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[Soldier4Christ]

Iran Rejects Potential European Incentives

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday rejected a possible European offer for incentives, including a light-water nuclear reactor, in return for allaying fears about his country's nuclear program by giving up uranium enrichment.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in a speech in central Iran.

European nations have weighed adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to permanently give up uranium enrichment - or face the threat of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Senior diplomats and EU government officials said Tuesday that the tentative plans were being discussed among France, Britain and Germany as part of a possible package to be presented to representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany at a meeting in London. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the information.

The London talks were postponed Wednesday until next week to allow more time for phone discussions of what should be included in the package of incentives and penalties to be offered to Tehran, said a diplomat, requesting anonymity for the same reason.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to say Tuesday whether a light-water reactor would be offered in the package. But he insisted that Iran would be required to halt its program of enriching and reprocessing uranium on Iranian soil, saying the United States and others "do not want the Iranian regime to have the ability to master those critical pathways to a nuclear weapon."

In his speech broadcast live on state television Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said Iran "won't accept any suspension or end" to its uranium enrichment activities.

He said Iran trusted the European Union in 2003 and suspended its nuclear activities as a gesture to boost negotiations over its nuclear program, only to have the Europeans eventually demand Iran permanently halt its uranium enrichment program.

The 2003 deal called for guarantees that Iran's nuclear program wouldn't diverge from civilian ends toward producing weapons. Iran agreed to the request, but negotiations collapsed in August 2005 when the Europeans said the best guarantee was for Iran to permanently give up its uranium enrichment program.

Iran responded by resuming uranium reprocessing activities at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

"We won't be bitten twice," Ahmadinejad said.

"We recommend that you not sacrifice your interests for the sake of others," he said in an apparent warning to the European Union about supporting the position advocated by the United States.

Ahmadinejad reiterated his threat to pull out of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if international pressure to give up uranium enrichment continued.

"Don't force governments and nations to renounce their membership in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," he said asserting that Iran had the right to a civilian nuclear power program.

With Iran's nuclear program now before the Security Council, the Americans are at the forefront of efforts to introduce a council resolution that would demand Iran give up enrichment or else face the threat of sanctions. Washington seeks to make such a resolution militarily enforceable, something opposed by Russia and China, which continue instead to favor talks meant to persuade Tehran to compromise.

In the latest sign of persisting differences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Beijing and Moscow will not vote for the use of force in resolving the nuclear dispute.

In a gesture to Tehran, Lavrov also said Ahmadinejad will attend a summit next month in Shanghai, China, of leaders from Russia, China and four Central Asian nations.

"We cannot isolate Iran or exert pressure on it," Lavrov told reporters. "Far from resolving this issue of proliferation, it will make it more urgent."

A light-water reactor is considered less likely to be misused for nuclear proliferation than the heavy water facility Iran is building at the city of Arak, which - once completed by early 2009 - will produce plutonium waste.

Still, light-water reactors are not proliferation-proof, because they are fueled by enriched uranium, which can be processed to make highly enriched "weapons-grade" material for nuclear warheads.

[Shammu]

 Iran: EU offer 'walnuts for gold'
Ahmadinejad dismisses possible EU incentive of reactor

Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Posted: 6:40 a.m. EDT (10:40 GMT)

 Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a possible European offer for incentives, including a light-water nuclear reactor, in return for giving up uranium-enrichment program.

"We don't need incentives," Ahmadinejad said on state-run TV. "They cannot stop our progress by offering us incentives."

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" Ahmadinejad added, according to The Associated Press.

The Iranian leader's comments came in the midst of reports that Britain, France and Germany were putting together a tentative incentives package that would include a light-water nuclear reactor in exchange for Tehran giving up uranium enrichment.

Light-water reactors are more difficult to use in the development of weapons than are heavy-water plants that produce more nuclear material.

Iran has ignored a U.N. Security Council demand that it stop enrichment activities or face possible sanctions.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran was open to any proposal to resolve the nuclear issue as long as it acknowledges its legal and inalienable right to pursue nuclear energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran insists that it has a right under the 1968 NPT to produce nuclear fuel. But the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has called on Iranian officials to clear up unresolved questions about its intentions.

The Security Council is debating a resolution, backed by the United States, Britain and France, that would give the demand the force of international law and open the door to possible sanctions if Iran continues to refuse.

Russia and China, two of the council's veto-wielding permanent members, have said they oppose sanctions.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel power plants or, in much higher concentrations, to produce a nuclear explosion. The United States accuses Iran of working toward nuclear weapons -- an allegation Tehran denies.

"Why are you still acting and talking as though these are colonial times," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday. "We do not demand anything more than our rights."

Meanwhile diplomats said a top-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members and Germany to discuss the Iranian nuclear standoff had been postponed while Washington seeks to harden proposed penalties if Tehran does not give up uranium enrichment.

The meeting was to have been held in London Friday. But diplomats told AP it had been moved to Tuesday or Wednesday to allow more time for phone talks about what should be in a package of incentives to be offered to Tehran.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad said added that Iran trusted the European Union in 2003 and suspended its nuclear activities, but the Europeans ultimately said Iran must not enrich uranium at all.

"We won't be bitten twice," Ahmadinejad said, referring to an Iranian proverb about not repeating a mistake.

"We recommend that you not sacrifice your interests for the sake of others," he said, in what AP said was an apparent warning to the EU about supporting the position advocated by the United States.

Iran: EU offer 'walnuts for gold'

[Shammu]

Iran Enlists Allies in Nuke Program Battle

By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer Wed May 17, 2:01 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran is enlisting Syria and the militant Palestinian Hamas group — both also deeply at odds with the United States, Israel and some in western Europe — as allies in the battle over its disputed nuclear program.

The move has prompted Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman to declare that "a dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasizing as a result of the statements and actions by leaders of Iran, Syria and the newly elected government of the Palestinian Authority."

Syria and Iran have historically close ties dating back to 1980, when Damascus sided with Iran against Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war. But ties have become far cozier since hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected last summer.

Syria was the new leader's first destination after he took office, and President Bashar Assad returned the compliment, becoming the first head of state to travel to Iran after Ahmadinejad assumed power.

Iranian and Syrian officials spoke of forming a "united front" to counter external pressure. It was Assad's fourth trip to Iran since he took office in 2000, succeeding his father, Hafez Assad.

Iran also has a long history of close ties to Hamas. Despite Iranian denials, Tehran was believed to have funded the group for years.

After Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections and the United States and Western Europe cut funding because of the militant organization's vow to destroy Israel, Iran announced it was sending the beleaguered Hamas-led government $50 million.

It remains unclear whether the money reached the Palestinians because Arab bankers fear U.S. retribution if they forward the funds.

While Iran, Syria and Hamas share an ideology that rejects Israel, opposes the Middle East peace process and is hostile to the United States, analysts say the alliance is nothing more than a tactic to boost morale and would be of little use to Tehran should the Americans attack.

"Tactically, the other part of the equation (Syria and Hamas) is too weak at the moment. Iran will certainly try to use all the options it has, but the Syria-Hamas factor is not beneficial to Iran," said Tehran-based political analyst Mashallah Shamsolvaezin.

"Syria and Hamas have their own problems. Damascus is trying to deal with international pressure over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and Hamas is almost broke and does not have the ability to take any initiatives to help Iran," Shamsolvaezin said.

Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based political analyst, concurred, saying Syria has "moved down the list of countries on the U.S. radar."

Iranian political commentator Ahmad Bakhshayesh said both Syria and Hamas would want to avoid any unnecessary attention now. "They are busy with their own domestic and international issues and would want to avoid new problems," he said.

But other, more powerful Arab countries could take up the slack.

"If something on the ground happens, there will be solidarity with Iran across the Arab world, except perhaps the neighboring Arab Gulf states," he said.

Iran has taken comfort in the nuclear dispute from Moscow and Beijing, both veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council, who oppose sanctions to punish Tehran. The United States, Britain and France — the other veto-wielding members — favor tougher measures.

Washington wants a U.N. resolution demanding that Iran stop uranium enrichment or face sanctions and perhaps military enforcement.

Movement toward a vote on a resolution was put on hold earlier this month to give the European Union more time for diplomacy. But its initial offers of economic and political incentives to Iran, including providing it with a light-water reactor, have been rejected out of hand by Ahmadinejad.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" the Iranian president said Wednesday.

Despite the harsh rhetoric, senior Iranian officials have been jetting across the Middle East, visiting Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Syria in an apparent bid to reassure its neighbors of Tehran's peaceful intentions and win support.

And Iran has shown extraordinary dexterity with the United States and its European allies, as it tries to buy time.

Both Bakhshayesh and Shamsolvaezin said Iran was expert in dragging out conflicts.

"Iran is like a marathon champion when it comes to international conflicts. It lures the enemy in and then systematically and gradually takes control. It has proved that in the past," Shamsolvaezin said.

Rashwan, the Cairo-based analyst, predicted Iran would continue playing a deft hand.

"The Iranians are veterans at playing a high-stakes game and then cooling off the situation. They have immense negotiating powers and the will to protect their interests at any cost," he said.

Iran Enlists Allies in Nuke Program Battle

[Shammu]

Muslim support for Da Vinci protesters
   By: Ketan Ranga
   May 17, 2006

Christians protesting the release of The Da Vinci Code in Mumbai have a new ally —Muslims.

The general secretary of the All India Christian council, Abraham Mathai, said today, “I, along with Maulana Syed Nuri, president of Raza community, and two bishops will go to Azad Maidan today to meet Joseph Dias.

The Maulana will hand over juice to him. We will ask him to end his hunger strike.”  The 40-year-old  head of the Catholic Secular Forum has gone on a fast-unto-death since yesterday morning to demand a ban on the movie.

The maulana has said that if the movie is not banned they too will come out on the streets in protest.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi will be seeing the movie today, after which he will meet with bishops and some senior members of the community to decide if the movie should be released.

Meanwhile, it was announced today that the the annual Cannes Film Festival will open with The Da Vinci Code.

[Shammu]

Mexico Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press Writer
   

AP Photo/EDUARDO VERDUGO


MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Police enraged by the kidnapping of six officers club unarmed detainees. A bloody battle between steelworkers and police leaves two miners dead. Drug lords post the heads of decapitated police on a fence to show who's in charge.

Less than two months before Mexicans elect their next president, many fear the country is teetering on the edge of chaos - a perception that could hurt the ruling National Action Party's chances of keeping the presidency and benefit Mexico's once-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose candidate has been trailing badly.

Some blame President Vicente Fox for a weak government. Others say rivals are instigating the violence to create that impression, hoping to hurt National Action candidate Felipe Calderon, who has a slight lead in recent polls.

A poll published Friday in Excelsior newspaper found 50 percent of respondents feared the government was on the brink of losing control. The polling company Parametria conducted face-to-face interviews at 1,000 homes across Mexico. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The conflicts are "a warning sign," said Yamel Nares, Parametria's research director.

Security is the top concern for Mexicans, and Fox has struggled to reform Mexico's notoriously corrupt police. Meanwhile, drug-related bloodshed has accelerated, with some cities seeing killings almost daily.

In April, suspected drug lords posted the heads of two police officers on a wall outside a government building where four drug traffickers died in a Jan. 27 shootout with officers in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.

A sign nearby read: "So that you learn to respect."

Last week, Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Mexico was in a "state of rage," and warned that tensions were similar to those that preceded the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas.

He said his group is committed to peace, but many fear his increased public profile - after years of hiding out in the jungle - could foreshadow greater polarization among Mexican voters.

The masked leader said a May 3 clash that left a teenager dead and scores injured in San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles northeast of Mexico City, is an example of the growing tensions.

Marcos has been leading nearly daily demonstrations in the town following the incident, which began when a radical group of townspeople kidnapped and beat six policemen in a dispute over unlicensed flower vendors. Police responded with rage the next day. Television crews captured officers repeatedly beating unarmed protesters, and several detained women alleged officers raped them.

The clash followed another bloody battle between steelworkers and police trying to break up an illegal strike at a plant in Lazaro Cardenas last month. Unions later threatened to shut down the country.

George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary, said the violence reflects Fox's lack of leadership.

"The state has become much weaker under his watch," Grayson said.

Recent polls show Calderon has overtaken longtime presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whom opponents have portrayed as a leftist demagogue similar to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But that could change if PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo can convince voters that Mexico was more stable under his party's 71-year reign, which ended with Fox's victory in 2000. Mexican law bars presidents from seeking re-election.

Madrazo has tried to paint himself as the law-and-order candidate - though so far his poll numbers have remained well behind those of Calderon and Lopez Obrador.

"It's not going to help Lopez Obrador who has been associated with the rabble rousers, but Madrazo can come out and say with his party at least Mexico had continued stability," Grayson said.

Gerardo Aranda, a tourism guide in Mexico City, said he won't go back to the PRI, but he doesn't know who he will vote for.

"No one really knows now what could happen next," he said. "All the candidates are bad. ... There is so much anger toward the government, everyone is against everything."

Mexico Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

[Soldier4Christ]

White House wary of 'West Bank withdrawal'
Asks PM to keep lid on evacuation plan during upcoming D.C. visit


JERUSALEM – The United States has asked Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to keep a low profile on issues related to his planned withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria during his scheduled trip to Washington this coming week, sources in Olmert's office told WND.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prefer pushing the U.S.-backed Road Map, which calls for eventual Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, instead of supporting unilateral Israeli moves.

The sources added the White House is not convinced Olmert commands a government coalition stable enough to carry out the withdrawal plan or to last in office more than two years.

Earlier in the week, the same sources said Olmert's administration is scurrying to put together an agenda for the Israeli leader's upcoming talks in Washington, with a series of specific requests mostly tied to financial aid already having been rejected by the White House.

Olmert is set to meet Tuesday with Bush after a trip to the Pentagon and is slated to address Congress Wednesday.

He aims to secure large U.S. grant and loan packages to fund his stated plan to withdraw from most of Judea and Samaria, territories now known as the West Bank. American officials, however, object to Olmert raising funding issues during his upcoming trip, diplomatic sources said.

Olmert's chief of staff Dov Weisglass and primary advisor Yoram Turbowitz headed to Washington earlier this week to meet with senior U.S. officials, including Rice and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, to help map out the agenda for next week's visit.

Texas-based Jewish businessmen with close ties to the White House and Olmert's office also met with administration officials in efforts to smooth over key points on Olmert's agenda, WND has learned.

According to reports, Olmert's trip will focus on U.S. support for Israel amid threats from Iran and the ongoing attempted isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Olmert reportedly will outline his so-called convergence plan, which seeks to "change Israel's borders" by withdrawing from most of Judea and Samaria, which runs alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. Olmert officials last week announced they are also drawing up a plan to evacuate parts of Jerusalem.

But aides to Olmert told WND the prime minister also wants to propose a request for large financial aid packages from the international community, led by the U.S., to fund his withdrawal plan, currently priced at over $10 billion.

Financing for the plan is considered crucial for its implementation. The U.S. previously pledged to help fund Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which was carried out this summer at a cost of about $2 billion, but little aid actually arrived. Analysts here contend the Judea and Samaria withdrawal plan could easily get stalled in the Knesset if Olmert doesn't secure international funding to defray the costs.

In a series of cables sent to Washington from Olmert's offices and through the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, the requests to discuss aid for the Judea and Samaria withdrawal were rejected, diplomatic sources said.

Bush is said to be hard-pressed to sell additional Israeli aid packages to Congress during an election year while lawmakers already are debating the price tags of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also factored in are recent large domestic aid packages in the wake of last summer's massive hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast, the diplomatic sources said.

Israel already is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, receiving more than $3 billion per year mostly for defense purposes. In addition, the U.S. provides some $7 billion per year in loan guarantees, which Israel has a history of repaying on time.

Diplomatic sources yesterday said American officials suggested any talks with Bush about the Judea and Samaria withdrawal should be kept on general terms. Olmert seeks to gain U.S. recognition of new borders created after the withdrawal is implemented.

The sources said Bush likely will issue general comments welcoming any Israeli pullbacks from Judea and Samaria while not officially endorsing the withdrawal plan.

Bush also will press Olmert to restart talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas while knowing the talks likely will be fruitless, the diplomatic sources said, adding the U.S. feels it is important to show its European allies it is at least pressing Israel to talk with the Palestinians. Plus, such efforts will boost Abbas against the Hamas government in the international arena, they said. The European Union recently blasted Olmert's withdrawal plan, announcing it would not recognize unilaterally created Israeli borders.

Political sources close to Olmert's office told WND the Israeli prime minister is most pressed to convince the Bush administration he has the political clout necessary to carry out his Judea and Samaria withdrawal.

"The Bush administration does not have faith that Olmert has the parliamentary coalition needed to sustain the firestorm of political activity that is sure to surround the implementation of the withdrawal," said a political source. "They do not see him as the strongman Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to them."

Olmert currently leads a slim governing coalition of 67 out of 120 Knesset seats. Typically, Israeli governments composed of ongoing coalitions with less than 70 seats tend to be unstable and short-lived.

Olmert's government relies heavily on 12 seats from the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which traditionally opposes land concessions and which some analysts have predicted may bolt the government as the convergence plan gets closer to implementation. Olmert may then be forced to bring Arab parties into his government or form a coalition with the Knesset's right-wing bloc, which would likely only enter the government on condition a Judea and Samaria withdrawal is either nixed, postponed, or put to a Knesset referendum.

The ongoing flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the upcoming Washington trip had prompted American Jewish leaders with close ties to the White House to fly to Jerusalem last week for "emergency consultations" with Olmert.

The leaders recently received discreet advice from pro-Israel senators and congressmen to urge Olmert to focus his trip on general issues and not financial aid. The Jewish leaders helped Olmert formulate a strategy for convincing the White House he has credibility with the Israeli public and has the political backing necessary to forge ahead with his withdrawal plan, sources close to the Jewish groups told WND.

Mortimer Zuckerman, former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, and the Conference's executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, were in Israel for meetings with senior Israeli officials this week, including Olmert.

Hoenlein told WND, "I know there is a lot of speculation regarding what Olmert will ask and what he will not ask. I think the discussions will be found to focus on the understanding of what the prime minister has in mind regarding his withdrawal plan, the direction he will take and how those steps will ensure mutual understanding and cooperation [with the U.S.]"

Hoenlein said the "joint war on terrorism being fought by Israel and the U.S." unites the two countries and that Olmert's visit will seek to solidify "cooperation on the many vital issues that require coordination."

[Soldier4Christ]

No badges for Jews,
Christians, says Iran
Experts say no evidence to support reports
regime plans special dress for non-Muslims

The Iranian Embassy in Ottawa is denying a story published yesterday by Canada's National Post that Tehran has legislated color-coded badges for Jews, Christians and other religious minorities, and several experts on the workings of the Islamic regime have concurred, saying evidence of such a scheme cannot be found.

According to the reports, Jews were to be required to wear yellow cloth strips, called zonar, while Christians were to wear red and Zoroastrians blue.

The initial information for the reports came from Iranian expatriates living in Canada. The Simon Wiesenthal Center reported that it had confirmed the story that the legislation had passed and still awaited the approval by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before it became law.

A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa "categorically" rejected the story, saying, "These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step."

The story that Iran was planning to employ a tactic used by the Nazis, who required Jews in Germany to wear yellow stars during the 1930s, caused outrage and concern around the world. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on record denying the Holocaust and saying Israel should be wiped off the map. As WorldNetDaily has reported, Iran has threatened to launch attacks against the Jewish state in the event of any strikes on its nuclear facilities.

Leonid Nevzlin, chairman of the board of trustees of Beth Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv, responded to the story with a call to Jews of the world to wear yellow badges to identify themselves with Iranian Jews.

"Iran is implementing Hitler's methods and constitutes a threat to the free world," Nevzlin said.

Despite Iran's past, heated rhetoric, several experts on the regime have raised doubts about the National Post story.

Sam Kermanian, of the U.S.-based Iranian-American Jewish Federation, said he was in contact with members of the Jewish community in Iran – including one who was a member of the Iranian parliament – and all denied the legislation had been passed.

The parliament is currently debating a dress code for Muslims "to preserve and strengthen Iranian-Islamic culture and identity, consolidate and promote national clothing designs and guide the manufacturing and marketing of clothes, on the basis of domestic forms and designs, as well as to encourage the public to refrain from choosing and spending on foreign designs not appropriate to the Iranian culture and identity."

The Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry is to "promote patterns of Iranian clothing and clothing from different regions of Iran." The draft law on dress provides for seasonal clothing exhibitions for the public and manufacturers as well as tariffs on foreign wear "to set the foundation for growth of domestic clothing."

According to Kermanian, the subject of "what to do with religious minorities" came up during debates prior to passage of the dress code law.

"It is possible that some ideas might have been thrown around," Kermanian told the National Post. "But to the best of my knowledge the final version of the law does not demand any identifying marks by the religious minority groups."

Kermanian noted that, badges or not, Jews in Iran were subject to discrimination. "If they sell food they have to identify themselves and their shops as non-Muslim," he said.

Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an Iranian commentator on political affairs in London, suggested that badges or insignia for religious minorities may have been part of a "secondary motion," addressing the changes specific to the attire of people of various religious backgrounds. If so, he said, the motion was minor and had not been included in the approved legislation.

Meir Javdanfar, an Israeli expert on Iran and the Middle East who was born and raised in Tehran, said he could uncover no evidence such a law had been passed.

"None of my sources in Iran have heard of this," he said. "I don't know where this comes from."

Javdanfar suggested requirements for non-Muslims to identify themselves with special badges might have been part of an older Islamic dress code, written two years ago, but that parliament had not passed all the clauses it considered.

"In any case, there is no way that they could have forced Iranian Jews to wear this," he added. "The Iranian people would never stand for it."

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said he still believes the original reports, although he admits he has no independent confirmation.

"We know that the national uniform law was passed and that certain colors were selected for Jews and other minorities," he said. "If the Iranian government is going to pass such a law then they are not likely to be forthcoming about what they are doing."

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, several commentators in that country greeted the story with skepticism, noting that its source was Iranian exiles strongly opposed to the regime.

[Soldier4Christ]

Excerpts of Iranian Draft Law on Dress

Excerpts from the bill given initial approval by Iran's parliament encouraging Islamic dress, translated from the Farsi by The Associated Press from a copy provided by parliament's press office.


"In order to preserve and strengthen Iranian-Islamic culture and identity, consolidate and promote national clothing designs and guide the manufacturing and marketing of clothes, on the basis of domestic forms and designs, as well as to encourage the public to refrain from choosing and spending on foreign designs not appropriate to the Iranian culture and identity," the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry will form a committee made up of representatives from various ministries, the state media and the parliament culture committee to follow through this law.

* __

The Culture Ministry and state media must "encourage through public broadcasts to promote patterns of Iranian clothing and clothing from different regions of Iran ... and to abstain from promoting patterns not conforming with Iranian-Islamic culture."

* __

The Culture and Trade Ministries will promote knowledge of Iranian-Islamic patterns of clothing in international culture exchanges and national, regional and international festivals.

* __

The Commerce Ministry will organize seasonal exhibitions of clothes in order to ensure public distribution and protect the manufacture and sale of clothes conforming with Iranian-Islamic patterns.

* __

The Commerce Ministry is obliged to raise tariffs on foreign clothing to set the foundation for growth of domestic clothing.

* __

The Cooperation and Social Affairs Ministries are tasked with giving a priority to ensuring that designers and manufacturers of clothes on an Iranian-Islamic pattern benefit from state incentives.

* __

All governmental bodies should encourage and facilitate their staff to purchase Iranian and Islamic clothing.

[Shammu]

Sweden's Unholy Alliance
By Nima Sanandaji
May 19, 2006

Recently, Atef Adwan, the minister of refugees of the Palestinian Hamas government, gave a speech in Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden. The speech was delivered during the fourth international conference, concerning the right of Palestinian refugees to return to a free Palestine. According to the Swedish daily paper Sydsvenskan, Adwan made the following remark: “By allowing me to travel here the Swedish government is sending a clear message to our people that somebody is at our side.”

Perhaps he is right. That a representative of the Hamas terrorist organization chose to begin his European tour by visiting Sweden, and that he was given a visa to do so, is telling of the soft mentality among European socialist governments towards terrorism. Swedish politics is full of similar examples. Two members of the Swedish Parliament have recently attempted to invite the group leader of Hamas, Salah Mohammed al-Bardawil, to the Swedish Parliament. The fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization with the blood of innocent civilians on its hands does not seem to bother the politicians too much.

 

Indeed, as the September elections draw closer, it seems as if the Swedish left are openly embracing radical Islamic groups. Recently, Swedish public television revealed that the leading Social Democratic party has started fishing for votes with the help of radical Muslims clergies. For several years the Christian wing of the Social Democratic party, called The Brotherhood, has been working with the influential Muslim leader Mahmoud Aldebe, president of Sweden’s Muslim Association.

 

But the new ally of the Social Democrats is anything but democratic. Already in 1999, Aldebe went on radio proposing that Sharia – the Islamic law – be introduced in Sweden. In addition, Aldebe has in a letter to the Swedish minister of Justice in 2003 involved himself in a heated debate regarding an incident of honor-related murder where a Kurdish girl was murdered by her two uncles, shot several times in the head. Aldebe did not condemn the murderers – rather he forcefully defended the perpetrators. Aldebe sees the entire debate regarding honor-related murders as an attack against the Islamic religion and claims in his letter that a public debate regarding these acts of murder risk to “encourage immigrant girls to revolt against the tradition of the families and their religious values.”

One might ask how a democratic party can justify co-operating with Sweden’s Muslim Association. During the above mentioned documentary the Social Democrat Ola Johansson referred to the book Social Justice in Islam by the Islamic ideologue Sayyid Qutb as proof that the social democratic ideology could find common ground with Islamic ideas. As the Swedish paper Expressen has exposed, Sayyid Qutb was not only a social thinker; he was also inspired by the German Nazi movement. He was an important figure in the Egyptian Islamic movement in the 50's and remains an inspiration for Muslim Extremists.

Sayyid Qutb calls for an all out war against the western civilization; he hates liberal democracy, views capitalism as a sick idea and is an extreme anti-Semite. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that Qutbs writings were translated to Dutch by Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh.

There is little sign that the unholy alliance between the Swedish Social Democrats and radical Muslims is ending. After the last election in 2002, Sweden’s Muslim Association sent a letter to the re-elected Social Democratic Prime Minister Göran Persson, congratulating him on his victory and hoping that Persson would work for implementing some of the demands of the Association in the future. It will be interesting to see if this emerging alliance will become part of daily political life in Sweden.

[Soldier4Christ]

FBI raids House of Representatives office

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI officers raided a House of Representatives office building on Saturday night, and NBC television said it had searched the offices of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed the unusual raid at the Rayburn House Office Building on Washington's Capitol Hill but would not say whose office was searched.

"Agents of the FBI's Washington field office executed a search warrant this evening at Rayburn at approximately 7:15," Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, said.

Weierman said the search warrant was sealed and she could not confirm whose office was being searched.

But two lawmakers under investigation in separate bribery scandals have offices in the Rayburn building -- Jefferson and Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney.

Calls to Jefferson's and Ney's offices were not answered.

Jefferson has maintained his innocence, but a former staffer and a Kentucky businessman have pleaded guilty to bribing him in connection with an African telecommunications venture.

According to court records filed in the plea deal, Jefferson helped secure a deal with a Nigerian company called Netlink Digital Television and in return demanded payments to a company maintained in the name of his wife and children.

Ney has been named, although not charged, in a bribery scandal centered on former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to plying lawmakers with Super Bowl tickets, travel junkets and other gifts to win favors for his lobbying clients.

Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and to violating a one-year ban on lobbying after leaving Ney's office in 2002 and joining Abramoff's lobbying firm.

Ney has maintained his innocence.

[Soldier4Christ]

Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted

 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.

"There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws. We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected."

In recent months, journalists have been called into court to testify as part of investigations into leaks, including the unauthorized disclosure of a CIA operative's name as well as the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program.

Gonzales said he would not comment specifically on whether The New York Times should be prosecuted for disclosing the NSA program last year based on classified information.

He also denied that authorities would randomly check journalists' records on domestic-to-domestic phone calls in an effort to find journalists' confidential sources.

"We don't engage in domestic-to-domestic surveillance without a court order," Gonzales said, under a "probable cause" legal standard.

But he added that the First Amendment right of a free press should not be absolute when it comes to national security. If the government's probe into the NSA leak turns up criminal activity, prosecutors have an "obligation to enforce the law."

"It can't be the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity," Gonzales told ABC's "This Week."

[Shammu]

Retailers Plow Ahead With RFID Chips

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer Sat May 20, 8:36 PM ET

The roots of radio-frequency identification technology stretch at least as far back as World War II, when transponders helped distinguish between Axis and Allied aircraft. Over the years the concept has been greatly miniaturized, landing RFID technology in such settings as animal tags, toll-collection devices, passports, keyless entry systems for cars and wireless credit cards.

But perhaps none of these projects will have as much impact for consumers as the adoption of RFID in the supply chains of huge retail stores.

Mega-retailers led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have gotten their biggest suppliers to add RFID chips to pallets and cases shipped to stores. Now, rather than having people with bar-code scanners walk around to take inventory, RFID readers in warehouses can automatically tally items on the fly.

RFID is expected to yield substantial savings largely by reducing the frequency of the following scenario: A customer goes to a store for an item, only to find its shelf empty, even though replacement stock lurks somewhere in the back. It's one of the costliest problems in retail.

Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's director of logistics, distribution and replenishment systems, explains that a bar-code scanner can register that certain items have entered a store's back room. But not until one of the items gets scanned at checkout does the store typically get an update. In between, the item might be on a store shelf or still sitting among back-room clutter.

In the more than 500 stores where Wal-Mart has integrated RFID, radio tags give additional insight — they inform employees when supplies enter the storeroom, when they leave it for the sales floor and when their emptied cartons are taken to the trash.

A University of Arkansas study last year determined that these stores saw a 16 percent reduction in the times that products were missing from shelves. But Langford said that figure understated RFID's true power, because the study included popular items that sales staffers already were sure to replenish. When the research examined only items that Wal-Mart sold less than 15 times a day, the out-of-stock reduction was 30 percent.

Wal-Mart hopes to see even greater improvement soon by giving employees handheld RFID scanners that will direct them precisely to cartons of products they need to bring from the storeroom.

Eventually, individual products in Wal-Mart and other stores are expected to get their own RFID tags to give stores even clearer views of their inventory.

"That's really where the supply chain gets most messy," said Kevin Ashton, who helped drive RFID development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now heads marketing for ThingMagic LLC, a maker of RFID readers.

Some high-value items like TVs and pharmaceuticals already have their own tags. But most item-level tagging is a decade away.

First, tag prices must drop below their current 5-to-7 cent range. Work also still needs to be done to master wireless interference issues that can arise in RFID-dense environments. And developers have to assure the public and retailers that data on the tags are secure and not invasive.

"We're seeing the RFID industry get a little bit more mature every day," Ashton said. "We don't view the RFID market as some overnight sensation."

Retailers Plow Ahead With RFID Chips

[Shammu]

 EU starts releasing statements on Iran in Persian
Brussels, May 20, IRNA

EU-Iran-Persian
The European Union has launched a new policy to explain the 25-member European bloc's policy towards the Islamic Republic to the Iranian people by publishing its statements and conclusions related with Iran in the Persian language.


"We know that a big majority of Iranians can read English, but the aim is to be able to reach out easier to the Iranian people,'' Cristina Gallach, spokesperson for EU High Representative Javier Solana, told IRNA in Brussels.

On Thursday for the first time, the EU issued the conclusions adopted on Iran by the EU foreign ministers during their meeting in Brussels on Monday in Persian.

''We have to make effort to explain our position clearly, as sometimes the messages transmitted by others does not reflect the real message,'' said Gallach.

She added that from now all EU statements on Iran will be translated and distributed in Persian.

EU starts releasing statements on Iran in Persian

[Shammu]

 Kuwaiti Emir views Iran as region's axis
Kuwait City, May 20, IRNA

Kuwait-Mottaki-Iraq
Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah in a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Saturday said Iran is a central axis in the region and that it always pursues all matters with great

understanding.

At the meeting, he expressed satisfaction with meeting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York and Kuwait and hoped that his future visit to Tehran will be planned by the foreign ministers of the two countries.

Turning to Iran's status in the region and the world, he said, "We respect Iran and are interested in further expanding the growing trend of cooperation with it."
Concerning Iran's nuclear issue, he said that his country believes that access to nuclear technology is the legitimate right of Iran and assessed the measures taken by Iranians to secure the safety of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant as positive.

About Ahmadinejad's letter to US President George W. Bush, he said that it had some fruitful impacts and has improved Iran's status in the view of world public opinion.

Sheikh Al-Sabah declared his support for formation of a permanent government in Iraq and hoped that it will manage to put an end to Iraq's insecurity.

For his part, Mottaki submitted Ahmadinejad's written message to Kuwait's Emir and hoped that his future visit to Iran will open a new chapter in bilateral ties between the two neighboring states.

Expounding on Iran's nuclear activities for peaceful purposes and the safety standards taken in Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, he said that the highest safety standards are used in this power plant under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.

Briefing the Kuwaiti Emir on the history of Iran's nuclear activities and the latest developments in the sector, the minister said, "At present, we have two options. We should either concede Iranians' national rights and interests or defend the legitimate rights of the nation and put an end to the current anxieties.

"We believe that diplomacy is the best and most logical way, given that we intend to avoid any crisis. At the same time we are determined to defend the nation's right to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."
Mottaki pointed to the priorities on the agenda of the joint commission and said that issues pertaining to the continental shelf, energy and water are most important to both sides.

The minister pointed to Palestine and said the oppressed Palestinian people are leading a difficult life and based on no logic and criteria do the dual approach of US and West either correspond to the democratic achievements in the country or the policy of Hamas government.

"Disregard for the Palestinians rights is against any principle.

Given their task and responsibility in this regard, Islamic states should hasten in support of the Palestinian people and their government-elect.

"They should also attempt to further increase their financial and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian government," he added.

Mottaki stressed the importance of supporting Iraq's current political trend and its exchange of views with neighboring countries on promoting peace and withdrawal of foreign troops.

He hoped that the Tehran meeting of states neighboring Iraq will pave the way for extending further help to the Iraqi nation.

Kuwaiti Emir views Iran as region's axis

[Soldier4Christ]

Israeli diplomats plan to sue Ahmadinejad

 

Israeli forum set to demand International Court of Justice in The Hague launch legal proceedings against Iranian president for conspiring to commit crimes against humanity, genocide


 
A group of Israeli diplomats plans to turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and demand that it launch legal proceedings against Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for conspiring to commit crimes against humanity.

 
Following the scathing remarks made by Ahmadinejad in the past few months against Israel's right to exist and his Holocaust denial, while the Iranians are exerting increasing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, Israeli diplomats decided to form a group aimed at looking into the possibility of launching a legal procedure.

On Sunday, the group members announced that a legal examination of the issue, in which international legal experts took part, ended with the conclusion that the Iranian president could be sued. The legal file against Ahmadinejad is almost ready for submission.

 
Among the forum members are former Israeli Ambassador to the United States and France Dr. Meir Rosen, former Foreign Ministry Director-General Eytan Bentsur, and former Minister Dan Naveh. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), headed by former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold, is providing the forum with logistic assistance in preparing the lawsuit.

 
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

was accepted by the UN General Assembly on December 1948, as the international community's response to the revelations on the Holocaust. The forum's document quotes a speech by Ahmadinejad from October 28, 2005, in which he called to "wipe Israel off the map."

 
In an interview to the al-Alam Iranian television network during the Islamic Convention in Saudi Arabia, Ahmadinejad declared that Israel's existence was "the main obstacle faced by the Islamic nation." Recently, in April 2006, the Iranian president defined Israel as "a rotten and dried-up tree which will be destroyed by one storm."

 
'Direct and public incitement to commit genocide'

 
The Convention on genocide defined genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. The acts for which countries can be punished as part of the Convention include physical genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, as well as a "direct and public incitement to commit genocide."

 
Rosen and Gold write in their document that "Ahmadinejad's remarks constitute without a doubt a 'direct and public incitement' to commit genocide. The Iranian regime supports terror organizations, such as the Islamic Jihad, which continuously carries out murderous terror attacks against innocent Israeli citizens. However, the gravity of Ahmadinejad's remarks is particularly outstanding in light of Iran's attempts to develop mass destruction weapons."

The document also stated that "the State of Israel must act against Iran through clause 9 of the Convention. According to this clause, disagreements between states that signed the Convention regarding its implementation must be solved by turning to the International Court of Justice in The Hague."

 
Both Israel and Iran signed and approved the discussed treaty in the 1950's.

 
At this stage, the forum is formulating the last wordings of the petition to the ICJ, while continuing to collect evidence, most of it from the media. The forum plans to take additional steps against Ahmadinejad in other European countries with legislation against Holocaust denial.