RUTHFULLY YOURS

Mali Becomes Infected by the Somali Virus By Jan Puhl in Mopti, Mali

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/mali-struggles-against-islamist-takeover-of-north-a-851122-druck.html

Mali was once a model of African democracy. But ever since a military coup in March, Islamists have been on the march and have already imposed Sharia law in the country’s north. There are fears that Mali could join Somalia as another failed state.

Colonel Moussa Maiga has summoned up his entire army of 700 volunteers, who are now standing at attention in sandals. “Right face!” he shouts. The men step on each other’s feet and stumble their way into a march formation. A mobile phone rings in the second platoon. The owner is punished with 20 pushups, a torture on this sandy square in Mopti, a city in central Mali, where the temperature is 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the shade.

“We are the ones who will recapture the north,” the soldiers sing.

The troops practicing their marching skills here in Mopti are part of a militia called the Front for the Liberation of the North (FLN). Most are taking part in the exercise in rubber sandals and T-shirts. One man is wearing a shirt with a map of Africa outlined in gold sequins on the front. Football jerseys are popular, including those of former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo and German national team player Piotr Trochowski.

The FLN recruits spend eight hours a day running and crawling across the terrain. Many are refugees from northern Mali, which the Islamists have captured and where Sharia law is now in effect.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3302/crucial-threat-to-israel-from-western-border

The developments on Israel’s western border might be far more crucial to its strategic situation, even compared to the Iranian nuclear threat. The August 5 terror attack in northern Sinai, killing 16 Egyptian policemen, supplied the perfect excuse for the newly elected Mursi regime in Cairo. Under the pretext of finally dealing with extremist Islamic terrorism in the peninsula, the Egyptian President is aiming for something more: re-defining the terms of The Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement, especially regarding the security situation in Sinai.

Israel had previously ignored, or sometimes secretly approved, Egyptian violations of the treaty. These always concerned deploying more battalions than agreed, but only for a short period of time, in order to fight the terrorist groups. This time, Cairo is aiming for a more serious goal. Not only had it moved to Sinai more battalions and even tanks, with no prior consent from Jerusalem, but the Egyptian media is full of reports of fighter aircraft and heavy artillery batteries about to be deployed. These reports are not all necessarily accurate, but what’s important is that they are part of a bigger plan – undermining the peace agreement, without actually deserting it altogether.

Why is the Islamic Brotherhood government doing this? The most logical explanation would be that it’s done because of internal political reasons. Changing the security part of the treaty had been one of the party’s promises during the election campaign. The Islamists claimed that the current treaty was a humiliation for Egypt’s national honor. I assume they will be going for a de-facto change, believing Israel has no alternative but to agree, since the Mursi regime would find it hard to actually sit down formally and re-negotiate the contract with the Israelis.

http://www.jidaily.com/5095b

Israeli innovation could make water drinkable in Africa

Many nations find desalination facilities costly to install, but a recent Israeli discovery may spell a more affordable way, using solar energy

In a world where freshwater resources are becoming increasingly limited, Israel– a country that is two-thirds arid – has become a leader in developing state-of-the-art desalination technology.However, less-developed nations find that installing desalination facilities is extremely costly, as they use enormous amounts of electricity and are location-sensitive. But thanks to a recent Israeli discovery, the desalination system may become much more affordable in areas like Africa and the Middle East.

Researchers from the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and central Arava R&D, have found a way to utilize solar energyat a fraction of the cost which can be custom-engineered for the desalination process, according to the Foreign Ministry.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/afghanistan-missions-new-woes

The recent string of “green-on-blue” (Afghan on US/Coalition troops) attacks in Afghanistan are cause for real worry: Not only might the Coalition’s vital mission to provide security training to the Afghan police and army be in trouble, but the country’s entire future might be in question, too.

Without the high-quality training the Afghan security forces desperately will need after Coalition forces leave in 2014 (or maybe sooner), it’s possible Afghanistan will once again fall to the likes of the Taliban.

And that’s exactly what the Taliban, the Haqqani network, al Qaeda – and maybe others – want.

What better way to achieve that goal than to cowardly go after the brave men and women who have the capacity to give the people of Afghanistan a chance for a secure future, free from an Islamist extremist stranglehold?

We’ve lost nearly 10 brave Americans to attacks by “friendlies” in just the past two weeks. There have been some 30 attacks on Coalition forces this year, causing nearly 40 fatalities.That’s a treble increase in “insider” attacks over last year.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/general-dempsey-forgets-oath-plays-politics?f=puball

Has General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made himself a political shill for the Obama Administration?

According to Fox News, General Dempsey criticized a group of former military and intelligence operatives for its aggressive campaign against President Obama, telling Fox News that he is “disappointed” by such political activity, which he called “not useful.”

Specifically, Dempsey denounced a group of former CIA agents, Navy SEALs and other military members, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, who recently released a long-form political ad blasting Obama for security leaks on his watch, as well as suggesting he has taken too much credit for the SEALs raid in Pakistan that killed Usama bin Laden.

Those seem to be legitimate criticisms made by knowledgeable and experienced individuals.

Dempsey, however, said as the steward of his profession — the military — he thinks it imperative that the military remain “apolitical.”

Nonsense. They are civilians.

This is nothing less than a blatant attempt by Dempsey to silence criticism of Obama because it makes him look bad to the Administration that appointed him.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/a-four-year-nightmare It is difficult to imagine just how low the United States has sunk when one is confronted with the prospect of a Secretary of State employing, with her full knowledge, someone whose ideology calls for the replacement of the Constitution with a barbaric code of law, the suspension of individual rights, and the submission […]

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-thornton/three-democrat-women-for-dependency/ The Democrats have announced that Massachusetts Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren and Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke will be on hand at the Democratic National Convention to hype the alleged Republican “War on Women” and promote “Julia,” the cartoon character that touts the numerous boons Democrats supposedly provide women. The Dems’ showcasing of these three […]

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/arnold-ahlert/muslim-dog-day-afternoon/ The Muslim proscription against “unclean” animals received state-enforced validation last Saturday in Toronto at the annual Al-Quds Day rally held in the city’s Queen’s Park. 47-year-old Allan Einstoss, who was accosted by a Muslim demonstrator while walking among the crowd with his dog, is considering legal action after being held by […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314685/syria-why-al-qaeda-winning-ed-husain Our collective excitement at the possibility that the Assad regime will be destroyed, and the Iranian ayatollahs weakened in the process, is blurring our vision and preventing us from seeing the rise of al-Qaeda in Syria. In March of this year, jihadis mounted seven attacks against Assad. By June, they had led 66 “operations,” […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314680/get-lost-rich-lowry So, as you might have heard, Michael Mann of Climategate infamy is threatening to sue us. Mann is upset — very, very upset — with this Mark Steyn Corner post, which had the temerity to call Mann’s hockey stick “fraudulent.” The Steyn post was mild compared with other things that have been said about […]