News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

 Drive to give 'human' rights to apes leaves Spanish divided
By David Rennie
(Filed: 10/06/2006)

Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings under a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition.

The law would eliminate the concept of "ownership" for great apes, instead placing them under the "moral guardianship" of the state, much as is the case for children in care, the severely handicapped and those in comas, said the MP behind the project, Francisco Garrido.

Great apes held in Spanish zoos would be moved to state-built sanctuaries, unless there was a risk that moving them would harm their emotional welfare, he said.

The law would also make it a criminal offence to mistreat or kill a great ape, except in cases of self-defence or medical euthanasia.

As a first step, Mr Garrido, a Green MP for Seville who sits with the Socialists, will propose a resolution on the rights of great apes before the parliament's environment committee at the end of this month. He said he expects the committee to approve the resolution which already has received the public support of ministers.

Mr Garrido said he was confident that either the government, or the ruling Socialist majority, would introduce a Great Apes Law after the summer recess.

The Roman Catholic Church has expressed concerns about his resolution.

The Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Fernando Sebastian, has said that only a "ridiculous or distorted society" could propose such a law.

"We don't give rights to some people - such as unborn children, human embryos, and we are going to give them to apes," the archbishop said.

Amnesty International's Spanish branch has also expressed concerns, saying that humans have yet to see their rights fully guaranteed. A senior member of the Spanish opposition Partido Popular, Arturo Esteban, called the proposal an "act of moral poverty".

The proposal has been front page news since parliament heard testimony from members of the Great Ape Project (GAP), a Seattle-based pressure group which campaigns for the creation of a "community of equals" in which humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans would all enjoy three fundamental rights: the right to life, to freedom, and to protection from torture.

Their "declaration" calls for great apes to be kept locked up only when they are a threat to the community, and then only with a right of appeal to the courts, with representation by a lawyer.

Mr Garrido's parliamentary resolution would explicitly endorse the approach of the Great Apes Project, and would call on the state to use its voting membership of international forums and organisations to protect great apes from "mistreatment, slavery, death and extinction".

Pedro Pozas, the secretary general of the Spanish branch of the GAP, said that animals reared in captivity might remain in zoos, even after the law's passage, "provided that they are kept in good conditions, with a habitat adapted to their conditions and needs."

Mr Pozas criticised the trade and exchange of apes between zoos and breeding centres. "To move a baby ape is to split up a family. They have feelings, they can feel sad, and they have the capacity for love. If a zoo has no room for new births, it would be better to sterilise the females."

In 1999, New Zealand passed an animal welfare act stating that research, testing or teaching involving the use of a great ape requires government approval, and a finding that "any likely benefits are not outweighed by harm to the great ape".

Britain has also banned medical experimentation on great apes.

Drive to give 'human' rights to apes leaves Spanish divided

[Shammu]

The 2nd article on this is particularly disturbing. Also the older of these 2 women is 7 months pregnant

_____________________________________________________________

June 6,2006
Christian women raped for changing religion
Bhopal (ICNS) -- In a gruesome incident, two Christian women in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh have been raped by a group of Hindu activists as punishment for changing their religion.

Briefing reporters about the incident on Monday, Indira Iyengar, a member of the Madhya Pradesh State Minority Commission, said that the rape had taken place in the remote district of Khargaon.

“We have received the reports that two tribal Christian women have been raped by some Bajrang Dal activists. This heinous crime has been inflicted on these poor women as punishment for changing their religion from Hinduism to Christianity,” Iyengar told Indian Catholic.

“This is cruel and makes no sense. This is an encroachment on one's fundamental right. It is also a punishable act. But nobody here listens to us, neither the police nor the collector. They all are least bothered,” the minority commission member pointed out.

She said though the Christians are especially the victims, police take them away, beat them, file an FIR against them and put them behind bars. “We want the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister to know all this is happening here. We want this inequality to be stopped. We just want our safety," said Iyengar.

The tribals, who have changed their religion to Christianity, complained that they are not being given proper and due justice. The police and administration also turn a deaf ear to them, they say.

According to Rekha Bai, one of the rape victims who were present during the news conference said: "Police say that our complaint is fake. They don't listen to us. We have nowhere to go."

Meanwhile, the pro-Hindu Bajrang Dal denied the allegation and created a ruckus over the issue at the venue of the press conference.

"Christian community is changing everyone's religion here. We will not tolerate this with our religion. Bajrang Dal is exposing the negative aspect of this whole operation. We respect all the women, be they of any religion. They are defaming our organisation which we will not tolerate", said Devendra Singh Rawat, Bajrang Dal leader.

The Bajrang Dal activists have warned the Minority Commission to stop defaming their organisation over this episode.

But the Commission members said that they will take it up with the higher authorities and bring the perpetrators of the crime to book.

Christian women raped for changing religion

[Shammu]

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE SAYS ‘NO’ TO KILLING WOMB BABIES
By J. Grant swank, Jr.
MichNews.com
Jun 8, 2006

   

The Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Indian Reservation Oglala Sioux tribal council says NO to murdering womb babies on that reservation, per LifeNews.com
Cecilia Fire Thunder, former president, was voted out of her office via suspension for 20 days because she had pronounced that abortions would be condoned on that reservation. It hit the national newsfeeds immediately. She was let go without salary because she had no power to do what she did. There will follow an impeachment hearing.

The vote to suspend her was unanimous. The vote to halt all abortions on the reservation was unanimous. Two council members were not present at the meeting when the decisions were made.

Cecilia Fire Thunder had told media that she had a name for the abortion clinic. It would be named Sacred Choices Clinic. She had also gathered funds for the erection of the edifice. In addition, there were pro-choicers who joined her endeavors as well as lawyers backing her action.

None of this had approval by the tribal council.

Cecilia Fire Thunder protested her suspension. She said that she never said the building was going to be used to abort infants. She said it was going to be a woman’s information center. However, tribal council members don’t believe her intent was only that. They hold that she was marketing an abortion center.

South Dakota has inaugurated its own ban on abortions. That is why these women went ahead with abortions on the reservation. Now that is voided; however, there are still pro-choicers who claim they are going ahead with funds, building plans and the eventual building standing in Kyle, South Dakota. Betty Bull Bear will oversee the completion. Fire Thunder will not be welcomed to any of the proceedings henceforth.

"Fire Thunder is a longtime abortion advocate and formerly worked at an abortion business in California. She's on the steering committee of the pro-abortion group hoping to defeat the ban at the polls."

Persons may communicate with the Oglala Sioux Tribe via 605-867-6074 or fax a letter to 605-867-6076.

FOOTNOTE: THE BIBLE AND ABORTION

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

It is alarming to realize the nonchalance on the part of many concerning abortion. But it is not new. A popular newsmagazine quoted one medical opinion: "Abortion is finding its place as a perfectly acceptable and valid health measure. We no longer think of it as a crime."

There are those who say that every woman has a right to control her own body. That is true. Then, having control over her own body, she should not become pregnant if she does not want children. That is control! When she becomes pregnant, then she has lost her control over that situation.

But more importantly, only God has final rights to any person's body. He brought that body into life and someday will take that body out of life. In the meantime He provides the very sustaining power for the body's life to continue.

The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person. "In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself' (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. .

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).

"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name...and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..." (Isaiah 49:1, 5).

"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).

In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).

Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:

"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (1:41, 44).

Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):

"But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1: 15-16).

Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.

Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Also, read Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." Note I Peter 4:15: "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer..."

"For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause"

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE SAYS ‘NO’ TO KILLING WOMB BABIES

[Shammu]

Mexico candidate calls for U.S. investment

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 9, 10:56 PM ET

SAN JOSE DEL RINCON, Mexico - Conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon said Friday that the United States and Canada should help build a Mexican economy strong enough to keep people from migrating north in search of work.

Calderon said he would like to see an international development plan similar to those used by the European Union to jump-start Ireland and Spain's economies, which now are booming.

"I think it's very valid to propose that Canada, the United States and Mexico all invest in productive projects and infrastructure in areas that send the most migrants out of the country," the ruling National Action Party candidate told The Associated Press aboard his campaign bus as it left a rally in this small farming community northwest of the capital.

"It's very obvious that building one kilometer of highway here is better than 10 kilometers of wall along the border," he said.

Independent public opinion polls show Calderon about even with his main opponent, leftist former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The conservative candidate said his party believed he has a slight advantage after a final televised debate on Tuesday.

Calderon said that, if elected, he would aim to create as many jobs as possible, though he declined to say how many. He said the government alone could not generate the needed employment, adding that the most important factor was private investment.

Mexico, Canada and the United States are members of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994.

Calderon also said he would work to restore diplomatic ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and work closely with communist Cuba, even though he doesn't agree with the two countries' philosophies.

"My opinion on a lot of things won't be what drives public policy," he said.

Calderon is on a whirlwind tour of Mexico, a last-ditch effort to win over as many voters as possible before the July 2 election.

He appealed to young people at the rally by pledging to give scholarships, and promised to lower gas and electricity prices for poor families.

Carlos Cruz, 61, a farmer at the rally, said Calderon represented all Mexicans.

"They say he is the candidate of the rich, but here there are many humble people with family in the United States or living in poverty, and we are voting for Felipe Calderon all the same," Cruz said. "Other options are dangerous for Mexico."

Calderon also pledged that claims by Lopez Obrador that one of his relatives was linked to corruption wouldn't derail his campaign.

Calderon's brother-in-law, Diego Zavala, filed a lawsuit Friday against Lopez Obrador after the leftist accused him of involvement in improper government contracts.

Lopez Obrador claimed earlier this week that a company controlled by Zavala, the brother of Calderon's wife, signed lucrative, improper deals with state-run oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and other governmental energy concerns.

Speaking to reporters on Friday outside a Mexico City courthouse where he filed suit for "moral damages," Zavala said he sued because Lopez Obrador had failed to apologize for making the accusations, which he first levied during a live presidential debate Tuesday night.

"He needs to prove what he alleges," Zavala said.

Calderon said dismissed the allegations.

"It would be costly if it were true," he said. "On the contrary, it will be very costly for (Lopez Obrador) because it will be demonstrated that it is completely false."

Mexico candidate calls for U.S. investment

[Shammu]

Pilot with 9/11 links found in NZ
 
Saturday June 10, 2006
By Geoff Cumming
 
EXCLUSIVE - A Saudi Arabian linked to one of the September 11 hijackers spent four months in New Zealand before being expelled as a national security risk.
 
The United States-qualified pilot, Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, was admitted to New Zealand in February on a student visa, saying his dream was to become a commercial airline pilot and that he needed an English language qualification to assist.
 
Today the Weekend Herald reveals that on May 29 police and immigration officials raided Ali's Palmerston North home and deported him.
 
The 28-year-old had recently moved there from Auckland, partly to fly at the Manawatu Aero Club.
 
A Government statement to be released this morning will confirm that Ali was deported because he "posed a threat to national security".
 
The Government claimed last night that Ali had lived and trained in Phoenix, Arizona, with fellow Saudi Hani Hanjour in the months before Hanjour is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon building.
 
It is only the second time that section 72 of the Immigration Act has been used to deport someone. Its use requires the consent of the Governor-General, and there is no right of appeal.
 
Police seized Ali's flight logbook from the aero club, where he had flown several times in Cessna aircraft accompanied by instructors. He was sent back to Saudi Arabia under escort.
 
Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said last night Ali was considered a threat to national security because of his direct association with those responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks, the nature of his activities in the US before then and the nature of his activities in New Zealand.
 
The Weekend Herald has learned he spent most of his time in Auckland attending an English language course but shifted to Palmerston North early last month, planning to enrol in another English course and increase his flying hours.
 
The case raises questions about New Zealand's security intelligence and border control mechanisms.
 
Mr Cunliffe said Ali's true identity became apparent only after he arrived in New Zealand - "he used a variation of his name in applying for entry".
 
But the Weekend Herald has been told the only variation on his passport was the use of the initial A for Abdullah, and that was corrected in a note inside the passport.
 
The minister referred the Weekend Herald to excerpts from the US Government's 9-11 Commission Report on the attacks regarding "Rayed Abdullah".
 
The report says Abdullah lived and trained in Phoenix with Hani Hanjour, the Saudi Arabian believed to have piloted Flight 77 into the Pentagon. Abdullah was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix where, the FBI says, he "reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque".
 
A website sourced to the 9-11 report says Abdullah attended the same Phoenix flight school as Hanjour and the pair used a flight simulator together on June 23, 2001.
 
A 2004 report in the Arizona Daily Star names him as Rayed Mohammed Abdullah. But the Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali who wandered into the Manawatu Aero Club in March gave no suggestion of fundamentalism.
 
The short, clean-cut Muslim told the club's chief flying officer, Captain Ravindra Singh, he had obtained his private pilot's licence in the US and spent several years there before returning to Saudi Arabia to work in his father's textile business.
 
He wanted to pass the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam so he could return home to train for his commercial pilot's licence.
 
He wore a baseball cap, smart shirts and baggy trousers and favoured burgers over halal food.
 
Captain Singh, a former Indian Air Force officer trained in intelligence, says Ali had a Yemeni passport and he was naturally suspicious at first.
 
"At the time of September 11 he would have been in the US. I asked him some very direct questions about his US flying experience and found he was quite intelligent and a moderate person. He was not at all fundamentalist - he was against those people."
 
He and other instructors accompanied Ali on several flights in a Cessna 152 aircraft.
 
"I found his standard to be very good," Captain Singh said.
 
"He wanted to fly in Saudi Arabia or the [Arab] Emirates and was doing instrument training in the US before September 11 but said that since then everyone had treated him suspiciously. I'm 99 per cent sure he was genuine."
 
Ali told Captain Singh he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but travelled on a Yemeni passport because his father was from Yemen and Saudi Arabia had refused to give him citizenship.
 
When he returned to Palmerston North, he told Captain Singh he had missed an application deadline and been unable to sit the IELTS exam in Auckland.
 
He planned to re-enrol in Palmerston North, where it was cheaper to fly than in Auckland.
 
Mr Cunliffe said he could not comment on what happened after Ali returned to Saudi Arabia.
 
Nor could he comment on what specific information the Government had on him or where it came from. "We're satisfied he is the right man."
 
The other time section 72 was used was for the 1991 deportation of Soviet spy Anvar

Pilot with 9/11 links found in NZ

[Shammu]

Pakistan pressured to produce Khan – 'father of Islamic bomb'

U.N. desperate to question scientist after evidence of enriched uranium found at Iranian military site
Posted: June 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


A.Q. Khan
With the U.S. giving Iran until June 29 to accept or reject a package of incentives to end its nuclear program and Tehran defiantly stepping up enrichment activities, pressure is building on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to allow access to nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to discover what he knows about fresh traces of enriched uranium found on equipment used at an Iranian military site.

U.S. officials and U.N. inspectors believe Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb," who remains under house arrest in Pakistan after confessing he had provided both Iran and North Korea with details of how to make their own nuclear bombs, has important information about Tehran's nuclear program.

In January, IAEA inspectors found traces of highly enriched uranium, which could be weapons grade, in vacuum pumps at the destroyed and leveled Lavizan-Shian site in Tehran – a site Iran denied had been used for its nuclear work. The find casts further doubts on Iran's claims its program is intended only for peaceful purposes.

According to a previous IAEA report, Iran has made 110 tons of feedstock gas, enough for 20 nuclear bombs if the entire amount was enriched. The Iranians claim to have only enriched "dozens of grams" of uranium so far.

Despite pressure from Washington, Musharraf continues to resist pressure to let Khan be questioned by anyone. According to the Sunday London Telegraph, some believe Khan could implicate senior military and government figures if details of his nuclear network were known.

Pakistan has attempted to deflect pressure from the U.S. by declaring the case against Khan "closed." All 12 of his associates, arrested on suspicion of involvement in Khan's proliferation scheme, have been released by the government.

As WorldNetDaily reported, MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service, has identified six Pakistani scientists, who previously worked for Khan and are now working in Iran's nuclear bomb program, who have been "advising al-Qaida on how to weaponize fissionable materials it has now obtained."

MI6 and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe the scientists have played a major role in enabling Iran to be "well advanced in providing uranium enriched materials for nuclear bombs," said Alexander Cirilovic, a nuclear terrorism expert in Paris.

Given the stakes, the discovery of highly enriched uranium in Iran and the U.S. deadline, access to Khan is seen as crucial.

"They want to squeeze Dr. Khan to use his statements as evidence for the upcoming meeting of the U.N. Security Council," said Gen. Hameed Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. "Support from Beijing and Moscow would only be possible if the U.S. is able to provide ample evidence, and Dr. Khan's words could be instrumental."

[Shammu]

Al-Zarqawi's family seeks help to get body

By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 10, 5:37 PM ET

AMMAN, Jordan - The family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi asked three Islamist lawmakers to intervene with Jordan's government to bring the slain militant's body home for burial, one of the lawmakers said Saturday.

"One of al-Zarqawi's brothers asked us to speak with the government," Ali Abu-Sukkar told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "What the family is asking for is legitimate."

The government has so far refused to allow al-Zarqawi to be buried in Jordan because of the triple suicide bombing his al-Qaida in Iraq organization carried out Nov. 9 in Amman, which killed 60 people, mainly Jordanian Muslims.

The three lawmakers belong to the Islamic Action Front, the largest opposition group in parliament, which has links to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

On Friday, they paid a condolence call to al-Zarqawi's family home in the city of Zarqa, east of Amman. The visit drew condemnation from Jordan's largest newspaper, the semiofficial Al-Rai.

"What will these legislators say to the families of the victims of the Amman hotel blasts?" the paper asked Saturday.

But Abu-Sukkar said it was a "social tradition and religious duty" to pay condolences to the family of a slain Muslim.

"Al-Zarqawi has gone ahead and God will try him and every people based on their deeds," he said.

Though aware of the family's wishes, Jordan's government will not "under any circumstances" allow the terrorist leader to be buried in Jordan and "stain Jordanian soil," a top security official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give media interviews.

The Amman bombings sparked widespread outrage among Jordanians who had been sympathetic to insurgents battling the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi, who masterminded some of the bloodiest suicide bombings in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday.

Abu-Sukkar said he and lawmakers Mohammed Abu-Faris and Ibrahim Showchy "would issue a petition in the coming days" requesting al-Zarqawi returned to Jordan for burial and "have interested parties sign it."

Such a petition would require a majority of Jordan's parliament — at least 55 signatures — for it to be presented to the prime minister. It appears unlikely that the 17-member IAF bloc will be able to secure a majority.

Al-Zarqawi's family seeks help to get body

My note; I would say just throw him in a hole, with a piece of ham in his mouth.

[Shammu]

Church has fallen apart since I was in charge, says Carey
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
(Filed: 11/06/2006)

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has delivered a damning critique of the Anglican communion, claiming that it has fallen apart since he was succeeded by Rowan Williams.

His remarks are set to send the relationship to a new low and give encouragement to critics of the current archbishop who are ever more vocal in expressing their dismay at his leadership.

In a speech that will be seen as a direct attack on Dr Williams's ability to maintain unity in the Church, Lord Carey accused liberals of devastating the communion "that we once loved". Only weeks ago, an open letter was circulated calling on Lord Carey to refrain from interfering in sensitive issues.

"When I left office at the end of 2002 I felt the Anglican communion was in good heart," he said. "It is difficult to say in what way we are now a communion. Bitterness, hostility, misunderstanding and strife now separate provinces from one another and divide individual provinces."

He also challenged the Church of England's statement on civil partnerships by describing it as "a serious and extraordinary departure from the Church's practice".

As the American province of the communion prepares to discuss the repercussions of its decision to promote Canon Gene Robinson as Anglicanism's first openly homosexual bishop, Lord Carey revealed how he had been distressed by the deep divisions that the consecration had caused.

While Dr Williams has argued that homosexual clergy should be accepted into the Church, Lord Carey said that the Bible was "unequivocal in its condemnation of practising homosexuality. It cannot be dismissed as having no consequence for us today''.

Lord Carey has had a strained relationship with Dr Williams since he blocked his promotion to be bishop of Southwark because of concerns over the Welsh cleric's liberal stance on homosexuality. In a speech at Virginia Theological Seminary seen by The Sunday Telegraph, he expressed his anxiety at Dr Williams's impotence in the face of the American Church's refusal to heed his pleas to refrain from confirming Canon Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire.

"When I was archbishop I gave expression on a number of occasions to my worries about the fragility of our theology of authority," he said. Dr Williams conceded this year that he did not see himself as a leader: "It is wrong for an archbishop to be the leader of a party; in a polarised and deeply divided Church it's particularly important not to be someone pursuing an agenda that isn't the agenda of the whole."

Lord Carey's visit to Virginia to urge the American Church to repent of its decision to consecrate Canon Robinson will irritate his opponents. He told the audience of his fear that the General Convention, which meets next week, would "fudge" its response to the homosexuality crisis.

"On that basis the communion will split and our mission, our integrity and our ministry to the poor of Africa will suffer," he said.

Church has fallen apart since I was in charge, says Carey

[Soldier4Christ]

Pakistan pressured to produce
Khan – 'father of Islamic bomb'
U.N. desperate to question scientist after evidence
of enriched uranium found at Iranian military site

With the U.S. giving Iran until June 29 to accept or reject a package of incentives to end its nuclear program and Tehran defiantly stepping up enrichment activities, pressure is building on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to allow access to nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to discover what he knows about fresh traces of enriched uranium found on equipment used at an Iranian military site.

U.S. officials and U.N. inspectors believe Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb," who remains under house arrest in Pakistan after confessing he had provided both Iran and North Korea with details of how to make their own nuclear bombs, has important information about Tehran's nuclear program.

In January, IAEA inspectors found traces of highly enriched uranium, which could be weapons grade, in vacuum pumps at the destroyed and leveled Lavizan-Shian site in Tehran – a site Iran denied had been used for its nuclear work. The find casts further doubts on Iran's claims its program is intended only for peaceful purposes.

According to a previous IAEA report, Iran has made 110 tons of feedstock gas, enough for 20 nuclear bombs if the entire amount was enriched. The Iranians claim to have only enriched "dozens of grams" of uranium so far.

Despite pressure from Washington, Musharraf continues to resist pressure to let Khan be questioned by anyone. According to the Sunday London Telegraph, some believe Khan could implicate senior military and government figures if details of his nuclear network were known.

Pakistan has attempted to deflect pressure from the U.S. by declaring the case against Khan "closed." All 12 of his associates, arrested on suspicion of involvement in Khan's proliferation scheme, have been released by the government.

As WorldNetDaily reported, MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service, has identified six Pakistani scientists, who previously worked for Khan and are now working in Iran's nuclear bomb program, who have been "advising al-Qaida on how to weaponize fissionable materials it has now obtained."

MI6 and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe the scientists have played a major role in enabling Iran to be "well advanced in providing uranium enriched materials for nuclear bombs," said Alexander Cirilovic, a nuclear terrorism expert in Paris.

Given the stakes, the discovery of highly enriched uranium in Iran and the U.S. deadline, access to Khan is seen as crucial.

"They want to squeeze Dr. Khan to use his statements as evidence for the upcoming meeting of the U.N. Security Council," said Gen. Hameed Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. "Support from Beijing and Moscow would only be possible if the U.S. is able to provide ample evidence, and Dr. Khan's words could be instrumental."

[Soldier4Christ]

‘US grooming India to annoy China, Pakistan’

The United States is grooming India into a junior partner in a bid to make New Delhi break out of its shell and exert enough influence in the Indian Ocean region to at least annoy China and a recalcitrant Pakistan, a US think tank has suggested.

Such a strategic partnership would not only protect US interests in the region, but could also powerfully demonstrate to Islamabad that it would not stop a resurgent India from attacking Pakistan, intelligence think tank Stratfor said. Though the self-styled “shadow CIA” itself considers such a scenario unlikely, it suggested that development of a strategic partnership between Washington and New Delhi would also help take India out of Iran’s orbit.

Analysing the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Peter Pace’s recent visit to New Delhi, it suggested that as part of this developing strategic partnership he had given India the green signal to test its Agni III missile in August with the assurance that it would not affect the US-India nuclear deal. Indian officials have dismissed the Stratfor suggestion that the US had given its nod for test firing the nuclear-capable Agni-III intercontinental ballistic missile, maintaining this was only the interpretation of the US think tank. “India has made it amply clear that we have imposed a voluntary ban on testing and that is where the matter stands,” a Defence Ministry official said in New Delhi on Friday.

Apart from its suggestion about Agni, Stratfor considered the evolving relationship between India and US as a potentially deep one.

“The United States will provide India with nuclear technology, development capital, and military hardware and training; in return, India will help safeguard US interests in the Indian Ocean region. “The partnership could also powerfully demonstrate to Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf that the United States would not act to block a resurgent India from attacking Pakistan (not that such a scenario is likely) and also help take New Delhi out of Iran’s orbit,” it said.

“A formal alliance it is not; India does not want to be seen as being anti-Moscow or anti-Beijing, even as it develops stronger ties with the United States. Geopolitically, China and India have been off of each other’s radar screens, as they are geographically sealed from each other by the natural wall of the Himalayas and jungle,” Stratfor said.

India wants to continue to buy arms from Russia, such as parts for the MiG-29Ks that will be flying off the deck of the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, which is to be handed over after a Russian refit in 2008. New Delhi wants the US to continue to train the pilots of those MiGs for carrier operations. The US has also agreed in principle to sell India an Austin-class Landing Platform Dock, the USS Trenton, significantly enhancing New Delhi’s maritime power-projection capabilities. In return, Washington would like India to do exactly what it wants to anyway: shoulder responsibility and become a powerhouse in the Indian Ocean, Stratfor said.

The United States hopes that an India more involved in the Malacca Strait and with an improved navy will make China nervous. As Malacca is a chokepoint for Chinese trade and energy supplies, the naval frontier is essentially the only potential conflict point between New Delhi and Beijing.

Washington would like New Delhi to break out of its shell and exert enough influence in the region to at least annoy China and a recalcitrant Pakistan, and “India would like to get whatever it can from its latest patron, the United States, in order to help alleviate its massive infrastructure problems, which are preventing India from becoming a major world power”, Stratfor concluded.

[Shammu]

Zarqawi recruited hundreds for attacks abroad: report

Sat Jun 10, 7:03 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before his death, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had recruited hundreds of people who received terrorist training in Iraq and then returned to their home countries to await orders, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Citing high-ranking security officials in Jordan, the Times said that in addition to recruiting volunteers and suicide bombers to fight in Iraq, Zarqawi had recruited some 300 people who received terrorist training in Iraq before returning home to await orders to carry out strikes.

Zarqawi was killed in an air strike by U.S. warplanes on a village north of Baghdad on Wednesday.

The Jordanians' assessment of Zarqawi's reach was the first to offer firm numbers and details about such training, the Times said.

The officials all spoke on condition that they not be identified due to the covert nature of their work.

While U.S. counterterrorism officials said they too had seen movement of terrorists from other countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt into Iraq for training under Zarqawi and his associates, they said they believed the number of those trained and sent home to await orders was probably significantly lower than 300, the Times said.

"My sense is that the next step might have been mobilizing his recruitment networks to attack Europeans," the Times quoted Steven Simon, a former National Security Council staff member now at the Council on Foreign Relations, as saying. "That's one reason I think his death makes a difference."

The Times said that Jordanian intelligence officials had been particularly focused on Zarqawi, who was born there. Their scrutiny increased after he took credit for sending suicide bombers into three Jordan hotels last December, killing dozens, it said.

The officials said Zarqawi had managed to set up logistical operations in Syria, Iran and Libya that funneled volunteers into Iraq, and that as the insurgency became increasingly driven by Iraqis, he wanted to spread it global reach and mount a challenge to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri as the leader of a global terrorist war.

European authorities have identified dozens of young militant Muslim men who have either left to fight in Iraq or were prevented from doing so, and U.S. forces in Iraq have at least three French nationals among the dozens of foreign fighters they have captured there, the Times said.

German authorities also have arrested 18 suspected members of Ansar al Islam and the Zarqawi network since December 2004, including three Iraqis charged with plotting to assassinate former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a visit to Germany last year.

Zarqawi recruited hundreds for attacks abroad: report

[Shammu]

Al-Zarqawi death prompts attack warning

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 11, 9:54 AM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed Sunday to carry out "major attacks," insisting in a Web statement that it was still powerful after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The statement did not name a successor to al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike Wednesday. But it said the group's leadership "renews its allegiance" to Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden "will see things that will bring joy to his heart," it said, vowing "to prepare major attacks that will shake the enemy like an earthquake and rattle them out of sleep."

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum where the group has posted statements in the past.

Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told "Fox News Sunday" he expected the statement from al-Qaida in Iraq because "they're hurt badly." He said there had been a "steady drumbeat" of operations against al-Zarqawi's network since the leader's hideout was bombed.

"It's expected but I think we'll be prepared for it," Casey said of the threat. "But again, you can't stop terrorist attacks completely."

The statement was issued in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq but was put out by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups that al-Zarqawi helped create.

The statement said al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership met after al-Zarqawi's death and "agreed to continue jihad (holy war) and not be affected by his martyrdom."

"The organization has strengthened its back, regained its footing and has been renewed with fresh blood," it said, listing previous prominent members who had been killed without setting back the group's attacks.

"For those who were waging holy war for the sake of al-Zarqawi, al-Zarqawi is dead. But for those who were fighting for the sake of God, God is alive and eternal," it said.

The phrase echoed the words used by the Prophet Muhammad's successor, Abu Bakr, after the prophet's death in the 7th century to urge Muslims to stick to their new faith.

The message left unknown the issue of who will succeed al-Zarqawi as the group's "emir," or leader.

Thursday's al-Qaida statement was signed by al-Zarqawi's deputy emir, Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, and sympathizers quickly flooded Web forums with vows of allegiance to him.

But Sunday's message did not mention his name. There is confusion over whether he is still alive, after the U.S. military said a man named "Abdul-Rahman," whom it identified as al-Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, died in the airstrike alongside his leader.

The U.S. military has said the mostly likely successor is an Egyptian associate of al-Zarqawi named Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who has a $50,000 reward on his head.

Al-Zarqawi death prompts attack warning

[Shammu]

11/06/2006            
Palestinian gunmen hand over abducted American citizen to IDF
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

Members of an armed Fatah militia which claimed to have kidnapped an Israeli Saturday transferred the individual in question, a U.S. citizen, to the custody of the Palestinian Authority before dawn Sunday.

The PA security forces subsequently handed the American over to the Israel Defense Forces. Defense officials believe once the militants discovered the person was indeed an American citizen, they took steps to end the matter quickly.

"Apparently, the kidnappers did not want to end up like Zarqawi," a defense official said.

Earlier Saturday, the IDF and the Shin Bet security service investigated a Palestinian claim that an Israeli citizen was abducted in Nablus. Fatah activists sent a tape to the Reuters News Agency, claiming it showed an Israeli, Benjamin Bright-Fishbein, of Jerusalem. They threatened to kill him if Israel did not free Palestinian prisoners.

Fishbein was snatched by gunmen while having coffee at a Nablus coffeeshop, said Rafa Roagbe, head of Palestinian security in the city.

Fishbein, who spent time in Cairo and is currently studying at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, went to Nablus as a tourist, Roagbe said. Fishbein wears a traditional Jewish skullcap, but does not speak Hebrew, he added.

Palestinian security forces worked with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, to find and negotiate Fishbein's release, Roagbe said.

"We brought him to the Hawara checkpoint and the head of the Israeli security ... received him," Roagbe said.

The army confirmed Fishbein had been released. Fishbein remained in police custody early Sunday, where he was being questioned about the incident, the army said.

Bright-Fishbein told Reuters that he had visited Nablus by himself because he had heard it was a beautiful place, but could find nobody else to come with him.

"It was a mistake, a really big mistake," he said, looking drawn after his ordeal.

"Everything is fine. I am in a safe place," he said.

Bright-Fishbein recounted how he had been abducted by a gunman called Ahmed who bumped into him in a coffee shop where the student, who speaks Arabic, had been smoking a water pipe.

"He (Ahmed) had a pistol, a grenade and a machinegun. I didn't want to be in his company, but it seemed I didn't have any choice at that point," Bright-Fishbein said.

For the videotaped statement, Bright-Fishbein was dressed in the skullcap of a religious Jew. Looking into the camera he said "If the prisoners are not released, they will execute me."

Reports that a hostage had been seized sparked a frantic manhunt by IDF troops and Palestinian security forces to try to track down the kidnappers.

"In the end, I got the impression that they were in over their heads and they were going crazy talking on the phone. They clearly had no idea what they were doing. They were not organized," he said.

Bright-Fishbein is a student attending Brown University in the United States. His name also appears as a contributor to the Web site of the university's student newspaper.

The figure in the video sent by Fatah activists is displaying an identity card from Hebrew University.

"The first report came in at 9 P.M. and seemed a little doubtful to us," a senior security source told Haaretz earlier Saturday night. "But toward midnight we received indications that it is a serious story. We started to relate to it as a kidnapping."

Defense officials say the Fatah military wing of Nablus, which has been involved in dozens of attacks and attempted attacks, was most likely behind the abduction.

The Shin Bet was trying to obtain information Saturday on Bright-Fishbein, and to discover whether he went to Nablus of his own volition or was secretly abducted to the city. The defense establishment has had warnings for some time of kidnappings of Israelis for the purpose of negotiating the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails - a matter of wide consensus in the territories.

About a year ago, a Hamas cell in Ramallah kidnapped an Israeli citizen, Sasson Nuriel, and murdered him after they believed they had been discovered by the security forces. Most of those involved were subsequently arrested.

Palestinian gunmen hand over abducted American citizen to IDF

[Shammu]

Terrorist allegedly beaten
Witness claims U.S. soldiers abused dying al-Zarqawi
By AP

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi witness has raised the possibility al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was beaten by American troops after his hideout was destroyed in an air attack.

The witness, who lived near the scene of the bombing, claimed to have seen U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from the man's nose.

When asked about the allegations, U.S. military spokesman Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell said he would check.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said yesterday he was unaware of the claim.

The Iraqi, identified only as Mohammed, claimed residents put the man in an ambulance before U.S. forces arrived.

The American military team then pulled the man from the ambulance and beat him, he said.

He gave a similar account to the Washington Post.

No other witnesses have come forward to verify the account.

U.S. officials have only said al-Zarqawi mumbled and tried to roll off a stretcher before dying.

On Friday, the military said al-Zarqawi survived the dropping of two 225-kg bombs on his hideout.

The bombs tore a huge crater in the date palm forest where the house was nestled just outside Baqouba, northwest of Baghdad.

Iraqi police reached the scene first and found the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi alive.

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell, a spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Friday.

Iraqi police pulled al-Zarqawi from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious and tried to provide medical treatment, the U.S. spokesman claimed.

Caldwell has not mentioned any other physical interaction between U.S. troops and al-Zarqawi.

Lt.-Col. Thomas Fisher of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armoured Cavalry, said his men showed up about five minutes after the blast and cordoned it off.

"We didn't know it was Zarqawi, we just knew it was a time-sensitive target," he said.

Witness claims U.S. soldiers abused dying al-Zarqawi

My note; If so, I hope they fed him a nice pork dinner.

[Shammu]

Europe's latest attack on America

Jun 11, 2006
by Peter Cuthbertson

Europe’s opponents of the war on terror have a new half-inch thick document to add to their armory. On Wednesday, Swiss politician Dick Marty put together a well-publicized report for the Council of Europe condemning America for a policy of rendition. The United States is charged with globally establishing a “spider’s web” relationship with national intelligence networks for the purpose of apprehending terrorist suspects and taking them into secret custody.

“Europe,” he explains, “already has a long and painful history of terrorism” and has been wise and experienced enough to have fought back “primarily by means of existing institutions and legal systems.” America, by contrast, “appears to have made a fundamentally different choice” to operate outside the law.

The report leaves little doubt about the degree to which it believes America should scale back its current operations in the war on terror. It even condemns security services for keeping lists of those suspected of terrorist connections as breaching fundamental principles of justice.

By the seventh page, Senator Marty feels forced to answer the obvious question: ‘Is this an Anti-American exercise?’ The first signs of an inflated ego emerge as he simply harrumphs that such a charge is “downright ridiculous and wholly inaccurate,” citing as evidence unspecified American “journalists, NGOs and politicians” and a quote from Sandra Day O’Connor.

Further signs soon appear even as the report acknowledges, “There is no formal evidence at this stage of the existence of secret CIA detention centres in Poland, Romania or other Council of Europe member states,” and admits that the accusations cannot withstand the test of “reasonable doubt in the Anglo-Saxon meaning of the term.” So to solve the problem the author cheerfully decides that there ought to be a “reversal of the burden of proof,” with the accusations assumed true until proven otherwise.

There is little thought given to the responsible and balanced way of dealing with suspects whom the authorities have good reason to believe are terrorists, and whom must be brought to justice and prevented from inflicting future harm on innocent people. Instead, those on the receiving end of rendition are referred to time and again as being in some objective sense ‘victims’.

The report quotes the CIA agent Michael Scheuer as explaining why tough restraints are so necessary: “Clearly your first priorities in those situations are to protect your officers. So the person would generally be shackled and restrained.” This is taken to be not a common sense precaution, but rather as showing that “the CIA intentionally puts security concerns ahead of the rights of the detainee during a rendition operation.” I certainly hope so.

Senator Marty includes much detail on the procedures used during rendition, which suspects report as sometimes including dressing them in diapers and earmuffs, and occasionally “being gripped firmly from several sides.” The Council of Europe confesses that if the substance of these petty complaints are true, it obviously “does not appear to reach the threshold for torture.” Instead, the Council charges that it is humiliating and degrading because of the embarrassment it might cause to the terrorist suspect.

In a fanciful attempt to provoke greater outrage, the report argues that these restraints are often disproportionate when for many suspects “it would have been perfectly enough to ask him to co-operate.” But in the very next paragraph it describes the “most troubling” revelation of all: that “many accounts speak of these measures being taken despite ‘strong resistance,’ both physical and verbal, on the part of the detainee.” So, apparently, using restraints during rendition is particularly outrageous when used against those who cooperate and especially troublesome when used against those who resist.

The report certainly attempts to catalogue much evidence to support its contentions, but a large part of it is questionable, not least because it depends so much upon the testimony of those who apparently faced rendition for suspected terrorist links. One released suspect’s memory of a small earthquake is offered as corroborating evidence that he had been in the vicinity—presumably on the grounds that an earthquake is something no one could read about after the event and claim falsely to have experienced. The same suspect belonged to an organization that the report admits was “militant,” “nationalist” and had “Islamist elements.” But Senator Marty writes that he finds “particularly odious” the suggestion that membership of a militant Islamist group could imply links with terrorists.

The agenda of the report is made clear in one of Senator Marty’s closing demands: for an “international jurisdiction” to be “established as a matter of urgency” so that terrorist suspects will fall into the hands of a supranational body rather than be dealt with by the United States.

With this ultimate goal in mind it scarcely matters that, as the report admits, rendition operations across Europe could only have taken place with “the active participation, or at least the collusion, of national intelligence services,” and therefore Europe no more than America can be praised for sticking to its legal guns. The real purpose of the report is to serve as a stick with which to beat the United States, undermining the legitimacy of its global operations for the benefit of international bodies like the Council of Europe.

America should be swift to resist such pressures.

Europe's latest attack on America