McCain Aide Says Obama Has Sept. 10 Mind-Set
http://www.newsmax.com/politics/mccain_obama/2008/06/17/105265.html
WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain's campaign accused Barack Obama of having a dangerous and naive Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism because the Democrat spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
In a conference call with reporters, McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann said Tuesday: "Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mind-set. ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face." Former CIA director James Woolsey said Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States."
Their criticism of the presumed Democratic nominee echoed the words of former Bush political adviser Karl Rove, who in January 2006 said Republicans have a post-Sept. 11 view of the world and Democrats a pre-9/11 view. Eleven months later, the GOP lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections.
At issue were Obama's comments Monday in an interview with ABC News. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.
Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists "within the constraints of our Constitution." He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
"And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo," Obama said. "What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks _ for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center _ we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.
"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...
"We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws," Obama said.
Obama agreed with the Supreme Court ruling last week that detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. McCain derided the ruling as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."
Bush to Push Congress on Offshore Drilling
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/394312.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to make a renewed push Wednesday to get Congress to end a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, echoing a call by GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Congressional Democrats have opposed lifting the prohibitions on energy development on nearly all federal Outer Continental Shelf waters for more than a quarter-century, including waters along both the East and West coasts.
With oil prices soaring and motorists paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, political pressures have been growing for more domestic oil and gas production.
"The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time," White House press secretary Dana Perino told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"He will explicitly call on Congress to ... pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said. "He wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur."
Bush also will reiterate his call for development of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Perino said. McCain has opposed drilling in the refuge, maintaining that the pristine areas in northeastern Alaska should be protected from energy development.
On Monday, McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. The Arizona senator said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and receive some of the royalty revenue.
Bush has made clear in recent weeks that the drilling moratorium in coastal waters should end to allow for more domestic oil production and help "take the pressure off the price of gasoline."
Democrats, as well as some Republican senators from coastal states, have opposed lifting the drilling prohibitions, fearful that energy development could harm tourism and raise the risk of oil spills on beaches.
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn't affect gasoline prices for at least five years.
Congress imposed the drilling moratorium in 1981 and has extended it each year since by prohibiting the Interior Department from spending money on offshore oil or gas leases in virtually all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico and in some areas off Alaska.
President George H.W. Bush imposed a separate executive drilling ban in 1990, which was extended by President Clinton and then by the current president until 2012.
Bush has been considering lifting the executive ban as a symbolic move to get Congress to take action, but he decided against doing so for the time being, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because internal deliberations were involved.
The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to vote on legislation Wednesday that included a provision that would continue the drilling moratorium into late 2009. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., planned to try to strip that provision from the bill. A proposal Peterson offered last week that would open all federal waters 50 miles from shore to oil and gas development was rejected by an Appropriations subcommittee on a 9-6 party-line vote.
Senators Call on Bush to Take Action Against OPEC
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368265,00.html
WASHINGTON — Eleven senators called on the Bush administration Tuesday to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization against eight members of the OPEC cartel, saying they are violating trade rules by colluding to hold down global oil supplies.
The senators, 10 Democrats and one independent, maintained "the very existence of OPEC" violates the GATT trade agreement that prohibits nations from setting quotas or imposing other restrictions on exports.
"The refusal of OPEC nations who are members of the WTO to play by these rules is inexcusable, and they must be held accountable," said the senators in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.
The group, led by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat, said the White House should direct Schwab to file a complaint with the WTO against the oil producers.
Gretchen Hamel, spokeswoman for the Office of U.S. Trade Representative, said "We have considered this before and remain of the view that under WTO rules filing a (complaint) case cannot be an effective course of action."
The OPEC members for years have gathered periodically to establish production quotas. Despite the current surge in oil prices, well over $100 a barrel and growing global demand, OPEC members as a group have refused to boost production.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, is hosting a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations in Jeddah on Sunday to discuss ways to tackle soaring oil prices. The OPEC countries argue that market speculation and the declining value of the dollar has caused the high prices that have hovered above $130 a barrel in recent weeks.
Over the weekend, Saudi officials indicated they would increase oil output by 200,000 barrels a day, or by 2 percent, from June to July. In May, it said it was boosting production by 300,000 barrels a day in June to make up for reductions by other OPEC countries.
The 13 OPEC members account for about 40 percent of world oil production.
Members of Congress increasingly have targeted OPEC for criticism as they look for ways to respond to public anger over $4 a gallon gasoline and the record high oil prices.
Lautenberg last month introduced legislation that would require Schwab to file a complaint with the WTO against the OPEC members for anticompetitive practices and setting illegal export quotas. But he and the other senators said the administration can do so without congressional action.
Congressional Democrats also have been considering legislation that would give the Justice Department authority to take antitrust actions against OPEC nations in U.S. courts.
The eight OPEC members that also belong to the WTO are Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
"These eight countries operating as an illegal cartel have refused to increase production, reduced the supply of oil on the market and driven up the gas prices that consumers pay at the pump," the senators said in a statement.
Four other OPEC members — Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Libya — are not part of WTO.
Gays Rush to Tie the Knot in California
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/393814.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - Today is the first full day same-sex couples can legally marry in California. But while hundreds - maybe even thousands - are tying the knot, opponents are mounting an effort to ban the practice.
Now the gay marriage issue is putting some religious organizations in legal limbo.
A Battle Ensues
As California prepares for a potential wave of marriage applications, a legal battle between opposing sides of the same-sex marriage debate is in full force.
"Today we can confidently say we are providing marriage equally and fairly to everyone, denying no one their right and opportunity to live their lives out loud," Mayor Gavin Newsom declared.
On Monday, at the close of business California became only the second state to legalize gay marriage. A few counties extended their hours so dozens of couples could say their "I Do's."
Eighty-seven year-old Phyllis Lyon and 83-year-old Del Martin, hailed by some as pioneers of gay rights, were among those who tied the knot.
"When we first got together, we weren't really thinking about getting married. We were just thinking about getting together. But I think it's a wonderful day," Lyon said.
But not everyone was celebrating.
Hold the Applause, Please
Julie Malaspina is with Catholics for the Common Good.
"We are not here to ruin somebody's day," she said. "We are here to uphold God's law. That's the way we feel. And we are praying - I know it sounds dumb to some people - we are praying for homosexuals."
Both sides anticipate many more will take their vows today and in the coming weeks after the California Supreme Court's recent decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
But the battle is far from over.
Californians to Cast Their Vote
In November, California voters will vote on an amendment to the Constitution that would only recognize marriages between a man and a woman.
"The only way to have full protection and to make sure the vote of the people actually remains is to put it into the Constitution itself," the California Family Council's Everett Rice said.
The California marriage amendment only needs a simple majority to pass. A recent LA Times poll shows 54-percent would support it, 35 percent say they would not, and 10 percent weren't sure how they'd vote.
In the interim, the decision has raised a number of questions regarding how it will impact religious organizations with public services, like schools, hospitals and adoption agencies.
For instance, will religious adoption services have to provide children for homosexual couples? Religious organizations will be waiting for various legal questions like that to be resolved.
Terrorists 'Actively' Seeking Nukes: Arms Control Official
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/terrorists_nuclear/2008/06/17/105381.html
Extremist groups continue to actively seek nuclear weapons, a senior US official said Tuesday during a meeting in Spain of a US-Russian initiative to fight nuclear terrorism.
"Combating nuclear terrorism is especially important today," US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Rood told a news conference.
"Regretably we continue to see indications in the United States from information we collect of the very terrorist groups we are most concerned about making concerted efforts to acquire nuclear capabilities with the express intent to use them against our peoples," he added.
Over 200 delegates from 56 nations, as well as the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency, are taking part in the three-day gathering which got underway in Madrid on Monday.
The meeting is the fourth of its kind since the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism was founded in 2006 by US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reinforce control of nuclear facilities and materials in order to prevent such groups from accessing them.
It was formed amid heightened global concern over nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran.
The closed-door gathering in Madrid is aimed at "developing and consolidating an international work plan of a technical nature to improve the fight against nuclear terrorism," Spain's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The world's five leading nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britian and France -- form the core of the initiative which now includes 73 member states.
Ireland, Malta, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are recent additions to initiative.
"Each year we see a considerable increase in membership of the initiative and that happens because there is an understanding that terrorism is a global, common threat that requires a global response," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak.
Previous meetings of the group have been held in Morocco, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Sarkozy Wants Greater Role in NATO
http://www.newsmax.com/international/france_nato/2008/06/17/105328.html
PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy made the case for greater French participation in NATO, saying Tuesday that nothing prevents the country from rejoining the trans-Atlantic alliance's military structures.
But Sarkozy essentially put the ball in NATO's court by setting conditions for full French participation; among them, France must maintain its freedom to decide whether to send troops to an operation.
"France is an independent ally, a free partner," Sarkozy said. A NATO official said Sarkozy's conditions would not likely pose a problem.
President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966, as he sought to reassert France's independence after the grueling post-World War II years. The decision has damaged trans-Atlantic ties for decades, and France remains outside the alliance's nuclear group and its planning committee.
Sarkozy, who has pressed for better relations with the United States since his May 2007 election, insists that a greater French role in NATO would not compete with the European Union's own defense plans.
Washington has in the past been reticent about EU defense _ which France has been pushing _ as a possible competitor of NATO. But the United States has been warming to the idea recently, in part because of Sarkozy's assurances.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department welcomed Sarkozy's comments.
"We have always appreciated France's role in the alliance, but full integration of France into the military command structure has been a goal for a long time and we are certainly pleased to see it happen," spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.
Sarkozy pointed to three conditions for France to rejoin NATO's military command, that France: retains freedom to decide whether to send its troops to an alliance operation; will not put any French contingent under NATO command permanently during peacetime; and will have full control of its nuclear arsenal.
NATO allows its 26 member countries to have freedom to choose whether to take part in alliance missions, and nations do not typically have troops permanently under its command, a NATO official said, on condition of anonymity because he had not yet seen the report.
"I have said many times before that I will very much enjoy France taking again its full position in NATO," the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, told Associated Press Television News, adding that France "has always been a very active member."
Sarkozy's third condition _ retaining full control of its nuclear arsenal _ could prevent France from joining NATO's nuclear planning group, which makes decisions about the alliance's nuclear policy.
The tricky part could come as France and its NATO counterparts go through the details, trying to fit French officers in the NATO command structure.
Sarkozy made the comments during a speech laying out plans to make France's armed forces leaner, smarter, more high-tech and more capable of facing threats such as terrorism. The speech gave his interpretation of a broad-based French defense report released a day earlier.
Some analysts expect France will join NATO fully at a summit next year, but Sarkozy did not go that far in his comments. He said experts who carried out the top-to-bottom review of France's defense strategy found that there is "nothing preventing us from participating in NATO's military structures."
Sarkozy said he wanted to see European countries become more influential in NATO, which has been dominated by the United States for decades.
"If France returns to its full role in NATO, the alliance will make more space for Europe," Sarkozy said. "I want a more European alliance. Explain to me how you can make a more European alliance without France?"
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, asked whether he believes France is moving closer to NATO, gave an emphatic yes.
"I don't know when or the way of doing it, but the rapprochement of France to NATO it's a done deal," said Solana, who had testified before the panel putting together France's new defense plan. Solana was attending an arms show outside Paris.
The defense report, nearly a year in the making, is the first since 1994, before cyber-crime became a threat, before France moved to an all-volunteer military and before a surge in worldwide radical Islamic terrorism. At that time, Europe was reaping a peace dividend after the end of the Cold War.
The document, issued Monday, places a greater focus on intelligence-gathering and more spending on satellite and airborne drones _ paid for in part by reducing staff.
The white paper calls for reducing France's total Defense Ministry personnel by 54,000. Sarkozy said the size of the military would drop to 225,000 over the next six or seven years.
Exclusive: Barak agrees to trade most of Hamas prisoner list for Shalit
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5358
DEBKAfile military sources report that Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak has bowed to Hamas’ insistence on assigning the negotiations for the release of Gilead Shalit, kidnapped two years ago, to “stage two” of the Egyptian-brokered truce accord. In other words, it has been left out of the deal.
He also agrees in principle to swap most of the 450 jailed Palestinian terrorists demanded by Hamas, including scores of men “with blood on their hands.” There are still reservations about a small number.
The defense ministry’s political adviser Amos Gilead carried this message to Cairo on his unscheduled trip Tuesday night, June 17, after Hamas and Egypt announced a truce would go into effect in Gaza early Thursday.
Barak said Tuesday night, that following the truce Israel will face tough decisions about releasing hard-core Palestinians as the price for recovering the Israeli soldier. Hamas’ Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshaal responded Wednesday by emphasizing that every single jailed Palestinian on his organization’s list must be handed over without exception.
Military sources in Israel’s Southern Command view the informal truce accord mediated by Egypt as total capitulation by Israel to all Hamas’ demands for no return, in terms of a commitment to release Gilead Shalit, a halt to weapons smuggling or a limit on Hamas’ burgeoning military strength.
Israel has agreed to reopen the Gaza crossings into Israel and Egyptian Sinai, thereby breaching the international boycott of the terrorist-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israeli government spokesmen are misrepresenting the deal as a major triumph when in fact it is the Palestinian Islamist terrorists’ biggest achievement on the road to international legitimacy.
Some officers compare this capitulation to Ehud Barak’s policy in 2000, when as prime minister he ordered the Israeli military to evacuate the defense zone it had established in South Lebanon. This retreat encouraged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to launch his uprising against Israel later that same year and resulted in six years of military passivity in the North, as Hizballah built up its militia undisturbed and stockpiled the rockets for the war it launched against Israel in 2006.
The defense minister has fallen back into the same disastrous pattern in the Gaza Strip today.
Exclusive: Al Qaeda activist reported killed in Israeli air strike in Gaza
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5356
Palestinians claim that Momtaz Dughmush was among the eight Palestinian gunmen killed in three Israeli air force strikes in Gaza Tuesday, June 17, following Hamas bombardments on Monday, which averted a planned terrorist operation.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the Air Force targeted a vehicle carrying five al Qaeda-Palestine members in Khan Younes, in S. Gaza. They were all killed. Another three gunmen were killed in a second car at Deir al Balakh. Dughmush, who died in the first attack attack, was chief of the Qaeda cell attached to the Palestinian hard-line Popular Resistance Committees. Our sources name him as complicit with Hamas in the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit two years ago in a cross-border raid and the kidnap of the BBC correspondent Alan Johnson last year.
Israeli intelligence: Hizballah stocks tens of thousands of rockets in restored bunkers
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5353
Head of AMAN’s research division Brig. Yossi Baidatz brought bad news on two fronts to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tuesday, June 17. He reported that Hamas needed a ceasefire in Gaza after 350 of its terrorists had been killed. In his view, this ceasefire if finally negotiated would be fragile and short-lived.
As for Israel’s northern front, Baidatz confirmed DEBKAfile’s previous reports that Hizballah has stockpiled tens of thousands of rockets in fortified tunnels, in numbers far outstripping its pre-Lebanon War 2006 strength.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: Iranian Revolutionary Guards engineers recently finished building three clusters of bunkers, fortified against aerial attack, to store the rockets Syria and Iran have lavished on Hizballah in the last two years.
One cluster is located in the Beqaa Valley, close to northeast Lebanon’s border with Syria. Built to house long-range rockets, these tunnels have wide openings so that they can be used as launching pads for rockets out of reach of Israeli bombers. A second, in central Lebanon, north of the strategic Beirut-Damascus highway, accommodates medium-range rockets. Syrian air and anti-tank forces will provide both clusters with an umbrella.
The third cluster is located in the south. It is armed with short-range rockets and other systems, including anti-tank artillery and missiles, designed to block an Israeli offensive.
Defense minister Ehud Barak was referring obliquely to this mighty Hizballah build-up when he said recently that Hizballah’s bunker system had been restored in South Lebanon, thereby refuting Prime minister Ehud Olmert’s contention that the war had weakened Hizballah.
According to our sources, most of the bunkers in the three new subterranean clusters are interconnected by one of three means:
1. Sub-tunnels broad enough to accommodate trucks and enable them to move about free of aerial attack and reconnaissance.
2. Cement-lined channels (picture) which keep traffic safe from air attack and serve as anti-tank trenches.
3. A fast highway network, which was laid for exclusive Hizballah military movements ahead of the tunnels and now connects all three clusters.
They are also linked by an autonomous telecommunications system. The Siniora government’s decision to dismantle this system in May generated the near-civil war which led to Hizballah’s violent takeover of most of Beirut.
While Israeli military intelligence warned the heads of government in good time about the tunnels and the vast rocket arsenal amassed by Hizballah, no orders came down to the army to liquidate it.
Political sources explain that the prime minister was deterred by fear that an Israeli military action against the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group, which is supported by Damascus and Tehran, would jeopardize the indirect Israeli-Syrian peace talks taking place through Turkey’s good offices.
Israel confirms Gaza ceasefire with Hamas begins Thursday
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5355
The defense ministry’s political adviser, Amos Gilead, was sent post-haste to Cairo Tuesday night to clarify outstanding issues over the Gaza truce announced by Hamas and Cairo.
After Gilead’s update on his return Wednesday, Israel announced its consent to the Egyptian-brokered truce, the “first phase” of which Hamas announced Tuesday night goes into effect Thursday, June 19, at 0600 hours local time. Hamas leaders said the truce will be effective for six months, after which its extension to the West Bank should begin. They stressed it is separate from negotiations for the release of the kidnapped Israel soldier Gilead Shalit, which will only take place in exchange for the full list of jailed Palestinians presented to Israel some months ago.
Hamas expects all the Gaza-Israel and Gaza-Sinai border crossings to be reopened. This would amount to the lifting of the blockade imposed on the Hamas-ruled territory.
After the upcoming truce was announced, 8 Qassam missiles were fired at Israel, followed by another three Wednesday morning. They all exploded harmlessly on open ground.
Senior Israeli officers commented early Wednesday, June 18, that the longer the ceasefire endures, the stronger Hamas will emerge and the more dangerous and problematical. The Israeli intelligence research director Brig. Yossi Baidatz said Tuesday that Hamas had sought a ceasefire in Gaza after 350 of its terrorists had been killed and was skeptical of a negotiated ceasefire holding up.
Hamas’ endorsement of the truce is not binding on its terrorist allies, the Iran-backed Jihad Islami and the radical Palestinian “Fronts.”
Neither is the terrorist group barred from continuing to build up its military strength with the help of war materiel from Iran and Syria smuggled through Sinai.
Iran Withdraws $75 Billion From Europe: Report
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/iran_investments_europe/2008/06/17/105249.html
TEHRAN -- Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.
Western powers are warning the Islamic Republic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world's fourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down.
"Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"About $75 billion of Iran's foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the weekly said.
Iran's Etemad-e Melli newspaper, also quoting Talai, last week also reported the country was withdrawing assets from European banks but did not give any figures.
On Saturday, Iran again ruled out suspending uranium enrichment despite the offer by six world powers of help in developing a civilian nuclear program if it stopped activities the United States and others suspect are designed to make bombs.
The offer -- agreed last month by the United States, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France -- is a revised version of one rejected by Tehran two years ago.
Iran's refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment, which can provide fuel for power plants or material for weapons if refined much more, has drawn three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006. Tehran says it aims only to generate electricity.
EU diplomats have said the bloc is preparing an asset and funds freeze on Iran's biggest bank, state-owned Bank Melli, but that it first wants to see how Tehran responds to the new offer.
Iran is making windfall gains from record global oil prices and said in April its foreign exchange reserves stood at more than $80 billion.
Iran's foreign reserves figure has been climbing steadily. Some analysts say that, alongside rising oil revenues, Iran has been helped by its decision to shift away from the U.S. dollar into other currencies as the dollar has weakened.
Iran has made the shift as Washington has tried to isolate the Islamic state, including imposing sanctions on Iranian banks. That has pushed many Western banks to scrap dollar dealings with Iran or even end business completely.
Western countries suspect Iran is seeking the ability to make nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its secretive program is purely aimed at generating energy.
Iran Says Uranium Enrichment to Continue
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/iran_nuclear/2008/06/17/105256.html
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Iran said Tuesday that it would continue uranium enrichment despite warnings of new European sanctions if it rejects an international incentive package aimed at reining in its nuclear program.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana pressed Iran to respond to the package, which offers economic incentives if Iran agrees to halt enrichment, a process the U.S. and its allies fear Tehran will use to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Solana said Tuesday he cannot wait years for a response but hasn't given a deadline. He said the European Union is still pursuing negotiations and sanctions.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran will study the proposals and will respond "at an appropriate time," the official IRNA news agency reported. His deputy Ali Reza Sheikh Attar said Iran will respond "as soon as possible."
But Sheikh Attar added, "We have repeatedly said that uranium enrichment is Iran's red line and that we must enjoy this technology," according to IRNA.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that EU nations had agreed on the need for a new round of sanctions to discourage Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He announced that Britain will freeze the assets of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli, and said potential EU sanctions would target Iran's oil and gas sectors.
There was no immediate Iranian reaction to the British move or warnings of new EU sanctions.
Report: Iran Minors Sentenced to Death
http://www.newsmax.com/international/iran_human_rights/2008/06/17/105347.html
CAIRO, Egypt -- Iran has sentenced 177 people under the age of 18 to death over the past decade and has executed nearly three dozen of them, a human rights group said Tuesday.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran published on its Web site a list of the 114 minors who still remain in prison awaiting execution, some of whom are now older than 18. The youngest person on the list was a 12-year-old boy sentenced by a court in 2005. The group did not specify what crime he was convicted of.
Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the group in Vienna, Austria, said the campaign has called on the international community to take steps to press Iran to abolish the executions.
Rhodes said many of the death sentences were based on confessions obtained from defendants under torture or interrogations in which they had no access to a lawyer.
Iranian judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told reporters in Tehran on Thursday that "there are no executions of individuals under the age of 18 in Iran."
But Jamshidi made a distinction between death sentences and Islamic law of "qisas," or eye-for-eye retribution for murder, which he said the judiciary does implement. He said in cases of qisas for those under 18 years old, "the main approach of the judiciary ... is based on peace and compromise." Under Islamic law, an attempt is made to reach a settlement with the family of a murder victim, but if no agreement is reached, the killer is executed.
The International Campaign, which is based in New York and Vienna, said the list was compiled by Iranian rights activist Emad Baghi, who is serving a one-year prison sentence in connection with articles he wrote critical of the country's rights record.
According to the list, Iran handed down 177 death sentences over the past decade to defendants under the age of 18, and 34 of those sentenced had been executed. Another 114 are pending, while the remainder have been pardoned, it said, adding that "due to the lack of transparency" in the Iranian justice system, some of the 114 may have already been executed.
Baghi, reached by The Associated Press at a prison hospital where he is being treated for a heart condition, said that he had compiled the list from "reports published in Iran" from 1998 to 2008.
The Campaign said in a statement sent to AP that Iran leads the world in executing minors and that two such executions are known to have been carried out so far in 2008, of Javad Shojai on Feb. 26 and Mohammad Hassanzadeh on June 10.
Hassanzadeh, born in 1992, was sentenced to death when he was only 15 years old, and was hanged in the town of Sanandaj when he was still under the age of 18. Shojaii was hanged for a crime he committed when he was 16 in 2005, the group said.
"These executions are tragic and they are barbaric," said Hadi Ghaemi, a Campaign spokesman.
While a few other countries still execute minors _ including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Pakistan _ Iran has accounted for more than two-thirds of such executions in the past three years, Ghaemi said.
Iraq: Rethinking 'What Happened'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/393578.aspx
CBNNews.com - With reports of the situation on the ground improving in Iraq, the reasons America went to war is back in the news two behind-the-scenes books by former top Bush advisors.
As the Presidents White House Press Secretary for three years, Scott McClellan publicly defended the war, telling White House press corps on record,
"It was the right decision to confront what was a grave and growing threat in Saddam Hussein," he once said. Since leaving the White House, McClellan has changed his mind and now calls it a strategic blunder.
In his memoir "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan joins critics who say that Bush was bent on war.
"The President is someone who just got caught up in the way the game is played in Washington," McClellan said. Stopping short of calling the President a liar, McClellan says Bush signed off on a "less-than-honest strategy" to manipulate public opinion and politicize pre-war intelligence in a reckless rush to war.
"Instead of looking at the hard truths and explaining it to the American people about what to expect with war, we got caught up in this whole mentality in selling the war to the American people," McClellan told ABC News. "And, yes, in itself it becomes a game played on spin, a game played on obfuscation and secrecy."
A Different, Inside Story
But one of the Pentagon's architects of the Iraq war calls McClellan's charges "fluff. based on unsubstantiated opinion."
"A lot of what the public thinks it knows, based on all of the books and major articles that have come out on the Iraq war, are mainly wrong," Former Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith says.
From 2001-2005, Feith served under Defense Secrectary Donald Rumsfeld, advising him on policy and war strategy. Feith disputes conventional wisdom about the rationale for going to war, which as many believe, was to establish democracy or just find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"The reason to go to war was to remove the threat," Feith argues. "And I think it would have been much better had the President remained clear on that point, so that critics of the war could not say you've accomplished nothing if you failed to reach extremely high standards of a stable democracy, which I don't believe will be achieved for some time yet."
In his book 'War and Decision," Feith uses previously unpublished documents and notes of meetings he attended with the Bush national security the to lay out his insider account of the Administration's decision to remove Saddam Hussein.
From before 9/11 and throughout the war, Feith attended strategy meetings with all the key players -- President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condi Rice, General Richard Myers, and CIA Director George Tenet.
In his book, McClellan writes that those players -- with the exception of Secretary of State Powell -- failed to advise Bush on the the costs of war. He says that had the President known, he would not have invaded Iraq.
Deciding the Greater Risk
Feith believes the President made the right decision on Iraq. And from his former view as the Pentagon's Number 3, he insists Bush did weigh the risks. He says it was Rumsfeld, not Powell, who warned Bush of possible worst case scenarios of war in an October 2002 memo called the "Parade of Horribles."
The memo warned "that the war could be costlier and bloodier and more protracted than anybody had hoped. That if we get bogged down there, it could hurt our efforts in other areas. That our enemies would take advantage of our pre-occupation."
Feith says Rumsfeld even warned "we might not find WMD and our credibility would be destroyed."
Once Rumsfeld put the memo together with his team, Feith says Rumsfeld "carried it over the to the White House, sat down with the President and the National Security Council, and walked them thru every item."
Feith says Bush decided the risk of inaction and of leaving Saddam in power posed a greater threat to the country.
He says the rationale for the war was WMD in addition to a number of other factors - it was not WMD alone.
"The nature of the threat was weapons of mass destruction. It was the record of Saddam in supporting terrorism," Feith says. "It was the record of Sadaam in launching aggressions like the Iran-Iraq war. The invasion of Kuwait. And it was the general way that he operated in hostility to us, in defiance of the 16 UN Security Council resolutions that had been developed since the Gulf War."
"He was a very dangerous aggressive and hostile guy," he said. "If we had left him in power, and the things we were worried about had materialized, how would the government be able to explain to the American people why it had sat back and allowed those threats to materialize?"
Feith says the President faced difficult tradeoffs in making the decision for war.
"I do believe the President made the right decision. Based on everything we knew then, and everything we know now, it would have been extremely hard for the President to leave Saddam Hussein in power, given what we knew about Sadaam's background, his hostility to us, his record of aggression, his record of support for various terrorist groups, and his pursuit and even use of WMD," Feith says.
"So the president faced a very difficult decision, and I think he made the right decision. Now the war in Iraq has not gone as well and anyone had hoped, but the President has to look at this from the point of view of which set of risks did he want to subject the country to -- the risks of leaving Saddam in power, and then having to confront him later down the road under what he believed would be even less advantageous circumstances."
In Good Faith
"I had concerns, like a lot of people," McClellan told ABC News, "that we're rushing into this. But, uh, that wasn't my focus area, and I gave it the benefit of the doubt because I have great affection for the President, I trusted in his judgment. And in that instance, I think that my trust was misplaced."
As do many who cite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Feith takes issue with a prevailing perception that "Bush lied,and people died." He says the White House acted in good faith while relying on bad intelligence about WMD, and says another mistake was not doing more to convince Americans that the war in Iraq was worthwhile.
"We did not find the WMD stockpiles the CIA said we would. We did find that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons programs, that he had the facilities, that he had the intention to have WMD, that he maintained the personnel. He maintained materiel, and he maintained the capability to produce chemical and biological weapons stockpiles in three to five weeks," Feith said.
Feith has also been the focus of critics who blame the Administration for bungling post-war planning in Iraq, resulting in a protracted U.S. occupation, many say, damaged U.S. credibility worldwide.
Feith blames internal Administration disputes for that, saying it was the State Department that blocked the Pentagon's push for a rapid transition of power.
"A plan that was actually well-conceived," Feith says, "that was based on the idea that we'd put Iraqis in charge of their own country quickly after the removal of Saddam, wound up getting undone through a series of miscommunications, and misunderstandings, and interagency debates."
Feith says there were debates among departments about the proper way to proceed.
"I think that people in the State Department and CIA had one view," he said. "People in the Defense Department and the leadership tended to have a different view. I think that our view was better."
A car bomb at a northern Baghdad bus stop leaves 51 dead, 75 wounded
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5357
The explosion occurred in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriya. The deadliest bombing in Baghdad in months was timed to go off when the bus stop was crowded during the early evening rush hour.
Major battle builds up in S. Afghanistan, threatens Kandahar
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5354
Taliban invaders and leaflets dropped by NATO helicopters Tuesday, June 17, put 4,000 villagers to flight from the densely fertile orchard country of Arghandab 10 miles northwest of Kandahar. Hundreds of Taliban fighters have invaded the villages, many of them escapees from the Kandahar jailbreak last Friday, and are laying mines.
The 30-minute attack by 30 motor-bike riders and two suicide bombers, which freed hundreds of prisoners June 14, heavily bolstered Taliban’s fighting ranks. Insurgent leaders warned that dozens of suicide bombers are waiting to strike the NATO and US forces rushed to the Arghandab, which the Soviet Army which invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s was never able to conquer.
Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, former Taliban stronghold and current NATO logistic hub, is on high security. Coalition commanders are making preparations in case the insurgent concentration launches an offensive from Arghandab to capture the city.
U.S. 'Soft Power' Eclipses China's Influence In Asia, Survey Finds
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367921,00.html
The Chinese economy is a force to be reckoned with, but U.S. influences still hold sway in Asia, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute in South Korea found that America is perceived to have a greater ability to influence countries through soft power — nonmilitary means such as education, economy and culture, The International Herald Tribune reported.
The survey was conducted from January through March in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and the U.S.
According to the study, Asians admire China’s progress but fear its growing military might.
The research also showed that U.S. perception of China has declined, mainly due to China’s human rights records.
Gospels to be printed specially for Beijing Olympics
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/gospels.to.be.printed.specially.for.beijing.olympics/19641.htm
Bibles and Gospel booklets printed in China will be available to athletes in the Olympic village in Beijing this summer, despite rumours that Bibles would be banned at the games.
With the support of Bible Society, 50,000 booklets are being specially printed for the event, with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in Chinese and English. Ten thousand Chinese-English complete Bibles and 30,000 Chinese-English New Testaments will also be available.
The initiative, which follows controversy earlier this year over whether the Chinese authorities would allow Bibles to be made available at the Olympics, has the approval of the Beijing Olympic organising committee. For the first time, the committee is allowing its logo to be used free of charge on the Gospel booklets.
The decision was announced by Elder Fu Xianwei, Chairman of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, at the opening of the new Amity Printing Press in Nanjing. The new printing press, which can turn out 12 million Bibles a year – one every second – will be printing the Scriptures to be made available during the Olympics.
James Catford, Chief Executive of Bible Society, said, "We are privileged to be able to support the Church in China in the publishing of these Bibles and Scriptures for the Beijing Olympics.
"This great sporting event presents a unique opportunity to make the life-changing message of the Bible available to thousands of athletes and visitors from all over China – and all over the world."
An estimated two million visitors and 16,000 athletes and officials are expected to descend on Beijing during the games, which kick off on 8 August.
Places of worship have been set up within the Olympic village to provide religious services to athletes. The Church in Beijing has been asked to provide people to staff the chapel and conduct worship services and prayers.
The Gospel booklets will be available in the chapel in Beijing, as well as in Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao, where sailing and football events are taking place.
To support the printing of Scriptures at the Olympics, visit www.biblesociety.org.uk/chinaolympics
Security Tight near China's Muslims
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/394363.aspx
CBNNews.com - KASHGAR, China - Hundreds of security personnel lined the streets to head off any disruption as the Olympic torch relay resumed Wednesday in western China's restive Muslim region of Xinjiang.
Black-gloved security agents jogged alongside the torch as it wound through the streets of Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city near the borders with Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Foreign journalists were not allowed along the route, where cheering bystanders shouted "Go China!" under sunny skies.
Also Wednesday, Olympic torch relay organizers said the flame will make a one-day stop in Tibet's capital of Lhasa on Saturday.
That leg has been shrouded in secrecy because of political sensitivities surrounding Tibet. The route has been criticized by Tibet activist groups who see it as an attempt by Beijing to symbolize its control over the Himalayan region.
China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for much of that time. Tensions were aggravated in March when protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa and other ethnic Tibetan areas throughout China led to a security clampdown in the region.
Tight security measures are expected for the Lhasa stop.
Crowd Checked through Metal Detectors
The Kashgar relay began near a downtown mosque with several speeches praising China's development over the last 30 years.
Hundreds of militia and police lined the torch relay route and bystanders, who were bused in from their work units, had to go through metal detectors.
Xinjiang officials accompanied foreign journalists on a bus to the relay and did not allow them to wander from the group. After the start of the event, the journalists were taken to the finish point - a square dominated by a giant statue of Mao Zedong, a reminder of heavy-handed Communist Party rule over the region since People's Liberation Army forces entered in 1949.
The torch has had a smooth run in China, undisturbed by the protests over Tibet and human rights that hounded parts of its international tour. Yet the Xinjiang leg and the one in Tibet are by far the most sensitive of the domestic relay -- a fact underscored by the heavy security.
The flame began its journey through China's restive Muslim western region on Tuesday with a relay through Xinjiang's capital of Urumqig.
Although state media has warned of the threat from separatists they claim are linked with global terrorism, no disruptions were reported.
Police with Dogs Patrol Muslim Area
In Urumqi, police and troops watched thousands of onlookers, hand-picked by officials, as they waved the national flag and shouted "Go China!" from behind metal barriers. Police with dogs patrolled Muslim areas.
But overall, the mood was subdued compared with some of the enthusiastic crowds that greeted earlier legs.
One Uighur woman walking in the center of Kashgar said that while she thought the Olympics were good, "I have no interest in the torch relay." She said she felt uncomfortable giving her name.
Overseas activists have criticized China for using the Olympic torch relay to demonstrate its control over the restive areas, many of whose native residents reject claims that they have long been an integral part of Chinese territory and resent Han dominance over the economy and government.
Like Tibet, Xinjiang is a region with a culture and language distinct from that of the Han. Radicals among its main Turkic speaking Uighur ethnic group have for decades been waging a low-intensity struggle against Chinese rule. An unknown number have been sentenced to prison terms or death for allegedly espousing separatism or subversion.
Authorities Foiled Three Plots
On at least three occasions this year, authorities say they foiled plots by what they called Xinjiang separatists, including alleged attempts to crash an airliner and kidnap Olympic athletes and journalists.
The boost in security for the torch is a continuation of measures put in place since April 2007, said Nicholas Bequelin, an expert on Xinjiang with the Hong Kong-based Human Rights Watch.
"The security is very telling because it shows that ultimately, despite the fact that the government says the situation is stable and people are content, they know they don't have the loyalty of these people," he said, dismissing the accusations of terrorism.
Authorities: Severe Consequences for Talking with Reporters
Activist Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said in an e-mail Tuesday that authorities warned that anyone who voluntarily spoke to reporters "about the country's sensitive issues will be severely dealt with."
Before it returns to Beijing on Aug. 6, two days ahead of the opening ceremony for the Olympics, the flame will have crossed every region and province of China. A separate flame was carried to the summit of Mount Everest last month.
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