Lakeland Outpouring Coming to Your City?
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384025.aspx
CBNNews.com - HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania - Ten weeks in, daily and nightly revival services still continue in Lakeland, Florida.
They've been marked by thousands of healings, both there and across the world where people have been watching the services via God-TV or the Internet.
But many Christians have wondered, where does this revival go from here?
The End of Spectator Christianity
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania CBN News tracked down two of the most prominent figures who've been among the dozens of charismatic movement leaders visiting the Lakeland Outpouring in Florida and giving it their blessing.
CBN News caught up with Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic ministries just after arrived from a visit to Lakeland.
What's happening there, she said, "is for the whole Body of Christ."
King believes the anointing to get out of the pews and heal others is available to anyone who comes to Lakeland or watches the revival on TV or the Internet.
She said, "I hope it's the end of spectator Christianity. I do believe it's for everyone."
When we saw her, King was getting ready to minister at the Voice of the Prophets conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hosted by Randy Clark's Global Awakening ministries.
Clark is the evangelist who the Lord used to help kick off the Toronto Blessing in 1994 and he is giving a very public endorsement to what's begun in Lakeland.
Clark put out a letter to the Christian world, saying that what he's seen in Lakeland "convinces me that the season has come for another Healing Revival."
Why's he taking such a public position?
"Generally speaking, the leaders of the last revival always persecute the next one," Clark told CBN News.
He wanted to decisively break that horrible pattern.
"I felt it was very important that those of us who were leaders gave our blessing," he said.
North America's Time Has Come
For years, Clark has been sending out huge teams overseas who have taken part in the kind of divine visitation for healing he's desperately wanted in North America.
Now he's writing in that public letter "I believe the time of such a visitation has come."
He said, "The unique thing for me with this is what we've been seeing overseas we're seeing here now."
Todd Bentley, the most prominent figure God's been using in Lakeland, is ecstatic about that.
When the outpouring started, Bentley called King.
"He said, 'Patricia, the sick are being healed and it's right here in North America; it's happening right here in North America!" she recalled
King believes the Lord has told her Christians need to see how they fit in.
She said, "It's for a purpose…not just to sit in a revival night after night. It's so that you can take it back to where you're from and in your sphere of influence and just let it blaze.
"And we've been hearing testimonies of people who've even watched it on the media where it's breaking out in their regions, their churches, their nations," she added.
Clark told us, "I definitely do believe that around the world that this is already happening and I just want to get to be in on it myself."
Not only does Clark believe this revival is going to spread across the nation, but also that it's going to be big.
He says he's received several prophecies to 'get ready for the stadiums.' In other words, it's going to be so big in a city, the only place that can hold all the people coming would be a stadium."
Of these prophecies, Clark said, "I actually met three people of different races on different continents who gave me the exact same vision."
Clark feels the Lord told him of several North American cities that will soon see these stadium-size revival services break out.
It's his vision now to train up a thousand saints to minister healings in every one of those cities. That's because, as Clark wrote, "God's going to anoint 'believing believers' to take part in this new move of the Lord."
And Clark believes a hallmark in the cities God will target is that, "There'll be some people crying out 'God, we're desperate for you to come visit.'"
King added, "From Lakeland it's going to start hitting cities where there are hungry people that'll gather together in the name of Jesus and wait on Him and just release their faith to do the stuff. It's not going to be contained in one place. It's going to spread. It's going to move. It'll go from city to city."
Not Your Typical Evangelist
Clark also believes God's going to amaze "unbelieving believers" who've been taught God doesn't even do healing anymore in these days.
But one of his main concerns right now is how some fellow Christians are making harsh judgments against Bentley and the Lakeland outpouring itself.
Bentley is covered with wild, colorful tattoos and sports metal on his face. He screams out "Bam!" as he lays hands on people, many of whom immediately fall to the floor, "slain in the Spirit."
Of the revival, Clark said he's worried, "Some people are judging it because Todd doesn't look like your typical evangelist."
But Clark pointed out, "The reality is people are getting healed - and a lot of them. And the Gospel is being preached."
He begs fellow believers "Don't miss the anointing!"
Christian Movement Heads to D.C.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/383716.aspx
CBNNews.com - Christian leaders are at the nation's capitol to make plans for "The Call D.C."
They expect one million young people will come together on August 16 to fast and pray for the nation.
Organizers say this time of seeking God is key is to transforming the culture.
"My vision is that this event will be multiracial, multicultural than ever before, but that people will carry a torch of prayer back home that will start as a catalyst what will be a great awakening in our nation," said Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church.
Lou Engle, the visionary and co-founder of "The Call," recently spoke with CBN News about the 12-hour event.
Bush Administration Should Protect Kids from Porn and Predators
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07236.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- "Protecting children from Internet pornographers and predators needs to be the Bush Justice Department's key priority. Today's indictment of Loren Jay Adams, a fringe member of America's pornography empire, who focuses on human and animal sex, is the wrong strategy," said Patrick Trueman, former chief of the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. We need multiple prosecutions of Internet hardcore pornography that can be found in a matter of seconds by kids. The only deterrent pornographers recognize is loss of profits and significant jail time. When the Justice Department limits prosecutions to the most vile and bizarre of material, the porn industry sees a "green light" for all other forms of illegal pornography.
"In nearly eight years of the Bush Administration, we have yet to see one major Internet pornographer indicted," Trueman said. Illegal, hardcore pornography is exploding on the Internet and much of it is accessed by children. Tens of thousands of parents have complained to the Department but their pleas have been ignored. "It is time to make kids the priority and begin vigorous prosecution of the major Internet pornographers who violate U.S. laws. Allowing kids to have ready access to pornography is a form of child abuse."
There is another vitally important reason to prosecute illegal "adult" pornography, Trueman said. "Many males seeking adult Internet pornography will, over time, gravitate to child pornography and this is an important factor in the proliferation of such material. There is no wall on the Internet separating adult pornography from child pornography and very quickly, males looking for pornography will find sexually explicit images of children. Some males will develop a preference for images of children as they consume more and more child pornography. Their deviance is fed by child pornography traders who populate the Internet seeking trading partners. Traders seek original material not readily available on the Internet. Thus, a man wanting to trade will create original child porn by sexually abusing and photographing children, perhaps his own children, his relative's, his neighbor's or any available children," Trueman said.
America's booming child pornography problem will not be solved until the Department of Justice begins to vigorously enforce federal pornography laws, targeting adult pornography and child pornography.
Will Obama be our Second Anti-American President?
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/printer_19498.shtml
Arguably, Democrat Jimmy Carter—with his work toward decimating the US economy and his past and apparently current support of the Islamist enemies of the USA and humanity—was the first anti-American (if not anti-democracy) President of the United States. Almost single-handedly, Carter also destabilized the Middle East by working to allow the overthrow of the pro-US Shah of Iran, in order to create a power vacuum that permitted radical Islamists to take over that country. Carter was also instrumental in causing radical Islam to seize the US Embassy and its staff in Iran, which resulted in the 14-month Hostage Crisis. The Carter-created hostage disaster ended only after Republican Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States—replacing the feckless Carter. Carter, with all of his positions and actions during his single-term presidency—and beyond—may have been our first truly anti-American president.
However, Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama may very well prove to be our second.
The candidate’s wife Michelle Obama, during a recent speech in Milwaukee, told the fawning crowd that only with her husband’s candidacy for president of the United States was she finally proud to be an American. It appears that she had never been before. Her exact words are: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.” Please bear in mind that because both Michelle and Barack Obama were raised in the USA, they were able to attend the best in Ivy League schools. Michelle graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, while Barack graduated both Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Dreadfully, as with too many liberals these days, both Michelle and Barack Obama seem to have used the advantages inherent within the USA for their own personal gain and aggrandizement and now take delight in trashing their country.
Despite the fact that We-the-People—both Democrats and Republicans—have demanded that both houses of Congress not pass an Amnesty bill for illegals and, instead, work to shut down the border, Obama has said he doesn’t agree with us. Instead, last Thursday Candidate Obama expressed his disdain with the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Obama wants to—and advises that he will—implement his own version of Open Borders. And what about the already passed Secure Fence act? Obama said: “And so I will reverse that policy!” So much for Obama’s stand on National Security. Obama would allow and support the continuation of invasion by illegals, terrorists and drug dealers into the United States.
Obama also wants to work with the world’s Communist leaders and the heads of radical Islamic countries—the same countries that have vowed to destroy the US and all democracies and view any negotiations and dialogue as weakness. Unfortunately, it appears that to all too many Democrats and ostensible “Independents” weakness is seen as Obama’s “strength.”
So, what will the country get with an Obama presidency? Let’s take a look.
· No Border Fence. Instead, the US will receive Open Borders (with perhaps some “virtual fencing” for “show”) and the continued incursion of terrorists, drug dealers and other illegal aliens
· The USA sitting down with its Communist enemies—with no preset conditions—to discuss how the United States of America can acquiesce to them
· The USA removing its troops from Iraq and then sitting down with radical Islamist countries—with no preset conditions—to discuss how the United States of America can best submit to their demands. Note: Remember—within extremist Islam, diplomacy is considered weakness
An additional and equally insane promise from Obama includes ‘solving the illegal immigrant problem by correcting and improving Mexico’s economy’—although Mexican leaders have been unable or unwilling to affect this for generations. Note: Besides, it’s easier and more economical for that country to export its problems to “El Norte” rather than trying to correct them, By the way, Obama plans to supernaturally create a “new Mexico” (not to be confused with the current US state) while refusing to trade with that country unless it adheres to US trade standards. Hmmm. Is Obama planning to annex Mexico?
It has been and is being said by his supporters that ‘Obama makes us feel good’. HUH??? How can anyone feel good about continuing to lose their livelihoods to illegals and then being forced to continue paying for their medical care and schooling, facing the dire consequences of yielding to our and our country’s destroyers and eliminating any last hope of border security? From his own mouth, this is what Obama tells us we’ll get with his presidency.
Somehow, the term “feel good” doesn’t even remotely apply. Instead, there’s a deeply sick sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. How about you?
Obama Resigns from His Church
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384636.aspx
CBNNews.com -- After facing some serious criticism surrounding his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama has left his church -- Trinity Church of Christ.
A source close to the Obama campaign told CBN News that Obama and his wife Michelle had spoken with Trinity's new pastor Otis Moss III months ago about remaining in the church. But according to the Associated Press, Obama's campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said the decision to resign from the church came "over the last few days."
Obama has most recently dealt with criticism of a sermon Father Michael Pfleger gave at the church last Sunday. Pfleger touched on issues surrounding white privilege, and he also mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Pfleger spoke of the tears Sen. Clinton shed during the New Hampshire Primary back in February.
Pfleger is a white priest at St. Sabina, which is a predominately black church.
Obama issued a statement saying he was not pleased with the current developments saying, he was "deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
The source also told CBN News that Moss was worried about reporters who showed up at the worship services and called church members whose names were in the bulletin. Obama didn't want the church to suffer any more than it already had.
Obama was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years.
He is currently in South Dakota campaigning before Tuesday's primary there.
Senator Reid and Democrats Fail 'We the People' - Broken Promise on Judicial Nominations
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07237.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- The American people have repeatedly pleaded with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) to stop partisan politics and move along on President Bush's judicial nominees. But apparently the people's outcry has fallen on deaf ears, again. Today, Sen. Reid "officially" breaks a promise he made to the American people back on April 15th to confirm at least three judicial nominees by the Memorial Day recess.
At the time Sen. Reid made the promise, he recognized that the Democratic Leadership needed "to make more progress on" circuit court nominations, but that progress is no where to be seen.
Mario Diaz, Concerned Women for America's (CWA) Policy Director for Legal Issues, said "It is clear that the Democratic Leadership does not care about the needs of its constituents. Many of the nominations pending are for seats that have been declared judicial emergencies. That means that there are not enough judges on certain circuits to handle the case load. This has a tangible and profound impact on the American people. The Democratic Leadership however has proven time and time again that when it comes to judicial nominations political games are more important than the needs of the people."
The nomination of Peter Keisler has been pending for almost 700 days; Judge Robert Conrad's has been pending for 300 days. Both men have an impeccable record and received the American Bar Association's highest rating of "well qualified."
"Qualifications and merit are not the issue." said Diaz. "It is precisely because the leadership knows that these are well qualified nominees and that if given a vote they would be confirmed that they keep playing political games to prevent it. It appears that they have received their marching orders from extreme liberal special interest groups that they need to oppose these nominees because they will not be judicial activists for their preferred causes. Sadly, they appeared to have complied, to the detriment of the American people."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
President Bush's Radio Address
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384550.aspx
Read the text below.
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Next week Congress will return to Washington after its Memorial Day recess. I hope Members of Congress return rested, because they have a lot of work left on important issues and limited time to get it done.
Congress needs to pass a responsible war funding bill that puts the needs of our troops first, without loading it up with unrelated domestic spending. Our troops in Afghanistan are performing with courage and honor, delivering blows to the Taliban and al Qaida. Our troops in Iraq have driven al Qaida and other extremists from sanctuaries they once held across the country and are chasing them from their last remaining strongholds. Our men and women in uniform are risking their lives every day, and they deserve the resources and flexibility they need to complete their mission.
Congress needs to support our military families by passing an expansion of the GI Bill that makes it easier for our troops to transfer unused education benefits to their spouses and children. It is critical for this legislation to support the all-volunteer force and help us recruit and retain the best military in the world.
Congress needs to ensure that our intelligence professionals have the tools to monitor terrorist communications quickly and effectively. Last year, Congress passed temporary legislation that provided these tools. Unfortunately, the law expired more than three months ago. Congress needs to pass long-term legislation that will help our intelligence professionals learn our enemies' plans before they can attack and put an end to abusive lawsuits filed against companies believed to have assisted the government after the attacks of September the 11th. And Congress needs to act soon so we can maintain a vital flow of intelligence.
Congress needs to approve the Colombia free trade agreement so we can open a growing market for American goods, services, and crops. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives is blocking a vote on this vital agreement. Unless this agreement is brought up for a vote, it will die. This will hurt American workers, farmers, and business owners. And it will hurt our Nation's strategic interests in a vital region of the world.
Congress needs to confirm the good men and women who have been nominated to important government positions. There are now more than 350 nominations pending before the Senate. These include highly qualified people I have nominated to fill vacancies on the Federal bench. And they include talented nominees who are needed to help guide our economy during a time of uncertainty. For example, three nominees to the Federal Reserve have been waiting for confirmation for more than a year. And because of Senate inaction, the Council of Economic Advisers is now down to a single member. This confirmation backlog makes it harder for government to meet its responsibilities - and the United States Senate needs to give every nominee an up-or-down vote as soon as possible.
One nominee who needs to be confirmed right away is Steve Preston. A month has passed since I nominated Steve to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Unfortunately, Senators have stalled this nomination over an issue that has nothing to do with Steve or his qualifications for the job. With all the turbulence in the housing market, this is no time to play politics with such a critical appointment. So I call on the Senate to give Steve Preston a prompt vote and confirm this good man without further delay.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about keeping their homes, Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans. And at a time when Americans are concerned about rising gas prices, Congress needs to pass legislation to expand domestic energy production.
In all these areas, Congress has failed to act. The American people deserve better from their elected leaders. Congress needs to show the American people that Republicans and Democrats can compete for votes and cooperate for results at the same time. You sent your representatives to Washington to do the people's business, and you have a right to expect them to do it - even in an election year.
Thank you for listening.
Chertoff Downplays Terrorist Nuclear Threat
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384523.aspx
CBNNews.com - LONDON -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is downplaying the idea of a nuclear attack by terrorists after recent postings on al-Qaida-affiliated Web sites exhorted militants to pursue weapons of mass destruction for use against the U.S.
Chertoff, speaking at Oxford Union on Friday, said that while officials acknowledge al-Qaida's interest in developing such capability, the U.S. was more concerned about terrorists' use of conventional arms.
"The short answer is the intent is there. Its probability, particularly in the short term, is lower than conventional weapons," he said at Oxford's famed debating society.
Chertoff's remarks followed a series of anonymous postings on al-Qaida-affliated Web sites, including a 39-minute video, calling on militants to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
The Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant Web traffic, said the video presents the U.S. as vulnerable and suggests that militants could use such weapons as a deterrent to any nuclear attack against an Islamic country.
Although none of the postings is known to be authentic, taken together they raise questions about whether jihadists have such capabilities and whether they can launch some kind of attack.
But Chertoff downplayed the idea.
"In the immediate or near term, the focus is on conventional weapons, which can still be quite damaging. Something on the scale of 9/11 or the attacks on your transportation system. We have to look at the whole spectrum," he said.
The video is just part of a propaganda campaign to frighten the West, SITE director Rita Katz said.
"It's just an indication of the strong desire that jihadists have for the use of such a weapon, but I don't see a reason to worry about a WMD attack in the U.S. based on this chatter," she said.
Ben Venzke, CEO of the IntelCenter intelligence group, said the video is probably not made by al-Qaida but has been put together by someone who sympathizes with their aims.
"They take clips from everywhere - the BBC, old Bin Laden clips and edit them together. The mention of weapons of mass destruction is just wishful thinking," he said.
On another matter, Chertoff said a proper court and legal system had now been established at the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but it took too long.
"It would have been better had they been in place in 2000 and in 2003. It would have been much more desirable to do it earlier," he said.
Mock up 'North American Parliament' under way
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65582
A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual "North American Model Parliament" for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is "Triumvirate" sessions Monday in Montreal's City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday.
According to the NAFI website, "Triumvirate 2008" brings together the students "to participate in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting between North American political actors."
Participants are assigned to play one of three roles: a legislator, representing a country other than their own; a journalist; or a lobbyist.
Four themes were selected as subjects of the mock parliament's debate: Fostering Renewable Electricity Markets; Countering North American corporate outsourcing; Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative; and NAFTA's Chapter 11 on investments.
A major goal of the model parliament, according to the NAFI Triumvirate website, is to "develop the participants' sense of belonging to North America."
WND contacted the NAFI office in Montreal requesting comment but received no reply.
As WND previously reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.
"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," Chretien told WND.
Among the NAFI board of directors are Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., former director of the Center for North American Studies at American University; and M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.
Pastor has written extensively on his proposal for the creation of a "North American Community," while denying he has intended to form a North American Union modeled after the European Union."
In January, Pastor resigned his position at American University's Office of International Affairs amid a reorganization. Pastor announced he was taking a one-year sabbatical in which he planned to work as co-director of The Elders, a group of 13 world figures, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.
As WND previously reported, Pastor's 2001 book, "Toward a North American Community," presents an argument that North American integration should advance through the development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American customs union and a North American Development Fund for the economic development of Mexico.
Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, "Building a North American Community," that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S, Mexico and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.
Critics contend the working groups are pursuing a stealth process to transform the SPP into a North American regional governmental structure.
Cost Drives Senate Climate Debate
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384798.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - The possible economic cost of confronting global warming, from higher electricity bills to more expensive gasoline, is driving the debate as climate change takes center stage in Congress.
The Senate will begin considering legislation Monday that would mandate a reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries, factories and transportation, cutting heat-trapping pollution by two-thirds by mid-century.
The debate opens as Americans are reeling over $4 gasoline and soaring expenses to heat and cool their homes. That's making it all that harder to sell the merits of a bill that would transform the nation's energy industries and -- as its critics will argue -- cause energy prices to increase even more.
Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., one of the chief sponsors of the bill, says computer studies suggest the overall impact on energy costs could be modest with several projections showing overall continued economic growth. The measure calls for tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to offset higher energy bills, its sponsors say.
Returning from the Memorial Day recess, lawmakers also have to fix the international food aid and trade components of a farm bill that, through a printing error, were left out of the parchment version that President Bush signed into law last month. And the House and Senate are still working on a bill to fund the Iraq war another year, expand G.I. Bill college benefits and strengthen New Orleans levees.
While this week's Senate debate on global warming is viewed as a watershed in climate change politics, both sides of the issue acknowledge the likelihood of getting the bill passed is slim, at least this year.
Junk Science: Poseur Shareholders
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360003,00.html
The green blitzkrieg hit the ExxonMobil annual shareholder meeting this week.
The meeting featured 17 shareholder proposals, the vast majority of which were filed by left-leaning "investors" seeking, in one way or another, to pressure company management into implementing the green agenda.
As a portfolio manager of a libertarian/conservative activist mutual fund, I attended the meeting to defend company shareholders the tens of millions of Americans who own ExxonMobil shares either directly or indirectly through retirement plans, mutual funds and other institutional investments. An audio recording of the meeting is available here and my remarks begin at 55:26 minutes into the meeting.
Here’s what I had to say:
"Good morning. I’m Steve Milloy, portfolio manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a publicly owned mutual fund. I am here on behalf of not just the Fund, but all bona fide shareholders of ExxonMobil.
"By bona fide shareholders, I mean those shareholders who have invested in ExxonMobil for the time-honored and socially responsible purpose of making money while providing society with the vital good and services that it needs. We see ExxonMobil as a company with a track record of true social responsibility that few institutions — whether public or private — can match.
"Not only is ExxonMobil perhaps the most profitable business venture in the history of capitalism, but the company helps provide society with its lifeblood, petroleum products. ExxonMobil employs more than 80,000 people and earns and returns billions of dollars to millions of investors every year.
"In the last five years ExxonMobil’s share price has soared from below $40/share to above $90/share. In these uncertain economic times, what’s not to like? Yet some shareholders — like many of those who will follow me today — see this success as a scourge that they intend to exploit for their own dubious social and political ends.
"They don’t see ExxonMobil as a premier investment vehicle engaged in the necessary and profitable business of fueling society. They don’t see ExxonMobil as one of society’s top-performing wealth-creation machines. They don’t see ExxonMobil as one of our society’s top-performing job-creation machines. They don’t see ExxonMobil as one of society’s top-performing pension fund investments.
"Rather, these 'poseur' shareholders see ExxonMobil as a means to advance their anti-people, anti-business and anti-capitalism social and political agenda. You will hear from some who seek to manufacture controversy over a variety of issues, including corporate governance and CEO pay.
"They don’t view such issues as means for making the company work better for shareholders, employees and customers, but rather as a means of dividing and conquering management and making it more pliable to political pressure. You will hear from shareholders who say they’re worried about global warming.
"Yet they willfully ignore the latest forecast from U.N. scientists that calls for global cooling caused by Mother Nature — not global warming caused by humans — and that more than 31,000 U.S. scientists recently signed a petition decrying as unfounded the scientific claims underpinning global warming alarmism.
"The poseur shareholders instead seek to pressure management and weaken its resolve in the fight against junk science-based government regulation. You will hear from some who want ExxonMobil to focus on alternative energies like ethanol. But as CEO Rex Tillerson has rightfully pointed out, ExxonMobil sells oil and gas, not 'moonshine.' The poseur shareholders apparently want ExxonMobil profitability to be based on politically determined taxpayer subsidies and government giveaways rather than the competition of the free market.
"Ironically, the alternative energy strategy failed miserably at oil giant BP. As BP CEO John Browne chased the alternative fuel fantasy and advocated climate alarmism, his inattention to safety and maintenance led to 15 tragic deaths at the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion, the largest-ever oil spill in the Alaskan North Slope in 2006 and ensuing harm to BP’s reputation and share price.
"Under new leadership, BP reportedly will ditch the alternative energy business entirely since its shares have received little, if any, uplift from renewable energy. As Congress seeks to humiliate and pressure oil industry executives and to strip ExxonMobil shareholders of their rightfully earned profits through a windfall profits tax, where are the poseur shareholders? Are they using their activist skills to defend the company against such political thuggery? No.
"They are instead waging a take-no-prisoners war against management. This can only harm the interests of bona fide shareholders. That is why the Free Enterprise Action Fund has proposed to have management amend the company’s by-laws to no longer accept harassing and nuisance shareholder proposals.
"Our proposal would by no means eliminate poseur shareholders, but it would stop the annual meeting from being a forum for their campaign against ExxonMobil’s bona fide shareholders. We call on ExxonMobil’s bona fide shareholders and management to band together to fight the predatory Exxon-haters.
"As for those shareholders who don’t care for the oil and gas business, get out. There are a host of alternative energy companies whose subsidies you can invest in. The rest of us will be quite happy to purchase your shares and enjoy the profits of true social responsibility. Thank you."
Although our proposal received less than 3 percent of the shareholder vote, perhaps a more encouraging reaction to our proposal was reported by BusinessWeek: "Indeed, the loudest applause of the meeting greeted Steven Milloy… who proposed a prohibition on shareholder resolutions such as those proposed by the Rockefellers."
The "crowd" opposes the greens. We just need to stiffen the spines of corporate managers. [Disclosure: The Free Enterprise Action Fund owns about 5,500 shares of ExxonMobil stock. Mr. Milloy has been affiliated with non-profit organizations who have in the past received financial support from ExxonMobil.]
Think oil prices hurt now? Just wait
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2248967220080522?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10005
Sky-high oil prices are causing pain at the pump, but bills for air conditioning this summer and heating next winter -- combined with rising food costs -- promise to squeeze U.S. consumers even more.
With gas at $4.00 a gallon, households already have less to spend on a new grill at Home Depot; a vacation at Walt Disney's Disney World; a new TV from Best Buy Co; or a new "hog" from Harley-Davidson Co.
And there are no signs things will get better soon for the consumer, long the driving force of U.S. economic growth.
"For the areas of the economy that rely on heating oil, high fuel prices are going to be another blow to the consumer this winter," said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the LA County Economic Development Corp.
"The hotter states will feel the pinch during the summer months but in the mid-America states where you get hot summers and cold winters, it's going to be very uncomfortable," he said.
"This is going to eat into the disposable income of American consumers -- supposing they have any left."
Oil prices, now $130 a barrel, have risen six-fold since 2002. On Wednesday, heating oil reached a record high above $3.90 a gallon and the price is expected to stay high.
Heating oil, which cost $3.29 a gallon in January, will likely cost $3.83 in December, according to the government's Energy Information Administration.
Those costs come at a time of rising food prices, forcing people to spend more on basics as wages fail to keep up. The effects on the economy could be profound.
"The American consumer will continue to pay for fuel, food and heat," said University of Maryland economist Peter Morici.
"But they will give everything else up," he said. "That's going to make it harder to sell the average consumer a television, a suit, or even a meal at a restaurant."
HARD TIMES
This could become an especially depressing reality in July and August, when back-to-school shopping starts, and in November, when holiday shopping gets under way.
Without strong sales during both of those shopping seasons, retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, J.C. Penney and Sears could post bleak results for the last two quarters of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.
For many years, the consumer has been the engine of U.S. growth, accounting for around 70 percent of the economy.
But much recent spending has been done on credit, leaving Americans with a negative savings rate.
Now that consumers have been hit by the double-whammy of a weak economy and higher costs, the question is how much damage the engine has sustained and how long it will take to fix it.
Peter Schiff, president of money manager Euro Pacific Capital, warns that after years of profligate spending, the "chickens are finally coming home to roost".
"Our whole phony standard of living is imploding," he said. "We have borrowed and spent ourselves into oblivion."
"It's amazing that people can't figure out that America is broke."
WINTER OF DISCONTENT
Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial, says one of her biggest concerns for the short term is that the Bush administration's tax rebates, which were designed to stimulate the economy, will be used by consumers to fill their tanks and use air conditioning as usual rather than cutting back.
Many retailers, like Wal-Mart and Sears and supermarkets Kroger and Supervalu, have offered customers incentives to spend their rebate checks with them.
President George W. Bush signed into law a $152 billion fiscal stimulus package earlier this year to provide tax rebates to 130 million Americans. Some $107 billion of the total was allocated for households.
"The tax rebate is going to be a double-edged sword for consumers," Swonk said. "When the heating bills start coming in the fall things will not look so good."
"That should contribute to a contraction in consumer spending in the fourth quarter," she added.
Swonk said that among the industries that will continue to feel the pinch is the auto industry, a major employer.
That likely means that Thursday's announcement by Ford Motor Co that it was abandoning its long-touted goal of returning to profitability by 2009 will be followed by more bad news from Detroit.
With Ford and General Motors shares getting a battering on Thursday, investors were asking if the long-term prognosis of the Detroit automakers was becoming even bleaker.
"The economic circumstances are not good for Ford and they are not good for any of the automakers really; this isn't anything that is a Ford exclusive," said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for consulting firm IRN Inc.
Edward Leamer, head of the UCLA Anderson Forecast Center, said that thanks to the combination of high spending in recent years and rocketing fuel costs, the consumer-engine of U.S. economic growth is close to failing.
"The global markets are telling us we are not as wealthy as we think we are and that we have spent beyond our means," he said. But Leamer said while the engine may be broken, the U.S. economic model is not: it just needs a new engine.
Thanks to the "rosy spot" of exports helped by a weak dollar, plus strength in commodities like coal and grains, the UCLA Anderson Forecast Center predicts the U.S. economy will suffer only a mild recession this year.
But without that retail engine of growth, "our long-term prospect is for sluggish U.S. economic growth," Leamer said.
"Unfortunately, there is nothing on the horizon in the U.S. economy that will take over from the consumer."
New survivalists prepare for future energy crisis
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080524/D90S5MLG0.html
A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.
That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.
Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.
"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."
Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.
The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.
These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.
Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations - afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation's cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.
"There's going to be things that happen when people can't get things that they need for themselves and their families," said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.
Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.
These survivalists believe in "peak oil," the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.
On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.
Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don't trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis.
The powers that be, they've determined, will be largely powerless to stop what is to come.
Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.
The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.
By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.
"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."
So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.
"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.
Laskowski is taking steps similar to environmentalists: conserving fuel, consuming less, studying global warming, and relying on local produce and craftsmen. Laskowski is powering his home with solar panels and is raising fish, geese, ducks and sheep. He has planted apple and pear trees and is growing lettuce, spinach and corn.
Whenever possible, he uses his bicycle to get into town.
"I remember the oil crisis in '73; I remember waiting in line for gas," Laskowski said. "If there is a disruption in the oil supply it will be very quickly elevated into a disaster."
Breault said she hopes to someday band together with her neighbors to form a self-sufficient community. Women will always be having babies, she notes, and she imagines her skills as a midwife will always be in demand.
For now, she is readying for the more immediate work ahead: There's a root cellar to dig, fruit trees and vegetable plots to plant. She has put a bicycle on layaway, and soon she'll be able to bike to visit her grandkids even if there is no oil at the pump.
Whatever the shape of things yet to come, she said, she's done what she can to prepare.
US nears record tornado year; meteorologists don't know why
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/27/america/Tornadoes.php
Another week, another rumbling train of tornadoes that obliterates entire city blocks, smashing homes to their foundations and killing people even as they cower in their basements.
With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year, according to the National Weather Service. Also, this year's storms seem to be unusually powerful.
But like someone who has lost all his worldly possessions to a whirlwind, meteorologists cannot explain exactly why this is happening.
"There are active years and we don't particularly understand why," said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman, Okla.
Over the weekend, an extraordinarily powerful twister ripped apart Parkersburg, Iowa, destroying 288 homes in the town of about 1,000 residents, said Gov. Chet Culver. At least four people were killed there. Among the buildings destroyed were City Hall, the high school, and the lone grocery store and gas station. Some of those killed were in basements.
The brutal numbers for the U.S. so far this year: at least 110 dead, 30 killer tornadoes and a preliminary count of 1,191 twisters. The record for the most tornadoes in a year is 1,817 in 2004. In the past 10 years, the average number of tornadoes has been 1,254.
"Right now we're on track to break all previous counts through the end of the year," said warning meteorologist Greg Carbin at the Storm Prediction Center, also in Norman.
And it's not just more storms. The strongest of those storms — those in the 136-to-200 mph range — have been more prevalent than normal, and lately they seem to be hitting populated areas more, he said. At least 22 tornadoes this year have been in the top part of the new Enhanced Fujita scale, rating a 3 (for "severe") or a 4 ("devastating") on the 1-to-5 scale.
The twister that devastated Parkersburg was a 5 — the first in the U.S. since a tornado nearly obliterated Greensburg, Kan., just over a year ago. The Parkersburg tornado was the strongest to hit Iowa in 32 years.
So far, more than 50 of the deaths this year have been in mobile homes, the wrong place to be during a tornado. They have been a factor in nearly half of all tornado fatalities in recent years.
And if that's not bad enough, computer models show that the conditions that make tornadoes ripe are going to stick around Tornado Alley for about another week, according to Brooks.
The nagging question is why.
Global warming cannot really explain what is happening, Carbin said. While higher temperatures could increase the number of thunderstorms, which are needed to trigger tornadoes, they also would tend to push the storm systems too far north to form some twisters, he said.
La Nina, the cooling of parts of the Central Pacific that is the flip side El Nino, was a factor in the increased activity earlier this year — especially in February, a record month for tornado activity — but it can't explain what is happening now, according to Carbin.
Carbin explained the most recent tornadoes with just one word: "May." May is typically the busiest tornado month of the year.
A short-term answer is that the nation's heartland is stuck in a tornado rut with usually temporary weather conditions that can lead to tornadoes parked over the Plains, said Adam Houston, a professor of meteorology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cooler air at high altitudes and warmer moist air coming from the Gulf of Mexico are combining and settling over the region.
"You get day after day of severe weather and day after day of tornadoes until the pattern changes," Houston said.
But why that happens, Houston doesn't know. While scientists can forecast hurricane seasons, predicting their land-bound cousins is much harder, Brooks said. While tornadoes, like hurricanes, rely on large-scale weather phenomena, the crucial triggers are extremely local weather conditions.
On top of that, tornadoes have a "Goldilocks" issue. To make a tornado, the conditions have to be just right. Too much or too little of one ingredient and there is no tornado. For example, wind shear — when upper and lower winds are at different speeds or coming from different directions — is crucial to create a funnel cloud. Too little and there is no spin. Too much and the tornado falls apart.
And tornadoes form most often in late afternoon, between 5 and 9 p.m., so if a thunderstorm starts up early in the morning, it's far less likely to throw off a tornado, Brooks said.
As for why so many people are getting killed, Brooks suggests thinking of the landscape as a dartboard: "We're throwing more darts and throwing bigger darts than normal."
More people are living in mobile homes in the past few decades, and that has shown up in tornado fatality statistics. In 1970, about one-quarter of all tornado deaths were in mobile homes; now it's about half, Brooks said. In 1970, Census data showed that 3 percent of the U.S. population lived in mobile homes; now it is 7.6 percent, with a higher rate in the Southeast and other parts of Tornado Alley, such as Oklahoma, Brooks said.
But as deadly as this year has been, it used to be far worse in the United States. In 1925, tornadoes killed 794 people. From 1916 to 1936, tornadoes killed an average of nearly 280 Americans a year. That's because tornado warnings were not as good, people couldn't hear them and housing was not as sturdy, Brooks said.
Even with a busy tornado year, meteorologists are getting the word out. Of the 110 deaths so far this year, 101 came while there was a tornado watch in effect, according to the National Weather Service.
TN Lawmakers Tackle Biblical Illiteracy
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/384142.aspx
CBNNews.com - The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. But despite its importance and influence in culture, many Americans are biblically illiterate. Lawmakers in Tennessee want to change that.
A bill has already passed the Tennessee House and Senate, and is awaiting a signature from the governor.
The 'Bible in Schools Act'
Reading Bible stories to her kids is an important part of family time for Elizabeth Tullis.
"You not only get the reading in, but you also teach your children values and character training," she said. "You have an opportunity to teach them about history, different times, different cultures, and the Bible provides all of that."
Time Magazine calls the Bible the most influential book ever written.
That's why Tennessee State Senator Roy Herron wants public schools to be able to teach the Bible, without the fear of being sued.
Herron sponsored the "Bible in Schools Act" -- a bill that allows the Tennessee Board of Education to create an academic, non-denominational elective course about the Bible.
The bill also protects current public school Bible courses being offered in less than 20 percent of Tennessee's counties.
The Bible "has shaped this country and changed this world. Our young people must know the Bible to understand literature, art, music, culture, history and politics," Herron told the Paris-Post Intelligencer.
Professor David Lyle Jeffrey of Baylor University agrees.
"In schools like Princeton or Brown or Harvard or wherever, will tell you that students that come in with a Biblical formation, rare though they be, go right to the top of the class. This is because they immediately read at greater depth and with greater critical acuity, than students who don't have that formation," he said.
Matters of Church and State
Jeffrey says knowing the Bible is part of understanding our culture.
About 65 to 70 percent of all of Western art until the 20th century was directly influenced by the Bible, and a great deal of 20th century art is still influenced by the Bible.
But opponents are concerned teaching the Bible in public schools will lead to proselytizing and wonder if the bill is a back door attempt at religious instruction.
Herron says the law is constitutional. It does not require schools to offer Bible courses, but it does protect those that do from lawsuits.
"When we're looking for books for our children, we typically look for books that have some depth to them -- a good moral lesson, not just an empty story," Tullis said.
For Tullis, being biblically literate just makes sense.
According to the Bible Literacy Project, public high schools in more than 35 states already offer Bible literacy courses for students of all religious beliefs.
Attorney General Backtracks, DA Kline Will Seek to Have Gag Order on Key Witness Against Planned Parenthood Overturned
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07238.shtml
TOPEKA, Kansas, (christiansunite.com) -- Amid growing concerns of an abortion cover up, Attorney General Steve Six modified his demand with the Kansas Supreme Court yesterday and acknowledged that key evidence in a criminal prosecution against Planned Parenthood should remain in the possession of a District Court judge for now.
Six had sued Judge Richard Anderson in a secret mandamus action before the Kansas Supreme Court, asking that the evidence against Planned Parenthood be removed from Anderson and given to him so that he could return it to the Overland Park abortion clinic, effectively preventing it from being used in an ongoing criminal prosecution of the abortion giant.
Operation Rescue has decried Six's efforts to keep important evidence out of the hands of prosecutors as blatant obstruction of justice. "Six has been acting like he is on Planned Parenthood's payroll. His actions have been grossly inappropriate for a state's 'Top Cop'." said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman,
District Attorney Phill Kline promised yesterday to ask the state's High Court to lift the gag order placed on Judge Richard Anderson at Six's request in order to allow Anderson to testify that records in his possession show evidence that Planned Parenthood committed crimes and "manufactured" evidence to cover it up.
Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline based many of his 107 criminal charges on evidence in Anderson's possession.
Operation Rescue was the first to release recently unsealed documents in Six's secret suit against Anderson that revealed the Attorney General's efforts to deny Kline key evidence in his prosecution of Planned Parenthood.
"The records show overt actions taken by Six in direct response to Kline's prosecution that were designed to make sure incriminating evidence against Planned Parenthood was never used against them in court. When Six's efforts to deny evidence to Kline were finally exposed, Six had no choice but to backtrack," said Newman. "His pleadings made him look guilty as sin in an obvious abortion cover up."
"Six got caught with his proverbial pants down, and now is trying to backtrack. The people of Kansas should be outraged about this now exposed effort to subvert justice," said Newman. "Gov. Sebelius showed a lack of judgment in appointing Six to the office of Attorney General. In light of the recent revelations of his secret efforts to obstruct justice, one can only conclude that neither are fit to serve."
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.
Calif. Episcopal Church to Perform Same-Sex Weddings
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080526/32531.htm
An Episcopal church in California plans to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples beginning mid-June.
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, one of the largest congregations in the denomination, adopted last Thursday the "Resolution on Marriage Equality" in response to a California Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay "marriage."
The 125-year-old congregation "will treat equally all couples presenting themselves for the rite of marriage," said the Rev. Canon J. Edwin Bacon Jr. in an announcement.
"I am honored to serve a church where the leadership demonstrates such stirring courage to move beyond lip service about embodying God's inclusive love to actually committing our faith community to the practice of marriage equality," Bacon commented, according to Episcopal News Service.
On May 15 in a 4-3 ruling, the state high court struck down a ban that prohibited same-sex couples from "marrying." The justices ruled that “domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage."
After the high court cleared the way for same-sex "marriage" in a decision that was a blow to Christian and pro-family groups, churches were faced with the pressing question of whether they must recognize and officiate gay weddings.
California has an estimated 92,000 same-sex couples.
Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles is establishing a task force to help clarify the impact of the court's decision on local congregations.
While many bishops in The Episcopal Church support the rights of gays and lesbians, the denomination has not "yet made" the decision to bless same-sex unions, Bishop Jim Mathes of San Diego noted.
"We are in the midst of a challenging but vital conversation about holy relationships in this diocese and indeed across the [Anglican] Communion," Mathes said.
The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, had passed a resolution in September 2007 saying they will "exercise restraint" in authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had made it clear, however, that the church will not retreat from the "full inclusion" of gays and lesbians but is willing to "pause" as the Anglican Communion remains divided on the issue of homosexuality.
Meanwhile, Bacon of All Saints Church believes the latest pro-gay move by his congregation "aligns" them with "the Scriptures' mandate to make God's love tangible by 'doing justice and loving mercy.'"
But Richard J. Mouw, president of the conservative Protestant Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and a friend to Bacon, says All Saints' decision to perform same-sex weddings is "a very serious mistake."
By linking gay "marriage" to issues of "justice and mercy" rather than moral standards, All Saints restricts dialogue with people who have "legitimate questions" about their definition of marriage, Mouw said, according to Pasadena Star News .
"It should be clear to everyone that he's (Bacon) out of step with his global Anglican communion and fostering what many of us sincerely believe is a real threat to the social fabric," Mouw noted.
The global Anglican Communion maintains that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture.
SBC Resolution Calls for Parents to Rescue Their Children from Indoctrination in Sexual Deviancy in California Government Schools
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07235.shtml
COLUMBIA, Sc., (christiansunite.com) -- For many years a growing number of government schools under the guise of promoting tolerance, safety, diversity, and multiculturalism have been endangering children and betraying their community's trust by influencing our children to regard homosexuality and other forms of sexual deviancy as acceptable lifestyles and silencing those within the schools who disagree.
Recently, with the enactment of SB 777 and related legislation, California has mandated that every child in California's government schools be indoctrinated to believe that the homosexual, bisexual, and other sexually deviant lifestyles are normal, acceptable, and the moral equivalent of biblical heterosexuality.
To make Christian parents and pastors more aware of California's child endangering abject capitulation to the sexual deviancy lobby, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr., a prominent Southern Baptist lecturer, preacher, and author of Family Driven Faith and The Ever-Loving Truth, and Bruce N. Shortt, author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, have submitted a resolution addressing this issue for consideration at the SBC's 2008 Annual Meeting.
The resolution asks the messengers to the 2008 SBC Annual Meeting to express the following views:
1. It urges California parents to withdraw their children from California public schools at least until Senate Bill 777 and all other legislation mandating that schoolchildren be indoctrinated to accept various forms of sexual deviancy as normal or acceptable are completely repealed;
2. It encourages all Southern Baptist churches to work vigorously as a missions effort to encourage and support the expansion in California of (1) Christian schools, (2) homeschooling and homeschool co-ops, and (3) alternative models for providing Christian education such as University Model Schools and Christian One Room Schoolhouses, giving particular regard to the needs of children from low income and single parent families;
3. It encourages all Southern Baptist agencies to communicate repeatedly with California parents, pastors, and Christian California school employees about: (1) what has been done to California's public schools by SB 777 and its related legislation, (2) what that legislation means for California's children, families, churches, and culture, and (3) what Christian educational alternatives are available; and,
4. It urges Baptists to pray for the deliverance of all homosexuals and other sexual deviants from their sexual sin and for their salvation.
Dr. Baucham believes it is urgent that Christian parents become better informed: "I am convinced that if government schools had to recruit students by sending out brochures outlining the academic, moral, and spiritual aspects of their curriculum, most Baptists would throw it in the trash without a second thought. However, when these schools can hide behind stealth phrases like tolerance, safe schools, multiculturalism, and safer sex, parents are often unaware of the dangers lurking beneath the surface. Moreover, parents who speak up are often branded as narrow-minded bigots with outdated values. This resolution is an effort to shine the light of truth in the dark corners of our schools and force our brethren to take a long, hard, honest look at what we have tolerated for far too long."
According to Shortt, "Homosexuals and others trapped in sexual sin need our prayers and concern, but Christian parents must make sure that their children are not being endangered by false teaching in government schools."
"Unfortunately, most of our churches and other Christian organizations have refused to acknowledge that children in government schools are being inundated by a cascading torrent of spiritual and moral pathologies. Instead of boldly stating the truth about government schools, the church's voice has been hesitant and compromised by the public school tares within our congregations and organizations. Now, we are confronted with a calamity in California that will not allow pastors and other leaders to mouth the usual evasions about 'our schools are different' or 'our children are salt and light'. Under the new legislation, no school in California is permitted to be 'different'. The question today is whether the SBC leadership can find the moral courage to do something."
Additional information, including the text of the resolution, can be found at www.exodusmandate.org.
Plan transforms doctors from healers to killers as State bill mandates physicians tell patients about assisted suicide
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65651
By just two votes, the California State Assembly passed a bill yesterday that detractors say allows doctors to push patients toward medically assisted suicide.
The bill, AB 2747, enables doctors to provide a patient declared to have less than one year to live with a long list of end-of-life options, including a last-moments option that looks suspiciously like euthanasia.
Critics of the bill point to a provision that adds "palliative sedation" and VSED (voluntary stopping of eating and drinking) to a patient's end-of-life options, extreme measures that have been previously reserved for patients within a few hours to a few days of death.
If the bill becomes law, critics say, a doctor could pronounce a patient within a year of death, encourage him to consider complete (sometimes irreversible) sedation, then proceed with VSED until the patient, unconscious and unaware, is starved and dehydrated to death. In effect, the critics argue, this is physician-assisted suicide for anyone deemed "within a year of death."
Assembly member Patty Berg, who co-sponsored the bill, wrote in California's Capitol Weekly that AB 2747 merely "requires healthcare providers to give complete answers to their terminal patients."
The bill itself states that "lack of communication between health care providers and their terminally ill patients can cause problems" and that "those problems are complicated by social issues, such as cultural and religious pressures." Further, "a recent survey found that providers that object to certain practices are less likely than others to believe they have an obligation to present all of the options to patients and refer patients to other providers."
Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a California-based pro-life group, insists, however, "This deceptive bill will cause death and shorten life, despite its claims."
Thomasson sees an imminent danger that unscrupulous or cost-driven doctors might use the bill's provisions for communication as license to tell patients their death is coming within the year and move them toward life-ending choices.
"Some people are told they have a year to live," he points out, "then go on to live healthily for 12."
He also points out that in a state in which food and hydration are considered "extraordinary measures" in living wills, patients stunned by the news they have less than a year to live may opt for choices that lead directly to their death. Depressed or confused patients might agree to the sedation, then die through VSED.
"Drying up and shriveling to death through dehydration is a fate worse than lethal injection," says Thomasson. "By transforming palliative sedation into a vehicle for assisted suicide, AB 2747 would transform doctors and nurses from healers and comforters into killers."
The bill marks the fourth time in four years that Berg has attempted to pass legislation on end-of-life circumstances. Her previous attempts were more clearly euthanasia-related, including a bill last year that would have permitted death by lethal injection.
Berg insists AB 2747 is not of the same mold: "Unlike my previous end-of-life bill," she wrote, "my new bill doesn’t give anyone any new options. …Some, however, are still fighting last year’s battle and are trying to convince the gullible that my new bill is a Trojan horse, designed somehow to legalize aid-in-dying."
Thomassom sees the value Berg's places on "knowing all the options" as misguided.
"People who are ill need support, spiritual care and counseling," he says, not dire predictions of death and options for dying. "Just as the assisted-suicide bills of the last three years have been rejected, so should the California Legislature reject AB 2747. Assisted suicide by total sedation ignores the sanctity of human life and violates life-affirming medical ethics."
What will it be like 50 years from now? - 20 Predictions for 2058
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/365088_future30.html
We'll live to be 140 -- if we don't kill each other first.
We'll still need oil.
Water will be scarce and AIDS will be eradicated -- along with a host of chronic diseases that will turn out to be the fault of Sylvester and Tweety Bird.
We'll even be able to e-mail products to ourselves and "print" them out at home.
That's a snapshot of life in 2058 as envisioned by 60 top thinkers whose short essays make up "The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today," edited by CBS newsman Mike Wallace, correspondent-emeritus of "60 Minutes."
Predicting the future is notoriously difficult, as anyone who's laid odds on the Clinton-Obama race can attest. Projecting half a century is especially tricky, because change is accelerating and no one can foresee the "eureka" moments that propel science.
But leaders in medicine, technology and global issues -- including 15 Nobel Prize winners -- gave it a shot.
Contributors include Francis S. Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project; Ronald Noble, secretary-general of Interpol; Google Vice President Vint Cerf, often called the "father of the Internet"; and Kim Dae-jung, former president of South Korea.
A few other biggies: Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health; master inventor Ray Kurzweil, and economist Thomas C. Schelling.
"Some of these people are astounding minds," said Joel Miller, vice president and publisher of the business and culture division of Thomas Nelson books. "Some will be wrong and some will be right, but it's all fascinating stuff."
Wallace, pushing 90 and still recovering from a triple bypass, isn't out flogging the book, but his involvement was somewhat limited anyway. His role (apart from helping sell the book by putting his face and name on the cover) was "starting the conversation," as Miller put it, and vetting the contributors.
The essays vary in quality and some are more wishful thinking than prediction. Still, there are many thought-provoking ideas and some areas of consensus.
World population will soar from today's 6.5 billion to 9 billion or more, and globalization will accelerate -- lifting much of the developing world out of poverty. But greed, power-mongering and terrorism could lead to totalitarianism and loss of privacy.
So, while we can look forward to amazing technological leaps, the world's fate still comes down to human nature.
"The longer we live," Miller said, "the more thoughtfully we have to live in order to have a future on the planet. The real question is, What do we do with our choices?
"The singular value of a book like this is it starts the conversation, it starts people thinking. Imagining how we'll be 50 years from today is not as important as what we do today."
20 PREDICTIONS FOR 2058
1. We'll all know our personal DNA sequencing, allowing medical treatments and health-prevention strategies to be tailored to our genetic profiles.
2. Life spans will reach triple digits as we learn to reprogram cells to compensate for failing organs.
3. Five to 10 percent of children will be born with genetic enhancements, speeding human evolution. Part of the motivation will be to keep up with fast-evolving artificial intelligence.
4. The recognition that infection causes most chronic diseases will lead to vaccines against schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, heart disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, obesity, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, dental caries, autism and some cancers. AIDS will be eliminated.
5. Pets such as cats, hamsters and birds will become rare as it becomes clear that animals are a major source of transmission of chronic diseases. The exception is dogs, which have lived with humans and shared their pathogens for 14,000 years.
6. Hand-held neuroimagers will reveal when people are lying.
7. People must have government approval to marry and have children, based on their genetic compatibility, or face a huge tax burden for any sick or disabled children they produce in defiance of a ban.
8. Children of the baby boomers will work into their 70s because of a labor shortage -- and because they can.
9. The merger of real and virtual worlds will allow people to meet holographically and to feel, smell and taste products they buy online.
10. Nanotechnology will let us turn information files into physical products. For example, we can e-mail a toaster and print it out on a desktop "nanofactory."
11. Integrated, hand-held devices will coordinate appointments, track family members, even plan vacations by matching our wish list of destinations with free blocks of time. Many people will vacation in virtual worlds.
12. Global interdependence will allow people, capital and information to flow freely across borders, eroding the power of nation-states. Simultaneous translation will let us talk with people of any language.
13. Goodbye, privacy. Data from cameras, biometrics (retinal scans, fingerprints, face recognition software), full body scans and perhaps microchip implants will be sent to intelligence "fusion" centers to tell governments where people are going and what they're doing in the public realm.
14. We may be able to add memory to human brains, just as we do to old computers, and download human memory into remote storage devices.
15. Thanks to research begun in the early 2000s, a child who is born blind can have nerve signals wirelessly rerouted to the brain's auditory cortex, which will process both sight and sound. A child born deaf will undergo a similar procedure, routing impulses from the ear to the brain's visual cortex.
16. Nanotechnology will allow paralyzed people to walk. Molecules injected into the spinal cord will form into nanofibers that prevent scar tissue and promote new cell growth.
17. People can get artificial retinas that let them switch (simply by thinking) between "reality" mode and virtual reality, including the ability to see real events in other locations -- say, checking on Mom in the nursing home.
18. Handshakes and other types of human contact will be reserved for family members to avoid spreading disease.
19. Animal diseases such as mad cow will reduce meat consumption and lead to germ-free, engineered meat.
20. We will understand the origins of life and re-create it in the laboratory.
Computer trained to 'read' mind
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/us_nm/computer_mind_dc
A computer has been trained to "read" people's minds by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words, researchers said on Thursday.
They hope their study, published in the journal Science, might lead to better understanding of how and where the brain stores information.
This might lead to better treatments for language disorders and learning disabilities, said Tom Mitchell of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who helped lead the study.
"The question we are trying to get at is one people have been thinking about for centuries, which is: How does the brain organize knowledge?" Mitchell said in a telephone interview.
"It is only in the last 10 or 15 years that we have this way that we can study this question."
Mitchell's team used functional magnetic resonance imaging, a type of brain scan that can see real-time brain activity.
They calibrated the computer by having nine student volunteers think of 58 different words, while imaging their brain activity.
"We gave instructions to people where we would tell them, 'We are going to show you words and we would like you, when you see this word, to think about its properties,"' Mitchell said.
They imaged each of the nine people thinking about the 58 different words, to create a kind of "average" image of a word.
"If I show you the brain images for two words, the main thing you notice is that they look pretty much alike. If you look at them for a while you might see subtle differences," Mitchell said.
"We have the program calculate the mean brain activity over all of the words that somebody has looked at. That gives us the average when somebody thinks about a word, and then we subtract that average out from all those images," Mitchell added.
Then the test came.
"After we train on the other 58 words, we can say 'Here are two new words you have not seen, celery and airplane."' The computer was asked to choose which brain image corresponded with which word.
The computer passed the test, predicting when a brain image was taken when a person thought about the word "celery" and when the assigned word was "airplane."
The next step is to study brain activity for phrases.
"If I say 'rabbit' or 'fast rabbit' or 'cuddly rabbit', those are very different ideas," Mitchell said.
"I want to basically use that as a kind of scaffolding for studying language processing in the brain."
Mitchell was surprised at how similar brain activity was among the nine volunteers, although the work was painstaking. For an MRI to work well, the patient must sit or lie very still for several minutes.
"It can be hard to focus," Mitchell said. "Somewhere in the middle of that their stomach growls. And all of sudden they think, 'I'm hungry -- oops.' It's not a controllable experiment."
Christians Hungry for Sermon Podcasts
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080527/32546.htm
Christians are statistically on par with national norms when it comes to being plugged in to digital technologies and social networks, a new study showed. But the study also found that the country's faithful is even more in tune with podcasting than other adults are.
Results from a study conducted by The Barna Group showed that 38 percent of evangelicals and 31 percent of other born-again Christians had listened to a sermon or church teaching via podcasts – digital recordings available on the Internet – compared to only 17 percent of other adults.
Overall, 23 percent of all adults said they downloaded a church podcast in the past week.
Protestants were more likely to listen to sermon podcasts than Catholics, the new Barna study showed. Also, more non-mainline church attendants listened to podcasts than mainline Protestants.
Podcasts have found large Christian audiences as pastors discovered an inexpensive way to reach congregants and the wider public with biblical teachings.
"The good news about podcasts is this is probably another example of religious traditions trying to keep alive and relevant," says David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, according to USA Today.
Nearly half of large churches that have more than 250 adults have adopted podcasting, an earlier Barna study found. Overall, one out of every six Protestant churches has taken up podcasting.
David Kinnaman, the lead researcher of the latest Barna study, praises the use of podcasts to reach the masses. But he cautioned church leaders to balance the spiritual and cultural potential of the technology.
"Having the means of reaching the masses – for instance, through podcasting – is a good thing. Yet, nothing matches the potency of life-on-life discipleship," he said. "In this respect, social networking and blogs can be effective tools to intimately connect with a small, natural network of relationships. The key is using the technology in a way that is consistent with your calling and purpose, not just an addictive self-indulgence. "In this respect, social networking and blogs can be effective tools to intimately connect with a small, natural network of relationships. The key is using the technology in a way that is consistent with your calling and purpose, not just an addictive self-indulgence."
The rise in use of podcasts for uploading sermons comes as more Americans are showing a spiritual hunger.
A Pew Internet & American Life Project last year found that more people have used the Internet to look for religious and spiritual information than to download music, participate in online auctions or visit adult websites.
"Technology can empower and engage people, across generations, socio-economic segments, and physical boundaries," said Kinnaman. "Young people, for instance, think of themselves as creators of content, not merely consumers of it. Technology, in essence, gives them a voice and fuels their search for calling. Whether or not you welcome it, technology creates an entirely new calculus of influence and independence. The stewardship of technology as a force for good in culture is an important role for technologists, entrepreneurs, educators, and Christian leaders."
Church? No thanks. Why teens are leaving the church in droves
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Journal/stories.aspx?id=75927
Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors. Where are all the people?
Seventy percent of the people, 23 to 30 years old, are nowhere to be found in church on a regular basis for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. They become church dropouts, according to a study from LifeWay Research.
These students who attended a Protestant church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school are leaving the church, and most of them are doing so during their first year of college.
Findings from the study, in which 1,023 adults, ages 18 to 30, were surveyed, reveal that 97% of dropouts give specific life-change issues as their reason for leaving. Only 20% of the dropouts predetermined their post high school departure.
“The most frequent reason for leaving church is, in fact, a self-imposed change, ‘I simply wanted a break from church’ (27%),” according to a LifeWay report summarizing the study. “The path toward college and the workforce are also strong reasons for young people to leave church: ‘I moved to college and stopped attending church’ (25%) and ‘work responsibilities prevented me from attending’ (23%).”
Following are some similar findings cited by the Youth Transition Network (YTN), a coalition of some of the nation’s largest denominations and ministries that are working together to help reduce the dramatic loss of youth from the church:
“An Assemblies of God study showed a loss of 66% of their students within one year of high school graduation.”
“A Southern Baptist transition project estimates an 82% loss of youth within one year of high school graduation.”
“Fifty to eighty percent of high school students walk away.”
“As someone who recognizes the importance of an ever-growing faith, especially during the college years, these are staggering statistics,” said Cyndi Forman, campus minister of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) of Georgia Tech and Emory University. “The statistics are sad, disappointing and dangerous, all at the same time.”
The Gospel misunderstood
While there are a host of reasons – or excuses – for young adults leaving the church, a significant concern is that it happens so frequently when high school seniors become college freshmen. Unfortunately, this falling away is more than just a leave of absence from church; it’s a departure from faith prompted by a misunderstanding of the Gospel.
Teacher, apologist and author Voddie Baucham explains it best when he says going to church doesn’t make one a follower of Christ anymore than standing in a garage makes one a car. However, church attendance and communion with the body of Christ are desires that flow from an individual heart that’s been changed by the Gospel.
“For many students, when they come to college, they have yet to begin to own their faith, to make it personal,” Forman said. “They are still relying on the faith of their parents, their church, even their friends. It’s not something they have committed to in such a way that they can stand solidly on it, no matter what comes.”
According to the LifeWay report, “How young people use their time and the relationships they choose can also lead them away from church. Twenty-two percent ‘became too busy, though still wanted to attend,’ and 17% ‘chose to spend more time with friends outside the church.’”
“Gone are the days in which young adults attend because they are ‘supposed to,’” added Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “Only 10% of those who continued attending church did so to please others. Young adults whose faith truly became integrated into their lives as teens are much more likely to stay in church. If church did not prove its value during their teen years, young adults won’t want to attend – and won’t attend.”
The wrong motivation
Jeff Schadt, founder and executive director of YTN, believes it all boils down to external versus internal motivation. Living a life of faith must come from an inward desire prompted by the Holy Spirit and compelled by the love of Christ. Too often, parents and ministry leaders become the “walking Holy Spirit” in a young person’s life.
For example, Schadt explained how external motivation must be used when children are young to help them make good decisions.
“But as they get older, we need to be like Jesus was with His disciples,” Schadt said, meaning parents and ministry leaders need to allow teens to make their own decisions based on what has been taught to and modeled for them.
Mike Whelan, senior campus minister of the BCM of Georgia Tech, knows how important it is to the growth of a young person’s faith for his family to give him responsibilities based on a level of trust. It’s good for parents to be involved, but students who have “helicopter parents” hovering over them are at a disadvantage. Helicopter parents are those who still call the dorm rooms to wake their children up for class.
“We’re so afraid sometimes as parents … [that kids are] going to do these bad things [i.e., drinking, drugs, sex, partying], and we don’t want them to do those things, so we restrict them by giving them rules with consequences, …” Schadt explained. He said this legalistic approach teaches teens to do the right things merely to avoid getting in trouble.
Therefore, teens are working together – often with their youth group peers – to get around the rules because they only see Christianity as a list of dos and don’ts. When they don’t meet those standards, they view themselves as failures, and their hearts become numb as they walk in sin. It’s more about doing right because their parents will ground them if they don’t, rather than being right before the Lord.
“Then they hit college, and they haven’t learned any of the reasons for making these decisions on their own, and there is no one there to take away the car keys anymore,” Schadt added.
Perhaps, in their hearts, youth start “walking away” from the church much sooner than the end of high school. It’s just that when they go to college they are, for the first time, no longer under the authority-control of family influence, explained Whelan.
Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, refers to this so-called faith as a Pharisaic religion, which is practiced in numerous churches today and leads many people, including young adults, astray.
In his new book titled The Reason for God, Keller wrote: “Recall the ‘sickness unto death,’ the spiritual deep nausea we experience when we fail to build our identity on God. We struggle for a sense of worth, purpose, and distinctiveness, but it is based on conditions that we can never achieve or maintain, and that are always slipping away from us.
“Millions of people raised in or near these kinds of churches reject Christianity at an early age or in college largely because of their experience, …” he continued. “Pharisees and their unattractive lives leave many people confused about the real nature of Christianity.”
The right way
Therefore, it’s imperative for youth ministry to be more than just a “holding tank with pizza,” as referred to by Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research.
In other words, youth want and need church to be more than just a pizza party where they get a five-minute devotional amidst the entertainment. Based on research, Stetzer said youth want to know how to live life. Church involvement that has made a real difference in their lives is a significant reason they keep attending church, even after high school.
“Clearly the reasons young people leave are a reflection both of their past experience in church and the new opportunities they have as young adults,” McConnell explained. “To remain in church, a person must have experienced the value of the teaching and relationships at church and see the relevance for the next phase of life.”
The LifeWay study identified several tangible ways parents and churches could be influential factors when it comes to keeping youth in church once they leave high school. There must be proven value in church attendance, relevant preaching, time investment in the young people’s lives, and family members who live out an authentic Christian faith.
While these influences are certainly significant, at the end of the day the hearts of the youth must be transformed by the Gospel in order for church attendance to make sense. Otherwise, going to church is pointless and meaningless, and the ways of the world become so attractive, especially at the pivotal point of transition from high school to college.
“A college campus is a new, exciting, vibrant place for a freshman. Suddenly everything they ever wanted to do and everything they didn’t want to do is available, with limited restrictions and expectations,” Forman explained. “For a student who has not wholeheartedly committed to strengthen his faith while at college, the possibilities that college offers can be overwhelming and overpowering. The voice of new friends, new adventures, and a new future is often much louder than the voice of God whispering to the heart and soul.”
“Whether teens are bombarded with positive or negative influences about church, they all make their own decisions about whether to continue or stop attending,” Stetzer said. “This study shows the benefit of parents and church members faithfully doing their part, but in the final analysis, we must leave it in the hands of God to work in their lives.”
“Students who have determined in their hearts and minds to stay committed to their God (not their mother’s God or their youth minister’s God) no matter the cost, will be able to better handle the dangers of college,” Forman added. “But for the students who participated in a shallow faith during high school just because it was ‘the thing to do,’ college has a great chance of being the breaking point for them, where they leave behind what was ‘cool’ in high school and do what is ‘cool’ in college, which probably won’t be relentlessly pursuing God with everything they know.”
Video Purportedly Showing Space Aliens Shown
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360941,00.html
A video purportedly showing aliens has been shown to the press, the Denver Post reports.
The approximately three-minute-long video, in grainy black and white, appears to show a creature with big eyes looking through a window into a house, the Post said. But it was unclear if it was a puppet or an alien.
Jeff Peckman, who has proposed the city of Denver create an 18-member extraterrestrial affairs commission, screened the video for the media Friday at Metropolitan State College.
"This one looked very gentle and very innocent and youthful," Peckman told FOX News on Friday.
The video shows a white creature with a balloon-shaped head that pops up and down in a windowsill 8 feet above the ground, according to the Post.
Peckman said the head popped up on the windowsill four times, the face white with large black eyes that appeared to blink.
The video was taken on July 17, 2003, in Nebraska by Stan Romanek, according to Alejandro Rojas, the education director of the Mutual UFO Network, who spoke at Friday's press conference.
Rojas said Romanek set up the camera because he feared Peeping Toms were stalking his teen daughters, according to the Post.
Photographers and TV cameramen were not allowed to record images from the video at the press conference, the Post said.
Peckman did not release the video to FOX News.
"It's under agreement right now and negotiations are under way to create a documentary out of this for widespread use," Peckman said.
Alien video: Puppet or real E.T.?
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9427587
A few minutes of grainy, black and white video show a shadowy creature with big eyes peeping over a windowsill. But does it show a puppet or an alien from outer space?
The video, purportedly capturing proof of alien life, was released this morning during a press conference at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.
Over the course of three minutes or so, the footage shows a white creature with a balloon-shaped head that keeps popping up and down in a windowsill that was 8 feet above ground. The face was white, with large black eyes that seemed to blink.
"If it was a puppet, it would be a very elaborate and sophisticated puppet," said Alejandro Rojas, education director of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, who spoke at the press conference.
Rojas said the video was taken on July 17, 2003, in Nebraska by Stan Tiger Romanek, who set up the camera because he thought peeping Toms had been looking into his house at his two teenage daughters. Romanek did not appear at the news conference.
The creature would slowly pop its head up and peer through the window then drop suddenly down, apparently trying to avoid detection. It raised its head up about a half dozen times. The alien's other body parts were not visible.
It was unclear whether the creature was taller than 8 feet and was crouching to avoid detection or whether it was standing on something. It also was difficult, because of the faintness of the object, to tell whether it was three dimensional.
Romanek, who moved to Colorado after the recording, claims to have had more than 100 encounters with aliens, Rojas said.
One of many websites detailing Romanek's encounters shows photographs of him with red marks on his back and arms that Romanek says were inflicted by aliens. He says he was abducted by extraterrestrials and has posted pictures of spherical burn marks in his yard marking where a spaceship hovered or landed.
Since one encounter in which he photographed a UFO on a road trip to Pennsylvania, 44 birds have mysteriously crashed into his car window because of some bizarre electromagnetic effect resulting from the contact, he writes.
But Rojas said preliminary research that he and other experts have done on the video suggests that it is authentic.
"I don't believe they have the ability or the motivation to fabricate a hoax," Rojas said at the news conference.
About 30 journalists were in the room for the screening, including a dozen TV cameras. Photographers were not allowed to capture images from the footage today because experts are still reviewing it, Rojas said.
The screening, organized by Denver resident Jeff Peckman, was not open to the public.
Peckman says he hopes to provoke debate about the existence of extraterrestrial life.
"We believe this will be somewhat of an historic news conference," Peckman said. "We're very pleased to see this level of interest."
A documentary is in production that will include much more of the videotape and other evidence, he says. It is due to be released later this year.
Peckman has organized an initiative drive to require the city of Denver to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to handle alien encounters, saying that the government has not disclosed all it knows about the existence of life beyond Earth.
During the press conference, Peckman frequently referenced the initiative. A petition drive is currently underway. Peckman needs 4,000 signatures for the item to make it onto the November ballot.
Peckman also said the technological benefits of making contact with extraterrestrials make it a very worthwhile endeavor.
Governments and industry giants have an incentive to keep a growing body of evidence of the existence of aliens hushed up, Peckman said, because the technology they could bring eclipses anything available on Earth.
South American Union looks to common currency, parliament and defense
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/05/26/afx5047714.html
South America is thinking of creating a common currency and a central bank along the lines of those in the European Union's euro-zone, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday.
The idea is a logical next step following the signing last Friday of a teaty creating a Union of South American States that aims to promote joint regional customs and defense policies, Lula said during his weekly radio broadcast.
'Many things still haven't been realized. We are now going to create a Bank of South America. We are going to move forward so in the future we'll have a single central bank, a common currency,' he said.
But, he added: 'This is a process. It won't be something that happens quickly.'
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela all signed up to the UNASUR treaty creating the regional union during a ceremony in Brasilia last Friday.
The entity's goal is to bring together two trade blocs within South America, Mercosur and the Andean Community, and to integrate the region.
Brazil is also pushing for a regional defense council that could be used as a forum to settle inter-regional disputes as well as formulate joint policies.
Lula said the creation of UNASUR was 'the realization of a dream,' and evidence of remarkable economic and political progress South American nations have made in recent decades.
Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, has taken the lead in the new entity.
But Colombia, the strongest U.S. ally in South America and a country often at odds with neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador, has decided not to join.
Lula stated that 'nobody can think of this as a crisis' in the nascent bloc, noting that several EU nations also opted out from aspects of European integration such as adopting the euro.
Church of England divided over proposal to proclaim Jesus as the only way to Salvation
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080527/32551.htm
The Church of England is divided over a proposed motion for it to proclaim Christianity as the only way to salvation and offer strategies on how to evangelize Muslims.
Senior church leaders as well as some Muslim figures have voiced anger at the motion proposed by Paul Eddy – a lay member of the church’s General Synod, according to BBC. Eddy, along with traditionalist Anglicans, argues that the church should stop avoiding hard questions about its beliefs.
The Church of England must make it clear that it believes in what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to salvation, he said. Currently training to become a priest, Eddy believes that being upfront about the church’s beliefs will be helpful to Muslim-Christian relations.
“Most Muslims that I’ve talked to say, ‘I really wish that Christians would stop watering down their faith and expecting us to do the same,’” Eddy said on BBC Radio Four on Sunday. “Until we start really saying what we really believe in our faith, there will be no respect.”
Also, Muslims expect Christians to believe that Jesus is the only way to God, Eddy noted.
“They will expect us – if we’re true Christians – to try to evangelize them, in the same way they will expect us, if they’re true Muslims, to adopt their faith,” he said.
But the problem is that the church, in an effort to be inclusive and to avoid offending people of other faiths, has “lost its nerve” and has “not doing what the Bible says,” he noted.
"Both Christianity and Islam are missionary faiths," Eddy pointed out. "For years, we have sent missionaries throughout the whole world, but when we have the privilege of people of all nations on our doorstep, we have a responsibility as the state church to share the gospel of Jesus Christ."
He urges Anglican bishops to give church members advice on how to evangelize, and how to better support Muslims who have converted to Christianity and are now ostracized by their communities.
The proposal is expected to be discussed at the General Synod summer meeting, July 4 to 8, in the city of York in central England.
Bishop Fears Radical Islam Will Fill 'Moral Vacuum' in Britain
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080529/32574.htm
A senior Church of England bishop claims the erosion of Christianity in Britain is leaving the country with a “moral vacuum” that radical Islam is ready to fill.
Writing in the political magazine Standpoint, the Rt. Rev. Dr Michael Nazir-Ali quoted an academic who pointed to the failure of church leaders to prevent Christian values from being substantially eroded in society during the social and sexual revolution of the 60s.
Christianity began to fall to the wayside just as more people of different faiths were starting to settle in Britain, the Pakistani-born Bishop of Rochester added.
“It is a situation which has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we find ourselves. Whilst the Christian consensus was dissolved, nothing else, except perhaps endless self-indulgence, was put in its place,” he said.
Whereas Marxism failed to take hold in British society, he went on to question whether society could counter radical Islam with the same success.
"We are now, however, confronted by another equally serious ideology, that of radical Islamism, which also claims to be comprehensive in scope,” he said. "What resources do we have to face yet another ideological battle?"
Nazir-Ali answered that only Judeo-Christian values could stand up adequately against the threat posed by radical Islam.
“It remains the case, however, that many of the beliefs and values which we need to deal with the present situation are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition,” the bishop said.
Earlier in the year, Nazir-Ali claimed that multiculturalism had failed and that radical Islam was turning some areas of Britain into “no-go” areas for people of different faiths.
He appeared to reiterate his position in the Standpoint article, declaring that the “newfangled and insecurely founded” doctrine of multiculturalism has created communities of immigrants that are “segregated” and “living parallel lives”.
Last weekend, Nazir-Ali was one of only three Church of England bishops to come out in support of a motion put forward by lay member Paul Eddy to step up its efforts to convert Muslims to Christianity.
“We need to respect people of all faiths and of none,” he said in response to the motion. “In the context of our dialogue with them, it is our duty to witness to our faith and to call people to faith in Jesus Christ, whilst recognizing that people of other faiths may have similar responsibilities.
“Cooperation among faiths arises from recognition of distinctive and not by diluting what we believe merely for the sake of good relations,” the bishop contended. “It is God who converts our task in to bear witness faithfully in every context in which we find ourselves.”
Christian Charities Beware - Public Money Can Make Your Statement Of Faith Illegal
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080527/32551.htm
A British-based Christian charity organization dedicated to aiding those with learning disabilities lost the right to control its own hiring practices after an Employee Tribunal ruled that it was “discriminatory.”
In a weekend ruling by the Tribunal of Abergele, North West Wales, the tribunal said that Prospects, a well-known charitable organization, could not require new or existing employees to sign and agree to a “religious ethos” or statement of faith in salvation through Jesus Christ.
Although the statement of faith did not require any standard of behavior in its employees other than to "work within both the Christian ethos and the policies of Prospects,” the tribunal ruled the charity’s statement of faith illegal because of its use of public funding.
The suit against the charity organization was brought after two former employees, Mark Sheridan and Louise Hender, protested the group’s alleged practice of preferential hiring and promotions towards Christian employees.
In a statement, The British Humanist Association (BHA), which helped finance the lawsuit, praised the ruling as a “landmark” decision.
"A clear message has been sent out by this decision: that blanket discrimination in employment policies and practices on grounds of religion or belief is simply unacceptable, and that an instruction to discriminate against someone on the basis of that person's religion or belief will be unlawful,” said BHA Chief Executive Hanne Stinson.
Prospects, however, said that it would try to use all possible means to “consider the appropriateness of the grounds for a possible appeal.”
The recent ruling against Prospects comes on the heels of a case involving Christian Horizons, a Canada-based ministry dedicated to helping disabled children, which was fined $23,000 because of its practice of requiring employees to sign a statement of faith prohibiting homosexual behavior. The hiring policy was ruled discriminatory in April.
Every adult in Britain forced to carry 'carbon ration cards?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021983/Every-adult-Britain-forced-carry-carbon-ration-cards-say-MPs.html
Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.
The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain's CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.
Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.
Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven't used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.
MPs, led by Tory Tim Yeo, say the scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.
But critics say the idea is costly, bureaucratic, intrusive and unworkable.
The Government says it supports the scheme in principle, but warns it is 'ahead of its time'.
The idea of personal carbon trading is increasingly being promoted by environmentalists. In theory it could be used to cover all purchases - from petrol to food.
For the scheme to work, the Government would need to give out 45million carbon cards - each one linked to a personal carbon account. Every year, the account would be credited with a notional amount of CO2 in kilograms.
Every time someone makes a purchase of petrol, energy or airline tickets, they would use up credits. A return flight from London to Rome would, for instance, use up 900kg of CO2 credits, while 10 litres of petrol would use up 23kg.
MP Tim Yeo MP, says the scheme could be more effective at cutting Britain's greenhouse gas emissions
Mr Yeo, chairman of the committee said personal carbon trading rewarded those with a low carbon footprint with cash.
'We found that personal carbon trading has real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in a progressive way,' he said.
'The idea is a radical one. As such it inevitably faces some significant challenges in its development. It is important to meet these challenges.
'What we are asking the Government to do is to seize the reins on this, leading the debate and coordinating research.'
The Government is committed to cutting CO2 emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010.
The Climate Change Bill going through Parliament aims to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. The Government has said it backs the idea in principle, but it is currently too expensive and bureaucratic.
Environment Minister Hilary Benn said: 'It's got potential but, in essence, it's ahead of its time. There are a lot of practical problems to overcome.'
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs report into the scheme found it would cost between £700million and £2billion to set up and up to another £2billion a year to run.
Tory environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth added: 'Although it does have potential we should proceed with care. We don't want to alienate people and we want everyone to be on board.'
But critics say the idea is deeply flawed. The scheme would penalise those living in the countryside who were dependent on their cars, as well as the elderly or housebound who need to heat their homes in the day.
Large families would suffer, as would those working at nights when little public transport is available.
It would need to take into account the size of families, and their ages. There is huge potential for fraud.
Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said the cards would be hugely unpopular. 'The Government has shown itself incapable of managing any huge, complex IT system.' he said.
How The Scheme Would Work
Every adult in the UK would be given an annual carbon dioxide allowance in kgs and a special carbon card.
The scheme would cover road fuel, flights and energy bills.
Every time someone paid for road fuel, flights or energy, their carbon account would be docked.
A litre of petrol would use up 2.3kg in carbon, while every 1.3 miles of airline flight would use another 1kg.
When paying for petrol, the card would need to swiped at the till. It would be a legal offence to buy petrol without using a card.
When paying online, or by direct debit, the carbon account would be debited directly.
Anyone who doesn't use up their credits in a year can sell them to someone who wants more credits. Trading would be done through specialist companies.
Surging inflation will stoke riots and conflict between nations, gap between rich and poor will worsen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/23/inflation.creditcrunch
Riots, protests and political unrest could multiply in the developing world as soaring inflation widens the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", an investment bank predicted yesterday.
Economists at Merrill Lynch view inflation as an "accident waiting to happen". As prices for food and commodities surge, the bank expects global inflation to rise from 3.5% to 4.9% this year. In emerging markets, the average rate is to be 7.3%.
The cost of food and fuel has already been cited as a factor leading to violence in Haiti, protests by Argentinian farmers and riots in sub-Saharan Africa, including attacks on immigrants in South African townships.
Merrill's chief international economist, Alex Patelis, said this could be the tip of the iceberg, warning of more trouble "between nations and within nations" as people struggle to pay for everyday goods. "Inflation has distributional effects. If everyone's income moved by the same rate, you wouldn't care - but it doesn't," said Patelis. "You have pensioners on fixed pensions. Some people produce rice that triples in price, while others consume it."
A report by Merrill urges governments to crack down on inflation, describing the phenomenon as the primary driver of macroeconomic trends. The problem has emerged from poor food harvests, sluggish supplies of energy and soaring demand in rapidly industrializing countries such as China, where wage inflation has reached 18%.
Unless policymakers take action to dampen prices and wages, Merrill says sudden shortages could become more frequent. The bank cited power cuts in South Africa and a run on rice in Californian supermarkets as recent examples.
"You're going to see tension between nations and within nations," said Patelis.
The UN recently set up a taskforce to examine food shortages and price rises. It has expressed alarm that its world food program is struggling to pay for food for those most at need.
Last month, the World Bank's president, Robert Zoellick, suggested that 33 countries could erupt in social unrest following a rise of as much as 80% in food prices over three years.
Merrill's report said the credit crunch has contributed to a global re-balancing, drawing to a close an era in which American consumers have been the primary drivers of the world's economy.
In a gloomy set of forecasts, Merrill said it believes the US is in a recession - and that American house prices, which are among the root causes of the downturn, could fall by 15% over the next 18 months.
The bank said Britain's economic outlook is "deteriorating" as consumer confidence weakens. The Office for National Statistics yesterday said that retail sales fell by 0.2% in April compared to March.
Global inflationary pressures have led to higher prices in Britain highlighting the dilemma for the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, which sets interest rates.
The MPC voted by eight to one to keep rates on hold last month in spite of a rapid slowdown in the British economy. The Bank is concerned about food prices that rose by 6.6% over the past year and soaring fuel costs, feeding higher inflation, which is now at 3%.
Alistair Darling, the chancellor, met representatives of supermarkets and farmers yesterday to discuss the threat to the economy from the rising cost of food.
The US Federal Reserve, which has cut interest rates to 2%, is gloomy in its outlook for the US economy because of the combined challenges of slow growth and soaring commodity prices. The Fed is predicting that unemployment and inflation will be higher than expected.
Oil prices are expected to continue rising rapidly after hitting a third record in a row yesterday, as supply continues to outstrip demand.
Irish "Yes" camp closes ranks before EU referendum
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2008/05/29/irish-yes-camp-closes-ranks-before-eu-referendum-89520-20588186/
Ireland's three biggest political parties put on a show of unity on Thursday, rallying around their shared goal of securing a "Yes" vote in what looks set to be a close referendum on the European Union's reform treaty.
Irish voters go to the polls on June 12 to vote in the only referendum on the treaty planned by an EU state, meaning one of the bloc's smallest nations could sink a project designed to end years of wrangling over reform of its institutions.
Ireland's political establishment overwhelmingly backs the treaty. Nationalist Sinn Fein, which has four seats in the 166-seat Dail, is the only party represented in the chamber calling for a "No" vote.
But politicians from the various pro-treaty parties squabbled over each other's campaign tactics at the weekend when an opinion poll showed a loose coalition of groups opposed to the treaty was closing in on the "Yes" camp.
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"It's important that people see this as a national issue, it's not a party political issue at all," Prime Minister Brian Cowen said as he canvassed shoppers in south Dublin on Thursday before meeting opposition politicians on the campaign trail.
Cowen left his Fianna Fail party's campaign bus, emblazoned with the slogan "Good for Ireland. Good for Europe", to pose for photographs with Olivia Mitchell, a deputy with the main Fine Gael party and Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore.
The three rival politicians then joined forces to persuade passers-by to back the treaty before sitting down together for tea and scones in a local shopping centre.
"I look forward to working with people from the other parties in the coming days," said Cowen, describing it as the last phase of the campaign.
Cowen, who replaced Bertie Ahern as prime minister earlier this month, irritated other parties at the weekend when he called on them to "crank up their campaigns" after a survey indicated he was doing better than they at drumming up support.
Fine Gael's Europe spokeswoman, Lucinda Creighton, accused him of "trying to bully people into submission". Her colleague Jim Higgins said on Thursday that Cowen would "have to shoulder a large portion of the blame" if the treaty was rejected.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny responded by calling on all sides to put aside party political differences and send a clear joint message ahead of the referendum.
"There is a lack of coordination from the 'yes' side," Kenny told national broadcaster RTE. "This is the time for putting the country first ... This is about Ireland's future."
The treaty, which replaces the defunct EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, is designed to give the bloc stronger leadership, a more democratic decision-making system and a more effective foreign policy apparatus.
Luxembourg is 15th EU state to ratify treaty in parliament
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1212085948.92
(LUXEMBOURG) - Luxembourg ratified Thursday the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, becoming the 15th of the 27 EU nations to endorse the massive reform package through parliament.
Forty-seven of the 51 deputies present in the 60-seat house voted in favour, while three abstained and only one voted against the treaty, which is meant to streamline the way the EU operates as it expands.
In Brussels, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated lawmakers in the Grand Duchy, one of the EU's smallest member nations.
"I would like to thank the Luxembourg government and parliament for the support they have given to the treaty throughout the negotiations and ratification process," he said in a statement.
"We now have fifteen member states that have completed the parliamentary process and I hope that the remaining member states will follow as soon as possible."
Only Ireland is constitutionally bound to ratify the treaty via a potentially perilous referendum, which will take place on June 12.
The EU's draft constitution was scuppered in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005, sparking the bloc's worst political crisis.
Pope tells young people to trust in Mary
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12675
"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
1 Timothy 2:5
At a meeting with young people in the northern Italian city of Savona, Pope Benedict XVI recited the Angelus prayer with the young people and invited them to trust in Mary.
He recalled the words the Virgin Mary spoke to shepherd Benedict Pareto in the year 1400 urging him to build a shrine on Mount Figogna, the place where she appeared.
Benedict Pareto, according to tradition, was worried because he did not know how to respond to Mary’s invitation to build a church in a place so remote from the city.
The Pope repeated the Virgin Mary’s words: “trust in me! With me in your midst you will not fail. With my help everything will be easy. Only keep your will firm. Trust in me!”
“This, Mary repeats to us today,” Pope Benedict said. “An ancient prayer, very dear in popular tradition, makes us turn in confidence to You with these confident words, that today we make our own: ‘Remember, O Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, sought your help or implored your intercession was left abandoned.’
“It is with this certainty that we invoke the motherly care of Our Lady of the Guard on your diocesan community, its pastors, consecrated persons, the lay faithful: young people, families, the elderly. To Mary we entrust the entire city, with its diverse population, its cultural, social and economic problems and challenges of our times, and commitment of those who cooperate for the common good.”
Backed by Clinton, Blair launches Faith Foundation
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN3030921720080530
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, joined by his old friend Bill Clinton, launched his Faith Foundation on Friday with a call for more idealism and less religious extremism.
Taking a break from the presidential campaign of his wife, Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. president described Blair as "a good man as well as a great leader" and said the Faith Foundation would build on Clinton's own foundation's work in using religion to bridge divides.
"His own religious faith is genuine, deep and shapes his life," Clinton said of Blair, who converted to Catholicism in December after stepping down as prime minister last June.
Blair, whose faith was often viewed with suspicion by the British media, said he was inspired to create the Faith Foundation by the Clinton Global Initiative, which works on issues of poverty, climate change, health and education.
Blair, who is an international envoy for Palestinian economic development, said increasing globalization requires peaceful coexistence and cooperation.
"We must be global citizens as well as citizens of our country," he told an audience of academics, media, and business and religious leaders. "Idealism becomes the new realism."
Blair cited a Gallup Poll showing the percentage of people in most Muslim countries who said religion was an important part of their lives is in the high 80s or 90s; in the United States around 70 percent, and in Europe under 40 percent.
"You cannot understand the modern world unless you understand the importance of religious faith," Blair said.
Among the foundation's goals will be to counter extremism, which he said was present in all the six leading faiths -- Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish.
"Though there is much focus, understandably, on extremism associated with the perversion of the proper faith of Islam, there are elements of extremism in every major faith," Blair said. The foundation will work with Yale University, where Blair will lead a course on "faith and globalization."
The foundation also will partner with a group called Malaria No More which aims to prevent the 1 million annual deaths from malaria within 10 years -- a goal Blair said was achievable by using bed-nets and medicines.
Malaria No More encourages mosques, churches and other religious institutions help distribute those items.
Blair swept to power in Britain on a wave of optimism in 1997, but by the time he stepped down, his popularity was dented by his support for the Iraq war. Clinton's final years in office overlapped with Blair's first term and both said they had developed a close friendship since then.
Tony Blair's speech to launch the Faith Foundation
http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/2008/05/tony-blairs-speech-to-launch-t.html
The speech by Tony Blair at the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation at the Time Warner Centre, New York on Friday, May 30th, 2008
Last month in Westminster Cathedral, I set out the purpose of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. It will concern itself with the six leading faiths: Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish. Today we launch the first of a series of partnerships to give effect to that purpose.
Let me describe the reason for this Foundation. The world is undergoing tumultuous change. Globalization, underpinned by technology, is driving much of it, breaking down boundaries, altering the composition of whole communities, even countries and creating circumstances in which new challenges arise that can only be met effectively together. Interdependence is now the recognised human condition.
So, the characteristic of today's world is change. The consequence is a world opening up, and becoming interdependent. The conclusion is that we make sense of this interdependence through peaceful co-existence and working together to resolve common challenges.
In turn, this requires an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional as well as an intellectual response consistent with this conclusion. A sentiment that we are members of a global community as well as individual nations means we must be global citizens as well as citizens of our own country.
All this sounds impossibly idealistic.
But if the analysis of the nature of the world is as I set out, then it is in fact the only practical way to organise our affairs. Idealism becomes the new realism.
This is especially so since the world is changing in other ways too.
Power is shifting east. The centre of gravity of political interest and political power is moving. The emergence of China and India, has been obvious, in prospect, for years. Now it is here in our lives, in practical impact. And not just in the Far East, but the near East too.
Just think of an institution like the G7; think of when it was founded and its members; think if it were invented today and how different that membership would be. The 20th Century order is history. There is a new reality. We have to come to terms with it. And it implies, at its fundamentals, peaceful co-existence or catastrophe.
Into this new world, comes the force of religious faith. Gallup have kindly made available for me today, the latest polling information in their rolling poll of religious attitudes, which is a hugely important source of analysis.
Here is what the polling shows.
Most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe most Muslims don't. Most Muslims want better relations but believe most Christians don't. Most Americans think most Muslims do not accept other religions. Actually most Muslims say they want greater and not lesser interaction between religions.
In answer to the question: "is religion an important part of your life", many Muslim countries' citizens answer in the high 80's or 90's as a percentage; in the US it is around 70%; in the UK and mainland Europe it is under 40%. Interestingly, though, even in the UK over a third of people say it is important.
So: religion matters and there is a lot of fear around between the faiths.
In summary, you cannot understand the modern world unless you understand the importance of religious faith. Faith motivates, galvanises, organises and integrates millions upon millions of people.
Here is the crucial point. Globalisation is pushing people together. Interdependence is reality. Peaceful co-existence is essential. If faith becomes a countervailing force, pulling people apart, it becomes destructive and dangerous.
If , by contrast, it becomes an instrument of peaceful co-existence, teaching people to live with difference, to treat diversity as a strength, to respect "the other", then Faith becomes an important part of making the 21st Century work. It enriches, it informs, it provides a common basis of values and belief for people to get along together.
I believe, as someone of Faith that religious faith has a great role to play in an individual's life.
But even if I didn't, even if I was of no faith, I would still believe in the central necessity of people of faith learning to live with each other in mutual respect and peace.
That is the "why" of the Foundation. Now for the "what".
There are many excellent meetings, convocations, conferences and even organisations that work in the inter-faith area. We do not want to replicate what they do.
We do not want to engage in a doctrinal inquiry.
We do not want to subsume different faiths in one faith of the lowest common denominator.
We want to show faith in action.
We want to produce greater understanding between faiths through encounter.
We want people of one faith to be comfortable with those of another because they know what they truly believe, not what they thought they might believe.
There will be four specific aspects to our work on which we concentrate today.
First, the Foundation aims to educate. We begin today with the association with Yale University. Yale's School of Divinity and School of Management will help design a new course called "Faith and Globalisation". It will run over three years.
I will lead a series of seminars each Fall, starting in September 2008. The idea is to create a course which, over time, can become an enduring part of Yale's teaching; can be spun off to other universities in different parts of the globe; can stimulate original research and be a resource for those working in this field.
We are going to use new and interactive media to engage young people of different faiths. Annika Small, who has done such a brilliant job with Future Lab in the UK bringing together software and education, has agreed to head up this part of the Foundation's work.
We are in discussion with leading publishers about a specific publishing imprint for the Foundation and with others to create a set of programmes explaining the world of faith. We will make announcements of these partnerships later in the year.
We will use the material we design not just for young people and faith communities but also for business and the worlds of commerce and politics.
We cannot afford religious illiteracy. No modern company would today be ignorant of race or gender issues. The same should be true of faith.
Secondly, we are announcing the first of our partnerships to mobilise those of faith in pursuit of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Today we call on the 4 billion people of faith in the world to help do more to end the scourge of malaria that has killed so many millions of our fellow human beings and will kill many more unless eradicated.
We are joining with the Malaria No More Campaign, a wonderful organisation whose mission is to end death through malaria in the next 5 - 10 years. Saleema will talk more about it. Put simply over one million people die of malaria each year. Their deaths are preventable. In Africa, 40% of victims are Muslim. But across much of Asia, malaria continues to strike and combating it is a huge opportunity for people across the faiths - Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist as well as the Abrahamic faiths - to act in unison.
The solution lies in distributing bed nets and medicines. The resources are becoming available. But the need to get the bed nets and medicines to the people and see them properly used, is where the faiths, who are present in each of the affected communities, can help. Our purpose will be to help mobilise the different Faiths in pursuit of this goal.
Thirdly, we believe that inter-faith interaction can benefit from a physical structure to which people can come, to learn, to discuss and to contemplate. We have agreed to partner the proposal initiated by the Co-Exist Foundation to establish Abraham House in London.
Though expressly about the Abrahamic faiths, it will be open to those from the wider faith community. It will be a standing exhibition, library and convention centre for the inter-faith world. The extraordinary success of the "Sacred Texts" exhibition at the British Library last year shows the potential for such an initiative.
Finally, we will help organisations whose object is to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religious faith. Though there is much focus, understandably, on extremism associated with the perversion of the proper faith of Islam, there are elements of extremism in every major faith. It is important where people of good faith combat such extremism, that they are supported.
To summarise, the possibilities of a world of change are enormous.
This is a century rich in potential to solve problems, provide prosperity to all, to overcome longstanding issues of injustice that previously we could not surmount. But it only works if the values which inform the change are values that unify and do not divide. Religious faith has a profound role to play.
For good or for ill.
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation will try to make it for good.
France's Club Med Plan Riddled With Problems
http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,3366950,00.html
President Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial plan for a Mediterranean Union, expected to be a cornerstone of France's looming EU presidency, is in trouble with experts saying many questions still need to be resolved.
Last year French President Nicolas Sarkozy had a vision for an exclusive “Club Med,” in which membership was based solely on a shared Mediterranean coastline. This meant that only EU countries on the 27-nation bloc’s southern flank, such as France, Spain and Italy met the criteria for a geographical grouping that stretches from Morocco to Israel, Syria and Turkey.
Sarkozy’s “Mediterranean dream” was supposed to provide a forum for tackling regional issues that ranged from stopping illegal boat migration from Africa and combating terrorism to harnessing solar energy and cleaning up the polluted sea.
But there were numerous problems with the proposal, with Germany playing a key role in torpedoing Sarkozy’s original plan, say EU experts. German chancellor Angela Merkel had insisted that the initiative be anchored within existing EU structures and must include all member states.
Franco-German rift
The rift between France and Germany had become so deep over the French proposal that a bilateral mini-summit scheduled in the Bavarian town of Straubing in March was cancelled.
However on Monday, German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm confirmed that the meeting will take place on June 9 and focus on climate change. Sarkozy will also brief Merkel on his agenda when France assumes the EU’s rotating presidency in July.
Merkel and Sarkozy exchange warm greetingBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany's Merkel remains wary of the Club Med plan
“France and Germany have been the driving force of European integration for decades now, so if one of them disagrees with the other’s initiative, it never becomes major EU policy,” said Hans Stark, a Franco-German expert at the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
The now official “Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean” is expected to be the cornerstone of the French EU presidency and will be officially launched in Paris in mid-July.
What was at issue for Germany was a violation of a basic trust between the two countries, according to Stark.
Club Med not just an EU subset
“Sarkozy went about this unilaterally without consulting Merkel,” he said, explaining that it is impossible to forge a coherent EU neighborhood policy with an exclusive subset within the EU going off in a separate direction.
Stark said the issue also applies to other regional groupings, such as the recent Polish-Swedish initiative to establish an Eastern partnership that would permit visa-free travel and create a free trade zone with former Soviet countries such as the Ukraine and Georgia.
“The potential danger is that a small group of member countries pursue their own narrow interests at the expense of the EU as a whole, creating a North-South divide that could split Europe into two,” he said.
Clara Marina O’Donnell, a research fellow on EU neighborhood policy and the Middle East at the Centre for European Reform (CER) in London, said, however, that the key issue is not whether the entire EU or only a sub-group of countries is involved in negotiations with its southern neighbors.
Sharing a coastline does not bind countries
Europe-Mediterranean logo: map of Europe centred on area around Mediterranean seaBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Mediterranean countries do not see themselves as one entity
“The question is how effective the Europeans are in addressing conflicts in the region. There are plenty of obstacles in making a Mediterranean partnership work, because Israel, the Arab states, Turkey and the Maghreb countries in northern Africa are so diverse,“ she said.
“They don’t see themselves as one entity,” she said.
According to a European Commission plan outlined last week, two parallel sets of EU and non-EU presidencies would be established for six months on a rotating basis.
“On the non-EU side, what would happen if the presidency is held by a country such as Syria that is hostile to Israel?” asked O’Donnell.
Still O’Donnell viewed the Mediterranean Union as slightly different from the stalled Barcelona process launched in 1995, a Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) that followed in 2004 after EU enlargement pushed the frontiers further east.
Re-focusing Barcelona Process
“It could revitalize Barcelona with a shift in focus,” she said, explaining that Barcelona was more about achieving political and democratic reforms in the region, whereas the new entity focuses on more concrete goals such as tackling the problem of illegal immigration and pushing for a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010.
Free trade and freedom of movement for the Maghreb and Middle East countries are intertwined, according to Stark.
Red Cross workers in red safety jackets handing out biscuits to African migrantsBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The plan focuses on concrete goals like curbing illegal immigration
“We can’t have free trade and stop migration. What non-EU countries want is liberalization of the visa system for example. As Romano Prodi (former President of the European Commission) once said ‘the EU-Mediterranean should share in everything but our institutions’,” he said.
Except for Turkey, which is keen to join the EU, most of the other Mediterranean countries simply want greater access to Europe, he said.
Keeping Turkey out of the EU
O’Donnell said that offering Turkey the alternative of a closer Mediterranean partnership was supposed to discourage the mainly Muslim country from joining the EU.
“That was one of the main motivations behind Sarkozy’s original initiative -- to keep Turkey out of the EU,” she said.
Ankara has made clear that it sees no alternative to its goal of EU membership, and its foreign minister Ali Babacan told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet this week that Turkey has not yet made a decision about joining the new union.
“Assessments are underway. We should clearly see what this Union for Mediterranean is all about,” said Babacan.
O’Donnell agrees that the whole Mediterranean concept was unclear from the outset. “The EU has this habit of adding a new layer of bureaucracy every five years or so,” she said.
“Depending on how this Union evolves, it has the potential to tackle some big issues,” she added.
But it's unclear whether France's enthusiasm for the project will be shared by other EU members.
“What happens at the start of next year when France no longer holds the EU presidency, and the Czechs take over? They’d surely want to focus on Eastern Europe. The Mediterranean Union is Sarkozy’s baby, but not everyone else’s,” O' Donnell added.
Statement by Solana on 60th anniversary of U.N. peacekeeping
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/declarations/100705.pdf
COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Brussels, 29 May 2008
S184/08
Statement by Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the CFSP, on the 60th anniversary of UN peacekeeping
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), issued the following statement today congratulating the UN on the 60th anniversary of UN Peacekeeping:
"Today we mark the 60th anniversary of UN peacekeeping operations. This is a milestone for international efforts to promote peace and protect the vulnerable. Around the world, UN officials – both soldiers and civilians – are taking risks for peace and are enabling war-torn societies to overcome conflicts and return to the path of reconciliation and reconstruction.
UN peacekeeping operations have come a long way, in both conceptual and operational terms, since the first mission was launched in 1948. From purely military missions dealing with wars between states, they have become multidimensional, dealing mainly with intrastate conflicts. Today, they involve some 100 000 people, active in 20 operations around the world and with an annual budget of eight billion dollars. And still the demand for UN peacekeeping engagement continues to grow.
The European Union has formed a partnership with the UN to work together in the area of crisis management and our close cooperation in peacekeeping bears this out. From the Balkans to the Middle East, from Africa to Asia, the EU and the UN are working effectively together on the ground under some of the most difficult circumstances. The watchwords for these common efforts are: international partnership, professionalism and a comprehensive approach to tackling insecurity.
The EU will continue to work with the UN in this vital area, to achieve our common and inter-related objectives of promoting security, development and human rights. Peacekeeping operations are an essential part of the policy mix, providing the space in which a fragile peace can take hold and become self-sustaining.
During the past 60 years, there is much that the UN has achieved in the area of peacekeeping. We should pay tribute to these successes and draw inspiration from them. But at the same time, we should realise that there is even more work still to be done."
FOR FURTHER DETAILS:
Spokesperson of the Secretary General, High Representative for CFSP
+32 (0)2 281 6467 / 5150 / 5151 / 8239 +32 (0)2 281 5694
internet: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/solana
e-mail: presse.cabinet@consilium.europa.eu
UN-Believable
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360381,00.html
Washington, DC — When the so-called mainstream media doesn’t want you to know something they simply spike the story – meaning they just don’t cover it. That’s what’s happened to the good news from Iraq. American Heroes in flak jackets and helmets and their Iraqi counterparts are asserting rule of law for millions of grateful Iraqi civilians once tyrannized by Al Qaeda terrorists and Shiite militias. In short, we are winning. That’s the good news that isn’t news.
Then there is the bad news that isn’t news. This includes stories about the United Nations interfering in U.S. domestic politics; Iranian nuclear ambitions and what the UN isn’t doing about it. These accounts aren’t as titillating as Scott “Brutus” McClellan’s back-stabbing book on the Bush administration that throws salt in the wounds of every family member of a fallen soldier, sailor, airman or Marine. Nor do these reports get the twisted attention paid to crude oil at $130 per barrel and $4.25 per gallon gasoline, because of “Big Oil.” So in case you missed these “non-stories,” here’s the short form of what didn’t make the cut for the major newspapers or your big network evening news – and it’s UN-believable.
First there’s the strange case of Doudou Diène, the United Nations “Special Rapporteur” on “contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,” He’s really a lawyer from Senegal, traveling First Class on a UN ticket – and he arrived in the U.S. on May 19, for a three-week-long “fact finding trip.”
According to the UN Human Rights Council, Mr. Diène is here to investigate and recommend solutions to alleged American human rights violations. His itinerary includes visits to New York City, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico and meetings with federal and state lawmakers, legal analysts, politicians, non-governmental organizations, activists, and academics “to gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.” No kidding. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Mr. Diène will submit his “report and recommendations” at the Second “UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance,” in April 2009. Dubbed “Durban II” – it’s a sequel to the 2001 gathering by the same name. This week the UN decided to hold next year’s America/Israel bashing gabfest in Geneva instead of Durban because South Africa is being rocked by – get this – xenophobia and racial violence. If this were fiction, no one would believe it. It gets better.
It turns out that Mr. Diène – widely discussed as the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – has “written extensively” about “Islamophobia” since the attacks of September 11, 2001. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, he described Islamophobia as today’s “most serious form of religious defamation.” Evidently, that’s our fault, not the consequence of more than a thousand suicide-terror attacks around the world perpetrated by Islamic radicals.
To help make the phobia go away, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called for an end to “racial profiling” of Americans of Arab, Muslim and South Asian descent, referring to the practice as “mistreatment of immigrants and non-nationals.” Somehow, Mr. Diène and his colleagues seem to have missed the fact that a black American of Muslim descent is a leading candidate for President of the United States.
Apparently, the pursuit of phobias, discrimination and intolerance has distracted the UN from doing any real work – like that of reigning in Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN Security Council’s toothless “nuclear watchdog” reported that they cannot determine whether Iran has or ever had a nuclear weapons program.
In carefully obfuscated language, the IAEA notes that “substantive explanations are required from Iran to support its statements on the alleged studies and on other information with a possible military dimension.” The report also observes, “the alleged studies on the green salt project, high explosives testing and the missile re-entry vehicle project remain a matter of serious concern. Clarification of these is critical to an assessment of the nature of Iran’s past and present nuclear programme.”
The “green salt” reference pertains to crystals of uranium hexafluoride, a radioactive material that can be refined in a gas centrifuge to produce U-235 – the essential ingredient for one type of nuclear weapon. According to the IAEA, Iran has at least 3,500 uranium-enrichment centrifuges operating at its Natanz underground nuclear facility. Since February, Tehran has not permitted the IAEA to conduct any short or no-notice inspections of its nuclear sites.
Of course none of this was deemed by the potentates of the press to be front-page, lead story news in either the print or broadcast media. Neither was the Iranian reaction to the IAEA report. Ali Larijani, Iran’s former “nuclear negotiator” and now the Speaker of Parliament, said that the UN report was “deplorable” and suggested “new limits on cooperation with the IAEA,” His comments were greeted with chants of “God is great” and “Death to America.” That’s not UN-believable – just UN-reported.
Exclusive: Hizballah hands over purported Israeli body parts to show visiting German FM a “humanitarian face”
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5312
DEBKAfile’s political sources report that the box of remains Hizballah sent to Israel on June 1 was a gesture made to impress the German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was visiting Beirut before leaving for Jerusalem.
Listed by the US and European Union as a terrorist organization, Hizballah is anxious for European recognition of its new standing as the pre-eminent force in the new Lebanese government.
Berlin is the key - especially since German troops participate on land and sea in the peacekeeping force which has been mandated to impede arms smuggling to the Shiite terrorists.
The unsolicited handover of the remains during Steinmeier’s Beirut visit is intended to impress him enough with Hizballah’s “humanity” to open a new page in German-Hizballah relations. Eventually, the Shiite leaders hope Berlin would extend those ties to their Palestinian ally, Hamas.
Before an Israeli forensic examination, the remains cannot be proved to belong to fallen Israeli soldiers in the 2006 Lebanon war. If they are, it would be the first time any Arab power has made this kind of gesture to Israel out of the blue and without extorting an exorbitant return.
Hizballah may even be signaling that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose abduction in July 2006 sparked the Lebanon War, might also turn up on the Israeli border in another unilateral gesture. Israel has already agreed to turn over for the two soldiers the Lebanese prisoners it is holding, including Samir Kuntar, the convicted murderer of Haran family members in 1979.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources stress that Hizballah has not changed its spots, only its tactics: For the moment, it is after bigger game than haggling with Israel over prisoners, namely, consolidating its supremacy over the Beirut government on the international arena, before going full tilt against US Middle East holdings and America’s ally, Israel, in conjunction with Damascus and Tehran.
Convicted Hezbollah Spy Returns to Lebanon From Israel
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361250,00.html
ROSH HANIKRA, Israel — A convicted Hezbollah spy returned from Israel to a hero's welcome in Lebanon on Sunday, and Hezbollah turned over the remains of what it said were dead Israeli soldiers, in what could be the first stage of a larger prisoner exchange between the bitter enemies.
Israeli authorities released Nasim Nisr, an Israeli of Lebanese descent, early Sunday after he completed a six-year sentence for espionage, driving him from a prison in central Israel to the northern Rosh Hanikra crossing. Cameramen surrounded the white van carrying Nisr a blue gate swung open to allow him through the frontier.
Hezbollah official Wafik Safa told the group's al-Manar TV station that it handed over a brown box containing what it said were the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the monthlong Lebanon war in 2006. Nisr stood beside Safa as he spoke.
An Israeli security official said Hezbollah said the return of the remains was a "gesture" that had not been coordinated with Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the ongoing negotiations.
Helge Kvam, a Red Cross spokesman in Jerusalem, called Hezbollah's move a "complete surprise."
The box was handed over to Israel's army. Military doctors and rabbis were to examine the remains, which were then to be transferred to a forensic institute, the army said.
The army said it has appointed a panel to contact the families of the soldiers whose remains are suspected to be in the box. Israeli media have said Hezbollah was believed to be holding the remains of 10 soldiers already confirmed killed in fighting.
Sunday's exchange added to speculation that a major swap is in the works. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah predicted last month that Israel will release prisoners it is holding "very soon."
German mediators have been trying to work out a swap for months. Israel is believed to be holding seven Lebanese in its prisons, while Hezbollah has been holding two Israeli soldiers it captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that sparked that year's war. The soldiers are believed to have been badly wounded, and Hezbollah has offered no proof that they are still alive.
In Beirut, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was pleased with Sunday's developments.
"Concerning the prisoner exchange, I would like to say that I am happy with you that preliminary steps have been taken in this direction. I also hope with you that these preliminary steps have created a positive dynamism in these secret talks which take place in the framework of mutual confidence," he said after a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
A larger prisoner swap would end a difficult chapter for Israel. The two captive soldiers have become symbols of what is widely seen as a failed war, and their families have become prominent figures as they travel the world pushing for the return of their loved ones.
A deal, however, would not end the deep enmity between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel believes the group maintains a large arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel, while Hezbollah, with Iranian backing, says it remains committed to the Jewish state's destruction.
Nisr was convicted in 2002 of espionage. He admitted in a plea bargain to passing information to a senior Hezbollah officer. His lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, said Nisr's relatively light sentence showed he did not pass on any sensitive information.
In Lebanon, TV stations carried a live broadcast of his arrival. Wearing a white shirt with blue and green stripes, he hugged weeping relatives, including his mother. In brief remarks, he thanked Nasrallah and expressed his wish to see other Lebanese prisoners released.
Nisr, 39, was born in Lebanon to a Jewish Lebanese mother and a Shiite Muslim father. Because of his Jewish ancestry, he qualified for Israeli citizenship and moved to Israel in 1992. He has a 10-year-old son from a first marriage, and two daughters, ages 10 and 7, from his current wife. Israel and Lebanon have officially been in a state of war since Israel was established in 1948.
Nisr was "nervous but happy," said Ben-Natan. At the same time, she said Nisr was saddened to leave his wife and children. Nisr asked to be stripped of his citizenship in 2004, hoping he'd be included in a prisoner swap at the time between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel does not release its own citizens in such swaps.
Ben-Natan said Sunday's swap signaled a broader deal taking place.
"The prisoners are very optimistic, they see it as a sign, they presume that an exchange that includes them is coming soon," said Ben-Natan. She represents two of the Lebanese prisoners still held by Israel.
A larger swap is extremely emotional for Israelis because it would likely involve Samir Kantar, the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner.
Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing four Israelis, including a 28-year-old man, the man's 4-year-old daughter and two Israeli policemen.
Many Israelis see him as especially brutal. He was convicted of killing the girl by smashing her head against rocks and then with a rifle butt. During the incident, the girl's mother smothered a 2-year-old daughter to death while hiding from Kantar.
Hezbollah has demanded Kantar's release, alongside other Lebanese prisoners, in exchange for the two Israeli soldiers it is holding.
Kantar's lawyer, Elias Sabbagh, said he saw the jailed Lebanese prisoner on Sunday, and said he was "optimistic" about an impending deal.
"All the signs are that there'll be a deal, the question is when, and how many people it will include," Sabbagh said.
Earthquake may destroy Jerusalem shrines - Al Aqsa Mosque and the Wailing Wall
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4738
"At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city (Jerusalem) collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven" Revelation 11:3
The Middle East expects a powerful earthquake that endangers not only dozen thousands of human lives, but also world famous shrines such as the Church of the Holly Sepulcher, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Wailing Wall, the scientists warn.
Minor shakes on the territory of Israel become more frequent and it gives nother reason for anxiety. They don't measure more than three-five balls aren't dangerous for people, the MK.ru website has reported to Interfax-Religion on Friday.
However, according to Israel seismologists, a 7.00 earthquake may happen any time.
"The country is located in the earthquake region near the Syrian-African rift and earthquake measuring 6.00-7.00 on the Richter scale may kill not less than 16,000 people, injure over 90, 000 people and cause material damage to the whole country," Chairman of the Construction engineers and infrastructure association Dr. Serna said.
According to the experts, about 17 per cent of buildings constructed before establishing of the Israeli state and in its first years are to be destroyed by the upcoming earthquake in Jerusalem only. Considerable damage will be inflicted to 11 per cent of modern buildings with average construction quality and 6 per cent of modern buildings with high construction quality.
According to Dr. Ron Evny from the Beer Sheva University, powerful earthquakes have taken place in the Holy Land once in 84 years from the mid 18th century. The last powerful earthquake (6,25) was registered in Palestine on July 11, 1927 and caused 300 deaths.
Besides, a 5,30 ball earthquake was recorded in Israel two years ago. Over 80 unique items were harmed in the architectural conservation area of the excavated ancient town of Hazor founded in the 18th century B.C.
Analysis: Kadima is on the move
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5305
DEBKAfile’s Jerusalem sources report: Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee has always been a staunch loyalist of prime minister Ehud Olmert. A shrewd party tactician, Hanegbi picked up on the line promoted by the prime minister’s defense team, which challenged his rivals to throw the first stone, implying that every politician was as guilty as he. He realized that this line if adopted could finish Kadima for good. He therefore got organized for an internal “putsch” to counteract the popular revulsion aroused by American businessman Morris Talanksky’s testimony about the envelopes stuffed with cash he handed to the prime minister for 15 years.
After a long silence, foreign minister Tzipi Livni accordingly called on Kadima to prepare for elections and primaries, taking a strong moral tone against sleaze in politics.
Olmert can either quit, wait to be evicted by a party primary vote, or stick it out as he has threatened to do. He can even try and squeeze out more weeks or months in office by tendering his resignation to the president and hoping to get himself appointed head of a caretaker government until the general election.
However, his Kadima party which, as elections loom, have come to regard him as a serious liability, would like to see him out of sight as soon as possible.
Kadima lawmaker Hanegbi calls for early election, and emergency government for Iran menace
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5309
Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the foreign affairs and security committee, has charted a three-point plan to extricate the country from the political crisis sparked by the corruption scandal surrounding prime minister Ehud Olmert. MK Hanegbi, hitherto considered a staunch Olmert loyalist, said Saturday, May 31, the government no longer has a moral mandate for major steps or a parliamentary majority. He therefore plans to convene the Kadima party’s institutions to pick its candidate for next prime minister and set a date for a general election.
An emergency unity government should follow to focus on the Iranian threat to Israel, the Gaza conflict and peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria. Olmert has said he will not run for re-election in the party primary vote.
Likud lawmaker Silvan Shalom is rounding up multipartisan report for a motion to dissolve the Knesset.
Ministers’ opposition to Hamas truce delays Israeli cabinet’s Gaza decisions
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5307
Prime minister Ehud Olmert was forced to back down on his plan to call a security cabinet session Sunday to decide on the Egyptian-brokered truce in Gaza before leaving Monday, June 2, for a week of talks in Washington.
Most of the ministers indicated they had come down against giving Hamas, Jihad Islami and other terrorist groups the breathing space for continuing their arms build-up from Syria and Iran for further aggression. A majority has come around to the dominant military and intelligence position that effective military action against the Palestinian Hamas regime must come first; only then might Hamas be amenable to acceptable ceasefire terms. The ministers are now ready to defy Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak who have rather pursued a truce.
For now, Hamas uses threats rather than bargaining tactics, refusing to end arms smuggling or impose authority on its allies to join a ceasefire arrangement. Saturday, May 31, Hamas’ Mahmoud A-Zahar, threatened that if Israel refuses to end the Gaza blockade, “the Palestinians will resort to all the means at their disposal including armed force.”
Saturday, the Egyptian police reported the discovery of 30 anti-air missiles in a large arms cache in Sinai 80 km. south of the Gaza Strip. It also contained rifles, 2,000 rifle rounds, sacks of hand grenades and RPGs. The weapons were to have been smuggled into Gaza through tunnels. Police are investigating their source.
The missiles keep on coming from Gaza on a daily basis. Saturday, two Thai farm workers were badly injured by an incoming missile which destroyed Moshav Amiaz’s hen coop. One of the injured men lost an arm.
Farmers staged a protest at the Sufa crossing to Gaza Sunday, June 1, against the government’s incompetence in the face of the Palestinian missile attacks.
Olmert's days as PM now numbered
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2459
A week after announcing the opening of a door to negotiations with Syria that could endanger Israel's hold on the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is battling for his political life.
And while he has been cherishing the prospect of making his mark by securing some form of a lasting agreement with the PLO that, too, appears an increasingly futile hope as pressure mounts for the prime minister to resign.
Olmert is being investigated by police for having allegedly accepted bribes or laundered money received from an American businessman.
Addressing journalists in Jerusalem Thursday Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - Olmert's number two - said their Kadima Party needed to prepare for "every eventuality, including early elections."
"The reality changed after yesterday," she said, referring to an announcement made by Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak.
Barak set the ball rolling at a lunch-time press conference in Tel Aviv when he declared that the country could not be run by a man who is struggling to keep his own personal affairs in order.
With Hamas rockets in the south, Hizb'allah consolidating its position in the north, Syria indicating it wants to discuss the future of the Golan Heights, and Iran pursuing as never before its own atomic bomb it was necessary, Barak said, for Olmert to step down.
While Barak was accused of political opportunism by left-wing Knesset members who believe the prime minister is the best hope for their cause, others in the coalition - including at least two members of Olmert's own Kadima Party - joined their voices to the growing chorus for him to "go home."
Barak's Labor Party Thursday gave their leader their full support.
And Israeli news outlets reported that political parties were already beginning to prepare for early elections, which could be held as early as November [interestingly the same month as the presidential elections in the United States - Ed].
Olmert was putting a brave face on things Thursday morning, touring the rocket ravaged western Negev and telling his colleagues and the public in general that he is quite capable of running the show - and that he will not step aside.
Protesting his innocence, Olmert earlier did promise to resign if actually indicted on any criminal charges, and a decision about that has yet to be reached.
But the premier, never really popular since winning the election in April 2006, and having survived a number of scandals, has already lost the country's confidence.
According to a poll conducted for the leftist daily Ha'aretz Monday, fully 70 percent of the nation says they do not believe that Olmert is telling the truth concerning the allegations that he accepted bribes.
Fearing Olmert collapse, Palestinians rush for deal
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65623
Fearing the collapse of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, the Palestinian Authority asked the U.S. government for backing to rush a deal regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, WND has learned.
According to a top PA negotiator, the Palestinians expect Olmert will be forced from office before the end of the year. They fear some of the negotiations led by Olmert's government will be fruitless unless an understanding is reached before the Israeli leader vacates office.
"What we are seeking is to quickly reach certain understandings, put those understandings on paper and have them guaranteed by the U.S. so the understandings can be used as a starting point in negotiations with the next Israeli prime minister," the top PA negotiator told WND.
Olmert's government has been conducting intense negotiations with the PA started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit, which sought to create a Palestinian state before Bush leaves office in January. Israel is highly expected to offer the Palestinians most of the West Bank and sections of Jerusalem.
Olmert faces a bribery and corruption investigation that has been described by police officials here as "very serious." The Israeli leader has said he would resign if he is indicted.
Earlier this week, Morris Talansky, a U.S. businessman, testified in court he provided about $150,000 in cash to Olmert over the years and that he didn't know exactly what the Israeli leader did with the money.
According to sources close to the investigation, the charges against Olmert extend far beyond possible cash transfers by Talansky and involve other foreign businessmen allegedly passing on money in exchange for political and business favors.
In a major blow to Olmert's future leadership, his defense minister and senior coalition partner, Ehud Barak, yesterday called on him to step down.
"I do not think the prime minister can simultaneously run the government and deal with his own personal affair," Barak said at a nationally televised news conference after conferring with other members of his Labor party.
Barak maintained his position today, telling the Knesset that early elections appear inevitable in light of the corruption probe.
Olmert, though, continues to insist he will not resign unless he is indicted. He told the Knesset he was certain that once his side of the story is aired, no charges would be brought against him.
"I have been done an injustice, and it is illogical that a prime minister should be brought down because of something like this," Olmert said.
"Some people think that every investigation requires a resignation. I do not agree, and I do not intend to resign," Olmert said.
The prime minister has faced five previous investigations into accusations of corruption or accepting bribes.
Immediately after Barak's statements yesterday, three members of his party, which is in a governing coalition with Olmert's Kadima party, submitted motions to the Knesset to dissolve the Olmert government. By Israeli law, if the majority of the Knesset votes for the downfall of the prime minister, new elections must be held within 90 days.
Barak has made no secret of his desire to become prime minister. But his calls for Olmert to step down were also echoed across the political spectrum.
Legally, Olmert can remain in office until 2010 unless he is either convicted or the Knesset votes for new elections.
If he resigns, Olmert could appoint a member of his Kadima party as prime minister to avoid early elections and ensure his party remains in power. He could also take a 90-day leave of absence during which time his deputy prime minister, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, would temporarily govern.
Olmert, though, is said to oppose placing Livni is power. According to top political sources in Jerusalem, Olmert is attempting to coordinate the future leadership of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and close Olmert confidant.
PM mulls primary as 'graceful exit'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1212041432348
Recognizing that his political downfall is all but unavoidable, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering accepting a proposal by senior Kadima ministers and MKs that is intended to allow the party to prepare for early elections while he leaves the Prime Minister's Office in a dignified manner, sources close to Olmert said Thursday.
According to the proposal, the prime minister would give the authorization necessary to initiate a Kadima primary that would elect his successor.
If Olmert is not charged in the Talansky affair, he would continue to serve as party leader and prime minister until the next general election, and the primary winner would become his heir apparent. If he is indicted and keeps his promise to step down, the winner could either form a new government or lead the party in elections that appear increasingly likely to take place by the end of the year.
"We can remove Olmert without being brutal, while addressing the public outcry against corruption," said a senior Kadima official who is close to the prime minister. "This proposal will give him a chance to prove his innocence, while making sure the party will be ready for any eventuality. The more his senior political allies persuade him to go for it, the more likely he is to accept it."
Kadima MK Tzahi Hanegbi, who heads the party's steering committee, announced that he would summon representatives of the four candidates to replace Olmert to decide on a mechanism for the primary.
Hanegbi denied reports that he would seek to set a date for the primary next week, but candidates who spoke to Kadima MKs on Thursday said a September race was likely.
"Regardless of what is happening with the investigation, the party has to get ready," he said. "We hope the prime minister will not be indicted, but [Labor Chairman Ehud] Barak began a process when he called for Olmert to leave office that requires steps on our part."
Olmert is expected to respond to the challenges to his leadership presented Wednesday by Barak and Thursday by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in a Kadima faction meeting Sunday that was originally intended to be a festive pre-Jerusalem Day celebration.
Kadima MKs said they would try to persuade Olmert to use the speech to "go out gracefully" and allow the race to succeed him to begin.
Livni ratcheted up the pressure on Olmert by calling for a Kadima primary as soon as possible.
"As of yesterday, there is a new reality," Livni said, speaking at a homeland security conference in Jerusalem. "I can't ignore the events of the past two days. This is no longer just a criminal or judicial issue. This is about values and norms that impact the State of Israel."
Livni made a point of not mentioning Olmert by name. Sources close to Livni said she was trying to avoid being seen by Kadima members as attempting to depose him, because undermining a prime minister under fire might help her main challenger for the party leadership, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who has recently allied himself with Olmert.
"Kadima needs to take a decision on what it wants," Livni said. It needs to prepare now for all possible scenarios, including elections. These are the things I've been telling party and faction members. I'm working towards a swift, clean, process."
Sources close to Olmert lashed out at Livni, accusing her of conspiring with Barak to overthrow him, a charge she vigorously denied. They said it was no coincidence that Livni and Barak consult with the same strategic adviser, Reuven Adler, a close friend of former prime minister Ariel Sharon whom Olmert fired.
"It's unfortunate that Tzipi Livni blinked first and let the leader of another party decide the fate of Kadima," an Olmert associate said.
"It's no wonder Olmert would rather have [Likud leader Binyamin] Netanyahu as prime minister than her."
Mofaz also slammed Livni, accusing her of "conspiring with Barak to destroy Kadima," adding that she would not succeed in doing so.
"I'm glad that Livni realized that Kadima is a democratic party that requires primaries, but I am shocked that she is pushing Kadima into Labor's arms," Mofaz said. "Only Kadima people will decide the party's fate."
Barak intensified his attack on Olmert in a Labor ministers meeting Thursday at the party's Tel Aviv headquarters. He told the ministers he preferred the formation of an alternative government to elections, but he said the latter was more likely.
"The coin has dropped and it is time to prepare for elections, apparently by the end of this year," Barak told the party's executive committee at the same location later in the day. "The prime minister and his party need to make decisions. If they don't, we will decide for them, according to the proper norms for Israel."
Meretz called for the formation of an new coalition without holding an early election. "We can't let the internal crisis in Kadima force the country into several long months of diplomatic stagnation," party chairman Haim Oron said.
Israel to build new homes in occupied West Bank
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/israel.to.build.new.homes.in.occupied.west.bank/19172.htm
Israel announced plans on Sunday to build hundreds of new homes in an area of the occupied West Bank the Israeli government considers part of Jerusalem, despite U.S. and Palestinian calls to halt settlement expansion.
The announcement came two days before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sets off Washington for a three-day visit where he will meet U.S. President George W. Bush.
The 2003 peace "road map", reaffirmed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a conference hosted by Bush in November, requires a halt to all settlement activity on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
Housing Minister Zeev Boim instructed his office to publish a tender to build an additional 763 housing units in Pisgat Zeev and 121 housing units at Har Homa, an area Palestinians refer to as Jabal Abu Ghneim.
Both sites are located on lands captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, and were incorporated into the municipal borders of Jerusalem in an act not recognised internationally.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Olmert's government "talks about peace while at the same time works on undermining the basis of peace by increasing settlement activity in Jerusalem and around it."
A spokesman for Boim said the new tenders were part of steps the government was taking to "strengthen Jerusalem."
Olmert, in keeping with the previous government's policy, has vowed to keep West Bank settlement blocs, including enclaves near Jerusalem, under any future peace accord.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Last month Boim instructed his office to publish a tender to build 286 new homes in the Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, near Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders say settlement expansion around Jerusalem could cut off Palestinians' access to the holy city and carve up the West Bank in a way that would deny them a contiguous state.
Chertoff: Hizb'allah puts Al-Qaeda in 'minor league'
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2465
The director of US Homeland Security said in Jerusalem Thursday Lebanon's Hizb'allah makes the Al-Qaeda terror group of Usama bin Laden look like a minor league team.
America's Fox News television channel described Michael Chertoff's statement at a special forum on terrorism as "shocking" in light of the fact that most Americans understood the Hizb'allah to be a Middle East terrorism organization without the world reach demonstrated by Al-Qaeda.
"Someone described Hizb'allah like the A-team of terrorists in terms of capabilities, in terms of range of weapons they have, in terms of internal discipline," Chertoff said.
"To be honest, they make Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.
"They have been more disciplined, and they've been in some senses more restrained in the kinds of attacks they carry out ... in recent years, but that's not something we can take for granted," he warned.
Hosted by Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, the two-day conference is focused on ways to combat terrorism.
Chertoff described his country's top security fear as being a terrorist successfully smuggling a bomb on board a jet airliner.
Homeland Security was consequently "intensifying the degree of screening we use for baggage that goes into the cargo. Whether it comes from the passenger or is shipped from company.
"All of this is raising the level of defense," Chertoff added.
Israel, Syria said to have made progress in talks
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988713.html
In their latest round of indirect talks, Israel and Syria made progress on the contentious issues of water, security, borders and normalization of relations, the London-based a-Sharq al-Awsat quoted a Syrian official as saying on Friday.
A Syrian official close to the negotiations said that the issues were discussed on general lines, according to the report. The official added that in the next round of talks, the sides would negotiate the fundamental issues.
The official said direct negotiations could begin in the near future, due to will exhibited by both sides.
He said that the commencement of direct talks harbored on political and regional conditions. He added that Israel has agreed in principle to the implementation of joint security efforts as a trust-building step.
Regarding the possibility of Israel leasing parts of the Golan Heights amid the framework of a peace agreement, the Syrian official said: "The principle here is the return of all of the Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty. Also in Sinai, security arrangements were arranged, but the penninsula has remained under Egyptian sovereignty.
The official said the issue of Damascus' ties with Iran and Hezbollah would be postponed to a later date. He stressed that the matter of relations with Iran was not raised in the framework of discussions and said Syria had not been asked to cut off ties.
Syria is concerned primarily with its own interest and Iran understands this, the official told the paper.
Meanwhile, a senior Israeli official said Thursday that negotiations with Syria were unlikely to resume next week, despite reports to the contrary from Damascus.
The Israeli official said that due to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's planned visit to the United States on Monday with associates, the talks would be delayed for approximately two more weeks.
The official affirmed that the internal political row embroiling Olmert amid the investigation against him would not harm the process with Syria.
"It is in the interest of both sides. It has taken so long to reach this point, and we have no intention of ending it now," said the official.
A prominent Syrian journalist wrote Thursday in the London-based Arabic-language paper Al-Hayat that the peace talks could resume as early as next week Prime Minister Ehud Olmert manages to overcome his domestic problems.
Ibrahim Hamidi, who is considered Syria's leading independent journalist, said that Damascus was anxious to return to the negotiating table and that serious progress had been made in the talks so far.
"Damascus will do all it can to further talks," he wrote. "It is examining every small move with hope on the way to peace."
He reiterated Syrian officials' claim that Israel's government had agreed to withdraw to the 1967 border, which Jerusalem denies. "When we mean the talks are serious, we mean that the other side is committed to a full withdrawal to the border of June 4, 1967," Hamidi quoted a Syrian source as saying.
Also Thursday, President Shimon Peres said that if Syrian President Bashar Assad is serious about reaching peace with Israel, he should either visit Jerusalem or invite the prime minister to Damascus for talks.
"If [former] Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has not come to Jerusalem and addressed the Knesset, there would not have been peace with Egypt," Peres told Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Syria denies accord with Israel on core issues
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5308
Dr. Samir Taki, a close aide of Syrian president Bashar Assad, denied reports that Syrian-Israeli peace talks had reached the point of discussing core issues of water, borders, security and normal relations. In an interview with the Kuwait Al-Anba, Dr. Taki added that the talks were only just beginning and not yet matured.
Washington asks nuclear watchdog to search for two more Syrian nuclear sites – report
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5304
According to the Washington Post, US officials have identified at least three suspected nuclear sites in Syria, two more than the Al Kibar reactor Israel bombed last year, and passed the information to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This confirms the Oct. 25, 2007, disclosure by DEBKAfile military sources that the Israeli raid of Sept. 6 had destroyed at least two nuclear sites in Syria.
Washington released its request to the IAEA now - both to point up its disapproval of the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s peace talks with Damascus and to continue the pressure on Syrian president Bashar Assad. More such disclosures are therefore expected.
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told the WP that the intelligence community’s insight into Syria’s nuclear ambitions had deepened since the Israeli raid. “Do not assume that Al Kibra exhausted our knowledge of Syrian efforts with regard to nuclear weapons.”
Our military sources add: The fact that Syria was building three interconnected nuclear sites, a North Korean reactor and facilities for supplying nuclear fuel rods and fuel processing for extracting plutonium, proves Damascus was close to completing a weaponization program fueled by plutonium rather than enriched uranium. Both American and Israeli sources reported that the reactor was only weeks or months away from being ready for production.
Our sources add that if Syria was that close, how much closer must Iran, the senior partner in the alliance, be to its goal of a homemade nuclear weapon?
Syria has not responded to any IAEA requests for a date to conduct inspections.
Israel will need to strike soon or reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran
http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Israel-39would-consider-strike39-amid.4118482.jp
As Israel pursues peace talks with Syria, speculation is growing that the Jewish state will seriously consider unilateral military action against Iran within the next year. Israeli intelligence is now estimating that Iran will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium by the end of this year, 12 months ahead of schedule.
As a result, Israeli military officials believe the Islamic republic could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of 2009.
"Within a year, the Israeli government will have to decide between two options: either not do anything and reconcile itself to the fact that Iran is now nuclear, or take unilateral military action," Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told Scotland on Sunday.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel is also worried that Tehran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, Israel's anti-ballistic missile defences.
Iran is suspected of using smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles as a model for its own project. A cruise missile, which flies low to dodge radar and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.
With US President George Bush nearing the end of his term, the likelihood of US military action appears to be fading. The strong chance of Democrat Barack Obama winning the presidential race means Israel will have to consider going it alone. "It's certainly not an option to be taken lightly, but at the end of the day, we may decide it is the only option we have," an Israeli official told the Scotland on Sunday.
The White House last week denied Israeli media reports that President Bush intends to attack Iran. It said that while the military option remained open, the administration preferred to resolve concerns about Iran's push for a nuclear weapon "through peaceful diplomatic means".
Meanwhile, Eiland dismissed the notion that, with Israel now talking to Syria, it was paving the path for military action against Iran. "These are two entirely separate issues that are not at all connected. Syria wants the Golan Heights back and Israel, in return, wants a sort of a diplomatic relationship with its neighbour."
The onus is now on Israeli intelligence to follow up on its reports that the Iranians are ahead of schedule.
"If in the end, a decision is taken to pursue unilateral military action, I think the Israeli public would be willing to accept the repercussions," said Dr Shmuel Bar from the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Israel's Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre. "The most worrying thing in the last six months is what was found in Syria, which means nuclear proliferation, thanks to North Korean help, is happening at much greater levels than people realised."
Bar also pointed to a paper to be published next month by the Washington Institute for Near East Strategy. Its authors, Patrick Clawson and Michael Eisenstadt, argue that it should not be assumed an attack on Iran would result in a doomsday-type scenario.
In an interview with Haaretz last week, Clawson said the outcome would depend on several factors: whether nuclear or conventional weapons would be used; if an attack came from the US or Israel; and if nuclear sites only would be targeted. "If the attack completely destroys Iran's nuclear programme that is one thing, but if it does not, that is a different story. Then Iran will be able to continue to develop its nuclear programme, and the world will no longer care about that." When asked about possible Iranian responses to an Israeli attack, Clawson threw doubt on the accuracy of Iran's Shihab missiles, describing them as unreliable and inaccurate. He also questioned the conventional wisdom that in the wake of an Israeli attack, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement would also respond.
"There is no guarantee that Hezbollah will react automatically. Hezbollah are very aware of Israel's strength, and of the harsh reaction that may result if they attack."
Iran & Syria sign new defense pact while Israel fears Iran may attack Israeli targets abroad to stop peace with Syria
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/987955.html
Israel is concerned that Iran may attack Israeli targets abroad in an effort to derail the renewed peaces negotiations with Syria, Israel sources told Haaretz this week.
The sources said Iran might consider operating from the stance that an international attack would change Israel's status, bring about an end to the negotiations and even start a regional confrontation.
The sources added, however, that such an operation would not necessarily be in Iran's interest.
"Iran wants to maintain Hezbollah's strength, and is not interested in changing the situation in Lebanon now that Hezbollah's opponents have been neutralized," they said.
Meanwhile, Syria and Iran on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding over mutual defense issues, as Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani wrapped up a three-day visit to Tehran.
The memorandum contained an agreement that the two countries would cement their "defense relations," a process that will include reciprocal visits by military officials, joint military training and cooperation on technical advancements.
The memorandum signed by both sides includes the understanding that all foreign occupying forces must retreat from the region because they are "creating tensions."
Iran Achieves a Four-Front Missile Command, Breakthrough on Nuclear Missile Warheads
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1352
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps have created a separate missile command, in which Syria’s missile force is to be integrated. The joint command was formalized in a new mutual defense treaty signed by the Syrian defense minister, Gen. Hassan Turkmani in Tehran last week.
Israeli military sources judge the operational merger of Iranian and Syrian missile corps to be a major strategic hazard to the Jewish state.
Western and Israeli military experts connect it with other indications that Iran’s program for developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads has gone into high gear and reached an advanced stage. They believe the Iranians have beaten most of the technical difficulties holding it up.
On May 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which often goes easy on Iran, released a harsh report confirming Iran’s progress in “missile warhead design.”
The new missile command was cautiously announced last week by the IRGC commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari. He said: “An independent command might be created in Sepah (IRGC) in order to fortify the structure and activities of the missile section.”
DEBKAfile’s Iranians sources explain Jafar’s cautious language on three grounds:
1. He was preparing Iran’s population and the Arab world for a pretty portentous development.
2. He was at pains not to put off figures in the West who argue strongly in favor of unconditional talks with Tehran over its nuclear misdeeds. He counted on those advocates shouting down the Western strategists who would appreciate the startling significance of the separate command.
3. Tehran also views Syria’s co-option and the new mutual defense treaty as a sort of guarantee that Assad’s “peace talks” with Israel will in no way detract from his military and other commitments to Iran.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose that the details of the combined command were worked out ahead of the Syrian defense minister’s talks in Tehran: It was agreed that Syria’s missile units would come under the new independent Iranian missile section and their operations would be fully coordinated with Tehran. Iranian officers are to be attached to Syrian units and Syrian officers posted to the Iranian command.
In the interim, Hizballah’s rise to power in Beirut has brought Lebanon into the shared Syrian-Iranian orbit. This development has enabled Tehran to line up a row of missiles deployments of varying strengths from Iran, Syria and Lebanon and up to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip – a missile array never before seen in the Middle East and a strategic menace most of Israel’s security leaders rate unacceptable.
Military experts comment that Tehran’s centralized control of four hostile missile fronts will virtually neutralize the American and Israeli anti-missile defense systems in the region; the Arrow and the Patriot missile interceptors could handle incoming missiles from one or maybe two directions – but not four.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel’s armed forces have been working overtime, against repeated holdups, to get the third Arrow battery installed. It is to be deployed in northern Israel as a shield against Syrian ballistic missiles and Iranian missiles stationed in Syria.
The formation of the joint Iranian-Syrian missile command has slowed the project down. It calls for modifications in the Arrow’s deployment to meet the fresh challenge and a time-consuming study by US and Israeli intelligence specialists of how the new command structure functions. Western military sources doubt the Arrow system will be up and running by this summer, a period considered critical by military observers.
They discount as over-optimistic recent claims by Israeli officials that the new Iron Dome will be ready for operational testing against short-range missiles in the next year or two.
In a related development, DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources report that next week, Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Syrian president Bashar Assad launch a major campaign to further isolate American influence and bludgeon moderate Arab governments into alignment with their extreme anti-US, anti-Israel line.
Assad sets out Sunday, June 1, for the United Arab Emirates for talks with Sheikh KHalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in Abu Dhabi. Tuesday, he spends two days in Kuwait. The visits were set up by the Qatar ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who spent Friday, May 30, in Assad’s palace, gathering compliments for the Doha accord he mediated which solved Lebanon’s political crisis by installing a national unity government in Beirut dominated by Hizballah.
The Qatari ruler, Assad and Khamenei have joined forces to use the Lebanon accord as an object lesson to teach Arab governments that they do not need the United States or Saudi Arabia to help them manage their problems.
This message was relayed in Iran foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s arrogant statement in Stockholm Friday. He said: “The United States of America needs a serious review of its foreign policy towards the Middle East. These policies in… Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and generally speaking in the Middle East are mistaken policies.”
DEBKAfile’s political sources point out that these reverses are piling up against the United States and Israel at the worst time possible: both governments are hobbled - Washington in the dying days of the Bush administration, and Israel, by the grave corruption allegations against prime minister Ehud Olmert which have placed him and the other two senior policy-makers, the defense and foreign ministers, at loggerheads.
Iran FM Calls on Muslims to 'Erase' Israel
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/iran_erase_israel/2008/06/01/100602.html
TEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims on Sunday to work to "erase" Israel, in the latest verbal attack by Tehran against the Jewish state.
"As the Imam Khomeini said, if each Muslim throws a bucket of water on Israel, Israel will be erased," Mottaki told a conference in Tehran, recalling a saying by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked international outrage for his repeated attacks against Israel, which he has predicted is doomed to disappear and described as a "stinking corpse" and a "dead rat".
His most notorious attack was in 2005 when he repeated another saying from Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map".
Mottaki added: "More than ever, the Zionist regime is disintegrating from within. Today, the Islamic resistance in this region has shattered the regime's legend of invincibility."
While Ahmadinejad and top military commanders reguarly predict the demise of Israel, such virulent attacks from the foreign ministry are relatively unusual.
Iran vehemently denies charges of anti-Semitism, pointing to the continued existence in the country of the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel and saying it is only against Zionism.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have also intensified in the past year over the Iranian nuclear drive.
Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared atomic arms power, accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon and, along with its chief ally the United States, has never explicitly ruled out a military attack against the Islamic republic.
But Iran, which does not recognise Israel, insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and aimed solely at generating energy for a growing population.
French Minister: Iran Continues Nuclear Weapons Program
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/france_iran_nuclear/2008/06/01/100594.html
SINGAPORE - France's defense minister said Sunday that evidence indicated Iran was still pursuing a military nuclear program, and he urged Tehran to prove otherwise by opening its program to greater international scrutiny.
Herve Morin said his country believes every nation has the right to develop a nuclear program for power generation because it is key to development and to countering global warming -- but, he said, "we advocate transparency and control."
Iran should demonstrate "through total opening of its installations that (it) is not conducting nuclear programs with military purposes and goals," Morin told reporters on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore.
Tehran ended all voluntary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, including allowing snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, in February 2006 after being reported to the U.N. Security Council.
Ever since, Iran has limited its cooperation to only its obligations under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The treaty does not require Iran to allow short-notice, intrusive inspections of its facilities.
Morin said that all the "information we have collected proves that they have not dropped the idea of getting on with their (military) program."
He said French government data show that Iran continues to "carry on with sensitive activities."
Morin cited Iran's display of the Shihab-3 missile during its national day parades, and said it was obviously a ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
"You don't develop a ballistic missile to carry conventional warhead. It doesn't make operational sense," he said.
The IAEA recently said in a report that Iran might be withholding information needed to establish whether it had tried to make nuclear weapons.
The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt enriching uranium, a process that can be used to generate electricity or nuclear arms.
Rumors of Iran Air strike by August
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE28Ak01.html
The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.
Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.
The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds' stated mission is to spread Iran's revolution of 1979 throughout the region.
Targets could include IRGC garrisons in southern and southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq. US officials have repeatedly claimed Iran is aiding Iraqi insurgents. In January 2007, US forces raided the Iranian consulate general in Erbil, Iraq, arresting five staff members, including two Iranian diplomats it held until November. Last September, the US Senate approved a resolution by a vote of 76-22 urging President George W Bush to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization. Following this non-binding "sense of the senate" resolution, the White House declared sanctions against the Quds Force as a terrorist group in October. The Bush administration has also accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program, though most intelligence analysts say the program has been abandoned.
Senators and the Bush administration denied the resolution and terrorist declaration were preludes to an attack on Iran. However, attacking Iran rarely seems far from some American leaders' minds. Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain recast the classic Beach Boys tune Barbara Ann as "Bomb Iran". Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton promised "total obliteration" for Iran if it attacked Israel.
The US and Iran have a long and troubled history, even without the proposed air strike. US and British intelligence were behind attempts to unseat prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq, who nationalized Britain's Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Company, and returned Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power in 1953. President Jimmy Carter's pressure on the Shah to improve his dismal human-rights record and loosen political control helped the 1979 Islamic revolution unseat the Shah.
But the new government under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned the US as "the Great Satan" for its decades of support for the Shah and its reluctant admission into the US of the fallen monarch for cancer treatment. Students occupied the US Embassy in Teheran, holding 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days. Eight American commandos died in a failed rescue mission in 1980. The US broke diplomatic relations with Iran during the hostage holding and has yet to restore them. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric often sounds lifted from the Khomeini era.
The source said the White House views the proposed air strike as a limited action to punish Iran for its involvement in Iraq. The source, an ambassador during the administration of president H W Bush, did not provide details on the types of weapons to be used in the attack, nor on the precise stage of planning at this time. It is not known whether the White House has already consulted with allies about the air strike, or if it plans to do so.
Details provided by the administration raised alarm bells on Capitol Hill, the source said. After receiving secret briefings on the planned air strike, Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, said they would write a New York Times op-ed piece "within days", the source said last week, to express their opposition. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
In a statement received by Asia Times Online from Feinstein's office, the senator said she "has not received any briefing, classified or unclassified, from the administration involving any plans to strike Iran".
Given their obligations to uphold the secrecy of classified information, it is unlikely the senators would reveal the Bush administration's plan or their knowledge of it. However, going public on the issue, even without specifics, would likely create a public groundswell of criticism that could induce the Bush administration reconsider its plan.
The proposed air strike on Iran would have huge implications for geopolitics and for the ongoing US presidential campaign. The biggest question, of course, is how would Iran respond?
Iran could flex its muscles in any number of ways. It could step up support for insurgents in Iraq and for its allies throughout the Middle East. Iran aids both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Israel's Occupied Territories. It is also widely suspected of assisting Taliban rebels in Afghanistan.
Iran could also choose direct confrontation with the US in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, with which Iran shares a long, porous border. Iran has a fighting force of more than 500,000. Iran is also believed to have missiles capable of reaching US allies in the Gulf region.
Iran could also declare a complete or selective oil embargo on US allies. Iran is the second-largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and fourth-largest overall. About 70% of its oil exports go to Asia. The US has barred oil imports from Iran since 1995 and restricts US companies from investing there.
China is Iran's biggest customer for oil, and Iran buys weapons from China. Trade between the two countries hit US$20 billion last year and continues to expand. China's reaction to an attack on Iran is also a troubling unknown for the US.
The Islamic world could also react strongly against a US attack against a third predominantly Muslim nation. Pakistan, which also shares a border with Iran, could face additional pressure from Islamic parties to end its cooperation with the US to fight al-Qaeda and hunt for Osama bin Laden. Turkey, another key ally, could be pushed further off its secular base. American companies, diplomatic installations and other US interests could face retaliation from governments or mobs in Muslim-majority states from Indonesia to Morocco.
A US air strike on Iran would have seismic impact on the presidential race at home, but it's difficult to determine where the pieces would fall.
At first glance, a military attack against Iran would seem to favor McCain. The Arizona senator says the US is locked in battle across the globe with radical Islamic extremists, and he believes Iran is one of biggest instigators and supporters of the extremist tide. A strike on Iran could rally American voters to back the war effort and vote for McCain.
On the other hand, an air strike on Iran could heighten public disenchantment with Bush administration policy in the Middle East, leading to support for the Democratic candidate, whoever it is.
But an air strike will provoke reactions far beyond US voting booths.
Iranian aid seen growing among militants on Israel's flanks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_iran_s_fingerprints
Rockets and weapons bearing signs of Iranian paint, lettering and serial numbers are making their way into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon — helping Tehran cement its powerful role within militant movements on Israel's northern and southern flanks, senior Israeli security officials say.
The weapons, including an 18-inch fragment of a Grad-type Katyusha rocket seen by The Associated Press, are believed to be reaching blockaded Gaza through a clandestine network: by sea from Sudan to Egypt's Red Sea ports and then by land through the Sinai desert to tunnels that cross into the coastal strip, according to the officials.
Trucks and airplanes also carry Iranian-made rockets across the Syrian-Lebanese border, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military restrictions.
Hezbollah guerrillas bombarded Israel with nearly 4,000 rockets in their 2006 war. After recent clashes across Lebanon killed at least 67 people, Hezbollah forced the weakened Lebanese government into concessions that could free the guerrilla group to bring in even more rockets.
The Israeli claims — although expressed privately by security authorities — have not been backed up by a public display of evidence, leading some analysts to question the extent of Iranian involvement on Israel's borders. Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian militants all deny an Iranian arms connection, though some Hezbollah militants privately acknowledge getting arms from Tehran.
But it's clear Iran has sharply increased its regional profile after the fall of archrival Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the rise of a Shiite-led government in Baghdad with close ties to Tehran.
The Israel connection isn't new. Six years ago, Israeli naval commandos captured a ship in the Red Sea, the Karine A, that Israel said was carrying 50 tons of missiles, mortars, rifles and ammunition from Iran to the Palestinians.
Egypt has publicly denounced suspected Iranian involvement in the conflict. Its foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, accused Iran of being behind Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza nearly a year ago.
Experts think Iran's wider aim is to indirectly pressure Israel. Establishing proxies on Israel's borders raises the price of any possible Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and makes it tougher for Israelis and Palestinians to forge a peace pact, they say.
Israel has not explained why it hasn't publicly released serial numbers and other rocket markings to prove Iranian interference. Some analysts suggest Israel is making unsubstantiated claims to keep up world pressure on Iran to trim its nuclear ambitions.
Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza have been firing crude projectiles into southern Israel for years. Israel's high-tech military hasn't been able to stop the rockets, which are increasingly striking closer to Israel's heartland.
Israeli military ballistics experts have identified Iranian origins from paint, toolwork and Latin lettering on weapon fragments, senior Israeli security officials said. Similar rockets produced in eastern Europe look different, they said.
The Grad fragments seen by the AP had threading indicating it was made in Iran, a security officer said. Hezbollah fired similar rockets at Israel during the 2006 war, he added.
Longer-range missiles have hit the town of Ashkelon in recent months, strengthening the suspicion that they are being supplied by Iran.
"Iran is, unfortunately, very much involved in supporting the buildup of the Hamas military machine in Gaza, whether it's in training Hamas operatives in different areas of technical know-how, whether it's in just funding them, whether it's supplying them with munitions, whether it's giving them capabilities to upgrade indigenous defense capabilities," government spokesman Mark Regev said.
The arsenal of Iranian-made weapons improved after Hamas militants blew open the border fence between Gaza and Egypt in January, allowing more arms to enter. Some of the new rockets can travel 25 miles — just 12 miles short of Tel Aviv, the Israelis say.
One rocket that recently slammed into Israel carried a 170mm warhead, officials said. Previous rockets carried 120mm warheads.
An April report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli think tank with close ties to the defense establishment, pointed to a number of recent findings it claimed were examples of Iranian technology used by Gaza militants.
Rockets fired into southern Israel during a recent flare-up in fighting had engines divided into four 20-inch parts "to make it easier for the terrorist organizations to smuggle the rockets into the Gaza Strip by dismantling the sections," the report said.
Iranian weaponry "would seriously increase the risk to Israel," said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"You then no longer require or are relying on a technician in Gaza to pull the rocket together from indigenous supplies, but actually are getting the entire rocket in, which would mean a more professionally prepared and put-together weapon," Riedel said.
Abu Obeida, a Hamas military leader in Gaza, says Israel is claiming the Iranian connection to mobilize international support for an attack on Gaza.
"The Gaza Strip was always capable of manufacturing the tools it needs for its resistance," added Hamas' deputy leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, in a telephone interview from his base in Damascus, Syria.
Iranian officials did not respond to calls seeking comment. In the past, Iran has acknowledged giving millions of dollars to Hamas but denied supplying arms.
Experts are divided on whether Iran is directly providing weapons to Hamas.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria. Va.-based defense research firm, said he "would not need a great deal of convincing," given Iran's history of support for Palestinian militants.
But David Hartwell, Middle East and North Africa editor at Jane's Country Risk, a London publication, said that while Israel's claims "are not outside the realm of possibility ... without any evidence to back it up, it's very difficult to substantiate any of the Israeli allegations."
Meir Javedanfar, an Iran expert based in Israel, thinks Iran is more likely financing the purchase of the more sophisticated weapons Israel has seen.
"We haven't seen any kind of evidence by Israel, like serial numbers of weapons, or any traces, to prove they are Iranian-made," he said. "Money — I think that's the highest probability."
Tehran is thought to have pledged at least $300 million to Hamas, but it is not clear how much money has been delivered. Israeli security officials cite different numbers, ranging to tens of millions of dollars.
Israel, like many of its Western allies, does not believe Iran's assertions that its nuclear program is meant only to produce energy. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has heightened Israel's alarm with repeated calls to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran needs a deterrent to an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, said Menashe Amir, director of Israel Radio's Farsi service. "So it built Hezbollah on Israel's northern border, and is now cultivating Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza."
One senior Israeli security official said Iran tightened its ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad after the Lebanon war because the Iranians "understood that Hezbollah cannot be activated as frequently as they want."
One possible brake on any future Hezbollah action against Israel would be a successful conclusion of newly resumed Syrian-Israeli peace talks. Hezbollah also enjoys support from Damascus, and a peace deal between Israel and Syria could reduce Syrian backing for Hamas as well.
In the meantime, indirect cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas have been dragging on for months — increasing the prospect that Israel would launch a threatened major military operation there.
A report in March by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cited Israeli claims that Hezbollah now commands 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 shorter-range ones. Other Israeli officials have said the number is much higher. Before the 2006 conflict, Israel estimates, Hezbollah had 14,000 rockets.
But it's not just a matter of numbers, says Israel's military intelligence chief, Amos Yadlin. He told the Haaretz newspaper in an interview published last week that Hezbollah now has weapons that "cover large areas of Israel."
Senior Israeli defense officials say Hezbollah's new Iranian rockets can fly 185 miles. In 2006, the farthest any flew was 45 miles inside Israel.
If another war were to break out, Israel "will face a stronger Hezbollah," Yadlin said.
Australia Ends Combat Mission in Iraq
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384823.aspx
CBNNews.com - BAGHDAD - Australia ended its combat operations in southern Iraq on Sunday, while the Iraqi government said it has differences with the United States in negotiations over a long-term security agreement.
The official statement by government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh comes amid growing opposition to the deal among Iraqis who see it as a possible violation of Iraq's sovereignty and are worried about an extended presence of American troops.
Talks "are still in their early stages and the Iraqi side has a vision and a draft that is different" from those being presented by U.S. negotiators, al-Dabbagh said.
He was not more specific about the points but insisted the Iraqi government was focused on "fully preserving the sovereignty of Iraq ... and will not accept any article that infringes on this sovereignty and doesn't guarantee the interests of Iraqis."
The spokesman also said it was too early to discuss dates for an agreement and said each stage of negotiations would be presented to the Iraqi national security council.
His comments came two days after tens of thousands of followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets to protest the deal. Al-Sadr and his loyalists have called for the issue to be put to a public referendum.
U.S. officials said they are not seeking permanent bases but have not otherwise commented on the negotiations, which the two sides hope to complete by July. The agreement is to replace a U.N. mandate for U.S.-led forces that expires at the end of the year.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said negotiators have made "a great deal of progress" and the government has sent teams to Germany, Turkey, South Korea and Japan to see how they handled the presence of foreign troops.
Forces Not Yet Self-Sufficient
However, he stressed the situation in Iraq was different because the violence has not ended.
"Our forces and capabilities haven't reached the level of self-sufficiency," Zebari said at a joint news conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "We need this strategic security agreement ... for the time being. But this is not open-ended."
The U.S. military, meanwhile, faced a dwindling coalition of allied countries providing supporting combat troops in Iraq.
Troops held a ceremony Sunday that included lowering the Australian flag from its position and raising the American flag instead over Camp Terendak in the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah.
"We have to praise the role of the Australian troops in stabilizing the security situation in the province through their checkpoints on the outskirts of the city," said Aziz Kadim Alway, the governor of the Dhi Qar province.
The Iraqi government already has assumed security responsibilities for the Shiite-dominated province, which includes the volatile city of Nasiriyah. But the Australians remained there to help if necessary while also training Iraqi security forces and doing reconstruction and aid work.
U.S. Troops Fill In Temporarily
The U.S. military said American troops would temporarily take over those responsibilities.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by the middle of 2008, saying the Iraq deployment has made Australia more of a target for terrorism.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in March that he understood the decision and it would not harm bilateral relations.
The Australians had "successfully accomplished their mission" and their contributions "assisted in the stabilization and development of Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Col. Bill Buckner said in a statement.
The combat troops were expected to return home over the next few weeks.
But the Australians said several hundred other troops will remain in Iraq to act as security and headquarters liaisons and to guard diplomats. Australia also will leave behind two maritime surveillance aircraft and a warship to help patrol oil platforms in the Gulf.
U.S. Soldier, Policeman, Four Civilians Killed
Also on Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed by an armor-piercing roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad, the military said. No further details were released.
A car bomb exploded Sunday in a parking lot across the street from the Iranian Embassy, killing at least two civilians and wounding five people, including three embassy guards.
Elsewhere in the capital, a senior police official was wounded and a traffic cop was killed when a bomb stuck to the official's car exploded in a busy intersection.
Two civilians also were killed in separate roadside bombs in the area of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.
The violence was reported by officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
In another development, a U.S. helicopter crashed Sunday south of Baghdad, wounding the two American soldiers who were aboard, the military said. The military said the crash was being investigated but appeared to be due to mechanical failure.
CIA Chief Says Al Qaeda on Defensive
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/384166.aspx
CBNNews.com - Is al-Qaeda regrouping or is it really defeated in Iraq?
Several months ago, the Central Intelligence Agency warned of new threats of possible attacks from a revived al-Qaeda.
Now, CIA Director Michael Hayden says the terror group is essentially defeated in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia. And they are on the defensive throughout the rest of the world, incudling Osama bin Laden's haven located somewhere along the Afghanistan - Pakistan border.
Hayden spoke with The Washington Post Friday, giving an upbeat assessment of the global war against the terror movement.
"On balance, we are doing pretty well," he said, ticking down a list of accomplishments: "Near strategic defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia," Hayden said.
While he warned that al-Qaeda remains a very real threat, he said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world. As a result, bin Laden has lost both cash donations and many new recruits.
"There have been significant setbacks for al-Qaeda globally -- and here I'm going to use the word 'ideologically' -- as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam," Hayden explained.
Other terrorism experts say that it is too early to tell whether the gains are permanent.
"One of the lessons we can draw from the past two years is that al-Qaeda is its own worst enemy," said Robert Grenier, a former top CIA counterterrorism official. "Where they have succeeded initially, they very quickly discredit themselves."
Others warn that the group still has the capability to perform catastrophic attacks. Some say they may be even more determined to stage a major strike in order to prove it is still a force to be reckoned with.
"Al-Qaeda's obituary has been written far too often in the past few years for anyone to declare victory," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. "I agree that there has been progress. But we're indisputably up against a very resilient and implacable enemy."
Muslims equate Christians Missionaries with terrorists
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65447
Christian missionaries are "as dangerous as terrorist activities or the illegal drug trade," Islamic theologians in Uzbekistan declared.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports a new documentary called "In the Clutches of Ignorance," featuring Uzbek experts, state officials and representatives of Orthodox and Catholic churches in Uzbekistan, claims missionaries pose a serious threat to the Islamic republic.
The Uzbek state film criticized the Christian Gospel Church and Blagodat (an evangelical charity), saying they cause a "global problem, along with religious dogmatism, fundamentalism, terrorism, and drug addiction."
Jasur Najmiddinov, one of many religious experts interviewed, accused Protestants of being a "political tool" and a "part of geopolitical games," RFE/RL reported.
"Their center or place of origin traces back to the United States," Najmiddinov said. "They have even gone so far as meddling in politics. We all know representatives of the Protestant movement played a significant role in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine."
The Uzbek theologian said missionary activities disrupt society because Uzbek families do not tolerate relatives who convert from Islam.
The May 16 documentary featured clips of people praying and claimed Uzbek Christians, who have turned their backs on Islam, could effortlessly betray their country.
Uzbekistan bans missionary activity, religions that are not registered with the government and printing of faith-based literature without state consent.
Norway's Forum 18, an organization defending religious freedom, reports intolerance of religion is steadily growing in Uzbekistan as police invade private homes, seize Christian literature, arrest converts and deport missionaries.
The new state documentary warns, Christian missionaries seek out "those with low political awareness and weak-willed young people, as well as minors," and it said they "get funds abroad" to destabilize Islam.
Although the government says its official stance of "religious toleration" is part of its policy, persecution of a wide variety of religious groups is common in Uzbekistan
The bear is back
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211434094077&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
As recent reports make clear, Russia is now forcing its way back into the Middle East - and not necessarily in the most encouraging manner. By dangerously increasing its arms sales to the region, Moscow is seeking to restore prestige, bolster influence and - not least - to make money.
The latest example came with reports that a high-level Syrian military delegation, led by Air Force commander Gen. Ahmad al-Ratyb, met last week in Moscow with Russian Defense Ministry officials to buy advanced weapons. These sales reportedly include S-300 advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems, long-range MiG 29SMT fighter jets, two Amur-1650 submarines, and Iskander high-precision short-range missiles.
Such Russian behavior is nothing new. In the days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union served for decades as the major arms supplier to Syria, Iraq and Egypt. In the last several years, Russia has sold Syria AT-14 Kornet guided anti-tank missiles, which Hizbullah used against Israeli forces in the Second Lebanon War (during which, ironically enough, Russia criticized the IDF's excessive use of force).
Nor is Syria the only recipient of Russian arms. Moscow supplies the lion's share of Iran's conventional arms. Last year, Russia agreed to sell Iran $700 million worth of surface-to-air missile systems, and plans to upgrade Teheran's Su-24 and MiG-29 aircraft, and its T-72 battle tanks. Most troublingly, beginning in the mid-1990s, Russia built Iran's first nuclear reactor.
Nor does misplaced Russian largesse extend only to states. Of equal concern, perhaps, was the Kremlin's 2006 invitation of a Hamas delegation, led by Khaled Mashaal, to Moscow. To this day, Russia refuses to designate Hamas and Hizbullah as terrorist organizations.
Lest it be thought that Russia seeks to promote the regional dominance of the Syria-Iran-terrorist axis, we hasten to add that Moscow has carried out similar dealings with Saudi Arabia. During his visit to Riyadh last February, President Vladimir Putin offered to sell Saudi Arabia sophisticated anti-aircraft systems, 150 T-90 tanks, and expanded satellite launches. He also offered to help the Saudis build "peaceful" nuclear reactors.
And the same ambition to gain leverage in the region as a whole accounts for the nuclear cooperation deal Russia signed with Egypt during Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's visit to Russia in March.
Where does all this leave Russia-Israel relations? The answer begins with the recognition that since 1947, when Stalin backed the establishment of the State of Israel in the hope that it would undermine British imperial influence in the region, Russian behavior here has been almost ruthlessly pragmatic, rather than narrowly ideological.
Russian pragmatism dictated its behavior during the period from the 1967 Six Day War, when Brezhnev broke off relations with Israel, until 1991, when Gorbachev restored them. And the same pragmatism dictates the far warmer relations today.
Although bilateral trade has stagnated at a mere $1 billion per year, strong business ties - especially in heavy industry, aviation, energy and medicine - link the two countries. Much of Israel's crude oil comes from the FSU.
Now, however, Israel must put far greater pressure on Moscow to stop the sale of weapons that threaten Israel's basic security requirements. Israel can no longer allow Russia to maximize its regional power at Israel's expense.
Effective Israeli diplomacy in this direction will appeal to Russian pragmatic self-interest. It will point out, for instance, that irresponsible Russian arms sales to hostile states will only invite the kind of instability in the Middle East that will harm Russia's bid for influence.
Such diplomacy must especially stress Moscow's fears of losing ground to Iran. Those fears clearly motivated Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Jerusalem in March, during which he insisted that Russia, a member of the Quartet, is determined to press ahead with an international Middle East conference in Moscow in June.
There are hopeful signs that Israeli diplomacy can turn Russia's pragmatic fears to healthier ends, as when Russian Ambassador to Israel Petr Stegniy told the Post last week that a nuclear Iran is as much "a nightmare" for Russia as it is for the US and Israel.
In these and other ways, Israel can - indeed must - harness Russia's ambition to increase its clout in the Middle East to Israel's own strategic interests.
Medvedev says Russia-China force to be reckoned with
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWnBloVo4WaVX_qSLQMUU0v2UBRg
Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, winding up his first foreign trip, said Saturday the world could not ignore the joint voice of his country and China, and rejected criticism of the alliance.
Medvedev said it was symbolic that he picked China as his first destination outside the former Soviet Union. The two countries have been increasingly assertive as their economies grow on the back of rising exports.
"Russian-Chinese cooperation has today emerged as a key factor in international security, without which it is impossible for the international community to take major decisions," Medvedev said at Peking University.
"Maybe not everybody likes the strategic cooperation between our two countries, but we understand that this cooperation is in the interest of our people and we will boost it whether or not it pleases some people," he said, without naming critics.
A day earlier, Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao in a joint statement denounced US plans to build a global missile defence shield.
Russia has been outraged by US plans to build the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe. Russia and China have also been uneasy about US-Japanese cooperation on a missile shield.
But Medvedev has stayed away from openly assailing the West in the style of his mentor and predecessor Vladimir Putin, who remains highly influential in the prime minister's post.
China and Russia are veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, where they have coordinated positions on controversial issues such as Kosovan independence, which they both oppose, as well as the Iranian nuclear issue.
The two have also established the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with four Central Asian nations in a set-up similar to the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which has been expanding into Eastern Europe.
"Our activity is not directed against any other country but serves to maintain an international balance," Medvedev said of cooperation with China.
Gates, Chinese Defense Official Spar Over Military Growth
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361303,00.html
BANGKOK, Thailand — The Pentagon chief and a top Chinese defense officer tangled over Beijing's military growth and U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Asia.
The back-and-forth between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the General Staff for the People's Liberation Army, was evidence of the countries' awkward transition to a more open and improved relationship.
Gates took on Ma's claims that China wants only to defend itself with intercontinental ballistic missiles and is focused on defensive systems.
"I don't know what you use them for if it's not for offensive capabilities," Gates told reporters Sunday. While that kind of system might be considered a deterrent for other countries, Gates said it is "clearly for use in an offensive way."
He also dismissed China's protests about U.S. plans for an anti-missile defenses with Japan, as well as the deployment of missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Ma did not mention the United States by name, but said there are concerns in Pacific about the expansion of missile defense that could create instability in the region.
Asked about Ma's comments, Gates said, "I think that it's more of a political statement than it is one about military strategy."
U.S. and Chinese officials have taken slow but measurable steps to improve relations, including establishing a hot line between the countries' defense agencies. The Chinese also have offered thanks for U.S. aid after the recent earthquake in Sichuan province.
Tensions remain, however, leading to concerns the countries will build up their militaries in an effort to counteract and compete with each other.
In recent weeks China and Russia issued a joint statement condemning U.S. missile defense plans. Washington has struggle to convince both countries that the missile interceptors are not a threat to them.
The U.S. system, Gates said, is designed to defend against a small number of incoming missiles and would be overwhelmed easily "should a country with scores, if not hundreds of missiles, launch an attack."
Gates said the U.S. was concerned about China's expanding military. Officials are watching developments closely and "we will make our own adjustments as necessary," he said.
Ma said China's military spending was "limited and proportional."
"China's defense expenditure is at a low level in contrast to some developed countries in the world," Ma said during an international security conference in Singapore over the weekend. "We are military threat to no other country."
Amid all the rhetoric, Gates said he is pleased with recent meetings between the two countries, including a private session with Ma on Saturday.
"Our hope is that over the next year or two this dialogue will develop in a way that enables us both to avoid unnecessary military expenditures," Gates said.
China crackdown hits house churches hard
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/china.crackdown.hits.house.churches.hard/19152.htm
House churches across China have been hit by a wave of arrests and detentions, says China Aid Association (CAA), the leading support group for China’s persecuted Christians.
CAA said that the sudden increase in incidents throughout May involving the Religious Affairs Bureau and the Public Security Bureau is “indicative of a crackdown”.
House church meetings have been disbanded and a number of Christians have been arrested, including two Christians in Xinjiang province who were charged with being “separatists”. Throughout the province, officials have posted signs asking citizens to report any “evil cult activity”, a label which encompasses house churches.
In Hebei province, officials closed down a Bible school on May 13, while on May 15 Public Security Bureau officials broke up a prayer meeting held by more than 20 Christians for victims of the earthquake and for the Olympics.
CAA said that Chinese government officials had turned away and also arrested some house church members who had volunteered to help victims of the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.
It compared the behaviour of the Chinese Government to that of the Burma military junta in initially refusing international aid.
“Such biased behaviour is a reminder of the irrational prejudice the CPC [Communist Party of China] holds against house church members who want nothing more than to have true religious freedom and help their fellow countrymen in this hour of need,” the group said.
CAA asked for prayers and aid from churches around the world in the wake of the earthquake, and said it was actively working with the Chinese house churches to bring relief items to survivors.
Great Big Tea Party throws spotlight on world’s persecuted Christians
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/great.big.tea.party.throws.spotlight.on.worlds.persecuted.christians/19150.htm
There is no denying that Brits love a good cuppa, but what most are not aware of is the intense persecution endured by Christians who live in the countries where the tea is grown, says Open Doors’ Allen Moxham.
China, the world’s largest producer of tea, is also one of the world’s worst persecutors of Christians. Although the Government espouses religious freedom, in reality Christians have been imprisoned, fined or even tortured for holding prayer meetings or worship services in their homes, or for producing and distributing Christian literature. Christians in China are also prevented from sharing a church service with foreign Christians or from receiving religious education before the age of 18.
Around 25,000 people are expected to take part in the Great Big Tea Party across the UK this weekend. Open Doors hopes the initiative will reverse the lack of awareness of persecution against Christians and inspire believers in the UK to support their persecuted brothers and sisters as they continue to suffer for their faith.
Moxham, who heads up communications at Open Doors, said: "165 million cups of tea are drunk in the UK every day, but few people realise that Christians in countries such as China, India and Sri Lanka, where tea is produced, often face intense persecution from their families, communities and even government officials.”
More than 800 venues are from Edinburgh to Torquay will serve up tea and scones as they inform partygoers of the reality facing believers in countries with restricted religious freedoms and encourage them to pledge their support.
Moxham added: “We hope the Great Big Tea Party is a case of 'information becoming inspiration' to take action."
Open Doors said that persecution is taking place around the world today “on an epic scale”, with as many as 200 million Christians suffering for their faith in a number of countries, including Iran, Burma, Colombia and Indonesia. Attempts to limit the freedom of Christians include bans on church services and barriers to obtaining Christian literature, to more severe forms such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse. In such countries, many believers are forced to live out their Christian life in secret underground.
Although the Great Big Tea Party will be lots of fun, on a more serious note, Christians in the UK will be raising thousands of pounds for persecuted Christians in China and around the world. These vital funds will go towards providing them with Bibles and Christian literature, training, financial and practical help, and livelihood skills to enable them to live out their God-given right to practise their faith.
RFID-enabled Tix to Olympics' to Include Passport Data, home address and personal email
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/problems-at-the.html
The Chinese Olympic Committee for the 2008 Games has revealed that all tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies will include RFID-enabled microchips with spectators' passport information and home and e-mail addresses, among other sensitive personal info.
This high-level precaution is in response to the increasingly sensitive security issues surrounding the games, due largely in part to the host's controversial positions on human rights and freedom of speech.
All tickets for the ceremonies are valued at $720 and the RFID tagging is supposed to decrease the possibility of scalping and pirated tickets, which is obviously a big problem in copy-happy China. But carrying around all of that information with you is still a dangerous proposition.
Most security experts vacillate between thinking that a too-secure RFID system will put the Games at a standstill, or that a basic RFID set-up will expose people to hackers.
According to Sports Illustrated, all tickets for the games will include RFID tags, but only the main two will have the passport and photo information. The Games' security team will employ an IT team of at least 4,000 experts with 1,000 servers at their disposal -- and they'll begin testing the system full-bore for the next two months.
U.S. Aid Ships May Leave Myanmar Coast
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/384812.aspx
CBNNews.com - BANGKOK, Thailand - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in Thailand Sunday as anti-government protesters raise the specter of a military coup, urged top leaders to maintain democratic rule.
A senior U.S. official traveling with Gates said the secretary sent a clear message to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and about a dozen high ranking military officers. The official said Gates told them that the relationship between the U.S. and Thailand's militaries is "based upon shared democratic values."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. But earlier in the day Gates told reporters that he planned to make that point to the Thai leaders.
"We want to see a democratically elected government, and we will convey that message," Gates said prior to his meeting. He added that the trip had been planned for a long time and to cancel because of the demonstrations would be an unwelcome and possibly not useful signal to the country.
No Protesters Seen En Route
Officials said Gates saw no protesters or signs of unrest during his travel to and from the defense ministry.
The 45-minute session came as the protesters vowed to keep up their demonstrations until Samak steps down. Protesters charge that Samak is little more than a puppet for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.
On Saturday Samak had threatened to use riot police to forcibly remove the protesters, but on Sunday said authorities would relocate the protesters without force. He did not say when that move would take place.
Meeting Deals Mainly with Myanmar
The bulk of the meeting with Samak on Sunday, however, dealt with the crisis in Myanmar. Later this year, Thailand will assume the leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Samak told Gates that he will continue to press the military junta in Myanmar to accept greater humanitarian assistance from the international community, the official said.
Samak told Gates the Myanmar government may be fearful that opening up its country even just to receive relief supplies could be perceived as an invasion or threat to their rule.
Gates has questioned the lack of power ASEAN and its members have had in convincing the Myanmar government to allow U.S. Navy ships and helicopters to deliver much needed supplies to the cyclone victims.
Decision Close to Withdraw U.S. Ships
Gates told reporters that he will make a decision within "a matter of days" to withdraw U.S. Navy ships from the coast of Myanmar because "it's becoming pretty clear the regime is not going to let us help."
As a result, he said many more people will die, particularly those in areas that can only be reached by helicopters, such as those sitting idle on the U.S. ships.
Asked if the military junta there is guilty of genocide, Gates said, "I tend to see genocide more as a purposeful elimination of people, this is more akin, in my view, to criminal neglect."
Speaking to reporters at the close of an international security conference in Singapore, Gates said the Myanmar representative at the forum did not seem interested in speaking with him. But, he said "it was interesting to watch as minister after minister described their respective unhappiness at their inability to get assistance in to Burma."
It was particularly pointed, he said, since Chinese officials thanked other countries for the help provided after the earthquake in China.
International Opposition to Forcing Aid
Still, Gates affirmed again that there is unanimous opposition in the international community to forcing aid to the Myanmar people suffering in the wake of the devastating cyclone that struck in early May.
"There is great sensitivity all over the world to violating a country's sovereignty," Gates said. "Particularly in the absence of some kind of U.N. umbrella that would authorize it." Asked if that sensitivity is linked to the controversy surrounding the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Gates said he has heard no one make that connection.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that even when the decision is made to pull the four U.S. Navy ships off the coast, the vessels will move away slowly enough to turn back if there is an unexpected change of heart by the Myanmar government.
Leaders' Hands 'in their pockets'
Gates comments came a day after he made his strongest public condemnation of the Myanmar government at the conference, saying that Myanmar's rulers "have kept their hands in their pockets" while other countries sought to help cyclone victims.
The widespread displeasure with the Myanmar government was clear at the conference, coming up in nearly all conversations among leaders. Gates met with his top Pacific commander Saturday to discuss the timing of a U.S. Navy pullout. A final decision still has not been made.
Gates is on a weeklong trip through Asia. After his stop in Thailand, he will travel to South Korea.
Algeria shuts down 26 Protestant churches
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/algeria.shuts.down.26.protestant.churches/19148.htm
Persecution watchdogs sounded the alarm this week after learning that authorities in predominantly Muslim Algeria have closed half the Protestant churches in the country over the last six months.
Twenty-six Algerian churches were shut down either by official written order or verbal warning since November 2007, according to Open Doors USA. The churches, ranging in size from several dozens to more than 1,000 members, are victims of a recent aggressive campaign against Christians.
It is feared that if persecution continues all the churches will be closed by the end of the year.
“This was actually caused by an ordinance that was passed in 2006,” said Open Doors’ Advocacy Coordinator Lindsay Vessey to Mission Network News. “This ordinance, basically, was making it more difficult for churches to worship. It restricts where they can worship and also tries to prevent Christians from proselytizing or evangelising."
In March 2006, Algeria passed a law that required non-Muslim places of worship to have a government-issued certificate proving that they adhere to state worship guidelines. But Christian groups have accused the government of using various means to block their registration process, and complained that the regulations are unclear.
According to Compass Direct, the law restricting non-Muslim worship did not take effect until this year.
In addition to church closures, the crackdown on Christians also includes the arrest of Protestants as they travel between cities or exit religious meetings, and blocking Catholics from participating in regular ministry activities taking place outside of their church buildings.
Last month, an Algerian Christian was detained five days, fined $460, and given a one-year suspended prison sentence for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books, according to Compass. The young Christian man was a convert from Islam and had reportedly told fellow believers that police pressured him to return to Islam while he was in custody.
Several other reports in May revealed that Christian converts were being pressured to return to Islam, and harassed for practising their new faith without a licence.
Experts and Algerian Christians say the recent crackdown is down to increased anti-Christian propaganda in Arab media and that it is a ploy to distract Algerians from pressing domestic concerns such as national housing shortage and inflation of staple goods prices. They also believe it can be attributed to a growing number of Christian converts from Islam, according to Compass.
Algeria has 32 congregations that belong to the Protestant Church of Algeria, and another 20 small fellowships that exist independently. There are at least 10,000 Protestants in Algeria.
Islam is the official state religion of Algeria, where 99 per cent of its 33 million population is Muslim.
Open Doors has launched a worldwide advocacy campaign calling on concerned Christians to contact their local Algerian Embassy to ask that the Algerian Government stop church closures and reopen those that have already been closed.
“We need to tell the Algerian Government that these church closures must stop, and that freedom for all religions must be respected,” says Open Doors USA Advocacy Programme Manager Lindsay Vessey. “Also, keep Algerian believers in your prayers.”
Teenage Girls Kidnapped By Muslims; Rescue Incites Rampage in Nigeria
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07239.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - On May 12, the police rescued two Christian girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye (15) and Uche Edward (14), who were kidnapped by Muslim militants three weeks ago in the town of Ningi, Bauchi state, according to a May 19 report from Compass Direct.
The kidnappers initially took the girls to the house of a Muslim leader in the town of Wudil. Okoye's foster father and a group of believers heard where the girls were being held. When they arrived at the home, however, the girls had been relocated to the residence of a Muslim leader in Ningi. When the team went to this home they were told by the leader that the girls had converted to Islam and could not be released. The police then stepped in and evacuated the girls to eastern Nigeria where they were reunited with their biological parents.
The following day, Muslims associated with a paramilitary arm of Kano state's Sharia Commission went on a rampage, attacking Christians and setting fire to local churches, in protest of the girls' release. Six church buildings -- the Deeper Life Bible Church, St. Mary's Catholic Church, All Souls Anglican Church, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Redeemed Peoples Mission -- were destroyed in the attack. The Muslims also attacked shops belonging to Okoye's foster father, looting and destroying goods worth over 50 million naira ($430,360 CAD).
Thank the Lord that Mary and Uche were safely released. Ask God to strengthen those affected by the mob attack to remain steadfast as they suffer (Revelation 2:10). Pray that young Christian girls in Nigeria who have been kidnapped by Muslims will remain strong in faith and be freed.
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in Nigeria, go to www.persecution.net/country/nigeria.htm.
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