Pakistan Army Test Anti-Drone Technology

Report: Pakistan Army Test Anti-Drone Technology

The Air Defence Unit of the Pakistan Army has conducted a successful experiment, downing drones in the Khudai Range near Muzaffargarh, according to a Pakistani daily.

Pakistan Air Defence Unit Commander Lt.-Gen. Ashraf Saleem revealed that four drones were downed with the help of 35mm radar, laser guns and 127mm guns. He said that the Air Defence Unit is equipped with the latest system that has the capability of downing every kind of drone, according to a report in The Post.

Pakistan will continue undertaking such exercises to strengthen the air defense of the country, Saleem said, adding that the demonstration of capability by the Pakistani soldiers has increased his confidence.

Commenting on the test, Brigadier (retired) Masood said that Pakistan has the capability of downing drones but the government does not want to spoil relations with the United States.

Source: The Post, Pakistan, January 19, 2010

American Embassy Employee Held in Two Bombings

The Nation has learnt that on November 18 [2009], a gentleman working
for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Mr. Abdul Ghafoor, (see photocopy
of his U.S. ID card), was stopped by [Pakistan] naval police and intelligence personnel in the morning as he was suspiciously monitoring the entry/exit of Zafar gate (at Zafar Chowk) and doing reconnaissance work on naval installations.

Unfortunately, the police high-ups did a double-cross on the [Pakistan] Navy by registering the case under PPC 420 468/471, dealing in fake documentation, etc., instead of registering the case under the [Pakistan] 1923 Official Secrets Act for [unlawful] spying, which carries a much stronger penalty.

This has led to some debate and conflict amongst the concerned agencies and one has to wonder where the pressure on the [Islamabad] police [which works under the Pakistan Interior Ministry led by PPP corrupt traitors A. Rehman Malik and Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi] came from for them to have diluted a very serious issue despite the clear accusations in the FIR (see copy).

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/04-Dec-2009/US-surveillance-of-Naval-HQs

Paramilitary man held for WFP suicide bombing

Rehman Malik did not reveal the identity of the man, but said he was also involved in the suicide attack outside the PN's headquarters. — File Photo by APP
Rehman Malik did not reveal the identity of the man, but said he was also involved in the suicide attack outside the PN’s headquarters. — File Photo by APP

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday that a paramilitary soldier had been arrested for his alleged involvement in the Oct 5 suicide attack on the UN food agency’s office in Islamabad that killed five of its staffers.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for targeting the World Food Programme, saying the agency’s work was not in “the interest of Muslims”.

The minister did not reveal the identity of the man, but said he was also involved in the Dec 2 suicide attack outside the Pakistan Navy’s headquarters in Islamabad that killed one guard and wounded 11 others. Talking to journalists, Mr Malik ruled out the presence of controversial firm Blackwater in Pakistan. “I state again with full responsibility and as per available record that there is no Blackwater in the country. A hype is being created.”   [Blackwater in Pakistan: Gates Confirms]

He challenged those claiming the US firm’s presence to prove it through documents.

In reply to a question, the minister said that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the Mumbai attacks, was being tried by an Indian court for the last one year. “We respect their (Indian) courts and they must respect ours,” he said with reference to Indian allegations on Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaatud Dawa.—AP/APP

Pakistan Nails RAW Terrorist Facilitator in Nowshera Raid

Afghan national spying for RAW held in Nowshera raid

By Mushtaq Paracha

NOWSHERA: The Crimes Investigation Department (CID) and intelligence agencies in a joint action arrested an Indian agent and recovered foreign currency, documents and satellite phone and computer sets from his possession in Hakimabad near here on Saturday.

Badshah alias Sharif, an Afghan national, was reportedly involved in a number of criminal cases besides providing funds to terrorists for carrying out sabotage activities in various parts of the province, official sources told The News.

The sources said that a team of the CID police and sleuths of the country’s premier intelligence agency raided a house in Hakimabad, a town near Nowshera Cantonment, and arrested the agent of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Foreign currency of 60,000 US dollars, three satellite phones, laptop, computer software and important documents were also recovered from the accused. The arrest was made on the pointation of an Afghan peshimam (prayer leader) Maulvi Hanif who was apprehended by the intelligence agencies from a sensitive place in Peshawar.

Maulvi Hanif was performing duty as prayer leader in a mosque in Peshawar Cantonment area for the last 14 years. According to Maulvi Hanif, he was an Afghan national and a member of RAW gang and had dozens of accomplices who were operating in sensitive areas.

Gates’ Denial of Indian Intentions to Assimilate Pakistan

[The one “existential” threat to Pakistan comes from India.]

Focus on western border, Gates tells Islamabad

Islamabad: The United States has asked Pakistan to shift its greater security role to the western border with Afghanistan as it is there that it faces an “existential threat” rather than on the frontier with India.

The visiting Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said Pakistan should commit itself to a greater role on its western border. He made these remarks during an interview with the state-run Pakistan Television while responding to questions why Washington believes Islamabad should commit itself to a greater role on its western borders.

“Well, I think… because it faces, in its own way, an existential threat on its western border,” Mr. Gates said.

Asked if there was no threat to Pakistan on the eastern border with India, he replied: “I said we understood Pakistan’s legitimate concerns. It also has an existential threat on its western border, and that is the more immediate threat.” — PTI

The Delusion That Racist India Is Light Unto Nations

India can fuel next industrial revolution

Shyam Ranganathan

Maldives President for partnership among Asian countries to take on challenges

India can provide the lead in use of renewable energy

‘G-20, rather than G-8, has to respond to challenges’


— Photo: V. Ganesan

President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed addresses the CII’s Partnership Summit 2010 in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: India has the intellectual capacity, strength and ability to fuel the next industrial revolution, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said here on Saturday. He also called for partnership among Asian countries to take on global challenges.

Mr. Nasheed was delivering the keynote address at the 16th edition of the Partnership Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He said India could provide the lead in use of renewable energy to combat climate change. “We did not advance out of the Stone Age because we ran out of stones,” he quipped. The world could not assume that there was still a future with fossil fuels.

Good governance

Democracy and good governance were essential for development and this prompted the Maldivian government to move towards a liberal economic regime.

“We believe in business over bureaucracy.” The government’s rightful place in the globalised world was in regulation, environment protection and provision of social security nets, he said.

Reading out the Malaysian Prime Minister’s address to the summit, International Trade and Industry Minister of that country Mustapa bin Mohamed said greater global economic integration was unavoidable but it was fraught with dangers to the disadvantaged.

“A value-free process”

Globalisation was a value-free process and it would make sense only if it was used to alleviate poverty and improve human lives.

“Globalisation is about change and the ability to respond to change. Countries differ in this regard and there should be flexibility in how we assess their ability to promote economic integration across borders,” he said.

While conceding that the World Trade Organisation, with all its imperfections, would continue to provide the framework for nations to discuss and negotiate, he called for a rules-based system, where wealthy nations would not overpower developing nations and where rules facilitated growth and greater economic integration.

Shift in economic power

Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the economic and political power in the world was shifting and the G-20, rather than the G-8, had to respond to challenges.

India wanted a multilateral regime that was fair, equitable and met the needs of the poorest people, and would push for it in the next instalment of the Doha Round talks, he said.

Stalin’s call

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the State was among the top three fastest growing ones in the country and invited industries to invest in the State.

CII president Venu Srinivasan said the shifting of the economic centre of gravity to Asia would have implications for the entire world in food and energy security.

India Importing Russian Uranium for New Reactor, Under US Agreement

India’s 19th nuclear reactor becomes operational

Press Trust of India

India’s 19th nuclear power reactor went into operation on Saturday night at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant near Kota, giving a boost to availability of electricity in North India.

The indigenous reactor of Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP-6) at Rawat Bhata, near Kota, attained its first criticality at 21:53 hrs on Saturday, posting a major milestone in the project completion process.

Rajasthan Atomic Power Project 5 and 6 comprises of two Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 220MW each. The first unit, RAPP-5 achieved first synchronisation on December 22, 2009 and RAPP- 6, the second unit, an indigenous nuclear power reactor has now joined the fleet of 18 nuclear power reactors in operation.

With the operation of RAPP 5 and 6, the installed capacity has risen to 1180MW. The power will be shared by the beneficiaries of Northern Electricity Grid. Both Units 5 and 6 of RAPP are using uranium imported from Russia and are under India-specific safeguards agreement of International Atomic Energy Agency as per the separation plan of military and civilian nuclear power plants agreed under the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

With the operationalisation of RAPP6, the overall installed capacity of nuclear power in India has gone up to 4560MW. The reactors have been designed and built by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), a public sector undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The Indian industry has played a major role in supply of critical equipment and in meeting construction schedules, Ranjit Raj Kakde, General Manager (Corporate Communications), said in a release.

The total nuclear power capacity is planned to be increased to 7280MW by completion of projects under construction in Karnataka (Kaiga 4) and Tamil Nadu (Koodankulam units 1 and 2). The long-term plans are to take the capacity close to 60,000MW through diverse reactors technologies and designs.

NPCIL is unique in having comprehensive capacity in the various facets of nuclear technology namely site selection, design, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance and life extension of nuclear power plants, Kakade said. PHWRs use natural uranium as a fuel and heavy water both as moderator and coolant.

Meanwhile, NPCIL, as part of its expansion plan of PHWRs, has designed 700MW PHWRs based on the experience of its540 MW built in Tarapur. Four 700MW PHWRs, including two at Rawat Bhata site, have been approved by government and construction is being taken up. These are slated for completion with a gestation period of 60 months.

India Plans to Use Cruise Missile Swarms Like US Uses Drones

Army plans induction of BrahMos with ‘surgical strike’ option

Rajat Pandit, TNN, 24 January 2010, 01:30am IST

NEW DELHI: Army is going in for a major induction of BrahMos Block-II land-attack cruise missiles (LACM), which have been designed as “precision

strike weapons” capable of hitting small targets in cluttered urban environments.

Sources say the defence ministry will “soon” approach the Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for the green signal to arm the Army with two regiments of the BrahMos Block-II land-attack cruise missiles (LACM).

Swift induction of BrahMos Block-II is necessary because Pakistan Army is inducting its nuclear-capable Babur LACM, developed with China’s help to have a 500-km strike range, in large numbers. BrahMos-II can potentially be used for “surgical strikes” at terror training camps across the border without causing collateral damage.

One regiment of the 290-km range BrahMos-I variant,  which consists of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12×12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command posts, among other equipment, is already operational in the Army. It had earlier ordered two BrahMos regiments in the first phase at a cost of Rs 8,352 crore.

The BrahMos Block-II variant has been developed to take out a specific small target, with a low radar cross-section, in a multi-target environment.

The air-breathing missile, which flies at speeds up to 2.8 Mach (almost three times the speed of sound), of course, does not come cheap. With `multi-spectral seekers’ for `target-discriminating capabilities’, each missile costs upwards of Rs 25 crore.

Incidentally, Indian Navy too has inducted BrahMos’s naval variant on some warships, having earlier placed orders worth Rs 711 crore for 49 firing units.

While these missiles are fired from `inclined launchers’, Navy is also gearing up to induct `vertical launchers’.

This is significant since `vertical launchers’ are fitted under the warship’s deck, protecting them from the atmospheric conditions and imparting some stealth to the weapon system. It also allows the missile to be fired in any direction.

Two such modules, with 16 missiles, are to fitted in each of the three Kolkata-class P-15A destroyers being built at Mazagon Docks at a cost of Rs 11,662 crore.

BrahMos will also arm the three more Talwar-class `stealth’ frigates being built at Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad (Russia) under a Rs 5,514-crore project.

But the work on submarine and air-launched versions of BrahMos is still going quite slow. While talks with Russia are now in the final stages for BrahMos’ integration with Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, the missile will be tested for the first time from submersible pontoon launchers this year in preparation for their induction on submarines.

India and Russia have also begun preliminary work on a “hypersonic” BrahMos-2 missile capable of flying at a speed between 5 and 7 Mach, as reported earlier.

The armed forces’ eventual plan, of course, is to have nuclear-tipped LACMs, with strike ranges over 1,500 km. Unlike ballistic missiles like Agni, cruise missiles do not leave the atmosphere and are powered and guided throughout their flight path.

Cruise missiles, which can evade enemy radars and air defence systems since they fly at low altitudes, are also much cheaper as well as more accurate and easier to operate than ballistic missiles.

CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ARREST OF 5 SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FOR TREASON

CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ARREST OF 5 SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FOR TREASON

Constitution in flamesTHE FIVE THAT STAND AGAINST ALL AMERICANS, THE “MAFIA” JUDGES

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Five members of the Supreme Court declared that a “corporation” is a person, not a “regular person” but one above all natural laws, subject to no God, no moral code but one with unlimited power over our lives, a power awarded by judges who seem themselves as grand inquisitors in an  meant to hunt down all hertics who fail to serve their god, the god of money.

Their ruling has made it legal for foreign controlled corporations to flush unlimited money into our bloated political system to further corrupt something none of us trust and most of us fear.  The “corporation/person” that the 5 judges, the “neocon” purists, have turned the United States over to isn’t even American.  Our corporations, especially since our economic meltdown are owned by China, Russia and the oil sheiks along with a few foreign banks.  They don’t vote, pay taxes, fight in wars, need dental care, breathe air, drive cars or send children to school.  Anyone who thinks these things are people is insane.  Anyone who would sell our government to them is a criminal and belongs in prison.  There is nothing in the Constitution that makes this “gang of five” bribe sucking clowns above the law.  There is nothing in the Constitution that even mentions corporations much less gives them status equal to or greater than the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government.

The Supreme Court of the United States has no right to breathe human life into investment groups owned by terrorist sympathizers, foreign arms dealers or groups working for the downfall of the United States and everything we believe in, but 5 “justices” have done just that.  We now have a new government above our government, above our people, one above any law.   Five judges have created institutionalized gangsterism as the new form of government for the United States.

No American soldier can ever go to war fighting for a Chinese hedge fund, a German bank or a Saudi Arabian fertilizer company.  Will our new debates in Congress be between members representing the opium warlords against the Columbian cartels?  Their cash, which long ago has infiltrated one major corporation or bank after another is now heading for your local representative.   How important do you think secure borders for America are for these new policial “influencers?”

For years we complained about AIPAC, the Sierra Club, the NRA, trial lawyers, trade unions, NAM (National Association of Manufacturers) and the churches that got involved in politics.  Behind all of these were people, American citizens, and, on some occasions, Americans who fought for their country, raised kids here and were invested in the survival of America although they didn’t always act that way.  This was an American problem.  Now we aren’t even sure we have an America anymore.

Anyone who believes that a massive flood of corporate money into politics won’t throw control of both houses of Congress into the hands of the wealthy nations that are also our primary strategic enemies, you know the ones, the ones loaded with oil cash, the ones with 10 cent an hour labor and legal systems that  shoot first and ask questions later.  They just were told they can buy the United States, not just our government, but our military, and the lives of our soldiers.  They can now make our laws, raise our taxes, decide on our civil rights, where we can live, if we can own guns, how late we stay up, where and what we drive and, eventually, how we think.  The Supreme Court has given foreign owned corporations the eventual power to silence us all.

When a corporation commits a crime, nobody goes to jail.  When wars come, they don’t fight, they simply rake in cash.  When children are poisoned or workers are killed, they seldom even pay a fine.  However, when they want something, billions in tax money for “bail outs” or fat contracts or special laws, they have always gotten it.  It  has been a battle to control corporations for 140 years.  Sometimes the American people have lost, sometimes they have won.  Our greatest presidents are the ones who reined in corporate power and kept the influence of money over humanity in check.  Think of Theordore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy.

Without them we would be living in work camps, stuck at machines all day, our children at our sides.  We would be paid in beans and salt pork, dying at 40 in filth like people around the world who live in countries controlled by corporations.

Based on the justices that we want prosecuted being Reagan/Bush “conservatives” you would think this is a liberal/conservative issue.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Nothing less “conservative” has ever been done by a branch of our government.  There is nothing “conservative” about our Supreme Court going insane and abandoning our Constitution and making medical decisions, not to give life to a fetus, but to a bank account.

This is nothing but an extremely unAmerican and unpatriotic group of thieves believing that Americans had given up so many of their civil liberties in silence during the Global War on Terror scam that opening the “Pandora’s Box” of class conflict could now be done with nobody saying a word.  Their “corporate person” is now a Baron or Duke, the great landlords of the medieval period.  Americans are now destined for serfdom.  Their political and economic theories, what are they?  Is it conservatism or feudalism?

We are already burdened with a representative government that has tied itself to the money spigot because of the incredible cost of media exposure in campaigns.  People running for office in ancient Rome would purchase thousands of animals for slaughter in the arena.  Mass executions were staged as media events for political campaigns.  In fact, the arenas in every Roman city were built for that purpose, today replaced by television and the internet.  We thought we had changed since that time.  We were wrong.

The framers of the Constitution created the Supreme Court, the Electoral College and originally had Senators appointed, not elected, to protect the wealthy from having their money and land seized by the masses who would otherwise have controlled the government.  This was the 1780s.  The only “democracy” we knew about was ancient Athens, where the majority of the people living there were slaves.    27 Amendments later, including the Bill of Rights, we have worked to define justice and decency.  Generations have fought and died to keep life in our imperfect system from 1780.  Who would have thought that 5 people could destroy it all?

Political debate in America is sometimes extreme, often bordering on violence.  Feelings are high.  How many times have you heard people threaten to leave the country because “their America” no longer exists.  We know that few really mean it.  When faced with a real threat, no people on earth are to be feared like Americans.  When help is needed, no people on earth are to be trusted and relied on like Americans.  This is the pride we have in our country and ourselves.  We never agree on anything.  We aren’t supposed to, we are Americans.

Everything we built has been based on a balance, race, religion, ethnicity, social standing, political beliefs, regional interests, all striving and compromising to build something we are all secretly very proud of, something all of us are willing to fight for and many are.  Americans all agree on one thing, that our government in Washington is out of control and has been for some time.  We all have different ideas on this but agree on the fact itself.  We wonder where the politicians come from, men too often “less great” than those of the past, in fact, less great than average.  Decisions are continually made that most find puzzling and, in fact, are driven by a rotten underbelly of corruption and self interest.

Now, 5 members of the Supreme Court, people none of us voted for, a group that is answerable to no authority and, seemingly, no law or moral code, a group famous for immoderation, poor judgement and low personal integrity has, either through blindness, avarice or insanity clearly done something so malicious, so unjust and so utterly inconsistent with our Constitution that they, themselves, have become an “enemy of the people.”

What is their power?  What they have done is not within the scope of the authority given through the Constitution.  Their acts are outside the law, their acts are those of a conspiracy, their acts are meant to diminish our freedoms, our sacred institutions and even endanger our lives.  Typically, such acts are called crimes and those who commit them are criminals.

What could drive judges, albeit judges appointed with little thought as part of a cheap political ploy, to abandon any American consitutency?  Corporations have no religion.  They care nothing for the unborn.  They have no allegiance to a flag, a family or any moral ethic.  They serve no person, owe no loyalty other that to stockholders, shadowy groups of Russian oligarchs, Chinese banks, corrupt dictators grown fat on the spoils of their people or the international consortiums of bond and currency speculators who have, for decades, abandoned any economic law to build the etherial “house of cards” we call the “world economy.”

The control of the American electoral process has been given to them.  No serving politican can survive now standing against them.  Years ago “they” bought our newspapers and our television networks.  Fact and truth became whatever they wanted us to believe.  “They” gained control of what many thought and what almost all of us see and hear.  That wasn’t enough.  They wanted it all.  As their control has grown, so has terrorism, continual war, economic poverty for millions Americans and insensitivity to justice and humanity.  Who would expect anything else from a corporation with no blood, no heart and no face?

The Founding Fathers led America on the path to freedom and eventual democracy.  The Federalists limited the ability of an impetuous electorate to seize power and “reform” America into chaos and anarchy.  This system of government was predicated on the belief that love of country would always burn brightly in America and with progress, freedom and bounty was the ineviable reward of our industry.  It is only now too obvious that so much has happened that was unforseen.  It is not a denial of our traditions to correct wrongs when we find them.  This was how America was created.  We are drowning in wrongs, we all finally agree on this.

The time is now.  Party politics have failed.  Political theories are little more than empty rhetoric meant to mislead and misinform.  State has become church and church has become state.  State is less just and church less godly.  All we have left is “we, the People.”  This is how we began and it is now all we have to move forward.  It is time for the states to call for a Constitutional Convention to establish, not just a Republic, but a Democracy, by and for the people, the American people, rich and poor, a nation loyal to itself, not tied to corporations, a vast military industrial complex or endless foreign alliances.

If it is to be a genuinely conservative nation, one with individual freedoms, a small government, fewer taxes and more opportunity, a nation as intended, then we will all have to live with it.  The bloated corpse we are creating in Washington is emitting a stench we can no longer abide.  We will be saying goodbye to our Supreme Court, our seniority system in Congress and our political machines pretending to be “parties”  and hello to paper ballots, a free press, term limits and the ability to yank a scoundrel out of office when we catch one.

First a blinding flash

First a blinding flash

Then the mushrooming authority of the president, unbalancing separation of powers in national defense

(Tomasz Walenta)
By Glenn C. AltschulerGlobe Correspondent / January 24, 2010

When the test bomb, code-named Trinity, was detonated in the New Mexico desert, physicist Richard Feynman did a victory dance with his bongo drums. And when Dorothy McKibben, the office manager who served as a kind of gatekeeper at Los Alamos, heard that a nuclear device had been exploded at Hiroshima, she turned to her son and exclaimed, “That’s our Bomb.’’ President Truman agreed, calling it “the greatest thing in history.’’

And yet, as Garry Wills, the provocative, prolific, and polymath professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, reminds us, the bomb proved to be “a fatal miracle.’’ Fatal as a weapon – and fatal to the delicate system of checks and balances over the power of the presidency. In “Bomb Power,’’ Wills argues that the Manhattan Project, which proceeded without authorization, funding, or oversight by Congress, planted the seeds of a massive shift of power to the executive branch. From World War II to the Cold War and later the War on Terror, “the permanent emergency’’ initially claimed by Truman was used to justify a monopoly by the executive branch on the use of nuclear weapons, the establishment of military bases around the world, the formation of intelligence agencies, the launching of covert operations, and a vast expansion of state secrets. For seven decades, he concludes, what Wills refers to as the National Security State “has made the abnormal normal and constitutional diminishment the settled order.’’

Although it breaks no new ground, “Bomb Power’’ is a powerful – and sobering – account of the step-by-step creation of government structures, unaccountable to Congress or the people, to conduct “permanent war in peace.’’ The culprits, Wills points out, were Democratic as well as Republican presidents, who engineered a quiet coup against the Constitution, making the commander-in-chief of the armed forces the commander-in-chief of the nation. And the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate reining in of “the imperials presidency,’’ through the War Powers Resolution (1973), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978), and the Presidential Records Act (1978), never really happened.

The Korean War, according to Wills, whose eyes are on Iraq, set many precedents. Although North Korea posed no nuclear threat to the United States, Truman insisted that he could commit troops to a major and sustained conflict, under the “aegis’’ of the United Nations, without a congressional declaration of war. Even hearings on a resolution of approval, Secretary of State Dean Acheson declared, would open up the possibility of criticism that would undermine the morale of troops. In fact, Truman dispatched the Seventh Fleet to the region before the Security Council acted. In doing so, Wills writes, the president violated Article 41 of the UN Charter, which stipulates that Congress must approve any commitment of American troops for a UN-sponsored mission.

Along with the evisceration of Congress’ power to declare war, Wills demonstrates, government secrecy grew “like a giant radiation emission.’’ Control of information, of course, is a source and sign of power. It allows presidents to dismiss critics as “ill-informed.’’ It also permits government officials to cover up acts of incompetence or criminality that have nothing to do with national security. The Pentagon Papers, of course, is the perfect example. So is the less-well-known story of the explosion of an Air Force plane doing experimental work on a guided missile system in 1948. When the widows of three crewmen sued, citing trouble with fires on B29s, the Air Force refused to release its official accident report, which had been classified. The clear implication was that national security secrets about the missile system might be jeopardized. In United States v. Reynolds et al (1953), the Supreme Court refused to order the government to turn over the documents or to pay damages to the plaintiffs. More than 50 years later, the 220-page report saw the light of day. It said nothing at all about the missile program – instead it told a horrific story of a plane without heat shields and a pilot who inadvertently shut off the wrong engine.

Like many other critics of the National Security State, Wills believes that George W. Bush brought “executive usurpations to their climax.’’ He makes a compelling case that the “unitary theory of the presidency,’’ which gives the executive the power to launch a pre-emptive war, bypass laws requiring court approval to conduct domestic surveillance, detain terrorists indefinitely without charging or trying them, carry out “renditions,’’ and authorize “enhanced interrogation techniques’’ that violate the Geneva Conventions, is “philological hocus-pocus.’’

Wills, it appears, has already given up hope that Barack Obama will make substantive changes to the National Security State. Administration officials, he observes, have already indicated that they reserve the right to use “extraordinary renditions,’’ subject terrorists captured anywhere to “battlefield law,’’ and invoke the Reynolds case to abort trial proceedings that involve “state secrets.’’ Obama said the government would not prosecute any officials of the Bush administration or empanel a “truth commission.’’ “Most important,’’ the president is committed to “a long-term nation-building effort in Afghanistan, a drug-culture government not susceptible to our remolding.’’ The self-professed change agent, Wills concludes, has “grabbed at the powers, the secrecy, the unaccountability’’ of the “imperial system.’’

Dismantling the National Security State is, indeed, “a hard, perhaps impossible task.’’ But it’s worth remembering that even if, to some extent, Obama is the prisoner of his own power, he isn’t George W. Bush. By the time he’s done, many things millions of Americans care passionately about – torture, indefinite detention, the denial of habeas corpus and legal representation, the unilateral abrogation of treaties, defiance of Congress, distortions of the Constitution, and the rewriting of statutes through signing statements – may no longer be acceptable practices of the federal government. In the end, Wills suggests, principled reformers should continue the fight despite the odds, invoking the spirit of Cyrano de Bergerac who said: “One fights not only in the hope of winning.’’

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin professor of American studies at Cornell University.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

Nation’s religious community wants end to U.S.-sponsored torture

Nation’s religious community wants end to U.S.-sponsored torture

By Patriot-News Op-Ed

January 23, 2010, 5:36PM

Two days after his inauguration in 2009, President Obama stated that Guantanamo Bay detention center would close its doors in one year, by Jan. 22, 2010. As we might have guessed, it wasn’t that easy.

Questions arose quickly: What would become of the Guantanamo detainees? Where would they go? What would their status be?

These questions and a constant drumbeat by those who feared the worst have led to the president’s announcement that the detention center will not close by this deadline.
gitmo.JPGA U.S. Army soldier walks inside the maximum security facility known as Camp 6, in Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The Pennsylvania Council of Churches has been working with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and religious institutions nationwide to end U.S.-sponsored torture forever.

We strongly believe that torture is a moral issue. Its practice violates the basic dignity of the human person who we believe is created in God’s image. We also believe it threatens the spiritual well-being of our nation, and damages our standing worldwide.

Sadly, “Guantanamo” has become a catch-phrase around the world for a place where people are detained indefinitely without a trial and where the United States abandoned the moral high ground by engaging in torture.

But closing Guantanamo alone isn’t enough. The U.S. government must create policies and safeguards that prevent the use of torture in the future.

Strong support for change will only come once Americans have a better understanding of U.S. torture policies and practices since 9/11 — who was tortured, why, who ordered it, who the torturers were and the effects on the tortured and torturers.

NRCAT, formed in 2006 and consisting of representatives from more than 260 religious organizations, including the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, has called for the creation of an independent, nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry to investigate and make findings and recommendations to Congress and the president about what further safeguards are needed.

Some members of the House of Representatives have discussed creating a select committee to perform a similar function.

Regardless of the approach, the goal is to determine how torture became part of our national policy and then ensure that it never happens again.

The president’s January 2009 executive order on torture requires all government agencies to follow interrogation guidelines contained in the Army Field Manual.

With the exception of Appendix M (which allows for the possible use of sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation), the manual creates one single, public, humane standard for all U.S. interrogations.

While we would like to see Appendix M removed, the executive order was a good start. But this isn’t enough — torture can still be exported, so we also need legal prohibitions that prevent “extraordinary rendition.”

Executive orders are not law. Any future president could simply rescind President Obama’s order.

The only way we can guarantee a permanent end to torture is to embody the elements of the executive order in law.
gitmosign.JPGPresident Barack Obama signs an executive order closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009, in the Oval Office. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Specific elements required to provide the necessary protections against use of torture include: (1) a “Golden Rule” standard that would require the president (or another appropriate official) to ensure that no American interrogators use techniques that we would not want used on our own military and civilian personnel; and (2) legislation that ensures transparency by requiring International Committee of the Red Cross access to all U.S.-held detainees.

Guantanamo passed its eighth anniversary as a detention center on Jan. 11.

We join NRCAT in asking people to work to end U.S.-sponsored torture forever by educating those within their communities. NRCAT (www.nrcat.org) has produced discussion materials about the consequences of torture and inhumane treatment of detainees for local congregations to use.

We are deeply saddened that Guantanamo has become a symbol of American torture to the world during the last eight years.

The nation’s religious community has taken the lead to work for its closure in 2010, but this effort needs the support of all Americans.

We want to be able to tell our children and grandchildren that they live in a country that does not torture.

REV. SANDRA STRAUSS is director of public advocacy at the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.

Emergency Unemployment Claims Through the Roof-Up 43% In One Month

Massive Jump In Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Benefits – Up 43% In One Month!

I was intrigued by a post by Zero Hedge asking Is The Government Misrepresenting Unemployment By 32%?

“…government spent a record $14.7 billion on Unemployment Insurance Benefits as of December 30, a 24% jump sequentially from the $11.8 billion in November. Yet the DOL has disclosed a mere 1.7% increase in those to whom insurance benefits are paid: from 9.4 million to just under 9.6 million. To put the $14.7 billion number in perspective, in December the Federal Government paid a total of $14 billion ($700 million less) in Federal Salaries!

And some more perspective: in calendar 2009 the government has paid $140 billion in Unemployment Insurance Benefits. This is yet another economic stimulus that nobody in the administration discusses, yet which undoubtedly has the biggest impact on the economy, as all those millions unemployed can moderate their pain courtesy of a passable weekly check from the government which should just about cover the rent and beer.

Which is why more than anything, Obama is dead set on extending insurance benefit payments in perpetuity: because if the 10 million official and 14 million unofficial people who are on benefits (not to mention the tens of millions of unemployed unlucky enough to even get their weekly allowance from Uncle Sam) start thinking about their true predicament and their real “employability”, then a landslide loss by this administration at the mid-term elections will actually be an upside surprise to what it can objectively expect.

I figured the explanation would show up in charts somewhere and I asked Chris Puplava at Financial Sense for a chart of Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Benefits as well as an update on other charts he has graciously provided on request.

Click on any chart below for a crisper image.

From Chris Puplava …

My answer would be a MASSIVE jump in the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits, which jumped from 3,594,253 (11/07/09) to 5,143,410 (12/19/09), up 43% in just over a month! The increase in EUC more than offset the decline in continuing claims and we are now at a new record when combining all measures of unemployment benefits. Economists were pointing out that continuing claims and initial claims were falling as a bullish sign, however what was happening was that those benefits were exhausting for people who used up that benefit, leading to the decline in the numbers which is proved by a record (52.24%) exhaustion rate.

Record Unemployment Deterioration

However, these people were not finding employment which is why the House passed a bill in December to extend benefits, thus leading to a massive 43% jump in the aptly named “EMERGENCY” Unemployment Compensation program. The jump was so large that now the EUC numbers surpass continuing claims!

The data I have from Moody’s comes with a lag, so the data in the charts below is only updated through 12/19/09, but the combined unemployment claims numbers just broke out to a new record!

Combined Weekly Claims

Combined Weekly Claims Detain Since 2000

Combined Weekly Claims As % Of Population

Continuing Claims From Bloomberg

Extended Claims From Bloomberg

Emergency Claims From Bloomberg

The above charts and commentary all thanks to Chris Puplava atFinancial Sense .
Thanks Chris!

Regional paradigm of resolving militancy issue getting stronger

English.news.cn
by Abdul Hadi Mayar

KABUL, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) — Attributing the unrest in Afghanistan to “external forces,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday said a regional conference will soon be held in Tehran to resolve problems in the region.

“Seven neighbouring countries of Afghanistan will get together in Tehran soon to chalk out a common strategy for seeking solutions to the regional challenges,” the spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, told reporters in Tehran.

The spokesman did not name the countries which will attend the conference but his remarks certainly signify the wish of the countries in the region to resolve the festering problem of extremism and terrorism.

Last week, Iranian, Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers held a conference in Pakistani capital Islamabad, where they signed a joint declaration, describing terrorism as a common challenge.

They acknowledged that terrorism poses a common challenge that can only be addressed through concerted efforts. They also expressed the belief that their trilateral cooperation is the key to the regional stability and reiterate their commitment to strengthening this cooperation.

Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan began making joint efforts to resolve their problems early last year.

The first meeting among them was held in Islamabad on April 10 last year, which was attended by Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhunzadeh and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir.

On that meeting, the three countries pledged to fight terrorism and extremism, combat narcotics and organized crimes, and promote trans-regional development cooperation.

On April 28 last year, the foreign ministers of the three countries held their trilateral meeting in Kabul, at which they acknowledged, for the first time, that the three countries and the region faced common and serious challenges.

They also signed a 17-point agreement, urging the need for trilateral political dialogue and cooperation on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

This successful trilateral interaction also led to a summit in Tehran in May last year, which further cemented their mutual cooperation.

However, while the three countries continued to promote the process of mutual consultations, they also kept on doubting each other’s intentions.

While Kabul alleged that the Taliban insurgents received financial and military support from the Pakistani tribal territories, Islamabad said that the Pakistani Taliban received arms from across Afghanistan.

Similarly, Tehran feared that the Jundullah militants in its Sistan-Balochistan province received support from Pakistan. In this perspective, last week’s Islamabad meeting served as a turning point in the trilateral cooperation among the three countries.

Besides reposing more trust in each other, all the three sides, including the Afghan government, also stressed, for the first time, that the international engagement in Afghanistan must underscore the importance of Afghanistan ownership of its own plans and priorities.

More importantly, they stressed that any initiative in this regard must be Afghan-led and Afghan-driven. In fact, regional perspective was first coined by Former U.S. President George W. Bush when, in his first Afghan strategy, he announced to resolve the Afghan insurgency issue by engaging all countries in the region.

For this purpose, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, held a meeting with Iranian envoy Mehdi Akhunzadeh, in The Hague last year, according to reports, which was almost the first direct interaction between the United States and Iran ever since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.

While Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan took their time to remove each others’ doubts and suspicions, Islamabad and Tehran also had their reservations with regard to the U.S. and the NATO role in Afghanistan.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the current unrest in Afghanistan was an example of foreign interference in the countries of this region.

In this perspective, the changing realities show that the proposed Tehran conference can certainly prove a turning point in evolving a regional approach to the problems and challenges in the region.

Editor: Fang Yang

Tehran, Islamabad to sign IPI accord next week

Tehran, Islamabad to sign IPI accord next week

TEHRAN – Iran and Pakistan have resolved all issues concerning the long-pending Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project (dubbed peace pipeline) and both the countries are likely to sign a deal soon, Pakistan Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said.

Talking to media persons in Islamabad, he added that the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project has been finalized and an accord is likely to be inked in this regard next week, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reported.

The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and after almost 13 years India finally decided to quit the project in 2008.

The Pakistani official said Islamabad and Tehran are posed to sign an accord for the construction of a pipeline next week. The proposed pipeline is 2,775 km long and dubbed as the Peace Pipeline, connecting Iran-Pakistan and India. However, for the time being India is reluctant to join the contract because of New Delhi’s concerns over its safety and some unresolved border issues with Pakistan.    The negotiations have been going on for many years involving Iran, Pakistan and India. Iran’s enormous gas reserves are ideally suited to supply massive amounts of gas to both Pakistan and India on long-term basis, thus helping ease the energy requirements of the two giant developing nations.   Iran holds world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia.

India was also a part of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, but walked out of the 2,775 km pipeline project mainly due to the hefty transit fee demanded by Islamabad.

Also the United States as an outside player, fearing further economic developments of India and Pakistan, has been working round the clock by using all possible means to prevent the deal to become a reality.

Experts believe from the Western point of view, any additional progress alongside the remarkable developments in East Asia, especially China would be a direct threat to Western global hegemony.

India and Pakistan with a combined population of nearly 1.5 billion could become the next Asian powerhouses only if they could have better access to inexpensive and long-term energy sources such as the natural gas.

© Tehran Times 2010

Saudis Want Us To Believe That Yemeni Rebels Linked To al Qaeda

Saudi claims Yemeni rebels linked to al Qaeda

RIYADH/SANAA (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said again on Saturday it believes Yemeni Shi’ite rebels have links to the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, even though it acknowledged it had found no such evidence in combat.

“We have not noticed it on the battlefield, but it is proven by various bodies that there are contacts and coordination between them, and that they have common interests, which is sabotage,” Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense, said in remarks aired on state television.

He did not specify what that proof was.

The Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis after the clan name of their leaders, have denied previous such claims that it has ties to the Sunni Muslim militant group.

A schism between Shi’ite and Sunni Islam occurred shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammad and Shi’ites now are often a persecuted minority in much of the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia launched its assault on the rebels in an area near its border with Yemen in November after the insurgents killed two Saudi border guards in a cross-border incursion.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will take advantage of Yemen’s instability to spread its operations to the neighboring kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, and beyond.

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, came to the foreground of U.S.-led efforts to battle militancy after a Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda said it was behind a failed December 25 plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner.

Prince Khaled said Saudi forces had found the bodies of 20 soldiers who were among 26 reported missing in the fighting, and the television quoted him as saying four of remaining six had been captured by the rebels.

A Saudi military official, quoted by al-Riyadh newspaper on Thursday, put at 113 the death toll of Saudi soldiers in the fighting.

Prince Khaled also denied any Saudi Apache helicopter had been shot down, as claimed by the rebels earlier this month.

Yemen is involved in a war with the Houthis in the north and also is battling rising separatist sentiment in the south.

On Saturday, hundreds marched in several cities in southern Yemen, asking participants in a London meeting on Yemen planned for January 27 to discuss the situation in the south, which the opposition says is politically and economically marginalized.

Demonstrators carried placards demanding the revival of the former South Yemen which united with the north in 1990, residents said.

They said a child died on Saturday after being wounded during clashes that occurred during similar protests on Friday.

Everyone but Christians understands that Jesus was nonviolent.-Gandhi

‘Christian’ Crusaders and Failures of Intelligence in the US Military

eileen fleming

Thirty years ago, Glyn Bindon, the founder of Trijicon, a Michigan Defense contractor, instituted the practice of stamping references to New Testament Bible verses on combat rifle sights manufactured for the U.S. military.

Trijicon has now released a statement that they will quit their three decades of practice and also provide the armed forces modification kits to remove the Scripture citations from the 300,000 telescoping sights already in use by the Marines, Army and which are being used to train Afghanistan troops.

Beyond the charges of breaking the American government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, this ABC video clip exposes a thriving Crusader mentality in the US Military and a gross failure of intelligence by Christian’s regarding their own faith.

Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “Marines Have Secret Bible Verses on G…“, posted with vodpod

In the video, US Chaplain Hensley, informs the troops, “Special Forces hunt men. We do the same thing as Christians. We hunt people to get them into the kingdom; that’s our business.”

The Chaplain is a heretic, for “How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not murder’?”– Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

Tolstoy understood that commandment meant that all governments who wage war are directly affronting the Christian principles that should guide all life, and shouldn’t being pro-life really be about honoring the sacredness of every life that already is?

Standard issue to U.S. special operations forces is the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is marked “JN8:12”  a reference to John 8:12:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with “2COR4:6”

For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

An army spokesman admitted on January 21, 2010, that the service was unaware of the coded biblical references until a few days ago, and so, our troops are also in the dark because of failures of intelligence in the Military establishment as well as due to heretical Christianity.

Christ was born, lived and died a nonviolent Palestinian Jew, who taught his follower’s to put down the sword, to forgive, pray and love one’s enemies; and not to shoot, bomb, torture or kill any!

Jesus envisioned a society based on love and tolerance, which is completely incompatible with war and all violence. When Jesus was mocked, whipped and nailed to a cross he remained NONVIOLENT to prove the only way to over throw the status quo of violent retaliation and eye-for-an-eye mentality.

Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence was a contradiction of what Christ was about. The first and greatest heresy in the Christian faith occurred when Augustine penned the “Just War Theory” which united church with state and “our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.”-Dorothy Day

Within one hundred years after Emperor Constantine decreed Christianity the religion of the state, soldiers were required to be baptized; but it was not required for them to understand what the faith was all about.

“The Crusade for a Christian Military: Jesus Killed Mohammed” by Jeff Sharlet in HARPER’S May 2009 edition illuminated how the entrenchment of Christian fundamentalism in the USA military began during the Cold War, accelerated during the Vietnam era and which has wrecked havoc on the very soul of our nation in the 21st century.
Fundamentalist [referred to as evangelical by Sharlet] Chaplains began to join the military in droves as they aligned themselves with the Industrial Military Complex in opposition with Catholics and mainline moderate Protestant denominations such as Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians who were of one voice speaking out against American terrorism in Vietnam and for following in the ways of the nonviolent Jesus.
“Starting in 1987, Protestant denominations were lumped together simply as “Protestant”; moreover, the Pentagon began accrediting hundreds of evangelical and Pentecostal “endorsing agencies,” allowing graduates of fundamentalist Bible colleges—which often train clergy to view those from other faiths as enemies of Christ—to fill up nearly the entire allotment for Protestant chaplains. Today, more than two thirds of the military’s 2,900 active-duty chaplains are affiliated with evangelical or Pentecostal denominations.” [1]
“For decades, the military built a sense of solidarity out of a singular purpose, the Cold War struggle between free markets and state-planned economies—the shining city on a hill versus the evil empire…meshed neatly with ideologies [that connected] nationalism and fundamentalism…Communism…the dark alternative should we fail to unite. Fundamentalism thrived…a neat, black-and-white [theology and] a foreign policy. The end of the Cold War deprived militant evangelicals of that clarity [and] the emergence of “radical Islam” [became] the object of a new Cold War.” [Ibid]
The roots of American evangelism sprang from the original altar call for Christians to stand up against slavery and what has been passing for Christianity today is the antithesis of what Jesus was all about.

“Everyone but Christians understands that Jesus was nonviolent.”-Gandhi
One of the greatest Christian spiritual leaders of all time, Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who listened to Bob Dylan LP’s in his hermitage in Kentucky during the ’60’s and was the first religious voice to rise up and speak out against the Vietnam War warned, “The duty of the Christian at this time is to do the one task God has imposed upon us in this world today. The task is to work for the total abolition of war. There can be no question that unless war is abolished; the world will remain constantly in a state of madness…The church [meaning all Christians] must lead the way on the road to the abolition of war…Peace is to be preached and nonviolence is to be explained and practiced.”
The spiritual darkness of Christian fundamentalism is also rampant in the USA Air Force Academy in Colorado which enabled the likes of Walid Shoebat, author of “Why We Want to Kill You” to speak to the troops in his role as a former fundamentalist Islamic supposed terrorist who converted to fundamentalist Christianity.
Shoebat is one of the infamous darlings of fear filled Christians and Jews [Read More: The Walid Shoebat Show and “America is Beautiful, but she has an ugly side.” – Neil Young

http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=814&Itemid=197] of the cult spewed by the likes of John Hagee and the idiot wind blown by FOX’s Hannity & Colmes, Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto who have all hosted Shoebat.

At the US Air Force Academy on Feb. 6, 2008, Shoebat was the headline act at their annual political forum.
Walid Shoebat, has built a lucrative speaking career by manipulating the fears and whipping up hatred between Jews and Muslims. Shoebat insists that Israel should “wake up and smell the Hummus. We must return to the status quo – the occupation…Israel should stand strong and fight – dismantle Hamas and take away all the weapons, the way it used to be. The introduction of weapons into Palestinian society by Israel [under the Oslo accords, Israel gave assault rifles to Arafat’s ‘police force’ –ed.] was a disaster and they must be confiscated.” [2]
Israel originally supported Hamas to be a wedge between Fatah when Arafat became too popular with the Palestinian people.
Shoebat feels very strongly that the ongoing war against Israel has nothing to do with an Arab desire for a Palestinian state, “Never in history was there a Palestinian state, we never wanted a Palestinian state – even today the Palestinians do not want a Palestinian state…They want the destruction of the Jews, period. It’s a religious holy war.”[IBID]
During his time at the Air Force Academy, Jeff Sharlet encountered fervent fundamentalist militant American soldiers who were ignorant of their very own faith, for the Christian “manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers.” -Dorothy Day
There are currently thirty-five wars being fought in the world and the USA is connected to every one of them.

Over forty-thousand people die every day of starvation and three billion humans endure dire destitution. Unmanned drones under the Obama Administration have murdered hundreds of children and America warehouses over twenty-five thousand nuclear weapons; and yet, many deluded Christians believe the US is a Christian nation!

We the people of the world inhabit a world darkened by bureaucratic systematic institutionalized structures of violence that kill human beings through war, poverty and all the consequences of destruction and despair that flow from corporate greed, violence and fundamentalist religiosity.
Nonviolence is at the core of every religion and Jesus promised it is the peacemakers who are the daughters and sons of God. Jesus denounced injustice, turned over the tables of the bankers in the Temple, was arrested, jailed, tortured and brutally executed, but remained nonviolent, compassionate and forgiving to all.
Jesus called us to love our neighbors- meaning everyone on the planet, to be compassionate and seek justice for the disenfranchised, to forgive our enemies and to put down the sword!

His death on the cross was in vain if those who claim to follow him do not have eyes to see and ears to hear that his message was that we are to end the cycle of violence for God created, loves and is within all beings and all of creation.
It is a lack of imagination that accepts a future of endless war.

It is fear of the other that fuels fundamentalism.

The brand of Christianity being espoused in many US pulpits and in the military is a fear-filled ideology that supports empire in this world which has nothing to do with what Jesus stood and died for: nonviolence, love, forgiveness and compassion- not just towards those who think and look like you, but to your ‘enemies’ too!
The militarization of Christianity defies that “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment.” 1 John 4:16, 18
The militarization of Christianity as professed by anti-Christ’s [against the teachings of Christ] from the pulpits of the likes of Pat Robertson and John Hagee and in the fictional “Left Behind” series of profane theology expose the spirit of the anti-Christ: fear of the other that drives one to violence.
The militarization of Christianity thrives on fear of the other but Jesus said: “FEAR NOT! You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
The militarization of Christianity leaves behind all the non-negotiable’s for those who claim to be a Christian; which is you must forgive, bless and love your enemies; not shoot, bomb, torture, starve or occupy them!
The problem is not with Christianity but that too few have done it the way Jesus taught and modeled: to always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with compassion and forgiveness, as Jesus did when nailed to a cross and he prayed: “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”
Christians are called to prayerfully use the gift of discernment and to test all things according to the teachings of Jesus. An authentic follower of Jesus- and perhaps any with a conscience- will choose equality, fraternity, community and nonviolent creative resistance to the evil that is violence as well as comprehend that evil as well as good cut through every human heart.
It is willful ignorance, apathy, arrogance and misinformation that are holding back the transformation of hearts and minds to see that war is the ultimate form of terrorism and violence the supreme expression of the spirit of the anti-Christ.

“The first casualties of the military’s fundamentalist front are not the Iraqis and Afghans on the wrong side of an American F-16. They’re the spiritual warriors themselves.” [3]

Christ laid down in the Sermon on the Mount principles by which to guide lives and he warned that, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine, and put them into practice, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded upon a rock.  And everyone that hears these sayings, and does not put them into practice, shall be likened to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.” (Matt. 7:24-27)

St. Paul warned all followers of Christ to never judge the non-believer, for it is none of your business. But, when it comes to the believer, you must provoke one another onto good works.
The militarization of Christianity and all terrorism committed in the name of God must be challenged in a world desperate for Christians who actually follow what Jesus was all about.

1. Jeff Sharlet, HARPER’S, May 2009 pages 31-43.

2. http://as-clips.blogspot.com/2007/09/shoebat-from-plo-terrorist-to-lover-of.html

3. Sharlet, HARPER’S.

Other Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/trijicon-will-remove-secr_n_432349.html

Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org