Obama Absent at Anti-Terror March, but Finds Time to Visit Taj Mahal With Wife

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New Delhi: President Barack Obama will have a tight schedule during his three-day visit starting Jan. 25, as he will hold talks with the top leadership here on ways to make progress on key issues like defense and the civil nuclear agreement, besides attending the Republic Day celebrations.

Obama, who will be the first U.S. president to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade, will be accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama and a team of senior officials in his administration.

On the first day of his visit, the American president and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are to hold talks on the entire gamut of bilateral ties and discuss ways to enhance ties in defense and nuclear energy. The two sides have already decided to renew a new defense pact for 10 years and to start joint development and production of military hardware.

Obama’s visit, his second to India, is also expected to give a fillip to the seven-year-old civil nuclear deal, stalled over tough provisions in the Civil Nuclear Liability Act here . . .

Before his departure from India, the president and the First Lady are to visit the Taj Mahal, the monument to love in Agra. Obama’s wife Michelle accompanied the U.S. president during their four-day trip in 2010 but the couple could not travel to Agra. (Read more about Obama going to visit Taj Mahal with his wife HERE)

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Israeli Strikes Kill Iranian, Top Hezbollah Fighters in Syria

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An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday killed the son of a slain top Hezbollah commander and another four fighters in a move that could ratchet up tensions with the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, which recently boasted of rockets that can hit any part of the Jewish state.

Hezbollah fighters in towns and villages along the border with Israel went on high alert, said an official from the group. In the Shiite-dominated areas of south Lebanon and Beirut the streets emptied quickly, as residents feared an escalation. Hezbollah-run al-Manar TV warned that Israel was “playing with fire that puts the security of the whole Middle East on edge.”

A Hezbollah official identified one of the five slain men as Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative assassinated in 2008 in Damascus. Hezbollah blames Israel for the killing and has long vowed to avenge his death. The official said the dead included another senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Issa, and at least one Iranian national with the group.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the slain Iranian belonged to the Revolutionary Guards. The group, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, said the Israeli strikes hit two vehicles and a home. It said the fighters were in the area to plan attacks along the Israeli-controlled frontier. (Read more about the strikes killing the Hezbollah fighters in Syria HERE)

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U.S.-Built Ebola Treatment Centers in Liberia Nearly Empty as Outbreak Fades

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Near the hillside shelter where dozens of men and women died of Ebola, a row of green U.S. military tents sit atop a vast expanse of imported gravel. The generators hum; chlorinated water churns in brand-new containers; surveillance cameras send a live feed to a large-screen television.

There’s only one thing missing from this state-of-the-art Ebola treatment center: Ebola patients.

The U.S. military sent about 3,000 troops to West Africa to build centers like this one in recent months. They were intended as a crucial safeguard against an epidemic that flared in unpredictable, deadly waves. But as the outbreak fades in Liberia, it has become clear that the disease had already drastically subsided before the first American centers were completed. Several of the U.S.-built units haven’t seen a single patient infected with Ebola.

It now appears that the alarming epidemiological predictions that in large part prompted the U.S. aid effort here were far too bleak. Although future flare-ups of the disease are possible, the near-empty Ebola centers tell the story of an aggressive American military and civilian response that occurred too late to help the bulk of the more than 8,300 Liberians who became infected. Last week, even as international aid organizations built yet more Ebola centers, there was an average of less than one new case reported in Liberia per day.

“If they had been built when we needed them, it wouldn’t have been too much,” said Moses Massaquoi, the Liberian government’s chairman for Ebola case management. “But they were too late.” (Read more about the Ebola treatment centers empty HERE)

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ISIS Executions Becoming Even More Brutal

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By Tom Wyke. Two men were hurled from the top of a tower block, two more were crucified in front of a baying crowd and a woman was stoned to death in the latest series of horrific executions by ISIS.

The men were thrown from the roof down to the crowd below in the brutal punishment for being gay.

Charges found against the accused were announced by a masked Islamic State fighter, using a small handheld radio. Reading from a list, he declares the men are guilty of engaging in homosexual activities and should be punished by death, in accordance with Islamic State’s radical interpretation of Sharia law.

They had been tied up and transported in the back of a white pickup truck to the public execution sight in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Both prisoners are shown wearing casual clothing rather than the standard orange jumpsuit, commonly worn by many Islamic State prisoners in recent many high profile execution videos. (Read more about the ISIS executions HERE)

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Fight the Terrorists Before They Reach the West

By Matthew Continetti. Argue about the limits of free speech, the definition of “true” Islam, whether terrorists are lunatics or rational, or the social and political repercussions of terrorism as much as you’d like. The truth is that such debates are irrelevant to the core security problem: There is a growing and energetic movement of radical Muslims dedicated to killing as many people as they can and imposing their will on the rest.

And there is really only one way America can respond to this challenge. We need to kill them first. We need to kill them on a field of battle whose contours are determined not by the terrorists but by us. We need to kill them over there—in the Middle East—before they reach the West.

I realize that for at least the next two years what I propose is wishful thinking. American policy has reverted to a defensive condition in which Islamic terrorists set the terms of conflict. We have been here before. Until 2001, the United States treated Islamic terrorism as a matter of law enforcement. When our embassies were raided or bombed, when our barracks were destroyed, when our soldiers and sailors were murdered, when our World Trade Center was attacked, when our destroyer was damaged, we treated the assailants as members of an Arabic-speaking mafia, as criminals to be apprehended, tried, and punished.

Didn’t work. The jihad grew. It even found a base in Afghanistan, where it could equip and train and plot. In 2001, in a single fall morning, the World Trade Center was destroyed, the Pentagon bludgeoned, and more than 3,000 innocent people were killed.

America rethought its approach to terrorism. No longer were the terrorists considered felons. They were now unlawful combatants. Surveillance, interrogation, and detention policies became more aggressive. We invaded Afghanistan, we toppled the Taliban, and we sent al Qaeda leadership into hiding. (Read more from this story HERE)

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John Kerry French Faux Pas: I Just Want to ‘Share a Hug’ With You (+video)

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By Our Foreign Staff and AFP. When top US diplomat John Kerry rushed towards the French president, arms open, to warmly embrace him on Friday, what followed was a cringeworthy culture clash that has befuddled many a visitor to France.

The French are just not that into hugging.

Kerry had given fair warning to his French counterparts that some American-style affection was on the cards.

“My visit to France is basically to share a big hug for Paris and express the affection of the American people for France and for our friends there who have been through a terrible time,” he said on the eve of his trip.

The phrase alone sparked confusion in the media who struggled to pin down a translation for the word hug. (Read more about John Kerry’s “share a hug” moment HERE)

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Singer Helps John Kerry Show Solidarity With France After Delayed U.S. Response to Terror Attacks

By Rachelle Blinder. “You’ve got a friend,” France.

James Taylor crooned the message in Paris Friday to help Secretary of State John Kerry apologize for the U.S.’ late show of solidarity following last weeks’ terror attacks.

The American music legend and Kerry pal opened with the melody of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, before launching into the English hit, “You’ve Got a Friend” to a crowd of survivors, victims’ families and first responders.

At the end of the 3-minute performance at Paris city hall, he reassured in French, “Your friend is here.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Egyptian Student Posts on Facebook that He’s an Atheist, Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail

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Photo Credit: YahooAn Egyptian court has sentenced a student to three years in jail for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist and for insulting Islam, his lawyer said Sunday.

Karim al-Banna, a 21-year-old whose own father testified against him, was jailed by a court in the Nile Delta province of Baheira on Saturday, lawyer Ahmed Abdel Nabi told AFP.

“He was handed down a three-year prison sentence, and if he pays a bail of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 140 or 117 euros) the sentence can be suspended until a verdict is issued by an appeals court,” Abdel Nabi said, adding that an appeal was to be heard on March 9.

Abdel Nabi said his client’s father had testified against his son, charging that he “was embracing extremist ideas against Islam”.

Banna’s name had appeared in a list of known atheists in a local daily after which his neighbours harassed him, said Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on religion and beliefs at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. (Read more about the Egyptian student who received 3 years in jail HERE)

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The Great Wall of Saudi Arabia?

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Saudi Arabia has been constructing a 600-mile East-West barrier on its Northern Border with Iraq since September.

The main function of the barrier will be keeping out ISIS militants, who have stated that among their goals is an eventual takeover of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, both of which lie deep inside Saudi territory, according to United Press International.

This past week, a commander and two guards on the Saudi-Iraq border were killed during an attack by Islamic State militants, the first direct ground assault by the group on the border.

“It is the first attack by Islamic State itself against Saudi Arabia and is a clear message after Saudi Arabia entered the international coalition against it,” Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with close ties to Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry, told Reuters.

The Saudi “Great Wall” as it’s being dubbed by some media outlets, will be a fence and ditch barrier that features soft sand embankments that is designed to slow down infiltrators on foot and are too step to drive a tired-vehicle up, according to the Telegraph of London. It will have 40 watchtowers and seven command and control centers complete with radar that can detect aircraft and vehicles as far away as 22 miles as well as day and night camera installations. (Read more about the Great Wall of Saudi Arabia HERE)

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Ohio Arrest in ISIS Terror Plot Against US Capitol

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Photo Credit: The Daily Beast By Fox News. An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as “enemies,” and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol.

A Justice Department official, however, told Fox News that Cornell was “aspirational and not operational,” adding that the public was never in danger.

The investigation relied heavily on the use of a source, who the criminal complaint said began cooperating with authorities last fall to gain favorable treatment for his prosecution on an unrelated case.

The complaint adds that Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL. (Read more about the ISIS terror plot HERE)
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22 Islamic Terror Camps in US

By Leo Hohmann. Last week’s brazen attack by a “home-grown” terrorist cell in France that targeted the staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked renewed interest in potential cells operating inside the United States.

And there are many.

The FBI is aware of at least 22 paramilitary Islamic communes in the U.S., operated by the shadowy Pakistan-based group Jamaat al-Fuqra and its main U.S. front group, Muslims of the Americas.

With U.S. headquarters in Islamberg, New York, the group headed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani operates communes in mostly remote areas of California, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and other states.

The FBI describes the MOA compound in Texas, called Mahmoudberg, as an enclave and “communal living site.” Located in Brazoria County along County Road 3 near Sweeny, Texas, it was discovered more than 10 years ago by the FBI through a tip from an informant in New York. (Read more from this story HERE).
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ISIS Gaining Even More Ground

By The Daily Beast. ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 air strikes in the American-led campaign to break ISIS’s grip there.

At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities ISIS hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate. Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group does not appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began. The result is a net ground gain for ISIS, according to information compiled by two groups with on-the-ground sources.

In Syria, ISIS “has not any lost any key terrain,” Jennifer Cafarella, a fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War who studies the Syrian conflict, explained to the Daily Beast. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport, Massacre 12 in Bus Attack in Ukraine

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Pro-Russian separatists unleashed a series of bomb attacks Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, leveling a key airport in Donetsk, killing 12 in an attack on a passenger bus and almost certainly dooming a short-lived cease-fire, according to reports.

A senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News that the separatists destroyed the government-held airport in eastern Ukraine Tuesday afternoon.

The facility has been “flattened” and the air control tower was “decimated,” the official said. “They are now fighting over rubble.”

Maria Ivanovna, a local retiree, told The Associated Press she has become desensitized to the blasts and drew an arc with her arm to show how shells fly over her home toward the airport.

“We will survive the same way we did after World War II. Ration cards for bread; 11 ounces for children; 800 grams for factory workers and 1,200 grams for miners,” she said. (Read more from the story “Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport” HERE)

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Richest Indian State Announces Plans to Cure Homosexuals

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By Sara Malm. An Indian state minister has announced plans to open treatment centres for the LGBT community to ‘make them normal’, comparing homosexuals to alcoholics.

Ramesh Tawadkar, Goa’s minister for sport and youth, said the government in the popular tourist resort would ‘cure’ homosexuals with ‘training and medicines’.

Tawadkar, a representative of right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, sparked outrage with the comments, made during a press conference yesterday.

‘We will make them normal. We will have centres for them, like Alcoholics Anonymous centres,’ Tawadkar said, adding that the Goa government would ‘train them and give them medicines too’. (Read more about the facility being created to cure homosexuals HERE)

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Former VP of Christian Reparative Therapy Group Exodus International Admits He is a Homosexual

By Billy Hallowell. Randy Thomas, the former executive vice-president of Exodus International, a now defunct, ex-gay Christian organization, and a self-described former “ex-gay poster boy“ announced in a blog post Monday that he’s gay.

In a piece titled, “A Peaceful Disclosure – I Am Gay,” Thomas wrote that the suicide of a man he once dated before he joined the ex-gay movement more than two decades ago, in part, led him to rethink how he addresses his sexuality.

Thomas also explained how additional circumstances in recent years have led him to question his beliefs and to reevaluate, asking key questions about himself and his journey. This process began to ramp up after organizational turmoil within Exodus began to take root in 2011, he said. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Update: Indian Minister Backtracks on Comments About Homosexuals

Ramesh Tawadkar claimed [today that] he was misquoted even as Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar did some damage control to say homosexuality is not a “disease”.

“I was misunderstood and misquoted. I was not talking about the LGBT (youths) but about drug addicted and sexually abused youths,” Tawadkar told PTI, as local channels in Goa continued to air the footage in which he assured medical treatment to LGBT youths to make them “normal”. (Read more from this story HERE)

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