In the face of one of the harshest reports on the pro-Israel lobby to emerge from academia, Jewish organizations are holding fire in order to avoid generating publicity for their critics. Officials at Jewish organizations are furious over "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a new paper by John Mearsheimer, a top international relations theorists based at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In their report — versions of which appear on the Kennedy School Web site and in the March 26 issue of the London Review of Books — the scholars depict "the Israel lobby" as a "loose coalition" of politicians, media outlets, research institutions, Jewish groups and Evangelical Christians that steers America's Middle East policy in directions beneficial to Israel, even if it requires harming American interests. ... http://www.forward.com censor News |
Editor - 14:18:00 03-23-06 |
Ill-equipped Guard units alarm states |
The conflict in Iraq, launched three years ago as bombs began lighting up Baghdad's midnight skies, has left America's National Guard as one of the most critically wounded casualties of the war.Since the war began, the Guard has been badly stripped of equipment and resources even as it is tasked with one of the most important on-call jobs on American soil: to be the first line of homeland defense and security in the event of a catastrophic terror attack or a devastating national emergency such as Hurricane Katrina.Statistics, compiled last year by the Government Accountability Office, are startling:Non-deployed Guard units have just 5 percent of the lightweight rifles and 14 percent of the machine guns they are authorized to have.Units nationwide have just 8 percent of the flatbed semi-trailers they are authorized to have and 10 percent of the Humvees.... http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/14158681.htm
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Editor - 14:03:00 03-23-06 |
Pastor shot dead; wife, children missing Body was found in bathroom, no signs of forced entry |
A church minister was found shot to death in his parsonage, and authorities were searching for his missing wife and three young daughters Thursday.Church members went searching for Matthew Winkler late Wednesday when he didn’t show up for an evening service at Fourth Street Church of Christ, police said. They used a key to enter the parsonage and found him dead in a bedroom. His family was gone.Selmer Police Chief Neal Burkes said Thursday that Winkler, 31, had been shot. According to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson, there were no signs of forced entry at the home.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11975002/from/RSS/
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Editor - 09:50:00 03-23-06 |
Dead Pakistanis 'were innocent' |
Pakistan says 16 of its nationals travelling in Afghanistan were arrested and then killed by Afghan security forces. A Pakistani embassy spokesman in Kabul told the BBC that the men "were innocent Pakistani civilians". The Afghan foreign ministry said on Thursday the dead were all "Taleban... from Pakistan". The Afghan authorities say they are investigating the deaths, reported near the border town of Spin Boldak. The dispute over the killings comes as relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan over cross-border security have worsened. The Afghan government has repeatedly accused Pakistan of failing to prevent Taleban militants from taking refuge on its territory, while the Pakistani authorities have criticised the quality of Afghan intelligence. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4836244.stm
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Editor - 09:46:00 03-23-06 |
Nigerian separatists attack census staff with acid |
Nigerian separatists have attacked census officials with acid and machetes in a violent campaign for the southeastern region to boycott the headcount, human rights campaigners said on Thursday. Members of the Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) attacked at least seven officials in the market town of Onitsha in Anambra state on Wednesday, the second day of the census in Africa's most populous country. "I counted at least seven enumerators who came to report at the police station yesterday that they were attacked with acid," said Uzor A. Uzor of the Civil Liberties Organization. One of the victims, Felicia Nwachukwu, said three MASSOB members on a motorbike sprayed acid onto her back and attacked a colleague with machetes before speeding off. ... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1759420
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Editor - 09:40:00 03-23-06 |
US-run mine warned by Indonesia |
Indonesia has warned of legal action against a huge US-owned mine in Papua province, unless it does more to protect the environment. The Grasberg gold and copper mine has been the focus of protests by locals, who say it causes ecological damage but has little economic benefit for them. Four policemen and a soldier were killed in riots at the mine last week. The report came hours after a landslide at the mine killed three people. Mining can potentially trigger land slips. Several other people were injured in the accident, in which tonnes of mud crashed through a cafeteria in the mine complex. All the victims were Indonesians, a mine spokesman said. The government's warning to Freeport was sparked by an environmental audit carried out on behalf of the Indonesian administration.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4836164.stm
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Editor - 09:37:00 03-23-06 |
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