News for May 19, 2006

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China, Russia Pushing U.S. And Israel Closer To Arms Confrontation With Iran (May 18, 2006) - The refusal of China and Russia to take any kind of substantive United Nations Security Council action against Iran is actually pushing the United States and Israel ever closer to a military confrontation with Iran. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows he does not have to bow to pressure from Europe and the United States because he has the undaunted support of China and Russia. China and Russia have consistently said they will not support any sanctions or military action against Iran. America’s Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has said that every discussion with Russia is difficult and every negotiation won is only after painstaking and often contentious debate. Evidence of this is found after Wednesday’s U.N. Security Council vote encouraging Syria to establish borders and diplomatic relations with Lebanon. The vote was unanimous except for Russia and China who abstained because they said it was “unnecessary meddling.” Comparing it to offering “walnuts and chocolate for gold,” Ahmadinejad turned down a sleek European Union offer that even included a nuclear reactor as a bribe for the terrorist Iranian regime to halt its development of nuclear technology. Instead, Ahmadinejad made an offer of his own: That he would open up the 70 million person Iranian marketplace to Europe if they would embrace Iran’s march toward membership in the international nuclear club. Many diplomats believe that Iran’s refusal of even a nuclear reactor and a sweet economic package from Europe means that Ahmadinejad and his radical band of Islamofascists are totally serious about building nuclear weapons—how smart of them. more...
| Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel |

Why the World Should Take Ahmadinejad Seriously (May 18, 2006) - Right from the start of the current crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration has pursued three main objectives. The first of these is to prevent the formation of a unified international front opposed to Tehran. The idea here is that if Iran manages to split the United Nations’ Security Council, and prevent the United States from enlisting the full support of the European Union, any plan to stop Iran’s plans would be doomed to failure. The second objective of the Ahmadinejad administration has been to present the nuclear issue as the most pressing topic in Iran’s domestic politics. The idea here is that since most people do not quite know what is at stake the government has a fair chance of casting itself in the role of “ the defender of national interests” against foreign, imperialistic powers that do not wish Iran, and other developing nations for that matter, to secure a share of modern science and technology. The nuclear issue has the added advantage of edging out other issues of domestic politics, notably the systematic violation of human rights, the looming economic crisis, and the bitter power struggle that is tearing the ruling establishment apart. Finally, the Ahmadinejad administration has tried to transform the nuclear issue into a duel between itself and the Bush administration in Washington. This strategy is based on the calculation that almost all countries, including Iran’s neighbors and the veto-holding members of he Security Council, would be glad to transfer that hot potato to Washington. Right from the start of his presidency, Ahmadinejad has claimed that the world today has only two options with regards to shaping the future. One is to adopt the American economic, political and cultural model in the context of globalization. The other is to adopt the Khomeinist model in which politics, economics and culture provide a unified whole within a social framework built on religion and controlled by theological authority. more...
| Iran | Islam |

EX-PA PAYMASTER: ARAFAT USED FOREIGN AID TO BUY WEAPONS (May 17, 2006) - Fuad Hejazi Muhammad Shubaki, born in 1942, from the Gaza Strip, was transferred to the Israel Security Agency [ISA] for investigation on March 14, 2006, after being apprehended in a combined Israel Defense Force-Israel Police-ISA operation at the Jericho prison (http://tinyurl.com/e96ah), where he had been incarcerated since May 2002. Prior to being incarcerated in Jericho, Shubaki was in charge of finances for the Palestinian Authority [PA] General Security service and had been the late Yasser Arafat’s finance person ( http://tinyurl.com/fuzdq & http://tinyurl.com/j5mwo ). Shubaki admitted that upon the outbreak of the current round of Palestinian violence and terrorism in the autumn of 2000, Yasser Arafat ordered him to purchase such large quantities of weapons as the various funding sources would allow. To this end, senior PA security service officials began to purchase war material and set up an administrative apparatus, with representatives stationed abroad, to aid them. Shubaki said that these officials passed proposals for purchasing arms to him; he then submitted them to Arafat for approval. After receiving Arafat’s approval, Shubaki would finance the various purchases. The PA thus acquired vast quantities of weapons, munitions, explosives, etc. Shubaki said that among the aforesaid senior security service officials were Jibril Rajoub, Amin al-Hindi, Haj Ismail, Rashid Abu Shabak, Abdul Razek Majaideh and Ghazi Jebali. In addition to financing the smuggling of war material, Shubaki also financed the independent production of war material for the PA, including grenades, explosives, RPG’s, etc. According to Shubaki, the financing for these war material purchases came from international assistance, tax revenues from the Gaza Strip, customs revenues transferred by Israel and funds from Arab countries. When the latter two were either in short supply or were absent, purchases were correspondingly scaled down. Shubaki estimated that between US $7–10 million in PA funds was spent every two years on war materiel for the Gaza Strip and US $2 million on war material for Judea and Samaria. Shubaki said that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Tanzim used weapons supplied by the PA security services, the smuggling and purchase of which was financed by Shubaki, with Arafat’s knowledge. Shubaki and Yasser Arafat were also directly involved in the Karine A (http://tinyurl.com/j2yks) affair. Shubaki said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah were among those who financed and guided the smuggling attempt by the Karine A ( http://tinyurl.com/eqkph), and Iran, Hezbollah and Ahmed Jibril’s organization had contributed the war material on board. Shubaki said that he met with Iranian officials in Dubai in March 2001 and added that the latter had offered to aid the PA similar to their aid to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This included assistance in channeling funds to the PA areas, in weapons production, and in military training. Shubaki said that Arafat opposed accepting this Iranian assistance, fearing an Iranian plot to attack him.
| Israel | Islam |

HAMAS: “NO PEACE, EVER, WITHOUT RETURN OF MILLIONS OF ARABS” (May 16, 2006) - While worldwide attempts continue in an effort to moderate Hamas and have it agree to negotiate with Israel, Hamas issues a bellicose “Nakba Day” proclamation rendering all such efforts moot. The Arabs of the Palestinian Authority [PA] commemorate May 15–the date of the end of the British Mandate in 1948, which made room for the formation of the State of Israel–as their “Nakba Day,” or Day of Catastrophe. The Hamas terrorist movement, which now controls the PA after an overwhelming popular election victory earlier this year, issued its Nakba Day proclamation [May15], effectively putting to rest any chances for peace with Israel. The Hamas announcement emphasizes the justness of terrorism against Israel, as well as the unyielding nature of its demand for the return of millions of Arabs to Israel. It repeats, several times, the claim that the Arabs were cruelly thrown out of their homes by Israel in 1948–when in fact the largest number of Arab refugees fled only at the urging of their own leaders, who promised them a swift victory over the fledgling Jewish state and a quick return to their homes. more...
| Israel | Islam |

Israeli Army Seeks To Evade W. Bank Expulsion Middle East News Line (May 16, 2006) - The Israeli military has urged the government to be relieved of any operation to expel an estimated 70,000 Jews from the West Bank [Judea and Samaria]. Military sources said senior commanders have warned that the use of army troops to evict Jews from scores of communities from the West Bank would harm the military. They said the army should not be used for such missions. “We prefer that police carry out this mission,” a source said. So far, the military has not announced such a position. But Israel’s media highlighted the military’s objection to participating in the eviction of Jews from the West Bank as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepared to leave for the United States next week.
| Israel | Islam |

A Fresh Supply of Iranian Weapons for New Batch of Iraqi Shiite Terrorists (May 15, 2006) - In the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities. They have already taken their toll in the shooting down of two military helicopters - one American and one British – and an estimated 19 deaths of US military personnel. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources estimate the delivery to Iraqi insurgents as consisting of around 1,000 SA-7 Strela ground-air missiles made in Iran, and a very large quantity of a newly-developed roadside bomb, loaded with compressed gas instead of ball bearings and cartridges, to magnify their blast and explosive power. The supplies have been distributed across Iraq - Basra and Amara in the south, Baghdad and its environs, Haditha in the west, and Mosul in the north. The new bombs, developed jointly by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese Hizballah, have already gone into service with the Shiite terrorists on the Lebanese border with Israel. Israeli military sources say it is only a matter of time before the deadly roadside bombs, already used in Iraq, will also reach Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. more...
| Iran |

Medical Doctors to Convene to Provide Data Supporting Divine Healing (May 18, 2006) - Some of the best in their medical fields will exchange notes on divine healing and present more than ten cases backed by medical data in which patients received healing by prayer. ANS reports that more than 500 physicians from 20 countries are expected to gather to discuss how spirituality and medicine go together and to present medical data about the works of divine healing at the Third International Christian Medical Conference on June 1-2 at Grand Convention Center in Cebu City, the Philippines. The theme of the conference -- “Spirituality & Medicine - III (Pursuit for Excellence)” -- will seek to enhance believers’ faith while emphasizing the fact that God is indeed the Healer. According to reporter Joseph Park, international delegates and some of the best in their medical fields will exchange notes on divine healing and present more than ten cases backed by medical data in which patients received healing by prayer. more...

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing (May 7, 2006) - Even by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty. Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality. Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man. We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother. Details follow of the brutality of her murder. more...
| Islam |

This is the savagery we face from the extremists who desire to see this happen worldwide to the infidels.

Iran eyes badges for Jews (May 19, 2006) - Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country’s Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims. “This is reminiscent of the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis.” Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical “standard Islamic garments.” The law, which must still be approved by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims. Iran’s roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth. “There’s no reason to believe they won’t pass this,” said Rabbi Hier. “It will certainly pass unless there’s some sort of international outcry over this.” Bernie Farber, the chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he was “stunned” by the measure. “We thought this had gone the way of the dodo bird, but clearly in Iran everything old and bad is new again,” he said. “It’s state-sponsored religious discrimination.” more...
| Iran | Israel |

Sound familiar? Reminiscent of Nazi Germany and the infamous yellow stars the Jews had to wear to distinguish them from the rest of the population. There are connections between the Muslims and Nazi Germany.

No fear: Overcoming Bible trauma (May 19, 2006) - I’ve been a writer for many years, working on all kinds of projects from screenplays to corporate speeches to playwriting to academic essays to journalism and commentary. As a former English teacher, I’ve read all kinds of writing but never anything that comes even close to the Bible. In fact, as I will explain from a writer’s perspective, the Bible is not possible. And yet, ironically, this amazing book is taken for granted. Most Americans have at least one Bible in their home. Most don’t read it, or don’t read it very much. In all likelihood that means you, or someone you know. Strangely, polls have shown that a huge percentage of Americans believe the Bible is the word of God but don’t have time to read it. No kidding. Either we must think God has nothing to say to us, or something else is going on. First off, be assured I am not going to ask you to become a Bible scholar. I am not going to ask you to take umpteen Bible study classes, or memorize chapter and verse. All of those are good things – but they’re not for everyone. Most of us need a simpler approach. The Bible is about relationship. It’s about you (with all your discouraging flaws) – and about God (who seeks to encourage you). We should go to the Bible as we go to an old friend, or to a loving parent. But that’s not reality for most people.

Israel ‘Will Not Allow’ Iran Nuclear Weapons (May 18, 2006) - The brother of newly-elected Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said here on Monday that Israel “will not allow” Iran to acquire nuclear weapons capability, and will launch a unilateral military strike if necessary to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. Dr. Josef Olmert, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in the early 1990s, told an audience at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles that “Iran is an existential issue” for Israel, because successive Iranian leaders have openly evoked the possibility of a nuclear exchange with the Jewish state. Olmert now works with Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York and with “The Israel Project,” an advocacy group in Washington, DC. His brother, who became Prime Minister after elections in March, will visit Washington, D.C. next week to meet with President Bush. Accompanying him will be Dr. Eli Levita, deputy director of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, who will brief U.S. officials on what Israel has learned about Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons capability. more...
| Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel |

Knesset member: Strike Iran now (May 18, 2006) - Israel and the international community should consider carrying out strategic strikes now against Iran’s nuclear facilities to stall its suspected uranium enrichment activities, Israeli Knesset Member Effie Eitam told WorldNetDaily yesterday during an interview. Eitam, chairman of the National Union Party and a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, warned Israel would need to attack Iran by itself if the international community led by the Unites States fails to successfully halt Tehran’s nuclear program within about a year. He blasted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s administration for “failing to devise a coherent strategy toward Iran” and urged Israel to immediately make public a doctrine of deterrence that would assure “total destruction” of Iran should it contemplate a first strike against the Jewish state. “Iran is now at that kind of bottleneck junction where strategic sites that are known can be relatively easily and safely attacked with the goal of causing maximum delay. Strikes now can stall the entire nuclear process by many years,” said Eitam. The Knesset member, a former Israeli Defense Forces general, said Israel may need to act alone against Iran. “With or without a world coalition, Israel will have to take action at some point when we are fully sure Iran’s nuclear project is coming to a point of no return. I am worried all mechanisms of diplomacy used by the Iranians in response to the international movement against it are to buy time as they camouflage the real nature of their programs.” more...
| Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel |

Protesters want citizenship now (May 17, 2006) - While a divided Congress wrangled over how to solve the immigration crisis, advocates of illegal aliens yesterday denounced all of the major legislation under consideration, along with President Bush’s proposals, demanding in protests throughout California that they be given full citizenship now. Protest organizer Luis Magaña in Stockton, Calif., condemned the president’s guest-worker proposal, contending a similar program run from 1942 to 1964 was abusive, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “If a program doesn’t give us the full rights accorded other workers in the United States, then we’re against it,” he told the paper. “They haven’t spelled out the details and there’s no discussion with the people who will be affected.” Activists in several California cities held news conferences yesterday to denounce legislation under consideration in the Senate and passed by the House and to oppose the president’s call to deploy National Guard troops on the border. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office in San Francisco was the site of one rally that featured signs and banners reading “Do Not Militarize the Border” and “No Human Being Is Illegal.” The protesters said they would continue until senators hear their message. The Mexican government, meanwhile, warned it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops detain illegals on the border. “If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates,” Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in an interview with a Mexico City radio station, according to the Associated Press. more...

Millions of US Coastal Residents Not Taking Hurricane Threat Seriously: Poll (May 19, 2006) - One year after the deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, millions of Americans in hurricane-prone areas are paying little heed to the threats posed by the powerful storms, according to a survey Tuesday. “Katrina was quite a national wake-up call, yet it seems too many residents are still asleep,” said Max Mayfield who heads the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC). Mayfield said a Mason-Dixon opinion poll conducted for the NHC showed that 56 percent of the people in areas at risk along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts do not feel vulnerable to a hurricane, and 83 percent have not strengthened their homes to resist the dangerous storms. “The most disturbing, is that 13 percent say they would not evacuate even if ordered to leave,” said Mayfield. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,500 people along the US Gulf coast last year, many of them New Orleans residents who had not followed evacuation orders. Forecasters believe 17 tropical storms, including nine hurricanes, could form during the six-month Atlantic cyclonic season that starts on June 1. more...
| Earth Changes |

Bankers Demand We ‘Obey’ Them (May 19, 2006) - A spine-chilling letter has surfaced on the Internet that dispels any illusions that we are free humans beings living in a benevolent democracy. The letter from “your globalist friend” advises citizens of the world “you are our property” and must accept servitude “for your own good.” “The days of putting a stop to us have long since past,” he writes sounding like Big Brother. “We have full control of the earth and its finance, along with the major media propaganda, and there is simply no way any nation or power can defeat us... We can send American or European troops to wherever we like, whenever we like, and for whatever purpose we like, and you dutifully go about our business...How much more evidence do you need? ...Does it not seem reasonable that you simply obey and serve us?” I know I promised to lighten up this summer but this is too important to ignore. I caution you material like this can induce a kind of schizophrenia because it provides a vision of reality so different from the one we are given by the mass media. The six-page letter was written in the autumn of 1999 but didn’t receive broad circulation. An anonymous reader sent it to Greg Szymanski Monday and he posted it on his web site www.arcticbeacon.com. I present the highlights here but urge you to read it in full. I also urge you to send a donation to Greg who is one of the most courageous and prolific writers on the net. He operates on a shoestring. The letter could be a hoax but I believe it is authentic. It is consistent with what many conspiracy researchers have discovered independently, yet more vivid and insightful than anything they could fabricate. If it is elite disinformation, its intention might be to discourage resistance. Whether or not it is authentic, the really important question is: Does it describe reality for you? more...

Final Chromosome in Human Genome Sequenced (May 19, 2006) - Scientists have reached a landmark point in one of the world's most important scientific projects by sequencing the last chromosome in the human genome, the so-called “book of life”. Chromosome 1 contains nearly twice as many genes as the average chromosome and makes up eight percent of the human genetic code. It is packed with 3,141 genes and linked to 350 illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. “This achievement effectively closes the book on an important volume of the Human Genome Project,” said Simon Gregory, who headed the sequencing project at the Sanger Institute in England. The project was started in 1990 to identify the genes and DNA sequences that provide a blueprint for human beings. Chromosome 1 is the biggest and contains, per chromosome, the greatest number of genes. “Therefore it is the region of the genome to which the greatest number of diseases have been localized,” added Gregory, from Duke University in the United States. The sequence of chromosome 1, which is published online by the journal Nature, took a team of 150 British and American scientists 10 years to complete.

US Spells Out Plan to Bomb Iran (May 18, 2006) - THE US is updating contingency plans for a non-nuclear strike to cripple Iran's atomic weapon programme if international diplomacy fails, Pentagon sources have confirmed. Strategists are understood to have presented two options for pinpoint strikes using B2 bombers flying directly from bases in Missouri, Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. RAF Fairford in Gloucester also has facilities for B2s but this has been ruled out because of the UK’s opposition to military action against Tehran. The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters. At least 75 targets in underground complexes would be attacked with waves of bunker-buster bombs. Iranian radar networks and air defence bases would be struck by submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and then kept out of action by carrier aircraft flying from warships in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. The alternative to an all-out campaign is a demonstration strike against one or two high-profile targets such as the Natanz uranium enrichment facility or the hexafluoride gas plant at Isfahan. UK sources say contingency plans have also been drawn up to cope with the inevitable backlash against the Basra garrison in neighbouring Iraq. more...
|Gog/Magog |