News for January 27, 2006

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4.5 Magnitude Earthquake at Kuril Islands, Japan (January 27, 2006)

7.5 Magnitude Earthquake at Banda Sea, Indonesia (January 27, 2006)

HAMAS WIN! POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE! Bridges for Peace (January 27, 2006) - In what has been described as a political earthquake, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement was unceremoniously dumped from power at the Palestinian Legislative Council elections Wednesday [January 25]. Hamas who continues the Arafat Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist format, won the resounding support of the people in the street. Hamas collected 76 seats in the 132-member parliament and dispatched Fatah (43 seats) to the opposition. Immediately, world leaders turned up the heat on Hamas demanding a change to their one-state agenda. Hamas leaders have frequently declared their desire to occupy the entire land of Israel, an ambition that puts them at odds with the USA and the EU. The USA lists Hamas as a terrorist organization. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters, “We affirm the view that…you can’t have one foot in terror and the other in politics.” These comments were made after the U.S. had consulted by emergency telephone hook-ups with their Quartet partners. In a statement, the Quartet demanded Hamas renounce violence, accept Israel’s right to exist, and disarm. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dennis Ross told Fox News today America and the EU between them provide a billion US dollars a year to the Palestinians. He said this must be the immediate bargaining chip that demands a change of heart from Hamas. He said Arab countries by comparison provide the Palestinians with a small amount of financial support. In Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper conducted a poll which revealed 48% of Israelis favor their government talking to a Hamas-led neighbor. 43% were opposed. Below is a selection of comments by Hamas and Islamic leaders.

Ismail Hanniya: (a Hamas leader) said the movement will not disarm its resistance fighters in spite of the American pressures. “There is no contradiction between resistance and elections.”

Sheikh Nazzar Rayan: “The vanquishing of the enemy in Gaza does not mean that this stage has ended. We still have Jerusalem and the pure West Bank. We will not rest until we liberate all our land, all our Palestine. We do not distinguish between what was occupied in the 1940s and what was occupied in the 1960s. Our Jihad continues, and we still have a long way to go. We will continue until the very last usurper is driven out of our land.”

Mahmud al-Zahar: was quoted by Al-Jazeera as saying, “We did not fall upon Gaza from the moon. We are living within the society and know what the street wants and what their conscience is. Oslo is not only dead, it has rotted,” he said.

Mahmoud Al-Zahar: [Statement from a pre-election debate]: “Between 1994–2004, the donor nations gave the PA US $6 billion. Where did all this money go? Fifty-six million dollars go to salaries every month. There are US $100 million in revenue every month. There are 37,000 fictitious jobs–the colonel, his wife ‘the coloneless,’ his son, his daughter–they all get paid, as you know very well.”

Russian Inventor Patents Invisibility Cloak - A professor from chair of quantum and optical electronics of the Ulyanovsk State University in western Russia has patented a method of making things invisible, Interfax news agency reported. The so-called invisibility cloak, created by Oleg Gadomsky, is called “The method of conversion of optical radiation” in the patent. Gadomsky had been long experimenting on nanoparticles of gold. Thus, he invented a sub-micron stratum of microscopical colloid golden particles that makes an object placed behind it invisible for an observer. “Only static objects can be made invisible for the time present, as during motion a radiation frequency changes. But soon it will be possible to create a cap of darkness and a magic cloak of Harry Potter, the scientist believes.

UN opens to Israel on Holocaust Day (January 27, 2006) - As the world community marks International Holocaust Memorial Day - set by the UN General Assembly - for the first time on Friday, Israeli professionals have begun to realize that they are now welcome partners of the UN, which generations of Israelis have so long regarded with despair and derision. More Israeli physicians and other experts than ever are being included in the UN’s special agencies, and a 10-member delegation of doctors (six Jews and four Arabs) is currently attending a health symposium in Geneva at the invitation of the UN. All 10 are due to participate together in the International Holocaust Memorial Day event at the UN Palace on Friday, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Dr. Dorit Nitzan-Kalusky, head of the Health Ministry’s Food and Nutrition Service, is currently in Belgrade running the World Health Organization’s (WHO) office there. Dr. Bina Rabinovich, an infectious disease control specialist, has just been sent by the UN to Turkey to help that country deal with its avian flu epidemic. The UN administration’s growing warmth toward Israeli professionals is not limited to health agencies, but also includes UNESCO (UN Educational, Social and Cultural Organization) - which had long been hostile to Israel but has now appointed Israelis to four professional committees, including the World Heritage committee. The current international health symposium in Geneva, organized with help from the Foreign Ministry, the Israel Medical Association and various UN agencies, has welcomed the Israelis, according to one member of the delegation. more...

Philo-Semitism has believers, skeptics (January 27, 2006) - Out of his painful childhood experiences, Mooneyham, 57, preaches passionately about the importance of home. Out of his reading of the Bible, he preaches with equal passion about God’s continuing devotion to the Jewish people. “I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book -- the Chosen, the Chosen,” says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. “I’m a pardoned gentile, but I’m not one of the Chosen People. They’re the apple of His eye.” Scholars of religion call this worldview “philo-Semitism,” the opposite of anti-Semitism. It is a burgeoning phenomenon in evangelical Christian churches across the country, a hot topic in Jewish historical studies and a wellspring of support for Israel. Yet many Jews are nervous about evangelicals’ intentions. In recent weeks, leaders of three of the nation’s largest Jewish groups -- the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism -- have decried what they see as a mounting threat to the separation of church and state from evangelicals emboldened by the belief that they have an ally in the White House and an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court. more...

Hamas, al-Qaida linked in phony passport ring (January 27, 2006) - Colombia announced the arrest of 19 yesterday in passport-forging ring linked to Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and al-Qaida that sent an undetermined number of foreign nationals to the United States and Europe, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday. “Some of the suspects are wanted for extradition by the United States for collaborating with terrorist groups Hamas and al-Qaida,” said Deputy Attorney General Alberto Otalora. Three members of Colombia’s Administrative Security Department, the state intelligence agency, and an employee of Colombia’s National Registry, which provides official identification documents, were arrested as part of the ring. “This network since 2002 has been dedicated to falsifying documents in order to permit foreign citizens to travel as Colombians through Europe and the United States,” said a statement issued by the Attorney General’s Office. The statement added that citizens of Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt sent information to the ring in Colombia, which used that information to create false Colombian passports. “The foreigners were turned into Colombian citizens without ever coming to Colombia,” the statement said. The investigation has been under way since 2002. Hamas this week won a majority of seats in elections for the Palestinian Authority’s legislature.

Hamas government to be new Taliban? (January 27, 2006) - Moments after official election results this afternoon certified a large Hamas victory in Palestinian ballots, members of the terror group planted their green flags on the main parliament building in Ramallah, with some Hamas gunmen declaring hard-line Islamic law will soon be imposed in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian security sources in the area told WorldNetDaily. The Hamas demonstration prompted clashes with rival activists from the currently ruling Fatah Party and highlighted longstanding worries Hamas will use its gains to impose a Taliban-like Islamist regime on the Palestinian population. Final results released by the Palestinian Central Election Commission showed Hamas won 76 seats in 132-seat parliament, with the Fatah garnering only 43 seats. Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Zahar told WorldNetDaily his terror group will seek to create a coalition with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party, but some Fatah officials said the group may bolt the government and place themselves in the opposition. This would make Hamas the main Palestinian powerbroker. “We are holding emergency meetings to decide our next course of action,” chief Palestinian negotiation minister Saeb Erekat told WND. “I don't think Fatah is going to join. This is not our way [to be in the minority].” more...

Notorious Oligarch Berezovsky Reveals Plans for Coup in Russia (January 26, 2006) - Wanted Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has gone public with his plans to seize power in Russia by force. The London-based oligarch said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station Wednesday that he had been working on the coup plan for 18 months. Berezovsky, a notorious critic of Putin’s regime, said he aimed to replace the “anti-constitutional regime” in Russia. “The regime has lost its legitimacy. Neither Putin nor the parliament are legitimate. They are anti-constitutional, because they have made a number of anti-constitutional decisions, such as replacing elected governors by appointed ones. This is absolutely against the spirit and the language of the constitution.” Today’s regime would never allow a fair election, Berezovsky added, so the only way out is a coup. “There is only one way out — a coup, a forced seizure of power,” he said. The oligarch said he had plenty of supporters. “Every day I talk to lots of people who are certain the existing regime should be changed, and see there is no chance of this happening legally, by an election. ”This regime is leading Russia into an abyss. We have actually lost the North Caucasus and the influence over the post-Soviet countries.“ Berezovsky said he saw nothing unrealistic about a coup. ”In the 1980s nobody could imagine the USSR would disintegrate. Putin’s regime is way less powerful than that of the Communists. Besides, it is deprived of ideology. “The regime is doomed, and I want to see it collapse before Russia collapses,” Berezovsky said. more...

Iran: We’ll put Israel in ‘eternal coma’ (January 26, 2006) - Were Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into “an eternal coma” like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday. “Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran’s armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon,” Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said. Najjar said the United States and Israel have been trying to frighten Iran, but neither country would dare attack to Iran. Earlier Wednesday, Iran’s president blamed Britain and the United States for two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on Tuesday. “Traces of the occupiers of Iraq is evident in the Ahvaz events. They should take responsibility in this regard,” state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying. The station reported that Ahmadinejad had issued a decree ordering his foreign minister and intelligence minister to investigate the possibility that “foreign hands” might have been responsible for the explosions. more...

Palestinian PM, Cabinet Resigns After Hamas Victory (January 27, 2006) - Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast peacemaking into question, officials from both major parties said Thursday. Palestinian leaders huddled to determine what role the Islamic militant group will play in governing the territories. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas to form the next government, with his defeated Fatah Party weighing whether to form a partnership or serve in the opposition. A Hamas government, without Fatah as a moderating force, would greatly complicate Abbas’ efforts to restart peace talks. The Islamic militants, who carried out dozens of suicide bombings and seek Israel’s destruction, have said they oppose peace talks and will not disarm. Israel and the United States refuse to deal with Hamas. The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said. In a first sign of pragmatism, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said the group would extend its year-old truce if Israel reciprocates. “If not, then I think we will have no option but to protect our people and our land,” he said. Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said the party does not want to join a Hamas government. “We will be a loyal opposition and rebuild the party,” Erekat said, after meeting with Abbas. But Nabil Shaath, another senior Fatah lawmaker, said the party’s leadership would make a decision later in the day. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the U.S. position on Hamas as a terrorist organization has not changed despite the election outcome. more...

Iranian President Sees End of World Order (January 26, 2006) - In a country of religious zealots, the extremism of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has even his own countrymen sounding alarms. Dissidents within Iran say their country’s president is such a crazed fanatic that he will try to usher in the end of the world as we know it. The faction seeking to remove Ahmadinejad does not object to the substance of the Iranian president’s repeated vows to “wipe Israel from the map” and destroy America. Nor do they believe Iran should abandon its secret nuclear weapons program, top Iranian government officials said, according to the source. Rather, they object to the fact that he has made such comments openly and without ambiguity. They believe that his frankness dangerously exposes them to attack from the United States, Israel or both. “This guy is not a politician,” the source quoted one top Iranian official as saying. “He is certifiably insane. And he is obsessed with the Imam Zaman,” the legendary 12th imam, or Imam Mahdi, whom many Shiite Muslims believe will return in the “end times” after a period of horrific battles, famine and pestilence. more...