Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Fwd: Deception and Ground Zero Mosque

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf claims his mosque at 9/11 "ground zero" will be a "community cultural center" for "multi-faith dialogue."

Perhaps the Manhattan Borough president and the New York Community Board members who've been duped by this soothing talk should have taken a short course in taqiyya, sharia law's sanctioning of deception.

They should have looked more closely at Rauf's words and writings. Especially those in Arabic. Check out the Pajamas Media story below (highlights added).

What is being foisted on not just New York, but on America, is a "victory shrine," a monument to sharia law and the supremacist ideology of radical Islam—at the very site where nearly 3,000 were murdered by adherents to this ideology.

Remember—the proposed grand opening is September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the most horrific jihadist attack on American soil in history. Symbolism in the Muslim world matters.

Ground Zero Imam: 'I Don't Believe in Religious Dialogue'

Exclusive new translations from Arabic websites reveal Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf seriously misleads New Yorkers about his intention to infiltrate Sharia law through his Ground Zero mosque. (Don't miss PJTV's coverage of the Ground Zero mosque story.)

May 27, 2010
- by Walid Shoebat

Is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf — founder of the hugely controversial Ground Zero mosque — lying to the American public and his fellow New Yorkers?

Pajamas Media has uncovered extraordinary contradictions between what he says in English and what he says in Arabic that raise serious questions about his true intentions in the construction of the mosque.

On May 25, 2010, Abdul Rauf wrote an article for the New York Daily News insisting:

My colleagues and I are the anti-terrorists. We are the people who want to embolden the vast majority of Muslims who hate terrorism to stand up to the radical rhetoric. Our purpose is to interweave America's Muslim population into the mainstream society. [emphasis added]

Oh, really?

Only two months before, on March 24, 2010, Abdul Rauf is quoted in an article in Arabic for the website Rights4All entitled "The Most Prominent Imam in New York: 'I Do Not Believe in Religious Dialogue.'"

Yes, you read that correctly and, yes, that is an accurate translation of Abdul Rauf. And Right4All is not an obscure blog, but the website of the media department of Cairo University, the leading educational institution of the Arabic-speaking world.

In the article, the imam said the following of the "religious dialogue" and "interweaving into the mainstream society" that he so solemnly seems to advocate in the Daily News and elsewhere:

This phrase is inaccurate. Religious dialogue as customarily understood is a set of events with discussions in large hotels that result in nothing. Religions do not dialogue and dialogue is not present in the attitudes of the followers, regardless of being Muslim or Christian. The image of Muslims in the West is complex which needs to be remedied.

But that was two months ago. More recently — in fact on May 26, one day after his Daily News column – Abdul Rauf appeared on the popular Islamic website Hadiyul-Islam with even more disturbing opinions. That's the same website where, ironically enough, a fatwa was simultaneously being issued forbidding a Muslim to sell land to a Christian, because the Christian wanted to build a church on it.

In his interview on Hadiyul-Islam by Sa'da Abdul Maksoud, Abdul Rauf was asked his views on Sharia (Islamic religious law) and the Islamic state. He responded:

Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern. It is known that there are sets of standards that are accepted by [Muslim] scholars to organize the relationships between government and the governed. [emphasis added]

When questioned about this, Abdul Rauf continued: "Current governments are unjust and do not follow Islamic laws." He added:

New laws were permitted after the death of Muhammad, so long of course that these laws do not contradict the Quran or the Deeds of Muhammad … so they create institutions that assure no conflicts with Sharia. [emphasis in translation]

In yet plainer English, forget the separation of church and state. Abdul Rauf's goal is the imposition of Shariah law — in every country, even democratic ones like the U.S.

But these attitudes are nothing new for the (alas, few) people who have been paying attention. Way back on September 30, 2001, Feisal Abdul Rauf was interviewed on 60 Minutes by host Ed Bradley. Their verbatim dialogue from this CBS News transcript concluded:

BRADLEY: Are — are — are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

BRADLEY: OK. You say that we're an accessory?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Yes.

BRADLEY: How?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Because we have been an accessory to a lot of — of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it — in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

This is the "anti-terrorist" of the Daily News article?

The Feisal Abdul Rauf who spoke to 60 Minutes in 2001 is the same Abdul Rauf who, in the last couple of months, espoused the spread of Sharia law on Arabic websites and said the opposite in the pages of the Daily News. He is the man New York City authorities are about to allow to build a mosque on Ground Zero.

Caveat emptor. Meanwhile, perhaps some enterprising reporter should ask Abdul Rauf his opinion of that fatwa forbidding Muslims from selling land to Christians who intend to build a church on it.

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Re: Talk about a really and truly classy lady

Bravo, Mrs. "V"

On Jun 1, 10:43 am, dick thompson <rhomp2...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Positivity: Letters From Home
> <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2010/06/01/positivity-letters-from-home/>
>
> Filed under: Positivity <http://www.bizzyblog.com/category/positivity/>,
> US & Allied Military <http://www.bizzyblog.com/category/us-military/>
> --- TBlumer @ 5:57 am
>
> From Ridgefield, Connecticut
> <http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/16/letters-from-home/> (HT
> Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters
> <http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/05/30/memorial-day-sp...>):
>
> Doris Ventres is considered a real American Hero by many people in
> her hometown of Ridgefield Connecticut, and it's easy to see why.
>
> "Mrs. V" as shes known, has been hand writing letters to U.S.
> soldiers from Ridgefield serving overseas for 42 years. This 82-year
> old 8th generation Ridgefielder was inspired to start her letter
> writing campaign one day while walking out of her local church. She
> explains, "I saw this nice plaque, a beautiful bronze plaque, in
> memory of two of the boys that had been killed at war. In fact, I
> went to school with one of them -- and I thought -- you know, why
> can't we do something about it before they are gone?"
>
> That's when she got the idea to send hand written notes, detailing
> all the "goings on" at home, so that the troops from Ridgefield
> would feel included in the town's activities. Church plays, the
> changing of the colors of trees, even what the local fishermen were
> catching, no one has missed a thing thanks to Mrs. V.
>
> Doris knows first hand just how much a letter from home can mean to
> someone serving overseas. Her husband George was in the Navy, as
> well as her father-in-law. Doris and George have been married for 62
> years, and still live in the home that they built with their own
> hands. (George says Doris was even up on the roof pounding nails
> with a hammer and did a great job!) They have two sons, Tad and
> Dale, and have two grandchildren.
>
> The couple that met at a square dance, and went fishing on their
> second date, have a lifelong commitment to their family and
> community that has given back to them many times over. Earlier this
> year, one veteran who spent two tours of duty in Iraq with the U.S.
> Air Force organized a special surprise event for Mrs. V to honor her
> hard work. One retired Army major who remembers a letter Doris wrote
> him while serving in Kuwait in 1991 told the crowd "The letters we
> got from her were a lifeline back to the world we came from.. They
> were like a cool drink of water."
>
> Many troops are so happy to hear from her, they not only write her
> back from the field, but stay in touch with her after they are
> discharged.
>
> Troops write her back It's something that keeps her smiling from ear
> to ear. Doris has an entire room in her house dedicated to her
> letter writing, and keeps every memento, letter, and flag she has
> received over the years. She calls it her "Memory Room." ...

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shelters of the death in Baghdad

Sahab has three blogs, each dedicated to collecting articles about a
controversial Iraq shelter
al-Jadriya Shelter, where torture of Sunnis was systematic during the
tumultuous administration of Interior minister Badr-affiliated Baqir
Solagh in 2005
http://aljadriya.blogspot.com

al-Hanaan Orphanage, where unfed and unattended children were
found locked up in 2007
http://alhanaan.blogspot.com

al-Amiriya Shelter which was bombed by Ameican warplanes during the
1991 war
http://alamriya.blogspot.com

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Glitch shows how much US military relies on GPS

Glitch shows how much US military relies on GPS
By DAN ELLIOTT

DENVER (AP)

A problem that rendered as many as 10,000 U.S. military GPS receivers useless for days is a warning to safeguard a system that enemies would love to disrupt, a defense expert says.

The Air Force has not said how many weapons, planes or other systems were affected or whether any were in use in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the problem, blamed on incompatible software, highlights the military's reliance on the Global Positioning System and the need to protect technology that has become essential for protecting troops, tracking vehicles and targeting weapons.

"Everything that moves uses it," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, which tracks military and homeland security news. "It is so central to the American style of war that you just couldn't leave home without it."

The problem occurred when new software was installed in ground control systems for GPS satellites on Jan. 11, the Air Force said.

Officials said between 8,000 at 10,000 receivers could have been affected, out of more than 800,000 in use across the military.

In a series of e-mails to The Associated Press, the Air Force initially blamed a contractor for defective software in the affected receivers but later said it was a compatibility issue rather than a defect. The Air Force didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification.

The Air Force said it hadn't tested the affected receivers before installing the new software in the ground control system.

One program still in development was interrupted but no weapon systems already in use were grounded as a result of the problem, the Air Force said. The Air Force said some applications with the balky receivers suffered no problems from the temporary GPS loss.

An Air Force document said the Navy's X-47B, a jet-powered, carrier-based drone under development, was interrupted by the glitch. Air Force officials would not comment beyond that on what systems were affected.

Navy spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove confirmed the X-47B's receivers were affected but said it caused no program delays.

At least 100 U.S. defense systems rely on GPS, including aircraft, ships, armored vehicles, bombs and artillery shells.

Because GPS makes weapons more accurate, the military needs fewer warheads and fewer personnel to take out targets. But a leaner, GPS-dependent military becomes dangerously vulnerable if the technology is knocked out.

James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the glitch was a warning "in the context where people are every day trying to figure out how to disrupt GPS."

The Air Force said it took less than two weeks for the military to identify the cause and begin devising and installing a temporary fix. It did not say how long it took to install the temporary fix everywhere it was needed, but said a permanent fix is being distributed.

All the affected receivers were manufactured by a division of Trimble Navigation Limited of Sunnyvale, Calif., according to the Air Force. The military said it ran tests on some types of receivers before it upgraded ground control systems with the new software in January, but the tests didn't include the receivers that had problems.

The Air Force said it traced the problem to the Trimble receivers' software. Trimble said it had no problems when it tested the receivers, using Air Force specifications, before the ground-control system software was updated.

Civilian receivers use different signals and had no problems.

Defense industry consultant James Hasik said it's not shocking some receivers weren't tested. GPS started as a military system in the 1970s but has exploded into a huge commercial market, and that's where most innovation takes place.

"It's hard to track everything," said Hasik, co-author of "The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare."

The Air Force said it's acquiring more test receivers for a broader sample of military and civilian models and developing longer and more thorough tests for military receivers to avoid a repeat of the January problem.

The Air Force said the software upgrade was to accommodate a new generation of GPS satellites, called Block IIF. The first of the 12 new satellites was launched from a Delta 4 rocket Thursday after several delays.

In addition to various GPS guided weapons systems, the Army often issues GPS units to squads of soldiers on patrol in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases a team of two or three soldiers is issued a receiver so they can track their location using signals from a constellation of 24 satellites.

Space and Missile Systems Center spokesman Joe Davidson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the system is safe from hackers or enemy attack.

"We are extremely confident in the safety and security of the GPS system from enemy attack," he said, noting that control rooms are on secure military bases and communications are heavily encrypted.

"Since GPS' inception, there has never been a breach of GPS," Davidson said. He added that Air Force is developing a new generation of encrypted military receivers for stronger protection.

The military also has tried to limit the potential for human error by making the GPS control system highly automated, Davidson said.

GPS satellites orbit about 12,000 miles above Earth, making them hard to reach with space weapons, said Hasik, the defense industry consultant. And if the GPS master control station at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., were knocked out, a backup station at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., could step in.

Iraq tried jamming GPS signals during the 2003 U.S. invasion, but the U.S. took out the jammer with a GPS-guided bomb, Hasik said.

The technology needed to jam GPS signals is beyond the reach of groups like the Taliban and most Third World nations, Hasik said. Jamming is difficult over anything but a small area.

"The harder you try to mess with it, the more energy you need. And the more energy you use, the easier it is for me to find your jammer," Hasik said.

More worrisome, Hasik said, is the potential for an accident within U.S. ranks that can produce anything from an errant bomb to sending troops or weaponry on the wrong course.

In 2001, a GPS-guided bomb dropped by a Navy F-18 missed its target by a mile and landed in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, possibly killing four people. The military said wrong coordinates had been entered into the targeting system.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100601/D9G2G6IO0.html

Report says DOJ not fully prepared for WMD attack

By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department has failed to put together an adequate plan for responding to an attack involving weapons of mass destruction, the inspector general at the agency said Tuesday.

In a new report, the IG said the department does not assign a single entity or individual responsibility for managing a response to a WMD incident.

The report said there are no specific operational response plans for a WMD event in place at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; or the U.S. Marshals Service. None of those three Justice Department components provides training for responding to a WMD incident or regularly participates in WMD response exercises, the report also stated.

"We found the response planning among all the components, including the FBI, to be inconsistent and not well coordinated," Inspector General Glenn Fine said.

Only the FBI has taken adequate steps to prepare a response to a potential WMD strike, the IG added.

The Justice Department agreed that it should do more to coordinate emergency response activities.

"Preventing terrorist attacks, including WMD attacks, is the department's highest priority," the deputy attorney general's office wrote in a letter to the IG.

The deputy attorney general's office said it has given the FBI lead responsibility in preventing WMD attacks in the United States and in responding to WMD attacks should they occur.

"We also agree that the FBI is not the only department entity responsible for addressing WMD attacks, and that the entire department must be prepared to respond effectively to a WMD attack or any other emergency event should one occur," the letter to the IG added.

A person in the deputy attorney general's office will be designated to oversee the department's emergency response activities and a committee representing various department components will ensure that all issues are promptly addressed, the deputy attorney general's office said in the letter.

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=27&sid=1970104

Check the last comment- really makes Media Matters look small - and the local paper has it about right IMNSHO

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2010/05/31/pathetic-obsession-palins-hometown-paper-notes-national-media-interest-in-new-neighbor-privacy-fence/

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Talk about a really and truly classy lady

Positivity: Letters From Home

Filed under: Positivity, US & Allied Military — TBlumer @ 5:57 am

From Ridgefield, Connecticut (HT Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters):

Doris Ventres is considered a real American Hero by many people in her hometown of Ridgefield Connecticut, and it’s easy to see why.

“Mrs. V” as shes known, has been hand writing letters to U.S. soldiers from Ridgefield serving overseas for 42 years. This 82-year old 8th generation Ridgefielder was inspired to start her letter writing campaign one day while walking out of her local church. She explains, “I saw this nice plaque, a beautiful bronze plaque, in memory of two of the boys that had been killed at war. In fact, I went to school with one of them – and I thought – you know, why can’t we do something about it before they are gone?”

That’s when she got the idea to send hand written notes, detailing all the “goings on” at home, so that the troops from Ridgefield would feel included in the town’s activities. Church plays, the changing of the colors of trees, even what the local fishermen were catching, no one has missed a thing thanks to Mrs. V.

Doris knows first hand just how much a letter from home can mean to someone serving overseas. Her husband George was in the Navy, as well as her father-in-law. Doris and George have been married for 62 years, and still live in the home that they built with their own hands. (George says Doris was even up on the roof pounding nails with a hammer and did a great job!) They have two sons, Tad and Dale, and have two grandchildren.

The couple that met at a square dance, and went fishing on their second date, have a lifelong commitment to their family and community that has given back to them many times over. Earlier this year, one veteran who spent two tours of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force organized a special surprise event for Mrs. V to honor her hard work. One retired Army major who remembers a letter Doris wrote him while serving in Kuwait in 1991 told the crowd “The letters we got from her were a lifeline back to the world we came from.. They were like a cool drink of water.”

Many troops are so happy to hear from her, they not only write her back from the field, but stay in touch with her after they are discharged.

Troops write her back It’s something that keeps her smiling from ear to ear. Doris has an entire room in her house dedicated to her letter writing, and keeps every memento, letter, and flag she has received over the years. She calls it her “Memory Room.” …

wonder if the MSM will ever report this one

THE Fundamental Truth About Americans’ Views on Abortion: We’re NOT ‘Pro-Choice’

Filed under: Economy, Life-Based News, MSM Biz/Other Bias, MSM Biz/Other Ignorance — TBlumer @ 8:29 am

The key paragraph at William McGurn’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal (”Gallup’s Pro-Life America”):

Lydia Saad, a senior editor for Gallup, puts it this way. “On the one hand, the majority of Americans do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, and think abortion should be legal in at least a few circumstances. On the other, most Americans favor legal restrictions on abortion that go way beyond current law.”

Beyond that (not noted by McGurn), most Americans would not approve of abortion in a wide variety of situations. One of the best-kept secrets in America is in the following graph:

GallupOnAbortion1975-2009

Translation: 37 years after Roe v. Wade, and despite decades of establishment media and education-system brainwashing efforts, the true definition of “pro-choice,” which is that abortion should be legal in any circumstances, remains a viewpoint that is firmly in the minority.

The average of the percentages in the 2005-2009 section (23.5%, while heading downward among the youngest demographic) is barely higher than the 1975-1979 average (20.5%). Additionally, as noted in the excerpt above, “most Americans favor legal restrictions on abortion that go way beyond current law.”

So, before weighting the age ranges (a very minor matter), 76.5% of America (100%-23.5%) is NOT “pro-choice” … and nowhere near it. (Update: Weighting the age ranges changes using this population data changes the percentages 75.4%).

This leads to McGurn’s useful closing suggestion:

So the next time you watch the pro-life community dismissed as a fringe element, ask yourself: Who’s really out of touch with the American people here?

Comments [moderated] (0)

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2010/06/01/the-fundamental-truth-about-the-majoritys-abortion-views/

Bizzy Blog really tells it like it is - this has got to leave a mark!!

The Sestak Job Offer, Bill Clinton’s Credibility, and Bill Clinton’s Legacy

Filed under: Economy, National Security, Soc. Sec. & Retirement, Taxes & Government — TBlumer @ 9:42 am

Bill Clinton’s involvement in the Sestak job-offer controversy and his statements about exactly what happened should resurrect fundamental assertions about his credibility and legacy that are matters of record.

Yours truly brought them forth in a comment (edited and enhanced for the purposes of this post, with the addition of several links) at another post in December 2008:

Objective historians recognize seven fundamental truths about Clinton and his impeachment:

1. He lied under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton even paid a fine and lost his Arkansas law license for having done so.

2. He lied when he said he did not have a years-long affair with Gennifer Flowers in the 1980s during the 1992 primaries and presidential campaign. He admitted to having an affair with Flowers during the course of his Paula Jones deposition. Had the public known the truth about Clinton-Flowers, which Clinton and the iron-grip, pre-Internet media chose to cover up despite taped evidence that the affair was real, the outcome of the 1992 primaries and/or presidential campaign would very likely have been different.

3. Clinton sexually harassed Paula Jones essentially as Paula Jones described it, forcing him into an out-of-court settlement of $850,000 after years of saying he would fight the charges tooth and nail.

4. The Paula Jones suit established an important legal principle, affirmed unanimously by the Supreme Court, that presidents can be sued while in office for actions that took place before they took office.

5. Bill Clinton raped Juannita Broadderick in the late 1970s (full transcript of the Lisa Myers NBC report is here). He had many opportunities to deny that he did so, and any man who hadn’t done it would have denied it. But he never did, because he knew he could be sued civilly, which would have opened up the entire incident to public scrutiny and confirmation.

6. The House managers were carrying out their sworn duty to uphold the law and the constitution when they wrote up articles of impeachment based on Clinton’s self-evident perjury. The House was correct in impeaching Clinton on two of four counts, and probably should have impeached him on a third.

7. The Senate did not carry out its constitutional duty to hold a trial with appropriately presented evidence, and failed to do what the known and available evidence demanded it do. There is not a planet on which perjury is not a “high crime,” regardless of the subject matter. Independent counsel Robert Ray referenced “President Clinton’s admission of providing false testimony that was knowingly misleading, evasive, and prejudicial to the administration of justice before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.” In other words, Ray noted the obvious: Clinton, when all was said and done, admitted to the acts of perjury that should have led to his removal from office.

The truth of the above assertions is not arguable, which is why objective history will eventually get it right, despite what today’s whiners and weasels who pass for historians say.

More generally (and this is the short list), Clinton’s obsessive behavior prevented him from accomplishing anything meaningful during his two terms in office, besides NAFTA, presiding over an economy the GOP Congress (finally) set on the right course in 1995-1996, giving in to the GOP on welfare reform in 1996, and agreeing to a capital gains tax cut in 1997 that accelerated growth further.

He failed to address Social Security and Medicare reform during the period that may have represented the last best chance to do so without inflicting a lot of pain on the nation.

He and his SEC allowed scores of companies of no substance to go public, leading to the dot-com bubble in 1999-2001.

Finally, Clinton failed to heed multiple warnings that Islamic terrorism was a growing threat (all the way back to the first World Trade Center bombings in 1993), leading terrorists to believe in 2001 that they could fly planes into the WTC and the Pentagon without suffering recriminations.

Fortunately, the most important legacy of Clinton’s impeachment is that, even in an apparently strong economy (but not as strong as originally thought in the summer, fall, and winter of 2000-2001), it made a successful challenge against Vice President Al Gore plausible, even by a less than charismatic candidate.

Clinton’s disastrous first two years in office led to his party’s loss of Congress in 1994. His impeachment led to his party’s loss of the presidency in 2000. That meant that when the 9/11 attacks occurred, someone who would respond appropriately to terrorism up to and including victory in Iraq and who would do everything he could to prevent another attack on American soil for the next seven years was at the helm, with a Congressional majority at the ready to support him.

Considering the above, it’s obvious that whatever Bill Clinton has to say about the Sestak affair and his role in it has no presumptive credibility.

Comments [moderated] (4)

4 Comments »

Ouch.

Comment by zf — June 1, 2010 @ 9:59 am
#1, I guess he’d better put some ice on it.

Comment by TBlumer — June 1, 2010 @ 10:00 am
With Clinton that ice could go anywhere…

But really, all I’m saying is next time don’t hold back.

Comment by zf — June 1, 2010 @ 10:32 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sue H (Dee Bunk), Tom_Blumer. Tom_Blumer said: Bizzy: The Sestak Job Offer, Bill Clinton’s Credibility, and Bill Clinton’s Legacy: Bill Clinton’s involvement in … http://bit.ly/bq5ftI [...]

Pingback by Tweets that mention BizzyBlog -- Topsy.com — June 1, 2010 @ 11:22 am

IAEA: Syria uncooperative with alleged reactor investigation

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/01/2010 02:30

VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency — the UN nuclear watchdog — said Syria continues to stonewall agency efforts to follow up on US assertions that a facility destroyed three years ago by Israeli warplanes was a secretly built reactor meant to produce plutonium.

"Syria has not cooperated with the agency since June 2008" on most aspects of its investigation.

Diplomats told The AP of a visit to Syria in January by a high-ranking Iranian nuclear delegation led by Mahdi Kaniki, a deputy to Ali Akhbar Salehi, an Iranian deputy president and head of his country's nuclear program.

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=177065

Participants chanted Islamic battle cry invoking killing of Jews and called for Martyrdom

Gaza flotilla participants created war atmosphere before confronting Israel
Participants chanted Islamic battle cry invoking killing of Jews and called for Martyrdom

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

On the day before the Gaza flotilla confronted the Israeli navy, Al-Jazeera TV documented the pre-battle atmosphere created by men on board the flotilla, who chanted a well-known Islamic battle cry invoking the killing and defeat of Jews in battle:

"[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!"

Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.

Al-Jazeera also interviewed a woman who said that the flotilla participants' goal was "one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or reaching Gaza."

Click here to view Islamic battle cry on Gaza flotilla.

The following is the transcript from Al-Jazeera TV:

Reporter: "Despite the Israeli threats and several unexpected delays, the arrival of the ships at the meeting point before sailing to the Gaza Strip inflamed the emotions and the enthusiasm of the participants."
Visuals from Gaza flotilla ship of young Muslims shouting Islamic battle chant invoking the killing and defeat of Jews in battle:

"[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!"
[Khaibar is the name of last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army and it marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia in 628.]
Reporter: "While singing songs reminiscent of the Palestinian Intifada (Palestinian terror war against Israel, 2000 - 2005), participants expressed their longing to reach Gaza."
A participant: "Right now we face one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or reaching Gaza." [Based on Islamic call before battle: "Either victory or Martyrdom".]

[Al-Jazeera TV, May 29, 2010]

Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV chose to glorify flotilla participants who shouted the Islamic battle cry by broadcasting an interview with a university lecturer who referred to them as "those with faith and will."

Dr. Abd Al-Fatah Shayyeq Naaman, lecturer in Shari'ah law at a university in Sanaa:

"Yesterday I followed the news agencies and they conveyed Zionist threats to stop the convoy and prevent it from entering Gaza; on the other side, those with faith and will once again call out upon hearing the reports of the threats: '[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!'"
Hamas TV Host: "Strong motivation."

Shayyeq Naaman: "One woman standing on the ship said that now we are awaiting one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or the beaches of Gaza."

[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), May 30, 2010]

Al-Jazeera also reports that before the confrontation, flotilla participants announced that they would use "resistance" against Israel. Mukawama (resistance) is the Arabic term used by Palestinians to refer to all violence against Israel, including suicide terror.

"The flotilla includes hundreds of Arab and foreign solidarity activists from more than 40 countries ... They have announced their determination to use resistance to any attempt at piracy by the Israeli occupation."

[Al-Jazeera website, May 29, 2010]

Close-Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers (With Sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LulDJh4fWI
Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the 'Free Gaza' Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course.

Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed.

The 'Free Gaza' Flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated. They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use.

Mossad: Israel becoming burden on US

Photo by: Ariel Jerozolimski

Mossad: Israel becoming burden on US

By JPOST.COM STAFF
06/01/2010 14:11

Meir Dagan tells Knesset c'tee Iran fuel deal a distraction ploy.

Strategic ties between Jerusalem and Washington are slowly changing, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.

"Bit by bit Israel is turning into more of a burden than asset for the US," Dagan said in his meeting with committee.

The Mossad chief indicated as well that the US views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a lower priority after determining that neither side is ready for an agreement.

Dagan also surmised that the Iranian uranium fuel-swap deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey was designed to avert the sanctions proposal currently in front of the UN Security Council. Iran's effort to avert sanctions was influenced by a lack of progress in the development of its centrifuge program the intelligence chief reported.

The Iranians "pulled a rabbit out of their hat to split the international community at the last moment," said Dagan.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?ID=177136

Israel Holds Hundreds Seized During Raid on Flotilla

Pool photo by Uriel Sinai

By ISABEL KERSHNER and ALAN COWELL

Published: June 1, 2010

JERUSALEM — A day after Israeli commandoes raided an aid flotilla seeking to breach the blockade of Gaza, Israel held hundreds of activists seized aboard the convoy on Tuesday as news reports said activists may be planning a fresh attempt to ferry supplies to the Hamas-run enclave.

Multimedia

Flotilla Raid Prompts Protests

The New York Times

More Photos »

At the same time, the Israeli military said troops clashed with two militants who infiltrated from Gaza, killing them both. While such occurrences are almost routine along the volatile border between Israel and Gaza, the incident underscored the tensions seizing the region after Monday's confrontation at sea, which strained relations between Israel and the United States just as American-sponsored proximity talks involving Palestinians and Israelis were getting under way.

The developments in Israel and Gaza came hours after the United Nations Security Council condemned "acts" leading to the loss of life in Israel's operation in international waters on Monday that claimed the lives of nine civilians, many of them Turks. After hours of late-night negotiations, the Security Council urged an impartial inquiry — a call echoed in a separate forum by Russia and the European Union on Tuesday at a meeting of senior officials in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

For its part, Turkey, once seen as Israel's most important friend in the Muslim world, recalled its ambassador and canceled planned military exercises with Israel as the countries' already tense relations soured even further. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was flying home after canceling a Tuesday meeting with President Obama.

Mr. Netanyahu defended the Israeli military's actions, saying the commandos, enforcing what Israel says is a legal blockade, were set upon by passengers on the Turkish ship they boarded and fired only in self-defense. The military released a video of the early moments of the raid to support that claim.

Israel said the violence was instigated by pro-Palestinian activists who presented themselves as humanitarians but had come ready for a fight. Organizers of the flotilla accused the Israeli forces of opening fire as soon as they landed on the deck, and released videos to support their case. Israel released video taken from one of its vessels to supports its own account of events.

On Tuesday, activists promised more confrontation. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement that organized the flotilla said that another cargo boat was heading to Gaza from the coast of Italy while a second boat carrying some 35 passengers was expected to join it, The Associated Press reported.

"This initiative is not going to stop," Ms. Berlin said from the group's base in Cyprus. "We think eventually Israel will get some kind of common sense. They're going to have to stop the blockade of Gaza, and one of the ways to do this is for us to continue to send the boats."

Reuters reported that Israel was holding hundreds of activists incommunicado in and around the port city of Ashdod, refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel's version of events. Around 50 of the passengers had volunteered to be deported but over 600 were refusing to be repatriated.

While the Israeli public seemed largely to support the navy, policy experts questioned preparations for the military operation, whether there had been an intelligence failure and whether the Israeli insistence on stopping the flotilla had been counterproductive. Some commentators were calling for the resignation of Ehud Barak, the defense minister.

"The government failed the test of results; blaming the organizers of the flotilla for causing the deaths by ignoring Israel's orders to turn back is inadequate," wrote Aluf Benn, a columnist for Haaretz, on the newspaper's Web site on Monday, calling for a national committee of inquiry. "Decisions taken by the responsible authorities must be probed."

The flotilla of six cargo ships and passenger boats was carrying 10,000 tons of aid for Gaza, where the Islamic militant group Hamas holds sway. But the raid and its deadly consequences have thrown Israel's policy of blockading Gaza into the international limelight. The statement by the United Nations Security Council early on Tuesday stressed "the need for sustained and regular flow of goods and people to Gaza."

Israel had vowed not to let the flotilla reach the shores of Gaza, where Hamas, an organization sworn to Israel's destruction, took over by force in 2007.

Named the Freedom Flotilla, and led by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement and a Turkish organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi, the convoy had converged at sea near Cyprus and set out on the final leg of its journey on Sunday afternoon. Israel warned the vessels to abort their mission, describing it as a provocation.

The confrontation began shortly before midnight on Sunday when Israeli warships intercepted the aid flotilla, according to a person on one boat. The Israeli military warned the vessels that they were entering a hostile area and that the Gaza shore was under blockade.

The vessels refused the military's request to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, and continued toward their destination.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday, naval commandos came aboard the Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, having been lowered by ropes from helicopters onto the decks.

At that point, the operation seems to have gone badly wrong.

Israeli officials say that the soldiers were dropped into an ambush and were attacked with clubs, metal rods and knives.

An Israeli official said that the navy was planning to stop five of the six vessels of the flotilla with large nets that interfere with propellers, but that the sixth was too large for that. The official said there was clearly an intelligence failure in that the commandos were expecting to face passive resistance, and not an angry, violent reaction.

The Israelis had planned to commandeer the vessels and steer them to Ashdod, where their cargo would be unloaded and, the authorities said, transferred overland to Gaza after proper inspection.

The military said in a statement that two activists were later found with pistols taken from Israeli commandos. It accused the activists of opening fire, "as evident by the empty pistol magazines."

Enlarge This Image

Erhan Sevenler/Anatolian Agency, via European Pressphoto Agency

On Sunday, before an Israeli raid, activists held a news conference aboard the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla taking aid to Gaza. More Photos »

Multimedia

Photographs

Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After the Israeli raid, a speedboat escorted the ship, now with Israeli forces on board, to the port of Ashdod. More Photos »

Another soldier said the orders were to neutralize the passengers, not to kill them.

But the forces "had to open fire in order to defend themselves," the navy commander, Vice Adm. Eliezer Marom, said at a news conference in Tel Aviv, adding, "Their lives were at risk."

At least seven soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously. The military said that some suffered gunshot wounds; at least one had been stabbed.

Einat Wilf, a Labor Party member of Parliament who sits on the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that she had warned Mr. Barak and others well in advance that the flotilla was a public relations issue and should not be dealt with by military means.

The fatalities all occurred aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish passenger vessel that was carrying about 600 activists under the auspices of Insani Yardim Vakfi, an organization also known as I.H.H. Israeli officials have characterized it as a dangerous Islamic organization with terrorist links.

Yet the organization, founded in 1992 to collect aid for the Bosnians, is now active in 120 countries and has been present at recent disaster areas like Haiti and New Orleans.

"Our volunteers were not trained military personnel," said Yavuz Dede, deputy director of the organization. "They were civilians trying to get aid to Gaza. There were artists, intellectuals and journalists among them. Such an offensive cannot be explained by any terms."

There were no immediate accounts available from the passengers of the Turkish ship, which arrived at the naval base in Ashdod on Monday evening, where nearly three dozen were arrested, many for not giving their names. The base was off limits to the news media and declared a closed military zone.

The Free Gaza Movement has organized several aid voyages since the summer of 2008, usually consisting of one or two vessels. The earliest ones were allowed to reach Gaza. Others have been intercepted and forced back, and one, last June, was commandeered by the Israeli Navy and towed to Ashdod. This six-boat fleet was the most ambitious attempt yet to break the blockade.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/middleeast/02flotilla.html

Countries look for MPs who might have been on ships

Photo by: Yossi Zamir

Countries look for MPs who might have been on ships

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
06/01/2010 05:19

3 German Bundestag members, 1 Irish, 1 Swedish and a Kuwaiti MP – unaccounted for.

As several nations tried to assess the status of citizens involved in the Free Gaza Flotilla on Monday, the well-being of a number of foreign MPs who had planned on joining the voyage remained unclear.

Among the lawmakers believed to have been on the six ships were three members of the German Bundestag, Irish senator Mark Daly, Swedish MP Mehmet Kaplan and Kuwaiti MP Waleed al-Tabtabaie.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) told The Jerusalem Post that a number of his colleagues from other legislatures had contacted him regarding the morning's events. Even Turkey contacted him through an intermediary following rumors that a Turkish MP was among the day's casualties. Rivlin said that in all cases – other than that of MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) – he deferred to the defense establishment, which has yet to publish information regarding the wounded and killed.

"MPs who went on those boats intended to harm the State of Israel, believing that we do not have a right to be in Gaza, and some think that we have no right to be in Israel at all," said Rivlin.

He added that he did not think that there would be questions regarding the foreign legislators' rights to parliamentary immunity. Those who were not involved in violent acts will simply be deported to their home countries.

In the short term, Rivlin continued, the international standing of the flotilla's participants – and maybe even of some of the casualties – could cause Israel damage.

"It could be that among those killed or wounded are parliamentarians, which will raise more than a bit of discussion. But after the initial clouds pass, there will be attempts to explain that this activity was an action designed to serve terrorists. Everyone understands that Gaza has become a front for terror and that Israel is trying to defend its security."

The foreign MPs were far from the only internationally recognized figures believed to be involved in the voyage. According to the Free Gaza Movement, the Irish delegation on the flotilla included Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, a frequent visitor to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who participated in previous attempts to break the blockade and was deported from Israel. Former UN assistant-secretary-general Denis Halliday was also listed by the Free Gaza Movement as participating in the flotilla.

International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Arraf, the wife of ISM activist Adam Shapiro, was also reported to be part of the flotilla, and, like the other members of the initiative, remains unaccounted-for.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=177071

Police interrogate Sheikh Raed Salah over role in Gaza flotilla clashes

Israeli-Arab leaders declare general strike to protest clash, call international community to investigate flotilla's interception.

By Eli Ashkenazi, Jack Khoury and Liel Kyzer

Ashdod police interrogated Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Tuesday over his role in the clashes between pro-Palestinian activists and Israeli troops following the Israel Navy raid on the Gaza aid flotilla.

	Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah.
	Photo by: Tess Scheflan

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), who was also arrested and interrogated over her participation in the Gaza aid flotilla, was released from police custody early Tuesday.

The other members of the Arab sector who were arrested fro their participation in the flotilla - Mohammed Zeidan, the head of the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee and Sheikh Hammad Abu Daabes, the head of the Southern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel - remain in police custody.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee declared a general strike in Israel's Arab sector yesterday to protest the flotilla clash, an unusual step the group has tried to avoid in recent years.

The committee held an emergency meeting at its Nazareth offices, including the heads of all the country's Arab political groups and parties.

In addition to the strike, the committee also announced that protest marches and rallies would be held in Arab communities, and called on the international community to investigate the circumstances behind the flotilla's interception.

The Arab leadership also called on the international community to try the prime minister and the defense minister for violating international law.

The committee described the clash as "state-sponsored terrorism and piracy that requires those responsible to be tried."

After the meeting, a procession marched through Nazareth. Hundreds of participants hoisted Palestinian and black flags, and called for the blockade on the Gaza Strip to be lifted.

Other processions and demonstrations took place yesterday in Sakhnin, Haifa, Acre, Tamra, Shfaram, Arabeh, Tira and Taibeh.

In Umm al-Fahm, dozens of youths rallied in the city square, near the entrance to the highway through Wadi Ara. A large police deployment came, and the protesters threw stones at the officers. Several protesters were arrested for throwing stones.

Police had informed city residents that protests would be allowed, but that they would not allow disturbances including blocking roads or damaging government offices.

The Arab Israeli protests began after rumors began Monday morning that the head of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, may have been injured. He was on the flagship of the flotilla.

Palestinian and Israeli Arab media outlets reported that the sheikh had been killed, and Islamic Movement members and Umm al-Fahm residents began making their way to his home, even though there had been no confirmation of the news.

Efforts to communicate with the delegation members failed throughout the day, increasing tension.

By noon, there were reports that Sheikh Salah had been seriously injured and had been taken to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Family members rushed to hospital and the sheikh's brother was taken into the operating room, where he acknowledged that the man being treated was not his brother.

However, this did not assuage the Islamic Movement and the group's deputy, Sheikh Kamel Khatib, called on the security services to allow communication with Salah.

"We will not believe anyone until we have personally spoken with the sheikh, and Israel is fully responsible for his safety," Khatib said.

When the ship Salah was on was finally brought into Ashdod port, MK Zuabi announced all members of the group's delegation were safe, including Salah. MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad ) confirmed the report.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, filed a petition with the Supreme Court, asking it to order the security services to inform the families of the people who had been killed or detained. The petition was backed by other groups, including Physicians for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, due to concern that the news would spark riots in the Israeli Arab sector, as well as among right-wing and left-wing extremists, the police raised its alert to Level C.

Police are preparing for potential disturbances in East Jerusalem, in the Old City and in nearby Arab villages.

However, no restrictions have been imposed on entry into the Temple Mount complex.

"We will do everything necessary to keep the peace, but the security forces and law enforcement are ready for any situation," said Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.

There were sporadic disturbances in Jerusalem yesterday. Four youths were arrested after they called on East Jerusalem shop owners to shut their shops to protest the flotilla clash.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/police-interrogate-sheikh-raed-salah-over-role-in-gaza-flotilla-clashes-1.293407?localLinksEnabled=false

Armed Activists Attacked Our Troops, Says Israel Amid World Outrage

Armed Activists Attacked Our Troops, Says Israel Amid World Outrage
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstration outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday, May 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

(CNSNews.com) – Facing the world's wrath over the deadly clash at sea between its troops and pro-Palestinian activists, the Israeli Defense Forces released video footage Monday showing groups of activists using what appear to be clubs or bars to attack Israeli soldiers the moment they landed on deck.

The footage, along with an array of weapons found onboard the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara – now docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod – presents a picture at odds with accounts given by pro-Palestinian groups of a massive, disproportionate assault on peaceful civilians.

International condemnation is widespread and ongoing, with protestors taking to the streets in many, mostly Islamic countries, and Israel's erstwhile ally, Turkey, warning of "irreparable consequences" to bilateral ties. Iran demanded action by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and even European countries generally friendly towards Israel were strongly critical.

An emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, called by Turkey, saw member states' envoys one by one express shock over the incident, in which nine activists were killed.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu set the tone for the Council session, describing the incident as "banditry and piracy" and "murder conducted by a state."

Many Council members called for an independent investigation and demanded a lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed by Israel after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

The meeting then went into closed session to debate the wording of a draft presidential statement.

The Marmara and accompanying ships were headed for Gaza in what the campaigners said was a humanitarian mission.

Israel, which views the Gaza convoys as a "political provocation" and media stunt, says it allows humanitarian aid to enter through land crossings, but subject to security checks to prevent the smuggling in of weapons like the thousands of rockets that have been fired into Israel from Gaza in recent years.

Before the ships were boarded, the IDF warned them not to continue heading for Gaza but said they should instead dock in nearby Ashdod. Once the cargo had been inspected there, the activists would be able to observe its delivery to Gaza, it said. After the crews refused to comply, "it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod."

Israeli commandos then boarded the ships in international waters.

The footage released by the IDF shows Israelis rappelling from a helicopter and landing on the deck several seconds apart, immediately being set upon by waiting activists, armed with bars or clubs (see videos). A soldier is seen being pushed over a railing, and thrown to a deck below.

Knives, clubs, bars and other items which the Israeli Defense Forces said were recovered from the Mavi Marmara after Monday's clashes at sea between Israeli troops and activists trying to sail to the Gaza Strip. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

The IDF also claimed that activists had seized two firearms from soldiers and fired at them.

"As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces first employed riot dispersal means, followed by live fire."

"The 'Free Gaza' flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated," said the IDF. "They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use."

According to Israeli figures, seven soldiers were wounded, two of them critically.

Images released later showed knives, slingshots, rocks, smoke bombs, iron bars, sticks, clubs hammers, firebombs and gasmasks, which Israel said were found onboard the Turkish vessel.

(Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused Israel of "inhuman state terror," said the ships had been inspected before leaving port and had contained only humanitarian aid.)

In stark contrast to the IDF version, the Free Gaza Movement described the incident as an unprovoked assault: "Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck," it said in a statement. "They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep."

The Israeli government is blaming extremists from the Turkish organization Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) for the violence that erupted onboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara when troops boarded it at sea on Monday. In this photo of the ship before setting sail, a white and green IHH banner is visible on the hull, between Turkish and Palestinian flags. (Photo: IHH)

'Extremists'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who called off a planned White House visit and returned home, said Israel regretted the loss of life. "I give my complete backing to the army, the soldiers and commanders who acted to defend the state and to protect their lives."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also insisted the troops acted appropriately, and said blame for the deaths should be laid at the door of the organizers, who defied repeated Israeli requests to offload their cargoes at Ashdod, where it would have been checked and then sent to Gaza via road border crossings.

"The area is ruled by a terror organization, Hamas, which possesses rockets that threatened Israel and its soldiers," Barak told a press conference. "Therefore, Israel has the natural right to examine all cargo entering the Strip. The sail was a provocation."

He also said that the soldiers had been met by violence on only one of six ships in the activists' flotilla, the Marmara. The other boardings had gone smoothly.

"The organization behind the flotilla is not a humanitarian aid organization," Barak said.

He was alluding to one of the Turkish groups behind the flotilla, Insani Yardim Vakfi. Known by the acronym IHH, it was one of 36 ostensibly charitable organizations banned by Barak in 2008 as identified fundraisers for Hamas.

A visiting IHH official, Izzat Shahin, was arrested in the West Bank in April, questioned on suspicions of funding terrorism, and deported.

A recent report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israel-based non-governmental institution, alleged that the IHH has supported "jihadist terrorist networks in Bosnia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."

Of the various ships in the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, IHH organized the ones from Turkey, including the Marmara. It hosted a farewell ceremony marking its departure from Istanbul, and a giant IHH banner was displayed prominently on the ship's hull, between Turkish and Palestinian flags.

Israel's Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, also noted that violence had only erupted on the one vessel.

"What occurred on the Marmara ship under possession of the extremist IHH organization is not what took place in the five other ships in the flotilla," he told reporters.

"From what I saw during the night, there was no connection to a campaign or demonstration of peaceful workers or of humanitarian aid," Ashkenazi said. "It was extreme violence from the first moment our soldiers boarded the ship, with prior preparation to attack the soldiers with metal and wooden poles, and knives."

Pro-Palestinian activists, like these near the Israeli Embassy in Paris, France, held anti-Israel protests in numerous cities around the world on Monday. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

'US expects full and credible investigation'

Netanyahu was to have met with President Obama on Tuesday, a visit aimed at easing tensions that have arisen between the two over Israeli policies regarding Jerusalem.

But the developments at home prompted the prime minister, who was in Canada at the time, to return home immediately. The visit will be rescheduled at the first opportunity, the White House said in a statement.

It said that Obama in a phone conversation with Netanyahu had "expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning's tragic events as soon as possible."

The State Department in a later statement also said the U.S. expected "a full and credible investigation" by the Israeli government.

Spokesman Philip Crowley said the U.S. would continue to discuss with Israel the expansion of "the scope and type of goods allowed into Gaza to address the full range of the population's humanitarian and recovery needs."

He also chided groups organizing attempts to break the blockade.

"Mechanisms exist for the transfer of humanitarian assistance to Gaza by governments and groups that wish to do so," Crowley said. "These mechanisms should be used for the benefit of all those in Gaza."

Israeli officials said some 480 crew and passengers from the ships were held for questioning, and Israel Radio reported Tuesday that most would be deported to their countries of origin.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/66849

Nuclear equipment missing from Iranian lab, IAEA report says

An apparatus that could be used to extract plutonium for an atomic bomb is gone, the United Nations watchdog agency says.

By Borzou Daragahi and Julia Damianova, Special to The Times

International arms control inspectors say sensitive equipment that could be used to extract plutonium for an atomic bomb has gone missing from a Tehran laboratory months after the apparatus was disclosed to a United Nations watchdog agency, according to an official report released Monday.

The report is expected to feed suspicions in the West that Iran is attempting to hide the nature and scope of its nuclear program.

On the other hand, Iran agreed in May to allow inspectors greater surveillance and access to the area where it is producing 20% enriched uranium meant for a Tehran medical reactor, clearing up one of the points of contention between the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Still, analysts and diplomats say overall cooperation between Iran and the agency seems to continue to deteriorate, a dynamic that emerged after the tenure of new IAEA Secretary-General Yukiya Amano began late last year.

"If Iran were really interested in cooperation with the agency, it would have allowed the IAEA to undertake additional surveillance measures before it started enriching up to 20%," said a Western diplomat in Vienna, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran's nuclear program has been a major point of contention with the West and Israel, which suspect the Islamic Republic of putting together the infrastructure to eventually build an atomic bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear program is meant for civilian purposes only and it accuses the West of trying to deny Iranians' their rights and national aspirations.

IAEA inspectors were told in January by a scientist or official at Tehran's Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Research Laboratory that Iran was conducting pyro-processing experiments, work potentially consistent with creating warheads that could be used in developing a nuclear weapon.

But during an April 14 inspection of the laboratory, the equipment — used to remove impurities from uranium metal — had been removed, said the agency's report to its board of governors ahead of a meeting next week. Iran had earlier backtracked, insisting to inspectors it was not engaged in pyro-processing work.

Arms control experts say the apparent attempt to experiment with pyro-processing adds to the cloud of suspicion that hangs over Iran's nuclear program.

"It will bring Iran close to being able to separate plutonium and thus have a second path to a nuclear weapon," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department nonproliferation specialist serving as an analyst for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "Given the evidence of military connections to Iran's nuclear program, it is worth asking the purpose for which Iran is studying the production of uranium metal."

The latest quarterly report by inspectors to the IAEA board of governors also suggested that Iran continues to produce enriched uranium at far less than capacity, feeding uranium into only 3,936 of the 8,528 centrifuges installed at a plant near the central town of Natanz.

Analysts have been divided over why Iran has failed to use its full enrichment capacity. Some have argued that evidence suggests Iran is experiencing technical and supply troubles. Others suggest Iran is hoarding its uranium supplies to use when it perfects a generation of more efficient centrifuges.

daragahi@latimes.com

Times staff writer Daragahi reported from New York and special correspondent Damianova from Vienna.

German President Koehler resigns suddenly amid Afghanistan dispute

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Koehler is the first German president to resign

German President Horst Koehler stunned the public by suddenly stepping down amid an ongoing controversy over comments he made about Afghanistan. He is the first German president to ever resign his post.

In a move that took just about everybody by surprise, German President Horst Koehler stepped down on Monday, citing comments he made about Afghanistan, which he said had been misconstrued.

A visibly emotional Koehler, with his wife at his side, resigned in a televised press conference, saying: "I am resigning my post as federal president with immediate effect."

"It was an honor for me to serve Germany as president," he said. "I thank the many people in Germany who have put their trust in me and supported my work. I ask for you to understand my decision."

Eva Luise Koehler, left, husband Horst, right

Bildunterschrift: His wife Eva Luise was by his side during the announcement

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he "deeply regretted" Mr. Koehler's decision and had tried to change his mind, but the president "decided otherwise."

Bavarias's State Premier, Horst Seehofer, said Mr. Koehler "had won the sympathies of the German people and was widely respected abroad."

The president's resignation caught Germany's political parties completely off guard. Chancellor Angela Merkel was reportedly only informed of the decision shortly before the public announcement.

After she was informed of his decision, Merkel cancelled a planned afternoon visit to the training camp of the German national soccer team, which is currently training in northern Italy for the World Cup games next month.

At a press conference in Berlin some two hours later, the chancellor said was stunned and surprised by Mr. Koehler's decision and had "unsuccessfully tried to get him to change his mind." She also said "the people of Germany would be very sad about the resignation."

Koehler said, besides Merkel and Westerwelle, he had also informed the president of the Federal Constitutional Court, Andreas Vosskuhle, and Jens Boehmsen, the president of the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.

The resignation comes at an extremely inopportune time for the chancellor, whose center-right coalition recently lost an important state election in North Rhine-Westphalia and suffered another resignation of a key ally, Hesse State Premier Roland Koch, just last week.

Koehler portrait in Afghanistan Bildunterschrift: Koehler recently visited ISAF troops

Announcing his decision, Mr. Koehler refused to defend himself against accusations that he would use the military unconstitutionally and for economic reasons, saying that to do so was unworthy of the high office he held.

In the past few days, Koehler had been under fire for saying that a country like Germany, which was heavily reliant on foreign trade must know that military interventions could be necessary to uphold German interests.

Koehler said his comments were "misunderstood" and that his remarks were not meant to refer to the mission in Afghanistan, where Germany has 4,500 troops in a NATO-led force fighting a Taliban-led insurgency.

Polls show that a majority of Germans are opposed to the mission in Afghanistan. But the government has not yet fixed a date for withdrawal from the unpopular mission.

A former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Koehler was elected to the post of president in 2004 and re-elected in 2009.

According to the German constitution, Boehrnsen will temporarily take over the president's duties. A new president will need to be sworn in by June 30.

gb/afp/AP/dpa
Editor: Rob Turner

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5635018,00.html