News for April 8, 2006

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11 Dead in Tenn.; New Storms Hit South (April 8, 2006) - In the second wave of violent weather to hit the state in less than a week, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes tore off roofs, overturned cars and left 11 people dead. While families of Sunday’s tornado victims in the western counties of Dyer and Gibson planned funerals for this weekend, many residents of Sumner County began picking through newly flattened homes and mangled cars. Talmadge Woodall, 81, described the twister that destroyed his house Friday afternoon as “rolling, throwing debris hundreds of feet in the air.” He lived in an upscale subdivision of Gallatin, about 24 miles northeast of Nashville, where three bodies were found. “These were at least half-million-dollar homes or better,” he said. “Now there’s nothing left. I didn’t even have a shingle off my house.” The number of tornadoes in the United States is up dramatically this year compared with the past few years, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Through the end of March, an estimated 286 tornadoes had hit the United States, compared with an average of 70 for the same three-month period in each of the past three years. The number of tornado-related deaths was 38 before Friday’s storms. The average number of deaths from 2003 to 2005 was 45 a year, the prediction center said. However, the number of storms and deaths this season seems high because the past few years have been unusually mild, said Dan McCarthy of Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Okla.

Column One: The rise of the Islamist axis (April 7, 2006) - On Monday, Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that part of Ukraine’s Soviet-era nuclear arsenal may well have found its way to Iran. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainians agreed to transfer the Soviet nuclear arsenal that remained in Ukraine after its independence to Russia. According to Novaya Gazeta, some 250 nuclear warheads never made it to Russia and are thought to have been sent to Iran instead. The report further noted that the warheads will remain operational until 2010. Responding to the report, Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia’s deputy defense minister and the chief of General Staff, said, “Russia’s General Staff has no information about whether Ukraine has given 250 nuclear warheads to Iran or not.” It is impossible to assess the accuracy of the report. The Ukrainian government has dismissed its allegations. Russia may well have invented the story to shift media attention away from the growing awareness that Russian support for Teheran, Damascus and Hamas effectively places it in the enemy camp in the US-led war against global jihad. But whether this particular report is true or false, there is no doubt that the danger to Israel and the rest of the Western world emanating from Iran and its allies is growing by the day. In recent testimony before the US Congress, John Negroponte, director of National Intelligence, said that the danger that Teheran “will acquire a nuclear weapon and the ability to integrate it with ballistic missiles that Iran already possesses” is a cause “for immediate concern.” more...

Triple suicide attack kills at least 70, injures dozens, in N. Baghdad Shiite mosque Friday DEBKAfile (April 7, 2006) - The bombers, two of whom were disguised as women, struck a packed mosque beonging SCIRI, the leading party of Iraq’s ruling Shiite Alliance. DEBKAfile adds: One of SCIRI’s leaders is vice president Abdul Mahdi, the American candidate for Iraqi prime minister. A day earlier, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Najef killing at least 13 people.

Hamas seeks talks on 2-state concept (April 7, 2006) - Hamas is prepared to discuss the concept of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict that would recognise Israel’s right to exist, the Palestinian foreign minister said in comments published on Friday. Mahmoud al-Zahar, who is also a senior Hamas leader, said he wanted clarification on the two-state proposal from the “Quartet” of Middle East mediators -- the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. Hamas, which swept parliamentary elections in January, is sworn to destroy Israel. But Western states say they will cut off aid to the Palestinians unless Hamas renounces violence, recognises Israel and abides by interim peace agreements. “Let us speak about what is the meaning of the two-state solution,” Zahar said in an interview with Britain’s Times newspaper. “We will ask them what is their concept concerning the two-state solution.” more...

Zion Oil Finds 9 Productive Zones (April 7, 2006) - Zion Oil & Gas, the company founded on the basis of a divine revelation of oil in Israel, has encountered nine zones it believes will be productive, officials said Wednesday. “Despite what you have heard, Ma’anit (Zion’s first exploratory well) is a success,” Zion Executive Vice President Glen Perry told reporters. Perry, holding up what looked like a shiny black rock, explained the company had several indications it had found hydrocarbons, which can be either oil or natural gas. A viable prospect has several characteristics, Perry said: the presence of a source rock called a “kitchen,” where oil is generated and “cooked” into a hydrocarbon; a migration path by which the hydrocarbons can move closer to the surface to a structure with enough holes, or porosity, to hold the oil and gas; and a seal to keep the oil and gas from getting all the way to the surface. The Ma’anit #1 well, which the company drilled from April to November 2005, exhibits all of these characteristics, Perry said. In addition, Perry said there was “constant gas coming out of the well between the depths of 3,700 meters and 4,700 meters.” The rock he held up was actually a solid substance similar to bitumen. Zion encountered a significant amount of this substance as drilling progressed in the well, which is located several kilometers inland from the Mediterranean coast, between the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, Perry said. more...

Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads (April 7, 2006) - Iran has successfully developed ballistic missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads. Detailed analysis of recent test firings of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile by military experts has concluded that Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb. The discovery will intensify international pressure on Teheran to provide a comprehensive breakdown of its nuclear research programme. Last week, the United Nations Security Council gave Iran 30 days to freeze its uranium enrichment programme that many experts believe is part of a clandestine attempt to produce nuclear weapons. Iran denies it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal. But ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons. more...

Related story: U.S. Officials Are Mulling Iran Strikes, Experts Say

Who’s pulling strings of illegal alien activists? (April 7, 2006) - America was stunned by massive rallies of half a million in support of illegal aliens in both Chicago and L.A. But two reports in the latest issue of Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin suggest no one should be surprised because these movements are well-organized, well-funded and directed by the hidden hands of globalist foundations with a one-world agenda. In fact, three of the four major Hispanic activist groups behind the recent rallies receive massive funding from the Ford Foundation as well as more limited support from Carnegie and Rockefeller. And who is promoting President Bush’s plan for even easier and more expedited movement of people between Mexico and the U.S. by 2010? It’s the Council on Foreign Relations, a group some consider a shadow government of elitists unaccountable to either the U.S. Constitution or the American people. There are some more likely suspects behind the radical demands for reparations, a sovereign Hispanic state in the southwestern U.S. and even expulsion of non-indigenous people from the Americas – people like George Soros.

Poll: Most don’t believe in body’s resurrection (April 6, 2006) - Most Americans don’t believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die, putting them at odds with a core teaching of Christianity. The findings of a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll surprised and dismayed some of the nation’s top theologians since it seems to put Americans in conflict with both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, ancient statements of faith meant to unify Christian belief. The Nicene Creed, adopted in 325 at the First Council of Nicea under Roman Emperor Constantine, concludes with the famous words: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.” Similarly, the Apostles’ Creed professes a belief in “the resurrection of the body.” Only 36 percent of the 1,007 adults interviewed a month ago by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University said “yes” to the question: “Do you believe that, after you die, your physical body will be resurrected someday?” Fifty-four percent said they do not believe and 10 percent were undecided. “This reflects the very low state of doctrinal preaching in our churches,” said Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and editor of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.more...

Ties with China forged to offset Western clout (April 6, 2006) - Amid worsening relations with the West, the Kremlin is boosting its political, economic and military ties with China as both countries look to counterbalance U.S. global influence, analysts said. On a recent visit to Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the burgeoning relationship as a model of international cooperation. “Russia and China are two of the largest powers in the world, and our relations are more than just a factor of geopolitical stability. They are an example of an open international partnership that is not directed against any third country and that helps develop a better and more just world order,” Mr. Putin said in a March 21 speech broadcast live on Chinese television.more...

Hamas leader: Jews controlling U.S. Christianity (April 5, 2006) - United States churches are secretly run by Jews who converted to Christianity with the intention of controlling religious Americans including President Bush, a top Hamas official claims. “Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jewish who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans,” Mohammad Abu Tir, the number two Hamas terrorist in the newly formed Palestinian Authority government said during an exclusive interview from his home yesterday with top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein. “I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, [including] the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists,” said Abu Tir. The Hamas official, famous for his orange-dyed beard, went on to accuse “Zionists” of controlling Western media organizations and “leading terrorism inside the mass communications media.” Abu Tir was elected to the number two spot in the PA in January’s legislative ballots in which Hamas won by a large margin. He spent nearly 25 years in Israeli prisons for directing terror activities, including the attempted poisoning in the early 1990s of Israel’s water supplies. more...

An American Intifada? (April 7, 2006) - The demonstrations are being coordinated by a coalition of Mexican groups under the umbrella group, La Raza. “La Raza” (literally, ‘The Race’) sees itself as “America’s Palestinians” and has as its goal the recovery of its former territories in the American Southwest, specifically, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, which they call “Aztlan”. Their website “La Voz de Aztlan” (Voice of Aztlan) is crammed full of articles sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, with subheadings like “USA Jewry, the Media and Hollywood”; “God vs. Zionism and USA Immorality” and “The Palestinian Struggle”. Noted one editorial; “There are great similarities between the political and economic condition of the Palestinians in occupied Palestine and that of La Raza in the southwest United States,” before explaining that Los Angeles is Atzlan’s version of Jerusalem. La Voz de Atzlan finds analogies between the Arab uprising in Israel and gang violence in Los Angeles, saying, “The similarities are many . . .The primary one, of course, is the fact that both La Raza and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer and occupy our territories. The takeover of our respective lands by foreign elements occurred 100 years apart. For La Raza, it happened in 1848 when Mexico lost the southwest at the end of the Mexican-American war and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidlago. For the Palestinians, it occurred in 1948 when the Zionist Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and signed the ‘Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel’ on the day in which the British Mandate over Palestine expired.” more...

America’s Total Debt Report - Update 2006 (April 7, 2006) - America has become more a debt ‘junkie’ - - than ever before with total debt of $44 trillion - - with the highest debt ratio in history. That’s $147,312 per man, woman and child - - or $589,248 per family of 4, $44,312 more debt per family than last year. Last year debt increased $3.5 Trillion, 5 times more than GDP. Household debt soared 12%. 68% ($30 trillion) of this debt was created since 1990, a period primarily driven by debt instead of by productive activity. And, the above does not include unfunded pensions and medical promises.

2 GREAT QUESTIONS:

1. Can the production of debt forever replace the production of goods and savings?
2. Can Americans forever borrow their way to prosperity?

Easy Answer > NO WAY !! more...

Iran’s Posturing Poses Big Oil Issues (April 7, 2006) - Iran’s recent testing of some purportedly new anti-shipping weapons off its coast caused oil futures to jump by $2 a barrel. How worried should we be? Iran’s choice of the Strait of Hormuz as the location for its missile and torpedo tests was telling; the Strait is a bottleneck for oil shipments from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. By way of its weapon demonstrations, Iran is threatening, obliquely, to close the Strait to oil tankers, lumbering vessels that would have little chance of evading any attacks. So, if Iran decided to start sinking tankers, shipments would have to stop transiting the Strait until it could be made safe, which would mean a serious, albeit fairly temporary, disruption to the world’s oil supply. more...

Why is Hugo Chávez Involved With U.S. Voting Machines? (April 6, 2006) - The greater threat to our nation’s security comes not from Dubai and its pro-Western government, but from Venezuela, where software engineers with links to the leftist, anti-American regime of Hugo Chávez are programming electronic voting machines that will soon power U.S. elections. Congress spent two weeks overreacting to news that Dubai Ports World would operate several American ports, including Miami’s, but a better target for their hysteria would be the acquisition by Smartmatic International of California-based Sequoia Voting Systems, whose machines serve millions of U.S. voters. That Smartmatic -- which has been accused by Venezuela’s opposition of helping Chávez rig elections in his favor -- now controls a major U.S. e-voting firm should give pause to anybody who thinks that replacing our antiquated butterfly ballots and hanging chads will restore Americans’ faith in our electoral process. more...

Google Map Used to Bolster TWA Flight 800 Missile Claim (April 6, 2006) - A researcher of the TWA Flight 800 downing says his use of the map program Google Earth to verify the claims of witnesses bolsters his belief that the 747 jetliner was shot down by a missile, contrary to the official explanation. Robert Donaldson, who has carried on the investigation of his brother, the late Cmdr. William Donaldson, re-interviewed a key witness, Mike Wire, whose testimony was used to create the government’s explanation. Nearly 10 years ago, after an extensive investigation, the FBI and National Transportation Safety Board declared “mechanical failure” the cause of the July 17, 1996, disaster but failed to adequately explain how it happened. Donaldson said the investigation created an “environment of suspicion and distrust in the government’s motives and conclusion.” “Throughout all of this, they have ignored and tried to discredit more than 100 eyewitnesses who saw a streak, or fireworks rise from the surface and impact Flight 800,” he said. Wire’s case is a perfect example of this bias, contends Donaldson, who went with the Pennsylvania man back to Long Island to take a photograph of the view and analyze it. Donaldson said what he created is nothing like the CIA described in its now-discredited video that featured a distorted version of Wire’s testimony. more...