CARTER AIDS BACKOUT

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Japan exhales as tsunami threat passes. 3-Alaska, Hawaii tsunami advisories nixed. 4-Winter storm blasts much of western Canada. 5-A wintry mess continues. 6-Red alert after Comoros volcano triggers tremors. 7-EU Foreign Policy Chief Calls for Mideast Progress Within Six Months. 8-ASEAN, EU can strengthen dialogue relations. 9-Palestinian PM accuses US of seeking civil war. 10-Indonesian bird flu deaths hit 61. 11-Rare brain worms latest border disease. 12-Carter Center Advisers Resign Over New Book.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Sun Jan 14 12:01 AM EDT

JAN 14,07
MAP 5.1 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

JAN 13,07
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 5.5 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 6.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 KOMANDORSKIYE OSTROVA, RUSSIA REGION
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 CHUKOTKA, RUSSIA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.6 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.8 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.2 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.9 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.1 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 8.2 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 8.2 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA

Japan exhales as tsunami threat passes By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer JAN 13,07

TOKYO /Thousands of people in residents along Japan's eastern coast fled to higher ground after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake triggered tsunami warnings Saturday in parts of the Pacific region, including Hawaii and Alaska. The warnings, which were lifted nine hours after the quake, rattled coastal residents more than two years after giant waves spawned by an Indian Ocean earthquake killed at least 230,000.But the largest wave reported by late Saturday was a 16-inch tidal surge along the shores of Chichi-jima, a Pacific island 620 miles south of Tokyo, more than three hours after the quake.Earlier, a tidal swell of about 4 inches was recorded in Japan's northeastern coastal town of Nemuro, and a higher tide also was observed in other coastal towns, including Kushiro, Abashiri and Otaru, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

The quake struck around 1:24 p.m. local time about 310 miles east of Etorofu, the largest of a disputed four-island chain known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Kuril islands in Russia.

The Japanese agency initially estimated the magnitude as 8.3 but later reduced that to 8.2, the same strength recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck 19 miles below the seabed, the agency said.There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the quake, but the agency warned that higher than usual waves could hit the northeastern coast of Japan's main island of Hokkaido.Hokkaido officials responded by issuing evacuation orders to 85,000 people in 22 coastal towns.Disaster prevention official Haruyuki Komachi said thousands of people heeded the orders and gathered at community centers. Police closed off roads to the coast and train operators suspended some services as a precaution.The warnings were later downgraded to advisories, then canceled them altogether on the northwestern coast of Hokkaido, leading some municipalities to lift evacuation orders. Advisories in other parts of Hokkaido and towns facing the Pacific coast were still in effect late Saturday.The tidal change so far seems rather small, but a bigger one may come hours later, Komachi said. So we have to stay vigilant into the night in case a second or a third ones come in bigger waves.

A tsunami warning also was issued for Alaska's western Aleutian islands, and a tsunami watch was issued for Hawaii. Both were later canceled, but not before dozens of people sought refuge in underground shelters on two Aleutian islands.The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology advised residents along that nation's eastern seaboard to observe changes in the sea level.

About 4,000 people in the northern province of Isabela were evacuated.Tsunami warnings are issued due to the imminent threat of a tsunami. Tsunami watches are issued as an advance alert to areas that could be impacted by a tsunami.Temblors of magnitude 7 are generally classified as major earthquakes, capable of widespread, heavy damage.The Japanese meteorological agency also issued warnings last November following a magnitude 7.9 quake in a similar area, but most areas saw waves of only about 7.8 inches.Seismologists, however, warned that this time the quake was stronger and cautioned residents to remain vigilant.

Tokyo University seismologist Yoshinobu Tsuji warned that high waves may still hit the region, hours after a tsunami warning. I urge everyone to stay alert, he said. On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island unleashed giant waves that fanned out across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds, leaving at least 230,000 dead and millions of homeless in its wake. Associated Press Writer Dan Joling in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.

Alaska, Hawaii tsunami advisories nixed By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 13, 3:31 AM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska /Tsunami advisories were canceled Saturday in Alaska and Hawaii after officials determined waves from a powerful earthquake in the northern Pacific were too small to pose a threat.

A tsunami of less than 4 inches was recorded Friday night at Shemya, Alaska, at the western end of the Aleutians, the National Weather Service said.Alaska's tsunami warning, made after an 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's northern coast on Friday, prompted more than two dozen people on a remote Aleutian island to take refuge in an underground shelter.It's one of those situations where the indications are, when you look at Shemya and the other places in Japan, it really doesn't meet the criteria to be destructive, said National Weather Service spokesman Greg Romano.Officials did, however, warn people of strong currents in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California into Saturday morning.

A tsunami watch issued in Hawaii was also canceled.

Tsunami warnings are issued due to the imminent threat of a tsunami.

Tsunami watches are issued as an advance alert to areas that could be impacted by a tsunami.Japan's Meteorological Agency said a small wave hit the shore near the town of Nemuro in northeastern Japan more than an hour after the quake and after officials detected a fall in the level of the tide. Most areas said there had been no visible change to the sea level.The quake struck about 310 miles east of the Etorofu islands between northern Japan and Russia, the agency said.Associated Press reporter Brian Charlton in Honolulu contributed to this report.On the Net:U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Winter storm blasts much of western Canada UPDATED: 2007-01-10 19:33:14 MSTBy PABLO FERNANDEZ, CALGARY SUN

Although Calgary has been spared the worst of the winter storm that assailed much of western Canada, the city is plummetting into the same deep freeze. The mercury in the city began its downward spiral today and howling winds pounded the city but winter didn’t assault Calgarians the way it lashed northern Alberta and neighbouring Saskatchewan, said Environment Canada meteorologist John McIntyre.In Saskatoon, people were afraid to go outside, the visibility was zero, they had very strong winds and it was very cold, he said. I talked with some companies that were concerned and wanted to send people home early but that it was too dangerous to send people out.Central Saskatchewan was really hit hard. Ravaging winds and biting temperatures killed a young man and a woman who left their stuck vehicle and tried to walk for help along an access road in Onion Lake First Nation, which is 230 km west of Edmonton on the Saskatchewan- Alberta border, said RCMP Sgt. Brad Kaeding. It appears an 18-year-old man and 38-year-old woman from the community attempted to walk when their vehicle failed to negotiate a turn at a T-intersection and became stuck in blizzard conditions sometime overnight, he said.

Not wanting to take the chance, Canada Olympic Park closed its doors early yesterday and will remain closed due to the high windchill.

Blowing snow and ice prompted RCMP to warn motorists about dangerous driving conditions along the Calgary-Edmonton corridor and along mountain highways.At least 16 vehicles were located with people in them on a road between Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, B.C., by rescue crews using heavy equipment to scour remote highways after blizzard conditions that descended on much of northern B.C. stranded motorists along the road.Schools and airports in the Grande Prairie area were closed due to the winter snap and even fair-weather Vancouver was hit hard by snow and driving winds. When the cold front, which is affecting all four western provinces, moved through Calgary over night yesterday (WED), winds gusted up to 80 km/h, said McIntyre. And there’s no relief in sight, he said, as skies will clear today but temperatures will plummet to a high near -20C over night, which, with the help of winds of 15 km/h, will create windchills in the -30s. With files from CP.

A wintry mess continues Wayne Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sat Jan 13, 6:10 AM ET

Midwest

Arctic air will remain in place across the Plains and western Great Lakes today, with very cold temperatures expected again today. A wave of low pressure moving along a stationary front from the southern Plains into the Ohio Valley, will keep rain, heavy at times, from the Mid-Mississippi Valley, into the Ohio Valley. Freezing rain and sleet will dominate the southern Plains into parts of the Midwest, with snow developing into the central Plains. Sunday into Monday, a band of heavy snow may set up across parts of the Midwest into the Lower Great Lakes, with a wintry mix just south of the heavy snow band. All areas will change over to snow before ending on Monday. Much colder temperatures will remain in place into early next week.

South

A front will remain nearly stationary from the southern Plains into the Middle Mississippi River Valley today, allowing rain to continue from Texas, through the Mississippi Valley. A few strong thunderstorms may also develop across southeast Texas into parts of the Lower Missisippi River Valley. South of the cold front, rain could be heavy at times across the Middle Mississippi Valley where flooding will be possible, while north of the front a wave of low pressure will swing into the Plains, increasing another round of sleet and freezing rain. Across the southeastern states and Florida, high pressure will stay in control, allowing for a continuation of warming temperatures. This same pattern will remain in place on Sunday. Showers and thunderstorms will arrive in the far southeast by Monday, as the cold front presses eastward, and the wintry precipitation will shift into the Midwest. Much colder air will settle in across the entire south by early next week, with the potential for lingering showers near the Gulf and far southeastern states.

Northeast

A cold front moving into the New England will continue to spread rain through the Ohio Valley into the Northeastern States today. Colder temperatures moving into the New England states will allow for some mixed rain, freezing rain, and sleet through interior New England and the higher mountains. An area of low pressure will approach the Mid-Atlantic from the southwest Sunday, setting up a messy weather pattern. Rain will be likely from the Ohio Valley, through the Mid-Atlantic, with a mixture of freezing rain, sleet, and snow occurring from northern Pennsylvania through the interior New England states. Rainfall could be heavy at times across parts of the Upper Ohio Valley, significant accumulations of snow and ice may occur across parts of the New England states. The weather system will move east across the area into Monday, gradually changing all precipitation over to snow before ending. Much colder
temperatures will be left in its wake.

West

Arctic high pressure will build across the northern Rockies, keeping very cold temperatures in the single digits and teens across that area. Colder temperatures in the 30s will also be felt as far as the Pacific Northwest Coast today. Meanwhile, low pressure over the southern Rockies will keep snow over the interior mountains through today.

Accumulations through the mountains will range from 6 to 12 inches with higher amounts over as foot possible. This snow will begin to shirt into the central Plains Sunday into Monday, as the low pressure moves northeast. High pressure will remain in control of all of the western states into early next week. Much colder temperatures will settle into the central and southern California areas through the weekend, with freezing temperatures expected in some areas. A slow moderation in temperatures will take place the middle of next week.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Red alert after Comoros volcano triggers tremors JAN 13,2007

MORONI (AFP) Authorities in the Comoros Islands have placed the population of the tiny Indian Ocean nation on red alert following several seismic tremors triggered by a volcanic eruption on Mount Karthala. There were no immediate reports of damage and the government held back from ordering residents to evacuate their homes as a red glow could be seen over the top of the volcano, just 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the capital Moroni.Hamid Soule, head of the Karthala observatory, told reporters that the eruptions had begun overnight.The tremors had been a result of internal (magma) activity which has given us cause for concern, he told a press conference. While the lava which was produced overnight had now probably solidified, he added that the internal activity is continuing.We cannot rule out the danger of a lateral eruption outside of the crater, said Soule Saturday.A statement from the president's office confirmed that a red alert status has been declared and emergency measures to ensure the security of people and property have been activated.The armed forces and police had been primed to prepare for any eventuality, Colonel Ismael Mogne Daho, a senior official at the archipelago's emergency operation centre, told AFP.There have been a number of scares in recent years after activity within the volcano.In November 2005, Karthala spewed huge plumes of ash that blanketed the island and temporarily deprived its 250,000 inhabitants of drinkable water.In April 2005, nearly 10,000 villagers living at the base of the mountain fled their homes after similar emissions of ash started widespread fears of drinking-water contamination. Mount Karthala last had an overflow magma eruption in 1977, when lava destroyed the village of Singani, some 20 kilometres south of Moroni, and toxic gas was released into the air but did not cause any deaths.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Calls for Mideast Progress Within Six Months
By VOA News 12 January 2007

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, says the group will do everything it can to get the Middle East peace process moving in the next six months.Speaking at a meeting in Spain Friday, Solana said he thinks the roadmap for peace, a plan developed by the United States and other nations, contains everything necessary for success if there is the political will. The two-day meeting, known as the Madrid Plus 15 conference, involved present and former Middle East officials. It commemorated the 1991 Madrid Conference that began peace talks between Israel and its Arab enemies.The first conference ended with the 1993 Oslo accords between Palestinians and the Jewish state. This year's meeting was sponsored by private peace groups, in hopes of spurring progress in the Middle East peace process.The Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, reported that two senior Syrian officials attended the conference, which also included members of Israel's parliament as well as several former Israeli cabinet ministers.

Ha'aretz said this was the first time in seven years that Israeli and Syrian officials were sitting at the same table.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.

ASEAN, EU can strengthen dialogue relations
By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | 13 January 2007 2357 hrs

CEBU : Dialogue relations between ASEAN and the European Union should be further strengthened. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo and French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Catherine Colonna came to this agreement at a meeting on sidelines of the ASEAN Summit on Saturday.To forge closer ties, the two ministers agreed that possible initiatives between the two regions can include closer economic cooperation and the convening of a Commemorative Summit. Mr Yeo also welcomed France's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. He also encouraged France to further engage ASEAN. - CNA /ls

Palestinian PM accuses US of seeking civil war Sat Jan 13, 5:29 AM ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has accused Israel and the United States of trying to stoke Palestinian civil war, in an address delivered shortly before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice starts a regional tour. The American and Israeli policies seek to push the Palestinian people towards civil war and internal conflict so that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict becomes a Palestinian-Palestinian conflict, he said in a televised address Saturday.He had earlier appealed for a halt to the fierce feuding between his ruling Hamas movement and the rival Fatah party that has left 30 people dead in a month, raising fears that the
Palestinians could be plunged into all-out war.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Indonesian bird flu deaths hit 61
POSTED: 0317 GMT (1117 HKT), January 12, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Two Indonesian women died from bird flu, a health official said Saturday, the latest in a flurry of cases in recent days to strike the country worst hit by the virus.One of the women died late Friday, the other early Saturday, said Nyoman Kandun, the Ministry of Health's director general of communicable disease control. Both had been treated in the same hospital in the capital, Jakarta.The cases underscore the threat posed by the virus in Indonesia, which was criticized for being slow to react to H5N1 when it first appeared in poultry stocks and among backyard chickens in 2004.We keep warning people to be careful in handling chickens, Kandun said.The source of the virus is from chickens. As long as there are chickens around with bird flu, then it is dangerous for people living nearby.The deaths bring Indonesia's tally of human fatalities to at least 61 more than a third of the world's total.Earlier this week, a teenage boy and a 37-year-old woman died, also in Jakarta.

They were the first deaths from the virus in six weeks a lull that led some Indonesian officials to say they were succeeding in beating the disease. The World Health Organization cautioned that it was too soon to draw that conclusion.Bird flu remains hard for humans to catch and has killed a relatively small number compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who die each year in developing countries from easily preventable diseases.But international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions around the world, including in wealthy nations that have so far been spared human cases.The Associated Press.

Rare brain worms latest border disease.Fatal disease found in developing countries with poor hygiene habits hits South TexasJanuary 13, 2007 - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Medical professionals in South Texas have identified another disease that has apparently slipped across the border caused by a rare brain worm that can be fatal and is being spread by unsanitary food-handling practices. While not yet classified as a major outbreak, several cases of cysticercosis have been identified in South Texas, a spokesman for San Antonio's Metro Health District told KENS-TV, San Antonio.Magnetic resonance image showing multiple cysticerci within patient's brain According to the Center for Disease Control, cysticercosis is an infection caused by the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. Infection occurs when the tapeworm larvae are ingested, pass through the intestinal wall and enter the body to form cysticerci, or cysts. The cysts migrate throughout the body, resulting in symptoms that vary depending on whether they lodge in the muscles, the eyes, the brain or spinal cord.

Symptoms for Renaldo Ramirez, 50, of Houston, began with mild headaches. The tile worker, who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador 20 years ago, told KENS-TV he had been eating most of his meals at mobile kitchens because of the convenience, but after his ordeal with brain worms, he insisted on preparing his own food. He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside, his sister, who interpreted for him, said. It was a mild headache, but it wouldn't go away, Ramirez said. It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol. Clinic doctors gave him blood pressure medicine, but a few days later, he passed out and did not awaken for eight days. Dr. Aaron Mohanty, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical School, found and removed a cyst caused by a tapeworm larvae living in Ramirez's brain. Undiagnosed and untreated, he could have died within hours. According to the CDC, infection from the tapeworm, which is found worldwide, occurs most often in rural, developing countries with poor hygiene where pigs are allowed to roam freely and eat human feces. This allows the tapeworm infection to be completed and the cycle to continue.

The risk for U.S. citizens has been considered rare due to strict food processing and handling regulations, especially for pork products, and generally high levels of hygiene. The condition is very rare in Muslim countries where eating pork is forbidden. The cycle starts with a human that's infected with the tapeworm, said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, of the UT Houston Medical Center. Failure to wash hands after using the restroom can result in contaminating food and infecting further victims. These eggs hatch in the intestine and go through the gut-wall and into the circulation where they get stuck somewhere, Ostrosky said. Cysticercosis joins Morgellons disease, a mysterious infection seemingly similar to one documented 300 years ago, in the list of new illnesses spreading throughout South Texas.

While Morgellons disease has not been known to kill and it doesn't appear to be contagious, WND has reported its horrible symptoms are what worry doctors. These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry, Ginger Savely, a nurse practitioner in Austin who has treated a majority of Morgellons patients, told the San Antonio Express-News. Patients infected with the disease get lesions that never heal.Fibers removed from facial lesion of 3-year-old boy Sometimes little black specks come out of the lesions and sometimes little fibers, said Stephanie Bailey, a Morgellons patient. It's those different-colored fibers that pop out of the skin that may be the most bizarre symptom of the disease. More than 100 cases have been reported in South Texas. It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way, Savely said. The South Texas outbreak's proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border comes at a time when the issues of illegal immigration, border security and possible amnesty for over 12 million illegal aliens are being debated in the U.S. Despite Morgellons disease's distinctive symptoms and patients tales of suffering, most of the medical community don't see the disease as real, with some doctors telling patients it's all in their head. Morgellons disease may remain a mystery, but cysticercosis does not. Doctors say washing hands, cooking meats thoroughly, especially pork, and washing fruits and vegetables are the best ways to avoid the disease.

Carter Center Advisers Resign Over New Book, By Karen DeYoung - Washington Post Staff Writer - Friday, January 12, 2007; Page A03

Fourteen members of an advisory board to the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned yesterday in protest over former president Jimmy Carter's best-selling new book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that they could no longer in good conscience continue to serve.The resignations were the latest episode in an escalating controversy over the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, published in late November. It has been criticized within the American Jewish community as tilting sharply toward the Palestinians. Scholars have found fault with his fact-checking on small and large points. At least one former Mideast negotiator expressed outrage over what he called misrepresented history.The deciding factor for board member Steve Berman, he said yesterday, was a passage on Page 213 that he quoted easily from memory: It was imperative, Carter wrote, that Arabs and Palestinians make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of an internationally proposed peace accord are accepted by Israel.What does that say to you? asked Berman, a commercial real estate developer in Atlanta. It says they can stop when they get their state. He's condoning terror as a means of obtaining the objective of a Palestinian state.

Carter has been critical of the Bush administration's policies in the Middle East and has said he wanted the book to be provocative. If it provokes debate and assessment and disputes and arguments and maybe some action in the Middle East to get the peace process, which is now completely absent or dormant, rejuvenated, and brings peace ultimately to Israel, that's what I want, he said last month on NBC's Meet the Press.Carter declined to comment about yesterday's resignations. In a statement issued by the center's press office, Executive Director John Hardman expressed gratitude to the members for serving and emphasized that those on the board are not engaged in implementing work of the Center and are not a governing board.The appointed Board of Councilors is not the Carter Center's policy-making body, but a group of 200 mostly local Atlanta leaders who help promote the institution as an international leader in human rights and health issues. But the departure of 14 of its members, who called several news organizations to make their resignations public, served to keep the controversy alive. Word of the resignations first appeared yesterday on the Web site of the Wall Street Journal.Several of the resigning members served in the Carter administration, including William B. Schwartz Jr., former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, and S. Stephen Selig III, a real estate developer who was a White House aide and host committee chairman of the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

Berman said he began the resignation campaign after reading the book last month, and he emerged yesterday as its spokesman. He answered one question before it was asked.It's fair to say, he said in an interview, that most of the people he contacted about the book are Jewish, as were the signatories of the resignation letter. But that wasn't a subject that came up in our discussion.

He described himself as a great admirer of Carter and as a liberal Jew who is worried about the direction that Israel is taking in resolving its conflict with the Palestinians.But he and the others who signed yesterday's letter say Carter went too far. The thing that really disenchanted all of us, it broke our hearts, was to see the president abandon his traditional position of mediator, promoter of peace and honest broker [to become] an advocate for one side of the conflict. It wouldn't even have mattered, Berman said, if he had promoted the Israeli side.Although Carter's book widely apportions blame for decades of failure since the historic peace agreement that he negotiated between Egypt and Israel, it concludes that Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land.In an opinion piece published yesterday in the New York Times, before the resignations were made public, Clinton administration Mideast envoy Dennis Ross said that maps Carter used in his book rewrite history and misrepresent peace proposals advanced by Bill Clinton in the final days of his presidency. Carter, Ross wrote, mislabeled Clinton and Israeli versions of maps of proposed borders used during the negotiations to inaccurately imply that the Palestinians had been more accommodating than they were. Ross now has the title of counselor at the Washington Institute for Mideast Policy.