Monday, July 21, 2008

Troops sent to southern Philippines as attacks rise: military

Photo 1 of 2

Philippine troops stack their rifles at a camp in Manila before deployment to Mindanao island

Troops sent to southern Philippines as attacks rise: military

MANILA (AFP) — Hundreds of troops have been sent to the southern Philippines to tackle a rapid rise in communist guerrilla attacks on civilian targets, the military said Tuesday.

A battalion of mechanised infantry -- about 500 soldiers with tanks and armoured vehicles -- plus two field artillery batteries of about 200 gunners, deployed in Mindanao island on Sunday, said the region's military spokesman, Major Armand Rico.

The transfer of troops previously assigned in the north was in "response to the clamour of governors and mayors of (the region) to stop the criminal and terroristic acts of the godless communist terrorists," Rico told reporters.

Eastern Mindanao had seen "more than 100" attacks by the New People's Army (NPA) against mining firms, telecommunications towers and banana plantations in the first half of the year.

In the past year the 5,000-member Maoist guerrilla force had also attacked a resort island, two prison facilities and municipal police posts in eastern Mindanao as it stepped up its campaign to seize weapons and raise funds through extortion.

Last weekend the NPA set fire to a drilling rig at the Tampakan copper mining project of Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata plc.

Rico said the military figures excluded the rebels' unreported extortion efforts.

Four infantry divisions -- nearly half the Philippine Army -- are already deployed in Mindanao, with about half assigned to deal with the NPA threat to the north and east of the country's second largest island.

Western Mindanao is also a hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency, though a ceasefire is in effect amid peace talks.

Rico said the reinforcements would allow the military to field more mobile and more powerful units against the NPA in the gold-rich Compostela Valley region and around Davao city, centre of commercial farming.

He warned there was a danger of a "possible return of the chaotic situation during the 1980s," when the NPA operated out of the slums of major Mindanao cities and launched assassination campaigns against soldiers and police.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a 39-year armed campaign across the country.

Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hv1qj_L5priEXy2pKu1Ns5AyaGzg

Puerto Rico convention center goes green


Puerto Rico convention center goes green

Published on Monday, July 21, 2008

By MM Sierra
Caribbean Net News Puerto Rico Correspondent
Email: miranda@caribbeannetnews.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Following the recent pledge by Puerto Rico's government to convert several of its public properties into "green" buildings, the Puerto Rico Convention Center and the Coliseum of Puerto Rico have been tapped as the first properties on the island to be modified into eco-friendly buildings.

With an investment of $250,000 aimed at reducing the use of electricity and water within the District, the Puerto Rico Convention Center and other developments within the 113-acre District will decrease the use of water by 30 percent and the use of electricity by 50 percent, for ongoing savings of $450,000 per year once the project is completed.

After completely incorporating these initiatives, the buildings will receive the US Green Building Council's 'Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)' Certification, considered the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

According to the Director of Operations & Installations of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority Joaquín López, the organization has adopted a public policy of sustainability to ensure that all of the elements of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District are eco-friendly.

Key elements of the Puerto Rico Convention Center “green project” include:

  • The installation and use of automated control systems for air-conditioning and lighting of the facility, as well as the incorporation of natural lighting to reduce overall energy consumption.

  • Providing preferential parking spaces around the facility for hybrid cars, as well as enhancing and encouraging the use of public transportation to the District.

  • Replacing conventional lamps throughout the facility and District with lighting materials that consume less energy.

  • Landscaping the District with native plants and other flora that require less maintenance and require less water, as well as utilizing an automated watering system to conserve the use of water.

  • Implementing already-established eco-friendly policies and green standards for the Center. This includes utilizing green products such as recycled paper products and eco-friendly cleaning supplies in the use and maintenance of the facility, as well as requiring contractors to apply and adhere to green standards and practices in their work with the facility and District.

  • Maintaining already-established waste reduction and recycling programs.

"More and more convention and exhibition managers are seeking out "green" facilities for their meetings as well as looking for ways to reduce waste and decrease the impact of meetings on the environment," PRCC Executive Director Manuel Sánchez-Biscombe said.

"We strongly support these green initiatives and look forward to working with other tourism partners to establish new standards in eco-friendly and waste-conscious meetings."


Source: http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-9273--21-21--.html

Tenants homeless after explosion rocks building

Red Cross and City of Toronto staff have been helping residents who have been seeking shelter at a nearby elementary school.

Red Cross and City of Toronto staff have been helping residents who have been seeking shelter at a nearby elementary school.



The Ontario Fire Marshal's Office is probing the fire which sent nine firefighters to hospital with minor injuries.

The Ontario Fire Marshal's Office is probing the fire which sent nine firefighters to hospital with minor injuries.


Smoke pours out of the apartment during the fire on Second Avenue in Scarborough on Sunday, July 20, 2008. (Iwona Pawluk / MyNews.CTV.ca)

Smoke pours out of the apartment during the fire on Second Avenue in Scarborough on Sunday, July 20, 2008. (Iwona Pawluk / MyNews.CTV.ca)

Tenants homeless after explosion rocks building

Updated Mon. Jul. 21 2008 7:23 PM ET

ctvtoronto.ca

About 900 tenants of an east-end Toronto apartment building will have to find a new place to live for the next month as city officials investigate an underground explosion that rocked the property Sunday.

A structural engineer and the Fire Marshal's Office (FMO) has deemed the highrise building at 2 Secord Ave. unsafe after a hydro vault blew up, completely destroying an electrical room, several walls and a number of parked cars.

Fire crews were called to the building, in the Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road area at 10:43 a.m. Sunday after someone noticed smoke in the underground garage. Nine firefighters were slightly injured when the vault blew, sending a ball of fire about 30 feet in the air.

The firefighters, who suffered from concussions, smoke inhalation and second-degree burns, are all expected to recover.

The investigation and repairs will take at least four weeks, according to the FMO. A hydro worker said it was likely an isolated incided as the hydro vault underwent an inspection in 2006 and that at the time, "everything was functioning properly."

In the meantime, the building is being considered unsafe because it is without water, electricity and fire alarms.

Many of the building's residents are seniors who don't have anyone they can stay with, said Janet Davis, the local city councillor.

"Many of the tenants have pets in the building or they don't have family or friends to go to so we're going to do what we can to take care of them," she told reporters at the scene on Monday.

About 80 people sought shelter at a local elementary school.

She said despite the circumstances, then tenants are "remarkably calm and cooperative."

"They have shown tremendous strength," she said.

Many of the tenants were forced to leave their apartments without their wallets or a change of clothes. People were supposed to be allowed in at some point today to gather their belongings but emergency officials decided not to let the tenants in until later this week.

The priority, in the meantime, is to find them housing, said Davis.

In the meantime, residents are being asked to register at Secord Public School, which has become the headquarters for information.

The city will provide updates on the situation on their website. The building owner has also set up an information telephone line for residents at 416-429-0969.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Matet Nebres, Naomi Parness and Roger Petersen

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080721/homeless_tenants_080721/20080721?hub=Canada

Blackwater Plans to Expand Military Training,...

Blackwater helicopter over Iraq Republican palace. (jamesdale10Wikipedia)

Image: jamesdale10, Wikipedia

Jul 21, 2008
Amita Sharma

Blackwater Worldwide executives said today they plan to downsize the firm's security business. The controversial contractor plans to instead focus its efforts on expanding military training similar to what's offered at its new Otay Mesa facility. KPBS Reporter Amita Sharma.

Blackwater President Gary Jackson says in 2005 and 2006, security jobs like protecting U.S. diplomats, accounted for half of the company's business.
Now, it represents about 20 percent of the firm's contracts and Jackson says if he could take that cut down to 1 percent, he would. But company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell says Jackson and other Blackwater executives were not suggesting an exit from the security business altogether.

Tyrrell: In the future they said they envision an expansion of training, logistics and aviation support the company will provide its government clients. The story was about growth elsewhere and not an abandonment of any service we are currently providing.

Blackwater is training the Navy in counterrorism in Otay Mesa and Tyrrell says she sees the company pushing for more contracts with the military.
Amita Sharma, KPBS News.

Source: http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=12305

Tony Snow - Dies 1 Month After Tim Russert

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Further underscorces Jesuitical U.S. 'Mainstream' Media

Former GW Bush Administration press secretary whose earlier career was promoted via the 'ex' Jesuit led McLaughlin Group

From Wikipedia:

Early career

Snow began his journalism career in 1979 as an editorial writer for The Greensboro Record in North Carolina, next working as an editorial writer at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia (1981–82), editorial page editor of The Daily Press in Newport News (1982–84), deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News (1984–87) and editorial page editor of The Washington Times (1987–91). Also, The Detroit News published his commentary from 1993 to 2000, and he was a Counterpoint Columnist for USA Today from 1994 to 2000.

Snow also wrote a syndicated column for Creators Syndicate between 1993 and 2000. As a nationally syndicated columnist, his commentaries appeared in more than 200 newspapers nationwide. Snow won numerous awards during his print career, including citations from the Virginia Press Association, the Detroit Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, The Associated Press and Gannett.

He appeared on radio and television programs worldwide including The McLaughlin Group, The MacNeil–Lehrer NewsHour, Face the Nation, Crossfire, and Good Morning America. Until 1994, Snow was the writer, correspondent and host of the PBS news special The New Militant Center.

In 1991, Snow took a sabbatical from journalism to work in the White House for President George H. W. Bush, first as chief speechwriter (Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speechwriting) and later as Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs (1992–1993).

From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first host of FOX News Sunday, a Sunday morning interview and roundtable program produced by Fox News, airing on affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company and later in the day on Fox News Channel.

Snow served as the primary guest host of Rush Limbaugh's program from the mid-1990s on. He was also a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Snow's own Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio premiered in late 2003. It ended when he became White House Press Secretary in April 2006.


From Wikipedia:

Education and Early Career

McLaughlin earned two master's degrees (philosophy and English literature) from Boston College, and a Ph.D. (philosophy) from Columbia University. Upon entering the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church and being ordained a priest, McLaughlin spent years as a high school teacher at Fairfield College Preparatory School, a Jesuit prep school in Connecticut. A Republican, he originally opposed the Vietnam War and, in 1970, sought permission from his order to run for a seat in the United States Senate, representing Rhode Island. His superiors denied him this, even though they did grant permission to fellow Jesuit Father Robert Drinan to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts. McLaughlin defied his superiors and ran anyway, losing to the incumbent four-term Senator John O. Pastore.

Through a friendship with Pat Buchanan, McLaughlin became a war supporter and a speech writer/advisor to President Richard Nixon. Because priests are not allowed to take on political jobs, he was ordered by his Jesuit superiors to return to Boston and, rather than obey, he left the Society of Jesus.

Prior to entering broadcasting, he was associate editor of America, a weekly opinion journal. From 1981 to 1989, McLaughlin was Washington editor and author of the monthly political column, "From Washington Straight," for the National Review.

http://www.catholic.org/photos/photo.php?news=28568

http://www.catholic.org/photos/photo.php?news=28613


http://dcist.com/2008/07/17/tony_snow_funeral_well_attended.php#comments

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington was full of big name mourners this morning for the funeral of former White House Press Secretary and conservative commentator Tony Snow, who died from colon cancer last weekend at the age of 53.
http://www.nationalshrine.com/site/pp.asp?c=etITK6OTG&b=4345771

(excerpt)

MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL FOR ROBERT ANTHONY “TONY” SNOW

The Mass of Christian Burial for Robert Anthony “Tony” Snow was held at The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C on Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 10 a.m.

Well over 1000 people attended the Funeral Mass, including President George W. Bush who delivered a tribute in honor of his former Press Secretary, Tony Snow. Other attendees included First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Lynn Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Cabinet members, White House Administration Staff—past and present, members of Congress, colleagues from the press, family and friends.

Open to the public, some who attended the Mass included those who did not know Mr. Snow personally—but felt they had on account of his public profile working on both sides of the media.

The Mass was presided over by The Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington. Very Reverend David O’Connell, C.M., President of The Catholic University of America, was the principal celebrant and homilist. Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, Rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, was the principal concelebrant.

At the Mass’ conclusion, Archbishop Wuerl led the Prayer of Final Commendation:

“Into your hands, Father of mercies, we commend our brother Tony in the sure and certain hope that, together with all who have died in Christ, he will rise with Him on the last day. We give You thanks for the blessings which You bestowed upon Tony in this life: they are signs to us of Your goodness and of our fellowship with the saints in Christ. Merciful Lord, turn toward us and listen to our prayers: open the gates of paradise to Your servant and help us who remain to comfort one another with assurances of faith, until we all meet in Christ and are with You and with our brother for ever. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the sure hope of the resurrection, we take leave of our brother: Let us go in peace.


The Untouchable Terrorist beyond the Guantanamo Fence


There's a Terrorist that no military tribunal will ever judge. He lives in the lap of luxury. He is idolized the world over; popes regularly visit his island and he puts on a big show. This 'friendly terrorist" is Fidel Castro the Jesuit trained despot of Cuba who has ruled that island nation since 1959. The longest lasting dictator in the Western hemisphere; Perhaps, the longest lasting tyrant in the entire world. Yet, he will not be tried. He's the 'friendly' enemy of the U.S. Embargoes have been in place since the 1960's, and yet congressmen and celebrities flock to his Dictator-dom in droves. Mexico and Canada have traditionally been used as a lay-over (for an indirect flight to Cuba) for those wishing to fly to Castro's nightmare theme park, in spite of the U.S. restrictions on its citizens visiting the "Island Prison" (Prison Island). Until recently, Castro would visit New York City and address the world at the United Nations, any time he wanted to; and was provided head of state police protection, at taxpayer's expense. But, wait: Protection for a Terrorist?



Fidel Castro has through the years sent wave after, wave of saboteurs and infiltrators to subvert the American free-nation; Yet, no indictments have ever been placed on him. On the other hand, Panama had Manuel Noriega defy the U.S. and the country was invaded; hundreds of Panamanians slaughtered to get Noriega, who hid in the Vatican's Nunciature; He was eventually apprehended and has been kept in a dungeon since the intervention. Yet, Castro, the Beast remains sleeping in his own bed. Fidel has exported revolutions and subversive troops around the world, and nothing has stopped him. It seems as he has a "Carte Blanche" to do his own will, without any one's interference. During 1980 Castro emptied the jails and mental institutions when the U.S. decided to allow the migration of a herd that had barged into the Peruvian Embassy compound. Jimmy "the turkey" Carter allowed more than 200,000 of these bandits, and morons to settle in the U.S.; At taxpayer's expense, no less.

During the 1960's the greatest fear of the flying public was to be high-jacked to Cuba; Back then airplanes were commandeered and routed to Cuban over and over again. Did anyone retaliate against the friendly dictator and his regime? No, the high-jackers (terrorists with a little "t") just got tired of High-Jacking, and stopped. Even terrorists like a little resistance.

Drove after drove of boat people arrive in Florida seeking free-dom (free food, free housing, free money), and Castro and his "cute" tyranny continue unabated. Meanwhile this week Guatanamo, the little south eastern land-lease appendix of the U.S. in Cuba is now beginning to try the "Islamo-Fascist Terrorist of the War on Terror". What a farce? What a Sham, a travesty of justice. When "Don" Fidel has played an unfair war against the U.S. for over 50 years, and he's not brought to trial? But, these Afghan, Pakistani, and Muslim poor devils have been rounded up and kept in blind-folds, in solitary confinement for 7 years; For possessing weapons of mass distraction? For fighting against the invaders of Afghanistan is more likely. Yet, Fidel is now retired and sleeping happily in his own bed. The Cuban Menace has done more to subvert the U.S. than all the prisoners in GITMO, combined.



Here's a bit of irony: The Afghans fought for years against the Russians, when they were called the Mujaheddin.

Since the Soviet Union collapsed the Taliban became the rulers of Afghanistan. After 9-11, the U.S. bombed the living daylights out of Afghanistan looking for the culprits of the 9-11 attacks; What they scrounged up was a hand full of rag-tag wanna-be freedom fighters, now called Terrorists. So now, America picks up where the USSR left off. I wonder why all the obsession with occupying Afghanistan? Poppy goes the weasel. Did I say Poppy? Afghanistan is the world's greatest producer of poppy for the international demand for opium. Opium production has increased astronomically since 9-11. Yet, who's being tried? Not the bankers in London, Hong Kong, Rome, New York or Havana. Not, The natural beneficiaries of the international drug crime trade, Nope, the poor devils caught in the caves where Osama Bin Ladin 'supposedly' (according to "Army Intelligence") should have been. Maybe, Bin Laden is hiding in Fidel Castro's house? He'll never get caught there.......

I remember the words that were uttered not too long ago:
"Let the world open up to Cuba, and Cuba open up to the world".



Arsenio.

Former bin Laden driver pleads not guilty

Salim Ahmed Hamdan is seen in this undated file photo.  A last-minute plea deal could halt the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay, but military lawyers and observers say that appears extremely unlikely. Military prosecutors are also eager to use the case of Salim Hamdan, a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, to showcase a tribunal system that has seen repeated legal setbacks. (AP Photo/Photo courtesy of Prof. Neal Katya/File)
AP Photo: Salim Ahmed Hamdan is seen in this undated file photo. A last-minute plea deal...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The first Guantanamo war crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.

Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, entered the plea through his lawyer at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

He is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.

Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, called a jury pool of uniformed American military officers into the courtroom for questioning by lawyers on both sides. A conviction on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism could lead to a life sentence for Hamdan.

"You must impartially hear the evidence," Allred told the potential jurors. "He must be presumed to be innocent."

The 13 officers were hand-picked by the Pentagon and flown in from other U.S. bases over the weekend. Hamdan's lawyers asked if they had any friends or family affected by the Sept. 11 attacks to see if any should be excluded as too biased to serve. A minimum of five officers must be selected for a trial under tribunal rules.

Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit to the courthouse overlooking an abandoned airport runway. The flowing white robe and headdress he wore at pretrial hearings was not cleaned in time for his trial, said Charles Swift, one of his civilian attorneys.

The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, with testimony from nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses.

Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. But his lawyers say he was merely a low-level driver and mechanic without any role in the al-Qaida conspiracy against the United States.

Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002 and selected as one of the first inmates to face prosecution. His case has created repeated legal obstacles for the Pentagon including a Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier version of the tribunal system.

Allred indicated earlier Monday he would not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators obtained from Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defense lawyers have argued those statements were tainted by "coercive" techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a right against self-incrimination.

The U.S. has so far charged 20 Guantanamo prisoners and military officials say they expect to prosecute about 80 in all.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_bin_laden_s_driver

Sunday, July 20, 2008

ADRA Commemorates World Refugee Day

Around the World, ADRA Commemorates World Refugee Day
20 Jun 2008 14:51:00 GMT
Nadia McGill
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

219487 logo
Silver Spring, Maryland—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) joins the international community to commemorate World Refugee Day, observed on June 20, in an effort to draw public attention to the plight of millions of people who have been forced to leave their homes in many conflict areas of the world.

Presently, ADRA is working to provide aid for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in various countries, including Colombia, Cameroon, Yemen, Australia, Sudan, reaching hundreds of thousands of displaced persons through development activities that not only improve living conditions in temporary settlement camps, but help them rebuild their lives through primary health objectives, water and sanitation projects, distribution of emergency supplies, micro-credit initiatives, literacy programs, economic development activities, and other initiatives.

"On World Refugee Day, we as an organization recognize the enormous courage, resilience, and determination that refugees display throughout the world," said Charles Sandefur, president of ADRA International. "When we recognize the rights of refugees, we recognize the basic rights of all of us, and recommit ourselves as individuals and as an organization to being the change we wish to see in the world."

In Colombia, a country with the second highest number of IDPs in the world, according the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ADRA is helping thousands, providing a means for families displaced by the country's decades old civil conflict, to learn new skills, and become financially independent. Currently, ADRA is providing vocational training for 800 displaced families in El Carmen de Bolivar, a town in northern Colombia with a large number of displaced persons. The one-year project is expected to be completed by December 2008, and will benefit an estimated 4,000 people.

In Cameroon, ADRA recently completed the second of two sanitation projects that benefited Chadian refugees forced to flee their homeland when violence broke out in the capital city of N'Djamena in early 2008. ADRA participated in the construction and rehabilitation of latrines and showers both in Kousseri, and also in the town of Garoua, providing sanitation assistance to 8,000 refugees in Kousseri, and 3,000 refugees who were relocated to the Langui camp in Garoua after the initial resettlement.

Since 2006, ADRA has been working with UNHCR and other non-governmental organizations to aid an estimated 23,000 Ethiopian and Somali refugees living in camps in Lahj Governorate and the Basateen center in Aden, Yemen. ADRA's work provides social services for refugees, including vocational training, legal and social counseling, income generation activities, health care services, and additional distribution of essential emergency supplies.

In Australia, ADRA is assisting refugees in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, and Brisbane. In each city, ADRA's projects include distributing food for refugees at their arrival, providing classes in English as a second language, teaching refugees to drive, and giving them the opportunity to obtain a driver's license in order to help them find work.

In Southern Sudan, ADRA has been helping displaced persons returning home through a program that supports the reintegration of schoolchildren in the Western Equatoria State and the Upper Nile State. This project provides 32,000 students with academic materials and sports equipment, as well as training for 120 teachers to assist in the reintegration process. ADRA also provides returnees refugees with hot meals and essential non-food items at rest stops along the way, transports them to their final destination, and follows up to ensure they experience a smooth reintegration. To date, ADRA has assisted more than 60,000 returnees journeying from Northern Sudan to their homes in the southern region. In addition, ADRA has also established seven primary health care centers in Southern Sudan to support returnees and the local community, assisting 105,000 returnees, with each health care center hosting an average of 15,000.

"ADRA's mission is to provide essential services to the most vulnerable people of society," said Clement Arkangelo, director of the ADRA South Sudan office. "We consider returnees to be in this class of the most vulnerable. For some returnees, when they return to their villages, there is nothing left but a thick forest where their houses once stood. Many shed tears, realizing that they have to completely start their lives over. However, tears of joy are also shed, because they know that there are people around the world who are supporting their reintegration, giving them the hope to start their lives again."

According to UNHCR, a refugee is defined as someone who is outside of his or her country of origin, and is unable or unwilling to request protection from their home country due to a fear of persecution, caused by their race, religion, nationality, social affiliation or political stance. By contrast, an IDP is a person who has been forced to flee his or her home, but who, unlike a refugee, remains within the country's borders. In 2007, there were 11.4 million refugees, with 26 million people displaced within their homelands, according to the UN.

World Refugee Day celebrates the lives and contributions of displaced persons across the world. It was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2000 to recognize the courage and strength of refugees. This year's UN theme is "Protecting Refugees: Refugee Rights are Human Rights," which aims to draw public attention to the plight of millions of refugees and displaced persons forced from their communities.

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.

Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.

-END-

Author: Nadia McGill

Media Contact: Hearly Mayr ADRA International 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 Phone: 301.680.6376 E-mail: Media.Inquiries@adra.org

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/219487/121397384428.htm

Detaining Mr. Marri



Detaining Mr. Marri

The Bush administration has been a waging a fierce battle for the power to lock people up indefinitely simply on the president’s say-so. It scored a disturbing victory last week when a federal appeals court ruled that it could continue to detain Ali al-Marri, who has been held for more than five years as an enemy combatant. The decision gives the president sweeping power to deprive anyone — citizens as well as noncitizens — of their freedom. The Supreme Court should reverse this terrible ruling.

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Mr. Marri, a citizen of Qatar legally residing in the United States, was initially arrested in his home in Peoria, Ill., on ordinary criminal charges, then seized and imprisoned by military authorities. The government, which says he has ties to Al Qaeda, designated him an enemy combatant, even though it never alleged that he was in an army or carried arms on a battlefield. He was held on the basis of extremely thin hearsay evidence.

Last year, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., declared that the government could not hold Mr. Marri, or any other civilian, simply on the president’s orders. If it wanted to prosecute him, the court ruled, it could do so in the civilian court system.

That was the right answer. Unfortunately, last week the full Fourth Circuit reversed the decision, and with a tangle of difficult-to-decipher opinions, upheld the government’s right to hold Mr. Marri indefinitely. The court ruled that Mr. Marri must be given greater rights to challenge his detention. But this part of the decision is weak, and he is unlikely to get the sort of procedural protections necessary to ensure that justice is done.

The implications are breathtaking. The designation “enemy combatant,” which should apply only to people captured on a battlefield, can now be applied to people detained inside the United States. Even though Mr. Marri is not an American citizen, the court’s reasoning appears to apply equally to citizens.

“Our colleagues hold that the president can order the military to seize from his home and indefinitely detain anyone in this country — including an American citizen — even though he has never affiliated with an enemy nation, fought alongside any nation’s armed forces, or borne arms against the United States anywhere in the world,” wrote Judge Diana Gribbon Motz.

Equally troubling, the ruling supports President Bush’s ludicrous argument that when Congress authorized the use of force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, it gave the president essentially unlimited powers. If a president ever wants to round up Americans on vague charges and detain them indefinitely, this ruling gives him a dangerous green light.

Mr. Marri’s lawyers say they will ask the Supreme Court to review the ruling. Without doubt, it should. The case raises critically important issues for a free society, and the Fourth Circuit’s convoluted set of opinions is too confusing to give proper guidance to other courts, the executive branch, or the people.

The jumble reflects how badly the administration has butchered the law in this area. People accused of bad deeds should be tried in court — not in sham proceedings. They should be put in jail — not in secret detention. If they are not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, they should be set free. It is up to the Supreme Court to restore these principles of American justice.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20sun2.html?th&emc=th

A Church, Divided

The Long Amen
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

The Rev. Don Olinger at one of the final services at the Presbyterian Church of Astoria. More Photos >


By KATHERINE BINDLEY
Published: July 20, 2008

THE REV. DON OLINGER was supposed to have delivered his last sermon months ago. By now, the bulldozers were supposed to have come through and leveled the Presbyterian Church of Astoria, an 86-year-old gray stone building that sits on a tree-lined residential street in that Queens community. Instead, Mr. Olinger has been preaching before members of the congregation every Sunday, just as he has been doing for 14 years. Only next Sunday will he deliver his final sermon in the church, after which the building will be closed permanently, in preparation for its demolition.

Mr. Olinger has continued preaching because, along with what remained of his dwindling congregation, he was waiting for resolution to the long tug of war over the future of the church building, which is to make way for housing for the elderly. An area within the housing development is to be set aside for services and other church activities.

The church sits in a neighborhood that has boomed in recent years. Apartments in the area’s mostly low-rise brick buildings are more affordable than many in Brooklyn, outdoor cafes line the sidewalks, and Midtown Manhattan is only 15 minutes away by subway. With land at a premium, the 175-foot strip along 33rd Street, near Broadway, where the church is located, along with its gym and pastor’s residence, was precious turf.

Astoria Presbyterian’s history dates to 1846. The current building, a huge Colonial Revival structure, was built in 1922, and behind four columns and three sets of double wooden doors sits a two-level sanctuary that can hold up to 500 people. But the congregation, which during the peak years of the 1950s had more than 1,200 worshipers, has shrunk in recent years to fewer than two dozen active churchgoers. With the decline, the church has struggled to support its buildings, and, especially, to cope with rising utility bills. The church also needed major repairs, including updated wiring and new heating and plumbing systems.

Like many dying urban congregations, Astoria Presbyterian faced decisions about whether to lease or sell its valuable land, decisions that led to a bitter debate that has pitted congregants against their minister and one another.

This sort of debate is becoming common in historical New York churches. Increasingly, churches are selling their land for development, sometimes in collaboration with nonprofit groups that are pursuing social justice missions and other times to private developers eager to build condominiums.

“I like to say I made a wrong turn on I-95 somewhere,” Mr. Olinger, dressed casually in shorts and sneakers, said one afternoon in his parsonage. That may be the easiest way for him to explain how a 56-year-old man from Virginia with a persistent Southern drawl ended up at the center of a controversy in a New York neighborhood 450 miles from his birthplace.

A Multicultural Microcosm

Although Astoria Presbyterian’s congregation has shrunk, it is deeply multicultural; its members come from at least eight countries, including Portugal, India and Japan. In this respect, the church is a microcosm of its community, long a Greek stronghold but now one of the borough’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods.

Typical among the congregants are Arnold Baboolal, 38, who is from Trinidad, and his wife, Dolly, 31, who is from Guyana. Every Sunday for the past five years, the couple have been attending church with their two children. At a Sunday service shortly before Easter, their 2-year-old daughter, Victoria, was attired in pink from head to toe, save for her purple pacifier. No one seemed bothered by the fact that she roamed around the church during the service and occasionally crept behind the piano to hit the keys.

Although the pastor is legally blind, the result of a degenerative disease called Stargardt’s that began taking his vision when he was 38, he has enough residual vision to recognize most of his congregants and greet them by name.

That Sunday, Mr. Olinger had asked the younger parishioners to sit in the first pew for the children’s sermon. Lowering his voice almost to a whisper, he talked about why good things and bad things sometimes happen at the same time. For example, he said, Danielle Rhodes, the music director, was leaving for six weeks to perform in Philadelphia. It was sad that she was leaving, he told the children, but people were happy because the opportunity was a good one for her.

Nine little heads nodded as Ms. Rhodes took the microphone and with tears in her eyes sang her last song.

A Congregation Divided

At the Intersection of Synagogue and Boardwalk, a Feud

Los Angeles Journal

At the Intersection of Synagogue and Boardwalk, a Feud

Monica Almeida/The New York Times

The Pacific Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue, on the colorful Venice Beach boardwalk.

Published: July 20, 2008

LOS ANGELES — The only synagogue on the Venice Beach boardwalk has weathered 80 years’ worth of oscillating economies, winos, shamans and aggressive panhandlers, disintegration of its own community and surf seekers on all manner of speeding wheels. It has stood as much for tolerance as faith in a community where the former is in high demand.

But for its congregants, it has been increasingly difficult to countenance the mannequins in racy underwear, creeping ever so often unto the property of their tiny, sun-bleached house of worship.

Over the last few years, the Orthodox synagogue, the Pacific Jewish Center, has been at quiet war with the owners of its next-door neighbor, Unruly, a purveyor of T-shirts, bathing suits and undergarments.

Worshipers say workers in the shop blast music on Saturday mornings, overwhelming the religious service held with the door open to the boardwalk. When the worshipers ask for the music to be lowered for an hour, they are met with hostility, they say, some of it smacking of anti-Semitism. Once in a while, the police have been called.

Further, there have been occasions when mannequins dressed in G-strings and other clothes that are decidedly not part of the customary wardrobe of Orthodox Jews have been placed on the synagogue’s property line — as a matter of provocation, some members suggest.

“We haven’t been judgmental about their merchandise,” said Judd Magilnick, a member. “It is a question of common courtesy. Even the more Bohemian, alternative-lifestyle types on the boardwalk are aware of our requests and wait until afternoon on Saturdays before they strike up the band. We have friendly cooperation from everyone else, even people you think would be accountable to no one.”

Ruly Papadopulos, whose wife owns Unruly, said that the business felt harassed by the worshipers but that the extent of the problem had been exaggerated. “The rabbi comes over and asks us to turn it down,” Mr. Papadopulos said. “We say, ‘Calm down, we will.’ ”

This episodic neighborhood schism might have remained just that, had Eric Mankin, a science writer for University of Southern California publications and a Venice resident, not wandered into Unruly this month, chasing after his dog who had gotten off its leash.

Mr. Mankin said he mentioned to the owners of Unruly, where a neon sign reading “Sexetera” hangs over the door, that the synagogue next to the shop was “something I’ve always regarded as a landmark of Venice’s inclusiveness and diversity.”

Mr. Papadopulos, Mr. Mankin said, replied that he hated Jews — something Mr. Papadopulos flatly denies having said. Mr. Mankin, who is Jewish but not religious, said he was flabbergasted.

The next day, Mr. Mankin appeared in front of the store holding a sign that read “Ask the owner of Unruly why he hates Jews.”

“If someone is going to proclaim loudly they hate Jews,” he said, “then people who are going to shop in his store have the right to know about that.”

Mr. Papadopulos was displeased by this and called the police. “He was the aggressor,” Mr. Papadopulos said in an interview in front of his store. “I never said I hate Jews. I said: ‘I hate you. I hate you!’ ”

Sgt. Stephen Showler, who is in charge of the Venice Beach detail for the Los Angeles Police Department, responded.

“It was basically a First Amendment issue,” Sergeant Showler said. Mr. Mankin “has the right to protest,” he said. “When I got there, he said, ‘I’ve been out here a couple hours. I think I’ll call it a day.’ ”

During two generations of life on the colorful boardwalk, where karma analysis takes place next to impromptu pot parties that abut bongo drummers and flip-flop barkers, conflicts among neighbors have been few, say even the synagogue’s oldest members.

In the 1920s, as Venice evolved into the “Coney Island of the West,” Jewish immigrants played a vital role on the boardwalk. There were several synagogues along the beach, and the area was dotted with kosher butchers and other Jewish merchants. Working-class Jews from Los Angeles called Venice their summer home, and many others migrated to the area, according to the book “California Jews,” by Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger.

The mid-1960s saw an exodus of Jewish families, and the synagogues all but disappeared. The Pacific Jewish Center was headed for a similar fate, but in the mid-1970s, a group of young Orthodox Jews led by the author Michael Medved revived it.

About 80 people pile onto the simple benches each Saturday morning to pray against the backdrop of waves. “We invite anyone who has expressed a genuine interest and has shirt and shoes,” said Gary Dalin, a member since 1979.

Its most high-profile conflict has been with the state’s Coastal Commission, which has taken a dim view (along with many residents) of members’ desire to hang a strand of fishing line several miles long to create an eruv, or symbolic religious enclosure that would permit them to perform certain tasks, like carrying things, outside their homes on the Sabbath.

Mr. Dalin and others said that they had heard Mr. Papadopulos refer to the members as “greedy” and make other vague remarks that suggest he may not be fond of Jews but said that they were not particularly worried or interested. They just want the music turned down.

Sergeant Showler said that he had never heard claims of anti-Semitism until now but that there had been flare-ups between the store and the synagogue in the past. “It is an interesting place to have a synagogue,” he said. “Hopefully it won’t be an issue between them, and they can be good neighbors. This is my goal.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/us/20boardwalk.html?th&emc=th

Can Leah Daughtry Bring Faith to the Party?

Can Leah Daughtry Bring Faith to the Party?

Published: July 20, 2008

LEAH DAUGHTRY SLIPPED OFF HER STILETTO-HEEL SHOES at the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, stepped from a pastor’s chair to the pulpit and shouted, “I am on the rise!” She wore a long black tunic with gold buttons that ran from her high collar almost to the carpet. Her graying hair was shorn tight to her dark brown scalp. She always preaches in bare feet in order to “de-self,” she had told me, and to let God’s spirit and words rush through her unimpeded. “I am on the rise!” she erupted again.

Alessandra Petlin for The New York Times
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Leah Daughtry at the House of the Lord Church, which is led by her father, the Rev. Herbert

Dancing down front, in an aisle between pews, was a woman in an elaborate dress with a lace corsage whose breast cancer had been eradicated, Daughtry had said, through the prayers of her church sisters: “The eggheads will say her chemotherapy worked, but everyone who uses chemotherapy isn’t cured.” The woman cried out exultantly, her voice barely audible above the surging of an electronic organ and the thrashing of drums and cymbals played by one of Daughtry’s nephews, with another nephew, a 3-year-old, adding his own ecstatic beats with a set of sticks. “I am on the rise to a place of dependence on the Lord!” Daughtry screamed.

African-American, with little copper-rimmed glasses adorning an unlined round face, Daughtry is a part-time preacher and full-time political operative. She serves as chief of staff to Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In the spring of last year, Dean appointed her chief executive of the party’s convention; though she will now be collaborating with Barack Obama’s team, she is in charge of orchestrating the event next month in Denver — of making sure that everything runs right, that buses have enough slots to park in, that people have enough hotel rooms to sleep in and that the millions watching the convention on TV are captivated and inspired by the four-day-long show. She is a mostly self-effacing manager on an immense scale.

But on many Sundays she is a Pentecostal preacher with her toes naked on the floor and her voice filled with a power that she says is not her own. Straight from the start of her sermon on a Sunday afternoon in June, she looked nearly helpless, beyond self-management, truly overcome by a force coursing through her; she wiped tears from her eyes with a small square of white cloth.

In her positions as Dean’s top aid and the convention’s top official, Daughtry, who is 44 years old, is leading the Democratic Party’s new mission to make religious believers — particularly ardent Christian believers — view the party and its candidates as receptive to, and often impelled by, the dictates of faith. She sparked this crusade, both to transfigure the party’s image as predominantly secular and to take enough votes from the Republicans to win this year’s presidential election, in the aftermath of George W. Bush’s 2004 defeat of John Kerry. And in her vocation as a Pentecostal pastor she stands for faith in an extreme form. There is nothing equivocal about her belief. Hers is a religion not only of divine healing but of talking in tongues.

Behind her as she preached, a simple wooden cross hung on a brick wall in the vaulted and sizable sanctuary of the church, which is headed by her father, Herbert Daughtry. A prison convert who served time in his early 20s for armed robbery and passing bad checks, Herbert Daughtry — whose father founded the church and whose grandfather and great-grandfather were also ministers — became the church’s pastor 50 years ago, and today Leah was delivering the sermon as part of an anniversary celebration. Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, “They Owe Us.” Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry’s arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology — the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons — and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her.

Usually she preaches to her own congregation of about 20 in Southwest Washington. Her flock meets in a communal room in the depths of her high-rise condominium, near the exercise room and the garage. They push aside folding tables and set up folding chairs, and all begin to sing and dance, to stagger and sob and “shabach, to cry out loudly to the Lord,” as one congregant described it, and often to be overwhelmed by the Holy Ghost, so that soon the voices are not producing words in any known language. They are, instead, living out a version of a miracle that is rendered in the Book of Acts and that gives Leah’s denomination its name. At the feast of the Pentecost, on the 50th day after Easter, the Holy Ghost took such complete possession of Jesus’s disciples that they spoke, the Bible says, “in other tongues.” Pentecostals in the midst of worship are frequently so possessed that their services are filled with anarchic, alien sounds, with outpourings and prayers comprehensible only to God.

The spirit wasn’t taking quite such hold in the church of Leah’s father on the Sunday of the anniversary; still, the sermon she gave in searing tones stirred the congregation to yell back in affirmation and turn palms to the ceiling in supplication, and the message seemed to seize control of Daughtry herself, to set her trembling. Her subject was the prophet Deborah, who, in Daughtry’s telling of the biblical story, left the ease of the visionary role that came naturally to her and ventured into battle for Israel. “The only way God’s work would get done is if she rose from her comfortable place!” Daughtry pronounced. “God is challenging us to rise! God wants us in that unfamiliar place! Even though I’m not comfortable, I’m going to rise up!” Despite her pastoring, Daughtry is a fiercely private woman. Her sermon alluded to her own unease with the measure of public attention she has received as she spearheads the Democratic effort to woo the religious and win votes in November. Yet the task is not optional. It is, as she sees it, her way of fulfilling a generations-old family covenant with God.

Daniel Bergner is a contributing writer to the magazine. His new book, “A Map of Desire,” will be published in January.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20minister-t.html?th&emc=th

Excommunicated St. Louis priest stresses truth over obedience

Excommunicated St. Louis priest stresses truth over obedience

By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 18, 2008

Excommunication has not eroded the personal beliefs of the Rev. Marek Bozek, a Polish-born priest who butted heads with Archbishop Raymond Burke and the Vatican by leaving his assignment in a different Missouri diocese to become the pastor of a rebellious parish in St. Louis.

Click to enlargeBozek


Comparing his situation to the underground Solidarity Movement in Poland during communist rule, he still insists that individual conscience trumps authority.


Bozek, 33, the pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, will reflect on that in a talk titled “The Odyssey of Joseph the Dreamer: A Reflection on Those Who Care to Dream” at a Voice of the Faithful reform group meeting open to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Calvary Lutheran Church, 1750 N. Calhoun Road, Brookfield.

Burke, former bishop of La Crosse, recently was named to head the Vatican’s supreme court.

When Burke became St. Louis’ archbishop in 2004, he challenged the unusual legal and financial structure that had enabled St. Stanislaus to control its own management and property since the 19th century.

After parish leaders refused to relent, Burke removed the parish’s priests, excommunicated Bozek and lay members of the parish board, and stripped the parish of its standing as a Roman Catholic parish.

Before his excommunication, Bozek was a celebrant when a group advocating female priests held an ordination ceremony for two women.

Q: Your talk’s focus?

A: The reflection is directed to the people who have been disappointed with the direction of the Roman Catholic Church today, especially to the people who remember the zeal and the joy of the Vatican II council.

Q: Your last communication with the hierarchy?

A: The last thing that I have heard was in May, and it was a document sent to the archbishop by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (a Vatican department), informing him that his excommunication of myself and the board has been approved. And also in this document, Cardinal (William) Levada informs Archbishop Burke that my process of laicization will be taken directly to the Holy Father, and (the pope) will issue a decision himself.

Q: Your reasoning?

A: In the Catholic theology, obedience is very, very high up in their so-called hierarchy of values. But it’s not the highest value. Above obedience, there is truth, justice and, of course, charity.

Q:You say that you became a priest to meet people’s spiritual needs, and that you came to St. Stanislaus because parishioners were suffering an injustice, had no priest and asked you to come?

A: The question was, should I follow my conscience or should I be obedient to the authority who demands of me something contrary to my conscience, contrary to all the reasons why I became a priest.

Q: Go on.

A: I am only 33 years old, but I remember seeing the underground movement in Poland. I think that’s what’s happening in the church right now. When people reject many parts of Catholic discipline — like contraception, or the issue of divorce, or of married priests, or of women priests, or of gay or lesbian couples — more Catholics become underground Catholics. They do not recognize the regime, but they still identify themselves as Catholics.

Q: You say that your parish welcomes people of all backgrounds and invites non-Catholics to receive Communion, too. How is the parish doing?

A: When I came two and a half years ago, membership was between 190 and 200 households. Today, we have over 515 households registered. We have lost some in the process, about 10 families.

Q: A parishioner who invited you has left, accusing you of trying to split the church and of inviting people with grudges against the Catholic Church.

A:Yes, he and his family, unfortunately. And I’m sorry they left, but if the person who disobeyed the bishop says that I am disobeying the bishop on different issues, I call it selective hearing. I don’t believe church should be the place where anyone is judged or discriminated.

Source: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=774086

N. B. Highlight in Bolds added for emphasis.

P.S. In my opinion Marek Bozek, is a change agent:

An individual recruited prior to implementation of a change; must be representative of the user population, understand the reasoning behind the change, and help to communicate the excitement, possibilities, and details of the change to others within the organization.

Source: http://www.managingenterprisecontent.com/myweb/Glossary.htm

How Satan and His Agents Work



How Satan and His Agents Work

I am instructed to say that in the future great watchfulness will be needed. There is to be among God's people no spiritual stupidity. Evil spirits are actively engaged in seeking to control the minds of human beings. Men are binding up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last days. Those who discard Christ and His righteousness will accept the sophistry that is flooding the world. Christians are to be sober and vigilant, steadfastly resisting their adversary the devil, who is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles. They will make people sick by casting their spell upon them, and will then remove the spell, leading others to say that those who were sick have been miraculously healed. This Satan has done again and again.--Letter 259, 1903. {2SM 53.2}

We need not be deceived. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God's Word declares that Satan will work miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test. Many who have had great light will fail to walk in the light, because they have not become one with Christ.--Letter 57, 1904. {2SM 53.3}

Selected Mesages II, E. G. White, p.53.