Saturday, June 30, 2007

"DANIEL" Chapter 4 through 13

ד וְאַתָּה דָנִיֵּאל, סְתֹם הַדְּבָרִים וַחֲתֹם הַסֵּפֶר--עַד-עֵת קֵץ; יְשֹׁטְטוּ רַבִּים, וְתִרְבֶּה הַדָּעַת. 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.'
ה וְרָאִיתִי אֲנִי דָנִיֵּאל, וְהִנֵּה שְׁנַיִם אֲחֵרִים עֹמְדִים: אֶחָד הֵנָּה לִשְׂפַת הַיְאֹר, וְאֶחָד הֵנָּה לִשְׂפַת הַיְאֹר. 5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on the bank of the river on this side, and the other on the bank of the river on that side.
ו וַיֹּאמֶר, לָאִישׁ לְבוּשׁ הַבַּדִּים, אֲשֶׁר מִמַּעַל, לְמֵימֵי הַיְאֹר: עַד-מָתַי, קֵץ הַפְּלָאוֹת. 6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river: 'How long shall it be to the end of the wonders?'
ז וָאֶשְׁמַע אֶת-הָאִישׁ לְבוּשׁ הַבַּדִּים, אֲשֶׁר מִמַּעַל לְמֵימֵי הַיְאֹר, וַיָּרֶם יְמִינוֹ וּשְׂמֹאלוֹ אֶל-הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַיִּשָּׁבַע בְּחֵי הָעוֹלָם: כִּי לְמוֹעֵד מוֹעֲדִים וָחֵצִי, וּכְכַלּוֹת נַפֵּץ יַד-עַם-קֹדֶשׁ--תִּכְלֶינָה כָל-אֵלֶּה. 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he lifted up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
ח וַאֲנִי שָׁמַעְתִּי, וְלֹא אָבִין; וָאֹמְרָה--אֲדֹנִי, מָה אַחֲרִית אֵלֶּה. {פ} 8 And I heard, but I understood not; then said I: 'O my lord, what shall be the latter end of these things?' {P}
ט וַיֹּאמֶר, לֵךְ דָּנִיֵּאל: כִּי-סְתֻמִים וַחֲתֻמִים הַדְּבָרִים, עַד-עֵת קֵץ. 9 And he said: 'Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end.
י יִתְבָּרְרוּ וְיִתְלַבְּנוּ וְיִצָּרְפוּ, רַבִּים, וְהִרְשִׁיעוּ רְשָׁעִים, וְלֹא יָבִינוּ כָּל-רְשָׁעִים; וְהַמַּשְׂכִּלִים, יָבִינוּ. 10 Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand.
יא וּמֵעֵת הוּסַר הַתָּמִיד, וְלָתֵת שִׁקּוּץ שֹׁמֵם--יָמִים, אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם וְתִשְׁעִים. 11 And from the time that the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the detestable thing that causes appalment set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
יב אַשְׁרֵי הַמְחַכֶּה, וְיַגִּיעַ: לְיָמִים--אֶלֶף, שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת שְׁלֹשִׁים וַחֲמִשָּׁה. 12 Happy is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
יג וְאַתָּה, לֵךְ לַקֵּץ; וְתָנוּחַ וְתַעֲמֹד לְגֹרָלְךָ, לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין. {ש} 13 But go thou thy way till the end be; and thou shalt rest, and shalt stand up to thy lot, at the end of the days.' {P}

Friday, June 29, 2007

END OF DAYS

Friday, June 29, 2007

Point Man for the Fourth Beast

I thought that I would post my opinion of the Tony Blair nomination as the new negotiator for the Quartet as its own post. It is from the comments of my previous post:

I believe that it is possible that Tony Blair is the spokesperson for the fourth beast in Daniel's vision of Daniel chapter seven. His appearance on the scene as the new point man, a.k.a Chief Prosecutor, for the Quartet during the 40 day period of the Wandering of the Spies sent by Moshe is no accident. The Quartet is an undisguised fourth beast, representing the Kingdom of Edom. It has the pieces of the previous three beasts in its makeup. The lion with the eagle's wings is the Anglo-American Empire even though in ancient times it was Babylon. The bear is Russia even though in ancient times it was Persia/Media. The leopard with four heads is the European Union although in ancient times it was Alexander's Empire broken up amongst his four generals. I do not know who the four heads are today. (Could these heads possibly be the four leaders represented in the Quartet, itself?! In short does the fourth beast "borrow" the heads of the third beast because Greece is the Face of Rome according to Chazal?) I do know this, though. The ancient empire of Nimrod is a favorite of the EU. They speak in their literature of building a modern Tower of Bavel. Nimrod broken up stands for Namer rod (The leopard rules.)

The ten horns in Daniel's vision are the ten economic powers that the CFR wants to break up the world into. Each one would have its own currency. Europe has the Euro. NAFTA will have the Amero. MEFTA including Israel within its pre-67 borders will have its own currency. Tony Blair has been sent to enforce this vision of reality upon the Mideast. I believe G-d has a different scenario.
6/28/2007 11:50 PM
Dov Bar-Leib said...
One last thought. This does not mean that Blair is necessarily the small horn that pulls three horns from the crown on the fourth beast. Yet, he might become that little horn. We will wait and see. Consolidation for the ten economic kingdoms is set for 2010.
6/29/2007 12:26 AM

Thursday, June 28, 2007

"SHARON"

G-d Punishes
The Traitor Sharon

(Originally published by JTF.ORG on January 11, 2006)

Ariel Sharon courts disaster, for himself and the Jewish people, by signing the February 2005 order approving the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza District and northern Samaria

The massive stroke which Israeli Bolshevik dictator Arik Sharon suffered last week was the latest example of the divine punishment that G-d always brings upon Israeli leaders who dare to retreat from any part of the sacred Land of Israel.

JTF predicted that G-d would remove the traitor Sharon from office one way or the other when Sharon first announced his evil plan to expel 10,000 Jews from the Gaza District and northern Samaria in order to create an independent PLO terrorist state in the heartland of Biblical Israel.

G-d punished the Jewish people by allowing the traitor Sharon to carry out his monstrous expulsion of thousands of Jewish families from the holy Jewish lands of the Gaza District and northern Samaria. The Jewish people were punished for supporting and tolerating Sharon's wicked policies.

Israel's grossly corrupt governing tyrant Ariel Sharon was struck down by divine vengeance while at his enormous ranch in the Negev desert - The Sharon ranch was bought with illegal political campaign contributions and profits from a PLO terrorist casino in Jericho, which also supplied funds to Israel's Arab Muslim terrorist enemy

G-d often allows self-hating Jewish traitor leaders to carry out their horrific policies of surrender, expulsion and retreat when He wishes to punish the Jewish people.

Thus, G-d allowed former Israeli Bolshevik dictators Golda Meir and Yitzchak Rabin to retreat from portions of the sacred Jewish Sinai and the Golan Heights after the Yom Kippur War in the 1970s.

Knesset (Israeli parliament) member Omri Sharon, Ariel's equally grotesque son, recently pleaded guilty to a plethora of political racketeering charges

And G-d allowed former Bolshevik dictator Menachem Begin to retreat from the entire sacred Jewish Sinai in the 1980s.

And G-d allowed Rabin - who again became the Bolshevik dictator of Israel in the 1990s - to retreat from portions of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District.

Ariel Sharon's insane and suicidal policies forced heroic young Jewish soldiers like Avi Bieber to go to prison for refusing to obey orders to expel their fellow Jews

And G-d allowed Bolshevik dictator Shimon Peres to make further retreats in Judea and Samaria in 1996.

And G-d allowed Bolshevik dictator Binyamin Netanyahu to retreat from most of the holy Jewish city of Chevron (Hebron) and from other areas in Judea and Samaria in the late 1990s.

And G-d allowed Bolshevik dictator Ehud Barak to make further retreats in Judea and Samaria in 1999, and from southern Lebanon (which is also part of the G-d-given Land of Israel) in 2000.

And in the latest punishment, G-d allowed Sharon to expel every last Jew from the Gaza District and northern Samaria this past summer.

A Sharon bulldozer
in action

However, once a retreat is completed, G-d then removes from office the traitor Israeli leader who committed the abominable crime of surrendering Jewish land that was miraculously given to the Jewish people as an eternal inheritance:

* Literally within months of surrendering Jewish land, Golda Meir was forced out of office as a result of the scandalous crimes that she committed in the Yom Kippur War;

* Yitzchak Rabin was also forced out of office in the 1970s as a result of a personal scandal;

Every prime minister of Israel who surrenders sacred Jewish land has been laid low by divine retribution - Months after surrendering sacred Jewish land, Golda Meir was forced out of office by her scandalous conduct in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. (Meir is shown with Major General Ariel Sharon, who - heedless of the lesson which he might have drawn from Meir's fate - would later provoke G-d's wrath with suicidal policies of his own.)

* Menachem Begin had a stroke in 1983 and was forced to resign shortly after he handed over the entire vital Sinai to Muslim Nazi Egypt;

* Yitzchak Shamir was defeated in the 1992 elections after he agreed to negotiate with the PLO Nazi mass murderers in Madrid;

* Rabin was assassinated in 1995 after he carried out the insane retreats of the Oslo accords;

Ariel Sharon's left-wing police choke Orthodox Jews opposed to the Gaza District expulsions

* Shimon Peres was defeated in the 1996 elections after he made further retreats under the Oslo accords;

* Binyamin Netanyahu was forced to call early elections in 1999 within weeks of agreeing to surrender another 13% of Judea and Samaria in the Wye Plantation talks, and in those early elections, Netanyahu was defeated overwhelmingly;

* Ehud Barak was forced to call early elections in 2001 after offering to surrender virtually all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem to the Arab Muslim Nazis, and in those early elections, Barak was defeated overwhelmingly;

A heroic Jewish pioneer woman is manhandled by an Israeli policeman

* Sharon suffered a severe stroke within months of expelling the Jews of the Gaza District and northern Samaria.

G-d, in His eternal mercy, has made it so obvious that Jewish retreats from His sacred land is something that He will not tolerate. But Jews refuse to learn their lesson no matter how many times it is repeated.

There is a limit to how long G-d will tolerate such wicked behavior. If the Jews retreat from the rest of Judea and Samaria after the March 28, 2006 Knesset (Parliament) elections, and create the ultimate Satanic abomination of an independent PLO Muslim terrorist state in the Biblical heartland of Israel, these horrific acts may lead to another holocaust against millions of Jews, G-d forbid.

A half-dozen Israeli soldiers and police drag a heroic Jewish pioneer out of a home in the Gaza District

And since America has wickedly been pressuring little Israel to make these suicidal retreats, if this Satanic defiance of G-d's Biblical laws continues, G-d will destroy America. G-d is already destroying America gradually through massive emigration from the Third World, which is quickly transforming this once great nation into a banana republic.

The only Jews who can save both Israel and America from this catastrophe are JTF's heroic allies, the Hilltop Youth and Jewish dissident leaders Noam Federman, Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel - Noam broadcasts a weekly Hebrew-language internet program on JTF.ORG

The only Jews who can save both Israel and America from this catastrophe are JTF's heroic allies, the Hilltop Youth and Jewish dissident leaders Noam Federman, Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel. If JTF's allies have enough support, they will mobilize 100,000 Jews to block any further expulsions or retreats with their bodies.

A poster for Sharon's Kadima (Forward) party, dedicated to continuing the expulsions of Jews from their sacred homeland - In the photograph, Sharon's image is juxtaposed against a scantily dressed, tattooed female model and her suggestively posed male companion. (Sharon proceeded with the Gaza District-northern Samaria expulsion to save his skin from criminal prosecution for gross political and fiscal corruption.)

JTF supports the political activities of the Hilltop Youth, and therefore is not tax-deductible.

The Voice of Jewish Activism (VJA) is strictly non-political. It supports the educational efforts and the humanitarian needs of the Hilltop Youth and right-wing Jewish dissidents and therefore is tax-deductible.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

"NEW GUN CONTROL" - MUST READ



WND Exclusive
WEAPONS OF CHOICE
New gun control: Shut down shops
Store says feds confiscating licenses for inadvertent trivia

Posted: June 26, 2007
9:26 p.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The government is using paperwork errors as small as the abbreviation of a city name to shut down some of the nation's longest-serving gun shops, and 2nd Amendment advocates fear the right to bear arms will mean little if there's no way to obtain a gun.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Larry Pratt, of Gun Owners of America, told WND while confirming that as recently as 15 or 20 years ago, there were 250,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States.

Today, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told WND, there are 108,381, and if more cases involving dealers such as Red's Trading Post of Twin Falls, Idaho, develop, that number will plummet quickly.

Ryan Horsley, a spokesman for Red's, which has been in business 71 years, said the store has been battling over its license because of rules infractions such as a missing poster for more than six years.


Red's manager Ryan Horsley

He's launched an online petition asking Congress to intervene and halt the "blatant targeting of law abiding dealers." It also seeks a "fair, constitutional and speedy appeals process" and has attracted thousands of signatures.

His company also has a federal lawsuit pending against the ATF over its announcement that Red's firearms dealership license was being withdrawn.

Attorney Mark Geston said the case asks the court to review the statute and the "propriety" of the decision that was made.

Horsley said the reason Red's is facing a revocation is – at most – insignificant paperwork mistakes.

"Imagine having your driver's license revoked because you did not completely spell out the word 'no' when answering a 'yes' or 'no' question on your application five years ago," his petition asks.

He told WND the inspectors begin with efforts to locate any petty violation they can, usually clerical mistakes. "They list these errors as 'willful' which Congress set in the wording to protect FFL dealers," he said. "The dealer's Federal Firearms License is then revoked and the dealer must enter an appeals process which is extremely unfair."

He said essentially the appeal of a ATF decision goes directly to the people who originally made the decision.

"This is the equivalent of being in court and having the prosecuting attorney act as an adviser to the judge," Horsley said. The result forces the business, if owners want to continue operating, to sue in federal court.

Pratt told WND, "the power that has enabled ATF to take away people's licenses to do business" continues unabated.

Pratt said many gun dealers were closed down when Congress allowed local municipalities to recommend denial depending upon the location of the gun dealership.


The founder of Red's, "Red" Kinney, and son Jesse

And he noted a family gun business that had been operation in Baltimore, Md., for years was attacked because of the "wanton, repeated crime" of abbreviating Baltimore as "Blto" on the "teeny, tiny spaces on the forms provided by the teeny, tiny little minds."

The agency holds, he said, a "continuing animas against gun owners and dealers."

The inspectors have no handbook under which to operate, and the absence of such written procedures allows them to be arbitrary and capricious.

Horsley described to WND his experiences with those very actions.

The ATF inspection of Red's in 2000 discovered various paperwork violations, he said, just shortly after he arrived to take over the store, mistakes such as a customer failing to write down the county in which he lived.

In 2001, "they couldn't find any violations," he told WND. A few other minor problems were found later, including a failure to put up a poster.

"I wasn't alarmed because this agent � had told us we were one of the best small gun shops he'd ever see," Horsley told WND.

Then early in 2006, "We get a letter that 'We're [ATF] revoking your license,'" Horsley said. "I just came unglued. I couldn't believe it."

After an expensive appeal process within ATF, he ended up with the same result, and sought out a lawyer for the federal court challenge.

During the appeal process, the penalty had been delayed, so the store could continue its business. But once the federal court challenge was filed, the ATF announced that the story now was a "threat to public safety" and no longer would be able to acquire firearms.

Horsley told WND he still was allowed to sell whatever he had, but couldn't purchase more stock. His stock plummeted from 1,000 guns to 160 and two workers were laid off before an emergency run to federal court obtained a ruling from U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge that allows the store to continue operations – for now.

The judge found "the ATF speaks of violations found during the inspections of 2000 and 2005, but fails to reveal that additional investigations in 2001 and 2007 revealed no violations or problems."

The judge also noted the ATF was exaggerating the situation by "double counting" some violations.

Horsley said the key issue is that the inspectors make the determination that any errors were "willful." He said the first inspection results in a warning for whatever clerical errors are found; then the next inspection makes the assumption any errors are willful, even if none of the original mistakes was repeated.

Horsley said one inspector told another – in front of a store worker who noted the exchange, that, "We're going to keep doing this until we find something."

He said the number of gun dealers dropped from 1994-2005 by nearly 80 percent and revocations are up nearly six times from 2001-2006. The ATF declined to share information on cases with WND, citing the confidentiality required in an open investigation.

But on a blog on his store's website, Horsley described one situation that happened just a few weeks ago:

The ATF came in yesterday at about 10 a.m. and stayed until around 6 p.m. attempting to find violations to submit to the judge. They did give us a pass on one of the violations. A customer wrote his middle initial instead of a full middle name. We let them know that the customer does not even have a middle name and only an initial. They still told us they would let that pass. So, I am overflowing with gratefulness right now.

I questioned Linda Young (the Area Supervisor) on the last violation that we did not have our records in PERFECT alphabetical order, stating that if you wanted to read the policy literally then we should have to keep all of our records in full alphabetical order and not separated by year despite this being the way nearly all records are kept by dealers. She agreed and then stated that she had the authority to overrule procedures and policies. When I brought up the issue that [an] ATF Inspector ... advised us to keep them in the previous order that we were cited for, she then stated that inspectors did not have the authority to overrule procedures and policies.

Why was [the inspector] not cited or suspended for providing us incorrect information? We were cited for a violation on incorrect information.

He continued: "This is not just happening to us though and is becoming a common trend throughout the United States � Why would we honestly put our license, reputation and over 70 years in business in jeopardy? We would never condone of illegal activity, we have always gone above and beyond what is asked of us and will continue to do so."

Horsley's store, meanwhile, has paid about $70,000 in legal fees so far to avoid his only other option – to lock the doors and go away.

And Pratt said such actions – and expenses – are common.

One dealership in Texas already has paid about $600,000 in fees and expenses to fight to retain its license. That case started with the complaint that bullets from a shooting range near the store were polluting groundwater – even though no test ever had been done to confirm that.

Meanwhile, the publicity campaigns and stunts arranged by high-profile activists opposed to guns continue to muddy the water by making unsubstantiated allegations about gun dealers, they noted.

Jesse Jackson recently appeared at an anti-gun rally outside a gun shop in the Chicago area, a shop that has been targeted multiple times. The protesters have claimed weapons sold at the store have been used to commit murder.

"We must turn our mourning into marching," Jackson said. He was joined by the mother of Blair Holt, 16, who died in a gunman's rampage on a bus.

"To all those people watching me: It could be your child next. So, you better stand up and do something now," said Annette Holt.

Jackson compared gun retailers to the insurgency in Iraq.

"These guns are killing police, civilians, they're killing our children," he said. "In Iraq, they'd call that an insurgent's base."

Rebecca Hazen, however, had a different view. She and her husband for years had run Blue Lakes Sporting Goods, also in Twin Falls, and competed with Red's. They shut down after their firearms license was revoked just a few months ago.

"No government agency should have the right to take away our right to do business," she wrote. "Without a gun license, we had no reason to continue our business� I believe government has been unable to take guns from the hands of citizens or sue gun manufacturers out of business, so they will use government agencies to revoke licenses one at a time until there are no stores to buy guns."

"I encourage every gun owner to step forward and let their senators and congressmen know how we feel about the ATF's power to revoke licenses and close up businesses. The ATF should be stopped before there are no guns left to buy. Let your voice be heard," she wrote.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

GIULIANI LAW FIRM GIVES $$$ TO DEMOCRATS

YOU MUST LISTEN TO MARK LEVIN'S AUDIO ABOUT SENATOR TRENT LOTT - DO IT NOW...
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/06/21/audio-mark-levin-thrashes-trent-lotts-long-and-undistinguished-record/

***********************************************************************

Giuliani's law firm also donates to Democrats

politics

By CARLA MARINUCCI
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is partner in a law firm with a generous political action committee -- one that gave nearly 40 percent of its contributions to Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections, including $5,000 to then-Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

The 2006 donations from the political action committee of the Houston-based law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani -- known as Bracepac -- included $3,000 to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco.

Bracepac contributed to 53 Democratic candidates and 50 Republicans in the 2006 election cycle, federal records show.

Some Republican insiders said the campaign contributions by Giuliani's firm will have no influence on the former New York City mayor's attempts to woo conservative and grassroots voters away from the other leading GOP presidential candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"If the donations were in Rudy Giuliani's name, or his wife's name, that would be a problem," said Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution research fellow and former speechwriter to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. "But it's the reality of modern-day politics ... and under the larger category of doing business. He's a partner in a law firm that wants to do business on both sides of the street -- so you give to Republicans and Democrats."

Giuliani is among a group of 2008 presidential hopefuls who are in California this week for fundraising and public events including Democrats John Edwards of North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican McCain.

As the already busy presidential campaign gathers speed, the hopeful candidates are certain to face increasing scrutiny on their lives inside and outside of politics including issues such as the political contributions by the former mayor's law firm.

Giuliani already has faced questions about his income from the law firm, as a security consultant and as a public speaker, a field in which he reaped $11.3 million last year, federal records show.

The Houston Chronicle reported this month that Giuliani has been paid at least $1.2 million by Bracewell & Giuliani. Texas Lawyer reported that he also received $690,000 in partners' profits last year.

Scott Segal, a partner in Bracewell & Giuliani, said Tuesday in response to questions that the firm's "approach to government relations is bipartisan and bicameral."

Indeed, the firm's political donations are controlled entirely by its political committee. Insiders point out that Giuliani is not a member of that committee and makes no decisions related to its political contributions.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani's campaign, said in an e-mail Tuesday that "the PAC is not representative of the mayor's beliefs," adding that "people donate to Mayor Giuliani based on their belief in his candidacy, not the other way around."

Bracewell & Giuliani has also been a high-profile lobbying firm, receiving nearly $6 million in lobbying fees last year with a client list that included the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association _ which fought regulations to reduce greenhouse gases _ and the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry group formed in part to fight pollution controls for coal-fired plants.

Giuliani's chief policy adviser, Bill Simon _ a former Republican candidate for California governor _ said he expects Giuliani will be subject to examination by the public in the campaign and believes voters will fairly judge the former mayor's experience and long record of public service.

"I think any presidential contest is going to involve a lot of scrutiny, and the mayor has been a very, very successful individual on a number of different activities," Simon said. Opponents and the media "will look hard at the mayor's record and occasionally distort it."

(E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci(at)sfchronicle.com)

...............................................................................................

WND Exclusive


PREMEDITATED MERGER
Rudy Giuliani tied to 'superhighways'

Law firm represents consortia funding NAFTA-related routes

Posted: May 15, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Rudy Giuliani

Questions are being raised over Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's policy on terrorism, after a report revealed he has strong ties to two foreign investment consortia working to own or lease U.S. toll roads, including the Trans-Texas Corridor 35, which is identified as part of the I-35 "NAFTA Superhighway."

Although he opposed NAFTA in 1993, Giuliani recently declined to call for building a fence on the United States border with Mexico, and he has supported a guest-worker program.

Columnist Michelle Malkin also has documented that while mayor of New York City, Giuliani kept the municipality a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, adhering to a policy first established by Mayor Ed Koch in 1989.

Now comes a new report about Giuliani's involvement with public-private-partnership projects that include NAFTA Superhighway funding and his open borders record on immigration questions, all of which could undermine his otherwise tough policy on terrorism that has resulted from the 9/11 role Giuliani played in managing New York City's response to the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Giuliani's Houston-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, is identified by the Texas Department of Transportation as the sole law firm representing Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., the Spanish investment consortium that has joined with Zachry Construction Company in San Antonio on the TTC project.

WND previously reported that TTC-35 is the new four-football-fields-wide car-truck-train-pipeline corridor to be built parallel to the existing I-35 as the Texas segment of the emerging Mexico-to-Canada I-35 NAFTA Superhighway.

Bracewell & Giuliani also has advised Cintra on the completion of the Comprehensive Development Agreement negotiated with Texas to develop State Highway 121 into a toll road through Collin and Denton counties.

The state highway department also gave Cintra a 50-year concession to operate SH 121 as a toll road, with Cintra agreeing to pay $2.1 billion upfront and annual lease payments totaling $700 million.

In addition, Bracewell & Giuliani successfully negotiated a $1.3 billion deal with TxDOT for Cintra-Zachry to build the remaining 40 miles of State Highway 130 as a toll road.

WND also has reported that Giuliani Capital Advisors was acquired in March by Macquarie, an Australian investment consortium which has also been involved in leasing and operating U.S. toll roads.

Further, the Federal Highway Administration has created a public-private-partnerships website on which both Cintra and Macquarie are featured as joint venture partners in the 2005 deal involving $1.83 billion paid to the City of Chicago to operate the Chicago Skyway under a 99-year lease.

The FHWA website also discloses that Cintra and Macquarie partnered in the $3.85 billion 2006 deal to operate the Indiana Toll Road on a 75-year lease.

WND has previously reported EuroMoney Seminars, a UK-based company, is holding seminars to teach state and local governments in the U.S. how to lease a wide range of public assets – from highways to water departments, to prisons and schools – to international and foreign investment groups.

Just this month, independent journalist Diane Grassi first broke the story of Giuliani's involvement with the NAFTA Superhighway, writing that, "All negotiations for Cintra were and are presently handled by the law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP, of which Republican Presidential candidate, Rudolph Giuliani, has been a senior executive partner since March 2005. His law firm is the exclusive legal counsel for Cintra."

The New York Sun also earlier reported that an October 2002 contract between Mexico City and Giuliani Partners, a Giuliani consulting firm, to reduce crime was a failure.

Giuliani began the project in January 2003 with a fanfare initial tour of Mexico City that included a motorcade of a dozen bulletproof SUVs, 400 officers, and a helicopter.

Still, the Sun reported that Giuliani Partners ended up being paid less than the full $4.3 million contract price tag, despite some 20 trips to Mexico City booked by Giuliani associates over a 10-month period.

In December 2004, Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, resigned as CEO of Giuliani-Kerik, a law enforcement-oriented subsidiary of Giuliani Partners, amidst the various scandals that developed following Kerik's nomination by President Bush to head the Department of Homeland Security.
....................................................................................................................................

Giuliani campaign chairman indicted

State treasurer indicted on drug charges

State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent distribute cocaine, federal and state authorities said at a news conference at SLED headquarters this afternoon.

According to the indictment, beginning in 2005 — before he was elected state treasurer — Ravenel conspired with Michael L. Miller to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

If convicted, Ravenel faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

The Charleston Republican raised millions of dollars to unseat long-term Democratic incumbent Grady Patterson in November. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Ravenel in April was named the state chairman for former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

Ravenel, 44, is a multi-millionaire real estate developer and the son of Arthur Ravenel Jr., a powerful South Carolina politician who formerly was a member of the General Assembly and the U.S. House.

As treasurer, Ravenel is responsible for handling the state’s finances and investments. He also holds a seat on the powerful State Budget and Control Board, which controls much of the state bureaucracy. His salary is $92,007.

Check back throughout the evening and in Wednesday’s editions of The State newspaper for updates on this story.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

REPUBLICAN BASE RUNNING AWAY FROM BUSH

Republican candidates begin snubbing Bush

By: David Paul Kuhn and Jonathan Martin
Jun 18, 2007 05:52 PM EST

President George W. Bush
The willingness of leading Republicans to draw distinctions with Bush goes beyond immigration.
Photo by AP
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A president with dismal approval ratings and a bitter intraparty rupture over immigration are obvious problems for Republican politicians.

In recent days, however, the combination is emerging as something less obvious: an opportunity.

Recent polls have shown Bush's popularity -- which has long been in the tank with independents -- suffering significant erosion even among GOP base voters, largely due to a backlash over the president's stance on immigration.

The decline, according to some Republican strategists, has flashed a green light for lawmakers on Capitol Hill and presidential candidates to put distance between themselves and an unpopular president -- a politically essential maneuver for the 2008 general election that remained risky as long as Bush retained the sympathies of Republican stalwarts.

Now that those sympathies have somewhat cooled, the effects are visible: Republican House members upset about immigration policy have spoken of Bush in disparaging terms. And presidential contenders like Rudy Giuliani are striking change-the-course themes in their rhetoric, even while continuing to back Bush over the Iraq war.

The change, say GOP operatives, is the absence of fear about being perceived as something less than an ardent Bush backer. "What's the penalty now, Karl being mad at you?" Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio asked with a laugh, referring to Bush political adviser Karl Rove. "Who cares? Even his former chief strategist (Matthew Dowd) walked away from him and pissed all over him."



Continue reading our story » Page: 1 2 3

.......................................................................................................................................................................

SEN. KENNEDY IGNORING US LAWS


by Michael Cutler
June 17, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

An article "Senate OKs Amnesty for Deportees" appeared in Washington Times. It is an extremely important story because it makes it perfectly clear how Senator Kennedy feels about the laws of our nation and the need to abide by the laws. He has been one of the prime movers behind providing amnesty to the many millions of illegal aliens who are present in the United States today. He was a prime mover behind the Amnesty of 1986 that was an utter disaster. Back then he assured the American people as well as his colleagues in the Senate and, indeed, the United States Congress, that the "One time" measure of providing amnesty to illegal aliens would bring roughly 1.1 million illegal aliens out of the shadows to finally enable our country to create an effective immigration system.

It is obvious that he crafted the trash known as the Senate immigration bill (S. 1348) in a closed door session because the light of truth would have killed it! Democracy demands transparency and we are not dealing with a democratic process here! Kennedy will leave quite a legacy in our nation's history books. The brother of two highly regarded men, President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General and New York Senator Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy is utterly ignoring President Kennedy's clarion call to service for all Americans when he famously implored us to "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!" Perhaps Ted Kennedy thought his brother said, "Ask what you can do to your country!"

My parents raised me to believe that a man (or woman) is only as good as his or her word. Obviously Kennedy's word is worthless. He is at it again, demanding that our nation not only provide the millions of illegal aliens who are present in our country in violation of law with a path to United States citizenship, but he wants to make it possible for all aliens to participate in this outrageous give away program so that even aliens who violated not only our nation's borders but also failed to appear for immigration hearings when ordered to do so. Kennedy would reward those who thumb their noses at our borders, our laws and our law enforcement efforts with the most valuable honor a nation may bestow upon an alien, citizenship in that country!

What is truly amazing is that Kennedy was able to find enough ethically challenged "leaders" in the Senate to get that insane measure passed!

This absolutely takes my breath away! As a former INS special agent I am quite familiar with how bail decisions are made by magistrates and judges. Essentially the factors are the severity of the crime being charged, the risk that the defendant poses to the community and the risk of flight demonstrated by the defendant. Here we have the legislators of the highest legislative body of the United States ignoring these basic, commonsense principles. Could an individual who has violated our laws possibly show greater contempt for our laws than by failing to show up for a court hearing? Yet Kennedy and his cohort puppets masquerading as "leaders" in the Senate, voted to allow absconders (fugitives) to still have the right to become citizens of the United States!

There was a time when aliens needed to demonstrate that they possess GMC (Good Moral Character) in order to qualify for naturalization. Kennedy and his gang apparently think that this is too much to ask for! In a way I understand this. Kennedy is not a man of his word; consider his promise when he pushed the first amnesty in 1986. Apparently he could care less if aliens who enter our country illegally refuse to play by the rules even after they are caught. The message that this sends to the world is quite obvious. Kennedy and those senators who voted for this provision are telling people all around the world that if they come to the United States by violating our laws we are happy to have them here. If they fail to appear for a hearing, this is just fine with these senators as well! Apparently Kennedy does not believe that immigration laws should be enforced at all. Consider his rationale and the rationale expressed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, in this quote taken from the article:

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, said they were only guilty of "common, garden-variety immigration offenses" that should not disqualify them. "Our employers beg them to come back and our broken borders make that possible," he said. Other Democrats, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, said Mr. Cornyn's amendment would remove due process rights for illegal aliens.

Apparently Kennedy believes that immigration laws are merely an impediment to the movement of aliens across our borders including those who are involved in criminal activities. Kennedy apparently has little use for our nation's immigration laws. He claims that the illegals enter our country because our borders are broken, but then he would do nothing to repair those same borders across which illegal aliens including drug traffickers, violent gang members and terrorists enter our country with great facility. Senator Whitehouse talks about due process but due process does not mean that individuals can violate laws at will. Due process is defined by the on-line Merriam-Webster Dictionary as:

Main Entry:
due process Function:
noun

1: a course of formal proceedings (as legal proceedings) carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principles -- called also procedural due process
2: a judicial requirement that enacted laws may not contain provisions that result in the unfair, arbitrary, or unreasonable treatment of an individual -- called also substantive due process

When an individual takes it upon himself to ignore a lawful order to appear for a court hearing that individual is violating the due process of the immigration courts. Yet these members of the United States Senate seem to be unconcerned about the nature of the legislation that they are passing and the damage that this would do to our nation and our citizens especially at a time when our nation is confronting the threat of international terrorists, criminals and drug dealers. By rewarding those who not only violate our borders but contumaciously ignore a lawful order to appear for a hearing before an immigration judge, our nation's hobbled efforts of border security will simply collapse under the pressure of the stampede of aliens who will have been given a clear message should the substantive measures contained in the Senate immigration bill S. 1348 that I have come to refer to as the "Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007," become the law of the land.

Consider another quote I have taken from the article:

During the action some senators cast votes that may come back to haunt them.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who ran in last year's election on getting tough on illegal immigration, voted to preserve citizenship rights for alien absconders. So did Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, who during last year's debate co-sponsored the same amendment with Mr. Cornyn.

Mr. Kyl is the key senator in the "grand bargain" underlying the immigration bill, and he could be overheard by spectators in the gallery marveling to other senators at the sacrifices he's made to keep his compromise alive: "I voted against my best friend -- an amendment we wrote together." It is clear that there are senators whose word is meaningless. Obviously Senators Kyl and McCaskill are among those who achieve elected office by blatantly lying to their constituents. What is the point to taking a position in a debate if you turn around and vote against the position you take when you participate in a debate to purportedly provide voters with an understanding of your position?


I do commend Senator Cornyn for defeating a confidentiality provision that would have made it impossible for law enforcement to have access to the applications that are filed for amnesty and then denied. This is a small but significant issue. Under the similar confidentiality provisions of the Amnesty of 1986 I was not allowed to share information contained in Amnesty applications even if the alien in question was wanted for mass murder, drug trafficking or other serious crimes that I suspect Kennedy would call "Garden variety felonies!"


I suspect that the senators who voted to allow illegal alien absconders to be put on the path to citizenship did so because they identified with those who have disdain for our laws and our nation.

"We the People" need to pay attention to how those who allege to represent us truly represent us. We must become involved in the political process and make the politicians accountable.

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

© 2007 - Michael Cutler - All Rights Reserved

Sunday, June 17, 2007

DEBKA EXCLUSIVE

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Damascus ordered Sunday's Katyusha attack on N. Israeli Kiryat Shemona, causing no casualties. But there is more to come

June 17, 2007, 11:29 PM (GMT+02:00)

A Katyusha rocket that did not explode in Wadi Taibeh north of Israeli border

A Katyusha rocket that did not explode in Wadi Taibeh north of Israeli border


The three 107mm rockets fired against Kiryat Shemona from Wadi Taiba Sunday, June 17, by a Palestinian radical group called Ansar Allah based in the Ain Hilwa refugee camp near Sidon was ordered by Syrian military intelligence as the first in a series, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. Hizballah intelligence officers supplied the rockets and pinpointed the launching site to make sure they struck the Israeli town. Residents rushed for bomb shelters for the first time since the Lebanon War ended eleven months ago. A factory and parked vehicles were damaged.

The hit squad drove up in a rental Toyota, rigged the rockets and drove off.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that Syria and Hizballah are preparing an escalating series of rocket barrages against norhern Israel civilian and military locations in the coming weeks. It is a stage in an overall plan orchestrated by Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah to stage attacks in Lebanon, Israel and Palestinian territory. Its objectives are to destabilize the pro-Western Siniora government in Beirut and whittle down Israel’s deterrent strength.

Rocketing Kiryat Shemona was Stage 3 of the plan. Two rockets damaged a factory and a parked vehicle in separate parts of Kiryat Shemona. A third landed near a UNIFIL position inside Lebanon.

Stage one is the five-week old radical Islamic, pro-Damascus uprising in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, which the Lebanese army has not yet subdued. Stage two was Hamas’ just-completed capture of the Gaza Strip from Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that in the name of “restraint,” Israel’s government and military leaders refrain from connecting the dots of the campaign ahead and its links to Tehran and Damascus in time to foil it, in the same way as they glossed over Hizballah’s build-up for the 2006 Lebanon war.

According to our intelligence sources, a former Fatah officer called Jamal Suleiman is Ansar Allah’s leader. He moved to Damascus in the 1980s and returned to the Ain Hilwa in Lebanon in April loaded with cash. He then began recruiting for his Ansar al Allah, working to exactly the same Damascus-designed format as the Fatah al-Islam was embedded in the northern camp of Nahr al-Bared.

If Israeli leaders refuse to call a spade a spade, Fatah leaders are more outspoken. Sunday, Azam al Ahmad declared in an interview in Ramallah that the perpetrators of the crime [against the Palestinian Authority in Gaza] are the same people who sent assassins to murder the Lebanese politician Rafiq Hariri, “Both come from the same hand [Syria],” he said.

Friday, June 15, 2007

ITS TIME TO GET OUT OF FANTASY LAND AND FACE REALITY


Home Links Editorials

Casey Files:
Your Cash is Trash
and So Are Most of Your Investments

Doug Casey
The International Speculator
Jun 15, 2007

Almost everyone, probably including yourself, gets held back by inertia at one time or another. It can happen with anything, including investments.

Inertia weighs on an investor, trapping him in a state of paralysis and freezing his portfolio, almost forcing him to hold on to whatever he already owns - for no better reason than that he already owns it. He hopes that every one of his old shoes will go up, even if the reason for the purchase is long forgotten or the environment in which the investment might have prospered has vanished. People who substitute hope for cold-blooded analysis almost inevitably wind up losing money.

So, for the sake of argument, let's look at where you might best put your money for the rest of the year 2007. To keep things simple, let's assume you start by liquidating all the cats and dogs populating your portfolio, so that you have just a pile of cash. No, let's not phrase it that way... because then you're going to start wondering which of the securities you own really are cats and dogs. You might get bogged down. And then inertia will creep back in, and you'll throw your hands up and do nothing. So let's assume you sell everything, in true going-out-of-business style.

Now, what's the smartest place to put that money? Let's look at the alternatives.

Bonds? A disastrous sucker bet. Bonds, at the moment, are a triple threat to your capital. First, you have a huge risk with interest rates, which are still near historic lows; as they go up, the market value of your bonds drops proportionately. Second, no matter which of the fiat currencies you choose, you have a big currency risk; while the US dollar is on the fast train to zero, virtually every other currency in the world is being inflated along with it and is heading toward eventual oblivion. Third, you have credit risk; General Motors isn't the only large company whose bonds may go into default.

Stocks? The general market is yielding less than 2% in dividends, less than 1/3 of what you typically see at major market bottoms. And selling for more than 18 times earnings-more than 25% higher than its norm. Worse, for those who might be buyers, the bull market of the century started in 1982 and, in inflation-adjusted terms, ended in 2000. You might not want to hear it, but stocks are almost certainly early into a bear market that could last another 5 or 10 years. By all traditional measures, chances are much better that stocks will drop 50% from here than gain 50%.

Cash? You could always just stay in T-bills. But they currently yield only 5%, before taxes. And inflation (notwithstanding the highly imaginary official figures) is probably running around 6% and likely to head higher.

Real Estate? At the present, at least in the U.S., this is probably the worst choice of all. The speculative boom crested last year, and the market, burdened by an immense amount of debt and overleveraged speculation, is likely to head down for years to come. Of course, there are places in the world, two of our favorites being Argentina and Uruguay, where there isn't much of a mortgage market, so the properties aren't overleveraged and values are still available. But unless you are looking to pick up cheap land in undeveloped, exotic countries that have avoided the credit-driven bubble, real estate should be last on your list of investments.

Mutual funds? Any mutual fund you're likely to pick is just a way of buying one of the investments we've already dismissed. And paying all those fees and expenses that come with a mutual fund just makes the bet that much worse.

So What Should You Do?

Since 2001, we've been in a natural resources bull market. If you were one of the few who positioned yourself in gold, silver or pretty much any of the metals or energy commodities - either directly or through the shares in smaller resource companies, which is the preferred vehicle we have been recommending to subscribers of our International Speculator -- you've already made the easy money.

At least to us, before the bull market kicked off, the opportunity in the sector seemed obvious, with many resource companies selling for less than the cash they had in the bank. Few people even knew the sector existed, and most of them thought it was a dead duck after the 20-year-long bear market it had suffered since 1980.

The easy-money stage of the resource bull ended in 2003, at which time we entered the second stage, where the market climbs a "wall of worry." In even the most formidable of bull markets, this phase comes with inevitable corrections and scary downdrafts. Per its moniker, with each short-term setback in price, investors who were shrewd enough to get positioned early on into the long bull market fret that they might be wrong. Some are shaken out, but the smart ones buy even more on the dips.

But now, in my opinion, we are about to enter the third, and most important, stage of the classic bull market: the mania stage. This will resemble the tail-end of the Internet stock bull market. It's hard to predict exactly what catalyst will set it off, but it will very likely be rising expectations for inflation. Fear will drive the foreigners who hold about $6 trillion to sell the greenback, and they'll be joined by savvy Americans. Some will buy other paper currencies, like the euro or the yen. But those units are just backed by U.S. dollars themselves, so they really aren't much in the way of an escape pod. Inevitably, much of the money now sloshing through the world will try to get into gold. While no one can say with certainty, I expect the metal to hit $1,000 within the next 12 months and go much, much higher by the end of the decade.

Is this an unreasonable prediction? No.

Most casual investors mistakenly look at gold and think it's been a leader in this bull market when, in actual fact, it's a laggard compared to the industrial metals that have been bidden up to extraordinary highs by soaring demand from China, India and other emerging markets.

To give you just a few examples, in the last five years, copper has been up 330%, nickel 560%, uranium 1,150%, zinc up 460%, molybdenum up 450%, and even lowly lead, the most basic of base metals, is up 425%. By comparison, gold is up only 100%.

That will change, however, because although gold has many and growing industrial uses, its main use is as money. It will dawn on the herd that the world is drowning in a flood of increasingly worthless paper currency, and they're going to stampede toward the high ground of gold.

The metal isn't just going through the roof. It's going to the moon.

Gold Good, Gold Shares Better

When gold really starts to move, the mining exploration stocks are going to howl. That's because gold exploration stocks are not just highly leveraged plays on the price of gold. They are capable of providing you with triple-digit gains based on exploration success alone.

Case in point, the last mining share boom from 1993-96, which occurred at the tail-end of gold's 20-year bear market and carried hundreds of stocks with it, was driven entirely by a handful of discoveries. Since gold prices turned up, starting in 2001, a lot of money has been spent on exploration, and that work will inevitably lead to major discoveries and market excitement. Several of the companies we follow in our International Speculator are already drilling into what look to be monster deposits. Confirmation of a major discovery could well ignite a mania in the market.

While most other investments, such as bonds, industrial stocks, real estate and broad mutual funds are likely to be serious losers over the coming years, the bull market in gold and gold exploration stocks has still barely entered the public's consciousness. Although the easy money has been made, the big money is waiting to be picked up.

Nothing in the investing world is ever a sure thing, but today the exploration stocks look to be as close as it gets. As for the inevitable corrections during this "wall of worry" phase, remember that the time to be timid is when everyone else is bold, and the time to be bold is when everyone else is timid. Sell-offs in the gold and gold mining sector are, to our way of thinking, gift-wrapped opportunities to buy.

Doug Casey is chairman of Casey Research, LLC., one of the nation's oldest and most respected organizations dedicated to providing independent investors with unbiased research on opportunities to earn extraordinary profits by being just ahead of the crowd. BIG GOLD, new from Casey Research, provides subscribers with actionable research on the unfolding gold bull market and on profiting from the world's best gold producers, near-producers, gold mutual funds, ETFs and more. You can try it without risk...

...To find out how, click here.

Doug Casey

Casey Archives

321gold Ltd

Thursday, June 14, 2007

"GAZASTAN"

Hamas Seizes Fatah Security HQ

Hamas fighters have overrun the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, as factional fighting in Gaza continues.

Hamas militants take control of Gaza
Hamas militants take control of Gaza

One witness said security men had been executed in the street.

The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters is seen as a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of Gaza.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back.

Mr Abbas had previously told the guard to maintain a defensive posture at his house and office in Gaza.

At least 80 people, mostly gunmen but also children and other civilians, have been killed in factional clashes over the past week.

The two factions have warred sporadically since Hamas unseated Fatah in parliamentary elections last year, but never with such intensity.

Mr Abbas is holding crisis talks and is expected to make an announcement on the future of the Hamas-led unity government.

Mr Abbas is said to be poised to dissolve the coalition that Fatah joined in March under a Saudi-brokered deal aimed at ending internal violence and easing Western economic sanctions.

The Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) top body has recommended Mr Abbas declare a state of emergency and dismantle the government.

An aide for Mr Abbas said he was reviewing the recommendations and would make a decision soon.

Sky News correspondent Dominic Waghorn said Hamas forces had taken control of considerable areas of the crowded territory and were surrounding Fatah forces in several bases.

He said: "It's very unclear who's giving the orders. Hamas wouldn't be doing this without orders from the top.

"It is securing its control of the border in the south and then it is focusing its forces in Gaza."

He added that some Fatah officials have been critical of a lack of action from Mr Abbas.

"He is playing what could be his last card in Gaza, but could it be too little too late?"

Earlier, President Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas issued a joint statement calling on all sides "to halt fighting, and to return to language of dialogue and respect of agreements".

But Hamas radio denied the two had agreed to a truce, and clashes intensified in the hour after their statement was broadcast.

Meanwhile, Hamas has said it would refuse to accept an international force along the Gaza's border with Egypt and would treat it as an occupying power.

.......................................................................................................................................

Hamas Poised to Convert Captured Gaza Strip into Islamist Enclave

DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Log of Five-Day Blitz

June 14, 2007, 12:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

Abbas' Presidential Guardsmen surrender to Hamas

Abbas' Presidential Guardsmen surrender to Hamas


14 June: Hamas seizes control of strategic Philadelphi enclave on Egyptian border and all Gaza’s border crossings with Egypt and Israel. At least 35 people died in the fighting Wednesday. Any international force in Gaza will be resisted in the same way as an Israeli occupation army, said a Hamas spokesman Thursday, June 14.

Senior Israeli officers described the Hamas victory to DEBKAfile as a greater misfortune for Israel than its Lebanon War setbacks. There, Hizballah was forced by Israeli military action to accept a UN ceasefire and international peacekeepers.

Hamas has no such incentive. In the case of Gaza, the winner takes all and can dictate terms. A radical Islamic enclave with a dominant Iranian-Syrian military presence has sprung up unopposed as a hostile reality on Israel’s southwestern border. It has made the Israeli-Middle East Quartet’s boycott an irrelevance.

The Hamas Executive Force completed the seizure of all pro-Fatah Presidential Guard border positions, including the Karni goods crossing and the Sufa, Kerem Shalom and Rafah transit points, after midnight Wednesday night, June 14. Their commander Col. Musbah Basichi and his 60 officers fled to Egypt. At least 35 Palestinians were killed in fighting Wednesday.

Hamas pounced as Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert held a belated conversation with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the deployment of an international force on the Philadelphi route. Hamas leaders flushed with victory will hardly accept such hindrance to the free flow of smuggled arms, missiles and explosives into the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military and security personnel administering the crossings on the Israeli side will have to work cheek by jowl with Hamas operators. The Israeli government, which decided to stay out of the Hamas-Fatah conflict, must now decide whether to break off ties with Hamas-controlled Gaza and seal the crossings, or interact with the new masters in order to admit emergency supplies for 1.4 million Gazans.

13 June: Overnight, thousands of Palestinian security officers loyal to Fatah were under Hamas siege at their last bastions – Gaza City’s Presidential Guard compound and the General Security command.

They are running out of food, water and ammunition. Hamas and its Executive Force had overrun some 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, while loyalists of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, including complete clans, surrendered and turned in their weapons. Hamas has set up large prisoner camps, some on the rubble of the Gush Katif villages. Wednesday afternoon, a desperate Abbas appealed to Israel to permit arms and ammunition to be transferred from the West Bank. Israeli officers said it was too late. Fatah is a lost case and any arms crossing into Gaza will be seized at once by Hamas.

Israel decides to stay out of the Palestinian internecine war in Gaza.

Prime minister Ehud Olmert led the cabinet in a decision Tuesday night, June 12, to avoid “fighting on the side of the pragmatists against the extremists.” Olmert said an international force is worth considering for securing the Philadelphi border enclave of the Gaza Strip against further arms smuggling. DEBKAfile: This would replicate the situation in South Lebanon where UNIFIL troops have been helpless to halt illegal gunrunning to the Hizballah from Syria. The UN Security voiced concern over this traffic only Tuesday, June 12.

12 June: DEBKAfile reported Hamas’ seizure of Gaza’s main south-north highway in fierce fighting with many casualties, most Fatah.

By borrowing this Israeli tactic for bisecting the territory to contain terrorists, Hamas shut in Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Guard, which has not yet been thrown into battle, and choked off ammunition re-supply routes to Fatah fighters. To tighten their control, Hamas units also commandeered high rise rooftops.

Hamas then gave Fatah till Friday noon to surrender their arms or become wanted men under sentence of death. Abbas called the situation “madness.”

UNWRA has cut down its personnel in Gaza after two aid workers were killed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Hamas’ planning and combat tactics clearly betray the professional hands of Syrian and Hizballah officers who have set up a command center in the Gaza Strip.

DEBKAfile’s Military sources: Iran and Syria are the winners of Hamas’ military coup against Fatah in Gaza Strip

It was the second triumph in a week for a Palestinian force backed by Iran and Syria, after the Lebanese army failed in four weeks’ combat to crush the pro-Syrian factions’ barricaded in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp near Tripoli.

Tuesday, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Palestinian Authority forces faced disaster. Their inevitable ejection from the Gaza Strip effectively severs Palestinian rule between Ramallah, where Fatah will have to fight to retain control of the West Bank and Gaza, dominated now by an Islamist Palestinian force manipulated from Tehran and Damascus.

The Iran-Syrian alliance has acquired by brute force two Mediterranean coastal enclaves in northern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Its momentum, launched a month ago in both sectors was unchecked. The Fouad Siniora government’s troops failed to break through to the Palestinian camp and crush the pro-Syrian uprising. The Olmert government stood by unmoved as the most radical elements in the Middle East snatched the Gaza Strip on Israel’s southwestern border.

The Bush administration is finding itself forced out of key Middle East positions, its main assets Siniora and Mahmoud Abbas trounced on the battlefield.

Israel’s technological feat of placing the Ofeq-7 surveillance satellite in orbit Monday quickly proved ineffective against the sort of tactics Tehran and Syria employ: mobile, suicidal Palestinian terrorists, heavily and cheaply armed with primitive weapons, who are winning the first round of the Summer 2007 war and preparing for the next.

11 June: DEBKAfile reported: The brutal civil strife has brought the fragile Hamas-Fatah unity government to closure. The War Crimes Prosecution Watch has condemned rival Palestinian factions fighting in Gaza for attacking civilians, prisoners and hospitals.

Senior Palestinian politician Saab Erikat warned the “Mogadishu syndrome” is overtaking Palestinian Gaza. “If war and lawlessness are not extinguished, the fire will burn us all”

The outcome generated by the civil war is the separation of Palestinian rule between Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Fatah-led West Bank.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Hamas threw its entire 5,000-strong Executive Force armed with mortars, RPGs, heavy machine guns and grenades into the final bid to conquer the Gaza Strip, whereas Fatah commanders’ desperate appeals to Mahmoud Abbas for reinforcements drew nothing but a futile call for a ceasefire.

...........................................................................................................................................................

Israel: The withdrawal from Gaza ... a step towards peace? Print E-mail
By Yossi Schwartz in Jerusalem
Tuesday, 23 August 2005

For days Israelis and Palestinians have been glued to their TV
sets watching the developments in Gaza Strip. The army and
the police, under the Sharon-Bush “disengagement plan”, have
been evacuating 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 of the 120
settlements in the West bank.

For weeks the supporters of the settlers have been wearing orange
ribbons on their arms. In many places one sees the nationalist slogan
“A Jew does not expel a Jew”. This is a slogan that can mean either
“non-Jews expel Jews” (supposedly referring to the Israeli Army)
or “Jews expel non-Jews”.

The evacuation of the Gaza Strip began last Wednesday. The settlers
were evacuated in the gentlest way possible. The operation was called
“A Hand to our Brothers”. Soldiers and police carried the settlers who
refused to leave of their own accord out of the area as if they were
fragile eggs. Many of these right-wingers had an orange Star of David
pinned to their chests. Many of their children walked with their arms
up in the air as if they were the victims of the Nazis – the simply
colonialists who stole the land from the people of Gaza and built large
farms on the backs of cheap local Palestinian labour.

The settlers insulted the soldiers and threw paint, stones and other
objects at them. Yet the army officers spoke to them as if they were
their lost brothers and sisters. A man named Shamir told TV reporters,
“until now I believed this state was mine – not anymore”. Then he added
with tears, “”What will happen to us? We had 300-400 dunams
(1 dunam = 1 000 m2)each, and now they put us in hotels”. Later on
the Minister of Housing, a member of the Zionist Labour Party,
explained that those who agreed to leave voluntarily had already received
new villas, while the others were being put in 5 star hotels until the
government could find them a new home. Another man, a father holding
his daughter, shouted hysterically at a soldier: “Take my daughter like
the Nazis did to the Jews in Europe!”

For 30 years 1,500 families, altogether some 8,000 people who settled in
Gaza after the Israeli occupation 38 years ago, saw their businesses flourish.
They received large tracts of land for free in one of the most densely
populated areas in the world. They also received great villas that cost
them almost nothing. Nor were these people removed from Gaza without
making the evacuation good for business. Each family was well
compensated, receiving at least half a million dollars, in addition to
receiving new farmland inside the green line. For instance, according
to the agreement, farmers who leave their greenhouses will receive
$4,000 per dunam. The Gush Katif greenhouses cover an area of
3,000 dunhams! This comes at a time when the number of people
living under the poverty line in Israel has risen in the last year from
one million to one and a half million!

While the settlers and many of their orange supporters took care to
show their tears to the TV cameras, the bourgeois media did not
bother to ask what would happen to the Palestinian workers who
have worked for the settlers for 30 years, getting paid pennies. Would
they at least receive compensation in the form of unemployment
benefits? Of course not.

Some of the Palestinian workers who were busy packing the furniture,
clothes, and religious books of their slave masters received gifts of
50 dollars. Some even received small ventilators. However, most of
them received nothing at all. Some Palestinians are sorry that they
have lost their jobs, even if they were only paid pennies.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip stands at around 80 percent.
However, no one is sorry to see the settlers themselves leaving.

Some Palestinian children are happy for the first time in their lives.
They believe that they will be able to fly a kite without fear of being shot.
This however, is a sad illusion.

On Thursday, as expected, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
who for years has been the faithful servant of US imperialism,
praised Sharon for his courage and leadership in acting on his plan
to withdraw from Gaza. “This will lead to peace in the Middle East”,
he promised. What else could we expect from the man who supports
the occupation of Iraq and praised the phony elections held under the
bayonets of imperialism. His well paid job is rather simple, when all
he has to do is repeat the words of his master, George W. Bush.

Annan also repeated Sharon’s condemnation of last Wednesday’s
massacre when a Jewish settler in the West Bank grabbed a gun
from a security guard and killed four Palestinian workers. No one
bothered to ask how an unarmed settler was able to grab a gun
without any resistance.

Annan of course does not seem to know that the settlers are
carrying out more terrorist acts against the Palestinians – a golem
created by the Israeli state to terrorize the Palestinians and grab
more land and which is now out of control and has a mind of its
own. Nor did Annan mention the fact that two days after the
massacre the Israeli army moved to grab an additional 1,200
dunams of Palestinian land from the village of Gabel El Hamara
near Ali and Shila – the same settlements where the four workers
were murdered. Perhaps he believes that this is another step in
the direction of peace?

The Israeli government will not stop the right-wing, messianic
movement it created because this movement is useful to the
ruling class. It is useful because the ruling class can use it not
only to terrorize Palestinians, but in the future it can be used
against workers struggling for their rights.

While Sharon presents the instructions he received from Bush
as a great strategic step and promises that there will now be
more money for education and health, this will never happen.
At the same time the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was presented
by the Palestinian Authority as a great achievement of the policy
in support of Pax Americana.

The actual role of the PA was described by Amira Has, a
courageous reporter for Haaretz, who wrote on August 16 that
thousands of PA police were seen ready to assist the Israeli
evacuation. However, these same police were not to be seen
while Dahalan’s death squads, dressed in black and armed with
Kalashnikovs were terrorizing the people of Gaza.

The trouble is not only isolated in Gaza. Last Thursday an
attempt was made on the life of Hassan Youssef, a senior
leader of Hamas in the West Bank. He describes the assassination
attempt as designed to intimidate the Islamic group for its
refusal to end the fight against Israel.

The Palestinian masses are well aware of the role of the this
puppet government. On August 17, Naser el Kadwa, the Palestinian
Minister of Foreign Affairs was supposed to deliver a very happy
speech in Gaza about the withdrawal. However he could not deliver
this speech because of a demonstration of the mothers of prisoners,
who blamed him for ignoring their children held in Israeli jails for
fighting against the occupation. One of the mothers stated that was
very sorry she had voted for Mahmoud Abbas, who has done nothing
to fulfill his election promises. She also said that the only thing Prime
Minister Ahmed Karia cared about was selling cement to the Israelis
so that they could build the Apartheid Wall.

The tension is growing both within Fatah and between Fatah and
Hamas. Last week, Faruk el Kadumi, Chairman of Fatah’s Central
Committee and Chief of the Political Department, issued an order
from Tunisia to remove all commanders and employees from the
Palestinian security forces which are controlled by Dahalan, a man
who has been groomed by British and US imperialism. He also
ordered that those removed should be replaced by a new militia
totally subordinate to the Palestinian revolutionary struggle. This
is a clear challenge to the PA and to Abu Mazen (Abbas), who is
increasingly seen by a growing number of Palestinians as a
collaborator of Sharon. This statement is in support of the forces
of armed opposition within Gaza. Two weeks ago, he also called
for the organization of a popular militia of all the forces opposed
to Abu Mazen. These include members of Fatah, Tanzim, and
people like Musa Arafat, who has some control over military
intelligence. During the last few weeks there have been incidents
where forces loyal to Dahalan and those opposed to him have
exchanged fire.

On the eve of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the leader of
Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Muhammed Azhar, said in a speech that
Abu Mazen’s programme was for “one authority, one law, one
gun”. Azhar asked, what authority, law, and what gun is he talking
about? The guns of the those who fight against the occupation,
or the weapon of the police?

Another Hamas leader, Ahmad Andur, explained that Hamas would
not give up on its weapons and would not become a part of the PA
apparatus. He also said that Hamas would not initiate an attack on
Israel, but that it would use its weapons to defend itself.

Our position against the acts of terror of Hamas against innocent
Israelis is well known. It is not simply because of humanitarian
reasons, but because these acts drive the Israelis into the hands
of Sharon. We want a Palestinian/Israeli workers’ state, not a
religious state. Our enemies are the big banks and the exploiters,
not the Israeli people. However, we also unconditionally defend the
Palestinian people against the horrors of Israel’s state terrorism.
In the event that Sharon attacks Gaza in support of Dahalan and
Abu Mazen, any honest person in Gaza would surely demand the
formation of an anti-imperialist front to fight against the occupiers.

Let us be clear. The evacuation of Gaza is no more than a bone that
US imperialism has thrown to the masses in a desperate attempt to
gain industrial peace while it continues to occupy Iraq and while
Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank. The Road
Map to Peace in the Middle East is in ruins, and with instability
spreading from Iraq throughout the whole region like a plague,
the US is desperate to appear to be doing something, to appear to
be trying to put out the flames.

The withdrawal from Gaza will only serve to cause further division
between Israelis and Palestinians. It was also increase the tensions
amongst Palestinians themselves. People will notice that as Israel
withdraws from Gaza, more settlements are being built in the West
Bank. This will fuel the desire amongst Palestinians for the return
of both the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This will drive many
into the open arms of the militants. Already the militants in Gaza
are making public displays of strength. The strong arm of the Israeli
state in Gaza will be replaced with the collaborationist PA of Abbas,
who will be forced to reign in the militants to keep Israel happy.

The withdrawal will also foster divisions amongst Israelis as well.
The withdrawal has divided Israel as it has never been divided
before. Bush and Sharon, and their mouthpieces in the bourgeois
media are trying to present the withdrawal from Gaza as a concrete
step towards peace. Some even whisper that it may be a step
towards the creation of a Palestinian state. The disengagement
plan will achieve neither. The Palestinian Authority, in becoming
the long arm of the Israeli state, will not have the support to exert
its control. The withdrawal from Gaza will only serve to fuel
future conflicts.

There is no way that the Israelis and Palestinians can live in
peace as long as capitalism continues to exist. The state of Israel,
backed by the US, will never give up on East Jerusalem, will never
give up on the large blocks of settlements, will never solve the
question of the refugees, and will never free all of the Palestinian
prisoners. The only way to end this vicious circle of blood is the
road of Bolshevism, the road of Lenin and Trotsky – the road
of socialist revolution and the establishment of a Socialist
Federation of the Middle East, where all nationalities, from the
Kurds to the Israelis to the Palestinians can have territorial
autonomy within this federation. That is the road to peace.

.................................................................................................................................................................


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