Thursday

The Daily WAR (08-24)

 
 
    Continuing his teachings on the fathers of the early Church, Pope Benedict spoke about St. Chromatius today. He explained that St. Chromatius should serve as an example to Christians of how to remain rooted in the Word of God and heroic in love for one another. St. Chromatius was the bishop of Aquileia in northern Italy, "a dynamic center of Christian life located in the 'Decima regione' of the Roman empire," Benedict XVI noted.
    "Between the middle of the 3rd century and the early years of the 4th, the persecutions of Decius, Valerian and Diocletian had produced a large number of martyrs." At the same time, the Church of Aquileia was facing "the threat of the Arian heresy," which denies the divinity of Christ. "Among subjects particularly dear to him were, primarily the Trinitarian mystery, which he considered in its revelation throughout the history of salvation, the theme of the Holy Spirit, ... and the mystery of Christ. The incarnate Word is true God and true man: He fully assumed the human condition so as to give it His own divinity."
[WAR: The antichrist-in-chief is keeping true to his position by continuing the lie that John warned us about: the pagan (not gnostic) concept that Yahshua was an incarnated god-man and "God in the flesh." So no, the Messiah was not divine while he lived here on Earth for those 33 1/2 years.]
 
    Pope Benedict XVI is offering relief from purgatory to Roman Catholics who travel to Lourdes over the next year, the Vatican said yesterday. Pilgrims to the shrine in south-west France will receive "plenary indulgences" from the Pontiff, which the Church says reduce the time spent being "washed" of sin after death. The Church teaches that people who do not go directly to heaven must spend time in purgatory, where they can be purified of residual sin.
 
 
 
    Based on preliminary figures from the World Trade Organization, Germany is set to reclaim its throne as the world's top exporter, bumping China to the 2nd spot. Germany had held the top spot for 4 straight years until China edged it out due to huge market demand from the US and Europe. But massive product recalls over questions of product quality and safety on Chinese imports the past few months may have caused the demotion of China.
 
 
 
    Chancellor Merkel expressed her skepticism about a proposal by President Sarkozy to create a Mediterranean Union of countries from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Merkel said that she had her doubts about Sarzoky's suggestion because it could pose a threat to the European Union. If such a separate group with access to EU funds were created, it could lead to "a corrosion of the EU in its core area ... (and) this could release explosive powers in the EU that I would rather not witness."
 
    The situation in Kosovo becomes more and more intense as long as the day of December 10 is drawing near. Russian diplomats are certain that it is possible to find a compromise. They insist negotiations should be continued, while their colleagues from the EU and the US claim that further talks are meaningless. Meanwhile, experts have no doubts if the status issue goes beyond the Security Council authority, there would have another Balkan War. If the West realizes its plan, the Balkans and the whole Europe may turn into a battlefield again.
 
    Serbia has prepared a raft of measures to retaliate against countries that recognise any unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, Foreign Minister Jeremic said. He told parliament that his ministry had been working for months on proposed steps that were "in the spectrum of soft to very hard measures in diplomatic terms." The harshest measure that the Belgrade government could take, he said, would be to break off diplomatic ties with nations that breach Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
 
 
 
    Russia has dispatched an 11-ship aircraft carrier group to the Mediterranean Sea as a first step towards re-establishing a naval presence in the region. The manoeuvres are part of an effort to resume regular Russian naval patrols around the world, according to the Russian defence minister. The ships would conduct three tactical exercises with real and simulated launches of sea- and air-based missiles and make nearly a dozen port calls, he added.
 
    Early reports of the results of the Annapolis meeting offer some cause for cautious optimism, at the same time that the danger of war remains high. A small, but potentially important step has been taken, but now, the real fight has begun.
    One factor that cannot be underestimated, is that the Bush family, and most emphatically, former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, are desperate to salvage some shred of family legacy, after 7 disastrous years of the Bush-Cheney Presidency. Progress on a Middle East peace deal, involving a Syria-Israel agreement, and a long-overdue just solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, represents the last best hope that the Bush family name can be saved.
 
    Now Iraq doesn't exist anymore. That's the most important thing to remember. There is no Iraq. There is no Iraqi government and none of the underlying causes for the violence have been addressed, such as the mutually exclusive aspirations of the rival factions and communities in Iraq.
 
    Despite opposition from the national government in Baghdad and its neighbors, the Kurdistan Regional Government has refused to be held back by the indecision and infighting that characterizes the central government. They have charged ahead, passing their own Oil and Gas Law and forming 4 regional oil-related companies and signed 7 new exploration deals with both Kurdish and international petroleum firms. Though the Kurds insist the law is on their side with regard to the recent oil exploration deals, most of their neighbors and fellow Iraqis disagree.
 
    A row between China and the US over port visits to Hong Kong has extended into a renewed move by Beijing to prevent foreign naval vessels sailing through the 180km-wide Taiwan Strait. On Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said China had "expressed grave concern to the US" about its ships traversing the Taiwan Strait, "and requested it to take prudent actions in this sensitive area".
 
 
 
    Bush is such a liar. Or is he just out to lunch on the most important issue that he faces? In October, he charged that Iran's nuclear weapons program was bringing the world to the precipice of WW3, even though the White House had been informed at least a month earlier that Iran had no such program and had stopped efforts to develop one back in 2003.
    President Ahmadinejad, who took office as Iran's president 2 years after Iran's nuclear weapons program ended, has now been vindicated in his claims that Iran has abandoned the weaponization program. Not so Bush, who has summarily dismissed the intelligence community's findings and, using his favorite tactic in dealing with debacles, is sticking to his original story.
 
    Russia's Foreign Minister has said there is no proof suggesting that Iran has ever run a program for developing nuclear weapons. When asked to comment on the recent US National Intelligence Estimate, claiming that Iran suspended its efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2003, he said the available data does not allow saying Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons program.
 
    The Israeli government has bluntly rejected the conclusion of the US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran currently has no nuclear weapons programs. The NIE report directly contradicts previous Israeli claims that Tehran represents an imminent nuclear threat to Israel and the world. While government ministers continue to call publicly for greater diplomatic efforts, there are obvious signs that a discussion is underway in Israeli political and military circles about possible air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
    Far from ending the danger of war, the NIE is likely to prompt an intensification of preparations. Despite Bush's claim not to have known of the report's contents until this week, Olmert said that he, Barak and other Israeli officials were briefed in advance on the intelligence assessment last week when they visited Washington. Bush has just announced plans to visit Israel in early January for the first time in his presidency.
    A "unilateral" Israeli strike on Iran has been canvassed in Washington for more than a year as one means for provoking Tehran and justifying massive American military retaliation. Now that the NIE has punched some large holes in the Bush administration's propaganda, the Israeli option will undoubtedly be the subject of intense discussion in the White House and when Bush visits Israel next month.
 
    The NIE was no surprise to veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who has been writing about it since November 2006. Hersh told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday that he believes the White House deliberately kept the NIE bottled up for over a year because the vice president was dissatisfied with its conclusions. "At the time I wrote that, there was a tremendous fight about it because Cheney ... did not want to hear this. I think the vice-president has kept his foot on the neck of that report. ... The intelligence we learned about yesterday has been circulating inside this government at the highest levels for the last year - and probably longer."
 
    The Bush administration scrambled Wednesday to hold together a global alliance of suspicion against Iran, saying the clerical regime still has much to answer for despite a US reversal of its claim that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons now.
 
 
 
    Is Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of evolution? That is the implication of the ouster of Christine Comer, the state's top expert on science education. Her transgression: forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks "intelligent design" and creationism as alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.
    An hour later, Comer was called in by superiors, pressured to send out a retraction and ultimately forced to resign. Her departure was instigated by a new deputy commissioner who had served as an adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas and more recently worked in the federal Department of Education. We can only hope that adherents of a sound science education can save Texas from a retreat into the darker ages.
 
No, never...
    President Bush is urging the Senate to ratify a treaty, supporters say, which will protect America's access to strategic international waters and the natural resources they contain. But opponents warn the UN's "Law of the Sea Treaty" could be the next step to world government.
    The UN treaty governs the law of the seas - not just ocean access by military and commercial vessels - but control of natural resources from fishing rights and oil exploration to deep sea mining. The 25-year-old treaty rejected by President Reagan and signed by President Clinton is being pushed by Bush. He's urging the Senate to ratify the treaty that already has 154 nations on board.
    So then, is the Law of the Sea Treaty a threat to American sovereignty – or the key to US security? It's a decision that lies in the hands of the Senate as it moves to consider the decades-long debate.
 
 
 
    Presidential election years usually are not recessionary but next year will be an exception. Several economic factors are colliding in an almost perfect storm to markedly slow the general economy and the stock market.
    The most important signal flashing recession is, of course, the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Moreover, the slowdown in residential and commercial construction will send secondary ripple effects throughout the economy.
    The 2nd major factor indicating a near-term recession is the sky-high price of crude oil and refined product. The 3rd factor in the current recession scenario – and the real wild card – is the continuing decline in the value of the dollar in international money markets caused by our Iraq blunder and the Fed–generated oversupply of dollars.
 
    The combined loss suffered by Wall Street banks on bonds backed by high-risk sub-prime mortgages could more than double to about $110 billion after Moody's, the ratings agency, gave warning that America's biggest bond insurers were "somewhat likely" to run short of funds.
    Moody's is conducting a review of MBIA, Ambac and 5 of America's other biggest securities insurers, which guarantee a mortgage bond's interest payments in the event of a default on the home loans that back them.
    In a development that will ricochet across the bond markets, the agency gave warning yesterday that the recent surge in defaults on sub-prime mortgages would probably leave some of America's biggest bond insurers with insufficient funds to make good the payments that will be required on some of the bonds they insure.
 
 
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