June 27, 2006

New Week Dawning Herb Peters (June 27, 2006) - It’s hard for me to believe what I’m doing. I’m actually reporting about the dawning of a new week over Western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. And, if you think that I’m embellishing the importance of the European Union’s next seven-year budget term, take a look at the results from this Google 2007-2013. As far as we students of prophecies are concerned, we’re most interested in how, if at all, this coming seven-year period will affect Israel -- the nation at ground zero of Bible prophecy. And, what’s so amazing to me, this coming seven-year period will clearly have a profound impact on whatever happens in these end-times to Israel. Naturally, this brings up a very serious question. Could this coming seven-year period actually be the dawning of Israel’s final, 70th week (Daniel 9: 24, 27)? But, before we try to answer our question, let’s first take a look back at some of the events that have already happened that could be a fulfillment of prophecy. And, as we add events to our list, let’s ask ourselves this question: What are the odds of another?

This is basically where I left off in my book. And, as amazing as all the events listed above where, I knew that if I saw something else happened, what I was reporting may become the biggest story since the first advent of Christ -- that is, until Christ returns. That, of course, will be the biggest story ever. more...
| Israel | EU/UN | NewWorldOrder | Temple Mount |

DEBKAfile: The Palestinian Hamas kidnappers of Israel soldier Gilead Shalit break off contact with foreign diplomatic mediators (June 27, 2006) - In the two days since his abduction, none of the diplomats seeking to negotiate his release attained direct access to the kidnappers before the effort, led by Egypt, France, Turkey and others, broke down. It is feared that the Hamas faction holding the Israeli corporal have smuggled him out of the Gaza Strip through Sinai to a hostile Arab country, using the services of the Semhadana clan’s gunrunners, who are after revenge for Israel’s assassination of their kinsman. It is also possible that he has been put in the hands of al Qaeda cells in Sinai, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq or Lebanon. Israel’s armed forces are making every effort to prevent the Israeli hostage from being taken out of the Gaza Strip, but without firm knowledge of where he is hidden, they are groping in the dark. The IDF are now paying in full the price for passing the Philadelphi border strip to Egyptian security (and intelligence) control. Earlier, Palestinian PRC umbrella spokesman Muhammed al-Al said Gilead Shalit has been moved to hideout where “the Zionists will never reach him” DEBKAfile: The Palestinians are waging a war of nerves, countering IDF statement of action underway to prevent the Israeli hostage’s transfer outside the Gaza Strip from a location in the south. more...
| Israel | Islam |

Major Media Outlets, Including New York Times, Lose the American Perspective -They Continue to “Shoot Themselves in the Foot” by Publicly Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy (June 25, 2006) - While at the WWII memorial, I read, engraved in granite - as if in yesterday’s newspaper - these words: “...the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.” It sounded like I was reading about September 11, 2001, but no, it was about December 7, 1941. I’ve recently watched news anchors or guests ask on the major media channels, “Would you send your own son to die in Iraq?” And I’ve thought to myself, “Don’t they know it’s an all-volunteer military and there is no draft? And don't they know no father or mother has the right to “send” any child? You have to be an adult to sign up, you have to sign on the dotted line, and take an oath to serve, and to protect America, not based on your opinions, but rather based on what the Commander-in-Chief asks of you. Later, I surprised my wife on the flight back home by saying to her, “You should be glad I’m 50 years old and would not be accepted as an enlistee in the military. While I have no hatred in my heart, I would nevertheless feel like carrying a weapon to protect and serve my country, my family, and I would want to honor the sitting Commander-in-Chief, regardless of their political affiliation. I would do it to further the cause of freedom. It’s now being reported that indeed we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Some, but not all of them were secreted away before our armies got to Iraq. Saddam didn’t want to be caught red-handed. But they are, and they were there...WMD. Hitler wanted to kill anyone that was not of true German descent - the “Arian Race” he called them. Others want to kill anyone who is American, or who is Jewish, or who loves the Jewish people, or anyone who doesn’t hold their exact ideology. What a shame that we should defend those people. Against evil we fight - and that continues to be fighting evil for our own freedom. If this war isn’t WWIII, it’ll do until WWIII comes along, I’d say. So to my shock, today we have the NY Times, LA Times, and even the Wall Street Journal trumpeting the concept that privacy issues are even more important than protecting our own Women and Children. After all, the inference is, that our enemies already know our strategies of war and of tracking them, so why not tell the American people. Even David of the Old Testament would not hear of such a concept. more...

Wary of U.S., Syria and Iran Strengthen Ties (June 24, 2006) - For a long time, the top-selling poster in Hassan al-Sheikh’s gift shop here showed President Bashar al-Assad of Syria seated beside the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon. A few weeks ago a slightly different poster overtook it, this one with the Syrian president, the Hezbollah leader and Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Sheikh’s shop is on a bustling street in Sayeda Zeinab beside the entrance to a Shiite shrine that shares a name with the town, and both have been packed with Iranian pilgrims, many more than in years past. Those changes illustrate what may well be a worrying phenomenon for Washington as it seeks to contain Iran and isolate Syria: the two governments, and their people, are tightening relations on several fronts as power in the region shifts away from the once dominant Sunni to Shiites, led by Iran. This is, in part, the result of the American installation of a Shiite-dominated government in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-led government. But it is also spurred by the growing belief in Arab capitals that the Bush administration may soon negotiate a deal with Tehran over Iraq and nuclear weapons. Arab governments once hostile to Iran have begun to soften their public posture after decades of animosity toward Tehran. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met Iran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, in Cairo recently, and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, visited Tehran this month and declared the two nations to be good friends. In addition, Iranian officials recently sent messages of friendship to every Persian Gulf state. Amid all that activity, Syria has managed to inflate its power in the region by playing a subtle double game and setting itself up as a possible go-between. more...
| Iran | Islam |

Confirming A Covenant Herb Peters (June 23, 2006) - Readers at Fulfilled Prophecy already know something incredible happened at the recent EU/US summit. Javier Solana, the man who’s rise in the EU is connected in two places with the number 666, has had the civil, police and military resources of all 25 EU states placed at his disposal. But, when we take a close look at some other results from the summit, we find something else happened that’s incredible. The EU and the US have agreed to use Javier Solana’s 1995 Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for Peace as the basis for bringing peace to the Mediterranean Basin. A report from the Kuwait News Agency puts it this way:

In the final declaration issued following the American-EU summit in Vienna on Wednesday, the two sides expressed support for the Barcelona Process, the European neighbourhood policy, the partnership in the Middle East initiative and joint measures in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the Fund for Future Financing Read about it here.

The above was taken almost word for word from the joint declaration posted at the official White House Website. In a paragraph placed near the top, the document reads:

We will continue to support reform in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East and will promote greater participation of civil society in the reform process through our respective efforts, including the Barcelona Process, the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Middle East Partnership Initiative, and our joint actions through the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative and the Foundation and Fund for the Future Read it here.

If you want a little more information about how this strategic partnership between the EU and US came about, you can read about it here. However, as far as we students of Bible prophecy are concerned, how it came about isn’t really important. What’s important is that it has, and it appears to be a literal fulfillment of what was foretold in the book of Daniel. more...
| Israel | EU/UN | NewWorldOrder | Temple Mount |

Hamas: Islam will conquer USA and Britain (June 23, 2006) - A Hamas video just released on a Palestinian Web site focuses on the broader Islamic ideology, promising the eventual conquering and subjugation of Christian countries under Islam. The way Israel “ran” from Gaza after terror is presented as the prototype for future Israeli and Western behavior in the face of Islamic force. The video is a collection of statements by Hamas terrorist leader Yasser Ghalban killed last week by Palestinians, in the ongoing internal fighting. The following is the transcript of selections from the Hamas video:

“We will rule the nations. By Allah’s will, the USA will be conquered. Israel will be conquered. Rome and Britain will be conquered. The Jihad for Allah...is the way of truth and the way for salvation and the way which will lead us to crush the Jews and expel them from our country Palestine. Just as the Jews ran from Gaza, the Americans will run from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Russians will run from Chechnya, and the Indian will run from Kashmir, and our children will be released from Guantanamo. The prisoners will be released by Allah’s will, not by peaceful means and not by agreements, but they will be released by the sword, they will be released by the gun”. The video identifies itself as from the “Al-Qassam Brigades Media Office.” Al-Qassam Brigades is the name the Hamas calls its military wing. (www.palestine-info.net) June 22, 2006
| Islam | EU/UN |

Migraines “Zapped” Away with New Device (June 23, 2006) - Painless device produces significant improvements in migraine sufferers. An experimental, handheld device called the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) device, that “zaps” migraine headaches, is reported to have produced “significant” improvements in patients involved in a study using the technique. A report in the Times UK states: “The pulse has been found to trigger an electric current in neurons in the brain, preventing the initial ‘electrical storm’ from developing into a full-blown migraine.” Reporter Sam Lister adds that a team of American scientists, based at Ohio State University Medical Centre, will present findings from their research at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society in Los Angeles. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at Ohio, is quoted as saying the device’s pulses are “painless” and that after treatment the patients studied reported a significant reduction in nausea, noise and light sensitivity. more...
| Technology |

Scientists Find Giant Bubbles Surrounding the Earth (June 21, 2006) - According to a CNN report, the space above earth -- where Earth’s magnetic field meets a constant stream of particles flowing out from the sun -- is “fizzling with activity as bubbles of super-hot gas constantly grow and pop around Earth.” Reporter Robert Roy Britt notes that the newfound bubbles -- which can expand to about 620 miles -- are technically called density holes. Researchers first thought they had an instrument glitch when the spacecrafts passed through bubbles, adds Britt. more...
| Earth Changes |

Israel Prepares to Move On Outposts (June 21, 2006) - In a first major test of Israel’s plans for a large-scale West Bank [Judea and Samaria] withdrawal, the government is gearing up for a showdown with extremists in four unauthorized outposts. If successful, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to go on to evacuate all 24 outposts built since March 2001, fulfilling an Israeli commitment under the “Road Map” peace plan. The anticipated confrontation with settlers could be highly significant. It will give a first indication of whether Olmert has the clout to carry out a subsequent pullback entailing the evacuation of 50,000-100,000 settlers and will have major implications for the rule of law in the West Bank. In addition, when all 24 of the illegal outposts are dismantled, Israel will be able to claim that it has carried out its part of the Road Map’s opening phase and can demand, with greater moral authority, that the Palestinians meet their commitment to dismantle terrorist militias. In mid-June, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the Israel Defense Forces to be ready within two weeks to evacuate unauthorized West Bank outposts. Peretz has made it clear that he intends to start with four problematic outposts where radical young settlers have assaulted soldiers and policemen as well as Israeli and Palestinian civilians. In a meeting with settler leaders Sunday [June 18], Peretz said they would be ill-advised to make a stand for these unruly groups. Peretz hopes to show that, as the minister directly responsible for what goes on in the territories, he won’t tolerate settler violations of the law. First up will be Maon Farm, with the evacuation expected to take place before the end of June. In all, there are 105 unauthorized outposts. Two dozen were built after then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the Bush administration in March 2001 that there would be no more.
| Israel | Islam |

Massive Super Highway of Super Highways through America's Breadbasket to Shorten Freight Transport Time, Save Energy (June 20, 2006) - The Scotsman reports that the US administration is “quietly yet systematically” planning a “Trans-Texas Corridor”, a “massive road four football fields wide and running from Mexico to Canada through the heartland of the United States...citing as a benefit that it would negate the power of two unions, the Longshoremen and the Teamsters.” The “nation’s most modern roadway” would stretch between Laredo, Texas and Duluth, Minnesota, along Interstate 35, says reporter Craig Howie, and would therefore bypass east and west coast ports “to import goods from China and the Far East into the heart of middle America via Mexico, saving both cost and time.” Super Highway

Another source, according to the report, claimed the highway was a “bi-partisan effort” with support from both Republicans and Democrats that would reduce freight transport times across the nation by days.Rail tracks and pipelines for oil and natural gas would reportedly run alongside the road. Responding to accusations that the project would compromise national security and increase illegal immigration, Tiffany Melvin, the executive director of Nasco, a non-profit organization which has received money from the US Department of Transport to study the proposal, is quoted as saying: “We’re working on developing the existing system; these highways were developed in the 1950s and we have a number of different programs we’re working on to provide alternative fuels and improve safety and security issues. We get comments that we are working to bring in terrorists and drug dealers, but this is simply not true. This is a bi-partisan effort that will ultimately improve our transportation infrastructure. Trade with China is increasing greatly, and the costs of our transportation system are ultimately borne by the consumer. We do offer links to Canada and Mexico, but we are working on the trade competitiveness of America. We are planning for the future.” more...
| America |

Hamas, Fatah Reach Deal On Plan That Implicitly Recognizes Israel (June 27, 2006) - The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday after weeks of acrimonious negotiations aiming to lift crippling international aid sanctions. Moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah has been trying to coax his Hamas rivals into endorsing the document, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, in effect recognizing the Jewish state. He has endorsed the plan as a way to end sanctions against the Hamas-led Palestinian government and pave the way to reopening peace talks with Israel. “We have an agreement over the document,” said Ibrahim Abu Najah, coordinator of the “national dialogue” over the proposal. The plan also calls on militants to limit attacks to areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and calls for formation of a coalition Palestinian government. The United States, Israel and European Union list Hamas as a terrorist group because it rejects the existence of Israel and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into the Jewish state, killing hundreds. The West demands that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace accords, but Hamas refuses. As a result, the West has cut off much-needed aid to the Palestinian government. Salah Zeidan, another negotiator, said preparations were being made for a formal signing ceremony. more...
| Israel | Islam | Temple Mount |

US Ambassador To Israel: Soldier’s Capture Problem Is In Damascus (June 27, 2006) - The US ambassador to Israel on Tuesday said that the problem behind the Israeli hostage crisis lay in Damascus, the home of Hamas’s exiled political supreme Khaled Meshaal. Ambassador Richard Jones told reporters in Tel Aviv when asked about US reaction to the capturing of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian Resistance on Sunday “The problem is in Damascus and that’s where I think we should focus the world’s attention.” Three Palestinian Resistance groups, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas, on Monday demanded the release of all Palestinian women and children prisoners as a condition for information about the missing serviceman. The same three groups claimed a Sunday assault on an army post that left two Israeli soldiers dead, one captured and four wounded in the deadliest resistance assault in the area since Israel’s retreat of the Gaza Strip last summer. Meshaal, one of Israel’s most wanted men, famously survived a bungled assassination attempt by Mossad agents who injected him with poison on a street in the Jordanian capital Amman in 1997. A minister in Israel’s security cabinet also levelled veiled threats against the Damascus-based Meshaal. Infrastructure minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Israeli army radio “No one implicated in terrorism, particularly Meshaal, can get away with the least impunity as long as he treads the most extremist line”.
| Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |

Israeli Forces Mass Near Gaza (June 27, 2006) - Israeli tanks and troops massed near Gaza on Tuesday for a threatened offensive against Palestinian militants as the government said it would target top Hamas leaders if an abducted soldier was not freed. In northern Gaza, Palestinians blocked roads with dirt and barbed wire. Militants wielding automatic rifles and anti-tank rockets patrolled the streets as tensions hit their highest along the frontier since Israel quit Gaza nearly a year ago. The United States urged Israel to give diplomacy a chance to win the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized on Sunday by militants who also killed two soldiers in a raid on a military border post. Israel said leaders of the ruling Hamas movement could become assassination targets, including the group’s supreme leader Khaled Meshaal who lives in exile in Damascus. Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, warned Israel of a “painful” response if its forces re-invaded. “The enemy will regret the moment they raid Gaza. The price will be so heavy,” said the spokesman, dressed in military fatigues and clutching an AK-47 assault rifle. more...
| Israel | Islam | Gog/Magog |

Iran's Ahmadinejad To Visit Iraq (June 27, 2006) - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to pay a visit to Iraq in the near future to hold a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talebani. An informed source said that in addition to attending talks with senior Iraqi officials, Ahmadinejad is also due to go on pilgrimage in the holy shrines of the Shiites’ Imams in different Iraqi cities. President Ahmadinejad will be accompanied by a high-ranking political and economic delegation during the visit. The source also stated that the two sides have decided to endorse some political and economic cooperation agreements during the visit.
| Iran |

Glaciers are melting at their fastest rate for 5,000 years (June 27, 2006) - Mountain glaciers are melting faster now than at any time in the past 5,000 years because of an unprecedented period of global warming, a study has found. Ice cores taken from mountains as far apart as the Andes in South America and the Himalayas in Asia have revealed how climate change is leading to a full-scale retreat of the world’s tropical glaciers. Scientists have warned that human activities over the past 100 years may have nudged the global climate beyond a critical threshold which could see most of the highest ice caps disappearing within the near future. Melting glaciers in South America and Asia not only contribute to rising sea levels, they are also vital sources of freshwater for many millions of people who live within their range at lower altitudes, the scientists said. more...
| Earth Changes |

Mexican trucks to enter U.S. freely? (June 27, 2006) - A U.S. government agency has begun a new audit to determine if the Bush administration has resolved inspection issues that would allow Mexican trucks to enter the U.S. freely. David Barnes, a spokesman for the Office of Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed to WND a new audit was begun in March 2006 on action by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Barnes said he could not speculate on the outcome of the new study or on whether FMCSA had made any progress working out on-site safety inspection requirements with Mexico. Despite repeated calls, WND received no comment from the office of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. The issue draws heightened significance in light of the North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plans being developed by the Trans-Texas Corridor project. Next month, the Texas Department of Transportation plans to hold the final public hearings on the plan to build a super-highway up to four football fields wide, paralleling I-35, from the border with Mexico at Laredo, Texas, north to the Texas-Oklahoma border. The Texas DOT expects to have final federal approval by the summer of 2007, with construction of the first super-highway segment to begin shortly thereafter. more...
| NewWorldOrder | America |

Palestinians: Chemical warfare if Israel invades Gaza (June 26, 2006) - If Israel launches a ground assault in the Gaza Strip, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group will attack Israelis with chemical and biological weapons the group has developed, according to a pamphlet distributed yesterday by the Brigades. But sources in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while the group is attempting to acquire biological and chemical agents, their current capabilities in the field still are mostly primitive. “With the help of Allah, we are pleased to say that we succeeded in developing over 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons, this after a three-year effort,” said the Al Aqsa statement, which was released yesterday and made national headlines here today. more...
| Israel | Islam |

Peter King: Prosecute New York Times (June 26, 2006) - The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration Sunday to seek criminal charges against The New York Times for reporting on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists. Rep. Peter King blasted the newspaper’s decision last week to report that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records. “I am asking the Attorney General to begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times - the reporters, the editors and the publisher,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “We’re at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous.” The conservative lawmaker called the paper “pompous, arrogant, and more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people.” more...
| America |

Israel ‘Will Ensure Hamas Govt Toppled’ If soldier Slain (June 26, 2006) - Israel will work to ensure the Hamas-led government falls if a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants is not released alive, a high-ranking security official said. “We will make sure that the Hamas government ceases to operate if the kidnapped soldier is not returned to us alive,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel’s Shin Beth homeland security agency, made the threat in talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas late Sunday, the source said. The Popular Resistance Committees, an armed Palestinian group, claimed Monday in a telephone call to AFP that it was holding the soldier, saying he was alive. “We are holding the soldier. He is alive and in good health,” said the representative of the group, speaking on condition of anonymity. He gave no indications as to the whereabouts or the missing soldier, 20-year-old Gilad Shavit, who was abducted during a Palestinian attack on an army border post close to the Gaza Strip on Sunday that left two Israeli soldiers and two militants dead. more...
| Israel | Islam |

Iranian President Calls For Strengthening Relations With Turkey (June 25, 2006) - Iranian president calls for strengthening relations with Turkey. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Saturday for the strengthening of Iranian-Turkish relations in all fields. The presidential office said in a statement that Ahmadinejad described in a telephone call to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the two countries were tied through culture, history and religion. Furthermore, he said that two countries played an important role on the regional and international levels, and stressed that they had to increase deliberations in order to consolidate international peace and security. For his part, Erdogan expressed content with developments on the Iranian nuclear issue, noting that relations between the two countries would be further strengthened in the upcoming visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Tehran. The Turkish Foreign Minister is expected to arrive in Tehran later tonight and is to hold talks with Iranian officials on issues of mutual concern.
| Iran | Gog/Magog |

Talks With US ‘of No Use to Iran’ (June 27, 2006) - Iran’s supreme leader has said talking to the US about his country’s nuclear activities would hold no benefits, according to Iranian state television. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran was ready to ease concerns over its uranium enrichment but would not suspend it. “Negotiations with the United States are of no use for us. We have no use for such negotiations.” he said. Washington has said it will join EU states in talks with Iran if Tehran agrees to halt uranium enrichment. “We will not negotiate with anyone over the undeniable right of nuclear technology and using it,” said Ayatollah Khamenei. “If they recognize this right, we are ready to negotiate over supervision controls,” he added. The suspension of uranium enrichment is the key demand in a proposal aimed at resolving the nuclear row, backed by six world powers. The UN has offered Iran a package of incentives, but Iran has so far not responded. Last week Iran’s president said a reply would come on 22 August. The US believes Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, but Tehran says it is enriching uranium for energy purposes, as it is entitled to under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.
| Iran | America |

Weather Makes Earth Wobble (June 27, 2006) - Weather can have many effects, from sinking a city to causing whole hillsides to slip away. Now scientists say changes in the weather cause small wobbles in the entire planet’s spin. As it rotates, the Earth wobbles on its axis like a spinning top. And like a top as it slows down, the planet develops a host of different wobbles, ranging in period from a few minutes to billions of years. Some of the major wobbles are well studied, such as the 433-day Chandler wobble and the annual wobble, which together can tilt the Earth's axis up to 30 feet from its nominal center. One long-term change alters which point of light deserves to be called the North Star every few millennia. However, smaller variations, lasting a week or so, have proved more difficult to study, partly because they’re masked by the more prominent wobbles. But from November 2005 to February 2006, the Chandler and annual wobbles essentially cancelled each other out. This allowed Sebastien Lambert of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and colleagues to study the minor variations and determine why they occur when they do. more...
| Earth Changes |

‘Horrifying’ Morgellons Affecting Thousands in Southeastern (June 27, 2006) - A horrifying and fascinating disease is affecting thousands of people in the Bay Area, along the Gulf Coast and in Florida. Though some doctors have claimed the malady is psychosomatic, other scientists are making headway unraveling the mystery of Morgellons Disease. Former Oakland A’s pitcher Billy Koch has it. And so do his wife and their three children. And though they can afford top medical care, doctors have no answers. It started in Oakland four years ago. Koch saved 44 games and was the top reliever in the major leagues. His fastball wowed crowds. And then the strangeness began. “He freaked out. He wanted to ignore it … I wanted to too. But when it comes to your kids, you gotta stop ignoring it,” said Koch’s wife Brandi. She describes their symptoms: “It was the scariest thing I had ever realized in my entire life. There was matter and black specks coming out and off of my skin.” Within two years -- at age 29 -- Billy Koch was out of baseball, partly because of the uncontrollable muscle twitching that went on for months at a time and often kept up him up all night. The disease is characterized by slow healing skin lesions that often extrude small, dark filaments, especially after bathing. “That’s when it would really just ooze -- literally ooze out of my skin,” explained Brandi Koch. The couple was at wit’s end after numerous doctors not only provided little in the way of relief, but actually were skeptical about their health problems: “There’s no reasonable explanation for it. I’m not seeing things. I’m watching it happen. We’re pretty sane people…” lamented Billy. more...

Stealth Radar System Sees Through Trees and Walls Undetected (June 27, 2006) - Ohio State engineers have invented a radar system that is virtually undetectable because its signal resembles random noise. The radar could have applications in law enforcement, the military and disaster rescue. Eric Walton, senior research scientist in Ohio State’s ElectroScience laboratory, said that with further development the technology could even be used for medical imaging. He explained why using random noise makes the radar system invisible. “Almost all radio receivers in the world are designed to eliminate random noise so that they can clearly receive the signal they’re looking for,” Walton said. “Radio receivers could search for this radar signal and they wouldn’t find it. It also won’t interfere with TV, radio or other communication signals.” The radar scatters a very low-intensity signal across a wide range of frequencies, so a TV or radio tuned to any one frequency would interpret the radar signal as a very weak form of static. “It doesn’t interfere because it has a bandwidth that is thousands of times broader than the signals it might otherwise interfere with,” Walton said. more...
| Technology |

Iran Backs Attacks on U.S. Forces in Iraq, Casey Says (June 22, 2006) - Iran is increasingly providing weapons and training to Shiite extremist groups in Iraq who are attacking U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces, said General George Casey, the top American military commander in Iraq. “We are quite confident that the Iranians, through their covert special operations forces, are providing weapons, IED technology and training, to Shiite extremist groups in Iraq,” Casey said at a press briefing today with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. “Since January we have seen an upsurge in their support,” said Casey. Iran’s actions are “decidedly unhelpful,” he said. Iran uses “surrogates,” including Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, to provide materials to build bombs, train guerilla fighters and conduct attacks, Casey said. The insurgent training is being conducted in Iran and in some cases Lebanon, he said. Iran’s involvement is a “major element” in Iraq’s complex security environment, Casey said. The three additional factors he cited are al-Qaeda terrorists, “illegal armed groups” of criminals and the Sunni Arab resistance. more...
| Iran |

Gun Owners Accuse UN of July 4 Conspiracy (June 23, 2006) - Americans mistakenly worried the United Nations is plotting to take away their guns on July 4 -- U.S. Independence Day -- are flooding the world body with angry letters and postcards, the chairman of a U.N. conference on the illegal small arms trade said on Wednesday. “I myself have received over 100,000 letters from the U.S. public, criticizing me personally, saying, ‘You are having this conference on the 4th of July, you are not going to get our guns on that day,’” said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka’s U.N. ambassador. “That is a total misconception as far as we are concerned,” Kariyawasam told reporters ahead of the two-week meeting opening on Monday. For one, July 4 is a holiday at U.N. headquarters and the world body’s staff will be watching a fireworks display from the U.N. lawn rather than attending any meetings, he said. For another, the U.N. conference will look only at illegal arms and “does not in any way address legal possession,” a matter left to national governments to regulate rather than the United Nations, he added. The campaign is largely the work of the U.S. National Rifle Association, whose executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, warns on an NRA Web site (http://www.stopungunban.org/) of a July 4 plot “to finalize a U.N. treaty that would strip all citizens of all nations of their right to self-protection.” Kariyawasam said, “The U.N. conference will not negotiate any treaty to prohibit citizens of any country from possessing firearms or to interfere with the legal trade in small arms and light weapons.” more...

“Last fall, NRA’s Wayne LaPierre took her on in a live televised debate, on her home turf, in London. She is the voice and face of hatred of gun owners and Second Amendment freedoms. Don’t take our word for it--listen to her on how the U.N.’s global gun ban treaty is only the first step in a calculated strategy to ban, confiscate and destroy guns and bury our hunting and shooting traditions forever. This debate will shock you. It will frighten you. It will drive home that this threat won’t be defeated unless gun owners stand together and fight with all our courage. To learn more about Rebecca Peters and her plans to destroy the Second Amendment, get your copy of The Global War on Your Guns today. Or, order the LaPierre-Peters debate DVD today for only $5.95 plus shipping and handling from NRAStore.com. http://www.nrastore.com/”

News for June 27, 2006