UNFPA Convenes Meeting of Parliamentarians That Endorses Abortion
by Samantha Singson
LifeNews.com Note: Samantha Singson writes for the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, a pro-life organization that lobbies at the United Nations. This article originally appeared in their Friday Fax publication.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) sponsored a gathering of 180 parliamentarians in Bangkok last week in an effort to get the lawmakers to pledge to promote “reproductive rights.”
During the meeting, organized by UNFPA and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), the parliamentarians signed a statement pledging to prioritize: “the promotion and protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights”, “gender equality,” “unsafe abortion” and “safe motherhood,” all words, phrases and programs used to support abortion on demand.
Claiming the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action as the guide for their work, the relatively small number of Parliamentarians also pledged to lead national efforts to “ensure that the new target on universal access to reproductive health is immediately and fully integrated into national development strategies and is given highest priority in the plans, implementation and monitoring of relevant government ministries.”
Pro-life observers of the UN are concerned that UNFPA is trying to influence nations to liberalize abortion laws by promoting the contested ICPD document. They point out that the UN General Assembly has never defined the term “reproductive health” as including abortion, nor did the Cairo Conference.
Even so, UN agencies like UNFPA, and intergovernmental organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), and UN treaty compliance committees continue to misinterpret the controversial ICPD document in order to pressure nations to liberalize abortion laws.
Experts remain concerned about some of the other terminology that appears in the recent Bangkok document and note that some terms, such as “gender equality,” “safe motherhood” and “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” also remain sources of confusion, misuse and misinterpretation.
Regarding the term “safe motherhood,” Dr. Robert Walley, executive director of Matercare International, told the Friday Fax, “The international safe motherhood initiative, which was launched to reduce maternal mortality, now includes the provision of what is called safe abortion. To reduce maternal mortality it supports the killing of the unborn children. Thus, maternal mortality is being replaced by fetal mortality in ever increasing numbers. Most abortions in the world are performed for social and economic reasons. The awful reality is that once the mother has had her baby destroyed she is returned to the poverty and ignorance from whence she came.”
The Bangkok meeting was the third global parliamentarians’ conference on population and development to review the 2015 goal of universal access to reproductive health care which was adopted at the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994.
Previous conferences took place in Ottawa in 2002 and Strasbourg in 2004. Participants agreed to hold another review session in 2009.
Copyright © 2003-2006 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.
Monday, December 4, 2006
North Korea wants Russia support, offers uranium:
North Korea wants Russia support, offers uranium: paper
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in exchange for open support at the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, a Japanese daily said on Sunday.
Citing Russian government sources, the Tokyo Shimbun report said Moscow and Pyongyang had been in secret talks since 2002 over a plan for Russia to import the uranium and enrich it before selling it on as nuclear fuel to China and Vietnam, in what the sources said would be a highly profitable venture.
The North Korean government has recently shown a positive attitude toward the idea, but introduced a requirement for back-up at the stalled nuclear talks, which may resume in the next few weeks.
The United States, Japan, South Korea and China are also involved in the six-way discussions aimed at persuading the North to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
After North Korea shocked the region by conducting a nuclear test in October, the United Nations passed a resolution barring trade with Pyongyang in dangerous weapons.
Russia would therefore need to guarantee any uranium it imported from North Korea would be used for peaceful purposes, the paper said.
Russia is already a major exporter of oil and natural gas and is also seeking to position itself as an exporter of nuclear fuel, the paper said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in exchange for open support at the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, a Japanese daily said on Sunday.
Citing Russian government sources, the Tokyo Shimbun report said Moscow and Pyongyang had been in secret talks since 2002 over a plan for Russia to import the uranium and enrich it before selling it on as nuclear fuel to China and Vietnam, in what the sources said would be a highly profitable venture.
The North Korean government has recently shown a positive attitude toward the idea, but introduced a requirement for back-up at the stalled nuclear talks, which may resume in the next few weeks.
The United States, Japan, South Korea and China are also involved in the six-way discussions aimed at persuading the North to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
After North Korea shocked the region by conducting a nuclear test in October, the United Nations passed a resolution barring trade with Pyongyang in dangerous weapons.
Russia would therefore need to guarantee any uranium it imported from North Korea would be used for peaceful purposes, the paper said.
Russia is already a major exporter of oil and natural gas and is also seeking to position itself as an exporter of nuclear fuel, the paper said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Chavez claims victory in Venezuela
Chavez claims victory in Venezuela
President, close Castro supporter, secures another six-year term
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez won re-election by a wide margin Sunday, giving the firebrand leftist six more years to redistribute Venezuela’s vast oil wealth to the poor and press his campaign to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.
Challenger Manuel Rosales conceded defeat but vowed to remain in opposition. During the campaign, Rosales accused Chavez of edging Venezuela toward authoritarian rule and warned the president could undertake even more radical policies if re-elected.
Minutes after the results were announced, Chavez appeared on the balcony of the presidential palace singing the national anthem. He pledged to deepen his effort to transform Venezuela into a socialist society.
“Long live the socialist revolution! Destiny has been written,” Chavez shouted to thousands of flag-waving supporters wearing red shirts and braving a pouring rain.
“That new era has begun,” he said, raising a hand in the air. “We have shown that Venezuela is red!... No one should fear socialism... Socialism is human. Socialism is love,” Chavez said. “Down with imperialism! We need a new world!”
Since he first won office in 1998, Chavez has increasingly dominated all branches of government and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. He has called President Bush the devil, allied himself with Iran and influenced elections across the region.
Oil advantageChavez also has used Venezuela’s oil wealth to his political advantage. He has channeled oil profits toward multibillion-dollar programs for the poor including subsidized food, free university education and cash benefits for single mothers. He has also helped allies from Cuba to Bolivia with oil and petrodollars.
He now promises to solidify his social program.
With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent to 38 percent for challenger Rosales, said Tibisay Lucena, head of the country’s elections council. Chavez had nearly 6 million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales, according to the partial tally.
Turnout among the 15.9 million eligible voters was 62 percent, according to an official bulletin of results, making Chavez’s lead insurmountable.
“We will continue in this struggle,” Rosales told cheering supporters as he conceded defeat.
Some supporters at his campaign headquarters wept, while others were clearly angry.
“We have to do something,” said Dona Bavaro, a 36-year-old Rosales supporter. “My country is being stolen. This is the last chance we have. Communism is coming here.”
Rosales, a cattle rancher and governor of western Zulia state who stepped down temporarily to run against Chavez, focused his campaign on issues such as rampant crime and corruption, widely seen as Chavez’s main vulnerabilities.
A top Rosales adviser, Teodoro Petkoff, said the voting was carried out in a “satisfactory manner.” He said some irregularities had occurred but most were resolved. Another member of the Rosales camp had accused pro-Chavez soldiers of reopening closed polling stations and busing voters to them.
Even before polls closed, Chavez supporters celebrated in the streets, setting off fireworks and cruising Caracas honking horns and shouting “Chavez isn’t going anywhere!”
Earlier, Chavez loyalists jarred voters awake hours before dawn in Caracas with recordings of reveille blaring from truck-mounted loudspeakers.
“We’re here to support our president, who has helped us so much,” said Jose Domingo Izaguirre, a factory worker who waited hours to vote. His family recently moved into new government housing.
Rosales supporters accused Chavez of deepening class divisions with searing rhetoric demonizing his opponents.
A hostile campaignAlicia Primera, a 54-year-old housewife, was among voters so passionate about the choice that they camped out overnight in voting queues.
“I voted for Chavez previously. I cried for him,” Primera said. “Now I’m crying for him to leave. He’s sown a lot of hate with his verbiage.”
The campaign has been hostile, with Chavez calling Rosales a pawn of Washington and Rosales saying he was on the alert for fraud. Rosales’ campaign had endorsed the electronic voting system as trustworthy — as long as no attempts were made to thwart it.
More than 125,000 soldiers and reservists were deployed to safeguard the balloting.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus stressed “the importance of a free, fair and transparent process.”
Conflict and ambition have marked the rise of Chavez, 52, from a boy selling homemade sweets in a dusty backwater to a failed coup commander in 1992 and now a leader who could set the tone of Latin American politics for years to come.
Constitutional reforms he oversaw in 1999 triggered new elections the following year that he easily won. Loyalists helped him survive a 2002 coup, a subsequent general strike and a 2004 recall referendum.
Chavez says he would convene a commission upon re-election to propose constitutional reforms, likely including an end to presidential term limits. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012.
The president insists he is a democrat and will continue to respect private property — though he has boosted state control over the oil industry and has said he might nationalize utilities. Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and soaring oil prices have made it the continent’s fastest growing economy.
Chavez has pledged at least $1.1 billion in loans and financial aid to Latin American countries in the past two years, and billions more in bond bailouts for friendly governments as well as generously financed oil deals. But the largesse has proved a weakness at home, with polls suggesting many Venezuelans believe the aid impedes efforts to address the country’s own problems.
Chavez, who says Fidel Castro is like a father to him, has built increasingly close ties with Cuba, sending the island oil while thousands of Cuban doctors treat Venezuela’s poor for free.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
President, close Castro supporter, secures another six-year term
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez won re-election by a wide margin Sunday, giving the firebrand leftist six more years to redistribute Venezuela’s vast oil wealth to the poor and press his campaign to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.
Challenger Manuel Rosales conceded defeat but vowed to remain in opposition. During the campaign, Rosales accused Chavez of edging Venezuela toward authoritarian rule and warned the president could undertake even more radical policies if re-elected.
Minutes after the results were announced, Chavez appeared on the balcony of the presidential palace singing the national anthem. He pledged to deepen his effort to transform Venezuela into a socialist society.
“Long live the socialist revolution! Destiny has been written,” Chavez shouted to thousands of flag-waving supporters wearing red shirts and braving a pouring rain.
“That new era has begun,” he said, raising a hand in the air. “We have shown that Venezuela is red!... No one should fear socialism... Socialism is human. Socialism is love,” Chavez said. “Down with imperialism! We need a new world!”
Since he first won office in 1998, Chavez has increasingly dominated all branches of government and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. He has called President Bush the devil, allied himself with Iran and influenced elections across the region.
Oil advantageChavez also has used Venezuela’s oil wealth to his political advantage. He has channeled oil profits toward multibillion-dollar programs for the poor including subsidized food, free university education and cash benefits for single mothers. He has also helped allies from Cuba to Bolivia with oil and petrodollars.
He now promises to solidify his social program.
With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent to 38 percent for challenger Rosales, said Tibisay Lucena, head of the country’s elections council. Chavez had nearly 6 million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales, according to the partial tally.
Turnout among the 15.9 million eligible voters was 62 percent, according to an official bulletin of results, making Chavez’s lead insurmountable.
“We will continue in this struggle,” Rosales told cheering supporters as he conceded defeat.
Some supporters at his campaign headquarters wept, while others were clearly angry.
“We have to do something,” said Dona Bavaro, a 36-year-old Rosales supporter. “My country is being stolen. This is the last chance we have. Communism is coming here.”
Rosales, a cattle rancher and governor of western Zulia state who stepped down temporarily to run against Chavez, focused his campaign on issues such as rampant crime and corruption, widely seen as Chavez’s main vulnerabilities.
A top Rosales adviser, Teodoro Petkoff, said the voting was carried out in a “satisfactory manner.” He said some irregularities had occurred but most were resolved. Another member of the Rosales camp had accused pro-Chavez soldiers of reopening closed polling stations and busing voters to them.
Even before polls closed, Chavez supporters celebrated in the streets, setting off fireworks and cruising Caracas honking horns and shouting “Chavez isn’t going anywhere!”
Earlier, Chavez loyalists jarred voters awake hours before dawn in Caracas with recordings of reveille blaring from truck-mounted loudspeakers.
“We’re here to support our president, who has helped us so much,” said Jose Domingo Izaguirre, a factory worker who waited hours to vote. His family recently moved into new government housing.
Rosales supporters accused Chavez of deepening class divisions with searing rhetoric demonizing his opponents.
A hostile campaignAlicia Primera, a 54-year-old housewife, was among voters so passionate about the choice that they camped out overnight in voting queues.
“I voted for Chavez previously. I cried for him,” Primera said. “Now I’m crying for him to leave. He’s sown a lot of hate with his verbiage.”
The campaign has been hostile, with Chavez calling Rosales a pawn of Washington and Rosales saying he was on the alert for fraud. Rosales’ campaign had endorsed the electronic voting system as trustworthy — as long as no attempts were made to thwart it.
More than 125,000 soldiers and reservists were deployed to safeguard the balloting.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus stressed “the importance of a free, fair and transparent process.”
Conflict and ambition have marked the rise of Chavez, 52, from a boy selling homemade sweets in a dusty backwater to a failed coup commander in 1992 and now a leader who could set the tone of Latin American politics for years to come.
Constitutional reforms he oversaw in 1999 triggered new elections the following year that he easily won. Loyalists helped him survive a 2002 coup, a subsequent general strike and a 2004 recall referendum.
Chavez says he would convene a commission upon re-election to propose constitutional reforms, likely including an end to presidential term limits. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012.
The president insists he is a democrat and will continue to respect private property — though he has boosted state control over the oil industry and has said he might nationalize utilities. Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and soaring oil prices have made it the continent’s fastest growing economy.
Chavez has pledged at least $1.1 billion in loans and financial aid to Latin American countries in the past two years, and billions more in bond bailouts for friendly governments as well as generously financed oil deals. But the largesse has proved a weakness at home, with polls suggesting many Venezuelans believe the aid impedes efforts to address the country’s own problems.
Chavez, who says Fidel Castro is like a father to him, has built increasingly close ties with Cuba, sending the island oil while thousands of Cuban doctors treat Venezuela’s poor for free.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Hillary preps to jump in
Hillary preps to jump in
Once voted 6th 'most evil of millennium,'
Democrat senator begins process for run
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has previously been ranked as the most corrupt person in America, the sixth most evil person of the last millennium, as well as the most admired woman in America, has reportedly begun active consideration of a 2008 run for president.
Howard Wolfson, a top Clinton advisor, told the Associated Press the senator has personally asked some fellow top New York Democrats for their support in the event she goes ahead with a White House run.
"That process has begun," said Wolfson, who added he did not know when the former first lady would make any decision.
Among those Clinton has talked to is state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell, an assemblyman from Manhattan, who told the New York Times he received a telephone call directly from her.
"I had a discussion with her about her decision to run for president. I'm not telling you what the decision was, only that we had the discussion," Farrell said. "And I'm positive that if she runs, the people of the United States will elect her as our next president."
Other names on the Democratic side eyeing the White House include Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack already began campaigning for president last week.
Mrs. Clinton was easily re-elected last month to the New York Senate seat she has held since her election in 2000, and national polls consistently list her as the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
But the senator has been dogged by allegations of campaign wrongdoing from six years ago.
As WND reported in October, business mogul Peter Franklin Paul, who claims he was Hillary Clinton's largest contributor to her 2000 campaign, had a demand-letter hand-delivered to the New York Democrat's Senate chambers, insisting she admit to voters acceptance of an illegal contribution of more than $1 million and the falsifying of statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Paul says he contributed to the senator's campaign in exchange for former President Clinton's personal promotion of a media company after leaving office. The businessman claims he was directed by the Clintons and Democratic operatives to foot the bill for a lavish Hollywood gala and fund-raiser prior to the 2000 election that eventually cost about $2 million.
Just recently, years after alternative media pointed out the virtual impossibility, Mrs. Clinton finally has admitted she was not named for the famous conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary.
In November 1999, the New York Post asked readers to identify the most evil people of the millennium.
Though her name was not on the original list, Hillary finished in sixth place due to write-in ballots. Her husband, then-President Bill Clinton came in second place, also as a write-in, behind Adolf Hitler in first.
Once voted 6th 'most evil of millennium,'
Democrat senator begins process for run
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has previously been ranked as the most corrupt person in America, the sixth most evil person of the last millennium, as well as the most admired woman in America, has reportedly begun active consideration of a 2008 run for president.
Howard Wolfson, a top Clinton advisor, told the Associated Press the senator has personally asked some fellow top New York Democrats for their support in the event she goes ahead with a White House run.
"That process has begun," said Wolfson, who added he did not know when the former first lady would make any decision.
Among those Clinton has talked to is state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell, an assemblyman from Manhattan, who told the New York Times he received a telephone call directly from her.
"I had a discussion with her about her decision to run for president. I'm not telling you what the decision was, only that we had the discussion," Farrell said. "And I'm positive that if she runs, the people of the United States will elect her as our next president."
Other names on the Democratic side eyeing the White House include Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack already began campaigning for president last week.
Mrs. Clinton was easily re-elected last month to the New York Senate seat she has held since her election in 2000, and national polls consistently list her as the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
But the senator has been dogged by allegations of campaign wrongdoing from six years ago.
As WND reported in October, business mogul Peter Franklin Paul, who claims he was Hillary Clinton's largest contributor to her 2000 campaign, had a demand-letter hand-delivered to the New York Democrat's Senate chambers, insisting she admit to voters acceptance of an illegal contribution of more than $1 million and the falsifying of statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Paul says he contributed to the senator's campaign in exchange for former President Clinton's personal promotion of a media company after leaving office. The businessman claims he was directed by the Clintons and Democratic operatives to foot the bill for a lavish Hollywood gala and fund-raiser prior to the 2000 election that eventually cost about $2 million.
Just recently, years after alternative media pointed out the virtual impossibility, Mrs. Clinton finally has admitted she was not named for the famous conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary.
In November 1999, the New York Post asked readers to identify the most evil people of the millennium.
Though her name was not on the original list, Hillary finished in sixth place due to write-in ballots. Her husband, then-President Bill Clinton came in second place, also as a write-in, behind Adolf Hitler in first.
Democrats pick evangelical to deliver weekly radio talk
Democrats pick evangelical to deliver weekly radio talk
'Non-partisan' pastor selected for address
signed letter blasting Rick Warren critics
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
When incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to "set a new tone" by having a "non-partisan religious leader" deliver yesterday's Democrat radio address, he chose a left-leaning evangelical pastor whose non-partisanship included being a signatory to a letter sent this week from a group called Faithful Democrats.
As WND reported, Faithful Democrats issued an open letter to U.S. pastors blasting Christian leaders of several "right-wing religious organizations" who had expressed their opposition to the recent decision by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to invite Senator Barack Obama to speak on World AIDS Day because of his position on abortion.
"It's unfortunate that these groups would exploit the Christian faith to advance their divisive agenda – an agenda that gives almost exclusive attention to a few wedge issues while ignoring the diversity of problems plaguing American communities," the letter read.
Faithful Democrats signatories included Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Call to Renewal, Tony Campolo of Eastern University, Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, Randall Balmer of Columbia University, Paul de Vries of New York Divinity School and C. Welton Gaddy of Northminster Baptist Church in Louisiana.
Reid selected Jim Wallis to give the address, usually reserved for politicians, "in the spirit of bipartisanship." Reid referred to Wallis as "non-partisan."
In the address, Wallis, who is widely viewed as a leading voice of the religious left, called for Americans to take "the road of compassionate priorities and social justice."
"In the Hebrew Scriptures, the health of a society was measured by how it cared for its weakest and most vulnerable, and prosperity was to be shared by all," he said. "Jesus proclaimed a gospel that was 'good news to the poor.'
"It is time to lift up practical policies and effective practices that 'make work work' for low-income families and challenge the increasing wealth gap between rich and poor."
Wallis called for "the renewal of our lifestyles" and "the moral redemption of our foreign policies" in order to conserve energy and be good stewards of a creation threatened by global warming and pollution.
He also called for withdrawal from Iraq.
"The only moral and practical course is to dramatically change the direction of U.S. policy, starting with an honest national debate about how to extricate U.S. forces from Iraq with the least possible damage to everyone involved," he said.
Wallis, who has rejected the "religious left" label given him, instead insisting that he wants to bring the nation to "a moral center," told listeners that he was speaking as a "person of faith," and not on behalf of the Democrat Party.
'Non-partisan' pastor selected for address
signed letter blasting Rick Warren critics
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
When incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to "set a new tone" by having a "non-partisan religious leader" deliver yesterday's Democrat radio address, he chose a left-leaning evangelical pastor whose non-partisanship included being a signatory to a letter sent this week from a group called Faithful Democrats.
As WND reported, Faithful Democrats issued an open letter to U.S. pastors blasting Christian leaders of several "right-wing religious organizations" who had expressed their opposition to the recent decision by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to invite Senator Barack Obama to speak on World AIDS Day because of his position on abortion.
"It's unfortunate that these groups would exploit the Christian faith to advance their divisive agenda – an agenda that gives almost exclusive attention to a few wedge issues while ignoring the diversity of problems plaguing American communities," the letter read.
Faithful Democrats signatories included Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Call to Renewal, Tony Campolo of Eastern University, Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, Randall Balmer of Columbia University, Paul de Vries of New York Divinity School and C. Welton Gaddy of Northminster Baptist Church in Louisiana.
Reid selected Jim Wallis to give the address, usually reserved for politicians, "in the spirit of bipartisanship." Reid referred to Wallis as "non-partisan."
In the address, Wallis, who is widely viewed as a leading voice of the religious left, called for Americans to take "the road of compassionate priorities and social justice."
"In the Hebrew Scriptures, the health of a society was measured by how it cared for its weakest and most vulnerable, and prosperity was to be shared by all," he said. "Jesus proclaimed a gospel that was 'good news to the poor.'
"It is time to lift up practical policies and effective practices that 'make work work' for low-income families and challenge the increasing wealth gap between rich and poor."
Wallis called for "the renewal of our lifestyles" and "the moral redemption of our foreign policies" in order to conserve energy and be good stewards of a creation threatened by global warming and pollution.
He also called for withdrawal from Iraq.
"The only moral and practical course is to dramatically change the direction of U.S. policy, starting with an honest national debate about how to extricate U.S. forces from Iraq with the least possible damage to everyone involved," he said.
Wallis, who has rejected the "religious left" label given him, instead insisting that he wants to bring the nation to "a moral center," told listeners that he was speaking as a "person of faith," and not on behalf of the Democrat Party.
Radioactive spy Islamic convert?
Radioactive spy Islamic convert?
Fears raised Litvinenko helped al-Qaida with 'dirty bomb' plot
Editor's note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND. Annual subscriptions are $99 and include a free copy of Farah's latest book, "Taking America Back." Monthly trial subscriptions are just $9.95 for credit card users.
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
LONDON – Reports that KGB defector Alexander Litvinenko converted to Islam before his mysterious poisoning with radioactive polonium 210 is raising suspicions that he may have been involved in a plot to smuggle the deadly substance to terrorist groups willing to pay millions even for a gram, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is reporting today.
Scotland Yard detectives are now trying to discover if Litvinenko had any secret links with Islamic extremist terror groups, the London Sunday Express is reporting.
Their biggest fear, the paper reports, is that Litvinenko, who died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital, may have been helping al-Qaida or other extremist groups get hold of radioactive material to be used in a devastating "dirty" atom bomb.
Britain's secret intelligence service MI6 had earlier learned that al-Qaida was prepared to pay $3 million a gram for polonium 210, G2 Bulletin reported last week.
Litvinenko's friend Mario Scaramella now says the late spy helped smuggle radioactive material from Russia to Switzerland in 2000. Litvinenko was also known to have sympathies with Chechen rebels, seeking to break away from Moscow and create an independent Muslim state.
Litvinenko's conversion to Islam was announced by his next-door neighbor, moderate Muslim and Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev, who revealed: "He was read to from the Koran the day before he died and told his wife that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition."
Litvinenko's body is still so "radiologically hot" that an autopsy cannot yet be conducted. It is stored in a lead-lined vault in a London morgue.
Polonium 210 has been identified in five separate locations around London.
One is the luxury Millennium Hotel, near the U.S. Embassy. Another is a building in Mayfair that houses the office of Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of Litvinenko, and now an avowed enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While the government has insisted there is no cause for panic, MI6 and Britain's internal security service, MI5, have jointly launched a top-priority hunt on how further quantities of Polonium 210 could be smuggled by al-Qaida.
The hunt began a week ago in Peshawar. The ancient Pakistan city hosts a joint MI6/CIA surveillance operation supported by America's National Security Agency satellite surveillance.
Using the latest cyber-technology, the intelligence officers in Peshawar picked up a short-burst transmission from somewhere in Peshawar's Old Town. It was in response to a call that appeared to have come from beyond the towering Khyber Pass, possibly from Afghanistan.
The call was automatically recorded on one of the computers in the offices the MI6/CIA team share.
Just as automatically, it was dispatched down the line through cyberspace to GCHQ, the British Government Headquarters in the Cotswold town of Cheltenham. Simultaneously it reached America's NSA at Fort Meade, Md.
The words from Peshawar were part of the trillions of words in 500 languages that the GCHQ/NSA super computers are programmed to listen to, shift, reject or retain so they can be analyzed by the thousands of experts both GCHQ and NSA employ.
By late last week, MI6 knew of al-Qaida's offer to purchase Polonium 210.
For more details on how polonium 210 could be smuggled into Great Britain and America, see the complete report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Fears raised Litvinenko helped al-Qaida with 'dirty bomb' plot
Editor's note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND. Annual subscriptions are $99 and include a free copy of Farah's latest book, "Taking America Back." Monthly trial subscriptions are just $9.95 for credit card users.
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
LONDON – Reports that KGB defector Alexander Litvinenko converted to Islam before his mysterious poisoning with radioactive polonium 210 is raising suspicions that he may have been involved in a plot to smuggle the deadly substance to terrorist groups willing to pay millions even for a gram, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is reporting today.
Scotland Yard detectives are now trying to discover if Litvinenko had any secret links with Islamic extremist terror groups, the London Sunday Express is reporting.
Their biggest fear, the paper reports, is that Litvinenko, who died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital, may have been helping al-Qaida or other extremist groups get hold of radioactive material to be used in a devastating "dirty" atom bomb.
Britain's secret intelligence service MI6 had earlier learned that al-Qaida was prepared to pay $3 million a gram for polonium 210, G2 Bulletin reported last week.
Litvinenko's friend Mario Scaramella now says the late spy helped smuggle radioactive material from Russia to Switzerland in 2000. Litvinenko was also known to have sympathies with Chechen rebels, seeking to break away from Moscow and create an independent Muslim state.
Litvinenko's conversion to Islam was announced by his next-door neighbor, moderate Muslim and Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev, who revealed: "He was read to from the Koran the day before he died and told his wife that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition."
Litvinenko's body is still so "radiologically hot" that an autopsy cannot yet be conducted. It is stored in a lead-lined vault in a London morgue.
Polonium 210 has been identified in five separate locations around London.
One is the luxury Millennium Hotel, near the U.S. Embassy. Another is a building in Mayfair that houses the office of Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of Litvinenko, and now an avowed enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While the government has insisted there is no cause for panic, MI6 and Britain's internal security service, MI5, have jointly launched a top-priority hunt on how further quantities of Polonium 210 could be smuggled by al-Qaida.
The hunt began a week ago in Peshawar. The ancient Pakistan city hosts a joint MI6/CIA surveillance operation supported by America's National Security Agency satellite surveillance.
Using the latest cyber-technology, the intelligence officers in Peshawar picked up a short-burst transmission from somewhere in Peshawar's Old Town. It was in response to a call that appeared to have come from beyond the towering Khyber Pass, possibly from Afghanistan.
The call was automatically recorded on one of the computers in the offices the MI6/CIA team share.
Just as automatically, it was dispatched down the line through cyberspace to GCHQ, the British Government Headquarters in the Cotswold town of Cheltenham. Simultaneously it reached America's NSA at Fort Meade, Md.
The words from Peshawar were part of the trillions of words in 500 languages that the GCHQ/NSA super computers are programmed to listen to, shift, reject or retain so they can be analyzed by the thousands of experts both GCHQ and NSA employ.
By late last week, MI6 knew of al-Qaida's offer to purchase Polonium 210.
For more details on how polonium 210 could be smuggled into Great Britain and America, see the complete report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
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