One of the religious Buddhist cloth paintings displayed in Bloomington city hall
The city attorney in Bloomington, Ind., has accused a group of Christians of using their beliefs as a "political tool" for next month's city elections.
City attorney Kevin Robling told WRTV in Indianapolis he thought it was a "shame" for the Christians, who objected to the city's promotion of Buddhist religious articles without any balancing Christian items, to act this way.
"We've got an election in 18 days," he told the station. "I think what you've got is a group of people who are using their religion as a political tool."
However, he did not explain how such beliefs could be converted into a "political tool" or create a political impact, nor did he get agreement from the Christians, who have objected to the city's promotion of the Buddhist display as part of its publicity for a coming visit from the Dali Lama.
The group of Christians last week, as WND reported, took a stone sculpture of the 10 Commandments to city hall and placed them there in order to include Christianity with Buddhism in the religious beliefs being promoted by the city.
City officials took them down ...   more »

The U.S. has been arming, training, funding and coordinating security with known terrorists, including much of the senior leadership of the most active Palestinian terrorist organization, charges a new book.
In "Schmoozing with Terrorists," author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein also documents how terrorists, including a terror chief, are among the official team that receives and distributes American weapons shipped to Palestinians.
"It's scandalous," writes Klein. "In the midst of America's war on terror, the U.S. is perpetuating terrorism to the point where the most active Palestinian jihad group is carrying out regular attacks, including shootings and bombings, using American-provided weapons, funding and training."
(Story continues below)
The U.S. since the late 1990s has been running bases in the West Bank City of Jericho to train militias from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, including the Preventative Security Services, which serve as police officers, and Force 17, Abbas' presidential guard units which previously protected Yasser Arafat. Force 17 serve as de facto police and security officers, as well.
Over the years, the U.S. also has provided Fatah militias with arms, reportedly including thousands of high-powered assault rifles during the past year alone.
This past August, the State ...   more »

But mayor says consular card won't stop arrests of suspects 
The Mexican Consulate in Texas, which has been at war with Irving city officials over their crackdown on illegal aliens, says it now wants to send mobile units into the city to deliver identification cards to try to save the illegals from arrest.
"If they have the card, their chances of not being arrested would improve dramatically," Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
He said if police are provided information about a person's identification, they often can just issue a citation, but if there's no ID, suspects more likely are arrested.
Irving Mayor Herbert Gears told the newspaper the ID cards probably wouldn't make that much difference in the city's crackdown. But he did say he would meet periodically with Urrea to review any complaints over the city's Criminal Alien Program.
"Nothing has been changed in regards to police policy and procedure," he told the newspaper.
City residents have been raising complaints about illegal aliens in their city for some time. At the beginning of 2007, a petition with 800 signatures was submitted to the city in support of citizen demands that illegal immigrants who commit crimes ...   more »

Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector
By Jerome R. Corsi
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delegated key inspection requirements for Mexican trucks to a non-governmental trilateral trade association, whose goal is to impose North American standards on all commercial motor vehicles operating in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.  
Since the early 1980s, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, or CVSA, operating as a non-governmental organization, has quietly knit together the motor-vehicle agencies in the three countries, building a common regulatory continental structure below the radar of public opinion, available now to function as the backbone of the FMCSA effort to allow approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.
According to a Colorado law enforcement document obtained by WND, the FMCSA has made arrangements for the CVSA to provide inspection decals to all Mexican trucks who pass inspection in the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck NAFTA demonstration project.
The CVSA is a non-profit association composed of "state, provincial, and federal officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico."
CVSA membership includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, all 13 Canadian ...   more »