NSC Counter-Terrorism Bureau warns of Hizbullah attack

Communicated by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Media Adviser

Hizbullah is apparently preparing to perpetrate a serious terrorist attack (murder or kidnapping) against an Israeli target, including abroad. Such a terrorist attack threatens every Israeli, especially those holding senior positions. The National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau reiterates its warnings to this effect and recommends that Israelis currently abroad adopt stricter rules of conduct in order to minimize this potential threat:

Be especially aware and sensitive regarding any exceptional phenomena. Report these to the local police.

Absolutely avoid visiting or staying in those countries under Counter-Terrorism Bureau travel warnings, especially Islamic/Arab countries.

Reject suspect and unexpected business or recreational proposals from suspect or unknown sources.

Reject invitations to unexpected meetings in remote areas and at night.

Hold meetings in crowded places, during the day and with reliable companions.

Avoid suspect lodgings.

Avoid boarding taxis that stop next to you on the street, at their initiative. Prefer to order taxis by phone.

During prolonged stays abroad, take care to vary your routine by changing your lodgings, daily habits, restaurants, etc.

SOURCE

Dershowitz eviscerates Jeremy Ben Ami, who sputters in response

J Street’s hypocrisy must be exposed

“J Street, the American organization that calls itself pro-Israel and pro peace but that always seems to be taking positions that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, is asking America’s Jewish leadership to have a big tent and to open its doors to J Street. While I generally support that position, it is imperative that J Street’s hypocrisy be exposed. J Street insists that all major pro-Israel organizations be open to speakers who favor opposing views—such as supporters of the BDS movements, supporters of the single secular binational state approach, and those who oppose Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

In the abstract, this open tent policy seems commendable. We should be committed to the open marketplace of ideas in which views prevail on their merits not on the basis of exclusion.

Now let’s see how J Street itself fares with regard to an open tent policy. It has categorically refused to allow speakers like me, who oppose J Street’s policies on Iran and other security matters, to speak to its members at its conventions. I have repeatedly and persistently sought an opportunity to present my perspective—which is shared by many American supporters of Israel—at the J Street convention, or at other events officially sponsored by J Street. When J Street invites BDS supporters and those oppose Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people to speak at its events, it claims that it does not necessarily support these positions, but it believes in encouraging its members to hear views that are different from its official positions. That is total nonsense. J Street only wants people to hear views to the anti-Israel hard left of its position. It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own.”

Video: The Facts of Life are Conservative

Venezuela to Probe Crossword Puzzles’ Role in Protests

Crossword puzzles in a local Venezuelan newspaper are calling readers to violent protests with conspiratorial messages, the country’s information minister said today.

Delcy Rodriguez called for an investigation of El Aragueno daily from the industrial town of Maracay, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Caracas for putting “encrypted messages” in its puzzles, she said in a post on her Twitter account. She didn’t give any details.

One person died in Maracay in a month and a half of protests against the government’s handling of an economic crisis that has pushed inflation to the highest in the world and led to shortages of basic items. At least 35 people have died in the protests, according to President Nicolas Maduro.

Brain teasers have triggered the alarm of Venezuela’s socialist government before. In May 2012, state television accused the biggest national newspaper Ultimas Noticias of trying to organize the assassination of then-President Hugo Chavez through coded crossword messages. Chavez died from cancer a year later.

An Information Ministry spokesman, who can’t be named because of internal policy, declined to comment on the investigation plans. El Aragueno editor Corina Rodriguez wasn’t immediately available for comment.

SOURCE

Video: Syrian Athlete Finds New Use for His Skills

Syria’s shot-put champion has found a new use for his skills.

The athlete, Abu Al-Kazem, is now a commander of a brigade of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Deir Al-Zour. He uses his athletic talent to throw large and heavy bombs, which others find difficult to throw.

Egyptian Columnist: Egypt Should Sue Israel For The Ten Plagues, Turkey For The Ottoman Occupation, France For The Napoleonic Invasion, And Britain For Colonialism

“We want compensation for the [Ten] Plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh as the Torah calls him, committed. For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the Children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people. [But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.”

Coming Soon to Gaza: Lashes in Criminal Code

Hamas is taking another step towards the full implementation of strict Islamic Sharia law in Gaza, and is planning to introduce a penalty of lashes for certain criminal offenses.

Nafez Al-Madhoun, the secretary of Hamas’s parliament in Gaza, said on Tuesday that the government is working on passing a new law pertaining to lashes. Speaking in an interview with a local newspaper, Madhoun said that the provisions of the new law will include a range of between 80 lashes for major offenses to 20 lashes for minor crimes.

Madhoun further explained that a change in the Penal Code to include lashes is required, in light of the reality where the current law does not deter criminals, who view the Gaza prisons as a place for a vacation.

He also noted that the lashes can accumulate depending on the number of offenses of which the defendant was convicted in court. If the convicted criminal’s life may be in danger due to the lashes, they may be done in several batches.

Israel and Canada to Collaborate on Nuclear Terror Prevention

After their meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague this week, Israel’s Minister of Intelligence Dr. Yuval Steinitz and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird announced the launch of a joint project to develop technology for identifying sources of nuclear terror attacks.

The great oil-sands cancer scare

Last month, a crusading Canadian doctor named John O’Connor appeared at a hearing in Washington to warn about the deadly effects of the oil sands. Environmental toxins leaking into the water and the food chain are causing elevated rates of cancer in local communities, he insisted. He told reporters he is trying to shine a light on the “callous indifference” toward the health of those who live downstream from the oil sands. He got a warm reception from Barbara Boxer, an anti-Keystone senator who warned that a new pipeline full of dirty oil would put Americans at risk too. “How are more Americans with cancer in the national interest?” she asked.

Dr. O’Connor once practised medicine in Fort Chipewyan, Alta., a predominantly aboriginal community on the edge of Lake Athabasca. About a decade ago, he began claiming that the residents were suffering from a high rate of unusual cancers. Celebrity quickly ensued. Today, the people who live in Fort Chip are convinced they are being poisoned, and their community has become the leading example of the oil sands’ harmful health effects. Environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council claim that Fort Chip’s cancer rate is 30 per cent higher than normal.

The good news (or bad news, depending on your point of view) is that it simply isn’t true.

Jordan court rules women who don’t wear hijab are ‘sluts’

Even as the world moves forward and keeps raising the glass ceiling where women are concerned, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan left the world in a shock last week when a court ruled that a woman who does not wear the Islamic hijab should be considered a “slut”.

In its ruling, the court said that it agreed with one lawyer’s statement which was based on a fatwa that said that a woman who does not cover up or wear a hijab is considered a “slut” and shouldn’t be allowed to testify in court.

CSIS tracking 80 Canadians who came home after going abroad for ‘terrorist purposes’

Intelligence officials are aware of about 80 Canadians who have returned home after going overseas for “terrorist purposes,” according to speaking notes prepared for the director of the nation’s spy agency.

The document obtained by Postmedia News does not offer explicit information about their activities, though it makes it clear that not all were involved in combat. While some individuals may have engaged in paramilitary activities, others are believed to have studied in extremist Islamic schools or provided logistical or fundraising support. Others never achieved their goals and simply returned home.

The so-called “foreign fighter” phenomenon has become a growing concern for the intelligence community, stoking fears that individuals could return to Canada more radicalized than when they left.

Human traffickers going unpunished in Canada

After nearly a decade, a law designed to catch human traffickers who exploit vulnerable people has netted few charges and even fewer convictions in Canada, anti-trafficking advocates complain.

Paris Jewish teacher has nose broken, swastika drawn on chest

“They pressed him to the wall and hit his face, around the eyes and on his chest,” the report said. The blows broke his nose and deformed it, according to the report.

“One of the perpetrators opened the victim’s shirt and with a black marker drew a swastika on the man’s bare chest”.

Shameful

Click the image.

Video: A Pregnant Woman Learns Her Baby Has Down Syndrome. People Who Have It Answer Her One Big Question

Iran to forfeit $7M in Canadian assets for supporting terrorism

An Ontario judge has ordered the seizure of more than $7 million worth of bank accounts and property belonging to Iran, in a historic ruling that will turn over the assets to victims of militant groups that it bankrolled.

The decision represents a groundbreaking victory for likely an array of litigants ranging from the families of two Americans who were held hostage in Beirut to a B.C. dentist who was badly burned in a 1997 Jerusalem suicide bombing.

“Is this a Jihadi in Toronto protruding his middle finger in the face of the rest of Canada?”

Click the image.

UK’s first female genital mutilation prosecutions announced

It was alleged that following a patient giving birth in November 2012, a doctor at the Whittington Hospital repaired female genital mutilation that had previously been performed on the woman, allegedly carrying out female genital mutilation himself.

Ms Saunders said: “Having carefully considered all the available evidence, I have determined there is sufficient evidence and it would be in the public interest to prosecute Dr Dhanoun Dharmasena for an offence contrary to S1 (1) of the Female Genital Mutilation Act (2003).

“I have also determined that Hasan Mohamed should face one charge of intentionally encouraging an offence of FGM, contrary to section 44(1) of the Serious Crime Act (2007), and a second charge of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring Dr Dharmasena to commit an offence contrary to S1 (1) of the Female Genital Mutilation Act (2003).

“Dad didn’t know that she had passed, and she didn’t know that he had passed”

In more than four decades of married life, Tom Shirley, a former state game warden, explored the Everglades — and more distant locales — with his wife Naomi at his side.

Saturday, the couple embarked on their final adventure together. They died separately at the same hospital, 15 minutes apart, unknown to each other.

Arabs of East Jerusalem hurl live puppies instead of rocks at the IDF

“A sickening development near the security barrier in Abu Dis, East of Jerusalem. Arabs threw four bags with live puppies from behind the high concrete walls at a border police patrol while on duty. The stunned police were still able hear the puppies whimpering. Upon opening the bags and found three puppies had died on the spot, and another puppy dying. The puppy was transferred immediately to a vet, but died a short time later.”

SOURCE

Hamas Ponders Referendum to Incorporate Gaza into Russia

According to the pro-Hamas Palestine Information Center there are around 50,000 Russian women in Gaza imported as brides who are proposing a referendum to have Gaza follow Crimea by seeking anschluss with Russia.

Gym tells woman to cover up because her ‘toned body’ intimidated others

A California woman says a popular gym that prides itself on “no gymtimidation”recently violated that rule when its employees told her to cover up because of her “toned physique.”

Tiffany Austin, a Los Angeles-area vocalist and lyricist, told HLN Wednesday that she was walking on the treadmill at a Planet Fitness Monday in Richmond when she noticed stares from some of the other patrons around her.

Austin, who said she was wearing capri pants and a tank top, claims that’s when she was approached by gym employees who said they had received complaints about her body.

“The first one said, ‘You’re intimidating people with your toned body, your toned physique,’” she told HLN. “If I’m intimidating someone I thought I had to be harassing them or something, I’m like, wow, just being who I am is an infraction of some sort?” The staffer said that she had to cover up and offered to give her a loaner shirt, which she accepted.

Austin says she thought the incident was over, but it quickly escalated.

U.S. Lets Gitmo Terrorist Publish Letter About Suffering, Abuse at Prison

The Obama administration has allowed a fighter in Osama bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade to publish a sob letter in an international media outlet describing the “humiliating and brutal treatments” he suffers at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.

Earlier in the year the administration let the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), dispatch propaganda from his Guantanamo jail cell, undoubtedly aiding and abetting more terrorism. That was disgraceful enough; allowing the Al Qaeda operative, an enemy combatant who’s admitted being the architect of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, to issue a manifesto from his military prison cell. Besides boasting of waging jihad against the U.S., KSM’s Pentagon file confirms he’s a senior Al Qaeda recruiter, financier and operational planner for the group’s global terrorist network.

This month another Islamic jihadist, Moath al-Alwi, was allowed to publish his propaganda from a Gitmo prison cell. Al-Alwi is a Yemeni national who served as Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, according to his Pentagon file. He is a top Al Qaeda operative and a “veteran jihadist and fighter in UBL’s 55th Arab Brigade who participated in hostilities against the U.S. and Coalition forced on the front lines and in UBL’s Tora Bora mountain complex,” the Department of Defense (DOD) assessment says. The file also includes details of al-Alwi’s elite, hand-to-hand combat training and lengthy stays at Al Qaeda guest houses in various locations, including Kandahar.

Not surprisingly, these extensive terrorist credentials and training aren’t mentioned in al-Alwi’s lengthy letter, which was published internationally by the Arab news conglomerate Al Jazeera. The headline reads: “A letter from Guantanamo: Nobody can truly understand how we suffer.”

Sonja and Sasha Power were told not to touch, face or teach a brand new student in their martial arts class at a public rec centre in Halifax

The man was a fundamentalist Muslim and he refused to interact with any females in the co-ed class. The instructor accomodated the newcomer.

After a few classes, the man handed out a book on Islam that gave tips on wife beating and said women not shrouded in Islamic dress are asking for it.

America’s Internet Surrender

The Internet is often described as a miracle of self-regulation, which is almost true. The exception is that the United States government has had ultimate control from the beginning. Washington has used this oversight only to ensure that the Internet runs efficiently and openly, without political pressure from any country.

This was the happy state of affairs until last Friday, when the Obama administration made the surprise announcement it will relinquish its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, which assigns and maintains domain names and Web addresses for the Internet. Russia, China and other authoritarian governments have already been working to redesign the Internet more to their liking, and now they will no doubt leap to fill the power vacuum caused by America’s unilateral retreat.

Why would the U.S. put the open Internet at risk by ceding control over Icann? Administration officials deny that the move is a sop to critics of the National Security Agency’s global surveillance. But many foreign leaders have invoked the Edward Snowden leaks as reason to remove U.S. control—even though surveillance is an entirely separate topic from Internet governance.

According to the administration’s announcement, the Commerce Department will not renew its agreement with Icann, which dates to 1998. This means, effective next year, the U.S. will no longer oversee the “root zone file,” which contains all names and addresses for websites world-wide. If authoritarian regimes in Russia, China and elsewhere get their way, domains could be banned and new ones not approved for meddlesome groups such as Ukrainian-independence organizations or Tibetan human-rights activists.

Until late last week, other countries knew that Washington would use its control over Icann to block any such censorship. The U.S. has protected engineers and other nongovernment stakeholders so that they can operate an open Internet. Authoritarian regimes from Moscow to Damascus have cut off their own citizens’ Internet access, but the regimes have been unable to undermine general access to the Internet, where no one needs any government’s permission to launch a website. The Obama administration has now endangered that hallmark of Internet freedom.

Meanwhile, in the socialist paradise of Venezuela…….

Alvaro Villarueda starts his morning the same way every day — putting in a call to his friend who has a friend who works at a Caracas, Venezuela, supermarket.

Today, he’s looking for sugar, and he’s asking his friend if he knows if any shipments have arrived. As he talks on the phone, his wife Lisbeth Nello, is in the kitchen.

There are 10 mouths to feed every day in this family — five of them children. The two youngest are still in diapers.

“The things that are the scarcest are actually what we need the most,” Nello says. “Flour, cooking oil, butter, milk, diapers. I spent last week hunting for diapers everywhere. The situation is really tough for basic goods.”

Student-led demonstrations have been roiling Venezuela for more than a month. At least 28 people have been killed and dozens wounded in confrontations between security forces and those who have taken to the streets.

The list of grievances — rising crime, inflation — is long, but the main one for many is the scarcity of basic foodstuffs.

As with everything in Venezuela, the reasons given for the food shortages depend on political affiliation. The government says it’s the result of unscrupulous businessmen waging an economic war and hoarding by regular people afraid of shortages.

Those in the opposition blame a system that imposes price controls, the lack of money to buy imports and problems in the supply chain after the expropriation of farms and factories by the socialist government.

MORE

In the last year, more than 220 Syrians have been treated at Israel’s expense at the Nahariya hospital

Israel has a tradition of offering humanitarian assistance in war zones and natural disasters around the world, even where it is not particularly welcome. But treating Syrians, whose country is still officially at war with Israel, is not only a logistical miracle but an extraordinary exercise in humanity trumping hate.

The Internet Arguing Checklist

“Do you ever find yourself arguing with liberals on the internet? Are you tired of people telling you about how awesome free healthcare is for the economy? Or how you should just shut up and pay your fair share because crack whores need iPhones too? Or how we should ban the super ultra-deadly assault rifle AR-15 shotgun Glock? Or been asked why do you hate old people, you cismale gendernormative fascist, hatey-McHaterton-hatey-hate-hatemongering racist?”

H/T FFF

Video: Pali terrorists fire rockets from civilian areas

Ho hum,  hiding behind women and children.

Israeli scientist: Stronger immune system could cure Alzheimer’s

Schwartz explains that the central nervous system (made up of the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve) controls the entire body, including the immune system. But because the brain is isolated from the immune system, neuroscientists believed that immune cells are harmful to the brain, and therefore should be kept away from it.

As a result, whenever a person suffered a spinal cord injury or a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or ALS — and his immune system immediately responded locally – doctors would prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent the immune cells from getting into and damaging the brain.

“I decided to examine this dogma from an evolutionary standpoint,” says Schwartz, who felt the prevailing wisdom was inherently illogical. “Scientists/clinicians now know how to transplant almost every organ in the body, other than the brain. It was hard for me to believe that an organ that cannot be replaced would so severely lack a system to help it heal.”

B.O. Cuts $200 Million From Israeli Missile Defense Partnership

President Barack Obama has slashed U.S. contributions to Israel’s ballistic missile defense programs.

The Obama administration has proposed a reduction of nearly $200 million in joint U.S.-Israel BMD programs. The 2015 budget would hamper such existing programs as Israel’s Arrow-2, Arrow-3 and David’s Sling.

“This is very disappointing and it is irresponsible to cut funding to a steadfast ally in an extremely volatile region of the world,” Rep. Doug Lamborn, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said.

In all, the Israeli programs would receive $96.8 million in fiscal 2015. In previous years, Congress restored cuts proposed by Obama for Israeli defense programs, including $95 million for fiscal 2014.

Under the latest budget, Israel’s Iron Dome missile and rocket system would also wind down. Supporters in Congress have urged the renewal of funds for Iron Dome, which intercepted scores of rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip over the last two years.

In one generation, Iran has been hit by one of the most rapid declines in fertility ever recorded

Qassem Ali-Loui was feted as a hero with interviews on state television, gifts, a tour of Milad Tower, Iran’s tallest building, and a free lunch at its revolving restaurant together with his wife and 19 children.

A lifetime of prodigious procreation has made the farmer, whose family work fields in western Azerbaijan province, an unlikely poster boy for government efforts to reverse a plunge in fertility. Iran risks going prematurely grey, blighting the future of an economy pummeled for almost a decade by international sanctions and undermining its regional ambitions.

Births in Iran dropped to 1.6 children per woman in 2012 from 6.4 three decades earlier, UN data shows. The rate fell below that needed to prevent the population shrinking after Iran, its finances pummelled by a 1980s war with neighbour Iraq, scrapped incentives for larger families, and more women chose to study longer or find work.

“In one generation, Iran registered one of the most rapid fertility declines ever recorded in human history,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, who conducts demographic research. It took Europe 300 years to record a similar drop, he said. “I’m sceptical that this trend can be reversed,” Eberstadt said.

Today in revolting Muslim savagery

A Saudi preacher accused of raping, torturing and killing his five-year-old daughter, has reportedly been released from custody after agreeing to pay “blood money”.

Fayhan al-Ghamdi was sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes in 2013.

The court also ordered al-Ghamdi to pay his ex-wife, the girl’s mother, one million riyals ($270,000) in “blood money”.

According to some reports, al-Ghamdi had suspected his daughter had lost her virginity and had tortured her accordingly.

Al-Ghamdi’s daughter Lama suffered multiple injuries including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and extensive bruising and burns.

It was reported that al-Ghamdi had suspected his daughter of losing her virginity and had beaten her and molested her in response.

It was even suggested that he had raped her himself, although this was denied by Lama’s mother.

The preacher – who is considered a celebrity in Saudi Arabia and often appears on Saudi television – admitted he used a cane and cables to inflict the injuries after doubting his five-year-old daughter’s virginity and taking her to a doctor, according to the campaign group Women to Drive.

Lama died ten months later.

Al-Ghamdi, however, has now been released as “blood money and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama’s death suffices as punishment” a judge ruled, according to Albawaba News.

Al-Ghamdi served only a few months in jail before a judge ruled the prosecution could only seek blood money.

The money is considered compensation under Islamic law, although it is only half the amount that would have been paid if Lama had been a boy.

Despite the fact Saudi Arabia hands out sentences of capital punishment, fathers cannot be executed for murdering their children in the country, Women to Drive said.

Many activists were disappointed that al-Ghamdi did not receive a life sentence.

The Times reported sources in the Saudi capital Riyadh as saying the royal family has been outraged over the release, with senior members intervening to ensure a stricter punishment is given.

One source told the newspaper, “The royal court is now looking at the case. He [al-Ghamdi] will stay in prison for a long time.”

The release saw people taking to the social media to voice their dissent and outrage. On Twitter, the hashtag #AnaLama (which translates into “I Am Lama”) has been set up.

SOURCE

Los Angeles Gang Members Fight In Syria Alongside Pro-Hizbullah, Pro-Assad Forces

Videos and images that surfaced recently show members of Los Angeles gangs fighting in Syria alongside pro-Hizbullah and pro-Assad forces. Two gang members, “Creeper,” from the G’d Up-13 gang and “Wino,” from the Westside Armenian Power gang, filmed themselves shooting AK-47s and boasting of being on the “front lines.” Wino, aka “Wino Ayee Peeyakan,” whose real name is Nerses Kilajyan, uploaded the images and videos to his Facebook profile.

Footage of 9/11 unfolding from SPACE filmed by astronaut whose friend was killed in terror attack

Click the image.

3 Gulf Countries Pull Ambassadors From Qatar Over Its Support of Islamists

Tensions between Qatar and neighboring Persian Gulf monarchies broke out Wednesday when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from the country over its support of the Muslim Brotherhood and allied Islamists around the region.