McCain Credits Bush for Drop in Oil Price
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/414935.aspx
CBNNews.com - GOP presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday said the recent drop in the price of oil was due to President Bush's lifting of a presidential ban on offshore drilling.
"The price of oil dropped $10 a barrel," said McCain, who argued that lifting the ban has affected world markets. Bush recently lifted the executive order banning offshore drilling that his father put in place in 1990.
McCain has been advocating offshore drilling in his presidential campaign. He has criticized his rival Barack Obama for opposing drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.
However, the White House is not taking the credit for the drop in price. Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said the price drop also could reflect diminished demand.
"I don't know if we fully deserve the credit," Perino said.
Obama Media-Fest
McCain also said Obama's policies on Iraq amounted to "unconditional withdrawal." Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops over a 16-month period "could lead to a resurgence in our enemies, and we would have to come back," McCain said.
His criticism of his Democratic rival has heated up as Obama has drawn the lion's share of attention over the past few days for his visit to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and other destinations.
The McCain campaign is accusing the media of favoring Obama and released a video on the Internet to support the claim.
Since winning the Democratic nomination, surveys have show that Obama has received far more coverage than McCain.
US senator praises pastor repudiated by McCain
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.senator.praises.pastor.repudiated.by.mccain/20815.htm
One of John McCain's most prominent supporters on Tuesday praised an evangelical leader whom the Republican presidential candidate repudiated after a string of controversial remarks were made public.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who frequently campaigns with McCain, said pastor John Hagee's support for Israel outweighed the remarks that led McCain to reject his endorsement.
Lieberman said he had been urged not to speak to Hagee's group, Christians United for Israel.
"The bond that I feel with Pastor Hagee and each and every one of you is much stronger than that, and so I am proud to stand with you tonight," Lieberman told several thousand members of the group, which urges US support for Israel.
"I don't agree with everything that Pastor Hagee's done and said ... but there is so much more important than that that we agree on," Lieberman said.
McCain, in an effort to reach out to evangelicals who are among the most loyal Republican voters, accepted Hagee's endorsement in March but rejected him in May after learning that the Texas preacher once said that God allowed the Holocaust to happen because it led to the creation of Israel.
McCain addressed Christians United for Israel last year. His campaign declined to comment.
Hagee, who heads the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, also was criticised for calling the Catholic Church "the Great Whore" and saying that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina for staging a gay-rights parade. He has since apologised to Catholics.
Hagee said the spotlight had been unsettling and condemned what he said was misleading media coverage.
"What will I say when I'm asked to endorse a presidential candidate? Never again," he told the cheering crowd, which waved American and Israeli flags.
Hagee has written that events in the Middle East point to an imminent apocalypse Christians should welcome, and in several books envisions a climactic battle in Israel leading to the second coming of Jesus.
Christians United for Israel takes an uncompromising stance toward Israel's enemies and opposes giving land to the Palestinians.
Hagee said that it was up to Israelis to reach their own peace terms, and said the group was not trying to bring about a biblical apocalypse in the Middle East.
"We don't believe that we can speed up the End of Days one second because we believe that God has shown that he will set the time," Hagee said.
A organization supporting a negotiated peace in the Middle East, J Street, said it had delivered a 40,000-signature petition to Lieberman's office urging him not to speak to Hagee's group.
Dobson Flip: Considers Endorsing McCain
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/413425.aspx
CBNNews.com - In an apparent change of heart, conservative Christian leader James Dobson said he could endorse GOP Presidential candidate John McCain -- despite serious misgivings.
"While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might," Dr. Dobson said in a Focus on the Family radio broadcast on Monday.
Dobson and his guest, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, spent most of the program examining Democratic candidate Barack Obama's liberal positions in the Senate.
"I find Barack Obama a very attractive candidate and I would want to vote for him," Mohler said. "But the closer I look at his positions, the more alarmed I become. ... We are looking at the most liberal candidate that we have ever seen in American history," he added.
"I think he is more liberal and extreme than most Democrats in the Senate," Dobson replied.
He said his decision to talk about national politics came at the urging of other respected evangelical leaders.
"I have been consulting with some of the most respected evangelical leaders on the scene today, and I respect these gentlemen highly, and they've all urged me to do what we're doing today -- to help our listeners who hold onto conservative Christian views to think through ... the critical issues and perhaps get a better understanding of what Senator Barack Obama and or Senator John McCain believe and where they'll take us in the next four or eight years," he said.
Dobson says that while neither candidate is consistent with his views, McCain's positions are closer by a wide margin.
"This has been the most difficult moral dilemma for me. It's why you haven't heard me say much about it because I have struggled on this issue. Neither of the candidates is consistent with my views in that regard, but Senator McCain is certainly closer to them than Senator Obama by a wide margin," he said.
"There's no doubt in my mind about whose policies will result in more babies being killed. Or who will do the most damage to the institute of marriage and the family. I am convinced that Senator McCain comes closer to what I believe," he said.
Dobson said he was not endorsing McCain today because the Senator hadn't even chosen a vice presidential candidate. He added that he wouldn't put it past McCain to chose a pro-choice running mate. That type of behavior is what has frustrated conservatives, he said.
Dobson and other evangelical leaders increasingly are taking a lesser-of-two-evils approach to the 2008 election.
"What's at stake in this election is unlike anything else we've seen in American history, in my view. The decision we are going to make in November hold enormous consequences for the future of our country," Dobson said.
Recent Poll Shows Christians Believe Religious Freedom is Crucial to Foreign Policy Issue
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07419.shtml
SANTA ANA, Calif., (christiansunite.com) -- More than half of Christians in America believe religious freedom should be a high priority in crafting U.S. foreign policy, according to a recent Wilson Research Strategies survey commissioned by Open Doors USA.
"The persecution of Christians in the world today is on the rise, with an estimated 100 million suffering some sort of repression and even death for their faith," said Carl Moeller, president and chief executive officer of Open Doors USA, a Christian ministry that has served persecuted Christians around the world for more than 50 years. "Open Doors commissioned this study to try to understand what Christians in America feel about religious freedom. Clearly, it is a priority."
Fifty-four percent of U.S. Christians polled consider religious freedom an important issue in making U.S. foreign policy, according to the survey. This is an especially high priority with those who attend church most frequently (60 percent), compared with those Christians who never attend (40 percent).
The study shows that 96 percent of respondents believe strongly that religious freedom is a basic human right, and that more than eight in 10 believe it is a very important basic right. Those who feel most strongly about the issue are women who frequently attend church. Ninety-one percent believe it is a very important issue.
Respondents did not believe that direct intervention should form our religious freedom foreign policy. Instead, they favored the U.S. using more indirect policies, such as economic sanctions (20 percent) and diplomatic measures to pressure persecuting regimes rather than having the U.S. directly intervene.
"The findings of this study demonstrate that senators McCain and Obama must address the issue of religious freedom in their foreign policy positions if they are intent on winning the vote of faithful Christians," said Moeller.
Geographically, the weakest support for religious freedom as a basic human right is in New England, with only 76 percent of respondents ranking it as very important, compared with Mountain States, where 9 out of 10 say it is very important.
Among Christian groups, the strongest support came from Baptists, non denominational/independent churches, Lutherans and charismatics. The weakest group support came from Catholics, Presbyterians and Episcopalians.
Of special interest is the finding that 98 percent of frequent listeners to Christian radio believe strongly that religious freedom is a basic human right.
Wilson Research Strategies was commissioned to conduct a research study of 1,000 Christian adults nationwide. A sample of 1,000 has a margin of error of ±3.1 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. The study was conducted by telephone May 27-29, 2008. This sampling represents 72 percent of the United States population, which is equal to roughly 150.5 million people who call themselves Christians. Christians in this study were defined as people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing that He died for their sins they have eternal life. All respondents were contacted via Random Digit Dialing methodology. The sample was stratified by key demographics, including age, gender and area in order to representatively measure the United States' Christian population at large.
An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to their website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.
Sharansky: ‘Big Concern’ About Obama; Warns Iran of ‘Inevitable’ Attack
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/Sharansky_iran_obama_/2008/07/23/115685.html
Jerusalem — An Israeli businessman I met described Natan Sharansky as having an “inner strength.” Indeed he has. We might say in America he is a man of a quiet charisma.
It’s Wednesday, the day after a crazed man went on a rampage using a bulldozer in a suicidal attempt to kill and maim innocent Israelis. In the end, 16 civilians were injured before the terrorist was shot dead.
All of this took place not far from Sharansky’s Jerusalem office at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, where he serves as its chairman. Sharansky appears calm and safe, even unshakable. But he sees real threats to the state of Israel.
“There must be a serious punishment,” Sharansky says of the suicidal terrorists. First, the Israeli government should demolish the homes of suicidal terrorists, a tactic he describes as a “deterrence” that is “one of the most effective ways of social pressure” to thwart future acts.
Sharansky quickly qualifies this remedy as a “micro-therapy.”
The attacks of radical Islamics do not come in a vacuum, Sharansky posits.
He says the backers of the fundamentalist ideology that foments terror, Wahabism from Saudi Arabia, as well as the military sponsors of Hezbollah and Hamas (he names the Iranians and Syrians), need to pay a price for their support.
“I think one of the biggest failures, of shortsightedness, of all American administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, is their attitude toward Saudi Arabia,” he says.
Sharansky’s comments carry great weight here and for policy-makers in the West. Though he resigned from the Knesset as a stalwart Likud backer in 2006, he has remained active in the political debate.
The real problem for his country, he says, slowly sipping a cup of tea as he sits behind his desk, is that the Arab world sees Israel as vulnerable.
“Our adversaries have a growing feeling that we are weak and they are strong. This has to be changed,” he says. To do so, he would punish, including with military retribution, states and networks that back terrorists.
Obama and Iran
As we talk, Barack Obama is here visiting Israel. Sharansky is dubious of the candidate.
“He is definitely a big concern for me,” he says.
Sharansky thinks Obama has “a little record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is McCain, and we know for sure his principles.”
Sharansky continues the train of thought: “It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some of his advisers think.
“I was at AIPAC. He made a very strong speech, speaking about a Jewish state, defensible borders, a united Jerusalem, then the next day he started correcting himself.”
Still, Sharansky feels having Obama as president is not as dangerous as having a weak Israeli government.
The threats, as the bulldozer incident showed, are constant, but none is more serious than the one Israel now faces from Iran.
“With any government of Israel, it becomes inevitable, if this [Iranian] regime becomes nuclear, that we will have to act because for us that is a question for the survival of our Jewish civilization,” he explains.
“If Iran will not change, Israel will have to act. I think it will be very tragic if Israel has to act alone.”
He is not sure that if Israel does attack Iran alone, it will solve the problem.
“The only chance it would be 100 percent successful is if the free world, and first of all the United States of America, will be supportive of Israel.”
Indeed, there is a consensus among Israeli elites — left and right — that a nuclear Iran is a direct threat to the existence of the Jewish state. The question now is whether Israel acts alone or in conjunction with the U.S. and other Western states.
The Larger Issue: Identity
The survival of the West depends on democracy, Sharansky argues. His best-selling book, “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror,” made his case and figured into President Bush’s second inaugural address.
Taking his lead from Sharansky, Bush declared in the speech, "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”
Bush also said during a February 2005 trip to Europe that Sharansky’s book “confirmed what I believe.”
But Sharansky believes democracy does not mean unlimited freedom overnight, especially for states that have no history of democratic institutions.
Instead, he argues for the gradual development of democratic institutions.
“First you must have the beginnings of a free society, have institutions that guarantee individuals some basic freedoms,” Sharansky says. “Elections are the end result of democracy, not necessarily the beginning of the process.”
And existing democracies, in Europe and the United States, not to mention Israel, face significant challenges. Sharansky tackles this subject in his newest book “Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy.”
The thesis of his book is that democratic society, if it has any hope for long-term survival, must offer an identity for its citizens.
Looking out at the world, he says “our enemies look so dangerous because they have a strong will.” This means they have beliefs they are ready to die for.
“The free world, if it does not have values for which people are ready to die, will be powerless, its people decadent. It will be doomed to failure.”
Identity, he says, gives people these values. It is not the enemy, as many in the West believe.
“Europe is suffering the most from a loss of identity. Faith and patriotism have weakened as it embraces a super-identity — all in an effort to avoid war.”
Europe has become John Lennon’s song “Imagine,” a world, Sharansky paraphrases, “where there is no hell and no paradise, no borders, no nations, in a world where there is nothing to die for.
“Less than two generations [after Lennon’s song], Europe is helpless and powerless against a small group of Islamic terrorists.
“It is the tragedy of Europe,” Sharansky declares, but he says of America, “in general, its society is still healthy.”
With such powerful ideas about the future of his nation and the West, is Sharansky ready for a political comeback?
He says yes, if there is a government that stands for something, has found its identity, he would consider it.
Obama vows to work for Mideast breakthrough
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5giFJHDWVc-7JEA1oBY0rEmZ-muqAD9238BA80
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to work for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office."
In a news conference before departing for Israel, he said any U.S. involvement in peace talks must recognize not only Israel's security concerns but also the economic hardships facing Palestinians.
He said he would continue to regard Israel as a valued ally. "That policy is not going to change," he said.
"What I think can change is the ability of the United States government and a United States president to be actively engaged with the peace process and to be concerned and recognize the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing right now."
Arriving in Jerusalem later Tuesday, Obama said he hoped his administration would strengthen the historic special relationship between the United States and Israel and, citing a Palestinian attack in downtown Jerusalem earlier in the day, pledged "to work diligently, urgently and in a unified way to defeat terrorism."
Obama, in the midst of a weeklong, high-visibility foreign trek, also acknowledged the long history of Middle East tensions that would confront him if he were to become president.
"It's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region," he said.
Obama was in Afghanistan and Iraq before arriving in Jordan on Tuesday for talks with King Abdullah II. After Israel, he is scheduled to travel to Europe.
Jordan's king told Obama that an evenhanded U.S. policy would bolster America's credibility in the Middle East and that achieving Palestinian statehood is essential for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a royal palace statement summarizing Abdullah's remarks during a closed-door meeting with the Illinois senator at Abdullah's private residence in Amman.
Obama condemned an attack in Jerusalem on Tuesday, where a Palestinian man rammed a construction vehicle into cars and a bus near the downtown hotel where Obama was scheduled to stay. An Israeli civilian shot and killed the driver. Several people were injured in the attack, which resembled a deadly vehicle assault in the city earlier this month.
"Today's bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long," Obama said.
Campaign aides said Obama intends to visit a southern Israeli town that is a frequent target of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The stop in Sderot is part of a crowded day of events on Wednesday in which the Illinois senator also has arranged to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on the West Bank and with Israeli leaders.
Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser, said Obama wanted to go to Sderot because it is a "place in which Israel's security is every day at risk and threatened. And Sen. Obama will have the opportunity to see that first hand and get a very personal feel for the everyday" difficulties. His schedule indicates he intends to spend slightly more than an hour there.
Obama's trip to Iraq and Afghanistan was an official congressional trip, paid for with federal funds. The balance of his travels are financed by his presidential campaign.
The Illinois Democrat is working to shore up support among U.S. Jewish voters, many of whom supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the battle for the party's presidential nomination, and some of whom have questioned his commitment to Israel.
Asked about stronger support among Israeli Jews for Republican candidate John McCain, Obama told CBS News that's because his rival is better known.
"People just don't know me as well," Obama said in the interview. "That's part of the reason why we're going to spend a day visiting there in discussions and hopefully give people confidence that I have a track record that will assure not only the people of Israel, but friends of Israel back home, that, in fact, Israel's security is paramount."
Obama's schedule for Wednesday also includes a visit to Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Aides said a stop at the Western Wall, one of the holiest places in Judaism, also was possible.
In addition to Abbas, Obama's meeting list for the day includes Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and members of his Cabinet as well as Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud party and a former prime minister.
At the news conference, Obama alluded to the internal domestic problems facing Olmert, who is accused of corruption, and the political schism among Palestinians.
"One of the difficulties that we have right now is that in order to make those compromises you have to have strong support from your people, and the Israeli government right now is unsettled," he said. "You know, the Palestinians are divided between Fatah and Hamas."
He compared the existing circumstances with those that permitted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to sign a peace treaty in 1979.
"Those leaders were in a much stronger position to initiate that kind of peace," Obama said.
CWA Applauds HHS for Upholding Healthcare Providers' Rights
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07416.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- According to The New York Times, the Bush administration plans to propose regulations to comply with federal laws to protect patients and healthcare professionals from being forced to provide controversial drugs and procedures such as abortion. The newspaper reports that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has drafted regulations "to ensure that federal money does not 'support morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law.'"
Recipients of federal health programs (such as hospitals and clinics) would have to certify that they will not refuse to hire healthcare providers who object to abortion or abortifacients (drugs or devices that can cause an early abortion). The regulation defines abortion as "any of the various procedures -- including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action -- that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."
"For over 35 years, federal laws have protected the conscientious rights of healthcare professionals, but they were not fully implemented for lack of thorough regulations to enforce them," stated Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). "As more controversial drugs and procedures get introduced, and additional pressure is put on healthcare providers to either compromise their moral commitments or lose their jobs, the need has become greater for regulations to catch up with the law."
"As patients, we rely on healthcare professionals to provide ethical advice and treatments. Patients will lose trust in the healthcare field if professionals are gagged from giving ethical and well-informed advice or forced to commit procedures or provide drugs that take an innocent life. If healthcare professionals are denied the right to live out their moral beliefs, patients will suffer the consequences."
Abortion proponents reportedly oppose the proposed regulations. "Clearly, abortion advocates do not believe in the 'right to choose' if the choice is not to participate in abortion or provide drugs that can take the life of a human being. The regulation applies to abortion, which is clearly defined as an action that terminates a human life before or after implantation. When abortion advocates claim this regulation would discourage providing 'contraception' it reveals that their definition of 'contraception' includes drugs that would cause abortion."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
NAACP Challenged to Condemn the Racism of Planned Parenthood
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07415.shtml
CINCINNATI, (christiansunite.com) -- The following statement was made by Day Gardner, President of the Washington, DC based National Black Pro-Life Union, at a press conference on Monday, July 14, at the Duke Convention Center, in Cincinnati:
Good Afternoon. As a child I thought the NAACP to be a superhero organization; an organization that would fight racism right down to its very core.
A superhero organization wearing a mighty breastplate forged in polished steel, the words freedom and liberty emblazoned where the hearts of all black Americans pounded in rhythm to the spiritual "we shall overcome." A superhero organization whose cape was the American flag, whose powerful voice rang in tones of equality for all-- planting his feet firmly on the Bible--standing on the word of GOD Almighty.
I remember a time while growing up in the 1960s, my chest swelled with pride whenever I heard that the NAACP had become involved in righting some horrible wrong in an effort to stamp out racism.
Today, I am standing here shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters in front of the Duke Convention Center where the NAACP is holding their 99th annual convention.
We are here to rally the NAACP--to make our voices heard as we shout in unison--all across this great nation that the struggle is not yet over! The evil hand of racism is still at work in this country and living in the bowels of Planned Parenthood.
After the Civil War, black men, women and children who were freed from the shackles of slavery were now breeding and migrating to cities and towns by the thousands. Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger was a slick racist. She initiated an evil plot to eliminate the Negro population called the Negro Project in 1939.
Planned Parenthood was founded in hate and racism and we know that still today. It has not strayed from its racist roots.
In the recent YouTube video* we hear the voices of the Planned Parenthood organization as employees gladly accept racist donations. We cringed when we heard the excitement of employees glad to accept donations specifically targeting "black children."
Planned Parenthood is a billion dollar baby killing machine that receives the bulk of its blood money from the vicious dismembering and killing of innocent children.
And one third of those billion dollars comes from you and me -- the tax payer. The question of the day is: Why are we forced to pay well over 300 MILLION dollars to an organization that is overtly racist and drenched in the blood of black folk?
We stand before you today with our eyes open to the truth. There are no scales on our eyes. We aren't Negroes anymore. We are not easily deceived as we were back in 1939. Our eyes are opened to the lies and the trickery of Planned Parenthood. Our eyes are opened to their racist agenda.
We are calling on the NAACP to stand boldly with us to defund Planned Parenthood, and in even lead the way in this, the greatest struggle for civil rights.
*YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LJVPVh5TWo
South Dakota Law Goes Into Effect: Women Must be Told They Are "Terminating the Life of a Whole Separate, Unique Living Human Being"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08072207.html
PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA, July 22, 2008, (LifeSiteNews.com) - This past Friday, a law mandating that South Dakota's physicians tell all women seeking an abortion that they are "terminating the life of a whole separate, unique living human being" went into effect.
Though the state law was passed in 2005, Planned Parenthood successfully challenged the legislation in the courts, causing a preliminary injunction to be established that prevented the law from being put into effect.
That injunction, however, expired on Friday, and now all physicians performing abortions at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls - the state's only acknowledged abortuary - must present the client with the specific language as it has been formulated by law. A woman must certify in writing that she understands no earlier than two hours before the procedure is conducted (Slevin, Washington Post, 7/20).
The law also mandates that a woman who seeks an abortion must be told that she is willingly putting herself at a higher risk of suicide and depression and that in choosing to end the life of her child she is terminating an 'existing relationship' that is protected by the US constitution and that her "existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated."
Another related law took effect on July 1, requiring doctors in South Dakota to ask a woman seeking an abortion if she wants to see a sonogram of her baby.
About 700 abortions are performed in South Dakota each year.
Although 32 states have informed consent regulations, South Dakota is the only state that includes the reference to an unborn baby as "a whole, separate, unique living human being."
Truth Revealed -- Massachusetts Abortionist Indicted for Manslaughter
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07426.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Yesterday, a grand jury in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, issued an indictment against abortionist Rapin Osathanondh in the death of Laura Smith.
Laura Hope Smith was just 22 years when she died during an abortion committed by Rapin Osathanondh last year. Her mother, Eileen Smith, sought to bring justice for her daughter and shed light on the details and circumstances surrounding her death.
A grand jury investigation revealed details suggesting the scope of Dr. Osathanondh's negligence. For example, a Sheriff's Deputy in a neighboring county supplied Dr. Osathanondh and his staff with CPR training but backdated the session to a date prior to Laura's death, knowing full well that someone had just died at the clinic.
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "Laura deserved better than how she was treated by this abortionist and others who helped to cover up his misdeeds. Abortionists are not above the law. We are grateful for officials who enforce the law against abortionists who harm women."
Tammy Mosher, State Director for CWA of Massachusetts, said, "This is an overwhelming breakthrough. This is a true testimony to what one woman, filled with God's grace, can do in a devastating situation. It is saddening that this success comes at the expense of Laura's life. I hope this will be a wake-up call to every woman and man to understand that a baby is not the only life lost in an abortion."
Eileen Smith, Laura Smith's mother, said, "I am ecstatic to hear such great news. Nothing will bring my daughter back but it is comforting to know that justice is being brought for her death. I hope this will make other abortionists take notice. I pray that I am an example to other mothers and that I will not stand alone in my crusade. Please join my voice."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization. You can their website at www.cwfa.org
Tiller Abortion Collaborators Exposed
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07421.shtml
WICHITA, Kansas, (christiansunite.com) -- Today Operation Rescue released the latest list of businesses that help abortionist George R. Tiller continue his questionably legal abortion business.
The project, called the Abortion Collaborators, was first launched in 2004 with a list of over 50 businesses that did work for Tiller's late-term abortion clinic, Women's Health Care Services. Since then 25 businesses - a full 50% - have stopped collaborating with Tiller. Today's list contains 30 business listings.
This announcement follows on the heals of the decision by two physicians and the Wichita Clinic to stop providing the second signature for Tiller's post-viability abortions after Operation Rescue reported that Burt Odenheimer and another physician had been secretly seeing Tiller patients. Within hours of Operation Rescue's announcement, the Wichita Clinic confirmed that the two physicians had volunteered to stop providing that service for Tiller effective immediately.
"This victory underscores the effectiveness of the Abortion Collaborators campaign," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Tiller's political cronies may be willing to prop up Tiller's business, but the community proved this week that it is not."
The purpose of the Abortion Collaborators project is to expose those with dealings with Tiller, so that people of conscience can avoid them and, more importantly, so that members of the community can contact them and ask them to stop participating in the promotion and enabling of abortion. Operation Rescue has re- published an updated booklet explaining the need for the Abortion Collaborators campaign.
"Some attempt to justify these dealings with abortionists as simply a business decision. 'One has a right to make a living,' they often say. However, history has clearly spoken on this matter. Throughout time and across the globe it has been considered morally reprehensible to collaborate with those who would callously destroy innocent lives, especially when that collaboration advances the cause of the oppressors," said OR spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. "Applying those long established social mores to abortion collaborators, it becomes very clear that one does not morally have the right to make a living off the backs of dead children. The profiteering from innocent bloodshed goes beyond compromise; it is an act of treason against God and man."
Operation Rescue encourages the public to review the list of Tiller Abortion Collaborators, and as they are led, contact them and ask them to stop doing business with Tiller.
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
40 Days for Life Prepares for Largest Pro-Life Mobilization in History
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07424.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- "Cities across America are applying to participate in the fall 2008 nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign - a focused initiative that promises to be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history," said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life. "Abortion claims more than 1.2 million innocent lives in the United States each year," he added, "and in 2008, the stakes for our nation are higher than ever. People of faith and conscience are approaching this challenge with a heightened sense of urgency."
40 Days for Life is a community-based campaign that features 40 days of prayer and fasting, round-the-clock peaceful vigil outside an abortion facility and grassroots educational outreach. Simultaneous campaigns will be conducted coast-to-coast - and internationally - as part of a unified outreach from September 24 through November 2. Local pro-life leaders are now applying to host 40 Days for Life campaigns in their cities this fall ( www.40daysforlife.com/apply.cfm). The application period continues until July 29.
"The rapid expansion of this effort has exceeded our wildest expectations," said Bereit. "As shown on the map on the 40 Days for Life web site ( www.40daysforlife.com/location.cfm), more than 300 cities across America, and in four other countries, have already stepped forward and expressed interest in the fall campaign. People are eager to get started."
This fall's effort will mark the third nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign. In previous efforts in 139 cities across 43 states, 150,000 people have responded to the call for prayer and fasting. Over 35,000 have prayed outside abortion facilities and Planned Parenthood centers. More than 500 unborn children have been confirmed saved from abortion. Abortion workers have quit their jobs and left the industry, and two abortion facilities that were the sites of 40 Days for Life prayer vigils - in Dallas, Texas, and Rockland County, New York - have gone out of business.
Said Bereit, "This clearly demonstrates the importance of maintaining a regular, prayerful presence outside abortion facilities where the lives of the unborn are at risk. The call to participate in 40 Days for Life is a call to sacrifice. It's a call that people of faith are taking very seriously. We can't wait to see what is in store for America this fall!"
Internet Evangelist Vows to Lead Nation Back to God and Biblical Values
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07425.shtml
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., (christiansunite.com) -- The world's leading Internet evangelist, Bill Keller - founder of Liveprayer.com and the host of the Liveprayer TV program - has launched the Jonah Project to call the United States to repent, or face the judgment of God. In much the same way as the word delivered by the prophet Jonah 2900 years ago to the ancient city of Nineveh, Keller claims the Lord has called him to warn the nation to turn back to God and Biblical values, or experience His judgment for our sins and wickedness.
Keller - who officially launched the Jonah Project on Monday, July 7th - says a key component of the project will be taking his successful television program to the nation, live, on a major secular network for an hour every Monday through Friday. In addition, a new radio program will be heard live for two hours each weekday on secular stations across the nation. The launch date for the nationwide TV and radio programs is Monday, October 6, 2008. The networks and stations carrying the Liveprayer program will be announced at a special press conference on Monday, September 8, 2008.
In addition to the 2.4 million opt-in subscribers who read the Daily Devotional Keller has written 365 days a year since Liveprayer began in August of 1999, Keller has been a maverick on secular television these past six years. His program - a highly rated, unique, live call-in format that deals from a Biblical worldview with world issues as well as those in people's lives - has aired exclusively on major secular network affiliates in Florida, and for a brief time nationally in 2006. This breaks the typical preaching/teaching program mold established by other ministries of producing primarily for the Christian television market.
Keller sees the Jonah Project as much more than just a call to this nation to repent or face the judgment of God. He believes the Jonah Project is going to be a format for millions of true followers of Christ to come together, and have a true voice in the mainstream media, while mobilizing action to attend to the social ills of our day.
"It is a relatively few number of people who have made the sin of homosexuality mainstream, legalized the killing of babies, removed God from the public forum, and been responsible for the proliferation of pornography and gambling," laments Keller. "Through the Jonah Project - for the first time in a meaningful way - we are going to mobilize millions of true followers of Jesus Christ, and witness many of these social ills that plague our nation wiped out!"
"In the past, attempts to mobilize Christians has been for political, not spiritual, purposes," adds Keller. "We aren't bringing Christians together to elect people we agree with to office, but rather to have our voice heard and our views represented in the culture, and to exercise our beliefs just as those who oppose Biblical values have exercised their beliefs on our society."
Keller sees a byproduct of the Jonah Product not only being a move back to God and Biblical values in this nation, but in other nations around the world. He hopes to unleash a spiritual revival that will bring millions of people around the globe to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
For details, visit the Jonah Project website at www.liveprayer.com/jonah.
Bin Laden Planning Hiroshima-Type Destruction?
http://www.newsmax.com/weyrich/Bin_Laden_Plans_Hiroshima/2008/07/17/113694.html
Does Osama bin Laden possess nuclear weapons? Has he smuggled these weapons into the United States? Does he have a plan to detonate these weapons in multiple American cities if Israel attacks Iran's nuclear facilities? Dr. Hugh Cort, president of the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Policy and Research, believes the answer to all of these questions is yes.
Cort has assembled a body of evidence which he claims supports the view that bin Laden has a plan for an "American Hiroshima" which will be implemented in the near future. He has sent this material to various U.S. officials, including Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Cort believes that the government is not doing enough to prevent an attack.
Much of his evidence centers around one Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist who has conducted the only interview of bin Laden after 9/11. Bin Laden told Mir that he had acquired 20 suitcase nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union. Mir told Cort that bin Laden's men have smuggled these bombs into the United States.
His men supposedly are waiting for bin Laden to give them the signal, then seven to ten American cities will be struck. If true it is little wonder that Iran's leader confidently predicts that the United States will be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Bin Laden supposedly has fulfilled Islamic law by warning the United States that an attack is coming and offering a truce — convert to Islam and you will not be attacked. Refusal to convert to Islam means that an attack against America is justified. Three weeks prior to 9/11 bin Laden warned that the United States would be attacked in an unprecedented way for its support of Israel.
Already bin Laden has called for all Muslims in the United States to leave. Instead of a mass exodus of Muslims from this country, new mosques are opening every few weeks. Muslim schools also are being established, which suggests that families plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. But Yossef Bodansky, director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism from 1988 to 1998, has testified that bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons.
He told Congress that "Osama has recruited former Soviet Special Forces (SPETSNAZ) soldiers to teach al-Qaida how to maintain and operate the bombs."
Mir, by the way, has suggested that most of the nuclear weapons have been smuggled across the border from Mexico. Opponents of illegal immigration long have argued that they want the border monitored and closed for national security purposes.
Proponents of illegal immigration have maintained that opposition to it is "racist." Clearly, opponents of illegal immigration have the better case; although if Mir is correct, the door may have been open too long.
Ronald Kessler, chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, interviewed Mueller, who said that he is very concerned about bin Laden having nuclear weapons in the United States, so concerned that the FBI has surrounded mosques in 10 American cities with nuclear radiation detectors. Cort quotes Steve Coll, president of New America Foundation, as stating that these detectors cannot sense enriched uranium when it is shielded in lead. If Islamists have such bombs, no doubt they are wrapped in lead.
Cort says that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff does not have a plan in the event that these bombs are detonated. In such a scenario real deaths will come from radiation. If people know how to avoid radiation prior to an attack, there may be many survivors.
If people can devise a radiation-proof shelter in their own homes to survive a detonation, two days later radiation is one, one-hundredth the strength of the initial blast. If people can spend three days in the shelter and then only make brief trips outside once a day, they can defeat radiation. But what credible source has warned people of the potential threat and how they can meet it?
Is all of this just alarmist talk? Has Cort missed something important which would nullify his answers? I have no idea.
It seems more than reasonable that we proceed as if it is true. If it proves to be a false alarm, what have we lost? But if Cort's research has merit and we are prepared to handle such a situation, we could minimize its terrible impact.
When I asked some U.S. officials why no one in the government is warning people, I was told "we don't want to unduly alarm people." Nonsense.
I have great faith that the American people will do the right thing if properly informed. We did in the mid-1950s when told that the Soviet Union could start a nuclear war. We can do so again, but someone with credibility must tell Americans the truth.
Star Wars-style laser technology to reach battlefield
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/frontline/2301164/Star-Wars-style-laser-technology-to-reach-battlefield.html
Star Wars-style technology is about to take to the battlefield for the first time with the launch of a laser system to shoot down enemy missiles and mortars.
Laser beam technology is being rushed into service to combat the threat of insurgent missiles and mortars raining down on British and American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After decades of delay and billions of pounds spent, it will be simple commercial lasers rather than the hugely expensive US Department of Defence technology that could be used to save hundreds of troops' lives.
In just 18 months the American defence firm Raytheon has turned a laser used in the car manufacturing industry into a weapon that can hit incoming rounds at the speed of light, melting the outer casing and detonating the explosive inside.
A laser has already been used in a test to destroy a 60mm mortar round and in September the company plans its first "shoot down" of a shell in flight in a test to be conducted with the US military. If successful it could be used on battlefields as early as next year.
The Ministry of Defence is also already in discussions with the company for the new weapon that will be mounted alongside the current Phalanx Gatling gun system that uses thousands of 20mm bullets to shoot down missiles physically.
During one attack when The Daily Telegraph was present at Basra airbase in February two out of four 107mm rockets hurtling towards the accommodation area were shot down. But one of the two that penetrated the defences landed on a shower block killing a RAF serviceman.
With the new laser technology it is hoped that all bombs fired at the base will be shot down before they get a chance to inflict damage.
"This is a huge enhancement of Phalanx. It will have accuracy to shoot down these targets," said Raytheon's chief of directed energy weapons, Mike Booen, speaking at the Farnborough Air Show.
"When you trade photons for bullets you have an unlimited magazine you can shot forever as long as you have electricity,"
Protecting commercial aircraft from the threat of terrorist missiles has also become a major concern for airlines and airports.
It will cost an estimated $30 billion (£15 billion) to install effective defensive devices on board all America passenger jets if one was shot down.
Terrorists have already fired SAMs at an Israeli jetliner in Kenya in 2002 and a freight jet in 2003 outside Baghdad.
The Vigilant Eagle system will create a "dome of protection" around a major airport protecting all aircraft at the most vulnerable phases of take-off and landing.
It shoots electromagnetic energy that disrupts the missile's circuit boards diverting it away form the aircraft.
"This is not just restricted to US airspace because any terrorist with a shoulder-launched missile can use them," said Mike Booen. "If a commercial aircraft got shot at tomorrow we would have an order for 10 of these immediately."
Energy beams have also been developed that can fire a laser with pinpoint accuracy to drive away potential suicide bombers, rioters or hostage takers.
The Silent Guardian system fires millimetre wave beam at individuals that cause an excruciating burning sensation without causing any damage.
The beam travels at the speed of light, penetrating the skin and causing an intolerable burning sensation causing suspects to flee.
With dozens of helicopters being destroyed by Taliban and Iraqi insurgent missiles, technology advances have seen a device that has been shrunk from the size of a football to a tennis ball that will fire lasers to confuse infra-red guidance inside a missile.
Dinars for Dollars: Arabs Buying Out Collapsing Western Banks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126866
First it was Citibank. Now it's Barclay's and New York City's Chrysler Building skyscraper. Muslim Arabs are buying out collapsing Western banks and businesses and gaining growing international power, but some Arab investors are worried their investments may go down the drain with the American economy.
The current financial crisis in the United States has spread to other countries because of a massive debt that was not backed by enough real and liquid collateral. Banks and businesses gasping for financial breath are up for sale at basement prices, but no one is certain if the basement is the bottom.
"The possibility remains that more Arab white knights will be sought to rescue ailing financial institutions," wrote Dr. Mohammed Ramady, a former banker and Visiting Associate Professor at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in the Financial Adviser magazine. He said he fears that Arab investors will end up chasing their investments with more money to keep them from going under.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Council of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates kingdom of Abu Dhabi last November announced it was bailing out the mammoth Citibank financial institution, formerly headed by Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer, with $7.5 billion.
Next in line was Britain's Barclay's Bank, which raised $9 billion from investors in the oil-rich kingdom of Qatar and in Asian countries. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council last month forked out approximately $800 million for a 75 percent stake in New York City's 1,046-foot-tall Chrysler Building, which was the world's tallest building for a year until the Empire State Building surpassed it in the 1930's.
The purchase of American banks by foreigners has been blocked in the past by security and political considerations, but the barriers have come down, wrote Dr. Ramady. "How long this lasts is only a matter of guesswork, as once again, the specter of foreign takeovers of 'national' symbols will be hard to accept," he added.
The latest American symbol to go down the drain is the Anheuser-Busch beer brewer. The Times of London wrote, "The weak dollar and weak economy mean the United States is up for sale. Japs are conquering the car industry. Arabs just bought part of the Chrysler Building. Jeez, they even tried to buy the ports a while back. Whatever next? A hijab on the Statue of Liberty?"
In a more serious vein, The Australian editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote earlier this month that the foreign investments, headed by Arabs, signal a major change in international power.
"The energy, financial and political woes that grip the U.S. signal a decisive shift in world power, mocking the liberal delusion that Barack Obama or John McCain can return American prestige and power to its pre-Bush year 2000 nirvana," he wrote. "There is no such nirvana. There is instead a new reality: the greatest transfer of income in human history and the rise of a new breed of wealthy autocracies that cripple U.S. hopes of dominating the global system and demands on the U.S. to make fresh compromises in a world where power is rapidly being diversified."
Flynt Leverett, former director of Middle East Affairs on the National Security Council, thinks that "the international economic position of the United States has deteriorated substantially since the new millennium."
In the current issue of The American Interest, Gal Luft, from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, warned that OPEC's Arab countries could potentially "buy the Bank of America with two months' worth of production and General Motors with six days' worth."
The growing Arab takeover of American businesses continues unhindered. The giant Dow Chemical company and a Kuwaiti company have agreed to set up world headquarters for their joint petrochemical venture in Dearborn, Michigan, which has a high concentration of American Arabs.
The Abu Dubai Investment Council years ago entered the international media business, buying a nine percent stake in Reuters News Agency, which usually reports with an open anti-Israeli bias.
However, Abu Dhabi's' director of international affairs, Yousef al Otaiba, has reassured American officials that its purchase of Citibank will not be used to exert political pressure on the U.S. He wrote the Treasury Department, "It is important to be absolutely clear that the Abu Dhabi government has never and will never use its investment organizations or individual investments as a foreign policy tool."
Will America turn to socialism as free markets fail?
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-losingfaith16-2008jul16,0,187594.story
For a generation, most people accepted the idea that the core of what makes America tick was an economy governed by free markets. And whatever combination of goods, services and jobs the market cooked up was presumed to be fine for the nation and for its citizens -- certainly better than government meddling.
No longer.
Spurred by the continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the current market system is the key to a fair, stable and efficient society.
"We're at a hinge point," said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who helped craft President Clinton's market-friendly agenda during the 1990s. "The strong presumption in favor of markets, which has dominated public policy since the late 1970s, has been thrown very much into question."
Now, to a degree not seen in years, politicians and outside experts are looking with favor at more, not less, government involvement in the economy.
Of course, Americans always grouse during troubled times. And as market advocates are quick to point out, the current run of bad economic breaks has yet to result in the throwing over of free-market principles in favor of some drastically different approach -- such as a government-directed economy.
"There may be a backlash against markets at the moment," acknowledged Kevin A. Hassett, economic studies director at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and an advisor to presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain. "But the backlash doesn't seem to be informed by any alternative view of how the world works."
Yet the sheer volume of setbacks that people have been dealt has sent consumer confidence to some of its lowest levels in half a century, according to Reuters/University of Michigan surveys. A remarkable 84% of Americans are convinced that the nation is on the "wrong track," according to a recent Gallup poll.
In just the last week, the financial markets have provided ample new evidence that markets are not working smoothly.
Washington had to ride to the rescue of two government-chartered mortgage giants -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which hold or guarantee nearly half of the nation's $12 trillion in mortgage debt -- after investors all but extinguished the pair's market value amid fears that falling home prices would push them into insolvency.
Meanwhile, federal regulators seized IndyMac Bancorp, a $32-billion mortgage lender based in Pasadena, in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. And the already battered stock market took another sharp dip.
The fact that experts keep pushing back the date when conditions may improve and the failure thus far of any national leader -- including either of the major-party presidential candidates -- to offer a convincing vision of how America will make its way back to sustained prosperity suggest that the current crisis will probably be very different from other recent economic bad patches.
So may Americans' reaction to it.
Even the Bush administration, which took office arguing that the Social Security crisis could be solved, in part, by tying some of retirees' future benefits to Wall Street, has begun advocating more government regulation of financial markets. When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are government-chartered but investor-owned, began to teeter last week, the administration quietly went to work on possible government action.
"If the pendulum swung away from government toward much greater confidence in markets during the last generation, the pendulum is clearly swinging back again now," said Daniel Yergin, whose 1998 book with coauthor Joseph Stanislaw, "The Commanding Heights," chronicled the worldwide spread of the free-market credo.
"Everything is weighing in at the same time, and that affects how people view markets and government," Yergin said.
"Nobody in this country really believes in unfettered free markets, and nobody really believes in socialism," said UC Davis historian Eric Rauchway, but economic crises of the past have produced constituencies favoring the reining in of markets and regulation of the economy -- constituencies that ultimately grew large enough to produce change.
Consider just a few of the things that are pushing people in that direction now:
The price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has nearly doubled in the last year, while that for a barrel of crude oil has more than doubled, cutting short Americans' love affair with gas-guzzlers and driving the nation's trucking, auto and airline industries into deep trouble.
Most mainstream economists assert that these increases are simply the logical outcome of booming global demand meeting limited global supply.
But the price run-ups seem out of whack with demand, which has increased only about 1% worldwide. The mismatch has fueled suspicion among many Americans and their political leaders that the third financial bubble of the decade -- after tech stocks and housing -- is underway, this time in energy.
Both presidential candidates have fingered market speculators, rather than the forces of supply and demand, for helping drive up prices.
At a recent hearing, Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) cornered the federal official whose agency regulates the market where oil futures are traded. "How is it that the market isn't working to the benefit of the consuming public?" the lawmaker demanded.
The agency has launched a number of studies to discover whether speculators are behind the price increases, the official answered.
"Don't tell me you're doing studies!" Dingell shot back. "You've spent more than a year sitting idly by" while oil prices jumped.
At least half a dozen measures have been introduced in Congress to limit speculation or to tax oil company profits.
Similar anger -- and similar legislative efforts to intervene in the marketplace -- can be seen in housing.
While Americans have been accustomed to some fluctuation in the value of their homes, most expected their houses to rise in value over time. And for much of the last several decades, that's what happened.
But starting in mid-2004, the upward arc of house prices began to flatten, and by 2007 it was falling -- sharply. Prices, especially along the West and East coasts, have skidded as much as 16% during the last year alone, their steepest decline in two decades. Many analysts predict further slippage.
In large part, the rise in house prices and the recent plunge grew out of an almost unregulated corner of the mortgage market -- the one for riskier loans.
As with fuel, "the message that Americans are getting is that something went wrong with the markets and you got hurt," said economist Robert E. Litan of the Brookings Institution and the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.
"With energy, it's the speculators. With housing, it's predatory lenders or crummy credit-rating agencies or stupid banks. We're not ready to throw out markets altogether," he said, "but we want government to do something about the excess."
A similar pattern of hopes raised and hopes dashed shows up in global trade and retirement investing.
Americans entered the new century convinced that "we had a new economy built on services and information technology that would let us win globally," said Harvard economist Robert Z. Lawrence.
"The whole premise of globalization in the year 2000 was that it worked well for us and the other developed countries but that the developing countries would need help," Lawrence said.
Today, virtually all those optimistic assumptions have been turned on their heads.
"We've seen unprecedented growth in the developing countries, while the developed countries are being led into a slowdown by the United States," Lawrence said.
"We've found out that instead of services and information technology, it's all about oil and other commodities" that are not the nation's strong suit.
Finally, when it comes to investment, especially for retirement, recent years have brought unsettling disappointments as the stock market has failed to regain and maintain the peaks that it reached in 2000.
An investor who put a dollar in a broad market index fund early in this decade not only would have made no money by today but would have lost a little of his initial amount.
That's a far cry from the 1990s, when people told pollsters that they expected to make 15% annual gains indefinitely.
Historians watching the nation's current economic and financial troubles say that just because Americans don't throw up their hands about markets and rush to an opposite pole, such as socialism, it doesn't mean that change isn't underway.
As UC Davis' Rauchway pointed out, the devastating panics and depressions of the late 19th century eventually resulted in the progressive reforms of the early 20th century and, later, the New Deal of the 1930s.
Today, Americans are not ready to throw out markets altogether, said economist Litan, but "what people may be demanding is New Deal lite."
Why are Evangelical Protestants the least likely to have seen a UFO?
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/34758
Most Americans say it is very likely or somewhat likely that humans are not alone in the universe and that intelligent life exists on other planets.
Only a third of adults, however, believe it's either very likely or somewhat likely that intelligent aliens from space have visited our planet, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.
The poll revealed that one in every 12 Americans has seen a mysterious object in the sky that might have been a visitor from another world, while nearly one in every five personally knows someone who has seen an unidentified flying object.
America's fascination with UFO sightings has been robust, dating at least back to 1947 with the discovery of unusual objects near Roswell, N.M., that many claimed were the remnants of an extraterrestrial craft that crashed.
Among the ranks who have seen something strange in the sky are former President Jimmy Carter, the late Beatle John Lennon and the late comedian Jackie Gleason.
One of the largest mass sightings on record -- the so-called "Phoenix Lights" that hovered for several hours over two or three Southwestern states on March 13, 1997 -- was even seen by then-Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. The governor at first made jokes about the incident, but later apologized for making light of something that thousands of people saw.
"The universe is a big place," Symington told reporters last year. "We're conceited to think we're alone."
At least one of the participants in the poll saw the strange, slowly floating lights over Phoenix.
"Maybe it was a military thing; I don't know," said Fran Chodacki, 62, of Page, Ariz. "Everything is mysterious in this world. It's a possibility."
She is among the 56 percent of adults in the poll who believe it is very likely or somewhat likely that intelligent life exists on other worlds. The survey found that 35 percent said extraterrestrials are unlikely and 9 percent are uncertain.
Men, young adults and college-educated Americans are more likely than most to believe that humans are not alone in the universe.
The survey found some patterns in the kinds of people who have reported having seen UFOs.
Men are almost twice as likely to have seen something peculiar in the sky than are women. Older Americans are much more likely than younger people to have seen something, as are residents of rural areas or suburbs rather than those living in major cities. People living in Western states are three times more likely to have seen a UFO than are residents of the Northeast, Midwest or South.
UFO experts agree that these trends all make sense. Men are more likely than women to be outdoors on a dark night. Older Americans have had more opportunities simply by virtue of a longer life to see something unusual in the sky.
It is also logical, they say, for people in Western states to have seen more UFOs than people in other regions. Most of the nation's largest and most expensive observatories are located in the West, which provides optimal views of the sky.
"These people have had more opportunities than others to see things in a darkened sky. That makes sense," said Mark Rodeghier, director of the Chicago-based J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.
Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Wash., agreed.
"Of course, we get lots of reports from major cities," Davenport said. "But it could be that people in rural areas have a better view of the sky. People in cities are blinded by all of the bright lights."
But the experts were quite surprised by other trends found among the UFO witnesses.
People who have attended church recently and who identify themselves as born-again Evangelical Protestants are much less likely to have seen UFOs or to believe in the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence than people with little or no involvement with organized religion.
People with strong political and ideological convictions -- self-identified "strong Republicans" and "very conservative" people as well as "strong Democrats" and "very liberal" persons -- are much less likely to report having seen a UFO than are politically moderate persons.
"There are just so many variables when addressing this issue," said Davenport. "But the religious trend is very, very interesting. Maybe you are more open to having seen things outside your experience if you don't have very tightly held religious beliefs."
But why are people with strong political beliefs less likely to see UFOs?
"They are more attuned to the establishment," said Rodeghier. "People who are in the establishment are more likely to have distain for the whole UFO issue. That's something those of us in the field of UFO study have seen over and over again. But people who are independent are more open to the issue."
'Chipping' of Humans No Longer the Stuff of Novels
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/_chipping__of_humans_143_.html
Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs) are finding their way into and onto humans in many ways. There are several ways government and commercial entities are looking to profit through impressive ID and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies. Verichip Corp. successfully marketed "Hugs" Infant Protection System to hospitals in 2005. Since then, infants at many major hospitals receive ankle bracelets something like what many people on probation are currently required to use.
The ankle bracelets were marketed as a remedy for hospital infant abduction. When a child is removed from the infant care area of the hospital, an alarm sounds. About 230 infants are abducted every year from U.S. hospitals. The Hugs system saved one child in 2005. This may be a good idea, but it lays the groundwork for later RFID tagging on children and elderly for "safety reasons." Some unverified Internet sources report that U.S. and European governments have plans to implant RFIDs in every newborn instead of using ankle bracelets.
A Rhode Island school plans to electronically track the movements of students using Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID). Microchips will be attached to the students' backpacks next year. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties groups say the RFID chips are an invasion of privacy. "Encouraging the placement of RFIDs on young children, even in this limited and questionable context, can only have the unintended effect of acclimating them to being monitored by the government in other contexts and wherever they go, as if it were perfectly normal and appropriate," the ACLU said.
The RFID chips will be accessed via satellites through tiny GPS systems within the chips. The school will be able to follow the children anywhere. It is likely, though, that young people will just choose to leave their backpacks at school when they do not want to be followed. School officials may then contend for further invasion of privacy, and require RFIDs to be worn on clothing, or possibly injected.
In 2007, about 200 Alzheimer's patients were implanted with non-GPS RFIDs in a market test done by Verichip. The devices held medical information that could be scanned with a special reader. Many more Alzheimer's patients and people suffering with dementia have been implanted since the 2007 pilot program. Soon after the market testing by Verichip, sample RFIDs were handed out at the Alzheimer's Community Care 2007 Educational Conference. In a 2007 Fox News report Verichip offered free RFID tagging for any interested party that wanted to tag an elderly parent.
Currently Verichip is reported to charge about $200 for the implant. The United Kingdom has concrete plans to implant RFID chips into prison populations. Other nations have been reported to use RFIDs on prisoners, including Sweden and several South American nations. The initial plans are to inject prisoners with RFIDs that can be read by a scanner, with limited access and limited amounts of information. UK Officials said they will soon implant chips with GPS capabilities to monitor a prisoner's location at any given time.
IBM recently applied for a patent regarding a system that would not only place RFIDs on all clothing items, but also track those items of clothing on a global scale. The patent implies that all clothing sold would have "globally unique" RFID tags in them in the future. The information would primarily be used for marketing purposes, but the government could also use such technology. "The exact identity of the person or certain characteristics about the person can be determined [through the use of this technology]," the patent said. "This information is used to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas . . . tracking information can be used to provide targeted advertising and to improve existing store systems and tracking systems."
The RFID information could easily be used with credit card information for identification. The power and scope of the proposed database would certainly have civil rights implications. Goodyear began using RFIDs in tires in 2003, and all other major tire manufacturers have tested, or are using, RFIDs in tires to prevent tire counterfeiting, reports RFID Update, an industry RFID website. The RFIDs could easily be used to track tires anywhere in the country by private or government interests. Plans are underway for a global tire recognition program, all in the name of stopping tire counterfeiting.
Hitachi created an RFID chip that is smaller than a grain of sand. The .002-inch-by-.002-inch chip can be imbedded in paper, and could be used to track just about anything. The chips do not have GPS capability, but can store a 38-digit number that can be read by a hand held scanner. This chip is 60 times smaller than the first generation Hitachi micro-RFID. The former smallest of the small, the Mu-chip, measures in at .4 millimeters by .4 millimeters and could fit on the tip of a pencil. The Mu-chip is already used to track and identify items and prevent forgery of concert tickets.
"Invisible tracking brings to mind science-fiction- inspired uses, or even abuses, such as unknowingly getting sprinkled with smart-tag powder for Big Brother-like monitoring," Associated Press said. The prediction that microchips will be able to interface with nerves and implanted in the brain in the next 30 years was recently put forth by a UK government think tank. The microchips predicted would be able to give sensory input, allow a sort of mind-to-mind communication (like an implanted cell phone) and allow direct to the brain marketing. This Orwellian prediction opens the door for direct mind control in true 1984 fashion.
Printer dots raise privacy concerns
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2008-07-13-printer_N.htm
The affordability and growing popularity of color laser printers is raising concerns among civil liberties advocates that your privacy may not be worth the paper you're printing on.
More manufacturers are outfitting greater numbers of laser printers with technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page to identify the printer's serial number — and ultimately, you, says the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the leading watchdogs of electronic privacy.
The technology has been around for years, but the declining price of laser printers and the increasing number of models with this feature is causing renewed concerns.
The dots, invisible to the naked eye, can be seen using a blue LED light and are used by authorities such as the Secret Service to investigate counterfeit bills made with laser printers, says Lorelei Pagano, director of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group.
Privacy advocates worry that the little-known technology could ensnare political dissidents, whistle-blowers or anyone who prints materials that authorities want to track.
"There's nothing about this technology that limits its application to counterfeit investigations," says Seth Schoen, a computer programmer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Some people who aren't doing anything wrong may have their privacy threatened." Schoen's tests have found the dots produced by 111 color laser printers made by 13 companies including Xerox, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Brother.
The dots are produced only on laser devices and not ink-jet printers, which are most commonly used at home. But laser printers, which produce more durable images, are becoming increasingly popular as their price has dropped to as low as $300, says Angele Boyd, a vice president of IDC Research.
Although laser printers made up only 4% of the 33 million printers sold last year in the USA, their sales have been growing by double digits since 2004, Boyd says.
The technology began as laser printers were first produced in the mid-1980s and governments and banks feared an explosion of counterfeiting, Xerox spokesman Bill McKee says. "In many cases, it is a requirement to do business internationally that the printers are equipped with this technology," McKee says.
The dots tell authorities the serial number of a printer that made a document. In some cases, it also tells the time and date it was printed, Pagano says. "The Secret Service is the only U.S. body that has the ability to decode the information," she says.
Printer makers "cooperate with law enforcement" and will tell authorities where a printer was made and sold, McKee says.
The Secret Service uses the dots only to investigate counterfeiting, agency spokesman Ed Donovan says.
Survey: Only 3 in 5 Christian Radio Listeners Tune In for Music
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080715/survey-only-3-in-5-christian-radio-listeners-tune-in-for-music.htm
More believers are tuning in to Christian radio for reasons other than music than some might think, according to a new survey.
While the most popular reason for tuning in to Christian radio was to listen to Christian music (56 percent), 40 percent of Christians say they tune in to listen to sermons and teaching, the Wilson Research Strategies survey found.
"There is a much higher demand for teaching programs than what the conventional wisdom might expect," commented Rick Dunham, president and CEO of Dunham+Company, which commissioned the survey.
Furthermore, those who are primarily driven to listen to Christian music are predominantly women aged 18-44 and are more likely to attend church less frequently, while those who tune in to Christian radio to listen to teaching/sermons tend to be older men and women and attend church more frequently.
Across the nation, an estimated 46 percent of Christian adults – representing more than 69 million people – tune in to Christian radio compared to the 91 percent of Christian adults who tune in to general radio.
According to the latest survey, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of those who listen to Christian radio do so at least several times per week, with nearly one-third (29 percent) saying they tune in every day. That represents approximately 20 million people who listen to Christian radio each day.
Regarding the findings on those who tune into Christian radio for teaching/sermons, Dunham said it is "good news for Christian programmers."
"This is … an important challenge to Christian radio station owners to understand the importance of the teaching program to Christian adults across America," he added.
Other notable findings from the survey include the demographics of those who tune into Christian programming. Listeners were found to be predominantly women 45-54 years of age, frequent churchgoers, Pentecostal/Charismatic, residents of the South, politically conservative, and self-described activists.
Also, nearly 1 in 4 (23 percent) of those who say they don't listen to Christian programming say they are not interested in listening to Christian content, and 1 in 5 (20 percent) say they prefer other content such as news and sports. Eleven percent say they prefer to get their Christian content elsewhere.
The sample surveyed for the Wilson Research Strategies' study represents 72 percent of U.S. adult population – which is equal to roughly 150.5 million people – who call themselves Christians. Christians in this study were defined as people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing He died for their sins have eternal life.
Christian Retail Stores Shelve Old Ideas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802186.html?hpid=sec-religion
At Skia, a new Christian bookstore in Bentonville, Ark., there are comfortable chairs, racks of apparel, a coffee and smoothie bar, and a full corner of the store dedicated to building, of all things, skateboards.
"It takes a little while to put together a skateboard, maybe 15 minutes or so," said Skia's co-owner, Bill Beyer. "It gives us an opportunity to talk with the kids and really develop relationships with the kids while we're doing that."
Meeting customers where they are has become the mantra of the Christian retail industry as its stores face stiff competition from big-box chains and online retailers. With more stores closing than opening each year, industry layoffs and a key publisher staying away from this week's annual International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, retailers and publishers say innovation is key to thriving.
In a survival-of-the-fittest atmosphere, stores, publishers and other Christian companies are cutting back and offering new products to appeal to shoppers.
"Christian stores used to be destination stores because . . . they had the dominant selection of product in the marketplace," said Bill Anderson, president and chief executive of CBA, which hosts the annual show.
"And we are teaching them they still must have that, but that alone is not enough. . . . To be a destination store, they have to offer that customer a total shopping experience that is rich and rewarding in and of itself."
The CBA itself is facing changes, with the decision by Thomas Nelson, the country's largest Christian publisher, not to attend the annual CBA expo. Instead, Thomas Nelson held an all-expenses-paid event for its key retailers in April at its headquarters in Nashville.
Last April, Thomas Nelson cut about 10 percent of its staff, after previously deciding to halve the number of new titles this year.
"You don't talk to any retailers that are saying what we need is more books," said Michael Hyatt, president and chief executive of Thomas Nelson, which sells about 35 percent of its products through Christian retailers. "What they're all saying is, 'We need better books.' "
Zondervan, another big Christian publisher, owned by HarperCollins, cut five executive positions and a dozen others as a part of an organization streamlining in May.
At the Orlando show, it introduced Symtio, a digital merchandising system that it hopes will counter competition from online and secular booksellers. Starting this fall, in-store customers can buy a gift card for the book they want and download it at home. They can read it on a computer or a handheld device or listen to an audio book on an MP3 player.
Publishers of Christian greeting cards are also in a transition. DaySpring Cards said last month that it will cut 80 jobs at its headquarters in Siloam Springs, Ark.
But despite all the changes in companies selling and manufacturing products for Christian consumers, religious books continue to do well overall.
The Book Industry Study Group, a publishing trade association, reported in May that sales of religious books had an increase in net revenue of 6.3 percent last year -- a higher figure than the net revenue gain for all publishers of 4.4 percent over 2006.
Lynn Garrett, former senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly, said Christian retailers that have survived the closings and reinvented themselves found ways to distinguish their stores from their secular competitors.
"You might find the newest title of a superstar Christian author at Wal-Mart or at a Borders or Barnes & Noble, but you won't find all of their titles," she said. "That's something that the Christian stores can excel at."
Purdue Professor Wary Of 'Dark Knight's' Impact On Kids
http://www.theindychannel.com/entertainment/16954150/detail.html
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- He may be known to many children as a comic book friend, but a Purdue University professor warns the new "Dark Knight" Batman is a much more violent reincarnation of the classic character.
Glenn Sparks, a professor of communication, studies the effects of scary movies, particularly on children.
"The danger with a film like this is its history in the Batman comic book series and cartoons. People think of this hero as fun and entertaining, so parents may even take very young children to see what they believe is a family film. Instead, they may be jarred by the film's explicit level of violence," he said.
"Dark Knight," which is rated PG-13, opened July 18 and broke box office records during its opening weekend.
Sparks said the level of violence in the movie can be especially upsetting for children ages 6-10 as they try to comprehend why bad things happen to people.
"At the same time, children at this age don't have experience coping with explicit images of violence or understanding the likelihood that something will happen," Sparks said.
The latest interpretation of Batman's longtime nemesis the Joker can also be confusing to younger children, Sparks said, because of the distorted, violent image of a clown.
Sparks said he recommends that parents research films in advance by viewing descriptions of their violent content at the Web site Kids In Mind. Run by an Ohio-based company, the site also ranks sex, nudity and profanity in movies.
Sparks said parents, especially now, need to be aware of what's really in the movies their children are watching.
"Ultimately, filmmakers are trying to appeal to multiple markets and ages. Violence in films like these has been a trend. For example, the Harry Potter movies have been getting darker and more explicit, as well as Indiana Jones," Sparks said. "Hollywood is really pushing the envelope because our culture is saturated with violent images. Hollywood probably senses the need to up the ante if they want to keep people's attention."
Christian counselors could face job termination for refusing homosexual counseling
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4610
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of a licensed counselor who was fired after referring a person seeking counsel with a same-sex relationship to a colleague. Rather than attempt to provide a service that would conflict with her sincerely-held religious beliefs on homosexual behavior, Marcia Walden acted in the best interests of the potential client and referred her to another counselor; however, the counselee later filed a complaint that ultimately cost Walden her job.
"A woman shouldn't lose her job for merely upholding the highest professional standards," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Brian Raum. "It is unconstitutional to punish Walden for following her Christian faith, particularly when she made every effort to accommodate the needs of a potential client. Referring her to another competent counselor instead of attempting to offer her own counsel in such a situation was the ethical thing to do for the person seeking help. It's egregious to be fired for honoring professional and ethical obligations."
On Aug. 21, 2007, a woman employed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought counsel from Walden, a counselor at Computer Sciences Corporation, regarding a same-sex relationship. Walden explained that the client's needs would conflict with her religious beliefs and that, therefore, it would be unfair for her to serve as the woman's counselor. As a result, Walden referred the individual to a colleague.
After meeting with the client, Walden's colleague told her that she had done "the right thing" by referring the woman to him. However, the client later filed a complaint against Walden which led to an investigation and religiously-based questioning from Walden's supervisors, including pressure to hide her religious beliefs from future clients. She was later terminated as an employee.
Dangerous Words: "Opposing homosexuality makes you a sick person, such thoughts need to be criminalized"
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69775
Christians will face prison for speaking out against homosexuality if Brazil's Senate passes a bill approved unanimously by its House of Representatives.
The measure is considered the country's newest attempt to promote homosexuality, disguised as an act to combat discrimination, the Catholic News Agency reports.
If anyone prevents actions of "homosexual affection" in public or private locations open to the public, they could face up to five years in prison for doing so, the Association of the Defense of Life reports.
The bill also seeks to penalize private and public school administrators with up to three years in prison if they refuse to hire openly "gay" teachers.
According to the CNA, the measure will force prison time for any "moral, ethical, philosophical or psychological expression that questions homosexual practices."
The ADL claims the bill could spell disaster for churches and teachers.
"A priest, a pastor, a teacher or even an average citizen who says in a sermon, a classroom or public conversation that homosexual acts are sinful, disordered or an illness could be denounced and detained," the association said.
Only weeks ago, WND reported the president of Brazil said "opposing" homosexuality makes you a sick person, and he believes such thoughts need to be criminalized.
Brazilian chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won a narrow re-election following a cash-for-votes scandals, held the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals to condemn the biblical belief that homosexuality is wrong.
Lula, on June 5, not only officially opened the event to promote homosexuality across his nation but also issued a presidential sanction for the conference.
Calling for "the criminalization of homophobia," he said opposition to homosexuality is "perhaps the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head."
He said "prejudiced" people need to "open their minds and clean them." Other speakers encouraged homosexuals to claim to be part of a civil rights campaign that already has brought reforms for treatment of blacks, the elderly and the disabled. They also announced the nation's public hospitals soon would begin to perform sex changes on people.
Massachusetts Rejects Wrong Marriage Decision
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07417.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Yesterday, the Massachusetts Senate voted to repeal its long-standing law that only residents of Massachusetts can marry in that state.
"Massachusetts' officials have foisted same- sex 'marriage' on its citizens and refused to allow legislators and citizens to vote on it," said Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). "Now they are trying to export same- sex 'marriage'. Repealing its 1913 law on marriage has only one purpose -- to attempt to impose same- sex 'marriage' on other states. This proves that the Defense of Marriage Act is necessary -- to ensure citizens retain the right to protect marriage in their states -- and why a Federal Marriage Amendment needs to be passed to define what has always been true, that marriage is between one man and one woman.
"Massachusetts' legislators rejected the wrong marriage decision. They should have rejected the concept that same-sex 'marriage' can be allowed, rather than attempting to trample on the citizens of other states who respect marriage."
CWA of Massachusetts State Director Tammy Mosher said, "This is a sad day for Massachusetts and the nation when activists can overturn a law which even the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has said is constitutional."
The House is expected to take up the repeal of the 1913 law this Friday. Voters are urged to express their opposition to this repeal by contacting Massachusetts State Representatives. This link gives e-mail addresses and phone numbers for the House: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm
"Citizens can make their voice heard today. Don't let Massachusetts meddle in other states' marriage laws," said Mosher.
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
A leadership gone astray - pastors revolt to sanction same sex marriages
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-methodist17-2008jul17,0,484099.story
Scores of United Methodist Church ministers in California are putting their careers on the line in an open revolt against religious edicts that forbid them to conduct weddings for gay and lesbian couples.
The pastors could lose their jobs and clerical credentials in the church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.
Ministers in Santa Monica, Claremont, Walnut Creek and other cities have already performed ceremonies for gays and lesbians or are planning to do so.
In addition, 82 retired pastors in Northern California signed a resolution in June offering to perform such weddings on behalf of ministers who feel they can't do so themselves.
Pastors have been emboldened by United Methodist assemblies in California that declared their support last month for the state Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning a ban on same-sex marriage.
The regional assemblies -- composed of lay leaders and clergy from California and other states -- also urged pastors and congregations to "welcome, embrace and provide spiritual nurture" for gay couples.
Defenders of gay marriage say they want to compel the 11-million-member denomination to live up to its slogan -- "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors."
"I'm tired of being part of a church that lacks integrity," said the Rev. Janet Gollery McKeithen of Santa Monica's Church in Ocean Park, who plans to conduct weddings for two gay couples in August and September. "I love my church, and I don't want to leave it. But I can't be part of a church that is willing to portray a God that is so hateful. I would rather be forced out."
The two bishops who oversee United Methodist churches in California -- Mary Ann Swenson and Beverly J. Shamana -- have cautioned ministers against taking matters into their own hands.
Conducting same-sex weddings, the bishops have said in correspondence, violates provisions in the Book of Discipline, which lays out the laws and guidelines that govern the church. Under church rules, bishops and others are required to investigate complaints that can be filed by any church member.
"Pastors need to know that there are consequences," said Swenson, of the California-Pacific Annual Conference, which covers Southern California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. "We are bound to honor the policy of our denomination."
The turmoil in the Methodist church is occurring in variations across the Protestant landscape, with some religious authorities glimpsing what they believe are the seeds of rifts, perhaps even schisms, in mainline denominations.
But the conflict is having an immediate effect on United Methodists, as pastors in California wage a struggle that many characterize as the civil rights cause of their generation.
At the heart of the dispute is the Book of Discipline. The book calls the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching and says "ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches."
In addition, it excludes "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from the ministry.
But as defenders of gay marriage note, the text also says that "certain basic human rights and civil liberties are due all persons. We are committed to supporting those rights and liberties for homosexual persons."
This spring, the United Methodist Church's international governing body, the General Conference, reaffirmed the existing language on homosexuality. Then in June, California's two governing bodies approved their resolutions supporting gay weddings.
One measure adopted by Southern California's Methodist leaders recognized "the pastoral need and prophetic authority" of clergy and congregations to make marriage available to all. In a nod to the repercussions, the measure urged "compassion and understanding in any resulting disciplinary actions."
A separate resolution from the Northern California and Nevada contingent commended its retired pastors for offering their marriage services.
When a clergy member asked Bishop Shamana, who oversees Northern California and Nevada, to rule on the retired pastors' resolution, she called it a "commendable gesture" but declared it "void and of no effect."
Shamana, in a ruling released June 21, said regional authorities did not have the power to offer services that the international governing body had found to be "chargeable offenses against the law of the United Methodist Church."
But some members of the clergy remain undaunted. One of the authors of the retired ministers' measure, Don Fado, said he would willingly violate the guidelines on same-sex marriage as a matter of conscience, even if it meant the loss of clerical credentials and financial benefits.
"We are willing to put our professions on the line because this is so central to our ministry," said Fado, 74, retired pastor of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Sacramento. "Any pastor who is called upon to make that decision knows there are 82 of us who are willing to make that stand."
Some conservative United Methodists believe that the debate over church rules ignores a deeper issue -- the Bible's prohibitions against homosexuality. "We have lost any ability to have a biblical discussion on the topic," said the Rev. John McFarland, senior pastor of Fountain Valley United Methodist Church.
Still, with the November election approaching -- featuring a measure to ban same-sex marriage in California -- some ministers are forging ahead with weddings.
The Rev. Sharon Rhodes-Wickett of Claremont United Methodist Church joined a retired deacon from her congregation to co-officiate at the July 5 wedding of two longtime members, Howard Yeager and Bill Charlton.
The wedding was held off site -- at a Claremont complex for retired clergy and missionaries -- to avoid violating the rule against such ceremonies in churches.
Rhodes-Wickett, who led the Lord's Prayer and gave a homily, said she hoped to avoid discipline by stopping short of actually pronouncing the couple married. That action was performed by the retired deacon, who also signed the marriage license.
Rhodes-Wickett said she did not want Yeager and Charlton to leave her church to exchange vows.
"This is my flock," she said, adding that the men have been together 40 years, 22 of them as members of her Claremont congregation. "It's a matter of integrity and a matter of what it is to be a pastoral ministry."
Pope: All faiths should unite against violence
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQWrOpONrX_Zx5OMn4NLysrBsDWgD9205PEG4
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Friday urged religious leaders of all kinds to unite against those who use faith to divide communities — an apparent reference to terrorism in the name of religion.
Benedict met with representatives of Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist faiths for about 40 minutes during the Roman Catholic church's youth festival, which has drawn hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Sydney.
"In a world threatened by sinister and indiscriminate forms of violence, the unified voice of religious people urges nations and communities to resolve conflicts through peaceful means and with full regard for human dignity," Benedict told a gathering of clerics from different faiths in Sydney.
Without mentioning terrorism directly, the pontiff said creating harmony between religion and public life was "all the more important at a time when some people have come to consider religion as a cause of division rather than a force for unity."
The remarks come as the Vatican tries to repair ties with the Islamic world that were strained by a speech he gave in 2006 that appeared to associate Islam with violence, outraging many Muslims.
Signs of lingering prickliness were evident Friday in the words of Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem of the National Imam's Council of Australia, who in a statement read at the meeting said Muslims should be more understanding of other religions.
"At the same time, a significant amount of the Christian groups and other religions must overcome their prejudice to Muslims and Islam," he said.
The pope met separately with leaders of different Christian denominations, and said they, too, must work together more closely to ensure their beliefs stay a core part of society. On his way to Australia, the pope described the church in the West as being in crisis because people feel they have no need for God.
"I think you would agree that the ecumenical movement has reached a critical juncture," the pope said. "We must guard against any temptation to view doctrine as divisive and hence an impediment to the seemingly more pressing and immediate task of improving the world in which we live."
Benedict also said religion is a fundamental right of all people that cannot be contained by geography — an apparent reference to efforts such as China's to control some forms of religion. The pope did not directly mention China.
The Vatican is trying to repair ties with China, whose communist leaders cut ties with the Roman Catholic church in 1951. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China's affairs.
China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church. Benedict is eager for the Holy See to re-establish diplomatic ties with China to better protect his flock there.
On Thursday, the pontiff, appearing rested and in good form, gave his first major speech before an estimated crowd of 200,000 pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day. Tens of thousands more lined Sydney harbor's foreshore as he toured the city, first by boat and then in the popemobile.
In his address, Benedict warned that mankind's "insatiable consumption" has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity — striking a theme that has earned him a reputation as the "green pope."
Russia sees Europeans as pawns on its chessboard
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/07/13/do1306.xml
So now we know: the "new Russia" of Dmitri Medvedev looks very like the old one of Vladimir Putin.
Consider the events of the past week. MI5 accused its Russian counterpart of murder; in return, Russian media "unmasked" a senior UK diplomat as a spy. Britain's largest company, BP, came closer to losing its flagship investment in Russia. The deal to base a US radar station in the Czech Republic was met by a Russian threat of a "military-technical" response. Gordon Brown's meeting with Mr Medvedev was as icy as any Anglo-Russian summit in the past 20 years. On Friday night, Russia sided with China to block UN sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Over the past eight years, starting with the rise of Mr Putin, Russia has recovered both its confidence and its capability. But to do what?
Some argue that like any big country, Russia is just pursuing its national interest, and that this is nothing sinister. Such a view ignores both a very definite strategic plan, born of the peculiar Russian mindset, and the role of chauvinism, xenophobia and the desire for revenge.
Russian thinking is still rooted in a Soviet approach that leaves little room for the concept of mutual benefit. The "zero-sum" game is deeply entrenched: if something is good for the West, it is bad for Russia, and vice versa.
That chimes neatly with the story pushed on Russian state television that treacherous Russian politicians connived with the West in the 1990s to weaken the country. We promoted chaotic economic reform and phony democracy that enriched a handful and impoverished the rest, leaving Russia near disintegration until it was rescued by Putin's firm.
That is preposterous. In fact, the West provided billions of dollars to prop up Russia in the 1990s; it failed not because of our bad advice, but because of its appallingly difficult starting position and weak Russian leadership. Yet for that mythical wrong, Russia now wants revenge.
The first big push is for influence in what Russia sees as its own back yard: the old Soviet European empire, viewed not as countries that freely prefer the West, but former allies hijacked by nationalists and Western spin doctors.
The second part of the plan is to neutralise the big countries of western Europe and weaken the Atlantic alliance. Russia (population 140 million and GDP of $1trillion) is smaller and weaker than Europe (450 million and $11trillion). Yet like an able chess player, it uses a smaller number of well-positioned pieces to overwhelm a seemingly superior opponent.
Its tactics are simple: to use the promise of long-term, dependable gas supplies to build ties with energy-hungry countries such as Germany; to build gas pipelines that circumvent countries such as Ukraine; to exploit anti-US sentiment in the West on issues such as Iraq and missile defence; to buy politicians, parties and whole countries where the opportunity presents itself.
The key to Russia's success is linking political and economic issues, and playing one country off against another. If the EU wants to help Georgia, Russia uses Greece to block it. If Nato wants to help Ukraine, Russia invokes German help. When France raised human rights concerns, the Kremlin offered huge investments in a car plant and a gas field in exchange for silence.
It is working. Germany's ties with Russia now trump those with Poland, nominally its chief east European ally. Germany leads the opposition in Nato to a clear membership timetable for Ukraine and Georgia.
Both countries are threatened with dismemberment by Russia, which is stoking separatism in the Ukrainian province of Crimea, and has all but annexed two provinces of Georgia. In protest against Russian military overflights, Georgia has recalled its ambassador from Moscow. Nobody in the West seems to notice. The US, the final guarantor of our security, is discredited and distracted.
Russia's skilful pipeline politics has wrecked European attempts to diversify the continent's energy supplies. An EU-backed project called Nabucco, which would bring gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey and the Balkans, has been kyboshed. The Russian pipelines of Nord Stream (in the Baltic) and South Stream (across the Black Sea) form an effective pincer movement, eagerly backed by key Russian allies such as Germany and Austria, leaving Ukraine and Poland open to Russian energy blackmail.
Russia is a big investor in our economies; our bankers salivate at prospect of Russian bonds and stocks. The presence of Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, on the board of the Nord Stream gas pipeline epitomises the way in which Russian influence has penetrated deep into our political system. Checkmate is looming.
Sarkozy on mission to Ireland over treaty
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/21/mideast/ireland.php
DUBLIN: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France opened talks Monday in Ireland, seeking a way to overcome the rejection by Irish voters of the European Union reform treaty.
Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, emphasized he was coming to Dublin to learn why 53 percent of Irish voters last month rejected the Lisbon Treaty, a painstakingly negotiated blueprint for reshaping the EU's institutions and powers.
Listening is an "indispensable step before deciding how to bring about the best response," his office said Monday.
Ireland is the only EU member constitutionally required to subject treaties to a referendum, and the treaty cannot become law until every member ratifies it.
Dodging a collection of protesters, the French president shook hands with Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland on the steps of his central Dublin office. Sarkozy and Cowen "have committed themselves to act in close cooperation to find a way to push the Union forward," the French statement said.
The police kept about 1,000 protesters from dozens of groups from getting close to Sarkozy's motorcade. Among the demonstrators: a man in frog costume bearing the message "Hop it, Sarko! The people say no!"
Anti-treaty activists in Ireland say the June 12 vote means the treaty is dead and EU negotiators must start from scratch. Sarkozy insists that will not happen, and some compromise formula must be found to permit Ireland to vote again.
Still, Sarkozy took pains not to appear to be forcing a new vote on the Irish.
He will "respect the result of the Irish referendum," the statement said.
As Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France met Irish government leaders in Cowen's Government Buildings headquarters, protesters outside shouted and debated - sometimes with each other.
In the crowd were Catholics who fear the EU could force liberal social policies on anti-abortion Ireland; socialists who view the EU as a force for capitalism; and farmers who largely voted in favor of the Lisbon Treaty but want the EU to stand firm in World Trade Organization negotiations this week. The talks in Geneva threaten to open up Europe to cheaper South American beef imports.
"If the EU tries to sell out Ireland in the world trade talks, you wouldn't stand a chance of getting farmers to vote yes to any future treaty," Padraig Walshe, president of the Irish Farmers Association, said in front of a tractor convoy.
Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the CFSP, signs agreement on security of information with the European Space Agency
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/declarations/101887.pdf
Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), signed an agreement today, on behalf of the European Union, with the European Space Agency (ESA) on arrangements for exchanging classified information. The agreement, signed with the Director General of ESA, Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, marks a further milestone in EU/ESA relations and will facilitate the work of those involved in advancing European policies and industries in the space sector.
________________
Background
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. early all of the 17 members of this international organisation are also members of the EU. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe. ESA's programmes are designed to find out more about the earth, its immediate space environment, our solar system and the universe, to develop satellite-based technologies and services and in so doing to promote European industries.
Although ESA is an independent organisation it maintains close ties with the EU. For example, the joint EU/ESA European Space Policy sets out a basic vision and strategy for the space sector and tackles issues such as security and defence, access to space and exploration. On the back of this policy ESA is able to provide the tools needed for Europe's activities in space. Cooperation between the ESA and the EU is formalised in particular through the ESA/European Commission Framework Agreement, which establishes a common basis and appropriate practical arrangements for efficient and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two. Recent tangible joint initiatives that have come about as a result of cooperation with ESA include the European global navigation satellite system, or 'Galileo', and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security services, known as the 'GMES'.
Under these joint EU/ESA initiatives there is a pressing need for the EU to be able to exchange classified information with ESA. While to a limited extent this was already possible under an administrative arrangement dating from 2003, last year it was decided that the EU ought to have a fully-fledged agreement with ESA on the security and exchange of classified information.
Solana: EULEX operational by autumn
http://www.newkosovareport.com/200807211060/Politics/Solana-EULEX-operational-by-autumn.html
European Union’s mission in Kosovo EULEX will be fully operational within fall, said EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana after the statement by Ban Ki Moon that allows EULEX’s operation according to Resolution 1244.
Solana said that in Kosovo currently there are 400 members of EULEX and “until this mision is completely established, UNMIK will have all the responsibilities.” He added that EU’s aim is to have the mission completely operational by autumn.
Solana made these statements immediately after the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, announced that he had made recommendations for the start of reconfiguration of the UNMIK mission in Kosovo. Ki-Moon will present a more detailed quarterly report on Kosovo to the UN Security Council on 25 July.
European Union says it won't support military action against Iran
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080722/world/eu_iran_1
BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union foreign ministers say they will not support a military strike on Iran but want more talks to try to resolve worries Tehran might be developing nuclear weapons.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says it is now up to Iran to respond to global powers and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana after talks in Geneva on Saturday.
He says Britain and others involved in the negotiations with Iran are "100 per cent focused on a diplomatic resolution" to the Iranian issue.
The ministers discussed with Solana the Saturday meeting, which made little progress in resolving the standoff.
The U.S. and Israel have not ruled out a military strike on Iran if it does not give up uranium enrichment and heed United Nations Security Council demands aimed at dispelling fears over its nuclear plans.
Club Med; Israel and Iran
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/21/opinion/edlet.php
Regarding the article "Bold summit opens diplomatic doors" (July 14): Looking back on the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean in Paris last week, it is important to consider the true potential of this partnership for both the Mediterranean and the world.
As a bridge between cultures, the Mediterranean region has historically been pulled in different directions by contending interests. Its geopolitical role - not to mention its economic and cultural influence - cannot be ignored.
For the Alliance of Civilizations, a United Nations initiative I lead that aims to increase mutual respect and understanding between nations through projects in the areas of youth, education, media and migration, the Mediterranean region is of critical importance. It is a region where opportunities for reconciliation and cooperation among rivals and enemies are among the most fertile. It is a region where past constructive exchanges have allowed humanity to take great leaps forward.
By demonstrating the mutual benefit of cooperation, the countries bordering the Mediterranean will be able to raise a barrier against intolerance, religious fundamentalism and extremism.
To overcome our challenges we must go beyond declarations of intent. Together, the UN Alliance and the Mediterranean Union can create opportunities to jointly develop policies that promote cultural diversity. Already, the Alliance is coordinating projects aimed at strengthening dialogue and development in countries around the Mediterranean.
The success of the Union for the Mediterranean depends on multilateralism and shared development. That is why the Union and the Alliance must be mutually strengthened and their actions developed in close collaboration.
Israel and Iran
Benny Morris's opinion article, "Using bombs to stave off war (Views, July 19), was surprising in its insistence that Israel is likely to attack Iran between November and January.
Why would the Israeli leadership do the expected, after having successfully destroyed Iraq's nuclear installation, and more recently Syria's, with surprise attacks?
More importantly: Would Israel risk the possibility of the massive loss of its citizens if, as Morris states, Iran would retaliate with ballistic missiles having chemical or biological warheads while also instructing heavily-armed Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel's borders to attack?
Is Morris war-mongering, and is it responsible journalism to give such a view international exposure?
Messianic Revival In Israel?
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/407139.aspx
In Israel, a resurgence in the number of Jews who believe in Jesus is getting a lot of attention. Many leaders say it's the strongest growth since the time of Jesus and that the Messianic movement could be on the brink of a great revival.
"This is the first time where we've seen Israeli society in general being so open to consider who Yeshua is," said Messianic leader Asher Intrater. "This is a real miracle, and there's beginning to be grace and favor with us in the land."
Although Jesus and the early disciples were Jewish, for nearly 2,000 the gospel has been viewed as a religion mainly for Gentiles. Even the name Jesus or Yeshua has been a forbidden word among many Jews. But in the last few years, Messianic leaders in Israel say something important is happening.
"I believe with all my heart, after we have come back to the land, we are seeing the Lord, the Holy Spirit, is removing the veil from the eyes of the Jews and more and more Jews are realizing," Tel Aviv pastor Avi Mizrachi said.
Although nobody knows for sure how many Messianic Jews live in Israel, it's believed there are about 120 congregations now and 10,000-15,000 Jewish believers in Jesus.
That may not sound like many, given Israel's nearly six million Jews, but it's a far cry from 10 years ago, when there were only about 3,500 Jewish believers and 80 congregations.
A good example is Shemen Sasson in Jerusalem, where attendance has nearly tripled over the past four years. Today, close to 300 people attend the meetings, most of them Jewish or people married to Jews, and salvations are increasing.
Meet the Ronens. Daniel, Ayelet and their 5 children are Israeli believers. Ayelet is an Israeli Jew and Daniel is a Finnish Gentile. But his family has been here since before Israel became a nation. They believe Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
"When Jesus came, when Yeshua came, he came to talk to our people," Ayelet Ronen said. "He walked on our land, He spoke our language, He spoke in our synagogues. Really He came for us!
Yad-Hashmona is a beautiful little village about 10 miles outside Jerusalem, and the only one home to just Messianic Jewish believers like the Ronens.
For this family, being Israeli and believing in Jesus is a natural fit. They keep the Jewish feasts, circumcise their sons, keep the Sabbath and serve in the army. And even though they live in a Messianic village, they don't feel secluded from the rest of Israeli society.
"Our kids go with everybody else to school... I go to work outside...Our principle is to go out and be part of society," Daniel Ronen explained.
Their children sometimes face challenges, but have used those occasions to witness.
"My friends started to know I'm a believer and they ask me if I'm a believer...I tell them I'm a believer in Yeshua and it's really good to believe in Him and that maybe you can one day believe in him too," little third grader Adan said.
The Ronens are sometimes accused of being missionaries, a very bad word in Israel, but they insist they are not.
"My point is to share my faith with anyone who wants to hear me and I will gladly share the Good News of my faith," Ayelet said. "I never speak of you should do, and you should change.."
In addition to Israeli-born believers, many are from other countries. American Jews Eddie and Jackie Santoro became believers during the 70s Jesus movement.
They made Aliyah to Israel 11 years ago, learned Hebrew and now lead a growing congregation in Jerusalem.
"Our current congregation, we started almost 2 years ago with about 20 people, today we have over 100," Eddie Santoro explained. "We see salvations here and there, but we feel like there's something yet to come, it's definitely growing."
But being a Jewish believer in Israel isn't easy.
"I think probably the greatest challenge is that you always feel that the rest of society isn't accepting you and so when you meet somebody and you want to talk to them and you want to tell them who you are, there's always that challenge of, 'should I say something,"; Jackie Santoro said.
For the first time, the secular media are saying something, even mentioning Messianic Jews in a more favorable light. A recent wave of persecution, including the bombing of a young Jewish believer, have put Messianic Jews on the front page.
"At least we see that believers are being asked to explain who they are, what they believe in, why they are here...how they can be Israeli and believe in Jesus and be given an opportunity to tell their story and share their testimony," Knut Hoyland of the Caspari Center said.
And what does this movement mean for the Body of Christ?
"If it wasn't for Yeshua, we would be lost," Ayelet said.
Olmert: Settlements should not impede peace
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/21/brown.israel/
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that his country's disagreement with Britain over expanding settlements in the West Bank "should not stand in the way" of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
"You criticized our settlement policy and I tried to explain to you the restraints which we put on ourselves on the one hand and the need to keep the pace of life going on, on the other hand," Olmert told visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a joint news conference in Jerusalem.
"And while you disagree with us, at least I hope you understand better the position of Israel on some of these issues."
Earlier in the day, Brown said Israel's expansion of settlements in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank "has made peace harder to achieve."
"It erodes trust. It heightens Palestinian suffering. It makes the compromises Israel will need to make for peace more difficult," Brown said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
"So we are very clear, not just Britain but the whole of the European Union, what should be done. We are also clear that the violence must stop too.
Terrorism is a major obstacle to Palestinian statehood, and the efforts to ease movement and access restrictions which must continue," he said.
Britain is a member of the Mideast Quartet, which has been working to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian government along with the United States, the United Nations, and Russia.
Brown's visit to the region is his first as Britain's prime minister. He is scheduled to address the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Monday.
Olmert restated his position that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be achieved by the end of the year, despite the disagreement over its settlement expansions.
"This should not stand in the way of achieving an agreement between us and the Palestinians," he said. "We are closer than ever, as I said in Paris last week, to an agreement.
"We have some disagreements which are very significant but I believe that we can overcome these disagreements within the time frame that has been set ... which is hopefully the end of this year."
Shin Bet chief: Hamas missiles menace Kiryat Gat – or even Ashdod port
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5454
The internal security agency director Yuval Diskin told Israeli lawmakers Tuesday, July 22, that he opposed the Gaza ceasefire the Israeli government approved with Hamas - and continues to oppose it - because it gave Hamas what it wanted.
In a briefing to Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Diskin said Hamas has used the month-old truce to build up its military strength and bolster its rule of the Gaza Strip. It has acquired extended range missiles capable of reaching Kiryat Gat, a town 21 km northeast of Gaza and possibly the big Mediterranean port town of Ashdod, 23 to the north.
Diskin warned that Hamas is using the time to sow minefields to stall an Israeli counter-terror operation, while continuing to smuggle arms through Egyptian Sinai.
The month-old ceasefire deal omitted to impede Hamas' war buildup or secure the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit.
The only way to curb Hamas' war preparations, the Shin Bet director said, was to establish an IDF military presence in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian terrorist attacks from the West Bank have been radically curtailed by the Israeli army's presence and the defense barrier. Diskin stressed that no amount of intelligence would do any good unless it was applied operationally.
Hizballah's No. 2: War not over, more Israeli soldiers may be abducted
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5445
Sheikh Naim Kassem, deputy secretary-general of Hizballah, said Saturday, July 19, that abductions of more Israeli soldiers may not be ruled out "in order to achieve the organization's goals." He declared that his pro-Iranian Shiite group remained at war with Israel.
His statement to the Qatari Al-Arab paper was at variance with the tenor of the speech his boss, Hassan Nasrallah, made in Beirut three days ago, after completing a bodies-for-prisoner exchange with Israel.
The war would go on as long Israel "occupies the Shaba Farms, the village of Ghajar and the Kfar Shuba hills [Mt. Dov on the Hermon]," said Kassem.
Regarding future kidnaps of Israeli soldiers, he said "I won't speak about this issue because it has to do with military activity in the struggle with Israel and with the question of whether this confrontation will demand such an action. These are details which will become known in the future."
Hizballah had yet to exact revenge for the assassination of military commander Imad Mughnyieh in February, he said.
The tenor of Hassan Nassrallah's speech in Beirut, after trading the remains of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser for five Hizballah prisoners, was different. He stressed the importance of inter-factional dialogue in Lebanon as his organization's first priority.
This reflected Tehran's current strategy of diplomatic engagement with Washington, whereas his deputy Kassem spoke on Saturday in bellicose terms of continuing the war with Israel, more in keeping with the Hizballah's war preparations.
On July 13, DEBKAfile's military sources disclosed that Hizballah had commandeered the strategic Mt. Sannine peak in central Lebanon. Under the command of Iranian officers, it installed there anti-air and radar equipment for shooting down Israeli jets, as well as C-802 shore-to-sea missiles along the coast for attacking Israeli warships.
Israeli critics question lopsided prisoner swap
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_lebanon
Critics of Israel's lopsided prisoner exchange with Lebanese guerrillas said Wednesday that such deals only encourage more hostage-taking - a fear underscored by Gaza militants who said the swap proves that kidnapping is the only language Israel understands.
The deal, in which a notorious Lebanese attacker, four other militants and the bodies of 199 Arab fighters were traded for two dead Israeli soldiers, closed a painful chapter from Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.
But it also raised questions about whether Israel should reconsider its policy of bringing back every soldier from the battlefield at just about any cost.
Israel has been carrying out unequal prisoner swaps for decades, including handing over 4,600 Palestinian and Lebanese captives in 1983 in exchange for six captured Israeli soldiers. In the past it's even traded live prisoners for bodies, as it did Wednesday.
The rationale for such trades was a wartime ethic seen as essential in Israel's early days to instilling loyalty and commitment from its troops.
In today's world of asymmetric warfare - with militant groups increasingly focused on kidnapping as a way to pressure Israel and with the fight against terrorism now a worldwide challenge - the lopsided swaps could have graver consequences than in the past.
"What we've done now has made kidnapping soldiers the most profitable game in town," said Israeli security expert Martin Sherman.
"There is absolutely no reason why Hezbollah should not invest huge resources now, along with Hamas, in the next kidnapping."
The issue is of immediate concern because the government is deeply involved in indirect negotiations to free its other captive soldier, Gilad Schalit, held by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Unlike Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two soldiers whose bodies were returned Wednesday, Schalit is believed to be alive.
Following this week's Cabinet vote that cleared the way for the Hezbollah deal, Construction Minister Zeev Boim, one of only three ministers to vote against it, said he was afraid the swap would make it harder for Israel to win the release of Schalit.
"No one should be surprised if Hamas will now raise the price for freeing him," he said.
Hamas made it clear Wednesday that it intended to do just that.
"As there was an honorable exchange today, we are determined to have an honorable exchange for our own prisoners" held in Israeli jails, Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said. "Let them answer our demands." Israel holds about 10,000 Palestinians in prison.
Haniyeh's spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri went further, saying the swap "shows that the only successful way to free the prisoners is by kidnapping soldiers."
Explaining his opposition, Boim, the construction minister, said Wednesday: "We needed, in my opinion, to take this opportunity to change the rules we were dragged into many years ago, which have led to many lopsided deals."
But the Israeli military said the deal drove home the Jewish state's deep commitment to its soldiers.
"This painful process exemplifies Israel's moral commitment to secure the return of all of their soldiers sent out on operational missions," said a statement Wednesday from the Israeli Defense Forces. "It demonstrates a compelling moral strength which stems from Judaism, Israeli societal values and from the spirit of the IDF."
Wednesday's exchange involved freeing a Lebanese militant convicted of what many consider to be among the most gruesome crimes inflicted on Israelis in their history.
Samir Kantar was sentenced to three life terms for killing an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then killing the little girl by smashing her skull with his rifle butt.
During the grisly attack, the girl's 2-year-old sister was accidentally smothered by her mother during a desperate attempt to silence the child's cries as the two hid in a crawl space.
For Israelis, the 1979 attack was a nightmare scenario feared by many in a nation living in a constant state of war: a terrorist breaking into their home in the middle of the night and kidnapping and killing a family.
Because of the visceral reaction, successive governments held off on including Kantar in any previous swap. Kantar was 16 years old at the time of the attack and he has consistently denied killing the girl, saying she died in crossfire.
That Israel paid such a high price for dead bodies could provide an incentive for militants to kill future hostages, said Yuval Steinitz, a lawmaker from the opposition Likud Party.
"This is a very dangerous precedent," he said. "We are telling them that they don't have to do their utmost to keep captive soldiers alive, to save them if captured."
Nor was the high price of the swap lost on ordinary Palestinians.
"Nobody would have expected that Israel would give up the likes of Samir Kantar. Hezbollah has shown that they are mighty people, and Israel is afraid of them and had to meet their demands," said Samar Mohammed, a 23-year-old architect in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Despite the criticism in Israel, the swap could provide a badly needed boost for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose grip on power is gravely threatened by a burgeoning corruption probe.
Olmert launched a monthlong war against Hezbollah in June 2006 in response to the servicemen's capture. His handling of the war was widely criticized, and he has been under considerable pressure to resolve the issue of the soldiers' fate.
Wednesday's swap closed a painful chapter from the war, and Israelis reacted to confirmation of the young men's death with a mixture of anguish and anger.
One of the soldiers' aunts sank to the ground in despair, and other mourners demanded revenge, chanting "Nasrallah, you will pay" - referring to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
Olmert recently announced the soldiers were believed dead, but there was no proof until their remains were delivered to Israel in two black coffins Wednesday. During the past two years, securing Regev's and Goldwasser's release had become a national crusade involving bumper stickers, billboards, radio and TV spots and public prayers.
Family and friends outside the homes of the fallen soldiers burst into tears at the first television images of the black coffins.
"It was horrible to see it. I didn't want to, I asked them to turn off the TV," said Regev's father, Zvi, choking back tears. "We were always hoping that Udi (Ehud) and Eldad were alive and that they would come home and we would hug them."
Gerald Steinberg, chairman of the political science department at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv, disagreed with the notion that Hezbollah came out ahead in both the war and the prisoner swap.
"Hezbollah paid a high price," he said. "After the soldiers were kidnapped, Israel went to war and inflicted a very high cost on Hezbollah. It would be irrational for Hezbollah to return to a similar tactic."
After swap, Israel fears Hezbollah will escalate tensions in North
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1002814.html
Israel and Hezbollah completed the prisoner swap Wednesday: Hezbollah returned the bodies of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, while Israel handed over terrorist Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah militants, as well as 197 bodies.
Now that the exchange has taken place, the Israeli defense establishment is worried that Hezbollah may seek a calculated escalation along the Lebanese border, and try to disrupt Israel Air Force flyovers in Lebanese airspace.
Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah ended his public reclusion for a few minutes Wednesday, appearing in person at the Beirut celebration for the freed prisoners. Nasrallah took the stage at the stadium in the city's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Appearing alongside Samir Kuntar, he declared that his organization would now try to free the Lebanese land still occupied by Israel.
"Our worry now is to free the rest of our lands ... protect our water and our sovereignty and our honor," he said, calling the prisoner release a victory for the resistance.
Nasrallah hinted that after examining the bodies Israel returned Wednesday, his organization will see whether more Lebanese whom Hezbollah believes Israel has are still missing.
Nasrallah then returned to his quarters in a secret location, to make a longer speech on video.
A Kuwaiti newspaper reported last week that Hezbollah has deployed sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles in the mountains in central Lebanon, in order to threaten IAF flights. Israeli intelligence sources said it appears the organization is looking for new excuses to clash with Israel, and that along with the fight for Shaba Farms (Mt. Dov), disrupting the flights could become another key area of operation. Until now, the IAF has enjoyed complete freedom of operation, which it used to collect intelligence.
Hezbollah identified this aerial freedom as its own weak spot - the IAF carried out attacks deep in Lebanon, and special forces reached the Lebanon Valley via helicopter.
Although senior military officers believe Israel still has substantial deterrent power over Hezbollah, they are concerned the organization is still seeking to "settle accounts" with Israel over the February assassination of Imad Mughniyah in Damascus. Hamas blames the Mossad for the killing. There are general terror alerts for Israel and Israeli targets abroad, and Canada last month reported it had arrested five Hezbollah members seeking to attack the Israeli embassy there.
Meanwhile, the Medical Corps experts who examined the bodies of Goldwasser and Regev determined they were killed during the abduction on July 12, 2006 or shortly thereafter. The experts' conclusion was similar to that of the missing soldiers unit, which stated a month after the abduction that one of the soldiers had died on the spot and the other was mortally wounded during the abduction.
Goldwasser, the patrol commander, was sitting in the passenger seat of the first Hummer that Hezbollah attacked. The militants fired anti-tank missiles at the Hummer from close range, in order to paralyze the patrol. Evidence on the site, as well as Wednesday's examination of the body, indicate that Goldwasser's seat took most of the damage and he was killed instantly. Regev, seated behind Goldwasser, was apparently also critically wounded by the anti-tank fire. The experts said Regev also may have been shot at close range by his kidnappers, possibly as soon as they reached the Hummer or when trying to escape from the burning vehicle.
The other two soldiers in the patrol have testified that they believed they saw the kidnappers pulling the two victims out of the jeep alive, but the army does not consider their testimony credible. The two fled the jeep after it was hit and hid in the bushes. One was seriously injured and the other suffered severe shell shock.
Hezbollah representatives Wednesday evaded questions regarding which of the soldiers was wounded and when. However, Hezbollah has promised to publicize a video of the kidnapping, which may shed more light on the sequence of events.
Also on Wednesday, Kuntar vowed to continue his 'resistance' against Israel, speaking at a Beirut rally welcoming his return and that of four Hezbollah men Israel released as part of a swap deal with the Lebanon-based guerilla group.
"I returned today from Palestine but believe me I will not return until I go back to Palestine," he told the roaring crowd. "I promise my people and dear ones in Palestine that I and my dear comrades in the valiant Islamic resistance are returning."
Three covert Palestinian networks coordinate attacks in Jerusalem, say security sources
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5458
Masses of weapons and explosives are cached in the Palestinian villages and districts of Jerusalem, where three Palestinian terrorist networks are working together to coordinate attacks in the city, according to security-intelligence sources. They decide whether the lone killers use firearms, explosives, knives or mechanical weapons, like the diggers which smashed through Jerusalem's main streets twice this month. With much of Jerusalem under intense development and Arabs employed at many building sites, police fear a future attack could be carried out by toppling a crane on a densely populated district.
Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin said Wednesday, even before the second bulldozer attack which injured 29 people, that going into Jerusalem's Shuafat is more dangerous than the Jenin refugee camp. "A security vacuum encircles Jerusalem," he said, "through which terrorists are free to enter the capital."
Meir Sheetrit, minister of interior, reported after research that the Palestinian family reunion program approved by Israel had been used to plant scores of active terrorists in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Shin Bet probes in the Arab districts of Jerusalem have turned up close cooperation between Hamas and the fiercely radical Hizb al-Tahir, which is attracting increasing numbers of Palestinian terrorists to its ranks.
Hizb al-Tahrir now controls the mosques on Temple Mount and its environs, having pushed out and replaced the Muslim Waqf sentry posts at the shrine and organized them on the lines of a terrorist militia.
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and pro-Jordanian elements, which once ruled Arab sectors of Jerusalem, have lost out to the Islamic fundamentalists.
According to DEBKAfile's security sources, the Galilee Liberation Brigades – Imad Mughniyeh fighters, an offshoot of the Lebanese Hizballah among Israeli Arabs, works hand in glove with the Hizb and Hamas.
Counter-terror experts fear that the police, including the Border Guards, which are in charge of security in Jerusalem, are out of touch.
According to one official, their methods of operation were adequate for the traditional law and order tasks of yesterday – but cannot cope with the cycle of terror overtaking Jerusalem in the past year. Jerusalem needs young, vigorous police chiefs with special training in combating terror and organized crime - which often overlap - to replace the old school of police officers who still categorize every attack according to outdated criteria which place terrorism and crime in separate boxes. They then complain they are helpless against the new brand of terrorist, the one-wolf killer.
Official inaction boosts Palestinian terrorist cycle in Jerusalem
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5457
The second Palestinian terrorist-attack-by-bulldozer in Jerusalem this month, whereby an Arab terrorist injured 18 people before he was shot dead, took place Tuesday, July 22. And still the Israeli government dithered over whether or not to demolish the home of the originator of this form of rampage, who on July 2 sowed death and destruction on Israel's Jaffa Street.
The cycle of lone-wolf murders in the capital carried out by Palestinian residents began five months ago, on March 6, with the massacre of eight students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.
On July 12, a gunman injured two Israel border policemen guarding the Old City's Lion's Gate.
None of these attacks has produced a government decision on how to handle the new cycle of death terrorizing the Jerusalem population at the hands of its Arab citizens, or a form of deterrence. Indeed, Tuesday, just hours before the copycat bulldozer rampage in the city center, President Shimon Peres chose to roll out a red carpet in honor of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and fly the Palestinian national flag over his residence.
Peres was not put off by the fact that Abbas last week cabled his congratulations to the Nahariya killer Samir Kuntar upon his release by Israel to Hizballah in exchange for the bodies of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
In these circumstances, DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources have no doubt that the cycle of terror will roll on until a hand is raised to stop it.
Second Palestinian bulldozer rampage injures 29 on Jerusalem main street
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5456
A quick-thinking passing civilian, Yaki Asael from Sussia, on the West Bank, and a Border Police officer, Amal Ghannem, shot the driver dead after 5 vehicles and a bus were rammed opposite the Liberty Bell Park on King David Street corner.
Twenty-nine people, including two children, were injured, one seriously – 200 yards from King David Hotel where UK premier Brown stayed Monday. Visiting Barack Obama condemned the attack when he arrived at a nearby hotel in the afternoon.
Among the wounded were several tourists, a Frenchwoman and her two daughters and a family of Arabs who live in California, USA.
The bulldozer burst out of a nearby building site in Yemin Moshe, driven by Ghassen Abu Tir, 22, from Umm Tuba, a Palestinian village in southeast Jerusalem, who was employed at the site. He was a relative of Muhammed Abu Tir, a Hamas lawmaker held in an Israeli jail.
The Hizballah-sponsored Galilee Liberation Brigades claimed this attack like the first bulldozer rampage of July 2 when another Jerusalem Palestinian killed three people and caused heavy damage on Jerusalem's Jaffa Street.
Palestinian terror attack from West Bank thwarted
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5460
Israeli Border Guards troops intercepted a vehicle carrying a 12-kilo explosive charge attached to a gas canister and several pipe bombs outside Kafin village east of the West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday, July 23. The device which was detonated in a controlled explosion was rigged ready for an attack in central Israel. The three Palestinians in the car got away are being hunted. One was identified as Fadi Kathni, Jihad Islami commander in the Jenin region, who is wanted for plotting a string of terror attacks.
Rice threatens more sanctions if no serious answer from Iran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5446
Speaking to reporters on her way to Abu Dhabi Monday, July 21, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice warned Tehran of more bilateral American, as well as UN, sanctions for failing to come up with a "serious answer" to the incentives offered by the six powers Saturday by the two-week deadline they laid down.
America's third-ranking diplomat William Burns attended the talks in Geneva alongside officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Tehran later reiterated its refusal to give up uranium enrichment.
On July 8, DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile's analysts first disclosed the developments leading up to Washington's decision to take part in the Geneva encounter.
What happens if an Israeli attack on Iran fails?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/opinion/18morris.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Israel will almost surely attack Iran's nuclear sites in the next four to seven months - and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country's nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war - either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb.
It is in the interest of neither Iran nor the United States (nor, for that matter, the rest of the world) that Iran be savaged by a nuclear strike, or that both Israel and Iran suffer such a fate. We know what would ensue: a traumatic destabilization of the Middle East with resounding political and military consequences around the globe, serious injury to the West's oil supply and radioactive pollution of the earth's atmosphere and water.
But should Israel's conventional assault fail to significantly harm or stall the Iranian program, a ratcheting up of the Iranian-Israeli conflict to a nuclear level will most likely follow. Every intelligence agency in the world believes the Iranian program is geared toward making weapons, not to the peaceful applications of nuclear power. And, despite the current talk of additional economic sanctions, everyone knows that such measures have so far led nowhere and are unlikely to be applied with sufficient scope to cause Iran real pain, given Russia's and China's continued recalcitrance and Western Europe's (and America's) ambivalence in behavior, if not in rhetoric. Western intelligence agencies agree that Iran will reach the "point of no return" in acquiring the capacity to produce nuclear weapons in one to four years.
Which leaves the world with only one option if it wishes to halt Iran's march toward nuclear weaponry: the military option, meaning an aerial assault by either the United States or Israel. Clearly, America has the conventional military capacity to do the job, which would involve a protracted air assault against Iran's air defenses followed by strikes on the nuclear sites themselves. But, as a result of the Iraq imbroglio, and what is rapidly turning into the Afghan imbroglio, the American public has little enthusiasm for wars in the Islamic lands. This curtails the White House's ability to begin yet another major military campaign in pursuit of a goal that is not seen as a vital national interest by many Americans.
Which leaves only Israel — the country threatened almost daily with destruction by Iran's leaders. Thus the recent reports about Israeli plans and preparations to attack Iran (the period from Nov. 5 to Jan. 19 seems the best bet, as it gives the West half a year to try the diplomatic route but ensures that Israel will have support from a lame-duck White House).
The problem is that Israel's military capacities are far smaller than America's and, given the distances involved, the fact that the Iranian sites are widely dispersed and underground, and Israel's inadequate intelligence, it is unlikely that the Israeli conventional forces, even if allowed the use of Jordanian and Iraqi airspace (and perhaps, pending American approval, even Iraqi air strips) can destroy or perhaps significantly delay the Iranian nuclear project.
Nonetheless, Israel, believing that its very existence is at stake — and this is a feeling shared by most Israelis across the political spectrum — will certainly make the effort. Israel's leaders, from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert down, have all explicitly stated that an Iranian bomb means Israel's destruction; Iran will not be allowed to get the bomb.
The best outcome will be that an Israeli conventional strike, whether failed or not — and, given the Tehran regime's totalitarian grip, it may not be immediately clear how much damage the Israeli assault has caused — would persuade the Iranians to halt their nuclear program, or at least persuade the Western powers to significantly increase the diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.
But the more likely result is that the international community will continue to do nothing effective and that Iran will speed up its efforts to produce the bomb that can destroy Israel. The Iranians will also likely retaliate by attacking Israel's cities with ballistic missiles (possibly topped with chemical or biological warheads); by prodding its local clients, Hezbollah and Hamas, to unleash their own armories against Israel; and by activating international Muslim terrorist networks against Israeli and Jewish — and possibly American — targets worldwide (though the Iranians may at the last moment be wary of provoking American military involvement).
Such a situation would confront Israeli leaders with two agonizing, dismal choices. One is to allow the Iranians to acquire the bomb and hope for the best — meaning a nuclear standoff, with the prospect of mutual assured destruction preventing the Iranians from actually using the weapon. The other would be to use the Iranian counterstrikes as an excuse to escalate and use the only means available that will actually destroy the Iranian nuclear project: Israel's own nuclear arsenal.
Given the fundamentalist, self-sacrificial mindset of the mullahs who run Iran, Israel knows that deterrence may not work as well as it did with the comparatively rational men who ran the Kremlin and White House during the cold war. They are likely to use any bomb they build, both because of ideology and because of fear of Israeli nuclear pre-emption. Thus an Israeli nuclear strike to prevent the Iranians from taking the final steps toward getting the bomb is probable. The alternative is letting Tehran have its bomb. In either case, a Middle Eastern nuclear holocaust would be in the cards.
Iran's leaders would do well to rethink their gamble and suspend their nuclear program. Bar this, the best they could hope for is that Israel's conventional air assault will destroy their nuclear facilities. To be sure, this would mean thousands of Iranian casualties and international humiliation. But the alternative is an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland. Some Iranians may believe that this is a worthwhile gamble if the prospect is Israel's demise. But most Iranians probably don't.
We only get one strike
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215330995579&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
An Israeli attack on Iran seems inevitable. If it succeeds, it will return to Israel its deterrent power and send a clear message to the saber-rattling jihadists that they were too early in beginning the countdown for the disappearance of the Jewish state.
If it fails, or fails to achieve the majority of its objectives, it could amount to an act of national suicide. Fanatical Muslims on every side will be encouraged by the failure and outcome of an Iranian retaliation which would cause heavy damage to the whole center of our country.
Iran would unquestionably be joined by its proxies on our borders, Hizbullah and Syria on the north and Hamas on the south, the PLO jihad brigades under various names, and the Arabs of Israel. The latter have already shown their ability to block major traffic arteries and demonstrated that their loyalties rest with their Arab brethren, not with the Jewish state.
The repeated declarations of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the aim of Iran is to wipe Israel off the world map should not be taken as the empty, fiery words of a fanatical Muslim dictator, but as a plan of action. True, Iran does not need a pretext, but an Israeli attack on any nuclear installation in Iran, or just an invasion of Iranian air space could be used as an excellent reason for mounting an all-out missile attack.
The damage to Iran would be serious, but not devastating. Iran has a very high tolerance level. It proved it in the early 1980s during the war against Iraq, when Teheran and other places came under destructive attacks by Frog and Scud missiles and the Iranian army suffered heavy losses on the battlefield.
Iran can live with one Israeli air raid or two; not with a nuclear attack. As it seems now, Israel does not have the military facilities to deal with the distances involved and with other technical obstacles to carry out a successful attack on Iran. A combined Israeli and American effort, however, could cause irreparable damage to the Iranian nuclear program.
A non-nuclear Israeli attack on Iran would be a "surgical" operation. But an Iranian-Hizbullah-Hamas attack would be indiscriminate and aimed at the major urban centers, causing tremendous harm.
Iran has the motivation to destroy Israel, and if it is allowed to gain nuclear weapons it will not need an excuse to do so. That motivation is a double one: messianic Shi'ite and expansionist-imperial.
Since the late ninth century, the Shi'ites have been expecting the emergence of the hidden imam-mahdi, armed with divine power and followed by thousands of martyrdom-seeking warriors. He is expected to conquer the world and establish Shi'ism as its supreme religion and system of rule. His appearance would involve terrible war and unusual bloodshed.
Ahmadinejad, as mayor of Teheran, built a spectacular boulevard through which the mahdi would enter into the capital. There is no question that Ahmadinejad believes he has been chosen to be the herald of the mahdi.
Shi'ite Islam differs from Sunni Islam regarding the identity of the mahdi. The Sunni mahdi is essentially an anonymous figure; the Shi'ite mahdi is a divinely inspired person with a real identity.
However both Shi'ites and Sunnis share one particular detail about "the coming of the hour" and the dawning of messianic times: The Jews must all suffer a violent death, to the last one.
Both Shi'ites and Sunnis quote the famous hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: The last hour will not come unless the Muslims fight against the Jews, and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and the stone or the tree would say: "Muslim! Servant of Allah! Here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him!"
Not one Friday passes without this hadith being quoted in sermons from one side of the Islamic world to the other.
Shi'ism regards the Jews as an embodiment of filth and the contaminating source of ritual impurity - which adds another religious justification to the Muslims to rid themselves of the Jews and their state. Iran threatens that it has the ability to do so with its ballistic missiles and the readily available services of local proxies who would love to join the general effort to kill the Jews.
The other side of Iran's motivation to destroy Israel is the imperial one.
Iran has the same virus inherent in every totalitarian power - to gain imperial dominion. Totalitarian Iran wants to recreate its empire east of the Mediterranean. The leaders of modern Iran, long before the present Islamic regime, toyed with the idea of reviving the empire of Cyrus and Darius.
The present Islamic regime has the same aspirations. Nuclear power is necessary to achieve this desire. As fantastic as it sounds, the destruction of the State of Israel seems necessary for the expansion to the east Mediterranean (which might include the elimination of a few Sunni entities such as Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states).
Let us try a scenario in which Israel carries out a successful attack, with or without active American help, on a few key Iranian reactors. Such an operation would not completely destroy Iran's nuclear capability, but it would badly wound its national and Islamic pride.
The Iranian people, including the opposition would, at least in the initial stage, rally around the ruling mullahs. The price of oil would soar, Israel would be blamed for the destruction of the West's economy, and Europe might go so far as to impose sanctions on Israel, with or without a UN decision.
Moreover, being an easy target, Israel would have to brace for the inevitable Iranian retaliation. Iran would attack with the Shihab 3 ballistic missiles that carry a warhead of up to one ton and have an accuracy of 50 meters-100m. Israel has an answer to a limited number of these missiles, of which Iran has probably a few hundred. It has no answer to all the missiles that would be launched against it from three fronts.
Theoretically, Iran can deliver 1,000-1,500 tons of the most modern explosives within a few days. The long-range missiles that have been supplied to Hizbullah via Damascus, and the arsenal that has been massed by Hamas in Gaza, which includes missiles that can reach Beersheba, must also be taken into consideration.
There is no question that these two organizations will move into action together with Iran, and it is not impossible that Hizbullah would attempt the invasion of Israel proper to gain a local victory by occupying a border village, killing inhabitants and kidnapping a few over to Lebanon.
This gruesome situation can happen any time, and not necessarily as a result of an Israeli attack on Iran. Such an attack, however, would surely bring it about.
Are these facts not known to the Israeli intelligence agencies? They are, but so were Hitler's intentions known to the British and the French before World War II, and they were known to the Russians before Operation Barbarosa. None of them did anything to stop the German dictator before it was too late.
At the end of the war, Europe was freed. The Germans were defeated and none of the countries of Europe was obliterated from the map. In the case of Israel, there is no recovery from a one-time devastation. There is no second chance.
Senior Israeli official: If nuclear talks fail, Bush will order Iran attack between November and January
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5447
This assessment was reported by Israeli national radio Saturday overnight quoting a high-placed "security-political" official.
The source predicted that President George W. Bush would order Iran attacked between the November 4 presidential election and his exit from the White House in January. The quote was aired shortly after the six-power talks with Iran in Geneva – with US official participation for the first time – failed, and just before Israel chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi set out for Washington. He is to spend a week there as guest of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
DEBKAfile's political sources describe the disclosure as a step aimed at slowing down the collapse of Israel's stated policy of relying on international diplomatic pressure to thwart Iran's acquisition of nuclear arms. It is expected to raise a furious outcry from the powers spearheading the diplomatic effort and prompt extreme reactions from Tehran.
Our sources report that the unidentified Israeli "security-political" source sought to achieve three objectives:
1. Underlining the signal that the US military option had not been taken off the table after the state department spokesman said Iran must choose between cooperation with the international community and confrontation.
The official was also giving Israel's answer to the latest evaluations making the rounds in Washington that the Israeli Air Force does not have enough warplanes to strike Iran's nuclear sites without American military support.
2. A signal that the presence at the Geneva talks Saturday, July 19, of Under Secretary of State William Burns, far from being a concession, was an implicit ultimatum. Tehran was being told that no more than three months remained for it to suspend uranium enrichment before Bush made good on his pledge to resolve the issue before he left the White House. No member of the Bush administration is saying this directly, whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates or the president himself. Israel will not doubt be rebuked for its disclosure.
3. As a high-risk step to derail the accommodations Washington and Tehran are on the way to reaching in their secret talks on a wide range of issues, with the exception of the nuclear controversy, as revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile. Israel fears being abandoned and left out in the cold on all its fronts against Iran by these accommodations.
Tehran may well seize on the Israeli disclosure as a pretext to ditch the nuclear negotiations on all levels, unless all six powers offer guarantees against their pursuit of military initiatives.
McCain: We can never allow a second Holocaust
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5453
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain told an Israeli Channel Two TV interviewer Monday, July 21, that he is in favor of communications with Iran at different levels, but would object to face-to-face talks with [president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad who has publicly dedicated himself to destroying Israel.
Asked about the possibility of Israel taking unilateral military action to eliminate Iran's ability to achieve a nuclear weapons, Senator McCain said: I would hope Israelis would not feel bound to do this. I have some optimism we can succeed with sanctions."
He went on to say "We can never allow a second Holocaust."
The candidate added: "I think we still have a lot of options to explore before a military option and we have not exercised them all."
Obama: A nuclear Iran would be a game-changing situation
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5461
The Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama asserted that he would bring "big sticks and big carrots" to make Iran stand down on its nuclear program, but take no option off the table.
Answering reporters' questions in the missile-battered southern town of Sderot,
July 23, Obama stressed that preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon must be of paramount concern for any US administration. It would lead to the disintegration of the non-proliferation regime, other Middle East nations would also obtain nuclear weapons and some would reach terrorists. "This is the single most important threat to Israel and the US."
In answer to another question, the US senator denied he had changed his position on Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem is Israel's capital," he said, "and it should not be sliced in half in a two-state solution. This is a matter to be settled by the parties in final-status talks not by America."
In peace talks, "I would not pressure Israel for concessions that would put its security at risk, neither would McCain." As president I would act as facilitator for the process, not dictate to either side." He added: "peace must be centered on Israel's security, not at its expenses."
Accompanied by the Israeli defense, foreign and internal security ministers on his trip to Sderot, the presidential hopeful said "It is intolerable for Israeli civilians to have to live under missile fire in their homes and schools."
Earlier, he met Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, after laying a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem and talking to Israeli officials and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
The visiting US senator is staying at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, close to Wednesday's Palestinian bulldozer attack, which he condemned on arrival from
Israel, Russia close to energy pipeline deal through Turkey
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5444
The project consists of five pipelines that would carry water, natural gas, oil, electricity and fiber optics from Turkey's Mediterranean coast to Israel. Infrastructure minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Saturday, July 18: "We are very close to an agreement with Russia for the supply of natural gas for the pipeline." He spoke after talks with Turkish energy officials on the technical details of the venture.
Turkish energy minister Hilmi Guler said feasibility studies should be done in 10 months for a pipeline to carry at least 40 million tonnes of oil a year. Azerbaijan has shown interest in using the pipeline to shorten the transport time for shipping its crude to eastern Asian markets.
Iran set to receive advanced Russian anti-air S-300 by September
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5462
Senior Israeli defense sources were reported by Reuters as saying Wednesday, July 23, that with the S-300, Iran could fight off any strikes against its nuclear facilities.
DEBKAfile's military sources note that this is the second statement in four days by Israeli security sources, stressing the need for expeditious action to preempt Iran's military nuclear progress.
It is not by chance that this latest statement coincided with the visit by the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. He spoke in general about his commitments on Iran if he wins the race to the White House. This second Israeli statement indicated a specific time frame for action.
The Israeli sources, who refused to be named, said the first delivery of S-300 missile batteries was expected as soon as early September, weeks away, and could take six-to 12 months to be deployed and made operable.
"There is no doubt," he said, "that the S-300s would make an air attack more difficult.
This assessment clashed with a statement by US defense secretary Robert Gates who said on July 9 "… it's highly unlikely that those air defense missiles would be in Iranian hands any time soon." Gates is known to be a firm objector to a US or Israeli military operation against Iran's nuclear sites.
Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who is spending a week in Washington will no doubt update American officials on Israel's latest intelligence on Iran's plans.
Saturday night, July 20, an Israeli "security-political official" estimated that if diplomatic efforts to bring Iran to give up uranium enrichment failed, President George W. Bush would order Iran attacked between the November 4 presidential election and his exit from the White House in January. The quote was aired shortly after the six-power talks with Iran in Geneva – with US official participation for the first time – ended without an answer from Tehran.
One of the purposes of the Israeli air force drill over the Mediterranean last month, widely seen as a dress rehearsal for a possible raid on Iran, was to practice passes against the S-300 batteries which Greece acquired from Russia via Cyprus.
Saudi Arabia's growing military cooperation with Russia
http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373238
A simple, one-sentence Russian language news item published by Russia's Interfax on July 14 seemingly signals yet another tectonic shift in the Middle East's volatile mixture of oil, religion and weaponry. The item read, "An agreement about military-technical collaboration (VTS) between Russia and Saudi Arabia was signed Monday evening, reports an Interfaks correspondent; the agreement was signed in the presence of RF Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by Federal agency on VTS head Mikhail Dmitriev and National Security Council of Saudi Arabia Secretary General Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz" (Interfax, July 14).
The next day the Saudi Press Agency provided more details, differing from the Interfax bulletin by noting that it was actually Bandar and Putin who signed the agreement, adding that "Bandar reiterated the keenness of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on further cementing Saudi-Russian relations in the political, military, security, cultural and technological domains" (Saudi Press Agency, July 15).
While no text of the agreement was published, the news apparently represents a major potential realignment of the Middle East's geopolitical realities, made all the more extraordinary by the fact that, beginning 29 years ago and continuing through the entire Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia matched, dollar for dollar, the United States' covert assistance to the Mujahideen.
Saudi Ambassador to Russia Ali bin Hassan Jaafar commented that the event reflected the two nations' "sincere" desire to develop not only military-technical cooperation, but also broader joint endeavors in other fields, adding, "It will be one more bridge linking our countries" (Vedomosti, July 16).
Russian sources remarked that the Saudi military was particularly interested in Mi-17 transport and Mi-35 (NATO designation--"Hind-E") attack/transport helicopters. Ironically, an earlier variant of the Mi-35, the Mi-24, was used extensively during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to strafe Mujahideen, operating with complete air superiority until July 1985, when the United States began to supply the Mujahideen with hundreds of FIM-92A Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
Riyadh's shopping list apparently is not limited to transporters and helicopters, as the source also stated that Saudi Arabia also was interested in purchasing Russia's most advanced aircraft and air defense systems, as well as T-90S main battle tanks, and was considering purchasing and integrating Russian-built S-300 and S-400 air defense systems with their U.S. Patriot systems (Vremya Novostei, July 16).
Discussions between Riyadh and Moscow have been underway since then President Putin visited Saudi Arabia in February 2007, when he met not only with King Abdullah but also with Sultan, former ambassador to the United States, who was appointed NSC head in October 2005, and Sultan's father, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, half-brother of King Abdallah and currently Saudi Arabia's minister of defense and aviation (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, February 16, 2007).
Obviously impressing his host, Abdullah awarded Putin the Order of King Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia's highest governmental award. Extending his trip to call on other U.S. regional allies, Putin also visited Qatar and Jordan.
Following up on Putin's 2007sojourn, Defense Minister Sultan subsequently visited Moscow in November, while last February Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal visited Moscow for discussions with then President Putin (Kommersant, February 15).
Putin said of the agreement, "Our relations are developing well; trade turnover is growing, though in absolute terms it still looks modest, but considering our good ties, we have good prospects and a good basis" (Interfax, July 14).
Speculation immediately flared in the Russian press that Riyadh was using the agreement and dangling large potential weapons contracts in front of Russia in an effort to woo Moscow away from Iran (Kommersant, July 15). Dmitry Peskov, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman, was forced to deny the reports, saying, "Any allegations to the effect that Russia's relations with Saudi Arabia with regard to military technological cooperation may in any way be linked to the Russian-Iranian dialogue are out of place and untrue" (Interfax, July 15). If the allegations are true, they provide yet another hidden aspect to the West's efforts to cajole and pressure Tehran into abandoning its uranium enrichment program.
The news is unpleasant for the U.S., as from 1999 to 2006, Saudi Arabia received $6.5 billion under arms transfer agreements with the United States, an annual average of $815 million in inflation-adjusted fiscal year 2006 dollars; and in July 2007 Washington announced the sale of $20 billion in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia and its neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council. For Russia, to enter such a lucrative arms market, which for years was the exclusive purview of the EU and the U.S., is potentially worth billions of dollars. While Saudi Arabia has yet to express an interest in such top-end (and expensive) items as fighters, Riyadh's potential shopping list reportedly includes not only the items mentioned earlier, but also 150 advanced T-90S tanks, over 100 helicopters including the Mi-35, Mi-17 and Mi-28NE variants, the Buk-M2E medium range air defense systems and several hundred BMP-3 armored personnel carriers; and the wish list could grow, according to a Russian defense industry source (Interfax-AVN, July 15).
For Washington, perhaps the most surprising aspect of the agreement is the deep involvement of Bandar, who appears to be the driving agent behind Saudi Arabia's growing military cooperation with Russia. During his time in Washington, Bandar by dint of seniority became the unofficial dean of the diplomatic corps and was so close to the Bush family that he earned the sobriquet, "Bandar Bush." Obviously Bandar's loyalties may be more malleable than Washington previously thought.
More concrete details of the agreement will doubtless become known in the coming days; but for Washington the final slap must be Bandar bin Sultan's comment, "Both Russia and Saudi Arabia agree upon and understand each other in virtually every energy-related issue" (Interfax, July 14). Saudi Arabia and Russia are the world's number one and two oil exporters, controlling nearly a quarter of the world's oil production between them. If the two "understand each other," then the potential anguish over the growing Russian-Saudi rapprochement could extend far beyond the Western military-industrial complex to include motorists and those seeking to heat their homes next winter. The only potential silver lining in the newfound friendship between the two is that Saudi Arabia is a member of OPEC while Russia is not, which may cause their interests to diverge. An energy hungry world can only hope so.
Iran will not "retreat one iota" over its nuclear program, Ahmadinejad
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5459
The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state TV Wednesday, July 23: "The Iranian nation… will not retreat one iota in the face of oppressing powers."
In a different tone, he praised US participation in the six-power meeting with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva Saturday as a "positive step forward" toward recognizing Iran's right to acquire "nuclear technology."
The Iranian president said it would help repair "America's image in the world."
The powers gave Tehran until August 2 to respond to their offer of incentives for halting uranium enrichment or face stiff penalties.
Top US military chief is convinced Iranians seek atom bomb
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5450
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News he is convinced the Iranians are seeking to building an atomic bomb, "a very destabilizing possibility in that part of the world." He stressed the US had the capacity and the reserves to attack Iran as a last resort
DEBKAfile's Washington sources stressed the special significance of Mullen's statement on Sunday, July 20. The night before, a senior Israeli security official said that if the US-Iranian talks failed, President Bush planned to use the three-month period between the November elections in America and his exit from the White House in January for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Saturday night, too, Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi arrived for a week's visit as the admiral's guest.
Mullen warned that while the US has the capacity and reserves for attacking Iran, there could be "possible unintended consequences" and an unpredictable regional impact from any attack on Iran – a hint at a dangerous backlash from a possible Israeli strike uncoordinated with the United States.
"I'm fighting two wars and I don't need a third one," said Mullen referring to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Waiting for Islam's Messiah
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/411301.aspx
Iran's president believes Allah has chosen him to prepare the world for the coming of an Islamic 'savior' called the Mahdi.
But before the Mahdi's return, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes there must be global chaos - even if he has to create it himself.
Whether it's his belief that Israel should be wiped off the map, denials of the Holocaust, obsession with going nuclear, or support for radical Islamic terrorist groups, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man on a divine mission.
To understand him, and that mission, you have travel to the small dusty village of Jamkaran tucked in a corner of Iran's holy city of Qom.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, CBN News made that journey heading south out of Iran's capital, Tehran. Some 95 miles, and a couple of wrong turns later, we arrived at the Jamkaran mosque on the outskirts of Qom.
Behind the Jamkaran mosque there is a well. According to many Shiite Muslims, out of this well will emerge one day their version of an Islamic 'savior.'
They call him the Mahdi or the 12th Imam.
Ron Cantrell has written a book about the Mahdi. He explained, "The Mahdi is a personage that is expected to come on the scene, by Islam, as a messiah figure. He is slotted to come in the end of time, according to their writings, very much like how we think of the return of Jesus."
Shiite Muslims believe the Mahdi, a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, vanished in the middle of the 9th century.
Cantrell told us, "The 12th Imam disappeared, around the age of 9, with a promise that he would return and he would bring Islam to its total fruition as the world's last standing religion."
Enter Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since becoming the president of Iran in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has emerged as the Mahdi's most influential follower.
Cantrell said, "[Ahmadinejad] has stated that his mandate is to pave the way for the coming of this Islamic 'messiah'."
In almost all his speeches, Ahmadinejad begs Allah to hasten the return of the Mahdi. At a recent military parade attended by CBN News in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said, "Oh, Allah, please facilitate Imam Mahdi's early return and make us one of his supporters."
He said something similar last September just before ending a speech at the United Nations in New York.
Ahmadinejad said, "Oh mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository [a reference to the Mahdi], the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."
A few days later, back home in Iran, Ahmadinejad told a group of religious leaders that during his UN speech, he felt a 'bright light' around him.
His reactions were captured on video and later posted on a conservative Iranian website.
Ahmadinejad said, "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes to the message of the Islamic Republic."
Ahmadinejad is reportedly tied to a radical Islamic society in Iran that believes man can hasten the appearance of the Mahdi by creating chaos in the world.
Cantrell explained, "Ahmadinejad has stated that this chaos must take place before the Mahdi can come on the scene."
Some wonder if Ahmadinejad believes these are 'the end times,' and whether his calls for the destruction of Israel and nuclear pursuits are ways to accelerate the divine timetable.
Cantrell further explained, "With him it is a win-win situation. If we attack him, he wins because chaos happens. If we don't attack him, he gets to create the chaos which he has said he is willing to do and he will do."
In Shiite Muslim teaching, the Mahdi's second coming will be marked by apocalyptic times. Wars, famines and floods will ravage the earth and then comes judgment day and a battle between good and evil.
As the sun dips behind the mountains that surround Jamkaran, the faithful, many of whom voted for Ahmadinejad, arrive by the thousands from across Iran to pray for the Mahdi's return.
Ezatallah Alimoradi, a follower of the Mahdi, said, "I feel so refreshed in my spirit when I come here to Jamkaran."
Akram Alsadat Emmami, Follower of Mahdi, said, "This day belongs to the Mahdi and I've come to share my heart with him."
The night begins with a visit to the sacred well. CBN News is given a rare opportunity to visit with people praying there. The opening of the well is covered by a green-like metal box to prevent people from jumping in.
Most of the time here is spent praying and kissing the metal box. Others scribble prayer requests to the Mahdi on pieces of paper that are then dropped into the well.
A man asked the Mahdi to forgive his sins.
A man, Follower of Mahdi said, "If you ask in the right way, your prayers will be answered."
Another person seeks healing for family members.
Emmami explained, "I don't come here just to pray for myself. I also ask the Mahdi to take care of my family and their needs."
Many, like this young boy with a flashlight, believe the Mahdi is actually hiding at the bottom of the well reading those prayer requests.
Abbas Rezaie, Follower of Mahdi, told us, "I was looking into the well with my flashlight hoping to see the Mahdi. But not to tonight."
Shia tradition teaches that if you come to Jamkaran 40 weeks in a row, you will "see" the Mahdi.
A Woman who did not give her name said, "I have not had the privilege to see him yet, but I've had many dreams about him. In one of my dreams I saw a big bright light in the sky and this figure standing over me."
The next few hours are spent praying inside the Jamkaran mosque.
I stood at the entrance to the Jamkaran mosque; and I've been told that as a non-Muslim I am not allowed to go inside the mosque. The truth is every day, tens of thousands of men and women come through this mosque to say their prayers but also to pray that one day soon the Mahdi would return."
Nedal said, "And because we believe that he is going to come back soon we can believe in heaven and hell and we can believe in the life after death."
Ahmadinejad's government reportedly gave $20 million to help renovate the Jamkaran mosque. There are rumors that he's planning to build a railway line connecting Tehran and Jamkaran, to ferry the faithful.
And apparently Ahmadinejad has also drawn up the plans for the road the Mahdi will take when he returns.
Cantrell said, "...that will actually serve as the red carpet rolled out in Iran for the Mahdi to appear."
And if all this wasn't mystical enough, there's also the belief that when the Mahdi comes back, he will be accompanied by Jesus Christ.
Cantrell further explained, "The Mahdi will take Jesus to Mecca, they will circum-ambulate the Kabah together. The Mahdi will teach Jesus to pray; at which time Jesus will then replace the Gospel with the Koran, and then all of us Christians, wherever you are on the face of the earth, will convert to Islam because Islam will be deemed the one lasting pure religion."
As the West drifts closer to a potential showdown over Iran's nuclear program, followers of the Mahdi are getting ready for judgment day.
And many of them are convinced that President Ahmadinjead will fulfill his divine mission to prepare the world for the coming of the Islamic 'savior.'
US, UK, France launch sea exercise for naval blockade on Iran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5452
The White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it expected Iran to "miss an opportunity to accept" the incentives package.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation.
After warning of punitive measures against Iran, Condoleezza Rice met the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq in Abu Dhabi. First she was briefed by Under Secretary of State William Burns.
The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports.
Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste, and the British HMS Illustrious Carrier Strike Group, as well as a Brazilian frigate.
Six vessels from the Norfolk Naval State will play the role of "enemy" forces.
About 15,000 sailors will be involved in Operation Brimstone. Both the Roosevelt and Iwo Jima will be deployed in the Middle East in the coming months.
The exercise is scheduled to end July 31, two days before the US-European ultimatum to Iran expires. Immediately after the Geneva talks ended in failure, the US State Department issued a statement giving Tehran the option of "cooperation or confrontation."
A partial blockade of Iran's shores, a key element of the new sanctions, would be limited to withholding from Iran supplies of benzene and other refined oil products - not foodstuffs or other commodities. Short of refining capacity, Iran has to import 40 percent of its benzene consumption and will be forced to react to the stoppage.
Operation Brimstone boasts two striking features:
1. It will include for the first time units of the US Expeditionary Combat Command, who are trained to operate in shallow coastal waters and rivers, such as the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf and the small islands around its chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Revolutionary Guards marine units are posted on these islands.
The international force will have to control the islands to ensure oil shipping freed passage out to world markets.
2. The Roosevelt's decks will for the first time host French Rafale fighter jets which will share space with US warplanes, while the only French carrier Charles de Gaulle undergoes maintenance.
Our military sources note that French warplanes have in the past performed short landings and takeoff drills on US carriers from the Charles de Gaulle, but never before taken part in a fully cooperative operational exercise.
This joint endeavor signifies that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is fully committed to a joint US-European military action if necessary to halt Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon.
Addressing the Knesset in Jerusalem Monday, July 21, British prime minister George Brown said: Iran must ''suspend its nuclear program and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response not of one nation but of many nations.''
Brown's spokesman said the premier did not rule out "extended sanctions in some form on the oil and gas sector" in Iran. Sources said that could involve sanctions on spare parts for Tehran's fairly limited domestic oil refining capacity.
British PM Brown: Iran has choice of negotiations or isolation
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5451
In the first address to the Knesset by a British prime minister, Gordon Brown said Monday, July 21: We have given Iran a clear choice: Accept our negotiations on its nuclear program or face growing isolation and collective response - not of one nation but many nations."
The UK, EU and US will work together to prevent Iran's nuclear weapons program, he said.
The British prime minister went on to say: "It is totally abhorrent for the Iranian president to say Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth. We condemn anti-Semitism and persecution in all its forms. Gordon Brown pledged that his government would "stand foursquare" against any boycott of Israel and Israeli academics. It is vital that every generation learns about the Holocaust, he said.
Brown's spokesman said the premier did not rule out "extended sanctions in some form on the oil and gas sector" in Iran, OPEC's number two producer.
The UK has already proposed sanctions designed to effect Iran's oil production, including refusing to supply spare parts to the Islamic Republic.
Praising Israel's stunning achievements in 60 years, he said: "We want a state of Palestine that accepts Israel as a friend and neighbor."
Lasting peace, he said, depended on the Palestinians stamping out "terrorists" and "Israel freezing, and withdrawing from, settlements"." He supported Jerusalem as a capital for both Israel and Palestine.
PM Brown ended his two-day visit to Israel Monday afternoon after top level talks on UK-Israeli cooperation in the business, economic, scientific and education sectors.
Brown urges immediate release of British hostages in Iraq
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5448
The British prime minister Gordon Brown, who arrived in Israel Saturday night, July 19, made the demand after one of the five hostages kidnapped was claimed by an insurgent group to have committed suicide.
The claim was made on a video passed to the Sunday Times. The man identified only as Jason was said to have killed himself on May 25, four days short of the first anniversary of the five men's abduction by a group called Shiite Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The video called for the release of nine prisoners held in Basra.
A second hostage was shown pleading for government action to speed their release. He said the victims were suffering physical and psychological distress. The British foreign office had no independent verification of the claims. Brown raised the hostages' plight in talks with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al- Maliki Saturday.
The British premier is spending two days talking to Israeli leaders on economic and cultural cooperation and meeting Palestinians.
Christian Girls Kidnapped, Forcibly Converted by Muslims in Pakistan
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07427.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Two preteen Christian girls, Saba Younis and Aneela Younis, were kidnapped by Muslims while on their way to visit their uncle in the town of Chowk Munda in the state of Punjab on June 26.
Two days later, the kidnappers filed for custody of them at the local police station, stating that they had converted to Islam and that their father, Younis Masih, no longer had jurisdiction over them. It was also reported by their uncle that they had been forcibly married to local Muslim men.
Police initially refused Masih's request to file a complaint against the abductors, claiming his daughters had "embraced Islam." With help from a local human rights activist, Masih opened a case against them. On July 12, the district judge ruled in favour of the Muslims, alleging that the girls' conversions to Islam were "legitimate" and their marriages "valid," so they could not be returned to their family. The family is reportedly planning to appeal the ruling but local Christians fear they will continue to be treated unjustly because of their faith.
Pray that Saba and Aneela will be returned home. Pray that they will remain strong in their faith. Ask God to give comfort to their families. Pray for safety for other young Christian girls in Pakistan.
For more information on the persecution of Christians in Pakistan, go to www.persecution.net/country/pakistan.htm.
Pakistan Warns of New Nuclear Arms Race With India
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nuclear_india_pakistan/2008/07/23/115623.html
VIENNA, Austria — Pakistan has warned a deal leading to increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race between the rivals, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
The letter was given to the AP a day after India's government won a confidence vote that paved the way for a landmark deal on nuclear energy cooperation with the United States. To finalize the U.S. deal, India must strike separate agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries that export nuclear material. Then Congress will need to approve the accord.
The agreements would end more than three decades of nuclear isolation for India, opening its civilian reactors to international inspections in exchange for the nuclear fuel and technology it has been denied because of its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and its testing of atomic weapons.
India imports about 75 percent of its oil, and the prime minister has argued the country needs the nuclear deal to power its financial growth and lift hundreds of millions out of poverty.
The 35-nation IAEA board is expected to approve on Aug. 1 a safeguards agreement setting up rules for inspecting some of India's civilian nuclear facilities. Approval of the safeguards deal is key in India's efforts to gain access to legal imports of nuclear fuel and technology from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Pakistan's letter dated July 18 addressed more than 60 nations including members of the IAEA board and Nuclear Suppliers Group. It warned the safeguards agreement would hurt nonproliferation efforts and "threatens to increase the chances of a nuclear arms race in the subcontinent."
Predominantly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars since they were created in the bloody partition of the Indian subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947.
Relations have improved considerably since the start of a peace process in 2004. But progress at the talks has been slow and deep distrust remains between the two rivals, which developed their nuclear arms in secret.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group bans exports to nuclear weapons states such as India and Pakistan that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and do not have full safeguard agreements allowing the U.N. nuclear watchdog to inspect their facilities. But the Nuclear Suppliers Group is ready to consider a waiver for India, in part due to lobbying from Washington.
The Bush administration has signed a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel but needs approval, first from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and then Congress.
In India, U.S. Ambassador David Mulford said earlier Wednesday Washington hoped New Delhi would quickly finalize the deal so it could be presented to Congress for approval in early September.
"We are delighted that this has taken place and we are organizing ourselves and stand ready to move ahead with the final steps of the civil nuclear initiative," Mulford told reporters.
Pakistan is vehemently opposed to the Nuclear Suppliers Group doing business with its rival and may vote against approval of the draft at the Aug. 1 IAEA board meeting.
The IAEA board is expected to approve the deal despite criticism from detractors that it could limit international oversight of New Delhi's civilian facilities because of ambiguous wording and help supply its arms program with fissile material.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to call a confidence vote Tuesday after communist political parties withdrew their support for his government this month to protest the agreement, fearing it would draw India closer to the U.S.
On Wednesday, several key Indian political parties, including the communists, said they were forming an alliance to oppose the government.
Iris-scan systems to secure Arab states' borders
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_tech0353_07_22.asp
CAIRO — Arab League states have agreed to introduce a biometric system to protect their borders and also speed security procedures.
Arab border security chiefs have endorsed the procurement and installation of biometric systems at airports and sea ports. The chiefs convened in an Arab League session in Tunisia on July 17 as part of efforts to bolster security coordination.
"It's clear that biometrics would be vital in controlling the flow of terrorists and criminals in our countries," a participant said.
A statement by the Arab security chiefs endorsed the Iris Recognition Immigration System, or IRIS, for border control, Middle East Newsline reported. The statement said the system would enable arrivals to enter any country without examination by an immigration officer.
Instead they can walk up to an automated barrier, look into a camera, and if the system recognizes them they can walk through the immigration counter," an Arab official said.
IRIS has so far been deployed at 35 land, sea and air border point across the United Arab Emirates. Officials said the system requires two seconds to identify the image. They said the error rate is 0.5 percent.
Under the recommendation, the biometric system would facilitate the flow of tourists and executives in the Arab world. Officials said frequent visitors would first be eligible to use IRIS.
The Arab security chiefs also agreed to streamline land border points and the exchange of intelligence. They also recommended that one border point per country would be designated for motorists.
Nations with vast oil wealth gaining clout
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-oil17-2008jul17,0,6710073.story
The boom in world oil prices is bolstering autocratic governments in a handful of petroleum-rich countries, emboldening them to challenge U.S. objectives and weakening their own democratic movements.
The cost of a barrel of oil has climbed dizzyingly, from $80 in September to more than $147, before settling Wednesday at $134.60. Some analysts expect it to continue rising to $200. The effects are visible across the globe.
Iraq's warring factions are scrapping for a share of the massive oil wealth. The Sudanese government has more money to spend on military equipment and the campaign against rebels in Darfur. Saudi Arabia has grown more distant from its allies in Washington.
But some of the most obvious effects are in countries whose leaders are most hostile to the United States: Venezuela's populist President Hugo Chavez, Iran's stringent Islamic rulers and Russia's growing autocracy.
The governments of these three countries, among the top eight in proven reserves, are demanding a greater role in world affairs while spending on domestic social programs, raising salaries and building infrastructure -- measures that help blunt concerns over a slide into greater authoritarianism.
"You have no control from society or opposition or the state or anybody," said Grigory Yavlinsky, a Russian economist and leader of the opposition Yabloko party. "So it's easy to use this money to support your popularity."
But vast oil wealth comes with risks. All three countries are struggling with inflation, which might slowly erode popular support.
In Russia, public spending doubled from 2004 to 2007. Oil and gas revenues are expected to surpass $178 billion in 2008, nearly $33 billion more than originally projected. The International Monetary Fund, wary of inflation, has warned Russia against rampant spending.
Inflation in Iran has aggravated a devaluation of the currency.
Political changes wrought by the oil windfall also may backfire. Venezuela's output is declining in part because skilled engineers and foreign companies are fleeing. Analysts say sanctions, brain drain and dearth of foreign investment have badly hurt Iran's potential output because of a lack of modern techniques.
For now, however, all three are riding high on oil revenue.
"This is perhaps the largest shift of wealth and resources in the history of the world economy," said Andrei Illarionov, who was an economic advisor to former Russian President Vladimir Putin and is now a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "This money happens to be a kind of windfall profit for these countries, compensating for failures in other areas."
A nine-year run of growing oil revenue has restored Russia to a strength it hasn't experienced since the Soviet heyday. No longer a broken country fumbling for footing, Russia is now a major player on the world stage.
Ten years ago, Russia was swamped with debt. Today, it sits on the world's third-largest monetary reserves, topped only by China and Japan.
The government has unveiled popular initiatives to boost pensions and improve benefits for veterans. New President Dmitry Medvedev promised to focus on socioeconomic woes that beset ordinary Russians.
Meanwhile, Moscow has become increasingly aggressive toward Western-leaning former Soviet states, imposing a blockade on Georgia and engaging in a dispute with Ukraine over the pricing of natural gas.
Putin has sparred with the United States over NATO expansion; U.S. plans to install missile defense radar and rockets in Poland and the Czech Republic; and recognition of Kosovo's independence.
Russia has also boosted ties with Iran, building a nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr and providing nuclear fuel -- even as Iran's nuclear program has emerged as a source of acrimony with the West.
Medvedev recently charged that incompetence and arrogance by Washington and U.S. businesses have provoked a global economic crisis.
"It was the disconnect between the formal role played by the United States of America in the world economic system and its actual capabilities that was one of the main reasons for the current crisis," Medvedev told political and business leaders at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"Russia today is a global player," Medvedev said. "We must recognize its responsibility for shaping the destiny of the world."
Russians have embraced this vision, and Putin and Medvedev enjoy strong popularity. But the country also suffers from rampant corruption and a focus on quick profits. Independent media have been squashed and dissent is being silenced. Beyond the new class of super-rich nourished by oil and gas prices, widespread poverty lingers.
And in the first four months of 2008, oil output decreased 1.5% compared with the same period in 2007. There are fears that rising costs and aging fields mean output could decrease this year for the first time in a decade.
Iran too has experienced an increase in clout and a weakening of democracy as the price of oil has risen. The Islamic Republic has been able to simultaneously expand its influence, bolster military capability and suppress dissent.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the price per barrel has played a critical role in determining the tone of relations between the U.S. and Iran, which is heavily dependent on energy exports to finance its gigantic public sector, its military and its foreign allies.
In the 1990s, with oil prices bottoming out and foreign debt piling up, Iran was forced to moderate its domestic and international policies to attract European investment and trade with Persian Gulf states.
With oil at an inflation-adjusted $24 a barrel and dropping, reformist Mohammad Khatami was elected president with a mandate to make Iran a more open country.
But by 2002, with oil at $27 and rising, analysts detected a drift toward greater authoritarianism, including a crackdown on the independent media and the arrests of dissidents and members of Khatami's entourage.
With oil at $55 a barrel, conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ascended to power in 2005. Record oil prices have enabled Ahmadinejad to offer low-interest loans or food coupons to government supporters, launch infrastructure projects and import large amounts of food to keep commodity prices low. Meanwhile, journalists, activists and bloggers are silenced by intimidation or jailing.
Tehran earned more from oil money in May 2008 than it did in all of 1998, the height of Khatami's power.
Iran's nuclear program has become one of the major foreign policy worries of the Bush administration and Israel, as well as a grave concern for Europe and the Arab world.
Iranian backing for militant groups in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon did not begin with the oil boom. But its strong role in Iraq, along with the rapid expansion of its uranium enrichment program over the last two years, did.
"You can't attribute that entirely to higher oil prices," said Paul Sampson, a London-based analyst for Energy Intelligence, a trade publisher covering the oil and gas industries. But "the fact is that the hard-liners have become more entrenched because they have this constant stream of oil revenue."
"As a general rule in Iran, the increase of oil price has disproportional relationship to democratization," said Said Laylaz, a Tehran economist. "The higher the price, the less democratic society. . . . The government has been emboldened to control everything."
High oil prices have also shielded Iran from the effects of sanctions over its nuclear program.
"If you took Iran's oil off the market, that would bring the international economy to its knees," Sampson said. "Iran knows that."
In Venezuela, the Central Bank reports that oil revenue for the first quarter of this year was $20 billion, up 60% from the first three months of last year.
Chavez has channeled much of the oil bonanza into programs for the poor. But observers worry that the windfall is encouraging his autocratic tendencies, and that Chavez is using the cash to finance an arms buildup and an anti-U.S. policy initiative.
Others predict that in a country where 70% of economic output is directly related to oil, his economic model will crash if and when prices fall.
Growth is evident everywhere in Venezuela, in shopping malls where consumers snap up clothing, whiskey and electronics, and on streets where traffic jams tell of a 47% increase in car sales last year.
For now, it matters little that production has sharply declined over the last five years because of the flight of home-grown professionals and the foreign firms with expertise in dealing with Venezuela's difficult-to-handle heavy oil.
But some say rising oil prices mask economic troubles to come.
Gustavo Garcia, an economist at a Caracas think tank and graduate school known by its initials, IESA, said growth such as Venezuela's that is based on high oil prices cannot be maintained indefinitely.
"In the medium term, when these prices return to normal levels, the economy will be subject to a traumatic adjustment," he said. "We are repeating cycles of past economic expansions that were based on oil booms that aren't sustainable."
Pastor Sentenced to Two Years "Re-education Through Labour" in China
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07422.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Pastor Zhang Zhongxin was sentenced to two years "re-education through labour" in the city of Jining, Shandong province on July 4, according to a July 8 report from China Aid Association.
He is due to be released on June 5, 2010. An appeal hearing for his case has been scheduled for August 14.
Ask God to protect Pastor Zhang in the labour camp. Pray that he will be a bold witness for Christ there. Pray that the persecutors of Christians in China will open their hearts to the love of Christ as Saul did (Acts 9:1-19).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in China, go to www.persecution.net/country/china.htm.
Boycott Beijing Olympics, China Expert Says
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07423.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Va., (christiansunite.com) -- Steven W. Mosher, well-known China expert, calls for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, saying that the games will only serve to legitimize a one-party dictatorship that has a deplorable human rights record.
"The Olympics is intended to be a celebration of the human spirit," says Mosher. "But the spirit of the Chinese people, not to mention the spirit of the Tibetans and other minorities, is being crushed under the weight of an oppressive regime. We should no more celebrate the Olympics in China in 2008, than we should have celebrated the Olympics in Nazi- controlled Berlin in 1936."
Mosher reminds the world that China's rights record has not improved in recent years, rather, it has actually gotten worse. "China is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world," he explains. "Given the Chinese Communist Party bragging rights over the games makes a mockery of their meaning."
Mosher has formed the "Beijing Boycott Coalition" to oppose the Beijing Olympics. The coalition invites activists and groups of different backgrounds to join in protesting ongoing human rights violations in China by refusing to watch the games or patronize its sponsors.
All individuals and groups concerned about human rights, whether their issue is the suppression of journalism, the persecution of religious groups, or forced abortion, are welcome to join the coalition. The Beijing Boycott Coalition reaches across ideological boundaries to include all those who care deeply about human rights and the Chinese people, and want to send a message to the Beijing regime.
For more information about the coalition, or to sign up for its e-mails, visit www.beijingboycottcoalition.com.
The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro- natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including Population Control: Real Costs and Illusory Benefits.
IRD Applauds Court Order Seeking Arrest of Sudanese President Bashir
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07414.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Today the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno- Ocampo, charged Sudan's president with plotting genocide in Darfur. The President, National Islamic Front Leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is directly blamed for the killing of thousands of people and the flight of millions of refugees.
Moreno-Ocampo said on top of the thousands killed by Sudan's armed forces and the militia they support, 2.5 million others were subjected to a campaign of "rape, hunger and fear" in refugee camps where he said genocide continued "under our eyes."
"The decision to start the genocide was taken by Bashir personally," he told a news conference reported on by Reuters. "Bashir is executing this genocide without gas chambers, without bullets, without machetes. It is genocide by attrition."
IRD Director of Religious Liberty Programs Faith J.H. McDonnell commented,
"We are grateful for Luis Moreno-Ocampo's courage and moral clarity. The world has treated the regime in Khartoum and the victims of its genocidal jihad with moral equivalence for too long. Even advocates for Darfur have at times been nebulous about the source of genocide. At last the ICC's Chief Prosecutor has, in no uncertain terms, laid the blame at the feet where it belongs.
"Moreno-Ocampo has made a very clear case, charging that Bashir 'masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy the three main ethnic groups in Darfur, the Fur, the Masalit, and the Zaghawa.'
"We wish that Bashir would be held responsible for the (undeclared) genocide perpetrated in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountain region, as well. If Moreno-Ocampo had been investigating genocide and crimes against humanity in that region during the years in which over two million people were killed and over five million displaced, he would have reached similar conclusions. Even now, Bashir's regime targets the Beja in eastern Sudan and the Nubians in the north.
"When a thug regime gets away with one genocide, what is to stop the regime from continuing the pattern? We hope that being called out before the nations of the world by the ICC will help to put an end to Bashir's decades of atrocities. Indictment will also make it perfectly clear to the nations of the EU and others that they are doing business with a war criminal."
Chinese house church head forced to live on streets
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/chinese.house.church.head.forced.to.live.on.streets/20742.htm
The chairman of the Federation House Church and his wife were recently forced to live on the streets following repeated harassment and intimidation by government authorities, reported a Chinese persecution watchdog group.
Pastor Bike Zhang and his wife Xie Fenglan were first forced from their home by Beijing public security bureau officials on July 6, reports China Aid Association. They found shelter at a friend’s house, but were again forced from this home when officials found out where they were living. They then moved into a hotel, but Public Security Bureau officials ordered the owner of the hotel to either evict the couple or face jail time.
Out of concern for the hotel owner, the Christian couple decided to voluntarily leave for another town but on their way to find new shelter, PSB officials allegedly arrested the couple and took them to the town government office where they were interrogated without food, drink or rest.
Xie Fenglan reportedly collapsed due to the stress, but was not taken to the hospital until five hours after the event.
The couple were then released but officials repeatedly forced them to leave every shelter they found. Pastor Zhang at one point had begged the PSB to allow his sick wife to stay and rest at the location they were at, but officials refused. Then on July 16, Chinese officials followed Zhang and found that his wife was staying at her sister’s house and forced her to move out.
Now, both Zhang and his wife live on the streets and are unable to find shelter.
Officials say that the couple are being expelled from Beijing because “Bike Zhang met the Americans, and destroyed the harmony of the Beijing Olympic Games”, according to CAA, referring to his recent meeting with a US Congressional delegation.
“This egregious treatment of one of China’s most respected and well-loved house church leaders is a shocking and outright violation of basic human rights and rule of law,” said CAA president Bob Fu, in a statement.
“The acts against Pastor Bike Zhang and his wife are unjust and unlawful. This type of behavior exhibited by the CPC (Communist Party of China) is reflective of a dictatorship with no regard for the well-being of its citizens and not a world leader worthy of the honour of hosting the Olympic Games.”
President Bush, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act last week, pledged to continue to press China on its religious freedom situation.
Bush spoke about Chinese human rights lawyer Li Baiguang, a house church Protestant, who has been repeatedly harassed and jailed for his work. Li was scheduled to meet members of Congress a few weeks ago, but authorities had blocked the meeting and jailed hm.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged Bush to visit human rights and religious freedom leaders and display America’s strong stance on the issue during his trip to the Beijing Olympics.
"We know President Bush has a strong, personal commitment to the issue of religious freedom in China. We hope he will convey his convictions in tangible ways, not only to China's leaders, but to its people," said Commission chair Felice D Gaer.
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