"The WAR on error"
On this last Sunday of the liturgical year we celebrate the solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe. Today's Gospel presents a passage of the dramatic interrogation to which Pontius Pilate subjected Jesus, when he was handed over to him with the accusation of having usurped the title "king of the Jews."
The Holy See has no official position on Turkey's entry to the European Union, says the Vatican's secretary for relations with states. Before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave an interview in which he gave his personal views on this issue. He said that, historically, Turkey has never been part of Europe.
In the footsteps of his predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI has chosen to honor the land of Turkey with one of the first Apostolic Journeys of his Pontificate. Turkey is spread over a vast region which, not without reason, has been called "the Holy Land of the Church". It was not by chance that most of the writings that make up the New Testament originated in this land or were addressed to its Christian communities.
A papal visit to Turkey will be a test of diplomatic skills. The Pope arrives in Istanbul tomorrow at the start of a four-day visit that is as delicate and controversial as any undertaken by a pontiff in recent decades.
Whether the pope likes it or not, his trip to Turkey has turned into a confrontation between Islam and Christianity. Pope Benedict faces a huge diplomatic challenge on this trip to Turkey - partly of his own making. Unlike many of his predecessors, he is not a professional diplomat. He's a scholar. And scholars let loose in the world of politics are notoriously clumsy. He may win respect in the west for his courage and honesty, but he's unlikely to win many friends in the Muslim world.
Tens of thousands of protesters denounced Pope Benedict XVI as an enemy of Islam at a rally yesterday that underlined deep divisions straining Turkey ahead of the pontiff's visit.
Excercising "faith"...
A Vatican source said: "Security staff suggested to the Holy Father that for safety’s sake he should consider wearing a bullet proof vest but he dismissed the idea immediately. The five cardinals accompanying him on the visit were advised to wear one but have also dismissed the idea. The protection teams are worried and are bringing in extra agents to look after him."
Chancellor Merkel called for unity in her conservative party today as she sought to balance its economic reforms with pressure to project a more socially caring image. "We are making clear that we make policies for everyone. For us, economic and social issues were never contradictory — we are the party of workers and employers. We are strangers to class thinking."
As a result the Bundeswehr (armed forces) can continue to deploy up to 1,800 soldiers in Asia, Africa and, crucially, the Middle East for up to a year under the pretext of supporting the so-called “war on terror.” The German Navy is assuming sovereignty rights in Somali and international territorial waters. What if Russian, Chinese or Iranian warships acted in such an arbitrary way in waters of geostrategic importance? One can only imagine what the reaction would be in Washington and Berlin.
Castelrotto also has a German name: Kastelruth. A hard-fought past has left this northeastern corner of Italy bicultural and bilingual, with emphasis on the Deutsch. Locals speak German first; many wish they were still Austrian. In the Middle Ages, the region faced north, part of the Holy Roman Empire. Later, it was firmly in the Austrian Hapsburg realm.
Last-ditch talks in Finland today between the European Union and Turkey aimed at averting an EU crisis with Ankara over the Cyprus issue have failed. "An agreement could not be reached. There will be consequences" for Turkey's accession talks - "business as usual cannot continue." Speaking at her CDU party conference, Chancellor Merkel agreed.
Within days of the Bush administration’s defeat in the mid-term elections, due to widespread opposition to the Iraq war, a number of European powers were attempting to flex their political muscles. Their aim is to take advantage of the weakening of the US’s world position in order to assert their own interests in the Middle East and to advance an alternative to the Bush administration’s pro-Israeli stance, which they believe has destabilised the entire region.
Germany, France, Spain and Italy will come under pressure this week to surrender the “red cards” that allow them to keep their troops away from the most dangerous areas of operations in Afghanistan. The issue of national caveats, under which Nato governments can opt out of certain operations when they choose, is expected to dominate the alliance heads of government summit, in the Latvian capital, Riga, which starts tomorrow.
Against the backdrop of a brittle Gaza Strip cease-fire, the EU opens two days of talks with Israel and its Arab neighbors today to preserve what remains of the Middle East peace process and push ahead with broad economic assistance to boost chances for peace. Given the bleak situation in the Middle East, diplomats said the gathering of foreign ministers may not produce a joint statement.
"We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," Jordan's King Abdullah said Sunday, citing conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The region could become engulfed in violence unless “something dramatic” happens.
Could some of the Pentagon’s hired Mercenaries be the real perpetrators of the daily bombings and assassinations of Sunnis and Shias in Iraq? Is the current disaster taking place in the war-torn country part of a wider plot to provoke a US/Israeli planned civil war that will dismember Iraq?
Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said here today that the apparent discord among Shi'ites and Sunnis in neighboring states such as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan is the fruit of a conspiracy of the US and the Zionist regime.
Darfur rebels have attacked an oil field in Southern Kordofan, making a rare eastward extension of their campaign toward central Sudan.
The draft resolution the U.S. intends to present to the UN Security Council on 29 November could trigger all-out war in Somalia and destabilise the entire Horn of Africa region by escalating the proxy conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to dangerous new levels.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran was ready to help the United States and Britain in Iraq but only if they pledged to change their attitude and withdraw their troops. "The Iranian nation is ready to help you get out of that swamp (in Iraq) on one condition ... you should pledge to correct your attitude. Go back and take your forces to behind your borders and serve your own nations."
[WAR: And what is so wrong with what he's saying? Nothing! We should take his advice ... but then that wouldn't lead to where events need to go.]
UPI analysis
Iran can either facilitate or humiliate a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Key mullahs are now saying Iran should assist a U.S. exit that would enhance Iran's regional power.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned yesterday that any military solution to Iran's nuclear crisis would have tragic results for the region and the world at large. Emphasizing that Israel's nuclear arsenal was the real threat to regional security, Mubarak said that the Middle East needed peace, security, stability and development more than ever before.
I shocked to see Joshua Muravchik’s November 19th opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. I was surprised that an essay of such ignorance, such hatred, and such embarrassing lack of credibility was published at all in a major newspaper. So when I read Joshua explain why we must bomb Iran as soon as possible, It is practically important, as four American carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf patiently await the 2006 rendition of a Tonkin incident, as the Air Force and Navy polishes those target lists, as the Army and Marines send more troops into the region. It seems that these troops will stay on the major U.S. bases in central and southern Iraq, and elsewhere in the region, until needed for the next big thing.
Hail to the chief
The Constitution empowers Congress to pass laws regulating the executive branch, but over the course of his career, Cheney came to believe that the modern world is too dangerous and complex for a president's hands to be tied. He embraced a belief that presidents have vast "inherent" powers, not spelled out in the Constitution, that allow them to defy Congress.
With the Democrats a majority in the incoming Congress, and disquiet over globalization growing, a party faction that has been powerless - the economic populists - is emerging and strongly promoting an alternative to Rubinomics. The populists argue that the national income has flowed disproportionately into corporate coffers and the country's wealthiest households, and that the imbalance has grown worse in recent years. They want to rethink America's role in the global economy. They would intervene in markets and regulate them much more than the Rubinites would. For a start, they would declare a moratorium on new trade agreements until clauses were included that would, for example, restrict layoffs and protect incomes.
[WAR: Hey, nothing wrong with any of this!! It's about time someone is concerned about us little peasants out here in the real world.]
Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez yesterday promised hundreds of thousands of supporters he would win a resounding victory in his December 3 reelection bid he describes as a challenge to Washington. "We are confronting the devil, and we will hit a home run off the devil next Sunday. On December 3 we're going to defeat the most powerful empire on earth by knockout."
The launch of the English-language version of Al-Jazeera Television in the US was met with glee by America ’s corporate-controlled media. At first this reaction seemed curious. But soon the source of this glee became evident: No cable or satellite television service in the US is carrying Al-Jazeera. Although America’s corporate-controlled media attribute this to the reluctance of Americans to view what many believe is propaganda disguised as news, these same media have adroitly concealed the fact that the so-called “news” Americans are bombarded with on a daily basis is little more than propaganda as well.
"In God We Trust," the official national motto since 1956 and a familiar sight on U.S. coins and currency, will be hard to find on the new presidential dollar coins scheduled for release to the public Feb. 15, 2007. The new gold-colored dollar pieces, featuring an images of U.S. presidents, will move the inscription from the face of the coin to the thin edge, along with the year and the previous national motto, "E Pluribus Unum," Latin for "Out of Many, One."
Are vampires just fiction? According to some ostensibly serious researchers, there is not smoke without fire. They believe that all the bloodsucker stories in the modern-age movies were concocted from the original ingredients dating back to the Middle Ages. In other words, the vampires have existed and still exist in our time. According to some scientists, a bad case of porphyria may have prompted the sufferer to seek other person’s blood to temporarily alleviate the suffering.
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