Other Political News

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US House to debate N-deal today

The landmark Indo-US nuclear deal gets into legislative gear tomorrow when the House of Representatives takes it up for debate and vote to facilitate the implementation of the pact, which would mark an important step in transforming the strategic alliance between the two countries.
 
The legislation — The United States and India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion Act — has broad bipartisan support and is expected to clear the House without much difficulty.
 
Ahead of the debate, the powerful Rules Committee of the House is meeting to finalise the framework of the debate and the amendments that will be allowed to be voted upon.
 
The expectation is that there will be some two to three hours of debate, which will then be followed by a vote.
 
Tomorrow's vote is part of a drawn out legislative process to ratify the deal, which also has to be cleared by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an assembly of nations that export nuclear material.

[Soldier4Christ]

Valle Vidal Protection Has House Approval

U.S. House lawmakers have approved a bill to protect northern New Mexico's mineral-rich Valle Vidal from gas drilling, putting the issue of whether to keep the region off-limits to energy companies in the Senate's hands.

In 2002, the El Paso Exploration and Production Co. asked the Forest Service to open 40 percent of the 101,794-acre valley in the Carson National Forest for coal-bed methane drilling.

But thousands of people have said the Valle Vidal is too pristine to allow drilling, including all of New Mexico's federal delegation except Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who has yet to take a position.

If the Senate approves it, the House bill passed Monday would scuttle the drilling proposal and prevent energy companies from leasing in the Valle Vidal in the future.

"This bill is what all of us in the coalition wanted, which was to permanently protect the Valle Vidal from oil and gas and mineral exploration," Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., the bill's sponsor, said in an interview. "I'm going to give both Sen. Domenici and Sen. Bingaman a call and let them know what transpired here and that I hope for their support."

The fate of the bill now rests in part with Domenici, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who has the power to decide whether any bill dealing with the Valle Vidal will go to the full Senate.

Bingaman, D-N.M., has introduced another Valle Vidal bill in the Senate that would make the area a national preserve, protecting it while allowing public access.

On Monday, Domenici commended Udall for his work on the bill. But he said he wants to wait for a report from the Forest Service about whether drilling is an appropriate use for the valley.

"My hunch is that they're going to determine that you ... probably shouldn't (drill)," he said in a conversation with reporters. "But I think we ought to let that happen rather than precipitously stop it when there is such a terrific problem in the country with natural gas."

Environmentalists have said the Valle Vidal's natural beauty and pristine land would be ruined by drilling.

The coalition to protect the Valle Vidal -- or "Valley of Life" -- includes sportsmen and environmentalists, who say it is a key watershed for the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, the state fish, and home to New Mexico's largest elk herd.

Protecting the region even has become an issue in the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District race, many miles from the Carson National Forest. In June, the Democratic challenger, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, signed a pledge to always oppose oil and gas drilling in the Valle Vidal, pointing out that her Republican opponent, Rep. Heather Wilson, did not back Udall's bill.

Wilson co-sponsored the bill three days later.

On Monday, Wilson said she had evaluated the legislation and decided the Valle Vidal should be protected.

"The Valle Vidal is a great recreational, scenic and wildlife area, and the summer destination for up to 3,000 Boy Scouts on a wilderness experience each year," she said in a statement. "These are its best uses."

[Soldier4Christ]

House OKs Money for Americans in Lebanon


WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to add money to a federal repatriation program and ensure that 8,000 to 15,000 Americans fleeing Lebanon have lodging, medical care and transportation.

The Health and Human Services Department expects to reach the program's $1 million cap this week.

"We need your assistance in lifting this cap as soon as possible,"Secretary Michael Leavitt wrote to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill."Arriving U.S. citizens who are exhausted and without financial means will be left to fend for themselves upon arrival in their home country."

The government provides temporary assistance to citizens and their families when they arrive in the United States after fleeing foreign countries due to destitution, illness, threat of war, invasion or other crises.

Repatriation centers have opened at Baltimore's and Philadelphia's airports to assist Americans returning from Lebanon. They are staffed by medical and mental health professionals, and they have phone banks and computers to help people contact friends and relatives.

The House bill, passed by voice vote, temporarily lifts the program's $1 million cap to keep assistance flowing to the 8,000 to 15,000 Americans expected to leave Lebanon.

"Many don't need much help, but some do,"said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash, and the program"enables us to help Americans who escaped a conflict with their lives but little else."

The program provides aid for up to 90 days.

It is designed to help get people to their homes or other destinations as smoothly as possible. In the majority of cases, evacuees don't need much assistance, and they pay their own way for their lodging or for the airplane tickets.

In some cases, people fled without money or credit cards to pay for immediate needs. The government can provide money, medical care, lodging or transportation in those cases, and evacuees getting assistance promise to repay the money.

In a small number of cases, when a citizen is truly destitute, the government will pay the expenses for getting them to their final destination. The program also repays states for any assistance they provide to repatriating Americans.

[Soldier4Christ]

House passes bill to help preserve Revolutionary sites


CHARLESTON, S.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives this week approved legislation to identify and help preserve Revolutionary War sites in South Carolina.

The measure, the Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Act introduced by U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., was included in the National Heritage Areas Act approved by the Senate last year.

The House approved the measure Monday. A technical change is expected to be quickly approved by the Senate before the measure goes to President Bush for his signature, Spratt's office said.

Under the measure, the Interior Department will study, along with state and local historic societies, whether Revolutionary War sites in the state should be designated the "Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Area."

The study will determine sites which should be conserved and identify the best ways to do so. It will also determine if local groups or state and local governments already have plans for such sites and whether financial plans for conservation have been developed.

The study would include sites in North Carolina as necessary.

Spratt told the House the bill focuses on "the most important part of the campaign for the Revolution, the Revolution in the South, where the Revolution was largely won after the fall of Charleston in the back country. "

He said there are a number of Revolutionary War sites including state and national parks as well as other public and private sites.

Some need federal dollars to reach their potential while others are in danger of being lost, Spratt said.

"This study encompasses battles like Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Camden, and heroes like Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, and Nathaniel Greene," Spratt said.

"After the fall of Charleston in May 1780, when the South seemed lost, they turned the tide of battle in the back country and sent a battered Cornwallis to Virginia, where he was beaten at Yorktown. This is a story that needs to be told well, and a heritage corridor will help us do that," he added.

[Soldier4Christ]

House approves bill barring illegal immigrants from state work


RALEIGH, N.C. | The House overwhelmingly endorsed a bill Tuesday that would force state agencies to determine the legal status of all new employees, but the action late in the legislative term makes it a longshot the bill will become law.

The proposal approved 107-2 would require the personal information of all new state employees to be screened through a U.S. Department of Homeland Security identity check.

"The state should lead the way to show that the people employed in North Carolina are actually eligible for employment," said Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, the bill's sponsor.

North Carolina has a population of about 400,000 undocumented workers, according to the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

But with lawmakers pushing to finish the Legislature's annual session by as early as Thursday, Cleveland's measure faces a daunting road to passage. It will likely see a second House floor vote Wednesday. The Senate would then have to receive the bill, pass it through committee and approve it. Both chambers would then compromise on any differences before sending it to the governor for his approval.

Rep. Paul Luebke was one of two representatives to oppose the measure. He questioned why agencies would receive no money from the bill, even though it requires the new verification process.

"We don't need to be rushing forward with a bill like this," said Luebke, D-Durham.

[Soldier4Christ]

House committee to hold hearing on university building


PROVIDENCE, R.I. --A House committee, concerned about spending on a proposed $50 million biotechnology building at the University of Rhode Island, planned a hearing on the project Tuesday.

The five-story building was approved by voters in a 2004 bond issue, and groundbreaking was scheduled for this fall.

Members of the House Finance Committee are concerned that the building would house administrative offices not related to biotechnology and would therefore constitute an improper use of the bond money.

"When they saw the plans, they were not happy that the whole top floor was dedicated to administrative offices for deans not related to biotech, and they have questions about that," said House spokesman Larry Berman.

URI spokeswoman Linda Acciardo said the office space would be used for biotechnology purposes. She said only one half of one of the floors and a few other places would be used for administrative functions.

The hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Statehouse. URI President Robert Carothers and Jeffrey Seeman, dean of the College of Environment and Life Sciences, were expected to testify.

[Soldier4Christ]

White House press corps is moving out

For more than a hundred years, reporters have staked out the West Wing of the White House.

They've badgered press secretaries and accosted official visitors as they leave important meetings. Day in, day out, from the age of the fountain pen to today's wireless laptop, they've been there, telling the world what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

That changes next week.

The press corps is moving out of the White House so the briefing room can be remodeled. The reporters, photographers and camera and sound crews are moving across the street to temporary quarters in trailers. They could be there as long as nine months.

"We're doing this reluctantly," said Steve Scully, the political editor at C-SPAN and the president of the White House Correspondents Association. "People come and go. You can see heads of state come and go. We won't see that from across the street. ... This is a very closed White House and they're very restrictive about who you can talk to. That makes it all the more important to be close."

The press has been close for a long, long time.

Aging photos in the basement show an early White House press corps wearing top hats and bowlers. One shows reporters posing with President Woodrow Wilson; he doesn't look too happy. A display of black and white photos shows the press corps celebrating a triumphant trip covering President Harry S. Truman in Rio de Janeiro in 1947. Says one caption: "Veteran newsmen from Washington consume appetizing dainties on boat ride from airport to city to meet President Truman." Another trumpets their self-importance, describing their Rio trip as "rivaling the first settlers in America who landed at Plymouth Rock."

Reporters used to hang out in the West Wing's lobby after President Theodore Roosevelt built it and President William Howard Taft expanded it.

They got their own digs much later, in 1970, when President Richard Nixon installed a floor over a small swimming pool that had been built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio, in 1933. The pool was in a narrow section that connects the White House residence to its West Wing.

The pool's still there, visible through a trapdoor in the briefing-room floor, right in front of where the press secretary stands at the podium with the presidential seal behind. To honor history, the renovation will keep the pool largely intact - though still unseen below the floor.

The briefing room seats 47 reporters. Behind it is a smaller room with workstations for print reporters and closetlike booths for TV and radio people. A basement holds more desks and booths.

The briefing-room complex was last remodeled in 1981, when it was named in honor of White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was seriously wounded in that year's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

But that was only a remodeling. This year's more extensive work is long overdue.

The basement wall next to one reporter's cramped desk is crumbling. The space near the AP Radio and C-SPAN booths flooded recently. The heat and air conditioning need an overhaul. All the new technology needs new wiring.

And the new briefing room will boast a video wall behind the press secretary for officials to use to illustrate their points.

For all the new equipment, however, what happens there will remain the same: The press will push the White House to share information about current events with the public, and officials will try their best to spin what they say to make the president look good.

[Soldier4Christ]

House passes heritage designation for area east of Atlanta


Georgia lawmakers are optimistic that the Arabia Mountain area east of Atlanta will become a national heritage site this year after the House overwhelmingly approved a bill establishing the designation.

The Senate could adopt the measure within days, aides said, although passage is not guaranteed.

The Arabia Mountain provision has been bounced back and forth between the House and Senate in various forms for several years. But this year's version _ included in a large package of similar federal designations for sites across the country _ could have momentum.

"We feel like this time it's going to happen, maybe even before August," said Annie Laurie Walters, a spokeswoman for bill co-sponsor Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

The House passed the legislation Monday night, 323-39.

The National Park Service defines heritage areas as the nation's "defining landscapes" representing the "national experience" through a blend of natural, historic and cultural resources.

The designation does not carry new restrictions on development of private property. Instead it provides for federal funding and technical assistance for partnerships with local and state groups to maintain a designated area's character. Heritage areas often include existing conservation districts or public parks.

The Arabia Mountain heritage area would include parts of DeKalb, Rockdale and Henry counties, including the existing Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve in DeKalb County and the Panola Mountain State Conservation Park. The public greenspace portions of the heritage area would total some 5,000 acres, according to the Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance.

The legislation authorizes up to $1 million per year for managing the area, pending congressional appropriations in future spending bills and contingent on local matching money.

"I'm just pleased to see what seems to be a broad base of support for more heritage areas in the United States," said Kelly Jordan, chair of the Arabia Mountain alliance. "I'm hopeful that our area will get fully approved and enacted into law before Congress adjourns this year."

[Soldier4Christ]

hite House Working on Detainee Rules


WASHINGTON -- The White House is expected to unveil as early as next week a proposal on the legal handling of detainees after weeks of negotiations with Congress and meeting with military lawyers.

The recommendations, likely to be described by senior administration officials during a Senate hearing, would lay out a plan for prosecuting terror suspects detained by the military.

Still under discussion this week is whether the White House will agree with GOP senators to base a new effort on the military's court-martial system, which would afford terror suspects certain rights, or to champion legislation that would authorize the Pentagon's more stringent existing tribunal system.

The administration has been wrangling with the issue of detainees' legal rights since a June 29 ruling by the Supreme Court, which determined the military tribunals established by the Pentagon to prosecute the prisoners requires authorization by Congress.

The administration had previously maintained that the president's executive authority allowed him to establish the tribunals without Congress' permission. President Bush also asserted that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to terror suspects because they were not conventional prisoners of war.

Sen. John Warner, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said he had wanted to convene a hearing this week on the matter, but was urged by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to hold off until the administration could interview military lawyers and formulate a solid proposal. Warner met with Gonzales Tuesday in what he referred to as ongoing discussions.

Warner, R-Va., said he was hopeful the administration would lay out next week "the framework of legislative proposals they have in mind."

Warner and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have met frequently with administration officials in recent days to discuss detainee legislation. At issue during the discussions have been the legal rights that military detainees would have.

The senators have said they would support establishing a system based on the military's own court-martial practices and had been told the White House would support such a move. But senior officials from the Pentagon and Justice Department testified earlier this month that the Uniform Code of Military Justice would be too lenient on terror suspects and could expose classified information.

The senators have said they are confident an accord can be reached.

Warner said Tuesday he would convene briefings throughout August when Congress is in recess if necessary so that legislation could be passed this fall.

[Soldier4Christ]

House OKs bills to help vets get jobs


The House of Representatives passed two bills on Monday aimed at helping veterans get jobs.

“Veterans make outstanding employees, and we should be doing all we can to help them find good jobs that benefit them and their families,” said Rep. Rush D. Holt, D-N.J.

One is an omnibus benefits bill, the Veterans Small Business and Memorial Affairs Act of 2000; it sets up two pilot programs to help veterans find jobs and also requires 3 percent of all Department of Veterans Affairs contracts to be awarded to veteran-owned small businesses.

This bill, HR 3082, would give veteran and disabled veteran-owned small businesses priority in VA contracting, with the preference extended for up to 10 years in the case of a surviving spouse taking over a veteran’s business.

“It would be a reasonable expectation that of all federal government agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs would be a leader in achieving the president’s goal for annual procurement from at least 3 percent disabled veteran-owned businesses. Sadly, not,” said Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., who said the VA is barely halfway there.

“I want to make it plain that the intent of this bill is to put veteran-owned businesses, especially service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, at the front of the line for set-aside opportunities at the Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., chairman of the veterans affairs’ economic opportunity subcommittee.

One of the test programs would require states to develop a licensing and certification program to help veterans find jobs. Up to 10 military occupational specialties would be covered.

“Many service members, upon leaving the armed forces, seek employment within a field similar to their occupational specialties,” Boozman said. “However, there are several barriers that veterans may face with trying to be certified in these fields in their home states.”

Also in the bill is a five-year program in which the Labor Department would pay nongovernment employment agencies to find work for veterans is included in the bill. The test would be carried out only in areas of high unemployment.

The second measure passed by the House is the Hire a Veteran Week resolution, H.Con.Res. 125, which asks President Bush to issue a proclamation in hopes of gaining attention and jobs for veterans.

“No group in America deserves special employment opportunity more than our nation’s veterans,” Bradley said.

“Today’s veterans bring a sold work ethic, understand the chain of command, are accustomed to working within a system, are highly motivated and are comfortable with technology,” he added. “Hiring a veteran to fill a good-paying job is an important way to say thank you for your service and brings a quality employee to the work force.”

“It is shameful that so many of our veterans who have risked their own lives to defend our freedom cannot find jobs and must endure homelessness and lives of poverty after they return home,” said Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr., R-S.C. “On any given day, as many as 250,000 veterans are living on the streets or in homeless shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.”

Both bills had wide bipartisan support and passed by voice vote. Although they seem noncontroversial, the fate of both measures depends on what happens in the Senate, where the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee is working on its own employment and benefits bills. Differences with the House, which are expected, will have to be reconciled before any final measure passes.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lawmakers voice security concern on military surplus equipment

WASHINGTON --Lawmakers warned Tuesday that sensitive surplus military equipment could fall into the hands of terrorists unless the Defense Department takes stronger steps to tighten security controls.

"The mission of (the Defense Logistics Agency) is to provide our warfighters with what they need to fight our enemies," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. "Unfortunately, the (DLA) may be simultaneously supplying the terrorists what they need to fight us."

Shays, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's national security panel, held a hearing Tuesday that highlighted lax security controls in the surplus property system run by the DLA.

Defense Department officials said they will continue to tighten procedures to prevent abuses.

"We take this matter extremely seriously," said Alan F. Estevez, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration.

The session came in the wake of a new report that undercover government investigators were able to obtain sensitive excess military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department liquidation sales contractor.

"This investigation confirms sensitive military equipment is being sold or given to the public, posing a serious national security risk," Shays said.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists and should not be available to the public, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The GAO said such equipment should be destroyed.

GAO investigators posing as employees of Defense Department contractors obtained equipment valued at $1.1 million. The equipment included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

"Some of that military equipment jeopardizes our national security, isn't that right?" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked.

Maj. Gen. Bennie Williams, the DLA's director of logistics operations, said officials have taken both short-term and long-term steps to improve how surplus equipment is disposed, but realize the problem is not yet solved.

"More must be done," he said.

At least 2,669 sensitive military items were improperly sold to 79 buyers in 216 transactions from November 2005 to last month, the GAO said. Some of the equipment was displayed in the hearing room.

GAO reports in recent years had also exposed waste and problems with security controls over sensitive excess military equipment, lawmakers noted with evident frustration.

"The problems have not been fixed, they've gotten worse," Waxman said.

Shays noted that the government originally paid $343,695 for a time selector unit used to assure the accuracy of global positioning systems. GAO investigators recently paid just $65 for a unit that did not work but could have been fixed.

"It is still stunning to see what we have failed to deal with," Shays said

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. to reduce military presence in Central Asia: official


The United States will reduce its military presence in the Central Asian region as the cooperation between the two sides in various fields such as politics, economics and culture is being strengthened continuously, a visiting senior U.S. general said on Monday.

    The United States has no intention to set up permanent military bases in the Central Asian region, Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters after talks with senior officials in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

    "Over time, I would imagine that the level of cooperation would go up, but the level of presence will go down," Abizaid said

    The United States dramatically expanded ties with Central Asia nations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, setting up bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to support anti-terrorism and peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

    Last year, however, Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops stationed in a military base in the country over tough Western criticism about Uzbekistan's crackdown on protests in the province of Andijan, where human rights and opposition groups said hundreds of people have died.

    U.S. officials recently reached a new rent deal with Kyrgyzstan over the base there, where some 1,000 troops are based.

[Soldier4Christ]

Feds finally release info on 'superstate'
Asked to disclose details of plan that could form 'North American Union'


After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America.

The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.

As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established executive branch working groups documented on the Commerce website SPP.gov. The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, was issued as a joint press statement by President Bush, Mexican President Vincente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

Granting of the FOIA request comes after the Commerce Department missed a statutory requirement to respond within 20 businesses days.

The request was filed by author Jerome R. Corsi on June 19.

Corsi said the Commerce Department's compliance with the request is a major breakthrough.

"We're now going to get the documentary evidence to determine if the working groups in SPP.gov are creating new memoranda of understanding and trilateral agreements that under our Constitution should more appropriately be submitted to Congress as new treaties or laws," he said.

Corsi added that if this turns out to be the case, "we're going to present that evidence to the American people and let them make up their own minds."

Freedom of Information Act Officer Linda Bell mailed the "first interim response" yesterday and promises more response as batches of documents are processed, according to Brenda Dolan, a departmental officer.

Robert McGuire, attorney for Corsi, e-mailed Commerce July17, notifying the agency of the statutory violation in its failure to respond. He then received an e-mail from Dolan indicating the request was being processed. But McGuire asserted the response was unacceptable, saying the department "skipped a deadline required by law."

[Soldier4Christ]

'Down with America'
rally threatens Rice
Top officials of Abbas' party participate
as secretary visits Palestinian president

Senior members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party staged an anti-American protest today outside the main government building here while Abbas met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, WND has learned.

Most media coverage of today's Ramallah protests claimed rally participants were affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"Down with America," "[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah hit America," "Fire rockets into Tel Aviv," and "We don't need American money," were among the major slogans shouted repeatedly today by hundreds of protesters gathered on the streets as Rice and Abbas held a meeting in the main Ramallah government building a few yards away in which the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon reportedly was discussed.

Palestinian police clashed with some protesters who tried to shove their way into the government building.

A group of protesters, who said they were affiliated with Fatah, told WND they would try to charge Rice when she emerges.

The main protest organizer, outside leading the crowd, was Zyad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah official and general manager of the PA's Ministry of Prisoners. Ein is known to be a close Abbas confidante and is considered one of the most important members in Ramallah of Fatah's Revolutionary Council.

Ein told WND that aside from today's street protests near the Rice meeting, he asked Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to stage what he called a "day of rage" against the secretary of state's visit by not cooperating with prison wardens.

Rice arrived in Ramallah with a large security detail and was whisked inside the government building. She arrived nearly two hours ahead of the start time of the meeting announced earlier to journalists. She quickly departed after giving a brief statement to reporters in which she expressed support for the formation of a Palestinian state.

"Even as the Lebanon situation is resolved, we must remain focused on what is happening here, in the Palestinian territories," Rice told a news conference in Ramallah without answering any questions from reporters.

"On our desires to get back to ... (the) vision of two states living side by side in peace," Rice said.

The secretary of state said she told Abbas "how very much admiration there is for you in the United States for your courage and your continuing leadership of the Palestinian people."

"I assured the president that we had great concerns about the sufferings of innocent people throughout the region and we must get back onto a course" that will redeem a vision of "two states living side by side in peace."

"All in all, this was a very useful and constructive discussion," Rice said. "We are working with the Palestinian Authority and its duly elected president on multiple fronts."

Today's Fatah rally follows a WND exclusive interview last week in which Abu Nasser, second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group, warned it is only a "question of time" before Palestinian terror groups and other Islamic organizations in the Middle East target the U.S. both abroad and on the home front.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, the declared "military wing" of the Fatah party, is responsible for scores of rocket and shooting attacks, and – together with Islamic Jihad – for every suicide bombing since last February's so-called cease-fire.

"The Americans deserve to be targeted because of their support to the enemy. ... It is a question of time before the revolutionary organizations in the Middle East will start targeting the Americans," said Abu Nasser, speaking to WND from Nablus.

"One can say that these threats are just rhetoric, but the near past proved that these threats come more and more into reality," said Abu Nasser. "Believe me, it is a new era and I am suggesting to the American people to adopt a different policy and strategy because very soon they will deal with a unified Muslim world, but without the help of their agents in the Middle East."

[Soldier4Christ]

Missile defense plan seen ready by fall

The U.S. military hopes to complete work this fall on a plan mapping out how regional commanders will be able to use the fledgling U.S. missile defense system, a top general said on Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Larry Dodgen, commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defend Command, told industry executives and congressional aides he expected the so-called "concept of operations" to be done by October or November.

He said it marked the first time the military had tried to draft such a plan for a specific capability across the military's regional commands.

Dodgen hailed a recent successful test of a missile-shield component built by Lockheed Martin Corp. to shoot down a ballistic missile in the last minute or so of its flight.

The so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon system, or THAAD, "exceeded its objectives" in the long-planned test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Lockheed said in a statement earlier this month.

Dodgen agreed, saying the THAAD missiles would "pay for themselves many times over."

He also mentioned plans to deploy missile interceptors in Japan, and said officials were still weighing where to place interceptors in Europe.

The United States last month activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defense system ahead of a test-launch of North Korean missiles on July 5.

North Korea defied international warnings and fired seven missiles into waters east of the Korean peninsula. Dodgen said the missiles were not in the air long enough to learn much about them, but the U.S. military was still studying its data.

The United States has built up a complex of interceptor missiles, advanced radar stations and data relays designed to detect and shoot down an enemy missile, but tests of the system have had mixed results. It is based on the concept of using one missile to shoot down another before it can reach its target.

The United States has installed nine interceptors in silos at Fort Greely in Alaska and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In addition, U.S. Navy vessels with long-range tracking and surveillance capability ply the Sea of Japan.

Dodgen said further improvements would include placement of additional interceptor missiles, more sensors and further development of the system's capabilities, including better defenses against cruise missiles.