Bulletins at Obama's Church Carry Own Controversy
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Bulletins_Obama_church/2008/05/09/94694.html
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) recently said his relationship with his long-time pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright "changed" after what Obama called the clergyman's "divisive and destructive" remarks at the National Press Club. Later, however, Obama stressed his loyalty to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he has been a member for many years.
Articles published in the Trinity United Church of Christ bulletin in 2007 carried controversial comments written by people other than Jeremiah Wright. Those comments included the claim that Israel worked with South Africa to build an "ethnic bomb" that would kill blacks and Arabs, that the Pentagon was training Latin Americans to be terrorists, and that the TV networks are run by right-wing racists.
On Sunday, May 4, Obama told NBC's Tim Russert, on "Meet the Press," that he was still a member of Trinity United Church of Christ and said of the Wright controversy, "I think that the American people understand that when I joined Trinity United Church of Christ, I was committing not to Pastor Wright. I was committing to a church and I was committing to Christ. And it is a wonderful church."
The pastor of Trinity United is Rev. Otis Moss III and the senior pastor is Rev. Wright. At the end of May, Wright will go on sabbatical and Moss will assume the title of senior pastor.
The first few pages of the church's weekly bulletin carry scripture passages, hymns, and announcements. Deeper into the bulletin, however, there are political and opinion articles. A Trinity United staff member, who asked not to be named, told Cybercast News Service that the political articles are there to inform congregants about world affairs. The staff member likened these articles to commentary pieces in a newspaper, where the opinions expressed are those of the writers, not necessarily the church.
Moss was listed as pastor of the church in the 2007 bulletins, the same title he now bears at the church.
In a column in the April 15, 2007 bulletin, the Rev. Reginald Williams, the associate pastor for social justice at Trinity United, said he was not surprised by the racially charged remarks that talk-radio host Don Imus made about the Rutgers University women's basketball team because "the major networks are run by right-winged conservatives who still see black people as subhuman and portray black people as such."
In the April 22, 2007 bulletin, Williams called for shutting down the Pentagon's WHINSEC School of the Americas, saying the school "in no uncertain terms trains Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation. In short, the United States Army trains students at this school of terrorism."
The two bulletins in which these columns were printed had been posted on the church Web site, and Cybercast News Service sent copies of them to the church, where an official authenticated them.
When contacted by Cybercast News Service , Williams said he was "not interested" in being interviewed.
Another politically charged piece published in the June 10, 2007 bulletin, as previously reported by The Washington Times and CNN, was written by a person who is not a member of the church.
The piece was an open letter by Ali Baghdadi to TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who was planning a trip to Israel. Baghdadi is editor of the Arab Journal and who, according to the bulletin, acted as a Middle East advisor to Elijah Muhammad, and later with Louis Farrakhan, both with the Nation of Islam.
In this letter to Winfrey, Baghdadi wrote: "I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: They could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."
Sen. Obama's presidential campaign declined to comment for this article, despite numerous requests from CNSNews.com.
America's fading military-industrial base could have long term implications in any future war
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1502&status=article&id=294877064373607
History dictates that protecting and maintaining a nation's industrial base is critical to its national security and to winning wars. This is why taking out an enemy's manufacturing infrastructure, as America did to Germany and Japan during World War II, is the first step in rendering it defenseless.
Yet today in America, despite the menace of terrorism and threats from assorted despots around the globe, we are neglecting — and in some cases damaging — our own military industrial base.
America has shed 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001, many in our military supply chain. The average age of today's factory worker is 54, and 58% of all U.S. aerospace workers are over 45.
Nationwide, officials in defense companies are expressing concern that they will not be able to replace current workers as they retire.
As we lose infrastructure and skilled labor necessary to supply our military swiftly with U.S.-made equipment, we are becoming increasingly reliant on military components and materials from foreign countries.
Chinese Bullets
Although several congressional acts require the Pentagon to purchase equipment and supplies from domestic sources, the Government Accountability Office repeatedly reports "systemic supply system deficiencies" in nearly all military supply categories.
Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says, "I worry about the industrial base of the future," and the Pentagon has developed a Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Materials Shortages system to identify domestic material and manufacturing scarcities.
When ammunition procurement budgets were cut dramatically in the 1990s, many domestic suppliers were forced out of business. Defense officials began looking to foreign sources — including China — for bullets and missile propellant.
Domestic sources of armored steel for military vehicles are limited, and today's soldiers often suffer as producers struggle to keep up with demand. As the Defense Department rushes to purchase mine-resistant vehicles, a shortage of materials and manufacturing is hampering the rate at which these badly needed vehicles are deployed.
Against this backdrop of declining materials, manpower and manufacturing in our military industrial base, the Pentagon has outsourced a $35 billion contract to design and manufacture the Air Force's new airborne refueling tankers to a European consortium and its minority American partner, Northrop Grumman. The extended contract could well exceed $100 billion taxpayer dollars.
What few Americans know about this contractor — European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. — is its history of bribery and corruption, and that its top officials are involved in a major insider-trading scandal in France.
Then there are EADS trade violations. At the same time the Pentagon awarded EADS this multibillion-dollar contract, the U.S. trade representative was suing it in the World Trade Organization in the largest illegal-subsidy case every presented in that world body.
American policy is increasingly concerned about the transfer of our advanced military technologies to hostile governments, yet EADS is widely reported to have close relationships with the governments of Iran and Venezuela. As Russia is a significant EADS stockholder, America should clearly not expect a sympathetic ear.
The original Pentagon Request for Proposal called for a midsize refueling tanker, agile in the air, able to take off and land on less than ideal runways (dirt, desert), with a small ground footprint and whose core competency is midair refueling.
But using a refueling tanker the size of EADS' K-30 to fill these requirements is like putting Mike Tyson in a tutu and expecting him to dance "Swan Lake." EADS is supplying an airplane twice the size of the original Pentagon request, too big to maneuver easily in the air or to take off and land on anything but a long, paved runway. Its wingspan is so wide, it will also require costly upgrades to existing bases.
Made In The U.S.
The EADS plane is not capable of refueling tilt-rotor aircraft or some of our cargo and personnel carriers.
And in direct contradiction to the Air Force's initial statement that it must be a "tanker first," the Pentagon justified its final decision by touting the KC-30's ability to carry cargo, taking care to note that domestic production was "not considered."
Why did the specs change in the middle of the game? We must wait for further review, but during the course of the bidding process, it appears that Sen. John McCain requested that the Pentagon change its specifications.
The result of the changes seems clear enough: Rather than the EADS proposal seeking to meet the Air Force's criteria, the Air Force's criteria were apparently adjusted to meet the EADS proposal.
The tanker deal is not about one plane or one moment in time. If we are to retain our military superiority at home and abroad, we must maintain the ability to manufacture original equipment and replacement parts in the U.S.
Needlessly sending defense jobs overseas will do nothing to ensure our long-term national security, which history shows will require a robust research and development, technical and manufacturing base.
NASA, Blood Moons and the Return of Christ
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=63076
Will Jesus Christ return to Earth in the year 2015?
And can studying NASA's website provide evidence for such a scenario?
A minister who promotes the Old Testament roots of Christianity suggests a rare string of lunar and solar eclipses said to fall on God's annual holy days seven years from now could herald what's come to be known as the "Second Coming" of Jesus.
"God wants us to look at the biblical calendar," says Mark Biltz, pastor of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash. "The reason we need to be watching is because He will signal His appearance. But we have to know what to be watching as well. So we need to be watching the biblical holidays."
In a video interview on the Prophecy in the News website, Biltz said he's been studying prophecies that focus on the sun and moon, even going back to the book of Genesis where it states the lights in the sky would be "be for signs, and for seasons."
"It means a signal, kind of like 'one if by land, two if by sea.' It's like God wants to signal us," he said. "The Hebrew word implies ... not only is it a signal, but it's a signal for coming or His appearing."
Biltz adds the word "seasons" implies appointed times for God's feasts and festivals.
"When we hear the word feast, we think food. But the Hebrew word has nothing to do with food. It has to do with a divine appointment, as if God has a day timer, and He says, 'OK, I'm gonna mark the day and the time when I'm going to signal My appearance.'"
In the Old Testament, the prophet Joel states, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." (Joel 2:31)
In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light ... And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:29-30)
Gary Stearman of Prophecy in the News noted, "When we think of the sun being darkened and the moon not giving her light, we usually think of some astronomical catastrophe – perhaps the sun sputtering and the moon being affected by all this. But maybe it's time to rethink this a little bit and think of it as a natural cycle, the cycle of the eclipses."
Thus, Biltz began focusing on the precise times of both solar and lunar eclipses, sometimes called "blood moons" since the moon often takes on a bloody color. He logged onto NASA's eclipse website which provides precision tracking of the celestial events.
He noted a rare phenomenon of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad.
He says during this century, tetrads occur at least six times, but what's interesting is that the only string of four consecutive blood moons that coincide with God's holy days of Passover in the spring and the autumn's Feast of Tabernacles (also called Succoth) occurs between 2014 and 2015 on today's Gregorian calendar.
"The fact that it doesn't happen again in this century I think is very significant," Biltz explains. "So then I looked at last century, and, believe it or not, the last time that four blood red moons occurred together was in 1967 and 1968 tied to Jerusalem recaptured by Israel."
He then started to notice a pattern of the tetrads.
"What's significant to me is that even before 1967, the next time that you had four blood red moons again was right after Israel became a nation in '48, it happened again in 1949 and 1950 ... on Passover and Succoth. You didn't have any astronomical tetrads in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 1600s. In the 1500s, there were six, but none of those fell on Passover and Succoth."
When checking the schedule for solar eclipses, Biltz found two – one on the first day of the Hebrew year and the next on the high holy day of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh Hebrew month. Both of these take place in the 2014-2015 year.
Biltz says, "You have the religious year beginning with the total solar eclipse, two weeks later a total lunar eclipse on Passover, and then the civil year beginning with the solar eclipse followed two weeks later by another total blood red moon on the Feast of Succoth all in 2015."
"If you think that this is a coincidence, I want you to know that it's time!" exclaimed Prophecy in the News host J.R. Church. "There are no more of these for the rest of the century."
The prospect of eclipses pinpointing the time of Jesus' return is getting mixed reaction in Christian circles.
After seeing Biltz's interview, Jim Bramlett, an author and former vice president for the Christian Broadcasting Network, expressed excitement.
"I have just watched the program two times and do not think I have ever been more encouraged or excited about the soon return of the Lord!" Bramlett said.
But Hal Lindsey, a well-known biblical analyst and author of "The Late Great Planet Earth," says while he hasn't heard of Biltz's theory, he called it "pure speculation."
"In my 50-something years of studying prophecy, to me the greatest indication of the time of Christ's return is based around the general things of prophecies coming together in the same time frame."
He mentioned not only Israel's birth as a political state in 1948, but the increase in tensions with Muslims, the rise of Russia, China and the European Union, which he says is even "calling itself the revived Roman Empire."
"I see the whole sweep and panorama spinning together in a precise scenario," he said.
During a second video interview, Biltz was presented with Bible quotes that many think suggest Jesus' return will be a complete surprise, or at least not specifically known.
The 25th chapter of Matthew features a parable where Jesus likens His kingdom to ten virgins all waiting for the arrival of their bridegroom.
Jesus said in the story, "ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 25:13)
Biltz says people need to examine the quote in its proper context.
"When He says you don't know the day or the hour, He's speaking to the foolish virgins, not the wise virgins," he explained.
Biltz was also asked about the famous statement in Matthew 24:36 when Jesus was discussing the signs of His "coming, and of the end of the world": "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (Matthew 24:36)
He responded by referring to the annual Feast of Trumpets holiday, saying Israelites never knew the precise moment it began, "because it was based on the sighting of the new moon."
"When He (Jesus) says you won't know the day or the hour, He's telling you it's the Feast of Trumpets because that was known as the feast where no one knew the day or the hour that it would begin," said Biltz. "So it's kind of like if I told you, 'I'm not going to tell you when I'm coming, but "Gobble, gobble, gobble,'" pointing to Turkey Day."
Church stressed despite the information suggesting 2015 could be a pivotal time, "We don't know that that will be the concluding year of the tribulation period ... so we're not setting a date and saying this is a warning. We're introducing the possibility of a watch."
A response to the blood moon scenario
http://www.gracethrufaith.com/ikvot/the-blood-moon-scenario
There's a video currently on the web, promoted by a well known prophecy website, that a whole bunch of you have either sent links to or asked about it or both. Here's my response.
This video shows the result of tracking solar and lunar eclipses and comparing them with Levitical Feasts, and notes that the only time in this century when 4 consecutive full lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad, will coincide with either Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles is in the years 2014-2015. Lunar eclipses are also known as “blood moons” because the moon often takes on a red cast during an eclipse.
There will also be 2 solar eclipses during that time. In the spring of 2015 Israel's religious year will begin with a total solar eclipse, followed two weeks later a total lunar eclipse on Passover. And then six months later the sequence will repeat itself with a second solar eclipse on Rosh Hashanna followed two weeks after that by another total lunar eclipse on the Feast of Tabernacles, all in 2015.
The last time anything like this happened was in 1967, when Jerusalem became an undivided Jewish city again, and before that there were several occurrences during the years of 1948-50, as Israel was becoming a nation. There were none at all in the 1800's, 1700's, or 1600's, and none in the 1500's that coincided with Feast Days.
What Does That Mean?
The conclusion being drawn from this by the video's producer is that 2015 is the most likely year for the Lord's 2nd coming in the entire 21st Century, and the fall is the best time in that year.
Prophecy buffs from across the spectrum are falling all over themselves to get on board this. But in the rush of emotion that rightfully accompanies thoughts of the Lord's impending return most are ignoring a tool for evaluating where we are in the end times that I first introduced in my series entitled “Seven Things You Have To Know To Understand End Times Prophecy”. It's a business management tool called back scheduling.
Sensational claims like the one made in this video can result in real confusion if you don't know the sequence in which major End Times events will occur. Actually their order is very logical, and once you learn it, you'll wonder why you didn't see it before. The best way to figure it out is to perform what the business world sometimes calls a back scheduling exercise. It involves going to the very end of a process and identifying its final outcome. Then you list in reverse order all the things that have to happen to produce that outcome, backing into the present. It's simpler than it sounds, and much simpler in prophecy than in business because there are many fewer events to organize. Here's how it goes.
We all think of Eternity as the final outcome, and so starting at the end and working backwards means we begin there. But the last major event described in any detail in the Bible is the Kingdom Age or Millennium, the Lord's 1000 year reign on Earth, which is distinguished from and precedes Eternity. Simply put, Eternity can't begin until the Millennium ends.
The Millennium obviously can't happen till the Second Coming, because that's when the Lord returns to establish it. And the Second Coming can't happen till the end of the Great Tribulation. And that can't happen till the anti-Christ stands in the Temple in Israel declaring himself to be God. (2 Thes. 2:4) That's the event Jesus warned Israel to look for as the Great Tribulation's opening salvo. He called it "The Abomination of Desolation" in Matt. 24:15-21.
But that can't happen till there's a Temple. There hasn't been a Temple in Israel since 70AD and there won't be one until the Jews decide they need one. That won't happen until God reinstates their Old Covenant relationship, signaling the start of Daniel's 70th week. And that can't happen till the Battle of Ezekiel 38-39 is won, because it's Ezekiel's battle that officially draws the Jews back to God. (Ezek. 39:22) And that can't happen till the Church is gone, because the Church and Israel are mutually exclusive to Him. (Romans 11:25 & Acts 15:13-18) And that brings us to the present, because there is no preceding event for the Rapture of the Church. It could happen at any time.
Using this scheduling tool we can see how end times events are scheduled to take place, and the only one whose timing is at all speculative is the Rapture. Some argue that there's doubt about the timing of the Battle of Ezekiel 38 but I think the Bible is pretty clear in saying that the battle of Ezekiel 38 is Israel's wake up call to begin Daniel's 70th week. It's the event that brings Israel back into covenant with God, requiring that a Temple be built. Daniel's 70th week by definition is seven years long. The last half is the Great Tribulation, after which the Lord will return.
What's The Point?
That brings me to my point, and to make it, I'll use the back scheduling tool again. In order for the Lord to return in the fall of 2015, Daniel's 70th week will have to begin the fall of 2008, a few months from now. That means that over the summer, the Battle of Ezekiel 38 will have to take place, and God will have to re-introduce Himself to Israel, bringing them back into an Old Covenant relationship that results in Biblical Judaism becoming the official and national religion of Israel. And the anti-Christ will have to appear and gain enough power to help Israel negotiate a seven year treaty that includes provisions for a Temple. (Daniel 9:27) Then there's the matter of the Rapture of the Church. While this schedule is of course possible for God, having them all take place this summer would be a major departure from His normal approach to things.
In truth, there are several interesting facts you should know about this summer that make it an attractive possibility if you disregard everything we've just covered. Israel will celebrate its 60th birthday and at the same time the world's population is projected to reach 6,666,666,666. The 1976th birthday of the church will also occur. (Because of calendar differences much of the Western church will celebrate on May 11, but the correct date is June 8-9.)
Also some military experts say that June will effectively be the last time this year that Israel will have an opportunity to take out Iran's nuclear capabilities, an act that will obviously cause major repercussions in the Middle East. Iran's rainy season begins in July making visibility an uncertain thing, and by September the US Presidential election will be ramped up for its all out run to our November election. Many observers believe that the current administration won't agree to let such a distraction interfere with America's focus on the election this fall. Adding these things into the mix has tempted a number of prophecy buffs to throw off all constraints and proclaim that the Day of the Lord is at hand.
Hold On Just A Minute!
But before we join them, let's take a closer look. Have the conditions for Ezekiel 38 been met? Most of the players are lined up, the exception still being Turkey. But Syria, not mentioned in Ezekiel 38, is right in the thick of things, teamed up with Iran and North Korea in a new axis of evil focused against Israel. Can Isaiah 17 also happen this summer?
And then there's the requirement that Israel be living in such a state of supposed peace as to be taken by surprise in a battle to the death. (Ezek. 38:11) If Israel goes after Iran's nukes next month, they'll be the ones pulling off the sneak attack. Could Iran's certain retaliation in any way be called an unexpected surprise that catches Israel off guard? I don't think so.
No, I think it's much more likely that any war this summer between Israel and the Moslems would result in Syria's demise and end in a false peace that puts into place the conditions necessary for Ezekiel 38 to happen some time later. And despite my earlier speculation about the 2012 magnetic polar reversal fulfilling the 6th seal of Rev. 6, I have to admit that the most likely coming event that fits the sequence and is worthy of announcement by signs in the heavens in 2015 would be the beginning of Daniel's 70th week.
If these earlier Blood Moons did in fact announce the re-birth of the nation and the reunification of Jerusalem as it appears, then the next major step in Israels' journey toward the Kingdom is their national reunion with their Creator. This is the way Ezekiel saw it happening, and in my view is important enough to God to merit such a celestial announcement. After all He's been waiting to take them back for 2000 years.
"Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.” (Hosea 6:1-2)
Thankfully, it won't be long until we know for sure who's right and who's wrong. And it won't take any rocket science to tell. Because if the 70th week is set to begin in September then the next few months will astonish the world in a breath taking series of prophetic fulfillments unparalleled since the Lord's crucifixion and resurrection. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.
World population will be 6,666,666,666 on May 10
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html
World POPClock Projection
According to the International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau, the total population of the World, projected to 05/09/08 at 12:17 GMT (EST+5) is
6,666,532,360
Monthly World population figures:
07/01/07 6,600,411,051
08/01/07 6,606,949,106
09/01/07 6,613,487,162
10/01/07 6,619,814,313
11/01/07 6,626,352,369
12/01/07 6,632,679,520
01/01/08 6,639,217,576
02/01/08 6,645,755,632
03/01/08 6,651,871,878
04/01/08 6,658,409,934
05/01/08 6,664,737,085
06/01/08 6,671,275,141
07/01/08 6,677,602,292
Feds: Don't label terrorists "Muslim"
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/FOREIGN/725367235/1001
U.S. officials are being advised in internal government documents to avoid referring publicly to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups as Islamic or Muslim, and not to use terms like jihad or mujahedeen, which "unintentionally legitimize" terrorism.
"There' s a growing consensus in the Bush administration that we need to move away from that language," said a former senior administration official who was involved until recently in policy debates on the issue.
Instead, in two documents circulated last month by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the multiagency center charged with strategic coordination of the U.S. war on terror, officials are urged to use terms such as violent extremists, totalitarian and death cult to characterize al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
"Avoid labeling everything 'Muslim.' It reinforces the 'U.S. vs. Islam' framework that al Qaeda promotes," according to "Words that Work and Words that Don't: A Guide for Counter-Terrorism Communication," produced last month by the center.
"You have a large percentage of the world' s population that subscribes to this religion," the former official said. "Unintentionally alienating them is not a judicious move."
The documents, first reported by the Associated Press, were posted online last week by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
They highlight developments in the Bush administration' s strategy for its war on terror that have been fiercely criticized by some who have been its closest allies on the issue, and apparently are being ignored by the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Some commentators noted after President Bush' s State of the Union speech in January that Mr. McCain had stopped using the term Islamic terrorism, instead referring — as the NCTC guide recommends — to "terrorists and extremists — evil men who despise freedom, despise America, and aim to subject millions to their violent rule."
Dallas to Kick Off '90 Days of Blessing'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/371641.aspx
CBNNews.com - DALLAS, Texas - Every year millions of Christians from around the world take part in the Global Day of Prayer. But in Dallas, area churches, community leaders and even government officials say prayer is just the starting point to bless the city.
Christians in the city go from praying for their city, to painting, sweeping and mowing lawns in the name of the Lord.
Compassion in Action
Their actions are part of something called, 90 Days of Blessing, which is a time set aside for Christians to serve following the Global Day of Prayer.
90 Days of Blessing involves a coalition of Christian leaders such as Pastor Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and Pastor Ron Scates of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas.
Pastor Ron says 90 Days of Blessing, part of the Global Day of Prayer, is not just that one event where believers gather to pray, but actually extends arms for three months encouraging churches to take on missions projects throughout the Dallas area mobilizing Christians from all different denominations."
Many say it's about the body of Christ displaying compassion in action.
Charles Armelin is a volunteer with 90 Days of Blessing.
He said, "It lets people in the community know, see that there are people, outsiders willing to come down here and help cut grass, pick up trash, edge the yards, put flower pots and plants down."
"We're hoping that this is getting us out of our comfort zone and when we do that the world says maybe these people really do believe what they say they believe," says Dr. Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, an evangelical Christian, says he wholeheartedly favors 90 Days of Blessing project.
"I hope what we do as a city is we utilize prayer to bring blessings to try to reach out both to our Lord but also to the people in the city," the mayor said.
The impact of the 90 Days of Blessing has been dramatic.
All across the Dallas, scores of homes have been built in poor neighborhoods through Habitat for Humanity. Christians are praying for people in the community, conducting neighborhood clean ups and hosting evangelistic block parties.
One miraculous turnaround has taken place in the Bonton section of South Dallas, which has been notorious for its crime, drugs and poverty.
Karen Alston is a single mother who lived in Bonton. She and her children feared for their lives in the neighborhood.
"The drive-by's and the shootings, my children and I ended up sleeping on the floor. We slept there for three months because it was horrible, jumping up in the middle of the night and hearing my children scream 'Mama, Mama, we're gonna die.'"
Drug Dealer Turns to Christ
Former drug dealer Roderick Yarborough contributed to Karen's horror.
"I have a reputation in the neighborhood of being a drug dealer," Roderick said.
But Roderick's life changed when a local pastor shared the gospel during an evangelistic outreach in his community. Roderick prayed to receive Jesus Christ and today is part of the solution.
"All the guys who used to ask me for drugs. They'll ask me 'You have any kind of drugs, you have some weed, some dope or something?' I say no I don't do that no more. Then they'll say 'Pray for me.' I say how can this really be happening? They just asked me for drugs and now they want me to pray for them," he marveled.
Roderick also makes an honest living now.
"It's just a blessing right there just to be working - working for a ministry at that. I never ever thought that I'd be working for a ministry," he said.
Because of the influence of 90 Days of Blessing on Karen's old neighborhood, she says she is no longer afraid. And thanks Concord Baptist Church, where she's a member, and Habitat for Humanity, she is a first time homeowner.
Karen was happy to give CBN News a tour of her new home saying, "This is my little heaven on earth, a blessed gift from the Lord."
Karen uses her new home to bless those in her old neighborhood every.
"We do a Bible study for young teenaged men from 10:00 to 12 noon and I serve breakfast," Karen said.
Devil's Backdoor Becomes Christ's Front Door
Stories like Karen's and Roderick's are not limited to one section of Dallas.
Arrvel Wilson pastors the West Dallas Community Church. He is also part of Transformation West Dallas, an initiative that creates communities of hope that result in safe homes, safe schools, and safe communities for Dallas' west side.
"The sheriff at times called West Dallas the devil's backdoor and now we say it's the Lord's front door at this time" Wilson said.
Businessman Norman Henry is also a partner with Transformation Dallas. Through Builders of Hope, his faith-based organization, he sells houses on Dallas' west side - a place he says many developers once refused to build.
"The house down the street was a drug house. Another house down the street had an illegal stolen goods operation. Over half a million dollars worth of stolen goods coming out of this house per day. But God has called us to reclaim this area back for his good," Henry said.
Builders of Hope also hires youth from the neighborhood to help build homes in the region, particularly young men on who have gotten into trouble with the law and are on probation.
Willie Thompson used to hang out on corners and sell drugs in the region. He says he is thankful that Henry and Builders of Hope have given him a chance to do better in life.
"Those guys are a real blessing to me and the work crew. They look forward to us doing something to our lives," Willie said.
Many in the Lone star state acknowledge that the Global Day of Prayer is important. But they stress the real blessing comes from the action and the fruit from those prayers.
Ty Richardson servers as volunteer with 90 Days of Blessing.
He said, "We're just doing the Lord's work. We're giving people opportunities to change their lives, get to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and once that happens, transformation takes place."
For Whom Ma Bell Tolls: Church Cell-Phone Tower Gets Static From Locals
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354618,00.html
When St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Rockville Centre, N.Y., was asked last year if it would lease space on its roof for a cell-phone antenna, it seemed that heaven had answered the congregation's prayers.
The proposal looked like a win-win for both the cash-strapped church and the cellular carrier T-Mobile, which needed to patch a service "dead zone."
T-Mobile's subsidiary Omnipoint would house the antenna and related equipment inside the church's bell tower, and St. Mark's would have an additional $1,470 in its coffers each month. In November, the church took the offer and filed for a building permit with the village.
"This proposal represents an opportunity for us to maximize our resources and supply St. Mark's with badly needed funds," the church's pastor, Dr. Roger Johns, said.
But the church's letter to its neighbors alerting them of the plan, required by village zoning regulations, was met with anger and surprise.
"I have been neighbors with the church for seven years," said Eileen McHugh, whose home backs up against St. Mark's. "We always had a great relationship. We don't anymore."
It's not the first time cellular transmitters have sparked disputes between community organizations and the residents they serve.
"As cellular service providers look to expand and improve their coverage ... they will look to not only churches, but any buildings located within that market area that are tall enough," said Anthony Guardino, a partner at the Uniondale, N.Y., law firm Farrell Fritz and a zoning-law expert who has no connection to the St. Mark's controversy.
Churches, with their steeples, bell towers and central locations, are natural candidates, and at least one company, Steeplecom, specializes in setting up such projects. It brokered the St. Mark's-Omnipoint deal and stands to get 30 percent of the carrier's $2,100 monthly rent.
Yet the very act of placing a cell antenna in a church seems to stir up special hostility.
The United Methodist Church of Medford, N.J., devotes a special section of its Web site to the brouhaha caused by its own deal with T-Mobile.
It urges its congregants and neighbors to "resist the generalistic and inflammatory claims of activists until you can make your own assessment of the facts presented."
Meanwhile, back in Rockville Centre, there's an Omnipoint antenna proposed for an apartment building a few blocks from St. Mark's. It's not getting much attention.
Can you hear me now?
On the evening of March 26, the village's Board of Zoning Appeals met to review St. Mark's application. The room was packed, and the meeting went on until nearly midnight.
Omnipoint's paid experts attested to the site's safety and positive aesthetics, while many residents spoke against the plan.
People were worried that the antenna would lower property values, that noise levels would go up and that allowing one commercial structure would open the floodgates for other companies to infiltrate residential areas.
But the one issue that came up most strongly and loudly concerned the antenna's possible health effects.
St. Mark's rents out space to a nursery school on its premises. To some parents of children there, the idea of powerful radio-frequency emissions beaming from the property where their kids play is abhorrent.
"If my child was continuing to go to that school, and the antenna went up, I would pull my child out," said Judy Tardino. "I just wouldn't take that chance."
Unfortunately for Tardino, McHugh and other opponents, municipalities can't stop a wireless carrier from siting equipment based on health concerns, according to the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
And the government and medical establishment don't seem terribly concerned as long as wireless transmitters do not exceed a certain level of radio-frequency (RF) emissions.
"In order to be exposed to RF levels near the FCC's [maximum] guidelines, an individual would essentially have to remain in the main transmitting beam and within a few feet of the antenna for several minutes or longer," states the FCC.
The FDA says the amount of RF radiation routinely encountered by the general public is too low to increase body temperature. (Microwave ovens use extremely powerful radio emissions to heat up water molecules and thus cook food.)
The American Cancer Society says "cellular phone towers are unlikely to cause cancer," pointing out that cell-phone radio waves have too little energy and wavelengths too long to alter living tissue.
Nonetheless, the amount of RF radiation that can be absorbed by the body with no health effects is an ongoing research subject, especially since there has been little inquiry into how much children can safely tolerate.
Prof. Frank Barnes, an electrical engineer at the University of Colorado at Boulder, says RF exposure has some biological effects — by changing the direction of movement of white blood cells, for instance — but admits that his results have been inconsistent.
"The quick answer is, we don't know," Barnes said. "You can see some changes in biology, but it may not be bad for you."
None of that convinces church neighbor McHugh, who has circulated petitions and written letters to local newspapers to rally opposition, using information culled from the Internet and from interviews with experts to bolster her case.
"I really care about the radiation. You don't know what the long-term effects are," she said.
Fear of the antenna is already having at least one negative effect — on real estate.
One deal in the St. Mark's area hangs on the outcome of T-Mobile's plans, according to Richard McQuillan, co-owner of Links Real Estate in Rockville Centre. If the antenna gets installed, he says, the deal's off.
"It's certainly not going to help the property value [in the neighborhood], let's put it that way," said another realtor who asked for anonymity.
To some, the whole kerfuffle smacks of a "not in my backyard" mentality.
"There's some parents that don't want it, but they are carrying cell phones," says Shirley Perri, director of St. Mark's Nursery School. "I am standing neutral here."
The next hearing on the cell-tower proposal is slated for May 21. While it's possible a compromise could be hashed out between the church and the community beforehand, officials are preparing for another big crowd.
"There will be a lot of people there. There will be a lot of discussion," predicts Frank Buccheri of the village's department of buildings. "And everyone will be heard."
Islamic Divorce Ruled Not Valid in Maryland
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703592.html?hpid=topnews
After his wife of more than two decades filed for divorce in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Irfan Aleem responded in writing in 2003, and not just in court.
Aleem went to the Pakistani Embassy in the District, where he executed a written document that asserted he was divorcing Farah Aleem. He performed "talaq," exercising a provision of Islamic religious and Pakistani secular law that allows husbands to divorce their wives by declaring "I divorce thee" three times. In Muslim countries, men have used talaq to leave their wives for centuries.
But they can't use it in Maryland, the state's highest court decided this week.
The state Court of Appeals issued a unanimous 21-page opinion Tuesday declaring that talaq is contrary to Maryland's constitutional provisions providing equal rights to men and women.
"Talaq lacks any significant 'due process' for the wife, its use, moreover, directly deprives the wife of the 'due process' she is entitled to when she initiates divorce litigation in this state. The lack and deprivation of due process is itself contrary to this state's public policy," the court wrote.
The decision affirms a 2007 ruling by the Court of Special Appeals, the state's intermediate appellate court, which also said that talaq does not apply in the Free State.
Under Islamic traditions, talaq can be invoked only by a husband, unless he grants his wife the same right.
According to the Court of Appeals' opinion, Irfan Aleem, who worked for years as an economist with the World Bank, is worth about $2 million, half of which Farah Aleem is entitled to under Maryland law. When Irfan Aleem tried to divorce his wife under the concept of talaq, a sum of $2,500 was mentioned as a "full and final" settlement, according to the appellate decision.
That amount was written into the marriage contract Farah Aleem signed the day she married him in their native Pakistan in 1980, according to the appellate decision. The contract was in accordance with Pakistani custom. At the time, he was 29 and she was 18. The couple moved to the Washington area in 1985.
"I don't even know how to express how happy I am. I am ecstatic, relieved," Farah Aleem, 46, said yesterday.
Over the years, a lack of financial support from her ex-husband caused hardship for her and her son and daughter, who are in college, she said. "All I ever wanted was my fair share, not a penny more," said Aleem, who lives in the Washington area, works full time for an accounting firm and is pursuing an accounting degree at night.
At the direction of the judge who presided over the Aleems' divorce proceedings, the couple's Potomac home was sold, and half the proceeds -- about $200,000 -- went to Farah Aleem, said Susan Friedman, her attorney.
Friedman said she thinks that Irfan Aleem, who retired in recent years, invoked talaq to avoid paying Farah half of his World Bank pension, which provides him with $90,000 annually, the attorney said.
"It will be very pleasant when [Farah] gets her share of that," Friedman said. "She's delighted about that."
Friedman said she will serve papers on the World Bank showing that the original order from the Circuit Court -- that Farah Aleem is entitled to half her ex-husband's pension -- is now final and that the bank has to give her half.
Irfan Aleem, who is in his late 50s, lives in Pakistan, Friedman said.
His attorney, Priya R. Aryar, said, "We're very disappointed with the decision. We think this could have adverse ramifications for a whole bunch of people who reside in the D.C. area under diplomatic visas and assume that their family law rights and obligations are governed by the laws of their country of citizenship."
A legal scholar and an Islamic leader said the appellate court's decision was not surprising.
"For the most part, Muslims expected this kind of ruling," said Muneer Fareed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield, Ind. "The contrary would be a surprise to them. They do not expect the U.S. legal system to give full recognition of talaq."
Julie Macfarlane, a legal scholar who is researching a book about Islamic divorces in North America, said the decision was not surprising. "There's no legal enforceability [for talaq] in U.S. courts," said Macfarlane, a professor at the University of Windsor in Canada.
Evolution Bills Die in Florida Legislature
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/371765.aspx
CBNNews.com - Two bills that would have allowed teachers to challenge the theory of evolution have failed to pass in the Florida state legislature.
Supporters in the state House and the Senate were unable to garner enough votes for the two different bills.
Conservatives - both social and religious - began promoting the bills in response to the State Board of Education's approval of science standards which called for the teaching of evolution.
"We are contacted frequently by teachers and school administrators who have either been threatened or, more commonly, are running scared," David Gibbs, a lawyer with the Florida based Christian Law Association, told the American Family Association.
Gibbs says educators ask, "'If I say anything, if I discuss this, what will happen?"
He says teachers have said, "If a child raised her hand and asked about creationism or intelligent design, a panic went into my heart. How do I even answer this question? Or could this cost me my job?'"
The Senate version would have stopped school administrators from disciplining teachers who used scientific information to challenge Darwin's theory.
The House bill would have required schools to teach "critical analysis" of evolution.
But critics say the legislation would have injected religious doctrine into public schools under the guise of science.
Christian Leaders Question Senate Probe
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/371722.aspx
CBNNews.com - Nearly two dozen Christian leaders are questioning a Senate investigation of six ministries, saying it sets a "dangerous precedent."
This week, the leaders sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, arguing that the investigation falls short of the set IRS parameters for warranting a church investigation.
The letter also suggests the ministries were targeted for their theology, since they all preach a so-called "gospel of prosperity."
A Senate committee spokeswoman responded that the probe is about tax-exempt laws -- not church doctrine.
The ministries under investigation are led by Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Paula and Randy White.
The ministries have been asked to submit their financial records. Some have already cooperated, while others have refused or only partially cooperated.
The letter's signers include American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon, Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission and the Reverend Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council.
Code Pink Protesters Try Witchcraft at Anti-Marine Rallies
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354400,00.html
Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up the number of its supporters protesting Berkeley's controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center.
The women's anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for "Witches, clowns and sirens day," the last of the group's weeklong homage to Mother's Day.
"Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we're going to end war," Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.
The group's week of themed protests, which included days to galvanize grannies and bring-your-daughter-to-protest, appears to have done little to boost its flagging numbers.
A FOX News camera, which has a 24/7 live shot of the recruiting center's front door, recorded little action, and the gatherings have, until this point, been ill attended.
In February, the Marine Corps Recruiting Center was the site of fierce pro- and anti-war protests. It made national headlines when Berkeley's city council voted to send a letter to the recruiting station advising the Marines they were not welcome. Council members later moderated their position, saying they oppose the war in Iraq but support the troops.
Code Pink — which was given parking and noise permits by the city council and is allowed to protest during the recruiting center's business hours — has been protesting daily since September.
The group frequently announces bizarre theme weeks in front of the office, but their numbers have been dwindling and the events get little media attention.
Now, after three months of continual protest, their actions barely capture the attention of even the Marines at the recruiting center.
Capt. John Paul Wheatcroft said he's unfazed by Code Pink's antics.
"They're always in pink and wear funny things, half-shaved heads, one side with hair and the other one bald, yeah, I'm pretty much used to anything," he told FOXNews.com.
Code Pink said that grandmothers did show up for Monday's protest — some over 90 years old, some in wheelchairs — and began knocking on the door of the recruiting center.
"The grandmothers were here and tried to get recruited," Joi said. "They tried to have conversations with the Marines, but the Marines were too scared to talk."
Wheatcroft, who was the Marine on the other side of the door, said that he was not afraid of the grannies. He just didn't open the door.
"Most of the time they are just practicing their right to protest and their freedom of speech or whatever, so it's not usually a problem for us. But sometimes it crosses the line, and that happened [Monday] when the grannies were here blocking the entrance and banging on the door," Wheatcroft told FOXNews.com.
On Tuesday, Code Pink's theme was "Fierce mothers raging against war," Joi said, to talk about all the mothers killed and raped in war. Wednesday's theme was "Bring your daughter to the protest," where daughters explanied why they don't want their parents fighting the war. Thursday is "Sisters don't allow sisters to live in war zones" day, and the week wraps up Friday with "Witches, clowns and sirens day."
Code Pink isn't the only group rallying around the Marine recruiting center that has seen its numbers drop.
Kimberly Wagner, Berkeley College Republicans activism chair, who is dating a Marine, said her group has been trying to keep up a presence outside the center since Feb. 13, when Code Pink's parking permit went into effect.
The college Republicans are fighting to acquire the same parking permits that Code Pink has. A resolution to grant the group an equal permit will be entered and voted upon in the May 20 city council meeting.
Wagner said showing up to rally is especially hard now due to final exams, which begin on Monday, but she said she will be there — this week and every week — "as a reminder to Code Pink that not everybody agrees with them."
When asked if she was planning any special events to counter Code Pink's theme week, Wagner said: "We try not to do anything embarrassing." She added, "We're just going to stick with our regular thing because we have lives and they don't."
But if events this week are an attempt by anti-war protesters to remarket their cause, the Marine recruiters in Berkeley tell FOXNews.com that Code Pink's presence outside their office has helped — not hindered — their mission.
"Ironically, it's actually helped us by putting our name out. We're now well known. And people know who we are, and where we are, and they come in to talk to us about enlisting. They've gotten us the publicity that we could've never afforded to pay for ourselves," Wheatcroft told FOXNews.com.
"Just in the last three weeks, 10 people came in looking to apply, looking to become Marine officers, and that's much higher than normal," he said.
Wheatcroft could not give exact figures on recruiting numbers, and officials at the Marine Corps' national headquarters did not respond to repeated requests for information.
As for what's brewing outside his recruiting center this week, Wheatcroft responded, "I think witches won't shock me, but it'll be a change of pace, so that's nice.
"Do you think they'll bring their cauldron?"
No creeds, no miracles, no Resurrection - a Christianity without Christ?
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=490325&p=1
There is a Bible on a pedestal in Gretta Vosper's West Hill United Church in Toronto. She would prefer it did not have a special place, she said, because it is just a book among other books. In a similar way, the cross that is high above the altar has no special meaning, but there are a few older congregants for whom the Bible and the cross are still nice symbols so there they remain.
Though an ordained minister, she does not like the title of reverend. It is one of those symbols that hold the church back from breaking into the future -- to a time "when the label Christian won't even exist" and the Church will be freed of the burdens of the past. To balance out those symbols of the past inside West Hill, there is a giant, non-religious rainbow tapestry just behind the altar and multi-coloured streamers hang from the ceiling.
"The central story of Christianity will fade away," she explained. "The story about Jesus as the symbol of everything that Christianity is will fade away."
The head of the United Church of Canada, David Giuliano, who went to divinity school with Ms. Vosper 20 years ago, said if he felt the way that she does, he would not be a minister. But it is not his job to condemn, he said, and the church is structured in such a way that complaints have to come from the congregation before any action can be taken. And so far there have been no complaints. He also sees the United Church, considered the most liberal of the mainline Protestant churches, as broad enough to encompass a wide range of theologies.
Even Rev. Giuliano agrees that the name Christian -- which carries the baggage of colonialism and other ills -- should probably be phased out. Instead, he would replace "Christian" with "Follower of the Way" or "Follower of Jesus."
But it is an absolute certainty that Ms. Vosper would not go for "Follower of Jesus."
Ms. Vosper does not believe in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the miracles and the sacrament of baptism. Nor does she believe in the creeds, the presence of Christ in communion or that Jesus was the Son of God.
In With or Without God, her book that was formally launched this week, she writes that Jesus was a "Middle Eastern peasant with a few charismatic gifts and a great posthumous marketing team."
The Bible is used in her services, but it gets rewritten to be more contemporary and speak to more people. Even the Lord's Prayer -- also known as the Our Father -- does not make the cut because it creates an image of a God who intervenes in human existence. And then there is the "Father" part that is not inclusive language and carries with it the notion of an overbearing tyrant who condemns people to hell.
So why exactly does she still call herself a Christian, let alone a minister?
"I could leave the Church because I don't hold those orthodox understandings," she said.
"But I think that in a generation or so we might stop using the term Christian, and I hope, perhaps we will stop using labels for every religious tradition. There is nothing wrong with a faith tradition evolving.
"And I believe that's what we're doing. It's been evolving for a long time but we're afraid to acknowledge that so this is merely the next iteration of what Christianity needs to be."
She envisions a time when there is no religious divisions and everyone shares in their common values and their only differences are cultural. Still, she said there is no conflict with this and being in the church.
"The church is extremely important because it can be a transformative element in individuals' lives and communities," she said. "And that was the root of what the Christian Church was about: transforming the way people see themselves in relation to the communities around them and in relation to each other and about living that in community. Christianity took over that story and manipulated it into a very different story."
Ms. Vosper believes most liberal ministers do not really believe in orthodoxy and see things like the Resurrection or the miracles as metaphors, not real events. She is also chair of a group called the Canadian Centre For Progressive Christianity, which also espouses a vague form of religious belief, in which they offer a challenge to the church to do a "complete overhaul of the beliefs it has been carrying about for the last several hundred years.
"It's not that we're trying to do something new. It's that we're trying to catch up on a thousand years of backlogged progress files that have yet to be inputted into the 21st century."
In With or Without God, Ms. Vosper writes: "It is time to live in the current paradigm, being progressive enough to let go of the beliefs and traditions to which we've had to tip our hats and curtsy in the past but which can no longer prevail in our contemporary world."
Ms. Vosper did not change her views over time but said she felt the same way when she took her divinity degree at Queen's University in 1990. She said when the creed was mentioned, which contains those declarations of faith that acknowledge basic Christian tenants, it was uncomfortable. "I fled when I had to read the creed," she said.
For all of this, she still feels rooted in the church. She still loves the stories, metaphors though they may be. And she still measures her life against the meaning of those metaphors.
The focus of her "spiritual" life is love. And since love is the common bond between all people, it is really the only thing worth believing in.
"Here in the context of seeking out harmony with all things, the purest understanding of those values that enhance and sanctify life becomes the foremost spiritual practice," she writes.
"We call it love, radically inclusive love. It is here, in the caring, challenging, prophetic role with which it is so familiar that the church can really shine."
What happens when there is not enough oil or food to go around?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/EDITORIAL/845942063
For more than a decade, English petroleum geologist Colin Campbell has been sounding the warning bell about the coming of peak oil and its disturbing ramifications for the world. Since 2005 Dr. Robert Hirsch has been giving specific warnings for the United States through a series of Department of Energy-sponsored reports outlining the dangers to America if the peak finds us unprepared. And in the past year, the GAO, the National Petroleum Council, and scores of other organizations and governments around the world have reported on the severe consequences the world might incur once the peak has been achieved.
The issue is not simply a concern that we will have to pay outrageous prices for a gallon of gas. If that were the worst of it, the situation would be difficult but manageable. The reality, however, goes deeper and is much more troubling. There are multiple problems affecting the world that are having a decidedly negative net effect: a global rise in demand for crude oil, the plateau in the production of crude oil (which may indicate the peak has already been reached) and continued global population growth. Together, these three factors are serving to shove the world into a crisis that has ominous possibilities.
When there isn't enough oil to satisfy global demand, the price obviously rises. Perhaps less obvious, however, is the effect this price increase has on the world's ability to produce food. Every stage of the food production cycle is affected by petroleum and a rise in the price of a barrel of oil has compounding effects: It costs more to run the farm machinery, more to buy the fertilizer, more to take it to market and more for processing. In the United States, this results in raised eyebrows at the grocery store. In parts of the world where upwards of 75 percent of a family's income goes to buying food, it results in social unrest and riots.
The United Nations estimates that global population is growing at the rate of 78 million people a year — roughly the equivalent of adding the population of Germany to the world every year. According to Energy Information Administration data released earlier this month, global petroleum production has been on a relatively level plateau for the past 44 consecutive months.
But at the same time, the economies of China and India have continued growing, which accelerates the consumption of petroleum-related products and increases the amount and quality of food each person eats. These three facts have conspired to produce a global shortage of crude oil which has exacerbated the world's inability to feed itself. If the world cannot produce significantly more barrels of oil per day, while at the same time the developing world's appetite continues to increase and the global population continues its climb, there won't be enough oil to go around or enough food for everyone to eat.
In just the past two weeks we have been given a foretaste of what that might mean as news organizations have reported rioting and social unrest in developing countries around the world as a result of food shortages; Canadian Bank analyst Jeff Rubin predicted oil prices will "soar to $225 a barrel by 2012." Many experts expect these twin afflictions to remain for the foreseeable future.
This is not the time for more talk and half-measures. Facts on the ground demand urgent, robust and sustained action at the highest levels of government. The America public gets it, as an April 20 poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org found that 76 percent of Americans "believe that their government should make long term plans to replace oil as a primary source of energy." With such a high percentage of the population agreeing with such a necessity, where are our national leaders on this issue? While our presidential candidates continue to be satisfied discussing such critical issues as what someone's pastor said, (who is bitter and who gets angry a lot), there has been not one substantive exchange regarding the most pressing issue facing our country.
Someone must step up and lead before a crisis of global proportions is thrust upon us and our only option is the implementation of draconian damage-control measures. Pray such a leader surfaces soon.
A Gulf in Giving: Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354677,00.html
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top lieutenants on Monday are convening the first meeting of the U.N.’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis. Ban says it will “study the root causes of the crisis,” and propose solutions for “coordinated global action” at a summit of world leaders in June.
Ban might want to consider convincing the oil-rich nations of the Middle East to provide more than the near-invisible amount of money they currently give to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.’s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.
WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.
The overwhelming bulk of the burden in feeding the world’s starving poor remains with the United States and a small group of other predominately Western nations, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis.
Donor listings on WFP’s website show that this year, as in every year since 1999, the U.S. is far and away the biggest aid provider to WFP. Since 2001, U.S. donations to the food agency have averaged more than $1.16 billion annually — or more than five times as much as the next biggest donor, the European Commission.
This year, the U.S. had contributed $362.7 million to WFP just through May 4, according to the website. That figure does not include another $250 million above the planned yearly contribution that was promised by President George W. Bush in the wake of WFP’s April warning that a “silent tsunami” of rising food costs would add dramatically to the world population living in hunger. Nor does it include another $770 million in food aid that President Bush has asked Congress to provide as soon as possible.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, with oil revenues last year of $164 billion, does not even appear on the website donor list for 2008.
And while Canada, Australia, Western Europe and Japan have hastened to pony up an additional $260 million in aid since WFP’s latest appeal, the world organization told FOX News, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the international oil cartel, tossed in a grand total of $1.5 million in addition to the $50,000 it had previously donated.
The OPEC total amounts to roughly one minute and 10 seconds worth of the organization’s estimated $674 billion in annual oil revenues in 2007 — revenues that will be vastly exceeded in 2008 with the continuing spiral in world oil prices.
The only other major oil exporter who made the WFP list of 2008 donors was the United Arab Emirates, which kicked in $50,000. UAE oil revenues in 2007 were $63 billion.
By contrast, the poverty-stricken African republic of Burkina Faso is listed as donating more than $600,000, and Bangladesh, perennial home of many of the world’s hungriest people, is listed as donating nearly $5.8 million.
Christian think tank claims Muslims 'will outnumber Christians in England by 2035'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1936418/Practising-Muslims-'will-outnumber-Christians-by-2035'.html
Practising Muslims will outnumber worshipping Christians in Britain within 30 years, according to research published today.
By 2035, there will be about 1.96 million active Muslims in Britain, compared with 1.63 million church-going Christians, according to calculations by Christian Research, a think- tank.
The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends.
The think-tank has warned that 4,000 churches could close by 2020 if congregations continue to shrink at current rates.
According to the most recent figures from the Church of England, regular Sunday, weekly and monthly attendance each fell by one per cent in 2006.
Fewer than a million people attend church every Sunday.
Although at the last count there were only 1.6 million Muslims living in Britain – compared to 41 million Christians – experts have suggested Muslims are more likely to practise their faith.
More than half of the Muslims who responded to the 2001 census said they prayed every day, compared to 6.3 per cent of Christians who attend church services each week.
Christian Research describes its aim as encouraging "change in Christian culture so that by 2010 more churches are growing".
The Church of England moved to discredit the research last night, criticising its methodology and saying the results were "flawed and dangerously misleading".
A C of E spokesman said: "These sorts of statistics, based on dubious presumptions, do no one of any faith any favours.
"Faith communities are not in competition and simplistic research like this is misleading and unhelpful."
The research does not compare like with like, according to the spokesman. The number of practising Muslims, for instance, is based on the number of people who said they were active in the 2001 census.
If the same process were applied to Christians it would give a figure of 20 million active churchgoers, according to Church House, the headquarters of the C of E.
The study used the number of adults on the Church's parish-based formal voting lists as the sole measure of its active "members".
This omitted large numbers who worship every week and are involved in their churches in other ways, according to Church House.
The Rev Lynda Barley, head of research and statistics for the Archbishops' Council, said last night: "There are more than 1.7 million people worshipping in a Church of England church or cathedral each month, a figure which is 30 per cent higher than the electoral roll figures and has remained stable since 2000.
"More are involved in fresh expressions of church and chaplaincies across the country and we have no reason to believe that this will drop significantly in the next decade.
"These statistics are incomplete and represent only a partial picture of religious trends in Britain today."
Human implants increasing new applications - wi-fi devices warn doctors of heart attacks
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3883082.ece
The Bluetooth wireless technology that allows people to use a hands-free earpiece while making a mobile telephone call could soon alert the emergency services when someone has a heart attack, Ofcom predicts.
The communications regulator said that sensors could be implanted into people at risk of heart attack or diabetic collapse that would allow doctors to monitor them remotely.
If the “in-body network” recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital.
However, Ofcom also gave warning in its report, Tomorrow’s Wireless World, that the impact of such technology on personal privacy would require more debate.
The technology, which is being tested now in Portsmouth, could also be used if a patient failed to take his or her medicines. A pill dispenser would send an automatic reminder and, if the pills were not taken within a certain time, an alarm would sound and a message would be sent to the patient’s family or carers.
However, health experts say that they are sceptical about the level of take-up of “in-body” sensors while research into the possible radiation impact of wi-fi networks is going on.
The Ofcom report also said that advances in GPS positioning and short-range wireless technologies could “revolutionise the way we conduct our journeys and safety levels on the roads”. Intelligent transport systems being developed by car manufacturers allowed cars to communicate with each other and send alerts about sudden braking. If a collision happened the car’s system could automatically call the emergency services. The technology could also apply the brakes automatically if it was determined that two cars were getting too close to each other.
Paramedics attending the scene of an accident would carry a small computer that would pick up wireless messages from a bracelet incorporated in the driver’s watch. These would enable them to gain access to information about his or her medical history.
The European Commission is discussing whether to allow the “e-Call” automatic emergency call-out, which could be on the market by 2011. A recent trial suggested that the technology could cut ten minutes off the time for the emergency services to reach the scene of an accident and a 15 per cent reduction in fatalities.
Ofcom said that drivers could be helped by further advances in sat-nav technology. Signals would alert drivers to congestion ahead and then calculate whether their proposed journey would be quicker by train.
Wireless communication technology could also enable food items to carry microchips containing information on their contents. This would allow, for example, nut allergy sufferers to be alerted if they inadvertently picked up an item containing nuts.
Ofcom concluded that wireless communication was now “integral to our lives”. It said that the Government must decide how to prepare for future demands on the radio frequencies, or spectrums, that wireless services use. Wireless congestion, with wi-fi users “piggybacking” on other people’s connections, must not result in interference in potentially life-saving communications, it added.
Peter Ingram, Ofcom’s chief technology officer, said: “This report demonstrates the many creative ways that the radio spectrum can be used for the benefit of citizens. But other bodies will have to decide whether the transfer of personal data, which these advances involve in the medical sphere, is appropriate for the benefits.”
Real-Life Iron Man: Company looking to mass produce robotic power suits
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=real-life-iron-man-exoskeleton
The prospect of slipping into a robotic exoskeleton that could enhance strength, keep the body active while recovering from an injury or even serve as a prosthetic limb has great appeal. Unlike the svelt body armor donned by Iron Man, however, most exoskeletons to date have looked more like clunky spare parts cobbled together.
Japan's CYBERDYNE, Inc. is hoping to change that with a sleek, white exoskeleton now in the works that it says can augment the body's own strength or do the work of ailing (or missing) limbs. The company is confident enough in its new technology to have started construction on a new lab expected to mass-produce up to 500 robotic power suits (think Star Wars storm trooper without the helmet) annually, beginning in October, according to Japan's Kyodo News Web site.
CYBERDYNE was launched in June 2004 to commercialize the cybernetic work of a group of researchers headed by Yoshiyuki Sankai a professor of system and information engineering at Japan's University of Tsukuba. Its newest product: the Robot Suit Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) exoskeleton, which the company created to help train doctors and physical therapists, assist disabled people, allow laborers to carry heavier loads, and aid in emergency rescues.
A prototype of the exoskeleton suit is designed for the small in stature, standing five feet, three inches (1.6 meters) tall. The suit weighs 50.7 pounds (23 kilograms) and is powered by a 100-volt AC battery (that lasts up to five hours, depending upon how much energy the suit exerts). By way of comparison, a lower-body exoskeleton developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab's Biomechatronics Group is powered by a 48-volt battery pack and weighs about 26 pounds (11.8 kilograms).
CYBERDYNE (which film buffs will recognize as the name of the company that built the ill-fated "Skynet" in the Terminator movies) designed the HAL exoskeleton primarily to enhance the wearer's existing physical capabilities 10-fold. The exoskeleton detects—via a sensor attached to the wearer's skin—brain signals sent to muscles to get them moving.
The exoskeleton's computer analyzes these signals to determine how it must move (and with how much force) to assist the wearer. The company claims on its Web site that the device can also operate autonomously (based on data stored in its computer), which is key when used by people suffering spinal cord injuries or physical disabilities resulting from strokes or other disorders.
The HAL exoskeleton is currently only available in Japan, but the company says it has plans to eventually offer it in the European Union as well. The company will rent (no option to buy at this time) the suits for about $1,300 per month (including maintenance and upgrades), according to the company's site, which also says that rental fees will vary: Health care facilities and other businesses renting the suits will pay about three times as much as individuals. The site does not explain why, and the company could not be reached for comment.
CYBERDYNE is not the only company developing exoskeleton technology. The U.S. Army is in the very early stages of testing an aluminum exoskeleton created by Sarcos, a Salt Lake City robotics and medical device manufacturer (and a division of defense contractor Raytheon), to improve soldiers' strength and endurance.
The exoskeleton is made of a combination of sensors, actuators and controllers, and can help the wearer lift 200 pounds several hundred times without tiring, the company said Wednesday in a press release. The company also claims the suit is agile enough to play soccer and climb stairs and ramps.
But there are still many kinks that must be worked out before HAL or any other exoskeleton become part of everyday life. Exoskeletons work in parallel with human muscles, serving as an artificial system that helps the body overcome inertia and gravity, says Hugh Herr, principal investigator for M.I.T.'s Biomechatronics Group, which is developing a light, low-power exoskeleton that straps to a person's waist, legs and feet. Wearers' feet go into boots attached to a series of metal tubes that run up a leg to a backpack. The device transfers the backpack's payload from the back of the wearer to the ground.
One of the difficulties in developing exoskeletons for health care is the diversity of medical needs they must meet. "One might have knee and ankle problems, others might have elbow problems," Herr says. "How in the world do you build a wearable robot that accommodates a lot of people?"
There are also concerns about the exoskeleton discouraging rehabilitation by doing all of the work of damaged limbs that might benefit from even limited use. "If the orthotic does everything," Herr says, "the muscle degrades, so you want the orthotic to do just the right amount of work."
Power efficiency could also become an issue, given that the HAL moves thanks to a number of electric motors placed throughout the exoskeleton. The problem with electrical power is that you have to recharge, says Ray Baughman, professor of chemistry and director of the University of Texas at Dallas's NanoTech Institute.
Baughman and his colleagues have been developing substances that serve as artificial muscles (by converting chemical energy into electrical energy) that may someday be able to move prosthetic limbs and robot parts. Their goal is to avoid the downtime inherent in motor-powered prosthetics that must be recharged.
Makes you appreciate Iron Man's strength and agility all the more.
Robobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy 'by end of the year'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=563786&in_page_id=1965
It may have seemed like just another improbable scene from a Hollywood sci-fi flick – Tom Cruise battling against an army of robotic spiders intent on hunting him down.
But the storyline from Minority Report may not be quite as far fetched as it sounds.
British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives.
Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby.
Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets.
Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers' hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside.
BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army.
Researchers hope they will eventually create machines that can fly like a butterfly
Plans for a creature that can crawl like a spider are said to be well developed, and researchers eventually hope to be able to create creatures that can slither like a snake or fly like a dragonfly.
While some of the creatures will be fitted with small cameras, others will be equipped with sensors that will be able to detect the presence of chemical, biological or radioactive weapons.
A computer-generated video from BAE Systems shows the tiny invaders being released by a soldier, before scouting out a suspect building, which is finally blown up by ground forces.
BAE Systems scientists from the UK and America plan an army of the electronic bugs, and have ambitions to equip every front-line soldier with them.
Programme manager Steve Scalera was inspired by the way creatures use their senses to detect danger.
"What we are doing is providing an enhanced awareness for soldiers, basically an extension to their eyes and ears," he said.
"The creatures have external sensors. They can be tossed out into a building or a cave or even a pile of rubble and then send images back to the troops.
Pictures from the bug are beamed back to the operator, allowing the target to be blown up
"The idea is to get a number of these working together – some tiny, some maybe up to a foot in length, and all going into a building together carrying out different tasks. Eventually we hope to have animals flying and slithering.
"The five-year programme has just started but we could have them with soldiers within six months, and then continue to develop the concept as the project goes along."
Despite the high-tech gadgetry involved, BAE Systems insists once production is in full swing, each bug will cost no more than £100 to produce.
EU looks to fill presidency this year but will the position have any real power?
http://euobserver.com/9/26091/?rk=1
Paris is no longer supporting the idea of Tony Blair becoming the first president of the European Council, according to French and British media reports.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday let it be known that instead of the UK former prime minister taking the post, he would prefer the job go to Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
While Mr Juncker - a veteran of the EU stage - is favourite to take the president job, Jose Manuel Barroso is set to win a second term as head of the European Commission, according to Elysee sources quoted by French daily Le Figaro.
The two politicians are "largely favoured" said the sources. The UK Independent suggested that another variation could see Mr Barroso become EU president while Mr Juncker takes on the commission post.
Mr Sarkozy, who takes over the chair of the EU in July, had previously openly backed Mr Blair for the post, mentioning the idea in public himself last year.
However, he has since come under pressure from other capitals, notably Berlin, to rescind this support.
In addition French socialists are against the idea of Mr Blair having the post, as he is seen as coming from too eurosceptic a country that has not signed up to core EU policies, such as aspects of justice and home affairs.
Mr Rasmussen, the liberal Danish prime minister, is seen to have ruled himself out of speculation for the post because he is more interested in a NATO job.
The job description for the EU president still has to be defined. There are two opposing camps on the matter in Brussels. On the one side, there are those who think it should be a high-profile post with real political bite while the other side favours a low-profile more organisational post.
For his part, Mr Juncker has previously said it should not be simply be "an empty figurehead."
EU member states are set to decide both the person and the job description later this year.
Both Mr Juncker and Mr Barroso are from the same centre-right political family, meaning the third big post up for grabs - that of EU foreign minister - should go to a person from the socialists or the liberals.
But according to Le Figaro, Javier Solana, a Spanish socialist, and current EU foreign policy chief, is not favoured by Paris.
One aspect that could upset the behind-the-doors scheming is next year's European elections. The president of the commission has to be chosen in light of the results of the elections, meaning that the centre-right have to remain the dominant political family for the Paris-favoured scenario to have a chance of succeeding.
On top of this, London will have to be persuaded of the merits of Mr Juncker in the top post, as he is judged too federalist by Britain.
In 2004, the last time this round of posts came up for negotiation, Britain refused to accept former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt as commission president, then favoured by Paris and Berlin, resulting in the unexpected nomination of Mr Barroso.
German foreign minister favours EU army
http://euobserver.com/9/26107
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has indicated he would like to see a European army established.
Speaking at a Social Democrat security policy conference in Berlin on Monday (5 May), Mr Steinmeier said he favoured the setting up of a "European armed force" and that he would like to see moves in this direction speeded up.
German daily Tagespiegel reported Mr Steinmeier as referring to the fact that the EU's new treaty, currently undergoing ratification across the European Union, allows for the possibility of a group of member states to "move ahead" in defence policy.
He noted that from Berlin's point of view, France is the key partner for this. Mr Steinmeier said he had already spoken with his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, on concrete steps to improve common areas in the military field.
These include the areas of transport, helicopter capacity and procurement.
The end result of a consolidation of military capacities must be a European army, said Mr Steinmeier, according to German news agency DPA.
At the same conference, other leading politicians from the Social Democratic party - which currently forms part of the governing coalition with the Christian Democrats in Germany - also spoke out in favour of the idea.
Former defence minister and head of the SPD group Peter Struck said: "There will still be opposition to the idea of a European army as there once was against the single currency, the euro.
"But single states are no longer able to handle the threats of today," he continued.
The German politicians' comments appear to be in line with the views of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has in the past made several statements on the need for common European defence.
The French president has more recently not been so vocal on the issue. This is being seen as a deliberate ploy not to upset the EU treaty ratification process, particularly in neutral Ireland - the only country to have a referendum on the charter and where military issues are highly sensitive with the electorate.
An email from a Dublin-based UK official after a briefing by an official in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs that was leaked to the press last month suggested that one of the reasons for having the treaty referendum before summer rather than in autumn was due to a fear of "unhelpful developments during the French presidency – particularly related to EU defence."
In addition Britain, as the other serious military power in the EU along with France, has also reacted coolly to Mr Sarkozy's push for more integration in EU defence. London has also yet to ratify the EU treaty.
But Mr Sarkozy is expected to return to the issue in the second half of this year, during his stint at the EU helm.
The EU treaty, which has to be ratified by all 27 countries to come into force, allows for a group of member states who are politically willing to go forward to structured cooperation in defence.
King of the South? Egypt could lead southern states in planned EU/Union for the Mediterranean
http://www.france24.com/en/20080504-kouchner-egypt-could-lead-part-mediterranean-union-france&navi=MOYEN-ORIENT
Egypt could lead southern states in the new Union for the Mediterranean, which France plans to launch in July, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to scale back plans for a full EU-style "Mediterranean Union" after fierce German resistance and wants to launch the new grouping of 27 EU countries and their southern neighbours in Paris in July.
Kouchner said that the new grouping would have two presidencies -- one for the northern and one for the southern states of the Mediterranean.
"As to what concerns the southern Mediterranean countries, a lot is speaking for Egypt," he told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio in an interview.
Asked whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would be a suitable leader, he said:
"Of course he would be a possible leader for the Union for a Mediterranean, together with a representative from northern Mediterranean countries. That could possibly be France, but there will be rotation."
Kouchner said the seat of the grouping's secretariat was still under discussion, adding: "I was in Morocco not long ago. Mr Mubarak was in France. Things are moving forward."
Sarkozy's plans for the new Union have been controversial both within and outside the European Union.
The French president was forced to scale back his original plans after Germany voiced strong reservations, fearing the new body would split the EU and siphon off common funds.
In March, EU leaders agreed to a limited form of union involving a regular summit between EU and Mediterranean leaders, with a joint presidency and a small secretariat.
Syria, Libya and some other Arab countries have also appeared lukewarm over the project as it might suggest an indirect normalisation of their relations with Israel without any settlement of the Palestinian conflict.
Israel at 60: So vilified, yet so deserving of praise
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0508/p09s01-coop.html?s=yaho
As Israel celebrates 60 years of nationhood this Thursday, and looks ahead to the next 60 years, the world should appreciate what the Jewish state has accomplished.
Built on the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel's birth was followed by a massive attack from all sides by the surrounding Arab nations. Threatening another genocide, they managed to kill 1 percent of Israel's population, but Israel survived – and even thrived.
In the years since, the Jewish nation has turned deserts into gardens, swamps into orchards, sand dunes into cities. Lacking the natural resources of its neighbors, Israel made the best of what it had. It became a high-tech giant, specializing in life-saving medical technology. Indeed, it ranks second only to the United States in NASDAQ listings.
Faced with barren land, Israel has also developed agricultural technologies that maximize food production, and exported these life-saving and life-enhancing technologies to the rest of the world.
This young nation has also produced more art, literature, music, academic articles, and books than most countries triple its size. As Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in an otherwise critical article in The Atlantic:
"Israel is, by almost any measure, an astonishing success. It has a large, sophisticated, and growing economy ... the finest universities and medical centers in the Middle East; and a main city, Tel Aviv, that is a center of art, fashion, cuisine, and high culture spread along a beautiful Mediterranean beach. Israel has shown itself, with notable exceptions, to be adept at self-defense, and capable (albeit imperfectly) of protecting civil liberties during wartime.... Zionism may actually be the most successful national liberation movement of the 20th century."
Israel's Arab citizens, numbering 1.2 million, live longer, healthier lives, and have lower infant mortality, better educational opportunities, and more basic liberties than the Arab population of neighboring states.
Even in its efforts to defend itself from aggression – it was attacked by Arab states in 1948, 1967, and 1973 – Israel has exemplified restraint and high ethical standards.
Although Tel Aviv was bombed by the Egyptian Air Force in 1948, Jerusalem was rocketed by Jordan in 1967, and several Israeli cities were threatened by Syria in 1967, Israel never bombed Cairo, Amman, or Damascus.
In its efforts to protect against terrorists, it has also complied with a high standard of human rights, even while its enemies have targeted Israeli civilians while deliberately hiding behind human shields in densely populated civilian areas.
When I speak at university campuses, I issue the following challenge: Name a country, faced with comparable threats to its own citizens, that has ever tried harder to comply with the rule of law or human rights than Israel.
No one has ever named such a country, nor could they. Certainly not the United States, which repeatedly bombed enemy cities (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Tokyo, Cologne). Certainly not Britain, which in addition to bombing cities fought one of the dirtiest colonial wars in Kenya. Certainly not France, which also fought a brutal colonial war in Algeria. Not Russia. Not China.
This is not to say that Israel's actions have always been commendable. They have not. Israel deserves perhaps a grade of B-minus, but in a world where 'C,' 'D,' and 'F' is common, that's pretty good.
Yet, despite this remarkable history of achievement, not only for its own people, but for the world in general, Israel remains a pariah nation.
It is reviled by the United Nations, which helped create it, and by a large number of the world's countries and people. It has been condemned by the General Assembly more than all the other nations of the world combined – a world that includes such tyrannies as North Korea, Iran, Cuba, China, Syria, Libya, Belarus, and Saudi Arabia. It has been subject to calls for academic boycotts, despite having one of the highest levels of academic freedom in the world. It has been threatened with divestment, though it exports more life-saving technology per capita than any nation on earth.
What explains this vast disparity between Israel's accomplishments and the near-universal condemnation it has received? When one of the world's best nations is condemned as the worst, we must consider the motives of those who are condemning.
Let me be crystal clear: I am not suggesting that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. To the contrary, criticism of Israeli policies and actions is healthy. Within Israel itself, criticisms of Israeli policies and actions are pervasive. Just read the Israeli press. Or attend the numerous antigovernment demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. What I am talking about is not criticism of Israel but rather demonization, delegitimization, and disproportionate attacks that go to the very essence of the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
Consider the following question: Would any other country that struggles so hard for its survival, while at the same time trying so hard to remain within the rule of law, be subject to the kind of irrational hatred to which the Jewish nation is exposed? Is the Jewish nation now being treated with the same irrationality with which "the Jews" have been treated for centuries? This is the daunting question that must be faced by those who single out Israel for unique condemnation as it celebrates 60 years of unequaled accomplishments.
Imagine how much more Israel could contribute to the welfare of the world during the next 60 years if it were blessed with peace and were allowed to turn its swords into plowshares!
Israel at 60 - 7,282,000 population
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627029683&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
On the eve of Israel's 60th Independence Day, the country's population stands at 7,282,000, according to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
18,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since last Independence Day.
Some 5,499,000 of the population (75.5 percent) are Jews, 1,461,000 (20.1%) are Arabs and the remaining 322,000 (4.4%) are immigrants and their offspring who are not registered as Jews by the Interior Ministry.
According to the CBS statistics, since last Independence Day, the country's population has risen by some 130,000, with most of this increase being attributed to natural growth. 156,400 new babies have been born and some 18,000 new immigrants have arrived.
When the state was established, there were only 806,000 residents, with this number reaching its first and second million in 1949 and 1958 respectively.
In 1990, Israel's population hit five million and in 1998, after the wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union, it numbered six million.
According to the CBS forecast, the population is expected to reach 10 million by 2030.
Sanhedrin Calls to Reject ‘Messianic’ Sects
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/146214
(IsraelNN.com) The Sanhedrin organization called Thursday to reject groups and individuals calling themselves Jewish who promote Christian belief as a part of Jewish identity. Individuals professing a belief in Christian theology have left the Jewish faith and become apostates, even if they continue to identify as Jewish, the group said.
Such individuals should not be allowed to enlist in the IDF or participate in activities on behalf of the Jewish people or the Jewish state, they said, because their goal is usually to convince other Jews to accept the Christian faith. Members of the Sanhedrin said non-Jews, including Christians who identify themselves as Christian and not Jewish, should be allowed to act on behalf of the Jews or the Jewish state if they so wish, because they are not falsely representing themselves or attempting to convert Jews away from their faith.
The ruling came as part of the controversy over this year’s annual Bible quiz. One of the teens who participated in the competition belongs to a family of “Messianic Jews”—Jews who accept Christian beliefs but insist that such beliefs are actually Jewish.
Israel's Olmert admits taking cash but won't quit
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/israels.olmert.admits.taking.cash.but.wont.quit/18676.htm
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Thursday taking cash from a U.S. businessman but resisted calls to resign over a police investigation into alleged hefty bribes over almost a decade.
As Israelis enjoyed festivities marking Independence Day and the 60th anniversary of the founding of their state, police lifted a week-old media gag order and announced details of accusations that sparked opposition calls for Olmert to quit.
He said he would resign only if he were formally indicted.
Whether he goes or not, doubt over his future is likely to upset his faltering, U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with the Palestinians and will cast a heavy cloud over next week's celebratory visit to Israel by U.S. President George W. Bush.
The White House said Bush still intended to make the trip.
Olmert, in a late-night televised address to the nation, said: "I look each and every one of you in the eye and say, 'I never took bribes. I never took a penny for myself'."
His allies say there is a right-wing campaign to wreck the peace process, but it was unclear if his fragile coalition would rally behind a man who last year said he was "indestructible".
Israelis are no strangers to tales of corruption at the top in the Middle East's most feted democracy and the latest case may fuel calls for an overhaul of political funding rules.
Olmert, who was questioned by police for an hour last Friday, has weathered a string of investigations since he succeeded Ariel Sharon as prime minister in 2006. Sharon's son is in jail for campaign funding misdeeds on his father's behalf.
On Thursday, Olmert said all the cash he received - put at hundreds of thousands of dollars by one judicial source - was legitimate support from New York financier Morris Talansky to fund various election campaigns over nearly a decade from 1993.
"I was elected by you, the citizens of Israel, to be prime minister. I do not intend to shrug off this responsibility," he said. "However, although not required by law, if the attorney general decides to file an indictment against me I will resign."
Olmert, 62, said he did not believe the attorney general would follow through and indict him on the latest accusations.
CAMPAIGN FUNDS
In a terse six-minute address, Olmert said Talansky funded his two successful campaigns for mayor of Jerusalem in 1993 and 1998, an unsuccessful bid to lead the right-wing Likud party in 1999 and a further internal Likud election in 2002. He also said the American "helped me cover deficits" after elections.
Earlier, a police statement said: "The investigation deals with suspicions that the prime minister received significant sums of money from a foreigner or number of foreign individuals over an extended period of time."
A police spokesman named Talansky as a key witness, along with Olmert's long-time secretary Shula Zaken, who has been under house arrest, and his former law partner Uri Messer.
One police source said investigators cracked coded notes kept by Zaken that they suspect recorded sums given by Talansky - referred to in some of the jottings as "The Laundry Man".
Palestinian negotiators fear a collapse of Olmert's coalition will scupper hopes for reaching a deal on creating a Palestinian state before Bush leaves office in January.
If Olmert did step down, however, his most likely immediate successor would be his deputy in the centrist Kadima party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. She has been working closely with Washington and Palestinian negotiators on the peace process.
One parliamentarian from Kadima, founded by Sharon and Olmert when they left Likud, said she was "uncomfortable" about the allegations. Ronit Tirosh said, however, she thought Olmert was capable of continuing to lead Israel.
But Gideon Sahar, an ally of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "Olmert is unworthy and cannot carry on in his post. The Kadima government is sunk up to its neck in corruption."
There was no immediate comment from Livni or from Defence Minister Ehud Barak, leader of Olmert's main coalition partner the Labour party. Barak is under pressure from some Labour members to bolt the alliance, but others in the party fear that would trigger an election which Netanyahu could win with ease.
Talansky said in Jerusalem he had given evidence to police after he came to Israel last month to visit relatives for the Passover holiday: "I never was involved in politics," he said, smiling and joking with Israeli reporters.
"Everything is OK. I don't understand what's the big thing."
Official documents show Talansky was treasurer of a charity, the New Jerusalem Foundation, which Olmert set up in 1999. U.S. tax records show this institution declared more than $855,000 (437,000 pounds) in donations from 1999 to 2002.
Opponents: Israeli PM Olmert Must Step Down Over Corruption Charges
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354669,00.html
JERUSALEM — Ehud Olmert's political opponents demanded his resignation Friday, saying new allegations that the Israeli prime minister illegally accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from a U.S. citizen render him unfit for the country's top job.
Reading a statement in a nationally televised speech late Thursday, Olmert said he would resign only if police formally indicted him. He denied any wrongdoing in the case, which carries the potential to force him from office and derail fragile peace talks with the Palestinians.
"I am looking all of you in the eye, and I say I never took bribes, I never took a penny for myself," he said.
But some Israeli lawmakers critical of Olmert said the new police investigation — the fifth opened into the prime minister's activities since he took office in 2006 — was reason enough for him to leave office.
Olmert's legal troubles are diverting his attention from running the country, and "a state like Israel, with an existential threat, needs a full-time prime minister," said Arieh Eldad of the hardline National Union party.
"We need a much better leader at this time, and Israel should go to general elections in order to replace him with a better government," Eldad said.
Eldad's call was echoed by other politicians from opposition parties and by a small number of lawmakers who belong to Olmert's governing coalition. Shelly Yacimovich of the Labor Party, a junior partner in the government, told Israel Radio that Labor "cannot remain in the same coalition with a prime minister tarnished by such deep corruption."
Labor's departure would bring Olmert's government down and likely lead to elections, currently scheduled only for 2010. But that possibility still appears remote. Neither Labor nor any of Olmert's other coalition partners have indicated they will bolt over the new allegations.
According to police suspicions, Olmert accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky before becoming prime minister.
Olmert denied the charges in his speech Thursday and offered what might prove to be his central line of defense: His campaign finances, he said, were the responsibility of a lawyer named Uri Messer. Messer is a longtime Olmert confidant who has been linked to other corruption investigations into the prime minister.
Yoel Hasson, a lawmaker from Olmert's party, said, "I certainly accept his version of events."
"You don't topple and replace governments or prime ministers because of allegations and investigations," Hasson told Israel Radio.
The new charges are more likely to end Olmert's career than the previous ones, because this time Messer appears to be cooperating with police, said Israeli legal expert Moshe Negbi.
"I think this time it's very serious," Negbi said. The maximum sentence for bribery would be seven years in prison, he said, but even lighter charges of campaign finance violations would force Olmert to step down.
The patrons of one downtown Jerusalem cafe Friday seemed to unanimously believe Olmert had to go. "I'll tell you the truth — when I see the newspapers and listen to the radio, it's not good, not good," said Avraham Fixler, a pub manager. "He should be a gentleman and go home."
Olmert said he will not fight to stay in office if he is formally charged.
"I was elected by you, citizens of Israel, to be the prime minister and I don't intend to shirk this responsibility. At the same time, and even though the law does not require me to do this, I will resign from my job if the attorney general decides to issue an indictment against me," he said.
Olmert said Talansky had made contributions to him for two mayoral campaigns for Jerusalem, one campaign for chairman of the Likud Party and another to cover campaign debt retroactively.
He said he has served the Israeli public in different roles for more than 30 years, and, like any prime minister, is now dealing "with important and sensitive issues which concern our existence as a people and as a state."
Talansky's attorney, Jack Chen, declined a request Friday to interview his client and would not comment on the case.
Talansky told Channel Two TV that he was in Israel visiting family for the Passover holiday when he was called in for questioning. He said he was "baffled" by the case and that he did nothing wrong.
"They (police) knocked on my door at six in the morning and it was the national police and they asked me to come with them and I obliged ... and it was very surprising. When they asked me details, I said whatever I know," Talansky said.
Referring to his relationship with Olmert, he said, "We are very, very friendly and I used to meet him all the time at dinners in New York."
The charges threaten to further weaken Olmert's hold on power and potentially torpedo formal peace talks with the Palestinians launched last November at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference at Annapolis, Maryland.
Some Palestinians were following the developments with concern. Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister, said if Olmert is forced out he could be succeeded by an Israeli leadership "too weak to continue with the negotiations and give them meaning." Or, he said, there could be early elections — and polls show an easy victory for the hardline Likud.
Both possibilities would weaken Palestinian moderates and "the supporters of negotiations," he said.
The White House said the case would not alter President George W. Bush's planned visit to Israel next week, calling the investigation "a matter for the Israeli judicial system."
"The president looks forward to traveling to the Middle East next week to continue to encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to work together for a two-state solution," said Gordon Johndroe, the president's national security adviser.
Olmert is a suspect in several corruption affairs involving real estate deals and questionable political appointments. He has been questioned several times by police but has never been convicted.
Some of Olmert's close political allies have also had legal troubles. His finance minister had to step down under embezzlement suspicions, and another — now the country's vice premier — was convicted of sexual misconduct for forcibly kissing a female soldier.
Report: PM ready for peace with Syria, each know the other's conditions
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627040055&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he's ready to make peace with Syria and knows the price.
Olmert made the comments in an interview with the French weekly Paris Match. He told the magazine that he wants to make peace with Syria, that he's ready for it and "perfectly informed about what that means."
Officials have been saying for weeks that quiet mediation is taking place between the two countries over resolving their decades-long dispute over the Golan Heights
Peace talks between Israel and Syria floundered years ago over returning an area of the Golan Heights which skirts the Sea of Galilee.
US pushing hard for border agreement
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1209627042643
Israel and the Palestinians need to "draw a map and get it done," according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, using language conveying a degree of impatience a week before President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit the region.
Rice, en route to Washington from Israel on Monday, was asked by a reporter on her plane about Bush's April 2004 letter to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, which stated that "in light of new realties on the ground," a full withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice Lines is "unrealistic."
Any final-status agreement "will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities," the letter continues.
Bush's letter was widely interpreted in Israel as a US acknowledgement that Israel could keep the larger settlement blocs under any future agreement.
Rice said that "some of those realities have been recognized in every agreement that never quite made it as well. So this is nothing new, that those realities have been acknowledged."
But, she added, Bush said this would all be subject to "mutual agreement, and I would remind that the president's letter talked about realities at that time. And there are realities for both sides, which is why they need to draw a map and get it done."
Despite a US-administration push for some kind of joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration of progress during Bush's visit, perhaps an agreement on borders, the chances of that happening in a meeting between Bush, Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas were reduced considerably Wednesday when the US announced that there was unlikely to be a trilateral meeting during Bush's visit.
US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley put to rest weeks of speculation that the three leaders would meet, saying during a briefing in Washington that "this did not seem the time for a big high-level, three-way event with the president and the prime minister and President Abbas. It just doesn't feel right as the best way to advance the negotiations. And so, at this point, there [are] no plans for such a meeting."
Hadley said the US president, accompanied by first lady Laura Bush, would arrive in Israel on Wednesday and meet separately with Olmert and President Shimon Peres.
Bush, Hadley said, "will reaffirm his personal commitment to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and encourage continuing efforts for a two-state solution, a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security."
He also said the trip would "demonstrate the president's steadfast opposition to extremists and their state sponsors, Iran and Syria, who are expending enormous energy to thwart opportunities for security, freedom and peace in the region."
Bush will also address the Knesset, tour Masada, meet with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, host a reception in honor of the state's 60th anniversary, and participate in a roundtable conversation with Israeli youth.
Bush is scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia next Friday to mark the 75th anniversary of formal US-Saudi relations, and meet with Saudi King Abdullah at his private farm.
On Saturday, Bush will travel to Sharm e-Sheikh and meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, followed by separate talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. On Sunday, he is scheduled to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II, followed by separate bilateral meetings with PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. He will also take part in the World Economic Forum in Sharm before departing for the US on May 18.
In Jerusalem, Olmert is expected to update Bush on the situation with Syria, including the status of recent feelers going back and forth between Damascus and Jerusalem. Bush has not encouraged Israeli-Syrian talks, but his spokesmen have said repeatedly that he had also not told Olmert not to undertake them.
Olmert, in an interview with the French weekly Paris Match published on Thursday, said he wanted to make peace with Syria, and that he was ready for it and "perfectly informed about what that means."
At the same time, a Turkish initiative to hold a meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials fell through after Damascus leaked to the press that Olmert had agreed to relinquish all of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, the London-based pan-Arabic daily Al-Hayat reported. The paper said the meeting, which was scheduled for "somewhere in Istanbul," was supposed to produce a joint Israeli-Syrian-Turkish declaration.
According to another report, the chances that such a meeting would be held in the near future were slim due to the US administration's stance on Damascus. The Egyptian government weekly Al-Ahram quoted a Syrian source as saying that talks between the two sides would only begin next year, after the new US president entered office.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah arms stockpile bigger, deadlier
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-hezbollah4-2008may04,0,6715921.story
Almost two years after its war with Israel, Hezbollah has rearmed and is stronger than before the conflict, according to Israeli and Western officials and the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim group itself.
But assessments diverge on the source of Hezbollah's arms. Western and Israeli officials accuse Iran and Syria of smuggling thousands of short-range rockets as well as missiles that can strike deep into Israel and other weaponry into Lebanon in violation of a U.N. arms embargo. Smuggling routes have included a rail line through Turkey, the officials say.
Hezbollah dismisses smuggling allegations as propaganda, as do Iran and Syria, but the group refuses to say how it gets its weapons.
In the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel. Most were inaccurate, short-range models, but the attacks killed at least 39 civilians and had a profound psychological effect on Israelis.
About 1,000 people were killed in Lebanon during the 34-day war.
Tensions have risen again. In February, a car bomb in Damascus, the Syrian capital, killed Imad Mughniyah, a Hezbollah chief wanted by U.S., European and Argentine authorities in connection with terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of people in the 1980s and '90s. Hezbollah blamed Israel and promised retaliation.
Israel has not confirmed or denied that it was involved in Mughniyah's death. But it has beefed up defenses and conducted a rare nationwide defense drill in April. Tough talk from both sides continues.
Hezbollah now has about 27,000 rockets and missiles, more than double its supply before the 2006 war, Israeli officials say. Acquisitions include Iranian missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, they allege.
"We know without a doubt that the international embargo on the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah has been deliberately violated by the governments of Iran and Syria," said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman.
The U.S. government, which has designated Hezbollah a terrorist group, accuses Iran of providing arms, training and millions of dollars. Syria also has emerged as an arms supplier, not just a conduit for Iranian arms, Israeli officials say.
"The Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis is closer than it has been since 2006," an Israeli security official said in an interview. "In operational planning, the Syrians know that Hezbollah is part of their defense architecture. Hezbollah is stronger than before the war. They have improved their antitank capabilities, the number and quality of their rockets."
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has asserted that the militia's arsenal has attained or surpassed its prewar level. He has said that his weapons can hit "any area in occupied Palestine."
Hezbollah leaders have declined to discuss specific numbers. But a source close to Hezbollah agreed with the Israeli assessment of the military buildup. The source spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a temporary halt in contacts with Western news media.
"We are ready and we are stronger than two years ago," the source said. "In every battle there are weak and strong points. We have found solutions to all of our weak points from that experience."
The source said Iran has no "operational" role, but acknowledged that Tehran and the militia have a strong strategic partnership.
Nasrallah and his deputies say they would not provoke new hostilities.
In a report presented in February, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that rearmament of Hezbollah would threaten the "sovereignty, stability and independence of Lebanon." Hezbollah controls large chunks of Lebanese territory, especially in the south.
In a report in October, Ban presented allegations provided to the U.N. by Israel and by Lebanon's prime minister that Hezbollah had beefed up its missile stocks with Syrian and Iranian help, and said those two countries had "special responsibility" not to destabilize Lebanon. Speeches by Nasrallah "seemed to confirm" Israeli allegations about the growth of the arsenal, Ban said.
Western and Israeli officials say Iran and Syria play a vital clandestine role in rebuilding Hezbollah's military. Because of his ties to Iranian and Syrian security forces, Mughniyah oversaw the drive, officials say.
Western security officials say they discovered last year that Iran was procuring telescopic sights for antitank guns and rocket-propelled grenades from an Eastern European country. Communications among Iranian diplomats revealed that the sights were earmarked for Hezbollah, say the officials, who because of the sensitivity of the information declined to be identified. Iran also allegedly furnished night-vision equipment and binoculars, the officials say.
An explosion last May in southeastern Turkey exposed an arms trafficking route operated by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, the Western security officials say. When Kurdish separatists blew up the tracks and derailed a train heading from Iran to Syria, police discovered rockets, missiles, guns and ammunition concealed in construction equipment.
Iran denied allegations that the shipment was bound for Hezbollah. Soon afterward, Iran demoted Yahya Rahim Safavi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, officials say. In September, Safavi was replaced by his deputy, Mohammed Ali Jafari.
Iran allegedly shifted some Hezbollah-bound arms to aerial smuggling routes to Syria that use civilian and military aircraft, officials say. The Revolutionary Guard also resumed smuggling by rail, bolstering clandestine security teams that accompany shipments and paying bigger bribes to border inspectors and rail employees, officials say.
The Western security officials say Turkey tries to fight the weapons activity. Turkish officials declined to comment, and the latest annual report by Turkey's anti-smuggling directorate does not describe Iranian arms smuggling as a significant problem. When Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Turkish journalists that Ankara could do more to crack down on arms traffic to Hezbollah, Tehran called the allegations "false and fictitious."
Israeli officials say Hezbollah's most potent weapons include about 500 Iranian Zilzal guided missiles, with ranges of 77, 136 and 186 miles. In addition, they say Hezbollah has 4,000 to 6,000 Iranian Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 rockets with ranges of 27 and 46 miles, respectively. And they say Syria has provided an estimated 20,000 rockets.
"The Syrians are a huge supplier of their own systems to them," the Israeli security official said. "They are not just passing on Iranian arms shipments anymore."
Patrick Haenni, a senior analyst in Lebanon for the International Crisis Group, said that although he does not have detailed information on Hezbollah's arsenal or its source, the statements by both Hezbollah and Israel "seem rather credible."
"All the signs on the ground show that Hezbollah is in a concerted phase of preparation, and concentrated on its military reactivation," he said. "The acquisition of missiles is part of their change in military strategy to position themselves as a dissuasion force rather than a classic guerrilla resistance."
In June, Lebanese authorities stopped a truck carrying Soviet-made Grad missiles bound for Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley near Baalbek, U.N. and Lebanese officials said. Lebanese officials said the shipment was being moved within the country, but Western security officials say the weapons had come across the Syrian border. A few days later, the U.N. special envoy to Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, told the Security Council about what he called "alarming and deeply disturbing" evidence of the flow of arms from Syria.
Late last year, Damascus struck a procurement deal with a Russian company to acquire SA-18 air-defense systems, Western security officials say. Unbeknown to the Russians, Syria allegedly plans to transfer the shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Hezbollah, officials say. The deal is done but the weapons have not yet been delivered to Syria, they say.
Hizballah, Lebanese army call up troops as both sides prepare for new civil war
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5248
Pro-Western Siniora government and Iran-Syria-backed Hizballah forces exchanged fire in the streets of Beirut Wednesday, May 7. DEBKAfile’s sources report both have ordered a general call-up of their adherents.
Hizballah fighters clad in national army and police uniforms are infiltrating government party strongholds in the capital to seize control. In the north and the western Beqaa Valley region of Kharoub, government forces are mobilizing. First units have been sighted heading for Beirut.
During the day, Hizballah blocked the roads leading to the airport and vowed to keep it under siege until the Siniora government goes back on the decision announced Tuesday, May 6, to shut down the private telecommunications network Iran installed for the group and reinstate the pro-Hizballah airport director Gen. Wafiq Shuqeir. To pile up anti-government pressure, Hizballah called labor unions out on strike.
General Shuqeir was removed after Druze Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt accused Hizballah of installing spy cameras at the airport to monitor the movements of Lebanese and foreign leaders. Jumblatt said incoming flights were bringing the Shiite militia supplies of weapons from Iran.
On August 9, 2007, DEBKAfile first revealed that Iranian military engineers were installing a secret underground telecommunications system to support Hizballah’s missile unit. The network runs through south Beirut, the Beqaa Valley’s Yohmor region near the Syrian border – where Hizballah and the Palestinian Popular Front-GC keep their training facilities – and connect the southern towns of Tyre on the Mediterranean with Abassieh, seat of Hizballah’s southern headquarters.
For the ten months during which this military telecommunications network was being installed, the Beirut government did not dare touch it.
Prime minister Fouad Siniora finally decided enough was enough when satellite images provided by Western agencies showed work on connecting Hizballah’s network with the communications and eavesdropping systems set up by the Syrian army along the Lebanese border.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the two networks and their linkage are part of military preparations by Iran, Syria and Hizballah for a possible new flare-up of hostilities with Israel.
Exclusive: Lebanese army chief defies government as Syria steps in to back Hizballah’s conquest of Beirut districts
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5252
At least 11 people were killed Friday, May 9, Day 3 of fierce clashes between Hizballah and pro-government forces, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war. At noon, Syrian Social Nationalist Party’s units entered Beirut to support Hizballah’s advancing occupation of Sunni West Beirut districts.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that Thursday night, army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman refused to obey prime minister Fouad Siniora’s order to declare a state of emergency for the crisis created by Hizballah’s declaration of war against the government. The general warned that if the government enacted an emergency, he would order the troops to return to barracks.
The SSNP is a Greek Orthodox arm of Syrian military intelligence.
Hizballah and fellow Shiite Amal fighters were thus able to seize control of most of pr-government Sunni West Beirut in clashes that have spread to other parts of the Lebanon while the government was left unprotected.
The urban warfare shut down Lebanon's port and all but closed the international airport, with burning barricades on major highways in Beirut.
The army has only interfered in extreme situations. Friday, soldiers rescued the anti-Syrian majority leader Saad Hariri and allied Druze leader Walid Jumblatt when their mansions were surrounded and attacked by Shiite forces, but they did not make the assailants move out. The Lebanese army, half of whose members are Shiites, thus permitted Hizballah and Amal clinch their control of the Sunni neighborhoods.
The Lebanese army also took over the pro-government Future TV station and newspaper owned by Hariri after they were blown up. The army agreed to keep the station off the air.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the United States, France and Israel are watching passively as Lebanon falls to Iran’s surrogate terrorist group Hizballah. Since the 2006 Lebanon war, prime minister Ehud Olmert has insisted improbably that the conflict had left Hizballah seriously weakened.
Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday night that the only way to stop the violence was for the “black gang” ruling the government to withdraw its decisions to close his military telecommunications network and restore Hizballah loyalists to key positions at Beirut international airport.
First steps to possible war - US looks at surgical strike on Iranian insurgency camp
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3868063.ece
The US military is drawing up plans for a “surgical strike” against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.
Despite a belligerent stance by Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on the back burner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary in 2006, the sources said.
However, US commanders are increasingly concerned by Iranian interference in Iraq and are determined that recent successes by joint Iraqi and US forces in the southern port city of Basra should not be reversed by the Quds Force.
“If the situation in Basra goes back to what it was like before, America is likely to blame Iran and carry out a surgical strike on a militant training camp across the border in Khuzestan,” said one source, referring to a frontier province.
They acknowledged Iran was unlikely to cease involvement in Iraq and that, however limited a US attack might be, the fighting could escalate.
Although American defence chiefs are firmly opposed to any attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, they believe a raid on one of the camps training Shi’ite militiamen would deliver a powerful message to Tehran.
British officials believe the US military tends to overestimate the effect of the Iranian involvement in Iraq.
But they say there is little doubt that the Revolutionary Guard exercises significant influence over splinter groups of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, who were the main targets of recent operations in Basra.
The CBS television network reported last week that plans were being drawn up for an attack on Iran, citing an officer who blamed the “increasingly hostile role” Iran was playing in Iraq.
The American news reports were unclear about the precise target of such an action and referred to Iran’s nuclear facilities as the likely objective.
According to the intelligence sources there will not be an attack on Iran’s nuclear capacity. “The Pentagon is not keen on that at all. If an attack happens it will be on a training camp to send a clear message to Iran not to interfere.”
President George W Bush is known to be determined that he should not hand over what he sees as “the Iran problem” to his successor. A limited attack on a training camp may give an impression of tough action, while at the same time being something that both Gates and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, could accept.
Time is running out - Israel believes Iran will begin enriching uranium on 'military scale' this year
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027461&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.
Israel is also concerned that Teheran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic missile defense system. Iran is suspected of having smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles and using them as models for an independent, domestic project. A cruise missile, which flies at low altitudes to dodge radar detection and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the ability to create the tools needed to ensure its continued existence. Hinting at Iran, Olmert said that nothing in the world could undermine or bring an end to Israel's existence.
In a speech to a Keren Hayesod group, Olmert said, "I am asking that you take this with you and tell it to your communities everywhere - the people of Israel are strong, the State of Israel is strong, there is no enemy that can destroy us."
"We will not place ourselves in a position where anyone will, in an effective manner, threaten us with destruction, because if there was one thing that has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel 60 years ago until today, it is not that here the Jews are safe in every situation, in every condition and that there will not be any dangers," Olmert said. "There are also dangers here, like in many other places.
"But here, my friends, the Jewish people can fight, and when it needs to, it fights, and when it fights, it wins."
Last week, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a visit to the US that Teheran would likely achieve control of the technology to enrich uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.
In the past, the consensus in the intelligence community was that Iran had encountered technical difficulties with fuel enrichment and that its attainment of nuclear capability was much further off, Mofaz said, but a recent IDF Military Intelligence assessment showed that the Islamic Republic could go nuclear before the end of the decade.
Also Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that more nations would follow the examples of Iran and North Korea and work to develop nuclear weapons. He said that the possibility that Syria was building a weapons-capable nuclear reactor before the IAF destroyed it on September 6 showed that NATO must find an answer to ballistic missile threats.
"The nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea threaten to set in motion a domino effect that will be difficult to contain," de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech at a missile defense conference at the Czech Foreign Ministry.
"If there is a serious suspicion that in Syria there was a facility in the making, it only increases the arguments... for finding a collective answer to a ballistic missile defense threat," the NATO chief said.
CIA Director Michael Hayden said last month that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.
"The number of states that possess ballistic missiles is already growing, slowly and surely," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The proliferation of ballistic missiles is a reality that concerns us all."
U.S. declines to help present nuclear deal to Iran
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/05/08/news/OUKWD-UK-NUCLEAR-IRAN-OFFER.php
WASHINGTON: World powers will in the coming days offer a revised package of incentives to Iran but Washington has refused to send its own envoy to help present the deal, diplomats and a U.S. official said on Thursday.
Diplomats said the package, aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear work, could be delivered on Friday or over the weekend, most likely in Tehran, by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
In a change from normal protocol, political directors from France, Britain, Russia and China -- permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- and Germany would probably go with Solana, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But the United States, which is involved with major powers in the negotiations, has made clear it will not join the mission to present the offer, which is expected to be given to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
"We are not going to be going to Tehran. But, again, we're still working out some of the details with our partners in the process," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, when asked whether the United States would also deliver the deal.
The other major powers have argued that sending political directors from nations that deal with the Iranian nuclear file would add weight to the offer. Usually, Solana acts as the official go-between with Tehran.
But McCormack said the United States had made it very clear it would only sit down in talks with the Iranians over their nuclear program if Tehran gave up uranium enrichment.
In Brussels, Solana's spokeswoman said she had no comment on Iran. A European Union diplomat said a "number of issues remained to be resolved" over how best to make contact with Iran.
OFFER MORE SPECIFIC
Diplomats, who refuse to release details of the package until it has been seen by the Iranians, said it was broadly based on a 2006 offer but it was more specific in terms of civilian nuclear cooperation with Tehran.
"Exploring the civilian capacity and going a little bit beyond that is the most significant thing," said one diplomat, who like all others asked not to be identified.
Another diplomat said the offer detailed what Iran would get in terms of research help and fully functioning civilian nuclear power reactors if it gave up work aimed at building an atomic weapon.
"Basically, that is everything you need to have a fully functioning state-of-the-art nuclear program but not a heavy water reactor, not enrichment (of uranium) or reprocessing plants," said the diplomat, referring to processes that could be used to build an atomic bomb.
The June 2006 offer also included wider trade in civil aircraft, energy, high technology and agriculture, if Tehran suspended enrichment and negotiated with the six powers, including the United States.
The revised offer also made clear that major powers would recognize Iran's role in the region and offered some kind of regional security cooperation, said one diplomat.
However, he said the new offer once again made clear that Iran must verifiably suspend enrichment.
"We have our red lines. They have to suspend enrichment," said the diplomat.
Iran said on Monday it would not consider any incentives that violated its right to nuclear technology, ruling out a precondition to halt atomic work the West believes is aimed at making bombs.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear program is for peaceful power purposes. The enrichment process, if desired, can also be used to make material for nuclear bombs.
"If there really was good faith on the Iranians' part, would they be rejecting out of hand something they haven't seen yet?" asked McCormack.
Diplomats said a key concern was that the new offer should be made known to as many Iranians as possible and discussions were under way among major powers on how to do that.
The U.N. Security Council has already imposed sanctions on Iran three times for failing to give up enrichment.
Ahmadinejad - The Mahdi (hidden imam) is directing Iran
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080507094625.zy32hvir&show_article=1
Clerics have told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stick to more worldly issues after he was quoted as saying the "hidden imam" of Shiite Islam was directing Iran.
Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shiite Islam, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
But in a speech to theology students broadcast by state television on Monday, Ahmadinejad went further than ever before in emphasising his belief that the Mahdi is playing a critical role in Iran's day-to-day politics.
"The Imam Mahdi is in charge of the world and we see his hand directing all the affairs of the country," he said in the speech, which appears to date from last month but has only now been broadcast.
"We must solve Iran's internal problems as quickly as possible. Time is lacking. A movement has started for us to occupy ourselves with our global responsibilities, which are arriving with great speed."
Two leading clerics retorted that Ahmadinejad would be better off concentrating on Iran's social problems -- most notably its double-digit inflation -- than indulging in such mystical rhetoric.
"If Ahmadinejad wants to say that the hidden imam is supporting the decisions of the government, it is not true," sniped Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghadam, the spokesman of the conservative Association of Combatant Clerics.
"For sure, the hidden imam does not approve of inflation of 20 percent, the high cost of living and numerous other errors," he said, according to the Kargozaran daily.
Ali Asghari, a member of the conservative Hezbollah faction in parliament, told the president not to link the management of the country to the imam.
"Ahmadinejad would do better to worry about social problems like inflation ... and other terrestrial affairs," Etemad Melli daily quoted him as saying.
Since becoming president in 2005, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated that his government is paving the way for the return of the Mahdi and chided his foes for not believing that his return is imminent.
The consequences of abortion - Russia could lose one-third of its current population by 2050
http://www.lifenews.com/int729.html
The underpopulation crisis unlimited abortions has caused in Russia is so bad, that the nation will likely need to import large numbers of foreign workers because of labor shortages. U.S. CIA director Michael Hayden says he's concerned that will lead to racial unrest in a nation with numerous nuclear missiles.
Abortion has been used as a method of birth control for decades in Russia and other eastern European nations. Russia will likely lose one-third of its current population by 2050 as a result.
The Russian population has been shrinking since the 1990s and, though it is the largest sized country in the world, it has just 141.4 million citizens -- less than half of the United States.
According to the Washington Times, Hayden gave a speech saying he's concerned about internal racial and religious issues in Russia because of the need of foreign workers and the tension that could cause.
"To sustain its economy, Russia increasingly will have to look elsewhere for workers," he said, and noted that likely means new population growth in Russia will come from poorer nations with largely Islamic people.
"Some immigrants will be Russians from the former Soviet states. But others will be Chinese and non-Russians from the Caucasus, Central Asia and elsewhere, potentially aggravating Russia's already uneasy racial and religious tensions," he said.
Last week, the Russian legislature introduced a ban on advertisements for abortion in mainstream media outlets. The ban relegates any ads to medical publications that are not as visible in the general public.
The Duma hopes the abortion ad ban will help change the culture in Russia where women view abortion as a form of birth control.
"The document introduces a ban on abortions in any media," deputy chairman of the Duma Health Committee Sergei Kolesnikov said according to RIA Novosti. "The advertisement of abortion can appear only in specialized medical media, and in medical institutions."
Kolesnikov said the legislation has an "educational character," aiming to "remind people that the problem exists."
China to be 'Bible Capital' of the World
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/371749.aspx
CBNNews.com - China is on track to become the "Bible printing capital" of the world.
In Nanjing, China the world's largest Bible printing facility will open in just two weeks.
The Amity Printing Company - and the United Bible Societies - plan to double their printing output and could produce up to 12 million Bibles a year. That adds up to 23 Bibles every minute.
"There are differing views on how many Christians there are --in China--, but everyone agrees there is a great interest and a lot of growth in the Christian Church," Peter Dean, the Bible Society's Nanjing consultant told the Post.
"What excites me is our aim is to serve the Church in China," he added. "All of this new production capability is available 'first call' for the mainland Chinese Church. If they want to print 12 million Bibles a year, they've got it."
Thirty years ago, Bibles were banned in the communist country. But in 1987 Amity printed its first Bible in China. And last December, they celebrated its 50-millionth Bible.
Chinese build secret nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/1917167/Chinese-build-secret-nuclear-submarine-base.html
China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.
Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.
In what will be a significant challenge to US Navy dominance and to countries ringing the South China Sea, one photograph shows China’s latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbours.
Other images show numerous warships moored to long jettys and a network of underground tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island.
Of even greater concern to the Pentagon are massive tunnel entrances, estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base. Sources fear they could lead to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites.
The US Department of Defence has estimated that China will have five 094 nuclear submarines operational by 2010 with each capable of carrying 12 JL-2 nuclear missiles.
The images were obtained by Janes Intelligence Review after the periodical was given access to imagery from the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe.
Analysts for the respected military magazine suggest that the base could be used for "expeditionary as well as defensive operations" and would allow the submarines to "break out to launch locations closer to the US".
It would now be "difficult to ignore" that China was building a major naval base where it could house its nuclear forces and increase it "strategic capability considerably further afield".
The development so close to the sea lanes vital to Asian economies "can only cause concern far beyond these straits".
Military analysts believe that China’s substantial build up of its forces is gaining pace put has remained hidden from the world in the build-up to the Olympics.
China has diverted much of its resources from the huge Peoples Liberation Army to the navy, air force and missile development.
An old Russian aircraft carrier, bought by Beijing for "leisure activities" has been picked over by naval architects who hope to "reverse engineer" the ship.
Within the next five to 10 years the People's Liberation Navy is expected to build up to six carriers which will also coincide with the Royal Navy’s construction of two major carriers.
The location of the base off Hainan will also give the submarines access to very deep water exceeding 5,000 metres within a few miles, making them even harder to detect.
Britain’s Trident submarines have to remain on the surface when they leave Faslane in north east Scotland and cannot dive to depth until outside the Irish Sea.
While it has been known that China might be developing an underground base at Sanya, the pictures provide the first proof of the base’s existence and the rapid progress made.
Two 950 metre piers and three smaller ones would be enough to accommodate two carrier strike groups or amphibious assault ships.
Christian Le Miere, editor for Jane's Intelligence Review, said the complex underlined Beijing’s plan “to assert tighter control over this region".
"This is a challenge to any hegemonic power, particularly the US which still remains dominant in the region."
So far China has offered no public explanation for its building at Sanya.
China's next-generation nationalists - educated, richer and more aggressive toward the West
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kurlantzik6-2008may06%2C0%2C3394254.story
As human rights protesters dogged the Beijing Olympics' torch relay around the world, as supporters of Tibet condemned the violent crackdown in Lhasa, and as Darfur activists demanded change in China's Sudan policy, Chinese young people worked themselves into a different form of righteous anger. In online forums and chat rooms, they blasted Beijing's leaders for not being tougher in Tibet. They agitated for boycotts against Western businesses based in nations that object to Beijing's policies, and they directed venomous fury against anyone critical of China.
The anger has even spread to American college campuses. In April, Chinese students at USC blasted a visiting Tibetan monk with angry questions about Tibet's alleged history of slavery and other controversial topics. When the monk tried to respond, the students chanted, "Stop lying! Stop lying!"
At the University of Washington, hundreds protested outside during a speech by the Dalai Lama, chanting, "Dalai, your smiles charm, your actions harm." When one Chinese student at Duke University tried to mediate between pro-China and pro-Tibet protesters, her photo, labeled "traitor," was posted on the Internet, and her contact information and her parents' address in China were listed for all to see.
The explosion of nationalist sentiment, especially among young people, might seem shocking, but it's been simmering for a long time. In fact, Beijing's leadership, for all its problems, may be less hard-line than China's youth, the country's future. If China ever were to become a truly free political system, it might actually become more, not less, aggressive.
China's youth nationalism tends to explode over sparks like the Tibet unrest. It burst into violent anti-American protests after NATO's accidental bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1999. (Most young Chinese I've met don't believe that the bombing was an accident.) Even after 9/11, a time when the governments of China and the United States were building a closer relationship, some young Chinese welcomed America's pain. "When the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, I really felt very delighted," one student told Chinese pollsters.
Youth nationalism exploded again into anti-Japan riots across China in 2005, after the release of Japanese textbooks deemed offensive in China for their apparent whitewashing of World War II atrocities. During the riots, I was working in Lanzhou, a gritty, medium-sized city in industrial central China. Day after day, young Chinese marched through Lanzhou and looked for shops selling Japanese goods to smash up -- though, of course, these stores were owned by local Chinese merchants.
Hardly uneducated know-nothings, young nationalists tend to be middle-class urbanites. Far more than rural Chinese, who remain mired in poverty, these urbanites have benefited enormously from the country's three decades of economic growth. They also have begun traveling and working abroad. They can see that Shanghai and Beijing are catching up to Western cities, that Chinese multinationals can compete with the West, and they've lost their awe of Western power.
Many middle-aged Chinese intellectuals are astounded by the differences between them and their younger peers. Academics I know, members of the Tiananmen generation, are shocked by some students' disdain for foreigners and, often, disinterest in liberal concepts such as democratization. University students now tend to prefer business-oriented majors to liberal arts-oriented subjects such as political science. The young Chinese interviewed for a story last fall in Time magazine on the country's "Me Generation" barely discussed democracy or political change in their daily lives.
Beijing has long encouraged nationalism. Over the last decade, the government has introduced new school textbooks that focus on past victimization of China by outside powers. The state media, such as the People's Daily, which hosts one of the most strongly nationalist Web forums, also highlight China's perceived mistreatment at the hands of the United States and other powers.
In recent years, too, the Communist Party has opened its membership and perks to young urbanites, cementing the belief that their interests lie with the regime, not with political change -- and that democracy might lead to unrest and instability. According to Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "The party showers the urban intelligentsia, professionals and private entrepreneurs with economic perks, professional honors and political access." In the 1980s, by contrast, these types of professionals and academics were at the forefront of Tiananmen protests.
The state media also increasingly highlight the problems of rural China -- China now has income inequality on par with many Latin American nations -- suggesting to urbanites the economic and political catastrophe that might befall them if these rural peasants swamped wealthy cities.
Now, though, according to Chinese officials, it appears that the Chinese government actually wants to tamp down nationalism. Some officials privately worry that nationalist protests, even ones targeting other countries, ultimately will transform into unrest against Beijing, like previous outbursts of patriotism in China before communist rule in 1949, which eventually turned into nationwide convulsions.
In 2005, Beijing initially fed the anti-Japan feelings with public statements. Then Beijing -- which depends on Tokyo as a crucial trading partner and source of aid -- tried to tamp down tensions by keeping much of the protest details out of the state media. Ultimately, though, Beijing had to roll out riot-control police in large cities. Similarly, after a 2001 collision between American and Chinese military planes that killed the Chinese pilot, Beijing struggled to keep street protests from erupting into riots.
In the long run, this explosive nationalism calls into question what kind of democracy China could be. Many Chinese academics, for example, believe that, at least in the early going, a freer China might become a more dangerous China. Able to truly express their opinions, young Chinese would be able to put intense pressure on a freer government to adopt a hard line against the West -- even, perhaps, to invade Taiwan. By contrast, the current Chinese regime has launched broad informal contacts with Taiwan's new rulers, including an April meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and incoming Taiwanese Vice President Vincent Siew -- contacts denounced by many bloggers. One day, Hu may find even he can't defend himself before a mob of angry Chinese students.
State Dept. Nixes Own Verifiers From NKorea Nuke Watch
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/State_Dept_NKorea_nukes/2008/05/08/94445.html
The State Department is excluding its own verifiers from monitoring North Korea’s compliance in dismantling its nuclear program — a move being questioned in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
The Department's Bureau of Verification, Compliance and Implementation was created by a Republican Congress in 1999 in the spirit of Ronald Reagan’s “trust but verify” policy toward the Soviet Union’s disarmament.
Its mandate, according to the State Department’s Web site, is to provide oversight "on all matters relating to verification or compliance with international arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament agreements and commitments."
The bureau's biggest success to date is Libya, where it played a central role in dismantling the country's WMD programs in 2003, the Journal noted.
But with North Korea, the verifiers "have no voice so far," one person close to the process told the Journal.
They are not part of the teams negotiating with the North Koreans. No one from the bureau participated in a recent State Department trip to Pyongyang aimed at working out verification issues, and the bureau is not in charge of monitoring the disabling of Korea’s nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
Instead, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs is talking to the North Koreans, selecting experts to work at Yongbyon, and overseeing disablement.
“Now there's talk that the East Asia bureau – not the verification bureau – will also end up monitoring any final six-party agreement,” the Journal editorial states.
“Not only does East Asia lack the technical expertise to verify a nuclear agreement, its staffers would hardly be eager to find violations in an accord negotiated by their superiors.”
The decision by State Department officials, including Secretary Condoleezza Rice, to exclude their own verifiers is “further reason to doubt their North Korea deal. The diplomats want to deliver a ‘success’ and are afraid that if the verifiers get a close look, they will expose it as a fraud.”
The Journal concludes: “If Foggy Bottom won't trust its own verifiers enough to make them part of any disarmament deal, then the rest of us shouldn't trust any deal struck by the Bush State Department.”
Group Says North Korea Faces Massive Famine
http://www.newsmax.com/international/nkorea_famine/2008/05/09/94647.html
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.
The food situation was as bad as the famine that hit the country in the mid-1990s, which left as many as 2 million people dead, Seoul-based Good Friends _ a Buddhist-affiliated group that sends food and other aid to the North _ cited an unidentified North Korean official Friday as saying.
"So far, mass deaths have not occurred as people have become more used to (starvation) than in the 1990s, but famine is a matter of time," the official was quoted as saying by the aid group.
Good Friends also quoted Kim Ki-nam, 39, a resident of Sariwon, south of Pyongyang, as saying one or two deaths were happening every day in rural areas around the city.
North Korea has relied on foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million people since the mid-'90s.
This year's food situation has worsened because last year's harvests were hampered by devastating floods. The North also has refused to ask for help from South Korea after a new conservative government took office in February that has been critical of the Pyongyang regime.
The aid group urged North Korea to acknowledge the situation's seriousness and ask for international help to prevent massive famine. It also urged South Korea to soften its position on the North and offer aid without waiting for Pyongyang's request.
The United States has offered to provide food and held talks this week in North Korea over how to guarantee aid gets to the needy. North Korea said Thursday the talks were "in-depth and good."
The World Food Program warned last month the North faces a food crisis, saying the country's annual food deficit is expected to nearly double from 2007 to 1.83 million tons. The U.N. agency estimated 6.5 million people were short of food, and the number could rise if shortages were not addressed.
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