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Washington DC (SPX) Jan 24, 2009
The Democratic Caucus of the Committee on Science and Technology met to elect Subcommittee Chairs and select Subcommittee assignments. The selections will be official after they are approved by the full Committee at the Organizational Meeting on Wednesday, January 28th.
"The issues before this Committee have important and long-ranging impact: energy technology development, climate and weather monitoring, math and science education programs, nanotechnology, the space program, aviation research, and technical standards for industries from energy to health care to telecommunications," said Chair of the Committee on Science and Technology Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN).
"I want this to be the Committee of good ideas and consensus. Every bill we passed in the 110th Congress had bipartisan support, and most of them passed unanimously. I think we have a great group of Members-on both sides of the aisle-and I look forward to working with them."
Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) was elected Chair.
"I am extremely concerned with climate change and ocean acidification," said Baird.
"I look forward to playing a leading role in using scientific research to craft responsible policies in these areas. I look forward to working on the research and development to advance the energy technology that will allow us to reduce use through energy efficiency, to more fully embrace renewable energies and to reduce climate change."
"Brian did great work as the Chair of Subcommittee on Research and Science Education last Congress-he is engaged, thorough and thoughtful in his questioning," said Gordon.
"He's already proven himself a leader and a strong advocate in his years on the Committee, and he is passionate about the issues before his new Subcommittee. I look forward to seeing the work he does on these important issues in his new role."
Members of the Subcommittee include:
Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL)
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)
Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY)
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was elected Chair.
"I am honored to take on a leadership role on the Science and Technology Committee," said Giffords.
"Under the focused and bipartisan guidance of Chair Gordon, we are aggressively promoting scientific advancements that are key to U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace. Smart research and development investments in several federal agencies, including NASA, will help create the innovations that will drive economic growth and create new jobs."
"Having gotten to know Gabrielle over the past two years, I think she would be good at anything she does. The Committee and the nation are fortunate that she has chosen the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee," said Gordon.
"The issues before the Subcommittee are complex, but I know that she will play an effective leadership role in addressing them. The country owes a large part of its technical edge and our economic competitiveness to work done at NASA, and we need to ensure that we maximize NASA's relevance to addressing the science and technology challenges that will be facing the nation in the coming years."
Members of the Subcommittee include:
Rep Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL)
Rep David Wu (D-OR)
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ)
Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN)
Rep. Charles Wilson (D-OH)
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)
Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL)
Subcommittee on Research and Science Education
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) was elected Chair.
"As a former political science professor, mechanical engineer, and recipient of NSF funding when I was a graduate student, I understand the critical importance of providing support for research," said Lipinski.
"The future of our country depends on supporting research and STEM education, which will keep our country competitive and provide the high quality jobs of today and tomorrow."
"I appreciate Daniel's previous work on the Committee and congratulate him on his new position as Subcommittee Chair," said Gordon.
"It is great to have an Engineer as Subcommittee Chair, who understands these issues inside and out. Daniel's knowledge and passion for science education will serve the Committee well."
Members of the Subcommittee include:
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA)
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) was re-elected as Chair.
"I am looking forward to expanding on this Subcommittee's achievements from last Congress. Technical standards are extremely important to successfully applying scientific discoveries. As all scientists know, if you can't measure it, it's not real," stated Wu.
"I will continue to be dedicated this Congress to backing programs, such as SBIR, that transfer technology from the lab to the marketplace. Innovation will play a key role in creating jobs during this time of economic uncertainty."
"David's excellent work on the T and I subcommittee during 110th Congress ensured the passage of SBIR and the NIST reauthorization. In addition, the subcommittee developed new legislation regarding green transportation infrastructure and was the only Committee to pass health IT legislation through the House last Congress," said Gordon.
"I look forward to working with him again to meet our Country's challenges through innovation."
Members of the Subcommittee include:
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL)
Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ)
Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI)
Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight
Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) was re-elected as Chair.
"Every Member wants to see the government be more accountable. The Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee is the place where holding people accountable is our top priority," said Miller.
"I am very happy to be returning to Chair the Subcommittee and look forward to working with Chair Gordon and the new Administration to restore scientific integrity, and to make government more efficient and more transparent."
"Brad ran a very aggressive Subcommittee in the last Congress and I am really pleased that he is coming back to a role that he shines in." said Gordon.
"During the 110th Congress, the I and O subcommittee produced and received a total of 528 letters requesting Administration documents, recommending policy changes, and requesting GAO investigations and five staff reports detailing significant abuses. I am excited to work with Brad and the new Administration in this Congress to make government work more efficiently and effectively."
Members of the Subcommittee include:
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ)
Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
Rep. Charles Wilson (D-OH)
Rep. Alan Grayson (FL)
Committee Members were officially assigned to the Committee when H.Res 74 passed the House yesterday, after being approved by the Democratic caucus last week.
Subcommittee Chairs and assignments are made based on Members' preferences, in order of seniority as assigned by the Steering and Policy Committee, as space allows, and following the procedure laid out in the Caucus Rules.
 The T-34 in action. |
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 22, 2009
Japanese companies on Thursday unveiled a security robot that can be operated remotely by cellphone and launch a net to capture an intruder.
The prototype T-34, jointly developed by robot developer tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. Ltd., looks like a small wheeled vehicle and is loaded with sensors that detect anything untoward in an office building.
It can move at a maximum speed of 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour under the command of a person who sees real-time images of where the robot is on the screen of his cellphone.
"Security sensors often set off false alarms but examining the location with the robot will lead to more efficient operations," the companies said in a joint statement.
 U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Will Holmes conducts holographic adaptics optics research with U.S. Military Academy Cadet Richard Carter and Dr. Geoff Andersen Jan. 22 at the Academy in Colorado. Dr. Andersen is a research associate, teaches cadets and conducts experiments at the Laser and Optics Research Center. Cadet Carter is a junior in a exchange unit from West Point and Cadet Holmes is a senior at the Academy. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Desiree N. Palacios) |
Colorado Springs CO (AFNS) Jan 26, 2009
A research associate at the U.S. Air Force Academy's Laser and Optics Research Center here is developing a new capability that will allow satellites to be seen and see clearer.
Dr. Geoff Andersen developed the process, called holographic adaptic optics, that uses sensors and lenses that can correct for disturbances in the atmosphere.
Atmospheric disturbances can interfere with ground-based optical telescope's abilities to clearly see satellites orbiting the earth.
"Stars don't twinkle," Dr. Andersen said. "This is just the effect of atmospheric interference on our ability to see into space."
Dr. Andersen's process uses adaptive technology to compensate for this interference.
"Think of it like wearing a pair of glasses," he said. "When someone has poor eyesight, the prescription compensates for this and makes his or her eyesight better. This process is similar. It uses adaptive optics so telescopes can see into space better."
This is important to the Air Force because it will allow the service to better see its satellites. For instance, if a satellite stops communicating with personnel on the ground, they can view it on a telescope to determine what caused it to go off the grid.
"Naturally, the clearer you can see the satellite, the easier it will be to diagnose the problem," Dr. Andersen said.
Air Force officials have been using various forms of technology to view its satellites for several decades, but the equipment used to perform this is expensive, computer intensive and large.
"The computer itself is as large as a room," Dr. Andersen said.
This new system, which Dr. Andersen has the patent for, uses holograms and is condensed into a device the size of a standard DVD player. This makes it cheaper and opens the door to new possibilities.
"We could place one of these devices on a satellite and then the satellite would be able to see down to earth with a crystal image," Dr. Andersen said.
Devices could also be placed on unmanned aircraft systems, allowing them to produce a clearer image for combatant commanders. UAS' are perfect candidates for this technology due to their type and height of flight, Dr. Andersen said.
"UAS' produce their own turbulence when flying and they tend to fly in the general area where atmospheric interference is high," he said. "This new technology would eliminate these problems and allow the UAS to produce a high-quality, sharp image."
The adaptive optics technology goes beyond having only military applications. It also has uses within the medical arena - especially that of laser eye surgery.
"This technology will make eye surgery more precise and specialized," Dr. Andersen said.
Capabilities aside, Dr. Andersen said he is proud to be instrumental in the creation of this holographic technology. He's also proud of the cadets he teaches and who help him on a daily basis.
"They get hands on to help find solutions using research," he said.
The students are happy to help, knowing that the work they are doing today could possibly shape the future of imagery technology.
"It makes it really worth it knowing there's a real-world application for what we're doing here in the laboratory," said Cadet Will Holmes, a senior at the Academy. "And it's great getting to work with Dr. Andersen."
Certicom Corp. says it has reached a $92 million purchase agreement deal with California-based VeriSign Inc. that trumps the hostile bid that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion was forced to withdraw by an Ontario court order.
Certicom, based in Mississauga, said the deal would see all of its outstanding common shares acquired for $2.10 per share by VeriSign, known for its encryption and identity verification technology,
The announcement comes days after Certicom won a court order preventing Waterloo-based RIM from making a hostile bid valued at $66 million, or $1.50 per share.
Certicom had maintained that RIM, a long-time customer that embeds encryption technology in its wireless email products, had undervalued the company and made its offer using privileged information shared between the two firms.
RIM argued the use of confidential information was permitted by those two non-disclosure agreements signed in 2007 and 2008.
Certicom said VeriSign's offer represents a 40 per cent increase over RIM's proposed purchase price, as well as a 26 per cent premium on Thursday's closing stock price in Toronto. RIM didn't immediately respond to questions about whether it will return to the table with a friendly counterbid.
Certicom said the deal with VeriSign has received approval from the company's board and is set to close in March.
The sale, which is still subject to court and shareholder approval, will see Certicom's shares delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The Canadian Press
The U.S. praises Calderon for rooting out corruption at the top. But critics say the arrests reveal nothing more than a timeworn government tactic of protecting one cartel and cracking down on others.
Operation Clean House comes just as the U.S. is giving Mexico its first installment of $400 million in equipment and technology to fight drugs. Most will go to a beefed-up federal police agency run by the same people whose top aides have been arrested as alleged Sinaloa spies.
"If there is anything worse than a corrupt and ill-equipped cop, it is a corrupt and well-equipped cop," said criminal justice expert Jorge Chabat, who studies the drug trade.
U.S. drug enforcement agents say they have no qualms about sending support to Mexico.
"We've been working with the Mexican government for decades at the DEA," said Garrison Courtney, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. "Obviously, we ensure that the individuals we work with are vetted."
Agents who conduct raids have long suspected Mexican government ties to Sinaloa, and rival drug gangs have advertised the alleged connection in banners hung from freeways. While raids against the rival Gulf cartel have netted suspects, those against Sinaloa almost always came up empty - or worse, said Agent Oscar Granados Salero of the Federal Investigative Agency, Mexico's equivalent of the FBI.
"Whenever we were trying to serve arrest warrants, they were already waiting for us, and a lot of colleagues lost their lives that way," Salero said.
The U.S. government estimates that the cartels smuggle $15 billion to $20 billion in drug money across the border each year.
Over the last five months, officials from the Mexican Attorney General's office, the federal police and even Mexico's representatives to Interpol have been detained on suspicion of acting as spies for Sinaloa or its one-time ally, the Beltran Leyva gang. An officer who served in Calderon's presidential guard was detained in December on suspicion of spying for Beltran Leyva
Gerardo Garay, formerly the acting federal police chief, is accused of protecting the Beltran Leyva brothers and stealing money from a mansion during an October drug raid. Former drug czar Noe Ramirez, who was supposed to serve as point man in Calderon's anti-drug fight, is accused of taking $450,000 from Sinaloa.
Most of such tips are coming from a Mexican federal agent who infiltrated the U.S. embassy for the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. No such infiltrators have been found for the Gulf cartel, which controls most drug shipments in eastern Mexico and Central America. Sinaloa controls Pacific and western routes.
The DEA's Courtney agrees that there has been a greater crackdown on the Gulf Cartel in both the U.S. and Mexico, with more than 600 members of the gang arrested in September. But he declined to answer questions about Mexico favoring Sinaloa.
Calderon has long acknowledged corruption as an obstacle to his offensive, which involved sending more than 20,000 soldiers to battle drug trafficking throughout the country. The U.S. aid plan includes technology aimed at improving the way Mexico vets and supervises police.
The president vows to create a "new generation of police," consolidating agencies under Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, who heads all federal law enforcement.
That's what worries Granados Salero and other agents. So many of Garcia Luna's associates are under suspicion of Sinaloa ties that many wonder how he could not have known.
Calderon has publicly backed Garcia Luna, calling him "a man of great capacity."
"Obviously, if there was any doubt about his honesty, or any evidence that would call into question his honesty, he would certainly no longer be the secretary of public safety," the president said recently.
But some see the alleged Sinaloa ties with Garcia Luna's lieutenants as an old tactic used widely under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years with a tight fist. Officials in the past preferred to deal with one strong cartel rather than many warring gangs - what Calderon faces now. More than 5,300 people died in drug-related slayings in 2008.
"I fear that Secretary Garcia Luna ... is working on the idea that once one cartel consolidates itself as the winner, that is, Sinaloa, the violence is going to drop," said organized crime expert Edgardo Buscaglia, who tracks federal police arrests and has studied law enforcement agencies' written reports.
Garcia Luna has denied being involved in corruption. He has acknowledged that authorities in the past chose the path of managing cartels. But in an interview with the newspaper El Sol, he said that approach only strengthens the gangs in the long run.
Others say the high number of Sinaloa infiltrators is a reflection of the two cartels' very different styles.
The Gulf cartel is led by military-trained hit men so violent that they reportedly planned to attack even U.S. law enforcement agencies.
"They don't necessarily try to build networks of corruption. They prefer networks of intimidation," said Monte Alejandro Rubido, who leads Mexico's multi-agency National Security System.
Sinaloa, on the other hand, appears to use bribery and infiltration at least as much as its gunmen. Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman bribed his way out of a Mexican prison in 2001, provoking suspicions the government was on his side.
Many Mexicans worry about giving so much money and power to a still corrupt force. Of more than 56,000 local and state police officers evaluated between January and October last year, fewer than half met the recommended qualifications, Calderon reported to Congress in early December. No similar numbers are available for federal police.
Agents like Granados Salero wonder who is in charge of police integrity.
"We agents find out about a lot of things," he said, "but who can we turn to?"
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Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report.
By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer
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| By Paul Rasmussen |  Comment |  Forward |
Demand for mobile broadband services from European consumers has grown rapidly over the last eighteen months. A study by IDC identifies four main drivers behind this surge in demand; the ever-growing availability of HSPA, the widespread use of small USB connection devices, a fall in subscription prices and an increase in laptop computer penetration.
The rise in demand is good news for European mobile operators as mobile broadband is a new source of badly needed revenue that is entirely incremental to existing revenue streams. The other good news for operators in the IDC study is that the combination of a strongly growing addressable market, low prices and increasingly flexible mobile data packages will ensure that consumer demand for mobile broadband will continue to be strong for some time to come.
However, the study does sound a note of warning. Financial constraints could slow the penetration of laptop computers which would lessen the addressable market. Also, economic concerns could inhibit consumers from committing to new service contracts.
For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News
Related stories:
Ericsson: Demand for mobile broadband strong
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London (AFP) Jan 24, 2009
Western countries believe Iran has nearly exhausted its stocks of a raw material needed to make nuclear weapons and have started diplomacy to stop Tehran acquiring more, the Times reported Saturday.
Iran's supply of yellow cake uranium, which it acquired from South Africa in the 1970s, could run out within months, according to unnamed diplomatic sources quoted by the newspaper.
Diplomats from countries including Britain, the United States, France and Germany are lobbying governments in major uranium producing countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Brazil not to sell Iran any more, the Times said.
While such efforts are unlikely to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, it could blunt its ambitions and help contain the threat, the paper reported.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes but many Western powers fear it wants to develop nuclear weapons and alter the balance of power in the Middle East.
Iranian envoy urges Obama to review Mideast policy
A special envoy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged US President Barack Obama on Saturday to fully review its Middle East diplomacy and respect Tehran's nuclear programme.
"If President Obama wants to realise a change, he should stop support for Israel and withdraw from Iraq," Samare Hashemi, on a visit to Japan, said in an interview with Japan's public broadcaster NHK.
He also said that relations between Iran and the United States would improve if Washington "respects rights" held by Iran, including its nuclear programme, according to NHK.
On Thursday, Hashemi handed Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso a letter from Ahmadinejad saying that Iran wants to build closer ties with Tokyo for peace and stability in the Middle East, including Gaza.
Washington severed ties with Iran in 1980 in the wake of the Islamic revolution after Islamist students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.
Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, refused to engage in direct negotiations with Iran unless it first stopped enriching uranium, and spearheaded pressure for economic sanctions against the Islamic republic.
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Beirut (AFP) Jan 25, 2009
A senior Hamas official said on Sunday the Palestinian Islamist movement will continue to arm its militants in the war-battered Gaza Strip as well as on the West Bank.
"We never failed to get arms into Gaza even during the (Israeli) war and under the bombardment," the Hamas representative in Beirut, Ossama Hamdan, told a rally in the Lebanese capital.
"We have the right to hold weapons. We will continue to get arms into Gaza and the West Bank ... Nobody should think that we will surrender to any measures," he said.
The remarks came a week after a ceasefire in Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead which killed more than 1,300 Gazans.
"Warplanes, aircraft carriers and satellite technology will not be able to monitor the entry of weapons through Gaza's tunnels," Hamdan said.
"Things might get difficult, but we will do whatever it takes to continue our resistance against Israel."
Israel has signed an agreement with the United States to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons.
Under the agreement, the United States will reportedly provide "logistical and technical assistance and... train and equip regional security forces in counter-smuggling tactics."
Cairo has repeatedly denied that arms have been smuggled into Gaza through a network of tunnels linking Egypt to the impoverished Palestinian enclave, saying the arms were being delivered by sea, an account disputed by Israel.
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Cedar Rapids IA (SPX) Jan 23, 2009
The Rockwell Collins Athena 411 Inertial Navigation, Global Positioning, Air Data, Attitude, Heading, Reference System (INS/GPS/ADAHRS) has been selected by AeroVironment for their Global Observer.
AeroVironment is developing Global Observer, a liquid hydrogen-powered Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) that will fly at an altitude of 65,000 feet for up to seven days, for the U.S. Special Operations Command as well as for other military and civilian applications.
"We believe our proven high-performance, high-reliability solution, embodied in the compact, light-weight Athena 411, will enable the Global Observer to achieve its unique mission and performance goals," said David Vos, senior director of Control Technologies for Rockwell Collins.
"We look forward to working with AeroVironment to provide best-value navigation solutions for this advanced program."
 The Extended-Range Multi-Purpose Warrior is a diesel-powered air vehicle with multiple on-board weapons. It is capable of loitering over enemy territories for 36 hours at altitudes up to 25,000 feet, according to the Army Public Affairs Web site. |
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 22, 2009
Army aviation commanders discussed the importance of continual training and the value of unmanned aerial vehicles in the field at the Association of the United States Army's Aviation Symposium and Exposition Jan. 8.
Col. Daniel Ball, chief of G-3 aviation, United States Armed Forces Command, led a panel discussion on the commander's perspective of Army aviation in the field. Training, both in flight and on the ground, as well as the support of unmanned aerial vehicles are integral to mission success the panelists said.
A great asset for Soldiers in rough terrain is the UAV - in addition to scouting for enemy targets, it is sometimes used for weather reconnaissance in Afghanistan, said Col. James Richardson, brigade commander, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.
"We've had great success with manned-unmanned teaming," he added. "The Warrior gave great situational awareness."
The Extended-Range Multi-Purpose Warrior is a diesel-powered air vehicle with multiple on-board weapons. It is capable of loitering over enemy territories for 36 hours at altitudes up to 25,000 feet, according to the Army Public Affairs Web site. The Warrior can perform reconnaissance missions, relay communications, and is able to attack targets with its weapons.
Voorhees praises the use of UAVs as "one of the greatest advances" made on the battlefield.
Col. Chandler Sherrell, brigade commander, Task Force 49, United States Army Alaska, believes UAVs are an "incredible asset." The devices are used more and more to scout border areas, he said.
While in theater, UAVs perform counter-improvised explosive device missions in addition to scouting duties, Ball explained. Currently, Apache helicopters are being fitted with "view-it" technology, allowing a live feed from a UAV to be displayed in the cockpit, Ball said.
Though the UAVs are an incredible advance in combat technology, all the panelists agreed that nothing could replace the man-to-man interaction of ground forces and air crews during reconnaissance missions.
"There is no substitute for that," Ball said.
Ball emphasized that the integration of contract field service representatives and Soldiers is vital to maintaining everything at the operational tempo in the field.
Soldiers rely on CFSRs to help them with aircraft maintenance. Being coached by the contractors helped the younger Soldiers better learn how to maintain the vehicles, Richardson said.
"It's the terrain and the weather that will kill you in Afghanistan," Richardson said.
Richardson believes the terrain in Afghanistan is more challenging than in Iraq. High altitude training is key to mission success there, he said, keeping Soldiers alive and alert in the mountains.
Combined arms training is also mission essential, Richardson said.
"I think we thought we were really good at [combined arms combat] when we started," Said. Lt. Col. Van J. Voorhees, commander, 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
In order to improve performance in combined arms combat, Soldiers have to understand the capabilities of the weapons systems in play on the battlefield. Voorhees believes the Army has grown tremendously through training in that respect.
"In my opinion, it's the best it has ever been," he said.
 Upon completion of the contract award, it is expected that the DNDO will deploy the system at a U.S. port for pilot testing where it will be operated under controlled conditions within the ports normal stream of cargo commerce. |
Torrance CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2009
Rapiscan Systems has announced that its Research and Development division, Rapiscan Laboratories, has received a contract for approximately $2 million from the U. S. Department of Homeland Securitys Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO).
Under the terms of the contract award, the Company will complete the development of an advanced technology that would be capable of detecting weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons and radiological dispersal devices (i.e. dirty bombs). The technology is to be incorporated on the Rapiscan Eagle Portal and used for the inspection of trucking and shipping containers.
This contract represents the culmination of a four-year development program conducted by Rapiscan Systems.
The enhanced Rapiscan Eagle Portal, incorporating the Companys proprietary Auto-Z algorithm which provides automatic detection of high-atomic-number materials associated with nuclear weapons as well as shielding materials, recently completed a preliminary evaluation conducted by government experts at the Companys testing facility where it was able to detect simulated nuclear threats in a variety of cargo.
Upon completion of the contract award, it is expected that the DNDO will deploy the system at a U.S. port for pilot testing where it will be operated under controlled conditions within the ports normal stream of cargo commerce.
Ajay Mehra, President of Rapiscan Systems, stated, This contract demonstrates Rapiscan Systems long-standing leadership and success in developing technologies to better detect radioactive and nuclear threats. It leverages and enhances our highly successful Eagle High Energy X-ray Cargo Inspection portal.
Further, it underscores the commitment and quality of our scientists and engineers at Rapiscan Laboratories. The teams expertise in neutronics, X-ray imaging and detection algorithms is above reproach and provides the vision for the development of world-class, advanced inspection technologies and products.
 Tesla's other zero-emission car, the two-seat "Roadster" sports car, is assembled in Britain and sold in Europe and the US with a 109,000-dollar starting price. |
San Francisco (AFP) Jan 30, 2009
Tesla has scrapped plans to build an electric car plant in Silicon Valley, saying Friday that it will opt for an abandoned factory elsewhere in order to win a low-cost federal loan.
Tesla announced in October that the dismal economy had effectively slammed the door on its hope of getting 100-million-dollars in venture capital money to build a "Model S" sedan plant in the city of San Jose in Silicon Valley.
Construction of the factory, about 20 minutes from Tesla's headquarters in San Carlos, California, was to begin in mid-2009.
Tesla had picked an 89-acre lot on which to build a 500,000-square-foot plant to pump out four-door, all-electric sedans.
It would have been the first time the vacant lot was used for heavy industry.
Tesla is competing with other car makers for low-interest loan money the US Department of Energy has available to fund development of "brownfield" sites, factories or plants no longer in use.
Tesla wants a 250-million-dollar loan to build a sedan plant.
"We cannot do anything that may jeopardize securing the federal loan," said Tesla senior communications manager Rachel Konrad.
"That's one of the reasons we are now planning to develop on a brownfield site instead of the greenfield site in San Jose."
Tesla is in "late-stage" negotiations with another site for its Model S sedan plant and expects to begin production in 2011 as originally planned, according to Konrad.
Tesla says that in March it will unveil a "Model S" car its Hawthorne, California, design studio.
The "Model S" car is a five-passenger sedan run by a lithium-ion battery pack that is expected to power the car for about 240 miles (385 kilometers) per charge. The car has an estimated price of 60,000 dollars.
Tesla's other zero-emission car, the two-seat "Roadster" sports car, is assembled in Britain and sold in Europe and the US with a 109,000-dollar starting price.
Tesla, founded in 2003, specializes in the environmentally-friendly, electric cars that many car manufacturers are starting to produce.
Investors in the company include PayPal co-founder Elon Musk and Google founders Serge Brin and Larry Page.
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Lake Mary FL (SPX) Feb 03, 2009
New Generation Biofuels Holdings has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with First Florida Biofuels to pursue development of potential biofuel projects in Florida. Under the MOU, New Generation Biofuels will provide technology and know-how for the development of a potential joint venture, with the purpose of exploring and pursuing biofuel projects in Florida.
FFB will provide its marketing expertise and will arrange financing for the projects.
"We are excited to be working with First Florida Biofuels," said New Generation Biofuels' CEO and President, David A. Gillespie.
"The unique expertise they provide on the Florida market landscape gives us a leg up as we continue to roll out our business in Florida. The FFB team brings financial expertise as well, with potential access to funding opportunities.
"Cultivating partnerships with key players in the biofuel industry and expanding production through licensing agreements is a key component of our strategy to build the market for our biofuel."
"NGBF represents our technology partner of choice", said FFB Chairman Jack Tymann. "We looked at numerous renewable technologies and concluded that NGBF's proprietary biofuel represents the best value proposition available in the market today. We're excited and quite optimistic about our association with the NGBF team!"
New Generation Biofuels produces a renewable energy product that is different from traditional biofuels. The Company's second-generation biofuel is produced using a simple proprietary blending process that combines water, proprietary additives and vegetable oil or other feedstocks.
New Generation Biofuels believes that this process is simpler, cleaner, less expensive and less energy intensive than traditional production methods and results in a biofuel that has superior technical and environmental performance at a lower cost than other first generation biofuels.
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Washington (AFP) Jan 31, 2009
President Barack Obama and China's President Hu Jintao have agreed to forge "more positive" ties between their giant nations in their first telephone call since the US leader came to power, a White House spokesman said Friday.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama and Hu spoke Friday morning US time of their "intention to build a more positive and constructive US-China relationship."
Meanwhile, Beijing said Saturday that the Chinese leader urged better ties with the United States in his first phone conversation with Obama, and called for both sides to resist trade protectionism.
An account of the conversation issued by the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Hu telling Obama that China would work toward a "more constructive China-US relationship" and welcomed US efforts to shore up the American economy, but warned against moves toward protectionism, the statement said.
"We hope to strengthen communication and coordination on macroeconomic policy and firmly resist trade protectionism," Hu was quoted saying.
The conversation, 11 days into Obama's presidency, followed sharp exchanges between the two sides over China's currency policy and calls from Beijing for a stepped up effort between the two giants to beat the economic crisis.
"The two presidents discussed the international financial crisis and agreed that increased close cooperation between the US and China is vital," said Gibbs.
The spokesman said the presidents agreed to work together on the international stage, specifically regarding Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and on counterterrorism and climate change.
"President Obama expressed appreciation for China's role as chair of the six-party Talks and the two sides affirmed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Gibbs said.
The only sign that the two leaders had touched on trade and currency tension came when Gibbs said Obama "stressed the need to correct global trade imbalances as well as to stimulate global growth and get credit markets flowing."
There was no mention in the statement whether the US president also raised perennial US concerns with China on human rights, Tibet, religious freedom and Taiwan, which Bejing considers a renegade province.
Earlier in the week, the first exchanges between the new administration and Beijing were dominated by a spat over comments by incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that China was manipulating its currency.
Gibbs said Geithner, in written comments to his Senate confirmation hearing, "was restating what the president had said during the (election) campaign."
"I think it's safe to say this administration will determine in the spring what that means."
The Treasury Department issues twice-yearly reports on global currency policies. The next one is due in April, and a finding that China is "manipulating" its currency to gain a trade edge could trigger US sanctions.
Under the former administration of George W. Bush, the Treasury stopped short of that designation despite furious complaints in Congress that China does indeed artificially weaken the yuan's value to boost its exports.
China denied it was manipulating the yuan, and said it had never done so to boost its trade performance.
Obama this week faced more pressure from Congress in a hearing when organizations including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders demanding he push Beijing on what they said was backsliding on human rights.
Sino-US watchers have been eagerly awaiting the first contact between Obama and the Chinese for hints of how the crucial relationship will develop under his Democratic administration.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week faulted the Bush administration for allowing US-China relations to slip too much into the economic sphere.
"We need a comprehensive dialogue with China," Clinton said.
"The strategic dialogue that was begun in the Bush administration turned into an economic dialogue. That is a very important aspect of our relationship but it is not the only aspect."
 Fiel image. |
New Castle PA (SPX) Feb 03, 2009
Axion Power International has announced that the potential energy efficiencies and cost savings its advanced lead-acid battery will bring to the rapidly-expanding electric car market has earned the Company an award from the Pennsylvania Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant program.
The $800,000 first-year grant, which was announced by Governor Edward Rendell on January 29th, is part of the State's overall effort to invest in businesses that are creating important and innovative clean energy and bio-fuels technologies.
The award proceeds will be used to demonstrate the advantages the Axion proprietary PbC(TM) battery technology provides in a variety of electric vehicle types including: hybrids (HEVs), such as the popular Toyota Prius; "plug-ins" (PHEVs) used in commuter, delivery and other vehicles; and in EV's and converted (from combustion engine operation) EV's.
The PbC battery technology, which replaces simple lead-based negative electrodes used by other manufacturers with its more sophisticated activated carbon electrode assemblies, has significantly enhanced performance characteristics when compared with other advanced lead-acid batteries.
Those enhancements include deeper cycling, longer life, elimination of sulfation and shedding on the negative plate, lighter weight, and easier more rapid recharging capabilities.
"This grant acknowledges that our PbC technology has a significant role to play in the development of electric vehicles and in the rapidly expanding global market for these non-carbon-generating, energy-efficient vehicles," said Axion Power's CEO Thomas Granville.
"PbC batteries have inherent advantages that they share with lead-acid batteries with respect to safety and cost savings when compared with other energy storage technologies.
"Our advanced carbon-enhanced products also have advantages associated with: manufacture on existing battery lines and sustainability, because the raw materials used are among the most abundant on the planet.
"Our product will also be very environmentally friendly because it will be easy and inexpensive to recycle.
"The grant is another important milestone for us. It supports our vision as we demonstrate how our technology will make electric cars, and electric car conversions, more affordable and renewable. We believe that EVs of all types are the most important automotive innovations in the world today."
The goals of the Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant program, as announced by Governor Rendell, are to "expand markets for emerging technologies and ultimately make them more affordable for families and businesses."
The program also aims to "create jobs, clean the environment and save consumers tens of millions of dollars a year in energy costs."
Now many in Venezuela's Jewish community fear the worst is yet to come.
Chavez has personally taken care not to criticize Israelis or Jews while accusing Israel's government of genocide against the Palestinians. He vehemently denies inciting religious intolerance, let alone violence.
But Venezuela's Jewish leaders, the Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department say Chavez's harsh criticism has inspired a growing list of hate crimes, including a Jan. 30 invasion of Caracas' largest synagogue.
About 15 people overpowered two security guards at the Tiferet Israel Synagogue, shattering religious objects and spray-painting "Jews, get out" on the walls. Most worrisome, according to Elias Farache, president of the Venezuelan-Israelite Association, was their theft of a computer database containing many names and addresses of Jews in Venezuela.
Police are now posted outside the synagogue, and prosecutors said Friday that the security guards "could be involved." Venezuela's attorney general ordered them to court on Feb. 13 - two days before Venezuelans vote in a referendum that could enable Chavez to extend his rule indefinitely.
One week before the invasion, a Chavista columnist named Emilio Silva posted a call to action on Aporrea, a pro-government Web site, describing Jews as "squalid" - a term Chavez often uses to describe his opponents as weak - and exhorting Venezuelans to confront them as anti-government conspirators.
"Publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park," he wrote, "shouting slogans in favor of Palestine and against that abortion: Israel."
Silva called for protests at the synagogue, a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, seizures of Jewish-owned property, the closure of Jewish schools and a nationwide effort "to denounce publicly, with names and last names the members of powerful Jewish groups present in Venezuela."
Aporrea later replaced the column with an apology that describes Silva's posting as anti-Semitic and exhorts Chavistas to show more discipline by criticizing the Israeli government rather than its people or Jews in general.
Silva, a 35-year-old mathematics professor at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, got the message. He told The Associated Press Friday that he couldn't comment on the "controversial subject," and that his "position is to condemn any act that goes against the integrity of any faith or conviction."
But other anti-Semitic writings by Silva remained on the site Friday, including one posted on Jan. 19, a week before the synagogue attack. That posting also crudely criticized a Venezuelan archbishop for failing to condemn Israel's Gaza offensive; offices of the Vatican have been tear gassed twice since then.
With criticism mounting, Chavez phoned Farache Thursday night in a conversation broadcast live on state television, and vowed to guarantee the safety of Venezuela's 15,000 Jews. He condemned the synagogue attack. But he also suggested that it might have been an inside job, and demanded that Jewish leaders publicly recant accusations against his government.
Farache responded saying "we have acted in good faith and with the best intentions to guarantee the tranquility of our community." He also said that Jews hoped to avoid being exploited by the opposition or by Chavez supporters in their referendum campaigns. "Our community is apolitical," he said.
Hate crimes have escalated despite Chavez's declaration that his government "rejects any type of aggression against any temple, be it Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or any other." And the attorney general's statement Friday gave no details about any progress investigating a list of more than a dozen threats against Jews that the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations gave her office a week before the synagogue attack.
The group said one threat involved a rabbi who was leaving a Jewish school in Caracas when two men, one wielding a broken bottle, shouted: "Jew, we are coming for you!" A nearby taxi driver offered refuge and sped him away.
Other Jews have stopped wearing yarmulkes while walking to temple on Friday evenings. Simon Galante said he and his brother now fear for their safety after being accosted by men on motorcycles yelling "Murderers!"
"Thank God, nothing more occurred ... we continued walking and ignored the comments, but it's very sad," said Galante, who joined a demonstration against the attacks this week.
For some, fear turned to outrage when Chavez suggested his adversaries could be trying to give ammunition to those who accuse him of anti-Semitism.
Venezuela's Jews include many survivors of World War II, as well as families that have been Venezuelan for two centuries. In the past, Chavez's enthusiastic support of Iran and other enemies of Israel has done little to threaten their coexistence in an overwhelmingly Catholic country.
Now many Jews fear more trouble ahead.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Los Angeles, California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, believes Chavez's rhetoric "has encouraged this atmosphere of hatred which is now being directed against Jews."
"His hostility against the state of Israel has a ripple effect," Hier told the AP in a telephone interview. "Those who support him, and listen to his words, are disposed to dislike Jews."
---
Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker and Rachel Jones contributed to this report.
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD - Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who helped Pakistan develop nuclear weapons and allegedly leaked atomic secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, was freed from years of de facto house arrest Friday by a high court ruling.
The United States, which worries that Iran has used Pakistani know-how in pursuit of nuclear arms, said the disgraced scientist's release would be "extremely regrettable."
State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Khan remained a "serious proliferation risk." He said the United States was still trying to confirm Khan's official status.
On Friday, a smiling Khan emerged from his house in the Pakistani capital and addressed reporters face-to-face for the first time since 2004.
However, he indicated he would not be discussing Pakistan's atomic bomb program or about who was involved in leaking its secrets around the world.
"We don't want to talk about the past things," he said as the guards who have enforced his long isolation stood aside for a throng of TV crews and journalists.
Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear program, took sole responsibility in 2004 for leaking the nuclear secrets but was immediately pardoned by former President Pervez Musharraf and placed under de facto house arrest. The government insists neither it nor the Pakistani military was aware of his activities.
The 72-year-old scientist, who has suffered a string of illnesses, began agitating for an end to the restrictions after last year's ouster of Musharraf. Over the past year, he has been allowed to occasionally meet friends outside his house and has often spoken to reporters over the phone.
In response to an appeal by his lawyers, the Islamabad High Court declared Khan "a free citizen" on Friday. The court said other details of the order were confidential.
Government prosecutor Amjad Iqbal Qureshi said the decision was the result of a compromise with the government and that "security measures" for Khan would remain. The government has never said that Khan was under house arrest, maintaining he was being held for his own security.
Khan hailed the order as a "good judgment."
"At least I have got my freedom. I can move around," he said.
But his wife said the freedom was limited to the capital and that "more strings have been attached" regarding what he could say. She declined to discuss details, saying that authorities insisted their agreement with her husband remain confidential.
An order issued by the same court last year barred him from discussing the subject of nuclear proliferation even with his relatives.
"We know it is not possible to give our version," Hendrina Khan told The Associated Press by telephone.
A pariah in the West, Abdul Qadeer Khan is lionized by conservatives and Islamists for making Pakistan the world's only Muslim nuclear power and is a hero to many ordinary citizens. One of his first visitors Friday was a senator from the country's most powerful Islamist party.
In phone interviews last year, he complained he had been made a scapegoat and said the army had known all about at least one incident of proliferation - a claim swiftly denied by Musharraf.
Asked Friday what the international community would think of his release, Khan struck a typically defiant tone.
"Are they happy with our God? Are they happy with our prophet? Are they happy with our leader? Never," he said. "I don't care about rest of the world. I care about my country. (President Barack) Obama cares about America, not about Pakistan or India or Afghanistan."
He said he had no plans to return to his former work and wanted to use his new freedom to promote education in Pakistan.
The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the court order and reiterated the government's determination to avoid fresh controversy about Khan's past
A ministry statement said the government would provide him with "all requisite security."
It said Pakistan has taken "all necessary measures to promote the goals of nonproliferation. The so called A.Q. Khan affair is a closed chapter."
---
Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press Writer
Iran's supreme ruler to Obama: You
change first
21 Mar.: "We will watch
and we will judge (the new U.S. administration) ... You change, our behavior
will change," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme ruler in the
northeaster city of Mashhad March 21 to thousands of worshippers, two days
after US president Barack Obama offered a new beginning of diplomatic engagement.
Tehran's flat rejection was broadcast by the highest authority in the land and
the Shiite world to make its position crystal clear.
Spiritual ruler Khamenei said the United States was "hated in the
world" and should stop interfering
in other countries' affairs. "We haven't seen any change," he said
and went on to enumerate Iran's
grievances over 30 years.
World agencies gearing up to thwart
upgraded Islamist terror
DEBKAfile Special
Analysis
21 Mar.: Using novel, upgraded
tactics, Al Qaeda and fellow Islamist terror groups are outperforming
anti-terror agencies in targeted countries. International counter-terror
agencies are worried enough to start retooling their counter-measures after
viewing terrorist performances in Mumbai on Nov. 2008, killing 172 people,
Lahore on March 3, causing 8 fatalities, and the Jordan Valley, shooting dead 2
Israeli policemen. India, for instance, is overhauling its special forces from top to bottom and preparing to launch the world's first anti-terror satellite RISAT 2, on short-order delivery from Israel.
British intelligence and anti-terror services have embarked on a crash program to secure the G-20 summit opening in London on April 2, fearing the posh hotels hosting the leaders and their retinues will attract a Mumbai-style massacre.
Western terror experts have detected common traits in the recent spate of attacks:
- They are maximizing the lethality of their mission;
- They commandeer targeted sites at top speed. In Mumbai, they swiftly seized three large hotels, a main train terminus and the Habad Center;
- They outgun the local security forces in the first moments of the attack. In Mumbai, the local forces took two days to rally and muster enough firepower to suppress the attack. In Lahore, the terrorists effectively silenced Pakistani security personnel for long enough for them all to escape without a scratch.
- They operate long distance, preparing attacks in one country and moving quickly to target
Iran canceled air show upon Russian warning of Israeli plan to destroy all 140 warplanes
24 April: DEBKAfile's Iranian and
intelligence sources disclose that Moscow warned Tehran Friday April 17 that
Israel was planning to destroy all of its 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at
the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day the
following day. The entire fleet was accordingly removed to remote bases and the
display cancelled.
In the first week of April, Tehran announced it would stage its biggest air
show ever to dramatize a ceremonial military parade in the capital on April 18.
Iran would show the world that it is capable of fighting off an Israeli attack
on its nuclear facilities. Instead, only four aircraft flew over the saluting
stand. Iranian media explained that the big show was cancelled due to "bad
weather and poor visibility," when in fact Tehran basked in warm and sunny
weather.
Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence
sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the
140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night
before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense. A similar
operation wiped out the entire Egyptian air fleet in the early hours of the
1967 war.
Unknown vessel destroys another Iranian arms ship bound for Gaza
26 April: An Iranian ship transporting arms to the Gaza Strip was destroyed off the Sudanese coast in the Red Sea last week, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Usbu (The Week) reported on Sunday. An unidentified warship launched missiles at the ship, sinking it with its crew and cargo. Quoting anonymous sources, the newspaper suspected Israeli or American forces were responsible for the attack.The same sources said the ship was on course to dock in Sudan, where the weapons would be unloaded and eventually shipped to Gaza through Egypt.
Neither Iran, Israel, or the United States has commented.
Group facing charges for Holocaust-denying cartoon
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Arab group behind the publishing of a cartoon denying
the Holocaust may be facing charges in the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor's office in the Dutch city of Utrecht said the
anti-Semitic cartoon is an illegal form of discrimination and warrants a charge
for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image," the Jewish
Chronicle reported.
The Dutch arm of the Arab-European League published the cartoon, which
suggests that the Holocaust is a myth perpetuated by Jews.
Artist Abdoul Mouthalib Bouzerda said his decision to draw the cartoon was
meant to call attention to a double standard in which anti-Jewish cartoons are
banned but those that are anti-Muslim face no consequences.
Bouzerda was referring to the Dutch government's decision not to prosecute
far-right politician Geert Wilders for producing a film that featured
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
More on UNRWA, Hamas and Holocaust denial
Credit J
Street with being first out of the gate in condemning Hamas for seeking to
suppress Holocaust education at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
A day later, three other groups have weighed in with appeals to the United
Nations to ignore Hamas and press ahead with the course.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls for the firing of two top UNRWA officials,
presuming (I'm not sure on what evidence) that the relief agency has already
caved:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki
Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials
for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying
that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the U.S.
and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust
curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
The Abu Zayd and Ging quotes SWC cites in its release (below the jump) are
weaselly, it is true, but do not conclusively imply an UNRWA decision to pull
Holocaust education. (I've got a call into UNRWA for clarification.)
Additionally, I've covered the U.N., and it is a formidable bureacuracy with
lots and lots of protections for staff : I'm not at all sure Ban ki Moon is able
to fire himself, never mind officials in a separate bureacracy.
The American Jewish Congress seems to presume similar powers to Ban, calling
for a change in UNRWA's leadership, but stops short of naming names:
The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the
Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates.
This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is
time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not
nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”
B'nai B'rith International frames has the most careful appeal, simply calling
for the education plan to be implemented, without attributing to Ban the power
to fire, to shame, and to launch into Gazan skies a flock of black helicopters
packed with editions of Anne Frank's diary attached to tiny little
parachutes:
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for
its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the
lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting
peace in the region.
Full statements after the jump.
B’NAI B’RITH URGES UNITED NATIONS TO STAND FIRM ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN THE
GAZA STRIP
(Washington, D.C., September 2, 2009)—The United Nations is
reportedly considering a Holocaust education curriculum for its schools in the
Gaza Strip. The plan is meeting fierce resistance from Palestinian Hamas
leaders. The very vehemence of the objection, Hamas’ rejection of Israel, and
Hamas’ ongoing anti-Jewish rhetoric, continue to block any real progress for
peace.
B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith and Executive
Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
It is outrageous that the Palestinian Hamas leaders are so vehemently
opposed to teaching the children of Gaza about the Holocaust. According to a
statement from Hamas, "Talk about the holocaust and the execution of the Jews
contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values,
heritage and religion.”
The Holocaust is an indisputable fact. For Hamas
to so adamantly oppose the teaching of it is further proof that the main
obstacle for the peace that has eluded the region for far too long lies on the
Palestinian side.
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its
educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are
taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for
true and lasting peace in the region.
-----------------------------------------
WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES BAN TO FIRE TWO SENIOR UN OFFICIALS FOR REFUSING TO
TEACH HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM AT UN GAZA SCHOOLS UNWRA OFFICIAL DENIES HOLOCAUST
'IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE'
SWC Urges Washington and Ottawa to Suspend
UNRWA Funding
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations
Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi
Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center
also called on the US and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the
UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
“The Holocaust -
the most profound example of man’s inhumanity to man in history - is universally
accepted as the heart and soul of any human rights agenda," said Rabbis Marvin
Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean, and Associate Dean (respectively) of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But even as the world gathered in Poland to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in which fifty
million human beings lost their lives, officials of the UN Relief and Works
Agency in Gaza were unilaterally deciding to eradicate any references to WWII’s
Nazi Holocaust,” they continued.
“UNRWA must not act as if it is a
subsidiary of Hamas,” they said. “But Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner-general
of UNRWA, sounded very much like a Hamas official when she declared at a press
conference, ‘I can refute allegations that the UN school curriculum includes
anything about the Holocaust… we focus on human rights in curriculum…and the
murder of six million Jews and five million other undesirables…is not a human
rights issue.’ And John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza Director, mocked UN policy when he
said, ‘There is no intention to integrate materials and topics [on the
Holocaust] that are inconsistent with the desire of Palestinian society.’”
Both UNRWA officials were responding to protests from Gaza groups
demanding that UNRWA drop the curriculum because, “The refugee camps committees
categorically refuse to let our children be taught this lie created by the Jews
and intensified by their media.”
“On behalf of the 400,000 members of
the SWC, we urge UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon to dismiss these senior officials
immediately. The role of UNRWA must be to help set the stage for peace and
reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, not as agents for the agenda
of terrorist groups,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.
---------------------------------------------------------
AJCongress Calls on UNRWA To Teach Holocaust, Defy Hamas
It is bad
enough that Hamas dismisses the Holocaust as a “lie invented by the Zionists.”
What is far more discouraging is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) did not criticize Hamas for denying the children of Gaza knowledge of
one of the central events of the twentieth century. Instead, it rushed to deny
that the Holocaust was being taught in its schools or that it was contemplating
teaching it in the future.
On the occasion of International Holocaust
Victims Remembrance Day earlier this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
“We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest
chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a
world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in
the face of bigotry and hatred.
Perhaps the place to begin this solemn
task is in the Secretary General’s own backyard: UNRWA. The Secretary General
should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places
in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s
part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at
UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and
hatred.”
As for Hamas, its dismissal of the Holocaust as a Zionist lie
could not be more at odds with President Barak Obama’s assertion this past April
in Cairo that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant and hateful” and
“prevent[s] the peace that the people of the region deserve.” This latest Hamas
tirade about the Holocaust is just one more reason why insisting on its
participation in Middle East peace negotiations is to condemn those efforts to
failure.
Chavez to visit Syria, meet Assad
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit Syria and
meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Traveling with Chavez on the two-day trip, which begins Thursday, will be a
delegation of ministers from foreign affairs, industry, mining, energy,
petroleum and trade, Bloomberg.com reported.
Chavez attended celebrations Wednesday in Tripoli marking Libyan leader
Muammar Gadhafi's 40 years in power.
The visits take place against a backdrop of Chavez's recent efforts to forge
close relationships between Venezuela and Arab nations.
Lebanon reportedly stockpiling chemical weapons
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An arms cache that exploded in southern Lebanon contained
chemical weapons, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper.
Al-Siyasa reported Thursday that three of the eight Hezbollah terrorists
killed in the explosion in July died from contact with the chemicals.
Hezbollah kept the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon away from the site
for 24 hours while the group covered up the chemical traces, the paper reported.
Al-Siyasa also wrote that Iran has sent new chemical weapons to Lebanon.
Hezbollah has said the explosion was undetonated Israeli ordnance from the
2006 Second Lebanon War. Israel believes Lebanon is stockpiling weapons, a
violation of Resolution 1701 that ended the war.
The newspaper is known for its strong opposition to
Hezbollah.
EU official: Israel hijacked Russian ship
Group facing charges for Holocaust-denying cartoon
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Arab group behind the publishing of a cartoon denying
the Holocaust may be facing charges in the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor's office in the Dutch city of Utrecht said the
anti-Semitic cartoon is an illegal form of discrimination and warrants a charge
for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image," the Jewish
Chronicle reported.
The Dutch arm of the Arab-European League published the cartoon, which
suggests that the Holocaust is a myth perpetuated by Jews.
Artist Abdoul Mouthalib Bouzerda said his decision to draw the cartoon was
meant to call attention to a double standard in which anti-Jewish cartoons are
banned but those that are anti-Muslim face no consequences.
Bouzerda was referring to the Dutch government's decision not to prosecute
far-right politician Geert Wilders for producing a film that featured
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
More on UNRWA, Hamas and Holocaust denial
Credit J
Street with being first out of the gate in condemning Hamas for seeking to
suppress Holocaust education at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
A day later, three other groups have weighed in with appeals to the United
Nations to ignore Hamas and press ahead with the course.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls for the firing of two top UNRWA officials,
presuming (I'm not sure on what evidence) that the relief agency has already
caved:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki
Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials
for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying
that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the U.S.
and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust
curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
The Abu Zayd and Ging quotes SWC cites in its release (below the jump) are
weaselly, it is true, but do not conclusively imply an UNRWA decision to pull
Holocaust education. (I've got a call into UNRWA for clarification.)
Additionally, I've covered the U.N., and it is a formidable bureacuracy with
lots and lots of protections for staff : I'm not at all sure Ban ki Moon is able
to fire himself, never mind officials in a separate bureacracy.
The American Jewish Congress seems to presume similar powers to Ban, calling
for a change in UNRWA's leadership, but stops short of naming names:
The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the
Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates.
This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is
time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not
nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”
B'nai B'rith International frames has the most careful appeal, simply calling
for the education plan to be implemented, without attributing to Ban the power
to fire, to shame, and to launch into Gazan skies a flock of black helicopters
packed with editions of Anne Frank's diary attached to tiny little
parachutes:
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for
its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the
lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting
peace in the region.
Full statements after the jump.
B’NAI B’RITH URGES UNITED NATIONS TO STAND FIRM ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN THE
GAZA STRIP
(Washington, D.C., September 2, 2009)—The United Nations is
reportedly considering a Holocaust education curriculum for its schools in the
Gaza Strip. The plan is meeting fierce resistance from Palestinian Hamas
leaders. The very vehemence of the objection, Hamas’ rejection of Israel, and
Hamas’ ongoing anti-Jewish rhetoric, continue to block any real progress for
peace.
B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith and Executive
Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
It is outrageous that the Palestinian Hamas leaders are so vehemently
opposed to teaching the children of Gaza about the Holocaust. According to a
statement from Hamas, "Talk about the holocaust and the execution of the Jews
contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values,
heritage and religion.”
The Holocaust is an indisputable fact. For Hamas
to so adamantly oppose the teaching of it is further proof that the main
obstacle for the peace that has eluded the region for far too long lies on the
Palestinian side.
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its
educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are
taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for
true and lasting peace in the region.
-----------------------------------------
WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES BAN TO FIRE TWO SENIOR UN OFFICIALS FOR REFUSING TO
TEACH HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM AT UN GAZA SCHOOLS UNWRA OFFICIAL DENIES HOLOCAUST
'IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE'
SWC Urges Washington and Ottawa to Suspend
UNRWA Funding
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations
Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi
Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center
also called on the US and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the
UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
“The Holocaust -
the most profound example of man’s inhumanity to man in history - is universally
accepted as the heart and soul of any human rights agenda," said Rabbis Marvin
Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean, and Associate Dean (respectively) of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But even as the world gathered in Poland to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in which fifty
million human beings lost their lives, officials of the UN Relief and Works
Agency in Gaza were unilaterally deciding to eradicate any references to WWII’s
Nazi Holocaust,” they continued.
“UNRWA must not act as if it is a
subsidiary of Hamas,” they said. “But Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner-general
of UNRWA, sounded very much like a Hamas official when she declared at a press
conference, ‘I can refute allegations that the UN school curriculum includes
anything about the Holocaust… we focus on human rights in curriculum…and the
murder of six million Jews and five million other undesirables…is not a human
rights issue.’ And John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza Director, mocked UN policy when he
said, ‘There is no intention to integrate materials and topics [on the
Holocaust] that are inconsistent with the desire of Palestinian society.’”
Both UNRWA officials were responding to protests from Gaza groups
demanding that UNRWA drop the curriculum because, “The refugee camps committees
categorically refuse to let our children be taught this lie created by the Jews
and intensified by their media.”
“On behalf of the 400,000 members of
the SWC, we urge UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon to dismiss these senior officials
immediately. The role of UNRWA must be to help set the stage for peace and
reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, not as agents for the agenda
of terrorist groups,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.
---------------------------------------------------------
AJCongress Calls on UNRWA To Teach Holocaust, Defy Hamas
It is bad
enough that Hamas dismisses the Holocaust as a “lie invented by the Zionists.”
What is far more discouraging is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) did not criticize Hamas for denying the children of Gaza knowledge of
one of the central events of the twentieth century. Instead, it rushed to deny
that the Holocaust was being taught in its schools or that it was contemplating
teaching it in the future.
On the occasion of International Holocaust
Victims Remembrance Day earlier this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
“We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest
chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a
world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in
the face of bigotry and hatred.
Perhaps the place to begin this solemn
task is in the Secretary General’s own backyard: UNRWA. The Secretary General
should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places
in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s
part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at
UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and
hatred.”
As for Hamas, its dismissal of the Holocaust as a Zionist lie
could not be more at odds with President Barak Obama’s assertion this past April
in Cairo that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant and hateful” and
“prevent[s] the peace that the people of the region deserve.” This latest Hamas
tirade about the Holocaust is just one more reason why insisting on its
participation in Middle East peace negotiations is to condemn those efforts to
failure.
Chavez to visit Syria, meet Assad
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit Syria and
meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Traveling with Chavez on the two-day trip, which begins Thursday, will be a
delegation of ministers from foreign affairs, industry, mining, energy,
petroleum and trade, Bloomberg.com reported.
Chavez attended celebrations Wednesday in Tripoli marking Libyan leader
Muammar Gadhafi's 40 years in power.
The visits take place against a backdrop of Chavez's recent efforts to forge
close relationships between Venezuela and Arab nations.
Lebanon reportedly stockpiling chemical weapons
Group facing charges for Holocaust-denying cartoon
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Arab group behind the publishing of a cartoon denying
the Holocaust may be facing charges in the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor's office in the Dutch city of Utrecht said the
anti-Semitic cartoon is an illegal form of discrimination and warrants a charge
for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image," the Jewish
Chronicle reported.
The Dutch arm of the Arab-European League published the cartoon, which
suggests that the Holocaust is a myth perpetuated by Jews.
Artist Abdoul Mouthalib Bouzerda said his decision to draw the cartoon was
meant to call attention to a double standard in which anti-Jewish cartoons are
banned but those that are anti-Muslim face no consequences.
Bouzerda was referring to the Dutch government's decision not to prosecute
far-right politician Geert Wilders for producing a film that featured
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
More on UNRWA, Hamas and Holocaust denial
Credit J
Street with being first out of the gate in condemning Hamas for seeking to
suppress Holocaust education at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
A day later, three other groups have weighed in with appeals to the United
Nations to ignore Hamas and press ahead with the course.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls for the firing of two top UNRWA officials,
presuming (I'm not sure on what evidence) that the relief agency has already
caved:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki
Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials
for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying
that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the U.S.
and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust
curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
The Abu Zayd and Ging quotes SWC cites in its release (below the jump) are
weaselly, it is true, but do not conclusively imply an UNRWA decision to pull
Holocaust education. (I've got a call into UNRWA for clarification.)
Additionally, I've covered the U.N., and it is a formidable bureacuracy with
lots and lots of protections for staff : I'm not at all sure Ban ki Moon is able
to fire himself, never mind officials in a separate bureacracy.
The American Jewish Congress seems to presume similar powers to Ban, calling
for a change in UNRWA's leadership, but stops short of naming names:
The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the
Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates.
This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is
time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not
nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”
B'nai B'rith International frames has the most careful appeal, simply calling
for the education plan to be implemented, without attributing to Ban the power
to fire, to shame, and to launch into Gazan skies a flock of black helicopters
packed with editions of Anne Frank's diary attached to tiny little
parachutes:
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for
its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the
lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting
peace in the region.
Full statements after the jump.
B’NAI B’RITH URGES UNITED NATIONS TO STAND FIRM ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN THE
GAZA STRIP
(Washington, D.C., September 2, 2009)—The United Nations is
reportedly considering a Holocaust education curriculum for its schools in the
Gaza Strip. The plan is meeting fierce resistance from Palestinian Hamas
leaders. The very vehemence of the objection, Hamas’ rejection of Israel, and
Hamas’ ongoing anti-Jewish rhetoric, continue to block any real progress for
peace.
B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith and Executive
Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
It is outrageous that the Palestinian Hamas leaders are so vehemently
opposed to teaching the children of Gaza about the Holocaust. According to a
statement from Hamas, "Talk about the holocaust and the execution of the Jews
contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values,
heritage and religion.”
The Holocaust is an indisputable fact. For Hamas
to so adamantly oppose the teaching of it is further proof that the main
obstacle for the peace that has eluded the region for far too long lies on the
Palestinian side.
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its
educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are
taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for
true and lasting peace in the region.
-----------------------------------------
WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES BAN TO FIRE TWO SENIOR UN OFFICIALS FOR REFUSING TO
TEACH HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM AT UN GAZA SCHOOLS UNWRA OFFICIAL DENIES HOLOCAUST
'IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE'
SWC Urges Washington and Ottawa to Suspend
UNRWA Funding
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations
Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi
Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center
also called on the US and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the
UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
“The Holocaust -
the most profound example of man’s inhumanity to man in history - is universally
accepted as the heart and soul of any human rights agenda," said Rabbis Marvin
Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean, and Associate Dean (respectively) of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But even as the world gathered in Poland to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in which fifty
million human beings lost their lives, officials of the UN Relief and Works
Agency in Gaza were unilaterally deciding to eradicate any references to WWII’s
Nazi Holocaust,” they continued.
“UNRWA must not act as if it is a
subsidiary of Hamas,” they said. “But Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner-general
of UNRWA, sounded very much like a Hamas official when she declared at a press
conference, ‘I can refute allegations that the UN school curriculum includes
anything about the Holocaust… we focus on human rights in curriculum…and the
murder of six million Jews and five million other undesirables…is not a human
rights issue.’ And John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza Director, mocked UN policy when he
said, ‘There is no intention to integrate materials and topics [on the
Holocaust] that are inconsistent with the desire of Palestinian society.’”
Both UNRWA officials were responding to protests from Gaza groups
demanding that UNRWA drop the curriculum because, “The refugee camps committees
categorically refuse to let our children be taught this lie created by the Jews
and intensified by their media.”
“On behalf of the 400,000 members of
the SWC, we urge UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon to dismiss these senior officials
immediately. The role of UNRWA must be to help set the stage for peace and
reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, not as agents for the agenda
of terrorist groups,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.
---------------------------------------------------------
AJCongress Calls on UNRWA To Teach Holocaust, Defy Hamas
It is bad
enough that Hamas dismisses the Holocaust as a “lie invented by the Zionists.”
What is far more discouraging is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) did not criticize Hamas for denying the children of Gaza knowledge of
one of the central events of the twentieth century. Instead, it rushed to deny
that the Holocaust was being taught in its schools or that it was contemplating
teaching it in the future.
On the occasion of International Holocaust
Victims Remembrance Day earlier this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
“We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest
chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a
world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in
the face of bigotry and hatred.
Perhaps the place to begin this solemn
task is in the Secretary General’s own backyard: UNRWA. The Secretary General
should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places
in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s
part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at
UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and
hatred.”
As for Hamas, its dismissal of the Holocaust as a Zionist lie
could not be more at odds with President Barak Obama’s assertion this past April
in Cairo that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant and hateful” and
“prevent[s] the peace that the people of the region deserve.” This latest Hamas
tirade about the Holocaust is just one more reason why insisting on its
participation in Middle East peace negotiations is to condemn those efforts to
failure.
Chavez to visit Syria, meet Assad
Group facing charges for Holocaust-denying cartoon
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Arab group behind the publishing of a cartoon denying
the Holocaust may be facing charges in the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor's office in the Dutch city of Utrecht said the
anti-Semitic cartoon is an illegal form of discrimination and warrants a charge
for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image," the Jewish
Chronicle reported.
The Dutch arm of the Arab-European League published the cartoon, which
suggests that the Holocaust is a myth perpetuated by Jews.
Artist Abdoul Mouthalib Bouzerda said his decision to draw the cartoon was
meant to call attention to a double standard in which anti-Jewish cartoons are
banned but those that are anti-Muslim face no consequences.
Bouzerda was referring to the Dutch government's decision not to prosecute
far-right politician Geert Wilders for producing a film that featured
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
More on UNRWA, Hamas and Holocaust denial
Group facing charges for Holocaust-denying cartoon
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Arab group behind the publishing of a cartoon denying the Holocaust may be facing charges in the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor's office in the Dutch city of Utrecht said the anti-Semitic cartoon is an illegal form of discrimination and warrants a charge for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image," the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The Dutch arm of the Arab-European League published the cartoon, which suggests that the Holocaust is a myth perpetuated by Jews.
Artist Abdoul Mouthalib Bouzerda said his decision to draw the cartoon was meant to call attention to a double standard in which anti-Jewish cartoons are banned but those that are anti-Muslim face no consequences.
Bouzerda was referring to the Dutch government's decision not to prosecute far-right politician Geert Wilders for producing a film that featured caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
Credit J Street with being first out of the gate in condemning Hamas for seeking to suppress Holocaust education at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
A day later, three other groups have weighed in with appeals to the United Nations to ignore Hamas and press ahead with the course.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls for the firing of two top UNRWA officials, presuming (I'm not sure on what evidence) that the relief agency has already caved:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the U.S. and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
The Abu Zayd and Ging quotes SWC cites in its release (below the jump) are weaselly, it is true, but do not conclusively imply an UNRWA decision to pull Holocaust education. (I've got a call into UNRWA for clarification.) Additionally, I've covered the U.N., and it is a formidable bureacuracy with lots and lots of protections for staff : I'm not at all sure Ban ki Moon is able to fire himself, never mind officials in a separate bureacracy.
The American Jewish Congress seems to presume similar powers to Ban, calling for a change in UNRWA's leadership, but stops short of naming names:
The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”
B'nai B'rith International frames has the most careful appeal, simply calling for the education plan to be implemented, without attributing to Ban the power to fire, to shame, and to launch into Gazan skies a flock of black helicopters packed with editions of Anne Frank's diary attached to tiny little parachutes:
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting peace in the region.
Full statements after the jump.
B’NAI B’RITH URGES UNITED NATIONS TO STAND FIRM ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN THE
GAZA STRIP
(Washington, D.C., September 2, 2009)—The United Nations is
reportedly considering a Holocaust education curriculum for its schools in the
Gaza Strip. The plan is meeting fierce resistance from Palestinian Hamas
leaders. The very vehemence of the objection, Hamas’ rejection of Israel, and
Hamas’ ongoing anti-Jewish rhetoric, continue to block any real progress for
peace.
B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith and Executive
Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
It is outrageous that the Palestinian Hamas leaders are so vehemently
opposed to teaching the children of Gaza about the Holocaust. According to a
statement from Hamas, "Talk about the holocaust and the execution of the Jews
contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values,
heritage and religion.”
The Holocaust is an indisputable fact. For Hamas
to so adamantly oppose the teaching of it is further proof that the main
obstacle for the peace that has eluded the region for far too long lies on the
Palestinian side.
We call upon the United Nations to continue with its
educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are
taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for
true and lasting peace in the region.
-----------------------------------------
WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES BAN TO FIRE TWO SENIOR UN OFFICIALS FOR REFUSING TO
TEACH HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM AT UN GAZA SCHOOLS UNWRA OFFICIAL DENIES HOLOCAUST
'IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE'
SWC Urges Washington and Ottawa to Suspend
UNRWA Funding
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations
Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi
Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center
also called on the US and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the
UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.
“The Holocaust -
the most profound example of man’s inhumanity to man in history - is universally
accepted as the heart and soul of any human rights agenda," said Rabbis Marvin
Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean, and Associate Dean (respectively) of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But even as the world gathered in Poland to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in which fifty
million human beings lost their lives, officials of the UN Relief and Works
Agency in Gaza were unilaterally deciding to eradicate any references to WWII’s
Nazi Holocaust,” they continued.
“UNRWA must not act as if it is a
subsidiary of Hamas,” they said. “But Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner-general
of UNRWA, sounded very much like a Hamas official when she declared at a press
conference, ‘I can refute allegations that the UN school curriculum includes
anything about the Holocaust… we focus on human rights in curriculum…and the
murder of six million Jews and five million other undesirables…is not a human
rights issue.’ And John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza Director, mocked UN policy when he
said, ‘There is no intention to integrate materials and topics [on the
Holocaust] that are inconsistent with the desire of Palestinian society.’”
Both UNRWA officials were responding to protests from Gaza groups
demanding that UNRWA drop the curriculum because, “The refugee camps committees
categorically refuse to let our children be taught this lie created by the Jews
and intensified by their media.”
“On behalf of the 400,000 members of
the SWC, we urge UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon to dismiss these senior officials
immediately. The role of UNRWA must be to help set the stage for peace and
reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, not as agents for the agenda
of terrorist groups,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.
---------------------------------------------------------
AJCongress Calls on UNRWA To Teach Holocaust, Defy Hamas
It is bad
enough that Hamas dismisses the Holocaust as a “lie invented by the Zionists.”
What is far more discouraging is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) did not criticize Hamas for denying the children of Gaza knowledge of
one of the central events of the twentieth century. Instead, it rushed to deny
that the Holocaust was being taught in its schools or that it was contemplating
teaching it in the future.
On the occasion of International Holocaust
Victims Remembrance Day earlier this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
“We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest
chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a
world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in
the face of bigotry and hatred.
Perhaps the place to begin this solemn
task is in the Secretary General’s own backyard: UNRWA. The Secretary General
should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places
in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s
part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at
UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and
hatred.”
As for Hamas, its dismissal of the Holocaust as a Zionist lie
could not be more at odds with President Barak Obama’s assertion this past April
in Cairo that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant and hateful” and
“prevent[s] the peace that the people of the region deserve.” This latest Hamas
tirade about the Holocaust is just one more reason why insisting on its
participation in Middle East peace negotiations is to condemn those efforts to
failure.
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit Syria and meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Traveling with Chavez on the two-day trip, which begins Thursday, will be a delegation of ministers from foreign affairs, industry, mining, energy, petroleum and trade, Bloomberg.com reported.
Chavez attended celebrations Wednesday in Tripoli marking Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's 40 years in power.
The visits take place against a backdrop of Chavez's recent efforts to forge close relationships between Venezuela and Arab nations.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An arms cache that exploded in southern Lebanon contained chemical weapons, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper.
Al-Siyasa reported Thursday that three of the eight Hezbollah terrorists killed in the explosion in July died from contact with the chemicals.
Hezbollah kept the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon away from the site
for 24 hours while the group covered up the chemical traces, the paper reported.
Al-Siyasa also wrote that Iran has sent new chemical weapons to Lebanon.
Hezbollah has said the explosion was undetonated Israeli ordnance from the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Israel believes Lebanon is stockpiling weapons, a violation of Resolution 1701 that ended the war.
The newspaper is known for its strong opposition to Hezbollah.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel intercepted a Russian-manned cargo ship allegedly carrying secret weapons that had disappeared, a European Union official said.
Adm. Tarmo Kouts, the European Union's rapporteur on piracy and a former commander of the Estonian armed forces, told Time in an article posted Monday on the magazine's Web site that although Russia claimed the ship was carrying lumber, only a shipment of missiles could explain its actions since the alleged hijacking on July 24.
"There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can't explain this situation in any other way," Kouts told Time. "As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic."
Russia said the ship, the Arctic Sea, was destined for Algeria with less than $2 million of timber, was hijacked and its tracking device disabled in late July. In mid-August the Russian government sent out a search party, which recovered the ship and its crew without firing a shot, according to Time.
Russia denied the ship was running weapons to the Middle East.
According to Time, Israeli President Shimon Peres met with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, the day after the ship was recovered and the leaders discussed "the sale of Russian weapons and military hardware to countries hostile to Israel," though the Arctic Sea was not specifically mentioned.
In addition, Time wrote, Russia sent a disproportionate force that included destroyers and submarines to look for the ship, and returned the small crew and alleged pirates back in two enormous military cargo planes.
Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, said Kouts should stop "running his mouth," Time reported.
 |
Geneva (AFP) Aug 31, 2009
The 65 states in the Conference on Disarmament have failed to agree on how to move ahead with full nuclear arms talks, effectively delaying them until 2010, the conference president said Monday.
"Time is running out for this year's session of the CD," said ambassador Christian Strohal, who also represents Austria.
"The window of opportunity to achieve a consensual approach.... is closing - and in all seriousness it is closing today," he added.
"If we still were to embark on a meaningful implementation of our Programme of Work, we would need to take a decision now," he added.
Pointing out that consensus "still eludes us", he closed the session for the day after none of the 65 members sought to intervene.
The Conference on Disarmament's current and last session of 2009 ends on September 18. It traditionally resumes work in January.
Given the lack of time however, Strohal said it was best to move on to other business the conference needed to attend to over the coming weeks.
The talks include the world's major nuclear powers as well as recent atomic weapons states like India, Pakistan and North Korea and those with a nuclear research capability.
In May, they broke more than a decade of deadlock by agreeing on a work plan for 2009.
That included full "negotiations" on an international ban on the production of new nuclear bomb-making material, and talks on nuclear disarmament, the arms race in outer space, and security assurances for non-nuclear states.
But some diplomats blamed Pakistan for openly stalling the conference on a procedural issue.
Pakistan cited unspecified national security concerns to justify its refusal to accept part of the proposed structure for the talks.
Other member states, including Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States had signalled their broad acceptance of the proposal.
 Initially, the Falco will only be able to provide reconnaissance and surveillance for the air force, as it may be large enough to carry both a missile and a targeting system. But future UAVs may be fitted with systems like laser-guided missiles for offensive purposes with outside help. |
Islamabad, Pakistan (UPI) Aug 31, 2009
Pakistan, which has been seeking drone technology from the United States, has decided to make the pilotless plane on its own for its air force.
Under a program launched this month, Pakistan's domestic version of the drone or unmanned aerial vehicle to be called Falco will be made in collaboration with Selex Galileo of Italy at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra in Punjab province.
The Italian company is a leader in integrated sensor solutions and through-life capability management for defense systems and homeland security applications. It offers surveillance, protection, tracking, targeting, navigation & control and imaging systems.
Various Pakistani media reports quoted Air Marshal Farhat Husain Khan, chairman of the Kamra complex who presided at the launch ceremonies, as saying that the Falco would greatly enhance the air force's operational capability and help make Pakistan one of the few countries with the capability to make a modern tactical drone.
Husain Khan said it took engineers two years to set up the complex in Kamra, Dawn newspaper reported.
The UAV co-production facility is seen as a major step toward Pakistan's long-term goal of self-reliance in the military aviation industry.
"Falco is an advanced, tactical UAV designed by Selex Galileo Italy ... it would address current and future surveillance and reconnaissance needs of the Pakistan air force," an air force spokesman said, the Daily Times reported.
No precise date was given for the rollout of the Falco, but officials said it would be in the near future.
Initially, the Falco will only be able to provide reconnaissance and surveillance for the air force, as it may be large enough to carry both a missile and a targeting system. But future UAVs may be fitted with systems like laser-guided missiles for offensive purposes with outside help.
Pakistan has been asking for the drone technology from the United States. Missile attacks from suspected U.S. Predator drones have been especially effective in the fight against the Taliban in the tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
In one recent incident, a drone attack on Aug. 5 killed Baitullah Mehsud, the notorious leader of the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan's argument for seeking the technology is that its people strongly resent their territory being used for missile attacks on the militants by foreign forces from across the border in Afghanistan.
A statement issued after a recent meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke said the drone attacks "have seriously impeded Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism from the area."
But the elimination of Baitullah Mehsud could help change that perception.
A U.S. counter-terrorism expert was quoted as telling Dawn: "With one blow, the Americans have killed Pakistan's greatest enemy in the tribal region," adding, "Even a full-fledged ground attack could not have achieved this target."
Whether the United States would part with its drone technology is not known. However, the Daily Times Thursday quoted U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Sedney as telling a private television channel that "the United States was working hard to provide to Pakistani security forces whatever they need to fight al-Qaida."
But the secretary also rejected any suggestion the United States may be under pressure from India not to give the drone technology to Pakistan, the report said.
 Arab states require more power to build and run increased levels of infrastructure such as desalination plants. |
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UPI) Sep 9, 2009
Amid the gathering storm over Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions, the race is on among Arab states to build nuclear power plants of their own, opening up immense trade opportunities for the industrialized world as well as the specter of proliferation.
The United States, Britain, France and Russia are competing for contracts in the nuclear energy bonanza that is emerging in the Middle East as Arab states seek to generate more power to feed their growing economies and to build desalination plants, a vital element in development plans as water resources shrink.
Saudi Arabia's minister of water and electricity, Abdullah bin Andul-Rahman al-Hussein, told the kingdom's al-Watan newspaper in late August that Riyadh was working on plans for its first nuclear plant.
Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates signed preliminary agreements with the United States for nuclear technology in 2008.
In May, France's economy minister, Christine Lagarde, said Paris was close to finalizing a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates. In 2007, France also pledged to help Morocco, a former colony, and Qatar, another of the Gulf states, to develop their nuclear programs.
The U.A.E. is the furthest along among the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- which also includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- although Riyadh's plans are accelerating.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the U.A.E. in May to open France's first military base in the Gulf -- and to promote a French consortium's bid to secure a $40 billion deal to build at least four, and possibly six, reactors.
The French consortium, which includes Areva, GdF Suez and Total, is the front-runner for the winner-takes-all contract.
Other bidders are General Electric of the United States with Hitachi of Japan, and the Korea Electric Power Corp. with Hyundai Engineering and Samsung C&T Corp.
The Gulf states are all major oil producers, Saudi Arabia is the world's leading exporter, and the U.A.E. is the third-ranked producer.
But they, and their fellow Arabs, are finding that their economic development is outstripping their power generation capabilities, hence the focus on nuclear energy.
In Egypt, energy demand is growing by 7 percent a year. Even the oil-rich Gulf states are suffering power cuts these days.
The U.A.E. hopes to have its first nuclear plant online by 2015, although industry sources say that may be way too optimistic. It takes on average eight years -- and $4 billion -- to construct a reactor plant.
Two years ago, there was little interest in nuclear energy around the Arab world. But now that's all changed -- to a large degree because of what's happening in Iran.
Apart from the six Gulf states, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Egypt and even impoverished Yemen are also committed to pursuing nuclear energy programs.
"The rules have changes," King Abdullah II of Jordan recently told Israeli daily Haaretz. "Everybody's going for nuclear programs."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a deal in 2008 that cleared the way for Russian involvement in building four nuclear power plants in the Arab world's most populous nation. The first, on the Mediterranean coast, is expected to cost $1.5 billion.
In August, Putin approved a draft plan for Russia, which is building Iran's first plant at Bushehr on the northern Gulf coast despite U.S. objections, to cooperate with Turkey to develop a nuclear power facility near its Mediterranean coast.
The Middle Eastern states say they do not seek to acquire nuclear weapons, as the Americans and their allies say Iran does.
But the United States and Israel, the only regional state to have nuclear arms, fear that some Arab states will eventually seek to develop uranium enrichment programs to counter Iran's allegedly clandestine efforts.
Egypt, Libya and Algeria were all suspected proliferation risks, with the help of China, Argentina, North Korea and others, at various times up until five years ago.
Israeli warplanes bombed a suspected nuclear reactor built by North Korea in Syria in September 2007.
The U.S. Congress has expressed considerable disquiet about Washington helping the U.A.E. because the emirates are key trading partners with Iran. The fear is that U.S.-supplied technology and knowhow could find its way across the Gulf to the Islamic Republic.
 AQ Khan still a 'serious proliferation risk:' US official Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan "remains a serious proliferation risk," a US official said Tuesday after the scientist gained freedom of movement. In Islamabad, Khan, who has admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya, said the Pakistani authorities had lifted restrictions on his movements. "We believe he remains a serious proliferation risk," a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity when asked to comment on the news. "We have made clear to the Pakistani government our concerns about AQ Khan." In February, a Pakistani court declared Khan a free man, five years after the reputed father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb was effectively put under house arrest for operating a clandestine proliferation network. Last Friday, the 72-year-old Khan complained to a high court that his movements were still being restricted by the government's security arrangements on his behalf. The court ordered the government to respond to Khan's claim on September 4. Local media quoted Khan as saying that the restrictions had been withdrawn ahead of Friday's hearing. "The reports that you have read in newspapers are correct," Khan told AFP, adding that he could not elaborate because the court had barred him from giving interviews to foreign media. He was, however, free to speak to local press. A senior Islamabad police official told AFP that his force was not restricting Khan's movements. David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and nuclear specialist, told AFP that "it is a mistake" to remove restrictions on a man who cannot be "trusted." He said there is a growing risk that Khan will be able to offer nuclear know-how to scientists from Iran, North Korea and any other rogue countries feared to be pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said Khan may not just be motivated by money, but a "bitterness" with the West over his house arrest. Last year, Albright wrote on the ISIS website that there were strong suspicions that Khan could have sold Iran and North Korea blueprints for an advanced nuclear warhead. He said the United States and the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), must be allowed to question Khan to learn if he sold such plans to Pyongyang or Tehran. But he told AFP Tuesday that the United States never used its leverage to arrange for such questioning. |
Islamabad (AFP) Sept 1, 2009
Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya, said Tuesday restrictions on his movements had been lifted.
Asked if local newspaper reports that the government restrictions had been removed were correct, Khan told AFP: "By the grace of Allah, yes."
In February, a Pakistani court declared Khan a free man, five years after the reputed father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb was effectively put under house arrest for operating a proliferation network.
Last Friday, the 72-year-old Khan complained to a high court that his movements were still being restricted by the government's security arrangements on his behalf. The court ordered the government to respond to Khan's claim on September 4.
Local media quoted Khan as saying that the restrictions had been withdrawn ahead of Friday's hearing.
"The reports that you have read in newspapers are correct," Khan told AFP, adding that he could not elaborate because the court had barred him from giving interviews to foreign media. He was, however, free to speak to local press.
A senior Islamabad police official told AFP: "As far as Islamabad police is concerned we are not restricting his movements."
The United States in February had expressed concern that Khan's release could lead to renewed nuclear proliferation. To allay fears, Pakistan said he had no access to atomic facilities.
A US official said Tuesday that Khan "remains a serious proliferation risk".
"We have made clear to the Pakistani government our concerns about AQ Khan," a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity when asked to comment on the news the scientist had gained freedom of movement.
Khan's lawyer Syed Ali Zafar said that if he continued to be free of restrictions by Friday's court hearing then he would not proceed with his legal action.
"If the current situation remains on the fourth of September also, then it would mean that our prayer has borne fruit," Zafar said.
A spokesman for the interior ministry was unavailable for comment.
Access to Khan's sprawling residence in one of the most upmarket areas of Islamabad was unhindered on Tuesday.
"We are not stopping anyone from meeting Mr A.Q. Khan," a plain-clothed security official at the main gate told AFP.
The official, who asked not to be named, added there were no restrictions on the scientist's movements.
"He can go anywhere on a prior notice so that security can be provided to him."
Defence analyst A.H. Nayyar said it was Khan's love of publicity that was creating trouble between him and the government.
"The government is in a fix. If it let him loose, he talks too much and causes embarrassment to the government," Nayyar told AFP. "If he is restrained, then courts invoke the fundamental rights.
In February 2004 Khan confessed to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks.
Then president Pervez Musharraf pardoned the scientist, revered by many Pakistanis as a national hero, but he was kept at his residence, guarded by troops and intelligence agents.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had expressed concerns when Islamabad High Court lifted restrictions on Khan in February. The US embassy in Islamabad Tuesday said they were following the situation.
"We have seen the press reports, we are following the situation," US embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire told AFP.
US lawmakers in March introduced legislation aiming to cut off military aid to Pakistan unless US officials could question Khan.
earlier related report
Khan: Nuclear hero to
Pakistan, villain to West
Pakistani atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is
hailed as a national hero for transforming his country into the world's first
Islamic nuclear power but regarded as a dangerous renegade by the West.
Revered as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Khan was lauded for bringing the nation up to par with arch-rival India in the atomic field and making national defence "impregnable".
But he was surrounded by controversy when he was accused of illegally proliferating nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan was placed under effective house arrest in 2004 after he admitted running a proliferation network to the three countries.
In February a court declared him a free man but the government restricted his movements. Khan Tuesday said those restrictions had been lifted after he complained to the high court.
Born in Bhopal, India on April 1, 1936, Khan was just a young boy when his family migrated to Pakistan during the bloody 1947 partition of the sub-continent at the end of British colonial rule.
He did an science degree at Karachi University in 1960, then went on to study metallurgical engineering in Berlin before completing advanced studies in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The 72-year-old's crucial contribution to Pakistan's nuclear programme was the procurement of a blueprint for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear fissile material.
He was charged with stealing it from The Netherlands while working for Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium Urenco, and bringing it back to Pakistan in 1976.
On his return to Pakistan, then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto put Khan in charge of the government's nascent uranium enrichment project.
By 1978, his team had enriched uranium and by 1984 they were ready to detonate a nuclear device, Khan later said in a newspaper interview.
Khan's aura began to dim in March 2001 when then president Pervez Musharraf, reportedly under US pressure, removed him from the chairmanship of Kahuta Research Laboratories and made him a special adviser.
But Pakistan's nuclear establishment never expected to see its most revered hero subjected to questioning.
The move came after Islamabad received a letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog, containing allegations that Pakistani scientists were the source of sold-off nuclear knowledge.
Khan said in a speech to the Pakistan Institute of National Affairs in 1990 that he had shopped around on world markets while developing Pakistan's nuclear programme.
"It was not possible for us to make each and every piece of equipment within the country," he said.
Khan was pardoned by Musharraf after his confession but later retracted his remarks.
"I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself," Khan told AFP in an interview last year while under effective house arrest.
The scientist believed in nuclear defence as the best deterrent.
After Islamabad carried out atomic tests in 1998 in response to tests by India, Khan said Pakistan "never wanted to make nuclear weapons. It was forced to do so."
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Vienna, Austria (AFP) Aug 28, 2009
The UN atomic watchdog has been unable to make much progress in its investigation into alleged illicit nuclear activities in Syria, a senior UN official said Friday.
"There's not much progress, if anything," the official said in response to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on its probe into allegations that Damascus had been building a covert nuclear reactor at a remote desert site until it was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007.
The IAEA has been investigating the allegations since last year and it has already said that the building bore some of the characteristics of a nuclear facility.
UN inspectors also detected "significant" traces of man-made uranium at that site, too, as yet unexplained by Damascus.
In its latest restricted report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the UN watchdog complained that Syria "has not yet provided the necessary cooperation" to allow it "to determine the origin of the anthropogenic natural uranium particles found at the Dair Alzour site."
Neither had Damascus provided any evidence to back up its assertion that the building was not nuclear related or clarify the functional relationship between Dair Alzour site and three other suspect locations, the report stated.
Syria argues that it is under no obligation to provide further information about Dair Alzour or the other locations because of their military nature.
But the IAEA dismissed such arguments.
"The fact that the agency has found particles of nuclear material of a type which is not in the declared inventory of Syria underscores the need to pursue this matter," the report said.
"Recognising Syria's concerns about the sensitivity of certain information and locations, (IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei) urges Syria to engage with the agency to establish the necessary modalities for managed access to such information and locations to enable the agency to establish the facts," it added.
In its June report, the IAEA said its inspectors had also found uranium particles at a research reactor near Damascus that would not normally be expected there.
In the new report, the IAEA said that Syria had cooperated in clarifying how the uranium got there.
"In relation to the presence of anthropogenic natural uranium particles at the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) in Damascus, Syria provided additional explanations about the possible origin of the particles," it said.
Syria suggested the natural uranium particles "had resulted from the accumulation of sample and reference materials used in neutron activation analysis" and provided documentation to back up its argument, the report said.
On July 8, the IAEA performed a physical inventory verification (PIV) at the MNSR during which environmental samples were taken, as well as samples from the materials which Syria stated were the source of the anthropogenic natural uranium particles, the IAEA said.
"The agency is awaiting the results of the analyses of the samples," it concluded.
 Shaldag patrol boat. |
Abuja, Nigeria (UPI) Sep 10, 2009
Nigeria has signed a $25 million deal with Israel Shipyards for the construction and delivery of two Shaldag patrol boats.
The deal was revealed by Israeli media in the wake of a controversial nine-nation Africa trip -- including Nigeria -- by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister.
Under the deal, Nigerian crews will also be trained -- some of them have already done so -- in Israel.
The $25 million deal is said to have been clinched through Amit Sadeh, a middle-man implicated in the "controversial sale of air and sea drones by the Yavneh-based Aeronautics Ventures to the Nigerian defense ministry," the AllAfrica Web site reported.
Similar reports in the Israeli press said the boats and intelligence equipment included in the agreement were expected to be used by the Nigerian forces to combat rebels in the Niger River Delta region, heightening allegations that Israel is meddling in the African country's domestic affairs.
By some accounts, one of the two Shaldag patrol boats had already been delivered to Nigeria.
News of the deal capped a raft of unprecedented trade agreements Lieberman signed during his visit in a bid to boost relations between Israel and Nigeria, one of the largest, wealthiest and most important countries in Africa.
The obvious intent of Lieberman's Africa tour -- it takes him through Ethiopia, Angola, Uganda and Kenya -- aims to extend Israeli help in tackling the continent's plaguing problems of hunger, health and limited water resources.
"There is no doubt that the most important need of Africa is countering hunger and water shortages," said Haaretz, quoting Haim Dibon, deputy director of Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Still, the less-publicized aspect of the Africa odyssey targets Israel's bid to increase its defense exports, the Israel-based Haaretz daily reported.
What's more, Haaretz reported, the trip also aims to develop cooperation in the field of intelligence gathering, with the aim of targeting militant Islamist elements. A number of Israeli intelligence representatives are accompanying Lieberman on his trip, along with prominent businessmen and diplomats.
Israeli trade with Africa is estimated at $3 billion and the Israel Export Institute anticipates Lieberman's latest trip will secure an addition $1 billion in Israeli exports.
As a bridge of cooperation, Israelis have eyed connections with the large and influential community of Israeli businessmen in Nigeria. Their activities predominantly focus on the fields of agriculture, infrastructure and arms.
In recent years, Israel and Nigeria have signed a string of arms deals totaling about $500 million, Haaretz said.
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Washington (AFP) Sept 10, 2009
Iran is proposing to set up an international system to scrap and prohibit nuclear weapons worldwide, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's senior adviser said in an interview published Thursday.
Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi told The Washington Post that the Iranian package of proposals submitted Wednesday to the United States and other powers calls for the elimination of existing weapons and measures to prevent countries without weapons from acquiring them.
But he stopped short of promising that Iran would bow to international demands and halt its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb but Tehran insists is for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"The methods of preventing development of nuclear weapons and a widespread system for preventing the multiplying and the proliferation of nuclear weapons are a part of the package," Hashemi said.
"Since nuclear weapons are an international threat, with the cooperation of all countries we can design an international framework that, basically, prevents research, production, multiplying and keeping nuclear weapons and also moves toward destruction of present nuclear weapons," he was quoted as saying.
"Iran is ready in this path to offer any and every kind of cooperation and effort. No country must be exempt from this international framework against nuclear weapons," Hashemi told the daily.
Iran has long called for Israel to abandon a stockpile of nuclear weapons it is widely believed to possess.
Hashemi gave no direct reply when asked repeatedly if the Iranian package contains a promise to stop uranium enrichment.
He appeared to reply affirmatively when asked if the proposal for a new framework aimed not only at eliminating existing nuclear stockpiles but also at clearing up doubts that countries like Iran aimed to build such weapons.
"Since today the threat of nuclear weapons comes from countries that have them, and to be secure and safe from future activities of countries that in the future will join the nuclear club, this framework must be widely implemented from now on," he said.
He suggested Iran's goal -- rather than trying to build a nuclear weapon itself -- is to establish an international system in which nobody will be allowed to make such weapons.
"Iran not only does not want to make nuclear weapons, but is actually intensely against nuclear weapons," Hashemi told the newspaper.
"In all truth, Iran is trying to establish a new regime to prevent nuclear weapons worldwide, which are an international anxiety," he was quoted as saying.
| Beyond rallies, how you can stop Iran |
| Analysis/Opinion | |
| By SHAI FRANKLIN and MICAH HALPERN | |
| Thursday, 10 September 2009 | |
 Alongside many heads of state and prime ministers, Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the annual opening of the United
Nations General Assembly later this month in New York. Jews will turn out across
the street to raise voices in protest.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Jews have a legitimate concern about Iran. So should everyone else in the world. Iran’s nuclear program and ongoing support for terrorism are a threat to most nations. One of the most effective vehicles for countering Iran is getting non-Jews and non-Americans to take public positions. The Jewish community can have a substantive, indirect impact on Iran’s actions and policies. Here are some of the strategies that could bear fruit if pursued in a co-ordinated and consistent way. • A concerted non-governmental effort must be launched to enlist non-Jewish allies and experts across Latin America, Africa and Europe, even in China. Such partners can push their governments to take a meaningful stand against Iran. Have them push their governments to publicly honour their commitments to international treaties and UN Security Council resolutions, and to their own laws. • Solicit governments to issue joint statements reaffirming sanctions and get governments to sign up their neighbours in the movement to pressure Iran. Most immediately, they should support U.S. President Barack Obama if he announces new measures against Iran, which also could help Israel take more risks on the Palestinian track. • If leaders insist on attending Ahmadinejad’s UN address, they should be pressed to clarify at what point they will be prepared to walk out. Will it be if Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, if he questions Israel’s right to exist, if he promotes terrorism and the killing of innocent lives? The act of walking out, as has been proven in the past, leaves a lasting impression, as it did at the Durban Review Conference in Geneva in April. • Speakers from countries other than the United States and Israel must be encouraged to use part of their own addresses – at the United Nation and at the rallies – to directly confront Iran, telling Iran that the world’s patience has worn thin. They should underscore this message in their side meetings with other world leaders. The best example of how to use the UN General Assembly came two years ago when then-president Nestor Kirchner of Argentina used his address to criticize Iran for its sponsorship of the 1994 AMIA bombing, which killed 86 civilians. Kirchner had standing, since Iran was behind two horrific terror attacks in his country. He had credibility, as a major world leader. He had an audience, comprising most of his fellow heads of state. Iran does care what certain parts of the world think – just not what Americans or American Jews think. In 2007, Iran gave away millions of dollars and signed billions in trade deals in a failed bid to keep Interpol from issuing “red notices” against five of its senior military and intelligence operatives for their role in the AMIA attack. Last April, Iranian voters watched Ahmadinejad be humiliated when European delegates walked out on his anti-Jewish rant at Durban II. For all the valuable words spoken at rallies and printed in expensive newspaper ads, the actual impact of public Jewish advocacy on impeding the Iranian threat is negligible. Massive public campaigns by American Jews are important to the Jewish community – and to the U.S. government – but they will not persuade other governments to tighten the screws on Iran. Jews certainly need to make their voices heard, but rallies have limited impact. Compared to the hundreds of thousands who recently marched in Iran against Ahmadinejad, 10,000 Jews in New York are at best a footnote to what everyone already knows: the Tehran regime is not legitimate, and it is a threat to regional and global peace. Continue the rallies. That is how future leaders are forged, that is how politicians learn our priorities. That is how we teach our children about the importance of standing up against modern-day pharaohs and dictators. But Jewish rallies will not stop Iran. Iran watches every single diplomatic move in certain parts of the world. They send out their own people to do the convincing and secure their agenda. Jews must do the same in order to restrict and contain Iran. This means ensuring sufficient international pressure so that the regime at last faces real consequences if it proceeds with its nuclear program. This means going government by government, and for this we won’t need cameras or microphones. Shai Franklin is senior fellow for United Nations affairs at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. Micah Halpern, a Middle East expert and terror analyst, is the author of Thugs (Thomas Nelson, 2007). |
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Venezuela fetes Gadhafi
CARACAS (JTA) -- Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi was welcomed warmly in Venezuela days after slamming Israel in a speech.
Gadhafi was feted in the South American country this week days after slamming Israel at the United Nations General Assembly in a rant that included linking the Jewish state to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Gadhafi traveled to the Venezuelan island of Margarita Sept. 27 to attend the Second Summit of the South featuring 61 heads of state from Africa and South America.
“All of the people of Margarita are filled with jubilation by your presence and offers you this tribute as a show of our love and great affection for the great Libyan nation, the Arab people, the people of Africa and the great Libyan revolution,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he draped a sash of the Venezuelan colors around Gadhafi’s neck.
The Libyan leader responded by promising to further bilateral ties between the two oil-producing nations and calling for reforms of the U.N. General Assembly to end its “hegemony” over “the people.”
“For [Chavez], the most important thing is the time that [Gadhafi has] achieved in power,” said Paulina Gamus, the only Jew to have served as a deputy in Venezuela’s National Assembly.
Earlier this year, Chavez won a referendum abolishing term limits for elected officials, paving the way for him to stand for election indefinitely.
The Venezuelan leader, an outspoken critic of Israel, has sought increasingly to form alliances with nations that are both anti-America and anti-Israel, such as Iran and Libya, much to the consternation of the local Jewish population.
“To support someone that denies the Holocaust, this is hate,” said Camila Roffe de Levy, 51, a Caracas biologist, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Chavez has called a brother. “All the time he is creating hate.”
By
Ari Shavit
Tags: Nuclear, Iran 
The basic facts have not changed: Iran is galloping toward nuclear weapons. The Iranian clock is currently ticking at the rate of three kilograms of enriched uranium per day. Despite impressive successes in the realm of prevention, prevention is not preventing the Iranian bomb, it is merely postponing the assembly date. Delay is important, but it is not enough. Fact: Again and again, the Iranians have deceived those who are trying to thwart it. When its storehouses contain enough raw material for 30 nuclear bombs and enough semi-processed material for one bomb, the Shi'ite power is on the threshold. Its distance from full nuclear-power status ranges from one year in the worst-case scenario to three or four years in the best case.
Nor have the strategic implications of the basic facts changed: If one fine day Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces he has a nuclear bomb, the world will be a different world. Morning coffee in Tel Aviv's Florentine neighborhood will not be the same coffee; Kir Royale in the Place de la Bastille will not taste like the same champagne. Even if we assume that Tehran will behave rationally and refrain from using its doomsday weapon directly, the very fact that it has nuclear weapons will cause the entire Middle East to go nuclear. A nuclear Iran will also change the balance of power between Middle Eastern radicals and moderates. It will turn the Middle East into a multipolar nuclear system sitting atop a seething, unstable region.
No Cold War-era situation will resemble the new situation. A nuclear Iran means a nuclear Saudi Arabia, a nuclear Egypt, a nuclear Turkey and a nuclear third world. A nuclear Iran means the 21st century will be the century of terror.
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Thus, if at the beginning of the summer it was still possible to wonder whether Obama had internalized the Iranian problem, today the picture is clear: Very belatedly, the U.S. president, French president, British prime minister and German chancellor are trying to impose a real diplomatic siege on Iran. They are doing everything that can be done via diplomatic efforts to try to stop the catastrophic centrifuges of Natanz and Qom.
In this situation, there is no genuine fear of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran. There are five reasons why this is so: The optimal moment for a military strike has passed, the last possible moment for a military strike has not yet arrived, the international community is finally waking up, the Iranian regime suffers from deep political and economic weaknesses, and the current Israeli leadership is a responsible leadership that does not rush into battle and is not quick on the trigger.
But the fact that, for now, Israel is showing restraint and even lowering its profile should not mislead anyone. Today, in Geneva, the diplomatic confrontation between the Western world and Iran is entering the home stretch. In previous heats, the Iranian athlete proved he is both faster and more determined than his pampered, lazy opponents. This time, the outcome must be different. The moment the talks have exhausted their usefulness, the Western powers must impose immediate, aggressive sanctions on Tehran. They must exploit the Iranian regime's lack of legitimacy and the Iranian economy's vulnerability to the fullest in order to keep Tehran from producing a nuclear weapon.
If the international community does not employ harsh diplomacy now, it will put itself in an impossible dilemma: an Iranian bomb or bombing Iran. And if that happens, the quartet of Obama, Sarkozy, Brown and Angela Merkel will bear personal responsibility - not only for the emergence of a new Middle East, but for the emergence of a whole new world.
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