By: Newsmax Staff   
Presidential hopeful John McCain lambasted CNN for allowing a gay retired general allied with the Hillary Clinton campaign to question candidates during Wednesday’s Republican debate.
“I think that should have been made public if this individual was a member of another — any other campaign, then people would, obviously, have a better way of judging the quality of the question,” an angry McCain declared on Thursday.
During the debate televised by CNN, retired Gen. Keith Kerr — a national co-chair for a Clinton veterans group — asked the GOP candidates: “Why do you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians?”
Candidates McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Duncan Hunter were asked to respond, and the four said they basically support the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.
Kerr’s links to the Clinton campaign were not mentioned during the debate.
“I think that should have been revealed,” McCain said in remarks reported by the New York Post.
CNN vice president and executive producer David Bohrman apologized for the foul-up, saying: “CNN would not have used the general’s question had we known that he was ...   more »

The conclusion of the US-hosted Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland has further highlighted a growing rift within the Evangelical Christian community over the degree of support for Israel's biblical right to the lands between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. A day after the summit, the leaders of the three most prominent Jerusalem-based Evangelical ministries told The Jerusalem Post that the re-division of the holy city and the surrender of Israel's biblical heartland - an effective reversal of prophecy - are unacceptable concepts for Bible-believing Christians and Jews.
"The sanctity of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State is something very sacred which has both historical and religious associations for the Jewish people going back thousands of years," said International Christian Embassy Jerusalem director Rev. Malcom Heading. "We view any attempt to divide the city as a tragic wedge that is unacceptable."
Ray Sanders, executive director of Christian Friends of Israel, called Muslim claims to sovereignty over these lands, and especially Jerusalem, "preposterous," and said Israel was doing itself a great disservice by failing to more aggressively counter such allegations.
US-based Evangelical heavyweights such as John Hagee and Pat Robertson share the position of the Jerusalem ministries, ...   more »

Jew confronts Islamist holy site desecrators in new book
Muslim gunmen holed up inside one of the holiest in Christianity used the Bible as toilet paper? Judaism's third-holiest site turned into a mosque? Synagogues now used by terrorists as rocket launching pads?
While Muslims are rioting in the Middle East after a British teacher reportedly allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, one Jewish reporter ventured into Islamist strongholds to confront Muslim terrorist leaders accused of the rampant desecration of other religion's holy sites.
In one chapter of the recently released "Schmoozing with Terrorists," author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein grills the leaders of some of the most recent notorious holy site desecrations:
In 2002, Fatah terrorists fleeing an Israeli antiterror operation ran inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity – the believed birthplace of Jesus – where they took nuns and priests hostage and holed up for 39 days. After the siege ended, there were widespread media reports, including video footage, that the Nativity church had been left in shambles. A Roman Catholic priest trapped inside told the Washington Times some Bibles were torn up and used as toilet paper.
In "Schmoozing," Klein catches up with ...   more »

U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently used Fidel Castro’s Cuban Airline jet for his recent travel to the Middle East and Europe, highlighting the close ties between Chavez and Cuba’s communist government, according to a new report by Geostrategy-Direct.com. 
Cuba's Raul Castro with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.  
Chavez said on Nov. 19, after arriving at Orly Airport in Paris, that he flew from Tehran to Paris in Cuban President Fidel Castro's jet, which he noted was not an Airbus and he praised the aircraft as being "fast" and "comfortable."
Chavez then said on Nov. 20 upon arriving at Portela International Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, that he was flying to Havana from Lisbon the next day. 
Sudan accused of creating roadblocks to UN troop deployment in Darfur   
“The Venezuelan president's use of a Cubana Airlines jet on this trip contrasts with past travels when he has been observed to fly in his presidential jet, an Airbus A319,” one official said.
Chavez also traveled to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said Cuban-Venezuelan intelligence ties remain close and are growing, with large numbers of Cuban intelligence personnel working in Venezuela. In some cases, Venezuelan ambassadors ...   more »

     CAIRO, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Remains of an ancient dam dating back some 4,000 years have been discovered in Upper Egypt, local English daily The Egyptian Gazette reported Sunday.
    Secretary-General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said Saturday that the ancient dam was found a few meters away from the Karnak Temple in Luxor, some 500 km south   of     Cairo.   The finding was made by an Egyptian-French archaeological team, which has been working in Luxor since March, Hawass was quoted as saying at a press conference.
    "The 230-meter long dam was built during the age of the Middle Kingdom (of ancient Egypt) to protect the temple from the Nile flood," said Hawass.
    The Egyptian archaeology supremo stressed the importance of the finding, saying it proved that the ancient Egyptians were good at building dams.
    The discover will also revive interest in the ancient Egyptian city, which was believed by some archaeologists that nothing of great importance would be found again, said the report.
    The team had also unearthed the relics of a Roman bath built in the first century AD and a clay jar containing 316 coins from different historical periods, ...   more »

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
Foreigners coming to the USA will soon be required to have 10 fingerprints scanned as part of a new government anti-terrorist effort, the Homeland Security Department says.
The plan for Customs officers to collect more biometric information from foreigners is one phase of a long-awaited upgrade to a border-security program put in place after 9/11. The security program, known as US-VISIT, aims to give government agents a better idea of who is coming into the country and catch people with forged passports. The government so far has spent $1.7 billion on the program.
Foreigners were previously required to get just two of their prints scanned when they arrived at a checkpoint. Upgrading the system to 10 fingerprints will enable more thorough checking against terrorist watch lists and databases of criminals and illegal immigrants.
"Biometrics can be a game-changer," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke says. "They represent what terrorists fear most — an increased likelihood of getting caught."
Ten-print scanning will begin this week at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. By March, nine more major airports will join the program. Homeland Security says it will be in place at every airport in the USA by ...   more »