Sunday, June 10, 2007

THE U.S.S. LIBERTY SECRET

'The USS Liberty': America's Most Shameful Secret

by Eric S. Margolis

NEW YORK – On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army.

'Liberty,' a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennas and electronic 'ears' including TRSSCOMM, a system that delivered real-time intercepts to Washington by bouncing a stream of microwaves off the moon.

'Liberty' had been rushed to Sinai to monitor communications of the belligerents in the Third Arab Israeli War: Israel and her foes, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty,' which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.

At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died.

Israeli gunboats circled the wounded 'Liberty,' firing at crewmen trying to fight the fires. At 1515, the crew were ordered to abandon ship. The Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House.

An hour after the attack, Israeli warships and planes returned. Commander McGonagle gave the order. 'prepare to repel borders.' But the Israelis, probably fearful of intervention by the US Sixth Fleet, departed. 'Liberty' was left shattered but still defiant, her flag flying.

The Israeli attacks killed 34 US seamen and wounded 171 out of a crew of 297, the worst loss of American naval personnel from hostile action since World War II.

Less than an hour after the attack, Israel told Washington its forces had committed a 'tragic error.' Later, Israel claimed it had mistaken 'Liberty' for an ancient Egyptian horse transport. US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink 'Liberty.' So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack.

In contrast to American outrage over North Korea's assault on the intelligence ship 'Pueblo,' Iraq's mistaken missile strike on the USS 'Stark,' last fall's bombing of the USS 'Cole' in Aden, and the recent US-China air incident, the savaging of 'Liberty' was quickly hushed up by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

The White House and Congress immediately accepted Israel's explanation and let the matter drop. Israel later paid a token reparation of US $6 million. There were reports two Israeli pilots who had refused to attack 'Liberty' were jailed for 18 years.

Surviving 'Liberty' crew members would not be silenced. They kept demanding an open inquiry and tried to tell their story of deliberate attack to the media. Israel's government worked behind the scenes to thwart these efforts, going so far as having American pro-Israel groups accuse 'Liberty's' survivors of being 'anti-Semites' and 'Israel-haters.' Major TV networks cancelled interviews with the crew. A book about the 'Liberty' by crewman James Ennes' was dropped from distribution. The Israel lobby branded him 'an Arab propagandist.'

The attack on 'Liberty' was fading into obscurity until last week, when intelligence expert James Bamford came out with Body of Secrets, his latest book about the National Security Agency. In a stunning revelation, Bamford writes that unknown to Israel, a US Navy EC-121 intelligence aircraft was flying high overhead the 'Liberty,' electronically recorded the attack. The US aircraft crew provides evidence that the Israeli pilots knew full well that they were attacking a US Navy ship flying the American flag.

Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally? Most likely because 'Liberty's' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim, made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation. In fact, Israel began the war by a devastating, Pearl-Harbor style surprise attack that caught the Arabs in bed and destroyed their entire air forces.

Israel was also preparing to attack Syria to seize its strategic Golan Heights. Washington warned Israel not to invade Syria, which had remained inactive while Israel fought Egypt. Bamford says Israel's offensive against Syria was abruptly postponed when 'Liberty' appeared off Sinai, then launched once it was knocked out of action. Israel's claim that Syria had attacked it could have been disproved by 'Liberty.'

Most significant, 'Liberty's' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.

Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why?

Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.

Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism – not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. Crew member's graves were inscribed, 'died in the Eastern Mediterranean..' as if they had be killed by disease, rather than hostile action.

A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel, and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberal toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.

Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened.

Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's' dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.

May 2, 2001

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2001

Eric Margolis [send him mail] is foreign correspondent for the Toronto Sun.

Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/margolis12.html
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P.S. While the Media was busy inundating the airwaves with Bud & Bologna (Baloney), while bombarding the public with the usual "Wild World of Sports", and Paris Hilton not eating or sleeping stories; No one mentioned that fateful anniversary of June 8,1967, when the U.S.S. Liberty was attacked. That day will live in anonymity, instead of infamy.

DEJA VU, ALL OVER AGAIN

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar." (Julius Caesar)



America can maintain a friendship and push a nation toward democracy at the same
time," said Bush, adding that he had pledged the U.S. to the "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world."

GW Bush.....

THE SECRET TREATY OF VERONA



Secret Treaty of Verona


CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE


64th CONGRESS, 1st SESSION
VOLUME 53, PART 7
Page 6781

25 April 1916


I wish to put in the RECORD the secret treaty of Verona of November 22, 1822, showing what this ancient conflict is between the rule of the few and the rule of the many. I wish to call the attention of the Senate to this treaty because it is the threat of this treaty which was the basis of the Monroe doctrine. It throws a powerful white light upon the conflict between monarchial government and government by the people. The Holy Alliance under the influence of Metternich, the Premier of Austria, in 1822, issued this remarkable secret document:


[American Diplomatic Code, 1778 - 1884, vol. 2; Elliott, p. 179.]







SECRET TREATY OF VERONA


The undersigned, specially authorized to make some additions to the treaty of the Holy Alliance, after having exchanged their respective credentials, have agreed as follows:


ARTICLE 1. The high contracting powers being convinced that the system of representative government is equally as incompatible with the monarchial principles as the maxim of the sovereignty of the people with the high divine right, engage mutually in the most solemn manner, to use all their efforts to put an end to the system of representative governments, in whatever country it may exist in Europe, and to prevent its being introduced in those countries where it is not yet known.


ARTICLE 2. As it can not be doubted that the liberty of the press is the most powerful means used by the pretended supporters of the rights of nations to the detrement of those princes, the high contracting parties promise reciprocally to adopt all proper measures to suppress it, not only in their own states but also in the rest of Europe.


ARTICLE 3. Convinced that the principles of religion contribute most powerfully to keep nations in the state of passive obedience which they owe to their princes, the high contracting parties declare it to be their intention to sustain in their respective States those measures which the clergy may adopt, with the aim of ameliorating their own interests, so intimately connected with the preservation of the authority of the princes; and the contracting powers join in offering their thanks to the Pope for what he has already done for them, and solicit his constant cooperation in their views of submitting the nations.


ARTICLE 4. The situation of Spain and Portugal unite unhappily all the circumstances to which this treaty has particular reference. The contracting parties, in confiding to France the care of putting an end to them, engaged to assist her in the matter which may the least compromit [sic] them with their own people and the people of France by means of a subsidy on the part of the two empires of 20,000,000 of francs every year from the date of the signature of this treaty to the end of the war.


ARTICLE 5. In order to establish in the Peninsula in the order of things which existed before the revolution of Cadiz, and to insure the entire execution of the articles of the present treaty, the high contracting parties give to each other the reciprocal assurance that as long as their views are not fulfilled, rejecting all other ideas of utility or other measure to be taken, they will address themselves with the shortest possible delay to all the authorities existing in their States and to all their agents in foreign countries, with the view to establish connections tending toward the accomplishment of the objects proposed by this treaty.


ARTICLE 6. This treaty shall be renewed with such changes as new circumstances may give occasion for, either at a new congress or at the court of one of the contracting parties, as soon as the war with Spain shall be terminated.


ARTICLE 7. The present treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications exchanged at Paris within the space of six months.


Made at Verona the 22nd November, 1822.


for Austria: METTERNICH
for France: CHATEAUBRIAND
for Prussia: BERNSTET
for Russia: NESSELRODE







I ask to have printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD this secret treaty, because I think it ought to be called now to the attention of the people of the United States and of the world. This evidence of the conflict between the rule of the few verses popular government should be emphasized on the minds of the people of the United States, that the conflict now waging throughout the world may be more clearly understood, for after all said the great pending war springs from the weakness and frailty of government by the few, where human error is far more probable than the error of the many where aggressive war is only permitted upon the authorizing vote of those whose lives are jeopardized in the trenches of modern war.


Mr. SHAFROTH. Mr. President, I should like to have the senator state whether in that treaty there was not a coalition formed between the powerful countries of Europe to reestablish the sovereignty of Spain in the Republics of South and Central America?


Mr. OWEN. I was just going to comment upon that, and I am going to take but a few moments to do so because I realize the preasure of other matters. This Holy Alliance, having put a Bourbon prince upon the throne of France by force, then used France to suppress the constitution of Spain immediately afterwards, and by this very treaty gave her a subsidy of 20,000,000 francs annually to enable her to wage war upon the people of Spain and to prevent their exercise of any measure of the right of self-government. The Holy Alliance immediately did the same thing in Italy, by sending Austrian troops to Italy, where the people there attempted to exercise a like measure of liberal constitutional self-government; and it was not until the printing press, which the Holy Alliance so stoutly opposed, taught the people of Europe the value of liberty that finally one country after another seized a greater and greater right of self government, until now it may be fairly said that nearly all the nations of Europe have a very large measure of self government.


However, I wish to call the attention of the Senate and the country to this important history in the growth of constitutional popular self-government. The Holy Alliance made its powers felt by the wholesale drastic suppression of the press in Europe, by universal censorship, by killing free speech and all ideas of popular rights, and by the complete suppression of popular government. The Holy Alliance having destroyed popular government in Spain and in Italy, had well-laid plans also to destroy popular government in the American colonies which had revolted from Spain and Portugal in Central and South America under the influence of the successful example of the United States.


It was because of this conspiracy against the American Republics by the Europian monarchies that the great English statesman, Canning, called the attention of our government to it, and our statesmen then, including Thomas Jefferson, took an active part to bring about the declaration by President Monroe in his next annual message to the Congress of the United States that the United States should regard it as an act of hostility to the government of the United States and an unfriendly act if this coalition or if any power of Europe ever undertook to establish upon the American Continent any control of any American Republic or to acquire any territorial rights.


This is the so-called Monroe doctrine. The threat under the secret treaty of Verona to suppress popular governments in the American Republics is the basis of the Monroe doctrine. This secret treaty sets forth clearly the conflict between monarchial government and popular government and the government of the few as against the government of the many.


It is a part, in reality, of developing popular sovereignty when we demand for women equal rights to life, to liberty, to the possession of property, to an equal voice in the making of the laws and the administration of the laws. This demand on the part of the women is made by men, and it ought to be made by men as well as by thinking, progressive women, as it will promote human liberty and human happiness. I sympathize with it, and I hope that all parties will in the national conventions give their approval to this larger measure of liberty to the better half of the human race.







For a full discussion of the danger to the United States of this 'Holy Alliance', and of the political involvement of the papacy, its goals, methods, etc, read Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States, by Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph and of the Morse Code).





Source: http://jmgainor.homestead.com/files/PU/MDPC/LA/stv.htm

P.S. Thanks Greg S, for the insight.

DID BUSH MEET W BLACK POPE?


2001 PRESIDENT BUSH WITH
CATHOLIC BISHOPS.

DID PRESIDENT BUSH RENDEZVOUS WITH HANS KOLVENBACH, THE JESUIT GENERAL, ON HIS RECENT "BARNSTORM-ING" OF THE OLDE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE? CHARLEMAGNE'S OLD DOMINION?
WHY WOULD HE NOT HAVE AN AUDIENCE WITH THE SECRETIVE, MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD? WOULD PRESIDENT BUSH FAIL TO PARLEY WITH THE MAN AT THE TOP OF THE REALM OF THE JESUIT (AS IN NEW WORLD) ORDER?
WE KNOW HE MET ALL THE DIGNITARIES OF THE "G8" COUNTRIES WHILE VISITING THE FATHERLAND (DEUTSCHLAND). HE MET WITH FRAU ANGELA (ANGAALA) MERKLE, THE HEAD OF GERMANY, und ROMANO PRODI HIS COUNTER-PART IN ITALY. WHY WOULDN'T HE MEET HANS?
WELL, AS THE SAYING GOES IN THE NEWS BIZ, "ALL NEWS IS NOT FIT TO PRINT". BUT, IF A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS, DOES IT MAKE ANY (SOUND) NOISE?

JOE LIEBERMAN TELEGRAPHS A STRIKE

SCOOP, NEWS SCOOP:
SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN, D/CONN. SUGGESTS A STRIKE AGAINST IRAN IS NEEDED.
Joe Lieberman
Senator Joseph Lieberman while appearing on CBS "Face the Nation"(with Bob Shieffer), today June 10, 2007, at approx. 10:40 AM, hinted that it might well be required for the U.S. to strike Iran. He stated that he had just come back from Iraq, and had seen that Iran was financing and sending Al Qaeda Terrorists to fight in Iraq. Sen. Lieberman also stated having visited Israel in his recent middle-east trip.
Sen. Lieberman was interviewed just after the half-way mark of the Sunday morning political interview. He followed Tony Snow who was talking about his Cancer treatment: Stating that by Saturday afternoon he felt great, after all the Cancer treatment. Then, came the "bomb shell", Joe Lieberman stepped to the plate, and it was a "Grand Slam".
For the affable, monotone, Joe Lieberman to insinuate that a limited strike against Iran (a sovereign, yet bellicose, nation) was needed to prevent the infiltration of Al Qaeda agitators coming into Iraq. What??? Another preemptive strike?
It's as if Underdog had stepped into that phone booth, and out came the super hero; Joe the Hawk?
Well, you can't make this stuff up. I saw it, and heard it with my own ears. Check the headlines, you'll see.
I said I had a scoop, but, it's from the bottom of the barrel of the absurd!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

ARK OF HOPE

The Earth Charter Last Updated: Jan 5th, 2006 - 16:15:24

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“Ark of Hope” Comes to Rockford

Dr. James C. Warner
December 16, 2002

Source: The New American

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When I received the September 23rd issue of The New American, I was immediately captivated by the headline for William F. Jasper’s article on “The New World Religion.” Being a student of the Bible and various faiths/religions, I was interested in the topic.

Mr. Jasper wrote about the United Nations’ Earth-centered “religion,” devoting major space to something called the “Ark of Hope.” He described this ark as a blasphemous copy of the biblical Ark of the Covenant, in which Moses placed the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a sample of the manna that God sent from heaven. Instead of the Ten Commandments, the Ark of Hope contains a papyrus version of the Earth Charter and other writings, including those from children supposedly expressing their hopes and aspirations for the world.

My first impression was that The New American had perhaps exaggerated somewhat. I had never heard of an Ark of Hope, and I try to be well-read in such topics. I showed the article to my assistant, Mrs. Jacque Swanson, who, like me, is a born-again Christian. But after that I did not give the article much thought — until Mrs. Swanson called my home a few weeks later on the evening of Friday, November 1st, to ask if I had read the local paper. I had not, so she read the article to me. We were both astounded to learn that the Ark of Hope would be in our community (Rockford, Illinois) for the weekend!

And so it was. Participants used the ark’s twin, 96-inch “unicorn horns” to parade the wooden box around town; the mayor joined in the activities at city hall; and public schoolchildren were conscripted to write about the ark and what it means to our aspirations for “a just, sustainable and peaceful global society,” as the Rockford Register Star put it.

The ark was even the center of attention in a religious “Ceremony of Hope,” celebrated on the Lord’s Day at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Mrs. Swanson and I attended to see for ourselves if the ark would be treated as an object of veneration.



Profane ritual: In ancient Israel, consecrated Levite priests bore the Ark of the Covenant, the vessel containing the Ten Commandments etched on Mt. Sinai by the finger of God. At a November 1st "Ceremony of Hope" at a Lutheran Church in Rockford, Illinois, self-appointed new age "Levites" carry the "Ark of Hope" containing the UN’s Earth Charter as part of a "Ceremony of Hope."
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The ceremony began with the singing of “Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace on Earth...,” which later led to the singing of “Let Peace Fill the Earth.” Neither song mentioned the Prince of Peace. The service reminded us of the ’60s hippie culture, with its calls for peace but no reference to the God who alone can bring peace.

A procession of modern-day “Levites” carried the ark with the unicorn horns to the altar. The readings included prayers authored by Native American chiefs, who said that we humans are brothers of the animals, forests, and mountains. One passage was: “The blood of our ancestors flows in our rivers.”

Pastor Jim Roberts said that it is time for Christians to “release Jesus.” We should not be so dogmatic in our beliefs. We need to approach the world’s various cultures and say, “Tell us your story of creation. We want to hear.”

For the closing hymn, participants sang John Lennon’s subversive song Imagine: “Imagine there’s no heaven … no hell … no countries ... no religion ...[and] no possessions.... I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” The “Levites” dressed in Christian cleric garb then carried the ark to the back of the church.

About 30-35 people attended this ceremony, my assistant and myself included. But the Ark of Hope/Earth Charter promoters do not mention low numbers in their public announcements, since they want to create the appearance of broad support. They intend to bring the Earth Charter up for a vote by our city council in the next couple months. Fortunately, there is time to give every city council member a copy of “The New World Religion” prior to the vote. This fraud will be exposed for what it is.
Dr. Warner practices chiropractic medicine in Rockford, Illinois.




© 2006 http://www.getusout.org/ is a campaign of The John Birch Society

Source: http://www.getusout.org/artman/publish/article_46.shtml

TALIBAN GETS UPPER HAND

Saturday 9th June, 2007


Taliban getting the upper hand in Afghanistan



Foreign powers are clearly failing in Afghanistan; they neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the stability and rebuilding of the country - 60 percent of Afghanistan's economy is now dependent on narcotics exports.



(Op-ed) Ramzy Baroud
Saturday 9th June, 2007

In a statement made available through the country's Foreign Office, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri chastised the "international community" for the "abandonment" of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989.

In his estimation, it was this attitude that created the conditions which eventually culminated in the rise of the Taliban, the hosts of al-Qaeda.

The statement was reportedly made at the G-8 Foreign Ministers' recent conference in Potsdam, Germany, according to Pakistan's Daily Times. Kasuri was, expectedly, packaging his critique within a context specific to Pakistan's own concerns: namely the 2.4 million Afghani refugees - according to UNHCR figures - and who have crossed the border into Pakistan seeking shelter and relative safety. Moreover, Pakistan, under consistent censure for allegedly failing to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operating around its Western border, deployed 90,000 soldiers into those regions; border skirmishes, sporadic gun battles but increasingly sustained bombardment campaigns of tribal areas - suspected of being safe haven for al-Qaeda militants - have left thousands dead and wounded since the American war on Afghanistan in October 2001.

The tension created by Pakistan's somewhat proxy role in reining in US foes is complicating the government's mission in asserting itself as an independent entity whose main concern is the welfare of its own people. But tension in Pakistan, which runs through tribal and political lines, is hardly comparable to the simmering situation in Afghanistan itself, where anger directed at the Kabul government and its Coalition benefactors is boiling to the point that another violent upsurge is imminent.

Hamid Karazi, crown president of Afghanistan in charade elections to rule over a disjointed country and discontented population is still incapable of exercising his power beyond the municipal borders of the capital; but even
that level of control is gradually more difficult to maintain as a spate of suicide bombers is promising to turn Kabul into another Baghdad. But since his ascent to power in October 2004, Karzai has little to show for, save endless pledges of financial support he solicited, 40 billion USD to be exact, out of which little arrived, and the money that was made available is hardly improving people's lives - corruption in Afghanistan is,
unsurprisingly, rife. Billions have been spent in Afghanistan nonetheless, by NATO/US forces on military equipment, whose firepower ffectiveness is anything but debatable among Afghani civilians.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead reported on May 31, "Afghans' Anger over US Bombing" merely details one of many such incidents in which scores of innocent civilians are killed; such reports are ever more rare since they
are simply not newsworthy - the worth of a news story from Afghanistan is measured by whether Coalition forces incurred causalities or not. The recent killings in the village of Shindand in the Zerkoh Valley, Western Afghanistan was harrowing by any standards. 57 were reportedly killed by American bombardment; half of the dead were women and children, according to Leithead; the bombardment also destroyed 100 homes, humble dwellings that are unlikely to be rebuilt soon.

"The bombardments were going on day and night. Those who tried to get out somewhere safe were being bombed. They didn't care if it was women, children or old men," said one of the survivors. But who would believe Mohammad Zarif Achakzai, who fled his mud house with his family under the relentless bombardment? Brig Gen Joseph Votel has simply dismissed the reports of civilian causalities. "We have no reports that confirm to us that non-combatants were injured or killed out in Shindand," he said. And that is that.

Shindand is not under Taliban control, at least not yet. Much of the country, mostly in the south but increasingly elsewhere is falling under the control of Taliban extremists. The Taliban offers job security to the men and an opportunity for revenge and even martyrdom; in many parts of Afghanistan, such offers are exceedingly appealing.

Fearless British journalist Chris Sands of the Independent, one of very few journalists reporting from Taliban controlled areas, tells me that it's only a matter of time before Afghanistan turns into an Iraq-like inferno. Indeed, Taliban's regrouping efforts have been astonishingly successful as of late. Taliban militants have managed to ambush and kill 16 government police officers just hours after killing seven Coalition soldiers - including five Americans - by shooting down their chopper over the Helmand province on May 30. These confirmed numbers are often balanced out with unconfirmed government report of many of the Taliban's militants killed by government forces; it's often the case that these reports overlook the much higher number of civilian casualties.

Foreign powers are clearly failing in Afghanistan; they neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the stability and rebuilding of the country in any meaningful way - 60 percent of the country's economy is now dependent on narcotics exports. In fact, Afghanistan represents a perfect case of the
proverbial "cut and run" that President George Bush avows not to commit in Iraq. Needless to say, the only assignment that the US and its allies seem seriously committed to is that of maintaining its military regime, predicated on the utter reliance of firepower regardless of the outcome.

Afghanistan's two foreign military missions: Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), with its 37,000 troops and the US-led Coalition: Operation Enduring Freedom are affectively losing their pseudo control over
the country. Taliban is gaining strength and is regenerating, not because of their remarkable theological alternative to democracy, but precisely because all of the rosy promises made late 2001 and early 2002 yielded a most
repressive regime, marred with corruption, insecurity, warlords, and incessant Coalition attacks on civilian localities throughout the country.

When Afghans turn back into supporting the Taliban, one can only imagine how
desperate they've become.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Kasuri is obviously right, though his intentions might be self-serving; "abandonment" is a befitting term to describe the so-called international community's attitude towards Afghanistan; that abandonment brought the Taliban to power following the chaos resulting from the ousting of the Soviets and their puppet regime in 1989 - subsequent civil war in Afghanistan then killed more than 50,000 people in Kabul alone - is shaping a bizarrely similar scenario that is giving rise to the same loathed grouping; The Taliban could soon find itself in a strong bargaining position, that even the Americans themselves cannot ignore; the Taliban's "Spring Offensive" might've been delayed, but the balance is clearly tipping in favor of the Taliban, in a war that promises more of the same sorrows.

-Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian author and journalist. His latest volume: The
Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press: London) is available at Amazon.com. He is the editor of
PalestineChronicle.com and can be contacted at editor@palestinechronicle.com

Source: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=255542

MONITORING AMERICANS



Monitoring Americans




http://www.jbs.org/node/3682





In New York City they show up out of the blue, unannounced and unexpected. Dressed all in black, gloved hands clutching menacing assault rifles or short-barreled shotguns, heads covered with storm-trooper helmets, they clamber out onto the crowded streets where stunned New Yorkers look on in awe and fearful silence. “No one sees them coming,” wrote Popular Mechanics contributing editor Brad Reagan in a special story on the NYPD in June 2006. “There are no flashing lights, no sirens. The black suburban simply glides out of Fifth Avenue traffic and pulls into a no-parking zone in front of the Empire State Building.”


This paramilitary show of force is put on periodically by a special group of NYPD officers known as a “Hercules” team. Its abrupt appearance on the streets of the Big Apple is designed, according to the Suburban Emergency Management Project (SEMP) — a clearinghouse for disaster preparedness information — to be “asymmetrical, unpredictable and they deliberately follow no pattern.”


It’s also designed to deliver shock and awe to onlookers and to potential terrorists. When a Hercules team is deployed, a detective from the NYPD’s Intelligence Division monitors its actions remotely via video camera. One of these detectives, Abad Nieves, spoke to Popular Mechanics about the purpose of Hercules team deployments. “The response we usually get is, ‘Holy s***!’” Nieves told Popular Mechanics. “That’s the reaction we want. We are in the business of scaring people — we just want to scare the right people.”


But who wouldn’t be scared by the sudden appearance of heavily armed commandos on what is otherwise a peaceful, civilian street? And being too surprised by the deployments might be just enough to get you into trouble with the NYPD. According to Popular Mechanics’ Brad Reagan, when Nieves is monitoring Hercules team deployments, “he monitors the response of people loitering in the area. Is anyone making notes or videotaping? Does anyone seem especially startled by the out-of-the-blue appearance of a heavily armed NYPD squad?”


Supporters say that deployments of paramilitary squads like the Hercules teams are probably somewhat effective as a deterrent of terrorism. Increased NYPD activity near the Brooklyn Bridge is, for instance, credited with preventing a terrorist attack aimed at destroying that national landmark. In 2002, Pakistani Lyman Faris, an al-Qaeda operative who was also being used as a double agent by the FBI, was supposedly sent by the terrorist organization to reconnoiter the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a plot to destroy the structure. Police presence there allegedly deterred the attack. According to a report in the Telegraph, a British paper, Faris “sent a coded email to al-Qa’eda leaders, telling them: ‘The weather is too hot,’” an apparent reference to NYPD activity.


But even if paramilitary deployments prove somewhat helpful in the fight against terrorism, they come at a substantial cost to privacy and freedom. There is a proper role for police in a free society. They are needed to protect lives and property, to respond in emergencies, and investigate crimes — and the NYPD and America’s other local police departments have long served admirably and honorably in this role. But in a militarized society, one in which the police are no longer accountable to local civil authorities and become instead an instrument of a central government in Washington, the central government could be expected to abuse its newfound law-enforcement powers. And the police, rather than being a representative body of and within society, could be converted into agents of oppression and arbitrary force.


During a transition to a militarized society, government, jealous of its special position and prerogatives, begins to fear the people it was originally intended to protect. Like a frightened animal, it can respond with aggression, and the agency through which that aggression propagates is often the police.


To a substantial degree this illuminates the NYPD’s decision to utilize Hercules teams. The only reason to send an armed brigade into the streets as a random show of force is because all citizens are now suspect and all activities are now suspicious. But paramilitary police teams are only the most aggressive, and therefore noticeable, aspect of the post-9/11 world. Across the country, in ways sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious, government seems increasingly suspicious of its citizens and Americans as a result are coming under an increasing amount of surveillance.


This trend runs counter to American legal tradition and philosophy. In a free society, citizens are innocent until proven guilty. If government, the arbiter of the law, presumes its citizens are innocent, it has no reason to keep them under surveillance. The fact that government now is increasingly surveilling civil society strongly indicates that government no longer trusts the people. In a society in which police task forces are used to intimidate citizens and in which people are placed under constant surveillance, government no longer serves the people, but seeks to be their master. This adversarial relationship between citizens and the state has increasingly characterized the United States since 9/11 — and the result is a society in which citizens come under increasing and near-constant scrutiny by government.


Spy Nation


In 1787, British economist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed a new design for a prison that he called “Panopticon,” which he believed could be used to keep inmates more thoroughly under the control of jailers by either keeping them under surveillance at all times or by making them believe that they were under such surveillance, even when they weren’t. According to French philosopher Michel Foucalt, the purpose of the Bentham’s Panopticon is “to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action.”


Even though Bentham proposed that the Panopticon could in principle be expanded beyond the confines of a single building or institution, he’d no doubt be surprised that, in the 21st century, his vision for a surveillance state had been extended across the whole of society. Hard as it is even for those who live in the modern world to believe, everyone today lives under the threat of near-constant surveillance. Today’s reality is that of the Panopticon brought to life, of the “Big Brother” state firmly rooted not just in the fiction of the novel 1984, but also in the reality of 2007. (For more on George Orwell and 1984, see article "Orwell Was Right and Wrong.")


The most obvious tools of this surveillance state are the now almost-ubiquitous closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras that have increasingly popped up on commercial buildings, street corners, highways, and intersections. In New York City, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) points out that a 2005 “survey found 4176 cameras below Fourteenth Street, more than five times the 769 cameras counted in that area in 1998.” The New York system is still expanding. According to the NYCLU, “The New York City Police Department, spurred by the promise of $9 million in Federal Homeland Security grants and up to $81.5 million in federal counter-terrorism funding, announced this year that it plans to create ‘a citywide system of closed-circuit televisions’ operated from a single control center.”


Video surveillance is not just confined to New York City. CCTV cameras are showing up in significant numbers around the country. Proponents argue that the law-abiding have nothing to fear — after all, if you have nothing to hide, why worry about the cameras? Columnist Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine is worried: “Knowing that you are being watched by armed government agents tends to put a damper on things. You don’t want to offend them or otherwise call attention to yourself,” he says. Sooner or later, he writes, “people may learn to be careful about the books and periodicals they read in public, avoiding titles that might alarm unseen observers. They may also put more thought into how they dress, lest they look like terrorists, gang members, druggies or hookers.” More to the point, perhaps they will worry about how they look to the NYPD Hercules team.


And perhaps they should also worry about how they sound, and whether or not they want a faceless government bureaucrat eavesdropping on their private conversations, since online privacy, and the privacy and security of personal and business phone calls, is also becoming a thing of the past. According to several former AT&T employees, the communications company has been cooperating with the secretive National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans’ online activities.


Based on revelations from retired AT&T technician Mark Klein, in April 2006 Wired News reported: “AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers’ phone calls, and shunted its customers’ internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center.”
In a statement Klein recalled:



While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal. I saw this in a design document available to me, entitled “Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco” dated Dec. 10, 2002. I also saw design documents dated Jan. 13, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2003, which instructed technicians on connecting some of the already in-service circuits to the “splitter” cabinet, which diverts some of the light signal to the secret room. The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect Worldnet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world.




One of the documents listed the equipment installed in the secret room, and this list included a Narus STA 6400, which is a “Semantic Traffic Analyzer.” The Narus STA technology is known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets. The company’s advertising boasts that its technology “captures comprehensive customer usage data … and transforms it into actionable information.... [It] provides complete visibility for all internet applications.”



According to Klein, similar NSA installations were performed at other AT&T facilities around the country. One of the main locations, according to other whistle-blowers who came forward to speak with the online magazine Salon, was in St. Louis. There, according to the AT&T workers who spoke to Salon, secret government work has been underway in a highly secured room in an important AT&T facility. According to one of the unidentified workers, “It was very hush-hush. We were told there was going to be some government personnel working in that room. We were told, ‘Do not try to speak to them. Do not hamper their work. Do not impede anything that they’re doing.’”


What they have been doing has been open to speculation, but at least one former NSA agent believes the operation is likely to be run by his former employer. “You’re talking about a backbone for computer communications, and that’s NSA,” former NSA officer Russ Tice told Salon. “Whatever is happening there with the security you’re talking about is a whole lot more closely held than what’s going on with the Klein case,” he concluded. How invasive could the snooping be? “The network sniffer with the right software can capture anything,” one of the whistle-blowers told Salon. “You can get people’s e-mail, VoIP phone calls [calls made over the Internet] — even passwords and credit card transactions — as long as you have the right software to decrypt that.”


All of this snooping has been forced on carriers by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Enacted in 1994 and expanded in 2005 by the FCC at the request of the Department of Justice and the FBI, the measure requires service providers to build surveillance technology into their networks. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog organization that closely follows issues related to online privacy and security, describes it this way: “If we applied the FBI’s logic to the phone system, it would state that every individual phone should be designed with built-in bugs. Consumers would simply have to trust law enforcement or the phone companies not to activate those bugs without just cause.” That trust, it seems, would be misplaced. In May 2006, USA Today reported: “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.” No doubt the technology installations reported by Klein and the other AT&T employees who have come forward have played a key role in the collection of this data.


Though the Bush administration argues that the snooping is legal under the president’s current authority, the surveillance is really an unreasonable search and seizure and an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, according to a number of constitutional scholars and former government officials who wrote an open letter to Congress that was published in the New York Review of Books on February 9, 2006. The authors, who included former FBI Director William S. Sessions, Harvard law professor Laurence H. Tribe, and University of Chicago constitutional law professor Geoffrey Stone, wrote: “Although the program’s secrecy prevents us from being privy to all of its details, the Justice Department’s defense of what it concedes was secret and warrantless electronic surveillance of persons within the United States fails to identify any plausible legal authority for such surveillance. Accordingly the program appears on its face to violate existing law.”


It is a matter that hopefully will find a hearing in a courtroom. On January 31, 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class action suit against AT&T “accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans’ communications.” The Bush administration has sought to stymie the lawsuit, filing a motion to dismiss in May 2006. That failed, and now the administration is seeking congressional help in granting immunity to the service providers who cooperated with the NSA program. According to the April 14 New York Times, the Bush administration has proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 that “would provide new legal immunity for telecommunications companies that have been sued for cooperating with the government as it conducts domestic wiretapping.” This drew the ire of Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who pointed out that the White House has not given Congress information about the role played by the companies in the NSA program. “That provision is a pig in the poke,” Specter said according to the Times. “There has never been a statement from the administration as to what these companies have done. That’s an intolerable situation.”


Future Surveillance


The next step in surveillance comes straight from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second version of Gene Roddenberry’s iconic sci-fi program. In that program the location of any officer can be tracked via his or her communicator. In real life, existing technology is moving just as fast. Today almost all off-the-shelf cellphones — the real-life equivalent of the Star Trek communicator — have unique serial numbers, are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities, and, as long as they are on, send frequent signals to cellphone towers. All told, these capabilities mean that cellphone operators — and regulatory agencies — have the ability to know where each and every one of their customers is at all times, as long as the user’s cellphone is not switched off.


Missouri is slated to be the first state to begin systematically monitoring users’ cellphone signals. As part of a Missouri Department of Transportation project, state officials were to begin using cellphone signals to monitor traffic flow on 5,500 miles of the state’s roads and highways in 2006. The Missouri system will work by plotting cellphone signals on a map of the highway system, providing real-time information on the location and speed of each cellphone.


The system is supposed to be anonymous, but with enough data contained in each cellphone stream, the tracked data could prove tempting to law enforcement and state security officials who may want to take the system to the next level. “Each phone is uniquely identified and the information is compared with a highway map to record on what road each motorist is traveling at any given time,” reported TheNewspaper.com, which describes itself as an online journal of the politics of driving. “The system also records the speed of each vehicle, opening up another potential ticketing technology.” The Missouri plan has raised privacy concerns. “Even though it’s anonymous, it’s still ominous,” Daniel Solove, a privacy law professor at George Washington University, told the Associated Press. “It troubles me because it does show this movement toward using a technology to track people.”


Cellphones, however, are not the only technologies that could be used to track people without their knowledge. These days, in the age of highly computerized and automated cars, it may be your vehicle that is spying on you. If you own a luxury car with an always-available roadside assistance program like GM’s OnStar system, the technology can be used to eavesdrop on car occupants. That, in fact, has already happened, prompting a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as long ago as 2003.


According to technology reporter Declan McCullagh of c/net News, the court ruled in a case in which “FBI agents remotely activated the system and were listening in, [and] passengers in the vehicle could not tell that their conversations were being monitored.” The court found that this potentially interfered in the contractual agreement between the service provider and the customer on grounds that the FBI monitoring may have made the system inaccessible when, under the contract, the customer had a reasonable expectation that the system would be available at all times.


David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center characterized the ruling as only a “pyrrhic victory” for privacy. According to Sobel, “The problem [the court had] with the surveillance was not based on privacy grounds at all. It was more interfering with the contractual relationship between the service provider and the customer, to the point that the service was being interrupted. If the surveillance was done in a way that was seamless and undetectable, the court would have no problem with it.”


That’s not the only way cars can spy on their owners. Most new cars today include a black box that is similar to, if not as capable as, the black boxes that capture data about flight characteristics and operation in airplanes. In cars they are known as “event data recorders” (EDRs), and they typically record and store up to 20 seconds or more in data about the manner in which a car is being operated.


EDR technology is new and its current capabilities only hint at what is to come, leading to worries that cars of the near future will continuously spy on their owners. “There are a number of directions in which this technology is likely to go,” wrote the Cato Institute’s Jim Harper. “It could collect and retain more information for longer periods. It could interact with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to record where a car has traveled. And it could combine with communications systems to signal authorities in real time.”


A Police State?


In its discussion of surveillance trends and technologies, the Electronic Frontier Foundation observed: “Most kinds of surveillance have gotten much easier in the digital age. Agents can tap mobile phones, gain access to reams of electronic communications such as email, conduct DNA identification tests, and track people’s locations using cell phone signals.” Moreover, as the NYPD has demonstrated with its Hercules deployments, some police departments are willing to dispatch officers on missions to intimidate civilians. Many suggest that these developments are needed to ensure security, but because these efforts cast such a wide net, they suggest that government has had a profound loss of trust in its own citizens and now views all citizens with suspicion — a situation that seems to be leading to the construction of an all-encompassing police/surveillance state.


Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul brought this issue to the floor of the House of Representatives on June 27, 2002. “With respect to a police state, where are we and where are we going?” Congressman Paul asked. “Let me make a few observations: Our government already keeps close tabs on just about everything we do and requires official permission for nearly all of our activities. One might take a look at our Capitol for any evidence of a police state. We see: barricades, metal detectors, police, military soldiers at times, dogs, ID badges required for every move, vehicles checked at airports and throughout the Capitol. The people are totally disarmed, except for the police and the criminals. But worse yet, surveillance cameras in Washington are everywhere to ensure our safety.”


In 2002, despite his ominous observations, Congressman Paul decided that America is not yet a police state, but that “it is fast approaching.” Five years later, America is still not a police state, but we are much closer to its realization than many of us may think. For now, many of the tools of surveillance are still controlled by disparate authorities at the local, state, and federal levels. But, as with local police generally, local agencies are coming more and more under the control of the executive branch of the federal government. Human nature being what it is, the accumulation of what is becoming a monopoly of power in Washington, D.C., will eventually be used to impose tyranny, unless of course we work to reverse that trend, and to maintain the separation of powers so essential to preserving our liberties.


permanent link


E. COLI EXPANDS

Meat recall expands again on E. coli fears

Up to 5.7 million pounds of beef in 11 states may be contaminated


NBC video
Updated Video Major beef recall
June 9: The U.S. Agriculture Department has announced that United Food Group is expanding an earlier recall of ground beef products because of a possible E. coli contamination. NBC’s Tom Costello has more.

Nightly News


MSNBC News Services
Updated: 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Southern California meatpacker United Food Group LLC expanded a recall to include 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef that may be contaminated with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Saturday.

Fourteen people in six Western states have fallen ill after eating the beef but all have recovered, the department said.

The beef was butchered and shipped in April, and is no longer on store shelves.


“However the products could be in consumers’ freezers and it is important that consumers look for and return th products if they find them,” the department said in a statement on its Web site.

United Food recalled 75,000 pounds of beef on June 3 and an additional 370,000 pounds three days later.

“The recall is being expanded out of an abundance of caution following a positive test of fresh ground beef subject to this recall provided by a patient in Arizona,” the statement said.

The ground beef products subject to recall were produced between April 6 and April 20 and were shipped to retail stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They were sold under brand names Moran’s All Natural, Miller Meat Company, Stater Bros., Inter-American Products, Inc., and Basha’s.

The grocery stores affected included Albertson’s, Basha’s, Grocery Outlet, Fry’s, “R” Ranch Markets, Save-A-Lot, Save-Mart, Scolari’s Wholesale Markets, Smart and Final, Smith’s, Stater Bros., Superior Warehouse and Trader Joe's.

The labels of the products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 1241” inside the USDA mark of inspection or printed on the package.

All of the products bear a use by/sell by date between April 15 and May 07, a freeze by date between April 23 and May 7 or a production date between April 6 and April 20. The frozen ground beef patty products bear a sell by date between August 6 and January 20, 2008, the department said.

Another meat recall
On Friday, Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. recalled more than 40,000 pounds of ground beef shipped to Wal-Mart stores in 12 states after samples tested at a Sherman, Texas, plant showed signs of E. coli contamination.

No illnesses had been tied to the Tyson products. Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. said the recall was not related to contaminated ground beef distributed by United Food Group LLC.

The recalled Tyson products were sent to Wal-Mart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, Tyson said.

Symptoms of E. coli include stomach cramps that may be severe and diarrhea that may turn bloody within one to three days. E. coli sometimes can lead to complications including kidney failure.

Customers with questions about the recall can call United Food Group’s hot line at 1-800-325-4164. Those with recalled products should either throw the product away or return to point of purchase for a refund.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A NATION FORSAKEN BY ALMIGHTY GOD

Last Trumpet Newsletter

Volume XXVI Issue VI June 2007
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Fax: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will look intently at our erstwhile great nation of the United States of America from a scriptural and spiritual perspective. As we do this, we will especially focus on this awesome question: What happens to a nation that has forsaken God for so long that finally God forsakes that nation? What would become of such a nation as that? What would be the characteristics of a nation that has damned itself to the extent that Almighty God would withdraw His restraining power and allow the critical mass of sin and iniquity to increase to a point of total meltdown? This is what happened to Israel long ago, and now it is happening to America.

READ MORE: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/2007/June2007.html

POPE TELLS BUSH HE WANTS......

Pope tells Bush he wants regional fix for Mideast

Sat Jun 9, 2007 9:11AM EDT



By Caren Bohan and Philip Pullella


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday that the Vatican would like a "regional and negotiated" solution to Middle East conflicts, as anti-U.S. protesters converged on Rome.


Bush told the pontiff, in what was their first meeting, that he believed the Group of Eight summit in Germany had been a success, and made a conspiratorial quip in front of the media about his dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


"It's good to be with you sir," Bush said as he sat before the pontiff's private desk in the Vatican. Both men appeared relaxed, smiling and sometimes laughing.

When the Pope mentioned Bush had come from the world powers' summit, Bush said: "I did -- your old country -- and it was successful ... A lot of different opinions, but it was good."


Asked if his dialogue with Putin -- closely watched because of a number of sharp disagreements between Russia and the West -- had been good, Bush responded with a smile as reporters were being ushered out of the room.


"I'll tell you in a minute," he said.


The Vatican said in a statement that Benedict and Bush had discussed the Middle East and the Holy See's "hope for a regional and negotiated solution to the conflicts that afflict that region".


Bush also told the Pope in front of reporters about what he called "the very strong AIDS initiative" at the G8.




The Group of Eight world powers pledged $60 billion to fight diseases ravaging Africa -- although much of the sum was made up of existing pledges.


Bush and the pontiff see eye-to-eye on ethical issues such as abortion and euthanasia but are divided over the war in Iraq, which Benedict's predecessor, John Paul, tried hard to avert.


Bush told an Italian newspaper last week that his intention was "mainly to listen" to the Pope. Bush also said he would be eager to discuss changes in China and the future of post-Castro Cuba if the Pope wanted.


SECURITY FEARS

Bush and his wife Laura, who was wearing a black outfit and veil, took a more circuitous route to the Vatican than usual, which disappointed thousands waiting to see him.

It was not clear if this was for security reasons, although 10,000 police were deployed as a precaution in central Rome.


Leftists and pacifists opposed to the war in Iraq and the expansion of a U.S. military base in northern Italy took trains to Rome for mass protests likely to echo those at the G8.


Many who elected Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition -- which is critical of U.S. foreign policy -- as well as some of Prodi's own members of parliament were set to join the rallies, which organizers promised would be peaceful.


"Bush is the biggest international terrorist. It's a disgrace the Italian government elected by the votes of pacifists should invite him to this country," said Elio Luppoli, arriving in Rome with about 70 protesters from Milan.



"Prodi has offered Bush Italian bases for his foreign policy, so if you're anti-Bush it's logical to be anti-Prodi," said Marco Ferrando of the Communist Workers' Party.


Fears that the protest might turn violent were highlighted by the cancellation of Bush's planned visit to Rome's colorful Trastevere quarter, where he was to have met leaders of the Sant'Egidio Roman Catholic community.


One of Rome's oldest neighborhoods, its narrow, cobbled alleys would have been awkward for the presidential motorcade.


The Sant'Egidio group, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because of its work brokering peace and fighting AIDS in Africa, was due to meet Bush at the U.S. embassy instead.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Stephen Brown, Toby Zakaria, Deepa Babington, Roberto Landucci, Antonella Ciancio)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0883412320070609?pageNumber=1

BUSH MEETS POPE

Bush meets pope, defends record


POSTED: 7:10 a.m. EDT, June 9, 2007

Story Highlights

• Bush at the Vatican Saturday for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI
• Bush defends humanitarian record, discussing efforts to battle AIDS in Africa
• Protests expected by anti-war protesters during Bush's one-day visit to Rome

story.bushsat.afp.gi.jpg

U.S. President George W. Bush arrives at the Vatican Saturday for his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI.




story.bushpope.afp.gi.jpg

U.S. President George W. Bush shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI as they meet at the Vatican on Saturday.

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush defended his humanitarian record around the world at his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI, telling the pontiff on Saturday about U.S. efforts to battle AIDS in Africa.

Dressed in a black suit and tie, with his wife by his side, Bush greeted Vatican officials outside before ascending the red carpeted stairs to meet the pope for the first time.

Once inside, the president was ushered into a large, ornate room where the pope greeted him with an extended hand and smile. The two sat and talked at a desk in the open room while a group of photographers snapped pictures of the encounter.

It was Bush's first trip to the Vatican since attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Benedict's predecessor, in 2005.

The pope asked the president about his meetings with leaders of other industrialized nations in Germany and then changed the topic to international aid.

"I've got a very strong AIDS initiative," Bush said, according to The Associated Press.

The president promised the pope that he would work to get Congress to double the current U.S. commitment for combatting AIDS in Africa to $30 billion over the next five years.

At the G8 summit in Germany leaders of the world's richest countries pledged $60 billion to fight diseases such as AIDS in Africa. (Full story)

The pope also asked Bush about his meeting in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has criticized a U.S. missile shield in Europe.

"The dialogue with Putin was also good?" the pope asked.

Bush, apparently looking at photographers and reporters who were about to be escorted from the room, replied, according to AP: "Umm. I'll tell you in a minute."

CNN's Ed Henry reported that moving throughout Rome was difficult Saturday due to security barricades and other restrictions implemented in light of the large anti-war protests going on in the city, where about 10,000 police were on duty.

The president had pledged to be in a "listening mode" during talks with Benedict, which were also expected to touch on the controversial war in Iraq.

"I think His Holy Father will be pleased to know that much of our foreign policy is based on the admonition to whom much is given, much is required," Bush said in a pre-trip interview, according to AP.

He promised to "go in open-minded."

"Sometimes I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in the presence of the Holy Father. It is a moving experience," said Bush, a Methodist, of the Roman Catholic leader. "He's a good thinker and a smart man. I'll be in a listening mode."

The late Pope John Paul II vigorously opposed the war, which has been raised on occasion by Benedict. In his Easter message, Benedict said "nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees."

Bush began his day with a short meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Later, he planned to have longer talks and lunch with Prime Minister Romano Prodi, also just returned from the G8 meetings in Germany.

The U.S. president's arrival in Italy Friday coincided with the start of the trial of 33 people -- including 26 Americans -- the first trial in connection with extraordinary rendition, one of the most controversial aspects of Bush's war on terrorism.

'Free society'

Bush made a quick scheduled visit to Poland on Friday, after the G8 summit in Germany concluded, to thank President Lech Kaczynski for Polish support for a U.S. missile defense system on its soil. Bush also praised as "bold" Poland's decision to extend the deployment of 900 Polish soldiers in Iraq through 2007.

"I thank you, and I thank the people of Poland, for the sacrifices being made so that others may live in a free society," Bush said.

The United States plans to negotiate a "fair agreement" with Poland for 10 missile interceptor bases, Bush said. The plan for the bases "enhances the security of Poland and the security of the entire continent against rogue regimes who might be willing to try to blackmail free nations."

Kaczynski made clear that his country sees eye-to-eye with the United States on deployment of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, despite strong opposition from neighboring Russia.

"The system has no aggressive intentions," said Kaczynski, who accompanied Bush to the Baltic seaside town of Jurata. Such a system will "reinforce the protection of Europe against the dangers which result from the fact that not all the countries of the contemporary world are responsible -- although we do not mean Russia here," he added.

During meetings with Bush in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the missile interceptors instead be based in countries more friendly to Russia, such as Azerbaijan, or possibly in Iraq.

Bush has repeatedly said the deployment of a missile defense system would not be aimed at Russia. (Watch Bush describe what they agreed upon Video)

Bush met Friday with new French President Nicolas Sarkozy after skipping the morning session of the G8 summit due to what was described as a minor stomach ailment. He later rejoined the summit for its afternoon session after feeling "rejuvenated" by rest, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett said.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/09/bush.europe/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

NOTE: BLOGMASTER ADDED HIGHLIGHTS AND BOLDS!

BLIND LEAD THE BLIND?


And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? Luke 6:39.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3


























... and all the world wondered after the beast. Rev. 13:3



Friday, June 08, 2007

AVOID DECEPTION, TRY THE SPIRITS



2 Thessalonians 2




1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,


2That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.


3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;


4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.


5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?


6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.


7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.


8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:


9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,


10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.


11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:


12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.


13But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:


14Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.


15Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.


16Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,


17Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.







1 John 4:1-6.




1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.


2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:


3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.


4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.


5They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.


6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

<: BOLDS added for emphasis.