News, Prophecy and other

[Soldier4Christ]

Oil prices drop on al-Zarqawi's death

Oil prices fell below $70 per barrel Thursday for the first time in two weeks following the announcement of the death of al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Word by Nigerian militants that they would release foreign hostages and an easing of world tensions over Iran also calmed markets, which were already on a downward course after U.S. data showed ample crude and gasoline supplies.

"The hope is that with the removal of the terror leader in Iraq, the Iraqi situation will stabilize faster and future oil supply could increase," said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

A Jordanian-born militant, al-Zarqawi led a campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and other violence. Insurgents have also sabotaged pipelines numerous times.

Light sweet crude for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell more than a dollar on the announcement in Baghdad that al-Zarqawi had been killed in an air raid. It was down $1.32 at $69.50 a barrel in electronic trading by afternoon in Europe.

July Brent crude futures on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 88 cents to $68.31 a barrel.

Thursday's slide in oil prices continued a two-day trend as the market adjusted to U.S. government data showing higher crude oil and gas inventories and some easing of tensions over Iran's nuclear program.

"If there are indications of a rapid diplomatic solution, prices could fall quite quickly to the mid-60s (per barrel)," Shum said. "But the general market feeling is that it will still take weeks to resolve the issue."

Iran has said it would study a package of incentives by world powers hoping to curb its nuclear program.

For Nigeria, Vienna's PVM Oil Associates noted that "following months of attacks and kidnappings some 611,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude remains shut in." Still, tension there also ebbed Thursday, with militants in the oil-rich delta region saying they would release five kidnapped South Korean oil workers.

Despite the geopolitical jitters, the oil market remains well-supplied.

In its weekly report Wednesday, the Energy Department said U.S. crude-oil stocks grew last week by 1.1 million barrels to 346.6 million barrels, or 4 percent above year-ago levels. Gasoline inventories grew by 1 million barrels to 210.3 million barrels, or 2.5 percent below year-ago levels.

The commercial supply of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, increased by 1.8 million barrels to 120.7 million barrels, or 8.5 percent more than a year ago.

On a week-to-week basis, the agency's report showed a slight decline in refinery output and gasoline demand. Over the past four weeks gasoline demand is 0.7 percent higher than it was during the same period a year ago.

Gasoline and heating oil futures both fell, by more than 3 cents to $2.0900 and by more than 2 cents to $1.9705 a gallon, respectively. Natural gas rose more than 8 cents to $6.055 per 1,000 cubic feet.

[Soldier4Christ]

al-Qaida in Iraq Vows to Continue Holy War


Al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, and vowed it will continue its "holy war" in a statement posted on the Web on Thursday.

"We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said the statement, signed by "Abu Abdel- Rahman al-Iraqi," identified as the deputy "emir" or leader of al- Qaida in Iraq.

"The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme," it said.

[Soldier4Christ]

In his hometown, relatives pray for 1,000 Zarqawis

In the bleak Jordanian city where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi grew up, shocked relatives mourned the al Qaeda leader's death as a loss to Islam and prayed for 1,000 "Zarqawis" to fight the Americans in his place.

"This is a tragedy. We are all sad here," said Zarqawi's uncle, Yazm Khalayleh, 64.

"We have to be sad because he was fighting the infidels. Anyone who says he is not sad is lying; people believe he is a martyr. We do not want to believe that he is dead."

Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air raid there, Iraqi and U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The Jordanian, who masterminded hundreds of suicide bombings in Iraq and was blamed for the videotaped beheadings of foreign hostages, had come to symbolise the radical Islamic insurgency against U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq.

Relatives and neighbors hailed Zarqawi as a hero of Islam and hoped his death would not impede the insurgency in Iraq.

"God willing there will be 1,000 Zarqawis to fight the Americans," another relative, Ahmed Khalayleh, told Reuters.

Born Ahmed Fadhil al-Khalayleh to a notable family that is part of the biggest tribe in Jordan, Zarqawi grew up in the dusty streets of Zarqa, an industrial city where unemployment is high and Islamic militancy widespread.

Jailed by Jordanian authorities for several years in the early 1990s, Zarqawi went on to fight U.S. forces in Iraq, where Osama bin Laden named him the "prince" of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Relatives gathered at the three-storey house where Zarqawi was born, opposite a cemetery where he used to spend time with his friends as a youngster.

"If this is true then he is a martyr for Islam. This is a major loss for Islam," Zarqawi's brother-in-law, Saleh al-Hami said. "God willing he is going to the heavens."

There were no public signs of grieving or celebration in Zarqa, Jordan's second largest city, 25 km (16 miles) northeast of Amman, but not everyone shared in the mood of sadness that hung over the city.

Some said Zarqawi, thought to be in his late 30s, had been killing other Muslims in Iraq, rather than fighting the American forces occupying their neighbor.

"I am happy he was killed because he used to kill Muslims just like non-Muslims. He did not distinguish," said Sameh Dawood, a resident of Zarqa.

[Soldier4Christ]

Russia faces demographic disaster

In his recent state of the nation address, President Vladimir Putin said the most urgent problem facing Russia is its demographic crisis.

The country's population is declining by at least 700,000 people each year, leading to slow depopulation of the northern and eastern extremes of Russia, the emergence of hundreds of uninhabited "ghost villages" and an increasingly aged workforce.

Now, one of Russia's leading sociologists has warned that the country's population may halve by the middle of this century.

Official Russian forecasts, along with those from international organisations like the UN, predict a decline from 146 million to between 80 and 100 million by 2050.

But in an exclusive interview to the BBC, Viktor Perevedentsev, who has been studying Russia's population since the 1960s, said he believed even these figures may be overly optimistic.

He said the decline was likely to accelerate and that the Russian leadership should accept the population had reached a "tipping point", beyond which direct intervention would be ineffective.

Birth-rates in many developed, industrialised countries are stagnant or declining. But when this is combined with very low life-expectancy and an increasingly unhealthy population, Mr Perevedentsev agrees that the term "catastrophe" reflects reality. It is not a case of hyperbole from overly emotional Russian patriots, he says.

Angry debate

Mr Perevedentsev explained that people have the majority of children between certain definable ages. In Russia, this is generally earlier than in Western countries. But the percentage of potential parents of child-bearing age within the Russian population is itself so small that state-funded efforts, by definition, can bring only temporary results.

Mr Perevedentsev points to how the Soviet government, at the beginning of the 1980s, undertook similar measures in response to concerns over falling birth-rates. They produced a mini "baby boom", lasting just two or three years, before the long-term decline reasserted itself.

Even if all young Russian women could be persuaded to have several children, Mr Perevedentsev warns, the same is likely to happen again.

The seriousness of this problem has led to an urgent, polarised and often angry debate in Russia about ways to tackle the problem.

Many medical specialists berate the government's apparent inaction over the country's health crisis. It is estimated that a third of Russian men abuse alcohol, while smoking rates are among the highest in the world. New threats, such as the rapid spread of HIV/Aids, merely compound an already bad situation, they say.

Politicians on the nationalist wing of the political spectrum see the hand of the West, and of Russia's "enemies" more widely, in the population decline.

Ethnic rise

One commentary recently published by the "Rodina" (Motherland) movement suggested those Russian sociologists making the gloomiest predictions were, themselves, in the pay of western organisations committed, literally, to destroying Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian economists warn of the long-term consequences for the country's growth.

Some have suggested an official programme of controlled immigration, to encourage workers from the former Soviet republics and further afield to come to live and work in Russia. This is a controversial suggestion and appears to have been rejected at the very top.

In his recent state of the nation address, President Putin said "no sort of immigration will solve Russia's demographic problem".

At the same time, some officials and nationalist politicians have begun to utter a loaded term last used three decades ago by Soviet planners - "differentiated birth-rates".

Scare-mongering

It reflects concern that while ethnic Russians fare so badly, there are other, predominantly Muslim, population groups that are experiencing very rapid growth.

Some of the peoples of the North Caucasus - especially Chechens, Ingush and Dagestanis - are rapidly growing in number. The last Soviet census (1989), showed 611 Chechens for every 100,000 population. The most recent Russian census (2002) showed that figure had increased to 937 - an increase of more than 50%.

Mr Perevedentsev dismisses the notion that Russia could become a majority Muslim nation, and says this is a spectre being deliberately whipped up by politicians with little understanding of demography.

He acknowledges that there are very high birth-rates among these population groups, but insists they merely reflect an earlier stage of development and will ultimately fall. In 50 years' time, he says, Muslims will still be a small part of Russia's overall population.

[Soldier4Christ]

Special ops A-Team
helped nail Zarqawi
U.S., British defense chiefs formed
task force to kill him 2 months ago

WASHINGTON – When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, was killed today by 500-pound bombs dropped by two F-16 fighter jets on a house north of Baghdad, it was the result of intelligence information gathered, in part, by an elite task force of international special operations forces formed just a month ago with the express purpose of taking him out.

The "A-Team" created for the mission drew on the skills and expertise of U.S. Army Green Berets, "Tier 1" of Britain's Special Air Service and the Israeli Mossad, as reported last month in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND.

The decision to form the unit was taken after a top-level conference between U.S. and British defense chiefs in Washington a month ago.

The unit was part of the already-secret Task Force Black run by Britain's MI6 out of coalition forces headquarters in Baghdad. Nicknamed "The Untouchables," it was given a no-holds barred brief in pursuit of Zarqawi in May.

To avoid detection, the team dressed in clothes bought from second-hand stalls in Baghdad's back-street markets. They regularly sprayed themselves with a pungent, sweat-smelling odor known as "souk scent." Each man wore contact lenses that turned their eye color brown or black. The goal was to permit them to look like any other Iraqi peasant as they hunted the most bloodthirsty killer in Iraq.

"The Untouchables" were assured in advance they need fear no investigation into their methods to bring Zarqawi to summary justice.

Though Zarqawi was done in ultimately by massive bombs delivered from high-tech fighters, the unit members were each equipped with L115A-353 sniper rifles that allowed them to kill at 1,000 yards. But the key to the mission was the fact that each made high-risk surveillance operations into normally no-go areas in Iraq.

While officially Israel denies any presence in Iraq, four Mossad assassins were assigned to serve with the unit.

"The Untouchables" also used thermal-imaging equipment to probe the "rat holes" the terror chief used as he flitted around Baghdad and other cities. They also had at their disposal a CIA-operated Predator unmanned aircraft able to provide a real-time video feedback of any area where Zarqawi was spotted.

Zarqawi boasted on his website of beheading innocent victims, including the murders of more than 1,000 British and American soldiers in Iraq over the past two years. Zarqawi also led terrorists that killed thousands of Iraqis through relentless suicide bombings and organized attacks. Many of the bombings were directed at large crowds of Shi'ites under a strategy U.S. and Iraqi officials said was designed to trigger a civil war.

Gen. Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman, Britain's vice chief of the defense staff, had told senior officers in Baghdad that "removing this terrorist will be a massive blow against al-Qaida." Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told a news conference today the big breakthrough that led to Zarqawi's location came while U.S. forces were trailing Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman.

"Through painstaking intelligence efforts we were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements. ... Last night, he went to meet [Zarqawi] again at 6.15 pm when the decision was made to go ahead and strike that target," he added.

Zarqawi came from humble beginnings – a former street thug from Jordan. But he remained elusive despite several U.S. military offensives, a $25 million bounty on his head and the capture of what officials said were several of his aides.

Caldwell said an Egyptian militant trained in Afghanistan named Abu al-Masari, who established the first al-Qaida cell in Baghdad, may succeed Zarqawi as head of the group in Iraq.

"What everyone needs to understand is the strike last night did not occur in a 24-hour period," he said. "It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, signal intelligence that was done over a period of time, many, many weeks."

There were six people in the house, including a woman and a child, but only Zarqawi and Abdul-Rahman have been identified.

Caldwell said important information was found at the location that led to 17 simultaneous raids later that night in Baghdad and its outskirts that uncovered a "treasure trove" of information.

But he cautioned against being overly optimistic because Zarqawi's followers still posed a threat.

"It's not the beginning or the end but it is a step forward," said Caldwell. "Ridding Iraq of Zarqawi will not instantaneously stop the violence."

[Soldier4Christ]

German Jewish leader calls Ahmadinejad 'second Hitler'

BERLIN (AFP) - The president-elect of Germany's Jewish community called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "a second Hitler" in an interview published Thursday and demanded Berlin charge him with Holocaust denial if he attends the football World Cup.

Charlotte Knobloch, who was elected head of Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the mass-selling Bild newspaper the German government and justice system must take a tough line against Ahmadinejad if he arrived to support the Iranian side.

"For me, this man is a second Hitler. He denies the Holocaust. That is an criminal offense in Germany," she was quoted as saying.

"The German government should not protect him with diplomatic immunity. The authorities should launch a probe against him instead and punish him."

The German foreign ministry said Wednesday it had issued a visa for an Iranian vice president, Mohammed Aliabadi, so he can attend the football World Cup starting Friday but stressed he would be coming "as a sports official".

"He does not represent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," the spokesman said.

Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly denied the Nazis' slaughter of six million Jews and called for the destruction of Israel, has said he would like to attend the mega-event.

But an Iranian spokesman claimed last month he would not be going to Germany.

[Soldier4Christ]

Ahmadinejad: Iran Ready for Nuclear Talks

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday Iran was ready to discuss "mutual concerns" over his country's nuclear program, but he refused to first suspend uranium enrichment.

His comments came a day after world powers backed off a demand that Iran commit to a prolonged moratorium on uranium enrichment, asking only for a suspension during talks on its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad did not say whether he accepted the proposal, part of a package of incentives in exchange for Iran suspending enrichment.

Last week, the United States agreed last week to join France, Britain and Germany in talks with Iran. If the talks occur, it would be the first major public negotiations between Washington and Tehran in more than 25 years.

However, Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran would never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to produce nuclear fuel.

"On behalf of the Iranian nation, I'm announcing that the Iranian nation will never hold negotiations about its definite rights with anybody, but we are for talks about mutual concerns to resolve misunderstandings in the international arena," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in Qazvin, west of the capital Tehran.

"Negotiations should be held in a fair atmosphere and on the basis of equality," he said. "If they think they can threaten and hold a stick over Iran's head and offer negotiations at the same time, they should know the Iranian nation will definitely reject such an atmosphere."

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has said the incentives package included both "positive steps" and "ambiguities that need to be cleared up." Tehran has said it will announce its position after carefully studying the package.

"International monopolists have been defeated in the face of your resistance and solidarity, and have been forced to acknowledge your dignity and greatness," Ahmadinejad told the crowd, referring to the U.S. and its allies.

The United States and other Western nations suspect Iran's nuclear program is intended to produce weapons. Iran insists it is intended only to produce power, arguing it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that would generate electricity.

[Soldier4Christ]

Swiss 'foiled hit on Israeli jet'

Swiss intelligence agents have foiled a plot to attack an Israeli El Al airliner, officials report.

The federal prosecutors' office said seven people of North African origin had been arrested.

It said law enforcement agencies in other European countries, notably France and Spain, had played a part in the investigation.

According to Israeli media, terrorists planned to use a rocket to bring down an El Al plane in Geneva last December.

The anti-terror operation was launched on 12 May in Zurich and Basel, the authorities said.

Philippe Roy, spokesman for Geneva airport, told the French news agency AFP that El Al had halted flights to the city for a week last December, officially for "commercial or technical" reasons.

The prosecutor's office said police had begun investigating the criminal cell in early 2005 in connection with a series of robberies. Some of the gang's booty was reportedly transferred to a terror group.

The officials said one cell member had been in contact with Mohamed Achraf, a Moroccan extradited from Switzerland to Spain in April 2005 for allegedly plotting to blow up Spain's highest court.

In November 2002 two shoulder-launched missiles narrowly missed an Israeli airliner carrying holidaymakers, which had just taken off from Mombasa, Kenya. The attack was claimed by the al-Qaeda network.

[Soldier4Christ]

Congress to hold hearings into OKC bombing
Examining foreign connection to plot, including Arab terrorists


In what some on Capitol Hill are calling a surprising decision, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., has given the nod for hearings into the long-debated question of whether those responsible for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building had help from any foreign source.

Spurred to action by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Hyde has given Rohrabacher's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee the wide-ranging authority to conduct interviews and subpoena documents related to the April 19, 1995, terrorist attack that left 168 dead, 19 of them children.

Interviewed Wednesday, Rohrabacher confirmed that his nearly two-year-long personal investigation into the Oklahoma City tragedy had finally received the necessary support for an official congressional investigation.

"Congressman Hyde has approved my request for hearings into the OKC bombing. The congressional investigation will be limited to our area of focus, which is whether there was a foreign connection to the conspiracy," Rohrabacher explained.

"I think we know what we're looking for and I expect complete cooperation from the witnesses we call and the agencies we look to for documents."

Rohrabacher then emphasized his office would keep the public informed about the level of cooperation his subcommittee receives during the official phase of the investigation.

"I must be able to assure the families of the victims of this horrible crime that their government cooperated with our investigation," the congressman said. "That is very important to our oversight responsibilities."

Arab terrorist link?

Forecasting the areas of particular interest the congressional investigation could take, Rohrabacher promised to look carefully for any evidence linking the cabal to Arab terrorists and or to a German national in this country illegally in 1995, Andreas Carl Strassmeir.

In his letter seeking authority for hearings, Rohrabacher wrote: "It is highly likely that the Arab connection and/or the Strassmeir connection played a significant role in the planning and execution of the murderous bombing of the OKC federal building. In both possible scenarios, the official investigation fell short and further investigation has been discouraged ever since."

Specifically, Rohrabacher said that Terry Nichols' trips to the Philippines would be examined for links to a theory that he was actually meeting with Middle East radicals who were providing him with support.

"I also will call witnesses who say they saw (convicted conspirator Timothy) McVeigh with Arabs in Oklahoma City," he told this newspaper.

Elohim City connection

Rohrabacher also noted that much of the investigation would focus on a spate of documents recently unearthed during a Freedom of Information lawsuit in Salt Lake City, Utah.

While attempting to piece together evidence in the mysterious death of his inmate-brother in August of 1995 at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center, attorney Jesse Trentadue has sued the Oklahoma City FBI office for documents that might shed light on the inmate's bizarre demise while locked up in a suicide-proof cell.

While the documents obtained in the suit have been heavily redacted, they do appear to link Strassmeir to a foiled "sting operation" involving the federal government, McVeigh, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy.

In possession of those documents as well, Rohrabacher said he and his staff are convinced there are important facts about the bombing hidden under by the FBI's redactions and he wants un-redacted copies for his staff to examine.

Among the witnesses the committee intends to call is Danny Coulson.

Coulson was one of five FBI commanders assigned the original investigation into the bombing. Only a few weeks into the case, though, all five suddenly were removed to make room for Danny Defenbaugh.

Still harboring doubts about the FBI's official version of the bombing case, that only McVeigh and Nichols were largely responsible for the crime, Coulson said today, "I'm very much in favor of this investigation by Congress. We need to look very closely at why the five FBI commanders originally assigned the case were pulled off."

"The FBI needs to answer to the Congress why they shut down their own investigation into Strassmeir and Elohim City. Why did their total investigation into Strasssmeir consist of two ASUSAs (assistant United States Attorneys) calling Strassmeir's flat in Berlin a couple of times? He never should have been allowed to leave here without a more thorough series of interviews, face-to-face, by FBI agents trained in those skills."

Long a subject of interest by this paper, Strassmeir's name only began to circulate in the media months after the bombing, when this newspaper discovered that he was the person McVeigh was calling at a terrorist training camp in eastern Oklahoma, called Elohim City.

Months later, the newspaper reported the former German military officer was being closely monitored by the Tulsa office of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Only weeks before the bombing, the BATF had learned Strassmeir was working with others on a plot to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City. However, the FBI stepped in to thwart his arrest when the BATF sought an arrest warrant from the Tulsa U.S. attorney's office.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

Several months ago a judge in Salt Lake City ordered the FBI to turn over to Trentadue documents indicating there were informants at Elohim City at the time of the bombing that worked for a private charity – the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC.

According to those teletypes, SPLC informants were present at Elohim City April 17 when McVeigh contacted the compound, looking for additional help in the bomb plot.

However, the FBI blacked out much of the person's name with whom then-FBI Director Louis Freeh said McVeigh was closely associated. In the past, the FBI vehemently has denied McVeigh had any close associates at the camp.

Strassmeir was the compound's paramilitary instructor from 1993 until August of 1995.

Since the bombing, over a half-dozen of Strassmeir's associates at Elohim City have gone to prison for bank robbery, conspiracy to overthrow the government and murder. None, however, were ever charged in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Strassmeir left the United States in early 1996. In one of the teletypes issued by Freeh, the director appeared to know where Strassmeir was staying in the U.S. and of plans Strassmeir was making to return to Germany through Mexico.

Days after Freeh's memo was issued, Strassmeir did indeed cross the Mexican border and make his way to Berlin with the assistance of former CIA pilot Dave Holloway.

Neither Holloway nor his associate, attorney Kirk Lyons of North Carolina – who paid for the pair's trip – were ever charged with aiding Strassmeir's flight. At the time of Strassmeir's escape, he was listed as an illegal overstay by the INS and wanted by the ATF for illegally carrying a firearm in the U.S.

Believing him to be "armed and dangerous" at the time, the OKBOMB task force even contacted the INS and asked that Strassmeir be stopped at the border and held for questioning in the bombing case. This was the same week Freeh told several offices Strassmeir was staying in North Carolina with Lyons.

Safely back in Germany for many weeks, it was only after Strassmeir's name was linked to McVeigh by this newspaper and others that two Justice Department lawyers in Denver called Strassmeir in Berlin, twice, to ask about any contacts he may have had with McVeigh and the bombing.

During those brief interviews, Strassmeir admitted over the phone that he may have met McVeigh at a gun show in Tulsa once, but he also assured prosecutors he did not help with the bomb plot.

In the wake of the tragedy, the FBI had available several well-qualified commanders with extensive experience in major case investigations to lead and complete the investigation.

However, a man with much less investigative experience, Danny Defenbaugh, replaced the original five experienced FBI commanders who initially had been assigned to the case.

With the original five commanders off the OKBOMB case, considerable criticism has since been leveled at the job Defenbaugh did while heading up the FBI's most expensive investigation in U.S. history.

In spite of two dozen eyewitnesses that placed McVeigh with others in downtown Oklahoma City that day and $85 million that was spent putting together a case that sent two men to jail and one to the death chamber, only McVeigh and army buddy Terry Nichols were charged. Also imprisoned, Michael Fortier admitted his involvement in the conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with the FBI in return for a lighter sentence.

Jurors in both cases in Denver, plus a grand jury in Oklahoma City, said they doubted the FBI had gotten everyone involved.

In 2001, more than 4,000 pages of FBI interviews and other evidence never shown the defense teams for McVeigh or Nichols were discovered on the eve of McVeigh's execution.

The discovery caused McVeigh's execution to be put on hold and the fiasco quickly led to the sudden resignation of Defenbaugh.

Beyond a congressional investigation, Coulson believes the magnitude of the tragic attack that left 168 dead and 500 injured also warrants the appointment of an experienced federal prosecutor to look into all of the evidence and the use of a federal grand jury to facilitate the investigation.

"Based upon my investigation following the bombing of the Murrah building on April 19, 1995, and these new documents from the FBI turned up in the Utah case, it's clear to me further investigation is required," he said.

Referring to the documents uncovered during the FOIA lawsuit and the large number of witnesses the FBI interviewed after the bombing that placed McVeigh in the company of others at key points in the conspiracy, Coulson observed, "The totality of this information very strongly indicates there are others involved and not charged who were involved at least in conspiratorial acts.

"Families of victims and the American people deserve answers to many unanswered questions," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran confirms stepping up nuclear activities

 An Iranian official has confirmed that the country has stepped up its nuclear activities, following a report from the UN atomic agency that said Iran has accelerated uranium enrichment.

"Iran has started another stage of injecting hexafluoride gas into centrifuge machines," the student news agency ISNA quoted an unnamed official as saying on Friday.

 "Iran is also pursuing a plan to have a 3,000-centrifuge cascade by the end of the current year (March 2007)," he noted, adding that all the material used in uranium enrichment facilities has been produced domestically.

A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency obtained by AFP on Thursday said that Iran had accelerated uranium enrichment on June 6, the same day world powers asked it to halt the work and open talks to guarantee it will not make nuclear weapons.

On that Tuesday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present a package of benefits aimed at enticing Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium makes nuclear reactor fuel, and in a highly refined form can produce atom bomb material.

"Iran is continuing its installation work on other 164-machine cascades," said the report from the IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei.

Iran built the cascade as a pilot plant for what it hopes will eventually be an industrial plant of more than 50,000 centrifuges, used to refine the uranium 235 isotope.

Iran started last August to make feedstock uranium hexafluoride gas, which it then fed into centrifuges in February this year. It produced enriched uranium beginning in April.

The quality of enriched uranium being produced in April was appropriate for nuclear reactor fuel and was not the highly-enriched variety needed to make weapons.

[Soldier4Christ]

Iranian cleric dismisses U.S. offer
Ayatollah declares determination to continue uranium enrichment

While Iran has not responded publicly to an offer of incentives from six major powers, a leading cleric in the Islamic regime told worshippers at Friday prayers Tehran would not stop making nuclear fuel.

Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – reportedly offered the package with the condition Iran stop enriching uranium.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati – head of Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council – dismissed the deal as beneficial only for the foreign nations and "not appropriate for the Iranian people."

In a sermon commemorating the 17th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Jannati said, according to Asia News, "Iran's right to have access to peaceful nuclear technology is undeniable."

The offer of incentives to Iran has not been made public, but Western diplomats say the U.S. has pledged to join European-led talks and give Tehran a light-water reactor and storage facility for nuclear fuel.

Iran insists it is enriching uranium to a low level with the sole purpose of fueling nuclear power stations. But Tehran has failed to convince the international community it won't enrich uranium to the higher level required for nuclear weapons.

Jerome Corsi, WND columnist and author of "Atomic Iran," called the U.S. offer a "ploy to appear to the world to be bending over backwards and be reasonable," saying, "if Iran wants nuclear materials for peaceful purposes, by all means lets give it to them and more."

The Bush administration, he says, is trying to build its own coalition of support by "being more than reasonable," anticipating Tehran will reject the offer.

He expects the Islamic regime to shift ground again, however, saying that while it won't stop enriching uranium, it will be delighted to have talks.

Corsi says that tactic could succeed as Bush-administration opponents join Tehran in asking, "Why won't the White House talk?"

But the White House must hold its line, requiring Tehran to stop enriching uranium, Corsi insists.

"If we talk to them without requiring them to stop uranium enrichment, then they will have won a major breakthrough on the road to producing all the weapons-grade uranium they need," he said.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last night Tehran will not negotiate its "inalienable right" to uranium enrichment, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Speaking to families of "martyrs" and war veterans in the northwestern province of Qazvin, Ahmadinejad said certain countries "spread propaganda that if they officially recognize Iran's right to have access to nuclear fuel cycle, it will be tantamount to giving a major concession to our nation."

Ahmadinejad essentially said Iran will dictate the terms of any international talks.

"They should not think that if they hold talks with Iran, it means they have given a concession to the country," he said, according to the state media. "They should know that it is the Iranian nation which accepts to negotiate with them on international issues. This is the Iranian nation who is giving procession to them."

He added, the Western nations "make decisions against Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. We intend to hold talks with them on roots of corruption, discrimination and cruelties. In that case, peace will be established in the world and nations throughout the world will enjoy welfare."

Ahmadinejad said the "Iranian nation insists on its inalienable rights and will never give them up. Our nation raises flag of invitation to justice and humanity. My letter to [President Bush] has been written about increasing problems in the world."

[Soldier4Christ]

Hamas Military Wing Calls Off Israel Truce

Hamas militants called off a truce with Israel on Friday after a barrage of Israeli artillery shells tore into Palestinians at a beachside picnic in the Gaza Strip, killing seven civilians.

The declaration raised the prospect of a new wave of bloodshed. Hamas militants suspended a campaign of deadly suicide attacks on Israelis after the February 2005 cease-fire, and have largely stuck to the truce. The Islamic group now leads the Palestinian government.

"The earthquake in the Zionist towns will start again and the aggressors will have no choice but to prepare their coffins or their luggage," the Hamas militants said in a leaflet. "The resistance groups ... will choose the proper place and time for the tough, strong and unique response."

The Israeli artillery attack was part of a wider aerial and artillery bombardment of suspected Palestinian rocket-launching sites that killed a total of 10 people Friday.

The violence fueled tensions already high over an Israeli airstrike that killed a militant commander in the Hamas-led government Thursday.

Tens of thousands of people packed a Gaza soccer stadium Friday for Jamal Abu Samhadana's funeral. They fired thousands of bullets in the air, chanting, "God is great" and "Revenge, revenge."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack on the beach as a "genocidal crime," called for international intervention and declared a three-day period of mourning. His rival, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, called the attack a "war crime" and urged an end to recent fighting between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.

The Israeli army said its attacks were aimed at areas that Palestinian militants used to fire homemade rockets at Israel. Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz ordered artillery attacks halted during an investigation.

Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, Israel's southern commander, said investigators were trying to determine if an errant tank shell caused the bloodshed at the beach.

"I express deep regret over the fact that uninvolved persons have been hit," Galant told reporters. "We shall try to find a way to ensure not to harm the uninvolved."

Kamal Ghobn said he had just arrived at the beach on a bus with about 50 relatives when the attack took place. "I was still parking the bus and everyone got out to go to the beach. As I locked the door I felt the thud of the shells and felt a sting in my side," said Ghobn, who was slightly wounded by shrapnel. Gobn said he saw four shells land.

The artillery fire scattered body parts, destroyed a tent and sent bloody sheets flying into the air. A panicked crowd quickly gathered, screaming and running around hysterically.

A sobbing girl lay in the sand, crying for her father. "Father! Father!" she screamed.

The body of a man lay motionless in the sand nearby.

Palestinian officials said seven people were killed and more than 30 wounded at the beach. Hardest hit was the Ghalia family, which lost six members, among them the father, one of his two wives, an infant boy and an 18-month-old girl.

"This was his first day at the beach this summer. He was taking his kids to play. It's destiny," said Nasreen Ghalia, a sister-in-law of the dead father. She said one of the survivors was a 7-year-old girl, Hadeel, who had not been told she had lost her parents and siblings.

"Hadeel is now an orphan," she said.

In an Israeli airstrike elsewhere in northern Gaza, three militants were killed after they fired a rocket into Israel.

Hamas staged a series of large demonstrations across the Gaza Strip late Friday. In Gaza City, leaders quoted from the militant wing's statement calling off the cease-fire with Israel.

"We cannot remain silent," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "God willing, the reprisal is going to be earth shaking. We have no option but to defend ourselves, our people, our children and our land."

The tough stance by Hamas was likely to deepen a dispute between the group and Abbas.

Abbas, a moderate who leads Fatah, is eager to restart stalled peace talks with Israel, and on Saturday was expected to formally announce a July 31 date for a referendum on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Haniyeh sent a letter to Abbas on Friday urging him not to hold the vote and to continue negotiations over the plan. He said the referendum would divide the Palestinian people and instead proposed forming a unity government with Fatah.

"The idea of the referendum now on the table carries many dangers," Haniyeh wrote. "I'm afraid it will cause a historic rift that will hurt the Palestinian cause for decades to come."

But late Friday, Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat, a confidant of Abbas, said the president planned to push ahead with his referendum plan.

Public opinion polls show the two-state proposal enjoys widespread support.

Abbas has endorsed the referendum plan as a way to end international sanctions against the Palestinians and restart peace talks. He wants voters to endorse a plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, implicitly recognizing Israel.

Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, wants changes in the language of the proposal, and the latest violence is likely to only deepen the group's hard line.

[Shammu]

Jun. 9, 2006 8:16
Russia urges Israel against Iran attack
By HERB KEINON

Russia sent messages to Israel through US intermediaries recently, voicing opposition to a possible military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While Israel and Russia have good relations and a direct line of communications, the Russians chose to use the US to deliver this message of military restraint out of a belief that Jerusalem pays closer attention to messages from Washington.

According to assessments reaching Jerusalem, while the Russians don't want to see Iran get the bomb, they believe this may still be a decade away and that in the meantime diplomatic efforts might succeed in keeping Teheran from reaching that point.

Moscow is concerned any military conflagration would eventually spill over the Russian-Iranian border into the Caucasus, central Asia and even Chechnya, and be detrimental to Russian interests.

Washington, according to these assessments, does not believe that Russian opposition to UN Security Council sanctions against Iran is motivated by anti-American sentiment, but rather by the belief that a military action in Iran would severely destabilize the region.

The Russian concern, according to this assessment, is that UN sanctions would be the start of a "slippery slope" leading inevitably to military action, just as was the case with Iraq.

One source of Washington and Moscow's different tactical approaches toward Iran stems from different assessments regarding when Iran may "go on-line." While Washington is closer to Israel's position that the point of no return is when the Iranians have mastered the technology to create a bomb, for the Russians "D-Day" is when the Iranians have actually built a bomb.

Since the Russians believe this may be some five to 10 years down the line, they feel there is more time to exhaust the diplomatic approach. Despite this, the Russians, according to recent assessments, were taken by surprise at the pace of the Iranian nuclear program, and did not believe they were as far along as is apparently the case.

According to assessments reaching Jerusalem from Washington, the US has no intention of either allowing Teheran to enrich uranium on Iranian soil or to assist it in building civilian nuclear capabilities. These assessments contradict press reports this week claiming that the diplomatic package presented to Iran on Tuesday and supported by the US leaves open the possibility in the distant future that Teheran would be able to enrich uranium on its own soil.

According to a Washington Post report, this concession - along with a US promise of aid for Iran's civilian nuclear energy program - would be conditioned on Iran suspending its nuclear work until the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that the program was peaceful. In addition, Iran would also need to convince the UN Security Council that it was not seeking a nuclear weapon, a process that administration officials were quoted this week as saying could take as long as 30 years.

But according to the assessments reaching Jerusalem, Washington has no interest in letting Iran enrich any quantity of uranium, because even the enrichment of a small amount would necessitate research and development that could eventually allow Teheran to master the technology needed to create nuclear weapons.

These assessments say that it would also be extremely far-fetched to imagine the US assisting an Iranian civilian nuclear program. The US remains in favor of a Russian proposal of a joint Iranian-Russian venture whereby Russia would enrich the uranium on its own soil on Iran's behalf. This is a model that could be adopted elsewhere as well, as rising energy prices are expected to propel other countries into the development of nuclear energy.

Russia urges Israel against Iran attack

[Shammu]

Iran has until July to consider atomic offer: Austria
Fri Jun 9, 2006 8:46am ET6
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By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran has until the Group of Eight (G8) summit in mid-July to consider an offer of incentives to suspend its nuclear enrichment program, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel was quoted as saying on Friday.

Asked what would happen if Iran did not accept the offer, Schuessel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "This will be discussed within the framework of the G8. Iran has until the world economic summit in July to think it over."

His comments represent the first clear deadline for Iran to respond to the offer, prepared by Germany, France and Britain and backed by the EU, United States, Russia and China. The G8 summit will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia on July 15-17.

An EU diplomat told Reuters that the 25-nation bloc's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who brought the offer to Iran earlier this week, did not set any deadline for a response.

But European and U.S. officials have made it clear they would not wait months for an Iranian response to the offer of civilian nuclear technology, security guarantees and other benefits if Iran freezes nuclear fuel production.

It also threatens Iran with economic and political sanctions if it rejects the offer.

Tehran says it wants only to produce low-enriched uranium to generate electricity. But many countries suspect Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer, seeks to purify uranium to the extremely high levels needed to fuel atomic weapons.

Schuessel said that it was important to think of Iran in terms of a larger context and not to focus on the idea of preventing a single country from developing atomic weapons.

"It's not just a question of Iran, but a host of other countries which stand on the threshold of a nuclear technology that can ultimately lead to nuclear weapons -- 10 countries and Iran is the first," he said.

But he said that Iran had an obligation to demonstrate that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful as it says they are.

"If the Iranian leaders are serious about not wanting nuclear weapons, then they should support this with facts. That's relatively easy to do," Schuessel said.

He added that the international community needed to urgently come up with a way of bolstering the non-proliferation regime.

"We need international concepts, whereby one could enrich uranium under international oversight and supervision," he said, echoing an idea long championed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog chief, Mohamed ElBaradei.

Iran has until July to consider atomic offer: Austria