Huckabee: It’s a Two-Man Race – Me vs. McCain
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Huckabee_two_man_race/2008/02/06/70634.html
"It's been an amazing journey and it's not over," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told ABC News Tuesday night, after winning five states on Super Tuesday.
In terms of the delegate count, Huckabee is still in third place, behind former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and frontrunner Sen. John McCain. "We're still in this thing. As I said tonight, it may be a two-man race, but if it is - I'm the second man," Huckabee said.
According to press reports, Huckabee got a big boost from evangelical voters in the South - apparently at Romney's expense.
Huckabee, anticipating a campaign between himself and Sen. McCain, predicted it would be "the most civil and gentlemanly campaign that perhaps we've witnessed in America in a long, long time."
Relations between Huckabee and Romney, however, were further strained on Tuesday, when Romney questioned Huckabee's win in West Virginia.
In a news release Tuesday night, the Huckabee campaign told Romney to quit whining: "Once again, conservatives have rejected Romney's conviction-less campaign," said Chip Saltsman, National Campaign Manager for Mike Huckabee. "No amount of Mitt's money is going to overcome what a growing number of Americans - and the Wall Street Journal - are seeing first hand: Mitt has no convictions at all."
The Huckabee campaign issued the statement after the Romney campaign suggested that Huckabee's win in West Virginia stemmed from a "backroom deal" between Sen. John McCain and Huckabee.
Romney led in early voting in the state, but since none of the candidates achieved more than 50 percent of the vote, a second vote was taken - and that's when Huckabee won. Romney thinks McCain instructed his supporters to vote for Huckabee instead of Romney.
"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change," Beth Myers, Romney's campaign manager, said in a statement.
The Huckabee campaign shot back: "In suggesting Mike Huckabee's win was a back room deal, Romney continued his weather-vane candidacy by breaking his own 'rules of politics: "one, no whining; two, you get them to vote for you.'"
In an appearance on Fox & Friends Friday morning, Huckabee said he doesn't know if Sen. McCain called his supporters in West Virgina. "I know I didn't call anybody," Huckabee said, adding, "I didn't cut a deal" with John McCain.
"Mitt, you lost this thing because people wanted to vote for me after they didn't get a chance to support John McCain or Ron Paul," Huckabee said. "The Ron Paul people didn't want to vote for Mitt Romney, the McCain people didn't want to - and the fact that they voted for me - Mitt's going to have to deal with it."
Huckabee said he expects to do well in Kansas, Virginia and Texas, all of which have primaries coming up in a matter of days or weeks.
Jailed Christian Aid Worker Freed in North Korea
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06842.shtml
A Canadian aid worker, Je Yell Kim, who was arrested by North Korean security officials on charges related to "national security" in the city of Rajin while trying to cross the North Korean border to China on November 3, was released late last week.
Kim's release followed the diplomatic visit of Ted Lipman, Canada's ambassador to South Korea, to the capital of Pyongyang last week. Foreign Affairs did not comment on the nature of the negotiations involved in Kim's release. The exact charges on which he was arrested remain unknown. However, during an in terrogation, Kim reportedly wrote in a statement that he had criticized the North Korean regime and tried to set up a church in the northern area of the country. Kim also oversees a dental clinic and two hospitals in an impoverished region of the nation.
For security reasons, Kim's current location has not been made public. At last report Canadian officials were facilitating his reunion with his family. Recently, it was reported that his health was "deteriorating" in prison.
Thank the Lord for Kim's release. Ask the Lord to comfort and strengthen him as he recovers from his time in prison. Pray that he and Christians in North Korea will keep their eyes on Jesus, persevere in their faith, and not grow weary or lose heart (Hebrews 10:32-39;12:1-3).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in North Korea, go to www.persecution.net/country/northkorea.htm. Last week, The Voice of the Martyrs announced a campaign entitled "Praying for a Revelation in North Korea (PRNK)" (see www.persecution.net/news/nkorea4.html). For more information on how you can get involved, download the free kit at www.persecution.tv/media/prnk/prnk_kit.pdf.
Church Members Beaten After Asking Officials to Account for Burning of Bibles
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06841.shtml
YUNAN, China -- China Aid Association has learned that members of a House Church in Yunan Province were severely beaten by police officials on the morning of January 23. The incident occurred after two church members walked into the Xishan District's Public Security Bureau office to request an account of the items, including Bibles, that were taken from the church and burned by police officials in early December of 2007.
After ignoring the members' request, officials proceeded to violently remove them from the office. One female church member 54-year- old Ms. Liang Guihua was thrown into a wall and rendered unconscious for more than 10 minutes. After leaving the police station the members went to a local hospital. One member returned to the station later that afternoon to request an account of the morning's incident. The official on duty told the member that he would not testify to the incident even though he had witnessed the account first-hand.
The series of events originated on December 5, 2007 at 2:00pm, when policemen and members of the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs disrupted the house church meeting in Kunming, and detained several members. After searching the building, police seized several hundred Christian books including Bibles and note-pads, and proceeded to burn them outside of the residence. Police also destroyed the identification cards of three of the church members and instructed the landlord of the building to cease rental agreements with the congregation.
Chinese law requires officials to issue certificates documenting items taken during seizures. The church members have requested documentation of the items several times, but have been turned away by police officials every time.
Any Government which displays such blatant disregard for human rights and religious freedom demands to be held accountable. Government officials have now resorted to the burning of Bibles in order to hinder the growth of the House Church in China. We urge the international community to demand an accounting of these officials for the egregious acts committed against the house church members in Yunan Province.
To voice your concern over this incident, please contact:
Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Address: 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-6688, (202)5889760
Fax: (202) 588-9760
Issued by CAA January 30, 2008
Are Christians Forgoing Mission Trips?
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06840.shtml
Mission trips are no longer the soul target for Christian evangelists. Yes, there are still people that are hands on field experts; however, missionaries are now grabbing keyboard and mouse and clicking their way to foreign countries without leaving their own.
One such example is Louis Austad of Bellflower California. Ten years ago, Louis became a writer of Christian literature. With an interest in the internet, Louis saw opportunity to have an entity that could house his work.
In 2003, Louis started The Christian Worker website; a magazine devoted to Christian encouragement; what he did not anticipate was that christianworker.org would soon be viewed by people from countries around the world.
"The host provider I selected provided real time statistics, tracking where my publication is viewed. Counting the countries I found that The Christian Worker was being viewed in over ninety one countries."
Not long after the first issue was posted, letters from Christians around the world flooded into The Christian Worker email. Not only were people reading, they wanted to ask questions. As a Bible teacher, Louis found not only was his writing fulfilling, but he also enjoyed counseling people on their beliefs and problems. This made Louis rethink who he was; no longer was he just a writer, he had become a missionary, caring for the needs of others.
What was once a desire to write material to encourage people in his own country became a torrent of responses from around the world. Daily Louis sends out an email devotional Bible study that readers subscribe to receive. Teaching scripture by scripture through books of the Bible, each email uniquely speaks to how to apply the Bible to daily life.
"One day I sat down to process sign up requests and to my amazement there were over fifty responses from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I do not know how they translate it, but being written in English does not stop people from reading it."
When asked if missionaries no longer should travel to foreign lands, Louis replied, "The need for missionaries has never been greater, and though the internet is a great way to encourage Christian workers, it will never replace the person in the field completing the great commission. I only want to encourage them, not replace them"
For more information you can contact Louis Austad by writing tcw@christian worker.org or at his website christianworker.org.
Update From ESPN and Dana Jacobson's Monday On-Air Apology
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06839.shtml
BRISTOL, CT -- ESPN continues to have dialogue with faith organizations regarding the inappropriate behavior and comments by Dana Jacobson at a recent roast. The comments, which were delivered in the context of Notre Dame football and its "Touchdown Jesus" icon, were wrong and inexcusable. Following a suspension, Jacobson returned to work Monday and offered the following on- air apology to begin the First Take program she co- hosts.
Dana Jacobson's on-air apology
"Before we do start First Take, there is something that I want to address. There has been a lot of attention surrounding my inappropriate behavior and comments at a roast earlier this month of my friends Mike (Greenberg) and Mike (Golic). I want to once again say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment that night. I have taken responsibility for what I did say and do and realize why it was wrong.
"There are no do-overs in life, so all I can do is what we all do when we make mistakes - learn from them. As a person, and even a broadcaster, I can tell you I have already learned a lot from mine. Several people told me last week mistakes do not define us. It is how we respond to those mistakes that does. I believe that. I hope you can forgive me and allow my future to define me.
"Finally, I want to thank my family, friends, and viewers who have shown me support during this difficult time. Most importantly, ESPN, for its unwavering support and the opportunity to return to this job. The job that I love. Now it is time to get back to that job."
Reaching the Islands
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06838.shtml
Dashing along the waves in a small motorboat, Rasul Layak, Gospel for Asia's island ministry leader in West Bengal, India, traveled to meet a small group of local believers for a prayer meeting. When he stepped onto the shore he was shocked: There stood Giri Banke with 150 believers to greet him.
Giri, a criminal investigator, had received the love of Christ in his life and was faithfully following the Lord, but Rasul had no idea that Giri was involved in ministry as well. Since his transformation, Giri had been sharing the Gospel in five surrounding villages, and many people had come to Christ as a result.
Seeing that the number of believers had grown so large, Giri realized they needed a full-time pastor to conduct worship services and disciple the people. So he had called Rasul to come to a prayer meeting to see the need for himself.
After the prayer meeting, Rasul went to visit Giri's cousin, Priti Rajat, who was also involved in outreach in a nearby area. She hosts five prayer groups of about 50 people each who have recently come to know the Lord through her witness. She also leads several women's Bible study groups.
As Rasul saw how the Lord was working through Giri and his family, he knew it was time to send missionaries who could help minister to the people's long-term needs. When he returned home, he found three young men who felt called to serve on the islands. They all had recently graduated from GFA Bible colleges and were eager to begin ministry.
Seeing that the number of believers had grown so large, Giri realized they needed a full-time pastor to conduct worship services and disciple the people.
Rasul sent two of the young men, Udu Parag and Mani Jiva, to the villages where Giri is serving. They are currently living with Giri and his wife as they disciple the new believers. The other Bible college graduate, Meer Chahel, is serving in the area where Priti lives.
Since the missionaries have begun their work, their ministries have grown rapidly. So far, 35 more people have decided to follow Jesus after hearing the Gospel through Bible studies, worship services and times of outreach.
Giri, Priti and their families continue to share their faith with everyone they meet. Giri told Rasul that when he retires he wants to do full-time ministry.
"Whatever the cost, I will serve the Lord with all my heart and ability," he said. Rasul requests prayer for Udu, Mani and Meer, who are now serving as pastors for the new believers. He also requests prayer for Giri, Priti and their families, that they will be encouraged in the Lord each day through the fruit of their outreach.
Egyptian court dismisses case to recognise religious conversion
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/egyptian.court.dismisses.case.to.recognise.religious.conversion/16643.htm
An Egyptian judge has rejected the unprecedented case brought forward by convert Mohammed Hegazy, who was suing the Egyptian Interior Ministry for the right to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his official identification.
Judge Muhammad Husseini ruled last week that it was only lawful to convert to Islam, and not to another religion. Hegazy’s lawyers told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) that the judge argued in his ruling that Islam is the final and most complete religion, therefore to convert to a religion that preceded Islam is to insult the “great religion” and it cannot be allowed.
The judgment was based on Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution which establishes shari’a law as “the primary source of legislation”. Under traditional Islamic jurisprudence, apostasy, or converting from Islam, is punishable by death.
Although Egyptian law does not criminalise conversion, in practice converts from Islam to another religion often face legal barriers and risk serious harassment, including torture at the hands of the security police.
Hegazy and his lawyers are now waiting for the full transcript of the court ruling to be released before deciding whether they can appeal the decision. His wife, Zeinab, is also considering lodging her own legal challenge to change her religion to Christianity.
Since lodging the case, Hegazy and his wife have had to go into hiding as a result of threats made against them. Their daughter was born on 10 January while they were in hiding.
Hegazy’s first lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhla, resigned from the case reportedly under duress. His current lawyers previously lodged a request to restart the court proceedings because of incomplete evidence presented to the court. However, the judge ignored this request when he rejected the case.
Hegazy started the civil action against the Egyptian Interior Ministry on 2 August 2007 after his application to change his religion on his official identification was rejected. He stated that one of the reasons for pursuing the case was the imminent birth of his daughter. As both parents are officially recognised as Muslims, Hegazy’s daughter will also be registered and schooled as a Muslim even though she will live in a Christian household. This can result in the child being ostracised from both Muslim and Christian children.
CSW’s Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, said: “We are dismayed at the decision of the judge to deny Mohammed Hegazy the right to change his religion. The Egyptian Constitution seemingly allows for religious freedom, and Egypt has ratified international human rights treaties which grant the individual the right to adopt a religion of their choice.
"Yet this ruling highlights just how different the reality is for converts like Mohammed Hegazy. We urge the international community to call upon Egypt to uphold the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
The Turbulence Ahead
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2008/763
As we enter the new year and survey the turbulent horizon ahead, global enigmas continue to challenge any competent analysis. Anyone who assumes that the years ahead will be smooth sailing is underinformed.
While most of us are probably underwhelmed by the current contenders competing for the highest office of the land, the ensuing election debates will consume most of the media attention through November.
(It seems bizarre that there are many who believe that there are candidates that should be in prison, not on the campaign circuit!)
Nevertheless, whoever ultimately enters the coveted Oval Office is likely to be overwhelmed by the emerging realities that will confront the new president.
Mushroom Clouds on the Horizon
The nuclear threats continue to intensify and multiply. Despite the politically motivated disinformation of the “National Intelligence Estimate,” most serious observers remain convinced that Iran is intrepidly pursuing its aggressive nuclear weapons objectives, and the intentions of its radical leadership have certainly been clearly declared.
There are many who anticipate that Israel may be planning a preemptive nuclear strike, but Iran has warned that it will launch 11,000 rockets at Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East if it is attacked.
Further, the threat of a clandestine EMP attack on the United States remains a top concern to the Department of Homeland Security. The implicit deadlines are a matter of months away, not years.
Meanwhile, “the most dangerous country on earth” (as described by Newsweek)-Pakistan-appears to be spiraling out of control. As the primary nuclear power among Islamic nations, many Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are now fleeing from Afghanistan to take refuge in Pakistan, and this has raised further concerns that Pakistan’s nukes could fall into the hands of terrorists.
The Struggle for Jerusalem
Compelling evidence has also been uncovered that North Korea may be helping Syria develop nuclear weapons. Syria’s nuclear ambitions and its cooperation with North Korea will undoubtedly complicate the six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Despite some ostensible progress, intelligence officials warn that the secretive and often unpredictable regime has not yet ceased all of its proliferation activities.
Meanwhile, in Israel, the “Palestinian territories” have spiraled deeper into chaos: Hamas has driven Fatah from Gaza, and the Palestinian territories are now effectively divided-with Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the “West Bank.”
The short-lived Palestinian unity government has crumbled and the two groups are now battling for power. To further cloud the prospects, the Bush Administration continues to actively aid the terrorists while effectively ignoring Israel’s sovereign interests. (It appears paradoxical that a president that can’t control his own borders is seeking to meddle with theirs!)
Many of us believe that it has been the traditional commitment of the United States to defend Israel’s right to exist that has resulted in a deferral of an overdue judgment. As our administration continues to challenge the Abrahamic Covenant by pressing for a partitioning of the Land, there are some that strongly suspect that it is our own future that is seriously at risk.
Magog Positioning?
Tensions between Israel and its enemies have increased significantly in recent months, making Syria and Iran’s growing alliance with nuclear-capable nations like Russia and North Korea all the more concerning.
Russia has repeatedly expressed a desire to play a larger role in the Middle East, at the same time its diplomatic relationship with the EU and the U.S. has soured.
Russia has announced that it is withdrawing from a key treaty regulating conventional armed forces in Europe, and it has also threatened to pull out of its 1987 treaty with the United States banning intermediate range nuclear forces.
Over the summer Russia resumed bomber drills near North America, prompting the U.S. military to scramble its fighter jets on at least seven different occasions. The political friction building between Russian and the Western World has raised speculation that we could once again be plunged into a Cold War scenario.
These developments could be a sign that the famed battle prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39 might be emerging on our near horizon. It is during this battle that God will directly intercede to protect Israel from Magog and its allies. (And an enigmatic reference in Ezekiel 39:6 hints that a “third party”-the U.S.?-may suffer collateral damage.)
The Rise of Islam
Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions, and it is second in size only to Christianity. Virtually every country in the Western World has birth rates well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, while Muslims have high birth rates. Europe is projected to be Islamic by mid-century. Russia has also experienced difficulty integrating its growing Muslim population. Ethnic tensions in the former Soviet Union have begun to mirror those of its European neighbors. Russia’s Muslim population has increased by 40 percent since 1989, to about 25 million. By 2015, Muslims will make up a majority of Russia’s conscript army.
The Rise of a European Superstate
This year began with the admittance of two new member states: Romania and Bulgaria. On December 13th Europe’s leaders signed the historic EU reform treaty, also called the Treaty of Lisbon. If all goes as planned, the treaty will be ratified by member states next year and will enter into force on January 1, 2009.
The Treaty of Lisbon is essentially the same as the failed EU constitution, except this time around its fate won’t rest in the hands of the people. Also in December the EU expanded the border-free zone and announced plans to merge its overseas embassies.
The EU now encompasses more than 460 million people, stretching from the Arctic to the Mediterranean and east all the way to the Black Sea. Europe’s economy has grown steadily in recent years and can now boast a GDP larger than the United States. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made headlines in September when he said that the euro could eventually take the place of the dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency. Earlier this year Europe eclipsed the U.S. in stock market value for the first time since the First World War.
The Rise of the Far East
Just as Henry Luce dubbed the 20th century as “the American Century,” many are recognizing that the 21st century will be “the Asian Century.” In just one generation, China has tripled their per capita income and lifted over 300 million people out of poverty.
China has an average annual GDP growth rate above 10 percent and its growth always seems to exceed analysts’ expectations. China has already surpassed the United States as the world’s second- largest exporter and is set to eclipse Germany as the world’s largest exporter in the coming months.
China’s foreign currency reserves have surged to an astounding 1.4 trillion dollars, setting a new record for the world’s largest currency reserves and sparking a debate over China’s economic policies. China’s currency reserves have been growing at a rate of nearly 30 million dollars per hour. Experts estimate that over 70 percent of China’s reserves are U.S. dollars, but China has threatened to liquidate those reserves as it sees fit.
North American Union
The hidden agendas moving toward a form of global governance continues to surface. One of the most disturbing breaches of the current Bush Administration is the covert pursuit of a North American Union, patterned after the European Union.
Several dozen working groups, headed by the top three cabinet officers of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, have been empanelled as the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP) since March of 2005, to work out administrative details for the eventual merger.
One manifestation of this agenda is the pursuit of the NAFTA Super Highway, from Lázaro Cárdenas on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, through Laredo, Texas and an advanced “Smartport” at Kansas City, and on to Canada. Foreign investors are supporting its development “below the radar.” Hutchison Whampoa, the Chinese company that controls both ends of the Panama Canal and the Port of Long Beach, California, will control the container port at Lázaro Cárdenas.
What makes this most disturbing is that it is being done without the benefit of public discourse-in total disregard to the Constitution and rule of law!
Our Economic Predicament
Meanwhile, the economic plight facing the United States is widely being underestimated-even by the tense mudslinging among the political contenders. The national debt is growing at a rate of a million dollars a minute, the dollar continues its decline, consumer debt has skyrocketed, and we are experiencing a nationwide housing crisis in which about one out of every 100 mortgages are expected to end in foreclosure.
The official Financial Report of the U.S. Treasury indicates that, on the basis of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), since the liabilities exceed the assets, “arguments that the U.S. government is bankrupt have increasing merit.”
If the U.S. government continues to conduct business as usual over the next few years, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation.
A hole that big could paralyze the U.S. economy; according to some projections, just the interest payments on a debt that large would be as much as all the taxes the government collects today. And every year that nothing is done about it, the problem grows by 2 to 3 trillion dollars (yes, that’s with a “t”).
It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that an economic upheaval is in the making. There are some that are suggesting that, ultimately, a new currency-for all North America-will replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso: the amero.
In fact, some cynics suspect that our current indebtedness is the result of a deliberate globalist strategy to help the North American Union achieve a key step in a larger goal toward global governance.
Our current economic predicament appears consistent with the Bible’s description of the end times. The black horseman of Revelation 6 calls our attention to, not just famine, but also to hyperinflation.
Your Action Plan?
Other than acquitting ourselves responsibly at the voting booths, you and I cannot impact significantly any of the strategic trends that are destined to buffet us in the coming months and years. It is clear that most of the presumptions that we have adopted from previous decades are going to drastically change and prove obsolete and ineffectual. What we can do, however, is prepare ourselves, as much as possible, as stewards for our families.
Let’s also realize that we at Monarchists: we look for-and serve-our Coming King! Our primary challenge is to discover precisely what He has called us to do, and roll up our sleeves and get to it!
The emerging clouds on our geopolitical and economic horizons should propel us to use every day-and every opportunity-to get on with the Lord’s business as our primary priority!
As you formulate your priorities for the coming year, have you included an objectively measurable program for your spiritual growth? All of us are a “work in progress.” Each of us needs to significantly “raise the bar” in our own walk with Him.
Will you commit to a program of serious study of God’s Word as part of a path toward spiritual growth? When 2009 rolls around, will you be able to look back and demonstrate personal growth spiritually?
Pray about it.
Seriously.
Born Again Christians Favor Democratic Candidates, Says Survey
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080204/31077_Born_Again_Christians_Favor_Democratic_Candidates,_Says_Survey.htm
A surprising new survey out Monday found that more born again Christian voters said they would support a Democratic candidate than a Republican candidate, breaking the long tradition of born-again support for the GOP.
The new Barna study shows that if the general election was held today, 40 percent of all born again adults who are likely to vote in November would choose the Democratic candidate, and only 29 percent would choose the Republican candidate. The remaining 28 percent are currently unsure whom they would support, preferring to vote for a specific candidate rather than strictly along party lines.
“Given the large percentage of undecided voters, it is possible that the Republican candidate might eventually win a majority of the born again vote,” said George Barna, whose firm conducted the national survey. “However, it will not be easy to win them over.”
Barna noted that several factors are working against the Republican candidates including their stance on social issues and the “personal integrity” of some of the contenders.
If the election was held today and all the candidates from both parties were on the ballot, the frontrunners among born again voters would be Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), favored by 20 percent of born again likely voters; Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), favored by 18 percent of voters; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 12 percent. No other candidate reached double figures.
Thirty percent of born again likely voters said they are still undecided as to who to support.
Similarly, a poll by GodTube.com on Monday showed that Christian voters currently favor Democrats over Republicans. The new poll found that 43.9 percent of Christian voters support the leading two Democratic candidates while 34.7 percent back Republican candidate Mike Huckabee.
Obama received a 35 percent increase in the poll since Jan. 27, 2008, giving him 24.3 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, Clinton received a huge 78 percent increase giving her 19.6 percent of the votes, and Huckabee slipped 37 percent.
“From our poll, it’s clear the candidate’s platforms and political issues are weighing heavily on Christian voters in this election,” said Chris Wyatt, CEO and founder of GodTube. “It appears the Christian vote is still up for grabs, which we’ve seen in the past can swing an election.”
In the Barna survey, evangelicals – a subset of the born again population as defined by the study – showed a higher percentage of support for the Republican nominee.
If the election were held today, 45 percent of evangelicals say they would support the Republican nominee for president, and 11 percent would support the Democratic candidate. Yet perhaps more significantly is the 40 percent of evangelicals that are still undecided.
This figure is shocking, given that 62 percent of evangelicals voted for the Republican candidate in 1992, 67 percent supported the party in 1996 and in 2000, and 85 percent in 2004.
“Evangelicals are clearly sending a message to Republican leaders this time around,” commented Barna. “There is tremendous frustration among evangelical voters, in particular … given the stands of some of the leading Republican contenders, evangelicals are registering their discomfort with the choices they have at hand.”
Barna added, “As in recent elections, a key to victory in November will be the faith vote. Unlike the past couple of presidential races…the born again and evangelical vote is up for grabs,” Barna observed.
Born again Christians are defined as people who said they have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and who believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
Evangelicals meet the criteria of born again Christians and seven other conditions including saying faith is very important in their life, believing in the personal responsibility to share their religious belief with non-Christians, and asserting that the Bible is the inerrant truth.
The polls on Christian voters are released just a day before Super Tuesday when 22 states will hold Democratic primaries and Republicans will go to the poll in 21 states. Currently, national polls show Clinton and Obama neck-and-neck in tomorrow’s contests, while McCain has a clear lead.
“In recent elections, the faith vote sided with the Republican candidate early in the race, allowing those candidates to focus on winning over swing votes. In this year’s contest, however, the faith vote cannot be taken for granted,” Barna said. “Much can change between now and November, but Republican candidates have a tough road ahead of them this year.”
N.Korea threatened to transfer nukes
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/05/nkorea_threatened_to_transfer_nukes/7232/
WASHINGTON -- An annual U.S. intelligence report to Congress says North Korea threatened to transfer nuclear weapons to terrorists in 2005.
The 2006 arms proliferation intelligence report says North Korean officials told unnamed U.S. officials in 2005 they "could transfer nuclear weapons to terrorists if driven into a corner," The Washington Times reported Tuesday.
The report said inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency recovered 2 tons of uranium hexafluoride believed to have come from North Korea in Libyan centrifuges in 2004.
The report also disclosed what it called "key suppliers" of weapons and technology, citing China's arms relations with Pakistan and Russia, and Iranian and North Korean cooperation on ballistic missiles among areas of concerns.
Al-Qaida worked on chemical and biological weapons for use in Afghanistan and Iraq and boasted of its capabilities, "but actual attempts were few," the proliferation report said.
The report also said the U.S. intelligence community would "continue to monitor Syrian nuclear intentions with concern."
U.N. Ignores Its Own Procurement Ban
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322470,00.html
How serious is the United Nations about much-touted reform of its scandal ridden, multi-billion-dollar procurement system? To hear senior U.N. officials tell it, very serious.
But that was before FOX News uncovered the case of Corimec S.p.A., an Italian firm that sold the U.N. more than $30 million-worth of goods in 2006 (and many millions more in previous years), and which was suspended from the U.N.'s list of authorized vendors on March 15, 2007 for involvement in one of the highest-profile bribery scandals in the multi-national organization's history.
Little more than a month after the United Nations Procurement Service dropped Corimec from its vendor list, the flagship United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) decided to ignore the ban and spent more than $2.1 million on emergency housing kits from the firm. The reason: UNDP officials declared that as a legally separate U.N. agency, they were not bound to honor the Procurement Service sanction.
The fact that UNDP, a $5 billion development agency, chose to override the vendor suspension is particularly significant, because UNDP is the premier agency through which the U.N. operates on the ground in most of the 160 countries that it services. UNDP is also the lead agency in an experimental program known as “One U.N.” that is ultimately intended, ironically enough, to rationalize the delivery and efficiency of U.N. services around the world.
The UNDP decision to disregard the blacklist inspired by the "serious" (UNDP's term) issue of the bribery of U.N. officials raises a host of questions about the actual status of the effort to clean up corruption within the organization's multi-billion-dollar procurement business, which was described by U.N. investigators in 2006 as wrapped in "systematic abuse," "a pattern of corrupt practices," and "a culture of impunity."
Chief among the questions is whether the U.N.'s left hand cares what the right hand is doing in an increasingly balkanized organization where the secretary-general, who appoints all the top officials, is apparently restrained from controlling their behavior afterwards.
That issue seems particularly acute now that the U.N. — which admits it has been badly tainted by corruption and inefficiency — has seen its overall budget grow at a spectacular clip as its various parts claim a special position in addressing the world’s multiplying problems and demand billions in additional funding to do so.
Confidential UNDP records obtained by FOX News show that UNDP officials began considering the idea of using Corimec barely three weeks after the blacklisting was announced, based on a request from UNDP's Pakistan office. UNDP officials were fully aware of Corimec's suspension, and the reason for it.
At an April 4, 2007 meeting of the organization's Advisory Committee on Procurement (ACP), which must sign off on all purchases of more than $100,000, UNDP initially rejected the idea, largely because of the suspension, and dismissed arguments made in favor of working with the company as "not credible."
Yet on April 23, 2007, after a lengthy exchange of e-mails with UNDP officials in Pakistan, UNDP officials decided at another ACP meeting that despite their agreement that the U.N. "blacklist" was the result of the "serious offense" of bribery, they would override it because — in their view — they were not legally bound by punishment decisions that came from the bureaucracy ruled by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The minutes of both meetings have been obtained by FOX News.
Having made their decision, the UNDP did not inform either the officials in the United Nations Procurement Service who had ordered the suspension in the first place, or Secretary-General Ban, who had promised to make the U.N. conform to the "highest ethical standard" when he took office in January 2007.
The main reason for UNDP's decision to ignore the procurement sanction was convenience, or "exigency," as officials put it, in the face of continuing UNDP efforts to alleviate a housing crisis caused by Pakistan's disastrous earthquake in October 2005.
Corimec had previously supplied UNDP in Pakistan with some $2.3 million-worth of the same kind of emergency housing units, officials told each other in a series of e-mails also obtained by FOX, and this had required the training of workers in Pakistan. Switching suppliers "will delay the procurement and will require training of the local staff," local officials said. There had also been quality control problems with a shipment from another supplier, the procurement group was told.
In addition, UNDP field officials downplayed the significance of the offense that sparked the penalty. They relayed Corimec’s contention that the actual bribery offense had taken place in 1993, and that the company had "changed the management and [that] many of its staff who were involved in unethical practices in the past have left."
In the e-mails obtained by FOX News, no further proof was offered for those contentions. (Corimec did not respond to a number of e-mail questions sent by FOX News.)
Finally, UNDP legal officials noted that under U.N. Secretariat rules, suspended companies are allowed to apply for reinstatement on the U.N. vendor list, and in recommending approval of the purchase also recommended that Corimec start seeking that approval.
That was apparently enough for UNDP procurement officials, who had rejected the convenience argument at their previous April 4 meeting as "not credible." Their April 23 approval notice contained a proviso that "vendor also shall be asked to take up their case with [U.N. anti-corruption investigators] for seeking clearance to conduct business with UN system."
As recorded in the minutes, the UNDP suggestion that Corimec seek forgiveness did not mention the fact — outlined in U.N. rules and regulations — that suspended companies remain on the blacklist for at least six months before seeking return to acceptable status. That period would not expire until more than four months after UNDP had completed its latest purchase.
The minutes of the UNDP procurement meetings contain no discussion of whether the continued use of Corimec might send a negative signal about U.N. attitudes toward corrupt behavior, especially in a case where a U.N. official had been suborned. And at no point in the minutes of the meetings did UNDP officials discuss informing the U.N. Secretariat of what they were doing.
When questioned by FOX News, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban emphatically reinforced that point. Despite the sensitivity of the corruption issue, at no time, either before or after the decision to ignore the U.N. ban on Corimec, the spokesman said, did UNDP officials notify the secretary-general’s office of the decision, a fact confirmed by another spokesman in that office.
Nor was the United Nations Procurement Service, which issued the ban, informed of the purchase decision. UNDP spokesman David Morrison, however, said that UNDP "verbally informed UNPS of the possible procurement at a meeting in the last week of March."
That was around the time a request to use Corimec came to UNDP headquarters — before the April 4 meeting, where the idea was rejected largely on the ground of the bribery suspension. It was also long before that rejection was reversed. Morrison added that "the decision to proceed was entirely UNDP's."
Corimec was originally suspended by the United Nations Procurement Service as a result of the bribe-taking career of Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian-born procurement officer whose secret Caribbean bank account was discovered by FOX News in 2005. That discovery led to his resignation and subsequent arrest. Yakovlev pled guilty in a U.S. federal court to money laundering and corruption charges and has since been cooperating with U.S. federal investigators prior to sentencing.
Yakovlev’s discovery came after more than a decade of soliciting and accepting bribes and steering contracts through rigged bids and manipulating technical criteria that dates back to 1993, and easily involved hundreds of millions of dollars. It led to the 2006 United Nations report that complained of the organization’s "culture of impunity."
According to U.N. investigators, Corimec was involved in one of the earliest cases of Yakovlev’s bribe-taking, along with a related firm, Cogim S.p.A. In subsequent years, Corimec did exceedingly well as a U.N. supplier. In 2004, the firm won contracts worth $18.3 million; in 2005, $34 million, and even in 2006, after Yakovlev's arrest, another $30 million.
The firm's involvement in bribe-taking was mentioned in a report by U.N. investigators in 2005. Its suspension in March 2007 came months after other firms named in the report were suspended or outright banned from further dealings with U.N. procurement.
Since Yakovlev was caught, the U.N. has made a number of high-profile efforts to clean up its procurement act, including formation of a Procurement Task Force of special investigators to examine corruption cases that the organization previously overlooked or ignored, plus a spate of new ones.
Late last year, the task force issued an omnibus report that uncovered fraud, waste and abuse in $619 million-worth of contracts, out of a sample of $1.4 billion. But that inspection covered little more than a quarter of the $5.5 billion-worth of U.N. contracts in its peacekeeping division alone. And the task force has faced heavy opposition, especially from developing countries, as a result of its work. Its one-year funding was renewed for this year only at the last minute, and only after an intense political battle in which the investigators were backed by the United States.
What the Corimec case underlines is that the U.N.'s effort to impose a rule of law on its contracting business, which is loudly supported in public by Secretary-General Ban, still has only a beachhead within the Secretariat itself, and much less than that within the sprawling array of U.N. funds, programs and agencies that make up the bulk of the U.N. "system," which is far bigger and spends many times more money than the $4.17 billion U.N. "core" biennial budget.
It is more than ironic that UNDP and its subsidiary, the Inter-Agency Procurement Services Organization (IAPSO), which say they are not bound by procurement penalty decisions made within the U.N. Secretariat, are key members of a new U.N. organization intended to increase efficiency through, among other things, "harmonization of procurement practices." The top management body is known as the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group, established in June 2007— two months after UNDP decided to ignore the Corimec suspension ruling.
IAPSO also functions as the secretariat for the United Nations Global Marketplace, a newly created online supplier registry and contracting site that is intended as a central clearing house for procurement information.
The home page of the marketplace site (www.ungm.org) clearly states that "United Nations agencies participating in the UN Global Marketplace strictly enforce a policy of zero tolerance concerning unethical, unprofessional or fraudulent acts of UN contractors. Accordingly, any registered company that is found to have undertaken unethical, unprofessional or fraudulent activities will be suspended or forbidden from continuing business relations with the United Nations."
A list of 20 U.N. agencies is attached to the warning. It includes both UNDP and IAPSO, as well as the United Nations Procurement Service.
UNDP's position regarding suspended United Nations vendors closely tracks with its position regarding protections for U.N. whistleblowers, which has already provoked strong controversy within the U.N. and elsewhere.
In August 2007, the United Nations Ethics Commissioner Robert Benson — whose office was established in the wake of the same procurement scandals that led to Corimec’s suspension — asked UNDP to allow him to investigate a "prima facie case of retaliation" against a UNDP whistleblower, Artjon Shkurtaj, who had called attention to irregularities in the organizations funneling hard currency to the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Il, and the use of Korean government employees as UNDP staff in sensitive positions. Shkurtaj was subsequently fired.
Benson intended to create the first major U.N. precedent for system-wide whistleblower protection under new ethics rules, inspired in significant measure by procurement corruption scandals.
But UNDP took the position — which Benson acknowledged — that the U.N. whistleblower code did not apply outside the Secretariat, and rejected his appeal that investigation of the case would be "for the good of the United Nations." Secretary-General Ban himself ended up accepting UNDP’s view, prompting protests from groups that helped to create the original legislation.
In the Corimec case, too, Ban has accepted the view that punishments meted out for corrupt activity by his Secretariat need not be followed by UNDP or other agencies, because they are legally separate. But in elaborate diplomatese, a spokesman from Ban's office not only emphasized UNDP's lack of communication regarding its decision, but underlined Ban’s "strong feeling" that the U.N. should have a common policy toward transgressors.
"While the [United Nations Procurement Service] has no statutory authority over UNDP's procurement," the spokesman said, whenever that service imposes sanctions on a vendor, "an e-mail is sent out to the agencies and the information is posted" on a UNPS website. "This procedure was followed in the case of Corimec."
The spokesman added that "the secretary-general is very keen to continue to strengthen the work of UNPS as well as the work of the Procurement Task Force."
He also noted that the U.N. Procurement Service "has put forward a proposal to adopt a common position across the U.N. system regarding 'suspect' vendors. That proposal is currently being reviewed and studied."
That declaration, of course, amounts to an admission that something more like disarray exists in current U.N. procurement, and also that Secretary-General Ban has not yet been able to extend his rule of law across a system whose top officials he appoints.
In fact, in August 2007, the U.N. itself decided to begin the process of welcoming Corimec back into the vendor fold, largely to increase the number of vendors able to provide portable housing for its ballooning number of peacekeeping missions.
After considerable negotiation, Corimec last November signed an agreement on principles of compliance, and is scheduled next month to submit its own “Ethics and anti-Corruption Programme” for consideration by the U.N. Procurement Service and other U.N. bodies, including the ethics office.
After that, the suspension of Corimec might be lifted from what has been, apparently, the only place in the U.N. where the suspension for corrupt behavior applied.
British team creates human embryo with three parents
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ju73Rxfj76GK8liaUlyoNVSEwNEA
LONDON -- Scientists in Britain claimed a first Tuesday, saying they have created a human embryo using DNA from one man and two women, which they say could help provide treatment for genetic diseases.
Researchers from Newcastle University in northeast England used 10 embryos which were unsuitable for in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and replaced faulty mitochondria cells from the mother with undamaged cells from a female donor.
The research was disclosed last week in parliament's upper House of Lords but has not yet been published officially in scientific journals, the university said Tuesday.
The embryos were developed for five days and the transplant on one of them was deemed a success.
Mitochondria play a vital role in the body's energy supply. However, if they are damaged they can cause a series of serious neuro-muscular diseases, liver failure, blindness, deafness or strokes.
"The research aims to tackle and prevent a group of relatively uncommon but really severe diseases which affect the nervous system and muscles," said Professor Patrick Chinnery, a Newcastle University neurogenetic expert.
"Ultimately in many ... cases they are fatal and there is no treatment. The aim is to develop ways of preventing them from being passed on from the mother to her offspring."
In five to 10 years' time, transplanting "good" mitochondria could be done within days of a routine IVF, he said.
The baby would only inherit the mother and father's characteristics, as the transplanted mitochondria from the donor would not have any effect on the child's personality or appearance, the scientists said.
Josephine Quintavelle, of the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "We should not be messing around with the building blocks of life.
"To experiment on a human child in this way is absolutely unforgivable."
Economist: Expect Fed to lower Dow to 8,000 via "stealth methodology"
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0611.html
Consumers should expect a deep recession, triggered by the "stealth methodology" of the Federal Reserve to "depress" the market even while lowering interest rates in an ostensible effort to stimulate economic growth, an economic analyst charges.
"The Federal Reserve is directly involved in manipulating the stock market," said Mike Bolser in a telephone interview with WND yesterday.
The New York Stock Exchange finished the day down 108 points, closing at 12,635, much as Bolser predicted, despite recent emergency Fed rate cuts of 1.25 percentage points aimed at stimulating the economy.
"Fed wants the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other financial indicators to descend in a managed way," Bolser said. "The Fed wants to drive the DJIA toward the 8,000 level, or below, in order to help create a deep recession which will have the effect of slowing consumption across the board and dampening the otherwise harmful effects of inflation.
"A falling DOW is only one element of the recession effects of the excessive Fed-created housing and credit creation, whose bubbles are now bursting," he added.
"Without this recession, we would be on quick trip to hyper-inflation," Bolser, the author of an internationally followed newsletter published in conjunction with his InterventionalAnalysis.com website, said, "and the Fed wants to prevent this."
In his twice-daily subscription newsletter, Bolser has devised a quantitative methodology for utilizing Federal Reserve repurchase agreements to predict upward and downward movements of the DJIA, measured on a 30-day moving average.
Yesterday, Bolser noted the Fed added $18 billion to repurchase agreements, edging the pool up to a total of $153.158 billion in unexpired temporary repurchase agreements.
Repurchase agreements involve a sophisticated use of government securities issued every day by the Fed, but little understood or followed, even by sophisticated investors.
A repurchase agreement, as defined by the Fed, is a government security offered by the federal government to a small list of specified primary government securities dealers, for a limited period of time, usually 28 days or less, with overnight return being the most common.
The government securities are "rented" by the primary dealers and they can be added to the primary dealer's portfolio or collateralized and then used in the open market to implement the Fed's open market policy.
At the end of the repurchase agreement, the Fed obligates itself to take back the government securities from the primary dealers, effectively canceling the contract.
Meanwhile, while holding the government securities let out by the Fed in the repo agreement, primary dealers are free to utilize the liquidity provided by the repurchase agreement to manipulate the economy in accordance with the Fed's true monetary policy, whether publicly declared or not.
Primary dealers use the funds provided by the government securities they hold under the repurchase agreements to buy dollar exchange futures contracts, stock market futures, or to buy commodities contracts, including gold mining shares. All of this is in accord with implementing Federal Reserve monetary policy to manipulate currency, commodity and stock markets up or down, depending on the goals the Fed wants to accomplish at any particular time, the economist alleges.
Over the past several months, however, the Fed has implemented a policy to issue smaller amounts of daily repurchase agreements, with the goal of reducing the total pool of repurchase agreements available to the Fed's short list of 20 banks that it qualifies to serve as primary government securities dealers participating in the Fed's Open Market Operations.
Only the 20 banks specified in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's list of primary government securities dealers are allowed to participate in Fed repurchase agreements.
"The primary government security dealer banks are like a private club," Bolser told WND. "You get to stay in the club as long as you take the repurchase agreements and enter the markets to implement Fed monetary policy the way the Fed wants it implemented. Violate the unspoken rules, and you risk being thrown out of the club."
Yesterday's $18 billion addition to the repurchase agreement pool caused the total amount of the outstanding repurchase agreement pool to remain below the Dow's 30-day moving average in a clear trend.
Bolser used this data to predict the Fed was manipulating the stock market lower, a controversial prediction when most economists see the Fed's emergency actions to reduce the target Fed Funds rate 1.25 percentage points lower over an eight-day period that ended with last Wednesday's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.
"Ultimately, the government is in the business of inflating the dollar," Bolser said, "so the Fed is trying to engineer a recession, in order to cushion the pernicious effects of its own inflation."
"In my view, the government intentionally desires a deep recession not unlike that of the 1930s," he continued. "The Fed, however, dissembles, attempting to display the opposite impression with its rate cuts."
"Cutting rates will not boost the economy in an environment where the credit bubble has burst and banks are afraid to lend," he explained. "But decreasing the repurchase pool will push the economy down, especially when the primary banks execute monetary policy in accordance with the wishes of the Fed to short the market with future contracts that push the indices down."
Bolser argued the Fed's ability to manipulate the market by increasing or decreasing the pool of available repurchase agreements amounts to a "stealth methodology" where the Fed can now depress the market, while implementing a policy of lowering interest rates, which most economists would see as trying to stimulate economic growth and the stock market.
"You have to remember the primary goal of the Fed is to support the bond market, which the Fed has done for quarter century," Bolser stressed. "The Fed needs a strong bond market so the Treasury can sell the enormous amount of Treasury securities, especially to China, that we need to sell to finance what this year may be as large as a $400 billion dollar budget deficit calculated on a cash basis."
"As a result, the friend of the Fed is the bond speculator," he added.
Among the U.S. banks and securities firms currently on the list are Bank of America Securities, Cantor Fitzgerald, Countrywide Securities, Bear Stearns, Daiwa Securities America, Goldman Sachs, Greenwich Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (USA), J.P. Morgan Securities, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch Government Securities and Morgan Stanley.
Also on the list are France's BNP Paribas Securities, Great Britain's Barclays Capital, Switzerland's Credit Suisse Securities, Japan's Mizuho Securities and Germany's Dresden Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities.
"These dealers are the foot soldiers of the Fed, as it implements monetary policy," Bolser said.
Studying Bolser’s "Repos/DOW" chart from Dec. 7 through yesterday, a broad correlation between the downward movement in the Fed repurchase agreements pool totals and the DJIA as seen by tracking the 30-day moving average is clear.
"With this strategy, the Fed hopes we won't experience the extreme 'stag-flation' we had in the late 1970s," he argues. "The Fed hopes to induce a recession to manage downward stock prices and commodity prices, including oil, gold, copper, and lumber, as well as the overall consumer demand for retail goods."
"Stag-flation" is an unusual economic situation in which economic stagnation is combined with inflation. Some economics believe that is happening now as the economy slows down while food and energy prices rise sharply.
FBI gearing up to create massive database of people's physical characteristics
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0612.html
The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.
But it's an issue that raises major privacy concerns -- what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.
The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information -- from palm prints to eye scans.
Kimberly Del Greco, the FBI's Biometric Services section chief, said adding to the database is "important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in."
But it's unnerving to privacy experts.
"It's the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project.
The FBI already has 55 million sets of fingerprints on file. In coming years, the bureau wants to compare palm prints, scars and tattoos, iris eye patterns, and facial shapes. The idea is to combine various pieces of biometric information to positively identify a potential suspect.
A lot will depend on how quickly technology is perfected, according to Thomas Bush, the FBI official in charge of the Clarksburg, West Virginia, facility where the FBI houses its current fingerprint database. Video Watch what the FBI hopes to gain »
"Fingerprints will still be the big player," Bush, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, told CNN.
But he added, "Whatever the biometric that comes down the road, we need to be able to plug that in and play."
First up, he said, are palm prints. The FBI has already begun collecting images and hopes to soon use these as an additional means of making identifications. Countries that are already using such images find 20 percent of their positive matches come from latent palm prints left at crime scenes, the FBI's Bush said.
The FBI has also started collecting mug shots and pictures of scars and tattoos. These images are being stored for now as the technology is fine-tuned. All of the FBI's biometric data is stored on computers 30-feet underground in the Clarksburg facility.
In addition, the FBI could soon start comparing people's eyes -- specifically the iris, or the colored part of an eye -- as part of its new biometrics program called Next Generation Identification.
Nearby, at West Virginia University's Center for Identification Technology Research, researchers are already testing some of these technologies that will ultimately be used by the FBI.
"The best increase in accuracy will come from fusing different biometrics together," said Bojan Cukic, the co-director of the center.
But while law enforcement officials are excited about the possibilities of these new technologies, privacy advocates are upset the FBI will be collecting so much personal information.
"People who don't think mistakes are going to be made I don't think fly enough," said Steinhardt.
He said thousands of mistakes have been made with the use of the so-called no-fly lists at airports -- and that giving law enforcement widespread data collection techniques should cause major privacy alarms.
"There are real consequences to people," Steinhardt said.
You don't have to be a criminal or a terrorist to be checked against the database. More than 55 percent of the checks the FBI runs involve criminal background checks for people applying for sensitive jobs in government or jobs working with vulnerable people such as children and the elderly, according to the FBI.
The FBI says it hasn't been saving the fingerprints for those checks, but that may change. The FBI plans a so-called "rap-back" service in which an employer could ask the FBI to keep the prints for an employee on file and let the employer know if the person ever has a brush with the law. The FBI says it will first have to clear hurdles with state privacy laws, and people would have to sign waivers allowing their information to be kept.
Critics say people are being forced to give up too much personal information. But Lawrence Hornak, the co-director of the research center at West Virginia University, said it could actually enhance people's privacy.
"It allows you to project your identity as being you," said Hornak. "And it allows people to avoid identity theft, things of that nature." Video Watch Hornak describe why he thinks it's a "privacy enhancer" »
There remains the question of how reliable these new biometric technologies will be. A 2006 German study looking at facial recognition in a crowded train station found successful matches could be made 60 percent of the time during the day. But when lighting conditions worsened at night, the results shrank to a success rate of 10 to 20 percent.
As work on these technologies continues, researchers are quick to admit what's proven to be the most accurate so far. "Iris technology is perceived today, together with fingerprints, to be the most accurate," said Cukic.
But in the future all kinds of methods may be employed. Some researchers are looking at the way people walk as a possible additional means of identification.
The FBI says it will protect all this personal data and only collect information on criminals and those seeking sensitive jobs.
The ACLU's Steinhardt doesn't believe it will stop there.
"This had started out being a program to track or identify criminals," he said. "Now we're talking about large swaths of the population -- workers, volunteers in youth programs. Eventually, it's going to be everybody."
U.S. sees Russia, China, OPEC financial threat
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0613.html
The United States should be worried that Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries could use their growing financial clout to advance political goals, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday.
U.S. National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell voiced the concern to Congress in an annual assessment of potential threats, in which economic matters joined terrorism, nuclear proliferation and computer-network vulnerabilities as top security issues.
McConnell told the Senate Intelligence Committee in prepared testimony that the global threat of terrorism remained, but that al Qaeda had suffered setbacks and its international reputation was diminishing.
Among other top worries, Iran still had the potential to develop nuclear weapons despite stopping work on nuclear warhead design, he said.
But Pakistan's nuclear arsenal remain under military control, even amid the political turmoil there.
In Iraq, violence had declined and al Qaeda in Iraq had been weakened, but the capabilities of Iraq's security forces remained limited while sectarian distrust was still high, McConnell said.
Discussing U.S. financial vulnerabilities, McConnell voiced "concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends."
Russia was positioning itself to control an energy supply and transportation network from Europe to East Asia. China's global engagement was driven by a need to access markets and resources, McConnell said.
A weak U.S. dollar had prompted some oil suppliers to ask to be paid in other currencies, or to delink their currencies from the dollar.
"Continued concerns about dollar depreciation could tempt other producers to follow suit," McConnell said.
Discussing Cuba, McConnell said provisional President Raul Castro was seeking to bring about economic changes and aid from Venezuela was helping the country ignore outside pressure for reform. He said that in the event of Fidel Castro's death "the political situation is likely to remain stable at least in the initial months."
'Another bomber infiltrated, ready for attack'
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0621.html
In addition to two bombers involved in this week's suicide attack in Israel, one more suicide bomber has infiltrated the Jewish state with explosives and is poised to carry out an imminent attack, according to senior terrorist sources speaking to WND.
"There are three bombers who made it inside Israel. The third is inside. We won't say where, but he has explosives, and we lost contact with him," said a senior terrorist source, speaking from the Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization carried out a suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona, killing a woman and injuring 11 others, including at least one person in critical condition
Negev Police Chief Yossi Porianta told reporters a second suicide bomber was set to detonate his explosives, but he was knocked away by the blast of the first bomb. Upon noticing the second bomber, security forces at the scene shot him at point blank.
One of the bombers was identified as Mussa Arafat, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist from the Gaza city of Khan Younis. The second bomber was Lawai Lawani, an Al Aqsa Brigades member from Gaza's Sabra neighborhood.
Terrorist sources speaking to WND from Gaza said the third bomber is still inside Israel with his suicide belt.
Israeli security sources said they commenced a search for a third bomber but cautioned in the past terrorists have lied while claiming of more bombers inside Israel.
Dimona is the site of Israel's nuclear reactor. The explosion took place about four miles from the reactor site. The area is located not far from Israel's border with Egypt.
The suicide bombers had crossed into Israel from Egypt after Gaza-based militants 12 days ago blew up the Gaza-Egypt border wall, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to stream into the Egyptian Sinai desert. Israel has a long border with Egypt, much of which is unprotected.
Yuval Diskin, chief of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, warned during a speech to the Knesset yesterday that some Palestinian terrorists who crossed into the Egyptian Sinai desert the past two weeks relocated themselves to form terror cells in strategic areas bordering Egypt.
The Shin Bet chief said Israeli intelligence is aware of at least 20 specific locations at the Israel-Egypt border currently in use by Palestinian terrorists in attempts to infiltrate the Jewish state to carry out attacks. He said security has been boosted at those locations, but he stressed the need for Israel to immediate construct a security fence along the entire Israel-Egypt border.
Next war will see massive use of ballistic weapons against all of Israel
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0622.html
Retired senior officers told Israelis on Saturday to prepare "rocket rooms" as protection against a rain of missiles expected to be fired at the Jewish state in any future conflict.
Speaking on radio as part of a military propaganda offensive, retired general Udi Shani said: "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory."
Shani was tasked recently with drawing up a report on the way the military authorities operated during Israel's 2006 summer war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
During that conflict thousands of rockets hit Israel, but were limited to the north of the country from where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.
The character of war has changed, said the general.
"Strikes to the rear must now be taken into account -- that is what will come and we must prepare in a totally different way for this eventuality," he said.
Another reserve officer, Colonel Yehiel Kuperstein, added: "Protection of civilians must today be assured even inside their homes.
"There is no absolute protection, but the best possible sort is that of a room able to provide shelter" inside houses, he said, evoking the norms in force in Israel for several years which envisage each apartment having a room with reinforced walls able to serve as a shelter.
"Today in Israel only one third of apartments have such a room able to provide shelter... they have neither an air filter nor ventilation system enabling anyone to stay there for a long time," Kuperstein said.
At the beginning of 2008 the military command in charge of passive defence began an information campaign to prepare Israelis for any future conflict "in the light of lessons drawn from the war in Lebanon."
The authorities have distributed a brochure in six languages with advice on what to do, particularly in the event of missile attacks, as well as launching a campaign on radio and television.
The report of a commission of inquiry into failings in the Lebanon war, which was released on Wednesday, highlighted serious errors in the protection of frontline residents.
As the Israeli military bombed and shelled much of the infrastructure of Lebanon and killed an estimated 1,200 Lebanese, the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets at north Israel during the 34-day war.
Around a million Israelis took to primitive shelters or fled to safety in the south of the country.
PA's Message: In English – Coexist; In Arabic – Destroy Israel
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0623.html
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is delivering two very different messages to the Western and Arab world. The message to the West, declared in English in front of media microphones and cameras, glorifies an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully beside Israel.
But according to documented videos of PA TV programs monitored by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the PA is telling its Arab audience that there will be no Israel at all, rather one large Arab Palestine will rule the entirety of Israel.
PMW Director Itamar Marcus explains that translated speeches and interviews of Palestinian leaders reveal their true intentions. Even "moderate" PA leaders have no intention of actually making peace with Israel or even recognizing its right to exist. Marcus says that hate-filled messages are rampant in PA culture and even in children's textbooks, which tell young minds that Islam demands the destruction of Israel.
Uniquely Bizarre
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0624.html
The Arab-Israeli conflict definitely holds the record for the most bizarrely treated issue in modern history. It is easy to forget just how strange this situation is and the extent to which it is understood and handled so totally different from other, more rationally, perceived problems.
Let's take a very simple example and examine the surrealistic, bizarre way in which normally sensible people and institutions respond.
On February 4, 2008, two terrorists attacked the quiet town of Dimona in southern Israel. One blew himself up near a toy store in a marketplace, killing an elderly woman and wounding forty people. The other was injured in the first blast and, before he could detonate his own bomb, was killed by a policeman.
At first, some Fatah officials claimed that one of the men was theirs, from that group's al-Aqsa Brigades; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the second belonged to them. Such are the bare facts. But from here it gets far stranger.
Apparently, Fatah and the PFLP did dispatch a two-man terrorist team, but they were apparently caught before crossing into Israel. At the exact same time, Hamas sent another duo, and they succeeded in reaching Dimona.
Thus, through no fault of their own, Fatah and the PFLP did not actually commit the attack. But they tried and would have preferred to have carried out the terrorist assault. From here, a number of conclusions should be obvious:
1. The nature of Fatah. Why is Fatah, the organization routinely described as moderate by Western governments and media, involved in constant terrorism attempts--and sometimes successes--against Israel?
The al-Aqsa Brigades are an integral part of Fatah. The Brigades' founder and leader is Marwan Barghouti who has been head of Fatah on the West Bank. Many of the Brigades' gunmen are on the Fatah payroll in various ways, often as members of security forces which are supposed to prevent...terrorism.
Of course, the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and in effect Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas "condemned" the attack. That is, he said he didn't like it. But no member of Fatah has ever been expelled from the organization or fired from the security forces for involvement in terrorism. The PA's media regularly broadcasts incitement to commit terrorism. It does not transmit television, radio, and newspaper demands on its members not to attack Israeli civilians.
So is Fatah a terrorist organization?
Well, apparently not. Granted, Abbas personally would prefer these attacks not occur. In the Fatah spectrum he is at the moderate end. Nevertheless, he presides over a group that is terrorist and which regards itself as fighting a war against Israel whose main tactic is deliberately murdering civilians. It uses its funds for this purpose and encourages such behavior through program and propaganda.
A Reuters' dispatch about the attack, when it was thought to be perpetrated by Fatah, said it was a challenge for Abbas to control "rebels within his own Fatah faction." The point, however, is that they aren't rebels at all but rather members in good standing who probably have more support in Fatah than does Abbas himself.
2. International policy toward Fatah. Therefore, if Fatah, and the PA, should not be shunned at least they should be subjected to serious international pressure, right? If only for their own good since presumably the world believes that they are better off if they abandon terrorism? Again, apparently not.
Fatah is the group which is being given well about $7 billion by international donors. And there are no strings attached to that aid: no measure of whether Fatah uses or advocates terrorism whatsoever. It gets the money no matter what it does. There are good reasons for the West to work with, and even aid, the PA and Fatah but there are no good reasons for that support and aid to be unconditional.
3. Motive. Fatah officials said the reason for the attack was to protest Israeli "aggression" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. To begin with, of course, Israel is merely responding to rocket and mortar attacks on its territory. If these were to cease, Israel would never attack the Gaza Strip and continue to supply it--directly and indirectly--with its electricity. But if Israel were never to attack the Gaza Strip, the Hamas regime and its junior partners in the Gaza Strip would continue to attack Israel. By definition, then, they are the ones who are aggressive.
Incidentally, there are no sanctions whatsoever against the West Bank, which Fatah rules. Thus, Fatah is at war with Israel while Israel, despite periodic raids against individuals directly involved in terrorism, treats Fatah as a partner and urges countries to give it financial aid.
But there's more. Fatah is essentially coming to the aid of a Hamas regime which threw it out of Gaza and killed, sometimes in cold blood, and represses its own people. Why? Because Fatah and the PA are competing for Palestinian popular support in the Gaza Strip and the way that one does this is to murder Israeli civilians. This is a very telling definition of Palestinian politics, ideology, and public opinion.
4. The other terrorist killed was initially claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical Arab nationalist group, which also tried to kill Israeli civilians on that day. Recently, the founder and long-time head of the PFLP, George Habash, died. Habash was a veteran terrorist who practically invented airplane hijacking and international terrorism. Habash was lauded by the PA and Fatah at his funeral as a great hero of the movement.
Riyad al-Malki, the PA's Minister of Information and Foreign Affairs of the "moderate" PA is a PFLP member and ran the organization on the West Bank for many years. So when Western politicians and diplomats deal with the "moderate" PA they are talking directly to a man who played a leading role in a terrorist group which continues to make--and proudly claim responsibility for--terrorist attacks.
Arab members of Israel's parliament went to the funeral and joined in the accolades for a terrorist whose group continues to murder their fellow citizens.
5. When the second terrorist fell as a result of the first explosion, Israeli medical personnel did not hesitate from rushing to help a man they thought was an Arab victim of the attack. Then the nurse saw the explosives' belt and realized the man she was trying to save was about to murder her. She had to run for her life, pulling along another wounded person, and yell for help from the police.
To summarize: Fatah acts as a terrorist group; the PA facilitates terrorism and includes people leading terrorist groups; Fatah views itself as an ally of a group that attacks it and murders its own members; the West aids Fatah and the PA with no attempt to discourage their behavior; Israeli Arab politicians side with terrorism; and Israelis, at the risk of their lives, try to save Arab lives, and would like to have a two-state solution if the other side is every able to make and implement such a deal.
Oh, yes, and guess who much of the world blames for the conflict. As I said, uniquely bizarre.
I'll be president of Europe if you give me the power - Blair
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0631.html
Tony Blair has been holding discussions with some of his oldest allies on how he could mount a campaign later this year to become full-time president of the EU council, the prestigious new job characterised as "president of Europe". Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.
Blair, who is being actively promoted by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recognises he would need to abandon his well-paid, private sector jobs if he won. His wife Cherie - often portrayed as seeking ever more wealth and well-paid consultancies for her husband - is understood to be supportive of him accepting the job.
Some Blair allies also say that he now recognises that as envoy in the Middle East he is not going to be allowed to become the key player in furthering Israeli-Palestinian talks this year, and will be reduced to a role of supporting political development in Palestine and boosting its economy.
The president of the European council of ministers is a post created under the Lisbon treaty. The president will be the permanent chair of the council of ministers, Europe's chief decision-making body.
Jonathan Powell, Blair's Downing Street chief of staff, is among the former lieutenants he has met to discuss a bid for the European role.
Some senior figures believe he could yet be a loser in the carve-up of four big European jobs due to be distributed at the end of the French presidency in the second half of this year. Some claim that if the commission president, José Manuel Barroso, wanted to remain in post for a second term, it would be difficult for Blair, a political ally and previous advocate for Barroso, to hold the parallel, prestigious European council job.
Decisions also have to be made on the appointment of a new, "high representative" on foreign policy, and the post of president of the European parliament. Smaller EU countries are sensitive about key jobs being taken by leading figures from larger countries, especially from one that is not part of the eurozone or the Schengen free-movement area, and that actively supports Turkish membership, as Britain has. Some French socialists have already come out against Blair, citing his role in the war in Iraq. Former French president Valéry Giscard D'Estaing has also expressed his opposition.
It is thought that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is not persuaded of the advantages of a Blair presidency. The Christian Democrats have recently been politically weakened in state elections, and fear a Blair presidency might strengthen the German Social Democrats. Neither the Germans nor the French would push Blair if they believed his appointment was going to be opposed by Gordon Brown.
Blair himself is still doubtful that the role of council president will become a powerful job, saying he senses that even pro-Europeans might recoil from ceding power from the nation state.
With most countries currently focused on ratifying the Lisbon treaty through their national parliaments, decisions on the powers of the full-time president are unlikely to be made until the second half of the year.
Apart from Blair, two other candidates most often mentioned are the former Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, promoted by Germany, and the current Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The EU Reform Treaty: Why Washington Should Be Concerned
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0632.html
With warmer relations with Paris and Berlin, Washington might be forgiven for thinking that its strategic interests are now protected in continental Europe. However, this discounts the threat posed by the European Reform Treaty, signed by all 27 European Union (EU) member states on December 13 in Lisbon. The Reform Treaty, which is substantially the same as the failed European Constitution of 2004, must now be ratified by all member states before its planned introduction on January 1, 2009.
Under the personal leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU breathed life into the rejected constitution, which contained the building blocks of a United States of Europe. The new treaty will shift power from nation-states to Brussels in critical areas of policymaking--such as defense, security, and energy--where the United States finds more traction on a bilateral basis. It will restrict the sovereign right of EU member states to determine foreign policy and poses a unique threat to the Anglo-American Special Relationship. Above all, it is a treaty that underscores the EU's ambition to become a global power and challenge American leadership on the world stage.
Substantially the Same
The Reform Treaty retains all the essential components of an EU superstate that were included in the 2004 constitution, including a single legal personality, a permanent EU presidency, an EU-wide public prosecutor, and the position of foreign minister in all but name.[1] It extends qualified majority voting to 40 new matters, in areas such as foreign policy, energy, transport, space, commercial policy, humanitarian aid, sport, tourism, and investment. In a stunning indictment of British government policy, the Labour-dominated House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee reported in October 2007 that, "Taken as a whole, the Reform Treaty produces a general framework which is substantially equivalent to the Constitutional Treaty." The Committee's report makes clear that the British government has not carefully considered the Reform Treaty and that few, if any, exemptions from the Constitution's excesses have been secured in a way that will be unchallengeable by the European Union.
Foreign Policy Implications
Before undertaking any action on the international scene or entering into any commitment which could affect the Union's interests, each Member State shall consult the others within the European Council or the Council. Member States shall ensure, through the convergence of their actions, that the Union is able to assert its interests and values on the international scene. Member States shall show mutual solidarity.
EU-integrationist Richard Laming argues that, as the Single European Act brought about the Single Market and the Maastricht Treaty instituted the euro, the major success of the Reform Treaty will be the EU's beefed-up role in foreign affairs. He states: "Henry Kissinger's famous request for a phone number to call will now have an answer."
The EU boasts that the Reform Treaty compels member states to speak with a single voice on external relations. With a single legal personality, Brussels will now sign international agreements on behalf of all member states. The European Commission arrogantly claims that with the Reform Treaty in place, "the European Union is uniquely well placed to find the answers to today's most pressing questions... and to see European values promoted effectively in the global community."However, the EU already has an extensive sanctions arsenal through the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) but more often than not, chooses not to use it. The EU has refused to use sanctions to fight the broader war on terrorism and continues to drag its feet over implementing tougher sanctions against Iran.
The Reform Treaty formally abolishes the EU's pillar structure that provided for nation states to maintain the lead role in foreign affairs, and America must recognize the dangers. In the few areas where the EU does speak with one voice--at the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for example--the United States has lost traction in dealing with its European allies on anything resembling a bilateral basis. Frequently, it has found itself pitted against an institution whose position has been pre-determined and which is intent on morally prosecuting American policy. This sets a dangerous precedent. If the EU's ability to supersede the autonomy of its member states is replicated in wider areas of foreign policy--such as the decision to join the United States in military action--America will find itself isolated and facing hostility from an organization that has been endemically anti-American in recent years.
A Threat to the Special Relationship
The institutional and political constraints of further European integration will severely limit Britain's ability to build international alliances and make foreign policy. The biggest damage would be done to Britain's enduring alliance with the United States.
Britainhas found its strongest, most enduring alliance in its Special Relationship with the United States. The common political, diplomatic, historical, and cultural values shared between Americans and Britons are deep and strong. Further still, Britain and America are prepared to defend these values--with military force if necessary. Common values are meaningful only if both parties are ready to defend them.
The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy has always intended to assert the EU as a supranational actor on the world stage in place of nation states. The Reform Treaty gives great momentum to the CFSP and its defense arm, the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The imposition of qualified majority voting in major foreign policy areas represents a significant loss of sovereignty for member states, especially the appointment of the EU Foreign Minister.
The fact that its main European ally, the U.K., will not be able to veto the appointment of the EU's primary foreign policy actor should be enough to make Washington nervous. But the enhanced role for this unelected minister should be an even greater cause for concern. Under the treaty, the EU foreign minister will have the power to appoint EU envoys; a larger profile, budget, and diplomatic corps; the right to speak on member states' behalf in multilateral institutions (including the U.N. Security Council upon request); and the right to propose EU military missions on behalf of the European Commission.Brussels clearly seeks to become the U.S. Administration's first port of call to conduct its European foreign policy. The Administration should not, however, expect the warm response that it gets in London and other national capitals.
It is vital that the United States recognize the value in dealing with its enduring allies on a bilateral level. In its desire to create "One Europe," the European Security and Defense Policy has already duplicated NATO's role and structures and significantly downgraded the possibility of traditional alliance-building by the United States. Replacing individual European allies with a single EU Foreign Minister means inevitably, even if unintentionally, American interests will lose in the discussions that matter most.
Conclusion
A demonstrably political document, the Lisbon Reform Treaty was only made available in English on July 30, 2007. The British government is effectively being asked to sign away its independence and self-determination after less than five months of deliberation. If there were ever a time for the White House to become unnerved about further European integration, then this is it. The Reform Treaty moves forward elite-driven plans for ever-closer union and will ultimately distance London from Washington. Britain remains in a unique position to fashion a European Union that better serves its interests as well as the transatlantic alliance. Its reluctant signature of the Reform Treaty can certainly be reversed during this ratification process. Washington must send its closest ally the message that it would have U.S. support in doing so.
Iran will have nuclear weapon in three years: Mossad
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0641.html
Israel's Mossad spy agency estimates Iran will develop a nuclear weapon within three years and continue to provide rockets to regional armed groups, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Mossad director Meir Dagan, in an intelligence assessment presented to Israel's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee on Monday, said the Jewish state would face increased threats on all fronts, Maariv daily said.
Dagan's estimate of Iran's nuclear ambitions differs sharply from an assessment by the US intelligence community late last year that said Iran had mothballed its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.
That report compiled by 16 US intelligence agencies said the Islamic republic would not be able to attain a nuclear weapon until 2015.
Israel has questioned those findings, claiming that although Iran may have temporarily halted its nuclear drive five years ago it has since relaunched it while pressing ahead with a public uranium enrichment programme.
Tehran has always insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
In Monday's report, Dagan also predicted that Tehran would continue to supply more and better rockets and training to Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
Dagan added that Iran's allies Syria and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah were also working to develop an increased rocket ability.
"Syria is improving its surface-to-surface missile system and today the quantity of missiles and rockets is twice as large as two years ago," Dagan said, according to Maariv.
Israel has long perceived Iran as its greatest threat, especially after Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad relaunched its nuclear enrichment programme and repeatedly predicted the demise of the Jewish state.
Russia plans buildup in the Mediterranean: 'Russia has strategic interests'
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0642.html
Russia has completed a two-week naval exercise in the Mediterranean and plans to re-establish its footprint in the region.
Russian navy commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said his force would establish a presence in areas deemed by Moscow as strategic. Vysotsky said this would include the Mediterranean and the neighboring Atlantic Ocean.
"What is important is that we have arrived in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at a scheduled time and not just that we appeared there," Vysotsky said on Feb. 3. "We'll do all we can to build up our presence where Russia has strategic interests."
The Russian Navy has concluded a two month tour of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The operation was deemed the first large-scale Russian navy exercise in the region in 15 years.
Moscow has been conducting naval exercises with such Mediterranean states as Algeria and Syria. Russia has been financing the upgrade of Syria's port of Tartous to accommodate large naval ships.
On Jan. 18, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva guided missile cruiser, joined Russian naval warships in the Mediterranean to participate in a two-week exercise. The Russian naval task force consisted of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, Admiral Levchenko and Admiral Chabanenko Udaloy-Class destroyers as well as support vessels.
More than 40 aircraft participated in the exercise, which ended on Feb. 2. They included Russian Air Force's Tu-160 Blackjacks, Tu-95MS Bears, Tu-22M3 Backfire-C strategic bombers, A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning aircraft, Il-78 Midas aerial tankers, MiG-31 Foxhound long-range interceptors and Su-27 Flanker frontline fighter aircraft.
"The North Fleet will conduct long-distance voyages about once every six months." Vysotsky said. "These voyages may differ from the recent one. We have enough opportunities and forms to display Russian naval might."
Barack Obama's Very Controversial Pastor & Spiritual Advisor
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0651.html
Barack Obama’s friend and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, said in a 2003 church publication, "In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11. White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just 'disappeared,' as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns."
But Barack Obama says he is "proud" of Rev. Wright and values their 20-year-long friendship, even if they “don’t agree on everything.”
Wright, who performed Obama's marriage and baptized his daughters, is also his close spiritual advisor. Barack's 2004 keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention was based on a sermon by Wright called "Audacity to Hope," which also inspired Barack's book, "The Audacity of Hope."
In the November-December 2007 issue of Trumpet, their church’s publication, Rev. Wright praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has described whites as "blue-eyed devils" and Jews as "bloodsuckers." In the magazine Wright wrote, "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest...and will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African-American religious experience. His integrity and honesty have secured him a place in history as one of the nation's most powerful critics…and a religious leader who is sincere about his faith and his purpose."
Farrakhan's photo is on the cover of that church magazine, accompanied with the headline: "The Minister truly epitomized greatness." Wright also presented Farrakhan with a "lifetime achievement" award during a church gala in Chicago, "For his commitment to truth, education and leadership."
Recently Obama distanced himself from Farrakhan, but not from his pastor or his praise for Farrakhan. Why not?
For the record, it was Farrakhan who said:
* "They call (Hezbollah) terrorists, I call them freedom fighters. No one asks why they would do such a thing. Why would they do such a thing? What has driven them to this point? That's what the UN, the U.S. and Europe doesn't want to deal with because the Zionists have control in England, in Europe, in the United States and around the world."
* "The white man is our mortal enemy, and we cannot accept him. I will fight to see that vicious beast go down into the lake of fire prepared for him from the beginning, that he never rise again to give any innocent black man, woman or child the hell that he has delighted in pouring on us for 400 years."
* "Hitler was a very great man. He wasn't great for me as a Black man but he was a great German and he rose Germany up from the ashes of her defeat by the united force of all of Europe and America after the first World War."
* "Now, that nation of Israel, never has had any peace in forty years and she will never have any peace because there can never be any peace structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit and using the name of God to shield your dirty religion under His holy and righteous name."
* "Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET?... Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television. And they make us look like we’re the murderers; we look like we’re the gangsters, but we’re punk stuff.”
* "This Koran says that the Jews have altered the word of God out of its place. They did not want the masters of the people to know what Jesus really said, what Moses really said, because then you wouldn't have a yardstick to measure their deviations."
* "The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He rose Germany up from the ashes."
Farrakhan also claims to have received revelations directly from God, and conferred with the dead Elijah Muhammed while "on a wheel that you call a UFO," about secret meetings of Ronald Reagan with his cabinet.
Farrakhan's views are not only anti-Semitic and racist, but his efforts have not been to integrate Black America into mainstream America, have not been to unite -- something Barack Obama claims he will do as President of the United States.
Clearly, such views are dangerous to be affiliated with on any level if you’re a candidate running for the President of the United States -- the President of all the people of the United States.
Do you think Hillary will use this information against Barack? Absolutely, if she thinks she needs to, and that it will help her win.
Interestingly, Obama took back his invitation for his pastor to pray at the launch of his campaign, apparently fearing controversy from Wright's Afrocentric teachings, and many are wondering if he wins the presidency, will he ask his close spiritual advisor, Rev. Wright, to pray at his inauguration?
While emails questioning Obama's Muslim roots flood the world-wide-web, and he answers those by pointing out that he is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, an Afrocentric church that preaches what the New York Times calls Black liberation theology, a good question to ask is why does he continue to affiliate with a church, a pastor, that honors Louis Farrakhan, a man who called Judaism "a gutter religion," the Pope an "Antichrist" and Adolf Hitler "a wickedly great man," and said that "White people are potential humans - they haven't evolved yet"?
Islamist 'Trojan horse' in Pentagon, say experts
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0661.html
Federal authorities say a high-level Muslim Pentagon aide, who led a campaign to silence a Pentagon intelligence analyst for taking a hard line against Islam, is running an "influence operation" on behalf of U.S. Muslim groups fronting for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Hesham H. Islam, a special assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, recently criticized Maj. Stephen Coughlin, one of the military's leading authorities on Islamic war doctrine, for making the connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism.
After Islam lodged complaints, Coughlin's contract with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon was not renewed.
Islam also was upset with briefings Coughlin recently prepared for the U.S. military warning that major U.S. Muslim groups were fronting for the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement based in Egypt.
Islam, who was born and raised in Egypt, is heavily involved with one of the groups – the Islamic Society of North America, which U.S. prosecutors last year named as a member of the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terror-funding case.
Islam has persuaded his boss, England, to conduct various outreach with ISNA, including hosting the group's leaders in the Pentagon and speaking at its annual convention.
Speaking during ISNA's 2006 opening ceremonies, England proclaimed, "There is no contradiction between the peaceful religion of Islam and America's values and principles."
Coughlin reached the opposite conclusion in a 329-page report submitted to the National Defense Intelligence College, in which he warns that Islamic law sanctions violence. That finding, among others, has put him at odds with Islam, whom England describes as "my personal close confidante."
"I take his advice," England said, "and I listen to him all the time."
WND has learned that Islam is closely associated with a Muslim military chaplain trained at a radical Islamic school that federal agents raided after 9/11 in connection with terror-financing.
As WND reported, the chaplain, Abuhena M. Saifulislam, studied Islam at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Virginia.
Recently declassified FBI documents reveal its sister organization, an Islamist think tank known as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, is involved in a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to wage a cultural and political jihad to eventually take over America from within – most notably, through infiltration of government agencies.
Islam works closely with Saifulislam (Arabic for "sword of Islam") on Pentagon outreach projects involving Middle Eastern embassies and the so-called Wahhabi lobby in Washington.
"He's a Muslim brother," an FBI official said of Islam. "He's a bad actor. He's well-positioned to be where he is, and that doesn't do us any good."
He also said Saifulislam is "definitely Muslim Brotherhood," while noting that Islam "is a lot smoother than Saifulislam," who as a chaplain at Gitmo lobbied for special meals and other privileges for al-Qaida detainees.
The official hastened to add that, at this point, belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood is not criminal, and neither Defense Department employee is the subject of a formal counterterrorism or counterespionage investigation. Both men have refused interviews, and the Pentagon had no comment.
However, the FBI official warned that the Muslim aides are part of a conspiracy by Muslim Brotherhood fronts to run "influence operations" against the U.S. government.
"Their M.O. is to make nice for the very purpose of penetrating us," he said, "and we just roll over for them, at least at the top levels."
He says England, who also recently dedicated an Islamic prayer center at Quantico on the advice of Saifulislam, is blind to the threat.
"England doesn't know it's an influence operation that's been laid at his door," he said. "His lack of awareness is irresponsible."
A senior U.S. official who has met with England says he was not even aware that a convicted terrorist and al-Qaida fund-raiser created the Pentagon's Muslim chaplains corps.
Adurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and founder of the American Muslim Council, placed Muslim chaplains throughout the military. He is now in jail on charges of terrorism. However, most of the chaplains he trained and sponsored are still in their current positions.
"The Islamic chaplains who serve were trained by a known terrorist," said terrorism expert Steve Emerson.
Emerson says Islam, like Alamoudi, has invited "subversive" elements into U.S. military headquarters.
"Hesham Islam is an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent who has brought in groups to the Pentagon who have been unindicted co-conspirators," he said.
Emerson said a "Trojan horse" of subversives and potential spies have penetrated deep inside the Pentagon, and they are now bearing fruit with the ouster of Coughlin. Sources say Islam has high security clearance.
A former Pentagon colleague of Coughlin described Islam as a "gatekeeper," who at a minimum, is blocking candid discussion of the religious nature of the threat posed by Muslim terrorists. Such action, William Gawthrop says, thwarts the U.S. war effort, because it denies military brass and rank-and-file the information they need to effectively fight the Islamist enemy.
"We still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by (the Muslim prophet) Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered," Gawthrop told WND.
He says Coughlin was trying to bridge that gap before being pushed out.
Supporters of the respected contractor say Islam had a direct hand in his firing. They say that on Jan. 3 Coughlin was told his contract, which ends in March, would not be renewed because his message had become too "politically hot."
They say that in a meeting late last year between Coughlin and a member of England's staff, which Islam unexpectedly attended, Islam asked Coughlin to "soften his message" regarding Islamic war doctrine. Coughlin refused.
Islam was heard referring to Coughlin as a "Christian zealot with a poison pen." The conflict resulted in his contract being terminated.
A well-placed Pentagon insider described it differently, however. Islam and Coughlin were present at the briefing, but there was no direct confrontation between the two. It was not until Hesham returned to England's office suite that he remarked that Coughlin had a "poison pen."
"He clearly doesn't like him," the source told WND.
Also, Coughlin was let go in part because his contract was up, and at $440,000, it was too steep to justify renewing, the insider says. And though he had written a 329-page thesis on the subject, he was not effective at briefing the J-2 intelligence staff of the Joint Chiefs.
"He's brilliant, and he knows his stuff, but he couldn't teach it," the source said. "It went over everybody's head."
Still, England has not properly vetted his long-time aide, Islam. "Gordon is so trusting of this guy because he's worked for him for so long," the same official said. "But he's got questionable contacts, and he (England) needs to have his antennae up."
Conspiracy theories emerge after internet cables cut
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0671.html
Is information warfare to blame for the damage to underwater internet cables that has interrupted internet service to millions of people in India and Egypt, or is it just a series of accidents?
When two cables in the Mediterranean were severed last week, it was put down to a mishap with a stray anchor.
Now a third cable has been cut, this time near Dubai. That, along with new evidence that ships' anchors are not to blame, has sparked theories about more sinister forces that could be at work.
For all the power of modern computing and satellites, most of the world's communications still rely on submarine cables to cross oceans.
When two cables were cut off the Egyptian port city of Alexandria last week, about 100 million internet users were affected, mainly in India and Egypt.
The cables remain broken and internet services are still compromised.
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says the situation demonstrates how interconnected the world is.
"It clearly shows we are talking about a global network and a global world that we are living in," he said.
"So wherever something happens we all get, in one way or another, affected by it."
'Information warfare?'
It was assumed a ship's anchor severed the cables, but now that is in doubt and the conspiracy theories are coming out.
Egypt's Transport Ministry says video surveillance shows no ships were in the area at the time of the incident.
Online columnist Ian Brockwell says the cables may have been cut deliberately in an attempt by the US and Israel to deprive Iran of internet access.
Others back up that theory, saying the Pentagon has a secret strategy called 'information warfare'.
But Mr Budde says it is far more likely to be a coincidence.
"It is absolutely strange, of course, that that happens. At the moment it really looks like bad luck rather than anything else," he said.
Telecommunications professor at the University of Melbourne, Peter Gerrand, says Australia is in a far better position than India to withstand a cable breakage.
"We've got, in effect, five really major separate cables, each with high capacity, most of which have plans for upgrading their capacity in the next few years," he said.
Professor Gerrand does not believe Australia is vulnerable to the types of major disruptions that India and Egypt have seen.
"I gather India has most of its capacity on two cables - one's to its west and one to its east - so when the western cable got cut near Egypt, all this traffic had to then pass through a single cable and that's what's caused these very huge delays," he said.
Australia's protection zones
As it happens, Australia's protection against such incidents was boosted just last week.
Activities that could damage submarine communications cables have been prohibited off Perth's City Beach since Friday.
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) submarine cable protection manager Robyn Meikle says the events in the Middle East highlight the importance of submarine cables to all international communications.
"Here in Australia, over 99 per cent of all of our international communications carried through these cables lie at the bottom of the sea," she said.
"That's why the Australian Communications Authority [ACMA] has played a major role in declaring protection zones over our cables of national significance in Australia.
"Each of the zones, for instance, has restrictions to do with anchoring, which are aimed at preventing the sort of damage that has happened in recent times in the Middle East.
"ACMA declares protection zones over what are considered to be the main cables of national significance, and they're the ones that carry the bulk of the traffic," she said.
"So really, they are the most important cables that the industry relies on to carry all communications in and out of Australia."
Navy Tests Incredible Sci-Fi Weapon
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0673.html
The U.S. Navy yesterday test fired an incredibly powerful new big gun designed to replace conventional weaponry aboard ships. Sci-fi fans will recognize its awesome power and futuristic technology.
The big gun uses electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile farther and faster. The railgun, as it is called, will ultimately fire a projectile more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) with a muzzle velocity seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) and a velocity of Mach 5 at impact.
The test-firing, captured on video, took place Jan. 31 in Dahlgren, Va., and Navy officials called it the "world's most powerful electromagnetic railgun."
The Navy's current MK 45 five-inch gun, by contrast, has a range of less than 23 miles (37 kilometers).
The railgun has been a featured weapon in many science fiction universes, such as the new "Battlestar Galactica" series. It has also achieved newfound popularity among the 20-something-and-under generation for its devastating ability to instantaneously shoot a "slug" through walls and through multiple enemies in video games such as the "Quake" series of first person shooters.
The Navy's motivation? Simple destruction.
The railgun's high-velocity projectile will destroy targets with sheer kinetic energy rather than with conventional explosives.
"I never ever want to see a Sailor or Marine in a fair fight. I always want them to have the advantage," said Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gary Roughead. "We should never lose sight of always looking for the next big thing, always looking to make our capability better, more effective than what anyone else can put on the battlefield."
The railgun's lack of explosives means ships would be safer, said Elizabeth D'Andrea, Electromagnetic Railgun Program Manager.
The Navy's goal is to demonstrate a full-capability prototype by 2018.
Judges: 'Gay' exposure OK for kindergarteners
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0681.html
In a case that could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, an appeals panel upheld dismissal of a lawsuit by Massachusetts parents seeking to prevent discussion of homosexual families in their children's elementary school classrooms.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday agreed with a judge's decision last year that a school can expose children to contrary ideas without violating their parents' rights to exercise religious beliefs.
"Public schools," wrote Judge Sandra L. Lynch, "are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them."
Lynch reasoned that schools must accept the Massachusetts high court's groundbreaking 2003 decision ruling "that the state constitution mandates the recognition of same-sex marriage."
As WND reported in 2006, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf dismissed the civil rights lawsuit by David and Tonia Parker of Lexington, concluding there is an obligation for public schools to teach young children to accept and endorse homosexuality.
The Parkers' lead attorney, Jeffrey Denner, declared after yesterday's ruling the parents are preparing to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We are fully committed to go forward," he said, according to the non-profit advocacy group MassResistance. "We will continue to fight on all the fronts that we need to."
David Parker said the ruling "will surely embolden and enable the schools even more on this if it's not fought."
"There's going to be an accountability, you can count on it," he said.
The dispute began in the spring of 2005 when the Parkers then-5-year-old son brought home a book to be shared with his parents titled, "Who's in a Family?" The optional reading material, which came in a "Diversity Book Bag," depicted at least two households led by homosexual partners.
The Parkers filed suit against the Lexington school district in 2006 and later were joined by Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, whose second-grader's class was read a story about two princes who become lovers.
In another parents-rights case in Massachusetts, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick F. Brady in December allowed Cohasset Public Schools to move forward with special education for an eighth-grader even though the parents opposed the plan.
MassResistance, which has supported the Parkers, contended Lynch's opinion virtually ignores a major argument made by the Parkers' attorney, Rob Sinsheimer, "that the basic constitutional protections of religious belief are being trampled on by the school."
MassResistance notes Lynch uses the state's controversial 1999 Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework to justify homosexual-oriented "tolerance" lessons in the lower grades, but she "completely ignores the fact that that document was clearly intended as a non-mandatory, informal set of guidelines."
The group points out Planned Parenthood is promoting a bill this year to make the document a formal legal guideline.
MassResistance said that to read the concluding words of Lynch's ruling "is to experience a real sense of the term 'banality of evil.'"
Lynch reasoned that "the mere fact that a child is exposed on occasion in public school to a concept offensive to a parent's religious belief does not inhibit the parent from instructing the child differently."
The opinion said the judges cannot see how the Parker's son's "free exercise right was burdened at all: two books were made available to him, but he was never required to read them or have them read to him. Further, these books do not endorse gay marriage or homosexuality, or even address these topics explicitly, but merely describe how other children might come from families that look different from one's own. There is no free exercise right to be free from any reference in public elementary schools to the existence of families in which the parents are of different gender combinations."
The panel said the Wirthlin's son "has a more significant claim, both because he was required to sit through a classroom reading of 'King and King' and because that book affirmatively endorses homosexuality and gay marriage. It is a fair inference that the reading of 'King and King' was precisely intended to influence the listening children toward tolerance of gay marriage. That was the point of why that book was chosen and used."
But the judges also dismissed the Wirthlin's argument.
"Even assuming there is a continuum along which an intent to influence could become an attempt to indoctrinate, however, this case is firmly on the influence-toward-tolerance end," the opinion said. "There is no evidence of systemic indoctrination. There is no allegation that Joey was asked to affirm gay marriage. Requiring a student to read a particular book is generally not coercive of free exercise rights."
Top 10 Worst Places to Live as a Christian
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0683.html
If you are a Christian, the worst place to live in the world is North Korea, according to Open Doors’ 2008 World Watch List released Monday.
The annual country persecution list ranked North Korea in the No. 1 spot for the sixth year in a row. There were more arrests of Christians in the country in 2007 than in 2006, according to Open Doors.
In North Korea, considered by many the most repressive regime, citizens are strictly banned from worshipping any other gods beside those enforced in the state religion – a personality cult revolving around current dictator Kim Jong Il, and his deceased father, Kim Il Sung.
Moreover, Christianity is considered a serious threat to the regime’s power and there are many reports of Christians being publicly executed, tortured or imprisoned indefinitely simply because of the discovery of their faith.
It is estimated that there are at least 200,000 underground Christians and up to 400,000 to 500,000 believers secretly practicing their faith in North Korea. At least a quarter of the Christians are imprisoned for their faith in political prison camps, from which people rarely get out alive, according to an Open Doors local source.
“It is certainly not a shock that North Korea is No. 1 on the shame list for the sixth year in a row,” said Carl Moeller, President/CEO of Open Doors USA. “There is no other country in the world where Christians are being persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner.”
In second place behind North Korea is the kingdom of Saudi Arabia where fundamentalist Wahabbi Islam dominates society and oppresses believers. Under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, apostasy (conversion to another religion) is punishable by death if the accused does not recant.
Following close behind in third is Mideast neighbor Iran. Although Christians are officially recognized as a religious minority, believers regularly face discrimination and persecution.
Islam is the predominant religion in six of the top 10 countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen and Uzbekistan.
This year, several countries moved up in the list including Bhutan (No. 5, up from No. 7), but mainly due to Somalia and Yemen’s decrease in persecution.
Afghanistan also rose from No. 10 to No. 7 due to the South Korean Christian hostage drama last summer as well as other events that contributed to its worsening persecution status.
Two new countries were added to the 2008 list: Uzbekistan at No. 9, up from No. 11, and China at No. 10, up from No. 12 last year.
Three of the top 10 countries – North Korea, Laos and China – have communist governments. Bhutan is the only Buddhist country on the list.
Improvement in human rights occurred in Somalia (from No. 4 to 12), Vietnam (from No. 8 to 17), Burma (from No. 19 to 25), Ethiopia (from No. 37 to 43) and Colombia (from No. 43 to 50).
The World Watch List ranks countries based on the intensity of persecution Christians face for actively pursuing their faith. The list is compiled based on answers to 50 questions covering various aspects of religious freedom from Open Doors’ indigenous contacts, field workers and persecuted believers.
Open Doors encourages Christians to join its prayer campaign for North Korea and participate in North Korea Freedom Week, April 27 - May 3.
2008 World Watch List
1. North Korea
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Iran
4. Maldives
5. Bhutan
6. Yemen
7. Afghanistan
8. Laos
9. Uzbekistan
10. China
Canada's human rights tribunals are censoring Christian teaching
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/Feb06/0684.html
Catholic Insight, a Canadian magazine known for its fidelity to Church teachings, has been targeted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for publishing articles deemed offensive to homosexuals.
The commission has been investigating the Toronto-based publication since homosexual activist Rob Wells, a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Pride Center of Edmonton, filed a nine-point complaint last February with the government agency in which he accuses the magazine of promoting "extreme hatred and contempt" against homosexuals.
Father Alphonse de Valk, the founder and editor of Catholic Insight, disagrees the accusations. "Wells took three pages of quotes out of context," he told ZENIT.
The Basilian priest added that Catholic Insight "bases itself on the Church's teaching and applies it to various circumstances in our time." He noted that some of the statements that allegedly promoted hatred and contempt against homosexuals were taken from recent Vatican pronouncements.
Other types of statements published by Catholic Insight on the topic of homosexuality include political statements, medical studies, news reports and other studies. Many of the articles concerned addressed the campaign in Canada to legalize same-sex marriage, which Catholic Insight openly opposed.
"The basic view of the Church is that homosexual acts are a sin, but we love the sinner," said Father de Valk, adding that opposing same-sex marriage is not the same as rejecting homosexuals as persons.
The priest said that homosexual activists are broadly defining opposition to homophobia as opposition to any homosexual act: "They maintain that the whole Catholic Church is homophobic."
The complaint against Father de Valk is just one of several complaints against Christians that Canada's human rights commissions have investigated in recent years. Despite assurance from politicians that Canadian faith communities would not be affected when the government legalized same-sex marriage, the number of complaints against Christians have only increased since 2005, say several concerned Christians.
Canada's human rights commissions are empowered by Canadian law to investigate allegations of offensive speech. There are 10 commissions in the country -- the national commission, known as the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and a provincial commission for each of Canada's 10 provinces, except British Columbia.
Once any one of the commissions has completed its investigation, it may then pass the case along to its respective human rights tribunal for adjudication. In British Columbia, individuals bring their complaints directly to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.
The process favors the complainant over the accused, claim Father de Valk and other Christian critics of the commissions and tribunals. There is no cost to the one who files a complaint, and the commission provides legal support to the complainant. In contrast, the accused must pay his legal costs.
Additionally, contrary to the English legal tradition, there is a reverse onus requiring the accused to prove his or her innocence. "There's a presumption of guilt," said Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, who himself was subject to two complaints before the Alberta Human Rights Commission in 2005 after publishing a pastoral letter defending the traditional definition of marriage earlier that same year.
"I really feel that we are into a crisis situation here where we are experiencing a trumping of religious freedom," said Bishop Henry.
The prelate describes Father de Valk as "an orthodox, very straight-forward individual."
He said that Catholic Insight's studies have been in-depth and in keeping with Catholic teaching, but given Canada's current culture, the bishop anticipated Father de Valk would eventually be subject to a human rights complaint. "He's a public target," Bishop Henry said. "His magazine is rather public."
Bishop Henry feels that Canada's commissions and tribunals are targeting Catholics in the name of promoting human rights. "Catholicism seems to be under attack for a variety of different reasons," he said. "I think one of the things is that we're not trendy; we don't easily kind of compromise on anything we consider to be essential.
"So when you have very clear definitive teaching with respect to marriage and what marriage is all about, and with homosexuality as intrinsically disordered and contrary to natural law, closing sexual relations to the gift of life, I don't see where Catholics can say anything else that what our traditional teaching is."
"That is not a very popular, politically correct expression of views in our society," the bishop said. "If you can knock down that and kind of bring the Catholic Church to its knees, I would think the opponents would be very pleased to do so."
Bishop Henry lays part of the blame with an activist judiciary that has read "sexual orientation" into the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protects against discrimination. "And further, they're reading in 'sexual practices,'" said the bishop.
Christian groups have a losing record before Canada's human rights tribunals for alleged discrimination. In November 2005, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ordered a Knights of Columbus council to pay two lesbians $1,000 each in damages, plus legal costs, after the council declined to rent their hall to the couple for a same-sex marriage ceremony.
In 2000, the Ontario Human Rights Commission fined Scott Brockie, a Protestant print-shop owner, $5,000 for declining to print, on moral grounds, homosexual-themed stationary.
The same tribunal fined London, Ontario, $10,000, plus interest, in 1997 when Mayor Diane Haskett declined to proclaim a gay pride day for the city.
Carmen Grigoire, an official spokeswoman for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, would not discuss the complaint against Father de Valk when contacted by ZENIT. The commission is investigating a similar case against the Christian Heritage Party, a political party co-founded by pro-life Catholics and Protestants. The complaint against the party was also initiated by Rob Wells.
Both Bishop Henry and Father de Valk point out that while Catholics have limited their criticism to homosexual acts, many homosexual activists have made statements openly promoting hatred toward Catholics without being investigated by Canada's human rights commissions. "There is a distinct lack of reciprocity in how Catholics react," Bishop Henry said.
In the end, Bishop Henry feels that Canada's human rights tribunals are censoring the expression of traditional Christian teaching: "The social climate right now is that we're into a new form of censorship and thought control, and the commissions are being used as thought police."
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