Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq.

HT:Aim.Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq.A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.Its ascent here, in an arena contested by the United States and Iran, may prove its greatest success so far, as it emerges from the shadow of its alliance with the West to chart an often assertive and independent foreign policy.Turkey's influence is greater in northern Iraq and broader, though not deeper, than Iran's in the rest of the country. While the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, losing more than 4,400 troops there, Turkey now exerts what may prove a more lasting legacy -- so-called soft power, the assertion of influence through culture, education and business."This is the trick -- we are very much welcome here," said Ali Riza Ozcoskun, who heads Turkey's consulate in Basra, one of four diplomatic posts it has in Iraq.Just as the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reoriented politics in Turkey, it is doing so in Iraq, with repercussions for the rest of the region.While some Turkish officials recoil at the notion of neo-Ottomanism -- an orientation of Turkey away from Europe and toward an empire that once included parts of three continents -- the country's process of globalization and attention to the markets of the Middle East is upsetting assumptions that only American power is decisive. Turkey has committed itself here to economic integration, seeing its future in at least an echo of its past."No one is trying to overtake Iraq or one part of Iraq," said Aydin Selcen, who heads the consulate in Erbil, which opened this year. "But we are going to integrate with this country. Roads, railroads, airports, oil and gas pipelines -- there will be a free flow of people and goods between the two sides of the border."Posters of Turkish television serials -- from "Muhannad and Nour" to "Forbidden Love" -- sell by the tens of thousands. The action series "Valley of the Wolves" is a sensation, the lead actor lending his name to cafes. His own posters are computer-altered to show him in traditional Kurdish or Arab dress -- grist for a graduate school seminar on the adaptability of cultural symbols.Oil is still king in Iraq, and as much as anything else, underlines Turkey's interests here. The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, already carries roughly 25 percent of Iraq's oil exports.The Turks have signed on to the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco gas pipeline project, which may bypass Russia and bring Iraqi gas to Europe. Turkish companies have two stakes in oil contracts, and two more in gas projects, potentially worth billions of dollars. In a land of oil, no place has more than Basra.Hmmmm......."Outreach to Muslims"....Obama....Erdogan.The fallen soldiers thank you.Read the full story here.

Violent Islamic Extremism is a ‘Mental Illness’.

HT:BigPeace.Violent Islamic Extremism is a ‘Mental Illness’.Violent Islamist extremism is akin to mental illness and not rooted in poverty, memories of Western imperialism, and anger over the Israeli-Palestinian situation, Robert Sibley writes in Monday’s Ottawa Citizen. This is ignored by the chattering class, Sibley writes, which believes that “[i]f only the West would apologize, make reparations, abandon Israel, leave the Middle East and Afghanistan, all would be well.”He draws this from a new book, New Political Religions, by Barry Cooper. Cooper describes a “disease of the spirit” in which people “see themselves as specially chosen by God, or even as gods themselves.” If they aren’t psychopaths, “they most definitely are spiritually disordered.”
According to Sibley, that disorder makes it impossible for Islamists to compromise. They contend that the Koran contains Allah’s direct speech. “And because Allah’s will and action is unlimited, the Koran, as his eternal word, must apply to all times and places. There is no need to look elsewhere in responding to the human condition, regardless of changing circumstances.”“The challenge for Islamists, obviously, is whether they can achieve that transformation better through demographic domination over the next few decades or through violence. The challenge for Westerners, perhaps not so obviously, is whether they will awaken in time from their multicultural slumbers to protect their cultural heritage, and avoid, possibly, a new dark age.”Hmmmm....."Whether they can achieve that transformation better through demographic domination over the next few decades or through violence".Read the full story here.

Obama is Undermining Israel.

HT:BigPeace.Obama is Undermining Israel.The United States’ withdrawal of its demand that Israel impose a second construction freeze in order to bring the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to the negotiation table does not necessarily indicate that the Obama Administration now sides with Israel. Moreover, America’s latest move will likely result in the Administration’s abstaining from a vote on a much-rumored possible U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the unilateral declaration of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.The U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution last month urged the Administration to “deny any unilaterally declared Palestinian state” and “veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties.” However, this resolution is unlikely to stop the Administration from either supporting or abstaining from a vote on a Palestinian initiated resolution “declaring ongoing Jewish settlement in the West Bank a big obstacle to ending the conflict.”America’s withdrawing the demand that Israel freezes building in “disputed territories,” also means that the Obama Administration will not sell $3 billion worth of 20 radar-evading F-35 fighter jets to Israel. This will weaken the Jewish State’s ability to defend itself. Further destabilizing the region, and diminishing Israel’s military edge, is the U.S. sale of $97 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.Another sign of Obama’s Administration growing distance from Israel is the U.S. silence in the face of mounting South American support for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian independent state.This South American initiative emerged following the July 2010 State Department’s upgrade of the Washington DC Palestinian Liberation Organization’s mission status, a move that allows the PLO office to fly the Palestinian flag.While the EU declined to recognize a Palestinian state outright in December, several member states– France, Spain, Portugal and Norway – have upgraded the status of PLO representation in their countries, as have Canada. Britain was considering a similar move at the end of December.Remarkably, neither the EU Council, nor the South American countries have discussed the Gaza Strip, which is included in the ‘67 borders, though the terrorist group Hamas rules it. Meanwhile Hamas is gaining strength in the PA controlled West Bank.It is unknown whether the Administration’s behavior towards Israel is influenced by Obama’s inaugural promise to the Muslim world: “we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest…” However, recent developments should raise grave concerns in Israel and among its friends and all freedom loving Americans.Hmmmm....They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

Top detective blasts 'culture of silence' that allows Asian Muslim sex gangs to groom white girls...

Top detective blasts 'culture of silence' that allows Asian Muslim sex gangs to groom white girls... because police and social services fear being branded racist.Police and social services have been accused of fuelling a culture of silence which has allowed hundreds of young white girls to be exploited by Asian men for sex.Agencies have identified a long-term pattern of offending by gangs of men, predominantly from the British Pakistani community, who have befriended and abused hundreds of vulnerable girls aged 11 to 16.Experts claim the statistics represent a mere fraction of a 'tidal wave' of offending in counties across the Midlands and the north of England which has been going on for more than a decade.A senior officer at West Mercia police has called for an end to the 'damaging taboo' connecting on-street grooming with race. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Edwards said: 'These girls are being passed around and used as meat.'To stop this type of crime you need to start everyone talking about it but everyone's been too scared to address the ethnicity factor.'No one wants to stand up and say that Pakistani guys in some parts of the country are recruiting young white girls and passing them around their relatives for sex, but we need to stop being worried about the racial complication.'In a briefing paper, researchers at University College London's Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science concurred that victims were typically white girls while 'most central offenders are Pakistani'. The offenders were not viewed as paedophiles but had picked the girls 'because of their malleability'.The report concluded that 'race is a delicate issue' that should be 'handled sensitively but not brushed under the carpet'.In total, 56 people, with an average age of 28, were found guilty of crimes including rape, child abduction, indecent assault and sex with a child. Three of the 56 were white, 53 were Asian. Of those, 50 were Muslim and a majority were members of the British Pakistani community. Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for peaceful harmony between different communities, said last year: ‘I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist.'These men are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race.’Hmmmmm....I thought Lady Justice was supposed to be blind,how can she distinct race?Read the full scandal story here.

Obama’s Justice Department visual acceleration to global governance.

HT:NorthEastIntelligence.Obama’s Justice Department visual acceleration to global governance.Some might recall the Internet controversy that took place last July when the U.S. Department of Justice removed the American flag header from its website, replacing “Old Glory” with a solid black background. In conjunction with the stripping of the stars and stripes, controversy increased with the inclusion of a quote placed on nearly every page of the DOJ web site that reads “The common law is the will of Mankind issuing from the Life of the People.” Based on the number of e-mails I’ve received over the last few days, it is apparent that many seem to be just now learning of the USDOJ web site makeover.Whether you first learned about this change in the American Spectator which reportedly “broke” the story, or in an article penned by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones who accuses “Obama-haters these days seem to find evidence everywhere of socialism creeping into the federal government,” this issue has never been more important than it is today.We at MFS were among the first to mention the makeover!We are bearing witness to the historic unveiling of the Socialist agenda at its most proactive stage.Arguing that the DOJ web site redesign and the inclusion of the abbreviated quote is mere conspiratorial nonsense are as plentiful as they are intellectual deficient, as illustrated in this article that was published at the Daily KOS. When the far left are not engaged in the nescient bashing of the existence of a larger agenda, some on the right appear to exhibit their blissful ignorance by missing entirely a tactic that seems to be in vogue under Obama, which is the tactic of omission.Obama was reported to have twice omitted references to the “Creator” (i.e. God) during speeches referencing the Declaration of Independence. That’s no big deal, according to Caroline Fredrickson, the executive director of the American Constitution Society. Copies of the ACS pocket constitution that include the Gettysburg Address reportedly omit the words “under God.” Responding to the criticism of the omission, Fredrickson cites ultra-conservative right wing “hysteria” and calls the reports of the omission as a “distraction” from the real issues. Where have we heard that before?Hmmmm.....If he looses the re-election what are the odds they will grab power?Read the full story here.

Indonesian maid who was burned and tortured by employer shows wounds to Saudi court

Indonesian maid who was burned and tortured by employer shows wounds to Saudi court.Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, "showed the judge her injuries, especially her head," said Diddi Wahyudi, an Indonesian consular official in Jeddah.The Saudi woman was arrested after allegedly beating Sumiati so severely as to break bones and cause internal bleeding, putting a hot iron to her head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.During the hearing, the woman "denied everything, saying that the maid has beaten herself," Wahyudi told AFP by telephone.But "the judge said that everybody knows from these pictures that (the maid) must have been beaten by someone" when he was showed photographs of Sumiati's wounds, Wahyudi added.The Indonesian official also said the Saudi woman's son has earlier testified against his mother.Wayhudi said the next hearing was set for a week later without specifying a fixed date.The case, being heard in the city of Medina, had been postponed on December 28 because the maid was not yet ready to confront the woman, Wahyudi said at the time."Sumiati is not psychologically ready to appear in court."Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.In November, Wahyudi said Sumiati had undergone surgery, but that she would need to be operated on once more.Wahyudi said she was still seeking her pay and other benefits from several months of employment in Saudi Arabia."She has nothing, she does not even have a single abaya," Wahyudi said of the black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public."She wants her employer to be punished severely," he added.He said the Indonesian government was still pursuing the case of another maid, Kikim Komalasari, whose dead body was found near Abha earlier in November after being beaten.Two people, her employers, have been arrested in that case, Wahyudi said.Read the full story here.

Why Isn't Obama Pressuring the Palestinians?

HT:MiddleEastForum.Why Isn't Obama Pressuring the Palestinians?For the first time since the Oslo peace process started 18 years ago, Palestinian leaders are openly refusing to negotiate with the government of Israel, and U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is doing very little about it. As Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, explained the policy on Dec. 9, "We will not agree to negotiate as long as settlement building continues." The Arab League is backing Abbas in this refusal, says League chief Amr Moussa, because "the direction of talks has become ineffective and it has decided against the resumption of negotiations."But Abbas himself negotiated with seven previous Israeli prime ministers without such preconditions. For 17 years -- from the Madrid conference of October 1991 through Abbas's negotiations with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which ended in 2008 -- negotiations moved forward while Jerusalem construction continued. Madrid, Oslo I, Oslo II, the Hebron Protocol, the Wye River Memorandum, Camp David, Taba, the disengagement from Gaza, and Olmert's offer to Abbas -- all these events over the course of two decades were made possible by a continuing agreement to disagree about Israeli construction of Jewish homes in Jewish neighborhoods outside the pre-1967 line in East Jerusalem. But now, peace talks cannot even begin. Why the change?U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledges that the Palestinians are creating a new precondition for talks to begin. Settlements, she says, have "always been an issue within the negotiations.… There's never been a precondition." But Clinton has not stated any public objection to Abbas making this a new excuse not to negotiate.But the Obama administration is raising no public objection to the Palestinians' stance. It has not expressed one word of criticism of Abbas, nor used anything resembling the pressure tactics Obama has so freely used against the Israeli side. In fact, Obama did quite the opposite on Oct. 7, when he issued a special waiver of Section 7040(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act to transfer additional funds directly to the Palestinian Authority, just as it was announcing its refusal to negotiate.Members of Congress are starting to take notice of the administration's reticence to confront Palestinian intransigence. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman, said on Dec. 23 of Palestinian leaders: "They know they don't have to do a darn thing; with this administration they will get a blank check, and they will always get helped out.… Try examining where they're using their money and where our U.S. dollars are going." Her Democratic counterpart, California's Howard Berman, the outgoing chairman of the committee, said a few days earlier, referring to Abbas's unilateral drive to seek early recognition of Palestinian statehood, "If they try to circumvent negotiations, they'll lose the support of a lot of people like me, and it will jeopardize their foreign aid as well."Hmmmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

The Taseer Assassination And The Tyranny Of Fear

HT:Rferl.The Taseer Assassination And The Tyranny Of Fear.The killing of Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, is one of those epochal moments that we encounter in politics from time to time. It’s one of those moments that makes you realize that a fundamental shift has occurred, that something has broken beyond repair. I’m reminded of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s great reportage on the revolution in Iran, “Shah of Shahs.” In it, Kapuscinski describes that mysterious tipping point when a demonstrator loses his fear of the security forces and refuses to listen when the shah’s once all-powerful police order him to step back. Suddenly, all involved realize that the power of the state to cow people into obedience has been broken.The murder of Taseer has the same quality -- though here the poles are reversed. In the case of modern Pakistan, it is now the tyranny of fear that is reaching into the heart of the political system. It has become extremely hard to see how anyone can pull the country’s political culture back from the brink. It’s not just that Taseer was an advocate of a secular, pluralistic Pakistan who stood up, on a number of occasions, to the forces of intolerance -- a man who was, on various occasions, imprisoned, tortured, and beaten for publicly defending the rights of minorities and the urgency of need for the freedom of expression. It’s not just that he was the head of Pakistan’s richest and most populous province. And it’s not just that he was an example of someone from humble origins who managed to rise to one of the highest offices in the country by dint of his own hard work.No, what’s particularly worrisome about this case is the failure of the political system to protect one of its own. When the state surrenders its monopoly on violence to those who stand outside of it, it can no longer be described as a functioning state.The West, and especially the United States, should also take notice. It is time for policymakers in Washington to understand that Pakistan is not simply a vexing sideshow to the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan -- populous, chaotic, and nuclear-armed -- needs to be taken seriously in its own right. An imploding Pakistan promises immense pain and turmoil to itself and the world at large. Let’s hope that this realization doesn’t come too late.Hmmm.....Perhaps General Ashfaq Kayani will interfere before it disintegrates completely.Read the full story here.

Union Boss Trumka Admits Main Goal is Using Unions To Fundamentally Change America into His Progressive Vision

HT:TheBlaze.Video : Union Boss Trumka Admits Main Goal is Using Unions To Fundamentally Change America into His Progressive Vision…Not Negotiate Member Salaries.Read and see the full story here.

64% of Turks: Freeze ties with Israel

64% of Turks: Freeze ties with Israel.Survey finds US, Israel seen by Turkish citizens as top threat, followed by Iran; only 27.9 percent say ties with Jewish state should be improved.The United States and Israel top the list of countries that Turks see as a threat, according to an opinion poll seen by AFP Wednesday. The survey, conducted by the Ankara-based Metropoll research company last month, found that 42.6 percent saw the United States as "the greatest external threat," with another 23.7% singling out Israel. Turkey's eastern neighbor Iran ranked third, listed by three percent of the respondents, while another neighbor and traditional rival Greece come fourth with 2.3%. Hmmmm....It's pretty clear by now where Erdogan is moving Turkey.Ennemies : Israel - USA , friends :Iran - Pakistan - Palestine - Syria and Afghanistan.Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full story here.

Now look who else is infiltrating CPAC

HT:WND.Now look who else is infiltrating CPAC.Conservative leader raises questions about host of popular, annual event.WASHINGTON – Another headache has emerged for the largest annual gathering of conservatives slated for next month. With the Conservative Political Action Conference under fire for allowing participation by a homosexual activist group called GOProud and for a financial scandal in which some $400,000 was misappropriated under the watch of current leadership, Frank Gaffney, a leader of the conservative movement for the last 30 years, charges that CPAC has come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is working to bring America under Saudi-style Shariah law. Gaffney, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is founder and president of the Center for Security Policy and co-author of the new book "Shariah: The Threat to America." He told WND that Islamism has infiltrated the American Conservative Union, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America. Khan is a member of the ACU board and, according to Muslims for America, will assist the group's presence at CPAC during the 2011 meeting Feb. 10-12. After serving as a Republican congressional aide in the late 1990s, Khan joined the White House staff of the George W. Bush administration as a liaison to conservative and veterans groups. He was transferred to the Department of Transportation after the Sept. 11 al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, when it was reported that Khan's father, Mahboob Khan, leader of a large mosque in Santa Clara, Calif., had allowed Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, to raise money there."Suhail is the firstborn son of the late Mahboob Khan, a founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in America," said Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow. "Suhail has been a consultant to CAIR [The Council on American-Islamic Relations] and served on committees at ISNA [the Islamic Society of North America], both of which the government says are fronts for Hamas and its parent the Muslim Brotherhood."Sperry says some members of Congress and their staffs have no idea Khan is "a Muslim activist with direct connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups implicated by the government in a conspiracy to raise millions of dollars for terrorism right here in America." "The Brotherhood's stated mission," says Gaffney, "is to destroy Western civilization from within. Their agenda for the U.S. and the world is the triumph of Shariah law worldwide under a ruler known as a caliph."According to Gaffney, Islamists in the United States are implementing a doctrine called "dawa," which he describes as a "pre-violent" form of jihad intended to advance the process of Islamizing a non-Muslim country. "Every Muslim activist is part of dawa," said Sperry.The best source about their intentions is the king of dawa, Qaradawi. Yusuf Qaradawi [is] the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the world's most influential Islamic cleric, according to Andrew McCarthy, the former lead prosecutor of those responsible for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, and author of "The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America." Qaradawi famously boasted: "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America, not through the sword but through dawa."Hmmmmm....We don't want to take over your country? Read the full story here.

Al-Aqsa Foundation Accuses Israel of Attempting to Judaize Mosques

HT:Translating Jihad. Al-Aqsa Foundation Accuses Israel of Attempting to Judaize Mosques.More anti-semitic fearmongering in Palestine, this time from the al-Aqsa Foundation, which was named a specially-designated global terrorist by the Treasury Department for its ties to Hamas.Zionist Plans Accelerated for Judaizing Jerusalem Mosques and the Wailing Wall.The Zionist occupation recently took a number of accelerated actions to Judaize mosques in occupied Jerusalem as well as the Wailing Wall, which is located west of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque.The Zionist occupation has designated millions of dollars to Judaize occupied Jerusalem, such as for example the 'Ayn Salwan Mosque and the Mosque of Qariat Burj al-Nawatir, according to the al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf [Islamic endowment] and Heritage.The foundation requested that inhabitants of the occupied lands under the 1948 boundaries, as well as inhabitants of occupied Jerusalem, intensify their visits to the mosques.Read the full story here.

Pakistan: Hardline Stance | Religious bloc condones murder

Pakistan: Hardline Stance | Religious bloc condones murder.More than 500 religious scholars belonging to the Barelvi school of thought paid rich tributes to the assassin of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer on Tuesday and urged ‘Muslims across the country’ to boycott the funeral ceremony.While the Deoband and Barelvi leaders appear to be on the same page when it comes to condemning the slain Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader for terming the blasphemy law as a black law, the Barelvi scholars, who claim to be the ‘true lovers of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)’, have taken a more hardline stance.The largest body of the Barelvi group, the Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan (JASP), whose directions are considered binding on every other organisation that follows the same school of thought, issued a statement saying that “No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salmaan Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident.”The statement which has been endorsed by senior Barelvi leaders such as Professor Saeed Shah Kazmi, Allama Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Syed Shah Turabul Haq Qadri and Hajji Mohammad Tayyab calls the assassin Mumtaz Hussain Qadri ‘Ashiqe Rasool Ghaziye Mulk (Lover of the Prophet, Commander of the Country)’.“We pay rich tributes and salute the bravery, valour and faith of Mumtaz Qadri,” the statement said, adding that the ministers, politicians, ‘so-called’ intellectuals and anchor persons should learn lessons from the governor’s death. The scholars said that those who insult the Holy Prophet (pbuh), even if they did not intend to, were liable for death.Hajji Mohammad Tayyab, who is also the secretary general of the Sunni Ittehad Council, told The Express Tribune that scholars had “repeatedly urged the president, prime minister and Governor Taseer himself that if their knowledge about the blasphemy law are limited, they should consult them and avoid debating over the issue as it would inflame the people and then anything could happen.”Shah Turabul Haq Qadri’s son Siraj, also a senior member of the JASP, endorsed the statement and said it was now binding on every Muslim.Jamiat Ulemae Pakistan (JUP) central executive committee member Maulana Shabbir went as far as saying that in his opinion Salmaan Taseer was ‘Wajubul Qatil’ (must be killed according to divine law). “He had called the divine law of God, a black law and tried to protect a condemned blasphemer,” he said.Hmmmm.....How long before the two sides clash?Read the full story here.

India Wants to Extend Range of Nuke-Capable Missile.

India Wants to Extend Range of Nuke-Capable Missile.Undettered by the failure of the upgraded nuclear-capable Agni-II Missile, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was working on increasing the range of the surface-to-surface intermediate range ballistic missile.Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the the 98th Indian Science Congress at SRM University at suburban Kattankulathur, DRDO Director General V K Saraswat said a component problem had led to the failure of the Agni-II Missile which had lifted off from the Wheeler Island off Orissa Coast in the first week of December. He said the quality of components were tested statistically and functionally. ''But we are working on increasing the missile range,'' he added. The test-fire of the surface-to-surface missile had failed after it deviated from its trajectory immediately after lift-off.The indigenously developed new variant of the Agni Series Missile was an improved version of the existing Agni-II Missile and would have better accuracy and range. The missile was incorporated with some advanced features to increase the accuracy. Dr Saraswat said the DRDO would get the initial operational clearance later this month for inducting the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) into the Indian Air Force.To a question, he denied the DRDO was building satellites for strategic use.Hmmmm.....Talk peace,prepare for war?Read the full story here.

U.S. Contains Enough Reserves to Fuel Country for Decades, Petroleum Institute Says

U.S. Contains Enough Reserves to Fuel Country for Decades, Petroleum Institute Says.Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said that if the Obama administration and Congress would allow the industry access to domestic oil and natural gas reserves, the United States would get the energy it needs, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the government would add more than $1.7 trillion to its coffers.“The state of American energy must be strong in order for the American economy to thrive,” said Gerard in a speech at the Newseum on Tuesday. “How then do we strengthen the state of American energy?”“For starters, there are vast reserves of domestic resources that are currently off-limits to exploration and production: billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas ... onshore and off,” Gerard said. “And those estimates are most likely conservative given our past experience and new advanced technologies.”It is estimated that the United States has enough natural gas to fuel 100 percent of current domestic demand for at least 90 years. In addition, the United States produces about 2 billion barrels of crude oil per year, according to the API.“Accessing these U.S. resources could improve our energy security by making us less reliant on others, generate an additional $1.7 trillion in government revenue over the life of the resources and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs,” Gerard said.On the other hand, “Raising taxes on the industry with no increase in access could reduce domestic production by 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (in 2020), sacrifice as many as 170,000 jobs (in 2014), and reduce revenue to the government by billions of dollars annually,” stated the release.The API report, State of American Energy, estimates that the offshore drilling regions in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic coast could hold as much as $7.6 billion barrels of oil and 58.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.On a related note, North Dakota is one of the fastest growing oil producing regions in the United States, where 80 million barrels were produced in 2009, the report states. Also, North Dakota’s unemployment rate is less than four percent, according to Gerard.Hmmmm....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

43% of Saudi youth are jobless

43% of Saudi youth are jobless.Unemployment rose 20% among Saudi youth in 2009.Saudi Arabia is suffering from a high unemployment rate among young men as more than 43 per cent of citizens aged between 20 and 24 years are unemployed, according to government figures.The rate at the end of 2009 was higher than in 2008 despite an ongoing drive by the world’s oil powerhouse to find jobs for its fast-growing nationals and dispose of hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers who dominate the private sector.The figures by the government statistics and information centre showed nearly 43.2 per cent of the Saudi males and females aged 20-24 years were unemployed at the end of 2009, nearly 20 per cent above the 2008 rate.The report, published in Saudi newspapers this week, showed more than 450,000 Saudi nationals of all ages were jobless last year.“This comes at a time when nearly one million labour visas for foreign workers were issued last year,” the report said. “The private sector continued a drive to import foreign labour although nearly 111,000 Saudis were looking for jobs.”A breakdown showed nearly 300,000 of those visas were issued in the capital Riyadh while 199,000 were in the eastern province and 185,000 in Makkah.Around 49 per cent of the visas were for jobs in the construction sector while nearly 12 per cent were for fishing and farming, 11 per cent for trade, eight per cent for the manufacturing sector and six per cent for communication.The private sector’s excuse for its heavy reliance on foreign workers is that the Saudi labour is characterized by low productivity and negligence…but of course this is an incorrect accusation,” said Hamza al Salim, a university economics professor in Riyadh. “The real reason is that the foreign labour is cheaper…this practice is aggravating the joblessness problem and draining the country’s financial resources since the expatriates remit most of their money abroad.”Hmmmm.....Cheap labor by foreigners is the reason,perhaps someone should tel Obama about it?Read the full story here.

'Bigoted' BBC caned by Muslim teachers

'Bigoted' BBC caned by Muslim teachers.MUSLIM teachers have blasted the BBC as “bigoted and Islamophobic” after a documentary about Muslim schools.The Panorama investigation by veteran journalist John Ware claimed children were exposed to extremist preachers and fundamentalist Islamic groups.He also revealed that a network of 40 part-time Saudi schools were offering to teach the Saudi national curriculum, and standard textbooks showed children the correct way to cut off thieves’ hands and feet.But tutors at the London School of Islamics (LSI) branded Ware an “Islam basher”.Spokesman Iftikhar Ahmad added: “The Panorama show was a confused and sensationalist bit of film-making. “Yet the Islamist schools in the documentary were all rated as good or excellent, and this was confirmed by their own presenter.” Last night the BBC said it “stood by the documentary 100%”. School watchdogs are now looking into why part-time schools can escape Ofsted inspections and will report to Education Secretary Michael Gove, 43. Read the full story here.

Lebanon to UN: Protect gas from Israel

HT:IsraelMatzav.Lebanon to UN: Protect gas from Israel.Lebanese officials accuse Israel of drilling in fields that extend into Lebanon, state denies allegations.Lebanon has asked the United Nations to protect the country's natural gas reserves along the maritime border with Israel.Lebanese officials accuse Israel of drilling in fields that extend into Lebanon. Israel denies the allegation. Last week, Texas-based Noble Energy Inc. announced an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas found in a field off Israel's Mediterranean coast.Late Tuesday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali Shami sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to "prevent Israel from exploiting Lebanon's oil and maritime wealth." The United Nations demarcated the land border separating Israel and Lebanon in 2000, but there is no official naval border.Meanwhile the UN has refused to get involved.Read the full story here.

The Debt Ceiling Debate Really Doesn’t Matter – Either Way U.S. Government Finances Are Going To Crash

HT:TheAmericanDream.The Debt Ceiling Debate Really Doesn’t Matter – Either Way U.S. Government Finances Are Going To Crash.Congratulations America, you are now 14 trillion dollars in debt. The U.S. national debt is now more than 14 times larger than it was just 30 short years ago. The federal government is literally drowning in debt. Now some members of Congress are actually debating whether we should raise the debt ceiling again. At the moment, the U.S. government debt ceiling is is set at $14.294 trillion, and considering the fact that the U.S. government is borrowing approximately 2.63 million more dollars every single minute, that cap will be reached very quickly. The U.S. Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling six times in just the past three years, so you would think that raising it again would not be that big of a deal for our debt-addicted politicians. But this past November a significant number of Tea Party candidates were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and they are eager to prove that they are serious about fiscal responsibility.So exactly what is the debt ceiling? Well, it is an arbitrary limit on U.S. government debt that is set by the U.S. Congress. The original idea of the debt ceiling was that it would keep U.S. government debt from getting out of control, but obviously that has not happened. Whenever we have started getting close to the debt ceiling Congress has always raised it. It has been raised ten different times since 2001. Now it is time to raise it again, and if it does not get raised the U.S. government could actually start defaulting on its obligations.So would the financial system really crash if the debt ceiling is reached?Well, it would certainly spook world financial markets. Whether a full-blown financial panic would erupt would depend on a lot of things.But the truth is that U.S. government finances are going to crash whether we raise the debt ceiling or not.The U.S. government is in the terminal phase of a debt spiral. Just look at the chart below. Is there a single person reading this article that actually believes that this debt is sustainable?Hmmmm......Many Years ago i predicted this would happen,now we caught up with reality.Read the full story here.

Widening cracks in Ahmadinejad's grip on power?

HT:Debka.Widening cracks in Ahmadinejad's grip on power?There are growing indications that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing his second epic struggle to stay in power since the 2009 popular riots against his election - with his back to the wall. Even the secretive revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran has been unable to conceal the widening fissures in Iran's ruling elite.debkafile's exclusive Iranian sources report that the president's situation must be dire indeed because Monday night, Jan. 3 he called off at the last minute a secret trip to Beirut by his chef de bureau and kinsman Rahim Esfandiar Mashaee for winding up a key power move in Lebanon. The need to keep his trusted confidant at his side was apparently more pressing than a key step in Iran's takeover of Lebanon. A day earlier, Ahmadinejad sacked his 14 top advisers, breaking up the inner cabinet which virtually ran the country under his control.Mashaee was to have persuaded Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to have announced the dissolution of the UN tribunal set up to probe the Rafiq Hariri assassination and try its perpetrators. He would have had to override Saad Hariri's government and cut through the Saudi-Syrian formula for solving the Lebanese crisis to pre-empt the tribunal presentation of indictments against Hizballah officials. This stratagem would have satisfied and empowered Iran's proxy as the dominant power in Beirut. This mission was important enough for Ahmadinejad order Mashaee to remain in Beirut until it was accomplished.Our Washington sources report that the White House is keenly watching the infighting and deepening splits in the clerical regime. Opinions vary as to the cause which triggered the crisis, ranging from opposition to the deep slashes Ahmadinejad ordered last month in subsidies for essential consumer goods, to dialectical differences and a straight power struggle. But they all agree that the Iranian president is fighting for his life in a struggle that is approaching a resolution.Washington sees three major forces ranged solidly against him for the first time:

1. The Iranian parliament, the Majlis, and its powerful speaker Ali Larijani, who has been working to check Ahmadinejad's limitless thirst for power for some time.
2. The generals: Never before since the 1979 Islamic Revolution have the armed forces chiefs taken a hand in Iranian politics. But they are now deeply concerned that Ahmadinejad's policies, including his push for a nuclear weapon, are bringing the country into perils it cannot withstand.
3. Long-time rival, the former president Hashem Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, the supreme body overseeing the various arms of the regime, is showing signs of recovering from the years of persecution and restrictions placed on the activities of his faction.It was noticed in Washington this week that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who habitually praises the president and his works, has stopped mentioning him in his public appearances, probably watching and waiting to see how the internal discord turns out. Also sitting on the fence are the heads of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ahmadinejad's principle buttress until now. He appears therefore to be fighting for survival singlehanded except for a hard core of the most radical ayatollahs who have backed him through thick and thin.Hmmmm....Wishfull thinking ?I hope not but,Ahmadinejad gone wont stop the regime it's path.Read the full story here. 

"Qa'ida al-Jihad" Attacks Hamas for Sentencing to Death a Muslim Who Killed a Christian.

HT:Translating Jihad."Qa'ida al-Jihad" Attacks Hamas for Sentencing to Death a Muslim Who Killed a Christian. These are the kinds of statements that would get you labeled as an "Islamic extremist" or maybe even just a "violent extremist" in Western press. But let's look at the argument here. This group Qa'ida al-Jihad is taking issue with Hamas ordering the execution of a Muslim in retribution for killing a Christian, because this is against the saying of Muhammad that "A Muslim will not be killed by an infidel." They further point out the status of Christians in a Muslim country as the People of the Book, with three choices: death, conversion to Islam, or living as second-class citizens under the 'dhimmi,' or protected, covenant, which is based on Qur'an 9:29, as well as a couple of sayings of Muhammad recorded in al-Bukhari and Muslim. If the Christian has indeed broken his dhimmi covenant by leaving the Muslim country, or by supporting a nation at war with Islam, as they're alleging Christians in Gaza have done, then by Islamic law the man becomes far game. So is this just a bunch of extremists twisting Islam, or is Islam itself fundamentally 'extreme'? It would be nice if the former were true, but all the evidence points to the latter. Just read the Qur'an, and it all makes sense.Hmmmmm....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

Austria to exhume hundreds of bodies in Nazi euthanasia probe

Austria to exhume hundreds of bodies in Nazi euthanasia probe.Over 220 bodies discovered in hospital cemetery suspected to have been buried between 1942 and 1945 as victims of a Nazi-era purge of 'unworthy' patients.Hundreds of graves found at an Austrian state hospital will be exhumed once the ground thaws to see if any are victims of a Nazi-era purge of patients deemed unworthy to live, authorities said on Tuesday.The discovery of about 220 bodies in a hospital cemetery during a construction project in Hall, near the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck, aroused suspicions that some of those buried there between 1942 and 1945 were victims of a euthanasia campaign."But one should not speak of 220 murder victims," historian Oliver Seifert told Reuters Television, noting that some of the patients buried there may have died of undernourishment or natural causes. Officials told a news conference a panel of experts would oversee the two-year project to identify the dead from hospital records and genetic samples. Nazi Germany, which annexed Austria in 1938, introduced mass killings of the physically and mentally handicapped in an effort to eradicate people deemed inferior.Thousands in Austria died in gas chambers at the Hartheim Castle euthanasia centre near Linz. At least 360 patients from the hospital in Hall were sent to their deaths before the so-called T4 euthanasia programme officially ended in August 1941, ushering in a new phase in which victims died from neglect, hunger or drug overdoses. "This phase of 'wild euthanasia' between 1942 and 1945 has really been examined in just a cursory way," Seifert said. "This is certainly a first step and a good opportunity to see what happened here and how to view it. We know that active killing went on at other institutions in Austria ... but there are no indications of this at the moment in Hall." Hmmmm...."wir haben das nicht gewusst"?Read the full story here.

India to head UNSC fight against terror

India to head UNSC fight against terror.New Delhi: India has begun her two-year-stint as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. In addition, India has been given the responsibility of heading the Security Council committee 1373 that deals with counter-terrorism. The1373 committee was formed in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US and enforces a number of global measures to tackle terrorism. Speaking to NDTV, Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative to the UN, said, "I can confirm that as of 1500 hours in New York this afternoon the silent procedure was completed and India was elected to chair the 1373 counter-terrorism committee. The Security Council will formally approve this in a few hours."NDTV: But even senior US authorities have called Pakistan the epicenter of terror. Surely no UN committee on counter terror can be taken seriously unless it cracks down on Pakistan.Ambassador Puri: I cannot get involved in a discussion on what the epicenter is etc. We will deal with the facts of the case in the 1373 resolution. It deals with the financing of terror and other such issues. The focus will have to be terrorism worldwide including in our part of the world.Hmmm....Very diplomatic answer.Read the full story here.

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the comedy stylings of Shecky Green and Nancy Pelosi!

HT:DirectorBlue.Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the comedy stylings of Shecky Green and Nancy Pelosi!She just flew in from San Francisco* and, boy, are her arms tired!Coming from the most radical and fiscally destructive House Speaker in American history -- who added $5 trillion in new deficits in just four short years -- this is comedy gold.At her final press conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go."...When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the national debt stood at [$8.67 trillion]. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi's Speakership on December 22, 2010 the national debt was [$13.9 trillion] - a roughly $5.2 trillion increase in just four years. Furthermore, the year over year federal deficit has roughly quadrupled during Pelosi's four years as speaker, from $342 billion in fiscal year 2007 to an estimated $1.6 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2010.With no end in sight.Hmmmm....If you wanted to destroy America would you do it any different?Read and see the full story here.

Turkey's 'secular survey' stirs doubts about its faith

Turkey's 'secular survey' stirs doubts about its faith.A planned government survey on the public’s attitude toward religious issues is prompting concern that secularism in Turkey could be eroded as experts debate the appropriateness of conducting such a poll.“The state doesn’t carry out surveys. They are done by research institutions. It has not been a common instrument in Turkey,” former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday.“The definition of secularism, for instance, is already clear. There is no need to conduct a survey about already-known concepts. It seems the government expects a result that is in line with their views and will make it a base for drafting the new Constitution,” he said. The country’s Religious Affairs Directorate, which has been undergoing internal restructuring, has given the go-ahead for the survey, which is slated to begin in March. Tens of thousands of citizens will be asked their opinion on public institutions, the headscarf issue, religious classes in schools, Alevi demands, the relationship between the government and religion and the directorate’s areas of service.The results of the survey will be examined after the general elections set to be held in June and are expected to shape the new constitution if the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is re-elected.“What types of questions will be asked? I can’t understand its purpose. Will the meaning and scope of secularism be determined in line with the survey results?” Türk asked in questioning the aim of the survey.“The Constitutional Court annulled the wearing of headscarves in state-run universities. Maybe they will use the survey results to bring it back onto the agenda while drafting the new Constitution,” he said.Hmmmmm....It's pretty clear for the outsider to see in what direction Erdogan is heading Turkey.The question is will it be the Egyptian or the Iranian model?Read the full story here.

The sky is the limit?Turkish fighter jets, Turkish astronauts… Turkish avatars coming soon?

The sky is the limit?Turkish fighter jets, Turkish astronauts… Turkish avatars coming soon?It is practically impossible to predict whether any future wave of WikiLeaks cables will reveal Turkish pressure on Hollywood to produce a film portraying the antics of a Turk Superman who does not eat pork or drink alcohol and is disguised as a journalist writing for a government-friendly newspaper. It is similarly impossible to predict whether cables will reveal a Turkish request for match-fixing at the 2010 World Basketball Championship’s final game, a threat to bomb Israel with future “made-in-Turkey” fighter jets, or an invitation to a U.S. ambassador in Turkey to convert to Islam. But surely, the cables are fun!The latest leaks have unveiled that the king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States president to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force One – in return for choosing Boeing’s passenger jets over those of Airbus. The Bangladeshi prime minister reportedly pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York – also in exchange for choosing Boeing over Airbus.And President Abdullah Gül, according to the cables, wanted the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit on a NASA space flight – not too difficult to guess…for Boeing planes! After Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım conveyed the request in January 2010, then U.S. ambassador to Ankara James Jeffrey called the effort to link the Boeing deal to political requests an “unwelcome, but unsurprising degree of political influence in this transaction.About a month after Ambassador Jeffrey cabled to Washington that “we probably cannot put a Turkish astronaut in orbit,” Turkish Airlines, or THY, placed an order for 20 Boeing planes – the Airbus chaps must have learned their lesson: in the next competition, they should propose a team of Turkish astronauts in orbit, not just one!In fact, what in the world of defense business could be viewed as a kind of Boeing-Airbus rivalry concerns Turkey – and imminently! In two tenders worth several billions of dollars, U.S. and European rivals are thriving to beat each other and the Turks will choose the victors this year. What will the very important Turks request in these classified deals? Is the sky the limit? A mega-sized mosque in Rome? Frozen diplomatic ties with Israel? The first Turkish nuclear bomb? It’s too hard and boring to guess.Read the full story here.

Iran arrests Christian missionaries: official.

Iran arrests Christian missionaries: official.TEHRAN — Iran has arrested a number of Christian missionaries in Tehran province and vowed to detain more of them, the provincial governor was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA on Tuesday.Morteza Tamaddon said "the leaders of this movement have been arrested in Tehran province and more will be arrested in the near future."e did not give their identities, so it was unclear whether they are foreigners, Iranians or a combination of both.Nor did he explain what he meant by their belonging to a movement, which he called "deviated" and "corrupt."He referred to them as "tabshiri," or missionaries, and likened them to the Taliban."Just like the Taliban... who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, they have crafted a movement with Britain's backing in the name of Christianity," Tamaddon said."Various kinds of fake, deviated and corrupt cults have sharpened their teeth for our beliefs and one can see their activities among the youth," he said, branding Christian missionaries as an example of "cultural onslaught" against Iran.Christianity is among the recognised religions in Iran but, under the country's Sharia-based law, renouncing Islam, or apostasy, is punishable by death.Read the full story here.

Yemen Rents Out U.S. Military Aid For Profit.

HT:JudicialWatch.Yemen Rents Out U.S. Military Aid For Profit. While millions in U.S. military aid continue pouring into Yemen, the Middle Eastern haven for Islamic militants profits from Uncle Sam’s generosity by renting out servicemen and patrol boats to lucrative operations that provide security for commercial ships.As part of a regional counter terrorism effort, the Obama Administration has deluged Yemen with hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid in the last few years. In 2009 the U.S. gave Yemen $67 million and last year the figure more than doubled to $155 million. The money is supposed to help the impoverished country’s army fight Al Qaeda by providing essential equipment like helicopters, ground vehicles, night-vision goggles and transport aircraft.It turns out that some of the military equipment furnished by the U.S. to protect Yemen’s coastline against terrorists is being exploited by the country’s Coast Guard to support a private and quite profitable security business, according to a major newspaper report published this week. The operations, protecting commercial ships from pirates, involve high-ranking officials in Yemen’s Ministry of Interior as well as its Coast Guard Authority.The U.S. government has given 24 vessels to Yemen’s coast guard since 2003 and two large “coastal protection boats” are scheduled for delivery this year, according to the news report. Commercial ship companies pay $55,000 to have the heavily armored patrol vessels escort cargo with a team of up to nine armed guards. No official comment from the Obama Administration which has proposed increasing military aid to Yemen to $250 million in 2011, a move that would require congressional approval.Hmmmm.....US Vessel for hire?Perhaps Iran can rent them for a prolonged time period?Read the full story here.

Rep. Peter King has 'nothing but contempt' for New York Times

Rep. Peter King has 'nothing but contempt' for New York Times.Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, ripped into The New York Times Tuesday for telling him in a weekend editorial to tone down his rhetoric.From King’s response, there is no indication he will do anything of the sort.“I’m absolutely delighted that The New York Times would attack me,” he said in an interview with The Hill. “I have nothing but contempt for them. They should be indicted under the Espionage Act. … The New York Times is just basically being a mouthpiece for political correctness.”“If people weren’t taking me seriously, that would be one thing,” King said. “I don’t need to take political advice from anyone else. People follow what I say. I’m outspoken, but I can back up everything I say. I am what I am and people seem to like it and I’m at peace with myself.”“I’m certainly not going to take any political advice or direction from The New York Times,” he said. “I have more contempt for The New York Times than anything or anyone I can think of.”Hmmmm.....A man with his heart on his tongue !Read the full story here.

After a Court Ruling, Turkey Frees 23 Suspected Militants

After a Court Ruling, Turkey Frees 23 Suspected Militants.ISTANBUL — More than 20 suspected militants, including members of an extreme Islamist organization, were released from Turkish jails on Tuesday after a Supreme Court of Appeals ruling that limits to 10 years the time detainees can be held without being sentenced.Eighteen members of Turkish Hezbollah — a Sunni organization unrelated to the Shiite Hezbollah group active in Lebanon — and five members of the outlawed P.K.K., an armed Kurdish independence movement, were set free after having spent more than 10 years in jail awaiting the endorsement of their sentences by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Under the Turkish legal system, any local court conviction has to be approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals before a sentence can be put into effect.The released detainees will not be able to leave the country and must report to the local police on a regular basis. Nevertheless, the prisoner releases and the prospect of many more to come — the Turkish news media have reported that more than 50,000 have applied for review of their cases — have raised concerns. At trial, as Turkish news reports repeatedly reminded the public, forensic experts testified that the Hezbollah members had executed numerous victims by burying them alive, their hands and feet tied together. Television video showed dozens of supporters celebrating as a senior member of the Turkish Hezbollah network was released from a jail in Diyarbakir, in southeast Turkey.Hmmmmm.....What did you say ?Shortage of Martires and terrorists?Don't worry we'll resolve that for you right away!Read the full story here.HT:AstuteBloggers.

Video : Russian News Discusses Rise of Communism in New York City

HT:GatewayPundit.Video : Russian News Discusses Rise of Communism in New York City.“As the economic crisis has gotten steeper in the country, it is not surprising that people are opening their minds to other ideas. Words like socialism and communism have been so stigmatized by the educational system that many people are afraid of those words. However, many studies have shown Americans support the redistribution of wealth but if you mention the socialism word they won’t agree with it anymore.”In modern day America, the specter of communism hangs over the bottom floor of a brick building on the West side of downtown New York City. It’s the Brecht Forum, which started out as the NY Marxist School in 1975. Here, communism is certainly no bogeyman and its poster-philosopher so to speak is revered. “I am a Marxist and I wanted to be around other Marxists and just to talk with other Marxists,” explained Dale. In the US that may sound a little taboo, even unpatriotic to the average Joe. But these days, amid rising poverty and inequality in the country more and more people are joining in the discussion. “I think people certainly since the financial crisis hit home and some people realized there are some systemic problems, we saw a huge influx of traffic,” said Max Uhlenback, development coordinator at the Brecht Forum.Hmmmm....."And who's supposed to be the new "Lenin"?Read the full story here.