News, Prophecy and other

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Saudi FM meets Senior CPC official Wang Jiarui
2006-03-12 00:00:18

    RIYADH, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Saudi Arabia is willing to strengthen cooperation with China, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud binal-Faisal said on Sunday when meeting with a delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

    Faisal, who gave a warm welcome to the delegation led by Head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee Wang Jiarui, spoke highly of the traditional friendship between the two countries, noting that Saudi-China relations were developing steadily and constantly.

    The visit by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to China in January further promoted cooperation between the two countries, Faisal said.

    Wang said the four-point proposal Chinese President Hu Jintao made when meeting with King Abdullah had marked out a direction for bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields.

    The CPC and the Chinese government are willing to make joint efforts with Saudi Arabia to advance cooperation, Wang added.

    They also exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East and Iran's nuclear issue.

    The CPC delegation arrived in Riyadh on Thursday at the invitation of the Consultative Council of Saudi Arabia. They left for the Red Sea city Jeddah on Sunday and were scheduled to leave for Beijing on Monday. Enditem

Saudi FM meets Senior CPC official Wang Jiarui

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Mar. 12, 2006 18:05
Syrian foreign minister visits Russia
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW


Syria's foreign minister arrived in Moscow Sunday on a visit expected to focus on the United Nations probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the situation in the Palestinian territories and other regional issues.

Walid Moallem said upon his arrival that Syria expects the UN panel investigating Hariri's killing to deliver an "objective" report, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site that Moscow would strongly back the UN probe into Hariri's killing.

The top UN envoy for Syria and Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, will also be in Moscow for talks at the same time as the Syrian foreign minister, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Syrian foreign minister visits Russia

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EU to consult Abbas on aid to Palestinians

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

VIENNA (AFP) - Austrian President Heinz Fischer said the European Union would seek the "advice" of leader Mahmud Abbas on cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority following Hamas' election victory.

Fischer, whose country is the current EU president, said he would consult Abbas on the issue when the Palestinian leader arrives in Vienna Tuesday on the first day of a European tour.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) is the best person to speak to about how we should proceed.

"We appreciate his decision to come, and his advice, analysis and recommendations will form the basis of our future deliberations," said Fischer, who was responding to claims made Monday by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority would encourage terrorism.

"We do not want the men and women who make up the Palestinian people to suffer" because of a cut in aid.

The EU is the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians, giving an annual 500 million euros (510 million dollars) for everything from infrastructure projects to budget aid and humanitarian assistance.

But the future of those funds has been thrown into doubt by January elections in which Hamas swept to power, threatening to derail the Middle East peace process.

The EU is demanding that the radical Islamic group renounce violence, recognise Israel and honor signed accords if it wants to continue to receive EU funds.

In the meantime the EU has released 120 million euros for the Palestinian caretaker authorities, but is adamant that it will not pay a euro to an authority controlled by Hamas, which is on an EU blacklist of terror groups.

"The aid is used by the man-in-the-street to buy medicine and to send his children to school. If this money is cut, terrorism will grow and all the (Palestinian) people will suffer," Mubarak told reporters after meeting in Vienna with Fischer Monday.

"Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people and Israel must recognize that it can form a new government. The renunciation of Hamas of violence and its recognition of preceding engagements (in peace talks) is for a second stage," Mubarak added.

At a meeting held earlier this month in Cairo, the 22 foreign ministers of the Arab League denounced the "unfair conditions" imposed by the United States, EU, Russia and the United Nations on Hamas.

The Palestinian territories are facing an acute financial crisis, which has been made worse by Israel's decision to stop paying some 50 million dollars a month it owes in value added tax and customs duty.

Mubarak also met Monday with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schusse. He is to to meet Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on his way back to Cairo, as he wraps up a European tour that has already taken him to Italy and Germany.

Mubarak, seen by Europe as a key interlocutor in EU-Arab relations, is the most prominent Arab leader to visit the continent in the wake of recent Muslim anger over press cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Mubarak is accompanied by Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, Industry Minister Mohammed Rashid and Information Minister Anas al-Feqi.

EU to consult Abbas on aid to Palestinians

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 07:02 13/03/2006            
U.S. hints at plans for new measures against Damascus
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters

WASHINGTON - The Syrian issue will resume top priority in coming weeks on the international and American agendas. In another few days, the special investigator appointed by the United Nations to find those responsible for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is due to report his latest findings. The investigator, Serge Brammertz, is expected to visit Damascus early this week, and then to travel to the United States to present all the evidence he has collected since visiting Damascus three weeks ago.

A senior U.S. official told Haaretz last week that "if the Syrians think they've managed to get off the hook because there are other things on the agenda, they are mistaken. The Syrians have not been punished yet for their actions and we are continuing to study their conduct. Their luck will run out eventually."

Another senior U.S. official said that Syria will "soon" receive extra attention when new measures against it are unveiled.

Several senior U.S. administration officials have stressed to Haaretz in recent days that "we have not forgotten about Syria." Several hinted in recent weeks in conversations with colleagues that further plans might soon be implemented with the aim of increasing pressure on Syria.

Sources at the U.S. Department of Defense and at intelligence agencies say that Syria is continuing to allow terrorists to use it as a conduit to Iraq and to support terrorist organizations that undermine American policy in the Middle East.

"They are aiding directly in the killing of American soldiers, and we have still not settled accounts with them on that score," a U.S. official told a colleague from a foreign country two weeks ago.

A diplomatic official explained this weekend that the Syrian issue is bound up with the Iranian situation, as Tehran's apparent objective is to destabilize the entire region. The fact that Syria has "a weak leadership," the source said, gives the Iranians an advantage they never had before. "[Former president] Hafez Assad always held the Iranians as a card in his pocket, but in the case of [current President] Bashar Assad, the Iranians are the ones holding him as a card in their pocket."

Last Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department instructed American financial institutions to sever all links with the Commercial Bank of Syria and its subsidiary, the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, which the administration says have been used to launder terror funds. The treasury announcement also stated that the Syrian government itself made use of the bank to facilitate "international terrorist activity." The administration views cutting such ties - one of several options that were on the table - to be "an important step." As a diplomatic source put it: "This was the alternative we chose at this stage."

Last week's State Department report on human rights in various countries also underscored Syria's role in aiding terrorist activity throughout the Middle East.

Rice: U.S. hopes to boost aid to Palestinians
RIO DE JANEIRO - The United States is considering increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, and she urged the militant group Hamas to choose a peaceful path in government.

Speaking to reporters en route to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, Rice said Hamas must make its intentions clear.

"The road map is the way for a better life for the Palestinian people. Whatever government they form needs to make clear to the international community pretty soon that that will be the policy of the government," she said, referring to a U.S.-backed peace plan.

The State Department is reviewing all aid to the Palestinians to ensure no U.S. funds reach Hamas, following its landslide election victory in January. Hamas is listed by the United States as a terrorist group.

While prevented under U.S. law from giving aid directly to a Hamas-led government, Rice said she hoped the United States could provide more humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

"We are looking at ways to even increase our humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people during this period of time, but there are important choices that the Palestinian people face concerning the road map and the Quartet requirements," she said.

The Quartet of international powers trying to broker Middle Eastern peace - Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations - wants Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel and acknowledge previous accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The United States has made clear no humanitarian aid will be channeled to a Hamas-led government until these conditions are met, but it does not want to be seen as ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people by cutting all assistance.

Rice did not indicate whether she would ask Congress for more humanitarian aid. It is more likely that any new help will come from funds previously earmarked for the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier this month, on the request of Washington, the interim Palestinian Authority returned e30 million in U.S. aid and it has promised to refund a further $20 million before Hamas officially takes over, possibly by the end of March.

U.S. officials have said this e50 million could be redirected to provide humanitarian aid.

The United States has given more than $1.5 billion in the Palestinians over the past decade, mostly through nongovernmental organizations or UN agencies.

Rice said she would encourage Indonesian officials during her two-day visit to pressure Hamas to meet the Quartet's requirements.

U.S. hints at plans for new measures against Damascus

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Anti-Semitism seen rising among France's Muslims

By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff  |  March 13, 2006

BAGNEUX, France -- In the bleak housing project where a young Jew named Ilan Halimi was held captive and tortured before being dumped in a vacant lot to die, there's scant sympathy for the victim.

''It's too bad this happened, because we immigrants are always blamed," said Ibrahim Ag Ahmalou, a lanky man of West African heritage who shares his girlfriend's apartment in the project. ''But Jews have all the money and power. Everyone knows this and resents them. That's why they have these problems."

Last week there were three more attacks on Jews by Arab and African immigrants in suburban Paris, according to police. None of the latest victims was seriously injured, but the attacks heightened the nervousness of French Jews. There is alarm that the antipathy of French Muslims toward Jews, long based on opposition to Israel, is reverting to the even more sinister prejudices that once pervaded Europe, making Jews the scapegoats for all social ills.

''Anti-Semitism is rising in our country," said legislator Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Halimi, 23, son of Moroccan-born Jews of modest means, sold cellphones at a shop in Paris. He disappeared on Jan. 20, allegedly abducted by a predominantly Muslim youth gang dedicated to crime, street fighting, rap music, and virulent anti-Semitism. The thuggish crew sought a cash ransom of more than $500,000 because they assumed all Jews were rich, according to French authorities. And when Halimi's hard-strapped family could not produce money, they killed their captive because he was a Jew.

In taunting calls to Halimi's family, the abductors addressed his parents with anti-Semitic slurs and told them to get cash ''from your synagogue." They also contacted a French rabbi, boasting, ''We have a Jew." Even more shocking, investigators believe that many inhabitants of the project were aware that the youth gang was holding a Jewish captive, but none called police or urged the abductors to show mercy.

The atrocity has stunned a country that is trying to cope with what Jewish leaders perceive as intensifying anti-Semitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab or African heritage, but also growing among Caribbean islanders from former colonies and, to a lesser extent, poor white immigrants from other parts of Europe who also inhabit the dreary suburbs -- known as ''banlieues" -- that surround all major French cities

Although tens of thousands of French turned out last month to march against anti-Semitism, few analysts believe the show of solidarity will change the attitudes of an embittered underclass of restive Arabs, Africans, and other dark-skinned newcomers who increasingly, if illogically, blame Jews for the poverty and prejudice that often beset their lives. France is home to Europe's largest population of Muslims -- about 6 million -- as well as the continent's largest community of Jews, about 600,000.

''That's a volatile combination," said Henri Hajdenberg, a prominent Paris lawyer and former president of the country's largest umbrella organization of Jewish groups, the Representative Board of Jewish Institutions. ''It's turning into a dangerous situation for French Jews.

''This was a monstrous but also complicated case," Hajdenberg said in an interview. ''Because the kidnappers demanded a ransom, some people are trying to say it was just an ordinary crime, not anti-Semitism. But it seems certain Ilan Halimi would not be dead if he had not been Jewish."

There is growing fear of a new and virulent anti-Semitism taking hold in the dingy subsidized housing tracts where most Arab and West Africans immigrants live in isolation from the French mainstream, suffering from poverty, unemployment, and school dropout rates often more than double the national average.

France is no stranger to anti-Semitism. Thousands of French Jews vanished in Nazi death camps with hardly a murmur of protest from their Christian countrymen. Hatred of Jews is the subtext of the shrill ultranationalism that still has a following among white French. Meanwhile, the past decade has seen a surge in ''ideological" anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants -- based on opposition to Israel and support for the Palestinian cause, but often expressed with swastikas spray-painted on synagogues or desecration of Jewish graveyards.

But more recently, analysts say, anti-Semitism in France has taken an uglier turn as young Arabs and West Africans have adopted loud hatred of Jews as a proclamation of cool, an attitude powered more by rap music, ultraviolent jihadist videos, and radical Islamic rhetoric -- although with little or no adherence to Islamic religious practice -- than by any coherent stand on events in the Middle East. Equally alarming, the anti-Semitism appears to be spreading among non-Muslim Africans and Caribbean blacks in France, and even gaining ground among white immigrants from European backwaters who find it difficult gaining a place in French society.

Said Sammy Ghozlan, a retired police chief and activist against anti-Semitism: ''It's all mixed up: gang stuff, violence, and a glaze of ideology -- they hate Jews, they hate the West, they hate France. The Jews are the face they put on their generalized anger at the world."

The gang that allegedly kidnapped Halimi called itself the Barbarians and included a mix of cultures, including Arabs, blacks from Africa and the Caribbean, a French-Iranian, and a Portuguese. The alleged leader of the gang was Youssouf Fofana, the 26-year-old son of Muslim immigrants from Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa. Most gang members were nominal Muslims, but there is no suggestion that their motives were religious.

So far, Fofana and 19 alleged accomplices have been charged in the savage abduction. According to police, the gang made at least four botched efforts to kidnap a Jew before snatching Halimi.

For three weeks, Halimi was held in Bagneux's dingy Pierre-Plate housing project, kept naked for most of this time in a makeshift dungeon in the basement pump room of the complex, bound with tape and strips of cloth. His face was slashed -- with photographs of the grisly blade work e-mailed to his family in Paris -- and a burning cigarette was squashed out on his forehead, according to autopsy reports.

Halimi's eyes and mouth were covered with adhesive tape, leaving only a tiny hole that allowed him to breathe and drink liquids through a straw. On Feb. 13, still alive, he was doused with acid -- apparently an attempt by his captors to remove traces of their DNA -- before being dumped in a wooded area. Bleeding from at least four stab wounds in the throat, he managed to crawl toward a train station. He was discovered, but too late. He died in the ambulance racing him to a hospital.

The slaying has horrified France and stunned Jews across Europe. ''This case is the first time [since World War II] that a French person has been killed for being Jewish," Roger Cukierman, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions, told French reporters.

Said Hajdenberg: ''The anti-Semitism being felt in France may be ideologically rooted in anger against Israel, but it is fed by a new generation also taking up old anti-Semitic delusions -- that all Jews are rich, that all Jews are powerful, that Jews are to blame for all the poverty and problems faced in immigrant communities."

Fofana was arrested in Ivory Coast and returned to France earlier this month after giving an interview to an African television station in which he insisted ''the abduction was carried out for financial ends," not because Halimi was Jewish. But Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in overall charge of the investigation, said the crime was driven by the abductors' near-obsessive belief that ''Jews have the money."

France recorded 974 anti-Semitic incidents in 2004, a record high for the post-World War II era. But officials were proud that slurs spray-painted on synagogues, the trashing of Jewish cemeteries, and other incidents fell dramatically last year, to about 500 incidents.

But Jewish leaders say the decline is less a reflection of growing tolerance than of the heavy precautions that synagogues have felt obliged to adopt in recent years, including installation of high, heavy-gauge steel security fences, 24-hour surveillance cameras, and armed patrols.

Anti-Semitism seen rising among France's Muslims

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Warfare by Other Means   
By Joseph D'Hippolito
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 10, 2006

For more than half a century, Arab governments have been manipulating the plight of Palestinians to marshal public opinion against Israel. Now, one Arab ruler is trying to play a variation on that theme.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has been meeting with prominent Catholic bishops from the West to solicit their help on behalf of Palestinian Christians. The Muslim king talked with officials from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in February and spoke a month earlier with Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Abdullah met Kelly in Jordan while Kelly was attending the annual meeting of the Coordination of Episcopal Conferences in Support of the Church of the Holy Land, a group of Catholic bishops from Europe and North America. So far, at least one bishop is doing more than listening.
 
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. – who serves as the USCCB’s president and who greeted Abdullah graciously during the king’s separate visit in September – addressed the problems that Palestinian Christians face in a meeting with President George W. Bush, columnist Robert Novak reported Feb. 16.
 
Abdullah’s apparent compassion raises interesting questions: Why would a Muslim ruler concern himself with the suffering of Palestinian Christians – especially in territory, the West Bank, which once belonged to his nation, which effectively ceded it to the Palestinian Authority? Why not address the PA directly?
 
Novak’s Feb. 16 column provided the answer:
 
“A Catholic contact with the White House talked to Elliott Abrams, the presidential aide handling the Middle East. Abrams responded that the barrier is required for Israeli security. Abrams gave the impression that he is not concerned with Christian Arabs.”
 
Ah, there’s the rub.
 
Israel’s security fence in the West Bank has dramatically reduced Palestinian terror attacks. At the same time, it has generated controversy concerning water and property rights, access to churches, monasteries and schools, and property confiscation without compensation. Abdullah hopes to exploit the situation to manipulate Catholic opinion worldwide against Israel.
 
Abdullah revealed his subtle anti-Israel strategy through public remarks quoted Jan. 18 by the Web site AsiaNews.it, maintained by the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Overseas Missions:
 
“‘Jerusalem will be emptied of its Christian and Arab residents because of growing emigration,’ said King Abdullah II of Jordan in a meeting yesterday afternoon with 20 European and American bishops. The bishops form part of the Episcopal Conference Coordination in Support of the Church in the Holy Land, and they are also concerned about the plight of Christians in Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
 
“The king invited western churches to ‘encourage Arab Christian residents to remain in the Holy City because they are custodians of its authenticity and identity.’ The king also called for greater ‘coordination and collaboration between Churches in Jordan and the Holy Land and western Churches, especially the Catholic Church,’ to confront the ‘challenges of peace in the Holy Land.’”
Are Arab Christians the sole custodians of Jerusalem’s authenticity and identity? What about non-Arab Christians – or Jews? Besides, wouldn’t the numbers of Arabs in Jerusalem – Christian or otherwise – strengthen the Palestinian Authority’s claim to the city as its capital? Moreover, how would Jews fair in such a capital?
 
If Abdullah truly wishes to use the Catholic Church as a weapon against Israel, then he could not have done much worse in picking a more gullible group of useful confederates – especially since the late Pope John Paul II publicly condemned the security fence as an impediment to peace.
 
The USCCB is especially naïve, as Joseph Loconte and Nile Gardinier demonstrated in March 2003 for National Review in an article discussing Christian leaders’ responses to the impending war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq:
 
“The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly argued that an attack on a sovereign state would violate Catholic ‘just war’ theory, but never questions the moral legitimacy of the regime…The U.S. Catholic bishops have made a perfunctory call on Iraq to ‘cease its internal repression,’ but said nothing about how that might happen with Saddam in power.”
 
Loconte, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, includes the USCCB with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the United Methodist Church and the National and World Councils of Churches as the contemporary embodiments of what Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called “pitiless perfectionism,” a spirit that Christian intellectuals manifested on the eve of World War II.
 
“Domestically, it provided moralists obsessed with America’s shortcomings,” Loconte wrote in June 2003. “Internationally, it made pacifism the highest good: War involved too many ethical ambiguities to be a just alternative. Such pacifism, Niebuhr wrote after the fall of France, amounted to a ‘preference for tyranny’ over democratic freedom.”
 
The USCCB is not the only Catholic party Abdullah can exploit. Novak is a Catholic convert who reinforced his anti-Jewish reputation when he called Hamas’ terrorists “freedom fighters” on CNN (In response, journalist Margaret Carlson said on the air, “Bob, you’re the only person who would call Hamas ‘freedom fighters.’”).
 
In his Feb. 16 column, Novak insinuated that Israel built its security barrier not only to thwart terrorism but to steal water. He mentioned “water-hungry Jewish settlers” while refusing to mention the debates in Israel about providing water to unproductive farms and even maintaining any West Bank settlements. He quoted a position paper from the Holy Land Christians Society: “It is clear that the security barrier is not about security but the annexation of land for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Israeli control over the water supply."
 
The Holy Land Christians Society manifests the kind of anti-Israel attitude common among Arab Christians. Consider the following from the group’s mission statement, available from its Web site:
“It was these Christians of the Holy Land who helped spread the word of Jesus to the world in the first place.”
 
Consider the following from group’s synopsis of first-century history:
 
“Christianity came during the Roman rule. In that time, Christ, may peace be upon him, was born in the town of Bethlehem. He founded Christianity but Jews did not accept it and asked the country's rulers for his death. They crucified Him and buried Him in Jerusalem.”
 
Both citations conveniently disregard the fact that Jesus Christ, his disciples and most of his early followers were Jews. The second also seems to blame all Jews for Christ’s crucifixion; the Roman authorities – who held the ultimate power to execute – are never mentioned specifically as Romans.
Neither is another group mentioned in this section from the group’s mission statement:
 
“The tragic realities of military occupation and rising fundamentalism…have forced family after family to leave their homes ….Since most live near Christian holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza, these families must contend with the poverty and restrictions imposed by Israel's continuing occupation of the territories. At the same time, they are marginalized and at times oppressed by rising political fundamentalism.”
 
From where does such fundamentalism, political or otherwise, come?  Is it not the same type of fundamentalism that encourages riots over political cartoons and justifies killing the innocent in the name of jihad? What religious group embodies such fundamentalism?
 
Abdullah also can make good use of Deal Hudson, a former Bush advisor. Hudson ended his tenure as the editor of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis in January 2005 with an article entitled, “A City Divided: How Israel’s Wall Is Splitting the Holy Land.”
 
Though Hudson wrote that the barrier has “measurably decreased” suicide attacks, he views it as the fundamental reason for the disintegration of Palestinian Christian life (“Too many have been harmed by the wall and its winding route,” he wrote). So do those he interviewed while visiting the West Bank.
 
Mother Agapia, head of a Russian Orthodox convent: “We’ll still have the churches … but there won’t be life – the living stones will be gone. (L)ife for the normal people is being squeezed out. They see no hope for the future for their children, and even trying to conduct daily life is becoming increasingly impossible. The Holy Land is being mutilated.”
 
Monsignor Pietro Lambi, the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to Israel: “It is a monument to division and to a future of conflict. It’s separating students from the schools, sick people from the centers of health, people from their places of work, faithful from their places of prayer and what is extremely important in the Palestinian society is creating a belief in family relations...and this is disrupting the basis of Palestinian culture.”
 
I can't post the link because of advertisment.

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Iranian Pact with Venezuela Stokes Fears of Uranium Sales

March 13, 2006
The Washington Times
Kelly Hearn



BUENOS AIRES -- A recent deal between Iran and Venezuela provides for the exploitation of Venezuela's strategic minerals, prompting opposition figures to warn that President Hugo Chavez's government could be planning to provide Tehran with uranium for its nuclear program.

The deal was part of a package of agreements, most of which were announced during a visit last month to Caracas and Cuba by Iranian parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel. The two countries also established a joint $200 million development fund and signed bilateral deals to build homes and factories, and exploit petroleum.

Public details are vague, but Venezuelan opposition figures and press reports have said the deal on minerals could involve the production and transfer to Iran have said the deal on minerals could involve the production and transfer to Iran of Venezuelan uranium taken from known deposits located in the dense jungle states of Amazonas and Bolivar.

Mr. Chavez last week ridiculed such speculation as being part of an "imperialist plan" propagated by international news media.

"Now they say I am sending uranium to make atomic bombs from here, from the Venezuelan Amazon to send directly to the Persian Gulf," Mr. Chavez said during a meeting at a military club on Tuesday. "This shows they have no limit in their capacity to invent lies."

The speculation comes at a time of rising tension between the world community and Iran, which yesterday declared it had ruled out a proposed compromise under which it would process uranium for a peaceful nuclear program in Russia.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- are to meet this week to discuss a draft statement aimed at increasing the pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear plans.

Retired Venezuelan Vice Adm. Jose Rafael Huizi-Clavier said the mining arrangements negotiated last month with Iran are broad and unspecific and could easily include uranium.

Other critics of Mr. Chavez point out that Venezuela recently voted against reporting Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for its uranium-enrichment program and that Mr. Chavez in recent months has attempted to purchase his own civilian-use nuclear technology from Argentina. Adm. Huizi-Clavier, who heads the Venezuela-based Institutional Military Front, a group of ex-military officials opposed to Mr. Chavez, said his group is "alarmed by a confluence of facts." He cited construction work at a small military base and the widening of a military airstrip near the Brazilian border, where uranium deposits are said to exist.

He also noted that Mr. Chavez expelled U.S. missionaries from areas known to have uranium in February. At the time, Mr. Chavez accused New Tribes Mission, a Florida-based group, of working for the CIA and foreign mining interests.

A Florida-based spokesman for the group said none of the missionaries knew anything about uranium-mining activities.

Venezuelan Minister of Science and Technology Yadira Cordova said on Thursday that the airfield belonged to the New Tribes Mission. She also denied uranium was being mined or processed in the area, saying such technologically demanding processes "would be detected easily."

In Washington, a State Department official said, "We are aware of reports of possible Iranian exploitation of Venezuelan uranium, but we see no commercial uranium activities in Venezuela."

Adm. Huizi-Clavier said Mr. Chavez was playing a "dangerous game" by backing Iran at the United Nations in defiance of overwhelming world opinion.

Former Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Salazar said the country's support of Iran's nuclear program was pushing relations with Washington past "the point of no return."

Mr. Chavez's support for Iran's nuclear plan has thus far been purely political, he said, but "that is not to say [uranium transfers to Tehran] couldn't happen in the future."

Iranian Pact with Venezuela Stokes Fears of Uranium Sales

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Iran Is Building Its Missile Force

    Charles R. Smith
    Monday, March 13, 2006

North Korea, China and Russia Help Tehran

Iranian missile makers are busy these days, and it does not bode well for the West.

Iran recently test-fired its new Shahab-4 long-range missile. The Shahab-4 is being touted inside Tehran as a satellite launch vehicle. Yet observations of Iranian missile tests show it to be a new long-range weapon capable of striking all of Europe and most of Asia.

The development of the Shahab-4 was denied by Tehran several times. The recent missile test shows that statements made by Iranian officials were false. Last year the official line from Tehran was the Shahab-4 did not exist and would not be built.

"Iran does not have any plan to build a Shahab-4. Instead we are optimizing the Shahab-3," stated Hossein Dehqan, the deputy to Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani.

The move by Tehran, in light of recent developments in nuclear weapons technology, has made several European capitals nervous. The Shahab-4 is quite capable of carrying enough payload to deliver an atomic bomb onto Paris, London or Berlin.

Shahab-3

In addition, Iran has increased production of its Shahab-3 missile. It is estimated that Iran has nearly 100 Shahab-3 missiles. Iranian missile makers were producing at least one Shahab-3 a month.

Now satellite and intelligence information shows that Tehran has increased production to six or seven a month.

The original copies of the Shahab-3 were exported by North Korea to Iran after being developed by Pyongyang, with extensive assistance from Beijing.

Iran purchased the Shahab using North Korean technology and No-Dong parts in order to construct its force of missiles. North Korean engineers are currently working inside Iran on both its missile force as well as assisting in the Iranian effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

The upgraded Shahab-3 was flight-tested four times by the Iranian missile forces between July and October 2004. The U.S. Air Force Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning satellite and the U.S.A.F Cobra Ball surveillance aircraft monitored the flight tests. In addition, Israeli surveillance aircraft also closely monitored the Iranian launches.

The improved Shahab-3 missile flew at ranges of 930 to 1,240 miles and demonstrated accuracy never seen before by the No-Dong class of missile. The improved Shahab-3 is nearly 60 feet long and reportedly carries 15 percent more propellant than the standard North Korean design.

Nuke-Ready Missile

The new Iranian warhead design is considered nuclear capable, enabling the Shahab-3 missile to carrying atomic bombs that can fuse during re-entry and air burst at accurate altitudes above its intended target.

The Iranian missile has also been improved with what appears to be advanced Chinese nose cone and re-entry vehicle designs. The Shahab-3 now sports a bulbous nose cone system, and the flight tests indicated that the simulated warhead carried advanced navigation avionics and re-entry control systems for improved accuracy.

The Bush administration has imposed sanctions against several Chinese companies that are reportedly involved in the upgrade of the Iranian Shahab-3 missile. The Chinese firms are accused of providing the avionics and re-entry control packages now in place on the improved Iranian missile.

The Shahab-3 is capable of carrying a one metric ton warhead, more than enough to accommodate a nuclear or chemical weapon.

Tehran announced that the Shahab-3's main target is Israel. Six Shahab-3 missiles were put on display in September during a parade in Tehran celebrating the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war. One of the missiles carried a banner declaring "We will wipe Israel off the map."

Missile Warfare

There are doubts that Iran would explode nuclear or chemical warheads over Israel. First, most of the casualties would be Israeli Muslims and Tehran would lose most of its support in the Middle East. Secondly, Israel can retaliate with its own nuclear weapons.

However, the new Shahab-3 is accurate enough to carry a conventional warhead to its intended target. The Chinese missile technology, adopted from U.S. exports during the Clinton administration, enables the Shahab-3 missile to be targeted against the Israeli Jewish population.

The new conventional attack capability may explain Tehran's expanded missile production. The Israeli Arrow defense can stop some Shahab-3 missiles if fired in small numbers ,but a mass attack with dozens of missiles would get through and kill many of its intended victims.

Israel would be hard pressed to retaliate against a conventional attack. Air strikes against Iran would be difficult considering both distance and the recently improved Iranian air defenses. Conventional cruise missile attacks from Israeli submarines would also encounter the new Russian-made anti-air missile systems installed around Tehran.

Iran Is Building Its Missile Force

[Shammu]

 March 13, 2006 11:00 a.m. EST

New Al-Qaida Threat to Homeland, Arizona

A chilling new warning posted on Islamic Web sites threatens "devastating” terror operations in the U.S., and suggests the targets could be states "far away from Washington” – such as Arizona.

The message was posted by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) on March 10 on behalf of "Rakan Ben Williams,” who calls himself an "Al-Qaida under cover soldier, USA [sic].”

According to memri.org, the Web site of the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, it is not clear who is behind the posting, and a previous statement from the GIMF on the Internet maintained that GIMF is not affiliated with Al-Qaida.

The new "last warning to the American People” appeared in Arabic and English.

According to a posting on memri.org, the English version declares that after the upcoming attacks, "top intellects, strategists, and analysts will be totally clueless as to how to explain what occurred.

"Let me also inform you that we are talking about two operations, not one. The scale of one of them is larger than the other but both are large and significant. However, we will start with the smaller, and temporarily put the larger on hold to see how serious the Americans are about their lives. Should you value your own life and security, accept Muslims’ demands, but if you shall prefer death [over giving in to Muslims’ demands].

"Then, we, by the grace of Allah, are the best in bringing it [death] to your door steps.

"Do not put your hopes on Bush and his clan, they are incapable of protecting you, and if they think they are, let them foil or stop the two upcoming operations, and punish those who are responsible for them. But if they could not identify and foil the devastating events coming your way, you must ask yourselves: How long will we continue allowing ourselves to be slaughtered with full advance knowledge of our fate?”

Here are other excerpts from the "Rakan Ben Williams” posting: "I will not give any more clues; this is enough as a wake up call. Perhaps the American people will start thinking about the magnitude of the danger that is coming their way.

"O’ you helpless Americans, especially those living in States far away from Washington, D.C.! Your country is comprised of many States that should not have anything to do with Muslims. Take the State of Arizona for example; what does this State have to do with killing Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq? What interest of theirs [is] serving, helping, and siding with the Jews and Israel? ...

"Why do you bring death and destruction to your homes and lives in an apparent sacrifice for a handful of dishonest men and women? ...

"The sad thing is that the pain will not stop at the loss of your loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the pain will even be greater when death and destruction comes once more to you in your own homes, by the grace of Allah.

"The operations are ready to go, we are just waiting for orders from the commander in chief, Osama Ben Laden ...

"You will be brought to your knees, but not until you lose more loved ones and experience significant destruction ...

"This is the last warning you will receive from us.

Consequently, if you ignore it, we regret to inform you that we will carry out devastating operations against the States of America and we will not show mercy whatsoever.”

New Al-Qaida Threat to Homeland, Arizona

[Soldier4Christ]

Bush ties Iran
to Iraq attacks
Says Tehran responsible for supplying
terrorists with roadside bomb materials

President Bush directly linked Iran to the deaths of American troops in Iraq, saying roadside bomb components have been tracked to Tehran.

"Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Bush said in a speech.

He cited recent congressional testimony from John Negroponte, the U.S. director of national intelligence.

Bush said "some of the most powerful IEDs we are seeing in Iraq today include components that came from Iran."

"Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran. Such actions, along with Iran's support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, are increasingly isolating Iran," he said.

The charge is particularly noteworthy because of U.S. concerns over Iran's nuclear weapons program.

U.S. military intelligence sources say the more sophisticated IEDs – or improvised explosive devices – they are seeing in Iraq have been traced to Iran's Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week accused Iran of sending Revolutionary Guard agents into Iraq to foment violence against U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces.

[Shammu]

Clooney uses F-word to thrash Democrats
Actor-activist blasts claims of being misled: 'You were afraid of being called unpatriotic'
Posted: March 13, 2006
3:24 p.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Actor and recent Oscar winner George Clooney – who says he's proud of being a liberal – used the F-word in a column today to blast Democrats who were reticent to criticize President Bush and question his reasons for invading Iraq in the early days of the operation.

Writing on The Huffington Post, Clooney declared: "I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it. Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper 'I'm a Nazi.' Like it's dirty word."

Taking aim at leading Democrats, Clooney writes, "The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9-11? We knew it was bulls---. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, 'We were misled.' It makes me want to shout, 'F--- you'; you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."

The actor says Americans need to united and find things on which to agree.

"One of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority," Clooney wrote. "We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out."

There have been hundreds of posts in reply to Clooney, most of them supportive.

"Being liberal only means your beliefs are based in reality, not fantasy," wrote seattlepatriot. "Oh, by the way, the best thing about being liberal is the fact you can argue any point, and you never have to lie."

Shockjock opined: "I love you, man. Thanks for having the stones – and I wish this post gets spread throughout the MSM because your voice has clout, even with those who disagree. And the thing is, the conservatives and Republicans are ON THE ROPES. They have put themselves there and WE MUST finish them off. We have to find some Dems with the stones and we must finish them off."

A poster called EZ challenged Clooney: "So, what are you doing to bring the troops home? It is not enough to simply say, 'I am a liberal.' You need to act."

March 5, Clooney won the Academy Award for best actor in a supporting role for his work in "Syriana."

[Shammu]

100,000 March in Favor of Immigrant Rights

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 11, 10:56 AM ET

CHICAGO - Hoisting American flags into the air, tens of thousands of immigrants from the Chicago area marched downtown in a display of support for immigrant rights as a bill to stiffen border enforcement awaits action in the U.S. Senate.

Many took up enthusiastic chants like "Si, se puede (Yes, it can be done)" and "La raza unida nunca sera vencida (A people united will never be defeated)."

The mostly Latino marchers Friday descended upon the plaza across from the federal courthouse, where they listened to speeches backing pro-immigrant legislation.

"Raise those American flags!" shouted U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat. "This is our country, and this is where we will stay."

Police estimated that more than 100,000 marchers came from all over the Chicago area, many carrying — or wearing — Mexican and American flags. The protest was spirited, but peaceful, and there were no reported arrests or incidents.

The legislation, already passed by the U.S. House, is billed as a border protection, anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act. It includes such measures as enlisting military and local law enforcement help in stopping illegal entrants and authorizes the building of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich addressed the crowd in Spanish, telling them he is the son of immigrant parents and understands their issues.

The Democrat's proclamation that "ustedes no son criminales. Ustedes son trabajadores" ("You are not criminals. You are workers") brought loud cheers.

Abigail Marquez, 35, said she came to the rally with her husband and teenage son to express her support for Latino issues. The native of Guadalajara, Mexico said she did not expect so many people to participate in the march, organized by dozens of activist groups.

"I had no idea. There are just so many people here," she said in Spanish. "I feel very happy because it shows that we are all united."

The march began at noon at a park several miles west of the downtown Loop business district. Hours later, marchers still thronged the Loop, clogging streets and tying up traffic. By early evening, traffic had returned to near-normal levels, police said.

Abel Nunez, associate director of a social service agency that was one of many organizations spearheading the event, said the goal was "to demonstrate to people that immigrants are here and we contribute to this country."

The Illinois Minuteman Project, affiliated with a national volunteer civilian border patrol group, held a news conference before the march began.

State director Rosanna Pulido said she does not want to see Chicago become a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants. Nationally, the illegal immigrant population has grown from about 8.4 million in 2000 to nearly 12 million, according to a new report.

"There are 14 million underemployed Americans," she said. "Don't they have the right to have a better life and support their families? Let's give them an opportunity because this is their country."

100,000 March in Favor of Immigrant Rights

[Shammu]

Straw’s statements draw reactions | 12:17 March 13 | B92, Beta
SALZBURG -- Monday – European Union Foreign and Security Policies Chief, Javier Solana, said that the Kosovo status discussions process is at its very beginning and that nothing has been decided as of yet.

Solana said that he is trying to calm the storm caused by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who stated that the independence process of Kosovo is all but unavoidable and that Serbia needs to accept this as a reality.

“This is the stance of some countries and it is normal for them to state this, that according to them this should be the end result of the discussions, but nothing has been decided yet.” Solana said.

Straw stated that the EU is well aware of the Serbian Government’s worries that Kosovo could become independent and added that “a reality exists that the Serbian community will have to accept in the end that a great majority of Kosovo’s citizens supports independence.”

In response to Straw’s comments, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said that he would like to thank Great Britain for “its stance which is supported by the majority of Kosovo’s citizens.” Sejdiu said, commenting on Straw’s statement.

“We wish to build a community with great respect for the rights of all minorities. We have shown this up until to now. I thank all countries who support this stance and who have aided this effort up until now.” Sejdiu said.

Straw’s statements draw reactions

[Shammu]

Peres meets Abbas in Amman -Israeli govt source
13 Mar 2006 19:00:46 GMT

JERUSALEM, March 13 (Reuters) - Veteran Israeli statesman Shimon Peres recently met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman to discuss furthering humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, a senior Israeli government source said.

The talks on Sunday were the first between Abbas and officials close to interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert since the militant group Hamas won a parliamentary election on Jan. 25, giving it the power to form the next government.

"This was not a political meeting," a senior government source said. "They discussed building a special emergency fund for humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population."

Olmert gave Peres, a key negotiator in past diplomatic talks, approval to meet the Palestinian leader, the source said.

Olmert is running for prime minister in a parliamentary election on March 28 in place of Ariel Sharon, who suffered a stroke in January.

Olmert's cabinet had voted last month to halt tax revenue funding for the Palestinian Authority after Hamas's victory in the legislative election, and has ruled out talks with a government led by Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.

But Israeli government officials have said Israel would not stop humanitarian aid from reaching the West Bank and Gaza.

"(The meeting) was to establish what has been agreed upon in previous talks and to continue to keep the channels for humanitarian aid open," the senior Israeli government source said.

Peres joined Sharon's centrist Kadima party in December, weeks after he was ousted as leader of the left-wing Labour Party. He is expected to play a key role in a government formed by frontrunner Olmert.

Peres meets Abbas in Amman -Israeli govt source

[Shammu]

College Urged to Stop Censoring Prof's Display of Muslim Cartoons
FIRE Demands Minnesota Campus Officials Allow Free Exchange of Ideas

By Jim Brown
March 13, 2006

(AgapePress) - Century College in Minnesota is being accused of wrongly censoring a geography professor who posted controversial cartoons of Muhammad that were originally published in a Danish newspaper and which have sparked outrage among Muslims worldwide.

Early last month, adjunct professor of geography Karen Murdock posted the cartoons on a hallway bulletin board near her office in an attempt to allow students who might not have seen the cartoons an opportunity to evaluate them. However, the drawings were torn down repeatedly.

Murdock says at one point her academic division head removed the cartoons himself, and he and a college vice president both requested that the drawings not be reposted. But when the geography instructor put up the cartoons behind a curtain later in the month so passers-by would not be offended, she says the drawings were taken down again, and she received another request from her division head not to repost them.

However, Charles Mitchell with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) believes Murdock should not have to comply with a request that should never have made in the first place. He says the Century College officials, who ought to have stood up for Professor Murdock's right to be free from vandalism and censorship, instead told her to quiet down.

This is wrong for a number of reasons, Mitchell contends. "Number one, the First Amendment prohibits a university from actually censoring someone for expressing their views," he points out. "Number two, public universities have a positive responsibility to make sure that people are free from a heckler's veto or anything like that, and this college is failing on both points."

Advocating on Murdock's behalf, FIRE wrote to Century College President Lawrence Litecky, stating that the school's "responsibility to free speech and open inquiry far outweighs any responsibility the college has to avoid offense" and that Murdock could not be punished for posting the drawings.

Vice President of Academic Affairs John O'Brien responded, citing a communication sent by the president to the entire Century community, urging that "discourse about the many competing ideas and beliefs" be conducted in a "respectful, thoughtful, and tolerant manner."

Nevertheless, Murdock's postings continued to be pulled down, and her division head continued to request that the images not be displayed. While the geography instructor was told the ultimate decision was hers to make, she explained to FIRE, "When a division chairman and a college vice president both tell an untenured adjunct professor that something should not be posted on a bulletin board, this is a suggestion that has the force of a direct order."

Murdock says the cartoons would still be posted if she felt she had any say in the matter. "We are a college," she argues. "We are supposed to be a forum for the free exchange of ideas. If we can't talk about this controversy at a college, where are we supposed to talk about it?"

Mitchell and other free-speech advocates at FIRE feel the professor is right and that Century College's administration and division officials should reverse its course. "They need to make a real statement," Mitchell says, "not the muddle that they put out before, but a real statement about how this professor's rights will be protected and that her job is safe."

FIRE's interim president Greg Lukianoff says Century College's administrators need to understand that their first duty is to promote the open exchange of ideas on their campus, "not cater to those who would prefer silence on provocative matters." He says the organization is calling on Century to end its shameful, unlawful and unwise effort to "protect" students from seeing materials that are at the heart of a global controversy.