In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council

The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.

But the Palestinians rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesday of Arab representatives and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution on Friday, according to officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospect that the Obama adminstration will cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council. 

Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with Israel and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to its key ally to stop its construction of new settlements. U.S. officials were not available for comment, but two Security Council diplomats confirmed the proposal.

The Palestinian delegation, along with Lebanon, the Security Council's only Arab member state, asked the council's president late Wednesday to schedule a meeting for Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today to reject the U.S. offer is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from Washington. 

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East. In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.

The U.S.-backed draft statement -- which was first reported by Al Hurra -- was obtained by Turtle Bay. In it, the Security Council "expresses its strong opposition to any unilateral actions by any party, which cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community, and reaffirms, that it does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, which is a serious obstacle to the peace process." The statement also condemns "all forms of violence, including rocket fire from Gaza, and stresses the need for calm and security for both peoples."

U.S. officials argue that the only way to resolve the Middle East conflict is through direct negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians. For weeks, the Obama administration has refused to negotiate with the Palestinians on a resolution condemning the settlements as illegal, signaling that they would likely veto it if it were put to a vote. The Palestinians were planning to put the resolution to a vote later this week. But Security Council statements of the sort currently under consideration are voted on the bases of consensus in the 15-nation council.

The United States has, however, been isolated in the 15-nation council. Virtually all 14 other member states are prepared to support the Palestinian resolution, according to council diplomats. A U.N. Security Council resolution generally carries greater political and legal force than a statement from the council's president.

The U.S. concession comes as the Middle East is facing a massive wave of popular demonstrations that have brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are posing a challenge to governments in Algeria, Bahrain, and Iran.

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Earthquake Shakes Up Suez Canal as Iran Warships Approach

AT THIS POINT THERE IS NO SPIRITUAL COINCIDENCE........

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook up residents at the entrance to the Suez Canal early Monday morning, 48 hours before two Iranian ships, a frigate and a supply vessel, are expected to enter the canal.

The National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research reported that tremors from the 3 a.m. quake lasted for 27 minutes, but caused no damage.

The ships had originally been expected to enter the Suez today (Monday), but Egyptian officials announced the delay this morning, without explanation.

Iran inexplicably announced Sunday morning that two of its warships had crossed the Suez, a report that was thoroughly denied by Egyptian authorities. Iranian media did not mention the ships on Monday, and the false report may have been for local consumption.

No Iranian ship has been allowed to pass through the Suez Canal since Iran's 1979 overthrow of the Shah and Egypt's signing of a peace treaty with Israel the same year.Egyptian-Iranian Rapprochement?

Egypt’s agreeing to allow Iranian ships to pass through the Suez is seen by many analysts as a signal that the new regime in Egypt is leaning towards ties with Iran, but Suez Canal officials have pointed out that an international convention requires it allow passage to all ships.Egypt has reportedly agreed to allow the Iranian boats to pass through the canal en route to Syria. The Obama administration is concerned about “what’s the cargo on board, where is it going, to whom, for what benefit," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. Iran has said that the ships are headed for Syria for training, Crowley commented, as laughter was heard in the audience: “My initial response to that would be that we’re highly skeptical of that claim.”

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have accused Iran of trying to exploit the crisis in Egypt to increase its influence in the Middle East.

“Iran wants to say to the world, to the United States, Israel and other countries in the Mideast that it has reached not only areas close to it but also farther away, including in the Mediterranean," Ephraim Kam of the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel told the Associated Press.

The Iranian maritime maneuver also signals it is prepared to protect the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist organizations on Israel’s southern and northern borders.

Iran officials last month announced that its ships would be sailing through the Suez to gather intelligence, but analysts stress that the Islamic Republic’s ultimate goal is to establish Shi’ite dominance in the Muslim world, far beyond Lebanon and Syria.

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China hackers break into five oil companies

The "Night Dragon" attacks, as they have been dubbed, are now being investigated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

Starting as early as 2007, the attacks were "coordinated, covert and targeted", according to a report by McAfee, the computer security company.

McAfee said the hackers targeted five large oil and gas companies, but did not identify them by name. The attacks successfully obtained information about oil and gas field operations, including the configuration of equipment, and financial documents relating to bids for oil and gas concessions and drilling rights.

Dmitri Alperovitch, a researcher at McAfee, suggested the attacks had been commercially motivated. "The information is tremendously sensitive and would be worth a huge amount of money to competitors," he said.

He added that the attacks had occurred strictly during working hours, Beijing time, and that the hackers appeared to be like "company worker bees".

The attacks were said by McAfee to be similar to the hacking of Google in December 2009, when attackers succeeded in stealing some of the search engine's valuable source code. They also resembled a China-based espionage network discovered in 2009 and nicknamed GhostNet, that broke into the computers of diplomats, activists and businessmen and transmitted information back to the hackers.

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied it is responsible for computer hacking and insisted that there are strong laws in China to punish hackers.

The Telegraph

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Israel PM on Egypt: Israel must ‘prepare for worst’

Netanyahu says leaders and policy-makers around the world must be alerted of possible dangers that may lie ahead.

Israel shares the world’s hopes that Egypt will succeed in its quest for genuine reform,but unlike other democracies it cannot just hope for the best, but must prepare for the worst, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu said that part of preparing for the worst was “to alert leaders and policy-makers around the world of possible dangers that may lie ahead, not because I want them to materialize – I don’t – but because I have a responsibility to do whatever I can to increase the chances that they don’t materialize.”


With these words the prime minister was taking on criticism articulated in recent days – most notably by New York Times columnists Thomas Friedman and Roger Cohen – that Israel has been on the wrong side of history in not fervently applauding the recent events in Cairo.

“No one knows what the future in Egypt will bring,” Netanyahu said. “People in Washington don’t know, and people in Tehran don’t know, and – this may be hard for some of you – but even columnists in The New York Times don’t know.”

Netanyahu said that while changing the status quo led to a much better situation in Europe in 1989 with the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the same cannot be said of the Russian Revolution in 1917, or the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Even more recently, he said, most of the world applauded the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in 2005. But just a few years later, Hezbollah – “a terror organization that respects no human rights, that crushes human rights into the dust” – has taken over the country.

Ultimately, the Egyptians themselves will determine their own fate, Netanyahu said, “but Israel cannot profess neutrality about the outcome, because above all, we want the future Egyptian government to remain committed to peace with Israel.”


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All children to be registered in national biometric records

Below the radar of public opinion, Mexico has started to assemble the type of biometric national identity database that could be used to document names for a North American Trusted Traveler border pass card, a plan already being developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Mexican citizens.
It apparently would be similar to the program that has become commonplace in the European Union to allow free transit for EU citizens to move, live and work wherever they choose within the EU, disregarding nation-of-origin and national border restrictions.
On Jan. 19, 2011, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon signedan executive order requiring within the next five years all Mexicans 17 years old and younger have abiometricnationalidentitycard that would include a facial photograph, all 10 fingerprints, and an iris scan.
Discover the shocking truth about why the U.S. government doesn't really want to protect our Mexican and Canadian borders, in Jerome Corsi's "The Late Great USA."
To carry out the presidential executive order, the Mexican Directorate General of the National Population Register plans to go to all elementary schools in Mexico schools in Mexico to record the required biometric information and issue individualidentitycards.
The Mexican National Institute of Geography and Statistics estimates that in 2005, there were 10.5 million Mexicans between 5 and 9 years old, 11 million between 10 and 14 years old, and 10 million between 15 and 19 years old.


Read more:All children to be registered in national biometric databasehttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=263797#ixzz1E2ROgVJt

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U.S. beefs up security for Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain

WASHINGTON — The United States has been concerned that Shi'ite riots in Bahrain could hamper operations of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.


Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has been closely monitoring the Shi'ite unrest in Bahrain. They said security has been reinforced around the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, responsible for operations throughout the Gulf and Red Sea.

"So far, this is not about us yet," an official said.

Officials said the Defense Department and State Department have been in constant contact with the Bahraini kingdom amid the Shi'ite riots around Manama. They said the administration was urging the Sunni regime to avoid a bloody confrontation with the protesters in wake of the death of two Shi'ites.

"The United States welcomes the government of Bahrain's statements that it will investigate these deaths, and that it will take legal action against any unjustified use of force by Bahraini security forces," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Feb. 15. "We urge that it follow through on these statements as quickly as possible."

In 2010, the Fifth Fleet launched a project to expand its headquarters in Bahrain. The project included the takeover and modernization of an antiquated civilian port designed to accommodate large naval vessels.

World Tribune

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Reports: Anarchy in Sinai Peninsula

The recent revolution in Egypt has had its effect on the Sinai Peninsula as well. Mass demonstrations by the Egyptian police have broken out in the northern Sinai in recent weeks, the Palestinian Authority-based Ma’an News Agencyreported on Wednesday. According to the report, the demonstrators are protesting against their low quality of living as well as against the fact that they are forced to live in constant danger of death and kidnappings by lawless marauders.



Ma’an reported that the demonstrators gathered in front of the security administration building in the northern Sinai and demanded that the rules of martial law cease to be applied to them, that their wages be raised and that protection be offered to them from gunmen who chased after them and burned down their homes in the city of El-Arish. They also demanded that security director Mohammad Najib and his assistant be dismissed from their positions.

According to the reports coming from the region, there is a state of anarchy in the northern Sinai Peninsula. More than ten days ago three police officers were kidnapped, and their cars were subsequently found burnt in the suburbs of El-Arish. In addition, it has been reported that dozens of policemen are hiding and fearing for their lives. Police officers serving at the Rafah border crossing have been harassed daily by militants who attack them as they return to their homes, beating them and forcing them to crawl on the ground.

According to data released by local security and medical officials, approximately 35 police officers and civilians have been killed since the beginning of the riots in northern Sinai. About 150 people have been wounded.





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