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New Forensic Evidence is Consistent with George Zimmerman's Self Defense Claim

by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  May 18, 2012 at 3:01 pm

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A medical report by George Zimmerman's doctor has disclosed that Zimmerman had a fractured nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on the back of his head and a back injury on the day after the fatal shooting. Moreover, the New York Times has reported that traces of marijuana were found in Trayvon Martin's body and that Martin's father initially said that the voice crying for help was not that of his son. It is also been reported that a bruise was found on Martin's ring finger that would be consistent with Martin having punched Zimmerman. No other wounds, aside of course from the fatal bullet hole in the front of Martin's body, were found.

If this evidence turns out to be valid, the prosecutor will have no choice but to drop the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman — if she wants to act ethically, lawfully and professionally.

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Muslim Persecution of Christians: April 2012
"The police are also involved in this."

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  May 18, 2012 at 5:00 am

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"500 Muslims had gathered and were watching in amusement as the extremists chased and harassed the Christians, attempting to murder them all, for about 90 minutes."

As Easter, one of the highest Christian holidays, comes in April, Christian persecution in Muslim nations—from sheer violence to oppressive laws—was rampant: In Nigeria, where jihadis have expressed their desire to expunge all traces of Christianity, a church was bombed during Easter Sunday, killing some 50 worshippers; in Turkey, a pastor was beaten by Muslims immediately following Easter service and threatened with death unless he converted to Islam; and in Iran, Easter Sunday saw 12 Christians stand trial as "apostates."

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How Much Is Mahmoud Abbas Worth?
Try $100 Million

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 18, 2012 at 4:30 am

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Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, including President Mahmoud Abbas, are deeply concerned that Rashid's revelations could expose their role in the embezzlement of public funds. They are also concerned that Rashid's revelations could prompt some Americans and Europeans to reconsider their decision to pour millions of dollars into the Palestinian Authority's coffers. What is needed is an independent Commission of Inquiry to restore pubic funds belonging to the Palestinian people. The Palestinians have many Mohammed Rashids...

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has just discovered what every Palestinian child knows -- that hundreds of millions of dollars had been embezzled during the era of Yasser Arafat.

The "discovery", however, was not the result of a thorough and long investigation ordered by Palestinian leaders in Ramallah with the hope of restoring public funds.

Instead, it came after one of Arafat's most trusted aides, Mohammed Rashid, threatened to expose corruption scandals in the Palestinian Authority.

For many years, Rashid served as Arafat's financial advisor and was given a free hand to handle hundreds of millions of dollars that were poured on the Palestinian Authority and the PLO by US, EU and Arab donors.

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Muslim Voters Change Europe

by Soeren Kern  •  May 17, 2012 at 5:00 am

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Muslims cast the deciding voted that thrust Hollande into the Elysée Palace. He also pledged to change French electoral laws so that Muslim residents without French citizenship would be allowed to vote in municipal elections as of 2014, enabling the Socialist Party to tighten its grip on political power.

An analysis of the voting patterns that barrelled François Hollande to victory on May 6 as the first Socialist president of France since 1995 shows that this overthrow was due in large measure to Muslims, who voted for him in overwhelming numbers.

The French vote marks the first time that Muslims have determined the outcome of a presidential election in a major western European country; it is a preview of things to come.

As the politically active Muslim population in France continues to swell, and as most Muslims vote for Socialist and leftwing parties, conservative parties will find it increasingly difficult to win future elections in France.

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The Main Goal of the Palestinian Government

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 16, 2012 at 5:00 am

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The Palestinian government is in fact lying when it talks about a financial crisis; its main goal is to get Western and Arab donors to channel more funds to Ramallah. "Corruption in the Palestinian Authority is more widespread than in the past." — Hasan Khreishah, Deputy Seaker, Palestinian Parliament.

At a time when many Western governments, the World Bank and various international organizations are continuing to heap praise on the Palestinian Authority for implementing reforms, the deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Hasan Khreishah, announced that financial and administrative corruption was now more widespread than ever.

Khreishah, who is an independent parliamentarian, made it clear that the Palestinian government of Salam Fayyad, which has been hailed for combating corruption and implementing major reforms, was continuing to squander public funds.

One of the charges the deputy parliament speaker makes is related to the Palestinian government's claim that it is facing severe financial crisis.

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U.S. Leads Effort to Criminalize Free Speech

by Ann Snyder  •  May 16, 2012 at 4:30 am

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It is puzzling that the West was so easily duped into believing that dropping the "defamation of religion" language was any kind of victory. The OIC's agenda can be implemented instead through "hate speech" laws that already exist. Our Secretary of State applauded the OIC, and far from demanding a "reservations clause" of any kind, the United States sponsored a three-day, closed-door meeting in Washington D.C., on implementing the resolution.

The Human Rights Council concluded its nineteenth session on March 23, 2012 and adopted, without a vote, yet another resolution aimed at restricting freedom of speech throughout the world. While its title[1], as usual, suggests it is about combating intolerance based on religion, its plain language shows that, once again, speech is the real target.

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Islam Arrives in the Basque Country

by Soeren Kern  •  May 15, 2012 at 5:00 am

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Muslim parents are now pressuring local educational authorities to begin teaching Arabic in public schools. The Islamic Council of the Basque Country says Basques should view the spread of Islam in their region "not as a problem, but as an opportunity."

The Basque regional government in northern Spain is drafting a controversial new Law on Religious Institutions, which states that mosques and prayer rooms with a capacity of fewer than 300 people will no longer require prior local government approval.

The draft law is generating considerable opposition from elected officials of all political stripes, who fear the new measure will encourage the proliferation of mosques throughout the Basque region.

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Who Will Suffer As A Result of Euro Policies? The Jews.

by Peter Martino  •  May 14, 2012 at 5:00 am

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It is as if the U.S. were to renounce the dollar for the "amro," a common currency with countries as different as Mexico. Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. A documentary on German television last week revealed that the political class in Europe knew that the Greeks were cooking the books, but did not care. Extremist parties of the Left and the Right (all of them anti-Semitic) are rapidly gaining electoral support at the expense of mainstream parties....

The European Union, and especially its common currency, the euro, is on the brink of collapse. The Greeks, unable to form a government after the May 6 elections, will have to go to the polls again next month. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is rapidly losing support. If she cares about her reelection next year, she had better push Greece out of the eurozone rather than keep that country afloat with German taxpayers' money. If Greece leaves, the whole euro edifice might come down – a better outcome than the present situation, in which extremist parties on the Left and the Right (all of them anti-Semitic) are rapidly gaining electoral support at the expense of mainstream parties which keep clinging to the failed project of the common European currency.

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Our Intelligence Community: What Are We Getting for Our $80 Billion?

by Peter Huessy  •  May 14, 2012 at 4:00 am

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The briefers knew less than the Commission members they were briefing. What the intelligence community failed to do was see weapons of mass destruction and missiles as "instruments of state power," rather than as "contraband traded contrary to traditional norms."

Americans are justifiably concerned that our national leaders do not seem to anticipate looming threats. They quite correctly ask, "What are we getting for the $80 billion a year we pay to gather intelligence?"

"Don't worry" says the former deputy director of its Counterterrorist Center: it is not the fault of the intelligence community: "They screw things up all by themselves" he states. "On major foreign policy decisions, intelligence is not the decisive factor".

Is the intelligence community really that innocent?

Now retired, this same 28-year CIA veteran had a hand in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran. The report was a bombshell: its summary dismissed Iran as a threat to US, effectively taking it out of the mix of national security issues in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

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Palestinian Journalists Union Fights Palestinian Journalists
Where Are the Media and So-Called Human Rights Groups?

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 11, 2012 at 5:00 am

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In recent weeks, Palestinian Authority security forces arrested at least nine journalists and bloggers in the West Bank for exposing corruption. The Palestinian Authority and its media group clearly do not want the outside world to receive information about the situation in the Palestinian territories.

As journalists worldwide celebrated World Free Press Day on May 3, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank chose to wage a campaign of intimidation against Palestinian reporters who commit the "crime" of meeting with Israeli counterparts.

The decision to punish Palestinian journalists who hold meetings with Israeli colleagues began after a series of joint seminars that were held in Norway, Germany and France. At these seminars, Israeli and Palestinian journalists discussed joint cooperation and ways of promoting freedom of expression.

The syndicate, dominated by Fatah and affiliated with the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah, threatened sanctions against any Palestinian journalist who engages in "normalization" with Israel.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate functions more as a political body than a union that is supposed to defend the rights of its members.

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Mexican Jihad

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  May 11, 2012 at 4:30 am

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"Our porous southern border is a nightmare waiting to happen."

As the United States considers the Islamic jihadi threats confronting it from all sides, it might do well to focus on its southern neighbor, Mexico, which has been targeted by Islamists and jihadists, who, through a number of tactics—from engaging in da'wa, converting Mexicans to Islam, to smuggling and the drug cartel, to simple extortion, kidnappings and enslavement—have been subverting Mexico in order to empower Islam and sabotage the U.S.

According to a 2010 report, "Close to home: Hezbollah terrorists are plotting right on the U.S. border," which appeared in the NY Daily News:

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Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe

by Soeren Kern  •  May 10, 2012 at 5:00 am

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Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to displace these values with their own.

A new report from Amnesty International lashes out at "widespread discrimination" against Muslims in Europe. The report directs particular ire at laws banning Muslim veils in public spaces, and excoriates European politicians for helping to "foster a climate of hostility and suspicion against people perceived as Muslim."

Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks.

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How Journalists Allowed the Palestinian Authority to Fool Them

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 9, 2012 at 5:00 am

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In most cases it is the Palestinian Authority's security forces that are responsible for the chaos and corruption. A Western journalist who wanted to do an investigative report into the case was warned that she would be putting her life at risk. Gangsters and armed clans were among the main reasons the Palestinian Authority collapsed in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.

The Palestinian Authority has been boasting over the past four years of its success in restoring law and order to the West Bank city of Jenin.

Journalists from all around the world were invited to Jenin, once notorious for dispatching suicide bombers to Israel, to report on the Palestinian government's successful efforts.

Palestinian leaders and government officials told the journalists how their security forces have managed to end the state of chaos and lawlessness that used to prevail in Jenin.

They talked about how Fatah gangsters and thugs who used to roam the streets, imposing an atmosphere of intimidation and terror on the population, have vanished.

Most of the gangsters, the Palestinian government officials noted, had been recruited to various branches of the Western-funded Palestinian security forces and were indirectly receiving salaries from American and European taxpayers' money.

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German Cartoon Riots: Clubs, Bottles and Stones

by Soeren Kern  •  May 8, 2012 at 5:00 am

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Rather than cracking down on the Muslim extremists, however, the German authorities have sought to silence the peaceful critics of multicultural policies that allow the Salafists openly to preach violence and hate.

In an explosion of violence that reflects the growing assertiveness of Salafists in Germany, on May 5th more than 500 radical Muslims attacked German police with bottles, clubs, stones and other weapons in the city of Bonn, to protest cartoons they said were "offensive."

Rather than cracking down on the Muslim extremists, however, German authorities have sought to silence the peaceful critics of multicultural policies that allow the Salafists -- who say they are committed to imposing Islamic Sharia law throughout Europe -- openly to preach violence and hate.

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Tunisian Universities Under Islamist Siege

by Anna Mahjar-Barducci  •  May 8, 2012 at 4:00 am

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The university has not received any support from government officials; the Salafists seem to have met with no negative consequences from their occupation of administrative offices.

Tunisian Universities are being threatened by Salafist activists. Since late November 2011, the Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Manouba, north of Tunis, has been attacked by a group of Salafist students, demanding the creation of a prayer room, and demanding that women wear the niqab (full-face veil), and attend only segregated classes, In early December, Salafists held hostage the department's dean, Habib Kazdaghli, but he courageously refused to fulfill to their demands. Liberal and secular professors and students staged peaceful sit-ins to protest against the Salafists and the Islamist-led government's "double standards" in refusing to do anything to stop the Salafists. As reported by Ahram Online, until now, the university has not received any support from government officials; the Salafists continue to have met with no negative consequences from their occupation of administrative offices.

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