News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

April 23, 2006

Iran’s president recruits terror master
Sarah Baxter, Washington and Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
Plot for revenge attacks on West
IRAN’S president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended a meeting in Syria earlier this year with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, according to intelligence experts and a former national security official in Washington.

US officials and Israel intelligence sources believe Imad Mugniyeh, the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah’s overseas operations, has taken charge of plotting Iran’s retaliation against western targets should President George W Bush order a strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Mugniyeh is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list for his role in a series of high-profile attacks against the West, including the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet and murder of one of its passengers, a US navy diver.

Now in his mid-forties, Mugniyeh is reported to have travelled with Ahmadinejad in January this year from Tehran to Damascus, where the Iranian president met leaders of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

The meeting has been dubbed a “terror summit” because of the presence of so many groups behind attacks on Israel, which Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe from the map.

Jane’s Intelligence Review cited “reports in recent weeks” of Mugniyeh’s presence alongside the president.

Michael Ledeen, a Middle East expert and former Pentagon and National Security Council official who wrote that Mugniyeh had “probably” been there, said last week senior American officials had confirmed it.

“It’s hard to identify Mugniyeh because he is said to have changed his face and his fingerprints,” Ledeen said. “But senior government officials have told me I was right. He was there.”

Shortly after the Damascus summit Henry Crumpton, head of counter-terrorism at the state department, singled out the elusive Mugniyeh as a threat. The Iranians, Crumpton said, “have complete command and control of Hezbollah. Imad Mugniyeh works for Tehran. And you can’t talk about Hezbollah and not think about Iran. They really are part and parcel of the same problem.”

Mugniyeh lives in Iran and has evaded capture for more than 20 years, despite a $5m American bounty on his head. Western intelligence reports claim he has many connections to terrorist cells in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the US and he is said to have met Osama Bin Laden.

“When and if the Iranians decide to hit the West in its soft belly, Imad will be the one to act,” a western intelligence source said last week.

An Israeli defence source claimed Mugniyeh was in regular touch with the new Iranian intelligence minister, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei. The minister is a long-time confidant of Ahmadinejad and was appointed by him.

“We know that Mohseni Ezhei holds routine meetings with Mugniyeh, who is today Iran’s head of overseas operations,” said the Israeli defence source. “Since we know from previous Iranian terror attacks that it takes about a year to plan a substantial one, we should not be surprised if operations against western targets are already in high gear and Mugniyeh is certainly playing a major role.”

The young Mugniyeh first attracted the attention of the West when he was involved in the kidnapping, torture and mutilation of William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, in 1984. He kept his victim at the Sheikh Abdullah camp in the Lebanese Bekaa valley and was allegedly the last person Buckley saw before he died.

“Imad had good reason to retaliate,” said a well-informed source. “A car bomb killed his brother Jihad, who had taken Imad’s old job as bodyguard to Hezbollah’s spiritual leader.” Mugniyeh blamed the CIA, and Buckley was chosen to pay the price.

The kidnapping led to the Iran-contra affair, one of the most embarrassing episodes of the Reagan presidency, in which arms were swapped for hostages. But by the time the Americans were negotiating with the Iranians, Buckley was already dead.

Mugniyeh has also been linked to the demolition of the American embassy and marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and is wanted in Argentina for his role in recruiting the bombers of the Israeli embassy and Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s.

Mugniyeh left Lebanon for Iran in 1994 with his wife and son after an assassination attempt. He is since believed to have played an active role in fomenting trouble in Iraq. Ledeen described him last week as the “spinal column of the terror war against America in Iraq from the beginning”.

According to Robert Baer, a former CIA agent who pursued Mugniyeh in the 1980s, “he is the most dangerous terrorist we have ever faced. Mugniyeh is probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we have ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else.

“He enters by one door, exits by another, changes his cars daily, never makes appointments by telephone — he is never predictable. He is the master terrorist, the grail we have been after since 1983”.

Elite Iranian army officers who arrived in south Lebanon this month have taken command of thousands of rockets aimed at cities across Israel. They are believed to have been given control of the missiles by Hezbollah to deter possible Israeli attacks against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran’s president recruits terror master

[Soldier4Christ]

Hamas officials contradict selves in media
Advocate destruction of Israel to Arabic audiences, coexistence in English interviews


JERUSALEM – Since officially forming its government earlier this month, Hamas has been making a series of contradictory statements to the media, supporting terrorism and promoting the destruction of Israel in Arabic-language interviews while espousing moderate ideology and the possibility of coexistence when speaking to Western audiences, according to a recent study.

"The Hamas movement, in an attempt to bridge the significant gap between its platform and ideology – denying Israel 's existence and supporting terrorism – and the demands of the international community, [has been] pursuing a media strategy of deliberate ambiguity and double-talk," concluded the study by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and Israel's Center for Special Studies.

"By means of Western media, senior Hamas officials attempt to blur or hide their basic extremist positions and to project a 'softened' front. By means of Arab media in general and Palestinian media in particular, Hamas projects a militant, uncompromising image," the study stated.

The study follows a WND exclusive interview in which a top Hamas leader said his group will soon make public in English a "peace initiative" in which it will offer to trade strategic land with Israel, cease attempts to capture parts of Jerusalem and sign a 10-year renewable truce with the Jewish state. The leader conceded the aim of the proposal was to later destroy Israel.

The Center for Special Studies cited multiple cases in which Hamas officials, often including its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, directly contradicted themselves in statements to different media outlets, depending on the audience.

On the topic of suicide bombings, Haniyeh recently granted an English interview to CBS in which he stated, "Hamas never thought about violence, but, in effect, aspired towards peace and calm based upon justice and equality."

In an interview with Britain's Observer, Hamas Legislative Council member Yahya Moussa claimed Hamas entered a new age where suicide bombings were no longer part of its belief system.

"The suicide bombings happened in an exceptional period and they have now stopped. ... They came to an end as a change of belief," Moussa stated.

But speaking to an Arabic audience during a meeting of the Hamas legislative council, Haniyeh stated, "The movement's [political] platform integrates between resistance and political activity. ... The fundamental stances [of the government] emerged out of the womb of resistance."

Overall Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told the Arabic media in an announcement, "Resistance is the option the Palestinian people adheres to for restoring its national rights."

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Voice of Palestine, a West Bank radio station, "The [Hamas] movement adheres to all forms of resistance ... including suicide bombing attack."

Regarding the possibility of recognizing Israel, Haniyeh said in an English language interview with the Jerusalem Post Hamas would respect the agreements ensuring the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners. He added that if Israel withdrew to the 1967 lines, Hamas would formulate peace in stages.

Hamas chief in Gaza Mahmoud al-Zahar made similar statements in several interviews with WorldNetDaily.

But speaking in Arabic, Haniyeh told the Al-Shuruq newspaper, "One of the fundamental principles of the new government is not to surrender to international pressure and refuse to recognize Israel."

Meshaal told Al-Rai al-Am, a Kuwaiti daily, "No to negotiations with Israel. No to recognition of Israel. And no to surrendering Palestinians' rights."

Discussing direct negotiations with Israel, al-Zahar said during a well-circulated interview with WorldNetDaily and ABC Radio he is willing to talk with Israel through third-party mediators if the Jewish state had a peace proposal.

Haniyeh told the Jerusalem Post agreements previously signed by the Palestinian Authority would be considered and discussed by Hamas, and that his group was seeking a mechanism for conducting negotiations with Israel.

Later Omar Abd el-Razeq, Hamas' Minister of Finance, told Reuters he is willing to meet with his Israeli counterpart.

But Wasfi Qabha, Hamas' Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, told the Arabaic media, "I will not meet with the occupation leadership."

Sa'id Siyam, a Hamas Interior Minister, said at an Arabic press conference in Gaza City, "The Palestinian defense is not open for political negotiations. That is out of the question on my agenda."

The conflicted statements to the media follow a WND exclusive interview in January in which a top Hamas leader outlined a "peace initiative" he said Hamas would soon float publicly. The leader justified the proposal using Islamic tradition and stated it would be a temporary machination to ease international and U.S. hostility toward his group in hopes of receiving financial assistance.

"We will be ready for a long interim agreement based on a period of cease-fire that can go to 10 or even 15 years like it was done by the prophet Muhammad with the enemies of the Muslims," said the senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, since he said he was "revealing confidential operative information."

Hamas leaders, including overall leader Meshal, formulated a "peace proposal" they agreed would be acceptable to their group in which the Palestinians would offer to trade certain lands with Israel, the top Hamas official revealed.

"With the territories we will be ready to discuss the possibility that the three big settlement compounds will remain under the power of the occupation (Israel), and in exchange we will receive territories for the Palestinian independent state," said the Hamas leader.

The leader told WND the "three settlements" he was referring to are Ariel and Gush Etzion, two large regions in the West Bank that contain many of the area's major Jewish communities, and western and peripheral sections of Jerusalem, which he said Hamas considers "Israeli settlements." Jews have resided in Jerusalem – which is mentioned more than 800 times in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible – for more than 3,000 years.

Hamas, in exchange for the three areas, would want the eastern sections of Jerusalem, the parts of the southern Israeli Negev desert that border the Gaza Strip and the Jordan Valley, which extends from outside Jerusalem toward Jordan and encompasses most of Israel's major water supplies.

The Hamas official indicated his group may be willing to compromise on its territorial demands.

"We are most interested in Jerusalem and the Negev," the leader said.

The leader then justified the Hamas "peace plan" using Islamic history.

"The Muslim hero Saladin gave up land when he gave Acco to the Crusaders in order to keep Jerusalem," he said. "Therefore, I say that the possibility of the exchange of territories existed already in the history of Islam and it cohabitates with our principle that all of Palestine is a dedicated land from Allah, may he be blessed to the Muslims, and no one has the right to give up any part of it."

There have been concerns as its power grows, Hamas may try to impose hard-line Islamic law on the Palestinians. Immediately following its election victory last month, Hamas gunmen placed the group's flag on the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah and reportedly announced Hamas will soon rule the area by Sharia law. Hamas reportedly has banned Western music events and established hard-line Islamic courts. Israel says the group has an "Anti-Corruption Unit" that enforces Islamic rules.

But the Hamas official told WND his terror organization will not impose Islamic law, "in order to reduce the hostility of the international community and the government of Israel [toward Hamas]. We will not take any initiative to change the way of life of the Palestinian people."

The Hamas leader said, "I tell you we will surprise everyone with our new attitude."

But he said his group will not abandon its goal of destroying Israel.

"When I speak about a long cease-fire and a temporary agreement, it means that we do not recognize the right of the state of the occupation on our lands, but we will accept its existence temporarily," said the leader.

The leader insisted the policies are based on the formulation Hamas will not be able to defeat Israel in the near future, but he said his group is confident it ultimately will be "victorious."

"I do not see the Palestinian people and Islamic nation succeeding to liberate this blessed land of Palestine in the very near future," he said. "This is an Islamic land and the Jews are invited to live in Palestine and the Muslims will guaranty their safety and honor. ... But we will never give up our right for the whole of Palestine. We should be realistic to admit that the mission for the liberation of Palestine will pass on to the coming generations."

[Soldier4Christ]

CIA fires analyst for leaks on jails



A TOP CIA intelligence analyst has been sacked for leaking classified material to the American media.

The sacking came just days after a Pulitzer Prize, the US's highest journalism honour, was awarded to a reporter at The Washington Post, whom intelligence officials said had contact with the analyst, identified in the media as Mary McCarthy.

Post reporter Dana Priest won the Pulitzer for articles exposing a network of secret prisons the US has been operating in Europe.

The CIA fired Ms McCarthy late last week amid Bush administration attempts to clamp down on leaks that it says are jeopardising its fight on the war against terrorism.

The New York Times reported the firing followed an internal investigation by the CIA's Security Centre as part of a probe that began in January to scrutinise employees who had access to relevant classified information.

Ms McCarthy, who was close to retirement, was reportedly given a lie detector test and, when confronted about the answers, confessed.

The CIA confirmed it had sacked an officer but declined to name Ms McCarthy.

"The officer has acknowledged unauthorised discussions with the media and the unauthorised sharing of classified information," a spokesman said. "That is a violation of the secrecy agreement that everyone signs as a condition of employment with the CIA."

A criminal investigation has also begun into leaks from the CIA but this is not believed to involve Ms McCarthy.

The Post's articles on the covert prison system revealed the CIA had established a network of secret detention centres in Europe after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

There was international outrage over the story, prompting intelligence inquiries in Europe while the US Government claimed the revelations caused significant damage to relations between the American and European intelligence agencies.

Debate over the existence of the prisons is still raging. Last week the European Union's anti-terrorism chief told a hearing that he had not been able to prove that secret CIA prisons even existed in Europe.

"We've heard all kinds of allegations," said Gijs de Vries before a committee of the European Parliament. "It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt."

The Washington Post's executive editor, Leonard Downie Jr, said in a statement on the latest developments: "We don't know the details of why (the CIA employee) was fired, so I can't comment on that. But as a general principle, obviously I am opposed to criminalising the dissemination of government information to the press."

The firing is set to spark another political firestorm in Washington over intelligence leaks. The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, lauded the agency for identifying a source of the leaks.

"Those who leak classified information not only risk the disclosure of intelligence sources and methods, but also expose the brave men and women of the intelligence community to greater danger," Senator Roberts said.

"Clearly, those guilty of improperly disclosing classified information should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Unauthorised disclosures of classified information can significantly harm our ability to protect the American people. Frankly, at a time in which intelligence is more important than ever, leaks have hindered our efforts in the war against al-Qa'ida."

But Democrats are charging double standards from the Bush administration given the controversy over the White House's role in divulging the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the media. "Apparently, President Bush doesn't believe what's good for the CIA is good for the White House," Democrat Robert Menendez said.

The US Justice Department is conducting several leak inquiries, including one into reports last December in The New York Times about a secret eavesdropping surveillance program by the National Security Agency.

Colleagues of Ms McCarthy's told The New York Times yesterday that although she had an independent streak they could not imagine her as a leaker of classified information.

But the paper said it was possible that Ms McCarthy -- who made a contribution to Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 -- had grown increasingly disenchanted with the methods adopted by the Bush administration for handling al-Qa'ida prisoners.

[Shammu]

Arizona toughens its three-strikes law

Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 24, 2006 12:00 AM

Life is about to get considerably harder for Arizona's repeat felons.

A newly minted three-strikes law in Arizona promises a life sentence with no possibility of pardon or parole for individuals convicted of three serious felonies. Even a governor's commute won't be possible until a three-strikes inmate has served 35 years in prison.

The law, a result of Senate Bill 1444, is aimed at the worst of the worst: rapists, murderers, arsonists, terrorists and child molesters.

They're the individuals, bill sponsor Sen. Barbara Leff said, who have exhausted any patience owed them by society.

"We need this to make sure the most violent individuals are removed from society," said Leff, R-Paradise Valley. "There's worth in knowing they're going to be gone for life."

Legislators, perhaps unwittingly, heaped the measure atop an existing three-strikes statute in Arizona. But the new law is stiffer, more specific and stipulates that felonies accrued in other states count toward the defendant's total.

What happens in Vegas, in other words, counts against your Arizona three-strikes tally.

But while Republican legislators ran the measure under the get-tough mantra, and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano signed it into law, others question whether the effort is more about making political points than taking a bite out of crime.

Three-strikes and other such mandatory sentencing is politically popular but ineffective and inflexible, critics say, tying the hands of judges and saddling states with an increasing number of lifelong inmates.

"They make a great sound bite, but whether or not they're driven by good public policy is another question," said Laura Sager, national campaign director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "No two cases are alike. Judges should have discretion."

\"How much?\"
Three-strikes laws came into vogue in the mid-1990s as perception spread that softhearted judges were going easy on career criminals. Washington state passed the first version in 1993. California followed the next year with the broadest, and best known, three-strikes law to date.

The idea was simple: Some criminals had exhibited such a history of heinous offenses that their sentencing warranted no additional look at mitigating factors, no judicial mercy.

The idea caught fire, and roughly two dozen states and the federal government have some version of three-strikes legislation on the books.

But it remains contentious. California's law is more loosely written and has drawn perhaps the most criticism.

In that state, a life sentence can be triggered for a third-strike conviction of any felony, meaning some defendants have been sentenced to lengthy terms for relatively minor offenses.

By 2004, nearly 43,000 California inmates were serving time under the three-strikes statute, making up more than a quarter of the total prison population.

While Arizona's version is written much more narrowly, Democratic lawmakers largely opposed it. Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, pointed out that crimes, even serious ones, carry shades of severity that should make a difference in sentencing.

Arson of an occupied structure or prison facility are crimes covered by the new statute, for example. But there's a difference, Brotherton argued, between tossing a Molotov cocktail into a home with the intent to kill, and burning the mattress in your jail cell because you're a troubled inmate.

"Anyone in opposition to this is not saying these people shouldn't be punished," Brotherton said. "The issue is, 'How much?' "

To that, when it comes to the crimes specified in this law, Napolitano answered "life."

"This is narrowly enough crafted, she's comfortable enough to sign it," said her spokeswoman, Jeanine L'Ecuyer. "Those are some heinous crimes."

Prisons as warehouses
Heinous or not, Caroline Isaacs doesn't believe any crime warrants an automatic sentence.

The director of the Arizona American Friends Service Committee considers mandatory sentencing a failed and often cruel experiment that is more about politics than justice. Society pays the bill, she said, through costs to feed and house inmates into old age and beyond, when they no longer pose a threat.

"Arizona needs to rethink the whole concept of mandatory sentencing," said Isaacs, whose Tucson-based Quaker group does work on behalf of human rights issues. "You're just warehousing and forgetting about people."

But Arizona's three-strikes law also has found an unlikely supporter.

Howard Wine is a lawyer with the Pima County Public Defenders Office. Laws that mandate minimum sentencing tend to play in favor of the prosecution, making his job more difficult and weighting plea-bargains in the prosecution's favor.

But Wine looks favorably upon the new Arizona law. It specifically targets the worst offenders, he said, and is worded to include only offenses committed on separate occasions. So a string of crimes committed during a one-day spree can't count as strikes one, two and three.

"In comparison to other states, this is a very reasonable statute," Wine said. "This does really target the bad guys."

And those are the guys Leff wants off the street.

"These crimes are so severe and so violent, that it's in the public's best interest that the people be locked up," she said.

Arizona toughens its three-strikes law

[Shammu]

Clergy wants guns off the streets

Apr. 23, 2006 at 10:50PM

A New York clergyman, speaking at the funeral for a toddler caught in gang crossfire, made an impassioned plea to get guns off the streets.

      "God is sick and tired of our weapons. He's sick and tired of our guns and our foolishness," said Brother John LoSasso at the Church of the Immaculate Conception as he addressed mourners at the funeral for David Pacheco Jr.. The 2-year-old boy was shot while his family was driving to church on Easter, the New York Daily News reported.

      "How many more children are going to die from stray bullets before somewhere, somehow, guns are taken off the streets of this city?" LoSasso asked.

      Police say the child was shot with a semiautomatic weapon while riding in his family's minivan through the middle of a gang fight, the newspaper said.

Clergy wants guns off the streets

My note; Guns don't kill, people kill people. I have never seen a pistol laying on a counter fire itself.

[Shammu]

 Head of Kuwait-Iran parliamentary friendship group: Iran's nuclear program of peaceful nature
Tehran, April 24, IRNA

Iran-Kuwait-Nuclear
Head of Kuwait-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group Fahad Dehisan al-Lami conferred here Monday with head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Nabi Roudaki on expansion of parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.


At the meeting, the Kuwaiti envoy said, "We believe that Iran's nuclear program is of peaceful nature."
Each country including the Islamic Republic of Iran is authorized to peaceful use of nuclear technology to boost development, he said.

According to NPT protocol and the governing rules and regulations of the IAEA, it is the legitimate right of all country to benefit from peaceful nuclear energy, he said.

Iran's nuclear activities are of peaceful nature and in full compliance with the standards of international organizations, Mohammad Nabi Roudaki said adding that this will not create any concern for the countries of the world as well as those in the region.

He described the current relations between Iran and Kuwait as very good and brotherly adding that there are many commonalties between the two countries which could help mutual development.

Constant cooperation between Iran and Kuwait friendship groups would lead to further expansion of political, economical and cultural ties between the two nations, he said adding that the two sides parliamentary friendship groups could help further deepen ties between their nations notwithstanding special diplomatic norms.

He voiced the readiness of Iranian firms and companies to absorb foreign investments for developing projects in the country.

The Kuwaiti envoy, for his part, highlighted the very good and amicable ties of the two sides and said there exists numerous commonalties between the two countries.

Expansion of parliamentary relations between the two countries would safeguard the two sides interests, he said and called such ties would be further deepened.

Head of Kuwait-Iran parliamentary friendship group: Iran's nuclear program of peaceful nature

[Shammu]

Iran keen to expand ties with Russia
Tehran, April 24, IRNA

Iran-President-Nuclear
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that Iran-Russia relations are friendly and expressed interest in the expansion of such ties.


Speaking to domestic and foreign media, the president said that the Russians are now constructing Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and hoped that the project will be completed on schedule by the end of the current year.

"In general, Russia's approach towards Iran has so far been friendly and acceptable, which we wish will continue," he added.

In response to a question on ambiguities about the government's performance, he said that his attention to development and economic issues makes him almost disregard cultural matters, in particular those pertaining to the educated. He added that the government's decisions in this respect are quite correct.

Replying to another question about his firm approach to foreign policy particularly on nuclear issue and his being considered to have a warmongering attitude, he said, "We should be decisive in expressing ourselves. We believe that others should also decisively voice their views if they have something proper to say.

"We are also ready for dialogue. Given our firm belief in what we say, we express our view firmly. We cannot remain impartial to atrocities."
Ahmadinejad responded to those few individuals who called on Iran to give up the nuclear fuel cycle by saying, "We have the right to question them."

Iran keen to expand ties with Russia

[Shammu]

Lutheran church's mission: change with the times

By SCOTT JENKINS
Salisbury Post

SALISBURY, N.C. (AP) -- On Palm Sunday, sunlight illuminated 80-year-old stained-glass windows in the sanctuary at Haven Lutheran Church.

It also shed light on a problem: a lot of empty space in the pews between the 60 or so adults attending the morning service.

Once one of the largest Lutheran congregations in North Carolina, Haven has seen its numbers dwindle during a decades-long slide.

Church leaders and longtime members say that was due in large part to the close-knit and aging congregation's resistance to change with the community - and with the times.
   
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The church, they say, was in danger of dying out completely within the next decade.

But as they celebrated the resurrection on Easter Sunday, members of Haven Lutheran prayed for a rebirth of their own.

They're working for that by reaching out - finally, some say - to people who are not like themselves and by making a controversial change in welcoming gay members into the fold.

Members say they're simply living out what they see as the Gospel message - that none should be turned away, much less perish.

Haven once housed one of the largest Lutheran congregations in North Carolina.

Founded in 1899 by a small group of Lutherans who settled in the Chestnut Hill community, the church and its rolls swelled throughout more than half of the 20th century.

In 1920, the congregation replaced its first wooden church with the brick sanctuary that stands now. In 1960, the church voted to build an educational building and fellowship hall.

Membership at that time stood at about 900, according to newspaper archives, and the church was "very active," Barbara Beaver said. "We had enough members to have things going on all the time."

Beaver has been in the church all of her 74 years and remembers when many families who attended Haven lived in the surrounding middle-class community and walked to church.

Over the past several decades, the makeup of the neighborhood changed - it got poorer and less white. Meanwhile, the faces in the church, though becoming fewer, stayed the same.

Some, Beaver said, "didn't want to accept those different from us."

And many became comfortable in their cocoon of faith.

The Rev. Dr. Marcus Hovis, Haven's pastor, recalls the first time he opened the church's red oak doors on a Sunday morning so the neighborhood could hear the worship inside.

"It was like, close those doors," he said of the congregation's reaction.

It's not just the changing surroundings that have contributed to the church's declining numbers, members point out. Beaver said Haven hasn't seemed to replace members who left for any reason.

Congregation Council President Missy Shives, who's attended Haven for 38 years, said attendance there has fallen off for the same reason it has in a lot of mainstream churches - younger people have just found other ways to spend their time on Sunday mornings.

However, she said, the church confirmed in a study several years ago that one of its biggest problems was that it "has not changed with the neighborhood.

"The church has still tried to appeal to a middle socioeconomic group of people without realizing it needs to serve the community in which it's located," she said.

That study showed steadily falling membership over four decades and warned that, without a change in direction, Haven would have to close its doors within five to 10 years.

So when Hovis accepted the position of pastor in 2004, many in the church were eager for a change. And though some resisted opening those doors at first, they're opening now.

"We're trying to be open, trying to put our name in front of people and let the public know what we're about," Shives said. "We're really trying to promote the Gospel to all people, to be inclusive."

Inclusiveness starts at home, Hovis said. And that means opening up the historically white church to a neighborhood that is now mostly black and Latino.

"It's a very good melting pot of cultures," he said of the area known as Chestnut Hill. "It's still a family neighborhood."

Church member have visited residents in the community and moved some activities outdoors to be more visible to their neighbors.

"For Haven to take the initiative to step out of the door and into that community, it's a big step for the church," Hovis said.

The effort is paying off, if in small ways. Hovis said a couple who live up the block from Haven have joined the church and others attend services semi-regularly or occasionally.

As Hovis recently walked through the neighborhood on a warm afternoon, children played on a chalk-covered sidewalk and young men gathered to talk on the other side of the street.

He stopped at the home of Christian Reyes, whose family is from Honduras. Christian attends Sunday School and services, when he doesn't have a conflicting soccer practice. He plays in the hand-chime choir and took part in the Christmas play.

"I like the songs and I like the children's church and Sunday School and hand chimes," Christian said. And the people at Haven "are friendly. They say hello to others and they're kind to each other."

Though it may be difficult for some, reaching out to the neighborhood is not controversial. Another change in the church's ministry is both.

When Haven changed its mission statement, it included affirmations of Christian love for people no matter their race, creed, age, economic situation and other distinctions.

It also made clear the church would welcome people regardless of their sexual orientation.

And earlier this year, the church began hosting the local chapter of the national organization Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

A highly charged issue in many Christian denominations, it caused a stir at Haven Lutheran, with some members leaving the church, Hovis said.

Even so, he said, it was the right thing to do. "It's what the church should have been doing all along.

"We're not getting into the judgment business," he said. "I would feel guilty about sending someone away from the church and them not being able to hear the Gospel."

And members like Shives and Beaver say they support the move.

"I think we should show our love to everyone and that's it," Beaver said. "This is why we have a church. This is what Jesus Christ taught us to do, to love everyone."

Dimisha Roberts, attending on Palm Sunday with her partner, Aisha Roberts, said that as a gay woman, Haven's statement of inclusiveness "caught my attention."

She came to check out its promise, she said, and to hear the Gospel.

"I really like to hear the word from all different aspects," she said. "If it's the word of God, I like to hear it."

Beaver said people like Roberts might not have been welcomed with open arms a few years ago, but church members realize that "we've got to change our lifestyle a little bit to keep our home.

"We can't grow staying within ourselves," she said. "We've got to reach out to grow; we've got to attract others."

And while Haven is not out of danger, Shives said she believes that "we can rebuild our membership ... we can have purpose and mission."

Lutheran church's mission: change with the times

[Soldier4Christ]

Hospital to 'kill' sick woman?
Ethics committee votes to pull the plug against family's wishes


An ill woman in Houston could die within days because a hospital ethics committee has voted to take her off life support – this despite the fact the 54-year-old is not in a coma, is not brain dead and wants to go on living, her family says.

On April 30, Andrea Clark is scheduled to be on the receiving end of a Texas law that allows a hospital ethics committee to terminate care with 10 days' notice, giving the patient's family that length of time to find a different facility.

"They just say, 'Well she's miserable.' Well, to me that's a quality of life decision that is up to her and her family," Lanore Dixon told KHOU-TV. "That is not a medical decision."

Dixon recently protested at the St. Luke's Hospital on behalf of Clark, her sister, who has been hospitalized there since November.

In January, Clark underwent open-heart surgery and later developed bleeding on the brain. A ventilator, which the committee voted to remove Sunday, helps her breath.

Talking about the Texas law, Dixon told KHOU: ""If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants. It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma; she's not brain dead."

Clark's family says though she cannot speak, they are able to communicate with her by moving her lips and blinking her eyes.

Columnist and attorney Wesley J. Smith, who wrote extensively on the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, chimed in on his blog:

"Note that the treatment is apparently being removed because it works, not because it doesn't – which means, in effect, that the hospital ethics committee has declared the patient's life to be futile."

Noting that the family wants Clark to live, Smith noted, "It is as if Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers wanted Terri's care continued but the hospital said no."

Smith described the Texas law as allowing "private decision-making that will result in death without even the right to a public hearing, to cross examine witnesses or a formal appeal."

Some have charged the law is meant to benefit insurance companies who want hospitals to get critical patients "off the books."

According to the TV station report, Clark's family is doing all it can to find another facility that will treat Andrea.

[Soldier4Christ]

North Pole Unnerved by Alleged Plot to Kill Students

NORTH POLE, Alaska — The arrests of six boys accused of planning a campus massacre has gripped this small Alaska town with an unsettling epiphany — if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

"We thought we were in a bubble," said Cindy Slingerland as she waited outside the school with her husband, Mark, for their 13-year-old daughter, Jenny. "Nothing ever happens here. This is by far the biggest scare for my children."

The town of North Pole, dubbed Santa Claus' headquarters, has a main road called Santa Claus Lane where light poles are curved and striped like candy canes. Main attractions include Santa Claus House, a Christmas theme store open year round. The town is also a destination for thousands of letters sent to Santa each Christmas.

The seventh-graders, all around 13 years old, are suspected of scheming to take guns and knives to the town's middle school and kill students they felt picked on them as well as teachers they did not like. Police say the boys planned to knock out the school's power and telephone systems, giving them time for the slayings, then escape from the town of 1,600 about 14 miles (23 kilometers) southeast of Fairbanks.

The six were arrested Saturday and could face charges of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder. Authorities found weapons in the boys' homes, said Mayor Jeff Jacobson.

"I was shocked and then heartbroken," Jacobson said during a lunch break in his classroom Monday. "I saw one of them led away in handcuffs, this little boy."

North Pole parents and students were not alone in their fear this week.

In three other small American towns — in Kansas, Washington and Mississippi — residents were feeling the same gut-wrenching blow as children were arrested in suspect plots on their classmates and teachers.

Five boys in Riverton, Kansas, were charged Monday with threatening to carry out a shooting spree at their high school on the seventh anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre last week.

In Mississippi, two Pearl Junior High School students were arrested Sunday night and charged with making threatening statements about classmates on the popular teen Web site Xanga and warning students not to go to school on May 1.

In Puyallup, Washington, a 16-year-old was charged Monday in an alleged plot to shoot people at his high school. In an instant message to a fellow student, the teen wrote about an attack and suicide "to finally go out in a blaze of hatred and fury, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

In at least three of the alleged plots, authorities found weapons and ammunition in suspects' homes. In Washington, the search of Brian Michael Evans' home turned up a homemade bomb and a CD with instructions for making explosives, as well, Troyer said.

For Alaskans, the arrests in North Pole jogged memories of another school plot that succeeded.

In 1997, Evan Ramsey opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun as students assembled in a high school lobby, killing a principal and 16-year-old classmate in Bethel, a southwestern Alaska town of 6,000. Ramsey, then 16, is now serving a 198-year prison term.

In North Pole, nine other students, including at least one girl, were suspended for withholding information. They will not be allowed to return to school until authorities have completed their investigation.

Authorities have said a child told a parent that rumors were circulating about a plot, and the parent went to police.

School officials on Monday tried to assure parents their children were safe, stressing that no weapons were ever found on campus or in the nearby woods. A police officer patrolled the halls and extra counselors were brought in to help students.

"It has been surprisingly calm," said Wayne Gerke, an assistant superintendent with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Adults, perhaps, are having a tougher time shaking the anxiety than their children. The students initially reacted with fear, but by Monday streamed out of the school entrance, giggling and elbowing each other.

"I feel fine, I feel safe," 14-year-old Cabe Harris said as he climbed into the front seat next to his mother Jo Harris. "This is a nice place."

[Shammu]

Iran to shun IAEA if hit by sanctions
Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:46 AM ET

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would suspend ties with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and speed up its atomic program if it were hit by international sanctions.

"How are you going to prevent our activities by imposing sanctions? If you impose sanctions, Iran will suspend its relations with the agency (IAEA)," chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told a conference on nuclear issues in Tehran.

"Suspension means we will accelerate our activities."

Larijani also said Iran "cannot be expected to act transparently" if it was attacked militarily, a last-resort option the United States has refused to rule out.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting Greece, said in response: "I suppose the Iranians can threaten but they are deepening their own isolation."

She told a news conference the world must take "credible steps" to curb the Islamic Republic's nuclear work and the U.N. Security Council had to take action "in light of Iran's continued defiance of international norms".

The verbal sparring preceded an influential report on Iran that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to deliver to the Security Council on Friday.

"I think we are going to have take a next step," Rice said. "It seems logical that we should consider a Chapter 7 resolution under the Security Council's mandate."

A Chapter 7 resolution allows for sanctions or even military action. The United States, Britain and France favor sanctions unless Iran backs down very soon. The council's other veto-holders, Russia and China, oppose punitive measures.

France said it has provisionally scheduled May 2 for a meeting of political directors of the council's five permanent members plus Germany to discuss the next moves on Iran.

The U.S. ambassador to the IAEA said he expected ElBaradei to report that Iran had failed to use the 30 days it was granted to comply with demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

"Given the announcement they made two weeks ago and given the apparent failure to cooperate further with the IAEA, we can only expect a negative report," Gregory Schulte, told Reuters.

Iran said this month it had for the first time enriched uranium to the level used to fuel nuclear power stations and that its next goal was industrial-scale production.

In Vienna, a diplomat familiar with IAEA operations said ElBaradei would "lay out the facts", not pass judgment on Iran.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has previously said it cannot yet confirm Iran's assertion that its atomic activities are purely civilian. But it has found no hard proof of a secret military program, which the West suspects Iran is pursuing.

The diplomat said Larijani's threat to freeze ties with the IAEA suggested Iran might quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has refused since February to answer questions about or grant visits to sites where undeclared activity is suspected.

"We don't know what they mean. But relations are already down to the minimum. It's just basic safeguards," the diplomat said, referring to IAEA access to declared nuclear sites.

"The only meaningful thing they could do now is kick out inspectors and withdraw from the NPT, as North Korea did."

The diplomat said an Iranian delegation was tentatively expected to visit the IAEA in the next two days and might provide some last-minute information before the report.

A European diplomat said ElBaradei's report was likely to "add grist to the U.S. mill" on Iran.

CLANDESTINE PROGRAMME?

Schulte said Iran was refusing to answer IAEA questions about advanced P-2 centrifuges, designs of which it received from a nuclear black market run by disgraced Pakistani nuclear engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disclosed this month that Iran was "presently conducting research" on P-2s, which can enrich uranium faster than the P-1 model the Iranians now operate.

Schulte said Ahmadinejad's comments had fueled suspicions Iran may have hidden P-2 activities from the IAEA.

He said the IAEA also wanted Iran to answer queries on other issues such as documents it received from the Khan network related to the production of the core of an atom bomb; experiments with high explosives; and alleged administrative links between its atomic program and the Iranian military.

Iran has repeatedly rejected demands to restrain its nuclear activities, such as a freeze on enrichment.

"Iran's nuclear technology is like a bullet that has already left the barrel and it is impossible to push it back into the barrel," influential former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told the Tehran conference.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said there should be no talk of unilateral military action.

China urged restraint and a peaceful solution, in comments echoed by visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

"Both Russia and China favor political, diplomatic measures. We do not see an alternative to the negotiation process," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying in Beijing.

Iran to shun IAEA if hit by sanctions

[Shammu]

ElBaradei's report on Iran will be negative: U.S
Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:48am ET12

BERLIN (Reuters) - A key report by U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran's cooperation with U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment will be negative, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA said on Tuesday.

"This report that is due on Friday is meant to cover Iran's compliance with the demands of the (IAEA) board of governors and the Security Council," U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gregory Schulte told Reuters.

"Given the announcement they made two weeks ago (about enriching uranium) and given the apparent failure to cooperate further with the IAEA, we can only expect a negative report."

ElBaradei's report on Iran will be negative: U.S

[Shammu]

Iran Threatens to Hide Nuclear Program

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran threatened Tuesday to begin hiding its nuclear program if the West takes any "harsh measures" against it — Tehran's sharpest rebuttal yet to a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions.

Iran's supreme leader, meanwhile, said in a meeting with the president of wartorn Sudan that Tehran was ready to transfer its nuclear technology to other countries.

Iran's warning to the U.N. watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, came from Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani. They were the strongest words of defiance yet ahead of a Friday deadline, set by the Security Council, for Iran to suspend enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or material for warheads.

"Military action against Iran will not end our program," Larijani said at a conference on the energy program. "If you take harsh measures, we will hide this program. If you use the language of force, you should not expect us to act transparently."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice immediately shot back, saying Iran's statements were further isolating it from the international community.

"Iranians can threaten, but they are deepening their own isolation," she said in Athens.

The United States has not threatened military action and has said it is pursuing diplomatic option. But
President Bush has said all options, including military force, remain on the table.

Larijani's comments came a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly predicted the Security Council would not impose sanctions and warned he was thinking about dropping out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

On Tuesday, Larijani said flatly that Iran would not abide by Friday's deadline to suspend enrichment, and would halt all cooperation with the IAEA and pull out of the treaty if sanctions were imposed.

"If you take the first step wrong, the wrong trend will continue. We welcome any logical proposal to resolve the issue. They just need to say why should we suspend," Larijani said.

IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said Tuesday it would not comment. He said no public statements were planned ahead of director Mohamed ElBaradei's report to the Security Council and the agency's board, expected by week's end.

The remarks on sharing nuclear technology by Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came as he met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

"Iran's nuclear capability is one example of various scientific capabilities in the country. ... The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and technology of its scientists," Khamenei told al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir said last month that his impoverished country was considering trying to create a nuclear program to generate electrical power.

Such a transfer of technology would be legal as long as it is between signatory-states to the nonproliferation treaty, and as long as the IAEA was informed.

The United States and European allies are expected to press for binding measures against Iran when the Security Council begins the next round of review of the Iranian case as soon as next week.

Although Rice has recently raised the likelihood of pressing for sanctions, she did not go that far Tuesday when taking questions after a meeting with her Greek counterpart, saying only that the Security Council must now issue something more concrete than last month's "presidential statement," which gave Iran 30 days to comply.

China and Russia, which are permanent, veto-wielding members of the council, oppose sanctions and both called Tuesday for more negotiations.

"We see no alternative to the negotiations process," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency while in Beijing for a regional anti-terrorism meeting.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged all parties "to show flexibility," saying the international community should not abandon efforts for a peaceful settlement.

Tuesday's comments were not the first time Iran has threatened to curb cooperation. Several months ago, Tehran announced it would not honor the IAEA's so-called "additional protocol," which gave the agency increased inspection powers.

But Larijani said this time Iran would suspend its cooperation altogether if sanctions were imposed.

"How are you going to prevent our nuclear activities by imposing sanctions? If U.N. Security Council sanctions are to be imposed on Iran, we will definitely suspend our cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency," Larijani said. He added that Western countries on the IAEA board "have to understand they cannot resolve this issue through force."

He also hinted that sanctions or even what he called coercive language from the Security Council would cause Iran to speed up its nuclear activities.

"You can't set a framework through coercion. If you try to do it by force, our response will be to break such a framework," he said.

The United States, Britain and France say they have suspicions that Iran is seeking to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge and says its nuclear program is for peaceful electricity generation only.

Ahmadinejad appears to be banking on support from China and Russia to dissuade Washington from pressing a sanctions vote.

Suspicions about Iran's intentions have grown since it was discovered in 2002 that the country had for two decades secretly operated large-scale nuclear activities that could be used in weapons making.

The IAEA says it has since found no direct evidence of an arms program, but it also says the Iranians have not been fully forthcoming.

After repeated attempts at negotiations, the IAEA reported Iran to the Security Council for noncompliance. The council then gave Iran until Friday to suspend enrichment.

Iran Threatens to Hide Nuclear Program

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran Threatens to Hide Nuclear Program

Threatens?? They like to do that on a lot of things. It is no threat though. I am sure they already have it well hidden already.

[Shammu]

Threatens?? They like to do that on a lot of things. It is no threat though. I am sure they already have it well hidden already.

They may hide their program from the world, but not from God.