Abortionist Arrested for Violent Attack on Pro-lifer
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07481.shtml
SANTA ANA, Calif., (christiansunite.com) -- A pro-life man was violently attacked by an abortionist on a public sidewalk outside a Santa Ana abortion clinic on Saturday, August 2, 2008. The man, who wants only to be known as Tim, was first shoved, then battered, punched and choked by the abortionist who objected to his attempts to photograph him. Tim sustained lacerations and muscle pain that impaired his ability to conduct his normal activities as a result of the attack.
Tim went to the clinic because he had been told there was a possibility that the abortionist at the Clinica Medica Para La Mujer, located at 120 W. 5th St. in Santa Ana, was operating illegally. He decided to go to the abortion mill to photograph the abortionist and offer help to abortion-bound women.
When the abortionist, who was later identified as Howard Pfupajena, entered the building, he covered his head with his lab coat and told Tim that he had no right to photograph him. Tim later asked a police officer that was ticketing a nearby vehicle if he had the right to take pictures of the abortionist, and he was advised by that officer that he did. Tim then decided to wait until Pfupajena left for the day to try to get a better photograph.
Tim noticed Pfupajena heading for his vehicle, and positioned himself on the public sidewalk to photograph the abortionist as he was about to drive away. At that point, Pfupajena got out of his car and attempted to forcibly remove the camera from Tim's possession. The camera was kicked away from him as he fell against a parking meter. Pfupajena then stomped on the disposable camera in order to destroy it. Tim somehow regained possession of the camera. That is when the attack intensified.
"He got me to the ground and, seeking to jar the camera loose from my hand, was hitting me and, not finding success, he put his knee in my throat and was choking me," said Tim. "At this point I began to yell for help and for someone to call the police."
Police arrested Pfupajena, 66, for assault and battery. He was cited and released. The District Attorney will review the case and determine if the charges should be filed. A check done on Pfupajena's medical license does not show any previous disciplinary action.
"That is about to change," Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Pfupajena obviously has something to hide for him to have reacted so violently. This abortionist is a danger to the public, and should have his license revoked."
The Clinica Medica chain of abortion mills has made recent headlines when owner Bertha Bugarin was arrested for committing abortions without a medical license. Another abortionist in the chain, Laurence Reich, was also arrested earlier this year after a police investigation revealed that he was continuing to do abortions even though his medical license had been revoked last year after a second conviction of having sexually molested and/or raped several of his abortion patients.
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Pentagon Puts Hold on USAF Cyber Effort
http://www.newsmax.com/science/air_force_cybercommand/2008/08/13/121823.html
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon this week delayed and may kill the Air Force's nascent Cyberspace Command, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. This comes as Russia used a major computer network attack to begin its assault on Georgia.
The service's Cyberspace Command is meant to coordinate computer network defense and, more controversially, offensive attacks on enemy networks. The goal, according to senior officials, is to be able to take control of adversary computer networks to thwart attacks or otherwise influence their behavior_ either with or without that adversary realizing it.
The Russian computer takedown served the same purpose as a traditional air attack on enemy radars and communications antennae, said Michael Wynne, the former U.S. Air Force Secretary who made cyberwar a central mission of the Air Force.
"The Russians just shot down the government command nets so they could cover their incursion," said Wynne. "This was really one of the first aspects of a coordinated military action that had cyber as a lead force, instead of sending in air planes. We need to figure out a way not only see the attack coming but to block it, and in blocking it chase it home."
"I think this is a very poor time to send a signal that the United States is not interested in focusing on warfighting in the cyber domain," Wynne added.
Wynne was fired by Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year after the Air Force's mishandling of nuclear weapons. Wynne, however, told reporters he was fired over differences with Gates on the need for additional F-22 fighter jets, among other matters.
In a memo distributed throughout the Air Force this week, service officials announced that manning and budget transfers for Air Force Cyberspace Command have been suspended, delaying the command's official Oct. 1 start. The Pentagon and the Air Force are expected to make a decision as to the command's fate later this month. The command is temporarily based at Barksdale Air Force Base, La, and will eventually have a headquarters staff of about 500 people, and 8,000 personnel total.
The Air Force considers cyberspace a "domain" for which the service should train and equip forces to defend, as it does airspace. There are about 3 million attempted penetrations of Defense Department networks every day, according to the Air Force.
A senior military commander told the AP, however, that the mission to defend U.S. military networks is better vested in U.S. Strategic Command, which has the military responsibility for cyberspace across all services and commands.
Russia's use of computer tools to blind Georgia may not be the first time it has flexed its cyber powers for geopolitical purposes. In the spring of 2007, Estonian government, financial and media Web sites were incapacitated by a massive denial of service attack for which many in that country blamed Russia. The attack, involving a million computers in 75 countries, coincided with controversy over Estonia's plans to relocate a Soviet-era war memorial.
According to an August "for official use only" intelligence report by the Homeland Security Department, obtained by The Associated Press, there are no effective means to prevent a similar attack on U.S. Web sites connected to the Internet.
U.S. Cities Would be Locked Down, Quarantined Under Pandemic Flu Response Plan
http://www.naturalnews.com/z023823.html
The federal government would need to quarantine infected households and ban public gatherings to contain pandemic flu, according to a computer simulation study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"You wouldn't go out to the movies. You wouldn't congregate with people," said researcher Stephen Eubank. "You'd pretty much be staying home with the doors and windows battened down."
The consensus among health experts is that a pandemic, or global epidemic, of influenza is inevitable. The last such pandemic, in 1918, killed between 40 and 100 million people.
Because of the belief that a pandemic cannot be avoided, researchers are instead looking into ways to limit its effects. In the current study, researchers used a computer to model the hypothetical spread of flu pandemic in the city of Chicago under various containment scenarios. They found that a vigorous early response could reduce the infection rate by 80 percent.
"Depending on how fast it is spreading, it seems as though you really need to throw everything you can at it," Eubank said.
Under the containment scenario, people infected with or exposed to the disease would be confined to their homes, and schools and day-care centers would be shut down, as would places of public gathering like bars, restaurants and theaters. Offices and factories would remain open but would operate at reduced capacity due to quarantines.
The extreme measures would need to continue for months, until a vaccine was developed.
"We are not talking about simply shutting things down for a day or two like a snow day," Eubank said. "It's a sustained period for weeks or months."
The computer model assumed widespread compliance with the response plan, but Eubank says he doesn't anticipate that as a problem.
"In the context of a very infectious disease that is killing a large number of the people, I think large fractions of the population won't have a problem with these recommendations," he said.
FCC Commissioner: Return of Fairness Doctrine Could Control Web Content
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080812160747.aspx
There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.”
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks.
The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told the Business & Media Institute the Fairness Doctrine could be intertwined with the net neutrality battle. The result might end with the government regulating content on the Web, he warned. McDowell, who was against reprimanding Comcast, said the net neutrality effort could win the support of “a few isolated conservatives” who may not fully realize the long-term effects of government regulation.
“I think the fear is that somehow large corporations will censor their content, their points of view, right,” McDowell said. “I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy, which by the way would have a big First Amendment problem.”
“Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?”
McDowell told BMI the Fairness Doctrine isn’t currently on the FCC’s radar. But a new administration and Congress elected in 2008 might renew Fairness Doctrine efforts, but under another name.
“The Fairness Doctrine has not been raised at the FCC, but the importance of this election is in part – has something to do with that,” McDowell said. “So you know, this election, if it goes one way, we could see a re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine. There is a discussion of it in Congress. I think it won’t be called the Fairness Doctrine by folks who are promoting it. I think it will be called something else and I think it’ll be intertwined into the net neutrality debate.”
A recent study by the Media Research Center’s Culture & Media Institute argues that the three main points in support of the Fairness Doctrine – scarcity of the media, corporate censorship of liberal viewpoints, and public interest – are myths.
NYPD prepares to track every vehicle entering Manhattan with "Operation Sentinel"
http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/operation.sentinel.nypd.2.793133.html
It's called "Operation Sentinel" and it proves just how far the NYPD will go to protect this city from terrorists. The plan involves some high-tech tracking that is coming under fire from some groups.
New York City is going to great lengths to make sure that bomb-toting terrorists can't reach us.
"New York City is something special," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. "It's not just a very big city in this world. It is, in many senses, the iconic city. It represents Western Democracy.
As part of the plan the NYPD is creating a huge buffer zone, working with cops in a 50-mile radius of the city. Officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Long Island are given radiation detectors to stop terrorists as far away from New York City as possible.
Police also plan to track every vehicle that enters Manhattan.
"We're going to be adding cameras as we go forward," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
That part of that plan calls for photographing and scanning license plates of cars and trucks at all bridges and tunnels. Even small ones like the Willis Avenue Bridge will also be used to detect radiation.
"I don't think it's hyperbole to call this Big Brotherish," said Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The New York City Police Department is creating a huge computer database of the movement of everyone in a vehicle in Manhattan."
Civil libertarians take issue with one aspect of that plan – data on each vehicle entering Manhattan would be stored for at least one month. Bloomberg, however, defended the idea.
"It is always a balance between freedoms to come and go between civil liberties and security, and I think we pretty much have the balance pretty much right," Bloomberg said.
The reaction of New Yorkers CBS 2 HD spoke to were mixed.
"I guess I would feel safer in light of everything that happened," said Tavis Rivere of Ridgewood, N.J. "The city has been under a lot of, you know, pressures and stuff."
"It's a violation -- I mean it's ridiculous," said Sharday Hill of Teaneck, N.J. "I don't know want everybody or someone knowing where I'm at 24 hours a day."
The city also intends on putting Lower Manhattan in a so-called "ring of steel," with 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal Street. There will be 600 cops assigned to protect ground zero.
Scientists Say Invisibility Cloak Now Possible
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401208,00.html
Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.
Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.
The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.
Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows.
It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.
The research was funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.
A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080813192458.ud84hj9h&show_article=1
Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.
Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.
Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.
"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.
Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.
Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.
Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.
This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.
Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.
The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.
From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.
"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added.
But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.
"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.
To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.
To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.
Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.
"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."
Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.
But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.
Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Humans have 100 billion.
"This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.
For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.
"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.
Are you a kind-of Christian?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71877
How can you tell a no-doubt Christian from a maybe Christian? Answer: There will be spiritual results, or hard evidence, in his or her life. In fact, I propose that what is considered Christianity by many in the United States today would not even qualify as conversion in the first-century church. And what is considered normal as far as a Christian was concerned in the first century would be considered radical by today's standards.
There are a lot of people running around today who could be described as kind-of Christians. Now, that is not a theologically correct term, because according to the Bible, you either are or are not a Christian. But I am talking about people whom you are not really sure about. He or she is sort-of a Christian or maybe a Christian or could be a Christian or almost is a Christian. You see some things in their lives that make you believe they might be followers of Christ. They attend church regularly and talk about God periodically. Maybe they pray before their meals. But then there are other things in their lives that seem to contradict this behavior.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people today who believe they are Christians yet probably are not. And one of the reasons for that is a lot of shallow and anemic preaching in our churches today. I fear there may be a generation of people running around who believe they really know God when, in fact, they don't really know him at all.
One recent poll indicated that seven out of 10 American adults have no clue as to the meaning of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And barely one-third of all adults know the meaning of the expression "the Gospel."
I question whether most Americans have ever heard the authentic Gospel message. I know we have heard a lot of preaching. I know we have heard a lot of sermons. But have most Americans really heard the Gospel? And do they have a basic understanding of it?
In their book, "unChristian," David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons identify behaviors that so-called Christians share with non-Christians. When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, those identifying themselves as born-again Christians were, according to the book, just as likely to gamble, visit a pornographic website, take something that did not belong to them, consult a medium or psychic, consume enough alcohol to be legally drunk, use an illegal drug, or lie about someone to retaliate.
My question is not whether these people are Christians who are ignoring God's commands. My question is whether these people are really Christians at all.
Someone once asked me, "What do you do when you come to a passage in the Bible that you don't agree with?"
I said, "You change your opinion, because you are wrong."
It is as simple as that. It is not for us to disagree with the Bible. It is for us to conform ourselves to what the Bible teaches about God. And we can discover that the easy way or the hard way.
So what are we to do? Should we accommodate the Bible to our standards, or conform ourselves to it? Some would seek to accommodate the Bible or simply ignore it altogether and trust in their feelings or personal opinions instead.
The Bible is the autobiography of God. It tells you everything you need to know about God ... about life ... about yourself ... about how to live ... about what to do ... about what not to do. It tells you how to think, how to act and how to react. It is all there in the Bible. And the person who wants to get closer to God will need to study it.
You can read the writings of different people and learn about them. You can read an autobiography and learn about someone. But God has given us his Book so we can learn about him.
Last year, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial online auction offered various experiences up for bid, including tea with Alan Greenspan, a walk-on role in a film starring Johnny Depp, or a tennis lesson with Andre Agassi. But even better than spending time with a famous person, we have the Creator of the universe who longs to spend time with us each and every day. And best of all, it's free. All we need to do is open up the Bible and spend time with him.
Our emotions can mislead us. Our feelings can lead us astray. We cannot base our decisions on whether something feels right or if it seems good. We need a higher authority, and that authority is the Bible, God's how-to manual for life.
HLI Condemns Death Threats Against Church and Affiliate in Ecuador
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07494.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today condemned death threats made against Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza, of Guayaquil, President of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference, and Amparo Medina, president of Ecuador's Pro-Life Action Foundation, the Ecuadorian affiliate of Human Life International.
Euteneuer said, "A 'warning' was sent to our colleague, Amparo Medina: a shoebox containing a dead rat and the message 'death to pro-lifers' with a longer letter placed at her door threatening to kill her." The threats result from their opposition to pro-abortion and anti-family language in the nation's proposed new constitution.
The letter contained the message, "Remember that accidents exist, remember that accidental deaths happen daily in our country. DO NOT CONTINUE YOUR ANTI-WOMAN AND HOMOPHOBIC CAMPAIGN...death to traitors, death to those who oppose the nation, DEATH OR REVOLUTION." (Emphasis in the original.)
In another incident, the severed head of a dog with a Eucharistic Host in its mouth was found in a Catholic chapel as a warning to clergy who dare to speak out. It is believed that this and similar actions were instigated by comments by Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa.
"Clearly," Euteneuer said, "These attempts at intimidation go beyond death threats to cruelty and blasphemy. Anyone who doubts the criminal, diabolical, nature of the international abortion lobby needs look no further.
"These threats just confirm what we have always known about the promoters of abortion--they are violent and deadly." Euteneuer said. "We categorically condemn any threats of violence against our affiliate, and we stand with the valiant priests and bishops in Ecuador who are bravely defending the right to life against systematic campaigns and intrusion from foreign influences trying to impose western pro- abortion values on Latin America.
"We call on President Correa to cease his attacks against the Church and on the people of Ecuador to reject this heinous constitution in the referendum on Sept 28th," Euteneuer said.
New TV Program: "Make Me a Christian" Lesbian, Atheist, Muslim all attempt Christian life
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72017
A new television program broadcast this month follows a group of 13 non-Christian volunteers, who, on camera, attempt to "live by the teachings of the Bible for three weeks."
"Make Me a Christian," broadcast in a three-part series, asks the participants to be mentored by four pastors from a variety of backgrounds – Anglican, Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal – as they attempt to live like Christians, an effort that runs in stark contrast to many of the participants' backgrounds.
The 13 volunteers who will make the effort include a tattooed militant atheist biker, a man who converted from Christianity to Islam, a lesbian schoolteacher, a lap-dancing witch with a lust for expensive shoes, a middle-class yuppie couple that can't find time to spend with their children and a party animal who claims he's slept with over 150 women.
Whether people can be made into Christians by a three-week crash course in discipleship, however, remains a matter of debate.
The Rev. George Hargreaves, one of the four mentor pastors featured on the show, was quoted by the Christian Post saying, "Viewers will be deeply moved by the participants' personal journeys. I believe that a major nationwide evangelism initiative could be launched on the back of the series."
A review by Charlie Brooker of England's Guardian newspaper, however, expressed severe criticism of the show's depiction of Christianity.
Brooker wrote sarcastically, "The broadcast will doubtless be accompanied by the percussive sound of thousands of Christians enthusiastically smashing their foreheads against the wall with delight at the way they're represented."
"Make Me a Christian" has been produced by the United Kingdom's Channel 4 and its first episode is scheduled to air on the station tonight.
Channel 4 also made a much-criticized series called "Make Me a Muslim," which aired in December.
According to the C4 website, the first episode sends the participants to York Minster, "an awe-inspiring cathedral that's almost 1,000 years old, where they are asked to participate in a communion service."
After that, the four mentors – Pentecostal minister and leader of the Scottish Christian Party Rev. George Hargreaves, Church of England Curate the Rev. Joanna Jepson, Catholic Fr. John Flynn, and the World Harvest Christian Centre's Pastor Wale Babatunde – visit the volunteers in their homes and make specific recommendations on how to conform to a Christian code of conduct. The lesbian is asked to throw away her porn, the witch is encouraged to toss her Tarot cards, the womanizer is instructed not to look lustfully at women and so forth.
The show's website concludes with the teaser line, "All this is just the start of their three hard weeks. Can they embrace Christian ideals and learn to live in a different way or will their old lives prove just too strong to resist?"
New Indian Bible Draws Fire over Hindu References
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080811/new-indian-bible-draws-fire-over-hindu-references.htm
A new Indian version of the Bible recently, published by the Catholic Church, has run into controversy over its inclusion of verses from the Bhagavad Gita, a form of Hindu chant, and references to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
An illustration in the new version, New Community Bible, depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as poor Indian villagers. Mary wears a simple sari and has a bindi on her forehead alongside Joseph in a turban and loincloth.
According to the 30 Indian biblical scholars who worked for more than 15 years on the new edition, the Bible draws on "the rich cultural and religious heritage of India."
Although approved by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and published by the Society of St. Paul, the Bible met the disapproval of Protestants and other Christian groups, who believe it diverts from biblical truth.
Pastor Vijay Thomas, who heads a Bible college in Chennai, told Christian Today, “By making it appear ‘Indian’ with references to Hindu scriptures and great poets, people will not come to the truth. This is a complete turn back from the real Bible."
Oswald Gracias, the Catholic Archbishop of Bombay, defended the Bible edition, saying, "I am sure this Bible, made in India and for Indians, will bring the word of God closer to millions of our people, not only Christians."
Accompanied by extensive commentary notes to assist readers in interpreting the verses, the edition also references Indian ancient literary works such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Jesus' words about storing "treasures in heaven" in the Gospel of Matthew, for example, are compared to the Bhagavadgita's teaching that "work alone is your proper business, never the fruits it may produce."
The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, Asia's first Nobel laureate, are also referred to in the commentary.
The general editor of the New Community Bible, the Rev. Dr. Augustine Kanachikuzhy, admitted that references to Hindu scriptures had drawn complaints.
"This was expected," he said. "It will take some time for the new Bible to gain acceptance."
Kanachikuzy still believes the Bible to be a huge hit. "It has proved to be extremely popular among the Christian community with over 15,000 copies sold out within barely 10 days. Now it has gone for a reprint," he added.
Christian leaders fail to recognize implications of Christian-Muslim Yale Declaration
http://christianpost.com/article/20080813/ministry-finds-fault-with-yale-christian-muslim-declaration.htm
A ministry that works with the persecuted church found parts of a declaration recently adopted by Christian and Muslim leaders troubling because it did not emphasize the differences between the two religions enough and gave too much credit to Islam.
Barnabas Fund’s international director, Dr. Peter Sookhdeo, a former Muslim, says the inclusion of the Qur’anic commandment to speak to Christian and Jews (Q 3:64) in the opening passage of the “Final Declaration of the Yale Common Word Conference, July 2008” actually calls for the conversion of Christians and Jews to Islam .
The opening passage also includes the “ascribe no partner” phrase, which is a Muslim critique of the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus, according to the U.K.-based Barnabas Fund.
“It seems that the implications of this verse were not realized or discussed,” commented Barnabas Fund in a reflection on the declaration published Tuesday.
The declaration was made at the conclusion of an eight-day conference at Yale University that was in direct response to a letter signed by 138 Muslim leaders last fall that called for peace between Muslims and Christians for the sake of world peace. Over 140 conference participants unanimously approved on July 31 a cooperative statement that signaled a new beginning of collaboration between Christians and Muslims where stronger assertions of faith would not just be allowed but required.
Barnabas Fund raised several concerns with the final declaration. The document raises Islam, Muhammad and the Qur’an to the same level as Christianity through the language “our common Abrahamic heritage” and “Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheistic heritage,” the ministry pointed out.
“This is a step towards affirming that Muhammad is a prophet and the Qur’an a word of God,” the ministry said. “As Christians we affirm that the promises of Abraham are fulfilled in Christ.”
Other unclear parts in the declaration state that “no Muslim or Christian … should tolerate the denigration or desecration of one another’s sacred symbols, founding figures, or places of worship.”
Drafters should clarify what this means because for orthodox Muslims, the ministry explained, saying Muhammad is not a prophet, that the Qur’an is not divinely inspired, or to invite a Muslim to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God are all considered blasphemy.
The ministry further argues that the declaration was also unclear in what it meant with freedom of religion. It did not assert that individuals have the right to choose, change and proclaim their religion without fear of punishment, nor did it effectively address the full reciprocity of Christians freely sharing Christianity and building churches on Muslim lands – a freedom followers of Islam are given in western countries, Barnabas Fund pointed out.
“We raise these issues because of our concern for the Biblical Christian faith and for the implications of the ‘Common Word’ process for Christian minorities in Muslim lands, Christian mission in Muslim lands, and converts from Islam to Christianity around the world,” Barnabas Fund concluded.
“Although we respect and love Muslims, Christians cannot accept Islam as an equal and valid revelation from God. The denial of the deity of Christ and His redemptive work as well as of the Trinity will always stand in the way of interfaith dialogue and co-operation,” the ministry argues. “Just as Muslims cannot accept the Christian denial of Muhammad’s prophethood and the Qur’an’s status as the word of God, so Christians must take a clear stand on the central doctrines of their faith.”
Despite the list of critiques, Barnabas Fund emphasized at the beginning of its reflection that it “fully affirms and supports all endeavors to work for peace in this torn world,” and welcomes the “sincerity and goodwill of all involved in the process.”
The ministry also said cooperation on social and economic issues should be based upon the groups’ common humanity, rather than a “supposed” common theology as proposed in the declaration.
The Smiling Face of Evil
http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/commentary/the-smiling-face-of-evil-what-holly-thinks/
What does the face of evil look like?
Watch this video (http://www.demotix.com/en/2008/08/12/international-youth-day-and-alliance-civilizations) produced by interns at the United Nations, and see how kind the young people look as they promote the Alliance of Civilizations initiative.
They’re all smiles and sincerity as they share their hopes that the alliance will create a peaceful world. It’s hard to look at their bright faces and think anything sinister could lurk in their words.
Yet, it does. The alliance’s war against religious extremism and exclusivism – defined by the alliance as the belief that one’s religion has sole ownership of the truth – is a direct attack on Christianity. If the alliance’s goals are successful – including media and education censorship — the world will become a much more threatening place for Christians. Read about the alliance’s plans here (http://www.unaoc.org/content/view/64/94/lang,english/).
There’s an important lesson for Christians to learn in this. When we think of the face of evil, we often think of a face that is ugly, sinister, scowling. But the evil the Bible most often warns us about is outwardly beautiful and inviting. The unthreatening appearance gets us to let our guard down.
In Matthew 7, Jesus warned his disciples about false prophets who would come to them in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly would be ravenous wolves. And, in Revelation 13, we’re warned about the ultimate False Prophet who will have horns like a lamb, but will speak as a dragon. This individual won’t only appear kind, but he’ll also perform great miracles – leading many religious people to worship the Antichrist.
Today, we can see how false prophets lure Christians with their claims of healing and miracles, while promoting teachings that lead people away from the true Christian faith. The recent Lakeland Revival is an example of this. Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley gave the credit for his alleged healings to an angel he said empowered the healing ministry of William Branham – a false prophet of the late 1940s and 1950s who taught that the Trinity was a satanic doctrine, and, thus, led people away from the Triune God of the Bible. See Bentley’s statement here (http://www.freshfire.ca/index.php?Act=read&status=revival&Id=132&pid=954&bid=923). See more about Branham here (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/b05.html).
Likewise, we see how entities like the Alliance of Civilizations lure people with their promise of a peaceful world, while requiring them to give up the essential Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the only path to peace with God and man.
That’s what the face of evil looks like.
Tough exchange between Washington and Moscow
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5512
US president George W. Bush accused Russia of “bullying and intimidation” conduct unacceptable in the 21st century. He said Russia’s invasion of Georgia had damaged its credibility, the US stands with the people of Georgia and he called for the withdrawal of “invading forces from all Georgian territory.”
In Moscow, president Dimitry Medvedev said the deployment of US missiles in Poland is aimed against Russia, contradicting their avowed purpose of protecting Europe against Iranian missile threat. Under the US-Polish deal signed Thrusday, 10 interceptor missiles will be installed at a base on the Baltic coast in return for US aid to boost Polish air defenses.
Russia’s deputy chief of general staff, Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said this was an act that “cannot go unpunished.” He said “It’s a cause for regret that at a time when we are already in a difficult situation, the American side further exacerbates relations between the United States and Russia” already strained by the Georgian conflict,
Moscow has stood out against the deal which was 18 months in negotiation. After it was announced, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a visit to Poland.
Back-door US-Russian contacts to de-escalate war of words - after Moscow threatens to nuke Poland
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5511
DEBKAfile reports that both powers have begun acting to cool the rhetoric and review relations, after spokesmen in Washington - and especially Moscow - raised the threat level of their oratory to its highest pitch since the Cold War’s end.
Friday night, Aug. 15, Russia’s deputy chief of staff Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned Poland it was “exposing itself to a strike 100 percent.”
He said any new US assets in Europe could come under Russian nuclear attack. Russian forces would target “the allies of countries having nuclear weapons” to destroy them “as a first priority,” said Gen. Nogovitsyn.
At the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian president Dimitry Medvedev dismissed the claim that the US missile interceptors in Poland were a deterrent against rogue states like Iran as “a fairy tale,” insisting they were aimed against Russia. Warsaw, which will receive 10 batteries in return for American aid to boost its air defenses, later invited Russia to visit the site and see for itself.
President George W. Bush said "The Cold War is over… Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
He said Russia’s invasion of Georgia had damaged its credibility and the US stands with the people of Georgia and called for the withdrawal of “invading forces from all Georgian territory.”
Russian and Georgian presidents have both signed the ceasefire brokered by France. But Russian troops and tanks and marauding irregulars in the areas under their control had still not left Georgia by Saturday Saturday. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said extra security arrangements needed to be put in place before a withdrawal could begin, in defiance of US demand that Russian troops leave immediately.
After meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel, Medvedev said he could not see South Ossetia and Abkhazia living with Georgia in one state.”
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice persuaded Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili to sign on the dotted line Friday night. DEBKAfile’s political sources report that, as in most cases when international tensions and violence reach dangerous levels, the big powers have instituted secret diplomacy to cool the situation before it gets out of hand in order to formulate new modes of conduct and relations.
This process began with Rice’s visit to France and Tbilsi.
In five hours of arm-twisting, she persuaded Saakashvili to accept clarifications to the ceasefire accord which contradict Washington’s spirited assurances for Georgia’s “territorial integrity.”
Russian troops allowed to remain in Georgia would be “very limited to a light patrolling ability, such as a few kilometers outside of South Ossetia, not the right to maintain a presence inside Georgia.”
Furthermore, “Russian peacekeepers” would be allowed to “implement additional security measures” until international security can be put in place.
This clause authorizes on behalf of the US and Europe the narrow security strips, which DEBKAfile’s military sources revealed two days ago the Russians are establishing 300-500 meters deep outside the South Ossetian and Abkhazian borders with Georgia.
This American concession was designed as initial impetus for quiet diplomacy with Russia on a settlement in Georgia.
The other concession, which will unfold in time, is the removal of the Georgian president, another of Moscow’s conditions for ending the crisis. It is hard to see Saakasvhili surviving the outcry at home when the extent of his military and diplomatic failures is revealed to his people.
Furthermore, his highly charged speech Friday was watched with pursed lips by Condoleezza Rice and clearly embarrassed his sponsors in Washington. While Bush declared the Cold War is over, Saakashvili heaped verbal coals on the standoff with Russia to keep it ablaze.
Is Georgia payback for Kosovo?
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080811/new-indian-bible-draws-fire-over-hindu-references.htm
Tiny Georgia with an army of less than 18,000, having been roundly defeated in South Ossetia, cannot hope to withstand the mighty Russian army in Abkhazia either.
Therefore, President Saakashvili, whose bid to join NATO and the European Union infuriated Moscow, will have to write off both breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as lost to Russia.
This is Moscow's payback for the US-NATO action to detach Kosovo from Serbia and launch it on the way to independence. It is also a warning to former Soviet bloc nations, Ukraine, the Caucasian and Central Asian peoples against opting to join up with the United States and the NATO bloc in areas which Moscow deems part of its strategic sphere of influence
After severing South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, four follow-up Russian steps may be postulated:
1. The two separatist provinces will proclaim their independence, just like Kosovo.
2. Russia will continue to exercise its overwhelming military and air might to reduce the pro-American Saakashvili to capitulation.
3. The Georgian president will not be able to face his own nation after losing two regions of his country and causing its humiliation. Moscow will then make Washington swallow a pro-Russian successor.
4. Moscow’s trampling of Georgia will serve as an object lesson for Russia’s own secessionist provinces, such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and a warning not to risk defying Russian armed might.
4. Western plans to develop more oil and gas pipelines to bypass the Russian network to the West, in addition to the Caspian line which carries one million barrels a day from Baku through Georgia to Turkey and out to the West, will be held in abeyance pending an accommodation with the rulers of the Kremlin.
By flouting US demands to accept mediation, Moscow highlighted America’s lack of leverage for helping its embattled Georgian ally.
The Bush administration finds itself trapped in its foreign policy commitment to dialogue and international diplomacy for solving world disputes, but short of willing opposite numbers.
Russia is following Iran’s example in exploiting Washington's inhibition to advance its goals by force. Therefore, the Caucasian standoff has profound ramifications for the Middle East and Persian Gulf. Moscow’s disdain for Washington’s lack of muscle will further encourage Tehran and its terrorist proxies to defy the international community and the United States in particular.
Before the Gunfire, Cyberattacks
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/technology/13cyber.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.
Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.”
Other Internet experts in the United States said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests — known as distributed denial of service, or D.D.O.S., attacks — that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers.
Researchers at Shadowserver, a volunteer group that tracks malicious network activity, reported that the Web site of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been rendered inoperable for 24 hours by multiple D.D.O.S. attacks. They said the command and control server that directed the attack was based in the United States and had come online several weeks before it began the assault.
As it turns out, the July attack may have been a dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Russia. According to Internet technical experts, it was the first time a known cyberattack had coincided with a shooting war.
But it will likely not be the last, said Bill Woodcock, the research director of the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit organization that tracks Internet traffic. He said cyberattacks are so inexpensive and easy to mount, with few fingerprints, they will almost certainly remain a feature of modern warfare.
“It costs about 4 cents per machine,” Mr. Woodcock said. “You could fund an entire cyberwarfare campaign for the cost of replacing a tank tread, so you would be foolish not to.”
Exactly who was behind the cyberattack is not known. The Georgian government blamed Russia for the attacks, but the Russian government said it was not involved. In the end, Georgia, with a population of just 4.6 million and a relative latecomer to the Internet, saw little effect beyond inaccessibility to many of its government Web sites, which limited the government’s ability to spread its message online and to connect with sympathizers around the world during the fighting with Russia.
It ranks 74th out of 234 nations in terms of Internet addresses, behind Nigeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia and El Salvador. Cyberattacks have far less impact on such a country than they might on a more Internet-dependent nation, like Israel, Estonia or the United States, where vital services like transportation, power and banking are tied to the Internet.
In Georgia, media, communications and transportation companies were also attacked, according to security researchers. Shadowserver saw the attack against Georgia spread to computers throughout the government after Russian troops entered the Georgian province of South Ossetia. The National Bank of Georgia’s Web site was defaced at one point. Images of 20th-century dictators as well as an image of Georgia’s president, Mr. Saakashvili, were placed on the site. “Could this somehow be indirect Russian action? Yes, but considering Russia is past playing nice and uses real bombs, they could have attacked more strategic targets or eliminated the infrastructure kinetically,” said Gadi Evron, an Israeli network security expert. “The nature of what’s going on isn’t clear,” he said.
The phrase “a wilderness of mirrors” usually describes the murky world surrounding opposing intelligence agencies. It also neatly summarizes the array of conflicting facts and accusations encompassing the cyberwar now taking place in tandem with the Russian fighting in Georgia.
In addition to D.D.O.S. attacks that crippled Georgia’s limited Internet infrastructure, researchers said there was evidence of redirection of Internet traffic through Russian telecommunications firms beginning last weekend. The attacks continued on Tuesday, controlled by software programs that were located in hosting centers controlled by a Russian telecommunications firms. A Russian-language Web site, stopgeorgia.ru, also continued to operate and offer software for download used for D.D.O.S. attacks.
Over the weekend a number of American computer security researchers tracking malicious programs known as botnets, which were blasting streams of useless data at Georgian computers, said they saw clear evidence of a shadowy St. Petersburg-based criminal gang known as the Russian Business Network, or R.B.N.
“The attackers are using the same tools and the same attack commands that have been used by the R.B.N. and in some cases the attacks are being launched from computers they are known to control,” said Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence for SecureWorks, a computer security firm based in Atlanta.
He noted that in the run-up to the start of the war over the weekend, computer researchers had watched as botnets were “staged” in preparation for the attack, and then activated shortly before Russian air strikes began on Saturday.
The evidence on R.B.N. and whether it is controlled by, or coordinating with the Russian government remains unclear. The group has been linked to online criminal activities including child pornography, malware, identity theft, phishing and spam. Other computer researchers said that R.B.N.’s role is ambiguous at best. “We are simply seeing the attacks coming from known hosting services,” said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threat researcher at Trend Micro, an Internet security company based in Cupertino, Calif. A Russian government spokesman said that it was possible that individuals in Russia or elsewhere had taken it upon themselves to start the attacks.
“I cannot exclude this possibility,” Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, said. “There are people who don’t agree with something and they try to express themselves. You have people like this in your country.”
Temple Institute enlisting hundreds of teens for advancement of Third Temple
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3575972,00.html
Mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem is normal in the month of Av, but at the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faith Movement all focus is on the “big day” - the day in which the Third Temple will be built.
As part of the preparations, hundreds of teenagers are expected to sign the “Temple Treaty” and to proclaim, “We commit to doing everything in our power to abide by this commandment and to devote at least half an hour a week toward this effort.”
In the youth conference conducted by the Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem, scheduled for Thursday, participants will discuss possible plans of action to further the building of the Temple.
Under the title, “Building the Temple, it’s in Our Hands,” lessons will be given by rabbis identified with the Temple and for the first time ever, a treaty pertaining to the necessity of building the Temple will be revealed.
“God commanded us in his Torah, ‘build me a Temple and I shall dwell amongst you',” as written in the document, “All of Israel must do everything they can to obey this commandment...”
In a conversation with Ynet, Temple Institute Director Rabbi Yehuda Glick vowed that this is the first event in a series that will institutionalize and widen youth activities.
“(Deceased general) Mota Gur said (during the conquest of east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War), ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’, and I say now the Temple is in our hands,” said Glick.
“The treaty we composed contains a bunch of suggestions like Temple studies, embroidering priestly clothes, illustration for books on the subject, enhancing awareness, fundraising, or any other activity we believe can further the building of the Temple.
“No clause calls for the launching of LAW missiles or the exploding of the mosque at the Temple Mount,” Glick stressed.
Women are also expected to participate in Thursday’s event, during which they will watch a performance intended to encourage them to be active in the advancement of the Temple.
“This Temple is not just something historic stored in a memory chest,” said Glick, “everyone has the opportunity to contribute to this goal.”
Hamas leader's son declares faith in Christ
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28641
The son of a prominent leader in the Hamas terrorist organization has publicly declared his faith in Jesus Christ and warned that Israel can never be at peace with the "wicked and cruel" men who lead Hamas.
Masab Yousef, who now prefers to be known as "Joseph," is the oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a political leader of the Hamas organization in the West Bank and one of the movement's most popular public figures. He gave his life to Christ in 2004, four years after a friend invited him to a Bible study and he began to read the Christian scriptures for himself.
"At this stage I was still a Muslim and I thought that I would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible things done in the name of religion by those who considered themselves 'great believers,’" Yousef told the Haaretz news organization. "I studied Islam more thoroughly and found no answers there. I re-examined the Koran and the principles of the faith and found how it is mistaken and misleading. The Muslims borrowed rituals and traditions from all the surrounding religions."
His father, who is not involved with the military arm of Hamas, is a moderate who does not support the use of terror to further the cause of a Palestinian state, Yousef said. In fact, he takes some credit for his father's advocacy of a "two-state solution" for Middle East peace.
"When I was with my father, I in effect pushed a moderate Hamas leader into making logical decisions, such as stopping the attacks and establishing two states alongside one another," Yousef told Haaretz. "I felt responsible. It was better for me to be there rather than a gang of fools who would poison his mind.
"I tried to understand those people, their thoughts, in order to change them from inside by means of a strong person like my father, who admitted to me in the past that he does not support suicide attacks," he added. "He thinks that harming innocent people gives the organization a bad name. The sheikh once said to me that when he sees an insect outside the house he is careful not to harm it, 'so what can I say about harming civilians?'"
When he was arrested by the Israel Defense Force in 1996 at age 18 for being the head of a Hamas youth organization, Yousef was incarcerated at Megiddo Prison, where he had an opportunity to see that most Hamas leaders were not peaceful men like his father.
"I sat in Megiddo Prison and suddenly I understood who the real Hamas was," Yousef told Haaretz. "These people have no morals, they have no integrity. But they aren't as stupid as Fatah, which steals in broad daylight in front of everyone and is immediately suspected of corruption. [Hamas people] receive money in dishonest ways, invest it in secret places, and outwardly maintain a simple lifestyle."
Yousef said the extremists' deception extends to their representation of Islam itself.
"The people who supposedly represent the religion admired Mohammed more than God, killed innocent people in the name of Islam, beat their wives and don't have any idea what God is," he told Haaretz. "I have no doubt that they'll go to hell. I have a message for them: There is only one way to Paradise -- the way of Jesus who sacrificed Himself on the cross for all of us."
Israelis and their friends should not be deceived into thinking that peace with Hamas is possible, Yousef said.
"You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews," he told Haaretz. "They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death. They have to take revenge against anyone who did not agree to accept the Prophet Mohammed."
Islam as a culture "sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists," Yousef added. Hamas extremists "are blind and ignorant. It's true, there are good and bad people everywhere, but Hamas supporters don't understand that they are led by a wicked and cruel group that brainwashes the children and gets them to believe that if they carry out a suicide attack they'll get to Paradise."
Christian love and forgiveness hold the only hope for peace in the Middle East, Yousef said.
"Many people will hate me for this interview, but I'm telling them that I love all of them, even those who hate me. I invite all the people, including the terrorists among them, to open their hearts and believe," he told Haaretz. "Now I'm trying to establish an international organization for young people that will teach about Christianity, love and peace in the territories, too. I would like to teach the young people how to love and forgive, because that's the only way the two nations can overcome the mistakes of the past and live in peace."
Israel adopts U.S. plan to split nation into 2
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72178
A detailed proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state that reportedly was presented by Israel to the Palestinian Authority in recent weeks was heavily influenced by the U.S. and is largely based on an American-drafted plan, WND has learned.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert handed to PA President Mahmoud Abbas a plan for an Israeli withdrawal from most of the strategic West Bank and for parts of the Israeli Negev desert – Israeli territory undisputed by the international community – to become part of a Palestinian state.
WND last week quoted a top Palestinian official stating Olmert told the PA he intends to accelerate negotiations the next few weeks to reach a deal on paper outlining a Palestinian state before he steps down from office next month.
Olmert earlier this month announced he will resign from office after his Kadima party holds internal elections next month to choose a new leader. He said he is stepping down due to a criminal investigation, described by police officials as "serious," in which he is accused of corruption and financial improprieties.
The Haaretz report says the deal, confirmed by diplomatic sources speaking to WND, was rejected last night by the Palestinians unless certain key modifications were made.
The proposal calls for Israel to evacuate 93 percent of the West Bank, while the Palestinians would receive territory equivalent to 5.5 percent of the West Bank, located in the Israeli Negev desert.
The plan grants the Palestinians passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on territory that would be jointly patrolled by Israel and the PA. The passageway would give the Palestinians access to areas close to central Israeli population centers.
Much of the plan previously was published by WND in a series of articles in recent months.
According to the plan Olmert sent to the PA, land to be annexed to Israel would include the large West Bank Jewish community blocs of Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and some land in the northern West Bank adjacent to Israel. The rest of the West Bank would be handed to the Palestinians.
An area from the Israeli Negev nearly equivalent in land mass to the territory Israel would retain in the West Bank would be transferred to the West Bank – marking the first official Israeli plan that calls for pre-1967 land to be given to the Palestinians. Pre-1967 refers to Israeli territory that was not reconquered in the 1967 Six Day War.
The plan would be set out on paper and implemented on the Israeli side in stages, while the PA would need to first retake control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas before Israel would give them most of the West Bank.
Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, refused to confirm yesterday to WND the existence of the plan as reported by Haaretz.
But Nabil Abu Rdainah, Abbas' spokesman, told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA the plan presented by Olmert showed a "lack of seriousness" since it did not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Israeli diplomatic sources said Olmert will now offer a new draft plan in the immediate future.
The plan Olmert already presented was adapted from a detailed American proposal sent earlier this year to the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating delegations, diplomatic sources said.
The U.S. plan also called for peripheral eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem to become part of a future Palestinian state, but those sections of the plan seemed to have been placed on hold for now.
Olmert is considered a lame duck prime minister and according to polls has little standing with the Israeli population, but he has vowed to forge ahead with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit, which seeks to create a Palestinian state by the end of the year.
Last week a top PA negotiator told WND Olmert has stated he plans to grant the Palestinians a state on paper before he steps down from office next month.
"Papers are very important. It puts limits on the new prime minister," said the PA negotiator, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity. "For example, the weak point of Israeli-Syrian negotiations are papers signed by former prime ministers that now must be abided during current negotiations.
"Olmert told us his goal is to reach an agreement on paper," the negotiator said.
He said the agreement will likely encompass understandings regarding the transfer of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians. He said he "hopes" the issue of Jerusalem is broached but that it might not be mentioned on paper beyond a declaration of agreement to negotiate further.
Livni confident she can win elections
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710379193&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
With one month left before the Kadima Party primaries, front-runners Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz held meetings over the weekend to flex their political muscles, showing off their strong support bases.
"These elections are a vote for the image and future of Kadima, and afterwards, for the future of Israel. We can return Kadima to what it should have been, and we must not ignore the fact that we have been given a second chance to do so. Today we have the opportunity to fulfill the dream that we had when we established Kadima," Livni said at a Friday afternoon meeting during which she met with leading political figures who had already cast their support with her.
Among those gathered at the meeting Friday was a new - and welcome - face in the Livni camp, Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski.
In addition to assessing her currently front-running status, dividing up tasks and planning activities, Livni urged her supporters to look forward, not just at the upcoming primaries but at the next elections down the road.
"Kadima represents, in my eyes, the wide common agreement in Israel - in terms of diplomatic, economic and social policy," said Livni. "We are going to win twice - inside Kadima and afterwards, in the general elections, whenever they may be."
Mofaz, too, did not waste valuable weekend hours, but spent Saturday night campaigning at an event in the Druse city of Daliat al-Carmel.
During his Saturday evening speech he attacked both Defense Minister Ehud Barak as well as Livni in front of a group of Druse community elders and leaders.
"They are both right [in their criticism of each other.] Barak failed as prime minister and as Labor chairman, and Livni doesn't have enough experience to lead the government. We've already done enough experiments on this matter, we have paid a heavy price and I don't have the privilege of carrying out another experiment," warned Mofaz highlighting Livni's lack of defense experience.
"Kadima members know that we will continue to lead the country with responsibility and consideration, and we will strive to achieve peace without selling our national and strategic assets," Mofaz said, intimating his disapproval with recent negotiations with Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
"To reach achievements such as these and to ensure the future and security of Israel, strong leadership is needed, leadership that knows to guide with experience and ability, to make decisions even when they are difficult ones."
But while the Kadima front-runners campaigned, Barak continued to launch broadsides against the party as a whole. On Friday, the Labor chairman launched a scathing verbal attack on Kadima and the contenders for the party's chairmanship, only two days after similar statements evoked harsh criticism of Barak from within his own party.
"Despite the challenges facing Israel and decisions that must be made, the Kadima contenders could not even reach a decision on primaries in their party without the Labor Party's intervention," Barak said during a meeting of the party's Tel Aviv district, asserting that he was best fitted to lead the country. "What we need is dedicated leadership - no marketing gimmick can cover up the need for such experienced leadership. You know I have it."
Barak went on to assert that Kadima was a "temporary party," adding that "what the public needs is a broad emergency government."
Barak vows to hit 'deep in Lebanon' if Hizbullah attacks
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94958
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak pledged "very tough" Israeli retaliation to any attack by Hizbullah, vowing to target areas "deep in Lebanon" Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported this week. Barak warned against an "intimate relation" between Hizbullah and Syria saying it could lead into distorting the balance of power in Lebanon, "which would lead Israel to retaliate."
Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday that Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any attacks against Israel, in particular for any Hizbullah efforts to avenge the murder of its top military commander Imad Mughniyeh.
"This decision on Wednesday by the security Cabinet represents a change in Israeli policy, after always firmly separating Hizbullah and the Lebanese government," it reported.
According to defense establishment recommendations adopted by the security cabinet, Israel will treat the Lebanese unity government, which is headed by Fouad Siniora and includes Hizbullah, "as responsible for any event that takes place in its sovereign territory or events for which Lebanese nationals are responsible."
A source told Haaretz that if Hizbullah attacks Israel from inside Lebanese territory, shoots at Israel Air Force aircraft or carries out a terror attack abroad as revenge for the Mughniyeh assassination, which it attributes to Israel, then Israel will hold Lebanon responsible and respond appropriately.
"In the coming weeks, Israel plans to start transmitting this message to the United Nations, United States, Russia and European nations, and primarily to Syria and Hizbullah itself," Haaretz said.
The Haaretz report claimed that during the 2006 war on Lebanon, Israel avoided damaging Lebanese civilian infrastructure such as power stations, ports or government institutions, despite the recommendation of then-chief of staff Dan Halutz. Israel refrained from such attacks because of pressure from Washington, the report claimed.
"The US claimed that bombing Lebanese infrastructure would topple the moderate Siniora government," it added.
During the 34-day war, Israeli air strikes heavily targeted Lebanese infrastructure as well as civilian areas, including a power station, roads, bridges, communication systems, factories, airports, ports and Lebanese Army military bases.
According to Haaretz, defense officials noted in the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that "two developments" supported a change in policy.
"The first is the fact Hizbullah is now a partner in a Lebanese unity government and holds veto rights," the daily said.
"The second is that the policy statement of the new Lebanese government, approved by President Michel Sleiman, allows Hizbullah to continue its military activity against Israel," it added.
Haaretz reported that the Israeli defense establishment "believes these new conditions improve Israel's deterrent power as Hizbullah understands the severe ramifications of the new situation should there be any action against Israel in Lebanon or overseas."
Israel loses Druze allies in Lebannon as Jumblatt signs pact with pro-Iranian Hizballah
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94958
The fervently pro-US, pro-Israeli Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, has decided to hold out no longer. He has thrown in his lot with the most extreme pro-Syrian, pro-Iranian, anti-Israel force in Lebanon, the Shiite Hizballah, which has gained veto power over the government in Beirut unopposed.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources disclose that over last weekend, Jumblatt quietly signed a “defense cooperation pact” with Hassan Nasrallah, affording Hizballah a strong foothold in the Lebanese Druze bastion of Mt. Chouf.
Drawing the hostile noose around northern Israel ever tighter, Lebanese president Michel Sleiman was due in Damascus Wednesday, Aug. 13, to celebrate the thaw in relations between the two countries.
Neither Israeli ministers, sunk in an acrimonious contest over the succession to Ehud Olmert, nor the United States in the dying days of the Bush presidency, have lifted a finger to arrest Lebanon’s swift slide into the Iranian-Syrian orbit.
Jumblatt, after watching pro-Western strategic positions crumble in his country, decided to join forces with Hizballah to shield his ancestral mountain domain from Syrian domination.
The Druze and Hizballah militias agreed to set up a joint commission for coordinating military operations. Hizballah is represented by its security and intelligence commander, Wafiq Shafa (who was in change of the recent prisoner swap with Israel) and the Druzes by Akram Shahaib.
The joint security patrols for the Druze communities of the Chouf, will also give Hizballah a military presence on its third strategic Lebanese peak, after Mt. Sannine and Jebel Barukh.
Security and Defense: In advance
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1218104237345
The missile barrage is launched simultaneously in three countries. Scud Cs from Syria, Shihab-3s from Iran and shorter-range Zelzals from Lebanon. As alarms sound, air force officers huddle in front of their large plasma computer screens, wipe the sweat off their brows, clear their throats and get to work.
In the "cube" - the heavily fortified Arrow missile defense command center in the Palmahim Air Force Base - a young lieutenant punches a series of buttons on his keyboard, to identify the incoming threats. He then rattles them off to the rest of the room.
"There is a launch in the East," he says, as the letters ENG - standing for the Shihab-3's engine - pop up on his screen, accompanied by a "bleep."
"And another one from Syria," he adds, as a second bleep sounds, and the letters SD appear - standing for Scud D, Syria's largest ballistic missile.
Across the cube - officially called the Citron Tree - another junior officer watches a satellite image pop up on his screen, with an arrow pointing at the incoming missile's projected landing site. One missile is headed toward Petah Tikva, three others toward Jerusalem and two toward Dimona, home to the country's nuclear reactor.
These images are transmitted directly to the IDF Home Front Command, which immediately sets off air-raid sirens and dispatches rescue workers to the projected sites.
After 10 enemy missiles are in the air, quickly picking up speed as they hone in on their targets, a row of officers on another side of the room hit the F2 buttons on their keyboards, launching close to two dozen Arrow 2 interceptors from Palmahim, and another battery deployed at Ein Shemer in the North.
THIS SCENARIO - simulated Tuesday at Palmahim - is one of the IDF's worst nightmares: a simultaneous Iranian and Syrian missile barrage, possibly carrying nuclear or non-conventional warheads, and all heading toward Israel, with only minutes to be intercepted.
While the Home Front Command is prepared to deal with a potential missile fallout, the country is banking on the Arrow to prevent that from being necessary.
But with Iran continuing to defy the international community - it rejected the European Union's incentive package this week - the possibility of a military strike against Teheran's nuclear facilities is rumored to be growing. In such an event, Iran would likely respond by firing long-range Shihab missiles at Israel - even if the IDF is not directly behind the strike.
AS THE air force ran the above Arrow simulation, Lt.-Gen. Henry A. Obering III - director of America's Missile Defense Agency - was meeting with Defense Ministry officials in Tel Aviv. During the talk, he reportedly declared the US Defense Department's intention to recommend that the Congress contribute funding for the development and production of the Arrow 3 - the next generation, in terms of speed, range and altitude, of Israeli missile interceptors.
According to defense officials, the new Arrow will become operational by 2012. Still, the IDF is confident that the current system is capable of protecting the country.
"We have good answers to the threats and scenarios that we foresee in the region," OC Air Defense Forces Brig.-Gen. Daniel Milo said, following the simulation at Palmahim. "There is no such thing as a 100-percent solution, but the way we provide an answer to ballistic missiles is improving all the time."
As the Iranians strive for missile advances - Teheran claims its missiles have multiple warheads, advanced guidance systems and decoy-discharge capabilities - Milo and his men are in a constant race to be at least one step ahead. To meet this goal, they face a number of growing challenges. First is ensuring that the Arrow's Green Pine radar system can detect incoming missiles with enough time to spare. The time required depends on the type of missile and where it is launched, but ranges anywhere from around 15 seconds to several minutes.
The Arrow teams in Ein Shemer and Palmahim do not have to wait for a real attack before they can test their systems. Iran's missile show last month - during which it claimed to test-fire nine new, advanced ballistic missiles - was detected by the Green Pine radar, and closely followed in the cube as if missiles were actually on their way to Tel Aviv.
IAF officers said this week they believe that, where missile detection is concerned, the future lies in space-based platforms like satellites, which can be made available for the Arrow missile defense system at a moment's notice. Israel operates several advanced spy satellites - Ofek, Eros and TecSar - that can also detect and track missile launches.
Last week, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Defense Minister Ehud Barak that America was prepared to deploy the powerful X-band phased radar to enhance Israeli missile-detection systems.
MISSILE DEFENSE systems have a twofold purpose in IDF strategy: preventing civilian casualties and providing the government with better diplomatic maneuverability.
Missile defense is one of the issues that stand at the core of Israeli-US defense ties, as Obering's visit demonstrated. This dates back 17 years when, ahead of the Gulf War in 1991, US Patriot missile systems were deployed here to help defend against Iraqi Scuds. This intimate relationship continues, with the US funding the Arrow, and Boeing's involvement in the development of the defense system's interceptor.
Ahead of a possible showdown with Iran, this relationship has been enhanced with the potential deployment of new, more-advanced US-made missile defense systems here.
While such a deployment would require presidential approval, in recent years the American and Israeli air forces have held a number of simulations and drills - called Juniper Cobra - to prepare for the possibility of Aegis missile ships or THAAD (terminal high-altitude area defense) systems being deployed here.
Israel and the US have created a special mechanism that would enable the rapid deployment of the American systems and their hookup to existing infrastructure. The person who would command all the systems would be OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who would give orders to the American Aegis ship or THAAD teams.
IN RESPONSE to his assessment of a growing missile threat, upon taking up his post as defense minister following the Second Lebanon War, Barak called for the urgent development of a multi-layered defense plan.
To prepare for this, Milo prepared a three-step training and procurement plan for his unit, which hopes to receive the Iron Dome anti-Kassam system by 2010, as well as the Arrow 3 and David's Sling for medium-range missiles by 2012. Additional Arrow batteries will be deployed throughout the country by the end of the year. "Good answers" will be getting better.
Analysis: Subtly and determinedly, Syria is taking over Lebanon
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1218104238127
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to visit Syria next week, to discuss the opening of diplomatic relations between the countries, a Lebanese official told reporters this week.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month hailed President Bashar Assad's expression of willingness in principle to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon as "historic progress."
The establishment of a first-ever Syrian Embassy in Beirut is probably not imminent, for various reasons. Nevertheless, the signs of normalization in relations between Syria and Lebanon are significant. They are the latest indication of Syria's growing confidence, and far from being a harbinger of more peaceful times in the neighborhood, they offer clues as to the shape of possible further strife.
The formation of the new Lebanese government after the Beirut clashes in May represented a very significant gain for the pro-Syria element in Lebanese politics. Hizbullah now controls a blocking 11 of the 30 cabinet seats. With a Lebanese government of this type, there is no reason for Syria to be in dispute there. The short period when Damascus felt the need to express its will in Lebanon solely in a clandestine way is drawing to a close.
Still, Western hopes for the rapid establishment of formal relations between the two countries are probably exaggerated. Damascus is in no hurry. Syria's return to Lebanon is a work in progress. Assad has listed the preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations to become a real possibility. These include the passing of an election law, and the holding of the scheduled May 2009 general election.
Behind Assad's honeyed words, one may glimpse the contours of Syrian strategy in the next stage. The election of May 2009 will be conducted under the shadow of Hizbullah's independent and now untouchable military capability.
Intimidation will go hand in hand with the real kudos gained by the movement and its allies because of recent events - including the prisoner swap with Israel, and the Doha agreement that followed the fighting in May. The result, the Syrians hope, will be the establishment of a government more fully dominated by Hizbullah and its allies, in which the pro-Western element will have been marginalized.
Such a government would mark the effective final reversal of the events of the spring of 2005, when the Cedar Revolution compelled the Syrian army to leave Lebanon. Damascus would then go on to conduct friendly and fraternal relations with the new order in Beirut. Mission accomplished.
If this strategy plays out, however, it will represent not the normalization of Syrian-Lebanese relations, but rather the enveloping of Lebanon into the regional alliance led by Iran, of which Syria is a senior member.
On the ground in Lebanon, this regional alliance is still engaged in consolidating its gains. The lines separating the official Lebanese state from the para-state established by Hizbullah continue to blur. The new government's draft policy statement, which is still to be discussed by the parliament, supports the "right of Lebanon's people, the army and the Resistance to liberate all its territories."
This statement thus nominally affords the Resistance. i.e. Hizbullah, equal status with the Lebanese Armed Forces, and appears to consider it an organ of official government policy.
The new organ of government policy, meanwhile, is building its strength. Ostensibly for the mission of "liberating" 20 square kilometers of border farmland, Hizbullah has built a capability of 40,000 missiles and rockets, is frenziedly recruiting and training new fighters, and is expanding and developing its command and logistics center in the Bekaa.
The latest talk is of Iranian-Syrian plans to supply Hizbullah with an advanced anti-aircraft capacity that would provide aerial defense to the investment in rockets and missiles. Such a move would represent a grave altering of the balance of power. Serious moves towards it could well prove the spark for the next confrontation.
In all its moves, the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah alliance has known how to combine brutal military tactics on the ground with subtle and determined diplomacy. Its willingness to throw away the rule book governing the normal relations between states has been perhaps its greatest advantage. While the West sees states as fixed entities possessing certain basic rights, Iran and Syria see only processes of rising and falling power. They see themselves as the force on the rise, and the niceties of internationally fixed borders as a trifle unworthy of consideration.
Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5513
DEBKAfile's military sources report Moscow's planned retaliation for America's missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe.
In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.
After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.
One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile's sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile).
Shortly before the Georgian conflict flared, Moscow promised Washington not to let Iran and Syria have these sophisticated pieces of hardware.
The Iskander's cruise attributes make its launch and trajectory extremely hard to detect and intercept. If this missile reaches Syria, Israel will have to revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years, as it constitutes a threat which transcends all its defensive red lines.
Moscow's war planners know this and are therefore considering new sea and air bases in Syria as sites for the Iskander missiles. Russia would thus keep the missiles under its hand and make sure they were not transferred to Iran. At the same time, Syrian crews would be trained in their operation.
DEBKAfile's military sources report Syrian president Bashar Assad will be invited to Moscow soon to finalize these plans in detail.
Military spokesmen in Moscow said Saturday and Sunday that Russian military planners to started redesigning the nation’s strategic plans for a fitting response to America's decision to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the war developments in Georgia.
The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke out strongly Sunday, Aug. 17, against treasury plans to slash the defense budget. He warned that the military faced grave confrontations in the coming year - possibly on several fronts.
Iran launches first satellite into orbit. Israel: Regional strategic balance altered
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5514
An Iranian news network IRNN showed footage of what it called a domestically-manufactured communications satellite named Safir-e Omid being launched in darkness, accompanied by patriotic hymns, Sunday, Aug. 17.
DEBKAfile reports from one Iranian source that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the event. Our military sources stress that confirmation of Iran’s successful launch would represent a strategic breakthrough, testifying to Tehran’s ability to fire ballistic missiles possibly armed with nuclear warheads to distances of thousands of kilometers, against Israel and beyond; Europe and parts of Asia would also be in range. The launching would have paved the way for spy satellites.
If verified, Iran’s space achievement would offset one of Israel’s prime military assets, its superiority in space technology.
According to our sources, Tehran caught Israel, the United States and both their undercover agencies by surprise. They knew Iran was working on a space program but not how close the Iranians were to placing a satellite in orbit.
Our sources believe that the capsule was boosted by the Shehab-5 missile, whose range the Iranians boast is up to 5,000 km and, according to some military experts, reaches 7,000 km.
The Islamic Republic’s reported feat comes at a bad time for Moscow internationally. The Russians emphatically dismiss America’s argument for installing missile interceptors in Poland as a shield against Iranian ballistic missile attack, claiming they were aimed at Russia. The Kremlin accuses the Bush administration using this false claim as a pretext, because Iran had not so far developed a ballistic threat. Now, that proof may have been provided Sunday, Moscow will have to reconsider its position.
Iranian house church leader and wife die after police raid
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07502.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - According to reports from Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), two elderly Christians, Abbas Amiri and his wife, Sakineh Rahnama, have died as a consequence of a police raid on a church meeting that was being conducted in their home on July 17.
The couple had made their home available for the believers of the town to gather and to worship the Lord. According to FCNN, on July 17, the meeting was raided and several believers arrested. Abbas Amiri was attacked and beaten up by plain clothes security officers. Due to his old age and the extent of his injuries, he died at 4:30 p.m. on July 30 at a hospital in the city of Isfahan.
Tragically, a few days later, Amiri's wife, Sakineh Rahnama, who was also physically assaulted by security officers during the raid, died on August 3 in the city of Masjid-Sleiman. Local Christians blame her death on the combination of injuries she suffered and stress from her husband's death.
When the family tried to hold a memorial service at the Amiri home, Iranian authorities told the family's relatives that they had no permission to conduct any kind of memorial or funeral services and that they had to leave the city immediately. When Rahnama's son got into an argument with the police, they punched and kicked him. Rahnama was buried on August 4 next to her beloved husband with family and friends in attendance.
Pray for the family of this couple as they grieve their loss. Pray for courage for local believers as they continue to serve the Lord despite harassment and arrest.
For more information on the persecution of Christians in Iran, go to www.persecution.net/iran.htm.
Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5499
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’s nuclear program.
This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle:
1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.
2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.
3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.
4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.
5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.
DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt , the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima . Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Saudi woman arrested for driving a car, Wahhabi scholars call it sinful
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2410587926
Saudi religious police have arrested a woman in the region of Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia for driving a car.
The 47-year-old woman was spotted by agents from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after other men reported the woman, said Saudi daily Okaz.
The woman was later released after her family posted bail, and will now be put on trial.
There is no law in Saudi Arabia that prevents women from driving. However, fatwas or religious edicts, have been issued by Wahhabi scholars saying it is sinful for women to drive.
Conservatives argue that if women were allowed to drive, this would lead to women being able to mix freely with men, to corruption and the destruction of family values.
Saudi women have been continually pushing to be allowed to drive, and have asked the government to make reviewing the ban a priority.
On 23 September, a group of civil rights activists will formally demand that the government reinstate women's right to drive. The date also marks Saudi Arabia's independence day.
In 1991, a group of 47 women activists challenged the ban by driving through the centre of the Saudi capital Riyadh in protest. They were arrested by the religious police but later released. However, some were then suspended from their university jobs for one or two years as punishment.
Azerbaijani pastor remains in jail despite lack of evidence
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07500.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov remains in jail after a court in Zakatala, Azerbaijan asked the prosecutor for "further investigation" on July 29. Mirman Aliev, Shabanov's lawyer, called the ruling a partial victory.
He said, "We called for Shabanov to be acquitted, for an end to the criminal case and for him to be freed. But the judge was afraid to do so and instead sent the case back for further investigation." The judge set a deadline of August 23. According to Aliev, there is no real evidence against Shabanov and his client is on trial "solely because he is Christian." The trial, to this point, has been full of irregularities.
Aliev has complained of "numerous, gross violations of procedure" including forged documents, with alleged interrogations of Shabanov on days when no interrogations took place. Police have also wrongly claimed that copies of the Bible in Azeri and Georgian are "illegal."
Please remember Pastor Shabanov as he remains in detention. Pray that all charges will be dropped against him. Pray for other church leaders in Azerbaijan as they face persecution from authorities. Ilya Zenchenko, head of Azerbaijan's Baptist Union, was briefly detained and interrogated after Shabanov's trial and accused by Zakatala Deputy Police Chief Kamandar Hasanov of being "an English spy who acts only for money." Hasanov claims that there is "a special instruction not to allow Baptists to function in Zakatala District."
More information on the persecution facing Christians in Azerbaijan can be found at www.persecution.net/azerbaijan.htm.
Pastor executed by communist rebels in Philippines
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07492.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels in the Philippines have executed a Christian pastor whom they accused of aiding soldiers in anti-insurgency campaign in Mindanao, a regional Army spokesman said on July 30.
Lt. Col. Kurt Decapia said soldiers had recovered the body of Josefino Estaniel (45), a pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, from a shallow grave in Dalagdag village in Calinan district in Davao City. According to reports, the pastor, who had been kidnapped in May, had been subjected to torture during his captivity.
Pray for the family of Pastor Estaniel during this time of grief. Pray for the safety of other church leaders in the region. There has been a sharp rise in attacks and threats on Christians, and especially church leaders, in recent weeks. On July 29, armed men stopped a mini-bus and murdered four Christian male passengers execution-style in Mindanao. A fifth passenger is still missing. Pray that he might be found alive and returned to his family.
Learn more about the persecution facing Christians in Philippines at www.persecution.net/philippines.htm.
Health of Chinese book store owner deteriorating
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07501.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - China Aid Association is reporting that the health of Shi Weihan, a Beijing book store owner and house church leader, has been deteriorating since his imprisonment four months ago.
Poor prison conditions and refusal of diabetes medication have contributed to Shi's decline. He has reportedly lost more than 10 kg in body weight amidst the constant physical and psychological torture employed by prison officials. Recently Shi was coerced to sign a confession convicting him of "engaging in the printing and distribution of a large number of illegal publications."
The charges stem from Shi's printing of Bibles and Christian literature which were sold at his Beijing Christian bookstore, but were deemed "illegal" by Beijing authorities because the books were not printed by the officially registered Three Self Patriotic Movement Church.
Remember Shi Weihan as he languishes in detention. Pray that God would sustain his health. Pray for his release.
More information on the persecution facing Christians in China can be found at www.persecution.net/china.htm.
4 Winds Allows Olympic Testimonies Underground -- China is Hypocritical in Treatment of Christians on the Streets
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07488.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- 4 Winds Christian Athletics is encouraged by the work they have done in the last few years leading up to the Olympics. Testimonies of Christian athletes have been distributed worldwide in free and persecuted countries.
In the summer of 2006, testimonies of Olympic track and field athletes began to be distributed in the underground church in China, estimated to be 110 million people. The USA athletes whose testimonies were distributed have won six gold medals and five silver medals in past competitions.
The testimonies are not sold and athletes are not paid for them. Outside groups asked permission to take them into the underground Chinese church. Athletes are not active in the distribution of them. Also, the testimonies have been given to USA ministries to use in the free world.
4 Winds is an evangelistic and teaching ministry working with track and field athletes throughout the world. Steve, president, and Liz McConkey have been in track and field ministries since 1981, twenty-seven years in September.
Recently, 4 Winds encouraged the athletes at the USA Olympic Trials. They were able to visit many of the 1000 athletes who competed in Eugene, Oregon at the end of June and the beginning of July.
During the last day of the Olympic Trials, the ministry had to switch Internet servers as the old server was hampered by Chinese Denial of Service attacks over the months according to Tylor Elm, a founder of discoverPC in Superior, Wisconsin. The website (www.4wca.org) is currently on a new server.
On May 15, China Aid had a joint article that included Bob Fu, president of China Aid, and Steve McConkey. The article spoke out about evangelism during the Olympics. Through the year, 4 Winds consistently stood with various ministries that uncovered the abuses of Chinese underground Christians, including China Aid and Voice of the Martyrs.
Steve McConkey will not being going over to Beijing after seeking advice from the Department of State Overseas Citizen Services and various other people. By putting the testimonies in the underground church, 4 Winds broke Chinese law, but not God's law. 4 Winds is opposed to Olympic boycotts.
The Olympic athletes will have freedom in the Olympic village. However, the average person in China is still being persecuted for their faith. Steve McConkey says, "We are grateful for the freedoms that will be in the Olympic village. Now, the Chinese government needs to not be hypocritical and give the Christians on the streets the same freedoms. Christians are not a threat, but a Communist government without freedom of religion is."
Americans Held by Beijing Authorities Since Second Arrests -- Not Heard From
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07487.shtml
BEIJING, (christiansunite.com) -- On August 7, at approximately 11 AM Beijing time, three American Christians were arrested in Tiananmen Square as they attempted to speak to the press. The three arrested are Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Washington DC based Christian Defense Coalition; Brandi Swindell of Boise Idaho, National Director of Generation Life; and Michael McMonagle, of Philadelphia, national Catholic pro-life activist and founder of Generation Life.
These three Americans were removed and detained for over an hour on August 6 after holding a banner in Tiananmen Square and speaking out against China's religious persecution, policy of forced abortion, and civil rights abuses.
Support staff in the US spoke with Patrick Mahoney and Brandi Swindell via cell phone as they were being arrested for the second time at Tiananmen Square. There have been no communications between US support staff and support staff and protestors in Beijing since the second arrests.
Spouse of Rev. Patrick Mahoney, Katie Mahoney from Virginia said, "Since their 11 AM (Beijing time) arrests on August 7 we have been unable to contact any of the group, including my husband, or support persons for over 14 hours now; this is a bit disconcerting that no one can reach them. We assume their phones have been confiscated and all are being held until their scheduled departure from Beijing at 3 PM local time, August 8, but until we hear from them we are concerned for their safety. The group knows no one in China so there is no one we can contact there, and given the history of the Chinese government's suppression of free speech and their civil rights abuses, we ask for everyone's prayers for their safe return.
"Even more so, we pray that this oppressive government will perhaps recognize through this incident that their own citizens deserve to have the basic human rights of free speech, freedom to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience, as well as the protection of the weakest members of society -- their precious unborn children. That is the message that my husband and the others were simply trying to send. They are not criminals. I say, China, the eyes of the world are upon you; if you want the respect and acceptance of other nations at this critical time during the Olympics, afford your own wonderful people the human rights they have been yearning for."
China Confiscates Bibles From American Christians
http://www.newsmax.com/international/china_bibles_confiscated/2008/08/17/122737.html
BEIJING -- Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said.
The Bibles were taken from the group's checked luggage after they landed at the airport in the city of Kunming, said Pat Klein, head of Vision Beyond Borders. The group, based in Sheridan, Wyoming, distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world to "strengthen the persecuted church," according to its Web site.
The group arrived in China on Sunday and had intended to distribute the Bibles to people in the city, Klein told the AP in a telephone interview while still at the airport.
"I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."
The move comes as China hosts the Olympics in Beijing, where false media reports last year claimed Bibles would be banned from the games. The state-run China Daily reported last month that 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible would be distributed in the Olympic Village, which houses athletes and media.
Bibles are printed under the supervision of the Communist government. The officially atheistic country only allows them to be used in government-sanctioned churches and in some big hotels catering to foreigners.
A woman who was on duty at Kunming airport's customs office confirmed over the telephone that 315 Bibles were found in the passengers' checked baggage.
The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just "taking care" of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media and referred questions to the national customs headquarters in Beijing, which did not answer phones on Sunday.
"We're not selling them; we give them free to the people," Klein said. "We didn't come to cause trouble, we just came to bring Bibles to help out the Chinese Christians."
The Bibles were printed in Chinese, he said.
Klein said the customs officers had told him that they could each have one Bible for personal use and not more than that. He said the officers had videotaped them and were insisting that they leave the airport.
"We don't want to go without taking those books. It cost us a lot of money to bring them here," Klein said. "They're saying that it's illegal to bring the Bibles in and that if we wanted to, we had to apply ahead of time for permission."
China faces routine criticism for its human rights violations and its repression of religious freedom. Religious practice is heavily regulated by the Communist Party, with worship allowed only in party-controlled churches, temples and mosques, while those gathering outside face harassment, arrest and terms in labor camps or prison.
A Chinese Christian activist was detained Aug. 10, the opening weekend of the Olympics, on his way to a church service attended by President Bush in Beijing. A rights group said later that the activist, Hua Huiqi, a leader of the unofficial Protestant church in Beijing, had escaped from police and was in hiding.
Police have denied any involvement in Hua's disappearance.
Beijing House Church Pastors Forced to Cease Activity for Olympics
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080814/beijing-house-church-pastors-forced-to-cease-activity-for-olympics.htm
House church pastors in Beijing were forced by officials to sign a document vowing to cease religious activities during the Olympic Games, a human rights group reported Wednesday.
The document, drafted by Chinese government officials, specifies that the house churches must “refrain from organizing and joining illegal gatherings and refrain from receiving donations, sermons and preaching from overseas religious organizations and groups that have a purpose,” according to China Aid Association.
Furthermore, it also prohibits house churches from gathering in their communities for more than three months while the Olympic Games take place. If someone should violate the agreement, that person will be subjected to disciplinary actions by the government.
“The discovery of this document provides further evidence of the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) hypocrisy towards creating a ‘harmonious society’ marked by religious freedom and rule of law,” CAA commented.
The discovery of the document while the world’s attention is on China is a “blatant challenge” to the international community, the persecution watchdog group states.
“If China is seeking to put on the mantle of a world superpower, it must first acknowledge the unalienable rights of its own people,” the group argues. “CAA calls on the international community and those concerned to voice their complaint to the relevant Chinese Government authorities.”
China has a long history of religious freedom violations, including regularly raiding house church gatherings and imprisoning its leaders.
In China, Christians are only allowed to worship in state-sanctioned churches supervised by the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which follows rules set by the government.
House church Christians refuse to join the registered churches because they argue that God, and not the government, is head of the church.
President Bush, a strong defender of religious freedom, pressed the Chinese government on the house church issue during his visit last week to the Olympic Games. After attending Sunday service at a state-sanctioned church, Bush declared to reporters outside that no one should fear religious freedom, a clear – although indirect - reference to China’s insistence on controlling all religions in the country.
"You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion,” Bush had said at Kuanjie Protestant Church.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended again this year to the State Department to keep China on its religious freedom blacklist because of its treatment of house churches and religious minorities.
Somali Christian shot and killed
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07497.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - International Christian Concern (ICC) is reporting that Islamists shot and killed a Muslim convert to Christianity on July 10 in Afgyoye, a town 18 miles from Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. Twenty-eight-year-old Sayid Ali Sheik Luqman Hussein came to Christ from Islam in 2004 and had actively evangelized in the community in which he was working as a teacher.
According to the July 28 report by ICC, on July 8, two Muslim men approached Mr. Hussein and asked him if he faces Mecca when he prays. Hussein told them that, as a Christian, he does not have to face a specific direction to pray because God is omnipresent.
The two Muslim men returned on July 10 armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a semi-automatic handgun and shot Hussein to death. Hussein's wife went into premature labour and delivered a stillborn baby upon hearing of her husband's murder.
Please remember to pray for Hussein's wife during this doubly tragic time in her life. Pray that she would know God as Emmanuel (God with us) in her grief. Pray for other Christians in Somalia. Hussein is the fifth Christian martyred in the country in the last nine months.
Go to www.persecution.net/somalia.htm to discover more about the persecution of Christians in Somalia.
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