Russia, China Ink Enormous $270 Billion Energy Deal, Strengthen Axis vs. US

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Photo Credit: WNDBy F. Michael Maloof. Russia and China have just signed a $270 billion energy agreement that quickly could lead to other lucrative energy projects, with the byproduct of strengthening not only economic but political ties between them, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The deal was between Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, and the China National Petroleum Corporation.

China will now become Rosneft’s largest customer, obviating Moscow’s major reliance on European markets which continue to experience serious economic difficulties and, in some countries, a lingering recession.

It will help ensure that Russia continues to receive the revenue it needs for its own infrastructure development and military reform.

Having Rosneft’s boss, Igor Sechin, as one of the most trusted advisers to Russian President Vladimir Putin also has been a big asset in pushing the Russian president’s political agenda. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Sergei IlnitskyA New Anti-American Axis?

By Leslie H. Gelb and Dimitri K. Simes. THE flight of the leaker Edward J. Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow last month would not have been possible without the cooperation of Russia and China. The two countries’ behavior in the Snowden affair demonstrates their growing assertiveness and their willingness to take action at America’s expense.

Beyond their protection of Mr. Snowden, Chinese-Russian policies toward Syria have paralyzed the United Nations Security Council for two years, preventing joint international action. Chinese hacking of American companies and Russia’s cyberattacks against its neighbors have also caused concern in Washington. While Moscow and Beijing have generally supported international efforts to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program, they clearly were not prepared to go as far as Washington was, and any coordinated shift in their approach could instantly gut America’s policy on the issue and endanger its security and energy interests. To punctuate the new potential for cooperation, China is now carrying out its largest ever joint naval exercises — with Russia.

Russia and China appear to have decided that, to better advance their own interests, they need to knock Washington down a peg or two. Neither probably wants to kick off a new cold war, let alone hot conflicts, and their actions in the case of Mr. Snowden show it. China allowed him into Hong Kong, but gently nudged his departure, while Russia, after some provocative rhetoric, seems to have now softened its tone.

Still, both countries are seeking greater diplomatic clout that they apparently reckon they can acquire only by constraining the United States. And in world affairs, there’s no better way to flex one’s muscles than to visibly diminish the strongest power.

This new approach appears based in part on a sense of their growing strength relative to America and their increasing emphasis on differences over issues like Syria. Both Moscow and Beijing oppose the principle of international action to interfere in a country’s sovereign affairs, much less overthrow a government, as happened in Libya in 2011. After all, that principle could always backfire on them. Read more from this story HERE.

Fence is 99% Effective for Israel, Why not the US?

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Photo Credit: WNDWhile the merits of building a fence along the USA’s southern border are debated in Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his nation’s new border fence is working very well, thank you.

In comments spoken Sunday and reported in the Times of Israel, Netanyahu claimed Israel’s new security fence along the Israel-Egypt border has not only stemmed the tide of illegal immigration to Israel, but has also protected the Jewish state from terrorists operating in the Sinai Peninsula.

Every day that passes “underscores how correct and how important the decision was to build the fence in the south,” the prime minister said. “You must remember that this fence is equipped with very advanced means … to protect the State of Israel against the double threat of illegal migration and terrorism from Sinai.”

Netanyahu, speaking publicly ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting, argued the fence has blocked 99 percent of African migrants from reaching Israel.

“In practice, nobody has entered and the few who have arrived did not reach Israel’s cities,” he continued. “The fence has completely stopped illegal migration to Israel, but it also has an additional function – namely counterterrorism.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Fatwa Now Encourages Chechens to Fight for Jihad with US-Backed Rebels in Syria

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Photo Credit: WNDThe head of the self-styled Caucasus Emirates has reversed his position and now will back Chechens fighting for “jihad” in Syria, so they can bring back their experiences to more effectively take on the Russian security services in their quest to set up an independent Islamic state subject to Shariah law, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Doku Umarov, who leads the Caucasus Emirates, which the Islamist militants want to establish in existing southern Russian provinces, initially was opposed to Chechens leaving the area to fight in Syria.

He even tried to encourage Chechens who had been living in other countries and going to fight in Syria to instead return to the Russian province of Chechnya to fight.

Umarov was in part persuaded by a fatwa issued by a local sheikh, Abu Abdurrakhman al-Magribiy, who backed Umarov’s position that Chechens and other North Caucasians should fight at home and not in Syria.

However, a second part of that fatwa said that the North Caucasians could engage in the civil war in Syria if their goal was to obtain the combat experience needed to return home and use it against the Russians.

Read more from this story HERE.

If Muslim Brotherhood Chooses War in Egypt, It Will Lose Badly

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Krauthammer: Muslim Brotherhood ‘will lose badly’ if it battles Egyptian military

By Jeff Poor. On Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer predicted that if the Mohamed Morsi regime and the Muslim Brotherhood chose the route of going to war by creating its own military and fighting Egyptian forces instead of seeking a peaceful solution, the Muslim Brotherhood will lose.

“[The Muslim Brotherhood] is obviously the largest, the most organized and disciplined of all the elements, all the parties in Egypt,” Krauthammer said. “However, it is not a majority. It isn’t even close to a majority. And what was so remarkable about the demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the government and about the people standing behind the chief of staff when he announced the coup, where you had representatives of the Christians, of the largest and most respected Sunni Muslim mosque and university, where you had even a representative of a far more radical Islamist movement, a newer party. So you had all the elements of society lined up against the Brotherhood, each with their own grievances. So, if the Brotherhood decides that it’s going to turn to violence, it’s going to lose because you have a wall-to-wall coalition against it.”

“The irony here is that the two most disciplined institutions in the country are the ones who will decide where this goes,” Krauthammer continued. “The army has discipline, and the Brotherhood. And that’s why I think up until now the violence has been relatively restrained. The Brotherhood leadership, I think, understands that if it does an Algeria and decides it’s going to go and make war on the army, it’s going to lose and it will lose badly and be imprisoned and disperse or go back to the 1950s. If there is an outbreak, it’s going to come from a fringe of a fringe who are not under the discipline of the party. And that, I think, is possible. But that would be radical sort of al Qaida types who want to make this into a bloodbath. And they, if there are enough of them, it could actually provoke a bloodbath.”


Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerFears of radicalization rise as Egypt descends into chaos

By Charles Rollet. Essam el-Haddad, Morsi’s foreign policy advisor, warned on his website that the toppling of elected Islamists in Egypt would spark more terrorism than the Western-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

No major acts of terrorism have occurred so far, but the violence is worse than ever. At least 20 were killed on Friday alone as pro- and anti-Morsi protestors clashed across Egypt.

That includes four Christian Copts in the Delta town of Khosous, who were machine-gunned during sectarian clashes.

As the military arrests leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and pro-Morsi journalists, disturbing videos have turned up showing Islamists threatening mass violence.

“I want to say to [General] al-Sisi: Beware! Know that you have created a new Taliban and Al Qaeda in Egypt,” said a bearded man in one video. Read more from this story HERE.

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Coptic priest shot dead in Egypt attack: sources

By Reuters. Gunmen shot dead a Coptic Christian priest in Egypt’s lawless Northern Sinai on Saturday in what could be the first sectarian attack since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, security sources said.

The priest, Mina Aboud Sharween, was attacked in the early afternoon while walking in the Masaeed area in El Arish.

The shooting in the coastal city was one of several attacks believed to be by Islamist insurgents that included firing at four military checkpoints in the region, the sources said. Read more from this story HERE.

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Egypt’s new regime born in chaos as violence spreads

By Kim Sengupta. There was confusion last night after Mohamed ElBaradei was authoritatively reported to have been appointed as Egypt’s interim prime minister by the acting president, Adly Mansour. He was expected take the country along a military-imposed political roadmap amid vicious strife, including growing sectarian attacks and a rising death toll.

However, this was contradicted late last night by Egyptian state television, which denied any such appointment had been made.

The former head of the International Atomic Energy Commission met the armed forces chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, yesterday and, according to officials, agreed to act as executive head of a new “salvation government” until fresh elections can be held.

But shortly afterwards the Muslim Brotherhood declared that the appointment of Mr ElBaradei, who had led a coalition of left-wing groups, was “illegitimate”. “We reject this coup and all that results from it, including ElBaradei,” a senior representative of the Brotherhood was reported to have told an Islamist gathering in Cairo.

Mr ElBaradei was among liberal leaders who opposed the Islamist President Morsi, ousted by the military on Wednesday. Thousands of Brotherhood supporters in Cairo yesterday were preparing to march to a military base where the deposed president is thought to be held. Read more from this story HERE.

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Egypt’s New President Asserts Authority

By Associated Press. Egypt’s new president moved to assert his authority and regain control of the streets Saturday even as his Islamist opponents declared his powers illegitimate and issued blood oaths to reinstate Mohammed Morsi, whose ouster by the military has led to dueling protests and deadly street battles between rival sides.

But underscoring the sharp divisions facing the untested leader, Adly Mansour, his office said pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei had been named as interim prime minister but later backtracked on the decision saying consultations were continuing. A politician close to ElBaradei said the reversal was due to objections by an ultraconservative Islamist party with which the new administration wants to cooperate.

Mansour’s administration, meanwhile, has begun trying to dismantle Morsi’s legacy. He fired Morsi’s intelligence chief and the presidential palace’s chief of staff. Prosecutors, meanwhile, ordered four detained stalwarts of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood held for 15 days pending an investigation into the shooting deaths of eight protesters last week.

No major violence was reported between supporters and opponents of Morsi as the two sides sought to regroup after a night of fierce clashes that turned downtown Cairo into a battlefield. Clashes were also fierce in the port city of Alexandria, where thousands from both sides fought each other with automatic rifles, firebombs and clubs.

Friday’s violence left 36 dead, taking to at least 75 the number of people killed since the unrest began on June 30, when millions of protesters took to the streets on the anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Read more from this story HERE.

Islamic Fundamentalists Open Fire on Anti-Morsi Demonstrators, Killing at Least 12 in Alexandria (+video)

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Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesClashes between Egyptian troops, Morsi supporters turn deadly as thousands protest

By Fox News. Clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted president Mohammed Morsi reportedly have left 30 people dead across Egypt in a day that saw tens of thousands take to the streets to rally on both sides.

Emergency services official Amr Salama said 12 people died in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria when hundreds of Islamists descended on a rally by opponents of Morsi, opening fire with guns.

The state news agency MENA confirmed 12 dead in the city, bringing the nationwide toll to 30, AP reported.

In another development, an Interior Ministry spokesman said the deputy head of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat el-Shater, considered the most powerful man in the organization, has been arrested.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama Call for Muslim Brotherhood Role Overtaken in Egypt

By Nicole Gaouette & John Walcott. The Obama administration’s call for an “inclusive” political process in Egypt with a role for the Muslim Brotherhood has been overshadowed by deadly clashes between security forces and supporters of the Islamist group.

Violent protests yesterday in Cairo and elsewhere over the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Mursi raised doubts about prospects for an eventual accommodation that would allow the Brotherhood that supports him to compete in new elections.

While President Barack Obama’s administration has stopped short of condemning the July 3 military takeover, it has called on Egyptian leaders to pursue “a transparent political process that is inclusive of all parties and groups,” including “avoiding any arbitrary arrests of Mursi and his supporters,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said July 4 in a statement.

The administration has urged the Egyptian military to stop using heavy-handed tactics, according to two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified commenting on private communications. They said the administration is concerned that some in the military may want to provoke the Islamists to violence and provide a rationale for crushing the movement once and for all.

Such a move would fail and probably prompt a shift to al-Qaeda type terrorist tactics by extremists in the Islamist movement in Egypt and elsewhere, the U.S. officials said. Read more from this story HERE.

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Clashes erupt in major pushback by Egypt Islamists

By Lee Keath, Maggie Michael and Sarah El Deeb. Enraged Islamists pushed back against the toppling of President Mohammed Morsi, as tens of thousands of his supporters marched in Cairo on Friday to demand his reinstatement and attacked his opponents. Nighttime clashes raged with stone-throwing, firecrackers and gunfire, and military armored vehicles raced across a Nile River bridge in a counterassault on Morsi’s supporters.

Mayhem nationwide left at least 10 people dead and 210 wounded as Morsi supporters stormed government buildings, vowing to reverse the military’s removal of the country’s first freely elected president. Among the dead were four killed when troops opened fire on a peaceful march by Islamists on the Republican Guard headquarters.

In a dramatic appearance — his first since Morsi’s ouster — the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood defiantly vowed the president would return. “God make Morsi victorious and bring him back to the palace,” Mohammed Badie proclaimed from a stage before a crowd of cheering supporters at a Cairo mosque. “We are his soldiers we defend him with our lives.”

Badie addressed the military, saying it was a matter of honor for it to abide by its pledge of loyalty to the president, in what appeared to be an attempt to pull it away from its leadership that removed Morsi. “Your leader is Morsi … Return to the people of Egypt,” he said. “Your bullets are not to be fired on your sons and your own people.”

After nightfall, moments after Badie’s speech, a large crowed of Islamists surged across 6th October Bridge over the Nile toward Tahrir Square, where a giant crowd of Morsi’s opponents had been massed all day. Battles broke out there at near the neighboring state TV building with gunfire and stone throwing and burning car barricade at an exit ramp. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: FARSIran Blames Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi for Coup

By FNA. Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that ousted President Mohamed Mursi and Muslim Brotherhood are to be blamed for the current political crisis in Egypt.

“What happened in Egypt was actually a soft coup staged by the Egyptian army, which was unfortunately the result of repeated mistakes by ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and Muslim Brotherhood …,” Boroujerdi said on Thursday.

The senior Iranian legislator underlined that Mursi’s repeated mistakes, Muslim Brotherhood’s power grab and their lack of attention to other political groups and prominent political figures who had a part in Egypt’s developments resulted in Mursi’s ouster from power. Read more from this story HERE.

Snowden a Whistleblower, but US Leaders, Press Increasingly Call Him a Traitor as Asylum Offers are Made

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Photo Credit: J Scott Applewhite/APEdward Snowden is a whistleblower, not a spy – but do our leaders care?

By Spencer Ackerman. According to US legislators and journalists, the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden actively aided America’s enemies. They are just missing one essential element for the meme to take flight: evidence.

An op-ed by Representative Mike Pompeo (Republican, Kansas) proclaiming Snowden, who provided disclosed widespread surveillance on phone records and internet communications by the National Security Agency, “not a whistleblower” is indicative of the emerging narrative. Writing in the Wichita Eagle on 30 June Pompeo, a member of the House intelligence committee, wrote that Snowden “has provided intelligence to America’s adversaries”.

Pompeo correctly notes in his op-ed that “facts are important”. Yet when asked for the evidence justifying the claim that Snowden gave intelligence to American adversaries, his spokesman, JP Freire, cited Snowden’s leak of NSA documents. Those documents, however, were provided to the Guardian and the Washington Post, not al-Qaeda or North Korea.

It’s true that information published in the press can be read by anyone, including people who mean America harm. But to conflate that with actively handing information to foreign adversaries is to foreclose on the crucial distinction between a whistleblower and a spy, and makes journalists the handmaidens of enemies of the state.

Yet powerful legislators are eager to make that conflation about Snowden. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APVenezuela, Nicaragua offer Snowden asylum

By Hadas Gold and Nick Gass. Nicaragua and Venezuela on Friday night became the first countries to offer National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum.

“As head of state, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden so that he can live (without) … persecution from the empire,” President Nicolas Maduro said, according to the Associated Press.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said he’d be willing to extend the same offer to the 29-year-old, but adding he would only do so “if circumstances allowed it.”

“We have the sovereign right to help a person who felt remorse after finding out how the United States was using technology to spy on the whole world, and especially its European allies,” Ortega said.

Wikileaks announced earlier Friday via Twitter that Snowden has applied for asylum in six more countries. Read more from this story HERE.

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Iceland proposal to grant NSA leaker Snowden citizenship appears to go nowhere

By Fox News. Icelandic lawmakers introduced a proposal in Parliament to grant immediate citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden — but it looks like it’s going nowhere.

Parliament later voted not to debate the measure before the summer recess, Reuters reported.

With his options narrowing daily, WikiLeaks announced Friday the fugitive NSA leaker had applied for asylum in another six countries, in addition to the 12 where he reportedly already has applied. However, WikiLeaks said it could not reveal the new names due to “attempted U.S. interference.”

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the Snowden citizenship proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee Thursday, but it received minimal support.

Snowden is believed to be stuck in a Moscow airport transit area. At one point, he told the Guardian newspaper that he was inclined to seek asylum in a country that shared his values — and that “the nation that most encompasses this is Iceland.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Valda Kalnina/EPANSA leaks: UK blocks crucial espionage talks between US and Europe

By Ian Traynor. Britain has blocked the first crucial talks on intelligence and espionage between European officials and their American counterparts since the NSA surveillance scandal erupted.

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA’s Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two “working groups” on the espionage debacle with the Americans.

Instead, the talks will consist of one working group focused on the NSA’s Prism programme, which has been capturing and storing vast amounts of internet and mobile phone metadata in Europe. Read more from this story HERE.

Muslim Brotherhood Claims Egypt’s Interim President is a Jew

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Photo Credit: IkhwanOnline.comIkhwanOnline, the official Web site of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, posted an article on Thursday asserting that the country’s new interim president, Adly Mansour, is secretly Jewish. The article, since taken offline, suggested that Mansour was part of an American and Israeli conspiracy to install Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. official and Egyptian opposition figure, as president.

Mansour, the supreme justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in as interim president on Thursday after the military announced that President Mohamed Morsi was no longer in charge. Morsi was a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has held large demonstrations protesting his ouster. That the Muslim Brotherhood would be suspicious of Mansour, and of the military that toppled Morsi to install him, is not surprising…

The article cited as its source the purported Facebook page of an al-Jazeera Arabic broadcaster, although it’s not clear whether the Facebook page is real. The article claims that Mansour is “considered to be a Seventh Day Adventist, which is a Jewish sect” (in fact, Seventh Day Adventism is considered part of Protestant Christianity). It further claims that Mansour tried to convert to Christianity but was rebuffed by the Coptic pope, a major Egyptian religious figure, who supposedly refused to baptize him.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russia and China Partner for Largest Joint Naval Drill in Their History

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Photo Credit: APChinese and Russian navies have partnered for the countries’ largest joint naval drill in history, set to start Friday in the Sea of Japan.

Military analysts see the joint drill as yet another sign of the countries’ growing friendship, post-Cold War days…

The drills are the largest in scope that China’s ever held with a foreign nation. The country has been actively building up its navy, AP reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

Morsi’s Overthrow: Bad News for Muslim Brotherhood, But is it Good News for Anyone?

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By AFP/GettyA Crisis in Competence

By Richard Fernandez. The overthrow of Morsi in Egypt is bad news for the Muslim Brotherhood. But is it good news for anyone?

…Lee Smith of Tablet magazine examines the chances that the new Egyptian leaders will try to divert popular discontent by making war on Israel. But he rightly notes that the Egyptian army knows it will get its ass kicked. Its chances at returning to economic power after such a defeat are diminished, and therefore a diversionary war with Israel, while possible, is probably irrational. The only thing keeping such a lunatic option on the table is the situation itself is irrational.

The big international losers in recent events are probably Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Obama administration. The big winners are the Egyptian army, Saudi Arabia, and, possibly, al-Qaeda. In a much re-Tweeted post, Kirsten Powers wrote, “Obama on the wrong side of history twice in Egypt.” Kori Schake at Foreign Policy writes, “U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has achieved the hat trick of alienating all factions in Egypt.”

Perhaps the most scathing critique comes from Josh Rogin and Eli Lake at the Daily Beast. “Obama Offers a Revisionist History of His Administration’s Approach to Egypt.” In other words, having lost in history’s accounting, Obama is now resorting to the pathetic exercise of trying to rewrite it.

But the most cruel cut of all comes from the New York Times, which notes that while Shi’a fought against Sunni, Syria exploded into flames, Egypt was riven by discord, and Lebanon was wracked by near civil war, the administration focused its efforts on things like stopping apartment construction in Israel…Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/GettyEgypt prepares for backlash as Morsi allies reject new regime

By Martin Chulov and Patrick Kingsley. Egypt is braced for further dramatic events on Friday as the vanquished Muslim Brotherhood called for a “day of rejection” following a widespread crackdown on its leadership by the country’s new interim president, Adly Mansour.

Supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi, still reeling from the military coup that removed their leader from power, are expected to take to the streets after Friday prayers following a series of raids and arrests that decimated the Muslim Brotherhood’s senior ranks and consolidated the miltary’s hold on the country.

In a stark sign of Egypt’s new political reality, the group’s supreme leader, Mohamed al-Badie, who was untouchable under Morsi’s rule, was one of those arrested.

Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said: “We are being headhunted all over the country. We are holding a mass rally after Friday prayers to take all peaceful steps necessary to bring down this coup.” He called for demonstrations to be peaceful, despite fears that anger may spill over into violence.

State prosecutors announced on Thursday that Morsi, who is in military custody, would face an investigation starting next week into claims that he had “insulted the presidency” – a move that would appear to put an end to any hopes of a political resurrection. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ReutersEgypt hasn’t spoiled gas-price dip — yet

By Talia Buford. Motorists hitting the highways over the Independence Day holiday are paying the lowest prices at the pump they’ve seen all year — but turmoil in Egypt and other trouble for the oil markets mean the good times may not last.

The average price of regular gasoline sank 5 cents in the past week to $3.48 a gallon on Thursday, AAA said, bringing the decline in the national average to 14 cents in the past month.

Some of the steepest drops have been in the Midwest, where retail gasoline prices tumbled by $1 per gallon since the beginning of June as refineries that had been shut for maintenance came back on line.

But rising tensions in Egypt are worrying oil traders and helped push U.S. crude prices above $101 a barrel to the highest level in 14 months Wednesday. On Thursday they leveled off slightly but held at around $101.

Egypt may not produce much oil, but it controls the Suez Canal, a key choke point for oil tanker traffic in the Middle East — and any hint of shipping delays will ripple down to gasoline prices quickly. Even though U.S. oil production is climbing at a record pace, oil prices are still set by the global market. Read more from this story HERE.

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By AFP/GettyRival gangs gearing up for battle after Egypt’s military coup: Pro-Morsi supporters set to protest over coup following Friday prayers

By DAVID WILLIAMS, JAMES RUSH and SIMON TOMLINSON. Egypt’s interim leader, Adli Mansour, used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood and promised elections – without indicating when they would be.

‘The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed,’ said the senior judge. Promising to safeguard ‘the spirit of the revolution’ that removed Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011, he said he would ‘put an end to the idea of worshipping the leader’.

Elections would be held based on ‘the genuine people’s will, not a fraudulent one,’ he added. ‘This is the only way for a brighter future, a freer future, a more democratic one.’

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appealed for calm and restraint, as well as the preservation of rights such as freedom of expression and assembly.

‘Many Egyptians in their protests have voiced deep frustrations and legitimate concerns,’ he said in a statement that did not condemn the move against Mr Morsi. ‘At the same time, military interference in the affairs of any state is of concern,’ he said. ‘Therefore, it will be crucial to quickly reinforce civilian rule in accordance with principles of democracy.’ Mr Morsi’s dramatic removal by the military after a year in office marked another twist in the turmoil that has gripped the Arab world’s most populous country in the two years since the fall of Mubarak. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Quietly Replacing US Ambassador Who Allegedly Trolled European Parks to Molest Children

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Photo Credit: Moyan_BrennPssst, did you hear? President Obama is replacing Ambassador Howard Gutman in Belgium. You remember Ambassador Gutman, don’t you? He’s the big Democrat donor President Obama nominated to represent his policies in Belgium and who, it is alleged, trolled for prostitutes — some of them children! — in a park near his official residence.

Late in the day on Friday, June 21, the White House released a list of new nominees for various posts, and Denise Bauer was listed for the United States Ambassador to Belgium post. For the cynics, this is similar to a Friday night document dump — a strategy the Obama Administration employs to release controversial information or items unflattering to them after the nightly news cycle is over and most people tune out for the weekend.

Denise Bauer was the Finance Chair of Women for Obama during the last election and served on the Obama for America National Finance Committee for the 2008 and 2012 elections. She was also a donor and a bundler. According to the New York Times, Bauer has raised $4,367,187 for Obama since 2007.

In a speech on May 5, 2013, Ambassador Gutman announced that he was leaving the post. CBS News reported about a month later that a memo obtained from the Department of State (DOS) Inspector General’s (IG) office noted that the DOS has known about the prostitution rumors since 2011, but higher-ups in the DOS stopped the investigation of Ambassador Gutman. He was allowed to remain America’s representative to Belgium for two more years, and, if the speech is any indication, he is leaving with his head held high, even amidst rumors that his pants had been around his ankles during much of his tenure.

The biographical information about Gutman on the website says he was a “Special Assistant to F.B.I. Director William H. Webster, focusing on counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence.” What do you think counter-intelligence officers from other countries would do with information that a U.S. Ambassador bought prostitutes of all ages in a park in Belgium? Can you say “blackmail”? His background seems to imply he should have known how risky and stupid actions like that could be, and yet, if the rumors prove true, he jettisoned his judgment in favor of his sexual proclivities.

Read more from this story HERE.