It's time to send for George Smiley.
Russia’s covert foreign intelligence operations against America have reached Cold War levels under President Vladimir Putin, according to Washington officials.
White House intelligence advisers believe no other country is as aggressive as Russia in trying to obtain U.S. secrets, with the possible exception of China.
In particular the SVR, as the former KGB’s foreign intelligence arm is now known, is using a network of undercover agents in America to gather classified information about sensitive technologies, including military projects under development and high-tech research.
Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, said: “In the days of the Soviet Union, the number of spies was limited because they had to be based at the foreign ministry, the trade mission or the news agencies like Tass. Right now, virtually every successful private company in Russia is being used as a cover for Russian intelligence operations.”
Intelligence experts believe that since Putin became president in 2000, the Russians have rebuilt a network of agents in the United States that had been depleted during the country’s transition from communism.
Original Source
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Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Pastor John Hagee says Armageddon will soon strike the nation of Israel, so he's enlisting Christians to help protect Israel against an attack from Iran.
Hagee, who has close ties to the Bush administration, has some in the Jewish community worried about his efforts to help Israel and his talk of a coming war with Iran.
The well-known pastor and author, who broadcasts nationwide from his mega Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, has been seeking to help Jewish groups raise money from Christians for Israel.
"The enemies of Israel are the enemies of America," Hagee said. "They are the enemies of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These enemies have drawn the battle line. If a line has to be drawn – then draw that line around both Christians and Jews! We are one; we are united!"
Such polemics from Hagee hail the fiery theme of the 2nd Annual Israel/Washington D.C. Summit slated for July 16-19 in the nation's capital.
As a warm up to the main July enclave, Washington area residents can attend a "Night to Honor Israel" in nearby Alexandria, Va., on May 20, also sponsored by Hagee.
Hagee, an unapologetic Christian Zionist, ...   more »

A bloodbath just south of the Mexican border has alarmed neighboring Arizona towns that have nervously monitored a rise in violence in the Mexican state of Sonora the past two months.
Mexican police killed 15 armed assailants in a fierce gun battle Wednesday after tracking a group that killed four policemen, leading to fears this morning that an armed outlaw convoy was headed to the U.S. border.
About 40 assailants apparently related to Mexico's powerful drug gangs, drove in a convoy of up to 15 vehicles into the town of Cananea, 20 miles south of the U.S. border, to seize the policemen Wednesday. Mexican state police confronted the gunmen in the mountains 60 miles south of Cananea and reportedly killed 15 of the gunmen.
Today, meanwhile, rumors spread to Naco, Ariz., that its sister city of Naco, Sonora, was threatened with a possible imminent attack from outlaw gunmen who were headed their way.
The Mexican town reportedly closed schools, businesses and city hall.
Jesus Rodriguez, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector told WND the report turned out to be "bogus." He said border agents have been informed of the attacks in Mexico but have not been under any special ...   more »

Zilia Castrillón
BOSTON, United States, May 17 (IPS/IFEJ) - The U.S. government and Boston University are facing protests and lawsuits for building a laboratory to research potential biological weapons in a neighbourhood whose residents are mostly African-American and Latinos. Approved by the federal government in February 2006, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory is better known locally as the BSL-4, for biosafety level 4, the highest risk, determined by the type of material the scientists are working with. Construction began in March and the lab is scheduled for completion in 2008.
"They sell us the idea of the laboratory in our neighbourhood because it would provide jobs for the families. The work in reality is not for us, but for the high-level researchers that will move here," says social worker Carmen Nazario, of Puerto Rican origin, and a resident of Villa Victoria, a community of predominantly Latin American immigrants in Boston's South End.
Within about a one-kilometre radius of the site live some 50,000 people. Boston, in the north-eastern U.S. state of Massachusetts, is home to more than 600,000 people.
Nazario is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the federal government and Boston University, accused of violating national ...   more »

A leader in the United Methodist Church equated the U.S. flag to the Nazi swastika, drawing the criticism of a watchdog organization that calls it an example of the church's "contemptuous" attitude towards the nation and its heritage.
The comments came from Rev. Clayton Childers, of the Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society, who said, "The presence of a national flag in worship can imply endorsement of national policies which often run counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ and our Christian faith. … One need only recall the way the swastika flag was displayed prominently in German churches during the Nazi era."

Mark Tooley
He was discussing on the organization's website the propriety of having Old Glory in Christian churches, but his condemnation drew the ire of Mark Tooley, the executive director of UMAction, which monitors the eight-million member church and its activities.
"The United Methodist Church, under its liberal leadership, is losing over 50,000 members a year, and this church lobby official is oddly worried about getting American flags out of our churches," Tooley said.
"Unlike the blood-soaked swastika flags that the Nazis forced upon German churches, American churches voluntarily display their country's flag as a ...   more »

IT LOOKS deceptively familiar. The patient rolls up his sleeve, the doctor sticks a needle into his arm, and soon it's all over. But this is no routine vaccination. Instead, the patient has been injected with a fleck of silicon that will uniquely identify him when zapped with radio waves. Now, nearly three years after their use was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, implantable radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are the focus of a new controversy.
The battle lines are being drawn in a quiet corner of West Palm Beach, Florida. On 12 May, some 30 protesters held an inter-faith prayer vigil (pictured above) outside Alzheimer's Community Care, a day-care facility for people with dementia. At issue is the facility's plan to implant 200 patients with microchips manufactured and donated by VeriChip of nearby Delray Beach. When scanned, the chip reveals a unique ID number, which when entered into a password-protected database gives access to medical information about its owner.
If the plan goes ahead, it will be the first time the technology has been tried on a group of people with a specific mental impairment. The forgetfulness that comes with Alzheimer's can make it impossible for ...   more »