Eye On The World

Eye On The World has moved

2012-01-29T13:06:00.000-05:00

We have moved to the new address: http://the-eyeontheworld.blogspot.com/

11 Boko Haram gunmen killed in shoot-out with Nigerian army

2012-01-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

(Nigeria) In the lawless northern half of Nigeria 'Boko Haram' who having lost the income of extortion that the previous governor of Kano state used to pay them, have set about terrorising the new governor (and a few others) to fund their religious minded inquisition , which is why in the past month over 1000 people have been murdered to the utterance of 'Allah Ackba'.

The Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has called for open dialogue with the group to end the fighting but in reply Allah's favourite murderers in Nigeria have stipulated that they won't stop killing until they rule all the country and have installed 'Sharia law' on the southern Christian states.

Well with the declaration of religious war, what else can you do but send in the troops in which to hunt down and eradicate those who justify murder based primarily on the religious affiliation of the person you want to murder.

Well, at a road block in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, armed Boko Haram found themselves been asked to explain why they were armed for Jihad and in the shoot out that followed , 11 holy warriors got their wish in which to descend to hell and become gay virgins for their unholy cause.

Pakistani herdsmen shot dead by Iranian troops

2012-01-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

(Iran) It appears that all this nuclear brinkmanship is making the Iranians jumpy and trigger happy.Which is why on the Iranian/Pakistani border , Herdsmen doing what they have been doing for thousands of years crossing borders in which to move their stock about were shot at by Allah's finest murderers. 6 dead and 2 injured herders later and the Mullah's in Tehran appear to have offended another Islamic country, yet again.

What makes this even more damning for Tehran is this transpired weeks after Iranian police chased Pakistani nationals into Pakistan and shot one of dead inside Pakistan.

Latest US Drone takes to the skies.

2012-01-28T14:26:00.000-05:00

(US) Even with the news that a jet powered UAV has fallen into the hands of the Iranians (I wonder what Russia and China are offering Iran for a look at the tech it holds?) The UAV program continues at breathtaking speed in the US. While everybody else's latest models all sport propellers , the US moving up a notch have moved into the jet age. The Army and Airforce have been main movers into the UAV age, however the Navy (for obvious reasons) have held back, but that doesn't mean the boys in blue have sat on their backsides and done nothing.

What the Navy asked for is a self autonomous vehicle that could be sent away to attack a target without recourse to a backseat driver sat thousands of miles away in the US and what they have picked as their weapon of choice is the Northrop Grumman X45B With a range of over 2000 miles, stealth capable and able to refuel in midair the US Navy appear to have a formidable strike asset on their hands. Well the second kite was delivered the other month which will enable the Navy to carry out flight testing for the next 12 months with an aim of an actual hands off carrier landing sometime next year. Here are a few of photos of the X-45B.

And here is a short video:

Nigeria's Boko Haram come clean over their terrorist agenda

2012-01-27T21:04:00.002-05:00

(Abuja) The recent murderous campaign carried out by the Nigerian terrorist outfit Boko Haram has in the past month claimed over 1,000 lives. Boko Haram claim they are defending the honour of Nigerian Muslims who are persecuted by the police, they are avenging the hundreds of Muslims killed by the police, and of course they are taking revenge for all the mosques and Islamic schools destroyed by the police. The thing is, none of those events have taken place. Yes, Muslims have died, but if looked at in a clear light, we find that actually the silly sods who died, did so while attacking police stations or military bases.

The other day, I wrote how this isn't about defending Islamic honour but rather plain and simple extortion. Well, what do you know, Boko Haram have given an interview to the British newspaper Guardian and they explain that actually they won't stop until the whole of Nigeria is under the sharia law. The thing is, Nigeria is split in half by religion, the top half is Islamic and the bottom half is Christian. The top half of the country is run under sharia law, it is also the poorest half not only in wealth but in education and in health. Can anybody else see the link here?

Well, like all cancers, the Islamists need new ground in which to grow, and seeing as they have done a pretty good job of killing off all the fun in the north, they wish to take over the south and work their magic there.

Interestingly, Allah's favourite terrorists can't see how living under sharia law has ruined the lot of the north, and in true Islamic fashion blame the south for the reason they are so poor. Even more interestingly, the very same Islamic terrorists who have told all Christians to leave Islamic lands or die, have stated that Christians have nothing to fear living over sharia law. I quote:

But Qaqa said the rights of the country's 70 million Christians, who represent half of Nigeria's population, "would be protected" under the group's envisioned Islamic state. "Even the prophet Mohammed lived with non-Muslims and he gave them their dues."

This was followed by:

"Everyone must abide by sharia law: "There are no exceptions. Even if you are a Muslim and you don't abide by sharia, we will kill you. Even if you are my own father, we will kill you."

So much for protecting non-Muslims then. And people still try to tell me Islam is a religion of peace.

"Iranian Soldiers" captured in Syria by rebels

2012-01-27T20:00:00.001-05:00

(Homs) Rebels who defected from the Syrian army and formed the military arm of the protesting civilian Syrian populace (the Free Syrian Army (FSA)) have aired video of men they claim to be captured Iranian troops whom they say were supporting the Assad regime in clamping down on the Syrian democracy movement.

The video released by the FSA fighters purports to show five captured Iranians and their identity cards, which allegedly reveal that they are part of Iran's security forces. The defected troops say the other two hostages are civilians. As is the way of Islamic TV confessions, the captured men aired their guilt for all the world to hear:

Haider Ali, one of the hostages, said in the video: "I am a member of the revolutionary armed forces of Iran. I am leader of a five-member special team. I entered Syria on October 16, 2011. The others entered Syria on different dates. He continued: "I and my team members, with the support of Syrian security-intelligence forces, were involved in suppressing and shooting ordinary Syrians. We killed a lot of people, including women and children, in the city of Homs.

Europeans Increasingly Converting to Islam

2012-01-27T16:30:00.001-05:00

I can scarcely imagine the stupidity of that.

From Hudson New York:

Irish actor Liam Neeson says he is thinking about becoming a Muslim after undergoing a spiritual awakening in Turkey.

Neeson, who was born into a Roman Catholic family in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, told the London-based newspaper The Sun that he was impressed by the religious atmosphere in Istanbul while filming a movie in the city.

He said: "The [Islamic] call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing. There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim."

Neeson is just one of hundreds of thousands of Europeans who are trading their Christian heritage for the supposed exoticism of Islam. The surge in conversions is contributing to the mainstreaming of Islam in Europe and contributing to the Islamization of the continent.

In Britain, the number of Muslim converts recently passed the 100,000 mark, according to a survey conducted by an inter-faith group called Faith Matters. The survey revealed that nearly two thirds of the converts were women, more than 70% were white and the average age at conversion was just 27.

The survey, conducted by Kevin Brice from Swansea University in Wales, asked converts for their views on the negative aspects of British culture. They identified alcohol and drunkenness, a "lack of morality and sexual permissiveness" and "unrestrained consumerism."

More than one in four acknowledged there was a "natural conflict" between being a devout Muslim and living in Britain. Nine out of ten women converts said their change of religion had led to them dressing more conservatively. More than half started wearing a head scarf and 5% had worn the burka.

Separately, government authorities revealed that an increasing number of inmates at British prisons are converting to Islam. For example, one-third of the inmates at one of Britain's most notorious youth jails are Muslims and the religion is attracting a large number of converts.

There are 229 Muslims out of a total of 686 youngsters detained at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution in West London, according to Ministry of Justice figures. There are now so many worshippers at Friday prayers that they have to be split between Feltham's mosque and its gym.

Prison insiders say most non-Muslims are locked up during Friday prayers because so many guards are needed to monitor the lunchtime service. As a consequence, many disillusioned youngsters are becoming attracted to Islam by the prospect of getting better food and superior treatment at the prison.

One of the more prominent Britons to convert to Islam is Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Booth, who converted after feeling a "shot of spiritual morphine" on a trip to Iran, now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves her home and prays five times a day.

In France, an estimated 70,000 French citizens have converted to Islam in recent years, according to a report by France 3 public television. As in Britain, the majority of converts to Islam in France are young women who say they are disenchanted with materialism.

Conversions to Islam are also rife in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway (and here and here), Poland, Portugal and Spain.

In Italy, Ambassador Alfredo Maiolese, an Italian MP, recently became a Muslim and now dedicates his time trying to improving the image of Islam in the West. In Sweden, there are now at least 5,000 converts to Islam.
In Germany, at least 20,000 people have converted to Islam in recent years, according to a report by RTL television. Some of these converts are playing a growing role in jihad in Germany. In 2010, for example, two German converts to Islam who were found guilty of plotting to create what a judge called a "monstrous blood bath" by carrying out terrorist attacks against American targets in Germany.

"This trend has taken on a very threatening quality toward our security, and while not every convert is a potential terrorist, we are facing a sort of homegrown terrorism that has sprouted in our own backyard," according to Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Many European coverts to Islam on fact become vastly more pious than Muslims who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, are often easily led into extremism.

In Belgium, for example, Muriel Degauque, a woman from Charleroi and a convert to Islam, committed a suicide car bomb attack in November 2005 against American troops in Iraq. A bakery worker, Degaugue had married a Muslim man and quickly became radical in her religious views.

In Switzerland, young converts to Islam are a potential threat to the country's security, according to Alard du Bois-Reymond, who was head of the Swiss Migration Office until he was removed for his politically incorrect observations.

Du Bois-Reymond told the German-language newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that Swiss converts include people who want a "radically different society" and are "resistant to dialogue." He described the Central Islamic Council of Switzerland, which was founded and is run by Swiss converts to Islam, as "the most radical group in Switzerland."

Also in Switzerland, Daniel Streich, a former member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) who rose to fame for his campaign against the construction of minarets for mosques, converted to Islam. He now says Switzerland needs more mosques.

In Spain, at least 50,000 native Spaniards have converted to Islam in recent years, many of them women. Webislam.net, a Spanish-language website devoted to propagating Islam in Spain, recently published an article that encourages Spanish women to wed Muslim men. The article describes marriage to a Muslim this way: "Multiculturalism is a rewarding experience for all concerned."

Israel will have to strike

2012-01-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

(Ynet) Should Iran manage to produce a nuclear bomb before being attacked, it will serve as a mathematical proof that Israel merely threatens but doesn’t act on its threats. After that, we shall not be able to deter any other regional madman ever again. All the madmen will say to themselves that if Israel allowed Ahmadinejad to develop a bomb, the Jewish State will allow anything else.

What’s worse: The madmen in Tehran will be convinced that even after they drop the bomb on us, Israel will be too scared to respond by implementing the Dimona option.

After all, we shall always have excuses for why not to act. A day after the bomb, we shall face immense international pressure to refrain from dragging the world into a nuclear confrontation. Domestically too, we shall hear the hue and cry of numerous panic promoters. At this time already, they are preoccupied with the formulation of nightmare scenarios pertaining to the thousands of Hezbollah missiles that will be landing here should we strike in Iran.

Indeed, every hint of international sanctions on Iran is immediately enlisted to the cause and joins the arsenal of arguments against an Israeli preventative strike.

The oil embargo declared by Europe this past week will only be applied in six months, assuming it will ever be applied, yet in Israel we already see the fans of inaction raising their heads. Strangely enough, they fear Nasrallah’s missiles more than they fear Ahmadinejad’s nuclear industries.

IDF can do it

Indeed, Nasrallah has many missiles, and so does Ismail Haniyeh, yet woe is on us if we allow them to determine the fate of an Iran strike. These missiles may explode here should the United States strike instead of Israel, yet they may also explode even if there is no strike. In any case, they are much less dangerous than the apocalyptic image attributed to them.

We shall apparently sustain some painful barrages, yet it will not constitute a grave blow, or even a semi-grave one. The residents of Sderot and Nahariya learned to live with missiles, and Central Israel residents will also have to suffer a little. Given the nuclear alternative, it won’t be a terrible disaster.

We can assume that Army Chief Benny Gantz and his people have already prepared for dealing with the Lebanon missile threat. It is less complex than the Iranian threat, and according to foreign sources the IDF is capable of coping with them simultaneously. After all, this was the purpose of establishing our military some 64 years ago. Our founding fathers prepared for precisely these types of scenarios when they vowed that Masada won’t fall again.

The Zionist enterprise is not an insurance policy against long-range rocket attacks, yet it is supposed to insure us against anti-Semitic rulers with nuclear hobbies. If President Barack Obama volunteers to act instead of us, that would be great. Yet should he fail to volunteer, we’ll have to act on our own.

Syria: Government forces killed 37 people, UN Security Council to meet

2012-01-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

Why bother? As long as Russia and China exercise their veto power, it's pointless.

Demonstrators step on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's poster during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Homs January 27, 2012. (Reuters Pictures)

AMMAN (Reuters) - Security forces killed 37 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks in a revolt against President Bashar Assad.

The UN Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss Syria before a possible vote next week on a new Western-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting 10 months of bloodshed.

Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the Western-Arab version was unacceptable and vowed to block any text calling for Assad's resignation.

There was no let-up in violence on Friday, when anti-Assad protests again erupted after weekly Muslim prayers.

Tank and mortar fire killed 15 people in Hama, a resident said, on the fourth day of an army assault on rebellious districts of the city, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, killing many thousands.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 22 people killed elsewhere in Syria, including 12 when security forces fired on a funeral march in the southern town of Nowa, five in the normally peaceful city of Aleppo, and four in Homs.

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NYPD: 16 kg of cocaine sent from Mexico in fake diplomatic pouch seized at UN headquarters

2012-01-27T12:47:00.000-05:00

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A shipment containing 16 kilograms of cocaine was seized last week at the U.N.'s mail intake center, a New York Police Department spokesman said Thursday.

Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, said the drug was in a white bag evidently masquerading as a diplomatic pouch that raised suspicions when it was being scanned because it was stamped with what looked like a poorly concocted version of the U.N. logo.

Browne said there was no name or address on the shipment sent from Mexico City through Cincinnati.

U.N. security officials called the NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed the substance inside the shipment intercepted Jan. 16 was cocaine, the police spokesman said.

U.N. undersecretary-general for safety and security Gregory B. Starr told reporters Thursday evening that "there is nothing to indicate that this had anything to do with anybody at the United Nations."

Starr said the drug was actually stashed in two bags that were stamped with the sky-blue U.N. logo of a world map in an apparent effort to masquerade as diplomatic pouches, which are not supposed to be inspected. Inside the bag, the drug was hidden in hollowed-out notebooks, he added.

The U.N. official showed journalists a photograph of the bags that were seized, and compared them with a real diplomatic pouch used by the U.N., which is somewhat larger and made of a different material.

"This did not come from a United Nations facility," Starr said of the shipment. "It was not, in my opinion, not intended to go to a United Nations facility."

And what do you know? It was "accidentally delivered to the UN's New York headquarters after apparently getting lost in the post."

(Telegraph) The drugs, worth around $2 million, were hidden in hollowed-out books inside of bags that carried the global body's famous blue emblem.

Police said the sacks were shipped from Mexico but that when parcel sorters in Ohio were unable to find an address on them they simply forwarded them to the UN.

"It is my understanding that because there was no addressee, the DHL just thought well that's the UN symbol so we should ship it on to UN headquarters and let them figure out who it was supposed to go to," New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told AFP.

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Buffett's Secretary Qualifies for Obama Tax Hike

2012-01-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

(NYP) As stage props go, $200,000 is pretty pricey. But that’s the low end of how much Warren Buffett’s secretary earns in a year, based on IRS tax tables and the information she’s made public.

Still less than her billionaire boss, but still. Can anyone fail to see the irony of President Obama inviting Debbie Bosanek to sit by his wife for his State of the Union Address to use her as an example of tax unfairness, when the Buffett aide likely earns enough to put a bullseye on her back for the tax hikes Obama has long called for on higher earners?

Bosanek and Buffett have told us that he pays federal taxes (mainly on capital gains) at a rate of 17.4 percent, and that she’s taxed (presumably on normal income) at a higher rate. But IRS tax tables from 2009, the most recent year available, show an average federal tax rate of just 12 percent for taxpayers in the $100,000 to $200,000 bracket, rising to 19 percent for people with adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000.

So Debbie Bosanek probably is in that $200,000 to $500,000 bracket.

If this is accurate — neither Buffett nor Bosanek has released their tax returns, but only given us a few facts meant to flesh out his claim that she pays a higher rate — she may even be part of the infamous 1 percent. In 2009, that required an adjusted gross income of $343,947.

Adjusted gross income. That’s important. Adjusted gross income is what a person is taxed on after deductions for things like the personal exemption, mortgage-interest payments, qualifying tax credits, etc. So it’s possible her raw salary is even higher.

While running for president and since taking office, Obama has been calling for higher taxes on upper-income earners. He’s been all over the map on that, sometimes saying on the campaign trail he meant millionaires but generally backing legislation that would hike taxes on earnings starting in the $200,000 to $250,000 range.

I have a feeling Buffett and Bosanek are all over the map on their tax-rate claims, too.

ABC News this week used tax information selectively supplied to them by Buffett and Bosanek to make the case for how unfair the nation’s tax system is. It reported, “Bosanek pays a tax rate of 35.8 percent of income, while Buffett pays a rate at 17.4 percent.”

I don’t know how that’s possible, as the maximum federal income-tax rate is 35 percent. The average tax rate for the top 1 percent of earners was 24.01 percent in 2009, according to the IRS. And we’ve been talking about income taxes, have we not?

Or perhaps not. Maybe they’re including her payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. But that applies only to income below $106,800; there’s no payroll tax on earnings above that level.

Then there’s the Buffett tax-rate claim of 17.4 percent. Is that his marginal rate — the rate on the last dollar of income earned — or his average tax rate? The maximum tax rate applies only to income that exceeds the threshold for that rate to be imposed. Income below that threshold is taxed at lower rates.

There’s no way to tell what Buffett and Bosanek are talking about when they make their tax-rate claims.

I have a feeling they’re being mendacious. For Bosanek they are giving us her marginal tax rate, and for Buffett they are giving us the blended average rate.

But this is just a guess, as neither one has done the one thing that can clear all these questions up: release their tax returns.

Obama's Pentagon cuts to hit defense industry; Army, Marines to shrink as budget slows

2012-01-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

Defense is one of the few things mandated of the federal government in the Constitution.

Yet it's the first thing they slashed despite the fact that the treasury is owed 25% (over $150 billion) of these cuts by bailed out companies, and they have another 10% (of the military cuts - $50 billion) stashed away in the TARP funds unused.

(WaPo) The budget cuts the Pentagon proposed Thursday stand to hit nearly every part of the defense industry, from makers of fighter jets and warships to providers of services such as information technology support.

Facing rising political pressure to trim spending, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta proposed cutting the budget by $487 billion over the next decade. He detailed the first five years of that plan, worth $259 billion in savings, in a Pentagon briefing Thursday afternoon.

If approved, the cuts would result in slower production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and fewer purchases of the new Littoral Combat Ship and the Joint High Speed Vessel. An Army combat vehicle initiative also would move more slowly than originally envisioned, in part because of contracting issues. [I'm sure this will generate a lot of jobs. -ed]

More...

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon outlined a plan Thursday for slowing the growth of military spending, including cutting the size of the Army and Marine Corps, retiring older planes and trimming war costs. It drew quick criticism from Republicans, signaling the difficulty of scaling back defense budgets in an election year.

The changes Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described at a news conference are numerous but hardly dramatic. They aim to save money by delaying some big-ticket weapons like a next-generation nuclear-armed submarine, but the basic shape and structure of the military remains the same.

The Army would shrink from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000 within five years, and the Marines would drop by 20,000, to 182,000. Those are considerable declines, but both services will still be slightly larger than on 9/11, before they began a decade of war. Both will keep their footholds abroad, although the Army will decrease its presence in Europe and the Marines plan to increase theirs in Asia.

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Gallup: Obama’s Approval Sinks Back to All-Time Low Among Blacks

2012-01-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

People are starting to wake up?

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama’s approval rating has fallen back to its all-time low among blacks, dropping below 80 percent for only the second time in his presidency, according to Gallup.

In the week of Jan. 16-22, 2012--a period that began with the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day--Obama’s approval among blacks dropped 8 points, from 87 percent to 79 percent. The president’s approval among blacks had previously dropped as low as 79 percent in the week of Oct. 10-16, 2011, according to Gallup.

Obama’s highest approval among blacks was 96 percent, a level he achieved in five different weeks of 2009.

Obama’s overall approval rating in the week of Jan. 16-22 was 45 percent, said Gallup.

Hilarious: Warren Buffet's 1%-er secretary is hauled out by Obama as a prop to represent the poor average working person

2012-01-26T19:56:00.001-05:00

Forbes: Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year.

Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the president’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss.

Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman? So far, no one has volunteered this information.

We can get an approximate answer by consulting IRS data on tax rates by adjusted gross income, which would approximate her salary, assuming she does not have significant dividend, interest or capital-gains income (like her boss). I assume Buffett keeps her too busy for her to hold a second job. I also do not know if she is married and filing jointly. If so, it is deceptive for Obama to use her as an example. The higher rate may be due to her husband’s income. So I assume the tax rate Obama refers to is from her own earnings.

Insofar as Buffett (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.

The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent. This is below Buffett’s rate; so she must earn more than that. Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent. Therefore Buffett must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand.

We must wait for further details to learn how much more than $200,000 she earns. The tax tables tell us about average ranges. For all we know she earns closer to a half million each year, but that is pure speculation.

I have nothing against Debbie Bosanke earning a half million or even more. Buffett is a major player in the world economy. His secretary deserves good compensation. At her income, however, she is scarcely the symbol of injustice that Obama wishes her to project.

I imagine that there are any number of secretaries who would want her job and her place in the Congress gallery for the President’s State of the Union address.

Israeli hacker team brings down Iranian websites

2012-01-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

English-language Iranian media outlet Press TV, Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education are hacked and taken offline, feature Israeli flag.

(JPost) Israeli hackers brought down Iran's Press TV website and two websites belonging to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education on Thursday.

The hackers, who call themselves "IDF Team," said their actions were a response to a series of attacks on Israeli sites the previous day.

Three additional Iranian sites were hacked and their servers altered to display an Israeli flag and anti-Arab text in English.

The website of Press TV, the Iranian regime's English-language satellite channel, was unavailable for a short period of time following the hackers' announcement.

"At 16:30 Israel Clock the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education website will be down until further notice. In addition to Iran's television network, broadcasting in English round-the-clock, based in Tehran that [is] called Press TV will be down until further notice," the hackers wrote in a message.

"Ahmadinejad what do you have to say about that?" they added.

The attack represents the latest chapter in an Internet feud that began at the start of the month when an Arab hacker published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers.

Earlier, IDF Team told The Jerusalem Post it was preparing a response after the websites of two Israeli hospitals - Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and the private Assouta hospital network - were taken offline on Wednesday.

IDF Team has played a pivotal part in Israeli counter-strikes on high-profile Arab websites following attacks by Arab hackers. They appear to have employed a combination of attacks to disable the Iranian websites on Thursday, by launching dedicated denial-of-service attacks (DDOS) attacks and breaking into Iranian servers.

On Wednesday, the Haaretz newspaper's Hebrew-language website was downed by pro-Palestinian hackers. Haaretz said it saw a message claiming responsibility for the attack by hackers calling themselves "Anonymous Palestine." The website of the financial newspaper The Marker was also unavailable on Wednesday.

Last week, Israeli hackers brought down the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency website and the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange site, in retaliation for a DDOS attack on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the El Al websites.

IRS report: 36 Obama aides owe $833,970 in back taxes

2012-01-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

Talk about paying, or rather not paying, their fair share.

(IBD) How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes.

Because how unfair -- indeed, un-American -- it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet's secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.
Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

The report finds that thousands of federal employees owe the country more than $3.4 billion in back taxes. That's up 3% in the past year.

That scale of delinquency could annoy voters, hard-pressed by their own costs, fears and stubbornly high unemployment despite Joe Biden's many promises.

The tax offenders include employees of the U.S. Senate who help write the laws imposed on everyone else. They owe $2.1 million. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million, Department of Education employees owe $4.3 million and over at Homeland Security, 4,697 workers owe about $37 million. Active duty military members owe more than $100 million.

The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent taxes totaling $9.3 million.

As usual, the Postal Service, with more than 600,000 workers, has the most offenders (25,640), who also owe the most -- almost $270 million. Veterans Affairs has 11,659 workers owing the IRS $151 million while the Energy Department that was so quick to dish out more than $500 million to the Solyndra folks has 322 employees owing $5 million.

The country's chief law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, has 2,069 employees who are nearly $17 million behind in taxes. Like Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently missed them too.

As with ordinary people, the IRS attempts to negotiate back-tax payment plans with all delinquents, whose names cannot be released. But according to current federal law, the only federal employees who can be fired for not paying taxes are IRS workers.

How the BBC promotes its left-wing stance as the NEWS

2012-01-26T08:12:00.001-05:00

(Australia) The world famous BBC, loved by people around the world for its impartial and honest reporting, especially when the BBC is used as the cornerstone to berate, say, FOX News. Well, for a while now, the BBC has been exposed as biased in its news coverage that actually promotes a left-wing agenda, and that FOX News is actually a paragon of honesty when compared to the BBC. Here's an example from today about the Australian PM.

Australian PM Julia Gillard and leader of the opposition Tony Abbott had to be rescued after becoming trapped by an angry protest, local media reports. About 50 police escorted the pair from Canberra's Lobby restaurant after it was surrounded by some 200 supporters of the city's Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Mr Abbott had reportedly angered them by suggesting it was time for the camp - marking its 40th year - to come down.

And here is what Mr Abbott actually said:

"Look, I can understand why the Tent Embassy was established all those years ago. I think a lot has changed for the better since then,"

We had the historic apology just a few years ago, one of the genuine achievements of Kevin Rudd as prime minister. We had the proposal which is currently for national consideration to recognise indigenous people in the constitution.

"I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian and yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that."

What is it about the inhabitants of tent cities to turn to violence, and what is it about the left-wing media to lie about that violence?

With Muslim Brotherhood consolidating power in Egypt, Obama decides to accelerate the pace of US aid to the country

2012-01-25T19:28:00.001-05:00

State Department official says Washington to provide "more immediate benefits" to Egyptians after elections.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - US President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt, a top State Department official said on Wednesday, as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from autocratic rule.

Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats, part of a US delegation that held unprecedented talks last week with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said Washington wanted to provide "more immediate benefits" to Egyptians, who earlier this month conducted their first democratic elections in decades.

"During this period, we want to be as supportive as we can. This is an historic moment. Egypt's a country of enormous importance," Hormats said.

Under the plan, some non-urgent US aid slated for other countries - he did not name them - would be redirected to Egypt. And funding in the pipeline for long-term programs in Egypt would be shifted to quick-impact projects, he said.

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Azerbaijan: Police foil Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli ambassador, prominent Jews

2012-01-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Police in Azerbaijan have foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Israel's ambassador and other prominent Jews in apparent revenge for the killing of nuclear scientists in Tehran, officials in the former Soviet state claimed.

(Telegraph) Three Azerbaijani nationals recruited by Iranian intelligence were supplied with a sniper rifle, explosives and money and told to kill Michael Lotem, the Israeli envoy to Baku, according to the country's internal affairs ministry.

Although Mr Lotem was the chief target of the conspiracy, the three men were also instructed to attack a Jewish religious school in the capital and kill its headmaster and chief rabbi, the ministry said in a statement.

If true, the plot will be seen as the latest evidence of Iran's intentions to strike at its enemies abroad. Last October, the US justice ministry said it had uncovered an Iranian conspiracy to use members of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

The Iranian government strongly denied the claims, calling them a "comedy show fabricated by America."

The exposure of the purported plot in Azerbaijan comes a fortnight after an assassin on a motorcycle killed an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran by placing a magnetic bomb on the door of his car.

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Israeli President Shimon Peres salutes Azerbaijan for foiling terror attack.

(JPost) President Shimon Peres thanked his Azerbaijani counterpart on Wednesday for the country's success in foiling a terrorist attack aimed at Israeli and Jewish targets in Baku.

Peres, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, told Ilham Aliyev that Israel saluted his country for "saving lives on your land from a murderous terrorist attack."

Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry said last week in uncovered a cell planning terrorist attacks. Two Azerbaijanis and an Iranian citizen living in Iran were implicated in the plot. The two Azerbaijanis were arrested.

Aliyev, according to Peres' office, said the plot showed "to what degree we are in a difficult and dangerous neighborhood. Azerbaijan showed that it is able to defend itself and its citizens regardless of their ethnicity or religion."

Aliyev said Azerbaijan would continue to cooperate with Israel, especially on homeland security issues.

Report: At least 19 people, including women and children, killed in 'Syria army bombings'

2012-01-25T14:39:00.001-05:00

War crimes anyone? No? OK, just asking.

(JPost) At least 19 people, including women and children, were killed Wednesday in bombings by the Syrian army, activists in Syria said according to Al Jazeera.

According to the report, 6 people were killed in Hama some 200 kilometers north of Damascus, while the government cut power and communications there.

Opposition groups said that six people died each in the Rif Damascus region and Homs, and that one person was killed in northwestern Idlib, according to the report.

Pro-Palestinian hackers bring down Pro-Palestinian Haaretz Hebrew website

2012-01-25T14:17:00.000-05:00

Idiots.

(JPost) The websites of the Sheeba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and the Assouta Medical Center in Tel Aviv were struck with a distributed denial of service (DDOS), in which servers are flooded by false requests for information, making them unavailable to others.

Also on Wednesday, the Haaretz Hebrew website was downed by pro-Palestinian hackers. Haaretz said it saw a message claiming responsibility for the attack by hackers calling themselves "Anonymous Palestine."

The websites of the financial news site The Marker and the Dan bus company were also unavailable.

Sunny Islam, a 'strict Muslim', raped women at knifepoint to 'punish them for being on the streets at night'

2012-01-25T12:43:00.004-05:00

(London) Today 23-year-old Sunny Islam was detained indefinitely by the British government because of his unusual penchant for raping members of the opposite sex at knife point in which to punish them for walking outside the comfort and safety of their homes without a male escort. Yes, people, welcome to London 2012 where so called peaceful Muslims have no problem enforcing Sharia law in a secular country on non-Muslims.

Islam, who comes from a strict Islamic family, who informed the jury he was a practising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and one of kidnap. His mother, in religious dress, sat with her covered head bowed throughout and wept as her son was jailed for a minimum of 11 years.

It will be really interesting to see how these peaceful Muslims will interact with the millions of non-Muslims who will be walking around the very same area of London later on in the year when the 2012 Olympics kick off.

Interfaith news: Egyptian sheikh decrees that driving a Chevy is haram because its logo resembles a Christian cross

2012-01-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

From NOW Lebanon:

A Salafi sheikh in Egypt has reportedly issued a fatwa that buying [or driving] a Chevrolet vehicle is haram because the American brand’s logo looks like the Christian cross.

In the video below, prominent Egyptian TV presenter Amr Adeeb takes the sheikh’s joke-of-a-fatwa to task, saying, “We’ve reached a really strange place with this.”

“The car’s been around [for a century] and only now did you notice there’s a cross on the car?” [...]

The TV presenter concludes, “With all of the problems in Egypt, you’re concerned about the cross?... We’re calling for unity [in the country] and then you come up with [fatwas] like this?”

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US Navy SEALs free 2 pirate hostages in Somalia, kill 9 pirates

2012-01-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. special forces swooped into Somalia on Wednesday and rescued an American and a Dane after a shootout with pirates holding them hostage, in a rare raid into the Horn of Africa nation to free foreign captives.

The aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were kidnapped from the town of Galkayo in the semi-autonomous Galmudug region in October while working for the Danish De-mining Group (DDG).

"This is yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Military helicopters ferried elite troops to the pirate camp in scrubland close to Haradheere, a major pirate base in central Somalia, Washington's Germany-based Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement.

"All nine captors were killed during the assault," it said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed no American soldiers were killed in the operation.

The Danish Refugee Council said Buchanan and Thisted were now at a safe location. Media reports said they had been flown to neighboring Djibouti, home to the only U.S. military base in Africa and France's largest base on the continent.

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ABC News fact-checks Obama's State of the Union speech and finds him to be mostly lying

2012-01-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

ABC News: State of the Union: Fact Checking the President