"The WAR on error"
Cardinal Kasper says there is no basis to the allegations that Benedict XVI and the Holy See are indifferent to dialoguing with ecclesial communities that arose from the Reformation.
Here is the first part of a homily delivered in Dublin by the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at the opening of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The meeting last November between Benedict XVI and the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury was a reminder that we must make efforts to understand one another, says a British priest working for Christian unity.
Relations between Catholics and Orthodox have improved over the past year, though no meeting is yet foreseen between Benedict XVI and Moscow Patriarch Alexy II, says a Vatican official. "Relations with the Russian Orthodox Church have improved. An increasingly closer cooperation is taking place, thanks also to other dicasteries of the Roman Curia and to various dioceses."
On Friday, at the Prince Charles Palace in Munich, the signing ceremony took place of an additional protocol to the Concordat with Bavaria of March 29, 1924. The new protocol regulates a number of questions concerning the teaching of theology at faculties of Catholic theology in State universities and in other educational centers in Bavaria. Signing on the part of the Holy See was Archbishop Erwin Josef Ender, and, for the Free State of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber.
After Edmund Stoiber was forced to announce his exit from the political stage, an inner-party struggle for the next chairman has broken out. The conservative Christian Social Union, has been thrown into an unusual uproar as 2 leading figures publicly duke it out for the party's leadership position. The German media is calling it "chaos." Stoiber has called for major players in the current row to gather on Friday for a crisis session, during which a way out of the turbulent waters can hopefully be found. Many in the CSU just want to get the chaos behind them. Otherwise, according to one high-ranking party official, calls will start going out along the lines of: "Edmund, please stay!" ;-)
Bavaria announced that 2 of its banks would participate in a consortium that will buy a 7.5% stake in EADS, the parent company of aircraft maker Airbus, from DaimlerChrysler AG. The announcement makes Bavaria the 3rd German state that has said it would buy a stake in the company.
The violent storm that killed 11 people in Germany last week also knocked down 40 million trees. The German forestry industry estimates the damage will cost them around €1 billion.
Foreign Minister Steinmeier has come under fire following testimony by a Bremen resident who says he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay. The charges could deeply damage the reputation of a senior official in a government that prided itself on promoting human rights.
Unless he manages to produce new evidence, the foreign minister will have to resign over the failure to get a German-born Guantanamo prisoner released despite a US offer to do so.
UPI analysis
The case of a former Guantanamo inmate is evolving into a disaster for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with politicians from all parties unwilling to rule out a collective demand for his resignation.
Not holier than thou...
For almost 60 years, the evidence of Britain's clandestine torture programme in postwar Germany has lain hidden in the government's files. Harrowing photographs of young men who had survived being systematically starved, as well as beaten, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme cold, were considered too shocking to be seen.
Far-right politicians from 7 countries have joined forces in the European parliament to promote the ultra-conservative agenda within the EU. The mainstream parties are debating how to deal with this new faction, made up of nationalists who appear to have little in common.
MEPs will not have any major role in the EU's constitution revival project Germany's foreign minister has said, warning deputies not pick fights with national governments over who serves Europe better or overshadow Berlin's efforts to revive the EU charter.
The European Commission has published a white paper on the future of energy policy within the EU. The new energy strategy is driven primarily by the need for the European powers to reduce their dependence on unstable oil and gas imports. The current proposals of the EU Commission, even though they are driven by the dictates of finance capital and imperialist strategy, are likely to be blocked by competing national interests. Behind the united rhetoric of the EU, the European powers are scheming to secure their own energy interests.
Poland has to anticipate new tensions with the EU, if Warsaw allows the deployment of an American anti-missile system on its territory. The online site of the German ARD television network cited a Polish member of the European Parliament as warning that the joint US-Polish missile plans are viewed as a direct snub of the European Union. "The western European countries, especially Germany and France, are against this project. For Poland's political opponents, this will be another reason to say Poland is the Trojan horse of the US within Europe."
The West seems pleased. Elections in Serbia appear to pave the way for a democratic coalition to take office in Belgrade. But with Kosovo looming, negotiations are going to be difficult. And then there's the Ratko Mladic question.
The EU is in the process of expanding its offices in Israel, including in the Palestinian areas, in anticipation of an increased security role here following what European diplomatic officials say is new momentum regarding an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
Israel and the Palestinians have been conducting behind-the-scene negotiations regarding handing over most of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to top Egyptian and European diplomatic sources who told WND they were directly involved with the talks.
(But ... Olmert's office denies report)
As Dick Cheney was plotting new wars against Iran and Syria, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz revealed that secret back-channel talks were held between the two nations' representatives from September 2004 to July 2006. According to Ha'aretz's senior correspondent the talks were approved by the governments of both Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, and continued even during the first phase of last Summer's Israel-Lebanon War.
President Katsav is to be charged with rape and abuse of power. The charges against Katsav include raping a former employee at the Tourism Ministry and sexually harassing 3 other workers at the presidential residence. He will also face charges of fraud, breach of trust, harassing a witness and obstruction of justice.
Ethiopian commanders said that it was the beginning of a withdrawal from Somalia, but they offered no timetable amid fears that too rapid a departure could hand Somalia back to the warlords who kept it in anarchy for almost 16 years.
Oil traders and others believe that the Saudi decision to let the price of oil tumble has more to do with Iran than economics. Their belief has been reinforced in recent days as the Saudi oil minister has steadfastly refused calls for a special meeting of OPEC and announced that the nation is going to increase its production, which will send the price down even farther. Moreover, the traders believe the Saudis are not doing this alone, that the other Sunni-dominated oil producing countries and the US are working together, believing it will hurt majority-Shiite Iran economically and create a domestic crisis for President Ahmadinejad.
Gary G. Sick, a former National Security Council adviser on Iran, says an “emerging strategy” is developing that brings the US, Israel, and Sunni Arab states in an informal alliance against Iran.
Blah, blah, blah...
The Israeli people are facing the threat of a nuclear Holocaust, Newt Gingrich warned yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, he said, the US could lose a few million people or a number of cities to a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction.
President Ahmadinejad in a meeting with the Syrian Foreign Minister assured that the US and the Zionist regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives.
President Ahmadinejad said that the US was "absolutely incapable of inflicting serious damage on the Islamic Republic of Iran." "They would like to hurt (our country) but they are not in a position to do so." Asked if a military strike by the US against Iran could be one such mistake, the chief executive replied: "No. They are not in a position to make such a decision. I think, there are wise people in America who would not let this happen. They are incapable. The pressure is more psychological."
Iran conducted missile tests as its leadership stepped up warnings of a possible military confrontation with the US. The drum-beating suggested Iran does not intend to back down in its standoff with the West.
President Ahmadinejad said that not all countries of the world, though they may have the will to impose sanctions on Iran, have the capacity to materialize such will. "We are not concerned about the future. Many world presidents have indicated their desire to continue relations with us. We are not even concerned about the restrictions imposed on our banks by certain states since they do not have a monopoly of the global banking system."
The US, as if lying in wait, did not hesitate to launch its barrage of criticism against Iran after Tehran barred the entry of 38 IAEA inspectors to Iranian soil. The German Parliamentarian also criticized German FM Steinmeier’s efforts to step up pressure on Iran, pointing out Tehran is entitled to continue its peaceful civilian nuclear program within the framework of the IAEA.
President Ahmadinejad is facing growing criticism at home from sections of the country’s ruling elite over his uncompromising statements on Iran’s nuclear programs as well as over his populist economic measures. The signs are growing that the regime in Tehran is preparing to quietly sideline Ahmadinejad and open up talks with the European powers for a deal to defuse the nuclear issue and establish closer economic relations. This is the last thing that the Bush administration wants. Iran’s nuclear programs are a convenient pretext for the White House to pursue its aim of “regime change” in Tehran as the means of extending US dominance in the Middle East. Neither Ahmadinejad nor any faction of the Iranian ruling elite has any answer to this threat of US aggression.
Retired General Wesley Clark is, like me, concerned that the Bush administration is going to launch a war with Iran. "You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers." This, of course, is true. The Jewish community, in short, is divided on the issue. It's also true that most major American Jewish organizations cater to the views of extremely wealthy major donors whose political views are well to the right of the bulk of American Jews, one of the most liberal ethnic groups in the country. Furthermore, it's true that major Jewish organizations are trying to push the country into war. And, last, it's true that if you read the Israeli press you'll see that right-wing Israeli politicians are anticipating a military confrontation with Iran. Everything Clark said, in short, is true. What's more, everybody knows it's true.
A 2nd US aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top US diplomat said.
Internationally, initiatives have been taken by French President Jacques Chirac, who is sending a special envoy to Iran, and by Russian officials, who are blowing the whistle on U.S. plans. As for the Arab states in the region, who are being wooed to support the plan, they have coolly recommended to the Administration that it carry out talks with Iran. They have been rebuffed. Overall, a certain degree of fatalism pervades the capitals of Europe and Asia, vis-à-vis being able to stop the British-crafted, but Bush/Cheney initiated plans to hit Iran.
Stop him before he kills again. That is the judgment of the American people, and indeed of the entire world, as to the performance of our president, and no State of the Union address can erase that dismal verdict. The almost universal support the US enjoyed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been completely squandered, as a majority of the world’s people now believe that our role in the entire world is negative.
President Bush’s State of the Union address was delivered in an atmosphere of crisis and demoralization gripping not only his own Republican administration, but the entire American political establishment. There is a general recognition not only that the American colonial war in Iraq has failed, but that the 6 years of the Bush administration have produced a colossal decline in the world position of US imperialism.
The opening statements in the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby struck official Washington like twin thunderbolts, opening up a huge fissure in the Bush administration at the same time that everything else is falling apart at the seams. With Scooter under fire from federal prosecutors and caught in a furious fusillade of mutual recriminations, what it all augurs is the final collapse of the War Party. We've had to wait over 3 years to come to the point where Cheney himself has come under increasing scrutiny, yet finally the day of reckoning approaches.
A potentially explosive dispute in the City Too Busy to Hate is taking shape over a proposal to break Fulton County in two and split off Atlanta's predominantly white, affluent suburbs to the north from some of the metropolitan area's poorest, black neighborhoods. "If it gets to the floor, there will be blood on the walls."
Davos World Economic Forum
Imagine it's 2010 and dirty bombs explode in three major capitals. Or a human strain of bird flu is spreading across the planet. Or global warming has triggered a super drought over the world's breadbasket regions. Who will ride to the rescue? Even in Davos, where the chieftains of world politics and industry gather today for the World Economic Forum, a worry is creeping in that nobody is really in charge.
[WAR: What?! But we've been told all these years by the Paranoid Protestant Prophecy Propaganda that the CFR, Illuminati, etc., etc. was in charge of this so-called New World Order.
* "Yahweh foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples." (Psalm 33:10)
* "Woe to the obstinate children - to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin." (Isa 30:1)
* "Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans." (Hosea 11:6)]
Oh my...
Tom Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion. He has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world. “Tom has been told he is Scientology’s Christ-like figure. Like Christ, he’s been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he was right.”
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