McCain Won't Rule Out Pre-Emptive War
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/mccain/2008/04/09/86751.html
WESTPORT, Conn. -- Republican Sen. John McCain refused Wednesday to rule out a pre-emptive war against another country, although he said one would be very unlikely.
The likely Republican presidential nominee was asked Wednesday at a town-hall style meeting if he would reject "the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war," a reference to Bush's decision to invade Iraq without it having attacked the United States.
"I don't think you could make a blanket statement about pre-emptive war, because obviously, it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces," McCain told his audience at Bridgewater Associates Inc., a global investment firm.
"If someone is about to launch a weapon that would devastate America, or have the capability to do so, obviously, you would have to act immediately in defense of this nation's national security interests."
McCain said he would consult more closely and more carefully "not with every member of Congress, but certainly the leaders of Congress."
The Iraq war was in the spotlight this week as Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there, gave Congress a status report on the war. McCain argues for keeping troops in Iraq to capitalize on security gains, despite a recent outbreak of violence. His Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton argue for withdrawing troops.
McCain: 'Hands Off' Mideast Peace
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/354760.aspx
JERUSALEM, Israel - According to a recent survey conducted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Los Angeles branch, Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain would opt for a hands-off policy in the Middle East peace process.
Results of the 10-question survey released Tuesday indicates that Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would follow the Bush administration's close involvement in the process.
"When I am president, I will make a personal commitment to an ongoing effort by the United States to help Israel and the Palestinians achieve the goal of two states living side-by-side in peace and security," Obama stated. "We should be an active partner, lending support, offering ideas and bolstering agreements that the parties reach," he said, sounding much like President Bush.
Clinton's response was nearly the same.
"I believe that US diplomacy is critical to resolving this conflict, and we must engage in regional diplomacy to gain Arab support for a Palestinian leadership that is committed to peace," she said. "The US government's role is to support Israel as it makes the tough choices for peace and that the final status issues should be negotiated by the parties themselves, with the United States playing a facilitating role," Clinton said.
McCain, on the other hand, while espousing a two-state solution, downplayed US involvement in the process.
"Real peace won't be achieved so long as the Hamas government refuses to renounce suicide bombings and other terrorist acts or even acknowledge Israel's right to exist. As recent history unfortunately demonstrates, the Palestinians are not now able to make the compromises necessary for lasting peace," McCain said.
"I would work to further isolate the enemies of Israel, such as Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezollah," he said.
Regarding Iran, both Obama and Clinton advocate dialogue with Iran, though the two have slightly different approaches.
"I believe the Bush administration's policy of refusing to talk to our adversaries has been very damaging to our security," Clinton said. "We should pursue the kind of carrot-and-stick diplomacy with Iran that has been effective with North Korea and Libya," she said.
Poll: McCain Erases Obama Lead
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/McCain_Erases_Obama_Lead/2008/04/10/86996.html
Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama's 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday.
The survey showed the extended Democratic primary campaign creating divisions among supporters of Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and suggests a tight race for the presidency in November no matter which Democrat becomes the nominee.
McCain is benefiting from a bounce since he clinched the GOP nomination a month ago. The four-term Arizona senator has moved up in matchups with each of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama.
An AP-Ipsos poll taken in late February had Obama leading McCain 51-41 percent. The current survey, conducted April 7-9, had them at 45 percent each. McCain leads Obama among men, whites, Southerners, married women and independents.
Clinton led McCain, 48-43 percent, in February. The latest survey showed the New York senator with 48 percent support to McCain's 45 percent. Factoring in the poll's margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, Clinton and McCain are statistically tied.
The last month has been challenging for Obama. The Illinois senator suffered high-profile losses in Texas and Ohio that encouraged Clinton, who pushed on even harder against him. Obama's campaign also suffered a blow with scrutiny of incendiary sermons delivered by his longtime pastor. The candidate responded by delivering perhaps the biggest speech of his campaign to call for racial understanding.
Obama is also facing almost daily critiques from Clinton and McCain, questioning whether the freshman lawmaker has the experience to be a wartime leader.
Despite all the conflict surrounding Obama, the Democratic contest is unchanged from February with Obama at 46 percent and Clinton at 43 percent. But the heated primary is creating divisions among the electorate — many Clinton and Obama supporters say they would rather vote for McCain if their chosen Democrat doesn't win the nomination.
About a quarter of Obama supporters say they'll vote for McCain if Clinton is the Democratic nominee. About a third of Clinton supporters say they would vote for McCain if it's Obama.
Against McCain, Obama lost ground among women — from 57 percent in February to 47 percent in April. Obama dropped 12 points among women under 45, 14 points among suburban women and 15 points among married women.
He also lost nine points or more among voters under 35, high-income households, whites, Catholics, independents, Southerners, people living in the Northeast and those with a high school education or less.
Although the race between Clinton and Obama remained unchanged, there were a few shifts in whom voters are choosing:
• The gender gap has mostly disappeared, with Clinton losing her advantage among women. In February, 51 percent of Democratic women supported Clinton while 38 percent were for Obama. Now they're statistically tied at 44 percent for Clinton, 42 percent for Obama. That is partially offset by a decline in male support for Obama, down 7 points to 50 percent, while Clinton gained 10 points among men. She is now at 42 percent.
• Obama and Clinton are now statistically about even among households earning under $50,000. In late February, Clinton led 54 percent to 37 percent, but now it is just 48 percent to 41 percent.
• Obama now leads Clinton among self-described moderate Democrats, 51 percent to 35 percent. Previously they were 45 percent Clinton, 40 percent Obama.
The poll questioned 1,005 adults nationally. Included were interviews with 489 Democratic voters and people leaning Democratic, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.4 points; and 369 Republicans or GOP-leaning voters, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.1 points.
Lanny Davis: Three Questions for Obama
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Lanny_Davis_obama/2008/04/10/86949.html
Despite Barack Obama’s attempts to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former Bill Clinton special counsel Lanny Davis says three “unanswered questions” remain regarding the controversial Chicago pastor.
In an Op-Ed piece in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Davis writes that the three questions are:
Given Rev. Wright’s extremist views, why did Obama remain a member of his congregation?
Why didn’t Obama speak up earlier?
Why did he give Rev. Wright a position in his presidential campaign even after knowing about his inflammatory comments?
Davis in particular pointed to three excerpts from Rev. Wright’s sermons, in which he accused Israel of “state terrorism,” referred to “the United States of White America,” and declared: “God damn America.”
Davis writes that Obama “said for the first time a few weeks ago that had Rev. Wright not recently resigned as pastor of the church, he would have withdrawn. But that only reraised the same question: Why didn’t he act before the resignation?...
“Furthermore, after knowing about some of these sermons and having serious problems with some of their messages, why did Mr. Obama still decide to appoint Rev. Wright to his official presidential campaign religious advisory committee?”
Davis observes that if many progressive Democrats are troubled by the Rev. Wright issue, “then there must be even more unease among key swing voters.”
If Obama doesn’t show a willingness to answer the questions now, John McCain and the Republican “attack machine” will surely press him on the issue if he wins the Democratic nomination, Davis notes, “but by then it may be too late.”
Day Gardner, Pres. National Black Pro-Life Union Asks: Should America be Punished with a President Who will not Stand for All of Us
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07059.shtml
WASHINGTON -- Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union, Pres. Comments on Recent Obama "Punished with a Baby" remark.
She asks: Should America Be Punished With a President Who Will Not Stand for All Of Us?
Recently, while campaigning in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Barack Obama made this statement:
"When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include -- which should include abstinence education and teaching the children -- teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include -- it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information."
First of all, I will never call a baby a "mistake," we are all put here for a reason. But that aside, aren't we supposed to help our children learn from their "mistakes?"
For every child who gets into trouble from something as simple as being late to class or as serious as a DUI, and worse--there will always be consequences.
Sometimes the consequences may be a school detention or a driving suspension--unfortunately, depending on the "mistake" the consequences may include jail time.
All parents would like to ensure their children avoid difficulties, but the truth is if we teach our children to learn from their experiences then we help to build character.
The consequences or circumstances a young woman may face with an unplanned pregnancy need not include the cruel and vicious killing of her child.
I know many young women who are wonderful mothers. We do not have to kill our children to have fruitful, successful lives. Also, there are thousands and thousands of loving couples who aren't able to conceive children in this country and end up going to China, Africa or other countries to adopt babies.
Mr. Obama obviously doesn't know very much about what an abortion really is--what it does to children-- and what it does to the bodies of women.
If he did, I don't think he would have spoken so casually and callously about snuffing out the lives of his future grandchildren or the traumatic health problems and depression his older yet--still beautiful girls would have to face.
America is filled with people who don the velvet robes of the every man for himself mentality; people who would sell their mothers--or kill their children to get ahead. Many Americans will take the easy road, short cuts--stepping on backs--crushing the bones of others along the way.
Then there are those Americans who stand up when commanded to stand down; Americans who work with sweat, blood, truth and many times tears to attain greatness.
There are Americans who place high value on each and every family member--each and every American whether black, white, yellow, brown or red--young or old, born and unborn. These are people who have earned "character" as their middle name.
"That's what I hope for all of your future generations, Mr. Obama, both born and yet to be born, whether planned or not. That's my America!"
Hope for the Religious Right?
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/355066.aspx
The religious right was a powerful political force in the 1980s and 90s, but in this election year, Christian conservatives failed to unite around one candidate.
Now, many of them are unhappy with John McCain as the Republican nominee.
Is this a sign that the religious right has lost its influence?
CBN News spoke with Dr. Charles Dunn, Dean of the Regent University School of Government on the topic.
In his latest blog, Dunn said he believes the platform has lost its footing and no longer has the solid leaders it needs.
"In the heyday of Ronald Reagan a few leaders stood out, such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson, who could rally the religious right in presidential races," he said. "For various reasons these leaders no longer occupy center stage in presidential politics. In some respects the religious right now has too many chiefs and not enough Indians."
Still, Dunn said there's hope for the religious right.
Heroes and Horoscopes
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,349830,00.html
Washington, D.C. — Five years ago this week, American soldiers and Marines liberated Baghdad from Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards and the foreign "fedayeen" who had flooded into the despot’s capital.
For those of us who were there, it was an unforgettable event. But, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker so cogently noted this week while he and General David Petraeus were testifying before Congress, "the euphoria of that moment evaporated long ago." The assembled lawmakers, perched on their raised daises, barely noted the anniversary, while subjecting the warrior and the diplomat to a 16-hour-long spectacle. For the general and the ambassador, it had to be an excruciating exercise in patience and bladder control.
The "hearings" — two in the Senate and two more in the House — were all carefully choreographed to give maximum exposure to the potentates on the Potomac. The masters of the mainstream media were all gathered. Professional protesters were present. The solons, all carefully prepared by their staffs, made their little speeches and then shamelessly angled for the best "gotcha" question to win the sound-bite sweepstakes and the "honor" of being replayed repeatedly on the news and entertainment channels.
Like so many of these "hearings," it was a bit like Ringling Brothers’ Greatest Show on Earth, without a ringmaster. I know – as they say – I’ve "been there, done that."
Sadly, the attending members of Congress evinced little interest in hearing from a decorated general fighting a bloody military campaign or a skillful U.S. ambassador trying to help a democratically elected government survive against brutal foreign and internal foes. Rather, it seemed as though our elected representatives would have preferred hearing from soothsayers who could read palms and interpret horoscopes. That our Congress has sunken to such a level is a sad testament to the state of our political process.
One of the inquisitors demanded to know, "Is success truly almost at hand? Or is this, you know, a commitment without end?" Not satisfied with General Petraeus’ response that further troop reductions would be "conditions-based," the senator insisted on a "rough estimate." The general’s no-nonsense reply: "It is just flat not responsible to try to put down a stake in the ground and say, ‘This is when it will be.’"
When will it end? When will we be out? When can we take the money we’re spending on the war and divert it to bailing out our constituent borrowers and lenders caught up in the sub-prime mortgage mess? General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker came equipped with facts, maps, charts and progress reports. But for this crowd they should have brought Ouija boards, Tarot cards and a crystal ball.
In the long bloody autumn of 1944, no congressional committee chairman challenged Dwight Eisenhower to set a "reasonable timetable for a change of mission and redeployment of our troops" from Europe. Nor did any member of Congress summon Admiral Chester Nimitz in the aftermath of the battle for Iwo Jima to answer inane questions like: "Can you give us any idea as to how long it will take," to defeat Imperial Japan? Such timorous bleating would have been unthinkable then and it should be today.
At the close of his remarks, General Petraeus noted that, "Nothing means more to those in harm’s way than the knowledge that their country appreciates their sacrifices and those of their families." That sentiment may have been lacking on Capitol Hill, but it was abundantly evident at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
While Congress was berating the general and the ambassador, the commander-in-chief was honoring one of the 4,000 Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq. In an Oval Office ceremony, President Bush presented the Medal of Honor — our nation’s highest award for valor — to the parents of Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, a Navy SEAL. "Mike" — as his fellow SEALs called him — was killed September 29, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq when he threw himself on top of an enemy grenade in order to spare the lives of his fellow SEALs.
His platoon commander, now a lieutenant commander with whom our FOX News Team has been embedded, said of the 25-year-old hero, "He made an instantaneous decision to save our teammates." Though wounded by shrapnel in the explosion, one of those with him that terrible morning said of Mike Monsoor’s unhesitating action: "He never took his eyes off the grenade. His only movement was down toward it. He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs lives."
Mike Monsoor is just the fourth member of our Armed Forces to be awarded the Medal of Honor since war was declared against us on Sept. 11, 2001. Call your grandstanding member of Congress and ask if he or she knows their names.
Minerals: Crumbling Bedrock of U.S. Security
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4927.0.103.0
During the War of Independence, America learned the painful lesson of reliance on foreign nations. The newborn United States had to rely on France and the Netherlands to supply everything from iron and gunpowder to blankets and clothing, and Britain routinely cut America’s supply lines. Seeing this weakness, America’s founders implemented a national strategy promoting industrial and military self-sufficiency in order to establish the nation’s security.
It seems America has forgotten that lesson. One specific example is in mineral production. America’s leaders have allowed the nation’s once formidable mining industry to erode. Many minerals—including some that are strategically important for the military—are no longer produced in the United States at all. Due to lack of investment, radical environmental activism, and low-cost foreign competition, many of America’s former mining giants have turned off the drills, closed the refineries and sent the workers home, or have chosen to develop new production outside the U.S.
A Warning Unheeded
It’s not that America wasn’t warned.
Back in 1985, the secretary of the United States Army testified before Congress that America was more than 50 percent dependent on foreign sources for 23 of 40 critical materials essential to U.S. national security.
The year before, in a U.S. Marine Corps study, Maj. R.A. Hagerman wrote, “Since World War ii, the United States has become increasingly dependent on foreign sources for almost all non-fuel minerals. … The availability of these minerals have an extremely important impact on American industry and, in turn, on U.S. defense capabilities. Without just a few critical minerals, such as cobalt, manganese, chromium and platinum, it would be virtually impossible to produce many defense products such as jet engines, missile components, electronic components, iron, steel, etc.
“This places the U.S. in a vulnerable position with a direct threat to our defense production capability if the supply of strategic minerals is disrupted by foreign powers” (“U.S. Reliance on Africa for Strategic Minerals,” April 6, 1984).
A look at America’s mining production since the mid-to-late 1980s is not just shocking, it is chilling.
Cobalt, for example, is one of the most critical minerals used in America and is considered a strategic metal by the U.S. government, meaning that its availability during a national emergency would seriously affect the economic, industrial and defensive capability of the country. It has many diverse commercial, industrial and military applications including superalloys (used to make parts for jet aircraft engines), magnets, high-speed steels, catalysts for petroleum and chemical industries as well as for paints, varnishes and inks.
Just before America entered World War ii, it made a scramble to begin cobalt mining. Production began in 1940 and continued until 1971, when the mines were closed and cobalt mining ceased to exist in America. The most recent data available from the U.S. Geological Survey (usgs) shows that, as of 2004, the over 8,700 tons the nation consumes is 100 percent imported. Cobalt sells for more than $45,000 a ton.
Manganese is another essential mineral America no longer produces. It is essential to iron and steel production by virtue of its sulfur-fixing, deoxidizing and alloying properties. Manganese is also a key component of certain widely used aluminum alloys and of dry cell batteries and plant fertilizers.
In 1918 America produced over 400,000 tons of manganese, which was over 44 percent of global production. By the end of World War ii, mining had fallen to only 12 percent of global production, covering just 28 percent of America’s daily needs. Since then, manganese production has steadily eroded; the last domestic ingot of manganese was mined in 1990. Today America imports 100 percent of its manganese consumption.
America no longer produces any chromium either, a mineral the usgs calls “one of the nation’s most important strategic and critical materials.” Chromium is used to harden iron, steel and other nonferrous alloys.
The list of minerals that America no longer produces is astounding and growing. America no longer produces indium (as of 1970), arsenic (1985), gallium (1987), bauxite or alumina (1989), tin (1990), thorium (1992), mercury (1993), tungsten (1995), fluorspar (1997), nickel (1999), vanadium (2000), antimony (2001) or rare earth minerals (2002), to name a few.
Then there is a whole host of other minerals, like iron, zinc and titanium, that America produces at greatly reduced volumes.
Allowing such a wide swath of the nation’s mineral production base to dry up and disappear is a critical miscalculation.
You can’t just turn mines on and off at the flick of a switch. “The average person doesn’t stop to think that a process of several years is involved from the point of minerals exploration to on-site development to extraction, smelting and manufacture of the primary products,” former American Mining Congress President J. Allen Overton once noted. “Once lost, it will take years—if ever—to recover it.”
Look Who’s Taking Over the Business
As America has been divesting itself of mineral-producing capacity, other nations have been quick to embrace it. Unfortunately for the U.S., the ability to control global production of strategic minerals is an incredibly powerful political weapon.
China, for example, now completely dominates rare earth minerals—minerals that the U.S. supplied over 20 percent of not long ago.
“The whole family of ‘-ums’ like gallium, rhenium, neodymium and indium, is fascinating. And frightening!” reports the Miner Diaries investment bulletin. “They are an essential ingredient in many technology-related sectors and demand is growing at 10-to-15 percent a year.
“Yet it is completely dominated by just one country—around 95 percent of supply comes from China” (Jan. 30, 2008).
Over the past two years, China has begun restricting exports of these materials. The end result is, U.S. manufacturers who wish to stay in business are being forced to move their research and development and manufacturing facilities to China to gain access to rare earth minerals. An example of this was the sale and relocation of Magnequench, a company formerly based in Indiana that produced 85 percent of the rare earth magnets used in the guidance systems of U.S. military smart bombs. Without rare earths, you don’t have protective coatings, blast protection, guided missiles, lasers, modern transportation, laptop computers, tvs, or even iPods.
In 1992, China basically admitted to the world what it was planning to do. Chinese ruler Deng Xiaoping coined the statement, “There is oil in the Middle East, there is rare earth in China.” Then in 1999, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said, “Improve the development and applications of rare earth, and change China’s resource advantage into economic superiority.”
Meanwhile, America has closed its only rare earth mine (one owned by Unocal, which the Chinese state-owned company cnooc tried to purchase in 2005), has boarded up the Rare Earth Information Center, and has not only ceased stockpiling rare earth minerals but has also largely sold off national stockpiles.
If any doubt exists as to China’s intentions, on February 4 Chinese state-owned companies announced four deals in the resources sector. The deals came only two days after Chinalco, China’s aluminum company, grabbed a 12 percent stake in Rio Tinto to prevent the Australian mining giant bhp Billiton from gaining control over the $132 billion diversified mining giant.
The Times called China’s action “the first shots in a new economic war.”
And much of the rest of the world, including the European Union, is scrambling to tie up control of strategic minerals in Africa and South America. America is being shut out, and at a time when much of its domestic resources production is hitting rock bottom.
Besieged
If Americans truly understood the implications of being resource-dependent on unfriendly foreign nations, especially at a time of intensifying anti-Americanism, global instability and resource competition, they would be acting quickly. Sadly, this is not the case.
Abraham Lincoln may have stated it best when he said: “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the Earth, as regards fertility of soil, extent of territory, and salubrity of climate. … We, when mounting the stage of existence, find ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them.”
Later Lincoln said: “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. … We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”
America is rapidly losing those blessings. The mineral bedrock of our industry, economy and military is crumbling before our eyes.
Regional Nuclear War Would Affect Entire Globe
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080407-nuclear-ozonehole.html
Devastation of a regional nuclear war would be far from confined to the countries that started it. Plants and animals, including humans, would be endangered by a global ozone hole that would result and persist for years after all the bombs were exhausted, a new study suggests.
The layer of ozone high up in the Earth's atmosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun before it hits the Earth's surface. Without it, almost all lifeforms would be bombarded by this energetic radiation, and though more research needs to be done into the specific effects of a significant ozone depletion, increased UV radiation can damage DNA and has been linked to the most common forms of skin cancer, as well as melanoma (the most lethal skin cancer) and cataracts.
"It would have a big increase in human ailments such as cataracts and cancer," said study leader Michael Mills of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Since 1990, the chances of developing melanoma have more than doubled according to a 2003 Environmental Protection Agency document. This increase is believed to be a result of increased exposure to UV radiation from ozone depletion caused by man-made chemicals that destroy ozone, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
What exactly the UV bombardment will mean in terms of species extinction is uncertain, Mill said. But he added, "it would affect the food chain."
Researchers used a computer model to see how a regional nuclear war (in this case between Pakistan and India) involving 50 nuclear devices the size of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima would affect global ozone levels. The effect was far more massive than previous studies done in the 1980s had suggested, even though these studies had imagined a full-scale nuclear war, the authors said.
The findings are detailed in the April 7 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
About 40 countries in the world possess enough plutonium, uranium or a combination of both to construct substantial nuclear arsenals. A nuclear exchange like the one examined in this study would be only a fraction of a percent of the total explosive power of the world's nuclear arsenal, Mills said. Of the eight nations that have known nuclear arsenals, even those with the smallest, such as Pakistan and India, are believed to have 50 or more Hiroshima-sized weapons.
"The world has become a far more dangerous place when the actions of two countries on the other side of the world could have such a drastic impact on the planet," study co-author Brian Toon, also of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Smoky soot plumes
Previous studies, including a 1985 National Research Council Report, had examined the effects of nuclear war on ozone loss by considering the chemicals the bombs would spew into the atmosphere. But they failed to consider the massive smoke plumes that would rise into the air as the bombed-out cities burned.
The new study considers both, painting a picture of citywide firestorms and ozone destruction.
"It has as much to do with the bombs as it does with the fuels in modern megacities," Mills said. "Pretty much everything will burn in a city."
A previous study conducted by Toon showed that as buildings, cars and other infrastructure burned, the air above would fill with soot. Some of this soot would fall out of the atmosphere in so-called black rains, but the rest would make its way up into the atmosphere within a matter of days, Mills said.
The heat from these firestorms (like those that destroyed Dresden, Germany, in World War II) would push the soot-filled air into the upper troposphere, the bottom-most layer of the Earth's atmosphere.
The blackened air would then be warmed by incoming sunlight and would rise further, into the stratosphere, which sits atop the troposphere and is the layer of the atmosphere where the ozone that protects us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays is found. The soot could eventually rise 50 miles (80 kilometers) up in the atmosphere, the study found.
The new study found that up in the stratosphere, the soot would continue to absorb incoming sunlight and heat the surrounding air. This heat would jump-start the chemical reactions that destroy ozone.
"So the temperatures go way up and this changes the rates of a number of catalytic cycles that destroy ozone," Mills told LiveScience. As these cycles speed up, they wipe out the ozone molecules much faster than they would at normal temperatures.
The heating of the stratosphere would also alter its circulation, prolonging the time that it normally takes for the air in that layer to turn over, prolonging the soot's effect on ozone destruction.
Global ozone hole
Above the mid-latitudes, where the United States and most of Europe lie, ozone levels would drop by 25 to 40 percent. At higher northern latitudes, ozone losses would reach 50 to 70 percent, the model results show.
"The models show this magnitude of ozone loss would persist for five years, and we would see substantial losses continuing for at least another five years," Mills said.
The 1985 NRC report found only a 17 percent depletion of stratospheric ozone over the Northern Hemisphere, which would recover by half in just three years.
"The big surprise is that this study demonstrates that a small-scale, regional nuclear conflict is capable of triggering ozone losses even larger than losses that were predicted following a full-scale nuclear war," Toon said.
These losses would drop ozone levels below the amount that typically marks the seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica - only this ozone hole would extend from about 20 degrees north and south of the equator, creating a near-global ozone hole.
The loss of this protective "sunscreen" layer could have a terrible impact on the plants and animals living below that would then be susceptible to UV radiation.
Damage to plants and animals at mid-latitudes would likely rise sharply, according to the study, which was funded by the University of Colorado at Boulder. UV rays could also damage the bacteria at the roots of some crops, which the plants depend on for some food.
Previous studies have shown residents of aquatic ecosystems, especially amphibians, are particularly susceptible to UV rays because they can do little to avoid it. Many plankton in the ocean could also be wiped out, endangering the many marine organisms that depend on them for food.
"They can't slap on sunscreen," Mills said.
The Blackmail Effect - Al-Qaida nuclear attack in planning stages?
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080046002&ch=4/5/2008%205:50:00%20PM
Al-Qaida's nuclear attack against the US is in planning stages, top American intelligence officials have said.
Deposing before a Congressional Committee on Homeland Security early this week, these US intelligence officials told US lawmakers that the threat of nuclear attack by Al-Qaida was growing and there is need to enhance its security measures.
Charles Allen, Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer at the Department of Homeland Security; and Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the director of Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence for the Department of Energy testified before this key Congressional committee on nuclear terrorism on April 2.
''There's been a long-term effort by Al-Qaida, to develop an improvised nuclear device,'' Allen said. ''I have no doubt that Al-Qaida would like to obtain nuclear capability. I think the evidence in their statements that they've made over many years publicly indicate this,'' he argued in his testimony.
Giving details of the Al-Qaida preparation, based on years on intelligence inputs, Mowatt-Larssen said: ''An Al-Qaida nuclear attack would be in the planning stages at the same time as several other plots, and only Al-Qaida's most senior leadership will know which plot will be approved.''
In keeping with Al-Qaida's normal management structures such as the role of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in the 9/11 attacks, Mowatt-Larssen said there is probably a single individual in charge, overseeing the effort to obtain materials and expertise.
The intelligence officials commented that some nuclear experts / scientists may have joined Al-Qaida years ago, long before the world began paying adequate attention to the proliferation of the kinds of technologies that could yield a terrorist nuclear weapon.
Referring to the planning of the 9/11 attack, Mowatt-Larssen said it was operationally very straightforward. ''It had a very small footprint, was highly compartmented. Al-Qaida's nuclear effort would be just as compartmented and probably would not require the involvement of more than a small number of operatives who carried out 9/11,'' he said.
Mowatt-Larssen then went out to divulge his information about a prototypical Al-Qaida nuclear attack plot. This would have, he said, approval and oversight from Al-Qaida's most senior leadership, with possible assistance from other groups and a planner responsible for organizing the material, expertise and fabrication of a device; operational support facilitator, responsible for arranging travel, money, documents, food and other necessities for the cell; assets in the United States or within range of other Western targets to case locations for an attack and to help move the attack team into place; and finally, the attack team itself.
This hearing was followed by another classified session wherein other details about the possible nuclear attack by the Al-Qaida terrorist network were possibly explained to the US lawmakers in details.
''Beyond the basics I have outlined here, we do not know what a terrorist plot might look like. There is, however, a chokepoint in a terrorist effort to develop a nuclear capability. It is impossible to build a nuclear weapon without fissile material,'' he said.
The officials said that the task for the intelligence community is not easy. ''We must find something that is tactical in size but strategic in impact. We must find a plot with its networks that cut across traditional lines of counter proliferation and counterterrorism. We must stop something from happening that we have never seen happen before,'' he said.
Mowatt-Larssen said the US successes against Taliban in Afghanistan have yielded volumes of information that completely changed its view of Al-Qaida's nuclear program. ''We learned that Al-Qaida wants a weapon to use, not a weapon to sustain and build a stockpile, as most states would,'' he said.
''The nuclear threats that surfaced in June 2002 and continued through the fall of 2003 demonstrated that Al-Qaida's desire for a nuclear capability may have survived their removal from their Afghanistan safe haven,'' he said.
Observing that the Al-Qaida's nuclear intent remains clear, he said it obtained a fatwa in May 2003 that approved the use of weapons of mass destruction. Al-Qaida spokesman Suleyman Abu Ghayth declared that it is Al-Qaida's right to kill four million Americans in retaliation for Muslim deaths that Al-Qaida blames on the United States.
''Osama bin Laden said in 1998 that it was an Islamic duty to acquire weapons of mass destruction. In 2006, bin Laden reiterated his statement that Al-Qaida will return to the United States.
He said Al-Qaida has a track record of returning to finish a job they started. They failed at the World Trade Center in 1993. They came back in 2001. They canceled plans for chemical attacks in the US in 2003. ''We do not yet know when and where they intend to strike us next, but our past experience strongly suggests they are seeking an attack more spectacular than 9/11,'' he said.
''To delve a little into how they may be thinking about the nuclear option, at any given moment, Al-Qaida probably has attack plans in development. Nine-eleven was planned when the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen and when our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Tanzania were attacked in Africa,'' he said.
Blackmailing tactics of Al-Qaida
In his testimony Dr. Matthew Bunn, a senior research associate for the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's School of Government said there is greater chance than ever that the Al-Qaida would get the material and manage to make it into a bomb.
''I think then the next question is if they got the material, and they managed to make it into a bomb, could they somehow deliver it to Washington, or New York, or another major city somewhere around the world. I think, in my view, the answer is yes,'' he said.
Bunn said in case a bomb goes off there would be blackmailing tactics from these terrorists' organizations. ''One has to recall that the moment after a nuclear bomb goes off, someone -- either the perpetrator or another terrorist group -- is going to call up and say, ''I've got five more, and they're already hidden in U.S. cities, and I'm going to start setting them off unless you do X, Y and Z.'' And one bomb having just gone off, they will have substantial credibility,'' he argued.
''The prospect for panic, uncontrolled mass evacuation of our cities, economic chaos and disruption is, I think, very great
Deposing before the Congressional committee, Gary Ackerman, research director for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland said at present the efforts of non-state actors seeking to acquire and use nuclear weapons are growing in size and scope.
''Jihadists have, since the mid 1990s, made at least 10 statements advocating the possession or use of nuclear weapons, and there have been at least a dozen reports of jihadists' attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, fissile material or technical knowledge,'' he said.
''As an initial indicator of this trend, a recent analysis of online jihadist documents that deal explicitly with nuclear weapons has revealed that while their knowledge is still below par, there have been significant advances in the understanding of nuclear issues within the general jihadi community in only a few short years,'' Ackerman said.
Name the Western U.S. city most vulnerable to a terrorist attack - you might be surprised
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403022.html
Quick: Name the Western U.S. city most vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Is it Los Angeles, with its crowded roads that make quick escape impossible? San Francisco and its iconic bridge? Or Seattle with its Space Needle and busy port?
Try Boise, Idaho, with its, um, potatoes.
A new study funded largely by the Department of Homeland Security ranked 132 American cities according to vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Boise was the only city in the western half of the country to make the top 10.
"To be honest, we're a little bit surprised," said Adam Park, a spokesman for Boise, a landlocked city of 200,000 where the big event this weekend is a Professional Bull Riders invitational.
The rest of the top 10 -- led by New Orleans and including New York and Washington, D.C. -- were largely East Coast cities. Los Angeles was No. 41, followed by San Francisco at 66 and Seattle at 87.
"Is this a typo or what?" asked Bobbie Patterson, executive director of the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Where in the world did this information come from?"
It came from four years of work and a series of mathematical formulas developed by Walter W. Piegorsch, a professor at the University of Arizona, with help from Susan Cutter at the University of South Carolina and Frank Hardisty at Pennsylvania State University. The study was published in December by Risk Analysis, a well-regarded journal.
The researchers assessed the vulnerability of each city to a terrorist attack based on three things: socioeconomics, infrastructure, and geophysical hazards such as the potential for flooding or fire.
The analysis measured not whether a city would make an attractive target to a terrorist but rather how well it could withstand an attack, Piegorsch said.
"This wasn't a question of what places a terrorist wants," Piegorsch said. "The targetability is not an issue here; it's the vulnerability if they were targeted."
The researchers color-coded that vulnerability, assigning green to areas with low vulnerability to a terrorist incident and resulting casualties, yellow to those with high vulnerability but low casualties, and red to those with high marks in both vulnerability and casualties.
A deficiency in one category could overshadow high marks in another. A city with well-built bridges might find itself higher on the list if its high-density population makes evacuations difficult.
This explains Boise's red reading. Despite good marks for socioeconomics and infrastructure, Boise has a "high geophysical risk factor," Piegorsch said. The property damage caused in the 1990s by wildfires and floods in the area help create that score, Piegorsch said, because it showed what can happen in the future should terrorists prey on the area's weaknesses. The city is just west of the Lucky Peak Reservoir, which holds nearly 10 billion gallons of water.
"If a terrorist were to harm the city, in a place like Boise they could try to do some flood damage," he said. "If the city is very vulnerable to wildfires, then one match is lit and you're all set."
San Francisco and Los Angeles got low ratings despite their frequent wildfires and earthquakes because they've grown adept at handling disasters, Piegorsch said.
"They know how to deal with it," he said. "They've got modern buildings. They've got really well-coordinated emergency response teams. They've got it all together."
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he wasn't feeling as confident. "I'm not sleeping much better today being 66 out of 132 urban areas," he said, adding that he is concerned some cities might lose federal funds for preparedness based on such studies. "I don't think the twin towers would have come up in this quadrant."
"I'd like to say, 'Oh, it's great because we're remarkably so well prepared, but I don't think we are to the degree we need to be, and I don't think -- and I'm sure the authors would agree -- we should reduce our efforts or inhibit our disaster response program," he said.
Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the study will not be used to determine grants and is just one of many research projects.
"We don't have a monopoly on good ideas and so we facilitate research," said Kudwa, adding that she could not say how much DHS paid for the research. DHS gives approximately $4 million a year to a research center based at the University of South Carolina that, in turn, sponsored Piegorsch's project. Piegorsch said the study also received about $400,000 each from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Cancer Institute.
Henry Willis, a Rand Corp. risk analysis expert, called the study a "novel" look at vulnerability but said he had questions about its findings. "In this new measure of vulnerability, do they have the right set of factors? That's the unanswered research question," Willis said.
And just because Boise is vulnerable doesn't mean it faces greater risk than Los Angeles, San Francisco or other cities, Willis said. "Vulnerability is only one factor of risk, and risk is only one factor when considering how to allocate resources," he said.
At the Fancy Pants boutique in downtown Boise, sales associate Katie Bohannon said she wasn't feeling particularly vulnerable. "I'm less scared than I am confused," she said. "I don't really see why Boise would be on the top of that list."
Netanyahu: "Zionist Christians Our Best Friends"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486208002&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel has no better friends in the world than Christian Zionists, Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
"This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization," Netanyahu told a conference of American Evangelicals in Jerusalem.
The event, which was organized by the San Antonio, Texas-based Christians United for Israel, drew 1,000 Israel supporters led by the conservative evangelical Pastor John Hagee, who has been a stalwart supporter of Israel for the past three decades.
Hagee on Sunday announced donations of $6 million to a number of Israeli causes and declared that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
"Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban," Hagee said.
Among the 16 causes Hagee supported with the contributions he announced were Magen David Adom and a conference center in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
Hagee has united evangelical Christian supporters of Israel in the US under one umbrella organization, dubbed the Christian Aipac, which focuses solely on support for Israel and does not work to convert Jews to Christianity.
Netanyahu's remarks come just days after the head of the left-leaning Reform Movement in the US Rabbi Eric Yoffie said that Israel should not deal with Christian Zionists like Hagee, calling him an "extremist" who rejected territorial compromise with the Palestinians and disparages Catholics.
Hagee has vehemently denied being anti-Catholic and said his remarks have been mischaracterized, and based on statements that were "totally false." The head of the Knesset's increasingly influential Christian Allies Caucus MK Benny Elon (National Union-National Religious Party), who has spearheaded Israel's relations with the evangelical Christian world, called Yoffie's politically based remarks "shameful," and called Hagee a "visionary man of courage" and an "outstanding spiritual leader."
"You are the right man in the right place in the right time," Elon said Friday at a book launch of Hagee's book In Defense of Israel, which has now been translated into Hebrew.
Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin called the burgeoning ties between Israel and the evangelical Christian world "one of the most important things," after close to 2,000 years of enmity persecution and pogroms.
"What we have to understand is that the Christianity of persecution and intolerance and Jew-hatred is not the Christianity of Pastor Hagee and most evangelists today," Riskin said.
He called the rapprochement between Christians and Jews "one of the miracles" of the 20th century.
A Mystery in the Middle East
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/rumors_arab_israeli_war_and_sum_routine_events
The Arab-Israeli region of the Middle East is filled with rumors of war. That is about as unusual as the rising of the sun, so normally it would not be worth mentioning. But like the proverbial broken clock that is right twice a day, such rumors occasionally will be true. In this case, we don’t know that they are true, and certainly it’s not the rumors that are driving us. But other things — minor and readily explicable individually — have drawn our attention to the possibility that something is happening.
The first thing that drew our attention was a minor, routine matter. Back in February, the United States started purchasing oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR is a reserve of crude oil stored in underground salt domes. Back in February, it stood at 96.2 percent of capacity, which is pretty full as far as we are concerned. But the U.S. Department of Energy decided to increase its capacity. This move came in spite of record-high oil prices and the fact that the purchase would not help matters. It also came despite potential political fallout, since during times like these there is generally pressure to release reserves. Part of the step could have been the bureaucracy cranking away, and part of it could have been the feeling that the step didn’t make much difference. But part of it could have been based on real fears of a disruption in oil supplies. By itself, the move meant nothing. But it did cause us to become thoughtful.
Also in February, someone assassinated Imad Mughniyah, a leader of Hezbollah, in a car bomb explosion in Syria. It was assumed the Israelis had killed him, although there were some suspicions the Syrians might have had him killed for their own arcane reasons. In any case, Hezbollah publicly claimed the Israelis killed Mughniyah, and therefore it was expected the militant Shiite group would take revenge. In the past, Hezbollah responded not by attacking Israel but by attacking Jewish targets elsewhere, as in the Buenos Aires attacks of 1992 and 1994.
In March, the United States decided to dispatch the USS Cole, then under Sixth Fleet command, to Lebanese coastal waters. Washington later replaced it with two escorts from the Nassau (LHA-4) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), reportedly maintaining a minor naval presence in the area. (Most of the ESG, on a regularly scheduled deployment, is no more than a few days sail from the coast, as it remains in the Mediterranean Sea.) The reason given for the American naval presence was to serve as a warning to the Syrians not to involve themselves in Lebanese affairs. The exact mission of the naval presence off the Levantine coast — and the exact deterrent function it served — was not clear, but there they were. The Sixth Fleet has gone out of its way to park and maintain U.S. warships off the Lebanese coast.
Hezbollah leaders being killed by the Israelis and the presence of American ships off the shores of Mediterranean countries are not news in and of themselves. These things happen. The killing of Mughniyah is notable only to point out that as much as Israel might have wanted him dead, the Israelis knew this fight would escalate. But anyone would have known this. So all we know is that whoever killed Mughniyah wanted to trigger a conflict. The U.S. naval presence off the Levantine coast is notable in that Washington, rather busy with matters elsewhere, found the bandwidth to get involved here as well.
With the situation becoming tense, the Israelis announced in March that they would carry out an exercise in April called Turning Point 2. Once again, an Israeli military exercise is hardly interesting news. But the Syrians apparently got quite interested. After the announcement, the Syrians deployed three divisions — two armored, one mechanized — to the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley, the western part of which is Hezbollah’s stronghold. The Syrians didn’t appear to be aggressive. Rather, they deployed these forces in a defensive posture, in a way walling off their part of the valley.
The Syrians are well aware that in the event of a conventional war with Israel, they would experience a short but exciting life, as they say. They thus are hardly going to attack Israel. The deployment therefore seemed intended to keep the Israelis on the Lebanese side of the border — on the apparent assumption the Israelis were going into the Bekaa Valley. Despite Israeli and Syrian denials of the Syrian troop buildup along the border, Stratfor sources maintain that the buildup in fact happened. Normally, Israel would be jumping at the chance to trumpet Syrian aggression in response to these troop movements, but, instead, the Israelis downplayed the buildup.
When the Israelis kicked off Turning Point 2, which we regard as a pretty interesting name, it turned out to be the largest exercise in Israeli history. It involved the entire country, and was designed to test civil defenses and the ability of the national command authority to continue to function in the event of an attack with unconventional weapons — chemical and nuclear, we would assume. This was a costly exercise. It also involved calling up reserves, some of them for the exercise, and, by some reports, others for deployment to the north against Syria. Israel does not call up reserves casually. Reserve call-ups are expensive and disrupt the civilian economy. These appear small, but in the environment of Turning Point 2, it would not be difficult to mobilize larger forces without being noticed.
The Syrians already were deeply concerned by the Israeli exercise. Eventually, the Lebanese government got worried, too, and started to evacuate some civilians from the South. Hezbollah, which still hadn’t retaliated for the Mughniyah assassination, also claimed the Israelis were about to attack it, and reportedly went on alert and mobilized its forces. The Americans, who normally issue warnings and cautions to everyone, said nothing to try to calm the situation. They just sat offshore on their ships.
It is noteworthy that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled a scheduled visit to Germany this week. The cancellation came immediately after the reports of the Syrian military redeployment were released. Obviously, Barak needed to be in Israel for Turning Point 2, but then he had known about the exercise for at least a month. Why cancel at the last minute? While we are discussing diplomacy, we note that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Oman — a country with close relations with Iran — and then was followed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. By itself not interesting, but why the high-level interest in Oman at this point?
Now let’s swing back to September 2007, when the Israelis bombed something in Syria near the Turkish border. As we discussed at the time, for some reason the Israelis refused to say what they had attacked. It made no sense for them not to trumpet what they carefully leaked — namely, that they had attacked a nuclear facility. Proving that Syria had a secret nuclear program would have been a public relations coup for Israel. Nevertheless, no public charges were leveled. And the Syrians remained awfully calm about the bombing.
Rumors now are swirling that the Israelis are about to reveal publicly that they in fact bombed a nuclear reactor provided to Syria by North Korea. But this news isn’t all that big. Also rumored is that the Israelis will claim Iranian complicity in building the reactor. And one Israeli TV station reported April 8 that Israel really had discovered Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, which it said had been smuggled to Syria.
Now why the Bush administration wouldn’t have trumpeted news of the Syrian reactor worldwide in September 2007 is beyond us, but there obviously were some reasons — assuming the TV report is true, which we have no way of establishing. In fact, we have no idea why the Israelis are choosing this moment to rehash the bombing of this site. But whatever their reason, it certainly raises a critical question. If the Syrians are developing a nuclear capability, what are the Israelis planning to do about it?
No one of these things, by itself, is of very great interest. And taken together they do not provide the means for a clear forecast. Nevertheless, a series of rather ordinary events, taken together, can constitute something significant. Tensions in the Middle East are moving well beyond the normal point, and given everything that is happening, events are moving to a point where someone is likely to take military action. Whether Hezbollah will carry out a retaliatory strike or Israel a pre-emptive strike in Lebanon, or whether the Israelis’ real target is Iran, tensions systematically have been ratcheted up to the point where we, in our simple way, are beginning to wonder whether something has to give.
All together, these events are fairly extraordinary. Ignoring all rhetoric — and the Israelis have gone out of their way to say that they are not looking for a fight — it would seem that each side, but particularly the Americans and Israelis, have gone out of their way to signal that they are expecting conflict. The Syrians have also signaled that they expect conflict, and Hezbollah always claims there is about to be conflict.
What is missing is this: who will fight whom, and why, and why now. The simple explanation is that Israel wants a second round with Hezbollah. But while that might be true, it doesn’t explain everything else that has happened. Most important, it doesn’t explain the simultaneous revelations about the bombing of Syria. It also doesn’t explain the U.S. naval deployment. Is the United States about to get involved in a war with Hezbollah, a war that the Israelis should handle themselves? Are the Israelis going to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad — and then wind up with a Sunni government, or worse, an Israeli occupation of Syria? None of that makes a lot of sense.
In truth, all of this may dissolve into nothing much. In intelligence analysis, however, sometimes a set of not-fully-coherent facts must be reported, and that is what we are doing now. There is no clear pattern; there is no obvious direction this is taking. Nevertheless, when we string together events from February until now, we see a persistently escalating pattern of behavior. In fact, what we can say most clearly is that there is escalation, without being able to say what is the clear direction of the escalation or the purpose.
We would like to wrap this up with a crystal clear explanation and forecast. But we can’t. The motives of the various actors are opaque; and taken separately, the individual events all have quite innocent explanations. We are not prepared to say war is imminent, nor even what sort of war there would be. We are simply prepared to say that the course of events since February — and really since the September 2007 attack on Syria — have been startling, and they appear to be reaching some sort of hard-to-understand crescendo.
The bombing of Syria symbolizes our confusion. Why would Syria want a nuclear reactor and why put it on the border of Turkey, a country the Syrians aren’t particularly friendly with? If the Syrians had a nuclear reactor, why would the Israelis be coy about it? Why would the Americans? Having said nothing for months apart from careful leaks, why are the Israelis going to speak publicly now? And if what they are going to say is simply that the North Koreans provided the equipment, what’s the big deal? That was leaked months ago.
The events of September 2007 make no sense and have never made any sense. The events we have seen since February make no sense either. That is noteworthy, and we bring it to your attention. We are not saying that the events are meaningless. We are saying that we do not know their meaning. But we can’t help but regard them as ominous.
Israeli intel projects a one-month war with Syria
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_israel0033_04_08.asp
Israel's intelligence community has concluded that the next war would involve missiles and Hizbullah, last at least a month and include Syria.
The intelligence community has drafted a series of scenarios for Israel's emergency services to prepare for future war. The scenarios envisioned the next war as including massive missile and rocket salvos, some of them containing chemical weapons, on Israeli cities.
"The scenarios are based on Arab military capability rather than intentions," an Israeli government source said. "The war in Lebanon was also seen as a taste of what a full-scale war would bring."
Officials said Israel's military, police and emergency services have been on high alert for an attack by Hizbullah, Syria or Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the current alert would last throughout April and did not rule out a continuation of high combat-readiness for the rest of 2008.
Under the scenarios, hundreds of Israelis would be killed and thousands injured in missile strikes on Tel Aviv. The enemy missiles would target strategic facilities, including Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Syria was also expected to be a participant in the next war against Israel. The intelligence community envisioned Hizbullah, Iran and Syria coordinating strikes on northern and central Israel. The Hamas regime and the Palestinian Authority would also fire rockets from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In one scenario, Iran would also attack the Jewish state. The intelligence community did not expect Iran to fire nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, but said such an attack could stem from Syria.
The Israeli casualty count would reach 230 in a conventional weapons attack. In a chemical strike, the intelligence community envisioned up to 16,000 deaths.
The intelligence community has also envisioned Iran's use of Hizbullah as a proxy in a nonconventional weapons attack. One scenario was that Hizbullah launches Iranian-origin Ababil unmanned aerial vehicles filled with toxic chemicals to strike a school or government building.
Officials said the scenarios reflected the Israeli military's two leading priorities — defending against missile threats as well as stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program. They said the rocket and missile threat was meant to be resolved through the development of defensive systems rather than offensive military campaigns.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said anti-missile systems would enable Israel to avoid a war of attrition and consider withdrawal from the West Bank as well as the Golan Heights. A short-range missile and rocket system, termed Iron Dome, was not expected to be ready until at least 2010.
Syria on Alert 'Because Hizbullah Revenge Attack is Near'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125810
Syria has raised the state of alert of its armed forces because it knows Hizbullah's revenge attack against Israel for the killing of Imad Mughniyeh is near, according to Israel's Channel 2 TV.
Soon after Mughniyeh's death, Israel warned Syria that it would hold it responsible for any revenge attack launched by Hizbullah for the killing of Mughniyeh, its operations officer.
Syria is due to release its official findings in the probe into Mughniyeh's death. He was killed in an explosion in Damascus in February.
The paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which is published in London, reported that since Mughniyeh's death, Syria has arrested dozens of suspects, including "Palestinians and senior Syrian army officers." Sources in Damascus told the paper that the investigation established that foreigners were behind the murder of Mughniyeh.
Syria has accused Israel of being behind the assassination.
'Assassination planned in Syria'
Meanwhile, former Syrian vice president Abdel Khalim Khaddam is accusing Syria of killing Muyghniyeh.
Interviewed by a Lebanese newspaper, Khaddam said that the head of Syrian intelligence was replaced because the investigation he conducted showed that those who planned the assassination came from within Syria.
Khaddam was forced into exile and took up residence in Europe after he criticized the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Hizbullah: Home Front drill 'aggressive'
Hizbullah's Deputy Director Sheikh Naeem Kassem said Sunday that the Israeli Home Front exercise is a preparation for war and part of "Israel's aggressive character."
Kassem said the exercise had three purposes: first, to boost the morale of the Israeli people, which has been low since the Second Lebanon War; second, to convince the Israelis that the army has overcome the failure and is ready and has drawn all the lessons from the war; and third, he explained, "it is part of the preparations for war, because Israel is always on a war footing."
The Al-Arabiyah television network reported Sunday that the Lebanese military ordered residents of southern villages to move away from the border with Israel. According to the report, the Lebanese Army set up dirt roadblocks and inspection towers along the border with Israel to prevent Lebanese civilians from getting too close to the fence.
Heightened alert
Tension between Israel and Syria has been high recently, and there were reports that Defense Minister Ehud Barak cancelled his planned visit to Germany this week because of it. Defense Ministry advisor Amos Gilad denied this report and said that the Defense Minister changed his schedule because of a heavy workload.
Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Dan Harel told reporters last week: "I see no reason at all for unusual tension in the North, and I do not think that any side is interested in a military confrontation."
However, he also made what reporters saw as a hinted threat at Syria, following reports that Syrian forces were on a heightened state of alert.
"Anyone who tries to strike Israel should keep in mind that Israel is the strongest country in the region and that its response will be hard and painful. We are always alert and ready," Harel warned.
Hamas undertaking a broad military buildup, Israeli study finds
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/mideast/mideast.php
An Israeli study says that Hamas, the militant group that now controls Gaza, is engaged in the broadest and most significant military buildup in its history with help from Syria and Iran, restructuring itself more hierarchically and using more and more powerful weapons, especially longer-range rockets against Israel's southern communities.
The study, by an independent research group with close ties to the Israeli military establishment, says that while the buildup will take some years to complete, it is in an intensive phase that has already led to better infiltration into Israel and a rise in the breadth and precision of rocket fire.
"This is the first comprehensive analysis of the Hamas buildup," said Reuven Erlich, a retired Israeli colonel in military intelligence who heads The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the institute that produced the study.
"It is based on a wide range of sources. And what is very clear is that Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is aiming to use rocket fire to draw the Israeli military in."
The 52-page study, to be released publicly Thursday, says that after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Hamas began a consolidation of power. It won the Palestinian elections against the more secular Fatah party in 2006 and after an awkward shared power arrangement, routed Fatah forces from Gaza last summer.
According to a report by the Shin Bet internal security services quoted in the study, Hamas has smuggled at least 80 tons of explosives into Gaza since last summer.
It says this accounts for more than half the amount smuggled into Gaza since Israel's 2005 withdrawal, evidence of intensification the study alleges. The study also says that Hamas has obtained advanced anti-tank devices like those used by Hezbollah against Israel in its 2006 war, as well as powerful roadside bombs for use in border areas where Israeli vehicles might be expected to pass in pursuit of rocket launchers.
It added that hundreds of fighters have been trained in Iran, Lebanon and Syria.
Asked about the study's assertions, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, called it "an exaggeration, a clear step aiming to scare the region by selling an image of Gaza as a military place. The aim is to employ all in the region to support an Israeli assault."
He said that some of the assertions in the study as described to him were correct but misunderstood. The training abroad, for example, was for police and administrative skills, not for combat, he said. "It is a fact that our defensive tactics are developing and it is not a secret," he said. "But such tactics can be learned from books and the Internet."
Israel is engaged in an internal debate about whether to pursue a truce with Hamas, whose charter calls explicitly for Israel's destruction but some of whose leaders say they want a mutually agreed period of calm.
The study asserts that any kind of truce would allow Hamas to build its military structure further although it also says that Hamas's big worry is that Israel will reinvade Gaza and that such a concern is one motivation for the buildup.
A senior Israeli official in the prime minister's office said what he took from the report was that when there is relative quiet in Gaza, Israel runs the risk of playing into Hamas's hands by allowing it to continue its military buildup.
In another development Wednesday, Israeli officials said Palestinian militants attacked a fuel depot on Israel's border with Gaza, killing two Israeli civilians.
Soon after the attack, an Israeli tank shell hit a house on the Gaza side of the border and killed three Palestinian civilians, two men and a 16-year-old, according to Palestinian hospital officials. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said the tank had fired at militants fleeing back into Gaza after the fuel depot attack, killing two of them.
A police spokesman said that another gunman who took part in the attack was shot and killed inside the terminal.
Late Tuesday night, an Israeli soldier and a militant from Hamas were killed in a clash in southern Gaza. The soldier, Staff Sergeant Sayef Bisan, 21, was buried in the Druze village of Jatt in the Galilee on Wednesday.
At least four gunmen infiltrated the fuel depot at Nahal Oz, the point from which all fuel supplies are piped into Gaza, Israeli officials said. Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and a group loosely affiliated with Fatah claimed joint responsibility for the attack.
But Israeli officials held Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, responsible and said it would bear the consequences.
"It is plain to see that the terrorists' goal is to kill as many Israelis as possible while also undermining any example of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, such as occurs at the crossing points between Israel and Gaza," said Arye Mekel, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The uneasy calm that prevailed in and around Gaza in the past few weeks began to unravel in recent days, with an increase in mortar and rocket fire from Gaza and a resumption of army incursions into the area.
Insider leaks plans for Palestinian state
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60990
U.S.-backed negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians are expected to generate an agreement by the end of the year that would set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem, according to a source who has participated in the talks.
In one of the first media glimpses into the current negotiations, a source who takes part in the regular meetings outlined for WND the main objectives of the secretive negotiations.
Since last November's Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit, which set as a goal the creation of a Palestinian state before 2009, negotiating teams including Israeli Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia have been meeting weekly while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have been meeting biweekly.
Unlike previous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in which both sides attended with about a dozen advisers each, the teams working with Livni and Qureia are small, usually consisting at most of five people each.
Also unlike previous talks, in which the contents of many meetings were leaked quickly to the media, the current negotiations have resulted in few press leaks.
According to the source who has been playing a role in the meetings, the two sides are drafting an agreement, to be signed by the end of the year, requiring Israel to evacuate most of the West Bank and certain eastern sections of Jerusalem.
The source said Israeli community blocks in the zones of Gush Etzion, Maale Adumin and Ariel would remain Israeli while most of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem will be slated for a Palestinian state.
In contradiction to statements by Olmert, the status of sections of Jerusalem is being negotiated but the specifics of any agreed-upon Israeli withdrawal is as yet unclear, said the source.
"It is understood [Jerusalem] Arab neighborhoods would become part of a Palestinian state," the source said.
The source told WND both sides agreed Israel would retain Jerusalem's Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, which is located near large Arab communities. Many of those Arab towns were constructed illegally on property owned by the Jewish National Fund, a Jewish nonprofit that purchases property using Jewish donors funds for the stated purpose of Jewish settlement.
The source said the U.S. pledged advanced training for thousands of PA security officers who would take over security in the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem and operate in those territories instead of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli police.
The U.S. previously has trained thousands of Palestinian security officers, including units in which known members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group serve. Scores of those security forces have carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, including recent deadly shootings in the West Bank.
But the source claimed the planned U.S. training is different:
"This training is unlike anything before. The PA, Israel and the U.S. are working very closely to vet the forces. All sides are approving the training candidates. The training is more advanced than ever. It will create a very serious Palestinian army," said the source.
The source said as part of the negotiations, Abbas has agreed to hold early PA elections in the West Bank by 2009, including presidential elections that could replace the Palestinian leader.
PA elections previously have been held simultaneously in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The source's description of planned new elections only in the West Bank implied the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would be treated as a separate entity
Leaders from the Hamas terrorist organization, which swept the last municipal elections, stated the past few days Hamas would agree to early elections. The Hamas leaders also said for the first time ever, their organization would propose a candidate to compete with Abbas' Fatah group in PA presidential elections.
The source speaking to WND about the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations said while a signed agreement and PA security force training can be expected before the end of the year, it has not yet been determined when any Israeli withdrawals would be implemented.
He said Olmert would be headed to new Israeli elections with an Israeli-PA agreement in tow.
The source said the U.S. is "very deeply involved" in all aspects of the negotiations.
To demonstrate the level of U.S. involvement, the source pointed to recent U.S. supervision of Israeli commitments to dismantle about 50 West Bank anti-terror roadblocks and to bulldoze what are called illegal outposts, or West Bank Jewish communities constructed without government permits.
"The U.S. oversaw the removal of each and every roadblock, making sure the roadblocks were actually removed," said the source.
"Also, even though Israel prepared a report of all illegal outposts and handed it to the Americans, U.S. officials have been doing their own very specific independent investigating to find each and every illegal outpost and then oversee their dismantlement," the source said.
U.S. training of the PA security forces already started last month at U.S.-controlled bases in the Jordanian village of Giftlik, according to Israeli security officials. Over 600 elite PA soldiers are enrolled in the current course, which includes training in the use of weapons, conducting ambushes, fighting street crime, fighting terrorism, and dealing with hostage situations, among other things.
After the unit is finished training in Jordan, they will continue with more advanced training courses at a U.S.-run base in the West Bank city of Jericho.
All training is being directly overseen by Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator to the Palestinian territories.
As a test of the PA's abilities, a battalion of about 600 PA officers recently trained by the U.S. is set to deploy in the West Bank city of Jenin, which is considered a sanctuary for Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The U.S. and Israel will monitor closely the officers' activities but it wasn't immediately clear how the success or failure of the Jenin force would impact the deployment of other such forces since the Jenin force was deployed despite recent negative U.S. reports of PA security forces.
A U.S. security report last month concluded the PA is failing to fight terrorism. The report was compiled by Gen. William Fraser, who was deployed to the region to monitor implementation of agreements pledged by Israel and the PA at Annapolis.
Fraser's report slammed the PA for failing to arrest, interrogate and place terrorist suspects on trial. The report said the PA occasionally carries out arrests of suspected terrorists, but usually only following pressure from Israel or the U.S. The arrested terrorists, the report said, are rarely interrogated or tried but instead are briefly detained.
U.S., Israel Criticize Carter Plans to See Hamas
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/carter_hamas_meshaal/2008/04/10/87091.html
WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had advised former President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria next week, saying it went against U.S. policy of isolating the militant group.
Carter plans to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during a nine-day trip due to start on Sunday but gave no details of specific meetings.
"This is a study mission and our purpose is not to negotiate but to support and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East," the Carter Center said in a statement.
"Our delegation has considerable experience in the region, and we go there with an open mind and heart to listen and learn from all parties," it said.
Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, discussed with the State Department's point person on Israeli-Palestinian issues, David Welch, his plans to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus, but the department said it went against U.S. policy.
"We counseled against it," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"U.S. government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't believe it is in the interests of our policy or in the interests of peace to have such a meeting."
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, also expressed concern over such a meeting. "The unintended consequences of such a meeting would be to embolden terrorists and undermine the cause of peace," he told Reuters.
Carter, 83, served one term as president from 1977 to 1981. He succeeded in negotiating the 1978 Camp David Accords that paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt but he has increasingly taken positions highly critical of Israel.
In a 2006 book, he described Israeli policy in the occupied territories as "a system of apartheid."
U.S. policy is to isolate Hamas, which has control of Gaza and is committed to the destruction of Israel. Washington sees pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as its partner in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Israelis.
PLANS UNDER WAY
"There is an agreement to hold the meeting and arrangements are under way," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters in Gaza of Carter's meeting.
Taha said the meeting was to be held following a request from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which aims to promote global peace, health, democracy and human rights.
A spokeswoman for Carter declined to comment on specific meetings. The delegation will include former first lady Rosalynn Carter and ex-Congressman Stephen Solarz.
Initially, Carter had hoped to go with a group of 'elder statesmen,' including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former South African President Nelson Mandela, but the others decided the timing was wrong.
"The elders will consider consultations with key leaders in the region and outside with the purpose of developing a comprehensive report, but have decided to postpone their visit," said a statement on Tuesday from the group of 12 former leaders on their Web site, www.theelders.org.
Carter has been harshly critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, from the invasion of Iraq to its approach to Iran as well as the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
McCormack said the U.S. government would provide support for Carter's Syrian trip but would not take part in any of his meetings or the planning and scheduling of those talks.
Israel warns: We'll 'destroy' Iran as region under general war alert
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347212,00.html
Israel will "destroy" Iran if Tehran decided to launch a war against the Jewish state, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said today.
The unusually harsh warning from Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, was delivered as the official visited his ministry's war room, which took part today in a massive, nationwide, weeklong drill that is set to include simulated chemical missile attacks on central Israel.
"The Iranians won't rush to attack Israel, because they understand the significance such action would have and are well aware of our strength," Ben-Eliezer told reporters. "However, Iran continues to aggravate the situation by supplying arms to Syria and Hezbollah, and we must deal with this."
The minister said this week's war drill "is not a meaningless spectacle or a fictional scenario. The future reality is likely to be a number of times harsher than that which we recognize now. We are confronted with a situation where the home front becomes the front line."
"In a future war, it will be much safer to live in (the northern towns of) Nahariya and Shlomi instead of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, since I expect that in the opening attack hundreds of missiles will strike Israel," Eliezer said. "There will be no place in the country which is not within range of Syria and Hezbollah's rockets."
Israel's current war drill is the country's largest-ever. It aims to prepare the public and government and army institutions for the possibility of a future war. The drills reportedly include testing of missile alert sirens, Israel Defense Force war simulations, Homefront Command, police and emergency services responses and drills in hospitals and emergency centers.
As part of the drill, Israel will simulate a massive missile bombardment, including a chemical missile attack.
The drill and Ben-Eliezer's warning come as Syria, Lebanon and Israel increased their alertness along a joint border zone amid a possible breakout of hostilities.
The countries are preparing for the possibility of Hezbollah attacking Israel in retaliation for the assassination of arch-Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Syria in February.
According to Israeli security officials, Israel has warned Syria, which sends Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, that Damascus would be held accountable for any Hezbollah attack on Israeli soil.
Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Dan Harel warned last week Israel will "respond with a heavy hand" against anyone trying to target Israel.
Touring Israel's northern border with Lebanon and Syria, Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated last week Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East and warned against challenging it.
Barak was to travel last week to Berlin for strategic talks about the Middle East but postponed the trip due to tensions with Syria, his aides said.
Church Dissolved for Having a Sunday School in Russia
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07062.shtml
A United Methodist congregation in the city of Smolensk was dissolved by the regional court on March 24 in response to a suit filed by the Regional Public Prosecutor's Office protesting the church having a Sunday school program, according to a March 26 report from Forum 18.
The court agreed with the Regional Organized Crime Police's assertion that the Smolensk United Methodist Church was breaking the law by conducting "educational activity in a Sunday school without a corresponding license."
While the court's decision to dissolve the church means loss of legal status rather than a complete ban, it does bar the Methodists from maintaining or developing any form of public profile as an organization.
Pray that the religious rights of this church will be recognized. Pray that the congregation will rejoice in the opportunity to grow in Christlikeness through the opposition they face (James 1:2-4).
For more information on some of the difficulties facing Christians in Russia, go to www.persecution.net/country/russia.htm.
Russia mulls stronger strategic deterrent
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18839
In recent weeks, there were expectations in the West that Russia might move toward a compromise over US missile defense plans in Europe. Russian officials noted eased tensions between Russia and the US on the issue, arguing that Moscow was no longer considering a military response to the controversial missile defense shield plans.
However, President George W Bush and his outgoing Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, once again failed to reach a deal on missile defense during talks Russia's resort city of Sochi on 6 April. Instead, they pledged to jointly work on a global missile shield involving the US, Europe and Russia. Putin said the proposed global missile defense system should be built jointly by the US, Russia and Europe, and suggested the project be based on the principles of equality and joint control.
Ahead of the Sochi meeting, at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Putin classified NATO's eastward expansion as a "direct threat" to Russia. "Statements that the process is not aimed against Russia cannot satisfy us," Putin said. He also argued that Russia's national security could not be based on verbal promises, while NATO criteria on the use of military force remained unclear.
The Kremlin also pledged to boost its strategic capabilities. Russia will continue to develop its nuclear deterrent, including naval, air and land-based components, Putin announced on 4 April.
Inevitably, Putin's statements were echoed by the country's top military officials. Russia plans to create five-six naval aircraft carrier groups, Russian Naval Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said on 4 April. He also pledged to start operations on a new strategic nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgoruki and test the new naval missile complex Bulava by the end of 2008.
Russia would raise the number of strategic patrol flights over the world's oceans up to 20-30 per month, Russian Air Force Commander, General Alexander Zelin said on 4 April. He said the Air Force had recorded 40 strategic bomber flights since the beginning of this year.
Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over international waters in August 2007. The move has been widely perceived in the West as a sign of Russia's increasingly assertive military stance, while Moscow described the long-range flights as legitimate security measures.
Furthermore, Russia's military experts appear to favor a doctrine of preemptive strikes. In March, General Leonid Ivashov, head of the Moscow-based Geopolicy Academy, suggested that Russia should be prepared to use nuclear weapons to protect its allies. He also warned that Russia may face effectively loosing its nuclear deterrent because of the growing capabilities of the US missile shield.
The Russian military doctrine approved by Putin in 2000 stipulates that Russia may use nuclear weapons to defend itself and its allies. In January, Russia's Chief of General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky pledged to use nuclear weapons and preemptive strikes to protect the Russian Federation and its allies.
However, Russia's military experts also conceded that the country's nuclear deterrent was ageing. The US may be able to destroy Russian strategic nuclear forces by non-nuclear strikes after 2012-2015, warned Konstantin Sivkov, deputy head of the Geopolicy Academy. He speculated that such strikes could disable 70-80 percent of Russia's nuclear potential, while remaining missiles could be intercepted by the US missile shield.
In a report entitled "The Crisis of the Russian army," published in February, Russia's Institute of National Strategy warned that by 2015 Russian Strategic Forces may be left with just 300 intercontinental missiles and 600 warheads. Both the US and China could soon become capable of dealing with Russia from a position of force, the report said.
In 2000-2007, Russia decommissioned 440 missiles and about 2,500 warheads, while only 27 new missiles were supplied to the armed forces, the report said. Given the current negative trends, the Russian Missile Forces may have only 100-200 intercontinental missiles by 2018, it said.
In response, Russian military officials insisted the country's nuclear deterrent was adequately funded. Since 2004, Russia has raised funding of strategic missile forces by four times, Russian Missile Forces Commander, General Nikolai Solovtsov announced on 17 March.
Russia's renewed talk of its nuclear deterrent comes against the background of the upcoming end of Putin's term as president. And it is still far from certain whether the country's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, will pursue his perceived role of a "liberal" or opt for continued reliance on bellicose pronouncements as a foreign policy instrument.
Christian Family Attacked by Hindu Militants in Madhya Pradesh, India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07063.shtml
Hindu militants attacked and severely injured the grandparents and aunt of a 15-year-old girl in the village of Bahera, Madhya Pradesh when the Christian family stopped the mob from raping her, according to a March 27 report from Compass Direct.
On March 22, nine Hindu militants demanded that the father of the girl, Brij Gopal Saket, turn over his daughter, Urmila, so that they could abuse her. Saket refused to hand her over and locked himself, his wife and daughter inside their home.
The militants, who had reportedly threatened other local Christians with violence for worshipping Christ, then grabbed Saket's parents and his sister who were outside the house and beat them with rods, sticks and stones.
Pray for the healing for Urmila and her injured family members. Pray that, in their sufferings, they will find strength in Christ (2 Cor. 1:3-5).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/country/india.htm.
Behold the False Prophet? Blair to devote rest of his life to religion and interfaith dialogue, creation of global faith foundation
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23504987-26040,00.html
Former British prime minister Tony Blair says the promotion of interfaith dialogue is "the rest of my life's work".
Speaking to The Times, Mr Blair said he had focused his efforts on religion because, along with his own personal interest in the subject, combating climate change and eradicating poverty - both also interests of his - were "well-trodden ground".
Mr Blair, who converted to Catholicism in December, was Britain's premier from 1997 to last June, and has since become a Middle East peace envoy, is heading a team of experts charged with securing a deal to combat climate change, and is hoping to turn his Tony Blair Faith Foundation into a "global foundation".
"People will think this is a piece of spin but, I've always been as interested in religion as politics," Mr Blair told the British daily.
"I see this over time as the rest of my life's work."
"I think that the areas to do with climate change and Make Poverty History, where there's a well-trodden piece of ground there, and actually I have interest in both of those things.
But in respect of faith, there is a burgeoning interest in it now."
Of his foundation, Mr Blair said the aim was not to throw "all the faiths in a doctrinal melting pot and coming out with the world religion as it were, that's not what it's about".
"At the moment, you've still got really quite profound struggle going on about whether religion is going to be taken over by those who do not regard even the thought of an encounter with those of another faith as a good thing.
On the contrary, they regard it as a betrayal of their faith."
Study: National media more liberal, secular than ever
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/METRO/769331158/1001
A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 32 percent of national reporters acknowledge being politically liberal -- compared to only 19 percent of the general public.
Kristen Fyfe of the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute (CMI) says the numbers are not surprising.
She contends that all one has to do is pay attention to the headlines in the media and, as she puts it, "you get a dose of, basically, liberal propaganda, most of the time."
The Pew survey also found that 68 percent of national reporters and news executives never or almost never attend worship services. Fyfe, who recently produced a CMI Special Report entitled "Apostles of Atheism," says that "91 percent of the journalists say that you don't have to believe in God to be a moral person."
Kristen FyfeAccording to Fyfe, "we found in our coverage of last years' news programs that atheists pretty much get a free pass when it comes to reporting on their belief systems."
Fyfe says new media, such as the Internet and blogs, do give conservatives and Christians alternative sources of information. But she stresses not giving up on more traditional media.
"What I would like to see conservatives do is to really get out there and change the hearts of teenagers and twenty-something's who are in college ...," she suggests.
And the CMI spokeswoman would like to see that change of heart cause younger Christians and conservatives to believe they are not "weird" for thinking the way they think -- and to understand that they will need to speak up if the culture war is to be won.
Maryland Home School Robotics Team Wins Slot for US FIRST's International Robotics Competition in Atlanta, April 16-19
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07061.shtml
ABINGDON, Maryland -- TechBrick is a home school robotics club that has fielded eleven robotics competition teams over the past five years through an international robotics competition sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
Based on our high school team's award-winning performances in state competitions in MD, DE, and NJ, they have been invited to participate in the World Championship in Atlanta.
The FIRST World Championship occupies 250,000 square feet in the Georgia World Congress Center with 10,000 students from 20 or more countries, more than 600 robots, 5000 mentors, and 500 volunteers. This program is creating engineering interest for young students at a rate of 4 to 10 times the national average.
"This opportunity came at us at the last minute," says Marco Ciavolino, Senior Mentor and founder of TechBrick Robotics. "We really didn't expect to draft for available spots. The team that went last year is still talking about their experiences and lessons learned."
TechBrick FTC is ready to win. Having won major engineering awards in DE, MD, and NJ, they are ready to take on the world. "We've wrung out the minor bugs," says Amy, team captain. "We're ready to take our bot on the road and compete with our fellow teams from around the globe."
FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen of Segway scooter fame to create a competitive and highly charged environment for students involved in technical areas. He wanted to bring the excitement of football, basketball, and soccer to the field of invention. The program now sponsors events for children from 5 years old through high school. A recent comment by Lt. General (Ret.) Lawrence P. Farrell, Jr. of the National Defense Industrial Association indicated that his member organizations are concerned about a shortage of qualified engineers. US FIRST is a program that helps fill that need.
Visit the TechBrick website at www.techbrick.com for more information about this exciting program, our team of young engineers, and how your company can assist them with the support they need to make the trip.
Second Medical Board Official Resigns Amid Scandals Over Cover-ups and Ineptitude
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07060.shtml
TOPEKA, KS -- Chief Counsel of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts Mark Stafford joined his boss, Larry Buening, in resigning yesterday after calls for their ouster reached a crescendo over scandals involving Board ineptitude and cover-ups.
Both houses of the Kansas Legislature passed resolution in the past week calling for a shake up at the KSBHA. Operation Rescue began calling for the resignation or firing of Buening and Stafford after their failure to discipline late-term abortionist George R. Tiller for the third-trimester abortion death of Christin Gilbert. Operation Rescue again called for their resignations in December and made recommendations to the Legislature for Board Reforms.
"Again we must reiterate our concerns that if Gov. Sebelius, who is a radical abortion supporter, is allowed to appoint Buening and Stafford's replacements, we may end up worse off than we are now," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "In order to avoid further corruption, we ask that the Legislature be allowed to hire the new staff."
Operation Rescue has two active complaints with the Board against Tiller, one for illegal late-term abortions and violating the unaffiliated second physician requirement for post-viability abortions. Tiller has since been charged with 19 criminal counts of violating that requirement. That criminal case is pending, but the Board has yet to act.
The second complaint involves unethical conduct related to the late-term abortion of Michelle Armesto- Berge, who testified before a joint legislative committee last fall about her horrific abortion experience at Tiller's Wichita abortion clinic.
"Our hope and prayer is that our complaints will now be allowed to move forward expeditiously and withour obstruction, and that the KSBHA will fulfill their duty to protect the lives of women and their pre-born babies in accordance with Kansas law by suspending or revoking Tiller's medical license," said Newman.
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
'American Idol' Shouts to the Lord
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/355112.aspx
American Idol's second annual charity drive Idol Gives Back concluded the night with an unexpected shout.
The eight finalists from season seven sang Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord" as they wrapped up the charity event.
Millions tuned in to see the needs spread across the globe -- everything from hungry children to AIDS victims.
Numerous celebrities participated in the event to encourage viewers to donate, including Bono, Miley Cyrus, Brad Pitt, Billy Crystal, and Peyton and Eli Manning -- just to name a few.
Producers expect the event to raise $100 million.
Boy Scouts Defend their Honor
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/353450.aspx
The City of Brotherly Love is squaring off with a long-time ally -- the Boy Scouts of America. At issue: the Scout's 80-year-old headquarters building in downtown Philadelphia. But what's really at stake is the right of the Scouts to ban homosexuals from leadership.
A Noble History
Since 1910, the Boy Scouts have sought to nurture young boys by teaching them things like how to pitch a tent and how to be brave, kind and cheerful. And over 100 million boys have benefited. Today, close to 5 million are active in Scouts nationwide.
Philadelphia's Cradle of Liberty Council is the third largest chapter in the country. Many supporters believe its work is critical to keeping young people in Philadelphia off the streets and out of trouble.
"It's really, really important that groups like the Boy Scouts step in to provide some of that mentoring influence," Horace Cooper of the American Civil Rights Union said. "That father influence -- to step in to make up where the rest of the family structure has failed."
But that influence may soon change.
Gay Ban Challenged
The City of Philadelphia says it will evict the Boy Scouts from their headquarters on June 1 if they don't change their policy banning homosexuals. The Scouts built the grand Italian Renaissance building 80 years ago and entered into an agreement with the city to lease it back for a dollar a year in perpetuity.
The city says it told the Boy Scouts last June that they either need to stop "discriminating" and abide by the city's fair practice ordinance or get out of the building.
Several conservative groups including the ACRU, Conservative Defense Alliance, and the Conservative Leadership PAC have launched a campaign to support the Boy Scouts.
The Cradle of Liberty Council told CBN that it's considering its options and a First Amendment action is one of them. But it remains hopeful that the matter can be resolved without litigation.
The Scouts cite a 2000 Supreme Court case which supports its right as a private organization to set membership rules.
Philadelphia joins several other cities including Berkeley and San Diego, California that have recently challenged the Scout's use of public facilities. And that has many wondering what type of scouting the second century for the Boy Scouts will bring.
Americans name Bible as their favorite book of all time, but less than half still read it
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080409/31861.htm
Regardless of which demographic group they belong to – male-female, Republican-Democrat or old-young – Americans named the Bible as their favorite book of all time, according to a recent nationwide poll.
In addition to being the number one book overall, the Holy Book also came in first across the board when comparing different demographic groups – gender, race/ethnicity, generation, political party, region, education – according to the Harris Poll released on Monday.
The results may come as no surprise considering statistics that reflect how plentiful Bibles are in the nation. An estimated 92 percent of Americans own a Bible and the average household owns three, a 1993 Barna Research study found.
More recent research puts Bible ownership at an average of four per household, which suggest that Bible publishers sell twenty-five million copies a year, according to The New Yorker.
But the revered book, a testament to God's enduring love toward mankind, is read by just 45 percent of Americans in a typical week, the Barna Research Group reported two years ago.
In the Harris Poll, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was the nation's second favorite read while J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings fantasy series nabbed third.
Americans also enjoyed reading J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which came in fourth.
The fifth most popular book is The Stand by horror author Stephen King.
Dan Brown's controversial book, The Da Vinci Code, placed sixth, while Angels and Demons, another book by the same author, came in eighth.
According to the poll, there was a large difference in the number two favorite book although Gone With the Wind came in second for most groups.
Men favored Lord of the Rings while women couldn't get enough of the Civil War and romance in Gone with the Wind as their second favorite.
Age among Americans also mattered in determining which book placed second best. For those belonging to the Echo Boomers group (ages 18-31), their second favorite is the Harry Potter series. Generation X (ages 32-43) is evenly divided between The Stand and Angels and Demons.
Baby Boomers (ages 44-62) and Matures (ages 63 and older) both liked Mitchell’s 1936 novel as their second choice.
There was also varying preferences among Americans' second favorite book, depending on where they lived. Residents in the South and Midwest chose Gone With the Wind. Easterners agreed on Tolkien and Westerners sided with King.
Both Whites and Hispanics picked Gone with the Wind as their second favorite while African Americans embraced Angels and Demons.
The largest difference between Americans' second-choice read existed between educational levels, the poll found. Those with education up until high school level went with Gone with the Wind; some college education said it was The Stand; college graduates hailed Lord of the Rings; and those with a post graduate education equally favor Lord of the Rings and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Republicans, Democrats and Independents cited the same books as the their top two – The Bible followed by Gone with the Wind.
The online poll by Harris Interactive surveyed 2,513 U.S. adults between March 11 and 18, 2008.
America's Top 10 Favorite Books
1. The Bible
2. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
3. Lord of the Rings (series), by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
5. The Stand, by Stephen King
6. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
7. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
8. Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown
9. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
10. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Religious teaching straight to your iPod
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-04-08-ipod-sermons_N.htm
The Rev. Bruce Walker preaches to a congregation of fewer than 100 people in Greenville, S.C., but people all over the world listen to his sermons via podcast.
Evangelists have long used the airwaves to get their messages out to a mass audience. But now, podcast technology is opening the doors to a wider variety of religious teaching than ever before, available on demand and delivered automatically to the computers of a growing number of Americans hungry for spirituality.
A survey last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more people used the Internet to look for religious and spiritual information than to download music, participate in online auctions or visit adult websites.
And a list updated recently by the podcast directory Podcast Alley shows 2,462 podcasts in the religion and spirituality category, the fourth highest among 21 categories, and more than in sports, news and politics.
"The good news about podcasts is this is probably another example of religious traditions trying to keep alive and relevant," says David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
But a possible downside is the higher probability of teachings of questionable quality. "There can be charlatans out there," he says.
Israel Anderson, a software designer in Denver who operates a free site called God's iPod, screens all podcasts submitted to him and weeds out most.
Part of what's driving the popularity of religious podcasts is dissatisfaction with organized religion, Anderson says. "If you're in a home church or go primarily for fellowship but your church isn't particularly good at teaching, a podcast is a good way to hear from a wide variety of people."
Pastors find listeners
Podcasting also is an inexpensive way for pastors to extend the reach of their teaching beyond the walls of their own place of worship.
Walker pays $29.99 a month to a company called SermonAudio.com, which allows him to upload as much audio for podcasts as he wants.
More than 1 million sermons are accessed each month from the site. It's owned and operated by Steven Lee, a Korean-born graduate of Bob Jones University.
"We definitely try to bill ourselves as an economical way to reach a large number of people," says Lee, a computer programmer and graphic designer who runs his site from an upstairs room in his home in Simpsonville, S.C.
His latest venture is the addition of a program that allows access to his sermon library by iPhones and iPods to view video as well as listen to audio.
The site, which has what Lee calls the world's largest MP3 sermon library (nearly 170,000 sermons), also includes a searchable online hymnal, devotional materials and Bible search tools, among other digital goodies.
Lee started the site because he realized that many churches, including his own, had been posting sermons on their websites, but nobody other than church members and the few people who might stumble upon the site knew they were there.
"I wanted to create a site that would be a platform for small churches like ourselves to reach a much larger audience," he says.
Not just for Christians
Most of the podcasters on the site are pastors of small churches that can't afford traditional media such as radio and TV.
Walker, pastor of an independent non-denominational congregation that shares space with another church, says 7,000 to 8,000 of his sermons have been downloaded by listeners all over the world.
"We have monthly listeners from probably about 35 different states, all the English-speaking countries of the world and even some non-English-speaking countries," he says.
SermonAudio.com, which also has foreign-language sermon podcasts, requires podcasters to affirm belief in a fundamentalist Christian statement of faith. But Christianity isn't the only religion being disseminated by podcasts.
Rabbi Eli Garfinkel, spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Somerset, N.J., a Conservative Jewish congregation, says he draws listeners from as far away as Italy, Argentina and Israel on his podcast, RabbiPod.
"I've been working on teaching the Torah in an accessible manner for a long time, and when the podcast technology was invented, it just seemed like a natural," he says.
GodTube, a Christian alternative to YouTube that has about 2 million users a month, allows only Christian podcasts and screens all videos to make sure they're "family friendly." But it gives preachers plenty of latitude on their sermons, says Jason Illian, chief strategy officer in charge of content.
"A lot of people come on first of all because of what their church or ministry is doing, but then they also surf around to see what other churches or ministries are doing and see how they can be involved," he says.
In a month or two, GodTube plans to launch a program that will allow churches to set up their own social networking homepages and post slide shows and audio, he says.
The easy access to religious teaching from podcasts probably won't keep people from church, just as TV and radio didn't hurt church attendance, says Roozen, the Hartford Institution director.
The downside?
One concern, though, is that the religion at the flip of a switch could easily become self-absorbed.
"The fear is when religion becomes so totally self-centered, you run the real risk of self-interested biases creeping in that may destroy the religious tradition," he says.
In some cases, though, a good podcast might be better than a traditional passive church experience, says Don Chapman, who operates a website called WorshipIdeas, which offers tips for contemporary church worship leaders.
"A lot of people just go to church and sit there passively and listen to a talking head give a sermon and leave," he says.
"So in that instance, how is that any different than listening to a podcast passively?"
D.C. police set to monitor 5,000 cameras
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/METRO/769331158/1001
D.C. officials are giving police access to more than 5,000 closed-circuit TV cameras citywide that monitor traffic, schools and public housing — a move that will give the District one of the largest surveillance networks in the country.
"The primary benefit of what we're doing is for public health and safety," said Darrell Darnell, director of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, who announced the initiative along with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday.
But the announcement left some civil liberties advocates and a key D.C. Council member concerned.
"We've been sort of sounding the alarm on this stuff for a long time, saying these little pieces — they grow," said Art Spitzer, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area.
"You put a camera here, it's not so bad, you put a camera there, it's not so bad. But then it turns out all the sudden, we find out there are 5,200 cameras. That's a big number."
Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said that the proposed move was "breathtaking" and that the initiative "has not been thought through."
"There is a huge civil liberty implication because they're talking about a fully interoperable system," said Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat. "If it is as big as they are suggesting, this is a major change."
The Video Interoperability for Public Safety (VIPS) program will consolidate the more than 5,200 cameras operated by D.C. agencies — including D.C. Public Schools and the D.C. Housing Authority — into one network managed by the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
The program will allow agencies to share camera video feeds and provide the city with a network that is actively monitored and that Mr. Darnell said will operate "24 hours a day, 365 days a year."
Physicist: Secrets of Universe Soon to Be Unlocked
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,347530,00.html
The "father" of an elusive subatomic particle said Monday he is almost sure it will be discovered in the next year in a race between powerful research equipment in the United States and Europe.
British physicist Peter Higgs, who more than 40 years ago postulated the existence of the particle in the makeup of the atom, said his visit to a new accelerator in Geneva over the weekend encouraged him that the so-called Higgs boson will soon be seen.
The $2 billion Large Hadron Collider, under construction since 2003, is expected to start operating by June at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, which is known as CERN.
It likely will take several months before the hundreds of scientists from all over the world at the laboratory are ready to start smashing together protons to study their composition.
But Higgs said the particle may already have been created at the rival Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago, where the Tevatron is currently the world's most powerful particle accelerator.
"The Tevatron has plenty of energy to do it," said Higgs. "It's just the difficulty of analyzing the data which prevents you from knowing quickly what's hiding in the data."
The massive new CERN collider, which has been installed in a 17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border, will be more powerful still and will be better able to show what particles are created in the collisions of beams of protons traveling at the speed of light.
The new Geneva collider will recreate the rapidly changing conditions in the universe a split second after the Big Bang. It will be the closest that scientists have yet come to the event that they theorize was the beginning of the universe.
They hope the new equipment will enable them to study particles and forces yet unobserved.
But Fermilab still has time to be first if it can show that it has discovered the Higgs boson.
"It's a possibility," Higgs said. "The race is a very close thing. Fermilab are obviously trying very hard. It could be already in their data and just not found in the analysis yet. That's what they're certainly hoping — that they will at least get the first indication before LHC gets going."
Higgs told reporters that he is hoping to receive confirmation of his theory by the time he turns 80 at the end of May next year.
If not, he added "I'll just have to ask my physician to keep me alive a bit longer."
Higgs predicted the existence of the boson while working at the University of Edinburgh to explain how atoms — and the objects they make up — have weight.
Without the particle, the basic physics theory — the "standard model" — lacks a crucial element, because it fails to explain how other subatomic particles — such as quarks and electrons — have mass.
The Higgs theory is that the bosons create a field through which the other particles pass.
The particles that encounter difficulty going through the field as though they are passing through molasses pick up more inertia, and mass. Those that pass through more easily are lighter.
Higgs said he would be "very, very puzzled" if the particle is never found because he cannot image what else could explain how particles get mass.
Higgs said initial reaction to his ideas in the early 1960s was skeptical.
"My colleagues thought I was a bit of an idiot," he said, noting that his initial paper explaining how his theory worked was rejected by an editor at CERN.
He said a colleague spent the summer at CERN right after he did his work on the theory.
"He came back and said, 'At CERN they didn't see that what you were talking about had much to do with particle physics.'
"I then added on some additional paragraphs and sent it off across the Atlantic to Physical Review Letters, who accepted it. The mention of what became known as the Higgs boson was part of the extra which was added on."
Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60990
Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.
Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration.
The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.
Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.
Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don't have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report.
Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly.
"Seniors are pushing back their retirement until they are 65 years old, day care centers are being built so that more women can work during the day, and there is a move to increase the quota of foreign laborers. But none of these can beat the shrinking workforce," said Takao Kobayashi, who worked on the study.
"Robots are important because they could help in some ways to alleviate such shortage of the labor force."
The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the graying population.
Kobayashi said changes was still needed for robots to make a big impact on the workforce.
"There's the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people," he said.
"People need to have the will to use the robots."
High Court asked to stop animal-human hybrid experiments
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/high.court.asked.to.stop.animalhuman.hybrid.experiments/17859.htm
The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) has gone to the High Court in a bid to halt research by two universities using animal-human hybrids.
The CLC yesterday filed papers at the High Court seeking Judicial Review over the recent decisions by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to grant licences for research into degenerative diseases using animal-human hybrids.
The decision comes after Newcastle University last week claimed to have created the first animal-human embryo and the HFEA this week licensed King’s College London to conduct similar research.
The legal challenge has been filed on the grounds that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 does not allow licensing of animal-human hybrid embryos but rather contains a prohibition on the creation of such embryos. The CLC believes, therefore, that no licence can be granted by the HFEA and that the HFEA acted beyond its powers.
The CLC added that even if the HFEA did have the power to grant a licence, the HFE Act 1990 provides that no licence can be granted unless it appears to the HFEA that the licence for research is necessary or desirable, or that the HFEA is satisfied that any proposed use of embryos is necessary for the purposes of the research.
Andrea Minichiello Williams is barrister and Director of the Christian Legal Centre, which is bringing the action together with Comment on Reproductive Ethics.
She said that the HFEA had "acted unlawfully" in granting licences permitting the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos, and argued that at the time the 1990 HFE Act was passed, Parliament had envisaged the embryo as human and not 'animal-human'.
“The decisions to grant the licences were not justified in law in that the proposed scientific techniques have been rendered ‘unnecessary’ and ‘undesirable’ by new technical advances; the proposed techniques do not work and raise new scientific problems that will prevent any meaningful research work," she said.
"Most importantly, the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos is the subject matter of a Bill before Parliament and the ethics, utility and limits of such embryo research is presently the subject of parliamentary debate. The HFEA has pre-empted and usurped the will of Parliament."
Mrs Williams chided the HFEA for failing to take into account bio-safety issues and the impact of animal egg factors on the human genome, adding that current scientific evidence indicates that research using animal-human embryos "will not yield satisfactory results".
"The creation of animal-human hybrids is an attack on the innate dignity of what it means to be human," she said.
The Christian Legal Centre is asking the Court to revoke the licenses granted by the HFEA to Newcastle University and King’s College London and order that no further experimentation is carried out.
Mrs Williams added: “It is also necessary for the Court to comment on the fact that the 1990 Act said licences can only be granted when deemed necessary or desirable. This is a legal and proper standard designed to safeguard and protect the embryo.
"When other alternatives to such controversial research already exist, then it cannot be claimed that such new research is either necessary or desirable.”
Junk Science: Why Isn’t Gore Hounding Olympic Torch?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,349730,00.html
Tibetan protesters aren’t the only ones who ought to be dogging the Olympic torch relay. When Al Gore received his Nobel Peace prize he said that global warming is a "moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
Ted Turner recently told PBS’ Charlie Rose that if steps aren’t taken to control global warming, "in 30 or 40 years … most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable."
And the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights says, "Global warming and extreme weather conditions may have calamitous consequences for the human rights of millions of people."
But despite their melodramatic rhetoric — and the just-reported news that the Olympic torch relay will release more than 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from more than 550 SUVs — you won’t see Al, Ted or anyone from the U.N. trying to tackle an Olympic torch bearer even though China easily — and unapologetically — wins the gold medal for carbon dioxide emissions and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency last year reported that China became the No. 1 CO2-emitting country in 2006, blowing past the U.S. emissions level by a whopping 8 percent. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had projected that China wouldn’t surpass the U.S. in CO2 emissions until 2020.
Now a new study from researchers at the University of California-Berkeley not only has verified the NEAA report but says that China’s emissions are growing at a rate of 11 percent — two to four times the rate projected by the IPCC.
It seems that the IPCC is as bad at forecasting CO2 emissions growth as it is at forecasting global temperature change.
The Berkeley researchers attribute the IPCC’s shortcomings to reliance on obsolete data that are almost a decade old. Since then, they say, "China’s economic and technological growth has accelerated beyond anticipation."
Adding insult to injury, the Berkeley researchers point out that while the emissions from countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol will be a cumulative 116 million metric tons lower by 2010 than they would have been without any agreement, China’s emissions will have increased by 600 million metric tons over that same period.
Now that’s what I call a carbon offset.
It’s no surprise that Kyoto signatories in the European Union are starting to wonder why they struggle to meet their emissions obligations without wrecking their economies, while China unabashedly emits CO2 like there’s no tomorrow.
While burning coal for electricity, a primary source of manmade CO2 emissions, is rapidly becoming a politically incorrect energy source, it seems China can’t get enough of it. In 2006-2007, China added 186,000 megawatts of coal-fueled electrical generation capacity, equivalent to twice the entire electricity grid of the United Kingdom.
Acquiring sufficient coal for its ever-increasing power needs turned China in 2007 into a net importer of coal for the first time, helping to more than double the price of coal over the last year.
Don’t look to China to save the West from "manmade" global warming — whether real or imagined. In vowing not to allow international action on climate change to interfere with its economic development, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told the Financial Times in early 2007 that "developed countries bear an unshirkable responsibility" for causing global warming.
The Chinese attitude, as well as that of India, which is verging on becoming the third-largest CO2 emitter, is that 95 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution came from the West, so global warming is the West’s problem.
"Both Beijing and New Delhi fear that binding emission caps that limit energy use could threaten future economic development — and condemn many of their people to perpetual poverty," the Financial Times reported.
In a prescient moment in 1997, the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 against the Kyoto Protocol because developing countries, such as China and India, were not bound to reduce their CO2 emissions.
Now that China has blown past the U.S. 15 years earlier than expected, the Senate’s prescience seems to have vanished as it has scheduled a June floor debate on the Kyoto Protocol-on-steroids Lieberman-Warner global warming bill.
Even if the bill’s heavy-handed provisions achieved its main goal — a 70 percent reduction in U.S. CO2 emissions by 2050 — atmospheric CO2 levels would only be reduced by less than 5 percent, according to the EPA.
Such a trivial reduction in atmospheric CO2 likely would have virtually zero impact on global climate albeit at great societal cost; nevertheless, the Senate’s apparent abandonment of its 1997 position seems to have led climate alarmists to sense that their personal nirvana of a carbon-restricted, energy-constipated U.S. is well within sight.
No wonder the Tibetans are chasing after the flame alone?
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