McCain: 'I Detest War'
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/McCain_Detest_War/2008/04/14/87720.html
Republican presidential candidate John McCain is attempting to reassure Americans that "I detest war" even as he strongly backs the current U.S. war strategy in Iraq.
McCain and his aides point to his past as a Vietnam prisoner of war as evidence that he is well aware of the sacrifices involved in war and not eager to get the United States involved in more conflicts if elected in November.
"Somebody who understands war, understands the military and has foreign policy and diplomatic experience is the best person to avoid war," said McCain senior adviser Charlie Black. "McCain is the last guy who wants to go to war and he knows all the other steps to do to avoid it."
At a time when his Democratic rivals are promising a way out of Iraq, McCain is adhering to a long-held view that the United States is in a war against radical Islamic extremists and that a central battle in that conflict is in Iraq.
He says the United States must stay in Iraq to help democracy take hold in the Middle East and remain there in some fashion in the years ahead as peacekeepers, much like U.S. troops have done in South Korea and Japan for decades.
Now that a troop increase in Iraq that he had recommended has improved security, more Americans are with him and willing to be more patient, he believes.
"A significant number of Americans believe we should come home with honor, not with disgrace and genocide," he told reporters on his campaign bus recently.
McCain speaks aggressively against Iran for its influence in Iraq and for what he says is its attempt to build a nuclear weapon despite a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion late last year that Iran had put its bid to develop an atomic bomb on hold in 2003.
All this has emboldened Democratic critics eager to take the White House after eight years of Republican rule under President George W. Bush.
A liberal radio talk show host who spoke at a fundraiser for Democratic candidate Barack Obama in North Dakota earlier this month, Ed Schultz, was castigated by the McCain campaign for referring to the Arizona senator as a "warmonger."
Obama distanced himself from Schultz but then came West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who drew a condemnation and apologized after telling The Charleston Gazette:
"McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues," Rockefeller said.
Democrats also accuse McCain of being blinded by Iraq, missing the threat posed by Islamic extremists in Afghanistan.
McCain argues that Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton are promising a "reckless" pullout from Iraq, a pledge he says they would never be able to keep once they face the realities.
That is a view not shared by all his Republican colleagues in the Senate.
"I think what people want a sense of is what the end is going to look like," Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker told the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, when Petraeus gave an update on the war last week.
In addition, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the current U.S. course is unsustainable, that major troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan will have to be scaled back by the next president.
Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said McCain's stance on the Iraq war would be a central point of debate in the months leading up to the November election against either Illinois Sen. Obama or New York Sen. Clinton.
"I think he will be defending the Iraq policy and talking about how he was in favor of the surge, but I think he'll put that in the context of really being opposed to the war and wanting to get out as soon as possible," Black said.
On a tour earlier this month to places important to his life, McCain spent a long time during a speech in Jacksonville, Florida, talking about the perils of war.
"I detest war," he said. "It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description ... Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war."
Obama Bitter About Free Markets
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351266,00.html
"In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations." — Barack Obama, Chicago Reader, Dec. 8, 1995.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was not only the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate in 2007, according to the National Journal, but if he becomes the Democratic Party's nominee, he will probably be the most liberal politician to ever to get it.
Obama’s past stands, including opposing the death penalty under any circumstances, believing that people should not be able to own handguns, talking about doubling the capital gains tax or opposing free trade are not the only things that get him classified as a liberal.
Nor is it just his statements that paint an elitist, snobby, liberal view of the world.
For example, as most people now know, on April 6 in a fundraiser to extremely wealthy donors in San Francisco, Obama said people living in “these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest ... cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
But, while his left-wing economic views are much less well known, they show a similar pattern.
Obama also never seems to have found a market that can work without extensive government regulation. During Obama’s big economic address at the very end of March, little attention was given in the American press to his deep distrust of the free market and his laundry list of failures of deregulation.
From telecommunications to electricity to banking to accounting, he blamed the failures as a product of markets out of control, with not enough government regulations to rein in "an ethic of greed, corner cutting, insider dealing, things that have always threatened the long-term stability of our economic system."
According to Obama, deregulation, even under the Clinton administration, produced an “'anything goes' environment that helped foster devastating dislocations in our economy.” The proper government regulation can prevent the ''chaotic, unforgiving” nature of capitalism.
For almost 30 years, Republican and Democratic administrations realized that mergers might create monopoly power, but that they often make it possible for firms to be run more efficiently — allowing firms to survive and grow and providing customers with lower cost products.
Obama’s view is that even the mergers the government did allow were largely not about making the economy better off, they were allowed because lobbyists successfully pushed through mergers that benefited firms at the expense of others. He implies that the firm’s gains were even smaller than the damage inflicted on consumers.
To Obama, the mortgage market problems arise because of unscrupulous lenders forcing fraudulent loans on unsuspecting customers. But why adjustable rate mortgages are fraudulent or so difficult to understand is never really explained. Do people not really understand that if interest rates go down, their monthly payments go down? If interest rates go up, the payments go up?
If interest rates go down and lenders lost money, would politicians be talking about unscrupulous borrowers instead of unscrupulous lenders?
Unfortunately, Obama thinks that he is not just running for president, but for America’s chief banker. He is so much smarter than the bankers, who have their jobs and money at stake, and who he thinks have messed up the mortgage market. He never even acknowledges that government regulations might be responsible. But a solution that he claims will prevent “larger losses” to the lenders requires that lenders must voluntarily “offer workouts and reduce the principal on mortgages in trouble.”
If accepting lower mortgage payments was such a clear solution, wouldn’t one think that even if the companies hadn’t seen this solution to begin with, you could just offer them the advice? Would it really be necessary to pass a law forcing them to do it?
Obama’s faith in the government to solve problems could also be seen earlier this month in Pennsylvania. Obama was asked about whether universal government health care insurance would result in the type of rationing that can be seen in other countries, but Obama claimed that a government run system would be much less expensive than a private system.
If true, it would be a first.
From exploring the Arctic to providing education, government provision has consistently proven to be much more costly than private operations.
He blames the U.S. health care system for any differences in life expectancy with other countries, but fails to acknowledge that people’s own behavior involving diet, exercise, use drugs and weight also affect how long people live. Nor does he acknowledge that people in countries such as Britain are much more likely to die from the same surgery as those in the U.S.
What was most disturbing was the end of his answer to the question: “I’m not advocating a government-run system, right now.”
Possibly, Obama’s approach for government to solve everything is what people are looking for. But it will cost them. People work harder and figure out solutions better when their own money is at stake. Hopefully, the lesson won’t be too costly.
Court Rules in Favor of Departing Virginia Churches
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07069.shtml
WASHINGTON -- On April 3, Judge Randy Bellows of the Fairfax County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the Virginia churches that have departed the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Bellows ruled that a religious division had occurred, and that the Virginia Statute on Religious Division, Va. Code 57-9(A), is applicable to this case. The Episcopal Church and the diocese are expected to challenge the court's decision. Bellows has scheduled arguments on the constitutionality of the Virginia statute for May 28.
A majority of members in the 11 Anglican churches voted to sever their ties to the Episcopal Church and the diocese following disputes over the redefinition and reinterpretation of Scripture.
IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb commented:
"Judge Bellows' decision commendably recognizes facts that the Episcopal Church refuses to accept. The majority of many congregations across the country and the majority of one entire diocese have voted to leave the Episcopal Church.
"And it's ironic and tragic when a secular judge takes the Episcopal Church's membership in the Anglican Communion more seriously than the denomination itself. Bellows rightly recognizes that 'the CANA [c] ongregations were bound by personal ties of 'affection or sympathy' with the Anglican Communion' both before and after they left the Episcopal Church.
"The ruling should cause the Episcopal Church to take a long look at its harsh, take-no-prisoners approach to dealing with church property. This result was by no means inevitable. The denomination should have allowed the diocese to sit down at the table with the CANA congregations.
"Sadly, the Episcopal Church appears more interested in property than people, and more interested in the recovery of property than in reconciliation. Christians certainly can legitimately differ in their conclusions about who lawfully should possess the property. But sometimes you can be overly zealous concerning some goal that you'll either never reach or will attain at too great a cost.
"Will the Episcopal Church gain the world but lose its soul in the process? It still is not too late to pursue healing and reconciliation."
Federal Judge Dismisses ACLU's Lawsuit Against Baptist Home
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07070.shtml
ANN ARBOR, MI - Last week, federal judge Charles R. Simpson, III, dismissed an ACLU lawsuit against a Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (recently renamed Sunrise Children's Services) following an 8-year legal battle. The case began when Alicia Pedreira, a seven month employee, sued the Home, which provides social services for at-risk children, after she was terminated for an openly proclaimed lesbian lifestyle. The reason for the termination was that her lifestyle was contrary to the Home's Christian mission and values.
Pedreira's fist lawsuit, filed in 2000, claimed her firing was an act of religious discrimination. However, the court rejected that claim in 2001, but allowed her and several other taxpayers represented by the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State to pursue a claim under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, namely, the Home was using government funds to promote religion.
This past week, however, relying on the U.S Supreme Court's 2007 Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation decision, Judge Simpson dismissed the new claim as well, on the grounds that taxpayers do not have standing to sue over executive branch funding of faith-based agencies. An attorney for plaintiffs indicated they will appeal Judge Simpson's ruling.
Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began providing legal assistance to Baptist Home's principle attorney John Sheller, soon after the ACLU's lawsuit was filed in 2000.
Pat Gillen, one of the Thomas More Law Center attorneys who worked on the case, observed, "Sunrise Children's Services has the same right to receive reimbursement to provide help to the children of Kentucky as any other social services provider. " Gillen currently serves as a visiting professor at Ave Maria School of Law.
In his decision dismissing the case, Judge Simpson found that Kentucky legislators merely made appropriations for government funding, but executive agencies that oversee social services for children and families actually made the decision to devote partial funding to the home.
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit their website at www.thomasmore.org.
Judge: Teen Can Attend Catholic School Over Atheist Dad's Objection
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351275,00.html
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A judge has ruled that a teen can attend a Louisville Catholic high school, despite objections by his atheist father.
Oldham County family court Judge Tim Feeley said in a ruling published Monday that 14-year-old Michael Ryan can attend St. Xavier High School because that's where he wants to go.
His divorced parents disagreed over whether their son should go to the religious school, which his mother Susan Bisig wanted.
David Ryan's lawsuit argued that the state's Constitution says no one can be "compelled to send his child to any school to which he may be conscientiously opposed."
But The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reports on its Web site that the judge was persuaded th
at it was in the teenager's best interest to attend St. Xavier.
David Ryan's attorney said they will probably appeal the ruling.
Minnesotans Pay for Muslim School
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Minnesotans_Muslim_school/2008/04/14/87758.html
Minnesota taxpayers are footing the bill for a charter school that reportedly violates the law by promoting religion — Islam.
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) in Inver Grove Heights regularly holds prayer sessions and includes study of the Koran in its curriculum, even though charter schools are public schools and must not endorse or promote religion, according to columnist Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune.
She writes: “TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is ‘establishing Islam in Minnesota.’ The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.”
Zaman maintains that TIZA is not a religious school, and that prayer is voluntary.
But Kersten says a substitute teacher who worked at the school told her that students were taken to the bathroom to perform “ritual washing,” then were led into the gym where a man dressed in white with a white cap led them in prayer.
“The prayer I saw was not voluntary,” the teacher told Kersten, adding that students were studying the Koran, “which gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other.”
The ACLU of Minnesota has begun an investigation of TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education has also launched a review, according to Kersten, who concludes:
“TIZA is skirting the law by operating what is essentially an Islamic school at taxpayer expense…
“There's a double standard at work here — if TIZA were a Christian school, it would likely be gone in a heartbeat.”
Tiller Grand Jury Extended Three More Months
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07072.shtml
WICHITA, Kansas -- The citizen-called grand jury that is investigating late-term abortionist George R. Tiller was officially extended last Friday for an additional three months by Judge Paul Buchanan.
The grand jury was set to expire tomorrow, April 8, the day the Kansas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether Tiller will be ordered to produce abortion records in accordance to subpoenas issued in January.
Judge Michael Corrigan, the Presiding Judge of the Sedgwick County District Court told Operation Rescue today that this is the only extension that can be given to the grand jury, which will now expire on July 8, whether their investigation is complete or not.
"The decision to extend the grand jury is very welcome news," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Now that the grand jury has been allowed the time they need to complete their investigation, all they need is access to the evidence that Tiller is trying to hide from them. We pray tonight that the Supreme Court will allow the grand jury access to the evidence so that justice may finally be done."
Operation Rescue will be attending the oral arguments before the Kansas Supreme Court, which will be held in Topeka tomorrow at 9 AM.
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.
Christian Photog Sued by Same-Sex Couple
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/357084.aspx
A Christian photographer in New Mexico was found guilty last week of breaking state law for refusing to take pictures of a lesbian ceremony.
Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography was contacted in 2006 by a same-sex couple wanting pictures taken of their "commitment ceremony."
After Huguenin told them she only photographed traditional marriages, the couple filed a complaint for discrimination against their sexual orientation.
The case was taken before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission, which heard the case in January.
On Wednesday, the state commission ruled that Huguenin violated the state's Human Rights Act. An order was issued for the photographer to pay close to $7,000 for the couple's attorney's fees.
The Christian-based Alliance Defense Fund plans to appeal the ruling.
"Christians in the marketplace should not be penalized for abiding by their beliefs anymore than anyone else should," ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence said. "The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling people to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience.
The commission viewed Huguenin's business as one similar to a restaurant or a store, making refusing services an act of discrimination. Huguenin and her husband Jon own the business.
"There's a great artistic component to photography, and a lot of messages are communicated with a wedding-type ceremony," Lorence added. "No one should be compelled to participate in a ceremony when they disagree with it. The government is compelling speech here in a way that violates the First Amendment."
This year, New Mexico's Senate downed a proposal to allow domestic partnerships. Critics were concerned it was too similar to recognizing same-sex marriage.
Over 100 Pro-Family Leaders from 22 Countries Sign Petition in Support of Romania's Defense of Marriage
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07071.shtml
World Congress of Families International Secretary Allan C. Carlson expressed great satisfaction at the enthusiastic reception of the World Congress of Families Petition in Support of Romania's Defense of Marriage.
More than 100 leaders of pro-family organizations from 22 countries have expressed solidarity with the Alliance of Romania's Families in its efforts to secure a statutory definition of marriage.
Last year, the Alliance collected over 650,000 signatures on a petition for a defense of marriage amendment to the Romanian Constitution. Unfortunately, the drive failed to meet the required geographical distribution requirement, but nevertheless was instrumental in convincing legislators to act.
In February, by a vote of 38 to 10, the Romanian Senate passed an amendment to the nation's Family Code defining marriage as the "union freely consented to between a man and a woman." The Chamber of Deputies is expected to take up the measure before its June recess.
Given the propensity of the European Union to attack impediments to same-sex marriage, the Alliance of Romania's Families asked World Congress of Families to gather support from pro-family groups around the world.
In response, WCF launched its Petition in Support of Romania's Defense of Marriage. Signers include representatives of U.S. groups such as Focus on The Family, Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, as well as organizations like Latin American Alliance for the Family, REAL Women of Canada, The Family Network (Mexico), Pro-Life Center (Moscow), New Generation Church (Latvia), Human Life International (Poland), Ukraine Large Families Association, Endeavour Forum (Australia), the Pakistan Family Forum, and Association of Citizens, Network for Life And The Family (Chile). Click here for a complete list of signers.
"This shows the willingness of pro-family groups to stand in solidarity," Carlson observed. "It is a recognition of the reality that a threat to the natural family anywhere is a threat to the natural family everywhere."
"We will continue to build the international pro-family movement to protect the natural family and advance our common values, wherever they are threatened," Carlson promised.
On April 8, Mr. Bogdan Stanciu of the Alliance of Romania's Families will present copies of the Petition at the Romanian parliament's annual prayer breakfast. Copies of the Petition will also be presented to various leaders of the Romanian government, as well as leaders of every party, over the next week.
For more information on World Congress of Families, go to www.worldcongress.org.
Food Crisis Threatens Fight on Poverty
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/357233.aspx
UNITED NATIONS - A rapidly escalating global food crisis has reached emergency proportions and threatens to wipe out seven years of progress in the fight against poverty, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Monday.
He called for short-term emergency measures in many regions to meet urgent food needs and avoid starvation and urged longer-term efforts to significantly increase production of food grains.
The international community needs "to take urgent and concerted action in order to avoid the larger political and security implications of this growing crisis," Ban told international finance and trade officials who came to a U.N. meeting following weekend talks in Washington.
Ban's appeal came as President Bush ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to help nations where surging food prices have deepened hunger woes and sparked violent protests. The money will come from a reserve fund known as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the move will help address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs and help meet the unanticipated food needs of struggling countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Bush's move came one day after World Bank President Robert Zoellick's appealed to governments to quickly provide the U.N. World Food Program with $500 million in emergency aid that it needs by May 1.
Zoellick said the international community has "to put our money where our mouth is" to deal with rapidly rising food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence in several countries.
Ban said the recent steep rise in food prices "has already raised the cost of WFP's needs to maintain its current operations from $500 million to $755 million."
WFP, the world's largest humanitarian agency, issued an "extraordinary emergency appeal" for the $500 million last month, saying the money was needed by May 1 to avoid cutting rations to some of the world's most impoverished regions. The Rome-based agency said its funding gap was growing weekly.
"The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions," Ban said.
"The World Bank has estimated that the doubling of food prices over the last three years could push 100 million people in low income countries deeper into poverty," he said.
Ban echoed Zoellick in warning that that the food crisis "could mean seven lost years in the fight against worldwide poverty."
U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes offered a more cautious assessment.
While it is "a very serious problem which has global ramifications," Holmes said, "I think we should be a little bit careful of being too alarmist about it and suggesting there are mass problems around the corner, or that it's a global emergency we have to solve with every detail tomorrow."
He stressed, however, that the $500 million sought by WFP did not cover potential future needs, including those "that might arise from price rises ... or if the number of desperately hungry people in a country doubles."
The United Nations is at a midpoint in its campaign to reduce global poverty and improve living standards of the world's bottom billion people. The Millennium Development Goals, adopted at a U.N. summit in 2000, include cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015.
The World Bank's Development Committee urged both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund "to provide timely policy and financial support ... to countries dealing with negative shocks including from energy and food shortages," said Mexican finance official Ricardo Ochoa, who spoke on behalf of the committee.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal said emerging markets and developing countries have shown resilience but their growth prospects have moderated and inflation risks have increased.
"For many countries, containing inflation and addressing vulnerabilities will remain a key priority," Portugal said.
Netanyahu: Gov't. 'Detached from Reality'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/356822.aspx
TEL AVIV, Israel - Likud chairman and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu called the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "detached from reality."
Speaking at the annual pre-Pesach (Passover) meeting of the party's central committee in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said Olmert's government has neither leadership nor direction.
"The government is detached from reality, security is faulty, the economy is receding, and education is collapsing due to the absence of leadership and the absence of a path," he said.
Netanyahu said the prime minister's strategy of bolstering Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas by making concessions is a flawed strategy, which has proven disastrous in the past.
"I hear that Olmert and Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] are working on a 'shelf plan' -- as if it's possible to buy peace in Abu Mazen's supermarket. In this plan, Israel pays for everything in advance and receives nothing in return," Netanyahu said.
"The mistakes of one leader cannot be fixed by a thousand generals," he said. "Barak made a mistake by leaving Lebanon [in 2000 during his tenure as prime minister], which strengthened Hezbollah. Olmert made a mistake by leaving Gaza [in 2005], which strengthened Hamas. They both created new Muslim fundamentalist strongholds," he said.
"Some 8,000 missiles and rockets have been showered on top of Israelis' heads from these two bases. In the north and in the south, our enemies are arming themselves with lethal Iranian weapons," he said.
"Likud is a party of peace. It has made peace and will make peace, but the greatest mistake in diplomacy is giving in to dreams and being detached from reality," he said.
"We have a government that escapes responsibility and sometimes it seems it is only cynically engaged in political survival. I believe that the State can be led differently, in a successful way. But this way compels us to look straight into reality and tell the people the truth," he said.
"We all know the truth -- the IDF leaves, Hamas enters," he said.
Netanyahu also called on the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to leave the coalition.
Addressing Shas chairman Eli Yishai, Netanyahu asked, "Until when will you sit in the government? Until we return to the 1967 borders? Until a Palestinian flag flies on the Temple Mount? Leave the government and stop the evil decree," he said.
In opinion polls, Netanyahu has maintained a consistent lead to win the premiership in the next general elections.
Source: U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/iran_nuclear_strike/2008/04/14/87887.html
Contrary to some claims that the Bush administration will allow diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a leading member of America’s Jewish community tells Newsmax that a military strike is not only on the table – but likely.
“Israel is preparing for heavy casualties,” the source said, suggesting that although Israel will not take part in the strike, it is expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution.
“Look at Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East as preparation for the U.S. attack,” the source said.
Cheney’s hastily arranged 9-day visit to the region, which began on March 16, included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, and the Palestinian territories.
Tensions in the region have been rising.
While Israel was conducting the largest homefront military exercises in its history last week, Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tehran about expected attacks on the Jewish state.
“An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said.
He predicted that in a future war, “hundreds of missiles will rain on Israel,” but added that Iran “is definitely aware of our strength.”
In addition to long-range missiles Iran has been developing to strike Israel, Israel’s military strategists see the Iranians using terror groups they back like Hamas operating from Palestine and Hezbollah from Lebanon to launch attacks.
Iran has supplied Hezbollah with an arsenal that now contains “tens of thousands of missiles,” according to the Washington Post.
Israel’s recent war exercises, including preparations for chemical and biological weapons attacks, drew a sharp response from Syria which held its own military drills. The Syrian government accused Israel of preparing for a war which Damascus predicted would be begin anytime between May 1 and the end of June.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told foreign journalists that Israel needs to confront the threat posed by Iran. Privately he has been telling associates his number one priority is have the Israeli military strike Iran if the U.S. is unwilling.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that Israel is concerned that North Korea has transferred technology and nuclear materials to Iran to aid Tehran’s secret nuclear weapons program.
Iran remains intransigent to international pressure that it offer full transparency relating to its nuclear program. On Sunday the head of Iran’s nuclear program “abruptly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing a blow to the U.N. monitor's efforts to investigate allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms, an agency official said,” according to an AP report.
“But a senior diplomat had told the AP that IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] head Mohamed ElBaradei likely planned to use the meeting with Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's nuclear program, to renew a request for more information on allegations Tehran had tried to make atomic arms.”
A number of signs indicate that, contrary to the belief President Bush is a lame duck who will not act before he leaves office, the U.S. is poised to strike before Iran can acquire nuclear weapons and carry out the threat of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “wipe Israel off the map”:
According to intelligence sources, the administration now rejects the National Intelligence Estimate report issued in December that asserted Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in late 2003.
The French daily Le Monde reported in March that newly surfaced documents show that Iran has continued developing nuclear weapons. In late 2006, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted a phone conversation in Iran’s Defense Ministry in which the nuclear weapons program was discussed.
The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, resigned in March amid media reports that he broke with President Bush’s strategy on Iran and did not want to be in the chain of command when the order comes down from the President to launch a strike on the Islamic Republic.
Democrats suggested he had been forced out because of his candor in opposing Bush’s Iran plans, and Esquire magazine contended that Fallon’s departure signaled that the U.S. is preparing to attack Iran.
According to a Tehran-based Iranian news network, Press TV, Saudi Arabia is taking emergency steps in preparing to counter any “radioactive hazards” that may result from an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Saudi newspaper Okaz disclosed that the Saudi government has approved nuclear fallout preparations, and the Iranian network reported that the approval came a day after Cheney met with the kingdom’s high-ranking officials, further stating that the U.S. “is now informing its Arab allies of a potential war.”
The American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has stepped up criticism of Iran, telling Congress last week that Iranian support for Shiite militias posed the most serious threat to Iraq’s stability. He told senators : “Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way.” Last week, the U.S. said Iran was providing insurgents with missiles that were killing Americans and hitting targets within the U.S. occupied Green Zone in Baghdad.
MSNBC Commentator Pat Buchanan said Petraeus’ remarks to Congress lay the groundwork for a U.S. attack on Iran.
President Bush said in a speech at the White House on April 10 that Iran, along with al-Qaida, are “two of the greatest threats to America.”
He said Iran “can live in peace with its neighbors,” or “continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorizing the Iraqi people … If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners.”
He later told ABC News that if Iran continues to help militants in Iraq, “then we’ll deal with them.”
Members of Congress are said to have been briefed by the administration about the rising Iran threat.
Iran did little to cool tensions when it announced that it had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.
Centrifuges can enrich uranium to a low level to produce nuclear fuel or a high level for use in weapons.
The announcement of the new centrifuges by President Ahmadinejad came on April 8, Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology, which marked the second anniversary of Iran’s first enrichment of uranium.
Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz, and the new announcement was widely seen as a show of defiance to international demands to halt a nuclear program that the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
Iran Secretly Tests Long-Range Missile
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Iran_long_range_missiles/2008/04/11/87222.html
New satellite photos have uncovered the secret site where Iran is thought to be developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe.
The site about 140 miles southeast of Tehran was revealed by Jane’s Intelligence Review after a study of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite.
The photos were snapped four days after the Feb. 4 launch of Iran’s Kavoshgar 1 rocket, which Iran claimed was connected to the nation’s space program.
Iran is believed to be developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 4,000 miles, the Times of London reported.
The imagery shows that there is a recently constructed building on the site similar in form and size to the Taepodong long-range missile assembly facility in North Korea, according to Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former Iraq weapons inspector.
An analysis of the site indicated that Iran may be about five years away from developing the 4,000-mile missile, said Avital Johanan, editor of Jane’s Proliferation.
That would underline “why President Bush wants the Polish and Czech components of the U.S. missile defense system to be up and running by 2013,” according to the Times.
The Kavoshgar 1 rocket launched in February in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was based on the Shahab 3B missile, a version of North’s Korea’s Nodong missile, which was developed by Pyongyang reportedly with extensive assistance from China.
The Times disclosed that according to Jane’s Intelligence Review, the satellite photos “prove that the Kavoshgar 1 rocket was not part of a civilian space center project but was consistent with Iran’s clandestine program to develop longer-range missiles.”
Iran Demands Israel Stop Force Threats
http://www.newsmax.com/international/un_iran_israel/2008/04/11/87338.html
Iran urged the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israel and demand that it stop threatening to use military force against the Islamic republic, according to a letter obtained Friday.
In the letter to council, Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazee referred to comments on April 7 by Israel's Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who warned Tehran that any attack on the Jewish state would result in the "destruction of the Iranian nation."
Israel's U.N. Mission said it would have no comment on Khazee's letter.
Exchanges between the two nations have grown increasingly bitter in recent years. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Holocaust is a "myth" and called for Israel's elimination.
The Iranian ambassador told the Security Council that Israel "has continued with its insolent, outrageous and unprovoked threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran" and in violation of the U.N. Charter.
"The inaction of the Security Council in this regard, has emboldened the said regime to pursue this dangerous course," Khazee said.
He said the Security Council should condemn the statements and call on Israel to "cease and desist" from threatening to use force.
Khazee sent a similar letter to the council in late February demanding that Israel stop threatening military again against Iran's nuclear program.
Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes. The United States, Israel and key European nations suspect its real aim is to produce atomic weapons.
Hamas Cleric Predicts 'Rome Will Be Conquered by Islam'
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351242,00.html
A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.
The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."
"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.
"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," he added.
Al-Astal last June preached how it was the duty of Palestinian women to martyr themselves by becoming homicide bombers.
"The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom," he said in a June 23, 2007 interview.
"When jihad becomes an individual duty, it applies to women too, because women do not differ from men when it comes to individual duties," he said, calling Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs" who should "taste the bitterness of death."
Friday's rant repeated that theme: "Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam.
"I believe that our children, or our grandchildren, will inherit our jihad and our sacrifices, and, Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them.
"Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls – and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire at whose brink they stand."
Priest Killed in Iraq
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07073.shtml
Father Youssef Adel (40), an Assyrian Orthodox priest, was shot dead by unknown assailants in the district of Karradah, Baghdad on April 5. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Adel was driving to a church when gunmen in another car sped past him and opened fire.
Adel was the director of a high school that was attended by both Christians and Muslims. He had been the target of threats and intimidation intended to drive him away from his post.
Pray that those who mourn for Father Adel will find strength, courage and peace in Christ. Pray that believers in Iraq will set Christ apart as Lord and not be controlled by fear despite severe persecution (1 Peter 3:14-17).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in Iraq, go to www.persecution.net/country/iraq.htm.
How America Is Funding Terrorism
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/356986.aspx
In the recent, Academy Award-winning film There Will Be Blood, one man's lust for oil - and the power and wealth that comes with it - eventually drives him mad.
The timing of the film is ironic, as the United States' increasing reliance on foreign oil has some Americans questioning their government's sanity. President Bush says America is "addicted to oil"--and that it's time for a change.
"America has got to change its habits," he told an audience at the International Renewable Energy Conference in March. "We've got to get off oil.that dependency presents a challenge to our national security. In 1985, 20 percent of America's oil came from abroad. Today that number is nearly 60 percent."
Big Oil, Big Terror
Much of that imported oil comes from OPEC, a group made up of 13 of the world's most petroleum-rich nations: Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Nigeria, Qatar Venezuela and Ecuador.
While these nations may have an abundance of oil, most of them lack democracy and human rights. Worse yet, some of them are state sponsors of terrorism -- and sworn enemies of the United States.
"With only one or two exceptions, OPEC is effectively dictatorships and autocratic kingdoms," former C.I.A. director James Woolsey tells CBN News.
Woolsey is a member of the Set America Free Coalition. The group highlights the national security and economic implications of America's dependence on foreign oil.
"Ninety seven percent of our transportation is fueled by oil products of one sort or another," says Woolsey. "And two thirds of the world's proven reserves of conventional oil are in the Middle East, and about that share is also in the hands of OPEC."
Gas and oil prices are currently at an all-time high - OPEC sets the market price. Woolsey says Saudi Arabia is using a chunk of its oil wealth to spread its brand of radical Wahhabi Islam worldwide.
"The Saudis control about 90 percent of the world's Islamic institutions," he says. "And oil is the reason for that."
Iran's big oil profits mean big money for that country's nuclear program and its terrorist proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Lately, Iranian Pesident Mahmoud Ahmadenijad has been joined by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in threatening to help drive oil prices up even further.
Are Flex Fuels the Key?
"The price of oil was $11 a barrel in 1999. It went to $22 a barrel in 2001 $50 a barrel in 2004. Now it's a $100 a barrel," author Robert Zubrin points out. "And Hugo Chavez and Ahmadenijad are already talking about raising it to 200 dollars a barrel. And they will do that if we don't have a competitive situation."
Zubrin is the author of Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. He says flex fuel vehicles are the way to break what he calls OPEC's energy monopoly.
"Only fuel choice can defeat OPEC," he tells CBN News. "And it's flex fuel vehicles that will create fuel choice in the market."
Flex fuel vehicles run on a mixture of gasoline and either ethanol or methanol. If you put 85 percent ethanol and, say, 15 percent gasoline into your car, your gas bills are obviously going to be much lower. The less gas your car requires, the less money goes to OPEC.
One of the attractive aspects of ethanol and methanol is that they're alcohol fuels that are easily produced. Ethanol can be made from corn, grains, barley, wheat, rice and sugar cane. Corn is the main ingredient for ethanol in the United States.
Ethanol and Food Prices
But corn-based ethanol has plenty of critics. Critics have blamed the trend toward corn-based ethanol fuel for recent food shortages in Third World countries like Haiti. They say the increased demand for biofuels like ethanol that can be made from food has driven up food prices.
Bush said last month that the increased production of corn-based ethanol is a good thing. He pointed out that the in 2005, the U.S. became the world's leading ethanol producer. He, too, is concerned that corn ethanol is driving up food prices.
Zubrin disagrees.
"The retail price of corn, as well as all other food commodities, is being driven up an average of 4 percent by increased fuel prices, which are up 40 percent this year, as well as increased demand from China and India," says Zubrin.
"The increased fuel prices affect retail food prices by increasing the price of production , transport, wages, and packaging, which are the majority of cost of retail food," he says.
There are other flex-fuel options as well, like methanol. It can be made from any kind of biomass--like plants, crops, wood and agricultural waste, as well as coal, natural gas and even urban trash.
According to Zubrin, these types of flex fuels could help America become energy independent.
"The U.S. Congress could destroy the oil cartel with the stroke of a pen simply by passing a law mandating that all new cars sold in the U.S.-- not made, sold - be flex fueled," he says. "That it's able to run either on alcohol or gasoline."
He says such legislation would force gasoline to compete against flex fuels at the pump.
"What this would do is put 50 million cars on the road in the United States within three years capable of running on alcohol," he states.
"If we made it the American standard that to sell a car here it has to be flex-fueled, that means all the foreign carmakers would switch their cars over to flex fuel.and gasoline would be forced to compete at the pump against alcohol not only in Iowa, but in Argentina and Kenya and Poland: everywhere."
New Flex Automobiles
Here in the U.S., Detroit's Big Three automakers are producing 24 different models of flex fuel cars this year. Still, flex fuel cars make up only about 3 percent of the new car market.
"The reason why you can't find an ethanol pump is that there aren't any cars," says Zubrin. "At the gas station, if you have three pumps, you're not going to dedicate them to a type of fuel that only 3 percent of the cars use.
That would change if Congress passed a flex fuel mandate. But some libertarian and conservative groups strongly oppose any government involvement in the energy sector.
"The reason we subsidize ethanol.is not because of some economic calculation. It's because politicians are in the business of buying votes. And a set of votes they would dearly love to buy are votes from farm states like Iowa and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Minnesota," Policy Analyst Jerry Taylor of the free-market Cato Institute told CBN News last year.
There's also been concern from environmental groups that as more land is cleared to make room for crops needed to make flex fuels, deforestation will occur in places like Brazil,
Zubrin argues that the increased demand for biofuels will actually be a boost to the economies of Third World countries that can easily produce them.
Some experts say there could eventually be other options as well, like hydrogen-based cars.
But the debate continues over how best to handle America's energy needs in a hostile world.
"If we should be wondering who should be paying for, let's say, little Pakistani boys to go to madrassahs to be taught to be suicide bombers," suggests Woolsey. "If you really wonder about that, move your rearview mirror a few inches before you get out to charge your gasoline and look into your own eyes. And now you know. You and I are paying for it.
In the Line of Duty
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/355632.aspx
Technology and weapons are not the only things helping our American troops succeed in the War on Terror. Animals also play an important part in keeping you safe.
It's hard to imagine lovable creatures like dolphins and sea lions defending our country. But their mission is not something to take lightly.
More than 100 of them are being trained in the San Diego Bay as part of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program. The goal is to protect our military and civilians in the global War on Terror.
"It's not for show, and we take our job very seriously," said Chris Harris, the operations supervisor of the dolphin training. "Although it looks like we're having a lot of fun, we are, but the end product is that we can go forward, take these animals any place in the world and insure that our sailors and Marines are in safe waters."
The program started nearly 50 years ago when the Navy began studying the incredible swimming abilities of the dolphin. That study revealed that dolphins have certain capabilities ideal for helping the military. Biological sonar is at the top of that list.
"Their ability to project sound, listen to those echoes and to draw, if you would, a picture of what's out there is nothing that we can replicate accurately with technology at this point," Harris explained.
Targeting Sea Mines
The Navy discovered a dolphin's biosonar makes it uniquely skilled at finding sea mines -- sophisticated underwater weapons designed to sink ships or kill the enemy. The dolphin places a marker near the mine so it can be avoided or removed. Sea mines are made so that they cannot be easily set off by animals bumping into them.
Sea lions, who have been used by the Navy since 1975, also have sensory skills that surpass those found in people. They have incredible vision and can see in low light conditions five times better than humans.
Their excellent eyesight and highly sensitive hearing help them to find objects in murky, deep water. But sea lions do not work near live mines. Instead, they help train Navy pilots learning how to drop practice mines.
"The pilots have a spot they're supposed to hit," said Dru Price, a senior trainer with the sea lion program. "The sea lions can go down, hook up a target. With GPS, we can get the actual location, and find out how close they were to their mark."
In addition, the sea lions attach devices to the exercise targets so they can be recovered easily from the ocean floor.
Defending Humans, Collaring Intruders
All this activity requires a lot of diving, something dolphins and sea lions also do much better than humans. These marine mammals can repeatedly make deep water dives without getting decompression sickness like people do.
The dolphins and sea lions are also trained to defend our ports and harbors by detecting unauthorized swimmers or divers.
"So if someone were to try and sneak in and approach a ship where the ship's at anchor, or were the ship at a dock, the dolphin will detect, identify, categorize that as being someone that shouldn't be there," Harris said. They "then mark the position so that Naval security forces can deal with that threat."
"They come back and they let us know that they found something," Price said about the sea lions. "Once they do that, they're given a grabber that they attach to the leg of the person that's out there. It's almost like a handcuff that the sea lions can carry."
Because dolphins and sea lions have hydrodynamic bodies and move quickly in the water, suspicious swimmers are marked before they even know what happened.
Training for War
"They are absolutely a very key part in the War on Terror," Price emphasized.
Before they can fulfill their roles, however, the animals must be trained. Trainers are on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sarah Radloff works with the sea lions.
"It's pretty easy once you get going, but like I said, it's a long process that takes many years for them to trust you and move on through the different types of trainers that they see everyday," Radloff said.
Harris says the key is to keep it simple.
"Small, incremental steps in the training, so that the dolphin is very likely to have continuing success," he explained. "We don't move so quickly as to confuse the animal."
Throughout the training facility, you'll find examples of that step-by-step process. Training sessions also take place in the open water.
For instance, dolphins learn to follow a boat. It's a building block exercise that makes sure the animal is comfortable and reliable on a mission during a time of war.
Animal Rights Violations?
But not everything has been smooth water for the Navy Marine Mammal Program. Over the years, it's acquired its share of vocal critics.
Animal rights and welfare organizations have accused the Navy of using the dolphins as offensive weapons in attack missions. There also have been charges that the program abused the animals.
Program leaders say the accusations are false.
"We don't put our animals in harm's way," said Mike Rothe, the manager of the Biosciences Division. "It's challenging -- the work that we have them do. We train them to do it, we don't force them to do it. We've never used the animals offensively."
Workers stand by the program, including the care of the animals, even calling it the "world's finest marine mammal veterinary facility."
"Most of the time, you and I wouldn't see our doctors on a daily basis, but often times, we will go down and see our patients once a day just so we can monitor them," said Capt. Stephen Cassle, the chief of clinical veterinary services.
Healthy animals translate into healthy missions to keep our military and citizens safe.
"We fulfill our role, hopefully all coming in for a team win," Harris said.
Star Exits Scientology
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351287,00.html
Ruggedly handsome actor Jason Beghe was best man at the wedding of "X Files" star David Duchovny (his childhood pal) and actress Tea Leoni. In 1998, he starred as Demi Moore’s love interest in “G.I. Jane.” He’s been featured in numerous TV dramas such as 'Criminal Minds,' 'Numb3rs', and 'CSI.'
In 2005, Beghe appeared in promotional spots for the Church of Scientology.
But now Beghe has escaped the Church after taking courses since 1994. He’s made a video that’s up on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07m-IvvpK2E.
This is what he has to say:
“Scientology is destructive and a rip off.”
He also says: “It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s [messed] up.”
You can see from the video that Beghe does not mince words. But his refreshing candor about the religion he joined in 1994 should shake the Celebrity Center to its core.
“It ain’t deliverin’ what it’s promised. It sure has not. “
The video is billed as a three-minute teaser to a longer interview with Beghe that’s on its way. But the short video packs a powerful punch. Beghe still uses a lot of Scientology lingo like “OT” and “clear.” Still, it’s quite easy to understand the point he’s making. After 14 years and a tremendous amount of money, he’s finally seen Scientology for what it is.
Beghe has completed so many courses that he’s considered a top Scientologist, or “OT 5”—similar to Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But Beghe reveals: “The further up the bridge the worse you get.”
He adds: “I don’t have an agenda. I’m just trying to help. I have the luxury of having gotten into Scientology and after having been in it, been out. And that’s a perspective that people who are still in and not out do not have.”
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