Obama Still Lying About Abortion Survivors says National Black Pro-Life Union President Day Gardner
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07639.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Day Gardner, president of The National Black Pro-Life Union, makes the following comments and is available for interviews:
Barack Obama voted against Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act that would protect babies who survived abortion.
He misrepresented his vote, saying that the bill he opposed in the Illinois State Senate was different from the bill that was passed by the US Senate and signed into law by President Bush. However, the National Right to Life Committee has produced documents that confirm the two bills were exactly the same.
To make matters even worse, Obama is now attacking Gianna Jessen, a young woman who by some blessing, miraculously, survived being killed by abortion.
Rather than applaud her life, he totally disregards her and ignores her passionate plea for the lives of babies who after surviving abortion--are strangled, suffocated, stabbed to death, or shelved until dead-- which amounts to infanticide.
Barack Obama's is far more extreme than anyone else on this issue.
It is hard to believe that this man vying for the highest office in America would not only oppose legislation to protect children born alive, but would then lie about it for 4 years stating that he did not oppose it.
Mr. Obama behaves like a small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar--instead of telling the truth, he continues to deny the obvious and spouts tall tales like some children do.
Okay, we'll make it easy for you, Barack. Maybe you failed to actually read the Born Alive Infants Protection Act and voted against it by mistake, everyone has an off day, right? Just own up to it.
Day Gardner is president of The National Black Pro- Life Union, an organization founded to serve as a clearing house to coordinate the flow of communications among all African American pro-life organizations and individuals in order to better network and combine resources. www.nationalblackprolifeunion.com
Palin Says Obama 'Palling Around' With Terrorists
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/palin_obama/2008/10/04/137308.html
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is accusing Democrat Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" for his association with a former 1960s radical.
Palin was referring to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground. The group took credit for bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol four decades ago.
In remarks to GOP donors in Englewood, Colo., on Saturday, Palin said Obama seems to see the U.S. as being so imperfect that, in her words, "he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
Obama served on a charity board with Ayers in Chicago and has denounced his past activities.
3 seconds, 7 simple words, eternal consequences
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=157
The critical question lurked like a rattler in the long grass of foreign policy issues, after the debaters survived an interrogation into the Wall Street meltdown and were just beginning to lose their nervousness.
Then it struck. And Sarah Palin fell…
I just returned from nearly three weeks in the south-eastern United States. Everywhere I went I expressed the conviction that Senator John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin signified nothing less than that the God of Israel is still extending grace, mercy and favor to America.
Back here in Jerusalem I awoke at 3.30 this morning to watch and pray through the debate as it happened. I marveled at the way Mrs. Palin engaged Mr. Biden – with poise, confidence; piercing focus as she prepared her rebuttals, smiling eyes as she launched them.
Everyone "knew" how relatively inexperienced the Alaskan governor was in foreign policy issues. So it took pundits by surprise to see and hear how quickly and thoroughly she had learned. Fox News Channel's popular Fox and Friends presenters reported that in all the history of that show never had there been such a flood of email responses from viewers asked who they thought had won the debate. Tens of thousands mailed in, 87 percent of them giving the gold medal to Palin.
In so many ways her performance was an answer to untold numbers of prayers that were going up on her behalf. And then:
Moderator: Governor, you mentioned Israel and your support for Israel.
Sarah Palin: Yes.
Moderator: What has this administration done right or wrong — this is the great, lingering, unresolved issue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — what have they done? And is a two-state solution the solution?
Palin: A two-state solution is the solution.
Seven simple words. A little more than 50 minutes into the 90 minute debate, they took barely three seconds to say. How easy it would have been to miss them in the midst of all the hype and focus that surrounded this event. How tempting to dismiss them as really not all that significant in the "greater scheme of things."
But unless they are repented from, the consequences of following through on this belief will fundamentally and detrimentally affect the national history of the United States.
History will show that unless this "solution" is recognized as nothing less than a total betrayal of Israel and turned from, the curtain will fall on America as a DIRECT result of its pursuing this policy.
Let me say it again. America's future as a great and God-blessed nation hinges NOT primarily on the numerous other important issues that were addressed by Palin and her Democratic opponent Joe Biden in their debate in St Louis, MO.
It rests, first and foremost, on this point.
It doesn't get more serious than this: The two-state solution is the division of God's land. It is the bullying theft of that land, which God gave to Israel, from a small nation that looks to mighty America (whether or not they should) to support their claim to, and possession of, this land.
It's immoral: Chief "peace process" sponsor America pressing on another, historically endangered, nation to gamble with its existence in order to benefit the USA and the rest of the world.
And it's cowardly: Don't tell me a two state solution is the solution and there is no other way to go. There is another way – the right way, the only way, and that is a 23-to-1 state solution.
There are 23 Arab states that already exist, and just one Jewish state; the Arabs have 940 times more land than the Jews would have even if they had all of their tiny territory. The Palestinian Arabs have never had a nation in this land. The Jews have always had this land in their hearts.
The land-for-peace-process is wrong in God's Book. The nations that support it are on a collision course with Him.
The LORD has vowed to judge the nations that divide up this land (Joel 3:2). He has a day of vengeance on the nations for the controversy of Zion. (Isaiah 34:8) He will trample these nations in the winepress of His wrath (Isaiah 63:3-4).
"A two state solution is the solution."
Seven simple words. And yet on them, more than on any another, everything depends.
My disillusionment was shared by others. Within minutes I had received two emails:
#1 "[It] doesn't matter anymore who'll be president. Palin uttered the oh-so-stupid words "the two-state solution, is the right solution". Talking of the bridge to nowhere…! Man, what a disappointment. Well, I guess He has unwaveringly set the plan into motion. May God help us now."
#2 "I must say my heart sank when she said she was in agreement with Bush regarding a two state solution. I am praying that God will surely reveal the truth to her. If she continues this policy we are no better off and the ax will surely fall."
In response I wrote:
"I was watching with you live, and felt sick from the moment she said those words. For the last few hours I have been wrestling intensely with the Lord on how to best respond. At least one other person wrote me immediately after the debate and expressed what you did. In my spirit, though, I hear God saying, 'Don't write off what I have not written off.' And His gentle reminder – 'I did not write you off with your first wrong move, or with your thousandth.' As long as it is still daylight we are to work - and I - and many others, will be working on Palin."
We may be at night's door, but while there is light we have to fight! And we will.
Can't someone get to the president?
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=156
Is America a sinking ship? Am I witnessing, even as I sit at the gate at the Atlanta International Airport waiting for my flight back home, the beginning of the end for this nation?
Is this a crazy question; an over reaction? Am I sensationalizing this?
You be the judge. But let me tell you about the last 24 hours of my 18-day speaking trip through the south-eastern United States.
Late yesterday afternoon (September 28, 2008) I arrived in Roswell, Atlanta, GA, ending a four hour drive down from just north of Nashville, Tennessee.
The gas (petrol) tank in my rented car was empty, needle flat-lined, but I thought to take a chance and get to the end of the journey before filling up so I would not have to do so again.
Pulling into a gas station, I almost ran into orange traffic cones that had been placed in front of the pumps. No other cars were there. I glanced at the sign which normally states the price-per-gallon of the different fuel grades. They were blank.
The tanks were empty. So to at the next one, and the next, and the next. All the way to my host's home I passed silent, ghostly gas stations. It left me with no choice but to return my car empty to the nearest Avis office, and pay the exorbitant fee for them to fill the tank - when they can.
This morning my host needed to fill his car to bring me to the airport. We drove again past numerous empty stations. It has been this way for a week, he told me. Then we saw a long line of cars waiting at one place that did have gas. But after dropping me off at a nearby store my friend quickly returned to find the line suddenly gone as that station, too, had exhausted its supplies.
He had to search for another one and wait in line for more than an hour until he finally reached the pump.
Returning home to pack my bags, we were just enjoying a last cup of coffee together when the news flashed around the world: The $700 billion economy "rescue package" being debated on Capitol Hill had failed to pass.
Financially speaking, all hell broke loose.
Within minutes the Dow Jones Index on the Stock Exchange had crashed through the floor, making its biggest single day drop in history.
Listening to the announcer's voice and the voices of those being interviewed, I could hear panic hovering, even at the door.
Our ride to the airport was quick. It should have been early rush hour, but the traffic flowed easily as relatively few vehicles were on the road. In this energy-guzzling land where public transportation is almost non-existent and every family member has a car, no gas means no movement.
How are they going to survive?
Now here I sit in the airport, surrounded by stunned fellow travelers – the man next to me talking animatedly on his cell phone, brow furrowed, hand taping nervously on his knee. I overhear him asking the other party: "Are you watching this? Do you know what's happened?"
From the CNN screen an increasingly upset commentator says things like: "We are dropping right into the abyss." "We are headed for another great depression." "Americans need to realize that life will change; that life has changed."
When I took leave of my friend a few minutes ago I said: "I feel like I'm leaving a sinking ship." He laughed, a little nervously too I thought. "I think I'll go with you."
My throat is dry, eyes behind my sunglasses pricking with tears as I imagine what the people of this great land could be headed for. The cloud that seems to be boiling up on the horizon is a fearful one.
It need not have come. It should not have come. But it's here.
And still, in the midst of reporting on this economic earthquake, CNN cannot refrain from continuing with its endless attacks on Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin – listing all the "gaffes" it said she has made since being selected by John McCain. That twisted "news network" appeared to see such slander as offering light relief.
As I depart I want to say "God bless America."
But what comes is: "God have mercy on America. Won't You still extend some measure of Your grace towards these United States?
Dear God, get through to the leadership. Open the way for someone, whoever You can use, to reach the ear of the president and rivet him with the truth: that the answer to everything that is unraveling around him is staring hiin the face; that if he persists in pushing Israel into relinquishing its homeland, endangering the very existence of Your people, he will have steered this ship – the USA – directly into the hurricane path of Your curse.
Open the door. Let SOMEBODY get to Mr. Bush! I am willing go. If someone "out there" can get me to him, I will turn around as soon as I get home and come right back. If You will only open the door and give me the words to say.
Will You still be merciful to this land? Will You remember all those here who DO love You and who have wept – even in my presence over these past days – at the terrible way their leaders are endangering Israel by forcing, pushing, pressing the Jews to divide up and give away their land, YOUR land?
Pastors Defy IRS Rules, Back Candidates
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/455456.aspx
CBNNews.com - In direct challenge to IRS rules, a legal defense group has encouraged pastors from across the nation to use their pulpits to endorse political candidates.
Tax laws currently bar pastors from such public endorsements and doing so could cost a church its tax-exempt status.
"These pastors are sending their sermons to the IRS, and inviting the IRS to take a look at the issue.," Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley.
The ADF is a legal alliance dedicated to "defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation," according to a statement on its Web site.
The challenge was more than merely defiant - it was a strategic move meant to lure the IRS into legal battle.
"It's designed to restore the right of pastors to freely speak from the pulpit on Scriptural issues related to candidates and elections, without government censorship or control," Stanley explained
Now it appears that the ADF may get its day in court. The Americans United for Separation of Church and State have retaliated by filing complaints with the IRS against the churches involved.
"This has been tested in the courts, the provision has been upheld, and if they go into court they're going to lose," Rob Boston of Americans United said.
The IRS has vowed to "monitor the situation and take action as appropriate."
IRS code currently allows churches to pass out voter guides, hold non-partisan voter registration drives, and host forums on issues. But churches are barred from endorsing political candidates - either directly or indirectly.
"ADF will oppose any attempt by the IRS to use the Johnson Amendment to remove a church's tax-exempt status because a pastor exercised his constitutional right to engage in religious speech from the pulpit," Stanley said. "The goal is to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional."
"If you have a concern about pastors speaking about electoral candidates from the pulpit, ask yourself this: Should the church decide that question, or should the IRS?" Stanley said. "IRS rules don't trump the Constitution-and the First Amendment certainly trumps the Johnson Amendment. Churches were tax exempt long before the IRS even existed."
The Party is Over
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07653.shtml
OPINION, (christiansunite.com) -- The following is submitted by Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas of Elijah Ministries:
For the last twenty years, courageous men of God have warned our nation of these days. Our nation has sowed to the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind. America stands on the verge of possible economic collapse, where the bail out cure may be worse than the financial disease. Meanwhile Russia, China, and the Islamic nations smell our vulnerabilities. Added to these dangers is the increase of natural disasters. What can our beleaguered country do in such a time as this? Repent and bring forth fruit meat for repentance.
Legalized evil has flourished under our watch and stands as God's indictment against America. We can run, but not hide. America will never escape God's accountability for shedding innocent blood through the crime of abortion and parading our sin like Sodom through the godless, homosexual agenda.
The message and mandate are clear, either abortion and the homosexual agenda ends or America as we know it will end. Until now, America has refused to connect the dots between our spiritual and moral condition and the litany of woe challenging our nation. We pretend this party with death and perversion will continue with our homes, churches, institutions, and economic security remaining intact. Thomas Jefferson stated, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Due to the seriousness of the hour, the call is twofold. First, every Church needs to immediately form a pro- life and pro-family missions program to address and defeat the abortion industry and the homosexual agenda, while at the same time opening our hearts to those enslaved by Satan's lies to see them liberated by the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If, however, the Church continues to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to these sins that have reached heaven, our survival as a nation will continue down the primrose path to destruction. The Church's silence and inaction is partially responsible for the corruption of our nation to continue unabated.
Secondly, we call upon all branches of government to recant of calling good, evil and evil, good by codifying the abominable practices of abortion and homosexuality into law. For far too long, they have defended the indefensible. They cannot make straight what Almighty God has called crooked and expect America to thrive as a nation.
If we summon the moral will to do these necessary changes, we may avert going the way of every other nation that shook its puny fist in the face of a Holy God. Otherwise, America prepare to reap what you have sown!
Christian Students Protest Book Ban
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/457606.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - Christian students and their parents protested at a Fairfax County, Virginia high school Thursday.
Their main point: during the very week of the year that schools highlight how many great books have been banned, those same schools are banning books that present a Christian viewpoint on homosexuality.
"These students last year and again today have tried to donate books and have been told that their books are inappropriate, that they express a religious viewpoint and that they do not meet the criteria and will not be accepted," parent Tom Bognanno said
Student Lauren King added, "They told us our books were too biased to be on the bookshelves."
Fairfax County is located in a mostly liberal area of northern Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington D.C.
Many of the 40 or so students at the protest wore black t-shirts that said "Closing books shuts out ideas."
Parent Cheryl King said the Christian books show there's an alternative to living out a homosexual life.
"There's hope, there's redemption, and you could live a heterosexual lifestyle," King said. "That you don't have to live that lifestyle."
High school student Elizabeth Bognanno added, "We believe there's another option, another way. And we're not discriminating against.it really has nothing to do with that topic. What it has to do with is we can't donate books in our own library."
These protestors say Christians are caricatured as censors and book-banners, but that's certainly not the case in Fairfax County.
Elizabeth Bognanno's father Tom insisted, "We're not asking anybody to take any book off the shelf."
Lauren King added, "We're not trying to ban books. We're just trying to put books into our library."
Focus on the Family sponsored the initiative by the students to get more than a hundred books into some dozen high school libraries.
The Colorado-based pro-family group was represented at the protest by the organization's education analyst, Candi Cushman.
She told CBN News, "What's happening is we're seeing more and more promotion of homosexuality happening in public schools. And often in the name of tolerance, Christian students are finding that their viewpoints and their beliefs are being belittled and often even ridiculed."
Tom Bognanno read out one example of anti-Christian discrimination from a book found on the shelf of a Fairfax County school library.
Quoting the book, he read, "'Recent studies illustrate that Americans hate gays and lesbians in direct proportion to the number of times they attend their local church.' That's insulting to me as a Christian. I don't feel that way, the students here don't feel that way, most Christians I know don't feel that way. Why is that book on the shelf and not another book that would say that as a Christian, as a parent or as a student, the dialogue I want to have is one of respect, true tolerance and a message that we can work together and talk together in a civil dialogue, not polarized?"
Librarians have told the students that the books they want to donate aren't well-researched and some might make homosexual students "feel inferior."
Five Chaplains Lose Jobs for Praying 'In Jesus' Name'...Virginia Governor Tim Kaine Urged to Stop Persecuting Christians
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07646.shtml
RICHMOND, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name." Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty single- handedly created then enforced a strict "non- sectarian" prayer policy at all public gatherings, censoring and excluding Christian prayers, then accepted the resignation of five chaplains who refused to deny Jesus or violate their conscience by watering down their prayers.
House Republican Leader Morgan Griffith and Delegate Charles W. Carrico, (R-Grayson) both issued public statements defending the chaplains, questioning Governor Kaine's role in terminating the chaplains, and vowing to introduce legislation protecting police chaplains' right to pray according to their own conscience.
Defending Flaherty's persecution of Christian Chaplains, Governor Kaine pretended he himself was being persecuted, saying through his spokesman: "It is disappointing that Del. Griffith would make such a political attack on Gov. Kaine about his faith."
Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who was also fired in 2007 for praying "in Jesus name" in uniform (but won the victory in the U.S. Congress for other military chaplains), weighed in:
"Governor Kaine campaigned like a Christian to get our votes. But now, instead of governing like a Christian, or respecting his own chaplains' First Amendment rights, his administration forced the resignation of five police chaplains, simply because they prayed publicly 'in Jesus' name.' These five chaplains lost their jobs for honoring Christ. They're heroes of the faith, because they refused to deny Jesus when ordered to by the Kaine administration. If they contact me, they will be honored through my web- site: www.PrayInJesusName.org. And now Governor Kaine pretends he's the martyr, because we question why his administration forced them to resign for praying to Jesus? He's still got a job, they don't. Governor Kaine isn't the martyr, he's the persecutor."
Citizens are urged to call Governor Kaine's office at 804-786-2211, to insist the chaplains be reinstated and the policy reversed, and also email him through his web-site: www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/con tactGovernor.cfm
New Policy Bans Virginia State Police Chaplains From Saying 'Jesus,' Christ' In Prayer
http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/former_virginia_state_police_chaplain_will_react_to_a_change_in_prayer_poli/14464/
A new policy banning Virginia State Police chaplains from saying Jesus,' Christ' during prayer is stirring up a lot of controversy. Six chaplains have already resigned over the issue.
"In the bible it says to pray in Jesus name," said Charlotte Ryan, Johnson City, Tennessee resident.
Claude Duncan from Johnson City is also against the prayer policy change.
"I think it's a terrible thing that they would create such a thing that would deny us the privilege of praying in the name of our savor, Jesus Christ," Duncan said.
We found strong opposition on Monday to a decision by Virginia State Police to ban chaplains from saying 'Jesus,' 'Christ' in prayer at department events like trooper graduations.
Trooper Rex Carter is one of six chaplains who resigned after this prayer policy change by Virginia State Police.
"I just felt that my faith, my bible, my convictions must be my guide, so I made a decision to resign from the program rather than participate in this generic prayer policy," Carter said.
Carter and the other chaplains who resigned will remain on the force as officers. Why was this new policy put in place?
In a statement, Virginia State Police Colonel Steven Flaherty wrote.
"The Department recognizes the importance as a state government agency to be inclusive and respectful of the varied ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs of our employees, their families, and citizens at-large."
The chaplains who resigned will remain on the force as sworn officers.
Operation Rescue Denounces ACLU Carpetbaggers in South Dakota
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07660.shtml
SIOUX FALLS, SD, (christiansunite.com) -- The ACLU has announced plans to bus in abortion supporters from more liberal states in an attempt to influence the outcome of the vote on Measure 11, a proposed state ban on nearly all abortions. The groups are scheduled to descend upon Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the first weekend in October. In addition, the ACLU has promised to pay all expenses for the out-of-state agitators, including lodging if necessary.
"Operation Rescue denounces this blatant effort by the ACLU to bring in paid agitators to influence the vote in South Dakota. We see this as an unscrupulous effort to buy the election," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "The people of South Dakota have taken pride in the fact that Measure 11 is a law by South Dakotans for South Dakotans. They certainly don't need the ACLU to bring in pro-abortion liberals to tell them what is best for their state."
Polls have shown that the majority of South Dakotans support the abortion restrictions in Measure 11.
"We know that the good people of South Dakota embrace the traditional American values that cherish life and family. We urge South Dakotans to reject the liberal ACLU carpetbaggers and vote their consciences in support of Measure 11 on November 4," said Newman.
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.
Last Living Founder of Pro-Abortion Group Admits He Lied -- Now Supports Measure 11 in South Dakota
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07652.shtml
SIOUX FALLS, SD, (christiansunite.com) -- A new television ad carries a riveting twist about abortion history. Dr. Bernard Nathanson is the last living founder of NARAL, the pro- abortion organization founded in New York in the late 1960s. At one time, he was the nation's leading abortionist, responsible for more than 75,000 abortions. He explains, "This was the greatest mistake of my life and the greatest mistake in our nation's history."
"Dr. Nathanson's story is a shocking example of one of the nation's leading abortionists coming out against the tragedy of abortion," said Brandi Gruis of the Voteyesforlife campaign. The campaign Treasurer, Dr. Patti Giebink, admits she was the last South Dakota doctor to perform abortions at SD Planned Parenthood. Now she is working tirelessly to end abortion on demand. "It speaks volumes when doctors who have personally seen the horror of abortion come out against it," Gruis said.
In the ad, Dr. Nathanson states, "We founded NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) with the goal to export our pro-abortion mentality across the land." One of the strategies they used to mislead the American public was to deny what they knew to be true, that an abortion kills an existing human being. In June, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the South Dakota law requiring abortion providers to tell the pregnant mother that abortion terminates the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."
Measure 11 clearly seeks to protect these lives, yet unborn. Measure 11 was written by a panel of 11 legal experts, under the direction of State Attorney General Larry Long with the purpose of ending unnecessary abortions in South Dakota. Gruis says, "The issue is not confusing, neither are the exemptions for life and health of the mother, rape or incest. The people of South Dakota can end the use of abortion as birth control by voting yes on Measure 11 on November 4th." For more information or to see the new ads, visit www.voteyesforlife.com.
HLI Launches Campaign for Conversion of Abortionists
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07659.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today launched an international campaign to promote praying the St. Michael prayer after every Mass. The grassroots campaign is designed to encourage the laity to pray for St. Michael's intercession for the conversion of abortionists. It is also a call to priests and bishops to include the St. Michael prayer after the final blessing at all Masses.
"The fight against the culture of death is primarily a spiritual battle," Euteneuer said, "and Human Life International knows that with the aid of St. Michael, abortionists around the world will convert from their cooperation with evil."
Euteneuer said, "Nowhere are the words of St. Paul that 'our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens' (Ephesians 6:12), more evident or obvious than in the abortion battle."
He continued, "As a pro-life organization we are naturally concerned with the babies killed by abortion and their mothers who are ravaged by it. But we are also concerned with the eternal souls of those caught up in this evil, the abortionists, and others who promote it. We want to see them in Heaven, and as a priest that is of ultimate concern to me."
HLI is asking people to sign a pledge of support for the campaign and pray the St. Michael prayer daily, especially after each Mass, and send copies of the pledge to parishes to be inserted in the weekly bulletins.
HLI has produced St. Michael prayer cards in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. A link to sign the pledge online, information on ordering the prayer cards and the text of the prayer in 19 different languages can be found at: www.hli.org/st_michael_prayer.html.
Russian live missile fire air exercise near Alaska
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1360
Not since 1984, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, has Russia ventured to launch dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which Tu-95 Bear bombers will fire live cruise missiles. Exercise Stability 2008 will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to the US state of Alaska, and Belarus.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that the exercise is part of a month-long war game described by Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as "practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad."
As part of the exercise, our sources reported exclusively on Oct. 1, that Russian ships armed with nuclear missiles will dock at Syrian ports Oct. 8, on the eve of Yom Kippur, before continuing to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with Venezuela.
More than 60,000 troops and 1.500 tanks and APCs, as well as land-based and submarine-launched nuclear missiles, were tested in the first phase of the war games.
("Nuclear triad" refers to three tiers of a national nuclear arsenal, usually strategic bombers armed with bombs or missiles, land-based missiles and ballistic missile submarines. These weapons must have a first- or second-strike capability.)
Col. Drik stressed that the Tu-95 and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers will "carry their maximum combat payload and fire all the cruise missiles on board." Also taking part in the air force exercise are Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers, air superiority fighters, interceptors and aerial tankers.
The locations of the war games were deliberately chosen to underline three messages from Moscow to Washington:
1. Russian leaders are willing to brandish their nuclear strength in America's face - to the north (Arctic) and south (Caribbean) – to challenge America's position as the world's No. 1 superpower.
2. Russia is powerful and rich enough to rise above the shockwaves rocking the world's financial markets while carrying on developing its military muscle and expanding its spheres of influence.
3. By docking at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Peter the Great nuclear missile cruiser is Moscow's marker on the Mediterranean to betoken the end of US Sixth Fleet's sway. Last week, the Russian Navy united its Black Sea and Mediterranean fleet commands.
Friday, Oct. 3, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, announced that
20,000 kilometers of the Russian border passes through the Arctic. Moscow therefore claims 18 percent of its territory and is preparing a plan to implement this policy.
Laying down an earlier marker, the Russian nuclear powered submarine Ryazan docked at the Kamchatka Peninsula Sept. 30, after completing a one-month voyage under the Arctic Ocean without surfacing. The Project 667BDR Delta III class strategic nuclear submarine with a crew of 130 is armed with sixteen R-29RM (SS-N-23 Skiff) ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000 km.
Russian Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky welcoming the Ryazan's arrival said: "The navy continues to play an important role in safeguarding Russia's maritime economic and research activity throughout the world, including in the Arctic."
Laying down these markers and challenges is clearly the prelude for Moscow's presentation of political demands and an enhanced role as global player.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that, for now, Russia's air and naval strength does not match America's military might. However, although Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated emphatically last week that there is no cold war or any other war with America, Moscow's actions tell a different story.
In addition to their demonstrations of air and naval strength, the Russians have more than doubled their military spending on armaments – especially to upgrade and modernize their navy.
Italians to Hear Bible Read on TV All Week
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/457854.aspx
CBNNews.com - The Bible will be making history this weekend in Europe.
On Sunday, Italian television stations will begin airing an entire reading of the Bible, marking the longest live TV broadcast in the country's history.
The recital will take about 139 hours and will begin with Pope Benedict reading the Book of Genesis from the Vatican. Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will be the last one to read.
"It's more of a nonstop relay," Giuseppe De Carli explained. He leads a division of RAI-TV, which helped organize and will be airing the event.
"It's not a race, after all, but a reflection on God's way," he added.
Nearly 1,300 people will take turns reading the scriptures all week. Protestant, Jewish, and even Muslim readers will participate.
"I think this can be a positive sign, an opportunity to begin a new kind of dialogue through the scriptures to get to know each other better," Muslim professor Adnane Mokrani said. "Its values are universal and the questions the book raises are personal, so it goes beyond inter-religious issues."
Several international celebrities will also take a turn at the scriptures, including Christian soccer player Kaka and Oscar-winning actor Roberto Benigni.
De Carli, however, assures it will not be a "VIP event."
"You certainly don't have to be a great actor like George Clooney," he said. "We just want people to give their best."
A similar reading of the Bible took place in 2005 involving 700 people in France. The event was organized by Norbert Exbrayat and his wife.
"It was a huge success in Limoges, but we couldn't image that it would take off in the rest of the world," he said.
Tony Blair Faith Foundation Launches Search for Thirty Young Ambassadors for the Millennium Development Goals
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tony-blair-faith-foundation-launches/story.aspx?guid={982E2C40-B830-4D52-9C12-F8724D007441}&dist=hppr
Tony Blair today (Thursday) launches an international search for thirty outstanding young people to serve as inter-religious ambassadors for the Millennium Development Goals. In Spring 2009 these young activists aged 18 - 25 will be selected to be the first Faiths Act Fellows.
The announcement will be made in Los Angeles on Thursday, September 25th, 2008, at 5:15 p.m. Pacific Time and be viewable live on the web at:
http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=51646
Or via a link from The Tony Blair Faith Foundation's website at:
www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org
The Faiths Act Fellowship brings together thirty young leaders drawn from the different faiths from the US, UK and Canada to embark on a 10 month journey of interfaith service.
Tony Blair said: "As changemakers for current and future generations, young people have the opportunity to establish a new vision of inter-religious interaction that places protecting the welfare of the world's poorest at its centre."
Training begins with a two-month intensive initiative that includes fieldwork with primary health care partners fighting deaths from malaria in Africa. Fellows will return to their home countries for 8 months to mobilize young people of faith to raise awareness and resources to promote the Millennium Development Goals. They will particularly focus on fighting deaths from malaria.
Tony Blair said: "The Faiths Act Fellows will become ambassadors for inter-religious cooperation in the fight against deaths from malaria and the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals. I urge interested young people aged 18 - 25 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to apply to join our campaign.
"In their 10 months of work, Faiths Act Fellows will reach tens of thousands of young people of faith with essential education about the devastating impact of malaria and the ways faiths communities can work together to make a real difference. Inspired by their different religious traditions, they will motivate and equip young people in congregations, schools and university religious student groups to lead their faith communities in spreading awareness of the MDG challenge, raising life-saving funds for the fight against deaths from malaria and promoting a new inter-religious dialogue of life and action.
"Halting and reversing the spread of deaths from malaria is one of today's most urgent moral challenges. 500 million people contract the disease each year and one million die, the vast majority in Africa and under 5 years old. Yet, malaria is preventable and treatable. And, progress in the fight against malaria will speed our achievement of 6 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals. Together we can show that Faiths Act."
Tony Blair will launch the programme in Los Angeles on September 25th 2008: the day the United Nations has designated as the midway point for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
To commemorate and join with others working towards the MDGs on this day, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation will be holding a panel discussion in Los Angeles to talk about the positive contribution that young people of all faiths are making, and can make together, towards achieving those common goals.
The panel will be:
-- Tony Blair, founder, Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and former British
Prime Minister;
-- Hamza Yusuf, a significant and influential Islamic scholar;
-- Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur, of Malaria No More and an activist for Muslim
women and Islam in the West; and
-- moderated by June Sarpong, broadcaster and founder of
www.politicsandthecity.com
The interactive session, which will take questions from the audience and from those submitted online in advance, will discuss how more could be achieved by people coming together across faith divides in pursuit of these common goals, and ideas on how to take action together.
In their home countries, Fellows will be hosted by a local organization whose mission fits closely with this project. Host organizations in the UK include Muslim Aid, World Vision UK, Tzedek, and the Christian-Muslim Forum. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is now seeking host organizations in the US and Canada.
The Faiths Act Fellowship is an initiative of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and is coordinated by Interfaith Youth Core. Tony Blair launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in May 2008 to promote respect and understanding of and between the major religions and to make the case for faith as a force for good in the modern world. The foundation is working with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. Mr. Blair believes that faith will have great influence in how the challenges that globalisation presents will be met. The Foundation will join with other partners to mobilise faith groups to step up pressure on Governments to deliver fully on their MDG commitments on malaria.
To be eligible, applicants must:
-- Be at least 18 and not over 26 years of age by August 1, 2009
-- Be a citizen or legal resident of the United States, the United
Kingdom or Canada
-- Demonstrate strong commitment to the goals of inter-religious
cooperation and achieving the MDGs
-- Demonstrate strong belief in the power of young people to make a
difference
-- Be ready to spend 10 full months, from August 2009 through May 2010,
serving with this initiative
Rebuilding EU-US relations
http://euractiv.com/en/opinion/rebuilding-eu-us-relations/article-175971
"There is a new window of opportunity to rebuild relations between the US and the EU as the Bush era draws to a close," according to Ronald D. Asmus, executive director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Centre, a think tank.
To do this, the United States and Europe need to define a common strategic agenda, argues Asmus's November paper. Deepening their economic integration ranks highly among the issues on which they must cooperate more, believes Asmus.
Rather than lowering tariffs or trade barriers, the aim here should be to create more common regulatory frameworks that eliminate barriers to trade and investment altogether, the author argues. Not only would leadership on this issue boost the GDP of both countries, it would also "assure the stability and openness of the global economy in this new era," he argues.
Asmus also calls on the "United States and Europe to define cooperation in homeland security to defend their societies and borders against the risk of terrorist and bio-weapon attacks". Furthermore, the two continents should aim to create fully liberalised visa regimes and travel between the United States and Europe because "such openness has tremendous potential to touch the lives of average citizens and bring both sides of the Atlantic back together".
In Asmus's view, the transatlantic alliance should also promote democracy and freedom beyond its own borders and embrace those who seek to join the democratic community. Indeed, he states: "Keeping our doors open and anchoring young democracies while confronting a more nationalistic and assertive Russia is again at the top of the transatlantic agenda."
Nevertheless, he says that the United States and Europe are not yet able to pursue a new and broader transatlantic agenda. He believes "we need to get the plumbing – the day-to-day processes of working together – of a new transatlantic relationship right" first.
In today's world, the US does not only need to cooperate with Europe on military and defence issues, but other policy domains such as energy, health and the environment, Asmus argues, all of which are within the competence of the EU. Thus, the United States cannot afford to have strong relations with NATO alone. "It needs strategic engagement with both organisations," he claims.
To ensure that the transatlantic alliance works in practice, Asmus suggests that pragmatism should be the guiding principle, stating: "Washington and Brussels should embrace the well-known lesson of past transatlantic disputes: first work it out in practice; then rewrite the theory."
To conclude, Asmus hopes that the next US president will have "the vision and the will to make the right kind of difference".
'Laissez-faire' capitalism is finished, says France
http://euobserver.com/843/26814
Both France and Germany on Thursday (25 September) said the current financial crisis would leave important marks on the world economy, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy declaring that the under-regulated system we once knew is now "finished," and German finance minister Peer Steinbruck saying the crisis marks the beginning of a multi-polar world, where the US is no longer a superpower.
Speaking to an audience of some 4,000 supporters in Toulon, France, Mr Sarkozy said the financial turmoil had highlighted the need to re-invent capitalism with a strong dose of morality, as well as to put in place a better regulatory system.
"The idea of the all-powerful market that must not be constrained by any rules, by any political intervention, was mad. The idea that markets were always right was mad," Mr Sarkozy said.
"The present crisis must incite us to refound capitalism on the basis of ethics and work … Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished," he added.
He accused "this system that allows the ones responsible for a disaster to leave with a golden parachute" of having "increased inequality, demoralised the middle classes and fed [market] speculation."
A European response
The French president also criticised "the logic of short-term financial profit" and said risks were hidden "to obtain ever more exorbitant profits" – something which, he said, was not the true face of capitalism.
"The market economy is a regulated market ... in the service of all. It is not the law of the jungle; it is not exorbitant profits for a few and sacrifices for all the others. The market economy is competition that lowers prices ... that benefits all consumers."
The speech by Mr Sarkozy, who is also the EU's current president-in-office, echoes similar statements he made earlier this week, when he called for an international meeting to discuss the crisis before the end of the year.
On Thursday, he also called on Europe to "reflect on its capacity to act in case of an emergency, to re-consider its rules, its principles," while learning the lessons from what is happening worldwide.
Mr Sarkozy said: "For all Europeans, it is understood that the response to the crisis should be a European one."
"In my capacity of president of the Union, I will propose initiatives in that respect at the next European Council [15 October]," he added.
'The world will never be the same again'
Meanwhile, German finance minister Peer Steinbruck criticised the US for failing to act in the wake of the crisis and said it would now lose its status of "superpower."
"The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multi-polar," with the emergence of centres in Asia and Europe, he told the German parliament on Thursday.
"The world will never be as it was before the crisis," he added.
Mr Steinbruck's criticism of the US has been amongst the sharpest yet made since the beginning of the crisis.
He notably blamed Washington for resisting stricter regulation, even after the crisis started last summer, and said this free-market-above-all attitude and the argument "used by these 'laissez-faire' purveyors was as simple as it was dangerous," the Associated Press reports.
He stressed that Germany had made recommendations last year for more rules, which Washington refused to consider.
They "elicited mockery at best or were seen as a typical example of Germans' penchant for over-regulation," Mr Steinbruck said.
Earlier this week, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said the US should have listened to the advice coming from Europe, notably from Germany, that more control was needed.
"It is a discussion that we have had for a long time in Europe, that the completely unregulated parts of the international financial market must be more closely monitored and that we must try to reach an agreement on common regulations," he said during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, according to Forbes.
France's Sarkozy battles fallout from financial crisis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080929/bs_afp/francefinancebankinguspoliticseconomy_080929215502
PARIS (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday battled to contain fallout from the global financial crisis, moving ahead with plans for a world summit and calling a meeting of French banking and insurance chiefs.
France will host a meeting of European officials to prepare a summit "in the coming weeks to establish the basis of a new international financial system," said Sarkozy, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union.
Officials from Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- the EU members of the G8 -- will meet in Paris in the coming days to lay the groundwork, he said on the sidelines of an EU-India summit in the southern city of Marseille.
On Tuesday, the president is to meet at the Elysee presidential palace with banking and insurance company chiefs to take a close look at the health of French banks and review the credit level of French households and businesses.
The announcements came as the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia announced an emergency board meeting after liquidity concerns sent its shares into freefall.
Dexia's shares closed Monday down 30 percent on the Paris exchange, at seven euros worth less than a third of their value this time last year.
Belgium's federal government announced late Monday that it had tentatively agreed, along with its three main regions and shareholders, to help prop up the embattled bank -- less than 24 hours after stepping in to rescue Belgian-Netherlands banking and insurance giant Fortis.
"During consultations between the federal government and the three regional governments (Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels) this afternoon, they confirmed their in-principle agreement to take part in a joint effort to boost Dexia group's funds," a statement said.
The statement, distributed by the office of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, made no mention of financial details but Belgian media said the support could amount to seven billion euros (10 billion dollars).
On Sunday, the Benelux countries stepped in to partially nationalise Fortis, increasing fears the crisis that has wiped out several US and British banks was spreading across Europe.
Sarkozy warned in a major address last week that France would not be spared from the turmoil unleashed by the US banking crisis.
In Paris, the CAC 40 index plunged 5.04 percent to 3,953.48 points Monday in line with other European stock markets.
A further sign of economic trouble came with the release Monday of jobless figures showing that 41,300 people joined the ranks of France's unemployed in August, the biggest monthly spike since 1993, bringing the figure to 1,949,600.
The government convened a crisis meeting of job sector officials late Monday to discuss the figures, which have compounded worries about the financial storm.
Critics accused the government of deceit, saying that for months it had touted progress in economic reforms when the jobless situation was less than rosy even before the financial storm struck.
Last week Sarkozy insisted the government would "guarantee the security" of the French banking system and warned he would "not accept that a single customer loses a single euro" to collapsing banks.
The right-wing president won election in May 2007 on a promise to rev up the economy and bring unemployment -- long the nation's number one concern -- down to five percent.
The government unveiled a draft budget on Friday that scrapped a pledge to stamp out the deficit by 2012 and as Paris struggled to rein in public spending amid sluggish growth.
"We are in a quasi-recession," said presidential adviser Henri Guaino.
France is headed into a "difficult period" and the government will "do everything that is necessary" to prevent the economy from taking a nosedive, Guaino said.
Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she nevertheless expected 2009 to end with a jobless rate of 7.1 percent, down from 7.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008.
That figure was the lowest rate in 25 years, capping a steady decline in the unemployment rate that had even allowed the problem to slide off the national radar over the past year.
Opinion polls show purchasing power has replaced unemployment as the number one concern of the average French voter.
Lagarde also Monday unveiled a plan to help French households from falling into a credit trap after the Bank of France said 88,000 people had filed for personal bankruptcy over the past four years, an increase of 70 percent.
US must take responsibility for global crisis, Brussels says
http://euobserver.com/19/26835
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has expressed impatience with Washington over the defeat of a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, calling on the US to "take responsibility" for the crisis. Meanwhile, fears are growing that the money central banks are pumping into markets are not putting out the financial fire.
Calling the Monday vote by the US House of Representatives a "disappointment," commission spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger in unusually strong language said on Tuesday (30 September) that "the turmoil we are facing has originated in the United States. It has become a global problem."
"The US has a special responsibility in this situation [and] the commission expects the decision will go through soon. The US must take its responsibility [and] must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country and for the sake of the world."
The commission expects "the decision to go through soon" despite the bill's initial failure, he added, contrasting Europe's response to the events.
"The last few hours have once again shown that European authorities are assuming their responsibilities. Europe is engaging and calling for international cooperation," Mr Laitenberger said, highlighting a call by the French EU presidency for an international conference on the crisis in autumn.
With the crisis still unfolding, the Irish government on Tuesday decided to guarantee all deposits held in the country's banks along with all money borrowed by the banks for two years.
Dublin made the €400 billion move following a massive decline in the shares of Irish banks Allied Irish, Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life and Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society and the Educational Building Society.
In mainland Europe, the Belgian and French governments gave €6.4 billion of tax payers' money to rescue Belgo-French bank Dexia, the world's biggest lender to local governments.
"The European Commission ... is supporting [government action to rescue] Dexia and the decision of Irish government to guarantee deposits with Irish banks," the commission's Mr Laitenberger explained. "This shows that public authorities in Europe can live up to the task of preserving financial stability and protecting savings where different EU countries are concerned."
Liquidity loans hoarded
The EU official also praised national central banks in Europe and the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) for providing liquidity to struggling money markets, saying the ECB has done a "superb job."
Brussels' praise came despite concerns that some private banks were taking ECB money and re-depositing it with the ECB for safe-keeping, instead of lending it to other banks to get markets moving again.
Banks have as of Monday "parked €44 billion with the ECB deposit facility" ECB spokesperson William Lelieveldt told EUobserver, citing the most up to date figures available. This figure was €1.4 billion one week ago on 23 September, climbing to €4.2 billion on 25 September and hitting €28 billion by 26 September.
"It is true that this is a relatively high amount," said Mr Lelieveldt. "But this must be compared to the much larger sums provided to these banks by the ECB."
Some economists say government action may be required to get banks to lend to each other once again.
"Banks are hoarding their money as there is no expectation that loaning money will be profitable and not loss-making," UK economist Barry Gills of Newcastle University said. "Central banks have been injecting massive amounts of liquidity for months but the insolvency problem within banks is actually spreading."
"All this liquid is not putting out the fire," he said.
"We need a much higher level of co-ordinated action than at member state or even EU level. We need a global regulator. It's the logical outflow of the globalisation of finance - the globalisation of financial regulation," he added.
The expert predicted that economies in eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and the Baltic states, will find it harder than old Europe to weather the storm, saying the International Monetary Fund may have to be called in to deliver stabilisation loans.
'Casino capitalism'
The Socialist group in the European Parliament meanwhile is demanding the "urgent and profound reform of the worldwide financial system."
"This crisis confirms the excesses of casino capitalism," Socialist group leader Martin Schultz said, denouncing "a savage capitalism that no longer invests in enterprise and the creation of jobs, but contents itself to let loose to make money with more money."
The Green group questioned the European Commission's position on government bailouts of ailing banks.
"The commission seems to have suspended its normal operating procedure of responding to mergers and state aid and this may be okay given the scale of the emergency, but in the longer term what we need is a joined-up politics," British Green MEP Caroline Lucas told EUobserver. "The solution to the financial crisis is the solution to the ecological crisis."
Echoing US President Franklin Roosevelt's reaction to the Great Depression in the 1930s - his 'New Deal' - Ms Lucas called for a stricter regulatory regime and concomitant investment in environmental protection providing jobs to prevent social fall-out from the crisis.
"We need a green New Deal - the re-regulation of the financial system and massive investment in green infrastructure, renewable energies, new technologies and so on that will deliver quality jobs to Europeans - the hiring of a carbon army, if you will - to ensure we don't have millions thrown into unemployment."
Shades of Schadenfreude
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161649
As the United States wallows in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the world looks on with horror, fear and sometimes guilty pleasure.
Rarely does an event capture the world's attention as the American financial crisis has in the past few days. In Mexico, they're calling it the "American FOBAPROA," an echo of that country's infamous 1994 bailout fund. In Beijing, many are hoping it will chasten China's free-spending materialists. In France, President Sarkozy views it as a vindication of heavy-handed government policies. The crisis, which has caused the spectacular failure of storied banks like Lehman Bros. and Wachovia, and probably more to come, hasn't caused a global financial meltdown (yet). But its effects are being felt on minds and pocketbooks around the world. Here—from our correspondents in Britain, France, China, Germany, South Korea and Japan—are glimpses of the international reaction to the panic on Wall Street.
—Barrett Sheridan
Britain: Rooting for the rescue plan.
The British don't have time to gloat. They're too worried about their own pension funds and savings accounts. Last week, the historical Scottish bank HBOS failed and now another high-street stalwart, Bradford & Bingley, has gone under. While most people don't understand the first thing about the FTSE, let alone complex derivatives, there's a pervasive feeling of cold panic. "It's like bad weather," says Tom Norman, 41, "That's how I see it. We've got a hurricane coming towards us and there's nothing to be done but hunker in."
Bankers are taking the blame for the crisis. The Archbishop of York, the country's second senior prelate, has condemned traders who cashed in on falling prices as "bank robbers and asset strippers." The generic trader makes a good whipping boy: "It does make me angry that this situation has been created by greedy, irresponsible, feckless city boys," says Katherine Walker, 27, who works in publishing, "The financial world has been acting in a megalomaniacal fashion and deserves to be taken down a peg or five. This is a terrible situation for the average hard-working family. It happened to my family in the 90's during the last downturn and affected us deeply for years." In the Square Mile itself there's a similar antipathy toward suited traders: "That's what happens when you get greedy," says James Terrell, 29, a construction worker on a cigarette break just a stone's throw from the Bank of England, "What goes around comes around. It's not just the Americans—they're alright. Everyone thinks because they've got the most money they're to blame. But we're all to blame. We always follow them anyway—that's inevitable. It's going to effect us all."
Still, any schadenfreude toward the global banking community is only a distraction. "While I love to see bankers suffer, actually my son is one, so I'm pretty torn," says architect, Stephen Brown. "I know too well how disastrous these slumps can be. During the 1991 recession I was basically bankrupt—it all happens very quickly. So what's the use in finger-pointing? I don't want to see the Americans go down the pan. Everyone knows that we'll follow." The average Briton is staring at the eye of the storm. If anything, they're rooting for America—and Paulson's rescue plan—hoping for a quick fix before the crisis lands on their own doorstep.
—Sophie Grove, London
France: The bailout is 'profoundly revolting.'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a speech before 4,000 supporters last week, seemed at once to stake his claim on I-told-you-so's about unbridled capitalism and to legitimize the sort of state intervention he's taken flak for in the past. "When the American taxpayer is getting ready to spend one thousand billion dollars to avoid generalized bankruptcy, it seems the legitimacy of public powers to intervene, in the functioning of the financial system, is no longer in question," he said. The irony of the free-market president George W. Bush proposing a massive intervention was not lost on business leaders. "Seeing big American banks saved by privatizations, one almost wants to scream, 'Marx, come back, they've gone crazy!'," wrote Arnaud Lagardère, general partner and CEO of the Lagardère Group, in the financial daily Les Echos. "We're seeing, in renewed form, the most debatable aspects of Anglo-Saxon capitalism called into question."
Unbridled speculation and collapse aren't entirely unknown in France. Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel cost the Société Generale five billion euros earlier this year. But the French are sympathetic to U.S. citizens who will ultimately pay for the bailout. "It's a scandal," says Lyne Khabbaz, 28, a public relations executive who came to France from Lebanon eight years ago. "One, because it's the small-time saver who pays, who loses his loans, his money, and then on top of that, it's up to the small-time depositor to bail them out. And then how is the state going to fill its coffers back up? Are they going to raise taxes? It puts too much of a load on the small-time saver who has strictly nothing to do with this, who's fighting day-to-day to meet his needs and his family's needs. So to me this solution is scandalous. I find it profoundly revolting." Nicolas Menant, 31, an auto industry project manager, thinks his government would have had the same impulse. "In the United States, the state doesn't tend to involve itself in the private sector. But this has gone beyond the private sector—it's more of a public sector issue."
The French, however, don't seem seriously worried about something similar happening to them. For one thing, it's too difficult to get a loan or a line of credit from French banks. And in his recent speech, Sarkozy promised that the state would step in if need be to protect personal savings. In response, the left-leaning daily Libération put Sarkozy on its cover, with the tongue-in-cheek headline: "Our Savior."
—Tracy McNicoll, Paris
China: 'We will make the same mistakes.'
China's delight at beating the United States in the Olympic medal tally finds no gleeful echoes when it comes to Wall Street's financial crisis. The Chinese are not crowing over the U.S. mortgage-induced meltdown; rather, they worry how it will affect them. "We don't want to see America go down because we depend on them," says Xu Zhaohui, a middle-school teacher.
So are China's banks at risk of contagion? China's banking sector is "one of the healthiest in the world," says Jing Ulrich, Chairman of China Equities at JP Morgan. Chinese banks are awash with liquidity, sitting on bank deposits from thrifty savers totaling $7 trillion. Banking analysts were not alarmed that China's two biggest retail banks had $280 million worth of exposure to bankrupt Lehman Brothers. Nor is there much sign of the domestic mortgage market triggering an identical, system-wide collapse. Although home ownership levels are as high as 80 percent in some cities—a sign of China's passion for property—many homebuyers pay cash. Ulrich says mortgage-holders seldom buy beyond their means, so a wave of defaults is unlikely, even in a slowing economy.
America's pain may even provide a useful lesson on the dangers of debt. Mortgages are new here, introduced just 10 years ago, and some worry that housing loans are eroding thrifty traditional habits. "Chinese people used to be unwilling to spend beyond their means," says college administrator Sun Huili. "People need to think about what's happening" in America, she warns. Thirty-six year old consultant Kelly Yu takes a more pessimistic view: "It's a good warning for the Chinese economy, but I believe China will make the exact same mistake in future". In her view, "Chinese are so crazy about wealth" that reckless speculation is inevitable.
China is suffering its own real-estate slump as a glutted luxury sector fails to find buyers. Ulrich predicts there'll be some busts, but thinks the medium-term impact could be healthy, finally pushing developers toward affordable housing for the masses. That may be so, but real-estate speculation has become a middle-class obsession. Xu owns three apartments, for instance. That means short-term instability is sure to make people nervous. Just following TV news on "unstable markets would really scare average people," says Yu, who advises companies on corporate social responsibility. Economists are upbeat about China's ability to ride out the U.S. financial crisis, but ordinary Chinese are not economists, and they're fearful.
—Mary Hennock
Germany: 'The crisis is far away.'
In Germany, politicians and the media commentariat are having a field day lashing out at American capitalism. But for ordinary Germans, the crisis seems like it's taking place on another planet. "America is a different world, where all kinds of people can get credit they shouldn't be getting," says Micky Gliese, a Berlin restaurant owner. "We Germans are different." Half the country rents, and many buy homes not on credit but with savings. Unlike in many other European countries, there's been no real-estate bubble to burst; prices only recently returned to early 1990s levels. There's no frothy consumer credit peddling industry—in fact, many people who got easy mortgages in America wouldn't even qualify for an ATM card. Most Germans don't even own stocks. "For me this crisis is very far away," Gliese says.
Still, many Germans are mad that some of their own state-owned banks invested so heavily in American debt and got away with billion-euro taxpayer bailouts. "The politicians fired a couple of scapegoats and for the rest of them it's business as usual," complains Marina Hesse, a legal secretary in Berlin. She also worries the crisis means that German banks will tighten credit again for small businesses and homeowners. "This will definitely hit us too," she says. Her family owns a house they're renting out and need a loan for a major renovation. They already had a hard time getting the last big loan and fear the banks will tighten credit again. Restaurant owner Gliese fears that the crisis will affect the German economy, too, and that next year his customers will start saving on restaurant bills.
—Stefan Theil, Berlin
Japan: Critical of 'U.S. style capitalism'
Then reigning sentiment in Japan is déjà vu. The failure of Lehman Brothers and the Treasury Department's historic bailout plans have echoes in Japan's troubled financial past. There is a lesson to be learned from Japan's response to financial crisis, Japanese experts say. "When a bubble bursts and the financial system gets destabilized, providing liquidity is not enough to overcome a crisis," Yutaka Yamaguchi, who served as deputy governor at the Bank of Japan during part of the financial crisis here, told one newspaper. "Unless financial institutions get recapitalized by raising funds in the markets or receiving public funds, the financial crisis will not end. That's the lesson [America] should learn from Japan's financial crisis." Yamaguchi says the U.S. financial model has effectively gone bankrupt. We are witnessing a "turning point," he adds—just as in the 1930s.
Others haven't been so polite. Columnist Kiyoshi Okonogi described the over-extended U.S. economy as "a bubble boosted by greed and leverage" and "a sort of casino betting on recklessness." Writing in a popular monthly magazine's latest issue, columnist Hideo Tamura wrote that "Wall Street had it coming…The nature of America's financial crisis is the failure of Wall Street's business model in and of itself."
Until recently, the U.S. financial crisis looked to Japanese people like a fire on a distant shore. Not anymore. The economy is slowing markedly and stock and property prices are falling. Business magazines have described the impact of the U.S. crisis on Japan as a "severe earthquake." The bankruptcy rate is rising, especially among real-estate developers, as U.S. investors pull out of the Japanese property market.
Many Japanese were already critical of "U.S.-style capitalism," which they saw led to excessive economic inequality. Such critical views will likely intensify and spread in Japan as the crisis deepens.
—Akiko Kashiwagi
South Korea: Mixed feelings.
South Koreans look at the U.S. financial meltdown with mixed feelings. On the one hand, they are deeply concerned by the crisis of the Wall Street that has been the model of their financial system for the past ten years. Ever since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis that nearly destroyed the Korean financial system, Korea has vigorously reformed its corporate and financial sectors in a bid to follow the U.S. standard. Korea even tried to build its own Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, believing investment banking is the future of its financial industry.
Korea also deregulated and opened up its economy actively during the past decade, a condition demanded by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for its $50 billion bailout package. Widely open to foreign investors and trade, the Korean economy is now highly vulnerable to external shocks, such as the current global financial trouble. Like other open economies, Korea has recently suffered from a series of financial woes, notably stock-price plunges and currency depreciation. "As a result of our reform and opening for the past ten years, our economy is more vulnerable to external shocks now than ten years ago," says economist Chang Jae Chul at Samsung Economic Research Institute.
Some Koreans, on the other hand, take some pleasure at the discomfort in the United States. Anti-globalization groups, which have been raising their voices against U.S.-led neoliberal capitalism for years, argue that Wall Street forced South Korea ten years ago to adopt its financial system, warts and all. They're using the crisis to mobilize public support for their opposition to the new Korean government's aggressive deregulation and free-trade policy. President Lee Myung Bak, who came to power in February, is currently pushing reforms, such as tax cuts, free trade agreements with major trading partners and privatization of state enterprises, as well as financial deregulation. "The U.S.-originated crisis means a bankruptcy verdict for President Lee's neoliberalism," says Park Seung Heup, spokesman for the opposition Democratic Labor Party. Park Young Sun, a lawmaker with the opposition Democratic Party, adds: "President Lee blindly follows and copies the neoliberal economic system that has become a history."
—B.J. Lee, Seoul
Foreign economists urge 'global plan'
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/foreign-economists-prod-us-on-global-plan/
Leaders and economists from Western Europe to East Asia Tuesday urged the United States to go beyond reviving a failed domestic bailout and start working on a new global financial system.
Associated Press Traders at MICEX, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, watch and wait during a tense session in Moscow on Tuesday when stock indexes sank despite a two-hour trading halt.
"The Americans don't have a choice — they must absolutely have a global plan," Christian Noyer, head of the French central bank, said in Paris.
David Smick, a global strategist and author of "The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers of the Global Economy," said the next U.S. president should immediately call for a second "Bretton Woods" conference to devise a new doctrine of international finance.
The tiny New Hampshire town hosted a conference shortly after World War II that established rules for economic interchange among the world's industrial powers and created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
"I am convinced that the sickness runs deep and that we need to rethink the entire financial and monetary system, as we did in Bretton Woods ... to create the tools for worldwide regulation made necessary by the globalization of trade," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in the French city of Toulon on Monday.
He said that officials from France, Britain, Germany and Italy will meet next week in Paris with the Continent's top financial officials to prepare for a proposed global summit on the economic crisis. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will participate.
The 27-nation European Union said Tuesday that the crisis "has become a global problem" and Washington has a "special responsibility" to resolve it.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel took aim at the House failure to pass the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout proposal, which sparked a global stock market plunge. She called the package a "precondition for creating new confidence in the markets."
Kaoru Yosano, the Japanese minister of economic and fiscal policy, agreed. "The outcome has caused a major impact on not only the U.S. economy but also the world economy," he said.
Until a few weeks ago, foreign governments were blase and even gloated about U.S. financial woes, Mr. Smick said. "The decoupled theory has taken a crash landing," demand is plummeting worldwide and foreign financial institutions have been forced to come to terms with their own "toxic waste," he said.
EU officials blamed U.S. policies and business practices for the meltdown, while the Vatican denounced corporate greed.
"The United States must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country, and for the sake of the world," said European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger. "The turmoil that we are facing has originated in the United States."
The Bush administration sought to calm politicians and markets, assuring them that it has been "reflecting" on developments and promising long-term solutions.
David McCormick, undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, said Washington will take into account any potential global impact when it makes decisions about "how the U.S. regulatory structure should evolve."
However, the State Department said the United States had to pass its own legislation first.
"There will be time to consult with countries about what's going on and what steps we may take," spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. "But right now, the work has to be done by the administration and Congress."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the passage of a U.S. financial bailout would bring "new confidence" to the markets.
In the meantime, foreign governments and financiers took steps to stop the contagion from spreading.
Mr. Sarkozy met with France's leading bankers and insurance chiefs and promised to announce new measures to tackle the situation by week's end.
European central banks and the Bank of Japan injected more cash into the market.
The Bank of England said it was offering up to $10 billion to a maximum of 10 banks, while the European Central Bank offered $30 billion to banks in an overnight operation, with a minimum bid amount of $5 million and a maximum of $3 billion.
Belgium's Dexia bank became the country's second to get a government-assisted bailout in as many days.
The Irish government announced an unlimited guarantee on deposits at six domestic banks a day after the Irish Stock Exchange suffered its greatest fall in history. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan called on fellow EU leaders to follow his country's example.
The market in Ireland made up for most of its losses Tuesday. Markets worldwide that opened sharply lower gained back much of that value later on hopes that Congress will pass a revised package soon.
Still, trading in Moscow was suspended for part of the day to limit losses. The Russian government has been rolling out measure after measure to address the crisis of confidence plaguing Russia's banks.
In a further move to assuage fears and ease the credit crunch, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the government will provide up to $50 billion to businesses outside the financial sector.
Other countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been affected to a lesser extent, but officials and business people said that could change.
"It is quite threatening what is going on," Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz said Tuesday during a visit to Washington.
In Croatia, Vilim Klemen, co-owner of a brokerage firm, said: "It's impossible that the situation in the global marketplace won't influence the domestic stock exchange."
• Raisa Sheynberg in Moscow, Lisa Bryant in Paris, Anton Foek in Brussels, James Morrison and Dusan Milijus in Washington contributed to this report.
Bank lobby calls for global action on credit crunch
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20081003/838/tbs-bank-lobby-calls-for-global-action-o.html
Washington, Oct 3 (DPA) An influential international banking lobby group has called for urgent and bold actions globally, particularly from European nations, to stabilise troubled financial markets.
A systemic, internationally coordinated response in the US and Europe was essential at this point, even requiring large - if temporary use - of government funds, Charles Dallara, director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), said Thursday.
'The global financial system is facing the most extraordinary challenges of the last eight decades, requiring prompt, internationally coordinated actions if a global recession is to be avoided,' said an IIF letter drafted Thursday to finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Washington next week at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dallara said the IMF needed to play a leading role in addressing the financial turmoil and would have to urgently change to be effective in dealing with the financial crises of the 21st century.
He also called for the inclusion of emerging economies in the G-7, the group of leading industrialised democracies, echoing a call by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at the UN General Assembly last week.
While acknowledging that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion financial rescue plan 'can have a catalytic effect on markets', Dallara said it wasn't enough. The US House of Representatives could vote Friday on a second version of the emergency bill that failed Monday, sending markets plunging.
Dallara called Paulson's proposal 'a turning point' because it showed the way ahead for governments to step in, in times of crises.
In its letter to the IMF, the lobby group noted that the world was at a crucial point in international regulatory development.
'Either we fall back into national approaches resulting in a fragmentation of the global regulatory environment, or we reach out to strengthen international coordination,' it said.
Dallara told reporters that it was clear the IMF needed to change, and the financial meltdown showed that this was the time for it.
'There has been no better opportunity in the last 60 years, and no greater need, for the IMF to change,' Dallara said.
He suggested that at its meeting next week, the IMF should frame a resolution to guide a compatible global approach to the turmoil and perform the role of multilateral coordinator.
He also spoke of the benefits of European governments creating a common pool of funds that would tide them over future financial crises and assist banks that were burdened with toxic assets.
The ongoing credit crisis has made it clear that countries needed to take a broader, macro-economic view of finding innovative solutions, Dallara said, adding that 'emerging markets deserve a larger presence at the decision-making table and in the G-7', referring to the group of leading industrialised nations.
'The G-7 has served the global financial system well for over two decades,' the IIF chief said. 'But, just as the G-5 gave way to the G-7 in the mid-1980s, so it is time to expand the G-7 to include ... several systemically important emerging market countries as full partners.'
In an address to the UN General Assembly last week, France's Sarkozy called for adding new members to the exclusive G-8, which is the G-7 plus Russia, to reflect demands of emerging countries.
Under such proposals, the G-8 in particular could become the G-14, with new members like China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, the emerging economic powers among developing countries, Sarkozy said. The group currently is comprised of the US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, Britain and Russia.
Sarkozy said the world is still governed by 20th-century institutions. 'Let today's major powers and the powers of tomorrow unite to shoulder together the responsibilities their influence gives them in world affairs.'
Brussels calls for EU-wide response to financial crisis
http://euobserver.com/19/26842
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Days ahead of a meeting of the European members of the G8 for talks on the current financial turmoil, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged European governments to increase their co-operation to counter the crisis, and called for international oversight of financial markets.
The challenge Europe is currently facing is not only "to inject liquidity into the markets," Mr Barroso told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday (1 October).
"We also need to inject credibility into the markets – in terms of European and of global governance of the financial system," he said.
And in order to restore confidence in the markets, a joint European action is "particularly important," the commission president added.
Specifically, the president called for "a further strengthening of the supervision structures at the European level."
Mr Barroso also wants to see a reform of the current accounting rules and reforms to ensure the consistency of deposit guarantee schemes across Europe.
Echoing calls from many quarters complaining that those responsible for the crisis have profited from their errors, he also called for an increasing in the transparency of executive pay.
The European financial system 'can cope'
Despite the challenges however, he said: "Our system can cope, the European financial system has the ability to respond," echoing a statement made earlier today by Jean-Claude Juncker, the chair of the group of EU countries using the euro.
"The Europeans can have confidence in their banking system," Mr Juncker told French radio Europe 1 on Wednesday morning, adding that he did not believe any government would let a "big European bank" go bankrupt.
Luxembourg's premier also called for a stronger pan-European response and for the EU to take the leadership in countering the financial crisis.
The statements of both Mr Barroso and Mr Juncker come just days before they are to meet the European leaders of the G8 group of leading industrial nations – France, Germany, Italy and the UK – together with the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, on Saturday (4 October) in Paris.
Besides conducting talks on the financial crisis and on possible solutions, the leaders are to use the meeting to prepare for a global international summit, which the French EU presidency is hoping to hold before the end of the year.
The topic is also expected to figure high on the agenda of the EU summit of heads of state and governments from 15-16 October in Brussels.
Europe-wide ID cards scheme in the spotlight
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2227199/eema-set-unveil-stork
Further details of a pan-European ID interoperability project known as Stork are set to be revealed at the Information Security Solutions Europe conference in Madrid next week.
Roger Dean, executive director at identity management and e-business association Eema, which is involved in the project, told vnunet.com that the security event will play host to a workshop on the Stork project.
The initiative aims to test technology which would allow citizens to use their national ID cards across borders, thus providing secure online access to public services all over Europe.
"Electronic identities do not yet do enough for mobile EU citizens," said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, in a statement.
"By taking advantage of the development in national electronic ID systems, and promoting mutual recognition of electronic identities between member states, this project moves us a step closer to the seamless movement between EU countries that Europeans expect from a borderless single market."
The workshop on Stork will aim to thrash out more of the details about which technologies will be used in the project, and aims to form an industry working group, according to Dean.
"The theme of digital identity will run through the entire show in terms of fraud protection and prevention, and there will be stuff on biometrics too," he said.
"We will also have an international flavour with presentations on privacy and data protection, because the threat to people's data is increasingly global."
Belgian appointed new EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator
http://www.euractiv.com/en/justice/belgian-appointed-new-eu-counter-terrorism-ordinator/article-166886
EU justice and home affairs ministers have agreed on a replacement for former counter-terrrorism co-ordinator Gijs de Vries, who stepped down at the end of March 2007.
Background:
The EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) Javier Solana appointed 51-year-old EU law professor and Belgian former minister of justice Gilles de Kerchove as de Vries's successor on 18 September.
De Kerchove was previously the director for justice and home affairs at the EU Council Secretariat, where he has been responsible for police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters. In this capacity, he worked closely with de Vries.
Solana said he was convinced that de Kerchove "will bring added value to the work of the Council in this key area" of counter-terrorism. In his new function, de Kerchove will co-ordinate the work of the Council of the EU in the field of counter-terrorism, closely monitor the implementation of the EU counter-terrorism strategy, and ensure that the Union plays an active role in the fight against terrorism, according to Solana.
The post of counter-terrorism co-ordinator was created in 2004 in response to that year's train bombings in Madrid that left nearly 200 people dead. Disagreements over the exact scope of the job are believed to have prompted de Vries to quit and for his replacement to be delayed.
Addressing reporters before the ministers' meeting, Solana said de Vries's successor should have a "deeper" mandate and enjoy "a much closer relationship" with EU governments and institutions. "Circumstances have changed since the first mandate was agreed. We have learned during this period and it is for intelligent people to adapt to the new circumstances," Solana said. Britain had been particularly keen for the new anti-terrorism co-ordinator to enjoy greater powers.
Freedom, Security and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said that there had been almost unanimous agreement among ministers that the new co-ordinator should be a bureaucrat with established knowledge of the inner workings of the EU, rather than a politician.
Joseph Daul, chairman of the European Peoples' Party (EPP-ED), the biggest political group in the European Parliament, considered the agreement "a step in the right direction".
Amnesty International, however, was critical of the nomination of the new counter-terrorism co-ordinator. Recalling a vital ingredient still missing from EU policies, in the six years since 9/11, according to Amnesty, the EU has yet to come to terms with the fact that the way in which the fight against terrorism has been conducted has had serious human-rights implications.
France Presses EU to Revamp Defense Structures
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3683351,00.html
As the defense ministers gathered in the French resort of Deauville, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also holds the European Union's revolving presidency, set the tone for what he hopes will be a historical summit.
"How can Europe be a political power that speaks with a strong voice if it isn't in a position to defend itself or take the appropriate measures to enact its defense policies," Sarkozy asked rhetorically.
The main aim of the summit, which runs until Thursday, Oct. 2, is to create a rapid reaction force of 50-60,000 soldiers that could be deployed in the interests of EU security.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also thinks the time has come for radical changes.
"One of the most important things the European Union has to do is to act in real time," Solana said ahead of the summit. "If you have a crisis or a political problem in the world and you don't deal with it rapidly, you waste time, money and the lives, probably, of people."
France would also like to see the creation of a general chief of staff office in Brussels to oversee the force.
But as history shows, EU nations will have to show a lot of political will for member states to come together in the way Paris and Brussels would like.
A European army?
The European Union, like NATO, has no army of its own and instead depends upon member states to provide soldiers and material.
As a result, the bloc encounters difficulties coordinating its resources when trying to intervene militarily. This was illustrated this week, when the EU was forced to ask Russia to provide helicopters for its peacekeeping mission in Chad -- even though Brussels and Moscow were in a clinch over Russian's military incursions into Georgia.
Nonetheless, the Maastricht Treaty stipulates that the bloc have a common defense and security policy, and European military missions have proved successful in recent years.
Most notably, a 1,800-person EUFOR force has successfully taken over responsibility for maintaining peace in Kosovo from its UN predecessor. Backers of reform hope that could help overcome resistance by some member states, particularly Britain, to further integrating the EU's military capabilities.
Back to NATO
Reform backers stress that a European force would be a supplement to, and not a replacement for, NATO. And NATO may be France's best card for pushing through changes.
France partially withdrew from the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1966 and even today refuses to participate in the full range of NATO activities.
Paris has signaled that that could change, if it gets its way on European defense reforms.
"We will fully participate in NATO, if NATO fully realizes that the EU has a role, too," an unnamed French official told Reuters news agency.
But most likely the summit will produce a compromise, in which both sides of the issue get some, but not all of what they want.
NATO and EU to pool helicopters and air carriers
http://euobserver.com/9/26843
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Both the EU and NATO seek to pool their defence capabilities drawn from the same European countries, after having experienced similar shortfalls in helicopters and air carriers in their missions in Chad and Afghanistan.
The idea has been championed by the French EU presidency, which hopes to see several concrete initiatives adopted in November by EU defence ministers.
At an informal EU defence minister meeting in Deauville on Wednesday (1 October), France obtained the backing of several member states for initiatives such as setting up a trust fund to upgrade Europe's helicopter fleet to make up for shortfalls in helicopters and transport aircraft needed for quick and effective EU deployments abroad.
The final decision will be taken at a formal defence ministers' summit in Brussels on 10 November.
The shortfall in helicopters was already highlighted on Monday, when General Patrick Nash, the operational commander of the EU mission in Chad told a press conference in Brussels that four helicopters might be soon borrowed from Russia, with talks being at "a very advanced stage."
Yet the problem is not unique to the EU mission, as NATO and the United Nations experience similar challenges.
General James Mattis, in charge of NATO's capability development and transformation, recently met his EU counterpart, the chief executive of the European Defence Agency, Alexander Weis, in order to find "areas of common interest", such as helicopter and airlift capabilities.
"In regards to airlift, helicopters, medical transports – whether it is an EU mission to Darfur or a NATO mission somewhere else, we just need those capabilities," General Mattis told journalists at a briefing on Wednesday during NATO Industry Day, which took place in Brussels.
He also stressed that when the EU and NATO draw on troops, they do it "from the same population of forces", which means that the two entities need to look for solutions that "resonate with each other, not contradict each other."
"We're not a the point right now where the EU and NATO are working that closely, although they're starting," General Mattis said.
The French connection
Yet France might play a pivotal role in this regard, with President Nicolas Sarkozy setting the improvement of EU defence capabilities as a precondition for his country to rejoin NATO's military structure, which is expected to take place at NATO's 60th anniversary summit in April next year.
French defence minister Herve Morin proved his commitment to pool EU military capabilities even when asked if the current global financial crisis will have an impact on the member states in terms of defence spending.
"There are two ways you can face an economic crisis, when you have reduction in state revenue," Mr Morin said on Wednesday after the ministers meeting in Deauville.
"One is to say, let's forget everything and say there is nothing we can do in the future. The other reaction is to say, we may have less available, so let's pool our resources. That's a more intelligent response, surely. Let's share we've got, if we are going to have less," he urged.
Boeing for NATO, Airbus for EU
While the French defence minister was unveiling in Dauville a plan to lend Airbus A400M transport planes between EU countries or to create a multinational fleet at their disposal, in Brussels 10 NATO countries plus Sweden and Finland signed a deal to jointly buy and operate three Boeing C-17 carriers.
This NATO initiative, called Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) "will support operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, as well as other national missions, including EU and UN missions", Peter Flory, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment said in a press release.
The 10 NATO members involved in SAC are Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States, while the planes are to be placed at the Hungarian air base Papa early next year.
European Union monitors start patrols in Georgia
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5itefRLYb9OvXIY84r-iHHUPY_6pQD93HL4400
GORI, Georgia (AP) — European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory Wednesday under a French-brokered peace deal, facing a Russian military that seemed reluctant to retreat.
The Russian peacekeeping forces said a day earlier they will not immediately allow any of the 300 EU monitors to enter a buffer zone surrounding the separatist South Ossetia region. The statement raised a fresh concern that Moscow was stalling on compliance with a cease-fire agreement reached after the August war with Georgia.
But when a group of EU observers arrived at a Russian checkpoint near the village of Kvenatkotsa at the perimeter of Russia's so-called "security zone" on Georgian territory, Russians quickly let them enter the area.
The Russian soldiers didn't allow reporters to follow the observers into the buffer zone, but let Georgian civilians pass after examining their vehicles. A small white dog barked at passing cars, and a handful of Russian troops at the checkpoint looked relaxed.
"The situation is very calm," Ivan Kukushkin, a Russian officer in charge of the checkpoint said.
Another group of EU monitors also visited the village of Odisi in a different sector just outside South Ossetia.
EU mission head Hansjoerg Haber told reporters the Russian military had earlier warned the EU monitors from entering the buffer zone, citing concerns for their security.
"We received different signals," Haber told reporters. "We want to clarify these differences in the coming hours."
Russia and Georgia agreed to the EU observer mission as part of an updated cease-fire plan following the war, which ended with Russian and separatist forces in control of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian troops also remained deep inside Georgia for weeks.
As part of the deal, Moscow agreed to withdraw its forces completely from territories outside of South Ossetia and Abkhazia within 10 days of the EU monitors' deployment Wednesday — including from a roughly 4-mile (7-kilometer) buffer zone they have created southward from South Ossetia's edge.
Russia still plans to keep around 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and has refused to allow EU monitors inside the regions themselves.
But the Russian peacekeeping forces' statement said, as of Wednesday, the EU monitoring will take place only "up to the southern border of the security zone" pending further consultations.
"Show the flag, be friendly, show confidence," Haber told monitors near Lake Basaleti, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
The EU observers will be based in four semi-permanent locations, including the central city of Gori near South Ossetia and the Black Sea port of Poti, key targets of Russian forces.
In Gori, another group of EU monitors boarded their light armored vehicles to head toward the buffer zone outside South Ossetia.
One observer, Adam Glinsky, a 43-year old Polish policeman, downplayed Russia's warning not to enter the buffer zone. "It's only yesterday's opinion, hopefully tomorrow it will be different," he said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who visited Georgia on Tuesday, expressed optimism that Moscow would pull its troops back in the promised time frame.
"I am optimistic that all parties will comply with the agreement that was signed," Solana said. "We hope very much and we are sure that before Oct. 10 that part of the mission will be completed."
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili skirted questions about EU access at a news conference Tuesday. He stressed that Georgia wants a complete Russian withdrawal.
"We will not be happy until the last Russian soldier gets out of my country," he told a news conference with Solana.
The war began Aug. 7 when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia sent troops, which quickly routed the Georgian military and pushed deep into Georgia.
Russia's continued occupation of Georgian territory and its subsequent recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has drawn strong condemnation from the West
Council of Europe and Alliance of Civilizations agree on future co-operation - Draft MOU
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/21260
Preamble
The Alliance of Civilizations and the Council of Europe,
1. Recalling the values of pluralist democracy, the rule of law and human rights for the development of all societies;
2. Recognising that cultural diversity is an essential characteristic of every society and a potential factor for economic and social development;
3. Reasserting the need to build bridges between cultures and societies through dialogue and co-operation as well as for political will and a collective commitment to live together by strengthening mutual respect, tolerance and understanding among people of different ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural background;
4. Convinced of the need for intercultural dialogue to be based on the principles of the indivisibility and universality of human rights and on observance of the human rights standards of the United Nations and the Council of Europe;
5. Affirming the role of the Council of Europe as the benchmark for human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Europe, and acknowledging the close co-operation between the member states of the Council of Europe in promoting intercultural dialogue based on these common values and principles;
6. Renewing their commitment to these common values and principles which are rooted in Europe's cultural, religious and humanistic heritage – a heritage both shared and rich in its diversity;
7. Bearing in mind the principles of intercultural dialogue as established for the Alliance of Civilizations by the High Level Group's report of 13 November 2006, and as laid down in the Council of Europe White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue "Living Together as Equals in Dignity";
8. Wishing to support the ratification and implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions;
9. Recognising the role of the Council of Europe as a member of the "Group of Friends" of the Alliance of Civilizations;
10. Having regard to their respective competences, specific characteristics and programmes of activities, and building on their existing good relations;
11. Wishing to intensify co-operation and mutually benefit from each other's experience concerning matters of joint interest;
Have agreed as follows:
Objectives and Principles of co-operation in intercultural dialogue
12. The Alliance of Civilizations and the Council of Europe (hereinafter referred to together as "the Parties") will enhance their co-operation in the field of intercultural dialogue in all areas of joint interest in order to achieve complementarity and avoid overlapping.
13. On the basis of partnership and complementarity, taking due account of their comparative advantages and expertise, the Parties will take all necessary steps to further their co-operation through exchange of information concerning their respective activities and through the development of joint action as set out below.
14. The cooperation will aim for added value and make the best possible use of existing resources. Measures implementing this Memorandum of Understanding will be subject to the application of the Parties' respective rules and policies and also subject to the availability of the appropriate financial and other resources.
Priority areas of co-operation in intercultural dialogue
15. The Parties will ensure that their co-operation will further their aims and objectives, notably the promotion and protection of democracy, human rights and the rule of law; the fight against all forms of discrimination on any ground; the equal dignity of every human being and gender equality; inclusive and cohesive societies; the democratic governance of cultural diversity; intercultural dialogue, including its religious dimension, as well as intercultural exchange ; and the strengthening of democratic citizenship and participation and the promotion of civil society.
16. The Parties are committed to developing joint activities in fields of common interest wherever appropriate and feasible. Priority areas of co-operation between the Parties cover:
• Human rights, democracy and rule of law: The Parties will explore possibilities for joint action aimed at strengthening human rights, democracy and rule of law, including the values underpinning intercultural dialogue.
• Education: The Parties will co-operate in such areas as education for democratic citizenship, human rights, tolerance, mutual respect, intercultural awareness and global education. They are committed to initiate and support educational programmes which are inspired by the principles of equal rights, inclusiveness, fairness and multiperspectivity, and which foster cultural sensitivity and critical thinking. Within their areas of competence, the Parties will promote interaction among educational institutions, educational staff and students in Europe and its neighbouring regions. The European Resource Centre on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Intercultural Education in Oslo will play a role in this context.
• Youth: The Parties will develop their co-operation through joint priority areas of action designed to promote increased youth participation in intercultural dialogue and decision-making processes and aimed at giving all young people the means to play an active role in political and social life without discrimination. They will foster non-formal education and training opportunities for youth workers in human rights and intercultural dialogue, and will facilitate youth exchanges as well as promote long-term bridge building activities between diverse cultural and religious groups. The Parties will promote the development of youth policies with a particular emphasis on intercultural dialogue by encouraging co-operation between policy-makers, researchers, young people and youth workers.
• Culture: The Parties will investigate the possibility of co-operation in cultural, audiovisual and heritage policies, including the exchange of information on good practice and policy strategies at local level as well as the joint development of existing tools for information and co-operation.
• Media: The Parties will seek to co-operate in the promotion and defence of freedom of expression and information and freedom of the media. They will explore the possibilities of promoting the access of all persons to media and new information and communication services. They will explore co-operation in the area of media literacy development and journalists training programmes in intercultural issues. They will seek to foster the awareness of media professionals of the need for intercultural dialogue, mutual respect, tolerance and co-operation across ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic boundaries.
• Migration and social cohesion: The Parties will co-operate in the field of social cohesion on the basis inter alia of the Revised Social Charter of the Council of Europe and the relevant instruments of the United Nations. They will particularly promote the social and cultural inclusion of migrants and vulnerable and minority groups in society, the fight against discrimination, and measures aiming at strengthened democratic citizenship and participation.
17. Other areas of co-operation may be determined by mutual agreement.
Co-operation arrangements
18. The Parties will designate "focal points" within their secretariats to be responsible for permanent contacts between them. Ad hoc contacts at a political level may be organised on topical issues of joint interest.
19. The "North-South Centre" (Lisbon), given its position as a bridge between the Council of Europe and neighbouring regions, is expected to play a specific role in the implementation of this Memorandum of Understanding.
20. The Alliance of Civilizations will consider participating in the "Faro Open Platform of inter-institutional cooperation for intercultural dialogue".
21. This Memorandum of Understanding will cover a period of three years at the end of which the Parties will evaluate its implementation and, based on this evaluation, will agree in writing on its renewal and upon modifications as necessary.
Visibility
22. The Parties will take measures to enhance the visibility of their co-operation and joint activities to the general public. The Parties mutually will support each other in their relations with the media and with regard to web contents.
Done in two copies (French and English), on [...]
For the Council of Europe For the Alliance of Civilizations
Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025598.html
An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.
The gathering is said to be the result of a compromise between the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians. In recent months U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been urging both sides to draft a document detailing the points of agreement in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. She suggested they compile an "inventory" detailing progress on each of the core issues, such as Jerusalem, borders, refugees' right of return, security, settlements and water rights.
Israel opposed Rice's suggestion and argued that it would set the talks back. "It would make each side harden its stance to appear as though it has made no concessions," the Israeli source said. "Finally, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni managed to persuade her Palestinian counterpart, the head of the PA negotiating team, Ahmed Qureia, to reject the inventory idea."
Instead, the parties agreed on to give a detailed briefing to the Quartet. The Israeli and PA negotiators believe that would be less binding and would allow issues to be presented more freely.
Quartet representatives met with their Arab League counterparts in New York last week and approved the proposed Israeli and Palestinian briefing. Also, Quartet members decided to hold a peace summit in Moscow next spring.
Meanwhile, the Israeli source said the November summit will probably take place in Sharm el-Sheikh on the anniversary of last year's Annapolis summit. Quartet representatives, including its Middle East envoy, former British prime minister Tony Blair, will participate as well as officials from Jordan and Egypt.
The political turmoil in Israel following the resignation of Ehud Olmert as prime minister is hampering attempts to determine the level of representation at the summit. If Livni becomes prime minister then the heads of states of other participating countries will also be required to attend. Another issue that must be reconciled before the summit is held is the difference in opinion between Livni and Olmert, who have each been holding independent talks with Palestinians.
Olmert, who has met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every two to three weeks, has proposed that Palestinians receive 93 percent of the West Bank, and Israeli territory amounting to 5.5 percent of the West Bank as part of a land swap. According to the proposal, Israel will accept a few thousand Palestinian refugees within its borders on humanitarian grounds over a 10-year period. Olmert proposed that the issue of Jerusalem be put on hold and discussed in cooperation with the international community. Abbas apparently opposes the proposal at this point.
At the same time, Livni has been holding talks with Qureia aimed at trying to reach a detailed final status agreement. While the two sides made little progress over the core issues they have agreed on a broad range of issues such as water and the economy. Both Livni and Qureia categorically rejected Olmert's proposal.
The Annapolis summit was held on November 27, 2007, in the U.S., with participants from about 40 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Indonesia.
Bush will treat as done deals key issues only broached in Israel-Palestinian talks
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5627
US president George W. Bush went over Israel's head last week and promised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to hand on to his successor as done deals the issues covered in the talks Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni held with Palestinian leaders, DEBKAfile's Washington sources reveal.
Olmert and Livni, who is Kadima's nominee for prime minister, have told the Israeli public that nothing had been agreed in the series of talks they held with Abbas and senior Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia from last year. No document or even working paper was signed to confirm claims by Olmert that Israel must give up East Jerusalem, withdraw from the West Bank except for once percent of the territory and accept tens of thousands of Palestinian 1948 refugees.
If agreed – which they were not - these issues are highly problematical and would need to seek approval Israel's democratically-elected institutions.
But the US president has taken it upon himself to decide that the issues aired and left pending will henceforth be deemed by the US presidency closed between the parties. He will recommend this principle to the next administration in the belief that it will jump the Israel-Palestinian negotiating process forward toward a final accord in 2009. President Bush also promised Abbas the Palestinians would not be held accountable for the impasse reached by the talks this year.
The Palestinians are trumpeting Bush's decision as a milestone on the road to achieving their goals. Abbas called Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan to give them the glad tidings.
It may be recalled that Bush was the first US president ever to back the Palestinian demand for independence and a "two-state solution" of the conflict.
DEBKAfile's political sources say Bush has laid down a perilous precedent by hijacking Israel's prerogative for accepting or rejecting Palestinian demands and trampling the authority of its elected institutions. If this precedent is applied to Israel's indirect talks with Syria, it will be enough for Damascus to put the question of Israel's withdrawal from the Golan on the table for it to be counted as agreed.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice visited Israel last month to try obtain a signed document summing up areas of accord to burnish the Bush foreign policy record before he left the White House. However, she was informed that the process had not advanced that far.
Palestinians accept Olmert peace offer
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17285
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that the recent peace offer made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is enough to get a final status agreement signed, but recognized that the outgoing Israeli leader does not have the ability to implement the proposal.
"We could have peace in two days" if Olmert's offer could be implemented, Abbas told a group of Muslim clerics at the tail end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Olmert made his offer in a Rosh Hashanah interview with Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.
In the interview, Olmert said he was ready to withdraw from 93 percent of Judea and Samaria, including nearly all of eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Olmert offered to make up the difference by giving the Palestinians 5.5 percent of sovereign Israeli land.
The proposed deal also included a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
Abbas said he hopes that Olmert's proposal will form the foundation of peace talks with his successor. The Palestinian leader said he would like to view Olmert's offer as a peace "deposit."
The international community tried to make sure that will be the case when the Middle East Quartet last week insisted that all Israeli offers, no matter how tentative, be made binding.
Meanwhile, Israeli opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated in a holiday interview with Israel National News that the nation does not have a viable Palestinian peace partner with whom to make a deal.
In another holiday interview with Israeli Internet portal Walla!, Netanyahu said that if he regains the prime minister's chair he will actually increase Jewish settlement activity and shelf all talk of a peace deal leading to the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
There is no hope of a viable final status peace deal at this point, said Netanyahu, so the best thing to do is forge an economic arrangement with the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.
Polls conducted over the past year consistently show that Netanyahu will win the next national election by a healthy margin.
Christians killed in Mosul, Iraq
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07648.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - A Christian man, Rayan Nafei Jamooa, was killed by a group of armed militants in Mosul, Iraq on September 10, according to a September 23 report from Compass Direct. The murder occurred only two weeks after his Christian father, Nassar Jamooa, was kidnapped and killed by unidentified assailants.
Although there are often financial motivations behind the kidnapping of Christians in the country, a local clergyman noted that ransom money was not requested in either case and maintains that these men were targeted strictly because of their faith in Christ.
Pray for those who are grieving the loss of Rayan and Nassar. Pray that their killers will come to know Christ's love, forgiveness and blessing through the lives of God's people in Iraq (Romans 12:14, 21).
For more information on Christians suffering for their faith in Iraq, go to www.persecution.net/iraq.htm.
In Other News: The War on Terror
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432381,00.html
Washington, D.C. — The potentates on the Potomac have been so busy ranting about an imminent financial "catastrophe," dissecting Sarah Palin's debate debut and prognosticating John McCain's political demise that other news — particularly about the war being waged against radical Islam — has been hard to find.
Here are some facts about the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan that haven't captured the attention of our so-called mainstream media:
First, and most importantly, the campaign in Mesopotamia is all but won. This week the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines arrived in Al Anbar Province — once the bloodiest place on the planet — to assume the mission of honing the skills of Iraqi forces who now have responsibility for security in the largest of Iraq's 18 provinces. Iraqis — instead of Americans — are now conducting most combat operations against Al Qaeda remnants and Shiite militias throughout the country.
Second, despite predictions that "it couldn't be done," the Maliki government has announced plans for provincial elections before year-end. The Iraqis are also completing an oil-revenue sharing plan and are quietly concluding a Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. on the disposition of American troops. Though Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs continues, U.S. and Iraqi Special Operations Forces have been quietly rolling up terror networks set up by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
General Ray Odierno, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, demurs from describing the current situation a "victory" because bloodshed still occurs. This week Sunni suicide bombers in Salahidin Province and Baghdad killed 28 and wounded more than 30 Shiite worshipers celebrating Eid — the end of their Ramadan fast. Rather than pushing the country toward "civil-war," events like these have increasingly alienated insurgent groups from the civilian population. Despite these attacks, violence is at a four-year low. Though widely unreported, U.S. military and diplomatic officials express quiet confidence that Iraq is well on its way to becoming our closest ally in a part of the world where we need reliable friends.
There is also good news from Afghanistan that is generally ignored by our political and media elites in their efforts to find only gloom and doom in the campaign against a resurgent Taliban and the remnants of Al Qaeda. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, reported that this year, 30 aid workers have been killed, 92 were kidnapped and 22 World Food Program convoys have been attacked. On Wednesday, President Bush met with General David McKiernan, the senior U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. Both men acknowledged the current spike in violence in Afghanistan precipitated by cross-border activity from Pakistan and Iran. Though they also observed that there have been improvements in health care, education and transportation, press reports of the meeting emphasized that 2008 has been the bloodiest year for U.S. troops since 2001.
General McKiernan made clear that he needs more troops, military hardware and reconstruction aid "as quickly as possible" in order to prosecute an effective winter campaign against a "surge" in foreign terrorists that includes Pakistanis, Chechens, Saudis, Uzbeks and Europeans. It is a point we made repeatedly in our FOX News Channel reports from Afghanistan in August and September.
We also noted that relying on our "NATO partners" — the consequence of a United Nations resolution — has not worked. Today there are 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan — but only 20,000 of them are under direct U.S. operational control. The rest report to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) — 31,000 personnel from 39 other countries. With the exception of the British and Canadians, most ISAF troops have so many "national caveats" on how and where they can be employed that they are effectively non-combatants.
Unlike Mesopotamia, where U.S. troops have trained and equipped more than 400,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces since 2003, the Afghan National Army and Police — supposedly advised and outfitted by ISAF — still number fewer than 60,000. None of this is good news — but it is about to change.
General David Petraeus has ordered Central Command to quietly review the disposition of U.S. forces in his theater and — equally important — NATO roles and missions in Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the September 20, Marriott Hotel suicide bombing in Islamabad, the Pakistani government is renewing efforts to reign in Islamic radicals. Last week, Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak urged creation of a combined Afghan, Pakistani, U.S. security force for the porous, mountainous and largely ungoverned Afghan-Pakistani border region where 10-15,000 Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have havens. Pakistan's new President Zardari apparently likes the idea — as do U.S. commanders in the field.
Meanwhile, Baitullah Mehsud, titular head of the Taliban in Pakistan, is dead and the Pakistani Army is prosecuting a successful campaign against Al Qaeda militants in Bajour Agency in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area. Though Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicts that it will be "springtime" before an additional 10,000 U.S. troops will arrive in Afghanistan, General McKiernan has already received some of the aviation assets he needs to support his planned winter offensive.
In their constant effort to paint a dismal picture of the war, the masters of our media failed to report all this. Perhaps they will do better next week.
Washington calls off planned diplomatic outpost in Tehran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5629
Saturday, Oct. 4, the Bush administration indefinitely shelved its plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran for the first time in three decades, following Iran's refusal to discontinue uranium enrichment and come clean on its suspected weapons program. Rather than appearing to try and influence the US presidential race, it was therefore decided to leave the decision to President Bush's successor.
DEBKAfile's military sources disclose that another factor influencing the decision was fresh intelligence that Iran has gone back to pumping into Iraq Shiite combatants trained by Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah instructors. Several hundred have crossed over and some are posted in Baghdad's Shiite districts.
Furthermore, the backdoor US-Iranian meetings to resolve the nuclear controversy have run aground. Tehran appears to have taken advantage of America's financial crisis and weak moment to step up the momentum of its nuclear arms program. Iran has also been encouraged by North Korea's reactivation of its nuclear reactor in defiance of US efforts to bring Pyongyang back in line.
In sum, the Bush administration's diplomatic offensive for an accommodation with Iran on the nuclear dispute, Iraq and Lebanon, has foundered. For a time, Tehran was helpful; it reined in Shiite militia attacks in Iraq and shared intelligence on al Qaeda and other terrorists, while in Lebanon an understanding between them brought about the election of a president. Bush and the heads of his administration had hoped to bow out leaving a certain level stability behind them in these areas.
However in recent weeks, when the administration's focus shifted to putting out financial fires and the onus of the war on terror moved from the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Washington's understandings with Tehran faded into the background of major events.
Israel has lost out on its strategic options twice: At the beginning of 2008, the Bush administration discarded its military option for dealing with Iran and leaned hard on Israel to refrain from a unilateral strike against its nuclear facilities. The Olmert government was advised to rely on international diplomacy and sanctions. This substitute option has also gone bankrupt leaving Israel high and dry with the prospect of an unstoppable nuclear-armed Iran.
Hindu State: Purging Christians from Orissa
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/455386.aspx
BHUBANESHWAR, Orissa - In this remote eastern region of India, Hindu radicals are accused of a deliberate and systematic campaign to eradicate Christians from the land.
"Every single Christian denomination has been attacked, our schools, our colleges, our orphanages. Everything that Christians own --Christian homes, Christian institutions, Christian churches-- have been attacked," said Dr. Richard Howell of the Evangelical Fellowship of India. "The idea is to eliminate Christians from Orissa."
For more than a month now, Orissa has witnessed some of the worst persecution against Christians ever in India's history.
Violence began a month ago when a Hindu leader was murdered here. Hindu fanatic groups held Christians responsible for it and went on the rampage.
Some 4,000 Christian homes and 400 churches were destroyed. Events in Orissa triggered violence against Christians in a number of other states.
At the root of the conflict say Christian leaders are efforts by Hindu radicals to stop lower-caste Hindus known as Untouchables or Dalits from converting to Christianity.
"The Hindu mob wanted us to convert back to Hinduism," Juliam Nayak, an Orissa resident, remembered. "They told us that if we became a Hindu and rejected Christianity we could stay, otherwise they would burn our homes and we would have to leave the village."
Dalits makeup one-fifth of India's one billion plus population. They live on the margins of society, and are often considered by Hindus as less than human. Christian groups say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape the 3000 years of discrimination under the caste system.
"So when we talk about what is happening in the Dalit community, it's a freedom movement, and what happens in a freedom movement? They are seeking any one way which will make them free. Christianity offers them one way," human rights advocate, Dr. John Dayal, explained.
And the numbers have been especially dramatic in Orissa where Christians now makeup some 27 percent of the population.
"The Hindu gods did nothing for me, they didn't bring me any peace. They could not answer my problems but in Christianity I found true peace and freedom from the Hindu caste system," Kumar Naikd said. He is a Dalit convert.
But some Hindus have accused Christians of converting Dalits against their will.
"They use bribery and money to trick Dalits into becoming Christians. Conversions and Christian missionaries are a threat to India," Prakash Sharma said.
Sharma is one of key leaders in Bajrang Dal, an influential extremist Hindu group that's suspected of spearheading the attacks against Christians.
"My message to Christians in India is stop your conversions," he added. "The violence in Orissa is a reaction by Hindus to these conversions."
CBN News met survivors of the Orissa attacks who described Christians being forcibly converted to Hinduism under the threat of death.
"We saw 14 to 15 families being forced to drink cow urine as part of the conversion ceremony to purify their sins and then they had to sign a letter saying that they had become Hindus and would obey orders to attack Christians," Kandhamal resident, Vinod Nayak, said.
The violence has left more than 50,000 Christians displaced. Most of them are crammed into relief camps like this one. Thousands are said to be missing or hiding in jungles.
And the situation for these Christians isn't getting much easier. There are reports that the Hindu radicals have made threats against them saying that if they intend on coming back to their destroyed villages, they must renounce Christ.
"We will never do that. We may have lost everything but we will never turn our backs on Christ. I still have joy and I am thanking God despite my circumstances," said Nirmala Nayak, who survived a Hindu attack
The Indian government is facing growing international criticism for failing to stamp out the violence. The government has deployed several hundred more police to the region. Some are also calling on the government to ban groups like the Bajrang Dal and other extremist Hindu outfits that promote violence and religious intolerance.
More than a month after the attacks began, some Christians are slowly finding the courage to come out from hiding in the jungles and are walking to the nearest refugee camp--- uncertain about their future but hopeful they can one day go back home.
"Please pray for us that we go back to our destroyed homes," an Orissa survivor began. "Rebuild them and be a stronger witness for God among the non-Christians of our village."
Indian states warned by federal government to control anti-Christian attacks
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07662.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - India's federal government has formally warned Orissa and Karnataka to control the anti-Christian violence that has continued into its fifth week following the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati by suspected Maoists.
The warning came through Article 355, which states: "It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution." If the warning against the two states goes unheeded, the federal government could impose Article 356, which grants the federal government emergency rule.
Despite the warning, VOMC continues to receive reports of attacks on Christians in both states and throughout the country. In Orissa's Kandhamal district, a Christian man was hacked to death by militants who stopped him and his wife while they were fleeing to a relief camp in the town of Phulbani on September 20. His wife was able to escape the scene unharmed. Arson attacks on at least 10 houses and kidnappings of Christians have been reported. A young Christian woman was dragged from a relief camp into a nearby jungle where she was gang raped by militants. In Karnataka, seven Christians were arrested and detained on charges of forcible conversion in Thalikare village on September 20 and four churches, three in the city of Bangalore and one in Kodagu district, were ransacked and vandalized by militants.
Pray for an end to this wave of brutal violence. Pray that believers under attack will set Christ apart as Lord and not give in to fear (1 Peter 3:14-17). Pray that those who persecute Christians will come to repentance and faith in Christ.
To learn more about trials facing Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/india.htm.
Israel Accuses North Korea of Black Market Weapons Trade in Middle East
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432702,00.html
VIENNA, Austria — Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of supplying at least half a dozen Mideast governments with nuclear technology or conventional arms.
World powers at a 145-nation Vienna meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the same time urged North Korea to stop reactivating its weapons-producing atomic program.
The comments focused on North Korea's black market role and its reversal of a commitment to mothball its nuclear activities in exchange for trade and security guarantees.
In the latest setback, U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill returned Friday to South Korea from a three-day trip to the North to try to salvage a six-party disarmament pact after North Korea reversed the dismantling of its nuclear facilities. He was hoping to draw the government in Pyongyang back to the negotiating table with an offer of a face-saving compromise.
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood in Washington told reporters the North was still moving previously stored equipment from its nuclear facilities back to its original location.
In Vienna, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea urged the North to honor its nuclear pledge, shortly before the gathering — the IAEA general conference — passed a resolution expressing the same sentiments.
North Korea's actions "will cause serious consequences to the prospect of the six-party talks," a South Korean statement said, referring to North Korea and the five nations engaging it on the nuclear issue — the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. Japan expressed "serious concern" about the North's moves and urged it to return to the terms of its disarmament for aid deal with the other five countries.
Separately, Israeli delegate David Danieli accused North Korea of being a black market supplier of conventional arms or nuclear technology to Middle East nations covertly trying to break out of the nonproliferation fold.
While he did not name the "at least half dozen" countries suspected of accepting the North's help, he appeared to be referring in part to Iran and Syria, which are both under IAEA investigation.
Israel — which is widely considered to have nuclear weapons — refuses to either confirm or deny its status.
Besides Iran, Syria and Libya, U.S. officials have said that North Korea's customer list for missiles or related components going back to the mid-1980s includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
U.S. government officials have also said that A.Q. Khan — the Pakistani scientist who confessed in 2004 to running an illegal nuclear market — had close connections with North Korea, trading in equipment, facilitating international deals for components and swapping nuclear know-how.
In 2004, the CIA director at the time, George Tenet, testified before Congress that North Korea had shown a willingness "to sell complete systems and components" for missile programs that have allowed other governments to acquire longer-range missiles.
"The Middle East remains on the receiving end of the DPRK's reckless activities," Danieli told the meeting, alluding the North by the abbreviation of its name.
"At least half a dozen countries in the region ... have become eager recipients" of the North's arms and nuclear sales, he said.
Concerns about Iran focus on its refusal to scrap a secretly developed uranium enrichment program that could be retooled to produce fissile warhead material if Tehran were to choose that path. Tehran is also suspected of hiding past efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program and of basing its Shahab-3 missile on a North Korean model.
Rejecting any suggestion of North Korean aid, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Tehran's chief IAEA delegate, told The Associated Press that Iran's nuclear and missile programs were developed "without the help of any other country."
Syria surfaced on the IAEA's radar screen after Israeli warplanes last year destroyed what the U.S. says was a reactor of North Korean design that — when completed — was meant to produce plutonium. Both Syria and Iran — which is under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear defiance — deny having weapons ambitions.
Diplomats have told The Associated Press that the IAEA has been forwarded intelligence that outlines years of extensive cooperation between the Syrians and teams of visiting North Korean nuclear officials.
Western intelligence agencies also have reported that Iran's Shahab-3 missile is based on a North Korean rocket, though Tehran denies it.
According to U.S. officials and outside experts, North Korea has sold its military goods to at least 18 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East.
North Korea's catalog has included ballistic missiles and related components, conventional weapons such as mobile rocket launchers, and nuclear technology.
North Korea had been disabling its nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon complex but abruptly stopped in mid-August, citing Washington's refusal to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The disarmament process snagged over Washington's request that North Korea agree to a verification system to account for its nuclear arsenal as a condition for removing the country from the terrorism list.
North Korea exploded a nuclear device in 2006.
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