News, Prophecy and other

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran to Bush: 'Return to Christianity'

NEW YORK, May 9 (UPI) -- A rambling letter to U.S. President George Bush from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested Bush return to Christian teachings.

Any hopes Ahmadinejad would offer a solution to the nuclear enrichment impasse Iran has with the United Nations were dashed in the letter, the first direct correspondence with Washington since 1979.

"Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ, the great Messenger of God ... But at the same time, have countries attacked: the lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed," the 18-page letter said.

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the letter wasn't a new tactic, The Washington Post reported.

"The Iranians are always interested in talking right before somebody puts the squeeze on them," he told the Post. "Then, once the squeeze lets up a little bit, back they go to (uranium) enrichment ... back they go to the pursuit of nuclear weapons."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met in New York on Monday night with counterparts from other Security Council nations, as well as Germany and the European Union, but failed to reach agreement on a response to Iran's nuclear activities, the Post said.



 

[Soldier4Christ]

Terrorist act? Mohammed caught buying up cell phones at Dollar Gen.
By Kathryn F. Pickard

Clarke County Commission-ers may not have been as far out in left field as countians thought when they voted to purchase terrorists insurance for the Clarke County Courthouse.

Last week, a man who was known to have contact with a "subject" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was stopped in the parking lot in front of the courthouse and held by deputies until the FBI could send an officer to question him. People known to engage in terrorist activity or to consort with those who do are considered subjects by the FBI.

Mohammed Haif was spotted in Jackson purchasing all the track phones in the store from the Dollar General there. The cell phones can be used to pull signals off satellites and have been used to detonate bombs.

A report was made to Clarke County 911 and dispatchers then contacted officers and gave them a description of the car, which was said to be headed to Grove Hill.

As Deputy Ron Baggett drove to the four-way intersection at Court and Clark Streets in Grove Hill, he saw the vehicle and began to follow it.

"It circled the courthouse but I finally got him stopped in front of Gene and Ellen's. The car was rented in Texas and when I got to the car he (Haif) was pointing at a navigational system in the car and telling me he was trying to get to Dollar General. I told him to hold on a minute, that I needed to talk to him. He gave me permission to search his vehicle and there must have been 400 track phones in there," Baggett said.

At this point Deputy Steve Carlisle joined Baggett in the investigation. Baggett asked why he had the phones and Haif replied that he sold them to a man in California, Mohammed Farhat, for $3 over what each phone cost him.

"This guy drove from Houston to here, which meant he paid rent on the car, bought the gas, has at least a $900 navigational system in the car and had bought all those phones. I knew something was wrong so I contacted the FBI," he said.

The FBI's terrorist division sent officers to Grove Hill who interviewed Haif. He told them he did not know why Farhat wanted the phones, but that he was trying to make money.

The agents told Baggett Farhat had been under investigation for terrorist activity, but that Haif had done nothing illegal and they let him go.

Baggett joked that it might have been a good idea to keep the terrorist insurance.

[Shammu]

NEW YORK, May 9 (UPI) -- A rambling letter to U.S. President George Bush from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Here is the content of that letter brother............

[Shammu]

 Al-Qaeda Announces Formation of 'Islamic Army of Jerusalem'
18:43 May 09, '06 / 11 Iyar 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Arab and European news agencies report receipt of a communique from an organization identifying itself as "Al-Qaeda in Palestine" announcing the formation of the Islamic Army of Jerusalem (Jaish Al-Quds Al-Islami). The army "will fight the Crusader and Jewish infidels," according to a Palestinian Authority news agency.

Agence France Press, which also received the communique, said the authenticity of the message could not be verified, but that it claimed the "army" was established by Osama Bin-Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi. The AFP also reported that the Al-Qaeda in Palestine group said it would show its fighters on television to prove that "we are serious in our actions."

Al-Qaeda Announces Formation of 'Islamic Army of Jerusalem'

[Shammu]

 Majority of Israelis Want Gov´t to Encourage Arabs to Leave
17:52 May 09, '06 / 11 Iyar 5766
by Ezra HaLevi

      Almost two-thirds of Israelis want the government to encourage Arabs to leave the country, according to a study by the Israel Democracy Institute.



According to the preliminary summary of the 2006 Democracy Index, 62% of Israelis would like to see the government actively encourage Arabs to leave Israel. Last year, only 50% supported such a policy. During the Netanyahu administration of 1996-99, when terror casualties dropped drastically, the lowest percentage of Israelis supporting Arab population transfer was recorded: 48%. At the outbreak of the Arab Intifada in December 1987, support for population transfer of Arabs was at its height: 69%.

The full report by the left-leaning Israel Democracy Institute will be released Wednesday.

National Union Chairman MK Rabbi Benny Elon, whose Moledet Party advocates offering incentives for Arabs to emigrate, said the results were not surprising. "It is illustrative of a desire on both the right and the left - and sometimes more of the left than the right," he told Arutz-7's Hebrew radio. "The Disengagement was even based on this desire to separate from the Arabs."

"What is more," added Elon, "offering the Arabs assistance in leaving willingly is much more humanitarian than the incessant killing of the Arabs of the Land of Israel."

Other results of the study:
* 29% say a Jewish majority is required for decisions of national significance.
* 58% object to the refusal of orders in the IDF, a steep decline from the 70% that felt that way before the Disengagement.
* 26% believe relations are good between religious and secular Jews.
* Israelis trust the IDF more than any other institution and trust the Knesset the least.
* 86% said they were proud to be Israeli.
* 90% said they wish to continue living in Israel for the long-term.
* 10% said that those who run the country are concerned about the public.
* 27% believe they can have an influence on government policy.

On the overall global democracy index, which uses various factors to rank countries based on corruption and actual voice given to the public, Israel continued to drop, ranking 20th out of 36 countries, between Estonia and Taiwan. Israel was number 14 in 2003 and 17 in 2004. Finland and New Zealand are in first place, and Argentina and India rank last.

Speaking with Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, Professor Asher Arian, who conducted the survey, said he was not surprised by the support expressed for transfer. "This has been a stable sentiment in the Israeli Jewish public for many years," he said. "The public is both cynical and very Zionist." He added that if the question was asked in the days following a terror attack, the numbers would have been even higher in support of encouraging Arabs to leave.

Proffessor Arian explained that the low confidence the public expressed in the Knesset and their ability to effect change explains the low voter turnout in the past elections.

The institute surveyed 1,200 people for the survey, representing a cross-section of Israeli society. The results will be presented to President Moshe Katzav on Wednesday at a special ceremony to be attended by Chief Justice Aharon Barak and politicians.

Majority of Israelis Want Gov´t to Encourage Arabs to Leave

[Shammu]

'Iran wants to change world order'
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST    May. 9, 2006

"Wiping Israel off the map is just one step in Iran's attempt to create a new world order," said Brig.-Gen Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the IDF Military Intelligence's research division.

"Iran is interested not only in turning into a superpower, but also in changing the world order," Kuperwasser said at a conference on power projection at the Fisher Institute of Strategic Studies in Herzliya.

"Iran is at the forefront of global terrorism, and aids Hizbullah in Lebanon, al Qaida, and Palestinian terror organizations, and is behind attacks on US armed forces in Iraq," the general asserted.

Obtaining nuclear power, Kuperwasser said, would not only establish Iran as a superpower on a global level, but would also assist the country in establishing its domestic regime.

"Nuclear capabilities would ensure that regime returns to its former glory and revives the Islamic revolution there," he explained, adding that there were elements in Iran who believe that the race to achieve a nuclear bomb, plus the government's support of terror, was having an adverse effect on reviving the revolution.

"Power projection", the subject of the conference, addresses challenges originating from terror organizations in distant countries.

Just hours before the UNSC votes on sanctions against Iran, Maj-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad said that he believed Iran was vulnerable to sanctions. "Iran is Not North Korea," Gilad said. "It's a country of intelligent, intellectual people."

Earlier Tuesday, Gilad had told Army Radio that Israel should place itself at the forefront of the Iran conflict, as the crisis over the country's nuclear program was "international."

Gilad said, referring to Vice Premier Shimon Peres' remarks Monday that "Iran can also be wiped off the map," that any threats Israel made should be "big" but not pointed.

'Iran wants to change world order'

[Shammu]

May 09, 2006    E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

Israel will hit Iran in the next few months: Israeli official

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next “month or two or three,” an Israeli official has been quoted here as saying.

The unnamed official told Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-in-chief of the United Press International (UPI), at the recently held national day reception at the Israeli Embassy that he believed Israel would strike Iran first in the next two or three months and that fighter bombers would not be involved as they had been to take out Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor before it went critical in 1981. For Osirak, Israel had used 14 F-15s and F-16s. This time, the Israeli said, it would be missiles. Asked if Israel would employ Cruise missiles, he replied, “with a gesture of his hand that went up and down again”, which meant that it would be the weapon of choice.

Asked if tunnel entrances to widely scattered Iranian nuclear facilities would be targeted, he responded that Israel had its own geo-stationary spy-in-the-sky satellite taking constant pictures of Iran with a resolution down to 70 centimetres. “We know far more than anyone realises,” he added.

De Borchgrave’s report quoted a poll of conservative Republicans by a conservative web-based news service, which showed overwhelmingly strong support for bombing Iran. Almost 60,000 people took part in the poll and 88 percent agreed that Iran poses a greater threat than Saddam Hussein did before the Iraq War. To the question, “Should the US undertake military action against Iran to stop their (nuclear) programme?” 77 percent replied yes, 23 percent said no. Forty-five percent said that military action should be taken by the United States, while 35 percent wanted Israel to do that. Twenty percent said neither. As for whether US efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons are working, 93 percent said they were not, while 89 percent said the US should not rely solely on the UN.

According to de Borchgrave, “Israel has developed some 100 Jericho-II medium-range ballistic missiles (which entered service in 1989). Jericho II’s range varies from 1,500 to 3,500 kilometres, depending on payload weight. They are deployed in underground caves and silos. Israel has several satellites in orbit - Ofeq-1 through Ofeq-5 - that were launched by Shavit space launch vehicles (SLV). The first two stages of the Shavit were Jericho II missiles. There are unconfirmed reports of an upgraded Jericho-3 missile with a range of over 3,000 kilometres.

Israel will hit Iran in the next few months: Israeli official

[Shammu]

Polygamy prophet joins most-wanted list
Robert Lusetich, Los Angeles correspondent
May 09, 2006
WHAT could the US's foremost polygamist have in common with the world's most feared terrorist?

On the surface, not much -- except that Warren Jeffs, whose beliefs about the place of women in society wouldn't have been out of order in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, has proved just as elusive to the US as al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden.

The "prophet" of the bizarre Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- a breakaway group of hardline Mormons -- yesterday became the latest addition to the infamous FBI Most Wanted list, which also includes bin Laden as well as a Boston mobster wanted in connection with 18 murders, a Californian pedophile and Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez, the kingpin of Colombia's most powerful drug cartel.

The FBI is hoping elevating Jeffs to its high-profile list -- and increasing the bounty on the 50-year-old from $US50,000 ($64,780) to $US100,000 -- will provide a breakthrough in a case that, the agency admits, has gone so cold it has no idea where the one-time accountant is hiding.

A federal warrant was issued for Jeffs' arrest last year after he was indicted on two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona.

"He is part of a group, leader of a group, that promulgates this theory, this activity, that sexual relations with children is OK," FBI spokesman John Miller said.

The FLDS, which has long been disowned by mainstream Mormons, split from the church when Utah -- in a deal to gain statehood in 1890 -- renounced polygamy.

The splinter group, which believed polygamy was crucial to the religious beliefs of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, relocated to the remote northern Arizona town of Colorado City and later settled in Hildale, just across the state border in Utah.

They have practised polygamy ever since, in the belief that each man needs at least three wives in order to be guaranteed a place in heaven.

Jeffs' father, Rulon, who led the group until his death four years ago at the age of 92, reportedly left behind 75 widows and 65 children.

Visitors to the towns say women walk around in ankle-length dresses and are discouraged from speaking.

Jeffs, whom followers believe is in communication with God, banned television, movie theatres and dancing.

The FLDS bestows supreme power to Jeffs, allowing him to control communal wealth as well as fix marriages -- often between young women and older men to whom they are sometimes related -- which led to the federal charges. Catching Jeffs has proven difficult because of his loyal followers. He also controls an estimated $US100 million in assets.

Last week, his younger brother Seth pleaded guilty to aiding a fugitive after being caught with $US142,000 in cash intended for his brother, along with letters.

It is widely believed Jeffs will not surrender to American authorities -- at least, not peacefully -- as he is protected by armed bodyguards from within his congregation who former insiders say will die for a man they consider their prophet.

[Shammu]

''Israel Can Only Lose Once''  [Jack Kinsella]

Israel - Middle East
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that "the president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map."

"Teheran is making a mockery of the international community's efforts to solve the crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program," Peres told Reuters, adding that "Iran presents a danger to the entire world, not just to us."

If all world powers are united against Iran, military action can be avoided, Peres said.

"We can prevent all of this threat, without weapons, if there will be unity," Peres said, adding that the Security Council had to act on the matter. "If the crucial moment comes and they are incapable of taking [action] or making a policy...then they endanger their existence as an important world body," he said.

History records the main reason that the Jews decided, after almost two millennia after being exiled, that the continued survival of the Jewish race demanded a homeland. Israel's Founding Fathers summed it up in two words: "Never again!"

"Never again!" is so indelibly linked to the Holocaust and the attempted destruction of the Jewish people that the phrase has become a synonym for unimpeded genocide.

It was the slogan of Kofi Annan's special ten-year celebration of the Rwandan genocide in which the ruling Rwanda Hutu tribe set out to exterminate their traditional enemies, the Tutsi tribe.

When the bloodletting was finally exhausted, almost a million Tutsis had been slaughtered, in full view of the United Nations.

At the time, Kofi Annan was the head of UN peacekeeping operations, including the one in Rwanda that he ordered out of the country -- after ten Belgian peacekeepers were killed in an attack.

According to a 1998 article in the New Yorker magazine, Kofi Annan was told by the commander of peacekeeping forces in Rwanda of a plan by the then-government of Rwanda to exterminate the Tutsis, some three months BEFORE the slaughter began.

After the deaths of the Belgian peacekeepers, the magazine reported that Annan gave orders not to intervene. Full details of the commander's cable were reportedly forwarded to the American, French and Belgian ambassadors in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the day after the report was sent to New York.

On the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan slaughter, Kofi Annan, now Secretary-General, designated April 7 as the "International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda." Kofi urged the world to set aside a 'moment of silence' so that "such a tragedy can never happen again."

At the time of Kofi's 'never again speech' in 2004, at least THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND people had already been butchered at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Sudan's Janjaweed Militia.

Two years later, despite having declared the slaughter of the mainly Christian and non-Islamics in the south to be 'genocide' -- the slaughter continues.

In full view of the UN peacekeepers -- who eventually turned supervision of the slaughter over to the totally inept, under-funded and under-equipped African Union.

(Until one of the African Union's helicopters got shot down, that is. THEN the AU suspended all aircraft flights that were assigned to monitor a 'ceasefire'.)

That is what 'never again' means to the world community. It means 'never again' -- until next time, after which the UN will dedicate an 'annual' moment of silence and reflection that will be observed exactly once.

Israel was founded on the 'never again' principle, which means something different to them than it does to the rest of the world.

For two millennia, Jews were systematically rounded up and slaughtered in regional pogroms -- but it wasn't until the rise of Adolf Hitler that the wholesale slaughter of Jews threatened to wipe them from the face of the earth.

The Jews who survived the world's acquiescence to their slaughter declared that 'never again' would they trust the world community to ensure their survival.

Adolf Hitler had clearly and unambiguously outlined his planned extermination of the Jewish people some twenty years before in his political manifesto, "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle").

And, while part of the world sat idly by (and the rest helped) Hitler imposed his 'Final Solution to the Question of the Jewish People' on almost six million of them.

THAT is what 'never again' means to Israel. Israel's foundational principle is that it would never again entrust its survival to global good will.

Israel's establishment as a Jewish State was an indictment to the world community that let the Holocaust happen, despite Hitler's having made his intentions perfectly clear -- and that it would never happen again because Israel wouldn't let it.

The establishment of Israel prevented the wholesale slaughter of Jews under the principle of collective security, but 'collective' has become a two-edged sword.

Jews were slaughtered indiscriminately throughout history, but the Jewish people survived, mainly because they were scattered throughout the world.

The Diaspora that ended the existence of the Jewish state in AD 70 also prevented the concentration of Jews in one place where they could be annihilated.

Israel's re-establishment in 1948 brought them all back into one place at precisely the moment in history when it is possible to annihilate the tiny Jewish state in a single, blinding, nuclear flash.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir famously observed during the Yom Kippur War that, "the Arabs can fight, and lose, and return to fight another day. Israel can only lose once."

In 1973, it was a rallying cry. Hitler's successors see it as a battle strategy.

Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani outlined it recently, telling the world that, "the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam."

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made it clear that his goal is the annihilation of Israel, an event that he described as Israel 'being eliminated by one storm'.

Revolutionary Guards commander General Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani made global headlines with his declaration: "We have announced that wherever [in Iran] America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel."

Noted Charles Krauthammer, "The logic is impeccable, the intention clear: A nuclear attack would effectively destroy tiny Israel, while any retaliation launched by a dying Israel would have no major effect on an Islamic civilization of a billion people stretching from Mauritania to Indonesia."

When viewed through the prism of Bible prophecy, things continue to develop precisely as outlined some twenty-five hundred years ago -- without deviating one iota from the original script.

We find Russia, Iran and the Islamic world on one side; Israel (and the 'Christian Crusaders') on the other.

The United Nations has already established a precedent for sitting on its hands in the face of slow, systematic, genocide.

"Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" (Ezekiel 38:13)

Iran is talking about genocide in 'one storm'. "Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee." (Ezekiel 38:9)

But, as Shimon Peres noted, "Iran can also be wiped off the map."

"And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone." (Ezekiel 38:22)

"And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)

[Shammu]

Titanic survivor dies aged 99
May 09, 2006
BOSTON: Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, died at home at the weekend, aged 99.

Asplund, at just five years old, lost her father and three brothers when the ship went down in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

Her mother, Selma, and another brother, Felix, 3, also survived the sinking in the early morning of April 15, 1912.

Asplund was the last Titanic survivor with memories of the sinking, but she shunned publicity and rarely spoke about the events.

Titanic survivor dies aged 99

My notes; Some more information on Lillian Gertrud Asplund.

Miss Lillian Gertrud Asplund, 5, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on 21 October 1906, the daughter of Carl & Selma Asplund. Lillian was a fraternal twin and her twin brother was Carl Edgar.

Age 5, at the time of the sinking.

Lillian's family came originally from Alsema in the Smaland region of Sweden but had for some years been settled in Massachusetts.  In 1907 they had returned to Sweden to settle Mr. Asplund's father’s estate upon his death and to care for his mother. In 1912, Lillian's father, Carl O. Asplund, was set to go back to his previous position as a labourer at Spencer Wire Works in Worcester. According to a letter written by Mr. Asplund to his sister, the family was very much looking forward to returning to the United States. Four of Lillian's aunts (3 being her mother's sisters and 1 her father's) and their families lived in Worcester at the time.

In an interview conducted with Miss. Asplund, some time ago, she recalled the disaster and relayed how she remembered being passed through what she described as a window (later identified as the First Class Promenade Deck)  into a descending lifeboat and looking back up at the sinking Titanic. Having left 3 of her brothers, including her twin, Carl, and her father onboard the doomed ship, she maintains she was haunted by their faces peering over the rail at her for much of her life. She recalled her father was holding her twin and her 2 older brothers were on each side of them. Lillian was rescued in lifeboat 15 with her mother and brother, Felix (3).  After rescue by the Carpathia they were brought to St.Vincent's Hospital in New York City.

Upon their eventual arrival in Worcester, they resided at 151 Vernon St., the families original intended destination, at the home of Lillian's aunt and uncle. The devastated family had lost all of their possessions including their life savings on the Titanic. The city of Worcester, shortly thereafter, held a very successful fundraiser and benefit for the family with the total sum raised reaching nearly $2,000. That money was supposedly invested and the interest paid to the family with access to funds as needed. The mayor of Worcester at the time, the honorable Mayor David F. O'Connell, was one of the trustees. In 1951, Lillian and her family moved to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

After the disaster, Lillian was employed at various secretarial jobs in Worcester but retired early to care for her elderly mother. Her mother passed away on the 52nd anniversary of the disaster that claimed the lives of 4 members of her family, at the age of 90. Her younger brother, Felix, passed away at the age of 73, 18 days shy of his 74th birthday. Neither Lillian or her brother ever married and never had children.

[Soldier4Christ]

US may soften stand on Palestinian aid

The quartet of Middle East peace brokers haggled on Tuesday over how to channel aid to the Palestinians, with signs the United States might soften its stand to prevent the collapse of a Hamas-led government.

The group of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- first heard gloomy scenarios from foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and then headed into private talks to discuss proposals to ease the crisis.

"It is a difficult situation but I want to say that we are not going to let the Palestinians starve," said the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana after talks with the Arab ministers.

A Western diplomatic source close to the discussions said the United States was edging closer to agreeing to a "temporary international mechanism" to channel money to pay employees of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority who have not been paid for the past two months.

"America is softening its position. The Arab foreign ministers made very clear if the Palestinian Authority collapses then you could potentially have a civil war," said the source, who asked not to be named as negotiations were at a delicate stage.

He said the money could be handled via a body such as the World Bank which could set up a special account for a limited period. However, he stressed no final decisions had been made.

"The Americans are very clear, it would be limited in duration and limited in its scope," he said.

The United States has taken the toughest line against Hamas since it won January elections and made clear on Tuesday that Hamas was to blame for all of its current financial problems.

"Any failure of Hamas to deliver on those needs is that of Hamas alone," said a senior State Department official.

The official said the U.S. would make clear in meetings that Hamas had to "fix the problems" and it could start off by meeting the demands of the international community, which include recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and signing on to previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements.

NEW U.S. AID

While tough on Hamas, Rice was expected to announce an additional $10 million in U.S. funding for medical supplies and equipment for the Palestinians but this would be directed through U.N. agencies and would not reach a Hamas government.

U.S. officials did not immediately comment on whether they were close to agreeing to proposals from the Europeans and the Arab ministers but a spokeswoman for Solana was optimistic.

"We are encouraged and we are working on it (getting the U.S. to agree)," said Christina Gallach of the EU.

The World Bank warned on Monday the Palestinian Authority could face a breakdown in law and order and basic services unless foreign donors step in to pay the salaries of about 165,000 civil servants.

Several other options are being floated at the quartet meetings, including one to give more money directly to the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah Party lost in January elections to Hamas.

Washington does not restrict funding to Abbas, who wrote a letter to the quartet pleading for help and warning of chaos if the financial squeeze continues.

The Arab League has also offered a plan to deposit donor funds directly into the accounts of government workers, but the United States has blocked this.

After Hamas won Palestinian elections and formed a government in March, the United States and the European Union cut off direct financial aid for the Palestinian Authority.

The authority has been unable to receive funds from abroad because local, regional and international banks fear sanctions by the United States, which regards Hamas as a terrorist organization.

[Soldier4Christ]

New UN rights council includes some rights abusers

The United Nations elected 44 of the initial 47 members of its new Human Rights Council in a first round of voting on Tuesday, including five nations named by rights groups as among the world's worst abusers.

Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, identified by New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership on the new U.N. body, were among those winning seats.

But two others on the group's list, Iran and Azerbaijan failed to win membership in the initial round of voting.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said it was inevitable some rights foes would win seats but "the important step is that we have made real progress" over the discredited Human Rights Commission, shut down in March.

"It doesn't guarantee that the council will be a success, but it is a step in the right direction," Roth said.

The United States, an outspoken critic of the old human rights commission, voted against creating the council, arguing barriers were still too low to keep rights abusers from winning a seat. It then decided against seeking a seat this year.

[Shammu]

Iranians Fault Rice's Dismissal of Letter

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's abrupt dismissal of a letter from Iran's president might only strengthen hardline attitudes and mistrust of America, some Iranians warned Tuesday.

As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a high-profile visit to a key Muslim country, Indonesia, a former top Iranian official said Rice's response will give new justification to those who oppose ties with the U.S.

Iran's former ambassador to France, Sadeq Kharrazi, said the letter — the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years — "could have been a turning point in relations." But he said Rice squandered the opportunity with what he called a "hasty reaction."

"This gives a pretext to those in Iran who oppose re-establishment of ties with America," he said.

Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter to
President Bush touched only indirectly on the hottest dispute between the two countries — Iran's nuclear program. Instead, it focuses on a long list of grievances against the United States and seeks to build on a shared faith in God to resolve them.

Rice told The Associated Press the letter "isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

Iranian political analyst Saeed Leilaz said Rice's quick brushoff would fuel anti-American feelings in Iran.

"It could have been the beginning of a new process," he said. Rice's response "strengthens the suspicion (inside Iran) that the U.S. is thinking of a military option only and not a political solution" to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, he said.

As he boarded a plane for Indonesia on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said his letter contained "the demands of Iranian people and our nation."

"I discussed our views, beliefs and positions regarding international issues as well as some ways out of problems humanity is suffering from," he told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "We will wait for reaction ... and then we'll make decisions."

In Indonesia — the world's most populous Muslim nation, which has friendly ties with the U.S. and European countries — Ahmadinejad was due to discuss the nuclear issue with the country's president, then attend a summit of developing nations.

"We want Iran to be more transparent in its program," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters Tuesday.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies, saying it aims only to generate energy.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the letter was not intended to address the nuclear issue. "We have sufficient logic and legal reasoning (to defend our program)," Asefi was quoted by the radio as saying.

"Our aim was to express our opinions about global problems and the way out of these problems," he said.

Reaction to the letter was mixed in Iran and across the Mideast.

Iranian newspapers described the message as "an initiative in global diplomacy" and "dialogue under the shadow of war."

But conservative lawmaker Hashmatollah Falahatpisheh lambasted Ahmadinejad for failing to consult parliament before sending the letter to the country Iran considers its greatest enemy.

"This message is the outcome of a series of taboo-breaking behaviors in Iran's foreign policy. ... That the parliament is not aware of (the contents of the) letter is questionable," Falahatpisheh told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state-run radio Tuesday.

Among Gulf nations, the letter fueled suspicions toward Iran.

The Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat called the letter proof that "Iran is not enriching uranium for peaceful purposes as it says, and is striving for leadership and control of the region."

Such Iranian leadership would mean the Israeli-Palestinian peace process "would be stalled, the Iraqi dream (of democracy) would be thwarted and we would witness a new wave of armament," wrote Tariq Alhomayed, the paper's editor-in-chief.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times ran an editorial in which editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Jarallah accused Ahmadinejad of acting "as if he owns the region."

Some of Iran's Arab neighbors have expressed fears over Iran's nuclear program — particularly over pollution in case of an accident — as well as over the standoff with the West, fearing possible Iranian retaliation against American military bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain should the U.S. launch a pre-emptive strike.

But an editorial in Lebanon's The Daily Star newspaper called the letter "a cause for hope that a peaceful solution" to the nuclear standoff and called on Washington to initiate direct talks with Tehran.

Iranians Fault Rice's Dismissal of Letter

[Shammu]

Minutemen to start building border fence May 27

Associated Press
May. 9, 2006 02:31 PM

TUCSON - Anticipating no response to its demand that President Bush place U.S. troops on the Mexican border, a civilian watch group said Tuesday it will start building a short border security fence May 27 on private land.

Last month, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox said the group would break ground to start putting up fencing privately unless the White House deployed military reserves or the National Guard to the border by May 25 and endorsed more secure fencing.

"We are not anticipating that the White House will make any effort in the next 2 1/2 weeks as far as putting troops on the border, or even as far as moving training to the border," Minuteman spokeswoman Connie Hair said.
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The group initially plans to put up two parallel 15-foot high steel-mesh fences, anywhere from 50 to 150 feet long, on a ranch in southern Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico border. An unpaved road will run between the fences.

Hair declined to reveal the location in hopes of avoiding harassment, repercussions or retaliation.

Todd Fraser, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, said the agency has no position on such fencing.

"If private citizens want to construct something on their property ... who is the Border Patrol to say they can't do it?" Fraser said.

The Minuteman group has received about $175,000 in Internet donations to build fencing, while others have volunteered time, equipment and materials, Hair said.

Initially, a large fencing company offered to donate materials, but it won't be able to provide supplies immediately, she said. The Minuteman group will buy the materials to be used later this month.

Hair said Simcox still hoped to hold costs to between $125 and $150 a foot with volunteers donating labor, including design and survey work, as well as heavy equipment.

Plans call for a fence complex based on an Israeli design.

On the south side facing Mexico, a 6-foot deep trench will keep vehicles from crashing through the fencing. Behind that, coiled and razor-edged barbed wire will be placed in front of a 15-foot high heavy-gauge steel mesh fence angled outward at the top to make climbing more difficult. The other fence will be built behind that on the other side of the road.

Inexpensive video cameras will be mounted between the fences and monitored from home computers.

Other Minuteman groups have also undertaken fencing projects.

On April 30, some 200 Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of California volunteers began building a 6-foot barbed wire fence along a quarter-mile of rugged terrain some 50 miles east of San Diego. It connected to an existing 12-foot high government-built fence.

Meanwhile, the California-based Minuteman Project, founded last year by Jim Gilchrist, is raising money to build a private fence along parts of the California-Mexico border.

Simcox said last month that a half-dozen Arizona border landowners indicated they would allow fencing to be put up. Other border landowners in California, New Mexico and Texas also have given their approval, he said.

Minutemen to start building border fence May 27

[Shammu]

Palestinian Militants End Internal Fights

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Militants linked to Hamas and Fatah have agreed to work together to end the internal violence that has plagued Gaza, the Palestinian prime minister said Wednesday, after two days of gunbattles between the rival groups.

Nine Palestinians, including five children on their way to school, were wounded in a gunfight in Gaza City. Each side blamed the other for triggering it.

Then, Hamas militants attacked the funeral procession in southern Gaza for a Fatah gunman killed Monday, setting off two bombs and opening fire. Fatah gunmen dropped to the ground and returned fire. Three bystanders were wounded, hospital officials said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh summoned Hamas and Fatah leaders to his Gaza City office for talks that ended early Wednesday. Haniyeh, flanked by Fatah activists, told reporters after midnight Wednesday that the two sides agreed to put a stop to the violent clashes.

Haniyeh said the they agreed that "dialogue is the only language to solve our differences." Ahmed Helas, a Fatah leader, read a joint statement with a pledge to work out problems peacefully and expel any member who uses weapons illegally.

The fighting broke out hours before the United States agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional humanitarian aid directly to the Palestinian people. A statement by Mideast peacemakers did not say how much or what kind of aid they would provide.

"The thrust of this is the international community is still trying to respond to the needs of the Palestinian people," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The United States and some allies in Europe and elsewhere have differed over tactics to counter Hamas because of its violent anti-Israel ideology without worsening the Palestinians' humanitarian plight.

The European Union has proposed sending money directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for humanitarian needs; the U.S. has been cool to the European proposal.

In the Gaza City clash, Fatah said Hamas gunmen opened fire from a car at seven bodyguards protecting a house where a top Fatah activist, Samir Masharawi, was staying. Fatah said at least one Hamas gunman was wounded.

Dozens of Hamas and Fatah gunmen streamed to the scene, and eight more people were wounded in the gunbattles that followed, including five children, Fatah said.

Hamas said Masharawi's bodyguards kidnapped three members of Hamas' military wing earlier Tuesday, and Hamas gunmen came to free them. The outbreaks of fighting have been preceded by kidnapping charges, but there has been no actual evidence of abductions.

Hamas and Fatah have been in a power struggle since Hamas won January parliamentary elections. Most members of the security forces are loyal to Fatah, and instead of trying to disarm them, Hamas has set up its own militia.

Both sides are training for escalating clashes, but so far the violence has been localized and on a small scale. Despite deep disagreements, Palestinians have pulled back from the brink of all-out conflict in the past.

But the economic crisis is fraying nerves on all sides.

Severe shortages of medicines and inability to pay public workers are already plaguing Palestinians five weeks after Hamas took over, showing how quickly hardships have turned into deprivation because of the Western aid cutoff and Israel's decision to withhold $55 million it collects in taxes each month for the Palestinians.

The official reason for withholding funds has been to prevent them from reaching Hamas, which has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel over the past decade, killing hundreds. Hamas Muslim ideology does not accept a Jewish state in the Middle East, and the group has rebuffed Israeli and international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian partial peace accords.

Many hope the economic crisis will turn the people against Hamas. So far, however, there is no sign of that, beyond small demonstrations sponsored by Fatah. At a rally in Gaza, Haniyeh of Hamas called for an end to the sanctions, but added defiantly, "We are not going to surrender, cave in to this siege, compromise the rights of our people or recognize the legitimacy of the occupiers on our land (Israel)."

Abbas, who is also the Fatah leader, appealed to Western powers to free up the funds for his people.

"Our main goal at this time is ... to end the economic siege of the Palestinian people," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Also Tuesday, the Israeli military said it foiled an attempt last week to smuggle 1,100 pounds of TNT to the Gaza Strip from Egypt by boat. Sailors saw 11 bags thrown overboard as the boat escaped. Divers found the explosives, the military said.

Palestinian Militants End Internal Fights