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U.S. to Scrap Europe Missile Shield Plans
Sep 17th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines

  US President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a US missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

NATO's new chief hailed the move as "a positive step" and a Russian analyst said the move will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Last week, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Defense Ministry was preparing for the possibility that the United States would decide to deploy missile defense systems in Israel.

Senior officials told the Post that the United States might leave missile defense systems in Israel following a joint missile defense exercise the two countries will hold next month.

While the US has yet to announce that it will leave systems in place here, the possibility is strong, one official had said, particularly in light of reports that the Pentagon had been conducting a review of its European missile shield and was leaning towards deploying the systems in Turkey.

Premier Jan Fischer told reporters on Thursday that Obama phoned him overnight to say that "his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory."

"The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention," Fischer said.

Under the plan, which had been proposed by the Bush administration to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.

But Russia was livid over the prospect of having US interceptor rockets in countries so close to its territory, and the Obama administration has sought to improve strained ties with the Kremlin.

A top Russian lawmaker praised the move.

"The US president's decision is a well-thought and systematic one," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. "It reflects understanding that any security measure can't be built entirely on the basis of one nation."

Fischer said Obama assured him that the "strategic cooperation" between the Czech Republic and the US would continue, and that Washington considers the Czechs among its closest allies.

Fischer said after a review of the missile defense system, the US now considers the threat of an attack using short- and mid-range missiles greater than one using long-range rockets.

"That's what the Americans assessed as the most serious threat," and Obama's decision was based on that, he said.

In Poland, officials declined to confirm Fischer's remarks, saying they were waiting for a formal announcement from Washington.

Obama took office undecided about whether to continue to press for the European system and said he would study it. His administration never sounded enthusiastic about it, and European allies have been preparing for an announcement that the White House would not complete the shield as designed.

Alexei Arbatov, head of the Russian Academy of Science's Center for International Security, told a Moscow radio station Thursday that the US was giving in on missile defense to get more cooperation from Russia on Iran.

"The United States is reckoning that by rejecting the missile-defense system or putting it off to the far future, Russia will be inclined together with the United States to take a harder line on sanctions against Iran," he said.

The Czech government had stood behind the planned radar system despite fierce opposition from the public, which has staged numerous protests.

Critics fear the Czech Republic would be targeted by terrorists if it agreed to host the radar system, which was planned for the Brdy military installation 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Prague, the capital.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates scheduled a news conference Thursday with a top military leader, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has been a point man on the technical challenge of arraying missiles and interceptors to defend against long-range missiles.

The decision to scrap the plan will have future consequences for US relations with Eastern Europe.

"If the administration approaches us in the future with any request, I would be strongly against it," said Jan Vidim, a lawmaker with Czech Republic's conservative Civic Democratic Party, which supported the missile defense plan.

Converts from Islam Jailed, Pursued in Somalia's Breakaway Region
Sep 17th, 2009
Daily NewsCompass Direct News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, September 16 – A convert from Islam in Somalia’s self-declared state of Somaliland has been jailed for distributing Christian materials, and another is on the run from both family members and police upset over his new faith. Christian sources said Somaliland native Osman Nour Hassan was arrested on Aug. 3 for providing Christian literature in Pepsi village, on the outskirts of the breakaway region’s capital city, Hargeisa. Promotion of any religion other than Islam in Somaliland is prohibited, contrary to international standards for religious freedom such as Article 18 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hassan was accused of providing Christian literature to a village Muslim boy, who later showed it to his family and friends. The boy’s Muslim family reported the incident to the police, the sources said, leading to the arrest of the 29-year-old Hassan. Another Somaliland convert to Christianity, Mohamed G. Ali, is on the run from both authorities and family members. Ali has fled to neighboring Ethiopia, but the 27-year-old father of three said this will not be enough to deter relatives who seek to punish him for leaving Islam. Ali, who has sought protection from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said relatives previously abducted his wife, who is expected to give birth to their fourth child within the next two weeks, and that they are again looking for ways to kidnap her as well as the children.

Congress Expanding 'gay' Protections in Classrooms
Sep 17th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Bob Unruh
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

Plan could be used to prevent parents from learning what their kids are told

A new proposal in the U.S. Congress would allow children in public schools across the nation to be disciplined for "bullying" if someone else "perceives" a slight over someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, and in one case where such a program already has been implemented, it is being used to exclude parents from any input into what their children are taught about homosexuality and bisexuality.

The proposal is H.R. 2262, which was introduced in May by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., just about the same time Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network which promotes homosexuality in schools, was appointed to head the office of school safety in President Obama's administration.

The alarms are being raised by organizations like Americans for Truth and the Illinois Family Institute, where Laurie Higgins warned about the impact of the plan.

She described the "Safe Schools Improvement Act," and said, "Despite its innocuous-sound title, this bill would actually promote the acceptance of homosexuality and gender confusion in schools.

"This bill would 'amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying and harassment prevention programs,'" she wrote. "Anyone who has been paying attention knows that anti-bullying/safe schools curricula are now the central means by which pro-homosexual propaganda is secreted into public schools.

"Organizations like the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which endorsed H.R. 2262, are working feverishly to get pro-homosexual/safe schools curricula in all schools," she warned.

The bill itself defines "bullying" as whatever "adversely affects the ability of one or more students to participate in or benefit from the school's educational programs or activities by placing the student (or students) in reasonable fear of physical harm" and involves conduct based on "a student's actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion."

It already has 84 cosponsors and has been referred to the House subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.

Higgins wrote of her experiences with such a program being adopted by the schools in Alameda County, Calif

Officials there adopted a curriculum that provides homosexual instruction, is required for the students, and does not allow parents to withdraw their children from the program. In other words, mandatory homosexual indoctrination, opponents say.

Higgins wrote, "A few months ago, a mother from Alameda County, Calif., called me for help in combating the new K-5 'Safe Schools' curriculum adopted by her local school board and implemented this month. It was this mother who directed me to H.R. 2262 and asked whether the passage of this bill would be accompanied by public money, perhaps even stimulus money.

"The 'safe schools' curriculum in Alameda … like all other 'safe schools' curricula, presents homosexuality, bisexuality, 'transgenderism,' and 'transsexuality,' (more properly known as gender identity disorder) positively and in ways that suggest that these disordered sexual practices are morally equivalent to heterosexuality," Higgins continued.

"What makes this situation worse – if that's possible – is that the school district's “attorneys say parents would not be allowed to keep their children from taking the courses because the lessons don't include health or sexual education,'" Higgins wrote.

Under the Alameda plan, parents also will not be notified before students are taught the lessons.

Such actions, she writes, "reveal the deceit and Machiavellian machinations [homosexuals] are willing to employ in the service of using public education to advance their social and political vision."

Higgins also cited a Massachusetts court decision, written by Judge Mark Wolf, who told parents they could either put their children in public school or homeschool them. But Wolf said if the children are in public schools, there is no requirement that schools tell parents about presentations that promote homosexuality or offer an opt-out.

"Apparently, when activist educators say that it takes an entire village to raise a child, they really mean it takes an entire village of likeminded 'agents of change' and boatloads of public money to indoctrinate other people's children," Higgins wrote.

"The very real problem of bullying is being exploited to convince the public that pro-homosexual proselytizing belongs in public schools. Don't buy it. Schools can address bullying without ever mentioning deviant sexual conduct," she said.

Jennings, who was named assistant deputy secretary for the office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, is responsible for oversight of programs that involve "safety" for public schools across the nation.

In 1995, he gave a speech in which he described how he has used the concept of "safety" in schools to promote homosexual advocacy in public schools in Massachusetts. He gave a speech called "Winning the Culture War" at the Human Rights Campaign Fund Leadership Conference on March 5 of that year.

Excerpts have been posted on the website of MassResistance, where chief Brian Camenker has worked to oppose the demands of homosexual activists.

In the speech, Jennings described how he was concerned about being described as promoting homosexuality, so he chose to campaign on the idea of "safety" instead.

"If the radical right can succeed in portraying us as preying on children, we will lose. Their language – 'promoting homosexuality' is one example – is laced with subtle and not-so-subtle innuendo that we are 'after their kids,'" he told the conference.

"We must learn from the abortion struggle, where the clever claiming of the term 'pro-life' allowed those who opposed abortion on demand to frame the issue to their advantage, to make sure that we do not allow ourselves to be painted into a corner before the debate even begins."

He continued, "In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one."

An advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel must have a trememdously powerful weapon to ward off a nuclear attack
Sep 17th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

Israel's national security adviser, Uzi Arad, says that Israel must have tremendously powerful weapons to ward off a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike against the Jewish state. Arad's comments appeared to allude to what is widely believed to be Israel's own nuclear arsenal and a standing Israeli policy of mutually assured destruction, a warning to other countries that could bring about their own devastation if they launch an attack.

The Israeli security adviser to the prime minister said that he feared that if Iran became a nuclear power, five or six other states in the Middle East would follow suit which he called a potential nightmare for Israel.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

A nuclear powered Israel in a face off with with a nuclear powered Iran and a number of other Middle Eastern states is a scenario that is real today but also a scenario found in Bible prophecy for a soon to be tomorrow.

As US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev recently discussed the reduction of their own nuclear arsenals, the Middle East is actively building up their potential nuclear capabilities. With the statement from the national security adviser in Israel, Uzi Arad, that the Jewish state must be nuclear powered to ward off a nuclear attack by Iran or a number of other Middle Eastern states, it seems to be clear that Israel is ready to apply the "MAD" policy. If attacked, Israel would respond with mutually assured destruction.

These words indicate how close our world may be to the end time scenario that is found in Bible prophecy for the Jewish state. The nation of Iran, mentioned in Ezekiel 38:5, when nuclear powered will follow through on their threat to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. An alignment of nations including nuclear powered Middle Eastern nations will join Iran in this attack only to be destroyed not by an Israeli nuclear weapon, but by Jesus Christ who will devastate these attackers (Ezekiel 38:18-23).

God, not nuclear weapons, will protect His chosen people. Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

Ahmadinejad Refuses to Rule Out Weapons
Sep 17th, 2009
Daily NewsNBC News - Ann Curry and Robert Windrem
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Iran won’t stop work on ‘peaceful’ nuclear programs, president tells NBC

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refused Thursday to explicitly rule out development of nuclear weapons and said in an interview with NBC News that he would “never” halt Tehran’s work on peaceful nuclear programs to mollify Western skeptics.

'the Steps are not Silent Anymore'
Sep 17th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Archaeology

A street recently uncovered in the capital's City of David was, metaphorically, "the last seam of independent Jews in Jerusalem," Uri Goldflam of Shalhevet Education and Consulting said on Wednesday.

The street connects the Jews who lost their Second Commonwealth independence in 70 CE, and the Jewish people today, Goldflam said.

"The symbolism... After Jews hid beneath the stairs from the Romans, and now as a free people, Jews can again walk above the street. After 2,000 years, the steps are not silent anymore."

The one-to-two-meter wide section of a stepped street believed to be Jerusalem's central thoroughfare during the Second Temple period was uncovered at the Shiloah Pool excavation in the City of David.

Located 550 meters south of the Temple Mount, the excavation is being conducted under the auspices of Prof. Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Antiquities Authority.

"The [Jewish] pilgrims would begin the ascent to the [Second] Temple from here. This is the southernmost tip of the road, of which a section has already been discovered along the western face of the Temple Mount," Reich said in a statement.

The limited scope of the 40-meter long excavation is related to the site's proximity to land owned by the Greek Orthodox Church and, on the other side, property owned by the Wakf Muslim religious trust. Neither party has granted permission for additional excavation on their land.

Goldflam, of Shalhevet Education and Consulting (www.shalhevetconsulting.com), the street was "once the main artery of Jerusalem, where Jews, pagans, Romans and Jewish-Christians, including Jesus, all walked on the narrow steps. It is even believed that Jesus used the adjacent pools near the street to heal the blind."

Along the street, "one can see the blocks that were removed to pry the people from their place of hiding to face their death," Goldflam said.

The stone-paved street was originally uncovered between 1894 and 1897 by Prof. Frederick J. Bliss and Archibald C. Dickey of the British Palestine Exploration Fund, who re-covered the area with earth at the end of their excavation. Other sections of the road have been previously excavated and then covered over, including during digs in 1937 and from 1961 to 1967.

American archeologist Julia Iatesta attributes the multiple digs at the site over the past 100 years to the intentions of "archeologists managing to pull everything that they needed from the site (each separate time) and re-covering the 2,000 year-old area to not expose the site to weather elements or to the public."