News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Ohio Parents Demand Schools Drop Inappropriate Sex-Ed Booklet

By Mary Rettig
March 13, 2006

(AgapePress) - The director of an Ohio pro-family group says people taking action in their schools really can make a difference. Theresa Fleming, who heads up the political action committee Moms for Ohio, points to one local victory for an example.

This past November, Fleming recalls, students in Cuyahoga County brought home a disturbing book from the United Way called Youth Pages. The booklet contained sex education as well as information on how to obtain free contraceptives and contact information for abortion clinics, she notes, and they were handed out to students as young as 11 years of age.

The last thing conscientious mother and fathers need is schools handing out literature "telling our children that they don't need our consent for birth control [and that] here's a place you can go to get it," Fleming asserts. "Now, for us, we're definitely working, as many parents are who love their kids, on teaching our kids certain values," she says, "and part of those values is abstaining from sex until marriage."

The parents' advocate feels Youth Pages undermines those values by pointing young people toward organizations that provide free birth control and abortions or that promote "alternate lifestyles," including homosexuality.

One website to which the sex education booklet referred belonged to "a lesbian and gay community center, and ... that also is completely inappropriate," Fleming insists. "Parents have different views on that; but, at a minimum, I don't understand why any school would give kids access to a website with that type of information on it -- especially 11-year-olds."

Unfortunately, the Moms for Ohio director contends, as information materials like Youth Pages direct children to contraception and abortion providers and make casual reference to premarital and homosexual sex, one message young people are getting is that "there's nothing wrong with those choices." That is why many mothers in her school district contacted the superintendent of schools to complain, she says.

School officials responded promptly to the Cuyahoga County parents' complaint. Fleming says the superintendent let the mothers know that the distribution of Youth Pages to their youngsters would cease and that the booklet would no longer be given to any student in the district.

Moms for Ohio is also pursuing the matter at the legislative level, Fleming adds. She says her group is working with state lawmakers to give parents the opportunity to opt out of the distribution of any materials that might conflict with their values.

[Shammu]

Activist: Gay Straight Clubs About Promotion, Not Protection

By Jim Brown
March 13, 2006

(AgapePress) - A pro-family advocate says leaders of Gay Straight Alliance clubs in schools falsely claim their main focus is fighting discrimination. She contends those clubs are more concerned about getting young people involved in homosexuality.

Last week a private high school in Santa Monica, California, held a "Free Queer Movie Night" that was sponsored by its Gay Straight Alliance club. At the event, the GSA screened a sexually explicit film about a lesbian relationship involving a German Jew and a Nazi sympathizer during World War II. According to Linda Harvey of the Ohio-based pro-family group Mission America, such events are standard fare for GSA clubs in both private and public schools.

"Movie nights are real popular -- and they are almost always movies about two young people who are homosexual who begin having a homosexual relationship," Harvey shares. "And they're almost all rated R or worse." She adds that the typical homosexual club will network with other homosexual teens in the area, either from other high school clubs or even middle schools.

The pro-family activist contends it is extremely dishonest for GSAs to claim they exist merely to promote tolerance and diversity when, in fact, they are promoting homosexuality immorality to young people. She notes that a brief search of websites like GSANetwork.org or SafeSchoolsCoalition.org supports her contention.

"You can quickly find out that these clubs are about homosexual sex -- about getting kids connected with people who are already involved in sexual activity, about promoting the books, the movies, and all of the contacts that are very sexual in nature," Harvey says. "That is very disingenuous -- and there is a problem here, in that people need to do the research and stand up and say what the truth is."

Harvey says many school board members and administrators do not want to fight the presence of GSA clubs because such efforts have largely been unsuccessful across the country.

[Shammu]

Dallas-Area Consultant Helps Texas Church Raise $84 Million for Expansion

By Allie Martin
March 13, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Texas church has completed the largest capital campaign ever recorded for a local church. Houston's Second Baptist Church raised more than $84 million in two-year pledges to expand its ministry throughout the city and across the United States.

Paul Gage is founder and president of the Dallas-Fort Worth area consulting service, The Gage Group, and served as campaign consultant for Second Baptist Church in its phenomenal fundraising effort. He says the church's 42,000 members caught the vision announced by Senior Pastor Ed Young to expand the church's three Houston locations and also to establish additional locations in movie theaters throughout the city and across the nation.

"With a church of this magnitude," Gage explains, "there had to be careful planning of how we communicate our story to all the campuses. So there was a lot of communication material -- print material, multimedia presentations -- and there were small group meetings, congregational meetings."

Ultimately, the idea was presented to the church members, the capital campaign advisor says, "and then they voted. And, by going through that process, it created awareness as well as ownership by the congregation."

A one-day offering to kick off the fundraising effort brought in $21 million in cash contributions. It was an auspicious beginning that heralded tremendous ongoing success for Second Baptist's campaign. Gage says the money will be used for church expansion in a number of major metropolitan areas.

"We can look at locations, whether it be Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Miami," the consultant notes. "These are strategic locations that you can start almost immediately with minimal expense in movie theaters."

Using the latest technology, including high-definition DVD format, the head of The Gage Group says, Second Baptist is able to have children's programming and student programming, as well as programming for single adults and families. "And the worship services will be of Dr. Young communicating to the church body at whatever locations," he adds.

Gage has been coordinating successful church and ministry fundraising efforts and projects for more than 25 years. He has personally led and organized more than 300 capital campaigns and over 100 evangelistic events with more than 10,000 churches.

[Shammu]

More Evangelicals Say Go See The Da Vinci Code
Monday, Mar. 13, 2006 Posted: 4:09:16PM EST

Evangelicals are coming out left and right with what Lee Strobel calls a "mini-industry of books" debunking Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, especially as the best seller is slated to open in theaters nationwide.

 While the film adaptation stirred protests among Catholics and Protestants alike, more Christians are encouraging people to go watch the movie.

Internationally known speaker and author Josh McDowell will be releasing his book, The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers , for Christians to use as a witnessing resource.

"May 2006 presents us with an unprecedented opportunity to equip believers to answer the challenging questions raised by the movie about the deity of Christ and his Word," said a statement released by Campus Crusade for Christ, which is promoting McDowell's new book. "If we approach this with a positive readiness, we can seize this as an opportunity to open up compelling dialogue about the real and relevant Christ."

In the same way, best-selling author Dr. James L. Garlow saw the upcoming film release, which is scheduled for May 19, as an evangelical opportunity with his own written tool.

Garlow's The DaVinci Codebreaker, to be released early April, helps readers sort fact from fiction - what even Christians have largely been confused on. With Brown's repeated statements on his book being "fact" and media buzz that has yet to die down, Garlow, co-author of New York Times best-seller Cracking Da Vinci's Code, saw a crucial need for a glossary.

The nearly 200-page book is a glossary of terms, documents, artifacts and people that includes explanations that are "historically and theologically correct," as Garlow stated in his book, and a "must have" when the movie releases in May.

Rather than protesting or avoiding the anticipated film, Garlow, much like other Evangelicals, suggests Christians, armed with the facts, to see the film with friends, churched and unchurched.

Another New York Times best-selling author and evangelical, Lee Strobel, saw The Da Vinci Code as more than a serious challenge to Christianity. He called it "an incredible opportunity."

"What if churches and individual Christians took advantage of the hoopla surrounding the forthcoming movie to reach out to their friends, colleagues, and neighbors with the real story about Jesus?" he said in a released statement. "Wouldn’t it be ironic if the book that sought so fervently to discredit Christianity ended up spurring countless seekers on a spiritual journey that ultimately took them to the authentic Christ?"

Strobel, a former-atheist, and Gary Poole, director of evangelism at Willow Creek, helped develop a DVD small group curriculum – Discussing the Da Vinci Code – to prepare Christians for their seeking friends.

With two months remaining before the film release, evangelicals are telling fellow believers, "Go, see it with your friends," said Garlow's spokesperson.

More Evangelicals Say Go See The Da Vinci Code

[Soldier4Christ]

Report: Iranian youth defy ayatollah
Protesters burn images of Tehran's clerical leaders

Iranian young people staged anti-government protests in Tehran and other cities across the country today, using the annual Persian "fire festival" celebration to burn effigies and pictures of the country's leaders and set cars ablaze belonging to the State Security Forces, according to the London-based independent news agency Iran Focus.

In the southwestern city of Ahwaz protestors set fire to an effigy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Similar demonstrations were reported in Garmsar, southeast of Tehran, and in the southern city of Rafsanjan.

Youth in Tehran reportedly burned pictures of Khamenei and Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to dissidents who reported to Iran Focus.

The independent news service said it received a photo from the protesters who set fire to pictures of leaders that had been placed on lampposts along Tehran's Mirdamad Street.

The demonstrations were part of the traditional "fire festival" celebration, or "Feast of Wednesday," on the last day of the Persian year, in which people jump over bonfires to "drive away evil."

Iran Focus said the demonstrations took place despite a massive crackdown by the country's paramilitary police to prevent people from turning tonight's festival into organized anti-government protests.

Dissidents sent the news agency a photo of a young man who was detained by security forces for taking part in a demonstration outside the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the western city of Khorramabad earlier today.

A de facto martial law was imposed in several volatile cities in the northwestern province of Kurdistan as paramilitary police, the Revolutionary Guards and plainclothes agents of the secret police moved in.

Iran Focus reported a heavy police presence at every major junction, square and highway in and around the cities of Sanandaj, Piranshahr and Mahabad.

On Saturday in Piranshahr, banks, police cars and government buildings were set on fire as violent clashes erupted between security forces and angry residents. Protests began after state security agents shot and killed a young man in his car at a checkpoint. Young protesters set fire to at least five police vehicles. Widespread clashes also were reported Friday in the Kurdish city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran after a detained man reportedly was shot by security agents.

Iranian leaders, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have attempted to stamp out the annual festivities but largely have been unsuccessful, resulting in clashes between security forces and festive crowds.

This year, Iran's main opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, appealed to Iranians nationwide to take part in celebrations and turn them into an anti-government protest.

In recent months, expatriate Iranian pro-democracy groups in the United States and Europe have been calling for regime change in Tehran, arguing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ultra-conservative regime has reversed important reforms instituted by the two previous presidents, Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Muhammad Khatami. The new administration systematically has replaced all top officials of the national and provincial governments with Revolutionary Guards militants, many of whom have intelligence or security backgrounds.

Ahmadinejad appointed Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi in January to head the new National Security Council and also serve as the country's Interior Minister. International human rights groups have accused Pour-Mohammadi of systematic extra-judicial killings of opposition figures, including activists and intellectuals.

Analysts see the Iranian regime under the leadership of Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei renewing extreme measures to repress internal dissent as the country presses forward defiantly with its nuclear program, re-opening "research and development" uranium enrichment at Natanz. But internal dissatisfaction is building throughout the country, observers say, as Ahmadinejad fails to deliver on his campaign promise to redistribute Iran's windfall oil profits to the country's middle class and poor.

In January, a television station run by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah terrorist group announced Ahmadinejad canceled his trip to Iran's southern city of Ahvaz after a security tip warning him Arab dissidents planned to assassinate him with a series of bombings. In fact, two bombs exploded in Ahvaz on the day he was to arrive.

As WorldNetDaily reported, on Dec. 15, gunmen ambushed Ahmadinejad's motorcade, leaving his driver and one of his bodyguards dead, however the hard-line leader escaped injury because he was not in the car at the time.

[Shammu]

Taliban chief vows "unimaginable" violence
Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:33 AM ET

 By Mirwais Afghan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed a ferocious offensive against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying on Thursday they would soon face unimaginable violence.

An insurgency that has killed more than 1,500 people since the start of last year has intensified in recent months with a wave of suicide bombings, including at least 12 this year.

Ten U.S. troops have been killed in combat this year and U.S. commanders have said they expect violence to increase in coming months as the weather warms, snow on mountain passes melts, and Afghanistan's traditional fighting season begins.

"With the arrival of the warm weather, we will make the ground so hot for the invaders it will be unimaginable for them," Omar said in his message, read by Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif over the telephone from an undisclosed location.

The fugitive Taliban leader, who carries a $10 million reward, also said a stream of young Afghans were volunteering for suicide missions, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency said.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for more Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants after Islamabad derided Kabul's accusations that Mullah Omar was in Pakistan.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said he was sure the Taliban leader was not in Afghanistan, although Taliban spokesmen insist Omar is leading the insurgency from his homeland.

"Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan, that's as much as I can say with a degree of certainty," Abdullah told Reuters during a visit to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Afghan officials complain that the Taliban use Pakistan's tribal regions as a springboard for attacks, and despite Islamabad's denials, many suspect Pakistan harbors long term ambitions to have a pro-Pakistan government in Kabul.

TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

A U.S. commander said last week an upsurge in violence was expected as U.S. and NATO forces extend their reach into parts of Afghanistan where the insurgent presence is greater.

"We anticipate that we are going to see a fairly violent spring and summer and then an improvement in overall conditions," U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, U.S. Central Command director for plans and policy, told a congressional hearing.

The 26-member NATO alliance is preparing to expand its International Security Assistance Force mission -- already in the north, west and in the capital Kabul -- to the more volatile south and ultimately the east, raising its troop numbers to 16,000 from 9,000.

About 18,000 U.S. troops in the country are targeting Taliban and al Qaeda forces, but the United States hope to cut numbers by several thousand as NATO forces take on more responsibilities and the Afghan army becomes stronger.

Pakistan has deployed around 80,000 soldiers in frontier areas to try to stop militants moving across the border, and it coordinates with U.S. and Afghan forces on the other side.

The Taliban took power in Kabul in the mid-1990s with Pakistan's backing. Under U.S. pressure, Pakistan abandoned support for the Taliban in late 2001, after its leaders refused to surrender al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Taliban chief vows "unimaginable" violence

[Shammu]

Thursday, 16 March 2006, 13:33 GMT
US backs first-strike attack plan

US President George W Bush The US will not shy away from attacking regimes it considers hostile, or groups it believes have nuclear or chemical weapons, the White House has confirmed.

In the first restatement of national security strategy since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US singles out Iran as the greatest single current danger.

The new policy backs the policy of pre-emptive war first issued in 2002, and criticised since the Iraq war.

But it stresses that the US aims to spread democracy through diplomacy.

The new strategy also highlights a string of other global issues of concern to the US, such as the spread of Aids, the threat of pandemic flu and the prospect of natural and environmental disasters.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is due to make a speech launching the new strategy on Thursday.

Other key points include:

    * Stressing US preference for "transformational diplomacy" and coalition building, but not necessarily within United Nations or Nato frameworks

    * Criticising the lack of democratic freedoms in Russia and China

    * Branding Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a "demagogue" aiming to destabilise the region

    * Urging Palestinian radical group Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and disarm.

Seven despots

The substance of the revised strategy focuses on the challenges facing the US in the wake of the Iraq war.

In a nod to previous high-level foreign policy statements, which singled out individual countries as potential enemies of the US, the new document highlights seven "despotic" states.

NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
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Key points

They are: North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe.

The policy of the US, according to the opening words of the 49-page document, is "to seek and support democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world".

These motives underpin US policy towards the continuing stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme, the document says.

But it stresses that continuing diplomatic efforts must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided, vowing to take "all necessary measures" to protect US interests against Iran.

'Bush doctrine'

The new document, overseen and approved by Mr Bush, leaves the so-called "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive war largely unchanged.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Before 2002 the US largely focused on the deterrence and containment of unfriendly states.

However, likening the current international situation to the early years of the Cold War, the new document insists on the right of the US to protect its interests using force.

"If necessary, however, under long-standing principles of self-defence, we do not rule out use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack," it says.

"When the consequences of an attack with WMD [weapons of mass destruction] are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialise."

US backs first-strike attack plan

[Shammu]

China military buildup concerns US, Iran "central banker of terrorism": Rice

Thu Mar 16, 3:45 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - The United States is concerned about China's military build-up and Beijing should make its intentions clear, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says.

Rice also said she was confident the United Nations would take appropriate action on Iran, which she called the "central banker of terrorism."

"I am quite certain that the Security Council will find an appropriate vehicle for expressing again to the Iranians the desire and indeed the demand of the international community that Iran return to negotiations," she said.

"Iran is a challenge because it is seeking to have a nuclear programme that would allow it to develop a nuclear weapon and it is doing that, we believe, under cover of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty)," Rice said.

"And it's lied about its activities and therefore is in contradiction to its requirements or its obligations under the NPT.

"It also of course is involved as the sort of central banker of terrorism. So we have many reasons to be concerned about Iran."

Rice was speaking at a news conference here after meeting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and ahead of a new trilateral security dialogue with Japan on Saturday, at which China's growing power is top of the agenda.

"We've said we have concerns about the Chinese military build-up. We've told the Chinese that they need to be transparent," she said.

"I heard there's going to be a 14 percent increase in the Chinese defence budget -- that's a lot -- and China should undertake to be transparent about what that means."

Rice's remarks come amid a renewed rise in tensions between China and Taiwan after Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian moved to suspend an advisory council set up to look at eventual reunification with the mainland.

China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, was infuriated by the decision, calling it a dangerous move toward Taiwan's "independence" and a threat to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.

Beijing urged the United States, which is Taiwan's biggest military supplier, to take a harder line against Chen ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington next month.

Rice, in an apparent effort to counter suggestions that US President George W. Bush has instead begun taking a more hawkish line on China, said his policy had not changed.

"To the degree we have concerns, we are going to raise them. We're going to raise them about human rights and religious freedoms, but I think this policy has been consistent from the day the president came to Washington," she said.

Comments by Rice ahead of her trip, in which she said the US and its allies had a responsibility to ensure that China's rise was "not a negative force", have been interpreted by some as foreshadowing a new policy of containment.

But the Australian foreign minister played down suggestions that Saturday's trilateral security dialogue with Japan could lead to a such a policy, which he has said would be a "very big mistake".

"We've never had a concern that the United States was pursuing a policy of containment of China or something like that -- if you like, commensurate with the once-upon-a-time Cold War strategy," Downer said.

Australia's own relationship with Beijing was "good and constructive", he said, but cautioned that Beijing, as a growing power in the region, "needs to understand that brings with it a lot of responsibilities."

In contrast to the caution over China, Rice was fulsome in her assessment of Asia's other growing giant, India, with which the US has signed a controversial nuclear cooperation agreement.

"India is a rising power in Asia, and a democratic power that is rising.

"And it is a multi-ethnic, vibrant place that is finding its place in the international economy and in international politics and we need a broad and deep relationship with this rising democracy, and so on all those grounds we believe that this an important deal," she said.

That deal -- still to be approved by the US Congress -- would grant India long-denied access to civilian technology and fuel in exchange for agreeing to separate its military and civilian nuclear facilities and placing some of the civilian ones under international safeguards.

"Our view is that the agreement strengthens security by expanding the reach of the International Atomic Energy Agency to be able now to have access to Indian civil nuclear facilities which it currently does not have," she said.

Downer said Australia supported the US-India nuclear agreement and "agrees with the broader arguments about the growing importance of India, particularly as the world's largest democracy".

But, he said, Australia had no plans to change a policy which rules out uranium sales to countries like India which have not signed the UN's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Australia, which has the world's largest known deposits of the nuclear material, announced this week that it was on the verge of agreeing to sell uranium to China -- which has signed the NPT.

China military buildup concerns US, Iran "central banker of terrorism": Rice

[Shammu]

U.S., Iraq Launch Massive Air Assault

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writers 33 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a well-publicized show of force, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept into the countryside north of the capital in 50 helicopters Thursday looking for insurgents in what the American military called its "largest air assault" in nearly three years.

There was no bombing or firing from the air in the offensive northeast of Samarra, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. All 50 aircraft were helicopters — Black Hawks, Apaches and Chinooks — used to ferry in and provide cover for the 1,450 Iraqi and U.S. troops.

The military said the assault — Operation Swarmer — aimed to clear "a suspected insurgent operating area" and would continue over several days.

Residents in the area of the assault reported a heavy U.S. and Iraqi troop presence and said large explosions could be heard in the distance. American forces routinely blow up structures they suspect as insurgent safe-houses or weapons depots. It was not known if they met any resistance, but the military reported detaining 41 people.

The attack was launched as Iraq's new parliament met briefly for the first time. Lawmakers took the oath but did no business and adjourned after just 40 minutes, unable to agree on a speaker, let alone a prime minister. The legislature set no date for it to meet again.

Still, the session marked a small step toward forming a unity government that the Bush administration hopes will calm the insurgency and enable it to begin withdrawing U.S. troops.

Operation Swarmer also came as the Bush administration was attempting to show critics at home and abroad that it is dealing effectively with Iraq's insurgency and increasingly sectarian violence.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied it was tied to the new campaign to change war opinion. "This was a decision made by our commanders," he said, adding that
President Bush was briefed but did not specifically authorize the operation.

The U.S. military forces have been trying to build up the Iraqi army so that it can play a leading role in fighting the insurgents.

The operation appeared concentrated near four villages — Jillam, Mamlaha, Banat Hassan and Bukaddou — about 20 miles north of Samarra. The settlements are near the highway leading from Samarra to the city of Adwar, scene of repeated insurgent roadblocks and ambushes.

"Gunmen exist in this area, killing and kidnapping policemen, soldiers and civilians," said Waqas al-Juwanya, a spokesman for provincial government's joint coordination center in nearby Dowr.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said the operation was the biggest air assault since April 22, 2003, when the 101st Airborne Division launched an operation against the northern city of Mosul from Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad.

Many operations in Iraq since then — in such cities as Fallujah, Ramadi and Najaf — have included far more troops. But none has involved such a large force moved in by air. Some 650 U.S. and 800 Iraqi troops were participating Thursday.

The Pentagon said there were no reporters embedded with U.S. troops, and it released video and a series of photos of preparations for the assault. The images showed soldiers receiving a preflight briefing from a UH-60 Blackhawk crew chief, soldiers and aircraft positioned on an airstrip, and helicopters taking off over a dusty landscape.

But Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, sought to downplay the uniqueness of the raid.

"I wouldn't characterize this as being anything that's a big departure from normal or from the need to prosecute a target that we think was lucrative enough to commit this much force to go get," Abizaid said.

In recent months U.S. forces have routinely used helicopters to insert troops during operations against insurgent strongholds, especially in the Euphrates River valley between Baghdad and the Syrian border.

Samarra, the largest city near the operation, was the site of a massive bombing against a Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 that touched off sectarian bloodshed that has killed more than 500 and injured hundreds more.

It is a key city in Salahuddin province, a major part of the so-called Sunni triangle where insurgents have been active since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion three years ago. Saddam Hussein was captured in the province, not far from its capital and his hometown, Tikrit.

Presidential security adviser Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei said the operation was targeting "a bunch of strange criminals who came from outside the country and among them a bunch of Iraqi criminals who help them."

Iraq's interim foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said the attack was necessary to prevent insurgents from forming a new stronghold such as they established in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, until they were flushed out by U.S. forces at the end of 2004.

"After Fallujah and some of the operations carried out successfully in the Euphrates and Syrian border, many of the insurgents moved to areas nearer to Baghdad," Zebari said on CNN.

Hours after the assault began, Iraq's new parliament was sworn in behind the concrete blast walls of the heavily fortified Green Zone, with political factions still deadlocked over the next government and vehicles banned from Baghdad's streets to prevent car bombings.

gotcha98 Pachachi, the senior politician who administered the oath in the absence of a parliament speaker, spoke of a country in crisis.

"We have to prove to the world that a civil war is not and will not take place among our people," Pachachi told lawmakers. "The danger is still looming and the enemies are ready for us because they do not like to see a united, strong, stable Iraq."

As he spoke, Pachachi was interrupted from the floor by senior Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who said the remarks were political and inappropriate.

Even the oath was a source of disagreement, with the head of the committee that drafted the country's new constitution, Humam Hammoudi, protesting that lawmakers had strayed from the text. After consultations, judicial officials agreed the wording was acceptable.

Acting Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters after the brief session, "If politicians work seriously, we can have a government within a month."

U.S., Iraq Launch Massive Air Assault

[Shammu]

Bush Reaffirms Pre-Emptive Use of Force

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 16, 6:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON - In the first major foreign policy review since 2002, President Bush said Thursday that Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States. He criticized China and Russia for political repression and underscored his administration's strike-first policy against terrorists and other enemies.

"Our preference is to act through diplomacy in conjunction with friends and allies. That is our preference. That is our practice," Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser, said about the pre-emption doctrine he insists is not aimed at Iran.

"It simply says, that one cannot let dangers grow to the point of imminent threat to the United States without taking action, and if other measures fail, obviously we retain the right to use force."

The 49-page report also said: North Korea poses a serious nuclear proliferation challenge; expresses dismay at rollbacks in democratic reform in Russia; brands Syria a tyranny that harbors terrorists and sponsors terrorist activity; and warns China against denying personal and political freedoms.

"China's leaders must realize, however, that they cannot stay on this peaceful path while holding on to old ways of thinking and acting that exacerbate concerns throughout the region and the world," Bush wrote.

The report accuses Iran of meddling in Iraq and equipping the insurgency, which is threatening a fragile democracy in Baghdad. The report was released as U.S. and Iraqi forces launched the largest air assault mission against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in April 2003.

The administration is working to persuade Russia and China to support a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Iran end its uranium enrichment program.

"This diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided," Bush said. He did not elaborate on what would happen if international negotiations with Iran were to fail.

Hadley said the international effort must speak with one voice if diplomacy can succeed in getting Iran to curb this step in nuclear weapons development.

"We are, I think, beginning to get indications that the Iranians are finally beginning to listen," Hadley said. "There is beginning to be a debate within the leadership — and I would hope a debate between the leadership and their people — about whether the course they're on is the right course for the good of their country."

The report is an updated version of one Bush issued in 2002 that outlined the pre-emptive policy, marking an end of a deterrent military strategy that dominated the Cold War.

The latest report makes it clear Bush has not changed his mind, even though no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.

"Obviously, we didn't have the intelligence we needed in that particular instance," Hadley said. "In some sense, those countries that pursue weapons of mass destruction in secret also learned an important lesson — that there are risks of that kind of behavior and that kind of activity."

Susan Rice, a national security expert at the Brookings Institution, an independent policy research group, said the report echoes the 2002 version "by reaffirming the discredited doctrine of pre-emption, while shifting the presumed target of that doctrine from Iraq to Iran."

"This shift is ironic since the administration's all-encompassing, four-year preoccupation with Iraq afforded Iran the time and space to pursue its nuclear ambitions and undermine U.S. security interests in the Middle East," Rice said.

Bush Reaffirms Pre-Emptive Use of Force

[Soldier4Christ]

Shadowy trio seen studying Sears Tower

U.S. federal officials have confirmed they are investigating an incident where three men were seen studying and taking pictures of Chicago's Sears Tower.

The men were spotted outside the 110-story building by security guards about three weeks ago. The men were questioned and allowed to leave, but the guards notified the Chicago Police Department. They in turn notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Chicago Tribune reported

The guards recorded the car's license plate and it was traced to a rental agency, which said the car was returned about an hour after the incident.

It was later determined it had been rented with a fictional name, sources told the newspaper.

Also within the last three weeks, WLS-TV reported a man was questioned about sketching the Boeing World Headquarters building.

[Shammu]

Fatah Officials Call for Abbas to Resign

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer 54 minutes ago

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Several Fatah officials called on President Mahmoud Abbas to resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority to protest Israel's raid of a West Bank prison earlier this week, party activists said Friday.

The raid, in which Israel seized six top militants, was seen as a humiliating blow to Abbas' prestige and raised new questions in his Fatah Party about their president's ability to govern, especially following Hamas' landslide victory in a January parliamentary election.

If the Palestinian Authority is dissolved, Israel — as occupier of the West Bank and Gaza Strip — would be forced to assume responsibility for the 3 million Palestinians living there. The dissolution also would render Hamas' election victory irrelevant.

In violence Friday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 10-year-old girl during an operation in the West Bank village of Yamoun, the girl's father, Abdul Rahman Zaed, said. The girl was in a car with her uncle, who was shot in the head and arrested, Zaed said.

The army, engaged in a fierce gunbattle with militants in Yamoun, surrounded a house in which three militants were holed up and called on them to surrender, Palestinian security officials said. Later, a 13-year-old boy was wounded in the fighting, officials said.

The call for Abbas' resignation and the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority at the Fatah Central Committee late Thursday was the first time such a demand was made.

Analysts and Fatah officials said the demands — raised both in a letter to Abbas signed by five midlevel Fatah activists and at Thursday's meeting by a senior party official — are not serious at the moment.

However, the idea could gain momentum if a resumption of peace talks becomes increasingly unlikely and the economic situation deteriorates further, said Ghassan Khatib, the outgoing Palestinian planning minister.

Taysir Nasrallah, a Fatah official from the West Bank city of Nablus who signed the letter, said Israel's prison raid showed the Palestinian Authority was useless.

"Israel should pay a heavy price for occupying the Palestinian Authority," Nasrallah told The Associated Press.

In Thursday's meeting of Fatah's Central Committee, one of the members, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, opened the session by demanding that Abbas resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority, a participant said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the closed-door session.

The official quoted Abdel Rahim as saying that the Palestinian Authority is unable to solve Palestinian problems and that it is "time for us to leave."

During a tour of the demolished prison in Jericho a day after Israel's raid, Abbas rejected the idea that he would resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah has been increasingly frustrated with Abbas since Hamas' election victory, and the party is almost certainly not joining the Islamic group's new government.

Abbas is tentatively scheduled to meet Hamas' designated prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on Saturday.

Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil said the group would be ready to present its government to Abbas on Saturday. Abbas has the power to veto Hamas' government, forcing it to return with a different program.

Since Hamas' election victory, Israel has tightened its hold on the Palestinians.

It has stopped transferring millions of dollars in tax revenues collected for the Palestinian Authority and has called on the international community to slap economic sanctions on a Hamas government, steps the World Bank says would devastate the already poverty-ridden Palestinian areas.

A closure on Palestinian areas, meant to end Thursday after the Jewish holiday of Purim, has been extended until at least next week, and the army is inclined to continue it until after Israel's March 28 elections.

The closure bars Palestinian laborers from entering Israel and shuts down Gaza's main cargo crossing, Karni. Israel, citing security concerns, has closed Karni on and off for most of the past two months.

Karni's closure led the Palestinian Mill Co., which says it supplies about 60 percent of Gaza's flour, to idle last week because it used up its flour stocks. On Friday, Palestinians flocked to bakeries in Gaza City, fearing a bread shortage.

The Palestinian National Economy Ministry said Friday it expects bakeries to run out of flour within a few days because of the mill's shutdown.

Also Friday, two Palestinians were killed and three wounded in northern Gaza when homemade rockets they were preparing to fire at Israel exploded prematurely, Palestinian security officials said.

Fatah Officials Call for Abbas to Resign

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Bush Adviser Says Iran Bluffing on Iraq

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush's top foreign policy adviser said Friday that Iran's new willingness to talk about Iraq with the United States is probably a ploy designed to "divert pressure and divert attention" from international concern that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb.

The United States has accused Iran of using a civilian nuclear program as a cover to build atomic weapons, an allegation Tehran denies. The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss Iran's nuclear program this month, with Washington pressing for penalties.

The Bush administration views Tehran's acceptance of an American offer to talk about Iraq, made months ago, as an indication that Iran is feeling the international heat, national security adviser Steven J. Hadley said.

"What is interesting is that the Iranians would choose now, at this moment, in such a very public way, to embrace this idea and try to expand it to a negotiation about a broader set of issues," Hadley said.

"The concern, therefore, is that it is simply a device by the Iranians to try and divert pressure that they're feeling in New York, to try and drive a wedge between the United States and the other countries with which we are working on the nuclear issue and, if you will, divert pressure and divert attention."

Hadley added: "Obviously, this is something that we and those who are working with us on these issues will not let happen."

The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said Thursday that Iran would discuss Iraq directly with the United States. Washington has accused Tehran of meddling in Iraqi politics and of supporting armed militias in Iraq by sending men and weapons, including components for increasingly lethal roadside bombs.

There was concern Friday in the Bush administration that the Iranian offer could increase the stature of Iran's government in its citizens' eyes, raise Tehran's status in the region and curry broader international sympathy that could undermine the U.N. Security Council efforts.

For that reason, there was also skepticism that talks would even take place.

"They've made such statements in the past that they would be open to talking about the matters in Iraq," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "We'll have to see."

The administration is proceeding with discussions about a meeting on the chance that it could save lives — as well as out of concern that the administration would be criticized if it didn't try, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic situation.

Earlier this week, Bush said Iran had supplied components for roadside bombs, which the president called the greatest threats to U.S. troops in Iraq.

But officials made clear that any talks with Iran would be given as low-key a status as possible, in an effort to defuse any broader benefit Iran might gain. The Bush administration is also sensitive to possible criticism that talks with Iran represent negotiating with terrorists.

The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, in charge of discussions on the talks, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press that any meeting should be held in Baghdad. He also made clear that discussions would be limited only to issues related to Iraq, not the standoff over Tehran's nuclear activities, and would represent merely a face-to-face forum for the United States to state concerns it has expressed publicly.

"This is not a negotiation by any means," McClellan said.

Bush Adviser Says Iran Bluffing on Iraq

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Russia Rejects U.N. Proposals on Iran

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 17, 7:02 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Russia's U.N. ambassador on Friday rejected proposals for the U.N. Security Council to demand a quick progress report on Iran's suspect nuclear program, saying — only half in jest — that fast action could lead to the bombing of Iran by June.

Andrey Denisov spoke just before a Security Council meeting where diplomats considered a revised list of British, French and American proposals for a statement on Iran. The latest drafts retain many elements that Russia and China have opposed.

A key sticking point for Russia is a proposal asking Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to deliver a progress report in two weeks on Iran's progress toward clearing up suspicions about its nuclear program. Russia and China say two weeks is far too soon.

"Let's just imagine that we adopt it and today we issued that statement — then what happens after two weeks?" Denisov told The Associated Press. "In such a pace we'll start bombing in June."

Denisov chuckled after he made the remark, but it reflected Russia's fears that the international community has not yet decided how to respond if Iran continues to resist demands that it make explicitly clear it is not seeking nuclear arms.

But U.S. Ambassador John Bolton betrayed an increasing frustration with Russia, which along with China wants the council to take only mild action. Bolton warned that as he spoke, Iran's centrifuges were enriching uranium — a crucial step toward producing weapons-grade fissile material.

"If I were as near to Iran as Russia is, I'd certainly want to get this resolved quickly," Bolton said. "I think in the Russian nuclear establishment, I think they know exactly what Iran is doing."

The ambassadors of Britain, France and the United States said they were flexible on the 14-day deadline, and diplomats suggested that the council could ultimately ask for a report in 30-45 days as a concession to Russia and China.

"We have signaled that there's flexibility on the assumption that we adopt this text soon, but the longer it takes, then the shorter the time will be," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said.

The council planned to meet again Tuesday.

In the meantime, senior officials from six key countries involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program will meet Monday to discuss both initial council action and the larger strategy toward Iran. The officials from Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany will talk about both the proposals circulated Friday and overall strategy.

The Security Council is split on the issue of Iran's nuclear program between Britain, France and the United States, which want a statement spelling out a number of detailed demands, and Russia and China, which believe that such action would send the wrong message to Iran.

Russia and China, which are allies of Iran, have said in the past that tough council action could spark an Iranian withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. They also fear council action could eventually lead to tougher measures, such as sanctions.

Backed by the United States, Britain and France have proposed a statement that would spell out demands that have already been made by the IAEA. They include a demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and take steps toward greater transparency and more cooperation.

Uranium enrichment can be used either in electricity generation or to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its program is to produce nuclear energy — not weapons, as the United States believes.

Denisov said that even though the IAEA demands were not new, Russia nonetheless wants the council simply to refer to IAEA documents where they were first expressed.

The primary concern of Russia and China throughout has been that the IAEA — and not the Security Council — play the main role in handling Iran.

"I think the basic message — if we do have a message — is to be a short, brief, clear-cut message to support the IAEA," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said after Friday's meeting.

Russia Rejects U.N. Proposals on Iran

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Security Council close to agreement on Iran statement: diplomats

18 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The Security Council is inching toward agreeing a revised Franco-British draft urging
Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said Friday as China suggested that Tehran be given up to six weeks to do so.

The 15-member council met for over one hour Friday to review the revised text, which incorporated comments made by members after a series of informal sessions earlier this week. Members agreed to meet again Tuesday after getting reactions from their capitals.

"The response we got from our colleagues today suggests that we are pretty close to where they wanted us to be," Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters.

"Our wish remains that the council should act expeditiously on this text and send the clearest possible signal (to Tehran) ... to reinforce the activities of the ( International Atomic Energy Agency) Agency," he added.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also said he was "encouraged by the reaction" to the revised text, which he noted was "getting a lot of support."

"We are not very far now from the end of the discussion," the French envoy said, adding that the co-sponsors were awaiting reactions from other members' capitals to the text. "I hope the reactions will be positive."

Elements of the revised draft released Friday said the UN nuclear watchdog would report "to the Security Council as well as to the IAEA board of governors, in (14) days on Iranian compliance with the requirements set out by the IAEA board".

These include suspending immediately all uranium enrichment activities and resuming implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's Additional Protocol that allows for wider inspections of a country's nuclear facilities.

But speaking before the meeting, Chinese ambassador Wang Guangya said the 14-day deadline was too short.

"We must leave sufficient time for diplomacy and for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to work ... at least four weeks to six weeks," he noted.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, responded: "I don't think there's really been much support to go beyond a month," adding, however, that there was some flexibility on the US side on this point.

"The main intent here is to get the Iranians to reconsider the mistake that they've made these last 18 years, trying to pursue nuclear weapons, so the sooner we get that message out and the sooner we hear their response I think the better," Bolton added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with The Financial Times on Friday, also dismissed the 14-day period as "not very feasible".

Lavrov said he saw "a parallel" between the current Iranian crisis and the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 when the Security Council intervened before UN inspectors had done their job.

"We would not like to see the situation where the value of the professional agencies would be underestimated ... at the expense of us getting to the bottom of the facts," Lavrov said.

Russia's UN envoy Andrei Denisov welcomed the Franco-British draft's reference to the need for IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to send his report on Iranian compliance to both the Security Council and the IAEA board of governors.

"This is movement in the right direction but we think it is not enough," he said. "We still think the IAEA should play the leading role."

"It would be logical that ElBaradei report be reviewed by the (IAEA) board first and then sent to the Security Council," Denisov said, stressing that the IAEA was the proper place to assess technical aspects of the nuclear dossier.

Tehran rejects Western charges that it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons and insists it has a right as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to conduct uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile Wang said a meeting of senior foreign ministry officials of the Security Council's five permanent members and Germany in New York Monday aimed to "consider the next step of activities by the IAEA".

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, and his counterparts from China, France, Russia and Britain, which are permanent members of the Security Council and have veto-wielding power, plus Germany, will attend the meeting, a State Department official said Thursday.

Germany is one of three European powers -- along with France and Britain -- which have pursued three years of inconclusive negotiations to persuade Tehran to renounce plans to seek nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives.

Security Council close to agreement on Iran statement: diplomats