National Day of Prayer, 2008; a Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07125.shtml
WASHINGTON -- America trusts in the abiding power of prayer and asks for the wisdom to discern God's will in times of joy and of trial. As we observe this National Day of Prayer, we recognize our dependence on the Almighty, we thank Him for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us, and we put our country's future in His hands.
From our Nation's humble beginnings, prayer has guided our leaders and played a vital role in the life and history of the United States. Americans of many different faiths share the profound conviction that God listens to the voice of His children and pours His grace upon those who seek Him in prayer. By surrendering our lives to our loving Father, we learn to serve His eternal purposes, and we are strengthened, refreshed, and ready for all that may come.
On this National Day of Prayer, we ask God's continued blessings on our country. This year's theme, "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield," is taken from Psalm 28:7, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped." On this day, we pray for the safety of our brave men and women in uniform, for their families, and for the comfort and recovery of those who have been wounded.
The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on our Nation to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society by recognizing each year a "National Day of Prayer."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2008, as a National Day of Prayer. I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance, comfort, and protection. I invite all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Bush to Hold News Conference Tuesday Morning
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353050,00.html
WASHINGTON — President Bush is holding a news conference at 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday to discuss economic issues.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president will "deliver an opening statement ... regarding Americans’ understandable anxiety about issues affecting their pocketbooks. He will also call upon Congress to send him sensible and effective bills that will help Americans weather this difficult period and keep our country moving forward."
Among the issues the president will address in his opening, which should be approximately eight minutes, are energy and food prices, mortgage payments and student loans.
Bush will call on Congress to pass legislation to clear obstacles to more affordable, more reliable energy here at home; to reform farm programs; to help more families stay in their homes; and to give the federal government greater authority to buy student loans.
Tax rebate checks — worth $152 billion — first started rolling out on Monday, arriving direct deposit in some bank accounts, but Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said that a second stimulus package, an idea proposed by Democrats, would make it harder to balance the federal budget.
"We're not supporting a second stimulus plan," Paulson told FOX Business network. "The whole idea was doing something that will make a difference this year and there's no doubt that putting money in the hands of people very quickly who can spend it will make a difference."
World's largest prayer meeting gathers momentum
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/worlds.largest.prayer.meeting.gathers.momentum/18440.htm
This Pentecost Sunday, 11 May, millions of Christians, from 210 nations around the world will be gathering to worship and pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as part of the fourth Global Day of Prayer.
There will be over 38 events across the UK in cathedrals, civic centres, stadiums, high places, parks, churches and houses of prayer.
The Global Day of Prayer started in South Africa in 2005 and is based on Acts 1 and 2 - ten days of constant prayer (1st -10 May); 1 day for the whole church to gather (11 May) and 90 days of blessing (12 May – 10 August). The aim is to see local churches united in prayer to see communities transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Six Anglican cathedrals will host united prayer events in Birmingham, Chester, Norwich, Beverley Minster, Sunderland Minster and York Minster. In Belfast, Christians will be meeting in the Great Hall of the Parliament Buildings in Stormont to worship, pray and give thanks for God’s answers to prayer in the province. Christians in Edinburgh will prayer-walk the seven hills surrounding the city and Swansea will host a gathering in Castle Gardens.
Churches across London have been invited to use sections of the Prayer for the World on the Sunday morning. There will be three stadium events in Redditch, on the Isle of Wight, and the UK’s biggest event will be at Millwall football stadium in London where plans are being made for 30,000 Christians to gather.
"We hope that many people will join in and be part of this unprecedented prayer meeting on 11 May and then put feet on their prayers taking part in all the initiatives planned for the rest of the year with Hope08," said Jane Holloway, UK coordinator of the Global Day of Prayer and head of the World Prayer Centre, Birmingham.
For more information, go to www.globaldayofprayer.co.uk or www.hope08.com
'Expelled' Professor Talks; Movie Faces Lawsuit
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/365574.aspx
Yoko Ono is suing producers of the movie "Expelled" for using a song without her permission.
The film, which challenges the theory of evolution, uses part of the song "Imagine."
The song asks listeners to imagine a world without religion or faith in an afterlife.
John Lennon's widow has also asked the court to stop filmmakers from distributing the documentary.
The film's producers insist the song is "fair use" and protected under the First Amendment.
One of the professors featured in the movie is Dr. Caroline Crocker.
About four years ago, her contract as a biology professor at George Mason University was not renewed.
Christian Teachers and Students in Public Schools Across America Should Bring Bibles to Class -- Immediately -- by the Millions
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07122.shtml
"The nationwide righteous anger over the persecution of Mount Vernon, Ohio public school teacher John Freshwater for daring to have a Bible on his desk should inspire millions of Christians in America's public schools to bring in their own Bibles," says Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in Schools Project.
"Teachers, students, and support staff should immediately flood America's public schools with Bibles. Keep Bibles in class for the remainder of the school year. Find creative ways to use Bible references to complete some homework and in-class assignments each week," says Pawson, a Trenton, NJ public school teacher.
"Although the eleventh annual Scriptures in Schools Week is scheduled for September, Freshwater's case has presented America's Christians with an immediate opportunity to advance God's Word. Inspiration and information about bringing your Bibles to school, and using Bibles appropriately in class, can be found at bringyourbible.com."
"Bringing Bibles to public schools is totally legal. Bringing Bibles is protected by the Constitution and case law," said Pawson, who has had a Bible on his desk for thirty-two years. Occasionally, colleagues and students borrow his Bible to look up references mentioned in their studies of topics like the Liberty Bell which has Leviticus 25:10 inscribed upon it.
Pawson spoke briefly about the issues on two live, call-in radio talk shows on Columbus, OH Christian station WRFD on Monday (4/21): Bob Burney Live and Pass the Salt hosted by Coach Dave Daubenmire. Daubenmire's story made national headlines in the late 1990's when he was criticized for praying with his football team.
Scriptures in Schools Week will still be held nationally this September 21-27. Summer vacation and early September are when churches, youth groups, and ministries all across America should be planning rallies, concerts, and other events leading up to both Scriptures in Schools Week and See You at the Pole on September 24.
The SIS Rally song states: "Dare to bring your Bible! Dare to bring your Bible! Dare to bring your Bible into school! Though critics say you shouldn't, and really wish you wouldn't, dare to bring your Bible into school! Oh, we don't need their permission, we have the Great Commission; we speak with the Authority of Christ! And the Holy Spirit wants ev'ryone to hear it! So, dare to bring your Bible into school!"
US among most Bible-literate nations - poll
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.among.most.bibleliterate.nations.poll/18437.htm
Americans are among the world's most 'Bible-literate' people and Spaniards, French and Italians are among the most ignorant about what the "good book" says, according to a new study released on Monday.
A poll carried out in nine countries - the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Spain and Poland - also showed Americans were most willing to donate money to spread the message of the Bible.
The poll for the Catholic Biblical Federation interviewed Christians and non-Christians ahead of a synod of Roman Catholic Bishops on the Bible due to be held at the Vatican in October.
Most respondents in the poll, which was presented at the Vatican, were Christian. Except for in the United States, Britain and Russia, most of the Christians respondents were Catholic.
Asked if they had read a phrase from the Bible in the past 12 months, 75 per cent of American respondents said yes, while between 20 per cent and 38 per cent of respondents in the other eight countries said yes.
The lowest were Spain with 20 per cent, France with 21 per cent, Italy with 27 per cent, and Germany with 28 per cent.
Results were similar when respondents were asked if they had read a book with a religious theme in the past 12 months. Fifty-eight per cent of Americans said yes. Poland was second with 50 per cent and the other countries came in between 22 and 35 per cent.
The poll, taken by the GFK-Eurisko research group, showed Americans prayed the most (87 per cent) and the French the least (49 per cent).
Americans, Britons, Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, Poles and Russian tended to pray "with my own words" whereas Italians and French tended to recite prayers they had memorised.
Germany and the Netherlands had the highest percentage of respondents who said they believed the Bible was not divinely inspired but just "an ancient book made up of legends, historical facts and teachings written by man".
The majority of respondents in all countries believed it was either the direct word of God or inspired by God.
Americans were the largest group who said they had a Bible at home (93 per cent) and the French were the lowest (48 per cent).
The French were the most opposed to teaching the Bible in schools whereas the Americans were split about evenly.
Poland had the highest percentage of those who said they attended religious services regularly (91 per cent), followed by the United States with 77 per cent and Russia with 75 per cent.
Teens Request Abstinence Programs; Chairman Waxman Attempts to Steer Funding to Comprehensive Sex Education
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07126.shtml
WASHINGTON -- Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing titled, "Domestic Abstinence-Only Programs: Assessing the Evidence." While the hearing is stacked against abstinence education funding, two experts will testify as to the effectiveness of such programs. Federal funding for these programs is in jeopardy. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-California) advocates for comprehensive sex education, which has no evidence of reducing teen sexual activity.
A press conference was held yesterday at the National Press Club to release evidence from recent studies that prove over 50 percent of teens will refrain from sexual initiation if taught abstinence. And teens are requesting the programs.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) is providing to congressmen letters from students who want abstinence to be taught.
In a letter written to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), Jordan wrote, "Most teens who stay abstinent will be more emotionally stable, will not contract STDs, and will not get pregnant. This would not only benefit many individuals, but society as a whole. This is because the upcoming generation would be happier and healthier."
Lauren believes that even though there are "teens and other individuals who want to do whatever they see fit, most teens want to receive a strong message about abstinence. They want to know that they can say 'no' and that they don't have to give in to peer pressure. By informing students and teenagers of abstinence, you are allowing them to choose a better future and avoid all the emotional and physical heartache and risks of having casual sex."
CWA, along with teens across the nation, encourages Members of Congress to continue to fund programs that not only provide proven results, but keep our children safe.
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
KS Legislature Asked to Stop Lawlessness in Abortion Cases
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07124.shtml
TOPEKA, Kansas -- Operation Rescue is asking the Kansas Legislature to take action to compel the Executive and Judicial branches to stop engaging in lawless acts to cover-up for abortion wrongdoing.
Events surrounding criminal cases that involve a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Overland Park and a late-term abortion mill run by George R. Tiller in Wichita, have shown a disturbing pattern that has revealed the possibility of a conspiracy to cover-up criminal wrong-doing in the abortion industry.
Yesterday, Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline filed a brief in response to the refusal of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to comply with a subpoena asking them to confirm the authenticity of records already in the District Attorney's possession. At issue are records that Judge Richard Anderson testified were altered by Planned Parenthood to remove evidence of criminal conduct on their part. The KDH&E now says that the District Attorney is not entitled to those documents.
KDH&E members are appointed by Gov. Sebelius, a recipient of massive amounts of campaign contributions from abortions groups, most notably George Tiller.
"Abortion corruption has infected both the Executive and Judicial branches of Kansas Government. It is now up to the Legislature to take courageous action to restore the rule of law and stop efforts to obstruct justice," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "If they will not do that, then they become participants in the statewide abortion corruption scandal."
Meanwhile, the Kansas Supreme Court has delayed ruling on whether a Sedgwick County grand jury is entitled to critical evidence subpoenaed from Tiller's late term abortion mill.
"If the Court does not rule by the end of the week, it is doubtful if there will be time left for the lengthy redaction process to take place before the grand jury disbands on July 8. By delaying the production of evidence, the Court is intentionally engaging in an overt effort to conceal evidence from a legally convened grand jury. They are very close to crossing the line into criminal obstruction of justice," said Newman. "The situation is that serious and that intolerable. Right now lawlessness is the order of the day. We call on the Legislature to investigate abortion corruption, beginning with the Governor's Office and the State Supreme Court."
Please contact Rep. Arlen Siegfreid and ask him to initiate a legislative investigation into abortion corruption in Kansas.
Rep. Arlen Siegfreid
913-764-3643
siegfreid@comcast.net
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Human Life Alliance Joins with African American Leaders to Discuss Abortion
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07120.shtml
MINNEAPOLIS -- Over 16 million African American babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in 1973. In light of this devastation, many African American leaders are crying out against this new form of genocide in Human Life Alliance's latest publication "Did You Know?".
Using the form of an advertising supplement, "Did You Know?" will reach hundreds of thousands of people with a life-saving message. It can easily be placed inside community newspapers or handed out at churches, college campuses and crisis pregnancy centers.
The comprehensive publication is written by prominent African Americans for the African American community. Authors of "Did you Know?" include Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and founder of King for America, Inc.; Dr. Johnny Hunter, President of Life Education And Resource Network, Inc.; Rev. Arnold Culbreth, Urban Outreach Director of Life Issues Institute; and Star Parker, founder and president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education. These powerful writers, along with many others, present a compelling case of support for all human life, including unborn African Americans.
"For too long, people have been allowed the luxury of avoiding hard examination of life questions, using common rhetoric such as, 'I'm not for abortion, but it's not my right to tell someone else what to do with her body,'" writes Dr. King. "In 'Did You Know?' the authors refute common rhetoric with solid and sensible answers to those who would make light of the issue at hand."
"Did You Know?" cites powerful statistics proving Planned Parenthood has targeted the African American community for abortion. African American women account for only 13% of the female population in the U.S. yet obtain 38% of all abortions. 62.5% of abortion clinics are located in the inner city. Readers will see the direct connection between abortion and the dwindling community population.
"The content of 'Did You Know?' truly has the power to change hearts and save lives," said HLA Executive Director Jo Tolck. "Once the African American community realizes this threat to their existence, they will rise up to reject the gruesome realities of abortion and embrace life."
More information about Human Life Alliance and "Did You Know?" can be requested by calling (651) 484- 1040, emailing feedback@humanlife.org, or visiting www.humanlife.org.
Pharmacist's Rights of Conscience Goes to Wisconsin Supreme Court
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07127.shtml
MADISON, Wisc. -- Today the Thomas More Society filed an appeal with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on behalf of Neil T. Noesen. Noesen is a registered pharmacist, who refused to fill a prescription for oral contraceptives at a K-Mart in Menominee, Wisconsin, because of conscientious objections. In 2005, he was disciplined by the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board for refusing to transfer the prescription.
Both a Wisconsin Circuit Court and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the order of the Pharmacy Examining Board imposing discipline on Mr. Noesen (a reprimand and limitations on his license).
Prior to refusing to fill or transfer the prescription, Mr. Noesen notified his employer of his conscientious objection to contraceptives. The employer had adopted a procedure for accommodating Mr. Noesen's beliefs without losing customers but it was not followed in this particular case. As Mr. Noesen explained to the Court: "...with good conscience, I can't aid, abet, encourage, refer, transfer, or participate in any way with something that I feel would be impairing the fertility of a human being." The customer's prescription was ultimately filled and she did not become pregnant from missing a single dose of her prescription.
According to Paul Linton, Thomas More Society Special Counsel, "Mr. Noesen is being punished for refusing to compromise his beliefs. The Pharmacy Examining Board's action violates his rights of conscience, clearly protected by the Wisconsin Constitution (art. I, s. 18). We hope the Wisconsin Supreme Court will restore Mr. Noesen's right to express his deeply held beliefs. Being tolerant of what others believe is the definition of a free society."
The Thomas More Society is a public interest law firm which provides legal counsel and defense for those who work to protect innocent human life.
CCA-TBN Partnership Gives Second Chance to Inmates
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07121.shtml
LOS ANGELES -- In the spirit of giving and genuine forgiveness, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) have joined forces in order to extend prisoners across the United States a real Second Chance at life.
A new initiative of TBN's worldwide family of networks, Second Chance is a program that allows wardens and chaplains of eligible prisons, jails, and re-entry centers to choose up to four of TBN's unique faith- based networks for inmates to view at their own discretion. Second Chance is a voluntary program, completely free of charge to the correctional institutions, and receives no funding from government taxpayer dollars.
CCA, the nation's largest corrections management company to federal, state and local government, recently signed an agreement to bring Second Chance into its nationwide corrections systems, which today includes 65 correctional centers. Together with TBN's commitment to providing creative, faith-based programming with the power to change lives, the two organizations hope to reach the more than 75,000 offenders housed in CCA's correctional centers in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
"Our organization - whose mission is firmly rooted in a philosophy that bears out the value of rehabilitation - is an avid supporter of programming for its inmates," says Dennis Bradby, Vice President of Inmate Programs at CCA. "We are dedicated to playing a strong leadership role in effecting behavioral changes in America by influencing how offenders think and how they channel their thoughts in order to achieve appropriate solutions."
Founded in 1983, CCA is the fifth largest corrections system in the nation. Responsible for founding the private corrections industry, the organization owns and operates prisons, jails, and detention facilities for male, female and juvenile populations, and the company serves all three federal corrections agencies, nearly half of America's states, and numerous local municipalities.
CCA boasts a strong commitment to improving lives and, as such, offers a variety of rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, life skills, employment training, substance abuse treatment, and work and recreational programs.
"We are honored to have this opportunity to offer the Second Chance program to viewers who can truly benefit," says Amy Fihn, TBN's Second Chance Director. "The program is a unique tool for inmates housed in CCA facilities, one that can help bring them to a healthier level emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Second Chance prepares inmates for success when they eventually re-enter society."
TBN's Second Chance - developed as a companion to already-established rehabilitation programs, and to meet the growing needs for cross-generational, cross- cultural, and multi-denominational television programming opportunities for inmates of all ages - is completely free. Once installed, only inmates who specifically choose to watch Second Chance programs will be able to voluntarily view the networks.
"Second Chance is thoughtful, reassuring, faith-based programming that is truly rehabilitative, helps to rebuild inmates' lives, and reduce recidivism," adds Fihn.
Using KU band satellite technology, TBN will make four of its unique faith-based networks available for CCA's diverse inmate populations to view twenty-four hours a day, including JCTV, for juvenile offenders; The Church Channel, which features top speakers from various denominations; TBN Enlace USA, offering faith-based programs entirely in Spanish; and TBN, the nation's most requested faith-based channel. TBN will also cover the cost of all necessary satellite reception equipment and installation, customized for each facility with technical assistance provided by Glorystar Satellite Systems.
To learn how to get TBN's Second Chance into a correctional facility, find out more about the program, or make a donation, simply log on to www.TBNSecondChance.org, or call 619-276-7020.
About TBN
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is the world's largest religious network and America's most watched faith network. Each day TBN offers 24 hours of commercial-free inspirational programming those appeals to people in a wide variety of denominations. Beginning in 1973 as a single UHF station in southern California, TBN now reaches every major continent via 70 satellites and more than 12,500 television and cable affiliates worldwide. In the United States, TBN is available to 92 percent of the total households. Its website receives more than 27 million visitors monthly. For more information on TBN, visit www.tbn.org.
About Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
CCA is one of the largest prison operators in the United States, second only to the federal government and three states. CCA operates 65 facilities in 19 states, managing more than 75,000 offenders. The organization's numerous rehabilitation and educational programs are designed to reduce recidivism, and prepare inmates for their successful re-entry into society upon their release. CCA was named by FORBES magazine as the Best Managed Company in the country in the area of business services, and is ranked as one of the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine. For more information about CCA's faith- based inmate programming, contact John Lanz, CCA's Director of Faith-based Programs, at 615-263- 3112 or email John.Lanz@correctionscorp.com.
Cigarette Smugglers Funnel Money to Terror Groups, Report Finds
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353017,00.html
WASHINGTON — Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah.
A 15-page report congressional report, obtained by FOX News, includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance.
The report reads in part: Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah.
“This is a very serious homeland security issue, one that has gone unnoticed for far too long,” said Rep. Peter King, (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, who called for the investigation.
“Cigarette smugglers are able to generate millions of dollars in illegal profits with a great deal of this wealth being sent to terrorist groups overseas – groups that would like nothing more than to inflict devastating harm on our country and its citizens.”
One of the key issues, according to the report, is a potential flaw in New York State policy. According to King’s office, there is a policy in the state of “forebearance,” or refusing to collect on sales of Native American tax-free cigarettes to non-Native Americans.
Critics of the policy say it has effectively created a safe haven for smugglers. In some cases, the report says, a well-organized operation can buy cigarettes tax-free on New York’s Indian reservations and sell them at a great profit in the New Yock City area, generating up to $300,000 per week with a loss of up to $576 million in tax revenues to New York State.
According to the report, citing federal and New York state law enforcement sources, nearly 60 percent of all convenience retail outlets in New York City are now Arab-owned, primarily families of Lebanese, Yemeni, Jordanian and Palestinian descent. While the vast majority of retailers are operating above board, some are not.
The report says that these retailers can funnel their profits from the sale of cigarettes to terrorist groups in the Mideast. It claims this “tobacco and terror” relationship has been found in a handful of recent cases.
“…the infamous ‘Lackawanna Seven’ reportedly received funding from an individual named Aref Ahmed for their travel from Buffalo to Afghanistan to attend an al Qaeda training camp,” the report says, referring to a group of American-born men of Yemeni descent who pleaded guilty to terror training.
“The State is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue; and given the current budget shortfall, this would seem to be more than enough reason to put the so-called policy of forebearance out of its misery,” King said.
“But this is more than just a matter of lost revenue. It is a matter of national security. Cigarette smuggling in New York State must be brought to an end immediately.”
Hearings dealing specifically with the report are scheduled this Thursday in Washington before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Beghe Begging for His Scientology Records
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353041,00.html
Veteran TV and movie actor Jason Beghe wants his records back, and I do not mean "Dark Side of the Moon" or "Aqualung."
On Monday night Beghe — whom this column told you all about in his exit from Scientology after nearly 14 years — posted a message on a public forum at OperationClambake.com. He wants returned to him the mountains of folders, files and tapes that were compiled about him by the sect. So far, they’ve refused.
Herewith is that message:
"One week ago, I contacted The President's Office at The Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International and asked for their help in getting my folders returned to me. The Press Office artfully refused to directly respond to my request. So, I wrote a letter to David Miscavige but, when I tried to route it to him through the proper Church communication system, it was refused.
"As the Church of Scientology carefully monitors all anti-scientology websites, I am posting the letter here, on xenu.net, to assure that it be received by the C of S. A transcript of the meat of the letter is as follows:
"Dear Sir,
"This letter shall serve as a formal request for the prompt delivery of all my PC, pre-OT and ethics folders to me. I am also demanding any and all videos of sessions (both auditing and ethics) that were recorded of me. As I am no longer a parishioner of The Church of Scientology, no Organization or entity affiliated with the Church has any reason to further maintain them.
"Please send to me all the requested folders and videos at the above address as soon as possible. I will be happy to pay for any administrative, shipping or messenger fees that are incurred while facilitating this request. The above contact information is current.
"Thank you for your prompt handling of this matter.
"Sincerely, Jason Beghe"
Since Beghe was close to Miscavige and to the people in Scientology but can’t get any answers from them, here’s an idea: Maybe Oprah Winfrey can ask Tom Cruise about all this during one of their two-hour-long interviews in the next week. Winfrey has the rare access and enough power to be able to confront Cruise head-on and ask some important questions.
Indeed, Cruise and Beghe are linked on YouTube thanks to each of their Scientology videos. A couple of different humorists have spliced together Cruise’s promo interviews supporting the sect and Beghe’s exit interview, for better or worse.
Ethanol Mandates Cause Rising Food Prices
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352968,00.html
Food prices are rising worldwide. Some nations, such as Egypt and Cameroon, are facing riots as the prices for basic food stuffs rise. Other countries from India to Cambodia have banned food exports to try and keep prices low and reduce voter anger.
In the U.S., the Wall Street Journal last week gave advice normally associated with survivalists warning about the end of civilization. Readers were warned to start hoarding non-perishables ("Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables").
But in case anyone missed the seriousness of the message, the Journal went so far as to give the extra advice that: "You should also save money by buying them in bulk."
Not all food prices are soaring, however. Food and beverages as a group aren’t rising much faster than overall inflation. Inflation over the last year was slightly under 4 percent, with food and beverages at 4.4 percent.
But while some food prices have gone down (e.g., oranges and lettuce), others have gone up much faster, particularly grains and the meat from livestock fed on grains. Over the last year, eggs have gone up 35 percent, chicken 10 percent, beef 8 percent, white bread 16 percent.
Corn has experienced the most phenomenal rise. Corn, which averaged around $2 a bushel from 2002 to 2006, rose to over $4 per bushel in 2007 and is now over $6 per bushel.
This rise in food prices is primarily due to government ethanol mandates, particularly last year’s Energy Independence and Security Act. In 2006, 25 percent of all the corn used in the U.S. went to producing ethanol. This year the share rises to about 34 percent, and by 2014 the mandates are expected to raise the share to 53 percent.
The U.S. has long been a major exporter of grains, but the quantity going to ethanol are enormous. We are expected this year to convert 3.53 billion bushels of corn into ethanol. There are about 280 medium length ears of corn in a bushel. To put it differently, just the corn used to produce ethanol this year could provide 104 million people with 2,000 calories every day for a year.
Not that anyone would want to live on a diet of corn, but it gives an idea of how much hunger could be ended if the corn were used differently. While corn is the main source of ethanol in the U.S., other crops from sugar cane to wheat straw to rice are also being used to produce ethanol. Higher prices surely encourages more corn to be planted, but it means less of other crops, such as soybeans and wheat, driving up their prices.
People are beginning to understand this.
On Friday, Texas Governor Rick Perry became the first governor to ask the federal government to waive half the mandate that ethanol be made from grain.
The irony is how much worse off ethanol is making us in other ways. In recent years, without the subsidies and the mandates, there would have been little if any demand for ethanol. Besides a 51 cent per gallon tax credit, there are other incentives for farmers and small ethanol producers, all together totaling about $1 per gallon.
Ethanol also produces much less energy than gasoline. A car that gets 30 miles per gallon on gas would get only 20 miles per gallon on ethanol. Without the subsidies and the mandates, ethanol would have to be less than two thirds the price of gas before it would pay for people to use it.
Some have claimed that the price of corn has soared because gasoline is more expensive, but it is very hard to see much of relationship between changes in retail gas and corn prices. Retail gas prices average close to $3 a gallon in July and August 2006, but corn prices were still only about $2.50 per bushel. At the same time last summer, gas prices ranged from $2.70 to $2.80 per gallon and corn prices were well over $3 per bushel.
Environmental regulations are bad enough when they simply do nothing more than waste Americans’ money. But we live in a world economy and using massive amounts of corn and grain to make ethanol means that poor people from Africa to Bangladesh have less to eat.
Food Prices Force Aid Group to Cut Back
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/365808.aspx
Surging food prices could be affecting the groups that set out to feed those in need.
World Vision, one of the largest humanitarian organizations, announced Tuesday a possible 23 percent decrease in numbers fed due to rising costs and demand.
"Despite our best efforts, more than a million of our beneficiaries are no longer receiving food aid," said Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision International. "At least a third of these are children who urgently need enough healthy food to thrive."
World Vision provides nearly 450,000 metric tons of food in some 30 countries, but may not be able to feed 1.5 million of the 6.5 million people it helped last year.
The Christian group is now calling on donors and leaders worldwide to step in.
"In addition to providing food for urgent hunger needs, it is essential to invest in long-term agricultural development, improve access to credit and to markets for struggling farmers, and to enact fair trade policies." said Robert Zachritz, World Vision's director of advocacy and government relations in the U.S. "Global leaders must act now to support long-term projects that will help prevent vulnerable communities from being malnourished as a result of the price increases."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held talks in Switzerland Monday with 27 key development agencies on how to tackle the food crisis.
He hopes the two-day conference will end with an emergency plan of action.
"This is an exciting time for the United Nations, but it is also a time when we are challenged to exert our best efforts to rise to the expectations that the world is placing on us," he said.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation's Food Price Index, which measures the market prices of basic food groups, was 57 percent higher in March 2008 than the year before.
Malnutrition has already contributed to the deaths of more than 3.7 million.
U.N. Creating Task Force to Tackle Global Food Prices
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353025,00.html
BERN, Switzerland — The U.N. will set up a top-level task force to tackle the global food crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.
Ban, who will lead the task force, said he agreed with U.N. agency chiefs on a series of measures for the medium and long term, with the first priority meeting the $755 million shortfall in funding for the World Food Program.
"We anticipate that additional funding will be required," he told reporters in the Swiss capital Bern where the U.N. agency chiefs have been meeting.
But he said more was needed to provide for future needs. "We must ensure food for tomorrow," he said.
Ban said there were a number of causes of the food crisis including climate change, long spells of drought, changing consumption patterns in major developing countries and the planting of crops for biofuel.
He said new measures had to go farther than just providing emergency food relief when crises hit unlike the previous global response.
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has developed a $1.7 billion plan to provide seeds for farmers in the world's poorest countries, he said.
"We must make every effort to support those farmers," Ban said.
Ban said he hoped world leaders would come to a June meeting in Rome to find ways to tackle the food crisis. He said the international community had previously not listened to warnings from the FAO and others.
"This time the whole United Nations is now leading this campaign to address this issue," he said.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who also attended the meeting, said 100 million people are estimated to have been pushed into poverty over the past two years.
"This is not a natural disaster," Zoellick said.
He said $475 million has already been pledged to WFP but more is needed.
"This crisis isn't over once the emergency needs are met," Zoellick said.
"The world can afford this," said Zoellick. "I think we've now got the attention of the world community."
"We can't just replay this year after year after year," Zoellick said.
Hurricane Expert: School Silencing Me Over Global-Warming Views
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353023,00.html
A pioneering expert on hurricane forecasting says he may soon lose funding due to his skepticism about man-made global warming, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
Dr. William Gray, who once said that pro-global warming scientists are "brainwashing our children," claims that Colorado State University will no longer promote his yearly North Atlantic hurricane forecasts due to his controversial views.
Gray complained in a memo to the head of Colorado State’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences that "this is obviously a flimsy excuse and seems to me to be a cover for the Department's capitulation to the desires of some (in their own interest) who want to reign [sic] in my global warming and global warming-hurricane criticisms," the Chronicle reports.
School officials denied that Gray’s stand on global warming was an issue, and said that they are cutting back on media support for his forecasts due to the strain it places on the school's lone media staffer.
"It really has nothing to do with his stand on global warming," Sandra Woods, dean of the College of Engineering at CSU, told the Chronicle. "He's a great faculty member. He's an institution at CSU."
In the fall of 2005, Gray passed lead authorship of the yearly hurricane forecasts to his former student Philip Klotzbach, but he continues to head the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU.
CSU will continue to publicize Gray's yearly forecasts as long as they are co-authored by Klotzbach, officials told the Chronicle last week, but will end their support if Klotzbach, who recently earned his doctorate, moves to another institution.
"It seems peculiar that this is happening now," Donald Wright, a professor on public relations at Boston University, told the Chronicle. "Given the national reputation that these reports have, you would think the university would want to continue to promote these forecasts."
One friend said Gray's views highlight the politically charged atmosphere that surrounds global warming research in the United States.
"Bill Gray has come under a lot of fire for his views," former director of the National Hurricane Center Neil Frank, currently chief meteorologist at Houston's KHOU-TV, told the Chronicle. "If, indeed, this is happening, it would be really sad that Colorado State is trying to rein in Bill Gray."
The Chronicle noted that Gray's views on global warming had become increasingly personal, with characterizations of former colleagues and students who disagreed with him as "medicine men" and a "Gang of Five" conspiring to promote the idea of man-made climate change.
Gray contends it's all a hoax contrived by scientists hungry for research funding, media professionals thirsting for Pulitzer Prizes and foreign powers seeking to create a single world government.
In fact, he says, the warming cycle will soon end, and the Earth will begin a period of temporary cooling.
Priests Receive Death Threats in Colombia
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07128.shtml
Parish priests in the province of Bolivar, Colombia have received death threats in recent weeks, according to an April 17 report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Priests in the communities of Tiquisio and Regidor, along with a number of local human rights groups, reportedly received e-mail messages declaring them "military objectives" to be eliminated. The messages were signed by an emerging paramilitary group made up of former members of the now demobilized United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia.
Local people believe that the diocese was targeted in connection with its well-known documentation and denunciation of human rights abuses.
Pray for safety and wisdom for these priests as they carry out their work. Pray that Christians in Colombia will not be overcome by fear but remain triumphant in faithfulness (Rev. 2:10).
For more information on the difficulties facing Christians in Colombia, go to www.persecution.net/country/colombia.htm.
Christians unite to pray for parliament and government
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.unite.to.pray.for.parliament.and.government/18435.htm
Christians from across the nation will join together to pray in and around Westminster, as part of the Week of Prayer for Parliament and Whitehall from 6 to 11 May 2008.
Daily prayer walks and other activities will provide the unique opportunity to pray for Westminster and Whitehall. Many churches around the UK and across the world will be praying through the nights to ensure 24/7 prayer coverage for their leaders and representatives in Government.
This annual event, organised by Christians in Parliament, Christians in Government and 24/7 prayer, has the support of MPs and peers from each of the major political parties. Christians are warmly invited to get involved regardless of personal political viewpoints.
Lib Dem MP Tim Farron said: “When you tell non-Christians that they are being prayed for, it is an immense act of witness - especially if those non-Christians are MPs.
"The Week of Prayer for Parliament will give Christians the opportunity to pray for Christians and non-Christians in Government and in Parliament.”
This year’s week of prayer is the fifth of its kind and organisers expect it will attract the largest number of willing prayers yet. An unprecedented number of prayer gatherings will be taking place across Parliament and Whitehall departments and a host of other events and activities will be organised including worship services and lunches.
The week will culminate in the Global Day of Prayer 2008 on Sunday 11 May at Millwall FC stadium. It is also linked with the Pentecost Festival, which runs at venues along the length of the Northern Line over the Pentecost weekend.
The Scripture selected as a focus is Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Dave Landrum, Executive Administrator for Christians in Parliament said: “We are praying, as Jesus taught us, for God’s Kingdom to come and that His will be done among our leaders, members of Parliament, in our country and in our world."
Labour MP Andy Reed said: “Christians are called to serve and lead in politics and Government – prayer is where we start.”
Conservative MP Andrew Selous said, “Christians in Parliament are hugely grateful for the prayers of Christians across the country. Thank you for this support which we appreciate so much."
For all event details and for more information on how individuals and churches can be involved, visit www.christiansinparliament.org.uk or email parliamentandwhitehall@24-7prayer.com
London Church Forced Off Its Property
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/364329.aspx
LONDON - If you live in London, and you want to build the largest Mosque in Europe, that's great. But if you want to build the largest church, forget about it.
London's Kingsway International Christian Church, the largest church in Europe, no longer has a permanent home. Nor is there much prospect of it finding one in London.
This congregation of as many as 10,000 was forced off its property to make room for the 2012 London Olympics. And now it must hold five Sunday services jammed into a 1000-seat former theatre in East London.
"I'm probably one of the few pastors around the world who has to preach 5 times every Sunday," Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo.
When Kingsway had its old building taken from it for the London Games, it not only was forbidden to re-build nearby, where most of its church members live. But the London Development agency offered this predominantly black church land on the far outskirts of London, in a white suburb, where local officials didn't want a large black church and turned down Kingsway's planning request.
"We were left high and dry, to face the wrath of the community," Ashimolowo said. "When you have a church of our magnitude with 90 percent ethnic minorities from about 46 nations, the first thing that comes to the mind of the neighborhood is, 'Oh my God, this large church is coming to our neighborhood.'"
So for now, Kingsway has nowhere to move. Feeling more than just abandoned by the city, Pastor Ashimolowo contends government officials' treatment of the church amounts to racial discrimination and religious persecution.
"When the largest church has its property taken from it and made to operate from a small building, that is a form of persecution," Ashimolowo said.
"KICC is the largest church in Western Europe, and I think that ought to have been celebrated," Ashimolowo said. "Rather, I believe that we were victims of the fact that it was a Christian church that has succeeded. The megachurch growth of the large church is so unknown to them. In fact, they call KICC "the American style church led by a Nigerian pastor," he added.
Alan Craig, a Christian city councilman running for London mayor, calls it "a perfect illustration" of the City of London's "prejudice against Christianity."
"It's just appalling the way they've been treated," he said. "KICC are left swinging in the wind. They have no permanent home, as we stand here today."
So while London city government has literally told the largest church in the city to take a hike, it's still pushing the construction of the largest mosque in Europe.
Not far from Kingsway's former church property is land that has been set aside for a huge mosque complex for as many as 70,000 Muslims. The City of London wants it to be an integral part of the 2012 London Olympic site. This despite the fact that the so-called mega mosque is widely controversial, because it is being built by a secretive group called Tablighi Jamaat, which some have tied to terror.
"Mayor Livingstone is actively courting the Muslim vote. That's what he's doing. I also think our secular authorities are actively writing Christianity out of the script," Craig said.
It's not surprising, then, that a leading Islamic cleric in Britain recently called on Muslims to support Ken Livingstone's re-election campaign.
In a video from Councilman Craig's campaign Web site, he tried to confront the Tablighis, in what was supposed to be a public open house to improve the image of the mega mosque project. Except that the Tablighi leaders refused to answer Craig's questions.
"I wanted to ask them about terrorism, I wanted to ask them about their separatism, I wanted to ask them about their ideology. I have 20 or 30 questions I want to ask them, but they wouldn't answer any of them. They said, no no, another day," Craig said.
As the mosque project goes forward, the London Development Authority has said it's doing all it can to find a home for Kingsway. But the church seems less than convinced.
"Here is the United Kingdom, which sent missionaries around the world. Suddenly, now, they tore down the largest church building, to permit, just next door, the largest mosque in Europe," Ashimolowo said.
"We're facing a clash of kingdoms in the realm of the spirit. Light will have to prevail, some way, over darkness," he said.
As polls narrow, Irish PM warns of 'disaster' if EU treaty defeated
http://euobserver.com/9/26051
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has issued a stark warning on the consequences of rejecting the EU treaty as the latest poll shows a narrowing gap between the yes and no side.
A no vote would have "repercussions that would do immense damage to Ireland," and would be a "disaster for the country," he said on Sunday (27 April), according to the Irish Times.
His words were in reaction to a poll published by the Sunday Business Post that showed that 35 percent were in favour of the treaty, 31 percent said they were against and 34 percent remain undecided.
The results represent a decrease for the Yes side of eight percentage points, an increase for the No side of seven percentage points and an increase of one point for the undecided category when compared with a similar polls taken two months ago.
The high percentage of those who do not know how they will vote, as well as stronger showing for the no camp, comes just six weeks ahead of the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, set for 12 June.
The government is increasingly concerned that farmers may exercise their anger about current world trade negotiations during the treaty vote.
The leader of the Irish Farmers Association, Padraig Walshe, has repeatedly connected the two issues.
Addressing a rally of around 10,000 farmers in Dublin earlier this month - the biggest in recent years, Mr Walshe said: "Sell us out and we will have our say on the 12th of June."
He was referring to negotiations being conducted by EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson on behalf of the European Union, on a world deal on liberalising trade. Part of securing a deal with developing countries is set to involve concessions by the EU on its farm subsidies regime.
Mr Ahern addressed farmers specifically on Sunday, pointing out how much the farming community had gained from the EU.
"The biggest beneficiaries [of the European Union] are the agricultural communities and they should be the ones leading this campaign for it," he told RTE, the state radio.
He added that the trade talks will be resolved and that he hoped that the "agricultural community quickly turn around their attitude to get behind the Lisbon agenda. It's in their interest more than any other interest or any other section in this country."
All member states need to approve the treaty for it to come into force. So far 11 of the 27 have done so. Ireland is the only country having a referendum on the document, with a no vote likely to put the treaty on hold for good.
This means the country is under extreme pressure to secure a yes vote, with much of high politics in Brussels on hold until after 12 June.
A series of senior politicians have visited Ireland to try and woo voters, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The referendum comes at a time of change in Irish politics, with the long-serving Mr Ahern due to step down on 6 May to be replaced by current deputy prime minister Brian Cowen, as well as general uncertainty amid signs of a slowdown in the Irish economy.
Blair Pressures Israel for More 'Good Will' Measures
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/145615
Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair, formerly Prime Minister of Britain, is presenting Israel with a new list of travel and trade restrictions he wants removed. Among the items, which he argues is damaging to the status of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is a key roadblock between Ramallah, headquarters of the PA, and the nearby Jewish town of Beit El.
Defense Minster Ehud Barak has refused to remove the roadblocks because of the ensuing damage to security, which would be endangered by easier accessibility by terrorists trying to reach Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria and urban centers.
Blair: Middle East peace process is a race against time
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/968342.html
Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Tuesday warned stakeholders in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that they were facing "a race against time."
"It is possible to get this resolved, but we need to be aware that we are racing against time now," the envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators - The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - told a European Parliament panel in Brussels.
Blair set a planned mid-May visit to Israel by U.S. President George W. Bush as the next pointer in the Middle East peace process timeline. By then, he said, Israelis, Palestinians and the international community need to clearly show that "we are in a different and better position than the position we are in today."
"This is decision-making time as to whether people are serious about moving the process forward or not," he added.
He said peace was possible because both Israelis and Palestinians want to live side by side in peace. However, he added that while the each side wants a two-state solution, neither believes it is going to get it. "Israelis see Palestinians as unable to combat terrorism and create security, which in turn leads Israel to maintain its checkpoints and restrict access for Palestinians," he said.
Blair also called for a "different and better" strategy for Gaza, saying that the international community must rethink its strategy toward the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.
The former prime minister added that action must be taken to get more goods and food into Gaza to ease the humanitarian crisis there, and added that the present strategy in Gaza is not working. He called for a new strategy that isolates the extremists and helps the people.
Some parliamentarians spoke out against the continuing isolation of Hamas, with whom the EU and the U.S. refuse to negotiate because it has not renounced violence and recognized Israel.
"The politics of isolating Hamas has not brought any benefits. You cannot make arrangements with just one part of the other side," said Spanish lawmaker Josep Borrell, former president of the European Parliament who now presides over the assembly's development committee.
"Israel has to show it really believes the Palestinian state is viable, and everything they do shows that they don't believe it," he said.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Palestinians and Israelis called on the international community to step up its support in efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
In separate speeches to the United Nations Security Council, the Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour and Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said their leaders' agreement last November to reach a peace settlement by the end of the year needs greater backing from the international community if it is to work.
Gillerman said suspending the ongoing talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would only "play into the hands of extremists who want to see our failure."
"Israel knows it cannot accomplish this alone," he said. "It needs the support of like-minded moderate leaders in the region that understand the threat posed by the extremists, not just to us but to them and to the world, and are willing to do what it takes."
Gillerman called on other nations to demonstrate collective support for the negotiations toward a lasting peace for the region. "This is the mandate of the international community. This is its calling. This is its duty," he emphasized. "This collective resolve must be shown first and foremost by this council."
The U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last November drew 44 nations, including Israel's neighboring Arab states whose support is considered vital to any peace agreement. A joint understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians, in doubt until the last minute, was salvaged and Abbas and Olmert reiterated their desire to reach a peace settlement by the end of next year.
Mansour said a follow-up conference in Moscow, possibly in June, is needed to revive peace efforts.
Until then, he said, a collective effort is needed from the Security Council, from the Quartet and from all those who attended the Annapolis conference to revive the peace process.
"It's in a very critical situation," he said.
Solana Gets His Own ‘You Tube’ Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/EUHRSolana
EU high representative Javier Solana now has his own channel on You Tube, featuring videos of him in action.
You can visit his You Tube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/EUHRSolana
EU Condemns Israel, Hamas
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/145585
The European Union condemned Israel on Sunday for restricting the supply of fuel delivered to Hamas-controlled Gaza. In a response to rumors of a critical fuel shortage, the EU’s message called on Israel to partially re-open Gaza crossings and resume regular deliveries of fuel. Regular deliveries have been stopped due to frequent terrorist attacks on the crossings, but emergency fuel supplies have been let through.
The EU also condemned Hamas, saying terrorist groups in Gaza “have their share in aggravating the humanitarian situation” by their attacks on Israeli crossings, “which only lead to further suffering of the population.” Foreign Ministry officials expressed satisfaction with the message, pointing out that the EU rarely criticizes Hamas by name. The message shows that the EU took terrorist attacks into consideration when distributing blame for Gaza’s problems, they said.
Netanyahu: PM promised Golan to Syria before talks ever began
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978343.html
Opposition leader and Chairman of the Likud Party Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized the reported ongoing diplomacy between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad via Turkey.
According to Netanyahu, the prime minister promised to hand over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, before formal talks ever began.
"I am surprised at the prime minister who amateurishly and irresponsibly handed over the entire Golan Heights before the negotiations began," Netanyahu said at a ceremony closing the Mimuna festival, a Moroccan Passover tradition.
n his first response to recent reports regarding possible progress in peace talks between Israel and Syria, Netanyahu said that Israel mustn't withdraw from the Golan Heights. "We will get out, and it will be Iran who will ultimately take our place there. There is no diplomatic logic in this [move], and this is not how you build peace," Netanyahu said.
Omert's bureau responded to the accusations in kind, hurling the accusations back at Netanyahu, saying "to refresh Mr. Netanyahu's memory, it was he who sent then Syrian President Hafez Assad, an American businessman to relinquish the Golan Heights in Israel's name, before any negotiations had begun."
The prime minister's bureau widened its denunciation of Netanyahu to include the Palestinian issue, saying "Mr. Netanyahu also gave up the [West Bank] city of Hebron, and offered [Yasser] Arafat, whom he called 'friend', large parts of Judea and Samaria at the Wye Conference. Netanyahu is not the man who can teach Israel's government what responsibility and good judgment are."
Olmert's bureau added that the prime minister "will continue to make efforts to achieve peace with our neighbors, and he will do this in a responsible and thought out way while taking every possible step to ensure Israel's security."
Earlier Sunday, Qatari newspaper Al-Watan reported that Assad told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Syria was demanding a commitment in writing from Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
The paper based its report on Syrian sources, who claimed to be in possession of the "Rabin Pledge," referring to understandings reached between Israel and Syria in the 1990s, before the 1995 assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Assad told the newspaper on Sunday that the time has not yet come for peace because "the Israeli side has still not given its guarantee."
Exclusive: Roadblock removal north of Nablus bares central Israel to revived West Bank terror menace
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5224
Military authorities leading the campaign against Palestinian terror told DEBKAfile Monday, April 28, that the removal of the permanent roadblock at Asariya a-Shemaliya north of the West Bank town of Nablus lays the entire area including central Israel open to terrorist attacks which that very roadblock had long been a key element in frustrating.
The decision was taken by defense minister Ehud Barak in line with his promise to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ease Palestinian traffic on the West Bank by reducing the number of roadblocks. She is due for another visit in early May ahead of President George W. Bush’s attendance of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Worried anti-terror planners offer dire predictions:
1. The roadblock’s removal enables a link-up between the terrorist strongholds of Jenin and Nablus and helps them strengthen their networks in both.
2. The intense security effort invested by the army and security service in building a counter-terror shield in this part of the West Bank is brought to naught. The sleeper cells of armed Palestinian factions long quiescent in Saida, Beit Iba, Deir Sharaf and Beit Lid between Nablus and Tulkarm will now have unimpeded access to weapons, explosives, reinforcements and an exchange of intelligence for their reactivation.
The murder of two Israelis at Nitsanei Oz across the border from Tulkarm on April 25 was the first sign of these terrorist cells are stirring. They will be further energized by the removal of the key roadblock Monday.
3. They will now have a clear path from the northern West Bank to the trans-Israeli Highway 6 and the Israeli heartland cities of Netanya, Kfar Saba, Rosh Ha’ayin and Hadera.
One military source said to DEBKAfile: “The countdown has begun for the next suicide attack in Israel.”
Israeli Military Unveils Armed Patrol Robot
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352959,00.html
NES TZIONA, Israel — Israel's newest soldier can see at night, never nods off on sentry duty and can carry 660 pounds without complaining.
The Guardium, an unmanned ground vehicle commissioned by the Israeli military and shown to The Associated Press on Monday, is essentially a robotic soldier, among the first in the world to be operational. It can replace human soldiers in dangerous roles, cutting casualty rates.
Like the pilotless drones that have become a mainstay of air forces in Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere, the four-wheeled Guardium is operated from a command room that can be far from the front line.
It can be mounted with cameras, night-vision equipment and sensors, as well as more lethal tools like machine guns.
Following pre-programmed routes, it can navigate alone through cities — the vehicle knows how to deal with intersections, traffic and road markings. It can patrol borders, its cameras scanning 360 degrees at all times, and alert operators if it spots anything suspicious.
The Guardium never mentally wanders or falls asleep, as soldiers have been known to do during mind-numbing guard or patrol missions. And it doesn't have a family that will miss it when it's away on reserve duty.
"Representatives of armies with troops who are taking high casualties in asymmetric warfare from threats like roadside bombs get excited about this product," said Erez Peled, general manager of G-Nius Unmanned Ground Systems, the company that developed the robot.
The control panel includes two large screens and a joystick. If the operator wants to take control, he can do so from a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals that lend the console the look of a video arcade game.
"Any kid who grew up with a PlayStation will be able to come in here and learn this in seconds," Peled said.
A vehicle alone costs approximately $600,000. With the operating system, the price runs to several million dollars, depending on what equipment is installed on the robot.
The Israeli military said the Guardium has yet to enter operational service, and would provide no further comment.
John Pike, director of the Virginia-based military think tank Globalsecurity.org, said there is only one other similar vehicle operational — a South Korean robot used to patrol the demilitarized zone with North Korea.
With the details of the Korean vehicle classified, Pike could not say which was more advanced.
Robots like this are potentially the future of ground warfare, Pike said.
"A robot does what it's told, and you'll be able to get them to advance in ways its hard to get human soldiers to do. They don't have fear, and they kill without compunction."
But more importantly, he said, "A robot means you don't have to write a condolence letter."
Lebanon: 12 IAF jets fly over Beirut
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870516030&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
IAF warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying on reconnaissance missions over Beirut and elsewhere in the country, the Lebanese army said.
The army said in a statement that "12 enemy Israeli warplanes" violated Lebanese airspace before noon, four flew over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Byblos in the north and headed toward the eastern province of Hermel.
Eight other Israeli warplanes flew over the southern town of Rmeish, then headed north to Beirut, the Chouf mountains, southeast of the capital, and Hermel before heading back to the "occupied territories," the statement said. It added that the Israeli over-flights lasted about an hour.
There was no immediate statement from the Israeli army which usually does not comment on its flights in Lebanon.
IAF jets frequently fly over south Lebanon in what Israel says are reconnaissance missions. The over-flights have drawn ground fire from Lebanese troops on at least two occasions since a UN-brokered cease-fire ended the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas in August 2006.
Ten North Koreans possibly killed in Syria air strike - Tokyo
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5210
Ten North Koreans may have been killed in an Israeli air strike on Syria in September, NHK-the Japanese Broadcasting Corp. reported on its Web site, citing unidentified South Korean intelligence officials.
The 10 people, whose remains were cremated and returned to North Korea in October, had been helping with the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria, the Japanese broadcaster said. Some North Koreans probably survived the air attack.
The US last week released undated photos showing the head of the North Korean reactor fuel plant with the head of the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission in Syria and the same official attending the Six-Party Talks.
Thursday night, the White House in Washington broke its silence on Israel’s Sept. 6, 2007 attack on a nuclear site in northern Syria. Spokeswoman Dana Perino stated its conviction that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor. She spoke after intelligence officials briefed US lawmakers about the Syrian nuclear facility that was destroyed by Israel last year
Perino's statement did not mention Israel. It said Syria was building a "covert nuclear reactor" in its eastern desert that was capable of producing plutonium.
That development underscored the international community was right to be concerned about the nuclear activities of Iran and "must take further steps" to confront that challenge, she said.
Analysis: CIA chief confirms Syrian reactor could produce fuel for 1-2 weapons – not bombs
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5226
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the CIA director Michael Hayden said: “In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons.” Speaking to reporters after a speech at Georgetown University, Hayden did not say “bombs” - but “weapons.”
This would appear to confirm the conclusion of US and Israel that Syria was on the way to producing radioactive “dirty bombs” – not a nuclear bomb - at the facility which Israel destroyed last September. Its product, radiological dispersal devices (RDD) - which cause more disruption than destruction - would have been made available to terrorist groups for use against Israel, used by Syria itself or if Iran so decided, against American or other targets.
Israeli air force commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy warned in a CBS interview Sunday, April 27, that Iran’s schemes are a danger not only to Israel, but to the world.
Last week, US officials disclosed that the covert nuclear reactor Syria had been building with North Korean assistance was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium. This disclosure turned the heat not only on Damascus but also on Pyongyang to make good on its denuclearization pledge and come clean on its nuclear ties with Syria. Washington wants North Korea on record as promising to refrain from similar acts of proliferation in the future.
Monday also, the US opened a new front against Iran and Syria when its UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad accused them at the Security Council of destabilizing Iraq. He urged them to stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters to their embattled neighbor. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps known as the al Qods Brigade continues to arm, train and fund illegal armed groups in Iraq, the US ambassador charged. “This lethal aid poses a significant threat to Iraqi and multinational forces and the stability and sovereignty of Iraq.”
Khalilzad pointed out that Syria is the only entry point for “90 percent of all known foreign terrorists in Iraq,” adding “we know that al Qaeda terrorist facilitators continue to operate inside Syria.”
DEBKAfile’s sources at UN headquarters stress the exceptional severity of the US ambassador’s charges against Syria, with the potential of laying the ground for US military or other reprisal.
Exclusive: First frank talk of potential war on Iran from top US soldier
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5219
Addressing a news conference in Washington, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday, April 25, the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action” against Iran. He spoke of the Tehran government’s “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq. A conflict with Iran would be “extremely stressing” he said, but not impossible and “it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability.” The admiral stressed the reserve capabilities of the Navy and Air Force.
Adm. Mullen’s statement came four days after US defense secretary Robert Gates said he favored keeping the military option against Iran on the table “given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat – either directly or through proliferation.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources report those remarks were underscored by news of large US naval, air and marine forces on their way to beef up the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and Middle East.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources reported Friday that the USS Harry S. Truman Strike Group has just taken up position in Persian Gulf waters. It consists of 12 warships led by the giant LSD-41 class USS Whidby Island landing craft, submarines and eight assault squadrons. The legend on their banner is: Give ‘em Hell.
Another nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, will soon set out for the region from the South China Sea, along with two more US naval strike forces: the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Nimitz attended by strike groups.
Adm. Mullen went on to say: "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future." Our sources ask what time scale is indicated by the indefinite “immediate future” - the 8 months remaining to the Bush presidency or thereafter.
Mullen tied his remarks to Iran’s "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Of late, the US Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus pointed out that Iran is interfering increasingly in Iran and continues to arm insurgent militias.
The Tehran government is clearly not deterred by Washington’s warnings or its military movements.
Analysis: Assad caught red-handed may now go for revenge
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5216
US and Israel intelligence experts upgrade the chances of president Bashar Assad retaliating for the Israeli attack, which irreparably damaged the secret nuclear North Korea built for him in eastern Syria - now that the episode is out in the open. DEBKAfile quotes those experts as recalling Saddam Hussein’s burning ambition to hit Israel’s nuclear site at Dimona after Israeli jets smashed Iraq’s French built nuclear reactor in 1981.
Assad will find it hard to avoid avenging his humiliation Thursday, April 24, when America’s top intelligence officials briefing congressional committees laid bare detail after detail of Syria’s nuclear program. They all agreed that it was incumbent on the United States to take further steps against Iran as well as Syria to avert any more developments which endanger the world.
The briefing brought out key data hidden from the public in the eight months since the Israeli raid.
1. It confirmed DEBKAfile’s October 2007 report that North Korean personnel had built a reactor for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons in a hidden canyon of of eastern Syria.
2. Israel managed to plant a mole or moles inside the reactor compound capable of producing professional photos from inside the reactor. US lawmakers where shown, for instances, images of a concrete floor with rows of holes ready for the nuclear fuel rods to power the plant.
Assad must have been irked beyond endurance when his most coveted secrets and security were shown to the world as having been blown wide open, when the regime he heads depends for its survival on a battery of secret police and undercover agencies with eyes and ears everywhere.
3. The Israeli raid demonstrated too that Syria’s military establishment has been penetrated as fatally as his clandestine agencies.
4. The congressional briefing will have done more to mar the relations of trust between Tehran and Damascus than any diplomatic or military action. Cracks are inevitable in their strategic pact. It will be hard for Iran to continue to pose as the No. 1 Middle East power after Syria, its foremost ally and military mainstay, exposed its extreme vulnerability.
5. Tehran’s precise role in the Syrian nuclear program is not known, but it was obvious to the American lawmakers listening to the intelligence briefing that Syria would not have built a nuclear reactor with Iran’s knowledge and consent, and that the Syrian plant was designed to be an integral part of Iran’s own nuclear program.
Iran will no doubt have inferred from the disclosures about the Israeli attack on the Syrian reactor and its painful fallout for the Assad regime that its own projects may be subjected to the same fate.
It is a matter of record now that Israel is the only country in the world to have ever destroyed two nuclear reactors in successful go-it-alone, intelligence-backed military operations.
Analysis: Assad’s one half-truth and three lies to al Watan
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5222
In an interview Sunday, April 27 with the Qatari daily al Watan , Syrian president Bashar Assad said: "We don’t want a nuclear bomb, even if Iran acquires one.” DEBKAfile’s military sources say that was only half true.
What he omitted to mention was the division of labor agreed between Damascus and Tehran in a potential war against Israel: The Syrian reactor Israel destroyed last September would produce “dirty weapons,” while Iran would go for a nuclear bomb. Tehran therefore funded the North Korean reactor in Syria. The radiological weapons made there were to be distributed to the terrorist organizations fighting Israel and used as leverage to control them.
“How would we use it? And where? No nuclear bomb has been used since World War II,” the Syrian ruler protested in the interview - three days after intelligence of his plutonium reactor weeks away from operation was presented to US congressmen in Washington.
Our military sources stress that a single radiological bomb released by just one terrorist group against a major Israeli city would have been an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Assad’s first outright lie was his insistence that future Middle East wars would be conventional. DEBKAfile’s sources point out that Syria and Iran have recently supplied the Lebanese Hizballah with surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads. And Syria’s own air defenses are composed of Scud C and D missiles able to deliver chemical and biological weapons.
His second lie was that the site Israel raided last year was no nuclear site but a military facility under construction. To prove his point, he asked: “Does it make sense that we would build a nuclear facility in the desert and not protect it with anti-aircraft defenses?”
Our sources note that the deployment of air defenses batteries, especially in a desolate corner of the Syrian Desert would have attracted immediate attention and betrayed its presence - even before the top-secret facility was functioning.
Assad’s third lie was the real point of the al Watan interview, although the least obvious: The Syrian ruler, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, decided last week to bury the results of the inquiry into the death of Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh in February. That report accused Saudi undercover agencies of involvement in the murder together with the Israeli Mossad.
Saudi ire forced Assad to back away from this allegation. This he did in the interview when he declared that “no Arab hand” was found to have taken part in the Mughniyeh slaying.
The interview was therefore aimed more at placating Riyadh than highlighting the Syrian ruler’s issues with Israel.
Iran demands Russian nuclear shipment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042701516.html
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran demanded Sunday that Azerbaijan deliver a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment blocked at its border with Iran for the past three weeks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in his weekly briefing that his country has asked the Azerbaijani ambassador in Iran to get his government "to deliver the shipment as soon as possible."
The blocked nuclear equipment "is in the framework of Iran-Russia cooperation" and there should be "no ban on it," he said about the shipment destined for a Russian-built nuclear reactor in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr.
Azerbaijan has said it was seeking more information about the shipment due to fears that it might violate any of the three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its failure to halt uranium enrichment.
On Monday, Russian state-run company Atomstroiexport said that one or two trucks carrying the equipment for Iran were stopped two weeks ago at the town of Astara, on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border.
Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said officials were holding talks with both Azerbaijan and Iran about the incident. She said the shipment contained "heat-isolating equipment" essential to the plant's operation but that the holdup was not likely to delay the startup of the plant.
Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the light-water reactor at Bushehr.
Construction has been held up in recent months by disputes between Tehran and Moscow over payments and a schedule for shipping nuclear fuel.
Russia delivered the final shipment of uranium fuel in January, and Tehran has said it was hoping the plant would begin operations by summer.
The United States initially opposed Russia's building Bushehr, but later softened its position after Iran agreed to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia to ensure it does not extract plutonium from it that could be used to make atomic bombs.
Washington and Moscow have also said the Russian nuclear fuel supply means Iran no longer needs to continue its uranium enrichment program _ a process that can provide fuel for a reactor or fissile material for a bomb.
U.S. UN Ambassador Slams Iran
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/UN_Ambassador_Slams_Iran/2008/04/29/91862.html
The US ambassador to the UN on Monday slammed the alleged destabilizing role of Iran and Syria in Iraq and urged them to stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into their war-scarred neighbor.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told a Security Council meeting that recent clashes between Iraqi government forces and "criminal militia elements" in Baghdad and Basra pointed to "Iran's destabilizing influence and actions."
He said the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as Qods Force, "continues to arm, train, and fund illegal armed groups in Iraq."
He added that the bulk of weapons used by these militias were "made in Iran and supplied by Iran, including mortars, rockets and explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs)."
"This lethal aid poses a significant threat to Iraqi and multinational forces and to the stability and sovereignty of Iraq," Khalilzad said, adding that it also undermined the Iraqi government's efforts to rebuild the country.
The US envoy also expressed concern about the flow of arms and foreign fighters across the Iraqi-Syrian border, citing estimates that Syria is the entry point for "90 percent of all known foreign terrorists in Iraq."
"Syria continues to allow foreign fighters to transit Syria en route to conducting attacks in Iraq, and we know that Al-Qaeda terrorist facilitators continue to operate inside Syria," Khalilzad said.
"Iran and Syria must stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into Iraq, and their malign interference in Iraq," he added.
Britain's deputy UN ambassador Karen Pierce also noted that "any external links to armed groups in Iraq outside the political process, either through the supply of weapons, training or funding, are unacceptable."
She said these weapons were being used to attack the security forces of "the democratically-elected and sovereign Government of Iraq as well as multinational forces."
"We look to those who have influence on such parties to bring that influence to bear," Pierce said.
Iraq's UN envoy Hamid al-Bayati also highlighted his government's request for international support to end and prevent "foreign interference in Iraq's internal affairs that destabilizes the country's stability and security."
He said his country also looked forward to next month's follow-up meeting of the International Compact with Iraq (ICI) in Sweden.
The ICI, a joint initiative by the Iraqi government and the international community, was launched in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt last May, when more than 60 countries pledged commitments of 30 billion dollars (19 billion euros) for Iraq's reconstruction.
Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, a total of about 155,000 multinational troops are still present, including 141,000 from the United States and 7,100 from Britain.
Franklin Graham to Preach at China Megachurch
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/franklin.graham.to.preach.at.china.megachurch/18415.htm
HONG KONG – Popular US evangelist Franklin Graham will visit mainland China next month at the invitation of the Chinese Protestant Church.
Graham, son of world renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is scheduled to preach at Chong Yi Church in Hangzhou – one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years. Chong Yi Church, which seats 6,000 people, is reportedly the largest church in China.
During his evangelistic tour in Hong Kong last November, Graham revealed his plan to visit mainland China, which he said has “a special place” in his heart.
“I have a common history with China,” said Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and the international Christian relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse. “My mother was born in China, my grandparents were medical missionaries here, and I’ve been travelling here for more than 30 years.”
The evangelist also recalled to the crowd how he learned to use chopsticks before knives and forks.
“I love the people of China,” he added.
According to the Gospel Herald newspaper, Graham wishes to meet with church leaders in mainland China during his visit next month and have more communication with Chinese churches.
China Repatriation Policy Condemns Refugees to Prison or Death
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07119.shtml
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- North Korea will host a leg of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay on Monday, April 28.
Ironically, North Korea Freedom Week (NKFW) will be held April 26-May 3. During that week the United States and other countries around the world will focus on the massive human rights abuses by the communist government headed by Kim Jong Il.
While the theme of the torch relay is "Journey of Harmony," the multi-nation run has drawn widespread protests directed at China's poor human rights record. However, don't expect any protests in Pyongyang.
China and North Korea have a friendly relationship, including the return of North Korean refugees by China. A United States commission said April 15 that North Korean refugees suspected of meeting with religious groups are often marked for harsh interrogation, torture and long detentions without trial after they are forced by China to return to North Korea. A report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called for nations to press China to stop sending North Korean refugees back to their homeland.
North Korea is ranked as the No. 1 abuser of religious rights by Open Doors and the 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued last month by the U.S. State Department.
Special events during NKFW - sponsored by North Korea Freedom Coalition members - include an "International Protest Against China's Violent Repatriation of North Korean Refugees" Saturday, April 26, at Chinese embassies and consulates around world.
Also, on Tuesday, April 29, a Capitol Hill rally in Washington, D.C. will be held at Taft Memorial Carillon Park at noon. North Korean defectors and members of Congress will participate. The rally will be followed by Congressional lobbying - organized by Open Doors USA - by participants around the country on behalf of the North Korean people.
For more information and a complete schedule, go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.
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