by Sara Yoheved Rigler
Not all wins take place on the playing field.
A soul was getting ready to descend from the supernal "World of Souls" to what Kabbala calls, "The World of Action." Like all pre-flight souls, this one was assigned a primary mission and several secondary missions. It was also given a time limit. It would have just 46 years to complete its task.THE WORLD OF ACTION-The soul plunged, and landed in the womb of one Gittel Poseh Claman, a Russian Jewish immigrant living in Manitoba, Canada. On November 8, 1921, the soul, snugly wrapped in an 8½ pound body, emerged, amidst cries of "Mazel tov!" Eight days later, the soul-cum-body was circumcised and duly named Zalman Baer Claman.Now, a soul descending from the "World of Souls" to the lowest of all worlds, the "World of Action," is like a denizen of a Park Avenue penthouse awakening in a slum in the middle of a rumble. The "World of Action" has only one thing going for it, which makes it worth the trip. It is the only world where free choice is possible. Not the chocolate-or-vanilla choices which occupy most minds. Only one area of choice is truly ...   more »

Etgar Lefkovits , A Christian TV network that runs missionary advertisements directed at Jews has petitioned the High Court of Justice after Israeli cable television decided to drop the station. According to the petition, the decision by the HOT cable TV company was "a severe violation" of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. The decision to pull the plug on the Daystar TV network was made in July, one month after HOT renewed their contract, the petition said. The cable company subsequently returned the year fee that Daystar had paid. A spokeswoman for HOT said previously that the decision to stop broadcasting the station was made "out of editorial and content considerations" and following complaints the company received for broadcasting the network. But the petition, which was filed in the country's highest court last month, stated that there had been no change in programming over the one month since the contract's renewal. The Council for Cable TV and Satelite Broadcasting, which was due to authorize the move to cancel the station, met but failed to make a decision on the issue, thus making the council the primary litigant in the suit, Daystar's Israeli attorney, Amir Vitkon, said Tuesday. The ...   more »

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas. Reports of the accident were circulated at the time; however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection. The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrians at the United States, accusing it of spreading "false" claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month. According to globalsecurity.org, Syria is not a signatory of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), - an international agreement banning the production, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons - or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Syria began developing chemical weapons in 1973, just before the Yom Kipper ...   more »

Program live from Judaism's holiest site delivers threats against Jews
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – The official radio network of a major terror organization has been exclusively broadcasting daily from the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned.
The radio network regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews.
The Al-Quds network, the official radio station of the Islamic Jihad terror group, has been exclusively broadcasting special nightly Ramadan prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque since last week. The station also is broadcasting the Tarawih prayers, special Sunni Muslim prayers recited at night during Ramadan.
Saleh Al-Massri, Al-Quds radio station manager, told WND the Temple Mount broadcasts provide Islamic Jihad with "an opportunity to spread Islam and its values and to bring some happiness to the suffering Palestinians who can't reach the Al Aqsa Mosque for Tarawih prayers."
Islamic Jihad, together with Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, took responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the last three years. Islamic Jihad also carried out scores of deadly rocket and shooting attacks and is one of the most active Palestinian terrorist organizations.
According to Palestinian leaders in the Gaza Strip, the nightly prayer broadcast ...   more »

by Gerald A. Honigman
My wife, Elisabeth, amazes me for many reasons.
Not long ago, however, she raised a question that I had thought about before, but this time she truly shoved it onto the front burner of my brain…
We'll return to this shortly.
During the 19th century, European scholars of the Middle East--German Jews in particular--were prone to paint a picture of a tolerant Muslim world which treated non-Muslims admirably.
While it is true that live Christians and Jews could be a better source of revenue for Muslims via special taxes than dead ones (and forget about non-"Peoples of the Book"--they converted or were killed), and there was no Holocaust per se of Jews under Muslim domination, it is also true that dhimmi populations never knew what the morrow would bring. Massacres, forced conversions, subjugation, and so forth were no strangers in the realm of Islam; a reading of Middle Eastern Jewish scholars such as Albert Memmi and Bat Ye'or is a must on this subject, as is newer work edited and/or authored by Andrew Bostom.
It seems that the whitewash--which still continues--was largely done to contrast an allegedly tolerant Arab/Muslim East--where Jews are commonly known as kilab ...   more »

The California legislature recently banned employers from mandating RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) implants for their employees.  While I’m glad I’m covered in my state, why isn’t this ban being implemented at the Federal level to cover every citizen?  I’m not suggesting that we ban the devices; I’m suggesting that no one should be forced to stick on of these in their body just to get a job.  I’ve covered the issue of RFID many times before and I’m not fundamentally opposed to RFID technology or RFID implants, but I do oppose the idea that anyone should be forced to implant one in their body and it would be just as offensive if my employer asked me to tattoo a bar code on to my forehead.
It would be just as offensive if my employer asked me to tattoo a bar code on to my forehead
Verichip RFID implants are worthless from a security standpoint because they’re essentially passing clear text data over the radio waves and it can easily be cloned. If it’s cloned, you’ll have to undergo knife treatment to get a new one unless the chip is reprogrammable.  Even if Verichip stopped using clear text authentication and switched ...   more »

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Euro passports and ID cards could be on the way under new powers written into the EU Treaty, it was disclosed yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that existing safeguards preventing EU interference with national identity documents have been quietly dropped.
advertisementSources close to negotiations suggest that Britain has allowed the safeguards to be removed in order to participate in EU security measures, such as biometric passports and ID cards.
William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "Gordon Brown has absolutely no democratic mandate to sign Britain up to a possible Euro ID card scheme.
"It illustrates how important it is that the British people have their promised say on this treaty."
Derek Scott, chairman of the I Want A Referendum campaign, said: "Under the Constitutional Treaty, work on harmonisation of identity documents would gain momentum.
"The EU is doing a lot of radical things in this area with far too little scrutiny, so it's no wonder that many people are uncomfortable with this."
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without license. For the full copyright statement see Copyright  
Original ...   more »

 LIMA, Peru
A village in southern Peru has been struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite crashed to the earth around midday Saturday, an official with the local health department said.
Villagers heard an explosion and saw a fireball that many thought was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia, according to a report from AFP.
Residents later complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," according to health department official Jorge Lopez.
Police responding to the scene also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.
Original Source
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LONDON -- Shares in one of Britain's largest lenders tumbled another 30 percent Monday as customers, driven by fears of insolvency, made run on the bank and withdrew billions.
Treasury Secretary Alistair Darling sought to assure depositors that their money was safe, even as former U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan warned of difficulties ahead in Britain's booming housing market.
Trading in the bank's shares was briefly suspended Monday morning, but not before they tumbled 140 pence to 298 pence ($2.81 to $5.98), on top of a 31 percent fall Friday. By late morning, shares hovered around 300 pence.
Northern Rock, Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender, issued a profit warning Friday and Bank of England agreed to provide it with emergency funding.
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday that customers had withdrawn nearly 2 billion pounds ($4 billion) from Northern Rock accounts, though CEO Adam Applegarth refused to give a figure.
Speculation about a takeover ran rampant.
"The images of customers queuing up in the high street has done irreparable damage to the franchise," said Nic Clarke, an analyst for Charles Stanley & Co. in London.
"There is value in Northern Rock for a predator with a strong balance sheet ...   more »

Report: Former Fed Boss Says Euro Could Replace U.S. Dollar As Favored Reserve Currency
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said it is possible that the euro could replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of choice.
According to an advance copy of an interview to be published in Thursday's edition of the German magazine Stern, Greenspan said that the dollar is still slightly ahead in its use as a reserve currency, but added that "it doesn't have all that much of an advantage" anymore.
The euro has been soaring against the U.S. currency in recent weeks, hitting all-time high of $1.3927 last week as the dollar has fallen on turbulent market conditions stemming from the ongoing U.S. subprime crisis. The Fed meets this week and is expected to lower its benchmark interest rate from the current 5.25 percent.
Greenspan said that at the end of 2006, some 25 percent of all currency reserves held by central banks were held in euros, compared to 66 percent for the U.S. dollar.
In terms of being used as a payment for cross-border transactions, the euro is trailing the dollar only slightly with 39 percent to 43 ...   more »

By News agencies   
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had signed an agreement with the British government to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets for nearly $9 billion.
"A contract was signed between the two governments to buy the plane on Tuesday, Shaaban 29 (September 11) at a cost of 4,430 million pounds sterling," a statement on official news agency SPA said, attributed to a Defense Ministry official.
It said the cost per jet was the same as its sale price to British air forces.
Last year it was reported that Saudi Arabia might cancel the deal because of a U.K. fraud investigation into suspicions of graft in defense deals dating to the 1980s. But the deal went ahead after the investigations were closed.
 Original Source

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MOSCOW (AFP) — Any US military intervention in Iran would be a "political error" that would have "catastrophic" consequences, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said in an interview published Tuesday.
"Generally speaking, bombings of Iran would be a bad move that would end with catastrophic consequences," he told the daily Vremya Novosti.
Losyukov expressed the hope that there would not be an escalation of tension in the region, at least before the end of a summit of Caspian Sea countries due to be held in Tehran on October 16.
"I don't know if the Americans will bomb during the Caspian summit. I think they will refrain, otherwise they would have serious problems," he said in reply to a question.
"We are convinced that there is no military solution to the Iranian problem. It's impossible. Besides, it is quite clear that there is no military solution to the Iraq problem either. But in the case of Iran everything could be even more complicated," he said.
At the same time, Losyukov did not rule out an eventual evacuation of the Russian experts working on construction of a nuclear plant at Bushehr.
"As the situation in Iran is difficult, we have plans ...   more »

Fox News reports US officials seriously contemplating attack on Iran's nuclear program after Germany withdraws support for more sanctions
Yitzhak Benhorin
US officials are mulling a military assault on Iran's Islamic regime after a recent decision by Germany to withhold support for new sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to heed international calls to halt nuclear work, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Germany is one of three EU nations, along with Britain and France, that are leading efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy and sanctions.
Fox News reported on its Web site that German officials said during a meeting with Iranian delegates in Berlin that Chancellor Angela Merkel will no longer support further sanctions against Iran by the United Nations Security Council, leading Bush administration officials to believe that sanctions are dead.
Germany would however would "privately welcome, while publicly protesting," a US bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The news channel also said that there was broad consensus across the relevant US agencies that Germany would withdraw from the diplomatic efforts led by the United States.It was also reported that US officials believe that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns has failed in finding a ...   more »

WASHINGTON - China and Russia are spying on the U.S. nearly as much as they did during the Cold War.
That's the word from national intelligence director, Mike McConnell, in testimony prepared for a House Judiciary Committee hearing today.
He is promoting a law passed last month expanding the U.S. government's eavesdropping power. He says it's needed to protect against not only terrorists but more traditional potential
adversaries as well.
The new Protect America Act allows the government to listen in, without a court order, on all communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even if an American is on one end of the conversation.
Some lawmakers are having second thoughts after hastily passing the law before the August recess. Civil liberty groups and privacy advocates are staunchly against it.
Original Source

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