Wednesday, March 04, 2009

BRITISH PM CALLS FOR GLOBAL NEW DEAL

WORLD GOVERNMENT

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER British PM calls for Global New Deal Calls on Obama to join worldwide solution for economic downturn March 03, 2009 7:30 pm Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi 2009 WorldNetDaily

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
NEW YORK – Meeting with President Obama at the White House today, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeated his request for a Global New Deal, answering questions to a select group of reporters in the Oval Office. Critics of Brown in Britain assert the Labour Party leader has come to the U.S. to ask for economic assistance as a way of stemming his sharp drop in the polls after the failure of his government's bank-bailout measures. Brown, the first European leader to meet with Obama at the White House, is also scheduled to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow. By calling for a Global New Deal, Brown suggested an expansion of globalism was the only possible solution to the current world crisis and that the two left-leaning leaders would share common ground on a New Deal-like expansion of government and social welfare programs, instead of tax cuts or favorable regulatory treatment for small businesses to stimulate job creation. There is the possibility in the next few months of a Global New Deal that will involve all the countries of the world in sorting out and cleaning up the banking system, Brown said. And there is the possibility of all the different countries of the world coming together to agree the expansion in the economy that is necessary to both restore confidence and to give people jobs and growth through prosperity for the future.Brown suggested his view of a Global New Deal could be implemented through international institutions rather than through nation-states.

There is the possibility of the international institutions for the first time being reformed in such a way that they can do the job that people want them to do and deal with some of the problems that exist in the poorest countries of the world, he added. Brown also told reporters the recovery could be a green, or low-carbon, recovery, suggesting support for the type of cap-and-trade carbon tax Obama has proposed as part of his $3.7 trillion federal budget. Last Sunday, before leaving for the U.S., Brown wrote an editorial published in the London Times in which he proclaimed, Globalism is not an option, it is a fact, so the question is whether we manage it well or badly. Rebuilding global financial stability is a global challenge that needs global solutions,Brown wrote. Our task in working together is to secure a high-growth, low-carbon recovery by taking seriously the global challenge of climate change.Obama did not specifically address or endorse Brown's call for a Global New Deal, nor did he propose any specific financial aid for Britain or the European Union to expand social welfare services or to provide additional funds for government bailout programs. At home, Obama 's $787 billion economic stimulus program and his proposed $3.7 trillion 2009 federal budget have been sharply criticized as an unprecedented amount of deficit-spending aimed at creating an unprecedented expansion of the federal government and the building of a massive U.S. welfare state on the European model.

Referring to the special relationship between the two countries, Brown appeared to suggest the U.S. and Britain could come up together with a proposed solution for the world economic downturn in advance of the G-20 meeting scheduled for April in London.Prior to today's meeting with Brown, the Obama administration appeared to play down the Brown's visist by not scheduling a joint press conference broadcast nationally on live television. WND reported previously that on April 30, 2007, President Bush signed an agreement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-president of the European Council, and with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to create a Transatlantic Economic Council. The Transatlantic Economic Council was aimed at deeper transatlantic economic integration between the U.S. and the EU, without the agreement being ratified by the Senate as a treaty, and without the passage by Congress of a law authorizing the new international entity.

WND also reported on a meeting held at the U.S. State Department in March 2008 under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy that discussed the integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concertwith a move toward a Transatlantic Union, linking a North American community with the European Union.

Clinton to map out priorities with European ministers
VALENTINA POP Today MAR 04,09 @ 09:29 CET


EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will meet her European counterparts in Brussels this evening for a transatlantic dinner ahead of the Nato ministerial meeting on Thursday set to focus on Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and Russia.She will convey on behalf of the Obama administration our commitment to revitalising Nato, listening to our allies and consulting, hearing their views and building strategies together,Kurt Volker, the US permanent representative to Nato told EUobserver.The informal get-to-know-each-other meeting will also see non-Nato foreign ministers from Finland, Sweden and non-EU nation Switzerland attend.Renewed commitment to the Nato operation in Afghanistan, which the Obama administration has put high on its agenda, is set to dominate the talks. Ms Clinton will likely also be faced with questions regarding the planned US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic after reports that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Moscow offering to back down from the project in return for Russian support against Iran's nuclear programme.What I said in the letter is what I have said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed toward not Russia, but Iran, Mr Obama said after meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday (3 March).To the extent that we are lessening Iran's commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for a missile defence system,he explained.

On the same day, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said the Kremlin was working closely with the US on the Iranian file, but not in the context of the missile defence shield. However, he did appreciate the American readiness to discuss the issue of the shield which the previous Bush administration considered a done deal. It's good, because several months ago we were getting different signals - that the decision has been made, there is nothing to speak about, that we have done everything as we have decided, Mr Medvedev said.In a possible sign of Russian-US warming, Moscow reported on Tuesday that a first train with US supplies bound for Afghanistan had crossed its territory and was currently located in Kazakhstan.On Friday, Ms Clinton is due to meet her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva for their first bilateral meeting since the Obama administration took office.Before traveling to Geneva, Ms Clinton will meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, as well as the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, on behalf of the EU presidency. She is also scheduled to participate in a public debate with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering on Friday.

Croatia Nato-entry

Slovenia's potential referendum on Croatian Nato accession is also likely to come up at the ministerial meeting on Thursday at the Nato headquarters, meant to set out the main issues for the upcoming anniversary summit of the alliance from 2-4 April in Strasbourg and Kehl.The US ambassador to the alliance still hoped all our Nato allies would ratify the accession of both Albania and Croatia in time for the summit.

However, the Dutch ambassador to Nato, Herman Schaper, maintained a more reserved line.What can we do about it? A referendum in Slovenia is not something we can oppose. We had hoped to be able to welcome both Croatia and Albania at the summit, but we're not sure anymore that that's possible,Mr Schaper told this website.

Considered a mere formality after the heads of state gave their green light at a Nato summit in Bucharest last year, the ratification of Croatia's accession protocol has now been delayed in Slovenia after two nationalist groups blocked the procedure by filing an application for a referendum on the issue.The two parties now have at least five weeks to collect signatures from Slovenian citizens, while the Nato summit is only six weeks away. The groups said they might withdraw their initiative if Slovenian lawmakers pass a law on the country's sea border dispute with Croatia, an issue which also affects Zagreb's EU accession track.One of the conditions that were set out in the 90s for the countries who wanted to join Nato was not to bring unsolved bilateral issues and then to use your position in the allience to shut out others. Unfortunately, we have seen some of that, Dan Hamilton, director of the Washington-based Center for Transatlantic Relations and a former official in President Bill Clinton's administration told EUobserver.Macedonia's Nato bid was also blocked by a bilateral dispute with Greece, while Nato-EU cooperation was hindered by the Turkish-Cypriot issue, Mr Hamilton added.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

Microchip implant forum (done already just for info)
http://www.cio-conference.ucla.edu/2009/
http://www.winmec.ucla.edu/rfid/ResearchForum/2009/
http://www.winmec.ucla.edu/rfid/experience/Feb2009/
http://support.simplyrfid.com/noxvault
http://www.rfidrecruiters.com/Moving_into_RFID.htm
RFID world APR 22-24 ASIA MEETING
http://www.terrapinn.com/2009/rfid/
http://www.rfidupdate.com/articles/index.php?id=1696
SPYCHIPS - BOOK TO BUY
http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?DEPARTMENT_ID=6&SUBDEPARTMENT_ID=20&ITEM_ID=1925

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER Vigil protests mandatory chip implants,Organizers object to ordinance in light of dog that bled to death March 02, 2009 9:45 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn 2009 WorldNetDaily


Charlie Brown, dog that bled to death from a mandated microchip implant procedure

Organizers are planning a candlelight vigil tomorrow in San Marcos, Texas, to protest the city's ordinance requiring pets be implanted under the skin with an identifying microchip. The protesters have already sent letters and informational packets to the city's mayor, council members and animal control board members explaining their objections to the mandatory cost, perceived invasion of privacy and potential health risks of microchipping family pets. Those gathering on San Marcos City Hall steps tomorrow evening will be joined by national radio talk show host and identity chip expert Katherine Albrecht, who explains the protesters' concerns:

Chipping should be a voluntary decision made by a pet owner, in consultation with his or her veterinarian, after weighing the risks, states Dr. Albrecht, a Harvard-trained researcher and privacy advocate. It should never be required at the point of a government gun.The group's candlelight vigil is being held in memoriam for Charlie Brown, a pet Chihuahua in California who bled to death after receiving a microchip implant. As WND reported, Charlie Brown's owners objected to the implant, but were compelled to comply with an ordinance requiring microchipping of pets in unincorporated Los Angeles County, only to watch their dog die of unexplained complications from the procedure. Yes, Big Brother is watching! Find out more in Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government plan to Track your every Move.I wasn't in favor of getting Charlie chipped, but it was the law, said Lori Ginsberg, Charlie Brown's owner.This technology is supposedly so great until it's your animal that dies.VeriChip, a major manufacturer of the microchip implants, touts the technology's capability to identify a lost pet and enable its return home, while dismissing potential health risks. Over the last 15 years, states the VeriChip website,millions of dogs and cats have safely received an implantable microchip with limited or no reports of adverse health reactions from this life-saving product, which was recently endorsed by the USDA. These chips are a well-accepted and well-respected means of global identification for pets in the veterinary community.

Katherine Albrecht

And while Albrecht doesn't doubt the ability of the chips to return lost pets home, she explained to WND that the decision should be left to pet owners, not mandated by government. We think it is totally inappropriate to require people to do this, Albrecht said. Given that this is a very controversial technology – not just because of the medical risks associated with it, but for many people who have a moral, philosophical and even religious objection to these technologies – to mandate that someone has to do this really is an example of the government as an evil nanny state.
Albrecht's concern over government-mandated microchipping has been heightened lately by reports that the technology, with the support of the Obama administration, may be expanding beyond just family pets. As WND reported, Janet Napolitano, the newly chosen chief of the Department of Homeland Security, advocates embedding radio chips into citizens' driver's licenses. The enhanced driver's licenses, as they're called, would contain built-in radio chips providing an identifying number or information that can be accessed by a remote reading unit while the license is inside a wallet or purse. They're actually talking about issuing every person a spychip driver's license, Albrecht told WND. That is the potential problem.Imagine, she said, going to a First Amendment-protected event, a church or a mosque, or even a gun show or a peace rally.What happens to all those people when a government operator carrying a reading device makes a circuit of the event? she asked. They could download all those unique ID numbers and link them.Participants could find themselves on watch lists or their attendance at protests or rallies added to their government dossier.

She said even if such license programs are run by states, there's virtually no way that the databases would not be linked and accessible to the federal government. WND previously has reported on such chips when hospitals used them to identify newborns, a company desired to embed immigrants with the electronic devices, a government health event showcased them and when Wal-Mart used microchips to track customers.

Michigan State Rep. Paul Opsommer, R-DeWitt, a recent guest on Albrecht's radio show, explained why many Americans object to the government mandating citizens carry identifying information on a scannable chip: If EDLs are the new direction for secure licenses in all states, it just reinforces what many have been telling me that DHS wants to expand this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a different name, he said. We'll wake up one day and without a vote in Congress DHS will just pass a rule and say something like starting next month you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever.

Global Television For Our Global Leader AIM Report|By Cliff Kincaid|March 1, 2009

This outlandish and frightening proposal doesn’t come from a fringe organization.

Elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of January were considering a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of global governance. It sounds authoritarian, even totalitarian, to some.The media proposal, which was included in The Global Agenda 2009 report, is to create a new global network with the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other. Several prominent U.S. media figures signed on to the alarming and controversial proposal.Isn’t it nice that we might have a TV network telling us who we are? And what we mean to each other? Perhaps we will learn that we are global citizens. Perhaps a global leader of some sort will tell us that. Who might that be?

This outlandish and frightening proposal doesn’t come from a fringe organization. The WEF is an exclusive club of very rich and powerful people from around the world. It describes itself as an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.This year’s conference featured speeches by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The event’s corporate sponsors, which pay about half a million dollars each to participate, include several failing institutions that have received tens of billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers. They include Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley. These entities are termed Strategic Partners of the World Economic Forum.News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, was another strategic partner of the event. Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, represented the Obama Administration at this year’s event and called leaders from all nations to seize gladly the duties of collaborating and boldly embrace a new era of global financial responsibility.

But in a major embarrassment, the WEF also released a report,The Future of the Global Financial System, acknowledging intellectual stewardship and guidance provided by a steering committee co-chaired by John Thain, the former Merrill Lynch & Co. chief executive officer who was recently ousted from Bank of America in a scandal. Thain oversaw the disastrous sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and was criticized for lavish spending on office decorations, including a $1,405 waste basket and $87,784 rug.The other co-chair of the committee was David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, who has been quoted as saying that China holds the key to the world economy’s future. One report notes that Rubenstein says Carlyle was an early investor in the Chinese marketplace, that its China office has hired many native-born Chinese, and the company is seeking to build its buyout and growth-capital businesses there.

The End Of Sovereignty

The Global Agenda 2009 report says that sovereign states do not adequately address problems reaching across borders and that international taxation may be needed to generate the additional resources for global governance.Could this become a source of new bailout money here and abroad? As current global governance problems come from market failures, sovereign failures and inter-governmental failures that cross boundaries, sacrificing sovereignty for greater gain may become an option, the report says.

Law Of The Sea Treaty

The report says the U.N.’s Law of the Sea Treaty, which is a top priority for Senate ratification under the Obama Administration, is a measure that has earned the acceptance and compliance of most nations. The treaty would turn over oil, gas, and mineral resources to the U.N. and authorize access to them through payment of a global tax to a U.N. body. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has engendered criticism from conservatives for having endorsed the Law of the Sea Treaty in 2007. But the WEF also envisions cooperation and collaboration in global media ventures. It asks, How can we save journalism to help it save the world? Clearly, this is advocacy journalism on a global scale.Indeed, the list of Recommendations says it is imperative to start Communicating a global agenda, and motivating and mobilizing people to support it…Is this journalism? Or is it brainwashing and propaganda?

It says that a genuine, global voice is needed that shares a fundamental commitment to being an international media voice, and makes mention of the media voices we think of as international coming from London (the BBC), Qatar (Al-Jazeera) or Atlanta (CNN).BBC is known for its anti-American programming, Al-Jazeera for its pro-terrorist slant, and CNN for its left-wing and pro-Democratic bias. It will take innovative public-private funding to bring this new network into being, apparently meaning that the taxpayers in the U.S. will have to be soaked in order to help bring this about. But no price tag is put on the venture and no objection was apparently raised to government funding of such a network on a global basis. An overview statement does, however, decry censorship and self-censorship.Elsewhere in the report (page 31) the idea of international taxation is proposed for global action of various kinds. Perhaps this is a vehicle for raising revenue for the new global voice.The media proposal was developed by one of several Global Agenda Councils under the auspices of the WEF. The new TV network proposal was issued under the supervision of Pat Mitchell, the president of the Paley Center for Media and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Public Broadcasting Service. She was the chair of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media.

Key Members

Other members of the Council on the Future of Media were Betsy Morgan of the left-wing Huffington Post (former general manager of CBSNews.com); Rui Chenggang of China Central Television, an official political propaganda arm of the communist regime; and Zafar Siddiqi of CNBC Arabiya, a subsidiary of General Electric which is described as a 24-hour Arabic language financial and business information channel.

There is no indication in the published report that the Huffington Post executive raised any objection to working hand-in-glove with the communist propaganda channel. Is the Chinese media model a precedent for the new global network? The conference was covered by media organizations such as CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Forbes and Fox, but no coverage that we could find was devoted to the proposal for a government-financed global media network. Talk about self-censorship! John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University and the Rapporteur of the Global Agenda Councils focusing on Society and Values, summarized the work of Mitchell’s panel. He says (page 46) that We believe that this new moment also calls for a new media platform, across all media channels, a global non-profit CNN providing a new form of independent journalism to inform, illuminate and deepen knowledge about issues that improve the state of the world.According to DeGioia’s biography, he walks the walk and is dedicated to helping prepare young people for leadership roles in the global community.His bio adds, He is a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and Chair of its Education Committee and he represents Georgetown at the World Economic Forum and on the Council on Foreign Relations.The media council took advantage of what a description of its work said was an enormous opportunity to redefine the media and its roles in a global, interconnected society.

Under the title of Recommendations (page 182), the Council on the Future of Media declares that The Council is championing a new global, independent news and information service whose role is to inform, educate and improve the state of the world—one that would take advantage of all platforms of content delivery from mobile to satellite and online to create a new global network.It goes on, In a world where there are calls for global governance as a response to a global financial crisis, where scientific research, capital flows and production chains are globalized, the media and the communities in which we imagine ourselves remain fiercely localized. Hence, a global network will work against localized or national-based systems and convince people to go global with their outlook and solutions. In other words, the new network will help undermine old-fashioned notions of national sovereignty and patriotism.There are 22 members (page 183) of the Council on the Future of Media. In addition to Mitchell and Morgan, American members include:

Alex S. Jones, former media reporter for the New York Times and now Director, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Susan King, former Washington correspondent for ABC News and now Director, Journalism Initiative, Special Initiatives and Strategy, Carnegie Corp. of New York.
John Lavine, Dean, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
Nicholas Lemann, former Washington Post reporter and now Dean, School of Journalism, Columbia University.
David Nordfors, Director, Innovation Journalism and Senior Research Scholar, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University.
Monroe Price, Director, Centre for Global Communications Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania.
Orville H. Schell, Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society.
There doesn’t appear to be one identifiable conservative member on the list. Of course, this is probably the way it was designed.

CRIMES AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION

The liberals have come up with a clever way of ratifying dangerous treaties, which now require a two-thirds vote (67) to pass in the Senate. They may introduce them as legislation, requiring only a majority vote to pass. The model for this new approach is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).Such an approach would mean quicker and easier passage of controversial and expensive measures that, if debated as treaties in the Senate, might take too long and upset and alarm too many Americans.By submitting a new global warming treaty as a statute, scholars at the Brookings Institution argue, the Congress can act more quickly on the measure.

They specifically cite a U.N. climate conference scheduled for December, when the international community is scheduled to gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, to negotiate a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.The new agreement that comes out of this, they suggest, should be a statute, not a treaty, even though the 1997 Kyoto Protocol was a treaty.Brookings scholars William J. Antholis and Nigel Purvis say that the U.S. must quickly transform its domestic and international energy policy and come into line with international demands. To reclaim global leadership, the United States must show the world proof that it has the political will to curb greenhouse gases, they say.The political will would be a power grab by Obama and his liberal allies in Congress. Left unsaid is the fact that this is obviously a way to cut conservative Republican senators out of the process and forge a bare majority of senators in favor of controversial treaties.They say that ...in consultation with Congress, the president would decide that future climate and energy agreements are to be approved by the United States by statute rather than as treaties.In other words, Obama would decide, after getting the approval of leading Democrats in Congress, that he won’t submit the new U.N. climate treaty as a treaty. Instead, he would submit it as just a statute. This would obviously make passage much easier.

They argue that all of this can be accomplished under the rubric of a new Climate Protection Authority that Obama should adopt.

Time To Act

Domestically, the president’s public approval and congressional majorities may never be as high, they note, in an obvious reference to Obama’s Democratic edge in both congressional bodies.The implication is that Obama has to act now, bypassing Senate conservatives, especially Republicans, by implementing the Climate Protection Authority and then submitting future climate and energy agreements as statutes rather than as treaties.It must be done now, rather than later, the Brookings scholars argue, because the prospect of regulating greenhouse gases could fade if the economy continues to worsen.In other words, expensive and costly prohibitions of energy use might be tougher to impose if peoples’ living and working conditions continue to deteriorate.This approach is needed, they argue, because other nations distrust our treaty-making process.They explain,These countries are reluctant to make politically difficult concessions only to see the United States stay out of the agreement in the end.Translated into common language, this means that the treaty process takes too long and the treaty may ultimately be rejected by senators reacting to popular pressure.Antholis is Managing Director of the Brookings Institution, while Purvis, a former State Department official, is a Nonresident Brookings Scholar on Environment and Development and Foreign Policy.Purvis also runs a group, Climate Advisers, which has a vested financial interest in seeing the theory of man-made global warming imposed on the U.S. and the world.Arguing for the abandonment of the constitutional requirement that treaties get two-thirds approval, they explain,Statutes require a majority in both houses of Congress, whereas treaties require two-thirds of only the Senate. Federal courts have repeatedly upheld the constitutionality of bicameral statutory approval of international pacts. In fact, the United States enters into more international agreements this way than by treaty, including some arms control agreements and environmental pacts and almost all trade deals.This point is at least partly true. For example, President Clinton submitted NAFTA as a statute, not a treaty, after he realized that he didn’t have the two-thirds vote in the Senate to pass it.

This logic, of course, might be applied to other controversial treaties, including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Criminal Court.Will Obama do it? With the backing of a major liberal think tank with Democratic Party connections like Brookings, it might be tempting, even irresistible. Susan Rice, Obama’s close foreign policy adviser and now his U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., was a senior fellow at Brookings from 2002 to 2009.In fact, the Brookings approach is not new.

Trashing The Red States

In a June 18, 2007 article in the liberal American Prospect, Thomas Geoghegan had lamented that the Kyoto global warming treaty and the International Criminal Court are among the great global projects of our day but are not getting through the Senate because of the two-thirds majority required for passage. So what’s the way out of this bind? It’s the same way out we used for NAFTA or for fast-track free-trade agreements. That is, we just pass a simple law,he said.Geoghegan says the reason liberals can’t get these measures currently passed in the Senate is because this body over-represents states like Wyoming, Idaho and America’s backwoods. In other words, Red State senators have too much clout under the Constitution. They are obstructing the progressive vision.Geoghegan says legal justification for this new approach can be found in an article in the October 2004 American Journal of International Law (AJIL) by Steve Charnovitz, an associate professor of international law at the George Washington University School of Law. The article complains about Senate inaction on such treaties as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on Biological Diversity, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and various U.N. human rights treaties.Charnovitz admits the approach of pushing these treaties as mere agreements would be controversial. But he finds comfort in the fact that the legal action against NAFTA was thrown out. Asked about the Brookings proposal, Charnovitz said it was similar to his approach. He explained, In my proposal published in the American Journal of International Law in October 2004, I proposed a U.S. framework statute that would authorize and set goals for U.S. participation in negotiations in advance. I specifically mentioned environment as one example of where the approach would be useful and discussed the Kyoto experience. The Brookings staff proposal is similar to what I have advocated.

However, in regard to using such an approach with the Law of the Sea Treaty or the International Criminal Court, he believes it is too late now to use a framework statute as those negotiations have already concluded and the treaties are already in force. He explains, I would not support the Congress approving those treaties by a statute because I think the approach should be used only when authorized in advance. But I don’t think it would be unconstitutional to approve those treaties with a statute. In my AJIL article, I also noted that with the statutory approach, a supermajority could be required. So one could require for a 60 vote margin (or 67) in the Senate and still use a statute.
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DEAR FELLOW MEDIA WATCHDOG MARCH-A 2009

THESE ARE TROUBLING TIMES. ARTHUR B. ROBINSON OF THE ACCESS to Energy newsletter comments that we have a Marxist as President and have equipped him with a socialist Congress, while the Supreme Court is so frightened that its members were unwilling to ask the new President for his birth certificate. Progressive Rep. Barbara Lee, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, says Obama has done a phenomenal job and cites his executive orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, ban the torture of terrorists, and support abortion overseas. She also notes that he signed legislation passed by Congress to spend more money in the name of children’s health care and women’s pay equity. The socialist agenda is being implemented. Not to mention the stimulus bill and the push by Senators Debbie Stabenow and Tom Harkin for the return of the Fairness Doctrine targeting conservative media voices. We need your support to survive.OUR ON-LINE COLUMNS ABOUT THE TAX CHEATING OF TOM DASCHLE, THE FORMER senator who withdrew his nomination as Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, prompted Google News to ask me for comment. I told them that Daschle was on record in favor of a Federal Reserve-style national health board that could order the rationing of medical care and treatments. This seems to be the policy of the Obama Administration, with or without Daschle. Chuck Todd on the NBC Nightly News contrasted Daschle’s failure to pay taxes on a chauffeur and limousine with a Daschle campaign ad in which the senator drove around in an old car. But Todd should also report on some embarrassing facts that affect him. It turns out that Daschle had taken money from GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric. GE Healthcare stands to benefit from the Obama national socialist health care plan because it specializes in the electronic processing of health care records, a major part of the plan. Another GE subsidiary, GE Capital, has received a $139-billion taxpayer-financed loan guarantee as part of the Wall Street bailout. Doesn’t this present a continuing conflict of interest for GE media properties covering the financial crisis? Please send Chuck Todd the enclosed postcard about this.

AN EXCERPT OF REP. PAUL KANJORSKI’S APPEARANCE ON C-SPAN’S WASHINGTON JOURNAL on February 6, 2009, was posted on YouTube and is still creating controversy. Kanjorski, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, made the claim that the financial crisis was triggered by a $550 billion electronic run on the banks on or around September 15, 2008. He said the Treasury then pumped $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide; we were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic out there. If they had not done that, their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, five and a half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed... It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it. So the obvious question is: who was behind this run on the banks? Where are the investigations into this? Please send Kanjorski the enclosed postcard.ONE INTERESTING FACT IS THAT THE U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW Commission was scheduled to hold a February 17 hearing titled China’s Role in the Origins of and Response to Global Recession.It did not say alleged role in the origins of the crisis.

APPEARING BEHIND A PODIUM THAT PROCLAIMED, FINANCIAL STABILITY AND RECOVERY, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on February 10 carefully read from a teleprompter and provided what his flack said was a comprehensive plan. It was not comprehensive in any way. It seemed so amateurish and shallow that the market dropped and commentators and senators were almost incredulous at the lack of detail. But what were they expecting? Those who expected the details of the plan were operating under the false assumption that the Treasury Secretary—and by extension, the U.S. Government—is in practical control and charge of the U.S. economy. It turns out the speech, which did mention the spending of trillions of dollars, was delivered in the Treasury Department’s Cash Room.No kidding.GEITHNER IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL COMMUNITY, AND THAT IS WHY, despite his own tax cheating problems, he was confirmed. He was a prominent figure in the Group of Thirty organization of central bankers and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former employee of Kissinger Associates and lived in China and speaks Chinese. His father, Peter Geithner, is a former top official of the Ford Foundation who knew Obama’s mother when she was working on microfinance in Indonesia. It would be a serious mistake to say that Geithner is incompetent. Essentially, his programmed performance was designed to send the message to the American people and the Congress that we can’t be trusted with the details. This is the New World Order and we had better get used to it.

GEITHNER DID NOT HAVE THE ANSWERS BECAUSE HE HAD NOT GOTTEN HIS MARCHING orders. After giving non-answers to Congress, Geithner was preparing to take off for a G-7 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Rome, Italy. These foreign finance officials may determine the nature and fate of Geithner’s stability and recovery plan. These top finance officials include central bank governors, who play a role in what press reports described as economic coordination among the top industrialized nations. One key global player is China. Geithner spoke late on Sunday evening (February 8) with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan,Reuters reported. Hence, Geithner was talking to a Chinese official even before he outlined his plan to the American people and the Senate. This was the second such conversation in a week. In a statement, the Treasury Department said that Wang and Geithner agreed that strong cooperation on macroeconomic financial and regulatory matters was an essential part of the U.S. relationship with China and that it was important to sustain close dialogue, particularly at this time of global financial turmoil. Wang Qishan was honored last year at a dinner sponsored by the United States Committee on United States- China Relations, on whose board Kissinger and Peter Geithner serve. Another speaker was Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Geithner’s predecessor.

OBAMA SPEAKS OF A POSSIBLE CATASTROPHE BUT HE ISN’T TELLING THE PEOPLE THAT HIS prescription of more debt and spending is what brought us to this precipice. He can only succeed, at least in the sense of getting foreign credit to pay for this spending spree, if the Communist Chinese and the rich Arabs agree.OUR LEAD ARTICLE IN THIS AIM REPORT IS VERY TROUBLING, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE MAJOR media figures are in favor of this proposed new global television network, apparently designed to make us all into subservient global citizens. Please send Pat Mitchell, formerly of PBS, a postcard about this. We will fight it tooth and nail. Things will get worse before they get better. But we will all fight through this together so that we can save our country.For Accuracy in Media, Editor.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Israel has already forfeited Jerusalem,Jews barred as U.S. helps Arabs fortify their presence in holy city March 02, 2009 9:19 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

Sign in Kfar Akeb boasting of 'American gift' to Palestinian Authority
JERUSALEM – Sections of Jerusalem have essentially been forfeited on the ground to the Palestinian Authority, while Jews, including local landowners, are barred from entering parts of Israel's capital, a WND investigation has found. The probe further determined the U.S. has been aiding the Palestinians in developing infrastructure in Jerusalem. Also, it has emerged, the Israeli government has failed to stop Arabs from illegally building thousands of housing projects on Jerusalem land purchased and owned by a U.S. Jewish group for the express purpose of Jewish settlement, culminating in an Arab majority in the neighborhoods. The situation has been unfolding in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis, which are close to the Jewish neighborhoods of Neve Yaacov and Pisgat Zeev in Israel's capital. Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis are located entirely within the Jerusalem municipality. A tour of the three Jerusalem neighborhoods in question finds some surprising developments. Official PA logos and placards abound, including one glaring red street sign at the entrance to the neighborhoods warning Israelis to keep out. Get Aaron Klein's classic book on Mideast radicals: Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!

Another official sign, this one in Kfar Akeb in Jerusalem, reads in English, Ramallah-Jerusalem Road. This project is a gift form (sic) the American people to the Palestinian people in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and PECDAR. 2007.The sign bears the emblems of the American and PA governments and of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The displays were not present during a previous WND tour of the neighborhoods in 2006. Some local schools in the Jerusalem neighborhoods are officially run by the PA – some in conjunction with the U.N. – with many teachers drawing PA salaries. Civil disputes are usually settled not in Israeli courts but by the PA judicial system, although at times Israeli courts are used depending on the matter. Councils governed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization oversee some municipal matters. USAID provides the PA funds for road and infrastructure projects. Israeli security officials said the local Jerusalem police rarely operate in Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis; instead security has been turned over to the Israel Defense Forces and Border Police, who work almost daily with PA security forces. The PA police operate in the Jerusalem neighborhoods in coordination with Israel. Shmulik Ben Ruby, spokesman for the Jerusalem police, confirmed the arrangement. If there are fights between some local families, sometimes we involve the PA police to make peace between the families,he told WND. Yes, the PA police can operate in these neighborhoods in coordination with the IDF and Border Police.

Jews barred from sections of Jerusalem

In another recent development, Israeli Jews, including local property owners, have been almost entirely barred from entering Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis, while Israeli Arabs can freely enter. Aryeh King, a nationalist activist who holds the power of attorney to some Kfar Akeb land owned by an Israeli Jew, told WND he was barred several times during the past few months from entering the neighborhood to administer to the land, upon which local Arabs illegally constructed apartments.

Police spokesman Ben Ruby explained this new arrangement is due to security concerns.It's quite dangerous to be there alone, so if they don't have to be there it's not allowed, because they might find themselves in danger if they go in, said Ben Ruby.In 2002, in response to the outbreak one year earlier of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war against the Jewish state, the Israeli government constructed its security barrier blocking off the West Bank from Jewish population zones. The route of the fence also cut into northern and eastern Jerusalem, incorporating Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis on the so-called Palestinian side.

Israel recaptured northern and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians, however, have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital. About 244,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, out of a total population of 724,000, the majority Jewish. Jews lived in Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis years before the establishment of Israel in 1948, but they were violently expelled during deadly Arab riots in 1929. Jordan, together with other Arab countries, attacked Israel after its founding in 1948 and administered the three Jerusalem neighborhoods as well as all of eastern Jerusalem following an armistice agreement. In 1967, Jordan attacked again and Israel liberated the entire city of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. During the period of Jordanian control, some new construction took place, including in areas previously purchased by Jews. The recent barring of Jews from northern Jerusalem sections seems to coincide with an Israeli government decision the past year to allow the PA some presence in Jerusalem. Last June, WND exclusively reported Prime Minister Ehud Olmert allowed the PA to hold an official meeting in Jerusalem to discuss dealing with expected Palestinian sovereignty over key sections of the city. Dmitri Ziliani, a spokesman for the Jerusalem section of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, confirmed to WND the meeting was related to the activities and structure of Fatah's local command in some neighborhoods of Jerusalem. We were covering the best ways to improve our performance on the street and how we can be of service to the community,Ziliani said.Ziliani said the regular PA meetings in Jerusalem are, in part, held in anticipation of a future Palestinian state encompassing all of eastern Jerusalem.

Our political program as Fatah dictates there will be no Palestinian state if these areas – all of east Jerusalem – are not included, Ziliani told WND. According to Israeli law, the PA cannot officially meet in Jerusalem. The PA previously maintained a de facto headquarters in Jerusalem, called Orient House, but the building was closed down by Israel in 2001 following a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem. Israel said it had information indicating the House was used to plan and fund terrorism.Thousands of documents and copies of bank certificates and checks captured by Israel from Orient House – including many documents obtained by WND – showed the offices were used to finance terrorism, including direct payments to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group

U.S. Jewish group to blame for division of Jerusalem?

Key land in Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb is owned by a U.S. Jewish group that over the years has allowed tens of thousands of Arabs to illegally squat on its land, resulting in the current Arab majority. The Jewish National Fund, or JNF, purchased the land in the early 1920s using Jewish donor funds for the specific purpose of Jewish settlement. The JNF lands have been utilized for the illegal construction of dozens of Arab apartment buildings, a refugee camp and a U.N. school. A previous tour of Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb found dozens of Arab apartment complexes, a Palestinian refugee camp and a U.N. school for Palestinians constructed on the land.

According to officials in Israel's Housing Ministry, Arabs first constructed facilities illegally in Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb between 1948 and 1967, prior to the 1967 Six-Day War during which Israel retook control of the entire city of Jerusalem.

Qalandiya, still owned by JNF, came under the management of the Israeli government's Land Authority in the late 1960s. Ministry officials say the bulk of illegal Arab construction in Qalandiya occurred in the past 20 years, with construction of several new Arab apartment complexes taking place in just the past two years.

Neither the Israeli government nor JNF took any concrete measures to stop the illegal building, which continues today with at least one apartment complex in Qalandiya under construction. Land in another Jerusalem' neighborhood, Shoafat, which has an estimated value of $3 million, was also purchased by JNF in the early 1900s and fell under the management of the Israel Land Authority about 40 years ago. Much of the illegal Arab construction in Shoafat took place in the past 15 years, with some apartment complexes built as late as 2004.In Qalandiya and Shoafat, Israel's security fence cordons off the Arab sections of the JNF lands from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem.Internal JNF documents obtained by WND outline illegal Arab construction on the Jewish-owned land. A December 2000 survey of Qalandiya summarized on JNF stationery and signed by a JNF worker states, In a lot of the plots I find Arabs are living and building illegally and also working the JNF land without permission.The JNF survey goes on to document illegal construction of Arab apartment complexes and the U.N. school under the property management of Israel's Land Authority.

Group misleading donors?

In response to a previous WND exclusive report on the JNF's alleged mismanagement of the properties, JNF CEO Russell Robinson sent statements to concerned donors that the illegal construction occurred during periods the Jerusalem land was occupied by Jordan.1991 photo of Shoafat shows region entirely forest land.During that time the Jordanian government oversaw all activities, including the U.N. building. Under international law, this makes matters pertaining to the land more complicated than what [WND describes],states Robinson's letter. But WND obtained aerial photos of the two JNF sites in question, Shoafat and Qalandiya, which Robinson claimed were illegally built upon prior to 1967.

1967 aerial photo of Qalandiya region

A photo taken in 1991 of Shoafat shows the entire area was a forest – meaning all illegal Arab construction took place after 1967 while the land was under Jewish control. An aerial photo taken in 1967 of the second site, Qalandiya, which is now a large Arab town, finds construction of a U.N. building but few other sites, indicating the vast majority of Arab construction – dozens of large apartment complexes – occurred under JNF control. WND originally reported some of the construction took place prior to 1967, but the bulk of the building occurred the past few years, under Jewish management.

HELP SUPPORT ISRAEL LEGISLATION
https://secure2.convio.net/ifcj/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=233&JServSessionIdr006=sl7rjq8hf1.app45a

Dear Friend of Israel,

We have all heard the saying, The road to ruin is paved with good intentions.The message is clear. While good intentions may provide the starting point for our efforts, they mean little if they are not translated into positive deeds.Today I want to tell you about an organization, founded with a noble purpose, that has strayed far from that original purpose – and tell you what you can do to help set it back on its proper path.In 1949, the United Nations formed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide emergency aid to Arab refugees who had fled their homes or been displaced in 1948 due to the ongoing war waged by Arab nations upon the newly-formed state of Israel.

Sixty years later, UNRWA’s reach and budget has expanded exponentially. In this case care of all descendants of the original refugees is also provided by UNRWA. Today the agency provides for more than 4 million people, both those living in refugee camps and those in established communities who are nonetheless considered refugees by UNRWA’s definition.

Stop U.N. funding of terrorists – take action today!

Many say UNRWA perpetuates, rather than eases, the plight of Palestinian refugees and the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Often it plays an indirect role in supporting Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Hamas members have been found on the agency’s payroll, and recently the agency revealed that it has no screening system in place to exclude members of certain terrorist groups from working in its schools.

A couple of high-profile cases have brought to the world’s attention the connection between terror groups and UNRWA. Awad Al-Qiq, chief rocket-maker for the Islamic Jihad terror group, worked as a science instructor at an UNRWA school in Gaza. A senior Hamas leader targeted and killed by an Israeli air strike during last month’s Gaza war, Said Siyam, was on the UNRWA payroll for years, also working as a teacher. And if terrorists are the teachers, what is being taught in UNRWA-funded schools? Textbooks used in these schools often reinforce a point of view that is deeply hostile to Israel. One book obtained by Israeli officials glorified terrorists and anyone who died during armed struggle with Israel as martyrs.To address this problem, a bi-partisan group of Congressmen, lead by Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) have introduced a bill (H. Con. Res. 29) that would require UNRWA to operate in compliance with existing U.S. laws to ensure that no American taxpayer dollars are being directed to terrorists or to further terrorist propaganda. In addition, it would call on UNRWA to publish online copies of all the educational material used in its schools, and urge the agency to adopt strict screening procedures to ensure that no terrorists are included among UNRWA staff.Today, I ask you to join the fight for fairness for Israel by responding to our Action Alert and urging your Congressman to support this bill that calls on UNRWA to reform. And, after you have done so, please help us spread the word on this important legislation by forwarding the alert to your friends. Thank you, my friends, for making your voice heard! With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
https://secure2.convio.net/ifcj/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=233

So, forget Durban, it's time to get out protests regarding US participation in the UN Human Rights Council. http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

To locate your congresspersons:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml

To locate your senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

European Union members oppose Muslim views on racism meeting
Published Tuesday March 3rd, 2009 Eliane Engeler, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


GENEVA - European Union countries Tuesday stepped up their opposition to Muslim attempts to shield Islam from criticism and attack Israel through a United Nations conference on racism.EU members were unusually outspoken in appearances before the UN Human Rights Council, saying they were worried about preparations for a global racism conference to be held next month because attention was being diverted from the real problems of racial discrimination. I am deeply disturbed by the turn this event is taking,Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen said. The thematic world conference is used by some to try to force their concept of defamation of religions and their focus on one regional conflict on all of us, Verhagen told the 47-member council. References to Israel and protection of religion in the current draft conclusion being negotiated for the so-called Durban II conference are unacceptable, Verhagen said. We cannot accept any text, which would put religion above individuals, not condemn discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, condone anti-Semitism or single out Israel, he said. Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Italy voiced similar concerns. Islamic countries, still angry over cartoons and films attacking Muslims, have been campaigning for wording that would equate criticism of a religious faith with a violation of human rights. The informal negotiations have proven difficult with many issues that marred the first UN conference on racism in 2001 re-emerging - such as criticism of Israel.

The April 20-25 meeting is designed to review progress in fighting racism since the global body's first such conference eight years ago in Durban, South Africa. That 2001 meeting was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery, and particularly marred by attacks on Israel and anti-Israel demonstrations at a parallel conference of non-governmental organizations. The United States and Israel walked out midway through the 2001 conference over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism. The EU also refused to accept demands by Arab states to criticize Israel for its racist practices.In the end, the 2001 conference dropped criticism of Israel. It urged governments to take concrete steps to fight discrimination and recognized the plight of the Palestinian people and the need for Israel to have security.Israel and Canada have already announced they will boycott Durban II. The United States said Friday it will stay away from this year's conference unless its final document is changed to drop all references to Israel and the defamation of religion.Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday that countries should not put conditions for the participation in the meeting. Durban II should deal with contemporary forms of racism, such as religious profiling and Islamophobia, he said.

METEORS HIT THE EARTH

REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!

Asteroid plays chicken with Earth
Richard Macey March 4, 2009


IT COULD have put an end to our worries about the economy and those sharks at Sydney beaches.At 12.40 yesterday morning, as the city slept, a previously unknown asteroid swept about 60,000 kilometres over the south-western Pacific.In astronomical terms it was a close call. Estimated to be between 30 metres and 50 metres wide, it passed almost seven times closer than the moon.No object of that size, or larger, has been observed to come closer to the Earth, said Rob McNaught, of the Siding Spring Observatory, near Coonabarabran.In 1908 an object possibly up to 50 metres across flattened some 2000 square kilometres of Siberian forest.Mr McNaught said yesterday's asteroid was probably smaller but it could do a lot of damage to a city. If it had crashed into the ocean I imagine it would produce a tsunami, he said.

Funded by NASA to search for asteroids bigger than one kilometre across, Mr McNaught spotted the object on Friday night. Within 24 hours astronomers had calculated it would narrowly miss the planet.Mr McNaught said as the asteroid approached Earth yesterday morning it had glowed 5000 times brighter than on Friday night. It was so bright I could actually observe it through the cloud. That is very rare,he said.

He believed that if 2009 DD45 had been on a collision course with a populated part of the planet, there would have been time to act. A lot of people falsely claim there is nothing you could do, but there is. If there is an asteroid coming, and you have 24 hours, you can evacuate.About 1000 asteroids are known to have come close enough to be classified as potentially hazardous.While a collision with a one-kilometre-wide asteroid could cause global devastation, Mr McNaught said one that was just 300 metres wide could throw the world into a short-term winter.Objects bigger than one kilometre wide were likely to hit the world only every few million years but ones large enough to threaten a city crashed probably once a century.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

SPECIAL CONFERENCE MAR 23-24,2009,ALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS WILL BE THERE,ALL THE EU MEMBERS WILL BE THERE,AND THE G-20 WILL BE THERE.THIS SAME GROUP OF EU,BANKERS,G-20 WILL ALSO BE IN LONDON IN APRIL TO LAY PLANS FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER,ESPECIALLY THE G-20.https://futurefinance.wsj.com/index.php

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED MAR 04,2009

09:30 AM +18.25
10:00 AM +77.90
10:30 AM +51.69
11:00 AM +94.30
11:30 AM +145.76
12:00 PM +169.41
12:30 PM +135.22
01:00 PM +105.29
01:30 PM +125.21
02:00 PM +130.14
02:30 PM +167.34
03:00 PM +224.05
03:30 PM +225.08
04:00 PM +149.82 6875.84

S&P 500 712.87 +16.54

NASDAQ 1353.74 +32.73

GOLD 908.30 +5.30

OIL 45.14 +3.50

TSE 300 7814.75 +183.13

CDNX 830.95 +6.88

S&P/TSX/60 471.33 +11.40

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -23.36%
S&P -22.91%
Nasdaq -16.23%
TSX Advances 540,declines 962,unchanged 296,Volume 2,556,342,301.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 299,Declines 436,Unchanged 326,Volume 133,653,700.

Dow +110 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +18 points at low today.
Dow +121 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $920.20.OIL opens at $43.43 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow +18 points at low today so far.
Dow +174 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,793,declines 885,unchanged 89,New Highs 1,New Lows 304.
Volume 4,091,682,857.
NASDAQ Advances 1,827,declines 788,unchanged 129,New highs 1,New Lows 246.
Volume 1,052,190,575.
TSX Advances 824,declines 464,unchanged 243,Volume 1,488,882,084.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 267,Declines 233,Unchanged 274,Volume 103,287,894.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow +18 points at low today.
Dow +253 points at high today.
Dow +2.23% today Volume 464,828,107.
Nasdaq +2.48% today Volume 2,147,483,648.
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RECORD LOWS DOW
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RECORD LOWS S&P 500
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-Nov 4,1996 706.73
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ECONOMY VIDEO
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/29481513#29481335

BANK BAILOUT MAY COST MORE
http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=99702&videoChannel=75

WHITEHOUSE KNOCKS CRAMER
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnbc/white_house_knocks_jim_cramer
_for_calling_obama_budget_greatest_wealth_destruction_by_a_president_110203.asp

UPDATE 1-U.S. senator wants Fed to name loan recipients Tue Mar 3, 2009 8:29pm GMT (Adds details on proposed legislation)

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. senator berated Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday for refusing to name banks that borrow from the central bank and introduced legislation that would require public disclosure.In a testy exchange at a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who usually votes with the Democrats, said he found it unacceptable that the central bank risked taxpayer money without detailing where the funds went.My question to you is, will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars? Sanders asked, referring to the size of the Fed's balance sheet.

Bernanke responded that the Fed explains the various lending programs on its website, and details the terms and collateral requirements.When Sanders pressed on whether Bernanke would name the firms that borrowed from the Fed, the central bank chairman replied, No, and started to say that doing so risked stigmatizing banks and discouraging them from borrowing from the central bank.Isn't that too bad, Sanders interrupted, cutting him off.They took the money but they don't want to be public about the fact that they received it.According to the text of the proposed legislation, e-mailed by Sanders' staff, he wants the central bank to identify any firm that has received financial assistance since March 24, 2008, including details on the type of borrowing, amount, date, terms and the Fed's rationale for lending.

Sanders wants the Fed to publish those details on its website and update them at least every 30 days.At the hearing, the senator said businesses in his state were in trouble and needed loans, but were not permitted to borrow from the Fed.Do you have to be a large, greedy, reckless financial institution to apply for this money? he asked.Bernanke said the Fed's lending programs were not gifts or subsidies but rather over-collateralized loans. He said the law restricted the types of firms to which the central bank can lend.We have never lost a penny doing it, he said.Sanders responded: Let me just say this, Mr. Chairman. I have a hard time understanding how you have put $2.2 trillion at risk without making those names available, those institutions public.It is unacceptable to me that that this goes on,he added. (Reporting by Emily Kaiser, Editing by Dan Grebler)

EU has a solution to rescue any member that risks economic collapse By AOIFE WHITE AP Business Writer 3/3/2009 6:29 AM

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top economy official said Tuesday that the 16 euro nations have a solution to rescue any member that risks economic collapse.
EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it would not be clever to give out details in public but the solution exists.Investors see a risk that euro-zone nations like Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy could default on debt payments and are charging them more to borrow on government bonds. Almunia said this solution would kick in before a member nation needed to approach the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. Don't fear, we are equipped intellectually, politically, economically to face this crisis scenario,he said in a speech at an event organized by the European Policy Centre think tank.But by definition this kind of things should not be explained in public.He also said it is possible and it is reasonable for two or more euro countries to issue bonds together but it is not politically viable today because some important member states said no.Germany has denied reports that it was weighing up issuing bilateral bonds with other nations — although German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that euro nations would find ways of solidarity if necessary. Germany has also refused to consider a euro-zone bond.Almunia said it was unlikely that the European Commission could issue more bonds to help out EU nations because treaty rules forbid it from running a deficit. The EU executive is already selling bonds to help pay for a €9.6 billion ($12 billion) bailout for Hungary and Latvia.

He also rejected speculation that any euro nation would quit the zone — a move that might allow the country to devalue its currency and stoke sluggish demand. Who is crazy enough to leave the euro area? Nobody, he said. The number of candidates to join the euro area increases, the number of candidates to leave the euro area is zero.The EU's executive Commission says that the shared currency has helped create a safe haven for member nations, increasing trade between them and helping shield them against the worst of the global financial crisis. But he said he was concerned by recent exchange rate volatility, even though he welcomed the recent fall of the euro against the U.S. dollar. Almunia said the current euro exchange rate of $1.26 was within the range of what we can consider normal because it fell between $1.20 to $1.30. He said the EU's executive still sees the Chinese yuan as undervalued. He was more pessimistic about the economy after a raft of gloomy data indicated a bad start to the year. He said downside risks are bigger than in January, when the Commission forecast that the euro-zone would contract 1.9 percent this year and the entire European Union by 1.8 percent.Almunia said governments needed to lay out plans to cut public debt in the longer-term to stabilize their economies. But he said it was too soon for the European Union's 27 nations to consider follow-up stimulus programs to the plans they have already announced to stoke growth this year. Existing spending plans cost 3.3 percent of the EU's gross domestic product, he said, including 1.1 percent of GDP for stimulus programs and 1.7 percent of GDP for automatic stabilizers when governments spend more on welfare as the economy slows.

Rescue plan for defaulting euro-zone states drawn up
ANDREW WILLIS 03.03.2009 @ 17:45 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union is able to help any member of the euro area that defaults on debt repayments, economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Tuesday (3 March), adding that a rescue plan has already been drawn up, but that it would not be clever to reveal such solutions in public.If a crisis emerges in one euro area country, there is a solution before visiting the IMF, he said during an address to the European Policy Centre, a Brussels based think-tank. You can be sure that there is a solution. And you can be sure that it is not clever to tell you in public what the solution is. But the solution exists ... we are equipped intellectually, politically, and economically to face this crisis scenario.

Later in the day a commission spokesperson referred to the balance of payments facility that has been used to support both Latvia and Hungary.The same way we have a particular instrument that we used for Hungary and Latvia to help EU countries outside the euro area ... that solidarity would be equally be displayed one way or the other [to eurozone countries].The balance of payments facility was set up in 2002to allow the commission to make loans to non-euro area countries experiencing difficulties meeting debt obligations. The commission raises the necessary funds by issuing bonds on the international money markets. In December, ministers decided to increase the facility's lending ceiling from €12 to €25 billion. German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled last month that her country might come to the help of euro-zone countries experiencing financial difficulties. However, Mr Almunia re-iterated on Tuesday that government bail-outs are prohibited under monetary union, as is the purchase of national bonds by the European Central Bank. Likewise, he was quick to dismiss the idea of a euro-area break-up. The probability of this happening is zero. Who is crazy enough to do this? Nobody.Instead he pointed to the increasing list of countries clamouring to join the eurozone as well as calls from candidate countries for accelerated access.Poland hopes to join ERM-II next year. This is the normally two-year waiting period during which governments must maintain a stable currency before becoming a full member.However Finland, Italy and Slovenia all completed ERM-II is under two years, raising the prospect that current candidate countries may follow suit.

EU bonds

In parallel with euro-area membership, the debate over the possible issuance of 'EU bonds' has intensified in recent weeks. States whose borrowing costs have skyrocketed, such as Italy, whose finance minister favours such a move, would likely benefit from cheaper borrowing if a common bond for the euro-area was created.

However Germany and the Netherlands oppose moves towards EU bonds, fearing they would drive up the cost of their borrowing. Similarly, non-euro area states are sceptical about the idea, concerned that investors would no longer buy their national bonds when faced with the safer EU bond. Mr Almunia acknowledged the current opposition to the idea but did not rule it out in the future. It's not politically viable today but maybe tomorrow,he said.

Commission submission to European Council

On Wednesday, the commission will present its contribution to the European Council on 19-20 March.Speaking to Socialist MEPs ahead of publication of the commission's position, Mr Almunia said that the top priority would be the restoration of normal credit flows, otherwise national stimulus packages would not have the desired effect.

He also mentioned the need for strengthened regulation of the financial sector. It should not only be better regulation but more regulation,he stressed. He indicated that the commission had been impressed with the report on financial regulation presented last week by the high-level group of financial experts headed by Jacques de Larosiere.I am sure the commission will adopt initiatives with as much ambition as the treaty allows,he said, indicating that the commission would support many of the initiatives contained in the report, provided a treaty change was not necessary for their implementation.The report calls for a European Systemic Risk Council to be set up, a body designed to gather information on the potential financial risks faced by the EU economy.

Bosnia Faces Drastic Fall In Economic Growth - World Bank Tue, Mar 3 2009, 15:46 GMT http://www.djnewswires.com/eu

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AFP)--Bosnia is facing a drastic reduction in economic growth as a result of the global financial crisis, the World Bank warned Tuesday.

Like the rest of transition economies, Bosnia-Hercegovina is almost certain to experience a drastic reduction in the rate of growth,the bank said. In 2009, real GDP (gross domestic product) growth is likely to drop by 70% or even more and the recovery is expected to be slow,it said in a newsletter. Bosnia had been hard hit in particular by the credit crunch, a fall in export prices and demand, and a drop in remittances, the bank said. Despite struggling to recover from its devastating 1992-1995 war, Bosnia posted economic growth of more than 6.0% during the past three years. The World Bank suggested measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis, including continued efforts aimed at securing the stability of its monetary and financial system.Other recommended measures included implementing a fiscal stimulus financed from external sources, cutting and targeting public spending and reducing the burden of social contributions to public enterprises. Some 15,000 Bosnian workers have been laid-off since October 2008, official figures show.

72 VIRGINS
http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=T6gNGDkXTK

CLINTON IN ISRAEL - VIDEO
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/29481513#29481513

JERUSALEM IN 1932 - VIDEO
http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=wGqygPHXFA

IDF TRIBUTE OPERATION CAST LEAD
http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=QKjVXtXMsl

Clinton Says Two-State Answer to Mideast Conflict Inescapable By Gwen Ackerman and Viola Gienger

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a fresh attempt at finding a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inescapable, while defending Israel’s right to respond to rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

Clinton, during a day of meetings in Jerusalem on her first Middle East visit since taking office, said today that Israel and the U.S. share a common commitment to promoting Palestinian statehood. The inevitability of working toward a two-state solution is inescapable, Clinton said at a news conference after talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Clinton aims to reassure Israeli leaders of the Obama administration’s commitment to their country’s security as the U.S. discusses ways to engage Israel’s foes in Iran and presses for renewed Middle East peace efforts. The Israelis and Palestinians would have to resolve contentious issues such as borders and control of Jerusalem, while each side tries to end internal political divisions. Israel’s current support for a Palestinian state may change under the new government that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud Party leader, is trying to assemble. After Livni, Clinton met with Netanyahu, who played down any concerns about disagreement. In the past, Netanyahu has said Palestinians aren’t ready for statehood and suggested Israel try to help strengthen their economy instead. We found a common language for achieving the common goals, Netanyahu said after meeting with Clinton at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. He said the two agreed to meet after a new government is formed and think together creatively to get out of this maze.

Cannot Stand Idly By

Clinton, 61, who arrived in Israel last night, started the day by visiting President Shimon Peres, saying the U.S. understands Israel’s need to respond to attacks from Gaza. There is no doubt that any nation including Israel cannot stand idly by while its territory and people are subjected to rocket attacks,Clinton said. Not long afterwards, Israeli aircraft bombed smuggling tunnels dug underneath the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the army said in an e-mailed statement. The air strikes were in retaliation for rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel during the past few days, the army said.It is important that the U.S. underscore its unshakeable, durable and fundamental support for the state of Israel,Clinton said. Our relationship is more than just one of shared interests. It is one of shared values. President Obama and I look forward to working with Israel’s new government.

Viable State

Clinton came to Jerusalem from Egypt, where the U.S. and international donors sought to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank, and undercut the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. Israel fought Hamas two months ago in a 22-day military operation it said was intended to stop rocket attacks. Israel should help its responsible Palestinian partners strengthen their capacity to govern the Palestinian people and move toward a viable state,Clinton said yesterday after the Palestinians secured more than $4.2 billion in pledges at a conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Nobody in Israel wants to control the life of the Palestinians,Peres said after meeting with Clinton.You will find in us a real and sincere partner to prevent and stop terror and achieve peace for all of the people in the Middle East.Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, labeled Clinton’s statements disappointing and said there will be no change in its refusal to recognize Israel and work for its destruction.

Hamas Positions Fixed

The Clinton visit shows that there will be no new U.S. policies toward the region, said Mushier al-Massri, who represents the movement in the Palestine Legislative Council.Hamas’s positions are fixed and cannot be changed, al-Massri said in a phone interview from Gaza. After parting from Peres, Clinton went straight to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance complex. She was escorted by Yisrael Meir Lau, a former Israeli chief rabbi, to a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance in which she rekindled the eternal flame for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis and laid a wreath on a crypt of ashes of Holocaust victims. She also walked through a museum at the complex dedicated to the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust and signed Yad Vashem’s guest book.Clinton also had meetings scheduled today with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

West Bank Settlements

Clinton will travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah tomorrow for talks with Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. She praised both yesterday for winning the confidence of donor nations and international organizations in Sharm el-Sheikh.Clinton ducked a question yesterday on whether she would call on Israeli leaders to stop allowing Jewish settlers to build in Palestinian territories. And she reiterated the U.S. goal of an independent Palestinian state while avoiding details on how to get there. We will be discussing specific policies with that new government once it is formed,Clinton said yesterday. To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Jerusalem at vgienger@bloomberg.net; Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net.

Leaders pledge billions to rebuild Gaza Jason Koutsoukis, Jerusalem March 4, 2009http://www.theage.com.au/world/leaders-pledge-billions-to-rebuild-gaza-20090303-8ncq.html?page=-1

MORE than 80 kings, presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers from around the world have pledged $US8 billion ($A12.5 billion) in foreign aid to rebuild the Gaza Strip after a conference at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.At the end of the conference, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit read a statement on behalf of participants calling for an immediate, complete and unconditional opening of Israel's crossings with the Gaza Strip.

Leaders unite to rebuild Gaza
World leaders attend a conference in Egypt to discuss the way forward for Gaza and how to bring peace to the Middle East.The statement added the participants considered Palestinian reconciliation and a truce to be necessary conditions to achieve Gaza reconstruction.Israel launched a three-week military assault against Hamas late last year. More than 1200 Gazans were killed and thousands of buildings destroyed.The donors are yet to finalise plans on how to distribute the money without it being used for political purposes by the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who attended the conference and was due to meet Mr Abbas overnight in the West Bank city of Ramallah — said the US would transfer $US1.6 billion to the Palestinians, with $US470 million to go to Gaza, and $US1 billion to be deposited with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for development in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel, Iran and Hamas were banned from the conference.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's speech called for the immediate release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who also holds French citizenship and has been held inside the Gaza Strip for almost 1000 days.Mr Abbas used his speech to emphasise that all reconstruction efforts in Gaza would be ineffective without hope of a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas.Israeli aggression on Gaza affirmed once again that resorting to force is futile and that there is a need to support peace as outlined by international legitimacy and the (2002) Arab peace initiative,Mr Abbas said.He said there was a need for the US and other nations to revive quickly the peace process, which should lead to the end of the occupation of all Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967, in order to establish the Palestinian state next to Israel.Mrs Clinton promised to vigorously pursue a two-state peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, and her mention of peace on other fronts suggested the Obama Administration might push for a deal between Israel and Syria.

Later she shook hands and spoke briefly with the Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moallem, an unscheduled meeting that perhaps suggested warmer relations were coming.

She said the US would send two envoys to Syria. There are a number of issues we have between Syria and the United States as well as the larger regional concerns that Syria obviously poses.They are Jeffrey Feltman, Under Secretary of State for the Middle East, and senior White House official Daniel Shapiro.Mrs Clinton was scheduled to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.Israeli media said Mrs Clinton would be told Israel intended to adhere to the peace process. Mr Netanyahu was expected to tell Mrs Clinton that before any step could be taken towards peace with the Palestinians, the issue of Iran had to be resolved. With AFP

Biden heads to Belgium for NATO summit 3/3/2009, 4:18 p.m. EST The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden plans to visit NATO headquarters next week.The White House on Tuesday announced Biden plans to travel to Brussels to meet with NATO's 26 member states. Biden plans to talk with U.S. allies about Afghanistan and Pakistan and report back to President Barack Obama.Biden also plans to meet with the secretary general of NATO, European Union officials and Belgian leaders.

Cardinal says atheist’s theories absurd By Associated Press Tuesday, March 3, 2009

ROME — A Vatican cardinal said today that the Catholic Church does not stand in the way of scientific realities like evolution, though he described as absurd the atheist notion that evolution proves there is no God.Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reiterated church teaching about faith and science at the start of a Vatican-sponsored conference marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species.Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Levada said the Vatican believed there was a wide spectrum of room for belief in both the scientific basis for evolution and faith in God the creator.We believe that however creation has come about and evolved, ultimately God is the creator of all things,he said.He said that while the Vatican did not exclude any area of science, it did reject as absurd the atheist notion of biologist and author Richard Dawkins and others that evolution proves there is no God.Of course we think that’s absurd and not at all proven, he said.But other than that ... the Vatican has recognized that it doesn’t stand in the way of scientific realities.The Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to stress its belief that there is no incompatibility between faith and reason, and the five-day conference at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University is a key demonstration of its efforts to engage with the scientific community.

Church teaching holds that Catholicism and evolutionary theory are not necessarily at odds. But the Vatican’s position became somewhat confused in recent years, in part because of a 2005 New York Times [NYT] op-ed piece written by a close Benedict collaborator, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.In the piece, Schoenborn seemed to reject traditional church teaching and back intelligent design, the view that life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone, and that a higher power has had a hand in changes among species over time.Vatican officials later made clear they did not believe intelligent design was science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only created confusion.The evolution conference will explore intelligent design later this week, although not as science or theology but as a cultural phenomenon.In his remarks, Levada referred to both Dawkins and the debate over teaching creationism in schools in the United States. He declined to pinpoint the Vatican’s views, saying merely: The Vatican listens and learns.

THESE SCAMMERS TRY ANYTHING AS YOU WILL READ NOW.

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Person to Contact: Rev.Dr S K Williama
Email: drskwilliams@ubbi.comPhone: +234-8063983125 Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place.Regards,Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.http://www.un.org/sg/

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