McCain, candidacy assured, coming to Israel
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2369
Days after securing the nomination to run for president of the United States, US Senator John McCain will be coming to Israel, a country with which every American leader since at least Jimmy Carter has found himself entangled.
According to a report Sunday in the Hebrew-language newspaper Ma'ariv, the purpose of McCain's March 18 visit is to garner support from American Jewry for his White House bid.
The decorated US war veteran, celebrated Vietnam POW and longtime lawmaker plans to meet in Israel with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
McCain, who last week received the endorsement of hi-profile pro-Israel evangelical leader John Hagee, has stood staunchly with Israel in the past, rejecting international condemnation of the Jewish state for engaging Hizb'allah in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
In the same year he denied the authenticity of an article in the leftist Israeli daily Ha'aretz which said he planned to micromanage the Arab-Israeli conflict and that he supported Israel's retreat to the 1967 borders.
In fact, according to The Jewish Press (May 17, 2006), "McCain sounded a pessimistic note on the viability of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, at least in the short term. 'There can be no comprehensive peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians until the Palestinians recognize Israel, forswear forever the use of violence, recognize their previous agreements, and reform their internal institutions,' he said," adding that 'with the election of Hamas, this process has taken a huge step backward, and it’s simply impossible to push today for a comprehensive accord.'"
On July 17 last year, McCain told a Christian audience in Washington, DC, that Israel "is literally surrounded by enemies bent on its destruction...[and] "is probably under more duress and more difficulties than perhaps they have ever been in the history of that country.
"If we [the United States] fail in Israel," he asked, "where will we succeed?"
As positive as his statements sound, Zionists believe the bottom line is really whether McCain will support and continue efforts to implement President George W. Bush's two-state solution, which aims at stealing historic Jewish lands for the creation of an Arab state.
Meanwhile, according to Fox News, the Democratic candidate, Senator Hilary Clinton, who is still fighting it out with Senator Barak Hussein Obama has indicated no willingness to head to the Middle East at this stage.
Rep. King Stands by Prediction That Obama Presidency Would Be Welcomed by Terrorists
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/10/rep-king-stands-by-prediction-that-obama-presidency-would-be-welcomed-but-terrorists
DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa Republican congressman on Monday defended his prediction that terrorists would celebrate if Democrat Barack Obama were elected president, despite a rebuke from aides to John McCain, the GOP’s apparent presidential nominee.”(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them,” Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press. “That’s why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him.”King said his offices have been bombarded with calls — positive and negative — since he said Friday that Al Qaeda “would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror.”
King cited Obama’s pledge to pull U.S. troops from Iraq, his father’s Muslim roots in Kenya and his middle name, Hussein, which King said has a meaning to terrorists.
Asked about the remarks as he campaigned in Mississippi, Obama said, “I think that Mr. King has it backwards. The fact that the continuation of a presence in Iraq as Senator McCain has suggested is exactly what, I think, will fan the flames of anti-American sentiment and make it more difficult for us to create a long-term and sustainable peace in the world.
“But I have to say that Mr. King and individuals like him thrive on offensive or controversial statements as a way to get in the papers, so I don’t take it too seriously. I would hope Senator McCain would want to distance himself from that kind of inflammatory and offensive remarks,” Obama said.
Aides to McCain also disavowed King’s comments.
“John McCain rejects the type of politics that degrades our civics … and obviously that extends to Congressman King’s statement,” spokesman Brian Rogers told The Associated Press.
Last month, McCain also denounced his introduction in Cincinnati by talk-show host Bill Cunningham, who referred to Obama three times as “Barack Hussein Obama.”
Obama supporters have claimed such tactics are being used to imply that he is a Muslim.
The Illinois senator, born in Hawaii to a white Kansas woman and a Kenyan man, is a Christian and has said he has little connection to the Islamic religion, though he acknowledges spending part of his childhood in largely Muslim Indonesia.
Margaret Sanger Would Have Loved Barack Obama
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06954.shtml
Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr., founder of Black Genocide.Org, and president of Learn North East, submits the following and is available for comment:
Revelations of eugenic ideology and the racist practices of Planned Parenthood are unfolding more and more.
The public is just beginning to believe what people of conscience have known long ago. Planned Parenthood has diabolically perpetrated their murderous plot to surgically eliminate those they deem undesirable. In other words, kill the babies of unsuspecting minority women by aborting their children .Then, tell them this is a "good thing" for you and your people. No other ethnic group in the United States has been decimated more by abortion than the Afro-American community. The war being waged upon innocent captives in the womb is led by Planned Parenthood.
The strategy?
Convince the targeted community to accept their eugenic racist plan by selecting one from their ethnicity to promote it. One of Planned Parenthood's earliest known projects was in 1939. It was called the Negro Project. A project designed to control the birth of "human weeds" which was how Margaret Sanger referred to colored people. A project designed to introduce abortion, sterilization and different forms of birth control. This is what a co-eugenic wrote to Margaret Sanger to make sure the "Negro Project" was a success:
Clarance Gamble the Heir of Proctor and Gamble wrote a memorandum in November 1939 entitled "Suggestions for the Negro Project," In the letter he suggested black leaders to be placed in positions where it would appear they were in charge."
This is a letter to Clarance Gamble, from Margaret Sanger, which she wrote,
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
For those of you that don't know Barack Obama became a "minister" of Planned Parenthood a long time ago. He's so good at carrying out their racist murderous agenda against Afro-Americans and society at large that they gave him a 100% score on his voting record. Planned Parenthood is following the strategy of their racist founder Margaret Sanger to the letter. Planed Parenthood is saying 'We have our poster boy' get him out in front as a lure for their women and men. Get them into our abortion clinics and dismember their children by the millions! You say absurd? No Way? Planned Parenthoods Valentine cards were sent out to hundreds of thousands of young people in the nation. Whose face is plainly seen waving to them with a big smile? Whose endorsement is given to this racist and calloused organization? Who is used to lure children and give credibility to its hideous plot? Barack Obama, that's who!
On July17,2007, Barack Obama said this a few months ago before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund,
"Thank You, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, ($) Thanks to all of you at Planned Parenthood for all the work that you are doing for women all across the country and for families all across the country-and for men who have enough sense to realize you are helping them, all across the country. I want to thank Cecile Richards (national president of Planned Parenthood) for her extraordinary leadership. I am happy to see so many good friends here today, including Steve Trombley and Pam Sutherland from my home state of Illinois. We had a number of battles down in Springfield from many years and it's wonderful to see that they are here today."
The first friend mentioned is Cecile Richards who he commends for extraordinary leadership in killing babies who are disproportionately black.
The second is Steve Trombley; he is the president of Planned Parenthood Chicago. You can imagine how many of our young women have been victimized and whose pre-born children were killed under his supervision. His third friend he mentions is Pam Sutherland. She is the State CEO of Planned Parenthood for Illinois. America needs to know how much these folks were and continue today to be into the head and actions of Senator Barack Obama. How much did he compromise his own values?
I choose here to quote Dr. Martin Luther King from his last Sunday sermon before his death, "There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of goodwill to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.
When the challenge came to Barack Obama to call on conscience, he refused. What most Americans would say no to, he chooses to say, YES. He refused to do what the Dream called for, to allow your conscience to tell you what is right and what would be wrong. You may ask why but always remember this observation. Abortion is a lot like slavery. If it was not lucrative it would not have been legal!
Pam Sutherland ... of ... Illinois Planned Parenthood ... told ABC News, "We worked with him specifically on his strategy. The Republicans were in control of the Illinois Senate at the time. They loved to hold votes on 'partial birth' and 'born alive.' They put these bills out all the time ... because they wanted to pigeonhole Democrats. ..."
Let me interpret. We, Planned Parenthood, told him what to say and how to say it so we could continue to kill infants. Babies just a few inches from birth and those completely out of the womb that we missed! Our "colored minister" was well prepared by Planned Parenthood. Partial Birth abortion, which I will not describe here but know that 80% of Americans don't want this barbaric act practiced here in this country, Barack voted to keep it legal. The Born alive victims act is a law to protect a child that was born alive after a botched abortion. A law that would require that the child would receive medical assistance. Barack Obama voted against it. Yes Barack Obama with an "engaging personality" is being used by the leading abortion provider in the United States to promote and execute infanticide of predominately minority babies.
And what are most Afro-Americans saying, "Yes We Can, Yes We Can!" They are ignoring conscience. They are ignoring the Dream!
I have a Dream that one day, my four little children will live in a world where that they won't be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Yes, I believe it would be wonderful to have a Black man as president but it's more important for there to be God's man as president. That his or her character would reflect my values, values that are reflected in the 10 Commandments and our Declaration of Independence.
Most African-Americans are applauding him for the color of his skin. They have failed to look at closely the content of his character.
Martin Luther King , while sitting in a Birmingham jail, without the internet, cell phone, library resources or communication from the outside, penned that famous prophetic letter to answer some local Pastors who questioned his use of public demonstrations. Martin, in a portion of his letter discussed the responsibility of the church to address social issues, he said, "the early church put an end to such evils as infanticide" Martin Luther King wrote from the passion of his spirit. The spirit that was fighting for justice and equality. Martin called infant killing evil. Barack Obama calls it a women's right. Martin Luther King made his observation from a jail cell having been put there for defending the civil rights of those whom had been denied. Barack Obama has made his from caucusing with those who profit from the destruction of babies in the womb. These are men and women whom ignore the silent screams of a lost generation. Can we trust Obama's judgments? I think not.
Another quote form Dr. Martin Luther King that would be so appropriate here is "The Negro cannot win if he chooses to sacrifice the future of his children for immediate comfort and safety." It is now imperative that we all hear the words of this great prophet of God. It is obvious that we must reject the Barack Obamas that have placed us in great danger by their ideologies. A position Martin Luther King warns us we cannot expect to win!
Yes, Margaret Sanger would love Barack Obama. Her proteges certainly do.
Oprah the Most Dangerous Woman in the World says Internet Evangelist, Bill Keller
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06953.shtml
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The world's leading Internet evangelist, Bill Keller, founder of Liveprayer.com, has accused Oprah of selling the equivalent of "spiritual crack," as she pushes her New Age teachings on millions of unsuspecting followers. Keller has been warning the subscribers of his Daily Devotional for years about entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey and how she uses her TV program to promote every New Age philosophy in the world, like the very popular book and DVD last year, "The Secret."
Keller, who called Oprah, on Neil Cavuto's FOX News program last Friday, "the most dangerous woman in the world," and has been quoted in the national media as labeling her a "New Age witch," states that her current commitment to use her vast entertainment resources to promote New Age teachings that do nothing for people but make them feel good for a moment just like smoking crack, will be responsible for leading millions of unsuspecting souls to hell with these false teachings.
Earlier this year, Oprah began teaching a year-long course on her XM Satellite radio channel, "A Course in Miracles." This very popular New Age course sounds Christian but clearly is NOT. A Course in Miracles is allegedly a "new revelation" from "Jesus" to help humanity work through these troubled times. This "Jesus"--who bears no doctrinal resemblance to the Bible's Jesus Christ--began delivering his channeled teachings in 1965 to a Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology by the name of Helen Schucman.
Her latest venture in New Age teachings will be a 10- week seminar over the Internet beginning Monday, March 3rd, when Oprah and best selling New Age author Eckhart Tolle will be teaching his new book, "A New Earth, Awaking Your Life's Purpose." Millions have already signed up for this 10-week web cast that will lead them away from Biblical Truth and faith in Jesus Christ through Tolle's perverted spiritual teachings.
Keller told his 2.4 million Daily Devotional subscribers that, "Oprah is now trying to be the spiritual guru to this nation. Sadly, she is being used as a tool of satan to lead millions of souls to hell with her false teachings."
NRB: Religious Freedom Under Attack
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/336771.aspx
NASHVILLE, Tenn -- The National Religious Broadcasters Association is holding its annual convention this week in Nashville, Tennessee. NRB members are in an uproar over what they call an attack on religious freedom.
On the surface, it is a convention filled with new technologies and new ways to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But underneath the bright lights and demos, a battle is brewing -- a battle between federal government and the Church.
"It's going to be a dangerous threat," radio talk show host Janet Parshall told CBN News. "Just before our convention started down here, Charles Grassley actually put out the word that he's going to use subpoena power. If that happens you're going to have a battle royale."
Parshall participated on a special panel at the NRB convention. Panelists addressed the investigation by Iowa Senator Charles Grassley into several large television ministries. The ministries include those associated with Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Bishop Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, and Randy and Paula White.
"This is not a crusade against ministries," Grassley said. "It has nothing to do with doctrine. It has only to do with the enforcement of the law, and it's no different than the investigation I've been doing on non-profits for the last five years."
Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He believes the government has a right to investigate these tax-exempt ministries to make sure they are using funds for charitable purposes and not lavish lifestyles.
Right now, Grassley's investigation focuses on six television ministries. But those associated with NRB say the implications of that investigation are far-reaching, affecting Christian broadcasters across the spectrum.
"It's going to create an insatiable appetite for investigation," Parshall said. "It's really the Church on trial. It would be a bad day for America and it would be a deadly precedent for ministries straight across the board."
Craig Parshall serves as the NRB senior vice president & general counsel. "We put together a letter, a very firmly worded letter telling Senator Grassley why we disagree, why the approach was wrong, and why we believed he should have used a scalpel in this very delicate constitutional area," he said. "Unfortunately he used an axe."
NRB members say the wielding an axe amounts to violating the First Amendment rights of television ministries.
"I think the only thing they're going to respond to is public protest and just a voice of Christians are being heard in opposition to this witch hunt that's going on," said Ben Bull, chief counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "Because it is a witch hunt and they will not stop with these handful of ministries. This is only the beginning."
Still, the panel believes there's a lesson to be learned in the Senate probe -- make sure your ministry stays above reproach.
"We need to be very careful in our ministries never to give the government the lumber to build our own gallows," Janet Parshall told the audience.
Violence against Christians in Sri Lanka
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06955.shtml
Several Christians were beaten and threatened in Sri Lanka in recent weeks, according to a March 4 report from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka.
On February 17, a mob of approximately 50 people armed with rods attacked members of The King's Revival Church in the district of Mathugama, Kaluthara while they were returning from a Sunday worship service. Four believers were assaulted, including a child. The assailants also threatened the believers who belonged to the Tamil ethnic community that they would be imprisoned if they returned to the church. A week later, on February 24, group of individuals armed with gardening tools gathered on the road near the church building. They threatened the believers with violence and prevented them from attending the scheduled worship service.
On March 2, ten students were beaten by a group of masked men on motorcycles while they were walking from the Lunuwila Railway to their school, the Believers' Church Bible College in Putlam District. Then more attackers arrived in a van and dragged a student inside the vehicle and severely beat him. When one of the students ran to the college for help, he was followed by a motorcyclist who attacked the college security guard and fled.
Pray that as persecu tion increases in Sri Lanka, believers will find strength in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:5). Pray that persecutors throughout Sri Lanka will be challenged by the consistent testimony of Christ's followers and be drawn to Him.
For more information on the persecution of Christians in Sri Lanka, go to www.persecution.net/country/srilanka.htm.
Presbyterian Court Confirms Historic Standards on Sexuality
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06952.shtml
WASHINGTON -- The highest church court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ruled February 11 that it "do[es] not permit departure from the 'fidelity and chastity' requirement" for persons seeking ordination as church officers or ministers. The church constitution stipulates that persons to be ordained must meet the standard of "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."
A 2006 "authoritative interpretation" of the constitution by the General Assembly had introduced ambiguity about church ordination standards. The possibility was raised of local ordaining bodies granting some leeway for homosexual candidates, which led to general uncertainty about the consistent application of standards.
The February 11 decision was clear, however: "No presbytery may grant an exception to any mandatory churchwide behavioral ordination standard" and "violations of behavioral standards are to be addressed through repentance and reconciliation, not by exception or exemption."
Jim Berkley, Director of IRD's Presbyterian Action Committee, commented:
"I commend the church court for making clear and final what ought to have been obvious all along: Our constitution appropriately forbids the ordination of persons unrepentantly remaining in sinful practices. No matter how de rigueur condoning sexual immorality becomes in society, Christians must hold to a higher standard that is unchanging.
"Presbyterians intend to remain faithful to morality made clear in the Bible and made manifest in our church governance. We have debated the issue for three decades and always have arrived at the same answer: We will hold fast to biblical morality.
"We must not play with words and twist meanings to come up with absurdities, such as 'optional standards.' We need to simply observe the obvious meaning and beneficial intent of our church constitution and use it to practice a difficult love and care, as God has instructed us to do."
The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.
Racist Hate Up in U.S.: Report
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Racist_Hate_Up_US/2008/03/11/79431.html
The number of "hate groups" operating in America has jumped 48 percent since 2000 due to those groups' "exploitation" of the immigration debate, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a controversial civil rights organization that has monitored hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan for nearly 30 years.
In the current issue of its quarterly magazine "Intelligence Report," the SPLC said on Monday that 2007 was "another year marked by staggering levels of racist hate in America."
In response, a group calling for immigration reform accused the SPLC of a "reckless" attempt at manipulating both data and terminology "in a last-ditch attempt to stop the immigration debate."
Entitled "The Year in Hate," the article by SPLC staffers David Holthouse and Mark Potok states that the Montgomery, Ala.-based organization's latest annual count of hate groups in America found 888 operating in 2007, up 5 percent from 844 the year before.
"Hate groups continue to successfully exploit the immigration debate to their advantage, even though the immigration issue has largely disappeared from the presidential debate," said Potok, who also serves as the magazine's editor.
"The fact is that they've been aided and abetted by mainstream pundits and politicians who give these haters a platform for their propaganda," he added.
While acknowledging "there were some signs that nativist hatred may be starting to abate" since last June, when the movement helped kill a comprehensive immigration reform bill that had been expected to pass, the authors claim: "You wouldn't know that by listening to the furious rants of many groups."
"America is being destroyed from within by a modern version of Genghis Khan's army," said the Emigration Party of Nevada. The party's leader, Don Pauly, wants to send government "sniper teams" to the border to forcibly sterilize Mexican women after a first child, the authors noted.
"You need to understand that we are at war right here in America" is the way another group, the Nebraska-based United Citizens of America, put it. "We are being invaded by a foreign country, and we are being betrayed from within. Our government, from top to bottom, is being controlled by global elites."
The spread of that and other conspiracy theories, along with racist propaganda, are adding to the growth of several sectors in the "radical right," including neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead gangs or "crews," factions of the Ku Klux Klan and black separatist groups, the SPLC said.
Promoting such theories, coupled with a history of ties to white supremacist groups and ideology, is what caused the SPLC to add what it called "a major anti-immigration group," the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to its list of hate groups last year, the authors wrote.
"FAIR has been taken seriously for years by both the media and Congress, but it shouldn't be," said Potok. "Its officials have repeatedly revealed an anti-Latino and anti-Catholic bias."
No objective criteria
Also on Monday, FAIR issued a news release of its own, calling the SPLC report "misleading" and one of that organization's "most reckless charges to date. It is calculated to be inflammatory, tarnish the reputation of leading immigration reform groups and shut down meaningful public policy debate about immigration reform."
"When examined responsibly, the FBI hate crime data show a dramatically different story than the one the SPLC portrays," the FAIR stated. "To suggest an artificially large increase in the raw number of hate crimes, the SPLC selects 2003 as its base year, one of the lowest years on record for hate crimes against Hispanics."
"If one compares the number of hate crimes between 1995 (the earliest report available on the FBI's Web site) and 2006 (the most recent statistical year available), one would see that the number of hate crimes has increased only 17 percent," FAIR added.
But the SPLC also failed to index the raw hate crime data with the population, the group noted. When one indexes a 17 percent increase in hate crimes against Hispanics with a 67 percent increase in the Hispanic population between 1995 and 2006, the rate of hate crimes against Hispanics has actually dropped by about 40 percent.
Finally, the SPLC provides no clear definition of a "hate group" and offers no objective criteria to identify or classify such groups, FAIR said. "The SPLC appears to think that it can stick this label onto any organization it wishes" without being challenged, FAIR said.
"This is consistent with the SPLC's growing practice of making allegations with no factual basis, no criteria and, sadly, no one challenging their increasing habit of playing fast and loose with the facts," FAIR President Dan Stein said in a statement.
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the SPLC two years ago accused Christian "hate groups" of conducting a "holy war" against homosexuals, though the leaders of several conservative groups said that being included in the report was "a badge of honor" for them.
Saudis' Multi-Million Dollar PR Agenda
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/336186.aspx
If you want to influence habits, experts will tell you to target young people. Current polls show that many Americans have a negative view of Muslims, especially since the 9/11 attacks. Now the Saudi royal family is trying to change that. They are going to visit some of America's top universities to get their message out.
President Bush was all smiles during a traditional "sword dance" with members of the Saudi royal family in January. But the Bush administration has crossed swords with the Saudis in recent years over their support of radical Islam worldwide. The Saudis' image worldwide took a major beating when it was revealed that a majority of the 9/11 hijackers hailed from the royal kingdom.
"Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of suicide bombers and terrorists in the history of humankind," said The Institute for Gulf Affairs' Ali Al-Ahmed.
That is a reputation Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal is trying to erase. Time Magazine calls him "the Arabian Warren Buffet." Forbes estimates his wealth at almost $30 billion.
PR Problem
Prince Alwaleed spends a chunk of that fortune trying to improve the image of Saudi Arabia and Islam in the West. In 2005, he donated $20 million to both Harvard and Georgetown, a pair of America's most prestigious universities. The prince says this will promote peace and help bridge the gap between East and West.
Others aren't so sure.
"What this is saying to all Middle East researchers, instructors and center directors is, if you behave, if you say the right things, if you say the things the Saudis like, then you too could get a windfall like this," said Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum.
Pipes directs the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. He says donations like this help promote a Saudi point of view and shuts down any criticism of Saudi Arabia.
"Saudi donations to American universities should be seen in a much larger picture of Saudi promotion of a Saudi point of view," Pipes explained. "Whether it be Islamic or political, the Saudis have a point of view. And they have been very clever and very generous over the decades to promote that point of view. It's hard to find academics at American universities in the general area of Middle East studies who will say things that are anathema to the Saudis."
Reinventing the Saudi Image
Prince Alwaleed's millions have helped revamp Georgetown's Islamic Studies Center. It has been renamed the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The prince's donation has also paved the way for several new programs and faculty. But what effect will this Saudi money have on the Center's agenda? Will the Saudis face less scrutiny? And what about Islam itself?
John Esposito, the center's director declined CBN News' request for an on-camera interview. However, in an e-mail he wrote, "the Alwaleed endowment has assured the continued and permanent existence of the center, support for our faculty, staff and programs, and the enhancement of the think tank dimension of our work."
Esposito is widely acknowledged as a leading authority on Islam. But not everyone is impressed with his work.
"John Esposito, going back to the 1990s, was writing that Islamism was not a threat and in fact was the path to democracy, a different path to democracy," said Winfield Myers, the director of Campus Watch.
Campus Watch is a group that monitors Middle East studies programs at American universities. Myers says Esposito's position wasn't the only thing that made Georgetown an attractive choice for Prince Alwaleed's money.
"Georgetown is close to where the embassies are located," Myers explained. "It is the center of power in America. It's where all of the lobbyists have to congregate because of the sheer size of the government. So people must go there and try to feed from the troff."
As for Harvard, it wasn't location, but reputation that made the difference.
"He's not going to put it someplace where it's not going to have a real chance to influence the image of the Saudi kingdom in American eyes," Myers said.
Myers says that many Middle East studies programs already have questionable agendas even before they're showered with Saudi dollars.
"You'll find very few studies coming out about terrorism, even in the wake of 9/11," he said. "Logically, you might have concluded or might have assumed that we would see dozens of studies on the causes of terrorism, and the effects of terrorism and how to prevent terrorism. That didn't happen. In fact, what you see is the opposite," he continued. "There were no small number of studies produced that attacked the West, that blamed the West for being attacked itself. And of course, the principal enemies are always America and Israel."
The director of Harvard's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic studies program did not respond to CBN News interview requests. However, we were able to speak with a former state department official who also worked in Georgetown's Arab studies department.
"No university will accept money with strings on it," said the Middle East Institute's David Long. "Period. Academic freedom in our country is a cornerstone of academic discourse, and that will not be breached by any university that I know of. "
According to Long, there's no grand Saudi strategy to influence America's view of Islam.
"Yes, they want to help Islam, just like we have foreign missionaries," Long explained. "But I think there's a lot of fear about abilities that I don't really think they have."
Money and Influence
Georgetown and Harvard aren't the only major U.S. universities to receive Saudi funds. Duke, Howard, Cal-Berkeley, Syracuse and Johns Hopkins have also received substantial donations from the Saudi royal family. The Saudi government spends an estimated $5 billion each year on schools, mosques and Islamic centers around the globe. These institutions often promote the Saudi government's brand of Wahhabi Islam.
Long says the threat posed to the West by Saudi Wahhabism has been exaggerated. "Do they finance this stuff? They finance a lot of Islamic institutions," he said. "Are there people in these institutions that do do this stuff? Yes there are. And it's a problem. But to lump it all together into one great, big lump I think, is overdoing it."
But Pipes says Saudi influence on college campuses is very real -- and affects professors treatment of of concepts like Jihad or Islamic holy war.
"Some would say it's only a defensive war," Pipes said. "Some would say it's not even warfare at all. One of the more amusing comments--explanations--of jihad was it's becoming a better colleague, it's fighting against apartheid, it's working for women's rights," he continued. "Utter nonsense. Utter disinformation. I can't attribute this specifically to the Saudis, but the Saudis have created since the early 70's an atmosphere at American universities that's conducive to this."
Alwaleed could not be reached for comment. Long, who worked as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia, says Saudi donations to American universities are no reason for concern.
"The Saudi Royal family and the Aaudi royal people actually have a great deal of regard for us," Long said.
But one Saudi dissident CBN News spoke to sees a double standard when it comes to cultural exchanges between America and Saudi Arabia--an Islamic state where Christianity is illegal.
Al-Ahmed noted, "They should allow American organizations and American funding of, let's say, the Martin Luther King Center or the Abraham Lincoln Center or a Susan B Anthony Center, or allowing Freedom House or Human Rights Watch or even CBN to have offices in Saudi Arabia."
Hamas Commander Confirms Iran Training
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/336400.aspx
A Hamas commander has confirmed what Israel has long insisted: that Hamas terrorists are training in Iran.
He told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that Hamas has been sending fighters to Iran for training in both field tactics and weapons technology ever since Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005.
The un-named commander says Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is currently training some 150 Hamas members inside Iran.
The training lasts between 45 days and six months. He said that Syria also trains hundreds of Hamas fighters.
Has Israel agreed to stop firing on Hamas, or not?
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2372
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday denied reports that Israel has entered a ceasefire with the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
"There is no agreement and there are no direct or indirect talks," he declared.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak also described as "wrong" anyone who "thinks that this is the end of the story and that there's already a truce."
But Olmert's "peace partner," PLO chief terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, insisted that such a ceasefire has indeed been agreed to. And after initially denying that a ceasefire was in place, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh concurred.
Reports of a rumored ceasefire began circulating after a noticeable lull in "Palestinian" rocket fire on eastern Negev towns and communities and on IDF targeting of Kassam launch sites.
A sifting of numerous reports suggest that Israel has in fact agreed to back off instead of press ahead with its defensive attacks in order to allow the Egyptians to mediate with Hamas.
According to The Jerusalem Post, officials in the Prime Minister's Office said earlier Monday that Olmert had instructed the army to halt air strikes and raids into Gaza in response to a drastic drop in rocket fire from the territory.
"The decision came in an effort to allow Egypt to proceed in mediation talks with each side, the officials said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the talks," according to the Post.
Olmert's government is sensitive to suggestions that it might be going "soft" on Arab terrorists after last Thursday's "Palestinian" massacre of Jewish students in Jerusalem.
The Post reported the reaction of Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz who, it said, told Army Radio that Hamas had won and had successfully created a deterrence against Israel.
"This morning I must sadly say: congratulations to Hamas," he said. "The real meaning of this ceasefire is a Hamas victory. It has only one [possible] interpretation: that we are willing to accept a Palestinian state - at least in Gaza - that is armed contrary to all demilitarization agreements, and reconcile ourselves with the establishment of an Iranian outpost; because Hamas is a proxy of Syria and Iran."
Israel’s friendly foes
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=115
Some of Israel’s enemies are easy to spot. They sport the 3-K’s (Kaffiyeh, Koran and Kalashnikov); cry ‘Allahu Akhbar!’ as they kill Jews and other infidels; think Hitler was a great guy but call Israelis “Nazis” all the while denying the Holocaust ever happened (go figure); vow to make all Israel’s Jews drink from the Mediterranean Sea; decry “the Jewish custom of using human blood to make matzot,” and just generally spew out antisemitism with every breath of exhaled air.
Others, notably journalists - at least the liberal majority of them - hide behind facades of respectability while criminally manipulating their audiences/readership. They laud their objectivity even as they embrace and promote the fraudulent “Palestinian” cause over Israel’s authentic one.
These self-acclaimed “elites” portray Israel as an apartheid state and its people as land-thieves, war criminals and human rights abusers.
Anyone with two cents worth of grey matter can identify the threats posed by these fiends: the former ache and work to destroy Israel through bloodshed; the latter grind it out around the clock to generate global hostility towards the Jewish nation.
Arguably, though, the men and women who signify as great a danger - and perhaps an even greater one - to Israel, are those the Israelis eagerly embrace as their best friends: people like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George W. Bush, Nikolas Sarkozy, Tony Blair, ahem, the Pope, and as time could soon tell, though we can at least HOPE we are wrong, John McCain.
What makes these men a threat to Israel is their very friendliness or, more accurately, their desire to be “fair.”
Thus we had Sarkozy, the smilingly conservative French president, assuring Israeli President Shimon Peres Monday that France will always be Israel’s “true friend” and that he will continue to support Israel “anywhere.”
“The State of Israel’s right to exist securely is not debatable, and I believe that since the Holocaust the world bears the responsibility for this. I will continue to support Israel anywhere, as I did in my previous visits to Arab states,” he said.
According to Ynetnews, Sarkozy gushed all over Peres. And why not? He’s a nice guy - Sarkozy, I mean.
“It is a great honor for me to greet you here as the president of the State of Israel, but it is an even greater honor to greet you as Shimon Peres. I have a lot of respect for you and I view you as a symbol.”
Although he did not explain what exactly it was that Peres - the Oslo Architect - symbolized to him, the French leader didn’t hesitate to describe his excitement at seeing the Israeli flag waving on the Champs-Élysées. And he made sure Peres knew how “he worked uncompromisingly against antisemitic acts and did not hesitate to jail people who had burned Israeli flags or vandalized the Israeli Embassy.”
Surely no-one would call this man an enemy of Israel. Would they?
But notice what Sarkozy said to Peres behind closed doors, according to French presidential spokesman David Martinon, as quoted in The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
“Israel’s security depends on a stop to the colonization [of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)].”
Sarkozy was building on what French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascale Andreani had stated earlier in the day when she reiterated that France “condemns” continued “colonization” that could threaten the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Not that Sarkozy was directly threatening to stop being Israel’s “true friend.” But in his own words, “My conviction is clear: the best guarantee for Israel’s security is the creation of a modern, democratic and viable Palestinian state before the end of 2008.”
And here is the rub.
But instead of spelling it out - if I really need to - let me recount a few anecdotes.
In 1996, the year Israel celebrated 3000 years since King David made the city the capital of his kingdom, United States Vice President Al Gore came to Jerusalem and addressed a large audience of Jews in a Hebrew University sports stadium in honor of that occasion.
I happened to be there, and listened in wonderment as the special guest began his address by reading from the Hebrew Scriptures Ezekiel 37, the well-known passage of the dry bones that were reconstituted into physically whole, breathing beings.
Closing his Bible, Gore gazed out over the thousands of Jewish Israelis who were clinging to his every word, and told them in dramatically-measured tones that they, a regathered people in their reborn Jewish national home, spelled the fulfillment of this prophetic vision.
Jews around me wiped their eyes. Probably so did I. Thinking on Israel’s restoration readily moves me to tears.
But then, in his very next breath, Gore proceeded to explain why, after having finally returned to their beloved ancient homeland, and that out of the very valley of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, the Jews now needed to give away half of that land to be used for the establishment of an Arab state.
Bill Clinton, who visited Israel four times as president, was wildly popular here. On one occasion, in a spurt of spirit, he even vowed that “if Iraq came across the Jordan River [to attack Israel] I would grab a rifle and get in the trench and fight and die.”
Some Israelis actually said they would vote for him if, on completing his second term in the White House, he decided to run for election as prime minister of Israel.
But Bill Clinton used his very popularity with the Israelis, and the trust they put in him, to push forward the Oslo Process and lay the groundwork for what would come next.
What came next was George W. Bush, another true friend of Israel who, in the aftermath of 9/11 drew lines in the sand that should have seen the US stand squarely with Israel on one side against Al-Qaeda and the PLO on the other.
Instead Bush became the first US president to reward the PLO’s decades of terrorism by openly endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state “side-by-side with Israel” - which really means with Israel reduced to half of the land and the other half turned into this 22nd Arab state.
So it has been with former British Prime Minister - now Quartet Special Envoy - Tony Blair.
So it is with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who plans to come to Israel on March 16 at the head of a high level delegation of ministers and on Tuesday received permission to address the Knesset in German - despite appeals from some in Israel that she not do so.
Friend Germany on Monday condemned Israel’s plan to build hundreds of new homes in Jerusalem and Samaria, saying this is “unacceptable [and] posing a potential danger to the peace process.”
German’s foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said Merkel’s government urged Israel to refrain from building new settlements and to evacuate existing ones.
These Jewish communities on biblical Jewish lands, he said, undermine the creation of the Palestinian state foreseen by the international roadmap for Middle East peace. That a German would support the idea of rendering any territory juden-rein (Jew-free) is horrendous.
This is what is happening here: Warmly sincere world leaders seduce Israel with promises of undying friendship and support into relinquishing the cradle of Jewish nationhood; giving it to a people who remain committed - bound by their very religion - to using it as a springboard from which to destroy the sliver of Jewish national home that is left.
Let’s look just once more at Sarkozy’s words and deeds:
First he states clearly and firmly: “The State of Israel’s right to exist securely is not debatable, and I believe that since the Holocaust the world bears the responsibility for this.”
And then he states, just as unequivocally: “My conviction is clear: the best guarantee for Israel’s security is the creation of a modern, democratic and viable Palestinian state before the end of 2008.”
He can perform all the verbal acrobatics he likes, but given the unchanged realities on the ground, Sarkozy is gambling with the very right to exist he insists he believes Israel has.
As Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Sunday told visiting US envoy James Jones: “The creation of a Palestinian state is not the required answer to Israel’s security needs.”
And in the somber words of Shas Party leader Eli Yishai on March 3: “The country is facing an existential threat of a kind not seen in its history.”
That this is so is in no small way thanks to the efforts of Israel’s friendly foes - who smile and hug the Jews while pressuring them to “take risks for peace.”
Wake up and smell the Muslims
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=114
For the family and friends of the eight boys murdered in cold blood in the Jerusalem seminary last Thursday night - the eyes that have been running with tears are still far from drying. The mourners continue to sit shiva, and I imagine for most their thoughts are far from what is going on in the rest of the world. May God comfort them.
For the rest of the Jewish people, and for many in the Christian world, I very much hope the response of Gaza’s Arabs to the heinous and terribly cruel act of mass murder reached them.
It needs to be seen: First, take a look at the faces of the young victims in this newspaper report (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432821&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull).
Then follow this link to video recordings showing how Gaza’s Arabs reacted to the news that these students had so brutally been robbed of their lives (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMxPUzEBWDU).
You will see Muslim Arabs - old and young - who, having heard the news, stand up from where they were bowed prostate before their god and break into instantaneous and rapturous celebration. You will see them waving flags and banners around a large bonfire; handing out candy to passing cars while proudly posing for the cameras; bellowing their excitement; clapping furiously; handing out maps of their longed-for State of Palestine (encompassing all of Israel); and you will see a boy carrying bagpipes to play in one of the many popular youth bands.
To remind the viewer what all the joy, laughter and dancing is all about, the video ends with a 20 second look into the back of one of the ambulances that responded to the yeshiva massacre.
Which brings me to another, related and sickening issue - the permission Israel’s authorities granted the family of the yeshiva murderer to set up in a Jerusalem neighborhood a mourning tent for the terrorist.
Instead of ripping the tent to the ground and expelling from the land all those who so lauded the life of this killer, the Israeli police arrested - and the Israeli press supported the arrest of - a handful of incensed Jews who wished to march to the site and remove the offensive monument.
This is a terrible scandal; a shameful thing. To have allowed it rendered a hollow mockery all the “sincere” condolences and expressions of outrage voiced by individuals in the Israeli government.
You know, this Israeli government, like its predecessors, has nothing or no-one to apologize to, except its own people and allies whose loyalties it frequently betrays.
What will it take, I wonder, for the lawmakers in Jerusalem to finally identify and act accordingly towards Israel’s real enemies: The Muslim Arabs without and within?
Israeli Arab Sheikh - There was never a Temple on the Temple Mount
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2373
The head of the Israeli Arab Islamic Movement, Raed Salah, stated Monday that no Jewish temple has ever stood on the Temple Mount - site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
"The claims of the Jews are big lies and they have no right to any speck of dirt here," he said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Inciting Arabs to riot against Israeli Jews in time-honored fashion, Salah, said the Post, accused Israel of "carrying out extensive digs under under al-Aqsa mosque, and was hiding destructive tunnels under the compound which had already caused damage to the mosque and several houses in the Muslim Quarter."
Like untold numbers of Israel's Muslim Arab citizens, Salah supports the destruction of the Jewish state.
And the Arab who shot eight Jewish students in cold blood last Thursday carried Israeli identity documents.
On Monday, about 500 people protested at Jerusalem's Hebrew University against "the incitement of Arab student groups against the state."
Iranian Students Urge Kidney Donations to Raise Funds for Bounty on Israeli Officials
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336669,00.html
TEHRAN — Iranian students are offering rewards totaling a million dollars for the execution of three top Israeli military officers over the deadly strikes on Gaza, and encouraging fellow Iranians to donate their kidneys to raise the funds, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad spy agency director Meir Dagan and military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin are the targets of the bounty and are blamed for last month's assassination of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh.
The rewards were announced by the Justice Seeking Students Group on Sunday at a ceremony in Tehran entitled "setting the bounty for the revolutionary execution of the designers of state terrorism," ISNA said.
The bounty for Defense Minister Barak is set at $400,000 while those for Dagan and Yadlin are $300,000 each, AFP reports. It is not clear where the funds will come from.
"These sums will be given to any person or their families who could punish these individuals in any part of the world," the organisers of the event announced.
Pictures taken at the ceremony showed a banner bearing pictures of the three Israelis against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, with rifle sights stencilled onto the foreheads of the trio, according to AFP.
"Israel must be wiped off the map," read a quote from Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini printed atop the banner.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked international outrage when he repeated the quote at a conference after taking office in 2005 and has since then repeatedly predicted the imminent disappearance of the Jewish state.
Iranian Stamp Commemorates Slain Hezbollah Commander
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336495,00.html
Iran's postal service issued a stamp Monday in commemoration of a top Hezbollah commander wanted by the U.S. who was killed in a car bombing in Syria last month, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The stamp, which features a smiling picture of Imad Mughniyeh wearing a military uniform, was unveiled at a ceremony attended by the Iranian minister of post and communication, Mohammad Soleimani, and Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, former chief of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards, according to the report.
The image used for the stamp appeared frequently at many ceremonies the Iranian government held for Mughniyeh after his death. Iranian media called the senior Lebanese militant the Che Guevara of the Middle East.
Hezbollah and Iran, its main backer, blamed Mughniyeh's assassination on Israel, which denied any role.
Mughniyeh was one of the world's most feared terror masterminds, accused of killing hundreds of Americans in suicide bombings in Lebanon the 1980s. He was also blamed for taking Westerners hostage and the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.
In the 1990s, he went into hiding, and Western and Israeli intelligence accuse him of planning suicide bombings against the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish cultural center in Argentina that killed over 100 people. Over the past 15 years, he is believed to have moved in secret between Lebanon, Iran and Syria.
Immortalizing barbaric killers
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2371
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and United States President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice all call him Israel's "peace partner."
But PLO/PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has sanctioned the immortalization of the terrorist who Thursday night murdered eight young Jews in a Jerusalem seminary.
According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), Abbas' official daily newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadida has honored Alaa Abu D'heim by prominently placing his picture on its front page above the caption, "The Shahid [Holy Islamic Martyr]."
The newspaper, which goes on to laud the massacre as "a Shahada [martyrdom] achieving" deed, is funded by the PA.
PMW says that, "since a society's honoring of terrorists is one of the greatest terror promotions, and as the budget for the PA newspaper comes from the PA's general budget, the incessant honoring of this and all recent terrorists by Abbas' PA as Holy Islamic Shahids should render the Palestinian Authority ineligible to receive any American money under the terms of US law."
Incomprehensibly for many observers, this open veneration of a murderer of Jews, like the massive Arab celebrations in Gaza at the news of what Abu D'heim had done, appears to not give the Olmert government any real pause in its pursuit of a process whose goal is the granting to these people of a state of their own on the Jews' ancient homeland.
Meanwhile, in a not unrelated issue, Iran Monday issued a new stamp in honor of Imad Mugniyeh - the veteran Lebanese terrorist killed in a mysterious bomb blast in Damascus last month.
Many in the Muslim and Arab world lionized Mugniyeh for killing and terrorizing hundreds of Americans and Israelis.
While no proof has been shown to date of any Israeli involvement in his death, Israel's enemies began blaming the Jewish state immediately after the explosion.
According to an Iranian news agency, the Mugniyeh stamp will send "a cultural message of support from the Iranian people to the Lebanese nation against the crimes of the Zionist regime."
US VP Cheney heading for the Middle East
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2370
United States Vice President Richard Cheney is due to visit the Middle East in the coming days, according to Fox News Monday.
Cheney is scheduled to meet in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and in Ramallah with PLO chief terrorist Mahmoud Abbas.
But while he will visit with these two leaders, Fox News analysts said, the Vice President does not plan to "encroach" on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's "turf" and will not meddle with efforts to carve a "State of Palestine" out of Israel's biblical homeland.
A statement released by Cheney's office said "President Bush has asked the vice president to travel to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey for discussions with these key partners on issues of mutual interest," Cheney's office stated.
The main focus of Cheney's visit is understood to be the Iranian nuclear threat.
Bush Says U.S. Will Assist Poland's Military in Return for Housing Missile Defense System
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336331,00.html
WASHINGTON — President Bush said Monday the United States will help modernize the Polish military as part of an expected agreement on putting a new U.S. missile defense system in the country.
The two countries have been negotiating Polish demands for help in upgrading its military in exchange for allowing the missile defense interceptors. After meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Oval Office, Bush said the United States recognizes the need for Polish forces to be modernized, and "we're responding."
"There is a commitment to a system that respects Poland's sovereignty and that will ensure that the people of Poland will not be subjected to any undue security risks," Bush said. "This is the kind of issue that all kinds of rumors and worries can grow out of and we just want to assure people that it's necessary and at the same time there will be this modernization effort that will take place."
U.S. negotiators, led by acting Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Mull, have tried to seal the deal with Poland by opening a separate negotiating track on the Polish demands. They have sought to leave promises vague.
But Tusk seemed pleased with what he heard from Bush, saying it was significant that the missile defense program and the U.S.-aided modernization of the Polish military would be considered all in "one package."
"What I would call a breakthrough is my internal conviction that the president and the American side today very precisely understand our expectations, and if I can say, Mr. President, accept our point of view on the principle of cooperation," he said through a translator. "As the president said, the technical aspects and the tempo of talks and a couple of other issues will be on the expert level, but our common intention is unambiguous."
Neither leader talked specifics. Bush said "obviously there's a lot of work to do" and that experts are working through the details to make sure that "the people of Poland are comfortable with the idea."
"Before my watch is over, we will have come up with a modernization plan that is concrete and tangible," Bush said.
The United States opened the negotiations last year with the government of previous Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who strongly supported the U.S. proposal. Tusk's government has sought more in return.
Polish officials have said they are looking for help to acquire air defenses against short- to medium-range missiles. Negotiators have asked for Patriot 3 or THAAD missiles and have identified 17 areas of the Polish military that the United States could help modernize. Interceptors for the planned U.S. shield are for protection against long-range missiles.
The Polish government argues the security backing is necessary because Russia has threatened to target Poland with nuclear missiles if it should allow the interceptors.
Russia opposes the U.S. plan to build part of its global missile defense system so close to Russian borders, arguing it would undermine the Russian deterrent. The United States says the system is aimed at countering a threat from Iran or North Korea and would be impotent against Russia's massive arsenal.
Oil Futures Hit Record As Euro Climbs On Weber Remarks
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/energy/article/oil-futures-hit-record-euro-climbs-weber-remarks_514362_11.html
LONDON -- Oil futures hit a record for the fifth straight day, reaching as high as $109.20 a barrel despite the International Energy Agency trimming its forecast for world oil demand. With German Bundesbank President Axel Weber saying a high CPI leaves no leeway for rate cuts at the European Central Bank, the euro climbed to $1.5479, helping carry oil along with it. Oil futures were recently trading up 84 cents to $108.81 a barrel.
No comments:
Post a Comment