News for January 9, 2006

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Powerful quake rattles Greece (January 9, 2006) - A strong earthquake shook Greece and most of the eastern Mediterranean early today NZT but caused only minor damages and no casualties. The quake off the southeastern tip of Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula measured 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, with its epicentre at a depth of 70 km near the island of Kithira, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. “We were extremely lucky this was an underwater quake,” institute chief Giorgos Stavrakakis told reporters. “If it had happened on land it would be a mess.” Police said there were no reports of casualties after the tremor, which drove people out of their homes in cities across most of the country. Athenians were calm and traffic normal despite memories of a September 1999 quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale that hit the capital, killing at least 143 people and leaving 60,000 people homeless. The earthquake struck at 1134 GMT (12.34am NZT Monday) and lasted for about seven seconds and was felt as far away as southern Italy, Cyprus, Egypt and Jordan, officials said. more...

Delhi gets first winter ice in 70 years, Indian cold toll soars (January 9, 2006) - The Indian capital Sunday saw its first winter frost in 70 years as a cold wave sweeping in from the Himalayas killed more people in northern India overnight, officials said. The capital city of 14 million people ordered schools shut for three days from Monday as the mercury for the first time since 1935 fell to 0.2 degrees Celsius (32.36 Fahrenheit), leaving mounds of ice on parked cars. White-laced streets greeted early risers, but any novelty value brought by the cold soon died as frost on power cables sparked partial power cuts across large swathes of New Delhi, said the privately-run BSES utility provider. On January 16, 1935, Delhi recorded minus 0.6 degrees Celsius. “I was born in New Delhi and this is the first time we are seeing ice on grass,” said Supriya Singh, a fashion designer. “It’s just like snow ... It’s heavenly.” Her jubilation was not shared by the homeless thousands. The city municipality late Sunday rushed to set up community shelters for some of the city’s 150,000 homeless people as the weather office warned the severe chill would continue. “The indications are that these conditions would continue for the next two days before the temperatures rise,” a spokesman for New Delhi’s meteorological department told AFP. Haryana state’s Karnal city, which adjoins New Delhi, also shivered at 0.1 degrees Celsius, eight degrees below normal for this time of year, he said. more...

HIV BOMBERS: EXCLUSIVE Al-Qaeda’s Plot to Infect Troops with AIDS Virus (January 9, 2006) - Terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their “kill rate” from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe. Under the heading “HIV/Hepatitis” the document states: “There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference.” Experts have found that bones and other blood-spattered fragments from a suicide bomber could penetrate the skin of a victim 50 metres away and infect them. In the papers (part of which is summarised above) soldiers are warned to wear special protective clothing when on guard duty or if they have to deal with casualties in the event of an attack. All bases must also have snipers hidden behind blast-proof defences ready to take out would-be suicide bombers. The guidelines were issued following the 7/7 London bombings which left 52 dead and injured hundreds more. Spy chiefs have also examined other attacks, including a car-bombing on the Black Watch in central Iraq which killed three soldiers a year ago. Last night an MoD spokesman confirmed that bases had been made aware of the new threat. He added: “The Army go to great lengths to prepare our soldiers for every eventuality.”

New evidence on Saddam’s WMDs? (January 8, 2006) - A former intelligence analyst currently working as a civilian contractor will unveil publicly what he believes to be recordings of Saddam Hussein’s office meetings discussing his program of developing weapons of mass destruction at an International Intelligence Summit in the nation’s capital next month. The highly confidential audio was overlooked when it was found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files, according to the contractor. The recordings are very significant because they may contain audio of Saddam’s secret intentions regarding weapons of mass destruction, he says. Prior to 9/11, intelligence experts were convinced that Iraq was involved with weapons of mass destruction. However, no concrete evidence was found in the three years after the beginning of the Iraqi war. The contractor who obtained and reviewed these tapes of historical significance plans to release them to the public Feb. 17, 2006 at the Intelligence Summit, a non-partisan, non-profit conference open to the public, scheduled to be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The summit will feature speakers including Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism, WND’s Joseph Farah, former CIA Director John Deutch, former CIA Director James Woolsey and Maj. General Paul Vallely, U.S. Army (ret.). Following the presentation by the contractor of what he discovered, a panel of experts will discuss ways to verify if the tapes were actually recorded by Hussein. The procedures will include voiceprint analysis and other technical means of voice verification. more...

Dawkins: Religion equals ‘child abuse’ (January 8, 2006) - Controversial scientist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins, dubbed “Darwin’s Rottweiler,” calls religion a “virus” and faith-based education “child abuse” in a two-part series he wrote and appears in that begins airing on the UK’s Channel 4, beginning tomorrow evening. Entitled “Root of All Evil?,” the series features the atheist Dawkins visiting Lourdes, France, Colorado Springs, Colo., the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a British religious school, using each of the venues to argue religion subverts reason. In “The God Delusion,” the first film in the series, Dawkins targets Catholicism at the pilgrimage site in Lourdes. “If you want to experience the medieval rituals of faith, the candle light, the incense, music, important-sounding dead languages, nobody does it better than the Catholics,” he says. Dawkins, using his visit to Colorado Springs’ New Life Church, criticizes conservative U.S. evangelicals and warns his audience of the influence of “Christian fascism” and “an American Taliban.” The backdrop of the al-Aqsa mosque and an American-born Jew turned fundamentalist Muslim who tells Dawkins to prepare for the Islamic world empire – and who clashes with him after saying he hates atheists – rounds out the first program’s case for the delusions of the faithful. In part two, “The Virus of Faith,” Dawkins attacks the teaching of religion to children, calling it child abuse. more...

Lock them up to die: Prison bird-flu plan (January 8, 2006) - Lock them up to die: Government prepares for sealed-off facilities, mass graves, men left to mercy of killer disease. If you’re serving time in a New Zealand prison for a serious crime, pray – hard – no one else in the facility becomes infected by the deadly bird-flu virus because, if that happens, the prison is going to be sealed for six weeks, mass graves will be dug in the compound and the disease will be allowed to run its course. Government planning documents, obtained by New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times, reveal draconian contingency plans drawn up by the nation’s corrections department to deal with an avian-flu pandemic among its 7,500 prisoners. In what Bevan Hanlon, president of Corrections Association, the prison officers’ union, called a “brainstorming” document, options for maintaining order among a population highly susceptable to contagious diseases are discussed. Among the scenarios under consideration is a total sealing off of affected prisons – no one goes in or out – for six weeks as the disease runs its course. The survivors would bury the dead in mass graves dug within the prison compound. Low-security prisoners – those near the end of their sentences or those convicted of relatively minor crimes like drunk driving – would be freed, a proposal endorsed by the union. A second option under consideration gives greater hope to prisoners by requiring staff and medical personnel to share their risk. In this case the prison would be isolated but medical staff would be allowed in and out to treat the outbreak. Prison officials and guards would be locked in with the inmates for the duration and no new prisoners would be accepted until the epidemic had passed. “Once there was an outbreak in a prison it would be a matter of closing the doors and going from there,” Hanlon said. “They are saying six weeks and it would be all over, and after that they go in and clean up what is left, unfortunately.” more...

Hamas Talks of Possibly Forming Government (January 8, 2006) - Hamas is expected to deliver a major drubbing to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, which has dominated Palestinian politics for four decades. But Hamas has never directly said it might agree to form a government. During a campaign visit to families of people killed or taken prisoner in the past five years of conflict with Israel, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was asked if the atmosphere were ripe for Hamas to form a government that would not deal with Israel, Hamas reported on its Web site. “Yes. We are running for the Legislative Council to put an end to the vestiges of Oslo,” Zahar said, referring to the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians of the early 1990s. Hamas’ popularity comes as Fatah has fallen into disfavor because of corruption and lawlessness on Palestinian streets. The elections are scheduled for Jan. 25, but there is pressure on Abbas to postpone them for a second time. Abbas has said the balloting could be put off if Israel bars Palestinians from voting in the sector of Jerusalem the Palestinians want as their future capital. It is unlikely Abbas would postpone the election without Hamas’ consent. “President Abbas will lose his credibility if he postpones the elections,” Zahar said. “Anyone who blocks the elections will lose. The elections will take place.” Zahar also restated Hamas’ threat to kidnap Israeli soldiers as a bargaining chip to pressure Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. This election will mark the first time that Hamas — which calls for Israel’s destruction and is responsible for dozens of deadly suicide bombings — will field candidates. Israel has called for the Islamic group to be disqualified.

Nuclear Detonation Detected In Iran - flashback - (January 17, 1999) - On January 17, 1999, satellites detected numerous signs of a major impact located in the hills of northwestern Iran. “We are pretty sure that it his was an intended nuclear explosion” Jody Birmingham said, a spokeswoman for the Department of Enhanced Satellite Technology. When questioned by the press, The White House had no comment, nor did The Pentagon. Iranian officials have declined to speak with The Associated Press. So far, human casualties or structural damage is unknown. More information will be supplied when further information is available.

Drug ‘War Zone’ Rattles U.S.-Mexico Border (January 9, 2006) - A few weeks ago, five men were shot to death in a car repair shop in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. In any other city, it might be called a massacre. In Nuevo Laredo, it’s called business as usual. Across the river in Laredo, Texas, the sheriff called it something else. “It’s a war zone,” said Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores. “We’ve got level three body armor. They’ve got level four. We’ve got cell phones. They’ve got satellite cell phones that we can’t tap into. “We’re being outgunned,” Flores added. “And that’s the reason why we’re concerned on this side.” The border cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo share four bridges across the Rio Grande, thousands of extended families and, now, the suffering caused by drug violence that, at least on the Mexico side, is out of control. Last year in Nuevo Laredo, a city of about 500,000, the same size as Tucson, Ariz., more than 170 people were killed. Only a handful of those killings led to any arrests. Among those slain were a city councilman, 13 police officers and the city’s police chief, who had been in office seven hours when he was shot more than 50 times. Now truckloads of federal police, similar to the U.S. National Guard, have been shipped in from across Mexico to restore some semblance of order. Last June most of the local police force was fired for being in the pockets of the drug cartels. more...

Hamas Runs for Election Vowing Never to Talk to Israel or Disarm (January 9, 2006) - Hamas campaigners, confident of a strong showing in the Jan 25 elections for the Palestinian legislative council, announced in Gaza City Sunday, Jan. 8, that, if elected, they will put an end to any Palestinian talks with Israel. Negotiations with the Zionist entity will only take place through the barrel of a gun, said the man topping the Hamas list, Ismail Haniya. Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud al-Zahar dismissed European threats to cut off funds if the terrorist group enters Palestinian government. If they do, he said, “We have our sources in the Arab and Muslim world.” None of the West Bank local councils captured by Hamas is short of funds, he boasted. According to the last opinion polls, the gap between Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah and the Hamas challenger has further shrunk to 6-8%.This means that the Islamic terrorists who have vowed to destroy Israel have a good chance of winning the election in 17 days’ time. Even from second place, they can form a coalition government, set up an alternative administration to Fatah, or create an opposition bloc in parliament able to immobilize any government in which they are not partners. Sunday, Jan 8, at the first regular cabinet meeting in Jerusalem led by acting prime minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz said he was confident the Palestinian poll would be delayed for fear of a Hamas victory. Mahmoud Abbas and fellow Fatah leader, the jailed Marwan Barghouti, have also admitted they would prefer a postponement. more...

‘God is Dead,’ Now We’ll Create Our Global Village -or- Why Christians are Mentally Ill (January 9, 2006) - “In Aug., 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million tax-payer funded study. It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed. Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives, in particular, suffer from ‘mental rigidity,’ ‘dogmatism,’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance,’ together with associated indicators for mental illness.” (B.K. Eakman, Chronicles, Oct. 2004, pp. 28-29)

As usual with leftists, the true meaning of their words is couched in deceptive code. When the deceptions are peeled away we discover that “dogmatism” refers to Christianity, “mental rigidity” refers to “individualism,” and “uncertainty avoidance” really means that Christians are resistant to the “change-through-consensus” process. (See: Psychopolitics: Erasing Christianity through the Consensus Process, Linda Kimball) Megalomaniac Darwinian globalists are in the process of creating a new world order in which the Masters (themselves) will be served by scientifically-re-engineered “Un Man.” The stumbling block is Christianity and the individualism that naturally occurs from belief in God as Sovereign of the universe. Hence the unrelenting and increasingly virulent hatred being spewed at Christians, Christmas, and all things relating to Christianity. Christianity and the “individualism” it gives rise to are anathema to Darwinian global collectivists, as is made clear by the following:

“Teaching children to read was a perversion and high literacy rates bred the sustaining force behind individualism.” (John Dewey, Father of Progressive Education)

Note: see “Sovietization of America” (Linda Kimball) for details concerning America’s high literacy rates in pre-progressivized America.

“To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism, and religious dogma” (G. Brock Chisholm, psychiatrist and co-founder of The World Federation of Mental Health).

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with…allegiances to our founding fathers…our elected officials…his parents…belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to…teachers to make these sick children well—by creating the international child of the future” (Chester Pierce, Prof. of Educ. and Psychiatry at Harvard, 1970).

Here is Laventi Pavlovich Beria, head of the Soviet Secret Police and Stalin’s right hand man, linking Christianity to individualism: “There are those who…gave Man to believe that goals should be personally sought and held, and that…Man’s entire impulse toward higher things stemmed from Freedom. We must bear in mind that the same people who embraced this philosophy also continued in Man the myth of spiritual existence” (Russian Manual on Psychopolitics, patriot-publications.com).

The global village under construction is being modeled along the same lines as the ancient pagan humanist model. In that model of man and the world, God is reduced to an impersonal animating force, immanent throughout the cosmos. In other words, God is the impersonal life-force within all matter, be it in the shape of mountain, man, insect, cloud, sun, water, etc. In today’s vernacular, man is “one” with the cosmos and everything is divine. In this view, mankind’s worth is measured by the value of animals, insects, and the environment in general. By this measure, man always comes out the loser. This means that not only is human life very cheap, but that mankind is more often than not accused of desecrating the sacredness of the environment. This accounts for the viciously anti-human tirades leveled at all of us today, such as: “a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They all feel pain. There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights” (Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Both the ancients and today’s neo-pagans were and are concerned with population control, which was then as it is today, practiced through rampant abortion, infanticide, child abandonment, eugenics, controlled marriages, and homosexuality, among other methods. Thus both the ancient pagan model and today’s neo-pagan version are inherently anti-human. more...

Jewish Scholar Spreads the Message: Un-intelligent Design is Our Ignorance, Our Stupidity (January 6, 2006) - Christians and Jews Have Found Themselves on the Same Side of Many Culture War Battles. The Miami New Times reports that Moshe Tendler, an influential Orthodox rabbi and Yeshiva University biology professor, recently delivered a message at the Sixth Miami International Conference on the Torah and Science in Miami in which he urged fellow scientists and intellectuals to spread the word that Darwin was wrong. “It is our task to inform the world [about intelligent design],” he implored. “Or the child growing up will grow up with unintelligent design.... Unintelligent design is our ignorance, our stupidity.” Several other Jewish scientists also went public with their support during the conference, hosted by Florida International University’s religious studies department and B’Or Ha’Torah journal of science. In an area with the second highest concentration of Jews after New York there are 113,000 in Miami-Dade alone, notes Mariah Blake the event attracted about 1000 Jewish researchers, intellectuals, teachers, and students. Intelligent design “luminary” William Dembski was a featured speaker. Using the example of the tiny flagella that bacteria use to propel themselves through their environment, he said, “They can spin at 100,000 rpm, and then in a quarter-turn, they’re spinning the other direction. Imagine if a blender could do that.... Is it such a stretch to think a real engineer was involved?” Needless to say, other attendants disagreed vehemently, but Sholom Lipskar, who ranks among Miami’s most influential rabbis, agreed that Jews should back the intelligent design movement. “The fundamental question the theory answers is, accidental or intentional?” he said. “If it’s accidental, then what’s the point? But if there’s design, we’re here for a reason.” more...