News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

 Religious freedoms a `fallacy' in UK, says Islamic rights group
London, March 23, IRNA

UK-Schools-Dress
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) says that it was "very disappointed" by the ruling of Britain's top court, the House of Lords, upholding a school's decision to prevent Muslim pupil schoolgirl from wearing the Islamic hijab - jilbab.

"That children can be denied an education because of their religious beliefs is indicative of the fact that religious and cultural freedom in Britain today is nothing but a fallacy," IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said.

On Wednesday, the House of Lords overturned an appeal court ruling that the human rights of Muslim teenager, Shabina Begum, were violated when she was banned from wearing a head-to-toe Islamic dress to Denbigh High School, in Luton, north of London.

The unanimous ruling by five law lords was said to have been greeted with relief by teachers' bodies and the Department for Education and Skills, which feared that upholding the ruling would throw schools' policies on uniforms into chaos.

But the IHRC said the decision was "indicative of the level of Islamophobia in British society and institutions that a school's denial of a pupil's right to education is upheld by the highest court in the land."
"Current race relations law would have rightly made it impossible for the same school or any school to prevent a Sikh or Jewish child to be prevented from wearing religious attire to school," it said.

Begum, who is now 17, said that she was considering appealing to the European human rights court over the ruling after spending the last five years in legal battle, after being sent home by her school for wearing the jilbab.

The IHCR said that the decision by the school, where 79 per cent of the pupils are Muslim, showed a "very shallow understanding of the diversity of religious interpretation" by allowing girls wear a shalwar kameez but not a jilbab.

Religious freedoms a `fallacy' in UK, says Islamic rights group

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 Mass funeral for 30 Shiite martyrs in Kazemein
Baghdad, March 23, IRNA

Iraq-Shiites-Funeral
Mass funerals were held early Thursday morning near the shrines of two Shiite Imams in Kazemein district here for 30 pilgrims martyred by a group of armed assailants on Wednesday.

The victims lost their lives in a shootout in Hay al-Jame and Hay al-Adl districts as they were returning from Karbala, where they attended mourning processions on the occasion of Arbayeen, the 40th day of mourning period for martyrdom of Imam Hossein (AS).

Participants in the funeral procession condemned the crime committed and stressed Iraqi national unity as well as the attempts to create discord.

They held the Baathist elements and groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda senior member Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accountable for the tragic event.

An informed source told IRNA that funeral processions will also be held for the 30 martyred pilgrims in Karbala and Najaf who will all be buried in the vicinity of the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS) in Karbala.

Mass funeral for 30 Shiite martyrs in Kazemein

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 UN urges Iraq to rein in 'death squads'
by
Thursday 23 March 2006 11:00 PM GMT

Iraqi death squads have left many a family in anguish

The United Nations has called on Iraqi authorities to rein in alleged death squads operating within the security forces.

The UN human rights office in Iraq said in a report on Thursday that it had received serious allegations about elements in the police and special forces and "their apparent collusion with militias in carrying out human rights violations".

Allegations that death squads operate in the country had grown stronger after the discovery by US-led forces and the Iraqi security forces in January of a suspicious group operating within the Iraqi interior ministry, it said.

Twenty-two men, dressed as special police commandos, were caught when driving with a man who was allegedly about to be executed, it said.

"This reaffirms the urgent need for the government to assert control over the security forces and all armed groups," the UN report said.

Summary executions

Numerous summary executions had taken place in and around Baghdad during the period, reportedly by armed militias, thereby further fuelling sectarian tensions and violence, it said.

Conditions and the legality of detention in Iraq remained of particular concern, it added.

"The [UN] Human Rights Office also continues to receive regular allegations and evidence of torture in detention centres, particularly [those] not operated or controlled by the ministry of justice," it said.

The UN also said military operations by US-led and Iraqi forces, especially in western al-Anbar province, had raised concerns of "excessive use of force", mistreatment and theft during raids, as well as the demolition of houses.

And minority groups, including some of the estimated 34,000 Palestinian refugees living in Iraq, are being subjected to increasing detention, torture and discrimination because of their alleged links to foreign Arabs supporting the fight against US-led forces, it added.

UN urges Iraq to rein in 'death squads'

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Church to install gay pastor

by Rob Akers

St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco will be the site this Sunday for installation of the Reverend Robert Goldstein as the church's new lead pastor.

The ceremony will officially combine the efforts of Goldstein and St. Francis' history of pioneering equal rights for LGBT people on a community level and within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

St. Francis was one of two congregations expelled from the ELCA in 1995 because it ordained a gay man and a lesbian couple as pastors against church officials' wishes. By assuming the pastorate at St. Francis, Goldstein, who is openly gay, is chancing the same consequence. "I, too, am in conflict with the official ELCA clergy roster and may be removed after my third year," said Goldstein.

"But the vision of St. Francis to be a beacon of light of the inclusive gospel of Christ and to work to change the attitudes and policies of the wider Lutheran Church and other church bodies, as well as the vision to be a congregation of all the peoples of San Francisco and their children, is the future of Christianity. And I want to be part of the future," he said.

"The fact that my Chicago bishop will preach at my installation is a further sign of hope that there are many in the ELCA who want to stand with St. Francis. I am hopeful," he added.

Goldstein, 61, a native of Melbourne, Australia, arrived in San Francisco in early November 2005 and assumed his duties at St. Francis later that same month. He had previously served congregations in New Jersey and Chicago. He has been a pastor of the ELCA and its predecessor, the Lutheran Church in America, since 1975.

His journey from Australia and upward through the ranks of the church was a tedious one, fraught with all the obstacles one might expect for an openly gay man aspiring to be a minister.

"I was 14 when I knew for sure I was gay. Not long after, a daily local paper displayed the headline: 'Pervert Jailed.' This pushed my self-identity deeply inward for many years. Of course, Australia has come a long way since then."

"I arrived in the U.S. in 1962 at 18 years of age. A college education for a blue collar boy in Australia in those days was very limited, so I left high school, went to work and paid for passage to the United States and attended college in Texas."

"I was a deeply repressed gay man in macho Australia of the 1960s," he said. "I was married for 19 years until, after counseling, I finally faced the truth and came out to my wife and my bishop in New Jersey in 1987."

Goldstein said the result of his coming out was that he lost everything "except my faith in a God who honors integrity and self-honesty."

He said he was in "exile" in Kansas in 1990, when a church official from Chicago visited him and invited him back into the ministry despite strong opposition from some national church leaders.

After that he served in several churches and "guardedly" came out to colleagues and members with mixed results. In 1999, he became the first gay pastor to come out publicly at a church convention.

Then in 2000, Goldstein helped author a resolution asking the ELCA to grant full and equal rights to gay clergy in partnerships and inclusion in the rite of marriage. The resolution passed in Chicago and contributed to the ELCA beginning a churchwide study and dialogue on the issues.

"While not successful at the 2005 national assembly in Orlando, these measures for full inclusion garnered a 49 percent vote. So, we keep on the struggle," he said.

Goldstein said he decided to interview for the position at St. Francis due to that church's "warm and loving relationship with the San Francisco gay community and its prophetic stand for full rights for LGBT people."

Phyllis Zillhart and Ruth Frost, a lesbian couple, were ordained as clergy by St. Francis in 1990. ELCA officials had not approved the two because they would not commit to lifelong abstention from same-sex sexual relationships.

Since that time, St. Francis has been an independent Lutheran organization that has a voice – but not a vote – in ELCA functions.

St. Francis is a result of a 1964 merger of Danish and Finnish Lutheran congregations founded a century ago, according to church officials. Its present building dates from 1905.

The church, located at 152 Church Street, began to openly welcome LGBT worshippers in the 1970s. The congregation grew in numbers and took on new life and leadership in the controversies that followed with the ELCA in issues relating to homosexuality.

Goldstein's installation will take place on Sunday, March 26, at 2:30 p.m. St. Francis is located at 152 Church Street in San Francisco, near the intersection of Church, Market, and 14th streets, across from   Safeway.

I can't post the link because of advertising.

My note; As we get closer to the start of the end times. we will see more of this happening.

[Shammu]

Indonesia recalls Australia envoy
Map showing Indonesia's Papua province
Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia after Canberra granted temporary visas to 42 Papuans from the Indonesian province of Papua.

Jakarta had strongly criticised the decision by Australia to grant the visas, saying it "regretted" the move.

In a statement, it said the decision was counter to the spirit of co-operation between the two countries.

Australia has sought to defuse the row, saying it did not indicate support for Papuan separatist aspirations.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia had formally protested and the ambassador was being recalled to Jakarta for consultations.

Forty-two Papuans, who arrived in Australia saying they were fleeing abuses by Indonesia's military, were granted the temporary protection visas.

Jakarta said they had nothing to fear and had warned that granting asylum could strain its relations with Australia.

The Papuans arrived in Australia by boat in January and were detained at a holding centre on Christmas Island. A decision is still to be made on a 43rd asylum seeker.

Papuan insurgency
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the Papuans would now be transferred from the holding centre to Melbourne in southern Australia.

Indonesia's foreign ministry released a statement criticising the move.

"The government of Indonesia is surprised, disappointed and very much regrets this decision," it said.

"The decision is counter-productive and does not take into account the sensitivities of the Indonesian people regarding this issue.

"It is against the spirit of bilateral co-operation, especially in the field of stopping illegal immigration."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer attempted to assuage Indonesia, saying the move did not imply any support for separatist aspirations in Papua.

A low-level separatist insurgency has been going on for decades in Papua, where the Indonesian authorities are frequently accused of human rights abuses.

The group of Papuans reportedly includes leading pro-independence activists from the province.

Indonesia gained sovereignty over Papua - a former Dutch colony - in 1969.

Indonesia recalls Australia envoy

[Shammu]

Papua refugees get Australia visa
Map showing Indonesia's Papua province
Australia has granted temporary visas to dozens of asylum seekers from Indonesia's restive Papua province.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 42 of a group of 43 people would be given temporary protection visas, entitling them to stay for three years.

The 43 Papuans arrived in Australia by boat in January, saying they were fleeing abuses by Indonesia's military.

Jakarta says they have nothing to fear and has warned granting asylum could strain its relations with Australia.

Indonesian President Sushilo Bambang Yudhoyono had phoned Australia's Prime Minister John Howard to urge that the refugees be sent back.

Separatist insurgency

Ms Vanstone said the Papuans would now be transferred from a holding centre on remote Christmas Island to Melbourne in southern Australia.

"This is not a country-to-country decision, it is individual decisions based on evidence put forward by the individuals themselves and third-party reports," she said.

A decision was still to be made on one of the asylum seekers, she added.

A low-level separatist insurgency has been going on for decades in Papua, where the Indonesian authorities are frequently accused of human rights abuses.

The group of Papuans reportedly includes leading pro-independence activists from the province.

Papua refugees get Australia visa

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Europe's angry young Muslims
Europe is home to a new generation of alienated young Muslims whose anger may turn to radicalism.

Shamsul Gani sits in his home, in the northern English city of Leeds, a proud father cradling his six-month-old son.

I ask him about the three young men from Leeds who carried out the London bombings last year.

"You'd have left your house keys with them and gone away for a year," he told me.

For many people, what motivated the bombers is still a mystery.

But Shamsul grew up with the three - all British Muslims from Pakistani families. (The fourth was a Caribbean convert to Islam.)

Shamsul admires the courage of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the group, even though he condemns what he did.

Khan left a videotape explaining his action as a response to Western policy in Iraq and other parts of the Muslim world.

"I have no reason to doubt the credibility of that tape," Shamsul told me.

"What you have to understand is his belief in what he was doing. He was prepared to put his life on the line for that."

Voices of alienation

My visit to Leeds marked the beginning of an odyssey in search of the roots of Muslim anger.

Western Europe is now home to some 15 million Muslims, most of them under 30.

Is a new angry, alienated generation of European Muslims now being drawn to radicalism?

That's certainly a widespread fear.

The London bombings were followed a few months later by the Paris riots. And then, more recently, the controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. All these have reinforced that fear.

In the suburbs on the northern rim of the French capital, I found young Muslims, from Arab and African families, who feel excluded by the French state.

When during the riots President Chirac belatedly intervened, telling the people of the suburbs they were all sons and daughters of the French republic, many of them saw it as a bad joke.

France, unlike Britain, tries to keep religion out of public life. Everyone is supposed to be equal, regardless of cultural background.

Try telling that to Ali, who is 24 and unemployed.

"France has betrayed the young people of the suburbs. When you're called Ali you can't get a job. The French don't accept Islam. Politicians promise us mosques and so on, but at the same time they smear us and call us terrorists."

A double culture

I visited Clichy sous Bois, where the riots began after the accidental death of two teenagers during a police chase.

At a youth club, an audition was under way for budding stand-up comedians.

Fifou, a lively young French-Algerian student, did a sketch poking fun at the "double culture" in which she and her friends live.

At home they must be good Muslim kids; but outside they want the good life, just like their non-Muslim friends.

For a moment, I forgot about those thousands of cars, and hundreds of buildings, destroyed in three weeks of rioting last year.

But not for long.

Sitting in the youth club was Samir, a young activist who has set up a group to keep alive the memory of the two dead teenagers.

I asked him what his aim was. His answer: "To give voice to the pain."

There have been riots before, and nothing changed. This time he wants the message to get through.

Europe's angry young Muslims

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Russian Islam goes its own way
By Leonid Ragozin
bbcrussian.com, Moscow

"If people wear tight jeans or skirts and speak slang, it does not mean they have veered from the path of true Islam."

Shamil Alyautdinov often says things you do not quite expect from an imam.

But 70 years of communism have bulldozed most religious and ethnic traditions in Russia, so do not be surprised when you hear him saying it is all right that most Muslims do not even attend the mosque.

"It is not obligatory," Mr Alyautdinov adds. "Life is very fast these days, so people don't have time to go to mosque."

The 31-year-old imam of the Moscow Memorial mosque, who graduated from a regular secondary school in the Russian capital's suburbia but studied Islamic theology in Egypt, finds new methods of reaching his flock, suitable for the new era.

Muslims from all around the country send him e-mails with questions on various aspects of everyday life and worship. His answers have already formed several books.

The most voluminous of them all - reflecting the readers' main area of interest - is the one called He And She and dedicated, as the name suggests, to relations between men and women.

Another bestseller sold across the country includes some of Mr Alyautdinov's texts, although the imam strongly objects to its "provocative" name: Love And Sex In Islam.

The book praised in the foreword by leading Muslim clerics, theologians, activists and even the Iranian cultural attache, covers such issues as sex change, gotcha21, anal and oral sex - and many others - from the Islamic perspective.

But in a country that has one of the world's highest divorce and abortion rates, these two issues top Russian Muslims' agenda, along with cross-religious marriage and premarital sex.

Beliefs reassessed

The country's Muslim community is extremely diverse - from Volga Tatars and Bashkirs to the ethnic mishmash of the North Caucasus. But unlike Muslim minorities in Western Europe, most Russian Muslims represent native people of what is now Russia, who inhabited their land for over a millennium.

They spent centuries adapting to the official dominance of Orthodox Christianity in tsarist times and then underwent the communist experiment aimed at rooting out religion and melting all ethnic groups into one great Soviet nation.

The country's Muslim community makes up more than 10% of the total population. Demographers predict that by 2020 one out of five Russians will be Muslim. But the question is: How Muslim will they be?

The end of communism found many Muslims dispersed among the non-Muslim population and living a lifestyle nearly indistinguishable from their fellow citizens of Russia. In the 1990s, millions of them turned back to their roots, but many soon grew disappointed with mainstream Islam and called for reforms.

Rafail Khakimov, who heads the Institute of Tatar History, coined the term "Euroislam". Its main feature, he says, is a "critical attitude to everything that happens around us instead of blindly following the principles established in the Middle Ages".

"The traditions of the Islamic world were shaped between the 10th and 12th centuries and preserved ever since but the liberal Islam which started developing two centuries ago is open to all experiences existing in the world," he says.

'Room for everything'

Being an advisor to the president of Tatarstan, Mr Khakimov is one of those who shape the official ideology of this predominantly Muslim republic inside Russia which enjoys a high degree of autonomy.

"Europe is the point of reference for Tatarstan's elite, including the leadership," he asserts.

Mainstream clerics believe Islam does not need either a "euro" prefix or any other.

"Islam is a universal religion that answers all the questions an individual or society as a whole may face," says Nafigulla Ashirov, the chief mufti of the Asian part of Russia.

He says Islam gives enough room for diversity, for instance as regards what people want to wear: European-style clothes do not contradict the Koran.

"But this is not modernisation - it is what Islam allows anyway," Mr Ashirov says.

Some Tatar clerics add that the Hanafite theological school, dominant in Tatar Islam, is pluralistic and critical enough to answer the challenges of the epoch. Mr Khakimov, however, blames them for being out of touch with ordinary Muslims:

"Tatarstan has thousands of mosques, so why are they locked? Because many imams studied abroad, for example in Saudi Arabia. But the situation in Russia is completely different from that of the Arabian peninsula."

Euroislamists and mainstream clerics might disagree, but there is no feeling of enmity between them.

However, there is another Muslim reformist movement whose existence worries them both.

The militants

The leader of the Islamic committee of Russia, Geydar Dzhemal, who claims to be close to Salafism - a purist teaching dominant in Saudi Arabia - advocates Islamic guerrilla resistance against the "barbaric" authorities.

"Many young people who were provoked by the security forces, tortured and humiliated went off into the forests and mountains and most certainly perished there, but refused to kiss the boots of the new Mongols," he says.

Dismissing the leaders of Chechen separatists as failed role models, he praises the people of Andijan - an Uzbek town whose residents last May staged a revolt brutally suppressed by the government.

The popularity of such ideas largely depends on the Russian authorities' ability not to alienate Muslims like they did in the most notorious example of Chechnya.

But it also depends on how carefully Russian Muslim leaders strike a balance between tradition and the urge for change.

Russian Islam goes its own way

[Shammu]

 Muslim scholars in cartoon talks
Some 300 Muslim scholars have begun meeting in Bahrain to discuss the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The conference follows a wave of demonstrations in which at least 50 people died in the wake of the images' publication in Denmark and elsewhere.

The scholars are hoping to come up with a strategy to mobilise Muslims in defence of the Prophet.

One leading hardline cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, told delegates that a war was being waged against Islam.

The cartoon controversy has strained relations between Islam and the West.

It has triggered demonstrations in many countries, boycotts of Danish goods and the resignation of government ministers in Italy and Sweden.

The row has lost some of its heat but is not yet over.

Call to Muslims

BBC Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy says the conference is designed to show that the sense of injury in the Muslim world is still palpable.

Egyptian-born Sheikh Qaradawi, who has a popular weekly programme on the Arab satellite station al-Jazeera, urged Muslims to rise to the defence of their Prophet.

Sheikh Qaradawi and another of the conference organisers, the Saudi cleric Salman Al-Awdah, strongly support a Muslim boycott of Danish goods.

It was a Danish newspaper that first published cartoons satirising the Prophet last year.

One of the images depicted Muhammad with a turban shaped like a bomb.

The cartoons were later republished in other European newspapers.

The organisers of the Bahrain conference insist the actions they are proposing are peaceful.

The conference, in the capital, Manama, began on Wednesday and was expected to finish on Thursday.

Muslim scholars in cartoon talks

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 EU leaders may try to revive the constitution
By Toby Helm and David Rennie
(Filed: 24/03/2006)

European leaders will debate reviving the rejected EU constitution at a Brussels summit opening today.

Ursula Plassnik, the Austrian foreign minister, said there would be discussions on whether to declare the controversial charter dead or to try to revive it.

Austria, which holds the EU presidency, said one of its goals was for EU leaders to make a final decision on the constitution by June.

Nine months ago, French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums.

The Dutch government has said it would not present the current draft to a public vote again, despite demands from several nations that it do so.

But it emerged two weeks ago that Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had begun secret talks to bring it back to life.

Reports in the German press claimed that the pair wanted to rewrite parts of the constitution in an attempt to sell it to a deeply sceptical public. Fourteen EU nations have approved the charter.

The constitution, drafted over 18 months and signed by EU leaders in 2004, aims to bolster the bloc's role on the world stage. It needs unanimous backing from all 25 EU nations to take effect.

EU leaders may try to revive the constitution

[Shammu]

Hamas Duplicity: Talk Peace in English and Deny it in Arabic
Added: Mar 23rd, 2006 12:58 PM

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Jerusalem, Israel (Palestinian Media Watch) -- In its attempt to gain international legitimacy, Hamas is presenting a conciliatory face to the Western media, while rejecting peace to its own people in Arabic, and even denying that the conciliatory statements were made.

In the latest example, Hamas Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyah told CBS on March 16 that he hoped to some day sign a peace agreement with Israel. A Hamas member of Parliament immediately told the Palestinian Authority media that the CBS report was "unfounded," and part of a "crazy campaign which aims at embarrassing and confusing the Palestinians and undermining the trust of the masses in Hamas." [Al Hayat Al Jadida, March 19, 2006]

Haniyah was interviewed on CBS news and said, among other things, that he was "seeking a peace settlement and stability in this region," "looking forward to peace and tranquility in this region," and "seeking American administration to create this missing peace." [www.cbsnews.com]

Hamas Denies statements were made:

A Hamas MP, speaking in Arabic to a PA newspaper, immediately denied these statements as lies, and part of a conspiracy of the US media to damage the true image of the Hamas:

"[Hamas] MP Mushir Al-Masri denied what was reported in various places in the media about Hamas abandoning its principles, relying on statements attributed to the Prime Minister designate, Ismail Haniyah, according to which he hopes that a peace treaty will be signed with the Israelis. He said that these statements, released on CBS, are unfounded [lit: naked of all truth]. Al-Masri said that these matters are part of a crazy campaign which aims at embarrassing and confusing the Palestinian arena and undermining the trust of the masses in Hamas movement… He added: "the Palestinian media grasps that this campaign should not be related to… and it understands that America endeavors to undermine the [Hamas] movement in the eyes of the Palestinian people…" As to the PM's statements, which have been distorted, Al-Masri said: "the American channel [CBS] broadcast that Sheikh Ismail Haniyah had said in an interview that he hoped that a treaty with Israel would be signed in the White House. I believe that the basis for the controversy over the [Hamas] political plan are the [peace] agreements, which in our opinion bring no benefit…"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2006]

It should be noted that the reason for this strong rejection of the willingness for peace with Israel is that it violates the most basic tenet of Hamas' belief, that Islam demands the destruction of Israel. Article 13 of the Hamas charter states: ". . . Renouncing any part of Palestine [i.e. accepting Israel] means renouncing part of the religion." Hamas would have to scrap and recreate the basis of its religious ideology to accept Israel.

[Shammu]

Russia Spies Operated in Iraq Through 2003

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago

MOSCOW - Russia had a military intelligence unit operating in
Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad, a Russian analyst said Friday. A Pentagon report said Russia provided Saddam Hussein with intelligence on U.S. military movements and plans.

The unclassified report does not assess the value of the information or provide details beyond citing two captured Iraqi documents that say the Russians collected information from sources "inside the American Central Command" and that battlefield intelligence was provided to Saddam through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad.

A classified version of the Pentagon report, titled "Iraqi Perspectives Project," is not being made public.

A duty officer with Russia's Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the report late Friday evening and said questions must be faxed in advance before any answers would be given.

No one answered the phones at the Defense Ministry.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a respected independent Moscow-based military analyst, said the report was within the realm of possibility.

"It's quite plausible," he told The Associated Press.

He said a unit affiliated with the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Department, known by its abbreviation GRU, was actively working in Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The unit apparently was shut down after Baghdad fell during the U.S.-led invasion.

There also was an Internet site in Russian called "The Ramzay Files" that caused a stir in Moscow's military and diplomatic community at the time, Felgenhauer said.

The site, which also shut down after the invasion, posted striking insights, predictions and analysis into U.S. military activities as well as Iraqi military and intelligence activities.

He said former GRU officials told him the type of information that was being posted — both on the Iraqis and on the Americans — appeared to be the kind that only highly placed Russian intelligence officials in Iraq would have.

According to the Pentagon report, one piece of Russian intelligence — whether by chance or design — actually contributed to an important U.S. military deception effort.

By telling Saddam that the main attack on Baghdad would not begin until the Army's 4th Infantry Division arrived around April 15, the Russians reinforced an impression that U.S. commanders were trying to catch the Iraqis by surprise.

The attack on Baghdad began well before the 4th Infantry arrived, and the Saddam regime collapsed quickly.

The Pentagon report also said the Russians told the Iraqis that the Americans planned to concentrate on bombing in and around Baghdad, cutting the road to Syria and Jordan and creating enough confusion to force Baghdad residents to flee.

Felgenhauer said the release of the report was coming at an inauspicious time, given the marked cooling in Russian-U.S. relations in recent months, and could be "the beginning of a real degradation in relations" between Washington and Moscow.

"This could reflect this ongoing confrontation and now the Pentagon is sticking its finger into the pie," he said.

Russia Spies Operated in Iraq Through 2003

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Immigration Rallies Draw Thousands Nationwide

By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Thousands of people across the country protested Friday against legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants, with demonstrators in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.
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Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.

The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were largely peaceful, authorities said.

Chantal Mason, a sophomore at George Washington Preparatory High, said black students jumped Hispanic students as they left classes to protest a bill passed the House in December that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally.

"It was horrible, horrible," Mason said. "It's ridiculous that a bunch of black students would jump on Latinos like that, knowing they're trying to get their freedom."

In Phoenix, police said 10,000 demonstrators marched to the office of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), co-sponsor of a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. The turnout clogged a major thoroughfare.

"They're here for the American Dream," said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated by police to be at least 10,000 strong. "God created all of us. He's not a God of the United States, he's a God of the world."

Kyl had no immediate comment on the rally.

At least 500 students at Huntington Park High School near Los Angeles walked out of classes in the morning. Hundreds of the students, some carrying Mexican flags, walked down the middle of Los Angeles streets, police cruisers behind them.

The students visited two other area high schools, trying to encourage students to join their protest, but the schools were locked down to keep students from leaving, said Los Angeles district spokeswoman Monica Carazo.

In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs Friday after calls for a work stoppage to protest a bill passed by the Georgia House on Thursday.

That bill, which has yet to gain Senate approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S. illegally and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.

Supporters say the Georgia measure is vital to homeland security and frees up limited state services for people legally entitled to them. Opponents say it unfairly targets workers meeting the demands of some of the state's largest industries.

Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work. About 200 converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs reading: "Don't panic, we're Hispanic" and "We have a dream, too."

Jennifer Garcia worried what would the proposal would do to her family. She said her husband is an illegal Mexican immigrant.

"If they send him back to Mexico, who's going to take care of them and me?" Garcia said of herself and her four children. "This is the United States. We need to come together and be a whole."

On Thursday, thousands of people filled the streets of Milwaukee for what was billed as "A Day Without Latinos" to protest efforts in Congress to target undocumented workers. Police estimated more than 10,000 people joined the demonstrations and march to downtown Milwaukee. Organizers put the number at 30,000.

Immigration Rallies Draw Thousands Nationwide

[Shammu]

A Remarkable Life: Tortoise Dies at 250

1 hour, 4 minutes ago

CALCUTTA, India - One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.
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Addwaita, which means "the one and only" in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century.

Zoo officials say he was a gift for Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, who was instrumental in establishing British colonial rule in India, before he returned to England in 1767.

Long after the other three tortoises died, Addwaita continued to thrive, living in Clive's garden before being moved to the zoo in 1875.

"According to records in the zoo, the age of the giant tortoise, Addwaita, who died on Wednesday, would be 250 years approximately," said zoo director Subir Chowdhury.

That would have made him much older than the world's oldest documented living animal: Harriet, a 176-year-old Galapagos tortoise who lives at the Australia Zoo north of Brisbane, according to the zoo's Web site. She was taken from the island of Isla Santa Cruz by Charles Darwin in the 19th century.

Aldabra tortoises come from the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean, and often live to more than 100 years of age. Males can weigh up to 550 pounds.

Addwaita, the zoo's biggest attraction, had been unwell for the last few days, said local Forest Minister Jogesh Burman,

"We were keeping a watch on him. When the zoo keepers went to his enclosure on Wednesday they found him dead," Burman said.

A Remarkable Life: Tortoise Dies at 250

[Shammu]

EQUIP's Global Initiative Strives to Build Better Christian Leaders

By Allie Martin
March 24, 2006

(AgapePress) - An initiative that trains church and ministry leaders is expanding around the globe: Three years ago, Dr. John Maxwell's nonprofit EQUIP ministry began a six-year project to train one million Christians around the world with the skills needed for advancing the Great Commission.

So far, more than a million people have been trained as part of the "Million Leaders Mandate." And recently EQUIP announced plans to expand the initiative to even more countries. John Hull, president of the ministry, says the project is all about fulfilling the need for ministries to have competent leadership.

"Here's what we know," Hull explains. "In the Bible, when Israel had good kings, the people were blessed and the nation prospered. When Israel had bad kings, the people were oppressed and the nation suffered."

The belief behind the ministry and the mandate, EQUIP's spokesman notes, is "that good, biblical leaders can make life better for other people and begin to have an impact on their nations to see them transformed by the gospel [and to see them] become God-honoring societies."

Hull points out that Biblical leaders are not made in a day but, rather, such leaders "are made daily." He says EQUIP is gathering evidence supporting the effectiveness of its programs, reported by practitioners around the world.

Much of this data is gleaned from the "stories of men and women who've simply taken the training back into their local cultures, their places of influence," the ministry spokesman explains, "and they're creating a better and more effective leadership culture." And the results of the training are palpable.

"Churches are growing, disciples are being made, and we believe the fame and glory of Jesus is spreading," Hull observes. He believes this demonstrates that EQUIP's vital work of leadership development is paying off in a big way as it helps to produce more effective leaders for churches, ministries and other Christian organizations.

Ultimately, Christ is the best and greatest example of an effective leader, Hull emphasizes. He believes the Million Leaders Mandate, which is already active in more than 60 countries on four continents, is helping the body of Christ by helping its leaders to become better imitators of him.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

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