Relevant Current News Stories
[Isa 62:6-7] I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (KJV) [Isaiah 62:6-7]
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News Story List

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1. An Evolutionist' among the 'Scientific community' states that Adam and Eve never met

2. What's going on?  China and Russia testing our Northern and Southern border defenses!

3. EU force 'will be independent from Nato'

4. Pope Says Mary Worship Is Proper

5. RU- 486: Brought to you by John D. Rockefeller [Illuminati]

6. Jews and Arabs: a conflict of cousins. Experts find genetic Jewish-Arab link

7. CANADA MAKES LANDMARK OFFER THAT COULD BRING ABOUT THE NEXT TEMPLE, AND "SOMETHING ELSE"

8. Jesse Jackson villifies Robert E. Lee and today's conservative Christians

9. Pentecostals: being 'slain in the spirit', being 'knocked out cold' by the spirit -- What spirit?!?

10. Hail, Mary, Co-Redeemer?

11. Student sent to mental ward after he objected to play depicting Jesus as homosexual

12. The 2000-Year Old Mystery of the Star of Bethlehem Resolved!

13. Arafat urged to take children off front line

14. Wanted: Women's eggs for research

15. Swiss plan checks on warehouse "blood diamonds"

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Story #15
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ZURICH (Reuters) - Stung by suggestions it is a hub for gems that fund wars, Switzerland plans to check duty-free warehouses for "conflict diamonds" and find out how many stones pass through the country, an official source said on Thursday.

Conflict diamonds, also dubbed "blood diamonds", come from countries that finance wars by selling precious metals and stones that end up in jewellery stores despite trade sanctions.

A report by a panel for the U.N. Security Council recently called for a global certification system to prevent trade in illicit diamonds and urged Switzerland to tighten supervision of free trade areas at Zurich and Geneva airports.

Sierra Leonean rebels have been using diamonds to raise cash for weapons in the nine-year-old civil conflict there and the U.N. Security Council has prohibited the export of Sierra Leone diamonds that are not certified by the government.

The United States and Britain are considering sanctions on diamond exports from Liberia as well. The U.N. report said Liberian leaders were actively involved in the gems-for-guns trade with the Sierra Leone rebels.

Measures now being drawn up would from February 2002 oblige Swiss warehouse operators to give details of the origin and destination of customs-free gems and other transit goods.

"We only know about the diamonds that actually cross the border," said customs office spokesman Alois Zurwerra. "But we know that the international trade uses tax-exempt warehouses and we have no way of checking what happens there."

Zurwerra had no comment on the plan to start checking warehouses for blood diamonds.

The U.N. report said Switzerland played a big role in the international trade although it has no diamond mines and the main diamond centres are London, Antwerp and Tel Aviv.

ZURICH AIRPORT DIAMOND VAULTS

There are dozens of tax-exempt warehouses in Switzerland.

An employee at the biggest operator, Zurich Freilager AG, said most diamond storage was at the Zurich and Geneva airports.

These diamonds are stored in vaults on Swiss soil but for statistical and tax purposes they are not in Switzerland.

Air cargo papers for the stones, however, mention Switzerland and create a class of "Swiss" diamonds.

"The diamonds can stay here for ever and the client does not have to pay any tax anywhere. We don't know where they come from and where they will go to. We get them, store them, and release them," said the employee, who requested anonymity.

At Zurich airport alone, some 70 transport firms use tax-free storage for precious stones and metals. He said Swiss customs rules were perhaps more lenient than other countries'.

A spokeswoman at diamond group De Beers in London said the lure of the Zurich and Geneva vaults could be the Swiss reputation for safety. "In any selection of a storage facility, security and safety are main concerns," said Joanne Browne.

LIBERIAN DIAMONDS A RED HERRING

In September, Swiss trade statistics showed that $29.7 million (20.19 million pounds) of diamonds arrived from Liberia in the January-June period, but specialists said the stones were of a size and quality not normally associated with Liberian diamonds.

"We have checked that out and the diamonds were in fact from the United States and passed through a Liberian trading firm," said Hansruedi Balmer of the customs office, adding the statistics had been corrected. "In this year and in 1999 there were no diamonds from Liberia or Sierra Leone," he added.

Switzerland imported 1.5 billion Swiss francs (612 million pounds) worth of raw diamonds in 1999 and exported 808 million francs -- most of them so-called "sight diamonds" that had been offered to Swiss jewelers and watchmakers but were returned to London or sent to Antwerp or Tel Aviv for cutting, he said.

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Story #14
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Wanted: Women's eggs for research

MPs will vote this week on embryo experiments which may lead to cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease

Anthony Browne and Gaby Hinsliff
Guardian News; The Observer
Sunday December 17, 2000

Women will be asked to donate their eggs for 'humanitarian' medical research when Parliament gives the go-ahead for experiments on embryos this week.

Ministers foresee a surge of women volunteering to help those with incurable diseases, by providing the raw material to grow cells which may hold the key to cures.

The embryos created would initially be used for research. But eventually they could provide a human 'spare parts' kit, supplying stem cells, which are the building blocks for all specialised body cells. These could, theoretically, be grown into skin tissue for grafts, brain cells to replace those damaged by Alzheimer's or even organs for transplant. It could also provide treatments for Parkinson's disease, heart disease and leukaemia.

An alternative to a mass egg donation programme would be to grow eggs from follicles from the ovaries of aborted foetuses. However, it is expected that so many women will come forward this would not be necessary.

Professor Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said: 'Women are already being asked to donate eggs for infertile couples - but that's not the same as asking someone to donate an egg for someone dying of cancer. There would be a surge of humanitarian interest and many women would give eggs.'

MPs are expected to give the go-ahead to stem cell research in a vote in the Commons next Tuesday, despite impassioned objections from the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life groups.

Under present law, research on embryos is only allowed for developing fert-ility treatments. But Donald-son wants a partial lifting of the ban to enable research on serious diseases. Cloning to reproduce humans would remain banned.

However, Donaldson conceded that research could lead to pressure to allow cloning of human embryos for use in treatments.

Pro-life groups expect to lose the Commons vote and are now pinning their hopes on either the House of Lords, or taking the Government to judicial review.

Jack Scarisbrick, of the charity Life, said: 'We should tremble before creating human beings without parents. The implications are mindblowing. I am in favour of stem cell research and finding a cure for leukaemia - the question is where the stem cells come from.'

The advantage of harvesting stem cells from tiny clones of the sufferer is that they would be an exact biological match for the patient.

The procedure involves fusing a cell from the patient with a donated egg, and using an electrical stimulus to trick the egg into thinking it has been fertilised and growing.

The stem cells would be harvested at a week old and the embryo destroyed within 14 days. Eventually Donaldson hopes medicine will advance to harvest stem cells from adults, avoiding the need for embryos.

Until then, the key brake on progress will be the availability of egg donors, currently used in test-tube baby treatment to help infertile women. But research last year suggested a shortage of donors with around 9,000 women waiting.

Women donors need daily hormone injections for a month to stimulate their ovaries: the extraction of eggs is performed under general anaesthetic and is uncomfortable although not painful.

Some doctors want egg donors to be paid, as they are in the US, to encourage them. But fears of creating a trade in unborn babies has so far put off regulators. Donors get only a token amount for expenses

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Story #13 
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Arafat urged to take children off front line

Electronic telegraph
December 17, 2000
By Tom Gross in Jerusalem

PALESTINIAN parents, tired of seeing their sons and daughters killed and injured in clashes with Israeli troops, are becoming ever more vocal in denouncing their leadership for putting children in the line of fire.

In a bold move, a branch of the Palestinian Women's Union in the West Bank town of Tulkarm wrote to Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, saying: "Our children are being sent into the streets to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death."

Israeli officials have repeatedly accused the Palestinian leadership of using children cynically to gain propaganda points in Western and Arab media. They have alleged that Fatah militiamen collect children from their homes and outside schools and take them by bus to isolated Israeli guard posts, where they are provided with stones and petrol bombs to throw at Israeli troops.

They say Palestinian militiamen then stand behind the children and fire live ammunition on the Israelis, who sometimes hit the children when they return fire.

About 40 Palestinian children have died since the present round of violence began in late September. A number of Israeli children have been severely maimed, while the Israeli army has come in for sharp criticism from their country's human rights groups and the international community for failing to develop non-lethal methods of crowd control.

The "Tulkarm letter" would seem to confirm Israeli accusations of cynicism. In those parts of Gaza and the West Bank under Palestinian control few dare criticise this apparent exploitation of children; those who do have been threatened by Mr Arafat's security forces.

A nurse from Gaza who spoke out on television against sending children to the flashpoints was condemned in Palestinian media as a traitor. Other parents in the West Bank say that they have been threatened by Fatah officials for discouraging their children from participating in clashes.

A recent leader in the Palestinian Authority's official newspaper, Al Hayat al-Jadida, branded parents who refused to send their children to participate in the "armed struggle" a "fifth column in Palestinian society".

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Story #12
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The 2000-Year Old Mystery of the Star of Bethlehem Resolved!

The Amazing way In Which Astronomers Found The Answer To The Elusive Phenomenon

Raymond E. Marley
Review Staff Reporter
Jan, 2001

According to astronomers, on December 25, 2 BC (which in modern times is celebrated as Christmas), the planet Jupiter came to a stop adjacent to the mid-body of the constellation Virgo the Virgin. (Rev. 12:1-5)

JERUSALEM, Israel - "O Star of wonder, Star of night, Star with royal beauty bright..." (From the song "We Three Kings of Orient Are" by John Hopkins)

Throughout the Christmas season, songs about Bethlehem, the Wise Men and the bright Star which shined in the night's sky have filled the homes of millions of people around the world.

Yet for centuries, the very existence of the Star has been a much debated question. Astronomers have searched the heavens for any evidence of a natural event such as a supernova (exploding star) around the turn of the millennium (the period between BC and AD).

Without much success, they tried to piece together 2,000 year-old celestial activities over the skies of the Middle East which may coincide with events described in the Gospel accounts.

"Many scientists considered the Star of Bethlehem to be a fable or legend," says biblical historian, Prof. Ory N. Mazar. "During the past centuries, scholars have passed it off as a powerful literary symbol. Even some Christian theologians have questioned whether a Star ever really existed."

"The Star of Bethlehem is neither a myth nor a spiritual metaphor," says Prof. Ernest L. Martin, the author of the book "The Star that Astonished the World".

According to the evidence presented in Dr. Martin's book, the story of the Wise Men in the Bible and the Star that led them to Bethlehem is quite real and capable of being scientifically demonstrated, "and the truth is astounding astronomers throughout the world."

"Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, as well as more than six hundred planetariums, are changing their Christmas programs based upon this new research," says Dr. Martin.

During an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Christian Review, Dr. Martin, who also serves as the Chairman of Associates for Scriptural Knowledge in Portland, Oregon, explained that after examining his research, astronomers are now convinced that some very remarkable events took place beginning in the summer of 3 BC.

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Story #11
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TESTING THE FAITH
Student sues college for psychiatric abuse
Sent to mental ward after he objected to play depicting Jesus as homosexual

By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily

A junior at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., is suing university officials for allegedly having him involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward following a dispute over a play depicting Jesus Christ as a homosexual.

According to Brian Fahling, an attorney with the AFA Law Center in Tupelo, Miss., which is handling the case, Michael A. Marcavage was detained after he "initiated a Christian response" to the university theater department's decision to stage "Corpus Christi," a play that made its debut on Broadway in 1998 and depicts Jesus as a homosexual who has sex with his disciples.

In the play, Jesus was eventually crucified for being "king of the queers." When it broke on Broadway, the play received national criticism.

Marcavage, a former White House West Wing intern, immediately complained about the play to the dean of the School of Communications and Theater, as well as the president of the university -- whom Fahling said has since left Temple -- when theater officials announced it in the fall of 1999 .

Besides informing those officials of the play's content, Fahling said Marcavage -- in a prepared statement -- admitted posting fliers all over the university "so that all Christians on campus would be aware of this horrible play," and made plans to stage a protest outside the theater when the play opened.

In the days that followed, Marcavage said he had a number of meetings with William Bergman, vice president of campus safety, and Carl Bittenbender, director of campus safety. Though he had initially planned to protest, Bergman and Bittenbender eventually convinced Marcavage that protests might lead to confrontations between rival student factions. Marcavage then agreed to cancel his protest.

Instead, he asked officials for permission to stage a Christian outreach to students; Fahling said the university security officials gave him permission for that.

Marcavage, in his statement to Fahling, said Bergman promised him a stage would be provided to help him with his outreach program, but later the same day, Bittenbender allegedly called Marcavage to tell him that the stage "might be out of the question." The campus safety director then asked the student to meet with him and Bergman the next morning at the vice president's office.

At that meeting, Marcavage said Bergman told him a stage would be too expensive to provide and therefore, one would not be set up for the outreach program. Marcavage said he then offered to pay for the stage himself, but was again told no -- without further explanation.

Exasperated, Marcavage said he then "excused himself, went to the bathroom, locked the door and prayed about what he should do next," AFA officials said.

According to the student, Bergman followed him to the bathroom and began pounding on the door, demanding that he open it and resume the discussion about the stage. Marcavage said he opened the door and "told him that I believed our conversation was over."

Next, according to Marcavage, Bergman "physically" forced him back into the vice president's office and "pushed me into a chair and held me with his arm." Fahling said Marcavage asked to leave but Bergman "allegedly refused to allow it."

"Attempting to rise, [Marcavage] said the vice president tripped him to the floor," then was "manhandled" to a nearby couch by both men "where they held him down."

Within moments, Marcavage said, a Temple University police officer arrived and handcuffed him. Then, "Marcavage was taken by police ... to the Emergency Crisis Center at Temple University Hospital," AFA officials told WorldNetDaily.

According to Fahling, under Pennsylvania law, a person that is involuntarily committed for a psychological evaluation "has to be a clear threat to himself or a clear threat to others," though he and Marcavage deny that the student "in any way" fits the criteria.

Fahling said on-site interviews at the university with fellow students who personally know Marcavage -- including one who is a registered nurse and saw him that morning before his meeting with officials -- "indicated that he is not the kind of person" who would engage in behavior requiring a mandatory mental examination.

Yet, at the crisis center, Bittenbender allegedly signed a statement describing Marcavage as "severely mentally disabled"; that he represented a "clear and present danger to others"; that he had "inflicted or attempted to inflict serious bodily harm on another" within the past month; and that he "has attempted suicide" -- all of which constituted a "reasonable probability of suicide unless treatment was afforded" him.

Fahling said Bittenbender concluded his statement by asserting that Marcavage was "in need of involuntary examination and treatment."

"When I was first told about this case, I found it hard to believe," Fahling told WorldNetDaily. "I thought it was something out of the 'Twilight Zone.'"

He said that Marcavage was not found to be mentally distressed or exhibiting any behavior that matched the admission statement given by Bittenbender. "He was released three hours later -- and that was largely because it took [hospital staff] a while to get to him."

Fahling said Dr. Jose Villaluz of the clinic staff did examine Marcavage "because, per state law, they are required to. But he didn't find anything wrong with him."

The AFA attorney said documents provided by Marcavage show that Villaluz noted in his evaluation report that the student was "not in need of involuntary treatment."

Fahling added that when Marcavage was being led out of Bergman's office by police, a university staff psychologist -- Dr. Denise Walton -- was on hand and commented that she couldn't understand why the student was being involuntarily detained.

In a separate statement, Fahling said Walton wrote that she had seen "no overt sign that [Marcavage] was about to harm himself or others."

"This is a young man of some substance," Fahling said. "I believe his story is genuine. This kid is solid as a rock."

After being released, Marcavage said he tried to file a complaint with the university police department, but was rebuffed and told officers could not take a complaint against Bergman because he "is our boss."

While still at the police station, Bergman arrived and allegedly told Marcavage that no report would be filed "because no crime had been committed," the AFA Law Center said.

"His only recourse was to file a report with the Philadelphia Police Department," said the center, but it was unclear if Marcavage made that attempt.

However, the student did try to complain through other university channels, but after those also failed, he made the decision to contact the law center and file suit.

"Besides being a college student on the Dean's List, Michael was a White House intern with security clearance, is founder and president of a ministry called Protect the Children, president of his own business, and a volunteer who has worked with Campus Crusade for Christ and gone overseas with Feed the Children," Fahling said.

"This is a good Christian kid who wanted to stand up for Jesus, and instead was handcuffed and dragged to a mental hospital as if he'd been seeing pink elephants," he added.

Efforts to contact the university were unsuccessful.

Fahling did not disclose the amount of settlement Marcavage is seeking. He said Bergman and Bittenbender are named as co-defendants in the suit.

Jon Dougherty is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.com.

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Story #10
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Hail, Mary, Co-Redeemer?

by James G. McCarthy


Though denied by a Vatican spokesman, it has been widely reported in the media
recently that Pope John Paul II may be about to make an infallible proclamation,
recognizing Mary as the co-redeemer of the human race. Though a long-time
Catholic doctrine, such a declaration would elevate the belief to the level of
dogma. This would establish Mary's role as co-redeemer as part of the "deposit
of faith," a divinely revealed truth, not simply a theological conclusion. The
following excerpt from The Gospel According to Rome explains what the Church of Rome means by Mary's
work of redemption and why this teaching is unbiblical. Bracketed numbers are cross-references to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church.

According to the Roman Catholic Church, when Mary accepted God's invitation for her to bear His
Son, she ". . . was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish" (1):

The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on
the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in bringing
about death, so also a woman should contribute to life. . . . Rightly, therefore, the
Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in
the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says,
she "being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole
human race." Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert with him in their
preaching: "the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the
virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith." Comparing Mary
with Eve, they call her "Mother of the living," and frequently claim: "death through
Eve, life through Mary." - - Second Vatican Council(2)

According to the Roman Catholic Church, Mary's participation in the incarnation was only the
beginning of her role in salvation. The Church teaches that "it was God's design that the Blessed
Virgin Mary, apparently absent from the public life of Jesus, should assist him when he was dying
nailed to the Cross."(3) United with Christ, Mary offered Him as a sacrifice to God on the cross:

She it was who, immune from all sin, personal or inherited, and ever more closely
united with her Son, offered him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the
holocaust of her maternal rights and motherly love. . . . - - Mystici Corporis (4)

Not only did Mary offer her Son to God, but she remained at the cross to suffer with Christ
[964]:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered
in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine
plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated
herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the
immolation of this victim which was born of her. - - Second Vatican Council(5)

According to the Church, Mary's sufferings were so intense that they brought her to the very
threshold of death. She, says the Church, "participated with Jesus Christ in the very painful act of redemption"(6):

Mary suffered and, as it were, nearly died with her suffering Son; for the salvation of
mankind she renounced her mother's rights and, as far as it depended on her, offered
her Son to placate divine justice; so we may well say that she with Christ redeemed
mankind. - - Inter Sodalicia(7)

Thus Mary, in a subordinate role to Christ, had a "part with him in the redemption of the human
race."(8) She is, therefore, called by the Church the "the co-operatrix in man's redemption,"(9)
"our coredemptor."(10) For at the cross, Mary triumphed "utterly over the ancient serpent."(11)

Following the death and resurrection of Christ, says the Church, Mary was a major force in the
spread of the gospel [965]:

It is no exaggeration to say that it is due chiefly to her leadership and help that the
wisdom and teachings of the Gospel spread so rapidly to all the nations of the world in
spite of the most obstinate difficulties and most cruel persecutions and brought
everywhere in their train a new reign of justice and peace. - - Adiutricem Populi(12)

Finally, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that when Mary's life on earth was completed, God
miraculously took her into heaven. There He crowned her Queen of Heaven and Earth [966]:

The Blessed Virgin Mary is to be called Queen not only on account of her divine
motherhood but also because by the will of God she had a great part in the work of
our salvation. . . . In this work of redemption the blessed Virgin Mary was closely
associated with her Christ. . . . Just as Christ, because he redeemed us, is by a special
title our King and Lord, so too is Blessed Mary, our Queen and our Mistress, because
of the unique way in which she co-operated in our redemption. She provided her very
substance for his body, she offered him willingly for us, and she took a unique part in
our salvation by desiring it, praying for it, and so obtaining it. . . . - - Ad Coeli
Reginam(13)

There is One Redeemer, Not Two

Scripture is clear that the Lord alone is our redeemer. To Israel God proclaimed, "I, the Lord, am
your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (Isaiah 49:26). The New Testament
Scriptures reveal that it is in God's "beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). God justifies sinners "through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus"
(Romans 3:24).

The Church's claim that Mary offered Christ "on Golgotha to the Eternal Father"(14) contradicts
Scripture. The Bible says that Christ "offered Himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14).

Similarly, there is no biblical support for the Roman Catholic claim that Mary "with Christ
redeemed mankind."(15) The Church says, speaking of Mary:

In her, the many and intense sufferings were amassed in such an interconnected way
that they were not only a proof of her unshakable faith but also a contribution to the
Redemption of all.

. . . it was on Calvary that Mary's suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an
intensity which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which was
mysteriously and supernaturally fruitful for the Redemption of the world. - -
Salvifici Doloris(16)

Here the Church, rather than picturing Mary as a grateful redeemed sinner at the feet of her
Savior, portrays her as making "a contribution to the Redemption of all"(17) through her own
sufferings. In the words of the Second Vatican Council [968]:

She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented him to the Father in the temple, shared her Son's sufferings as he died on the cross. Thus, in a wholly
singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the
work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. - - Second Vatican
Council(18)

Genesis 3:15

Some Catholic scholars point to Genesis 3:15 in support of the Church's teaching of Mary as the
co-redeemer. In many Roman Catholic versions of the Bible, such as the Douay Rheims, the
standard Roman Catholic English Bible until the middle of the twentieth century, God's curse upon
Satan reads:

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. - - Genesis 3:15 (Douay Rheims)

Based on this verse, many statues and paintings of Mary show her crushing a serpent under her
foot--a graphic representation of her role as co-redeemer. This imagery is also found in Catholic
documents:

Hence, just as Christ, the Mediator between God and man, assumed human nature,
blotted the handwriting of the decree that stood against us, and fastened it
triumphantly to the cross, so the most holy Virgin, united with him by a most intimate
and indissoluble bond, was, with him and through him, eternally at enmity with the evil
serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with her
immaculate foot. - - Ineffabilis Deus(19)

This imagery, however, is based upon a faulty translation of Genesis 3:15 from the Latin texts of
the Vulgate Bible, the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church since the fourth century. Until
recently, the Latin Vulgate served as the base text for all Roman Catholic translations, including
the English Douay Rheims Bible.

In the Hebrew text, the original language of the Old Testament, the subject of Genesis 3:15 is
masculine, not feminine. Therefore, rather than reading "she shall crush thy head" (Genesis 3:15,
Douay Rheims), the verse should be translated "He shall bruise you on the head" (Genesis 3:15,
NASB). The verse is prophetically speaking of Christ's victory over Satan, not Mary's.

Though recent Roman Catholic translations have corrected the error, Roman Catholic theology
remains the same.

Luke 2:34-35

Another passage that the Church uses to support its teaching of the "union of the mother with
the Son in the work of salvation"(20) is Luke 2:34-35. Joseph and Mary had taken the infant
Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him in the temple. Simeon, a righteous man who was looking for the
coming of the Messiah, took the child into his arms and said to Mary,

Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to
be opposed--and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts of
many hearts may be revealed. - - Luke 2:34-35

According to the Church, the sword here speaks of Mary's participation with Christ in suffering
for our redemption [618]. She, wrote Pope John Paul II, made "a contribution to the Redemption of
all"(21):

. . . it was on Calvary that Mary's suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an
intensity which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which was
mysteriously and supernaturally fruitful for the Redemption of the world. - -
Salvifici Doloris(22)

The Roman Catholic claim that Mary suffered for the redemption of the world is unjustified for three reasons:

1. Mary Did Not Suffer for Sin

As Mary watched her Son hanging on the cross, she undoubtedly suffered greatly. However, the
same could be said of the others present who loved the Lord and witnessed His sufferings: John,
Mary Magdalene, Salome, Mary the wife of Clopas (John 19:25-27, Mark 15:40). We might
describe the nature of this kind of sorrow as the suffering of compassion.

It is also likely that Mary, even as Christ, endured the taunts and ridicule of evil men. She did so
willingly, knowing that God had called her to serve as the mother of Jesus. Scripture describes
this kind of persecution as suffering for the sake of righteousness (1 Peter 3:14).

These two kinds of suffering, however, must be distinguished from what Christ experienced on
the cross. He suffered for sin. Christ, "having become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13), became
the object of God's wrath as the Father "caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (Isaiah 53:6).
This the Lord Jesus, "smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4), suffered in solitary agony:

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
- - Psalm 69:20

Apparently, neither Mary nor any of the others at the foot of the cross were even aware that
before them the Son of God was suffering for the sins of the world.

2. Mary Did Not Suffer Death for Sin

Despite the intensity of Christ's physical sufferings, the Scriptures consistently link our
redemption not to his pain, but to His death. Paul writes that "we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son" (Romans 5:10). The writer of Hebrews reminds us that "a death has taken
place for the redemption of the transgressions" (Hebrews 9:15). John tells us that Jesus
"released us from our sins by His blood" (Revelation 1:5).

The reason, of course, is that the penalty for our sin is death (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23). A life,
therefore, had to be given to redeem us. That is why Christ came: "to give His life a ransom for
many" (Mark 10:45). Christ "died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He
might bring us to God. . . ." (1 Peter 3:18). Nowhere do the Scriptures teach that we were
redeemed by Christ's righteous life, faithful obedience, or even His sufferings at the hands of
cruel men.

Here again the sufferings of Mary fall short of being redemptive. The Church claims that "Mary
suffered and, as it were, nearly died with her suffering Son,"(23) that she "in her heart died with
him, stabbed by the sword of sorrow."(24) But the fact of the matter is that Mary did not die on
Calvary. Christ alone gave His life for our redemption.

3. Mary Was Not Qualified to Redeem Mankind

Even if Mary had died on Calvary, her death would not have redeemed anyone. As we saw in the last
chapter, Mary herself was a sinner. As such, she was guilty before God and unfit to redeem
anyone. The same is true of every other man or woman. Scripture teaches:

No man can by any means redeem his brother,
Or give to God a ransom for him--
For the redemption of his soul is costly,
And he should cease trying forever
- - Psalm 49:7-8

That is why God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem us. He alone was qualified. Since
He was the Son of God, His life was of infinite value and able to redeem all mankind. Having been made "in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7), He was capable of both representing humanity
before God and physically dying (Hebrews 2:14-17). Since He was without sin, His life was an
acceptable sacrifice (1 Peter 1:19; 2:22). Christ alone, therefore, deserves the title of
Redeemer. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Revelation 5:12).


Endnotes

1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 973.
2 Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 56.
3 Pope Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia. This quote and some of the others which follow can be found
in a collection of statements by recent popes compiled by Francis J. Ripley, Mary, Mother of the
Church (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1969).
4 Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis.
5 Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 58.
6 Pope Pius XI, Explorata Res.
7 Pope Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia.
8 Pope Pius XII, Ad Coeli Reginam.
9 Pope Leo XIII, Ubi Primum.
10 Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, "Indulgences," June 26, 1913, published
in Acta Apostolicae Sedis. Also refer to Henry Denzinger, Sources of Catholic Dogma (St. Louis,
MO: Herder Book Co., 1957), p. 502, article 1978 a and footnote 2; A. Tanquerey, A Manual of
Dogmatic Theology (New York, NY: Desclee Company, 1959), vol. 2, p. 108-109; and Ludwig Ott,
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1960), p. 212-213.
11 Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus.
12 Pope Leo XIII, Adiutricem Populi.
13 Pope Pius XII, Ad Coeli Reginam.
14 Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis.
15 Pope Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia.
16 Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, no. 25.
17 Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, no. 25.
18 Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 61.
19 Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus.
20 Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," no. 57.
21 Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, no. 25.
22 Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, no. 25.
23 Pope Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia.
24 Pope Leo XII, Jucunda Semper.

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Story #9
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Pentecostals: being 'slain in the spirit', being 'knocked out cold' by the spirit -- What spirit?!?

By [name withheld by WBSG] on Sunday, January 7, 2001 - 11:23 pm:

So what's a biblical Pentecostal to do? Yes, yes, the truth be known, I pray in tongues (I do use English on occasion:).  I also believe in the gifts AND fruits of the Spirit.  I also believe the N.T. church has given us the blue-print for us to follow TODAY.

I am a Pentecostal believer.  I believe in the Pentecostal distinctives as practiced in the N.T.; speaking in tongues, gifts of prophecy and interpretation, ect.  However, I do not believe we are directed to go beyond the Word of God in spirit, or practice.  As demonstrated in the Brownsville Revival (and in our church, before they split off); 'being slain in the spirit', being 'knocked out cold' by the spirit and laying on the church floor because you're unable to get up (they felt an unseen force holding them down), uncontrollable shaking, euphoria resembling a drug high...and I could go on and on.  The pastor that took 80% of our church with him also said he has been physically transported from one end of the church to the other.  WE witnessed some of this phenomenon ourselves.

My husband and I asked ourselves if this was of the Lord.  There was such a strong, persuasive pressure to give in, that we were missing out on the greatest move of God in modern times.  During our praying through all this, and over several weeks, we searched the Scriptures diligently for the answers.  We decided that this indeed was NOT the move of the genuine Holy Spirit of God, but a false Revival, with a false spirit leading many astray into a false sense of security.

I am still Pentecostal, but much more cautious and discerning.  God has been so good to us and the little remnant that has remained in our church.  But I've also begun to examine the early church a lot more closely to see if our local body is living up to the practice and character of the early church as revealed in the N.T.

We live in VERY DECEPTIVE times.  If I'm going to err, I'd rather err on the side of safety, than on the side of possibly opening myself up to deception.  And I believe God will honor that.

I'm seriously looking into the Amish, and the Brethren churches as to their practice of conducting themselves as did the early church. Are they Pentecostal?

Blessings,
Signed:
[name withheld by WBSG] 

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Jesse Jackson villifies Robert E. Lee and today's conservative Christians

The Layman Online
By Mark Tooley
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Tuesday, April 11, 2000

CHICAGO –– Declaring that Civil War General Robert E. Lee "betrayed Americans and shot Americans for the principles of facism," Jesse Jackson villified evangelicals and religious conservatives during a recent event in Chicago called the Religious Communications Congress.

The congress, which was sponsored by a number of religious groups, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), provided Jackson with a pulpit for his sweeping indictment of Christians who are not allied with the left flank of the Church. It also provided an award for Church & Society, a Presbyterian journal that recently published an edition titled "Hate." That, too, was a diatribe against evangelicals. It blamed the Church, particularly conservative Christians, for an assortment of so-called hate crimes, including murders.

'Religion as anesthesia'

"I'm disturbed by a new wave of religious and political conservatism," Jackson told the Congress. He accused religious conservatives of using "religion as anesthesia" to pacify the downtrodden and avoid dealing with systemic injustice. "Don't be afraid of the [Rush] Limbaughs of our time!" He accused the "right-wing" of distorting politics by exploiting race and opposing affirmative action. And he criticized Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush for his hands-off attitude toward the Confederate flag dispute in South Carolina.

"The Confederate flag is about sedition and treason," Jackson declared. "Lee betrayed America and shot Americans for the principle of fascism."

Jackson further criticized conservatives for favoring tax cuts, charter schools and student vouchers. And he promised "brownie points in heaven" to those who pursue social justice. "Our word must become flesh and dwell among people," he said. "We must be transforming agents."

Non-Christian 'faith stories'

More than 1,100 staffers with official church publications attended the Congress. The theme this year was "Faith Stories in a Changing World." Although a smorgasborg of faith stories was offered, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was barely mentioned. Instead, Native American, Baha'i, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and New Age stories took the fore.

After Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish and Christian prayers were offered (the Christian prayers addressed God as both "Mother" and "Father"), Jackson took center stage as one of the major speakers at the Congress. Jackson was introduced by former National Council of Churches general secretary Joan Brown Campbell. "Jesse is not motivated by public prominence," she said. "He is a serious, devoted servant of the Lord."

Lee's farewell address 

Jackson's address to the congress came just a few days before the 135th anniversary of the surrender of the Army of Virginia to Union forces at Appomattox. Lee gave his farewell address to the Army of Virginia on April 9, 1865. Lee spent his remaining years working tirelessly to reconcile the bitterness caused by the War Between the States.

Besides the PCUSA, other sponsors if the congress were the National and World Councils of Churches, Church Women United, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the General Council of the Assemblies of God, the National Religious Broadcasters Association, Maryknoll World Productions, the Catholic Press Association of the U.S. and Canada, the Baha'i International Community, the Islamic Society of North America, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Soka Gakkai International (Buddhist), the Church of Christ, Scientist, the Association of Unity Churches (New Age), the United Religions Initiative, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).

But the overwhelming number of sponsors were in fact Christian church groups, which made the almost complete absence of the Christian Gospel rather bizarre. Indeed, almost all of the organizations that provided funding for RCC were orthodox Christian groups. Christians, when they did speak to the RCC audience, did not talk about their Risen Savior. Instead they discussed political issues or focused on communications techniques.

Liberal political themes

Campbell and Jackson were the major Christian speakers at RCC, but their presentation of the faith seemed to be limited to advocacy of liberal political themes. Traditional, orthodox Christianity seemed to have no representatives on the formal program. Each day's program was begun with a sacred "story of faith." The first was from Jewish rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, who presented a feminist version of the Genesis creation story.

Amid song and dance, Gottleib told of Adam creating "God in his own image." In Gottlieb's extra-biblical legend, someone named "Lileth" preceded Eve as the first woman. But Lileth refused to submit to Adam sexually. So she left the Garden of Eden and became the first divorced woman. God went on vacation, but sent His angels to retrieve a recalcitrant Lileth, who was told "her name would be mud" if she did not return. Thereafter Lileth became known as a "bitch and witch," becoming a prototype of feminism.

The second day's story teller was a Hindu from West Virginia named Any Fraenkel. "I worship Govinda," he began, as he shared Hindu scriptures about various deities, including Krishna, Brahm, Indra, Ram, Vayu, Agni, and Saraswvati.

Every universe expanded from the being of Vishnu, according to Fraenkel. And the oceans came from Vishnu's perspiration. The lotus blossomed from Vishnu's navel. Brahma, with his four heads, sat down upon this Lotus and created the various gods of this earth, plus the heavenly regions. Indra was designated the King of Heaven. Vayu was the god of wind and air. His son was Hamman, the monkey prince. Agni was the god of fire, and Saraswvati was the goddess of learning.

Hamman was infused with many gifts by the gods but became naughty, and his elders were compelled to cast spells upon him, Fraenkel said. "We're just like little Hamman," he said. "We've forgotten the wonderful gifts we received at birth. Remember the wonderful power we have and the wonderful father we have."

"There are many names for God," Fraenkel said, recalling that there are over 1,000 names for deities in India. He led the audience in chanting to the god Govinda: "Govindam Adi Purusham, Tamaham Bhajam Mi," meaning "I worship the primeval Lord Govinda, source of all." He also led the crowd in chanting to the god Ram: "Sri Ram Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram," meaning "Victory to the all glorious one, Ram, who is the Supreme Enjoyer." Fraenkel concluded by asking listeners to fill out prayer cards and to take them to the "meditation room."

Truth without truth

On the third day, the morning's sacred story was to have been told by Kevin Locke, a Baha'i and Lakota Indian who was going to share an Indian hoop dance as a "metaphor for the process of rebirth and renewal into a new spring tide for humanity." But Locke had to cancel because of a relative's death. He was replaced by Dayton Edmonds, a Native American of the Caddo nation and a retired missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Edmonds told a lengthy Native American story about the "earth mother" and various talking animals and birds. In a fashion more post-modernist than traditional American Indian, he later explained in a workshop that story-telling is a "weaving of truths and non-truths." It is up to the listener to flesh out the story, and the story changes with each telling. "Never moralize stories……What is truth for one is not necessarily truth for another," Edmonds stressed. "All stories are true and some of them even happened!"

The Presbyterian Layman contributed to this report.

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Story #7
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January 10, 2001
by TOM COHEN
Associated Press Writer

TORONTO (AP) -- Canada went public Wednesday with an offer to
accept Palestinian refugees as part of a negotiated Middle East peace plan.

Canada made the offer in a series of recent telephone calls involving
Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley, Israel, the Palestinian Authority
and the United States, Manley's spokeswoman, Jennifer Sloan said.

She called it a ''reaffirmation'' of previously stated Canadian government
policy to contribute in any way possible to any peace treaty negotiated in
the Middle East.

''We reconfirmed that Canada would play its part in ensuring a successful
peace agreement,'' Sloan said Wednesday.

The Canadian offer, first reported in a front-page story Wednesday in The
Toronto Star newspaper, would not satisfy the long-held Palestinian
demand for the ''right to return'' to their homes in Israel.

The right of return is one of the most contentious issues of the Middle
East conflict, with almost 4 million Palestinian refugees living in the West
Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The official policy of
Lebanon, Syria and Jordan demands the right of Palestinians to return to
homes that are now in Israel.

Resettling refugees in Europe, Canada and elsewhere was believed to be
part of the protracted peace negotiations in the past two years, and
included in the recent plan proposed by outgoing President Clinton.

The Foreign Affairs department confirmed the quotes in The Star. In the
interview, Manley said the numbers of refugees that Canada would be
willing to accept had yet to be discussed.

''We are prepared to receive refugees; we are prepared to contribute to an
international fund to assist with resettlement in support of a peace
agreement,'' Manley said, adding that other countries also were expected
to accept Palestinian refugees.

''We have just assumed that we would be one of several countries involved,'' Sloan said in a telephone interview. ''We haven't had
discussions with anyone.''

In addition to telephone calls to and from Manley, Prime Minister Jean
Chretien called Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Christmas Day to talk
about the peace process, Chretien's office said Tuesday.

Manley said Chretien made the call ''after it appeared that there were the
fundamentals for an agreement there, both to say that we would be willing
to play our role on the refugee resettlement issues as well as to encourage
them to try to find a way to strike an agreement.''

Canada has a history of accepting large numbers of refugees, taking in
7,000 Kosovar Albanians in 1999 during the NATO bombing campaign in
Yugoslavia.

Canada would be willing to contribute troops to an international force
created to oversee implementation of a peace accord in the Middle East,
Manley said.

(COMMENT: THE "SOMETHING ELSE" IS THAT, IF THE SO-CALLED "REFUGEES" ARE DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT MANY COUNTRIES, IT WILL HELP TO SET THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS!)

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Story #6
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Given the 50 years and more of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, it might be tempting to assume that they come from different planets. But the two nations are closely related and their joint history dates back to Biblical times - to Genesis, in fact.

Noah's son Shem is regarded as the ancestor of both the Hebrews and the Arabs and both nations descend from the nomadic tribes that wandered the Arabian peninsula in ancient times.

After the rise of Islam, a monotheistic religion like Judaism, the Jews by tradition came to regard the Arabs as fellow descendants of Abraham. The patriarch had a son, Ishmael, by his concubine Hagar. Ishmael is the traditional father of the Arabs and would have inherited the Promised Land had not Abraham's elderly wife Sarah miraculously given birth to Isaac, the father of the Jews.

Who's who? The young man on the left is a Palestinian selling sweets in a market in the  Old City of Jerusalem.   The other three are  Israelis of Yemeni  origin, regular customers  who speak  the Arabic their parents taught them.

Historically the relationship between Jews and Muslim Arabs is complex. It is true that theologically Islam's Holy Book the Koran does criticise Jews and Islam's Prophet Muhammad is on public record as having been angry with Jewish communities living in the midst of the early Islamic communities. Scholars have speculated that he regarded Judaism - then well established in the Arabian peninsular - as more of a threat to the infant Islam than anything else. In any case, both Muslim fundamentalists and hardline Israelis have seized on this portion of the Islamic tradition to prove that the Arab-Israeli conflict is nothing less than an existential Holy War between Judaism and Islam.

But for centuries Jews fared better in the Middle East and Arab world than they did in Europe. In many Arab countries they rose to influence and in Islamic Spain an authentic Judaeo-Arav culture was achieved - until it was destroyed by European Christians in 1492. It is a sobering thought to think that many Jewish classical thinkers - the poet Judah Bin Halevi and the philosopher Maimonides to name but two - had Arabic as their mother tongue.

The two languages of Hebrew have always been linked - but they have stayed so closely together over the last 2,000 years at least in part because their grammars were first comprehensively codified in Islamic Spain at the same time. They are as close today as the Romance languages of Europe - as Portuguese is to French, for example.

Although the true ancestry of modern Jews and Arabs is clouded in myth and has been much affected by millennial changes, they still have much in common.

Their religions are clearly related and they follow similar dietary laws that ban the eating of pork and the flesh of strangled animals.

Although Jews of Arabic origin have traditionally tended to vote for the right wing parties in Israel, which take a harder political line in dealing with Arabs and Palestinians, the Sephardim are close culturally to the Arabs. It is not unusual in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv to see Israelis of Iraqi or Moroccan origins spending an evening singing Arabic music, eating more or less the same food as their Palestinian neighbours.

It is commonly thought in Israel that the vast influx of Jews from Arab countries was caused by widespread Arab persecution. That's about half the truth. It is certainly true that there was a rise in tension between Arabs and Jews in Arab countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Iraq after the creation of Israel and the 1948 war, which led to riots lootings, and some killings.

But the other untold part of the story is that the early Zionists proactively organised and encouraged the wholesale emigration of Jews from communities like Iraq, exaggerating the dangers Jews would face if they stayed. Many Sephardic Jews said years later that they did not really know what had hit them until they were firmly ensconced in the new residential developments of southern Israel, speaking Hebrew and cut off from the Arab world that they had known.

Jerusalem post;
November 6, 2000 -- 8 Heshvan 5761
By Judy Siegel

JERUSALEM (November 6) - DNA research carried out at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and University College in London has shown that many Jews and Arabs are closely related. Over seven out of 10 Jewish men and half of Arab men whose DNA was studied inherited their Y chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors - who lived in the Middle East in the Neolithic period in prehistoric times.

The research, to be published soon in the journal Human Genetics, was disclosed in a recent conference in New York on human origins and disease. It was carried out by Prof. Ariella Oppenheim, a senior geneticist in the Hebrew University's hematology department. Dr. Marina Faerman, Dr. Dvora Filon of the Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem, HU doctoral student Almut Nebel, and Mark Thomas and others at the British university assisted. The work was also reported last week in the journal Science.

Oppenheim and her colleagues tested blood from 143 Israeli and Palestinian Moslem Arabs whose great-grandfathers were not related. Chromosome set data were compared with that of 119 Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, and to that of non-Jewish residents of northern Wales. The researchers found that the Arabs are more closely related to Jews than they are to the Welsh, indicating a more recent common ancestry. Arabs and Jews had about 18 percent of all their chromosomes in common.

A previous study of 1,371 men from around the world by geneticist Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona, with collaboration from Oppenheim, found that the Y chromosome in Middle Eastern Arabs was almost indistinguishable from that of Jews.

According to historical records, part - perhaps the majority - of the Moslem Arabs in Israel descended from local inhabitants, mainly Christians and Jews, who had converted after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century CE, Oppenheim wrote. These local inhabitants, in turn, were descendants of the core population that had lived in the area for several centuries, some even since prehistoric times.
The results of the study match historical accounts that some Moslem Arabs are descended from Christians and Jews who settled in the southern Levant (Israel and Sinai) and came from a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times.

"Our findings are in good agreement with historical evidence and suggest genetic continuity in both populations despite their long separation and the wide geographic dispersal of Jews," Oppenheim wrote.

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RU- 486: Brought to you by John D. Rockefeller [Illuminati]

By Nancy Johnson 
Sierra Times
December 11, 2000

I laughed when the Ranch Chief. told me that the name of the manufacturer of RU-486 was not being released "for security reasons." Even though I happen to be Pro-Choice, the hiding of a drug manufacturer -- and it's liability -- by the government did not sit well with me. Having spent a lot of hours exploring medline and the patent data base, I knew that there would be published information dating from prior to that decision that could not be erased. So I went to work.

The earliest peer reviewed medical article published on RU-486 was "The effects of an antiprogesterone steroid in women: interruption of the menstrual cycle and of early pregnancy," by Herrmann W. Wyss R. Riondel A. Philibert D. Teutsch G. Sakiz E. and Baulieu EE. Hermann, W., et.al 294(18) COMPTES RENDUS DES SEANCES DE L ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES 933-8 (1982).

It states that "Oral administration induces the interruption of the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and that of early pregnancy in women. Its mode of administration and its properties enable us to envisage a new methodology for menstrual cycle regulation and human birth control." Other medline articles describe the compound as "beta-hydroxy-11 beta-[4-dimethylaminophenyl-1]-17 alpha-[prop-l-ynyl]-estra-4,9-dien-3-one." Rojas FJ, et.al, 23(6A) JOURNAL OF STEROID BIOCHEMISTRY 1053-8 (1985) or credit the French drug company Roussel-Uclaf. Vervest HA, Haspels AA. 44(5) FERTILITY & STERILITY 627-32 (1985).

There are several early patents for similar chemicals, the earliest (filed 1982, issued 1984) being U.S. Patent No. 4,447,424, an invention of Teutsch; Jean G. (Pantin, FR); Costerousse; Germain (Saint-Maurice, FR); Philibert; Daniel (La Varenne Saint Hilaire, FR); Deraedt; Roger (Pavillons sous Bois, FR) and assigned to Roussel-Uclaf, the French drug maker. Note that two of the authors, Teutsch and Philibert, are also inventors. The compound, 2.alpha.-methyl-11.beta.-(4-dimethylaminophenyl)-17.alpha.-(prop-1-ynyl)-.
DELTA..sup.4,9 -estradiene-17.beta.-ol-3-one is listed as an example of the invention. This is similar, if not identical, to RU-486, and there are four subsequent related patents, all assigned to Roussel-Uclaf.

Thinking I had brilliantly ferreted out the elusive drug maker, I then ran its name on the web and learned that National Right to Life was way ahead of me. Roussel-Uclaf is owned by
Hoechst AG, whose American affiliate is Hoechst Roussel. In 1995, Hoechst purchased American drug manufacturer Marion Merrell Dow (MMD), forming a new pharmaceutical company Hoechst Marion Roussel. But in 1994, Roussel-Uclaf transferred its US patent rights to . . .

The Population Council.

This author's familiarity with the Population Council pre-dates my political enlightenment. Its name was mentioned frequently in attempts to exonerate another well-known birth control compound, the oral contraceptive, in cases involving birth defects and stroke.

Today, the Population Council announced on its own web page:

NEW YORK (28, September, 2000)-The Population Council, the U.S. sponsor of the new drug application for the MifeprexT brand of mifepristone, is pleased that the Food and Drug Administration has approved this important new medical option.

American women now will have access to this nonsurgical method, as do women in France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other countries in Europe. MifeprexT has been studied in many countries and used by over 620,000 women.

The Population Council - along with its licensee, Danco Laboratories - has worked long and hard to make this important product available in the United States. Now that the product has been approved, Danco Laboratories will begin to distribute MifeprexT through physicians and clinics nationwide.

The Population Council is purportedly a private, non-profit group started by John D. Rockefeller located "within walking distance of the United Nations building and CBR on the campus of the Rockefeller University. [It also has] an office in Washington, D.C., which manages [its] global programs to improve reproductive health and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Half of [its] staff of almost 500 people is based in developing countries, at five regional and 15 additional country offices."

Right to Life also writes that Roussel-Uclaf transferred its remaining RU486 rights (those outside the U.S.) to Edouard Sakiz, one of Roussel's former chief executives, in April of 1997. Sakiz is a co-author of the 1982 paper. Another name that popped up a few times on the medline was E. Baulieu, about whom Right to Life states:

"[A]dmits he was looking for some way to deal with the "demographic," i.e., population, "crisis" of so-called Third World countries. Baulieu's vision had not changed in 1990 after seeing the drug approved in France, Britain, and Sweden. In his history of RU486, The "Abortion Pill," Baulieu declared that, in developing countries, "Women badly need the [contraceptive] backup methods of effective contragestion and abortion. RU-486 has a vital role to play." Beyond personal medical benefits Baulieu projected for the drug, Baulieu indicated he also believed RU-486 had a "broader role" in such countries helping "governments to dampen a population explosion which threatens to outstrip the world's resources."

The Population Council is quoted as saying,

"China's view is that reproductive rights belong to the state; reproductive rights are not something for an individual or even a family to possess," said an official at of the Population Council.4 And apparently, the U.N. approves, since it has suggested that countries model themselves after China. As a result of the U.N./China one child policy, imposed in 1979, China is now suffering from a population imbalance. "

So, it's about population control. That is why the press is not releasing the name of the manufacturer, patentee, and licensee, so easily identifiable in public records. But the feds told their puppets without telling their puppeteers --- and its all on the Population Council's own web page.

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May 7, 1997
David W. Cloud;
Fundamental Baptist News Service
1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277

On May 7 Pope John Paul II dedicated his general audience to "the Virgin Mary" and urged all Christians to
accept Mary as their mother. He noted the words spoken by Jesus on the cross to Mary and to John--"Woman, behold thy son!" and "Behold thy mother!" (John 19:26,27), and he claimed that in this statement "IT IS
POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE AUTHENTIC MEANING OF MARIAN WORSHIP in the ecclesial
community ... which furthermore is based on the will of Christ" (Vatican Information Service, May 7, 1997).

John Paul II underlined that "the history of Christian piety teaches that MARY IS THE PATH THAT LEADS
TO CHRIST, and that filial devotion to her does not at all diminish intimacy with Jesus, but rather, it
increases it and leads it to very high levels of perfection." He concluded by asking all Christians "to make room
(for Mary) in their daily lives, ACKNOWLEDGING HER PROVIDENTIAL ROLE IN THE PATH OF
SALVATION" (Ibid.).

This is heretical and blasphemous. Mary was a sinner who was saved by grace in the same manner of any sinner who trusts Jesus Christ for salvation. The Bible says absolutely nothing about her beyond this. She is not the Mother of God or Ever Virgin or the Queen of Heaven or co-redemptress with Christ. She cannot hear or
answer prayer, which is a prerogative of Almighty God alone. The Apostles taught absolutely nothing about
"Marian worship." Men do not need Mary to bring them to Christ. The needy sinner comes directly to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator between God and men. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy
2:5-6). Christ promised, "COME UNTO ME, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"
(Matthew 11:28). The Bible nowhere invites men to come to Mary or to trust Mary or to pray to Mary.

Those who speak highly of this idolatrous Mary worshipping pope will answer to God.

"If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God speed: For HE THAT BIDDETH HIM GOD SPEED IS PARTAKER OF HIS EVIL
DEEDS" (2 John 10-11).

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YOWUSA; ISSUE 2016
Friday 1 December 2000
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
 and Michael Smith Defense Correspondent

THE European Union's Rapid Reaction Force will have operational independence from Nato, Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, insisted yesterday.

Both Britain and Nato have privately stressed that in any major operation the new 60,000-strong force will come under the control of the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the most senior European officer in Nato, who is at present Gen Sir Rupert Smith.

But in a carefully worded speech Mr Prodi said: "The union must develop an autonomous capacity to take decisions and, where Nato itself is not involved, to launch and conduct military operations under EU command." This appears to back French demands for a separate planning staff from that of Nato, an idea vehemently opposed by Britain and other Nato members, especially America.

The Government insists that wherever additional Nato assets are used to bolster the EU's new force it will stay under the control of Sir Rupert. Even where no additional Nato assets are involved, British officials have let it be known that the new force will effectively come under him "wearing his European rather than his Nato hat".

Lord Robertson, Nato Secretary-General, said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph this week that the command arrangements were still under discussion but "unnecessary duplication" between Nato and the EU had to be avoided. But Mr Prodi's remarks show that the European Commission is backing French demands for a separate planning staff.

Mr Prodi has made off-the-cuff comments before, calling the new force a "European army", something the Government insists it will never be. But this time the speech was vetted by experts in the commission and reflects strategic thinking in Brussels.

Both the commission and the EU's French presidency are pushing hard for a new treaty mechanism in foreign and security policy that would allow a core group of countries to press ahead towards closer integration using majority voting.

The draft text for next week's Nice treaty says majority voting should come into force on matters "serving the interests of the union as a whole by asserting its identity as a coherent force on the international scene". The treaty change would not in itself compel Britain to participate in a foreign policy mission that it opposed.

However, it could lead to serious tensions if the core group of states decided to draw on the rapid reaction force to carry out - in the language of the proposed treaty article - "principal objectives and general guidelines of the common foreign and security policy".

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What's going on?  China and Russia testing our Northern and Southern border defenses!

CHINA

RUSSIA

Is The Chinese Army Probing Our Southern Flank? YOWUSA, December 1, 2000 Sandy Gilmore Bill O’Reilly of Fox News seams to be the only media heavyweight with an interest in the unprovoked attacks on INS agents, by Mexican forces from across the border. What O’Reilly has not been able to report is that some of those ""Mexican"" soldiers are, according to multiple eyewitnesses, Chinese soldiers dressed in Mexican Army uniforms. Given that the Panama Canal is now under the control of Beijing operatives working in conjunction with corrupt Panamanian officials, the Clinton-Gore administration has worked feverishly to suppress these many repeated incidents. But these are not incidents in the political sense. Rather, they are more likely, carefully planned and executed military probes of our border defenses by the People Liberation Army of Communist China. Mexican Authorities Attack U.S. Border Patrol Officers As recently as last October 24, Mexican authorities were reported to have fired upon United States Border Patrol officers. That in itself is not uncommon. The following is the transcript of an interview conducted on the Fox News Channel’’s ""The O’’Reilly Factor."" The guest being interviewed is National Border Patrol Council President, T.J. Bonner. O'REILLY: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight: THE FACTOR continues its investigation of violence along the Mexican border. We've already documented two occasions where Mexican authorities shot at American federal agents. In the first incident, Mexican troops actually crashed through a fence in Texas, came on to American soil and shot at two border agents who were on horseback. Now comes word that in California more shots have been fired at American agents, and the story is being kept under wraps. Joining us now from San Diego is the president of the National Border Patrol Council, T.J. Bonner. So tell us, Mr. Bonner, what happened? T.J. BONNER, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: On October 24, at just after noon, a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter clearly marked dropped off two agents close to the border, obviously on our side of the border. Shortly after that, these agents came under fire; at least eight shots were fired at them by 10 Mexican military troops. The agents clearly identified themselves as Border Patrol agents and told the troops that they were in the United States. The troops nonetheless advanced into the United States, telling the agents to come out of the brush. The agents again identified themselves, told the Mexican troops that they were in the United States and they needed to go back to Mexico. When reinforcements started to arrive from the Border Patrol, the Mexican military got into a minivan; at least some of them did, and drove off. O'REILLY: All right, so how many shots were fired at the U.S. agents? BONNER: At least eight. O'REILLY: And nobody was hurt, obviously, right? BONNER: No, nobody was hurt, thank God. O'REILLY: OK, investigation, subsequent investigation revealed what? BONNER: Well, the U.S. Border Patrol claims they did an investigation, although we have it on good authority that there never was an investigation, that the matter was just swept under the carpet. O'REILLY: So this is the —— this is what happens on most of these things, they don't want any international incidents, so when this stuff happens, they just let it go, right? BONNER: Right. O'REILLY: Is that orders from the Justice Department? BONNER: I'm not sure where it's coming from. It could be Justice. It could be State. It could be coming from as high as the White House. O'REILLY: Now, the two guys who were —— are they angry, the two guys who were in the brush getting shot at by the Mexican troops? BONNER: They're not the only ones who are angry. All Border Patrol agents are angry, we're angry with the Mexican government for allowing this to happen, for letting their troops take potshots at our agents. We're angry with the U.S. government for trying to sweep this under the carpet. O'REILLY: Now, when you hear about reports like this, what do you, yourself, do as a president of the union? What do you do? BONNER: Well, in the last incident, the one in New Mexico, we wrote to just about everybody that we could think of asking for a full and complete investigation. We got back a letter from the president of the United States that addressed some water boundary issue; it wasn't even the right issue. We got back a letter from the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the commissioner, responding on behalf of the attorney general some four months after the fact telling us that it was all right, that this would never happen again, and here we are. It happened again. O'REILLY: All right, so basically, the situation we have down there from Brownsville to San Diego is you have U.S. Border Patrol agents on our side being shot at by Mexican military. Now, we've heard accusations that the military assists drug runners across the border and, you know, is actively involved in the smuggling of narcotics into the United States. Do you believe that this was what this was about in this incident? BONNER: It's hard to say, because we'll never know. Mexico denies that their troops shot at our people. Moreover, amazingly, the U.S. Border Patrol says that the reason they dropped the investigation is that the question of he said/she said. However, we have four U.S. Border Patrol agents swearing that these are the facts. Then we have Mexico denying. Somehow, in their eyes, this makes for a he said/she said. We can't sort this out. O'REILLY: Well, I know who I believe, Mr. Bonner. In addition, I think know who the millions of people watching THE FACTOR right now believe. They believe the border agents. We know this is going on. You know the tragedy of this: The elite media won't report on it. You didn't get any national publicity on this at all, did you? BONNER: No, we didn't. O'REILLY: Well, it's a shame. Now, you let us know when this happens again, or what —— you investigate it yourself. You let us know every step of the way what happens, and we'll report it to the folks. OK? BONNER: Great. I appreciate it. O'REILLY: All right, Mr. Bonner. We'll do everything we can to help you guys out down there. The Mexican Authorities May Not Have Been Alone In the assault at San Ysidro, CA, the Mexicans allegedly had some assistance. Scott Gulbransen, a writer for an Internet-based publication, The Strategic Jungle Syndicate, reported that men of Asian origin were witnessed among the attackers. Furthermore, his report indicated the presence of non-English speaking Caucasian males. A skirmish between U.S. Border Patrol agents and armed soldiers in Mexico has raised several disturbing questions related to the security of America's borders. The incident, which occurred on October 24 near the Otay Mesa border-crossing southeast of San Diego, has received little attention in the mainstream media but local law enforcement circles are a buzz at reports that Mexican soldiers were not the only ones in the area. Several eyewitness accounts stated soldiers of Asian and Caucasian origin were also firing from Mexico on the Border Patrol agents in the unprovoked attack. A Border Patrol agent, speaking to the Strategic Jungle Syndicate on the condition of anonymity, stated the attack was more than Mexican soldiers firing upon what they thought might be drug dealers. ""Everything happened so fast but I know not all of them were Mexican nationals,"" the agent said. ""More than two of us saw what appeared to be an Asian soldier. I didn't get a real clean look at his eyes but he certainly looked Asian to me. The bottom line here is this was planned and not some random event. The government might not want to admit that but it's the damn truth."" The agent also stated several Mexican nationals, attempting to cross the border illegally, also told of ""chinos,"" a slang term in Spanish for Chinese, soldiers dressed in fatigues. ""There were a few people in the brush trying to get into the United States and after the shooting ended, they were apprehended and being processed to return to Mexico,"" the Border Patrol agent said. ""Two or three of them were close enough and said they heard men speaking what they described as Chinese. They were scared and said they had seen the men before, including some white men driving military type vehicles."" Local law enforcement officials have also confirmed the movement of unidentified military vehicles. A deputy with the San Diego County Sheriff's office confirmed officers have encountered unknown vehicles in and near the border area. "We're all law enforcement officers and we talk a lot about what we see," the deputy with nine years in the department said. "There's been strange things going on. Even homeowners have been calling about automatic weapons fire in the canyons near Otay Mesa. I know my friends with the San Diego Police Department also hear about it. There's something going on and most of us feel like we're not being told everything." Increased activity along the U.S.-Mexican border has yielded strange events over the past three months. In addition to the powerful Mexican drug cartels, and the ever-profitable smuggling of illegal immigrants to better working wages in California, many in border towns report strange activity. "You know, I've lived here for many years," said Domingo Sanez of San Ysidro, "but never have I heard so many strange noises and lots of traffic. I always say it must be a war because I hear trucks all the time and they wake me and my wife." Sanez works as a parking lot attendant near the border crossing at San Ysidro and lives on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana. He said many believe there are things going on in the night but he believes drug cartels are the culprit. "There is so much money and they are so powerful," he said. "I think they are getting ready to go to war with the Americans. I don't know why but people want those drugs and it's big money."" Still others feel more international forces may be working within Mexico. "You have to sit there and ask yourself why are there Chinese soldiers in Mexico and why have people reported seeing other blond soldiers not speaking English," the Border Patrol agent said. "It scares me to think some enemy army may be closer than we think. People out there need to demand the truth and find out what our government knows." Keith Weeks, president of NBPCL 1613, said he's not sure why the Border Patrol has side stepped the issue and watered down it's story on the incident. "What the agents told us directly and what the Border Patrol said in their statement don't match completely," Weeks said Wednesday. "For whatever reason they're more concerned about keeping it quiet and we don't know why." Weeks said his organization had contacted Congressman Duncan Hunter about the agent's concerns and that the congressman was supportive of their concerns. "Maybe this has something to do with the election next week," Weeks said. "I can tell you when the agency called me they told me they were very disappointed we issued our press release. That's not right."" Weeks also questioned why highly skilled military personnel would be stationed on the border directly in violation of current treaties with the United States. Weeks was not aware of the eyewitness reports related to Asian soldiers being part of the group that fired on his fellow agents. "I'm going to check again with the agents but I have not heard that yet," he said. The only official word concerning the incident came three days after the skirmish from National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 who called for an investigation by the U.S. and Mexican governments. The union represents Border Patrol agents and is a division of the American Federation Of Government Employees. NBPCL 1613 stated the incident was the second confirmed incident this year in which Border Patrol Agents have been shot at by what they believe to be Mexican military. The other occurred on March 14 in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The press release stated not only stray soldiers had fired upon the agents, but also that two of them had taken sniper positions as well. The agents identified themselves in Spanish but the soldiers kept on firing and pursuing the Americans. "I don't think they understood Spanish," the Border Patrol agent speaking to the Strategic Jungle Syndicate said. "A few did and they moved more into a rear position while the others fired. The rest were in a van near the western most part of the canyon." Both law enforcement officials are disappointed, the media, in particular, hasn't noticed the story. "Can you imagine if a bunch of soldiers fired on police officers in downtown San Diego what coverage that would get," the Border Patrol agent said. "We were involved in an international incident and there's not a damn thing anyone is doing about it." The questions remain and no answers appear to be in sight. The Clinton-Gore Administration Cover Up In the ""O’’Reilly Factor"" interview, NBPC President T.J. Bonner indicated the possibility of a cover-up originating from the Justice Department, the State Department or even the White House. A few days after posting the above report, The Strategic Jungle posted the following. The official inquiry of the October 24 incident in which U.S. Border Patrol agents were fired upon by what appeared to Mexican soldiers has been closed with no new light shed on why or how the incident occurred. Late yesterday, Border Patrol officials said there was no evidence that showed the agents were fired on and that Mexican soldiers crossed into the United States. William Veal, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, said the incident had the potential to be inflammatory but there was no proof showing it happened. "This could have been a very catastrophic situation," Veal said. "But there is no evidence to show the agents were fired at or that the Mexican soldiers crossed into the United States." National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, who called for an investigation by the U.S. and Mexican governments, again reiterated their side of the story saying the incident was very real but for some reason the governments of both nations refuse to truly investigate it. "The agents stick by their account of the incidents and they truly felt their lives were in danger," said Keith Weeks, vice president of NBPCL 1613. "We are all very disappointed that our own government refuses to see the severity of this incident." To Weeks and his agents, there's no question the INS is hiding something. "The agency is making an attempt to minimize the incident and aim suspicion at our agents," he said. "They're not admitting there is a danger here for all U.S. agents for some unknown reason." Virginia Kice, a local spokesperson for the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Western region, said this is simply a matter of who you believe. "It's a classic 'he said, he said' situation," Kice said. "My true feeling is we will never truly know what happened. What's more important is that we work with the nation of Mexico to safeguard all parties from incidents like this in the future." Kice would not comment on eyewitness reports that Asian soldiers and others of non-Hispanic decent were in the area as well. A Border Patrol agent, who has spoken to the Strategic Jungle Syndicate on the condition of anonymity, was upset when learning of what he described as a "political white-wash."" He offered no further comment and hung up the telephone quickly. An official Border Patrol evidence crew scoured the area, located in Copper Canyon near the Otay Mesa port of entry, and said they found no shell casings or other proof to validate the story. Still, the agents and Weeks believe a cover-up has occurred and no one can offer answers why. "As I said before, we're days away from the election," Weeks said. "I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't want to find the truth." In a move to somewhat pacify the agent's union, INS officials did say they have established a protocol to help prevent further border incursions. Part of the plan includes sharing maps and establishing radio contact when agents are in desolate areas. Still, answers to why this happened, and to accounts that claim Asian and perhaps other soldiers were also in the area, have been ignored. Information from a highly reliable source indicates that these border skirmishes have been happening frequently for several years. The same source also revealed that our own federal government is engineering this cover-up. The Real Issue The real issue here is that the Clinton-Gore administration is knowingly suppressing information about what may be a serious threat on our country’’s southern flank, in much the same it has methodically suppressed information about the manner in which Russia warships have lased American surveillance aircraft while in US waters. Surveillance of our military assets and positions by foreign powers is a given and to be expected. However when the leadership of our country constructively seeks to aide that effort, we must demand to know why, and we cannot afford to wait for Mr. O’’Reilly of Fox News to do it for us -- and this is doubly so, for those of us who live within easy reach of a combined arms attack from across our southern border.

US, Canadian fighters move to counter probes by Russian bombers WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (AFP) - US and Canadian fighter aircraft moved to forward bases Thursday to counter expected probes of North American air defenses by Russian strategic bombers that have deployed recently to bases in eastern Siberia, US and Canadian military officials said. Five Russian TU-95 Bear bombers have been detected at two Siberian bases in apparent preparation for missions to probe US air defenses around Alaska, the Pentagon said Thursday. "We would anticipate that in the next few days they might fly one or several of these planes up through the Bering Straits and close to Alaska," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. US F-15 Eagles and Canadian CF-18 Hornets were deployed to forward operating locations in Alaska and Canada to counter the Russian move, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado told AFP. Also being moved up were AWACS radar surveillance aircraft and air refueling tankers, said Major Jamie Robertson, the NORAD spokesman. "The fighters are in place, and some of the tankers and air surveillance aircraft are moving up," said Robertson, a Canadian. He said it was the first time in over a year that US and Canadian fighters have moved to forward locations in response to Russian moves. "In terms of having to deploy in response to long range Russian aviation activity, that something that's fairly rare these days," he said. "I think '93 was the last time we had an intercept of a Russian aircraft approaching North America. But it was fairly common during the Cold War," he said. The US and Canadian response to the Bears comes in the wake of Russian boasts earlier this month that its warplanes buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan on October 17 and November 9. The Russian SU-24 reconnaissance planes and SU-27 interceptors flew close enough to the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan to take photographs of the carrier, Russian air force chief General Anatoly Kornukov told the Interfax news agency that the aircraft's approach came as "an absolute surprise" to the Kitty Hawk, which didn't raise their fighters into the air until the second flight. Bacon said there "may have been a slight delay" in the scrambling of interceptors in the first incident. The Kitty Hawk was refueling at the time and not going fast enough to launch its planes, he said. "So they had to wait in order for the carrier to accelerate before they could launch the planes. The second time the planes were launched at the appropriate time," he said. But he said the approach of the Russian planes was detected by radar well in advance in both cases, and that they were followed by US fighters. "In neither case did the Navy feel that its operations had been compromised in any way. In neither case did it feel that any protest was warranted, and, therefore, no protest was made to the Russians," Bacon said. Russian bombers have probed US or NATO air defenses at least three times over the past year, most recently in March when they approached Alaskan air space only to turn away before reaching a 200 mile-buffer zone around North America, officials said. "The last actual time we deployed fighters was in September '99 when there was a Russian Bear bomber that approached the US North America Air Defense Identification Zone," said Robertson. "Once we sent fighters up, the aircraft turned back." In June, 1999, US fighters at Keflavik Air Base in Iceland scrambled to turn away two Bears. That incident attracted attention because it came at a time of tension with Russia over the NATO air war in Kosovo, and the eastward expansion of the Atlantic alliance. "We regard the Cold War as being over," Bacon said. "And although we clearly monitor ships and airplanes, as I think my presentation proves -- we've monitored the movement of these Bears -- we keep an eye on what the Russians are up to. But we are well-trained and we're ready to deal with these episodes." _____________ Russia deploying aged bombers near Alaska United Press International Thursday, 30 November 2000 WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Russia has deployed several of its TU-95 Bear bombers to bases in Eastern Siberia, within striking distance of Alaska, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Thursday. "We would anticipate they might fly up from the Bering Strait across to Alaska," Bacon said. "We are monitoring it very closely." "The Russians do this from time to time," he said. Bacon said the USS Kitty Hawk picked up the Russian SU-24 fighters, and that at no time was the U.S. ship in danger. The move follows two "buzzing" incidents by Russian fighters of an American aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan in October and November. The first incident occurred Oct. 17, while the Kitty Hawk was refueling. Russian fighters came within several thousand feet of the carrier, Bacon said. The second incident occurred Nov. 9. "I think this is normal training on their part; they are testing our responses," Bacon said. "For some reason, possibly lodged deeply in Cold War thinking, they (the Russian military) held a press conference about this." Bacon said the Russian Bear bombers -- which he called "ponderous, propeller driven bombers" -- were deployed within the "last couple of days" to two bases: Anadyr on the Bering Sea and Tiksi air base on the Laptev Sea. "We don't believe they have been permanently deployed. We think they are there temporarily," he said. "In June 1999, two Bear bombers flew within striking distance of the United States during a major military exercise, but were intercepted by U.S. fighters and a P-3 near Iceland, according to the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think tank. In September 1999, two Bear bombers came within 90 miles of U.S. airspace around Alaska but turned back. According to FAS, that was the first approach to Alaska by a Bear bomber since March 1993.

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An Evolutionist' among the 'Scientific community' states that Adam and Eve never met

        While we at WBSG try not to comment on the News Stories we provide, this one cries out to spoken on.  The below News Story was posted on AOL's front page of their News Section, it was taken by them from the Reuter's News Wire, a well established International News source, in other words, it will be well received by the average person as being credible.

        This is the kind of thing that our children are being taught in both school and by the media.  And while some States are finally allowing Creation to be mentioned as a optional idea on the origin of man,  the children must answer the evolution questions 'correctly' to score well on their tests.  This is hardly an equal teaching of both Evolution and Creationism in the schools.  Some schools may teach both, but to score 'correctly' on their tests, the children must give the Evolution answer - what kind of message does that send to a young developing mind?

        Below we also see the growing reliance on DNA 'evidence.'  The field of DNA research is a young field, and I fear that the facts are being misrepresented and inflated.  There is something suspect in technology foisted on the world by admitted Atheists, especially this late in the game.  The fields of DNA research and Cloning are intrusions into the realm of God and I personally don't trust those who do so.  Can we really be sure that satan is not behind this?  He is after all, the perennial liar.

        Evidenced by the dozens even hundreds of Death Row inmates being released on DNA 'evidence' alone.  Is it really realistic to believe that so many Defendants were forced through torture by Police and States Attorneys - who are mostly family men and women themselves, to confess to heinous rapes and murders, then keep their mouths shut all during the long trials and sentencing hearings never mentioning the torture - all the while knowing that they are facing Capital Punishment?!?  

        And are we to believe that Prosecutors from the Courts around the Country, family men and women most, are really out to, in essence, murder innocent Defendant's to put a 'check mark' in the 'conviction' column of their own personnel file?  Something is wrong here!

        In the below story, the Geneticist', while perhaps intelligent ungodly men, seem unaware of the Ice that covered much of the world until approx 14,000 years ago when God revitalized the world, for they place peoples (or creatures) evolving in areas covered at that time by miles thick ice glaciers.  See: When was Thee beginning?

        And they also reduce the difference in the various races of peoples to simple skin color.  This suits their errant theories well but any 2nd grader can tell you that there is much more difference between the races than a sun tan.  This author is a 'White' man, but if you took myself and a 'Black' man and an 'Oriental' man and a 'Hispanic' man and then painted us all green from head to toe - would you not be able to tell who was from what racial group?  Of course you could, possibly even by looking at the back of them by body shape and proportion even, but most certainly from scull and facial features.  We look different, so what!  But this fact disturbs the Evolutionist' false theories that we all have a common ancestor who evolved from an Ape who evolved from pond scum under a rock somewhere in a primordial cesspool.  to them God their very Creator is a myth - fools!  

        We as God loving Bible believing Christians know that God created all the different races just as they are, and when He had done so He looked and behold: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day" {Gen 1:31}.  People are different, but that means nothing to God, He loves us all the same;  why do people suppose that God would have created a 'cookie-cutter' population of His children?  Adam and Eve met alright, but there were all races of people CREATED on the earth in the sixth day before Adam was FORMED on the eighth day (in 4004 b.c.) in the Garden of Eden.  See: Mankind; two separate 'creation events'.

        As you read the ridiculous spoken as fact in the below News Story, remember not what it means to you, but what it means to the generation coming up after you who have been indoctrinated since their first years in school and all the way into adulthood by the 'second school' - the Media.  For they are ill equipped to discern the truth of God from the lies of satan:

'Adam,' 'Eve' Never Met, Scientists Say
Earliest Known Human Ancestors Lived Thousands of Years Apart

By Maggie Fox
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) - Science may have caught up with the Bible, which says that Adam and Eve are the ancestors of all humans alive today.

But in the scientists' version, based on DNA analysis, ''Adam,'' the genetic ancestor of all men living today, and ''Eve,'' the genetic ancestor of all living women, seem to have lived tens of thousands of years apart.

How could this be?

Peter Underhill and colleagues at Stanford University in California have an explanation. ''They had different molecular clocks,'' Underhill said in a telephone interview. ''Fewer men participated in reproduction than women did.''

His team, working with top geneticists across the United States, Europe, Israel and Africa, did a genetic analysis of DNA samples from the Y chromosomes of more than 1,000 men from 22 geographic areas and determined that their most recent common ancestor was a man who lived in Africa around 59,000 years ago.

Only men have Y chromosomes and researchers can look at gradual genetic mutations in them to ''count'' generations.

Other studies have used mitochondrial DNA, which women seem to pass down virtually unchanged from mother to daughter, to show that the genetic ''Eve'' lived 143,000 years ago.

The latest study, published in the November issue of the journal Nature Genetics, reconciles the two findings, and in the process the researchers came up with new tool for looking at how people are different from one another genetically.

They also added a great deal of detail to the family tree of all men living today, information that can be used by historians, anthropologists and other researchers. ''We can look at the tree and see, 'Oh, this section of the tree is where Asians go. We can say, 'Oh, here is a Japanese Y chromosome and this is a Chinese Y chromosome,''' Underhill said.

What the tree does not do, he stresses, is identify so-called races. Geneticists have long agreed there is no genetic basis to race -- only to ethnic and geographic groups.

''People look at a very conspicuous trait like skin color and they say, 'Well, this person's so different' ... but that's only skin deep,'' Underhill said. ''When you look at the level of the Y chromosome you find that, gee, there is very little difference between them. And skin color differences are strictly a consequence of climate.''

But the differences, while tiny, are enough for experts such as Underhill's team to try to figure out how many generations you have to go back to find a single man who is related to all living people today. ''The history of our species is something on the order of 4,000 or 5,000 generations,'' Underhill said.

Women were good at passing on their genes, while some men were less lucky. Underhill's team found evidence of genetic bottlenecks that shortened the male genetic legacy.

What could explain them? Real-life scenarios from recorded history provide plenty of explanations.

DOMINANT TRIBE GETS ALL THE WOMEN

''One tribe conquers another tribe. The dominant tribe, the successful tribe, gets to mate with all the women -- its own women plus the women they conquered,'' Underhill said.

Polygamy, a common practice, would also explain it. A few dominant males get to marry and have children and the rest see their genes consigned to the rubbish heap of posterity.

Even nature itself can play a role. ''I'm a man and if I get married and just by chance, a flip of the coin, I only have daughters, that is a random chance event. It has nothing to do with my being inferior or superior,'' Underhill said.

But such a man would not pass on his Y chromosome and so would chalk up a big zero in the ''Adam'' and ''Eve'' genetic stakes -- although of course his other genes would live on.

Fossil records suggest that Homo sapiens, or modern humans, first appeared in Africa about 150,000 years ago, then moved out and spread across the world fairly quickly: perhaps 50,000 years ago to Europe and as long as 60,000 years ago to Australasia.

Tracing our ancestors genetically can be almost as hard as using a piece of skull or a tooth to date a fossil, but Underhill and his team developed a new method of looking at chromosomes called denaturing high performance liquid chromatography. They can use it to compare the Y chromosome of one man to another, something that used to be laborious.

''By using this new method, we could do it far, far faster,'' Peter Oefner of Stanford, who also worked on the study, said in a telephone interview. ''When anatomically modern humans left Africa 45,000 to 60,000 years ago, they expanded rapidly across the world. The reason I can say this is because there is a nice relationship between (genetic) haplotype and geography.''

The genes reflect known history. ''There was the Ice Age and so people couldn't migrate much. So they stayed local and accumulated all the changes that allow us basically to trace them back,'' Oefner said.

The same group reports in the latest issue of the journal Science that they used their method to determine that 95 percent of European men descend from about 10 ''Adams'' who in turn can be traced back to three different waves of migration.

The oldest male lineage they found dates back to the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic period 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. A second lineage dates to about 22,000 years ago and is associated with the Gravettian culture, known for its Venus figurines and shell jewelry and for using mammoth bones to build homes.

The third group, about 20 percent of the men, seem to date from more recent times, having come to Europe between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. They were probably the first Neolithic farmers who migrated from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.

The genetic comparison method has some modern-day application. ''This is also a powerful tool for forensic science and paternity testing,'' Oefner said.

He said several companies had approached Stanford asking for permission to use those markers in forensic test kits. The university is trying to decide what to do with any profits that might come from licensing the kits.

''Whose property are those markers?'' Oefner asked. ''If there is money in this, there are things to be discussed about how to reimburse, especially all those indigent people that contributed their genetic material.''

Oefner thinks profits from licensing the technology might go to an international group that helps people without regard to culture, religious beliefs or politics such as French group Medecins Sans Frontieries (Doctors Without Borders).

Reut22:01 11-14-00

(End of News Clip)

IS DNA FOOLPROOF?

Mismatch calls DNA tests into question

By Richard Willing, 
USA TODAY
02/08/00- Updated 01:42 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Great Britain's national DNA database, the world's largest crime-solving computer system, has mistakenly matched an innocent man to a burglary - a one-in-37 million possibility that American experts call "mind-blowing."

The mismatch, thought to be the first major mistake produced by a national DNA database, has sent shock waves through law enforcement communities not only in Great Britain but also in the United States, where DNA databases are based on the British model.

British authorities fear that the error might prompt thousands of people convicted through DNA testing to appeal their convictions.

U.S. officials say similar mismatches could occur here as DNA testing of convicts becomes more widespread. "This is mind-blowing," says the FBI's Stephen Niezgoda, manager of the American national database program. "Everyone will be watching to see how this plays out."

The mistaken identification was disclosed by British authorities last month during a meeting with members of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence, the Justice Department's DNA task force.

Notes of the meeting were examined by USA TODAY and confirmed by Britain's Forensic Science Service, which maintains that nation's DNA database.

Last year, police in the British city of Manchester lifted DNA, an individual's unique genetic code, from evidence left at the scene of a burglary.

The DNA profile was submitted to the national database, where a computer matched it to one of 660,000 previous arrestees whose DNA was on file.

The DNA profiles matched at six points of identification, or loci, along the DNA molecule.

British authorities estimated that the likelihood of that match occurring at random was one in 37 million.

But after the suspect provided an alibi, police asked for a retest.

This time, a new technique, which examines 10 loci and has a one-in-1 billion likelihood of mismatch, was used.

The suspect's DNA did not match at all the additional loci and he was released.

British authorities say the mismatch probably was caused by the rapidly increasing size of their database, which has grown from 470,000 potential suspects to 660,000 in the past year.

As more profiles are added, the possibility of suspects with very similar DNA increases, the British say.

"It isn't a mistake in the laboratory; this was something to be expected," database spokesman Rob Smith said. "There's no cause for alarm."

But Angela Flower, who investigates possible wrongful convictions for a British government appeals board, called the mistaken identification a "quite worrying phenomenon."

"Everybody in the U.K. who has ever been convicted on six-point (DNA) profiling will want to apply to us to have their convictions reviewed," she said.

American experts say a similar mismatch could occur here as the U.S. national DNA database adds profiles.

The U.S. database, which was begun in 1998, is about half the size of its British counterpart.

The FBI currently tests DNA at 13 points of identification.

But states, which maintain their own databases, often test fewer loci.

(End of News Clip)

CBN (Christian Broadcast Network)
September 3, 2000

A Christian professor helped free a man who was wrongly sentenced to 70 years in prison. William Thomas Gregory, 52, spent seven years in jail after being convicted of crimes that a DNA test later proved he did not commit, according to Presbyterian News Service. Gregory was convicted of burglary, rape, and attempted rape in 1993 after two women in his apartment complex testified against him.

...George Edwards and his wife, Jean, raised money for DNA testing to clear Gregory, PNS reported. Edwards taught classes at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary for almost 30 years and met Gregory through another inmate whom he was counseling. The Edwards raised $5,000 to pay for the test, which showed hairs from a stocking mask used in the crime did not match Gregory's, according to PNS.

...Gregory was released pending a new trial in July and prosecutors dropped the charges Aug. 24. "He's been with us in our church, and his conduct, we feel, has been exemplary and meets our highest expectations," Edwards said of Gregory. "We are very exultant of his good fortune."

(End of News Clip)

Is there the potential for abuse?

The Australian;
By Colleen Egan
13nov00

THE West Australian Government will introduce legislation to parliament this week governing police use of DNA samples, following mounting criticism of mass testing of homeless people in Perth.

Police Minister Kevin Prince conceded yesterday the police service had no written policy on the collection, use and destruction of DNA swabs taken during investigations.

Mr Prince confirmed that until legislation was passed, the only guarantee that DNA samples would be used only for elimination purposes and that they would be destroyed was "the officer's word for it".

He said the legislation, which allowed for a mixture of compulsory and voluntary DNA collection and provided rules for its use and destruction, would probably be on the parliamentary agenda tomorrow.

The Aboriginal Legal Service is advising Aborigines to refuse voluntary DNA tests after the sampling last week of indigenous men and women as part of a murder inquiry focusing on a white male suspect.

The service's chief executive, Dennis Eggington, said police were "jumping the gun" on the legislation by enticing people to give samples to eliminate them as suspects, when often there were no reasonable grounds to suspect them.

"The police are acting as if the law has already been passed through parliament," he said. "They say the DNA tests are voluntary but it is because of the way the police ask: they are saying that if you don't provide us with a swab, we have to assume you are potentially guilty."

Mr Eggington said it was well known the police service wanted to increase the size of its pool of Aboriginal DNA.

He was not satisfied with the word of a police officer that the homeless people's DNA would be destroyed.

"We actually want to see the proof that this stuff has been destroyed," he said.

Mr Prince said he would condemn police if they were dishonest when collecting DNA but did not believe they would be. He said the main features of the DNA law were:

• THE DNA of prisoners would be collected and stored in a database.
• THE collection of DNA from arrested people would be done in a similar way to how fingerprints were collected.
• POLICE might ask people at any time voluntarily to give DNA for an investigation and the sample would be destroyed after the inquiry, if the person was not arrested.
• POLICE might compel people to give DNA when arresting them if they had good reason to suspect them.

Mr Prince said DNA had been used to great effect overseas, particularly in Britain, whose national database had helped solve many crimes.

The legislation is unlikely to pass through parliament before the election, expected in February or May.

(End of News Clip)

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