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U.S. raids aim to stop al-Zarqawi network

 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Flush with intelligence, the U.S. military moved quickly Friday to take advantage of the power vacuum left by the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, carrying out nearly 40 raids in an effort to stop his terror network from regrouping.

A U.S. military search of the destroyed safehouse where the al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed Wednesday yielded documents and information storage devices that are being assessed for potential use against his followers, a military officer said.

An M-16 rifle, grenades and AK-47 rifles also were found, according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because results from the search have not been announced. The U.S.-made M-16 was fitted with special optics.

They also found documents and unspecified "media," which the officer indicated normally means information storage devices such as computer hard drives and digital cameras or other data storage devices.
   
   

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said 39 raids were conducted across Iraq late Thursday and early Friday, including some directly related to the information they obtained from the strike against al-Zarqawi. Those were in addition to 17 raids carried out immediately after the terror leader was killed.

Caldwell displayed digital photographs of recovered items that he said included a suicide belt, a flak vest, passports and identification cards, vehicle license plates, ammunition belts, rifles and other guns and a night-vision device. He said they were found under the floorboards of a building; he did not identify the location, except to say it was in and around Baghdad.

He said at least 24 people had been detained and one person killed in the raids.

In Ghalbiyah, near where al-Zarqawi was killed, five civilians were killed and three were wounded in a firefight. The circumstances of their deaths were unclear.

AP Television News video footage showed a destroyed house, while another house had bullet holes on the wall and burned furniture inside.

The military also revealed that al-Zarqawi was alive after two 500-pound bombs were dropped on his hideout, though he could barely speak.

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell said, adding that al-Zarqawi tried to get away after being placed on a stretcher by Iraqi police.

Caldwell said it was possible that al-Zarqawi was not inside the safehouse when it was attacked, a scenario which might explain why only he among six people killed in the raid initially survived the bombing.

Asked whether al-Zarqawi was shot after U.S. ground troops arrived at the scene, Caldwell said he could not give a definitive answer.

An official in the Iraqi prime minister's office confirmed that the Iraqi forces arrived first, followed by the Americans. "I think our announcement was very clear yesterday and we don't have anything to add," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite who was named to the key security post Thursday, said al-Zarqawi's death came after a painstaking effort to collect accurate data and investigate every clue.

"The killing of al-Zarqawi didn't occur by chance," al-Bolani told al-Arabiya TV. "His killing will raise the morale of the people as well the morale of the security services."

The death of Iraq's most feared terrorist was the subject of Friday's religious sermons in Iraq.

"The killing of the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi does not mean the end of terrorism in Iraq," Shiite Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai said in the southern city of Karbala. He called on the government to "kill all the symbols of terrorism and kill all of (al-Zarqawi's) associates to get rid of terrorism in our beloved country."

Many believe al-Zarqawi was among a minority of foreign fighters and that Iraqis make up the heart of the insurgency - Sunni Arab extremists and loyalists of former leader Saddam Hussein and his ousted Baath Party.

"Despite the crimes of al-Zarqawi, the source of terrorism is the Baathists who had supplied him with secure dens and safe havens," Imam Sadr al-Din al-Qupanchi said at a Shiite mosque in Najaf.

Biological samples from al-Zarqawi's body were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.

At the news conference, the U.S. military also provided a revised death toll from the attack.

Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, had said four people, including a woman and a child, were killed with al-Zarqawi and the terrorist's spiritual consultant.

But Caldwell said three women and three men, including al-Zarqawi and spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul-Rahman were killed, but he cautioned that some facts were being sorted out.

The spiritual adviser was initially believed to be Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, but analysts said al-Iraqi is a different man - the group's deputy leader who signed the al-Qaida statement announcing al-Zarqawi's death.

American military officials have said that tips from within al-Zarqawi's own terror network helped the U.S. locate and bomb the safe house where the al-Qaida leader was meeting in secret with top associates.

A top Jordanian security official said Thursday that Jordan had been tracking al-Zarqawi's movements in Iraq since the triple hotel bombings in Amman last November and had provided information to the Americans about his whereabouts.

He said the success of the Jordanian intelligence effort was partly a result of information obtained following Jordan's arrest last month of Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly, an Iraqi al-Qaida operative linked to al-Zarqawi.

"The information provided by Karbouli allowed for the success of the operation" against Zarqawi, the Jordanian security official said.

President Bush said al-Zarqawi's death "helps a lot" with security problems but won't bring an end to the war. He also said it was unclear when Iraqi security forces could take control and let U.S. troops go home.

In a bid to prevent reprisal attacks, Iraqi authorities imposed a driving ban in Baghdad and Diyala province to the north, where al-Zarqawi and the others were killed.

It was a relatively quiet day in Baghdad, a day after at least five car bombs killed nearly 40 people and wounded dozens.

But a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing one person and wounding two, and three oil refinery workers were shot to death near Tikrit. Eight bullet-riddled bodies were found floating near Kut, and a firefight west of Baqouba killed five civilians and wounded three.

Whether the bloodshed continues depends in part on who succeeds al-Zarqawi and the new leader will continue killing Shiite civilians with the intention of sparking a civil war that pits Sunnis against Shiites.

Caldwell said Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri - who was named in a most-wanted list issued in February 2005 by the U.S. command and has a $50,000 bounty on his head - would likely take the reins of al-Qaida in Iraq.

He said al-Masri and al-Zarqawi met for the first time at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, and al-Masri came to Iraq first. Al-Masri is believed to be an expert at making roadside bombs, the leading cause of U.S. military casualties in Iraq.

Al-Masri also has had "communications" with Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, Caldwell said.

Al-Zawahri praised al-Zarqawi in a videotape broadcast Friday but did not mention his death in a U.S. air strike, suggesting the tape was made earlier.

[Shammu]

Iran says may deliver own atomic incentives package
Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:37am ET167

By Christian Oliver

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran may send its own nuclear package in response to proposed incentives agreed by six world powers that seek to persuade Tehran to stop its atomic fuel work, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.

Mottaki did not specify what changes to the package Iran might seek, but Tehran has repeatedly rejected the crux of the proposal -- that it should give up enriching uranium.

"We hope that shuttle diplomacy will lead to a genuine proposal from the Islamic Republic that could possibly be sent to European counterparts as an amendment or a counter-package and that will be assessed carefully by the Europeans," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has complained about the incentives' "ambiguities".

Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council where it could face sanctions, after failing to convince the international community that its atomic scientists are seeking to build power stations, not weapons.

The United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China have agreed a set of incentives for Iran on the condition that it stops making nuclear fuel, something Tehran has said it will never do.

Among the incentives, which Western diplomats say include offers of a light-water reactor and a facility for storing atomic fuel, is a U.S. offer to join the European Union's direct talks with Iran.

Analysts see the proposals as a way of giving Iran a last chance before Western powers lobby for tough action against Iran at the UN Security Council.

President Bush on Friday said Iran had "weeks not months" to respond to the proposals and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has said Iran has until next month's Group of Eight (G8) summit to consider the offer.

But Mottaki told the Mehr news agency: "We have not defined a deadline for assessing the proposal".

Although Mottaki's remarks on a counter-offer are an indication of Iranian dissatisfaction with the deal, the last word on nuclear matters does not lie with the foreign ministry.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has entrusted nuclear matters to the Supreme National Security Council and appointed Larijani as chief negotiator.

Larijani arrived in Egypt on Saturday to hold atomic talks with Egypt's foreign minister and meet Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Iran has long been striving to try to persuade nervous Arab neighbors that its ambitions are peaceful.

Iran says may deliver own atomic incentives package

[Shammu]

Islam Incompatible with Europe, Say Dutch
June 7, 2006

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in the Netherlands hold strong views on the way Muslims adapt to the European continent, according to a poll by Motivaction released by GPD. 63 per cent of respondents believe think Islam is incompatible with modern European life.

In September 2004, Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders quit the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Wilders criticized Muslims in the Netherlands for failing to properly integrate to society, and openly opposed Turkey’s accession to the European Union (EU).

In November 2004, controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered. Van Gogh directed a short motion picture that depicts a husband’s abuse on a Muslim woman. Death threats to Wilders and other former VVD members were left at the crime scene.

On May 15, Dutch officials revealed that Somali-born VVD lawmaker Hirsi Ali provided false information when she applied for refugee status, and then when she sought citizenship. The next day, the lawmaker announced that she would leave the Second Chamber immediately. Hirsi Ali confirmed that she intends to move to the United States and work at the American Enterprise Institute.

In the January 2003 election, the Christian-Democratic Appeal (CDA) elected 44 lawmakers to the 150-seat Second Chamber. CDA member Jan Peter Balkenende has acted as minister president since July 2002. In early 2003, Balkenende established his second coalition government with the VVD and Democrats 66 (D66).

The next legislative ballot is tentatively scheduled for January 2007.

Polling Data

Do you think Islam is compatible with modern European life?

Yes   37%

No  63%

Islam Incompatible with Europe, Say Dutch

[Shammu]

(Filed: 09/06/2006)

Two brothers arrested following a controversial anti-terror raid by police during which one of the them was shot, have been released without charge.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar and Abul Koyair were being questioned at London's high security Paddington Green police station after the raid in Forest Gate, east London, last week.

But tonight the 20-year-old and 23-year-old were released, and a police spokesman said that the search of their home had been completed.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We appreciate the police operation has caused inconvenience and disruption to the occupants of the house.

"We will be contacting the owners to make appropriate arrangements for the property to be handed back to them.

"We will also be undertaking appropriate restoration work in consultation with the owners."

The brothers' release came after a planned protest relating to their arrest - and alleged police mistreatment of Muslims - drew a smaller crowd than expected after their family urged Muslims not to attend.

Around 100 people chanted and waved placards carrying anti-Government and anti-police slogans outside Forest Gate police station in east London this afternoon.

Organisers had hoped to attract several hundred Muslims to the rally.

The demonstrators, among them the outspoken Islamic figure Anjem Choudary, shouted "British police go to hell" and "Tony Blair murderer", but the protest was peaceful and there were no arrests.

Earlier today, the brothers' family asked local Muslims to boycott the rally.

Their message was read out before Friday prayers at mosques in east London.

Mainstream Islamic groups, including the Muslim Council of Britain, argued that a provocative demonstration at this time would further strain police-community relations.

During the protest, a cousin of the two brothers read a statement in which he said the protests would only serve to fuel the negative portrayal of the local community.

The cousin, who gave his name only as Enam, said: "This will only provide another opportunity for our community to be portrayed in a negative light.

"Consequently this will allow the police to inflict the same trauma that we have been through on another family."

   

Brothers arrested in terror raid freed without charge

[Shammu]

Zarqawi Followers Vow to Obey Successor
By HAMZA HENDAWI (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
June 09, 2006 2:31 PM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sympathizers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi rushed Friday to swear allegiance to his successor on Islamic militant Web sites, but it was still unclear who that would be.

Several militant Web forums were flooded with messages of well-wishers pledging to "hear and obey" the man they claimed was the new "emir," or leader, of al-Qaida in Iraq: Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi.

Al-Iraqi has appeared in past statements from al-Zarqawi's group as the "deputy emir." His name was on a statement issued Thursday by the group confirming al-Zarqawi's death in a U.S. airstrike and vowing to continue on his path of jihad, or holy war.

But there was confusion over whether he was still alive. The U.S. military said the Wednesday evening airstrike that killed al-Zarqawi also killed his "spiritual adviser," a man U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell identified as "Abdul-Rahman" or "Sheik Abdul-Rahman."

It was not known if "Abdul-Rahman" and "Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi" were the same person. But there are suggestions they were two different people. Caldwell said the slain man was not Iraqi - while al-Iraqi's name suggests that he is.

Evan Kohlmann, a New York-based consultant, said he believed al-Iraqi would become the new leader and that the "Abdul-Rahman" killed in the airstrike was a different person.

"It is possible that two guys have the same name," said Kohlmann, whose organization, globalterroralert.com, tracks the hierarchy of al-Qaida in Iraq and other militant groups.

He said al-Iraqi has long been known as an al-Qaida military leader, not a spiritual leader.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has put forward another name. Caldwell identified the "most logical" al-Zarqawi successor as "Abu al-Masri."

Caldwell could likely be referring to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who was identified in a February 2005 announcement by U.S. Central Command as a close associate of al-Zarqawi. Central Command put a $50,000 reward on al-Masri's head.

Caldwell said al-Masri was believed to have come to Iraq in 2002 after training in Afghanistan. His mission, Caldwell said, was to create an al-Qaida cell in Baghdad. Al-Masri was believed to be an expert at constructing roadside bombs, the leading cause of U.S. military casualties in Iraq.

American military officials did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on Abdul-Rahman and al-Masri.

A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while events were unfolding, said it remains unclear who will replace al-Zarqawi because most of the likely successors have either been killed or captured.

Early reports on the Internet may not prove accurate, the official said. Al-Qaida in Iraq is a decentralized organization, and al-Zarqawi's regional commanders could handle day-to-day operations for weeks.

An Iraqi would be a likely successor, but American authorities do not rule out the possibility that another foreigner would take the position, the official said.

Al-Qaida in Iraq has not put out a statement naming a successor to al-Zarqawi. The group issues "official" messages on militant Web forums that are clearly marked as coming from the organization. Though confirming any statements put out on the Internet is difficult, there are consistent markers - such as repeated names - that suggest they are authentic.

In the message put out Thursday, al-Iraqi still held the title "deputy emir," suggesting the group had not confirmed he was the new leader.

But sympathizers who often write on the Web forums appeared convinced he was.

"After the appointment of Sheik Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, we must all swear allegiance to him," read one posting, signed by a participant calling himself The Syrian Lion. "May God grant us someone even better than Sheik Abu Musab."

On several Web sites, dozens posted messages with the traditional Islamic oath of allegiance to the emir, promising to "hear and obey."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday it made no real difference who steps in as the terrorist group's leader.

"Whenever there is a new Zarqawi, we will kill him," al-Maliki said.

But it may not be that easy. It took the U.S. and Iraqi military three years to get al-Zarqawi, and there is little likelihood that al-Qaida in Iraq will crumble now that its leader is gone.

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

Zarqawi Followers Vow to Obey Successor

[Shammu]

 Temple Demolitions Spell Creeping Islamisation

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 1 (IPS) - "Why do they have to tear down our temples," asked A. Kanagamah, a hospital worker. Tears streamed down her cheeks as city hall workers, protected by police in riot gear, demolished a 107-year-old Hindu temple in the city mid-May
Hundreds of worshippers watched in horror as the workers, mostly Muslims, brought down the roof, pushed down the walls and smashed the deities that immigrant Indian workers had brought with them from South India to provide solace in a strange new land.

"We are poor and our only comfort is our temples and now we are losing that also," Kanagamah said in Tamil, the language spoken by ethnic Indians who form eight percent of Malaysia's 26 million people and mostly follow Hinduism.

Indians are economically backward and politically weak compared to Malays who comprise 50 percent of the population and dominate decision making at every level. Ethnic Chinese, who make up another 24 percent, enjoy economic clout and dominate business activity.

Over the years, local authorities have been regularly demolishing temples saying the structures were built illegally. Most were small wayside shrines.

However, in recent years, several large 100-year-old temples, built during the British colonial era, were demolished not just because they stood in the way of development but simply because they were classified as "illegal structures."

It is now a common sight to see bulldozers reducing large temples to rubble and workers to smashing deities before the eyes of helpless worshippers.

"The demolitions are indiscriminate, unlawful and against all constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship," human rights lawyer P. Uthayakumar told IPS.

He said temples are demolished by the local authorities as illegal structures but the same authorities make it impossible for devotees to get a permit.

He cited the case of a Catholic church in nearby Shah Alam city which got a permit to build a church after 30 years of trying. "What does this say about freedom of worship?" he asked.

After months of suffering in silence, Hindus and others protested outside city hall this week. The protesters, including woman and children, carried placards, chanted mantras and prayers, burned incense and broke a coconut.

Lawyers, human rights activists and opposition party leaders also joined the protest.

"There appeared to be an unofficial policy of Hindu temple-cleansing in Malaysia in recent months," said P. Waytha Moorthy, chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force, a coalition of about 50 Hindu organisations.

"Nine temples have been torn down in the last three months," he said blaming overzealous Muslim officials for the destruction. "We are worried Hindus will turn violent," he told IPS.

Hindu temples were built by migrant workers on private or abandoned land that were later acquired by local and state authorities. These temples mainly serve devotees from the lower income group, said Moorthy. "The labourers are poor, politically weak and unable to take legal action to protect their temples or fight off the authorities.''

Moorthy argued that temple demolition was against Article 11 of the federal constitution that guarantees freedom of religion. "It is also a blatant criminal offence under section 295 of the penal code that makes any act that injures or defiles a place of worship a serious offence," he said.

The protestors have submitted a petition to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi urging him to issue a firm directive to all federal, state and local authorities to stop the demolition of Hindu temples. However, similar appeals, made earlier, were ignored and scant action taken.

The demolitions have angered not just Hindus but individuals of other faith who see it as a violation of basic human rights.

"This way of (demolishing) is brutal and makes Hindus angry," said Dr Sanusi Osman, an academic and senior leader in the National Justice Party (NJP) of opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim. "The authorities should interact with worshipers, draw-up proper guidelines and provide alternative sites before tearing down temples," he told IPS.

It is not only temples that are coming down in increasingly intolerant Malaysia.

A country that once boasted an open and tolerant multi-ethnic society s now under siege by a dangerous mixture of Islamic fundamentalism and Malay ethno-nationalism. Racial, religious and cultural intolerance is becoming an everyday phenomenon.

For instance some local authorities want to prosecute couples for holding hands in public because they see it as ‘un-Islamic'.

Around Christmas, last year, authorities demolished a church belonging to the indigenous Orang Asli community, on the grounds that it had no permit.

The police recently ordered non-Muslim policewomen to wear the ‘tudung' or Muslim headscarves. Some local authorities even want to ban or restrict dog ownership because conservative Muslims consider dogs to be ritually unclean animals.

On May 14 about 500 Muslims stormed and disrupted a forum by lawyers and others entitled ‘Federal Constitution - Protection for All', called to discuss the rights of religious minorities against encroachment by Islamic Shariah laws.

Scores of police personnel who were present at the forum did not stop or arrest the trouble makers but instead forced the organisers to cancel the forum.

''Non-Muslims increasingly feel alien in their country of birth," said Tian Chua, a senior leader in the opposition Peoples Justice Party told IPS. "Unlike before, under Prime Minister Abdullah, there is an increasing tendency for Malays to rally around Islam -- it is a worrying trend."

"There's a creeping Islamisation in our society and this poses a danger to our secular, multi-religious and multi-racial country," said opposition leader Lim Kit Siang. "The destruction of any place of worship is unacceptable -- the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi must urgently intervene.''

Islamic fundamentalism has its roots in the competition between the ruling and moderately Islamic United Mlaya National Organisation (UMNO) and its traditional rival, the Pan Malaysia Islamic Party or PAS.

Each have tried to out do the other as the champion of Islam. Their competition and rivalry continues to the detriment of tolerance and secularism.

The architect of Malaysia's pro-Islamic drive, while serving as deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim says he only advocated the adoption of Islamic values in government and the civil service and not the "Arabisation" of Malaysian society.

''I myself am worried about the direction of the country," Anwar said at a recent forum on the topic. "Our leaders are failing us. We need strong and committed leadership to arrest the decline."

Temple Demolitions Spell Creeping Islamisation

[Shammu]

Iran’s Ahmadinejad to meet Chinese leader

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 09 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be travelling to China next week where he will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, a government-run Persian-language website reported on Friday.

The pair will discuss “bilateral issues” and the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear activities, the report quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

Beijing opposes pressuring Tehran at the United Nations Security Council for it to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

Iran’s Ahmadinejad to meet Chinese leader

[Shammu]

Gorbachev warns on nuclear power
Michael Binyon in London
June 10, 2006
MIKHAIL Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, has warned countries to "look before you leap" before building more nuclear power stations.

Instead, Western governments and businessmen should pool their efforts in the search for non-traditional sources of energy and make more effort to use energy efficiently, he said.

"With my experience of Chernobyl, I know what I am talking about," he said, referring to the catastrophic nuclear plant explosion near Kiev in 1986.

The Soviet Union had been forced to spend tens of billions of roubles to combat the radiation danger, he said, but the pollution of the soil, earth and air was still causing long-term damage.

Mr Gorbachev, the founder of the Geneva-based environmental group Green Cross International, recalled his bitter experience of the dangers of nuclear energy.

Addressing Britain's all-party parliamentary group on climate change, Mr Gorbachev also spoke of the urgent need to combat climate change and global warming, which he said could expose 400 million people to famine and death because of water shortages.

Mr Gorbachev wrote last month to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders of the G8 group of economies, urging them to seize the opportunity at this month's St Petersburg summit to make strong commitments to "a truly secure and sustainable energy future".

He therefore welcomes the creation of the Climate Change Dialogue between British parliamentarians and business leaders.

He also told Mr Blair that Green Cross was "concerned" over statements made at a recent meeting of G8 energy ministers on security for the supply routes of oil and gas and facilitating growth in nuclear power.

Such an approach "lacks vision", he told Mr Blair, and, by relegating renewable energy and energy efficiency to secondary status in the talks, showed that the G8 was failing to move forward on the real solutions to the energy and climate change crises.

Mr Gorbachev, who at 75 still travels the world to campaign for the environment, admitted many governments now saw nuclear energy as the "lesser of two evils" in the fight to reduce carbon emissions.

But this was missing the point.

By the end of this century, coal would be the only fossil fuel left on the earth.

It was essential to start the search now for non-traditional supplies. And he predicted an acute energy crisis within 20 years.

He told MPs it was always easy to find $US80 billion ($110billion) -- to finance an invasion, but Green Cross was calling for a $US50 billion fund over the next 10 years to seek new energy sources.

He painted a bleak picture of a global water deficit. About 1.2billion people did not have access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion lacked proper sanitation.

Every day 6000 children died because of a lack of safe drinking water and over the past decade diarrhoea had killed more than all the wars since World War II.

"Water wars" could break out in the basins of the world's great rivers such as the Ganges and the Mekong.

If shortages were not addressed, a third of the world's population would be without water by 2020 -- "and 2020 is just tomorrow", he said.

[Shammu]

Iran confirms stepping up nuclear activities
Jun 09 8:14 AM US/Eastern
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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.

Iran confirms stepping up nuclear activities

[Shammu]

 Church 'could be forced to bless gay weddings'
By Jonathan Petre
(Filed: 10/06/2006)

New Government proposals on equality could require clergy to bless homosexual "weddings" or face prosecution, the Church of England said yesterday.

It said the proposed regulations could undermine official teaching and require Christians to act against their religious convictions.

The Sexual Orientation (Provision of Goods and Services) Regulations will make discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation illegal in the same way as race or sex.

They are designed to protect gays and lesbians from being denied "goods, facilities and services" on the basis of their sexual preferences.

They were drawn up after homosexual couples complained of being refused hotel rooms.

But the Church said in its official response to a period of consultation that the regulations would have a serious impact on Christian organisations and would elevate the rights of homosexuals above those of religion.

Unless exemptions were strengthened, Christian centres that disapproved of homosexual behaviour could be forced to hire out rooms to gay groups and Christian charities could have their public funding cut if they did not agree to the regulations.

Faith schools could be required to teach that homosexuality was of equal value to heterosexual marriage and if ministers of religion were not properly protected they could be open to legal action for following their duty.

Last week the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said that several of the main faiths in the country would have "serious difficulties" with the proposed regulations.

Church 'could be forced to bless gay weddings

[Shammu]

Hand of John the Baptist in Russia

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Saturday June 10, 2006
The Guardian

It was the only part of John the Baptist's body that Luke the Apostle could take away from the village where he was buried, and it has since been cited as the cause of miracles. It was given to the Russian royal family in St Petersburg to protect it from Napoleon's advancing armies and then whisked away to central Europe when the Bolshevik revolution broke out.

Now, as part of the Kremlin's bid to forge a national identity, John the Baptist's right hand, which Christians think baptised Jesus Christ, has returned to Russia for the first time in 89 years.

The return has been hailed by the Russian Orthodox church with great pomp and reverence. The head of the church, Patriach Alexei II, welcomed it at a ceremony on Wednesday at the Church of Christ the Saviour in central Moscow. The hand will remain there until Friday, when it will be taken on a tour of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine before returning in July to Montenegro, its present home.

The Patriach called on Christians to pray before the hand, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti.

The relic's return to Moscow is part of an orchestrated revival of the church, which is playing a central role in giving Russians a sense of spiritual and national belonging. The move was financed by a religious foundation chaired by Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russia's vast state railways network who is frequently referred to as a potential successor to President Vladimir Putin.

Hand of John the Baptist in Russia

[Shammu]

Atheist to take over pulpit at Parkview Church

Sandburg graduate to discuss evolution, gay rights, intelligent design

Friday, June 9, 2006

By Angela Caputo
Staff writerHemant Mehta proved he didn't mind putting himself out there when he auctioned his soul to the highest bidder over the Internet earlier this year.

Now the 23-year-old self-avowed atheist is putting himself back in the spotlight. He will take center stage during services at Parkview Christian Church.

The Sandburg High School graduate and the Rev. Tim Harlow most likely will tackle controversial topics such as evolution, intelligent design, gay rights, heaven and hell.

Mehta said he's "a little nervous" about trying to answer questions on behalf of atheists in front of "thousands of people who disagree with me" at the mega-Evangelical church.

"I'm not expecting to change anyone's mind," the DePaul graduate student said.

"I'm hoping they will see what it's like to be an atheist, and that (we) just want to be respected like anyone else."

Harlow said that's what the visit is all about.

"We're not going to try and debate each other and see who comes out the winner," he said.

"The idea is ... let's talk to each other (in church) and see if we can go out and make that happen in the world."

The church, 11100 Orland Parkway, Orland Park, has services at 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday.

The visit to Parkview will be Mehta's second this year.

His first was through an agreement with the Washington state church that won the eBay auction rally for his soul with a $504 bid.

The church turned out to be most interested in Mehta's time.

Atheist to take over pulpit at Parkview Church

[Soldier4Christ]

Pentagon's NSA sets sights
on social-network websites
Feds funding research into mass harvesting
of information people post about themselves


If the prospect of being asked to explain some embarrassing detail about their personal lives by a prospective employer or a future romantic interest isn't enough to deter users of social-networking websites like MySpace.com from posting it online, perhaps this will – the National Security Agency is funding research into mass harvesting what people post about themselves on the Internet.

NSA, the Pentagon's high-tech agency that conducts eavesdropping and code-breaking, came under fire last month when it was disclosed it had amassed "the largest database ever assembled in the world," according to an anonymous source cited by USA Today, of the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans for the purpose of analyzing calling patterns to detect terrorist activity.

The information, reportedly provided upon request by several telephone companies, did not include customers' names, street addresses or other personal information – only telephone numbers. Calling patterns allow analysts to identify clusters of highly connected people and those who are intermediaries between those clusters and to determine how many links or "degrees of separation" a particular phone number has from an identified group of numbers.

But the NSA's phone-record database does not provide detailed personal data – and certainly not the kind of personal information millions of Internet users voluntarily post on social-networking sites.

"I am continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves" said Jon Callas, chief security officer at PGP, a Silicon Valley-based maker of encryption software. "You should always assume anything you write online is stapled to your resum�. People don't realize you get Googled just to get a job interview these days."

MySpace.com, fast-growing online community, was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp last July. The site's popularity – over 80 million users – has been overshadowed by reports of sexual predators using the personal posts of teens to target their victims as well as employees being fired for their too-frank posts about their employers. In one case, a closeted homosexual who outed himself on MySpace was expelled from a Christian college because his secret lifestyle violated the institution's rules.

Now, according to a report by New Scientist, NSA is funding research that could lead to massive data-mining of Internet newsgroups and sites like MySpace.

While no plan to mine data has been announced by NSA, a research paper presented last month at a W3C – World Wide Web Consortium – conference in Scotland, entitled "Semantic Analytics on Social Networks," was partially funded by Advanced Research Development Activity, a research arm of NSA tasked with solving "some of the most critical problems facing the U.S. intelligence community."

ARDA, since renamed the Disruptive Technology Office, attempts to make sense of the massive volume of data NSA collects – an amount that grows by gigabytes each month.

The ARDA-funded research examined an emerging information technology called the "semantic web" and its usefulness at identifying connections between people.

The semantic web is an attempt by W3C to create a common data structure called the Resource Description Framework that will one day tag all data online with a unique, predefined, unambiguous identifier.

"RDF turns the web into a kind of universal spreadsheet that is readable by computers as well as people," said David de Roure at the University of Southampton in the UK, who is an adviser to W3C. "It means that you will be able to ask a website questions you couldn't ask before, or perform calculations on the data it contains."

It also means all those personal details, inappropriate jokes, political rants and lists of friends posted online could be scanned, analyzed, categorized and clustered with ease. And, if the semantic web reaches the potential its champions hope for, it can be combined with banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA – or some other user – to build extensive, all-encompassing personal profiles of individuals.

The ARDA-funded researchers successfully used the technology to identify hidden connections between scientists who were doing peer reviews of others' work.

"It certainly made relationship finding between people much easier," said Anupam Joshi of the University of Maryland. "It picked up softer [non-obvious] conflicts we would not have seen before."

While privacy advocates warn that "automated intelligence profiling" of social-networking sites could ruin people's reputations or wrongfully expose them to prosecution since the posted information may not be true or complete, Tim Finin, a colleague of Joshi's said the technology cannot be stopped.

"Information is getting easier to merge, fuse and draw inferences from. There is money to be made and control to be gained in doing so. And I don't see much that will stop it," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Officials: Hamas decided to end truce weeks ago
Accuse terror group of using Israeli actions from past few days as pretence


JERUSALEM – The decision announced yesterday by Hamas to call off its nearly two year truce with Israel was finalized weeks ago, according to senior Israeli security officials. The officials accused Hamas of using Israeli actions the past few days as a pretence to restart violence.

Hamas leaders claimed yesterday their group decided to renew attacks against the Jewish state in direct response to the assassination this past Thursday of Jamal Abu Samhadana, leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group and a Hamas minister, and in response to an alleged Israel Defense Forces artillery shell that apparently slammed into a beach in the northern Gaza Strip last night, killing 7 Palestinians.

But two weeks ago, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview Hamas has been updating its weapons arsenal and that the truce with Israel would be called off. Abdullah is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

"In the last fifteen months, even though the fighters of Hamas kept the cease-fire, we did not stop making important advancements and professional training on the military level. In the future, after Hamas is obliged to stop the cease-fire, the world shall see our new military capabilities," said Abdullah.

Hamas' military wing yesterday warned it will resume attacks against Israel. The group was party to a ceasefire agreed to last February by Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmuod Abbas, although Israel says Hamas has continued to direct attacks using other groups, particularly the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees.

The announcement followed the assassination of Samhadana, who served as Hamas' national security minister, and the alleged artillery firing into a beach in Gaza in response to Palestinian Arab terror groups firing missiles into nearby Jewish communities.

Samhadana's Popular Resistance Committees is responsible for the vast majority of rockets launched from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities. He was allegedly plotting a large-scale attack against Israel at the time of his killing. He is also a suspect in the fatal 2003 bombing of a U.S. convoy in the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it is investigating the cause of the explosion at the Gaza beach last night, which wounded over 40 people and killed 7, including a woman and two young children.

Earlier Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz apologized for the incident, saying the army "regretted the strike on innocents." But Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israeli naval or air shelling at the beach have been ruled out and that Israel was investigating whether the explosion was a stray Israeli artillery shell or a "work accident" by a Palestinian explosives crew.

The IDF regularly shells uninhabited sections of the northern Gaza Strip in response to rockets fired at Jewish communities. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza last August, over 400 rockets have been launched from the territory.

Hamas declared in a leaflet distributed in Gaza today it would soon launch large attacks against Israel.

"The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle and that means the earthquake in the Zionist towns will start again and the aggressors will have no choice but to prepare their coffins or their luggage," stated the leaflet. "The resistance groups ... will choose the proper place and time for the tough, strong and unique response."

Hamas claimed today it fired at least 15 Qassam rockets at Israel last night and this morning. Five Qassams launches were detected overnight, although no landing sites were identified and no damage was reported. Israeli security sources say several Hamas rockets fired today landed inside the Gaza Strip, falling short of their intended targets.

"This is only the start and rocket firings will continue," said a Hamas spokesman this morning.

Israeli security officials say Hamas made the decision to end the truce several weeks ago in coordination with Iran and Syria. They say both countries are looking to foment regional instability to distract from mounting international pressure against their respective regimes. Iran is under fire for its suspected illicit nuclear program. Syria has been accused of leading a string of assassinations in Lebanon, including the killing last February of Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Also security officials say Hamas has been contending with its own internal pressures, with many in the political leadership and the so-called resistance department favoring a renewal of terrorism.

But they say the Hamas declaration of renewed violence may be temporary, as the group will likely contend with increased international isolation as a result. They also say it is possible the military wing might claim to entirely break off from the Hamas political leadership.

"Hamas might use the ability to restart and end the truce to its advantage," said an official. "Or they could play the (Yasser) Arafat card and claim they cannot control their military wing."

Hamas developing new missiles to threaten most Israelis

Speaking to WND two weeks ago, Hamas leader Abdullah stated his group is developing electronically guided missiles to target Jewish communities.

"In the last months we accelerated the improvement operations of our missile production," Abdullah said. "Thanks to Allah we have already improved missiles and in the future we will have the fourth model of our Qassam missiles, which will be electronically guided missiles and very accurate. Our Mujahadeen fighters are receiving a high level of training on how to use the new Qassams and how to maximize their accuracy. With the help of Allah we will succeed."

Abdullah claimed the new missiles will be able to reach "every target in 1948 occupied Palestine (Israel) and that from Gaza we will be able to hit the center of Israel even if the transfer of these missiles to the West Bank (which runs alongside major Israeli cities) is for some reason interrupted."

Palestinian Arab groups, until now, generally have fired three versions of Qassams, improvised steel rockets filled with explosives and fuel. They can travel between one and five miles. Qassam-3's travel the farthest and are the largest, at about four feet in length. The rockets lack a guidance system and are launched from Gaza towns by terrorists who reportedly use the rocket's trajectory and known travel distance to aim at Jewish neighborhoods near the Gaza border. About 20 percent of Qassams do not explode upon impact.

Israel has noted regular improvements in Qassams, although it has not released information about Palestinian Arab groups developing missiles with guidance systems.

A senior Palestinian Arab intelligence officer told WND there is evidence groups in Gaza are developing guided missiles.

Israeli defense officials have warned some advanced rockets, including anti-aircraft missiles, have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

Abdullah claimed Israel has been deliberately minimizing his group's rocket capabilities and stated Hamas eventually would break the cease-fire to which it agreed last February.

"It is normal that the Israelis will underestimate the capabilities of Palestinian resistance such as not admitting we are working on these new missiles," he said. "The people who made the (Gaza) withdrawal don't want to talk now about the so-called risks."

Hamas looking to fly planes into buildings

Abu Abdullah also said Hamas is acquiring small aircraft for attacks against Jewish targets, possibly Tel Aviv skyscrapers.

"The goal is to have these planes carry maximum quantities of explosives and that they will be able to hit the targets that are fixed for its operation at a high level of accuracy. All the Zionist goals in our dear Palestine are legitimate [targets]. I estimate that this tool will not be used against regular targets. We will choose precious targets and I do not want to speak about strategic or any other targets. ... We know that the enemy is building new and high buildings in Tel Aviv."

The terror leader listed possible military targets, as well.

"[Our target] could be important military and civil buildings and compounds and it could also be settlements in 1948 occupied Palestine (Israel). We know that many of the decisions to kill our brothers are taken in the army headquarters in occupied Beer Sheva (considered the capital of the Israeli Negev desert). All these targets are legitimate ones," Abdullah said.

Abdullah's statements come after Palestinian Arab security officials told WND they believe Hamas recently smuggled into the Gaza Strip three small airplanes that can carry explosives and be used to attack Israel. They said information indicates the aircraft were purchased from eastern European dealers and that Hamas members received flight training from professionals in the Sudan, Iran and Syria.

Abdullah refused to confirm the reports but said his group has the right to acquire aircraft.

"I cannot confirm whether this information is right or not but for sure it is one of our goals to have these airplanes," Abdullah said. 

[Soldier4Christ]

Abbas sets date for referendum opposed by Hamas

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas, stepping up his power struggle with the Hamas-led Palestinian government, on Saturday set a July 26 referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognizes Israel.

Hours before the moderate leader issued his decree, Hamas formally ended a 16-month truce by firing more than 25 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in response to the killing of seven people on a Gaza beach during Israeli shelling on Friday.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz hinted in televised remarks Israel might renew an assassination policy against Hamas leaders if the group continued the attacks.

Hopes for peacemaking appeared even more remote, with Abbas and the Islamist group that defeated his Fatah movement in a January election locked in political confrontation.

"As chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and president of the Palestinian Authority, I have decided to exercise my constitutional right and duty to hold a referendum over the document of national agreement," Abbas said in a decree read by an aide.

The manifesto, penned by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, calls for a Palestinian state, alongside Israel, on all of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Opinion polls show most Palestinians back the proposal. Israel calls it a non-starter.

Rejecting Abbas's announcement as a "declaration of a coup against the government", Mushir al-Masri, a leading Hamas legislator, urged Palestinians to boycott the vote.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said he would meet Abbas in Gaza later in the day "to explain to him the dangers of the referendum, which could cause historical divisions among the Palestinian people".

Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, has accused Abbas of using the manifesto to try to engineer the downfall of its government, which has struggled with a Western aid embargo and growing disorder.

Palestinians will asked on July 26 to vote "yes" or "no" on the question: "Do you agree with the document of national agreement -- the prisoner's document?" Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim said.

FUNERAL

In the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinian mourners wept with 7-year-old Huda Ghalya as she kneeled to kiss her dead father before he, her mother and three siblings were buried.

The five, including a 4-month-old, a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old, were among the seven killed during a seaside outing on Friday after Israeli artillery shelled the area to curb cross-border rocket fire. Twenty people were also wounded.

"Please do not leave me alone," said Huda, who had been swimming in the Mediterranean when the blast tore up the beach.

Speaking at an army base near the Gaza Strip, Peretz said he sent a condolence message to Abbas expressing deep regret at the bloodshed on the beach but said a military probe into the cause of the explosion would be completed only in a day or two.

In a veiled warning to Hamas leaders, Peretz told reporters: "No one has an insurance policy. No one endangering Israelis can turn his name or title into an insurance policy."

A spokesman for Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades said they had resumed attacks against Israel in response to the shelling. The Israeli army said 16 Qassam rockets and 10 mortar bombs were fired at Israel, causing no casualties or damage.

In a speech in which he announced the referendum, Abbas said Israel, ignoring his hand "extended in peace", had committed "a horrible, dangerous and ugly massacre".

Hamas has abstained from striking in Israel since a truce was announced in early 2005. Israeli officials said the group has been helping other militant factions to carry out daily rocket launchings from Gaza, territory Israel quit last year.

Commenting on the military's investigation, Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz told reporters: "We have left open the possibility, and I stress, the possibility, that it was caused by artillery fire."