spring of next year we see:
(1) A second larger wave of residential housing mortgage failures; [Now, to be honest, I heard about this about two months ago. Its a different kind of mortgage than the ARMs but it’s more “deadly” to the market and banks. Good thing we don’t have to pay a mortgage!]
(2) The first big wave of auto loan failures and repossessions; [I heard about this one too about two months ago. But if people can’t pay their mortgages, the next big ticket item is their car. Good thing we don’t have to pay a car loan or lease!]
(3) Over $40 billion in credit card defaults, smashing the bank lenders; [This is already happening, and again, another “big ticket” item are peoples credit cards. Good thing we’ve never EVER used them. If you can’t pay for it in cash, you don’t need it.]
(4) The first wave of commercial mortgage failures and foreclosures on shopping malls, office buildings and other commercials; [This too is inevitable. It is estimated that over 16,000 businesses will fail in the next year, leaving a lot of empty space in malls, strip malls, and business complexes. Already, Circuit City has left quite a few leases up in the air, due to them filing bankruptcy. Whose next?]
(5) And finally, the grand smashing finale of CDS Credit Default Swaps originated with No margin money or down payments! We heard today the total is 500 trillion! I cannot even fathom that number. These five converging train wrecks could take the Dow from a dead cat bounce of 10400-10800 back to 7250, or even 6600, or 5600. [My other half and I have said, the Dow will crash out around 5000 in 2009. So much for our stocks.]
But if you think the Dow at 5000-6000 is bad, you haven’t heard it all yet. The above is just in the spring of 2009. There’s how many months in the year, and how many seasons?
Then, in late September and early October, the New York, London, Tokyo and Asian markets take a monster crash. how low is low and how bad can it get? We think the Dow could end-up on November 1st, 2009 anywhere from 5,600 to a low of 3,000 or even 1,500.
Ouch…. and how interesting that it’s just about the same time that the stock market crashed in 1929. But the best.. err.. worst is yet to come. And the capitalization isn’t my emphasis, it’s Wiegand’s.
Unemployment nationally in the USA is now touching 16%. The officially posted number is somewhere near half of that. By the fall of 2009, American REAL UNEMPLOYMENT WILL BE NEAR THE ALL TIME 1930’S DEPRESSION HIGH OF 25% UNEMPLOYED. SADLY, THAT IS NOT THE WORST AS IT GETS MORE DIRE. WE PREDICT, USA UNEMPLOYMENT REACHES 30-40%. IN THE RUST BELT STATES OF MICHIGAN AND OHIO, WHILE 40% IS NOT UNREALISTIC.
Great… wonderful. Buy your tents, Coleman stoves and sleeping bags now. And maybe a nice little 9mm and shotgun. Aww heck, splurge for a Desert Eagle. Size is intimidating! Make sure to not forget the ammo! And begin to stockpile food, you might need it. This might be the “new” money and a good bartering tool, as long as people don’t kill ya for it. And LOTS of stocking up on toilet paper and um.. ah… guys look away on this one… feminine items. And don’t forget things like cold medicine, aspirin, and topical antibiotics!But more realistically, stockpiling at least two months of food is a good way to make sure you have a food supply and “other” items if you lose your job or have to choose between food and a house payment.
The American federal government departments for food stamps and the job of providing welfare provisions will be overwhelmed. This will be a Katrina event for the hungry citizens of the United States. Urban areas will see skyrocketing crime and in parts of some cities, life could become totally uninhabitable.
The last report we’ve seen on those receiving food handouts and related welfare amounted to 11 million USA citizens with 700,000 children going hungry each day. We suspect the true amount of those needing food help will rise to 35 million with an untold tragic number of them being little, defenseless children. Governments remain in denial and are not prepared for this national emergency whatsoever. As things worsen, food riots and others with violence aimed at the “have” are common.
Did I happen to say that I am also professionally trained in sword fighting? And raised by a Father who taught me to shoot a .38 & .45 around the age of 8 and a shotgun at the age of around 10? Who would have ever thunk it that I would need those skills in my personal life! And a chick to boot!
And as for that stockpiled food, didn’t I just say it was going to be the new “money”? Dollars will be worthless.
The number of bank failures over the next three years will be in the thousands. In addition, the US Dollar’s valuation could break recent lows near 70.00 on the index, dropping to 46.00 by 2011 or 2012. Inflation or potentially hyperinflation is quite real as the Federal Reserve and US Treasury strain to print and circulate cash to prod our stalled economy. It is simply not working even with the dramatically lower interest rates of late.
But to continue, Wiegand says just like in the Great Depression, families are “renting” out rooms, or “bunking” up to pool their money.
Consumers are broke and going broker. Households of interrelated families are doubling and tripling up even with several employed members being under one roof. Basic costs of rent, mortgage payments, health care, food, utilities and taxes are too much to bear on stagnant and in some cases falling wages. In some areas of America, there are entire subdivisions of homes totally abandoned or existing with only a hand full of occupants. The millions thrown at lenders for new mortgages are not getting through to buyers, as there are fewer of them. We are witnessing a system breakdown.
Isn’t this already happening? I recently blogged about Detroit and how many of the homes are already empty, and have been gutted for their copper and such. And additionally, many who are behind on their mortgages, and said bank gets a bailout, refinances the mortgage, only to increase the payment by $300 to $500 a month, and also demands several thousand dollars just to stop the foreclosure within 30 days!
And states and cities will be broke also, so forget about getting any help from them, which is already happening. Say bye bye to welfare and to schools.
Municipalities and states are sinking into a spending, debt-ridden morass. It was reported today that 22 of 50 USA states are in serious budgetary trouble. California is one of those in terrible condition and Michigan is already technically broke as many of her cities. [Don’t forget Ohio as the governor called Rahm and said he needed $5 billion!] Detroit will file bankruptcy in 2009 and there will [be] many other surprises as well. There will be a cascade of bond defaults and the outcome will cap the ability of these cities, states and countries to borrow ever more.
Hey, at least we are all in this together….. *smirk* True worldwide Socialism! YIPPIE!
The shining light through all of this is the faster we find the bottom the faster we can recover. Sadly, the recovery process will take years. Futures and commodities traders should continue to earn steady profits as the stock markets slide into oblivion for years. We see no recovery until 2015.
Let see… Obama Jan 2009 – Jan 2013. I wonder if he will run for re-election?
I find it interesting that there is no mention of the Big 3, or of a company such as Wal-Mart still being in business. If Wal-Mart collapses, we are in trouble.
But wait.. according to the Russian nutjob, by 2010 we will be in a civil war and the United States will be split between Canada, China/Japan, Mexico and the EU with Alaska going back to Russia and Hawaii going to China/Japan so all of this won’t happen!
Of course there’s always Gerald Celente’s prediction of a total collapse of the economy and a revolution by 2012.
So well.. there’s my first post of the new year…… oh and… um… might be a little late… but have a happy and prosperous New Year, while you still can? *shrug* *nervous smile*
To quote a line: “This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”
Yesterday, Dec. 30th, 2008 there were many, many Pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country. Nearly all, numbering more than 50, were organized by A.N.S.W.E.R. , a U.S. based organization. ANSWER stands for “Act Now To Stop War and End Racism”.
A “National Day of Action” to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza was organized by ANSWER, in conjunction with the Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab American and Al-Awda, and the International Palestine Right to Return Coalition. From their website, they state:
“…to be a National Day of Action and are continuing to call for emergency demonstrations across the country to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza.”
Now I blogged yesterday asking a couple questions. If ANSWER is really an anti-war, anti-racism, anti-terrorist, anti-imperialist organization as they claim, them why didn’t they organize protests when Hamas, who are on the US terrorist list and whose charter includes the annihilation of the Jews in Israel, was sending rockets and mortars across the border on a daily basis? That activity is an Imperialist act.
And if they are a true anti-war organization, they why are they not protesting against BOTH Hamas and Israel, but instead choosing to only protest against Israel? This makes them guilty of anti-Semitism.
“Several anti-war protests in San Francisco organized by ANSWER Coalition featured imagery and slogans some considered anti-Semitic, including the burning of the Israel flag, chants of support for terrorist groups like Hezbolla and Nazi-like arm salutes.” ANSWERS defense? “We strongly abhor all forms of racism and bigotry, including anti-Semitism. At the same time, we don’t believe that criticism of Israeli government policies should be labeled as anti-Semitism any more than criticism of U.S. government policy should be labeled as anti-American.”
But here’s a small sampling of protests around the world and in the United States yesterday. Okay, maybe more than a small sampling.
PROTESTS WITH VIOLENCE AROUND THE WORLD
Antwerp, Belgium
Jewish groups have condemned a Belgian public broadcaster, VRT, for airing a show in which a standup comedian jokes about the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews. Philippe Geubels, the comedian stated that the Holocaust cannot happen again because “Jews are much smarter now.” “They have spread across the world. Try rounding them up! Most are in America so you cannot send them by train to Germany” to die in gas chambers. “What are they going to do if there is a big gas leak in Antwerp? Take the city to court for provocation?” Additionally VRT came under criticism for a recent ad about a travel show focusing on Berlin. It showed a drawing of Hitler as a male stripper giving the Nazi salute in front of a swastika flag. That triggered a protest by teh Germany embassy, which called it “totally tasteless.”
The Arab European League (AEL) organized this demonstration. After the protest disbanded the demonstrators marched towards Jewish neighborhoods, clashing with the police. Car windows were broken, trams and buses were attacked. Now many Jews are afraid to go to out into the streets fearing vandalism and violence.
Odenza, Denmark
A group of Arab youths opened fire Wednesday evening on a number of Israelis working at a mall in the Danish city of Odenza. The Israelis, who were operating a stall in the shopping center, were lightly wounded in their legs.
But thanks to ANSWER, they have brought a nice little taste of Gaza City to the streets of America.
London, England
In London, and anti-Israel protestor snatched a policeman’s cap and set it on fire during a protest. Some climbed israel’s embassy gates and were restrained by police. Crowds chanted, “Palestine must be free from the river to the sea.”
And according to a person on YouTube by the name of “NiceIslamMedia101” which has an icon of a Hamas supporter, and a video that begins showing a Hamas flag, there will be additional protests in London nearly every day. There is a link for more information which leads to the “Palestine Solidarity Campaign” website.
Tehran, Iran
Hundreds of Iranian radicals stormed the British compound in Tehran last night, replacing the Union flag with a Palestinian one and held the consulate for about an hour. Additionally a “fire bomb” was thrown at the gates. A hardline Iranian news agency said that protests against Britain and Egypt, whose embassy was also targeted, would continue.
One demonstrator told the AP TV service: “We brought down the British flag and put up the flag of Palestine so we can send our message.” He said the people of Gaza were being ignored by the world and referred to Britain as an “old sleeping fox”.
Also yesterday, the Mash’had branch of the Basiji Students gathered and took to violent protesting in front of the main gates of the Saudi Arabian consulate. They chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan while carrying placards that had "traitor”, “coward” and “whore” on them. In addition, they threw rocks and heavy objects through the windows of the consulate building. One of the chants was “Woe is you, if Khamenei gives me my orders of Jihad.”
And one more incident occurred at the office of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned airline in Tehran over a Saudi-backed peace initiative with Israel. The group, identified as Ikhwan al-Radwan, or Brothers of Heaven, attacked the office with several Molotov cocktails. Minor damage was reported. The initiative offers Israel normal relations with all Arab countries if it withdraws from lands occupied in 1967 Arab-Israeli war and allows the creation of a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem.
Stockholm, Sweden
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Swedish capital to protest against Israel, setting an Israeli flag on fire, and changing, “Israel, murderer, ” “Gaza solidarity,” and “Close the embassy.” “Enough blood! We’ve seen enough,” an organizer with the Swedish Islamic Association told the AFP.
PROTESTS IN THE UNITED STATES
Coming Soon To A Neighborhood Near You And all this in the name of Allah [God]. Radical Islam is NOT a religion, it is a political doctrine of world domination masked as a religion. The demonstrations as seen below, are what will get the United States into a state of Martial Law, especially if violence as seen in other countries begins. Now remember, ANSWER is SUPPOSE to be against anti-Semitism.
Los Angeles, California
Pro-Palestine
About 100 people gathered outside the Federal Building in Westwood. Another protest was underway outside the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Blvd east of Beverly Hills, where Los Angeles police kept two groups of chanting protestors and supporters separate.
As part of the effort, Friday prayer meetings at more than 70 mosques throughout Southern CA will be dedicated to victims of the attacks. There are an estimated 650,000 Muslims living in So. Cal.
Hussam Ayloush of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said “This is an illegal bombardment by Israel. It is barbaric and it’s even more barbaric that it’s being done by the Bush Administration.” “Gaza’s people are prisoners in their own land. We depend on the help of the American people.”
Sacramento, California
Pro-Palestine
San Francisco, California
Pro-Palestine
This one looks CRAZY nutz. Take a look at “At the back of the hill” to find out what this protest was really like, from a non-Palestinian point of view.
Washington, DC
Pro-Palestine
About 750 keffiyeh-wearing Palestine supporters chanted outside the US State Department. Other reports state only close to 200 participated. What is interesting to note, is that when it came 5pm, out of the 750, only about 30 chose to participate in prayer. This was an ANSWER rally, that was organized by Brian Becker. Also present was Mara Verheyden-Hillard from the National Lawyers’ Guild.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Pro-Palestine
Quotes that can be clearly heard and note, while people line street and street corners:
A Hijab is a “modest dress for women” that can include a veil to cover the face. The following is yelled by a woman in a partial Hijab, obviously NOT showing ANY modest behavior. ”You’re losers! Your losers! Losers! Your mother’s a whore! Your mother’s a whore! You’re losers. Yea, fuck yourself,” while carrying a sign that says “Nuke Israel”. She additionally yelled, “Nuke Israel. There is no Israel.” Obviously she knows NOTHING about her claimed religion, for if she acted this way in Gaza, she would be at a minimum, stoned to death for her actions.
A group of men yelling and chanting at a car, “Go to Hell! Go to Hell!” Note, they are smiling the entire time with one man carrying a sign saying “Nuke Israel. Go to Hell”.
Another woman, again wearing a partial burka: “Go steal other lands! Go! Murderers! Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
Eventually the crowd begins to get out of control and break through a police line. The Pro-Palestinians cross the street, block the street and approach Israel supporters. Finally, the police step in. You can hear on pro-Israel supporter saying “They are so violent.”
Additional video via “Atlas Shrugs” of the same protest.
Tampa, Florida
Pro-Palestine
Atlanta, Georgia
Pro-Palestine
Kailua, Hawaii
Pro-Palestine
According to the AP, "A small group of placard-waving pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered near U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s vacation retreat in Hawaii.”
[Obviously these people don’t know that President Bush has sent $85 billion to the UN that is marked for aid to Gaza and the West Bank.]
Boston, Massachusetts [Park Plaza]
Pro-Israel & Pro-Palestine
Boston, Massachusetts
Pro-Palestinian
Pro-Israel
Dearborn, Michigan
Pro-Palestine
Approximately 5,000 people showed up for this protest with the streets lined for eight city blocks. Some marchers chanted, “Gaza, Gaza dont’ cry, Palestine will never die” and “Israel is a terrorist state.” Others chanted, in Arabic, “God is Great” and “a martyr is beloved of God.”
One protestor said that the responsibility for the Israeli attack lies with the US government, which “gives billions of dollars in military aide to Israel.”
Another protestor said he marched to protest, “the aggression and the use of excessive force” by Israel in Gaza. “These are nothing but terrorist acts.”
One group of protestors carried a mock coffin decorated with pictures of dead and injured Arab children and labeled “U.S. Tax Dollars at Work” and “Victims of Zionism.”
Many spoke to at this protest said they had “hope that Obama would address the plight of the Palestinians.”
This protest was called by the Congress of Arab American Organizations. Spokesman Osama Siblani said, “There is disappointment and anger in our community and we need to express it toward the current U.S. administration that has given a blank check to the Israelis.”
The Detroit area has the largest and most concentrated Arab American population in the country, with as many as 350,000 residents in Southeast Michigan of Arab ancestry.
Over a thousand New Yorkers marched through midtown Manhattan, chanting and carrying signs and Palestinian flags on Tuesday. This demonstration was brought together by the ANSWER Coalition, the Muslim American SOciety NY, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Supporters, and Al-Awda NY and Al-Asalah NY, among others.
They all gathered in front of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN. The spectators covered the sidewalk of the entire block at the corner of 42nd and 2nd Ave. This was the third day in a row for Pro-Palestinian protesting in midtown.
Demonstrators chanted in both Arabic and English, waving Palestinian flags and carrying placards with phrases such as “Olmert, Olmert, What do you say? How many kids have you killed today?” and “Viva viva Palestina.”
Pamphlets were handed out, including a petition to be sent to House Reps, which demands that the US condemn the war in the strongest terms, and that it uphold the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War.
Across the street from 42nd and 2nd Ave was also a pro-Israel counter-protest. Some insults were hurled at these demonstrators. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Stop the ethnic cleansing!” on man screamed.
Ocala, Florida
Pro-Palestine
Roughly two dozen demonstrators gathered Tuesday in from of the Lockheed Martin plant in Silver Springs Shores. Lockheed Martin makes components for Hellfire missiles. One woman states, “This is not over. This is not going to be over for quite some time and this is just the beginning of another long, long, long piece of disturbance in the Middle East.”
One Lockheed employee, saw the protest, went home and got her two adult daughters. They returned to the scene and counter-protested across the street. The three shouted: “Support our troops”, “God Bless America,” and “If you’re so proud of it, go back to Gaza.”
I agree with both women’s statements.
Dallas, Texas
Pro-Palestinian protestors converged at the Dealy Plaza in Dallas.
Now fair warning. I’ve NEVER been considered to be politically correct, however, I am known to speak my mind, fairly on many matters. I am known to listen to both sides, in their entirety, and then go from there. And I do not take race, religion, or sex into consideration. I look at it from the point of view of ethics, simply right and wrong.
In this case, is it right to kill people. Well, that’s according to what you believe. If you are a Christian, the only time it is “okay”, if you will, to kill another person, along with man’s law, is during War. This also includes police actions when one must defend themselves. However, according to other religions, those who do not believe in their religion, and will not convert, should die, all in the name of God. To kill those who do not believe in what you believe, is considered to be a “Holy” act. Yet, when those same people are attacked, and killed, then they are the ones calling it murder. Does this EVEN make sense? Can you say hypocrites? Please, if you are Islamic, please explain that logic to me. And please don’t say that it’s different because Israel is killing children. Hamas is just as guilty of the same crime, if you want to put it that way.
But I have one small question for those who believe in Islam. And remember, I am not Jewish, I am not Muslim, and I certainly wouldn’t be considered Christian. But the question is, “Why are the Jews so bad?” Tell me exactly why they are bad. Who told you that the Jews are bad people? What is the basis for that prior to say, 42 years ago? What exactly did they do, more than 100 years ago, that was so bad? If you can not answer this question, other than because people have told you that, and because your “religion” tells you that, then you are guilty of racism. Welcome to the modern world, not a third world country.
And if you are not racist, then why are you supporting people who chose to vote in Hamas in their government, an organization that is considered a terrorist organization by nearly every country in the world, that has in their charter, the annihilation of Jews. That ladies and gentlemen, is genocide. Its not so nice when it comes back in your face does it?
Now if you are a follower of Islam, you aren’t going to like the way I’ve worded that question about Jews. But I, who is not a follower of Islam, or a Jew, who is an outsider, is trying to understand BOTH points of view from BOTH sides. You can take the attitude that I will never understand because I’m not a follower of Islam and will end up in Hell, or that it’s none of my business, well.. it is my business because this is happening on the streets of the country I live in.
And hey, I’ve been on my way to Hell for a long time, so no biggie in that threat. I never proclaim that I am perfect, and I will certainly go to Heaven. You as a person do not have the right to judge whether I will go to Hell or Heaven, only God can make that judgment. And if that is my destiny, then so be it. Your words of a “devil” or whatever you call those who are not followers of Islam, and saying I should die because of my beliefs does not offend me. Lemme put it this way, I don’t have a problem slinging around a few slabs of bacon in bacon grease coated hands which would do absolutely no physical damage to you. However, is violence towards my attitude worth losing your 40some virgins and existing in Hell for eternity?
Because if anything, I propose a campaign for PEACE on the streets of the United States between Pro-Palestinians and those who are Pro-Israel. Everyone is entitled to the right to assembly and the right to free speech thanks to our Constitution. That is something that is NOT available in MOST Middle East countries, especially to women. And general human rights and ethics entitles you to your own opinion, whether in my opinion, my neighbors opinion, or the person next to me’s opinion is different. Again, an option that is NOT available in MOST Middle East countries.
However, name calling, encroachment, and violence towards an opposite group because of religion and race are not. That is a hate crime here in the United States. I understand that the laws of Israel and of Gaza are different from here in the United States, but so should you. You live in the United States, not in Israel and not in Gaza. Please do NOT bring the Middle East conflict to OUR streets. Isn’t the fighting and way of life there the reason you left and came to the United States to live free?
And if you are so proud of your land, and state that an injustice is being done, instead of bringing violence to our streets here in the United States, go back to Gaza and fight alongside Hamas against Israel.
What you need to realize is that yes, the United States gave aid to Israel however, in the past few days President Bush also gave $85 million in aide to the UN marked for Gaza and the West bank. That’s more money per person for Gaza and the West Bank, than we as Americans got in our “stimulus” checks last year. Our president gave Gaza and the West Bank more money per person for aid, that Congress gave us for economic help.
And if you tell me that I have to make a choice? Then my choice is going to be those who break the law in the United States, according to our laws here, not the laws of Israel or of Gaza, should go to jail. Obviously you don’t like the way we do things here in the United States, so go back to the Middle East where your life was so much better than here… and take your never ending war with you. Oh wait, or is that why you came to the United States, so you could be free.
HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM
Here’s an easy one. Israel stops firing. If Hamas sends a rocket across the border, without provocation, then Israel has the right to send a Hellfire missile in. If Hamas sends two rockets or mortars across the border, unprovoked, then Israel has the right to send two Hellfire missiles in. Deal? I’m sure there’s something in Islam that is similar to “An eye for an eye.” You say that’s no end to the war? Well, hasn’t Hamas been attacking Israel for about ohh.. what seven years and Palestine never complained while you cheered Hamas on? And what about all the other years, basically since the beginning of time?
Because ultimately, the below picture is what all should be working for. Palestinians and Jews side by side, for the same cause. Peace between them both.
SOURCES FOR PICTURES:
Forget it.. can’t remember. Too many to keep track of. IF you are the original owner and wish for a picture(s) to be removed, please see the bottom of the page for correct copyright (DMCA) submission guidelines and contact information.
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If the following reports are true, the Hamas in Gaza is guilty of war crimes. Under their law, they are allowed to execute those who are found to be guilty of collaboration with Israel however, the men below had only been charged with collaboration and were awaiting trial. Hama decided to be judge, jury and executioner without a fair trail. Even if this is Hamas law, it is a direct violation of UN’s rules, the Geneva Convention, and is nothing more than murder.
Additionally, a man mocked a woman who did express horror at the scene. And another person stated, that a brother killed his own brother to “…wipe away the shame from his family.”
Yet Hamas claims they are the ones that are being unfairly executed by Israel. And if you think those who are in Gaza are “innocent”, they stood by watching, “showing no pity after the shooting”.
And Islam is SUPPOSE to be a religion of peace.
The New York Times has removed an article regarding an incident that they earlier described: Hamas terrorists killing “collaborators” at the Gaza Shifa hospital.
Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was international bloodletting under way.
In the fourth-flour orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.
Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.
More details come from the Toronto Starwho published the entire story from the NYT
At Shifa Hospital yesterday, armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roved the halls. Asked their funciton, they said they were providing security. But there was internal bloodletting underway.
In the fourth floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late twenties asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husban. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Hajoj was carried out of his room by young men pretending to transfer him to another hospital section. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head. A bit of brain emerged on the other side of his skull.
Hajoj, like five others who were killed at the hospital in this way in the previous 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trail by Hamas judges, and when Israel destroyed the prison Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trails were short-circuited.
A crowd at the hospital showed no pity after the shooting, which was widely observed. A man in his thirties mocked a woman who expressed horror at the scene.
“This horrified you?” he shouted. “A collaborator that caused the death of many innocent and resistance fighters?”
Another man told her, “It was his brother who killed him to wipe away the shame from his family.”
Sobhia Jomaa, a layer with the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, said 115 collaborators were in the central prison. None had been executed by Hamas since it took office and their cases were monitored closely, she said. “The prison provided the sole protection to all of them,” she said. “But once it was bombed, many wanted to take revenge.”
Dr. Hussein Ashour, director of Shifa Hospital, said keeping his patients alive from their wounds was hard enough for him. He said there were some 1,500 wounded distributed among Gaza’s nine hospitals plagued with equipment shortages.
Additional details regarding more incidents around the hospital come from The Jewish Press
Tuesday’s clashes began when members of the PA General Intelligence Force fired at gunmen belonging to Hamas’s “Executive Force” at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Eyewitnesses said members of the “Executive Force” stationed at the hospital tired to prevent an ambulance from entering the compound under the pretext that gunmen were hiding inside the vehicle.
Sources close to the General Intelligence Force claimed the ambulance was carrying an officer who broke his leg when he fell off a ladder.
“The Hamas guards at the hospital kidnapped the officer and his companions and held them as hostages inside the hospital,” they said. “Then the Hamas militiamen phoned the General Intelligence headquarters and asked us to send a force to take the kidnapped men.”
According to the sources, when General Intelligence officers arrived at the hospital, the Hamas guards opened fire, injuring three of them. They also claimed that a fourth officer, Muhammed al-Harazin, was kidnapped by the Hamas gunmen. Harazin’s body was later discovered near the hospital together with the bullet-ridden body of another General Intelligence officer, Muhammed Kassab.
Igor Panarin, 50, a former KGB analyst, a professor [Dean] at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, well-known political scholar (in Russia), and author of books such as “Information War in Russia”, “Information War and Election”, Information War and Power”. He began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, with the topic of his thesis, “Information- psychological providing of national security of Russia”. He then studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are “classified.”
He also states that Russia facilitated the US independence twice: during the Katherine the Great rein and the Civil War, when two Russian Navy squadrons weighed anchors at San Francisco Bay and New York and defended the East Coast from the British.
In 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.
“When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise,” he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. “They didn’t believe me.”
He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysis, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.
And since 1998, he has said that the United States will fall in 2010 splitting into six independent pieces. Renewed interest in his theory as come into the spotlight due to a recent interview with Izvestia, one of Russia’s biggest national dailies. And those in Russia are listening.
So why does he think this will happen? “The dollar is not secured by anything. The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse.” Panarin calls U.S. foreign debt “ a pyramid scheme,” and predicts China and Russia would usurp Washington’s role as a global finance regulator.
Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces.
The White House’s reaction to Panarin’s forecast at a December news conference was a “I am perplexed and therefore I think I will have to decline to comment,” from Dana Perino, which received laughter from the press.
From the November, 2008 interview: [Video, in English/Russian from Russia Today]
Q[Izvestia]: Will the entire American economy collapse?
A [Panarin]: It is collapsing now. Three out of the five largest and oldest banks on Wall Street ceased to exist because of the financial crisis; and the other two are on the verge of surviving. Their losses are the largest in history. Now we are talking about replacing the regulation system in the world: America will no longer be the world regulator.
Q: Which country will replace it?
A: Two countries are making a claim for this role: China with its large reserves, and Russia as a country which could play the role of a regulator on the Eurasian territory. … The gold reserves of Chian come to more than 2 trillion dollars. It is the largest creditor to the USA.
Q: What makes you believe in the possible division of the country?
A: There are a number of reasons. First, the financial problem of the USA will increase. Millions of citizens have already lost their savings. Prices and unemployment keep growing. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse which means that entire town will end up unemployed. The governors are not harshly demanding money from the federal center. Complaints are growing. They’ve been restrained so far by the presidential election and by hope that Obama could perform a miracle. However, by spring it will become clear that a miracle will not happen.
The second factor is the vulnerability of the political mechanism in the USA. There is uniform legislation on the territory of the country. There aren’t even general uniform traffic rules. The skeleton which keeps the USA together is fragile. Event eh armed forces in Iraq are represented by the non-citizens of the United States to a large extent. They fight for the promise of American citizenship. Thus the army, as a melting pot has stopped fulfilling a consolidating function for the American state. And finally, the split of the elite has made itself especially clear under the conditions of the crisis.
Q: How will the country be divided? Mexico is obviously in the south. What else?
A: There are six part altogether. The first one is the Pacific Ocean coast of the USA. I can give you an example: 53% of San Francisco’s population is Chinese. The Governor of Washington state was an ethnic Chinese; its capital, Seattle, is called the gate of the Chinese emigration to the USA> It is obvious that the Pacific Ocean coast has been gradually influenced by China. The second part in the south is definitely the Mexicans. In some areas, Spanish has become the official language already. Then comes Texas which has been openly fighting for independence. The Atlantic coast has a totally different ethnos and mentality. It could be split into two parts as well. And then we are left with two central depressed areas. May I remind you that five central states where the Indians live had announced their independence. It was perceived as a joke or a kind of a political show. But the fact remains the same. Canada is making a strong influence in the North. By the way, Russia may require returning Alaska, as it had been rented out… [And Hawaii goes to Japan or China.]
[…]
Q: Could you tell us about the division of the elite. Are these democrats and the republicans?
A: No, that is not right. There are two groups in the US authorities. The first one may be called the globalists, or the Trotskyites. Leon Trotsky had already formulated their idea in the past: it’s not Russia that we need, but a world revolution. Soviet Russia was viewed by them as a base for control over the world. The second group is the statists which want prosperity for their country. Representatives of these two clans are present in both Democratic and Republican Parties. Take voting for the anti-crisis plan of Paulson, which was suggested by the Republican administration, for example. It was voted down in the Congress by the Republicans first of all.
Q: Who is in charge of the clans?
A: The key persons of the globalists are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney. The key persons of the statists are Robert Gates, Defense Secretary; Michael Hayden, CIA Director; and Admiral Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence. Globalists are mainly the financial elite, and statists are the armed forces, special services and military and industrial complex. Recently the confrontation between these two clans have become open. In December last year the statists presented a reported which completely denied the existence of the nuclear program in Iran. It directly contradicted conclusions made by Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney. The second important event took place at the hearings of the US Congress concerning the 5-day war in the Caucasus. The globalists represented by Condoleezza Rice insisted that Russia had started the war an d that it would be punished for it. Georgia was the project of Condoleezza. And representatives of the intelligence community presented a diametrically opposite statement: that Georgia had started the war. We see an open confrontation between very outstanding political figures.
Q: And who’s Obama company?
A: The statists with Gates in charge were the key players who had enabled Obama to win. They are demanding that he change the general line in return. IN this light, a very interesting factor is that Gates the Republican is viewed as the most important candidate as to whether he remains the US Defense Secretary or becomes the Secretary of State. This is the influence of the statists on the President. By the way, the first session which Obama held was with the American Intelligence community.
NOT THE FIRST TIME RUSSIA PREDICTS DEMISE OF THE US
Perhaps the most famous was when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev promising before the United Nations to “bury” the United States and again in his famous “kitchen debates” telling Richard Nixon that the superiority of the Soviet Union would overtake the U.S. and the Soviets would say “Dasvidania” to the U.S.
In the “Kitchen Debate”, which took place in 1955, then Vice-President Nixon and Khrushchev discussed the merits of each of their respective economic systems, capitalism and communism. While Nixon focused on American technology such as supermarkets filled with foods, dishwashers, lawnmowers, makeup, cake mixes, TV dinners, Pepsi and the washing machine, Khurshchev stressed that the focus on “things that matter” rather than luxury was more important.
This guy is really clueless about many parts of the United States and is nothing more than Communist propaganda. He obviously doesn’t realize that here in the US, states are allowed to make their own laws, but you as a regular civilian don’t need “papers” to cross the border to enter another state.
Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina in the same country as New York or Maine and them being part of the European Union? Yea, as IF. Obviously he doesn’t know much about that little thing called the Mason-Dixon line and the south believes it will “Rise Again” versus the North.
And Idaho and Utah, with the Mormons being a part of the same country as California, under Chinese influence. Forgive me with a valley girl expression but, “As If! Like, I am SO sure, ya know?”
And Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana becoming part of Mexico….. umm.. yea.. okay. I can just see it now, deep in the heart of Dixie, Mexicans in the bayou, drinking Budweiser, and four-by-fourin in the mud listening to Alan Jackson singing “Chattahoochee”.
And Mexico not taking California? Heck, hasn’t that pretty much already happened? Or will the Pacific and the “South TX region” “sell” California, along with Arizona, and New Mexico back to Mexico. Or would Mexico just say it’s theirs, and we stole it. Wait.. that’s already happened too….
And then there’s Texas. As IF they would even become part of Mexico, remember they have been screaming about their own independence for years. To expect Texas to submit to Mexico? Talk about the start of a new MX-TX war….
And Ohio being part of the same “country” as Montana? Sha… right! Maybe part of the NE but not the Midwest.
I wonder what Sarah Palin would have to say about Russia taking back Alaska. NYET?
Perhaps Panarin got hold of some bootlegged Vodka, and is suffering from a permanent case of the DTs….. and his years with the KGB and communist ways are showing. And he’s trying to shed light on the US failing, while trying to minimize the fact that Russia’s own economy is in failure with his “Nothing to see here, move along and look at the US falling apart” story. Sorry, no “Red Dawn” fantasy here.
But ultimately, I think Panarian has been watching reruns of Jericho lately, where nuclear detonations around the US spirals the country into division, with one country based in Cheyenne, WY and the other in TX.
And so it begins… unfortunately it is because of the following that makes an innocent bystander start to have to choose sides.
And the organization that seems to be organizing most of these protests is A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now To Stop War and End Terrorism).
This US-based anti-war organization, was formed three days after 9/11) organized the demonstration. The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab American and Al-Awda, International Palestine Right to Return Coalition are calling for Tuesday (today) to be a National Day of Action to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. Demonstrations are being organized, for TODAY, all over the country via ANSWER in over FIFTY different cities [and luckily none in my state].
What I find interesting in all of this is that if A.N.S.W.E.R. is really an anti-terrorism organization, they why are they not protesting Hamas, who are the real terrorists? Why are they calling Israel the terrorists?
And if they are a true anti-war organization, they why are they not protesting against both Hamas and Israel, but instead choosing to only protest against Israel?
Oh wait, all of their protests have been pro-Palestinian or pro-Muslim, and have frequently supported Hezbollah and Hamas. They also support rights and unconditional amnesty for illegal immigrants. “Several anti-war protests in San Francisco organized by the ANSWER Coalition featured imagery and slogans some considered anti-Semitic, including the burning of the Israeli flag, chants of support for terrorist groups like Hazbollah and Nazi-like arm salutes.” ANSWER’s defense? “We strongly abhor all forms of racism and bigotry, including anti-Semitism. At the same time, we don’t believe that criticism of Israeli government policies should be labeled as anti-Semitism any more than criticism of U.S. government policy should be labeled as anti-American.” [Yea, but when I’m not happy with what the US government is doing, I don’t burn the American flag, or try to turn it into a NWO thing.]
And ANSWER was founded by USAG Ramsey Clark and the Workers World Party (WWP). Many of ANSWER’s leaders are member of the WWP and members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). Oh and they sell Che t-shirts on their website. For a more interesting viewpoint on ANSWER, have a look at Protest Warrior’s website of “Operation Wolverines” against ANSWER.
A group of about 200 protesters yelled “end the occupation” and held signs calling for a halt to the bombings in Gaza outside the Texas Capitol. Some had Palestinian flags and signs that read “free Palestine” or “Cease Fire.”
“It’s genocide. It’s a holocaust,” said “Frank from Arlington” about Israel’s police in the occupied territories. “I don’t say that to diminish the horror of the holocaust, but that’s what they’re doing.”
Over 100 people from the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights and several other human rights and pro-Palestinian organizations held a protest. Organizers say more protests are to follow later this week.
In NYC, over a thousand protestors flooded Rockefeller Center in Manhattan on the 28th. The protestors chanted “Free Free Palestine” and “While you’re shopping bombs are dropping.”
Pro-Israel groups organized a rally in support outside the Isreali consulate in Midtown and dropped leaflets calling on Hamas to adhere to a cease-fire. The group “Stand With Us” said “Hamas and its supporters bear sole responsibility for any harm to Gaza’s civilians.”
About 75 people gathered at Monument Circle on Monday evening to protest Israel airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The demonstration, which was pulled together at the last minute by word of mouth, included Palestinian-Americans marching around the Circle holding candles and signs. One read, “Mothers are grieving in Palestine and Israel.” Another was scrawled with the words, “300+ dead? Not kosher.”
Bashar Ghanem, 32, a heating and cooling technician said he immigrated to Indianapolis from Nablus six years ago and is now a U.S. citizen. “The war is not equal,” he said. “Israel’s army has all kinds of high-tech weapons.” [But it was fair when Hamas was sending daily rockets and mortars into Israel? And who said war was fair?]
Anas Al-Marouq, 22, a student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indy who lived in Hebron from ages 12 to 17 said, “A lot of people say if Hamas wasn’t firing rockets as Israel, this wouldn’t have happened, and it’s true, but if there wasn’t a huge embargo on Gaza, there wouldn’t be a huge resistance. You can only trap a cat in the corner so long until it starts fighting for itself.” [But if the dog (Israel) fights back at the cat(Hamas), then it’s wrong, right?]
A “few hundred” demonstrators tied up Market Street traffic in San Francisco. Organizer Lubna Morrar said, “We are just representing our people of the Gaza who have been bombed every day,” she said.
The Arab Organizing and Resource Center held a protest speaking of the “connections between Palestinian and other indigenous struggles against genocide as well as the complicity of US taxpayers in the atrocity.”
AROUND THE WORLD
Just a small sampling from around the world.
In Sydney, Australia today, Pro-Palestine protests brought the city to a standstill, as more than 1000 Arab Australians marked on the US Consulate in an anti-Israel, anti-US rally.
In Beirut, Lebanon, tens of thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah supporters were involved in a protest carrying Palestinian, Lebanese and yellow Hezbollah flags and banners supporting the Palestinian people. Hezbollah has vowed to support Hamas, but has for now held its fire.
In London, England, about 2,000 protestors marched outside the Israeli embassy. Protestors threw red liquids at the gate of the Israeli embassy.
In Vancouver, Canada, about 250 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were chanting “Viva, viva intifada!” and “1-2-3-4, we don’t want this racist war!” and “Occupation is a crime, from Iraq to Palestine.” Meanwhile across the street 8 pro-Israel demonstrators shouted “Hamas is a terrorist organization” and waved the Israeli flag.
In Barcelona, Span, “hundreds of people” protested with a Palestinian banner in front of the Israel-Spain chamber of commerce, demanding the government of Catalonia region end its trade agreements with Israel. Some carried placards reading “genocide” and “racist”. The protest followed a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy.
In Baghdad, Iraq about 1,000 protestors chanted “No, no to Israel” and burned Israeli and American flags.
In Switzerland, there was a protest, however I can not find the number attended or even a news article about it.
RANT ON
First, one Gaza official is saying that the Palestinian death toll is at 364. Of that, the U.N. is saying around 62 of the dead were civilians. That means over 300 terrorists were killed. Yes, you read that right, terrorists. Hamas is not a government. Hamas is not an army. Hamas is not a country. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They are a group of militia acting like terrorists who self imposed their own rule. And as I have said before, those who choose to live in the Gaza Strip under their rule obviously agree with what they are doing, thus the residents of Gaza are terrorist supporters. It would seem that the “innocent civilians” would greatly outnumber Hamas. It is a war on terrorism in an area that holds 1.5 million people.
I find it interesting that when Hamas was sending rockets and mortars over to Israel on a daily basis, killing innocent civilians on nearly a daily basis for years, that the Palestinians around the world never EVER said that it should stop, that it was wrong. I never EVER heard one Palestinian cry for the rights of the Israeli children. Especially when fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. But when their children are killed, its a totally different situation, right? Its genocide then.
And if you think all those people that live in Gaza are against Hamas… have a look at the below video. This video was shot on December 14th, of this year at a celebration marking Hamas’ 21 year anniversary.
And I haven’t heard ONE Palestinian talk about how WRONG it was on Christmas Day when Hamas lobbed a mortar at the Erez crossing just as a group of Gaza Christians were standing in line to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.
Or what about all the years of suicide bombings, which one included a school bus?
Or what about on Monday when Hamas sent a missile into a bus station at Ashdod?
Can you imagine living like this on a day to day basis in Israel? “It’s totally disrupting life. Here you have 15-20 seconds to prepare, to get cover. It’s so disruptive to the lives of the people who are living within the rage … and it’s a daily thing … People send their kids to school and they don’t know if they’re gonna come back.” Tell me, how would you feel if you have to live like this on a daily basis? How would you feel if you walked out the door that day, not knowing if you would ever see your family alive again? EVERY DAY? Or how would you feel if you knew that at any moment, everything you own could be destroyed by a rocket. And how well would you sleep at night knowing that at any time a rocket could drop on your home? I’m pretty sure that you get mad right now, if your neighbor throws trash in your yard, right? And what would you think if Tijuana started lobbing a few rockets across the border to the United States to San Diego on a daily basis. Or if Canada started thrown a few mortars across the border to Albany, NY? Exactly how long would that last?
Now that Israel has had enough, and decided to eradicate the terrorists, they are wrong, and are in violation of International Law? How can you be in violation of International Law when you attack terrorists and their supporters? Whine, whine, whine. Now that you are on the losing end, you claim FOUL and want fair play. Sorry.. too late for that. Now Hamas and those living in Gaza, whose number is obviously rather high, now get a taste of what they have been handing out.. and they don’t like it. Too bad.
But Hamas also wants to eradicate Jews all in the name of Allah. Hamas has previously claimed all of what is now Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, and its charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Until Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist, this “war” will NEVER END.
But it seems that the “fight” has come to the United States. Prior to this incident I wrote about Israeli and Palestinian “skirmishes” and “disagreements” in my “Israeli and Palestinian Violence on UC Berkeley Campus” back in mid November. And just like in the current news, back then, and for the past 10 years, if Palestinian students picked on Israeli students it was ignored or okay. But when Israeli students fought back, it was a “bad thing” and a “wrong thing”. Why is it that the world only reacts when Israel fights back, but never when Hamas attacks Israel?
I refuse to take sides however, if Israelis and Palestinians bring their demonstrations and violence into my neighborhood, I will choose the side of the Israelis. And no I am not Jewish, nor am I Muslim. Heck, I’m not even Christian, if you really want to know. But I have MAJOR problems with the innocent are picked on and wrongly accused. I’m not saying that Israel is innocent in all of this, I’m simply saying that I don’t like bullies who claim they are the victim.
If you really want someone to protest, protest Egypt who’s border guards are opening fire on those same innocent civilians who are trying to escape Gaza, and it has been reported that some Palestinians have been injured as a rest. Egypt has added an additional 300 guards to the border. And President Mubarak said that Egypt will keep its border crossings with Gaza closed until Abbas regains authority over the territory. Why not protest a country that is keeping those who wish to flee the fighting stuck in their country? But no, lets point fingers at Israel and the United States instead, right? And lets not point fingers at Hamas, who wants to eradicate the Jews, and has in the past, for years, sent daily rocket barrages across the border into Israel, right? Let’s just blame Israel instead.
Or we could always discuss the new news, about Hamas bringing back Crucifixion. Did you know that Hamas “legislators” passed a Shari’a criminal code for the Palestine Authority, which authorizes crucifixion? The Quran says, “5:33 Those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot or banishment from the land: a disgrace for them in this world, and then a terrible punishment in the Hereafter.”
Yea, that’s REAL progress. A REAL step… a real step backwards that is. I have bars of “Give Me That Old Time Religion” going through my head now…
Seriously, what does Hamas do? Sit around on a Saturday night saying, “Hey, I’m bored. Let’s go have some fun, fire a few rockets over to Israel, and kill a few people.” Then afterwards do they say to each other, “Let’s go see what we can do next to make ourselves even more barbaric! Stoning, hanging, beheading and burning is just so last year….” To blaspheme a line from the Bible: “Do NOT forgive them, Father, for they know PERFECTLY well what they do.”
HOWEVER, there is the old saying of “overkill”. There is a point when you have to say “enough”! Israel has said no to a cease fire, and Hamas continues to send rockets back across to Israel. Hamas needs to realize that Israel could totally destroy Gaza if they want, and Israel should really realize that there is such a thing as overkill, and not try genocide. But will either of them realize this? Probably not.
And with everyone hating and protesting the United States along with Israel, joining the side of terrorists pretty much in every Arab nation, let us hope this does NOT start a world war, especially with a new President in office. Or is this what Biden was saying, when he said that Obama will be tested within the first six months of his Presidency? Could this push the United States into Martial Law with all the protesting going on, and possible violence between Palestinian and Israelis? Between Muslims and Jews? No, Im not a conspiracy person, as I have said and shown however, lets take a step back and look at the entire picture.
- The US is in a recession, and depression in certain areas. - Unemployment is at a 26 year high, and reaching depression numbers in certain areas. - Wall Street failing, 401ks disappearing overnight. - Banks getting a bailout, yet monthly mortgage payments rise. - Record levels of foreclosures. - More homeless. - States running out of money, asking Washington for help. - The Big 2 bailout, and deciding in Feb/March if they are solvent. - States cutting back on health care. - A war in Iraq. - A war in Afghanistan.
I’m sure I’ve missed something, but can you come up with any other time in history when all of this is going on with the United States and the world?
Gee good thing we have about a three month stockpile of food, that could be pushed to about 4 months, and it’s pretty portable too. Just time to start stocking up on water now.
It’s interesting how the MSM (main stream media) isn’t picking up on this one, but then again, Kennedy saying “you know” 140 times is just so important. And I wonder why Amnesty International or the U.N. hasn’t talked about this one.
Caroline Glick, in her Jerusalem Post, mentions about a newly passed law, thanks to Hamas.
Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.
On Tuesday [Christmas Eve], Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari’a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.
Hamas’s endorsements of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad.
The new Sharia-based bill still requires the signature of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before being passed into law.
HAMAS DENIES CLAIM
In another article, Hamas quickly denied this week’s disclosure by the London-based Al-Hayat (who in the past, has nearly always been right on the news they report), that the Palestinian legislature has voted for an Islamic penal code that would include hand amputations, crucifixions, lashes and executions.
Palestinian Media Watch however, learned that official Hamas leaders have proudly announced in the Hamas-run media in the last two months that this Islamic penal code was being prepared, had “14 chapters and 220 clauses” and was nearly ready. Hamas leaders went as far as to say that when these laws are implemented, they will have force not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank.
Today Hamas denied: “The [Legislative] Council did not discuss any article of the Penal Code.” [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]
A month ago the Hamas Minister of Justice confirmed: “This (Islamic law Penal) Code is being discussed at the sessions of the [Palestinian] Legislative Council, for a second reading.” [Al-Rissala (Hamas), Nov. 12, 2008]
Today Hamas denied: “The Hamas movement… hastened to deny the reports about its approval of an Islamic Penal Code.” [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]
A month ago, the Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law confirmed: “The Bureau of Islamic Law is preparing a Penal Code in order to implement Sharia – Islamic law… Muhammed Abed, Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law and legal advisor to the Prime Minister (Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas), said … that the code includes 14 chapters and 220 clauses, and includes in its chapters the basis of the penal code.” [ Al-Rissala, (Hamas) Nov. 9, 2008.]
A month ago the Hamas Minister of Justice confirmed: “Similar (Penal codes to the new Palestinian law) have already been implemented in a number of Arabic and Islamic states such as Sudan, Yemen, the [Arab] Emirates and Indonesia… by Allah’s will it will be published soon.” [Al-Rissala (Hamas), Nov. 12, 2008]
The following are the full texts of the contradictory Hamas statements, starting with the Hamas statements about the coming Islamic law in the Palestinian Authority and followed by today's Hamas denial.
Muhammad Faraj Al-Ghoul, Justice Minister in Hamas Government of Gaza,
"This (Islamic law Penal) code is being discussed at the sessions of the [Palestinian] Legislative Council, for a second reading [vote] ... and by Allah's will, the Council will approve [the code] in accordance with the general interest and the interest of the Palestinian People. The code is highly important, and it's not the first of its kind... similar codes have already been approved , and implemented in a number of Arabic and Islamic states such as Sudan, Yemen, the [Arab] Emirates and Indonesia... I believe that this code is highly important, and by Allah's will it will be published soon." [Al-Rissala, Nov. 12, 2008]
Headline: The Bureau of Islamic Law is preparing a Penal Code in order to implement Sharia - Islamic law
In an attempt by the Bureau of the Islamic Law [Fatwa] to unite Palestine under one Penal Code, according to Islamic law (Sharia), the Bureau of Islamic Law [Fatwa] has prepared a [penal] code, with the intention to submit it to the [Palestinian] Legislative Council for its approval, and to cancel previous legislation that is based on the laws of the British mandate, and the neighboring countries.
Muhammad Abed, Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law and legal advisor to the Prime Minister (Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas), said ... that the code includes 14 chapters and 220 clauses, and includes in its chapters the basis of the penal code...
He said that in implementing this law, the present penal code in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank... will be cancelled... he said that the bill was submitted to the Legislative Council in 2001, but it was not approved in the second and third reading, and therefore some amendments were entered, according to the Islamic law, and it will be submitted to the Legislative Council for approval.
He emphasized that when the law is approved in the Legislative Council, it will be valid in all the Palestinian territories, and will be implemented in all of Palestine." [Al-Rissala, (Hamas newspaper) Nov. 9, 2008.]
Public Relations advisor to the Presidency, Legislative Council
HEADLINE: "Hamas denies its approval of the penal law...
The Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, hastened to deny the news reports about its approval of an Islamic Penal Code that includes lashes, hand amputation and crucifixion. The public relations advisor to the Presidency of the Legislative Council, Iyad Al-Qarra, said that the council did not discuss any article of the Penal Code." [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]
SHARI’A
Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means “way” or “path to the water source”; it is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence and for Muslims living outside the domain. Sharia deals with many aspects of day-to-day life, including politics, economics, baking, business, contracts, family, sexuality, hygiene, and social issues.
Crucifixion in the Qur’an
The Qur’an mentions crucifixion several times. In Surah 7:124, Firaun (Arabic for Pharaoh) says that he will crucify his chief wizards. A
Also, Surah 12:41 mentions Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) saying that the king (the current ruler of the land he was stranded in) would crucify one of his prisoners.
‘And the wizards fell down prostrate, crying: “We believe in the Lord of the Worlds, The Lord of Musa and Harun”. Firaun said: “Ye believe in Him before I give you leave! Lo! this is the plot that ye have plotted in the city that ye may drive its people hence. But ye shall come to know! Surely I shall have your hands and feet cut off upon alternate sides. Then I shall crucify you every one.”’ - Surah 7:12-124
‘O my two fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, he will pour out wine for his lord to drink; and as for the other, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head. Thus is the case judged concerning which ye did inquire.’ – Surah 12:1
In Surah 5:33, the Qur’an mentions crucifixion as a form of punishment for those who fight Allah and his messenger.
‘The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” – Surah 5:33 Because of this verse in the Qur’an, crucifixion is still one of the Hadd punishments in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran’s Islamic Criminal Law, Article 195)[33]
The language of the law proposes “primary and secondary” laws. Primary laws include: “Koranic laws, blood revenge, lashes, crucifixion, and execution…” The text stresses: “These punishments will not be cancelled or pardoned … except if pardoned by the victim himself.”
Article 59 of the draft stipulates that “punishment of death will be enacted on any Palestinian who intentionally does one of the following: Raised a weapon against Palestine on behalf of the enemy during war, was appointed to negotiate with a foreign government on a Palestinian issue and negotiated against Palestinians' interest, performed a hostile action against a foreign country in a way that endangers Palestine in war or in harming political relations, served a foreign army in time of war, advised or helped soldiers to enlist in this army, weakened the spirit or the force of resistance of the people, or spied against Palestine especially during war."
Article 84 stipulates that “all who drinks wine, owns or produces wine are subject to 40 lashes if he is a Muslim … and those who drink in public or angers another person [with wine], or causes him distress when drinking wine in a public place, or goes to a place while drunks [public intoxication] will be punished no less than 40 lashes and imprisoned for at least three months.
OLD LAW
While the Palestinian Authority today operates under a set of largely secular laws, it does regularly mete out the death penalty to those who aid Israel in its war on terror. Under an old Jordanian law still in effect, selling land to Jews is also currently punishable by death.
Sometimes we get so wrapped in in what’s happening on Earth, that we forget that we are just a small tiny speck in the entire universe. And that there are much bigger things going out “out there”.
Time for something really worth reading about and that is V838 Monocerotis. You say you’ve never heard of it? Well, you probably haven’t, unless you are a serious astronomer, although you may recognize the picture.
Some of you who are conspiracists, will say this is Nibiru or Planet X, a planet that is coming towards us and will impact the earth in 2012, ending all life. Sorry, not a planet, but it is a star, however, it’s not moving towards us. And Nibiru is suppose to be a brown dwarf star…this is said to be a red giant star. If there is a Nibiru, this isn’t it. [And no don’t leave me links of the supposed Nibiru shots taken from Antarctica, those have been debunked as fake.] And this post didn’t start out as a conspiracy debunker if you will, but hey, while I’m on the topic, why not?
V838 is a star, a variable star to be exact. This means that it’s apparent brightness as seen from Earth changes over time for various reasons. Its located about 20,000 light years from our Sun, and something strange has happened to it starting in early 2002.
The picture above is actually a 1651x1651 HD picture of the star. It’s really something to look at.
Originally, it was believed to be a typical nova eruption. A nova eruption is a nuclear explosion caused by accretion of hydrogen onto the surface of a white dwarf star.
However, over time, it was then realized to be something completely different. Usually during a nova, a star ejects its outer layers and a hot core is exposed and the star dims. This is not what ultimately happened.
V838 did start to dim, as expected however, then the star began to brighten again and ultimately returned to its original brightness and then brightened to 600,000 times its initial intensity and briefly outshown all others in the Milky Way Galaxy.
What is additionally odd about it, is that it isn’t hot and eruptive in the manner of a supernova or nova. Instead, it remains cool at its surface, in comparison to others in the “star world”.
And the reason or understanding for the outburst is still unknown. There are some theories to what happened, including “planet swallowing”, but the truth is, no one knows.
The planet itself suddenly grew so large that if placed in the center of our solar system, it would engulf Jupiter.
What you see above is a time sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images of the light echo around V838 Mon, taken between May 2002 and October 2004. In these pictures, V838 grows from 4 to 7 light-years. Dust is expanding at 223,700 mph.
What you see above here are a continuation of the evolution of the light echo around the star. These were taken in 2005 and 2006. The picture above can be viewed in a 1280x905 size. Larger sizes are available on the European Homepage for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Below is an animation of the morph between a number of Hubble images, showing the light echoes expanding around the stars. It’s pretty incredible.
Just as a comparison of size, below is a famous image. In the picture you will see a very pale blue dot towards to top in a tan beam. This dot is the Earth, a picture taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 from 4 billion miles away (about 6 light-hours). In the infamous words of Carl Sagan,
“That’s here. That’s our home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
And just in another comparison of size, the image below is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Starting in late 2003, astronomers pointed Hubble at a tiny, relatively empty part of our sky, and created an exposure nearly 12 days long over a four-month period. This is the result. At least ten thousand galaxies are in this picture that range from 1 to 13 billion light-years away from earth. To put this all in perspective, the tip of a pen is about 1 millimeter wide, and at arm’s length pointed towards the night sky, it would cover the 10,000 galaxies seen in the Ultra Deep Field. Yet we as a civilization seem to think we are the best, brightest, smartest and only people in the entire universe. Are we as a civilization, based upon our history, really befitting of being held in that high regard or ourselves?
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