Peres at Auschwitz: I wish that Ahmedinejad would visit here

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Thousands of people marched in silence Tuesday at the site of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland in remembrance of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, while sirens sounded across Israel at 10 A.M., bringing the nation to a halt to mark the observance of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.

Speaking at Auschwitz, Kadima MK Shimon Peres said, "The Iranian president said there was never a Holocaust. I would hope that he could come here and see the human hair, the eyeglasses, and the eyes that were behind them, and to ask: 'Why, why did this happen?' The world, like back in the 30s, vacillated, didn't believe declarations and found excuses.

"We don't such a right. We need to defend ourselves and we are able to do so. We must understand there are crazy forces in the world. We must identify them and stop them before it is too late," Peres added.

For full article, click here...

ExxonMobil

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Exxon Mobil Corporation
Type Public (NYSE: XOM)
Founded 1882 (merger in 1999)
Location Corporate headquarters in Irving, Texas
Key people Chairman and CEO, Rex W. Tillerson
Industry Oil and Gas
Products Fuels, Lubricants, Petrochemicals
Revenue $371 billion USD (2005)
Employees 88,300
Website www.exxonmobil.com

Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) is the largest publicly traded, integrated oil and gas company in the world, formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. It is the sixth-largest company in the world as ranked by the Forbes Global 2000 and the largest company in the U.S. as ranked by the Fortune 500. It is the largest of the four oil super majors, which also include BP (formerly British Petroleum), Royal Dutch Shell, and Total. It has the highest market value of any publicly traded company in the world, and in 2005 was the most profitable. Its operating profit in 2005 was $36.13 billion (an all-time record for any publicly traded company), slightly less than the gross domestic product of Azerbaijan, while its revenues were slightly less than the GDP of Belgium. ExxonMobil is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The corporate headquarters are in Irving, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. The company markets products around the world under the brands of Exxon, Mobil, and Esso.

The merger of Exxon and Mobil is symbolic in American history because it brought together once again the two largest companies (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey/Exxon and Standard Oil Company of New York/Mobil) of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust.

In 2005, ExxonMobil took the place of Wal-Mart as the world's largest corporation by revenue.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Organization
* 2 Name
* 3 History
* 4 Allegations against ExxonMobil
* 5 Ownership
* 6 Corporate governance
o 6.1 Board of directors
* 7 Employee Diversity
* 8 External links
o 8.1 General information
o 8.2 ExxonMobil responses to issues
o 8.3 Funding given by ExxonMobil
o 8.4 Anti ExxonMobil Websites
* 9 Bibliography

[edit]

Organization

ExxonMobil is organized functionally into a number of global operating divisions. These divisions are grouped into three categories for reference purposes:

* Upstream
* Downstream
* Chemical

Operating divisions by category are as follows:

* Upstream
o ExxonMobil Exploration Company
o ExxonMobil Development Company
o ExxonMobil Production Company
o ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing Company
o ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company

* Downstream
o ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company
o ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Company
o ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties Company
o ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
o ExxonMobil Global Services Company

* Chemical
o ExxonMobil Chemical Company

Upstream and Chemical operations are headquartered at various sites in Houston, Texas, and the downstream operations are headquartered at the heritage-Mobil headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia.
[edit]

Name
Exxon logo
Exxon-branded gas station in California (actually operated by Valero)
Enlarge
Exxon-branded gas station in California (actually operated by Valero)

Exxon formally replaced the Esso, Enco, and Humble brands on January 1, 1973, in the USA. The name Esso, pronounced S-O, attracted protests from other Standard Oil spinoffs because of its similarity to the name of the parent company, Standard Oil. Hence, the company was restricted from using Esso in the USA except in those states awarded to it in the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust settlement. In states where the Esso brand was blackballed, the company marketed its gasoline under the Humble or Enco brands. The Humble brand was used at Texas stations for decades as those operations were under the direction of Jersey Standard affiliate, Humble Oil, and in the mid-to-late 1950s expanded to other Southwestern states including New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.

In 1960, Jersey Standard gained full control of Humble Oil and Refining Co. and, through a reorganization of the company, restructured Humble into Jersey's domestic marketing and refining division to sell and market gasoline nationwide under the Esso, Enco and Humble brands. The Enco brand was introduced by Humble in 1960 at stations in Ohio but was soon blackballed after Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) protested that Enco (Humble's acronym for "ENergy COmpany) sounded and looked too much like Esso as it shared the same oval logo with blue border and red letters with the two middle letters the only difference. At that point, the stations in Ohio would be rebranded Humble until the name change to Exxon in 1972.

After the Enco brand was discontinued in Ohio, it was moved to other non-Esso states. In 1961, Humble stations in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona were rebranded as Enco and the Enco brand appeared on gasoline and lubricant products at Humble stations in Texas that same year with service stations there changed to Enco in 1962. By that time, Jersey had expanded the Enco brand to stations in the Midwest and Northwest that had been operated by various subsidaries such as Carter, Pate and Oklahoma among others.

In 1963, Humble was approached by Tidewater Oil Company, a major gasoline marketer along the eastern and western seaboards, to purchase the firm's refining and marketing operations on the west coast, a move that would have given Humble a large number of existing stations and a refinery in California, which was then the fastest-growing gasoline market. However, the Justice Department objected to Humble's plan to purchase Tidewater's west coast operations, which were later sold to Phillips Petroleum in 1966. Meanwhile, Humble gradually built up new and rebranded service stations in California and other western states under the Enco brand and purchased a large number of stations from Signal Oil Company in 1967, followed by the opening of a new refinery Benicia, California in 1969.

In 1966, the Justice Department ordered Humble to "cease and desist" from using the Esso brand at stations in several Southeastern states following protests from Standard Oil of Kentucky (a Standard Oil of California subsidiary by that time and in the process of rebranding the Kyso stations as Chevron). By 1967, stations in each of those states were rebranded as Enco.

Despite the success of the "Put A Tiger In Your Tank" advertising campaign introduced by Humble in 1964 to promote its Enco/Esso Extra gasolines, the similar logotypes, use of the Humble name in all Esso/Enco ads and the uniformity in design and products of Humble stations nationwide, the company still had difficulties promoting itself as a nationwide gasoline marketer competing against truly national brands such as Texaco - then a 50-state marketer and the only company selling products under one brand name in each state. Humble officials realized by the late 1960s that the time had come to swallow its pride by developing a new brand name that could be used nationwide throughout the U.S. At first, consideration was given to simply rebranding all stations as "Enco" but that was shelved when it was learned that "Enco" is a Japanese abbreviation of "engine failure." (エンジン故障, enjinkoshou)

In order to create a unified brand, the company changed its corporate name from Jersey Standard to Exxon, rebranding all its U.S. stations under the latter title in the summer and fall of 1972 following the successful test marketing of the Exxon brand and logo in late 1971 and early 1972 at rebranded Enco/Esso stations in certain U.S. cities. However, the unrestricted international use of the popular brand Esso prompted the company to continue using Esso outside of the USA. Esso is the only widely used Standard Oil brand left in existence. Other Standard Oil descendants, such as BP and Chevron, do however maintain a few stations with the Standard Oil brand in specific states in order to retain their trademarks and prevent others from using them.

The rectangular Exxon logo with the blue strip at the bottom and red lettering with the two "X's" interlinked together was designed by noted industrial stylist Raymond Loewy. The interlinked "X's" are incorporated in the modern-day ExxonMobil corporate logo, but the original Exxon sign continues for marketing efforts and station signage.
[edit]

History

Both Exxon and Mobil were descendants of the old John D. Rockefeller monopoly, Standard Oil. In 1911, after a United States Supreme Court ruling which upheld a federal court order to dissolve it, the Standard Oil Trust was split into 34 companies. Two of these companies were Jersey Standard, which eventually became Exxon, and Socony ("Standard Oil Company of New York"), which eventually became Mobil.

In the same year, the nation's kerosene output was eclipsed for the first time by gasoline. The growing automotive market inspired the product trademark Mobiloil, registered by Socony in 1920.

Over the next decade, both companies grew significantly. Jersey Standard acquired a 50 percent interest in Humble Oil & Refining Co., a Texas oil producer. Socony purchased a 45 percent interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co., a major refiner, marketer and pipeline transporter. In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Co., an industry pioneer dating back to 1866 and a growing Standard Oil spin-off in its own right.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard had oil production and refineries in Indonesia but no marketing network. Socony-Vacuum had Asian marketing outlets supplied remotely from California. In 1933, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum merged their interests in the region into a 50-50 joint venture. Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or "Stanvac," operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand, before it was dissolved in 1962.

Mobil Chemical Company was established in 1960. As of 1999 its principal products included basic olefins and aromatics, ethylene glycol and polyethylene. The company produced synthetic lubricant base stocks as well as lubricant additives, propylene packaging films and catalysts. Exxon Chemical Company became a worldwide organization in 1965 and in 1999 was a major producer and marketer of olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene along with specialty lines such as elastomers, plasticizers, solvents, process fluids, oxo alcohols and adhesive resins. The company was an industry leader in metallocene catalyst technology to make unique polymers with improved performance.

In 1955 Socony-Vacuum became Socony Mobil Oil Co. and in 1966 simply Mobil Oil Corp. A decade later, the newly incorporated Mobil Corporation absorbed Mobil Oil as a wholly owned subsidiary. Jersey Standard changed its name to Exxon Corporation in 1972 and established Exxon as a trademark throughout the United States. In other parts of the world, Exxon and its affiliated companies continued to use its Esso trademark.

On March 24, 1989, shortly after midnight, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons (42,000 m³) of crude oil. The spill was the largest in U.S. history, and in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez incident U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. At the time of the spill, Exxon paid $300 million immediately and voluntarily to more than 11,000 Alaskans and businesses affected by the Valdez spill. In addition, the company paid $2.2 billion on the cleanup of Prince William Sound, staying with the cleanup from 1989 to 1992, when the State of Alaska and the U.S. Coast Guard declared the cleanup complete. Exxon also has paid $1 billion in settlements with the state and federal governments. Virtually all Valdez compensatory damages were paid in full within one year of the accident, and the trial court commended Exxon for coming forward "with its people and its pocketbook and doing what had to be done under difficult circumstances." However, Exxon has yet to pay up for the largest punitive ruling against it, which is currently set at $4.5 billion, as the assessment is under appeal. The punitive damages were set by a Federal court judge in Anchorage,and have twice been vacated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as excessive.

In 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a US$73.7 billion definitive agreement to merge and form a new company called Exxon Mobil Corporation, the largest company on the planet. After shareholder and regulatory approvals, the merger was completed November 30, 1999 (the deal was announced the next day).

In 2000, ExxonMobil sold the Benicia, California, refinery and 340 Exxon-branded stations to Valero Energy Corporation, as part of an FTC-mandated divestiture of California assets. ExxonMobil continues to supply petroleum product to over 700 Mobil-branded retail outlets in the state.

In 2005, its stock price surged in parallel with rising oil prices, surpassing General Electric as the largest corporation in the world in terms of market capitalization. At the end of 2005, ExxonMobil reported record profits, reporting U.S $36 billion in annual income, up 42% from the previous year (the overall annual income was an all-time record for annual income by any business, and included $10 billion in the third quarter alone, also an all-time record income for a single quarter by any business). The company and the American Petroleum Institute, the Oil and Chemical industry's lobbying apparatus, however tried to downplay its success in order to avoid criticism from consumers by putting up page-long ads in major American newspapers, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, comparing Oil Industry profits to that of other large industries such as pharmaceuticals and banking. [1] [2]

Exxon's long-time mascot is a Tiger; Mobil's mascot is a Pegasus which dates back to the late 19th century and is one of the oldest marketing symbols still in use.

ExxonMobil now has the most assets in the world, and generated $246.7 billion in total revenue for 2003.
[edit]

Allegations against ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil's activities in the Indonesian territory of Aceh, where the company extracts and exports natural gas, have attracted scrutiny. In June 2001, ExxonMobil became the target of a lawsuit in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit alleged that the company knowingly assisted human rights violations, including torture, murder and rape, by employing and providing material support to Indonesian military forces, who committed the alleged offenses in Aceh. Human rights complaints involving ExxonMobil's relationship with the Indonesian military first arose in 1992; numerous inquiries have found evidence of human rights violations on ExxonMobil property and/or committed by Indonesian troops guarding ExxonMobil facilities. The company denies these accusations and filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which is still pending as of 2005. The U.S. State Department filed an opinion in the case in July 2002, requesting that the suit, brought by the International Labor Rights Fund, be dismissed on national security grounds. [3]

ExxonMobil controls concessions covering 11 million acres (44,500 km²) off the coast of Angola that hold an estimated 7.5 billion barrels (1.2 km³) of crude. [4] Questions have been raised about ExxonMobil's actions in securing these concessions—Forbes Magazine alleging that "ExxonMobil handed hundreds of millions of dollars to the corrupt regime of President José Eduardo dos Santos in the late 1990s". [5]

In 2003, the Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that ExxonMobil engaged in illegal trade with Sudan and along with dozens of other companies had to settle with the United States government for US$50,000 [6].

ExxonMobil is regarded by many environmental activists as an example of utter corporate irresponsibility and disregard for environmental concerns by US-based corporations. The company has been a target for a number of political campaigns, including the Stop Esso campaign, held by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and People and Planet, and aimed at boycotting Esso. These organisations commonly parody the company's brandname as "E$$O", an example of alternative political spelling, to indicate their belief that the company is only interested in short-term profit, and is willing to use its financial power to buy influence. A new environmental movement in the form of Exxpose Exxon has emerged to highlight ExxonMobil's stances on global warming, alternative energies, as well as lack of reparations yet awarded to the native americans affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Unlike other major oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP, Exxon is one of the few that has actively fought the Kyoto Protocol and disputed scientific opinion on global climate change. ExxonMobil is highly criticized for funding climate change research, decried by environmentalists as "junk science," such as the work of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, a grand sounding institution having only a handful of employees and volunteers [7]. ExxonMobil has also been a leading campaigner in the yet-unsuccessful bid to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, a move that environmentalists say will destroy the region's fragile ecology.

Greenpeace has been campaigning against Esso for many years and its main reasons for doing so include ExxonMobil's position on the issue of climate change. Greenpeace claims that ExxonMobil has flatly refused to believe that the burning of fossil fuels has any negative effect on the environment or climate change as a whole.

In 1996 Kelloggs sued Exxon when Exxon's tiger mascot was used to market food products in the Exxon gas station convenience stores based upon a claim of trademark infringement with Kellogg Company's Tony the Tiger.
[edit]

Ownership
Owner Percent
Barclays Global Investors 4.2
State Street Global Advisors 3.2
JPMorgan Chase 1.5
Wellington Management Company 1.5
Northern Trust Company 1.4
Fidelity Management and Research 1.3
Alliance Capital Management 1.2
Capital Research & Management Company 1.2
Columbia Management Advisors 1.1
TIAA-CREF Investment Management 0.9
Merrill Lynch Investment Management 0.8
Mellon Financial Corporation 0.7
Lord Abbett & Co 0.7
Janus Capital Corp 0.6
State Farm Investment Management Corporation 0.6
[edit]

Corporate governance

The current Chairman of the Board and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation is Rex Tillerson. Tillerson assumed the top position on January 1, 2006 on the retirement of long-time chairman and CEO, Lee Raymond.
[edit]

Board of directors

Current Exxon Mobil board members are:

* Michael Boskin
* William W. George
* James R. Houghton
* William R. Howell
* Reatha King
* Philip Lippincott
* Henry McKinnell, Jr.
* Marilyn Nelson
* Walter Shipley

[edit]

Employee Diversity

ExxonMobil received a 14% rating from the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index in 2004. The company had previously lost points because after the merger it failed to adopt some of the LGBT-friendly policies previously put into place at Mobil. Moreover, sexual orientation was taken off the list of protected classes in the ExxonMobil non-discrimination policy following Mobil's merger with Exxon, and when the issue was put to a vote of shareholders, a supermajority of shareholders (more than 70%) rejected proposals to reinstate sexual orientation as a specific type of prohibited discrimination.

Domestic partner benefits were ended following Mobil's merger with Exxon. Mobil employees who already had DP benefits were allowed to keep them, but other employees could not add their DPs to the benefit plans after the merger. ExxonMobil does offer DP benefits in countries where same-sex marriage is legal.
[edit]

External links
[edit]

General information

* ExxonMobil corporate website
o Exxon USA website
o Mobil global website
o Esso global website
* History of Standard Oil spinoffs and their brands
* Exxonmobil entry at Knowmore.org
* ExxonMobil's most recent conference call transcripts
* ExxonMobil Executive Compensation

[edit]

ExxonMobil responses to issues

* ExxonMobil Web Page on Business Ethics & Standards
* ExxonMobil Web Page on Climate Change
* ExxonMobil Web Page on Domestic Partner Policies
* ExxonMobil Web Page on Valdez Oil Spill

[edit]

Funding given by ExxonMobil

* ExxonMobil's list of funded organizations.
* World Internet News: "Big Oil Looking for Another Government Handout," April 2006.
* Greenpeace's list of organizations that have received funds from ExxonMobil, with evidence of that funding.
* Mother Jones' overview, May 2005, "Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank"

[edit]

Anti ExxonMobil Websites

* Stop Esso
* ExxposeExxon
* Greenpeace UK's page on Esso

[edit]

Bibliography

* Bender, Rob, and Tammy Cannoy-Bender. An Unauthorized Guide to: Mobil Collectibles — Chasing the Red Horse. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Company, 1999.
* Exxon Corporation. Century of Discovery: An Exxon Album. 1982.
* Gibb, George S., and Evelyn H. Knowlton. The Resurgent Years, 1911-1927: History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956.
* Hidy, Ralph W., and Muriel E. Hidy. Pioneering in Big Business, 1882-1911: History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1955.
* Larson, Henrietta M., and Kenneth Wiggins Porter. History of Humble Oil & Refining Company: A Study in Industrial Growth. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1959.
* Larson, Henrietta M., Evelyn H. Knowlton, and Charles S. Popple. Horizons, 1927-1950: History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
* McIntyre, J. Sam. The Esso Collectibles Handbook: Memorabilia from Standard Oil of New Jersey. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Company, 1998.
* Sampson, Anthony. The Seven Sisters: The 100-year Battle for the World's Oil Supply. New York: Bantom Books, 1991.
* Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). Ships of the Esso Fleet in World War II. 1946.
* Tarbell, Ida M., and David Mark Chalmers. The History of the Standard Oil Company. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
* Wall, Bennett H. Growth in a Changing Environment: A History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 1950-1972 and Exxon Corporation (1972-1975). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988.
* Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil"

Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Dow Jones Industrial Average | 1882 establishments | Climate change organizations | Companies based in Texas | Energy companies of the United States | ExxonMobil | Multinational companies | National Medal of Arts recipients | Oil companies of the United States | Fortune 1000 | Forbes Global 2000

It's my contest, so I get the first guess:

Waziristan: Bin Laden's hiding place?

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
BBC correspondent in Peshawar

There is growing world attention on the remote Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan as efforts continue to locate Osama Bin Laden and other key al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects.


However, so far no senior al-Qaeda or Taleban figure has been caught in this semi-autonomous area where the Pakistani army beefed up its presence after the US intervention in neighbouring Afghanistan in October, 2001.

There are persistent reports that sympathetic Pashtun tribesmen in the area are providing fugitives with shelter and support.

In the latest government move to pin them down, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe was fined $95,000 under a local law of collective responsibility.

...
Homes demolished

Pakistan has pursued the classic carrot and stick approach in its seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), including South Waziristan, in a bid to seek tribal support for the US-led war on terrorism.

A record number of development projects, some funded by the US, have been initiated in the under-developed tribal region to improve education, health and communication facilities.

But tribes that refuse to cooperate have been punished with the demolition of homes, sealing of shops and business, seizure of vehicles and dismissals from government jobs.

Tribal elders have already delivered 60 out of 123 tribesmen on a wanted list accused of sheltering suspects. They have promised to step up efforts to surrender the rest.

The strategy of the authorities seems to revolve around interrogating the suspects and locating al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives through information provided by them.


Read more here...

Guess #2: Tajikistan

TAJIKISTAN DAILY DIGEST
Home > Daily News > Tajikistan
From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Mon Jul 23 2001 - 15:09:33 EDT

RUSSIA BLAMES MURDER OF TAJIK PRESIDENT'S ADVISER ON BIN
LADEN

The murder last week in Dushanbe of President Imomali
Rakhmonov's foreign policy adviser Karim Yuldashev was committed on orders from
Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden with the aim of
destabilizing the situation within Tajikistan, an unnamed
senior Russian military official based in Tajikistan told
Interfax on 20 July. He said the murder was discussed and
planned at a meeting in Pakistan last month. He added that
bin Laden has allocated $1 million for subversive activities
in Tajikistan. It is not clear whether he offered any
evidence to substantiate those claims. LF

Watch a CIA agent on 60 Minutes who claims that Bush fixed intelligence around the policy to go to war with Iraq.

Click here to hear audio lecture from The Gnosis Archive.

Read the story here...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence, the lobbyist's lawyer said Friday.

Prosecutors disputed the claim.

The allegations against Rice came as a federal judge granted a defense request to issue subpoenas sought by the defense for Rice and three other government officials in the trial of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. The two are former lobbyists with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who are charged with receiving and disclosing national defense information.

Defense lawyers are asking a judge to dismiss the charges because, among other things, they believe it seeks to criminalize the type of backchannel exchanges between government officials, lobbyists and the press that are part and parcel of how Washington works...

For full article, click here.

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
The Associated Press
Friday, April 21, 2006; 9:37 PM

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history...

Read the full Rolling Stone Article here...

By Haaretz Service

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was to travel to Jordan on Friday to mediate a dispute between Amman and the Hamas government, Army Radio reported.

The Jordanian government announced Tuesday the cancellation of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar's visit to Jordan. The Jordanian authorities said Hamas operatives smuggled materiel into Jordan to carry out terrorist attacks.

Hamas countered by accusing Jordan of "capitulation" to Israeli-American pressure following the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Monday...

Click here for full story...

Click here to hear an interview with Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta.

Click here for some audio clips.

Click here to watch video clip.

On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, argued that Christians are under attack by eight popular books, including Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Donohue asserted that Christians have every right to be offended by books that are "hypercritical" of Christianity, just as other groups would be offended by a book that claimed that "blacks are natural-born killers, or that gays are naturally born to be moral slugs, or that Jews are taking over the world."

For full article and video clip, click here.

Video Clip

Trouble viewing clip? Download:
QT |
WMV

A young Palestinian blew himself up at a falafel stand near the old bus station in Tel-Aviv on Monday killing 9 civilians.
Click here for full story.

Bush Role May Shift Trial That Hinges on Secrecy
Steve Rosen

By MARC PERELMAN
April 14, 2006

Allegations that President Bush authorized the leaking of controversial data on Iraqi weapons could bolster the defense of the two former staffers of the pro-Israel lobby charged with receiving and disclosing classified national defense information, legal experts said.

Keith Weissman
In court filings last week, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asserted that I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, had testified that he leaked intelligence information regarding Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction to a New York Times reporter in July 2003, after receiving permission from his superiors. According to Fitzgerald's filings, Libby said that he leaked the information on orders from Cheney, who stated that he himself had received authorization from Bush....

for full story, click here...

A Bad Leak

Published: April 16, 2006

President Bush says he declassified portions of the prewar intelligence assessment on Iraq because he "wanted people to see the truth" about Iraq's weapons programs and to understand why he kept accusing Saddam Hussein of stockpiling weapons that turned out not to exist. This would be a noble sentiment if it actually bore any relationship to Mr. Bush's actions in this case, or his overall record...

For full article, click here.

Retired colonel claims U.S. military operations are already 'underway' in Iran

During an interview on CNN Friday night, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner claimed that U.S. military operations are already 'underway' inside Iran, RAW STORY has found.

Click here to read the remainder of the Raw Story article...

Click here for video clip...

This sad song about the cycle of violence was traditional for passover, but re-written by Chava Alberstein and translated by Juliet Spitzer for Ritualwell.org:

Click here to listen to the song on Windows Media...

A report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has confirmed that gay Iraqis have been targeted for kidnapping and Gcn_cover_iraq murder because of their sexual orientation, as I earlier reported for Gay City News. (Right, my original March 23 GCN cover story on the Iraqi anti-gay death squads).

This U.N. report, released April 10 by the UNOCHA‘s IRIN news and information service, described the widespread increase in kidnappings for ransom and the subsequent killings of university professors and teachers—350 in the past five months alone—and quoted Iraqi Interior Ministry official Ra’ad Hassan as saying that “roughly 50 kidnappings take place countrywide every day.”

Hassan also told the U.N. office, “Since January, the number of kidnappings has increased unabated, along with attacks and threats against certain communities.”

.... for full article, click here.

NEW YORK, April 11 (JTA) — In his first interview with the U.S. Jewish media after being named the next chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold Eisen told JTA he favors allowing gays and lesbians to become Conservative rabbis.

“My personal opinion is that I would like to see these processes end up with the ordination of gays and lesbians,” he said. “But I might be outvoted.”

The Conservative movement in recent years has been roiled by this hot-button issue. The movement’s central halachic authority, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, has debated the issue at length and has scheduled a vote for December.

Still, Eisen said, despite pressures to resolve the issue,...

For full article, click here.
By Chanan Tigay
April 11, 2006

See how in 2002 Jack Straw admitted that many of the problems in the world todat were caused by British Imperialism:

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw listens to the Queen's speech
Jack Straw said serious mistakes had been made
The UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has blamed Britain's imperial past for many of the modern political problems, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Kashmir dispute.

"A lot of the problems we are having to deal with now - I have to deal with now - are a consequence of our colonial past," he said.

The Balfour declaration... again, an interesting history for us, but not an honourable one

Jack Straw

In an interview with a British magazine, the New Statesman, Mr Straw spoke of quite serious mistakes made, especially during the last decades of the empire.
He said the Balfour Declaration of 1917 - in which Britain pledged support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine - and the contradictory assurances given to Palestinians, were not entirely honourable.

"The Balfour declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis - again, an interesting history for us, but not an honourable one," he said.


The odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits

Jack Straw

Mr Straw acknowledged "some quite serious mistakes" in India and Pakistan, jewels of the British empire before their 1947 independence, as well as Britain's "less than glorious role" in Afghanistan.

'Odd' borders

Mr Straw blamed many territorial disputes on the illogical borders created by colonial powers.

He mentioned Iraq, the region which was governed by Britain under the mandate of the League of Nations after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

"The odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits," he said.

And he said the British Government had been complacent about Kashmir at the time of Indian independence, when it quickly became the most contentious issue between India and Pakistan.

'Sensible statement'

This is not the first time Mr Straw has made controversial remarks about British history.

In the past he has blamed the English of oppressing the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh.

Jack Straw with Yasser Arafat
Mr Straw said British colonial past was less than honourable
Members of the main opposition Conservative Party accused Mr Straw of undermining British foreign policy, particularly in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has justified his campaign against white farmers as a way of righting the wrongs of colonialism.

But Downing Street said Mr Straw's remarks were "a sensible statement of history".

Unusual

BBC's Diplomatic correspondent Barnaby Mason says that Mr Straw's critical remarks about British colonialism would be unsurprising coming from virtually anyone else.

Such views have been commonplace across the world and among left-wingers in Britain.

Our correspondent said 30 years ago, Mr Straw used to be an outspoken left winger himself.



British Foreign Office
New Statesman

Click here....

An angry mob of Hasidic Jews confronted police outside a Brooklyn station house Tuesday night after officers arrested an elderly Hasidic man.

Hundreds of Borough Park residents rushed the 66th precinct station house chanting "No justice, no peace" to protest what witnesses say was the rough treatment of an Hasidic business-owner by police.

Two garbage fires were set during the melee, which stretched for several blocks and closed numerous streets. Police, however, were able to contain the crowd by 9:30 p.m. and no injuries were reported.

Police sources say the protest was sparked after officers approached 75-year-old Arthur Schick, who was talking on his cellphone while double-parked in front of his family-owned bakery on 16th Avenue at around 6:30 p.m.

When police attempted to handcuff Schick, two other Hasidic men tried to step in. A crowd then formed, and the scene quickly grew unruly.

Protesters threw garbage and hundreds of residents blocked the street around Shick's Bakery.

Community witnesses say the melee started because police dragged Schick from his car, roughly put him into a police van, and twice slammed the door on his leg.

Witnesses say Schick is a respected businessman who may not have immediately complied with police because he is hard of hearing.

"We saw him being pushed by the police against the car, then they grabbed his hand and put him into an arm-lock and violently manhandled him," said Sariel Widawski. "This is a very busy day in Borough Park – we're all preparing for the Passover holiday – and everybody was a witness to it. They started screaming at the police to leave the old man alone, but they kept on manhandling him and refused to stop."

The heavily-Hasidic neighborhood has been the scene of tension between residents and authorities in the past. In 1978, more than 60 police officers were injured when a group of Hasidim stormed the 66th precinct house after an Hasidic man was fatally stabbed by a street robber.

See here how NYPD officers off duty went on an anti-Jewish rant...

For example, an NYPD officer posted this:

"What a load of sh!t.

Once again these smelly savages riot and the ball-less pussies in charge of this job back down.

I'll bet Espo got a few calls tonight.

Thank God I don't work in Brooklyn."

See what a "Jewish blogger" has to say about the fact that the NYPD has anti-Jewish folks:

"...And I can’t tell you how many people have been sending me links to the NYPD rant board discussion, to complain about the barely-present anti-semitism there from perhaps two or three NYPD officers. Again, you’d have to lack all sense of proportional response to complain about this...."

Orthomom.blogspot.com feels otherwise (click here)...

[Dr. Arnold Eisen]
April 10, 2006

I am delighted to announce that Professor Arnold M. Eisen has been
elected to serve as the seventh Chancellor of The Jewish Theological
Seminary.

He is an extraordinary individual and, I believe, uniquely qualified
to lead JTS at this important time in the history of Conservative
Judaism and the American Jewish community.

Prof. Eisen is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and
Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion at Stanford
University. He is one of the world's foremost experts in
American Judaism. For the past twenty years, he has worked closely
with synagogue and federation leadership around the country in
analyzing and addressing the challenging issues of Jewish identity,
the revitalization of Jewish tradition and the redefinition of the
American Jewish community.

He is a strong advocate of JTS as the premier center of scholarship in
the Jewish world and hopes to bring that scholarship to bear on the
pressing issues of the day. He is also passionate about making Israel
a greater part of American Jewish life.

He received a PhD in the History of Jewish Thought from The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem; a BPhil in the Sociology of Religion at
Oxford University; and a BA in Religious Thought from the University
of Pennsylvania. His many publications include a personal essay,
Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America
(1997), Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community
(1998), and The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America
(2000), co-authored with sociologist Steven M. Cohen (2000). Previous
positions include Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish
Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and Assistant Professor in the
Department of Religion at Columbia University.

He will serve as Chancellor-Designate effective July 1. As he
fulfills his commitments to Stanford during the coming year of
transition, he will engage with JTS students, faculty, staff and
donors to fully understand our opportunities and challenges.

There is no doubt that the days and years ahead will be exciting,
demanding and inspiring. I am confident that Prof. Eisen is the right
person at the right time. His vision and energetic leadership
will help to assure the vibrancy of JTS, the Conservative Movement and
the Jewish people.

I look forward to your having the opportunity to meet him. In the mean
time, my best to you and your loved ones for a Chag Kasher
V'Sameach.

Click here for a video recounting some of Bush and co.'s hypocritical statements about leaks.

Watch Joseph Wilson speak about the leak of his wife's name to George Stephanopoulos (click here)(Windows Media format.)
What he didn't say is that his wife worked on Iran WMD intelligence, and the leak of her name was a major blow to national security. He also didn't say where the forged documents that the British used to bolster the case for urianum to Hussein from Niger came from...(read more)

By Cindy Sheehan

04/07/06 -- Being a so-called anti-war movement leader (at least to the MSM), brings much responsibility and so much love for the people and the groups who are working hard to end this insane occupation, but is this enough?

Recently, a blog written by an aquaintance, Scott Ritter, on AlterNet was called to my attention, where Scott, who is a self-proclaimed Republican, conservative who courageously opposed this war from the beginning, is predicting the eminent demise of the anti-war movement.

At first, I was highly offended and defensive at what I thought was Scott's arrogant attack on the movement that I am so intimately and overwhelmingly involved in. But then after my knee-jerk reaction, I realized that for all of the wrong reasons, Scott was partially correct.

The anti-war movement is not on the "verge of collapse" because we are not organized, or because we don't take a "warriors" view of attacking the neocons and the war machine using the tactics of Napoleon, or Sun Tzu—but because the two-thirds of Americans who philosophically agree that the war is wrong, BushCo lied, and the troops should come home, will not get off of their collective, complacent, and comfortable behinds to demonstrate their dissent with our government. Some, like Casey and almost 2400 other Americans and their families give all, while some, like the people of Iraq, have everything stolen from them by unlawful war; some, like myself, give a lot; some give some, by writing letters, attending an occasional vigil or march; but the majority of Americans give nothing—except an occasional vote, which we all know counts practically for nothing with our electoral process being so corrupted and almost rendered meaningless by paperless voting machine, no instant run-offs, and exploitation of the religious right by such contrived issues as gay marriage and teaching evolution in our public schools...

For full article, click here.

The book by an American Jew critical of the founding fathers of the Zionist regime has caused fiery reactions among the supporters of Tel Aviv in the United States.

In his work "A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two People" Ilan Pappe narrates the Palestinian view on the occupation and the Middle East conflict.

"My bias is apparent despite the desire of my peers that I stick to facts and the 'truth' when reconstructing past realities. This book is written by one who admits compassion for the colonized not the colonizer; who sympathizes with the occupied not the occupiers," the author explains in the introduction to A History of Modern Palestine.


Pappe also regards Zionism and Israeli history "more than a century of colonization, occupation, and dispossession of
Palestinians."
In his doctoral dissertation, subsequently published as Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51 in 1988, the author had also tried to explain the Palestinians view of the formation of Israel.

In his recent book, he refers to Herzl's attempts to "enlist British help in installing a temporary Jewish state in British Uganda."
According to Pappe, this offer was "seriously considered by some in Whitehall." However it was foiled by Weizmann who suggested the occupation of Palestine instead.

Those who support Israel are angered by the publication of the book.

A case in point is a critical review by Efraim Karsh director of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London, and editor of the quarterly journal Israel Affairs.

Karsh is the author of Arafat's War: the Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest in 2003.

In a review recently published in The Middle East Quarterly, Karsh accuses Pappe of "distorting" the history and "subscribing to a relativist view of history and repeating the Arabs' cliches concerning the being victims of foreign invasion".

In criticising Pappe's account, Karsh reveals that it was British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, not Herzl, who conceived of the East Africa idea.

Karsh said that the "Uganda Plan", contrary to what Pappe says, narrowly passed by last Zionist Congress in 1903 but was buried after Herzl's death in July 1904.

Trying to cast doubt on the accuracy of Pappe's account, he asks, "Does Pappe count on the ignorance of the general reader to accept it? Does he expect his peers to give him a pass?"
The editor of Israel Affairs goes on to claim that publication of books such as the one by Pappe "symbolizes the crisis in Middle East studies."

London, April 9, Iranian News Agency.

Click here for story...

JTS To Select Eisen as Chancellor?

Two sources familiar with the search for the next chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America told the Forward that the choice will be Stanford University professor Arnold Eisen, a leading expert on Jewish identity.

Eisen, a professor of religious studies, has written a number of books on the future of American Judaism, including the 2000 book “The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America,” which was co-written with Steven Cohen, an associate professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book used survey data to argue that American Jews increasingly see religious identity as an individual matter, and opt to craft their own religious practices and identities, rather than depend on rabbinic authorities...

For full article, click here...

By Jennifer Siegel
April 7, 2006

Eisen on Mordecai Kaplan's Judaism as a Civilization

Eisen on "Rebuilding Jewish Communities."

Eisen on Myjewishlearning.com on chosenness...

Click here for more information...

Click here for video lecture from National Geographic Society...

Click here for NPR audio program.

read an interesting perspective on the new gospel by clicking here.

A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case, THE NEW YORK SUN reports Thursday...

Click here.

by RAW STORY
Published: Thursday April 6, 2006

or listen on NPR.org

or read the original by Patrick Fitzgerald.

Check out this article by David Corn (April 5, 2006)of The Nation...

David Corn discusses a lesser-known passage in the recently disclosed "Manning Memo" of the 31 January 2003 Bush-Blair war discussion. It was George Bush's idea to have Silvio Berlusconi convince Vladimir Putin of the necessity of the Iraq war by lecturing him on free-market economics.

Copyright © 2006 David Corn - The Nation
[republished t PEJ News with permission of Agence Global]

It was January 31, 2003. George W. Bush was moving toward war in Iraq, and he was meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Oval Office to discuss various war-related matters.

Last week, The New York Times disclosed portions of a secret memo -- written by Blair's senior foreign policy adviser, David Manning -- that summarized what the two leaders covered at this session, which Manning also attended. Blair, according to the memo, wanted Bush to fight for a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein. Bush agreed to try for such a resolution, but he told Blair that the start date for the war, win or lose at the UN, would be March 10. Bush also proposed provoking a confrontation with Saddam's regime that would justify attacking Iraq.

The pair chatted about postwar Iraq, agreeing that sectarian violence was unlikely.

And according to a previously undisclosed portion of this memo -- a passage obtained by The Nation -- Bush and Blair discussed what to do about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was opposed to a war in Iraq...

for remainder of article , click above.

In Picture: Cochin Synagogue

Visitors by the thousands come to the 550-year-old Paradesi Synagogue to marvel at its chandeliers, four-century-old floor tiles and other furnishings.

Possibly a last hurrah for the tiny Jewish community of Cochin is the first-night seder to be held next Wednesday in the home of Queenie Hallegua on Synagogue Lane in Jewtown.

Now numbering less than a dozen elderly members, the dwindling community will celebrate the festival of deliverance as it has done for perhaps 2,000 years, since the first Jewish settlers landed here in southern India upon the destruction of the Second Temple in 72 C.E. Such dates are shrouded in legend, as are the cherished reports that the merchant ships of King Solomon traded goods with merchants from this part of India as early as the sixth century BCE.

Cochin is a small town in Kerala, India’s southern province on the coast of the Ara
bian Sea, and Hallegua is a descendant of the Sephardic families who eventually landed in that town and others in the province after their expulsion from Spain.

Click here for full story....

Click here for more information on Cochin Jews....

Gabe Levenson - Travel Writer

Pictured in photo: Zeidman and father.

Zeidman, 22, was named White House liaison to the Jewish community last month, and has been tasked with selling Bush administration policies to Jews at a time when the president's approval ratings are at historic lows.

Zeidman's father, Fred, chairs the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and is a fund-raiser for President George W. Bush in the Jewish community. The younger Zeidman said he attended a lot of meetings with his father for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Anti-Defamation League in Houston, and walked away with strong support for Israel and political activism.

"I've found the community to be quite receptive to our agenda, both domestic and foreign," he said. "They are willing to listen."

Zeidman replaces Jeffrey Berkowitz, an associate director of scheduling at the White House, who tried to balance both tasks for a year. Zeidman is a staffer at the White House Office of Public Liaison, and officials said he will have more time to devote to working with Jewish leaders, considered a full-time job in itself.

Zeidman is the fifth liaison to the Jewish community since Bush came to office in 2001.

Click here for whole story...

by Matthew E. Berger

JTA News and Features

or click here for another version...


A new White House liaison
The son of the chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has been chosen as the new White House liaison to the Jewish community.

Jay Zeidman, 22, has been working in the White House Office of Public Liaison since last summer, and will be taking over the Jewish portfolio, sources told JTA.

He coordinated a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House last week. Jeffrey Berkowitz, who became the White House Jewish liaison last year, will now focus on his main job in the presidential scheduling office.

Zeidman´s father is Fred Zeidman, a Houston friend of President Bush who was named chairman of the museum in 2002 and led fund raising in the Jewish community for Bush´s re-election.

Jay Zeidman was the first Jewish student body president at Texas Christian University.

What do you think? Is this the best they could find--a 22 year old guy from Texas? How about a Jewish leader?

(Jerusalem) The Supreme Court of Israel announced Wednesday that it will hear an appeal by five same-sex couples married in Canada who want those marriages recognized at home.

Oral arguments in the case will be heard May 28th.

In a rare move the court said the case will be heard by seven justices. Usually only three justices hear arguments in cases brought before the high court.

A decision could take months or possibly more than a year, Onn Stock, one of the lawyers involved in the case told 365Gay.com.

"Of course we hope it will not take too long for the decision, but regardless of the time period, we hope for a successful outcome," stock said.

He said he will argue that even though same-sex marriage is not permitted in Israel legal marriages performed outside the country should be recognized in the Jewish state.

For the remainder of the article, click here.

by Malcolm Thornberry, 365Gay.com European Bureau Chief

MOSCOW, April 3 (JTA) — Russian Jewish organizers of a trip for 15 Iranian Jewish women in Russia say they hope the trip will launch contacts between the two communities.

“We have not had any contacts with Iranian Jews,” said Adolph Shayevich, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis. “We have heard various rumors lately, that there is no Jewish community in Iran, that things are bad for Jews there. We are happy to see it for ourselves that this isn’t the whole truth.”

The group is a 15-member women’s amateur folk dance group that came to Moscow last week to take part in the Light a Candle Jewish children’s arts festival.

The trip was a rare group visit abroad by Iranian Jews, who live...

Click here to continue...
or Click here.

Jewish groups wrote members of the U.S. Congress to protest a budget bill likely to pass this week.

“The budget plan passed out of the House Budget Committee would make huge cuts to domestic discretionary programs,” says the letter signed by the United Jewish Communities, the federation system’s umbrella group; the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella body for Jewish community relations councils and national Jewish groups; the Reform movement; the National Council of Jewish Women; and B’nai B’rith International. “These cuts would be extremely harmful both to our social service agencies that are dependent on public funding as well as the vulnerable populations we advocate on behalf of,” the letter said...

Click here for remainder of article.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger should resign, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said yesterday. If he does not, Mazuz will recommend that the justice minister begin proceedings to remove him from his post. Mazuz's decision followed his investigation into Metzger's alleged receipt of perks in the form of Jerusalem hotel accommodation, and other affairs in which Metzger was involved. Mazuz called Metzger's behavior "unsuitable" for a chief rabbi.

By Yuval Yoaz of Haaretz

Click here to read full story.

University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal?

For full story, click here.

By Gary Younge

Attorneys for former Vice President Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby say one of three senior State Department officials was the source of a leak that exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame.

They say the officials are: former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

For full story, click here.

United States Senator Russ Feingold this week indicated that he not only opposes a constitutional amendment in Wisconsin to ban gay marriage and civil unions, but in fact, favors full marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples...

For full story, click here.

by RAW STORY

Abramoff Offered to Aid Sudan, Envoy Says

The former lobbyist sought millions to help the sanctioned nation clean up its image, the country's ambassador and an ex-associate say.

WASHINGTON — Two eyewitnesses say that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff proposed to sell his services to the much-criticized government of Sudan to help improve its abysmal reputation in the United States, especially among Christian evangelicals who were campaigning against human rights violations in the troubled African nation.

Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, said in an interview that Abramoff proposed a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract in late 2001 but that the proposal was "never seriously considered" by the Sudanese. He declined to elaborate....

For full story, click here.

By Tom Hamburger and Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writers
April 4, 2006

The federal judge overseeing prosecution of two former lobbyists charged with receiving and transmitting national defense information under the 1917 Espionage Act has given the government until today to respond to defense claims that the statute is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and may violate the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ordered the government to provide the additional support for the charges filed last August against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The two were accused of receiving classified information during conversations with government officials, one of whom, then-Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin, warned Weissman that the information he was giving was highly classified.

At a hearing last Friday on the defendants' motion to dismiss the indictments, Ellis directed a series of questions to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin DiGregory expressing concern that the government had not dealt with constitutional issues raised by the defense.

"I didn't find your response in writing to match up with the fairly extensive attack by the defendants . . . so I am going to have further briefing," Ellis said. Last January, at the hearing where he sentenced Franklin to 12 years for passing classified information to the two lobbyists, Ellis called attention to the imprecise nature of the almost 90-year-old statute that restricts disclosure of "national defense information" that could harm U.S. interests or help enemies....


For remainder of story click here...

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 31, 2006; A06

Twelve business groups control the Israeli economy, making it one of the most concentrated in the world, Forbes Israel said in a report published Sunday.

The groups - controlled by Sami Ofer, Nochi Dankner, Shari Arison, the Cerberus-Gabriel consortium, Charles Bronfman, Yitzchak Tshuva, the Saban group, Lev Leviev, Matthew Bronfman, Tzadik Bino, the Borovich family, and Eliezer Fishman - have each put together empires of the largest companies in Israel, using organizational structures that have since been eliminated in other parts of the Western world, the report said.

"This is an economy in which the banks can control whole corporations and where the country is afraid of its capital holders," said Ben-Gurion University professor Daniel Maman.

These 12 groups own 60 percent of the aggregate market value of all Israeli public companies (when the exceptionally-large Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is excluded), with shares valued at some NIS 200 billion, Forbes Israel showed.

The groups achieved their control by structuring their holdings like pyramids, such that the top-level holding company controls different groups of companies through descending layers of ownership....

By ZEV STUB of the Jerusalem Post


Click here for remainder of story...

NEW YORK - Televangelist John Hagee told Jewish community leaders over the weekend that the 40 million evangelical Christians in the United States support Israel and that he plans to utilize this power to help Israel by launching a Christian pro-Israel lobby.

The lobby, called Christians United for Israel, is slated to launch in July, during a Washington conference in which hundreds of American evangelicals are slated to participate, Hagee said at a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which represents 52 national Jewish groups. He also discussed the lobby with Israel's consul general in New York, Aryeh Mekel.

Hagee said his group would be a Christian - and more powerful - version of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a large pro-Israel lobby, and would target senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill. A quarter of congressmen are evangelicals, and many American legislators represent regions that include a large evangelical population, he said.

Click here for the remainder of the article...

By Shlomo Shamir

Stanley Fischer, Israel's central bank chief on Sunday offered a simple solution for the Western dilemma on how to send aid to the Palestinians without supporting the new Hamas government: They should recognize Israel and stop violence.

Fischer, who moved to Israel to take over governorship of the Bank of Israel last year, also said he understands the government's decision to suspend the tax transfers to the Palestinians.

"It's kind of awkward to start transferring money to a government that doesn't recognize your right to exist," he told reporters.

Fischer said "the whole world is trying to find a way to get to the issue of how can you help Palestinians with humanitarian aid without supporting the Hamas government. That's very difficult."

He said non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies could provide a partial solution.

"Beyond that, it starts getting very complicated," he said. "Of course, the easiest way to deal with it is for Hamas to change its stand."

Click here.

GAZA - Palestinian Prime Minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday ordered all gunmen and security forces involved in deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip to get off the streets.

Gunbattles between police and militants on Friday, during which three people died, posed a major challenge for Islamist militant group Hamas days after it took over running the Palestinian government...

For full story, click here.

Click here for more coverage of this story.

(Zarqawi in an undated photo)

AMMAN - Iraq’s resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden’s mentor told AFP on Sunday in Jordan.

“The Iraqi resistance’s high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role and replaced him with an Iraqi, because of several mistakes he made,” said Hudayf Azzam, who claims close contacts with the rebels.

“Zarqawi’s role has been limited to military action,” said Azzam, whose late father Abdullah Azzam was the mentor of Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda boss.

“Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed Al Baghdadi,” Azzam said.

Azzam, 35, whose father was known as the “prince of mujahedeens”, said he regularly receives “credible information on the resistance in Iraq”.

He said Zarqawi “made many political mistakes”, including “the creation of an independent organisation, Al Qaeda in Iraq”.

“Zarqawi also took the liberty of speaking in the name of the Iraqi people and resistance, a role which belongs only to the Iraqis,” Azzam said.

As a result “the resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticised him and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action”, Azzam said.

“Zarqawi pledged not to carry out any more attacks against Iraq’s neighbours after having been criticised for these operations which are considered a violation of Shariah (Islamic law),” Azzam said.

Most wanted man

Zarqawi is Iraq’s most-wanted man with a 25-million dollar US bounty on his head. The feared Islamist militant is accused of masterminding a large part of the Iraqi insurgency including some of its most gruesome attacks and hostage beheadings.

He has been sentenced to death three times in Jordan for the murder of a US diplomat in 2002 and two conspiracy plots. He has also claimed several attacks on the country, including hotel suicide bombings in November that killed 60 people.

Nevertheless, the Amman-based Azzam insisted that Zarqawi remains strong on the ground.

“He is stronger than before on the battlefield and the resistance has profited from his military experience,” he said.

“Five organisations have rallied around Zarqawi: the Mujahedeen Army, Ansar Al Islam (also known as Ansar Al Sunna), the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Iraq, Al Tawid Wal Hujra and Revolution 20 Brigades,” he said.

The joint US-Iraqi operation launched in mid-March around Samarra, north of Baghdad, aimed at “dismantling these five groups,” Azzam said.

General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, said at the time that the offensive targeted Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups in Samarra.

“Generally it’s linked to the notion that in that vicinity where they’re operating that there are some hard Al Qaeda in Iraq nodes and some hard insurgent nodes that need to be dealt with,” Abizaid said.

Azzam also expected “several mistakes made in the past, such as some hostage-taking, not to occur again”.

Asked about the wave of abductions in Iraq targeting journalists, Azzam said: “Not all journalists are innocent”.

“The resistance is against the occupiers. It is a natural and legitimate right,” he said.

Azzam said that last week’s liberation of US hostage Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor journalist who was held in Iraq for 12 weeks, allowed the release from jail of “wives and sisters of resistance brothers”.

“When the American army cannot succeed in arresting resistance members, they arrest their wives or other members of their family,” Azzam said.

In 1984 bin Laden decided to leave his native Saudi Arabia for Afghanistan to follow Abdullah Azzam, who became his mentor.

Before being killed with two of his sons in a bomb attack against their car in Afghanistan in November 1989, Abdullah Azzam wrote a five-volume encyclopedia on jihad which has become the reference book for his Muslim followers.

Abdullah Azzam also founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian territories

For the entire article, click here.

Click here.

(Neturei Karta rabbis meeting in Tehran)

Members of an orthodox Jewish sect have met top Iranian officials in Tehran to show support for the Iranian president's call for the destruction of Israel, reports say.

Leading rabbis of Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who consider the existence of Israel an abomination, met with Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's Vice President, the top-selling Yediot Aharonot reported.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Jewish state "must be wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska - comments that have provoked anger in the West and condemnation from the UN Security Council.

Rabbi Dovid Weiss, the group's spokesman, was quoted as supporting Ahmadinejad's call during an interview on Iranian television last week.

Although all of the rabbis who visited Iran live in either New York or London, there are some 400 Neturei Karta families living in Jerusalem who refuse to recognise Israel's authority.

'Wish for calm'

The Iranian Fars News Agency reports that the group said in a statement that Ahmadinejad's call for a "world free from Zionism ... is nothing more than wishing for a better world dominated by peace and calm."

"The issue of the Holocaust has to do with the Zionist use ... The Zionists are using this issue. We, the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, do not use the Holocaust as a tool for promoting our cause"

Rabbi Dovid Weiss
Neturei Karta
"This means a true hope for a peaceful life and coexistence between the Jewish and Muslim communities following the dismantlement of the Zionist regime," the group's statement added.

The group also said that it was "a dangerous deviation" to pretend that the Iranian president is an anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic personality since President Ahmadinejad, in fact, restated what the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini had frequently stated.

"That is, Zionism is different from Judaism and while the Zionist state of Israel must be disintegrated, the Jewish communities world wide and the religion of Judaism must be respected."

Holocaust

Following Ahmadinejad's claim that the Holocaust - the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II - was a myth used to justify the creation of Israel, the visiting rabbis agreed the mass killing had been hijacked by Zionists.

Weiss was quoted as saying: "The issue of the Holocaust has to do with the Zionist use ... The Zionists are using this issue. We, the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, do not use the Holocaust as a tool for promoting our cause."

"Neturei Karta are well known for their hatred towards Israel," Yediot Aharonot wrote, "but it seems that this time they have crossed the line."

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by Aljazeera + Agencies