Secret Bilderberg Agenda To Microchip Americans Leaked
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/061008_secret_agenda.htm
Sources from inside the 2008 Bilderberg meeting have leaked the details of what elitists were discussing in Chantilly Virginia last week and the talking points were ominous - a plan to microchip Americans under the pretext of fighting terrorist groups which will be identified as blonde haired, blue eyed westerners.
Veteran Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker relies on sources who regularly attend Bilderberg as aides and assistants but who are not Bilderberg members themselves. The information they provided this year is bone-chilling for those who have tracked the development of the plan to make the general public consider implanted microchips as a convenience as routine as credit cards.
"Under the heading of resisting terrorism there were points made about how the terrorist organizations are recruiting people who do not look like terrorists - blonde, blue eyed boys - they're searching hard for those types to become the new mad bombers," said Tucker.
Ominously, Tucker's source also told him that Bilderberg were discussing the microchipping of humans on a mass scale, which would be introduced under the pretext of fighting terrorism whereby the "good guys" would be allowed to travel freely from airports so long as their microchip could be scanned and the information stored in a database.
Tucker said the idea was also sold on the basis that it would help hospital staff treat a patient in an emergency situation because a scan of the chip would provide instantaneous access to health details.
Tucker underscored that Bilderberg were talking about subdermally implanted chips and not merely RFID chips contained in clothing. The discussion took place in a main conference hall and was part of the agenda, not an off-hand remark in the hotel bar.
Such a bizarre concept may seem unbelievable to some, but over the last ten years there have been dozens of examples of people accepting implanted chips for a variety of different reasons.
In 2004, Mexico's attorney general and 160 of his office staff were implanted with tracker chips to control access to to secure areas of their headquarters.
The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona and other nightclubs around the world are already offering implantable chips to customers who want to pay for drinks with the wave of a hand and also get access to VIP areas of the club lounge.
Bilderberg skeptical of attack on Iran
Tucker's source told him that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did attend Bilderberg despite him not appearing on the official list.
Tucker said that his sources told him Gates was in attendance to present his case for war with Iran, but that the majority of Bilderberg members were against an attack at this time.
"The Europeans were generally opposed to an invasion of Iran - Gates made the regular war propaganda drill about how Iran is a nuclear threat to everybody," said Tucker, adding that European Bilderbergers made snide comments about where such nuclear weapons actually were being kept and at one point joking that they were possibly "in Saddam Hussein's tomb".
Despite Bilderberg opposition, Tucker said that the administration was still considering an attack before Bush leaves office in January.
"At least 90 per cent of the Europeans oppose a war, probably closer to 100 per cent," said Tucker, adding, "most of the Americans were passive and deferential to the Secretary of Defense and Condoleezza Rice's pitch in so far as Iran is concerned".
Tucker said that most Americans present at the meeting were opposed to attacking Iran but dare not be as visible and loud in their opposition as the Europeans.
Energy and oil prices
"One of the Bilderberg boys raised this question - should we put a lid on the rise in oil prices, are we reaching the point of diminishing returns," said Tucker, adding that Bilderberg noted how Americans were trading in their SUV's in record numbers for small and more fuel efficient cars and using more public transport to combat high gas prices.
Tucker's source said that Bilderberg were predicting $5 for a gallon of gas by the end of this summer and oil over $150 dollars a barrel, but that this was a ceiling and oil prices would probably begin to decline thereafter because they thought the acceleration had happened too quickly.
As we previously reported, Bilderberg called for oil prices to soar in 2005 when oil was a mere $40 a barrel.
During the conference in Germany, Henry Kissinger told his fellow attendees that the elite had resolved to ensure that oil prices would double over the course of the next 12-24 months, which is exactly what happened.
During their 2006 meeting in Ottawa Canada, Bilderberg agreed to push for $105 a barrel before the end of 2008. With that target having been smashed months ago, the acceleration towards $150 is outstripping even Bilderberg's goal, which is why the elitists expressed a desire to cool prices at least in the short term.
Just two days after he left Bilderberg, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, George W. Bush and others expressed support for a strong dollar and Bernanke hinted that interest rates could rise, which immediately caused oil prices to drop in line with Bilderberg's consensus.
Huckabee to Join Fox News
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Huckabee_Fox_News/2008/06/12/104135.html
Former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is going from being a player in the presidential election to a commentator on it.
The former Arkansas governor has joined Fox News Channel as a contributor on election coverage, the news channel announced Thursday.
"Governor Huckabee's campaign experience and knowledge of politics makes him a great addition to our ongoing election coverage," Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, said in a news release.
Huckabee, who served as governor for 10 ½ years, dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination in March after John McCain won enough delegates to clinch the party's nomination. Despite a financially strapped campaign, Huckabee won the leadoff caucuses in Iowa and seven other states.
"I hope to bring the unique perspective from 'inside the dragon's belly' as well as to try and speak for the millions of hard-working middle class Americans who really do feel that their voices are not being heard," Huckabee said in a prepared statement released by his daughter, Sarah. "I saw that on the campaign trail and continue to see as I speak to groups of all kinds around the country as well as campaign for other candidates."
The financial terms of the agreement were not released.
A darling of conservatives for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, the ordained Baptist preacher has been mentioned as a potential running mate for McCain. Since leaving the race, Huckabee has formed a political action committee that he says will help raise money for McCain and other Republicans.
Huckabee is also working on a book about his failed presidential bid that is scheduled to be released Nov. 18, two weeks after the presidential election.
Selling The Nation Away
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66694
Foreign investment in the United States is on the rise and key U.S. businesses and infrastructures such as roads and airports are being sold to foreign investors. Now comes word from the U.S. Department of Commerce the Bureau of Economic Affairs will stop publishing a key report tracking those foreign dollars.
WND reported earlier on a decision by the Federal Reserve to quit publishing M3 data, a money-supply measure watched closely by economists.
Last month, econometrician John Williams reported on his subscription website, "Shadow Government Statistics," that the M3 statistic he compiles from available government data shows the growth of M3 at historically high rates last seen in June 1971, two months before President Nixon closed the gold window and instituted wage and price controls.
Charles McMillion, president and chief economist at MBG Information Services in Washington, D.C., also has expressed concern over the recent decision by the Department of Commerce to discontinue publishing foreign investment data and warned that may forecast an unprecedented surge in foreign investment anticipated by the Bush administration.
In the announcement, BEA claimed funding limitations necessitated halting future reports.
The most recent report, released Wednesday, showed direct foreign investment in U.S. businesses reached $276.8 billion in 2007, the second largest amount recorded and the highest since 2000, when new foreign investment outlays peaked at $335.6 billion.
Of the direct foreign investments in the U.S. in 2007, only about 10 percent, approximately $21.9 billion, established new U.S. businesses, while foreign investments to acquire existing U.S. businesses totaled $255.0 billion.
Nearly 37 percent of the foreign investments in 2007 involved European investors, although the BEA noted investments from Asia and the Middle East rose substantially.
McMillion noted in an e-mail that the BEA decision to discontinue publishing foreign investment data comes at a time when public and congressional concerns have increased over the acquisition of U.S. assets by foreign investors
McMillian referenced the recent attempt by "China's mysterious but closely state-aligned Huawei" to acquire 3Com, a key supplier of Internet security technologies to the U.S. Department of State, in conjunction with Boston-based Bain Capital, a private equity firm founded by Republican 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
In March, Bain pulled out of the deal after learning that the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, organized in the U.S. Treasury Department, planned to block the deal.
In May, during a four-day trip to the Middle East that included Saudi Arabia and Dubai, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson encouraged foreign investment in the United States, arguing the controversy over Dubai Ports in 2006 did not reflect an adverse U.S. attitude toward foreign investment.
"I have met with many leaders from the Middle East who ask if the United States really continues to welcome investment," Paulson said in a speech to the U.S.-United Arab Emirates Business Council, according to Bloomberg.com. "As we seek to open new markets abroad, America will keep our markets open at home to investment from private firms and from sovereign wealth funds."
WND previously reported since the beginning of the year, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, two of the largest United Arab Emirate states, have been in discussions with the U.S. Treasury, offering reassurances that their investments in U.S. banks and security firms would not impose restrictions usually dictated by Islamic law, commonly known as sharia.
WND also has reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have now amassed $1.7 trillion, positioning them for attempts to control major banks and securities firms in the United States.
In September 2007, Dubai acquired 19.9 percent of Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the United States.
WND also reported last month the top bid to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike on a long-term public-private-partnership, or PPP lease, for a bid of $12.8 billion was submitted by Spanish infrastructure management company Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona.
Greens Thwart Gasoline Production
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366004,00.html
Four-plus-dollar gasoline is forcing Americans to realize that we need increased domestic oil production to meet our ever-growing demand for affordable fuel. But even if the greens lose the political battle over drilling offshore and in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they nevertheless are way ahead of the game as they implement a back-up plan to make sure that not a drop of that oil ever eases our gasoline crunch.
The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, successfully pressured the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block ConocoPhillips’ expansion of its Roxana, Ill., gasoline refinery, which processes heavy crude oil from Canada, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The project would have expanded the volume of Canadian crude processed from 60,000 barrels per day to more than 500,000 barrels a day by 2015. After the Illinois EPA had approved the expansion, the green groups petitioned the federal EPA to block it, alleging ConocoPhillips wasn’t using the best available technology for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Apparently, the plant’s planned 95 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and 25 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides wasn’t green enough. NRDC’s opposition is quite ironic since ConocoPhillips and the activist group actually are teammates in the global warming game. Both belong to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of eco-activist groups and large companies that is lobbying for global warming regulation.
So even though ConocoPhillips is aiding and abetting the NRDC to achieve the green dream of absolute government control over the U.S. energy supply, the enviros still are in take-no-prisoners mode, refusing to allow the expansion of a single refinery.
Imagine what the rest of us can expect from the greens.
Meanwhile, in California, green groups are working through the state attorney general’s office to block the upgrade of the Chevron refinery in the city of Richmond. The $800 million upgrade essentially would expand the useable oil supply by permitting the refinery to process lower-quality, less-expensive crude oil.
California Attorney General, ex-Gov. and climate crusader Jerry Brown claims the upgrade will produce an additional 900,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. But Chevron says the upgrade actually will reduce the emissions by 220,000 tons.
Whose figure is closer to the truth?
It’s hard to know for sure at this point, but it’s worth noting that material false statements made by Chevron are prosecutable under the federal securities laws and California state law, while Brown and the activists pretty much can say whatever they want without legal accountability.
Whatever the facts are, Brown and the city of Richmond insist that Chevron eliminate 900,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions so that the upgrade will be "carbon neutral." While the greens remain vehemently opposed to the project, it seems their plans for blocking the refinery might go awry as Brown and the local government eventually may side with Chevron rather than the greens, but only because the company has deep pockets and is open to being shaken down.
Brown and the city have proposed that Chevron ensure that half the total emissions-reduction projects be undertaken on-site at the refinery and the other half be done either in the city of Richmond itself or elsewhere in California.
Translating the latter part of this "offer that can’t be refused:" Chevron essentially must purchase 450,000 tons of "carbon credits" annually from the city of Richmond or the state. As the street value of carbon credits is about $10 per ton, Chevron is being "green-mailed" to the tune of perhaps $4.5 million per year to upgrade its refinery — amounting to perhaps a 1 percent annual "tax" on the gains in gross revenue produced by the upgrade. And the local government officials are not the least embarrassed about this extortion.
"When you’re dealing with a refinery where the project will cost close to a billion dollars and someone like Chevron with tremendous resources, that’s not a constraint, so they should do everything possible," an unidentified state official told Carbon Control News in a June 9 article.
The farcical nature of the entire transaction is underscored by that state official’s apparent lack of understanding about how greenhouse gas-induced global warming is supposed to work.
The official told Carbon Control News that the greenhouse gas emission reductions "are vital to protect low-income minority communities in the Richmond area, which already suffer disproportionate pollution impacts."
Climate alarmism, of course, is based on the notion of global emissions causing global warming, not local emissions causing local warming; moreover, the allegation that low-income minority populations are disproportionately harmed by industrial emissions — the basis of the so-called "environmental justice" concept of the 1990s — hasn’t stuck since no scientific evidence supports it.
Though green and local government shenanigans can be a source of endless amusement, let’s get back to the main point. As the 2005 hurricane season dramatized, oil production, itself, is only one factor in determining gasoline supply and prices.
Damage to Gulf Coast refineries by hurricanes Katrina and Rita reduced gasoline supplies and increased prices worldwide — a real problem given that U.S. refineries operate at or near capacity thanks to other green constraints.
We may produce all the oil we need, but if we can’t refine it, then it won’t do much for reducing gasoline supply problems. So while working to expand domestic drilling, we’ll simultaneously need to expand domestic refining capacity.
It will be quite the Pyrrhic victory to finally produce oil from ANWR and then not be able to do anything with it.
Top analyst sees $200 oil, $5.75 gas
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66642
The Goldman Sachs energy analyst whose predictions have fueled worldwide oil price speculation now foresees oil peaking at $200 a barrel, with gasoline rising to $5.75 a gallon before consumption cools enough to lower fuel prices.
In an rare interview published today in Barron's, Arjun N. Murti, Goldman Sachs' 39-year-old top energy analyst, said energy is in the later stages of a worldwide "super spike," with the possibility of $150 to $200 a barrel oil likely over the next six to 24 months."
Murti noted oil analysts have shifted from a 1990s attitude of, "It is easy to grow supply," to today's pessimism, "It is going to be more difficult to grow supply." The change is in part because oil-producing areas, including Mexico and the North Sea, are declining, while growth areas such as Brazil and Angola are just coming online.
In the interview with Barron's, Murti stressed he does not believe the world is running out of oil, and he does not subscribe to peak oil theories that worldwide oil production rates are necessarily declining.
In Murti's view, the problem is worldwide oil demand is growing consistently, while supply is growing more moderately.
"We do think that the places that have large quantities of recoverable oil, notably Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela and Russia, aren't on track to grow their supply aggressively," Murti said. "And, to some degree, high prices are disincentivizing some of these countries to either open up their industry or spend the money themselves. These countries don't need the incremental revenue."
Morgan Stanley agrees, predicting oil will hit $150 a barrel by the end of June or the beginning of July.
Crude oil set a one-day record Friday, surging more than $10 a barrel, to settle at $138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The price of crude oil on world future's exchanges has more than doubled in the past year.
Departing today on what is billed as his "farewell visit" to Europe, President Bush today blamed Congress for refusing to allow drilling in Alaska and offshore on the continental shelf, "to give this country a chance to help us through this difficult period by finding more supplies of crude oil, which will take the pressure off the price of gasoline."
Sen. John McCain has attacked Sen. Barack Obama's push for government incentives to develop alternative renewable fuels as government subsidies calculated to enrich special interests.
According to Stephen Power writing in today's Wall Street Journal, McCain favors scrapping federal ethanol credits, moving instead to develop more nuclear power plants.
"I have to give you straight talk about government subsidies," McCain told a business leader roundtable last month in Washington state. "When government jumps in and distorts the market, then there's unintended consequences as well as intended."
Obama has promised to invest $150 billion in alternative fuels over the next decade, with a requirement that the U.S. get at least 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including wind, sun and geothermal energy by 2025, even though those resources today account for less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity.
Worries Mount as American Farmers Push for Big Harvest
http://www.nytimes.com/
In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.
American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought.
“The planting has gotten off to a poor start,” said Bill Nelson, a Wachovia grains analyst. “The anxiety level is increasing.”
Randy Kron, whose family has been farming in the southwestern corner of Indiana for 135 years, should have corn more than a foot tall by now. But all spring it has seemed as if there were a faucet in the sky. The rain is regular, remorseless.
Some of Mr. Kron’s fields are too soggy to plant. Some of the corn he managed to get in has drowned, forcing him to replant. The seeds that survived are barely two inches high.
At a moment when the country’s corn should be flourishing, one plant in 10 has not even emerged from the ground, the Agriculture Department said Monday. Because corn planted late is more sensitive to heat damage in high summer, every day’s delay practically guarantees a lower yield at harvest.
“This is pushing my nerves to the limit,” Mr. Kron said one recent morning, the sky as dark as the unplanted earth.
Last winter, as the full scope of the global food crisis became clear, commodity prices doubled or tripled, provoking grumbling in America, riots in two dozen countries and the specter of greatly increased malnutrition.
As the world clamors for more corn, wheat, soybeans and rice, farmers are trying to meet the challenge. Millions of acres are coming back into production in Europe. In Asia, planting two or three crops in a single year is becoming more common.
American farmers are planting 324 million acres this year, up 4 million acres from 2007. Too much of the best land is waterlogged, however. Indiana and Illinois have been the worst hit, although Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota were inundated last weekend.
Bob Biehl, whose farm is near St. Louis, has managed to plant only 140 of the 650 acres he wanted to devote to corn. Some farmers in his area “haven’t even been able to take the tractor out of the shed,” he said.
United States soybean plantings are running 16 percent behind last year. Rice is tardy in Arkansas, which produces nearly half the country’s crop. “We’re certainly not going to have as good a crop as we had hoped,” said Harvey Howington of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association. “I don’t think this is good news for anybody.”
Harvests ebb and flow, of course. But with supplies of most of the key commodities at their lowest levels in decades, there is little room for error this year. American farmers are among the world’s top producers, supplying 60 percent of the corn that moves across international borders in a typical year, as well as a third of the soybeans, a quarter of the wheat and a tenth of the rice.
“If we have bad crops, it’s going to be a wild ride,” said the Agriculture Department’s chief economist, Joseph Glauber. “There’s just no cushion.”
As every farmer knows, trouble can come at any point before the harvest is complete. Danny and Karen Smith get up in the middle of the night at their wheat farm in Milton, Kan., whenever they hear thunder.
In a few weeks, the wheat they planted last fall will be ripe. A bad storm or, worse, a tornado could destroy it. Last year, the Smiths lost nearly all their wheat to a late freeze compounded by too much rain.
This year, the weather has been perfect: cool and moist. “See how plump these berries are?” Mr. Smith said, standing in the middle of one of his fields. “This will feed a lot of people.”
The world wheat harvest is forecast to rise more than 8 percent this year, because of better weather and more acreage under cultivation. But even this bright spot is tentative. Australia was expected to emerge from a two-year drought, but that prediction is looking somewhat doubtful.
With the exception of southwestern Australia and a small corner of southeastern Australia, little rain has fallen in recent months. Many wheat farmers have been unable to plant at all, said Bob Iffla, the chairman of the country’s Wheat Growers Association.
As a result, the harvest is likely to be below average: 5 million to 15 million tons of wheat available for export, compared with 17 million or 18 million tons in an average year.
China also faces trouble: the agriculture ministry issued an urgent notice to wheat and rice farmers in southern China on Sunday, telling them to harvest as much of their crop as possible immediately in the face of unseasonable torrential rains expected to rake the region for the next 10 days.
In the American corn belt, the issue has also been getting the rain to stop. After heavy rains and flooding last weekend, the price of corn on the commodity markets rose Monday to a record $6.57 a bushel.
“We can’t snap our fingers and make high yields,” said Emerson D. Nafziger, a professor of agronomic extension at the University of Illinois. “We still depend on the weather.”
A universal saying among farmers is that high prices never last, because they encourage production that fills the demand and drives down the prices. The current crisis is testing that theory. With costs soaring for fertilizer and diesel, the expenses of farming are so high that the urge to plant more is battling, in some places, with the temptation to plant nothing.
Prajoub Suksapsri in Ayutthaya, Thailand, is among the farmers going all-out this year. For the first time in two decades of farming, Mr. Prajoub is preparing to plant a second crop of rice on his land, which usually does not have irrigation.
He and his neighbors have risked their savings to set up a system to pump water into their fields. If rice prices stay high, Mr. Prajoub could make the biggest profit he has seen in years from his two-acre farm. But if prices fall, he could face heavy losses.
“Sometimes I lie awake at night, worrying about it,” he said, watching his new Honda generator chug steadily, running the pumps. The landlord for the fields that he rents is charging him more than triple the usual amount just for the right to plant an extra harvest.
“He is sucking my blood,” Mr. Prajoub said.
Helen Gabriel’s farm in south-central Luzon Island in the Philippines also measures two acres and lacks irrigation. Faced with soaring costs for diesel, fertilizer, rice seed and insecticide, she has made a different decision from Mr. Prajoub.
“We will have no crop this year,” Mrs. Gabriel said as she waited in a three-hour line for the right to buy 4.4 pounds of government-subsidized rice.
World stockpiles of rice are likely to shrink slightly this year, excluding Chinese food security reserves that are not available for world trade, after already dwindling markedly in six of the last eight years, said Concepcion Calpe, a Food and Agriculture Organization rice specialist in Rome.
That estimate does not take into account the turmoil in Arkansas. Last year, the rice crop in Arkansas yielded a record 160 bushels an acre. This year, experts there say, 150 bushels will be an achievement.
“There’s no doubt about it, we’re not going to have the rice to export,” said Carl Frein of Farmers Marketing Service in Brinkley, Ark. “Poor countries like Haiti, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
For all the apprehension this year, the growing season is still young, with plenty of time for the situation to improve — or for crops to fail.
“I’ve seen mediocre starts get a bit better, and mediocre starts get a whole lot worse,” said Mr. Nelson, the grains analyst.
Mr. Kron, the Indiana farmer, gave up on corn last week after managing to plant — and in some cases replant — only about half of his 1,200 acres.
Last year, his corn yielded 150 bushels an acre. This year, he will be happy to get 130 bushels. He has warned his processor, Azteca Milling, which makes flour for tortillas and chips, that he will be short.
Mr. Kron’s prospects are deteriorating. He was hoping to plant soybeans on some of his unused corn ground, but hundreds of those acres adjoin the swollen Wabash River. On Monday, the fields started flooding.
“I don’t know if this is the worst year we’ve ever had, but it’s moving up the list pretty quick,” the farmer said.
A Charismatic Looks At Both Sides Of The Florida Outpouring
http://fireinmybones.com/index.php?col=052808
Revival is messy. As much as we would love for it to come in a neat and orderly package, history teaches us that outbreaks of the Holy Spirit are often accompanied by holy chaos. There may be conversions and healings in one corner and demonic manifestations in the other. In seasons of revival you can have miracles and mayhem. Holiness and heresy can erupt simultaneously.
When we look at the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, we tend to focus on the positives: Dead people were raised, whole villages were saved and prison doors were opened supernaturally. On the flip side, this same revival season was interrupted by riots, opposed by religious legalists and tainted by false prophets, greedy charlatans and demons masquerading as angels.
Why must revival movements be so muddled? Perhaps it is because imperfect people (as well as sinister devils) get involved. Strange things happen when God’s power touches a sinful earth.
When revival hit Wales in 1904, almost an entire nation bowed before Jesus within two years. Yet the weight of God’s presence drove the revival’s humble leader, Evan Roberts, into depression. Meanwhile author Jessie Penn-Lewis, writing in her book War on the Saints, suggested that fleshly manifestations in Welsh prayer meetings had snuffed out the Spirit’s power.
In our nation today thousands have been swept into the current of the Lakeland Revival in Florida, which began in early April in evangelist Todd Bentley’s meetings at Ignited Church. The fervor quickly spread because of God TV’s broadcasts, and today up to 10,000 gather nightly at a venue near the city’s airport. In recent days, people who were touched in Lakeland have started similar meetings in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte N.C. and other cities. Bentley and his colleagues believe this is the beginning of a worldwide healing revival that will cover the globe.
But not everyone in the charismatic/Pentecostal community is convinced. Some say this is the last end-time revival while others maintain it is a demonic counterfeit. Cult-watchers and anti-heresy bloggers post Bentley’s comments on YouTube as evidence of a theological scandal. Revival advocates respond by posting documented evidence of healings. It all begins to resemble a childish competition.
Still others worry that Lakeland represents a questionable mixture of truth and error. Since the initial eruption of the revival, my inbox has been full of messages from charismatic leaders who are concerned about weighty issues as well as trivial ones: Everything from Bentley’s tattoos and body piercings to his claim that he once interviewed the apostle Paul in heaven.
When I wrote an article in mid-May calling for scrutiny of some aspects of the Lakeland Revival, I was labeled a Pharisee and a “religious policeman.” People who said they had been deeply impacted by the Holy Spirit in Lakeland used spiritual threats and harsh terms to tell me that I had become the enemy.
I refuse to go on the defensive, and if I need to retract any statement I’ve ever made about this revival I will. But what these nasty exchanges have shown me is that a divisive spirit is certainly at work in our midst—and we need urgent prayer to short-circuit what the devil wants to do.
When the early church was hit with the issue of Jewish legalism, Paul and Barnabas determined that the answer was to seek the counsel of “the apostles and elders” in Jerusalem (Acts 15:2, NASB). The church was being divided because the legalists were insisting that gentiles be circumcised. But when the elders looked into the matter, the apostle James settled the dispute by issuing this wise ruling:
“Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood” (v. 19-20). In other words, James affirmed the gentiles’ access to salvation and overturned the legalists’ bad doctrine.
Based on this biblical example, I am appealing to the elders in our movement. We need to hear from them in this hour. In a desperate moment we need older, seasoned veterans to release the counsel of the Lord.
Today the charismatic movement has become fractured, and opposing camps have formed. On one side there are those in the apostolic camp who tend to emphasize biblical order, proper church government, spiritual warfare and the reformation of society. On the other side are those in the prophetic camp who focus on miracles, healing, mystical experiences and the reclaiming of all the supernatural manifestations of the New Testament.
Both of these camps are contending for valid, biblical truths. We need the prophetic and the apostolic! We need miracles as much as we need healthy church growth and societal change. Yet if we do not have a holy intervention, we could bite and devour one another—and cancel out our collective impact.
A biblical council must include the leaders of both of these camps. And leaders must address all of the difficult issues triggered by the Lakeland Revival. Those include:
1. Biblical guidelines about angels. Some people in the prophetic camp speak of frequent visits to heaven, “third heaven revelations,” and long conversations with angels who use names such as Emma, Promise and Winds of Change. Are these indeed spirits sent from God, or agents of false light?
2. A proper theology of the dead. Some in the prophetic camp claim they have had conversations with dead Christians—including Paul the apostle. Is this within the bounds of Christian experience, or is it necromancy?
3. Pastoral guidance about exotic spiritual manifestations. In some circles in our movement, unusual signs and wonders have been reported in church services—including the sudden appearance of gold dust, feathers, gemstones and oil. At the same time, worshipers are vibrating on the floor, jerking uncontrollably and acting intoxicated. How can we protect people from the abuse of manifestations, and from demonic influence, while at the same time leaving room for genuine encounters with God?
4. Clear guidelines concerning the restoration of fallen ministers. The appearance of one prominent fallen evangelist, Paul Cain, at the Lakeland Revival in May unleashed strong reactions from many sectors of the church. Many people feel unprotected when they sense that church leaders have chosen not to enforce proper discipline for a minister’s unbiblical behavior. In this adulterous generation, how can we draw lines to protect congregations while at the same time offer healing and grace to a repentant preacher?
These are some of the crucial questions we face as a movement. May we proceed with a fresh gift of discernment, while at the same time laying hold of all the blessings that revival will bring us.
Religious Displays Ok'd in South Carolina
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/391608.aspx
CBNNews.com - The Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer may soon adorn the hallways of South Carolina's public buildings.
Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill into law late Wednesday, allowing the religious documents to be displayed for their historical importance. His decision marks one of many religious-related nods within the past month.
Last week, state Republicans allowed passage of a bill approving a license plate with a cross and the words "I Believe" on it. And in May, Gov. Sanford signed legislation that advises state officials on how to pray before meetings.
Before signing the religious displays bill, Sanford consulted Attorney General Henry McMaster, who had already written a non-binding opinion supporting the legislation.
In it, McMaster argues that the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer also have a secular purpose and "an established place in teaching American constitutional history and civic virtue."
He added that the documents would teach morality, ethics and integrity, and would survive any court challenge.
If left unchallenged, the law will allow schools and other public places to display a set of 11 documents lawmakers say are important to foundation of law and government. Those documents include the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech, as well as the national motto, "In God We Trust."
Rep. Greg Delleney supported the bill and said it's unfortunate some people want to exclude God from the public.
"The strength of this nation was...founded on Christian principle," he said. "When I was going to school coming up this wouldn't even have been a question."
South Carolina's Senate passed the legislation May 22.
"Some people felt like there was no way they could go back home and explain why they voted against the Lord's Prayer," said Sen. Larry Martin, who helped lead the issue through..
Sen. Mike Fair called the bill "sound" and added, "It's not religious. It's historical."
Others fear the bill will lead to unneeded court battles and burdens on taxpayer money.
Christian Freedom International Condemns Persecution of Michigan Wrestling Coach
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07287.shtml
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich., (christiansunite.com) -- Christian Freedom International, a Michigan-based organization that assists persecuted Christians around the world, is expressing outrage over a disturbing incident of persecution that has taken place right in its own backyard.
Jerry Marszalek, a longtime wrestling coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan, was recently released from his job amid complaints that Trey Hancock, his former coaching assistant and an evangelical Christian pastor, was using his position on the wrestling team to convert Muslim students into Christians. Imad Fadlallah, the first Muslim principal at Fordson-a high school where over 80% of its students are of Arab descent-made the decision not to renew Marszalek's contract, claiming that he had the right to terminate his service because Marszalek was an "at-will" employee. The announcement was praised by hundreds of Muslim parents, students and religious leaders, who attended a school board meeting in unanimous support of the decision.
Hancock denies the allegations, insisting that he never witnessed or preached while coaching at Fordson. Although Hancock was known to have baptized a Muslim student from Dearborn in 2005, it was an activity that was not performed during school hours. After the 2005 baptism, Marszalek was warned by Fadlallah to keep Hancock away from all wrestling practices and events, despite the fact that Hancock's son, Paul, was a member of the team.
According to a report by the American Psychiatric Association, Michigan is home to the second largest Muslim community outside of the Middle East; according to the same report, Islam is currently the fastest-growing religion in the United States. In 2005, the Islamic Center of America constructed a $14 million, gold-domed mosque in Dearborn, making the 70,000 square-foot facility the spiritual home for thousands of Detroit's Muslim residents and the largest mosque in the United States.
The controversial incident at Fordson reflects a growing hostility towards Christianity throughout the country, and not just among members of the growing Muslim population. In recent years, Christian persecution has taken on a variety of forms in the United States-from a rising intolerance for proselytizing to the eradication of nearly all historical Christian references in public school textbooks. Although the magnitude of persecution in the U.S. is hardly comparable with that typically experienced in countries such as China, Burma, and Sudan-where persecution is so severe that thousands of believers are often martyred for their faith-the anti-Christian perception in American schools, media, and mainstream society is proving to be a cause for concern for Christians in the United States.
For more information visit Christian Freedom International online at www.christianfreedom.org
South Carolina to Become First State to Issue 'I Believe' License Plates
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366242,00.html
COLUMBIA, S.C — South Carolina's lieutenant governor announced Thursday that he is willing to put up $4,000 of his own money so his state can become the first in the nation to issue "I Believe" license plates with the image of a cross and a stained glass window.
The legislation allowing the plates was one of several religious-themed bills to became laws in the closing days of the state's legislative session.
The bills mean South Carolinians attending local government meetings could soon see the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer posted on walls, pray without fear of being sued and drive home in cars with the "I Believe" plates.
Civil rights groups are considering lawsuits. An attorney for the New York-based American Jewish Congress, Mark Stern, said the bills are an obvious endorsement of religion by legislators in an election year. His group is looking to sue over the plates.
Gov. Mark Sanford allowed the license plate bill to become law without his signature, noting the state already has a process to allow special plates for any cause as long as enough people come together and put up the money needed to buy them.
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Thursday he is willing to put up the money, then get reimbursed. The state must collect either a $4,000 deposit or 400 prepaid orders.
Bauer helped push the measure through the General Assembly, saying it gives people a way to express their beliefs. The idea came from Florida, where a proposal for an "I Believe" tag ultimately failed.
"I'm all about freedom of speech," Bauer said.
But he also said the religious bills are efforts to push back against the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups perceived as threatening South Carolinians' beliefs and traditions.
"People who support Judeo-Christian values are ever under fire now," Bauer said. "It's like they expect folks who are believers just to roll over because they're scared of the ACLU."
The latest law approved by Sanford late Wednesday allows the public posting of the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in a display of 11 documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation, plus the national motto "In God We Trust."
Rep. Mac Toole, R-West Columbia, modeled the Ten Commandments bill after a Georgia law. The Senate added the Lord's Prayer despite warnings from some senators that it would invite a lawsuit.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued split decisions involving the Ten Commandments. The court approved a 41-year-old monument in Texas, calling it part of a secular display, but ruled against framed copies in two Kentucky courthouses, saying they were put up to promote religion. Context determines constitutionality, according to the decisions.
Sanford signed the South Carolina bill after getting an opinion from Attorney General Henry McMaster that its inclusion as part of a display teaching history and civic virtue passes constitutional muster.
"This is an example of the government's underhanded attempts to endorse one particular religious viewpoint over all others under the guise of neutral education," said T. Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU's Program of Freedom of Religion and Belief. "Religion belongs where it prospers best: with individuals, families and religious communities."
Last month, the Republican governor signed legislation advising local governments how to legally pray before meetings, based on rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. The state attorney general will defend governments sued for praying as the law prescribes.
Stern said the law on historical displays at least has a "thin veneer of rationale," but he called it a political nod to religious voters.
"Obviously what motivates them is the desire to post the Ten Commandments. Everything else is decoration," he said.
Toole discounted a lawsuit threat.
"There are groups that oppose everything, unless it tries to bring moral destruction of people, and I feel sad for them," he said.
Vision America Calls Certification of California Marriage Amendment 'A Victory for the Family, Democracy and Sanity'
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07286.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Vision America President Dr. Rick Scarborough called the certification of the California Marriage Protection Act (a constitutional amendment) for the November ballot, "a victory for the family, democracy and sanity."
On May 15, the California Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage on the largest state in the country. Unlike Massachusetts, the other "gay marriage" state, California has no waiting period or residency requirement for marriage. Homosexual couples will flock there for a ceremony and a piece of paper, and return home to challenge state marriage laws with ensuing chaos.
In anticipation of the court's ruling, pro-family activists collected 1.1 million signatures (almost twice the number needed) to put a marriage-protection amendment on the ballot in November.
Scarborough observed: "The four justices of the California Supreme Court responsible for this horrendous decision are trying to both remake the family and short-circuit the democratic process. It looks like democracy - the people - will have the final word on marriage."
Scarborough called on the court to begin respecting democratic principles by granting a stay on enforcement of its decision, requested by Alliance Defense Fund, until after the election." Ten state attorneys general have also filed briefs in support of a stay.
"The Court overturned Proposition 22, a statutory defense of marriage enacted in 2000 by 61% of California voters," Scarborough commented. "Now a constitutional defense of marriage will appear on the ballot this year, due to the support of 1.1 million citizens. A Los Angeles Times poll shows the measure passing by a 19-point margin. Even an activist court must acknowledge a clear manifestation of popular sentiment on maintaining the integrity of marriage."
Vision America is a pastor-led national organization working to preserve the integrity of marriage and the sanctity of life. For more information, go to www.visionamerica.us.
Survey: Americans Divided on Homosexuality as Sin
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080606/32699.htm
Americans are nearly evenly divided on whether they believe homosexual behavior is a sin, a new survey showed.
While 48 percent of Americans agree it is a sin, 45 percent said they don't believe homosexuality is sinful, according to a LifeWay Research study, released Wednesday.
Although those who are religiously affiliated were more likely to call homosexual behavior sinful, the director of the research group cautions that there are still many believers who don't view the behavior as sin.
The study showed that 61 percent of Protestants believe homosexuality is sinful compared to 31 percent who don't. Among born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Americans, 79 percent say it is sinful while 17 percent do not believe it is.
"Seventeen percent in that latter category may seem low compared to the others, but considering these people consider themselves born-again, evangelical, or fundamentalist, it reminds us of the need for clear biblical teaching on the issue in our community," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, in the report.
"We did not develop our views of sexuality because we flipped a coin or took a poll," he noted. "We believe the teaching of Scripture is clear that monogamous, heterosexual marriage is God’s best for people, culture and society."
Stetzer also called it surprising to find that the majority of Catholics (55 percent) do not believe homosexual behavior is a sin. Only 39 percent of Catholics called it a sin.
Catholics were also most likely to say same-sex attraction is inevitable and determined at birth. Thirty percent of Catholics said that that is what contributes most to homosexuality compared to 20 percent of Protestants, 12 percent of born agains, and 24 percent of Americans overall.
The born-again, evangelical, fundamentalist group (48 percent) is most likely to believe homosexuality is a choice while 42 percent of Protestants, 41 percent of Catholics and 39 percent of Americans agree, saying "choice" is what contributes most to same-sex attraction.
As debate continues over homosexuality and many churches struggle to address the issue, the LifeWay survey found that what a church teaches about homosexuality can greatly impact a person's decision on whether to visit or join the church.
According to survey results, 32 percent of Americans said that if the church they were considering visiting or joining taught that homosexual behavior was sinful, it would negatively impact their decision. Meanwhile, 29 percent of Americans said that it would positively impact their decision.
"It’s clear we have a challenging but essential task," Stetzer commented. "We need to strive to show the love of Christ, while upholding the standard of Scripture, to those who struggle with same-sex attraction."
Many churches have begun to shift from preaching condemnation to showing love to homosexuals while still not compromising their belief that homosexuality is a sin.
In recent years, the Southern Baptist Convention - the largest Protestant denomination in the country - created a task force that would inform, educate and encourage Southern Baptists to be proactive in reaching out to those struggling with same-sex attractions. Bob Stith, who heads the task force, said many, including himself, have harbored a negative and judgmental attitude toward homosexuals and he now wants to encourage fellow Baptists to give a biblical yet compassionate response to homosexuality.
Still, the large Protestant group still has a ways to go when reaching homosexuals.
Tim Wilkins, a Southern Baptist and former homosexual, claims the denomination has not steered much effort toward the Ministry to Homosexuals Task Force.
“If Southern Baptists are going to invest time and money in reaching homosexuals with the Gospel, let's at least steer Southern Baptists to the appropriate resources," Wilkins said Thursday, noting that the task force has received little attention.
Among other findings by LifeWay Research, 66 percent of Americans, Protestants and born agains are personally acquainted with someone who has same-sex attraction. And among those who personally know a homosexual, 44 percent call homosexual behavior sinful and 49 percent say it is not a sin.
Woman Jailed for Taking Teen to Get Abortion
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/391348.aspx
CBNNews.com - A Georgia woman is in jail after taking her son's underage girlfriend to an abortion clinic.
Cindi Cook pretended to be the mother of the 16-year-old girl and then illegally signed the parental form for the girl to have an abortion.
Authorities say Cook pressured the girl into it and even paid for the abortion.
Then she told the girl not to tell her parents.
Now, Cook is serving a 12-month sentence. The abortion clinic's role in the case is still in question.
"Ms. Cook called around several abortion clinics looking for one that wouldn't require a parent present," said Robert James, DeKalb County Solicitor General.
The girl's family is outraged over what happened.
"They took away our right to be there and help our daughter during a time when she needed us the most," said S. Fenn Little, an attorney for the parents.
The solicitor general says he has never seen a case like this.
AP Reports No Records Have Reached Grand Jury in Tiller Illegal Abortion Investigation as Clock Ticks Toward Deadline
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07289.shtml
WICHITA, Kansas, (christiansunite.com) -- The Associated Press is reporting this morning that the citizen-called grand jury investigating George R. Tiller for committing illegal late-term abortions has yet to receive a single abortion record even though the Kansas Supreme Court ruled almost a month ago that the subpoenas should be honored.
Fewer than twenty of the subpoenaed abortion records have been turned over to the independent court appointed attorney and physician, who are to further review the records for relevance before finally submitting them to the grand jury.
Originally, about 2,000 late-term abortion records from the past five years were subpoenaed by the grand jury, Judge Paul Buchanan asked Tiller to first provide to a random sample of 50 late-term abortion records per year, for a total of 250 records.
The question remains if the process is moving fast enough for the grand jury to inspect the records and reach any conclusions before their term expires on July 8, 2008. There has already been one three-month extension of time because of the delays but according to statute, there can be no more time provided.
Operation Rescue President Troy Newman testified before the grand jury in January, just two weeks before the original subpoenas were issued. Newman supplied the grand jury with over 200 pages of documentation along with his testimony.
"Every action taken by Tiller's lawyers has been for the purpose of delay," said Operation Rescue President. "They delayed the start of the grand jury, they delayed the investigation by filing with the Kansas Supreme Court to stay the subpoenas. They have missed every deadline that we are aware of, always with excuses and requests for further delays.
"The glacial speed with which they are now providing records casts doubt on whether they are sincerely attempting to comply. Their actions are more consistent with someone who is trying desperately to run out the clock," said Newman. "It also raises concerns that the scant number of records that they are providing may have been hand-selected to insure that nothing with incriminating evidence is ever turned over to the grand jury. No other individual or group would be allowed to hand pick the documents surrendered in a criminal investigation.
"You would think that if Tiller was truly innocent, he would want to make that apparent to this grand jury and clear his name as soon as possible. Instead, he is acting more like a guilty man with something to hide, and his foot-dragging almost insures that he faces the possibility of yet another citizen-called grand jury. That could very well happen if his lack of evidence production is what becomes ultimately responsible for this grand jury's inability to reach conclusions."
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Community Battles Porn - With YouTube
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/391301.aspx
CBNNews.com - VACAVILLE, Calif. - Smile - you're on YouTube! That's the sign people walking into a California porn shop are seeing - and it's turning many of them away in shame.
Unusual Means to a Righteous End
Jeremy White is a youth pastor - but he's also a concerned parent and resident of Vacaville, California - who's very upset about a porn shop that recently opened up in his neighborhood.
"We want to send a united effort from the community - a united message that says - we don't want this here!" White said.
White and others - mostly young people - came up with a creative means of protest: They aimed cameras at the offending shop at various times during the day with a big sign that says "Smile you're on YouTube."
"We want to hit this business in the pocket book - which we seem to be doing," White said.
"I don't agree with the type of things that it promotes. I don't agree with the image it portrays and I don't think it belongs here in Vacaville - and especially in the gateway of our community right off of a freeway," concerned Vacaville resident Althea Hendricksen said.
White says people who enter secrets boutique do run the risk of appearing on the Internet, but says their goal is really not to shame anyone.
"If you have no question of conscience and you want to shop here than by all means shop away," he said. "But if you're here for some shady reason and you see us, and that deters you from shopping here - than I don't see what the harm in that is - the shame is obviously already there."
More than half of the potential customers do not enter the store after seeing the cameras, according to White says.
He also says that those who turn around in embarrassment will not be put on the Internet.
A Bowling Alley, a Theme Park - and a Porn Shop?
The porn shop currently sits adjacent to a family restaurant, a bowling alley, and a popular children's theme park.
"I think it's a little inconsiderate for the gentleman to open such a business so close to a family-oriented place," Ryan Tron of the Nut Tree Family Theme Park said.
He added, "I think it's a little absurd, I really do. I think they need to keep it in the industry area next to a bar, next to something where you have to be a certain age in order to be around in."
The manager of "secrets boutique, Jim Lukes, insists it's a lingerie shop - although the video seems to show otherwise.
"I think that they feel that this is not an appropriate location for an adult store," Lukes said. "The realty is this is not an adult store, so it is an appropriate location for a lingerie store with great frontage here to the freeways so passer-bys can see where we're located."
White says they hope to keep the protest going until the shop either shuts down or moves to another area of town.
In the meantime, he hopes the store gets the message that a younger generation doesn't want this for the future of their city.
Just how fast is the world's newest supercomputer
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D916OV081&show_article=1
Scientists unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer on Monday, a $100 million machine that for the first time has performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a sustained exercise.
The technology breakthrough was accomplished by engineers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and IBM Corp. on a computer to be used primarily on nuclear weapons work, including simulating nuclear explosions.
The computer, named Roadrunner, is twice as fast as IBM's Blue Gene system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which itself is three times faster than any of the world's other supercomputers, according to IBM.
"The computer is a speed demon. It will allow us to solve tremendous problems," said Thomas D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons research and maintains the warhead stockpile.
But officials said the computer also could have a wide range of other applications in civilian engineering, medicine and science, from developing biofuels and designing more fuel-efficient cars to finding drug therapies and providing services to the financial industry.
To put the computer's speed in perspective, it has roughly the computing power of 100,000 of today's most powerful laptops stacked 1.5 miles high, according to IBM. Or, if each of the world's 6 billion people worked on hand-held computers for 24 hours a day, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner computer can do in a single day.
The IBM and Los Alamos engineers worked six years on the computer technology.
Some elements of the Roadrunner can be traced back to popular video games, said David Turek, vice president of IBM's supercomputing programs. In some ways, he said, it's "a very souped-up Sony PlayStation 3."
"We took the basic chip design (of a PlayStation) and advanced its capability," said Turek.
But the Roadrunner supercomputer, named after the New Mexico state bird, is nothing like a video game.
The interconnecting system occupies 6,000 square feet with 57 miles of fiber optics and weighs 500,000 pounds. Although made from commercial parts, the computer consists of 6,948 dual-core computer chips and 12,960 cell engines, and it has 80 terabytes of memory housed in 288 connected refrigerator-sized racks.
The cost: $100 million.
Turek said the computer in a two-hour test on May 25 achieved a "petaflop" speed of sustained performance, something no other computer had ever done. It did so again in several real applications involving classified nuclear weapons work this past weekend.
"This is a huge and remarkable achievement," said Turek in a conference call with reporters.
A "flop" is an acronym meaning floating-point-operations per second. One petaflop is 1,000 trillion operations per second. Only two years ago, there were no actual applications where a computer achieved 100 teraflops—a tenth of Roadrunner's speed—said Turek, noting that the tenfold advancement came over a relatively short time.
The Roadrunner computer, now housed at the IBM research laboratory in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., will be moved next month to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Along with other supercomputers, it will be key "to assure the safety and security of our (weapons) stockpile," said D'Agostino. With its extraordinary speed it will be able to simulate the performances of a warhead and help weapons scientists track warhead aging, he said.
But the computer—and more so the technology that it represents—marks a future for a wide range of other research and uses. "The technology will be pronounced in its employment across industry in the years to come," predicted Turek, the IBM executive.
Michael Anastasio, director of the Los Alamos lab, said that for the first six months the computer will be used in unclassified work including activities not related to the weapons program. After that, about three-fourths of the work will involve weapons and other classified government activities.
Anastasio said the computer, in its unclassified applications, is expected to be used not only by Los Alamos scientists but others as well. He said there can be broad applications such as helping to develop a vaccine for the HIV virus, examine the chemistry in the production of cellulosic ethanol, or to understand the origins of the universe.
Turek said the computer represents still another breakthrough, particularly important in these days of expensive energy: It is an energy miser compared with other supercomputers, performing 376 million calculations for every watt of electricity used.
Study secretly tracks cell phone users outside US
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn73rNmeGnZBP2y4kjTylgaqHciwD913CMDG1
Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.
The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.
It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.
The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.
Researchers used cell phone towers to track individuals' locations whenever they made or received phone calls and text messages over six months. In a second set of records, researchers took another 206 cell phones that had tracking devices in them and got records for their locations every two hours over a week's time period.
The study was based on cell phone records from a private company, whose name also was not disclosed.
Study co-author Cesar Hidalgo, a physics researcher at Northeastern, said he and his colleagues didn't know the individual phone numbers because they were disguised into "ugly" 26-digit-and-letter codes.
That type of nonconsensual tracking would be illegal in the United States, according to Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission. Consensual tracking, however, is legal and even marketed as a special feature by some U.S. cell phone providers.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, opens up the field of human-tracking for science and calls attention to what experts said is an emerging issue of locational privacy.
"This is a new step for science," said study co-author Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, director of Northeastern's Center for Complex Network Research. "For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects of human behavior."
Barabasi said he spent nearly half his time on the study worrying about privacy issues. Researchers didn't know which phone numbers were involved. They were not able to say precisely where people were, just which nearby cell phone tower was relaying the calls, which could be a matter of blocks or miles. They started with 6 million phone numbers and chose the 100,000 at random to provide "an extra layer" of anonymity for the research subjects, he said.
Barabasi said he did not check with any ethics panel. Had he done so, he might have gotten an earful, suggested bioethicist Arthur Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania.
"There is plenty going on here that sets off ethical alarm bells about privacy and trustworthiness," Caplan said.
Studies done on normal behavior at public places is "fair game for researchers" as long as no one can figure out identities, Caplan said in an e-mail.
"So if I fight at a soccer match or walk through 30th Street train station in Philly, I can be studied," Caplan wrote. "But my cell phone is not public. My cell phone is personal. Tracking it and thus its owner is an active intrusion into personal privacy."
Paul Stephens, policy director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, said the nonconsensual part of the study raises the Big Brother issue.
"It certainly is a major concern for people who basically don't like to be tracked and shouldn't be tracked without their knowledge," Stephens said.
Study co-author Hidalgo said there is a difference between being a statistic — such as how many people buy a certain brand of computer — and a specific example. The people tracked in the study are more statistics than examples.
"In the wrong hands the data could be misused," Hidalgo said. "But in scientists' hands you're trying to look at broad patterns.... We're not trying to do evil things. We're trying to make the world a little better."
Knowing people's travel patterns can help design better transportation systems and give doctors guidance in fighting the spread of contagious diseases, he said.
The results also tell us something new about ourselves, including that we tend to go to the same places repeatedly, he said.
"Despite the fact that we think of ourselves as spontaneous and unpredictable ... we do have our patterns we move along and for the vast majority of people it's a short distance," Barabasi said.
The study found that nearly half of the people in the study pretty much keep to a circle little more than six miles wide and that 83 percent of the people tracked mostly stay within a 37-mile wide circle.
But then there are the people who are the travel equivalent of the super-rich, said Hidalgo, who travels more than 150 miles every weekend to visit his girlfriend. Nearly 3 percent of the population regularly go beyond a 200-mile wide circle. Less than 1 percent of people travel often out of a 621-mile circle.
But most people like to stay much closer to home. Hidalgo said he understands why: "There's a lot of people who don't like hectic lives. Travel is such a hassle."
Kids, Pets & Cars - Personal GPS Tracking Devices On The Rise
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=866605
Homeland Integrated Security Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce that the Company is preparing the release of a new, low-cost, portable GPS tracking device for a wide range of target markets. The 2.6 ounce, pocket-sized CT-100 can be used to track children, pets, sex offenders, vehicles and a limitless number of items. The CT-100 transmits its location to a personal computer, enabling users to track the location of the unit at all times.
The CT-100 is currently in the testing phase and scheduled for release later this year. Approximately 2 x 2 inches, it can clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket, and uses a rechargeable battery. The tracking device does not require a line-of-sight with the open sky and can work indoors using a combination of GPS technology and cellular signals.
The CT-100 will be marketed to law enforcement and public safety agencies, schools, automotive manufacturers, shipping companies and other industries. It currently works with the Company's CDMA partner, Sprint PCS, and is expected to be supported by additional networks prior to release.
"This is our first GPS tracking device that is truly convenient to wear. We are very encouraged by the number of industries in which it can be utilized. The CT-100's technology is state of the art with respects to cost, size and usability, and we anticipate it to be extremely marketable," stated Fred Wicks, CEO and President of Homeland Integrated Security Systems, Inc.
Targets of Spying Get Smart
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121314159777262545-6dxXmClBQJW2Ji3Qov_BGfI4UfQ_20080710.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Tiny electronic-surveillance gadgets that James Bond could only dream of are increasingly turning up in boardrooms, bedrooms and bathrooms.
Crooks are parking vans outside people's homes to steal bank-account passwords and credit-card numbers, using programs that tap into Wi-Fi connections. Paparazzi hide cameras and microphones in private jets, hoping to record embarrassing celebrity video. Corporate spies plant keystroke-recording software in executives' laptops and listen in on phone conversations as they travel.
Now, people are deploying counter-spy technology to fight back. Some celebrities and corporate executives get regular sweeps of their offices, limos and private jets in search of hidden devices. Others hire security experts to safeguard their phones and home computers. And corporate security experts are advising businesspeople on how to keep company secrets safe while traveling abroad.
Demand for counterspy services has been heightened by a series of recent snooping incidents. Last month, Hollywood sleuth Anthony Pellicano, 64 years old, was convicted in federal court in Los Angeles of multiple counts of racketeering and illegal wiretapping. He worked on behalf of celebrities and moguls who were involved in personal or business disputes, including Bertram Fields, one of Hollywood's top entertainment lawyers; Brad Grey, now head of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures movie studio; and talent agent Michael Ovitz, according to the indictment. The three have denied any wrongdoing and haven't been charged with any crimes.
Actors Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine were among those who were wiretapped. Mr. Pellicano paid off phone-company workers and used a computer-software program to intercept the actors' phone calls, according to his indictment.
In April, car maker Porsche AG disclosed it had found a baby-monitoring device concealed behind the hotel sofa of its president and chief executive, Wendelin Wiedeking, last fall during his trip to Wolfsburg, Germany, for meetings with executives at Volkswagen AG. An investigation is continuing, said a company spokesman.
Kevin D. Murray, an Oldwick, N.J., counter-surveillance expert, said he received several calls from worried executives asking for sweeps of their offices and homes as soon as the Porsche incident surfaced. Mr. Murray said he handles 130 snooping investigations per year, generally charging between $4,600 and $24,000, depending on the scope of the case. His five-person operation finds devices in about 10% of the cases, a similar percentage to other firms.
Available, Affordable
The growing availability and affordability of digital surveillance equipment -- even primitive stuff such as baby monitors -- has caused mounting worries about spying, Mr. Murray says. Devices "that used to be super-duper a few years ago are ordinary now," he says. "There was a time when you had to know somebody or pay a lot of money to get the equipment. Now you can get a wireless camera for under $100 -- tiny ones, too."
Indeed, for less than $350 at spy shops and over the Internet, snoops can purchase a GPS-tracking device that is smaller than a pack of matches and includes a microphone. But because many telephones and computers are tied into network servers these days, some of the greatest threats come from malicious software and hacker attacks that reroute phone calls and steal computer passwords. Snoops install the software by sending messages with spyware attachments. Or they may steal sensitive data using programs or hardware to copy keystrokes entered onto a keyboard.
While there's anecdotal evidence that casual and malicious snooping is becoming more widespread, solid statistics are hard to come by. Many high-net-worth individuals and publicly traded companies try to keep incidents under wraps and don't report them to authorities, security experts say. The U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes only a handful of illegal-wiretapping cases annually.
Still, private-security companies say business is growing. Risk Control Strategies Inc., based in New York City, says sweeps have increased 25% in each of the past two years. It attributes the growth to a recent wave of mergers and plant closings that sometimes prompt attempts at insider trading and spying by anxious employees.
Companies also are increasingly worried about economic and industrial espionage by foreign governments and companies. Kroll Inc., a risk-control consulting company that is a unit of insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., says inquiries in Japan have doubled in the past year. Associate Managing Director David Nagata, who is based in Tokyo, counsels visitors to have their hotel rooms swept for listening devices prior to check-in and make sure they're secured from unauthorized entry. For super-secret matters, he suggests closed-circuit cameras to monitor hallway traffic and an alarm that beeps when someone approaches the room.
Recorder in the Closet
Clyde Widrig, senior managing director for technical surveillance counter-measures at Risk Control Strategies, says his firm was hired recently by a Southern California law firm to sweep for stealth recording devices. In this case, an attorney had modified a conference-call telephone in the boardroom to pick up conversations and transmit them to a tape recorder hidden in a utility closet. Mr. Widrig, a former Los Angeles police detective, says the attorney was trying to discredit a rival in competition to become partner. Instead, the firm fired him after the recording device was discovered.
Security experts say there are some simple precautions that can be taken to prevent snooping. The easiest, of course, is to look for hidden cameras, which may be disguised as ordinary objects, such as fire sprinklers or smoke detectors. Also, don't leave cell phones and laptops where someone can take them to avoid tampering. Avoid using hotel telephones and wireless computer connections for sensitive communications. Finally, use the proper network firewalls and upgrade computers with the latest encryption and security software.
High-profile executives and celebrities may opt for counter-surveillance sweeps, but the service isn't cheap. Prices begin at about $3,000 to $5,000 for a private residence or small business, based on the complexity of the job.
During the sweeps, technicians inspect areas using thermal imaging cameras to search for hot spots that indicate concealed electronic circuits, such as transmitters hidden inside walls. They use spectrum analyzers to pick up video, voice and data transmissions. And they find eavesdropping equipment by using devices that flood an area with a high-frequency radio signal and listen for reflected signals from electronic components within the intercept device.
But sometimes, these elaborate measures are undone by executives chatting on unsecured cellphones with Bluetooth headsets and tapping on unencrypted laptops. Fred Burton, a counter-espionage expert at Stratfor Inc., suggests that companies tell executives, "You have to quit yakking on the cellphone because we're able to pick up what you're saying."
Canada Human Rights Tribunal Looks To Censor Speech Critical Of Islam
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-kafkaesque-show-trial-of-mark-steyn/
Author and columnist Mark Steyn’s week-long trial for “hate speech” began in a British Columbia courtroom on June 2.
Steyn was accused of “flagrant Islamaphobia” after his bestselling book America Alone was excerpted in Canada’s oldest newsweekly magazine, Maclean’s, in 2006.
If found guilty by the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, Maclean’s could be ordered to stop publishing Steyn’s column, or other articles “likely” to expose Muslims to “hatred or contempt.” In other words, a magazine that’s been published for over a century in an ostensibly free Western nation will now be subject to state sanction and preemptive censorship. Canadian Human Rights Tribunals boast a 100% conviction rate on such “hate speech” cases, and have already handed down lifetime bans against the likes of Rev. Scott Boision. That Christian preacher is now forbidden for life from ever citing Bible verses regarding homosexuality in his sermons, or “in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet.”
So Mark Steyn’s guilty verdict seems a fait accompli. As he predicted in May, his “career in Canada will be formally ended next month.”
Canada’s liberal mainstream media more or less shrugged.
Despite the national media’s general incompetence and indifference, many troubling or just plain bizarre developments during the trial made their way into the public record nevertheless:
* Steyn’s accusers called a deconstructionist Buffy the Vampire Slayer scholar as an expert witness.
* One of his accusers admitted under oath that he’d misrepresented his group’s initial demands to the media on numerous occasions.
* Websites that linked to the “offending” Maclean’s article — including U.S.-based sites like Free Republic and Catholic Answers — were proof of Steyn’s contagious “Islamophobia.” This led another Catholic website to ask: “Catholicism: A Hate Crime in Canada?”
* Unable to refute Steyn’s statistics and facts, or to deny that the portions of the article they found most offensive were in fact chilling quotations made by radical Muslims themselves, Steyn’s accusers condemned his “tone,” use of “sarcasm,” and reliance upon “subtle intellectual arguments.”
Not a few bloggers noted ruefully that the last day of Steyn’s trial coincided with the anniversary of D-Day, and wondered what the Canadian men who’d died on Juno Beach would make of their nation today.
As for the outcome: no one knows when the Tribunal will issue its decision. As Andrew Coyne told National Review:
My hope is that it will go to appeal — in other words, I’m hoping that we lose this at the hearing level and that we appeal it to a proper court of law, as opposed to these quasi-judicial tribunals, and at that proper court of law that we make the constitutional argument that this is an infringement of our charter rights to freedom of the press. I believe that’s what we’ll do if we lose the case.
Steyn agrees. Echoing many of his supporters, he told reporters:
We want to lose so we can take it to a real court and if necessary up to the Supreme Court of Canada and we can get the ancient liberties of free-born Canadian citizens that have been taken away from them by tribunals like this.
We want those ancient civil liberties restored.
Musing on his surreal circumstances, Steyn wrote in what may be one of his last columns for Maclean’s:
By the way, I see I’ve been nominated for a National Magazine Award, to be handed out later this month. By then, Mr. Joseph [the complainants’ lawyer] will have succeeded in getting the B.C. troika effectively to ban me from Maclean’s and from all Canadian journalism. An impressive achievement. My book was a No. 1 bestseller in Canada, and the new paperback edition was at No. 4 the other day, and President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Governor Mitt Romney, Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Jon Kyl, and (at last count) six European prime ministers have either recommended the book or called me in to discuss its themes.
But in Canada it’s a hate crime.
Canada's Human Rights Tribunal Out Of Control As Pastor Fined & Banned From Stating Opposition To Homosexuality
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66704
The Canadian government has ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report.
In a decision handed down just days ago in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for "damages for pain and suffering" as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt.
According to a report from Pete Vere at the Catholic Exchange, the penalty could foreshadow the possible fate of Father Alphonse de Valk, who also has cited the biblical perspective on homosexuality in the nation's debate over same-sex "marriage" and now faces HRC charges.
Boisson had written a letter to the editor of his local Red Deer newspaper in 2002 denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as "wicked" and stating: "Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights."
The activist, local teacher Darren Lund, filed a complaint and the guilty verdict from Lori G. Andreachuk, a lawyer, was handed down some weeks ago. The latest decision involved the penalty phase of the trial.
"While agreeing that Boisson's letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to stop expressing his opinion," Vere reported.
Andreachuk noted that Lund, who brought the complaint, wasn't, in fact, injured.
"In this case there is no specific individual who can be compensated as there is no direct victim who has come forward…," she wrote.
However, that did not stop her from ordering the payment anyway.
And as for the future, she wrote:
"Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals. Further, they shall not and are prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about … Lund or … Lund's witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint. Further, all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current Web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc," the lawyer opined.
Andreachuk also ordered Boissoin to apologize for the original letter in the Red Deer Advocate and told the two "offenders" to pay $5,000.
The apology letter, Vere said, "threatens civil liberties in Canada, according to Ezra Levant, an author and lawyer who himself was targeted by an HRC attack."
"The government now believes that if it can't convince a Christian pastor that he's wrong, it will just order him to condemn himself?" Levant wrote on his blog. "Other than tribunals in Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China, where is this Orwellian 'order' considered to be justice?"
"This is like a Third World jail-house confession – where accused criminals are forced to sign false statements of guilt," Levant wrote. "We don’t even 'order' murderers to apologize to their victims' families. Because we know that a forced apology is meaningless. But not if your point is to degrade Christian pastors."
"In essence, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal is ordering to the minister to renounce his Christian faith, since his opposition to homosexuality is based upon the Judeo-Christian Bible," Vere wrote.
WND reported recently about de Valk, the target of a Human Rights Commission case over his biblical references regarding homosexuality.
"Father de Valk defended the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage during Canada's same-sex 'marriage' debate, quoting extensively from the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul II's encyclicals. Each of these documents contains official Catholic teaching. And like millions of other people throughout the world and the ages – many of whom are non-Catholics and non-Christians — Father believes that marriage is an exclusive union between a man and a woman," Vere wrote.
Vere raised the question that Canada now considers morality a "hate crime."
"If one, because of one's sincerely held moral beliefs, whether it be Jew, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, opposes the idea of same-sex marriage in Canada, is that considered 'hate'?" he asked.
Vere wrote that the response he got from Mark van Dusen, a spokesman for the federal human rights prosecution office, shocked him.
The government agent confirmed the agency investigates complaints but doesn't set public policy or moral standards. He said the agency job is to look at the circumstances and decide whether to advance it or dismiss it.
What is shocking about that, Vere wrote, is the admission that unjustified complaints can be dismissed, yet the case against de Valk has continued now for more than six months.
Natural Disasters Up More Than 400 Percent in Two Decades
http://www.naturalnews.com/023362.html
The number of natural disasters around the world has increased by more than four times in the last 20 years, according to a report released by the British charity Oxfam.
Oxfam analyzed data from the Red Cross, United Nations and researchers at Louvain University in Belgium. It found that the earth is currently experiencing approximately 500 natural disasters per year, compared with 120 per year in the early 1980s. The number of weather-related disasters in 2006 was 240, compared with 60 in 1980.
At the same time, the number of geologically related natural disasters has held steady.
"We are talking about some very unusual floods in West Africa, very unusual floods in East Africa, extraordinary floods in Mexico and parts of Central America, and heat waves in Greece and eastern Europe," report author John Magrath said.
"This is no freak year," said Oxfam director Barbara Stocking. "It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people."
Between 1985 and 1994, Oxfam found that 174 million people were affected by disasters each year. In the following decade, this figure increased by 70 percent to 254 million people per year.
The increasing disaster rate has disproportionately affected the poor, the report noted. Although rich countries tend to distribute aid primarily in the event of high-profile emergencies, the increase over the past two decades has been mostly in small to medium disasters.
But it is precisely these smaller disasters, when they follow quickly upon each other with no opportunity for recovery, that can destroy poor communities' abilities to support themselves.
Food Scarcity 'Creating New World Order'
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/160799/1/
Unprecedented food scarcity is beginning to dictate the rules of a new political order where individual countries are scrambling to secure their own food supplies with little concern for the rest of the world, says the founder of the Earth Policy Institute.
Recent manifestations of national food insecurity like export restrictions imposed by some grain-producing countries are the troublesome portents of an "entirely new chapter in the book of food security," Lester Brown told foreign correspondents in Beijing on Tuesday.
"We are in the midst of the most severe food crisis in the world's history," Brown said. "This is not your mother's food shortage...but a chronically tight food situation, a serious and long-term problem.''
Politicians have been meeting in Rome to find global solutions to soaring food prices and civil unrest caused by food shortages, but in reality many countries are already acting unilaterally to secure supplies for the future.
From Africa to Asia, countries are scrambling to buy or lease land overseas to grow crops and feed their people. China, which has to feed the world's largest population, has taken the lead by contracting land in Tanzania, Laos, Kazakhstan, Brazil, and others.
India has set its eyes on Uruguay and Paraguay, while South Korea is looking for farming deals in Sudan and Siberia. Libya and Egypt for their part have been negotiating deals to lease land in Ukraine.
The worry here, according to Brown, is that "the more influential countries would be able to secure food supplies, leaving a number of low-income, less influential countries with no food to import."
"This could create a lot of desperate countries," he says. The United Nations says soaring prices of basic foods such as rice and other cereals could affect around 100 million of the world's poorest people. In Asia, rice prices have almost tripled this year alone, leading many governments to fear the consequences if the poor cannot afford to buy their staple food.
To protect their domestic consumers, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China have all taken steps to restrict exports. This year has seen China's first grain trade deficit in decades. It has scrapped export rebates for wheat, rice, paddy, maize and soybeans, and it will start imposing export duties of 5 to 25 percent.
World Worries as China Begins to Import Grain
As the current food crisis unfolded, China's role as the world's largest grain producer and consumer has come in for increasing scrutiny. Politicians around the globe are looking at China, which has to feed 1.3 billion people, with apprehension, worrying that any change in the country's long-held policy of self-sufficiency could have a tremendous effect on the global grain markets.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said China's main priority is to feed its own population and that this would be the country's "biggest contribution to the world." Beijing contends it has large grain reserves to weather the current food crisis. However, the size of the country's state and private reserves is uncertain.
"It is mostly rice," says Zhao Jinhou, a grain analyst with Shenyin Securities. Chinese planners subsidize grain production and this has led to discrepancies between international and domestic prices of rice. While global prices of rice have soared, China's domestic prices have remained stable. "There has been no incentive to sell the rice stocks," Zhao says.
In 2007, China produced more than 501.5 million tons of grain, almost level with the nation's annual consumption of 510 million tons, according to official statistics. Chinese officials have vowed to keep the nation's grain output stable and above 500 million tons to cope with rising global grain prices. But analysts say even a stable grain output in China could do little to slow down global price surges as the country is already a net grain importer.
Last year, China imported 31 million tons of grain, or 22 million tons more than what it exported. The bulk of the total imports were soybeans.
"The Chinese have sacrificed their self-sufficiency in soybeans in order to preserve land and water for other crops," says Brown, predicting it is only a matter of time before Beijing moves to the world markets for grain as it has done with soybeans.
"China only needs to import 10 percent of its grain consumption to influence markets greatly," he reckons.
The devastation caused by the grade-8 Sichuan earthquake on May 12 has also heightened speculations that Beijing may take further steps to restrict its exports to rein in inflation and ensure domestic supplies.
"More restrictions on grain exports would hurt China's ability to assume its leading role of a big country in the current crisis," cautions Mei Xinyu, researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the ministry of commerce. "The side effects of further tightening of exports would be significant and there will be more harm than benefit."
The impact of Asia's export curbs has already provoked riots in Africa and Haiti, places that depend on cheap food imports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that high prices and export restrictions will cut the volume of rice traded internationally by 9 percent in 2008, which will drive prices even higher.
At the ongoing food summit in Rome, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed nations around the world to ease a wide range of export bans and import tariffs to help millions of poor cope with the highest food prices in 30 years.
Water Shortage Could Be The Biggest Danger Of All
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/05/ccwater105.xml
A catastrophic water shortage could prove an even bigger threat to mankind this century than soaring food prices and the relentless exhaustion of energy reserves, according to a panel of global experts at the Goldman Sachs "Top Five Risks" conference.
Nicholas Stern, author of the Government's Stern Review on the economics of climate change, warned that underground aquifers could run dry at the same time as melting glaciers play havoc with fresh supplies of usable water.
"The glaciers on the Himalayas are retreating, and they are the sponge that holds the water back in the rainy season. We're facing the risk of extreme run-off, with water running straight into the Bay of Bengal and taking a lot of topsoil with it," he said.
"A few hundred square miles of the Himalayas are the source for all the major rivers of Asia - the Ganges, the Yellow River, the Yangtze - where 3bn people live. That's almost half the world's population," he said.
Lord Stern, the World Bank's former chief economist, said governments had been slow to accept the awful truth that usable water is running out. Fresh rainfall is not enough to refill the underground water tables.
"Water is not a renewable resource. People have been mining it without restraint because it has not been priced properly," he said.
Farming makes up 70pc of global water demand. Fresh water for irrigation is never returned to underground basins. Most is lost through leaks and evaporation.
A Goldman Sachs report said water was the "petroleum for the next century", offering huge rewards for investors who know how to play the infrastructure boom. The US alone needs up to $1,000bn (£500bn) in new piping and waste water plants by 2020.
"Demand for water continues to escalate at unsustainable rates. At the risk of being alarmist, we see parallels with Malthusian economics. Globally, water consumption is doubling every 20 years. By 2025, it is estimated that about one third of the global population will not have access to adequate drinking water," it said.
China faces an acute challenge. It makes up 21pc of humanity but controls just 7pc of the water supply. The water basin in parts of northern China is falling by one meter a year due to overpumping. In Heibei province the aquifer fell three meters last year. An increasing number of rivers are running dry.
Disputes over cross-border water basins have already prompted Egypt to threaten military action against any country that draws water off the Nile without agreement.
The shift to an animal protein diet across Asia has added to the strain. It takes 15 cubic metres of water on average to produce 1kg of beef, compared to six for poultry, and 1.5 for corn.
Goldman Sachs advises investors to focus on the high-tech end of the world's $425bn water industry. But beware the consumer "backlash" against bottled water, now viewed as an eco-hostile waste of fuel.
It is eyeing companies that produce or service filtration equipment (which can now extract anything from caffeine to animal growth hormones by using nanotechnologies), ultraviolet disinfection, desalination technology using membranes, automated water meters and specialist niches in water reuse.
It is difficult to find a "pure play" on water equities. GE is a market leader in the field, but the sector makes up just 2pc of its colossal turnover.
The revenue share of the world's top water companies that comes from the sector is Veolia (34pc), Suez (16pc), Ferrovial (20pc), Sabesp (100pc), Severn Trent (100pc), RWE (23pc), ITT Corp (32pc) and Pentair (75pc).
Goldman Sachs said the best option is to spread investments across a basket of small "potential takeout candidates" such as Badger Meter, Calgon Carbon, Clarcor, Pentair, Pall, Instituform, Hyflux, Tetra Tech, Acqua America and Watts Water.
Stanford professor Donald Kennedy said global climate change was now setting off a self-feeding spiral. "We've got droughts combined with a psychotic excess of rainfall," he said.
"There are 800m people in the world who are 'food insecure'. They can't grow enough food, or can't afford to buy it. This is a seismic shift in the global economy."
EU looks to enter 'new era' as player on world stage, enforce foreign policy with EU Army
http://euobserver.com/24/26264
The European Parliament is seeking to bolster its role in the bloc's common foreign and security policy (CFSP), with senior MEPs saying it is time for Europe to become a "player and not just a payer" on the world stage.
Polish centre-right MEP and head of the foreign affairs committee, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, says that EU foreign is moving "from one era to another" with the new Lisbon Treaty, due to kick in next year.
The proposed new EU foreign minister and diplomatic service as well as the possibility for a group of member states to move ahead in defence cooperation mean foreign policy is "one of the most innovative parts of the treaty."
The fact that Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, will for the first time be present at the MEPs' annual debate on CFSP on Wednesday is in itself a "turning point," said the Pole at a briefing on Tuesday.
Euro-deputies will today debate a report that sets out principles for the EU's foreign policy - such as respect for human rights - calls for certain issues to be prioritised and says that the CFSP budget from now until 2013 is "insufficient."
"Either we have to beef up foreign policy financially, or we have to rethink whether we really want to be a global player," said Mr Saryusz-Wolski, who next week will travel to Paris to discuss the issue with the incoming French EU presidency.
"We ask why is nothing ready, prepared for the events that will happen if the treaty comes into force, and we haven't had an answer," he said.
"We are asking this question also: do you have any hidden reserves? What's your view? How to finance the new set up? No answer."
Democratic oversight
The report also calls for parliament to be given greater democratic oversight over the area, which to date has remained firmly the domain of member states.
It suggests that the foreign minister "regularly" appear before MEPs and that the parliament be "fully consulted" on who the foreign minister should be, as well as what the diplomatic service should look like.
Deputies are also urging the future EU foreign minister to inform the parliament before any "common actions" are taken.
"If we start sending soldiers into danger, it is up to the parliament to give its blessing," says Mr Saryusz-Wolski.
The report also takes a more long-term view of the future of common foreign and security policy, with the head of the foreign affairs committee urging the bloc to stop acting like a "fire brigade" rushing to put out emergencies here and there and to think more of the "long-term strategic interests of the Union…20–30 years ahead."
EU army
Mr Saryusz-Wolski, who believes the union will gradually develop its own army, says it is no longer enough that the bloc exercises its traditional role as a soft power.
"Too often we spend money without any conditions being attached. I am against Europe being a payer and not a player," he said.
But he admits there is a "fear" in the parliament that the foreign minister and the new permanent president of the European Council may add to the trill of voices of on the EU stage all claiming to speak for Europe and may not turn Europe into a player.
The potential for overlap between the two posts – starting in January - and for rivalry with the European Commission president is high.
Debates on the posts are expected to start in earnest in autumn and be wrapped up by December.
In time-honoured EU fashion, balancing who wins the posts will have to involve the consideration of a series of factors, including nationality, whether a candidate comes from an old or new member state or a small or big member state, and the person's political hue.
Sarkozy presses case for unified military in Europe
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4083354.ece
A confidential five-page document, detailing France’s enthusiasm for common EU funding of military operations, has been circulated to European governments, it was reported last night.
The proposals were supported by a speech made by President Sarkozy last night in Athens, in which he emphasised his desire to push forward his plans for military integration in Europe.
These include the establishment of a permanent operational headquarters in Brussels and development exchange training for officers. Britain has been opposed to the idea of a EU military headquarters, with critics regarding the proposal as likely to undermine the Nato military alliance.
However, a spokesman for Gordon Brown was reported as saying that while the British Government was committed to Nato as the cornerstone of European defence, it supported structured EU defence cooperation, as long as it neither duplicated the work of Nato, nor removed the British veto.
France warns Ireland on EU treaty 'No' vote
http://euobserver.com/9/26299/?rk=1
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has warned Ireland about the consequences of voting "No" in Thursday's referendum, saying the Irish would be the "first victim" if they reject the EU treaty.
Speaking on France's RTL radio, Mr Kouchner said that a "No" vote would be met by "gigantic incomprehension" in the rest of Europe.
Mr Kouchner alluded to the Irish being ungrateful about what the country has received from the EU since its membership in 1973.
Ireland has strongly benefitted from EU farm aid and structural aid over the years and has managed to turn itself into one of the most prosperous member states in the EU.
With the latest poll showing only a narrow gap between the "Yes" and the "No" side, politicians in larger member states particularly cannot understand why the treaty may be defeated.
"I believe the first victim of an eventual no would be the Irish. They have benefitted more than others," said Mr Kouchner.
"Yes, they're not happy because maybe nobody told them that Europe is confronting the rest of the world and that to have advantages for themselves, for the Irish...well, Europe has to develop, has to go in the direction of the Treaty of Lisbon," he said.
"It would be very, very, very troubling...that we could not count on the Irish, who themselves have counted a lot on Europe's money,"
The comments are the most outspoken from such a high-ranking politician on the issue, with member states so far careful not to be seen as interfering in Ireland's vote.
Referring to a rejection of the treaty - which needs to be ratified by all member states to come into force - Mr Kouchner said this was "beginning to be envisaged" almost everywhere.
But he said that France, which holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency from July, would continue with implementation of the treaty anyway while trying to persuade Ireland, which already voted twice on the bloc's Nice Treaty, to "put this treaty back on the drawing board."
His comments mirror those of French Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit who told Le Monde on Monday "Why say yes to something that forces them to share what they get with the new EU members from Eastern Europe? The basic reaction is to protect one's own interests."
"A referendum must have consequences: if we say 'No', we leave Europe," he added.
Ireland is the only country to vote on the EU treaty and is feeling the strong pressure from the rest of Europe to secure a "Yes" vote. All the main political parties support the charter but the outcome is likely to hinge on turnout, with a low voter show at the ballot box aiding the anti-treaty camp.
Voting has already started in some part of the country on Monday. Five islands – with a total electorate of 745 people – off the coast of County Donegal traditionally vote early to avoid bad weather delay. The defence forces voted by post last week.
The main polls close at 10 pm on Thursday (12 June), but ballot counting will take place the next day.
Arab and African States uneasy about EU/Med Partnership with Israel
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL10252652.html
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday a EU proposal for an economic and security union with southern Mediterranean states was an insult to Arabs and Africans.
"This is taking us for fools," Gaddafi said. "We do not belong to Brussels. Our Arab League is located in Cairo and the African Union is located in Addis Ababa. If they want cooperation they have to go through Cairo and Addis Ababa."
France proposed the union last year as a way of boosting ties with the European Union's southern neighbours and improving trade and security cooperation.
The plan is due to be unveiled in Paris on July 13 but has received a mixed welcome from the southern countries.
Gaddafi said the proposal involved economic projects that had failed already such as the Barcelona Process, an earlier attempt at north-south cooperation launched in 1995.
"They are throwing us bait to attract us to such projects. This is an insult to us Arabs and Africans," he said in Tripoli at the start of a mini-summit of five North African states and Syria.
Libya called the meeting to seek a common stance on the proposed union and discuss Israel's role. Arab governments fear that joining the union alongside Israel might imply a normalisation of their relations with the Jewish state.
They have also called for clarification on the proposed union's institutions, financing and decision making process.
"If they come with an offer based on value and principle like fighting disease or climate change we can maybe discuss this. But they come with economic offers because they consider us as hungry people," Gaddafi said.
The Tripoli meeting was attended by leaders of Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania. Morocco's King Mohammed did not attend and was represented by Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi.
Morocco, a staunch ally of France, has shown most willingness to take part in the union.
Olmert: I must consider ramifications of resignation
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3541435,00.html
WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to resign should he be charged with receiving a bribe from an American businessman, but from an interview published Friday in the United States it appears that he does not believe this is the right time to do so.
"I don't really see that this will bring any better outcome for the country at this point. Not that a person is indispensable or irreplaceable. . . . But given the circumstances right now, I think it will not do good that I step down at this point.
"I have to think about it. I have to think about the possible ramifications of an early retirement," Olmert said in an interview with the Washington Post and Newsweek held before the gag order placed on details pertaining to the new police investigation against him was partially lifted.
"I was not born to be prime minister, and I'm not going to stay here until the end of my life. I'm too young for that. Right now, I think it will be a mistake (to leave), and I have a job to accomplish, a vision to realize. This is the great vision of peace which I think is possible this time more than ever," he told his interviewers.
The prime minister said in the interview that the gaps with the Palestinians could be bridged and that the borders problem could be resolved, leaving the Jerusalem issue to be discussed at a later stage.
Olmert noted that "a more detailed and accurate outline of how a solution of the two states should look" could be achieved. "Some of the issues will be discussed later by agreement. The future of Jerusalem is one of them. It is probably going to be the last issue."
'Talks with Syria ought to be discussed quietly'
The prime minister added, "The borders, once agreed, will be closer to what they were in '67 than what they are today because we will give up a large part of the territories . . . in the context of full, comprehensive peace and the total end of any hostilities."
Addressing the refugee problem, he said, I don't think they have to give (the right of return) up. They don't have a right of return, and I don't think that this is on the agenda as far as Israel is concerned."
Referring to reports on peace talks with Syria, Olmert noted that "the relations between us and Syria have to be reexamined, (as well as) the possibility of making peace. It's not something that can be done publicly. I don't mind that (Syrian) President Assad made an announcement that there will be negotiations, but the actual negotiations ought to be discussed quietly. In principle, we are ready for it if they are."
He added that the US does not object such talks. "I think that if the Syrians will handle the negotiations with us in an appropriate manner, they will be surprised to see how these negotiations can improve their status with America.
"My personal view is that no one can be of better help to this process than (US) President Bush. Because any new president in America, if confronted with this issue, will have to wait two years at least until he learns enough and finds the appropriate time to devote to this, while Bush knows, Bush is familiar, and Bush understands.
"Therefore, if one is interested in a (Syrian-Israeli) process that ultimately leads to a public endorsement by the United States of America, then he has to hurry up. I believe, for reasons that I don't want to go into, that for Syria, the road to Washington must cross Jerusalem," Olmert said.
90% say Israel tainted with corruption
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659695148&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Ninety percent of the Israeli public thinks that the country is tainted with corruption and over half say that corruptibility is a necessary prerequisite to success in the political sphere, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute's (IDI) annual Democracy Index, which was submitted Tuesday to President Shimon Peres.
The findings reflect a "growing mistrust of government institutions and strong anti-political feelings, together with a demand for the state to improve its functioning and resume its position as the main player in the political-social-economic arena," the report said.
Only nine percent of those polled said that Israel has very little corruption, and only one in a hundred said that the country was entirely corruption-free.
In general, the Israeli public is displaying a growing indifference to politics, the survey found, with only 60 percent showing interest in politics and only 43 percent admitting to discussing politics with their friends and family - down from 73 percent in 2006.
The survey found that for the first time in many years, the public did not rate the Supreme Court as the top institution safeguarding democracy in Israel. Only 49 percent of those polled expressed their trust in the Supreme Court, as opposed to 61 percent in 2007.
The study also gauged the public's assessment of various institutions, placing the IDF at the head of the list of institutions which the public trusts the most at 71 percent. Confidence in the president rose from 22 percent in 2007 to 47 percent. Approval of the police fell significantly, from 41 percent in 2007 to 33 percent.
A meager 17 percent expressed trust in the prime minister.
The survey found that the public's general level of satisfaction with Israeli democracy rose to 43 percent - up from 34 percent in the 2007 index. The survey also showed that a sizeable majority - 80 percent - of citizens is very proud to be Israeli, and 83 percent said that they want to continue living in Israel in the long term.
"It should be pointed out that these findings primarily attest to an emotional loyalty to the state and homeland, and less to respondents' feelings about the present situation," the report said.
"We are in a very dangerous situation," IDI head Dr. Arik Carmon said. "Israelis are turning their back on politics, rejecting politicians and expressing no-confidence in central institutions, to an extent that endangers Israeli politics."
"Elected officials must realize that they are serving the public rather than themselves," Peres said and called on the younger generation to go into politics and purge the political sphere "from the inside." He also called for a regional election system that would ensure the election of students in the general elections.
Labor MK Ophir Pines lashed out at Justice Minister Daniel Freidmann, claiming that it was the latter's far-reaching proposals for reforming the Supreme Court which could account for the public's mistrust of the institution.
"The findings show that the judicial branch is under a tangible existential threat," Pines said. "Over the past year the justice minister has succeeded in destroying trust and prestige that were accrued over dozens of years."
Pines warned that Friedmann was "endangering Israeli democracy" and called for the justice minister's ouster. "This is a sad day for the rule of law and democracy in Israel," he said. "Those who aspired to weaken… the judiciary can be pleased with themselves."
Israelis, Palestinians agree to begin drafting elements of a final peace accord
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/07/israel.palestinians.ap/index.html
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to start drafting elements of a proposed peace accord, the chief Palestinian negotiator said Friday.
Ahmed Qureia, the veteran negotiator heading the Palestinian team, made it clear the decision did not necessarily reflect agreement on major issues. But this would be the first time since negotiations resumed more than six months ago that anything would be committed to paper.
"We agreed with the Israelis to begin writing the positions," Qureia told reporters late Friday.
Israeli government officials would not comment and Qureia did not explain why the two sides had agreed at this point to begin drafting a text.
However, the timing coincides with a corruption scandal in Israel that threatens to unseat Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Should Israel find itself going to early elections, polls show Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes major territorial concessions to the Palestinians, becoming Israel's next premier. However, drafting during previous rounds of peace talks has not always meant that those positions were then preserved for future negotiators.
Qureia did not say what issue the two sides would start with. If they reach agreement on any issue, then they will draft a single provision, he said. If not, they will lay out on paper their divergent views, he added.
Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in late November under U.S. prodding. Continued Israeli settlement construction and Israeli security concerns have clouded negotiations, and both sides have expressed doubt about achieving the declared goal of clinching a final accord by the end of the year.
Qureia confirmed that Israeli peace negotiators have offered the Palestinians land in exchange for territory where major West Bank settlements lie, but he termed their offer "unacceptable."
Palestinians would like to incorporate all of the West Bank into a future state, but their moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, has acknowledged that Israel, with U.S. backing, likely will hold on to blocs where tens of thousands of settlers live. In exchange, Abbas is prepared to relinquish some West Bank land for an equal amount of Israeli land.
Qureia would not say how much territory Israel offered, where it is located or how much West Bank land the Jewish state proposed to keep under a final peace accord with the Palestinians.
"The Israelis presented a land swap offer, but this offer is unacceptable to us," he said.
Other Palestinian officials have said Israel has presented maps giving it 10 percent of the West Bank in exchange for southern Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip.
Hamas pounds Israel with missiles, rockets, mortars, suicide bombers all day Thursday
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5344
Under cover of a barrage of more than 50 missiles, mortars and rocket, Hamas made three attempts to breach the Gaza border fence for major suicide bombings, the last one late Thursday, June 12. They sent a bulldozer to ram Netiv Ha’asara, a bomb car to crash the border fence and gunmen on foot to blow up the Erez crossing. Israel ground and air units foiled them all.
Israeli locations from Ashkelon in the north down to Shear Hanegev, Kibbutz Nir Oz and Sderot were struck by 20 missiles, one Grad rocket and more than 35 mortar shells. A woman was injured at Kibbutz Yad Mordecai. Sirens warned people under attack to stay in indoors, as fires blazed and explosions erupted – one close to the Barzilai regional hospital in Ashkelon.
The first Hamas attempt to blow up Israeli military guard posts at the Erez crossing was mounted early Thursday as the Israeli defense ministry’s political coordinator Amos Gilead traveled to Cairo to hand over Israel’s acceptance of the Egyptian formula for a truce in Gaza.
They were intercepted and at least one was killed by Israeli ground and air fire.
Wednesday, Israel’s security cabinet approved the decision by prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak to accept a ceasefire with Hamas (called “a lull”), instead of launching the large-scale military operation needed to finally relieve southwestern Israel of daily Palestinian missile, rocket and mortar attacks. Hamas greeted that decision with the heaviest Palestinian barrage in months.
Its spokesman replied to an Israeli demand with derision: The captive soldier Gilead Shalit will be released as part of truce accord only in Israel’s dreams. Hamas PM Ismail Haniya said: “Ariel Sharon is neither alive nor dead a fate all Israel’s leaders will share.”
The population is preparing further protest action, accusing the Olmert government of cowardice, sacrificing their security for self-serving political ends and risking the loss of the Negev, the southern half of Israel.
An undetectable route to Iran - with US help
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659672978&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Imagine this: Ten fighter jets take off from a base in northern Israel, fly over Jordan, Iraq and into Iran to bomb air-defense missile systems, radar stations and nuclear facilities. They then leave Iranian airspace safely without sustaining any enemy fire.
Sounds implausible? If the IAF has its way, the possibility will become realistic in the near future.
The key is the F-22 single-seater, double-engine aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. Through a combination of its shape, composite materials, color and other integrated systems, it can fly in enemy airspace without being detected.
Israel has had its sights set on the F-22 since its development began in the early 1990s. Today it is the only 5th generation fighter jet fully operational with stealth capabilities. Branded the "Raptor" by the US Air Force, it operates out of Langley, Virginia, Florida and New Mexico.
To date, the US government has clamped an embargo on the sale of the aircraft to foreign countries. But on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly raised the issue with President George Bush in Washington. Other talks have taken place in recent months at the Defense Ministry-Pentagon level.
According to defense sources, the Pentagon might be inclined to change its mind and allow a sale to Israel, particularly in light of the looming nuclear threat from Iran.
"The prospect of a squadron of stealth-enabled F-22s flying undetected into Iran, opening the internal compartments that carry their missiles and dropping them into the nuclear sites - that is one piece of deterrence!" said a source close to the IAF.
The F-22 would be used in an air strike to first blow out enemy air defense systems and radar stations and to create "clear skies" for the rest of the IAF's fleet of F-15 and F-16 bombers.
Maj.-Gen. Elazar Shkedy, who stepped down as IAF commander last month, admitted on several occasions that given the opportunity, Israel would buy the F-22, no matter the $150 million per-unit price tag. Shkedy's principle was that Israel always needs to have the most-advanced and most-superior military platforms.
The congressional ban on any such sale was imposed out of fear that the plane's unique stealth technology could fall into hostile hands.
The F-22 assembly line in Fort Worth is inside the same hanger where Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), but is closed in by a fence which is covered by a blue canvas sheet.
Last year, Likud MK Yuval Steinitz was one of the first foreigners to see the assembly line close up when he visited the plant together with a delegation of Israeli lawmakers.
One could make an argument that Israel is a close ally of the US and therefore could be trusted. But the Pentagon has been suspicious of Israel since 2003, when relations soured over Israel's upgrade of Chinese drones.
But Israel is not the only country asking for the plane. Japan has expressed interest. And during a visit to Australia in February, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was presented with a request to buy the plane and said he would look into the possibility of lifting the ban.
If Congress decided to allow foreign sales, the US would not be able to sell the plane just to Israel. It would likely have to sell to additional allies and could face a complex dilemma if and when Saudi Arabia asked to buy the plane.
If the ban is lifted in the coming months, Israel could potentially receive the plane within the next two years, according to Yiftah Shapir, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and author of its annual Middle East Military Balance Report. By contrast, Israel is set to receive the stealth JSF in 2014, or 2013 at the earliest.
"The F-22 would provide Israel with a new level of air dominance," Shapir said. "It is questionable whether Israel really needs it, but it would certainly contribute to IAF capabilities in face of the Iranian threat."
The real threat of Iran is not just nuclear
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=2312
In a single day, Israeli Defense Minister Mofaz sent the price of oil skyrocketing by $11 a barrel by his alarmist pronouncement about military action against Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni have delivered themselves of the now pro forma warnings against Iranian nuclear weapons. When they speak of Iran, the United States officials and presidential candidates are likewise all focused on the nuclear weapons issue, as if that is the only threat posed by Iran and the most urgent one. The ultimate option for dealing with that threat which is debated most heatedly is an air strike against nuclear weapons facilities.
Of course, the prospect of nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranian Mullahs is frightening. But why is it frightening? The United States, Russia, Britain, the USSR, India, Israel and Pakistan all have nuclear weapons, and North Korea probably does as well. So what? The prospect of Iranian nuclear weapons is frightening because of what the Iranian government - the Islamic Republic of Iran - stands for, and because of the goals that it announces day and night, and its apparent readiness to achieve them by all means possible: a world without Zionism and America, an international Islamic caliphate, a Middle East dominated by Iranian radical Shi'ism.
Iran after an air strike that destroys all of its nuclear facilities, would still be Iran ruled by religious fanatics with the same program. Iran would still have its IRGC, its Hezbollah, its Hamasand its Islamic Jihad.Iran would also have a very much bigger chip on its shoulder, and it would have earned sympathy in the Middle East among the anti-American crowd as a victim of the United States. No Arab regime, and no Muslim regime, regardless of its real opinions, could openly support an attack on another Muslim country by outsiders.
But Iran is not just, or primarily, dangerous because it might develop nuclear weapons. Iran is dangerous because it is trying to undermine the United States and the west, and allies of the United States, including but not limited to Israel. The nature of the Iranian program was dramatically illustrated only a few weeks ago in the Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon, quietly blessed by the Doha agreement. While most of the Arab world and the west looked on with benign unconcern, some Arab clerics voiced their deep concerns. Iran's supreme leader has again insisted that Iran is not seeking to make nuclear weapons, and that just might well be true. So what? Imad Moughnieh and Hassan Nassrallah and their activities represent the real danger from Iran.
The nature of the Iranian ideology and the threat it poses is described in a recent book by Ronen Bergman - "Point of no Return" (in Hebrew) - the English version is "The Secret War with Iran" - the 30 year struggle with the west. Bergman emphasizes that many analysts believe Israeli and American emphasis on the Iranian nuclear program is misplaced. The threat posed by Iranian terror activities and propaganda is underestimated. The nuclear program is only a means to an end, the end being domination of the Middle East. In a sense, destruction of Israel and propaganda against Israel is also only a means to an end, since it is intended to position Iran as the champion of Muslim and Arab rights, allowing it to occupy the seat of leadership once occupied by Nasser's Egypt. Since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, and especially after it emerged from the Iraq-Iran war, Iran has pursued its goals of combating the West, Israel and moderate Islam with singular persistence, by ingenious and effective means, most of which do not involve spectacular hi-tech weaponry.
The situation is similar to the misreading of terrorist groups before 9-11, when the US was obsessed with the idea that terrorists were seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Huge resources were directed at this issue. In the end, Osama Bin Laden's devastating attack was carried out with inexpensive knives and simple primitive techniques. Hezbollah did not need any atom bombs to take over Beirut - only relatively primitive AK-47 assault rifles. This is the real threat that is in place now. The preaching of Hassan Nassrallah and the suicide bombings and rocket attacks used to back it up are real and present dangers, whereas the nuclear threat is only an emerging one.
There is another and more sinister similarity. With their eyes on the precedent of the Afghani Mujahedin, the Iranians are quite taken with the idea that a smallish conflict or set of conflicts in the Midde East can bring down a mighty superpower. They, and the entire Arab and Muslim world, believe that the Soviet Union was brought down by the war in Afghanistan. A few fanatics armed with primitive weapons, not A-bombs and chemical warfare, were victorious over Soviet tanks and MiGs, and the nuclear weapons of the USSR were useless in that conflict. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has often alluded to the demise of the Soviet Union when prophecying a similar fate for the United States.
So what if Iran "only" attains the nuclear fuel cycle and renounces nuclear weapons? What if they strike a deal with the west - no nuclear weapons, in return for economic support? Will Iran become a benign country? Picture Iran with no nuclear weapons, but as rich as Germany or France, and still committed to overthrowing the influence of moderate Islam, the west and Israel. Picture a world in which Iran controls the price of oil and decides who gets it, and installs radical Shi'a regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other countries. Yet they haven't dropped a single atom bomb on anybody and they do not have any bombs. That scenario is far more realistic and probable than a nuclear attack on Israel, and it represents a devastating threat. Iran already controls Syria and Lebanon, and they bid fair to control the Palestinian authority as well as Iraq. Who is next?
I do not offer solutions here. The first step in solving the problem is to understand the real danger, which is radical Islamism, not nuclear weapons. By offering to "trade" other concessions for a pledge not to develop nuclear weapons, and by focusing only on this issue, the west is playing into the hands of Iran.
The Shame Game: Rivals Accuse Leading Clerics of Massive Financial Corruption
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366041,00.html
Tehran is abuzz with revelations from a regime insider about financial corruption of mind-boggling proportions by key figures of the ruling theocracy, including leading clerics. The whistle-blowing signals an escalation of factional feuding never before seen in the past three decades of the ayatollahs' regime.
The cycle of name-and-shame, with opposing factions alternately spilling the beans on each other, is spiraling out of control. The charges of massive financial fraud now out in the open first surfaced in a recent speech by Abbas Palizar, a member of the Investigative Committee of the Majlis (Parliament). He accused 44 of the most senior ruling clerics and officials of the regime not just of robbing it blind, but also of plotting the physical elimination of their rivals. He divulged information indicating that some of the plane crashes of recent years resulting in the deaths of several cabinet ministers and high-ranking Revolutionary Guards commanders were not accidents.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quickly caught on to the seriousness of this new round of infighting. Seeking to slow its impact on the regime's disintegration from within, he devoted a good portion of recent public speeches to calls for unity, while expressing implicit support for Palizar. Khamenei keeps warning, to no avail, about the “enemy” lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike at the opportune moment. To be sure, what he is really calling for is the absolute obedience of all lesser factions in favor of the ruling one, which is effectively the political embodiment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its military, security, political and financial interests.
Palizar's revelations are all the more significant because he is a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the IRGC. Traditionally, when the notorious IRGC gets involved in name-and-shame, it quickly turns into name-shame-purge-and-eliminate. This may very well be a prelude to the physical purge of rivals or even disobedient allies. The rival faction fired back, as Palizar is reportedly detained on June 11, 2008, on a wide range of charges including "spreading rumor."
The names named in the massive financial corruption scandal are: Ayatollah Imami Kashani, a member of the Guardians ýCouncil and Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader; Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardians Council and Assembly of Experts and former head of the ýjudiciary; Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a very high-ranking cleric who is also a source of religious emulation; and (to no one's surprise) former president and long-time big shot Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family.
The new phase of purge-and-eliminate, which began just before the March Parliamentary election, can be expected to worsen as the movement for democracy increases its pressure on ruling figures. Protesters are making inroads on college campuses, and strikes and protests have become commonplace in many factories and workshops in Iran.
Meanwhile world opposition to Tehran's continued nuclear defiance is expected to result in the tightening of UN and EU sanctions. The implications for the ruling regime are dire. At the same time, the US-Iraq security agreement to be signed this summer has set off alarm bells in Tehran, where the ayatollahs see it as a roadblock to their incursions into Iraq. Iraqi and American officials openly talk about Iran's campaign to torpedo this agreement, harshly criticized by just about everybody, from Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, to Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Larijani, the new Speaker of the Parliament.
The international indignation with Tehran has been fueled by recent revelations in London by the opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran. According to the NCRI, Iran has allocated $2.5 billion to fund its proxy terror network in Iraq. The Daily Telegraph report on the NCRI's revelations said Khamenei earmarked the funds for the IRGC's infamous Qods Force.
The NCRI spokesman also told the paper that the regime's weaponry program is focusing on “powerful explosive devices that are capable of piercing impenetrable armour…It is not just Iraq that Iran is using as a springboard for its attacks against the West, now the weapons are going to Afghanistan too, as part of Iran's threat to the West." The daily adds: “To ensure its production is not vulnerable to attack [Iran] has spread manufacture across three secret facilities. The NCRI identified 16 training centres for insurgents and 51 secret smuggling routes across Iran's borders.”
The internal disintegration of the ruling regime, rise of anti-government protests, setback in Iraq and international sanctions targeting its nuclear agenda, are all dynamically intertwined. But the core component of a continuing downward spiral for the regime, vital to the realization of democratic change, is the role of the democratic opposition movement.
The key to the success of democracy in Iran is to empower the Iranian people to take matters into their own hands, and the key to doing that is to untie the hands of their main opposition group. European Parliament Vice President Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras told the European Parliament in early June, "The National Council of Resistance of Iran, chaired by Mrs. Rajavi is the only hope, is the only solution, is the most direct, clean and cost effective way to bring democracy and freedom to the Iranian people and to free the international community of the threat that the present tyrannical regime in Tehran represents." Many in the United States Congress have already endorsed Dr. Quadras's view.
Church fights to stay open in Turkey
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.fights.to.stay.open.in.turkey/19483.htm
A legally recognised church in Turkey is fighting to stay open after police last week delivered a letter from the government stating that it will be closed within days.
The letter said Batikent Protestant Church in the capital city Ankara would be closed because it is meeting in a building that is not approved as a place of worship, according to International Christian Concern on Tuesday.
But the church argues that it had won a court case last year against the local government over zoning code violations, and was essentially fighting a legal battle over a case it had already won.
“It is very obvious that what is happening to our church is a pre-meditated, continuous and jointly orchestrated direct attack against the Church as a whole in Turkey by the right-wing Islamic government (AK Party) that is currently in control in Turkey,” said the church’s founding pastor Daniel Wickwire, according to ICC.
Wickwire, who has been a missionary pastor in Ankara for the past 23 years, and his lawyers opened a court case to challenge the police notice on June 4. He accused the Yenimahalle Municipal Government and the national Ministry of the Interior of trying to shut down the church.
The government has also been the source of the pastor’s personal legal difficulties. Turkey refuses to give Wickwire a residence permit or a work permit as a missionary, so he has been forced to stay in Turkey as a tourist for the past 19 years, having to leave the country every 90 days.
In addition, his applications for a work permit at the Turkish Consulate in Chicago were mysteriously “lost”, Wickwire claims
“The consulate officials became very nervous and said that they would lose their jobs if they were to give out this information,” said the pastor, recalling the occasion his wife had returned to the consulate to ask for updates on his application process. “They said that if we were Muslims we would not be having this kind of trouble.”
Turkey’s population is nearly all Muslim, with 99.8 per cent of its people reportedly followers of Islam, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The country has a history of Christian persecution, including the horrific murder of three Christian workers last April by Muslim extremists in the Bible publishing house where they worked.
The murders raised serious concerns within the European Union as to whether Turkey, which is applying for entry into the 27-member bloc, can protect the religious freedoms of its Christian population, which numbers only around 100,000. The issue of religious freedom in Turkey has been prominent since talks on Turkey’s entry began in 2005.
In ICC’s latest report, Pastor Wickwire said he has been involved in over 15 court cases in the last six years to keep his church open.
“It is high time for the international community to speak out against such overt, blatant and continual harassment and persecution of the church,” Wickwire urged.
Indian churches troubled by religion attacks in 'God's own country'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/indian.churches.troubled.by.religion.attacks.in.gods.own.country/19482.htm
Church leaders have expressed concern over mob attacks on religious targets in the southern Indian state of Kerala whose own tourism department promotes it as "God's own country".
Spiritual personalities of all faiths including Christian, Hindu and Muslim have been under intense police and public scrutiny since May following the arrest of a high-profile Hindu astrologist in early May on allegations of sexually abusing young girls in orphanages he ran.
The astrologist and Hindu sage Santosh Madhavan is also alleged to have been involved in some dubious land deals with the support of top police and politicians who flocked to him for spiritual guidance.
Madhavan's arrest was followed by a widespread crackdown on sages of all creeds by the police in Kerala, whose government is headed by Communists, while the youth wing of the Communist Party and Hindu extremists have attacked alleged faith-healing centres.
"The law should certainly catch up with those abusing religion," Philip N Thomas, the secretary of the Kerala Council of Churches, told Ecumenical News International on 10 June. "But, unfortunately, it has now become a handy tool to discredit religion and faith."
As part of an investigation into faith-healing centres, police have several times raided the offices of the influential Gospel for Asia group and the Believers Church in central Kerala.
Hindu groups mounted a huge protest march to the headquarters of the Believers Church in early June, and some protesters attacked Christians who had photographed the protest.
After police raided and made public the recovery of foreign currency from an evangelical group called "Heavenly Dinner", Communist activists attacked the centre and destroyed its roadside posters.
"What is happening now is much more than investigation against fake religious leaders," said the Rev Paul Thelakkat, spokesperson for the Syro Malabar Church, the largest church group in Kerala.
The Christian community accounts for nearly 20 percent of Kerala's 34 million people. Thelakkat said there was no justification for Hindu groups and Communists to march and attack Christian centres, saying there seemed to be a "wider agenda" to denigrate religion and faiths, especially non-Hindu ones.
Islamic Textbook Teaches It's OK to Kill
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/391489.aspx
CBNNews.com - A federal investigation released Wednesday reveals that some Islamic textbooks are teaching kids it's okay to kill adulterers and converts from Islam.
The books have been used by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax. The school receives much of its funding from the Saudi government.
Passages in their textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."
The academy has come under scrutiny from critics who allege that it is teaching an intolerant brand of Islam.
Last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel formed by Congress, recommended the school be shut down out of concern it promoted violence.
"We feel more confident that the potential problems we flagged before really are there," said the commission's spokeswoman, Judith Ingram, after the content of textbooks were reviewed
In the review, the panel recommended that the school make all of its textbooks available to the State Department so changes can be made before the next school year.
School officials acknowledged that some of the Saudi textbooks contain harsh language. They say the texts have improved and are revised as needed by the academy before being distributed to students.
The commission said the texts did appear to contain numerous revisions, including pages that were removed or passages that were whited out. But numerous troubling passages remained, the panel said. Some of those passages include:
- The authors of a 12th-grade text on Koranic interpretation state that apostates (those who convert from Islam), adulterers and people who murder Muslims can be permissibly killed.
- The authors of a 12th-grade text on monotheism write that "(m)ajor polytheism makes blood and wealth permissible," meaning that a Muslim can take with impunity the life and property of someone believed guilty of polytheism. According to the panel, the strict Saudi interpretation of polytheism includes Shiite and Sufi Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.
- A social studies text offers the view that Jews were responsible for the split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims: "The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people. A sly, wicked person who sinfully and deceitfully professed Islam infiltrated (the Muslims)."
More generally, the panel found that the academy textbooks hold the view that the Muslim world was strong when united under a single caliph, the Arabic language, and the Sunni creed. The textbooks also hold that Muslims have grown weak because of foreign influence and internal divisions.
Pentagon sees Russia strengthening nuclear arsenal
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33989220080610
Russia appears focused on strengthening its nuclear capabilities rather than building up its regular armed forces, which makes maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal increasingly important, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.
The Pentagon chief, speaking to Air Force officers in Virginia, said America's need for nuclear weapons to deter potential enemies from striking would grow in the future.
While that is partly due to the risk that nuclear weapons will end up in the hands of anti-American groups or states, such as Iran, it is also related to Russia's plans to build its nuclear capabilities, Gates said.
"It seems clear that the Russians are focused as they look to the future more on strengthening their nuclear capabilities," he told reporters after his visit to Langley.
"So to the extent that they rely more and more on their nuclear capabilities as opposed to what historically has been a huge Russian conventional military capability, it seems to me that it underscores the importance of our sustaining a valid nuclear deterrent, a modern nuclear deterrent."
Moscow has boosted military spending as part of an effort to make Russia more assertive on the world stage after the chaos of the post-Soviet period. It has also tried to reform its military to create a more professional, well-equipped and mobile army.
But that reform has been slow, some critics say. The Russian military still suffers from poor morale among low-paid soldiers and generals dissatisfied with the state of the army.
Difficulty reforming those forces, known as conventional forces, has led Russia to determine it may be more efficient to bolster its nuclear weapons capabilities instead, Gates indicated.
"Russia is really not investing very much in their conventional forces. It's really clear and for a whole bunch of reasons, demographics and everything else," Gates said.
Russia possesses a "triad" of strategic nuclear weapons -- ground-based missiles, submarines and bombers that can reach the United States.
Last month Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to funnel cash into the state's nuclear arsenal to ward off threats to national security.
"It is obvious that our task in the next few years is to ensure strategic missile forces get all the necessary funds to be ready to withstand existing threats," Medvedev told soldiers and officers a week after taking office.
Among the threats, he cited a U.S. missile defense system Washington wants to place in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The dispute over that missile shield has raised tensions between Moscow and Washington, often driving the relationship to what has appeared to be a post-Cold War low.
Gates is visiting U.S. Air Force bases on Monday and Tuesday after a sweeping shake-up of the force's leadership due to mismanagement of America's nuclear weapons and parts.
Securing the U.S. nuclear arsenal is the Air Force's most sensitive mission. But a recent investigation into the mistaken shipment of nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan found an erosion in nuclear standards and systemic problems in nuclear management.
Rise of the 10 Kingdoms? - Movement Towards Regional Blocs As Australia Now Calls For Asia-Pacific Alignment
http://euobserver.com/24/26277
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has suggested that Asia and Pacific countries, including the region's heavyweights such as China, India and Japan, form a regional bloc similar to the European Union.
"The key thing is to enhance security and regional co-operation, which at present is fragmented," Rudd said in a radio interview on Wednesday, AFP has reported, after he presented the idea during an address to the Asia Society of Australasia.
He argued that an "Asia-Pacific Community" could be founded by 2020 as a forum for tackling climate change and terrorism, as well as settling territorial conflicts, such as over Kashmir, the Taiwan Straits and the Korean peninsula.
Furthermore, it could serve as a trade platform to help exploit the benefits of the looming economic power of the region, which he thinks will be "at the centre of global affairs" throughout this century.
"Put simply, global economic and strategic weight is shifting to Asia," he said.
Commenting on possible comparisons with the 27-strong European Union - which is set to enlarge further - Mr Rudd said that it does not serve as "an identical model of what we would seek to develop in the Asia-Pacific, but what we can learn from Europe is this: It is necessary to take the first step," according to Radio Australia.
His suggestions come shortly after a similar process of regional integration has resulted in the creation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), set up by a founding treaty signed last month.
The new supranational and intergovernmental body has combined two previously existing customs unions – Mercosur and the Andean Community – with 12 participating countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Chile.
Its institutional structure directly copies the EU model, with UNASUR's headquarters to be located in Quito, Ecuador, a South American parliament seated in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and a 'Bank of the South' to be situated in Bogota, Colombia.
Other regional groupings inspired by Europe include a single market without trade barriers for goods and services agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the African Union.
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