Doctor: Graham's Brain Looks 'Fine'
http://www.newsmax.com/us/graham_surgery/2008/02/14/72845.html
ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- A postoperative scan of Billy Graham's brain following a surgery to update a shunt that controls excess fluid is encouraging, his doctor said Thursday as the world-renown evangelist continued his recovery.
"It looks fine," Dr. Ralph C. Loomis said. "He's doing well and is alert and articulate. We're pleased with his progress."
After a large breakfast, the 89-year-old Southern Baptist minister began a daily regimen of exercise that includes walking the halls of Asheville's Mission Hospitals. The hospital said Graham is in fair condition and spent part of the day watching local and national news. He also took a call from President Bush, said White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo.
"He wished Rev. Graham a speedy recovery and said that he'd keep him in his prayers," she said.
Graham underwent the elective surgery Wednesday to replace a shunt first installed in 2000. The shunt drains fluid from his brain through a small tube that runs down his head and neck and into the abdominal cavity, where the fluid is absorbed by his body.
Doctors determined the old shunt wasn't adequately controlling the brain fluid. A buildup of fluid, known as hydrocephalus, can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease. Graham will remain at Mission Hospitals for several days as doctors gradually adjusted the new externally programmable valve.
Graham has also suffered from prostate cancer and macular degeneration, and was hospitalized last year for nearly two weeks after experiencing intestinal bleeding. Those conditions, combined with his age, have left Graham mostly confined to his mountainside home in nearby Montreat for the past several years.
Graham led a worldwide crusade-based ministry for six decades that packed stadiums with believers and put him on the pulpit in front of millions. He met every U.S. president since Harry Truman, befriending many.
His wife, Ruth Bell Graham, died in June following a lengthy illness.
Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Muhammad Cartoon After Death Plot Foiled
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330529,00.html
Denmark's leading newspapers Wednesday reprinted a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered rioting in Muslim countries two years ago.
The newspapers said they republished the cartoon to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after the arrest Tuesday of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
The drawing by Kurt Westergaard and 11 other cartoons depicting Muhammad enraged Muslims when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers in early 2006.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even a favorable one, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
The Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, reprinted Westergaard's cartoon in its paper edition Wednesday. Several other major dailies, including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende, also reprinted the drawing.
"We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.
Tabloid Ekstra Bladet reprinted all 12 drawings.
At least three European newspapers — in Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain — also reprinted the cartoon as part of their coverage of the Danish arrests.
Intelligence police arrested two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin in western Denmark on Tuesday for allegedly plotting to kill Westergaard.
The Danish suspect was released Tuesday after questioning, his lawyer Henning Lyngsbo said.
"He has no knowledge about the case," Lyngsbo told The Associated Press. "It doesn't seem that the evidence is very strong."
Intelligence service chief Jakob Scharf had indicated the man would be released, but could still face charges of violating a Danish terror law. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark because they were considered threats to national security, Scharf said.
Danish Muslim leaders condemned the alleged murder plot, but also said reprinting Westergaard's cartoon was the wrong way to protest.
"There could have been other ways to do it without the drawing, which I personally do not like," Abdul Wahid Petersen, a moderate imam, told The Associated Press.
Imam Mostafa Chendid, the leader of the Islamic Faith Community, said his group was considering staging a rally in front of Parliament. The Copenhagen-based group spearheaded protests against the cartoons in 2006.
"We are so unhappy about the cartoon being reprinted," Chendid told the AP. "No blood was ever shed in Denmark because of this, and no blood will be shed. We are trying to calm down people, but let's see what happens. Let's open a dialogue."
Massive protests swept the Muslim world in early 2006 after publication of the cartoons. Danes watched in disbelief as angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked the country's embassies in Muslim countries including Syria, Iran and Lebanon. Danish products were boycotted in several Muslim countries.
The Danish Foreign Ministry said its diplomatic missions worldwide were monitoring for any unrest related to the cartoon.
"We have no information about events or reactions that leads us to change our security assessment for Danish citizens," said Uffe Wolffhechel of the ministry's consular department.
Mike Baker: Terrorists and Snowflakes
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330477,00.html
On occasion, every now and then while reading the news, I like to play a little game I call "What would Bin Laden think?" It goes something like this…
I open the morning newspapers, scan the headlines for crazy items and try to read the stories from Bin Laden’s point of view. It doesn’t have to be Bin Laden, you can substitute your favorite crazed terrorist. Here’s an example from last week:
"CIA Chief’s Waterboarding Admission Prompts Senate Democrats’ Demand for New Probe."
If I’m Bin Laden, what’s the reaction upon reading that? I envision something like the following…
Interior Cave, Breakfast Nook, Daytime
Bin Laden at the table, somewhat disheveled, occasional spoonfuls of Lucky Charms as he absentmindedly scans the North Waziristan Daily Register.
Bin Laden
(Looking up)
Ayman…dude…check this out.
Zawahiri shuffles in from next door, hair all akimbo, wearing a mud mask and halfway through eating a Hot Pocket…
Zawahiri
What’s up, Sheikster?
Bin Laden
Front page… 'CIA Chief’s Waterboarding Admission Prompts Senate Democrats’ Demand for New Probe'… is that crazy or what?
Ayman leans over to read the headline, dribbling some Hot Pocket on Bin Laden’s shoulder.
Zawahiri
Sorry, dude.
(Mumbles as he reads to himself)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called on the Justice Department to open a criminal inquiry into whether past use of waterboarding violated any law… yatta yatta yatta….Human Rights Watch called the CIA director’s testimony an explicit admission of criminal activity… blah blah blah… a Justice Department investigation should explore whether waterboarding was authorized and whether those who authorized it violated the law, said Durbin in a letter to the attorney general…
Zawahiri (Cont'd)
Huh…crazy…but I like that Durbin guy.
Bin Laden
(Scanning the story further)
Look here… they waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed… I would’ve liked to do that one myself. What a tool, giving up all that information… he should be shot.
Zawahiri
Boy, you gotta love America.
Bin Laden turns in his seat as he spits out his cereal, glaring at Ayman.
Zawahiri
I’m speaking sarcastically, of course… seriously. Who hates America more than I do? Really, don’t take everything so literally.
Bin Laden
Six years in a cave, I’m supposed to have a sense of humor?
Zawahiri
Relax. You wanna play some 'Guitar Hero'? I’ll fire up the PS2.
End Scene.
OK, maybe I’ve taken some liberties, but I suspect that I’m right about their fascination and amusement with our endless handwringing and angst over our limited use of waterboarding in very specific cases.
Oh, my... how can we live with ourselves? Aren’t we better than that? What would our forefathers say? Aren’t we a freakin’ shining light on a hill for all others to follow? How can we sleep at night? What a load of crap.
We’re facing an enemy that our forefathers never envisioned, let alone our recent fathers when they drafted the Geneva Convention. I’m all for dignity and respect and proper treatment of prisoners of war as outlined in the Geneva Convention’s Common Article 3. But do you suspect that perhaps Common Article 3 was written with a different kind of war and a different kind of enemy in mind?
It’s one thing to expect state-sponsored armies to respect certain protocols, but are we really serious when we think that Al Qaeda will honor Article 3 just because we do?
Yet that’s the nature of the argument that gets tossed around when everyone gets all frothy at the mouth screaming about CIA torture. This is the same enemy that straps explosives to mentally impaired women and sends them marching off into crowded markets.
I’m supposed to feel bad about myself because I support the very limited use of an aggressive interrogation technique against an enemy that uses people with Down syndrome as bomb delivery devices?
Another of my favorite arguments from those who categorize anything other than direct questioning as torture is that aggressive techniques never work. Well, I hate to sound like the insensitive guy, but me thinks that on occasion, the very focused, limited and specific use of something other than chatting can produce credible intelligence.
Just like all snowflakes are different, no two terrorists are alike. I’d like to think I’m the first to compare terrorists to snowflakes.
What I mean is that each interrogation situation and each subject is different, based on personality, background, experience, available intelligence, potential threats and a host of other factors.
Saying that aggressive techniques never produce credible information is a sweeping blanket statement that is as stupid and naïve as saying that all liberals like the smell of patchouli and love to play hackey sack, although, admittedly, I’ve never met one who doesn’t. Personally, I prefer Frisbee.
Mind you, there’s an important distinction that needs to be made here. I’m not arguing that torture can produce credible results. I agree that we should never condone nor engage in torture; I’m saying there are aggressive techniques, including waterboarding, that don’t fall in the realm of torture.
Also included here would be such things as the use of stress positions, temperature variations within appropriate parameters, sleep deprivation within appropriate guidelines and, under careful supervision, the showing of "Teletubbies" repeats.
My esteemed associates on the other side of this debate essentially argue that anything other than a stern talking to is torture. They sweep all other efforts into the same torture category, regardless of whether it’s a simple stress position designed to make the subject uncomfortable or the most heinous of acts, which any sane individual would naturally identify as torture.
This simple debate technique allows them to grab the wonderful moral high ground by describing everything the CIA does as torture. In their super black and white world, there are no allowable aggressive steps… it’s either direct questioning or nothing.
Now for the vast majority of suspects, aggressive techniques are absolutely not necessary.
In what may be a high-handed, back-handed slap (a tricky maneuver requiring years of practice and a certain amount of dexterity) at the CIA, the FBI director and folks at the Defense Intelligence Agency have commented in public that they’ve managed to get intelligence from interrogation subjects without any aggressive techniques.
If it blows your skirt up to state the obvious then that’s a terrific talking point. Not to disappoint those who may think they’re above it all because they don’t use aggressive techniques ever, but the CIA also has obtained lots of credible information by doing nothing more than clever, labor-intensive direct questioning. And the point is?
There are some hard cases that do not respond to the open, good cop approach. In those select cases and, in particular, when there is a concern that another attack may be imminent and there are credible reasons to believe the detainee has actionable intelligence, there is a need to be able to consider other options in a controlled, approved and limited manner.
In 2002 and 2003, when the CIA waterboarded three high-value detainees, the technique was approved by the government and was allowable under very specific conditions. From an operator’s perspective, it was not long after Sept. 11, there was real concern that another significant attack was being prepared and these three hard cases were not responding to direct questioning or other, less aggressive and approved techniques.
Now, using their holier-than-thou superpowers, Sen. Durbin and other members of the Democratic Justice League want to investigate and prosecute CIA personnel for, ummm, lemme’ see… for uh…. Oh, for working in an approved manner to try and gather information designed to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians. Maybe I’m missing the point.
Folks who view my perspective as horrific and a threat to our humanity perhaps would prefer an interrogation program that is limited to the options defined in the U.S. Army field manual for interrogation. In that scenario, regardless of how tough the detainee is, how imminent the threat is or how many lives may be at stake, our interrogators will have the ability to do such things as engage in direct questioning, use positive reinforcement or play on the detainees' emotions.
Frankly, I couldn’t break the average American teenager using those choices. But nevermind, at least we could all feel good about ourselves. Bin Laden would want it that way. So that’s nice.
Let me know your thoughts on the subject. Send your comments to peoplesweeklybrief@hotmail.com.
Till next week, stay safe.
Pentagon Plans to Shoot Down Failing Satellite
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330696,00.html
The Pentagon, under orders from President Bush, is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, the White House said Thursday.
U.S. officials said that the option preferred by the administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush made his decision during the past week and asked experts to come up with a way to destoy the satellite.
He made the decision to shoot it down because the satellite was carrying the rocket fuel hydrazine, Perino said.
Initally the administration believed that the danger from the falling satellite did not pose a large problem, but decided it was best to shoot it down when experts decided that the unused hydrazine did pose a danger.
Asked about the matter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "We have been looking at ways to mitigate the possible risk to human lives and to demonstrate our continuing commitment to safe and responsible space operations."
The disabled satellite is expected to hit the Earth the first week of March. Officials said the Navy would likely shoot it down before then, using a special missile modified for the task.
Other details about the missile and the targeting were not immediately available. But the decision involves several U.S. agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
One of the main goals of the satellite's destruction is to prevent any sensitive equipment from falling into the wrong hands.
"We are worried about something showing up on e-Bay," defense and intelligence expert John Pike said, adding that breaking up the satellite's pieces lessens the chance that sensitive U.S. technology could wind up in Chinese hands.
"What they have to be worried about is that a souvenir collector is going to find some piece, put it on e-Bay and the Chinese buy it," said Pike, who is director of the defense research group GlobalSecurity.org.
"The Chinese and the Russians spend an enormous amount of time trying to steal American technology," Pike said last week. "To have our most sophisticated radar intelligence satellite — have big pieces of it fall into their hands — would not be our preferred outcome."
The State Department declined to comment on the plan ahead of the Pentagon announcement, but said its role in such a scenario would be to inform foreign governments that the action was not hostile in nature.
"You want to make sure that everybody understands exactly what actions are being taken so there are no misunderstandings and misperceptions and also to reassure people vis-a-vis treaty obligations," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China's anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.
A key concern at that time was the debris created by Chinese satellite's destruction — and that will also be a focus now, as the U.S. determines exactly when and under what circumstances to shoot down its errant satellite.
The military will have to choose a time and a location that will avoid to the greatest degree any damage to other satellites in the sky.
Also, there is the possibility that large pieces could remain, and either stay in orbit where they can collide with other satellites or possibly fall to Earth.
It is not known where the satellite will hit. But officials familiar with the situation say about half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft is expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and will scatter debris — some of it potentially hazardous — over several hundred miles.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Short-term exposure to hydrazine could cause coughing, irritated throat and lungs, convulsions, tremors or seizures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Long-term exposure could damage the liver, kidney and reproductive organs.
Where the satellite would land would be difficult to predict until it descends to about 59 miles above the Earth and enters the atmosphere.
It would then begin to burn up, with flares visible from the ground, said Ted Molczan, a Canadian satellite tracker. From that point on, he said, it would take about 30 minutes to fall.
The satellite is outfitted with thrusters — small engines used to position it in space. They contain the toxic rocket fuel hydrazine, which can cause harm to anyone who contacts it. Officials have said there are about 1,000 pounds of propellant on the satellite.
Known by its military designation US 193, the satellite was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.
The military's Ballistic Missile Defense System, known as "Sea-Based Midcourse," could destroy the satellite just as it begins to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, said James Lewis, a satellite expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a conservative think-tank.
That would undercut any international criticism of a "war in space," Lewis said, and reframe it as a ballistic missile defense exercise.
He said it could also avoid the problem of creating a large debris field of satellite pieces that would continue to orbit.
The goal, said Lewis, would be to explode the satellite into small pieces that would mostly burn up as they re-enter the atmosphere.
In the past 50 years, about 17,000 man-made objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The largest uncontrolled re-entry by a NASA spacecraft was Skylab, the 78-ton abandoned space station that fell from orbit in 1979. Its debris dropped harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote section of western Australia.
In 2000, NASA engineers successfully directed a safe de-orbit of the 17-ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, using rockets aboard the satellite to bring it down in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.
In 2002, officials believe debris from a 7,000-pound science satellite smacked into the Earth's atmosphere and rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thousand miles from where they first predicted it would plummet.
IRS Probes Pastors Huckabee Endorsement
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/IRS_Probes_Pastors_Hucka/2008/02/14/72653.html
A Southern Baptist preacher who endorsed GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on church letterhead said Wednesday he was being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for mixing religion with politics.
Rev. Wiley Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.
Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without risking their tax-exempt status. Most who do so receive a warning.
On Aug. 11, Drake wrote a press release on letterhead from the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park that announced his personal endorsement of Huckabee and asked all Southern Baptists to get behind the candidate.
"After very serious prayer and consideration, I announce today that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee," the release said. "I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sister to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can."
He continued: "I believe God has chosen Mike for such an hour, and I believe of all those running Mike Huckabee will listen to God."
The letter sent to Drake by the IRS also quoted from segments of the pastor's church-based Internet show, "The Wiley Drake Show." In the quotes, Drake endorsed Huckabee again.
"Yes, I endorsed him personally and yes, we use the First Southern Baptist Church. Yes, we broadcast the 'Wiley Drake Show' from the First Southern Baptist Church. Everything we do is under the auspices of the church," Drake said on the show.
IRS spokesman Rafael Tulino said Wednesday that he could not comment.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS. Drake later lashed out at them in an Aug. 14 press release and urged his supporters to direct "imprecatory prayer" toward two of the group's officials, Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming.
He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer: "Persecute them. ... Let them be put to shame and perish" and "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."
Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United, issued a statement praising the IRS for investigating Drake.
"Americans go to church to grow spiritually, not be lectured on which political candidate to vote for," he said.
Drake defended the release and what he had said on his talk show, saying that he was only offering his personal endorsement of Huckabee — not the church's.
"I think I'm perfectly within my rights and I am upset," he told The Associated Press.
His attorney, Eric Stanley, said Drake and other pastors have a right to free speech, even in politics.
"Our position on this is that ... churches and pastors have First Amendment rights just like anybody else and that includes the right to speak out," said Stanley, who is representing Drake on behalf of the Alliance Defense Fund.
"They can feel free to personally endorse candidates. It was not a church endorsement and he made that very clear."
Drake recently completed a term as the second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, its third-highest post. He is running for president of the denomination.
In September, the IRS closed a lengthy investigation of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena without revoking its tax-exempt status.
In a sermon just days before the 2004 presidential election, All Saints' former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, was critical of the Iraq war and President Bush's tax cuts, although he did not urge parishioners to support Bush or his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry.
Putin Threatens To Aim Rockets at Ex-allies
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Putin_Threatens_To_Aim_Ro/2008/02/14/72691.html
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Thursday repeated his threat to aim Russian rockets at former Soviet satellite states if U.S. missile defense facilities are deployed there.
Speaking about U.S. plans for interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, Putin said, "Our experts consider that this system threatens our national security, and if it appears, we will be obligated to adequately react to this."
He said Russia's action would be to "retarget our missiles toward a system that we aren't creating."
"We are warning people ahead of time: if you take this step, then we will make this step," Putin said at his annual news conference in the Kremlin.
Putin also said Russian missiles could be aimed at Ukraine - a former Soviet republic whose pro-Western leadership is pursuing NATO membership - if it were to be host to a missile-defense facility. Putin had issued the same warning in a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, this week.
He suggested that the United States and the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic were going ahead with plans for the missile defense system without asking for public approval, which he called undemocratic.
Turning to another sore point in Moscow's relations with the West, Putin lashed out at the United States and other NATO countries over their refusal to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. Putin suspended Russian participation in the pact in December.
He said the restrictions Russia faced under the treaty were made unacceptable by NATO's eastward expansion after the 1991 Soviet collapse, likening them to a situation in which U.S. troop movements from California to Texas would be subject to Russian approval.
"We will no longer fulfill any colonial conditions," Putin said.
Putin, who is stepping down this year, also said Thursday that he had no reservations about becoming prime minister under the next Russian president, saying the No. 2 post would give him sufficient power.
While the president sets the main course for the country, the prime minister has control over the budget, sets economic policy and is responsible for national defense, he said.
"The highest executive power in the country is the government of the Russian Federation," Putin said.
He is expected to yield the presidency in May to Dmitry Medvedev, a longtime, loyal associate who is all but certain to win the presidential election next month. Putin has said he is amenable to being prime minister under Medvedev.
"I should not cry but be happy that I have the opportunity to work in another capacity, and in another capacity to serve my country," Putin said.
He said he had full trust in Medvedev, a 42-year-old first deputy prime minister, describing him as a person to whom it was "not embarrassing or frightening" to hand over power.
Putin said he had never considered following the advice of those in his inner circle who urged him not to step down at the end of his second term as required by the Russian Constitution.
"I was never tempted to stay for a third term. Never," he said. "From my first day of work as president I decided for myself that I would never violate the existing Constitution."
Although Putin has clearly come to enjoy his position and the prominent role it allows him to play in global politics, he said he had not become "addicted" to power during his presidency.
"Some are addicted to cigarettes, some, God forbid, to drugs, and some become addicted to money. They say that the worst addiction is to power. I have never felt that," he said. "I have never been addicted to anything."
No. 2 Hizb'allah murderer gets his
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2330
He is believed to have planned the mass killings of hundreds of Americans and Jews, masterminding hijackings, "suicide" bombings and kidnappings as he wreaked terror for the glory of Allah from Beirut to Buenos Aires.
Fox News described him as "more dangerous than Osama bin Laden."
Knowing that Israel was determined to find him, and that US intelligence services were also keen to track him down, he hid behind plastic surgery operations and deep inside pro-terrorist countries, possibly believing that he would get away with his butchery after all.
But his god was unable to keep him from justice, and in a late night mysterious blast in Damascus Tuesday, Imad Mugniyah's life was brought to an end, ushering him into the presence of His Maker.
In a brief announcement of Mugniyah's demise Hizb'allah - the Lebanese terrorist group whose name means Party of Allah - expressed its "pride" in the fact that a "great jihadist" had succeeded in "joining the martyrs ... at the hands of the Zionist Israelis."
According to experts in Islamic studies, the Muslims' religion decrees that there is no greater prize to be sought than "martyrdom" achieved while waging jihad against Jews and Christians - "the sons of pigs and monkeys."
Among Mugniyah's "achievements" are reportedly the masterminding of:
The April 18, 1983 bombing of the US Marine headquarters in Beirut that killed 63 people and wounded 120.
The October 23, 1983 bombings of the US Marine barracks and French multinational force headquarters in Beirut, killing a combined total of 299 people and wounding 75.
The June 14, 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome, which was forced to land in Beirut and during which a US Navy diver was killed.
The March 17, 1992 bombing attack against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 30 people and wounded 200.
The July 18, 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded 300.
The kidnapping on the border with Lebanon of Israeli soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan, Omar Souad, and apparently also of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Israel's government refused to comment on Mugiyah's execution. But with Hizb'allah publicly charging that Israeli agents had taken him out, Israel is now bracing for a response.
Hezbollah Chief Threatens Israel
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/lebanon/2008/02/14/72657.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The chief of Hezbollah threatened Thursday to retaliate against Israeli targets after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad Mughniyeh in Syria.
Hassan Nasrallah addressed supporters of the Lebanese Islamic militant group in a videotaped eulogy broadcast on a giant screen at the Beirut funeral for Mughniyeh, who was accused of masterminding dramatic attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.
"You have killed Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield," Nasrallah said in remarks directed at Israel. Hezbollah has long contended it only fights Israel within Lebanon and along their common border.
"You have crossed the borders," Nasrallah said. "With this murder, its timing, location and method _ Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) _ Throngs of Lebanese came out Thursday for two opposing gatherings: Hezbollah backers for the funeral of a slain militant suspected in hundreds of American deaths, and their pro-Western opponents to mark the assassination of an anti-Syrian former prime minister.
It was a showcase of Lebanon's divided soul, and it raised fears of violence between the two sides, prompting authorities to deploy thousands of troops and block major roads.
Hezbollah urged crowds to south Beirut to march behind the coffin of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's former security chief who was killed in a car bombing in Syria on Tuesday night. The funeral was expected to fully be underway in the early afternoon as the downtown Beirut rally marking the third anniversary of former premier Rafik Hariri's killing wound down.
Mughniyeh was a long-sought fugitive suspected in a series of attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including the bombings of the U.S. Marines barracks and two embassy compounds in Beirut in 1983-84 that killed about 260 Americans. He was also the suspected mastermind behind the kidnappings of Americans and other Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, including former Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson.
"Let us make our voice heard by all the enemies and murderers that we will be victorious, no matter the sacrifices," said a Hezbollah statement aired on the militant group's Al-Manar TV.
Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, have accused Israel of Mughniyeh's slaying. Israel denied any involvement, but officials made no effort to conceal their approval of his death. The United States welcomed it.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah _ himself in hiding because of fears of assassination since the 2006 summer war with Israel _ was expected to address mourners through a video broadcast over a giant screen.
Mughniyeh's death from a bomb that blew up his SUV in Damascus could raise tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as with the militants' allies, Syria and Iran. Some Lebanese figures close to the Shiite group called Wednesday for attacks against Israel.
In Israel, officials instructed embassies and Jewish institutions around the world to go on alert Thursday for fear of revenge attacks, and the army raised its awareness on its border with Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.
Mughniyeh's slaying also could stir up more domestic turmoil in deeply divided Lebanon, where the Hezbollah-led opposition is locked in a bitter power struggle with the Western-backed government.
By midmorning, thousands poured into Beirut's main Martyrs' Square for the third anniversary of Hariri's assassination, braving the rain and the cold, waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader.
Crowds paid respects at Hariri's gravesite next to the downtown square as his brother, Shafik, unveiled a statue of him at the spot where he was killed, a few hundred yards away on a seaside boulevard.
A flame was lit and a taped message broadcast from Hariri's widow, Nazek, who lives in Paris, urging against "falling into hatred" and calling on "unity to save the country."
The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority had hoped a massive show of popular support, perhaps by hundreds of thousands, on the Hariri anniversary would force the Hezbollah-led opposition to compromise in a 15-month political stalemate that has paralyzed the country.
The anniversary rally also meant to send a message to Syria to stay out of Lebanese politics. Billboards on major highways called for supporters to attend: "Come down, so they don't come back."
Hariri's supporters blame Syria for killing the prominent politician in a massive suicide truck bombing in Beirut three years ago and for a series of bombings and assassinations since. Hariri's assassination ignited mass protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after 29 years of control.
But statements from government coalition leaders offering condolences in the wake of Mughniyeh's killing indicated that majority leaders were toning down their sharp rhetoric, dominant in recent days, so as not to further inflame tensions with the opposition.
Authorities deployed some 8,000 troops and policemen to protect the Hariri rally and leading roads. Armored carriers took up positions on major intersections, and additional razor wire was brought in to separate the two sides on rain-drenched streets.
The U.S. Embassy encouraged American citizens in Lebanon to limit all but essential travel Thursday. Across Beirut, businesses and shops put off popular Valentine's Day celebrations for later in the week.
Mughniyeh's body was brought to south Beirut from Syria on Wednesday and laid in a refrigerated coffin, wrapped in Hezbollah's yellow flag.
His father _ Fayez, a south Lebanese farmer _ as well as Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, and other Hezbollah officials received condolences inside a hall from allied Lebanese politicians and representatives of militant Palestinian factions.
Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Besides his suspected role in the Marine barrack and embassy compound attacks, he was indicted in the U.S. for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.
A string of kidnappings he was believed to have directed included taking captive the AP's chief Mideast correspondent, Anderson, who was held for more than six years until his release in 1991, and CIA station chief William Buckley, who was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985.
Israel accused Mughniyeh of involvement in the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, attacks that killed more than 100 people.
He vanished in the early 1990s, reportedly undergoing plastic surgery and moving between Lebanon, Syria and Iran on fake passports.
U.S. military weighing if Russia in Cold War pose
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080212/wl_nm/usa_russia_coldwar_dc
Washington is trying to gauge whether Russia's recent bomber mission near a U.S. aircraft carrier indicated Moscow's return to a Cold War "mind-set" and is considering how the Pentagon should respond, a senior U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.
But other senior U.S. defense and Navy officials stressed they did not see Russia's weekend bomber flights south of Japan as provocative.
Four U.S. fighter jets were scrambled on February 9 to escort Russian bombers that approached the USS Nimitz south of Japan. One Russian bomber flew over the deck of the aircraft carrier, escorted by a U.S. fighter jet.
Adm. Gary Roughead, U.S. chief of naval operations, downplayed the incident and said it reflected Russia's emerging naval power.
"I think what we are seeing is a Russian military or Russian navy that is emerging and, in the case of the navy, desiring to emerge as a global navy," Roughead told reporters at the Pentagon.
"I do not consider it to be provocative," he said of the bomber mission.
But on Capitol Hill, another top U.S. military officer -- Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright -- said the Pentagon was trying to assess the implications of Russia's actions.
"Now, what we're concerned about is what are the indications of this return to a Cold War mind-set, what are the implications of that activity and how do we best address that," said Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The incident happened in neutral international airspace, Cartwright said.
"We're just trying to go back and look at what message was intended by this overflight," he told a Senate panel.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the Russian bomber flights were not seen as a threat.
"The Russians made a decision to resume some of their long-range aviation flights, involving some of their assets left over from the Cold War," he told reporters.
"I don't think we view it as a particular threat. It is something that we watch closely, and I'm sure folks over at the Pentagon watch it as well."
Any U.S. expressions of concern to Russia would probably be carried out through military channels, McCormack said.
TESTY RELATIONS
U.S.-Russian relations have become testy, with Washington concerned that Russian democracy is being eroded and Moscow complaining of U.S. interference.
A dispute over U.S. plans to place missile defense assets in former Soviet-allied territory has also raised tensions, and Russia is unhappy with continued U.S. support for expansion of the NATO military alliance.
Russian officials have said they will revive some of the military power and reach that was allowed to collapse with the Soviet Union.
Russia could train its nuclear missiles on Ukraine if the pro-Western state joins NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow on Tuesday.
Asked his reaction to Putin's statement, McCormack said: "There he goes again." McCormack offered no further comment, saying he had not seen Putin's remarks.
The Russian Air Force said the mission by four Tu-95 bombers was part of long-distance patrols in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the Black Sea that began last August.
A Russian news agency quoted Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky expressing surprise at "all the clamor this raised."
The last time a Russian bomber flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier was in July 2004, and Russian bombers have increased their flights near U.S. territory to demonstrate their long-range strike capability.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who raised the issue during the Senate hearing, said the Russian maneuver "sounds pretty provocative to me." He said the Armed Services Committee, of which he is a member, would look into the issue.
Putin Aims to be Powerful Russian Premier
http://www.newsmax.com/international/putin_russia_premier/2008/02/14/72852.html
MOSCOW -- A hawkish Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Thursday his intention to wield significant power as premier when he leaves the Kremlin after next month's presidential election.
Putin also attacked Western support for independence in Kosovo and sparked NATO's anger by threatening to target missiles at former Soviet bloc countries that host bases from the military alliance or a US missile defence shield.
Speaking to journalists just two weeks before a March 2 presidential election almost certain to be won by his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev, Putin, 55, confirmed he was "ready to work as prime minister."
His statement -- the most clear yet on how he intends to retain significant power on stepping down this May at the end of a second four-year term -- was met with derision in Washington.
It is "certainly not the kind of statement that is consistent with a healthy, thriving, vibrant democracy," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "Usually those kinds of questions are answered by the people of the nation first."
Crucially, Putin signalled he wants a leading role for the premiership, in contrast to the largely technical function currently performed by Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. He also said he is ready to stay in the post for a long period.
"The president is the guarantor of the constitution. He sets the main directions for internal and external policies. But the highest executive power in the country is the Russian government, headed by the prime minister," Putin told a packed press conference.
He said he would be premier "as long as Medvedev is president and if I see that I am meeting goals that I myself have fixed."
The prime minister plan, first aired in November, is seen by analysts as a formula allowing Putin to remain the country's top leader under a weak Medvedev presidency.
Putin himself seemed to allude to this when he indicated he would not hang a picture of president Medvedev in the prime minister's office -- standard practice for Russian bureaucrats.
"I don't need to hang his portrait," he said.
But Putin, accused by critics of establishing an authoritarian regime during his eight years in power, denied being power hungry.
"All these eight years I worked like a slave, from morning to night," Putin told the more than four-hour long press conference with hundreds of journalists, many of whom interrupted him with loud applause.
However, "I was never tempted" to change the constitution and take a third Kremlin term, Putin said. "They say the biggest addiction is to power, but I have never felt this."
Separately, Putin warned Russia would "be forced to aim missiles" at countries perceived as a threat, specifically Ukraine, which is applying to join NATO, and the Czech Republic and Poland, which are planning to host a US anti-missile defence system.
His threat sparked a quick reaction from NATO headquarters, where a spokesman said that no outside country had veto power over who can join the alliance. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice branded similar comments by Putin "reprehensible rhetoric."
Putin also attacked "immoral" Western backing for independence in the Serbian province of Kosovo, and dismissed Western efforts to bypass Russia with alternative routes to Central Asia's energy riches as "incorrect," "stupid" and "unprofessional."
Looking at his legacy, Putin painted a rosy picture of what he said were Russia's booming economy and strengthening statehood.
"I don't see any serious failures," Putin said. "All the goals we set were achieved."
Putin referred to steadily rising GDP growth and an easing off in 2007 of Russia's catastrophic demographic decline. He said Russia was now "one of the economic leaders" on a par with Thailand, Malaysia and other Asian tigers.
Putin acknowledged that Russia faced a problem with rising inflation, currently running at almost 12 percent, and said "we could have done some things more effectively."
However, he described his achievements as historic, saying that in the 1990s "we didn't have a united country. We didn't even have a national anthem." Putin said that under his rule: "We founded a state."
Critics at home and abroad have described the March 2 election as rigged to ensure Medvedev's victory and the main Western election monitoring organisations have decided not to send missions.
Putin scoffed at criticisms from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), saying they would be better off "staying at home to teach their wives how to cook cabbage soup."
Russia on the March: The Return of the Red Square Parades
http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/wm1805.cfm
As Yogi Berra once said, "This is déjà vu all over again." On May 9, heavy military equipment will once again roll down Moscow's Red Square for the Victory Day military parade. Tanks, missiles, and 6,000 troops will be joined overhead by Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter aircraft and military helicopters. The last time Moscow saw such a display of military hardware on Red Square was in November 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The world should take notice of Russia's increasing militarism. The parade is designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal to the U.S., NATO, and Russia's neighbors that Russia's power is back. Most importantly, it illustrates President Vladimir Putin's emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic institutions.
Putin justified Russia's revived military muscle in his recent speech to the State Council, claiming that the new arms race has been triggered "by the world's most developed countries"—a clear reference to the U.S. and the West. Russia's rearmament, said Putin, is not caused by Russia but forced upon it by its adversaries. In response to this alleged challenge to Russia's security, the Kremlin plans to produce and deploy in the next years new weapons claimed to match or best their Western equivalents. Russia will continue to research and develop revolutionary biological, nano, and information technologies with military applications. Putin also wants a new defense strategy for the Russian Armed Forces and the formation of an "innovative army" based on more professional and better trained servicemen.
What the Parade Means
President Vladimir Putin's government is reaffirming the central role that the military and the security services play in the Russian state. This is yet another indication from the Kremlin that the so-called "power" ministries and agencies are the bedrocks of the Russian Federation—not democracy, open society, a multiparty system, free media, fair elections, constitutional liberties, and the separation of powers.
The parade is a signal to the world and to the Russian people that the armed forces matter again, after a decade or so of decay following the collapse of the Soviet state. Strategically, the display of newly-built weapon systems—like the road-mobile Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), S-300 mobile long-range surface-to-air missile (SAMs), bombers, and fighters—is intended to show that the Russian military is resurging with modern arms. This is a hallmark of Putin's new Russia and a revival of the Soviet and czarist tradition of showing off the country's military prowess.
To the Russian people, the parade will convey a sense of national pride and security in the face of external threats. First, it will mark the USSR's heroic moment: victory in "The Great Patriotic War" (1941-1945), in which more than 25 million Soviet citizens died, millions of them brutally murdered by the Nazis. Second, the Kremlin wants to resurrect the popular belief that Russia is a great power, which lost credence after the demise of the Soviet Union.
In essence, the parade is another sign that the Russian government is going "back to the future." It wants to return the military—as well as other instruments of state power, from oil and gas exports to the secret police and a subservient judiciary—to the forefront in 21st century Russian policy. In this, Russia is disregarding modern means of governance: popular participation, democratic politics, a free press, the rule of law, and an independent judiciary.
Putin's Nostalgia
Almost three years ago, Putin said, "We should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century." Clearly, the USSR was Putin's country. During his career as a KGB officer, he cultivated a sense of duty and loyalty to the state (and to the "guild" of espionage officers).
Since becoming president, his nostalgia for the Soviet past has been manifested in the re-adoption of symbols from the Communist period. When that period ended, President Boris Yeltsin resurrected national symbols from the czarist pre-revolutionary period, including the tricolor Russian national flag, the imperial double-headed eagle on the state coat of arms and the hats of military officers, the 19th century-style gala uniforms of the Kremlin guard, and the adoption of patron saints by the armed forces and security services.
Under Putin, these symbols have been complemented by the communist Red Star, which appears on military hardware such as tanks and aircraft; the re-adoption of Stalin's Soviet anthem tune as the music for the Russia's national anthem; the use of "comrade" as a form of address within the military and security services; and the placement of a bronze bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the Internal Affairs Ministry in Moscow. (Dzerzhinsky was the founder of Lenin's dreaded secret police, the Cheka, and was responsible for arresting, exiling, torturing, and executing countless victims.) Moreover, Putin appears to be particularly fond of commemorating every December 20 as Security Services Workers' Day, or Chekist Day, recalling the day in 1917 when "Iron Felix" founded the Cheka, the predecessor of Stalin's NKVD, the KGB, and today's FSB.
Allegedly, the coexistence of czarist and Soviet symbols is a way to connect Russia's present and past. According to a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, the use of both periods' symbols means that "the continuity of all Russian history is restored and demonstrated." Of course, the actions of Putin's government show that this continuity is not limited to symbols. Putin also demonstrates his intent to restore the state's historically central role in managing politics, the media, and the economy.
Russia's Military Resurgence
The public display of Russia's military might reaffirms the power of that centuries-old Eurasian Leviathan, the Russian state. Russia's resurgence is not limited to military parades, but also includes military deployments and maneuvers, as well as the procurement of weapon systems. Last year, Putin ordered a resumption strategic bomber patrols deep into Atlantic and Pacific airspace, where they can launch cruise missiles against the United States. Already frequent ballistic missile test launches are set to double in the years ahead. The Strategic Missile Forces are deploying silo-based, mobile, and ship-based Topol-M, Bulava, and RSM-54 Sineva ICBMs, and the Russian Navy is scheduled to commission the first of a new class of ballistic missile submarines this year. Moreover, on January 21–23, the Russian Navy staged a large-scale exercise in the Bay of Biscay for the first time in 15 years. The exercise included the Admiral Kuznetsov (Russia's sole aircraft carrier), a guided missile cruiser, and strategic bombers, together with air-refueling tankers and airborne early-warning aircraft.
Conclusion
Russia's rearmament, the parade, its global maneuvers, and its new weapon systems are designed to make others respect Russia as well as deter NATO and the U.S., which Putin sees as a hegemonic superpower seeking to harm Russia. Russia wants to signal that it again has the military means to counter both perceived strategic threats, such as the U.S. missile defense system, and conventional military challenges, such as NATO expansion and the West's superior air power. Fanfare communicates Russia's intentions to tilt the global "correlation of forces" in Moscow's favor and encourages Russia's neighbors to do its bidding and not to challenge its security or its interests.
Russia is back on the world stage with all the attributes of power, including wealth and military might, for all to see. The next U.S. administration will have its hands full dealing with a resurgent Moscow.
Putin sees no need to hang successor's portrait Thu Feb 14, 10:58 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080214/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_russia_putin_portrait;_ylt=Ag5XhQeRXs4GnQayFeDQIjTtiBIF
Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he saw no need to hang his successor's portrait in his office once he steps down as Russia's president.
It is accepted etiquette in Russia for all officials to hang up a portrait of the head of state.
But Putin's protege Dmitry Medvedev is expected to win next month's election while he stays on as a very influential prime minister.
"In order to establish my relationship with Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) I won't need to hang his portrait on my wall if he is elected president," Putin said.
"As for my relations with Dmitry Anatolyevich, you must agree that if I head the government, the situation will be somewhat unique because I myself was president for eight years and overall have worked well."
Putin, 55, has endorsed 42-year-old First Deputy Prime Minister Medvedev as his successor. The younger man is overwhelming favourite to win a March 2 presidential election.
Putin is constitutionally barred from serving another consecutive term. He has said he is prepared to become prime minister under a Medvedev presidency.
Many analysts believe he will take the lead in shaping policy, even after he ceases to be president.
Syria Threatens War Lawsuit Against US
http://www.newsmax.com/international/syria_us_sanctions/2008/02/14/72818.html
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria plans to sue the U.S. for supplying arms to Israel that later killed Syrians in its 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the Syrian foreign minister said Thursday, a day after Washington announced new sanctions against Damascus.
Speaking at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Syria would retaliate for the U.S. decision to impose fresh sanctions on Syrian officials.
"This time I tell you we will punish the United States ... there are scores of Syrians who became victims during the Israeli war against Lebanon, they will file lawsuits against America" for providing Israel with weapons, he said.
On Wednesday, President Bush issued an executive order expanding sanctions against senior Syrian government officials and their associates deemed responsible for or to have benefited from public corruption. The order named no specific officials
The White House said Wednesday's order expanded action taken in May 2004 when Bush issued an executive order banning all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine.
He ordered those sanctions after long-standing complaints that Syria's regime was supporting international terrorism and undermining U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq.
Olmert said secretly bartering with PLO on Jerusalem
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2329
The Israeli government has been hammered with a succession of reports in the local press this week charging that it is secretly negotiating over the future of Jerusalem with leaders in the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization.
According to investigations carried out by journalists at The Jerusalem Post, the back channel discussions are taking place in tandem with the official talks that have been spurred along under pressure from the United States.
While the official talks are said to be making little progress, the secret discussions are dealing with the de facto division of Jerusalem, with Arab claims to property on both eastern and western sides of the city being put forward.
PLO/PA official Hatem Abdel Qader was quoted in the Post Wednesday as saying that the question of Jerusalem is both "on the table and under the table."
Jerusalem is Israel's 3,000-year-old capital which, after nearly two millennia under gentile rule, was restored to Jewish control by the Six Day War, 40 years ago last year, in what was seen by most Jews and many millions of Christians as a miraculous answer to unbroken centuries of prayer.
During the first decades after 1967, Israeli leaders repeatedly vowed that Jerusalem would henceforth be Israel's "eternal and indivisible capital."
Subjected to, on the one hand, unyielding demands backed by unrelenting terrorism from the Arabs, and on the other, by intense diplomatic pressure from a world unwilling to stand up to the Arab states, that position has slowly been whittled away until today there are elected Jewish lawmakers who speak openly about the "need" to surrender parts of the capital once again.
Since 1992, those in Israel's governments who have opted to go along with the land-for-peace process have resorted to holding secret negotiations in parallel with open talks, the latter diverting public and media attention while the former deal with the "taboo" or "core" issues.
In this way the 1993 Oslo Agreement was reached - the Israeli negotiators actually breaking the laws of their own land which prohibited meetings with the PLO.
Back channel proponents argue that these "core issues" - like Jerusalem, refugees, borders, water - are far too sensitive to talk about openly, and any government (or PLO-leadership, were it sincere) that tried to negotiate over these would be toppled or in some way be forced to stop.
Writing in the latest issue of the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, a former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, David Kimche, argues that such clandestine talks are "the only way that progress can be made towards an end-of-conflict agreement."
The results of this approach to peace-making in the Middle East - where elitist leaders reach and try to impose "solutions" not agreed to in the transparent environment of official talks - backfired with Oslo, which instead of bringing peace unleashed the worst terrorism-inflicted bloodshed in the 60-year-history of the Jewish state.
Playing with fire
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=102
If a series of reports in The Jerusalem Post this week is accurate, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is aware of and possibly even directing clandestine talks on the future of Jerusalem.
The back-channel talks, according to these same reports, are looking at ways to divide Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs in a way that the city could be the capital of both the State of Israel and the nascent State of Palestine.
Such dual-track negotiations have been used before, notably leading up to the 1978 Camp David Agreement and resulting in the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Veteran diplomats, at least some who have been involved in trying to find a solution to the century-long Arab-Jewish conflict, believe that because of the strong, in fact intractable positions both sides hold on the so-called core issues - final borders of Israel and “Palestinian,” sovereignty in Jerusalem, the “Palestinian” refugees “right of return,” the allocation of water resources - solutions are unattainable through open talks.
The reasoning is that the constituents on both sides - the Israeli and Palestinian public - will not allow their representatives to go too far down the road towards compromising on these issues before they pull the plug on them and, one way or the other, the negotiations break down. If enough progress can be made outside the spotlight of public scrutiny so that a promising outcome can then be presented to the public, this might overcome the hurdles and bring a final solution within reach.
In practice, the back channel route has and will involve deception and possibly even a breach of the law.
In the case of the 1992-1993 secret talks in Oslo, Israeli officials, under the direction of their own political leaders, broke the law prohibiting the holding of negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Prime Minister Olmert has been warned in letters from attorneys representing two Jerusalem organizations that discussions with US President George W. Bush or PLO/PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas regarding a possible division of Jerusalem are in violation of Israeli law.
According to Attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef, author of one of the letters, Clauses 5 and 6 of one of Israel’s cardinal laws - Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel - mean that Jerusalem’s status as the united and sole capital of Israel may not be compromised.
The rotten fruits of the lies and subterfuge of the illegal back channel talks that led to Oslo were evidenced in the massive explosion of terrorism and violence that lead to the death of thousands of Israelis and the dangerous erosion of Israel’s security, which has not been restored.
Heaven alone knows what will come from these efforts to secure yet another “peace” agreement by subterfuge and deception, this time playing with the volatile issue of Jerusalem.
1. Jerusalem - the seat of Israel’s greatest kings and the city the Jews prayed daily for 2000 years to return to; which comprises one of the pillars of their nationhood.
2. Jerusalem - while not mentioned once in the Quran, long-labeled “one of the most hotly-contested pieces of real estate on earth” amid expressed fears of the conflagration that would break out, led by the world’s billion-plus Muslims, if Israel succeeded in securing full control over the city.
3. Jerusalem - City of God, which city God says He will make “a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples” and “a very heavy stone for all peoples” so that “all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12: 2,3)
Revising Israel's History With Google Earth
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56140
An Israeli town is suing Internet giant Google after surprised municipal officials discovered Google Earth, the popular, user-driven satellite map, labels their city as stolen Palestinian land.
"The label is simply complete nonsense," Yossi Ben-Artzi, a history professor at Israel's Haifa University told Yediot Ahronot, Israel's leading daily. "Kiryat Yam was built on sand dunes, and there wasn't any Palestinian village in the area. The lands were bought in 1939 by the Gav Yam construction company."
The professor was responding to a criminal complaint filed by the northern Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam, which a Google Earth user mapped as stolen by Jews when Israel was founded in 1948.
About 600,000 Arabs fled Israel after surrounding Arab countries warned they would destroy the Jewish state in 1948. Some Arabs also were driven out by Jewish forces while they were trying to push back invading Arab armies. At the same time, over 800,000 Jews were expelled or left Arab countries under threat after Israel was founded.
The Google Earth user, identified as Palestinian physician Thameen Darby, inserted a note on the map saying Kiryat Yam was built in 1948 at the location of a former Arab town called Ghawarina.
Ghawarina, though, is widely thought to be about 10 miles south of Kiryat Yat, in an Arab village currently named Jisr el-Zarka.
"This is one of the Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war," Darby posted above Kiryat Yam.
Darby's claim is strange since Kiryat Yam was founded in the 1930s and not in 1948, when he claims Jews expelled Arabs from the site.
An official Google response e-mailed to WND explained Google Earth is user driven:
"Content reflects what people contribute, not what Google believes to be true. ... While we recognize that some may find the user-generated content objectionable, we are careful to balance the integrity of an open forum with the legal requirements of local governments. If an overlay does not breach our Terms and Conditions and is not in any way illegal, it is our policy not to remove it."
A Google spokesman told the Associated Press Darby's posting on the map doesn't violate Google policy and that the Palestinian label would not be removed.
Google marks Temple Mount Palestinian
This is not the first time Google Earth drew controversy alleging pro-Palestinian bias.
WND reported last year while Jerusalem serves as Israel's capital, and the Temple Mount is located within Israeli sovereignty, Google Earth divides the city and places the Mount – Judaism's holiest site – within Palestinian territory.
Interactive Google Earth maps still mark eastern sections of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as "occupied territory," set to become part of a future Palestinian state.
The United Nations considers eastern sections of Jerusalem, recaptured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, to be "disputed" and not "occupied." The Israeli Knesset officially annexed the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital in 1980.
"Google Earth is reinforcing lies," Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, told WND.
"The Muslims have engaged in a systemic campaign to re-write history and erase any traces of Judaism from the Temple Mount in total disregard to all actual archeological and historic evidence," he continued. "Now Google Earth has given in to this campaign."
Jerusalem first was divided into eastern and western sections when Jordan invaded and occupied the city and the Temple Mount area in 1947, expelling all Jewish inhabitants. Israel originally built its capital in the western part of the city, while the eastern quarters remained under Jordanian control until Israel regained them in 1967.
'Racist Israel stealing Palestinian water'
Google Earth does not limit its input in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Jerusalem and Kiryat Yam.
The Gaza Strip is labeled by Google Earth as "Israeli occupied," even though the Jewish state withdrew from Gaza in August 2005.
TotallyJewish.com, a UK-based Jewish website, pointed out an interactive Google Earth map of an Israeli community in the northern West Bank features integrated user comments implying Jews are stealing water from neighboring Palestinians.
A posting on a Google map next to the town of Kiryat Arba, near the ancient city of Hebron, states: "Note the well-tended lawns in a region deprived of water."
Clicking on a Web link in the posting brings the user to a site stating, "The principal reason for the water shortage is an unfair distribution of water resources shared by Israel and the Palestinians."
The posting decries Israel's purported water-confiscation practices as "illegal" and "racist," even though dozens of major Israeli aquifers, many run by the Jewish National Fund, purify water running through Palestinian cities and return the cleaned water to the Palestinian towns.
Comments on other Google Earth images claim Israel plans to divide parts of Bethlehem, even though no such plan exists and the city is already under Palestinian control.
Google Earth is also accused of showing falsified images. Visitors to Google Earth who click on an area just outside Jerusalem can view a computer-generated image claiming to depict an Israeli missile factory.
Israeli defense officials told WND the "missile factory" is a fabrication.
Terror leader: 'Congratulations to Google Earth'
Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, accused Google Earth of encouraging terrorism when it allowed Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to be labeled Palestinian.
"When the Arab terrorists see Google Earth's falsification of geographic realities, they will be appeased and encouraged, because these kinds of lying maps send the message that their disinformation campaigns and their terrorism work," Klein told WND.
Indeed, Abu Nasser, second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, said he was "thrilled" by Google Earth's depictions.
"Congratulations to Google Earth," Abu Nasser told WND.
"We congratulate Google and the American people in making this very important change in the Middle East. The Al Aqsa Mosque (located on the Temple Mount) is part of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is part of Palestine. If such a big institution like Google corrected these historical mistakes on maps, maybe we can bring about a change in the depictions of Palestine by the American media, which is controlled by the Zionists."
According to Abu Nasser, whose terror group says it is trying to liberate the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Jewish Temple "never existed."
"At least not on the area Jews now call the Temple Mount," he said. "Maybe a Temple existed somewhere but not in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount exists only in the imaginations of the Jews and Americans."
Abu Nasser's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Brigades, together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis.
Palestinians burn burial place of biblical patriarch Joseph
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56238
Palestinians yesterday tried to burn down Joseph's Tomb – Judaism's third holiest site – according to Palestinian security officials speaking to WND.
It marks the second time the Palestinians attempted to burn down the tomb, located near Nablus, the biblical city of Shechem.
Joseph's Tomb is the believed burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became viceroy of Egypt.
Palestinian security officials in Nablus said yesterday they were called to the tomb to find 16 burning tires inside the sacred structure.
A Palestinian police official who inspected the site told WND today there was some fire damage to the tomb. He said the Palestinian Authority, fearing embarrassment, immediately formed a joint committee from the PA's Force 17, Preventative Security Services and Palestinian intelligence, to find out who was behind the fire.
He said patrols were stepped up around the site.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said the IDF was not aware of the fire or any unusual activity near the tomb but that it would immediately inquire with the PA.
The move comes after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week he would ask Israel's Defense Ministry to work with the PA to reconstruct and restore the tomb, parts of which were destroyed by Palestinians, including known PA security officers, in 2000.
Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which granted nearby strategic territory to the Palestinians, Joseph's Tomb was supposed to be accessible to Jews and Christians. But following repeated attacks against Jewish worshippers at the holy site by gunmen associated with then-Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's militias, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in October 2000 ordered an Israeli unilateral retreat from the area.
Within less than an hour of the Israeli retreat, Palestinian rioters overtook Joseph's Tomb and reportedly began to ransack the site. Palestinian mobs reportedly tore apart books, destroying prayer stands and grinding out stone carvings in the Tomb's interior.
Palestinians hoisted a Muslim flag over the tomb. Amin Maqbul, an official from Arafat's office, visited the tomb to deliver a speech declaring, "Today was the first step to liberate Jerusalem."
One BBC reporter described the scene: "The site was reduced to smoldering rubble – festooned with Palestinian and Islamic flags – cheering Arab crowd."
Palestinians also constructed a mosque on the rubble of the tomb's adjacent yeshiva compound. Workers painted the dome of the compound green, the Islamic color.
Third holiest site turned into mosque
The Torah describes how Jacob purchased a land plot in Shechem, which was given as an inheritance to his sons and was used to re-inter Joseph, whose bones were taken out of Egypt during the Jewish exodus. Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are also said to be buried at the site.
As detailed in the Torah, shortly before his death, Joseph asked the Israelites to vow they would resettle his bones in the land of Canaan, biblical Israel. That oath was fulfilled when, according to the Torah, Joseph's remains were taken by the Jews from Egypt and reburied at the plot of land Jacob had earlier purchased in Shechem, believed to be the site of the tomb. Modern archeologists confirm Nablus is the biblical city of Shechem
Yehuda Leibman, who until the Israeli retreat from Joseph's Tomb in 2000 was director of a yeshiva constructed there, explained, "The sages tell us that there are three places which the world cannot claim were stolen by the Jewish people: the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Joseph's Tomb."
There is evidence suggesting for more than 1,000 years Jews of various origins worshipped at Joseph's Tomb. The Samaritans, a local tribe that follow a religion based on the Torah, say they trace their lineage back to Joseph himself and that they worshipped at the tomb site for more than 1,700 years.
Israel first gained control of Nablus and the neighboring site of Joseph's Tomb in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Oslo Accords signed by Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called for the area surrounding the tomb site to be placed under Palestinian jurisdiction but allowed for continued Jewish visits to the site and the construction of an Israeli military outpost at the tomb to ensure secure Jewish access.
Following the transfer of control of Nablus and the general area encompassing the tomb to the Palestinians in the early 1990s, there were a series of outbreaks of violence in which Arab rioters and gunmen from Arafat's Fatah militias shot at Jewish worshipers and the tomb's military outpost.
Six Israeli soldiers were killed, and many others, including yeshiva students, were wounded in September 1996 when Palestinian rioters and Fatah gunmen attempted to over take the tomb. Eventually, Israeli soldiers regained control of the site.
The Palestinians continued to attack Joseph's Tomb with regular shootings and the lobbing of firebombs and Molotov cocktails. Security for Jews at the site increasingly became more difficult to maintain. Rumors circulated in 2000 that Barak would evacuate the Israeli military outpost and give the tomb to Arafat as a "peacemaking gesture."
In early 2000, the Israeli army began denying Jewish visits to the tomb on certain days due to prospects of Arab violence. Following U.S.-mediated peace talks at Camp David in September 2000, Arafat returned to the West Bank and initiated his intifada. During one bloody week in October 2000, Fatah gunmen attacked the tomb repeatedly, killing two and injuring dozens, prompting Barak to order a complete evacuation of Judaism's third holiest site Oct. 6.
In a WND exclusive interview, Tariq Tarawi, a Fatah lawmaker who in 2000 served as chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the vicinity of the tomb, said the Palestinians would "never" allow Israel to rebuild a yeshiva or synagogue at Joseph's Tomb. The Brigades carried out most of the attacks against the tomb site.
"A yeshiva is an institution," said Tarawi. "An institution can be the beginning of claiming rights and these claims can bring once again the Israeli army to establish a base in the place, and we can not accept this. If the Jews try to build a yeshiva, we will shoot at them."
'Major earthquake in Israel – a matter of time'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3459638,00.html
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Jordan rift valley area. The Geophysical Institute of Israel noted the seismic activity around 6pm Saturday. The Jordan rift valley is in close proximity to the volatile Syrian-African Rift.
Rami Hofstetter, head of the Geophysical Institute of Israel told Ynet that "our instruments picked up two small quakes in the area over the last few days – the first one registering at 2.9 and the second of a 2.5 magnitude."
Past data, said the two, proves that such a quake is just a matter of time. "We know that the area between the Kinneret and the Dead Sea was subject to several large quakes, in 31BC, 362BC, 749BC and 1033AD. Another major one is coming soon."
Hofstetter seemed unfazed by Marko and Katz's study. "Saying Israel will be subject to a major earthquake is like saying the sun will rise tomorrow. A major quake in on the way," he said. "We just don't know where it's going to hit."
Kuwait: Gulf States Assuming Israel Will Destroy Iran's Nukes
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125240
A senior government official in Kuwait hinted Tuesday that Gulf States are expecting and waiting for Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear reactor before the security situation reaches critical mass.
Sami Alfaraj, advisor to the Kuwaiti government and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said Kuwait and the other Gulf States might ask both the Jewish State and the United States to guarantee their security if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear power station.
“I believe in something on the same Iraqi model… We are assuming in the Gulf that Israel will take it out,” Alfaraj told the Reuters news agency.
Israel destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility in a daring raid June 7, 1981 that neutralized its ability to function before the reactor went “hot” – thereby protecting the surrounding countries as well. Israeli intelligence had confirmed that the Iraqi government planned to produce nuclear weapons at the site.
Then, as now, Israeli officials were convinced that nuclear power in the hands of the enemy constituted an existential threat to Israel. In his briefing to IAF fighter pilots prior to the operation, then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Rafael Eitan said, “The alternative is our destruction.”
A report by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency to be published by the end of next week indicates that questions remain about how the Islamic Republic plans to utilize the nuclear power it plans to produce.
Although Iranian scientists were able to explain the traces of bomb-grade uranium found during inspections of its nuclear research sites, they were unwilling to discuss the suspected links between the uranium enrichment already in process, high explosives tests and new missile design.
Western nations are concerned about boasts by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Islamic Republic has been testing advanced centrifuges that would enhance and streamline the nuclear power production process. According to the Associated Press, Iran is currently producing more than 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas, a key component used in the uranium enrichment process.
Iran has resisted all attempts by the international community, including increasingly severe sanctions imposed upon it by the UN Security Council, to cease its uranium enrichment program.
Former US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said during his speech at the 8th Herzilya Conference last month that an Israeli strike might be the last chance to stop Iran from completing a nuclear weapon. Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who also spoke at the conference, also hinted that the military option is growing more likely.
The United States and Israel in particular are convinced that Iran is intent upon producing a nuclear weapon of mass destruction, to be aimed at the Jewish State. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Iran Proposes Death Penalty for Apostasy (leaving Islam)
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080212/31165.htm
The Iranian parliament is reviewing a new law that would impose a death penalty on citizens who leave Islam, a human rights group alerted recently.
In the past, the death penalty for apostasy was one of many possible punishments, including imprisonment and hard labor, for renouncing Islam, But the new law proposes to make death the sentence for all apostates, according to the Institute on Religion and Public Policy (IRPP).
“This is not something new, they just want to be more harsh towards those who are leaving Islam,” an Iranian pastor told the persecution watchdog Compass.
The death sentence was approved by the Iranian Cabinet a month ago, and appears to have the needed parliamentary support to pass, according to an Iranian Christian.
Many victims of the “apostasy” law are Muslims who convert to Christianity, but victims also include liberal thinkers and members of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority.
“The draft penal code is gross violation of fundamental and human rights by a regime that has repeatedly abused religious and other minorities,” said IRPP president Joseph K. Grieboski. “This is simply another legislative attempt on the part of the Iranian regime to persecute religious minorities in the country and around the globe.”
No converts to Christianity have been convicted of “apostasy” since 1994, after the case of a convert garnered international attention. But in the years that followed, converts and those working with converts have been brutally murdered. Local believers suspect the government to have played a role in the killings.
“They [Iran] began assassinating pastors and Christian workers,” said an Iranian pastor, who requested anonymity, to Compass. “Legally, they did not take them to court, but they just killed them and said that they hanged themselves and gave some other excuses.”
In 1994, Bishop Haik Hovsepian of Iran was brutally murdered and found secretly buried in a Muslim graveyard with 26 stab wounds after defending a Christian convert. The convert, Mehdi Dibaj, had already served 10 years in prison, but was still set to be executed simply for the crime of leaving Islam
Hovsepian had garnered support from the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and other global bodies to pressure Iran to release the convert. After successfully helping to free the convert, Hovsepian soon disappeared and was later found dead. The convert was also secretly murdered after his release.
“A careful review of the draft clearly shows that it is nothing more than a legislative tool to consolidate power around the regime and extend its religious tyranny globally,” Grieboski commented. “Such legislation will not be accepted by the international community and that message must resoundingly be sent to Tehran.”
Some parts of the draft indicate that both men and women can be executed for apostasy. Other sections seem to limit the death penalty to males. Female “apostates” appear to instead face life imprisonment or “hardship.”
Besides apostasy, other crimes that result in capital punishment include repeated drunkenness, rape, murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, adultery and male homosexuality in Iran.
At least 22 people were convicted and executed in January, the BBC reported.
Iran is ranked the third worst persecutor of Christians in the world, according to the Open Doors USA world watch list.
Iran suggests formation of new Middle Eastern Parliament - similar to EU
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=14144
Iran suggested on Tuesday that a new Parliament be formed to group much of the Middle East and Southern Asia, operating much like the 27-nation European Parliament does today.
The announcement, the first of its kind by a senior Iranian official, was made by the country’s Prosecutor-General Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi. His remarks were carried by the official news agency IRNA and other state media.
Speaking at a conference dubbed 'Building a Confident Future for Southwest Asia', Dorri Najafabadi also urged states situated next to the Persian Gulf to draw up a joint defence plan.
"If a powerful bloc was formed in the region, the foreigners would never dare to interfere in the region’s affairs, and we would not witness problems such as those currently existing in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine”, he said.
He called for more judicial cooperation among states in the region – a controversial call given the Islamic Republic’s strict interpretation of Sharia Law.
The radical Shiite cleric proposed that a “unified regional parliament” be formed to meet the interests of all countries in the region.
Southwest Asia is generally considered to include Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. It stretches from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to Afghanistan.
Dori Najaf-Abadi was for several years the chief of the theocratic state’s dreaded secret police, known as the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He resigned when an MOIS top deputy was implicated in the murder of dozens of dissident Iranian intellectuals and writers.
Elderly Christian Dies from Burns in Bangladesh
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06872.shtml
On February 1, a 70-year-old convert from Islam , Rahima Beoa, died from the severe burns she suffered to over 70 percent of her body when unidentified assailants set fire to her home in the Muslim-dominated village of Cinatuly last month.
According to a February 4 report from Compass Direct, on January 7, individuals set fire to the house that Beoa shared with her daughter and son-in-law, also converts to Christianity from Islam, and their children. Beoa and her nine-year-old grandson were home at the time of the blaze, but the boy managed to escape.
According to a local pastor, villagers were upset by Beoa's planned February 13 baptism. They were also angered by the conversions of her daughter and son-in-law and his evangelistic work.
Pray that the loved ones of Rahima will know God's comfort, peace and boldness. Pray that her family will stand firm in their faith. Pray that Christians in Bangladesh will confidently entrust themselves to Christ (2 Timothy 1:7-12).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in Bangladesh, go to www.persecution.net/country/bangladesh.htm.
Pennsylvanians Say Now is the Time for Marriage Amendment
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06871.shtml
HARRISBURG, PA -- A recent survey indicates that 70 percent of Pennsylvanians believe that now is the time for our legislators to deal with the issue of same- sex marriage.
Furthermore, the survey indicated that 72 percent wants voters -- not the courts -- to have the final say on whether marriage remains defined as one man and one woman in the Commonwealth.
With the introduction of SB 1250 -- the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment -- there is hope those voters will get their chance.
Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, along with 16 bi- partisan co-sponsors introduced the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment legislation this week, kicking off the process of getting the question about marriage on the ballot for Pennsylvania voters.
The Pennsylvania For Marriage coalition, a non- partisan organization dedicated to protecting and preserving marriage in this Commonwealth, praised the senators for taking this important first step to clearly defining marriage as only the union between one man and one woman.
"The goal is simple," said Deborah Hamilton, coalition spokeswoman, "We must protect the definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman and prevent creation of civil unions or other terms used to give all the legal incidents of marriage under a different name.
"By more than 2 to 1, Pennsylvanians support a Marriage Protection Amendment. Senate Bill 1250 is a critical first step to protecting marriage in Pennsylvania."
To amend the state constitution, the amendment must pass in two consecutive legislative sessions before being placed before the voters as a statewide referendum. The earliest the amendment could take effect is 2009.
For more information, visit www.PA4Marriage.org
Exodus Mandate, Phyllis Schlafly and a Coalition of Christian and Pro-family Organizations Endorse Call for 'Exodus' From California Schools
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06870.shtml
COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- California Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation mandating that public school children be indoctrinated to accept as normal the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sexual deviancy. In the wake of the failed effort to obtain a referendum to repeal this legislation, a broad coalition of Christian grassroots organizations have endorsed the Campaign for Children and Families' call for California families and churches to rescue their children from California's public schools.
The growing coalition includes Eagle Forum, the Campaign for Children and Families, Exodus Mandate, and ten more sponsors, five of which are based in California. These organizations will be providing information to California parents and pastors concerning the new school legislation, how it mainstream's sexual deviancy among children, and what alternatives to California's public schools are available.
According to Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, "Many of us have worked to reform public schools. Unfortunately, SB 777 and the related legislation represent a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California's schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children. Consequently, in California, parents must try to find alternatives to the public schools."
Chairman for California Exodus is Dr. Ron Gleason, theologian and pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church, Yorba Linda, California and stated clerk of the South Coast Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. In accepting this assignment he said: "As a parent and grandparent, I want those near and dear to me to have quality education. This country excels in every social, economical, scientific, and political category known to man, but gets low grades on the education of its children. We should be leading the world in developing well-educated young people. This role is first and foremost the responsibility of parents."
One California-based sponsor, Denise Kanter, Founder of Considering Homeschooling Ministry said, "We hope our ministry with its free resources and web site will encourage families to provide their children with a safe Biblical home education." Dr. Robert Simonds, President of Citizens for Excellence in Education, also a California organization, added, "Now is the time for the pastors and churches to fulfill their role in rescuing their own children and helping society by providing K- 12 Christian education too."
Randy Thomasson of the California-based Campaign for Children and Families has witnessed the attack on parental rights and sexual indoctrination of children coming over the last several years, "First, the law allowed public schools to voluntarily promote homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality. Then, the law required public schools to accept homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual teachers as role models for impressionable children. Now, the law has been changed to effectively require the positive portrayal of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality to six million children in California government-controlled schools. To rescue their children, loving parents need to find an alternative to government schools, and every church needs to make it a priority to help parents be in charge of their children's education again."
E. Ray Moore, Jr., believes that it is urgent that the coalition make parents and pastors aware of how dangerous the new legislation is going to make public schools and that they must take up their God-given responsibilities with their children. In fact, according to Moore, "The Biblical and theological case for Christian families and churches to practice K-12 Christian schooling or home schooling is strong. Christians should begin with the belief that children belong to the Lord and are a stewardship of the family, not the state."
Bruce Shortt, author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, notes, "Christians have already become numb to the moral relativism that is taught in all public schools today. Now children will be told that their sexual orientation and gender are relative, too. No longer will children raised in these schools understand that God made us male and female with different, but complementary roles. Instead, children will be taught that sexual orientation and gender are merely a matter of personal choice. Thus, children will be told that because there are many sexual orientations and gender identities, they simply have to reach their own conclusions about which sexual orientation and gender 'possibilities' are 'right for them.' Along with this will come the message that you really can't tell whether you like something unless you have tried it. The likely consequences of this for children, the institution of the family, our churches, and our culture are horrendous."
Additional information can be found at, www.californiaexodus.org, www.savecalifornia.com, and www.exodusmandate.org.
List of sponsoring organizations: Phyllis Schlafly with Eagle Forum; Denise Kanter with Considering Homeschooling Ministry; Dr. Robert Simonds with Citizens for Excellence in Education; Star Parker with Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education; Patch Blakey with Association of Classical and Christian Schools; Dave and Kim d'Escoto with Dexios; Dan Smithwick with Nehemiah Institute; Alan Schaeffer with Alliance for Separation of School and State; Linda Harvey with Mission America; Randy Thomasson with Campaign for Children and families; and Dr. Ron Gleason with California Exodus.
TBN's JCTV Signs Inspired Ambition, 12-Episode TV Deal
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06869.shtml
LOS ANGELES -- Saylors Brothers Productions has hooked up with JCTV to air twelve episodes of an innovative new reality TV series. Each episode chronicles the life of up-and-coming contemporary Christian music artist Erica Lane. Inspired Ambition premières on JCTV - TBN's network for young, hip, and hooked-on-high-speed-internet viewers. The show airs 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
"Anyone who dreams of doing something big can live it out with me, the good, the bad, the heartbreaking moments, the whole adventure," says Lane. "The idea of inspiring others through this experience is thrilling, and it gives me even more of a reason to press on...no matter what."
Kenny and Kyle Saylors creation, Inspired Ambition highlights both the failures and victories along the way as Lane pursues her dream of becoming a key player in the Christian music world.
Inspired Ambition is also a platform from which other well-known Christian music artists can share their stories, and their faith, recounting their bumpy road to success in the music business. Everlife, Casting Pearls, Michael Tait of DC Talk, Family Force 5, and John Schlitt of Petra are a few of the artists who will tell their tales of success in the series.
Showcasing her musical development as well as her faith, the third episode of Inspired Ambition documents one of Lane's on-the-road performances at the Lifelight Festival in Sioux Falls, SD. She competed against four other bands for a national record deal...but you'll have to tune in to find out whether or not she was victorious!
Named one of the top five winners of the Artist Ovation Competition, Lane's most comprehensive release to date is Saved Tonight, an uplifting CD of Lane's original songs, as well as traditional Christmas music. The title cut was developed into a music video that became part of JCTV's holiday season music rotation.
For Inspired Ambition local listings, please visit www.jctv.org. For more information on Erica Lane, go to www.ericalane music.com
About Saylors Brothers Productions
For twelve years, Kyle and Kenny Saylors of Saylors Brothers Productions have been producing or directing national music videos, animation pieces, motion pictures, television shows, and documentaries. They recently completed Hollywood on Fire, a documentary chronicling the rise of faith in the entertainment industry. They were nominated for a GMA Dove Award for Israel and New Breed: Live From Another Level (Sony/Integrity/Epic). The Saylors brothers have produced projects worldwide, from the trials of North Korean refugees in Kimjongilia (2008) with producer Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), to an exclusive on the designers of Ferrari. Their projects have been featured on MTV's Most Expensive Music Videos, Time Magazine, and Newsweek
About JCTV
JCTV is a Christian youth network designed for youth 13 to 30. JCTV's mission is to positively influence the lives of viewers by giving them programming that is not only entertaining, but which also ministers to them both individually and corporately. JCTV does this through multiple types of programming - from music videos with positive messages, to issue-driven talk shows, action sports programming that highlight athletes who are making a difference in others lives and concerts.
Launched in 2002, JCTV features a blend of Christian music videos, teen talk and reality shows, extreme sports, comedy, concerts, thought-provoking movies, specials, and a myriad of other programming. JCTV is the only 24-hour faith-based network in the United States especially for young adults. It appeals to a large, niche audience who - in addition to being internet and video savvy - are spiritually minded; they're the millions of youth for whom Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has designed an entire network. JCTV is currently available in over 300 cities in North America, and can also be viewed through live video- streaming on the web at www.jctv.org.
American Bible Society Joins Sponsors for Faith-Based Films Contest
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06868.shtml
The American Bible Society has joined forces with the 168 Hour Film Project to sponsor its annual Speed Filmmaking Contest, an international competition which produces faith-based short films, all made during the same week. Producers have 168 hours (one week) to film and edit an 11-minute movie based on a theme and a Bible verse. "Free the Captives" is this year's theme, and each film will be based on a randomly-selected verse reflecting that theme.
"The American Bible Society is committed to making use of innovative and fruitful methods of sharing the life-changing message of the Bible with the world," said Dr. Lamar Vest, executive vice president, Global Scripture Ministries, American Bible Society. "Our support of the168 Hour Film Project's mission, to illuminate of the Word of God through short film, is one of the myriad of ways that the American Bible Society fulfills its mission."
Other sponsors of this year's 168 Hour Film Project include Sony, Millennia Media, EIKI, Roland Systems Group and Edirol.
Since 2003, 226 films have been made in conjunction with the 168 Hour Film Project from locations such as Siberia, Spain, Taiwan, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan. The 168 Film Festival will include up to 100 premieres, which debut on April 11, 2008 at the United Community Auditorium, and April 12th at the Alex Theatre (both in Glendale, California). Winners in various categories will share $10,000 in cash and prizes, and selected films will air worldwide on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and other networks.
Filmmakers can compete from any location and send their entries via mail carrier. International registration for the film competition should be received by February 14, 2008, and registration from within the United States should be received by February 22, 2008. To register, please visit www.168project.com or call 818-557-8507.
Founded in 1816 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of the American Bible Society is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so that all people may experience its life-changing message. The American Bible Society Web site is www.Bibles.com.
Students Reject 'V-Monologues' on Catholic Campuses
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06866.shtml
HANOVER, Penn -- The V-Monologues play by feminist author Eve Ensler seems to be meeting more opposition on Catholic colleges and universities lately. The production, scheduled to perform on 20 Catholic college campuses in the next few weeks, is sparking renewed protest from groups upset over the play's vulgar content.
According to Tradition Family Property Student Action, a Catholic group with members on 719 college campuses nationwide, the play is objectionable because of its "lewd and graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, lust, and lesbian behavior."
"The play tramples purity, modesty and degrades women. It openly flaunts sins against nature, and thus subverts the order established by God," said TFP Student Action director John Ritchie. "This scandalous play offends every good Catholic and has absolutely no place on Catholic campuses. Students, alumni, and parents should call for the play's immediate cancellation."
The group is encouraging Catholics to sign an online petition featured on its web site at www.tfp.org/sa. When visitors sign the petition, simultaneous letters are instantly e-mailed to every Catholic university president where the play is planned.
Together with the Cardinal Newman Society, TFP Student Action has protested "The V-Monologues" in the past. As a result, several Catholic institutions have canceled showings of the play including the College of Saint Scholastica, Assumption College and Carlow University.
"I can't understand why any Catholic institution of higher learning would stoop so low as to allow this play on campus. It explicitly condones sin, promotes the abortion mentality and fuels sexual anarchy," continued Mr. Ritchie. "This immoral play is the antithesis of Catholic morality. What the world needs today is purity, modesty and respect. So we invite all concerned Catholics to protest, to call the universities and urge them to end the scandal.
Conviction of Abortion Clinic Owner Falls Short; Grand Jury Investigation Called for into Infant Death
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06865.shtml
MIRAMAR, Florida -- Abortion clinic owner Belkis Gonzalez pled guilty on December 20, 2007, to practicing medicine without a license at a Miramar, Florida, abortion clinic. By changing her plea, Gonzalez avoided trial. She was sentenced to 5 years probation and told she can no longer work in the medical field.
However, according to a source that wishes to remain unnamed, that clinic continues to operate under the supervision of Gonzalez's 23-year old daughter, Natali Vergara.
Gonzalez and her associate, Siomara Senises, were involved in the death of a baby born alive in July, 2006, at a Hialeah, Florida, abortion clinic, which is now closed. That death was discovered when an anonymous call was made to the police, who discovered that an infant was born alive during a late-term abortion, placed in a biohazard bag, and tossed onto the roof of the abortion clinic by Gonzalez in order to avoid detection. The mother of the dead baby girl, who was named Shanice Denise Osborne, has since come forward and corroborated the story.
Senises faces trial later this month for practicing medicine without a license at the Miramar clinic.
No charges have yet been filed in the Hialeah case.
Gonzalez-owned mills have a long history of unlicensed workers. Medical student Kieron Nesbit fled to Trinidad rather than face charges of committing abortions without a license. His friend Robelto Osborne, also from Trinidad was convicted of four counts of the same charge. In addition, last year abortion clinic cleaning lady Adrianne Rojas was also convicted of practicing medicine without a license as was receptionist Joselin Collado, a relative of Senises.
"Gonzalez and Senises are abortion predators who need to be held accountable for the death of Baby Shanice. The fact that Gonzalez is on probation for a lesser infraction is no consolation," said Sullenger. "These people have no respect for the law and even less respect for life. There is little doubt they will be back in the abortion business at the first opportunity, if they are not put in jail. Baby Shanice's murder case has dragged on for a year and a half without progress. That is unacceptable. We encourage the public to contact the prosecutor and ask for a grand jury to investigate Gonzalez and Senises for the death of Shanice Denise Osborne."
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.
Colporteurs: Bringing the Bible to Black Americans
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06864.shtml
New York-The term "colporteur" is not familiar to most people. But those who acted as colporteurs for the American Bible Society formed an essential link between the Bible and African Americans. Dating back to 1796, it comes from a French word that came to refer to those who travel to sell or distribute Bibles and religious writings.
The Bible has always played a significant role in the African American religious experience and also has been a primary source for literacy skills for many. The American Bible Society has vigorously worked to share the Word of God with the African American community since its founding in 1816. At the beginning of the 20th century the Bible Society created a new form of Scripture distribution that significantly increased the role of African Americans in providing Scriptures to their communities.
In 1900, Bible Society leaders responded to the new situations created by the Supreme Court's "separate but equal" decision and the uneven Bible distribution in the southern states by launching the "Agency Among the Colored People of the South." The creation of this Agency was a direct response to the racism that African Americans were experiencing. The new Agency's sole purpose was to distribute the Bible among African Americans in the South. In developing the Agency, the Bible Society was making a statement that all people are children of God and no one should be marginalized because of their race.
With the launching of the Agency, the leaders of the Bible Society placed the distribution of God's Word in the hands of African American colporteurs - home missionaries in the South. The door-to-door standard method of distribution was successful in rural areas and when furnishing Scriptures to blacks living in urban areas, colporteurs received significant help from black churches.
The initial group of six colporteurs worked in six states: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina. By 1920, 16 colporteurs were at work in 13 states. Most of the colporteurs were seminary-trained members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their outreach extended to many other traditional African American denominations, including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the former Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christian Methodist Episcopal Church), and the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
Most people received the colporteurs warmly, gathered their families together, and requested them to read selections aloud. A colporteur's arrival was a special event, which helped overcome feelings of separation and isolation for rural families. In the cities, colporteurs found established African American neighborhoods with thriving local institutions. The local African American church usually provided a focal point for introducing and carrying out the work of the Bible Society. Colporteurs also engaged in furnishing the Bible to those huddled on street corners, highways and in rail stations.
Over the years, the Agency expanded and provided spiritual refuge to families, servicemen and youth. Their work eventually led the Bible Society to reconsider its approach to sharing God's Word with African Americans who were, indeed "equal," but still segregated.
So it was in 1959 that the Bible Society visibly identified with intensified protests against segregation and moved to take part in the fight for civil rights by eliminating aspects of its operation that bore any semblance to segregation. This made the valuable, but segregated, work of the colporteurs an anachronism. An internal reorganization ended the Bible Society's special mission among African Americans in the United States.
To this day the American Bible Society has kept its commitment to building strong relationships with America's African American communities in carrying out the mission of sharing the Good News.
Information about colporteurs, in addition to a wealth of information about the African American religious story, can be found in the American Bible Society's African American Jubilee Edition of the Bible. This edition contains nearly 300 pages of articles, papers and art that provide a lens through which to view the African American experience.
Founded in 1816 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of the American Bible Society is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so that all people may experience its life-changing message. The American Bible Society Web site is www.Bibles.com.
Judge: Teaching Erotic Sex and that Homosexuality is Inborn to 8th and 10th Graders is OK
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06863.shtml
ANN ARBOR, MI - Maryland Circuit Court Judge William J. Rowan, III, ruled last week that it is permissible to teach 8th and 10th grade Montgomery County public school students how to use condoms during anal and oral sex, as well as that homosexuality is inborn, even though in 2007 Maryland's highest appellate court ruled there is no scientific basis for such a conclusion.
The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.
That sexual orientation is innate, namely, homosexuals are 'born that way,' is a theory that has been rejected by courts in several states including Maryland. Maryland's highest appellate court issued an opinion in a 2007 civil union case, holding that the proposition that homosexuality is innate is not supported by credible evidence. In fact, not one U.S. court presented with the issue has found homosexuality to be an innate characteristic.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which represents Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the Family Leader Network, and the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays had asked the Judge Rowan to overturn a Maryland Board of Education ruling that approves of public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland to teaching 8th and 10th graders that homosexuals are born that way, and how to use condoms during anal and oral sex.
274 Montgomery area doctors signed a petition objecting to the curriculum which promotes the notion that the use of condoms prevents disease in anal intercourse.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center commented, "Judge Rowan's ruling gives a green light to homosexual groups throughout Maryland to pressure school boards to adopt similar policies. We will be meeting with our clients next week regarding an appeal. "
Montgomery educators defended their new sex curriculum that promotes anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism despite strong opposition from several pro family groups.
Brandon Bolling, the Thomas More Law Center attorney who argued the case, asked Judge Rowan to either declare the curriculum illegal or send it back to the state board of education for another review. "Maryland law says that you have to teach something that is factually accurate," said Bolling. "They are not doing that, therefore it is illegal. "
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit their website at www.thomasmore.org.
Christian councillor hinges mayoral bid on ‘mega-mosque’ opposition
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.councillor.hinges.mayoral.bid.on.megamosque.opposition/16841.htm
One of the leading opponents to plans for a giant mosque to be built next to the site of the 2012 Olympics has launched his campaign for Mayor and the London Assembly. If approved, the so-called mega-mosque will be Europe's largest.
Cllr Alan Craig, who leads the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, says the mosque and the highly controversial Islamic group behind it pose major issues for the future of London, especially after leading Muslim groups came out to endorse pro-mosque Ken Livingstone's mayoral effort.
“Europe's biggest mosque project at West Ham must be challenged for the sake of open diverse London," said Cllr Craig.
Councillor Craig is running as candidate for London Mayor and first candidate for the London Assembly party list for both the Christian Peoples Alliance and the Christian Party. The joint ticket is offering Londoners ‘The Christian Choice’.
Cllr Craig has been vocal in his opposition to the plans of the separatist Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat to build the giant mosque in West Ham. The site is just one mile from the ward area Cllr Craig represents as a Newham councillor.
Speaking at his London Mayoral launch next to the proposed site in West Ham, Cllr Craig said: “Londoners are right to be proud of our diverse and multi-ethnic capital where openness and tolerance are vital for our thriving world-class city.
“This proposed national landmark mosque stands for separateness and secrecy and against social cohesion. It will do London no good.
“Ken Livingstone has tried to shut down democratic debate by smearing legitimate opponents and condemning the campaign against the mosque. Yet the same Ken Livingstone has publicly hugged and welcomed an intolerant gay-stoning, wife-beating fundamentalist like Sheikh al-Qaradawi to City Hall on Londoners’ behalf.
“The Mayor’s equalities mask is slipping and his political faith-bias is showing. The aim of my campaign will be to unite Londoners around a more optimistic and positive approach, rooted in the Christian ethic of love for our neighbour.”
Concern about the mosque will be one part of the The Christian Choice election effort, "Hope for London 2008". The campaign’s five key commitments are to back families and marriage, end the culture of youth violence, provide more affordable homes, reject the Olympics mega mosque, and tackle inequality with more jobs.
In 2000 and 2004, nearly 100,000 people gave a vote to the CPA. If the same number vote for The Christian Choice list this time, Alan Craig will cross the 5 per cent threshold for the London Assembly. Second on the list is Christian Party activist, Paula Warren, a UK-born business woman and single mother of Caribbean parentage.
Director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, Dr Irfan al-Alawi joined the launch to show his support for Cllr Craig's opposition to the mosque.
Manchester faith groups welcome Government U-turn on super-casino
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/manchester.faith.groups.welcome.government.uturn.on.supercasino/16813.htm
Manchester-based charity Church Action on Poverty has expressed its delight at the Government’s decision to scrap plans for a Las Vegas-style super-casino in Manchester.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated the Government U-turn on the super-casino in a letter to the Scottish and Welsh Executives last week.
The group said it was a “victory for common sense” that would be welcomed by many people living in the city.
Niall Cooper, national co-ordinator of Church Action on Poverty, said: "Many Mancunians today will be breathing a huge sigh of relief at the scrapping of the plans for the super-casino.”
He said that Manchester City Council had “massively over-hyped” the economic benefits that could be achieved through the building of the super-casino, as well as the level of public support for the plan to locate the casino in east Manchester – one of the UK’s poorest neighbourhoods.
“Many families across the city are already struggling to make ends meet, and the super-casino would have tipped significant numbers over the edge into crippling and unsustainable debt,” he warned.
“There must be better ways of bringing jobs and regeneration to Manchester than this.”
Faith groups across Manchester had previously expressed strong opposition to the super-casino plan. In March 2007, Church Action on Poverty and Faith Network for Manchester attacked the Casino Advisory Panel’s decision to locate the UK's first super-casino in Manchester as “a threat to worsen the city's already poor record on debt and child poverty”.
Rev Daniel Burton, chair of Faith Network, said at the time: “We are concerned that the people of Manchester are to be used in a huge social experiment to test the effect of a super-casino on a community.
“Locating the super-casino in East Manchester in particular will draw in local people already living in debt and compound their problems.”
According to the BBC, Manchester City Council is considering a legal challenge if the Government confirms its decision to axe the super-casino in their city. It says it was unaware of any U-turn by government ministers.
The decision is expected to be confirmed in a statement to the Commons after the half-term recess.
Plans for 16 smaller regional casinos are believed to still be going ahead.
Most US evangelical leaders still support Iraq war
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/most.us.evangelical.leaders.still.support.iraq.war/16812.htm
Most evangelical leaders still support the war in Iraq and want US troops to “stay until the job is done”, according to a survey released Monday.
Even those who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake based on faulty intelligence believe that it would be wrong to now leave, according to the National Association of Evangelicals' (NAE) February 2008 Evangelical Leaders Survey.
“We should not have gone in,” said one respondent, who was only identified as a denominational CEO by the NAE. “But we are going to need to stay in long enough to prevent chaos and to stabilise the country.”
Other evangelical leaders insisted the war is just, President Bush was right in his decisions, and the US should weather the course.
“Iraq represents that existential threat we have from global Islamic Jihadists,” responded another unidentified leader. “We must defeat it in Iraq, Afghanistan and then act preemptively to destroy it wherever it emerges.”
Still others said they have no opinion about the start of the war, but believe that the US cannot now just leave.
“Most evangelicals in America subscribe to the theological position called ‘Just War Theory,’ that it is morally justified to go to war under certain conditions,” explained Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, in a statement.
“However, there is also a strong evangelical voice in the ‘Peace Church’ tradition that opposes all war.”
A number of vocal Christians have condemned all violence and point to the Bible saying the New Testament shows that Jesus is opposed to war.
In November, the United Methodist Council of Bishops called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and no more deployments of troops to the country.
The bishops said their position was based on the denomination’s view that “war is incompatible with the teachings and examples of Christ”, and Jesus Christ’s call for “his followers to be peacemakers”. President George W Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church.
There have been 3,954 US deaths in Iraq, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, and over 28,773 wounded, according to Global Security.org.
Currently, the US is in the process of withdrawing 22,000 troops, which will be completed in July.
On Monday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Baghdad during his unannounced visit that a pause in the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq after the current reduction “makes sense”, according to CNN.
US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is said to believe that a careful review is necessary before any decision is made about further troop withdrawals. Petraeus is scheduled to come to Washington in April to brief President Bush and Congress about the situation in Iraq.
The Iraq war has had a detrimental effect on the country’s small population of Christians. It is estimated that Christians make up nearly half of all refugees leaving Iraq, although they make up less than three per cent of the country’s population. There are only about 600,000 Iraqi Christians left in the country, down from 1.2 million before the 2003 US-led offensive.
Persistent instability and violence in Iraq has also led to increased attacks on Christians. Last month, 10 churches were bombed within two weeks. Christians are also the target of kidnappings, mostly for ransom money.
Overall, the majority of evangelical leaders support the war, but almost as many expressed serious reservations, according to the NAE survey.
“I am also very concerned that the ardent support by evangelicals for the war in Iraq, and unquestioning support of President Bush has made evangelicals appear as if we are ‘pro-war’. The increasing battle cry among evangelicals to fight radical Islamists is also troubling to me,” said one leader.
Other concerns of evangelical leaders include the damage to the image of America, the miscalculation of Islam, and the war being used a “major recruiting tool for Islamic extremists”.
The Evangelical Leaders Survey is a monthly poll of the 100-strong board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals in the US. They include the CEOs of 60 denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organisations including mission groups, universities, publishers and churches.
Churches destroyed in wave of religious violence in Nigeria
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/churches.destroyed.in.wave.of.religious.violence.in.nigeria/16769.htm
Around 1000 people were displaced, several critically wounded, and every church reportedly destroyed in Shira Yana, Bauchi State, Nigeria on 2 February 2008. This is the latest in a series of recent incidents of religious violence in northern and central Shari’ah states, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The violence erupted after a young woman was accused of blaspheming against the prophet Mohammed. According to local sources, the young woman had spurned the advances of a young Muslim man on the previous day. In a last effort the man appealed to her to speak to him “in the name of the Messenger” to which she responded that she knew no messenger.
On the following morning the youth attacked her house accompanied by a crowd, claiming that she had blasphemed against the prophet Mohammed. When the girl fled to a police station for protection, a pursuing mob proceeded to set fire to the building. Policemen responded by firing live ammunition, killing a young man in his 20s and triggering a rampage in which police and Christians were attacked and their homes and churches destroyed.
Tension is also mounting in Kano State, where around 200 Shari’ah police or Hisbah were reported to have patrolled the streets of the Christian area of Sabon Gari in Kano City during the evening of 1 February. They were armed with an array of crude weaponry, including bows, arrows, sticks and machetes.
Around 70 women are said to have been detained during this operation, allegedly for involvement in prostitution. However, a local journalist saw at least one woman held in chains and being punished. He reported this was a result of her refusal to divulge unspecified information. The operation took place despite a 2007 Supreme Court ruling against the use of Hisbah and a warning by Kano State Police Command that Hisbah activities were unconstitutional.
The move by Kano State authorities to enforce a decision taken in November 2007 to demolish four church buildings in Kano City without discussion or compensation has also added to tension in the area. The demolition was supposedly to make way for the construction of roads and a hospital.
Elsewhere, a Baptist church and a Deeper Life church were set ablaze in the Angwan Pama area of Shendam in predominantly Christian Plateau State on 31 January. A car owned by a local Christian that was parked close to the churches was also destroyed in the blaze. Then on 1 February reports began to filter through indicating that six Christian-owned houses had been razed to the ground in Mavo, in the Wase Local Government Area of southern Plateau State.
Engineer Samuel Salifu, General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Christian Solidarity Worldwide that his organisation commended the speed with which the governor of Bauchi had moved to ensure that the injured would receive treatment, churches would be rebuilt and the victims were compensated. He added that he hoped other governors would adopt a similar response in the event of outbreaks of religious violence.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert, said: “This recent wave of violence in central and northern Nigeria is disturbing, and we can only hope it does not indicate an upsurge in religious violence during 2008. While it is particularly encouraging to hear that the Bauchi State authorities have moved swiftly to assist victims of the recent violence, this has not always been the case elsewhere.
“Thus while commending the Bauchi State authorities, we continue to urge all state governments and the federal authorities to consistently deal with each situation in a timely and sensitive manner and to deliver justice and adequate compensation for all concerned. We particularly call on Kano’s state government to end the use of the Hisbah and disband them, in line with the Supreme Court ruling.”
Christian Leader Detained in China
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06867.shtml
At approximately 5:00 p.m. on January 29, a Chinese Christian leader, Bai Cheng, was detained in Luoyang, Henan province while he was leading a Bible study, according to a January 31 report from China Aid Association.
That same day, Cheng's sister-in-law received a criminal detention notice issued by the Public Service Bureau of Luoyang stating that Cheng had been put in criminal detention at Luoyang City Detention Centre for his suspected participation in "evil cult" activities under Article 61 of China's criminal law. Officials also confiscated two computers and a car from Cheng.
Pray for strength for Bai as he serves his Saviour in prison. Pray he will be released soon. Pray that his passion for Christ will be a light that draws others to Jesus (Matthew 5:14-16).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in China, go to www.persecution.net/country/china.htm. The March edition of The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter features the trials and faith of today's Chinese Church. To subscribe to this free sixteen-page monthly magazine, go to www.persecution.net/newsletter.htm today.
Chinese 'disgusted' over Darfur pressure
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/chinese.disgusted.over.darfur.pressure/16856.htm
Chinese state media accused Western countries on Thursday of abusing the Olympic Games to pressure Beijing, saying boycotts by movie director Steven Spielberg and others "disgusted" the Chinese people.
The Hollywood director said on Tuesday he was quitting as an artistic adviser to the Beijing Games because China was doing too little to help halt bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, where Khartoum-linked militia have battled rebel groups.
Nine Nobel Peace laureates also wrote to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging he change policy towards Sudan, where China has big oil investments. Beijing has often said it is working for peace in Darfur.
While China's Foreign Ministry and the Beijing Olympic organisers have so far not commented on this volley of criticism, the Global Times - a current affairs tabloid run by the Communist Party's People's Daily - hit back.
"Western exploitation of the Olympics to pressure China immediately provoked much disgust among ordinary Chinese people," the paper said.
"The vast majority of Chinese people have expressed bafflement and outrage at the Western pressure. In their view, it's absolutely absurd to place the Darfur issue, so many thousands of miles away, on the head of China."
Even Chinese citizens who complain about losing homes to Olympics Games building opposed Western pressure, the paper said.
Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at the People's University of China in Beijing, told the paper that the renewed criticism over Darfur showed Western powers were exploiting their "media hegemony" to whip up prejudice.
"Whoever uses this humanitarian issue to criticise China and put pressure on China gains something of a halo," Jin told the paper. "The West has seized on China's tremendous emphasis on the Olympic Games to criticise China."
Some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in more than four years of conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur, according to estimates by international experts. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, while not directly referring to Spielberg's decision, called on "relevant parties" to respect the facts about the "positive role played by China on the Darfur issue" and shy away from politicising the Olympics.
"As the Darfur issue is neither an internal issue of China, nor is it caused by China, it is completely unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair for certain organisations and individuals to link the two as one," the embassy said.
A spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games had no immediate reaction to Spielberg's announcement.
Can the U.S. defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack?
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11567936/
China is preparing for an eventual cross-strait showdown with Taiwan and may be prepared to use tactics that could stop the United States from getting involved, according to an analysis of publicly available information on China's military by the RAND Corporation.
According RAND, China's defenses, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), has identified the U.S. military's reliance on information systems as "a significant vulnerability that, if successfully exploited, could paralyze or degrade U.S. forces to such an extent that victory could be achieved" against Taiwan.
The writings RAND analyzed were not official war plans but the opinions, analysis, and recommendations of the Chinese military community.
The Chinese leadership believes that the key to victory over the U.S. is achieving tactical surprise, according to RAND.
The report quotes one Chinese military expert as saying that taking the U.S. by surprise would "cause confusion within and huge psychological pressure on the enemy and help [China] win relatively large victories at relatively small costs."
In such an attack, the Chinese would blockade critical sea lanes in the Taiwan region and strike American logistics facilities, command-and-control centers, ports, airfields, and aircraft carrier battle groups in the area.
China could also launch cyber-attacks against American computer networks, physically destroy orbiting spy satellites, and launch an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike to deaden U.S. electronics systems in the region.
Based on the U.S. experience in Somalia, the Chinese experts cited by RAND think the United States has "a limited capacity to withstand personnel casualties."
America's perspective
The U.S. military apparently is well aware and not surprised by the RAND findings. At the core of China's overall strategy, analysts say, rests the desire to maintain the continuous rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
"A deep-rooted fear of losing political power shapes the leadership's strategic outlook and drives many of its choices," the U.S. Defense Department reported to Congress in its 2007 assessment, "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China."
"The PLA is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity adversaries," the Defense report noted.
China's ability to sustain military power at a distance remains limited, however, and analysis of China's military acquisitions and strategic thinking suggests Beijing is preparing for the possibility of regional conflicts, according to the Defense Department.
"Current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances, and could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia - well beyond Taiwan," the Defense report concluded.
"If we were to park an aircraft carrier in the Taiwan Straits, that would be (interpreted as) an overt act of aggression against them," said a senior Air Force official, who spoke to Cybercast News Service on condition of anonymity. "I think that the greatest fear is that something happens in cyberspace that pushes this into a Hot War."
The unnamed American official predicted that the Chinese might eventually "hit" an economic pillar of American society, prompting a military backlash from the U.S.
Others are less fatalistic but still intent on warning Americans about the nature of the threat China poses for the United States.
John J. Tkacik, senior research fellow in Asian studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that he is not convinced China wants to do anything to provoke the U.S. into "an all-out rearmament campaign to deal with China."
"Their strategy is to influence U.S. public and congressional opinion to calculate that defending Taiwan would be too costly," Tkacik told Cybercast News Service, "and induce the U.S. to pressure Taiwan into capitulating to China without a fight, in much the same way that Britain and France pressured Austria and then Czechoslovakia in 1938 to give in to Germany without a fight."
China, he noted, will likely increase its pressure on Taiwan in direct proportion to the expansion of its military power, but Beijing seems to have learned the lesson of Germany, Japan and now Iraq, "not to push the pressure beyond what its military forces can support."
Moreover, China claims territory all around its periphery - exerting severe pressure on Japan to give up the Senkaku Islands, and on Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines to give up their claims to islands in the South China Sea. It also seeks part of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradeshis.
Tkacik strongly doubts that simply turning Taiwan over to China to avoid hostilities is likely to pacify the Asian tiger.
"Appeasement after threats to war only increases the likelihood that (China) will continue its threats to war as an instrument of diplomacy," he said.
Americans, he concluded, need to be warned of the threat that China poses.
"Unfortunately, China is acting like an enemy already, yet American policymakers refuse to tell the American people this," Tkacik added.
'Earth-Shattering' Events Worry Chertoff
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1342138&nid=251
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff's eyes narrow and his voice develops a stern, urgent tone as he reveals America's biggest vulnerability to terrorism.
"The great weapon they have is persistence and patience, and the one weakness that we have is the tendency to lose patience and become complacent," Chertoff tells WTOP.
"It strikes me as hard to accept that anybody would believe the threat is over. There is nothing these terrorists are doing or saying that could lead a reasonable person to believe that they have somehow lost interest. Our biggest challenge is making sure we do not drop our guard because time passes."
Chertoff recognizes it has been more than six years since al Qaida launched the Sept. 11 attacks, but some experts say that's how long it took to plan them, suggesting the U.S. may close in on another spectacular attempt by Osama bin Laden to topple the U.S. economy.
"If you're asking me what keeps me up at night or what I most worry about -- in the short term, obviously, you worry about homegrown terrorists or somebody coming in with an explosive device or the kind of act of violence or terror that we've actually seen occasionally carried out in this country by people who are simply nuts or like a Timothy McVeigh.
"But in the longer run, in terms of something that would really be earth-shattering, the kinds of things I'm worried about are a nuclear or a dirty bomb attack or a nuclear or biological attack. Now I don't believe that the capability to do that is around the corner."
What worries him, worries U.S. intelligence officials as well.
CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week that al Qaida will continue trying to "acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials (CBRN), and would not hesitate to use them in attacks."
Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said at that same hearing that "al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States."
Europe is at the top of the list of possible launch points for an attack against the U.S.
"One of the things we've become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the United States," Chertoff told the British Broadcasting Company in mid-January.
Chertoff tells WTOP he's convinced by evidence from 2007 that the stakes are high.
"Just look at what's happened in the last year. We had the attacks in Britain. We had the disrupted plot in Germany. We had the arrests in Spain," Chertoff said. "Clearly terrorists and militants are able to operate within Europe."
The special travel relationship between the U.S. and Europe is worrisome for Chertoff.
"We have a visa waiver program with respect to Europe that allows people to come without getting visas. There's an obvious concern that people might seize that as they tried in August 2006 to use Europe as a platform to attack us."
And CBRN attacks, which are most likely from an organized al Qaida threat, would require the largest protective investment.
"I don't believe that the capability to do that is around the corner, but I also think that the preparations that we need to have in place to deal with this threat are going to take a while to build, and we're building them as we speak.
"But they're not going to be done in six weeks or even six months. So what is important is to stay focused on making the investments now that we will be very grateful for in several years if someone does get their hands on nuclear materials or a biological agent."
What is the Department of Homeland Security doing to prepare for the possibility? Chertoff recites a long list, including scanning capability, the ability to disarm, better intelligence focus and better capability to make sure that the radioactive material in this country is properly accounted for and secured.
"With respect to biological agents, we've got widely deployed biological sensors, but we now want to move to the next generation of sensor, which would be quicker, cheaper and even easier to disperse. We're creating an integrated intelligence fusion capability focused on biological threats, so that we can merge intelligence, clinical information and sensor data in order to rapidly identify and characterize a biological attack."
Chertoff is not sleeping any better than he was last year at this time, but he's not sleeping any worse. He feels the pieces are being put in place to counter an attack from al Qaida, and win the war on terror.
But there is one lingering question that has yet to be answered: Will the nation remain focused enough to finish it?
"We're moving properly and efficiently, but it only works if we don't lose interest in it. If we decide that it's no longer a concern, then we're going to be putting ourselves in danger."
Decline of the dollar - "Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0655798320080206
In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.
The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.
"We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get," Chu said.
"Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said.
While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.
Not far from Chu's downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy's Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, "My God, I should take euros in at the store."
Leroy doesn't even bother to exchange them.
"I'm happy if I take in 200 euros, because what I do is keep them," he said. "So when I go back to Paris, I don't have to go through the nightmare of going to an exchange place."
Tourists to be fingerprinted every time they enter Europe
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3366326.ece
Every visitor to the European Union would have to provide fingerprints before being allowed to enter, under plans unveiled yesterday to clamp down on illegal immigration.
The move to record the arrival and departure of non-EU citizens and to store the data in a single European database is part of a wider overhaul of border security. It is aimed at the largest single category of illegal migrants: people who remain once their visa or permit has expired.
Franco Frattini, the EU Justice Commissioner, argued that the existence of the electronic register containing a visitor’s personal details and final destination would make it possible to identify overstayers.
The scheme, which must be approved by all 27 EU governments before it can come into force in 2013 as proposed, has been criticised by civil rights groups. They fear that it could lead to a “fortress Europe” mentality against foreigners and to identity theft if the data were lost or stolen.
EU and the Arab League to seek closer cooperation
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080212/local/eu-willing-to-sustain-initiative
The EU High Representative for the Common Foreign And Security Policy, Javier Solana yesterday expressed his conviction that the Maltese initiative to hold the first ever European Union-Arab League conference will be kept up.
Speaking to The Times on his arrival at the conference venue at the Westin Dragonara in St Julians, Mr Solana said he was pleased to be here for this important meeting.
"After having met with the Arab League on many occasions in different formats, now is the first time we meet at a specific meeting between the Arab League and the 27 EU member states.
"We like the idea very much and now we have to see how we can cooperate in this format."
Asked what he expected to come out of the meeting, Mr Solana said there were no specific issues that had to be dealt with. What was more important was to strengthen cooperation between the EU and the Arab League.
He said he was glad the idea to hold this meeting had come from the smallest EU member state, which had quite a history of relationships in the Mediterranean.
Representatives of 27 EU member states and those of the 22 states which form part of the Arab League will discuss common issues tomorrow as the foreign ministers' meeting gets formally under way.
The League of Arab States, or Arab League, is a voluntary association of countries which aims to strengthen ties among member states, coordinate their policies and direct them towards the common good.
The idea of holding the meeting was first drafted by Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo. Yesterday he said a number of issues will be discussed during the one-day meeting. However, he expected nothing ground-breaking to come out of it.
"The event in itself is ground-breaking since it is the first time this European Union-League of Arab States (EU-LAS) meeting will be held," he said.
Malta was working on drawing up a final communiqué at the end of the session.
"The event was Malta's idea and this shows the standing the island has in convincing the EU and the Arab League to hold this conference here.
"This meeting will give impetus to the EU and the Arab League, both of them existing structures, to seek closer cooperation in the future," Minister Frendo said.
The event is a showcase for Malta, he added. "We are exposing our country to other countries, many of which have not been to Malta in a while. Many have already commented that they were amazed at the improvements it has made.
"This conference is an indirect proposal for investment. We cannot underestimate the ripple effects such a conference will have on the country's economy."
Following the March 8 general election, whoever is elected and chosen as Foreign Minister would have to follow up the conference with bilateral meetings with the countries which attended with a view to attracting investment to the island, he said.
Asked about the issues that will be discussed today, Minister Frendo mentioned, among others, climate change, the Middle East, energy, sustainable economic development and intercultural dialogue. The agenda could also include a discussion on illegal immigration.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said immigration was an important issue to be discussed, especially for Mediterranean countries like Greece and Malta. She believed this meeting was an excellent opportunity to put topical issues such as the Middle East peace process and illegal immigration on the table.
"This is a very important meeting. The Mediterranean is the place for all of us to find solutions.
"I am very grateful to Minister Michael Frendo for this initiative. He has promoted and presented the problems of immigration which affects many Mediterranean countries and not just Malta, Greece and Italy. "We have to find common solutions for such an issue that is everybody's problem at the end of the day," she said on her arrival at the conference yesterday evening.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday met the conference delegations.
Britain's Encounter with Islamic Law
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5462
Beneath the deceptively placid surface of everyday life, the British population is engaged in a momentous encounter with Islam. Three developments of the past week, each of them culminating years' long trends – and not just some odd occurrence – exemplify changes now underway.
First, the UK government has decided that terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam is actually unrelated to Islam, or is even anti-Islamic. This notion took root in 2006 when the Foreign Office, afraid that the term "war on terror" would inflame British Muslims, sought language that upholds "shared values as a means to counter terrorists." By early 2007, the European Union issued a classified handbook that banned jihad, Islamic, and fundamentalist in reference to terrorism, offering instead some "non-offensive" phrases. Last summer, Prime Minister Gordon Brown prohibited his ministers from using the word Muslim in connection with terrorism. In January, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith went further, actually describing terrorism as "anti-Islamic." And last week the Home Office completed the obfuscation by issuing a counter-terrorism phrasebook that instructs civil servants to refer only to violent extremism and criminal murderers, not Islamist extremism and jihadi-fundamentalists.
Second, and again culminating several years of evolution, the British government now recognizes polygamous marriages. It changed the rules in the "Tax Credits (Polygamous Marriages) Regulations 2003": previously, only one wife could inherit assets tax-free from a deceased husband; this legislation permits multiple wives to inherit tax-free, so long as the marriage had been contracted where polygamy is legal, as in Nigeria, Pakistan, or India. In a related matter, the Department for Work and Pensions began issuing extra payments to harems for such benefits as jobseeker allowances, housing subventions, and council tax relief. Last week came news that, after a year-long review, four government departments (Work and Pensions, Treasury, Revenue and Customs, Home Office) concluded that formal recognition of polygamy is "the best possible" option for Her Majesty's Government.
Third, the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, endorsed applying portions of the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) in Great Britain. Adopting its civil elements, he explained, "seems unavoidable" because not all British Muslims relate to the existing legal system and applying the Shari‘a would help with their social cohesion. When Muslims can go to an Islamic civil court, they need not face "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty." Continuing to insist on the "legal monopoly" of British common law rather than permit Shari'a, Williams warned, would bring on "a bit of a danger" for the country.
Prime Minister Brown immediately slammed Williams' suggestion: Shari‘a law, his office declared, "cannot be used as a justification for committing breaches of English law, nor can the principle of Shari‘a law be used in a civilian court. … the Prime Minister believes British law should apply in this country, based on British values." Criticism of Williams came additionally from all sides of the political spectrum – from Sayeeda Warsi, the Tory (Muslim) shadow minister for community cohesion and social action; Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats; and Gerald Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party. Secular and Christian groups opposed Williams. So did Trevor Phillips, head of the equality commission. The Anglican church in Australia denounced his proposal, along with leading members of his own church, including his predecessor, Lord Carey. Melanie Phillips called his argument "quite extraordinarily muddled, absurd and wrong." The Sun newspaper editorialized that "It's easy to dismiss Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as a silly old goat. In fact he's a dangerous threat to our nation." It concluded acerbically that "The Archbishop of Canterbury is in the wrong church."
Although widely denounced (and in danger of losing his job), Williams may be right about the Shari‘a being unavoidable, for it is already getting entrenched in the West. A Dutch justice minister announced that "if two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Shari‘a tomorrow, then the possibility should exist." A German judge referred to the Koran in a routine divorce case. A parallel Somali gar courts system already exists in Britain.
These developments suggest that British appeasement concerning the war on terror, the nature of the family, and the rule of law are part of a larger pattern. Even more than the security threat posed by Islamist violence, these trends are challenging and perhaps will change the very nature of Western life.
Canadians come to realize England's Islamic crisis is ours as well
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=0735260d-f88b-4922-a18f-c639efb5449a&k=9910
The United Kingdom, from common language and shared heritage, offers us our best window into what is happening in Europe. This is especially so when we try to come to grips -- if we have the courage to do so -- with the historically sudden irruption, and rapid spread, of Islam across Europe.
There are parallel developments in all the nations on the Continent: high immigration rates from Islamic countries, comparatively high birth rates among that immigrant population, and the radicalization of their young in Wahabi mosques financed by the oil wealth of Arabia. But for many English-speaking Canadians, it is the British experience that brings the phenomenon home.
The demographic issue is at the centre of much controversy. There can be little dispute over the statistical facts, which are quite dramatic, and as exhilarating from an Islamist point of view, as they are ominous for those who fear the loss of everything associated with western civilization. For, owing to the prior triumph of the leftist "multicultural" ideology, which holds that one "culture" is as good as another, and therefore it is wrong to preserve our own way of life, there is considerable opposition to discussing these facts.
We have seen this in Canada, where journalists Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant have been hauled before "human rights tribunals" -- kangaroo courts in which defendants are stripped of all the traditional protections of court law, and where judgments may be passed against them by people with no legal qualifications on the basis of whim and hearsay.
Mr. Steyn, in particular, stands accused of having openly discussed demographic questions. Mr. Levant stands accused of having published materials the mainstream media had been cowed into suppressing by the fear of Islamist violence.
In both cases, the journalists are being prosecuted by Muslims who advocate the imposition of Shariah law, but are using an apparatus that was designed by the Left for the persecution of those expressing right-wing views.
The British system works differently, and the media in Britain remain more robust than the media in Canada, and willing to report things that would be studiously ignored in a Canadian newsroom. On the other hand, by sheer force of numbers, and the intimidation value of several Islamist atrocities on London's streets, the "fear factor" in Britain is much higher, and the Labour government has proved much more responsive to Islamist demands.
The chief, and most consistent Islamist demand, is for the imposition of Shariah law, at least for Muslims, but ideally by the whole state. In fact, many Shariah courts are already operating informally in Britain, dealing mostly with routine civil questions of marriage, divorce, inheritance, and financial disputes, but sometimes with crime. For instance, a Shariah court in the London district of Woolwich was allowed recently -- apparently with the co-operation of police -- to pass judgment on unnamed Somali youths in a knifing incident. (The assailants were released in return for an apology to their victim.)
In various other ways, Shariah is being recognized, semi-formally. For instance, although bigamy remains nominally a crime in Britain, the Labour government has approved new social provisions by which extra welfare payments, council housing privileges, and tax benefits may be claimed by polygamous households, and the cash benefits to which the extra wives are now entitled may be paid directly into the account of their husband.
At a higher level, the (Anglican) Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, publicly called this week for the recognition of "some form of" Shariah law for Muslims in Britain, and said it should be given equal status with parliamentary law. While Archbishop Williams has a long history of muddled pronouncements, and is widely observed to be emotionally unstable, the strength of his office is now engaged on the Islamist side.
Muslim groups such as the Ramadhan Foundation responded luke-warmly, welcoming the suggestion but criticizing the archbishop for having failed to punish his Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, who is under police protection after recently suggesting that various Muslim districts in Britain had become "no-go areas" for people who are not Muslim. (The Anglican Archbishop of York is also under fire, for making remarks critical of radical Islam.)
The saddest part of this, is that so many "moderate" Muslims emigrated to Britain (as to Canada) expressly to escape from societies in which Shariah law is normative. And what they are learning now, is that, thanks to the triumph of multiculturalism in the West, "you can run but you can't hide."
Every child in school numbered for life
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3359931.ece
All 14-year-old children in England will have their personal details and exam results placed on an electronic database for life under a plan to be announced tomorrow.
Colleges and prospective employers will be able to access students’ records online to check on their qualifications. Under the terms of the scheme all children will keep their individual number throughout their adult lives, The Times has learnt. The database will include details of exclusions and expulsions.
Officials said last night that the introduction of the unique learner number (ULN)was not a step towards a national identity card. But it will be seen as the latest step in the Government’s broader efforts to computerise personal records.
Last night teachers’ leaders, parents’ organisations, opposition MPs and human rights campaigners questioned whether this Big Brother approach was necessary and said that it could compromise the personal security of millions of teenagers.
The new database — which will store a “tamper-proof CV” — will be known as MIAP (managing Information Across Partners). To be registered on the new database every 14-year-old will be issued with a unique learner number. Unlike the current unique pupil number now given to children in school but destroyed when they leave, the ULN will be used by government agencies to track individuals until they retire. Ultimately, it will create a numbered database for every citizen aged 14-plus in the UK.
The MIAP is part of a push for more government departments to share information on ordinary citizens with each other. The new Education and Skills Bill to raise the education leaving age from 16 to 18, for example, contains sweeping powers for local authorities to access information from schools, health agencies and social services to track young people between the ages of 16 and 18.
Margaret Morrisey, of the National Association of Parent Teacher Associations, said that plans for MIAP, which will be compulsory for all 14-year-olds throughout the UK, would fill parents with horror.
“I suspect there will not be more than two parents in the land who would have faith in the Government that this information will be secure,” she said.
A spokeswoman for MIAP, which will come under the auspices of the Learning and Skills Council, said that the database had the support of more than 40 “stakeholder organisations” from across the education sector.
Original plans for MIAP drawn up by the Government in 2003 suggested that the database could be linked to identity cards, raising the prospect that once pupils were in the system they might be forced into accepting an ID card.
The spokeswoman said that this plan had been shelved for the time being. “At the moment there are no plans for the Unique Learner Number to be used by the ID Card system,” she said. She added that the purpose of the system was to support the education, training and careers guidance of the learner, “not security, taxation or access to government services”.
The database would enable students to build a lifelong record of their educational participation and achievements that can be accessed through the internet. The system would be password protected and would have two points of entry. Students could look up their full records and personal details by using one password. They could then give another password to employers to give them access to a restricted view of the information online.
John Dunford, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Given the track record of government IT disasters and the possibility that all these children’s records will end up in Iowa, this is a worry.” While accepting that it would be helpful to keep centralised records of pupil achievement, he questioned the need to put it online.
Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, said: “The government has a terrible track record in managing complex IT programmes. Recent events have shown that sensitive personal data is not safe in ministers’ hands. There must be profound worries not just in terms of civil liberties, but also in terms of the security of young people with a project like this”.
He added that it was a “classic ministerial muddle” to press head with the new database while awaiting the outcome of a security review into a separate planned database, known as ContactPoint, containing personal details of all 11 million children in England, including names, addresses, schools, GPs and, where applicable, social worker. The ContactPoint review was ordered last year after HM Revenue and Customs lost two computer discs containing the banking and personal details of 25 million people. This was followed by the disappearance in Iowa of three million UK learner driver details, and the theft of a laptop containing personal details of 600,000 people who considered a career in the forces.
However, Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, is said to be satisfied with the security arrangements made for the new database, which is expected to go online next September.
Human ID Chips Get Under My Skin
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080211_165324.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology
While it's easy to reject the notion of placing little ID chips inside humans as an ominous Orwellian invasion of individual rights, I suspect it's inevitable that in my lifetime we will all have some kind of computerized implants. My problem is not with the technology, known as chipping, or with the companies that sell it. My concern stems from my lack of trust in institutions and lack of belief that the technology will be forever restricted to beneficial, socially acceptable uses.
Chipping involves implanting a transponder chip below the skin for identification purposes. VeriChip (CHIP), the one company that has gained FDA clearance to perform this procedure, has emerged as the process's leading advocate. The implant procedure itself is simple and mostly painless, accomplished in a doctor's office in a matter of seconds.
Generally speaking, the only data stored on the chip is a 16-digit ID number that cross-references to a record in VeriChip's database. Nevertheless the chip raises a number of troubling concerns:
Health. Before diving into privacy and security concerns, it is worth noting recent reports indicate implanted chips may have caused tumors in small lab animals, and therefore may be equally dangerous for humans. I am not qualified to express an opinion on the subject other than to note the FDA has approved the device as safe. Evidence to the contrary will probably take years to accumulate, and at that point, a debate would be useless to those already afflicted.
Privacy. Advocates of chipping often downplay privacy and security worries by stressing the chips merely contain a number rather than any actual personal information. However, that may be dangerous enough. A centralized numeric database storing information on a significant number of Americans begins to look a lot like a national ID card. But unlike an ID card safely stowed in a wallet, the numbers on these chips can potentially be read wirelessly by someone standing near you with an inexpensive handheld reader. Legislative attempts to establish a national ID, such as the REAL ID Act, have proven to be highly controversial. It would be a shame to have human chipping effectively short-circuit that debate and create a de facto national identification system.
Hacking and Misuse. I trust VeriChip, I guess. At least I have no reason not to trust them. But what about someone hacking into their databases? (Please don't tell me their security is absolutely foolproof—thanks to all the credit-card system breaches, we all know better.) All it would take is a careless employee to accidentally expose everyone's numbers to an ill-intentioned hacker. Since you can't reprogram chips already implanted, would we all need to have them physically swapped out whenever VeriChip's database was compromised? I also suspect it wouldn't be too hard to execute "man-in-the-middle" attacks that snag an individual's chip number for malicious use.
Consent. The leading candidates proposed for the initial rounds of chipping are people who are either unwilling or unable to give informed consent. While there have been a few actual instances of mandatory chipping—the Attorney General of Mexico forced his staff to get implants to gain access to a sensitive document room—most uses remain theoretical. For example, VeriChip has advocated chipping Alzheimer's patients as a way to help families find those sufferers who get lost.
Scott Silverman, VeriChip's chairman, has proposed mandatory chipping of guest workers and immigrants. A hospital in Ontario plans to implant the chips in babies, and the U.S. Army is mulling a requirement for enlisted personnel. The elderly, immigrants, babies, low-ranking soldiers…these are not exactly the most powerful segments of U.S. society.
Compare this to new technologies such as laser eye surgery and non-invasive heart procedures, where the wealthy and powerful typically benefit well before the lower rungs of the social ladder. I am inherently distrustful of technologies that start deployment at the bottom of the power pyramid.
Unintended Consequences. Once implanted, these chips, and the associated network of chip readers deployed to work with them, will be around for a long time. Let's give VeriChip, participating hospitals, and government agencies the benefit of the doubt about being ethical and well-intentioned organizations. But who knows which agencies might be given access to the database down the road as part of new policy initiatives. Congressmen are notorious for passing legislation requiring the government to exploit existing databases for new endeavors, such as targeting deadbeat dads or delinquent student loan holders through the IRS tax refund system.
I can think of countless initiatives that could be launched to make use of a sufficiently large group of chipped people: a universal college student ID system; chip readers in cars that would block drivers with unpaid parking tickets from using their vehicles; tracking people with a history of emotional disturbances; court-ordered chipping tied to domestic restraining orders; government monitoring of people found to have a high-risk profile through computer profiling; outfitting firearms with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader and requiring gun owners to be chipped to fire their weapon (like existing thumbprint locks).
Once a sufficient number of humans have had chips implanted, for whatever the reason, all bets on containing the technology are off. A responsible debate on human chipping would consider the extreme scenario—widespread mandatory implants—and not just focus on the initial "socially acceptable" proposals that target specific populations such as Alzheimer's patients, children, or convicts on work release programs.
Reduced Expectations. Although there is no guarantee of privacy written explicitly into the Constitution, a century of court rulings has carved out some tenuous protections for Americans, most of which are based on the concept of "expectation of privacy." A widely deployed system of human ID chips might very well erode that expectation, weakening everyone's shield against privacy intrusions.
As citizens, we need legal safeguards ensuring that any use of this technology adheres to publicly acceptable guidelines. At a minimum, any chipping must be truly voluntary rather than mandatory. But I am afraid this will be almost impossible to ensure without legislation such as that enacted by Wisconsin last year, barring all mandatory human chipping.
Any potential privacy-busting technology such as this one must be introduced with substantive protections that far exceed ambiguous corporate pledges that boil down to "Trust me." With all due respect, I'm afraid that I don't.
Police Go Live Monitoring D.C. Crime Cameras
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021002726_pf.html
D.C. police are now watching live images from dozens of surveillance cameras posted in high-crime parts of the city, hoping to respond faster to shootings, robberies and other offenses and catch suspects before they get away.
Since August 2006, the city has installed 73 cameras across the city, mostly on utility poles, at a cost of about $4 million. But until recently, officers were using them mainly as an investigative tool -- checking the recordings after crimes were committed in hopes of turning up leads and evidence.
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said she thought the department wasn't making the most of the technology and was missing opportunities to more quickly solve crimes -- or even stop them in progress. "I thought, 'Why the heck aren't we watching them?' " Lanier said.
And so, for about 40 hours a week, a small team of officers in the department's Joint Operations Command Center watches the live feeds from 10 to 15 of the cameras. They choose locations based on the latest crime trends -- focusing, for example, on areas in Southeast Washington beset by gun violence.
The District is following cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, where police have actively monitored live camera scenes for years. London is often credited with having the most extensive network -- 500,000 cameras that make up the "Ring of Steel," dating to the early 1990s. "I'd love to have the whole city wired like London," said Lanier, adding that she didn't anticipate that becoming a reality.
The District's cameras have quite a range, officials said. Officers can rotate angles for different views. They can zoom in on faces of potential suspects and pick up license plate numbers from cars several blocks away. Officers monitor 911 calls while watching the cameras, and they can switch feeds if they learn of a crime being reported at one of the sites under surveillance.
Police have directed one arrest from the command center, a drug deal they spotted at a Northwest Washington gas station a few weeks ago. Officers called in vice units that surprised the suspect.
Lanier said the initiative is a pilot project that began without any fanfare in mid-November. The D.C. Council is expected to learn details of the new use of the cameras in a report due Friday. Members will probably assess the effectiveness of the live monitoring and weigh concerns about balancing public safety and privacy.
The city first turned to cameras nearly a decade ago, creating a downtown network to aid police in monitoring large demonstrations, inaugurations and other big events. At the time, civil liberties groups and some council members raised concerns about privacy rights.
Over the years, residents in many parts of the city pushed to get cameras for crime-fighting purposes, and that led to the program's expansion into neighborhoods in 2006. Police hope to add about 50 cameras in the next two years and make other upgrades, at an estimated cost of $4.5 million. Of the 73 cameras in neighborhoods, police can get live feeds from 54, officials said. Eventually, they plan to have the capability to get live images from all of the cameras.
The cameras are in public places, clearly marked with the D.C. police logo. But Arthur B. Spitzer, legal director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he remains concerned about privacy. Spitzer said police will be observing more average, law-abiding people who are unaware they are being watched.
Spitzer said there is also a danger of officers "zooming in on attractive women or engaging in idle curiosity."
Mel Blizzard, the police official in charge of the camera program, said standards guard against misuse. "This is not intended to be Big Brother watching but to be more responsive to our residents' needs. As long as you put protocols in place, which we have, we can be answerable to the community and the government," he said.
The live monitoring has also raised questions about the best use of limited police resources. Typically, two or three officers are assigned to monitoring.
"To just park someone in front of a bank of monitors is not a good use of resources," said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), head of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. "The issue of the cameras is whether we get the best bang for our buck. The more officers you have on the street, the more visibility you have."
Former D.C. police chief Charles H. Ramsey, who left office in December 2006, echoed that view. He said that under his tenure, he did not want to dedicate personnel to live monitoring, preferring to have officers on the street.
"You can always go back after the fact and look at the tape," said Ramsey, who is commissioner of the police department in Philadelphia, which implemented live monitoring before he arrived.
Lanier said that she took action last fall after officials mapped locations of shootings in the city and realized that the gunfire often was taking place within range of the cameras. The department is also using a technology called ShotSpotter, which detects the sound of gunfire in some parts of the District.
In one case, police looked at recordings of a homicide in August in Southeast. Lanier said she was appalled by the tape, which showed several people passing the victim without stopping to help, including a man smoking a cigarette while staring at the body. Ten minutes went by before anyone called 911. That incident cemented Lanier's decision to be more proactive.
"It literally makes you sick to your stomach to watch somebody executed that way," Lanier said of the images, which captured the slaying of Antwan McKinney, 38, in the middle of the 900 block of Valley Avenue SE. "The guy laid there for so long. No human being should lie there for so long."
There have been no arrests in the case.
Since the cameras were installed, investigators have pulled 130 recordings for possible use as evidence in criminal cases, officials said, although none has been used in trials. Lanier said she hopes that by watching live images, officers will pick up clues for police and prosecutors.
Neighborhood activists said they want police to be watching.
"All of [the cameras] should be monitored," said community activist Sandra Seegars, who lives in Ward 8, which has the city's highest rate of incidents of gun violence. "In my neighborhood, we're not concerned about privacy -- just keeping crime down and catching people who are committing the crimes."
On a recent afternoon in Columbia Heights, several residents said they supported live monitoring. At 14th and Girard streets, where there were multiple shootings and several homicides last year, Kafi Gregory, 27, said she hopes police start watching around the clock.
"As much crime as is going on here, they need it," Gregory said.
But despite the hopes, cameras have limitations.
A block away and slightly around the corner, a pregnant woman was walking at 14th and Fairmont streets when a man approached her, grabbed her purse and pushed her around. The robbery occurred out of camera range -- and the case has not been solved.
‘Vacations with a Purpose’ on the Rise among American Christians
http://wfx.us/news/2008-0207.htm
$6 billion!
That’s one estimate of what 1.6 million American Christians are contributing in labor annually as they travel to remote areas of the world on short-term mission trips. The catch phrase to describe this increasingly popular phenomenon – “vacations with a purpose.”
Gerry and Sylvia Powell, a 60s-something couple from Beattyville, Ky., have spent almost all their vacation time volunteering on trips to help missionaries. To date, they have been on more than 30 volunteer trips with Wycliffe Associates, and they aren’t slowing down.
Wycliffe Associates (www.wycliffeassociates.org) was founded in 1967 to support and encourage Bible translators in tangible, practical ways. The ministry provides opportunities for volunteers to use their gifts and abilities in hands-on projects, meeting the real needs of Bible translators on the mission field.
Instead of heading to a resort or a favorite vacation spot, the Powells have found the experience of working in places that don’t have resorts, hotels and vacation destinations to be more purposeful and satisfying. Their objective is to help missionaries with some sort of a construction project, a calling that has been extremely joyous and rewarding.
They are not alone. A growing number of Americans are using their time off to help others.
Wycliffe Associates is one of those organizations whose investment into short-term missions is growing. Devoting $10 million a year in recruiting, training and sending volunteers overseas to assist missionaries, the “vacation” of choice for 1,500 Wycliffe Associates volunteers is missions.
“Part of our investment in short-term missions is the completion of our new Volunteer Mobilization Center, a 16,000-square-foot facility in Orlando that will be used to mobilize thousands of volunteers heading out on short-term missions,” said Bruce Smith, president and chief executive officer of Wycliffe Associates. “Designed and built primarily by volunteers, the center will service a growing tide of American’s seeking to use their free time more productively.”
50,000 Churches Participating
Roger Peterson, president of STEM International (Short Term Evangelical Missions) (www.stemintl.org), estimates that 50,000 churches in the United States are sending members out on mission trips each year.
Just one example, White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, N.C., had almost 200 members go on 15 foreign and domestic mission trips in 2007, according to Danita Morgan, director of missions. The foreign nations were Haiti, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia and Mexico. Several White Memorial members took the mission trip to Mexico with their teenagers in lieu of the time-honored spring break trip.
Global Crossroad (www.globalcrossroad.com), a for-profit firm based in Baton Rouge, La., arranges volunteer vacations in 34 countries. It is one of more than 3,000 nonprofit and commercial enterprises catering to travelers who are more interested in serving than being served.
“Mission Maker Magazine,” (www.missionmakermagazine.org) with a circulation of 150,000, is another example of just how large this phenomenon is. It is a full-sized, full-color, multi-page magazine whose editorial and advertising serve North Americans interested in Christian missions throughout the world.
Back in 2005, David Bernstein of “Satisfaction Magazine” quoted Doug Cutchins, co-author of the book “Volunteer Vacations: Short-term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others,” as saying “this phenomenon continues to grow.”
Disasters Changed Landscape
“It’s gone on in small ways for a very long time,” Cutchins said. But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks brought on a surge of interest in this small, but growing segment of the travel industry, according to Cutchins.
The 2004 tsunami disaster that wrecked havoc on Thailand and Indonesia sparked even more attention to service-oriented tourism.
No exact figures exist on the increase in volunteer vacations – also referred to as “volunteerism.” But all evidence points to the popularity of the trips skyrocketing, particularly among baby boomers and empty nesters.
The Powells, who have seven grown children, make at least one trip a year for a few weeks up to a month. “These trips are exhausting, and can be emotionally and physically taxing. But the rewards are incredible. We literally have met and worked with hundreds of people, from Peru to Nigeria,” said Gerry Powell.
“My children have learned that when we plan for an ‘educational experience,’ it will be to help build cabinets in Nigeria or a roof in the Ivory Coast,” said Sylvia Powell.
One year the Powells traveled to an exotic South Pacific island paradise to attend a ceremony that celebrated the completion of the New Testament in the Arosi language. Once there, they experienced a celebration that was years in the making; an event that transcended any vacation.
Baby Boomers Lead the Way
Baby boomers and empty nesters have come to the point in their lives where they think less about keeping up with their neighbors and friends by accumulating more material things and have begun pondering more about how to enrich to their lives and the lives of others. “Time” magazine reported that boomers volunteer at a rate of 33 percent, contrasted with 24 percent for those 65 and older. Last year, 65.4 million people did volunteer work, but 75 million volunteers will be needed in 2010, the magazine reported.
Airlines have recognized this and advertise special rates and packages for “religious” travel.
Wycliffe Associates has recognized this as well. As hundreds of thousands of new volunteer missionaries rise from the ranks of retired baby boomers, they will challenge the status quo of missions and how organizations will respond to them. Wycliffe Associates is positioned to usher in a new era of Christian service in missions by involving thousands of boomers in the acceleration of Bible translation worldwide.
Advice for Those Who Want to Participate
Kim Hurst, the founder of World Tracks, a national training organization for short-term mission teams, and Chris Eaton, founder and president of Bridge Builders (www.bridgebuilders.org), an organization that assists colleges, churches, schools and other organizations in developing transformational service experiences, have written a book entitled “Vacations with a Purpose.”
They suggest:
• Before the trip—Read your Bible and “Vacations with a Purpose” to prepare your heart, your suitcase and your expectations.
• During the trip—Record your discoveries, thoughts and feelings.
• After the trip—Use it to debrief, evaluate your experience, and pursue further study on missions.
You can mix fun with a visit to a mission program. .
How?
To “truly encounter the secrets of the land and its people is to serve them. By incorporating a short-term volunteer service or mission component into their vacation itinerary, ‘travelers-in-service’ can transform an ordinary excursion into a deeply meaningful travel adventure,” wrote Dale Painter in “Discipleship Journal.”
“Don't limit your assessment to your professional skills—often a change of pace from employment-related duties is important,” Painter wrote. Manual skills or interests in gardening, building, outdoors or writing may represent valuable resources to service organizations.
“We can use anyone overseas or here domestically. Every skill is needed in the mission field and is especially valuable to Bible translators, who want to spend most of their time actually translating languages into Scripture. Folks should not worry if they have had formal missionary training. They are welcome and invited to come use their skills God has given them,” said Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates.
Dale Painter did raise the question of whether it is it worth it to “waste” money on a trip, when you could be spending the money on missions.
“Most people agree that visiting a developing country changes you for life. You have real images in your mind: kids sharing beds; a home with cardboard walls; wires hanging from the ceiling with one light bulb powered by an extension cord stretched from another building. When you hear someone say that God supplies all our needs, you think a little harder about all that entails. You have more of a sense of partnering with God in bringing Good News to the world,” he said.
The Powells, who have traveled to so many places with Wycliffe Associates, are a model for others wanting to use their talents. For them their vacation time spent going to help Bible translators is much more than leisure or adventure, it’s the opportunity to experience life in a bigger perspective.
Religion playing increasing role in disputes of child custody cases
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/13custody.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
On a January night nine years ago, Laura Snider was saved.
A 27-year-old single mother at the time, Mrs. Snider felt she had ruined her life through a disastrous marriage and divorce. But in her kitchen that night, after reading pamphlets and Bible passages that her boss had pointed her to, she realized she was a sinner, she said, she prayed for forgiveness, and put her trust in Christ.
Four years later, the conservative brand of Christianity Mrs. Snider embraced became the source of a bitter, continuing custody battle over her only child, Libby Mashburn.
Across the country, child-custody disputes in which religion is the flash point are increasing, part of a broader rise in custody conflicts over the last 30 years, lawyers, judges and mediators say.
“There has definitely been an increase in conflict over religious issues,” said Ronald William Nelson, a Kansas family lawyer who is chairman of the custody committee of the American Bar Association’s family law section. “Part of that is there has been an increase of conflicts between parents across the board, and with parents looking for reasons to justify their own actions.” Another factor, he said, is the rise of intermarriage and greater willingness by Americans to convert.
Nobody keeps track of who wins in these religious disputes, but lawyers say that judges are just as likely to rule in favor of the more religiously engaged parent as the other way around. That is because, for constitutional reasons, judges are reluctant to base their rulings primarily on the religious preferences of parents.
Judges do not want to take on custody disputes rooted in religion, said lawyers like Gaetano Ferro, who until recently served as president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Mr. Ferro said, “How will a judge say in any rational fashion that Islam is better than Buddhism, Catholicism better than Judaism, or Methodism better than Pentecostalism?”
As a result, more and more states have tried to keep custody disputes out of court by mandating mediation. But the effect has been piecemeal, and religious disputes have proven to be among the most difficult to resolve, lawyers said.
From the age of 1 month, Mrs. Snider’s daughter had lived with her, and later Mrs. Snider’s new husband, Brian Snider, with occasional visits to her biological father.
But in 2003, when Libby was 6, an Alabama court gave primary custody to her father, William Mashburn, after he and Mrs. Snider’s own family argued that the strict religious upbringing Libby received at her mother’s home, which involved modest dress, teachings about sin and salvation, and limited exposure to popular culture, was damaging her.
“We were easy targets because we were made to look like cultists,” Mrs. Snider, 36, said. “I think whether anyone admits it or not, almost all of the ruling had to do with religion. Nothing I had done was called into question except that.”
Generally, custody disputes are resolved outside the courtroom, lawyers said.
Such cases have increased, however, because a generation ago, mothers almost always got custody and were responsible for nearly all aspects of children’s upbringing. But now, both parents are usually involved in raising children after divorce, and that can lead to dispute. Data regarding custody cases are not uniform, according to the National Center for State Courts, but for 10 states for which it has data from 2002, all show an increase in custody cases coming to trial.
Conflicts sometimes arise when an interfaith marriage dissolves or when one parent converts to a different religion after divorce.
In Oregon, a dispute between James Boldt and his former wife, Lia, was recently decided by the State Supreme Court. Mr. Boldt, the custodial parent, converted to Judaism after the divorce and sought to have their son, now 12, convert, and be circumcised.
The court ruled that custodial parents could generally decide if a child should be circumcised. But given the son’s age, it ordered the lower court to ascertain his wishes. If they conflict with his father’s, the court may have to reconsider the custody arrangement, the court ruled.
Tensions can emerge when one parent takes a turn toward fundamentalism. In 2006, the United States Supreme Court let stand a decision by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that permitted Stanley Shepp to tell his 14-year-old daughter about polygamy.
Mr. Shepp and his former wife, Tracey Roberts, were Mormons living in York, Pa., when they married. But Mr. Shepp espoused polygamy as a tenet of their faith.
Ms. Roberts contends that Mr. Shepp spoke to one of her daughters from a previous marriage about marrying him, which he denies. She left Mr. Shepp and has primary custody of their daughter. He was excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for his polygamist views and is now part of a Mormon fundamentalist movement in Utah.
Mr. Shepp petitioned for better-defined custody rights for his daughter, but Ms. Roberts objected because he had exposed the child to polygamist Mormon communities. The court upheld Mr. Shepp’s right to teach his daughter about polygamy, saying it could not find evidence that such teaching harmed her physical or mental health.
Judges risk violating the separation of church and state if they try to choose the faith a child should be raised in, legal experts said. But in situations like Libby Mashburn’s, judgments about parenting can become entwined with religion.
In upholding the rulings of lower courts to grant primary custody to Mr. Mashburn, the Supreme Court of Alabama said the Sniders’s involvement in missionary work took Libby away from her extended family in Alabama. The Sniders are quietly, unapologetically fundamentalist. They believe that American culture, even conservative denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention, has drifted perilously far from biblical teachings. They attend a large Independent Baptist church in Madison, where the music, the sanctuary and the congregants are unadorned and old-fashioned.
Women wear skirts as a sign of modesty. They do not swim in mixed company. They eschew rock music and nearly all popular culture. They do not drink, smoke or swear.
The Sniders have raised Libby, now 11, in that tradition. But it has put them at odds with Mr. Mashburn and Mrs. Snider’s family. Mr. Mashburn and his lawyer declined to comment .
Mrs. Snider said she understood that Libby might wear pants at her father’s home or go to the movies. But she insisted that Mr. Mashburn not swear or drink in front of Libby or expose her to inappropriate movies and music, which, she said, he has repeatedly done.
The Sniders have repeatedly appealed to win back primary custody. They are awaiting yet another decision from a hearing in November.
At the last hearing, Libby, who spends about 40 percent of her time with the Sniders, testified against Mr. Mashburn.
“I’m more of my mom’s religion, and my dad sometimes talks bad about my mom,” she said. “He called it a cult, and it’s definitely not a cult. It kind of makes me mad sometimes. Maybe he thinks her religion may be bad for me, but I think mainly he doesn’t like my mom and is using that as an excuse.”
Some states like California and Connecticut have taken innovative steps to get parents to resolve custody issues outside court. In Connecticut, for example, those seeking a court order have to meet with a family-relations specialist in an effort to negotiate. If that fails, they attend a daylong session to settle their differences before a panel that includes a lawyer and a mental health professional.
Even after a case goes to court, little may be resolved.
Aaron Petty of Minneapolis and Gineen Gove of Black River Falls, Wis., had their daughter, Basyl, 17 years ago. The couple split up when Basyl was 4. Soon afterward, Ms. Gove married, and she and her husband converted to Old Order Amish.
As Mr. Petty saw his daughter over the years, he became concerned, he said, when Basyl was about 11 and he learned that the Goves would not let her go to school past eighth grade, a common decision among the Amish.
Mr. Petty petitioned for primary custody so that Basyl might continue her education. “This case wasn’t about religion for me,” he said. “It was about her education.”
He won the case when Basyl was 14, but she disappeared. Mr. Petty said he suspected Basyl was living within the Amish community. The Goves declined to talk about the case.
“I wanted to offer my daughter options for her future, in case she grew up and didn’t remain Amish,” Mr. Petty said in a phone interview. “At 12, 13, 14, making lasting drastic decisions based on faith isn’t an appropriate time.”
Mr. Petty’s voice caught as he continued. “Was that case worth fighting? In hindsight, no. I haven’t seen my daughter in two-and-a-half years.”
Christians Stand for Purity on Valentine's Day
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080214/31183_Christians_Stand_for_Purity_on_Valentine%27s_Day.htm
Teens, churches and Christian organizations are sending an alternative message of abstinence and purity on the most romantic day of the year, Valentine’s Day.
Across the country, youths will make a public stand on their commitment to remain sexually pure until they are married on the Day of Purity, an annual event that coincides with Valentine’s Day. This is the fifth annual Day of Purity for youth.
“Students are sending a message to their friends, parents, churches, communities, legislators and the media that it’s time for a positive change in the culture,” said Rena Lindevaldsen, coordinator of the Day of Purity, to LifeNews.com
Hundreds of participants in the national counter-culture campaign will take part in various activities to promote saving sex until marriage. Activities include wearing a “Day of Purity” T-shirt and wristband, handing out flyers about sexual purity, and visiting government officials to encourage them to pass a proclamation or resolution supporting the Day of Purity.
“We live in a culture hostile to traditional values which has produced shocking statistics on the state of our youth,” said a statement on the Day of Purity Web site. “The Day of Purity is a day on which students can make a public demonstration of their commitment to remain sexually pure, in mind and actions.”
Each day, some 8,000 American teens are infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to the Day of Purity Web site. Moreover, two-thirds of the 10 million new cases of STD’s this year will be among the 14-25 years old age group.
Early sexual experience will result in more than 1 million teenage girls becoming pregnant this year. From this group, many will choose to have an abortion. Some 20 percent of the 1.3 to 1.5 million abortions in America each year are performed on teenagers.
In addition to the Day of Purity, the abstinence until marriage program True Love Waits and Holman Bible Outreach – both divisions of LifeWay Christian Resources – will release their True Love Waits New Testament on Valentine’s Day.
“As the Baptist Bible society, we are very excited about partnering with True Love Waits in producing this New Testament, which not only will help young people keep their commitments to remain abstinent until marriage, but also will provide spiritual guidance for a variety of challenges they face each day,” said Phill Burgess, executive director of Holman Bible Outreach, in a statement.
The TLW New Testament will be released as many True Love Waits’ abstinence-until-marriage commitment ceremonies will be held in churches and other places around the world.
LifeWay will donate 100,000 copies of the new TLW New Testament to be distributed throughout Africa in places where the ministry’s staff is in place. Another 30,000 copies will be sold in the United States to churches, youth groups and individuals.
“Having a New Testament available to compliment our abstinence message in Africa, a place that has been ravaged by AIDS, gives us an added dimension,” noted Jimmy Hester, cofounder of True Love Waits. “For some young people in Africa, this may be the only New Testament they ever receive and may be the only opportunity to engage God’s Word.”
True Love Waits is a biblically based initiative that challenges young people to make a commitment to sexual abstinence until marriage. More than 100 organizations and thousands of churches have adopted the use of True Love Waits throughout the world.
The first True Love Waits national celebration took place in July 1994, when more than 210,000 covenant cards were displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Today, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million youth have signed commitment cards pledging sexual purity until their wedding day.
Jamaica to tap into religious tourism Mon Feb 11, 4:21 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080211/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_religious_tourism;_ylt=AiaQudc8F971fBtvh4jYD4.s0NUE
Jamaica plans to tap into the thriving market for religious-oriented tourism to invigorate the island's sagging economy, government officials and business leaders said.
A new convention center, to be built by 2009, will attract some of the millions of travelers who attend religious conferences outside of their home countries, said Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett. The global religious tourism market is an $18 billion-a-year industry with some 300 million travelers, according to the Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association.
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