By Timothy Birdnow
"For who can yet believe, though after loss,
that all these puissant legions,
whose exile hath emptied Heaven,
shall fail to reascend Self-raised,
and repossess their native seat?"
John Milton
Paradise Lost
Book one, verses 631-634
Conservatives seem baffled by the animosity held by liberals towards Christians and Jews. Christianity requires the believer submit to authority, accept the rule of government, be charitable to his fellow; in short, be a model citizen. Ditto the Jews, who held these requirements even longer than the Christians. Why are liberals so hostile to both? For that matter, why do liberals seem so smitten with that 7th century holdover known as Islam? Why do those on the Left seem less than eager to defend our freedom and way of life from the ravages of Islamic Jihad?
To understand this, it is necessary to examine the intellectual underpinnings of modern Liberal thought. We must begin with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Godfather of modern liberalism, in his treatise The Social Contract:
"MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains."
Why? George Bush, of course, but also because
"It was in these circumstances that Jesus came to set up on earth a spiritual kingdom, which, by separating the theological from the political system, made the State no longer one, and brought about the internal divisions which have never ceased to trouble Christian peoples. As the new idea of a kingdom of the other world could never have occurred to pagans, they always looked on the Christians as really rebels, who, while feigning to submit, were only waiting for the chance to make themselves independent and their masters, and to usurp by guile the authority they pretended in their weakness to respect. This was the cause of the persecutions.
"What the pagans had feared took place. Then everything changed its aspect: the humble Christians changed their language, and soon this so-called kingdom of the other world turned, under a visible leader, into the most violent of earthly despotisms.
"Several peoples, however, even in Europe and its neighborhood, have desired without success to preserve or restore the old system: but the spirit of Christianity has everywhere prevailed. The sacred cult has always remained or again become independent of the Sovereign, and there has been no necessary link between it and the body of the State. Mahomet held very sane views, and linked his political system well together; and, as long as the form of his government continued under the caliphs who succeeded him, that government was indeed one, and so far good."
So, Christianity and Judaism, by giving the World Separation of Church and State, destroyed the old pagan order and splintered the power of the collective will. To those who believe in this collective and the exercise of the will of society over the individual, there can be no worse crime. The results were ‘the most violent of earthly despotisms' while the Islamic world, that model of theocratic benevolence, offered a government ‘so far good'".
(It is ironic that the Left would use that very Christian concept of separation between Church and State as a tool to eliminate the author of this division.)
Those who would revolutionize society, who would remake America in their own neo-pagan, atheistic mold, find the fundamental weakening of the power of the State intolerable (since it is only by that power that their will can triumph), and would prefer to institute a system more akin to that of Muhammad. They admire Islam for maintaining the ancient regime, although they ultimately plan to displace Allah with a Man-centered deity.
Of course, the liberal also hates being constrained in any way, and traditional morality flows, as they perceive it, from the Church down. By raising Islam as an alternative to Christendom, the liberal hopes to bludgeon the keepers of morality. Islam can help with the dirty work of crushing the usurper ideologies of Christianity and Judaism, and then, of course, their turn will come.
Then, too, we can look to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, who believed not in the rationality of Christendom, but in a mythical Greek paradise ruled by "Dionysian" creative forces - emotionalism and irrationality. These forces were vanquished by the rise of Socratic intellectualism and the coming of Christianity. Nietzsche argued further against a fixed reality in his unpublished work `On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense', claiming that what we think of as truth is merely a convention agreed upon by society, thus freeing Man from the tyranny of concrete reality.
This wild spirit, this vision of the anti-mind slithers throughout liberal thought and can be seen in numerous left-wing positions; being soft on crime, spiritual environmentalism, their admiration for dictators such as Castro and Mao, and in their current love affair with radical Islam. Terrorism is the ultimate irrational force, a violence aimed at random destruction and mayhem. It holds kinship with the bloodlust of the Marxists and Nazis, and, as such, is a ``creative force`` by Nietzschean standards. (Oh, and Nietzsche also hated Christians and Jews, and was a prime inspiration for National Socialism; copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra were issued to German soldiers during World War One, gaining the interest of a certain corporal...)
A return to the "good old days" of the 7th Century, to a time before paradise was lost to the tyranny of Judeo-Christian intellectualism seems preferable to modern liberals, who have flatly rejected Hobbes` view of primitive life as solitary poor, hard, nasty, brutish, and short. We especially see this in the neo-paganism of the environmentalist movement; they dream of a lost pastoral Eden where mankind could be free of the drudgery of industrial life and the endless intellectual toil. A great many on the Left wish to overthrow the current order, replacing it with this twisted Nietzschean/Rousseauian mirage stolen from the Book of Genesis.
Of course, to those who do not believe in a concrete reality, as many liberals do not, one system is as good as another, and we have no right to judge the Moslem on how he conducts his affairs. Since the Jihadist's reality is equally valid as the Westerner's, we are practicing moral Imperialism if we force our Judeo-Christian moral law on them. This is exacerbated by the fact that they are Third World peoples; many liberals, deep in their hearts, are pulling for what they perceive as the underdog - in this case the terrorist murdering thug-at the expense of their own culture. A racist, sexist, homophobic, power-mad society such as ours deserves to be taught a lesson! Even if the teacher is racist, sexist, homophobic, and power-mad, they aren't Western, Christian, or White! They aren't Dick Cheney! Power to the people!
There is a strain of masochism involved here as well; the white liberal perceives himself as having unfairly benefited from his station in life, having lived well on the backs of the poor. Somebody must be punished for this! He will flagellate himself in his mind, and will support those who will punish his country, because justice demands retribution, and America has lived far too well. If we must endure terrorist attacks to atone for our sins, so be it! Perhaps we should do the decent thing and die; let others have their turn at the table.
Here Socialist thinking comes into play; there is only so much to go around, and we have been hogging it for too long. For those in the Arab world to live better, we must exit the stage. It's only fair!
The Liberal ultimately believes that the culture we have built, the triumph of Judeo-Christian values, is diseased and must be erased. If Islam can do their work for them, so be it. Islam, like the State under Marx, will ultimately wither away, and the paradise which predated Christ and Abraham can be restored. At least they like to think so.
Much like Milton's fallen angels, they believe they have been dispossessed of their rightful station by a tyrannical spiritual entity, and they are determined to repossess their native seat-the fallen pastoral paradise promised them by Rousseau and Nietzsche-via the triumph of their Collective Will. This is their prime mover, their principle motivation. It is why they were so enraged at the loss of their political power, and why they hate the ``usurper`` George W. Bush; they were driven out before they could attain paradise. This concept-lifted from Christian doctrine-that History has an ultimate end in a Humanistic Eden cannot be overstressed; the Left is consumed with this. They feel that, by losing their political power, they have been cast into the Lake of Fire.
"They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
with dreadful faces throng`d, and fiery arms."
Paradise Lost
(Book XVII, verses 642-644)
Timothy Birdnow blogs at Birdblog.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Mental health survey stuns British Parliament
From Russia Today
A survey published in Britain suggests that one in five members of the British Parliament has suffered from stress-related mental health problems. The report also criticises a law which forces MPs to give up their seats for life if they're treated in a psychiatric hospital.
“‘Idiots and lunatics’ may be given the right to stand for Parliament”, exclaims Britain’s The Telegraph - and that is exactly the kind of headline that members of the British Parliament feared.
A confidential survey of MPs and peers suggests that one in five parliamentarians suffers from a mental illness.
Professor Dinesh Bughra, who’s behind the survey, says the Westminster figures are surprisingly high.
“What was quite fascinating was that over 90 per cent in each group admitted they knew somebody in their family or friends who had a mental illness - which is a remarkably high number. We did a similar survey with the general population in 2007 which showed that 67 per cent of general population knew somebody with mental illness - so that is significantly higher than that,” said Dinesh Bughra, Dean of Royal College of Psychiatrists.
86 per cent of those questioned said it was caused by the stress of their public lives and they fear disclosing their struggles because of stigma and discrimination.
But Doctor Howard Stoate, an MP himself, who's also a General Practitioner, believes that many other jobs are equally stressful.
“I think it’s very concerning that almost 20 per cent of the MPs who took part in this survey said that they’d had significant mental health issues, particularly stress and depression. But what was more worrying was that they were unable to talk to anyone about it because they felt there might be repercussions to them in their jobs,” said Dr. Howard Stoate, Labour MP.
In old Elizabethan times ‘lunatics and idiots’ were banned from becoming MPs ‘in their non-lucid intervals’. The ancient laws also banned anyone sectioned under the Mental Health Act from putting themselves forward for election even if they had fully recovered - and required MPs to give up their seat for life if they were sectioned for six months.
Surprisingly those laws are still in place.
Many, including Professor Bughra, believe they now outdated.
“It should be changed because it compares mental illness with things like lunacy and idiocy, and it is nothing like that. And I think one way of de-stigmatising mental illness is to put it at par. If you look at Winston Churchill, he described his depression very effectively and very clearly and yet he was a very successful leader,” said Dinesh Bughra.
Still, the results of the survey provoke a mixed reaction from the public.
”It’s horrible - how can they run a country if they have mental health problems?” said a passer-by in London.
”I don’t have a problem with that - it is more of their personal problem and they have to deal with it,” said another one.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
In Memory Of The 50 Million Victims Of The Orthodox Christian Holocaust
Compiled by Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Boise, Idaho
U.S.A.
October 1999
Written by Reverend Father Raphael Moore
(Reprinted from Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church Sioux Falls, SD., Protopresbtyer Benjamin Henderson, Priest)
History Of Asia Minor: 1894-1923
During 1894-1923 the Ottoman Empire conducted a policy of Genocide of the Christian population living within its extensive territory. The Sultan, Abdul Hamid, first put forth an official governmental policy of genocide against the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1894.
Systematic massacres took place in 1894-1896 when Abdul savagely killed 300,000 Armenians throughout the provinces. Massacres recurred, and in 1909 government troops killed, in the towns of Adana alone, over 20,000 Christian Armenians.
When WW1 broke out the The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the "Young Turk" dictatorship which allied itself with Germany. Turkish government decided to eliminate the whole of the Christian population of Greeks, Armenians, Syrians and Nestorians. The government slogan, "Turkey for the Turks", served to encourage Turkish civilians on a policy of ethnic cleansing.
The next step of the Armenian Genocide began on 24 April 1915 with the mass arrest, and ultimate murder, of religious, political and intellectual leaders in Constantinople and elsewhere in the empire. Then, in every Armenian community, a carefully planned Genocide unfolded: Arrest of clergy and other prominent persons, disarmament of the population and Armenian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army, segregation and public execution of leaders and able-bodied men, and the deportation to the deserts of the remaining Armenian women, children and elderly. Renowned historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that "the crime was concerted very systematically for there is evidence of identical procedure from over fifty places."
The Genocide started from the border districts and seacoasts, and worked inland to the most remote hamlets. Over 1.5 million Armenian Christians, including over 4,000 bishops and priests, were killed in this step of the Genocide.
The Greek Christians, particularly in the Black Sea area known as Pontus, who had been suffering from Turkish persecutions and murders all the while, saw the Turks turn more fiercely on them as WW1 came to a close. The Allied Powers, at a peace conference in Paris in 1919, rewarded Greece for her support by inviting Prime Minister Venizelos to occupy the city of Smyrna with its rich hinterlands, and they placed the province under Greek control. This action greatly angered the Turks. The Greek occupation was a peaceful one but drew immediate fire from Turkish forces in the outlying areas. When the Greek army farmed out to protect its people, a full-fledged war broke out between Greece and Turkey (the Greco-Turkish war).
The Treaty of Sevres, signed in 1920 to end WW1 and which provided for an independent Armenia, was never ratified. The treaty's terms changed not long after the ink dried as England, France and Italy each began secretly bargaining with Mustafa Kemel (Ataturk) in order to gain the right to exploit oil fields in the Mozul (now Iraq). Betrayed by the Allied Powers, the Greek military front, after 40 long months of war, collapsed and retreated as the Turks began again to occupy Asia Minor.
September 1922 signaled the end of the Greek and Armenian presence in the city of Smyrna. On 9 September 1922, the Turks entered Smyrna; and after systematically murdering the Armenians in their own homes, the forces of Ataturk turned on the Greeks whose numbers had swelled, with the addition of refugees who had fled their villages in Turkey's interior, to upwards of 400,000 men, women and children.
The conquering Turks went from house to house, looting, pillaging, raping and murdering the population. Finally, when the wind had turned so that it was blowing toward the sea so that the small Turkish quarter at the rear of the city was not in danger, Turkish forces, led by their officers, poured kerosene on the buildings and homes of the Greek and Armenian sectors and set them afire. Thus, any remaining live inhabitants of the city were flushed out to be caught between a wall of fire and the sea. The pier of Smyrna became a scene of final desperation as the approaching flames forced many thousands to jump to their death or to be consumed by fire.
The Allied warships and shore patrol of the French, British and American military were eyewitnesses to the events. George Horton, the American Consul in Smyrna, likened the finale at Smyrna to the Roman destruction of Carthage. He is quoted in Smyrna (1922, written by Marjorie Dobkin) as saying: Yet there was not fleet of Christian battleships at Carthage looking on a situation for which their governments were responsible." This horrible act unleashed the last phase of the genocide against the Christians of Turkish Asia Minor.
On 9 September 1997, a series of speakers and memorial services, honoring the memory of the 3.5 million Christians who were murdered by Turkish persecutions from 1894-1923, were held in the greater Baltimore Washington area. The memorial service was conducted by the choirs of St. Mary's Armenian Church, St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church, Fr. George Alexson of St. Katherine's, Fr. Vertanes Katayjian of St. Mary's and other Orthodox clergy.
The 75th anniversary of the Christian Holocaust was memorialized on 9 September 1997, the date in 1922 of the destruction of the city of Smyrna. This memorial honors the memory of over 3.5 million Christians who were murdered by Turkish persecutions from 1894-1923. Not only was this the memorial of the Holocaust of Smyrna (now Izmir) and the martyrdom of Smyrna's Metropolitan Chrysostomos, but also of the 3.5 million Christians who perished during the first Holocaust of this century. But the events of 1922 are not an isolated incident. The atrocities committed by Turkish forces against a civilian population began before WW1 and have never ended. This event seeks to expose the continuum of a Turkish campaign of persecution, deportation, and murder designed to rid Asia of its Christian populace.
GREEKS
1914 400,000 conscripts perished in forced labor brigades
1922 100,000 massacred or burned alive in Smyrna
1916-1922 350,000 Pontions massacred or killed during forced deportations
1914-1922 900,000 perish from maltreatment, starvation and massacres; total of all other areas of Asia Minor
TOTAL: 1,750,000 Greek Christians martyred 1914-1922
ARMENIANS
1894-1896 300,000 massacred
1915-1916 1,500,000 perish in massacres and forced deportations (with subsidiaries to 1923)
1922 30,000 massacred or burned alive in Smyrna
TOTAL: 1,800,000 Armenian Christians martyred 1894-1923
SYRIANS AND NESTORIANS
1915-1917 100,000 Christians massacred
-----
Click here to read the rest.
Boise, Idaho
U.S.A.
October 1999
Written by Reverend Father Raphael Moore
(Reprinted from Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church Sioux Falls, SD., Protopresbtyer Benjamin Henderson, Priest)
History Of Asia Minor: 1894-1923
During 1894-1923 the Ottoman Empire conducted a policy of Genocide of the Christian population living within its extensive territory. The Sultan, Abdul Hamid, first put forth an official governmental policy of genocide against the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1894.
Systematic massacres took place in 1894-1896 when Abdul savagely killed 300,000 Armenians throughout the provinces. Massacres recurred, and in 1909 government troops killed, in the towns of Adana alone, over 20,000 Christian Armenians.
When WW1 broke out the The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the "Young Turk" dictatorship which allied itself with Germany. Turkish government decided to eliminate the whole of the Christian population of Greeks, Armenians, Syrians and Nestorians. The government slogan, "Turkey for the Turks", served to encourage Turkish civilians on a policy of ethnic cleansing.
The next step of the Armenian Genocide began on 24 April 1915 with the mass arrest, and ultimate murder, of religious, political and intellectual leaders in Constantinople and elsewhere in the empire. Then, in every Armenian community, a carefully planned Genocide unfolded: Arrest of clergy and other prominent persons, disarmament of the population and Armenian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army, segregation and public execution of leaders and able-bodied men, and the deportation to the deserts of the remaining Armenian women, children and elderly. Renowned historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that "the crime was concerted very systematically for there is evidence of identical procedure from over fifty places."
The Genocide started from the border districts and seacoasts, and worked inland to the most remote hamlets. Over 1.5 million Armenian Christians, including over 4,000 bishops and priests, were killed in this step of the Genocide.
The Greek Christians, particularly in the Black Sea area known as Pontus, who had been suffering from Turkish persecutions and murders all the while, saw the Turks turn more fiercely on them as WW1 came to a close. The Allied Powers, at a peace conference in Paris in 1919, rewarded Greece for her support by inviting Prime Minister Venizelos to occupy the city of Smyrna with its rich hinterlands, and they placed the province under Greek control. This action greatly angered the Turks. The Greek occupation was a peaceful one but drew immediate fire from Turkish forces in the outlying areas. When the Greek army farmed out to protect its people, a full-fledged war broke out between Greece and Turkey (the Greco-Turkish war).
The Treaty of Sevres, signed in 1920 to end WW1 and which provided for an independent Armenia, was never ratified. The treaty's terms changed not long after the ink dried as England, France and Italy each began secretly bargaining with Mustafa Kemel (Ataturk) in order to gain the right to exploit oil fields in the Mozul (now Iraq). Betrayed by the Allied Powers, the Greek military front, after 40 long months of war, collapsed and retreated as the Turks began again to occupy Asia Minor.
September 1922 signaled the end of the Greek and Armenian presence in the city of Smyrna. On 9 September 1922, the Turks entered Smyrna; and after systematically murdering the Armenians in their own homes, the forces of Ataturk turned on the Greeks whose numbers had swelled, with the addition of refugees who had fled their villages in Turkey's interior, to upwards of 400,000 men, women and children.
The conquering Turks went from house to house, looting, pillaging, raping and murdering the population. Finally, when the wind had turned so that it was blowing toward the sea so that the small Turkish quarter at the rear of the city was not in danger, Turkish forces, led by their officers, poured kerosene on the buildings and homes of the Greek and Armenian sectors and set them afire. Thus, any remaining live inhabitants of the city were flushed out to be caught between a wall of fire and the sea. The pier of Smyrna became a scene of final desperation as the approaching flames forced many thousands to jump to their death or to be consumed by fire.
The Allied warships and shore patrol of the French, British and American military were eyewitnesses to the events. George Horton, the American Consul in Smyrna, likened the finale at Smyrna to the Roman destruction of Carthage. He is quoted in Smyrna (1922, written by Marjorie Dobkin) as saying: Yet there was not fleet of Christian battleships at Carthage looking on a situation for which their governments were responsible." This horrible act unleashed the last phase of the genocide against the Christians of Turkish Asia Minor.
On 9 September 1997, a series of speakers and memorial services, honoring the memory of the 3.5 million Christians who were murdered by Turkish persecutions from 1894-1923, were held in the greater Baltimore Washington area. The memorial service was conducted by the choirs of St. Mary's Armenian Church, St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church, Fr. George Alexson of St. Katherine's, Fr. Vertanes Katayjian of St. Mary's and other Orthodox clergy.
The 75th anniversary of the Christian Holocaust was memorialized on 9 September 1997, the date in 1922 of the destruction of the city of Smyrna. This memorial honors the memory of over 3.5 million Christians who were murdered by Turkish persecutions from 1894-1923. Not only was this the memorial of the Holocaust of Smyrna (now Izmir) and the martyrdom of Smyrna's Metropolitan Chrysostomos, but also of the 3.5 million Christians who perished during the first Holocaust of this century. But the events of 1922 are not an isolated incident. The atrocities committed by Turkish forces against a civilian population began before WW1 and have never ended. This event seeks to expose the continuum of a Turkish campaign of persecution, deportation, and murder designed to rid Asia of its Christian populace.
GREEKS
1914 400,000 conscripts perished in forced labor brigades
1922 100,000 massacred or burned alive in Smyrna
1916-1922 350,000 Pontions massacred or killed during forced deportations
1914-1922 900,000 perish from maltreatment, starvation and massacres; total of all other areas of Asia Minor
TOTAL: 1,750,000 Greek Christians martyred 1914-1922
ARMENIANS
1894-1896 300,000 massacred
1915-1916 1,500,000 perish in massacres and forced deportations (with subsidiaries to 1923)
1922 30,000 massacred or burned alive in Smyrna
TOTAL: 1,800,000 Armenian Christians martyred 1894-1923
SYRIANS AND NESTORIANS
1915-1917 100,000 Christians massacred
-----
Click here to read the rest.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Beware your children: They might be 'Climate Cops'
Company recruits kids to keep records, bust parents for 'energy crimes'
Posted: July 28, 2008
8:44 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A new website campaign designed by a British power company recruits children through games, badges and cartoons to enlist as "Climate Cops," actively keeping records on their parents and neighbors for violations of "energy crimes" against the planet.
The "Climate Cops" website encourages children to investigate family and friends and "then build your 'Climate Crime Case File' and report back to your family to make sure they don't commit those crimes again (or else)!" The site also warns children that they "may need to keep a watchful eye" to prevent future violations.
A link on the site for teachers to download free materials for building lesson plans indicates the website is targeting children from ages 7-11.
The so-called crimes children are to watch for are listed on a poster (visible at right) and range from leaving the tap running and failing to use energy-saving light bulbs to running the dryer on a sunny day and putting hot food in the refrigerator.
The website also encourages children to download a series of "Climate Crime Cards" (such as the one pictured below) in which enlisted "Climate Cops" can keep an ongoing record of their family's violation of energy "crimes."
Recruiting children to spy on and keep records of their parents' infractions reminds some of Adolf Hitler's Nazi youth program, only with an environmentalist bent. The author of the blog EU Referendum wrote: "In a system which has echoes of Hitler's Deutsches Jungvolk movement … perhaps successful graduates can work up to becoming block wardens, then street and district 'climate crime Fuehrers,' building a network of spies and informers."
Hitler's youth program, which began in the 1920s and ended in 1945, enlisted children to be trained in the ideals of the Nazi party. Eventually folded into the German Sturmabteilung, also known as the SA or the "brownshirts," the Hitler Youth were given authority over different regions to report and keep records on neighbors, especially Jewish neighbors, as part of Nazi Germany's fear- and propaganda-based social control efforts.
A blogger at Watts Up With That? wrote, "I find this method of indoctrinating school children to normal everyday living being harmful to the earth with the 'climate crime' connotation as distasteful and wrong headed."
"I have no problems with energy conservation, in fact I encourage it," the blogger wrote, "But combining such advice with a 'climate cop' idea is the wrong way to get the message across. Can you imagine what sort of reaction the neighbors will have? … Will the result of this now be hiding your electric dryer behind false walls so the kids and neighbors don't see it?"
The "Climate Cops" website was created by the British power company npower, which has received recognition for investing in community causes through partnerships with youth sports programs, cancer victim support charities and an environmental group called The National Trust.
The website targets children with flashy graphics and cartoon characters. The site's opening video shows cartoon depictions of hurricanes and floods, stating, "Climate change is threatening our world. The more energy we waste the worse it gets. It's time to fight back."
Children who visit the site can then play games, including one game in which "Climate Cops" chase down a gas-guzzling SUV that discharges incandescent light bulbs to slow them and another in which children zap as many energy wasters as they can find before a poor polar bear's iceberg melts.
Those who complete the site's three games receive code numbers that unlock a codeword, enabling visitors to "join the elite cadets and train to become a Climate Cop." The codeword then unlocks a download, where successful "cadets" can print out a "Climate Cop ID".
Michael Savage Attempts To Clarify His Remarks On Autism
Its important that we all listen to this closely -- things like asperger syndrome are being wrongfully labeled on children (I am one of them) because they act in a way that the education board doesn't want them to act. Its almost like the psychiatrists are the agents from the movie The Matrix.
Thanks to ObamaTheBlackJFK
Monday, July 28, 2008
Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, injuring 265 students
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by Benteng Reges
Over the week-end Muslim fanatics target a Christian school in the capital’s east side. Police evacuate the institute to protect students. Hundreds of police agents are now guarding it to prevent further violence.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party. The situation remains critical and further violence between opposite factions cannot be ruled out.
“The school foundation urged us to intervene to protect people,” said East Jakarta District Police Chief Senior Superintendent. “For this reason we moved everyone out.”
Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.
In an attempt to solve the problem East Jakarta District Chief Murdani held a close door meeting with the warring parties to discuss the issue. At the same time though, he said that police would conduct a thorough investigation and check if the school’s legal status was in order and that it respected all building regulations. In case of violations he would issue orders to demolish the unlawful structures.
At present hundreds of agents are guarding the school and have orders to stop any act of violence and disarm people.
The Arastamar High School for Theology and Biblical Studies, locally known as STT SETIA, was established by Rev Mathew Mangentang in 1987.
The SST SETIA has more than 29 branches school across the country. In Jakarta alone it has thousands of students, including 265 who were injured in latest clashes.
Tensions between Christians and Muslims flared up on Saturday following rumours that a SETIA student had stolen a motorcycle that belonged to a Muslim from a neighbouring village.
Senny Manafe, a spokesperson for the school, rejected the accusation, claiming instead that the attacks were triggered by a trivial incident. In an attempt to chase a mouse in the street, a student threw a slipper against a house owned by a local Muslim. Outraged by the deed, the latter kicked and punched the student as people gathered drawn by the rumour that a Christian student had tried to steal the Muslim’s motorbike.
“Many students suffered various injuries to the head. Others were burnt by Molotov cocktails,” Manafe said.
The violence and charges against SETIA are the work of Risman Hadi, chairman of Muslim Brotherhood Forum of Kampung Pulo Village, who in the past opposed the opening and continued existence of the Christian institute.
Chinese Muslims link attacks to Olympics
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: July 28 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 28 2008 03:00
A group opposed to Chinese rule in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang has claimed responsibility for bombings around the country, saying they were part of a campaign against next month's Beijing -Olympics.
Chinese officials have repeatedly raised the possibility of a terrorist attack and used it to justify a security crackdown.
But the claims - brought to media attention by IntelCenter, the US terrorism monitoring company - are certain to heighten security concerns around the Olympics, which open on August 8.
Chinese police dismissed the weekend claims, made in a video issued by members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority who called themselves the "Turkestan Islamic party".
The official Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying there was no evidence linking fatal bus bombings in the south-western city of Kunming and in Shanghai in May with terrorist activity or the Olympics.
Xinhua said other attacks referred to in the video had not occurred.
Senior Chinese security officials have said Xinjiang separatists are one of the most pressing threats to the games.
China has claimed its police have killed five members of a Uighur group waging "holy war".
"The Turkestan Islamic party volunteers will conduct violent military actions against individuals, departments, venues and activities that are related to the Olympics in China," a man identified as "Commander Seyfullah" says in the video, according to IntelCenter.
Weighing the degree of danger posed by separatist groups from Xinjiang, where Chinese rule is unpopular among the dominant Uighurs, is highly difficult.
Apart from the report on Xinhua's English language service dismissing it, Chinese state media generally ignored the Turkestan Islamic party's claims.
Exile Uighur groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the danger from Xinjiang to justify a crackdown.
China's moves to silence dissidents and step up monitoring of activists ahead of the Olympics have drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said: "Security threats have to be dealt with and that is fully understood by everybody, but security should not become in any way a cover to try to deal with dissent."
Published: July 28 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 28 2008 03:00
A group opposed to Chinese rule in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang has claimed responsibility for bombings around the country, saying they were part of a campaign against next month's Beijing -Olympics.
Chinese officials have repeatedly raised the possibility of a terrorist attack and used it to justify a security crackdown.
But the claims - brought to media attention by IntelCenter, the US terrorism monitoring company - are certain to heighten security concerns around the Olympics, which open on August 8.
Chinese police dismissed the weekend claims, made in a video issued by members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority who called themselves the "Turkestan Islamic party".
The official Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying there was no evidence linking fatal bus bombings in the south-western city of Kunming and in Shanghai in May with terrorist activity or the Olympics.
Xinhua said other attacks referred to in the video had not occurred.
Senior Chinese security officials have said Xinjiang separatists are one of the most pressing threats to the games.
China has claimed its police have killed five members of a Uighur group waging "holy war".
"The Turkestan Islamic party volunteers will conduct violent military actions against individuals, departments, venues and activities that are related to the Olympics in China," a man identified as "Commander Seyfullah" says in the video, according to IntelCenter.
Weighing the degree of danger posed by separatist groups from Xinjiang, where Chinese rule is unpopular among the dominant Uighurs, is highly difficult.
Apart from the report on Xinhua's English language service dismissing it, Chinese state media generally ignored the Turkestan Islamic party's claims.
Exile Uighur groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the danger from Xinjiang to justify a crackdown.
China's moves to silence dissidents and step up monitoring of activists ahead of the Olympics have drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said: "Security threats have to be dealt with and that is fully understood by everybody, but security should not become in any way a cover to try to deal with dissent."
Al Qaeda Video Urges Muslims to Kill Saudi King for Hosting Interfaith Conference
From Associated Press
Monday, July 28, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt — An Al Qaeda commander who escaped from a U.S. prison has posted a Web video urging Muslims to kill the Saudi king for leading an interfaith conference in Madrid earlier this month.
Abu Yahia al-Libi, who escaped from Afghanistan's Bagram prison in 2005, says "bringing religions together...means renouncing Islam."
Saudi King Abdullah sponsored the dialogue among Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, and encouraged all faiths to turn away from extremism.
But al-Libi says "equating Islam with other religions is a betrayal of Islam." He calls for "the speedy killing of this tyrant."
The 43-minute video was posted late Monday on an Internet site frequently used by militants. Its authenticity could not be independently verified.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has also frequently lashed out at the royal family of his native Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers
From The Times July 25, 2008
Gerard Baker
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”
In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.
And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.
He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the
Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.
And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.
From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.
And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.
And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.
From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.
In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.
As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.
And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.
The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.
And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.
Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.
And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.
Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.
But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.
And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.
Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.
On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.
And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”
Moral Relativism Is Killing Our Country
By Mike Gallagher
The failure to readily identify the battle between good and evil is a nagging, ongoing, dangerous pattern that shows no sign of easing up any time soon.
This week on Fox News Channel, I appeared on a show and “debated” Ibrahim Hooper, a vocal and forceful representative of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. The topic? Whether or not it’s a good idea for a group of Islamic folks, represented by a man once linked by the federal government of plotting to blow up buildings and kill innocent Americans, to be allowed to plaster over a thousand subway cars in New York City with advertisements promoting Islam.
I’m not kidding you.
This man, a Brooklyn imam named Siraj Wahhaj, is all over a promotional video hyping the ad campaign for the trains. According to the New York Post, he has said things like, “In time, democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
He was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
The Post reports that he has called the FBI and CIA “the real terrorists.”
And he served as a character witness for “the blink sheik”, Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently rotting in jail for his role as one of the masterminds of the 1993 WTC bombing.
Now, he’s a spokesman for this wacky ad campaign that would attempt to teach people stuck on subway trains in New York City all about the wonders of Islam.
I can’t think of any city on the planet that should have to endure such a cruel taunt. But the idea of doing this to New Yorkers is obscene.
Already a number of NYC officials are calling upon the MTA, the transit agency that runs the subway system, to reject the ill-conceived ad campaign.
This week on the Fox News program, Mr. Hooper attempted to deliver a monologue about what a wonderful man this Siraj Wahhaj is; how those of us who object to the subway ad campaign are trying to prohibit “free speech;” and the old favorite of activists like Hooper, we’re demonstrating anti-Islamic bigotry.
Click here to read the rest.
The failure to readily identify the battle between good and evil is a nagging, ongoing, dangerous pattern that shows no sign of easing up any time soon.
This week on Fox News Channel, I appeared on a show and “debated” Ibrahim Hooper, a vocal and forceful representative of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. The topic? Whether or not it’s a good idea for a group of Islamic folks, represented by a man once linked by the federal government of plotting to blow up buildings and kill innocent Americans, to be allowed to plaster over a thousand subway cars in New York City with advertisements promoting Islam.
I’m not kidding you.
This man, a Brooklyn imam named Siraj Wahhaj, is all over a promotional video hyping the ad campaign for the trains. According to the New York Post, he has said things like, “In time, democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
He was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
The Post reports that he has called the FBI and CIA “the real terrorists.”
And he served as a character witness for “the blink sheik”, Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently rotting in jail for his role as one of the masterminds of the 1993 WTC bombing.
Now, he’s a spokesman for this wacky ad campaign that would attempt to teach people stuck on subway trains in New York City all about the wonders of Islam.
I can’t think of any city on the planet that should have to endure such a cruel taunt. But the idea of doing this to New Yorkers is obscene.
Already a number of NYC officials are calling upon the MTA, the transit agency that runs the subway system, to reject the ill-conceived ad campaign.
This week on the Fox News program, Mr. Hooper attempted to deliver a monologue about what a wonderful man this Siraj Wahhaj is; how those of us who object to the subway ad campaign are trying to prohibit “free speech;” and the old favorite of activists like Hooper, we’re demonstrating anti-Islamic bigotry.
Click here to read the rest.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Chertoff: US helped Mexico detect submarine packed full of drugs
The Associated Press
Similar makeshift submarines carrying drugs have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but the navy says the seizure is a first for Mexico.
Chertoff, who is on a three-day trip to meet with Mexican security officials, said drug cartels are increasingly relying on the subs to smuggle cocaine to the United States.
U.S. officials say traffickers use the vessels to carry about 32 percent of the cocaine moved by water from South America to the U.S.
Costing about US$1 million, the boats are usually painted to blend in with the color of the water, U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Thad Allen told reporters in Washington on Friday.
Many are capable of carrying more than 10 tons of cocaine and can be operated by remote control from hundreds of miles away, Allen said.
Drug cartels have been looking for new ways to move drugs north to the United States as the Mexican government cracks down on drug trafficking across the country.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed 25,000 soldiers across the country to battle drug gangs, which have responded with bold attacks on the military and police. More than 4,000 people have been killed in turf wars, assassinations and shootouts since Calderon took office in December 2006.
Chertoff said Friday that a US$400 million aid package recently approved by the United States would go to help Mexico buy equipment, train agents and coordinate information with the U.S. He also praised Mexico's drug offensive.
"My personal belief is that you got to step down very hard very quickly on those people who challenge the rule of law and defy it, and that's why I'm pleased to see the Mexican military has been involved," Chertoff said. "They have been aggressive, and most of all they haven't been intimidated."
___
Associate Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
Similar makeshift submarines carrying drugs have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but the navy says the seizure is a first for Mexico.
Chertoff, who is on a three-day trip to meet with Mexican security officials, said drug cartels are increasingly relying on the subs to smuggle cocaine to the United States.
U.S. officials say traffickers use the vessels to carry about 32 percent of the cocaine moved by water from South America to the U.S.
Costing about US$1 million, the boats are usually painted to blend in with the color of the water, U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Thad Allen told reporters in Washington on Friday.
Many are capable of carrying more than 10 tons of cocaine and can be operated by remote control from hundreds of miles away, Allen said.
Drug cartels have been looking for new ways to move drugs north to the United States as the Mexican government cracks down on drug trafficking across the country.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed 25,000 soldiers across the country to battle drug gangs, which have responded with bold attacks on the military and police. More than 4,000 people have been killed in turf wars, assassinations and shootouts since Calderon took office in December 2006.
Chertoff said Friday that a US$400 million aid package recently approved by the United States would go to help Mexico buy equipment, train agents and coordinate information with the U.S. He also praised Mexico's drug offensive.
"My personal belief is that you got to step down very hard very quickly on those people who challenge the rule of law and defy it, and that's why I'm pleased to see the Mexican military has been involved," Chertoff said. "They have been aggressive, and most of all they haven't been intimidated."
___
Associate Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
10 tons of drugs seized in Morocco
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco's state news agency says police have seized more than 10 tons of drugs during raids in the north of the country and along its coasts.
The MAP news agency says police caught two speedboats loaded with 7.7 tons of hashish as they were about to leave the northern Moroccan area of Larache to cross the Straits of Gibraltar toward Spain. Police then raided a nearby house and found three tons of cannabis leaves.
Monday's report does not give an estimated street value for the drugs, seized Saturday, but says they were destroyed on the spot.
Morocco is believed to be one of the world's largest producers of hashish. A U.S. ally, Morocco has vowed to crack down on trafficking and toughened border controls in recent years.
The MAP news agency says police caught two speedboats loaded with 7.7 tons of hashish as they were about to leave the northern Moroccan area of Larache to cross the Straits of Gibraltar toward Spain. Police then raided a nearby house and found three tons of cannabis leaves.
Monday's report does not give an estimated street value for the drugs, seized Saturday, but says they were destroyed on the spot.
Morocco is believed to be one of the world's largest producers of hashish. A U.S. ally, Morocco has vowed to crack down on trafficking and toughened border controls in recent years.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Marijuana stronger than ever ... More potent dope than the hippies smoked... addictions in teens on the rise
Christina Macone-Greene
Special to the Village News
Thursday, July 10th, 2008.
Issue 28, Volume 12.
Think marijuana is a harmless drug with insignificant effects?
A recent study into the psychoactive strength of marijuana was conducted by the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Project and the findings were released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The result of the study points to a sharp increase in the THC levels (psychoactive component) in the plant-based drug. These findings have raised concerns over the mental health effects on adolescents using marijuana.
“The potency of marijuana in the United States has doubled since the mid-1980s,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesperson for ONDCP.
In 1983 the THC level was just under four percent, but Lemaitre said the current samples indicate the level has swollen to 9.6 percent.
According to their most recent quarterly report, the University of Mississippi used marijuana samples obtained by law enforcement in the confiscation process. In one sample, the THC level registered 37.2 percent.
The THC level has risen due to different reasons, Lemaitre said.
“There are more sophisticated growing techniques [being] used by drug traffickers,” he said, “and we also think there’s a concerted effort by drug gangs to take over the market share, because a better product has the higher potential for addiction and is better business for the bad guys.”
Lemaitre called the recent THC potency analysis in marijuana “troublesome.”
“Today, we are seeing more teenagers in treatment for marijuana addiction than for any other illegal drug, including alcohol,” he explained. “Marijuana is a different drug than what was around in the 1970s and we are seeing it as a very serious health threat.”
An adolescent brain, Lemaitre related, has not finished developing, so there is great concern about those smoking the drug with high THC levels.
“New research in the last four to five years shows troubling links between marijuana use and different kinds of psychosis, depression and schizophrenia,” he said.
Emergency rooms have seen their fair share of patients whose use of marijuana has led to paranoia, increased heart rate and panic/anxiety attacks.
“According to the California Healthy Kid Survey, marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug of youth in San Diego County,” said Clark Kiser, program manager for Mental Health Systems and North Inland Community Prevention Program.
A recent survey showed 17 percent of eleventh-graders in San Diego County admitted to using marijuana in the past 30 days. Nearly two-thirds of new marijuana users each year are between the ages of 12 and 17.
Fallbrook is far from exempt when it comes to marijuana use. The 2005 California Healthy Kids Survey conducted on Fallbrook youth revealed that six percent of ninth-graders and seven percent of eleventh-graders admitted to smoking marijuana.
“Marijuana is definitely present in Fallbrook, and young teenagers, even in our middle schools, are smoking it,” said Sgt. Theresa Adams-Hydar of the Sheriff’s Fallbrook Substation. “We have several arrests a week from Potter Junior High and Fallbrook High School for juveniles in possession of marijuana or some type of related paraphernalia.”
On Internet sites, such as MySpace and other file sharing sites, children frequently post photos of themselves smoking pot or using bongs (devices used to smoke marijuana), said Adams-Hydar.
Law enforcement officers recommend that parents closely monitor what their children are putting on sites like these, saying even the placing of a simple icon of a marijuana leaf on a personal site should be a red flag to parents.
“This is definitely something to watch out for,” said Adams-Hydar, adding that parents should also be vigilant about clothing lines that promote marijuana.
To keep abreast of any drug suspicious activity in children, it has been recommended by health experts that parents utilize home test kits which can detect drug use.
“We have a variety of tests,” said Kermit Harrison, pharmacy manager for Rite Aid’s Fallbrook store.
Results from one of these urine tests can be read within five minutes. If a positive result is discovered, Harrison says it is best to move forward with a blood test from a physician, just to be certain.
The sensitivity of home test kits is best utilized within 48 hours of any suspicious activity. “The farther out you go in time, the less reliable the test result,” explained Harrison.
On average, Rite Aid fields a couple of inquiries each week about home drug test kits. “I think these tests are a good threat for kids,” said Harrison, “and it will keep an honest kid honest.”
Due to the mild Mediterranean climate and fertile ground, Fallbrook is a top choice for many crops – including marijuana. Cultivators of the plant have been known to favor the greater Fallbrook area.
“There is a marijuana problem in any agricultural area throughout [San Diego County]; Fallbrook isn’t the only place,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Reed. “Anytime you have an agricultural work group with remote areas and water, you’ll end up with marijuana.”
In 2007, Reed said the biggest marijuana growing operation his department busted was in the area of Palomar Mountain. Some 42,000 plants were being cultivated in the enterprise.
“On average, we find 100 to 500 marijuana plants,” he said, “and in the Fallbrook area, including De Luz, Rainbow and Bonsall, we find about 75 marijuana gardens a year.”
The cultivation of marijuana crops in the Fallbrook area is an ongoing problem. Unlawfully diverting water lines from law-abiding farms and orchards in order to irrigate marijuana gardens is common.
“It is easy to do so in the big ranches and farms of De Luz,” said Adams-Hydar. “If you see a water line going somewhere [other than your specific garden or orchard area], leave it alone and call the Sheriff’s Department.”
As far as the ONDCP is concerned, the marijuana of today is a new drug.
“There are people who have outdated thoughts and notions that marijuana is a harmless substance,” said Lemaitre, “but science is telling us something different.”
Special to the Village News
Thursday, July 10th, 2008.
Issue 28, Volume 12.
Think marijuana is a harmless drug with insignificant effects?
A recent study into the psychoactive strength of marijuana was conducted by the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Project and the findings were released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The result of the study points to a sharp increase in the THC levels (psychoactive component) in the plant-based drug. These findings have raised concerns over the mental health effects on adolescents using marijuana.
“The potency of marijuana in the United States has doubled since the mid-1980s,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesperson for ONDCP.
In 1983 the THC level was just under four percent, but Lemaitre said the current samples indicate the level has swollen to 9.6 percent.
According to their most recent quarterly report, the University of Mississippi used marijuana samples obtained by law enforcement in the confiscation process. In one sample, the THC level registered 37.2 percent.
The THC level has risen due to different reasons, Lemaitre said.
“There are more sophisticated growing techniques [being] used by drug traffickers,” he said, “and we also think there’s a concerted effort by drug gangs to take over the market share, because a better product has the higher potential for addiction and is better business for the bad guys.”
Lemaitre called the recent THC potency analysis in marijuana “troublesome.”
“Today, we are seeing more teenagers in treatment for marijuana addiction than for any other illegal drug, including alcohol,” he explained. “Marijuana is a different drug than what was around in the 1970s and we are seeing it as a very serious health threat.”
An adolescent brain, Lemaitre related, has not finished developing, so there is great concern about those smoking the drug with high THC levels.
“New research in the last four to five years shows troubling links between marijuana use and different kinds of psychosis, depression and schizophrenia,” he said.
Emergency rooms have seen their fair share of patients whose use of marijuana has led to paranoia, increased heart rate and panic/anxiety attacks.
“According to the California Healthy Kid Survey, marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug of youth in San Diego County,” said Clark Kiser, program manager for Mental Health Systems and North Inland Community Prevention Program.
A recent survey showed 17 percent of eleventh-graders in San Diego County admitted to using marijuana in the past 30 days. Nearly two-thirds of new marijuana users each year are between the ages of 12 and 17.
Fallbrook is far from exempt when it comes to marijuana use. The 2005 California Healthy Kids Survey conducted on Fallbrook youth revealed that six percent of ninth-graders and seven percent of eleventh-graders admitted to smoking marijuana.
“Marijuana is definitely present in Fallbrook, and young teenagers, even in our middle schools, are smoking it,” said Sgt. Theresa Adams-Hydar of the Sheriff’s Fallbrook Substation. “We have several arrests a week from Potter Junior High and Fallbrook High School for juveniles in possession of marijuana or some type of related paraphernalia.”
On Internet sites, such as MySpace and other file sharing sites, children frequently post photos of themselves smoking pot or using bongs (devices used to smoke marijuana), said Adams-Hydar.
Law enforcement officers recommend that parents closely monitor what their children are putting on sites like these, saying even the placing of a simple icon of a marijuana leaf on a personal site should be a red flag to parents.
“This is definitely something to watch out for,” said Adams-Hydar, adding that parents should also be vigilant about clothing lines that promote marijuana.
To keep abreast of any drug suspicious activity in children, it has been recommended by health experts that parents utilize home test kits which can detect drug use.
“We have a variety of tests,” said Kermit Harrison, pharmacy manager for Rite Aid’s Fallbrook store.
Results from one of these urine tests can be read within five minutes. If a positive result is discovered, Harrison says it is best to move forward with a blood test from a physician, just to be certain.
The sensitivity of home test kits is best utilized within 48 hours of any suspicious activity. “The farther out you go in time, the less reliable the test result,” explained Harrison.
On average, Rite Aid fields a couple of inquiries each week about home drug test kits. “I think these tests are a good threat for kids,” said Harrison, “and it will keep an honest kid honest.”
Due to the mild Mediterranean climate and fertile ground, Fallbrook is a top choice for many crops – including marijuana. Cultivators of the plant have been known to favor the greater Fallbrook area.
“There is a marijuana problem in any agricultural area throughout [San Diego County]; Fallbrook isn’t the only place,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Reed. “Anytime you have an agricultural work group with remote areas and water, you’ll end up with marijuana.”
In 2007, Reed said the biggest marijuana growing operation his department busted was in the area of Palomar Mountain. Some 42,000 plants were being cultivated in the enterprise.
“On average, we find 100 to 500 marijuana plants,” he said, “and in the Fallbrook area, including De Luz, Rainbow and Bonsall, we find about 75 marijuana gardens a year.”
The cultivation of marijuana crops in the Fallbrook area is an ongoing problem. Unlawfully diverting water lines from law-abiding farms and orchards in order to irrigate marijuana gardens is common.
“It is easy to do so in the big ranches and farms of De Luz,” said Adams-Hydar. “If you see a water line going somewhere [other than your specific garden or orchard area], leave it alone and call the Sheriff’s Department.”
As far as the ONDCP is concerned, the marijuana of today is a new drug.
“There are people who have outdated thoughts and notions that marijuana is a harmless substance,” said Lemaitre, “but science is telling us something different.”
Cannabis — a fast emerging health problem in Pakistan
Friday, June 27, 2008
Muhammad Qasim
The News
Islamabad
In Pakistan, the youth comprises more than 20 per cent of the population but unfortunately it is the worst target of drug abuse, as almost five per cent of adult population in the country uses drugs.
Head of Community Medicine at Islamabad Medical & Dental College, Colonel (r) Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ Thursday in connection with International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is being observed on June 26.
This year’s slogan of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) anti-drugs campaign is ‘Do drugs control your life, your community? No place for drugs.’
The number of drug addicts in Pakistan was about 5 million in 2005 that has been growing at an annual rate of 7 per cent. About 60 per cent drug addicts belong to educated class and most of them are college or university students. “According to estimates, one out of every ten college/university students is addict and over 50 per cent of them are living in a high risk drug abuse environment,” said Dr Ashraf.
He said that drug abuse especially cannabis (marijuana, hashish, ganja, charas etc) is rapidly increasing in Pakistan especially among youth in colleges and universities, thereby resulting in serious health and social implications. “Drugs destroy lives and communities, undermine sustainable development and generate crime. Drug abuse affects freedom and development of young people, the world’s most valuable asset.”
Dr Ashraf said that more and more youngsters are falling prey to cannabis in Pakistan. The irony is that there are many misconceptions about the use of cannabis among youth. “Most of them think that cannabis is a harmless drug, and it does not cause dependence whereas in actual, cannabis is harmful drug, it causes dependence and its occasional use even can cause complications and reactions.”
Talking of the adverse affects of the substance, he said the most common adverse effect to cannabis is anxiety (restlessness, feelings of loss of control, panic, fear of impending death), depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosis. There is evidence that cannabis can cause acute schizophrenic psychosis leading to risk of developing schizophrenia in later life. “Around 10 per cent cases of schizophrenia could be attributed to cannabis,” he said and added that young and adolescent users might involve in delinquency and crime.
To a query, he said that exposing brain to the substances such as cannabis at an early age could have negative effects on personal growth and development. All cannabinoids — are extremely fatty in nature and stay in the body including the brain for a prolonged period of time. “Cannabis smoke contains 50 per cent more tar than smoke of a high-tar cigarette, so regular use of cannabis increases the risk of lung cancer and chronic bronchitis.”
He maintained that using cannabis leads to some problems what is called a ‘psychomotor’ function that is the ability to coordinate our actions. This is especially important when you are doing things like driving, operating machinery etc. Cannabis impairs memory, judgement, forward thinking.
He said that parents can easily recognise their children who use cannabis or marijuana due to their typical signs and symptoms, behaviour change and spending more time in the bathrooms of their houses. “Moreover, cannabinoid metabolites can be detected in urine in case of doubt.” Talking on remedies of the problem, Dr Ashraf said that there is a need of taking the cannabis problem very seriously in Pakistan. “Parents, teachers, government and public health agencies should be alert to this rising epidemic of cannabis abuse among the Pakistani youth,” he said adding efforts should be made to control smoking tobacco in the country because it is gateway to cannabis use.
Muhammad Qasim
The News
Islamabad
In Pakistan, the youth comprises more than 20 per cent of the population but unfortunately it is the worst target of drug abuse, as almost five per cent of adult population in the country uses drugs.
Head of Community Medicine at Islamabad Medical & Dental College, Colonel (r) Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ Thursday in connection with International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is being observed on June 26.
This year’s slogan of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) anti-drugs campaign is ‘Do drugs control your life, your community? No place for drugs.’
The number of drug addicts in Pakistan was about 5 million in 2005 that has been growing at an annual rate of 7 per cent. About 60 per cent drug addicts belong to educated class and most of them are college or university students. “According to estimates, one out of every ten college/university students is addict and over 50 per cent of them are living in a high risk drug abuse environment,” said Dr Ashraf.
He said that drug abuse especially cannabis (marijuana, hashish, ganja, charas etc) is rapidly increasing in Pakistan especially among youth in colleges and universities, thereby resulting in serious health and social implications. “Drugs destroy lives and communities, undermine sustainable development and generate crime. Drug abuse affects freedom and development of young people, the world’s most valuable asset.”
Dr Ashraf said that more and more youngsters are falling prey to cannabis in Pakistan. The irony is that there are many misconceptions about the use of cannabis among youth. “Most of them think that cannabis is a harmless drug, and it does not cause dependence whereas in actual, cannabis is harmful drug, it causes dependence and its occasional use even can cause complications and reactions.”
Talking of the adverse affects of the substance, he said the most common adverse effect to cannabis is anxiety (restlessness, feelings of loss of control, panic, fear of impending death), depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosis. There is evidence that cannabis can cause acute schizophrenic psychosis leading to risk of developing schizophrenia in later life. “Around 10 per cent cases of schizophrenia could be attributed to cannabis,” he said and added that young and adolescent users might involve in delinquency and crime.
To a query, he said that exposing brain to the substances such as cannabis at an early age could have negative effects on personal growth and development. All cannabinoids — are extremely fatty in nature and stay in the body including the brain for a prolonged period of time. “Cannabis smoke contains 50 per cent more tar than smoke of a high-tar cigarette, so regular use of cannabis increases the risk of lung cancer and chronic bronchitis.”
He maintained that using cannabis leads to some problems what is called a ‘psychomotor’ function that is the ability to coordinate our actions. This is especially important when you are doing things like driving, operating machinery etc. Cannabis impairs memory, judgement, forward thinking.
He said that parents can easily recognise their children who use cannabis or marijuana due to their typical signs and symptoms, behaviour change and spending more time in the bathrooms of their houses. “Moreover, cannabinoid metabolites can be detected in urine in case of doubt.” Talking on remedies of the problem, Dr Ashraf said that there is a need of taking the cannabis problem very seriously in Pakistan. “Parents, teachers, government and public health agencies should be alert to this rising epidemic of cannabis abuse among the Pakistani youth,” he said adding efforts should be made to control smoking tobacco in the country because it is gateway to cannabis use.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
S.F. fires up two-pronged attack on smoking
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
(07-15) 20:23 PDT -- Smokers would find it harder to buy their cigarettes and light up in public under two proposals under consideration by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city's public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States.
Supervisor Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would vastly limit areas where people can smoke.
Gone would be smoking in all businesses and bars, which now make an exception for owner-operated ones.
Gone too would be lighting up in taxicabs and rental cars, city-owned vehicles, farmers' markets, common areas of apartment buildings, tourist hotels, tobacco shops, charity bingo games, unenclosed dining areas, waiting areas such as lines at an ATM or movie theater, and anywhere within 20 feet of entrances to private, nonresidential buildings.
Mitch Katz, director of the Department of Public Health, said he strongly supports both measures - even if they are angering business owners who say it's one more example of San Francisco City Hall overstepping its bounds.
"Tobacco remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. - period," he said. "It's government's responsibility to protect people from obvious risks."
Surprisingly, San Francisco is far behind some Bay Area cities in the fight against tobacco. The American Lung Association assigned letter grades this year to 108 Bay Area cities depending on whether they were successfully curbing secondhand smoke exposure in housing, recreation areas, outdoor dining, entryways and outdoor service areas.
Only Belmont, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, unincorporated parts of Contra Costa County and Ross earned A grades. San Francisco scored a D.
S.F. 'way out of date'
Karen Licavoli, vice president of programs for the anti-tobacco nonprofit Breathe California and member of San Francisco's Tobacco Free Coalition, said Daly's proposals would place San Francisco among the top few cities in the state when it comes to limiting secondhand smoke.
"San Francisco's way out of date," she said. "That's why it's critical we get this law passed without amendments that water it down."
The proposed ban on pharmacies selling tobacco was approved by the Health Commission on Tuesday, and it would take effect Oct. 1 if it's approved by the supervisors. Violators would face fines of $100 to $1,000. It would apply only to pharmacies and not to grocery stores or big-box stores like Costco that also sell tobacco products and have pharmacies inside them.
Katz said the entire population patronizes grocery stores and big-box stores, but the sick are more likely to use pharmacies and are likely to be suffering from diseases exacerbated by tobacco products.
Calls Tuesday to the headquarters of Walgreens and Rite Aid were not returned.
Michael Sharpe, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 648, represents workers at stores such as Walgreens and said it's not fair to have some rules for their businesses and other rules for grocery stores and big-box stores.
"I'm a nonsmoker. I hate smoking," he said. "But if you're really looking to change behavior, you're not going to be able to do it by changing the venue people buy (cigarettes) in."
Daly refused to talk to The Chronicle about his measure. His legislative aide, Lena Gomes, said business owners would have to post signs about the law and make sure their customers follow it.
Firm's owner would call cops
Gomes said the owner wouldn't have to physically remove the smoker if he or she doesn't comply, but would be responsible for calling the police. The fine would be against the smoker, not the business, and could be $500, she said.
"We don't want to put anyone out of business," she said. "We're just saying there's enough scientific evidence that there is no safe place for secondhand smoke."
Carol Piasente, spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce, said it's not fair to make business owners police patrons. She added that many city blocks have stores so tightly packed together, a smoker would not be able to find anywhere that's more than 20 feet away from a business entrance.
"It seems to be a solution that hasn't been thought out in terms of its consequences and how it would actually work," she said.
Smokers gathered outside the city's Main Library on Tuesday weren't happy with the idea, either.
"They've banned enough places for people to smoke," said Joey Juchemich, 33. "Pretty soon it's going to be illegal to smoke anywhere but your own home."
To get involved
Both pieces of anti-tobacco legislation will be heard by the Board of Supervisors' city operations and neighborhood services committee at 1 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, Room 263.
The plan in San Francisco
Proposed restrictions would ban smoking in public places, even tobacco shops such as Grant's Pipe Shop on Market Street, where Shola Adeyemo (above) of San Francisco is seen puffing on one of his favorite cigars.
Other city smoking rules in state
Several California cities have local smoking restrictions. Here are some of the most stringent:
Belmont
Bans smoking in all units of multistory apartment buildings, including balconies and patios. Goes into effect next year.
Oakland
Only city in the state to require sellers of condos and landlords to disclose to new buyers and renters the smoking designations of units and how complaints about wafting smoke are handled. Bans smoking in all common areas.
Berkeley
Strong limits including bans in all work sites with more than two employees, sidewalks in commercial zones, recreation areas, areas within 25 feet of doorways and windows of public buildings, and all public transportation and taxis.
Temecula (Riverside County)
Requires landlords to designate 25 percent of apartments as nonsmoking in buildings with 10 or more units. Nonsmoking units must be separate from smoking ones.
Calabasas (L.A. County)
Bans all smoking in public places, making it one of the strictest cities in the country.
Los Angeles
Bans smoking in public parks - except, naturally, when the filming of a movie requires it.
Source: Chronicle research, American Lung Association
E-mail Heather Knight at hknight@sfchronicle.com.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
(07-15) 20:23 PDT -- Smokers would find it harder to buy their cigarettes and light up in public under two proposals under consideration by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city's public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States.
Supervisor Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would vastly limit areas where people can smoke.
Gone would be smoking in all businesses and bars, which now make an exception for owner-operated ones.
Gone too would be lighting up in taxicabs and rental cars, city-owned vehicles, farmers' markets, common areas of apartment buildings, tourist hotels, tobacco shops, charity bingo games, unenclosed dining areas, waiting areas such as lines at an ATM or movie theater, and anywhere within 20 feet of entrances to private, nonresidential buildings.
Mitch Katz, director of the Department of Public Health, said he strongly supports both measures - even if they are angering business owners who say it's one more example of San Francisco City Hall overstepping its bounds.
"Tobacco remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. - period," he said. "It's government's responsibility to protect people from obvious risks."
Surprisingly, San Francisco is far behind some Bay Area cities in the fight against tobacco. The American Lung Association assigned letter grades this year to 108 Bay Area cities depending on whether they were successfully curbing secondhand smoke exposure in housing, recreation areas, outdoor dining, entryways and outdoor service areas.
Only Belmont, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, unincorporated parts of Contra Costa County and Ross earned A grades. San Francisco scored a D.
S.F. 'way out of date'
Karen Licavoli, vice president of programs for the anti-tobacco nonprofit Breathe California and member of San Francisco's Tobacco Free Coalition, said Daly's proposals would place San Francisco among the top few cities in the state when it comes to limiting secondhand smoke.
"San Francisco's way out of date," she said. "That's why it's critical we get this law passed without amendments that water it down."
The proposed ban on pharmacies selling tobacco was approved by the Health Commission on Tuesday, and it would take effect Oct. 1 if it's approved by the supervisors. Violators would face fines of $100 to $1,000. It would apply only to pharmacies and not to grocery stores or big-box stores like Costco that also sell tobacco products and have pharmacies inside them.
Katz said the entire population patronizes grocery stores and big-box stores, but the sick are more likely to use pharmacies and are likely to be suffering from diseases exacerbated by tobacco products.
Calls Tuesday to the headquarters of Walgreens and Rite Aid were not returned.
Michael Sharpe, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 648, represents workers at stores such as Walgreens and said it's not fair to have some rules for their businesses and other rules for grocery stores and big-box stores.
"I'm a nonsmoker. I hate smoking," he said. "But if you're really looking to change behavior, you're not going to be able to do it by changing the venue people buy (cigarettes) in."
Daly refused to talk to The Chronicle about his measure. His legislative aide, Lena Gomes, said business owners would have to post signs about the law and make sure their customers follow it.
Firm's owner would call cops
Gomes said the owner wouldn't have to physically remove the smoker if he or she doesn't comply, but would be responsible for calling the police. The fine would be against the smoker, not the business, and could be $500, she said.
"We don't want to put anyone out of business," she said. "We're just saying there's enough scientific evidence that there is no safe place for secondhand smoke."
Carol Piasente, spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce, said it's not fair to make business owners police patrons. She added that many city blocks have stores so tightly packed together, a smoker would not be able to find anywhere that's more than 20 feet away from a business entrance.
"It seems to be a solution that hasn't been thought out in terms of its consequences and how it would actually work," she said.
Smokers gathered outside the city's Main Library on Tuesday weren't happy with the idea, either.
"They've banned enough places for people to smoke," said Joey Juchemich, 33. "Pretty soon it's going to be illegal to smoke anywhere but your own home."
To get involved
Both pieces of anti-tobacco legislation will be heard by the Board of Supervisors' city operations and neighborhood services committee at 1 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, Room 263.
The plan in San Francisco
Proposed restrictions would ban smoking in public places, even tobacco shops such as Grant's Pipe Shop on Market Street, where Shola Adeyemo (above) of San Francisco is seen puffing on one of his favorite cigars.
Other city smoking rules in state
Several California cities have local smoking restrictions. Here are some of the most stringent:
Belmont
Bans smoking in all units of multistory apartment buildings, including balconies and patios. Goes into effect next year.
Oakland
Only city in the state to require sellers of condos and landlords to disclose to new buyers and renters the smoking designations of units and how complaints about wafting smoke are handled. Bans smoking in all common areas.
Berkeley
Strong limits including bans in all work sites with more than two employees, sidewalks in commercial zones, recreation areas, areas within 25 feet of doorways and windows of public buildings, and all public transportation and taxis.
Temecula (Riverside County)
Requires landlords to designate 25 percent of apartments as nonsmoking in buildings with 10 or more units. Nonsmoking units must be separate from smoking ones.
Calabasas (L.A. County)
Bans all smoking in public places, making it one of the strictest cities in the country.
Los Angeles
Bans smoking in public parks - except, naturally, when the filming of a movie requires it.
Source: Chronicle research, American Lung Association
E-mail Heather Knight at hknight@sfchronicle.com.
Texas still plans to execute killer despite U.N. order
By ALLAN TURNER and ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Texas will go ahead with the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of Houston rapist-killer Jose Medellin despite Wednesday's United Nations world court order for a stay, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry said.
The UN's International Court of Justice's call for stays in the cases of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals awaiting execution in Texas came in response to a petition filed last month by the Mexican government.
The petition sought to halt executions to allow for review of the killers' cases to determine whether denying them access to the Mexican Consulate after arrest harmed their trial defenses.
The Geneva Convention stipulates that, upon request, an alien offender's national consulate must be notified of an arrest.
In its order, the world court quotes the Mexican government's argument that "Texas has made clear that unless restrained, it will go forward with the execution without providing Mr. Medellin the mandated review and reconsideration," which will "irreparably" breach the U.S. government's obligations to the court's 2004 order.
The Mexican government reasons that "the paramount interest in human life is at stake," according to the court's order.
If Medellin and the other nationals are executed without additional court reviews, "Mexico would forever be deprived of the opportunity to vindicate its rights and those of the nationals concerned."
Perry's office dismissed the argument.
"The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said.
"It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."
Medellin, 33, was condemned for the 1993 killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, who stumbled into a drunken midnight gang initiation rite at T.C. Jester Park in north Houston.
Medellin's accomplice, Derrick O'Brien, was executed in July 2006. Also sentenced to die is gang leader Peter Anthony Cantu. Three other accomplices are serving prison sentences. Medellin was the only non-American involved in the murders.
Wednesday's UN court decision in The Hague, Netherlands, was the latest development in an an ongoing legal wrangle that has involved President Bush, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Mexican government.
In 2004, the UN court ordered review of the cases of 51 Mexican nationals facing execution in the United States because they had not been allowed to speak with their nation's consular officials.
In February 2005, Bush directed state courts to abide by the U.N. court decision, specifically asking Texas to review Medellin's case.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush had overstepped his authority. Chief Justice John Roberts said the president cannot mandate such court reviews without congressional concurrence.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., filed a bill providing for such reviews. As of Wednesday, it was in committee.
Weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey jointly wrote Perry, asking for his help in obtaining the reviews.
The United States, they wrote, continues to be bound by the world court's decision under international law.
International law expert Sarah Cleveland, a professor of human and constitutional rights at New York City's Columbia Law School, said in an e-mail that if the U.S. fails to act on the world court order, other countries may follow suit.
"This can only come back to hurt U.S. citizens when they are detained abroad," she wrote.
" ... When a global leader like the U.S. refuses to comply with its clear international legal obligations (and everyone agrees that this is a clear legal obligation), it undermines the willingness of other states to comply with their own obligations and it inspires them not to trust us to obey ours."
Meanwhile, Randy Ertman, father of Jennifer Ertman, hotly denounced the world court's order for stays.
"The world court don't mean diddly," he said. "This business belongs in the state of Texas. The people of the state of Texas support the execution. We thank them. The rest of them can go to hell."
Adolfo Pena, father of Elizabeth Pena, agreed.
"I believe we've been through all the red tape we can go through," he said. "It's time to rock and roll."
allan.turner@chron.com
rosanna.ruiz@chron.com
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Texas will go ahead with the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of Houston rapist-killer Jose Medellin despite Wednesday's United Nations world court order for a stay, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry said.
The UN's International Court of Justice's call for stays in the cases of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals awaiting execution in Texas came in response to a petition filed last month by the Mexican government.
The petition sought to halt executions to allow for review of the killers' cases to determine whether denying them access to the Mexican Consulate after arrest harmed their trial defenses.
The Geneva Convention stipulates that, upon request, an alien offender's national consulate must be notified of an arrest.
In its order, the world court quotes the Mexican government's argument that "Texas has made clear that unless restrained, it will go forward with the execution without providing Mr. Medellin the mandated review and reconsideration," which will "irreparably" breach the U.S. government's obligations to the court's 2004 order.
The Mexican government reasons that "the paramount interest in human life is at stake," according to the court's order.
If Medellin and the other nationals are executed without additional court reviews, "Mexico would forever be deprived of the opportunity to vindicate its rights and those of the nationals concerned."
Perry's office dismissed the argument.
"The world court has no standing in Texas and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said.
"It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."
Medellin, 33, was condemned for the 1993 killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, who stumbled into a drunken midnight gang initiation rite at T.C. Jester Park in north Houston.
Medellin's accomplice, Derrick O'Brien, was executed in July 2006. Also sentenced to die is gang leader Peter Anthony Cantu. Three other accomplices are serving prison sentences. Medellin was the only non-American involved in the murders.
Wednesday's UN court decision in The Hague, Netherlands, was the latest development in an an ongoing legal wrangle that has involved President Bush, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Mexican government.
In 2004, the UN court ordered review of the cases of 51 Mexican nationals facing execution in the United States because they had not been allowed to speak with their nation's consular officials.
In February 2005, Bush directed state courts to abide by the U.N. court decision, specifically asking Texas to review Medellin's case.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush had overstepped his authority. Chief Justice John Roberts said the president cannot mandate such court reviews without congressional concurrence.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., filed a bill providing for such reviews. As of Wednesday, it was in committee.
Weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey jointly wrote Perry, asking for his help in obtaining the reviews.
The United States, they wrote, continues to be bound by the world court's decision under international law.
International law expert Sarah Cleveland, a professor of human and constitutional rights at New York City's Columbia Law School, said in an e-mail that if the U.S. fails to act on the world court order, other countries may follow suit.
"This can only come back to hurt U.S. citizens when they are detained abroad," she wrote.
" ... When a global leader like the U.S. refuses to comply with its clear international legal obligations (and everyone agrees that this is a clear legal obligation), it undermines the willingness of other states to comply with their own obligations and it inspires them not to trust us to obey ours."
Meanwhile, Randy Ertman, father of Jennifer Ertman, hotly denounced the world court's order for stays.
"The world court don't mean diddly," he said. "This business belongs in the state of Texas. The people of the state of Texas support the execution. We thank them. The rest of them can go to hell."
Adolfo Pena, father of Elizabeth Pena, agreed.
"I believe we've been through all the red tape we can go through," he said. "It's time to rock and roll."
allan.turner@chron.com
rosanna.ruiz@chron.com
Hezbollah Returns Bodies to Israel in Exchange for 5 Lebanese Militants
Associated Press
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
NAQOURA, Lebanon — Five Lebanese militants freed from prisons in Israel in exchange for the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers strode down a red carpet behind a Hezbollah honor guard Wednesday to a boisterous welcome from hundreds of cheering spectators.
Israel released Samir Kantar and four others after Hezbollah handed over two black coffins with the bodies of the Israeli soldiers, closing a painful chapter from the 2006 war in Lebanon.
Kantar, who had been serving multiple life terms in Israel for a grisly 1979 attack, wiped away tears as he stood before hundreds in the coastal border town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon. An honor guard escorted the men to a stage as a brass band played martial music and rows of uniformed fighters saluted.
"We knew that you were waiting for the resistance and it reached you. You came back free and heroes," said Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hezbollah's political bureau.
• Click here to view photos.
The five later flew to Beirut, where they received an official welcome from the president and his government.
Winning freedom for Kantar was one of the reasons Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah cited at the time for going to war with Israel in 2006.
Kantar was convicted in a nighttime attack that killed a 4-year-old girl, her father and a policeman. Although polls showed Israelis solidly endorsed the exchange, many see Kantar as the embodiment of evil.
"Samir Kantar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister.
Wednesday's exchange was also a wrenching end to the war for Israel. The soldiers' capture by Hezbollah fighters in a cross-border raid in 2006 triggered the 34-day war. The campaign to bring Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev home had become a national crusade.
The soldiers' Hezbollah captors had withheld any information about them since they were taken, refusing to release pictures or allow the Red Cross to see them. It was not clear if Regev and Goldwasser were killed in the original raid or if they died in captivity. Evidence at the scene indicated both were seriously wounded.
Though officials had suspected they were dead, the sight of the coffins was the first confirmation of their fate.
Regev's father, Zvi, said he fell apart the moment he saw Hezbollah take the coffins out of a van and place them on the ground.
"It was horrible to see it. I didn't want to, I asked them to turn off the TV," he said, choking back tears.
"We were always hoping that Udi and Eldad were alive and that they would come home and we would hug them," he added, using Ehud Goldwasser's nickname. "We had this hope all the time."
An aunt of Regev's sank to the ground when she saw the coffins appear on a small TV hooked up outside the soldier's father's house. Some 50 friends, neighbors and family who had gathered there sobbed, rocked back and forth in prayer, lit candles or tugged at their hair. "Nasrallah, you will pay," several of the mourners vowed.
Other people in the crowd criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying the soldiers died for nothing.
The swap was mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official who shuttled between the sides for 18 months.
On Wednesday, Israeli forensic experts examined the remains for several hours, checking dental records among other things, before confirming the soldiers' identities. Israeli generals then went to the families' homes to deliver the news.
After the confirmation, Israel released Kantar and the four other Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah.
In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, Kantar and three other gunmen made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to the sleepy Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, 5 miles south of the Lebanese border.
There, in a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they killed a policeman who stumbled upon them, then burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, herding him and his 4-year-old daughter outside at gunpoint to the beach below, where they were killed.
An Israeli court found that Kantar shot Danny Haran in front of his child, then smashed her head with his rifle butt.
Haran's wife, Smadar, who had fled into a crawl space in the family apartment with her 2-year-old daughter, accidentally smothered the child with her hand while trying to stifle her cries.
Kantar, a Lebanese Druse who acted on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Front, a small faction of the PLO, denies killing the older child. He says she was killed in the crossfire as he battled Israeli police, and he has never expressed remorse. Kantar was 16 years old at the time.
Two members of his squad were killed in the raid, and the third, taken alive, was released in a 1985 prisoner swap.
Israel held on to Kantar for decades, hoping to use him as a bargaining chip to win new information about an Israeli airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.
But despite dissatisfaction over Hezbollah's report on the airman, provided over the weekend, and under pressure from the captured soldiers' families to bring them home, Israel's Cabinet voted on Tuesday to release Kantar.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, called the swap an "official admission of defeat" for Israel.
An official ceremony was planned at Beirut Airport and was to be attended by Lebanon's president, prime minister and parliament speaker. Later, Nasrallah was to address what is expected to be a huge celebration at Hezbollah's stronghold south of Beirut.
Also Wednesday, a Red Cross tractor-trailer arrived in Lebanon carrying wooden coffins containing the bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. Part of the swap included Israel handing over the remains of some 199 fighters.
In addition to the two soldiers, Hezbollah also handed to ICRC officials body parts belonging to Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 war.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
NAQOURA, Lebanon — Five Lebanese militants freed from prisons in Israel in exchange for the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers strode down a red carpet behind a Hezbollah honor guard Wednesday to a boisterous welcome from hundreds of cheering spectators.
Israel released Samir Kantar and four others after Hezbollah handed over two black coffins with the bodies of the Israeli soldiers, closing a painful chapter from the 2006 war in Lebanon.
Kantar, who had been serving multiple life terms in Israel for a grisly 1979 attack, wiped away tears as he stood before hundreds in the coastal border town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon. An honor guard escorted the men to a stage as a brass band played martial music and rows of uniformed fighters saluted.
"We knew that you were waiting for the resistance and it reached you. You came back free and heroes," said Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hezbollah's political bureau.
• Click here to view photos.
The five later flew to Beirut, where they received an official welcome from the president and his government.
Winning freedom for Kantar was one of the reasons Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah cited at the time for going to war with Israel in 2006.
Kantar was convicted in a nighttime attack that killed a 4-year-old girl, her father and a policeman. Although polls showed Israelis solidly endorsed the exchange, many see Kantar as the embodiment of evil.
"Samir Kantar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister.
Wednesday's exchange was also a wrenching end to the war for Israel. The soldiers' capture by Hezbollah fighters in a cross-border raid in 2006 triggered the 34-day war. The campaign to bring Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev home had become a national crusade.
The soldiers' Hezbollah captors had withheld any information about them since they were taken, refusing to release pictures or allow the Red Cross to see them. It was not clear if Regev and Goldwasser were killed in the original raid or if they died in captivity. Evidence at the scene indicated both were seriously wounded.
Though officials had suspected they were dead, the sight of the coffins was the first confirmation of their fate.
Regev's father, Zvi, said he fell apart the moment he saw Hezbollah take the coffins out of a van and place them on the ground.
"It was horrible to see it. I didn't want to, I asked them to turn off the TV," he said, choking back tears.
"We were always hoping that Udi and Eldad were alive and that they would come home and we would hug them," he added, using Ehud Goldwasser's nickname. "We had this hope all the time."
An aunt of Regev's sank to the ground when she saw the coffins appear on a small TV hooked up outside the soldier's father's house. Some 50 friends, neighbors and family who had gathered there sobbed, rocked back and forth in prayer, lit candles or tugged at their hair. "Nasrallah, you will pay," several of the mourners vowed.
Other people in the crowd criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying the soldiers died for nothing.
The swap was mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official who shuttled between the sides for 18 months.
On Wednesday, Israeli forensic experts examined the remains for several hours, checking dental records among other things, before confirming the soldiers' identities. Israeli generals then went to the families' homes to deliver the news.
After the confirmation, Israel released Kantar and the four other Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah.
In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, Kantar and three other gunmen made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to the sleepy Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, 5 miles south of the Lebanese border.
There, in a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they killed a policeman who stumbled upon them, then burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, herding him and his 4-year-old daughter outside at gunpoint to the beach below, where they were killed.
An Israeli court found that Kantar shot Danny Haran in front of his child, then smashed her head with his rifle butt.
Haran's wife, Smadar, who had fled into a crawl space in the family apartment with her 2-year-old daughter, accidentally smothered the child with her hand while trying to stifle her cries.
Kantar, a Lebanese Druse who acted on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Front, a small faction of the PLO, denies killing the older child. He says she was killed in the crossfire as he battled Israeli police, and he has never expressed remorse. Kantar was 16 years old at the time.
Two members of his squad were killed in the raid, and the third, taken alive, was released in a 1985 prisoner swap.
Israel held on to Kantar for decades, hoping to use him as a bargaining chip to win new information about an Israeli airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.
But despite dissatisfaction over Hezbollah's report on the airman, provided over the weekend, and under pressure from the captured soldiers' families to bring them home, Israel's Cabinet voted on Tuesday to release Kantar.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, called the swap an "official admission of defeat" for Israel.
An official ceremony was planned at Beirut Airport and was to be attended by Lebanon's president, prime minister and parliament speaker. Later, Nasrallah was to address what is expected to be a huge celebration at Hezbollah's stronghold south of Beirut.
Also Wednesday, a Red Cross tractor-trailer arrived in Lebanon carrying wooden coffins containing the bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. Part of the swap included Israel handing over the remains of some 199 fighters.
In addition to the two soldiers, Hezbollah also handed to ICRC officials body parts belonging to Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 war.
Syria's Assad says Israel peace possible within 2 yrs
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said it could take between six months to two years to reach a peace agreement with Israel if the two sides, who have held indirect negotiations, agreed to face-to-face talks.
"Signing a peace accord with Israel ... it's a question that requires six months to two years maximum if both parties are serious in engaging direct talks," Assad said on Sunday, speaking through a translator on France 2 television.
The Syrian president, who is in France for a summit of EU and Mediterranean leaders, also repeated a previous assertion that he did not believe direct talks could start until U.S. President George W. Bush left office next January.
It was not immediately clear if the clock for his timeframe for a possible deal would only start once the face-to-face talks began and Israel urged Syria on Sunday not to drag its feet.
"We are serious about peace. It would be a pity to let the current opportunity fall by the wayside," a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said when asked about Assad's television interview.
He added that Olmert had conveyed a message to the Syrian leader earlier in the day through Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and said now was the time to move.
Assad and Olmert were in Paris for a summit of EU and Mediterranean leaders, sitting together in the same room for the first time in their countries' history. But Assad said he had not shaken hands with the Israeli prime minister.
"No. We are engaged in indirect talks. We are not looking for symbols. We are trying to create a new reality; peace instead of war," he told France 2. "Once peace is signed then symbols take on a great importance," he added.
Syria launched indirect peace talks with Israel this year under Turkish mediation over the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967.
The last direct talks between Israel and Syria under U.S. sponsorship broke down eight years ago and Washington has been reluctant to re-engage with Damascus because of its role in Lebanon and close ties with Iran.
Assad, whose visit to Paris marked the end of years of isolation from the West, said that anyone who wanted peace in the Middle East needed to talk to Syria.
He also said he remained committed to modernising his country and opening it up to democracy.
"We keep moving forward, but with very clear, precise steps. There probably won't be any swift moves. Our goal is stability," he said. "Impulsive and badly thought out moves could lead to consequences that would be hard to resolve in the future." (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Dan Williams; Editing by Charles Dick)
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PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said it could take between six months to two years to reach a peace agreement with Israel if the two sides, who have held indirect negotiations, agreed to face-to-face talks.
"Signing a peace accord with Israel ... it's a question that requires six months to two years maximum if both parties are serious in engaging direct talks," Assad said on Sunday, speaking through a translator on France 2 television.
The Syrian president, who is in France for a summit of EU and Mediterranean leaders, also repeated a previous assertion that he did not believe direct talks could start until U.S. President George W. Bush left office next January.
It was not immediately clear if the clock for his timeframe for a possible deal would only start once the face-to-face talks began and Israel urged Syria on Sunday not to drag its feet.
"We are serious about peace. It would be a pity to let the current opportunity fall by the wayside," a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said when asked about Assad's television interview.
He added that Olmert had conveyed a message to the Syrian leader earlier in the day through Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and said now was the time to move.
Assad and Olmert were in Paris for a summit of EU and Mediterranean leaders, sitting together in the same room for the first time in their countries' history. But Assad said he had not shaken hands with the Israeli prime minister.
"No. We are engaged in indirect talks. We are not looking for symbols. We are trying to create a new reality; peace instead of war," he told France 2. "Once peace is signed then symbols take on a great importance," he added.
Syria launched indirect peace talks with Israel this year under Turkish mediation over the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967.
The last direct talks between Israel and Syria under U.S. sponsorship broke down eight years ago and Washington has been reluctant to re-engage with Damascus because of its role in Lebanon and close ties with Iran.
Assad, whose visit to Paris marked the end of years of isolation from the West, said that anyone who wanted peace in the Middle East needed to talk to Syria.
He also said he remained committed to modernising his country and opening it up to democracy.
"We keep moving forward, but with very clear, precise steps. There probably won't be any swift moves. Our goal is stability," he said. "Impulsive and badly thought out moves could lead to consequences that would be hard to resolve in the future." (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Dan Williams; Editing by Charles Dick)
--------
Lebanese gunman at center of Israel prisoner swap
By AMY TEIBEL – 4 hours ago
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Lebanese gunman at the center of Israel's prisoner swap with Hezbollah spent three decades in an Israeli prison for one of the grisliest attacks in the country's history.
Samir Kantar was one of four militants who made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to Israel's northern shore around midnight on April 22, 1979.
In a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they charged into an apartment building in the coastal city of Nahariya, 5 miles from the Lebanese border, where the Haran family lived.
Smadar Haran sought refuge with her 2-year-old daughter, Yael, and a neighbor in a crawl space. Her 28-year-old husband, Danny, grabbed their 4-year-old daughter Einat, hoping to dash outside to an underground bomb shelter, when the attackers burst into their apartment.
Father and daughter were herded down to the beach, where their assailants hoped to pack them into the rubber boat and take them as hostages to Lebanon, according to a recently declassified transcript of Kantar's testimony at his trial, published this week by Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
But the dinghy had been punctured by gunfire, so the attackers went on a bloody rampage instead.
The Israeli court found that Kantar shot Danny Haran in front of his child, then killed her, too.
"Kantar went over to Einat Haran and hit her head twice with the butt of his rifle, with the intent of killing her," the judges wrote, according to the court transcript.
Kantar, who was 16 at the time, has consistently denied killing the child or smashing her skull and indicated she may have died in the Israeli rescue operation.
An Israeli policeman also died in the attack. So, too, did Yael. To keep her from crying out and revealing their hiding place, Smadar had kept her hand over her daughter's mouth — accidentally smothering her.
Police killed two of the attackers and captured the other two. Kantar, a Lebanese Druse recruited by the Palestine Liberation Front, was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison.
Over the years, Kantar has expressed no remorse for his actions, confidants say.
"If I were to spend another 20 years in prison, I will not write an apology letter for the ... operation, since the struggle continues," his brother Bassam Kantar, in an e-mail to the AP, quoted him as saying.
After suspected Lebanese terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh was killed in Syria in February, Kantar wrote a letter to Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group, vowing that "my place will be at the battlefront," Bassam Kantar added.
While in prison, Kantar learned Hebrew and earned a degree in sociology. His thesis, written in Hebrew, was titled: "The Contradiction of Democracy and Security in Israel," his brother said.
Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Ramallah, West Bank, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Lebanese gunman at the center of Israel's prisoner swap with Hezbollah spent three decades in an Israeli prison for one of the grisliest attacks in the country's history.
Samir Kantar was one of four militants who made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to Israel's northern shore around midnight on April 22, 1979.
In a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they charged into an apartment building in the coastal city of Nahariya, 5 miles from the Lebanese border, where the Haran family lived.
Smadar Haran sought refuge with her 2-year-old daughter, Yael, and a neighbor in a crawl space. Her 28-year-old husband, Danny, grabbed their 4-year-old daughter Einat, hoping to dash outside to an underground bomb shelter, when the attackers burst into their apartment.
Father and daughter were herded down to the beach, where their assailants hoped to pack them into the rubber boat and take them as hostages to Lebanon, according to a recently declassified transcript of Kantar's testimony at his trial, published this week by Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
But the dinghy had been punctured by gunfire, so the attackers went on a bloody rampage instead.
The Israeli court found that Kantar shot Danny Haran in front of his child, then killed her, too.
"Kantar went over to Einat Haran and hit her head twice with the butt of his rifle, with the intent of killing her," the judges wrote, according to the court transcript.
Kantar, who was 16 at the time, has consistently denied killing the child or smashing her skull and indicated she may have died in the Israeli rescue operation.
An Israeli policeman also died in the attack. So, too, did Yael. To keep her from crying out and revealing their hiding place, Smadar had kept her hand over her daughter's mouth — accidentally smothering her.
Police killed two of the attackers and captured the other two. Kantar, a Lebanese Druse recruited by the Palestine Liberation Front, was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison.
Over the years, Kantar has expressed no remorse for his actions, confidants say.
"If I were to spend another 20 years in prison, I will not write an apology letter for the ... operation, since the struggle continues," his brother Bassam Kantar, in an e-mail to the AP, quoted him as saying.
After suspected Lebanese terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh was killed in Syria in February, Kantar wrote a letter to Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group, vowing that "my place will be at the battlefront," Bassam Kantar added.
While in prison, Kantar learned Hebrew and earned a degree in sociology. His thesis, written in Hebrew, was titled: "The Contradiction of Democracy and Security in Israel," his brother said.
Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Ramallah, West Bank, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Walid Shoebat Interview/debate With Rick Wiles
Click Here to listen to a dialogue with the liberal Christian view, Walid Shoebat dialogue with Rick Wiles
Walid Shoebat Interview With Prophezine
Part 1
Part 2
Folks this is a very special Prophezine's This Week In Bible Prophecy. We were able to meet up with and get an exclusive interview with author and former PLO Terrorist Walid Shoebat. In this interview we discuss Walid's soon to be released book "God's War on Terror.
Folks, Walid has done an excellent job of showing that God does address Islam in the Bible and they are part of the last days scenario. He shows through scripture the many similarities between Islam's awaited Mahdi and the Bible's Antichrist.
Part 2
Folks this is a very special Prophezine's This Week In Bible Prophecy. We were able to meet up with and get an exclusive interview with author and former PLO Terrorist Walid Shoebat. In this interview we discuss Walid's soon to be released book "God's War on Terror.
Folks, Walid has done an excellent job of showing that God does address Islam in the Bible and they are part of the last days scenario. He shows through scripture the many similarities between Islam's awaited Mahdi and the Bible's Antichrist.
THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT TODAY: UNDER THREAT OF ANNIHILATION
Click Here to read the truth about how the Musilims want to do a "Final Solution" on the Christians in Egypt!
By BAHEG T. BISTAWROS
"This study finds that Coptic Christians are subjected to daily persecutions. Someof the persecutions include confiscation of property, discrimination and bigotry, the imposing of Islamic laws against them to further enslave them, murders in broad daylightwith impunity, extortion, the siege of some towns, the bombing and burning down of churches, and ill treatment on a daily basis. Copts are considered to be second class citizens and have been deprived of their God-given inalienable rights. The West has been blind in the face of such persecution. Egypt has been able to elude world condemnation despite the grave situation of twelve million Coptic Christians in thatcountry.
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Page 9
ix I INTRODUCTIONThe West regards Egypt as a moderate country, which is true regarding its foreign policy. The West, especially the United States, seems to ignore human rights violations in that country. The annual report of the U.S. Department of State on human rights is very mild in language concerning the severe human rights violations against Coptic Christians in Egypt.1The Department of State's annual report does not represent the truth 1Notice that I have used both the word Christian and Copts. Both are synonymous, and mean the same thing in Egypt.
When writing about the Copts, in fact, I am writing about Christians and vice versa. In defining the word Coptic, Gerard in his book What is the Christian Orient said:Coptic is the last stage in the evolution of the language of the pharaohs which was deeplyinfluenced by Greek. Coptic, here, is understood to be Egyptian. It is made up, principally, of two dialects which are Sahidic in northern [sic, southern] Egypt and Boharic in the Delta. Outside of the Greek cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Hellenismhad spread only superficially in Egypt where the mass of fellaheen [ordinary Egyptians]knew little or no Greek. As soon as Christianity was established in the country, translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Coptic began to appear. See Gerard Guertin, What is the Christian Orient (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1967), 64.
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Page 10
in that country.2The Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights and the U.S. foreign policy, after extensive hearings reported the following: 2In comparing the annual reports of the U.S. Department of State for 1986, 1987, and 1993, with the various documents published by Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity International, and other human rights groups, one comes to the conclusion that the U.S. Department of State reports do not represent the true condition of the Christian minority of Egypt and the violations of their human rights by the Egyptian government. The human rights factor is not accorded the high priority it deserves in our country's foreign policy. . . . The State Department has taken the position that human rights are a domestic matter. . . . When charges of serious violations of human rights occur, the most that the Department is likely todo is make private inquiries. The prevailing attitude has led the United States into embracing governments which practice torture and unabashedly violate every human rights guarantee pronounced by the world community. Through foreign aid and occasional intervention both overt and covert--the United States supports these governments
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By BAHEG T. BISTAWROS
"This study finds that Coptic Christians are subjected to daily persecutions. Someof the persecutions include confiscation of property, discrimination and bigotry, the imposing of Islamic laws against them to further enslave them, murders in broad daylightwith impunity, extortion, the siege of some towns, the bombing and burning down of churches, and ill treatment on a daily basis. Copts are considered to be second class citizens and have been deprived of their God-given inalienable rights. The West has been blind in the face of such persecution. Egypt has been able to elude world condemnation despite the grave situation of twelve million Coptic Christians in thatcountry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 9
ix I INTRODUCTIONThe West regards Egypt as a moderate country, which is true regarding its foreign policy. The West, especially the United States, seems to ignore human rights violations in that country. The annual report of the U.S. Department of State on human rights is very mild in language concerning the severe human rights violations against Coptic Christians in Egypt.1The Department of State's annual report does not represent the truth 1Notice that I have used both the word Christian and Copts. Both are synonymous, and mean the same thing in Egypt.
When writing about the Copts, in fact, I am writing about Christians and vice versa. In defining the word Coptic, Gerard in his book What is the Christian Orient said:Coptic is the last stage in the evolution of the language of the pharaohs which was deeplyinfluenced by Greek. Coptic, here, is understood to be Egyptian. It is made up, principally, of two dialects which are Sahidic in northern [sic, southern] Egypt and Boharic in the Delta. Outside of the Greek cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Hellenismhad spread only superficially in Egypt where the mass of fellaheen [ordinary Egyptians]knew little or no Greek. As soon as Christianity was established in the country, translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Coptic began to appear. See Gerard Guertin, What is the Christian Orient (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1967), 64.
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Page 10
in that country.2The Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights and the U.S. foreign policy, after extensive hearings reported the following: 2In comparing the annual reports of the U.S. Department of State for 1986, 1987, and 1993, with the various documents published by Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity International, and other human rights groups, one comes to the conclusion that the U.S. Department of State reports do not represent the true condition of the Christian minority of Egypt and the violations of their human rights by the Egyptian government. The human rights factor is not accorded the high priority it deserves in our country's foreign policy. . . . The State Department has taken the position that human rights are a domestic matter. . . . When charges of serious violations of human rights occur, the most that the Department is likely todo is make private inquiries. The prevailing attitude has led the United States into embracing governments which practice torture and unabashedly violate every human rights guarantee pronounced by the world community. Through foreign aid and occasional intervention both overt and covert--the United States supports these governments
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Protest Egyptian government allowing criminal attacks on Coptic Christians
By CFP
Coptic Christians and their supporters will demonstrate on Parliament Hill at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, 2008 against the Egyptian government for continuing to allow criminal elements to wage regular attacks on Egyptian Copts and their properties.
Buses carrying demonstrators from Montreal and Toronto will join with Ottawa Copts for the peaceful demonstration organized by the Canadian Coptic Association. From Parliament Hill, the demonstrators will march at 2:00 p.m. to the Egyptian Embassy at 454 Laurier Avenue East to continue their protest.
Copts all over the world are outraged by the recent barbaric machine-gun attack on the monastery of Abu Fana in Upper Egypt. Some monks were kidnapped, asked to confess Islam and insult the Cross, and were brutally tortured. They were released 12 hours later with broken bones and other injuries; later the monks were refused treatment in the government hospital. The damage to the monastery and its church was estimated at 1 million pounds.
Six other incidents occurred in a two-week period, from killing four Copts in a jeweler’s shop in Cairo by shooting from a passing motorcycle, to robbing another jeweler’s shop owned by a Copt in Alexandria at knife point.
In a mysterious car accident with a bus carrying 30 Copts in Beni-Sweif, 12 young people were killed. The monastery of Archangel Michael in Dar El-Salam, Suhag was set on fire. Christian homes and businesses were attacked in Fayoum, and St. Mary’s ancient church in Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh was torched.
The Coptic Christian church is the world’s oldest church, founded by St Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, between A.D, 42 and A.D 62. Based in Alexandria, the church has an estimated 15 million members around the world, including 50 thousands in Canada.
Canadian Coptic Association in Ottawa
Nabih N. Abdelmalek, Tel: (613)277-4515
Media relation: Sherif Mansour, Tel: (613) 747-4568
Coptic Christians and their supporters will demonstrate on Parliament Hill at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, 2008 against the Egyptian government for continuing to allow criminal elements to wage regular attacks on Egyptian Copts and their properties.
Buses carrying demonstrators from Montreal and Toronto will join with Ottawa Copts for the peaceful demonstration organized by the Canadian Coptic Association. From Parliament Hill, the demonstrators will march at 2:00 p.m. to the Egyptian Embassy at 454 Laurier Avenue East to continue their protest.
Copts all over the world are outraged by the recent barbaric machine-gun attack on the monastery of Abu Fana in Upper Egypt. Some monks were kidnapped, asked to confess Islam and insult the Cross, and were brutally tortured. They were released 12 hours later with broken bones and other injuries; later the monks were refused treatment in the government hospital. The damage to the monastery and its church was estimated at 1 million pounds.
Six other incidents occurred in a two-week period, from killing four Copts in a jeweler’s shop in Cairo by shooting from a passing motorcycle, to robbing another jeweler’s shop owned by a Copt in Alexandria at knife point.
In a mysterious car accident with a bus carrying 30 Copts in Beni-Sweif, 12 young people were killed. The monastery of Archangel Michael in Dar El-Salam, Suhag was set on fire. Christian homes and businesses were attacked in Fayoum, and St. Mary’s ancient church in Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh was torched.
The Coptic Christian church is the world’s oldest church, founded by St Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, between A.D, 42 and A.D 62. Based in Alexandria, the church has an estimated 15 million members around the world, including 50 thousands in Canada.
Canadian Coptic Association in Ottawa
Nabih N. Abdelmalek, Tel: (613)277-4515
Media relation: Sherif Mansour, Tel: (613) 747-4568
Egypt's Coptic Christians Driven to Isolation
CAIRO -- Under pressure from fundamentalist forms of Islam and bursts of sectarian violence, the most populous Christian community in the Middle East is seeking safety by turning inward, cutting day-to-day social ties that have bound Muslim to Christian in Egypt for centuries, members of both communities say.
Attacks this summer on monks and shopkeepers belonging to Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, and scattered clashes between Muslims and Christians, have compelled many of Egypt's estimated 6 million to 8 million Copts to isolate themselves in a nation with more than 70 million Muslims.
To a degree, the separation will stand as the legacy of one of the longest-serving leaders in the church's history, Pope Shenouda III, some Copts say. Shenouda has strengthened the church as the center of daily Coptic life, making it a bulwark for Christians, during a papacy that has spanned 36 years. Now 85, Shenouda is facing health problems, including a broken leg last month that was repaired in the United States.
Across much of Egypt, Muslims and Christians note a drawing apart of their communities, especially in the working class.
Many say they mourn the loss.
Others say the separation is for the best.
"It's natural," Ayad Labid Faleh, a Coptic Christian, said in his auto parts store in the Shobra neighborhood of Cairo. In the dim, oil-slicked shop front, Faleh waited for customers, surrounded by boxed hoses and florid icons.
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Click Here to read the rest from AINA.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Former Jihadist Speaks Out :: Testimony of Kamal Saleem
An Amazing interview of ex-terrorist Kamal Saleem. This interview was so good I had to put it as a video section on the side bar of this blog.
When Kamal Saleem was a boy of 7, he began training in a PLO assault camp. This notorious terrorist group trained him to know his enemy, to hate his enemy, and to anticipate their every move. His singular purpose was to use his power to change the world for Islam. Soon he was a career mercenary, working for the cause of Jihad. But a severe accident broke his back and changed everything in an instant. The one thing that this warrior was not prepared for—was the power of love.
Thanks to coldwatermedia.
For more please click here to go to Kamal Saleem's offical site Koome Ministries.
Obama's Faithless, Faith-Based Initiatives
By Father Jonathan Morris
FOX News Religion Contributor
It is not the place of the pastor or priest to tell anyone who to vote for, but when politicians propose policy involving faith and morality, clergy have not only the right, but also the special obligation to put these proposals to the test.
Here I go:
You might assume by last week’s headlines Senator Obama has found something in common with Senator McCain and his conservative base: the value of providing government funding to both faith-based and secular social services, as long as they get the job done.
The San Francisco Chronicle: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative to Remain
U.S. News and World Report: Obama Touts Faith-Based Initiative Plans
The New York Times: Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups
But click that link, or turn the page, and you will find another story. Not only do the candidates disagree on what to do with the president’s faith-based initiative, their approaches reveal fundamental disparities in their understanding of the Constitution.
Last week Senator Obama went to Zanesville, Ohio to announce his plan to offer federal money to faith-based and neighborhood programs. And what better place to make such a commitment than in America’s Heartland, where the senator once said people cling to guns and religion as a reaction to hard times.
The reaction on the ground and in the mainstream press to Obama’s olive branch embrace of faith-based programs was positive. A Democrat who understands and encourages the religious fiber of the nation! Hoorah! But the loudest liberal voices quickly whooped up an Internet storm accusing Obama of pandering to the religious right and blurring the “wall of separation between church and state”.
To calm the torment, a spokesman for the Obama campaign underlined the unique qualities of Obama’s plan as it compares to the policies of the current White House Office for Faith Based Community Initiatives, which McCain supports.
1) In an Obama administration, the federal government would supervise the hiring process of faith-based groups to make sure they do not give preference to employees who share the faith of the organization.
2) In an Obama administration, the federal government would only give money to “secular programs” of faith-based groups.
In his own words, Senator Obama explains and justifies his reforms in this way:
“Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea - so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”
As a former professor of constitutional law, Senator Obama surely knows the Constitution says only two things about the federal government’s relation to religion: 1) it should not establish one religion over another 2) congress should pass no law that prohibits its free exercise.
But in the ubiquitous spirit of that phantom Constitutional wall of separation of church and state, Senator Obama promises his administration will discriminate against all faiths, as a way to respect the faith of all. In fact, his plan would whitewash faith-based groups of faith. Imagine what would happen to an after-school program run by an Orthodox Jewish temple that cannot give preference to hiring Orthodox Jewish teachers. The program would cease to exist. Or imagine an Evangelical ministry that helps prisoners reintegrate into society forced to “secularize” its programs in order to receive financial aid.
News Alert: religion is not poison. And it certainly is not the federal government’s role to supervise the religious content of a faith-based program. Its only concern should be the efficacy of the program in producing the desired secular objectives for society’s common good.
Despite constant outcries of organizations like the ACLU, the Supreme Court of the United States has long defended a religious organization’s right to preserve its identity by hiring candidates that share its values. This is not discrimination. Just the opposite is true. If a government office sidelines faith-based groups that have proven themselves effective simply because they refuse to water down their religious identity, this government office is limiting the free exercise of religion and violating our Constitution.
Senator McCain has a long way to go in convincing America that he is religion friendly. But at least he and his campaign are singing the right Constitutional tune. His campaign released the following statement last week:
“John McCain supports faith based initiatives, and recognizes their important role in our communities. He has co-sponsored legislation to foster improved partnerships with community organizations, including faith-based organizations, to assist with substance abuse and violence prevention. He also believes that it is important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight.”
Democrats and Republicans alike should be pleased both party nominees seem to recognize local, faith-based organizations usually do a better job at being a good neighbor than big government programs. I would only hope both candidates’ proposals reflect common sense logic that there is no such thing, in the long-term, as a faithless, faith-based initiative.
God bless,
Father Jonathan
Father Jonathan Morris is author of the new book, “The Promise: God’s Purpose and Plan for when Life Hurts”. For information go to www.fatherjonathan.com
---------------
Read This At The Fox Forum.
FOX News Religion Contributor
It is not the place of the pastor or priest to tell anyone who to vote for, but when politicians propose policy involving faith and morality, clergy have not only the right, but also the special obligation to put these proposals to the test.
Here I go:
You might assume by last week’s headlines Senator Obama has found something in common with Senator McCain and his conservative base: the value of providing government funding to both faith-based and secular social services, as long as they get the job done.
The San Francisco Chronicle: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative to Remain
U.S. News and World Report: Obama Touts Faith-Based Initiative Plans
The New York Times: Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups
But click that link, or turn the page, and you will find another story. Not only do the candidates disagree on what to do with the president’s faith-based initiative, their approaches reveal fundamental disparities in their understanding of the Constitution.
Last week Senator Obama went to Zanesville, Ohio to announce his plan to offer federal money to faith-based and neighborhood programs. And what better place to make such a commitment than in America’s Heartland, where the senator once said people cling to guns and religion as a reaction to hard times.
The reaction on the ground and in the mainstream press to Obama’s olive branch embrace of faith-based programs was positive. A Democrat who understands and encourages the religious fiber of the nation! Hoorah! But the loudest liberal voices quickly whooped up an Internet storm accusing Obama of pandering to the religious right and blurring the “wall of separation between church and state”.
To calm the torment, a spokesman for the Obama campaign underlined the unique qualities of Obama’s plan as it compares to the policies of the current White House Office for Faith Based Community Initiatives, which McCain supports.
1) In an Obama administration, the federal government would supervise the hiring process of faith-based groups to make sure they do not give preference to employees who share the faith of the organization.
2) In an Obama administration, the federal government would only give money to “secular programs” of faith-based groups.
In his own words, Senator Obama explains and justifies his reforms in this way:
“Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea - so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”
As a former professor of constitutional law, Senator Obama surely knows the Constitution says only two things about the federal government’s relation to religion: 1) it should not establish one religion over another 2) congress should pass no law that prohibits its free exercise.
But in the ubiquitous spirit of that phantom Constitutional wall of separation of church and state, Senator Obama promises his administration will discriminate against all faiths, as a way to respect the faith of all. In fact, his plan would whitewash faith-based groups of faith. Imagine what would happen to an after-school program run by an Orthodox Jewish temple that cannot give preference to hiring Orthodox Jewish teachers. The program would cease to exist. Or imagine an Evangelical ministry that helps prisoners reintegrate into society forced to “secularize” its programs in order to receive financial aid.
News Alert: religion is not poison. And it certainly is not the federal government’s role to supervise the religious content of a faith-based program. Its only concern should be the efficacy of the program in producing the desired secular objectives for society’s common good.
Despite constant outcries of organizations like the ACLU, the Supreme Court of the United States has long defended a religious organization’s right to preserve its identity by hiring candidates that share its values. This is not discrimination. Just the opposite is true. If a government office sidelines faith-based groups that have proven themselves effective simply because they refuse to water down their religious identity, this government office is limiting the free exercise of religion and violating our Constitution.
Senator McCain has a long way to go in convincing America that he is religion friendly. But at least he and his campaign are singing the right Constitutional tune. His campaign released the following statement last week:
“John McCain supports faith based initiatives, and recognizes their important role in our communities. He has co-sponsored legislation to foster improved partnerships with community organizations, including faith-based organizations, to assist with substance abuse and violence prevention. He also believes that it is important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight.”
Democrats and Republicans alike should be pleased both party nominees seem to recognize local, faith-based organizations usually do a better job at being a good neighbor than big government programs. I would only hope both candidates’ proposals reflect common sense logic that there is no such thing, in the long-term, as a faithless, faith-based initiative.
God bless,
Father Jonathan
Father Jonathan Morris is author of the new book, “The Promise: God’s Purpose and Plan for when Life Hurts”. For information go to www.fatherjonathan.com
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Read This At The Fox Forum.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
ACLU asks Naval Academy to halt prayer at noon meals
Since its founding in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy has asked midshipmen to stand for a prayer at noon meals.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants the practice discontinued, saying it makes some people uncomfortable.
Here's a short story by Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service.
ACLU seeks end to noontime prayer at U.S. Naval Academy
WASHINGTON (RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Naval Academy to halt its practice of expecting midshipmen to stand for a prayer at their noon meals, saying it makes some of them uncomfortable.
"We believe it is long past time for the Naval Academy to discontinue the official lunchtime prayers that all midshipmen are compelled to attend," wrote Deborah A. Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland, in a letter to a vice admiral at the academy in Annapolis, Md.
ACLU officials tied their request to a 2003 federal appeals court ruling that organized prayers before mandatory meals at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., were unconstitutional.
"People have to separate themselves out if they do not wish to be seen praying," said Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "It's creating a dual status for people, those who are accepting the Naval Academy's prayer versus those who are not."
Gunn said the May 2 letter from the ACLU followed a similar request last year. He said the ACLU, which has heard from nine midshipmen concerned about the tradition, will consider suing if the policy does not change.
The academy, in a statement, said it is developing a response to the ACLU but seemed reluctant to change a tradition that's been a part of academy life since it was founded in 1845.
"The academy does not intend to change its practice of offering midshipmen an opportunity for prayer or devotional thought during noon meal announcements," it said.
In a September 2007 memo drafted after a previous ACLU complaint, the U.S. Naval Academy called the noon meal prayer "a worthwhile and beneficial practice that tangibly supports the mission of the USNA, as well as individual midshipmen who are preparing to lead sailors and Marines in the fleet."
It said the prayer is "not mandatory or compulsory" but midshipmen are "expected to be respectful of those who do wish to pray."
The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., has also been questioned about evangelistic practices on its campus. The Air Force issued guidelines in 2006 saying "nondenominational" prayers may be appropriate in military ceremonies.
-- Adelle M. Banks
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Read this at RELIGION Blog.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants the practice discontinued, saying it makes some people uncomfortable.
Here's a short story by Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service.
ACLU seeks end to noontime prayer at U.S. Naval Academy
WASHINGTON (RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Naval Academy to halt its practice of expecting midshipmen to stand for a prayer at their noon meals, saying it makes some of them uncomfortable.
"We believe it is long past time for the Naval Academy to discontinue the official lunchtime prayers that all midshipmen are compelled to attend," wrote Deborah A. Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland, in a letter to a vice admiral at the academy in Annapolis, Md.
ACLU officials tied their request to a 2003 federal appeals court ruling that organized prayers before mandatory meals at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., were unconstitutional.
"People have to separate themselves out if they do not wish to be seen praying," said Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "It's creating a dual status for people, those who are accepting the Naval Academy's prayer versus those who are not."
Gunn said the May 2 letter from the ACLU followed a similar request last year. He said the ACLU, which has heard from nine midshipmen concerned about the tradition, will consider suing if the policy does not change.
The academy, in a statement, said it is developing a response to the ACLU but seemed reluctant to change a tradition that's been a part of academy life since it was founded in 1845.
"The academy does not intend to change its practice of offering midshipmen an opportunity for prayer or devotional thought during noon meal announcements," it said.
In a September 2007 memo drafted after a previous ACLU complaint, the U.S. Naval Academy called the noon meal prayer "a worthwhile and beneficial practice that tangibly supports the mission of the USNA, as well as individual midshipmen who are preparing to lead sailors and Marines in the fleet."
It said the prayer is "not mandatory or compulsory" but midshipmen are "expected to be respectful of those who do wish to pray."
The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., has also been questioned about evangelistic practices on its campus. The Air Force issued guidelines in 2006 saying "nondenominational" prayers may be appropriate in military ceremonies.
-- Adelle M. Banks
------------------
Read this at RELIGION Blog.
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