Rumors That Putins Successor Is Jewish Has Community Worried
February 24, 2008
The Jewish community of Russia is worried over a rumor campaign by nationalist parties claiming that Dmitri Medvedev, President Vladimir Putins handpicked successor, is Jewish.
Russian Jewish leaders declined to comment on the rumors officially, fearing to lend them credibility. Off the record, however, one said: “I pray it isnt true, because it would only make trouble, for him and for us.”
Medvedev, who recently told a Russian weekly that he was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church at age 23, has not commented on these rumors. But Russian Internet sites are full of reports about his alleged Jewish roots.
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The rumors are based in part on the fact that his maternal grandfathers first name was Veniamin - similar to the Hebrew Binyamin Benjamin - while his family name, Shaposhnikov, is sometimes a Jewish name. But beyond that, accusing an electoral rival of being Jewish is a tactic that nationalist parties have employed in the past, both in Russia and in other former communist countries.
Nikolai Bondarik, who heads the St. Petersburg branch of the nationalist Russian Party, told the Moscow Times on Wednesday “we are categorically against him [Medvedev] because he is an ethnic Jew and does not conceal his sympathies toward Judaism.” He also charged that with Medvedev in power, foreigners and Jews would plunder Russias natural resources; “tens of thousands” of Israelis would be given key positions in bodies such as “the police, army, and secret services”; and Russias relations with the Arab world would be destroyed.
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Oil Hits Record Over $100
February 20, 2008
Oil surged nearly 5 percent on Tuesday to hit a record over $100 a barrel on expectations OPEC will not hike output to ease high prices next month despite the economic woes of top consumer the United States.
U.S. crude settled up $4.51 at $100.01 a barrel after hitting $100.10 a barrel, a penny higher than the previous high struck on January 3. London Brent crude settled up $3.65 at $98.56 a barrel.
News Nigerian oil delta rebel leader Henry Okah had died raised worries about supplies from the OPEC country, but a spokesman for the government later said he was alive and in custody.
5.0 Temblor shakes California-Mexico Border As Quake Swarm Continues
February 20, 2008
An estimated 5.0-magnitude earthquake has shaken the US-Mexico border region near San Diego.
The US Geological Survey says Tuesday’s quake struck at 2:41 p.m. (1941 GMT) 21 miles (33.79 kilometers) southeast of the U.S. border city of Calexico.
Southeastern California and Mexican border communities have been jolted for days by a continuing earthquake swarm.
Oxford To Spend 4 Million To Understand Why Man Embraces God
February 20, 2008
University of Oxford researchers will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God. The grant to the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankinds makeup.
“There are a lot of issues. What is it that is innate in human nature to believe in God, whether it is gods or something superhuman or supernatural?” said Roger Trigg, acting director of the center.
He said anthropological and philosophical research suggests that faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world, even though it has been waning in Britain and western Europe.
“One implication that comes from this is that religion is the default position, and atheism is perhaps more in need of explanation,” he said.
The study will be funded by the John Templeton Foundation, a U.S.-based philanthropic organization that funds wide-ranging research into questions that deal with the laws of nature and issues of spirituality.
Iran Revolutionary Guards Predict Imminent Destruction of Israel
February 19, 2008
Irans Revolutionary Guards leader has predicted the imminent destruction of Israel by fighters from the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
“We will soon witness the destruction of the cancerous scum of Israel at the strong, capable hands of Hezbollah,” Maj-Gen Mohammad Jafari wrote.
He was writing to the groups leader Hassan Nasrallah following the killing of senior commander Imad Mughniyeh.
Iran and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the death, something Israel has denied.
Fars News Agency said Maj-Gen Jafari was writing to Mr Nasrallah to extend “congratulations and condolences for the martyrdom” of Mughniyeh, who died in a car bomb in Damascus last week.
The Hezbollah veteran was high on US and Israeli wanted lists, accused of involvement in a string of militant attacks since the 1980s.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the specific remarks.
“We are not harbouring any illusions about the Tehran regimes true intentions nor its extremist agenda,” said foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often predicted the imminent demise of Israel, drawing sharp criticism from its allies in the west.
The Revolutionary Guards were set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a separate command structure to the regular military to protect Irans Islamic system.
Hezbollah forces battled the Israeli army in the July 2006 war, which the Lebanese militia claims as a “divine victory”.
Syria Vows To Retaliate and Strike Israel
February 16, 2008
Syrian officials fanned out among Arab broadcasting stations with a warning: Damascus will attack Israel shortly following a decision by Syrian leaders to end its policy of restraint against its territorial violations.
Israeli land, sea, air and homeland defense units were earlier ordered to prepare to defend the country’s northern borders against attacks by Hizballah, including rocket strikes, and Syria. Reinforcements were rushed to the north.
Israel has received a stream of intelligence confirmations that Iran, Syria and Hizballah have determined not to let Mughniyeh’s death pass without an immediate response. They are working together to mount a revenge operation.
Western sources watching the funeral of the Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh earlier Thursday noted the absence of Hizballah’s entire command echelon and the Revolutionary Guards officers serving at Iran’s Beirut embassy. They were assumed to have gone to ground to plan a combined offensive against Israel whom they accuse of the Mughniyeh killing. Hassan Nasrallah’s threats (‘If Israel wants open war, so bit.”) were broadcast by video
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources note that the way Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki stood at Thursday’s Beirut funeral between Hizballah’s Dep. Sec. Gen Naim Qassem and the slain terrorist’s father and accepted condolences, confirmed Mughniyeh’s high-value role in Tehran’s foreign terror system. It also informed the thousands of Shiite mourners that Iran will be part of prospective retaliation for his death against Israel.
Iran and Syria have also linked their probes to find out how a hit-team penetrated the heavy security surrounding Imad Mughniyeh in an upscale Damascus neighborhood, planted a bomb in his SUV and detonated it by remote control.
Since Wednesday night, according to our sources, a visiting Iranian team of investigators has been hard at work in the Syrian capital to identify the Mughniyeh’s killers. It is headed by Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, commander of the al Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards foreign terror arm.
Its other members are Adm. Mohammad Fadavi, Dep. Commander of the IRGC Navy, who set up the near-clash between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz in January; and Gen. Morteza Rezai, former chief of the IRGC intelligence branch.
They are working with the Syrian team led by acting interior minister Gen. Bassam Abdul Majid.
Top Psychiatrist Concludes Liberals Are Suffering From Mental Disorder
February 16, 2008
Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.
“Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.” “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”
While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to “the vast right-wing conspiracy.”
For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.
Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.
Total Lunar Eclipse February 20th - Moon To Appear Blood Red
February 16, 2008
On the evening of Feb. 20 there will be a fascinating total eclipse of the moon.
The moon enters the penumbra (the lighter part of the Earth’s shadow) at 6:05 p.m. and starts entering the umbra (darker part of the Earth’s shadow) at 6:43 p.m. Totality begins at 8 p.m. when the moon turns a blood red color. Totality lasts until 8:52 p.m., at which time the moon starts to leave the umbra and the entire eclipse is officially complete at 10:45 p.m.
Can The US Protect Taiwan If China Attacks
February 15, 2008
China is preparing for an eventual cross-strait showdown with Taiwan and may be prepared to use tactics that could stop the United States from getting involved, according to an analysis of publicly available information on China’s military by the RAND Corporation.
According RAND, China’s defenses, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), has identified the U.S. military’s reliance on information systems as “a significant vulnerability that, if successfully exploited, could paralyze or degrade U.S. forces to such an extent that victory could be achieved” against Taiwan.
The writings RAND analyzed were not official war plans but the opinions, analysis, and recommendations of the Chinese military community.
The Chinese leadership believes that the key to victory over the U.S. is achieving tactical surprise, according to RAND.
The report quotes one Chinese military expert as saying that taking the U.S. by surprise would “cause confusion within and huge psychological pressure on the enemy and help [China] win relatively large victories at relatively small costs.”
In such an attack, the Chinese would blockade critical sea lanes in the Taiwan region and strike American logistics facilities, command-and-control centers, ports, airfields, and aircraft carrier battle groups in the area.
China could also launch cyber-attacks against American computer networks, physically destroy orbiting spy satellites, and launch an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike to deaden U.S. electronics systems in the region.
Based on the U.S. experience in Somalia, the Chinese experts cited by RAND think the United States has “a limited capacity to withstand personnel casualties.”
America’s perspective
The U.S. military apparently is well aware and not surprised by the RAND findings. At the core of China’s overall strategy, analysts say, rests the desire to maintain the continuous rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
“A deep-rooted fear of losing political power shapes the leadership’s strategic outlook and drives many of its choices,” the U.S. Defense Department reported to Congress in its 2007 assessment, “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China.”
Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered
February 15, 2008
Astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
“It looks like a scale model of our solar system,” said Scott Gaudi, an assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. Dr. Gaudi led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters.
Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system may be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.
In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. The star is about half the mass of the Sun.
Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it. But, Dr. Gaudi said, warm rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system.
“This could be a true solar system analogue,” he said.
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