Oprah Winfrey Denies Jesus Christ
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07087.shtml
WASHINGTON -- On her television show Oprah Winfrey has been pushing a new book by Eckhart Tolle called A New Earth. In fact, Oprah has now taken up preaching as a new past time and has determined in her own mixed-up mind there are now millions of ways to get to heaven.
This is so sad because Oprah is a hero of tens of millions of television viewers and she is expressing her own Biblical beliefs without any understanding of the Bible. Oprah has in effect denied the teachings of the Bible and of Jesus Christ by asking her viewing audience, "How can there be only one way to heaven or to God?"
When a lady in her audience asked, "What about Jesus?" Oprah defiantly answered her by repeating the question, "What about Jesus?" Oprah went on to explain how she had been a Baptist until she heard a charismatic Pastor make the statement that God was a jealous God. She told her viewers in her opinion God was simply love and God being described as a Jealous God made her really stop and think.
Don Swarthout, President of Christians Reviving America's Values said, "Oprah Winfrey has in reality just exposed her own lack of understanding about the God of Christianity. God may be a God of love, but he is also a God of justice and judgment."
Don Swarthout said, "The point is there are millions upon millions of Christians in the United States who thoroughly believe what Jesus taught in the Bible and for Oprah to come out against that teaching so strongly is simply appalling. Oprah should really stop to think before she goes off preaching her own unfounded beliefs to the world on her show."
Rebecca Chadwick, a news contributor for CRAVE said, "All cults share the same premise; they misrepresent the nature of God. Let's pray for Oprah and Tolle... and all those who are lost."
Is Oprah Starting Her Own Cult?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351545,00.html
Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer.
On Monday night, Winfrey conducted her weekly Web "event" seminar with New Age writer Eckhart Tolle. His message: "Life is the dancer and you are the dance."
Got that?
The seminar was No. 7 in a series of 10. On the first 90-minute Webcast with Tolle, Oprah extolled the author’s virtues, calling his best-selling "New Earth" book "one of the most important books of our time," the seminars one of "the most exciting things I’ve ever done."
Imagine that Winfrey considers her conversations with Tolle, a man with a shady and un-checkable background, more important than her schools in Africa and Mississippi for underprivileged children, more important than her Angel Charity network or her zillion-dollar syndicated TV show. Tolle must be something else!
But it’s not like Winfrey is endorsing Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison, serious, educated artists with portfolios. Tolle is more like Kilgore Trout, Kurt Vonnegut’s science-fiction crackpot alter-ego.
And what’s different about the Tolle connection for Winfrey is that for the first time in her much-applauded Book Club’s history, she’s gone into business with the author. And the author is not one of a novel, memoir or cookbook; he’s the mysterious creator of a philosophy that Winfrey endorses and suggests her readers live their lives by.
But is Eckhart Tolle an appropriate spiritual leader? He told an interviewer that he stopped going to school at age 13 and didn’t resume any education for at least a decade. In the same interview he says he graduated "with the highest mark at the London University."
The press rep at the University of London says there’s simply no way to verify that. "You might as well say you graduated from here," joked the person I spoke to. Clever.
He says in interviews that he had a personal epiphany in 1977 at age 29 after a life of suffering from suicidal depression. For the next 15 years, no one knows much about what happened to him, and he’s not saying. He says he spent time wandering and sitting in London’s parks, with "no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity," but a sense of "intense joy."
In seminar 1, Oprah’s new guru tells her: "I was living in England, and I had this strong impulse one morning … I had to move to the West Coast of North America without knowing why … So I moved to Vancouver and then I took a Greyhound bus to California, knew only one or two people, and I said, 'Why am I here?'"
"Three weeks passed, somebody put me up in a room near San Francisco, and suddenly this came. I bought a notepad and suddenly the strong stream came through and I wrote, 'What Is Enlightenment?' The beginning of 'The Power of Now.' The moment I wrote that, I knew this is the book that wants to be born. So rather than me wanting to write a book, there was a book that wanted to be written."
And so on.
Oprah’s response to this: "It’s like Michelangelo says the angel’s in the marble and he just cuts away the marble."
Well, not quite.
His books, "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," are the same gobbledygook as most New Age stuff. They’re all about self-empowering and how to find out who we are. "Awakening" is Tolle’s key word. Tolle is very busy enforcing moments of silence and showing his readers how to find their "pain-body."
Nothing new there. And nothing new for Oprah, who’s now so wildly wealthy that she’s exceeded literally any famous person she might interview. Parade magazine puts her 2007 income at $260 million, the most of any celebrity and $150 million more than Steven Spielberg, the most successful filmmaker of all time. So what can she do besides anoint presidential candidates or start a religion?
Indeed, Winfrey already has flirted with several cult-like New Age deals. She’s enthusiastically embraced the Scientology celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. She’s even gone into business with Kirstie Alley, whom she’s planning to give a forum in her own talk show.
She’s also promoted televangelist Marianne Williamson’s kooky "Course of Miracles" and a book of New Age clichés by Australian Rhonda Byrne called "The Secret." (There’s a good piece on the latter at salon.com.)
Winfrey is nothing if not gifted at recognizing what’s already popular in the culture and exploiting it. But her association with Tolle is way over the top. It involves sponsorships with General Motors (Chevy), 3M Corp. (Post-Its) and Skype Internet phone service. In one broad stroke, she’s managed to accomplish what Scientology never has achieved: bringing corporate America’s implicit approval into religion.
What’s interesting is not so much Tolle, with his German accent and blank stare, proselytizing his nonsense. He talks a lot, literally, about looking at flowers and trees in a new way, much like Chauncey Gardner in "Being There."
It’s more about Oprah herself, free associating, selling out her own world as she gushes over those flowers and trees. For example, in seminar 1, she socks it to Hollywood, the source of 50 percent of her guests. This is the same Oprah who does a live special the day after the Oscars and often plugs the worst films just to get ratings.
In that segment, Oprah seems to forget who she is to score points with Tolle, or rationalize why she’s involved in this beyond the corporate money being reaped:
"Everyone complains about the media and the movies. I mean, if you just look at the Academy Awards this year, and the kinds of movies that were made this year, and it’s all a reflection of who we are. You say in the book," Winfrey says to Tolle, "that we’re the species that will go and watch people be maimed and killed and murdered for our entertainment."
We can assume she wasn’t talking about "Juno," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Savages," "Enchanted," "Atonement," "La Vie En Rose," "Michael Clayton," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "Into the Wild," "Away from Her" or "Charlie Wilson’s War" — all films that had nominations. Just three films featured overt violence this year — "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" and "Sweeney Todd."
But it’s the zealous excitement in Winfrey’s eyes when she says it that makes the difference. Those three films are now the whole Academy Awards, and therefore "the media." You can already feel hearts pounding! She’s right! Hollywood had better look at flowers and trees in a new way.
What makes Oprah’s seminars even more creepy are the "study groups" she has lined up for Tolle at bookstores and other locations around the world. They’re all hooked up to the seminars through Skype, and the members can ask questions. They all have that same glazed-over look as people giving testimonials on late-night infomercials.
"I consider this to be a sacred moment when we can all come together … and share in this work," Winfrey says at the start of seminar 6. And why not? You’ll notice that she, not Tolle, has the sole copyright on the broadcasts. Ka ching!
But don’t worry about Eckhart Tolle. His "power of now" is all about his store. All roads lead to his merchandise, which is prominently featured on his Web site and accessed from Oprah’s.
His is a costly philosophy. Books, tapes, DVDs — all of it becomes quite expensive when added up, making Tolle no different than Scientology, Kabbalah or any other shiny new religion. Tolle even sells teaching tools "for professionals" — "A Guide for the Spiritual Teacher and Health Practitioner" — even though it’s unclear what is the basis of his own educational background.
Are we supposed to take this seriously? As Tolle, himself, says to Oprah, "It’s better to laugh at madness."
Some Christians helping Self-help guru teach falsehoods about Christ
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2008/db20080414_422082.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
Tom McMahon, with a spiritual discernment ministry, warns that an influential self-help guru who frequently appears on Larry King and Oprah is presenting a bogus view of Jesus in his latest book.
Author Deepak Chopra claims in his book, The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, that Jesus is a state of mind and not the son of God. The Indian medical doctor suggests that Jesus never spoke of the necessity to believe in Him for salvation, but that those words were put into his mouth by followers writing decades after.
According to Chopra, this "third Jesus" is a "cosmic Christ" who "taught his followers how to reach God consciousness." He also argues that Christ was a savior, not the Savior of mankind, and was an "enlightened teacher who intended to save the world by showing others the path to God consciousness."
Christian author and broadcaster Tom McMahon, president of The Berean Call ministry, says Chopra's view of Jesus is so foreign to the Bible, it is upsetting.
"That's the religion of the anti-Christ, whom the entire world will worship, according to Revelation 13. You know, it just rejects Jesus saying 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.' So this is just anti-Christ religion. It is prophetic; we're seeing it happen. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that in the last days there would be religious deception, and this is what it's all about," McMahon contends.
McMahon believes Chopra's view of Christ is based on his Catholic schooling and his Hinduism upbringing, the latter of which he has translated into a westernized, "almost New Age" form that is appealing to many Americans.
"So now we have the undermining of the Word of God. And if people aren't into the Word of God, they may buy some of this. Chopra says that the idea of the second coming has been especially destructive to Jesus' intentions because it postpones what needs to happen now. He proposes a third coming -- finding 'God consciousness' through your own efforts. I challenge anybody to find this in Scripture. It's just not there," McMahon points out.
McMahon is very concerned that some professing Christians, including retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, are promoting Chopra's book.
Study: Few Born Agains Tithe to Churches
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080414/31947_Study%3A_Few_Born_Agains_Tithe_to_Churches_.htm
Only 9 percent of all born again adults gave 10 percent of their income to churches and charitable groups, a new survey revealed.
While the practice of tithing and whether it is a biblical responsibility is still debated today, The Barna Group found that very few Americans, including Christians, give the tithe.
Overall, only 5 percent of U.S. adults tithed in 2007, the survey released Monday showed. Since 2000, the proportion of adults who tithed has remained in the 5 percent to 7 percent range.
The most generous group was the evangelicals, with 24 percent having tithed last year. Other groups who were more likely to give at least 10 percent of their income include conservatives (12 percent); people who had prayed, read the Bible and attended a church service during the past week (12 percent); charismatic or Pentecostal Christians (11 percent); and registered Republicans (10 percent).
Evangelical Christians gave high donations with 83 percent contributing at least $1000 to churches and non-profit entities in 2007. Among all adults, only 34 percent gave away $1000 or more that year.
Regarding donations only to religious centers – church, synagogue or other place of worship – 25 percent of all adults contributed at least $1000. Ninety-six percent of evangelicals gave money to a church and 81 percent of them donated at least $1000.
Despite the generous contributions to churches by evangelicals, an earlier study released by Ellison Research last month revealed that only a minority of evangelicals believe it is a sin to not tithe 10 percent of their income. Over four out of 10 evangelicals believe it is a sin not to tithe, but other studies show relatively few evangelicals actually do so.
The March study also showed that more Protestants than Roman Catholics considered the failure to tithe a sin. According to this week’s Barna study, Protestants were more likely to tithe compared to Catholics (8 percent vs. 2 percent of Catholics) in 2007.
Donations by the aggregate born again community (both evangelicals and on-evangelical born again adults) reached the highest level this decade. The mean donation to non-profits and churches was $1971. But the new study was quick to note that the percentage of born again adults who gave any money to churches dropped to 76 percent – its lowest level this decade.
"Born again adults remain the most generous givers in a country acknowledged to be the most generous on the planet," said George Barna, head of the research group. "But their donation decisions must be seen in the larger context of the changes occurring in a wide range of religious behaviors.
"With millions of people shifting their allegiance to different forms of church experience, and a more participatory society altering how people interact and serve others, many Christians are now giving their money to different types of organizations instead of a church," he continued. "They attend conventional churches less often. They are expanding their circle of Christian relationships beyond local church boundaries. And they are investing greater amounts of their time and money in service organizations that are not connected with a conventional church. That doesn’t make such giving inappropriate or less significant, it’s just a different way of addressing social needs."
Of all the money born agains have donated, the proportion given to the churches has dropped over the past three years. The proportion born again adults give to churches declined from 84 cents out of every donated dollar during the first five years of the decade to 76 cents.
"The choices being made by born again donors have huge implications for the non-profit sector," said Barna. "Realize that a majority of the money donated by individuals in the U.S. comes from the born again constituency. If this transition in the perceptions and giving behavior of born again adults continues to accelerate, the service functions of conventional churches will be redefined within the next eight to 10 years, and conventional churches will have to adopt new ways of assisting people in need."
Sunday-Only Churches Urged to Stay Open
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080414/31940.htm
Churches should leave their doors open throughout the week, making use of their facilities for more than just Sunday worship, the Archbishop of Wales says.
Dr. Barry Morgan is scheduled to speak to church delegates Monday at the Transforming Communities and Congregations conference in Llandudno, North Wales, to encourage them to "think creatively" about how their buildings are used.
"A church that is closed Monday to Friday is the worst possible advertisement for Christianity," he said, according to BBC News.
Making the most of church buildings includes opening it up for use as conference facilities, for school groups and for counseling services, among other things.
"We cannot go on locking up our treasures in closed buildings any more. We have to open the doors of the churches physically, as well as metaphorically," Morgan said. "Developing community buildings will involve us in new relationships with our communities and opens doors for us to rediscover and develop a proper and appropriate place alongside others in our parishes across the whole of Wales."
His comments come as many churches across Europe have closed their doors permanently and found new uses, with many transformed into restaurants, entertainment clubs, warehouses, as well as mosques, in order to survive the continual decline in church membership and attendance. Currently, about 30 Church of England churches are closed for worship – or declared "redundant" – each year, according to the national church's Web site. A list of churches is being marketed on the Web site "for suitable alternative use."
"We have seen a steady decline in church and chapel attendances over the past 50 years and, as a consequence, many of our finest historic buildings are being put at risk through a lack of use and investment," said Michael A. Davies, director of Davies Sutton Architects in Cardiff, who has worked on a number of church restorations, according to Media Wales.
“In many cases these buildings are becoming totally redundant and new uses are having to be found, or they are being demolished," he added.
Davies is pleased to hear Morgan's encouragement and believes churches need to maintain a continuous beneficial use for a sustainable future.
“It is often the case that ancient buildings change over time as they outgrow their original uses, and their owners wish to alter them for modern use," he noted. “The key is to adapt these old buildings with sympathetic and flexible uses."
Conference attendees will be introduced to Church in Wales churches that are already adapting, including St. Hywyn's at Aberdaron, Gwynedd, which has been renovated to serve pilgrims making their way to Bardsey Island, as well as local visitors. St. Maelog's at Llanfaelog, Anglesey, built a meeting room above the church for wood and glasswork by local artists, and hosts concerts and classes, as well as worship, as reported by BBC News. And at St. John's in Llangollen, Clwyd, pews were taken out to create a flexible space for intimate or contemporary services.
"It is very important that we use the space we have got," said the Rev. Raymond Smith, vicar of St Mary's Church, which has improved the building for religious services and other uses. "We are a church in the community, for the community and we are involved in the community."
Such added purposes to the churches will attract a greater proportion of the community, said Davies. "It is possible that the congregation will start to grow again."
Father, Son Banned From U.K. Swimming Pool for Not Being Muslim
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351593,00.html
A father and his 10-year-old son were barred from swimming at a U.K. sports center because they are not Muslims, the London Daily Mail reported Thursday.
The father, identified only as David T., told the newspaper that he and his son were stopped before going for a swim at the Clissold Leisure Centre in east London on Sunday morning.
What the father and son didn’t know was that the pool had been holding a "men-only modesty session" for Muslims at the time, one of several early morning get-togethers aimed at community groups with strict segregation rules, the Daily Mail reported.
"I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male," David T. told the paper. "I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted."
Red-faced managers at the complex said their staff was wrong to turn away the swimmers.
"The member of staff the user spoke with at the time was mistaken when referring to the session as Muslim only," a leisure center spokesman told the Daily Mail. "The men's modesty session is not a private [event] and is, therefore, open to the public. Muslim men and others can attend."
South Carolina Abortion-Ultrasound Bill Heads to Governor's Desk
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351650,00.html
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill awaiting the South Carolina governor's signature would require abortion providers to ask women whether they want to see ultrasound images of their fetuses before the procedure.
As part of a legislative compromise formally announced Thursday, women must wait at least an hour after seeing an ultrasound to have an abortion.
Republican state Sen. Mike Fair said he hoped women would use the time to decide against abortion.
The agreement was reached after more than a year of debate on whether women should be required to see the ultrasound.
Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, has said he supports the bill generally but would review the specifics before deciding whether to sign it.
Clinics already perform ultrasounds before nearly all abortions to verify the age of the fetus. Critics of requiring the test said they didn't want the state to require one, arguing that it can be invasive and painful in some cases.
In Oklahoma, the Legislature voted Thursday to override Gov. Brad Henry's veto of a bill that would require doctors to perform an ultrasound on a woman planning an abortion.
Henry, a Democrat, said he thought it was "unconscionable" to require victims of rape and incest to undergo the ultrasound procedure.
Republican state Sen. Todd Lamb said the bill does not force a woman to view an ultrasound image.
The bill expands on a measure enacted in 2006 that gave women the option of requesting an ultrasound before an abortion. Henry signed that measure.
Florida considers 'I Believe' license plates
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/florida.considers.i.believe.license.plates/18091.htm
Florida residents may soon have the option to purchase license plates that display and represent their faith, thanks to a new measure currently under review in the Florida legislature.
Under the new legislation, residents will be able to purchase license plates engrained with the words “I Believe” alongside the image of a cross and stained glass church window.
Democratic Ed Bullard, one of the bill’s sponsors, was among those who showered praise for the measure, noting that it would give residents more freedom to choose from a variety of the current over 100 different license plate options available in the state of Florida.
“They may not be into the manatee, they may not be into Challenger,” Bullard said, speaking of the other license plate options available to state residents.
“That segment (Christians), which is a large segment of the population, can now get a tag that they like and can express their beliefs,” he said.
Under current Florida laws, any resident can choose to purchase a special license plate for a fee of $25 (around £12).
Though the bill seems likely to pass, it has not, however, been without its critics.
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, was among those who slammed the bill, calling it “crazy” and a clear violation of church and state.
“Maybe at this point the Legislature should begin rethinking whether a message on a state-manufactured plate, whether `I support panthers' or 'I'm a Christian', might be better on a bumper sticker,” Simon said, according to The Miami Herald.
Republican Senator Mike Fasano, however, countered criticism of the new Bill, noting that the law already allows drivers to purchase individual license plates, and that license plates displaying crosses with an “I Believe” tag would be no different than what residents already have available to them.
“That's that the option of every driver who owns a vehicle. They can decide if they want to have a license plate with a cross in front of a stained-glass window. It's not different from choosing a Choose Life license plate or a manatee license pate or a Florida State University or University of Florida license plate,” Fasano said, according to The Miami Herald.
All extra money raised from the sale of “I Believe” license plates will help fund non-profit organisations in Orlando, Florida.
'Sowing Atheism,' Book Expose of the National Academy of Sciences' Hidden Agenda Available as a Free Download
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07084.shtml
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland -- Solving Light Books announced today the release of its new title by Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., "Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences' Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They're Descended from Reptiles." The entire128-page expose is available now as a free download at www.solvinglight.com. The printed version of "Sowing Atheism" will be available the last week of April.
Mr. Johnson, who holds a general science degree from West Point, wrote "Sowing Atheism" in response to the book, "Science, Evolution, and Creationism" published in January by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The NAS sent its book to educators, school boards, and science teachers throughout the United States. According to Johnson, the NAS book falsely affirms that molecules-to-man evolution is a "fact" when, in reality, it does not even meet the minimum conditions for a valid theory of science.
"The NAS fails to present any bona fide evidence for the spontaneous chemical generation of life from matter, for the evolution of the sexes, or for what it calls 'speciation,' the alleged evolution of one species into another over vast eons of time," Mr. Johnson said.
To conceal the lack of evidence for its brand of evo- atheism (evolutionist-atheism), Mr. Johnson writes in his book, the NAS book-writers resort to illogic, enchantment, and outright deception in order to mislead and manipulate their readers. "It's all smoke and mirrors, philosophy and empty seduction, not true science," Mr. Johnson added.
On his Web site, Mr. Johnson urges Christians to take advantage of the free download of the book, read it, send it to educators and school boards in their area, and encourage others to do the same.
Mr. Johnson is also the author of "The Parthenon Code: Mankind's History in Marble" and "Noah in Ancient Greek Art."
Praying Passenger is Removed From Plane at New York Airport
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351638,00.html
NEW YORK — A passenger who left his seat to pray in the back of a plane before it took off, ignoring flight attendants' orders to return, was removed by an airport security guard, a witness and the airline said.
The Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat, stood near the lavatories and began saying his prayers while the United Airlines jet was being boarded at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday night, fellow passenger Ori Brafman said.
When flight attendants urged the man, who was carrying a religious book, to take his seat, he ignored them, Brafman said. Two friends, who were seated, tried to tell the attendants that the man couldn't stop until his prayers were over in about 2 minutes, he said.
"He doesn't respond to them, but his friends explain that once you start praying you can't stop," said Brafman, who was seated three rows away.
When the man finally stopped praying, he explained that he couldn't interrupt his religious ritual and wasn't trying to be rude. But the attendants summoned a guard to remove him, said Brafman, a writer who had been visiting New York to talk to publishers.
The plane, Flight 9 to San Francisco, took off without the man. It landed at its destination as scheduled, Brafman said by telephone from his home there.
Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, a subsidiary of UAL Corp. with headquarters in Chicago, confirmed the man was taken off the plane and put on another flight Thursday morning.
Urbanksi said flights cannot depart if all passengers are not in their seats, which risks a delay, and it is important that passengers listen to the instructions of the flight crew.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area airports, and the Transportation Safety Administration, which handles airport security, said Thursday they weren't involved in the incident.
CA Homeschoolers Face Public Scrutiny
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/358341.aspx
LOS ANGELES, California - When three judges ruled this February that most homeschooling in California is illegal, they met with outrage from the governor on down.
Now the judges are backing down -- or at least, agreeing to re-hear the case.
The original ruling said parents have no constitutional right to homeschool and only credentialed teachers can legally homeschool in California.
Lawyer Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute was involved in the case and told CBN News, "This is such a sweeping decision, it basically blackballs homeschooling in any format, any kind of configuration where parents are not credentialed teachers."
But now the same three judges -- who make up the Los Angeles-based 2nd Court of Appeals -- say they will take up the case again this month.
No one outside the judges themselves knows why the court has decided to reexamine their ruling, but it could have something to do with the angry reaction the ruling received.
Homeschoolers Get Support
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blasted it, saying "This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts."
The head of the public school system put out a letter assuring parents "policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling."
Pro-family activist Randy Thomasson, head of Campaign for California Families, thinks the judges have to take up the case again because they so misread state law the first time. "The state law doesn't say the teacher must have a credential in a private school. The state law nowhere says that your private school cannot be in your own house."
Thomasson also pointed out an irony the record shows: those with teacher's certificates aren't necessarily the best teachers. "Only the public schools require a teacher's certificate and they're doing the worst for the children."
Asked for evidence, he stated, "Half of California's black and Hispanic students don't even graduate from high school. Can we say 'failure'? Can we say 'disaster'?"
But until the court re-hears the case, the ruling has put somewhat of a fright into many homeschoolers.
Several gathered with CBN News at a public park in Sonoma County during a play-time for their children.
One told us she wasn't really worried until others started to ask her things like, "Are you going to go to jail?"
Another said, "I'm not scared." Then she laughed and said nervously, "Should I be?"
But if worse came to worse, and authorities did someday try to use the law to stop homeschoolers, that mom said, "We'll just leave the state.I'll move out of the country if I have to."
Another mom in the park said, "Oh, I would leave in a heartbeat. I would not be living in California."
And she added, "I think that we'll just have a lot of underground homeschooling or people moving out of state."
The Moreno family of Roehnert Park, California started homeschooling eight years ago. They expect the harsh February ruling to be overturned. But if it isn't, as Christians they're prepared for the worst. Dad Anthony Moreno said, "We expect to be persecuted at some point."
And he said, no matter what, his family won't quit homeschooling. "We would basically trust in the Lord that He would protect us."
The Morenos -- parents and children -- have actually lobbied their lawmakers at the capital in Sacramento over homeschooling rights. Because, as Mom Karol Moreno put it, "These freedoms are a gift, and they're a gift from God, so that's why we're trying to protect them"
Their son Anthony Junior plans to make it his life's cause. "I want to become a lawyer and be able to advocate for the rights of homeschoolers."
Linda Freeman homeschools her 15-year-old daughter in Marin County. She thinks the court was just seeing how much it could get away with. "It's a toe-dip: let's see if this will stand."
Counting the Cost
But Freeman wonders if there was a financial reason for the judges' decision. She says many Californians believe their school districts lose funding because the 166,000 homeschooled students aren't in those district schools. She described their thinking: "Hey, these people took their kids out of our schools and that's costing us money."
Freeman worries that kind of thinking could spread to other states watching this California controversy unfold: "I think those other states could say, 'hey, we could do the same sort of thing in our states to get those homeschooling families back into the system, get the dollars back.'"
It's not a viewpoint Freeman agrees with at all, and most homeschoolers see the money matter in a whole different way. As one of those moms in the park told CBN News, "We pay tax dollars towards the schools, towards education. But we don't use those schools. And they don't give us anything as homeschoolers. We're not entitled to any sort of financial help with schoolbooks or anything."
In fact, pro-homeschooling lawyer Brad Dacus says this is exactly the wrong moment for cash-strapped California to try to move homeschool kids back into the public schools, because each would cost the state around $8,000 if they were in the public schools. "So we're looking at about roughly $2 billion in additional costs to the taxpayers for these children to be forced back into the public schools, at a time when the California budget is already billions in the red. This is the worst of times for the court to come down with that kind of a decision."
Instead of being mad at homeschoolers, Dacus says Californians should be thanking them, because, "Homeschooling is a financial fiscal asset to California."
Homeschoolers Say Gay Agenda Taught in Public Schools
Though many were relieved to hear the 2nd Court of Appeals would re-hear the case that's potentially made most homeschoolers lawbreakers, Dacus -- who is closely involved with the case -- worries. Since it's the same three judges, rather than overruling themselves, they might just reaffirm their original ruling, or even make it harsher.
But no matter what the court decides, some pro-family activists like Randy Thomasson say parents need to - indeed, must - keep their kids out of the California public schools. Why? Because of a new law about how gays and others must be portrayed in public schools.
According to Thomasson, "California's government school system is now functionally requiring that all children be sexually indoctrinated with the positive portrayal of homosexual, bisexual and transsexual behavior."
Thomasson showed us some of the books California grade-school children might well run into now in the public schools.
"'Mom and Mom are Getting Married.' 'King and KIng' -- this is about two princes, two boys who get married,. 'Heather has Two Mommies' -- this is a classic about lesbianism. 'Daddy's Roommate' -- this promotes homosexuality to children. And of course, the most famous of all, 'Daddy's Wedding' -- indoctrinating little children to support homosexual marriage as good and natural, and maybe even for them."
Education Compromise
Linda Freeman and others believe they've found a middle path out of the public schools but still covered by the public system: innovative schools and programs like CAVA -- the California Virtual Academies, a state-wide charter school that mostly teaches its enrollees via computer, but still gives the parents much latitude when it comes to content.
Jim Konantz is a regional vice-president for K-12 Inc., the company started up by Ronald Reagan's Education Secretary William Bennett. Konantz, who oversees CAVA, said, "If there are lessons that don't meet the criteria that the family has in their own values, then those lessons can be substituted with something else."
And it's all for free because California foots the bill since CAVA's a public charter school. Konantz stated, "Everything is shipped to their home: their computer, all the science material, science equipment, music, everything that they need."
Konantz says CAVA hires teachers who live within 20 miles of their students, so they can all get together for outings every once in awhile.
One of those moms CBN News talked to in the Sonoma County park enrolled her teen daughter in CAVA. She told us, "The teachers are great. They seem to be communicating with my daughter very well and encouraging her."
But some parents are leery of even that much interaction with the state. Back in Roehnert Park at the Morenos' home, Karol Moreno said, "I would rather be under the covering of the Lord than being under the covering of a government, because the government always wants to control us more."
She said her worry about CAVA or any other school working with the state is that, "They give me the free resources then I give them control."
And Thomasson advises parents homeschooling out on their own -- uncovered by institutions like CAVA -- to just keep on, despite any rulings against them from California courts. "If homeschooling were somehow made illegal like in Germany, I'd still homeschool. Who cares? These are my kids."
Thomasson insists it's ludicrous to insist a degree in education that awards a teacher's certificate should be the only thing that qualifies a parent to homeschool. "If you have a fifth grade education and you love your child, you can homeschool."
One of those moms in the park told CBN News, "I have a friend who's a lawyer. She passed the bar here in California. She's extremely intelligent. She's probably on the genius scale. But she doesn't have a teacher's certificate. Does that mean she's not able to teach her children? Absolutely not! She's perfectly capable."
This mom said no matter what the court or California decides, her family will keep homeschooling. Why? As she put it, "We feel called by God to homeschool our children."
Ford Shareholder Proposal Withdrawn
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07085.shtml
DAYTON, Ohio -- In a shareholder proposal filed with Ford Motor Company on October 29, 2007, Thomas Strobhar, President of Pro Vita Advisors, asked Ford to "list the recipients of corporate charitable contributions of $5,000 or more on the company website." His purpose was to expose the size and scope of Ford's use of shareholder money to support controversial organizations. The shareholder proposal was intended to be included in Ford's 2008 Proxy Materials for shareholder voting, and to be read at the Ford Annual Meeting to be held May 8, 2008.
Strobhar is no stranger to Ford. He previously drafted and presented shareholder proposals at Ford's 2006 and 2007 Annual Meetings. After last year's meeting, he spoke personally to Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO, concerning the company's extensive support and advocacy of the gay and lesbian agenda.
The most recent proposal stated "charitable contributions should enhance the image of our company," and that they should "promote the company's interests." By adding a carefully worded Supporting Statement to his proposal, Strobhar was able to expose Ford's controversial contributions to organizations advocating homosexual behavior and same-sex marriage. The skillful wording was necessary to make sure Ford's expected appeal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to omit the proposal would be denied. Ford did, in fact, attempt to exclude the proposal from their proxy. However, in a response dated February 25, 2008, the SEC denied Ford's appeal to omit Strobhar's proposal.
Concurrent with Strobhar's shareholder activism, the American Family Association (AFA) was conducting a consumer boycott of Ford products to convince Ford to stop its extensive support of the homosexual agenda. The success of AFA's efforts was recently announced. Ford agreed to conditions that resulted in AFA suspending its two year boycott of Ford. Significantly, AFA reported over 780,000 individuals signed their petition boycotting Ford.
During the boycott period, Ford reported almost uninterrupted declining monthly sales and significant and recurring financial losses. It appears the effects of the boycott and Strobhar's persistently embarrassing shareholder proposals finally convinced Ford that shareholders had endured enough pain. Strobhar said, "I am please with the recent progress at Ford even though the company is still paying Domestic Partner Benefits to employees engaged in immoral sexual relations. However, in view of Ford's recent actions, we believe it appropriate to withdraw our current shareholder proposal."
Poll: McCain Winning Back Unhappy Republicans
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/ap_yahoo_poll_swing_voters/2008/04/17/88687.html
WASHINGTON -- Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.
Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party's nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo news poll released Thursday. Just five months ago _ before either party had winnowed its field _ the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.
Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples' opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain's.
The survey suggests that those switching to McCain are largely attuned to his personal qualities and McCain may be benefiting as the two Democrats snipe at each other during their prolonged nomination fight.
David Mason of Richmond, Va., is typical of the voters McCain has gained since last November, when the 46-year-old personal trainer was undecided. Mason calls himself an independent and voted in 2004 for President Bush, whom he considers a strong leader but a disappointment due to the "no-win situation" in Iraq.
"It's not that I'm that much in favor of McCain, it's the other two are turning me off," Mason said of Clinton and Obama, the senators from New York and Illinois, in explaining his move toward McCain. As for the Republican's experiences as a Vietnam War prisoner and in the Senate, Mason said, "All he's been through is an asset."
By tracking the same group of roughly 2,000 people throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo poll can gauge how individual views are evolving. What's clear is that some Republican-leaning voters who backed Bush in 2004 but lost enthusiasm for him are returning to the GOP fold _ along with a smaller but significant number of Democrats who have come to dislike their party's two contenders.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, provide a preview of one of this fall's battlegrounds. Though some unhappy Republicans will doubtless stay with McCain, both groups are teeming with centrist swing voters who will be targeted by both parties.
The poll shows that McCain's appeal has grown since November by more than the Democrats' has dwindled. McCain gets about 10 percentage points more now than a generic Republican candidate got last fall; Obama and Clinton get about 5 points less than a nameless Democrat got then.
Underlining McCain's burgeoning popularity, in November about four in 10 considered McCain likeable, decisive, strong and honest while about half do now. Obama is seen as more likeable and stronger now but his numbers for honesty and decisiveness have remained flat, while Clinton's scores for likeability and honesty have dropped slightly.
"You can't trust Hillary and Obama's too young," said Pauline Holsinger, 60, a janitorial worker in Pensacola, Fla., now backing McCain who preferred an unnamed Democrat last fall. "I like him better, he's more knowledgeable about the war" in Iraq.
Voters at this stage in a campaign commonly focus more on candidates' personal qualities. That usually changes as the general election approaches and they pay more attention to issues and partisan loyalty _ meaning that McCain's prospects could fade at a time when the public is deeply unhappy with the war, the staggering economy and Bush.
For now, more than one in 10 who weren't backing the unnamed Republican candidate in last November's survey are supporting McCain, a shift partly offset by a smaller number of former undecideds now embracing Obama or Clinton. Of those now backing McCain, about one-third did not support the generic GOP candidate last November.
Among people who have moved toward McCain, about two-thirds are discontented Bush voters, with many calling themselves independents but leaning Republican.
About half of this group say they are conservative, yet their views on issues are more moderate than many in the party, with some opposing the war in Iraq. They have favorable but not intensely enthusiastic views of McCain _ for example, two-thirds find him likeable while far fewer find him compassionate or refreshing.
"He's known, he's a veteran," said David Tucker, a retired Air Force technician from Alexandria, La., and Bush voter who was undecided last November but has ruled out Obama and Clinton. "I understand him better."
Around a third of the voters newly supporting McCain lean Democratic and mostly backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004. They are moderates who disapprove of Bush and the war in Iraq, but find McCain likeable, much more so than they did last November.
"He is more open-minded" than Obama and Clinton, said Darlene Heins, 46, a Democrat from North Brunswick, N.J., who has moved from undecided to backing McCain. "He directly answers questions, which tells me he's listening."
Many McCain-backing Democrats express one consistent concern about McCain _ his age.
"Let's face it, we're not getting any younger," said retired accountant Sheldon Rothman of Queens, N.Y., who like McCain is 71. "There are too many imponderables when you get to that age, especially with the stress of the presidency."
Whether those now switching to McCain will stay that way once the Democrats choose a candidate is what the fall campaign will be about.
"McCain has a history of doing well with independent voters," said GOP pollster David Winston. He said voters' preference for an unnamed Democratic candidate but McCain's strong performance against Obama and Clinton means "Democrats have an advantage their candidates are not taking advantage of."
Democratic pollster Alan Secrest said the contrasting numbers mean that while the voters' overall mood favors Democrats, they are still taking the measure of Clinton and Obama.
"The Democrats will have to earn their way this fall," he said.
The AP-Yahoo survey of 1,844 adults was conducted from April 2-14 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 863 Democrats, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.3 points, and 668 Republicans, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 points.
The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.
Poll: McCain Gaining Swing Voter Support
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/359405.aspx
WASHINGTON - Growing numbers of people like what they see in John McCain, vaulting him into a tie with the two Democratic presidential contenders just a few months after Republicans faced a steep disadvantage.
The Arizona senator has made a race of the White House contest by attracting disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Thursday. About two-thirds of them have grown disenchanted with President Bush despite voting for him in 2004, including many GOP-leaning independents, while the remaining third usually support Democrats but like McCain anyway.
While McCain's image with voters has progressed since November, it is far from overwhelmingly strong. Yet he has done better than his two rivals: Opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly since the fall, while views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain's.
"I'm left with McCain as the best of a weak field," said David Chojnacki, 68, a retired judge from West Seneca, N.Y., in a followup interview.
By tracking the same group of roughly 2,000 people throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo poll can gauge how individual views are evolving.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, provide a preview of one of this fall's battlegrounds. Though some unhappy Republicans will doubtless stay with McCain, voters now shifting toward him include many centrist swing voters who will be targeted by both parties.
One in five overall say they don't know whom they will support in November, showing how volatile the race remains.
The poll shows McCain's appeal has grown while the Democrats' has dwindled - suggesting he may be aided by the continued scuffling between Obama and Clinton, the senators from Illinois and New York, during their prolonged nomination battle.
Just five months ago - before either party had winnowed its field - an AP-Yahoo survey showed people preferred electing an unnamed Democrat over a Republican by 40 percent to 27 percent. Now, McCain gets about 10 percentage points more than the generic Republican got, while Obama and Clinton each get about 5 points less than last fall's nameless Democrat.
More than one in 10 who weren't backing the unnamed Republican candidate last November are supporting McCain, a shift partly offset by a smaller number moving toward Obama or Clinton. Of those now backing McCain, about one-third did not support the generic GOP candidate last November.
"It's not that I'm that much in favor of McCain, it's the other two are turning me off," said David Mason, 46, of Richmond, Va., an independent who voted for Bush in 2004 but is disappointed with him over the war in Iraq. As for McCain's experiences as a Vietnam War prisoner and in the Senate, Mason said, "All he's been through is an asset."
Overall, 54 percent now view the Democratic Party favorably while 42 percent say so about the GOP, reflecting wide displeasure with Bush, the limp economy and Iraq. That underscores how Obama or Clinton could benefit once one becomes the nominee and voters begin to focus more on issues and partisan differences.
In November about four in 10 considered McCain likeable, decisive, strong and honest while about half do now. Obama is seen as more likeable and stronger now, but his numbers for honesty and decisiveness have remained flat, while Clinton's scores for likeability and honesty have dropped slightly.
"You can't trust Hillary and Obama's too young," said Pauline Holsinger, 60, a janitorial worker in Pensacola, Fla., who preferred an unnamed Democrat last fall but now backs McCain. "I like him better, he's more knowledgeable about the war" in Iraq.
Among the unhappy Bush supporters whom McCain has lured back to his campaign, about half say they are conservative, yet their views on issues are more moderate than many in the party, with some opposing the war in Iraq. They have favorable but not intensely enthusiastic views of McCain - for example, two-thirds find him likeable while far fewer find him compassionate or refreshing.
"He's known, he's a veteran," said David Tucker, a retired Air Force technician from Alexandria, La., and Bush voter who was undecided last November but has ruled out Obama and Clinton. "I understand him better."
Most of the Democratic-leaning voters now supporting McCain backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004. They are moderates who disapprove of Bush and the war in Iraq, but find McCain likeable, much more so than they did last November.
"He is more open-minded" than Obama and Clinton, said Darlene Heins, 46, a Democrat from North Brunswick, N.J., who has moved from undecided to backing McCain. "He directly answers questions, which tells me he's listening."
Many McCain-backing Democrats express one consistent concern about McCain - his age.
"Let's face it, we're not getting any younger," said retired accountant Sheldon Rothman of Queens, N.Y., who like McCain is 71. "There are too many imponderables when you get to that age, especially with the stress of the presidency."
Whether those switching to McCain will stay that way once the Democrats choose a candidate is what the fall campaign will be about.
GOP pollster David Winston said McCain's strong performance against Obama and Clinton despite voters' preference for an unnamed Democratic candidate means Democrats have an advantage their candidates are not exploiting.
Democratic pollster Alan Secrest said the contrasting numbers mean that while the voters' overall mood favors Democrats, they are still taking the measure of Clinton and Obama.
"The Democrats will have to earn their way this fall," he said.
The AP-Yahoo survey of 1,844 adults was conducted from April 2-14 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 863 Democrats, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.3 points, and 668 Republicans, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 points.
The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.
GOP Sources: Huckabee to Campaign for McCain
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/17/gop-sources-huckabee-to-campaign-for-mccain
Former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee will campaign with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain for the first time since withdrawing from the primary race in March, GOP sources told FOX News on Thursday.
Huckabee will join McCain in Arkansas next week, Republican sources say, where the two are set to attend a fundraiser in Little Rock. McCain’s campaign has not yet confirmed the meeting.
Rumors have circulated in recent weeks that Huckabee — once McCain’s rival — may be on the Arizona senator’s list of potential running mates. The McCain campaign has neither confirmed nor denied this, and is keeping any information about his list of prospects close to the vest.
Earlier this week, Huckabee started a political action committee called Huck PAC. The group’s Web site declared that the new organization would raise money for conservative Republican candidates and it was ” committed to helping Republicans regain control of the House and Senate, regain a majority of governorships and elect John McCain as the 44th President of the United States.”
Hamas Endorses Obama
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Hamas_Endorses_Obama/2008/04/17/88754.html
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has received an endorsement he might well wish he hadn’t — from the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas’ top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, delivered his endorsement in an interview with WorldNetDaily and WABC Radio in New York.
“We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections,” Yousuf said.
“I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle. And he has a vision to change America, to [put] it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance.”
The U.S. and Israel have been seeking to isolate Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June and is classified by the State Department as a terrorist group.
Obama, as well as presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain, have all referred to Hamas as a “terrorist organization,” according to WorldNetDaily.
Asked about Obama’s criticism of former President Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas during his Middle Eastern trip, Yousuf said:
“I understand American politics and this is the season for elections and everybody tries to sound like he’s a friend of Israel…
“I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse when one of them will be the president.”
Obama Defends Relationship with Ex-Terrorist
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/359381.aspx
Associations with a former terrorist added fuel to the fire in the battle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The two Democratic candidates face a crucial Pennsylvania contest next week. Wednesday night's debate in Philadelphia shows just how high the stakes are in this race.
For the first time, Obama had to answer publicly about his relationship with William Ayers.
Ayers used to be part of Weather Underground a terrorist group accused of bombings in Washington at the Capitol and Pentagon more than 30 years ago.
Now he is a college professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
When asked about Ayers, Obama said he's "a guy who lives in my neighborhood."
"The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense," he added.
In 2001, Ayers gave $200 to Obama's legislative campaign. Since then, there is no indication that he has helped Obama during his career as a politician.
Fact Check: Obama, Clinton and the Weather Underground
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_radical_fact_check/2008/04/17/88899.html
Sen. Barack Obama is defending his relationship with a former radical whose provocative words were wrongly linked by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Facts were loose in both Democratic presidential campaigns Thursday as Clinton sought advantage from her rival's association with William Ayers, a college professor who was once part of the violent Weather Underground group.
The dustup arose in their debate the night before and enveloped both candidates.
Obama struck back by calling attention to Bill Clinton's decision to pardon one former Weather Underground member and commute the sentence of another, clearing two women who -- unlike Ayers -- had been convicted of crimes from that era.
President Clinton's actions freed women who had been serving sentences of 40 years and 58 years after convictions on weapons, explosives and related charges.
Members of the Weather Underground, known initially as the Weathermen, claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, including non-lethal but destructive ones at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.
In addition, three members died when their bomb-making session at a New York City town house went awry in 1970, and several members were convicted in a botched 1981 Brink's truck ambush during which two police officers and a guard died.
Ayers was not implicated in the Brink's deaths and the two former members cleared by Bill Clinton were not convicted of killings.
THE SPIN:
Obama said Ayers is "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" and not someone who has endorsed him or talked to him regularly.
"And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense," Obama said.
Clinton said the relationship was deeper than that because both men served together on the board of a charity.
Ayers, she said, made comments "which were deeply hurtful to people in New York and, I would hope, to every American, because they were published on 9/11, and he said that he was just sorry they hadn't done more.
"And what they did was set bombs," she went on. "And in some instances, people died."
THE FACTS:
Clinton's implication that Ayers made hurtful comments connected with the terrorist attacks is wrong.
By coincidence, a story about Ayers and what he called his fictionalized memoirs appeared in The New York Times on the day of the attacks.
The story was based on an interview he had done earlier, in Chicago, in which he declared, "I don't regret setting bombs," and "I feel we didn't do enough," even while seeming to dissociate himself coyly from the group's most destructive acts.
Clinton is correct that both men served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Ayers joined the board in 1999 and is still on it. Obama left it in December 2002 after nine years.
Ayers was clearly more than someone Obama just ran into in the neighborhood on occasion. In the mid-1990s, when Obama was making his first run for the Illinois Senate, Ayers had Obama to his home to introduce him to others.
But a flub by Obama in the debate suggested he does not know him that well: He called Ayers an English professor. Ayers teaches education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been an education adviser to Mayor Richard Daley.
Ayers disappeared after the 1970 town house explosion, although he was not charged in that episode. He and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, surfaced in 1980.
They both faced charges stemming from Chicago demonstrations in 1969 but his were dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct while she pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and bail-jumping.
THE SPIN:
Obama said Clinton was not one to talk about guilt by association because "President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago."
THE FACTS:
Obama correctly sketched out the details of Bill Clinton's acts in the case. However, senior Obama strategist David Axelrod went too far Thursday when he said the two cleared by President Clinton had killed people. They were not convicted of that.
Bill Clinton created an uproar with New York lawmakers from both parties and with police when, on his last day in office, he pardoned Susan L. Rosenberg and commuted the sentence of Linda Sue Evans.
Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years after being caught unloading 740 pounds of dynamite and weapons from a car in New Jersey in 1984. She was wanted on charges related to the deadly Brink's ambush but never tried on them, and Clinton's order released her after 16 years behind bars.
Evans was captured in 1985 along with one of the fugitives from the Brink's robbery, whom she was accused of harboring. Evans was sentenced to 40 years on a variety of weapons and terrorism-related convictions, including the 1983 Capitol bombing plot.
Although Hillary Clinton publicly disputed her husband's offer of clemency to Puerto Rican nationalists in 1999 because they had not sufficiently renounced violence, she is not known to have objected to his freeing of Rosenberg and Evans in 2001.
Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103655_pf.html
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.
Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.
"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters released yesterday.
"I think we've fully addressed anybody's concerns," Chertoff added in remarks last week to bloggers. "I think the way is now clear to stand it up and go warm on it."
His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department's new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response.
But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.
Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified. Congress barred Homeland Security from funding the office until its investigators could review the office's operating procedures and safeguards. The department submitted answers on Thursday, but some lawmakers promptly said the response was inadequate.
"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."
Thompson called DHS's release Thursday of the office's procedures and a civil liberties impact assessment "a good start." But, he said, "We still don't know whether the NAO will pass constitutional muster since no legal framework has been provided."
DHS officials said the demands are unwarranted. "The legal framework that governs the National Applications Office . . . is reflected in the Constitution, the U.S. Code and all other U.S. laws," said DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner. She said its operations will be subject to "robust," structured legal scrutiny by multiple agencies.
ISPs testing 'digital snoops'
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=7631ad0e-850c-45b1-a818-76cbd30c3edd&k=39045
Call it the arrival of the Cookies 2.0.
A small U.S.-based firm is quietly testing its behavioural advertising technology with a number of Canadian Internet service providers, which some industry observers say could create an outcry over consumer privacy concerns and reshape digital marketing strategies.
In an interview, NebuAd cofounder and chief executive Bob Dykes confirmed his company is testing its hardware with a number of undisclosed Canadian Internet service providers and has launched a sales team in Canada to locate more business.
"We simply map what people are interested in and then sell advertising which is more relevant to their person than previously could be done," Mr. Dykes said. "It's very similar to other behavioural targeted ad networks but has a greater capability to make better connections."
Similarly to how "cookies" -- a list of addresses of recently viewed Web pages-- are embedded within Web sites to record users online traffic, NebuAd's service to ISP's offers marketers a more sophisticated view of users' online activities.
It uses so-called "deep packet inspection."
By installing hardware directly onto ISP networks, Mr. Dykes said NebuAd is able to effectively monitor Web traffic in greater detail and deliver ads based on those behaviours, much more effectively than traditional search-based online advertising pioneered by Web giants Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
However, Mr. Dykes said NebuAd does not retain any information that can identify who users are and that subscribers are given the opportunity to opt out of the service once the ISPs have activated it on their networks.
"Because we see more data, we have to be more careful," he said.
Although nascent, this form of behavioural advertising is beginning to see a rise of interest from ISPs in North America and Europe looking for a way to profit from a market long dominated by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Mr. Dykes says that in less than a year of operations, NebuAd reaches about 10 per cent of all U.S. online activity and the company's main U.K. rival Phorm Inc. has partnered with companies representing approximately 70 per cent of the UK broadband market.
"Traditionally, marketers find compelling new ways of marketing very seductive," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst with eMarketer. "It can tell marketers where people go and what they did, such as shopping for a new bike."
But as interest grows, so does the backlash from Web users who fear that their online privacy has been compromised.
Internet founder, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has fueled controversy in the U.K. after he criticized Phorm's tracking technology and said he would change ISPs if faced with such a service. Similarly, Facebook encountered widespread criticism last year after a new ad system, called Beacon, used data from Web sites users visited outside of the site to provide personal ads.
Although NebuAd may conform to Canadian privacy laws, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist said it highlights that many Canadians don't know about the monitoring that may take place as they surf the web.
"You're implementing new levels of surveillance within the network presumably with the consent of subscribers though in some ways it's a bit of a legal fiction," Mr. Geist said. "Many of the subscribers may have agreed though they are unaware to that kind of level of monitoring."
Recruiting for the Cyber Wars
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2008/db20080414_422082.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
The U.S. military is looking for a few good geeks. "This building will be attacked 3 million times today," announces the commentator as the Pentagon appears on an ad available on the popular video site YouTube (GOOG). "Who is going to protect it? Meet Staff Sergeant Lee Jones, Air Force Cyber Command, a member of America's only cyber command protecting us from millions of cyber threats every day."
The YouTube recruitment video is part of a high-profile ad campaign running on TV, in print, and on the Web. In the ads, the Air Force boasts of its ability to protect the nation from a potentially devastating cyber attack. The ads overstate just how protected the U.S. military's networks are, but they underscore a new sense of urgency: As computer networks play increasingly vital roles in the U.S. military—and expose it to new dangers from skilled information warriors trained by other nations—the U.S. needs a new type of 21st century soldier.
"How do you tap into the intellect of a completely different kind of Air Force warrior?" asks General William T. Lord, the chief of the nascent Air Force Cyber Command—the military's newest unit fighting digital warfare.
Techies on Patrol
General Lord thinks the answer may be to encourage U.S. hackers to enlist. In an interview with techie forum Slashdot in early March, he was asked if hackers with checkered pasts, and overweight geeks who couldn't pass a physical training test, were candidates to join the growing ranks of cyber soldiers. "I believe even the most unlikely candidate, when working for a cause bigger than himself, turns out to be a most loyal ally," the general wrote.
The next James Bond or GI Jane may well be a hacker—routinely peering and probing computer networks to further his country's industrial or military edge. Instead of tense confrontations and close calls in far-off places, the digital warrior will telecommute. Simply tapping at a keyboard, she'll connect with electronic moles that will pass on gigabytes of valuable data stored in the networks of prime targets half a world away.
Using the Internet is less risky and exponentially more efficient, and, given some due diligence, cunning, and a knack for social engineering, the path leads to just about any computer's soft interior.
The Air Force Cyber Command is still a work-in-progress. Pentagon officials are still wrangling over which U.S. military base will be home to the Command, which is not expected to be fully operational until October 2009. Once the project is complete, Cyber Command is expected to employ as many as 500 Air Force staff, says Gen. Lord, whose unit is currently headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base outside Shreveport, La.
A visit to the embryonic Air Force Cyber Command at Barksdale by BusinessWeek reporters in March shows how the Air Force's current ad campaign is more a Hollywood-version of Cyber Command. In an aging former recreation building on Barksdale's leafy grounds, fatigue-clad airmen—some with the physiques of couch-potato hackers—use off-the-shelf PCs to monitor Air Force computer network traffic. A wall of projection screens—reading "Unclassified" on a bright green background on the day BusinessWeek arrived—is used to highlight alerts about suspicious network traffic.
League of Electronic Nations
But there are some surprising indications that the cyber-war future is here already, and in disturbing abundance. The U.S., China, and Russia are building up their cyber forces. "For the Chinese, info war is the next realm. They are never going to go tank to tank with the U.S.," says Matthew G. Devost, a former Pentagon network security tester and chief executive officer of Total Intelligence Solutions in Alexandria, Va. The Chinese military offers prizes to its best computer hackers, and according to a January, 2006, white paper by the Chinese military, it has a three-stage strategy between now and 2050 to win an "informationized war," one that is fast-paced and mostly digital.
The superpowers are hardly alone. The league of electronically prying, prodding, and posturing nations now numbers well into the dozens—by some tallies, closer to 100. A report published in August, 2006, by the office of Joel F. Brenner, counterintelligence executive for the director of national intelligence, noted that his office discovered at least 108 countries engaged in "collection efforts against sensitive and protected U.S. technologies," up from 37 a decade ago. The report doesn't name many names, though it identifies China and Russia as among "the most aggressive" in targeting the U.S.
China denies any involvement in cyber spying and says it, too, is a victim, "frequently intruded upon and attacked by hackers from certain countries."
Spying on Defense Contractors on the Rise
The Russian government also denies participating in such activity. "Russia has never engaged in any kind of cyber intrusions in the U.S. or any other countries," says Yevgeniy Khorishko, the Russian government's spokesman at its embassy in Washington. "All these kinds of reports and articles that appear from time to time are pure speculation. They don't deserve to be commented upon."
Suspicious activity associated with attempts at spying and stealing information from defense contractors is on the rise, too—especially from nations along the Pacific Rim and Asia, according to another declassified 2006 report by the Defense Security Service, which helps contractors keep tabs on espionage attempts.
In particular, the report noted a "dramatic increase in the number of incidents involving government affiliated entities," and rising use of the Internet as a tool of choice. "The potential gain from even one successful computer intrusion makes it an attractive, relatively low-risk option for any country seeking access to sensitive information stored on U.S. computer networks," the report notes, while predicting the risk to sensitive information from cyber spies "will increase as more countries gain the expertise to exploit those systems."
Weapons of Mass Disruption
In the U.S., the latest wave of sophisticated, precisely targeted attacks prompted the Defense Dept. last summer to give the incursions and thefts of sensitive data a new name: "advanced persistent threats." The phrase is meant to underscore both the virulent nature of this type of cyber intrusion and their origin: hackers working for foreign nations.
Pentagon insiders refer to the malicious software and devious methods of state-sponsored hackers as "weapons of mass disruption." U.S. military and intelligence officials worry about damage being inflicted by professionals, well-trained, backed by large sums of money, and making use of their own homegrown innovations. "Our adversaries are very good. But I'm not sure we've seen their best," says Lieutenant General Charles E. Croom, who heads the Pentagon's Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations.
A Different Kind of Soldier
The U.S. Air Force is preparing for a digital onslaught. It now aggressively seeks recruits, identifying cyber space in all its recruitment ads as its new domain of military activity. The Air Force has long had a role in aviation, of course, and also in space. Now it's adding cyber space. Among skills said to be in demand: the use of "hack backs" that probe intruders' own systems, and outright offensive measures. "Everything out there can reach and touch us," says General John C. "Chris" Inglis, deputy director of the National Security Agency. "We must be able to outmaneuver our adversaries."
Despite the alarming rise of cyber intrusions and a new sense of urgency, some traditions are hard to break. When General Lord told Air Force officials he wanted to reach out to hackers through a forum on Slashdot, some of his colleagues advised against it. "There were elements of the Air Force that didn't think I should engage the Slashdot guys," he says. "They're not the kind [of soldier] that I grew up with where you marched to breakfast in the morning. This is a different kind of crowd."
General Lord says he ignored the advice because the U.S. needs top-notch cyber soldiers. "It's speed of light warfare, it's not speed of sound warfare. It's faster than our F-22."
Pentagon Researching Regrowing Limbs Lost in War
http://www.newsmax.com/us/pentagon_limbs_war/2008/04/17/88962.html
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is joining with universities and hospitals in a 250-million-dollar research institute to develop ways to help wounded soldiers regenerate skin, muscle and even limbs from their own stem cells, officials said Thursday.
The army's surgeon general said he envisions the day when adult stem cells will be harvested before a soldier goes into the battle and then used to regrow new limbs within days of suffering a combat wound.
"The new institute will work to develop techniques that will help to make our soldiers whole again," said Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, the army surgeon general.
"We'll use the soldiers' own stem cells to repair nerve damage, to re-grow muscles and tendons, to repair burn wounds, and to help them heal without scarring," he said.
Techniques to salvage and reconstruct damaged limbs, hands, fingers, ears and noses, and reconstruct damaged craniums will also be developed, he said.
The new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine will fund and focus the research efforts of two consortia of universities and hospital research centers.
One is led by Wake Forest University and the University of Pittsburgh, and the other by Rutgers University and the Cleveland Clinic.
The Pentagon will provide 85 million dollars over five years; members of the consortia will put up another 80 million dollars; and another 100 million dollars will come from grants through the National Institutes of Health.
"As far as we know, this is the largest US government-funded research consortium in the field of regenerative medicine," said Schoomaker.
"Not only that, we're bringing together a dream team of some of the greatest minds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, some represented here with us today," he said.
Among them is Dr. Tony Atala of Wake Forest University, a pioneer in the field who has grown bladders from adult stem cells.
"All the parts of your body, tissues and organs, have a natural repository of cells that are ready to replicate when an injury occurs," Atala said.
"And some of the strategies that are used are to take some of those cells out of the body, just with a very small piece of tissue.
"And then you can tease the cells apart, those specific cells that have that potential. Then you grow those outside the body in large quantities," he said.
The process takes about four to eight weeks, he said.
The living cells can then be painted over a scaffolding made of biodegradable material and shaped in the form of a nose or ear, and attached to the face.
As the cells grow, the material is absorbed by the body, and the new nose is formed.
The initial projects are likely to be modest -- extending a severed finger in one case, and regrowing a destroyed muscle in another man's thigh.
But officials said they hope the new techniques can be used to regrow the skin of burn victims and replace ears or noses, and eventually more complex challenges like limbs.
Schoomaker says the new technologies promise to revolutionize military medicine.
"We are the source of our own regeneration, with very low risk, -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- for example, conversion into cancers," he said, referring the higher risk of cancer in more primitive stem cells.
Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/dna_collection_4
The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency — a move intended to prevent violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.
Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.
Expanding the DNA database, known as CODIS, raises civil liberties questions about the potential for misuse of such personal information, such as family ties and genetic conditions.
Ablin said the DNA collection would be subject to the same privacy laws applied to current DNA sampling. That means none of it would be used for identifying genetic traits, diseases or disorders.
Congress gave the Justice Department the authority to expand DNA collection in two different laws passed in 2005 and 2006.
There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies, ranging from the FBI to the Library of Congress Police. The federal government estimates it makes about 140,000 arrests each year.
Those who support the expanded collection believe that DNA sampling could get violent criminals off the streets and prevent them from committing more crimes.
A Chicago study in 2005 found that 53 murders and rapes could have been prevented if a DNA sample had been collected upon arrest.
"Many innocent lives could have been saved had the government began this kind of DNA sampling in the 1990s when the technology to do so first became available," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said. Kyl sponsored the 2005 law that gave the Justice Department this authority.
Thirteen states have similar laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime, said Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Now innocent people's DNA will be put into this huge CODIS database, and it will be very difficult for them to get it out if they are not charged or convicted of a crime," McCurdy said.
If a person is arrested but not convicted, he or she can ask the Justice Department to destroy the sample.
The Homeland Security Department — the federal agency charged with policing immigration — supports the new rule.
"DNA is a proven law-enforcement tool," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said.
The rule would not allow for DNA samples to be collected from immigrants who are legally in the United States or those being processed for admission, unless the person was arrested.
The proposed rule is being published in the Federal Register. That will be followed by a 30-day comment period.
Police officers to be 'microchipped' by top brass in Big Brother style tracking scheme
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558597&in_page_id=1770
Every single Metropolitan police officer will be 'microchipped' so top brass can monitor their movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme, it can be revealed today.
According to respected industry magazine Police Review, the plan - which affects all 31,000 serving officers in the Met, including Sir Ian Blair - is set to replace the unreliable Airwave radio system currently used to help monitor officer's movements.
The new electronic tracking device - called the Automated Personal Location System (APLS) - means that officers will never be out of range of supervising officers.
But many serving officers fear being turned into "Robocops" - controlled by bosses who have not been out on the beat in years.
According to service providers Telent, the new technology 'will enable operators in the Service's operations centres to identify the location of each police officer' at any time they are on duty - whether overground or underground.
Although police chiefs say the new technology is about 'improving officer safety' and reacting to incidents more quickly, many rank and file believe it is just a Big Brother style system to keep tabs on them and make sure they don't 'doze off on duty'.
Some officers are concerned that the system - which will be able to pinpoint any of the 31,000 officers in the Met to within a few feet of their location - will put a complete end to community policing and leave officers purely at the beck and call of control room staff rather than reacting to members of the public on the ground.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: "This could be very good for officers' safety but it could also involve an element of Big Brother.
"We need to look at it very carefully."
Other officers, however, were more scathing, saying the new system - set to be implemented within the next few weeks - will turn them into 'Robocops' simply obeying instructions from above rather than using their own judgement.
One officer, working in Peckham, south London, said: "They are keeping the exact workings of the system very hush-hush at the moment - although it will be similar to the way criminals are electronically tagged. There will not be any choice about wearing one.
"We depend on our own ability and local knowledge to react to situations accordingly.
"Obviously we need the back up and information from control, but a lot of us feel that we will simply be used as machines, or robots, to do what we are told with little or no chance to put in anything ourselves."
He added: "Most of us joined up so we could apply the law and think for ourselves, but if Sarge knows where we are every second of the day it just makes it difficult."
Another officer, who did not want to be named, said: "A lot of my time is spent speaking to people in cafes, parks or just wherever I'm approached. If I feel I've got my chief breathing down my neck to make another arrest I won't feel I'm doing my job properly."
The system is one of the largest of its kind in the world, according to Telent, the company behind the technology, although neither the Met nor Telent would provide Police Review with any more information about exactly how the system will work or what sort of devices officers will wear.
Nigel Lee, a workstream manager at the Met, said: "Safety is a primary concern for all police forces.
"The area served by our force covers 620 miles and knowing the location of our officers means that not only can we provision resource more quickly, but should an officer need assistance, we can get to them even more quickly."
Forces currently have the facility to track all their officers through GPS devices on their Airwave radio headsets, but this is subject to headsets being up to date and forces buying the back office systems to accompany them, according to Airwave.
Steve Rands, health and safety head for the Met Police Federation, told Police Review: "This is so that we know where officers are. Let us say that when voice distortion or sound quality over the radio is lost, if you cannot hear where that officer telling you where he is, you can still pinpoint his exact position by global positioning system.
"If he needs help but you cannot hear him for whatever reason, APLS will say where he is."
Preparing For A Nuclear attack on D.C. - A Hypothetical Scenario
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080416/METRO/556828862/1001
A nuclear device detonated near the White House would kill roughly 100,000 people and flatten downtown federal buildings, while the radioactive plume from the explosion would likely spread toward the Capitol and into Southeast D.C., contaminating thousands more.
The blast from the 10-kiloton bomb — similar to the bomb dropped over Hiroshima during World War II — would kill up to one in 10 tourists visiting the Washington Monument and send shards of glass flying the length of the National Mall, in a scenario that has become increasingly likely to occur in a major U.S. city in recent years, panel members told a Senate committee yesterday.
"It's inevitable," said Cham E. Dallas, director of the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, who has charted the potential explosion's effect in the District and testified before a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "I think it's wistful to think that it won't happen by 20 years."
The Senate committee has convened a series of hearings to examine the threat and effects of a terrorist nuclear attack on a U.S. city, as well as the needed response.
Yesterday's panel stressed the importance of state and local cooperation with federal authorities in the wake of an attack, assistance from the private business sector to aid recovery and the dire need to boost the capabilities of area hospitals.
They recommended expanding emergency personnel by training physicians like pharmacists and dentists to aid in all-hazards care, monitoring the exposure of first responders to radiation and clearly disseminating information to the public.
"The scenarios we discuss today are very hard for us to contemplate, and so emotionally traumatic and unsettling that it is tempting to push them aside," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent and committee chairman. "However, now is the time to have this difficult conversation, to ask the tough questions, and then to get answers as best we can and take preparatory and preventive action."
Ashton B. Carter, co-director of the Preventive Defense Project at Harvard University, said the likelihood of a nuclear attack on U.S. soil is undetermined, but it has increased with the proliferation of weapons by Iran and North Korea and the failure to secure Russia's nuclear arsenal following the Cold War.
"For while the probability of a nuclear weapon one day going off in a U.S. city cannot be calculated, it is almost surely larger than it was five years ago," Mr. Carter said.
Mr. Carter described a more destructive blast effect. He said the ground-based detonation of a 10-kiloton bomb would result in near-total devastation within a circle about two miles in diameter, or the length of the Mall.
The zone of destruction is projected to be less than that of Hiroshima, where the bomb was dropped from an airplane and detonated above the city.
A similar blast in a more densely populated city than the District, such as Chicago or New York, would result in an injury toll up to eight times higher. A plume a few miles long could also dole out lethal doses of radiation, Mr. Carter said.
However, the experts emphasized that the explosion would not impact most of a major city and that in many cases, residents could remain safe by not evacuating immediately and clogging area roadways.
"It is also expected that, due to lack of information getting to the public, many people will try to flee by car or on foot, often in the wrong direction, again exposing themselves to high levels of radiation, as vehicles provide virtually no protection," Mr. Carter said.
Mr. Dallas said a major problem facing most cities is a lack of available hospital beds for victims of burns that would result from a nuclear blast. He said up to 95 percent of such victims would not receive potentially life-saving care.
"We're completely underprepared," he said. "Most of them will die."
Mr. Dallas said the District also faces a unique challenge because of the way the city is configured geographically: A wind blowing west to east would gradually spread radiation from the explosion into the low-income neighborhoods of Southeast, where there are limited health care options available and only one hospital.
Area officials have spent millions of dollars in recent years to develop evacuation plans and stockpile emergency supplies after a 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said local preparation for a disaster was "not sufficient."
Darrell L. Darnell, director of the District's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said the city is continuing to develop its "emergency preparedness capabilities" and has numerous methods of informing residents of actions they should take, including through text messages, voice alerts and Web sites like www.dc.gov and http://72hours.dc.gov.
"We are confident that the District is prepared to respond to a catastrophic incident affecting the District," Mr. Darnell said.
Still, Mr. Dallas said the majority of victims in a nuclear explosion will likely have to fend for themselves in the first hours after an attack.
"These people are going to be on their own," he said after the hearing. "There's no white horse to ride to the rescue."
ASIA: Talking Peace, Preparing for War
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41977
Northeast Asia heaved a sigh of relief at the latest news of a breakthrough in the nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The prospects of integrating North Korea into the international community and constructing a peace and security structure for the region have never been rosier.
But the headlines of the United States and North Korea narrowing their differences over the declaration of the latter's nuclear programme are deceptive. Despite all the talk of peace in the current Six-Party Talks, the military trends in the region tell a very different story.
Even though it looks relatively peaceful on the outside, Northeast Asia is in fact the heart of the global military-industrial complex. The armies that confront each other in this region -- the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and the two Koreas -- are the largest in the world. They are responsible for at least 65 percent of the world's military spending.
Not only is Northeast Asia one of the most heavily militarised regions of the world, it is currently in the middle of a major arms race. Five of the six countries in the negotiations to shut down North Korea's nuclear programme have increased their military spending by 50 percent or more in the last five years.
Recent events are only making matters worse. The cold war is heating up again on the Korean peninsula in the wake of conservative Lee Myung Bak's inauguration as South Korea's new president. China is desperately trying to put out fires on its periphery, from Tibet to Xinjiang. And nationalist politicians in Japan are pushing for an end to the country's "peace constitution".
Northeast Asia's arms race, which has been largely hidden from view, is threatening to break into the open.
The most paradoxical part of this arms race is in Korea itself. Although the two halves of the peninsula have established joint ventures, tourism projects, and numerous cultural exchanges over the last decade, both sides continue to spend copious amounts on the military.
South Korean presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun touted their engagement policies with the North. But between 1999 and 2006, South Korean military spending jumped more than 70 percent. In 2007, South Korea launched its first Aegis-equipped destroyer and announced a plan to build three more at a cost of 1.0 billion dollars each by 2020. The new South Korean president Lee Myung Bak has supported this vision of a new blue water navy, and South Korean military spending will go up by an estimated 10 percent a year through 2020. Although it spends anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of its entire GDP on the military, North Korea can't keep up with the South, which spends as much, or more, on its military than the North's entire gross domestic product. The decline of North Korea's economy has undermined its conventional military posture, which is one reason Pyongyang opted for a nuclear programme in the first place. In other words, the current nuclear crisis in Northeast Asia today is at least partly a result of the region's accelerating conventional arms race and North Korea's inability to keep pace.
This approach of "peace through strength" on the Korean peninsula owes a great deal to the policies of the most powerful military force in the region.
The United States, responsible for nearly 50 percent of all global military expenditures, is the prime mover of the arms race regionally and internationally. The George W. Bush administration has increased military spending 74 percent since 2001. A sizable portion of the 607-billion-dollar Pentagon budget request for 2009, which doesn't even include the supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will go to maintaining and expanding the U.S. military presence in the Pacific. And none of the leading presidential candidates has recommended freezing, much less reducing, U.S. military outlays.
The big-ticket items in next year's budget -- the CVN-78 Advanced Aircraft Carrier, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-Class Destroyer -- are of little use in fighting terrorism. The Pentagon's long-range plan to build a 313-ship navy is meant to counter the only potential great power that the United States sees on the horizon: China.
China is spending around 50 billion dollars a year on its military. But if U.S. estimates are correct, China's actual defence budget is closer to 120 billion dollars, which makes it the number two military spender in the world. With this money, China is pushing forward with an ambitious naval programme that will include the addition of five new nuclear-powered attack subs and a mid-sized aircraft carrier.
China is also modernising its air force with an upgrade of fighters, tanker aircraft, and transport planes. Even with this modernisation programme, however, China's military pales in comparison to U.S. forces in the Pacific region and makes no attempt to rival U.S. global reach.
Part of the U.S. strategy to offset China's rising power in the region has been to push Japan to create a "normal" military. Japan's peace constitution has constrained the offensive capabilities of the Japanese military, still referred to as the Self-Defence Forces, since the end of World War II.
More recently, an influential group of policymakers in the ruling party want to break free of these constraints. The Japanese military is not satisfied with what is already a top-notch military. This year, the air force will be upgraded with an in-air refueling capability to permit long-range bombing missions.
Also on the wish list of the Japanese Defence Agency -- which was upgraded to ministry level last year -- are an aircraft carrier, F-22 Raptor stealth planes, nuclear-powered submarines, and long-range missiles. Defence spending remains low in Japan, and it is the only country in the region that hasn't dramatically increased its military budget. But that will change as part of "normalising" the country's military and foreign policy.
A closer U.S.-Japan military alliance is only the beginning. At the upcoming summit between President Bush and Lee Myung-Bak, one proposal on the table is a new security alliance for Asia that would link the United States, South Korea, Japan, and possibly other countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Such talk of explicit alliances, as well as Washington's moves to establish a global missile defence system and encroach on Russian interests in Central Asia, has encouraged Moscow to boost its own military spending and ramp up cooperation with China. With the renewed growth of the Russian economy on the strength of energy sales, Russian arms expenditures began to take off again in the new millennium, increasing nearly four-fold between 2000 and 2006.
The old geopolitical competition between the continental powers of the "Eurasian heartland" and the maritime powers of the "rimland" is re-emerging. China, Russia, and the Central Asian states have built the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. And the United States is building its own necklace of allies from India to Australia to Japan to contain this Eurasian challenge.
This spiraling arms race jeopardises all short-term victories, such as the recent compromise between the United States and North Korea. And it raises the stakes for what might otherwise be rather minor disagreements, such as the Japanese and Korean dispute over Tokdo/Takeshima island.
But the arms race in Northeast Asia and globally is not simply a potential threat. The international community needs a huge amount of capital to address a range of current threats -- nuclear proliferation, climate change, the destabilising gap between rich and poor. By drawing funds away from human needs, many analysts believe this new arms race is itself a threat to humanity.
"When China awakes, she will shake the world"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=559133&in_page_id=1811
Cecil Rhodes, the businessman-imperialist of Africa, the creator of Rhodesia, suffered no flicker of doubt about who were the masters.
"To be born an Englishman," he mused, "Is to win first prize in the lottery of life."
It wasn't idle boasting. In the jingoistic triumphalism of the late 19th century, when waving the Union Jack was a simple pleasure, people sang: "Rule Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves" without any irony. It was a statement of fact.
A quarter of mankind lived under the British flag in the largest empire the world had ever known.
And many of those parts that weren't under Britain's rule - such as the U.S. - had been created by Britain.
British missionaries had opened up the Dark Continent almost unchallenged.
The British Army found it easier to invade troublesome nations - or most of them - than it does nowadays.
Britain was the workshop of the world, dominating science, manufacturing and trade.
To many Victorians, unquestioning of the ideology that underpinned much imperialism, British supremacy was a simple matter of racial supremacy - Europeans, and the English in particular, were fated to be the masters.
The truth is that we are masters of the world no more.
The global power shift from the West to the East is no longer just a matter of debate confined to learned journals and newspaper columns - it is a reality that is beginning to have a huge impact on our daily lives.
What would those Victorian masters of old have made of the fact that Chinese security men were on the streets of London this week, ordering our own police about and fighting running battles with British protesters while bewildered athletes carried the Olympic torch on its relay through the capital?
It was a brazen display of how confident China has become of its new place in the world, just as the British Government's failure to take a firm stand on Chinese abuses of human rights shows how craven we have become.
The dire warnings from the International Monetary Fund this week that the West now faces the largest financial shock since the Great Depression, while the Asian economies are still powering ahead, simply underlines our vulnerability in this new world order.
The desperately weakened American dollar appears to be on the verge of losing its global dominance, in the same way as sterling lost it a lifetime ago.
The credit crunch has brought home to all of us in Britain how over-reliant our country has become on financial services. Meanwhile, the loss of our manufacturing industries to Asia continues unabated.
Last month, an Indian company, Tata, bought up what was once the cream of British manufacturing - Jaguar and Land Rover.
A couple of years ago, Nanjing Automotive, a Chinese company, snapped up MG Rover.
Just as the 19th century was the British century, and the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century is the Asian century.
But the handover of global power from the UK to the U.S. was trivial compared to what is happening now.
The U.S. was Britain's offspring, based on the same values and the same language.
It, too, was an Anglo-Saxon country, and passing the baton across the Atlantic ensured the continuation of the Anglo-Saxon world order, based on democracy, free trade and a belief in human rights, upheld through international institutions that both powers supported.
But the world order we have grown used to - and comfortable with - over the last century is coming to an end.
Napoleon III compared China to a sleeping giant and warned: "When China awakes, she will shake the world."
After a long hibernation, China, and her 1.3 billion people - twice the population of the U.S. and EU combined - is awaking almost overnight.
And not just China. The world's second most populous country, India, is industrialising at a historically unprecedented pace.
Their economies are growing on a long-term basis about four times the speed of the UK's and that of the United States. Goldman Sachs, the bank, recently predicted that by 2050, China and India would have overtaken the U.S. to be the world's first and second biggest economies.
We have long heard about the benefits this brings, in terms of plentiful cheap goods from toys to TVs, and huge opportunities for Western companies to sell their wares in these booming markets.
But there are also downsides, which are becoming more apparent. Unskilled workers in the West have become unsettled by the threat to their jobs as production moves East.
The most vulnerable Western workers have found their wages stagnate as they struggle to compete in an increasingly global market place.
And competition for raw materials is pitting East against West.
The economic explosion of China, and to a lesser extent India, has given them an almost overpowering hunger for raw materials with which to build their factories, homes and cars.
Wherever you turn, the rise of Asia is making its impact felt on our existence.
Every time you complain about the price of petrol being over £1 a litre, it is to the Far East you have to look to find the culprits.
here are even reports that manholes in Britain have been disappearing to feed the monstrous appetite for scrap steel in the other side of the world.
China is spending 35 times as much on crude oil as it did eight years ago, and 23 times as much on copper.
As it builds gleaming skyscrapers on its fields, China alone consumes half the world's cement and a third of its steel.
What is happening is so extraordinary that economists have had to invent a new word for it - this is not an economic cycle, but a supercycle, a shift in the world economy of historic proportions.
When demand increases and supply stands still, prices shoot up. Iron, wheat and oil are all at record prices, despite slackening demand in the faltering Western economies.
The cost of living in Britain is now rising faster than wages, making the British on average poorer year on year.
Asia's expansion means that its influence is starting to be felt more directly around the world.
Asian countries are not just buying up foreign raw materials, but as their companies try to become global leaders, they are buying up Western companies.
It is not just Land Rover, Jaguar and MG Rover. The Malaysian company Proton owns Lotus. Indian company Tata owns Corus, once British Steel, as well as Tetley Tea.
The hunger for raw materials is also making China lose its shyness and venture out into the world. Like Germany and Russia, China has traditionally been a land empire, focusing its expansionist energies on countries it had borders with, and it eschewed the world-conquering exploits of Europe's sea-faring maritime nations.
Europeans have, for half a millennium, been unchallenged as the global colonisers, but last month the respected Economist magazine dubbed the Chinese "The New Colonists".
While the Congo in central Africa was once over-run by Belgians, it is now the Chinese that can be found wondering around its mining belts.
In Lubumbashi, the capital of the Congo's copper-rich region Katanga, the Economist reported "a sudden Chinese invasion".
Troubled Angola recently shunned Western financial aid because of the amount of Chinese money pouring into it, in return for commodities.
From Kazakhstan to Indonesia to Latin America, Chinese firms are gobbling up oil, gas, coal and metals.
Canadian authorities were recently alarmed to find the Chinese interested in exploring the Arctic Ocean, in a bid to get a share of the minerals beneath the thawing icecap.
In eastern Siberia, Russians worry that China is by default taking over their empty land.
The West has long seen Africa as its backyard, but Western diplomats now worry that not just Africa, but South America, too, is being lost to China.
And Western governments are concerned that the rules of the game are changing. Most worryingly, as China's brutal suppression of the once independent Tibet shows, this is not a superpower that respects Western standards on human rights.
From Darfur to Myanmar, China is cuddling up to murderous dictators.
At home, it holds mass executions of criminals with bullets in the back of the head while transplant surgeons stand by to harvest their still pulsating organs.
Yet Western governments have been in such awe of China's looming power that their response has not been to challenge its abuses, but to try to silence their own protesters at home.
From the UN to the IMF to the World Bank, the international institutions that attempt to govern the planet were made in the image of the victors of World War II. Now power is shifting from West to East, the whole liberal democratic world order will face its first serious challenge in decades.
Many fear that things could get ugly.
There is only one thing worse than an unchallenged superpower - it is a superpower with a victim mentality, which feels the world owes it a favour.
And the bitter truth is that, after centuries of humiliation in foreign affairs, there is a nationalist mood in China that the country's time has come again, that it can again claim its rightful place as the world's most powerful country.
Its comparative weakness over the last few centuries is, in fact, but a blip in the last 2,000 years, during which China was the world's most economically and culturally advanced nation.
It is an accident of history that Europeans took advantage of their window of opportunity in the last half of the second millennium to take over the world.
The cause was a combination of factors such as the development of maritime technology in Europe, the competition between European countries that drove them to look outwards and find new ways to increase prosperity, and the fact China remained firmly locked in its agrarian, introspective past.
Now things have changed, and already the shift in the world economy is starting to have dramatic effects on migration patterns.
The emigration of poor people from China and India to the West is slowing down, as their citizens see more hope in their own rapidly advancing nations.
Instead, their expanding middle classes are paying large fees for their children to enjoy a Western university education, before returning home.
There are now 60,000 Chinese students in Britain, more than from any other country.
Westerners have become accustomed to being the only tourists in the world's tourist hotspots, but the Chinese and Indians want to enjoy the fruits of their labour by expanding their horizons, too.
Chinese tourists are likely to replace American tourists as popular irritants in Britain, and replace the Germans as competitors for the ski lifts.
As the opportunities flow from West to East, so too do the people.
India is luring the global Indian diaspora back, with laws that would be judged racist in Britain, offering visas to anyone living in the West with Indian blood in their veins.
Even some non-Indian Westerners are heading East for opportunities greater than they find at home.
The West's cultural supremacy is likely to be as challenged as its economic supremacy.
As their economic confidence grows, Asians are discovering pride in their own cultures and are less inclined to mimic Western ones.
There is an infectious confidence in Bollywood, and the price of Chinese antiques is rocketing as the newly rich Chinese decide they want a slice of their history. Western culture, like the dollar, will soon find its heyday behind it.
But Western attitudes will change as well, with a likely shift to the political Right. White liberal guilt, the driving force behind political correctness, will subside as Westerners feel threatened by the global order changing, and their supremacy slipping away.
Anti-Americanism will disappear as Europeans realise how much better it was to have a world super power that was a democracy (however flawed) not a dictatorship.
There is even speculation that the intense economic pressure on countries such as Britain will cause them to trim down their bloated welfare state, simply because it will no longer be affordable at present levels.
Western attitudes of superiority to China and the rest of the East will also subside, as Westerners realise they are no longer the masters of the world.
The U.S. company Orient Express complained when Tata tried to buy it, that any association with the Indian company would damage the Orient Express's premium brand.
Responding, R K Krishna Kumar, a senior Tata executive, thundered that "Indian companies ... will take their rightful place in the international arena.
"Enterprises and individuals must recognise and adapt to these fundamental economic changes. We believe that those with a fossilised frame of mind risk being marginalised."
In a world in which we are no longer masters, it is a warning that we ignore at our peril.
Christian Bookstore Owner in China Released
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07088.shtml
On August 3, Zhou Heng, a well-known house church leader and manager of the Yayi Christian Book Room, was arrested and detained when he went to pick up three tons of Bibles at a bus station in Xinjiang.
On August 31, Heng was formally charged, arraigned on charges of "illegal business operation" and imprisoned to await trial. According to an April 8 report from China Aid Association, however, Heng was recently released after a court determined there was no sufficient evidence to prosecute him.
During his imprisonment, Heng was reportedly beaten severely by inmates and prison guards. He is now recuperating at home with his family.
Thank the Lord for Heng's release. Pray for strength and healing for him. Pray that he will be emboldened by the fact that God commends those who suffer for doing good (1 Peter 2:20-21).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in China, go to www.persecution.net/country/china.htm.
Uyghur Christian Faces Possible Execution for 'Subversion of National Government'
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07086.shtml
WASHINGTON -- China Aid Association has learned that Mr. Alimujiang Yimiti, a Uyghur Christian and father of two, may soon face execution. Officials charged Alimujiang last September with "illegal religious activities" and took him into custody this January, accusing him of "Subversion of the National Government and endangering national security," a crime punishable by death. Officials are expected to announce Alimujiang's sentence by the end of April. Charges such as committing crimes against the State or revealing State secrets are commonly leveled against anyone considered to be an enemy of the State. Alimujiang's family fears he will be found guilty of such crimes and subjected to capital punishment.
Alimujiang is neither a separatist nor a terrorist, local sources say. He has told officials many times during interrogation that as a Christian he loves and supports the Chinese government, something many young Uyghurs struggle with as Han Chinese culture becomes increasingly dominant in Xinjiang. As a loyal Chinese citizen and business entrepreneur, Alimujiang has held to high standards, paying his taxes faithfully and avoiding a common local custom of paying bribes for business favors. He has also done his best to assimilate into Chinese culture, making the unusual decision to send his children to a Chinese language school in a predominantly Uyghur area.
Friends say Alimujiang simply wants the freedom to quietly express his faith, a right guaranteed to him in the Chinese constitution. Currently however, it is illegal for Alimujiang to own a Uyghur Bible. He is also unable to attend services at any Three Self Church in Xinjiang due to articles in the Xinjiang constitution that contradict China's national constitution. Neither can he pray with foreign Christians.
Simple Faith a Crime?
Alimujiang, who comes from a Muslim background, converted to Christianity over ten years ago and became active among the growing Uyghur church.
In 1997 an American-owned company, the Xinjiang Taipingyang Nongye Gongsi, employed Alimujiang as an interpreter because of his firm grasp of Chinese, English and Uyghur. Appreciative of his unique linguistic and technical skills, the company later offered him a full-time job at their premises in Hetian. While no religious activities were permitted during working hours, the company allowed Alimujiang and other staff members -- whether Muslim, Christian or otherwise - to pursue their own religious beliefs without interference -- in contrast to government companies. State officials also searched his house regularly and seized his personal computer. Alimujiang made numerous complaints to the State Security Bureau headquarters in Urumqi, the provincial capital. He also documented bruises from rough treatment and brought this to the attention of the bureau. Eventually Alimujiang left the company in Hetian and moved back to Urumqi, where he was hired as project manager for the Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company.
During his employment with the American-owned company and subsequently the UK-owned Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company, the local State Security Bureau -- responsible for matters of national security -- regularly called Alimujiang in for interrogation. Day or night, he was expected to comply. Officials however forbade him to discuss the subject of these interrogations with anyone, as this would be equivalent to "leaking state secrets."
In late February of this year Mr. Zhang Kai Alimujiang's lawyer, traveled to Kashi from Beijing but was denied a meeting with him by the Bureau of State Security of Xinjiang on Feb 25 for a so-called "national secret" reason. Alimujiang is currently being held in Kashi detention center.
His arrest, totally unexpected, has shocked friends and family who describe Alimujiang as an honest businessman and loyal citizen of China. Two companies of Alimujiang' s former employment were closed due to suspicion of "foreign religious infiltration."
Israel Thwarts Palestinian Attack From Gaza
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351606,00.html
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian militants attacked a crossing on the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting off a clash with Israeli troops that thwarted the third such assault this week, the army said.
The army said troops killed one militant and wounded a second at Kerem Shalom, a crossing used to deliver humanitarian supplies into Gaza. A third militant escaped.
Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group is furious over Israel's economic blockade of the area and has threatened to violently break through the border to lift what it derides as the Israeli "siege." Militants consider the crossings humiliating symbols of Israel's economic blockade of Gaza.
Israeli attacks killed at least 20 Palestinians on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in Gaza in more than a month. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hamas ambush.
Thousands of Palestinians, including journalists and members of rival political movements, marched through the streets of Gaza City Thursday at the funeral procession of a TV cameraman killed while covering the fighting.
Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old cameraman with the Reuters news agency, was struck, along with two bystanders, as he filmed Israeli tank movements off in the distance.
At the cameraman's funeral, Shana's body was wrapped in a bloodied Palestinian flag, as fellow journalists marched alongside carrying his broken camera and bloodstained flak jacket. The marchers waved Palestinian flags and carried small posters of Shana posing with his camera. "Fadal Shana, goodbye, the victim of the truth," the posters said.
Later, the body was taken to Shana's hometown of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. About 3,000 Palestinians attended the funeral. "Fadel, Fadel, loved by God!" the crowd chanted.
Young Palestinian men wailed in grief, and a woman on a balcony screamed and emotionally banged her hands on the railing. Gunmen fired into the air, and flags from the rival Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements were seen.
Reuters released the video taken by Shana in the seconds before his death. The footage shows a tank on a distant hilltop open fire. A tank shell is seen flying toward the camera followed by a large explosion before the screen went black.
Pictures taken by colleagues after the attack showed his jeep on fire and Shana's body lying next to it along with several other bodies strewn along the road. Shana's jeep was marked "Press" and witnesses said the cameraman was wearing an identifying flak jacket.
Shana was killed near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. He had been in the area to film the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that killed 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15, according to medical officials.
The Palestinian Journalists Union declared a one-day strike to protest Shana's death. The Foreign Press Association, representing journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, expressed "profound sadness."
"His death is a stark reminder of the risks our Palestinian colleagues take every day to cover the news in Gaza," the FPA said.
Hassan Kashef, a prominent Gaza journalist, accused Israel of targeting Shana. "Israel fears the truth. And they want to kill the truth," he said. "And Fadel was killed while his camera was showing the truth."
The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident. It expressed sorrow over his death, but did not accept responsibility.
Despite near-daily Israeli-Palestinian violence, casualties among journalists are rare. Only three others have been killed covering the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1992, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Wednesday's death toll was the highest since a broad Israeli military offensive that ended in early March killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians, over several days. Israel carried out the offensive in response to heavy rocket barrages on southern Israeli towns launched by the ruling Hamas militant group.
Since then, Israel and Hamas had appeared to be honoring an informal truce, though punctuated with Palestinian rocket attacks, some Israeli airstrikes and a deadly Palestinian attack that killed two Israeli civilians at a fuel depot.
Israel, which controls Gaza's borders, has greatly restricted the flow of goods into the area since Hamas seized control there last June. It has further tightened the blockade in recent weeks in response to the intensified rocket attacks from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Egyptian mediators were trying to negotiate a cease-fire between the two sides.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the "Israeli aggression in Gaza" and urged all sides to "cooperate with Egyptian efforts."
But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the violence cast doubt on Egyptian cease-fire efforts. "There can be no discussion of a truce in the midst of these crimes," he said, threatening revenge against Israel.
Hamas advocates the destruction of Israel while Israel considers Hamas a terror group.
In the West Bank Thursday, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants in a raid in the town of Qabatiya. Troops surrounded the hideout early Thursday, and exchanged fire for about an hour with the Islamic Jihad militants inside, before shooting them dead.
Abu Ahmad, an Islamic Jihad, spokesman vowed a shift retribution. "You will not escape the coming revenge," he said.
Netanyahu: Let the Third Reich be a Lesson
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/359149.aspx
JERUSALEM, Israel - What's the greatest danger to world stability? Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu believes it's the possibility of a nuclear Iran.
"Our central policy must be that Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons."
Netanyahu addressed a group of foreign journalists and warned of the danger Iran poses.
"The militant Shiites in Iran are openly racing and openly boasting that they're racing to develop nuclear weapons with the explicit, announced goal of wiping Israel from the face of the earth."
But he also warned a nuclear Iran poses a danger not just to Israel.
"This is not merely a local problem but a global problem. Obviously if Iran possesses nuclear weapons, everything we've been talking about will pale in comparison because the power to extend power, to threaten, to realize the threats, to make good on the threats would be on a level that we have not seen, nor can we readily imagine," Netanyahu said.
But how do you stop Iran? Netanyahu advocates financial divestment from Iran as one means to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons. But he believes all options - including the military option - need to remain on the table.
Netanyahu still believes Hitler's Germany and pre-World War II provide powerful historical analogies Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I said a year ago the year was 1938 and Iran is Germany and it's racing to acquire nuclear weapons," he said. "Well, if that's the case we're in 1939 and intelligence chiefs have said it will take Iran three years to acquire the critical knowledge to produce a weapon."
He continued, "We now have about two years left and as far as I know they haven't changed their assessment. So this is a problem we all face."
With time - and options - running out it remains to be seen how the world will respond to Netanyahu's warning of perhaps the greatest threat to peace in our time.
Hezbollah Training in Iran for War with Israel
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/Hizbullah_Iran_training/2008/04/15/87992.html
In south Lebanon, where the 2006 summertime war between Israel and militant Shiite Hizbullah was played out, villages are abuzz with talk of another devastating conflict between the two archfoes.
Over the past few weeks, military activity on both sides of the border has contributed to war jitters as both Israel and Hizbullah are seemingly poised to strike.
The Israeli military just wrapped up a nationwide war drill it dubbed "Turning Point 2," and Hizbullah appears to have devised new battle plans that include cross-border raids into Israel and has mounted a sweeping recruitment and training drive, even marshaling non-Shiites and former Israeli-allied militiamen into new reservist units.
"The holy fighters are completely focused on the next war, even ignoring families and friends. They are just waiting for the next war," says Jawad, a Hizbullah fighter.
Still, many diplomats and analysts in Beirut say that neither side has an interest in coming to blows again, despite the buildup.
"The elements of conflict are still there, and it is possible that something small can get out of hand with neither side wanting it," says Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut and veteran observer of the Hizbullah-Israeli conflict. But, he adds, the heightened activity is "mainly posturing."
Hizbullah continues to recruit and train new combatants at a furious pace. Indeed, it has noticeably increased in the past two months, ever since the assassination in Damascus of Imad Mughnieh, Hizbullah's top military commander, sparked fears of a fresh war.
Many recruits are sent to Iran for 45-day advanced training sessions, according to Hizbullah fighters. Jawad says he recently returned from Iran, his second trip in a year, where he was taught how to fire antitank missiles.
"There's a lot of training," he says. "The holy fighters are leaving universities, shops, places of work to go and train."
New tactics are being taught, including how to "seize and hold" positions, a requirement that Hizbullah's guerrilla fighters – traditionally schooled in hit-and-run methods – never needed before. One local commander in south Lebanon said that Hizbullah had fought a defensive war in 2006.
"Next time, we will be on the offensive and it will be a totally different kind of war," he says.
Jawad says that the next war will be "fought more in Israel than in Lebanon," one comment of many from various fighters that suggest Hizbullah is planning commando raids into northern Israel.
Hizbullah admits that its rocket arsenal has increased since 2006 and it has the ability to strike anywhere inside Israel.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the party's leader, in February said that Hizbullah had evolved into an "unparalleled new school" that is part guerrilla force and part conventional army.
A European diplomat in Beirut, who has been watching Hizbullah's preparations, likened attacking the organization to "punching a sponge" – it absorbs the blow then bounces back – and questioned whether Israel still fully appreciates what it is up against.
Hizbullah's military buildup is not confined to Shiite Lebanese. Sunnis, Christians, and Druze also are being recruited into reservist units called "Saraya," or battalions.
Building ties to Sunnis serves for Hizbullah the double purpose of expanding support while also helping improve Shiite-Sunni relations, strained due to political divisions in Lebanon.
In the southern coastal town of Sidon, a Sunni Islamist militant group called the Fajr Forces, which fought invading Israeli troops in the early 1980s, has been resurrected as a Hizbullah ally.
Sheikh Afif Naboulsi, a prominent Hizbullah cleric, last month was quoted as saying that next time "the Israelis will find resistance fighters from all sects and denominations."
Hizbullah has been particularly active, according to residents, in the eastern pocket of the zone patrolled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The area is the mainly Sunni Arqoub district and faces the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-occupied mountainside running along Lebanon's border with the Golan Heights.
Having lost ground here to political rivals after the 2006 war, Hizbullah is now seeking to regain its influence through funding a new group called the Arab Resistance Front, a reservist force for local Sunnis. Even former members of the now disbanded Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army militia have joined the new group, according to local residents.
"Hizbullah will not turn down anyone who wants to join the resistance," says Izzat Qadri, the Sunni mayor of Kfar Shuba and an ally of Hizbullah.
Despite the frequent recruiting in the border zone, officials with UNIFIL say there is no evidence Hizbullah has reactivated its bunkers and rocket-firing positions that the militants abandoned at the end of the 2006 war.
Hizbullah fighters presently are deployed along a new front line above the Litani River, north of the area patrolled by UNIFIL. In the past 18 months, Hizbullah has purchased land from local Druze and Christians, constructed an entire Shiite-populated village, and turned the mountains and valleys of the area into sealed-off military zones.
"There are armed and uniformed Hizbullah men crawling all over the hills. We often hear gunfire and explosions from their training," says one local resident.
Bush, British PM Pledge Tough Stance on Iran's Nuclear Ambitions
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351635,00.html
WASHINGTON — President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown jointly pledged to step up efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and work with European leaders to increase sanctions on the country during a press conference outside the White House on Thursday.
Bush called it “naïve” to believe that Iran is not intending to transfer its nuclear enrichment capabilities from energy development to atomic bomb production. Bush described Iran as “untrustworthy,” and said that if the country “learns how to enrich, it is knowledge which can be used to develop a nuclear weapon.”
“Gordon Brown seriously sees the threat, as do I, and now it’s time to confront the threat,” he said.
Brown, who is on his second visit to the United States since succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister in June, echoed Bush’s sentiments on Iran and praised him for his commitment to fighting global terrorism.
"The world owes President George Bush a huge debt of gratitude for leading the world” in the fight against terrorism, Brown said. "No international partership has served the world better than our special relationship ... the bond between our two countries is stronger than ever."
"We will continue to work together with the strengthening efforts we are making ... with Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.
The two leaders also upheld their commitment to a military presence in Iraq and agreed that both political and financial progress was being made in the country.
Bush said that failure in Iraq would embolden Al Qaeda and Iran, and send a message to U.S. allies that "you can't count on America."
Brown, who praised both U.S. and British troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that "progress is Iraqis now being able to take control of their own affairs," and that the eventual goal is to move from "combat to overwatch."
Iran sanctions having impact-US officials
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/iran.sanctions.having.impactus.officials/18113.htm
Defending their approach to thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions, Bush administration officials on Thursday said U.S. financial sanctions were increasing pressure on Tehran by isolating it from the international business world.
The sanctions have not yet inflicted enough economic pain to pressure Iran to abandon any ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons but the administration is still hoping it would "change the calculus" for Tehran, a senior State Department official told lawmakers.
"Iran is increasingly isolated. Iran has to spend more time to figure out how to do trade, financial transfers. The sanctions are having an effect," Jeffrey Feltman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said in a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Feltman said Washington is committed to a "diplomatic solution to the range of challenges posed by Iran."
The U.S. Treasury Department has banned Americans from doing business with a number of Iranian state banks and other firms due to their alleged involvement in financing acquisition of nuclear and missile technologies.
The United States also accuses some of the blacklisted companies of helping provide financial support to terrorist groups in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.
Many international banks and companies have opted to observe the U.S. sanctions and shun business with Iran, said U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Glaser, saying the strategy was "having an effect."
But lawmakers on the panel expressed frustration that the Bush administration had not taken strong enough action on Iran and said the sanctions would do little to persuade Tehran to change its ways.
"Having a policy of hope is horse dung. Praise the Lord, but pass the ammunition," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat. He said there wasn't enough pressure on Iran. "What is the 'or else' here? We'll tell the U.N.?" he asked.
California Rep. Edward Royce, a Republican, said Treasury should add Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, to its sanctions list, calling it the "central bank of terrorism."
Glaser said Bank Markazi was employing deceptive practices to help blacklisted institutions skirt sanctions, such as requesting anonymity in international transactions. He said that while sanctioning the central bank itself was an option, the U.S. was not yet ready to take that step.
"Taking action against the central bank of Iran is an extraorodinary step. It is certainly something that is within our tool box," Glaser said. "But it is important to do this the right way and it's important to work with the international community.
Through coordination with the Financial Action Task Force, a multinational anti-money laundering body, Glaser said several countries, including the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Malaysia, have warned their financial institutions of the risks inherent in doing business with Iran.
Lieberman: Carter Is 'Naive' at Best
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351542,00.html
Former President Jimmy Carter met another top Hamas official Thursday in a Cairo hotel and planned to meet more officials in Syria Friday, drawing the ire of dozens of U.S. lawmakers.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., told FOX News that "at best, President Carter is being naive" in trying to negotiate with avowed terrorists. "There is a long list of people who thought they could reason with dictators and killers, going back to Neville Chamberlain and Hitler in the 1930s, but it has been shown to be absolutely wrong."
Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., told FOX News that she advocates revoking Carter's passport and supports a measure to withdraw all federal funding from his Georgia-based institution, the Carter Center.
"We have a policy in this country about Hamas and he is deliberately undermining that policy," Myrick said. "Why should we support his center when he will not support his government?"
Both the United States and Israel have designated Hamas a terror organization and refuse to negotiate with it.
In advance of Carter's planned meeting Friday with Hamas chief Khaled Meshal, 30 congressmen introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning Hamas for terrorist activities, including the murder of 26 Americans.
The resolution, sponsored by Reps. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., was intended as a warning shot at Carter and follows letters from more than 50 congressmen urging the former president to abandon his visit to the Hamas head, who lives in exile in Syria.
In the face of such criticism, Carter traveled to Cairo to meet with Mahmoud Zahar, who controls Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Zahar wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post Thursday decrying the "hideous straitjacket of apartheid" in Gaza and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
"Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people," he wrote. "We Gazans, living in the world's largest open-air prison, can do no less."
The Washington Post, in an editorial, criticized Carter for "lending what is left of his prestige to an avowed terrorist," and suggested that he not grant "recognition and political sanction to a leader or a group that advocates terrorism."
Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., introduced legislation Wednesday to strip the Carter Center of taxpayer support because of his meetings with terrorists. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa. presented a non-binding resolution that would urge former presidents to abandon "freelance diplomacy," in a direct response to Carter's visit.
Carter's visit to Cairo, during which he also met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, followed Gaza's worst day of violence in a month, in which at least 20 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers died.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the violence cast doubt on Egyptian cease-fire efforts.
"There can be no discussion of a truce in the midst of these crimes," Zuhri said, threatening revenge against Israel.
Egypt's efforts already are complicated by the fact that Hamas favors destruction of Israel, Israel considers Hamas a terror group and the two do not talk to each other.
Hamas officials said their meeting with Carter would add legitimacy to their group. Carter insists it is preferable to talk to all sides of the conflict.
Putin in Libya to close $2.5b arms deal
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208246584036&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Only few weeks before he leaves office, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Libya on Wednesday for a two-day visit likely to be dominated by discussions on energy cooperation, arms deals and debt negotiations.
Putin's visit may bring closure to several large arms deals totaling $2.5 billion, which are aimed at bolstering Libya's aging weapons arsenal, Russian media outlets reported. The deals will include anti-aircraft systems, MiG and Sukhoi aircraft, helicopters, submarines and warships, the Russian news agency Interfax said.
"The media are always interested in arms deals… but the main issue for Russia will be Libya as a trading partner, which is something that almost every country in the world is interested in, because Libya, with a high oil price, has a lot of money to spend," Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, and currently deputy chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, told The Media Line.
Last week, the state-run Russian gas company, Gazprom, revealed it was negotiating with its Italian partner, Eni, about a potential asset swap involving projects in Libya. The heads of the two companies have met with Putin recently, although the content of their discussions has not been fully disclosed.
International competition over foreign investments in Libya has been heightened as a result of the country's recent moves to open up.
"There are many things that we in Britain, for example, or the French, or other exporting countries, would wish to sell to the Libyans, and naturally we see the Russians as competitors," Miles said.
Regarding the military aircraft deal, Miles explained there was direct competition between France and Russia, which are "probably the most likely suppliers of military aircraft to Libya."
The former ambassador explained that a French-Libyan deal for the purchase of military aircraft was considered a done deal at the time of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent visit to Libya.
This competition also hit the news last month, when reports indicated that Algeria had decided to terminate a contract to purchase 35 MiG29 aircrafts from Russia.
Algeria began refusing deliveries from May 2007, and in October it stopped payments on other military contracts, pending the return of the MiGs to Russia.
"The reasons for the termination of the Algerian contract are likely to lie in the realm of politics," said head of the Russian Federal Agency for Industry, Andrei Dutov.
The French media recently indicated that two months ago Sarkozy tried to persuade Algeria to purchase French aircraft with similar technical features as the MiG29.
Russian arms export monopoly, Rosoboronexport, signed a contract to deliver the MiG29 fighters in March 2006 as part of an $8-billion military-technical cooperation agreement with Algeria.
Surprise! Putin agrees to lead main political party in Russia
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/15/europe/russia.php
Surprising no one, President Vladimir Putin accepted an offer Tuesday to lead the dominant political party in Russia once he leaves office next month and takes the post of prime minister, potentially setting the stage for years of power-sharing with President-elect Dimitri Medvedev, his hand-picked successor to the Kremlin.
At a party congress that played like a disconcerting mélange of U.S. national political convention, Soviet-era Communist Party Congress and corporate pep rally, Putin agreed to be the chairman of United Russia, a party that has been regarded as an arm of the Kremlin since it was created in 2001.
Until Medvedev takes office May 7, Putin said it would be inappropriate for him to be officially affiliated with a particular party. Once he is prime minister, he said, he sees no such problem, calling a dual party and government role "a perfectly civilized, natural and traditional practice for democratic states."
Before the hundreds of delegates and guests who filled Gostiny Dvor, a convention complex just steps from Red Square and the Kremlin, Putin added: "Harmonious work between the cabinet and the parliamentary majority offers an opportunity to meet successfully the challenges of economic development, improve the quality of health care and education, increase the incomes of our citizens and strengthen the defense capability of our nation.
"Therefore, I gladly accept the offer of the members of the party and its leadership. Thank you very much. I am ready to take on the additional responsibility and lead United Russia."
Putin's words to the crowd, which he addressed twice, were greeted with multiple standing ovations - and the vote to make him party leader was proclaimed unanimous. Yet his appearance bore significantly less of the Soviet stamp that accompanied the previous party congress, last October, when a textile worker and a paralympic athlete appeared on stage and appealed to Putin to stay on as Russia's leader.
Also distinctly un-Soviet was the length of this congress, which convened for only about two hours over the past two days.
At the October congress, Putin said he would consider the post of prime minister if the country elected a president he could work with. On Tuesday, he noted that everything had gone according to plan.
"Dimitri Medvedev, the very man that I recommended to the country and the electorate, has been elected president of Russia," he said. "I have therefore accepted his proposal, one that was supported by United Russia and other parties, to head the government of the Russian Federation in accordance with the time frame stipulated in the Constitution."
Since the parliamentary elections last December, United Russia has controlled 315 of the 450 seats in the Duma, the lower house of Parliament. Critics say the lack of a viable opposition and the party's monolithic structure make it a modern-day version of the Soviet Communist Party. (The surviving Communist Party of the Russian Federation and other small parties have, in these critics' eyes, been harassed into oblivion.)
Boris Gryzlov, the leader of United Russia, who proposed Putin for the post, found suitably laudatory words.
"We are a strong party," he said. "And we will grow even stronger when the leader of our electoral list, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, becomes chairman of the Russian government. The 2007 elections to the State Duma have confirmed his status as national leader, becoming in essence a referendum in support of the course that is being carried out."
Putin headed the party's ticket for the December elections, even though he was not then - and is not now - a member of United Russia.
Putin did not run for a third consecutive term as president, which would have violated the Constitution. But analysts have speculated that he and Medvedev could alternate between the posts of president and prime minister without ever formally defying the law.
In Russian society, that prospect has revived an almost forgotten genre, the political anecdote, which flourished around kitchen tables in Soviet times.
"It's 2036, and Putin and Medvedev are sitting in the Kremlin drinking," goes one anecdote making the rounds. "Putin asks Medvedev: 'Dim, which of us is president today?' Medvedev answers: 'I don't remember.' So they go to the corridor to check the sign on the door. Medvedev: 'Vov, you're president today.' Putin: 'Then, Dim, you go buy the beer.' "
Medvedev also addressed the congress Tuesday, but to a much more muted response.
Medvedev, who has worked with Putin for almost 20 years, said that just as Putin did not join United Russia as president, he, too, should remain above the party fray for now.
Alexander Rahr, program director for Russia and Eurasia at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said this might signal an effort to put some distance between himself and Putin.
By refusing party discipline, Rahr noted, Medvedev avoided being caught in "some new kind of dependencies."
"If he had joined the party, he would have received a new boss," Rahr said. "That means the head of the party: Putin." Others, including party and government officials, said Putin's new post was a sign of growing normality and stability in Russia.
"Today is a new stage in the development of the political system of Russia, the model that is recognized in the world, and has many years of experience and history, where the winning party and its leader form the government," said Valentina Matviyenko, the governor of St. Petersburg. "I think that this is a logical, clear, civilized European decision."
Europe or Eurabia?
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5516
The future of Europe is in play. Will it turn into "Eurabia," a part of the Muslim world? Will it remain the distinct cultural unit it has been over the last millennium? Or might there be some creative synthesis of the two civilizations?
The answer has vast importance. Europe may constitute a mere 7 percent of the world's landmass but for five hundred years, 1450-1950, for good and ill, it was the global engine of change. How it develops in the future will affect all humanity, and especially daughter countries such as Australia which still retain close and important ties to the old continent.
I foresee potentially one of three paths for Europe: Muslims dominating, Muslims rejected, or harmonious integration.
(1) Muslim domination strikes some analysts as inevitable. Oriana Fallaci found that "Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam." Mark Steyn argues that much of the Western world "will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most European countries." Such authors point to three factors leading to Europe's Islamization: faith, demography, and a sense of heritage.
The secularism that predominates in Europe, especially among its elites, leads to alienation about the Judeo-Christian tradition, empty church pews, and a fascination with Islam. In complete contrast, Muslims display a religious fervor that translates into jihadi sensibility, a supremacism toward non-Muslims, and an expectation that Europe is waiting for conversion to Islam.
The contrast in faith also has demographic implications, with Christians having on average 1.4 children per woman, or about one third less than the number needed to maintain their population, and Muslims enjoying a dramatically higher, if falling, fertility rate. Amsterdam and Rotterdam are expected to be in about 2015 the first large majority-Muslim cities. Russia could become a Muslim-majority country in 2050. To employ enough workers to fund existing pension plans, Europe needs millions of immigrants and these tend to be disproportionately Muslim due to reasons of proximity, colonial ties, and the turmoil in majority-Muslim countries.
In addition, many Europeans no longer cherish their history, mores, and customs. Guilt about fascism, racism, and imperialism leave many with a sense that their own culture has less value than that of immigrants. Such self-disdain has direct implications for Muslim immigrants, for if Europeans shun their own ways, why should immigrants adopt them? When added to the already-existing Muslim hesitations over much that is Western, and especially what concerns sexuality, the result are Muslim populations that strongly resist assimilation.
The logic of this first path leads to Europe ultimately becoming an extension of North Africa.
(2) But the first path is not inevitable. Indigenous Europeans could resist it and as they make up 95 percent of the continent's population, they can at any time reassert control, should they see Muslims posing a threat to a valued way of life.
This impulse can already be seen at work in the French anti-hijab legislation or in Geert Wilders' film, Fitna. Anti-immigrant parties gain in strength; a potential nativist movement is taking shape across Europe, as political parties opposed to immigration focus increasingly on Islam and Muslims. These parties include the British National Party, Belgium's Vlaamse Belang, France's Front National, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, the Danish People's Party, and the Swedish Democrats.
They will likely continue to grow as immigration surges ever higher, with mainstream parties paying and expropriating their anti-Islamic message. Should nationalist parties gain power, they will likely seek to reject multiculturalism, cut back on immigration, encourage repatriation of immigrants, support Christian institutions, increase indigenous European birthrates, and broadly attempt to re-establish traditional ways.
Muslim alarm will likely follow. American author Ralph Peters sketches a scenario in which "U.S. Navy ships are at anchor and U.S. Marines have gone ashore at Brest, Bremerhaven or Bari to guarantee the safe evacuation of Europe's Muslims." Peters concludes that because of European's "ineradicable viciousness," its Muslims "are living on borrowed time" As Europeans have "perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing," Muslims, he predicts, "will be lucky just to be deported," rather than killed. Indeed, Muslims worry about just such a fate; since the 1980s, they have spoken overtly about Muslims being sent to gas chambers.
Violence by indigenous Europeans cannot be precluded but nationalist efforts will more likely take place less violently; if any one is likely to initiate violence, it is the Muslims. They have already engaged in many acts of violence and seem to be spoiling for more. Surveys indicate, for instance, that about 5 percent of British Muslims endorse the 7/7 transport bombings. In brief, a European reassertion will likely lead to on-going civil strife, perhaps a more lethal version of the fall 2005 riots in France.
(3) The ideal outcome has indigenous Europeans and immigrant Muslims finding a way to live together harmoniously and create a new synthesis. A 1991 study, La France, une chance pour l'Islam (France, an Opportunity for Islam) by Jeanne-Hélène Kaltenbach and Pierre Patrick Kaltenbach promoted this idealistic approach. Despite all, this optimism remains the conventional wisdom, as suggested by an Economist leader of 2006 that concluded that dismissed for the moment at least, the prospect of Eurabia as "scaremongering."
This is the view of most politicians, journalists, and academics but it has little basis in reality. Yes indigenous Europeans could yet rediscover their Christian faith, make more babies, and again cherish their heritage. Yes, they could encourage non-Muslim immigration and acculturate Muslims already living in Europe. Yes, Muslim could accept historic Europe. But not only are such developments not now underway, their prospects are dim. In particular, young Muslims are cultivating grievances and nursing ambitions at odds with their neighbors.
One can virtually dismiss from consideration the prospect of Muslims accepting historic Europe and integrating within it. U.S. columnist Dennis Prager agrees: "It is difficult to imagine any other future scenario for Western Europe than its becoming Islamicized or having a civil war."
But which of those two remaining paths will the continent take? Forecasting is difficult because crisis has not yet struck. But it may not be far off. Within a decade perhaps, the continent's evolution will become clear as the Europe-Muslim relationship takes shape.
The unprecedented nature of Europe's situation also renders a forecast exceedingly difficult. Never in history has a major civilization peaceably dissolved, nor has a people ever risen to reclaim its patrimony. Europe's unique circumstances make them difficult to comprehend, tempting to overlook, and virtually impossible to predict.
Note from Kade - Now more than ever we need to understand the background that drives Islam today. Our featured DVD "Farewell Israel" will give you a context in which to understand the desires of Modern Islam.
Euro Demands More Say in World Economy - Could Replace Dollar As World Reserve Currency
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080411/eu_euro_global_economy.html?.v=3
The European Union's top economy official has said that Europe deserved a greater say in the global economy as the strong euro gains ground as the world's second major currency.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that the rest of the world now sees the euro currency zone as "a pole of stability" and the currency had the potential to become even more important.
The euro is now second to the weak U.S. dollar as a reserve currency held by foreign investors and has risen sharply against the dollar in recent months, hitting a new all-time high of $1.5912 on Thursday.
Almunia said the euro area is now "playing an increasingly important role in supporting the stability of the world economy and the global financial system."
"Non-EU countries increasingly perceive the euro area and the EU as a whole as a pole of stability, a source of new capital, and also a source of advice and expertise on regulatory approaches," he said in a speech to the Petersen Institute in Washington D.C.
His prepared remarks were distributed ahead of time by his Brussels office.
The EU official called for the 15 euro nations to share a single seat when world leaders meet to discuss the economy at the International Monetary Fund or the G-7 group of top seven industrialized nations.
In the G-7, this would come at the expense of euro users Germany, France and Italy which now represent themselves at these talks.
The euro's greater role carried some risks, he warned, because it increased the region's exposure to shocks from other parts of the world and "disruptive portfolio shifts" between major currencies.
"It is precisely such shocks that are likely to occur more frequently in a world characterized by financial and economic globalization," he said.
He again signaled worry about the U.S.' huge current account deficit, saying a sudden "unwinding" could hit Europe hard, since its currency is still appreciating against the dollar.
The euro now makes up 26 percent of foreign exchange reserves and is the second most actively traded currency after the U.S. dollar on global foreign exchange markets.
Euro-dollar trades are the most popular foreign exchange deals, accounting for more than a quarter of global turnover.
Berlusconi "wants more EU influence" to tackle global problems
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1615920620080416
Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday he would help the EU regain the influence he said it had lost since he was last in power and called for the European Central Bank's mandate to be broadened.
Speaking on one of his own television channels after winning Italy's April 13-14 election, Berlusconi said the EU needed a "top leadership squad" to make it count in the world.
"There is a need to reconstruct a Europe that has a leading role in the Western world that can tackle with determination the problems facing the world," said the 71-year-old conservative media mogul, who is expected to take office next month.
In later comments that could anger some of Italy's European Union partners, for whom ECB independence is sacrosanct, Berlusconi said its mandate should be widened beyond keeping inflation in check. He did not specify what he meant, but in the past he has urged the central bank to support economic growth.
Rules set out in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty give the ECB the power to pursue its primary goal of maintaining price stability free of political influence.
"I believe the ECB's functions need to be widened beyond the power to control inflation," Berlusconi told a news conference.
Italy's third-richest man and owner of AC Milan soccer club, Berlusconi said during the election campaign he wanted to "intervene" with the ECB and would discuss it with EU leaders such as France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel.
Sarkozy has repeatedly called for action to curb the sharp rise in the value of the euro, while Germany has vigorously defended the ECB's independence from politicians.
Berlusconi often blames the euro for the underperformance of Italy's economy, echoing the opinion of many Italians who say their spending power has waned since they gave up the lira. Exporters complain the strong euro makes them less competitive.
Berlusconi's victory had been expected to deal a final blow to the sale of loss-making Alitalia to Air France-KLM, which has been blocked by unions.
Berlusconi wants a home-grown rescue, but has left the door open to the foreign bid if Alitalia is given equal footing in any future international airline group.
ITALY ISOLATED
In his second term as premier from 2001-2006, Berlusconi was accused of isolating Italy within Europe by concentrating on relations with the United States, Russia and Israel.
Berlusconi famously made the sign of the cuckold behind a Spanish minister's head at a summit photo call, and shocked the European Parliament in July 2003 by likening a German lawmaker to a concentration camp guard.
Romano Prodi, who beat him in the 2006 election, tried to refocus on Europe in his 20 months as premier. But Prodi, the former European Commission president, was forced out of office in January when his centre-left coalition collapsed.
Berlusconi said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had invited him to London, and he had spoken to Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Seen as a staunch ally of Washington in its "war on terror", Berlusconi said President George W. Bush had invited him to a dinner in the United States, though he did not specify a date.
Italy has around 2,400 soldiers with a U.N. peace force in Lebanon. Berlusconi said he would review the rules of engagement to let them react better to the challenges on the ground.
He also said he would set up a commission to assess the budget situation that his government would inherit from the centre-left to make sure there were "no surprises".
France tries to persuade Turkey to participate in the Union for the Mediterranean
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208246584036&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is sending Jean Pierre Jouillet, minister responsible for European Union affairs to convince Turkey to participate in the Union for the Mediterranean.
A scheme to increase cooperation between the European Union and the countries in the Mediterranean basin, the Union for the Mediterranean is a French proposal, perceived by Turkey as an alternative to its membership in the EU. Sarkozy has also asked Pierre Lelouche, a member of the parliament from France's ruling party, Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP) to prepare a report on Turkish-French relations.
Sarkozy's call to establish a Mediterranean Union, as it was called initially, coincided with his explicit statements opposing Turkey's entry to the European Union, has irked Turkey, which so far has not accepted France's offer to participate.
France is inviting all the countries around the Mediterranean rim, including Libya, Syria and Israel, to a European Union summit in Paris on July 13 and they are expected to take part in a Euro-Mediterranean Bastille Day military parade with European troops the next day, reported the British newspaper Sunday Times, quoting Henri Guaino, one of the closest advisers to the French president on Sunday.
Despite assurances from the French government that the Union for the Mediterranean will not be an alternative to Turkey's membership, Ankara's suspicions that this is a plot to keep Turks out of the EU have not dissipated.
The French on the other hand would like to see Turkey participate, as it is one of the most important countries in the Mediterranean basin. The fact that Sarkozy decided to send a minister as his special envoy to Ankara, is perceived by Turkish diplomatic sources as Paris' high interest to see Turkey included in the scheme.
The idea of Club Med has not only irked Turkey's friends in the EU like Britain and Sweden but has also annoyed Germany, which fears that France is creating a new sphere of influence with EU money.
Sarkozy's original idea envisioned an economic, political and cultural partnership exclusive to states bordering the Mediterranean Sea, such as Italy and Spain. But this vision has been watered down, as a compromise reached within the 27-nation bloc at a summit in March, made the Union for the Mediterranean open to more members in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East while making it harder to bridge the differences among them.
Jouillet will try to yet again convince his Turkish counterparts of the merits of the new cooperation mechanism. Although the Turkish government has not yet taken a final decision on the subject, many within the bureaucracy favor Turkey's participation in the scheme convinced that the new version does not pose a threat to Ankara's accession process.
For many Union for the Mediterranean will be little more than a new political umbrella in the existing Euro-Mediterranean partnership launched 13 years ago in Barcelona. It will be wrong to stay out of such a scheme. Since it is not going to threaten the Turkish accession process, there is no need to antagonize the French further, said a Turkish diplomat.
Turkey: Trial resumes of Bible publishing workers' killers
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/turkey.trial.resumes.of.bible.publishing.worker.killers/18092.htm
The trial of five men accused of murdering three Christians in south east Turkey resumed on Monday, just days before the country's believers mark one year since the horrific murders.
Two Turkish Christians from a Muslim-background, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, and German citizen, Tilman Geske, were tortured to death on 18 April 2007 in the office of a Christian publishing company in the city of Malatya.
During the 12-hour hearing on Monday, the lawyers acting for the families of the victims were informed that their request to have the bench of three judges replaced was rejected by a higher court. The lawyers had previously lodged the request declaring that the ‘impartiality and independence’ of the court was in jeopardy. The court also heard from three of the defendants.
One of the lawyers for the victims’ families, Tahir Elci, told Turkish news agency Bianet that although these men had confessed, no one was able to find those who orchestrated the murders. Mr Elci believes that opportunities for a deeper inquiry have been blocked. This view is shared by other lawyers and the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches.
The trial will resume on 12 May.
CSW’s National Director, Stuart Windsor said: “It is concerning that the court is still reluctant to pursue the darker connections behind those standing trial.
"During the first part of 2008, reports of attacks on church properties and Christian clergymen in Turkey have increased significantly.
"If the court does not seek to address the larger problem, it will send out a negative and dangerous message to nationalists who have targeted Christians that their actions will go unpunished.”
Junk Science: A New 'Green' Body Count Begins
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351590,00.html
Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in uprisings in Haiti, perhaps the first of many casualties to come from the fad of being "green."
Food riots also broke out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. The military is being deployed in Pakistan and Thailand to protect fields and warehouses. Higher energy costs and policies promoting the use of biofuels such as ethanol are being blamed.
"When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels," an Indian government official told the Wall Street Journal. Turkey’s finance minister labeled the use of biofuels as "appalling," according to the paper.
Biofuels have turned out to be a lose-lose-lose proposition. Once touted by the greens and the biofuel industry as being able to reduce the demand for oil and lower greenhouse gas emissions, biofuels have accomplished neither goal and have no prospect for accomplishing either in the foreseeable future.
The latest research shows that biofuels actually increase greenhouse gas emissions on a total lifecycle basis. Add in that taxpayer-subsidized diversion of food crops and food crop acreage to fuel production has contributed to higher food prices and reduced food supply, and biofuels turn out to be nothing less than a public policy disaster.
The situation is not likely to get any better any time soon, as cutting the farm subsidies and tariffs on sugar cane-based ethanol imports that have fueled the ethanol craze seems to be yet another third rail of U.S. politics.
Biofuel proponents hope the reliance on food crops to produce biofuels is temporary, and they point to a future where non-food biomass (such as corn stalks and grasses) is used to produce so-called cellulosic ethanol.
But in addition to the fact that the technology for producing cellulosic ethanol on a cost-effective basis is nowhere near ready for prime time, the greenhouse gas footprint of cellulosic ethanol likely will be far worse than that of corn-based ethanol.
It’s one thing to transport relatively compact corn kernels to be processed into ethanol; it’s quite another to transport bulky biomass. The bulk problem would require a multitude of cellulosic ethanol plants to be built around the country — a project that could be quite costly and difficult to locate given the phenomenon of NIMBY-ism and the problem of plant emissions making it more difficult for states to comply with federal air quality standards.
States that don’t meet those standards don’t get their much-needed federal highway funds. Food riots are only the tip of the green iceberg. We might also expect energy riots to erupt one day.
The world has an ever-growing population that needs more and more energy, but the greens are doing everything they can to constrict the world’s energy supply.
As the Sierra Club campaigns to shut down our coal-fired electricity capabilities, the Natural Resources Defense Council campaigns to prevent nuclear power from taking its place. The demise of coal-fired power and the blockage of increased nuclear power will increase the demand for supply constraints on, and the prices for, natural gas.
But then again, environmental advocacy group Earth First perhaps is helping to alleviate the looming natural gas crisis by campaigning against power plants that use the fuel. In a recent campaign against a South Florida power plant, an Earth First campaigner stated that the environment ought not be threatened "so that people can fuel their greedy energy desires." "Just say 'no' to electricity," seems to be the bottom line of eco-think.
Even wind power is becoming more and more politically incorrect. Environmentalist-friendly Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley this week announced that wind farms will not be allowed on state lands because they are eyesores.
Considering eco-activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-standing opposition to a wind farm off the coast of his family’s Hyannis Port, Mass., compound as well as environmentalist concerns that wind farms kill wild birds, it seems that the future of wind power is uncertain.
The environmentalist effort to tie our energy policy knots already is producing results. The availability of electricity in the Washington, D.C., area is so fragile that Maryland officials already are planning for summertime rolling blackouts starting in 2011.
In California, officials are so concerned that a recent state legislative proposal would have provided local utilities the power to control thermostats in new homes and businesses. Although this effort failed, it’s not that hard to imagine that, one day, all homes will have their electrical use controlled by local utilities — no doubt run by your local green energy czars.
Millions in the developing world have died and continue to do so from the greens’ campaign against pesticides such as DDT. Nothing less should be expected from their new campaign that threatens global food and energy production.
Scientists predict more floods, droughts - could expand food crisis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_re_eu/climate_change_water
Scientists predicted Thursday that climate change in coming decades will cause more flooding in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in some southern and arid zones.
In addition, they said that some areas around the Mediterranean, parts of southern Africa, northeastern Brazil and the western U.S. region will likely suffer water shortages.
Rajendra Pachauri, the chief U.N. climate scientist, said at the end of a meeting in Budapest that the rising frequency and intensity of floods and droughts could lead to a food crisis.
"We may see a decline in agriculture production," said Pachauri, who is also chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.
An IPCC report presented at the meeting said the decline of water quantity and quality would lead to shortages of water for drinking and agriculture.
Millions of Africans could be afflicted by such water problems by 2020, unless action is taken to mitigate climate change, experts said.
While the proportion of heavy rainfalls will very likely increase, so will the areas simultaneously affected by extreme droughts.
One of the co-authors of the IPCC report said water issues would be one of the main problems of climate change.
"Everybody pretty much agrees that water is central to the way climate change is going to affect ecosystems and every human being," said Kathleen Miller, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Miller mentioned deltas of major rivers in Asia, such as the Mekong, as one of the areas where floods were an increasing concern.
"Those places will be much more vulnerable," Miller said.
She said that in the U.S. "there's a high likelihood of the west getting drier."
US plans new steps to ease food shortage
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.plans.new.steps.to.ease.food.shortage/18106.htm
The United States hopes to announce fresh steps in the coming weeks to help alleviate food shortages around the globe, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.
Rice noted that U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this week ordered the release of $200 million in U.S. emergency food aid to help developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.
She said this was on top of an extra $350 million the Bush administration requested from Congress for emergency food assistance this year. In recent years, the United States has provided more than half of all food aid worldwide, Rice said.
"In the weeks ahead, we hope to announce an even more - to announce further steps to help ease the burden of rising food prices on the world's neediest people," Rice said at a news conference.
"The rapid rise in global food prices is an urgent concern," she said. "Rising food prices are a source of social instability, as we are seeing in a number of places, around the globe."
She said there were many causes for the higher prices, including global demand, devastating droughts and record-high fuel costs.
"But one thing is clear: This is a current emergency, but it has long-term global challenges," she said, adding that ultimately the world must forge a long-term solution to the rising price of food.
One of the most important steps the world could take would be to successfully complete the World Trade Organization's long-delayed Doha round of negotiations for a global trade deal, Rice said. This "would help to increase agricultural productivity and moderate prices," she said.
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