Sunday, May 30, 2010

Obama's Secret Membership In Chicago Gay "Bath House?"


 

 
  http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com&url=http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/gayday-by-bob-keyser4.jpg&sref=http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/washington-insider-obama-member-of-chicago-gay-mans-club/
 

Obama and Emanuel: Members of same gay bath house in Chicago

President Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel are lifetime members of the same gay bath house in uptown Chicago, according to informed sources in Chicago's gay community, as well as veteran political sources in the city.  
 
The bath house, Man's Country, caters to older white men and it has been in business for some 30 years and is known as one of uptown Chicago's "grand old bathhouses." WMR was told by sources who are familiar with the bath house that it provides one-year "lifetime" memberships to paying customers and that the club's computerized files and pre-computer paper files, include membership information for both Obama and Emanuel. The data is as anonymized as possible for confidentiality purposes. However, sources close to "Man's Country" believe the U.S. Secret Service has purged the computer and filing cabinet files of the membership data on Obama and Emanuel.  
 
Members of Man's Country are also issued club identification cards. WMR learned that Obama and Emanuel possessed the ID cards, which were required for entry.  
 
Obama began frequenting Man's Country in the mid-1990s, during the time he transitioned from a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School to his election as an Illinois State Senator in 1996. Emanuel, reportedly joined Man's Country after he left the Clinton White Hosue and moved back to Chicago in 1998, joining the investment firm of Wasserstein Perella and maintaining his membership during his 2002 campaign for the U.S. 5th District House seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who was elected governor.  
 
Man's Country appears to be a "one stop shopping" center for gay men. The club's website advertises steam rooms, "fantasy rooms," bed rooms, male strippers, adult movies, and lockers.  
 
 
 
FULL ARTICLE HERE...
 

__._,_.___
Recent Activity:

To View The Texas Net DISCUSSION PAGE Online: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texas_net/


To unsubscribe, send a message to:
texas_net-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
.

__,_._,___

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

U.S. trying to deport 'Son of Hamas'

U.S. trying to deport 'Son of Hamas'

Feds see 'terrorist' in Christian convert who spied for Israel


Posted: May 27, 2010
10:35 pm Eastern

By Art Moore


Mosab Hassan Yousef
The Department of Homeland Security is trying to deport the son of a Hamas founder who told of his conversion to Christianity and decade of spying for Israel in a New York Times best-seller.

"Son of Hamas" author Mosab Hassan Yousef revealed on a blog hosted by his publisher he is scheduled to appear June 30 before Immigration Judge Rico J. Bartolomei at the DHS Immigration Court in San Diego.

Yousef said the DHS informed him Feb. 23, 2009, he was barred from asylum in the U.S. because there were reasonable grounds for believing he was "a danger to thesecurity of the United States" and "engaged in terrorist activity."

An incredulous Yousef said the U.S. government's belief he is a terrorist is based on a complete misinterpretation of passages of his book in which he describes his work as a counterterrorism agent for the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet.

From the world of radical Islam to the world of the radically transformed. Order your copy of "Son of Hamas" from the WND Superstore now!

Yousef said he's not so much worried about himself as he is "outraged" about "a security system that is so primitive and naive that it endangers the lives of countless Americans."

"If Homeland Security cannot tell the difference between a terrorist and a man who spent his life fighting terrorism, how can they protect their own people?" he asked in his blog post.

Yousef said whatever Judge Bartolomei decides will be appealed, "and this insane merry-go-round can go on like that for decades."

Yousef's asylum case – A 088 271 051 – was filed Aug. 22, 2007, about seven months after he arrived in the U.S. from Israel.

As WND reported, Yousef worked alongside his father, Sheik Hassan Yousef, in the West Bank city of al-Ghaniya near Ramallah while secretly embracing Christian faith and serving as one of the top spies forIsrael's internal security arm. Yousef was recruited by Shin Bet in 1996 at the age of 18 while at an Israeli detention facility.

Since publicly declaring his faith in August 2008, he has been condemned by an al-Qaida-affiliated group and disowned by his family.


Mosab Hassan Yousef in 2008 interview with Al-Hayat TV (Middle East Media Research Institute)

His chief Shin Bet handler, "Captain Loai," has confirmed his account and praised him in media interviews for disrupting dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts by Hamas, saving hundreds of lives.

'Material support'

Yousef said he recently received a document from DHS in which attorney Calcador pointed to passages in his book as evidence of terrorist activity.

Calcador cites a passage in which she says "a member of Shin Bet shows the respondent a list of suspects implicated in a March 2001 suicide bombing and asks the respondent whether he knows the individuals. The respondent indicates that he does know five of the people on the list and states that he previously drove them to safe houses."

In the DHS document, Calcador concludes, "At a bare minimum, evidence of the respondent's transport of Hamas members to safe houses … indicates that the respondent provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization."

Yousef's response: "Is she kidding? Either Homeland Security's chief attorney has zero reading comprehension, or else she intentionally took the passage out of context. And I am not sure which is worse."

Yousef explained his job as a Shin Bet agent required him to be involved with his father's activities.

"So when he asked me to go with him to pick up these guys when they were released from the Palestinian Authority prison, I went," he said.

He insisted that no one at the time – not his father or even Israel – knew the five men were involved in suicide bombings.

He further argued he was the one who later provided Israel the evidence that connected the men to the terrorist bombing at the Hebrew University cafeteria in July 2002.

"And Homeland Security would do well to remember that there were five American citizens among the dead," Yousef said of the attack. "Apparently the agency needs also to be reminded that I was the one who located the terrorists and led to their arrest or death."

For that, he said, Homeland Security "today tells me 'thank you' by trying to deport me!"

He explained it was "part of his job" to pose as a terrorist and participate in "terrorist meetings" with Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, his father and other Hamas leaders.

"I passed on to the Shin Bet all the information I gathered during those meetings and saved the lives of many people – including many Americans," he said.

'Exposing the weaknesses'

Yousef said his intent for writing the blog post was to alert Americans to the danger they face.

"I believe that God is using this situation to expose the weaknesses of Homeland Security and to put pressure on it to make changes that can save lives and preserve freedom," he said.

Hamas rally on 22nd anniversary in Gaza

He recalled that when he arrived in America Jan. 2, 2007, he "walked into the airport like anyone else on a tourist visa."

When he went to the Homeland Security office seven months later, he said, he knocked on the door and told them, "Hey, guys, I am the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, my father is involved in a terrorist organization, and I would like political asylum in your country."

He said the officials were shocked.

"I wanted them to see that they have huge gaps in their security and their understanding of terrorism and make changes before it's too late," Yousef explained.

Yousef said that when DHS demanded evidence of his claims, he presented a draft of his book "Son of Hamas."

"Surely this would make everything perfectly clear," he thought. "They would discover that I was an intelligence agent, not a terrorist. That I tracked down terrorists and put them in prison. That I was an asset, not a threat."

But Homeland Security, according to Yousef, doesn't "get it."

He said the FBI, in contrast, "has a much better understanding of terrorism and recognizes me as a valuable asset."

"They told Homeland Security that I am not a threat and advised them to drop the case. But Homeland Security shut its eyes and stopped up its ears and told the FBI, 'You have nothing to do with this. It is our job,'" Yousef said.

The agency's performance, he asserted, "should worry the American people."

"If Homeland Security cannot understand a simple story like mine, how can they be trusted with bigger issues?" he asked. "They seem to know only how to blindly follow rules and procedures. But to work intelligence, you have to be very creative. You have to accept exceptions. You need to be able to think beyond facts and circumstances.

"Homeland Security has absolutely no idea of the dangers that lie ahead," he said.

'Imagine suicide bombers in America'

He warned the U.S. is not prepared as al-Qaida adapts its strategy to lessons learned from terrorist groups like Hamas.

Suicide Bomber Hits Southern Israeli Town Of Dimona

"For nearly 30 years, I watched from the inside as Hamas dug its claws deeper and deeper into Israel. They started awkwardly, clumsily, but they got good at it. And al-Qaida is becoming more like Hamas," he said.

The strategy of Hamas, Yousef explained, has always been to destroy Israel through a "slow bleeding war."

"They don't have nuclear bombs, so they send a suicide bomber here, another one there. And over the years, they severely damaged the economy and gaveIsrael a bad reputation all over the world," Yousef said.

While al-Qaida began with massive attacks like 9/11, Osama bin Laden "understands how effective the Hamas strategy will be on American soil," he said.

The U.S. has experienced nothing like Israel has endured, said Yousef, and the country is not ready.

"Try to imagine attacks by suicide bombers and car bombers, attacks on schools, in shopping malls, in the gridlock of rush-hour traffic, week after week, month after month, year after year, here and there, in big cities and rural towns," he said.

"No one feels safe anywhere. There seems to be no reason behind the attacks, no pattern. Everyone is a target."

Having been raised on the inside of this kind of environment, from both sides, he said he is only asking Homeland Security "to be humble and listen, so they can learn."

"Exposing terrorist secrets and warning the world in my first book cost me everything," he said. "I am a traitor to my people, disowned by my family, a man without a country. And now the country I came to for sanctuary is turning its back."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=159377

The office of DHS Senior Attorney Kerri Calcador, who is handling the case, referred WND's request for comment to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack, who said the agency is barred by policy from commenting, or even confirming or denying the existence of any case.

Western intelligence agency repeatedly ordered satellite photos of secret Syrian site

Western intelligence agency repeatedly ordered satellite photos of secret Syrian site

Satellite photos of secret Syrian site depict at least five guarded installations whose purpose is unclear.

By Avi Scharf

Which Western intelligence agency requested satellite photographs of secret Syrian military installations near the border with Lebanon over the past two years?

A small patch of territory in northwest Syria has been photographed on at least 16 occasions. The images were procured by satellite imaging service DigitalGlobe, which the Western company hired.

A satellite photo of the village of Al-Baida, Syria

A satellite photo of the village of Al-Baida, Syria, that was posted online after the intelligence agency ordered it.



The company received more orders for photographs over the past year, including two in January. All the photos, the dates they were taken and their precise locations are available online via Google Earth.

The 200-square-kilometer area in question is 30 kilometers north of Syria's northernmost border with Lebanon. The nearest town is Masyaf, which has 35,000 residents and is in the Hama district. Official Syrian government websites say the town and its environs are an agricultural and tourist region.

The images depict at least five guarded installations whose purpose is unclear. In the center is a new residential complex with at least 40 multistory buildings whose shape and structure are distinct from the architecture in the rest of the town.

A number of Google Earth users said they saw passageways to bunkers leading to installations underneath the mountains surrounding Masyaf.

Other users noted that Syrian journalist and human rights activist Nizar Nayouf told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in 2004 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein smuggled his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons into Syria just prior to the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In the interview, Nayouf claimed that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were stashed in three separate sites in Syria, including an underground military base beneath the village of AlBaida, one kilometer south of Masyaf. Nayouf was imprisoned by Syrian authorities for 10 years. In 2001, he was granted political asylum in France.

Similar accusations of Iraqi weapons smuggling into Syria were made by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon during an interview with Channel 2 news. Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon made similar claims in an interview with the now-defunct New York Sun.

The latest photographs of the area were taken in January, when tensions between Israel and Syria reached a fever pitch. Syrian President Bashar Assad, his foreign minister Walid Moallem and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, exchanged warnings over a possible war in the absence of progress toward a peace treaty.

Last month, media reports indicated that the transfer of Scud missiles and advanced M-600 rockets from Syria to Hezbollah led to the latest round of accusations between Jerusalem and Damascus. The news of the weapons delivery prompted the United States to delay the assignment of its ambassador to the diplomatic post in Syria.

In light of the escalating tensions, the IDF cancelled a comprehensive military enlistment drill so that Syria would not interpret the exercise as a preparation for war.

DigitalGlobe refused to say who requested the satellite photos. Two weeks before the September 2007 destruction of the nuclear reactor in northeast Syria, the company placed an order for numerous photographs of the installation.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the photos were ordered by Israel so that it could show them to the press after the bombing. According to the newspaper, Israel sought to demonstrate its military capabilities without revealing its sources.



http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/western-intelligence-agency-repeatedly-ordered-satellite-photos-of-secret-syrian-site-1.292935

Chaplains distribute thousands of Military BibleSticks to troops

Chaplains distribute thousands of Military BibleSticks to troops


International (MNN) ― This weekend in the United States is Memorial Day, a day to honor all who have served, are serving, or have given their lives in the military.

Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) has created a great way to honor them, while also thinking of their spiritual well-being.

Several years ago, troops and chaplains were given audio Bibles before they left to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan or another country. Jon Wilke of FCBH said, "These chaplains and troops were taking audio Bibles overseas with them on deployment. They came back from overseas and said, 'You need to make something for us.' So we put our engineers to task, and they came up with the Military BibleStick."

The Military BibleStick is a small, digital audio player that is pre-loaded with the Audio Drama New Testament. With a matte black finish, matte black ear buds, and a red-light-only operation, the Military BibleStick has a low-key design to reduce visibility in low-light situations. At three and a half inches long and a half inch thick, it is about the size of a pack of chewing gum, Wilke said. This Audio Bible fits easily into uniform pockets and is rugged enough to withstand unpredictable weather.

Since 2008, FCBH has handed out over 40,000 BibleSticks to some 325 chaplains, since FCBH cannot personally deliver them due to military regulations. The size of the BibleStick  is not the only thing that makes them ideal for easy listening: "The young people that are serving in our military today are really an audiovisual generation ... because they've just grown up with technology. And so, they listen to music and watch videos at a much higher rate than the older generation, and it's just normal for them. There's also a lack of readership among that same group," Wilke said.

As troops are waiting for transportation from one place to the next, or as they are exhausted from a 14-hour day and do not have enough energy to read, Wilke said many troops will listen to their BibleSticks. Some troops have listened to the New Testament for the first time, when they never would have had the motivation to read all of it.

Since this weekend is Memorial Day, churches across the U.S. are raising funds for more troops to have BibleSticks. "We've worked with the churches to help supply the chaplains with these. So, there's about 400 churches that are going to actually be doing a dedicated offering to show their support for the troops," Wilke said.

To find out if your church will be collecting an offering this weekend or to sign your church up for a fundraising opportunity in the future, visit the FCBH Web site. If you are a chaplain or soldier, you can visit their Web site to get free BibleSticks for your division. 

http://mnnonline.org/images/story_pics/fcbh-militarybiblesticks.JPG

http://mnnonline.org/article/14290

Makers of 'Fireproof' filming next movie

Makers of 'Fireproof' filming next movie


Posted on May 28, 2010 | by Michael Foust

Editor's note: This is part of a 3-story package about Sherwood Pictures' next film, "Courageous." Other stories are available here and here .

ALBANY, Ga. (BP)--If this was a Hollywood film, they would already be advertising it as "bigger" and "better."

But this is a church-made film, and the makers of "Fireproof" and "Facing the Giants" say their next movie, "Courageous" -- being filmed in and around Albany, Ga. -- will only be better if God blesses it.

It will, though, be bigger, and in many ways. The budget of (at least) $1 million is twice the size of Fireproof's $500,000 budget. There will be action scenes -- car chases and shootouts, a first for a film from Albany's Sherwood Baptist Church. It will be filmed on nearly twice as many locations as was Fireproof, will have about twice as many cast members, and will be filmed on a new and more-advanced camera, known as the Red digital camera, that will produce a higher-resolution picture and allow more freedom during the editing process.

It will also have a significant number of professional actors, which is a big leap for Sherwood, being that its first three movies had a mostly all-volunteer cast and a total of one fulltime actor -- Kirk Cameron, who starred in Fireproof. About half of the cast in Courageous are professional actors who had to meet the same requirements that actors in the past movies have had to meet: committed Christians who are passionate about the project. Some of them are getting paid.

And, like the other movies, Courageous will implement dozens of volunteers -- either on screen or off screen -- whose work is integral to the project. They make sandwiches and cookies, work in the makeup or wardrobe departments, help set up and take down sets -- tasks that are essential to making a big screen film but that often go unnoticed.

Filming is scheduled to finish the week of June 21 and it will be released sometime in 2011.

"I hope it will look like a $5 to $10 million movie," Courageous producer Stephen Kendrick said.

But Sherwood's films are known for their storytelling, and Kendrick hopes that's where the movie's biggest impact is made. Courageous will tell the story of four police officers and their journey to be better fathers. It will show the consequences of fatherless homes, partially through a storyline involving gang members, and it also will show what a home with a God-fearing father can look like.

Too many dads in the current generation "have fallen asleep at the wheel" and have left the mom "trying to keep the family alive and going," Kendrick said. The film, he said, will call fathers to responsibility and leadership.

The Courageous script is one that has 33-year-old Robert Amaya, who plays "Javier" in the movie, excited. The father of a 1-year-old daughter in real life, Amaya is one of the professional actors on the set.

"I know specifically within my culture, there's definitely a need for people, for men, to hear that message [about fatherhood]," said Amaya, who is Latino and normally does theater in Miami, Fla. He said he was a "huge" Sherwood Pictures fan before even learning of the new movie. "If I know that at least one man can watch this film, turn back and come to his family and stay there, I'd be a happy man."

According to Census data, one in every three children in America lives apart from his or her biological father. Children in fatherless homes are four times more likely to live in poverty and twice as likely to drop out of school, according to government data. Such children also are significantly more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and end up in prison, according to the government data.

Sherwood Pictures and its film partners are working with family and fatherhood organizations not only to get the message out about the film but also to work in tandem to underscore the need for fathers to fulfill their role. A host of likeminded organizations and individuals -- including police officers -- have visited the set, offering their unique take on the need for fathers. Four current or retired New York Police Department employees visited the set in mid-May.

"The reason kids are committing these crimes is because they don't know that they have to be responsible for their actions and they're not taught that at home," said Ed Pinero, an officer in east Harlem who also is president of the New York chapter of Police Officers for Christ. "It's going to be too late then when they're in jail. It all boils down to discipline and having a father figure in their lives."

Pinero said young children and teens are like a "bucket of wet cement" needing to be guided and molded. "Once it hardens up, it's going to be difficult" to change them, he said.

Donald Sanchez, a retired detective with the NYPD, said gangs serve as the family for teens and young men from broken homes.

"It gives them a sense of purpose -- no matter what criminal enterprise they're involved with, whether it's selling drugs, stealing cars, doing robberies or burglaries, kids have a sense of 'This is my role in this gang,'" Sanchez said. "So all those needs are being met, but they're being met in a dysfunctional way. I'm hoping that this movie sends a message that fathers are really important."

Craig J. Dodd, chief investigator for the Dougherty County Sheriff's Department in Georgia, agreed.

"Generally speaking, most of the gang members we deal with, most of the criminals, do not have a good family structure," he said. "... Very few of them have a father in the home or ever had a father in the home. And a large percentage of them, frankly, don't know who their father is. I know that sounds terrible, but it's just a fact of life in America today."

Boys, Dodd said, "need a father figure in the home. They can be raised without one -- and some of them are very successful without a father -- but that takes a very strong mother figure or grandmother involved in it," he said.

But the movie's storyline doesn't focus simply on gangs and crime -- far from it. The film's goal, Kendrick said, is to convict any father who has not been following the biblical commands for responsibility and leadership. He points to Fireproof and the climactic scene where a tearful Caleb gets on his knees and apologizes to his wife for his past actions. A lot of men, Kendrick said, left the theater thinking, "That's what I need to go home and do with my wife. I need to ask her to forgive me.

"In this movie, we do not downplay or undermine the importance of moms," Kendrick said. "... We want to go back to, 'What does God's Word say needs to be going on here? God calls men to spiritual leadership in their homes. We're just lifting up the biblical standard. There will be some men getting very convicted when they watch this movie."
--30--
Michael Foust is an assistant editor of Baptist Press. For more information about Courageous, visit CourageousTheMovie.com.

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=33024&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0528

'Israeli subs with nukes in Gulf'

'Israeli subs with nukes in Gulf'
Photo by: IDF

'Israeli subs with nukes in Gulf'

By JPOST.COM STAFF
05/30/2010 11:12

'Sunday Times': Submarines with nuclear missiles in Persian Gulf

Israel is planning to permanently station a submarine carrying nuclear cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
Israeli submarines have visited the Gulf before, but the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

The paper claims that the government has decided to station at least one of three submarines armed with nuclear missiles permanently within striking distance of Iran in thePersian Gulf.

RELATED:
'Strike may halt Iran's nuke program'
First German-Israeli cabinet set to meet

According to the article the submarines are moving to the Persian Gulf in respone to the growing missile threat to Israel from Syria, Iran and Hizbullah.

Israeli submarines are known to periocially visit the area but this is the first report that they may be permanently stationed there.

The diesel powered submarines are Dolphin class and were built in Germany to Israeli specifications
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?ID=176874

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?ID=176874

Corexit Is Killing The Gulf

Corexit Is Killing The Gulf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2fldJnaNp0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzj2lZDEJMw

2 NEW MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS" & POSSIBLE LINE ENTANGLEMENT

2 NEW MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS" & POSSIBLE LINE ENTANGLEMENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDYDvFGL1I&playnext_from=TL&videos=ClSyt88pIgk

Cyprus trip a political minefield for the pope

Cyprus trip a political minefield for the pope

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI, often under fire for political missteps on foreign trips, is heading into a potential diplomatic storm when he visits Cyprus this week, a pilgrimage to a divided island that could anger Turkey and the rest of the Muslim world.

Divisions between Greeks and ethnic Turks, splits in the Orthodox Christian community, and concerns over damaged Christian and Muslim houses of worship will be come under scrutiny during Benedict's three-day trip starting Friday.

The visit will be a key test of whether the pope has found his diplomatic feet.

The pope's linking of Islam to violence during a speech in Germany led to outrage in the Muslim world, nearly forcing cancellation of a trip to Turkey in 2006.

Other controversies arose from his remarks on a trip to Africa that condoms can make the continent's AIDS epidemic worse and his comments in Brazil that Latin America's native people wanted to become Christian even before Europe's conquerors arrived.

The Cyprus trip comes just days after the island's leaders - Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and the newly elected president of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, Dervis Eroglu - resumed peace talks after a two-month pause.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the rival leaders to ensure that the reunification talks do not fall apart, warning that time is working against them.

Cyprus police say that although they are aware of possible protests by some religious groups against the pope's trip, there have been no credible threats to his safety.

"We are continuing our planning regarding the pope's safety and all necessary measures will be taken to ensure that not even the slightest incident will take place," said police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos.

Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared an independent republic in the north in 1983, but only Turkey recognizes it and maintains 35,000 troops there.

Officially, the island's division is not on the pope's agenda. Benedict has no plans to visit northern Cyprus, said Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. He declined to anticipate what the pope might say on the issue.

Instead, the trip was designed around Cyprus' location as a bridge to the Middle East. Benedict will meet with leaders from Catholic churches in the region to draw up proposals for a major meeting of Middle Eastern bishops at the Vatican in October.

Still it will be hard to ignore Cypriot tensions, and the pope on Sunday appeared to anticipate that atmosphere when, during his remarks to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, he asked for "prayers for the peace and prosperity of all the people of Cyprus."

The Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See, George F. Poulides, says Benedict will be staying at the Vatican Nunciature, located right on the so-called Green Line in Nicosia - the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between bullet-pocked buildings and army sentry posts separating the ethnically divided communities.

"This is a historic trip, the first time a pope is visiting Cyprus," Poulides said.

But the Turkish Embassy to the Holy See said it regrets the pope will not visit the north, insisting he would be welcome there and saying it hopes Benedict won't ignore the Turkish community in his speeches. There is a tiny Catholic community with three churches in the north, the embassy said.

A government official in Ankara said Turkey would be watching the visit closely and may comment if there is indication of political support for the Greek Cypriots or any allusion to the alleged destruction of churches in the north.

During a 2006 Vatican audience, the late Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos gave the pope an album of photographs of destroyed churches in the north under the Turkish occupation and of others converted to restaurants, shops or other secular uses.

Reporters covering the meeting quoted Benedict as saying "such destruction (is) incredible."

The Turkish north has published a book showing the destruction of mosques, cemeteries and other signs of Turkish culture in the south. It is called, "Erasing the Past: Turkish Cypriot Culture and Religious Heritage under the control of the Greek Cypriot Administration."

There are also problems between Cypriot Catholics and Orthodox Christians, who are dominant in the south. Some hardline Orthodox clerics, who view the pope as a heretic, say Benedict should stay in Rome to avoid provoking the island's 800,000 Orthodox.

Benedict on Sunday said he was "making an apostolic journey to Cyprus, to meet and pray with the Catholic and Orthodox faithful there."

Doctrinal, theological and political differences caused the Orthodox and Catholic churches to formally split in the 11th century. Officials from both churches have been engaged in talks in recent years to heal "The Great Schism," but opposition to reconciliation still lingers.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II said such critics "can stay at home" if they don't like the papal visit, which most church leaders have welcomed.

To head off anti-pope groups from inflaming public opinion, the synod released a circular read out in churches assuring the faithful that no talks on sensitive religious matters will be held during the pope's visit.

Benedict is to hold an ecumenical prayer service shortly after arriving. He will also meet with the president and diplomatic corps as well as the island's small Maronite and Roman Catholic communities.

---

Associated Press writer Menalaos Hadjicostis contributed from Cyprushttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CYPRUS_POPES_PERILS?SITE=NMALJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

City of Austin approves fusion center, blood draw specialist

City of Austin approves fusion center, blood draw specialist


An agreement between 10 local police agencies to work together under the auspices of the Austin Regional Intelligence Center got the city council's seal of approval Thursday.

The new fusion center would be an information sharing resource for law enforcement agencies.

Those who oppose the project say the way it uses information about citizens is "un-American."

"I believe that our country was founded on the principles of federalism, that our founders had enough foresight to know that the centralization of power and information and resources is a dangerous thing," Liberty Restoration Project activist Catherine Bleish said.

The city also approved the contracting of a phlebotomist to perform blood draws at the Travis County Central Booking Center.

The Austin Police Department started the blood draw initiative to crackdown on drunk and intoxicated drivers during certain calendar celebrations, such as Halloween and Super Bowl Sunday.

APD has used a phlebotomist at the Travis County Jail and hospital staff to collect the blood, but Austin's police chief said the Travis County Sheriff's Office got out of the blood draw business, and hospitals refused to draw blood.

The city will provide a maximum of $24,000 this year for salary, supplies and equipment for the position.

http://news8austin.com/?ArID=271390



Government-Funded Jihad

Government-Funded Jihad

 Posted by Ryan Mauro on May 28th, 2010


  • A A A
  • Rep. Darrel Issa (R-C.A.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-M.E.) are demanding answers following the Investigative Project on Terrorism's discovery that taxpayer money is going to the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque of Falls Church, Virginia. The revelation is an unsettling reminder of how jihadists are using America's freedoms and ineptitude of the government to their advantage.

    The Investigative Project on Terrorism has found that the Census Bureau has been paying Dar al-Hijrah about $23,000 per month since November 2008 to rent space in one of its buildings. The State Department has used the mosque in its videos about America's Muslim community and sent students from its Foreign Service Institute to Dar al-Hijrah this month.

    Dave Gaubatz, a former Special Agent with the U.S. Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, and author of Muslim Mafia, described Dar al-Hijrah to FrontPage as "Wahhabi quarter," in reference to the oppressive form of Islam practiced and promoted by Saudi Arabia. He said that when he investigated the mosque, he found that its library included "very, very violent materials" that advocated physical jihad and sedition, and that extremism was promoted during the week but not during Friday prayers when they are most likely to be caught.

    Gaubatz also says that the mosque immediately reaches out to people that have arrived in their area from Iraq and other places. Like in Iraq, he says, "the mosques are being used as safehouses with which to spread violent ideology." This is dangerous because mosque attendees and leaders are "fond" of extremists like Ali al-Tamimi, a preacher who has been convicted of preparing young Muslims to wage jihad through the use of paintball guns.

    Another section of that same building being rented by the government is also used by the Muslim American Society, a front for the extremist Muslim Brotherhood organization. The Brotherhood and its affiliates have proven to be skillful in portraying themselves as "moderates" so as to wage jihad using more effective means than the reckless violence of Al-Qaeda.

    The renting of some of its property to the Muslim American Society is just one small part of Dar al-Hijrah's connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and extremism in general. Its imam from 1995 to 1999, Mohammed al-Hanooti, defended a senior Hamas official named Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook. Another Dar al-Hijrah founder, Ismail Elbarasse, was an assistant to Marzook and later found to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee in the U.S.

    Al-Hanooti was labeled as a possible unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and supported a Muslim who refused to testify about the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Hanooti argued that Islam "gives him the right to abstain from giving testimony in case it hurts him or it hurts any other Muslim." He was an open supporter of Hamas.

    Another former imam is Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al-Qaeda leader who currently lives in Yemen and has been involved in terrorist plots including the Fort Hood shooting and the Christmas Day underwear bomb plot. Two of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood shooter attended al-Awlaki's sermons there. Al-Awlaki's preaching also inspired Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American who recently tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square.

    The mosque was also attended by Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who was later convicted for his illegal dealings with Libya related to a plot to kill Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Alamoudi was a Muslim Brotherhood member who publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, and was integral to the Brotherhood's efforts to influence the political process.

    One of Dar al-Hijrah's founders, Sheikh Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh, became the imam in 2003 and left in 2005. He also helped found the Muslim American Society and was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's branch in Sudan. In 2004, he spoke in support of Palestinian suicide bombers since "they cannot defend themselves, except through these kinds of means."

    One of the mosque's board of directors is Esam Omeish, who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates and is the former President of the Muslim American Society. He has called the Muslim Brotherhood "moderate" and admits that he and the MAS have been influenced by them. In 2004, he described the founder of Hamas as "our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin" and has praised Palestinians who knew "that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land."

    A trustee of Dar al-Hijrah, Abdulhaleem Al-Ashqar, took part in a secret Hamas meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they discussed the need to use front organizations that appear more moderate. Al-Ashqar was later convicted for refusing to testify about the terrorist group's efforts to raise money in the U.S. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali,a camp counselor and teacher at the mosque, has been convicted of supporting Al-Qaeda and planning to kill President Bush.

    In February, a fundraiser was held at Dar al-Hijrah for the legal costs of Sabri Benkahla, who was convicted for lying to the FBI and in court about his terrorist links. Benkahla traveled to a training camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba and when he returned, helped train Muslims from the mosque using paintball guns.

    The mosque's current imam is Shaker Elsayed, a former secretary-general of the Muslim American Society. He praised Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, in 2004, saying that his teachings as "the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life." In 2002, he spoke in support of suicide bombers and said that when Muslims are attacked, they must fight jihad with whatever "they can get in their hand and if they don't have anything in their hand then they can fight with their hand without weapons." Sheikh Elsayed gave the opening prayer for the Virginia House of Delegates in March.

    Dar al-Hijrah's Director of Outreach, Johari Abdul-Malik, has gone to great lengths to denounce Anwar al-Awlaki, but he is a radical himself. He has supported attacks on Israelis, and pushes 9/11 conspiracy theories. He also incorrectly denies that al-Awlaki preached extremism while he was the mosque's imam.

    Dave Gaubatz also ties Dar al-Hijrah to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, another Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that was labeled by the federal government as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land Foundation trial. The HLF was found in court to have acted as a front to raise money for Hamas and was part of the Brotherhood apparatus in the U.S.

    "CAIR and Dar al-Hijrah are one-in-one," Gaubatz told FrontPage. "Very little happens with CAIR where they don't consult with Dar al-Hijrah's board members and leaders."

    Government documents also support the conclusion that the mosque is a jihadist front. The IPT has one report from 2002 from a Customs and Border Protection database that said that Dar al-Hijrah is "operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S." Two other reports from December 2007 confirmed that the mosque was under investigation for potential criminal and terrorist activity. One said that people connected to the mosque were involved in financing terrorism and has been "encouraging fraudulent marriages." WorldNetDaily.com reports that an investigation into credit card fraud has led to the mosque, "following reports of mysterious Dar al-Hijrah line-item charges appearing on the statements of local individuals not even connected to the mosque."

    The mosque's ties to radical Islam and terrorism are so numerous they hard to keep track of. A basic Internet search would have yielded this information for the government officials that decided to do business with Dar al-Hijrah. The mosque should not be operating, and it is a disgrace that the American people are paying them tens of thousands of dollars without even knowing it.

    http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/28/government-funded-jihad/

     Ryan Mauro on May 28th, 2010 

    Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, National Security Advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center.

    Study Finds Supplements Contain Contaminants

    Study Finds Supplements Contain Contaminants

    By GARDINER HARRIS
    Published: May 25, 2010

    Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, and some supplement sellers made illegal claims that their products can cure cancer and other diseases, investigators found.

    The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research.

    Investigators found at least nine products that made apparently illegal health claims, including a product containing ginkgo biloba that was labeled as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and a product containing ginseng labeled as a treatment to prevent diabetes and cancer. They also described a salesperson at a supplement specialty store who claimed that a garlic supplement could be taken instead of blood pressure medication.

    Any product that claims to treat, cure, prevent or mitigate a disease is considered a drug and must go through strict regulatory reviews.

    The report, which was prepared by the Government Accountability Office, was provided to The New York Times and will be made public at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Its release comes two weeks before the Senate is scheduled to begin debate on a landmark food safety bill that is expected to substantially increase the federal government's authority over food manufacturers.

    But it is uncertain how tough the bill will be on supplement manufacturers, and it has been the subject of fierce lobbying. Capitol Hill staff members familiar with the process said the bill was unlikely to include provisions opposed by supplement manufacturers.

    Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview that he was not concerned about the safety of the supplements tested by the G.A.O. investigators. But Dr. Sharfstein noted that the agency had recently announced a recall of Vita Breath, a dietary supplement that it said might contain hazardous levels of lead.

    Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, said it was not surprising that herbal supplements contained trace amounts of heavy metals, because these are routinely found in soil and plants. "I don't think this should be of concern to consumers," Mr. Mister said.

    Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who will preside over Wednesday's hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said that while improvements had been made in recent years in the oversight of supplements, "the F.D.A. needs the authority and tools to ensure that dietary supplements are as safe and effective as is widely perceived by the Americans who take them."

    Among the witnesses at the hearing will be Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. According to Dr. Cooperman's written testimony, the most common problems are supplements that lack adequate quantities of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals.

    Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote a letter to the committee saying that some athletes have been rendered ineligible for international competitions because they took supplements that contained steroids not listed on the products' labels. There are thousands of supplements available for sale that contain steroids or other harmful ingredients, he wrote.

    "The F.D.A. is operating in a regulatory environment that is simply too burdensome to allow for effective post-market regulation of these products," Mr. Tygart wrote.

    Half of the nation's adult population takes vitamin supplements regularly, and about a quarter take herbal supplements at least occasionally. Annual sales are about $25 billion a year, and the growing popularity has led to an increasing number of imported supplements spiked with illegal drugs.

    In 1994, Congress passed legislation that allowed supplement makers to sell products without first getting approval from the F.D.A. for their ingredients or for basic health claims. But scientific organizations have warned repeatedly since then that the F.D.A. should do more to ensure that the supplements are safe and that their health claims are substantiated.

    In recent years, a vast majority of supplement suppliers have located overseas — principally in China. Nearly all of the vitamin C and many other supplements consumed in the United States are made from ingredients made in Chinese plants. Those plants are almost never inspected by the F.D.A. because the agency is not required to do so, has little money to do so and does not view the plants as particularly risky.

    Mr. Mister said supplement sellers tested ingredients before using them, but he agreed that testing could not ensure quality. He called on Congress to provide the F.D.A. with more money to inspect foreign and domestic supplement plants. "I think you'll see more and more inspections," Mr. Mister said.

    He said that a few companies made illegal health claims for their supplements, but that the industry was trying to police those. "I occasionally see these late-night commercials with health claims that make my blood boil," he said.

    Dr. Sharfstein said the F.D.A. had increased enforcement actions against supplements spiked with prescription drugs like Viagra. And he said the agency had taken action against supplement makers that made broad health claims. "We don't want people to think they're treating a disease with something that hasn't been proven to do that," he said.

    The food safety bill expected to be introduced next month in the Senate is likely to mandate that supplement makers register annually with the F.D.A. and allow the agency to recall supplements suspected of being dangerous.

    But a House provision that would require manufacturers to create plans to safely manufacture their products and a proposal made in February by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, to restrict supplements to ingredients approved by the F.D.A. will not be included, staff members said.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/health/policy/26herbal.html


    Dhimmi MSM Stenographers Get Talking Points from Hamas-Linked CAIR

    Dhimmi MSM Stenographers Get Talking Points from Hamas-Linked CAIR

    Posted by Pamela Geller May 29th 2010

    Thirty little buses in New York City…my, how they roll. Through our organization Stop Islamization of America, Robert Spencer and I have placed ads on New York City buses, offering help to Muslims wishing to leave Islam. Our ads ran previously on buses in Miami, but in New York they've received international notice. The religious liberty bus ad campaign was covered in the last few days by every major network: ABC, NBC, CBS (New York), CNN and FOX, as well by Associated Press, Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, Britain's Daily Mail, Russian television, and many more–too many news outlets to list here.

    leaving Islam

    It's no surprise that most mainstream media outlets that have covered the story have just repeated talking points from the unindicted co-conspirator, Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood front, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). AP said: "some Muslims are calling the ads a smoke screen for an anti-Muslim agenda." Which Muslims are saying that? Farther down in the article we find out:

    Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ads were based on a false premise that people faced coercion to remain with Islam. She said Muslims believe faith that is forced is not true belief.

    "Geller is free to say what she likes, just as concerned community members are free to criticize her motives," Ali said.

    Geller has a history of speaking out against Muslims, and the ads are "a smoke screen to advance her long-standing history of anti-Muslim bigotry," Ali said.

    Muslim_CrowdWEB-vi

    While we hear that "some Muslims" believe this, we don't hear in this AP story about any Muslims who think otherwise. So is AP saying that the unindicted co-conspirator, Hamas-linked CAIR is the best representative of Muslims in America? Is AP actually saying that Muslims in the U.S. are haters, extremists, and terror-tied? Islamic Sharia law is very clear: apostasy is punishable by death. Why does CAIR equate being pro-freedom with being anti-Muslim? Is AP saying that Muslims in America don't support religious freedom? Wow.

    The New York Daily News, meanwhile, offered up more pure derangement from CAIR in its story about how Detroit's SMART bus system, in violation of their own guidelines, refused to run our ads: "Detroit bus system rejects 'Leaving Islam?' ads as 'pure anti-Muslim hate.'" (We've filed suit against the SMART system over this.) It seems as if CAIR is writing Daily News headlines and copy–there's a reason why the Daily News is third in the New York market. Why don't these shills for Islamic supremacists step back and think? It wasn't SMART that called the ads "pure anti-Muslim hate," it was Hamas-linked CAIR's Dawud Walid, who said of the ads: "It's a purely anti-Muslim hate issue."

    I don't know about you, but I think CAIR is engaged in apostate hate.

    cta_bus_ad pro Muslim

    The Daily News "investigative reporters" trolled Google in their research on me and exposed the blockbuster revelation that I once made a video while wearing a bikini at the beach. The Daily News said it was "from the surf of Israel" — uh, it was Florida. They have not gotten one fact right. And that was the whole of my resume as far as the Daily News was concerned: bikini vlogging.

    The intrepid reporter went on to claim that the Miami bus system at first rejected the ads. Wrong again. They were up and running when the hate sponsors at CAIR threatened and bullied Miami-Dade Transit into taking the ads down. But they went right back up when I declared that I would fight for free speech, and announced preparations to file suit.

    In the Daily News story, Walid calls 1.5 billion Muslims "a minority group" –I'd say the apostates who live in fear of their lives from Muslim thugs that CAIR never says anything about are the minority group.

    Bary

    Rifqa Bary, apostate Muslim

    CAIR wants to keep us out of Detroit because there is a crying need for our religious liberty ads in that area, which is heavily populated by Muslims. The Washington Times (a real newspaper that actually does genuine reporting) spoke to people in Detroit, and one teacher in Dearborn said:

    The fear is palpable. I know there are things I am 'not allowed' to say. A discussion of religion with a Muslim person is often prefaced by the statement, 'Don't say anything about the Prophet [Muhammad].' In free society, open and honest conversation is not usually begun by a prohibition. Threats and intimidation are just part of life here. […]

    This kind of campaign and Americans support of it could assure these frightened Muslims that they have the rights that every other American has, that they will be protected, not abandoned or exposed to their leaders should they act upon their desire to be free.

    And that is the reason for Hamas-linked CAIR's ugly, irrational fury. But what's the mainstream media's excuse for not sticking up for this vulnerable, endangered minority: apostates from Islam?

    http://bigjournalism.com/pgeller/2010/05/29/dhimmi-msm-stenographers-get-talking-points-from-hamas-linked-cair/

    Radioactive leak found, fixed at Vt. nuke plant

    Radioactive leak found, fixed at Vt. nuke plant
    May 30 02:06 AM US/Eastern
    By DAVE GRAM
    MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A new leak of radioactive material has been found and fixed at the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, officials said Saturday.

    Vapor and water containing 13 different radioactive substances was found late Friday coming from a pipe in a hole workers dug to find the source of an earlier leak.

    "This was a new leak," Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said in an e-mail. "The leak has been stopped. ... There is no threat to public health or safety."

    The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission also said the public faced no danger.

    Spokeswoman Diane Screnci said an NRC inspector will arrive Tuesday to help the two agency inspectors assigned to the plant year-round. She said they will look at company efforts to find what caused the leak, the repair of the piping, and remediation of any effects of the leak.

    "The observed short duration and small volume of leakage from the drain line appears to indicate that the event did not result in any impact to public health and safety," according to an NRC statement.

    Vermont Yankee was recently off line for routine maintenance and refueling. It went back in operation and was reconnected to the New England power grid early Saturday. Smith said the plant is expected to be running at 100 percent within the week.

    The leak was the second mishap connected with the startup. On Wednesday, the reactor "scrammed"—went into automatic shutdown—when a problem developed with equipment in the switchyard where it connects to the power grid.

    In January, plant officials announced that radioactive tritium, which can cause cancer when ingested in large amounts, had turned up in a monitoring well. In investigating, the company spent months digging wells, only to find more tritium and other radioactive substances.

    Meanwhile, plant officials acknowledged they had misled state regulators and lawmakers regarding whether the plant had underground pipes that carried radioactive substances. The radioactive tritium was found in an underground pipe.

    Vermont is the only state with a law authorizing the Legislature to vote on renewing the license of a nuclear plant. In February, the state Senate voted against a bill to give the plant the green light.

    Consequently, the plant could close when its current license expires in March of 2012, although supporters of Vermont Yankee hope lawmakers will take the question up again in 2011.

    The 38-year-old plant's 650-megawatt reactor produces electricity used throughout New England. Owned by New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., the plant is located on the Connecticut River in southeast Vermont, not far from the Massachusetts border.


    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G100QG0&show_article=1

    Concern over growing number of aircraft near-misses

    Concern over growing number of aircraft near-misses
    May 29 10:39 AM US/Eastern
    The growing number of aircraft near-misses in US skies is making civilian aviation authorities increasingly concerned and has prompted them to reexamine air traffic control procedures.

    "Over the last weeks there have been a number of instances where separation was lost between aircraft and in some cases there was a bit of a delay of notification that obviously caused some concern," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford told AFP.

    He said that all these incidents, the latest of which occurred just on May 21, remain under investigation.

    "Anytime you lose the required separation between aircraft, it's unacceptable, and we work to figure out what happen and what we can do to prevent similar ones," Lunsford pointed out.

    More than half a dozen extreme near-misses have been reported by the FAA over the past two months, prompting the National Transportation Safety Board to launch an inquiry.

    On Friday, the NTSB reported that an Airbus A319 passenger jet and a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane had been involved in an incident over Alaska a week ago.

    The board said the Airbus, US Airways Flight 140, was carrying 138 passengers and crew and the cargo plane a crew of two when they "came within an estimated 100 feet (30 meters) vertically and a .33-mile (530-meter) lateral separation."

    The May 21 incident occurred at night near Anchorage International Airport as the cargo plane took off for Chicago and the US Airways flight was coming in for a landing from Phoenix, Arizona, the NTSB said in a statement.

    The Airbus pilots scrapped their initial landing attempt due to tailwinds and after requesting new landing instructions from the control tower, were told to turn right and report back when they saw the 747 departing.

    Once the cargo plane was sighted, the Airbus was told to "maintain visual separation," climb to 3,000 feet (910 meters) and turn right.

    But the Airbus pilots refused to obey "because the turn would have put their flight in direct conflict with the B747," the NTSB said.

    Instructed to "monitor vertical speed" for a descent, the Airbus began dropping in altitude and lost sight of the B747.

    At 1,500 feet the plane's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System bellowed out a verbal warning: "traffic, traffic."

    "There were no reported injuries or damage to either aircraft," the NTSB said, adding that a board investigator was heading to Anchorage to investigate the incident.

    In late March, a Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines that took off from San Francisco airport with 268 passengers came within just 60 meters of a small single-engine plane.

    A month later, two similar incidents occurred at Hobby Airport in Houston. The first involved a helicopter and a Southwest Airlines jet, the second a small tourist plane and another Southwest carrier.

    Two other collisions were narrowly avoided at an airport in Burbank, California, earlier this month.

    FAA administrator Randy Babitt recently brought together a group of experts to study the problem and come up with a solution.

    Normally, these incidents have to be reported to the FAA within 24 hours, but in some cases the agency had not been notified for several days.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, this situation has infuriated FAA authorities, and they have made their feelings known to air traffic controllers across the United States.

    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f5ae1d8c04d2bf19bc5aeb391f4c1e99.b51&show_article=1


    Russia’s War Games Preparing for Conflict with the East

    Russia's War Games Preparing for Conflict with the East



    Written by Simon Saradzhyan   
    Wednesday, 26 May 2010 22:20

    Russia should tackle negative socio-economic and demographic trends in the Far East and Siberia instead of reacting to China's continuing rise if it wants to head off the chances of conflict in the region.

    Next month will see the Russian armed forces stage an operational-strategic exercise dubbed "Vostok-2010" (East-2010), called "the main event of the combat training" in 2010 in a press release by the Russian Defense Ministry.

    Thousands of soldiers from the army, including the CBRN Protection Forces, the navy, air force, airborne troops and other elements of the Russian armed forces will participate in the joint exercise of the Far Eastern and Siberian Military districts in mid-June. 

    East-2010 will also involve forces and assets from other military districts and all of Russia's four fleets, including submarines. The country's long-range aviation and the Interior Ministry Affairs troops will also participate in the war game.

    According to a 14 May 2010 report in Russia's leading defense weekly, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozrenie,  East-2010 will exceed in scale even the Zapad (West) war games,  during which Russian forces simulate a major conflict with NATO, including a nuclear strike. East-2010, which, according to this daily, is designed to test the new organizational structure of the armed forces, will feature landing of troops from air and sea, crossing of Siberian rivers and seizure of potential foe's headquarters and rocket positions.

    Top Russian commanders would not publicly identify either potential foes or the overall scenario for East-2010. One unnamed, but obvious foe to prepare for is Japan.  The Russian leadership is also concerned about the unpredictability of the nuclear-armed North Korean regime.

    However, there is one more potential foe in the east whose growing military might require counteraction strategy on the scale of East-2010: China.

    Russian officials have in the past avoided explicitly referring to China as a potential foe, perhaps, in order not to anger the eastern neighbor and buy time to prepare for its further rise.

    What's left unsaid

    More recently, however, the Defense Ministry top brass have begun to edge closer toward acknowledging the obvious.

    During a press conference presentation by Chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov in July 2009 a reporter for the Defense Ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda pointed out that one of the slides in the commander's presentation "show that it is, after all, NATO and China that are the most dangerous of our geopolitical rivals."

    Two months later Chief of the Ground Forces Staff Lt General Sergei Skokov made what leading Russian military expert Alexander Khramchikhin described as an "epochal statement." When describing what kind of warfare the national armed forces should prepare for Skokov said the following in September 2009: "If we talk about the east, then it could be a multi-million-strong army with traditional approaches to conducting combat operations: straightforward, with large concentrations of personnel and firepower along individual operational directions.

    "For the first time since the early days of Gorbachev, a high-ranking national commander has de facto acknowledged officially that the PRC is our potential enemy," Khramchikhin wrote of Skokov's statement in his 16 October 2009 article in the Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozrenie.

    A military conflict between China and Russia seems very unlikely in the short-to-medium term.  As renowned expert on Asia former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew noted in an October 2009 interview with US broadcaster PBS: "China wants time to grow.  If there is going to be any conflict, they'll postpone it for 50 years." And before thinking of any conflict with Russia, China will of course want to regain Taiwan and establish its dominance in Southeast Asia.

    However, should such a conflict between Russia and China eventually break out, the former should not hope that the conventional component of its 1-million-strong armed forces will be able to stop the 2.8 million-strong People's Liberation Army.  As said above Russia has simulated a limited nuclear strike in a conventional conflict in the West during the Zapad exercises and one may deduce from that that Russian generals have also developed similar plans for conflicts in the East.

    While a powerful deterrence tool, nuclear weapons cannot be viewed as a panacea.  First of all, even selected limited use of nuclear weapons, which Russian generals hope will demonstrate resolve and de-escalate the conflict, can actually increase risk that the foe may also choose to retaliate with nuclear weapons rather than sue for peace. Even the selective first use of nuclear weapons by Russia may prompt China to respond by launching its intercontinental ballistic missiles out of concern that Russia's nuclear strike may destroy most of its nuclear arsenal.
     
    And the 2003 Urgent Tasks of the Development of the Russian Armed Forces report rightly notes: "When we speak about the nuclear deterrence factor, especially when this notion is applied to the deterrence of threats associated with the use of conventional forces by the enemy, we should also take into account that under contemporary conditions such deterrence can be effectively carried out only if highly equipped and combat ready general-purpose forces are available."

    As important, neither nuclear nor conventional weapons will be very effective in reducing such risk factors that increase the likelihood of conflict, such as the growing demographic and economic disparity between China and Russia, which is all more evident when one takes a look at the macroeconomic and social data of Russia's Siberia and Far East.

    Economic and demographic disparities

    China already has a population of 1.32 billion and its GDP totalled $4,326 billion in 2008, the third highest in the world overall, according to the World Bank. Russia's population totals some 141 million and its GDP totalled $1,601 billion in 2008, ranking ninth in the world, according to the same source. 

    As of the early 2000s Russia's Far Eastern and Siberian districts had a total population of 27 million and their combined gross regional products totalled $110 billion per year, according to then-governor of Krasnoyarskii Krai Alexander Khoponin's 2006 speech at the Baikal Economic Forum in 2006.  In comparison, some 100 million people live in three Chinese provinces that abut the Russian Far East, according to a May 2010 article by Robert Kaplan in Foreign Affairs.  The population density on the Chinese side of border is 62 times greater than on the Russian side, according to this renowned expert on China.

    China is most likely to continue growing at rates unattainable for Russia while the latter can count only on migration to prevent further depopulation.  Therefore, it comes as no surprise that in his 2008 speech Khloponin identified the fast growth of countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes China, as the main challenge for Russia.

    Russia should use the next several decades to pursue military reform until it produces a conventional force capable of deterring military threats along Russia's perimeter and on par with China's PLA, while also maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent. Russian authorities should also allocate resources and introduce incentives to reverse depopulation in the Far East and Siberia and facilitate the region's socio-economic growth to prevent the further deepening of the non-military disparities that increase the likelihood of a crisis in relations with China that may ultimately escalate into an armed conflict



    http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/International/Russias-War-Games-Preparing-for-Conflict-with-the-East.html