'Learn the truth' from Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney, David Schippers, others
Frank Gaffney 
A Dallas-area ranch will be the site of a conference featuring leading experts on the threat of radical Islam, including Robert Spencer and Frank Gaffney.
Open to anyone who wants to "learn the truth," "Exposing the Threat of Radical Islamist Terrorism" is part of a continuing series organized by America's Truth Forum, which provides registration details on its website.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 2, at Ranch of the Lonesome Dove in Southlake, Texas, which is minutes from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. A VIP dinner and cocktail reception Friday night, Feb. 1, will precede the conference.
Jeffrey Epstein, president of America's Truth Forum, said the conference is necessary because Americans are not getting the full story about the threat they face.
"We can no longer afford to keep our heads in the sand," he said. "If you care about this country and the future of your children, and you don't want to see them living under Islamic law, then you need to come to this event."
Along with citizens who want to be informed, the event will be attended by law enforcement officials and first ...   more »

The Philippines government says it has reached an agreement with the country's main Islamic separatist group on boundaries for a Muslim homeland.
Government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said "demarcation" was agreed after two days of talks in Malaysia with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Officials say the deal in Kuala Lumpur could pave the way for a final peace deal between the two sides next year.
MILF has been fighting for decades over land in the southern Mindanao region.
Negotiators are hopeful that a permanent peace agreement can be sealed by the middle of next year.   
The two sides did not disclose the shape of the new agreed borders, but the talks' Malaysian hosts said the territory would be greater than the present autonomous region in Mindanao.
Mr Garcia said the borders agreement was a "significant breakthrough".
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told the AFP news agency his side hoped "to find closure to the centuries-old problem in Mindanao which various regimes in Manila have not solved".
Formal talks began in 2003 after MILF, which is thought to have around 12,000 members, signed a fragile truce with President Gloria Arroyo's government.
It is the largest of several Muslim separatist ...   more »

UN nuclear report heightens tension
Julian Borger
Friday November 16, 2007
The Guardian
A construction worker assembles part of Iran's nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr. Photograph: Mehr News Agency/EPA
Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium - enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year, the UN's nuclear watchdog reported last night.
The report by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will intensify US and European pressure for tighter sanctions and increase speculation of a potential military conflict.
The installation of 3,000 fully-functioning centrifuges at Iran's enrichment plant at Natanz is a "red line" drawn by the US across which Washington had said it would not let Iran pass. When spinning at full speed they are capable of producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium (enriched to over 90% purity) for a nuclear weapon within a year.
The IAEA says the uranium being produced is only fuel grade (enriched to 4%) but the confirmation that Iran has reached the 3,000 centrifuge benchmark brings closer a moment of truth for the Bush administration, when it will have to choose between taking military action or abandoning its red ...   more »

Defense appropriations bill gives soldiers domestic responsibilities
By Jerome R. Corsi
New federal legislation shows the Bush administration has begun systematically putting in place authorization for the president to federalize the National Guard and use the U.S. military in domestic emergency situations.
A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 1585) requires the secretary of defense to prepare and submit to Congress by March 1, 2008, and each subsequent March 1 a plan to coordinate the use of the National Guard and members of the Armed Forces on active duty when responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.
Section 1806 of H.R. 1585 requires the secretary of defense to prepare two versions of the plan, one using only members of the National Guard, and one using both members of the National Guard and members of the regular components of the armed services.
The section also requires the secretary of defense's plan to specify "Protocols for the Department of Defense, the National Guard Bureau, and the governors of the several states to carry out operations in coordination with each other and to ensure that governors and local communities are properly informed and ...   more »