Love America First-2

Report: North Korea planning to put American reporters on trial

2009-04-02T09:41:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two American journalists detained in North Korea entered the country illegally and intended "hostile acts," according to the nation's state-run news service, KCNA.

"The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements, according to the results of [an] intermediary investigation" conducted by North Korean officials, KCNA reported Monday. Preparations are being made to try the journalists "on the basis of the already-confirmed suspicions," the report said. The news agency added that the journalists are allowed consular contact and their treatment is governed by relevant international laws while the investigation is under way. The State Department said earlier Monday that a Swedish diplomat met with the two journalists over the weekend. Acting on behalf of the United States, the Swedish representative met with each American once, said department spokesman Gordon Duguid. He would give no details of the meeting or of the journalists' health or condition. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were taken into custody March 17 along the China-North Korea border. They are reporters for the San Francisco, California-based media outlet Current TV. Earlier, the State Department said it had received information that the journalists were being treated well.

Source: CNN and Rosemary's Thoughts.

Baghdad celebrates first public Christmas amid hope, memories

2009-03-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

By Jill Dougherty, CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag.

Santa and his helpers stand under palm trees at Baghdad's first public Christmas festival.
1 of 3 more photos »

Welcome to the first-ever public Christmas celebration in Baghdad, held Saturday and sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Once thought to be infiltrated by death squads, the Ministry now is trying to root out sectarian violence -- as well as improve its P.R. image.

The event takes place in a public park in eastern Baghdad, ringed with security checkpoints. Interior Ministry forces deployed on surrounding rooftops peer down at the scene: a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel; a red-costumed Santa Claus waving to the crowd, an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders; a red-and-black-uniformed military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols.

On a large stage, children dressed in costumes representing Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups -- Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Arab Muslims not defined as Sunni or Shiite -- hold their hands aloft and sing "We are building Iraq!" Two young boys, a mini-policeman and a mini-soldier sporting painted-on mustaches, march stiffly and salute. Watch the celebration in Baghdad »

Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. "All Iraqis are Christian today!" he says.

Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. "Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism," he says, "and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties."

In spite of his claim, the spokesman is surrounded by heavy security. Yet this celebration shows that the security situation in Baghdad is improving.

Many of the people attending the Christmas celebration appear to be Muslims, with women wearing head scarves. Suad Mahmoud, holding her 16-month-old daughter, Sara, tells me she is indeed Muslim, but she's very happy to be here. "My mother's birthday also is this month, so we celebrate all occasions," she says, "especially in this lovely month of Christmas and New Year."

Father Saad Sirop Hanna, a Chaldean Christian priest, is here too. He was kidnapped by militants in 2006 and held for 28 days. He knows firsthand how difficult the lot of Christians in Iraq is but, he tells me, "We are just attesting that things are changing in Baghdad, slowly, but we hope that this change actually is real. We will wait for the future to tell us the truth about this."

He just returned from Rome. "I came back to Iraq because I believe that we can live here," he says. "I have so many [Muslim] friends and we are so happy they started to think about things from another point of view and we want to help them."

The Christmas celebration has tables loaded with cookies and cakes. Families fill plates and chat in the warm winter sun. Santa balloons hang from trees. An artist uses oil paint to create a portrait of Jesus.

In the middle of the park there's an art exhibit, the creation of 11- and 12-year-olds: six displays, each about three feet wide, constructed of cardboard and Styrofoam, filled with tiny dolls dressed like ordinary people, along with model soldiers and police. They look like model movie sets depicting everyday life in Baghdad.

Afnan, 12 years old, shows me her model called "Arresting the Terrorists."

"These are the terrorists," she tells me. "They were trying to blow up the school." In the middle of the street a dead "terrorist" sprawls on the asphalt, his bloody arm torn from his body by an explosion. Afnan tells me she used red nail polish to paint the blood. A little plastic dog stands nearby. "What is he doing?" I ask. "He looks for terrorists and searches for weapons and explosives," Afnan says.

Her mother, the children's art teacher, Raja, shows me another child's display called "Baghdad Today."

"This is a wedding," Raja explains. "Despite the terrorism, our celebrations still go ahead. This is a park, families enjoying time. And this is a market where people go shopping without fear of bombings. This is a mosque where people can pray with no fear."

In the middle is a black mound that looks like a body bag. Policemen and Interior Ministry forces surround it. "This is terrorism," she tells me. "We killed it and destroyed it, and our lives went back to normal."

A Christmas tale perhaps, I think, but one that many Iraqis hope will come true.

Source: CNN.

U.S. destroyers on move as N. Korea prepares rocket launch

2009-03-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As North Korea prepares for an expected rocket launch next month, the U.S. Navy says it is moving to the Sea of Japan ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

The ships, with powerful Aegis radar that can track ballistic missile launches, are on regularly planned deployments but are "prepared to track a launch or more, if afforded," according to a U.S. Navy official who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the information.

The United States generally has a number of Aegis-capable ships in the Sea of Japan because of the threat by North Korea to launch missiles. The ships monitor the region and are designed to track and if need be shoot down ballistic missiles.

North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite on top of a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. But Western governments fear the North Koreans will put a long-range missile on top of the rocket.

If North Korea launches, the Obama administration may have has little as five minutes to decide whether it is a threat and, if necessary, try to shoot it down.

The USS Hopper, a destroyer with the Aegis radar system aboard was scheduled for a port call in Japan in coming days. But the port call was canceled and the ship will remain in the Sea of Japan ahead of the launch, the official said.

Two other U.S. Navy Aegis-capable destroyers, the USS Chaffee and USS McCain, are leaving the port in Sasebo, Japan, and are heading to South Korea for a ceremony in the coming days, according to the U.S. Navy official with direct knowledge of the operations.

The U.S. Navy just wrapped up military exercises with the South Korean military that brought a number of U.S. ships into the region.

Source: CNN and Rosemary's Thoughts.

Obama Hates the First and Second Amendment

2008-09-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

Because of Obama's hatred towards freedom of speech, Dan Riehl suggested hosting the NRA ads Obama's lawyers are trying to silence on our blogs. Obliged.

Cross posted from Stop the ACLU

Was Hamdan's Trial Fair?

2008-08-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

Crossposted from STACLU:

After years of litigation a verdict was finally reached for Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden’s driver and detainee accused of war crimes. While cleared of conspiracy he was convicted on multiple counts of material support for terrorism. Legal groups like the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights quickly criticized the ruling. Certain media elements were not far behind. Much of the criticism was understandable, and much was distorted through the lens of bias. Most of the criticism ended up being deflated after a surprisingly lenient sentence of five and a half years, including five years and a month already served. This sentence fell short of the thirty years to life the prosecutors wanted. Even one of Salim’s defense attorneys admitted the verdict was fair and just. However, a fair outcome doesn’t necessarily reflect a fair process. So, are the military tribunals for the Guantanamo detainees fair? To answer this question we must critically look at both sides of the argument, the details of the process itself, and understand how we arrived at this point.

When war has been declared the United States has made use of military tribunals to try captured enemies outside the scope of conventional civil and criminal matters, historically providing a trial for combatants acting in violation to the Rules of War. The Geneva Conventions established what most countries have adopted as the international standard regarding such rules.

The perception pushed by some is that combatants held at Guantanamo deserve protection under the provisions provided by the Geneva Convention. Others argued that the essence of the Convention is the distinction between lawful combatants and civilians and that terrorists violate this by being non-uniformed, negating this distinction and endangering innocent civilians. This argument applies that Prisoner of War status and the rights that come with that should not extend to those that violate its rules. The Supreme Court settled this argument in 2006 in favor of extending many of these rights to captured combatants held at Guantanamo. This decision was Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld which extended certain rights to the detainees and placed limits on the authority of the executive branch. This decision was the catalyst for Congress to pass the Military Commissions Act of 2006 authorizing the establishment of military commissions within the parameters set by the Supreme Court.

The 5-4 ruling in Boumediene vs. Bush threw another wrench into the efforts to prosecute prisoners at Guantanamo by determining that habeas corpus rights extend to these prisoners and that the Military Commissions Act unconstitutionally suspended those rights. Defense lawyers used this ruling in an attempt to delay the military trial of Salim Hamdan, but were unsuccessful in their argument that the procedures violated certain constitutional rights. District Judge James Robertson ruled against delaying the trial on the grounds that these arguments could be raised on appeal after the completion of the trial. How this ruling’s precedent will affect future proceedings against Guantanamo detainees is yet to be seen.

Determining whether the military commission process is fair requires looking at several factors. Hamdan’s trial served as a test case for the government prosecutors and the detainee defense lawyers. Behind Hamdan there are around 80 other Guantanamo detainees, including five alleged September 11th plotters, the Pentagon intends to try before the commissions. It is important to observe Hamdan’s case to determine the probability of fairness in future military commissions because of the precedents it has set.

Most of the key criticisms in Hamdan’s case were addressed. The concern that evidence obtained through coercive interrogation would be used was alleviated when the judge excluded statements obtained from Hamdan prior to his arrival at Guantanamo. Concerns remained over allowed statements obtained after his arrival due to defense allegations they were obtained through abusive procedures. However, no convincing evidence was presented to prove these allegations. Defense attorneys were also given adequate opportunity and access to challenge secret evidence. Many other points exist in favor of the fairness in this trial including the fact that Hamdan’s conviction is automatically appealed to a military appellate court. That court can reduce, but cannot increase, his sentence. Hamdan can then appeal to U.S. civilian courts as well. However, many legal concerns remain such as the question of whether his prosecution violated the Constitution’s prohibition of ex post facto laws. Concerns addressed in Hamdan’s case do not guarantee future trials will be addressed similarly, but recognized respect of precedent makes it probable.

In my opinion, Salim Hamdan received a fair trial and a lenient but just sentencing. The system in place for future military trials is still not perfect, but provides more protections and rights for captured enemy combatants than ever provided in history. Certain elements definitely need to be addressed while others are yet to be determined. The legal journey to refine the process has only begun.

Posted as a part of a Stop the ACLU Blogburst. Visit Stop the ACLU if you would like to participate...email jay-at-stoptheaclu-dot-com.

Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Sites on its Blogger Platform

2008-06-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

-By Warner Todd Huston

It looks like Google has officially joined the Barack Obama campaign and decided that its contribution would be to shut down any blog on the Google owned Blogspot.com blogging system that has an anti-Obama message. Yes, it sure seems that Google has begun to go through its many thousands of blogs to lock out the owners of anti-Obama blogs so that the noObama message is effectively squelched. Thus far, Google has terminated the access by blog owners to 7 such sites and the list may be growing. Boy, it must be nice for Barack Obama to have an ally powerful enough to silence his opponents like that!

It isn't just conservative sites that Google's Blogger platform is eliminating. For instance, www.comealongway.blogspot.com has been frozen and this one is a Hillary supporting site. The operator of Come a Long Way has a mirror site off the Blogspot platform and has today posted this notice:

I used to have a happy internet home on Blogger: www.comealongway.blogspot.com. Then on Wednesday night, June 25, I received the following e-mail:

Dear Blogger user,

This is a message from the Blogger team.

Your blog, at http://comealongway.blogspot.com/, has been identified as a potential spam blog. You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

It turns out that there is an interesting pattern where it concerns the blogs that Google's Blogspot team have summarily locked down on their service. They all belong to the Just Say No Deal coalition, a group of blogs that are standing against the Obama campaign. It seems the largest portion of these blogs are Hillary supporting blogs, too.

All I can say is, WOW! If Google is willing to abuse its power like this even against fellow leftists, what does it plan against conservatives, the folks Google hates even more!?

Here is a list of the Blogspot blogs that have been frozen by Google thus far:

Blue Lyon @ http://bluelyon.blogspot.com.

Come A Long Way @ http://comealongway.blogspot.com

Hillary or Bust @ http://hillaryorbust.blogspot.com

McCain Democrats @ http://mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com

NObama Blog @ http://nobamablog.blogspot.com

politicallizard.blogspot.com @ http://thelizardannex.blogspot.com

Reflections in Tyme @ http://reflections-in-tyme.blogspot.com

Crossposted from Stop the ACLU.

Plan your trip to the Flight 93 crash site for the weekend of August 2nd!

2008-05-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Are you thinking of visiting the Flight 93 crash site? If you plan your visit for the weekend of August 2nd, you can help stop the gigantic terrorist memorial mosque that will soon start rising from the ground there.

August 2nd is the next scheduled public meeting of the Memorial Project, where anyone can sign up to speak during the public comment period. Tom Burnett Sr. (whose son Tom Jr. broke into the cockpit of the hijacked airplane) announced last Friday that he and Alec Rawls will be traveling to Somerset for the August meeting. They will be rallying outdoors, speaking at the public meeting, and visiting the crash site.

Mr. Burnett is asking other concerned parties who can make it to please come. The crash site is a beautiful and meaningful place to visit in any case, and here is a chance to make your visit even more meaningful. It is an opportunity to in some small way follow the lead of the heroes of Flight 93 by helping to stop the re-hijacking of Flight 93.

Mr. Burnett's announcement came on the Mancow Muller radio show, where Congressman Tancredo was also a guest. When controversy over the Crescent of Embrace design first arose back in 2005, Tom Tancredo was instrumental in forcing the Park Service to alter the design. Last fall he noted that the giant crescent remains unchanged in the so-called redesign and asked the Park Service to scrap the design entirely. On Friday he said that he would help Mancow Muller and Tom Burnett to stop the crescent design (audio, 19 seconds):

Certainly I will do everything I can to help you. I will bring it to the attention of my colleagues. I'll use the time I have on the floor of the House to rail against it.

THANK YOU CONGRESSMAN TANCREDO!

Mr. Burnett said that he would join Mancow in going to jail for taking sledgehammers to the crescent memorial if this tribute to the terrorists actually gets built. (Audio, 25 seconds.)

Cao has the whole segment of Mancow and the two Toms up as a YouTube video, with her own background graphics.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url.

ACLU Supports Legalized Unregulated Prostitution

2008-03-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Crossposted from STACLU

Since New York Governor Eliot Spitzer brought the topic into the national discussion, I thought it would be interesting to dust off this oldy but goody. I know that some more libertarian leaning people actually agree with the ACLU on this, but I don't. It will be interesting to watch the debate in the comments.

Keep in mind that all laws are based on some moral code. That code isn't necessarily that of any one specific religion, but a reflection of the collective morals of the community and general public. It is my belief that issues like this one should be decided at the state level by the representatives of the people.

Also keep in mind that even in States where prostitution is legal it is regulated. The ACLU believe it should be unregulated. I think this is the most retarded and absolutist position that the ACLU has on this one. I don't know about you, but I don't want someone being pimped on the same corner my kid catches the school bus.

Not only have the ACLU argued before a federal appeals court that having a ban on federal funds to organizations that promote commercial sex work inhibits free speech, but they even advocate the legalization of unregulated prostitution themselves.

The ACLU's Policy 211 is straightforward. "The ACLU supports the decriminalization of prostitution and opposes state regulation of prostitution". They base their argument on several points, including that existing laws are discrimination against women, and the right of individual privacy. They argue that what two consenting adults in private do is their own business. However, when you also oppose zoning laws, and regulation you can hardly argue that prostitution is a private business.

As for it being a privacy issue, it seems a contradiction to me when they also state that the "public" solicitation of prostitution is "entitled to the protection of the First Amendment". "It's not just the bedroom that the ACLU wishes to make off-limits to public censure, but also the local street corner, presumably even if that corner is regularly used by school children crossing the street." Source

And what good would it do for women's rights to decriminalize this? One could argue that women should not be punished for their own exploitation. But how does decriminalizing pimps, buyers, procurers, brothels or other sex establishments offer any solution to this? Decriminalization would do nothing but expand the sex industry and send a message to society that it is acceptable. And a system unregulated would do nothing for women's health, and would only promote the spread disease.

They don't belive in zoning laws, and do believe in fully legalalized, and unregulated prostitution. So there wouldn't be any law that could keep a prostitution house from being a certain distance from your neighborhood, your Church, or your child's preschool. This is especially disturbing when they think child pornography distribution and possession should be legal, and fight for convicted child molesters to live across the street from elementary schools and parks.

This is just one of many in a very long list of extremist positions of the ACLU.

Send the ACLU a Christmas Card

2007-12-16T22:30:00.001-08:00

Crossposted from: Stop The ACLU:

Its become a popular yearly tradition now to send the Anti-Christian Liars Union grinches a Christmas card. I personally think its ineffective, and that the money you waste on a stamp for the organization to toss in the shredder would be better served towards a good cause. So, I encourage you to save that money, dig a little deeper, and contribute to an organization that fights the ACLU and defends Christmas. The Alliance Defense Fund, and the ACLJ are both great organizations that defend Christmas each year. The Alliance Defense Fund does it for free. Why not help groups like that out this year?

However, from experience last year...I know that many will insist on sending the ACLU a Christmas card. Afterall, it is tradition. If that is how you want to make your message...we have some great greeting cards and postcards available at our online store. Plenty of other great Christmas gifts too.

Send your Christmas card to the ACLU at:

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York , NY 10004

Video: History of the ACLU Part V

2007-10-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

In case you missed them: Part I

Part II and III

Part IV

...and now...Part V

ACLU and National Abortion Federation Criticize Decision by U.S. Supreme Court Upholding Federal Abortion Ban
Justice Ginsburg: Watchdog Plan ‘Scary’
Ginsburg And Foreign Law In Interpreting Our Constitution
The Problem with the Culture of Drive-Thru Abortions
ACLU Loses Court Battle to DoD and Boy Scouts

ACLU History Video Series

2007-10-03T17:51:00.001-07:00

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

Part I
Part II and III

Here is Part IV:

Here is more detailed information on the stated positions in the video:

The ACLU's Policy to Legalize Child Porn
ACLU Wants All Drugs Legal
Oppose Tax Exemptions for Satanist but not for Churches
ACLU for Legalized Unregulated Prostitution
The ACLU's Top Priority: Abortion

ACLU Hypocrisy On Privacy

2007-09-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

Recently, the ACLU set their doomsday clock at six minutes before midnight! Once it reaches the ‘dark hour’ of midnight…we will be slaves to the ominous and evil ’surviellance society’. This isn’t science fiction. This is typical scare tactics from the ACLU.

They prey upon the paranoid. This is how they get donations to fund their machine. They cry about "American citizens being spied upon" when in fact there is no evidence that anyone has been hurt by the government's terrorist surviellance program.

While the ACLU cry that they are the guardian's of liberty, and that privacy is one of those liberties....they have been exposed as being violators of that very liberty. They have a massive database of their own member's private financial information they use for soliciting donations.

The group’s new data collection practices were implemented without the board’s approval or knowledge and were in violation of the ACLU’s privacy policy at the time, according to Michael Meyers, vice president of the organization and a frequent internal critic. He said he had learned about the new research by accident Nov. 7 during a meeting of the committee that is organizing the group’s Biennial Conference in July.

He objected to the practices, and the next day, the privacy policy on the group’s Web site was changed. “They took out all the language that would show that they were violating their own policy,” Meyers said. “In doing so, they sanctified their procedure while still keeping it secret.”

Now the ACLU are proudly defending Rep. Larry Craig on grounds of privacy. In another recent case they are defending a "pre-operative transsexual" anatomically male's "right" to use the female public restroom. Terrence Jeffrey calls out the 'privacy hypocrisy' on this one.

"The government does not have a constitutionally sufficient justification for making private sex a crime," said the ACLU. "It follows that an invitation to have private sex is constitutionally protected and may not be made a crime. This is so even where the proposition occurs in a public place, whether in a bar or a restroom."

But then the ACLU went a step further, arguing that there is not only a right to solicit sex, but also to engage in it, in a public restroom.

"The Minnesota Supreme Court," said the ACLU, "has already ruled that two men engaged in sexual activity in a department store restroom with the stall door closed had a reasonable expectation of privacy. They were, the Court held, therefore acting in a private, not a public place."

The conflated logic of the ACLU's bathroom briefs seems to be that someone entering a public restroom intending to use it for traditional purposes has no protection either from the gender sign posted at the door or from the otherwise vaunted right to privacy. Someone entering a public restroom intending to solicit and engage in sex, on the other hand, is protected by both the First Amendment and the right to privacy.

What else would you expect from a group that embraces an ideology that holds that partially born babies have no right to keep their skulls intact?

Indeed. As my good friend Glib Fortuna puts it:

This about sums up the ACLU’s worldview. To the ACLU, the only “freedom” the ACLU truly believes in is “sexual freedom” and the concomitant “right” of people who choose aberrant sexual behavior to be free of any criticism and free from anyone else exercising common sense (and more threateningly, religious liberty) if it “infringes” on these “rights” recently invented by the ACLU and its partisans.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already onboard.

Why Stop The ACLU? Here Is Ten Reasons

2007-09-02T21:40:00.001-07:00

I wanted to put something up for Labor Day here to get some inspirations sparked. For a while my priorities have been shifted. I want to announce that we will be more active in our original cause and want to thank everyone that has supported us thus far. To get our blogburst reinvigorated, I thought I'd pull out a classic...one that explains why we started and what we are all about...

Stop The ACLU was started on February 9th, 2004. We started with high hopes, and we realized we were facing a goliath. There were many reasons why we thought the ACLU needed to be countered, and they are numerous. We wanted to provide a way to inform the public of the ACLU's agenda, as the MSM sugar coated it. We wanted to be a central database for people to gather, exchange ideas, and get actively involved in real ways of stopping them. It is a monumental task, exhausting, time consuming, and often frustrating. But it is a fight worth fighting.

We would be nothing without our supporters. To all of you, we appreciate the continued support. We have called you to action and you have answered.

There are many reasons to stop the ACLU. For this blogburst I decided to list my top ten list.

10. The ACLU was founded by Communist, with communist ideals, communist goals, and they continue to impose a Communist like agenda on America daily. The founder of the ACLU, Roger Baldwin stated clearly...

My chief aversion is the system of greed, private profit, privilege and violence which makes up the control of the world today, and which has brought it to the tragic crisis of unprecedented hunger and unemployment�Therefore, I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself�I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."

9. The ACLU does not believe in the Second Amendment.

ACLU POLICY �The ACLU agrees with the Supreme Court�s long-standing interpretation of the Second Amendment [as set forth in the 1939 case, U.S. v. Miller] that the individual�s right to bear arms applies only to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected. Therefore, there is no constitutional impediment to the regulation of firearms.�ACLU Policy #47

#8. Their outright hatred of the Boyscouts. They are currently doing everything in their power to hurt this organization. They attacked their free speech right to exclude gays, and are threatening schools, and fighting in court to get their charters shut down. The oppose the military supporting them, and will sue the pants off any school that attempts to charter them.

#7. The ACLU are pro-death. Not only is the ACLU Pro-abortion, it's the ACLU's top priority. It most definitely takes a backseat to free speech for the ACLU. As a matter of fact, the ACLU has fought against the free speech rights of those that oppose it. If its abortion or euthanasia, as long as its pro-death you can count on the ACLU to support it. The only exception to the ACLU's pro-death stance, is if it is a convicted criminal; in this case they are against death.

#6. The ACLU advocate open borders. Not only have the ACLU opposed the Minute Men, a group who are simply exercizing their freedom of speech, protesting and stepping up where the government is failing, but they have helped illegals cross the border.

#5. The ACLU is anti-Christian. The list is endless on this one. Under the guise of "seperation of Church and State", the ACLU have made a name for theirself on being rabidly anti-Christian. This is one area where they are most hypocritical. They oppose tax exemptions for all churches, but fight for them for Wiccans. They are against Christianity in school, but oddly remain silent as our children are taught to be Muslims. Whether its baby Jesus, ten commandments, or tiny crosses on county seals, the ACLU will be there to secularize America, and rewrite our history.

#4. The ACLU Opposes National Security. The ACLU have opposed almost every effort in the arena of national security. From the bird flu to bag searches, the ACLU have been against it. No matter what kind of search someone tries to do to protect people, the ACLU have proved they are against them across the board. Its kind of ironic that they don't practice the principles they preach.

Take a walk into the NYCLU�s Manhattan headquarters - which it shares with other organizations - and you�ll find a sign warning visitors that all bags are subject to search.

#3. The ACLU Defend the enemy. They have a long history of this one. They defended the P.L.O. in 1985. They defended Quadafi in the 1980's. And they continue today. They have told Gitmo detainees they have the right to remain silent, as in not talking to interrogators. One issue that really disturbs me is their refusal of funds from organizations such as the United Way that were concerned the money would be used to support terrorism.

In October of 2004, the ACLU turned down $1.15 million in funding from two of it�s most generous and loyal contributors, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, saying new anti-terrorism restrictions demanded by the institutions make it unable to accept their funds.

�The Ford Foundation now bars recipients of its funds from engaging in any activity that �promotes violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state.�

The Rockefeller Foundation�s provisions state that recipients of its funds may not �directly or indirectly engage in, promote, or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activity.�

#2. The ACLU supports child porn distribution and child molesters like NAMBLA.

As legislative counsel for the ACLU in 1985, Barry Lynn told the U.S. Attorney General�s Commission on Pornography (of which Focus on the Family President Dr. James C. Dobson was a member) that child pornography was protected by the First Amendment. While production of child porn could be prevented by law, he argued, its distribution could not be.

There is no doubt the The ACLU are perverting the Constitution.

#1. The ACLU fufills its agenda using my tax money. What more can I say on this one?

There are countless reasons the ACLU needs to be stopped. So don't just stand by and complain, do something. Get involved. Here are some ways you can get involved to help us stop the ACLU.

Support and donate to organizations fighting them in Court. Here are the ones at the forefront.

ACLJ
Alliance Defense Fund
Thomas More Law Center

Join the Stop The ACLU Coalition

Help us write Churches to get involved.

Tell your Congress to support the Public Expression of Relgion Act of 2005. This legislation seeks to limit attorney's fees in Establishment Clause cases to injunctive relief only.

SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP TAXPAYER FUNDING OF THE ACLU

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already onboard.

Sierra Leone: President Threatens to Declare Emergency

2007-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

In the process of being moved to Rosemary's Thoughts. Right now, this copy is at Help me move all of blogs over at WordPress. When I get everything together, it will be at Rosemary's Thoughts. Sorry about the inconveniece. ;)

Sierra Leone leader warns of possible state of emergency

2007-08-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) -- Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has warned he could declare a state of emergency across the former British colony if violence ahead of next month's presidential run-off vote worsens.

Police declared a curfew in the eastern border region with Liberia on Monday, a center of the illegal diamond mining trade which fueled a 1991-2002 civil war, after dispersing more than a thousand demonstrators from rival political groups.

The unrest spread to the suburbs of the capital Freetown late on Monday, where supporters of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party and the opposition All People's Congress took to the streets with machetes, local radio said.

U.N. sources said one person was believed to have been killed in the violence.

"The people of this country have suffered long enough," Kabbah said in an address broadcast late on Monday.

"I'm deeply distressed by events at the weekend. ... From henceforth the government shall not hesitate to declare a state of emergency," he said.

The polls in the West African country are the first since United Nations peacekeepers left two years ago following the civil war, a brutal conflict in which children were drugged and forced to fight and civilians were mutilated with machetes.

The British army has retrained Sierra Leone's armed forces and the security situation is much improved, but corruption among politicians -- one of the root causes of the war -- is rampant and the country remains mired in poverty.

Main opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC won 44 percent of the vote in the August 11 first round, followed by Vice President Soloman Berewa of the SLPP on 38 percent.

Koroma is being backed in the run-off by the third-placed candidate Charles Margai, who polled 14 percent.

Deep fault lines in the country have resurfaced during the polls, with the APC winning strong support among the northern ethnic Temne and Limba groups but the SLPP backed by the southern Mende population.

With about 100,000 votes separating Koroma and Berewa in the first round, the run-off will depend largely on whether Margai, who took over 250,000 votes, can convince his southern Mende heartland to switch to the northern-based APC.

Analysts say that means ethnic politics are likely to play a role in campaigning but note that the unrest so far has been relatively minor and localized.

Sierra Leone's Independent Media Commission has already issued warnings to two radio stations -- one owned by the SLPP, the other by the APC -- for broadcasting programs liable to stir unrest.

"Several people within the community are perturbed by the incitative statements from the two radio stations," Commissioner Bernadette Cole told Reuters. "If left unchecked their activities may lead to chaos, mayhem and public disorder."

"Members of the Security Council called on leaders of all parties and their followers ... to respect the results of the elections as they are confirmed and to resolve any disputes through exclusively peaceful and legal channels," the U.N. Security Council said in a statement.

Don't Miss
Run-off in Sierra Leone presidential poll.

Propaganda Redux

2007-08-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is one article I am copying from Opinion Journal, because I want to be able to recall it. This is exactly what I have been trying to get across to people, but I do believe that someone with this type of background may have some more aurority so that the people will listen. Please do. If you do not, you do not at your own peril...and mine, too.

Take it from this old KGB hand: The left is abetting America's enemies with its intemperate attacks on President Bush.

BY ION MIHAI PACEPA.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT.

During last week's two-day summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown thanked President Bush for leading the global war on terror. Mr. Brown acknowledged "the debt the world owes to the U.S. for its leadership in this fight against international terrorism" and vowed to follow Winston Churchill's lead and make Britain's ties with America even stronger.

Mr. Brown's statements elicited anger from many of Mr. Bush's domestic detractors, who claim the president concocted the war on terror for personal gain. But as someone who escaped from communist Romania--with two death sentences on his head--in order to become a citizen of this great country, I have a hard time understanding why some of our top political leaders can dare in a time of war to call our commander in chief a "liar," a "deceiver" and a "fraud."

I spent decades scrutinizing the U.S. from Europe, and I learned that international respect for America is directly proportional to America's own respect for its president.

My father spent most of his life working for General Motors in Romania and had a picture of President Truman in our house in Bucharest. While "America" was a vague place somewhere thousands of miles away, he was her tangible symbol. For us, it was he who had helped save civilization from the Nazi barbarians, and it was he who helped restore our freedom after the war--if only for a brief while. We learned that America loved Truman, and we loved America. It was as simple as that.

Later, when I headed Romania's intelligence station in West Germany, everyone there admired America too. People would often tell me that the "Amis" meant the difference between night and day in their lives. By "night" they meant East Germany, where their former compatriots were scraping along under economic privation and Stasi brutality. That was then.

But in September 2002, a German cabinet minister, Herta Dauebler-Gmelin, had the nerve to compare Mr. Bush to Hitler. In one post-Iraq-war poll 40% of Canada's teenagers called the U.S. "evil," and even before the fall of Saddam 57% of Greeks answered "neither" when asked which country was more democratic, the U.S. or Iraq.

Sowing the seeds of anti-Americanism by discrediting the American president was one of the main tasks of the Soviet-bloc intelligence community during the years I worked at its top levels. This same strategy is at work today, but it is regarded as bad manners to point out the Soviet parallels. For communists, only the leader counted, no matter the country, friend or foe. At home, they deified their own ruler--as to a certain extent still holds true in Russia. Abroad, they asserted that a fish starts smelling from the head, and they did everything in their power to make the head of the Free World stink.

The communist effort to generate hatred for the American president began soon after President Truman set up NATO and propelled the three Western occupation forces to unite their zones to form a new West German nation. We were tasked to take advantage of the reawakened patriotic feelings stirring in the European countries that had been subjugated by the Nazis, in order to shift their hatred for Hitler over into hatred for Truman--the leader of the new "occupation power." Western Europe was still grateful to the U.S. for having restored its freedom, but it had strong leftist movements that we secretly financed. They were like putty in our hands.

The European leftists, like any totalitarians, needed a tangible enemy, and we gave them one. In no time they began beating their drums decrying President Truman as the "butcher of Hiroshima." We went on to spend many years and many billions of dollars disparaging subsequent presidents: Eisenhower as a war-mongering "shark" run by the military-industrial complex, Johnson as a mafia boss who had bumped off his predecessor, Nixon as a petty tyrant, Ford as a dimwitted football player and Jimmy Carter as a bumbling peanut farmer. In 1978, when I left Romania for good, the bloc intelligence community had already collected 700 million signatures on a "Yankees-Go-Home" petition, at the same time launching the slogan "Europe for the Europeans."

During the Vietnam War we spread vitriolic stories around the world, pretending that America's presidents sent Genghis Khan-style barbarian soldiers to Vietnam who raped at random, taped electrical wires to human genitals, cut off limbs, blew up bodies and razed entire villages. Those weren't facts. They were our tales, but some seven million Americans ended up being convinced their own president, not communism, was the enemy. As Yuri Andropov, who conceived this dezinformatsiya war against the U.S., used to tell me, people are more willing to believe smut than holiness.

The final goal of our anti-American offensive was to discourage the U.S. from protecting the world against communist terrorism and expansion. Sadly, we succeeded. After U.S. forces precipitously pulled out of Vietnam, the victorious communists massacred some two million people in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Another million tried to escape, but many died in the attempt. This tragedy also created a credibility gap between America and the rest of the world, damaged the cohesion of American foreign policy, and poisoned domestic debate in the U.S.

Unfortunately, partisans today have taken a page from the old Soviet playbook. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, for example, Bush critics continued our mud-slinging at America's commander in chief. One speaker, Martin O'Malley, now governor of Maryland, had earlier in the summer stated he was more worried about the actions of the Bush administration than about al Qaeda. On another occasion, retired four-star general Wesley Clark gave Michael Moore a platform to denounce the American commander in chief as a "deserter." And visitors to the national chairman of the Democratic Party had to step across a doormat depicting the American president surrounded by the words, "Give Bush the Boot."

Competition is indeed the engine that has driven the American dream forward, but unity in time of war has made America the leader of the world. During World War II, 405,399 Americans died to defeat Nazism, but their country of immigrants remained sturdily united. The U.S. held national elections during the war, but those running for office entertained no thought of damaging America's international prestige in their quest for personal victory. Republican challenger Thomas Dewey declined to criticize President Roosevelt's war policy. At the end of that war, a united America rebuilt its vanquished enemies. It took seven years to turn Nazi Germany and imperial Japan into democracies, but that effort generated an unprecedented technological explosion and 50 years of unmatched prosperity for us all.

Now we are again at war. It is not the president's war. It is America's war, authorized by 296 House members and 76 senators. I do not intend to join the armchair experts on the Iraq war. I do not know how we should handle this war, and they don't know either. But I do know that if America's political leaders, Democrat and Republican, join together as they did during World War II, America will win. Otherwise, terrorism will win. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi predicted just before being killed: "We fight today in Iraq, tomorrow in the land of the Holy Places, and after there in the West."

On July 28, I celebrated 29 years since President Carter signed off on my request for political asylum, and I am still tremendously proud that the leader of the Free World granted me my freedom. During these years I have lived here under five presidents--some better than others--but I have always felt that I was living in paradise. My American citizenship has given me a feeling of pride, hope and security that is surpassed only by the joy of simply being alive. There are millions of other immigrants who are equally proud that they restarted their lives from scratch in order to be in this magnanimous country. I appeal to them to help keep our beloved America united and honorable. We may not be able to change the habits of our current political representatives, but we may be able to introduce healthy new blood into the U.S. Congress.

For once, the communists got it right. It is America's leader that counts. Let's return to the traditions of presidents who accepted nothing short of unconditional surrender from our deadly enemies. Let's vote next year for people who believe in America's future, not for the ones who live in the Cold War past.

Lt. Gen. Pacepa is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc. His new book, "Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination" (Ivan R. Dee) will be published in November.

Opposition declares victory in by-election

2007-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

BEIRUT (Reuters) Test of strength weeks before electing new president.

A Maronite Christian opposition candidate won a by-election to Lebanon’s parliament yesterday, an opposition leader said, dealing a blow to the country’s Western-backed ruling coalition.
Tens of thousands of Lebanese voted to choose successors to two assassinated anti-Syrian lawmakers in the latest showdown between the government and its opponents.

Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said his candidate closely beat Amin Gemayel, a former president and a key member of the ruling coalition, in a by-election in the Metn district northeast of Beirut.

The race to win the Maronite seat left empty after Pierre Gemayel was killed in November had shaped up as a test of strength between the ruling coalition and the opposition weeks before parliament was due to elect a Maronite as president.

There was no official confirmation of Aoun’s announcement but opposition sources said Camille Khoury had won by a margin of some 500 votes from around 75,000 cast.

Earlier, unofficial results showed pro-government candidate Mohammad Amin Itani winning by a large margin the Sunni Muslim seat in a Beirut district vacated by the killing of MP Walid Eido in June.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora hailed the peaceful by-elections as a civilised response to political assassination.

“Democracy in Lebanon will defeat terrorism,” he said in a statement.

A nine-month-old political struggle has caused the worst civil strife since the 1975-1990 war, and some feared a new outbreak of violence during voting.

But no major incidents were reported at polling stations in the Christian heartland, where turnout was reported to be at around 45 per cent.

Thousands of Lebanese troops and police tightened security in the area, where flags and posters of the rival parties adorned balconies, electricity poles and cars.

Both Aoun and Gemayel, Pierre’s father and leader of the Phalange Party, had savaged each other during campaigning and both camps exchanged charges of forgery and vote-buying on election day.

Gemayel is a key player in the anti-Syrian majority coalition, which is supported by the United States, France and Saudi Arabia. Aoun is the main Christian leader in the opposition, which includes Hizbollah.

An independent monitoring body, Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, said the polls were generally democratic but reported some violations.

The by-election for a Sunni seat in a Beirut district to chose a successor to Eido, who was assassinated in a car bomb attack in June, was a low-key affair. The winner, Itani, is a member of the main Sunni Future group of Saad Hariri.

The opposition had not launched a full-hearted challenge in Beirut due to the support Hariri enjoyed in that district. Turnout was around 20 per cent.

“This battle is to complete (Lebanon’s) sovereignty, confirm Cedar Revolution and accomplish the goals of the independence uprising,” Gemayel said, in reference to street protests that forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence back in 2005.

“Our main goal is participation (in government). We extend our arm to all the Lebanese to rebuild Lebanon and to salvage it from this big crisis,” Khoury said after voting.

Source: Bahrain Tribune.

Scores of Tibetans Detained for Protesting at Festival

2007-08-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU — Chinese authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan have detained scores of people for protesting at a traditional holiday picnic, sources in the region have told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Rongyal Adrak, of the Yonru nomadic group, called at a festival in Lithang (in Chinese, Litang) on Aug. 1 for the Tibetan exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, to be permitted back into Tibetan territory under Chinese control, sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.

“Rongyal Adrak is generally a religious and good person, but because he was frustrated at being unable to meet the Dalai Lama...he shouted in the midst of all the people that the Dalai Lama must be invited home,” one source said.

Many people detained

“[He said,] ‘If we cannot invite the Dalai Lama home, we will not have freedom of religion and happiness in Tibet .’”

“He raised a protest and then others joined him” at a traditional picnic Aug. 1, the day Chinese citizens celebrate the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, the source said. Aug. 1-15 also marks a fortnight of horse-racing and other celebrations among Tibetans, when the local weather is ideal.

“About 20 persons, young and old, belonging to the Yonru group are now behind bars. Then others from outside the jail also raised a protest...and now some 200 Tibetans have been taken into custody,” the source said.

Another source who witnessed the protest said Yongyal Adrak had thrown a khatak, or ceremonial white scarf, into the crowd before “snatching the microphone from the Chinese [official] on the ceremony platform and asking, ‘Should the Dalai Lama return home or not ?’”

“The crowd yelled ‘yes,’” the witness said. “He then asked, ‘Should the Panchen Lama be released ?’ Everyone responded, ‘Yes.’”

“Then the Chinese official snatched the microphone back, and a monk from the local monastery who had earlier called the Dalai Lama a ‘splittist’ was verbally attacked by the crowd,” the source said.

Local Chinese security officials, contacted by telephone, reported that the incident had been brought under control, but they declined to comment further.

Last year's horse festival cut short.

Sources in the area reported hearing gunshots near the local jail, but they said no one appeared to have been injured.

A year ago, Tibetan nomads ransacked a local police station in Lithang after a dispute over the results in a major annual horse race.

The Lithang Horse Race Festival, which drew tens of thousands of spectators, was cut short because of clashes over who won third place. Four men were beaten by police, according to witnesses, when they tried to complain about cronyism. They refused to seek medical attention and instead commandeered a stage at the festival that was to have been used for a cultural performance.

The festival is a major event in the region and has drawn up to 50,000 participants and spectators from all over China in previous years.

At 4,000 meters above sea level, Lithang is one of the highest human settlements on Earth. It is home to the 16th-century Lithang Monastery, now rebuilt after being bombed in the 1950s.

Original reporting by Lobsang Choepel for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Benpa Topgyal. Service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written for the Web by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to Join.

Sex-abuse case dropped because of delays in search for interpreter

2007-08-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

ROCKVILLE, Maryland (AP) -- Charges against a man accused of raping and repeatedly molesting a 7-year-old girl have been dropped because the court took too long to find an interpreter fluent in his native West African language.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Katherine D. Savage dismissed the nearly three-year-old case against Mahamu Kanneh last week, saying the delays had violated the Liberian immigrant's right to a speedy trial.

"This is one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make in a long time," Savage said from the bench Tuesday. She said she was mindful of "the gravity of this case and the community's concern about offenses of this type."

Prosecutors are considering whether to appeal the dismissal. They cannot refile the charges.

Police arrested Kanneh, of Gaithersburg, in August 2004 after witnesses told police he assaulted the girl multiple times. He spent one night in jail and was released on a $10,000 bond with the restriction that he have no contact with minors.

Prosecutors at first maintained Kanneh could understand the proceedings without translation into his native Vai, a tribal language that linguists estimate is spoken by about 100,000 people mostly in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Prosecutors pointed out that Kanneh attended high school and community college in Montgomery and spoke to detectives in English.

A court-appointed psychiatrist recommended that an interpreter be appointed and judges who handled subsequent hearings heeded that advice. But officials could not find a competent interpreter of Vai who would stay.

The first interpreter stormed out of the courtroom in tears because she found the facts of the case disturbing. A second interpreter was rejected for faulty work. A third Vai interpreter was located, but at the last minute, that person had to tend to a family emergency.

In recent weeks court officials had found a suitable interpreter, but Savage ruled that too much time had already passed.

Prosecutor Maura Lynch had argued that dismissing the indictment "after all the efforts the state has made to accommodate the defendant would be fundamentally unfair."

Kanneh's attorney, Theresa Chernosky, declined to comment.

Loretta E. Knight, the court clerk responsible for finding interpreters, said her office searched exhaustively for a speaker of Vai. She said court officials contacted the Liberian Embassy and courts in all but three states.

The Washington Post reported that it identified three Vai interpreters Thursday with help from the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters, including one in Gaithersburg.

U.S. to build missile shield in Poland

2007-08-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A U.S. missile-defense system will be built in Poland despite Russia's anger over the plans, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Monday after a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Kaczynski expressed confidence over the proposed system, although Poland has held off a formal agreement to host it and pressed for concessions on issues including related military contracts.

"The matter of the shield is largely a foregone conclusion," Kaczynski said at a news conference following the meeting.

"The shield will exist because for Poland this will be a very good thing," he said.
Washington wants to place up to 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic to protect against attacks from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.

Kaczynski said several issues still have to be ironed out, including the size of the base and the number of U.S. soldiers to be stationed there.

"The location on the technical level is already decided, but we will soon announce where," Kaczynski said.

The Czech Republic has already agreed to the radar site.

Russian President Vladimir Putin late last week suspended Moscow's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe, or CFE, treaty from mid-December, in a move widely seen as an effort to raise pressure over the U.S. plans.

Bush and Kaczynski insisted the system was not aimed at Russia.

Rather, it would provide security for Europe from countries where "leaders don't particularly care for our way of life and, or, are in the process of trying to develop serious weapons of mass destruction," Bush said with Kaczynski at his side in the Oval Office.

Kaczynski is one of Moscow's most outspoken critics and a key U.S. ally in Europe. He said he wanted to emphasize the "defensive" nature of the proposed missile shield.

NATO expressed concern on Monday at Russia's decision to suspend participation in the CFE treaty, which covers the deployment of armed forces in post-Cold War Europe.

The White House said it would keep working with Russia on missile defense.
Bush and Putin met earlier this month at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, in an attempt to improve ties that have become frayed partly over the missile shield.

Putin made a new counter-proposal that expanded on his previous offer to use a radar system in Azerbaijan as an alternative to the U.S. plan.

He suggested incorporating a radar system in southern Russia and bringing more European countries into the decision-making through the Russia-NATO Council.

"The comments that the Russian president made up in Kennebunkport offered a certain amount of promise for moving forward. We continue to have discussions with them on it," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Polish and U.S. negotiators held talks on the shield in late June in Washington and will resume them later this summer.

Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, who represents Poland in the talks, has said he expects a deal in September or October.

On Tuesday, Kaczynski will visit Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where the United States has been testing missile-defense technology and plans to place four interceptors by 2011.

Girls, Women forced into labor camps; Uyghur, Asia

2007-07-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Uyghur Girls, Young Women Forced Into Labor Far From Home.

WASHINGTON—Several girls and young women belonging to the Muslim Uyghur minority in northwest China are stranded in a coastal Chinese province after “training” programs offered by local officials became effective slave labor, parents and officials have told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

“Two officials from the village came and told us that they would be responsible. They told us that they made a deal with a factory there to train our daughters for one year. They also told us that they would get paid,” Uyghur farmer Tohti, a resident of No. 8 hamlet near Kachung village said.

“But after they took them there, they didn’t pay. Now, the girls are calling, asking their parents to bring them back home. They cannot come back on their own, so they have been calling their parents. The parents are sending what they have to their children, so they can pay for their travel expenses. Many parents are facing huge difficulties and suffering a lot,” Tohti told RFA's Uyghur service.

Reports published on Web sites in the Uyghur region said 213 girls had been co-opted into a work training program by Chinese officials in Yarkand county, near Kashgar, in March.

While their parents—many of whom live in extreme poverty—were reluctant to send them, officials said they would take responsibility for their daughters’ progress. The location of the factory in which the girls were to work wasn’t made clear.

The girls were promised 500 yuan a month at the beginning and during training, the reports said. In later stages, they were promised between 900 and 1,100 yuan monthly, and they were told they would be paid on time.

But the girls went unpaid until June 28, when at least two of them fled into hiding in Urumqi , capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Girls unpaid.

Patigul Yunus, one of the girls from No. 8 hamlet who escaped, was quoted as saying: “When we asked them about our salary, they told us: ‘We have already given it to the man who handed you to us. You will not get paid.’”

The girls’ parents were told that their daughters—who included junior high-school student Kurbanisa Nurmemet and 15-year-old Risalet Turdimemet—would be taken to the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang . Instead, the girls ended up in northern Shandong , a local village official said.

The head of No. 8 hamlet, Tursun Barat, said the parents of the girls, some of whom were as young as 15, opposed the plan.

“I took the farmers to the village—to the village chief. I told him that their parents don’t want them to go. We should not force them,” he said.

“The chief didn’t listen. Instead, he tried to convince them and screamed at me: ‘Why did you bring the farmers? Why didn’t you bring the girls themselves?’ And he also dismissed the chief of the second division from his post because he didn’t bring people,” he said, adding that the girls themselves were actually willing to go.

“Don’t believe what the girls say,” he said. “You must also listen to what we say.”

Tursun Barat said he tried and failed during a visit to Urumqi to meet with Patigul Yunus, who had escaped. He later spoke with the county chief instead.

“The [county] chief said that it was a mistake and to correct the mistake...He said, ‘The government did not force the people, and it has stressed that it was voluntary, but you made a mistake in Kachung. From now on you have to be careful.’”

Asked about reports that some of the girls had been raped, Tursun Barat said: “The government has forced them to go, so the government should respond to this. We have told the chief of the village.”

“It’s true that, at the beginning, we forced them. We borrowed 5,000 yuan for travel expenses for nine girls [from this village], and the girls were supposed to pay that money back. But we don’t know what kind of work they did there.”

“We wanted to give them money if they didn’t have money and bring them back,” he said of his trip to Urumqi .

Parents could be punished.

He denied reports that the girls would be punished if they returned home. But he also revealed that the Kachung authorities were already retaliating against the families of the escaped girls.

“I haven’t heard that if they come here, they will be punished,” he said. “But I have heard that the parents of the girls who came back here have been subjected to forced labor [in Uyghur, hasha].”

The leader of hamlet No. 8 said in an interview that this information had originated with government irrigation officials.

Meanwhile, distraught father Tohti called on local officials to bring his daughter home. “The government and party took our daughters, so we are expecting that they will do something to bring them back. The officials who took our children haven’t come back yet either. Two female officials took those girls with them.”

“We are very concerned about our children, because we don’t know where they are. We would like to bring them back. But we are afraid because two girls who have returned have been fined, and the officials are forcing their parents to send them back to the same place. They say that this is a Party order.”

Hasha, or forced, unpaid labor, is still used frequently by Chinese authorities in Yarkand, which with its 29 villages is the largest county in Kashgar. It economy is based on agriculture and horticulture, and it has a population of more than 670,000.

A hasha recruitment drive to expand an almond plantation was reported by RFA’s Uyghur service in March. In a series of interviews with RFA in 2004, Chinese government officials in Xinjiang confirmed that hasha still exists, although the system has long since been eliminated in other parts of China .

Uyghurs, who number more than 16 million, constitute a distinct, Turkic-speaking, Muslim minority in northwestern China and Central Asia . They declared a short-lived East Turkestan Republic in Xinjiang in the late 1930s and 40s but have remained under Beijing 's control since 1949.

Original reporting in Uyghur by Erkin. RFA Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited by Sarah Jackson-Han and Enver Kadir.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Arabs pile into Darfur to take land 'cleansed' by janjaweed

2007-07-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

Source: The Independent on Sunday.
By Steve Bloomfield, Africa Correspondent
Published: 14 July 2007.

Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in "unprecedented" numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region.

An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks. They were greeted by Sudanese Arabs who took them to empty villages cleared by government and janjaweed forces.

One UN official said the process "appeared to have been well planned". The official continued: "This movement is very large. We have not seen such numbers come into west Darfur before."

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sent a team to the border with Chad at the end of May to interview the new arrivals. Fighting in eastern Chad has been steadily increasing and it was thought that many could be refugees. But only a very small number have required support from UNHCR.

"Most have been relocated by Sudanese Arabs to former villages of IDPs (internally displaced people) and more or less invited to stay there," said the UN official.

The arrivals have been issued with official Sudanese identity cards and awarded citizenship, and analysts say that by encouraging Arabs from Chad, Niger and other parts of Sudan to move to Darfur the Sudanese government is making it "virtually impossible" for displaced people to return home.

James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust, said the revelations proved that the Sudanese government was "cynically trying to change the demographics of the whole region", adding: "If the ethnic cleansing has been consolidated because the land has been repopulated it will become irreversible. The peace process will fall to pieces."

Repopulation has also been happening in south Darfur where Arabs from elsewhere in Sudan have been allowed to move into villages that were once home to local tribes. Aid agency workers said the Arabs were presented as "returning IDPs".

Before the conflict started in 2003, Darfur was home to seven million people, mainly from three African tribes, Fur, Marsalit and Zargahwa. Darfur literally translates as "Land of the Fur". But some 2.5 million have now been forced to flee their homes after attacks by Sudanese troops and planes, and Arab militia on horseback known as janjaweed.

Most are now in camps around Darfur's main towns, relying on handouts from international aid agencies. About 250,000 have become refugees in Chad. A further 1.5 million have been affected by the conflict, meaning at least four million people are now reliant on the 80 or so international aid agencies in the region. More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed so far during the four-and-a-half-year conflict.

And if Khartoum is moving Arabs from abroad to replace them, diplomats fear that Darfur rebels may try to remove them forcibly. "It could be quite explosive," said one western diplomat. "It is a very serious situation."

Nomadic Arab tribes have been crossing the border between Chad and Sudan for centuries, long before lines were drawn on a map. It is normal for tribes to follow the rains from west to east and back again, searching for fertile grazing land for their cattle. Straight lines carve out the northern borders of the five countries which spread across the Sahel, taking no notice of traditional tribal links and nomadic routes.

In Mauritania and Sudan, both countries long ruled by Arabs, black African tribes have suffered most. In Mali, Niger and Chad, the Arab and Tuareg nomads have been suppressed.

Towards the end of last year, Niger announced that it planned forcibly to remove more than 150,000 Arab nomads into Chad. Many of the Arabs, known as Mahamid, moved from Chad in the 1970s after a serious drought. Although the government later rescinded the order, it is thought that many decided to return to Chad voluntarily.

Apart from the 30,000 Arabs from Chad and Niger cited in the UNHCR report there have been consistent rumours that a further 45,000 Arabs from Niger have also crossed over. For most nomads citizenship means very little; the lines that separate the countries of the Sahel have not created a sense of nationality. But for the Khartoum regime it could be pivotal. Elections are to be held in two years, the first since President Omar al-Bashir seized power in a coup in 1989.

Although opinion polling is not very advanced, it is thought that no party is likely to win an overall majority. By providing citizenship for the new arrivals, one Khartoum-based diplomat said, President Bashir could be hoping to bolster his election chances.

For the Arabs who have crossed into Darfur there are both push and pull factors. Drought in parts of northern Africa has forced nomads to look further afield for fertile land. Although the spread of desert is rapidly reducing the amount of land available for farmers and nomads in Darfur, much of the area cleared by the janjaweed and government forces is fertile.

An ethnic cleansing and colonisation strategy that stretches back through history

* EAST TIMOR: The poorest country in Asia, much of East Timor's instability stems from the country's repeated colonisation. Invaded and occupied by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999, hundreds of thousands of Javanese migrants flooded the former Portuguese colony from nearby islands as part of a government-sponsored programme. This led to decades of violent clashes between the indigenous Timorese population, which is 90 per cent Roman Catholic, and the Muslim Javanese migrants. There has been little improvement following the Indonesian withdrawal and East Timor's subsequent independence; in 2006 150,000 East Timor residents were displaced due to conflicts.

* SOVIET UNION: Russia deliberately exported ethnic Russians to restive republics during Soviet times.

Thirty per cent of the population of the Baltic state of Estonia was implanted during the Soviet regime. In 1949, following the annexation of the Baltic states, Stalin, right, deported 42,000 Latvians to Siberia. As a result, the proportion of ethnic Russians there increased from 8.8 per cent in 1935 to 34 per cent by 1989. Stalin's ethnic cleansing - involving 3 million people between 1941 and 1949 - included the deportation of 200,000 Crimean Tatars to central Asia.

* KOSOVO: Currently administered by the UN, this disputed land-locked province in southern Serbia endured conflicts throughout the 1990s, fuelled by ethnic divisions and repression. With Serbian and ethnic Albanian inhabitants vying for supremacy, these struggles came to a head in the mid-1990s, when Serbian forces began a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovo's mainly Muslim Albanians. Thousands of people died and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to neighbouring states. Reconciliation between Kosovo's 1.5 million ethnic Albanians and its 100,000 Serbs remains elusive, pending approval of an internationally backed draft plan for virtual independence.

U.S. envoy says Sudan bombing civilians in Darfur

2007-07-14T03:06:00.000-07:00

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- The top U.S. envoy for Darfur on Friday accused the Sudanese government of bombing civilian targets in its war-ravaged western region and rebels of cynically obstructing international efforts to end the conflict.

Andrew Natsios told a news conference in Khartoum following a visit to Darfur that both sides were to blame for the conflict that has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. "After a halt in the bombing between the beginning of February and the end of April in 2007, the Sudanese government has resumed bombing in Darfur," Natsios said. "This should end, and the ceasefire that was agreed to sometime ago should be respected. We urge the Sudanese government to end all bombing in Darfur immediately," he said.

Khartoum signed a ceasefire agreement with the two main rebel groups in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement, in 2004, but violence has continued. A May 2006 Darfur peace deal was signed by only one rebel faction. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen groups. "Some of them are descending into warlordism and criminality and this is not a good trend in Darfur, which is all the more reason why we need to accelerate the political process for a peace agreement," Natsios said.

"Some rebel leaders are cynically obstructing the peace process and the United States government is very disturbed by this. It needs to end now," he continued. Natsios said the bombing by the Sudanese military focused on the Jebel Marra region, a strong-hold of Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nour, leader of a faction of one of the Darfur rebel groups, and other targets in West and North Darfur.

"I think there were four attacks in Jebel Marra Mountains. We are troubled by this, because these have been stable areas before," the U.S. envoy said. "And there had been other bombings I think in West Darfur and North Darfur of civilian targets," he added.

The Sudanese military could not be immediately reached for comment.Natsios also said the United States was disturbed by reports that the Sudanese government was deliberately trying to change Darfur's demography by settling non-Sudanese Arab tribes there.

"It is a very provocative action that concerns us all and will complicate any future political process for reconciliation in Sudan and particularly in Darfur," he said. "Because when a settlement is reached and people go back to their homes and they find out someone is living on their land and farming it, this will simply create a new war."

The U.S. envoy's comments came as Britain, France and Ghana circulated a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council for a joint African Union-U.N. force for Darfur, which also threatened force against those who attack civilians, relief workers and obstruct peace efforts. The resolution, expected to be adopted this month, allows the U.N. to formally recruit troops for the mission.

Under sustained international pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police to bolster the cash-strapped AU force of 7,000 already operating in Darfur. The AU troops have failed to stem the violence.

International experts estimate 200,000 [It has been 400,000 for 2 years now!] people have died as a result of ethnic[, religious] and political conflict in Darfur since it flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms after accusing the central government of neglect. [LIE! It was the Arab janjaweed that was raping, pillaging, murdering, flash burning the land, and committing genocide that started the war.] Washington calls the violence genocide, and blames the government and its allied militia. Khartoum rejects the term and says only 9,000 have died.

Other sources: AlertNet, AlertNet, Reuters, by Simon Apiku, U.S. envoy blasts Sudan for attacks (San Jose Mercury News, written by MOHAMED OSMAN Associated Press Writer), etc. May I also add that they are ALL using the same Reuters article! Will someone please explain to me why everyone goes to journalist school if they are only going to copy/paste? Just asking...

NK wants direct military talks with U.S.

2007-07-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea called on Friday for military talks with the United States for peace and security on the peninsula, with Washington saying it can discuss a peace treaty after Pyongyang abandons its nuclear program.

Pyongyang, which often muddies the waters ahead of crucial moves concerning its atomic ambitions, is set to receive a team of U.N. nuclear personnel on Saturday who are to oversee the shutdown of its reactor and source of weapons-grade plutonium.

Six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programs are set to resume on Wednesday in Beijing. The North, which has long sought direct talks with the United States, usually holds bilateral meetings with U.S. officials within those discussions.

"The Korean People's Army side proposes having talks between the DPRK and U.S. militaries to be attended by a U.N. representative," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

The North, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said the talks would be for "discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula".

U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that Washington is ready to discuss normalizing ties and a peace treaty to end the Korean War if the North follows up on its recent progress in disarmament and completely scraps its atomic arms program.

An analyst said this may be a ploy from reclusive North Korea to drive a wedge between the United States and it ally, the South.

"The comments appear to be intended to exclude South Korea and China in any talks for a peace treaty and to include the subject of removing U.S. troops from the South as part of the talks," head of North Korean military research at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, Baek Seung-joo said.

There have been reports in the South Korean media that officials are seeking a four-way dialogue among China, the two Koreas and the United States to examine a peace treaty. The North may have been responding to these reports, Baek said.

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce. The United States, which led U.N. forces, was a signatory to the armistice as well as North Korea and its ally, China. South Korea did not sign.

The United States stations about 30,000 troops in the South to support the country's some 670,000 strong military against an attack by the North.

The North repeated an often used line that the United States is bringing the peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and called on it to stop joint military drills with the South as well as cut out what it saw as a hostile policy to stifle it.

"It is the undeniable and legitimate right of the DPRK to have in place all the necessary self-defensive means to cope with the threat and blackmail of the U.S. in order to protect its right to existence," the North's statement said.

In a February deal among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, the North agreed to shut down its antiquated reactor in return for 50,000 tonnes of oil aid. E-mail to a friend.

Please check for viruses

2007-07-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted at Rosemary's Thoughts. (Today is Monday, and I want to keep this on top for a few days, because it is important. Thanks for understanding.)

I have spent most of yesterday and all night getting Spybot Search and Destroy (just hit next when the Wizard tells you to go back because something is not complete--for the free version) and Ad Aware (also free), because Norton did not catch the viruses that infected my computer. I am so sorry to put you through this, but it is better that I tell you now than to have you infecting others. That is, if you are infected.

I became suspicious when I went to sign in at one of the private sites where I write. I typed the first letter of my ID, and there was my whole address book! I got into a heated arguement with the administrator of that site for stealing my info, and he gently pointed me to the possibility that I may be infected. I was sure I was not, because I have Norton. YEAH, RIGHT.

It will take about an hour each for them to scan your computer (if this is your first time), but it is worth it. I do recommend that you read the tutorial for Spybot. Again, I am so very sorry. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Have a day. (I know I left out the 'nice' this time. I do not think this is nice.)

Paris pushes swift deployment of troops in Darfur

2007-06-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

June 25, 2007.

PARIS, France (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed fast international action toward speeding up deployment of troops in Darfur, as key world players met Monday to try to consolidate efforts and resources for the ravaged Sudanese region.

Sudan was not invited to the one-day Paris conference, organized by a new French government that has made the four-year conflict in Darfur a top priority. The meetings come after Sudan agreed -- under international pressure -- to allow the deployment of a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in the region.

Sarkozy pledged an additional $13.4 million to the existing -- and cash-strapped -- African Union force. "Silence is killing," in Darfur, Sarkozy said in greeting participants to the conference.

"The lack of decision and the lack of action is unacceptable," he added.

He praised Sudan for agreeing to the hybrid force but insisted, "We must be firm toward belligerents who refuse to join the negotiating table."

Stepping up pressure for progress, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Sunday night that the international community has fallen down on the job in Darfur.

Rice and Sarkozy had their first face-to-face talks since Sarkozy took over last month from Jacques Chirac.

Details about the composition, mandate and timetable of the joint force are expected to top discussions at Monday's meetings.

More than 200,000 people have died in the Darfur region of western Sudan and 2.5 million have become refugees since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed -- a charge Sudan denies.

The U.N. and Western governments had pressed Sudan for months to accept a plan for a large joint force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed 7,000-strong African force now in Darfur.

Sudan initially accepted the plan in November but then backtracked, before finally agreeing earlier this month. Rice warned Sudan's government not to renege on its agreement.

Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, insisted Sunday, "This is not a 'peacemaking' meeting, but on the contrary, a meeting to support the international efforts that have been deployed."

Kouchner, a Socialist who co-founded the aid group Doctors Without Borders, said "humanitarian work ... is not enough." He also noted that the world powers must agree to support the U.N. force financially.

"If there are 20,000 forces who are in the hybrid force, whoever they are, they must be paid," he said.

The conference includes Rice, Kouchner, officials from the United Nations including Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the Arab League and the European Union, as well as 11 European countries, Egypt and China.

Notable absences, other than Sudan, include the African Union and neighboring Chad, which has seen an influx of tens of thousands of people fleeing Darfur and is a key conduit for aid.

China is viewed as a power broker in Sudan because of its heavy investment in the country. China has long opposed harsh measures against Sudan over Darfur.

Beijing has dramatically stepped up efforts to end the violence in Darfur in the wake of mounting criticism that threatened to taint the 2008 Olympic Games, which it is hosting.

China has not received a formal request to send soldiers for the AU-U.N. peacekeeping mission, but officials have said the country is open to contributing troops.

France had long been less vocal than the United States, Britain and others in pushing for peace in the region, but Sarkozy has made Darfur a foreign policy priority since taking office last month.

Sierra Leone war crimes court convicts 3

2007-06-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

June 20, 2007.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) -- A U.N.-backed court trying those accused of bearing greatest responsibility for the brutality of Sierra Leone's civil war issued its first verdicts Wednesday, convicting three former leaders of a junta that had terrorized the country during a brief reign.

The court found the three defendants guilty of 11 of 14 charges, including terrorism, using child soldiers, enslavement, rape and murder.

The three were acquitted of charges of sexual slavery, "other inhumane acts" related to physical and acts related to sexual violence, said Peter Andersen, spokesman for the Sierra Leone Special Court.

The tribunal was set up following the end of fighting in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in a conflict that ravaged the small West African nation and spilled over into neighboring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean rebels.

The three defendants convicted Wednesday in Freetown had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which were linked to heading a junta that raped women, burned villages, conscripted thousands of child soldiers and forced others to work as laborers in diamond mines.

The men -- Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu -- were indicted in 2003 as the alleged leaders of the group, called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. The group of former military officers toppled Sierra Leone's government in 1997 and then teamed up with rebels to control the country until 1998, according to the indictment.

The conviction marks a watershed, said Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch. "It's the first time that an international court has issued a verdict on child recruitment," she said.

David Crane, the founding prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court, agreed.

"It's a huge moment for children around the world who have been oppressed in these conflicts," said David Crane, now a law professor at Syracuse University. "This particular judgment sets the cornerstone forever -- those who recruit children into an armed force are criminally liable."

Dufka said the group led by the three men committed their worst atrocities after they were pushed into the bush by an international peacekeeping force in 1998. It was then that they started "punishing the civilian population as a whole," said Dufka, an expert on the conflict.

It is estimated that about half a million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during Sierra Leone's conflict, in which illicit diamond sales fueled years of devastation.

Five others are awaiting verdicts in Freetown.

Some have criticized the Special Court for not progressing through trials quickly enough. Three of those charged have died since the indictments -- two of natural causes and one in a killing that many believe was a move to silence him.

Taylor's trial opened earlier this month in The Hague, Netherlands. It was being held outside of Freetown because of fears the case could trigger fresh violence, but remained under the auspices of the Sierra Leone court. Taylor's case was being heard in a room rented from the International Criminal Court.

Taylor is also linked to brutality in his own country, but Liberians have opted for a truth and reconciliation commission rather than a court.

Australia to transform naval forces

2007-06-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

June 20, 2007.

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia will build an A$11 billion ($9 billion) fleet of advanced destroyers and amphibious warships, Prime Minister John Howard said, underscoring the country's plan to remain a key Asian military power.

The purchases would transform Australia's navy into one of the most powerful in the Asia region, with two amphibious carriers able to land more than 2,000 troops, 16 attack and transport helicopters and up to 23 Abrams tanks.

"They will greatly enhance Australia's ability to send forces in strength when required, particularly in our own region, but not restricted to our own region," Howard told a media briefing on Wednesday.

Howard said his government had agreed to buy three Spanish-designed F100 air warfare destroyers at a cost of A$8 billion, to be built in Adelaide by Australian firm ASC, U.S. firm Raytheon and Spanish government-shipyard Navantia.

The 6,000-ton warships will be equipped with advanced U.S. Aegis radars and may one day carry SM 3 missiles as part of U.S. and Japanese efforts to build a ballistic missile shield in Asia, in order to guard against threats like a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Two 27,000-ton amphibious warships, also Navantia designs, would be built in Victoria state in partnership with Australian defense firm Tenix, with the first to enter service with the Royal Australian Navy by 2012, Howard said.

The Navantia destroyers beat a larger and more costly rival U.S. design, while the amphibious warships were preferred over a smaller French design.

Asia-Pacific focus.

Australia has in recent years increased defense spending above A$20 billion a year amid concerns about growing instability in the Asia-Pacific, with a A$50 billion military buy-up already underway, including advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The new destroyers, with a range of more than 5,000 nautical miles, could also be equipped with Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, local media said.

Canberra, its defense budget fattened by strong commodity exports, is also purchasing cruise missiles for fighter aircraft, including recently purchased F-18 Super Hornets.

Several nations, including Thailand and Indonesia, have warned of a possible regional arms race spurred by Australia's buy-up.

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia needed a strong defense force and the ability to deploy overseas quickly.

"It's not that we have hostile intent towards anybody," Downer told local television.

Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said the five new ships would ensure Australia would be able to undertake "security stabilization" alongside key ally the United States.

Almost 28,000 U.S. and Australian troops this week began a major exercise across Australia's northern coastline involving an aircraft carrier battle group, tanks and and nuclear submarines. Canberra has around 1,500 troops in and around Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, as well as a special forces task group in Afghanistan and peacekeepers in East Timor.

Report warns of nuclear arms race by Pakistan, India

2007-06-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

June 21, 2007.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Satellite images show that Pakistan is building a nuclear reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, an American watchdog group said Thursday, warning that it could contribute to an atomic arms race with archrival India.

A picture taken June 3 shows work progressing rapidly on the reactor at the Khushab nuclear site, 100 miles southwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the Institute of Science for International Security said.

The development of the reactor and other nuclear-related activities "imply" that Pakistan has decided to "increase significantly its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons," the Washington-based institute said in a report analyzing the images.

A senior official at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Authority said the country was "extending our infrastructure," but declined to address the details of the report.

"We are a declared nuclear state and we are pursuing our nuclear program for peaceful purposes," said the official, who asked that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We are doing it for our national interests."

Pakistan has stated repeatedly that it will develop its secretive nuclear program and maintain an atomic arsenal to deter India, its more powerful neighbor, despite past leaks of sensitive technology to countries including Iran.

The report, co-authored by former U.N. inspector David Albright, said Pakistan may have decided to produce more plutonium for lighter warheads for cruise missiles, or to upgrade weapons aimed at Indian cities.

Most Pakistani nuclear weapons use highly enriched uranium, it noted.

Albright said the work on the reactor shows that the country is trying to improve its nuclear capabilities with a "new generation" of plutonium-based weapons.

Plutonium-based weapons pack more explosive power into smaller, lighter packages than those made with uranium, which Pakistan has been using for years, according to Albright.

"The work on these reactors reflects a Pakistani decision to create a new generation of nuclear weapons. By going plutonium ... we have to interpret that as an attempt to make smaller, more powerful weapons that are going to be more destructive in India," Albright said in a telephone interview.

The Pakistani official declined to comment on what Pakistan might do with extra plutonium.

The report said that, with India also trying to expand its ability to enrich uranium, Pakistan's activities "should be viewed as a sign of an accelerated nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan."

It also accused the U.S. government of soft-pedaling the risk to avoid endangering Islamabad's cooperation against terrorism and a proposed nuclear pact with New Delhi.

"The bottom line for us is that the U.S. isn't doing enough to stop these countries from expanding their nuclear arsenals. They're turning a blind eye," said Albright.

The institute said it used commercially available satellite imagery to conclude that Pakistan was building a third nuclear reactor at Khushab.

A first reactor entered service in 1998, and a second one begun between 2000 and 2002 was still under construction earlier this month, it said in the report. The third and newest reactor has sprung up rapidly just a few hundred yards away, it said.

The images also purportedly show work progressing on a plutonium reprocessing facility at Chashma, 50 miles to the west.

A report by the same institute about the second reactor at Khushab saying it could eventually produce enough fissile material for 50 atomic bombs a year prompted the U.S. government last July to urge Pakistan not to expand its nuclear weapons program.

Pakistan conducted its only nuclear tests in May 1998 after Indian tests earlier that month. India detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1974.

The two countries came close to open conflict in 2002, fueling fear of the world's first nuclear exchange, after terrorists attacked India's Parliament. New Delhi accused Islamabad-backed militants of carrying out the attack, but Pakistan denied the claims. Both countries have since embarked on a stop-start peace process.

In February 2004, Abdul Qadeer Khan, considered to be the father of Pakistan's atomic program, confessed to giving nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan and U.S. officials regularly praise Islamabad's role in helping prevent nuclear smuggling.

Iraqi politicians agree deal on sharing oil, says Kurd minister

2007-06-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Written by: Michael Howard in Sulaymaniya.
Thursday June 21, 2007
The Guardian.

Iraq's Kurdish leaders said last night they had struck an important deal with the central government in Baghdad over a law to divide up Iraq's oil revenues, which is seen by the Bush administration as one of the benchmarks in attempts to foster national reconciliation.

Ashti Hawrami, the minister for natural resources in the Kurdistan regional government, told the Guardian the text had been finalised late last night after 48 hours of "tough bargaining" with Baghdad. The deal represented "a genuine revenue sharing agreement" that was transparent and would benefit all the people of Iraq and help pull the country together, he said.

Iraq's oil revenue accounted for 93% of the federal budget last year. Iraq sells about 1.6m barrels a day.

Mr Hawrami said the law provided for the setting up of two "regulated and monitored" accounts into which external and internal revenues would be deposited. The external account would include items such as oil export earnings and foreign donor money, while the internal fund would consist largely of customs and taxes. The federal government in Baghdad would take what it needed, and the rest would be automatically distributed to the Kurdistan regional government, which would get 17%, and to Iraq's governorates "according to their entitlement". Revenues would be distributed monthly, he said.

Mr Hawrami said the system would better enable Iraqis to track how and where the oil funds were being spent. The Kurds, for example, have complained that remittances to their self-rule region have been being held back by up to six months in Baghdad. Iraq's Sunni Arabs had also expressed concerns that they might miss out on their share.

Iraq's finance minister, Bayan Jabr, and the oil minister, Hussein Sharistani, were accompanying the president, Jalal Talabani, on a state a visit to China and could not be contacted for comment.

The new deal came days after a visit to Iraq by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, during which he rebuked politicians for failing to reach consensus on sharing oil revenues. The US sees the deal as a benchmark of progress toward reconciliation.

A western diplomat in Baghdad said last night: "Fair-sharing of Iraq's oil revenue is important to finding a sustainable political solution in Iraq. But on its own it will not halt the sectarianism."

Full coverage:

Britain and Iraq:

Interactive guides:

Key documents:

Full text of speeches and documents.

Audio reports:

Audio reports on Iraq.

In this section:

Billy Graham: Wife 'had a great reception in heaven'

2007-06-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 16, 2007.

MONTREAT, North Carolina (AP) -- Ruth Graham retained her beauty even in death and surely "had a great reception in heaven," an ailing Billy Graham told mourners who gathered Saturday to remember his beloved wife.

"I wish you could look in that casket because she's so beautiful," said Graham, clinging to his walker. "She was a wonderful woman."

Ruth Graham died Thursday at age 87 following a lengthy illness. Her husband's closest confidant, she was remembered as a spiritual stalwart and modest mentor who provided a solid foundation -- both biblically and geographically -- for her globe-trotting husband.

"The mama that we saw at home was the mama that the world saw," said their son, Franklin, who is now the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He recalled his mother's headstrong and quirky nature, telling the crowd about the time she overcame a locked bedroom door by crawling on the roof, then throwing a cup of cold water through his window to wake him.

"I thank you mama for your example, for your love, for your wit, for your humor, for your craziness," he said. "I love you for all of it, and I'm going to miss you terribly."

After preaching to more than 210 million people around the world during a six-decade career, Billy Graham, 88, is largely confined to the couple's home in Montreat by several ailments, including prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. He was not expected to speak Saturday but surprised the crowd with his words, perhaps spurred by the sight of his 19 grandchildren.

"God bless all these grandchildren. Some of them I haven't seen in a long time. Some of them I've never seen," he said, drawing laughter from the audience. "Lots of love to everyone, and thank you."

Graham changed her dream of being missionary.

Born in 1920 to medical missionaries in China, and after spending some of her high school years in what is now North Korea, Ruth Graham vowed to never marry and dreamed of working as a missionary in Tibet.

That changed after she met Billy Graham at Wheaton College in Illinois. They were married in 1943 at Montreat Presbyterian Church, where she attended services for the rest of her life.

As Billy Graham took his crusades and traveling ministry around the country and the world, Ruth Graham usually remained in the small North Carolina mountain town of Montreat, raising their five children while writing poetry, books and counseling college-age youth. (Watch how Ruth Graham lived out her faith )

Her sister, Rosa Montgomery, said Graham charged ahead with her spiritual mindset even as a young girl -- once praying that God soon make her a martyr. Though married to a famous Baptist preacher, Ruth remained a lifelong Presbyterian.

Ruth Graham was bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck, and she fell into a coma Wednesday following a recent bout with pneumonia. A spokesman said she died peacefully with her husband and all five of her children at her bedside.

"Though our hearts are heavy with loss, we dare rejoice, for Ruth is home with you," said the Rev. Richard White, Graham's pastor at Montreat Presbyterian. "Her sorrows are ended."

Her simple coffin, adorned with flowers, was chosen after son Franklin noticed inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary building the caskets for themselves and others who could not afford to purchase regular coffins.

N. Korea: Atomic inspectors can return

2007-06-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 16, 2007.

(CNN) -- North Korea has invited inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog back into the country to monitor the shut down of its main nuclear reactor, state media reports.

A letter inviting a "working level" delegation to visit and monitor the suspension of the operations of nuclear facilities was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency, North's Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, frozen North Korean funds that were thawed as part of a February agreement to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program were transferred out of a bank in Macau, China, to a Russian bank, where North Korea has an account.

Ri Je Son, North Korea's director general of the General Department of Atomic Energy, sent a letter to the IAEA confirming that transfer of the funds was completed as required before the invitation would be extended, according to KCNA.

Francis Tam Pak-yuen, Macau's secretary of economy and finance, said more than $20 million went from Banco Delta Asia to a North Korean account in a small private Russian bank via the Macau Monetary Authority, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Russian central bank.

The funding, $25 million, was frozen at the bank in late 2005 at the request of the United States, which claimed some of the funding came from illegal activities. As part of a February deal agreed upon during six-party talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization, however, the funds were freed.

North Korea had been expected to announce its steps in implementing the six-party agreement upon confirmation of the money transfer. Under the agreement, North Korea will shut down its Yongbyon reactor and allow the IAEA back into the country to monitor the process.

Besides freeing up the funds, countries involved in the six-party talks are to provide emergency energy assistance equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

The agreement was reached in September after six-party talks involving North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

At a February 13 meeting, a set of initial actions were agreed upon, including freeing the Macau funding.

In exchange for North Korea's denuclearization, the nations have pledged to provide the reclusive Communist nation with political and economic incentives and security guarantees.

Four North Koreans get their wish

2007-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 15, 2007.

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Four North Koreans who arrived by boat at a Japanese port two weeks ago left Japan on Saturday for South Korea, their desired destination, police said.

Three men and a woman taken into custody in northern Japan on June 2, believed to be a couple and their two adult sons, arrived in a small wooden boat after a sea journey they said had begun on May 27.

The four said they wished to go to South Korea, and Japanese officials had said they would be treated sympathetically. (Full story.)

A police spokesman at Narita airport, just east of Tokyo, said the four had departed on Saturday morning for South Korea.

NHK public television showed the family boarding the plane, their faces concealed by blankets. The plane left shortly before 10 a.m. (0100 GMT).

The four told police they left Chongjin on the east coast of North Korea and headed south, but changed course due to heavy security and ended up at Fukaura in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture, 800 km (500 miles) to the east.

They were quoted in the media as saying that they were lucky to be able to eat bread every other day. But local media reports said they were wearing wristwatches, raising questions about how poor they actually were.

Some North Korea watchers said the watches suggested they might be middle class and their departure hinted at growing frustration among middle class North Koreans since the poor couldn't leave and the elite wouldn't need to.

Japan can grant asylum seekers a six-month permit under its immigration law, and a 2006 "North Korean human rights law" also states the government must take measures to protect and support defectors from North Korea.

North Korean defectors have fled to Japanese missions and other premises in China in the past, and Tokyo has allowed them to leave for third countries, but it is rare for North Koreans to flee to Japan.

Their arrival had raised concerns that relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang -- which have no diplomatic ties -- could worsen if North Korea demanded their return, but no such demands were made.

Japan is feuding with North Korea over the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang's agents to help train spies.

Abe has said that without a resolution to the abduction issue, Japan will not provide funds for a multilateral deal reached in February under which North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear arms program in return for energy aid.

N. Korea's frozen $20M on the move

2007-06-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 15, 2007.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Money at the heart of a dispute that caused North Korea to delay its nuclear disarmament was finally making its way Friday to the communist nation after months of delay.

The transfer of funds previously frozen in a Macau bank could lead North Korea to start shutting down its nuclear weapons program. But the North is certain to want to count every last penny of its $25 million before fulfilling a February pledge to stop making atomic bombs.

"The transfer is in progress," South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Chun Yung-woo, told reporters Friday. "Let's wait and see how long it takes for North Korea to confirm it."

Chun, arriving from Washington where he met his U.S. counterpart over the nuclear standoff, did not provide further details of the transfer. He said resolving the bank dispute constitutes "removing the first obstacle to implementing" the February disarmament deal.

"The future task of denuclearization is much more difficult than the (banking) issue," he said.

The money had been frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia since 2005, when the U.S. blacklisted the bank for allegedly helping the Pyongyang regime pass fake US$100 bills and launder money from weapons sales.

The North made the money's release its main condition for disarmament and boycotted international nuclear talks for more than a year, during which it conducted its first-ever bomb test in October.

But to win the North's promise to start dismantling its nuclear program, the U.S. agreed to give its blessing for the money to be freed and said it would happen within 30 days. The transfer has instead taken more than four months as the North insisted that it be sent electronically to another bank, apparently to prove the money is now clean.

Macau's secretary of economy and finance said Thursday the money has been transferred, but it remained unclear if it was the entire amount or whether it had reached its destination.

"Banco Delta Asia transferred more than $20 million out of the bank this afternoon in accordance with the client's instruction," Francis Tam told reporters on the sidelines of a business gathering.

North Korea could seize on any shortage of funds to hold off on disarmament. Since the latest nuclear standoff began in late 2002, Pyongyang has repeatedly displayed its profound lack of trust of the U.S. and blamed any sign of American hostility as a reason to stall arms talks.

The North did not yet comment on the transfer.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki on Friday pressed Pyongyang to take concrete action regardless of the fund issue.

"We strongly urge North Korea to carry out the measures they have committed to as early as possible regardless of the" bank issue, he said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso expressed skepticism that the money transfer would immediately resolve the deadlock, Kyodo News agency reported.

"Even though the fund transfer problem is resolved, North Korea could come up with more demands," Aso said. "There is no guarantee we can resume the six-party talks right away."

Negotiators from China, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and the two Koreas last all met for arms talks in March.

China taking on U.S. in cyber arms race

2007-06-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 14, 2007.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- China is seeking to unseat the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, a U.S. Air Force general leading a new push in this area said Wednesday.

"They're the only nation that has been quite that blatant about saying, 'We're looking to do that,"' 8th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Elder told reporters.

Elder is to head a new three-star cyber command being set up at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, already home to about 25,000 military personnel involved in everything from electronic warfare to network defense.

The command's focus is to control the cyber domain, critical to everything from communications to surveillance to infrastructure security.

"We have peer competitors right now in terms of doing computer network attack ... and I believe we're going to be able to ratchet up our capability," Elder said. "We're going to go way ahead."

The Defense Department said in its annual report on China's military power last month that China regarded computer network operations -- attacks, defense and exploitation -- as critical to achieving "electromagnetic dominance" early in a conflict.

China's People's Liberation Army has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, the Pentagon said.

China also was investing in electronic countermeasures and defenses against electronic attack, including infrared decoys, angle reflectors and false-target generators, it said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected the U.S. report as "brutal interference" in China's internal affairs and insisted Beijing's military preparations were purely defensive.

Elder described the bulk of current alleged Chinese cyber-operations as industrial espionage aimed at stealing trade secrets to save years of high-tech development.

He attributed the espionage to a mix of criminals, hackers and "nation-state" forces. Virtually all potential U.S. foes also were scanning U.S. networks for trade and defense secrets, he added.

"Everyone but North Korea," he said. "We've concluded that there must be only one laptop in all of North Korea -- and that guy's not allowed to scan overseas networks," Elder said.

In October, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff defined cyberspace as "characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures."

The definition is broad enough to cover far more than merely defending or attacking computer networks. Other concerns include remotely detonated roadside bombs in Iraq, interference with Global Positioning Satellites and satellite communications, Internet financial transactions by adversaries, and radar and navigational jamming.

India escapes U.S. list of worst human traffickers

2007-06-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 13, 2007.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- India, which advocacy groups say may have as many as 65 million forced laborers, was spared the worst ranking on the State Department's new list of nations where humans are bought and sold.

Countries not doing enough to combat human trafficking could face sanctions if they don't take steps to improve.

The annual Trafficking in Persons report, released Tuesday, says that as many as 800,000 people -- largely women and children -- are trafficked across borders each year. Many are forced into prostitution, sweatshops, domestic labor, farming and child armies.

U.S. officials told CNN the question of India's ranking caused a heated debate between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

Negroponte wanted India listed as a Tier 3 country, or worst offender. Rice overruled him out of concern about alienating the Indian government. India is on the Tier 2 watch list.

Rice agreed to undertake a special evaluation of India in six months, and then take action if India does not make improvements.

Mark Lagon, ambassador at large for the State Department's Trafficking in Persons office, said Tuesday that "many different variables" played into the decision.

"I would be perpetuating a fraud to say that we don't look at multiple factors in our relationship with countries any time we take a step on a particular issue like human trafficking," he said.

Worst offenders could face penalties.

The United States added Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and Bahrain to Tier 3 as countries that are destinations for trafficking victims who are exposed to sexual exploitation and forced labor. (Read the report).

Saudi Arabia, a nation considered friendly toward the United States, also is a Tier 3 country.

The State Department also lists Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela as Tier 3 countries, defined as those "whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards" set by American law and "are not making significant efforts to do so."

These countries have 90 days to take additional steps to combat trafficking or face penalties. Penalties could take the form of sanctions, including withholding of non-humanitarian and non-trade-related U.S. assistance and U.S. opposition to assistance through international financial institutions.

President Bush can waive sanctions if he deems it in the United States' interest.

The Bush administration has increased attention to the trafficking problem in recent years as a part of its focus on promoting democracy and human rights as the cornerstone of Bush's foreign policy agenda, specifically in the Middle East.

The United States, however, is not immune to the problem. The State Department estimates 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year.

Trafficking victims rescued in the United States are eligible for a special visa and help getting their passports back from their traffickers.

Other countries on the watch list.

The United States put several countries on notice that they risk being put on the Tier 3 list if they fail to take adequate steps to combat human trafficking. China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia were among 32 on a Tier 2 watch list, and under U.S. law will receive special scrutiny and be subject to an interim assessment before next year's report.

India was put on the watch list for the fourth year in a row "for its failure to show increasing efforts to tackle India's large and multidimensional problem," according to the report.

The report found while the Indian government was making significant efforts to combat trafficking, it "did not recognize the country's huge population of bonded laborers," which advocacy groups estimate to range from 20 million to 65 million.

The report also found efforts by Indian law enforcement agencies to punish traffickers "uneven and largely inadequate."

Rahul Chhabra, spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Washington, told CNN that the Indian government is reviewing the report.

The U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 mandated the State Department report as a way of combating human trafficking around the world and punishing those responsible.

Sudan accepts revised plan for joint Darfur force

2007-06-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Source: , June 12, 2007.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Sudan on Tuesday accepted a revised plan for a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force of between 17,000 to 19,000 troops in Darfur, a senior African Union official said.

African Union, United Nations and Sudanese officials held a two-day meeting to discuss a force whose deployment would mark the final phase of a three-stage U.N. plan to bolster a poorly equipped and underfunded force of 7,000 AU peacekeepers, which has been unable to end four years of death and destruction in Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to the package in November, but stalled acceptance of the first two phases and has since backtracked on his approval. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that al-Bashir told him he fully agreed to the proposed "hybrid" force but was adamant that all of the troops must come from Africa.

"In view of the explanation and clarification provided by the AU and the U.N. as contained in the presentation, the government of Sudan accepted the joint proposals on the hybrid operation," said Said Djinnit, the African Union's top peace and security official.

The decisions made Tuesday still have to be approved by the U.N. Security Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council, Djinnit said.

He was reading a joint African Union, U.N. and Sudan statement after the two-day meeting.

Sudan has not changed its position on the hybrid force, said Mutrif Siddig, a senior Sudanese Foreign Affairs Ministry official who attended the meeting in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa. The country has always demanded that the force be under African Union command and its members be Africans only, Siddig told journalists.

"It has been our stance from the beginning to have the hybrid operation. ... But we rejected the transfer of the African mission to the United Nations," Siddig said, referring to the overall command of the peacekeeping force.

"If African countries do not have enough troops or are not willing to contribute [to the force], in consultation with the Sudanese government, the United Nations and African Union, we are ready to recruit other countries according to our agreement," Siddig said.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, Security Council diplomats said they had been informed that Sudan's acceptance had conditions, including requiring all troops in the hybrid force to be Africans. That could make putting together a robust force difficult, if not impossible, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because there has been no public announcement.

"I'd like to see what the agreement is," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "If the agreement is unconditional support of the package, then we obviously would welcome that, because the letter we got yesterday was a little bit more of the same kind of pattern we have seen before of vagueness and lack of clarity."

"But if this is a clear, unconditional acceptance of the AU-U.N. concept it's welcome. Now we move to the implementation, which is another issue that has been there in the past, where there has been acceptance and then implementation has been a problem," Khalilzad said.

"The participants further agreed on the need for an immediate comprehensive cease-fire accompanied by an inclusive political process," Djinnit said, adding they called on countries to step up and quickly contribute troops and money toward the operation.

Djinnit said that there will be more discussions on the force's size and one factor will be whether there will be enough air transport to move the troops around Darfur.

Advertisers not wary of 'Genocide Olympics'

2007-06-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 13, 2007.

Despite a possible backlash against China for its investments in Sudan, some media buyers say marketers will still embrace next year's Olympics.

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Summer Olympic Games in Beijing are more than a year away. But a growing backlash against China's ties to the government of Sudan could have some major consequences for GE (Charts, Fortune 500) and its NBC Universal entertainment division, which will broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., as well as several high profile corporate sponsors.

Actress and human rights activist Mia Farrow, who also acts as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador, has been referring to next year's games as the "Genocide Olympics," due to the conflict in Dafrur that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

China has invested heavily in Sudan's oil industry and some have argued that the country has not exerted as much influence as it could to stop the violence in Darfur.

Farrow has urged people to contact sponsors of the Olympics to ask them to withhold their corporate support of the games until there is a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Darfur.

China's new cultural revolution

Members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate sent separate strongly worded letters to Chinese president Hu Jintao last month saying that unless the Chinese government steps up pressure on Sudan to curb the violence in Darfur, China risks tarnishing its image before the Olympics.

The letter from the House warned that the Olympics could be a "disaster" marred by protests.

And Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and Democratic presidential candidate, suggested in a debate with other candidates earlier this month that the U.S. might want to consider boycotting the Olympics if China doesn't do more to stop the bloodshed in Darfur.

A representative for NBC was not immediately available for comment about how a possible boycott or protests could affect the company. GE (Charts, Fortune 500) is also a sponsor of next summer's Olympics.

Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500), one of the top sponsors of the games, said in a statement e-mailed to CNNMoney.com that the company "has been sponsoring the Olympic Games since 1928 and believes that the ideals of the Olympic Movement of building a better world through sport, friendship and fair play are more relevant than ever. Our sponsorship allows these positive messages to reach a broader audience and inspire both athletes and spectators. The Coca-Cola Company does not have a role in the internal policy decisions of sovereign nations such as China and the Sudan."

Coca-Cola added that it recently gave $750,000 to the Red Cross and Red Crescent for humanitarian relief in Darfur and that the company has no direct foreign investment in Sudan and does not conduct business with the country's government.

Representatives for other big sponsors, including Lenovo and Visa and Eastman Kodak (Charts, Fortune 500), were not available for comment.

But a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Manulife (Charts), the insurance company that owns John Hancock and is also a Olympic sponsor, said in an e-mail with CNNMoney.com that the company has so far not received any calls or complaints about the company's involvement with the Olympics.

A spokesman for the U.S. subsidiary of Panasonic, another Olympics sponsor, said Panasonic, which is owned by Japanese consumer electronics giant Matsushita (Charts), had no comment about the controversy and referred CNNMoney.com to Ben Seeley, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Switzerland. Seeley was also not immediately available for comment.

The Olympics are a multi-million dollar marketing opportunity for sponsors, as the games tend to attract large worldwide audiences. And the stakes are particularly high for NBC, which just finished in fourth place in the ratings race for the third consecutive season, and is clearly in sore need of improved ratings.

Warren Buffett and Darfur

At last month's upfront presentation to media buyers and advertisers in New York, NBC spent a sizable chunk of time at the end of the event touting the Summer Games.

Yet, several media buyers said, that so far, the Sudan issue does not appear to be playing a major role in determining whether or not marketers want to buy commercial time during the Olympics.

"It's still a little early but I have not heard any concerns or backlash yet," said Andy Donchin, director of national broadcast with Carat USA, a media buying firm based in New York.

However, the possibility of more protests are something to keep an eye on.

"Politics and controversy are always a concern with the Olympics but at this point, it's sort of below the surface. I haven't heard of any specific advertisers that are worried about it because it's not top of mind yet," said Bill Carroll, a vice president and director of programming with Katz Television Group, a consulting and media buying firm based in New York.

That may change though.

"This is an issue that bears watching. Any time there is a negative dynamic associated with something as positive as the Olympics, it's one of many concerns that a network and advertisers could have," said John Rash, senior vice president and director of broadcast negotiations with Campbell Mithun, a media buying firm based in Minneapolis.

Carroll agreed, adding that if stories about China's association with Sudan becomes even more prevalent in the coming months, some advertisers might not be eager to have ties to an event referred to as the "Genocide Olympics."

NBC: No big comeback

"If China and Darfur becomes a more contentious situation then advertisers may want to avoid getting in the middle of it. Obviously, advertisers respond to their consumers. If there is a negative reaction to being an Olympics sponsor, advertisers will have to consider that," Carroll said.

But one sports marketing expert said some advertisers are still a little wary of becoming involved in the Olympics but not for political reasons.

John Rowady, president of rEvolution, a sports marketing and media company based in Chicago, said some of his firm's clients have expressed reluctance about the Olympics merely because China is a relatively new and untapped market for marketers.

So while some companies may not want to aggressively market in China itself, Rowady doesn't think fears of a backlash will effect domestic spending on advertising associated with the games.

"A lot of people are sitting on the fence to determine what their plans should be for the Olympics. Many companies may skip the Olympics just because they won't feel comfortable marketing in China just yet and not due to politics," he said. *.

Read FORTUNE's Chasing the Dragon blog about China.
Bush announces sanctions against Sudan.

Chad may allow peacekeepers on Sudan border

2007-06-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 12, 2007.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Chad may allow international peacekeeping troops to deploy along its border with Sudan to create safe passage for humanitarian aid to the war-torn Darfur region, the president of the African country said Tuesday.

President Idriss Deby said Chad was under intense international pressure to accept such a plan, but he wouldn't provide specifics nor confirm if he would allow U.N. troops to be deployed on Chad's border.

"Chad is a poor country, and it cannot stand up to the pressures by the world's major powers and the United Nations," Deby told reporters in Cairo after talks with the Arab League's top diplomats.

"In the past, we refused the international troops, but now the situation does not allow that, and if there will be further deterioration, we won't be able to resist," he said.

Deby said Arab and African countries have failed to put an end to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur, where more than 200,000 [400,000] people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of fighting between the government and regional rebels.

The Chadian president's comments come as a senior African Union official said after a meeting in Ethiopia that Sudan accepted a revised plan for a joint African Union and U.N. peacekeeping force of between 17,000 and 19,000 troops that would replace an ill-equipped and understaffed AU force currently deployed in Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a "hybrid" force in November but later backtracked on his approval. During a visit to Sudan on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that al-Bashir told him he fully agreed to the proposed "hybrid" force but was adamant that all of the troops must come from Africa.

As part of France's efforts to boost diplomatic efforts on Darfur, Paris has announced it plans to host an international conference on Darfur later this month that will bring together European countries along with Egypt, the United States and China, Sudan's key diplomatic ally.

The conference will focus on creating the safe passage so humanitarian aid can reach people in the western Sudan region, Arab diplomats in Cairo said, speaking on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Deby said the suggestion of the safe passage was made to him by Kouchner during his stop in Chad earlier this week.

But so far, Sudan has not agreed to attend the conference.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol has said that the timing was not right to attend and suggested that international initiatives be handled mainly by the United Nations and African Union.

Just for the record, there are rumors that the UN peacekeepers are worse than the AU.

North Korea test-fires missiles

2007-06-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN, June 8, 2007.

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea test-fired several short-range missiles Thursday off its west coast, South Korea's defense ministry officials told CNN.

The test comes nearly two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a short-range missile off its east coast.

Short-range missiles have an approximate range between 90 and 500 miles (150-800km), according to the U.S. State Department. (Whoopie. When is the last time they got anything right?)

After North Korea's May 25 missile test, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said "this is not unusual."

"From time to time, their military tests these short range missiles," Hill told reporters.

"It is obviously not anything that is ever going to contribute to their security, and we would prefer they spend their time figuring out how to denuclearize and how to join the international community. But this is not unusual."

Hill is the chief U.S. negotiator for talks on North Korea's nuclear program

CNN Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report.

The Iranian Tet Offensive

2007-06-16T01:09:00.000-07:00

It is 1968 all over again with a weakened presidency and growing public unrest with the direction of the World War III against Islam, so Iran opens the summer vacation season with its own version of the Tet Offensive.

Most commentators on the Hamas takeover of Gaza are missing the real story. They miss it for the same reason that they have missed the real story in Iraq. They miss it because they think they are looking at a civil war—Sunnis versus Shiites in Iraq, Hamas versus Fatah in Gaza—when the real story is a regional war, with Iran at its center.

The Islamist takeover of Gaza is really the first stage in Iran's new summer offensive against the West.

The Hamas takeover was not factional rivalry that spun out of control. It was clearly a deliberate, planned military campaign. In the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, for example, Hamas fighters destroyed the headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security forces by detonating a one-ton bomb buried in a tunnel under the building. This is more than a civil war: it is a carefully planned, well-executed revolutionary putsch against the Palestinian Authority.

What happened after the Hamas military victory is even more telling. Stories have been filtering out about Fatah supporters being rounded up into prison camps, of Fatah fighters being bound and thrown off of high-rise rooftops or subject to summary executions in the street. Having taken power by brute force, Hamas is making it clear that it intends to rule by fear. Summing up all of these events, a spokesman for Hamas declared, "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."

This should all be familiar. The same kind of "justice" and Islamic rule arrived in Iran in 1979—and now Iran has finally managed to export its Islamic Revolution into the Sunni Arab world. Gaza is now an outpost of Iranian-inspired totalitarian Islamic rule.

And there is a good possibility that this won't stop in Gaza. Fatah is a leftover of the old era of the quasi-secular nationalist Arab "strongman." But Fatah's strongman Yasser Arafat is dead, both literally and metaphorically: his type is losing out, in the Muslim world, to the revived Islamist movement represented by Hamas. One side in this conflict is tired and dispirited—while the other is fanatically devoted and believes that it has the forces of history on its side.

While jubilant Hamas fighters stormed the last remaining Fatah redoubts in Gaza, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas responded by calling for new elections. The overall sense coming from Fatah spokesmen is not one of defiance or resolve, but a sense of resignation and despair. "There is no future for us," one Fatah supporter told the New York Times, while a Palestinian Authority official concluded, “We Palestinians are writing the final chapters of our national enterprise.” It should be no surprise to hear that hundreds of Fatah officials have already fled to Egypt. Fatah is a sinking ship, and the rats who make up its crew are deserting it. At this rate, Fatah will ultimately lose, not only Gaza, but the West Bank as well.

Seeing Fatah thugs dragged into the streets and shot by a rival gang of terrorists may not cause us to shed any tears—it couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people—but we shouldn't be deceived into thinking of this as a purely internal, factional struggle. During the first Palestinian intifada, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most of the people killed by Palestinian terrorists were other Palestinians—those who were considered "collaborators" or advocates of peace with Israel. It was necessary for Arafat to eliminate all Palestinian opposition, so that he could take over the Palestinian territories (with our help, alas) and use them as a base from which to attack Israel.

This time, it is Iran—the main financial, military, and ideological sponsor of Hamas—that is seeking to take over. So, too, in Lebanon, where Iran's satellite, Syria, is also using factional fighting as an excuse to liquidate opposition—as in the latest assassination of an anti-Syrian politician. Syria seeks to break Lebanon between a new Sunni Islamist uprising in the north and the Shiite Islamist Hezbollah militia in the south—all with the goal of reasserting Syrian and Iranian control.

Add to this the continuing Iranian support for insurgents in Iraq and new evidence that Iran is providing weapons and training to the Taliban in Afghanistan—an act of war against the United States, not to mention the entire NATO alliance—and we can see the whole regional picture. In Lebanon, Iran has used Hezbollah to establish a base against Israel on the north, which is now matched by Gaza as a base against Israel on the South. Iraq is under siege from both sides, with Syrian and Iranian support pouring in to both Sunni and Shiite terrorist gangs—while Iran has now begun to strike out eastward against the US and NATO in Afghanistan.

In short, Iran is bent on regional domination, and it is advancing on all fronts.

This is exactly the picture that emerged during Iran's last summer offensive: Hezbollah's rocket war against Israel in July and August of last year. The only thing that has changed in our strategic position since then is that things have gotten worse: Iran has been emboldened to make further advances, while a Democratic victory in the US election has reassured Iran and Syria that America will eventually retreat and abandon the region to their control.

If we're not going to surrender to this Iranian onslaught—if we're not going to forget the lessons of September 11 and allow terrorist-sponsoring Islamist regimes to metastasize across the Middle East—we need to start fighting back immediately.

Tired, discredited, and possibly broken by his failures in Iraq, President Bush seems to have given up on providing any leadership against the Iranian threat. Fortunately, we still have Joe Lieberman, who has established himself as the only political figure willing to lead in this crisis by declaring that we should start an air war against Iran in retaliation for its acts of war against US troops in Iraq. What is really new in Lieberman's declaration is that he has proposed the use of military force against Iran, not as potential future measure to pre-empt Iran's nuclear weapons program, but as an immediate act of retaliation in response to the war Iran is already waging against us.

Our enemy in that war is already on the offensive in the farthest-flung corners of its would-be empire, from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas—but it is vulnerable at the center. There is still time for an air war against Iran itself, targeting terrorist training camps, nuclear facilities, assets of the Iranian Revolution Guard, and the gasoline supply lines that keep the Iranian economy moving, all with the aim of bringing down the regime.

It's that—or surrender the greater Middle East to a nuclear-armed Islamist empire headed by Iran.

Why President Bush Has Failed In The War

2007-06-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

It has become increasingly clear that the Bush approach to fighting what is de facto a Third World War between Islam and Western Civilization is a failure. The time has come for a new direction that promises victory -- a victory that can only be achieved by a massive and brutal application of total war.

The article below is a long read, but well worth the effort.

A Strategy for Security?

The attacks of 9/11 exposed the magnitude of the threats we face, and, ever since then, one question has become a depressing fixture of our lives: Are we safe? Scarcely two years ago, many Americans believed that our salvation was imminent, for the means of achieving our security was at hand; no longer would we have to live in dread of further catastrophic attacks. These people were swept up in euphoric hope inspired by the Bush administration’s new strategy in the Middle East. The strategy promised to deliver permanent security for our nation. It promised to eradicate the fundamental source of Islamic terrorism. It promised to make us safe.

The strategy’s premise was simple: “[T]he security of our nation,” President Bush explained, “depends on the advance of liberty in other nations”;1 we bring democracy to the Middle East, and thereby make ourselves safer. To many Americans, this sounded plausible: Western nations, such as ours, are peaceful, since they have no interest in waging war except in self-defense: Their prosperity depends on trade, not on conquest or plunder; the more such nations in the world, the better off we would be. Informally, Bush called this idea the “forward strategy for freedom.”2

By January 2005, an early milestone of this strategy was manifest to all. Seemingly every news outlet showed us the images of smiling Iraqis displaying their ink-stained fingers. They had just voted in the first elections in liberated Iraq. Those images, according to breathless pundits, symbolized a momentous development.

Commentators saw reason to believe Bush’s grandiose prediction of 2003, when he declared: “Iraqi democracy will succeed—and that success will send forth the news, from Damascus to Teheran—that freedom can be the future of every nation. The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.”3 At the summit of the Arab League in 2004, according to Reuters, Arab heads of state had “promised to promote democracy, expand popular participation in politics, and reinforce women’s rights and civil society.”4 By the spring of 2005, several Arab regimes had announced plans to hold popular elections.

Even confirmed opponents of Bush applauded the strategy. An editorial in the New York Times in March 2005, for example, declared that the “long-frozen political order seems to be cracking all over the Middle East.” The year so far had been full of “heartening surprises—each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing [chief among them being Iraq’s elections and the prospect of Egyptian parliamentary elections]. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances.”5 Senator Edward Kennedy (of all people) felt obliged to concede, albeit grudgingly, that “What’s taken place in a number of those [Middle Eastern] countries is enormously constructive,” adding that “It’s a reflection the president has been involved.”6

Washington pursued the forward strategy with messianic zeal. Iraq has had not just one, but several popular elections, as well as a referendum on a new constitution written by Iraqi leaders; with U.S. endorsement and prompting, the Palestinians held what international monitors declared were fair elections; and Egypt’s authoritarian regime, under pressure from Washington, allowed the first contested parliamentary elections in more than a decade. Elections were held as well in Lebanon (parliamentary) and Saudi Arabia (municipal). In sum, these developments seemed to indicate a salutary political awakening. The forward march toward “liberty in other nations” seemed irresistible and “the security of our nation,” inevitable.

But has the democracy crusade moved us toward peace and freedom in the Middle East—and greater security at home?

Consider three elections and their implications for the region.

The Complete Article at The Freedom Fighter's Journal

'Military plan against Iran is ready'

2007-06-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

This article has been reprinted from The Jerusalem Post. Go Sen. Joe! At least someone is watching...

By YAAKOV KATZ

Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power.

Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to "go nuclear."

A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.

Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities.

On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its support of Iraqi insurgents.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

According to a high-ranking American military officer, the US Navy and Air Force would play the primary roles in any military action taken against Iran. One idea under consideration is a naval blockade designed to cut off Iran's oil exports.

The officer said that if the US government or the UN Security Council decided on this course of action, the US Navy would most probably not block the Strait of Hormuz - a step that would definitely draw an Iranian military response - but would patrol farther out and turn away tankers on their way to load oil.

On Sunday, the Israel Air Force held joint exercises with visiting US pilots, but IDF sources dismissed speculation that the drills were connected to an attack on Iran.

The US officer said that perhaps even more dangerous to Israel and the Western world than Iranian nukes was the possibility that a terrorists cell associated with al-Qaida or global jihad would acquire a highly radioactive "dirty bomb" or a vial of deadly chemical or biological agents. The officer said al-Qaida was gaining a strong foothold in the Middle East and that Israel was being surrounded by global jihad elements in Lebanon, Jordan and Sinai.

"Iran is a state-sponsored type of terrorism that can be dealt with," he said, adding that it was far more difficult to strike at the source of an isolated terrorist cell.

To combat this threat, the US Navy has come up with a plan for a "1,000-ship navy" - a transnational network composed of navies from around the world that would raise awareness of maritime threats and more effectively thwart sea-based terrorism and the illicit transfer of arms by sea.

"The idea is to allow free trade and to prevent criminal and terror activity at sea," the officer said.

A smaller-scale example of the US Navy's vision is NATO's Active Endeavor antiterrorism operation based in Naples. Israel plans to send an officer to be stationed there in the coming months. NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of Mediterranean countries to work together in Naples to share information on naval terrorism and suspicious vessels in the region.

Sarkozy leads first election round

2007-06-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

By BREITBART.com.
Jun 10, 2007.

Voters in France have resoundingly endorsed President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to overhaul the French economy, giving his party a commanding lead in the first round of elections for parliament.

Mr Sarkozy's UMP party won 39.6% of the vote, while the opposition Socialists had 24.7%, the Interior Ministry said.

Mr Sarkozy's conservatives have a strong advantage heading into the decisive runoff next Sunday, on track to expand their absolute majority in the 577-seat parliament.

Control of the National Assembly is central to Mr Sarkozy's agenda of tax cuts, labour reforms, and other plans to try to shake France out of its malaise.

The election sapped support from the fringes -- including Jean-Marie Le Pen's once-influential extreme right National Front and the Socialists' farther-left allies -- and leaves France facing a parliament tilted unusually deeply to the right.

Turnout sank to a record low of 60.4%, which pollsters blamed on lack of suspense.

The UMP has been widely expected to win since Mr Sarkozy's strong victory over Socialist Segolene Royal in the president election last month.

Socialists tried to rally backing for the second round -- and tap fears of an all-powerful "Sarko state" if the president's camp gets a lopsided majority.

"There are crushing majorities that crush, dominant parties that dominate, absolute powers that govern absolutely," Socialist leader Francois Hollande warned.

Mr Sarkozy's backers say a convincing mandate is the only way to get the French, eager to strike and wary of globalisation, to reform.

Operation Thanks for Freedom!

2007-06-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Help collect cards, e-mails, etc, to send to the troops for the Fourth of July. Details at DoD Daily News-2. This will remain up until June 9, 2007. Have a blessed day.

Rep. Jefferson indicted in bribery probe

2007-06-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Source: By Lara Jakes Jordan and Matthew Barakat, Associated Press Writers.

WASHINGTON - Louisiana congressman William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) received more than $500,000 in bribes and sought millions more in nearly a dozen separate schemes to enrich himself by using his office to broker business deals in Africa, according to a federal indictment Monday.

The charges came almost two years after investigators raided Jefferson's home in Washington and found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer.

The indictment lists 16 counts, including racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 235 years.

He is the first U.S. official to face charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits corporate bribery overseas.

Jefferson, through his lawyer, claimed innocence. He will be arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

The schemes were complicated and Jefferson set up front companies to hide the money and disburse it to family members, prosecutors said.

"But the essence of the charges are really very simple: Mr. Jefferson corruptly traded on his good office and on the Congress," said Chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. attorney in Alexandria.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) is expected to push this week for Jefferson to be stripped of his seat on the Small Business Committee, according to a leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

"If these charges are proven true, they constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats are committed to upholding a high ethical standard and eliminating corruption and unethical behavior from the Congress."

House Republican Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) of Ohio said Jefferson should be expelled from Congress if he is found guilty and refuses to resign.

Jefferson, 60, whose congressional district includes New Orleans, has said little about the case publicly. He was re-elected last year despite the investigation.

His lawyer, Robert Trout, on Monday called the indictment "lengthy and creative" and accused prosecutors of "trying to create an offense."

"Even after they turned over every rock, they did not allege in this indictment that (Jefferson) promised anybody any legislation. There is no suggestion that he promised anyone any appropriations. There were no earmarks. There were no government contracts," Trout said during a news conference in Los Angeles.

Trout also said Jefferson has no intention of seeking a plea bargain. "He's obviously not happy about being indicted, but he's confident that when the facts are known he will be vindicated," Trout said about his client. "He is committed, he is confident and he is ready to fight."

Two of Jefferson's associates have struck plea bargains with prosecutors and have been sentenced.

Brett Pfeffer, a former congressional aide, admitted soliciting bribes on Jefferson's behalf and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Another Jefferson associate, Louisville, Ky., telecommunications executive Vernon Jackson, pleaded guilty to paying between $400,000 and $1 million in bribes to Jefferson in exchange for his assistance securing business deals in Nigeria and other African nations. Jackson was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Both Pfeffer and Jackson agreed to cooperate in the case against Jefferson.

The impact of the case has stretched across continents and even roiled presidential politics in Nigeria. According to court records, Jefferson told associates he needed cash to pay bribes to the country's vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

Abubakar denied the allegations, which figured prominently in that country's presidential elections in April. He ran for the presidency and finished third.

In Lagos, Nigeria, Abubakar spokesman Garba Shehu said the former vice president "has always denied wrongdoing in the matter."

"He has only had official interaction with the congressman, who the vice president felt deserved a hearing because he was a ranking member of the U.S. Congress," Shehu said. "The vice president was in no way cited in this thing, so we feel vindicated."

While Abubakar is not cited by name, the indictment refers to "Nigerian Official A," a high-ranking official in Nigeria's executive branch who had a spouse in Potomac, Md. One of Abubakar's wives, Jennifer Douglas, lived in that Washington suburb. A search warrant for the Potomac home, combined with the indictment, makes clear that Abubakar is the unnamed Nigerian official.

As co-chair of a congressional caucus dedicated to African investment and trade, Jefferson was ideally positioned to influence business contracts with African governments. The indictment said Jefferson would meet with African officials and write official letters on behalf of businesses that agreed to provide kickbacks.

Court records indicate Jefferson was videotaped taking a $100,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant who felt the congressman and another businessman had bilked her out of millions. Most of that money later turned up in the freezer in Jefferson's home.

In May 2006, the FBI raided Jefferson's congressional office, the first such raid on a congressman's Capitol office. That move sparked a constitutional debate over whether the executive branch had stepped over a boundary.

The raid's legality is still being argued on appeal. House leaders objected to the search, saying it was an unconstitutional intrusion on the lawmaking process. The FBI said the raid was necessary because Jefferson and his legal team had failed to respond to requests for documents.

Some but not all the documents seized in the raid have been turned over Justice Department prosecutors.

Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher said the documents helped bring the case against Jefferson. "Some of those documents that we were able to obtain through the process have indeed supported the charges that are presented today," Fisher said.

Associated Press writers Michael Blood in Los Angeles, Laurie Kellman in Washington and Edward Harris in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

C.P.B.’S ‘Rosa Parks’ Treatment

2007-06-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

This one took a little time for me around to due to the fact there was so much news coming out about terrorists, captures, illegal aliens, etc. I am finally getting around to posting it. It was sent to me by Bryan Hill, and it was written by Frank Gaffney. The rest of this article was written by Frank. Have a great day.

In land of war criminals, Liberia divided on Taylor trial

2007-06-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- Ex-President Charles Taylor's men were known for eating the hearts of their slain enemies. They decorated checkpoints with human entrails. They sliced open the stomachs of pregnant women, taking bets on the sex of the unborn child.

But as the toppled Liberian ruler heads to an international war crimes court in the Hague on Monday, his supporters are erecting billboards in the capital showing him waving triumphantly next to the words: "God willing, I shall return."

The long-awaited trial of the man accused of orchestrating acts of horror would seem to be a time of celebration in the country that witnessed many of his alleged crimes.

Instead, the mood is one of outrage on the part of his former associates, who have launched a pro-Taylor Web site and have arranged for the shiny billboards to be shipped in from Europe. In their homes, they proudly display Taylor's portrait. His family is renovating his war-scarred residence, as if in anticipation of his swift return.

Although plenty of Liberians say they are relieved to see the 59-year-old Taylor face justice, many say they just want to move on. Their ambivalence -- even indifference -- underlines the country's complicated relationship to Taylor, as well as the nation's history of violence, a cycle of bloodshed and revenge that has left few untouched.

"If you start prosecuting war crimes in Liberia, you'll prosecute every Liberian," says ex-child soldier Paul Tolbert, 28.

From 1989 to 1997, Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, whose aim was to unseat then-President Samuel K. Doe. Taylor is believed to be one of the first warlords to recruit children, who were organized into a Small Boys Unit and christened with names like Babykiller.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the first eight years of the 14-year war, but one of Liberia's great paradoxes is that in 1997, Taylor won a landslide victory in an election international observers deemed free and fair. One of the slogans chanted by those going to vote for him was: "He killed my ma. He killed my pa. I'll vote for him anyway!"

Some say he won because Liberians feared what he would do if he didn't. Even with Taylor at the helm, fighting continued through 2003, when he was forced into exile. He was turned over to the U.N.-backed court three years later.

Books have been written about Taylor's alleged atrocities in Liberia, but one of the ironies of the current trial is that he has been indicted for war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The murders, rapes and amputations there were carried out not by Taylor's men, but by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front. Taylor allegedly backed the Sierra Leonean group, which was trying to overthrow the Sierra Leonean government.

To the international community, the trial is a watershed, marking the first time an African president is being forced to account for the chaos he allegedly sowed not just in his own country, but throughout the region.

Siblings, senators alleged to have dirty hands

After the war, Liberians chose not to establish a war crimes court on their soil, opting instead for a truth and reconciliation process which allows victims to tell their stories but does not have the power to punish perpetrators.

Because of the tangled nature of the war -- where in a single family it's not uncommon to find both a daughter that was raped and a son that was enlisted to rape somebody else's daughter -- many say they would rather just move on.

The desire to forget has allowed known war criminals to reinvent themselves. There's Gen. Peanut Butter, the nom-de-guerre of Adolphus Dolo, now a senator and a former Taylor commander, whose platoon is accused by rights groups of having thrown more than 100 people into a river, their hands tied behind their backs.

Prince Johnson, another senator, videotaped himself as he instructed his men to cut off Doe's ears -- a videotape still widely available at roadside stalls.

"They say that in order to kill a snake, you have to cut off its head. So maybe Taylor is the head," says Reginald Goodridge, Taylor's former information minister and one of 28 Liberians on a U.N. travel ban because of his close association with the ex-ruler. "But our Congress is full of war criminals. What about them?"

It's an argument frequently invoked by Taylor's family, who say Taylor was not in control of those that carried out the crimes.

"He's taking the blame for what others did," says 25-year-old Charen Taylor, his daughter who grew up in the United States and dropped out of college to help organize her father's defense.

On a gold chain around her neck, she keeps a portrait of Taylor which she routinely cradles protectively in her hands. Her father doesn't approve of tattoos, but she has one: the Chinese character for "Beloved Daughter" on her left shoulder.

Not all Liberians see Taylor as a beloved father, but even his victims express ambivalence about the trial.

On a soccer field not far from where a pro-Taylor billboard faces traffic, a team of one-legged amputees vie for the ball, vaulting on crutches across the sandy turf. There are six one-legged teams in Liberia and several more in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Many of the maimed players were child soldiers fighting on opposite sides of the conflict and their coach has forbidden them from discussing politics in an effort to bury the past.

"Taylor? We're here to forget that name. I've taken it out of my mind," says Tolbert, their coach, who was 10 in 1990 when he joined the Small Boys Unit.

By 15, he'd become General Devil, reportedly one of Taylor's youngest and most feared commanders, in charge of a platoon of 2,000 fighters known as the Evil Forces. They wore wigs and women's dresses when they headed into battle, a technique meant to frighten the enemy. He routinely ate the hearts of his victims, a ritual adopted by Taylor's rebels which was said to impart the dead man's strength.

He cannot keep track of how many people he killed, nor how many women he raped. He doesn't see the point in prosecuting Taylor.

"We're all dirty," he says. "None of us have clean hands."

Photo: From 1989 to 1997, Charles Taylor -- seen here in 1990 -- led the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, aimed at unseating then-President Samuel K. Doe.

Burma Detains Opposition AIDS Activist

2007-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Written by: RFA.

BANGKOK—Burmese authorities in the former capital Rangoon have detained an opposition activist and outspoken critic of the junta’s AIDS policies, the woman’s family has told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Five male and two female police officers who identified themselves as belonging to the Ministry of Home Affairs took Phyu Phyu Thinn, 35, into custody at her home in Rangoon around 8:15 p.m. on May 21, after assuring her mother they would bring her home at midnight, her relatives said.

The family has received no information about her since, they told RFA’s Burmese service. The officers said she was “wanted by higher authorities,”

the family said. Phyu Phyu Thinn, who suffers from asthma, brought one change of clothing with her, they said.

Authorities may have pegged her as the architect of a plan to organize mass prayers for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was ultimately extended May 25, they said.

“They said they wanted to question Ma Phyu Phyu Thinn, seven of them, and they took her away,” her mother, Daw Khin Shwe, said.

Officials in Rangoon couldn’t be reached to comment.

Activist and AIDS carer

Phyu Phyu Thinn has volunteered with Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) in caring for HIV and AIDS patients since 2002 at her home in Rangoon ’s Dagon township, her family said.

She was previously detained for four months while traveling with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2000.

In January, Phyu Phyu Thinn publicly complained that Rangoon facilities treating HIV/AIDS patients had stopped providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for new patients because supplies were exhausted.

In an interview before her detention, Phyu Phyu Thinn suggested that mortality among AIDS patients in Burma could be far higher than the official tally—and climbing since NGO clinics had stopped giving out ARVs.

“Currently, we are sending many patients to hospitals and clinics. We are constantly in touch with the patients,” Phyu Phyu Thinn said May 15. “When patients learned that they weren’t getting more ARVs, many people became discouraged and died.”

Throughout Burma , she said, “we know that the death rate from this disease is high.”

“ARV medication is no longer distributed in NGO clinics. Because of that, we are seeing an increase in the number of deaths…People don’t know that there are medicines like these, and they don’t know how to treat [this disease] either,” she said. “We find in some places that they are treating it with Burmese herbal medicines. When it is treated this way, not only is it ineffective, they spend a lot of money, and it endangers their lives.”

“We can’t reduce the death rate with such little help. Many people still need ARV medicines that can control HIV. Until these medicines can be put directly into the hands of patients throughout the country, the death rate will be high.”

The ruling junta doesn’t keep a record of AIDS deaths, she said, suggesting mortality may be far higher than reported.

“For some, when they die at home, on the death certificates, they list all kinds of other diseases but do not mention that it is from HIV/AIDS. In some regions, there are many who didn’t go to the hospitals or clinics. They didn’t know they had HIV/AIDS and so they died from it. Actually, the authorities should be working on it systematically—what is the rate of those dying from HIV and the cause of death? They’re not doing these things…There are no instructions, and they don’t want people to know about it, so they are not paying attention to this matter. Whatever the cause of death is, they just leave it be.”

Prison steeled her, sisters say

Phyu Phyu Thinn’s younger sister, Ma Sabeh Oo, said her sister’s previous detention turned her into an activist. “In the year 2000, she traveled with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, there was some commotion, and she was arrested and put in prison.”

“In prison, she saw the opposition government. She realized that everyone had sacrificed for this work. She saw many people in prison like that. It outraged her, and she made a decision right there in prison that she would become involved in politics. She was imprisoned for more than four months. Then she was released. She began to do this work after her release.”

Phyu Phyu Thinn attended HIV and AIDS training sessions run by the NLD and by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and then she began working in rural areas.

“She took the patients to their clinics. She knows how to take care of them and encourage them, and that’s how it got started,” Ma Sabeh Oo said.

Her older sister, Ma San San Oo, said Phyu Phyu Thinn tried to demonstrate non-discrimination against HIV and AIDS patients.

“She lived by example and corrected our misconceptions. She worked well with all her mind and might. When she’s taking care of patients, she’s not like ordinary people. She doesn’t shrink from the patients. Some patients had sores. We told her, ‘You’re going to become infected,’ but she said, ‘No, we need to be close to the patients. Only then, will they understand us, and it’ll be easier to treat them.’”

“When these patients first came to our house and ate their meals with us, we felt uncomfortable. Later, we got used to it, and we forgot that they were patients. Before she left for work, there’d already be about 10 or 15 at our house. At first when eating, we’d like to clear away the things. Later, after seeing her, we mingled with them and ate and drank together,” Ma San San Oo said.

Patients at a loss

“For me as well as for other patients, we are all in trouble because of Ma Phyu’s arrest,” said HIV patient Ma Aye, from Kyauk Badaung.

“We have not received our medicines, which she administers. Emotionally, we are very discouraged because she’s not around. All of our other patients are sad and crying. We don’t know what to do.”

Intimidation, poor treatment

Opposition activists have accused the junta of intimidating HIV/AIDS patients and their supporters.

And while Burma has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Asia , estimated at 1.2 percent of adults, fears that aid money could be misdirected by the secretive junta has left donors reluctant to contribute proportionately.

An estimated 339,000 people were infected with HIV at the end of 2004, according to the military government’s National AIDS Program—nearly double the estimated 177,279 cases reported at the end of March 2002.

In the last three years, the junta has opened up to about 30 international agencies working to fight the disease, but their activities remain limited.

Volunteers say the junta’s attitude toward HIV prevention has improved recently, after officials denied its rapid spread throughout the 1990s.

Original reporting by May Pyone Aun for RFA’s Burmese service. Edited by Khin May Zaw. Service director: Nancy Shwe. Produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news alerts, send an e-mail to Leave RFA. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to Join RFA.

Blair to G8: Keep African promises

2007-05-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday urged rich nations to keep their promises of financial aid to Africa, saying failure to do so could threaten the continent's march toward prosperity and democracy.

In a keynote speech in Johannesburg on the final leg of his farewell African tour as Britain's leader, Blair also said that Africa's leaders must get tough on authoritarian governments, such as those in Sudan and Zimbabwe.

"Wealthy nations and Africa both face a choice ... Our challenge is to support the good. Africa's challenge is to eliminate the bad," Blair said in the speech.

"Next week at the G8 (Group of Eight) Summit, leaders will show whether, having put Africa at the top of the global agenda, we have the perseverance and vision to see it through. I hope we have," the outgoing British leader said.

Blair's visit came on the eve of the G8 summit scheduled for Germany, during which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to press rich nations to fulfil aid pledges to Africa under a 2005 Blair initiative.

"We need each G8 to be bolder on Africa than the last," Blair said. "If we give up, we will lose the chance in this continent, rich as it is though its people are often poor, for our values to take root."

He said initiatives such as the new Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, which will provide matching funds for commercially sustainable African business projects, showed that Africa and the West could be partners in development.

Mandela and Mbeki

Due to hand over power to finance minister Gordon Brown on June 27, Blair is using the trip to build momentum for the summit, which will focus on the world's poorest continent and push for a world trade deal.

He visited Libya and Sierra Leone before traveling to South Africa, where he will bid farewell to former South African President Nelson Mandela and meet current leader Thabo Mbeki.

Pushing the United States and other Western nations to meet their pledges of financial aid, trade support and assistance on peacekeeping and conflict resolution is a key part of the Blair agenda in his final weeks in office, as is the need for a global deal to fight climate change.

But Blair is also underscoring what he says is the need to pressure Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government, which has been criticized in the West for a violent crackdown on political opponents.

Mbeki is overseeing efforts to bring Mugabe and his opponents in Zimbabwe to the bargaining table ahead of elections in the southern African nation scheduled for next year, and Blair said this effort needed to bear fruit quickly.

"African governments should also hold other African governments to account," Blair said.

"The world is waiting, wanting to re-engage with a reforming Zimbabwe government ... but for the people of Zimbabwe, this is urgent, and change before the 2008 elections essential."

Blair said Sudan, where the United States has accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of pursuing genocide in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, was another opportunity for Africa to show it stood on the side of peace and justice.

"We have to offer President Bashir a choice. Engage with us on a solution. Or, if you reject responsibility for the people of Darfur, then we will table and put to a vote sanctions on the regime."

Blair acknowledged some people were growing cynical over repeated -- and often only partially fulfilled -- pledges of Western help for Africa, but said he was convinced the policy needed to be enhanced not questioned.

"The fact that we don't get it all doesn't mean that we got nothing," he said. "We've got to make the case in the developed world that in the end this is in our own self-interest as well. This is not about charity."

Tibetan Abbot Forced To Step Down

2007-05-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Written by: Radio Free Asia.

WASHINGTON — The head of a large Buddhist monastery in Chinese-run Tibet has been forced to step down after he refused to sign documents condemning the Dalai Lama, the monk and a local official have told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

“I spoke out loudly and refused to sign. I declared that I will not sign even at the cost my life, or risk of imprisonment, [or] death in a court,” Khenpo Tsanor, 70, the head of Dungkyab monastery in Gade county [in Chinese, Gande] in Golog Tibetan Prefecture, Qinghai province, told RFA’s Tibetan service. He said he officially stepped down in mid-May.

“I saw the government documents… It was written that the Dalai Lama should be thoroughly criticized and his splittist behavior should be condemned,” he said.

“I had no intention to sign. I knew very well that all who do not sign have to face trial in a Chinese court. They even threatened that the monastery would be shut down if we did not sign documents” from county officials as part of a religious and patriotic re-education campaign, he said.

“Some county officials came to the monastery [and] asked me whether I will agree to step down from the position of chief abbot,” he said. “I agreed since I didn't have the option of not accepting it.”

“It is so difficult for me to sit in such painful meetings,” he said, referring to mandatory sessions with officials aiming to quash support for the Tibetan exile leader, the Dalai Lama.

Officials at the Gande religious affairs department declined to comment on several occasions. But another Gande county official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Khenpo Tsanor’s account.

The official also said county authorities were in the process of stepping up their patriotic re-education campaign and aiming to make Dungkyab a “model” monastery comprising only monks loyal to China .

“People are saying that the Dungkyab monks have refused to endorse the documents of the patriotic re-education campaign. This year I think the issue was discussed and it was decided to terminate his position,” the county official said.

“It is well known that all monasteries under China must be converted into ‘model monasteries,’” which comply with government directives, the official said. “From the government’s perspective, many monasteries must be evaluated and brought into compliance, although I don’t know all the details.”

Dungkyab monastery, some 12 miles (20 kms) from the Gande county seat, was established by the renowned Buddhist teacher Kyabje Wangchen Khenrab Dorje in 1837. It currently houses more than 200 monks, in addition to another 130 monks recruited by the Chinese authorities, according to local sources.

The Dalai Lama fled the region after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. China has said the Dalai Lama will play no role in Tibet ’s future. China ’s People’s Liberation Army troops marched into Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama has accused Beijing of implementing policies of “cultural genocide” against the region and its Buddhist heritage.

In March, monks at the large and important Labrang monastery in central Gansu province alleged that their religious teaching and practice was facing ever-tighter Chinese curbs.

Though Chinese law permits freedom of religious faith and practice, one monk said, Chinese authorities force Labrang monks to make statements denouncing Tibet ’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The U.S. State Department, in its just-released 2006 report on human rights worldwide, said Chinese government officials have “closely associated Buddhist monasteries with pro-independence activism in Tibetan areas of China .”

“The level of repression in Tibetan areas remained high [during the year],” the State Department said in its report, “and the government’s record of respect for religious freedom remained poor.”

Original reporting by Chakmo Tso for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translation by Karma Dorjee. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news alerts, send an e-mail to Leave RFA. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to Join RFA. #####

Your e-mails: Will U.S. sanctions on Sudan work?

2007-05-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

(CNN) -- President Bush imposed new sanctions this week against the Sudanese government for its refusal to stop violence against civilians in Darfur. The sanctions are aimed at 31 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government, banning them from doing business with the United States or U.S. companies.

CNN.com asked readers if they think that economic sanctions can help end the crisis in Darfur, and what responsibility, if any, the United States has to end the violence. Below is a selection of those responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:

Haytham Mohamed of Khartoum, Sudan.
As far as I know, thousands of Sudanese incomes depend on these 31 companies regardless of the political situation in Darfur.

Sanctions might be a good weapon by adding more suffering and hunger to Sudanese people, but now it is like the U.S. government is saying ,"Equity in Sudan means that all people of Sudan must live an equal way of living, they should all be starving and leave Sudan."

Instead of increasing the number of people who are suffering in Sudan, please Mr. Bush be more creative and find a better way.

Dorothy Rich of Norwalk, Connecticut.
We say "never again" and then it happens again. Colin Powell visited the Darfur area of Sudan and had the courage to state the truth about what is happening there: genocide. All countries, including the U.S., have a responsibility to do what they can to stop the slaughter and other human rights abuses by the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government. China, especially, needs to be pressured to stop investing in Sudanese oil. The Sudanese government must accept the intervention of U.N. and African Union forces.

Roman Soiko of Plainsboro, New Jersey.
President Bush has been completely and seemingly intractably ambivalent about the horrors, the reprehensible and completely unfathomable horrors that are commonplace, and occur with impunity in Darfur.

It is high time that Bush expanded his net, and force all companies who do business with Sudan, no matter how infinitesimal their portfolio is in that country, and should place economic sanctions on any country that colludes with Sudan and send in NATO, U.N., AU peacekeeper forces immediately and without ambivalence or hesitation.

Harry Stone of Raleigh, North Carolina.
I was listening to Bush about Darfur. Why does he stick his nose in it? That's why we are short of money and troops and so many soldiers have died because he simply believes his way is the right way. I believe in helping anyone who needs it, but my family comes first.

Dana Crumbliss of Fort Worth, Texas.
I believe it is absolutely crucial that the U.S. becomes much more involved in putting an end to the horrific crimes continuing in Darfur. The passivity of the world is shameful, and we are looked to as leaders whether we like it or not. Kofi Annan said it best: We have yet to summon the collective sense of urgency this issue requires.

Chris Lafargue of San Antonio, Texas.
Why do we always have to help other countries? Most of them hate us to begin with and the only time they want us around is when they need us to help them. It should be the responsibility of the government of the country in trouble to take care of its own people, not us. Also if all off these rich celebrities are so concerned for Darfur, why don't they donate their money to help?

Jose Antonio Goncero of Quezon City, Philippines.
I believe that the economic sanctions will only make things worse. The U.S. is not only depriving the Sudanese government business but also putting its ordinary people into deeper anguish.

Aimee Imlay of Lakeside, California.
I applaud the president for imposing sanctions against the Sudanese government; it demonstrates concern on behalf of the U.S. Unfortunately, the sanctions are far too late, as hundreds of thousands of people have already died. I am not sure if the sanctions will "work," but I imagine that they will not. I think that the U.S. and the entire Western world both have a responsibility to end this crisis in Darfur. The U.S., claiming to be interested in implementing democracy in places in need, should examine the Darfur crisis and give substantial consideration to ending the violence, regardless of strategic interests such as economic and logistical opportunities. In a time with an emerging global economy, people should consider taking care of their fellow global citizens, regardless of country lines, cultural and religious differences.

Michelle Blake of Hillside, New Jersey.
I don't think that sanctions will stop the violence in Darfur. It is a start. However, it is not enough. I don't think the Sudanese care so much about doing business with the U.S. than it cares about its cause. If we can send troops to Iraq to fight a senseless war, surely we can spare troops to help the people in Darfur. At least we would know what our purpose was.

V. Fleming of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
I believe generations of people now and generations to come just don't want to care. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are being destroyed in innumerable ways. The slaughter of people, young and old, the rape of women and young girls and the use of young children as soldiers continue. It's as if Africa and its people aren't important enough for the rest of mankind to care. And it's not just the ordinary people that carry this attitude. Leaders of many nations do nothing more than give the Darfur crisis lip service of the poorest magnitude. How long will we have to witness yet another wholesale slaughter of innocent lives? What has to happen for the world to react to yet another holocaust? Do we have time to save Darfur?

Photo: An aerial view shows typical huts in the western Darfur town of Mukjar, Sudan.

3,000 Darfur refugees make 10-day trek through bush

2007-05-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

BANGUI, Central African Republic (Reuters) -- An estimated 3,000 Sudanese refugees driven from their homes by fighting in Darfur trekked for 10 days through the bush to seek shelter in Central African Republic, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

The refugees told a U.N. team in the northeastern town of Sam-Ouandja, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Sudanese border, that a ground and air attack had forced all 15,000 inhabitants of the southern Darfur town of Dafak to flee their homes.

Most of them headed south within Sudan, but some fled westward into Central African Republic, an arduous journey of more than 125 miles (200 kilometers) following a track accessible only on foot or by horse.

Their flight was the latest evidence that the conflict in Darfur, where a war pitting rebels against Sudan's army and allied militias has raged since 2003, is pushing refugees into neighboring states like Chad and Central African Republic.

"So far we have registered 1,411 refugees and more of them are arriving every day," said Bruno Geddo, country representative for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, who led a U.N. mission on Monday to Sam-Ouandja in the isolated north-east.

"We are working on an estimate of 3,000 [refugees] at the moment," he told Reuters.

Although initial news reports suggested the groups were armed and could include Chadian rebels, Geddo said the U.N. team had found no evidence of either weapons or Chadian nationals.

The town of Sam-Ouandja was attacked in March and November by insurgents trying to topple Central African President Francois Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup before legitimizing his rule at the ballot box two years later.

Geddo said the town's inhabitants were unable to cope with the influx of Sudanese refugees, who were currently relying on mangoes picked from the bush for food.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF estimated last month that a quarter of the 4 million people in Central African Republic -- the world's sixth poorest country -- are suffering the effects of internal violence or the spill over from conflicts in neighboring Sudan and Chad.

Photo: Conflict in Darfur is pushing Sudanese refugees into neighboring states like Chad and Central African Republic. These refugees left Darfur in September 2004.

In Darfur camp, women recount rapes, suffering

2007-05-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

KALMA, Sudan (AP) -- The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gang-raped, beaten and robbed.

Naked and devastated, they fled back to Kalma.

"All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They're killing my baby, they're killing my baby," wailed Aisha, who was seven months pregnant at the time.

The women have no doubt who attacked them. They say the men's camels and their uniforms marked them as janjaweed -- the Arab militiamen accused of terrorizing the mostly black African villagers of Sudan's Darfur region.

Their story, told to an Associated Press reporter and confirmed by other women and aid workers in the camp, provides a glimpse into the hell that Darfur has become as the Arab-dominated government battles a rebellion stoked by a history of discrimination and neglect.

Now in its fourth year, the conflict has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and rape is its regular byproduct, U.N. and other human rights activists say.

Sudan's government denies arming and unleashing the janjaweed, and bristles at the charges of rape, saying its conservative Islamic society would never tolerate it.

It has agreed to let in 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, but not the 22,000 mandated by the U.N. Security Council. It claims the force would be a spearhead for anti-Arab powers bent on plundering Sudan's oil.

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 civilians have died and 2.5 million are homeless out of Darfur's population of 6 million, the U.N. says, and a February report by the International Criminal Court alleges "mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict."

Stigma of sexual assault

Kalma is a microcosm of the misery -- a sprawling camp of mud huts and scrap-plastic tents where 100,000 people have taken refuge. It is so full of guns that overwhelmed African Union peacekeepers long ago fled, unable to protect it. It is so crowded that the government has tried to limit newcomers -- forbidding the building of new latrines, so a stench pervades the air.

Anyone venturing outside must reckon with the janjaweed, as Aisha and her friends found out.

In Sudan, as in many Islamic countries, society views a sexual assault as a dishonor upon the woman's entire family. "Victims can face terrible ostracism," says Maha Muna, the U.N. coordinator on this issue in Sudan.

Some aid workers believe the janjaweed use rape to intimidate the rebels, and their supporters and families. "It's a strategy of war," Muna said in an interview earlier this year in Khartoum, the capital.

Sudan's government is especially sensitive about such accusations and denies rape is widespread.
Sudanese public opinion would view mass rape much more severely than other crimes alleged in Darfur, said a senior Sudanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from his superiors.

He acknowledged the janjaweed had initially received weapons from the government -- something the government officially denies -- and said authorities now are struggling to rein in the militias.

Nasser Kambal, a prominent human rights activist and co-founder of the Amel center, a Sudanese group helping victims of rape and other abuse, offers a similar view.

"I don't think raping was planned by the government. Killing and looting and torture, yes, but not rape," he said.

" All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They're killing my baby, they're killing my baby."
- Aisha Hamid

Kalma isn't the only place where multiple accounts of rape have surfaced. Some 120 miles away, in the town of Mukjar, two men separately described women being brought into a prison where they were being held and raped for hours by janjaweed.

They said the assailants shouted that they were "planting tomatoes" -- a reference to skin color: Darfur Arabs describe themselves as "red" because they are slightly lighter-skinned than ethnic Africans.

According to Muna, U.N. agencies are working closely with Sudanese authorities to improve the government's response to rape allegations. In 2005, the government created a task force on rape in Darfur, headed by Attayet Mustapha, a pediatrician, government official and women's rights activist.

In an interview this year, Mustapha said social workers were being deployed to address the problem and a special female police unit was being assembled in Darfur.

"We tell officials that the government has decided to enforce a zero tolerance policy toward rape in Darfur," she said.

U.N. workers say they registered 2,500 rapes in Darfur in 2006, but believe far more went unreported. The real figure is probably thousands a month, said a U.N. official. Like other U.N. personnel and aid workers interviewed, the official insisted on speaking anonymously for fear of being expelled by the government.

Victims usually can't identify their aggressors, which makes prosecutions impossible. Only eight offenders were tried and sentenced for rape crimes in Darfur by Sudanese courts in 2006, said Mustapha, the task force leader. "They received three to five years prison, and 100 lashes" in accordance with Islamic law, she said.

In May, after the top U.N. human rights official charged that Sudanese soldiers had raped at least 15 Darfur women during one recent incident, Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi asked where the evidence was.

"We always seem to get sweeping generalizations, without naming the injured, without naming the offenders," he told reporters.

In Kalma, collecting firewood needed to cook meals is becoming more perilous as the trees around the camp dwindle and women are forced to scavenge ever farther afield. It is strictly a woman's task, dictated both by tradition and the fear that any male escorts would be killed if the janjaweed found them.

Agreeing to tell the AP their story earlier this month through a translator, the seven women's voices wavered and hesitated, broken by embarrassed silences. All gave their names and agreed to be identified in full, but the AP is withholding their surnames because they are rape victims and vulnerable to retaliation.

The women said they set out on a Monday morning last July and had barely begun collecting the wood when 10 Arabs on camels surrounded them, shouting insults and shooting their rifles in the air.

The women first attempted to flee. "But I didn't even try, because I couldn't run," being seven months pregnant, said Aisha, a petite 18-year-old whose raspy voice sounds more like that of an old woman.

She said four men stayed behind to flay her with sticks, while the other janjaweed chased down the rest of her group.

"We didn't get very far," said Maryam, displaying the scar of a bullet that hit her on the right knee.

Once rounded up, the women said, they were beaten and their rented donkey killed. Zahya, 30, had brought her 18-year-old daughter, Fatmya, and her baby. The baby was thrown to the ground and both women were raped. The baby survived.

Zahya said the women were lined up and assaulted side by side, and she saw four men taking turns raping Aisha.

The women said the attackers then stripped them naked and jeered at them as they fled. On their way back, men from the refugee camp unraveled their cotton turbans for the women to partly cover up, but the victims said they were laughed at when they entered the refugee camp.

"Ever since, I've made sure that women living on the outskirts of the camp have spare sets of clothes to give out," said Khadidja Abdallah, a sheika, an informal camp leader, who took the women to the international aid compound at the camp to be treated.

They were given anti-pregnancy and anti-HIV pills, thanks to which their families haven't entirely ostracized them, the women said. The baby Aisha was expecting at the time is doing well. His name is Osman.

Alarming trend of assaults in camps

Sheikas in Kalma said they report over a dozen rapes each week. Human rights activists in South Darfur who monitor violence in the refugee camps estimate more than 100 women are raped each month in and around Kalma alone.

The workers warn of an alarming new trend of rapes within the refugee population amid the boredom and slow social decay of the camps. But for the most part, they added, it all depends on whether janjaweed are present in the area.

The sheikas say they are making some headway toward persuading families to accept raped women back into their embrace and let them report attacks to aid workers. One advantage is that they get a certificate confirming they were raped.

"We tell husbands they might be compensated one day," said Ajaba Zubeir, a sheika. "But I don't think that's going to happen."

The seven women say they haven't left the camp since they were attacked. They have started their own small workshop and make water jugs out of clay and donkey dung to sell to other refugees.

As they worked on their large pile of jugs and bowls, they said they are even poorer than before, because they now have to buy their firewood from other women.

"But at least we never have to go out again," said Aisha.

None of the women has any faith that Sudanese or international courts will ever give them justice. All Zahya asks is that one day she can return to her village.

"If people could at least help end the fighting, that would be enough," she said.

U.N. peacekeeper killed in Darfur

2007-05-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- A U.N. peacekeeper was killed in Darfur, the first U.N. casualty since the world body began sending small reinforcements to a beleaguered African Union force deployed in the violent western Sudan region, the AU and the United Nations said Saturday.

The U.N. peacekeeper, Egyptian Lt. Col. Ehab Nazir, was shot by unidentified gunmen who looted his house late Friday in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. He died hours later in an AU hospital at the African force's headquarters about one kilometer (half mile) away, the AU said.

"The senseless killing of an innocent man in the confines of his residence is beyond comprehension," said Hassan Gibril, the deputy head of the AU mission, at a memorial for the peacekeeper held Saturday at the AU's headquarters.

"He is the first peacekeeper sent to us as reinforcement to be killed in Darfur," AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni told The Associated Press by telephone.

The U.N. mission in Sudan confirmed the Egyptian officer's death -- the first time a blue helmet was slain in Darfur.

The unidentified gunmen who killed him where thought to be burglars, but an official close to the investigation said authorities would not exclude other motives for the killing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

In Cairo, the foreign ministry deplored the Egyptian officer's death and deeply condemned in a statement the "sinful aggression" in which Nazir became the "casualty of an attack by armed elements."

African Union faces increasing hostility

The AU has faced increased hostility from warring factions in Darfur, and has lost 19 of its own peacekeepers since it first deployed in June 2004.

"Not a month goes by without a new killing, it's very difficult," AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said.

The U.N. began deploying some 180 staff to Darfur in December as reinforcement to the overwhelmed 7,000-strong AU mission.

This "light support package" is part of a broader agreement that should lead to 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers moving into Darfur in 2007, but the AU and U.N. both acknowledge that even the first batch of 180 reinforcements have not yet all arrived.

The Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir has rejected a U.N. resolution for some 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the AU in Darfur, where over 200,000 people have been killed and 2,5 million chased from their homes in four years of fighting.

Since then, Khartoum, the U.N. and the AU continue to negotiate a compromise deal for U.N. forces to slowly beef up world efforts to end Darfur's spiraling violence.

Hospital ship begins trip around Africa in Liberia

2007-05-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

Source: .

MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) -- The world's largest charity hospital ship docked in Liberia on Wednesday to begin a mission to bring free health care to Africa.

The 80-bed Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry converted into a state-of-the-art hospital ship, will spend several months treating patients in Monrovia port before moving on to Sierra Leone on a voyage that will take it around Africa.

An enthusiastic crowd greeted the white- and blue-painted vessel with its massive square superstructure.

With six operating theaters on board, it has the capacity to carry out 7,000 operations a year including, cataract and tumor removal, lens implants, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair.

It is run by the international charity Mercy Ships, which since its creation in 1978 has sent hospital ships around the world providing free health care and services to the poor.

Africa Mercy and her 400-strong multinational volunteer crew will take over from the smaller Anastasis, another Mercy Ships vessel which will be retiring later this year after serving more than 275 ports around the world over her lifetime.

"The Africa Mercy will now lead the charge to help end despair throughout the regions of Africa," Myron E. Ullman, III, Chairman of the Mercy Ships International Board, said.

Crew members waving the flags of several countries joined in signing and dancing at the arrivals ceremony at the port.

On hand to greet the ship on Wednesday were several former patients who had been successfully treated by Mercy Ships staff.

"I am just happy, I mean too happy for the Mercy Ship to be here. I was blind for five years. I couldn't see, but when the Mercy Ship (the Anastasis) came, I was able to see after they operated on me," 68-year-old Liberian Joseph John told Reuters.

Buying the former ferry and turning it into a floating hospital cost around $62 million, funded by donations and gifts-in-kind.

Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, is trying to recover from a devastating on-off 1989-2003 civil war that destroyed infrastructure and public services and killed and maimed tens of thousands of people.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female elected head of state, will visit the Africa Mercy on Monday.

Report: North Korea test-fires missiles

2007-05-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

Source: CNN.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea fired several short-range guided missiles Friday into the sea that separates it from Japan in an apparent test launch, South Korean officials and media reports said.

Analysts and media reports said the North's test was in response to South Korea's launch of its first destroyer equipped with high-tech Aegis radar technology on Friday. South Korea is now one of only five countries armed with the technology, which will make it easier to track and shoot down North Korean aircraft and missiles.

"This shows North Korea, whose navy is rather small, is extremely alarmed," said Toshimitsu Shigemura, an expert on North Korean issues at Japan's Waseda University.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed Friday's missile launches.

"The short-range missile launches are believed to be part of a routine exercise that North Korea has conducted annually on the east and the west coasts in the past," the statement said.

The missiles were fired from the communist country's east coast into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula, a Joint Chiefs official said on condition of anonymity, citing official protocol.

Japan's public broadcaster and other media, citing Japanese and U.S. sources, reported the missiles were surface-to-ship. Japan's Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the reports.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified Unification Ministry official as saying the tests would not strain ties because they were apparently part of regular exercises. North and South Korea are planning Cabinet level talks on reconciliation efforts next week in Seoul.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the tests "extremely regrettable" but said, "We do not consider (the missile firing) as a serious threat to Japan's national security."

Public broadcaster NHK said the missiles were shorter-range, and were not North Korea's existing Rodong or Taepodong I ballistic missiles.

Kyodo News agency said the missiles were launched from Hamgyong Namdo on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula and are considered modified silkworm or miniaturized Scuds, with a range of 60 to 125 miles.

Mobile missile carriers, communication equipment and personnel were seen in the area before the launch, but they left after the missiles were fired, Kyodo said.

Last month, North Korea displayed during a military parade a newly developed ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam, the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified South Korean government official familiar with an analysis of U.S. satellite images.

North Korea's missile program has been a constant concern to the region, along with its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The hard-line regime test-fired a series of missiles in July last year, including its latest long-range model, known abroad as the Taepodong-2, which experts believe could reach parts of the United States.

The North rattled the world again in October by conducting its first-ever test of a nuclear device. However, experts believe it does not have a bomb design advanced enough to be placed on a missile.

Congress ignores population police in China: Help!

2007-05-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

A few days ago in southern China, rural villagers banded together and decided to fight back against their country's coercive population policy.

When Chinese population police showed up at their door, armed with sledge hammers and cattle prods, many families with more than one child refused to pay their "social child-raising fee." In response, the population police forcibly took their property and destroyed their homes with sledge hammers.

Please contact Congress about this human rights outrage! [The toll free number is 1-866-340-9281.]

Some poor families would have paid the excessive tax, but they simply couldn't afford it. The population police didn't care. One poor farmer saw his home bulldozed before his very eyes after he told officials he couldn't afford to pay the fines. When he went to a local government office to protest, he returned with broken fingers. His neighbors were outraged. And they fought back.

This recent event was just one of many in a long campaign by the Chinese population police to enforce their so-called "voluntary" one-child policy. Unfortunately, after last week, the villagers couldn't take it anymore.

In recent months, women faced mandatory health checks and forced abortions at the hands of government officials. Poor families faced exhorbitant fines that they simply could not afford.

It breaks my heart to learn that these families were compelled to resort to violence just to defend their livelihood from the violent population police. The Chinese government likes to claim their population policies are "voluntary." The broken homes and broken bones of these villagers tell a very different story.

Coercive Population Police attacks just like these are exactly why the U.S. Government doesn't send your taxpayer dollars to the United Nations Office for Population Assistance, or the UNFPA. After Congress and the State Department found the UNFPA working hand in hand with China's Population Police to implement the coercive one-child policy, funds were cut off.

But the new abortion Congress thinks human rights abuses like these are OK. And they are calling for renewed funding of the UNFPA.

Please contact Congress today and tell them you don't want your money supporting organizations that help Chinese officials violate human rights!

Please do not let these abuses fall beneath the radar. Tell Congress today that U.S. taxpayers will not stand for these types of abuse!

Please use our new "Forward to a Friend" link below to share this important message with ten people who share your commitment to women and the unborn around the world.

For Life,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President
Susan B. Anthony List
www.sba-list.org.

Villagers riot as China enforces birth limit

2007-05-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Source: Guardian Unlimited.

Officials beaten by crowd in south-western province
Large fines and seizing of property spark violence

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Tuesday May 22, 2007
The Guardian.

Thousands of villagers in south-west China have attacked family planning officials, overturned cars and set fire to government buildings in a riot sparked by the state's one-child policy.

Riot police have been sent to at least four townships in the Guangxi autonomous region after disturbances that led to multiple injuries and unconfirmed reports of two fatalities, witnesses and Hong Kong media reported yesterday.

The unrest comes in the wake of a new crackdown by the Bobai county government against families that break birth control regulations. Financial penalties have increased and parents who fail to pay are being punished by having their property confiscated or destroyed.

At the height of the demonstrations on Saturday, a crowd of several thousand stormed the Shapi municipal office, pulled down a wall and chased and beat officials from the family planning department. This followed demonstrations in towns across Bobai county.

Under state policies dating back to the late 1970s, most urban couples can only have one child. Families from rural areas and ethnic minorities can often have two children, especially if the first is a girl. The aim of the policy is to slow the growth of the world's biggest population, which is seen as a drain on resources.

In Bobai, the rules were weakly enforced for many years, but this spring the local government established "family planning work squads" to collect penalties retrospectively.

A student who gave only his surname, Zhou, told the Guardian his family were fined 2,000 yuan (£132) because they had three sons in the 1980s. His uncle, who has five children, was fined 20,000 yuan. "He only earns 1,200 yuan per month ... But if you cannot pay, the officials come to your home and confiscate the contents. If you refuse, then smash, smash, smash."

On internet chatrooms and in telephone conversations, locals said the work teams had confiscated cattle, DVD players, crockery and other household goods in lieu of unpaid fines.

Officials from other government departments were mobilised for the campaign. One woman, Mrs Luo, said she was recruited to make up the numbers of the "work squads". "Usually we went to a house and asked them to pay the fine," she said. "If no one answered, some men in our group used hammers to break in and take away property. If there was not enough to confiscate, they smashed the walls. Before we used to force women to have abortions but now the target seems to have changed to raising money. I hate this job, but I have no choice."

Another local man, Mr Lu of Yulin village, said the riot started after the work teams bulldozed the house of a poor farmer who could not afford the fine. The farmer reportedly went to the municipal office to protest and returned with broken fingers, stirring up anger in his community.

Local governments and police refused to comment. The state-run media has been forbidden to report the incident.

A doctor at the Shabei hospital told Reuters that several injured people had been treated there. Online photographs of protests showed smashed cars, burning buildings and a rioter stealing a computer monitor. There were also images of work squads in army fatigues carrying sledgehammers.

The one-child policy has become a symbol of the wealth gap in China. Earlier this month, government officials admitted that many rich families violated the rules because they could afford the fines.

Inequality, land grabs and pollution fears have prompted a wave of unrest. According to the ministry of public security, there were 87,000 "mass incidents" reported in 2005, up 6.6% on 2004 and 50% on 2003.

Harsh Birth Control Steps Fuel Violence in China

2007-05-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Source: NY Times.

By JOSEPH KAHN
Published: May 22, 2007.

BEIJING, May 21 — An intensive campaign to enforce strict population-control measures, including forced abortions, prompted violent clashes between the police and local residents in southwestern China in recent days, witnesses said Monday, describing the latest incident of rural unrest that has alarmed senior officials in Beijing.

Villagers and visitors to several counties of the Guangxi Autonomous Region in southwestern China said rioters smashed and burned government offices, overturned official vehicles, and clashed with the riot police officers in a series of confrontations over the past four days. They spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

They gave varying accounts of injuries and deaths, with some asserting that as many as five people had been killed, including three officials responsible for population-control work. A local government official in one of the counties affected confirmed the rioting in a telephone interview but denied reports of deaths or serious injuries.

The violence seemed to stem from a two-month crackdown in Guangxi to punish people who violated the country’s policy that sets legal limits on the number of children families are allowed to have.

According to accounts posted on the Internet by villagers and witnesses, officials in several parts of Guangxi mobilized their largest effort in years to roll back population growth by requiring mandatory health checks for women and forcing pregnant women who lacked approval to give birth to undergo abortions.

Corruption, land grabs, pollution, unpaid wages and a widening wealth gap have fueled tens of thousands of incidents of unrest in recent years, many of them in rural areas that have been left behind in China’s long economic boom.

The central government, expressing concern that unrest could weaken one-party rule, has eased the tax burden on peasants and sought to curtail confiscations of farmland for development. But China’s hinterland remains volatile compared with the largest cities, which are relatively prosperous and stable.

Coercive measures, including forced abortions and sterilizations, were common in the 1980s, when the so-called one-child policy was first strictly enforced. More recently, many parts of China have been relying more on financial penalties and incentives to limit the growth of its population, which is 1.3 billion.

But local officials who fail to meet annual population control targets can still come under bureaucratic pressure to reduce births or face demotion or removal from office.

Several people said in the Internet accounts of the campaign in Guangxi that officials had issued fines starting at 500 yuan and ranging as high as 70,000 yuan, or $65 to $9,000, on families who had violated birth control measures at any time since 1980. The new tax, called a “social child-raising fee,” was collected even though most violators had already paid fines in the past, the people said.

According to an account on Longtan, a Web forum, officials in Bobai County in Guangxi boasted that they collected 7.8 million yuan in social child-raising fees from February through the end of April. Many families objected strongly to the fees and refused to pay.

Witnesses said that in such cases villagers were detained, their homes searched, and valuables, including electronic items and motorcycles, confiscated by the government.

“Worst of all, the gangsters used hammers and iron rods to destroy people’s homes, while threatening that the next time it would be with bulldozers,” said a peasant who identified himself as Nong Sheng and who faxed a letter complaining of the abuses to a reporter in Beijing.

Mr. Nong said the crackdown was widespread in several counties in Guangxi. He said local courts had declined to hear any cases brought by opponents of the policy, citing an edict from local officials.

Other villagers reached by phone described an escalating series of confrontations that began Thursday and continued through the weekend.

Several described in detail an assault on the government offices of Shapi Township, Bobai County, by thousands of peasants. They said villagers broke through a wall around the building, ransacked offices, smashed computers and destroyed documents, then set fire to the building. There were inconsistent reports of death and injuries during that clash and a later police crackdown.

Editor's Note: This was copied because most articles from the NY Times disappear. I cannot use them as a source if they are not available when people look for them.

With Honor

2007-05-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

New Medal of Honor Museum honors selfless service to country, comrades.
By Jack Jacobs
Military analyst
MSNBC
Updated: 9:02 p.m. PT May 20, 2007.

This Wednesday, May 23, Brian Williams will host NBC’s "Nightly News" from Charleston, South Carolina, and moored nearby is the USS Yorktown, a World War II aircraft carrier. Brian is a member of the Board of Directors of the Medal of Honor Foundation, and the occasion is the grand opening of the new Medal of Honor Museum aboard the Yorktown.

The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, was the brainchild of Abraham Lincoln, who sought to recognize exceptional bravery during the Civil War. At the time, the only battlefield distinction was the Purple Heart, awarded in those days for meritorious service, not as it is today, for wounds received in combat.

Since then, about 3,500 Medals of Honor have been awarded. In more recent times, since World War I, most have been posthumous, and there has been no living recipient for any conflict since Vietnam. Today, there are only 110 living recipients, and many of them will be on the Yorktown on Wednesday for the grand opening of the Medal of Honor Museum in South Carolina.

Among them are the oldest living recipient, John Finn, who will be 98 this July and was decorated for action on Pearl Harbor Day. He enlisted in the Navy in 1926 and can transfix the most jaded audience with first-person descriptions of life in America before World War I and tales of his participation in American naval operations in China a decade before the Second World War.

The museum is the principal repository for artifacts relating to the Medal of Honor, but the real thrust of the place is not just the display of things but also the perpetuation of the concept of selfless service to country and comrades. There is an emotion generated there that can be duplicated nowhere else, and one reason is the actions of people. Try these:
Jack Lucas
Jack Lucas was a bit bigger than other kids his age and spent some time at a military prep school. So, when World War II began, he successfully lied about his age and enlisted in the Marines Corps when he was 13 years old. He was so good in boot camp that he was made an instructor, at 14. Not content to serve in the States while his buddies were in combat, he got himself aboard a ship bound for the South Pacific. Landing on Iwo Jima, Lucas saved his fellow Marines by throwing himself on two hand grenades. He miraculously survived devastating injuries, and when he received the Medal [of Honor] from President Harry Truman, Lucas was the youngest recipient since the Civil War.

George Sakato
In danger of being sent to an internment camp like other Japanese-American families, George Sakato moved to Arizona and tried to enlist after Pearl Harbor, but he was rejected as an undesirable alien. In 1943, the government wised up and allowed Sakato and thousands of other patriotic Americans of Japanese descent to fight, and he became a member of the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In eastern France, in difficult, mountainous terrain, he singlehandedly attacked a German strong point and then, only a 22-year-old private, led his squad through ferocious enemy fire to capture dozens of German soldiers.

Jim Stockdale
After being shot down and injured over North Vietnam, Jim Stockdale was a prisoner for eight long years, and for three of those years he was in solitary confinement. By any standard, the treatment he received was criminal and inhumane: beaten, tortured, strangled until he was nearly asphyxiated. He was brought to the brink of death and resuscitated, time and time again, year after year.

But he never gave any more than his name, rank and service number.

He had told his fellow prisoners that they were honor-bound to resist, and he led by example. Rather than let himself be used by the North Vietnamese in a propaganda film, Stockdale beat his own face to a bloody pulp and cut himself with a dull razor so that he could not be presented on film.

They threw him in solitary again, and he feared that he would ultimately break under the torture and cooperate. So he shattered the window of his cell and slit his wrists with the glass. He was found before he bled to death, but the torture stopped because the guards realized that Stockdale would rather die with honor than serve their purposes.

Clarence Sasser
In 1967, Clarence Sasser was a medic in the Mekong River delta of Vietnam. Under continuous and intense enemy fire, and without regard to his own safety, he crawled from soldier to soldier to aid the injured. He ignored his own many painful shrapnel and bullet wounds to save others and did not cease his assistance until loss of blood made him incapable of continuing.

The behavior of these gallant people was extraordinary, but the basic underpinnings of it are not. American service members are imbued with a code that transcends background, race and every other demographic distinction: don’t surrender if you can fight, never cooperate with your captors, accomplish the mission at all cost, love your comrades.

And so it’s not surprising that every recipient of the Medal of Honor will tell you that he wears it not for himself but for those who can’t: all the men and women who sacrificed so that we can live in freedom. It’s something worth remembering each time we have a chance to help our neighbors and instead turn the other way.

Moderate Muslim voices silenced

2007-05-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

PBS won't show 'Islam vs. Islamists,' but you should see it, says ROD DREHER.
02:19 PM CDT on Sunday, May 13, 2007.

I've asked myself a thousand times since 9/11: Where are all the moderate Muslims? We're assured that there's a silent majority of Muslims who want nothing to do with the jumped-up jihadists. But those voices are few and far between.

Here's the good news: The makers of the PBS-commissioned documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Center found some outspoken moderate Muslims and profiled them and their astonishing courage. The film shows these men mounting a lonely resistance against Muslim leaders in the West who are fronting a false moderate face to the public while using oil money from Gulf Arab sources to make their hard-line version of Islam the norm.

Here's the bad news: PBS refused to air the film as part of its recent "America at the Crossroads" series, even though it had been scheduled. I saw Islam vs. Islamists and concluded that it's absolutely vital to informed public debate. That PBS decided not to show, at least for now, such an important film is shocking.

Or is it? Most of the U.S. media has done a lousy job of critically covering Muslim organizations here, of asking serious questions about what their leaders believe and where they get their funding. These folks are quick to shriek "Islamophobia!" when a journalist points out their connections to radical Islam or asks straightforward questions about what they believe. The idea – and it's a successful one – is to squelch a legitimate and necessary public discussion.

As Islam vs. Islamists documents, it's a tactic they use with far less finesse on dissenting Muslims. Tarek Fatah and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, two of several moderates featured in the film, told me that the Islamophobia canard is useless against them because they are proud, practicing Muslims. Yet they say they can't get a hearing at many mosques or Islamic institutions because those places have been taken over by Islamists – adherents to a highly politicized form of the faith.

"They've basically turned our mosques into a political party of their own," says Dr. Jasser, a Phoenix physician. "We have nowhere to go to have this debate."

He's talking about the discussion regarding their religion and its role in a pluralistic society, especially in this time of war. Dr. Jasser warns that many Muslim denunciations of terrorism are deceptive.

"Terrorism is simply a means," he says. "The Muslim community has not had a debate about whether or not they endorse the ends of the Islamists" – namely, an America that is thoroughly Islamicized and organized around sharia law.

In the film, Dr. Jasser expresses confidence that most American Muslims are not violent but advises that most accept the Islamist view of world politics – conspiratorial, self-pitying and quick to blame America for all the Muslim world's problems. We also see in the movie a leading Arizona imam denouncing the reasonable and patriotic Dr. Jasser as an "extremist liberal."

Which raises a troubling question the film does not answer: How representative of the Muslim mainstream are these Muslim moderates? The truth, as one counterterrorism investigator told me, is that the Jassers and Fatahs are probably in the minority – "but their voices need to be heard."

Indeed. Muslims, especially young ones, need exposure to competing voices from within their own traditions making the case for pluralism. And the rest of us need to take seriously the warnings these anti-Islamist Muslims are sounding: Muslim leaders' honeyed words when talking to the media and English-speaking audiences do not necessarily make them moderates or friends of peace.

Why would PBS not want to air this film defending moderate Muslims under attack – even facing death threats – from religious hardliners? An official at WETA, the Washington, D.C., public television station overseeing the "America at the Crossroads" series, has slighted the documentary as "alarmist," "unfair" and "irresponsible."

Nonsense – as any fair-minded viewer of the thoroughly professional film would attest, if only they could see it. Islam vs. Islamists would only appear alarmist and unfair to those whose cover it blows – and by useful media dupes willing to protect them. If PBS is too embarrassed to broadcast this movie, it should release the rights so someone else can, and let the American people can judge for themselves.

The West is waging a war of ideas with well-funded Islamists who far too often have the mainstream media on their side. If we ignore prophetic Muslim voices warning us that most Islamic leaders among us are not the gentle lambs they claim to be, and if we leave Muslim allies to fight the battle against these wolves alone, we only sabotage ourselves.

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist. His e-mail address is R. Dreher.

Update: Here are some replies to this article:

Feedback.
Interesting e-mail responses to my Sunday column about Muslim moderates, like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, and their courageous struggle against Islamists. This struggle is documented in the PBS-commissioned film "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Center," which PBS has inexplicably declined to broadcast. This first one comes from a Muslim American former military officer:

Thank you for your opinion piece in the Sunday Dallas Morning News. What Dr. Jasser faces is not at all uncommon. For a long time, I was shunned by many in my community in [deleted] for having ideas outside the mainstream. Those ideas were completely harmless and included support for electing Republicans to office and support for the first Gulf War. My parents and sister, who still live in [deleted], have had to endure snide remarks and insults because of what I have said publicly . Groups like CAIR and MAS tend to do the heavy lifting for the Islamists in the US and this does truly pervade the mosque/school systems in many cities leaving many moderates no where to go.

Your help in our struggle is appreciated.

This one comes from a non-Muslim in Arizona:

Great and important article Rod. I happen to be a patient of Dr. Jasser's. He is a hard working, compassionate, up-to-date professional physician. He is very open to people of all faiths or no faith. I also happen to have lived and worked in Islamic cultures as a language teacher, in Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. I speak Persian and some Arabic. I can do the call to prayer better than lots of Muslim religious leaders. I know many Middle Eastern cultures at their best and worst. I worked 17 years in the Middle East, in 2 to 4 year blocks, between 1965 and October 2001. I have many Muslim friends here in the U.S., especially in the Phoenix area.

Let me assure you that the problem of Islamists taking over Muslim American communities, and thinking, is far worse than the American media and government bureaucrats can imagine. Their critical analysis is impaired by the fear of being tagged as "Islamophobic" for commenting on the obvious. Europe, America and open, related states are in grave danger of destruction from within by Islamists who knowingly, or out of ignorance, pave the way for terrorist acts, by individuals or groups, which will grow in frquency and in spectcular devastation.

Operation Recruiter Appreciation Day--GOE, 5/19/07

2007-05-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

A message from a Gathering of Eagles (GOE):

Greetings! As announced by the Gathering of Eagles Chairman on 6 Apr, GOE is planning to recognize the critical contributions of America’s military recruiters. Larry Bailey’s directive follows:

Our first nationwide project will be “Operation Recruiter Appreciation (ORA).” On May 19th, Armed Forces Day, Eagles will independently set up appreciation demonstrations outside hundreds of military recruiting offices across the country. …each effort will be planned and coordinated by local Eagles, and each effort will, accordingly, have its own “hometown” flavor.

I have volunteered to act as the GOE point of contact for this effort, so that we may have one source for questions, answers, and suggestions. I invite all who are interested in either participating or getting more information to E-mail me here.

I would love for us to have participation from all 50 states and D.C. I will be communicating, at least initially, with all the assigned GOE state coordinators.

So what do you need to do to take part in GOE Recruiter Appreciation Day?
Use your imagination! Below I have listed some suggestions, but that’s all they are. I hope to see this thread become quite active as people come up with their own ideas of how to honor and thank our military recruiters.

Suggestions for ORA:

Deliver a pizza and some sodas to the recruiter’s office around lunchtime.
Drop off some VIP movie passes you picked up from a nearby theater.
Set up a table outside the office (after receiving permission) with some signs/banners advertising GOE and, more importantly, your efforts to honor the recruiters’ service and sacrifice. Perhaps have some goodies and a card for passersby to sign, contributing their appreciation.
Have your kids help you whip up some homemade cookies and/or brownies, and have the kids deliver them. Once the ice is broken, the kids and recruiters will definitely enjoy the visit. Trust me!
Invite one or more of the recruiters to your home for dinner later in the week.
Please don’t let a limited budget prevent you from participating. A simple hand-made card from a child, or even a smile and a warm handshake won’t cost anything but will lift some spirits and let our troops know you care.
During your visit, get some of the recruiters to pose with you for a few photos, so that we can share in your visit here on the forum. (Please remember to get permission to use their images/names)
Take a homemade sign saying “Thank you!” or “God bless our military” along with a few friends and stand outside a local recruiter’s office.

You get the idea. We’ll leave times flexible, but I would recommend around lunchtime in your areas. Not only is it easy to tie in with food and beverages, but hopefully the recruiters won’t have to work too late on a Saturday. (I said “hopefully”.)

We do ask that all participants try to connect their shows of support with Gathering of Eagles. It’s a nice way for your particular recruiters to find out about our mission, and it will be the perfect excuse for you to share with them that others across our nation are conducting similar shows of support and appreciation. If you can’t afford to purchase a large GOE banner, consider buying and/or wearing a GOE armband instead. Or simply have a homemade sign and/or business cards with our name and website.

How do I locate a recruiter?

Find information on local U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard recruiters by entering your zip code here: zip code.

For an Army recruiter specifically, you may need to go to this location instead: Find a Recruiter.

(By the way, any friends in other countries are welcome to join our efforts and add an international flavor.)

What’s my next step?

E-mail me here with the following information:

Your name.
Three initials of your choosing to be used to identify you on an image map and/or spreadsheet.
Type of recruiter (Service or Services using this office)
Location of recruiter (City and state are sufficient if it’s a sole office; include address if there’s more than one to choose from in a particular city/town)
How you are planning to honor our military recruiters (don’t be shy — gimme details!)

I recommend to everyone who agrees to participate in this endeavor to contact the senior recruiter in the office(s) you plan to visit, to let him/her know your plans. They may have suggestions as to what the team might want or need to make their job easier, and you certainly don’t want to show up on ORA Day only to have the office empty.

If I should have more than one person desiring to honor the same recruiter location, I may write back and ask you to find another location (to spread the love). If this is not feasible, just say so. I’d rather we have “extra love” at one site than someone potentially sitting home because there’s not another recruiter nearby.

Okay, I’ll start:

Coop
EMC
U.S. Army
Springfield VA - 6125B Backlick Road
Deliver pizzas and sodas for lunch, set up a table outside if allowed to encourage passersby to visit and sign a card. And I’m bringing my incredibly adorable daughters, ages 5 and 3.

I hope to receive E-mails from many of you in every state. I look forward to your creative ideas and motivation. Eagles up!

Here is Part 1 (here) and Part 2. Please try to do whatever you can. It will be greatly appreciated. :)

Islamism, not Islam is the Problem

2007-05-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

By M. Zuhdi Jasser

Most of the attention, scholarship, and punditry in the United States given towards Islam and Muslims since 9-11 have focused upon problems with comparatively little attention toward solutions. Understandably motivated by a need to improve security and understand the enemy, American curiosity about Islam, Islamism, and militant Islamism continues to grow. Yet, comparatively American Muslims have offered few solutions except for the few rare voices of Muslim moderation (anti-Islamism) across America, Canada, and Europe.

At times there is only a binary choice in the public ether between the voices who say that “Islam is the problem” and the tired voices of the Islamists who provide endless apologetics, denial, victimization, and every deflection possible short of responsibility or actual ideological solutions for a counter-jihad and reformation. Certainly, the Islamists, no matter how peaceful, who look at the world through the lens of political Islam are at the core of the ideological problem. They knowingly and unknowingly feed the enemy’s central political construct of society—political Islam. Yet, we so need to separate political Islam (Islamism) from the spiritual faith of Islam as a faith. Is it easier said than done?

An anti-Islamist devout Muslim like myself - and so many others who believe we are in the majority - can only shout in the wilderness for so long, before there becomes a need to begin to address some of the most difficult but central questions, which many Muslims ignore either out of pride, self-righteousness, or impatience. Whether many pious Muslims acknowledge it or not, non-Muslims who believe that ‘the religion of Islam is the problem’ are growing in numbers. I can either dismiss their arguments as “Islamophobic” as so many do, including the Islamists, or I can begin to address some of the central issues raised positively in the spirit of understanding, logic, and most importantly in the spirit of American security.

We need the anti-Islamist Muslims.

Most should understand that strategically, identifying ‘Islam as the problem,’ immediately alienates upwards of one quarter of the world’s population and dismisses our most powerful weapon against the militant Islamists—the mantle of religion and the pulpit of moderate Muslims who can retake our faith from the Islamists. The majority voices in the middle, the non-Islamist and anti-Islamist Muslims who understand the problem, have to be on the frontlines. They cannot be on the frontlines in an ideological battle being waged, which demonizes the morality of the faith of Islam and its founder, the Prophet Mohammed. We cannot win this war only on the battlefield. Political Islam has a viral recurrence in the form of an infection which needs a Muslim counter-jihad in order to purge it. Thus, we cannot win this ideological war without the leadership of Muslim anti-Islamists. The radical and political ideologies of Islamism, Wahhabism, Salafism, Al Qaedism, Jihadism, and Caliphism, to name a few, cannot be defeated without anti-Islamist, anti-Wahhabi, anti-Salafist, anti-Al Qaedist, anti-Jihadist, and anti-Caliphist devout Muslims.

So often, attempts by anti-Islamist Muslims to claim that our faith has been hijacked or our faith has been twisted are dismissed by non-Muslims. They simply take common interpretations of Wahhabis and say rather that, ‘it is the anti-Islamist Muslim who is deluded and who is misrepresenting the faith of Islam”. They use the citations of the militants from our Holy Qur’an’s scripture and from many authentic and questionable Hadith (discussions of the Prophet Mohammed) to marginalize moderate Muslims and claim that they have no theological framework from which to claim legitimacy.

The question remains-- who or what defines Islam, and under what authority? Islam has no clergy and is represented only by a book, the Holy Qur’an (what Muslims believe in Arabic, is the communication from God to Muslims). Islam’s naysayers by accepting radical interpretations of scripture are thus handing the militants the mantle of religion with hardly the benefit of the doubt or patience toward long term opportunities for reform by anti-Islamist Muslims within the general Muslim population.

The process of theological renewal and interpretation in the light of modern day thought—ijtihad—as it is known in Islam is in many ways hundreds of years behind Western enlightenment today arrested around the 15th century. This process can either be facilitated by non-Muslims or hindered by the belief that it is impossible. There is quite a bit to be said for the value of a necessary critical facilitation (nudging) of Muslim reform (as opposed to blind uncritical apologetics). But there is also a fine line between useful criticism of Muslims and especially of political Islam and the less than helpful alienation of all Muslims through criticism of the faith of Islam in general. Most of the same arguments targeting Islam can similarly be made against Muslims and their interpretations while just not blaming Islam as a faith, which needs to be part of the solution.

Too nuanced for practicality? Not necessarily when our most critical allies within the Muslim faith are those that are strong enough to love their faith enough to wake-up and want to take it back from the Islamists and their barbarians like Al Qaeda.

Political Islam (Islamism), not Islam, is incompatible with Americanism and pluralism.

Like most believers of any of the major world religions whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, I, as a Muslim believe that Islam carries the same messages of humanitarianism and compassion shared by the religions of the God of Abraham and deserves an equal place at the table of world religions and is not in conflict with our American Constitutional government. Some Muslims may behave, interpret, and express ideologies which are not from God but contrarily evil and from Satan, but they are still Muslim. I cannot deny that. We have no church to excommunicate them.

However, we also should remember that every God-fearing Muslim believes that the religion of Islam as a faith comes from God in the same way as Judaism and Christianity. The identification of ‘Islam as the problem’ is arguable from a pedantic standpoint since it is hard to disagree with the fact that “Islam is as Muslims do and say.” But academically, when dealing with the faith of one-quarter of the world, and with its history, a central morality of individual Islam (the personal character of most Muslims) has generally demonstrated synergy with Judaism and Christianity. It is just that in the past few centuries, political religious movements, which exploit the personal faith for political oppression and often fascism, have controlled the leadership.

It is important to be academic about this assessment and not assume that what appears to be the silence of the majority of Muslims equates to agreement with the Islamist leadership who exerts a stranglehold over the community. We are doing our national counterterrorism efforts and Muslims a disservice if we assume that the ‘lowest hanging fruit,’ which comprise all currently Islamist organizations (CAIR, MPAC, or ISNA - to name a few) and their proportionally limited membership speak for all American Muslims. Their silence on the need for reformation and the need for Muslims to lead an anti-Islamist effort from within our faith community represents their own Islamist agenda of the members and donors but does not represent the general Muslim population.

In debate, it can become easy to lose the focus of the argument when resorting to criticism based on identity rather than on ideology. For example, so many Islamists locally and nationally resort to attempting to demonize me as an individual rather than deal with my anti-Islamist ideas as a Muslim and as an American. Our Islamist enemy dreams about uniting all Muslims under one nation—the transnational Muslim ummah. To declare our ideological battle against Islam is to hand them the easiest tool toward that unification (ummah-tization) strategy for which they dream and to dismiss our most potent weapon against the jihadists—anti-Islamist Muslims who can lead a counter-jihad from within the Islamic community. Only anti-Islamists Muslims can de-ummahtize the Muslim community and articulate an Islam, which inspires morality but leaves national politics to the governments of our nations.

A shared moral tradition.

For many non-Muslims engaged in the debate to accept the fact that Islam is not the problem, it stands to reason that they must first feel that Islam as practiced and held by Muslims fits into the predominant moral framework of American spirituality and values of the God of Abraham (a Judeo-Christian-Islamic morality, if you will). This is evidenced by the moral behaviors of the vast majority of Muslims in America and around the world. This morality certainly comes from God and for Muslims the faith of Islam is the source of it no different than Judaism or Christianity is for Jews and Christians.

Now, bring political Islam into this mix, and one is left with many questions. Is Islam compatible with democracy? Can Muslims separate mosque and state? Can Muslims be anti-theocratic? Can Muslim behavior and thought today be consistent with modernity while so many current Muslim legal constructs enacted in the name of sharia law seem not to be? How do Muslims reconcile their history of an empire ruled by a Muslim Caliphate, an empire which had varying rules for its citizens based upon faith with today’s more pluralistic universal laws of American society blind to one faith? How do Muslims reconcile the plight of women’s rights in ‘Muslim’ societies with their faith and the West? Those are just a few of the questions so many thoughtful writers have tried to answer since 9-11.

Before embarking upon a discussion of any of those questions, which can fill texts, a more fundamental question remains concerning the central principles of any Muslim’s faith. Is the foundation of Islam as felt and practiced within each Muslim a moral one?

From a counterterrorism assessment, formulating a threat assessment of the ideologies at play are very necessary. Before blanketing the faith of Islam as a threat to Americanism (religious pluralism), Americans first need to be able to separate Islam from Islamism and Islam from what some Muslims do.

Americans will find that for most Muslims generally - as it is for Jews or Christians or any God fearing individual - the central defining principles of faith are not dictated by the specific interpretations of God’s laws (sharia for Muslims) or to any single one of the interpretations of various passages of the Qur’an peaceful or otherwise. As a Muslim, my faith as I see it and as it has been taught to me in its most devotional expression is simply-- my personal relationship with a moral God—the God of Abraham. The stronger and more personal is that relationship, the more pious an individual may be. Thus piety is not measured by others or by outward actions or expressed beliefs, but rather piety is dependent upon the intensity and purity of that internal relationship with God.

The essence of the nucleus of the primary cell of Islam as an organism of faith is a human being’s manifestations and choices for goodness over evil which includes love, honesty, compassion, empathy, courage, integrity, humility, character, behavior, self-control, creativity, discipline, and gratitude to name a few of the faith defining human principles most faiths share. When our families taught us about faith and God, most of the time was spent on these principles. To most Muslims, the countervailing ‘evil’ choices to these positive human characteristics come from Satan and not from God. The existence of evil and its acts only demonstrates that God has given humanity free will. Without the existence of evil, humans would not have choice or free will. Often evil will exploit religion to defeat that which is good.

It is this inherent human tendency toward good and away from evil, which is the central notion of Islam as it is for Judaism and Christianity. From this then arises a spiritual life with a deep personal relationship and communication with God as seen in all of the faiths recognizing the God of Abraham.

From this spirituality, this goodness, then arises the character, which an individual carries to life and to our theological texts and their derived interpretations. While the body of laws available today may not all contain a modernized interpretation, it can certainly be modernized if the Muslims doing the modernizing are of sound moral conviction and integrity and education. It is the corruption, tribalism, and ignorance of so many in the Muslim world, which has poisoned any moves towards enlightenment. But this conflict between good and evil is one, which will be won by the righteous when pious Muslims who fear God, and respect universal humanitarian principles are empowered to stand up to evil under the moral courage of the inspired principles of the God of Abraham.

My family always taught me that a Muslim will not miraculously find his or her character within the pages of the Qur’an or Hadith. But rather, a Muslim’s interpretation of our holy text is through the lens of one’s established moral character, which is developed on a personal human level from within the soul and conscience not a textual one.

Our own moral compass and its inherent principles are a lens for life which is produced in an early stage of youth and adolescence that sets the tone for how we interpret life and religion. While the details of religion can inspire and direct this compass, life’s core direction toward good is formed and maintained internally between an individual’s soul and God early on. Suicide bombers, jihadists, and other militant Islamists are evil at their core and just turn to the language of Islam found in the Qur’an or the Hadith to justify their barbarism, coercion, and doctrine of the ends justifying the means and of political Islam. Granted, this is much easier to do with the ready availability around the world of radical and medieval interpretations so desperately in need of 21st Century enlightened pluralistic re-interpretations.

Accepting this common Muslim formulation of faith is vital to marginalizing the militancy of current radicalized interpretations most of which are of Salafist derivation and rather expressing a core positively guiding morality for the vast majority of Muslims. It will take Muslims who love their faith to articulate a modern Islam to create an etho, which accepts the radical interpretation as immoral.

Certainly, the ubiquitous jihadist and Caliphist interpretations of Islamic literature and jurisprudence are in need of an overwhelming alternative narrative to the fundamentalist interpretation, which so often dominates the airwaves. We must believe that the predominant Muslim morality as derived from God and exemplified in the life of the Prophet Mohammed and in the vast majority of Muslims is one of good, one of the Golden Rule, of compassion, and of humility.

Once we can accept that most Muslims are moral and believe in a faith with an inviolable moral nucleus, than we can find hope that the seeds of reformation of formal textual interpretations will be planted for freedom and liberty, for free will over coercion, over theocracy and over political Islam.

If most Muslims were immoral, the world would have perished a long time ago. It is Islamism, which deserves our combined energies in critique and ideological deconstruction. Muslims, however, who are anti-Islamist and practicing a modern moral Islam are the key to its defeat.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor M. Zuhdi Jasser is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and the Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org.

Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

2007-05-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

Source: Yahoo News.

By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "CPR efforts were unsuccessful," he said.

Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive."

Falwell had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.

Falwell credited his Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, electing Ronald Reagan and giving Republicans Senate control in 1980.

"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," Falwell said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.

The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on television stations around the country and 7,700-student Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.

He also founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, which began as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.

Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.

In 2006, Falwell marked the 50th anniversary of his church and spoke out on stem cell research, saying he sympathized with people with medical problems, but that any medical research must pass a three-part test: "Is it ethically correct? Is it biblically correct? Is it morally correct?"

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but he changed his view and in 1979, founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying organization grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on television talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.

In 1984, he sued Hustler magazine for $45 million, charging that he was libeled by an ad parody depicting him as an incestuous drunkard. A federal jury found the fake ad did not libel him, but awarded him $200,000 for emotional distress. That verdict was overturned, however, in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy First Amendment protection.

The case was depicted in the 1996 movie "The People v. Larry Flynt."

With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on "non-moral issues."

Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.

Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays, lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He later apologized.

In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse-toting character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children.

Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and more conservative elected officials.

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started his independent Baptist church with 35 members. From his living room, he began broadcasting his message of salvation and raising the donations that helped his ministry grow.

"He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry," said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career.

In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South Carolina after Jim Bakker's troubles. Falwell slid fully clothed down a theme park water slide after donors met his fund-raising goal to help rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after learning the depth of PTL's financial problems.

Largely because of the Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, donations to Falwell's ministry dropped from $135 million in 1986 to less than $100 million the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled.

Liberty University was $73 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt.

By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or write them of as losses.

Falwell devoted much of his time keeping his university afloat. He dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and Brigham Young University is to Mormons. He was an avid sports fan who arrived at Liberty basketball games to the cheers of students.

Falwell's father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses — including bootleging during Prohibition.

As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian's speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets his senior year.

He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again Christian at age 19. He turned down an offer to play professional baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

"My heart was burning to serve Christ," he once said in an interview. "I knew nothing would ever be the same again."

Falwell is survived by his wife, Macel, and three children, Jerry, Jonathan and Jeannie.

Moderate Muslim Voices Silenced

2007-05-15T04:04:00.000-07:00

Written by: Dallas News.

PBS won't show 'Islam vs. Islamists,' but you should see it, says ROD DREHER
02:19 PM CDT on Sunday, May 13, 2007

I've asked myself a thousand times since 9/11: Where are all the moderate Muslims? We're assured that there's a silent majority of Muslims who want nothing to do with the jumped-up jihadists. But those voices are few and far between.

Here's the good news: The makers of the PBS-commissioned documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Center found some outspoken moderate Muslims and profiled them and their astonishing courage. The film shows these men mounting a lonely resistance against Muslim leaders in the West who are fronting a false moderate face to the public while using oil money from Gulf Arab sources to make their hard-line version of Islam the norm.

Here's the bad news: PBS refused to air the film as part of its recent "America at the Crossroads" series, even though it had been scheduled. I saw Islam vs. Islamists and concluded that it's absolutely vital to informed public debate. That PBS decided not to show, at least for now, such an important film is shocking.

Or is it? Most of the U.S. media has done a lousy job of critically covering Muslim organizations here, of asking serious questions about what their leaders believe and where they get their funding. These folks are quick to shriek "Islamophobia!" when a journalist points out their connections to radical Islam or asks straightforward questions about what they believe. The idea – and it's a successful one – is to squelch a legitimate and necessary public discussion.

As Islam vs. Islamists documents, it's a tactic they use with far less finesse on dissenting Muslims. Tarek Fatah and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, two of several moderates featured in the film, told me that the Islamophobia canard is useless against them because they are proud, practicing Muslims. Yet they say they can't get a hearing at many mosques or Islamic institutions because those places have been taken over by Islamists – adherents to a highly politicized form of the faith.

"They've basically turned our mosques into a political party of their own," says Dr. Jasser, a Phoenix physician. "We have nowhere to go to have this debate."

He's talking about the discussion regarding their religion and its role in a pluralistic society, especially in this time of war. Dr. Jasser warns that many Muslim denunciations of terrorism are deceptive.

"Terrorism is simply a means," he says. "The Muslim community has not had a debate about whether or not they endorse the ends of the Islamists" – namely, an America that is thoroughly Islamicized and organized around sharia law.

In the film, Dr. Jasser expresses confidence that most American Muslims are not violent but advises that most accept the Islamist view of world politics – conspiratorial, self-pitying and quick to blame America for all the Muslim world's problems. We also see in the movie a leading Arizona imam denouncing the reasonable and patriotic Dr. Jasser as an "extremist liberal."

Which raises a troubling question the film does not answer: How representative of the Muslim mainstream are these Muslim Which raises a troubling question the film does not answer: How representative of the Muslim mainstream are these Muslim moderates? The truth, as one counterterrorism investigator told me, is that the Jassers and Fatahs are probably in the minority – "but their voices need to be heard."

Indeed. Muslims, especially young ones, need exposure to competing voices from within their own traditions making the case for pluralism. And the rest of us need to take seriously the warnings these anti-Islamist Muslims are sounding: Muslim leaders' honeyed words when talking to the media and English-speaking audiences do not necessarily make them moderates or friends of peace.

Why would PBS not want to air this film defending moderate Muslims under attack – even facing death threats – from religious hardliners? An official at WETA, the Washington, D.C., public television station overseeing the "America at the Crossroads" series, has slighted the documentary as "alarmist," "unfair" and "irresponsible."

Nonsense – as any fair-minded viewer of the thoroughly professional film would attest, if only they could see it. Islam vs. Islamists would only appear alarmist and unfair to those whose cover it blows – and by useful media dupes willing to protect them. If PBS is too embarrassed to broadcast this movie, it should release the rights so someone else can, and let the American people can judge for themselves.

The West is waging a war of ideas with well-funded Islamists who far too often have the mainstream media on their side. If we ignore prophetic Muslim voices warning us that most Islamic leaders among us are not the gentle lambs they claim to be, and if we leave Muslim allies to fight the battle against these wolves alone, we only sabotage ourselves.

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist. He may be reached here.

Iran lifts 9-month ban on moderate newspaper

2007-05-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

TEHRAN: Shargh (East), the flagship newspaper of Iran's moderates, returned to newsstands Monday after a nine-month ban to join a diverse range of other moderate titles. The return of Shargh, a newspaper with a 100,000 daily circulation that was known for its criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, came a day after the like-minded Ham Mihan republished after a seven-year ban. The paper has held on to the same editorial team from before the ban and is keeping the same moderate line, although its publisher vowed to work within the framework of the country's laws. "Since Shargh wants to work within the framework of the ... Iran's media policies, we will adhere to respecting people's privacy," wrote Mehdi Rahmanian in an editorial. After a series of warnings, the paper was shut down last year for printing a cartoon depicting a donkey, its head surrounded by an aura, facing a knight on a chess board. The cartoon was deemed insulting to the president who said he had felt surrounded by an aura of light during his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2005. - AFP.

Japanese premier defends invasion of Iraq

2007-05-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

TOKYO: Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe on Monday strongly defended the invasion of Iraq, calling Saddam Hussein a dictator who posed a threat to the region. Abe is seeking parliamentary approval to extend an air-force mission in Iraq amid growing international criticism of the war, with Britain's likely next premier Gordon Brown promising a new approach. "It is a certainty that Iraq once used weapons of mass destruction in its attacks against Kurdish people - its own nationals - and used them in the Iran-Iraq War," Abe said, referring to Saddam's use of poison gas. "We had to conclude it was a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East to allow the Iraqi dictator to have weapons of mass destruction (WMD)," Abe told a lower house committee. "They had a number of chances to prove that they abandoned WMDs, but they didn't." - AFP.

Egyptian court upholds Mubarak decision to try Brotherhood members before military tribunal

2007-05-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

CAIRO: Egypt upheld a decision Monday by President Hosni Mubarak to have some 40 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood group tried by a military court, a judicial source said. Supreme Administrative Court Judge Issam Abdel-Aziz reversed a May 8 ruling in a lower court which declared invalid the president's decision, the source told AFP.

The military trial of the men, charged with money laundering and financing a banned organization, is now scheduled to resume on June 3.

The judge at the May ruling, Mohammad al-Husseini, said a military court would not "assure a fair trial" and the verdict was then described as "historic and unprecedented" by the banned but tolerated Brotherhood.

One of the accused is the group's financier and third-ranking official, Khayrat al-Shater.

The defendants and approximately 100 relatives had filed a suit against Mubarak but the president's lawyers argued that he had "absolute power."

Husseini said "there is nothing in Egyptian law called absolute power, so [Mubarak's] decision is illegal, because every decision must be based on the law and the constitution."

Egyptian authorities have kept Shater and the other accused behind bars despite a civilian court order in January to free the men.

The Muslim Brotherhood fielded candidates as independents in the 2005 legislative polls and recorded its best-ever results, securing 20 percent of seats in a Parliament controlled by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

Many observers argued at the time that the movement might have won a larger share of seats had the election not been marred by widespread fraud and voter obstruction.

Last week, Parliament lifted the immunity of two members from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, a prerequisite for sending them to trial.

Parliament also approved a new law on political rights, including an article enabling the authorities to disqualify any parliamentary candidates who use religious slogans or symbols - seen as a direct response to the Brotherhood's electoral successes in 2005. - AFP.

Palestinian interior minister quits in protest

2007-05-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

The Palestinian interior minister resigned on Monday, rocking a two-month-old unity government after the biggest surge in factional fighting in months revived fears of civil war.

Despite an Egyptian-brokered truce, two Palestinian gunmen and two civilians caught in crossfire were killed in clashes between the Hamas and Fatah groups in in Gaza. Nine people have been shot dead since a new round of violence erupted on Friday.

"I told all parties I cannot accept being a minister without authority," Interior Minister Hani al-Qawasmeh told a news conference after Premier Ismail Haniyya accepted his resignation.

Qawasmeh accused Palestinian both Haniyya and President Mahmoud Abbas of having failed to support him.

"From the beginning, I faced obstacles that robbed the ministry of its powers and made my position empty, without authority," he said. "I reached the conclusion the whole [security] situation is not being dealt with seriously ... The combined force that has been agreed is made up of opposing forces that are fighting as we speak."

Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the Cabinet decided to deploy security forces controlled by Abbas and the interior minister under one leadership. He said the forces would answer to Haniyya, who would temporarily take charge of Qawasmeh's ministry.

"We urge all factions to with-draw gunmen from [Gaza] streets," Barghouti said.

"We will not let Gaza become a new Somalia," he added. "We will attack the security mess and beat it inside its home."

Haniyya urged Palestinians to protect the power-sharing agreement and called Fatah and Hamas officials to a meeting at his office later Monday.

On the ground, masked gunmen patrolled Gaza's streets as ordinary Palestinians opted to stay indoors and keep children home from school. Shops were shuttered and taxi drivers took detours to bypass checkpoints set up by rival armed groups.

Hamas' political chief, Khaled Meshaal, said Monday he wants to keep the power-sharing government despite the renewed fighting, a report said Monday. Speaking to Japan's Kyodo News, he said that talk of the Islamists wanting a government to themselves amounted to "false reports."

"We are keen on the national unity government," Meshaal told Kyodo News, which said it conducted the interview Sunday at his base in Syria. "The problem is not between us and Fatah," he was quoted as saying.

At the center of the latest fighting is a dispute over who controls the security forces. A majority of the 80,000 forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are loyal to Abbas, the Fatah leader, while Hamas set up its own 6,000-strong "Executive Force" last year.

In forming their coalition in March, Hamas and Fatah put off dealing with the explosive security control problem. At the time, the two sides agreed on Qawasmeh, a long-time civil servant, as the interior minister who would be in charge of the security forces. However, there was little expectation that Qawasmeh would actually be given the authority to restore order and integrate the rival units.

Two weeks ago, a frustrated Qawasmeh threatened to resign, complaining that his plan had been ignored by both sides.

The latest round of fighting began last week after Abbas ordered the deployment of 3,000 troops in Gaza, over the objections of Hamas. Clashes intensified Sunday, with the killing of a local Fatah militant leader.

Among four killed Monday was a truck driver who was delivering bread and was struck by a stray bullet during a firefight near a Gaza City security compound. Three Fatah supporters were shot dead in clashes in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis.

In one incident Sunday, two employees of a Hamas-affiliated newspaper were pulled out of a taxi at a Fatah-manned roadblock and shot dead, according to Hamas' account.

Reporters Without Borders, an international press watchdog group, expressed "deep concern" about the killing of the newspaper employees.

Earlier, sources in Fatah said tensions could lead to the collapse of the unity government within days.

Moin Rabbani, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the International Crisis Group think tank, said the new government was now in jeopardy unless it acted more decisively to exert control and overcome factionalism.

"Unless there is a real effort to resolve these issues, it could be the beginning of the end of this experiment and, should this government collapse, the situation could get very much worse," he said.

However, Abbas is unlikely to dissolve the coalition soon because it would be difficult to hold new elections in the violent climate. Hamas would certainly object to new elections after winning a four-year term in last year's vote. - Agencies.

'They will repent:' Ahmadinejad vows 'severe retaliation' for any US attack

2007-05-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday threatened "severe" retaliation if the United States attacked his country - a tough response to recent comments by the US vice president that Washington would prevent Iran from dominating the region. Ahmadinejad also said Iran had agreed for the benefit of the Iraqi people to meet with the US in Baghdad to discuss security in Iraq.

"They realize that if they make such a mistake the retaliation of Iran would be severe and they will repent," Ahmadinejad told a news conference in the United Arab Emirates. He was speaking through an interpreter.

"All people know they cannot strike us. Iran is capable of defending itself. It is a strong country," said Ahmadinejad.

He said the West could not stop Tehran pursuing its nuclear energy program. "Superpowers cannot prevent us from owning this energy."

Using stronger language than on Sunday when he called for US troops to leave the region, Ahmadinejad said Gulf countries should "get rid of" foreign forces, which he blamed for insecurity in the region.

"We in the Persian Gulf are faced by difficulties and enemies," he said. "They claim lack of security is the reason for their presence [but] the problem is the intervention of foreign powers."

Ahmadinejad said the Americans had overextended their welcome in the region and were advocating tough actions that reached beyond what their Arab allies wished.

Ahmadinejad said the US-allied Emirates backs Iran's position that the US military should leave the Gulf.

"This region won't allow other powers from thousands of miles away to threaten the region and create enmity," he said. "Our talks with our brothers in the United Arab Emirates reiterated this truth again and again." Emirati officials had no immediate comment.

Despite the tense words, the US and Iran announced Sunday that they have agreed to meet in Baghdad to discuss security and stability in Iraq.

"Both parties have confirmed the talks will take place in Baghdad in the presence of the Iraqi government," Ahmadinejad said Monday. "We decided we were ready and prepared to do this to support the Iraqi people."

"They know that their plans have failed in Iraq, their vision is wrong. As long as you are plotting against the Iraqi people, failure will be there day after day," said Ahmadinejad.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, flying to Moscow after talks with regional leaders, said there was agreement on a need to stop a flow of arms and fighters across borders to insurgents in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad later traveled to Oman, the second and final stop of his trip, where he was holding talks with Sultan Qaboos. Along with Iran, Oman is co-guardian of the strategic Strait of Hormuz entrance to the Gulf. It has consistently maintained good relations with Iran.

Ahmadinejad said relations with the Emirates had taken a "quantum leap," with the two countries agreeing to create a joint committee headed by their foreign ministers to boost cooperation in tourism, trade, energy and development.

"There's a willingness on both sides to upgrade relations," he said. "Relations between Iran and the UAE can be a model for all the countries of the region." Ahmadinejad appeared to be pushing his agenda at a time when the US administration's popularity in the region is at a low point. He said Iran is ready to band together in a Gulf-wide security alliance with Washington's traditional regional allies.

He also called for restoring diplomatic relations with Egypt that were broken in 1979, saying it would strengthen regional security and stability.

Dubai-based analyst Mustafa Alani said Tehran was trying to forge regional cooperation around joint interests and to push for an end to foreign troops in the region, a demand that Arab Gulf states would not support.

"The disappearance of the Americans in the region will make Iran emerge as a super regional power, this is a demand linked to their strategic ambitions," he said. "But they [Arab states] need foreign support in the region because there is a deep mistrust in the Iranians."

The UAE, which like its Gulf neighbors has voiced concern about Tehran's nuclear plans, on Sunday voiced support for a moderate approach to Iran's crisis with the West. - Agencies.

Siniora officially asks UN to form Hariri tribunal

2007-05-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Source: The Daily Star.

Opposition slams 'stubbornness' of premier

By Rym Ghazal and Nafez Qawas
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

BEIRUT: In an official letter to the United Nations on Monday, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora requested help with the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri "as a matter of urgency." "We called on the UN Security Council to establish the court as soon as possible after all possible means to ratify it in Lebanon have failed," Minister of Information Ghazi Aridi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting late Monday.

Siniora sent the letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday morning. The letter, copies of which were released to the media, asked the Security Council to set up the court by whatever means "it deems appropriate." It went on to explain that attempts to ratify the tribunal in Parliament had failed.

"We found all the doors closed in Lebanon regarding this issue," said Aridi.

Opposition leaders said on Monday that the government had made no real effort to reach a compromise on the tribunal.

"We worked hard to turn the court into a point of unity between the Lebanese," Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil told reporters after a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.

"But the stubbornness of the head of this illegitimate government and his followers ruined any chance of that," he said. "I don't believe this move will help any of the current problems."

The government first officially sought the world body's help in establishing the court in a petition submitted on April 10. Since then, government supporters have repeatedly called for the establishment of the court under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would bypass parliamentary approval.

The opposition has expressed concern that the court will be used for political ends and other reservations.

"There is no basis for all the fears and worry over the establishment of the court under Chapter 7," said Aridi.

A spokesman at UN headquarters in New York told The Daily Star on Monday that the world body had been "expecting" the prime minister [sic] letter but that no hearings on the issue were planned.

"Currently there is nothing scheduled this month with the UN Security Council on the court issue," he said.

Ban has urged Lebanese officials to work on reaching.

U.N. official accuses Sudan of 'disproportionate' attacks

2007-05-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Excuse me. Is there any proportional attack against civillians? You people make me sick. Pardon me. Go ahead and read. Just had to add my 2 cents to this atrocity. They're committing genocide, and they use baby-like words. Why? So as not to offend them??? They sure don't worry about offending us, and we pay most of their stinking salaries!

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- The United Nations' human rights chief on Friday said recent air raids by Sudanese forces on at least five Darfur villages appeared to be "indiscriminate and disproportionate", and violated international law.

The attacks between April 19 and 29 have already been condemned by U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, although Khartoum says they never took place.

Making no reference to the Sudanese denial, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the attacks were reportedly carried out by helicopter gunships and Antonov aircraft.

There were "numerous civilian casualties and destruction of property," with school children amongst the wounded, Arbour's spokesman Jose Luis Diaz said in a statement.

At least five villages near El Fasher in North Darfur were targeted during 10 days of attacks which had "contributed to an already critical humanitarian situation".

"The bombardments appear to have been indiscriminate and disproportionate", and as such constituted "violations of international humanitarian and human rights law," Diaz added.

Earlier this month, Ban called for an end to air raids by Sudanese forces, which he said had caused civilian deaths and destruction, although he gave few details at the time.

But Sudan's ambassador to the U.N. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem denied the reported attacks and said rumours were being spread by people out to torpedo peace talks with rebels.

The United Nations says that some 200,000 have died and more than 2 million have fled their homes since conflict flared in Darfur in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government accusing it of years of neglect.

Sudan says 9,000 have perished.

The U.N. has sent some peacekeepers to Darfur, in western Sudan, and is trying to get agreement with the Khartoum government on more.

In Mind and Body, N. Koreans Still Suffer After Defection

2007-05-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

SEOUL — Even those lucky defectors who survive famine, violence, and criminal gangs to escape North Korea suffer from extremely poor mental and physical health long after resettling in affluent South Korea, a new survey has shown.

The survey by a research team from Seoul National University comprised more than 200 participants. It found that many defectors suffer severe mental health problems, largely as a result of overwhelming anxiety about loved ones they left behind.

And their physical health, measured across a range of indicators, was generally worse than that of a typical South Korean hepatitis patient, it showed.

Emotional anguish

“For North Korean defectors, living in South Korea is emotionally and physically demanding,” Professor Choi Myung-Ae of Seoul National University’s College of Nursing told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Choi and his colleagues conducted a study across eight medical specialties and found that the general physical and mental health status of more than 200 North Korean defectors residing in South Korea scored an average of 435 points out of 800 on key indicators. This was well below the average 509 points for South Korean hepatitis patients or even 491 points for recipients of organ transplants.

More than 80 percent of respondents said they had contracted at least one disease after leaving North Korea, with an average of two to three different diseases affecting each participant. Vitamin deficiency and muscular-skeletal disease from malnutrition were frequently reported, while gastritis, arthritis, and depression were also common.

“The health status of defectors who left their families in the North is five times worse than that of defectors who escaped North Korea with relatives or friends,” said Park Jeong Ran, an expert on defectors at the Institute for Unification Studies at Seoul National University.

“The research indicates that 20 percent of the ailments affecting North Korean defectors are mental in nature,” she said.

Medical staff at the Hanawon reception center for defectors have indicated that around 70 percent of North Koreans in their care exhibited symptoms of depression or other stress-related syndromes.

Human trafficking, prejudice

They cite “worries over the fate of the families left behind” and “apprehension of an uncertain future in South Korea” as the main causes.

Park called for an integrated health care system for defectors, saying that the work of charities and nonprofit groups was laudable but inadequate. She also pointed to social discrimination as a major hurdle for North Koreans in the South.

“South Korean citizens also need to discard their bias and prejudice toward the defectors and accept them as their equals,” Park said.

The Seoul National University findings support an earlier study from a Korea University research team, which focused on diseases contracted by defectors while still in North Korea, or in third countries along their defection route to South Korea.

Along the tortuous road to defection, many North Korean women and girls fell victim to human traffickers or lived in extremely adverse conditions, and consequently were in worse health than men, that study found.

In April, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs studied the health of 6,500 North Korean defectors who had arrived in South Korea between 2000 and 2005. It found a high infection rate for syphilis, at 1.8 percent in 2004 and 2.1 percent in 2005. Of 700 women aged 20 to 49 hosted by the Hanawon reception center, one out of five suffered from some type of gynecological disorder.

Kim Hye Eun, deputy secretary general of a South Korean-based North Korean defectors’ association dealing with health and employment problems, called for a more realistic health care policy to address defectors’ needs.

“If they are sick, it is not so easy to seek appropriate medical care. They have to pay for their medication out of pocket,” Kim said. “Many of them can’t go to a hospital even if they are sick, as they don’t have health insurance.”

“It takes North Korean defectors a long time to find a decent job in the South. To make things worse, they cannot afford to look after their own health, and often their health condition doesn’t allow them to continue on their jobs, thus creating a vicious circle that encompasses both health and employment issues,” she said.

Rampant post-traumatic stress disorder

She said the health care problem was more urgent than financial incentives to retrain for employment in the South.

“Ideally, North Korean defectors in the South should receive lifelong free health insurance, or at the very least be granted an extension of their current two-year free health insurance coverage,” Kim said.

A 2001 study of post-traumatic stress disorder among defectors found that they reported certain traumatic events in North Korea with a high frequency.

Most commonly reported were: “witnessing public executions,” followed by “hearing news of the death of a family member or relative due to starvation,” “witnessing a beating,” “witnessing a punishment for political misconduct,” and “death of a family member or relative due to illness.”

The study, published in the international medical journal The Lancet, found symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 29.5 percent of North Koreans in South Korea, compared with a rate of 56 percent found among North Koreans in China in a separate study.

Women are also thought to have experienced far higher rates of rape and sexual assault, often through being trafficked by criminal gangs, than were reported in the Lancet study, however.

Original reporting in Korean by Youngyoon Choi and Naeri Kim. RFA Korean service director: Jaehoon Ahn. Translated from Korean by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join AT rfanews DOT org.