Eeyores news and view

Saeed Mortazavi: butcher of the press - and torturer of Tehran?
The Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent.
Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saaed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003.
“The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch.
As prosecutor-general of Tehran since 2003 and as a judge before that, he ordered the closure of more than 100 newspapers, journals and websites deemed hostile to the Establishment. In 2004 he was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists, who were held for long periods of solitary confinement in secret prisons, where they were allegedly coerced into signing false confessions.
Mr Mortazavi has also led a crackdown in Tehran that has seen women arrested for wearing supposedly immodest clothing.
Earlier this year he oversaw the arrest and trial of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced to eight years for spying, and his name has appeared on the arrest warrants of prominent reformists rounded up since the unrest started, such as Saeed Hajarian, a close aide of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former President. With more than 600 people now having been arrested, including dozens of journalists, many fear the worst.
Mr Mortazavi became notorious for his role in the death of Zahra Kazemi while in Iranian custody on July 11, 2003. Kazemi, a freelance photojournalist with dual Iranian-Canadian nationality, was arrested while taking photographs outside Evin prison, Tehran, during an earlier period of reformist unrest in the city, also ruthlessly repressed.
The first news of what happened to Kazemi, 54, came in a statement from Mr Mortazavi, which said that she had died accidentally of a stroke while being interrogated.
Two days later a contradictory statement was issued, saying that she had fallen and hit her head.
On July 16 Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the Vice-President, admitted that Kazemi had died of a fractured skull after being beaten.
Mr Abtahi, who is no longer in office, was also arrested in the round-up of hundreds of dissidents and reformists overseen by Mr Mortazavi last week.
On July 21, Mr Mortazavi was appointed to head the official investigation into Kazemi's death. Reformists protested, saying that he lacked independence as he was involved in the case, and that as prosecutor general it had been his duty to ensure Kazemi's well-being in custody. The appointment went ahead anyway.
Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel prize-winning lawyer who represented Kazemi's family at the subsequent trial of a junior intelligence officer in July 2004, tried to sub-poena Mr Mortazavi to give evidence, but the judge declined. The defendant was cleared of the charge of semi-intentional murder.
There the matter rested until March 2005, when Shahram Azam, an Iranian military doctor, claimed asylum in Canada and revealed that he had examined Kazemi's body after her death. He said he had seen obvious signs of torture, including a fractured skull, broken nose, crushed toe, missing fingernails, broken fingers, marks from flogging, deep scratches on her neck, and severe abdominal bruising. A female nurse who examined Kazemi's genitals - he said he was forbidden to do so as a male doctor - told him there were signs of brutal rape.
Dr Azam's evidence reignited concern at Kazemi's death, with blame coalescing around Mr Mortazavi. The Canadian government continues to maintain that Mr Mortazavi not only ordered Kazemi's arrest but supervised her torture and was present when she was killed.
Reporters without Borders concurs: "It was Mortazavi who was chiefly responsible for Canadian-Iranian press photographer Zahra Kazemi's death."
Mr Mortazavi has repeatedly been accused of human rights abuses in the treatment of other detainees, including journalists who said they received death threats after reporting their alleged torture on Mr Mortazavi's orders while in custody in 2005, and students who say they were mistreated after they were pre-emptively arrested in 2008 because they were suspected of planning protests.
It was seen as a black joke when, in 2006, Iran selected Mr Mortazavi to lead its delegation to a meeting of the the United Nations Human Rights Council. Human Rights Watch appealed unsuccessfully for him to be dropped from the delegation, or for other nations to refuse to meet the Iran delegation while he remained in it.
Mr Mortazavi used his right to address the council to give a speech arguing that all nations had the right to free access to nuclear power, and accusing the council of being a catspaw of Western powers. He urged it to turn its attention to human rights abuses by the West, including bans on Holocaust denial, hostility to the burka, and atrocities committed by America during its War on Terror.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6570089.ece


Roadable airplane. Will it be a hit?
UNDATED - Don't call it a flying car. It is a roadable airplane.
That is what team over at a Boston-based company is saying about their vehicle, The Transition.
Terrafugia is hoping the Transition will be a hit at $194,000 piece.
It is designed to both fly and drive on the same 100-horsepower engine, that runs on super unleaded.
The plane can only be flown by a trained pilot. It also has to land and take off from an airport.
Taking a look at the prototype, the car controls and airplane controls are blended together, from the dash to the pedals on the floor.
The car's steering wheel is a bit higher than most cars, while the stick to fly the plane is between your legs in the driver's seat/cockpit.
The prototype was on display this past Saturday at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. It caught the eye of many visitors, especially when it opened and closed its wings.
Dietrich, one of the co-founders of Terrafugia, tells WTOP that the company is hoping to start full production in 2011.
Dietrich adds that the prototype has completed a round of flight testing and that they will make some changes to the Transition.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1704354&nid=25

Cities' gun restrictions begin to topple
Atlanta - It's been a disappointing year for American cities seeking to curb violence via tough gun laws.
Since last June, when the US Supreme Court struck down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control ordinance, cities have seen the 20,000 local gun regulations enacted over the years begin to slip from their grip, one by one.
Philadelphia's ban on assault weapons and limits on handgun purchases are the latest to succumb, struck down Thursday by a state court. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is expected. In April, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an ordinance in California's Alameda County that banned gun shows, saying the Second Amendment of the US Constitution applies in the states.
For years, strict gun laws in primarily Midwestern, Northeastern, and California cities have created an uneasy tension between the Second Amendment and crime-fighting realities on the ground. Then, the US Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, affirmed the constitutional right of individual Americans to own handguns, in a case known as District of Columbia v. Heller. In striking down parts of D.C.'s law, it opened the door to court challenges of other cities' ordinances restricting access to certain kinds of guns.
Gun-control laws in "New York and Chicago are next," says Bill Vizzard, a criminologist at California State University at Sacramento. Though the Heller ruling doesn't give a carte blanche right to "have a gun anywhere, under any circumstance," he says, its effect "could still be extensive. We just don't know yet how courts are ultimately going to interpret it."
Post-Heller, US appeals courts have divided over whether the ruling means that other city and state gun-control laws should be invalidated. The US high court could resolve the matter, but legal scholars say it's hard to tell if the justices are interested in setting a broad precedent on the issue.
The two laws in Philadelphia stuck down Thursday were enacted in 2008. One banned assault-style weapons, which are semi-automatic rifles altered to combat specifications. The other restricted an individual's ability to buy handguns to one a month.
Mr. Vizzard characterizes the gun rights movement as a long-term, deliberate, and scholarly based march akin to that of the civil rights movement. But the pro-gun legal effort, he notes, is moving counter to trends that show Americans becoming increasingly distant from their pioneer roots, with gun-rights stalwarts primarily consisting of middle-age and older white men.
That paradox puts more focus on the makeup of courts, including the US Supreme Court.
In January, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, as part of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, was part of a majority that ruled against invoking the Second Amendment in a challenge to New York's ban on nunchaku sticks, a martial arts weapon. The ban stands.
The Pennsylvania high court ruled in 1996 that cities can't preempt the state's gun laws to create their own, but Philadelphia is now hoping that a court with a different makeup will rule differently, says Scott Shields, the lead National Rifle Association attorney.
Not all cities have lost in court. One challenge to Chicago's handgun ban was turned back earlier this month by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Polls show that most Americans believe in the Second Amendment, but most also want stronger gun laws. The percentage of Americans who support an assault-weapons ban, however, has slid several percentage points in the past few years. In 2007, gun groups spent nearly $2 million to lobby Congress; pro-gun control groups spent $60,000.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0620/p02s02-usgn.html

Wyoming Toad Recovery Program
(excerpt)
Description
The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office, has regulatory authority for the recovery of the endangered Wyoming Toad (Bufo baxteri). The Wyoming Toad is endemic to the Laramie Basin of Wyoming. The acquisition of Mortensen Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the enrollment of private lands within the Laramie Basin under the Laramie Rivers Conservation District’s Wyoming Toad Safe Harbor program have recently provided the Wyoming Toad with multiple recovery sites within its historic range. One of the new needs, therefore, of the recovery program is the ability to breed sufficient numbers of healthy toads for release at release sites. The University of Wyoming Department of Zoology and Physiology Red Buttes Environmental Biology Laboratory, provides a world-renowned aquatic laboratory to help ensure the Wyoming toad recovery program meets this need. The result of such captive breeding is expected to benefit both the goals and purpose of the Wyoming Toad recovery program and the University, including, but not limited to: Wyoming Toad related research, teaching, and opportunities to assist on the ground recovery efforts.
http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=48044

Eeyores news and view

Exclusive Interview with Future Prediction Expert Gerald Celente
It’s the end of the world as the Greater Depression hits after 2010’s failed “W-recovery”
Human Events had the opportunity to interview forecaster extraordinaire Gerald Celente, President of Trends Research Institute, several days ago -- and the future he predicts looks bleak indeed. In fact, as Mr. Celente sees it, the Great Depression will seem like a mild recession as what waits for us in 2011 hits with the force of a Katrina financial hurricane.
In case you’re wondering who Mr. Celente is (if this is still possible), he’s appeared -- along with his predictions -- on Oprah, CNBC, Reuters, NBC, PBS, BBC, the Glenn Beck Show -- the list goes on an on. His Trends Report has been successfully predicting the major future trends impacting our lives for 3 decades, including calling the dot com crash back in the 1990's.
Mr. Celente's forecast on our impending future is based on his study of history. He says we are bent on destroying our currency, bankrupting our government, and unleashing a violent citizen-against-citizen eruption as the economy collapses into chaos and martial law fascism.
Quite a claim. And God help us if he is right -- again.
“We’re sounding the alarm about the ongoing downward economic cycle”, Gerald told Human Events. “In 2002, we predicted that the collapse of the American empire would fall like the World Trade Center in a thunderous crash -- in slow motion before our eyes. And now it’s happening.”
Mr. Celente follows over 300 trends: family, crime, war, education, consumer & business patterns which TRI synthesizes to predict the future.
“The US is becoming a shadow of what it used to be. Take education for example. The OECD group of developed countries ranks quality of life, education, health care of its member nations. The US is now falling down the table as one piece of data after another shows America is in decline. We’re no longer Win, Place or Show in quality of life, education, longevity… all the essentials where we used to be #1. And our economic underpinnings are failing.”
Mr. Celente puts part of the blame squarely on the federal government, and especially FED Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner, and warns us not to believe a word they say “They’re the same people who didn't see it coming - are now telling us the worst is over, that ‘green shoots are spouting upwards’. But they were wrong before. They’re wrong on this too”.
“When you pump out tons of money manure into this system based on nothing – printing press paper, it’s like giving a patient with a chronic disease a pain killer -- it won’t cure the patient.”
“But let’s go beyond the economics. Our whole Constitution has been abrogated. The president simply writes an Executive Order to do whatever he wants. Nationalize the banks, take over the insurance industry, automobile industry, health care industry…
None of it is constitutional.”
When did the problem begin?
“After Dwight Eisenhower -- our last great president -- the Allied Supreme Commander in WWII – who warned us of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. We've become completely corrupted.”
“We became enmeshed in foreign entanglements. We forgot the lesson of England - and how their global imperial overreach destroyed their empire.”
Of course, the average American doesn’t think that we’re an empire. We’re not like the classical empires of old - raping, pillaging and stealing the wealth of invaded peoples. What does Mr. Celente have to say about this?
“What we’re doing is squandering our wealth, our resources, the genius of our scientists and the future of our children. We’re over-consuming in every way -- but under consuming our education and focusing on the quantity, not the quality, of what we’ve built. So much of today’s culture is counter-productive to what American built it’s foundation on -- a high-quality producing nation building things, not pushing paper.
"And we’ve become not only a consumer society but a low-quality consumer, as well as the most obese society in the world, eating low-quality high-carb, high-fat processed foods.”
“We’re now focused on the lowest cost, the lowest common denominator. Not the best and highest quality. We advertise buying cheapest as the most important thing.”
Mr. Celente argues that we’ve socially destroyed our productivity and have abandoned it to other countries.
“And we have fallen into a moral vacuum. Look at how people used to dress. Smartly. Not like the cheap hoods of today. Fashion now copies the lowest common denominator. Our children wear clothes without belts, and shoes without shoelaces, to copy the styles of the violent criminals -- who have these items removed by the police in prison so they can’t be used as weapons. That’s become the fashion statement of today’s youth. Like rap music from the ghetto. We’ve become an underdeveloped nation.”
Mr. Celente observes that "people used to think of America as that shining beacon on the hill with 'liberty and justice for all…' ." So what happened?
"Morality is missing from our American public consciousness. Start with Wall Street. It’s run by a criminal gang. The only question is ‘how much can you make, how much can you steal?’ At the bottom, the welfare recipient says ‘how much can I take?’ And the government is in on the take."
“Morality is absolutely the issue. We had a government where we were taught all our lives that we are a free enterprise system -- so we depend on our own strength, our entrepreneurial ideas. The world used to look to us for our innovative spirit.”
“This is being destroyed before our eyes. And our government has become more interventionist than any of the old empires could imagine.”
"Our society is now based on consumption -- 70% of the GDP. This is more than we produce. So to pay our bills, we use funny money invented in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the fiat dollar based on credit (debt) -- the fractional reserve system. In 1930's you bought what you could afford. You saved up to buy your home. The easy credit of the 90's has destroyed the country. Now you borrow what you can’t afford - and the nation’s done the same."
Mr. Celente predicts the use of printing press money will cause the "greater depression".
"I predict continuing deflation of real estate, followed by extreme currency inflation -- ultimately becoming worthless. This is why gold is the only honest money -- the government can't counterfeit it. Look for it to top at least $2000 an ounce"
"Our unemployment numbers are also bogus. For example, the construction industry is really above 20% , and the government is creating low-level jobs, not real jobs. The US total real unemployment is more like 16%. Before the crisis is over, it will reach 25% - great depression numbers."
"When people have lost everything they have nothing to lose. Violence and crime will explode. Look at the OECD figures. The number of people not graduating from high school is exploding -- they're wacked out on drugs. New York City will look like Mexico City in a few years. The collapse of morality from top down -- and especially in the government -- makes it inevitable."
"What can we expect in the coming future", we asked.
"Washington has declared 'Economic Martial Law'. Wall Street is putting Main Street out of business. The key to watch is Christmas sales. They’ll fail. Christmas will be when reality sets in."
"Another trend we wrote about over 2 years ago was the tax revolt. What’s happened? Tax revenues have collapsed by 33%. And the wealthy people are leaving."
"We predict state secessionist movements will rival the breakup of the Soviet Union."
"The only way we can ever recover is to return to individual community, personal responsibility, local government. Next, average will disappear, Quality will return. Look at GM. Junk cars financed by junk bonds. Now owned by a junk government. As a consumer, don’t consume quantity -- consume quality."
"How will it all end?", we queried. Will the dollar survive?
"The dot com bubble should have burst and gone away in a short sharp recession. But the boys at the Fed re-inflated the economy by lowering interest rates to a 46 year low -- and in turn created the real estate bubble -- much bigger than the dot com bubble. "
"Now they’re creating the bailout bubble -- which will ultimately dwarf the real estate bubble. It will cause the implosion of the global economy world wide -- which will not be able to be repaired by creating yet another bubble. Every time the government fails, it tells a bigger lie and then a still bigger lie."
"These previous bubbles were not allowed to pop -- but they didn’t destroy the infrastructure of the country. This bailout bubble will."
"But this bubble will be the last one. After the final blowout of the bailout bubble, we are concerned that the government will take the nation into war. This is a historical precedent that’s been done over and over again."
"So, it’s not that the dollar that will survive. We may not even survive. Look at the German mess after WWI. It gave rise to Fascism and WWII. The next war will be fought with weapons of mass destruction."
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32152

Report points to prison security failures
WASHINGTON — A government inquiry into the most recent fatal assault of a federal correctional officer details multiple security breakdowns and underscores a fear among federal officials who say inmates have grown increasingly violent in their dealings with prison staff.
Jose Rivera's June 20 killing, captured by surveillance cameras inside the high security U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California, provides a chilling view into the U.S. prison system where weapons are plentiful and some violent inmates are allowed to "sleep off" bouts of drunkenness fueled by homemade cocktails, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) report obtained by USA TODAY.
During the attack, Rivera, a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran, struggled for his life while a locked door blocked several of his colleagues from responding.
"It was like Rivera was caught in a bear trap," said Mark Peacock, the officer's attorney. "If the staff was able to respond with adequate force, Rivera might have survived the attack."
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley, who declined to comment on the Rivera report, says there is "a sense that assaults (on staff) are more severe." Following the Rivera killing, authorities recovered 175 weapons in the facility, the report states.
Bryan Lowry, president of the federal prison employees association, says overcrowding is endangering prison officers and staffers. According to BOP records, the system is 36% over capacity and 48% over capacity in high security units.
In the federal system, which manages 204,327 inmates, serious assaults to staffers increased slightly in 2008, from 72 to 82, according to BOP records. Less serious attacks (pushing, shoving) increased, from 1,281 in 2007 to 1,522 in 2008. Inmate slayings were up, from 12 in 2007 to 15 in 2008.
At the time of the Rivera attack, according to the report, he was assigned to lockdown a high security unit for the afternoon inmate count when he was allegedly slashed in the torso by convicted murderer Jose Sablan. The officer was wounded before he could secure Sablan and James Guerrero, a convicted armed robber, in their cell. Both inmates, according to the report, appeared to be intoxicated.
As surveillance cameras rolled, Rivera attempted to escape and activated his electronic body alarm to summon help. He was allegedly tackled by Guerrero, who pinned the officer down while Sablan continued to stab Rivera with a makeshift ice pick. Rivera was stabbed at least 17 times before an officer arrived with a key to the door.
"This delay to get responding staff into the unit could have been reduced," the report concluded.
The day before the attack, one prison guard raised questions about whether Guerrero, known as a "disruptive," could be housed safely in the same unit with Sablan, according to the FBI's report of its interview with the guard.
"Going to put him (Guerrero) with another killer," the guard told a colleague. "Okay if that's what you are going to do. We'll be lucky if he doesn't kill somebody before the night is out."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-07-prisonmurder_N.htm

Gender test spurs abortion fears
4:00AM Monday Jun 08, 2009 By Briony Sowden and Martin Johnston
The gender test is expected to sell for about $125. A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions.
The American-designed IntelliGender test kit, which can be used from eight weeks after conception, went on sale in Australia last month. Its Australian distributor hopes to launch it in New Zealand within a fortnight.
David Portnoy, managing director of Melbourne-based Early Image, said yesterday that he was negotiating with health products companies Douglas Pharmaceuticals and API to supply the kits to New Zealand pharmacies.
He expected they would sell for about $125.
They do not test pregnancy, so do not require state approval under the Medicines Act, unlike pregnancy tests. To use the new test, a pregnant woman mixes her urine with the kit's chemicals in the supplied container. If it turns green or black, the fetus is a boy; orange or yellow indicate a girl.
The kits are claimed to be 90 per cent accurate, but because patents have not yet been issued, the maker will not reveal the supporting data or the science of how they work.
"The concern we would have is that people would then terminate pregnancies on the grounds of sex selection," said college president Dr Ted Weaver.
Anti-abortion group Voice for Life echoes this concern. Spokesman Bernard Moran said abortions for sex selection were a problem overseas and the test would facilitate this in New Zealand. "Certain ethnic minorities here might be more prone to use it."
Mr Moran was concerned to learn that the approval of the Health Ministry's Medsafe unit was not required. He said that although abortions were not permitted for sex selection, they were permitted on grounds of the mental health of the woman, and the Abortion Supervisory Committee had acknowledged that the way this was applied meant New Zealand, in effect, had abortion on demand.
Mr Portnoy, responding to the concerns about sex-selection abortions based on the test, said, "I would be amazed if anybody was to do anything so drastic based on a urine test that has a 90 per cent accuracy rate."
If a woman was intent on that course, she could, for a few hundred dollars, have a much more accurate test, such as amniocentesis.
Women can also have a state-funded ultrasound scan at 18 to 20 weeks after conception, or earlier in some cases, and these can mostly determine the sex of the fetus.
Medsafe group manager Stewart Jessamine said that until the maker of IntelliGender stated how it worked, "none of us know much about it as to whether it's anything better than a guess".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10577091

Trapped?? Victim??
Americans trapped in terror cell
June 9, 2009 - 7:25am
WASHINGTON - Six months ago, a startling development shook the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to the core.
It was the story of Burhan Hassan.
The 17-year-old slipped out of his house one night and flew to Somalia to fight alongside the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al Shababb in their war against the Somali government.
He survived the war, and in recent days, realized he made a mistake and wanted to come home.
He almost made it.
"Friday at noon, a phone call was received from Mogadishu City, from one of the Somali kids who left Minneapolis with Hassan," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis.
Jamal said Hassan's mother was told her that her son "had been shot [in the head] at point-blank range and killed and he had been buried."
Hassan's killing came just days before he was about to make his escape.
"He called his mother a week and a half ago from Mogadishu City. At the time, he was sick and suffering from malaria. His voice was weak and that was the last time we heard from him," Jamal said during a telephone conversation with WTOP.
Hassan, a straight-A student at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, had been convinced to leave the al Shababb organization, Jamal said.
"He was a victim. He was misled, indoctrinated, and a very vulnerable kid. He was put in harm's way, and when he made a choice to go back home, they killed him."
Hassan was going to leave for Kenya on Monday morning, June 8, to meet his mother at this U.S. Consulate in Nairobi "so that he could come back to Minnesota," Jamal said.
Hassan's bizarre story was a wake-up call for U.S. authorities.
"The FBI has had reports that some young men have left America to travel back to Somalia to fight in a cause that they've have chosen to fight in," FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said.
On election night in November 2008, while the world watched one man with African roots make history and headlines in the United States, Hassan and several of his friends were about to make news as well.
He and a few other boys sneaked away from their homes that night and boarded an airplane bound for Kenya. Their final destination was Somalia. Their plan was to fight alongside al-Qaida-inspired militants against what is left of the Somali government.
Aside from the threat these young radicals pose to U.S. national security, another is lurking right here in American communities - terrorist recruiters.
A Minneapolis journalist who spoke to WTOP on the condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety made a very bold statement.
"The mosque brainwashed those kids," he said, suggesting the recruiters are working inside mosques in Minneapolis and other locations throughout the U.S.
Jamal believes recruiters in Hassan's hometown may be the ones who orchestrated his murder.
"There is this idea, that since he was coming back, individuals connected to al Shababb killed him for fear that if he came back, he might have some potential information that might endanger individuals living in the United States," Jamal said.
"It sends a very loud and clear message," Jamal said. "If you join al Shababb, you join at your own risk. It's like joining the mafia. You cannot disjoin. You cannot cancel the membership. If you join, you're in for good, otherwise they will kill you."
The FBI is working with the Somali-American community to help them reach out to the boys that may be vulnerable to the recruiters, Kolko said.
"The FBI is aware of this issue and we are certainly concerned about it and we know that the Somali-American community is equally concerned."
Kolko reiterated that going back to fight is "not a good cause of action," and trouble awaits them in the U.S. should they try to return.
"If someone comes back from anywhere in the world that has had terrorism training, the FBI would do the things that are necessary to help protect America."
Now, a mother is grieving for her murdered son.
Hassan's death also points out grave concerns for the other young recruits who left with Hassan to fight for their new-found ideals and now realize they've been duped and are trapped.
Minneapolis FBI Field Office spokesman Special Agent E.K. Wilson said the FBI is aware of the information, but could not comment because of an ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding how Hassan and the other boys' left the U.S.
http://wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1692072

Eeyores News and View

Chavez to expand Venezuela oil nationalizations
CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez has already nationalized most of Venezuela's energy industry and is preparing to bring chemicals under his wing, but he may still target firms running gas and oil services.
A former soldier inspired by Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has made energy nationalization the linchpin in his drive to build his own brand of socialism. He has also taken over assets in telecommunications, power, steel and banking.
Over the last month, Chavez has seized a gamut of mostly small oil service companies along with U.S.-owned gas compression units, adding to the mammoth heavy oil projects Venezuela took over in 2007.
The government is now mopping up what is left, preparing to take a majority stake in the OPEC nation's main private petrochemical projects and possibly eyeing natural gas.
But the really lucrative area of the oil business that Chavez has not yet touched is oil well services such as drilling rigs run by global giants like Halliburton (HAL.N), Schlumberger (SLB.N) and Baker Hughes (BHI.N).
"To the extent that the higher value service companies, the drilling companies, refuse to accept the terms that are on offer or refuse a write-down on their debt, they too will be vulnerable to a takeover," said Patrick Esteruelas of Eurasia Group in New York.
Chavez has not said the companies are in the spotlight but the government is committed to nationalizing all of what it considers strategic parts of the economy.
"We are determined to regain full petroleum sovereignty and it turns out that in Venezuela almost everything was privatized," Chavez told reporters in Argentina in May.
Halliburton and Schlumberger declined to comment about recent nationalizations, while Baker Hughes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
These companies provide a range of services including exploration and enhancing output at existing fields. Their takeover could have repercussions in production and future investment in one of the world's major oil exporters.
Flush with oil cash, Chavez has often compensated nationalized companies fairly, but the 2007 takeovers in the oil industry led to lawsuits from ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N).
DEBTS, RISING OIL PRICES
State oil company PDVSA ran up $14 billion debts with all the service companies when oil prices plunged over the last year. Those debts preceded the takeover of smaller transport and water and gas injection firms in May. Companies that do not resolve disputes with PDVSA could be headed for trouble.
Oil prices have been on the rise in recent weeks and could provide a way for PDVSA to pay off its debts, or to pay for more takeovers. The service companies hit in May, including Williams Companies Inc (WMB.N), may be compensated with bonds rather than cash, according to Venezuela law.
Big players like Halliburton and Schlumberger have so far avoided public spats with the government over debts, but smaller companies such as driller Helmerich and Payne (HP.N) Ensco (ESV.N) have gone as far as to stop working rigs over fees in arrears.
Earlier this year, PDVSA seized a rig owned by Ensco and in May the U.S. company said it sought to terminate its contract in Venezuela.
Chavez's favored model for running nationalized industries is via joint ventures where the private partners have a 40 percent stake. He has used that arrangement for oil upgrading projects worth billions of dollars, as well as the steel industry.
The proposed law for petrochemical companies also limits private participation in projects to 40 percent, with the government taking its usual 60 percent stake.
The law should easily pass through the Chavez-ally controlled national assembly and could see reduced holdings for companies such as U.S. chemical maker FMC Corp (FMC.N). privately held Koch Industries and Japan's Mitsui (8031.T), Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical.
Such a model could be acceptable to oil service companies with a long-term view on Venezuela who want to keep close to some of the world's largest oil reserves, regardless of the current unstable business climate.
France's Total SA (TOTF.PA) and Norway's StatoilHydro (STL.OL) received around $1 billion of compensation after reducing their holdings in the 2007 takeovers. Britain's BP Plc (BP.L) and the U.S. company Chevron Corp (CVX.N) also remained as minority partners.
Venezuela's largely undeveloped natural gas sector is also ripe for a regulation shake up, since under the present law gas projects can be 100 percent privately owned, against the grain of Chavez's socialist ideals.
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_3_MOLT/idUSTRE55519L20090606

Gun in Mobile officer slaying stolen from deputy
(AP) — MOBILE, Ala. - Authorities say the gun 18-year-old Richard Hollingsworth is accused of using to shoot and kill off-duty Mobile Police Officer Brandon Sigler had been stolen from a sheriff's deputy in a car burglary.
Police Deputy Chief James Barber says three weapons were taken from the Mobile County deputy's car last year. He says two of the weapons have been recovered, including the gun used in the Siglar slaying Tuesday night. One other weapon, another handgun, is still out on Mobile streets.
When he was shot, Siglar was trying to disperse a late-night crowd and defuse an argument between two girls outside an apartment complex where he worked security.
http://www.al.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-22/1244117488150530.xml&storylist=alabamanews

U.S. spies for Cuba lured by cigar, stranger
WASHINGTON (AP) — For three decades, accused spies Walter Kendall Myers and his wife shuffled secrets to their Cuban contacts in such fear of being caught, authorities say, that he memorized top-secret documents rather than bring them into their home.
Their downfall came simply and swiftly, lured by a stranger who offered Myers a cigar.
Obama administration officials say Kendall Myers had access to highly sensitive material while working for the State Department's intelligence arm, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered a damage assessment of what the couple may have revealed. Their methods of communicating with the Cubans included Morse code on shortwave radio, changing shopping carts at the grocery store and a face-to-face meeting with President Fidel Castro himself, court documents say.
David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, described the couple's alleged spying for the communist government as "incredibly serious."
State Department officials say Kendall Myers had been under investigation for three years, since before he retired in 2007. The FBI made its move on him on April 15, on the street outside the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where he had gotten a doctorate and taught classes.
An undercover agent approached Kendall Myers, claiming to be an associate of his Cuban handler, according to a law enforcement official speaking on a condition of anonymity about the ongoing investigation. The agent offered Kendall Myers a cigar and birthday wishes since he turned 72 that day and proposed they meet at a Washington hotel later that night. The ruse worked, and Kendall Myers said he'd bring along his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers.
The Myerses had been out of touch with their Cuban handlers for a while, according to court documents. The couple reportedly told the agent they lived "in fear and anxiety for a long time" and feared Kendall Myers' boss had put him on a watch list in 1995. They said they were not interested in regular spying again but would help where they could, court documents say.
Authorities said over the course of three meetings with the agent in April, they shared their views of Obama administration officials who had recently taken over responsibility for Latin American policy and changing conditions in Cuba. They also accepted a device to encrypt future e-mail. The undercover agent proposed a fourth meeting for Thursday at a Washington hotel, where the couple was arrested.
The couple pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to act as illegal agents and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud. They are being held in jail until a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Their attorney, Thomas Green, declined to comment.
The Myerses' arrest could affect congressional support for easing tensions with Cuba dating back to the Cold War. Two months ago, the Obama administration took steps to relax a trade embargo imposed on the island nation in 1962.
Court documents indicate the couple received little money for their efforts, but instead professed a deep love for Cuba, Castro and the country's system of government. The couple was planning a sailing trip to Cuba, which Myers considered "home."
The documents say Castro came to visit the couple in a small house in Cuba where they were staying in 1995, after traveling through Mexico under false names. Kendall Myers reportedly boasted to the undercover FBI agent that they had received "lots of medals" from the Cuban government.
The Myerses lived in a luxury co-op complex in Northwest Washington that over the years was home to Cabinet members, judges, congressmen and senators, including the late Barry Goldwater.
William Simpson, a security guard at the co-op, said the Myerses regularly asked him to clean their windows and would offer him something to eat or drink. "They treated me real nice," he said. "It shocked me when I heard" the news, Simpson said.
Kendall Myers was known by the Cubans as Agent 202, according to the indictment. His 71-year-old wife, a former bank analyst, reportedly went by both Agent 123 and Agent E-634.
The indictment says Kendall Myers disclosed to the State Department that he traveled to Cuba for two weeks in 1978, saying the trip was for personal and academic purposes. The next year, a Cuban government official visited the couple while they were living in South Dakota and recruited them to be spies, the indictment says. At Cuba's direction, authorities say, Kendall Myers attempted to get jobs that would give him access to classified information.
Court documents describe the couple's spying methods changing with the times, beginning with old-fashioned tools of Cold War spying: Morse code messages over a short-wave radio and notes taken on water-soluble paper. By the time they retired from the work in 2007, they were reportedly sending encrypted e-mails from Internet cafes.
The criminal complaint says changing technology also persuaded Gwendolyn Myers to abandon what she considered an easy way of passing information, by changing shopping carts in a grocery store. The document quoted her as telling the FBI agent she would no longer use that tactic. "Now they have cameras, but they didn't then."
Kendall Myers first worked for the State Department as a lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute and later as a European analyst in the department's intelligence arm, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, from 2000 until his retirement in October 2007.
The indictment says in his last year of employment, Kendall Myers viewed more than 200 intelligence reports related to Cuba. Kendall Myers often took notes or memorized classified material to avoid the risk of removing the documents but concealed some documents he removed in a set of bookends, the court documents said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-05-couple-spying_N.htm

Eeyores news and view

How's the economy? Guys, check your dumpy drawers
June 2, 2009 - 7:00am
UNDATED - Guys, how closely did you pay attention to your underwear this morning?
It may sound ridiculous, but you can tell a lot about the economy by checking out a man's underwear drawer.
The more frayed and saggy a guy's boxers and briefs, the worse the economy is.
The theory is since few people see it, underwear is the first thing men stop buying when the economy tightens.
Women's underwear isn't as good an economic indicator because the experts say women are less tolerant of wearing grungy underwear.
If you're looking for good news, underwear sales -- which declined through January -- leveled off in February and March, indicating the economy may be stabilizing.
Of course, guys, you might want to buy some new drawers before your wives and girlfriends have to make the suggestion. Hint: It could help your love life.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1687459&nid=456

Police: Man upset at military shoots 2
A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one, police said Monday.
"This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
"He has converted to (Islam) here in the past few years," Hastings said. "We're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in the military.
"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them. That's what he said."
Police Chief Stuart Thomas said Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway was killed. Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded and in stable condition, Thomas said.
Police arrested Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, of Little Rock, Thomas said. The suspect was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, he said.
The soldiers wore fatigues, had recently completed basic training and volunteered to help attract others to the military, Thomas said.
He said the gunman targeted the military but was not believed to be part of a broader scheme.
Interviews with police showed that Muhammad "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," the police chief said.
Thomas said Muhammad would be charged with first-degree murder, plus 15 counts of committing a terroristic act. He said those counts result from the gunfire occurring near other people.
Hastings said the attacker pulled up in a car outside the Army-Navy recruiting office around 10:30 a.m. and fired at the soldiers outside.
According to the Associated Press, the vehicle was stopped on Interstate 630 a short time later, and the suspect was taken into custody. Police found an assault rifle in the vehicle.
Jim Richardson, the manager at a drug store around the corner from the Army-Navy center, said people at the store didn't realize anything was amiss until they heard sirens outside.
"Nobody heard any gunshots," Richardson said.
Lt. Col. Thomas Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office, said the victims were not regular recruiters.
He said they were serving two weeks in the Little Rock office.
As part of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program, the soldiers were sent to "talk to friends, folks in the local area. They can show the example, 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,' " Artis said.
Artis said neither of the soldiers had been deployed for combat.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-06-01-army-recruiter-killed_N.htm?csp=34

Gates: NKorea nuke progress sign of `dark future'
SINGAPORE (AP) - North Korea's progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is "a harbinger of a dark future" and has created an urgent need for more pressure on the reclusive communist government to change its ways, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.
He said the North's nuclear program does not "at this point" represent a direct military threat to the United States and he does not plan to build up American troops in the region. But the North's efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region, he added. At an annual meeting of defense and security officials, the Pentagon chief said past efforts to cajole North Korea into scrapping its nuclear weapons program have only emboldened it.
North Korea's yearslong use of scare tactics as a bargaining chip to secure aid and other concessions—only to later renege on promises—has worn thin the patience of five nations negotiating with the North, Gates said.
"I think that everyone in the room is familiar with the tactics that the North Koreans use. They create a crisis and the rest of us pay a price to return to the status quo ante," he said in a question and answer session after his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
"As the expression goes in the United States, `I am tired of buying the same horse twice.' I think this notion that we buy our way back to the status quo ante is an approach that I personally at least think we ought to think very hard about. There are perhaps other ways to try and get the North Koreans to change their approach," he said.
The sharp statements were echoed by the South Korean defense minister and even China, North Korea's strongest ally. They reflect fears throughout the region that last week's nuclear and missile tests by North Korea could spiral out of control and lead to fighting.
"President Obama has offered an open hand to tyrannies that unclench their fists. He is hopeful, but he is not naive," Gates said in his speech.
"Likewise, the United States and our allies are open to dialogue, but we will not bend to pressure or provocation. And on this count, North Korea's latest reply to our overtures is not exactly something we would characterize as helpful or constructive. We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia—or on us. At the end of the day, the choice to continue as a destitute, international pariah is North Korea's alone to make. The world is waiting."
The North said it would no longer honor a 1953 armistice truce with South Korea after Seoul joined a 90-plus nation security alliance that seeks to curb nuclear trafficking on the seas.
Additionally, the U.N. Security Council is drafting financial and military penalties against North Korea as punishment for the weapons testing. Similar penalties approved after the North's 2006 atomic test have been only sporadically enforced, and largely ignored by China and Russia.
"I think that the combination of their progress in developing nuclear technology, and their progress in developing multistage long-range missiles, is a harbinger of a dark future," Gates said. "What is now central to multilateral efforts ... is to try to peacefully stop those programs before they do in fact become a `clear and present danger,' as the expression goes."

This takes a smart person to figure out this is a bad thing?
Gates also warned North Korea against secretly selling its weapons technology to other outlaw nations.
Later, at what officials called the first-ever meeting among defense chiefs from the U.S., Japan and South Korea, Gates asked his counterparts to begin considering other steps against the North should it continue to escalate is nuclear program. The military leaders did not discuss specific potential actions, but U.S. officials who attended the half-hour meeting said any steps would be taken in self-defense.
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said the talks "could not have come at a better time."
"North Korea perhaps to this point may have mistakenly believed that it could be perhaps rewarded for its wrong behaviors," Lee told reporters. "But that is no longer the case."
Earlier Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the second-in-command of the General Staff of China's military, told the security forum that Beijing "has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test."
The Obama administration said it planned to send a delegation on Sunday to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and possibly Moscow over the next week to discuss how to respond to North Korea.
"The reality is that given the objectives of the six-party talks that were established some years ago, it would be hard to point to them at this point as an example of success," Gates said in response to a question after his speech.
Those countries—the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan—"need to think freshly about where we go from here."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98GR6S81&show_article=1

Alaska may be in N.Korea Missile Reach
June 01, 2009 Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has transported its most advanced missile, believed to be capable of reaching Alaska, to a launch site on its west coast near China, news reports said today.
The reclusive communist country was also reportedly bolstering it defenses and conducting amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with the South have occurred in the past.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the missile had been sent by train to the newly completed missile facility of Dongchang-ni, about 40 miles from the Chinese border.
Yonhap, quoting government sources, said the missile could be ready to launch in a week or two. South Korean media have speculated that the North wants to time the launch for around June 16, when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has a summit in Washington with President Barack Obama.
With the launch, Pyongyang could also thumb its nose at U.N. Security Council attempts to rein it in after last week's nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches.
U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a news conference in the Philippines, said North Korea appears to be working on a long-range missile but it's not clear yet what they plan to do with it.
Lee, hosting a conference of Southeast Asian leaders on the southern island of Jeju, warned the North against any provocation.
"If North Korea turns its back on dialogue and peace and dares to carry out military threats and provocations, the Republic of Korea will never tolerate that," Lee said in his regular radio address. "I want to make clear that there won't be any compromise on things that threaten our nation's security."
Adding to tensions this week, the trial starts Thursday in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."
North Korea faced strong international criticism after its last long-range missile launch, on April 5. The North said the launch was of a rocket intended to put a satellite in orbit. That modified version of the Taepodong-2 rocket flew about 2,000 miles, crossing over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.
In late April, the North threatened to conduct nuclear and long-range missile tests unless the Security Council apologized for criticizing the launch. On Friday, it threatened to take a further "self-defense" measure if the Security Council provokes it. That threat was seen as referring to an ICBM test.
In another sign that a new launch is in the works, the North has designated a large area off its west coast as a "no-sail" zone through the end of next month, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified intelligence officials.
Yonhap said North Korean troops conducted amphibious assault maneuvers along with west coast. Other media carried similar reports. South Korean defense and intelligence officials refused to comment.
On Yeonpyeong island, one of South Korea's northernmost islands near North Korea, South Korean naval boats and a warship were patrolling waters around the disputed western sea border, but no incidents were reported.
The area is rich in fish, and May and June are the crab-catching season, meaning the waters are generally crowded with commercial ships.
Experts said the missile preparations were especially significant because the North has never launched a long-range missile from the northwestern base.
Kim Tae-woo, vice president of Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said he thinks the North chose the site because of its proximity to China, making it more risky for the U.S. to strike.
The missile being prepared for launch is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unnamed South Korean official.
That would put Alaska within striking range.
Today, the North said again that it is being provoked by South Korea and the United States, saying that the number of spy planes operating in its airspace has risen dramatically.
"The U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppets perpetrated at least 200 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in May, or 30 cases more than those in the same month of last year," it said in a report in its official Korean Central News Agency.
The DPRK is an abbreviation of North Korea's official name.
The North's missile and nuclear programs have been considered a top regional security concern, though the regime is not yet believed to have mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=1532.0;topicseen

Eeyores News and view

NYC Police: Terror suspects wanted to commit 'jihad'
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City police commissioner says four men arrested Thursday morning wanted to commit "jihad" when they plotted to bomb a Jewish temple and shoot down military planes in upstate New York.
At a news conference outside the Bronx temple Thursday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly quoted one of the men as saying, "If Jews were killed in this attack ... that would be all right."
"Jihad" is an Arabic word generally translated as meaning "struggle" or "holy war." It was not clear if the four men who were arrested were Muslim, but one told an informant that his parents had lived in Afghanistan.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned against stereotypes. He stressed that the Riverdale Temple in the Bronx is open to people of all faiths, including a Muslim girl who sometimes prays there.
The city leaders met privately with congregants Thursday morning. Kelly said neighborhood security was heightened to improve residents' comfort level.
The defendants are due in federal court Thursday in White Plains.
Four men due in court Thursday to face charges of plotting to bomb Jewish sites and shoot down military planes were arrested after planting what they thought were explosive devices near a synagogue and community center, authorities say.
Officials told The Associated Press the arrests came after a nearly year-long undercover operation that began in Newburgh, N.Y., about 70 miles north of New York City.
James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens and one is of Haitian descent, officials said.
The men had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives outside the Riverdale Temple and shoot military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, authorities said.
The defendants planned to "destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives," Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said.
The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, authorities said.
"This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier in a statement.
The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.
In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.
Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.
In October 2008, the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, the complaint said.
Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.
The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after planting a mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Jewish Center, authorities said.
Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.
"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King, of New York.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said if there can be any good news out of this case it's that "the group was relatively unsophisticated, penetrated early and not connected to any outside group."
"The shocking plan to blow up a Jewish house of prayer with what the jihadist terrorists thought were C-4 explosives is dramatic proof that the dangers from such fanaticism have not passed and that American Jews must maintain their vigilance," said a statement released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group.
The defendants were jailed Wednesday night and couldn't be contacted for comment. The FBI didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking information on whether the men had lawyers.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-21-bomb-plot_N.htm

Day of reckoning looms for the U.S. dollar
The U.S. dollar's day of reckoning may be inching closer as its status as a safe-haven currency fades with every uptick in stocks and commodities and its potential risks - debt and inflation - are brought under a harsher spotlight.
Ashraf Laidi, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said Wednesday a "serious case of dollar damage" was underway.
"We long warned about the day of reckoning for the dollar emerging at the next economic recovery," Mr. Laidi said in a note.
Mr. Laidi said economic recovery would weigh on the greenback as real demand for commodities, coupled with improved risk appetite, caused investors to seek higher yields in emerging markets and commodity currencies. This would draw investment away from the U.S. dollar, which was dragged down by growing debt and the risk quantitative easing would eventually spark a surge in inflation.
The U.S. dollar slid against most major currencies Wednesday, hitting a five-month low of US$1.3775 against the euro and pushing the Canadian dollar up US1.21¢ to a seven-month high of US87.69¢.
John Curran, the senior corporate dealer at Canadian Forex, said the U.S. dollar would likely fall further in the next week, with the Canadian dollar likely reaching about US88.35¢, at which point it could break higher to test the US92.35¢ level.
"The U.S. dollar is continuing to slide as investor appetite is gaining momentum," Mr. Curran said. "People are getting comfortable about taking on a little more risk."
The rise in the Canadian dollar has moved in lock-step with the improvement in equity markets since March 9. Over this time, the S&P 500 has risen by 34%, the S&P/TSX composite index has gained 35% and the Canadian dollar has increased by 14%, equal to almost US11¢. Since Feb. 18, light-crude oil has risen by 46% to US$62.12.
But as risk appetite and equities improve, Mr. Curran said it was unlikely the U.S. dollar would embark on a long-term decline.
"While things are beginning to thaw, it doesn't mean it's full-on summertime just yet," he said. "A lot of people are looking for the Canadian dollar to strengthen dramatically again towards par. I'm not sure about that just yet."
Nevertheless, concern has been mounting that the increasing U.S. debt load, as well as a potential inflation time bomb in the form of the quantitative easing, could drag down the greenback. Garnering attention is the risk the United States could lose its triple-A sovereign credit rating, which reflects the chance of the borrower defaulting on its debt.
"By many measures, the U.S. appears just a few short steps away from losing its coveted triple-A status, unless the recovery turns out to be considerably stronger than expected and the fiscal repair is faster than commonly expected," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "A downgrade could boost the cost of funding U.S. debt at the margin, but underlying inflation and fiscal fundamentals will ultimately be the primary driver."
Despite the risk, Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, said the United States was unlikely to lose its rating. But, in the event of a downgrade, he said it would probably not have a lasting impact on the U.S. dollar.
However, he said a big threat lurked in the country's expanded monetary base, which now stands at about US$1.8-trillion. While the expanded monetary base was needed to feed economic growth and ward off deflation under the Fed's quantitative easing plan, Mr. Ashworth said such high levels could fuel rampant inflation once broader monetary conditions improved.
He said it remained to be seen how much success the Fed will have when it decides to end its quantitative-easing plan and shrink the monetary base.
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1612964

Teen beats mom over french fries
May 21, 2009 - 4:44am
PORT DEPOSIT, Md. (AP) - The Cecil County Sheriff's Office says a teenager beat his mother with an aluminum baseball bat because she wouldn't share her french fries with him.
Seventeen-year-old Dennis Hickman III is charged as an adult with first- and second-degree assault.
Lt. Bernard Chiominto, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, says Hickman "went berserk for a while."
The incident occurred Tuesday night. Deputies said Hickman, who lives with his mother, also slashed tires on her car and kicked the front door, knocking it off its hinges.
Hickman's 52-year-old mother, who was not identified, was treated at Union Hospital in Elkton for injuries to her head, wrist and leg.
Information from: Cecil Whig of Elkton, Md., http://www.cecilwhig.com

But check the underware of Sandy Beger sounds like something else the clintons needed to cover up, (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/20/AR2007022001344.html)
Disappearance of Disc With Clinton Data Investigated
By Edwin Chen
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Federal authorities are investigating the disappearance of a computer disc from the National Archives containing Social Security numbers and Secret Service procedures from former President Bill Clinton’s administration, congressional officials said.
Among the files on the disc were 100,000 Social Security numbers, including that of one of former Vice President Al Gore’s daughters, contact information for officials who served in the Clinton administration, logs of events and “other highly sensitive information,” according to a statement from the office of Representative Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Democratic Representative Edolphus Towns of New York, chairman of the committee, called it a “serious security breach.”
Mark McKenna, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton said Clinton Foundation officials have asked the Archives for “a full accounting of what was on the drive.”
The disc was lost sometime between October 2008 and March 2009 and a criminal probe is underway by the Archives inspector general and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Susan Cooper, director of communications for the Archives, said the loss was confirmed in early April and the inspector general immediately began a criminal investigation.
The Archives also “immediately undertook a review of our internal controls and we have implemented improved security processes,” Cooper said in a statement.
Call for Investigation
Issa called for a congressional investigation.
“This egregious breach raises significant questions regarding the security protocols that are in place at the National Archives and Records Administration,” Issa said.
The disc, which contained one terabyte of data, is missing from the Archives facility in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. The statement from Issa’s staff quoted the inspector general as saying that one terabyte of data is the approximate equivalent of “millions of books.”
“The full extent of the contents of the drive is still being investigated,” the statement said.
The hard drive was left unsecured in a work area while the records were being processed, according to Issa’s statement. At least 100 people with Archive badges had access to the area. In addition, the inspector general said janitors, visitors and interns passed through the area where the drive was being kept, the Republican statement said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aAINQhUs7Nxc

Swine Flu Arrives in Tokyo Area After Students’ New York Trip
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Two high school students have been confirmed as the first cases of swine flu in the Tokyo area after they returned from a school trip to New York, local government officials said.
The 16-year-old girls, both from the same high school in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, returned from a week-long trip to New York on May 19, officials said. Both are hospitalized with the H1N1 virus, which has sickened more than 10,000 people worldwide.
“The students are from Hachioji and Kawasaki and I was informed yesterday that tests showed that they had contracted the new flu,” Japan’s Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said in parliament today.
The cases around Tokyo, the world’s largest metropolitan area, come after the government yesterday shut 4,464 schools in western Japan after a swine flu outbreak around Osaka. Japan’s Health Ministry yesterday said 234 people have the virus, formally known as A/H1N1. Evidence of human-to-human transmission in a region outside North America, where a majority of the cases worldwide have occurred, may prompt the World Health Organization to raise its pandemic alert by one grade to the highest level, Hitoshi Oshitani, the former head of the agency’s Western Pacific region, said in a May 19 interview.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awF_0oQDV9c0&refer=worldwide

Eeyores news and view

What the New Testament Says about the Jew
By Pastor David F. Reagan
INTRODUCTION
What does the New Testament say about the Jew? Does the New Testament forever condemn the Jewish people as Christ-killers who eternally have the blood of Christ on their hands? Or is this teaching simply the pitiful excuse of hatemongers looking to justify their pernicious wickedness? What does the New Testament really say about the Jew? That is the purpose of this brief treatise. If you are a Jew, these words are for you.
The Jewish people understand that when two Jews are discussing a subject they are likely to have three opinions. However, they sometimes do not understand the differences between those who claim to follow Christ. Many know that Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant reformation, encouraged the persecution of the Jews. However, few know that he also wrote a paper encouraging the persecution of the group known as the Anabaptists–the forerunners of the present day Baptists. Today, the Jews of Russia know that the Russian Baptists suffered alongside of them in that land. Please do not think of all Christians as historically hating the people of Israel. Even today, Baptist believers form one of the strongest blocks of supporters for the nation of Israel. Our love is very real and is an integral part of our faith. Let me explain.
If there is one belief that is central to the Baptist faith, it would be the belief that the Bible is the absolute authority for all truth. We believe that anything left to human reasoning, philosophy or tradition has a faulty foundation. All truth must either proceed from or be tested by the Word of God.
Our Bible consists of the Old and New Testaments bound together as one book. Our Old Testament is the same as the Jewish Tenach. Since the Old Testament is three times as long as the New Testament, 75% of our Bible is the same as yours. That is a lot of common heritage.
We know that no one can support anti-Semitism from the Tenach. So, does the New Testament teach a hatred of the Jewish people? The answer is a resounding "NO"! In fact, though the New Testament is very honest in discussing the differences between the Jews and the true Christians, most of what is taught about the Jew is absolutely positive. My belief in the authority of the New Testament is the reason for my strong love for the Jewish people. So please read on and find out what the New Testament really says about the Jew.
1. Salvation is of the Jews
Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman in Sychar about eternal life. She wanted to talk about the correct place to worship God. Was it on Mount Gerezim as the Samaritans believe or in Jerusalem as believed by the Jews. Jesus answered her plainly, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).
So, there it is plain and simple. God’s way of salvation came to man through the Jews. Jesus came to fulfill the law and not to destroy it (Matt.5:17). Despite what some have taught, Jesus did not oppose the teaching of the Tenach. He fulfilled it! God sent salvation to man through the Jewish people.
2. God’s Word Came Through the Jews
When some early Christians claimed that the Jews had no advantage, the apostle Paul disagreed with them. "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Rom.3:1-2). The oracles of God were His spoken and written words. In other words, God’s word has come to man through the Jews. Even the New Testament was written by Jews. Without the Jew, I would not have my Bible. I am very thankful for this great gift!
3. God’s Gifts to Man Came Through the Jews
Beyond the gifts of salvation and God’s word, there are other gifts that God has given to man and these also came through the Jews. Paul, in another place, speaks of the "Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom.9:4-5). To Israel was given the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the service of God, the promises and the fathers. Although these gifts were properly to Israel, all mankind has benefitted from them. Take, for instance, the giving of the law. The law was for Israel. Yet, today, all good government is in some way based on the ten commandments. God has given to man many gifts through the Jewish people.
The last gift mentioned is very special. It is the gift of my Savour Jesus Christ. I know that you may not believe in Jesus. However, I still thank you for the gift of my precious Savour! Paul, in reference to Jesus, said, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift" (II Cor.9:15). I must say the same. When Jesus came to this earth, "he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16). He came to this earth as "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1).
I realize that the concept of one who is both completely God and completely man may seem strange to you, but the concept originally comes, not from the New Testament, but from the Jewish Tenach. Think about these words taken from the prophecy of Isaiah (9:6): "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." How could these divine titles be given to one who was no more than a man? Yet, I must go on.
4. The Jews Rejected Jesus as Their Messiah
The apostle John said of Jesus, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). The phrase, "his own", refers to the Jewish people. This is not a statement of hatred but of simple fact. The Jews, as a whole, still reject Jesus as their Messiah. Of course, there are some other passages which are used as a basis for hatred but those who use them for hatred are misusing them. Consider the following.
The apostle Peter preached, "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; [h]im, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:22-23). So, there you have it. Peter said to the men of Israel that they by wicked hands took and crucified Jesus. And throughout the ages, wicked men calling themselves Christian have used this passage and a couple of others to call Jews Christ-killers and to persecute the Jewish people.
But is this the true teaching of the New Testament? No. While it is true that the apostles held the Jews responsible for their part in the crucifiction of Jesus, they also recognized the responsibility of others. According to the law of the Romans, the Jews could not have crucified Jesus themselves. But this is not all. Listen to the prayer of Peter and the other apostles made shortly after the statement made in the above paragraph.
"Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:24-28).
Did you read that? Yes, the people of Israel were guilty. But so were the Gentiles and Herod and Pilate. You see, the whole world is guilty for the rejection of Jesus. We had him here offered to us and we all rejected him! Right before the verse that says his own received him not (John 1:11), we read, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not" (John 1:10). His own received him not; the world knew him not. We all rejected him and we all are guilty of his blood by our membership in the race of man! There is no New Testament justification for any sort of mistreatment of the Jews. Anyone who teaches this has rejected the New Testament!
5. The Jews Attempt to Establish Their Own Righteousness
Another New Testament teaching concerning the Jews regards the way in which they seek to know God and obtain salvation. You must be the judge as to whether this is true or not. Speaking of the Jewish people, Paul states, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:2-3).
I realize that this statement may seem offensive. I ask that you withhold your anger and think about what Paul is saying. He credits the Jew for having a great zeal of God and for working hard to establish their own righteousness. Is this not true of the faithful Jew? He works very hard to live righteously. His zeal is seen in the care with which he obeys the traditions of the fathers.
So, of what does Paul say the Jew is ignorant? He is ignorant of God’s righteousness. How can that be? A Jew certainly understands the greatness of God’s righteousness. His ignorance must be of something about God’s righteousness. But what? The answer is found in the testimony of the apostle Paul.
In the book of Philippians, Paul tells of the things of which he could boast; "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Philippians 3:5-6). Yet Paul did not trust in his own righteousness. In fact, he said that, "what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7). He counted all things but loss that he might win Christ and "be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:9).
Every religion in the world including Judiasm and most who claim to be Christians have devised some plan by which they can use their own efforts to become righteousness. The Bible teaches that a man cannot earn his own salvation–and not just in the New Testament. Ecclesiastes 7:20 teaches: "For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." Solomon said, "for there is no man that sinneth not" (I Kings 8:46).
Therefore, no man can achieve perfect righteousness. As a result, all men including Jews are under a curse. Deuteronomy 27:26, after the giving of the law, states, "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen." Notice, the man who does not do all the words of this law is said to be cursed. Yet, all men fail in the law at some point. David said of mankind, "They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psalm 14:3).
The problem of the Jew is that even though a perfectly righteous life is what God requires, he cannot live it. Yet, he continues to try to earn his righteousness by his own efforts. As a result, some Jews are caught up in seeking and declaring ever new rules and regulations for the achieving of righteousness while most Jews have given up and observe only the most outward and traditional signs of their Jewishness. Is it not strange that so many Jews are practicing atheists? Their religion has not given them peace.
God’s way is found in imputed rigtheousness. Again, the original teaching of this doctrine comes from the Tanach. Abraham "believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). That is imputed righteousness. Man believes and God imputes righteousness on him. But whose righteousness is placed on us. Paul trusted in the imputed righteousness of Jesus. Our sin is placed on Jesus while the righteousness of Jesus is placed on us. God "hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Corinthians 5:21).
This is the essence of true Christianity. Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believe in him as my Lord and Savour. In the power of his resurrection I live and have eternal life. His righteousness in first imputed to me and by his strength in me I daily grow closer in living in that righteousness. Paul taught of salvation, "That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thime heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation...For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:9-10,13).
6. The Jews Will Yet Receive Their Kingdom
One reason that true Christians are so supportive of the nation of Israel and Jews in general is that we believe what God told Abraham, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Genesis 12:3). Another reason is the knowledge that the Jews will yet have their kingdom. Yes–this too is taught in the New Testament.
Right before Jesus ascended up into heaven after his resurrection, his disciples asked him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Jesus did not tell them they were mistaken about the restoration but rather answered, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7). The restoration would come but the time was not to be revealed.
Paul taught that, "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25). In other words, the times of Gentile domination will one day come to an end. "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Romans 11:26-27). Other passages in the New Testament also confirm this truth that Israel will again be the center of God’s kingdom on earth some day in the future. Oh, what a glorious day that will be!
7. Even Now Some Jews Will Come to Jesus as their Messiah
Paul asks, "Hath God cast away his people?" (Romans 11:1). He answers, "God forbid...God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Romans 11:1-2). He goes on to tell how that Elijah thought that he was the only one who had remained faithful to God. Yet God reminded him that there were still seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Paul then concludes, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). There always have been and always will be Jews who recognize Jesus as their true Messiah. Perhaps the Lord is speaking to you right now.
CONCLUSION
Paul declared, "Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved" (Romans 10:1). He further testified, "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:2-3). Paul knew that each individual must accept or reject Jesus Christ on their own. However, he loved his people so much that he would have been willing to give up his place in heaven if it would have meant their salvation. What an expression of love!
Yet, a greater love than this was described by the prophet Isaiah. He spoke of a man who was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah 53:3).
But this man did not suffer for his own sins but for our sins. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all: (Isaiah 53:4-6).
The prophecy of this chapter does not fit Isaiah nor anyone else in the history of the world except Jesus Christ. Jesus is truly the anointed one; the Messiah of Israel. Whether you receive him or not, I will still love you. My love is not based on you having my faith. But, oh, how I wish you could know the peace that comes by believing in Jesus! Will you at least consider him?
http://www.biblebelievers.com/Reagan_Jews.html

NPR axes Christian radio programs
A shocking decision has been handed down by the National Public Radio board.
NPR logoIn 1985, National Public Radio (NPR) adopted a policy stating that member stations had to provide "nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial" educational programming. But in February 2009, the wording was changed to say: "NPR Member Stations shall provide ONLY [emphasis added] nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial educational content on all broadcast channel(s) and related media distribution platforms such as member partners that use the NPR member brands."
The rule, which takes effect May 1, means that any NPR stations carrying religious programming must cease and desist that programming as of that date. In explaining its decision in a similar matter, PBS -- another federally funded media outlet -- says it "places a high value on presenting diverse perspectives, as opposed to rigidly adhering to any single political or religious point of view." Allowing such programming, it continues, "would cause the public's trust in PBS to erode, along with the value of the brand."
David McNabb is the host of "Christian Corner" on KJZA (in Williams, Arizona), which is a partner station with KJZZ in Phoenix. His and several other religious programs featured on the NPR member station will be axed effective tomorrow.
"The change is labeling any Christian content as sectarian and, therefore, not to be used on NPR," he explains. "As part of their mission statement, one of the things that they are not is they are not sectarian. But up until now they haven't defined sectarian as having religious content...and so that's the change."
McNabb's program had a half-hour weekend slot and was bringing in $300 per month in revenue. The other religious programming was bringing in revenue as well and actually out-performing other weekend "nonsectarian programming."
The change in NPR policy affects all NPR affiliates in the United States.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=510936

Oregon man envisioned militant jihad training camp
NEW YORK (AP) — A man convicted of helping the Taliban testified at a terrorism trial Wednesday that it was his idea to create a militant jihad training camp in Oregon to recruit men from England and the United States to fight in Afghanistan, but he no longer supports terrorist causes.
James Ujaama, a Muslim convert who lived in Seattle, told a jury in Manhattan federal court that he envisioned the camp, which never came to fruition, in 1999 as a place for Muslims to get military training to fight in Afghanistan.
Ujaama was called by prosecutors as a witness in the trial of Oussama Kassir, who is on trial on charges that he helped al-Qaeda by trying to set up a weapons training post in the small Oregon town of Bly.
Ujaama, 43, was born in Denver as James Ernest Thompson before changing his name in the late 1980s when he gave up Christianity to be Muslim.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce asked if he considered himself a terrorist."No sir," he said.
Asked if he had ever supported terrorist causes, Ujaama said he had.
"I sympathized and I have supported terrorists in the past, which was foolish. I was not thinking at that time and I wish I had not done that," he said.
Ujaama pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges that he provided material support to terrorists by trying to set up the Bly training camp and by loading computer programs onto Taliban computers during a trip to Afghanistan in 1999. He said he hopes to win leniency from a potential 30-year prison sentence by testifying.
Ujaama testified he tried to create the training camp on 360 acres of land in Oregon in 1999 and created an advertisement for it that he sent to his spiritual guide in London. He said the terrain, with small trees and rocks, and widely varying temperatures, was similar to Afghanistan.
The advertisement, which was entered into evidence, said participants would learn about military techniques and be trained with weapons, including rifles, and in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts. It also promised training in archery, hunting and fishing, farming and animal husbandry.
"It is 100% legal and so are all of the activities," the advertisement said. "The land is in a state that is pro militia and firearms state, an advantage for self defense training."
Ujaama testified: "It would, in my mind, prepare Muslims, males, to go to the front line and defend the Islamic state."
But the camp never really got off the ground. Ujaama visited the property only three times, the last time with Kassir, who traveled from London expecting to find lots of weapons and young men eager to be trained, he said.
Kassir became angry when he saw nothing had materialized, Ujaama said. They fought and Ujaama left and never returned, he said.
Ujaama testified he went the following year to Pakistan, where he had gone before training briefly in late 1998 at a camp in Afghanistan that was run by Pakistanis.
During a trip to Afghanistan, he said, he sought treatment from a doctor after falling ill. After leaving Afghanistan, he said he saw a newspaper article that showed the U.S. was seeking on terrorism charges the doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri — al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader.
Ujaama testified he was in Pakistan on Sept. 11, 2001.
He testified it left him "a bit happy."
"In the beginning, my personal views was that this was in retribution for all the things that we had done bad in other places around the world to other people," he said.
He said he hoped it would be a wake-up call for the United States, where he returned in 2002, shortly before he was picked up by the FBI on a material witness warrant in Denver in July 2002.
He pleaded guilty the following year in federal court in Seattle to providing material support to terrorists in a plea deal that carried a two-year prison sentence.
When he was freed, he said he found fellow Muslims were suspicious of him, fearing he might be a government spy.
"I was very depressed. I just couldn't fit in," he said. So he violated the terms of his probation by leaving the country to live in Belize, where he was arrested in 2006 by U.S. marshals and returned to the United States.
He said he no longer believes that "violence is the solution to the problems of the Muslims in the world today."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-29-terror-camp_N.htm

Churches that staged 'pulpit' protest await IRS response
MILWAUKEE — Nearly seven months after defying a prohibition on endorsing candidates from the pulpit, 33 churches across the country are still waiting to learn whether the Internal Revenue Service will take action against them.
The goal of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" was to trigger a legal fight and ultimately overturn regulations that prevent places of worship from supporting or opposing candidates for office. But a conservative legal group that organized the effort says the IRS has yet to notify the churches of any investigation.
Legal experts suggest a number of possibilities: The IRS has nothing to gain from a costly and mainly symbolic battle; it has limited resources; or it could still be deciding how to respond.
On Sept. 28, participating pastors urged worshippers to vote according to conservative views on abortion and gay marriage. Several endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Under the IRS code, places of worship can distribute voter guides, run nonpartisan voter-registration drives and hold forums on issues, among other things. But they cannot endorse a candidate, nor can their political activity be biased for or against a candidate.
Churches that violate the rule can lose their tax-exempt status.
The protest was organized by the Phoenix-based Alliance Defense Fund and involved pastors in 22 states.
"The wheels of bureaucracy move slowly," said Erik Stanley, the group's senior legal counsel. "We're prepared if they do come after these churches, and we're also prepared if they do not."
IRS spokesman Christopher Miller declined to comment, and the agency would not confirm or deny whether it is conducting an investigation. At the time of the protest, the IRS said it would "monitor the situation and take action as appropriate."
ADF officials view the regulation as a violation of the pastors' right to free speech. Some legal scholars counter that the government has every right to treat political and nonpolitical speech differently.
A number of the pastors said they hoped the IRS would respond immediately so the legal challenge could get underway.
Luke Emrich, pastor at New Life Church in West Bend, Wis., had urged about 100 congregants to support an anti-abortion platform by voting for McCain. He said he was disappointed the IRS had not responded.
"It would have been nice to have a direct conversation with the IRS," he said. "I thought they would at least contact us, talk to us about the issues."
Historically, the IRS has been shy to investigate political activity in churches. It has stepped up oversight in recent years after receiving a flurry of complaints from the 2004 campaign. The IRS reported issuing written advisories against 42 churches for improper politically activity that year.
It's possible the IRS ignored the recent protest because it does not have an incentive to pursue the issue, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University.
"It would be expensive for them to fight, and it would give people all sorts of reasons to say the IRS is evil and irreligious," Tuttle said. "It's not like they're going to recoup a lot of money. Their attitude is probably 'why bother?"'
Or, it could be too early to say. When similar violations occurred during previous presidential elections, the IRS took two or three years to introduce litigation to strip a church of its tax-exempt status, said John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
"Even so, if the IRS wanted to pounce on this, I think it would have by now," Witte said. Perhaps it did not consider an investigation a wise use of resources, he speculated, or maybe the agency is occupied with more pressing cases.
Stanley, the ADF's attorney, said the organization will continue its protests as long as necessary, holding annual Pulpit Freedom Sundays every year ahead of federal, state or local elections. If the IRS does not take action against future protests, he said, pastors will learn the regulation can be safely ignored.
Polls suggest the campaign does not have wide support. An August survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that two-thirds of adults oppose political endorsements from churches and other places of worship. Another 52% wanted religious institutions out of politics altogether.
But those statistics did not dissuade Pastor Paul Blair, who took part in the initiative at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla. He said the main point of the protest was to make a stand to protect religious freedom.
"I don't let the federal government dictate to me what I can and cannot preach," he said. "I answer to a higher power than the federal government."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-04-24-pulpit-protest-irs_N.htm