Excerpts: New Egyptian Parliament dominated by Islamists. Obama:
'insourcing' to bring jobs back to U.S. Iran behind anti-Israel attacks.
U.S. closely monitoring Hizbullah activities. Egypt's Brotherhood backs
military re U.S. dispute February 16, 2012

+++SOURCE: Egyptian Gazette 16 Feb.’12:”The Islamists in Parliament”,By
Salwa Samir

SUBJECT: New Egyptian Parliament dominated by Islamists

QUOTE:””The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist
Al-Nour Party ,which seeks to impose strict Islamic Law … have captured a
clear majority of votes”

EXCERPTS:CAIRO - The new Egyptian Parliament, which will be inaugurated on
January 23, looks set to be dominated by Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood's
Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Al-Nour Party, which seeks to
impose strict Islamic Law, similar to Saudi Arabia, have captured a clear
majority of votes in Egypt's first elections since the uprising that ousted
Hosni Mubarak.

Will the Islamists who won in the parliamentary elections solve Egypt’s
problems? The future will tell. . . .a huge blow for the liberals and young
activists who drove the uprising. This has divided people in the street;
some are more afraid of the Salafists than the Muslim Brothers.

Let’s wait and see . . .

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 16 Feb.’12:”Obama stresses ‘insourcing ’as China
counterweight “, Reuters

SUBJECT: Obama: ‘insourcing” to bring jobs back to U.S.

QUOTE:”President Obama. . .stressing the potential of ‘insourcing’ jobs back
to the United States from overseas”

FULL TEXT: WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama takes his election-year
economic message to the Midwestern heartland on Wednesday[15 Feb.], touring
a Wisconsin padlock factory and stressing the potential of “insourcing” jobs
back to the United States from overseas.

The day after meeting China’s leader-in-waiting, Vice President Xi Jinping,
at the White House, Obama was set to make the case for exploiting US
advantages over fast-growing economies where labor and business costs are
rising.

In Milwaukee he will visit the company Master Lock that he lauded in his
State of the Union address last month for having moved back about 100 union
jobs from China since mid-2010.

Master Lock, a unit of Fortune Brands Home & Security, is the world’s
largest manufacturer of padlocks and related products to secure homes, cars
and bicycles. It says its Milwaukee plant is running at full capacity for
the first time in 15 years - an example the White House is eager to
replicate as the Nov. 6 election nears.

“Right now we have an excellent opportunity to bring manufacturing back —
but we have to seize it,” Obama said in a statement released before the
Wisconsin visit, which starts a three-day trip where the Democrat will raise
funds in California and stop in at aircraft manufacturer Boeing in
Washington state.

“My message to business leaders is simple: ask yourselves what you can do to
bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can
to help you succeed,” he said.

How to cope with a rising China — and compete against cheap Chinese
exports — is one of the toughest challenges for Obama to navigate as the
election approaches, particularly as opinion polls showing rising US voter
frustration with the Asian economic powerhouse.

In Washington on Tuesday[14 Feb.], he struck a friendly but firm tone with
Xi, who is in line to assume the Chinese presidency in March 2013. But at
the Master Lock plant, the president is expected to cheer US productivity
gains that have encouraged some companies to turn their backs on China. —
Reuters

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 16 Feb.’12:”Israel Foils Assassination Attempt
against Barak, Accuses Hizbullah, Iran “

SUBJECT: Iran behind anti-Israel attacks

QUOTE: “ Netanyahu: ‘Iran is behind these attacks. It is the biggest
exporter of terror in the world”

FULL TEXT:Israel revealed that an attempt to assassinate Defense Minister
Ehud Barak was foiled during his trip to Singapore on Monday[13 Feb,],
reported Kuwait’s al-Jarida newspaper on Thursday[16 Feb.].

High-ranking Israeli sources said: “A joint cell from Iran and Hizbullah
plotted the attempt to kill the minister.”

They explained that the Israeli intelligence, Mossad, informed Singaporean
authorities of the plan, revealing that the cell had obtained detailed
information of Barak’s agenda during his visit and that it sought to
assassinate him at his hotel.

The Mossad informed the Singapore authorities of the information before the
minister’s arrival and they consequently arrested three people from the
cell, continued the sources.

Investigations are currently underway with them in cooperation with Israeli
intelligence, they added.

Barak was in Singapore on Monday[13 Feb.] in order to take part in an air
show where Israel was showcasing its civil and military aviation technology.

Earlier this week, Israeli diplomats were targeted by bomb attacks in Delhi
and Tbilisi on Monday[13 Feb.], officials said, with two people injured in
the Indian capital when an embassy car exploded in a ball of fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed the finger at Israel's
regional arch-foe Iran.

"Iran is behind these attacks. It is the biggest exporter of terror in the
world," he said.

Netanyahu said Israel has thwarted other attacks in recent months in
Azerbaijan, Thailand and elsewhere.

On Tuesday, a string of blasts rattled Bangkok, seriously wounding a man
believed to be Iranian when an explosive device he was carrying detonated in
a residential area of the Thai capital.

A Thai official confirmed in Wednesday[15 Feb.] that Iranian suspects were
behind the attack, which was aimed at assassinating Israeli diplomats.

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 16 Feb.’12:”U.S. Monitoring Hizbullah
Activities after Series of Bombings and Plots”

SUBJECT:U.S. closely monitoring Hizbullah activities

QUOTE:”the threat from Hizbullah remains a ‘critical situation worth
watching’ “

FULL TEXT:U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the
U.S. is closely monitoring the activities of Hizbullah after a failed bomb
plot in Bangkok and attacks on Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia.

Napolitano told lawmakers Wednesday[15 Feb.]

that the Homeland Security Department has contacted Jewish organizations
around the country and is working with the FBI and other law enforcement and
intelligence agencies.

She said there is no specific or credible threat against any organization or
target in the United States but warned that the threat from Hizbullah
remains a “critical situation worth watching.”

The warning came after Iran was accused of launching the series of attacks
against Israeli interests this week in Thailand, Georgia and India.
Hizbullah is closely allied with Iran.

An Israeli diplomat in New Delhi suffered on Monday[13 Feb.] grave shrapnel
wounds when a motorbike assailant attached a bomb to her car. Another
embassy car in Tbilisi was found before it blew up.

In Thailand, police chief Phrewphan Damapong said that Israeli diplomats
were the intended target of the botched plot by Iranian suspects, which came
to light following an apparently unintended explosion at a house in Bangkok
on Tuesday[14 Feb.].

The Defense Department estimates that Hizbullah receives between $100
million and $200 million a year in funding from Iran

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 16 Feb.’12:”Egypt’s Brotherhood backs military in US
dispute”, Agencies

SUBJECT: Egypt’s Brotherhood backs military re U.S. dispute

QUOTE:”The Brotherhood said it ‘rejects all forms of pressure the U.S. is
exerting’ “

FULL TEXT:CAIRO — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday[15 Feb,] threw its
weight behind the country’s military-backed government in an escalating
dispute with the US over the funding of pro-democracy groups, the Associated
Press reported.

Cairo claims that the groups are fomenting protests against the country’s
military rulers, and has referred 16 Americans and 27 others to criminal
court. Six Americans are barred from leaving the country.

The dispute has shaken relations between the two countries, with US
officials and legislators threatening to cut aid to Egypt — $1.3 billion in
military aid and $250 million in economic assistance — if the issue is not
resolved.

On Wednesday[15 Feb.], the Brotherhood — whose political arm controls the
largest bloc of seats in Egypt’s parliament — praised officials carrying out
the crackdown and said it supported their “nationalist position”.

The Brotherhood said it “rejects all forms of pressure the US is exerting,”
the statement published on the group’s website said.

The statement said the group “declares that it, and the Egyptian people,
will not tolerate any officials if they decide to succumb to the pressure or
cover up the accusations or interfere in the business of the judiciary”.

The statement comes a day after state media published the four-month old
testimony of the Cabinet minister in charge of international cooperation in
which she lashed out at the mainly US groups.

Minister Faiza Aboul Naga, who has served under Hosni Mubarak’s regime,
accused them of using the foreign funds to foment pro-democracy protests
against the country’s military rulers, who took over after Mubarak was
ousted in a popular uprising a year ago.

Investigative judges have said a second phase of the probe is looking into
Egyptian groups receiving foreign funds.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy chairman Khairat Al Shater told Al Jazeera
television that US aid should not be conditional and should continue to flow
as a “compensation” for years of supporting Mubarak’s autocratic regime, AP
reported.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that leading civil society groups said on
Wednesday[15 Feb.] that the Egyptian government’s campaign against NGOs
amounts to an attempt to divert public attention from the failures of the
military-led authorities.

In a statement, 29 Egyptian groups, including human rights organisations,
said they were being subjected to a scare campaign by the authorities, which
have brought charges against 43 foreign and local activists.

“Creating imaginary battles with other states to divert attention from the
disasters of the failed political management of the country... cannot be a
national goal,” the NGOs’ statement said.

“Rather, it meets the interest of a limited minority seeking to appropriate
power and fortune without being held accountable.”

In their statement, the NGOs accused the authorities of using “the same
method of the Mubarak regime in using judicial tools to realise narrow
political goals”.

The statement was not signed by any of the US-based organisations involved
in the case
============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA