News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

 Malaysian premier calls for dialogue between Islam, Christianity
Kuala Lumpur, June 20, IRNA

Indonesia-Conference-Muslim Scholars
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Jakarta Tuesday called on leaders of the Islamic world and the West to commit themselves, their governments and their peoples to engage in dialogue to arrest the slide in relations between them, Bernama news agency said.

Stating that dialogue would be fruitless unless followed by tangible action and that dialogue could never be the substitute for action, he said dialogue between the Christian West and the Islamic world must result not only in enhanced understanding but also in the courage to right the wrongs.

"Ultimately, this means reviewing, at the domestic level, any policy which creates inequities among the population and, at the global level, any one-sided actions that inflict injustices upon other peoples and other nations," he said in his keynote address at the International Conference of Islamic Scholars.

Abdullah, who is also chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), said both sides must cease presenting their world view in a certain way so as to legitimize certain politics.

He said topping the list of items to be so reviewed and rectified was the politics of domination, which was sometimes disguised as the call for modernization and democratization.

"I wonder whether these calls are, in reality, attempts to establish benchmarks for modernity and democracy in accordance with Western standards," he said.

Abdullah hoped that there was no hidden message that peace and harmony in the world were attainable only when all countries and peoples accepted Western values, adopted Western norms and practices, and emulated Western institutions.

"I call upon the leaders of the West to reflect deeply on what they would wish to accomplish in a dialogue with the leaders of the Islamic world," he said, adding that to ensure that the dialogue achieved its intended purposes, it was imperative for the West to acknowledge first that Islam was not merely a religion.

"Islam is a civilization, a cultural entity, a way of life all at once. That is why in dealing with Muslims, one must take into account their religious sensitivities because Islam is their way of life." At the same time, he said, Muslims needed to protect and promote the correct and true teachings of Islam to all believers and that displaying confidence in themselves was the only way they could secure the respect of the West and be acknowledged by them as equals.

Abdullah stressed that the dialogue would succeed if there was mutual respect, equality and reciprocity and both sides must also be honest, rational and sincere with each other.

"Both sides must cease to be in a state of denial. We must probe deeply into the intersection points between religion and politics. We must cease to confuse military occupation with the fight against terrorism. We must not use religious commandments as a smoke screen for strategic and political designs," he said.

He also called on the international community to help resolve the problems of Palestine, ensure a general and complete ceasefire all round in Iraq, and help develop a program to strengthen the central government in Afghanistan and a time-table for withdrawal of foreign forces from those countries.

"There must be a peaceful resolution of the current impasse between the West and Iran," he urged, adding that the case of Iraq was a bitter lesson for everybody and that mistake must never be repeated anytime, anywhere.

The OIC chairman said Muslims must also take action to heal the rifts within the 'ummah' so as to demonstrate, by word and by deed, 'that Islam is indeed a religion of moderation which rejects bigotry, extremism and fanaticism, especially terrorism'.

"We must underline the importance of combating deviant ideology and develop educational curricula that firmly establish the values of understanding, tolerance, dialogue and multilateralism in accordance with the tenets of Islam."
He said there was a time when Muslims excelled in various fields, including politics, philosophy, the military, science, the arts and, had in fact, dominated the world trade scene.

Malaysian premier calls for dialogue between Islam, Christianity

My note; Wait till they find out what Jesus has to say.

[Shammu]

 100 injured as Bangla opposition demonstrators clash with police
New Delhi, June 20, IRNA

Bangladesh-Opposition-Clashes
At least 100 people have been injured in Bangladesh's capital, when the Police used batons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse rock-throwing activists and opposition workers who were trying to march to the election commission.

The police and the demonstrators clashed, as activists tried to push through barbed-wire barricades at Dhaka's Russel Square and Agargaon areas, media reports said here.

A 14-party opposition alliance led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League called for Tuesday's march to push demands for removal of the chief election commissioner and his deputies.

The opposition also wants changes in the way caretaker
administrations operate to ensure a free and fair poll.

Meanwhile accusing EC of pro-government bias and trying to manipulate the voters' list for the coming election, senior Awami leader Tofayel Ahmed said, "The Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz and his colleagues must resign."
In Bangladesh, a caretaker government conducts a general election after an elected government completes its five-year term.

The term of the incumbent government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia will end in October, and an election under the caretaker government will be held in January 2007.

According to the Police and witnesses about 20,000 activists had gathered since late morning but were stopped about half a kilometer from the commission's building.

100 injured as Bangla opposition demonstrators clash with police

[Shammu]

Al-Qaida video shows alleged 20th hijacker

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida has identified a would-be 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11 attacks as a Saudi operative who was killed in a 2004 shootout with his country's security forces.

In a statement accompanying a new video, the terrorist network's propaganda arm identified Fawaz al-Nashimi, also known as Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry, as the operative who would have rounded out a team that ultimately took over United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field before reaching its intended target.

A 54-minute video featuring al-Nashimi was obtained Tuesday by IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor based in Virginia. U.S counterterrorism officials declined to comment on the authenticity of the video and its claims.

The video included a screen crediting the al-Sahab media committee with producing the message. While no one is known to have forged the group's work, its statements are often difficult to verify.

The video includes footage of al-Nashimi justifying attacks against the West. It also contains 27 minutes of previously unheard audio of a siege that he took part in on oil facilities in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Screeching car tires and gunfire are heard as the terror cell moved from building to building. A voice in Arabic can be heard saying: "Where are the Americans? ... Give me the information."

The demands are punctuated with more gunfire.

In the May 2004 attack, militants dressed in military-style uniforms opened fire inside two oil industry office compounds, then moved to an upscale residential area. They took 45 to 60 hostages.

Saudi security forces stormed the complex, but three of the militants escaped, including al-Nashimi. Twenty-two people were killed in the 25-hour rampage, almost all of them foreigners, including one American.

Al-Nashimi was killed the following month in gunbattle with Saudi forces.

The Khobar assault was one of a series of attacks against foreigners by al-Qaida's Saudi branch in 2003 and 2004, aimed at undermining its U.S.-allied royal family.

If the statements on the new video are true, they would also fill in a missing piece of the puzzle of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have believed for some time that the original 9/11 plot included another hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93, which only had four attackers. The two planes that flew into the World Trade Center towers and the one that flew into the
Pentagon each had five hijackers.

Federal agents at first thought Zacarias Moussaoui was intended to be on Flight 93, but later revised their allegations. Moussaoui further muddied the waters during his terrorism trial, when he claimed — and later recanted — that he was supposed to fly a fifth plane on Sept. 11 into the White House.

During a May audio message, Osama bin Laden said Moussaoui was not the 20th hijacker "as your government has claimed." He didn't provide the actual identity. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring with al-Qaida to fly planes into U.S. buildings and is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.

The Sept. 11 commission identified yet a third person as a possible 20th hijacker: al-Qaida member Mohammed al-Kahtani, who was turned away at Orlando International Airport in Florida in August 2001.

Al-Qaida video shows alleged 20th hijacker

[Shammu]

N.Korea seeks talks with U.S. over missile

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

SEOUL, South Korea -
North Korea hinted Wednesday that it would halt any plans to test a long-range missile if the U.S. agreed to direct talks, as a former South Korean president scrapped plans to visit the North because of its apparent moves toward a launch.
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Tensions in the region have soared following intelligence reports that the North has fueled a ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. The U.S. and Japan have said they could consider sanctions against the impoverished country if it goes ahead.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cited the missile crisis as the reason for canceling a trip next week to the North that could have offered a rare chance for talks to soothe regional tensions.

North Korea said in comments published Wednesday that its self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles no longer applies because it's not in direct dialogue with Washington, suggesting it would hold off on any launch if Washington agreed to new talks.

"Some say our missile test launch is a violation of the moratorium, but this is not the case," Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the
United Nations, told Yonhap news agency in an interview from New York.

"North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to develop, deploy, test fire and export a missile," he said. "We are aware of the U.S. concerns about our missile test-launch. So our position is that we should resolve the issue through negotiations."

Japan, which was shocked by a North Korean missile launch over its territory and into the sea in 1998, disputed the North's position on lifting the missile moratorium, arguing that the North committed itself to the ban in an accord with Tokyo in 2002.

"If the missile is launched, it is clear the act will violate the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo. "It will also breach promises with the international community."

Meanwhile, conditions for Kim Dae-jung's trip to the North have "become difficult," Jeong Se-hyun, a former unification minister, told a Seoul news conference. Jeong said the trip would be possible only once the missile crisis is resolved.

The South's Kim met the North's Kim Jong Il in June 2000 in the first-and-only summit between leaders of the divided Koreas. The two Kims had been expected to meet again during the scheduled four-day visit.

The meeting had raised hopes of dialogue as concerns grow over intelligence reports that the North has fueled a Taepodong-2 missile with a firing range experts estimate could be up to 9,300 miles — making it capable of reaching parts of the United States.

North Korea imposed its own moratorium in 1999 amid friendlier relations with the U.S. during the Clinton administration. During a 2002 summit with Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il signed an agreement to extend the moratorium until at least 2003 — and reaffirmed the launch ban at another summit in 2004.

It was not immediately clear whether the North would consider the stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear program, which include the United States, as "dialogue" with Washington. The North has refused to return to nuclear talks since November, in anger over a U.S. crackdown on the country's alleged illicit financial activity.

Pyongyang has consistently pressed for direct dialogue with the United States, while Washington insists it will only speak to the North at the six-nation nuclear talks.

Australia, New Zealand and France have in recent days joined countries demanding that North Korea refrain from a missile launch.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the North should "listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried."

N.Korea seeks talks with U.S. over missile

[Shammu]

Another Financial Bailout for Palestinians?

by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
Posted Jun 21, 2006
Back when the South African government was practicing apartheid, the world placed sanctions on that country. No trade. The last thing international leaders would have done was to subsidize and finance that government. So why is the world ready to finance and subsidize the Hamas government that daily calls for genocide against the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel?
 
Is it that the world considers apartheid worse than genocide? The people of the newly announced country of Palestine have freely elected a party which has stated as its primary goal the destruction of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Suicide bombing is in the Platform of Hamas. The people we are asked to pity knowingly voted to continue the slaughter of Jewish civilians. So why give them tens of millions in aid?
 
If the world maintained back in the 1980s as it does now that sanctions nudge a country to change dreadful policies, the international community should not be funding the Hamas government but punishing it. Not aid but sanctions!
 
Some say, if we don't help the Hamas government, its people will go hungry. There is a simple remedy: President Mahmoud Abbas should dip into his government's ample coffers to feed his people. With an estimated billion yet remaining in the Palestinian Authority's bank account, certainly Mr. Abbas, the first Palestinian president, can find a few million to feed his hungry.
 
And how about Yasser Arafat's widow, living a lavish life in a multi-million Paris condo-- reaching into her pocket? Her late husband's net worth -- reportedly between $1 billion and $3 billion -- was diverted from "his people" for personal enrichment and much of it now resides in her bank account. If the world is told to feel an obligation to help the Arabs, then shouldn't Palestinian Arabs controlling billions first be obligated to lift a hand, and for once do the right thing.
 
We've seen this scenario played out before. Ambassador Martin Indyk has affirmed that Arafat "for years would cry poor, saying, 'I can't pay the salaries, we're going to have a disaster here, the Palestinian economy is going to collapse.'" Yet while the world kept funneling humanitarian aid, it later discovered most of the funds had been diverted to Arafat's secret portfolio. Repeatedly, foreign aid to the Palestinians has been used by their leaders not for food but to purchase weapons, support families of suicide bombers, and fund massive anti-Israel and anti-U.S. "rent-a-rallies."
 
By once again funneling aid over requiring decent behavior from them, we reinforce in the radical Moslem mind that, in the end, the West will capitulate to their on-again-off-again diplomatic pretenses, pressures and threats; worse, give in to them rather than demand from them renunciation of fantasies for more Holocausts.
 
Why does the West feel obligated to bankroll the Gazans when fellow oil-rich Moslem countries immediately nearby could take care of all their needs? We so often hear of Moslem unity -- brotherhood when attacking Israel or condemning the West -- but not when it comes to feeding their brother Palestinians. Curiously, while we in the West will be moved by pitiful pictures, Arab countries and dictators will not be moved: we'll give while they'll hardly give.
 
As history has shown, the Arab world finds it exceedingly beneficial to allow their Palestinian "brothers" to rot if they can parlay that scene into an international indictment of Israel. They'll sit by in their Rolls Royce's before lifting a hand to alleviate that situation because they know that, in the end, the world will blame not Saudi but Israel and America, not the people's government, Hamas, but the West. Headline: Palestinian Sneezes. UN To Meet To Condemn Israel.
 
For so long, the Arab Palestinians wanted a State of their own. They now have it. Having a state means one must be capable of sustaining a state. If there truly is a Palestinian Arab People, then why aren't they out there, with pride, working their collective tails off to make the best darn Palestinian State possible? Did the original Americans whine all day or did they toil the land and break backs in pursuit of their national dream?
 
The U.S. and Europe are being asked to pay the salaries of the Hamas government leaders. Why should American taxpayers be paying the salaries of Arab government officers? Where is the sacrifice of Arab leaders? Or is suicide bombing the only sacrifice they practice? Since when do people go hungry simply because politicos aren't getting paid? A farmer in Iowa can't grow peas because the alderman didn't get his check?
 
The Black Christians in Darfur have no one to rescue them. In fact, most distressed people in the world have no immediate knights in shining armor. Comparatively, the Moslems in Gaza, who now have their own state, are in an enviable position. No one is attacking them. In fact, Israel has said: "Here is the land. It is now yours. Goodbye."
 
As Moslems, this new country and its people have potential sugar daddies exceeding any other group in the world. There is Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, United Arab Emirates, etc. Not to mention all those brother Sultans, Amirs, and Shieks. All that the people have to do is work, build, and sweat a little.
 
Yet, the world seems preoccupied, always, with Arab Palestinian "suffering," more so than with any other group on earth, even groups in truly horrific circumstances. No matter how improved their situation, the world treats the Arab Palestinians as if they've never had anything good come their way, as if they are not obligated to do anything individually or collectively to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The world proceeds from a premise that the international community has the obligation to give them a country, fund the country, build the country, and create the kinds of conclusions and accomplishments that took other peoples years and decades to achieve. We, the thinking goes, are to achieve it for them.
 
The Palestinian issue is the greatest gift ever given to all those out there who can't stand Jews, as well as those on the Left who hate the West, not to mention those Jews who no longer favor Israel because Evangelicals cherish it. Their preoccupation with Palestinian suffering over the suffering of tens of millions elsewhere is exploited to 1) delegitimize Israel, 2) remove Europe's Holocaust stain, 3) point-a-finger at Jewish/Israeli success for those in the Third World envious of it, 4) and deflect attention from dictators and oppressive regimes the Left supports by creating an incessant drumbeat of criticism of Israel. If the Arab Palestinians were fighting the Nigerians or Nepalese nobody would give a hoot about them.
 
Come to think of it, the Palestinians need to keep those Jews alive. No more Jews, no more Israel, then no more world cash and tears for Arab Palestinians. They'd be forgotten news. In fact, they'd share the fate of all those in their "brother" dictatorships of Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan.

Another Financial Bailout for Palestinians?

[Shammu]

21 June 2006
Unity on Iran will be Bush’s priority at EU summit today 

NEW YORK — US President George Bush will seek to maintain western unity in the standoff with Iran, and to advance his priorities on Iraq and trade, during a summit with European Union (EU) leaders in Vienna today.

The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran gives both the US and the EU an incentive to work closely at a time when European leaders have taken the lead in searching for a negotiated settlement. That makes it imperative to preserve a unified approach, says Charles Kupchan, who was the US National Security Council’s director of European affairs in the Clinton administration.

“At this critical moment in dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, transatlantic solidarity is very important,” said Kupchan, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “Tehran will be looking for cracks in the coalition and seeking to exploit them.”

The summit takes place weeks before leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) meet in St Petersburg, and will give Bush a chance to test some of the themes he will raise at the G-8.

In contrast to the Iraq war, the Bush administration has made a concerted effort to consult allies about Iran and North Korea, another potential nuclear threat.

This has drained away some of the tension that developed between the US and Europe during Bush’s first four years in office.

“The tone in the Bush administration’s second term has been different from the first, with much greater emphasis on diplomacy,” Jon Wolfsthal, a fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a report on the meetings last week.

In a speech on Monday, Bush said he wanted to use the Vienna meeting to parlay solidarity on Iran into closer US-European co-operation on the Middle East and the war on terrorism.

He said he would also seek progress in global trade talks, which have stalled over a dispute on farm subsidies. Bush used the word “united” three times to describe US-EU relations.

Bush signalled that Iran was the top item on his agenda for the summit and said the meeting would send a message to its leadership. “America and our partners are united,” Bush said in Kings Point, New York, at the commencement of the US Merchant Marine Academy.

“We have presented a reasonable offer. Iran’s leaders should see our proposal for what it is: an historic opportunity to set their country on a better course.”

The US, UK, France, China and Russia — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — along with Germany made an offer to Iran on June 6, of a package of incentives, including providing fuel for a civilian nuclear power reactor, if the government in Tehran stops all uranium enrichment activity.

Iran’s response has been mixed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week called the proposal a “step forward”.

But foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday that Iran wanted “unconditional” talks and accused the US of making “illogical requests”.

While Bush and EU leaders were not likely to disagree on Iran at this stage, differences might emerge if Iran rejected a compromise — a decision that is expected in two weeks, Kupchan said.

“The EU and the US may well part company when it comes to imposing sanctions and contemplating the use of force,” he said.

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said last week that major developments on Iran were not likely in Vienna because the leaders of the UK, Germany and France, the countries that have led EU talks with Iran, would not be there.

The annual summit usually includes only the US and EU presidents and the head of the European Commission.

A commission official in Brussels confirmed Iran would be a top-priority issue in Vienna.

The official said European leaders planned to raise at least two potentially contentious matters: the US detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and concern about congressional efforts to restrict foreign investment in the US.

Meanwhile, Austrian police dealt with three hoax bomb alerts yesterday, hours before Bush was due to arrive there.

Police said they were looking for those responsible. Traffic was diverted for three hours in affected areas. Security has been tight in Vienna and Bush will not see the several protests that are planned.

Unity on Iran will be Bush’s priority at EU summit today

[Shammu]

No cash? No card? Just stick in finger

    A Tampa Coast to Coast convenience store has installed a device that scans your fingerprint to process payment through a debit account.

By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published June 20, 2006

TAMPA - Customers can pay with cash, plastic or their index finger at a new Coast to Coast Family Convenience store here.

Taking a big step beyond the ease of the Mobil SpeedPass, Coast to Coast has installed what's claimed as Florida's first biometric payment system.

There are no cards or PIN numbers to remember. Just stick your finger in the scanner and be on your way.

While applications are available to process credit and store loyalty card transactions by fingerprint, this one is limited to processing only debit account transactions.

"People either love it or think it's a sign of the coming apocalypse,'' said Amer Hawatmeh, owner of the new convenience store at 110 E Bearss Ave. who signed up a few hundred customers for Pay By Touch. "But to me, it's the wave of the future.''

Pay By Touch is one of several speedier payment technologies racing to build enough retailer acceptance to ace out rivals and overcome consumers' rising concerns over identity theft.

It's all on the road to payment gurus' vision of a cashier-free future, in which customers just walk out the door while their transaction is automatically processed.

The big credit card companies, for instance, are deploying a card reader developed by MasterCard International that picks up a radio signal to record a transaction when a card is merely tapped on or waved around a reader at the checkout stand. Other wireless systems in use in other countries use built-in payment system prompts broadcast to and from a cell phone to activate vending machines.

Pay By Touch is a closely held San Francisco startup that uses finger-scan technology to authenticate payment account holders. Backed by $130-million in venture capital money, Pay By Touch recently paid $82-million to acquire BioPay LLC, its biggest finger-scan competitor that has won a following in Europe big enough to authenticate $7-billion worth of transactions to date.

Pay By Touch now has tests under way with several convenience stores, gas stations and supermarket chains around the United States, including Harris Teeter in the Carolinas, Farm Fresh in Virginia and Jewel Osco in Chicago.

"Finger scanning is new, so we want to get people used to it by building acceptance at high-frequency, high-traffic retail locations such as gas stations and grocery stores,'' said Leslie Connelly, spokeswoman for Pay By Touch. "We're also going into places where people who don't have a banking relationship cash paychecks.''

The company is a bit puzzled by customer privacy fears. After all, they say, how can using a unique fingerprint for identification be riskier to theft than a plastic card, key chain token or account number that's tapped into a computer or spoken over the phone?

The company pledges not to sell or rent personal information, or access to it. The fingerprint image recorded is not the same as those collected by the federal government or law enforcement.

It's similar to the finger-scan technology used at theme park gates. Those systems take measurements of patrons' hands and fingers and link them to a multi-day pass to prevent several people from using one person's pass.

The Pay By Touch computer records a multitude of point-to-point measurements and stores them in an encrypted form in an IBM data center. Images of both index fingers are kept in case a shopper's trigger finger is hidden by a bandage.

To create an account, you must let the store get a fix on you and your bank account by scanning in a sample check and a driver's license. You can also apply online and be assigned a PIN number. The number is keyed in the first time you buy something to link your fingerprint to the personal account information.

The shopper needs neither a card nor a PIN number after that. Just place a finger on the scanner.

Retailers are paying a minimal amount to test the system. But many retailers such as Coast to Coast are drawn to Pay By Touch because it can process debit account payments or eChecks, an Internet version of a paper check, without subjecting the store to interchange fees that cost the retailers 2 to 3 percent of the transaction.

No cash? No card? Just stick in finger

[Shammu]

Mexican customs to be stationed in Kansas City
New 'inland port' in heartland part of international plan that bypasses unions
Posted: June 20, 2006
8:21 p.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


A Mexican customs office is being built in the U.S. heartland as part of a newly designed "inland port" facility that links with a Mexican seaport, an official in Kansas City confirms.

Tasha Hammes of the Kansas City Area Development Council wrote to author and WND columnist Jerome Corsi to correct some details of a column on the subject, but she affirmed that a key purpose of the Kansas City Inland Port, or SmartPort, will be to facilitate the movement of containers from the Far East through the Mexican port at Lazaro Cardenas rather that the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Corsi also had written that Kansas City Southern had acquired Mexican railroads to create a "NAFTA Railroad" that would link Lazaro Cardenas to the U.S. for container transport.

Hammes explained that with American consumption of goods from the Far East increasing, U.S. coastal ports are at capacity.

"The Lazaro Cardenas port is providing an alternative way to get products to North America," she said. "These products will come to Kansas City by way of rail. This is nothing new, other than the fact that Kansas City Southern acquired the Mexican railroad serving this port and that the major work has been done on the port of Lazaro Cardenas so that it has higher capacity and can handle larger containers."

Hammes pointed out that the Kansas City SmartPort is "a non-profit organization, not a physical building or facility being built for Mexico."

Hammes confirmed Kansas City plans to house a Mexican customs facility in the city's port, but she pointed out it will handle outbound U.S. freight exclusively, not inbound.

Hammes clarified that Kansas City, Mo., is leasing the site to Kansas City SmartPort. It will not be leased to any Mexican government agency or be sovereign territory of Mexico.

"It will employ both U.S. and Mexican Customs officials just like the current facilities in place at our nation's borders," she said. "It's a facility that U.S. companies will use to expedite the process of shipping their goods to customers in Mexico."

A brochure on the Kansas City SmartPort website documents the connection between Lazaro Cardenas and Kansas City's decision to become America's number one "inland port," saying:

    "Kansas City offers the opportunity for sealed cargo containers to travel to Mexican port cities with virtually no border delays. It will streamline shipments from Asia and cut the time and labor costs associated with shipping through the congested ports on the West Coast."

Corsi contends a main purpose of opening Lazaro Cardenas to receive a greater volume of containers from the Far East and linking it with the planned NAFTA Super-Corridor and Kansas City SmartPort is to reduce labor costs.

Longshoremen would not be employed at the port of Lazaro Cardenas, and, in Mexico, the employees of Kansas City Southern would not be United Transportation Union workers.

To the extent that Mexican trucks become involved in the operation, it would mean Teamster Union drivers would not be employed in the operation.

Hammes made no comment on this aspect of Corsi's column.

To speed the crossing at Laredo, Texas, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America working groups within the U.S. Department of Commerce will allow Mexican trucks to be equipped with electronic FAST technology so the trucks can cross the border in express lanes.

At the Kansas City SmartPort hub, the containers can be transferred to semi-trailers heading east or west, or simply stay on the Mexican trucks all the way into Canada.

According to the SmartPort website, in March 2005, Kansas City signed a cooperative pact with representatives from the Mexican state of Michoacan, where Lazaro Cardenas is located, to increase the cargo volume between Lazaro Cardenas and Kansas City.

Shipments will be pre-screened in Southeast Asia, and the shipper will send advance notification to Mexican and American Customs with the corresponding ''pre-clearance'' information on the cargo. Upon arrival in Mexico, containers will pass through multiple X-ray and gamma ray screenings, allowing any containers with anomalies to quickly be removed for further inspection.

Container shipments will be tracked using intelligent transportation systems, or ITS, that could include global positioning systems or radio frequency identification systems, and monitored on their way to inland trade-processing centers in Kansas City and elsewhere in the United States.

As the Kansas City SmartPort website boasts: ''Kansas City offers the opportunity for sealed cargo containers to travel to Mexican port cities with virtually no border delays. It will streamline shipments from Asia and cut the time and labor costs associated with shipping through the congested ports on the West Coast.''

Mexican customs to be stationed in Kansas City

[Shammu]

The Strong Chinese-Hamas Intelligence Connection

June 19, 2006, 6:50 PM (GMT+02:00)

A Chinese intelligence officer is engaged in covertly aiding the ruling Palestinian Hamas terrorist group, according to a Paris-based intelligence newsletter picked up by the Washington Post’s Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough on June 19.

They identify Gong Xiaosheng as a Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) official who has worked out of Ramallah since Nov. 2002, first with Yasser Arafat and latterly helping Hamas.

It was Gong who arrianged for Mahmoud al-Zahar to be invited to Beijing shortly after his appointment as Hamas foreign minister.

The report says Gong is a strategic agent “trained in Division 8 of the ministry and also at the China Institution of Contemporary Relatons (CICIR), an MSS think tank. Its Middle East section is headed by Jin Ruikun, a specialist in Palestine and Jordan, and Chen Shuanqing, a specialist on Israeli-Palestinian relations and Israel’s Likud party.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources add: The Chinese “strategic agent” was so close to Yasser Arafat that he was among the handful of aides and terrorist chiefs confined with him in two rooms of of the residential apartment of the Palestinian leader’s Ramallah headquarters when it was stormed and besieged by Israeli forces in April and May 2002.

After his death, Gong moved over to Hamas. As far back as 2004, the Chinese MSS pegged the Islamist terrorist group as an up-and-coming force heading for Palestinian rule. The American CIA and Israeli Mossad were far slower in assessing Hamas’ rise to power - even on the eve of the Palestinian election in January, 2006. DEBKAfile’s Palestinian experts were alone in predicting the Hamas win.

Our sources disclose that the Chinese intelligence officer is very close to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, a-Zahar and Muhammed Jaabari, chief of the Hamas armed wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam. They habitually consult him for advice. Hamas’s actions and decisions are there not merely influenced by its relations with fellow Palestinian groups, Iran, Syria and other parts of the Muslim world. The Hamas-Gaza, Beijing connection is no less influential.

The Strong Chinese-Hamas Intelligence Connection

[Shammu]

World "sleepwalking" to nuclear proliferation: Annan
Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:37am ET7

By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Wednesday that the world was "sleepwalking" toward nuclear proliferation and must urgently revive efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

Addressing the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, he said that without moves to halt proliferation, more and more states were likely to seek nuclear weapons which could also fall into non-state hands.

"The international community seems almost to be sleepwalking down that latter path -- not by conscious choice, but rather through miscalculation, sterile debate and paralysis," Annan said.

He was speaking against a backdrop of international tension over North Korea's nuclear program and Western fears that Iran may be trying to develop nuclear arms.

North Korea says it is preparing to test a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as Alaska in what the United States, South Korea and Japan have called a grave threat to regional security.

"I hope the leader of the DPRK (North Korea) will listen to what the world is telling them, and take care not to make the situation on the peninsular even more complicated," Annan said in his speech to the 65-state conference.

For its part, Iran needs to reassure the world of its peaceful intentions by cooperating fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he added.

Globally, he called for a major drive toward nuclear disarmament to restore confidence between the nuclear powers and the rest of the international community, along with the strengthening of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

The argument between those wanting to see moves on disarmament before agreeing further non-proliferation measures and those who demand the opposite "is self-defeating", he said.

"If we want to avoid a cascade of nuclear proliferation, we need a major international effort," he said.

There was an urgent need to revive the Geneva-based arms' forum, whose last negotiating success was the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty nine years ago -- even though it has still not come into force.

Negotiations must start on halting the production of fissile material as well as talks on preventing the weaponisation of outer space, Annan said.

The United States opposes any negotiations on outer space, while Russia and China want discussions to move forward on both fronts.

"If any single group has the collective power to wake the world ... it is the Conference on Disarmament," Annan said.

World "sleepwalking" to nuclear proliferation: Annan

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 EU ignores constitution vote to launch anti-terror squad
By Justin Stares and Patrick Hennessy
(Filed: 18/06/2006)

European leaders were accused of "cherry picking" from the moribund European Union constitution last night after agreeing to create a pan-European counter-terrorism force.

At the Brussels European summit, all 25 member states agreed to pool assets - police, civil protection and military - and place them at the disposal of Javier Solana, the EU's foreign minister-in-waiting.
    
Javier Solana
The counter-terrorism force would be controlled by Javier Solana

Such a move had been planned in the constitution which was rejected by voters in France and Holland last year. The constitution has been left on the shelf although Europe's leaders want it up and running again by 2008. Minutes of the summit show that the kernel of the counter-terrorism force, the "crisis steering group", will be operational in a fortnight.

The EU presidency, currently held by Austria, has drawn up a "manual" of forces and assets which can be called on following an attack in any country.

Last night, Eurosceptics reacted with outrage. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Tory Euro-MP, said: "This is another example of the Soviet-style regime which rides roughshod over democratic votes in France and the Netherlands.

In both countries voters said No to the constitution and, specifically, No to a continent-wide anti-terror force.

This is meant to be a time for reflection - but instead the EU is cherry picking from the constitution.

" Defending the agreement, Jesus Carmona, the spokesman on counter-terrorism for Europe's council of ministers, said the force would not constitute standing troops but "officers" from a pool, who could be called on when necessary.

It would operate in another member state only at the request of the government. The size of the force had not been defined, he said.

The latest, EU-wide agreement follows preparatory talks between the six largest nations - the G6, which includes Britain.

The G6 is not an EU institution and the talks therefore had no official status but, in a clear sign that Brussels was keen to be involved, the commission vice-president, Franco Frattini, attended.

EU ignores constitution vote to launch anti-terror squad

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Europe backs Bush on growing nuke crises

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent Wed Jun 21, 6:30 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria - President Bush won solid European support Wednesday for his handling of escalating nuclear crises with North Korea and Iran but was challenged over the Iraq war, the U.S. prison camp in Cuba and rising anti-American sentiment.

"That's absurd," Bush snapped at a news conference in response to an assertion that the United States was regarded as the biggest threat to global security. "We'll defend ourselves, but at the same time we're actively working with our partners to spread peace and democracy.

Unbidden, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel rose with an impassioned defense that seemed to surprise the president.

"I think it's grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, a lot of countries," Schuessel said. Europe would not enjoy peace and prosperity if not for U.S. help after World War II, he said.

"We should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic," Schuessel said. "We should understand what September 11th meant to the American people."

But the chancellor also prodded Bush.

"We can only have a victory in the fight against terror if we don't undermine our common values," Schuessel said. "It can never be a victory, a credible victory over terrorists if we give up our values: democracy, rule of law, individual rights."

Bush came here for the annual summit of the United States and the 25-nation European Union at a time when favorable opinions of the U.S. have fallen across Europe.

About 1,200 students chanting "Bush Go Home!" marched through Vienna to a church square not far from Hofburg Palace where the leaders met. They were led by Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq and energized the anti-war movement a year ago with a monthlong protest outside Bush's Texas ranch.

Bush readily acknowledged summit disputes.

"We disagreed in an agreeable way on certain issues," the president said. Bush also chatted with foreign students at a round-table, toured the national library and listened to the Vienna Boys Choir before arriving in Budapest, Hungary to spend the night.

The president won backing for the demand that North Korea abandon plans to test-fire a long-range missile. "It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes that have announced that they've got nuclear warheads fire missiles," he said.

Bush said he was glad China had joined in urging North Korea not to test, and said he had talked with the leaders of Russia and Japan to enlist their help, as well.

"If this (test) happens, there will be a strong statement and a strong answer from the international community," said Schuessel, who holds the EU's rotating presidency. "And Europe will be part of it. There's no doubt."

There was solidarity, too, in pressing Iran to accept a two-week-old offer of incentives in return for a moratorium on uranium enrichment, a process that can produce material for nuclear generators or for weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Tehran will respond in mid-August.

"It seems like an awful long time for a reasonable answer ... It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal," the president said.

Schuessel agreed. "The time is limited," he said. "And I think we should not play with time. ... It's not only time, it's the right moment."

Within an hour of Iran's remarks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and diplomats from the other five nations offering the Iran incentives had agreed by phone to stick to a deadline of next week for an answer, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the diplomats' discussions were confidential, said the six nations expect an answer near the time of a meeting of foreign ministers from Group of Eight nations June 29 in Moscow. If Iran does not reply, that meeting would probably become a springboard toward action against Iran in the U.N. Security Council, the official said.

Anticipating a subject of high concern in Europe, Bush raised the detention of about 460 terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The recent suicides of three inmates have intensified international condemnation of the facility and demands for it to be closed.

"I understand their concerns," Bush said. "I'd like to end Guantanamo. I'd like it to be over with.

Bush said 200 detainees had been sent home, and that most of the remaining prisoners are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan.

"There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts," Bush said. "They're cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they're let out on the street." He said he was waiting for the Supreme Court to decide how they should be tried.

Schuessel welcomed Bush's statement. "We got clear, clear signals and a commitment from the American side — no torture, no extraordinary or extraterritorial positions to deal with the terrorists," he said. "All the legal rights must be preserved."

Again, Bush asked Europeans to look beyond their anger over the U.S. invasion of Iraq three years ago and support the country's reconstruction.

"People have strong opinions on the subject. But what's past is past, and what's ahead is a hopeful democracy in the Middle East," the president said.

Europe backs Bush on growing nuke crises

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House leadership throws roadblock at immigration legislation

By MARGARET TALEV
McClatchy Newspapers
20-JUN-06

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans on Tuesday put the brakes on immigration reform, saying they won't begin negotiations with the Senate until they hold town-hall meetings across the country highlighting what they dislike about the Senate's plan.

While that strategy doesn't inherently rule out Congress sending President Bush a comprehensive immigration bill, several lawmakers and immigration policy advocates said it makes it very unlikely. Bush has said that he wants to sign immigration reform creating a guest-worker program and addressing the issue of potential citizenship for some of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants.

"There are policy provisions in that bill that I have concerns about and I suspect others have concerns about," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Providing illegal immigrants the opportunity to have more benefits than American citizens _ in-state tuition as an example _ I think is horrendous. But I just throw that out as one example."

The field hearings are to be organized by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and the chairmen of seven House committees with some jurisdiction over immigration policy, aides said.

They would begin next month and run through August. That would make September the earliest starting point for conference negotiations. Congress is set to recess in early October.

The Senate plan would allow many illegal immigrants in this country to seek citizenship, and it would establish a guest-worker program to provide cheap labor to American businesses. The House version rejects both of those ideas, beefs up fencing and patrolling at the Mexico border and makes illegal immigration a felony.

Several supporters of the more comprehensive approach reacted angrily to the House leadership's move.

"Americans don't want more hearings on immigration reform, they want a bill," Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who favors the Senate's approach, said in a prepared statement. "The longer we wait to appoint members to the conference committee, the more difficult it becomes to produce a bill."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., lashed out at Bush, saying his actions don't match his rhetoric on demanding a comprehensive immigration bill.

"The president can go around giving all the speeches he wants, but let him step in now," Reid said. "He hasn't vetoed a single bill. He has complete domination over this Republican Congress. Let him tell us how much he really wants a bill, or is this part of the Orwellian message we continually get out of this administration? He wants an immigration bill, but really he means just the opposite. He doesn't want one?"

Others in favor of a comprehensive plan, including Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, cooled their heels.

"We can understand why members of Congress want to take a closer look at the issue," said White House spokesman Alex Conant, "and we'll continue working with members to see if we can reach a consensus. ... We're not deterred at all."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted the field hearings could push the senators closer to the House's law-enforcement-only bill, which boosts border security and makes illegal immigration a felony, out of a desire to get something accomplished.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., made the opposite prediction. She said slowing down talks until after the election might improve the chances of getting House Republicans to agree to some guest-worker or citizenship provisions.

"I think it is a good idea to let this thing settle for awhile and, if we have to, do it after the election," she said. "I can't answer what's going to happen, but it looks that way."

The summer field hearings could give members of either party who are facing tough midterm elections a reprieve on one of the nation's most divisive questions: how to deal with an estimated 12 million immigrants now living here illegally and the call from businesses for more cheap, temporary labor.

The hearings also could give lawmakers in congressional districts whose voters favor a tough-on-illegal-immigrants approach a platform on which to campaign on the issue.

For Republicans, who are polarized on immigration, holding the hearings might fend off criticism that they failed to act on an important issue without highlighting internal party differences, as Democrats have struggled with over what course to take in the Iraq war.

"There's what Bush and the Senate Republicans endorse. And then it's quite at odds with what the House passed," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, which favors the comprehensive approach. "They're biding their time with their finger in the wind and hoping if they do something between now and the election they won't get blamed for doing nothing. It's quite brilliant and it's hard to argue against, but what we know is going on is they're trying to run out the clock."

House leadership throws roadblock at immigration legislation

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France Detains 17 Suspected Finance Associates of Radical Islamic Terror Group

Tuesday , June 20, 2006

PARIS — Police have detained a prayer leader at a suburban Paris mosque and 16 associates as part of an investigation into alleged terror financing, a police official said Tuesday.

Dahou Meskine, imam at the mosque in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, and the 16 others were apprehended in separate raids around the capital early Monday, the official said.

Prosecutors believe the suspects were involved in a money-laundering scheme to benefit radical Islamic groups, the official said on condition of because the case is ongoing.

CountryWatch: France

The suspects remained in police custody and were being questioned by investigators. Under anti-terrorism laws, they can be held for up to six days for questioning.

The arrests were part of a probe launched 18 months ago based on information from Tracfin, an agency within the Finance Ministry that tracks money laundering, judicial officials said.

French intelligence officials say terror cells here have been changing their financing and planning methods, with funds often coming through inventive, small-scale sources such as halal butcher shops, trade in cannabis and ATM scams.

Many say the number of terror operatives in France, though impossible to pin down, is mounting, and warn that France could be in line for a terrorist attack. France stepped up anti-terrorist activities after a string of bombings by Algerian extremists in the 1990s, and has seen no major attacks since.

Meskine is a member of the Council of Imams of France, the judicial officials said, and is reported to be a founder of France's first Muslim middle school. The school could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

France Detains 17 Suspected Finance Associates of Radical Islamic Terror Group

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Cher pushing safer military helmets

Wed Jun 21, 6:21 PM ET

NEW YORK - Cher, who opposes the war in Iraq but supports the troops, says using her celebrity to promote effective helmets for U.S. soldiers is rewarding — and "the right thing to do."

"To be able to use your celebrity for something that you really think is worthwhile is so rewarding," the 60-year-old singer-actress says in an interview that was to air Wednesday night on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" (10 p.m. EDT).

"It just makes you feel like this is the right thing to do. This is the American thing to do," she tells Cooper. Excerpts of the interview were released in advance.

Cher says it makes her angry "when people say that if you're not for the war, you don't support the troops. And I'm not for the war. And I really support the troops."

Last week, she attended a hearing in Washington on whether to modify helmets for soldiers in Iraq. The entertainer has donated more than $130,000 to the group Operation Helmet, which pays about $100 to modify the inside of soldiers' helmets to make them better able to absorb shock from a bomb blast.

Cher tells Cooper she "was astounded at the price that could save someone's life. ... Or, you know, that such a little price had to be used to — to save someone's life."

The Army now equips its soldiers with padded helmets designed to be shock absorbent. The Marine Corps has commissioned a study to determine whether to change its helmets but has said the ones Marines use now are effective.

Cher won a best-actress Oscar for her role in 1987's "Moonstruck." She is known for songs such as "Believe" and "If I Could Turn Back Time."

Cher pushing safer military helmets

My note; I saw most of this, Cher doesn't support the war, but she supports the troops overseas.