Catholics and Protestants Urged to Come Together to Back Huckabee
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06760.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Va. -- "Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate for President we can support with confidence," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). "I urge my Protestant brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee's campaign."
"We need to back a candidate who has a consistent record of supporting traditional values," said Thomas C. Strobhar, chairman of LDI. "Mike Huckabee is that kind of candidate. I urge my Catholic brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee's campaign."
Scott commented on several other candidates:
"John McCain supports stem cell experimentation. When I served as executive director of Arizona Right to Life, I saw nothing that would make me believe he is even remotely concerned about life issues."
"Mitt Romney expects pro-family Americans to blindly accept his new-found convictions without healthy skepticism and a proven track record."
"Fred Thompson has given us no reason to believe he cares enough about family issues to warrant our support."
"Ron Paul believes abortion should be decided by the states, essentially making our nation 'half-slave and half-free'. This explains his mixed voting record in Congress."
"Rudy Giuliani supports virtually everything we oppose. His election would simply be a disaster."
"I believe it is the responsibility of every pro-life/pro- family American to support a candidate that wholeheartedly supports life--without apology and without compromise," Scott said. "While the only person I agree with on every issue is me, Mike Huckabee comes pretty close. And since his positions are faith-based, one can be sure he will not sell out the Pro-Life Movement the very lives of preborn children."
"Pro-lifers have been used and abused by too many candidates that claim to be pro-life only at opportune times," Strobhar said. "Mike Huckabee is not worried which way the political wind blows. He's the real deal."
"I am thrilled that there is a candidate I can enthusiastically endorse rather than holding my nose and supporting the 'lesser of two evils'," Scott said. "Mike Huckabee deeply and personally cares about these issues. He is the kind of candidate pro- family Democrats, Republicans and independents can support. The choice is clear; Mike Huckabee should be the next President of the United States."
Note: In compliance with federal law, LDI cannot and does not endorse candidates. This press release is for news purposes only and endorsements are done as individuals.
Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death, concentrating on exposing and fighting the agenda of Planned Parenthood. LDI's chief project is a boycott of corporations that fund the abortion-committing giant. To learn more about Planned Parenthood, please visit: www.fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=wrong
Huckabee, 3rd in Mich., Looks to S.C.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/huckabee_south__carolina/2008/01/15/64661.html
Mike Huckabee, nursing a second third-place finish in northern states, looked ahead to the South where he hopes his Arkansas roots and Baptist background will put him back on a winning track in South Carolina.
"Ladies and gentlemen we're going to win South Carolina," he declared to supporters in Lexington.
Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, has emerged from the back of the pack into an improbable contender. But he has since had to watch John McCain win New Hampshire and, now, Mitt Romney win Michigan. He is staking his new foothold on South Carolina's social conservatives and religious voters as well as young working class voters attracted to his economic populist message. South Carolina's GOP primary is Saturday.
"We put a flag in the ground here Saturday," he said of the state. "We're going to make it real clear that the first-in-the-South primary is going to give their support to the first-in-the-South candidate."
In South Carolina, as he did in Michigan, Huckabee was expected to rally pastors to help turn out their flocks. He has called for constitutional amendments to ban abortion and gay marriage, noting that some of his rivals don't want to change the Constitution.
"But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God," he said Monday night in Warren, Mich. "And that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards, rather than try to change God's standards."
He also talked tough on immigration as he girded for next-up South Carolina, where the issue inflames conservative voters who dominate the GOP. Arriving Tuesday in Rock Hill, S.C., Huckabee called for suspending immigration from countries that sponsor or harbor terrorists, going further than any of his rivals in proposing to clamp down on immigration.
"I say we ought to put a hiatus on people who come in here ... if they come from countries that sponsor and harbor terrorists," he said. "Let's say, until you get your act in order, and we get our act in order, we're not going to just let you keep coming and threaten the future and safety of America."
His campaign quickly backtracked; Huckabee dropped the issue in his next speech, and an adviser, Jim Pinkerton, said Huckabee really meant he wants a "thorough review" of immigration problems.
In South Carolina, the Thompson Surge is Working
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06763.shtml
COLUMBIA, SC -- Just days after announcing his campaign was literally moving to South Carolina, Fred Thompson is enjoying a remarkable spike in support across the state and from donors around the country.
"From contributors on the internet, to voters packing his South Carolina events, even to pundits praising his debate performance, Fred Thompson is on a roll. We see the fight in South Carolina as critical. And we see Fred in fine fighting form," declared campaign manager Bill Lacy.
Key Stats and Information:
The campaign has raised more than $300,000 online just since Fred's dominating debate performance on Thursday night.
Fifty-six percent of all online donors since Thursday night are first-time contributors.
We have had 14,296 contributions since the Iowa Caucus with an average contribution of $98.
To date the campaign has more than 166,000 total donors and 283,000 people have signed up online as "Friends of Fred."
More than 200 volunteers from all over the country have descended on South Carolina to help get out the vote.
On the heels of Thursday's debate, Fred was endorsed by Human Events, the influential conservative publication. In addition, his debate performance has been praised by Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett and virtually every conservative blog and pundit.
It is no overstatement to say the campaign is being flooded with support. On Friday this week in Mt. Pleasant, the crowd at Fred's event at the Sticky Fingers Restaurant was so big the local Fire Marshall closed the doors and made some supporters wait outside to greet their candidate.
"I have been around campaigns for a long time," said Fred's South Carolina campaign manager Dean Rice, "and you don't very often find the kind of enthusiasm we're seeing here. The morning after Fred won the debate, it seems like we really hit the accelerator."
What South Carolina voters saw in the debate was noticed by much of the news media, too. The conservative National Review declared "Winner: Thompson" and called his performance "commanding." A New York Times commentator acknowledged "Thompson is out- toughing his rivals tonight on illegal immigration."
"The entire Republican Party relies on South Carolina to test all the contenders and find the true conservative. That process is well underway. Fred Thompson is the consistent conservative in this race and he clearly enjoys talking to kindred souls in South Carolina," Lacy concluded.
Day Gardner: The Black Church and Obama
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06761.shtml
WASHINGTON -- The following statement was released today by Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union:
I was very disturbed by an article published on January 7, 2008 in The Atlanta Journal which stated that Sen. Barack Obama garnered praise and prayers from several African-American pulpits for his landmark victory in the Iowa caucuses. I can't help but wonder... what are these pastors thinking? Of course, we all need prayer, that part was okay, but praise? I had to ask myself, do they realize what this man stands for?
Yes, blacks have continued to make great strides in breaking down color barriers and the walls of inequality and by the grace of God, some feel we have earned bragging rights with regard to our accomplishments. But, in our efforts to be bigger, brighter and best--I worry many of us have forgotten a huge part of what our struggle was all about. Racial equality was only part of it--the other part had to do with civil rights for ALL of our people.
Senator Obama doesn't care that abortion has obliterated the rights of more than 15 million black children since 1973. He doesn't care that abortion is the number one killer of African Americans surpassing deaths caused by accidents, heart disease, stroke, crimes, HIV-AIDS and all other deaths...combined!
He won't make one of his powerful speeches decrying the injustice of abortion providers as they plant killing centers firmly in black communities--making it easier to kill black children. Instead, he actually applauds their efforts! These children are denied their most basic human right -which is the right to life; a right which our ancestors so proudly worked for, marched for and many of them died for.
For those men and women who believe they are by God called to be ministers of the word, I ask them: What about God's plans for unborn children? Jeremiah 1:5 says: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee; Psalm 139 states: Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made--my substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of thee earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect...
Unfortunately, Barack Obama supports the ruthless culture of death--one that includes killing the smallest Americans--too small to flee or fight back leaving the black church to contemplate Obama or the word of God, i.e. Jesus or Barabbas.
The National Black Pro-Life Union is an organization founded to serve as a clearing house to coordinate the flow of communications among all African American pro-life organizations and individuals in order to better network and combine resources.
Pope's Visit to University Canceled
http://www.newsmax.com/international/vatican_pope_university/2008/01/15/64624.html
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has canceled his visit to a Rome university following protests by secular professors and students, the Vatican said Tuesday.
Such a cancellation of a scheduled papal event is extremely rare, and the few times it has happened in recent decades, the Vatican cited security concerns. No specific reason was given in a brief Vatican announcement and Vatican spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
"It was considered opportune to skip the event," the Vatican said of Benedict's planned visit and speech Thursday at La Sapienza, a public university. Instead, the pope will send his speech to the university.
When news of the cancellation reached the campus, students in a political sciences hall broke into applause.
About 60 of the 4,500 professors at the university had signed a letter to the university rector, opposing the visit. Banners reading "Science is secular" and "No pope" have been strung from university buildings and posters plastered on walls objected to the visit. Students had announced several days of demonstrations this week. The university has 145,000 students.
On Monday, Vatican Radio had described the mobilization by students and professors at Europe's largest university as smacking of censorship.
Benedict was scheduled to deliver the speech as part of a ceremony to inaugurate the academic year at the university, which was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303.
The theme for the school ceremony is efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide, a cause close to the Vatican's interests. The topic of the pope's speech was not revealed.
University rector Renato Guarini expressed "regret" but said he respected the pope's decision.
Italian Premier Romano Prodi urged the pontiff to change his mind. "No voice must go silent in our country, let alone that of the pope," Prodi said in a statement.
The politically influential Italian bishops conference said Benedict was the object of "antidemocratic intolerance."
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato ruled out security concerns as the reason for cancellation.
Drug-resistant Staph Passed in Gay Sex
http://www.newsmax.com/health/staph_gay_sex/2008/01/15/64468.html
A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.
They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. "That's why we're trying to spread the message of prevention."
According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said.
"We think that it's spread through sexual activity," Diep said.
This superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.
It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 30 percent of all people carry ordinary staph chronically. It can be passed by touching other people or by depositing the bacteria on surfaces or objects.
The bacteria can cause deep-tissue infections if they enter the body through a wound in the skin.
Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners.
Incidence of MRSA is rising along with the resurgence of syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections partly because of changes in beliefs about the severity of HIV and an increase in risky behaviors, such as illicit drug use and having sex that abrades the skin, Diep's team wrote.
"Your likelihood of contracting each of these diseases increases with the number of sexual partners that you have," Diep said. "The same can probably be said for MRSA."
Staph infections often look like raised red dots on the skin. Left untreated, the areas can swell and fill with pus.
The best way to avoid infection is by washing the hands or genitals with soap and water, Diep said.
United Methodist Women's Division Defends Alleged Black Panther Police-Killers
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06762.shtml
WASHINGTON -- The Women's Division of the United Methodist Church is vigorously defending eight former Black Panthers accused of conspiracy and killing a police officer after California's attorney general re-opened the case last year.
Three of the "San Francisco 8" confessed to the 1971 murder of San Francisco Police Sgt. John Young and conspiracy related to numerous crimes from 1968-73, including attempted murder and bank robbery. Those charges were dismissed in 1975 because the statements used as evidence were allegedly made after torture by New Orleans police. Two of the 8 are already serving time for killing two New York police officers in 1971.
The case was reopened after the discovery of new forensics evidence. The United Methodist Women's Division, with the World Council of Churches, are defending the so-called political prisoners because they are allegedly victims of police torture. The defenders of the "San Francisco 8" are making broader claims of routine torture by law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Thursday, January 10 in San Francisco.
The "San Francisco 8" specifically belonged to the Black Liberation Army (BLA), which was a radical offshoot of the Black Panthers, and which is believed to have killed 13 police officers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
UMAction Executive Director Mark Tooley Commented:
"The United Methodist Women's Division remains infatuated with radical identity politics at the expense of their supposed central mission: spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"There are so many worthy causes around the world that the United Methodist Women's Division could give themselves to: fighting for women's rights in repressive Islamic societies, denouncing international sex trafficking that is so exploitative of women and children, and affirming marriage and the family against the assaults of modern secular culture.
"Instead, why is the United Methodist Women's Division, which is oddly silent about torture in places like North Korea and Iran, suddenly concerned with aging militants from the 1970's who almost certainly killed police officers?"
Churches and Convents Bombed in Iraq
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06764.shtml
Four churches and three convents were damaged in coordinated bombings in Iraq on January 6, a day on which many Iraqi Christians celebrate either the Feast of Epiphany or Christmas Eve.
According to numerous reports, the blasts occurred within five minutes of each other at approximately 11:00 a.m. and involved mortar shells, explosive devices and car bombs. In Baghdad, the St. George Chaldean Church in Ghadir quarter, a Chaldean convent in the Zaafaraniya quarter and a Greek-Melkite parish were attacked.
In Mosul, the St. Paul Chaldean Church and the House of the Holy Spirit, a Chaldean convent, were simultaneously bombed. A Dominican convent in Nineveh was also attacked and an Ancient Assyrian Church in the al-Nur district was damaged when a parked car blew up outside the building. At least six people were injured, one of them seriously, in the explosions.
Pray for Iraqi Christians as they deal with the effects of this attack. Pray for healing for those injured. Ask God to enable Iraqi Christians to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer as they suffer for Him (Romans 12:12).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in Iraq, go to www.persecution.net /country/iraq.htm.
Williams condemns harrassment of churches in Zimbabwe
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/williams.condemns.harrassment.of.churches.in.zimbabwe/16200.htm
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has unequivocally condemned the Zimbabwean Government’s attempts to oppress believers in the country who are opposed to the ousted Bishop of Harare, Norbert Kunonga.
On Sunday, police in the capital burst into a number of services being held in churches aligned with the acting Bishop of Harare, the Rt Rev Sebastian Bakare. At least three priests and several parishioners were arrested in the raids on the charge of holding services without the authorisation of police or government - only pro-Kunonga churches may legally continue to hold services.
Dr Williams said in a statement on Monday that he “condemns unequivocally the use of state machinery to intimidate opponents of the deposed bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga”.
He added that he was “appalled” by the reports of Zimbabwean police forcibly stopping the Sunday services in Harare “where clergy have publicly and bravely refused to acknowledge Kunonga's Episcopal authority”.
The Archbishop went on to express his “solidarity” with the Province of Central Africa, which covers Malawi, Zambia and Botswana in addition to Zimbabwe.
Bishop Kunonga, a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, had his priestly licence revoked last December after illegally separating from the Anglican Central African Province and installing himself as Archbishop of Zimbabwe.
Dr Williams added that Kunonga’s behaviour and consistent refusal to distance himself from the Zimbabwean Government was “untenable”. He did not receive an invitation last May to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
Bishop Kunonga announced on Saturday that he had formed his own Anglican Church of Zimbabwe, although he appears to have little support from parishioners. Around 20 parishes in Harare openly declared their support for Bishop Bakare by deciding to hold their own services last week, instead of seeking state authority.
The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Rev Kenneth Kearon, said that the situation of the Anglican Church in Harare was “a matter of grave concern to all in the Anglican Communion” and that Bishop Kunonga’s actions were an “embarrassment”.
“Bishop Kunonga's close ties with President Robert Mugabe is of deep concern to many and the resort to violent disruption has been widely deplored,” he said.
“His unilateral actions with respect to the Diocese of Harare and his own status within the Province of Central Africa are, to say the least, questionable and have brought embarrassment to many. Above all, I am concerned for the well-being of faithful Anglicans who seek to practice their faith in peace and free from violence.”
He assured Anglicans in Zimbabwe of his prayerful support.
Christians to protest over ‘hybrid’ embryos Bill
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.to.protest.over.hybrid.embryos.bill/16204.htm
Around 1,000 people, including many Christians, are expected to rally outside Parliament today in opposition to the Government’s plans to allow research on human-animal “hybrid” embryos.
The Time to Stand rally is the first in a series of rallies planned by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON) in protest of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which the Lords will be voting on later on Tuesday.
If passed, the Bill will enable scientists to experiment on a whole range of human-animal hybrids, including “cytoplasmic” embryos, which are 99.9 per cent human and involve inserting human cells into an animal egg, and “true” hybrids, which are created by mixing human sperm with an animal egg or vice versa.
Today’s rally is also in protest of provisions under the Bill for embryos to be selected as a ‘saviour sibling’ while the remaining embryos are discarded, and to remove the need for a father for children created by IVF.
CCFON’s Andrea Minichiello Williams urged Christians to pray that “God’s creation is not marred by this Bill and that the sanctity of human life is preserved”.
Meanwhile, in a pastoral letter sent to all 500 Catholic parishes in Scotland this week, the Bishops' Conference of Scotland has urged the Government to allow a free vote in Parliament on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
In the letter, written by the President of the Joint Bio-ethics Committee Archbishop Mario Conti, the bishops recognise the "right and duty (of MPs) to vote in such issues according to conscience" and point out that many other countries have "drawn the line at human cloning", though regrettably the UK Government has not.
Quoting from a statement by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Bishops describe, the fusion of animal and human material resulting in hybrid embryos as a "monstrous act against human dignity".
Chinese believers targeted as Olympics creep nearer
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/chinese.believers.targeted.as.olympics.creep.nearer/16191.htm
The director of Open Doors China summed up Christian persecution in the country in 2007 by saying that most Chinese still cannot practise their religion openly.
The Chinese Communist Party waged a secret campaign against unregistered house churches from mid-June until the end of November, according to Open Doors USA. During this time, the government police investigated "the content of sermons, personal history of house church evangelists and the sources of their funds".
On November 18, authorities detained 40 church leaders from China Gospel Fellowship in Xiancheng County in Henan Province.
The director, who cannot be named for security reasons, said many house church Christians are told they must stop their meetings. Some are fined. Some pastors are also locked up for a few days or sent to labor camps.
For Christians living in the countryside, it often is difficult to obtain study Bibles and Christian books or attend a Bible school.
The Chinese Government "is carefully crafting an image of religious tolerance leading up to the Summer Olympics in Beijing", which start August 8, Open Doors USA said. "But the facts tell a different story," it added.
Pastor Zhang Rongliang sits in a prison cell despite a judge's previous statement that "insufficient evidence and ambiguous facts" surrounded his case, and that Zhang would be judged fairly. Zhang was sentenced in July 2006 to seven and a half years in prison for illegally obtaining a passport and illegally crossing the border.
Zhang, leader of the China for Christ house church movement, was arrested without a charge on December 1, 2004. He had been detained five times before and had already spent a total of 12 years in prison. Zhang, who has major health problems, still has preached the gospel in prison and brought many to the Lord.
As a result of the continued persecution in China, Open Doors USA has launched a countdown to the Summer Olympics called "One Minute/One Year/One Country".
The goal of the campaign is to unite believers in the West to pray for their persecuted Chinese brothers and sisters in faith. Already over 1,300 prayer warriors have signed up for the campaign, which began last autumn.
Believers who participate in the campaign receive a monthly prayer email calendar and also a daily email brief. Both include updated information on China and specific prayer requests.
Christians are asked to pray for at least one minute each day; if possible at 8 pm Beijing time. To sign up for the campaign, go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org or www.opendoorsusa.org/content/view/156.
"The Beijing Olympics start August 8, so we need to blanket Chinese believers right now with our prayers," said Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller.
"There are reports of increased pressure on house church leaders, raids and arrests and the expulsion of foreign missionaries. The raids and arrests are expected to increase as the start of the Olympics draws closer.
"China wants to weed out the potential 'troublemakers' and put its best foot forward to the world. And Christians are caught in the crossfire. Prayer is our No 1 weapon," he said.
An estimated 200 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination and alienation.
Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers.
Court Ends Bible Distribution in School
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuWxzSvp6gUjpbkFiGf9PbXyV4PQD8U2IBB01
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A rural school district's long-standing practice of allowing the distribution of Bibles to grade school students is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.
An attorney for the southeastern Missouri school district said Wednesday he will appeal the judge's injunction against the practice.
For more than three decades, the South Iron School District in Annapolis, 120 miles southwest of St. Louis in the heart of the Bible Belt, allowed representatives of Gideons International to give away Bibles in fifth-grade classrooms.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit two years ago on behalf of four sets of parents. In August, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary injunction against the practice.
The district altered its policy, saying the Gideons and others were still welcome to distribute Bibles or other literature before or after school or during lunch break, but not in classrooms.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry ruled both practices were illegal and granted a permanent injunction.
The purpose of both practices "is the promotion of Christianity by distributing Bibles to elementary school students," Perry wrote. "The policy has the principle or primary effect of advancing religion by conveying a message of endorsement to elementary school children."
Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based law group that represented the school district, said he would appeal.
"I think the current policy creates an open forum that allows secular as well as religious persons or groups to access the forum to distribute information," Staver said. "The court has clearly misread the First Amendment and the cases regarding free speech."
The parents who sued are Christian but believe religious beliefs should be taught in the home, not school, said Anthony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.
The South Iron district has about 500 students in the grade school and South Iron High School.
Superintendent Brad Crocker was out of the office Wednesday and did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Gideons International, based in Nashville, Tenn., distributes Bibles in more than 80 languages and 180 countries, according to its Web site. A spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Iran's Dangerous Nuke Game: Why Israel Might Rush to Strike
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=1386052
Iran turned up the heat this week on still-simmering concerns about its atomic aspirations. It crowed that its 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear power plant would be "online" as early as this spring, putting in place another important building block of its nuclear program.
That sort of news can't help but rattle the steadiest of nerves, no matter what the (narrowly focused) US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear-weapons program said about the current state of affairs.
Seemingly not swayed one iota by the NIE's conclusions, you have to wonder if Israel - the country most threatened by an Iranian nuclear (weapons) breakout - might take matters into its own hands.
It has done so twice before - and the time may be here again.
In a 1981 dawn raid lasting less than 90 seconds, Israeli Defense Force fighters attacked the nearly completed 40-megawatt Iraqi Osirak nuclear-reactor complex, setting back Saddam's ability to produce fissile material for nukes.
And again last September, the IDF allegedly struck a nascent Syrian nuclear program, which possibly was benefiting from outside help, in a preventive air strike that may have also been meant as a warning to Iran of unpleasant things to come.
But why strike now?
Well, within about a year of Bushehr becoming operational, some of its spent nuclear fuel could be stripped of enough plutonium to produce a handful of nuclear weapons if the rods aren't returned to their owner/provider, Russia.
Because the production of fissile material is the long pole in the nuclear-weapons tent, the diversion of material at Bushehr is potentially as big a problem as the 3,000 centrifuges that Iran has whirring at supersonic speeds, enriching uranium.
Attacking Bushehr - like Osirak - before it comes online would not only stop it from being used to produce bomb material, but would also prevent radiation from the reactor being spewed into the atmosphere after a strike.
Also possibly spurring Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to put the IDF into action is other recent news: Iran is reportedly buying the highly capable Russian S-300 air-defense system to bolster the Tor-M1 surface-air missile systems Moscow supplied last year.
The Iranians purchased the Tor-M1 to prevent a modern-day Iranian version of Israel's successful Osirak strike. The lethal S-300s - likely a response to the Syrian strike - will enhance Iran's ability to protect its nuclear sites scattered around the country.
(Curious the extent to which Iran is willing to go to protect its so-called "peaceful" nuclear program, isn't it?)
But despite these reasons for giving a go-ahead for an attack on Bushehr before it's up and running, dealing militarily with Iran's nuclear program is a lot more complex than just that.
While Bushehr is a key element of the program because of its ability to produce large amounts of bomb-worthy fissile material (i.e., plutonium) for weapons use, it isn't the be-all and end-all of that program.
To cripple Iran's nuclear program, the IDF would have to hit other major nuclear sites: The Natanz uranium-enrichment plant, the Arak heavy-water facility and the Isfahan uranium-conversion complex - plus possibly tens of other nuclear-related sites.
But while some facilities like Natanz are "hardened," well-protected by air defenses and often buried as deep as 70 feet down, IDF fighters could hammer them using GPS/laser-guided and penetration weapons such as the American JDAM.
There's also the tyranny of distance. Iran is a lot farther from Israel than Iraq - and the targets aren't clustered like they were at Osirak. They're spread across Iran - a country nearly four times California's size.
Even a surprise IDF air raid would likely be known to others such as the United States, which "owns" the airspace in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf with its vast array of land, sea and air sensors.
(Of course, it is always possible Israel's small fleet of cruise-missile-capable, Dolphin-class diesel submarines, deployed to the Persian Gulf, could play a role in a strike, especially against Bushehr in southern Iran.)
A strike would bring Iranian retaliation, including terrorist attacks by Tehran's allies, such as Hezbollah, as well as missile strikes against large Israeli cities. By association, US interests could come into Iran's crosshairs.
The new year will likely bring more unwelcome news about Iran's nuclear program as it cascades toward a weapons option. It will also be a fateful year for Israel, one that may require action - no matter what the latest NIE says.
US considering int'l force in W. Bank
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517319944&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
The US is preparing a plan to station third party troops in the West Bank to secure the area after an Israeli withdrawal and before the Palestinian Authority can take over full security control, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The issue of how to deal with the period between when Israel leaves large swaths of the West Bank and the PA is able to take over control is likely to be discussed during talks President George W. Bush will hold in Jerusalem and in the PA on Wednesday and Thursday.
US Special Envoy for Middle East Security James Jones has been assigned the task of preparing a plan on this issue within six moths.
A number of options are being considered, including the involvement of NATO troops or Jordanian and Egyptian forces. Jones, a former Marine Corps general, was NATO's top military commander from 2003 to 2005.
He visited here on December 18, and discussed the concept with his Israeli interlocutors. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who appointed Jones immediately after November's Annapolis Conference, hinted at this role in a briefing she gave reporters on her way to the PA donors' conference in Paris in mid-December.
Rice said at the time that the establishment of a Palestinian state "will raise questions about a security vacuum when Israelis leave the West Bank. And this is not an issue just for the Palestinians. It's an issue for the states in the area as well, like Jordan and Egypt."
Therefore, she said, there needed to be a "hard look" from a military expert on what the possible vacuums could "look like when you create a Palestinian state," and on how to deal with them.
When Jones was first appointed it was widely assumed that he would take on the role as arbiter after Israel and the Palestinians have implemented their respective road map obligations.
According to the joint Israeli-Palestinian understanding that Bush read out in Annapolis, the sides agreed to "form an American, Palestinian and Israeli mechanism, led by the United States, to follow up on the implementation of the road map."
"The United States will monitor and judge the fulfillment of the commitment of both sides of the road map," the understanding continued.
While Jones was originally believed to be the main candidate for the arbiter position, it quickly became clear, the Post has learned, that he did not want it.
The exact makeup of this mechanism is expected to be one of the issues that Bush is expected to bring up during his visit. In an interview he gave earlier this month to Al-Arabiya television, and at a briefing he gave to foreign reporters in the White House, Bush stressed the importance of the arbitration mechanism to the current diplomatic process.
Bush, when told by the Al-Arabiya interviewer that the settlements were the main obstacle to peace, replied, "No question the settlement activity is a problem. But there's a mechanism to deal with that, and that is the road map commission, for the best word - is the trilateral commission, which we head, to deal with these road map issues."
While the details of this commission have not been finalized, the rough contours are as follows:
A team from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv will monitor Israel's compliance with its road map obligations, namely freezing settlement activity, and a team from the US Consulate in Jerusalem will monitor the Palestinians' compliance with their obligations, namely fighting terrorism and dismantling the terrorist infrastructure.
The data from both teams will be sent to Washington, where the head of the commission - who has not yet been named - will study the material, and when necessary interface bilaterally with the Israelis or the Palestinians, depending on the case, to get them to implement their obligations.
At times, Israeli and Palestinians officials will be called to meet together with the American team to discuss violations.
Although the idea behind the plan is not to publicly rebuke the sides, the head of the commission is expected to periodically issue reports on how the sides are fulfilling their obligations. It is expected that the commission head will have a security background and be based in Washington, and come here from time to time as needed.
While this has all not yet been finalized, it is clear that what the US has in mind is less a road map referee, and more a road map coach who will prod the sides into doing what is expected.
Within this framework, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, during his talks this week with Bush, is expected to try to reach clearer definitions regarding construction in east Jerusalem and the settlements, so that Israel is not judged by the new mechanism to be in violation of its road map obligations if it builds in neighborhoods in the capital's east or in the large settlement blocs.
Olmert, in an interview last week with the Post, said that while the road map called for a freeze to settlement activity, including natural growth, "if everything began and ended with that, then that's what we have to do according to our commitment. But as you know well, America, which sponsored the road map, President Bush, on the 14th of April, 2004, sent a letter that said one can't ignore the demographic reality unfolding in the territories and that this will certainly need to be given expression in the agreements between us and the Palestinians. And this, I would say, renders flexible to a degree the significance of what is written in the road map."
Olmert is expected to try to define this "flexibility" more clearly during his talks with Bush.
In a related development, Olmert is expected to hold another meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in an effort to achieve some progress to present to Bush on Wednesday. In this same regard, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with PA negotiator Ahmed Qurei on Monday. No details of those talks, believed to have dealt with creating a framework for the continuation of bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, were made available.
Olmert, according to government officials, will raise with Abbas Israel's concern over the firing of a rocket at Ashkelon from Gaza last week, as well as the involvement of Fatah operatives in terrorism and the discovery of an embryonic Kassam factory in Nablus.
Livni, meanwhile, toured the West Bank Monday and said Israel would continue with its military actions even as negotiations with the Palestinians went ahead. She said Israel had no intention of "throwing the key to the other side and hoping for the best." She also received a briefing on the settlement outposts.
Scientists Sucessfully Grow Heart in Lab
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/304232.aspx
There's new hope for the five million people in the United States who live with heart failure. Scientists say they have been able to grow a rat heart in a lab. They were also successful at getting it to start beating.
For more on the ethical questions involved in this technique, watch David Christensen, from the Family Research Council, following this report.
About 50,000 people die each year waiting for a heart donor. But that all may change thanks to a rat heart, built by scientists at the University of Minnesota.
"Everyone has cells," Dr. Doris Taylor told CBN News. "What's lacking is a way to put that together in a 3-D structure that lets you create an organ," she explained.
Taylor calls the challenge the 'holy grail' of tissue engineering. But then she got her "crazy idea" and made not just a heart, but history.
"It was one of those 'wow' moments," she said.
Heart Cells
Taylor and her team took the heart of a dead rat and washed it out. They were left with a gelatin-like shell. They injected that shell with heart cells from a baby rat. A few weeks later, the heart actually began to beat.
"Give nature the tools and get out of the way," Taylor said.
But will this procedure work in humans?
"We've been able to do this with a pig heart and a pig heart is the same size as a human heart," Taylor explained. "It's really not at all outside the realm of possibility."
Playing God?
Taylor says all sorts of replacement organs are possible, which means Americans might no longer have to endure agonizing waits when their hearts or lungs or kidneys give out.
However, plenty of obstacles remain - including questions of ethics.
"Who plays God?," asked Dr. Glen McGee of the American Journal of Bioethics. "I mean really, are we going to create bodies that can go for a 150 to 200 years? When you start to fix a heart, you are headed in that direction," he said.
There may be a great deal of time to answer such questions. Scientists believe it will be at least ten years before they can begin to create viable organs for humans, if they can accomplish that feat at all.
Faction pulls out of Israel government
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_politics;_ylt=AlmfaXKldY2i18vsIwth_Yys0NUE
A hawkish faction in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition pulled out of the government on Wednesday, weakening him at a time when he needs broad support to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of the year.
The withdrawal of Yisrael Beiteinu's 11 lawmakers from the government leaves Olmert with a majority of 67 in the 120-seat parliament.
"Negotiations on the basis of land for peace is a fatal mistake," Avigdor Lieberman, head of the faction, told a news conference.
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said he had no immediate comment. Ruhama Avraham, a member of Olmert's Kadima Party, said the government would "overcome this."
Lieberman's decision came just days after Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began tackling the core issues of their conflict — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel during the war that broke out following the Jewish state's creation in 1948.
He had repeatedly threatened to leave the government if these issues were broached.
"If we pull back to the 1967 borders, everyone should ask himself, what will happen the following day," Lieberman said. "Will the conflict stop, will the terror stop? Nothing will change."
The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party with 12 lawmakers has also threatened to leave if Israel agrees to any compromise over Jerusalem, whose eastern sector Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Israelis and Palestinians relaunched talks after seven years of violence at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference in November. The leaders pledged to try to reach an agreement before President Bush leaves office a year from now.
Olmert had tried to persuade Lieberman to stay in the government in a meeting with him on Tuesday. But Yisrael Beiteinu decided in a meeting Wednesday to leave, Lieberman said.
"Nothing will come of these negotiations," he declared.
"Christ didn't tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it."
ReplyDelete"The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other."
Fred Thompson
I believe that what Fred Thompson was trying to point out is something I personally believe that on many social issues we spend far to much time and resources fighting to get the government to fight what should be our Christian battles. You can not win hearts and minds by passing laws even laws against those things that we as Christians we are so against.
I find it odd that we think that our Christian message can only be fruitful if we can get the government to pass laws to help us, yet Christ was able to teach while under Roman Law and I don't ever remember reading about the Caesars or the Roman Senate passing even one law that promoted his teachings.
I would like to add that one's faith must be weak indeed if it takes government action or force to strenghten it.
As I recall God's word tells each of us what we need to do, not what we need to force others to do.