Dobson: Obama Distorting the Bible
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/397550.aspx
CBNNews.com -- A heavy helping of harsh criticism is being handed to Sen. Barack Obama.
Focus on the Family's James Dobson leveled the complaints against the presumptive Presidential nominee Tuesday on his show.
Dobson took aim at a speech Obama gave on June 28, 2006 to the Christian group Call to Renewal. In that speech, Obama spoke of Dobson.
"And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America," Obama said. "Whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's?"
Gutter Talk
During the radio broadcast, which largely focused on Obama, Dobson said "I think he is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."
Dobson was critical of Obama's pro-choice position on abortion.
"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."
Joshua DuBois, national director of religious affairs for the Obama campaign told CBN News, "Barack Obama is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for American families, and a full reading of his 2006 Call to Renewal speech shows just that. Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together."
Obama recently held a meeting of various religious leaders from across the country. The leaders prayed and discussed their faith walks as well as a wide variety of issues.
"It was a terrific meeting," Obama told CBN News. "I was so grateful that these religious leaders were willing to gather together very prominent from all across the country a wide ideological spectrum."
He also told the group, "I know you can't endorse me, but I endorse you. I endorse the good works that are being done, the wonderful ministries that are taking place all across the country and my goal here is just to have a dialogue to listen, to learn, to share my faith journey."
Critical of McCain Too
Even though most of Dobson's show focused on Obama, he also harshly criticized Sen. John McCain on the issue of gay marriage and the marriage amendment.
Dobson has been extremely vocal regarding his displeasure with McCain saying, at one point, that he would not vote for McCain. He has since changed his stance.
Neither Obama nor McCain have met with Dobson, but Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family tells CBN News that they are open to having Obama or McCain visit.
Obama: Dobson 'Making Up Stuff'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/398326.aspx
CBNNews.com -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has accused Focus on the Family's James Dobson of "making stuff up."
During his radio broadcast Tuesday, Dobson charged the democratic nominee with "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview."
Dobson was making reference to a speech Obama gave two years ago to the Call to Renewal.
Obama said that the purpose of his speech was to "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."
Obama said Dobson was misrepresenting his words.
"Either he didn't read the speech, or he's just trying to score political points," Obama said. "Somebody would be pretty hard-pressed to make the argument" that he was distorting the Bible.
A group of pastors, spearheaded by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, has created the Web site James Dobson Doesn't Speak for Me. Caldwell is pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston. The church has a congregation of 14,000.
"He doesn't speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide," a statement on the Web site says. "He doesn't speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible."
Caldwell says he respects the work Dobson has done for the family, but his comments about the presumptive Presidential nominee was "a bit over the top" and "crossed the line."
"There has been a call for a higher level of politics and politicking," Caldwell said. "So to attack at this level is inappropriate and I think unacceptable and we at least want to hold everybody accountable."
Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family responded by saying "without question, Dr. Dobson is speaking for millions of Evangelicals because his understanding of the Bible is thoroughly evangelical."
Bolton: Israel Will Strike Iran if Obama is Elected
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/bolton_israel_iran/2008/06/25/107224.html
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton believes Israel will stage a raid against Iran's nuclear facilities if Democratic nominee Barack Obama wins the upcoming presidential election in November.
Bolton, often labeled a resolute neo-conservative, believes the Israeli attack would take place sometime between the day after Obama's win and his inauguration on January 20 of next year.
In an interview with FOX News, Bolton says, "I think if they are to do anything, the most likely period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President."
Bolton reasons Israel won’t be able to hold off a strike on Iran any longer than that given the Illinois senator's intended foreign policy toward the Islamic Republic.
"I don’t think they [the Israeli government] will do anything before our election because they don’t want to affect it,” he says, adding, “They’d have to make a judgment whether to [strike] during the remainder of President Bush’s term in office or wait for his successor."
Bolton points to Obama’s statements in which he says he would engage Iran in direct talks and take the military option for dealing with Iran's quest for nuclear weapons off the table, a position he believes will further embolden Tehran to build a nuclear bomb.
In a related interview with The Telegraph, Bolton says he believes Arab countries will support an Israeli strike, effectively ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, while publicly denouncing it.
Their reaction, he tells the British paper, "will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations, but no action."
Bolton thinks Israel may consider postponing the attack, however, if Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., emerges as the victor in the presidential race. He says McCain's stance on Iran “is far more realistic than that of the Bush administration.”
Bolton doubts Iran would respond immediately with a counterstrike of its own, partially because Tehran would fear an American reprisal.
Earlier this month, Israel held a massive air force exercise over Greece that U.S., Israeli and Greek sources later confirmed was a test run for a strike on Iran's main uranium enrichment plant.
Tragic Day for America as California Begins Court-Imposed Same-Sex Marriage
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07330.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Vision America Action President Dr. Rick Scarborough pronounced June 17, 2008 "a tragic day for America."
"Thanks to a 5-to-4 decision of the California Supreme Court, on this day, the largest state in the union will begin issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples," Scarborough observed. "It's another body blow to the institutions of marriage and the family by judicial autocrats."
On May 15, by a one-vote margin, the California high court overturned Proposition 22, a statute providing that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." In 2000, Californians passed Prop. 22 by a vote of 61%. But, Scarborough noted, "All it took was five votes on the California Supreme Court to negate the will of millions, exercising their democratic franchise."
Scarborough charged: "The Court even refused to issue a stay of enforcement, though pro-marriage activists collected 1.1 million signatures to put a marriage-protection amendment on the November ballot." The referendum has secured ballot status.
"In their unbridled arrogance, the California justices refused to wait 4 months to allow voters to amend the state's constitution to protect holy matrimony. These aren't the actions of judges but activists bent on promoting their favorite cause at all costs," Scarborough declared.
Though 45 states have a marriage-protection amendment or statute, each will now come under attack. Since California has no residency requirement, same-sex couples will flock there from across the country and return home to challenge the marriage laws of their own states. Homosexual organizations are urging these couples to wait until after the November election to file law suits.
Scarborough warned: "Those who think the judicial assault on marriage won't affect them had better think again. It will impact on everything from adoption to public-school curriculum. Church-based agencies will be forced to place children with same-sex couples or get out of the adoption business. The schools will be required to teach that there's absolutely no difference between a family with a mommy and a daddy and one with two mommies, or two daddies."
Scarborough urged the people of California and America to "resist this monumental evil." The Vision America Action President implored them to "speak out loudly for marriage, the family and God-based morality - and to vote their values in November."
Vision America Action is conducting a series of church- based rallies across the United States this year to educate, mobilize and activate values voters.
For more information on Vision America Action, go to www.visionamericaaction.org. To schedule an interview with Dr. Scarborough, contact Catherine Wyatt at (936) 559-0822 or catherine@visionamericaaction.org
California Same Sex Marriage, Court Mandated Sin Against God
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07325.shtml
SAN DIEGO, (christiansunite.com) -- It is indeed with great sadness that California has slid off of its foundations into moral anarchy. The California State Supreme Court has not only ignored the current laws of California, but have forsaken God who has given them the responsibility to uphold righteous laws, not degrade the institution of marriage which even represent Christ and the church.
"It is truly amazing that the homosexual community desired the government to get out of their bedroom and now they use the government to force their bedroom upon the general populace. They will not be satisfied until they have sodomized the entire culture, including the family, schools and even the church which should be a safe haven for children, not hedonistic indoctrination camps." So says Phil Magnan, President of Biblical Family Advocates Magnan continued, "But the blame cannot be solely placed on the homosexuals or even the courts. Christian churches must wake up to the fact that they must now stand together against this destructive movement, not only by denouncing it from their pulpits, but through Christ, compassionately provide a way for homosexuals to leave it. For Christ came to seek and save the lost, not allow them to be destroyed by their sin. We must begin to face the truth that these kinds of relationships are very wrong, not just an alternative lifestyle. Apathy and indifference are a poor answer to this moral crisis."
Biblical Family Advocates calls on Christian churches across America to take these immoral movements as shots across the bow to be pro active in protecting the sanctity of marriage by being a moral example to their communities by the example of godly marriages and celibate single life. Additionally, the need for Constitutional amendments to protect marriage and family will be needed to protect the voters from this kind of judicial tyranny.
It is apparent that California falls into the category of what Isaiah 3:9 the Prophet said so many years ago. "The expression of their faces bears witness against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it, Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves."
US presbyterians remove gay condemnation from faith document
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.presbyterians.remove.gay.condemnation.from.faith.document/19803.htm
A committee in the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved on Monday changes to a translated version of a document of the Reformed Christian faith – changes opponents say are a smokescreen effort to remove a negative reference to homosexual behaviour.
PC(USA) commissioners and delegates at their biennial General Assembly went into nearly seven hours of debate on overtures, or resolutions, that called for changes to the 1962 Miller-Osterhaven translation of the Heidelberg Catechism. Much of the controversy revolved around a reference to "homosexual perversion" that is not found in the original German text.
Written in the 16th century, the Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and the PC(USA) adopted in 1967 the Miller-Osterhaven version in its Book of Confessions. Opponents of the current translation say the original text and all subsequent translations do not contain any reference to homosexuality and are seeking for a more historically faithful and accurate translation.
Christopher Elwood and Amy Plantinga Pauw, who are part of 32 faculty members from the denomination's 10 seminaries who signed a petition calling for a better translation, said the current version misleads readers by adding phrases that suggest that the catechism took a clear stand on issues of sexual orientation and practice, according to the Presbyterian News Service.
Professor Edward Dowey, chair of the Special Committee of the General Assembly that oversaw the production of the Book of Confessions, acknowledged that he and the committee as a whole failed to notice these errors, and are in this respect “guilty of negligence", according to PNS.
Question 87 in the 1962 translation asks, "Can those who do not turn to God from their ungrateful, impenitent life be saved?
The reply states, "Certainly not! Scripture says, 'Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.'"
In support of the current version, Dr Robert AJ Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary argues that the original German text alludes to the Scripture passage 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 which, in the New English Bible translation, lists "homosexual perversion".
"The spirit of the text of the Catechism is clear enough. It is the exact opposite of the attempt now being made to make the Confessions open to homosexual practice," Gagnon said in a written argument last week. "The attempt at retranslation is not about history and honesty but ideology and a homosexualist agenda."
Three professors – Bruce L McCormack, E David Willis, Michael D Bush – from Princeton Theological Seminary and Erskine Theological Seminary, issued a statement saying those proposing for changes fail to understand how the Book of Confessions function.
"It is not the Latin and German texts from the sixteenth century that guide our Church, but rather it is the English texts adopted by the deliberative assemblies of the Church and published in the Book of Confessions by which every officer of our Church has vowed to be guided," they said. "These English versions have been responsibly translated and carefully chosen as 'faithful expositions of what Scripture teaches us to believe and do'."
Other supporters of the current Heidelberg version also appealed to the church's longstanding condemnation of homosexuality, according to PC(USA)'s news service from the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, California.
The issue was first visited at the General Assembly in 1997 and then again in 1998. Recommendations for changes to the catechism were voted down. But this year, the Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions approved 33-26 to ask the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA) to make changes to the 1962 version.
Meanwhile, William J Weston, a sociology professor at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, believes no one even makes anything serious of what the Heidelberg Catechism says. He went further to say that the Book of Confessions has become merely advisory and is ignored, according to his blog post Tuesday.
Thus, he argues, "The whole Heidelberg translation issue is not really about changing a serious or effective part of the Presbyterian constitution. It is a symbolic feint in the ideological struggle over normalising homosexual practice."
"What the church really needs is a confession it actually confesses. Then we can have a serious discussion of how, exactly, it is worded," Weston added.
Pro-life Groups to Announce Plans and Schedule for Major Pro-life Witness at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07324.shtml
DENVER, (christiansunite.com) -- The organizations will hold a news conference on Wednesday, June 18, at 11:00 A.M. in front of the entrance to the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver to discuss in detail their plans for the DNC.
The name of the event is called "A Prayer for Change," and the press can go to Aprayerforchange.com for more information.
The Christian Defense Coalition, Survivors, Operation Rescue and other pro-life groups plan to have a series of prayer vigils, rallies, demonstrations, concerts and public events at the DNC to expose the radical pro-abortion of Senator Barack Obama at the Democratic Party.
The pro-life organizations will be praying and calling for Senator Obama and the Democratic Party to end this tragic war against America's children which has resulted in over 50,000,000 abortions.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Washington, D.C. based Christian Defense Coalition, states, "We are coming to Denver to pray and seek God to end this tragic taking of innocent life through abortion. We will also be peacefully and prayerfully on the streets of Denver to expose the radical pro-abortion policies of Senator Obama and the Democratic Party.
"Senator Obama talks about social justice and reaching out to the poor. Yet he supports abortion policies that crush human rights and promote violence and despair. Simply stated, if Barack Obama were elected this Fall he would be the most radical pro-abortion President in American history. His views on abortion are radical and extremist and outside of the mainstream of what most Americans believe."
Danielle White Versluys, Special Events Director for Survivors, adds, "Senator Obama talks about change and bringing hope to America yet clings to and embraces abortion policies that most Americans find appalling. As a leader of this emerging generation, I am deeply troubled that Senator Obama continues to support the barbaric procedure of Partial-birth abortion and wants to expand abortion rights through the Freedom of Choice Act.
"This generation is coming to Denver to pray and cry out for change and believe that we will one day see a nation where all human life is treated with dignity and respect."
Unlicensed Abortionist Bertha Bugarin Arrested and Jailed After Botched Abortion Victims Come Forward
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07332.shtml
SAN DIEGO, Calif., (christiansunite.com) -- Bertha Bugarin was arrested on Thursday and jailed in San Diego on ten felonies and one misdemeanor for practicing medicine and prescribing drugs without a license. If convicted, she faces nine years in jail.
Bugarin, who has no medical training, owns five abortion mills in Southern California, including one in Chula Vista, a southern suburb of San Diego. She had been posing as a doctor, performing abortions illegally for $500.
Nine women came forward with stories of botched abortions received at Bugarin's hand. Many women suffered from incomplete abortions and were forced to return to have their abortions done again. One woman was hospitalized three times, and birthed a live baby that died three hours later.
Bugarin made a court appearance yesterday dressed in blue jailhouse garb and shackled at the waist. She was being held on $500,000 bond. Her arraignment is scheduled for July 2.
These charges add to Bugarin's legal woes. In August, 2007, Bugarin was arrested in Los Angeles after the police raided four of her clinics. She was charged in Los Angeles County with 18 counts of committing abortions without a medical license. Her sister, Raquel, was charged with four counts of aiding and abetting her sister in their illegal abortion operation. In addition one of Bugarin's hired abortionists, Laurence Reich, was also arrested after he was found to be doing abortions months after losing his medical license for sexually molesting his patients.
Bugarin's abortion chain, Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy, preys on Hispanic women, and would often pass out abortion discount coupons in Hispanic neighborhoods.
Operation Rescue began working to expose and close these dangerous abortion mills 1999. As a result six of Bugarin's clinics have closed, at least five of her hired abortionists lost their medical licenses, and three abortionists have received discipline from the California Medical Board.
"The only way to stop someone like Bugarin from hurting people is to put her in jail, because she obviously has no respect for the law or for the lives of the women she seeks to exploit," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "We thank God that Bugarin is being brought to justice. We have worked for years, along with the faithful pro-lifers in San Diego, to close her shop of horrors, and now it looks like those prayers are being answered."
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.
Catholic Anti-Abortion Activist, Joseph Landry, on Trial for 'Trespass' at St. Jude's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Florida, Under the Authority of Bishop Robert N. Lynch
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07328.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- On Wednesday, June 18, at 8:30 a.m., Joseph Landry stood trial at 14250 49th St N, Clearwater, FL 33762 (County of Pinellas: Criminal Justice Center) for "criminal trespassing" for handing out pro-life flyers in the parking lot of St. Jude's Cathedral during mass.
Mr. Landry is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville; he majored in philosophy and theology; since graduating he has spent the last four years in full-time service to church in missions, youth work at the diocesan level, and pro-life work.
Mr. Landry was in the news several times for his work against pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani in New Hampshire and Florida.
The flyer is a political parity entitled, " Real Solutions for the Negro Problem." The tract argues that a Christian cannot vote for a racist under any condition, even if the voter agrees with the candidate on all other issues; i.e., racism is an automatic disqualifier for a candidate seeking political office.
The flyer then uses this logic and ethical foundation to show that likewise, a Christian may not in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports the killing of unborn children by abortion; support of child killing is an automatic disqualifier for a candidate seeking political office.
The flyer states specifically: "Should a Christian vote for someone who supports slavery? No! Should a Christian vote for a racist who supports segregation? No! Then how can a Christian vote for a candidate that supports the murder of children by abortion?!" (www.ahumbleplea.com/slaverytract.pdf)
For months, Catholics have been calling Bishop Lynch's office, asking the church to drop him the charges. The church has told people that it is not pressing charges, or that the charges "have been taken care of," or indicated in some way that Mr. Landry is not going to be tried for trespass for handing out pro-life literature in a Catholic parking lot.
Unfortunately, none of these assertions have proven true; Mr. Landry will now stand trail by jury for "trespassing" at the Church he loves and serves faithfully.
Mr. Landry states: "My pro-life activism is in obedience to the Churches teaching; I am being tried for obeying the call of JPII to fight for the unborn! It's a sad day when a Parish uses resources to fight fellow Catholics, rather than fight against the killing of children. I should be viewed as an ideal young Catholic who is striving to protect the innocent unborn. The babies that need to be rescued don't care how politically correct I am."
'Hellish Abortion Operation:' KY Abortionist's License Suspended, Clinic Closed
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07326.shtml
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, (christiansunite.com) -- Abortionist Hamid Sheikh has had his medical license suspended and his Lexington, Kentucky, abortion mill closed after the state's medical board revealed evidence of fraud, filthy conditions, and illegal abortions that led one reporter to describe Sheikh's clinic as a "hellish abortion operation."
Sheikh has been indicted for defrauding Medicaid out of thousands of dollars. He is also accused of maintaining unsanitary conditions, including dirty hospital gowns and surgical equipment. An investigation revealed out of date medications and biohazard waste that had not been picked up for twelve weeks.
Women have come forward saying Sheikh did not use pain medications and that abortions he committed on them were excruciatingly painful. One teenager reported that she was told to "shut up" because her screams would disturb the other patients.
A video report from WHAS Channel 11 details the horrors that occurred at Sheikh's Lexington abortion mill. (Click to view.)
"The horrific conditions discovered at Sheikh's mill are not the exception; they are what we have come to expect from America's failing abortion industry," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
In recent years, numerous abortion mills have closed after abortionists have been discovered to have botched abortions, provided unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and committed fraud. The number of abortion clinics has been steadily decreasing, along with the number of abortionists.
"Doctors that are concerned about helping and healing people do not go into the abortion business. Therefore, what the abortion industry is left with is the bottom of the barrel. When abortion mills are inspected and laws are enforced, we can expect to see pulled licenses and closed clinics. Unfortunately, abortion mills are all too often given a free pass, but even that is beginning to change as the public becomes more aware of incidents like this," said Newman.
"We are thankful that Sheikh has been caught and will now be held accountable for the human suffering that he has caused."
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.
Mike Farris Argues Landmark California Homeschool Case
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07321.shtml
PURCELLVILLE, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- On Monday, June 23rd HSLDA Chairman Mike Farris as part of a legal team will argue on behalf of HSLDA and Focus on the Family in favor of keeping homeschooling legal before a California Court of Appeal. "This case has the potential to change the face of homeschooling across this country," said Farris.
The Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles ruled on February 28 in re Rachel L. that parents had to be credentialed teachers to educate their own children. The ruling was shocking because in one sweeping decision it effectively outlawed homeschooling.
HSLDA, Focus on the Family and numerous other pro- homeschooling groups have filed friend-of-the court briefs in favor of keeping homeschooling legal. Also, the Governor, Attorney General and State Superintendent of Public Instruction of California have all submitted briefs supporting a parents' right to homeschool.
"We hope that the court reverses its decision and restores homeschool freedom to California," said Farris.
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a 25 year old, 83,000 member non-profit organization and the preeminent national association advocating the legal right of parents to homeschool their children.
Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8ftb8lipCc_XqwfUp0PLhdQGYTwD91FSUQ00
America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life — even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise.
The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.
Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.
In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.
"The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion.
"There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences," he said.
Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation. The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as well as the impact of religion on society, including how faith shapes political views.
The report argues that while relatively few people — 14 percent — cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking, religion still plays a powerful indirect role.
The study confirmed some well-known political dynamics, including stark divisions over abortion and gay marriage, with the more religiously committed taking conservative views on the issues.
But it also showed support across religious lines for greater governmental aid for the poor, even if it means more debt and stricter environmental laws and regulations.
By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.
But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews.
Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent "absolutely certain" of it.
"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'"
Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found similar results.
Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).
By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices.
"What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect other people,'" said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
"Some people are like butterflies that go from flower to flower, going from religion to religion — and frankly they don't get that deep into any of them," he said.
Beliefs about eternal life vary greatly, even within a religious tradition.
Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace.
The Catholic church teaches that the "one church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church" alone and that Protestant churches, while defective, can be "instruments of salvation."
Roger Oldham, a vice president with the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, bristled at using the word "tolerance" in the analysis.
"If by tolerance we mean we're willing to engage or embrace a multitude of ways to salvation, that's no longer evangelical belief," he said. "The word 'evangelical' has been stretched so broadly, it's almost an elastic term."
Others welcomed the findings.
"It shows increased religious security. People are comfortable with other traditions even if they're different," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance. "It indicates a level of humility about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone."
More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in 10 Catholics described God as "a person with whom people can have a relationship" — which the church teaches — while three in 10 described God as an "impersonal force."
"The statistics show, more than anything else, that many who describe themselves as Catholics do not know or understand the teachings of their church," said Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput. "Being Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members."
Do They Think Jesus Was a Liar?
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/06/24/do-they-think-jesus-was-a-liar/
I am shocked and appalled over a newly published survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It finds most Americans believe there are many ways to salvation besides their own faith. Most disturbing of all is the majority of self-identified evangelical Christians who believe this.
Apparently they must think Jesus was a liar, or mistaken, when he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me.” Look it up.
This theological ignorance is a product of several things. It is surely a product of biblical illiteracy by people who don’t read, or selectively read scripture. It is also fallout from the political correctness vice that says you are intolerant if you believe anything to be true, because people who have another truth, or no truth, might feel bad and experience rejection.
If they feel rejection now, wait until they hear “away from me, I never knew you.”
Tolerance is a good thing. People should tolerate and respect people of different faiths, or no faith. But watering down your own set of professed doctrines in order to appeal to the lowest spiritual common denominator is akin to Peter denying Christ three times.
If there are many paths to heaven, Jesus suffered and died for nothing. He could have stayed in heaven, sent down a book of sayings and avoided crucifixion. Orthodox Christians have always believed – and their Bible teaches them — there is only one path to heaven and it is through Jesus Christ and him alone. One can believe whatever one wishes, but you can’t be considered a Christian without believing in this fundamental doctrine.
Christian churches have a lot of work to do in addressing biblical illiteracy, ignorance and, yes, heresy, in their midst. They might want to pay more attention to fixing what’s gone wrong among their members before expending too much energy on politics and politicians.
Nazir-Ali: Christians must ‘recover nerve’, testify Christ
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/nazirali.christians.must.recover.nerve.testify.christ/19823.htm
At a time when Christian witness should be at its strongest, there is reluctance even among Christians to speak about faith in Jesus, the Bishop of Rochester told journalists at a major summit of conservative Anglicans.
Speaking at a press conference at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) on Tuesday, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali urged Christians to speak up about their faith and remain committed to mission among those who have still not had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
“Let us pray we are able to recover the Christian nerve in the West and to make sure the Gospel is not lost,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali added that it was the right of Christians to be able to witness to people of all faiths and none, including Muslims.
“Just as Muslims have a right to invite others to join Islam, Christians have a right to invite others to Jesus,” he said.
He said in an address earlier in the day that “the future of the Anglican Communion is to be found in its authentic nature, not in recent innovations or explanations”.
Scripture, the Bishop continued, has to remain the authority that underpins any church: “The Bible is the norm by which we appreciate what is authentically apostolic.
“That is the reason for the Bible being the ultimate and final authority for us in our faith and our lives and this is the reason why Anglicans have taken our study of the Bible so seriously.”
He also urged Anglicans to be clear in their confession: “We have to be clear that we are a confessing church. Some people have the mistaken idea that Anglicans can believe anything, or that Anglicans can believe nothing. I don’t know which one is more serious.”
GAFCON takes place just weeks before Lambeth Conference, a 10-yearly gathering of bishops from around the Anglican Communion.
Bishop Nazir-Ali said at the press conference that his decision not to attend the conference “has to do with being in Eucharistic fellowship with and teaching the common faith alongside those who have ordained a person to be bishop whose style is contrary to the unanimous teaching of the Bible and of the Church down the ages”.
Islamic Nations Eye UN Security Council Seats
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200806/FOR20080623a.html
(CNSNews.com) - Islamic nations should be represented in an expanded U.N. Security Council "in proportion to their membership of the United Nations," according to foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
In a resolution passed at a meeting in Uganda last week, the ministers pointed to size of the Islamic bloc in the international community, noting that its members make up "one-fifth of the world population."
Any proposal to reform and enlarge the U.N. Security Council "which neglects the adequate representation of the Islamic Ummah [community] in any category of membership ... will not be acceptable to the Islamic World," they said.
"The OIC's demand for adequate representation in the Security Council is in keeping with the significant demographic and political weight of the OIC member states."
The Security Council currently has five permanent, veto-wielding members -- the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia -- and 10 non-permanent members that serve for two-year periods. Various proposals under consideration to reform the institution include expanding it to have more seats in both categories, earmarked for various geographic regions.
One model suggested by an expert panel appointed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for instance, would establish six new permanent seats - two each for Africa and Asia, and one each for Europe and the Americas.
An alternative model discussed by the panel would add no permanent seats, but create a new, semi-permanent tier of eight seats -- two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, occupied for four-year stints, and subject to renewal.
Neither of the models put forward envisages seats earmarked for non-geographic groups, such as a bloc of Islamic nations.
The resolution passed in Uganda leaves unstated exactly how many seats in an expanded Security Council the OIC would want set aside for Islamic states, but to satisfy the demand of being represented "in proportion to their membership of the United Nations," it could arguably press for 30 percent of the seats. (Of the 192 U.N. member-states, 56 are OIC members. An independent Palestinian state would push the number up to 57.)
The bloc, which has been in existence since the 1970s, in recent years has come to wield increasing clout in the international community. In U.N. agencies where it holds significant membership, critics have accused it of trying to promote Islamic interests at the expense of broader ones.
At the Human Rights Council, for instance, they charge that the OIC has protected allies, ganged up against Israel, and pushed measures limiting freedom of expression when it comes to criticizing Islam. Free speech advocacy groups in recent months have publicly voiced concern about the OIC's growing influence in the U.N.'s top human rights watchdog.
The OIC enjoys a built-in advantage at the Human Rights Council because more than half of the body's seats are reserved for the African and Asian regional groups, home to most Islamic states. Of the current council members, a full one-third are OIC members.
At the OIC meeting in Uganda, the foreign ministers reaffirmed that OIC member states should use their membership in key U.N. bodies like the Human Rights Council "to protect and promote the interests of the Islamic world."
Much of the OIC's expanded role in international affairs has come about as a result of a "new vision" initiative outlined in a 10-year program of action adopted in 2005 which calls on member states to coordinate effectively in all regional and international forums to protect and promote their collective interests.
OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu updated the Uganda gathering on other achievements in expanding the group's influence, including the establishment last year of an OIC ambassadors' group in Washington, D.C., and plans to open a mission in Brussels, seat of the European Union.
Last February, President Bush announced the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to the OIC. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the following month named the envoy as Sada Cumber, a Pakistan-born Texas businessman.
EU looks to closer ties with Russia under Medvedev - Solana
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080625/112018379.html
BRUSSELS, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union is seeking closer ties with Russia under President Dmitry Medvedev, the EU foreign policy supremo said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Relations between Europe and Russia soured under Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin over a range of issues, including energy and democratic freedoms. Medvedev pledged in his inauguration speech in May to promote the rule of law, free speech and human rights.
In an interview ahead of a EU-Russia summit in West Siberia on Thursday and Friday, Javier Solana said: "This will be our first summit with President Medvedev leading the Russian delegation. We very much look forward to continuing and deepening our cooperation with Russia under the Medvedev presidency."
The summit in Khanty-Mansiisk is expected to lay the groundwork for talks on a long overdue comprehensive cooperation pact.
"The launch of negotiations for a new EU-Russia Agreement will undoubtedly be the main result of this summit," Solana said.
Europe has sought free access to Russian energy resources. Russia, the EU's key supplier of oil and gas, will press for more access to European markets and for visa-free travel for its citizens. European officials are also expected to highlight what they call Russia's backsliding from democracy.
"It is in our common interest to negotiate a new agreement which reflects the depth of our relationship today, rather than our relations ten years ago," Solana said.
Talks on the agreement were first postponed because of Russia's embargo on Polish meat. When the dispute was resolved, obstacles came from Lithuania, which demanded tougher terms concerning Russian energy supplies, judicial cooperation and Moscow's policies in ex-Soviet countries such as Georgia.
The EU approved a new negotiating mandate on May 27, heeding some of Lithuania's demands.
Solana said the summit would also provide an opportunity to discuss key international and regional issues, including "frozen conflicts" in Georgia and Moldova, the peace process in the Middle East, Iran's controversial nuclear program and ongoing violence in Afghanistan.
The foreign policy chief also said the 'no' vote in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty, a new version of a common European constitution, would not affect cooperation with Russia. He said the EU was continuing to function on the basis of current treaties while "work has already started on finding a way forward."
A coalition of the willing has to bring Europe back on track
http://euobserver.com/9/26359
The shock waves of the Irish No are still being felt across Europe. But however bitter the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is, Europe has to look ahead.
The challenges Europe is facing are too big to be blocked by one single Member State. European citizens and businesses deserve better than a perpetuated institutional crisis.
The defeat of the Reform Treaty marks a turning point. More than ever before we have to ask ourselves what people expect from Europe. Where should Europe stand in 10, 20 or 50 years? And how should it look?
There are two conceptual approaches on the table. Some, most importantly the UK and a few others, want the European Union to be little more than a free-trade area. "Make the four fundamentals of the internal market – the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital – perfect and that's fine", is their credo.
Others advocate advanced political consolidation of our continent. They call for a stronger political framework allowing the European Union to develop an active strategy for globalization and to be a real global player. Although far from being perfect, the Lisbon Treaty would have been a further step into this direction.
This chance is gone. Now it is time to get back to work.
A strong and united Europe is vital
Whatever the reasons for the Irish No, one thing is crystal clear: In the near future, it will certainly not be possible to reach consensus on either option – an integrated political European Union or a loose free trade zone – with 27 Member States. The underlying philosophies simply differ too widely.
At the same time, a strong and united Europe is vital. One needs only to look at the Balkans to understand that an enhanced role of the European Union in the field of foreign and security policy is desperately needed.
Moreover, 15 and very soon 16 out of 27 EU Member States share the euro as their common currency. Thus, factors like inflation, exchange rates or macroeconomic stability have become common issues which affect each and every citizen. But while interest rates are rightly decided upon by the supranational ECB, economic and social governance in the true sense of the word is still missing.
Most EU citizens want more Europe, not less. This was also the key message transmitted by hundreds of lorry drivers and farmers demonstrating at this weeks' European Summit in Brussels against soaring oil and energy prices.
Whether national governments like it or not, European citizens expect concrete answers and solutions to their everyday problems. But how can Europe overcome the current stalemate?
I am deeply convinced that the time has come for a courageous step by those who want to go for a more integrated European Union.
Core Europe has always been inevitable
One of Europe's fundamental values is individuality. Individuality could also be the way out of this dead end.
Just like there are two groups of countries within the EU Schengen agreement or like there are Members and Non Members of the Euro area, it should be possible that certain countries form a group that works closer together.
Nobody should be obliged to participate in this core group. At the same time nobody should be able to object to this process either. Each and every Member State would have to decide whether it wishes to be in or out, whether it wants to be part of a pure economic community or also a joint political entity.
Yet despite different speeds, the renewed EU must not become an exclusive club for a few countries. Latecomers have to be able to join the core group as soon as they want to and are ready.
A core Europe has always been inevitable. The only question was how it would come about.
Apart from the Euro and Schengen, the old Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty offered opt-outs in some areas in order to satisfy countries that were unenthusiastic about further integration.
As this has not worked, a fresh start is necessary. The time is up for mini-compromises and mini-solutions. We need a coalition of the willing to get Europe back on track.
EU wants to be 'catalyser' in climate change talk - Solana
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hq0DQuO-CAgjjuEQY3RwjK5Gow4g
GENEVA (AFP) — The European Union wants to be a 'catalyser' in a global search for a deal on climate change, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at a humanitarian forum on Wednesday.
The bloc could put on the table some objectives to discuss and find consensus around, he explained.
"We think that it is important that the EU assumes responsibility as a catalyser of the solution," he told the first high-level meeting of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva.
The forum was holding a two-day conference during which luminaries from the worlds of politics, business, diplomacy and development discussed how best to adapt to climate change.
During a session on the necessity for global cooperation, Solana highlighted the importance of differentiation -- different countries having different responsibilities depending on factors such as historic contribution and current development.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan opened the forum he founded Tuesday with a call for 'climate justice', saying that it was polluters who should pay for the effects of climate change, and not the poorest and most vulnerable.
He said funding should be made available to help disadvantaged communities adapt to the effects of global warming as he urged for the international community to focus on adaptation measures.
"We must have climate justice. As an international community, we must recognise that the polluter must pay and not the poor and vulnerable," said Annan at the first high-level meeting of the forum.
Sarkozy: No peace without stopping Jewish settlement
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5371
Addressing a Knesset session in his honor, June 23, the first French president on a state visit to Israel in 12 years, proclaimed his undying friendship for and admiration of the Jewish state, while stressing that a lasting Middle East peace required a halt on Israeli settlement “on Palestinian land,” and a solution of the refugee problem. Sarkozy also told the Knesset France would not accept a nuclear-armed Iran.
Neither could there be peace if Palestinians do not combat terrorism, he said. Any peace deal must recognize Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine.
"I am more convinced than ever that the security of Israel will only be truly guaranteed with the birth of a second state, a Palestinian state."
The French president backed a proposal put forward by an Israeli minister for a law that would offer Jews to leave their West Bank homes in exchange for compensation and relocation.
After talks with Israeli leaders, Sarkozy and France’s first lady Carla Bruni travel to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for talks with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. He arrived with seven French cabinet ministers and dozens of business leaders.
Kadima to replace PM Ehud Olmert before Sept. 25, saves government
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5375
The deal with a Sept. 25 deadline for a Kadima primary effectively forestalled the Likud-led opposition Knesset dissolution vote Wednesday, June 25 and its support by Labor members, which would have brought the government down, DEBKAfile’s political sources report.
The two ruling parties, Kadima and Labor, reached an eleventh hour agreement before dawn, June 25. It was signed by foreign affairs committee chairman Tzahi Hanegbi and Labor secretary Eitan Kabel. Ehud Olmert's Kadima faction undertook to convene next Monday to finalize a date for the primary to take place before September 25.
The two party leaders agreed to delay a general election until spring 2009 without setting a date. This will give Kadima’s candidate for prime minister six months’ grace in office.
The Kadima-Labor deal paved the way for a merger in time for them to run for election as a single, unified bloc.
The Labor leader, defense minister Ehud Barak, snatched victory from almost certain downfall for refusing to quit the Olmert government in the face of popular and party demands – first after the 2006 Lebanon War debacle, latterly over the cash envelopes scandal.
He has in fact pulled off a bloodless coup d’etat against the prime minister and maneuvered himself into front position should Labor and Kadima forge a union. Another survivor is the prime minister’s own Kadima party which would have gone under if Likud had forced the Knesset into dissolution Wednesday.
The leading Kadima prime ministerial candidates, both of whom are bound to retain Barak as defense minister, are foreign minister Tzipi Livni and transport minister Shaul Mofaz.
The prime movers behind this rescue operation were Kadima’s Tzahi Hanegbi and Labor’s Shalom Simhon, both seasoned political manipulators.
The two big losers are the prime minister - his own party has shown him the door - and his rival, opposition Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, former and would-be prime minister. Likud MK Silvan Shalom’s initiative to overthrow Israel’s most unpopular government ever by means of a motion to dissolve the Knesset and force a general election was neatly outmaneuvered.
Likud too faces serious rethinking about the quality of its leadership. Shalom operated in the vacuum generated by Netanyahu’s failure to lead Likud in a fighting campaign against the government.
Three Palestinian missiles rip through Gaza truce Tuesday
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5373
DEBKAfile’s military sources report powerful explosions rocked Sderot Tuesday, June 24, for the first time in the six days since the Israel-Hamas truce went into effect last Thursday. One injured civilian and three shock victims were treated. At least one missile landed in the backyard of a Sderot house causing heavy damage, a second outside Kibbutz Shear Hanegev.
They were claimed by the Iran-backed Jihad Islami, which vowed to avenge the deaths of two of its operatives, one a senior operations planner, in the West Bank town of Nablus earlier in the day. They were killed by troops of the crack Duvdevan unit troops while resisting arrest.
Israeli PM Olmert condemned the attack as serious breach of the ceasefire, while Hamas claimed it was still bound by the deal.
Our sources report that both the Jihad Islami and Hamas have taken violent action to demonstrate that the Gaza truce does not tie their hands on the West Bank.
Hamas’ military wing claimed the shooting attack on five Israel hikers in a wadi north of Ramallah last Friday, June 20, in which three were injured. Monday after midnight, a mortar shell was fired from Gaza at the Karni goods crossing.
Our counter-terror sources also interpret the surge of Palestinian attacks cutting short an agreed ceasefire after less than a week as a signal to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak - who held talks in Sharm al-Sheik Tuesday - that they are not the ones calling the shots on the ground for the Hamas-ruled the Gaza Strip.
Gaza truce faces increasing domestic fire in Israel
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5369
Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin reported more smuggled arms from Sinai were reaching Gaza in the first 72 hours of the Israel-Hamas truce and Palestinian combat training had been stepped up. Mahmoud Abbas’ rival Fatah had taken a serious beating.
Justice minister Prof. Daniel Friedman called the Israel-Hamas truce deal “a first-class strategic blunder.” He condemned the decision to reopen the crossings, especially the Rafah border terminal on the Egyptian border, without obtaining the captured Israel soldier Gilead Shalit’s release, as “mayhem” in governance.
In tones of “I told you so,” Israel’s military intelligence (AMAN) director, Brig. Amos Yadlin reported Sunday, June 22, the Gaza truce in force since Thursday
had fulfilled all Hamas goals: ending the siege, opening the door to international recognition of the terrorist group and a permit to continuing building up arms.
In his briefing to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee, Brig. Yadlin warned that the Palestinian fundamentalists were now advancing on their next objectives, the West Bank takeover a year after their coup in Gaza, followed by the whole of Israel.
The intelligence chief assured the committee that Israel had offered no guarantee to withdraw from Golan for the sake of the indirect negotiations launched with Syria through Turkey’s good offices last month.
Israel reopens first two Gaza border crossings after 72 hours truce
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5368
Palestinian security sources said that at 9 am local time Sunday, June 22, the Israeli army reopened the Sufa and Nahal Oz crossings and let 90 trucks of basic food supplies go through to the Gaza population.
Israel imposed a partial blockade on Gaza in response to near-daily rocket and mortar attacks on its southwestern towns and villages, although the flow of essential commodities and fuel was never halted. Under the truce deal, the crossings will be opened in stages.
The Olmert government is under heavy fire from some of its own members, most recently justice minister Daniel Friedman, for failing to make the reopening contingent on the release of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit snatched two years ago.
The first two crossings were reopened Sunday as the High Court in Jerusalem heard his parents’ petition to keep the crossings closed until their son is released.
Mossad Chief Empowered to Prepare Groundwork for Iran Strike
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1355
By extending the Mossad director, Meir Dagan’s tenure for another year until the end of 2009, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has put in place a vital constituent for a possible eleventh-hour unilateral strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In his six years on the job, the 61-year old external intelligence has proved his covert mettle in a variety of counter-terror operations, graduating most recently to a highly successful intelligence coup leading up to the demolition of Syria’s North Korean plutonium reactor in al Kebir last September.
Appointed by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, Dagan’s first four years as the Mossad’s tenth chief were dedicated to counterterrorism rather than tracking Iran’s nuclear activities or monitoring Iran’s burgeoning strategic ties with Syria and Hizballah.
From mid-2006, the former general shifted the agency’s priorities to include these targets, while the Mossad continued to show its fearsome counter-terror paces in Damascus, Beirut and other Arab capitals.
Not all the Mossad’s operations have seen the light of day, but it has been credited in the past two years with hits against high-profile Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami operatives in Syria and Lebanon.
The operation against Syria’s plutonium reactor last year was one of the most complex operations ever performed by the Mossad. For the Israeli raiders to put the facility out of commission and lift out the evidence of a working nuclear collaboration between Syria, Iran and North Korea, they needed from the Mossad precise data on the facility’s inner and outer defenses. It had to include the air defense systems in place across Syria, the whereabouts of the materials and equipment the Israeli team was assigned to appropriate from the site and transfer to the United States, and the nature and numbers of the Syrian, Iranian and North Korean personnel present.
It was not until April 2008, seven months later, that the US Central Intelligence Agency released news of the operation in Washington, providing graphics attesting to the depth of Mossad’s penetration of the of the most secret and well-protected facility in Syria.
Examination of those visuals attested to one or more agents having been planted solidly enough in the Syrian nuclear project to have photographed the different stages of the reactor’s construction and the North Korean equipment installed there – a feat which drew the respect of Dagan’s undercover colleagues in the West.
The other outstanding feature of the Al Kebir operation was one that has come to be associated with the spy chief’s method of operation: No leads or clues were left for the Syrian, Iranian and North Korean investigators to find –even after the photos were published.
His spy or spies proved untraceable.
Dagan, a hands-on spymaster, demonstrated this skill earlier in the operation to eliminate one of the longest-running and most dangerous enemies of Israel and America, the head of Hizballah’s special security apparatus, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus on February 12. It followed similar methods in the preceding two years - usually explosives planted under a driver’s seat or headrests of vehicles driven by Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami operatives. Neither Hizballah nor Syrian intelligence has been able to prevent these liquidations or catch the hit-teams.
The intelligence operation for aborting Iran’s aspirations to acquire a nuclear bomb would undoubtedly ratchet up the Mossad’s targets for its most formidable mission ever. It would be undertaken in the full knowledge that a nuclear bomb in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran would constitute the most dangerous threat to Israel’s survival in 60 years of statehood, as well as a menace to the free world.
It would be up to Meir Dagan, a Holocaust survivor born in the Soviet Union, to rise to the Mossad’s motto: "Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs XI/14)
The Mossad chief has his critics at home. In Israel’s clandestine agencies, some find his style excessively individualist, secretive and highhandedly confined to fields which he finds interesting rather than objectively important to national security. He is faulted with shunning the close collaborative relations traditional in the undercover world. The Mossad’s structure is also said to be antiquated and in need of an extensive overhaul, although it recently launched a website for recruitment.
But Dagan has the full trust of his boss, the prime minister.
The timing chosen for extending the Mossad chief’s tenure – early summer of 2008 – is indicative. Israeli intelligence estimates the summer months are critical for acting against Iran’s nuclear advances, especially uranium enrichment which Iran refuses to forego. If it is not stopped by September or October of 2008, it will be too late; Iran will have crossed the threshold to the last lap of its military program.
Israeli intelligence and its armed forces have three months to finish the job which has long been in preparation.
Exclusive: Syrians and UN nuclear inspectors play hide and seek
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5377
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that the three-man International Atomic Energy Agency team which inspected the El Kibar site bombed by Israel last September, returned to Vienna Wednesday, June 25, with soil and building materials samples gathered secretly without Syrian knowledge. From the Syrians they received different samples said to have been collected at a site which they insisted was a military facility under construction.
During their four days in the country, Olli Heinonen, IAEA deputy director and leading negotiator with the Iranian authorities, and his team interviewed Syrian army officers and men presented by Damascus as having been employed at the facility. They denied it was a nuclear reactor and possessing nuclear credentials themselves. But, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, the inspectors countered with their own list of officers, scientists and technicians – not only Syrians, but also Iranians and North Koreans employed in building the facility.
The Syrian side denied this and refused the inspectors permission to interview people on their list.
Last week, British, German and Israeli publications released new information from Israeli intelligence sources according to which the El Kibar reactor was intended to be a component of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s use of plutonium in its weapons projects was to be concealed by having it produced in Syria.
Wednesday, June 25, the London daily, the Guardian, quoted an adviser to Israel's national security council as saying: "The Iranians were involved in the Syrian programme. The idea was that the Syrians produce plutonium and the Iranians get their share. Syria had no reprocessing facility for the spent fuel. It's not deduction alone that brings almost everyone to think that the link exists" – implying that Israel had evidence.
DEBKAfile adds: War tensions between Israel and Iran have shot up in the last few days on the strength of reported Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. By linking Syria’s destroyed reactor to Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli officials were saying in effect that the attack on an Iranian nuclear installation had already taken place …in Syria.
Analysis: Rice presses for a US diplomatic presence in Tehran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5372
DEBKAfile’s Washington sources, report that by the dramatic step of establishing a US interests section in Tehran, 27 years after relations were severed with the Revolutionary Republic, the Bush administration would hope to wash its hands of any Israeli plan to strike Iran’s nuclear sites this year.
Behind the step are US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and her former deputy Nicholas Burns; its disclosure to the American media attests to White House backing.
The step slots into the American presidential campaign by distancing President George W. Bush from conservative elements, whose thinking was encapsulated by Bill Kristol, of the Weekly Standard when he told Fox News Sunday, June 22: “If President Bush foresees the likelihood of an Obama election, he may decide to go ahead with such an attack. However, if the President thinks Sen. McCain will be the winner, he would leave the Iranian situation for President McCain to handle.” This view was endorsed by Daniel Pipes, a Middle East expert and member of the conservative Hoover Institution.
Democratic Barack Obama has increased his margin against the Republican John McCain by 15 percent.
Regarding the likelihood of an Israeli go-it-alone attack on Iran, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said in the same broadcast:
"I think if they [Israel] are to do anything, the most likely period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President. I don’t think they will do anything before our election because they don’t want to affect it.”
Sunday, DEBKAfile reported the estimate of Israeli intelligence and military circles that the extension of Mossad director Meir Dagan’s tenure for another year up to the end of 2009 points to a probable Israeli military action against Iran this year before the Bush presidency runs out.
The unsolicited statement by Condoleezza Rice came next on Monday, June 23. On her way to a conference in Berlin of donors to the Palestinian Civil Police Force, she spoke of opening a US interests section in Tehran similar to the one maintained in Cuba. In so saying, she broke away sharply from the international drive led by the Bush administration to isolate Iran for refusing to give up uranium enrichment.
She said: “We do have the station in Dubai where [Iranians] can get visas, but we know that it's difficult for Iranians sometimes to get to Dubai. We want more Iranians visiting the United States. We are determined to find ways to reach out to the Iranian people."
Middle East peace negotiators, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian ex-prime minister Ahmed Qureia are attending the Berlin conference.
Since the 1979 siege of the US embassy in Tehran by revolutionary zealots, Washington has been represented in Tehran by the Swiss embassy. This arrangement has become untenable since Switzerland signed a bi gas deal with Iran, in breach US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Report: Ahmadinejad Says Iran More Determined to Continue Nuclear Path
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371926,00.html
TEHRAN, Iran — State television says the Iranian president has assessed that the EU new sanctions will have no effect on the country's nuclear activities.
A report Thursday on the broadcaster's Web site cites President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that even though the West imposed new sanctions on Iran, "they know this sort of action will not affect the will and the determination of the Iranian nation."
"Even if they succeed to close all doors on Iran, the Iranian nation will become more determined to continue its nuclear path," Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad said the EU sanctions "cannot block the progress of Iran."
"On the nuclear issue ... the enemies were not able to stop our nation and will never succeed in stopping our program," Ahmadinejad said. "These bullying powers ... should know that threats and pressure will not save them from us."
The European Union on Tuesday listed 20 Iranian companies and 15 individuals who will be affected by the new sanctions imposed over Tehran's nuclear defiance.
The U.S and its allies accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapon program. Iran denies the charge.
Four Americans, 10 Iraqis killed in bomb attack in Baghdad
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5374
The attack took place in the southern section of Sadr City at a local council meeting for electing new members to replace representatives of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr. One of the civilians killed was a State Department employee, the second worked for the Defense Department. Three of the dead Iraqis were members of the Sadr City council. The US military held “special groups” – pro-Iranian rogue Shiite militias – responsible for the attack. A suspect who tested positive for contact with explosives was caught fleeing the scene.
Power vacuum seen in Pakistan
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/asia/pstan.php
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan remains in a leaderless drift four months after elections, Western diplomats and military officials say, and Pakistani politicians and Afghan officials are increasingly worried that no one is really in charge.
The leadership vacuum is most stark in dealing with militants, Pakistani politicians and foreign diplomats say, adding that the Pakistani government and military officials were sending mixed signals about policy in the tribal areas that have become home to the Taliban and to Al Qaeda.
That confusion, military officials and diplomats warn, is allowing the militants to consolidate their sanctuaries while spreading their tentacles all along the border area. It has also complicated policy for the administration of George W. Bush, which leaned heavily on one man, President Pervez Musharraf, to streamline its anti-terrorism efforts in Pakistan.
If anyone is in charge, Pakistani politicians and Western diplomats say, it remains the military and the country's premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, which operate with little real oversight.
While the recently elected civilian government has been criticized for dealing with militants, the military is brokering cease-fires and prisoner exchanges with minimum consultation with the government, politicians from the government coalition, diplomats and analysts said. Meanwhile, politicians in both the provincial and central government complain that they are excluded from the negotiations and did not even know of a secret deal struck in February, before the elections, let alone the details of the accord.
"You see a lack of a coordinated strategy between the federal level and provincial level, and that includes the ISI and the military, who are clear players," said one Western diplomat with knowledge of the tribal regions, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"You see it even on principles of negotiation and combined strategy."
Although political parties and the military all seek a break from the violence that has roiled Pakistan, there are fundamental disagreements over the problem of militancy that are not being addressed, Pakistani politicians and Western diplomats say.
Since coming to power in February, the fragile coalition government has been engrossed in internal wrangling over removing Musharraf.
The coalition government is barely functioning, with half its ministers having left the cabinet in May in a dispute over whether to reinstate 60 high court judges dismissed by Musharraf last year.
For now it is just accepting the military's decisions regarding the militants, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general who is now a political analyst. He characterized the country as suffering from "institutional paralysis and a dysfunctional government, signs of which are showing already."
Separately, a Pakistani court ruled Monday that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not eligible to run in parliamentary by-elections this week because he had been convicted of a crime, The Associated Press reported.
The decision was a major political setback for Sharif, making it impossible for the bitter opponent of the U.S.-backed Musharraf to become prime minister unless the ban on his candidacy is overturned. Sharif, a deeply populist politician, leads the junior party in the governing coalition.
Sharif had been barred from running in February elections because of convictions related to his removal in a 1999 coup.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government would ask the Supreme Court to block Sharif's disqualification and request that the by-elections scheduled for Thursday postponed.
Along with diplomats, the lack of clear leadership has U.S. military commanders worried. General Dan McNeill, until recently U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, described the coalition government as "dysfunctional."
Masood, the political analyst, added, "It is a very dangerous situation because what is happening is the Afghan government is getting desperate."
The frustration is such that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan threatened this month to send Afghan troops into Pakistan to pursue Pakistani militant leaders.
That Pakistan's government appears broken is not surprising, analysts say. Civilian institutions in the country were atrophied by eight years of military rule, and political parties were left rudderless by the absence of their leaders, who lived in exile much of that time.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December left her party in even deeper disarray. "We have not even had time to mourn her," said Farah Ispahani, a Pakistan People's Party legislator who was a close friend of Bhutto.
The military remains the country's strongest institution. But it is proving to be an increasingly fickle and prickly partner. United States and NATO officials are still struggling to decipher the intentions of the new chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Kayani.
Last autumn, at the time of Kayani's appointment, U.S. officials spoke approvingly of him. He seemed well aware of the threat that militants posed to Pakistan and of the dangers of peace deals that have allowed the militants to tighten their grip in the tribal areas.
But despite at least $12 billion in aid to Pakistan from Washington for the fight against the militants, Kayani has recently shown a reluctance to use Pakistan's military for counterinsurgency operations, suggesting that the task be left to the much weaker tribal force, the Frontier Corps. He has encouraged the civilian government to take the lead.
Part of the confusion stems from the shift in power from Musharraf's military rule to the new civilian government, a Western military official said. "Kayani is being careful not to get too far out in front and is trying to determine who is in charge," he said. "We all are."
The uneasy balance between civilian and military authority was demonstrated this month when the finance minister, Syed Naveed Qamar, revealed details of the defense budget to Parliament for the first time in 40 years. While Qamar called it "historic moment," the document was a mere two pages.
Meanwhile, the military under Kayani has quietly pursued its own policies, politicians from the government coalition, diplomats and analysts say. The military and ISI negotiated a little-known truce with the tribes and militants of North Waziristan just days before the Feb. 18 elections, a senior government official in Peshawar confirmed.
The deal was so secretive that few in the government know its details.
The military also began negotiations with the most powerful of the Taliban commanders, Baitullah Mehsud, in January, just weeks after the government accused him of masterminding Bhutto's assassination.
Western officials are suspicious of the deal. Mehsud is accused of dispatching scores of suicide bombers in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the agreement initially included no prohibition on cross-border attacks.
Only after strong pressure from the United States and other allies did the military insert a clause this month, according to a senior official close to the negotiations. In the meantime, cross-border attacks increased by 50 percent in May, NATO officials in Afghanistan say.
The provincial government in North-West Frontier Province has also expressed its reservations with the deal. Officials from the Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist party that leads the government in the province and that is also part of the national coalition, complained that they had not been included in the military's decisions.
"Our main demand is that we should be included in negotiations," said Wajid Ali Khan, a party official. "We don't know with whom they are talking." Even the central government's point man for counterterrorism, the acting interior minister, Rehman Malik, has appeared to have an uneven grasp of developments.
This month he announced in Parliament that the peace deal with militants in the Swat Valley, just outside the tribal areas, was scrapped. But he retracted the statement the next day after the provincial government insisted the deal was still on.
Officials of the Awami National Party have complained that his comments undermine their own negotiating position. This week the firebrand militant leader in Swat, Mullah Fazlullah, declared the peace agreement suspended over the slowness of prisoner releases.
The provincial government had agreed to prisoner releases on a case by case basis, and they are part of ongoing negotiations, said Afrasiab Khattak, a senior official of the Awami National Party.
He and other party officials are confident that they can make the peace deals in their province work. But few believe that the deals brokered by the military in the tribal regions will last more than a few months, including the military officials themselves, senior government officials in Peshawar say.
Ex-Muslim on the Run for Conversion
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/326585.aspx
CBNNews.com - From the Gaza strip to neighboring Egypt, his father is promising to kill him for becoming a believer.
Now he's on the run with his wife and little baby.
Mohammed Hijazi's father always taught him to hate Christians. And yet Mohammed's Christian neighbors in his home town in Egypt always treated him with love and kindness.
The more he learned about Islam, the more he began to feel distant from the "god" of Islam.
That was the beginning of a quest to find out more about Jesus Christ.
About three years ago, he found a loving father in the God of the Bible.
He wanted to publicly profess his conversion on his Egyptian national ID card that, among other things, lists a person's religion. He approached a lawyer to see if he could help him.
Somehow Hijazi's story was leaked to the press and unleashed a fire storm of controversy that seems to have swept every major Arabic-speaking television station.
Adding fuel to the fire, Mohammed's friends began appearing on different TV talk shows to damage his character, even going so far as to call him "disturbed."
A few months ago, Mohammed's highly publicized case went to court and the judge denied him the ability to change his religion from Islam to Christianity.
If Mohammed should attempt to go against the court, he could face three to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine.
Mohammed and his then pregnant wife Christina began running from the law. Just over a month ago, she gave birth to baby Miriam in hiding.
They've all sworn to kill her because she married a non-Muslim against the family's wishes.
"I love my parents so much," said Christina. "I want them to know that I am praying that the Lord will open their hearts and minds. That He would show them the way and that they would get the same blessings that I am getting."
Mohammed's family is just as angry. In a recent interview to the local papers, Mohammed's father said, "I am going to try to talk to my son and convince him to return to Islam. If he refuses, I am going to kill him with my own hands."
Shortly later, Mohammed released this response:
"I would like to send a message to my dad. I saw what you said in the newspapers. You say you want to kill me; to shed my blood in public. But I love you so much because you are my dad and because Jesus taught me to love....I accepted Jesus Christ willingly and nobody forced me....I forgive you. No matter what decision you make. No matter what you do. To my dad and mom, I say Jesus Christ died to save me."
An Islamic council issued a Muslim edict called a "fatwa" back in 1978 that still stands today.
It condemns Mohammed and Christina to death for becoming believers.
Where does that leave their little daughter Miriam?
"I don't think that God is asking you to make your granddaughter an orphan by killing her dad," said Mohammed.
But under the same fatwa, Miriam will be killed anyway at the age of 10 if she does not choose Islam.
Pastor attacked in Sri Lanka
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pastor.attacked.in.sri.lanka/19818.htm
A Christian pastor was attacked on Monday by three men in Ampara, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, while returning home from a church group meeting in Uhana, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He is currently receiving treatment for his injuries in hospital.
The pastor, the Rev Fernando from the Methodist Church in Ampara, was accosted by the three men at 4.40pm. The men asked him to accompany them to a house, claiming that there were people there who wished to become Christians.
According to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), the pastor sensed that the men were trying to lure him into a trap, and asked them to come to the church instead if they wished to discuss Christianity. The men then attacked him, and warned him not to return to the village.
The attackers are believed to be members of the Gramarakshaka Niladhari or “Home Guards”, an auxiliary force established by the Government to assist the police and military in security duties. The attack comes four months after a Home Guard in uniform shot dead Pastor Neil Edirisinghe, on 17 February. The gunman also shot the pastor’s wife, leaving her critically injured. The accused is in custody, and his court hearing resumed today.
Alexa Papadouris, Advocacy Director at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said: “We are deeply concerned over the continuing incidents of violence against Christians in Sri Lanka, and in particular the fact that [Monday's] attack was reportedly carried out by members of a government-sponsored security force.
"We urge the Sri Lankan Government to take action to protect the Christian community, and to ensure that the perpetrators of such violence are brought to justice.”
Wife of Ailing Chinese Pastor Praying for His Release Before Olympics
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07329.shtml
SANTA ANA, Calif., (christiansunite.com) -- Once a month Chen Hongxian is allowed to visit her husband in prison for 30 minutes, two hours away from where she lives. Pastor Zhang Rongliang, leader of the China for Christ house church movement, was sentenced to seven-and-a- half years' imprisonment in June 2006 for "illegally crossing the national border and fraudulently obtaining a passport."
Chen reported that when she visited her husband in early April, Pastor Zhang was doing relatively well. He can walk again, but only short distances. He still suffers from several chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. He suffered a stroke in July 2007 which paralyzed half his body.
Authorities isolated him because his evangelization in prison resulted in too many new believers. Other prisoners risk punishment when they speak with him. Last year a prisoner came to Christ shortly before he was executed. The prisoner wrote to his mother: "I am going to heaven to wait for you, so believe in Jesus."
Chen says: "His heart is still with the ministry of the house church network. He said to me, 'You can do anything to get me out, but under one condition -- I will never leave China. My calling is here.'"
'I Do Not Feel Like A Widow'
"When my husband was sent to prison for the first time, some 30 years ago, I was not a Christian myself. I was really touched by the care of brothers and sisters from the church. They brought me food and visited me during the Chinese New Year. Because of their witness, I also became a believer. I consider the times that my husband was in prison just as a normal part of being a Christian. It is just carrying the cross. This is the price one has to pay as a Christian. I do not feel bad because my husband is in prison and my children can not stay at home because the authorities are after them. I do not feel like a widow.
"However, sometimes I can not sleep. Then I pray, and I can sleep. But I have the feeling that my prayers are not strong enough; that they do not reach heaven. Therefore, I am so grateful that brothers and sisters (around the world) are praying for us. When I pray for my husband, I pray that he may be strong and that he may have peace in his heart."
Chen adds: "I wait for my husband to be released. We hope and pray that he may be released earlier (than scheduled), because of the Olympic Games (which start August 8 in Beijing). That would be great! But when I asked the prison authorities about the possibility of early release, they said, 'You should come together with your children and then we will consider.' (Note: The real reason behind this reply is that authorities are seeking her children; her oldest son was elected into the leadership team of the house church network where Pastor Zhang is one of the leaders.) So there is nothing more that we can do but to just wait and see."
It is not unusual that a prisoner gets early release following "good behavior." However, given Pastor Zhang's case and his evangelization activities in prison, it is - humanly speaking - not likely that he will get an early release.
Last August Open Doors USA launched a one-year countdown to the Summer Olympics called One Minute/One Year/One Country. The goal of the campaign is to unite believers in the West to pray for their persecuted Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not too late to sign up for the One Minute/One Year/One Country campaign. Go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org or www.opendoorsusa.org/content/view/156.
An estimated 200 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our Website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.
Father of Chinese American Girl Languishes in Beijing PSB Custody
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07322.shtml
BEIJING, (christiansunite.com) -- CAA has learned that prominent house church leader and Christian publisher, Shi Weihan, has been held in detention for the past three months by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau on the grounds that he is a "dangerous religious element." Mr. Shi's attorney, Zhang Xingshui, made an inquiry at the public security bureau on Monday (June 16) as to the status of his client's case. Officials gave no information to Mr. Zhang except that Shi would continue to remain in detention. A court date was expected, since today marked the end of 2 months of his unexplained captivity. Normally, Public Security Bureau forces are not allowed to hold Chinese citizens for more than 2 months without formal charges.
Despite having held Mr. Shi beyond the time legally allowed, absent formal charges or a court hearing, the PSB still refuses to allow his family or attorney to see him. Claiming an ongoing investigation in what they are calling "a complex case", they have managed to hold the owner of a legally registered Christian bookstore in an undisclosed location without giving any assurances that he is receiving his needed diabetic medicine. The PSB appears to be delaying any action on this case indefinitely, raising questions about his health and safety unanswered.
On May 16, the public security bureau also froze the bank account of the house church led by Mr. Shi Weihan. Security officials are also probing the fact that Shi was a member and coworker of CAA President Bob Fu's House Church in Beijing before Bob and his family came to the US in 1997.
The ongoing contention of the case has brought severe stress and anxiety to Shi's wife and two daughters. CAA calls on the Chinese Government to abide by its own rule of law and remain consistent with its stance on religious freedom and human rights, by unconditionally releasing Shi Weihan from custody. Chinese government officials, international human rights organizations, and foreign governments keen to understand China's efforts to improve their record in the run-up to the Olympics should be asking the same questions of the Chinese Public Security Bureau officials--
"Under what court-granted authority have they arrested and held Shi Weihan?"
"Is Mr. Shi being given a fair trial on legally brought charges?"
"Why is he being denied access to legal representation?"
China Aid will continue to monitor the situation.
To voice your concern over this matter, contact:
Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Address: 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-6688, (202)5889760
Fax: (202) 588-9760
North Korea Submits Nuclear Declaration to China; U.S. to Lift Sanctions
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371927,00.html
BEIJING — China said Thursday that North Korea handed over a declaration of its nuclear programs and activities, a milestone immediately followed by Washington saying it will lift some trade sanctions and move to take Pyongyang off its terrorism blacklist.
The declaration breathes new life into stagnant talks with North Korea, which will now get economic and other aid for cooperation on dismantling its nuclear program.
On Friday, it is expected to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex in front of international television cameras.
In Washington, the U.S. administration said it will lift some trade sanctions against North Korea and move to take it off the terrorism blacklist — a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime, which President George W. Bush once branded as part of an "axis of evil."
The U.S. is fulfilling its promise to erase trade sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act, and notify Congress that in 45 days it intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
"The United States welcomes the North Korean declaration of its nuclear programs," she said.
"North Korea has pledged to disable all its nuclear facilities and tomorrow will destroy the cooling tower of the Yongbyon reactor," she said. "North Korea also pledged to declare its nuclear activities. This information will be essential to verifying that North Korea is ending all of its nuclear programs and activities."
The official Xinhua News Agency said the declaration was handed over Thursday to China, host of the six-party talks that also include South Korea, Russia and Japan.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier Thursday that any American actions in response to the declaration would be subject to verification of the North Korean documents.
Click here to read full remarks from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on North Korea.
"Obviously, the weapons and all the programs are going to have to be dealt with and dismantled if we are to have denuclearization and it's going to have to be done so verifiably," Rice told reporters in Kyoto, Japan, where she was attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations. She next travels to South Korea and China.
North Korea is not obligated to provide specific details of its actual nuclear weapons in the declaration — that will happen in the next stage of disarmament negotiations — but Rice said the documents would provide key information about their arsenal.
The declaration was expected to say how much plutonium North Korea has produced at its main reactor facility.
"If we can verifiably determine the amount of plutonium that has been made, we then have an upper hand in understanding what may have happened in terms of weaponization," Rice said.
The United States is wary of North Korea's intentions because of its history of secrecy and broken promises. In an opinion piece published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Rice said Washington was approaching the matter with deep skepticism.
"Any effort to denuclearize the Korean peninsula must contend with the fact that North Korea is the most secretive and opaque regime on the planet," she wrote. "We will not accept that statement on faith. We will insist on verification."
The U.S. actions will close one phase of a step-by-step disarmament plan with Pyongyang and clear the way for the Bush administration's highest-ever diplomatic engagement with North Korea, a meeting that would be attended by Rice and her North Korean counterpart as soon as next month.
From there, the North is obligated to continue working to shut down and dismantle its plutonium reactor complex while the United States and other partners reward the North with further economic incentives.
North Korea has invited foreign TV stations to broadcast the toppling of the cooling tower. Sung Kim, the top State Department expert on Korea, will travel to North Korea for the planned destruction of the cooling tower, an official at South Korea's Foreign Ministry said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy.
The United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia have been negotiating with North Korea to give up its nuclear program for years. North Korea already missed an end-of-2007 deadline to turn over a full inventory of its programs and a description of its spread of nuclear technology to others.
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