President Obama, John Kerry Negotiate with Iran as Abuse of Jailed American Pastor Increases

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/Idaho Press-Tribune, Adam EschbachIranian President Hassan Rouhani’s reputation as a moderate has convinced U.S. leaders to begin nuclear negotiations by easing sanctions on the rogue regime, even as Rouhani has permitted the increasing abuse of American pastor Saeed Abedini.

Abedini’s plight has worsened in recent days, while Secretary of State John Kerry prepared for a historic meeting with his Iranian counterpart.

Abedini’s family confirmed last week that he was moved to the infamous Rajaï Shahr prison.

“Once in there, one stops to be a human being,” Dutch diplomat Loes Bijnen said in 2005. “One is put out of sight, even of human rights activists and the press.

“In Rajaï Shahr, political prisoners have to share cells with dangerous criminals like murderers, rapists and drug addicts who don’t hesitate to attack their cell mates.

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Arabia Said to Have Bought Nukes from Pakistan

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Youtube/Al Jazeera EnglishSaudi Arabia may be prepared to field nuclear bombs it has purchased from Pakistan in response to Iran’s alleged military nuclear program, and may already have deployed missile systems capable of delivering the bombs, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

According to Mark Urban, diplomatic and defense editor for the BBC’s Newsnight, there are suggestions that the Saudis have paid for a number of nuclear weapons that are ready and waiting in Pakistan. If the reports are accurate, the kingdom could have atomic weapons on its missiles even before Iran has that capability.

Urban said it was an assessment shared by the former head of the IDF’s head of intelligence, Amos Yadlin, and cited comments Yadlin made to that effect at a conference in Sweden last month.

“The Saudis will not wait one month,” Yadlin reportedly said. “They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring.”

Another source, described as “a senior NATO decision maker,” told Urban earlier this year of an intelligence report about Pakistani-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to the kingdom.

Read more from this story HERE.

Women Dressed as Bombed Twin Towers, Win Halloween Costume Contest

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: SWNS/Chester A nightclub has come under criticism by giving top prize in a Halloween fancy dress contest to two women dressed as the blazing Twin Towers.

Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, both 19, dressed up as the buildings involved in the 9/11 terror attacks, where more than 2,700 people lost their lives.

Their outfits – marked North Tower and South Tower – included models of the two hijacked planes crashing into the New York skyscrapers.

The costumes also had tiny models of people falling to their deaths and were topped off with the women wearing smouldering Stars and Stripes flags on their heads.

The pair won £150 between them after being voted best fancy dress by a DJ at the huge Rosies club in Chester.

Read more from this story HERE.

Snowden Reporter Glenn Greenwald Featured at Radical Muslim Event

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND The London Guardian journalist who presented Russian-exiled National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to the world has fled to Brazil, but he is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an annual fundraiser in Los Angeles for the local chapter of the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

It would be Glenn Greenwald’s first scheduled appearance in the U.S., reports the Daily Caller, which cited an analyst who doubted U.S. authorities would prosecute the reporter if he enters the country.

Greenwald is the keynote for CAIR-LA’s “Faith in Freedom” dinner Nov. 16 in Anaheim, Calif.

He also spoke at the CAIR-NY awards dinner in May and last November addressed the CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

He told the San Francisco group “there really is no organization with which I’d rather be spending my time, or with which I feel more at home than CAIR.”

Read more from this story HERE.

New Twist in Benghazi Account: Mystery Man with Slain Ambassador

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND A four-page incident report written by a private contractor that provided security to the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, adds yet another layer of intrigue to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack.

The report, for the first time, claims that another American aside from Ambassador Christopher Stevens was being treated at the Libyan hospital reportedly controlled by the Ansar Al-Sharia terrorist group.

The American was described in the report by the private Blue Mountain Group as being “black” and shot in the hand. The report says the man was presumed to be “one of the ambassador’s close protection team as both were black.”

The State Department’s Accountability Review Board report, or ARB, detailed what it claimed was the official version of events during and after the attack. The ARB report does not mention any other American at the hospital with Stevens.

The ARB report states only that Stevens’ body was transported from the hospital to the Benghazi airport. The ARB does not describe how Stevens’ body was released from a hospital said to be under Ansar Al-Sharia’s control.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pastor Saeed Abedini Reportedly Moved to More Dangerous Prison

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News The Iranian-American pastor being held in Iran has now been transferred to a more dangerous prison where he faces life-threatening conditions, according to his family and attorneys.

When a member of Saeed Abedini’s family went to visit him at Evin Prison, a facility in Tehran where he has been kept for over a year, he was told that the pastor had been moved about an hour and a half away to Rajai Shahr Prison in the town of Karaj.

The family member then travelled to Rajai Shahr Prison and was told that the pastor is being kept there, but is not permitted to have any visitors, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, the pastor’s U.S.-based attorneys.

According to inside sources, this new prison in Karaj is an even more dangerous facility, where violent prisoners, typically imprisoned for murder and rape, are held.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry Smooths Over US-Saudi Tensions on Riyadh Visit

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Faisal al-Nasser/ReutersJohn Kerry has sought to ease recent tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia, a key strategic ally in the Arab world, highlighting enduring relations between the two countries and hailing the kingdom’s role as “the senior player” in the Middle East.

On a brief visit to Riyadh, the secretary of state said the US would ensure that its relationship with Saudi Arabia was “on track, moving forward and doing the things that we need to accomplish”.

There was much agreement between the two allies on the civil war in Syria, the Iranian nuclear programme and attempts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, also attempted to smooth over recent diplomatic differences, saying: “The fact of the matter is that the historic relationship between the two countries has always been based on independence, mutual respect and constructive co-operation.”

However, he told his US counterpart that “a true relationship between friends is based on sincerity, candour and frankness, rather than mere courtesy”.

Read more from this story HERE.

Germany Finds 1,500 Masterpieces Looted by Nazis

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AFP/John MacdougallNearly 1,500 priceless paintings including works by Picasso and Matisse that were stolen by the Nazis have been discovered in a flat in Munich, a news report said Sunday.

The German weekly Focus said police came upon the paintings during a 2011 search in an apartment belonging to the octogenarian son of art collector Hildebrand Gurlitt, who had bought them during the 1930s and 1940s.

The search was carried out because the son, Cornelius Gurlitt, was under suspicion for tax evasion, Focus said.

The report said the works were thought to be worth around one billion euros ($1.3 billion dollars) on today’s market.

The artworks lay hidden amid old jam jars and junk in darkened rooms in Gurlitt’s apartment in the southern city for more than half a century, the paper said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Death by Drone Turns a Villain Into a Martyr

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: A Majeed/AFP/Getty In life, Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was Public Enemy No. 1: a ruthless figure who devoted his career to bloodshed and mayhem, whom Pakistani pundits occasionally accused of being a pawn of Indian, or even American, intelligence.

But after his death, it seems, Pakistani hearts have grown fonder.

Since missiles fired by American drones killed Mr. Mehsud in his vehicle on Friday, Pakistan’s political leaders have reacted with unusual vehemence. The interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, denounced the strike as sabotage of incipient government peace talks with the Taliban. Media commentators fulminated about American treachery. And the former cricket star Imran Khan, now a politician, renewed his threats to block NATO military supply lines through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — a province his Tehreek-e-Insaf party controls — with a parliamentary vote scheduled for Monday.

Virtually nobody openly welcomed the demise of Mr. Mehsud, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Pakistani civilians. To some American security analysts, the furious reaction was another sign of the perversity and ingratitude that they say have scarred Pakistan’s relationship with the United States.

“It’s another stab in the back,” said Bill Roggio, whose website, the Long War Journal, monitors drone strikes. “Even those of us who watch Pakistan closely don’t know where they stand anymore. It’s such a double game.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Calls for Continued Use of ‘Death to America’ as Official Slogan

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: EPAThe Revolutionary Guards, the elite Iranian regime’s army, said Saturday they are committed to the slogan “Death to America,” chanted at official ceremonies, just days before the 34th anniversary of the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran.

“The slogan Death to America is the symbol of strength and determination of the Iranian nation against the dominance of the United States, which is an oppressive and untrustworthy nation,” said the Revolutionary Guards on their official website.

In recent weeks, a debate was launched in Iran on the merits of continuing to chant “Death to America ” during official ceremonies, while some relaxation occurred in relations between Tehran and Washington since the election in June of moderate President Hassan Rohani.

“Telephone espionage by the United States government against the people of other countries are proof that you can not trust the leadership of the White House”, the military group said.

Read more from this story HERE.