Canary In The Coal Mine

Farrakhan: Libya Has Lent Nation of Islam Millions

Associated Press  |  FoxNews.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan speaks during a news conference, Thursday, March 31, 2011, in Chicago, where he discussed his views and advice for President Barack Obama concerning the U.S. involvement in Libya. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

 

CHICAGO –  Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan reiterated his defense of Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday, calling the embattled Libyan leader a friend and Muslim brother who's lent the movement $8 million over the years.

Farrakhan, speaking at a rare news conference, railed against the media and said Gadhafi isn't the monster being portrayed by Western governments.

The 78-year-old minister criticized the U.S. government and President Barack Obama — whom he also called a brother — for launching military action against Libya without justification. He accused Americans of just wanting Gadhafi out of the picture to secure oil interests.

"I love Moammar Gadhafi, and I love our president," Farrakhan told several hundred cheering supporters at the Nation of Islam's headquarters. "It grieves me to see my brother president set a policy that would remove this man not only from power, but from the earth."

Obama has defended America's military involvement in Libya, saying the U.S. has intervened to prevent a slaughter of civilians. He has ruled out targeting Gadhafi militarily, and the U.S. turned over control of the military operation to NATO on Thursday. Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya for decades, has been battling opposition forces.

Farrakhan portrayed Gadhafi as a fellow revolutionary and longtime friend to the Nation of Islam, which used $3 million it borrowed from Libya in the 1970s to acquire its opulent headquarters on Chicago's South Side. Years later, a $5 million loan was used to pay back taxes and costs for the home of the movement's former leader Elijah Muhammad.

Farrakhan has publicly defended Gadhafi at several recent events, including the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours' Day convention in February and at a civil rights convention last week. He said the U.S. government shouldn't be attacking Libya when it has stayed out of other conflicts around the world.

He called for a cease-fire on both sides in Libya and a chance for the Libyan people to vote on whether Gadhafi should stay in power. He dismissed allegations that Gadhafi has violently cracked down on his own people, saying the Libyan leader was "killing traitors."

"Do you really think that Brother Gadhafi really was going to slaughter 700,000 people?" Farrakhan said. "If that were true ... where are all the bodies?"

"I don't care what Gadhafi has done wrong, he is not the 'mad dog of the Middle East,'" he said, a reference to the label former President Ronald Reagan once gave Gadhafi.

Farrakhan said he originally called the news conference to warn the country about a huge earthquake that he's foreseen, cautioning that Americans "are worse prepared than the Japanese," who are trying to recover from a devastating earthquake and tsunami that touched off a nuclear crisis.

Source:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/31/farrakhan-gadhafi-monster-helped-muslims/

Videos: Palestinian Terrorism - Tamar Fogel Speaks Out

 

 

 

The 12-year-old girl who discovered her murdered family in Itamar speaks out.

 

Israel Says Hezbollah Has 1,000 Bunkers in Lebanon

AFP  |  Google.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

Israeli watch as a bunker discovered by the Israeli military is blown up near the Israeli-Lebanese border. Photo: AFP

 

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says the Hezbollah militia has riddled southern Lebanon with bunkers and underground weapons depots, with most located in civilian villages.

A memo drafted by the military and sent on Thursday to Israeli embassies details what it says are Hezbollah's stepped up activities to fortify the volatile border region since the end of the 2006 Lebanon war.

Military intelligence estimates that since the war "Hezbollah has built as many as 550 bunkers in the southern Lebanon region, holding various weapons. In addition, the organisation has built 300 underground facilities and 100 storage units for munitions including rockets, missiles and other weapons," said the memo seen by AFP.

"Many of these terror centres are located near hospitals, private homes and schools, Hezbollah's way of taking advantage of the civilian population of Lebanon," it said.

A military spokesman also confirmed that a map published by the Washington Post detailing the exact sites of these facilities was supplied by the army.

During the 34-day war in 2006, much of the fighting took place on open scrubland, but since then the militia has gravitated towards built-up areas out of the reach of UN peacekeepers -- and into heavily populated civilian areas, Israel says.

Israel had already claimed at the time that Hezbollah was using human shields, but Human Rights Watch charged that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties resulted from "indiscriminate Israeli air-strikes."

Israel estimates that Hezbollah has an arsenal of 40,000 short- and medium-range rockets, which are being held in towns and villages across the south -- a significant rise from the 14,000 rockets held by the group in 2006.

It says the stockpile includes hundreds of longer-range rockets, some with a range of more than 300 kilometres (116 miles), capable of reaching major Israeli population centres.

The military believes Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon number 20,000, more than a third of whom have undergone combat training in Iran.

The war between Israel and Hezbollah destroyed much of Lebanon's major infrastructure and killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

 

Source:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jhJLAQeYwDXm08hIf98XjLkHYhBw?docId=CNG.23a428af6162593a585797da96657677.aa1

Video - Scheuer: Libya Was None Of Our Business

by Rebecca Hillman - Rhillman  |  amfix.blogs.cnn.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

A U.S. intelligence source has confirmed the presence of CIA operations in Libya. What does an operation like this look like and what does it mean for the U.S.?

Michael Scheuer, former CIA Counterterrorism Analyst who headed CIA's Bin Laden Unit, says the U.S. should not have gone into Libya. Scheuer discusses the situation with Kiran Chetry and Christine Romans.

 

 

Source:  http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/31/scheuer-libya-was-none-of-our-business/

Israel Releases Map Of 1,000 Hezbollah Sites

AP  |  Hosted.AP.org  |  March 31, 2011

 

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military has released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

The military says the map, which was released to The Associated Press on Thursday, shows Hezbollah has set up some 550 bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons storage facilities. Many are south of the Litani River, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the U.N.-sponsored truce that ended the war.  Photo: The Washington Post

Israel has for years said Hezbollah is rearming and has set up "rocket villages" in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah fought Israel to a draw in 2006, sending nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. The militant group could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

Source:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_LEBANON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-31-04-58-00

Youth Becomes More Nationalist

by Hillel Fendel  |  IsraelNationalNews.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

A survey carried out by a German foundation finds that Israel's youth has become more nationalist and does not expect peace.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, aided by the Macro Center for Political Economics in Tel Aviv, has published the results of its third annual Youth Study. The results partly explain why the strength of left-wing and dovish parties such as Meretz and Labor has decreased in recent years and is likely to continue doing so. 

Jewish Youth. Photo: Shomron Regional Council

The results are being publicized only now, though the survey was carried out last July. Some 1,200 Jewish youths and 400 Arab youths (not from the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, and not between the ages of 18 and 21) were polled.

The survey shows that a third of Jewish youth in Israel say that Judaism is the most important goal for the State of Israel – up from only 18% a year ago. Only 14.3% of Jewish youth said democracy was Israel's most important objective.

Over 40% of the Jewish youth identify politically with the nationalist parties, with another 20% expressing solidarity with the "moderate" right-wing. Only 11.5% identify with the left-wing.

Among Arab youth, 35% said they "don't know" their political affiliation – approximately four times more than in the Jewish sector.

41% of the Arab youth said their most important goal was to build a happy family, and 3% said it was to contribute to society. Among Jews, it was 65.5% and 8.5%, respectively.

While close to 55% of Jewish youth feel neither positively nor negatively towards Arabs, over 11% feel fear, and 27% said they feel hatred. A total of 15% of Arabs feel either fear or hatred towards Jews.

Nearly three-quarters of Jews felt that security concerns must "always" or "nearly always" take precedence over ideals of democracy if they clash.

How to Protest
Asked how government policies on the peace process may be protested, 27.5% of Jews said they support non-violent protest, and 22.5% said they support violent protest.  In the Arab sector, 42% and 33%, respectively, said they support the two methods.

Orders May be Refused - But Sometimes it Depends Which Ones
The Jewish youth were asked about soldiers' right to refuse orders. 21% of those aged between 15 and 18 (19% among those aged 21-24) said it is acceptable to refuse orders to destroy Jewish towns, but not orders regarding serving in Judea and Samaria; only 4% (2%) said that one may refuse to serve in Judea and Samaria, but not to evict settlers. 40% (31%) said it was OK to refuse in both cases, and 31% (42%) said it was not acceptable in either case.

Negotiations OK, But They Won't Accomplish Much
57% of Jewish youth favor negotiations with the PA, while nearly 40% object. Among Arabs, 51% favor and 46% object. 70% of Jews object to the two-state solution.

Do the youth believe that negotiations will bring peace in the coming years? Over 72% of Jews don't believe so, as do 52.5% of Arabs.

 

Source:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143258

Landau: Arabs in Israel Already Have Equal Rights

by Elad Benari  |  IsraelNationalNews.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

National Infrastructure Minister Dr. Uzi Landaun (Pictured) said on Wednesday that he expects the attorney general to investigate the events that took place in Lod on Tuesday and examine whether the law was violated there.

Landau, who was interviewed on Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website, was referring to the rally by Israeli Arabs which took place in Lod and in which the demonstrators burned Israeli flags and posters of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

The protests took place to mark the Arab “Land Day”, which marks the anniversary of the massive Arab riots in March 1976 over the confiscation of land near Arab villages, during which six protesters were killed.

In the interview, Landau referred to the leaders of the Arab public as “an anti-Semitic group that seeks to undermine our right to exist here.” He brought as evidence for this statement the constitution proposed by the Arab leaders, which asserts in its first lines that the proposed law is the Muslim Sharia law.

He said that he is disappointed in the conduct of the government and believes that the time has come that the government talk less and do more, both against the Arab incitement as well as in dealing with infiltrators from Egypt.

Landau attacked the Arab leadership in Israel, calling them a “itinerant band” which accuses Israel of being an apartheid state yet travels to Libya and Syria and praises the leaders there.

He also addressed the claims made by the Arab public against Israel and said: “They accuse us of expropriation of land while at the same time they rob lands. They accuse us of the fact that their youths have nowhere in which to develop, but we see that as our housing prices go higher and we are building higher structures they insist on building one family homes on plots of land. They accuse us of apartheid and yet go to praise the leaders of Syria and Libya.”

Landau added that he thinks it is time for the Arab leaders to open their eyes and admit that equal rights are given to the entire population in Israel, including the Arabs.

Landau also addressed the Nakba Law which was approved in the Knesset last week, and which stipulates that the Minister of Finance may withhold or reduce budgets from government-funded bodies who deny Israel’s existence. The law came under fire by Arab MKs who termed it “anti-democratic.”

Another person who expressed his opposition to the Nakba Law is Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kremnitzer published an article in which he wrote that the Nakba Law prevents freedom of expression and encourages collective punishment.

Landau addressed Kremnizter’s statements and said that “one must be a professor to say such nonsense. No one is preventing freedom of expression but it is important to remember what the Nakba is. Nakba is them marking what they see as a disaster that they failed to kill us with axes as they did in Itamar. They want to refer to this so they can implement it in the future. Their aim is the destruction of Israel, and they want us to sponsor them using the budget of the State of Israel?”

Landau also noted the German law against Holocaust denial and similar laws that prohibit Neo-Nazi expressions in countries like Britain and Russia, and added that in those countries one would never even suggest that such organizations receive government funding.

 

Source:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143255

Abbas Accuses Netanyahu Of Doublespeak On Hamas-Fatah Unity

by JPost.com Staff  |  JPost.com  |  March 31, 2011

 

PA President rejects demand that he choose between Israel and Hamas, calls for renewed building freeze and threatens resignation.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's demand that the PA choose between peace with Israel and unity with Hamas, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.

Abbas reportedly told members of the Council for Peace and Security that Netanyahu first says he doesn't have a partner for peace when the Palestinians are divided, and then opposes Palestinian unity.   Photo: Reuters

He also called for Israel to freeze construction in the West Bank for three more months in order to continue direct talks.

Abbas added that he will resign if the peace process does not continue.

 

Source:  http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=214545

Feds Investigate Alleged Anti-Semitism at UC Santa Cruz

by Elena Shore, New America Media  |  BayCitizen.org  |  March 30, 2011

 

Federal authorities are investigating allegations of anti-semitism on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, reports j., the Jewish news weekly.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation this month. It is only the second major systemic anti-Semitism case that the office has pursued. The investigation is in response to a complaint filed by Hebrew lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, (Pictured) who claimed in June 2009 that university-sponsored events had "crossed the line from anti-Israel to anti-Semitic."

As a federally funded school, UC Santa Cruz is not allowed to discriminate based on race, color or national origin, according to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In November 2010, religion was added to this list, making discrimination against students of any religion a federally punishable crime.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the anti-Semitic activity at the school, Rossman-Benjamin said, was that it "was often coming from faculty."

“If we were talking about events thrown by student groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine or a Muslim student union, that’s what those groups do. I understand that,” she said. “But coming from the university, it really legitimizes it, makes it acceptable at an academic level, and that seems unethical. It’s an abuse of academic freedom.”

“People talk a lot about diversity and inclusiveness and principles of community here," Rossman-Benjamin added. "But that doesn’t seem to extend to the Jewish students.”

 

Source:  http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/feds-investigate-alleged-anti-semitism/

 

Gaffney Sees Muslim Brotherhood As Growing Threat

by Bret Hayworth  |  SiouxCityJournal.com  |  March 30, 2011

 

As former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney Jr. (Pictured) talked about the growing threat of radical Islam, in a Sioux City stop today we chatted about how the Muslim Brotherhood had been a virtually unknown group to Americans until recently.

Speaking before the Great Plains Chapter meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition (an event set up by South Dakota State Sen. Dan Lederman, R-Dakota Dunes), Gaffney said adherents of Shariah, the uncompromising Islamic doctrine seeking a holy war to put in place global Islamic state,  are unfortunately rising toward power in Egypt and Libya.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928, he said it has been under the radar. “I am specifically focusing on the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in America and the sort of stealth jihad, they call it civilization jihad, that they are waging here, which most of us are completely clueless about, including our government,” he said.  Gaffney said he wouldn’t be surprised if Iowa had some Muslim Brotherhood members, since the Brotherhood is present just north  in Sioux Falls. Gaffney said it is problematic that the Obama administration views the Brotherhood as benign.

He pointed to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper saying in February 2011 U.S. House testimony that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt  is a “largely secular” group that has “eschewed violence.” Clapper later backed off that statement, but that shows the practice of the Obama administration misrepresenting the goals of the Brotherhood,  Gaffney said.

Gaffney said he’s uncomfortable assessing why President Barack Obama is unwilling to address the threat from the Muslim Brotherhood, but took a stab at it.

“I don’t know whether that is because he came from a Muslim family or because he spent a lot of time in the Muslim world. He is — as I think a lot of politicians are — afraid of being branded a racist, a bigot, an Islamaphobe,” Gaffney said.

I found Gaffney to be an interesting interview, and left wishing I’d had more time to pick the brain of the frequent Fox News commentator. The RightWeb site sees Gaffney as a hawkish neoconservative with controversial views.

 

Source:  http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/app/blogs/politically_speaking/?p=5700