Digest Home |
2001 |
May, 2001
1. JERUSALEM HIT BY TWO CAR BOMBS
2. GOVERNMENT TO "SIT TIGHT" FOR NOW
3. REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS
4. TWO MORE "BAD NEWS" STORIES
5. ISRAEL, YUGOSLAVIA, SIGN DEAL
6. ARABS INJURED IN REVERSE TERROR ATTACK
ZAMBIAN ARCHBISHOP MARRIES IN "MOON" WEDDING
ABORTION SHIP SET TO SAIL INTO PORT OF DUBLIN
CHURCH APOLOGIZES FOR 1941 MASSACRE OF JEWS
==========
To: messynews@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Israelis are frightened!
From: Stafford's Mail
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 22:02:59 +0100
--------
Jerry Golden “REPORT”
P. O. Box 591
Bet Shemesh 99100 Israel
Jerry@urbis.net.il
5-27-01
Israelis are frightened!
That may seem to you to be a strange thing to say under these
circumstances, but we are talking a tough people. They are a people
who have fought in 6 wars in 53 years, and have seen very few days in
those years that terrorism wasn´t a real possibility. But these last 7
months have brought everyone´s nerves on edge.
Today I had to go to the Jerusalem Mall; knowing this was a Holiday
and that school was out, it would be elbow to elbow with Israelis. But
it was nearly deserted; many shops had just closed their doors for
lack of business. The open market in Jerusalem (a favorite place for
terrorist attacks) was also less then one forth what you´d expect to
see there. In down town Jerusalem the most popular street, Ben Yahuda,
and always crowed on such a Holiday was deserted as well. The few
people that could be seen seemed to be in hurry and no time to talk to
anyone. The obvious conclusion is they didn´t want to linger for fear
of a bomb.
Two car bombs in less than 9 hours went off in Jerusalem today. The
first was in a popular nightspot for teenagers in the Russian Compound
near the city hall, close to the old city walls. No one was injured
but a lot of damages to parked cars and the buildings.
The second went off at 9: am and it was in the city center on Jaffa
Road, where 4 were injured and 17 treated for shock. This bomb had
mortar shells, bullets and nails in it. For several hours the police
sappers closed the area and searched for the mortar shells that hadn´t
went off yet.
Pressure is building on Prime Minister Sharon to lift the restraint
from the IDF and allow our soldiers to defend them, and us. But he
says it is still necessary to grit our teeth a little longer to prove
to the world that Yessar Arafat is a terrorist and not a peace partner.
The question is how long will he continue this policy?
Pray for this ministry, Joel in the IDF and for the peace of Jerusalem.
Shalom, jerry golden
><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>
Stafford's Mail
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Arutz 7: Collected words of encouragement
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 17:53:31 -0400
--------
COLLECTED WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
broadcast on Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio <http://www.arutzsheva.org>
May 23-27, 2001 / Sivan 1-5, 5761
In This Article:
1. Sunday morning: Knesset Member Rabbi Benny Elon, former Dean of
Yeshivat Beit Orot on Mt. of Olives
2. Friday morning: Avi Rath, Director of Shevut Yehuda Institute for
Jewish Studies on the Bar-Ilan University campus.
3. Thursday morning: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tsfat
Sunday Morning:
RABBI BENNY ELON: RETURNING TO OURSELVES WITH PATIENCE
AND CONFIDENCE
We have just completed the commandment of counting the seven weeks
of the
Omer, in which we slowly, consistently, and with patience count towards the
holiday of Shavuot that begins tonight. I say this now as we see true
miracles unfolding in front of our eyes - a carbomb just exploded a few
minutes ago in the middle of downtown Jerusalem, yet did not cause major
damage or real casualties. Even the terrorists themselves are probably
wondering how is it that both last night and today, there were not more
people around, and how their mortar shells did not explode... G-d is
fighting on our side.
We must understand: We are about to commemorate the receiving of
the
Torah, in preparation for which we stood at the foot of Sinai "as one
person, with one heart." This unity is a necessary pre-condition for the
war that, with G-d's help, we are about to wage very soon. We cannot win
with half the nation standing and protesting against us. There is no
choice: This campaign [to achieve unity] demands patience and
persistence,
and it costs us in blood, but - this nation is uniting. It is demanding
not individual reactions to terrorist attacks, but that the government
clarify to the whole world that we are not strangers in this land, but that
we have returned to our Land from which we were banished...
We now anticipate that this unity will help us talk not only in terms of
security and strategy, but rather in terms of our historic and Divine bonds
with this Land. We will be a united nation that knows that all this talk
of Mitchell-Shmitchell reports and settlement freezes is all just nonsense
that cannot help solve the problems. We are a nation that is becoming
stronger and more united behind its government and its demand for quiet,
independence, and sovereignty...
Let us not become rattled by the extreme left and its talk about
settlements; let us not lose our confidence that we are the true spokesmen
for the entire Nation of Israel in the Land of Israel...
Tonight, we have another chance to restore our equilibrium, and to effect
great changes, by entering the depth of the Torah and the serenity and the
unity of Sinai. We have another chance to see how we are all connected to
our legacy of tradition, to see how it is so natural for us, and how much
the Torah and Israel are totally intertwined...
We know that we can bring about the desired changes. We are not just
another opposition group that likes to scream; we know that we cannot leave
the situation as it is, and plan to repair whatever needs repairing. We
are a nation of "remnants of the sword" and G-d calls upon us to "help them
rest" [based on Jeremiah 31,1]. This is our job - to restore serenity to
this nation, to strengthen it, and together, we will emerge victorious
against all our enemies. G-d is fighting for us; He has shown us, and will
continue to show us, great miracles and wonders.
Friday morning:
AVI RAAT: CARRYING STRETCHERS AND DIGGING FOR SURVIVORS
SIDE BY SIDE
During these hours of catastrophe [following the collapse of the wedding
hall in Jerusalem], I would like to talk only about one thing... It was
amazing to see, during the rescue efforts in the hours following the
tragedy, one dot of light amidst the terrible darkness, and that was
watching Am Yisrael at its best, in its unity. We watched the security
forces, the police, the rescue and ambulance teams, the body-identification
groups, the Home Front command, Magen David Adom medical crews -
everyone
altogether. Working side by side, we see hareidim, secular people of
various types, religious people of various stripes, old, young, Sephardim,
Ashkenazim, Beitar sports fans together with people from Me'ah She'arim -
everyone, altogether, working together carrying stretchers, digging
together with their bare hands to find survivors or bodies, giving first
aid together, donating blood to each other, praying together...
We all feel and sense that something is going on here. All the events,
the attacks, the developments that follow one upon the heels of the other -
something is in the air, something is happening here in Eretz Yisrael. We
are apparently unable to comprehend it as of yet, or to understand exactly
what G-d wants of us, but we know that something is happening. We should
only be ready and prepared and able to understand and to react and to
behave as is required of us during this sublime period. This is certainly
not the time for despair, but rather the time to help each other, to
encourage each other on the street and wherever we meet each other, to
gladden others, to help - and to unite. This is the time for Love of Israel.
Thursday Morning:
RABBI SHMUEL ELIYAHU: THE TRUE SIGNS OF REDEMPTION
The holiday of Shavuot provides us with the key to Geulah
(Redemption). On Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth, which tells us how to
extricate ourselves from a simply miserable situation in which the leaders
of Israel are broken and demoralized, and have no strength or
faith. Elimelech, from the tribe of Royalty (Judah), runs away from the
Land of Israel [because of a famine] and leaves the People of Israel behind
to suffer. This is the sad beginning of the story, but at its end we
actually reach King David and Redemption. This is an amazing story; people
who find themselves depressed and wish to be strengthened with faith and
confidence, should read this small Book of Ruth, which tells us of
strength, daring, courage, and kindness.
Sometimes we have a feeling that our leaders are still caught up in the
weaknesses of the Exile, the fear of what the world will say - but thank
G-d, we are little by little extricating ourselves from this. We must tear
away the last strings tying us to the Exile, and connect ourselves with the
love-bonds of Redemption, which are the bonds of kindness. This Book of
Ruth is entirely one of kindness. Kindness between each person and his
fellow man is the way to receive Torah, to path to Redemption...
I would like to recount the following story which I think is connected to
this matter. Many people have been asking me if a certain story going
around about "signs of Redemption" is true. Without going into all the
details, I can say that the Baba Sali [Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira of
Netivot] had prepared a special robe to wear when he went to greet the
Messiah, and before he died, he gave it to my father [the Rishon LeTzion,
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu] and asked him to wear it when he went to greet
the
Messiah. The Baba Sali even put some hairs from his beard in the pocket,
so that a part of him would also be there to greet the Messiah... People
ask me if it is true. It is true that G-d reveals some secrets to His holy
men, but actually, do we really need these hidden signs of the Redemption,
when we have so many open signs all around us? The answer is simply to
adhere to the path traveled by the Baba Sali and my father, his
disciple: Unbounded Love of Israel! True love for every person, no matter
who he is - to pray for him, to help him, to give as much as possible, with
all our hearts and all our strength! Unbounded love of Torah, and
unbounded love of the Land! Love with all the heart, with all the powers
of the soul, love of G-d with all our hearts, our soul, our essence. This
is the path: Chesed - loving-kindness! Are we looking for 'signs'? Thank
G-d, there are plenty of signs all around us. G-d is practically yelling
at us, "I want to Redeem you, I am just waiting for the chance! Love each
other, respect each other, help each other, pray for each other, and then
the Redemption will come!"
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Artuz-7 News (5/27/01
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 17:58:17 -0400
--------
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, May 27, 2001 / Sivan 5, 5761
http://NewsFromIsrael.com - Arutz Sheva's All-English Newsradio
To Our Readers:
We wish the entire House of Israel a happy and meaningful Shavuot holiday,
in honor of which we will not be sending a news report tomorrow.
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. JERUSALEM HIT BY TWO CAR BOMBS
2. GOVERNMENT TO "SIT TIGHT" FOR NOW
3. REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS
4. TWO MORE "BAD NEWS" STORIES
5. ISRAEL, YUGOSLAVIA, SIGN DEAL
6. ARABS INJURED IN REVERSE TERROR ATTACK
1. JERUSALEM HIT BY TWO CAR BOMBS
As Israel still licks her wounds from the tragic collapse of the Versailles
banquet hall late last week, PLO-associated terrorist groups continue their
war on Israel. One person was killed in Friday's terrorist car bomb attack
in Hadera and sixty were injured. The latest Palestinian offensive hit
late last night and early this morning in Jerusalem in the form of two car
bombs. The first explosive was detonated next to the Russian Compound in
downtown Jerusalem, adjacent to the city's courthouse complex. At the
time
of the blast, dozens of young people were dining inside the string of pubs
and lounges that line the alleyways adjacent to the Russian compound
complex. Miraculously, nobody was physically injured from the blast, but
several people were taken to hospital suffering from shock.
Approximately nine hours later another powerful car bomb exploded in
Jerusalem at the corner of Jaffa and Heshin streets - near Zion Square,
only a hundred meters from the previous blast. An apparent miracle occurred
in this second attack, as well: The explosion caused only light shrapnel
injuries and cuts to seventeen people; the victims, as well as other
passersby, were taken to local hospitals suffering from shock and hysteria.
An eyewitness to the blast, Elkana Perel, was standing a few blocks away
when the second bomb went off: "I suddenly heard an extremely loud
explosion. The blast physically shook me - I still feel the sensation in
my stomach now, several hours after the bombing. The whole of downtown
Jerusalem was filled with smoke and with the smell of a fire. Nails that
were in the car bomb reached the road where I was standing - several
hundred meters away." Jerusalem Resident Chaim Tzur was on his way to
work: "After the explosion, the bus I was on had to change its
route. There was a lot of smoke and a smell of burning. People were
shoving and running. On Ben Yehuda street there was a woman screaming;
she
appeared to be in a state of shock... "
This morning's car-bomb was characterized by a significant new twist: it
included six mortar shells ejected from the car at the time of the
blast. Police bomb experts said that it was a miracle that none of the
shells exploded, and that no people were injured by any one of the six
mortars. One landed on the roof of a building while another landed in
Independence Park, several streets away. Israel Television noted today
that the large number of mortar shells loaded in the vehicle serve as a
reminder that the Palestinians now have mortars in the Jerusalem area as
well as in the Gaza Strip. Police cordoned off much of downtown Jerusalem
and transported the unexploded mortar shells to a safe location outside of
the city.
The Iran and Syria-backed Hizbullah terrorist organization televised live
footage of the attack as the Arab television announcer stressed the
initimate coordination between Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorist
organizations.
2. GOVERNMENT TO "SIT TIGHT" FOR NOW
Voice of Israel Radio today quoted government sources as saying that
Yasser
Arafat has chosen to escalate terrorist activities with the goal of
prompting Israel to strike back fiercely; such a response, Arafat hopes,
would mean the cancellation of the unilateral Israeli cease fire that has
been in place since last Tuesday night. Sources in the Prime Minister's
Office say that Mr. Sharon does not plan to respond harshly at
present. This approach was confirmed by Sharon spokesman Ra'anan
Gissin,
who told BBC news today that the government plans to give Arafat "one more
chance" to honor the cease fire. Some 72 Arab terrorist attacks have been
executed throughout Israel since the cease fire began, ranging from
drive-by shootings, to the firing of mortar shells, to the detonation of
car bombs.
At least two government ministers are opposed to continued restraints.
Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi today called on Prime Minister Sharon to
immediately put a halt to the cease fire. Public Security Minister Uzi
Landau stated that the government should exert non-stop military pressure
against the Palestinian Authority in order to crush the terror. Sharon has
called a security mini-cabinet meeting for this afternoon to formally
discuss Israel's response. Prior to the meeting, he will meet with US
envoy William Burns to discuss the implementation of the Mitchell
Committee
findings.
3. REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS
A special memorial ceremony was held last night at what used to be the
Versailles Banquet hall. The move came after police and IDF Home Front
command officials concluded that no more victims were buried beneath the
wreckage. Officials said that another consideration was that the remains
of the structure had become significantly weakened, potentially endangering
rescue teams. Heads of IDF Home Front Command, government ministers,
and
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert attended the memorial gathering. A common
thread running through their respective speeches was praise for the quick
and professional response of soldiers and Magen David Adom ambulance
teams.
Many heroic civilians reportedly rushed to the scene to help extricate
injured wedding guests from the rubble.
The death toll of the banquet hall collapse stands at 23; some 350 people
were injured. Directors of various Jerusalem hospitals told Army Radio
this morning that several of the victims require a second operation to
rectify mostly orthopedic-related injuries. The ill-fated hall often held
simultaneous weddings on its second floor; a greater tragedy was apparently
averted by the fact that no other wedding was taking place there on
Thursday night.
The depth of the tragedy was accentuated by the deaths of husband and wife
Rafi and Chana Menashe of Jerusalem; they left four orphans. Miri Srur and
her two sons - Moshe and Eli'or - were also killed in the building
collapse. The bodies of Vicki Cohen and Mordechai Butin - a couple that
had a June wedding planned - were also found in the wreckage. Seven of the
victims will be buried today.
Police have extended the custody of seven persons associated with the
design, renovations, and operation of the Versailles banquet hall. During
the renovations, support beams were reportedly removed from the
building. A serious "crackdown" is set to begin on businesses that run
facilities that fall short of accepted building standards. City officials
said last night that all illegal buildings in Jerusalem would be closed,
and that no exceptions would be made.
4. TWO MORE "BAD NEWS" STORIES
Two other unusual tragedies took place in Israel over the last 36
hours: Eleven month-old Lital Telker died today of the massive thermal
insult to her frail body after she was forgotten in a vehicle on Friday for
five hours. The baby was left in the sweltering heat by her caretaker, who
was subsequently arrested by police and then released to house arrest. The
caretaker is expected to face charges of negligent homicide in connection
with the incident.
A second tragedy occurred last night at Yad Eliezer Stadium in
Haifa. Thirty five soccer fans - most of them youngsters - were injured
when, ten minutes before the conclusion of a Maccabi Haifa soccer match,
the crowd rushed toward the playing field in joyous appreciation of the
home team. Police did not open up the gates to the field, and many young
fans were pinned against the fence. Two of the 35 injured are in serious
condition.
The events of the last week have prompted some Jews to call for "intense
religious introspection." Local Haredi radio stations, for instance, ran
special programming on Friday, with hosts calling on listeners to commit
themselves to hosting regular Torah classes in their homes.
5. ISRAEL, YUGOSLAVIA, SIGN DEAL
Israel and Yugoslavia have signed on a commercial airline deal, the first
since 1967. The agreement was signed in Belgrade three days ago between
Transportation minister Ephraim Sneh and his Yugoslav counterpart. The
deal calls for two regular weekly flights between Israel and Belgrade, with
a gradual increase in the number of flights over the months ahead.
6. ARABS INJURED IN REVERSE TERROR ATTACK
Officials of the Shai District have confirmed reports that two Arab
motorists were wounded in a shooting attack near the Arab village of Tuqwa,
near the Jewish community of Tekoa, in Judea. According to the limited
information available, an Israeli opened fire from a passing vehicle at the
Arabs, injuring one of them seriously and the other moderately.
Hebrew News Editor: Haggai Segal
English News Editor: Ron Meir
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] New Rules for Mideast Reporting
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:04:05 -0400
--------
Next time you read about Israel in the newspaper, be sure you know how to
read between the lines.
Every media outlet has its own stylebook, designed to be as fair and
impartial as possible. These days, however, it often seems like the
Palestinian Minister of Information is publishing and distributing his stylebook
to dozens of newspapers and media outlets.
Since September 2000, a new de facto "stylebook" has emerged for
reporters covering the Palestinian violence against Israel. In some cases, the
"new rules for reporting" are based on actual policies promulgated by news
organizations and editors.
Though elements of "pack journalism" are evident, there are probably no
conspiratorial hands behind the emergence of this de facto stylebook. For
the most part, reporters and correspondents have informally, perhaps even
subconsciously, adopted these guidelines.
Invariably, the new rules are biased against Israel.
For now, the bias appears to have had little impact on American public
opinion regarding Israel. In Europe, the stronger, more strident anti-Israel
tone of much of the media may be having a different impact.
Following are eight new "rules" for reporters covering the Middle East, as
distilled from hundreds of articles covering the recent violence:
Rule 1. Sensationalize the intensity and scope of Israeli military actions.
Call the Israeli actions "aggressive," "devastating" or "intensive." [CNN, April
16] Refer to Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory as "deep," even when
they involve only 300 yards. [The New York Times, April 14]
On the other hand, refer to Palestinian mortar attacks as "ineffective" or
"falling harmlessly" even though the intent of the mortar teams is malevolent.
Rule 2. Whitewash Palestinian acts of violence.
No longer label Palestinian bombings and shootings of Jewish civilians as
"terrorism," nor the perpetrators as "terrorists." Label the perpetrators as
"militants" or "activists." [Associated Press, BBC; CNN, The Guardian, et.
al, March 27] Even bombs planted in the middle of Israeli marketplaces are
not classified as "terrorism."
Reporters may make exceptions to the rule when their own " ox is being
gored." For example, in referring to Irish bombers as "terrorists," the BBC's
News Online declares: "It has long been the policy of the domestic service to
refer to terrorists in Northern Ireland... but the policy of the World Service is
not to refer to anyone in those terms." According to BBC Newshour duty
editor Maya Fish, "In BBC World Service reporting the word 'terrorist' is not
used, no matter who plants bombs, kills or murders."
Rule 3. Blame it on the settlements.
Mitigate Palestinian aggression and attacks by labeling Israeli victims as
"settlers" and the locations of the attacks as "settlements" or "occupied
territories." Label the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo and French Hill as
"settlements" and "settler enclaves" -- even though they have been part of
Jerusalem for 30 years and house tens of thousands of middle class Jewish
families. [CNN, Reuters, AP, and others]. When possible, call Israeli towns
within the Green Line, such as Sderot, "settlements," as well. [Guardian,
April 17].
Further, refer to all Jewish victims in the territories as "settlers" -- whether a
14-year-old boy or a 10-month-old baby.
Label Israeli residents in areas of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza as
some new non-civilian entity, as in The New York Times' reference to Israeli
"soldiers, settlers and civilians." [March 10]
Rule 4. Deprecate Israeli leaders; sympathize with Arafat.
Always refer to Ariel Sharon as "hard-line," "war criminal," "vilified by Arabs,"
or "The Bulldozer."
Never refer to Yasser Arafat as "the former terrorist" or bellicose, corrupt, or
despotic. Whenever possible, solicit sympathy by referring to Arafat's old
age or as "Parkinson's-haunted" [The Independent, UK, April 17, 2001]
Rule 5. Blame Israel for all Palestinian casualties.
Blame Israel, whether for "work accidents" in Palestinian bomb factories,
Palestinian demonstrators hit by Palestinian snipers aiming at Israeli
soldiers, or Arabs injured in Israeli crowds during a suicide bomb or bus
bombing.
Arab auto accidents may also be blamed on Israel. In early October 2000,
several stories blamed Israelis for the beating death of Issam Judeh Mustafa
Hamed. On November 2, pathologists brought in by the Palestinian
Authority, concluded that Issam Judeh died in a traffic accident. It is
unknown how many of the Palestinian "martyrs" died of natural causes,
accidents, or intra-Palestinian fighting.
In addition, refer frequently to Palestinian children as traumatized, orphaned,
killed or severely injured by Palestinian bombs and bullets. Make no mention
of Israeli children experiencing the same.
Rule 6. Active and passive verb usage.
Use active verbs to describe Palestinian casualties -- i.e. Palestinians are
"shot dead" or "gunned down" by Israeli soldiers.
On the other hand, use passive verbs to avoid blaming Palestinians for Israeli
casualties. Say that shooting " broke out." The headline reporting 10-month
old Shalhevet Pass shot and killed by a Palestinian sniper read: "Jewish
Toddler Dies in West Bank." [Associated Press, March 26]
When possible, juxtapose two deaths, blaming the Israeli's for one death,
and leaving the Palestinian blame unstated. For example: "During clashes
near the West Bank village of Dura, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot
dead by Israeli troops. One report said the boy had been watching Israeli
soldiers and Palestinian gunman exchange fire when he was hit in the chest.
On Monday, a 10-month-old Israeli baby was killed by gunfire in nearby
Hebron." [BBC, March 27]
Rule 7. Offset an Israeli death by mentioning some unrelated Palestinian
death.
Offset a Palestinian atrocity such as a bus bombing, by reporting on the
tragic Palestinian death of an elderly woman or child, even if the Palestinian
death occurred long before.
In reporting on the shocking discovery of two butchered Israeli teens near
Tekoa, the CNN article entitled "Two Israeli teenagers found dead" carried a
photo underneath the headline of a Palestinian baby shot and buried earlier
in the week. [May 9]
On May 1, CNN reported: "An Israeli was killed and another injured in
shooting attacks on West Bank roads Tuesday. The attacks followed
explosions and clashes in Gaza and the West Bank which claimed seven
Palestinian lives." This was reported even though the fatal explosions in
Gaza were a "work accident' in a Palestinian bomb factory.
Rule 8. Invoke Arabic terms for holy sites.
Use Arabic terms for holy sites, even if the Jewish term is standard reference
in any encyclopedia, university textbook, diplomatic document, or other
acceptable Western source.
Avoid referring to the Temple Mount as "Judaism's holiest site," or "as the
Jewish capital for 3,000 years." References to the Temple Mount should be
qualified as mere claims, e.g.: "which Israel claims to have been the site of
the First and Second Temple." [New York Times]
Preferably refer to the Temple Mount as "Haram al Sharif, the third-holiest
Moslem site," or "the holiest Moslem site in Jerusalem." By contrast, never
refer to Hebron as "Judaism's second-holiest site," nor to the Tomb of Rachel
as "Judaism's third-holiest site."
When necessary, drudge up obscure Arabic terms, such as referring to Jaffa
Gate, the main western entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, as "Bab al-Khalil."
[CNN, January 8, 2001]
Conclusion.
While not a "conspiracy," an anti-Israel press "convention" has emerged, and
clear biases are evident.
What will this stylebook look like in another six months? It all depends on
the outcome of this ongoing battle of the media war.
Excerpted from remarks made before the American Jewish Committee's
Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., May 1, 2001.
Lenny Ben-David served as Israel's "number two" diplomat in Washington
between 1997-2000. Today he is a consultant on government and business
affairs for corporations and organizations, including HonestReporting.com.
http://aish.com/jewishissues/mediaobjectivity/-New_Rules-
_For_Mideast_Reporting.asp
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Alien nation
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:16:00 -0400
--------
alien nation
Claude Vorilhon is not a scientist.Yet he is at the forefront of the
race to clone humans. He is also known as Raël, head of the Raëlian
religious movement, which teaches that we are all already clones of an
alien species. Worried? You should be says Will Peakin
LIKE fluff stuck to a half-sucked boiled sweet, the eccentric fringe
of society are known for their stubborn attachment to important
medical phenomena, offering their own particular spin on major
diseases or cures. They have their own pet causes outwith the
mainstream of science, of course, such as the practice of drilling a
small hole in the head, which apparently releases youthful energy, or
placing a lighted candle in the ear - don´t ask - but it is rare that
they find themselves at the centre of something truly significant.
An exception is the Raëlians - and cloning humans. It is possible that
this feat will be accomplished by a band of 55,000 adherents to the
belief that we began life on earth after aliens from outer space (in
fact, beings much like ourselves) arrived one day, built a "big"
laboratory and cloned themselves before saying "adios", "duba-duba" or
whatever the Raëlian is for goodbye.
They, or rather the company Clonaid, which is, they say, separate from
the Raëlian religious movement, have the technology, they have the
scientists, they have the surrogate mothers necessary to carry the
clones to full term and they have their laboratory (The fact that the
American Food and Drug Administration keeps visiting the lab to check
what´s going on there is evidence that these people are not
necessarily to be dismissed as crackpots.) And they have their leader
in Claude Vorilhon, aka Raël, a Frenchman, a former racing car
journalist, a driver himself, a big fan of Jackie Stewart and
a man who, honestly, doesn´t seem to be the kind of chap to be found
handing round the Kool-Aid when things get rough.
For the past 25 years, the Raëlians have raised $7million toward the
construction of an "embassy" where alien visitors could be welcomed to
earth in style. Inside is a museum devoted to extraterrestrial
phenomena and genetics. The main exhibit room contains a life-size
replica of the flying saucer Raël boarded back in 1973 during his own
meeting with the aliens. It is made of plywood, spray-painted silver,
and is empty except for a couple of inflatable plastic chairs. A
whooshing propane torch is set up beside it to suggest the sound of a
landing spaceship.
Nearby, a 26-foot-high model of a double-helix spins slowly,
illuminated by a spotlight. There are pictures of little green men,
models of cells and explanations of the Human Genome Project and
animal cloning. According to Charles Cameron, a researcher with the
Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, Raël has "done an
extremely good job of placing himself astride a powerful tide of hope
and fear", tapping into the longings of people who want to find
emotional and religious meaning in science and biotechnology.
"Twenty-seven years ago I had a close encounter with a very advanced
civilisation from outer space and that changed my life," says Raël,
from his base just outside Montreal, where he moved from France 10
years ago (although he winters in Miami because Montreal can get a bit
chilly). "They asked me to give up my job, to go around the world to
explain their message. Which was that these people came from another
planet a long time ago when on their own planet they had reached
almost the same level as we are today, which means starting to create
life in laboratories, starting cloning, starting to travel in space
and starting computer science.
"I was in Clermont-Ferrand and I was telepathically guided to a
volcano about 10km outside the city, and in this volcano I saw very
strong flashing lights in the sky and something shaped like the common
UFO, like a flattened bell made of very shiny silver metal.
"It stopped at about 30 metres from me and this small human being came
out and his name was Elohim. In the Hebrew Bible you have the word
Elohim which is wrongly translated as God. No, it means ‘Those who
came from the sky´." In a book that he sent to a publisher in Paris
(who happened to have the host of France´s most popular talk show in
the office at the time, and one thing led to another), Raël provided
tantalising detail of the other beings.
The four-foot alien who first greeted him had white skin with a slight
greenish tinge, "like he had liver trouble". Raël then described
visits to their spaceship in which he enjoyed the sensual attentions
of four "voluptuous and bewitching" female robots.
Raël says that the Bible is, in fact, a Godless book which actually
describes the creation of life on earth by this advanced civilisation.
They came here, built their "big" laboratory and created all life on
earth, including ourselves in their image, "like the Bible says".
This is perhaps not the kind of thing that the Church of Scotland
likes to hear, especially in the week that the General Assembly
debated a report from its board of social responsibility that said
human clones were inevitable and will have souls like anyone else
"made in the image of God". Clones, said the report, should be
accorded full equality as human beings rather than being treated as
"monsters, abominations or slaves".
Its author, the Rev Dr Richard Corbett, said last month: "We are
having to address developments that once we dismissed as pure science
fiction. While there are serious problems with cloning, sufficient
numbers of people are interested, with enough resources and scientific
expertise, to suggest it will happen at some point." Some point very
soon, it would appear; Raël says that Clonaid´s work is progressing
well and that they are ahead of other groups who have also declared
their intention to clone a human. What appears to separate Clonaid
from other efforts is that they also have their first paying customer.
Last year, a 10-month-old American boy died in hospital after a
routine operation went wrong. The parents, both healthy and in their
30s, had two other children and probably could have had another. But
they did not want another, they wanted the child they had known for
just such a short time.
"The father is perfectly aware that the first baby must be a success
and he wants it for the love he had for the child and for the success
of the company," says Raël. "He is an exceptionally wonderful man.
Many people think it´s a selfish action... they miss the child or they
should adopt. No. It´s pure love. What he said was: ‘I want to give
this genetic code a second chance,´ and I think that´s beautiful."
The couple were already well-off, but they received a settlement from
the hospital and have invested that in Clonaid. "When you look at what
would be critically required to clone a human being, surrogates and a
large number of eggs are key ingredients, and the Raëlians have
those," Gregory Stock, the director of the Program on Medicine,
Technology and Society at UCLA´s School of Medicine, told the New York
Times earlier this year. "They certainly have what´s necessary to make
a solid attempt."
DESPITE the declared opposition of several governments to cloning,
except for therapeutic reasons, there are several other teams who
appear close to producing a fully-fledged human clone. Earlier this
year it emerged that Australian scientists had in 1999 implanted a
cell containing human DNA in an empty pig´s egg; it survived for 32
days before being terminated. At the same time, Severino Antinori, a
controversial Italian doctor who runs a string of fertility clinics
(he gained notoriety seven years ago by helping post-menopausal
grandmothers to give birth using donor eggs), said that he and
colleagues in America and Israel have been approached by several
hundred couples wanting to take part in their cloning experiments.
There are many practical and philosophical arguments that stand in
their way, however. Conventional fertilisation, in which sperm meets
egg, is a complex event that brings together two half-sets of genetic
material - one from each parent - to provide the resulting individual
with a full complement of chromosomes. Cloning bypasses this by
putting the genetic material from a pre-existing adult cell (which
already carries a full complement of chromosomes) into an egg that has
had its half-set of chromosomes removed. If all goes well, the egg
will then develop into a normal, healthy individual.
But experts warn of what lies ahead if any of these teams tries to
clone a person. They say that almost all of the first 100 clones will
abort spontaneously because of genetic or physical abnormalities,
putting the health of the surrogate mothers at risk. Of the handful
that last to full-term, most will have enlarged placentas and fatty
livers. Finally, the three or four that survive birth will be
exceptionally large, perhaps twice the weight of a normal baby, and
will probably die in the first fortnight because of malformations in
the major organs. If one survives, it will possess the characteristic
of most animal clones: a large navel, the result of an oversized
umbilical cord that, for some so
far unexplained reason, develops during most clone pregnancies.
And then there are the less tangible arguments, about identity and
inevitability. Would the production of a genetically identical son or
daughter really wipe out the loss of the first? And would eternal life
through cloning (which is the ultimate aim of the Raëlians, for
example) not replace the sting of death with an opposing and perhaps
more troubling fact - that there truly is no end in sight?
Mark Westhusin is an enthusiastic advocate of cloning, but said he had
never met a human being worth cloning. For the past few years he has
spent several million dollars on trying to clone a 13-year-old dog
called Missy, belonging to a US billionaire. His team have not
succeeded yet, but have cloned two calves and expect to clone a cat
soon. It is Westhusin´s experience with cloning animals that has left
him unimpressed by the race to clone a human. In the ‘Missyplicity´
project alone, they have gone through several hundred canine eggs but
managed to produce only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy´s DNA.
None has survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of
eggs and the many spontaneously aborted foetuses may be acceptable
when you´re dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with
humans. "Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous," he
told Time magazine in February. "Why would you ever want to clone
humans, when we´re not even close to getting it worked out in animals
yet?"
Indeed, the idea of cloning humans using the same techniques that are
used in animals was recently described as "dangerous and
irresponsible" by the scientists who created Dolly the sheep, the
world´s first cloned animal. In an article in the journal Science last
month, Rudolf Jaenisch and Ian Wilmut said procedures that have been
used in cloning animals yield a very low percentage of viable embryos,
and many of these die soon after birth.
Any human baby who survived could experience respiratory, circulatory,
immune, kidney and brain abnormalities, and evidence is beginning to
suggest other developmental and genetic defects, they said. Jaenisch
and Wilmut added that public reaction to a failed human cloning
attempt could undermine meritorious research in therapeutic cell
cloning to treat ailments such as Alzheimer´s disease.
Jaenisch, a professor of biology at the Whitehead Institute at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wilmut, of the Roslin
Institute, said there were many social and ethical reasons why they
would never support the idea of copying a person. But their immediate
concern was that the current human cloning proposal failed to take
into account problems encountered in cloning animals. They said cloned
human embryos that do not die early might live to become abnormal
children and adults. "Both are troubling outcomes," they pointed out.
Public revulsion over human cloning failures could hinder research
into embryonic stem cells for the repair of human organs and tissues,
according to Jaenisch and Wilmut. Research is being conducted into
programming these cells to turn into specific tissue types that could
be used to regenerate nerve cells and those in the heart, benefiting
patients with Alzheimer´s, Parkinson´s and heart disease.
Some even see this argument as still leaving the door wide open to
human cloning. The UK government made a great show last month of being
the first country to ban human cloning; in fact, all that Health
Secretary Alan Milburn effectively did was codify the practice,
prohibiting its use for reproductive purposes but encouraging
laboratories to perfect the actual process for "therapeutic" reasons.
Four days later, the head of Britain´s embryology authority quietly
announced that scientists who had gone abroad to do embryo research
that is illegal in Britain could return to "continuing acclaim".
In America, legislative efforts to ban cloning for reproductive
purposes have faltered; only four states (California, Rhode Island,
Louisiana and Michigan) have passed laws against it and a federal
moratorium merely precludes government money from going to it. Raël
would actually prefer a law to be passed, so that "ordinary people"
could take the issue to the Supreme Court and receive a definitive
ruling on the future of cloning.
Pro-cloning scientists, such as Antinori, tend to avoid rational
argument when faced with reasons not to achieve something new and he
has gone on record to say, to some popular effect, that when the first
baby is born and cries, the world will embrace it.
"You know, cloning a baby is just the first step," insists Raël.
"Cloning now will be like making a baby - it´s a different person
because it can have a different upbringing to the person it was cloned
from. Step two is much more interesting. That is when we will be able
to do what the Elohim call the accelerated growth process - taking a
cell and instead of making a baby you will have a direct copy of
yourself, you will be between 15 and 17. You will be like a piece of
hardware or a blank tape.
"And step three, which is already being studied, is where you are able
to download your memory, your personality, everything that makes you
who you are, onto a computer hard disk. Only, instead of remaining on
the computer, it is transferred into this new body before you die.
Then you wake up after death in a brand new body just like after a
good night´s sleep. That is the key to eternal life and that is our
goal."
Raël does not know exactly when this science-fiction vision might be
achieved. He says we are living in exciting times, when as much
progress can be made in 20 years as has been achieved in the history
of civilisation. Computers will one day be powerful enough to make
this kind of leap in a minute.
Meanwhile, Raël happily surfs the internet for up to 10 hours a day
(this, inevitably, is where he and the American couple seeking to
replace their lost baby met), travels the world meeting members of his
movement and occasionally indulges in his passion for motor racing; he
was at the Italian Grand Prix circuit in Monza recently, hurling a
Lamborghini Diablo around the track.
He and his first wife divorced after he met the aliens. They remain on
good terms, he says, and have two grown-up children. His son is a
supporter of the movement, but he has less contact with his daughter.
Raël now lives with Sophie, several years younger than his 54;
photographs of her in the nude adorn the walls of his pristine white
office at UFOland, the Raëlians´ headquarters situated in farmland
outside Montreal.
His is a good spokesman for the project, but the actual job of cloning
is in the hands of Brigitte Boisselier, a French chemist, and a bishop
in the Raëlian movement. "Who, today, would be scandalised to the idea
of bringing back to life a 10-month-old child who died accidentally?"
asks Raël. "The technology allows it, the parents desire it, and I
don´t see any ethical problems." Boisselier´s 22-year-old daughter
Marina is one of the women providing eggs and surrogacy. "They are
working, they have a laboratory, they have four scientists working in
it. And they are trying to do it," says Raël. "Six months ago there
was nothing. And every day they are more advanced. Nobody in the team
wants to create monsters or Frankenstein, this kind of thing. I said
to Brigitte, ‘Do it but do it perfectly or do nothing,´ and so they
will of course prepare it in order to have a perfectly healthy baby.
"It´s very important both ethically and for the future of the company
because there is a waiting list of more than 1,000 people - if the
first baby is a monster, nobody will want to be a customer of this
company."
Clonaid also offers a service called ‘Insuraclone´ which, for a
$50,000 fee, will provide "the sampling and safe storage of cells from
a living child or from a beloved person in order to create a clone if
the child dies of an incurable disease or through an accident". In the
case of a genetic disease, says the company, the cells will be
preserved until science can genetically repair them before recreating
the child (or adult).
Raël believes that opposition to these services is driven by
"conservative people and the Catholic Church". He says he was prompted
to launch Clonaid when he heard on the radio that the Pope was opposed
to cloning. "Everything the Catholic church is against, we are for.
Divorce, gay rights, contraception. In history, people have always
been afraid of the new. It was the same with IVF," he says, "but look
now. At the beginning with IVF the success rate was only five per
cent, so it´s almost the same in cloning. And just look at the
hundreds of thousands of IVF babies in the world."
But what if Raël is mistaken about God and the Bible? What if it is
not man alone who is controlling this development - that despite our
fears of ‘playing God´, we are in fact still being guided by some
higher force; who is right then? n
The first paying customer is a man who wants to clone his dead son.
Claude Vorilhon: "What he said was: ‘I want to give this genetic code
a second chance,´ and I think that´s beautiful"
Scientific opponents believe that current human cloning proposals fail
to take into account the problems encountered in cloning animals. The
few cloned human embryos that do not die early may live to become
abnormal children or adults
repro man
Raëlian founder Raël, real name Claude Vorilhon, at the cult´s UFOLand
headquarters in Montreal, Canada
brought to book
Clockwise from top: Pro-cloning scientist Severino Antinori believes
the world will embrace the first cloned baby; Raël´s book lays out his
theory that the first humans were clones; Ian Wilmut of the Roslin
Institute calls human cloning "dangerous and irresponsible"; Raël
defends his views; Brigitte Boisselier is the scientist behind Clonaid
cloning around
A European youth alliance protests against human cloning and embryo
research in Nice last year
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=75103&keyword=the
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Panama asks for international help to deal with radiation accident
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:21:00 -0400
--------
5/27/01
Panama asks for international help to deal with radiation accident
The government of Panama has called for international assistance to help
deal with a radiation accident linked to the deaths of six people, and the
serious illness of 22-others.
Latin America correspondent Neil Wiese reports.
Panama says excess radiation was detected between last August and
December in the National Oncology Institute. But, alarm bells did not ring
until the recent deaths and rapid deterioration of many patients. The Atomic
Energy Commission's assembling a team of scientific and medical experts
from France, Japan and the United States to join its own officials to assist
Panama. They will assess whether faulty equipment or overdosage caused
the radiation excess. The Atomic Energy Commission, describing the
Panamaian emergency as a grave incident, says its mission will evaluate the
surviving cancer patients, carry out autopsies on the victims and secure all
radiation sources to make them safe.
(17:20:48 AEST)
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s303050.htm
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Israel tells Syria it will take harsh line on terrorism
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:26:09 -0400
--------
May 27, 2001
Israel tells Syria it will take harsh line on terrorism
By Philip Jacobson
Middle East Factfile
ARIEL SHARON, the Israeli prime minister, has warned Syria to expect a
devastating response if Hizbollah guerrillas mount an attack against Israel.
Security officials in Jerusalem told The Telegraph that the message was
relayed to Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, through American and
Russian diplomatic channels ahead of this weekend's first anniversary of the
Israeli army's withdrawal from Lebanon.
They said the Syrian-backed Shi-ite terrorist group had received the "green
light" to resume military actions and that their intelligence reports indicated
that a large operation was imminent. In that event, "very harsh military
action" would be taken against Syrian targets as well as against the
guerrillas.
Hizbollah's armoury is believed to include rockets with a longer range than
the batteries of Katyushas shown to journalists in southern Lebanon last
week. A guerrilla commander in new battle dress and steel helmet said all
the urban centres in "Northern Palestine" were "sitting ducks". There are
fears that Haifa, Israel's third largest city, will become a target. Bomb
shelters in Metula and other towns in "Katyusha Alley" were also being
prepared.
Although the fighting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been Israel's
main preoccupation for months, army officers believe the northern border
remains the most likely flashpoint for a wider Israel-Arab conflict. Hizbollah's
yellow flags flutter almost within touching distance of Israeli positions and
clashes along the barbed wire frontier are becoming more frequent.
Israeli farmers close to the frontier have been warned that the guerrillas are
monitoring all movements possibly to aid raiding parties in search of
hostages. At the centre of the confrontation is an Israeli-occupied area
known as the Shabaa Farms, a contested zone dotted with signs warning
"Danger of Death! Minefields!".
It was here last month that Hizbollah rocketed an Israeli patrol, killing one
soldier: Israel responded with bombing raids on Syrian army positions at a
radar station near Beirut in which three soldiers died. One Israeli official said:
"That was a wake-up call for Bashar to keep the guerrillas under control. We
want to let him know that there's plenty more to come if he still won't pay
attention."
Hizbollah shows no sign of being cowed. Last month an Israeli army outpost
on the border was attacked with a barrage of Sagger anti-tank missiles, an
indication of the enhanced firepower Syria and Iran are making available.
Israeli intelligence officers say that the guerrillas are smuggling sophisticated
weaponry to Palestinian fighters.
One boatload intercepted by the Israeli navy contained Katyushas, rocket-
propelled grenades and vast quantities of small arms and ammunition. The
shipment also included portable Sam 7 anti-aircraft missiles, a shoulder-
launched weapon ideal for use against the low-flying helicopter gunships that
Israel has been deploying in confrontations with the Palestinians.
One Israeli officer who fought there said: "Hizbollah's ties with Hamas and
the Islamic Jihad organisations began almost immediately we pulled out of
South Lebanon. They taught them about laying mines for roadside
ambushes, the effectiveness of suicide bombers and how to detonate car
bombs with a mobile phone signal."
Although Israelis overwhelmingly supported the withdrawal from Lebanon,
there is a growing belief that it has been the single most important factor
sustaining the Palestinian uprising. One former Israeli general recalled that in
a conversation with the then prime minister, Ehud Barak, he had predicted:
"You're not taking the army out of Lebanon, you're bringing Lebanon into
Israel's territory."
Hizbollah's victory, he argued, convinced the Palestinians that Israel's will
would buckle if the cost became too great. Meanwhile, the unilateral
ceasefire declared by Mr Sharon last Tuesday is looking increasingly fragile.
On Friday, he again urged Yassar Arafat to commit Palestinian forces to a
matching ceasefire, but he warned that while Israel's "policy of restraint" still
held, it would defend its citizens from attack.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, denounced Israel's ceasefire
as "a public relations stunt". The fighting is creeping ever closer to the centre
of Jerusalem from the "front line" between Gilo and Beit Jalla. Equally
worrying has been the discovery of a clandestine arms factory in the Gaza
Strip.
According to the Shin Beth security service, the police chief of the
Palestinian Authority, General Ghazi Jabali, was behind the production line
turning out heavy mortar shells and grenades. A senior member of the
Palestinian security authority, Mohamad Dahlan, denied any connection
between the factories and Yasser Arafat's inner circle.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000163167039689&rtmo=Vr3g8wgK&atmo
=99999999&pg =/et/01/5/27/wmid27.html
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] U.S. Funding Nuclear Plant in China
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:35:03 -0400
--------
As Americans Await Blackouts, Export-Import Bank Finances Nuclear
Power for PRC
U.S. Funding Nuclear Plant in China
By Timothy P. Carney
The week of May 21, 2001
The United States may be facing a national energy crisis—one that will be
punctuated by blackouts in California and probably many other states this
summer—but across the Pacific Ocean in Shanghai, the Jiangnan Shipyards
will be running at full power building warships for the Communist Chinese
regime, thanks to funding provided by the U.S. government.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States has provided funding to help two
U.S. corporations—Westinghouse Electric and Bechtel Power—to help the
People´s Republic of China (PRC) build the Qinshan nuclear power plant near
Shanghai.
Thanks to inaction by the Republican-controlled Congress, and a statutory
notice of approval signed by President Bill Clinton, the same American
families that are now paying sky-high energy prices in the United States are
also loaning money at low interest rates to the regime in Beijing to build this
nuclear plant.
Two New Reactors
The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that receives an annual appropriation
from Congress. Originally founded in 1934, it was rechartered in 1945, with
the purpose of facilitating U.S. exports by providing loans or loan guarantees
to U.S sellers or lenders, or to foreign buyers or banks. Despite its name,
the Export-Import Bank no longer deals with imports.
Last year, Congress provided it with $863 million in tax dollars.
Although the bank´s board of directors has broad discretion over how to use
the tax dollars it is given, it must follow some legal guidelines. For example,
it cannot finance loans to "Marxist-Leninist" countries, including the People´s
Republic of China, unless the President determines such a loan to be "in the
national interest."
Also, it must notify Congress of all loans or loan guarantees over $100
million, or of any action it takes that would help the construction or operation
of nuclear power facilities, but congressional approval is not required. The
bank´s board of directors serves at the pleasure of the President, with the
advice and consent of the Senate.
The Ex-Im Bank, together with Westinghouse and Bechtel, has cooperated
with the Chinese National Nuclear Corp. and the State Development
Bank—both arms of the PRC government—to help build the nuclear power
plant at Qinshan.
On March 21, 1995, Nucleonics Week reported that Westinghouse Electric
Corp. had announced that it would "provide steam generators, reactor
coolant pumps, and related motors" for two new reactors at Qinshan.
Qinshan, which is 75 miles south of Shanghai, was already home to one
nuclear reactor that had been built in the late 1980s, also with help from
Westinghouse.
According to the minutes of a July 9, 1996, Export-Import Bank board
meeting, the directors approved a direct loan of $36,347,390 to China´s State
Development Bank (which serves as the treasury of the PRC) to help the
Chinese buy "steam turbines and auxiliaries" from Westinghouse for the
second phase of Qinshan.
Before the loan could be made final, the law required President Clinton to
declare that it was in the national interest. He did so in a letter to the
secretary of state [pdf] dated June 29, 1996. The letter actually specified an
even larger loan. It read: "I determine that it is in the national interest for the
Export-Import Bank of the United States to extend a loan in the amount of
approximately $120 million to the People´s Republic of China in connection
with the purchase of (1) non-nuclear island balance of plant equipment and
services and (2) Westinghouse engineering services to the nuclear island."
The notification of this loan that the Export-Import Bank was required to send
to Congress was transmitted in the form of a letter to then-House Speaker
Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) and then-Vice President Al Gore in his constitutional
role as president of the Senate. Gingrich and Gore forwarded the messages
to the banking committees in their respective chambers.
Ex-Im officials told Human Events that Congress rarely acts on such letters,
and there is no evidence of any congressional action in this case.
The same process was followed for a second loan of $323 million that was
approved by the Export-Import Bank board of directors on Jan. 14, 1997. This
loan financed Bechtel´s sale of non-nuclear plant components to the China
National Nuclear Corp. Days after winning reelection, Clinton declared [pdf]
this loan also to be in "the national interest." It was used for the third phase
of the Qinshan plant.
China was required to pay back the Bechtel loan in 30 semi-annual
payments beginning no later than April 15, 2004—more than seven years
after the loan was approved, and after Bechtel expects to be done with the
work, according to information posted on the company´s website. The
interest rate on the loan, set by a formula called the Commercial Interest
Reference Rates, was 7.49%. At that time, the prime rate in the United
States was 8.25%.
The Chinese Communists thus received financing for a nuclear plant from the
U.S. government at a cheaper rate than most American businessmen could
get financing from a domestic bank. The rate was even below the 7.8% then
being paid by Americans for a home mortgage.
The cash from both Export-Import Bank loans was deposited in the PRC´s
State Development Bank, which handed the money over to the state-owned
CNNP in the case of Qinshan III, and to the China Nuclear Energy Industry
Corp. for Qinshan II.
In approving the Bechtel loan, Clinton disregarded an August 1995
"discovery" issued by his own administration revealing that the CNNP had
recently sold ring magnets to Pakistan. Ring magnets are a component
needed for enriching uranium so that it can be used in nuclear warheads.
Pakistan is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and in
1998 tested a nuclear weapon for the first time in an underground explosion.
Nuclear News reported in September 1993, that the CNNP built a nuclear
power plant for Pakistan using knowledge it had gained from Qinshan I (a
project that involved Westinghouse).
Building the later phases of Qinshan—with financing from U.S.
taxpayers—helped the PRC develop its nuclear-reactor-building expertise.
Xinhua, the Chinese government´s official news agency, reported earlier this
year that "through the development of . . . Qinshan Phase 3 [and other
plants] the corporation has basically mastered the advanced modern
methodology for the management of nuclear power development projects."
As the law stands, it takes only the President´s signature plus the votes of
three out of the five board members of the Export-Import Bank to approve a
loan to China. At the time of the Bechtel and Westinghouse-related loans,
there were two vacancies on the board, and the three remaining members
voted unanimously to send the money to China.
The three were Board Chairman Martin A. Kamarck and members Maria
Haley and Julie Belaga. Kamarck is the husband of former Gore aide Elaine
Kamarck.
On Feb. 14, 1997, a month after she voted to approve the Bechtel-related
loan, the New York Times reported that "Ms. Haley´s first job in Washington
was in the White House personnel office, where she helped John Huang, the
Riady family´s senior American executive, get a job at the Commerce
Department." Huang, Human Events readers will recall, helped funnel tens of
thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions to President Clinton and
the Democrats.
Julie Belaga was a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection
Agency and an executive in a public relations firm. She was recommended
for the Ex-Im job by Sen. Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.).
Bechtel is also working on the Daya Bay Nuclear Plant in China. The
Bechtel corporation and Bechtel family have given hundreds of thousands of
dollars to Republicans and Democrats alike over the last eight years, Federal
Election Commission (FEC) records show.
Between corporate gifts and personal gifts from CEO Riley Bechtel and
brother Stephen, the Bechtel company has given well over $1 million in
federal political contributions since 1992. The contributions have been almost
evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
In an e-mail response to a Human Events inquiry, Nar Goel of Bechtel
described the company´s role in the Qinshan II and III projects. "Bechtel is
responsible for design and engineering of the major [non-nuclear] structures
such as the turbine buildings, intake structure/pumphouse, water treatment
plant, standby diesel generators buildings, auxiliary boiler building and outfall
structure," he wrote. "Bechtel is also responsible for the procurement of the
equipment and materials for the BOP systems in these buildings. . . .
Bechtel is also providing some engineering design and equipment/materials
for the plant switchyard which is shared with Qinshan II unit."
Goel was forwarded the inquiry by Frank Lopez, who included this warning to
Goel: "Please note that this request came to us via the external website, so
any information provided should consider that it leaves our control . . . that is,
responses should be factual, but not overly specific. Thanks."
Westinghouse, like Bechtel has been very generous to both parties. Since
1992, FEC reports show over $375,000 in contributions to the GOP, and
$208,250 to Democrats. Most of the money to Democrats comes from
Westinghouse´s Government Services division.
According to Jane´s Defence Weekly, Jiangnan Shipyards, which sit on the
power grid fed by Qinshan, is one of the "most important naval shipbuilders"
in China for "surface warships."
© Human Events, 2001
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/articles/05-21-01/carney.html
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Subject: [bprlist] 'Erotic' pictures to bring Bible back into fashion
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:38:58 -0400
--------
'Erotic' pictures to bring Bible back into fashion
By Jessica Berry
A GLOSSY magazine-style version of the Old Testament, featuring leading
models pictured by the world's leading fashion photographers, will be
unveiled later this year.
Claudia Schiffer and Markus Schenkenberg are the models expected to
portray Eve and Adam in a project designed to attract young people who
rarely read the bible.
Gustaf-Wilhelm Hellstedt, one of four Swedish entrepreneurs behind the idea,
said: "Forget those old sketches in the Bible. Instead of a boring drawing of
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we may well have a couple walking
down a New York street, kissing."
Who is to be pictured in the new Illuminated Bible, which will retain the
traditional King James text, is being kept under wraps by the group, which
trades under the name Fishtank. It has revealed, however, that its list of
fashion photographers rivals that of Vogue.
Among those signed up is Paolo Roversi, who has often photographed Miss
Schiffer and Madonna. The venture has been greeted with shock in some
quarters. David Phillips, the general secretary of the Church Society which
promotes Christianity with the Church of England said: "It sounds like a
gimmick that is entirely unnecessary."
David Phillips said: "The power of God's salvation is in the gospel, not the
images. The real concern is to make known what the Bible teaches, not to
make it attractive." The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turnbull,
cautiously welcomed the idea. Rt Rev Turnbull said: "Anything that enlivens
people's interest in what a good read the Bible is, is good. But it needs doing
with taste."
Michel Gyring, another member of Fishtank, said that the group had realised
last year that most editions of the Old Testament had changed little since
1454 when the first Gutenberg Bible was printed. Mr Gyring said: "We had
the idea to contemporise the Bible and make it accessible to 15- to 30-year
olds."
Mr Hellstedt said: "Most of the models, who will earn up to £10,000 a day,
will have their clothes on, but there will be some nudity because the Bible is
very sensual and we are going to exploit that. We want to take the Bible off
the dusty back shelf and put it on coffee tables.
The venture has elicited the interest of Virgin Publishing, although it has yet
to sign a contract. Mr Hellstedt said: "We are negotiating with Virgin. We
have had an offer from a Finnish publisher for about £300,000, but we are
holding out for Virgin."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004530719660175&rtmo=a5K6B4dJ&atmo
=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/5/27/wbib27.html
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Subject: [bprlist] Worldwide spying network is revealed
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:44:54 -0400
--------
Worldwide spying network is revealed
MEPs confirm eavesdropping by Echelon electronic network
Stuart Millar, Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Black
Saturday May 26, 2001
The Guardian
For years it has been the subject of bitter controversy, its existence
repeatedly claimed but never officially acknowledged.
At last, the leaked draft of a report to be published next week by the
European parliament removes any lingering doubt: Echelon, a shadowy, US-
led worldwide electronic spying network, is a reality.
Echelon is part of an Anglo-Saxon club set up by secret treaty in 1947,
whereby the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, divided the world
between them to share the product of global eavesdropping. Agencies from
the five countries exchange intercepts using supercomputers to identify key
words.
The intercepts are picked up by ground stations, including the US base at
Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, and GCHQ's listening post at Morwenstow in
Cornwall.
In the cold war, eavesdropping - signals intelligence, or Sigint as it is known
in the trade - was aimed at military and diplomatic communications. Helped
by increasingly sophisticated computers, it has now switched to industrial,
commercial targets - and private individuals.
Echelon computers can store millions of records on individuals, intercepting
faxes, phone calls, and emails.
The MEP's report - which faced opposition from the British and American
governments and their respective security services - was prompted by claims
that the US was using Echelon to spy on European companies on behalf of
American firms.
France, deeply suspicious of Britain's uniquely close intelligence links with
the US, seized on reports that Echelon cost Airbus Industrie an £8bn
contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994, after the US intercepted communications
between Riyadh and the Toulouse headquarters of Airbus - in which British
firms hold a 20% stake.
The MEPs admitted they had been unable to find conclusive proof of
industrial espionage. The claim has been dismissed by all the Echelon
governments and in a new book by an intelligence expert, James Bamford.
More disturbing, as Mr Bamford and the MEPs pointed out, was the threat
Echelon posed to privacy. "The real issue is whether Echelon is doing away
with individual privacy - a basic human right," he said. The MEPs looked at
statements from former members of the intelligence services, who provided
compelling evidence of Echelon's existence, and the potential scope of its
activities.
One former member of the Canadian intelligence service, the CSE, claimed
that every day millions of emails, faxes and phone conversations were
intercepted. The name and phone number of one woman, he said, was added
to the CSE's list of potential terrorists after she used an ambiguous word in
an innocent call to a friend.
"Disembodied snippets of conversations are snatched from the ether,
perhaps out of context, and may be misinterpreted by an analyst who then
secretly transmits them to spy agencies and law enforcement offices around
the world," Mr Bamford said.
The "misleading information", he said, "is then placed in NSA's near-
bottomless computer storage system, a system capable of storing 5 trillion
pages of text, a stack of paper 150 miles high".
Unlike information on US citizens, which officially cannot be kept longer than
a year, information on foreigners can he held "eternally", he said.
The MEP's draft report concludes the system cannot be as extensive as
reports have assumed. It is limited by being based on worldwide interception
of satellite communications, which account for a small part of
communications.
Eavesdropping on other messages requires either tapping cables or
intercepting radio signals, but the states involved in Echelon, the draft report
found, had access to a limited proportion of radio and cable communications.
But independent privacy groups claimed Britain, the US and their Echelon
partners, were developing eavesdropping systems to cope with the explosion
in communications on email and internet.
In Britain, the government last year brought in the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act, which allowed authorities to monitor email and internet traffic
through "black boxes" placed inside service providers' systems. It gave
police authority to order companies or individuals using encryption to protect
their communications, to hand over the encryption keys. Failure to do so
was punishable by a sentence of up to two years.
The act has been condemned by civil liberties campaigners, but there are
signs the authorities are keen to secure more far reaching powers to monitor
internet traffic.
Last week, the London-based group, Statewatch, published leaked
documents saying the EU's 15 member states were lobbying the European
commission to require that service providers kept all phone, fax, email and
internet data in case they were needed in criminal investigations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,496820,00.html
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Computers Found To Be Source Of Patient Room Contamination
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 19:00:34 -0400
--------
By Karla Gale
5-23-1
Note - An earlier study found that the *pens* used to write on patient charts
and used at nursing stations are prime vehicles of spreading potentially lethal
hospital infections. Strangely, the following study fails to mention the
computer keyboard as an infection vector. -ed
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Efforts to control the spread of infection in
hospitals should include routine cleaning of computer central processing
units, researchers reported at the American Society for Microbiology's
annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. ``Computers were recently installed into
patient rooms to streamline procedures for physicians and nursing staff,'' Dr.
Gregory Forstall of Mclaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, told
Reuters Health. At about that same time, Forstall and his colleagues
diagnosed a patient with Aspergillus fumigatus infection, ``one we don't
normally see at our hospital,'' he said. A. fumigatus is a type of fungus. ``We
saw that the computers had a vent with a cooling fan, and there was almost
an exhaust coming from the fan, so when we took samples from the grid and
from the room, we found that there was growth of several types of yeast and
some filamentous mold,'' Forstall said. Cultures were obtained from dust on
the central processing units (CPUs), and plates were exposed to room air
approximately 6 feet from the computers. From the CPUs, Forstall's group
identified several potentially infectious fungal organisms including Candida,
Aspergillus niger, Phaeoannellomyces, Rhodotorula and Rhizopus. ``There is
a risk of contamination of computer units,'' Forstall concluded, ``and
measures probably need to be taken to maintain their cleanliness, especially
around the grid that protects the cooling fan.''
http://sightings.com/general10/computersfound.htm
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Subject: [bprlist] Zenit items (5/27/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 19:32:16 -0400
--------
ZAMBIAN ARCHBISHOP MARRIES IN "MOON" WEDDING
Held No Posts in Catholic Church for Some Time
VATICAN CITY, MAY 27, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican reacted cautiously
to the news that Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was marrying in a
group wedding conducted by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
Archbishop Milingo, 70, married Sung Ryae (Anna) Soon, a 43-year-old
Korean physician, today at the New York Hilton. Moon assigned him the
bride last week.
The newlyweds plan to move to Africa, according to a Moon spokesman, the
Reverend Phillip Schanker.
Earlier, in Rome, Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls wrote: "There is
no direct information from the archbishop."
Navarro-Valls clarified that "for some time, Archbishop Milingo has not held
direct posts in organizations of the Roman Curia." The Zambian left Rome a
week ago and, since then has had no contact with the Curia.
Milingo was named archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, when he was 39. In 1983
he was called to Rome to answer accusations of improper use of the powers
of exorcism. He was transferred to the Vatican as a functionary in the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.
Archbishop Milingo spent his time, however, organizing exorcisms and
healing services in Italy.
Recently, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, archbishop of Milan, and Cardinal
Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, prohibited banned Archbishop Milingo from
using their diocesan churches for his services.
As a result, the Zambian started holding the services in hotel reception
rooms.
In 1999, the archbishop was removed from his post in the Pontifical Council
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.
Last November, the Vatican issued strict rules aimed at curbing
unauthorized exorcism and faith healing.
ZE01052709
--------------------------------------
ABORTION SHIP SET TO SAIL INTO PORT OF DUBLIN
Ex-Greenpeace Doctor Linked to Dutch Vessel
DUBLIN, Ireland, MAY 27, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Strong pro-life opposition is
expected when an "abortion ship" is scheduled to sail into Dublin port at the
end of June, the Sunday Times of London reported today.
Ireland is the first stop in the maiden voyage of the ship which, under Dutch
law, can perform abortions "where medically appropriate" once it remains
moored 12 miles off the Irish coast. It will be equipped to do 20 abortions a
day.
A Dutch pro-abortion group, the Women on Waves Foundation, is behind the
ship. A medical team on board provides contraceptives, abortion information
and training for doctors. It has security guards, and contains an abortion
clinic on deck.
The team´s leader, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, 34, a former ship´s doctor on the
Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior vessel, says her organization wants to
highlight the consequences of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. The
group also wants to draw attention to the Irish women who travel to Britain
each year for abortions.
Mildred Fox, an independent and pro-life member of parliament for Wicklow,
said the ship was a publicity stunt.
"If she [Gomperts] breaks the law, she will have to be dealt with," Fox said.
"If she is providing information, she´s not providing any service that isn´t
already there. But if she is actually carrying out abortions, you have to ask --
what´s next? Can we have a ship from the Netherlands selling drugs 12 miles
offshore or carrying out euthanasia?"
Gomperts says Irish women using her offshore "services" cannot be
prosecuted and neither can the service providers, because the procedures
will be carried out under international law.
The ship was invited to visit Ireland by Irish pro-abortion groups, which are
planning an extensive publicity campaign around its appearance.
John Smyth, a spokesman for the pro-life movement, said pro-lifers would be
considering legal action against the ship´s activities but would not picket it.
"What we will do is draw attention to how we feel crisis pregnancy can be
best addressed," Smyth said. "Of course, we will look at the legal situation
as well."
While it is docked in Dublin port, the ship will host a number of talks,
workshops and creative events, including a film, a writers´ workshop and an
arts exhibition. The ship may also visit Cork and Northern Ireland, although
no dates have yet been scheduled.
Captain Bob Wiltshire, the harbor master, said he was not aware of the
arrival of the ship. "She would be treated like any other commercial ship," he
said. "I don´t imagine berthing would be a problem."
ZE01052720
--------------------------------------
CHURCH APOLOGIZES FOR 1941 MASSACRE OF JEWS
Poles Took Part, But Details Remain Unclear
WARSAW, Poland, MAY 27, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The Catholic Church in
Poland took a step in improving relations with the Jewish community by
apologizing today for the Poles who took part in a 1941 massacre of up to
1,600 Jews, Reuters reported.
The wartime massacre at Jedwabne came to prominence last year with the
publication of "Neighbors,´´ a book by emigre scholar Jan Gross, who alleged
that Poles, not occupying Nazi Germans, had murdered Jews and taken
their possessions, the news service said.
"We wish to apologize above all to God, but also to the wronged, on behalf of
those Polish citizens who committed evil against citizens of the Mosaic
faith,´´ Cardinal Jozef Glemp, primate of Poland, said in an interview in the
Catholic weekly Niedziela.
An expiation service was being held in Warsaw´s biggest church, near the
site of the former Jewish Ghetto. It was to include a prayer by Polish-born
John Paul II, a support of Christian-Jewish reconciliation.
But the service was unlikely to succeed in bringing Catholics and Jews
together since it coincided with the Shavout, a major Jewish holiday.
The American-born rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz, Michael Schudrich, said in a
letter to Cardinal Glemp he could not attend the service because "I cannot be
in two temples at once.´´
Gross´ book ignited a national debate. Jewish circles expressed satisfaction
that the blame was finally being placed where it belonged. But many Poles,
accustomed to viewing themselves as war victims and heroes, resent being
regarded as co-perpetrators of the Holocaust.
"Neighbors´´ describes how the Jedwabne Jews were bludgeoned, beaten
and stabbed to death by their Polish neighbors, and how most were herded
into a barn and burned alive. But many details of the case remain unclear.
Historians and journalists have questioned whether the Jedwabne Poles had
acted on their own, as Gross maintains, or were forced to cooperate at
gunpoint by the Germans.
Jewish collaboration with the Soviets, who had occupied the Jedwabne area
for nearly two years prior to Germany´s invasion, has also been cited as a
possible motive for the pogrom, a point repeatedly raised by the Church.
"Shouldn´t Jews also admit their guilt for collaborating with the Bolsheviks in
sending Poles to Siberia or prison ... or for the leading role played [in
postwar Poland] by the Communist secret police of Jewish ancestry?´´
Cardinal Glemp asked in the Niedziela interview.
Poland´s National Remembrance Institute has started an investigation into
the massacre and promised to bring those responsible to justice. Half a
century ago, 23 Poles were sentenced for complicity in the massacre.
ZE01052721
http://www.zenit.org/
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