News, Prophecy and other

[twobombs]

I am currently reading a book called 'The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse' by Paul L.Williams. I'm only halfway though this book, but this ex-FBI Director has revealed some information that made a lot of questionmarks around this subject disappear. No, it's not another conspiracy theory book; this book presents the cold, hard facts, is well documented and unfolds the 'Coming Apocalypse' in logical steps from the past, into the present and the future.

The key-focus for terror right now isn't Iraq, nor is it Iran....  Mr. Williams warns for Pakistan; he states several reasons for it; one of them is that its currently a safe haven for a lot of Muslim extremists, including Mr. Khan, the 'father' of the Islamic bombs, who's blueprints he stole 28 years ago from a nuclear facility 30 km from the place where I was born, in the Netherlands. The man sold them to any willing 'rogue' state or organisation. Pakistan also has the technology to deliver these WMD's.

The writer of this book makes it clear that Al-Qaeda already has several nuclear devices on US soil, and will detonate them as soon as the US uses nuclear devices on any of the Islamic states.

The bible states in Dan 8 that the goat loses his horn after he came unto the ram 2 horns. After that the US loses his horn, or authority it'll leave both Israel and the EU wide open for attacks with these pakistani WMDs.

[Soldier4Christ]

The writer of this book makes it clear that Al-Qaeda already has several nuclear devices on US soil, and will detonate them as soon as the US uses nuclear devices on any of the Islamic states.

 

I do believe this, however I don't think they will wait for the U.S. to use nuclear devices. I think it will take a lot less than that for them to trigger them.

[Shammu]

Cartoon Protesters Tear Gassed in Pakistan

11 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police fired tear gas Tuesday as they chased away about 200 protesters who entered the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Pakistan's capital to demonstrate against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

The crowd — which briefly demonstrated outside the French and British embassies — were among about 4,000 who attended a march in Islamabad that was organized by lawmakers. Police shot them with tear gas near the British Embassy.

U.S. and British embassy staffers were confined to their compound until police expelled the protesters from the fenced-off diplomatic enclave.

"We heard there were some protesters who entered the diplomatic enclave and for security reasons we were advised not to leave the High Commission (embassy)," said a British Embassy official. "There were no signs the protesters were aggressive or violent and they were quickly dispersed."

Outside the enclave, the protesters — mostly students — smashed street lights and burned tires while chanting "Death to America" and other slogans. Police rounded up about 50 protesters and put them in pick-up trucks.

People in the conservative Muslim nation have been enraged by the publication of the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. Papers in other countries, mostly in Europe, reprinted them. One of the caricatures depicts Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with an ignited detonator string.

There have been a series of mostly peaceful protests across Pakistan against the cartoons, and last week Parliament adopted resolutions condemning the drawing.

On Monday, about 7,000 protested against the cartoons in the northwestern city of Peshawar, smashing windows at universities with stones and police fired tear gas and swung batons to stop them from marching on the residence of the provincial governor.

Cartoon Protesters Tear Gassed in Pakistan

[Shammu]

Iran, Syria should pay for protest damage -Annan

By Irwin Arieff Mon Feb 13, 7:36 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and other governments that failed to protect foreign embassies from mobs protesting over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad should pay for the damage, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

The cartoons' publication in a Danish newspaper have triggered widespread protests across the Muslim world including violent attacks on Western diplomatic offices in a number of countries.

"The government has a responsibility to prevent these things from happening. They should have stopped it, not just in Syria or Iran but all around," Annan said.

"Not having stopped it, I hope they will pick up the bill for the destruction that has been caused to all the foreign countries," he told CNN. "They should be prepared to pay for the damage done to Danish, Norwegian and the other embassies concerned."

Danish facilities have been singled out for attacks, including diplomatic missions in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

Denmark has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Indonesia and Iran because of threats to their security, and from Syria, citing inadequate security provision by the Syrian authorities.

Annan said he personally raised the question of government responsibility with Syria's ambassador to the
United Nations, Fayssal Mekdad, asking him, "Why couldn't you stop it?"

"His answer was, 'It was so spontaneous, we couldn't stop it."' Annan said.

Mekdad, who was named Syria's vice foreign minister over the weekend, was en route to Damascus and unavailable for comment, an aide in Syria's U.N. Mission said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused the Syrian and Iranian authorities over the weekend of helping incite the violence in their countries.

But Annan said he had no evidence of that. "You had demonstrations all over the world," he told CNN.

Iran, Syria should pay for protest damage -Annan

[Shammu]

Iran starts enrichment work, upping stakes with West: diplomats

30 minutes ago

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran has restarted uranium enrichment work by putting its feedstock gas into centrifuges, defying the West with a program that could make nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material, diplomats told AFP.

It came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted his country was not worried about possible sanctions and Tehran said talks in Moscow aimed at finding a compromise to the long-running international standoff would not go ahead as planned later this week.

Uranium enrichment is seen as a red line by the United States and European Union in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, as it is crucial to making atomic weapons.

Putting uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas into centrifuges, which distill out enriched uranium, is a major escalation by Iran, and comes amid threats by the Islamic republic to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In an interview published Monday, Ahmadinejad said that nations calling for economic sanctions would lose far more than Tehran.

"I believe those who want to impose limitations on us will lose more than us," he told USA Today newspaper in an interview conducted Saturday.

Separately, Iran said Thursday's planned talks between Tehran and Moscow on a compromise to enrich uranium on Tehran's behalf in Russia, so that it would not acquire the strategic technology, would not go ahead.

Russia however said talks could still be held.

The United States and EU governments fear Iran's nuclear program could hide atomic weapons development, a claim strongly denied by Tehran which says it is for strictly peaceful civilian nuclear power.

Iran had earlier Monday said it would resume uranium enrichment even before the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in Vienna next month to decide whether to recommend UN Security Council action.

Meanwhile French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Moscow for a 24-hour visit due to include talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Villepin said in an interview published Monday in a Russian newspaper that the international community was willing to negotiate with Iran on the nuclear crisis if Tehran took steps to end the standoff.

But diplomats' comments in Vienna appear to show Iran is following through with its threat to carry out enrichment.

"Iran has put gas into centrifuges at its pilot enrichment plant in Natanz," one diplomat said.

The diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Iran had not yet fired up the whole 164-centrifuge cascade but had "over the past two or three days" started work with some centrifuges.

A second diplomat said Iran was doing "preliminary work" with "stand-alone" centrifuges, almost certainly putting uranium gas into single machines rather than a whole cascade.

The diplomat said this was necessary in a step-by-step approach involving first getting centrifuges running, then operating a pilot plant, which Iran has dubbed research work, and then moving on to industrial-scale enrichment with thousands of centrifuges.

Iran says it wants to produce low enriched uranium, which is not refined enough for weapons.

But it wants to install over 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz, an array which could produce enough highly enriched uranium every two or three weeks for one atom bomb.

IAEA inspectors are Tuesday to visit Natanz, where Iran is threatening to remove surveillance seals and cameras, diplomats said.

But one diplomat said some seals and surveillance cameras would remain in place as they would be monitoring the production of nuclear fuel rather than enrichment.

Although Iran had suspended uranium enrichment work until talks with an EU negotiating troika broke down last month, it has since August been making the feedstock UF6 at a conversion plant in Isfahan.

The West has seemed ready to let Tehran pursue this work, which technically is part of the activities the EU says should be suspended, as long as it did not actually enrich.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors voted February 4 to report Iran to the Security Council, but left a one-month window for diplomacy on getting it to return to a full suspension of enrichment-related work and cooperate more with IAEA inspectors.

Iran starts enrichment work, upping stakes with West: diplomats

[Bronzesnake]

 Nice work D.W.
Here's the response...

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH CLAIMS U.S. DRAWING UP PLANS FOR IRAN ATTACK

February 13, 2006

SpaceWar.com reports: “US military strategists are drawing up plans for an attack on Iran as a last resort to stop the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in London reported.

In a front-page dispatch from Washington, it said Central Command and Strategic Command planners were ‘identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation’.

The planners are reporting to the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with a view to having a military option if diplomatic efforts fail to put the brakes on Iran's suspected quest for nuclear weaponry.

‘This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,’ the Sunday Telegraph quoted a senior Pentagon adviser as saying. ‘This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Saturday that Tehran could quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty if it is forced by the West to limit its disputed nuclear program, which it insists is for civilian purposes.

Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency referred Iran to the UN Security Council after the oil-rich nation resumed its uranium enrichment program…”


Stay tuned folks, it's coming to a theatre near you!!

Bronzesnake

[Shammu]

Stay tuned folks, it's coming to a theatre near you!!

Bronzesnake

AMEN, I'm looking forwards, and looking up!

[Shammu]

Muslim Brotherhood to Fight Egyptian Law

By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 13, 6:21 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - President Hosni Mubarak's decree to extend the terms of thousands of political allies in local government drew an angry response Monday from the Muslim Brotherhood, which claimed the Egyptian leader was trying to keep power for his ruling party.

Local council terms were to have expired Tuesday, and by law new elections were to be scheduled within 60 days.

But Mubarak has asked for a two-year extension of the terms of those now in office — a majority of them members of Mubarak's party — to six years. That would give Mubarak more time to try to stem momentum for the increasingly popular Brotherhood.

"They are trying to bloc further gains for us. Why else would they postpone?" Essam Mukhtar, a Brotherhood-linked member of parliament, told The Associated Press.

The local councils are responsible for services at a district, town and village level and are critical institutions of centralized state control.

The Shura Council, Egypt's upper house, voted in favor Sunday of the Mubarak decree to extend by two years the terms of 4,500 officeholders.

The measure still needs a vote in the People's Assembly, the lower house, where Mubarak's National Democratic Party holds a solid majority. Approval of the decree was seen as a virtual certainty.

"We are going to try to stop that law from passing. We're not going to be frustrated. We're going to use the legitimate means available to us, and make the whole nation know our stance," Mukhtar said.

In parliamentary elections last year, candidates aligned with the Brotherhood surpassed all expectations, winning 88 seats, compared with the 15 the previous 454-member parliament.

The victories came despite widespread police violence aimed at preventing opposition supporters from reaching polling stations and accusations of rigging results.

Mubarak's NDP still holds a 311-seat majority, however, and the Brotherhood's attempt to block the delay seemed doomed to failure.

Mufid Shihab, minister of state for Legal Affairs and Legislative Councils and a key member of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, said the delay was necessary because "we are planning a constitutional amendment." His explanation was posted Sunday on the ruling party Web site.

The nature of the amendment has not been made public.

In what was probably a futile attempt to block the decree, the Brotherhood introduced its own proposal on Monday that would limit the postponement to six months.

The government sought to explain the delay as purely procedural.

"Holding elections now won't be in line with a new law for local administration which is under way," Shura Council speaker Safwat el-Sherif was quoted as saying in the pro-government daily Al-Gomhouria.

In an interview with Newsweek last month, Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, acknowledged government interference in the last legislative elections to prevent even greater Brotherhood gains.

But "after the victories of the Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Palestine, the NDP is afraid of the pro-Islamist atmosphere," he said.

The militant, anti-Israeli Hamas organization won an overwhelming victory in Palestinian elections last month.

Gamal Mubarak, Mubarak's 42-year-old son who is spearheading reform within NDP, said Sunday "we need a constitutional amendment (on elections). It might be limited or big. We all agree on amending some of the current articles, but we differ on a comprehensive amendment," he said.

Egypt has been a focus of U.S. efforts to bring greater democratic reform to the Middle East. But after last year's presidential elections which returned Mubarak to power with a huge, if questionable margin, and the violence-tarnished parliamentary voting, the U.S. issued critical assessments.

That was compounded by the imprisonment of Ayman Nour, an opposition leader who came in second to Mubarak in the presidential vote.

Muslim Brotherhood to Fight Egyptian Law

[Shammu]

 14/02/2006            
Venezuela ready to receive Hamas visit 'with pleasure'
By The Associated Press

Venezuela said Monday it would welcome leaders from the Hamas movement "with pleasure" if they visit the country as part of a South American tour following victory in Palestinian elections.

Asked if the Venezuelan government will receive the Islamic militant group, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters, "Of course we will. What is the problem?"

"If they come, with pleasure," Rangel said. "They've just won an election."

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have insisted they would not deal with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid unless the group recognizes Israel and renounces violence.

Hamas, responsible for scores of deadly attacks against Israelis, has refused to renounce its calls for Israel's destruction or give up its weapons.

The United States and Europe consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

President Hugo Chavez, however, frequently criticizes what he calls U.S. imperialist dominance in world affairs, and has often expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

The leftist leader has said his government will be one of the first to recognize an independent Palestinian state.

Rangel said earlier this month that Hamas was expected to visit Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela as part of a regional tour to celebrate its electoral victory. On Monday, he said he didn't know when Hamas would arrive because the visit was not yet confirmed.

Moscow offered to meet this month with Hamas leaders.

Venezuela ready to receive Hamas visit 'with pleasure'

[Shammu]

Leader says Iran can take sanctions
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran can withstand whatever punishment the United Nations may impose next month over its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with USA TODAY.

In the interview Saturday, the first with a U.S. newspaper since he took office last August, Ahmadinejad said "we do not have any problem with the people of the United States." But he assailed the Bush administration, which may seek U.N. sanctions over Iran's resuming its nuclear program after a two-year freeze.

"They choose to threaten us and make false allegations, and they want to impose their lifestyle on others, and this is not acceptable," Ahmadinejad said.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful uses, such as energy, but the United States says Iran wants to build weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency voted Feb. 4 to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic or political sanctions.

Ahmadinejad has gained a reputation for his casual attire, sharp attacks on the United States and statements questioning whether the Holocaust occurred.

Wearing a windbreaker over a sports coat and sweater in his presidential office, he blamed the U.S. government for estranged relations. For example, he said, Washington blocked Iran from sending aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"The way they have treated our people here has left no ground for talks," he said. "They think no one can live without them, and this is a wrong notion."

"They think they can solve everything with a bomb. The time for such things is long over," he said.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 after student radicals seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held hostages there for 444 days.

Ahmadinejad said the future of the Palestinian territories is "the most important" for the region.

He said Israel was founded on "propaganda regarding the Holocaust," the extermination of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany. Palestinians shouldn't suffer as a result, he said.

Ahmadinejad, who has called for a conference in Iran on the Holocaust, said Saturday that he would accept testimony from Jewish survivors of Nazi death camps, but "impartial" investigators should also re-examine the tragedy.

Ahmadinejad said Palestinians are killed "every day with the Holocaust as a pretext," and they've been denied "peace and security" by Israel. "I don't know who is annoyed by revealing facts," he said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Sunday, "The regime seems more interested in confrontation and defiance than cooperation and diplomacy."

Leader says Iran can take sanctions

[Shammu]

Iran owns China, Russia UN votes - US senator

Tue Feb 14, 6:51 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia and China have too much riding on commercial relations with Iran to help the West in curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a U.S. senator said on Tuesday, calling for tough measures with Moscow and Beijing.

"The two countries that are sending the wrong signals today are Russia and China," said Kansas Republican Sam Brownback.

"Part of the problem is Iran ... has effectively bought U.N. Security Council vetoes from China and, very likely, Russia," Brownback, a potential presidential contender in 2008, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Experts at a symposium at the conservative think tank said Moscow is a major arms supplier to Iran, while Beijing has struck energy deals worth as much as $100 billion with Tehran.

Both of those large powers have also embraced Iran as part of a strategic policy of blunting U.S. influence in the Middle East and Central Asia, the experts said.

"I don't think China and Russia are going to make serious efforts to stop Iran or North Korea," said Stephen Blank, a China expert at the U.S. Army War College.

Brownback said that to pressure countries that support Iran, Washington should initiate a campaign of sanctions modeled on a 1980s campaign targeting companies that helped the Soviet Union build a pipeline to Western Europe.

"Like the former Soviet Union, both Russia and China need international technological and managerial support to keep their activities going," said Brownback.

"No international company is going to treat lightly exclusion from the U.S. market in exchange for contracts with the Iranian government," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iran resumed feeding uranium gas into centrifuges for nuclear-fuel enrichment after a break of 2-1/2 years and announced it was deferring until next week talks on a Russian proposal to defuse the nuclear standoff.

The West suspects Tehran of trying to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian program and persuaded the
International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board last week to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible action, which could include sanctions.

Iran says its nuclear work is designed solely to generate electricity for its economy.

Iran owns China, Russia UN votes - US senator

[Shammu]

Italian minister puts Mohammad cartoon on T-shirts

By Crispian Balmer Tue Feb 14, 10:50 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli has had T-shirts made emblazoned with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a move that could embarrass Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.

Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, told Ansa news agency on Tuesday that the West had to stand up against Islamist extremists and offered to hand out T-shirts to anyone who wanted them.

"I have had T-shirts made with the cartoons that have upset Islam and I will start wearing them today," Ansa quoted Calderoli as saying.

He said the T-shirts were not meant to be a provocation but added that he saw no point trying to appease extremists.

"We have to put an end to this story that we can talk to these people. They only want to humiliate people. Full stop. And what are we becoming? The civilization of melted butter?" Calderoli said.

The publication of the cartoons in some European newspapers, including one showing an image of the prophet with a bomb for a turban, have provoked widespread anger in the Muslim world.

Many Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet and there have been a number of violent protests in the Middle East and Asia.

The Northern League, which is gearing up for an April general election, has leapt on the controversy to promote its own far-right political agenda.

RELIGIOUS WAR

The League has long led the charge against illegal immigration and its leaders say the cartoon violence shows the dangers of allowing Muslim immigrants to settle in Italy.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg of the religious war Islamist extremists have declared on us," Calderoli told reporters earlier this month.

The Italian press reported that Berlusconi last week urged Calderoli to take a more moderate stance over the issue, but the minister said on Tuesday he had no intention of keeping quiet.

"As for Berlusconi, seeing as he has compared himself to Jesus Christ, I would call on him to follow (Christ's) example and think about evangelizing Christian values and not be evangelized by Islam," Calderoli was quoted as saying.

Berlusconi caused a storm at the weekend when he said: "I am the Jesus Christ of politics...I sacrifice myself for everyone."

Maintaining a steady stream of anti-foreigner invective, Calderoli earlier this month dismissed a Palestinian journalist on a television chat show, as: "that suntanned lady." He also said he was delighted newcomers to Italy would not benefit from a government scheme to encourage people to have more children.

"I am proud of the fact that the baby bonus will only go to Italian citizens. I say to all those Ali Babas that either Allah or their governments will have to think of them."

The League's anti-immigrant stance has found a sympathetic audience in the wealthy north of Italy, where many third world immigrants have settled in recent years.

League politicians say the immigrants are responsible for growing crime rates and are also challenging Italians for jobs.

Latest opinion polls say the League will get up to six percent of the vote in the April election against just 3.9 percent in the 2001 ballot. However, it is not clear what part the anti-immigrant rhetoric has played in this increase.

Italian minister puts Mohammad cartoon on T-shirts

[Shammu]

U.S., Israel look to oust Hamas

New York Times reports U.S., Israel discussing ways to destabilize Palestinian government so newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again; intention is to starve PA of money, int’l connections to point where Abbas is compelled to call new elections Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - The New York Times reported Tuesday that the United States and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again.

According to Israeli and western diplomats, the intention is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election.

The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement, the New York Times said.

The officials also argue that a close look at the election results shows that Hamas won a smaller mandate than previously understood.

They say Hamas will be given a choice: Recognize Israel's right to exist, forswear violence and accept previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements - as called for by the United Nations and the West - or face isolation and collapse.

Last week Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held talks with President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is estimated that Hamas will not comply with the Quartet and U.N. Security Council demands.

According to the New York Times, efforts will focus on sabotaging Hamas’ political platform, as opinion polls show that Hamas' promise to better the lives of the Palestinian people was the main reason it won. But the United States and Israel say Palestinian life will only get harder if Hamas does not meet those three demands, The New York Times said.

‘It's hard to move millions of dollars in suitcases’

The officials said the destabilization plan centers largely on money. The Palestinian Authority has a monthly cash deficit of some USD 60 million to USD 70 million after it receives between USD 50 million and USD 55 million a month from Israel in taxes and customs duties collected by Israeli officials at the borders but owed to the Palestinians.

Israel says it will cut off those payments once Hamas takes power, and put the money in escrow. On top of that, some of the aid that the Palestinians currently receive will be stopped or reduced by the United States and European Union governments, which will be constrained by law or politics from providing money to an authority run by Hamas. The group is listed by Washington and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

So beginning next month, the Palestinian Authority will apparently face a cash deficit of at least USD 110 million a month, or more than USD 1 billion a year, which it needs to pay full salaries to its 140,000 employees, who are the breadwinners for at least one-third of the Palestinian population.

The employment figure includes some 58,000 members of the security forces, most of which are affiliated with the defeated Fatah movement.

According to The New York Times, officials said if a Hamas government is unable to pay workers, import goods, transfer money and receive significant amounts of outside aid, Abbas would have the authority to dissolve parliament and call new elections.

Hamas gets up to USD 100,000 a month in cash from abroad, Israel and Western officials say. "But it's hard to move millions of dollars in suitcases," the New York Times quoted a western official as saying.

U.S., Israel look to oust Hamas

[Shammu]

Religious Leader Urges Responsibility

By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion Writer Tue Feb 14, 4:35 PM ET

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Freedom of expression is a "fundamental human right," the head of the world's largest Christian umbrella group said Tuesday, but Muslim rage over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad shows that the world must still tread with caution when dealing with religious views.

The comments by the Rev. Samuel Kobia — at the beginning of a 10-day global assembly by the World Council of Churches — illustrated how dialogue with Islam and worries over mounting religious-inspired violence have become priorities for the group's more than 350 member churches.

"Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right," said Kobia, the WCC's general secretary, "but that is not the right to say anything for any reason. Used to devalue human dignity, it devalues the very freedoms on which it is based."

Kobia, a Methodist pastor from Kenya, said both Muslims and Christians have responsibilities to "work together" to end the unrest over the cartoons, which included riots and attacks on Western-affiliated hotels and restaurants in two Pakistani cities on Tuesday.

"The cartoons have sparked a fire," Kobia told a news conference. "The question now is: How do we put out that fire?"

The WCC gathering — its biggest and most ambitious in nearly a decade — is expected to include further discussion of the role of Christian churches and democratic traditions in an age of rising terrorism and deepening rifts between the West and Muslim world.

Speakers and messages to open the WCC meeting repeatedly urged Christian churches to look beyond differences that undermine unity within the faith, such as intense disputes over homosexual clergy and tolerance of same-sex blessing ceremonies. WCC members include mainline Protestants, Anglicans and Orthodox churches representing more than 500 million followers. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member, but cooperates on many levels.

"In the face of so much disorder in our so-called world order, we cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed or distracted, however conscious we are of our own fractured condition as churches," said a message from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, which is under the most direct threat of rupture along liberal and conservative lines.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's council for Christian unity, read a letter from Pope Benedict XVI noting "spiritual closeness" with the WCC's goals.

Other issues on the wide-ranging WCC agenda include discussions on church aid to fight AIDS, human trafficking and to assist in international gotcha120 programs.

Religious Leader Urges Responsibility

World Council of Churches: http://www.wcc-coe.org

[twobombs]

U.S., Israel look to oust Hamas

According to the New York Times, efforts will focus on sabotaging Hamas’ political platform, as opinion polls show that Hamas' promise to better the lives of the Palestinian people was the main reason it won. But the United States and Israel say Palestinian life will only get harder if Hamas does not meet those three demands, The New York Times said.

‘It's hard to move millions of dollars in suitcases’

The officials said the destabilization plan centers largely on money. The Palestinian Authority has a monthly cash deficit of some USD 60 million to USD 70 million after it receives between USD 50 million and USD 55 million a month from Israel in taxes and customs duties collected by Israeli officials at the borders but owed to the Palestinians.

Israel says it will cut off those payments once Hamas takes power, and put the money in escrow. On top of that, some of the aid that the Palestinians currently receive will be stopped or reduced by the United States and European Union governments, which will be constrained by law or politics from providing money to an authority run by Hamas. The group is listed by Washington and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

So beginning next month, the Palestinian Authority will apparently face a cash deficit of at least USD 110 million a month, or more than USD 1 billion a year, which it needs to pay full salaries to its 140,000 employees, who are the breadwinners for at least one-third of the Palestinian population.

The employment figure includes some 58,000 members of the security forces, most of which are affiliated with the defeated Fatah movement.

U.S., Israel look to oust Hamas

This is a plan that will backfire like no other 'plan' washington came up with since the roadmap to hell.
And I think it will put the Jewish people in the genocide-tunnel of the 1260 days of Jacob.

People underestimate the fanatism that the Israelis are dealing with; already Muslim sources have acknowledged that they will stand in the financial gap for Hamas.