McCain: Obama Is Playing Race Card
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/campaign_race/2008/07/31/118009.html
WASHINGTON -- John McCain accused Barack Obama of playing politics with race on Thursday after the first black candidate with a serious chance of winning the White House claimed Republicans will try to scare voters by saying he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
Until now, the explosive issue of race has been almost taboo in the campaign, at least in public, with both sides fearing its destructive force.
"I'm disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he's saying," McCain told reporters in Racine, Wis. The Arizona senator said he agreed with campaign manager Rick Davis' statement earlier that "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong." The aide was suggesting McCain had been wrongfully accused.
In turn, Obama's campaign said his comment was not about race.
"Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they're using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign," said spokesman Bill Burton.
A day earlier and in response to a hard-hitting McCain commercial, Obama argued that President Bush and McCain have little to offer voters so Republicans will resort to a strategy of fear to keep the White House.
"What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
He didn't explain the comment. But it evoked images of past presidents who grace U.S. paper money, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. All were white men, and all but Grant were older than Obama when elected.
Obama long has talked about his physical appearance in speeches, but McCain advisers argue he crossed a significant line by accusing the GOP of scare tactics and alluding to his own race in the same breath.
The back-and-forth was the latest spike in a contest that's grown increasingly negative despite pledges by both Obama and McCain to run aboveboard campaigns. The daily rhetoric has turned red-hot as both maneuver for advantage and polls show the race competitive three months before the election.
At 46, Obama is serving his first Senate term and working to overcome concerns of voters that he's not ready to be president. McCain is trying to stoke the notion that the Democrat is too inexperienced to make the judgments necessary to lead a country in times of war and economic straits.
Polls show a close contest nationally and in key battleground states, including electoral prizes like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. The political environment after two Bush terms tilts heavily in the Democrats' favor, but voter skepticism about Obama has helped keep the contest within McCain's reach.
In recent days, McCain has been going after Obama with new fervor, painting him as not ready to lead and too liberal for the country. It's an aggressive approach reminiscent of GOP operative Karl Rove, who orchestrated Bush's back-to-back victories in part by tearing down Democratic opponents.
Now, several of Rove's former rank-and-file are in elevated roles in McCain's campaign, and it shows.
Opening a new front Wednesday, the GOP campaign rolled out a hard-hitting commercial that uses pictures of 20-something stars Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to suggest that Obama is little more than a media darling who is unqualified to be president.
"He's the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?" the ad asks.
Obama's campaign countered with its own ad that called McCain's charges "baloney" and "baseless."
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, Obama steered clear of race as he chided McCain, saying: "So far, all we've been hearing about is Paris Hilton. I do have to ask my opponent: 'Is that the best you can do? Is that what this election is really all about? Is that worthy of the American people?'"
At campaign headquarters in Chicago, Obama's campaign unveiled a new Web site that accuses McCain of "negative attacks and false charges."
The Democrat's campaign has been operating under an edict to leave no attack unanswered lest he be tagged with an unshakable label. In 2004, Democrat John Kerry never recovered from the Bush campaign's efforts to tag him a flip-flopper and elitist, as well as a Republican-aligned group's questioning of his war record.
Mindful of how a such a damaging narrative can take hold, Obama's campaign set up a Web site to dispel persistent Internet-driven rumors about his patriotism and religion, and he has sought to reassure voters on the campaign trail.
Often, he refers to his distinctions as a candidate and says that he's aware there are doubts among some voters because, for example, he has "a funny name." Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, also has been known to acknowledge his appearance differs from previous candidates but then to add that the differences are not just about race.
"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city," he said last week in Berlin. And on Tuesday, in Springfield, Mo., he said: "It's a leap, electing a 46-year-old black guy named Barack Obama."
Race generally remained in the background during the Democratic primary. The issue burst into the open last spring when Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, came under fire for sermons in which he accused the government of conspiring against blacks. Internet videos of his comments threatened great damage to Obama's campaign.
Seeking to stem the fallout, Obama gave a high profile speech about racial tension in the country and later left Wright's church.
Congress to End Without Oil Resolution
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/420415.aspx
CBNNews.com - Congress is set to leave town for the month of August without reaching a deal on offshore oil and gas drilling.
President Bush has been pleading with Congress to allow the drilling as a way to help bring down gas prices.
But a House Republican effort to require a vote on a drilling bill has failed by a single vote.
Now there are just a few hours before Congress adjourns for the summer, without taking any action to relieve America's energy crisis.
Liquid Coal: The New Black Gold?
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/420384.aspx
CBNNews.com - WILLIAMSON, WV - America has billions of tons of coal in its mountains, and with gas prices going through the roof, the question is why isn't more coal being turned into liquid fuel?
Welcome to the trillion dollar coal field Mingo County, W. Va., where coal, as they say, is king. And many in these parts would like to expand that kingdom by turning this black rock into liquid. Liquid fuel that could be used in cars, planes and hopefully one day make America less dependent on foreign oil.
A plan is on the table to build a $2 billion dollar liquid coal plant here in Mingo County. It could be up and running by 2012 and would be one of the first liquid coal plants in the country.
"We've got the raw product right here, so it just makes sense to do it right here in the middle of where the raw product is," Mike Whitt with the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority said.
Williamson, W. Va. is home to the nation's largest coal yard. Miles and miles of train cars filled with coal make there way from here to feed power plants all over the east coast.
With the price of diesel fuel sky-rocketing, Whitt dreams of the day when some of that coal will be turned into liquid diesel to help support the local economy.
"We're setting up to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel which can be used on school buses for the school system," he said. "Your trucks on the road here, these engines that you see right here on the railroad, they're willing to work with us to do some testing on their engines for their locomotives, their tug boats."
The plant, which promises to bring hundreds of good paying jobs to the region, would use both coal and wood. Wood helps neutralize the carbon and is also an abundant natural resource in West Virginia. The coal and wood are heated and first transformed into a gas before being made into liquid.
So just how much coal is in these mountains?
"Within 150 miles of where we're standing right now, we mine over 150 million tons of coal a year," Randy Harris said. "That's enough coal to power almost all the power plants on the east coast."
Harris has studied the idea of liquid coal for more than 20 years and says it could help the nation's energy crisis.
"If we were to take that coal and convert it into diesel fuel, 150 million tons of coal would create 300 million barrels of oil. We import into this country everyday about 16 million barrels," he explained.
West Virginia congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito is also pushing hard for liquid coal. She wants Congress to mandate domestic production of six billion barrels of liquid from coal each year by 2022.
She says U.S. coal reserves are larger than the combined oil reserves of the rest of the world, including the Middle East. Her legislation is modeled after the ethanol fuel targets already enacted by Congress and would require steady increases in the amount of fuel sold in the U.S.
"It will be less expensive. It will use an abundant natural resource that we have here in our country and certainly in West Virginia," Capito said. "I know people are looking for short-term solutions, and we're trying some short-term solutions, but unfortunately the long-term solutions are where we're going to find the greatest relief."
Turning coal into liquid fuel is not new. It's been done in other countries for decades. But the question remains, is it safe for the environment?
"All the studies and research that we've gotten done say it's very safe," Whitt said. "The bottom line is, if we're not smart enough to figure out what our neighboring countries are doing for industry independence...then we're going to be behind the curve. We can't continue to depend on foreign oil."
But some environmentalists claim liquid coal is one of the dirtiest energy sources available with double the greenhouse gas emissions of gasoline.
Harris says that's not true, and that liquid coal plants actually burn cleaner than oil refineries. Still, he says many obstacles remain, including waiting for Congress to set the rules on carbon emissions for coal to liquid technology. But with the current oil crisis, Whitt says there's never been a better time to turn coal into liquid.
"Somebody's got to do this, prove it can be done and done successfully so that other plants can pop up throughout the United States because we need them," he said.
Are Feds Stockpiling For Emergency Food Storage?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70281
A Wall Street Journal columnist has advised people to "start stockpiling food" and an ABC News Report says "there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some locals are beginning to hoard supplies." Now there's concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for stocks of storable food.
"We're told that the feds bought the entire container of canned butter when it hit the California docks. (Something's up!)," said officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an advisory to customers.
Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of various products from one of the world's larger suppliers of food stores, Oregon Freeze Dry.
He said a company official told him on the telephone when he discussed the status of his order that it was because the government had purchased massive quantities of products, leaving none for other customers.
That, however, was denied by Oregon Freeze Dry. In a website statement, the company confirmed it cannot assure supplying some items to customers.
"We regret to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10 can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily," the company tells frustrated customers. "The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment, but we must maintain capacity for our other market segments as well."
The company statement continues, "We want to clarify inaccurate information we’ve seen on the Internet. This situation is not due to sales to the government domestically or in Iraq. We do sell products to this market, but we also sell other market segments … The reason for this decision is solely due to an unprecedented sales spike in #10 cans sales.
"We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future," the company statement said.
But Hopkins wasn't backing away from his concerns.
"The government just came in and said they're buying it. They did pay for it," he told WND about the summertime shipment of long-term storage butter. "They took it and no one else could have it.
"We don't know why. The feds then went to freeze dried companies, and bought most of their canned stock," he said.
A spokeswoman for Oregon Freeze Dry, sales manager Melanie Cornutt, told WND that the increasing demand for food that can be stored has been on the rise since Hurricane Katrina devastated large sections of the Gulf Coast, cutting off ordinary supply routes.
"We are currently out of stock on our cans. We are not selling any of our cans," she confirmed.
She then raised the issue of government purchases herself.
"We do sell to the government but it is not the reason for company sales limits," she said.
Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency told WND whatever government agency is buying in a surge it isn't them. They reported a stockpile of about six million meals which has not changed significantly in an extended period.
But Hopkins said it was his opinion the government is purchasing huge quantities of food for stockpiles, and Americans will have to surmise why.
"We don't have shelters that are being stocked with food. We're not doing this for the public. My only conclusion is that they're stocking up for themselves," he said of government officials.
Blogger Holly Deyo issued an alert this week announcing, "Unprecedented demand cleans out major storable food supplier through 2009."
"It came to our attention today, that the world's largest producer of storable foods, Mountain House, is currently out of stock of ALL #10 cans of freeze dried foods, not just the Turkey Tetrazzini. They will NOT have product now through 2009," she said.
"This information was learned by a Mountain House dealer who shared it with me this morning. In personally talking with the company immediately after, Mountain House verified the information is true. Customer service stated, 'I'm surprised they don't have this posted on the website yet.' She said they have such a backlog of orders, Mountain House will not be taking any #10 can food requests through the remainder of this year and all of the next.
"Mountain House claims this situation is due to a backlog of orders, which may very well be true, but who is purchasing all of their food? This is a massive global corporation.
"One idea: the military. Tensions are ramping up with Iran and news segments debate whether or not we will implement a preemptive strike in conjunction with Israel," she wrote.
Hopkins raised some of the same concerns, suggesting a military conflict could cause oil supplies to plummet, triggering a huge increase in the cost of food – when it would be available – because of the transportation issues.
The ABC report from just a few weeks ago quoted Jim Rawles, a former U.S. intelligence officer who runs a survival blog, saying food shortages soon could become a matter of survival in the U.S.
"I think that families should be prepared for times of crisis, whether it's a man-made disaster or a natural disaster, and I think it's wise and prudent to stock up on food," he told ABC.
"If you get into a situation where fuel supplies are disrupted or even if the power grid were to go down for short periods of time, people can work around that," he said. "But you can't work around a lack of food – people starve, people panic and you end up with chaos in the streets."
At his California ranch, the location of which is kept secret, he said, "We have more than a three-year supply of food here."
In the Wall Street Journal, columnist Brett Arends warned, "Maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.
"No, this is not a drill," he wrote.
His concern was about various food shortages around the globe, and the fact that in a global market, prices in the U.S. reflect difficulties in other parts of the world quickly.
Professor Lawrence F. Roberge, a biologist who has worked with a number of universities and has taught online courses, told WND he's been following the growing concern over food supplies.
He also confirmed to WND reports of the government purchasing vast quantities of long-term storable foods.
He said that naturally would be kept secret to avoid panicking the public, such as when word leaks out to customers that a bank may be insolvent, and depositors frantically try to retrieve their cash.
"These circumstances certainly raise red flags," he said.
Will environmental laws lead to a one child policy in the United States?
http://www.pop.org/
The right to procreate goes back to the very beginning of time, and is part of our very nature. "Be fruitful and multiply," it should be recalled, was the first commandment given to our first parents. Even Malthus himself, the original population scaremonger, admitted that natural law guaranteed a broad and inviolable right to procreate.
Yet an explicit right to bear children is not to be found in the Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers simply never imagined a tyranny so great that it would refuse couples the right to procreate. This would have been akin to refusing the people the "right" to breathe. Nor did the U.S. Congress later pass laws affirming a right to bear children. So fundamental was this right--and so unquestioned--that it was never codified into law.
It is true that in 1968, when the movement to control population began to gather steam, cooler heads sought to check its excesses by passing a U.N. resolution declaring that "couples have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children." But this was merely a resolution, not a binding treaty of the kind that constitutes international law.
Now along comes a proponent of population control, Carter Dillard, to argue that the right to procreate is limited to one child because there are no explicit laws guaranteeing that right. If it is any solace, he does conclude that people do enjoy one absolute right: the right not to procreate at all.
Dillard is not some obscure blogger writing a vanity column. His article, "Rethinking the Procreative Right," was published by the prestigious Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal. His "rethinking" turns out to be an interminable recounting of every anti-people argument ever advanced. This, combined with the absence of specific laws guaranteeing procreative rights, leads him to conclude that that human rights theory, legal precedent and national and international practice do not support "a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of one's children."
According to Dillard, no couple has an inviolable right to bear a child.
Instead Dillard argues that the right to bear children must be balanced against other rights. What other rights? Dillard enumerates several, including rights belonging to other people, to future generations, and even to nature, wilderness and non-human species. I admit to having trouble understanding how "nature," "wilderness", or even "non-human species" can be said to have "rights." While we are to be good stewards of the earth and its creatures who live there, this does not create "rights" for the redwoods or the raptors. Rather, it imposes duties on us.
Yet the Spanish parliament is even now deliberating whether to grant human rights to the Great Apes--gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees. Such an act would not elevate the status of the Great Apes--they are what they are--but it would certainly degrade the status of man and threaten his rights. And because the Great Apes can obviously not speak for themselves, their new rights would have to be defended by the same people who are flogging the proposal in the first place: the radical environmentalists.
As far as who should speak for "future generations of humanity," I think that it is obvious that this right should, and naturally does, inhere in those who provide for the future in the most fundamental way, by providing the future generations of humanity. Most radical population controllers, not to mention the Left in general, hardly try. This is, I think, the fundamental complaint of Dillard and the many secular humanists who share his views. Such types, who contracept and abort most of their children out of existence, are increasingly worried that people of faith will win the battle of the cradle. They see that they are not replacing themselves, and that we are. So they are desperate to try and limit our numbers.
Dillard claims that the birth of a baby negatively impacts the rights of others. How so, one can reasonably ask? Here Dillard goes into a long and unconvincing discussion of how "each act of procreation poses a direct and obvious threat to the guarantee of natural liberty in space …" He is thinking of overcrowding, but there are other ways to protect an individual's "space" than by limiting childbearing. We can, and do, adjudicate these kinds of issues by laws against trespassing, poaching, harassment, noise, and public nuisances.
Instead of an unlimited right to reproduce, Dillard argues that we should only be allowed to replace ourselves. He would, like China, impose a one-child policy on the U.S. by fiat. Like many population controllers, he not only admires how China has resolutely limited its population growth, he believes that its one-child policy is perfectly consistent with international law. The Chinese government has, in his view, fulfilled “its obligations [as a government] to protect children and society as a whole from unjustified and destructive behavior," that is to say, childbearing. Never mind that it has killed some 300 million children before and, in some cases after, birth.
Perhaps realizing that his policy will be, well, somewhat unpopular in certain circles, Dillard argues that "through a society-wide process of agreement, internalization and normalization – a series of “gentle nudges” rather than “hard shoves”, similar to that involved in seat belt or anti-smoking legislation – a voluntary population policy should be incorporated into law." Put in plain English, this means that he would first soften us up with anti-people arguments before passing and enforcing stringent laws against procreating.
This, of course, is exactly the purpose of China's anti-child propaganda. The Chinese people are incessantly warned that too many children will despoil the environment, harm the economy, and could derail China's plans to become, in the words of the party slogan, a "rich country with a strong military." Those in China who ignore the propaganda and conceive illegal children are locked up and forced to listen to it. Those who, after listening to it, still refuse abortion and sterilization, are aborted and sterilized anyway. The nudges may be "gentle" at first, but soon enough turn into shoves.
"Given that law guides our behavior, a policy that treats procreation as private is regressive, environmentally damaging and peculiarly anti-social: it teaches us to disregard others and their interests. Until we have policies that reflect the truly public nature of having children, we will encourage irresponsible procreation, and all the harm it causes," Dillard concludes.
Dillard is not the first to propose bringing reproduction under the direct purview of the state. These ideas have been current since at least the publication of Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb. And he is backed by large elements of a population control movement that has never been more powerful in terms of funding, personnel and institutions than it is now.
Make no mistake about it. Any law limiting the number of children would target religious conservatives. After all, the Left, firmly convinced of their right not to have children, has already adopted a voluntary one-child policy.
TX Church Believes Christians Should Adopt
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/419367.aspx
CBNNews.com - POSSUM TROT, Texas -- Possum Trot, Texas isn't even a dot on the map. It's hidden from the world in the piney woods of rural East Texas.
But it is where one church is saving children through adoption and God's love.
Glen and Theresa Lathan are Possum Trot residents. They own a small home, but they have big hearts. The Lathans have ten children, and all of them are adopted.
The couple says their faith led them to take in so many kids.
"God was really working in my heart because children have always been a passion," Mrs. Lathan told CBN News. "I love children."
"There are so many kids out there nowadays that don't have good homes and need homes and nobody wants to adopt them, so I'm glad God put it on our heart to adopt them," Mr. Lathan explained
The couple's 16-year-old daughter Shenequa says her mom and dad are perfect adoptive parents.
"I see them loving everybody and having a big heart for each other," she said.
The Lathans attend Bennett Chapel, a small Missionary Baptist church located on the outskirts of Shelbyville, Texas.
Twelve years ago, parishioners from the 200-member congregation were motivated to adopt 70 children from the local foster care system. They say it all started with a broken heart.
In 1996, the pastor's wife, Donna Martin, was dealing with the death of her mother. She says she asked God to help her handle the grief.
"The day the Lord spoke to me, he wanted me to give back out of my hurt and pain," Martin explained. "He said, 'I want you to adopt.'"
She enrolled in a series of classes about children in the foster care system. Martin explains that what she found out about foster kids broke her heart.
"They were totally neglected," Martin told CBN News. "They were pushed from one place to another. They were the ones that were x'ed out. They were the ones that the system had.
"Some way, some how the system doesn't train up a child in the way that he should go, but Jesus does through our voice," she continued.
That dire situation moved Martin and her husband to adopt four children.
Eighteen-year-old Terri O'Toole is one of the Martin's adopted children.
"Before I came to the Martins, and before I was adopted, I was mistreated," she said. "I was abused. I was not being loved fairly."
Bishop W. C. Martin is Donna's husband. He said that getting into the adoption arena is the church's duty.
"What we started here God has intended for to keep going on until every single child can truly say "I got a mother and a father,'" Martin said.
It is a passion that spread throughout the tiny congregation until more than half of the church members had also adopted children.
Diane Sparks is one of those adoptive members.
"I didn't realize there were so many kids out there that didn't have a family, because I've always been with a family and I just really didn't know," she said.
"And that's what really made me to adopt, to try to help someone that didn't have the love of the same parents that I had," Sparks explained.
Ginny Judson of the Nagodoches Child Protective Services helped the church with the adoptions. She explained that adoption is particularly important for African American children.
"We have a disproportionate representation of those children in our agency and we have a large number of children ready for adoption," Judson said. "So we were able to impart that in a really positive way and provide a lot of children with a really great home and family."
Donna Martin agrees with Judson.
"To me as an African American person and growing up in the area where I grew up, all we knew to do was to take care of our own and adoption was not a black thing to me," Martin explained. "It was something white people did."
Judson says that the impact on the children has been life-changing.
"I think hope is the smile in the eyes of a child," she told CBN News. "When you go into that church today and you see the children in that service and see them dancing, clapping and raising their hands and worshipping God and smiling and being so happy.that's hope, that's hope because they didn't have that before."
Bishop Martin and his church are now reaching even more children in the community through a new recreation center donated by an ABC television show.
"It brings the kids in off the streets and gives them some ability and structure to be able to focus in life and be better," he said. "Children come here from all over the community from everywhere around here and so far it has really been truly a miracle in this town."
Meanwhile, the Lathans admit having such a large family does have its challenges.
"It has not been an easy job, but it's been a rewarding job," Mrs. Lathan said. "Not only is it just me giving back to them, but they have given me so much."
Bishop Martin says adoption is something that the body of Christ around the world can and should do.
"The church has got the ability," he said. "The church got the power and they got the structure. If they can do it in Possum Trot and Bennett Chapel, they can do it anywhere."
Judge: Cross is War Memorial
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/420231.aspx
CBNNews.com - A federal judge says the giant cross atop San Diego's Mount Soledad can stay.
The controversial cross was set in 1954 as a memorial to the veterans of the Korean War.
The American Civil Liberties Union has fought for years to have the cross removed, saying the display on public lands is unconstitutional. The first stream of lawsuits about the cross began in the late 1980s.
However, U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns disagreed with that sentiment. He ruled that the cross is more a secular memorial to war veterans than a statement promoting religion.
"The court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily nonreligious messages of military service, death, and sacrifice," Burns wrote in his decision. "As such, despite its location on public land, the memorial is constitutional."
The ACLU says they may appeal the decision.
"If you want to put a cross on your front lawn... we will be the first to defend you," said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. "When the government is sponsoring and endorsing the preeminent symbol of one religion, that's when we have a problem."
The group is discussing further legal action. An appeal is "clearly on the table," Blair-Loy said.
William J. Kellogg is the president of the Mount Soledad Memorial Association. His grandfather was a member of the local American Legion Post that dedicated the concrete cross as a memorial more than 54 years ago. Kellogg says his group is pleased with the judge's decision.
"The decision was based on the fact that it is clear it is a veterans memorial," Kellogg told The Los Angeles Times. "That's what our association is all about."
Kellogg explained that a cross has been atop Mt. Soledad since about 1913.
Belief in God drops among educated, while belief in 'universal spirit' grows in college
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=95811
At first glance, a study from Gallup released Monday seems a victory for atheists: Belief in God declines as education increases. Yet something more nuanced is taking place in academia because while belief in God declines, belief in a ‘universal spirit’ increases significantly during college.
Among Americans with a high school diploma or less, 88 percent believe in God, 8 percent believe in a “universal spirit or higher power” and 5 percent say they do not believe in either. For college graduates, belief in God is at 73 percent, but another 20 percent believe in a ‘universal spirit’ and only 6 percent say they do not believe in either.
The Gallup telephone survey of 1,017 American adults between May 8 and May 11 confirms the findings of a six-year study conducted at UCLA on spirituality in higher education released earlier this year. It found that while participation in religious services declines from 44 to 25 percent between students’ freshman and junior years, students also report nearly a 10 percent increase in “integrating spirituality” into their lives between those two years.
Charlotte Jones Carroll has served since 2001 at American University in Washington as a lay chaplain for the Unitarian Universalist church, a religion that she says “encourages seeking.”
“I think that college is a period of life where you’re seeking many things in the process of maturing,” Carroll said. “I think that having a sense that there’s something larger than ourselves but not necessarily wanting to be tied up to a particular set of rites and rituals is a very logical stage in one’s general intellectual seeking.”
Carroll said she is not surprised that college students explore spirituality rather than atheism.
“Well what does atheism have to offer? It’s by definition a zero. So if you’re curious, why wouldn’t you look into anything you could look into before you settled on the most negative one?"
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic organization that works to strengthen the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, is among those not thrilled with the move away from traditional religion.
“We’re losing so much of the great thought and theology that has developed over centuries” when society emphasizes spirituality without the grounding of religion, Reilly said.
Reilly said two forces impact the religiosity of young adults. “In American society, we’ve relied much less on religious education so fewer young people and young adults are getting education in a particular faith.” Reilly added: “The education they are receiving at all levels is much more secularized than what was traditionally provided. Young people continue to have a sense of the divine but very little by way of religious formation.”
But Reilly said the survey did show that, “despite the increasing secularization of American culture,” Americans generally still recognize a higher power, which shows a tendency toward recognizing there is a God.
Stalkers Using GPS Devices To Track Victims
http://www.kctv5.com/news/17026521/detail.html#-
A new GPS tracking device can be slipped into a vehicle and it'll track where a person drives, when they stop and how fast they go.
It costs less than $200, and parents of teenagers such as Kansas City, Kan., mother Rebecca Zirkle say they love it.
Local police, however, warn women to watch out for them.
"It's not a spying technique for me as much as it is an ability to get to her if she's in trouble or if she shows up missing," Zirkle said. "I want to be able to save her."
Zirkle's daughter Sara also has two speeding tickets. With the GPS device, every time Sara speeds, her mother fires up the computer and finds out about it.
There's nothing illegal about it if the parent using the device owns the car and wants to track their teenager, but a stalker could hide the device in a vehicle to spy on a victim.
Police said it has already happened.
Jackson County, Mo., prosecutors charged a 20-year-old Kansas City man, Raymundo Munoz, with violation of a protection order after his estranged girlfriend found a GPS tracking device hidden on her gas tank.
Munoz denies stalking his ex and said he didn't put the device on her vehicle.
Court documents tell a different story.
The young woman said she became suspicious after Munoz threatened her, saying, "Watch what you do because I know if you are lying."
Sgt. Kevin Colon works in the Kansas City Police Department's domestic violence unit and said police across the country are starting to see similar cases.
The laws have been slow to catch up with technology, so women should trust their instincts, Colon said.
"If they feel that they're running into the offender far too often, it might be a good idea to find somebody to enlist some sort of counter surveillance equipment to see if there's any signal being emitted from the vehicle," Colon said.
The police department doesn't have a device to detect hidden GPS, he said.
But GPS device are not all bad, he said. They're great at tracking Alzheimer's patients, stolen cars and speeding teenagers.
Still, people have found a way to exploit the technology and Colon said women in abusive relationships should watch out.
Munoz was charged with violation of a protection order, because there's no law on the books yet to address electronic stalking.
Rose Brooks Domestic Violence Shelter is so concerned about hidden tracking devices that they just sent out a safety planning sheet to warn staff and the women they help protect to watch out for what could be hidden in their cars.
Auditor General pushes for GPS tracking of sex offenders
http://publicbroadcasting.net/wpsu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1324567§ionID=1
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner favors the idea of using global positioning satellite technology to track the location of known sex offenders.
At least 27 counties now use GPS to keep tabs on sex offenders, but Wagner wants to see legislation that would allow a statewide GPS monitoring program. Wagner wants five years of GPS tracking for offenders who have tried to conceal their home address, and for those who have victimized children.
"You can get GPS technology when you are in a golf cart, playing on a golf court. But we are not utilizing GPS technology to protect our children. There's something seriously wrong here," Wagner says.
That view is echoed by Dauphin County Republican Representative John Payne. He says most people don't realize that officials do not know the whereabouts of about ten percent of the state's registered sex offenders. Payne says, "I think if they knew that we have almost a thousand sexual predators where we have no idea where they are at, we can't find them in Pennsylvania, they would be outraged."
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections tested a GPS program in 2005 with mixed results. Wagner says today's technology is more effective.
Is Technology Going Too Far With Spy Phones?
http://wbztv.com/specialreports/spy.phones.Flexispy.2.773931.html
Most cell phone users make the assumption that their phone conversations are private. But that might not be the case.
New technology, called spy phones, allows people to track others' calls and even listen to what they say.
Several Internet companies offer software that can be downloaded onto another person's phone. Why? Among the promotions for this software: catch a cheating spouse, track your teenager, check up on your employees.
Once downloaded, you will get a text message whenever a call is made from that phone, telling you what number is being called. You will get a log on your computer of every call that goes out or comes into the phone, how long the calls last. You can even read the text messages sent and received. And in the case of a program called Flexispy, you can call into the phone with the software and listen in on the conversation as it is happening.
"It's pretty scary," says Mort Rosenthal, the CEO of Enterprise Mobile in Watertown. He thinks the technology has gone too far, and believes it could be a hard problem to manage. It would require counter technology or government regulation.
Anyone thinking of using a spy phone needs to know it's illegal in Massachusetts and any other state that requires two-party consent to listen to or record communications like this.
"You can be sued and lose a lot of money. You could even go to jail if you interfere electronically with my communications," said Wendy Murphy, a former federal prosecutor.
Can you block it if you think it might be on your phone?
The Yankee Group's Andrew Jaquith says yes.
"There is security software that will detect the presence of these packages on your phone," he said.
At this point in time, the spy phones work only on a limited number of "smart phones" with Internet access. And you would have to have access to that phone so that you could download the software onto it.
Most people WBZ talked to think it's a very bad idea.
"I wouldn't want people to be listening to my conversation," one woman said. Another said he would be "creeped out" if he found out his phone was bugged.
Experts say when it comes to spying on teens, parental rights usually trump the rights of children and, therefore, it would be legal. Employers may have the right to use this technology if they own the phone and tell employees that the software is there.
The North American Union is dead! Or Is it? - Long live the North American Community!
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70864
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is dead, says Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community.
"The new president will probably discard the SPP," Pastor wrote in an article titled "The Future of North America," published in the current July/August issue of the Council on Foreign Relations magazine Foreign Affairs.
The SPP, which critics contend is a step toward a North American Union, is an agreement to increase cooperation on security and economic issues signed by the leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in 2005. Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration launched extensive working-group activity to implement the agreement. The working groups – ranging from e-commerce, to aviation policy, to borders and immigration – have counterparts in Mexico and Canada.
"The April summit meeting was probably the last hurrah for the SPP," Pastor wrote, referring to the fourth annual SPP meeting held in April in New Orleans.
Pastor attributes the failure of SPP to its largely bureaucratic nature and the decision policy makers made to keep SPP largely below the radar of public opinion.
"The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way and keeping the issues away from public view has generated more suspicion than accomplishments," Pastor admitted.
Pastor blames critics for the failure of the SPP, charging it has come under attack from both ends of the political spectrum.
"From the right have come attacks based on cultural anxieties of being overrun by Mexican immigrants and fears that cooperation with Canada and Mexico could lead down a slippery slope toward a North American Union," he wrote. "From the left came attacks based on economic fears of jobs lost due to unfair trading practices."
"These two sets of fears came together in a perfect storm that was pushed forward by a surplus of hot air from talk-show hosts on radio and television," he continued. "In the face of this criticism, the Bush administration was silent, and the Democratic candidates competed for votes in the rust-belt states, where unions and many working people have come to see NAFTA and globalization much as commentator Lou Dobbs does."
Pastor denied he had ever urged the creation of a North American Union.
"Dobbs, among others, viewed a report by a 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force, 'Building a North American Community,' as the manifesto of a conspiracy to subvert American sovereignty," he asserted. "Dobbs claimed that the CFR study proposed a North American Union, although it did not."
Pastor has argued consistently for a "North American Community," as suggested by the title of his 2001 book entitled "Toward a North American Community."
In a commentary authored for WND, Pastor stressed, "I do not propose a North American Union; I propose a North American Community."
Pastor argued the two were different in that North American Community would involve "three sovereign governments that seek to strengthen bonds of cooperation."
Noting that the European Community was a transitional state between the European Common Market and the European Union, Pastor conceded to WND that, "I don't think a political union of North America is an inherently bad idea, nor do I think it is a good idea for right now."
Despite the SPP setback, Pastor remains determined to advise a different approach to his continued goal of integrating the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American Community.
"The three heads of state must also commit to building a new consciousness, a new way of thinking about one's neighbors and about the continental agenda," he said. "Americans, Canadians and Mexicans can be nationals and North Americans at the same time."
To correct the defects of the SPP bureaucratic closed-door process, Pastor's CFR article recommended creating new North American institutions, including a North American Investment Fund of at least $20 billion a year "to connect central and southern Mexico to the United States with roads, ports, and communications."
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, dropped his support for Senate bill 3622 in the 109th Congress when WND reported the North American Investment Fund proposed by the legislation would enact a key proposal Pastor has frequently made for advancing his North American Community agenda.
In his CFR article, Pastor also called for the continuation of annual North American heads-of-state summits and the appointment in the next administration of a national adviser for North American affairs, who would chair a cabinet-level committee to formulate a comprehensive plan for North America.
Pastor also encouraged creating a dozen university centers for North American studies "to educate a new generation of students to think North American."
WND reported on the fourth annual North American Model Parliament held this year in Montreal, Canada, for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The North American Model Parliament is sponsored by the North American Forum on Integration, on which Pastor serves as a board member.
'Inevitable' flu pandemic could kill 50 million worldwide
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1036865/Inevitable-flu-pandemic-kill-75-000-Britons-50-million-worldwide-warn-Lords.html
Britain is facing an 'inevitable' and 'devastating' flu pandemic which will kill up to 75,000 people, a government committee revealed today.
The outbreak – most likely a strain of bird flu which could claim the lives of up to 50 million worldwide – will be on a scale not seen for decades.
The pandemic will require an ‘urgent’ response to prevent the rapid spread of infection, the powerful House of Lords Intergovernmental Organisations Committee warned.
They slammed Britain’s ‘poorly coordinated’ disease control systems, which are run by too many similar groups.
And the Lords also attacked the World Health Organisation (WHO) as ‘dysfunctional’ and lacking the ‘organisation and resources’ to curb a major outbreak.
The next pandemic will kill between two and 50 million people worldwide and a fair fraction of that in the UK, it said.
Echoing the report, the Government said: ‘While there has not been a pandemic since 1968, another one is inevitable.
‘Estimates are that the next pandemic will kill between two million and 50 million people and between 50,000 and 75,000 in the UK. Socio-economic disruption will be massive.’
Peers are calling for international alert systems for disease threats, which will spread rapidly due to our changing lifestyles.
The last pandemics to hit Britain, caused by mild influenza, were in 1918 and 1968.
But the report raised concerns that an outbreak caused by the H5N1 strain, found in birds and poultry, could be utterly devastating, as prevention methods were ‘less comprehensive’ than for human illnesses.
It predicted human-to-human transmission ‘in the near future.’
Three-quarters of newly-emerging human infections come from animals, but experts have warned that they are currently only identified after humans have been infected.
Committee chairman Lord Soley said: ‘The last 100 years have seen great advances in public health and disease control through the world, but globalisation and changes in lifestyles are giving rise to new infections and providing opportunities for them to spread rapidly throughout the world.
‘We were particularly concerned about the link with animal health. Three quarters of new human infectious diseases start in animals.
‘We urgently need better surveillance systems to deal with this problem.’
'1/3 of UK Muslim students back jihad'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331116813&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Nearly a third of British Muslim students polled in a new report to be published on Monday said that killing in the name of religion could be justified.
The report by the London-based Center for Social Cohesion (CfSC), entitled "Islam on Campus: A Survey of UK Student Opinion," showed that 32 percent of Muslim students said killing in the name of religion could be justified, while 60% of active members of on-campus Islamic societies said the same. Only 2% of non-Muslims polled felt this way.
Based on a specially commissioned YouGov poll of 1,400 students as well as on field work and interviews, the report showed that most Muslim students supported secularism and democratic values, were generally tolerant of other minorities and rejected violence in the name of their faith. However, the report also revealed high levels of support for the adoption of Sharia law into British law and for a worldwide caliphate.
Forty percent of Muslim students polled supported the introduction of Sharia into British law for Muslims, and a third supported the introduction of a worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law; 58% of active members of Islamic societies supported the idea.
In addition, 43% of Muslim students said Islam was compatible with secularism.
"These findings are deeply alarming," said CfSC researcher Hannah Stuart, one of the report's authors. "Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities. Yet significant numbers of them appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values. In addition, there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus. These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said that there is no extremism in British universities."
Big Brother wants every single e-mail, text
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70888
Britain's MI5 intelligence service has persuaded the Home Office to get government approval for a massive increase in surveillance in Britain, already the most-watched nation in the West, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
In London, every citizen already is captured on camera an average of 400 times a day. An increasing number of the cameras are directly linked to MI5's state-of-the-art computers in the basement of headquarters overlooking the Thames. Billions of images are already stored there.
But now secret plans by the Security Service and Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist command want to detail every phone call, e-mail, text message and online purchase to aid the fight against terrorism. Four billion e-mails are sent every day in the UK. Last year 67 billion text messages were transmitted.
The new plans, if ratified by Parliament in the autumn, would allow the police and intelligence services to access the precise time a phone call was made, the number dialed, the length of the call and, in the case of cell phones, the location of the handset to within an accuracy of a few hundred yards. MI5 scientists, working with post office technicians, have now provided equipment that could handle the new demands.
At the same time Britain's DNA database, already the world's largest, would be updated. Anyone who is arrested – even if proven to be innocent later – will have their DNA not only stored "forever," but also circulated "on a need to know basis" to all law enforcement agencies and "all those entitled under the Investigating Powers Act." The act allows local authorities to investigate minor issues such as litter dumping.
Computers already positioned on all Britain's major roads will be updated so they can check every car within four seconds as it travels anywhere in the country. The details will be transmitted to all local police stations to stop a suspect car. The stations are automatically linked to armed anti-terrorist teams now present in increasing numbers around the UK.
But privacy watchdog Richard Thomas has warned that the MI5 demand for new powers is "a genuine threat to the British way of life."
European businesses back Blair for EU council president
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/29/tonyblair.eu
Tony Blair would make the best EU president for European businesses, according to a poll by the financial news channel CNBC Europe.
Blair was by far the most popular choice by those who took part in the poll, receiving 37% of the vote.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, came second, with the backing of 23% of respondents, and the other frontrunner being mentioned for the job, Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, won 12% of CNBC Europe's poll.
The current EU commission president, José Manuel Barroso, was fourth place, with 10%.
The role of EU council president will come into being next year, if the organisation's member states ratify the Lisbon treaty. But the exact nature and status of the role is yet to be decided - some countries want a high-profile figure to represent the EU at a global level, while others would prefer a more low-key, bureaucratic figure.
Blair outlined his vision for a full-time EU president back in 2003, saying a dedicated figurehead would give the union a more powerful voice on the world stage. He said he believed the enlarged EU needed a full-time president, rather than the current rotating leadership.
Since stepping down as prime minister last year, speculation that Blair will become the first president of the EU has been rife. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has joked that the EU "might not be able to afford" Blair, given the other lucrative roles he has taken on since leaving Downing Street.
He is currently working as a peace envoy to the Middle East and has taken up advisory roles with insurance firm Zurich and investment bank JP Morgan - and is reported to have signed a £5m-plus deal for his memoirs.
Under the terms of the Lisbon treaty, the president of the European council would hold office for two-and-a-half years, replacing the current system where countries take turns at being president for six months.
Temple Institute holds first 'crimson worm' harvest in 2000 years to prepare priestly garments
http://www.templeinstitute.org/tola-at_shani.htm
The return of the children of Israel to the land of Israel continues to inspire the rediscovery of ancient scientific, cultural and practical knowledge, all necessary for the reemerging sovereign nation of Israel, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and the renewal of the Divine service. The Temple Institute plays a formidable role in these efforts as the recreation and renewal of Temple vessels and priestly garments requires a working knowledge of the materials and methods commanded by Torah. Knowledge lost over two millenia of exile must be relearned. This rediscovery is itself part of the redemptive process that we are experiencing in our day. The following words describe once such leap forward toward the redemption and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. The feeling of all who took part in the events described was one of being an active participant in God's unfolding plan for mankind.
On the afternoon of the 13th of Tammuz (JULY 16TH), the Temple Institute organized an historic event: the first tola'at shani - crimson worm - harvest in the land of Israel in perhaps 2000 years. The location of the harvest was the Samarian hilltop village of Neve Tsuf. The immediate purpose for the event was the need to gather the crimson worms for the purpose of creating the avnet - the sixteen meter long belt for the bigdei kehuna - the priestly garments now being produced by the Temple Institute. The long-term goal was to educate a new generation about the elusive tola'at shani, how to harvest it, and how to produce from it the crimson dye prescribed in the Torah for a number of Temple related purposes, including the priests' avnet - belts, the scarlet wool tied onto the se'ir l'azazel - the scapegoat - on Yom Kippur, and one of the essential ingredients for producing the ashes of the red heifer.
Wednesday's gathering began with a fascinating lecture delivered by Professor Zohar Amar, of the Bar Ilan University, researcher and world expert in the ancient dye and incense ritual and industry of the Middle East, focusing on their application in the Holy Temple. Professor Amar described his own odyssey with the tola'at shani, which he has been intensely researching for ten years. Studying ancient texts, including Torah and Talmudic literature, as well as ancient Greek, Latin and Aramaic works, and more recent Arabic texts, the professor began to re-identify and re-discover the unique properties and characteristics of the tola'at shani. He travelled the world in search of the worm, and indeed, discovered the worm being harvested in the mountains of Turkey, and being grown on plantations in South America, where they are used commercially as food color (E120). Ironically, it was only after his travels abroad that he discovered the tola'at shani worms he had been so diligently studying, literally 50 feet from his own front door, in their favorite nesting ground in Israel - the common Israeli oak tree.
The Shani- red dyed wool of the ancient world along with the biblical techelet and argaman, (blue and purple), was among the most prized and valuable fabrics of its day. Naturally, it fulfilled an important function in the Holy Temple, where, aside from the ritual purposes mentioned about, it was copiously employed in the various curtains and tapestries that adorned the Holy Temple.
Professor Amar explained to his audience, which included representatives from the Temple Institute, and well as fifty students from two nearby yeshivas, the art of identifying and removing the five millimeter tola'at shani from the bark of the oak trees to which it attaches itself. The worm is actually not a worm at all, but a tiny insect. The female attaches herself to the trunk and branches of the oak, and as its eggs develop during the early summer it grows from the size of a pinhead to its maximum of five to seven millimeters in diameter. It is essential to harvest them at this point, before the red eggs hatch and leave the mother, taking with them their red pigment.
The Professor concluded his lecture with a demonstration, dissolving worms previously harvested and dried, in a glass of boiling water. The results can be seen in the photographs above.
Finally the time had arrived to take to the trees and being what we hope will be the first annual harvest of the tola'at shani in the land of Israel. Although many worms were gathered, it was still short of the amount needed for the dying of the wool to be embroidered onto the avnet - belts - of the 120 priestly garments that the Temple Institute is currently producing. To supplement the supply of tola'at shani the Institute has sent an emissary to Ankara, Turkey, to purchase the tola'at shani that are native to the mountains of Turkey.
Muslims fear Jewish preparation of rebuilt temple as Temple Life seminars begin across country
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331137734&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A brief course offered by the Chabad Hassidim about the Temple endangers the Aksa Mosque, Islamic Movement spokesman Zahi Nujidat said Tuesday.
The three-part seminar, which is being held this week and next week at some 200 Chabad Houses throughout the country, comes less than two weeks before Tisha Be'av, which marks the destruction of the Temple.
"We view this as a serious and drastic move toward the fruition of extremist organizations to establish a temple in place of al-Aksa Mosque," Zahi Nujidat said. "This represents a real danger to al-Aksa."
A similar condemnation was issued in Arabic this week by the Aksa Foundation.
The Aksa Foundation was cynically pointing to the courses, which are held in three sessions, as proof that the Israeli establishment wants to damage the mosque, Chabad spokesman Rabbi Menachem Brod said.
"This is a pure provocation by an organization that is exploiting any opportunity to incite the Arab public to violence against Israel," he said. "Every time they are looking for some other excuse to incite, and now they found it in the course."
The courses, which are being attended by "tens of thousands" of young students, include a "virtual tour" of the Temple Mount and explanations of daily Temple life, as well as the job of the kohanim (priests), Brod said.
Netanyahu Demands Early Elections
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/israel_politics/2008/07/31/117799.html
JERUSALEM — A day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would depart political life, top rival Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel should get rid of its current governing coalition and go straight to early elections.
Polls show the Likud Party's Netanyahu — a former prime minister who takes a hard line on territorial concessions to the Arabs — would most likely win such a race if it were held today. Olmert threw Israel's political system into turmoil on Wednesday by abruptly announcing he would step down after his Kadima Party's leadership race in September, called because of a series of corruption allegations against him.
"This is a government that has come to the end of its road," Netanyahu told Israel Radio on Thursday. "It doesn't make any difference who heads Kadima, they are all part to a string of failures by this government."
Olmert announced his decision to leave office in September amid a series of corruption probes. The most serious involves suspicions that he illicitly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a Jewish American fundraiser.
Israel's political system allows Olmert's replacement as Kadima head to carry out his term, which was to have ended in November 2010.
It is possible that the next Kadima leader would not be able to form a coalition government, given the fractious and freewheeling nature of Israeli politics. In that event, new elections would be called, and held early next year. It's possible that Olmert could remain as a caretaker prime minister during this time.
"The right thing to do when the prime minister goes is ... to let the people choose who will lead them and whoever is chosen, he is the one who will need to put together a government," Netanyahu said.
The internal turmoil could make it difficult for Olmert to close deals with either the Palestinians or Syria _ agreements that long have eluded Israeli leaders.
"The Arabs are asking themselves how useful an agreement with Olmert would be, because he is a self-proclaimed lame duck and he will have a hard time to get his deals approved," said Yossi Alpher, an Israeli political analyst.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Olmert's decision would change little.
"It's true that Olmert was enthusiastic about the peace process, and he spoke about this process with great attention, but this process has not achieved any progress or breakthrough," Malki said. He said the Palestinians would deal with any Israeli government.
The top two contenders to succeed Olmert in Kadima are Livni, a centrist who enjoys widespread public support and is leading Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians, and Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former defense minister and military chief who headed Israel's security operations when it put down a Palestinian uprising eight years ago.
Public opinion surveys show Livni polling strong, but Mofaz gaining strength within Kadima and Netanyahu generally trumping them both.
Livni is in Washington this week and hasn't yet commented publicly on Israeli media since Olmert announced he would quit.
Mofaz told Israeli Radio on Thursday that he doesn't favor early elections.
"It is in the country's interest to form the broadest possible government in order to stabilize the situation and to face the challenges Israel can expect," he said.
Those challenges include peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria, and the Iranian nuclear threat.
Since Olmert became premier, police have launched six corruption investigations against him, all involving events that took place before he took office. The last — suspicions that he double- and triple-billed charities and government ministries for identical trips — delivered the final blow to his political career.
Olmert, who has been dogged by corruption allegations throughout his career but never convicted, has denied any wrongdoing.
He also came under severe criticism for his handling of Israel's monthlong war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006. The war ended without achieving its two declared aims: crushing Hezbollah or returning two soldiers whose captured sparked the conflict.
Their bodies were returned to Israel earlier this month as part of a prisoner swap.
"The Olmert era: The End" — proclaimed the Maariv daily on its front page Thursday. "The right step" — declared the Yediot Ahronot daily. Both showed Olmert from the back, his head bowed, on the patio of his official residence, where he announced his plans to quit.
"Ehud Olmert has mercifully spared Israel the shameful potential ignominy of having a prime minister indicted while in office," the Jerusalem Post newspaper wrote in an editorial.
Official: Olmert to seek Palestinian peace deal before leaving office
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007066.html
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will try to reach an agreement in peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before a new government takes office, an official close to the premier told Reuters on Thursday.
Olmert announced on Wednesday that he would not run in his centrist Kadima party's September 17 leadership contest and would resign to allow his successor to form a new government. Until then, Olmert will remain caretaker prime minister, enabling him to push ahead with the peace talks, possibly for months.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister intended on "reaching agreement with the Palestinians during the time he has left."
"Any agreement he reaches with the Palestinians won't be a personal agreement and he will make sure that the new Kadima leadership is briefed and on board," the official added.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators plan to continue talks toward a peace deal despite Olmert's announcement on Wednesday.
"We decided today that we are going to continue pursuing to reach an agreement before the end of the year," the negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told reporters after Israeli and Palestinian officials met U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Abbas sees Olmert's decision to resign as an "internal Israeli matter" and will work with his successor, a spokesman said.
"This is an internal Israeli matter. The Palestinian Authority deals with the prime minister of Israel, regardless if he is Olmert or somebody else," said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah. "The concern of the Palestinian authority is to have an Israeli prime minister who is committed to peacemaking."
Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi on Thursday said: "I have never looked at Olmert as a great gift for peace or the great savior and therefore I don't feel that his political demise is the end of the peace process."
"This issue is much larger than one person. Individuals make a difference
but at the same time there are parties involved, national policies involved," said Ashrawi, who is also a former spokeswoman for Palestinian negotiators.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called Olmert's announcement "a victory" for the Islamist group, which controls the Gaza Strip.
A White House spokesman said President George W. Bush talked with the Olmert Wednesday just before the prime minister announced his decision to resign in September.
Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush intends to work closely with Olmert until that time, and wishes him well. "We will continue to work on a deal before the end of the year," Johndroe said when asked how Olmert's departure would affect the fragile peace process.
Rice in urgent push to produce Israeli-Palestinian draft agreement by September
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16744
Israeli and Palestinian officials have confirmed that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is putting heavy pressure on both sides to hammer out a "document of understandings" detailing progress in the peace process before the UN General Assembly convenes in September.
According to Ha'aretz, Rice wants to present the document, which amounts to a preliminary peace deal, as evidence of headway the Bush Administration made in the peace process. Some fear it may also be used to ram through a hasty final status peace agreement before the end of President George W. Bush's second term.
During his first term, President Bush on several occasions vowed that his administration would be the one to oversee an Israeli-Arab peace deal and the birth of a Palestinian Arab state.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams will travel to Washington on Wednesday to continue their talks under US auspices.
Kadima officials fear new leader won't be able to form gov't, Olmert could remain in power until March
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007362.html
A day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would bow out of his party's September leadership contest and then step down, Kadima officials have said they believe the next head of the party will have a difficult time assembling an alternative government in the current Knesset.
If the next Kadima leader cannot organize a new government, then Olmert could remain in office until the next general elections, scheduled for March 2009.
Dogged by corruption scandals, the prime minister's announcement on Wednesday stirred reactions across the political spectrum.
Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu called on Thursday for general elections to end the government's 'total failure,' speaking a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to resign following his party's leadership contest in September.
"This government has reached an end and it doesn't matter who heads Kadima. They are all partners in this government's total failure," Netanyahu told Israeli Radio.
Recent opinion polls suggest Netanyahu's Likud party, a critic of Olmert's peace moves with the Palestinians and Syria, would win a snap election.
The opposition leader added: "National responsibility requires a return to the people and new elections."
Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a Kadima party leader and Olmert confidant, told Army Radio: "I believe the chance of holding new elections is high."
Four Kadima ministers, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, have launched campaigns to replace Olmert in the Sept. 17 vote.
Polls have shown Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, ahead within Kadima.
Olmert has faced public pressure to resign over probes into suspicions he took hundreds of thousands of dollars from an American businessman. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing, and vowed on Wednesday to fight for his innocence.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the left-of-center Labor party and Olmert's senior coalition partner, told CNN that it was "not yet clear whether there will be election in three or four months from now" if Olmert steps down.
On Wednesday, Barak said: "I think it is a proper and responsible decision made at the right time."
MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that the declaration marked an end to the young Kadima party.
"The only solution to the situation now created is immediate elections. Waiting any longer for Kadima primaries will cause Israel more damage," he said.
MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said Olmert should have made this decision months ago. "Olmert's tenure will be remembered as public bedlam and as a farce of a government."
MK Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) said Olmert's announcement essentially returned the vote to the public, and said there was no way now to avoid elections. "In a democratic state, when the prime minister resigns, the nation chooses its leader."
MK Limor Livnat said that immediately after the primaries, Olmert should call for new Knesset elections.
"None of the candidates chosen in Kadima will be able to assemble a stable and function government with the current Knesset... Olmert must bring about new Knesset elections immediately after the primaries," she said.
MK Zvi Hendel (National Union - NRP) said Olmert had made the right decision, and hoped the prime minister would be able to prove his innocence.
"Out of respect for the State of Israel, I will be happy if Olmert succeeds in procing his innocence. His resignation is correct, and while it is a pity it was done so late, better late than never."
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz of Kadima told Israeli Radio on Thursday that he doesn't favor early elections.
"It is in the country's interest to form the broadest possible government in order to stabilize the situation and to face the challenges Israel can expect," he said.
Those challenges include peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria, and the Iranian nuclear threat.
MK Eldad: Olmert the most corrupt leader in Israel's history
MK Arieh Eldad of the right-wing National Union lambasted Olmert and his administration, calling him "the most failed and corrupt leader in the history of Israel."
He added: "It's the only good news we have heard from Olmert during his tenure."
Labor MK and party secretary Eitan Cabel focused on the political repercussions of Olmert's decision to step down. "Under the current circumstances that exist in the Knesset, it will be hard to form an alternative coalition and the possibility of an election is still on the agenda," Cabel said.
His fellow partisan Deputy Foreign Minister MK Raleb Majadele also spoke about what will happen once Olmert resigns, saying that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima was the only candidate who could create a coalition government without calling for new elections. "She is the only one worthy of succeeding Olmert and former prime minister Ariel Sharon," he said.
Other lawmakers, however, like National Religious Party Chairman, MK Zevulun Orlev called for the Knesset to be dissolved and for elections to be held as soon as possible."
"An agreed date of new elections should be decided and the Knesset should be dissolved during the summer break," Orlev said.
His call was supported by MK Yisrael Katz of the Likud who said parties should set an election date in order to ensure that government functioning continues without hindrance.
Livni: Kadima must continue to act as a leader
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is considered a front-runner for Kadima party chairman, said following Olmert's announcement that "the personal decision was not simple, but it was correct. Kadima must continue to act in a way that will preserve its unity and ability to lead."
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is also vying for Kadima leadership, praised Olmert's decision as "brave."
"It proves that despite his personal crisis, he see what is good for the state, and in this difficult hour he has made the right decision," Mofaz said.
"Kadima members now have a heavy responsibility to pick the next prime minister. I know they will take this responsibility seriously," he added.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter also welcomed Olmert's decision as a "correct and brave decision for the State of Israel, the Kadima movement, and himself personally."
Coalition chairman MK Yoel Hasson said Olmert's announcement marked a new beginning for Kadima.
"Kadima is beginning a new path. Choosing the next prime minister from Kadima is a choice to preserve the stability of government in the State of Israel. Olmert behaved tonight in the official way expected of a leader and proved his political and public responsibility," he said.
Israeli-Syrian peace track breaks up amid shakeups in Jerusalem and Damascus
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5480
DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Middle East sources reveal that not only has prime minister Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff and lead negotiator with Syria, Yoram Turbowicz, decided to resign, but Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem, the leading proponent of talks with Israel in Damascus, is also on his way out.
Turkey, envisaging the breakdown of its initiative, has hared off in a new direction, a bid to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas.
In the last 24 hours, Hamas has become the object of hot pursuit by Turkey, Jordan which has decided to patch up its nine-year quarrel with the radical Palestinian group, and Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, who suddenly ordered the release of 200 Hamas prisoners in the interests of reconciliation with Fatah’s rival in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Ehud Olmert, have announced he was quitting after the Kadima primary, pledged to pursue his peace talks with Abbas, while foreign minister Tzipi Livni promised in New York to work for a peace deal with the Palestinians this year and the consummation of the (defunct) “Annapolis process.”
According to our sources, although Ankara has booked two more Israel-Syrian sessions for this month and next, Turkish officials who brokered them have informed prime minister Tayyep Erdogan that the initiative had run into the sand. To keep its hand in, the Ankara government has offered to shuttle between Gaza and Jerusalem in a fresh mediation bid between Israel and Hamas.
As for Jordan, our intelligence sources disclose that last week the Director of the Hashemite Kingdom’s General Intelligence service, Gen. Muhammad Zouabi, met three local Muslim Brotherhood leaders to lay the groundwork for an interview with Hamas representatives.
Two days later, Gen. Zouabi held talks with Hamas high-ups Muhammad Nazal and Muhammad Nasser, who came especially to Amman from Damascus.
Jordanian leaders have concluded, unlike their Israeli counterparts, that Mahmoud Abbas is heading for a deal with Hamas, rather than a peace agreement with Israel and is moving forward to negotiate a national unity government. Amman does not want to miss this train.
To fuel the reconciliation process brokered by Egypt, the Palestinian leader ordered the release of all the Hamas operatives his security forces detained on the West Bank in retaliation for the Hamas purge of his Fatah in Gaza. He gave the order, even though Hamas has not called off its purge.
Barak secures missile alert system from US: We'll be much safer within months
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3574975,00.html
After a series of meetings with top US officials in Washington, Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared optimistic as to the improvement of Israel's anti-missile defense systems.
After some lobbying on Barak's part, the American officials pledged Israel would be connected to the global US system, capable of detecting an impending attack while the missile's engine is just heating up. Israel is primarily intent on obtaining logistical support from the US, which would allow the IDF to launch a solo operation if need be.
"In just a few months Israel will be stronger and better prepared in its defenses against long-range missiles," Barak said on Wednesday.
The achievement is the culmination of Barak's meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen.
The Iranian threat topped the agendas of the majority of Barak's meetings, with the minister clarifying that as far as Israel is concerned "all options are still on the table."
At a press conference with Israeli reporters after the meetings, Barak explained that "it was important for the Americans to understand our stance and its derivatives, and I think they understand this better now, after this visit."
Barak arrived in the US capital on Monday as part of an attempt to improve Israel's qualitative military advantage and to convince the US government not to drop the option of a military strike on Iran. The US promised to assist Israel in its defense.
As part of this assistance, the US will deploy a radar system in Israel that will give preliminary warnings on the deployment of enemy missiles, and also upgrade Israel's access to an advanced American missile-defense system, which will allow Israel to detect ballistic missile-related activity in its early stages.
In addition, the meetings concluded that the US would help fund and develop 'Iron Dome', a defense system that will provide protection against Qassam rockets and mortar shells. Another project to receive funding is 'Arrow 3', Israel's newest line of defense against ballistic missiles.
An Israeli defense official said that during Barak's meeting with Gates the latter expressed the US' willingness to supply Israel with the tools it needs in order to build up a qualitative defense and maintain its strategic advantage in the region.
A joint statement published after the meeting stressed the cooperation between the two countries in matters of Israel's defense, and said that the strategy implemented would take into consideration the regional threats to the State. Gates promised Barak that the US would continue to provide different options for Israel's protection and attempt to improve its advantage, including the different missile-defense systems discussed.
In response to the professed commitment Barak said, "The systems will vastly improve Israel's defense and its abilities against the Iranian threat. We are talking about a long-ranging radar and our incorporation within a defense system that can recognize a missile threat within seconds.
"In this respect, the Americans have fulfilled their commitment to maintain Israel's qualitative advantage in the region, as well as its defense against the Iranian threat."
Hamas to indoctrinate thousands of kids at summer camps
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3575660,00.html
In the Gaza Strip, as in Israel, children are currently in the midst of summer vacation, and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s “summer camps” are in full gear. In the past few weeks, the Palestinian groups have been holding camps throughout the strip, some of them proudly displaying rockets and other weaponry.
Hamas alone is currently conducting no less than 300 summer camps for tens of thousands of children, and the focus is on familiarizing kids with the Palestinian towns and cities destroyed in 1948, as well as instilling religious fervor in them. The camps also feature sports and military-type trainings such as crawling under barbed-wire.
Islamic Jihad has also launched its own summer camps, offering some 10,000 children activities similar to those of Hamas. The kids study passages from the Koran and participate in quizzes on religious matters, with emphasis on the required commitment to political prisoners and Palestinian land. They also learn how to hold a Qassam rocket-launcher.
An Islamic Jihad operative told Ynet that the students were not exposed to real rockets but to ones made of plastic. “In the camps we emphasize the need to unite and put an end to the internal struggles. We called them ‘unity and principle maintaining camps.’”
The third organization conducting summer camps in the Gaza Strip is United Nations Relief Association (UNRA.) Fatah is abstaining from camp operation for the second year in a row, due to the limitations placed on the movement by Hamas, as well as its meager financial resources as a result of Hamas’ takeover.
The Third Lebanon War
http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=2290
There is something to be learned from the frenzied love-fest given in Beirut in mid-July to the most notorious of the Lebanese prisoners released by Israel. Samir Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison for killing four people during a raid in 1979. Kuntar executed a father (Danny Haran) in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then killed the little girl by smashing her head against a rock with a rifle butt.
But to the Lebanese, Kuntar is a returning hero. He walked down a red carpet in Beirut. He was kissed by the Hezbollah leader and cheered like a rock star. In the southern port city of Sidon, posters of Kuntar adorned the streets and walkways as children rode by on their bicycles, no doubt dreaming of the day that they too could become "heroes" by murdering "Zionist" children.
When a banner in Beirut (according to the New York Times) proclaims "God's Achievement Through Our Hands"; when The Beirut Daily Star (in other respects a decent newspaper) headline reads: "Nation Unites for Heroes' Homecomings"; when the Free Patriotic Movement (supported by more than 70% of the Christian population in Lebanon) supports pro-Syrian forces in the May battles that took place in the streets of Beirut; when the second-in-command of the Lebanese Armed Forces (George Adwan) attends the Kuntar ?homecoming" (in his words); when elected officials of the Lebanese government including its President Michel Suliman (who referred to Kuntar as a "freed hero"), prime minister Fouad Siniora, government ministers and many members of Lebanon's pro-democracy March 14th Movement call on the Lebanese people to participate in the public celebration, declare it a national holiday, issue statements that the prisoner swap was an "historical victory . . . against the Israeli enemy and its hostile policies,? and call on all those participating to "raise the Lebanese flag" as a show of unity; when Parliamentary Speaker and Amal Shiite leader Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt declare the release of Kuntar to be "a day to celebrate freedom, martyrs and human rights"; when public departments, unions, businesses, municipalities and educational institutions across the nation close for the day in his honor; when shouts of joy and support fill the streets of Beirut and al-Manar television celebrates the "divine victory" over Israel -- it is clear that these events are not merely being celebrated by Hezbollah supporters alone; they are being celebrated with Hezbollah by the Lebanese people to honor the advocates of genocide and the enemies of Israel.
Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel stated: "What horrifies me most are not radicals cheering terrorist Samir Kuntar, but that most relative moderates feel compelled to do so. At the airport to greet him were leaders of Lebanon's anti-Syrian, anti-Iranian Druze and Christian groups as well as the ambassadors from Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Morocco. To avoid being discredited, relative moderates must affirm that anyone who murders Israeli children is a hero." Perhaps so, but while there may have been many Germans in Nazi Germany who despised Adolf Hitler and falsely proclaimed their fealty to him for fear of losing their lives, these deceptions did not prevent the total devastation of their country by the war brought upon them by the Nazis. There is a lesson to be learned here and the Lebanese had best learn it. The apparent support of the Lebanese people for genocidal terrorists as epitomized in the Kuntar celebrations will result in a terrible reckoning should a Third Lebanon War unfold.
During the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the Siniora government was internationally recognized as a moderate counter-balance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. That international respectability prevented Israel from attacking Lebanese state infrastructures and placed the Israelis in the unenviable position of fighting a well-trained, well-armed non-state actor with a violent messianic ethos that used innocent Lebanese civilians as human shields to protect its leaders and military assets. But events in recent months have altered the Lebanese political equation in favor of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, not to mention adding another political defeat for American foreign policy in the region.
Hezbollah together with its foreign paymasters is now seen as the undisputed power-broker of Lebanon and the Lebanese government is gradually being relegated to puppet-status. Hezbollah holds veto power in the Lebanese parliament. The Lebanese Army is working with Hezbollah in south Lebanon and recently refused to intervene when pro-government forces were confronted by Hezbollah militias. The true military power in Lebanon today rests with Hezbollah. The important decisions relating to matters of war, peace and diplomacy are being made and conducted by Hezbollah. The border region with Israel is now under the increasing control of Hezbollah, and the power to carry out acts of war against Israel such as further kidnappings and the firing of missiles from southern Lebanon into Israeli civilian population centers rests solely with Hezbollah. In effect, by celebrating the return of Kuntar, the Lebanese have made (or at least created the perception of having made) common cause with Hezbollah against Israel and in so doing, they risk sharing Hezbollah?s fate.
The massive support for Kuntar throughout the country has effectively re-defined the status of the Lebanese government (and, by extension, the Lebanese people) as the enemy of Israel. As Giora Eiland, the former chief of Israel's National Security Council noted in Ynet News: "The only way to prevent another war is to make it clear that should war break out, Lebanon may be razed to the ground. Not only will the Lebanese government fear it, so would Hezbollah . . .This will deter the group, if it realizes that aggression on its part would result in destruction that would outrage the population and turn it against Hezbollah."
In effect, Lebanon would no longer be immune from Israeli retaliation as it was, for the most part, during the Second Lebanon War. By making common cause with Hezbollah, the country itself stands to reap the whirlwind. To deter further conflict, Israel should make it clear that should war occur, it is the country as a whole not just Hezbollah which will suffer.
The national celebrations for Kuntar in Lebanon, and that nation's embrace of this murderer and his genocidal compatriots, not only reveal (again) the depths of Hezbollah's moral bankruptcy, but also the readiness of other Lebanese to follow it into the abyss.
Report: U.S. Officials Say Pakistan Helped Plan Indian Embassy Blast
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,395722,00.html
WASHINGTON — United States government officials say American intelligence agencies concluded members of Pakistan's spy service helped plan the July 7 bombing of India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 41 people, The New York Times reported.
The report said U.S. officials cited intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack as confirmation of Pakistan's ties to the blast.
Officials said the communications were intercepted before July 7, but were not detailed enough as to reference a specific bombing, The Times reported.
“It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held,” a State Department official told The Times. “It was sort of this ‘aha’ moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof.”
Shortly after the embassy bombing, Afghanistan blamed a foreign intelligence agency for the blast, making a veiled but clear reference to its eastern neighbor, Pakistan.
U.S. officials also said other new information confirmed that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, The Times reported.
Top CIA and U.S. military officials recently traveled to Pakistan to press their concerns about apparent militant ties with Pakistani officials.
Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas has denied accusations of any official Pakistan complicity with terrorist groups, calling them "unfounded and baseless," but he confirmed to The Associated Press that CIA Deputy Director Steven R. Kappes and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met earlier this month with Pakistani generals, including Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief. The meeting, first reported by The New York Times, occurred July 12.
The meeting also came as a top Pakistani official publicly rejected giving the U.S. military authority to enter the tribal regions to attack terror networks itself.
The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has asked that U.S. troops be allowed to strike at terror networks. The new regime says it prefers to negotiate a new peace agreement with militant groups in the relatively ungoverned region, which is about the size of Maryland.
U.S. officials have long suspected members of Pakistan's intelligence service support or turn a blind eye to tribal warlords who have built extensive criminal networks in the semiautonomous western border area. They traffic in narcotics, weapons and consumer goods, launch attacks on Pakistani and Afghan targets, and they support terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said some Pakistani intelligence officers' support for the Jalaluddin Haqqani network — associated with both the Taliban and Al Qaeda — is of particular and long-standing concern.
U.S. officials say they believe the Indian embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Haqqani, The Times reported.
Is Iran planning an EMP attack on the United States?
http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/iran_nuclear_plan/2008/07/29/117217.html
Iran has carried out missile tests for what could be a plan for a nuclear strike on the United States, the head of a national security panel has warned.
In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee and in remarks to a private conference on missile defense over the weekend hosted by the Claremont Institute, Dr. William Graham warned that the U.S. intelligence community “doesn’t have a story” to explain the recent Iranian tests.
One group of tests that troubled Graham, the former White House science adviser under President Ronald Reagan, were successful efforts to launch a Scud missile from a platform in the Caspian Sea.
“They’ve got test ranges in Iran which are more than long enough to handle Scud launches and even Shahab-3 launches,” Dr. Graham said. “Why would they be launching from the surface of the Caspian Sea? They obviously have not explained that to us.”
Another troubling group of tests involved Shahab-3 launches where the Iranians "detonated the warhead near apogee, not over the target area where the thing would eventually land, but at altitude,” Graham said. “Why would they do that?”
Graham chairs the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, a blue-ribbon panel established by Congress in 2001.
The commission examined the Iranian tests “and without too much effort connected the dots,” even though the U.S. intelligence community previously had failed to do so, Graham said.
“The only plausible explanation we can find is that the Iranians are figuring out how to launch a missile from a ship and get it up to altitude and then detonate it,” he said. “And that’s exactly what you would do if you had a nuclear weapon on a Scud or a Shahab-3 or other missile, and you wanted to explode it over the United States.”
The commission warned in a report issued in April that the United States was at risk of a sneak nuclear attack by a rogue nation or a terrorist group designed to take out our nation’s critical infrastructure.
"If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that would cripple military and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure," the report warned.
While not causing immediate civilian casualties, the near-term impact on U.S. society would dwarf the damage of a direct nuclear strike on a U.S. city.
“The first indication of such an attack would be that the power would go out, and some, but not all, the telecommunications would go out. We would not physically feel anything in our bodies,” Graham said.
As electric power, water and gas delivery systems failed, there would be “truly massive traffic jams,” Graham added, since modern automobiles and signaling systems all depend on sophisticated electronics that would be disabled by the EMP wave.
“So you would be walking. You wouldn’t be driving at that point,” Graham said. “And it wouldn’t do any good to call the maintenance or repair people because they wouldn’t be able to get there, even if you could get through to them.”
The food distribution system also would grind to a halt as cold-storage warehouses stockpiling perishables went offline. Even warehouses equipped with backup diesel generators would fail, because “we wouldn’t be able to pump the fuel into the trucks and get the trucks to the warehouses,” Graham said.
The United States “would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country.” except that we would have 10 times as many people with ten times fewer resources, he said.
“Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own assets and those we could reach by walking to them,” Graham said.
America would begin to resemble the 2002 TV series, “Jeremiah,” which depicts a world bereft of law, infrastructure, and memory.
In the TV series, an unspecified virus wipes out the entire adult population of the planet. In an EMP attack, the casualties would be caused by our almost total dependence on technology for everything from food and water, to hospital care.
Within a week or two of the attack, people would start dying, Graham says.
“People in hospitals would be dying faster than that, because they depend on power to stay alive. But then it would go to water, food, civil authority, emergency services. And we would end up with a country with many, many people not surviving the event.”
Asked just how many Americans would die if Iran were to launch the EMP attack it appears to be preparing, Graham gave a chilling reply.
“You have to go back into the 1800s to look at the size of population” that could survive in a nation deprived of mechanized agriculture, transportation, power, water, and communication.
“I’d have to say that 70 to 90 percent of the population would not be sustainable after this kind of attack,” he said.
America would be reduced to a core of around 30 million people — about the number that existed in the decades after America’s independence from Great Britain.
The modern electronic economy would shut down, and America would most likely revert to “an earlier economy based on barter,” the EMP commission’s report on Critical National Infrastructure concluded earlier this year.
In his recent congressional testimony, Graham revealed that Iranian military journals, translated by the CIA at his commission’s request, “explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States.”
Furthermore, if Iran launched its attack from a cargo ship plying the commercial sea lanes off the East coast — a scenario that appears to have been tested during the Caspian Sea tests — U.S. investigators might never determine who was behind the attack. Because of the limits of nuclear forensic technology, it could take months. And to disguise their traces, the Iranians could simply decide to sink the ship that had been used to launch it, Graham said.
Several participants in last weekend’s conference in Dearborn, Mich., hosted by the conservative Claremont Institute argued that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was thinking about an EMP attack when he opined that “a world without America is conceivable.”
In May 2007, then Undersecretary of State John Rood told Congress that the U.S. intelligence community estimates that Iran could develop an ICBM capable of hitting the continental United States by 2015.
But Iran could put a Scud missile on board a cargo ship and launch from the commercial sea lanes off America’s coasts well before then.
The only thing Iran is lacking for an effective EMP attack is a nuclear warhead, and no one knows with any certainty when that will occur. The latest U.S. intelligence estimate states that Iran could acquire the fissile material for a nuclear weapon as early as 2009, or as late as 2015, or possibly later.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld first detailed the “Scud-in-a-bucket” threat during a briefing in Huntsville, Ala., on Aug. 18, 2004.
While not explicitly naming Iran, Rumsfeld revealed that “one of the nations in the Middle East had launched a ballistic missile from a cargo vessel. They had taken a short-range, probably Scud missile, put it on a transporter-erector launcher, lowered it in, taken the vessel out into the water, peeled back the top, erected it, fired it, lowered it, and covered it up. And the ship that they used was using a radar and electronic equipment that was no different than 50, 60, 100 other ships operating in the immediate area.”
Iran’s first test of a ship-launched Scud missile occurred in spring 1998, and was mentioned several months later in veiled terms by the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, a blue-ribbon panel also known as the Rumsfeld Commission.
I was the first reporter to mention the Iran sea-launched missile test in an article appearing in the Washington Times in May 1999.
Intelligence reports on the launch were “well known to the White House but have not been disseminated to the appropriate congressional committees,” I wrote. Such a missile “could be used in a devastating stealth attack against the United States or Israel for which the United States has no known or planned defense.”
Few experts believe that Iran can be deterred from launching such an attack by the threat of massive retaliation against Iran. They point to a December 2001 statement by former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who mulled the possibility of Israeli retaliation after an Iranian nuclear strike.
“The use of an atomic bomb against Israel would destroy Israel completely, while [the same] against the Islamic only would cause damages. Such a scenario is not inconceivable,” Rafsanjani said at the time.
Rep. Trent Franks, R, Ariz., plans to introduce legislation next week that would require the Pentagon to lay the groundwork for an eventual military strike against Iran, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and EMP capability.
“An EMP attack on America would send us back to the horse and buggy era — without the horse and buggy,” he told the Claremont Institute conference on Saturday. “If you’re a terrorist, this is your ultimate goal, your ultimate asymmetric weapon.”
Noting Iran’s recent sea-launched and mid-flight warhead detonation tests, Rep. Franks concluded, “They could do it — either directly or anonymously by putting some freighter out there on the ocean.”
The only possible deterrent against Iran is the prospect of failure, Dr. Graham and other experts agreed. And the only way the United States could credibly threaten an Iranian missile strike would be to deploy effective national missile defenses.
“It’s well known that people don’t go on a diet until they’ve had a heart attack,” said Claremont Institute president Brian T. Kennedy. “And we as a nation are having a heart attack” when it comes to the threat of an EMP attack from Iran.
“As of today, we have no defense against such an attack” he told Newsmax.
Russia to supply new Iran air defenses
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004840.html
Iran is set to receive an advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft system by the year's end that could help fend off any preemptive strikes against its nuclear facilities, senior Israeli defense sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The first delivery of the S-300 missile batteries was expected as soon as early September, one source said, though it could take six to 12 months for them to be deployed and operable - a possible reprieve for Israeli and American military planners.
Washington has led a diplomatic drive to deny Iran access to nuclear technologies with bomb-making potential, while hinting that force could be a last resort. Israel, whose warplanes have been training for long-range missions, has made similar threats.
But the allies appear to differ on when Iran, which denies seeking atomic arms, might get the S-300. The most sophisticated version of the system can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes 120 km (75 miles) away.
Iran, which already has TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles from Russia, announced last December that an unspecified number of S-300s were on order. But Moscow denied there was any such deal.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has denied knowledge of the Russian delivery.
"Based on what I know, it's highly unlikely that those air defense missiles would be in Iranian hands any time soon," said Gates, responding in a July 9 briefing to a question about the S-300 - also known in the West as the SA-20.
Gates meant that Iran was a good number of months away from acquiring the system, a U.S. official said.
An Israeli defense official said Iran's contract with Russia required that the S-300s be delivered by the end of 2008. A second source said first units would arrive in early September.
The official agreed with the assessments of independent experts that the S-300 would compound the challenges that Iran - whose nuclear sites are numerous, distant, and fortified - would already pose for any future air strike campaign by Israel.
Israel does not have strategic "stealth" bombers like the United States, though the Israeli air force is believed to have developed its own radar-evading and jamming technologies.
"There's no doubt that the S-300s would make an air attack more difficult," said the official, who declined to be named.
"But there's an answer for every counter-measure, and as far as we're concerned, the sooner the Iranians get the new system, the more time we will have to inspect the deployments and tactical doctrines. There's a learning curve."
Israel, which is assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, reportedly carried out a large-scale air force drill over the Mediterranean last month which was widely seen as a "dress rehearsal" for a possible raid on Iran. Some analysts also described it as a bid to pressure the West to step up sanctions.
The exercise involved overflying parts of Greece, which is among a handful of countries to have bought and deployed S-300s. But Greek media quoted Athens officials as saying that the system's radars were "turned off" during the Israeli presence.
Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, said: "The minimum work-up time to be comfortable with the system is six months, but more time is preferable."
Hewson said the Iranian S-300 deal was being conducted via Belarus to afford discretion for Russia, which is already under Western scrutiny for helping Iran build a major atomic reactor.
"Belarus is the proxy route whenever Russia wants to deny it is doing the sale. But nothing happens along that route without Moscow saying so," he said.
Bush: Iraq Troop Tours to be Reduced
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/420117.aspx
CBNNews.com - President Bush declared steady improvement in the Iraq War Thursday, saying terrorists "are on the run." The President also announced the improved security conditions would permit further U.S. troop reductions.
Standing just outside of the White House and only a few steps away from the Oval Office, Bush also announced that effective Friday, U.S. troop tours in Iraq will be reduced from the current 15 months to 12 months.
Bush said this reduction "will relieve the burden on our forces and it will make life easier for our wonderful military families."
The President also gave a brief report on the progress of the war in Iraq, now in its sixth year.
Bush said that Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, however, "caution that the progress is still reversible, and they report that there now appears to be a degree of durability to the gains that we have made."
"We are now in our third consecutive month with reduced violence levels holding steady," Bush said.
While the next recommendation on troop levels will come from U.S. commanders, Bush said he expects "further reductions in our combat forces, as conditions permit."
"The progress in Iraq has allowed us to continue our policy of return on success," he said. "We have now brought home all five of the combat brigades and the three Marine units that were sent to Iraq as part of the surge. The last of these surge brigades returned home this month."
More than 147,000 U.S. military personnel are presently deployed in Iraq.
Bush said the United States and Iraq also are pressing forward with talks on an agreement that would set the terms for any future U.S. presence and noted that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently had a productive visit with other foreign leaders.
"We are also making progress in the discussion with Prime Minister Maliki's government on a strategic framework agreement. This agreement will serve as the foundation for America's presence in Iraq once the U.N. resolution authorizing the multinational forces expires on Dec. 31," the president said. "We remain a nation at war. Al-Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, but the terrorists remain dangerous and they are determined to strike our country and our allies again."
The White House is hoping that negotiations for a withdrawal agreement with the Iraqi government will be completed by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the continued American military presence in Iraq has turned into a key issue in the presidential campaign. The presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has frequently accused rival Barack Obama of planning -- what could be a reckless withdrawal from the war-torn country. Obama has argued that the United States should never have invaded the country to begin with.
Russia's return to the sea - new carriers and subs to revive navy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080727/wl_nm/russia_navy_dc
Russia has announced plans to revive its once-mighty navy by building several aircraft carriers and upgrading its fleet of nuclear submarines in the coming years.
Russia's power at sea is a shadow of the formidable Soviet navy which challenged U.S. military dominance in the Cold War. But, with a strong economy now from booming oil exports, it is seeking to raise its profile on the world stage by modernizing the armed forces.
Russia will build five or six aircraft carrier battle groups in the near future, RIA news agency quoted Navy Commander Vladimir Vysotsky as telling Navy Day festivities in St Petersburg, the second city.
"We call this a sea-borne aircraft carrier system which will be based on the Northern and Pacific fleets," Vysotsky said. "The creation of such systems will begin after 2012."
He said such carrier groups would operate in close contact with Russia's military satellites, air forces and air defenses.
Russia now has only one aircraft carrier, the Soviet-built Nikolai Kuznetsov, which was launched in 1985 but did not become fully operational for 10 years due to the turmoil following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
In fact, it is not even a fully-fledged aircraft-carrier, being officially called an air-capable cruiser. It carries fewer aircraft than U.S. carriers and features a steam-turbine power-plant with turbo-generators and diesel generators, while all modern carriers are nuclear-powered.
Vysotsky said that along with designing new aircraft carriers Russia would also modernize its new-generation nuclear submarines of the Borei class (Arctic Wind).
The first Borei submarine of the so-called "Project 955," the Yuri Dolgoruky, was launched in February and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2008. Two other submarines of this class are now being built.
"Starting with the fourth submarine, we will begin modernizing this class," Vysotsky said. "The modernized Borei submarines will be the core of Russian naval nuclear forces until 2040."
"We are aspiring not only to introduce new technologies, not only to compete with the West, but to take completely new steps which would allow us to look at submarine technologies of the middle of the 21st century," he said.
The prestige of Russia's navy was badly dented in August 2000 when the Kursk nuclear submarine, one of its newest, sank in the Barents Sea, with the loss of all the 118 sailors on board.
Tests of a new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile Bulava-M, designed to be mounted on Borei-class submarines, have been a mixture of failure and success. The Kremlin has touted Bulava as a unique weapon able to pierce any air defense.
Vysotsky said Bulava would come into service this year.
"Despite the fact that there are still some glitches, the missile will all the same learn how to fly," he said. "Not just to fly, but also to use all the potential invested in it."
China's 'leap' in Middle East a potential source for rivalry
http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080721/OPINION02/807210318
As a nation undergoing its Industrial Revolution in the Information Age, China's rapid growth is proceeding in tandem with its growing energy needs, which are placing enormous pressure on world energy prices and fueling a fierce global competition for energy resources.
"For China these days," as Khody Akhavi of Inter Press Service notes, "it seems that nothing - not rising energy prices; not sanctions aimed at its more unsavory business partners; not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran - can curb its thirst for oil."
As China's energy demands grow at a rate much faster than any other country in the world, so too have its relationships with the oil-producing nations in the Middle East. With half its oil imports from the region, China's Middle East policy is on the verge of a "great leap forward." Chinese strategy for securing energy resources, said Peter Navarro, author of The Coming China Wars, "is a zero-sum game played against the West. China seeks to gain physical control of these resources. It does this by first ingratiating itself with foreign governments, then encircling the country's natural resource riches with virtually every strategy described by Lenin in the 'imperialist playbook.' "
A noticeable example of China's new "leap forward" Middle East strategy can be seen in the case of China's Iran policy.
China gets about 14 percent of its oil imports from Iran. Beijing is in the process of importing Iranian natural gas - China's oil giant Sinopec Group has signed a mega-gas deal worth $100 billion with Iran. Billed as the "deal of century" by analysts and energy specialists, Sinopec is to buy 250 million tons of liquefied natural gas in 30 years from Iran, and helps Tehran to develop its giant Yadavaran oilfield in exchange for Iran's commitment of exporting 150,000 barrels per day of crude oil to China for 25 years at market prices after the startup of the field. Beijing's plan is to become a comprehensive participant in exploration, drilling, petrochemicals, pipelines and other upstream and downstream services related to Iran's oil and gas industries.
In order to establish its long-term control of Iranian energy resources, China's economic and strategic initiatives in Iran go far beyond the energy field and include a wide spectrum of areas, ranging from infrastructure construction and nuclear proliferation to trade, tourism, and military cooperation. Economically, China is helping Iran to build dams, steel mills, shipyards and many other projects.
More than 100 large Chinese state companies are working in Iran to develop ports and airports in all major Iranian cities, mine-development projects and, of course, oil and gas. Trade between the two countries is expected to hit a new record of $11 billion in 2008, compared with $9.5 billion in 2007.
Politically, Beijing has provided Iran with diplomatic cover and veto power at the U.N. for Tehran's nuclear development program, in exchange for exclusive access to Iran's huge natural gas and oil reserves.
China's new Middle East strategy is poised to challenge U.S. interests in the region. For one thing, not only are the U.S. and China dependent on energy resources from the Middle East, but these two powers are offering competing approaches to state-to-state relations, with the Chinese approach becoming increasingly popular in the region.
As Chietigj Bajpaee, a Hong Kong-based energy analyst, points out, "In many ways, there has been a role reversal for the U.S. and China. While China had originally fueled revolutionary change through sponsoring anti-colonial struggles and communist insurgencies, it is now the U.S. that is attempting to fuel change in the region.
"While the U.S. has traditionally favored stability even at the cost of supporting unsavory regimes, it is now China that increasingly favors stability in the region, even if it means supporting pariah regime such as Iran."
Moreover, China's close relations with governments of Iran, Libya and Syria, as well as the proliferation of ballistic missile technologies and other weapons platforms to these countries, creates sources of tension between the U.S. and China.
China's increasingly significant presence in the Middle East has become a fait accompli. Though China and the U.S. are not currently engaged in open confrontation in the region, China's quantum leap into the Middle East energy market certainly has the potential for future Sino-U.S. rivalry.
Bush to Promote Religious Freedom in China
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/420383.aspx
CBNNews.com - President Bush plans to promote human rights, including freedom of worship, while in China for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games.
The President, a devout Christian, will also attend church, a top aide said Wednesday.
"When he goes to church on Sunday (Aug. 10) he will make a statement afterwards in which he discusses his view on religious freedom in China," said Dennis Wilder, national security council director of Asian Affairs.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is encouraging the President use his trip to the Beijing Olympics to highlight the issue of human rights and freedom of worship.
However, those critical of the President's visit are urging him not to attend the opening ceremony.
One of those critics is fellow Republican Congressman Zach Wamp from Tennessee.
"Freedom and individual liberty are God's gift to each of us, and they're not being recognized in the host country of the Olympics," Wamp said Thursday at a press conference.
Bush, however, will attend the August 8 opening ceremonies of the games. He will use the attention of the Olympics to show China's progress in granting various rights, such as free speech and free press, Wilder said.
"What we are looking for in China is not gestures, we are looking for structural change, we are looking for long term change," Wilder said.
"We are looking for the Chinese at these games to show that they are making progress, to demonstrate to the world. The spotlight is on Beijing, this is an opportunity for Beijing to show that it is widening. freedom of press, freedom of expression," he said.
Graham, Others Bring Hope to N. Korea
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/420382.aspx
CBNNews.com - Evangelist Franklin Graham made a historic visit to North Korea, Thursday, bringing food and a message of peace to the country.
The son of Rev. Billy Graham will be there for four days to distribute food through his organization Samaritan's Purse. The Christian group provides aid to the poor, sick, and suffering, and has been helping North Korea since the 1990s.
Along with food and supplies, Graham brought a message of peace and hope. On his first day there, he preached at a Protestant church in Pyongyang.
"I do not come to you today as a politician or diplomat," Graham said. "I come to you instead as a Christian with a message of peace - peace with God, peace in our hearts, and peace with each other."
Samaritan's Purse is one of five non-governmental groups selected by the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide food to North Korea.
Since floodwaters poured through the nation last August, residents have struggled to rebuild farms and food supply.
A total of 100,000 metric tons of food will reach the country because of new efforts by groups like Samaritan's Purse. The first shipment of grain arrived in the country earlier this month.
North Korea's government has expressed extreme gratitude to the U.S. for its help, and an official newspaper has called for a peace treaty. The agreement would bring an official end to the Korean War.
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