02.12.06 Gunmen kill Pakistan doctor suspected of links with Al Qaeda, protests erupt

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) February 13 – Gunmen on a motorcycle on Monday killed an elderly Pakistani doctor who had been detained three years ago for suspected Al Qaeda links, police said. Ahmad Javed Khawaja, 72, was attacked after he finished his morning prayers at a mosque and was walking to his clinic in the eastern city of Lahore, said Mohammed Ali, a police official in Lahore. The attackers fled and no one has been arrested, Ali said, adding that the shootingıs motive was not known.

About 500 people joined a protest that erupted after the shooting. Many chanted, "Death to America!" as they blocked a street and set tires on fire before dispersing after two hours. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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02.12.06 Indonesia holds preacher in terror hunt

February 13 – Indonesian police have detained a Muslim preacher in the eastern town of Poso in the hunt for one of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic militants. Police in the province of Central Sulawesi on Monday said authorities detained the preacher because of his suspected links to Noordin M. Top, a Malaysian accused of playing a key role in a spate of bombings in Indonesia. Rais Adam, a police spokesman for the province, said: "A Muslim religious teacher was detained in Poso last Thursday." He gave no details on the preacher's suspected links to Top. A police official in Jakarta said the man had been detained under the country's anti-terrorism laws. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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02.12.06 Northern China wetlands drying up

(Reuters) February 13 – The wetlands along northern China's biggest river system are drying up because of the thirst of an expanding population and a fast-growing economy, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. 12 main sections of wetlands along the reaches of the Haihe River, which used to cover 3,800 sq km (1,465 sq miles), have shrunk by more than 80 percent over the past five decades to just 538 sq km (207 sq miles), according to Xinhua. The Haihe is formed by five large rivers that spread out like a fan over vast areas of northern China and converge near Tianjin, a bustling port city southeast of Beijing. One of China's three main river valleys, its basin covers an area of 320,000 sq km (125,000 sq miles).

Xinhua quoted officials with the regional water conservancy authority as blaming the shrinking of the wetlands on excessive exploitation of the Haihe and damming of the river's tributaries...The expansion of thirsty industries such as paper and cement has strained water supplies to the limit in a country that only has one fourth as much water, per head of its population, as the world average. An estimated 300 million people nationwide have no access to clean water, 70 percent of China's water is contaminated and in the past 50 years it has lost more than 1,000 lakes. [Full story>>chinadaily.com.cn]

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02.12.06 Iran: Israeli crimes outstrip Holocaust

February 12 – Iran has said Israel's treatment of the Palestinians constituted a greater crime than the Nazi Holocaust. The statement from the Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday was the latest in a series of remarks from Tehran suggesting that the genocide was exaggerated to boost Israeli interests. Hamid Reza Asefi, the foreign ministry spokesman, told a news conference: "I believe the crimes committed by the Zionist regime are greater than the Holocaust. "Unfortunately, the Zionist regime is blackmailing the Europeans with the Holocaust." [More>>aljazeera.net ; See related story, haaretzdaily.com, "Iran's Jews slam Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial remarks." : ...Haroun Yashayaei, the head of Iran's Jewish community, sent a letter of complaint to Ahmadinejad two weeks ago. "How is it possible to ignore all of the undeniable evidence existing for the exile and massacre of the Jews in Europe during World War Two?" said a copy of Yashayaei's letter faxed to Reuters on Sunday...Iran's Jewish community has slumped to some 25,000 members from about 85,000 at the time of the revolution. Iran's population is about 69 million.

Iran's Jews are often the subject of intense suspicion and 10 from the southern city of Shiraz were convicted of spying in 2000. The closed door trial sparked international outrage. The last five detained were released in April 2003. Last April, Iran's Jewish parliamentarian had to complain to parliament that popular television serials were anti-Semitic. The parliament speaker supported his complaint...


Editorial note: See "Holocaust" means "whole burnt offering" below. A tiny book I wrote in 1992, "What Price Justice," would appear to relate here. I am sorry I didn't see more into the future when I wrote that document which was used by the homeless in San Francisco to pursue their cause. The document was part of my correspondence with Wm. F. Buckley Jr. on the consequences of the US debt which tended to focus on matters of faith.

Mel Copeland

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02.12.06 British imam praises London Tube bombers

February 12 – A leading imam in the mosque where the July 7 bombers worshipped has hailed their terrorist attack on London as a ³good² act in a secretly taped conversation with an undercover reporter. Hamid Ali, spiritual leader of the mosque in West Yorkshire, said it had forced people to take notice when peaceful meetings and conferences had no impact. He also praised the bombers as the ³children² of Abdullah al-Faisal, a firebrand Muslim cleric, who was convicted of inciting murder and racial hatred in 2003.

Ali revealed that the leader of the London suicide bombers had attended sermons in Yorkshire by al-Faisal and tapes of al-Faisalıs teachings were still circulating within his mosque. Al-Faisal, who has branded non-Muslims as ³cockroaches² ripe for extermination, is serving a seven-year prison sentence but is eligible for early release next week. [More>>timesonline.co.uk ; See related story timesonline.co.uk, "Public anger at Muslim protestors." : ...The poll shows that 86% of people think the protests were ³a gross overreaction². By 56% to 29% respondents said it was right to publish the cartoons in Denmark and republish them elsewhere. Earlier this month Muslim protesters in Britain carried placards urging violence and death against those who insult Islam, and celebrating last yearıs July 7 London bombings. Asked about those protests, 58% said it made them angry and 76% said the police should have arrested those carrying offensive or provocative banners...

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02.12.06 British troops videoed 'beating Iraqis'

February 12 – Details emerged last night of a shocking video which appears to show a group of British soldiers brutally beating and kicking defenceless Iraqi teenagers in an army compound. The footage is said to show eight soldiers pulling four teenagers off the street following a riot and dragging them into their army base, before beating them with batons, as well as punching and kicking them. An urgent Military Police investigation was under way last night into the events shown in the video. The Ministry of Defence issued the following statement: 'We are aware of these very serious allegations and can confirm that they are the subject of an urgent Royal Military Police investigation. We condemn all acts of abuse and treat any allegation of wrongdoing extremely seriously.' [More>>guardian.co.uk]

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02.12.06 'US plans to attack Iran nuke sites'

LONDON (PTI) February 12 – The United States is drawing up plans for bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a Œlast resortı to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, a media report said today. Central command and strategic command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The war strategists are reporting to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as the US is updating plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions, the report said. [More>>expressindia.com ; See details at telegraph.co.uk : ..."This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months"...

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02.12.06 Katrina report spreads blame

February 12 – Hurricane Katrina exposed the US government's failure to learn the lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as leaders from President Bush down disregarded ample warnings of the threat to New Orleans and did not execute emergency plans or share information that would have saved lives, according to a blistering report by House investigators.

A draft of the report, to be released publicly Wednesday, includes 90 findings of failures at all levels of government, according to a senior investigation staffer who requested anonymity because the document is not final. Titled "A Failure of Initiative," it is one of three separate reviews by the House, Senate and White House that will in coming weeks dissect the response to the nation's costliest natural disaster. The 600-plus-page report lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and the White House Homeland Security Council, according to a 60-page summary of the document obtained by The Washington Post. Regarding Bush, the report found that "earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response" because he alone could have cut through all bureaucratic resistance. [More>>washingtonpost.com]

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02.12.06 China announces eighth bird flu death

(AFP) February 11 – China announced that a 20-year-old woman in the central province of Hunan had died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to eight. The victim, a farmer surnamed Long from Suining County, showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on January 27 after culling poultry raised in her home and died on February 4, the health ministry said, Xinhua News Agency reported...Long was the 12th human case of bird flu reported in China, eight of whom have died...[Full story>>chinadaily.com.cn]

Editorial note: The bird flu has killed 50% of humans infected, in contrast to the WWI influenza "Spanish Flu" that killed millions, with one out of ten infected resulting in death.

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02.12.06 US presents to Japan breakdown of costs to move marines to Guam

TOKYO, February 12 – The United States has presented to Japan a breakdown of the costs that would be incurred in transferring the U.S. Marine Corps command and about 6,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, Japanese government sources said Saturday. [More>>crisscross.com ; See more details at japantimes.co.jp, "$5.6 billion eyed for new Guam facilities."]

Editorial note: The plans begun a year ago to transfer the US military Far East command from Japan to Guam are recorded in Maravot News Archives.

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02.11.06 Turkish youths 'threaten to kill' Catholic friar

ISTANBUL, February 11 – A group of Turkish youths threatened to kill a Catholic friar, grabbing him by the throat and shouting "God is Greatest," just days after a Catholic priest was shot dead in Turkey, the friar said Friday. Martin Kmetec, a Franciscan friar from Slovenia, opened the door of his house on Thursday to find seven or eight angry men in their 20s. "He took me by the throat and pulled me inside and said 'we're going to finish you off' ... he also said Allahu Akbar (Arabic for God is Greatest)," Kmetec told Reuters by telephone from his church in the province of Izmir. Kmetec closed the door on the youths, who said they were nationalists, but left after trying to break the door down. A local police spokesman said they were investigating the matter.

Turkey, a secular state with an overwhelming Muslim majority, was shocked last Sunday by the shooting of a 61-year-old Italian priest, Andrea Santoro, in his church. [More>>dailystar.com.lb ; See related story, February 9, turkishpress.com, "Turkish teenager charged over priest's murder."]

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02.11.06 Zawahiri relative killed in US attack last month: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, February 11 – A close relative of Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among five foreign militants killed in a US air strike on a tribal village last month, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday. "Among the people who were killed in Bajur, one of them was a close relative of Zawahiri," Musharraf was quoted as saying by his spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Musharraf added that one of the dead was an "important person" with a five million dollar bounty on his head, however Sultan said it was not clear if the president was talking about Zawahiri's relative or another person. Zawahiri was also expected to be at the house targeted by the missile attack but he failed to show, Sultan told, quoting Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror." [jang.com.pk]

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02.11.06 'Bush is certainly not welcome in India'

NEW DELHI (PTI) February 11 – Seven political parties, including CPI, CPI(M) And Samajwadi Party, on Friday decided to oppose the forthcoming visit of US President George W. Bush to the country. "Under President Bush, the US continues to occupy Iraq and oppress its people. It threatens Syria and has targeted Iran on the issue of its nuclear programme. It backs the naked oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel. "He is certainly not welcome in India," a joint statement of CPI, CPI(M), RSP, AIFB, CPI(ML) Liberation, JD(S) and SP said after a decision in this regard was taken at a meeting on Thursday.

"We have constituted a broad-based committee against Bush's visit and decided to organize under its banner a massive peoples march and rally to protest against his visit," it said, calling the American leader an "enemy of sovereign nations." [More>>expressindia.com]

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02.11.06 Militant linked to southeast Asia terror held

JAKARTA (AP) February 11 – An Islamic militant with suspected links to a Southeast Asian terrorist group has been detained in central Indonesia, police said Saturday. Brig. Gen. Bambang Suwedi said an Islamic teacher in the town of Poso in Central Sulawesi province was arrested Thursday morning. Bambang said police acted on reports that the teacher, known only as Sahal, had links to Malaysian fugitive Noordin Top, an operative with the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiah group, which has been blamed for bombings since 2000 that have left more than 245dead. "He (Sahal) was questioned by the anti-terror unit in Jakarta," said Bambang, who leads a special police task force on the conflict in Poso, where religious clashes have left 1,000 dead 1999. [More>>thejakartapost.com]

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02.11.06 Global warming: passing the 'tipping point'

February 11 – A crucial global warming "tipping point" for the Earth, highlighted only last week by the British Government, has already been passed, with devastating consequences. Research commissioned by The Independent reveals that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has now crossed a threshold, set down by scientists from around the world at a conference in Britain last year, beyond which really dangerous climate change is likely to be unstoppable.

The implication is that some of global warming's worst predicted effects, from destruction of ecosystems to increased hunger and water shortages for billions of people, cannot now be avoided, whatever we do. It gives considerable force to the contention by the green guru Professor James Lovelock, put forward last month in The Independent, that climate change is now past the point of no return. The danger point we are now firmly on course for is a rise in global mean temperatures to 2 degrees above the level before the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century.

At the moment, global mean temperatures have risen to about 0.6 degrees above the pre-industrial era - and worrying signs of climate change, such as the rapid melting of the Arctic ice in summer, are already increasingly evident. But a rise to 2 degrees would be far more serious. [More>>independent.co.uk ; See related article, independent.co.uk, February 10, "World is at its warmest for a millennium."]

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02.11.06 Two more bird flu cases in Greece

ATHENS (AP) February 11 – The Greek agriculture ministry said today it had isolated a second case of the H5 flu virus in a wild goose on an island in the Aegean Sea. It said samples have been sent to a special EU laboratory in Weybridge outside London to see if the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain, which has already caused about 90 death since 2003, mostly in Asia, and which was this week confirmed to be in northern Nigeria. The ministry said the infected goose was found in the island of Skyros. Greece has been on a bird-flu alert since Thursday when the H5 virus was confirmed in three dead swans near the northern port of Salonika. [More>>theaustralian.news.com.au ; See related bird flu stories, thejakartapost.com, "Indonesian woman dies of bird flu." and chinadaily.com.cn, "China announces eighth bird flu death" ; jang.com.pk, "Bird flu reaches Greece, Italy, Bulgaria." ; khaleejtimes.com, "Italy records EU's first bird flu cases" : ...Italyıs Health Minister said on Saturday a total of 17 dead swans had been found in the southern regions of Calabria, Apula and Sicily...]

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02.10.06 Malaysian among militants involved in 2002 West Coast terror plot, officials say

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) February 10 – A Malaysian recruited by Al Qaeda to become a pilot for a second wave of Sept. 11-style attacks on the United States pulled out of the plan after he witnessed the carnage of the first assaults, Southeast Asian officials said on Friday. US President George W. Bush in a speech Thursday outlined some of the details of an alleged plot to hijack an airliner and fly it into a skyscraper in Los Angeles, and said cooperation between Washington and several Asian countries helped expose it. The plan never appeared close to the stage where it could be put into execution. And scores of arrests in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks severely curtailed the ability of Al Qaeda and its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemmah Islamiyah, to operate. Adding details to Bushıs outline, security officials and terrorism experts in Southeast Asia on Friday said Malaysian engineer Zaini Zakaria was among three men Al Qaeda was preparing to take part in an attack on the US West coast. [More>>khaleejtimes.com ; See also timesonline.co.uk, "The al-Qaeda pilot who got cold feet." and related story:

abc.news.go.com, "L.A. mayor blindsided by terror info" : LOS ANGELES (AP) February 10, 2006 — President Bush's disclosure of new details about a foiled 2002 terrorist plan to destroy the city's tallest building has strained relations between the White House and the mayor, who accused the Bush administration of taking too long to tell him of the new information. President Bush detailed the planned attack in a speech Thursday, saying terrorists intended to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into downtown's 73-story US Bank Tower. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he got word of the new details like everyone else watching Bush's speech on TV. He said his office should have been warned beforehand about Bush's announcement, which set off a new round of anxiety over terrorism in the nation's second-largest city...

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02.10.06 Ex-CIA official faults use of data on Iraq

February 10 – The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the US intelligence agencies' mistakes in concluding that Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did not drive the administration's decision to invade.

"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting – and evidently without being influenced by – any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq." [More>>washingtonpost.com]

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02.10.06 Brown: FEMA was 'doomed' to fail

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) February 10 – Top Department of Homeland Security officials were told that New Orleans' levees were breached the day that Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, former disaster chief Michael Brown said Friday, contradicting previous statements by agency officials who said they did not know the levees were toppling until the next day. "I find it a little disingenuous," Brown, who at the time headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told a Senate oversight committee. "For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney."

Brown also told senators that decisions and policies by the parent Homeland Security Department doomed FEMA to "a path to failure" that led to the government's slow response to the storm. He said that because of a focus on terrorism, natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security." [More>>cbsnews.com and nytimes, "White House knew of levee's failure on night of storm."]

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02.10.06 Worshippers die in Iraq mosque attack

February 10 – Also on Friday, a dozen men wearing Iraqi police uniforms snatched a Sunni Arab cleric from his Baghdad home, while abducted Jill Caroll, the US reporter, appealed to supporters in a new tape to do whatever necessary to secure her freedom. The car which targeted the Iskan al-Shaabi mosque was parked about 10 metres from the place of worship in the southern Dora neighborhood when it exploded after 1pm, shattering glass in the building and causing casualties inside and outside, said police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud. At least eight people were killed and 21 wounded, according to Dr. Muhannad Jawad of Yarmouk General Hospital.

Earlier, police spokesman Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said most of the victims were attending the main weekly Muslim prayer service. The US military announced on Friday that two American Marines were killed a day earlier after their patrol was attacked by a roadside bomb near the one-time anti-US stronghold of Falluja, 65km west of Baghdad. Their deaths took the number of US military personnel killed to at least 2269 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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02.10.06 Iraqi army units pursue Al-Qaeda fugitives

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) February 10 – Iraqi army units are searching for Al-Qaeda members in a remote hilly area where the fugitives are believed to have fled after falling out of favor with tribal leaders in former strongholds. For the past two days Iraqi Army units, with U.S. air support, have been moving through the hilly Hamreen region, southwest of the city of Kirkuk, which they say has become a major insurgent stronghold. [More>>dailystar.com.lb] ; See related story, timesonline.co.uk, "Murder of sheikh provokes Sunnis to turn on al-Qaeda" : Regarded as untouchable by the Sunni populace, Sheikh Naser Abdul Karim al-Miklif believed that he had no need for bodyguards. Leader of the huge al-Bu Fahad tribe in Anbar province, the seat of the Sunni insurgency, he was revered by insurgents and local residents alike as a man faithful to the interests of his people. His position of power was unmatched. Yet three weeks ago, driving alone through the centre of Ramadi in his maroon Mercedes after attending a tribal wake, the sheikh was killed, riddled with bullets by assassins who fired from two passing Opels.

Coming only days after a huge bomb killed more than 80 Sunni police recruits in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, his killing has sparked a tit-for-tat cycle between Iraqi resistance cells and those they see as responsible for the death of the sheikh — al-Qaeda. ³We arenıt talking about scattered incidents,² a Ramadi man, who is connected with the insurgency, said. ³We are talking about many operations with the Mujahidin hunting down al-Qaeda, specific patrols tracking them and killing them in and around Ramadi²... ]

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02.10.06 Twelve militants dead in southern Russia amid Beslan repeat fears

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) February 10 – Twelve militants thought to have been plotting a terrorist atrocity similar to the 2004 Belsan school massacre have been killed in southern Russia after troops and police stormed a building where they been holed up since Thursday night, the Interior Ministry said Friday. A local police chief said law enforcers had opted for action in the Stavropol Territory village of Tukui Mekteb due to fears that the militants were planning a repetition of the bloody attack on a school in the North Caucasus town of Beslan in September 2004, which claimed the lives of 331 people, including 186 children. [More>>rian.ru]

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02.10.06 Bird flu kills again, spreads to new country

BAKU (Reuters) February 10 – Avian flu was blamed for another death in Indonesia on Friday and spread to a new country after Azerbaijan said the lethal H5N1 strain had been found in wild birds on the Caspian Sea. The virus was discovered in birds in the west African country of Nigeria earlier this week, capping what a senior United Nations official called a devastating spread from southern Asia over the past seven months. [More>>thestar.com.my]

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02.09.06 Newspaper suspended over cartoons – no let up in fury – Bush & Rice told to shut up

(Reuters) February 10 – Malaysia will suspend the publishing licence of a daily newspaper after it printed the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that have enraged Muslims worldwide. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ordered the licence of the publisher of the Sarawak Tribune to be suspended indefinitely with immediate effect. The publisher was not immediately available for comment.

The paper ran the caricatures last weekend to illustrate a story on its inside pages about the global fury in what it called an "oversight" by a non-Muslim night editor. The incident embarrassed the mainly Muslim country's government, which is headed by an Islamic scholar who currently chairs the world's largest grouping of Islamic nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference...The Sarawak Tribune is published in the eastern state of Sarawak on the jungle-clad island of Borneo. It is one of the few Malaysian states where Muslims are in a minority. [Full story>>theaustralian.news.com.au ; See also thestar.com.my, "Cabinet wants tough action against Sarawak Tribune." and related stories:

nation.com.pk, "No let-up in caricature fury" : QALAT (AFP) February 9 – There has been no let-up in global protests against the publication of irreverent cartoons of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and appeals for calm went unheeded on Wednesday as police shot dead four more protesters during rioting in Afghanistan, bringing the worldwide death toll to 13. Eleven demonstrators have been killed since Friday in Afghanistan, and one each in Somalia and Lebanon. The reprinting of the 12 offending caricatures in a French satirical weekly on Wednesday, along with a fresh batch of related cartoons, deepened Muslim anger against what is perceived as an act of blasphemy.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters burnt an effigy of US President George Bush in a remote tribal area, the third day of large-scale demonstrations in different Pakistani cities. Around 3,000 demonstrators shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) in Dara Adamkhel, near the Afghan border, accused Bush of backing the caricatures. "Bush is behind this, he heads the gang, which is against Islam," Said Wazir, the leader of a local Islamic group called Qaumi Tehreek, told the crowd...

Jerusalem Post, "Nasrallah tells Bush and rice to 'shut up' about Muslims" : February 9 – The leader of Hizbullah, heading a march by hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims on Thursday, said US President George W. Bush and his secretary of state should "shut up" after they accused Syria and Iran of fueling protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Muslims worldwide to continue demonstrations until there is an apology over the drawings and Europe passes laws forbidding insults to the prophet. The head of the guerrilla group, which is backed by Iran and Syria, spoke before a mass procession of Shi'ites marking Ashura, an annual remembrance of the 680 A.D. battle in which Hussein, their saint and grandson of Muhammad, was killed by rivals, cementing the split in Islam between Shi'ites and Sunnis...

timesonline.co.uk, "Danes accuse the imams of 'speaking with two tongues' : February 9 – The Danish media and Government have accused a group of Danish imams of stoking up the ³cartoon wars² by touring the Middle East with a dossier to seek international support for their protest. The clerics, whose trip was organized by Imam Abu Laban, of the Islamic Belief Society, were accused of showing more offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad than those published by the daily Jyllands-Posten, including one of Muhammad looking like a pig and another of him having sex with a dog. Although Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons last September, the wrath of the Islamic world did not fall on Denmark until after the imamsı tour in December and last month...

nytimes.com, "At Mecca meeting, cartoon outrage crystalized" : BEIRUT, Lebanon, February 8 — As leaders of the world's 57 Muslim nations gathered for a summit meeting in Mecca in December, issues like religious extremism dominated the official agenda. But much of the talk in the hallways was of a wholly different issue: Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. The closing communiqué took note of the issue when it expressed "concern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in the media of certain countries" as well as over "using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions." ... ]

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02.09.06 Death toll from Hangu bombing rises to 31

HANGU, Pakistan, February 9 – At least 31 people were killed in a suspected suicide attack on a Shiite procession in northwest Pakistan and in ensuing riots, police and security officials told. [jang.com.pk ; See more details, khaleejtimes, "Religious violence leaves 34 dead in Pakistan, Afghanistan."]

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02.09.06 Local tests show two Indonesian women have bird flu – new case in China – Africa spreading like wildfire

JAKARTA (Reuters) February 9 – Two Indonesian women from an area just east of the capital are in hospital after local tests showed they had the H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior Health Ministry official said on Thursday. Hariadi Wibisono, director of control of animal-borne diseases at the ministry, said the two women – one aged 27 and the other 22 – were being treated at a Jakarta hospital designated for bird flu patients. [More>>thejakartapost.com ; See related stories:

chinadaily.com.cn, "New human case of bird flu found in Fujian."] and khaleejtimes.com (AFP) "Now in Africa, bird flu spreading fast" : KADUNA, Nigeria - A disease similar to the lethal H5N1 bird flu is ³spreading like wildfire² in northern Nigeria, farmers said Thursday, a day after the country reported Africaıs first case of the virus that has killed more than 80 people in Asia...³We have 20,000 new infections reported today, bringing the figure for infected birds to 80,000. What worsens the situation is the farmersı movement of infected poultry, in a frantic effort to minimize losses,² he said...

thestar.com.my, "Greece reports H5 bird flu strain found in swans" : ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece said on Thursday it found samples of the H5 bird flu virus in three swans in northern areas of the country that borders Turkey. "The samples are now being sent to the EU laboratory for further testing to see if the virus strain belongs to the H5N1 type," said the national veterinary laboratory in Thessaloniki. ]

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02.09.06 Fatah gunmen kidnap Egyptian envoy in Gaza

February 9 – Two masked gunmen believed to be members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades kidnapped Egypt's military attache to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday as he traveled in his car to the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Gaza City, according to reports from an Egyptian diplomat and the Palestinian prime minister. The gunmen shot out the tires of Hussam Almousaly's car, then seized him, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Witnesses said Almousaly was abducted 200 yards from his office, which is under 24-hour guard. The motive for the abduction, the first in Gaza in nearly three weeks, was not clear. [More>>haaretzdaily.com]

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02.09.06 US wants India as partner for its new global plan

NEW DELHI (AP) February 9 – The United States may invite India to join its new plan on global cooperation in nuclear fuel reprocessing and also seek to bring New Delhi into an international group pushing for new generation nuclear reactors, said officials on Thursday. US officials on Wednesday briefed the Indian government about the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - or GNEP - plan that would eventually allow American companies to sell fuel to others on the condition that it would be returned to the United States for reprocessing. [More>>expressindia.com]

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02.08.06 Indonesia invites North Korean leader to Jakarta

Jakarta (AP) February 8 – President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to Jakarta for talks on how to reduce tension with South Korea, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said on Wednesday. Kim Jong Il, who rarely travels abroad, has said he "welcomed" the offer and also invited Yudhoyono to North Korea, Dino said. He said possible dates for both trips were still being discussed. The invitation was passed to North Korea by Indonesia's special envoy to the Koreas during a trip to both countries last weekend, he added said.

It was unclear how Kim, who generally shuns planes, would travel to the Indonesian archipelago. During one of his rare trips to Russia, he went by train all the way to Moscow. The offer is the latest effort by Indonesia to mediate in the dispute...Indonesia and North Korea have historical ties. The country's first president, Soekarno, was a close friend of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's late father, Kim Il Sung. Soekarno's daughter, Megawati Soekarnoputri, was Indonesian president between 2001 and 2004 and has kept up a friendship with Kim Jong Il. [Full story>>thejakartapost.com]

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02.08.06 Iraqi city draped in black as Shi'ites mourn saint

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) February 8 – The Iraqi holy city of Kerbala was shrouded in black on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims converged to mourn the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson here 1,300 years ago. Most shops were shuttered and draped in black cloth as a sea of black-clad pilgrims thronged the streets carrying black, green and red flags symbolizing mourning, Islam and the killing of Imam Hussein in battle. City officials said an estimated 2 million pilgrims were in Kerbala to mark Ashura, the main event in the Shi'ite calendar.

To prevent attacks by insurgents who have previously targeted Ashura events, Iraqi security forces sealed off the city to vehicles and set up checkpoints to body-search pilgrims arriving from other cities, many having walked for days. In March 2004 attacks on Ashura pilgrims in Kerbala and Baghdad killed more than 170 people. The US military said this week that Iraqi special forces had thwarted a plan to attack pilgrims after launching an airborne assault on a guerrilla training camp in a village near Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, and detaining 26 suspects. [More>>thestar.com.my]

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02.08.06 First bird flu in Africa

PARIS (AFP) February 8 – The H5N1 strain of avian flu has occurred among poultry in northern Nigeria, marking the first time the disease has been detected in Africa, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said today. The outbreak, reported to the OIE by Nigerian authorities, occurred on a commercial chicken farm in the village of Jaji, Kaduna state, the agency said in a statement. "The OIE/FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation) reference laboratory for avian influenza in Padova, Italy, has characterized the isolate as a highly pathogenic H5N1," it said. [More>>theaustralian.news.com.au ; See another bird flu story, chinadaily.com.cn, " China reports another bird flu outbreak."]

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02.08.06 Chirac slams media "provocation" in printing cartoons

PARIS (AFP) February 8 – French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday accused newspapers printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) of ³provocation,² after yet another French publication put the contentious caricatures on its pages. "Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility," Chirac told his cabinet, according to a government spokesman. "I condemn all manifest provocation that might dangerously fan passions," he said.

The statements were made after the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo printed all 12 of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) first published by a Danish newspaper in September, as well as a new front-page caricature of its own. The paper bears the headline ³Mohammed stressed out by the fundamentalists² and a cartoon of the prophet with head in hands uttering the words ³Itıs hard to be loved by fools.² [More>>khaleejtimes.com ; See related story, haaretzdaily.com, "International monitors quit Hebron after attack on mission." and haaretzdaily.com, "Danish editor says he'd publish Iran's Holocaust cartoon."; for earlier reports Maravot News 02.07.06, Jerusalem Post story, "Drawing a line under hypocrisy."]

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02.08.06 Iran Revolutionary Guards say Merkel thinks she is Hitler

TEHRAN, February 8 – Iranıs Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel sees herself as former German dictator Adolf Hitler. The IRGCıs spokesman, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, told the Persian-language website Hemaseh, "The way Europe is dealing with the case of Iranıs peaceful nuclear energy program shows the weaknesses and uselessness of countries such as Britain, France, and Germany. This weakness is in particular clearly noticeable in speeches by newcomers such as the German Chancellor."

"Merkel in her childish dreams imagines herself as Hitler and therefore thinks that now that she is leaning against the Chancellorshipıs chair she can give orders to the world and free countries," Jazayeri said. "From individuals who have a Zionist background nothing less is expected," the IRGC spokesman added.

In Munich on Saturday, Merkel compared hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler. Commenting on Iranıs likely intent to acquire nuclear weapons, Merkel said that the world must not repeat the mistakes it made in appeasing the Nazis. [More>>iranfocus.com ; See related story, iranfocus.com, "Iran's Revolutionary Guards deny Holocaust."]

Editorial note:

"Holocaust" means "whole burnt offering" (Greek, holokaustos, burnt whole). Iran's leadership at all levels has no idea that the Koran repeatedly states that it was written to confirm that the Jewish Scriptures are true. For instance:

Koran, AHQAF 46:12 – Yet, before it the Book of Moses was revealed, a guide and a blessing to all men. This book confirms it.
Koran, Women 4:47 – You to whom the Scriptures were given! Believe in that which we have revealed, confirming your own scriptures, before we obliterate your faces and turn them backward, or lay our curse on you as we laid it on the Sabbath-breakers. What Allah ordains shall be accomplished.
Koran, The Creator 35:25 (Angels speaking to Mohammed) Your only duty is to give warning...What we have revealed to you in the Book is the truth confirming previous scriptures...

This is the first use of the term, "whole burnt offering" in the Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 13:16 Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt.

The Scriptures – including the Old Testament (Torah, including the Books of Moses) and the New Testament Gospels – include as part of the teachings "Blessings and Curses," the precepts of which were first applied to Israel and then through the example of Israel to the nations of the world. There are essentially three events involved: 1) Scattering Israel to all the nations, 2) Redemption of Israel, 3) Judgment of the nations that persecuted Israel, and 4) Final Blessing for Israel and the nations via the Peace of Jerusalem.

Judgment and Scattering of Israel

Isaiah 7.24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
Isaiaih 9.5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Isaiah 9.6. For unto us a child is born...
Isaiah 51.19 These two things are come upon thee; who shall be sorry for thee? Desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
Isaiah 22.17 Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.
Isaiah 22.18 He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of glory shall be the shame of thy Lord's house.

The scriptures prophesied the diaspora of the Jews and included in those prophesies was the precept of the Holocaust. A denial of the Holocaust that did happen would, it seems to me, be a challenge to the author of the scriptures that His prophesies and laws are not true.

Jeremiah 24.9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
Jeremiah 29.18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven them.
Ezekiel 22.21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
Ezekiel 22.22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury on you.
Ezekiel 22.31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.

The precepts concerning the scattering of Israel and burning have to do with the original promise to Noah in Genesis 9.15, where God promised "...and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.. " ; thus, the punishment and purification of man would be applied through fire. This curse of fire upon the earth occurs when Israel is redeemed from all the nations and restored to the Holy Land. The redemption of Israel is connected with the redemption of mankind; i.e., the nations. Many verses among the prophets describe the promised redemption of Israel from the nations, but let this suffice:

Redemption of Israel

Jeremiah 30.10 Therefore, fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel. For, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
Jeremiah 30.11 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee altogether unpunished.
Jeremiah 30.24 The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of his heart: in the Latter Days ye shall consider it.
Jeremiah 31.8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth.
Jeremiah 31.10 Hear the word of the Lord, O yea nations, and declare it in the isles far off, and say, he that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Ezekiel 34.12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that He is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
Ezekiel 34.13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
Ezekiel 37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Ezekiel 37.28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.

Judgment of the nations

At the time Israel is redeemed, God turns his wrath upon the nations that persecuted Israel. We may recite the last prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi, to introduce this event:

Malachi 4.1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Isaiah 66.16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
Isaiah 66.18 For I know their works and their thoughts: It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

Peace of Jerusalem

Isaiah 2.2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isaiah 2.19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Isaiah 4.2 In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
Isaiah 4.3 And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called Holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 4.4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure.

These issues and remedies are addressed in detail in Philistia Triumph thou because of me.

Mel Copeland

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EDITORIALS