MOORS LABELED LEFT WING EXTREMISTS BY HOMELAND SECURITY

Republicans criticize report on extremists
Officials warn fringe right-wing groups may try to recruit GIs coming home


WASHINGTON - Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists. House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

The agency's intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members.

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence.
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"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

Report seized on by bloggers
The commander of the veterans group the American Legion, David Rehbein, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

"To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam," Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

"Let me be very clear — we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Napolitano said in a statement. "We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."

Napolitano said the department respects and honors veterans and that she intends to meet with Rehbein next week after she returns from a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meetings in Mexico City.

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published "to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States."

Cyber attacks a more likely tool
In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation.

But the references to military veterans in the recent report angered conservatives.

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"The department is engaging in political and ideological profiling of people who fought to keep our country safe from terrorism, uphold our nation's immigration laws, and protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms," said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla.,

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith accused the department of painting "law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as 'extremists.'"

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs committee, said it was "inconceivable" that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terrorist threat.

US WATER CONTAMINATED BY PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES,HOSPITALS,CUSTOMERS

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water _ contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them _ as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

As part of its ongoing PharmaWater investigation about trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, AP identified 22 compounds that show up on two lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The data don't show precisely how much of the 271 million pounds comes from drugmakers versus other manufacturers; also, the figure is a massive undercount because of the limited federal government tracking.

To date, drugmakers have dismissed the suggestion that their manufacturing contributes significantly to what's being found in water. Federal drug and water regulators agree.

But some researchers say the lack of required testing amounts to a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy about whether drugmakers are contributing to water pollution.

"It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an EPA enforcement officer before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney.
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Pilot studies in the U.S. and abroad are now confirming those doubts.

Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals _ including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones _ have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.

Most cities and water providers still do not test. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water.

Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don't absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.

Utilities say the water is safe. Scientists, doctors and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute concentrations of drugs. But those experts also agree that dangers cannot be ruled out, especially given the emerging research.

___

Two common industrial chemicals that are also pharmaceuticals _ the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen peroxide _ account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds identified as coming from drugmakers and other manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered to be ubiquitous in the environment.

However, the list of 22 includes other troubling releases of chemicals that can be used to make drugs and other products: 8 million pounds of the skin bleaching cream hydroquinone, 3 million pounds of nicotine compounds that can be used in quit-smoking patches, 10,000 pounds of the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride. Others include treatments for head lice and worms.

Residues are often released into the environment when manufacturing equipment is cleaned.

A small fraction of pharmaceuticals also leach out of landfills where they are dumped. Pharmaceuticals released onto land include the chemo agent fluorouracil, the epilepsy medicine phenytoin and the sedative pentobarbital sodium. The overall amount may be considerable, given the volume of what has been buried _ 572 million pounds of the 22 monitored drugs since 1988.

In one case, government data shows that in Columbus, Ohio, pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. discharged an estimated 2,285 pounds of lithium carbonate _ which is considered slightly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and freshwater fish _ to a local wastewater treatment plant between 1995 and 2006. Company spokeswoman Marybeth C. McGuire said the pharmaceutical plant, which uses lithium to make drugs for bipolar disorder, has violated no laws or regulations. McGuire said all the lithium discharged, an annual average of 190 pounds, was lost when residues stuck to mixing equipment were washed down the drain.

___

Pharmaceutical company officials point out that active ingredients represent profits, so there's a huge incentive not to let any escape. They also say extremely strict manufacturing regulations _ albeit aimed at other chemicals _ help prevent leakage, and that whatever traces may get away are handled by onsite wastewater treatment.

"Manufacturers have to be in compliance with all relevant environmental laws," said Alan Goldhammer, a scientist and vice president at the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Goldhammer conceded some drug residues could be released in wastewater, but stressed "it would not cause any environmental issues because it was not a toxic substance at the level that it was being released at."

Several big drugmakers were asked this simple question: Have you tested wastewater from your plants to find out whether any active pharmaceuticals are escaping, and if so what have you found?

No drugmaker answered directly.

"Based on research that we have reviewed from the past 20 years, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are not a significant source of pharmaceuticals that contribute to environmental risk," GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Kate Klemas said the company's manufacturing processes "are designed to avoid, or otherwise minimize the loss of product to the environment" and thus "ensure that any residual losses of pharmaceuticals to the environment that do occur are at levels that would be unlikely to pose a threat to human health or the environment."

One major manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., acknowledged that it tested some of its wastewater _ but outside the United States.

The company's director of hazard communication and environmental toxicology, Frank Mastrocco, said Pfizer has sampled effluent from some of its foreign drug factories. Without disclosing details, he said the results left Pfizer "confident that the current controls and processes in place at these facilities are adequately protective of human health and the environment."

It's not just the industry that isn't testing.

FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly noted that his agency is not responsible for what comes out on the waste end of drug factories. At the EPA, acting assistant administrator for water Mike Shapiro _ whose agency's Web site says pharmaceutical releases from manufacturing are "well defined and controlled" _ did not mention factories as a source of pharmaceutical pollution when asked by the AP how drugs get into drinking water.

"Pharmaceuticals get into water in many ways," he said in a written statement. "It's commonly believed the majority come from human and animal excretion. A portion also comes from flushing unused drugs down the toilet or drain; a practice EPA generally discourages."

His position echoes that of a line of federal drug and water regulators as well as drugmakers, who concluded in the 1990s _ before highly sensitive tests now used had been developed _ that manufacturing is not a meaningful source of pharmaceuticals in the environment.

Pharmaceutical makers typically are excused from having to submit an environmental review for new products, and the FDA has never rejected a drug application based on potential environmental impact. Also at play are pressures not to delay potentially lifesaving drugs. What's more, because the EPA hasn't concluded at what level, if any, pharmaceuticals are bad for the environment or harmful to people, drugmakers almost never have to report the release of pharmaceuticals they produce.

"The government could get a national snapshot of the water if they chose to," said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, "and it seems logical that we would want to find out what's coming out of these plants."

Ajit Ghorpade, an environmental engineer who worked for several major pharmaceutical companies before his current job helping run a wastewater treatment plant, said drugmakers have no impetus to take measurements that the government doesn't require.

"Obviously nobody wants to spend the time or their dime to prove this," he said. "It's like asking me why I don't drive a hybrid car? Why should I? It's not required."

___

After contacting the nation's leading drugmakers and filing public records requests, the AP found two federal agencies that have tested.

Both the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey have studies under way comparing sewage at treatment plants that receive wastewater from drugmaking factories against sewage at treatment plants that do not.

Preliminary USGS results, slated for publication later this year, show that treated wastewater from sewage plants serving drug factories had significantly more medicine residues. Data from the EPA study show a disproportionate concentration in wastewater of an antibiotic that a major Michigan factory was producing at the time the samples were taken.

Meanwhile, other researchers recorded concentrations of codeine in the southern reaches of the Delaware River that were at least 10 times higher than the rest of the river.

The scientists from the Delaware River Basin Commission won't have to look far when they try to track down potential sources later this year. One mile from the sampling site, just off shore of Pennsville, N.J., there's a pipe that spits out treated wastewater from a municipal plant. The plant accepts sewage from a pharmaceutical factory owned by Siegfried Ltd. The factory makes codeine.

"We have implemented programs to not only reduce the volume of waste materials generated but to minimize the amount of pharmaceutical ingredients in the water," said Siegfried spokeswoman Rita van Eck.

Another codeine plant, run by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Noramco Inc., is about seven miles away. A Noramco spokesman acknowledged that the Wilmington, Del., factory had voluntarily tested its wastewater and found codeine in trace concentrations thousands of times greater than what was found in the Delaware River. "The amounts of codeine we measured in the wastewater, prior to releasing it to the City of Wilmington, are not considered to be hazardous to the environment," said a company spokesman.

In another instance, equipment-cleaning water sent down the drain of an Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc. factory in Denver consistently contains traces of warfarin, a blood thinner, according to results obtained under a public records act request. Officials at the company and the Denver Metro Wastewater Reclamation District said they believe the concentrations are safe.

Warfarin, which also is a common rat poison and pesticide, is so effective at inhibiting growth of aquatic plants and animals it's actually deliberately introduced to clean plants and tiny aquatic animals from ballast water of ships.

"With regard to wastewater management we are subject to a variety of federal, state and local regulation and oversight," said Joel Green, Upsher-Smith's vice president and general counsel. "And we work hard to maintain systems to promote compliance."

Baylor University professor Bryan Brooks, who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment, said assurances that drugmakers run clean shops are not enough.

"I have no reason to believe them or not believe them," he said. "We don't have peer-reviewed studies to support or not support their claims."

LET US BE MOORS:ISLAM, RACE AND CONNECTED HISTORIES

Let Us Be Moors: Islam, Race and "Connected Histories"

Hisham Aidi

(Hisham Aidi, a research fellow at Columbia University's Middle East Institute, works on the university's Muslim Communities in New York Project, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.)

"Seamos moros!" wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martíí in 1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern Morocco. "Let us be Moors...the revolt in the Rif...is not an isolated incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have entered the world. Let us be Moors...we [Cubans] who will probably die by the hand of Spain." [1] Writing at a time when the scramble for Africa and Asia was at full throttle, Martí was accenting connections between those great power forays and Spanish depredations in Cuba, even as the rebellion of 1895 germinated on his island.

Throughout the past century, particularly during the Cold War, Latin American leaders from Cuba's Fidel Castro to Argentina's Juan Peron would express support for Arab political causes, and call for Arab-Latin solidarity in the face of imperial domination, often highlighting cultural links to the Arab world through Moorish Spain. Castro, in particular, made a philo-Arab pan-Africanism central to his regime's ideology and policy initiatives. In his famous 1959 speech on race, the jefe maximo underlined Cuba's African and Moorish origins. "We all have lighter or darker skin. Lighter skin implies descent from Spaniards who themselves were colonized by the Moors that came from Africa. Those who are more or less dark-skinned came directly from Africa. Moreover, nobody can consider himself as being of pure, much less superior, race." [2]

With the launching of the "war on terror," and particularly with the invasion of Iraq, political leaders and activists in Latin America have been warning of a new imperial age and again declaring solidarity with the Arab world. Some refer rather quixotically to a Moorish past. Linking the war on Iraq to Plan Colombia and to the Bush administration's alleged support for a coup against him, the erratic Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has repeatedly urged his countrymen to "return to their Arab roots," and attempted to mobilize the country's mestizo and black majority against white supremacy. "They call me the monkey or black," Chavez says of his domestic and international opponents. "They can't stand that someone like me was elected." [3]

In less contentious terms, Brazil's left-leaning President Lula da Silva will visit the Middle East in early December 2003 to seek "more objective" relations with the Arab world, to call for an "independent, democratic Palestinian state" and to launch a common market with the Arab world as an alternative to the North American market (particularly with many in Arab countries boycotting American products). [4] Brazil's largest trade union federation strongly denounced post-September 11 US intervention in Colombia, Venezuela and the Middle East, praising the protest movements that have appeared against US and Israeli "militarism" and calling on Brazilian workers to join in the struggle "against Sharon's Nazi-Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people" and in support of the intifada. [5]

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY DESIGNATES "MOORS" AS EXTREMIST,HOMELAND SECURITY THREATS

WASHINGTON – Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists. House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

The agency's intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members.

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence.

"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

The commander of the veterans group the American Legion, David Rehbein, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

"To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam," Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

"Let me be very clear — we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Napolitano said in a statement. "We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."

Napolitano said the department respects and honors veterans and that she intends to meet with Rehbein next week after she returns from a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meetings in Mexico City.

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published "to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States."

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation.

But the references to military veterans in the recent report angered conservatives.

"The department is engaging in political and ideological profiling of people who fought to keep our country safe from terrorism, uphold our nation's immigration laws, and protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms," said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla.,

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith accused the department of painting "law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as 'extremists.'"

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs committee, said it was "inconceivable" that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terrorist threat.

___

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FORGET STAR WARS.ITS BACK TO COLONIAL WARFARE

Forget Star Wars. It’s Back To Colonial Warfare

by Eric Margolis

There are a lot of unhappy campers at the Pentagon right now. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates chose last week to present a controversial new budget that will affect the course of US foreign and military policy for decades to come.

Furious debate has raged in the Pentagon over the future and mission of US military forces ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Pentagon has been deeply divided over whether the US military should be configured to fight conventional wars against Russia and China, or be transformed into an agile force to combat Third World guerillas.

Both the Bush and Obama White Houses have been pushing the Pentagon to opt for the latter by beefing up forces and deploying new equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan. But many generals and admirals have been bitterly resisting cuts in US conventional forces.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates finally put an end to this debate. Gate’s newly announced defense budget makes clear that America’s military future lies in what the Pentagon calls, "expeditionary warfare" or "counterinsurgency operations." These, it is clear, will take place mostly in the Muslim world.

The British, less given to euphemisms than Americans, used to call their distant operations against unruly natives, "colonial warfare" or "little wars."

However, in 1914, the British Empire’s army, trained to fight colonial wars against lightly-armed Zulu, Dervishes and Afghans, met the modern Imperial German Army and suffered a bloodbath. Neither Britain’s generals nor soldiers were ready for the horrors of modern warfare.

While Gates was waving his big stick and warning all misbehaving Muslims, President Barack Obama was playing the good cop on his visit to Turkey, offering the "hand of friendship" to the very same Muslim world to which Secretary Gates was planning to dispatch more US troops and Predator killer drones. This sharp irony was completely lost on the US media.

Though the US deficit just reached a staggering US $1 trillion for the first half of 2008, military spending will still rise 4%. The Afghan and Iraq wars will alone cost $200 billion this year.

So much for Obama’s promised government austerity. Plowshares will be beaten into swords. Congressmen and lobbyists will scream to high heaven when some major weapons programs are terminated, but overall, the US military industrial complex is hardly suffering.

Supporting the Afghan and Iraq wars is now the Pentagon’s priority. Fifty more deadly Predator and Reaper drones will be acquired. They are the Pentagon’s favorite tool for "taking out" foes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, along, of course, with civilian "collateral damage." The British writer George Orwell called using such euphemisms, "making murder respectable."

More special forces and advanced ground and air sensors to target "terrorists" and "insurgents" (i.e., those resisting the American Raj) will be deployed. Over 500 more versatile F-35 strike aircraft will be purchased. Production of the magnificent stealth F-22s, costing $140 million a piece, will shortly end at 187 units. This has dismayed the Israelis, who were planning to order the F-22. Political pressure may yet keep the F-22 production line open to fill the Israeli order.

The Army loses heavy combat vehicles, artillery, and anti-missile systems. The US Navy loses one of its eleven carriers and some planned high-tech destroyers. Coastal combat vessels for shallow water Gulf and Third World operations will be added. Thirteen billion dollars of gold-plated presidential helicopters worthy of an airborne mogul emperor were sensibly postponed.

These realignments of defense spending clearly show the Obama administration intends to pursue a long war strategy in Afghanistan, Iraq, perhaps Somalia, and in other future Third World hot spots located near major oil deposits. President Bush’s so-called "war on terror" cost taxpayers $808 billion. Obama has renamed it "overseas contingency operations," but otherwise he seems to be following Bush’s lead.

What caused so much heated debate in the Pentagon – and the heads of some senior generals like former Air Force chief of staff Michael Moseley – is the concern that reconfiguring the US military to fight "counterinsurgency" wars in the Muslim world will undermine national defense and America’s ability to wage future wars against other great powers like China, Russia or even India and Europe.

Keeping one US soldier in Afghanistan costs $330,000 annually. The US military has been engaged in various conflicts abroad for 17 years: much of its equipment is seriously run down. The average age of US Air Force fighters is 24 years old. The USAF KC-135 tankers that allow long-range power projection average 47 years old.

The Iraq and Afghan wars have worn out the US Air Force and Navy: equipment replacement from operations in Iraq is alone estimated at over $60 billion.

Meanwhile, Russia is planning for small wars around its frayed borders, but it is still retaining substantial military muscle. China and India are steadily modernizing their armed forces.

The US Navy’s carriers, America’s key to strategic power projection, are now seriously threatened by three new weapons. China’s improved, 2,000 km range DF-21 missile than can be guided onto carriers by radar, satellite and drones; Russia’s 300 kph "Shkvall" rocket-powered torpedo that travels in a self-generated air capsule; and the Russo-Indians supersonic BrahMos 300 km range anti-ship missile. They may make US carriers’ sitting ducks.

It takes decades to order and deploy new weapons systems. The Obama administration has now locked the US military on a course that cannot be quickly changed if new strategic threats emerge.

THE HAND OF GOD

Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.

And what a strange scene this one has created.

In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.

The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second -- as pulsars do -- spewing energy into space that creates the scene.

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.

The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

ADIOS US: NOW CHINA LEADS THE WORLD, SAYS CHAVEZ

Adios US: now China leads the world, says Chavez
John Garnaut in Beijing
April 10, 2009

MOVE over Washington. Beijing is now the world's geopolitical centre. So said the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, this week on his latest oil-spruiking visit to the Chinese capital.

Mr Chavez also praised China's response to the global financial meltdown that has sent prices of Venezuela's key export, oil, down sharply.

"No one can be ignorant that the centre of gravity of the world has moved to Beijing," Mr Chavez told China's president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao on Wednesday during his sixth visit to the capital.

"During the financial crisis, China's actions have been highly positive for the world. Currently, China is the biggest motor driving the world amidst this crisis of international capitalism."

Mr Chavez's comments developed a theme he had begun earlier in the week.

On Tuesday night he told reporters: "The unipolar world has collapsed. The power of the US empire has collapsed. Every day, the new poles of world power are becoming stronger. Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran … it's moving towards the East and towards the South."

Mr Chavez's comments have hit a nerve after last week's G20 economic summit focused world attention on the waning global clout of the United States and the waxing power of China.

But global power status also brings expectations, which China may not have the capacity or willingness to fulfil.

Earlier this week, Western powers were disappointed that China appeared to avoid leveraging its position as the only player capable of prodding or encouraging North Korea back from its latest round of nuclear brinkmanship, following North Korea's launch of a rocket capable of doubling as a ballistic missile.

The spotlight then turned to China's relationship with another member of former president George Bush's "axis of evil", Iran, after a US court indicted a Chinese company and its executive for supplying Iran with missile and nuclear technology.

A New York grand jury indicted the Chinese metals company, LIMMT Economic and Trade Co Ltd, and its manager, Li Fengwei, on 118 counts including suspicion of shipping 15,000 kilograms of specialised aluminum alloy used for long-range missile production from China to Iran.

Barely a day passes in Beijing without a world leader pulling up in their cavalcade at the Great Hall of the People to sign some agreement about energy supply or win-win strategic cooperation.

In recent months China announced or began constructing a gas pipeline from Uzbekistan, an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan and one from Russia, and negotiated multi-billion dollar gas and oil deals with Iran and now Venezuela.

Mr Chavez told Mr Hu he wanted to triple daily oil supplies to China to one million tonnes within five years, part of Venezuela's strategy to diversify oil sales away from the US, which buys about half the South American nation's heavy crude. China and Venezuela will also build four oil tankers and three refineries in China capable of processing Venezuela's heavy, sulphur-laden crude.

"Clearly the trend is towards China becoming a great power, you can make the case that China's already achieved that or at least the status of a regional power," said Denny Roy, a China watcher at the East West Centre in Honolulu.

However Zha Daojiong, professor of international relations at Peking University, says China's power is "probably overblown". He said China was being asked to play in a global system compromised by American moral and strategic contradictions - noting America embracing India despite its failure to sign the non-proliferation treaty and yet listing Iran as a rogue state.

OBAMA GIVES HISTORIC SPEECH IN TURKEY "WE ARE NOT AT WAR WITH ISLAM"

Obama: 'US not at war with Islam'

Obama said Turkey and the US must seek common ground to address regional challenges [Reuters]

On his first visit to a Muslim nation as US president, Barack Obama has said that the US "is not and will never be at war with Islam".

In an address to the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Monday, he called for a greater partnership with the Muslim world.

Obama described Turkey as an important US ally in the fight against terrorism, the war in Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.

The comments came shortly after private talks between him and Abdullah Gul, his Turkish counterpart.

In what was the first address given to the Turkish parliament by a US president since Bill Clinton in 1996, Obama said: "Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not and will never be, at war with Islam ... if we are joined together in delivering that message East and West, to the world, I think we can have an extraordinary impact.

"Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not and will never be, at war with Islam"

Barack Obama,
US President
"America's relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al-Qaeda.

"We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect," he said, adding that he was committed to renewing the alliance and friendship "between our people".

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, reporting from Istanbul, said the highly anticipated address hit all the right notes and reached out to many.

Armenian question

Asked about his position on the issue of the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman empire in 1915 - a sensitive issue which has poisoned ties between the two allies before – Obama tried to strike a balance.

Obama called for a greater partnership with the Muslim world [Reuters]
"My views are on the record and I have not changed those views. What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President Gul's leadership you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of long standing issues including this one," Obama said.

"I want to be as encouraging as possible around those negotiations which could bear fruit very quickly, very soon."

Obama has previously backed moves to call the killings "genocide" in the US, but did not mention the sensitive word in Turkey on Monday.

Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks during the first world war but denies that up to 1.5 million people died as a result.

US officials later said Obama had met the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia "to commend their efforts toward Turkish-Armenian normalisation and to urge them to complete an agreement".

"By co-operating with Turkey, the US can achieve what it intends to do in the Middle East, easier and better"

Yaser Yakis, AK party member
Obama praised Turkey for pursuing "difficult political reforms" and pressed it to open borders with Armenia.

"[Open borders] would provide for a peaceful and prosperous coexistence" that would serve both countries, he said.

Al Jazeera's McNaught explained that the Armenia issue had been a major source of anxiety for Turkey during Obama's trip and the US president agreed not to make any public attempts to get involved in relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Yaser Yakis, a member of Turkey's ruling AK party and a former foreign minister, told Al Jazeera: "Turkey has every reason to be satisfied with Obama's visit and the message he gave to the Turkish public and to the Islamic world from Ankara."

"We got the impression that he listened to what President Gul told him. Regarding the Iraq question, Turkey expects more advanced co-operation in fighting PKK terrorism."

By co-operating with Turkey, Yakis said, "the US can achieve what it intends to do in the Middle East, easier and better ... Turkey can play a role as far as soft power is concerned, to be in good terms with both Israelis and Arabs and this is an advantage because we have a better understanding of the mentality in the Middle East".

Earlier in the day, Obama and Gul discussed a number of issues of mutual national concern, including the threat of nuclear proliferation.

Obama regretted that relations between Turkey and the US had been defined by military and national security terms for far too long.

'Strong foundation'

Obama pledged continued co-operation with Gul in building on "what is really a strong foundation" with Turkey.

There were protests across the country preceding Obama's visit [AFP]
He will wrap up his visit in Turkey by meeting religious leaders, touring historical sites and holding a round-table meeting with university students.

He was also scheduled to attend a reception of the Alliance of Civilisations, a forum which aims to foster dialogue between the West and the Muslim world.

The Turkish authorities have taken unprecedented security measures in view of Obama's visit, blocking a street leading to the hotel where he is staying and deploying aircraft to patrol Ankara's skies.

But the security measures could not prevent huge protests preceding Obama's visit across many Turkish cities.

Protesters said he was seeking to press Turkey to deploy troops in Afghanistan in an effort to control the situation there.

CHAVEZ SAYS HE WANTS TO RESET RELATIONS WITH USA

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he hopes to "reset" relations with the United States at an upcoming summit.

Despite recent criticism of President Barack Obama, Chavez said he wants to bring relations between the two governments back to a "rational level."

"I'll be willing to press the reset button," he said in a telephone call to Venezuelan state television from Iran. "I hope that will be the policy of President Obama."

Venezuela's relations with Washington grew increasingly strained under former President George W. Bush _ reaching a low point in September, when Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador and withdrew Venezuela's envoy to Washington. His visit to Iran is part of an effort to build ties with other countries at odds with the U.S.

The socialist leader last month called Obama "ignorant" after the U.S. president accused Chavez of "exporting terrorism" and being an obstacle to progress in Latin America.

But Chavez said Saturday that the April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago could "be the place to reset all types of relations between the United States and Venezuela."

Chavez employed the "reset" metaphor that U.S. officials have been using to describe their efforts for better relations with Russia after years of tension under the Bush administration.

Chavez said he's waiting for signals that Obama is willing to take similar steps with Venezuela. Chavez said that he'll have some questions for the new U.S. leader when they finally meet.
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"Somebody needs to ask him what his vision is for the crisis that's weighing terribly on Latin America," he said.

"It would be good to see if something happens with Posada Carriles," he added. "If the blockade against Cuba will persist."

Venezuela has said it plans to reactivate an extradition request for Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative accused of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane that killed all 73 people.

During a televised news conference later Saturday, Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against the G-20 meeting held earlier this week in London. Ahmadinejad said the Group of 20 industrial and developing countries wants to continue on the same path that led the world into the economic crisis.

"It's a total failure," the Iranian president said.

Iran's state television reported that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised Chavez for breaking ties with Israel in January to protest its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Iranian television reported that the two countries signed agreements on economic, energy and consular affairs during Chavez's trip.

___

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this story from Cairo.

SECRET SERVICE COMFIRM ASSASINATION ATTEMPT ON OBAMA IN TURKEY

The Secret Service in Washington said Monday night that Turkish National Police arrested the man last Friday in Istanbul. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the president was never in any immediate danger, as Obama arrived in Turkey on Sunday, two days after the man's arrest.

As standard procedure involving a threat against the president overseas, the Secret Service is following up with Turkish authorities regarding the case and is not releasing any information about the suspect, Donovan said.

On Monday, the Saudi daily Al Watan reportedm that Turkish security services has arrested a man of Syrian descent who was planning to assassinate Obama during his trip to Turkey.

According to the report, the man, who was arrested on Friday, was carrying a press card identifying him as an employee of Al Jazeera. He reportedly confessed to his intention to stab Obama with a knife and said that he was aided by three accomplices.

The report stated that Turkish authorities were still unsure as to whether the press card was a fake or whether it had actually been issued the man by the Qatari news network.

Al-Jazeera's Ankara bureau chief, Yussef al-Sharif, told the paper that news of the suspected assassination plot had come as an utter surprise to the network's staff in Turkey, adding that all of Al-Jazeera's employees in the country claimed that they were not acquainted with the suspect.

Sharif said that the ID card had "most certainly" been forged.

He said that Turkish authorities knew all of the employees of Al-Jazeera's Ankara offices.

POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE ROCKS ITALY, HEAVY DAMAGE TO ANCIENT CITY

L'AQUILA, Italy — Officials say more than 90 people have been killed in Italy's earthquake and that 1,500 people have been injured.

A Cabinet minister, Elio Vito, said at least 91 deaths have been confirmed. Vito, who is minister for parliamentary relations, gave the news in a briefing to lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.

Hardest hit by Monday's pre-dawn quake that rocked the Apennine mountains in central Italy was the medieval town of L'Aquila.

Officials say that a university dorm collapsed and a hotel was heavily damaged in L'Aquila, and many small towns nearby saw whole blocks collapse when the quake struck about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Rome at 3:32 a.m. local time.

The powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings early Monday as residents slept.

Ambulances screamed through the medieval city L'Aquila as firefighters with dogs and a crane worked feverishly to reach people trapped in fallen buildings, including a dormitory where half a dozen university students were believed still inside.

Outside the half-collapsed building, tearful young people huddled together, wrapped in blankets, some still in their slippers after being roused from sleep by the quake. Dozens managed to escape as the dorm walls fell around them but hours after the quake, a body of a male student was pulled from the rubble.

"We managed to come down with other students but we had to sneak through a hole in the stairs as the whole floor came down," said student Luigi Alfonsi, 22. "I was in bed _ it was like it would never end as I heard pieces of the building collapse around me."
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"There was water gushing out of broken water pipes, and the corridor which led to the stairs was partially blocked when a piece of the wall came down," Alfonsi, his eyes filling with tears and his hands trembling, told The Associated Press.

The quake has also taken a severe toll on the city's prized architectural heritage. L'Aquila was built as a mountain stronghold during the Middle Ages and has many prized Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance buildings.

Parts of many of the ancient churches and castles in and around the city have collapsed. Centuries-old churches in many isolated villages in the area are believed partly collapsed, and damage to ancient monuments has been reported as far as Rome.

L'Aquila, capital of the Abruzzo region, was near the epicenter about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Rome. It is a quake-prone region that has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April. The quake struck at 3:32 a.m. The U.S. Geological Survey said the big quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8 and more than a dozen aftershocks followed.

More than 70 people were killed and the death toll was likely to rise, civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso said as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes. Some 1,500 people were injured.

The quake hit 26 towns and cities around L'Aquila, which lies in a valley surrounded by the Apennine mountains. Castelnuovo, a hamlet of about 300 people 15 miles (25 kilometers) southeast of L'Aquila, appeared hard hit, and five were confirmed dead there. Another small town, Onno, was almost leveled.

"A few houses have remained standing, but just a few," Stefania Pezzopane, provincial president of L'Aquila, told Corriere della Sera. Rescue workers in Onna, population about 250, said the town was virtually deserted as survivors sought shelter elsewhere.

The four-star, 133-room hotel Hotel Duca degli Abruzzi in L'Aquila's historic center was heavily damaged but still standing it was not known if there were any casualties, said Ornella De Luca of the national civil protection agency in Rome. "The information is very fragmentary," she said.

L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said about 100,000 people were homeless. It was not clear if the mayor's estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds to deal with the disaster, and canceled a visit to Russia so he could deal with the quake crisis.

Condolences poured in from around the world, including from President Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XVI and Abdullah Gul, president of quake-prone Turkey.

Slabs of walls, twisted steel supports, furniture and wire fences were strewn about the streets of L'Aquila, and gray dust carpeted sidewalks, cars and residents.

Residents and rescue workers hauled away debris from collapsed buildings by hand or in an assembly lines, passing buckets. Firefighters pulled a woman covered in dust from the debris of her four-story home. Rescue crews demanded quiet as they listened for signs of life from other people believed still trapped inside.

Elsewhere, a man dressed only in his underwear wept as he was pulled from the debris and embraced.

A body lay on the sidewalk, covered by a white sheet.

Parts of L'Aquila's main hospital were evacuated because they were at risk of collapse, and only two operating rooms were in use. Bloodied victims waited in hospital hallways or in the courtyard and many were being treated in the open. A field hospital was being set up.

In the dusty streets, as aftershocks rumbled through, residents hugged one another, prayed quietly or frantically tried to call relatives. Residents covered in dust pushed carts full of clothes and blankets that they had thrown together before fleeing their homes.

"We left as soon as we felt the first tremors," said Antonio D'Ostilio, 22, as he stood on a street in L'Aquila with a huge suitcase piled with clothes. "We woke up all of a sudden and we immediately ran downstairs in our pajamas."

Evacuees converged on an athletics field on the outskirts of L'Aquila where a makeshift tent camp was being set up. Civil protection officials distributed bread and water to people who lay on the grass next to heaps of their belongings.

"It's a catastrophe and an immense shock," said resident Renato Di Stefano, who was moving with his family to the camp as a precaution. "It's struck in the heart of the city, we will never forget the pain."

The Culture Ministry said a wall of the 13th century Santa Maria di Collemaggio church collapsed and the bell tower of the Renaissance San Bernadino church also fell. The 16th castle housing the Abruzzo National Museum was damaged.

This was Italy's deadliest quake since Nov. 23, 1980, when one measuring 6.9-magnitude hit southern regions, leveling villages and causing some 3,000 deaths.

Many modern structures in Italy over recent decades have failed to hold up to the rigors of quakes along Italy's mountainous spine, or in coastal cities like Naples. Despite warnings by geologists and architects, some of these buildings have not been retrofitted in terms of seismic safety.

Pezzopane, the provincial president, said residents may have been lulled into complacency because so many smaller quakes had jolted the area, including two or three earlier in the night.

"Considering what happened, a bit more concern, more attention might have saved lives," she said.

National officials insisted no quake can ever be predicted and that no evacuation could have been ordered on the basis of the recent jolts.

"There is no possibility of making any predictions on earthquakes. This is a fact in the world's scientific community," Civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso told reporters.

The last major quake to hit central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.

STRING OF ATTACKS LEAVES 44 DEAD SINCE MARCH ??? OTHER MASS KILLINGS AND POLICE SHOOTINGS

UPDATE:
A string of attacks in the U.S. in the last month left 44 people dead in all.

A gunman killed 10 people and himself in Samson, Alabama; shootings that began with a traffic stop in Oakland, California, left four police officers and the gunman dead; an apparent murder-suicide in Santa Clara, California, left six dead; and a gunman went on a rampage at a North Carolina nursing home Sunday, killing seven elderly residents and a nurse who cared for them.




March 29, 2009:
Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, N.C. before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.
March 29, 2009:
Devan Kalathat, 42, shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Clara, Calif. Kalathat's wife was critically injured.
March 21, 2009:
Lovelle Mixon, 26, shot and killed four Oakland, Calif., police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.
March 10, 2009:
Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people — including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy — across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

GUNMAN KILLS 13 IN UPSATE NEW YORK SHOOTING SPREE

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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for Friday's massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.

The attack came just after 10 a.m. local time at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification in Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.

Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, "making sure nobody could escape," then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, apparently without a word.

The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.

"The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens," the police chief said.

One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called police, he said.

Police said they arrived within two minutes.

The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.

The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9mm and a .45-caliber — and a hunting knife.

Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. However, he provided no evidence to support the claim.

Thirty-seven people in all made it out of the building, including 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said.

Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.

Most of the people brought out couldn't speak English, the chief said.

Alex Galkin, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, said he was taking English classes when he heard a shot and quickly went to the basement with about 20 other people.

"It was just panic," Galkin said.

Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old from Kazakhstan, said she was in an English class when she heard a shot and her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room.

"I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting," she said. "I heard shooting, very long time, and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished."

Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably "the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city." Noting mass killings in Alabama and Oakland, California, last month, he said: "When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can't even keep track of the incidents?"

Center officials issued a statement Friday night saying they were "stricken with grief about today's horrific assault and share this grief with the victims' families, our community and the entire nation."

'Senseless violence'
In Baden-Baden, Germany, President Barack Obama said he was shocked and saddened by the deadly mass shooting, calling it an "act of senseless violence."

The president, who is traveling in Europe, said he and his wife, Michelle, were praying for the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton.

The suspected gunman carried ID with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong, of nearby Johnson City, New York, but that was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A second law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two handguns were registered to Jiverly Wong, another name the man used. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly.

Initial reports suggested Voong had recently been let go from IBM. But a person at IBM said there was no record of a Jiverly Voong ever working there.

GUNMAN IN PITTSBURG KILLS 3 POLICE OFFICERS

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PITTSBURGH - A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and “lying in wait” opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday, killing three of them and turning a quiet Pittsburgh street into a battlefield, police said.

Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting isn’t clear, but friends said the gunman recently had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed.
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Poplawski, armed with an assault rifle and two other guns, then held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them, according to police and witnesses. More than 100 rounds were fired by the SWAT teams and Poplawski, Harper said.

The three slain officers were Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years, Mayhle and Sciullo for two years each. Another officer was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.

Poplawski had gunshot wounds in his legs but was otherwise unharmed because he was wearing a bulletproof vest, Harper said. He was charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons violation.

The shooting occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001. The officers were the first Pittsburgh city officers to die in the line of duty in 18 years.

“This is a solemn day and it’s a very sad day in the city of Pittsburgh,” Harper said. “We’ve seen this kind of violence happen in California. We never would think this kind of violence would happen in the city of Pittsburgh.”

At 7 a.m., Sciullo and Mayhle responded to a 911 call from Poplawski’s mother, who remained holed up in the basement during the entire dispute and escaped unharmed, Harper said.

Image: Stephen Mayhle, Eric Kelly, Paul J. Sciullo
Pittsburgh Police Department via Getty Images
Stephen Mayhle, Eric Kelly, Paul J. Sciullo
When they arrived at the home, Sciullo was immediately shot in the head. Mayhle, who was right behind him, was also shot in the head.

“It appears he was lying in wait for the officers,” Harper said.

Kelly, who was on his way home after completing his overnight shift when he heard the call for help, rushed to the scene and was killed trying to help Sciullo and Mayhle, Harper said. SWAT teams and other officers arrived and were immediately fired on as well.

Friend: Suspect feared ‘gun ban’
Don Sand, who lives across the street from Poplawski, said he was woken up by the sound of gunfire. Hunkering down behind a wall in his home, he saw the first two officers go down and then saw Kelly get shot.

“They couldn’t get the scene secure enough to get to them. They were just lying there bleeding,” Sand said. “By the time they secured the scene enough to get to them it was way too late.”


Video
Mayor: Officers gave the ‘ultimate sacrifice’
April 4: Officials in Pittsburgh, Pa., announce the charges that will be filed against a man accused of killing three police officers.

MSNBC
Poplawski feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon,” said Edward Perkovic, his best friend.

Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, “Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you.”

Perkovic said: “I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot.”

Poplawski had once tried to join the Marines, but was kicked out of boot camp after throwing a food tray at a drill sergeant, Perkovic said.

Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Barack Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he “wasn’t violently against Obama.”

Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. He said Poplawski owned an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.

Obama has said he respects Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms, but that he favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he would approve of curbs on ownership of assault and concealed weapons.

Suspect reportedly was out of work
Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year, said another friend, Joe DiMarco. DiMarco said he didn’t know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about it.

The last Pittsburgh police officers killed in the line of duty were Officers Thomas L. Herron and Joseph J. Grill, according to a Web site that tracks police killings. They died after their patrol car collided with another vehicle while chasing a stolen car on March 6, 1991.

In 1995, an off-duty officer was shot with his own gun after he confronted a group of teenagers about graffiti. Tests later showed the officer had been drinking.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960.

Poplawski had often fought with neighbors and had even gotten into fist fights with a couple, Sand said.

“This is a relatively really quiet neighborhood except for him,” Sand said. “He was just one of those kids that we knew to stay clear from.”

Harper confirmed police had responded to calls from the Poplawski house several times but said the incidents were still being investigated.

Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said the well-kept single-family houses with manicured lawns are home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.

“It’s just a very quiet neighborhood,” Gift said

HOW THEY UNDERESTIMATE THE CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY

You will be left behind. If you treat me how the Devil Treats me
A Message to the Masters.
“Bro. Ahmad Abdullah Rashid”

Yesterday I received an Email with our Teachers effigy Reverend Phil Valentine, placed on a tomb stone. I immediately identified this behavior to be consistent with the latest craze among the low density Earth-Sick to feed themselves with the energy of Dissent.

I ventured to Meta-Physically answer the question why would a “man” do this to Rev. Valentine. I came to understand that the culprit needs our teachers attention and most of all his help. A stimulus package at the expense of the “Consciousness Community”.

To you loyal Patrons of universal truths. Why would someone put our Brothers image on a Tomb Stone? Is Death not reserved for one’s enemies. Is Dr. Valentine now worthy of Death because he utilizes effectively his International Lecture platform to address an eager and loyal patronage that he has developed over a span of 30 years to impart truth in the talented manner in which he does?

A tomb stone. Hmmm… chuckle… They should have superimposed Rev. Valentines Image in a $100 Bill… The true intent is pecuniary.

IMAGES

The power of images is great. In Islamic tradition Muslim artist were encouraged to draw and depict beauty only because embossed images have a place to live in the physical Dynamic. Knowing how powerful images are, good parents would never allow their children to view any image which might catalog itself in their psychological envelope and thus taint their pristine perception.

The learned know that symbols are for the mind what tools are to the hand; an extension of their power. To artistically depict one of the greatest teachers of our time on a tombstone, is reminiscent of the same propaganda techniques used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to create the dissention required to destroy the Black Nationalist Movements of the 60‘s. It was this type of cartoon drawing which in a sense inaugurated the in-house use of “murder” to resolve ideas, as we are reminded by the murder of Bunchy Carter.

Any sane adult with any knowledge of the “Consciousness Community” would know that Reverend Valentine is Not an Enemy worthy of depiction on a tomb stone. You handle an elder of Reverend Valentine’s kind in a manner in which you might relate and or respect your father. You would know that he was speaking to our people in his no nonsense manner for a great number of years. His teachings heal them from a great many maladies and sicknesses along our underground railroads of class rooms, living rooms, colleges, universities, and as of recent across seas.

A simple picture or depiction of any kind exist simultaneously in three or more worlds. Our ancient ancestors used images to encapsulate the meaning and force of their intent. The Intent is housed within the depiction. The viewer channels the energy of the depiction by viewing it.

In this case concerning the depiction of Reverend Valentine, the image maker’s conspiracy will never work for a multitude of reasons, which I will illustrate briefly using statecraft where rapacious conspirators seek audiences.

FAILURE OF THE
CONSPIRATOR #1
Conspirators need malcontents in order for them to be effective. Any conspiracy must be wrapped around the dissatisfied concerns of a group who have a say in matters of key decision making. Death by conspirator is done only to satisfy this group. The interesting thing about the Consciousness Community is that it is composed of intelligent consumers in search of truth. They spend thier money on that which empowers them. A lecture promoted by an image of Our elder on a Tomb Stone will not feed the best part of a quality group. Elder Reverend Valentine has far more quality patrons and loyal alliances then the Conspirator. Quality of Membership is key.

The Best Conspiracies against the ideology and thus the LIFE of another being, are those in which deep emotional Hatred for the target is generated in some forum or circle of associates. In this we find the initial failure. A simple *syllogism can illustrate the logic involved. Since men are measured by their Fight. And a Low Density Earth-Sick Emotional portrayal of the Elder on a tomb stone is the measure and method of “attack“, then the conspirators conspiracy is not a conspiracy. It is rather a labor in futility. An attack which unravels the conspirators obvious weakness and limitation to a Community that is enamored with love for the authentic, creative and daring. Those who bear all from the door, not those who deceive with false wars and treachery, shall have a place in the book of life. A man who declares his Vices loudly before the people is better than the one whose smile conceals a broken house of sorrow.
*syllogism: A term used by George Jackson’ in , “Soledad Brother”, to express a logical argument

FAILURE OF THE
CONSPIRATOR #2
The next reason I will illustrate why this conspiracy is a fruitless endeavor is as such.

Any Circle must be composed of a quality membership. Low level antics of this type indicate a very low level quality of membership. Therefore the power and intensity present in the breath form of the lead Conspirator, no matter how great it may be; never enters the passion center of a being qualified to change a paradigm.

The ability to change minds and lives is given to them who can seduce the core of your greatest idea and aid you in making your visual ambitions and holograms true real life events. The charismatic and Intellectual have this gift. They are so creative that they are able to create their own stream of revenue not at the expense of depicting Elders on Tomb stones.

I wish much Love and Life to Reverend Valentine and his entire Family. I would never put the image of my enemy on a Tomb Stone for fear that my power would magnify that occurrence and bruise my soul for allowing an emotion rooted in lack to cause me to impose my individual perception on a another entity’s soul force, God-Intelligence experiencing eternity with me.

I will always be a friend to those who are a friend to me. I would rather be defeated (never) with an un-popular concept with my Team, than be victorious on the laurels of another mans Greatness by my self. I will not occupy a grey area and be weak and consumed for a lack of loyalty. This nano-event in the annals of Time will unfortunately be recorded in the records as are all truths. So we must make the best of it.

A man is also known by his travels and the bridges burned behind him. If one continues to fight on many fronts it is a declaration that one is not versed in statecraft, warfare, or any form of leadership where peoples lives depend on wise decision making. You choose who your enemy is. No one else. Many wars could have been resolved, had the antagonist known himself enough to know that in order to perceive an enemy he must at that same time suppress his ego in order to see his own weakness.

There are those who support the development of Peace, and those who benefit from its absence. I represent the former. However I know that Peace is achieved through the proper use and application of War.

And if we are to wage wars. Let in not be at the expense of our soul. We do not nor should we ever depict death along with our teachers. The Masters shall never support this form of madness. We will discourage from every front available this hatred. It has no place at our dinner table of abundance. The Masters reserve our Warfare for the worthy and not the Weak. For the Weak Shall cleave to one another and perish. The Consciousness Community represents But putting our teachers image on a tomb stone is not Warfare. It is callous, Hurtful, hateful and awful.

ANCIENT SUMERIAN TEXTS AND TREASURES FOUND IN IRAQ

Iraqi archaeologists have discovered 4,000 artefacts mostly from ancient Babylonian times, including royal seals, talismans and clay tablets marked in Sumerian cuneiform -- the earliest known form of writing.

The treasures came to light, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said on Wednesday, after two years of excavations across 20 different sites in the regions between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the land ancient Greeks referred to as "Mesopotamia".

As well as Babylonian artefacts, there were finds from the ancient Persian empire and more recent medieval Islamic cities.

"The results of this excavation are evidence that Iraq's antiquities aren't going to run out any time soon," Abdul-Zahra al-Telagani, spokesman for the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, said.

"They also give us the incentive to continue to work to rehabilitate our ancient sites to become tourist attractions."

The artefacts will be transferred to the National Museum in Baghdad, which remains in need of restocking since looters stole approximately 15,000 artefacts after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Some 6,000 have since been returned.

Iraq, which lies in the heart of a region historians call the cradle of civilisation, is hoping a decrease in violence to levels not seen since late 2003 will encourage tourists to visit its ancient sites.

Potential highlights include the Biblical city of Babylon, fabled home to the Hanging Gardens, the Assyrian city of Nineveh in the north, relics of numerous medieval Islamic citadels, and some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest mosques and shrines.

Iraq witnessed its first group of Western tourists last month, and officials hope more will follow.

Abbas Fadhil, the head of the excavation team, thinks some of the finds may be hugely significant.

Of the two rare talismans dug up, one shows a face carved in Sumerian style framed by a triangle. The other is a red stone with a running antelope carved into it.

Qais Hussein Rasheed, acting head of the antiquities and heritage committee, told reporters Iraq still had a big problem with looters ransacking archaeological sites.

"These sites are vulnerable to endless robbery by thieves, smugglers and organised gangs because they are not protected," he said. "We have asked the relevant ministries to allocate policemen but haven't received very many so far."

2 MILLION BLACKS IN IRAQ FIGHT FOR A VOICE