Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called his fellow countries in the region to “increase awareness of enemies scheming to eradicate them.” 
Ahmadinejad said in a meeting held with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem that : “Americans as well as their allies are facing doom.” The Syrian Foreign Minister praised the Palestinian’s resistance to the Israeli siege over Gaza. (Dudi Cohen)
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A covert nuclear reactor destroyed last year in Syria would have been capable of producing plutonium and probably was "not intended for peaceful purposes," the White House said Thursday.
But senior intelligence officials later said they had only low confidence that the facility was meant to build nuclear weapons.
A senior U.S. official said the reactor was weeks or months away from being functional when it was bombed by Israel in September.
"This thing was good to go, so we had to assume they were ready to throw the switch," said a senior U.S. intelligence officer who, along with another senior intelligence officer and a senior White House official, briefed reporters about the site Thursday afternoon.
A White House statement said North Korea may have assisted Syria's nuclear activities.
"We have long been seriously concerned about North Korea's nuclear weapons program and its proliferation activities," the statement said. "North Korea's clandestine nuclear cooperation with Syria is a dangerous manifestation of those activities."
A working reactor would make Syria the first Arab nation with nuclear capability and would potentially put nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime that the United States accuses of committing human rights abuses ...   more »

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Authorities are investigating a fire at a Miami Beach synagogue where members said the torah was missing. The fire gutted Congregants of The Chabad Shul at Pine Tree Road and 24th Street at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. The devastation coincided with Passover, a holiday commemorating the Jews' liberation from slavery.
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No one was inside the temple at the time of the fire. No one was injured.
Miami Beach Fire Rescue spokesman Javier Otero said one window was partially broken when firefighters arrived at the scene early Tuesday morning. He could not say if this was an act of vandalism or an accident.
"Everything was burnt. There's nothing left," said Rabbi Zev Katz. "All our prayer shawls, all our prayer books, our tables."
One member of the congregation said he found scroll sticks that hold up the torah outside the synagogue. Roger Abramson said the torah was missing, and that the fire completely destroyed the inside of the synagogue.
"We suspect that someone stole the Torah, the most precious item in our synagogue, and then burnt the entire synagogue down," Katz said.
Miami Beach fire officials are investigating the possible arson, although there were ...   more »

(CBS)  CBS News producer Laura Strickler wrote this story for CBSNews.com.
As the Televangelist Kenneth Copeland continues to defy a Senate Finance investigation, internal ministry documents shed new light on how Copeland runs his $100 million church.
Church bylaws obtained exclusively by CBS News say Copeland is "empowered to veto any resolution of the Board" concentrating all key decision-making power in the televangelist.
The bylaws indicate the president of the board is Copeland but Copeland’s family members also play a critical role. His wife is the vice president. The senior pastor, secretary and treasurer roles are filled by Copeland’s son-in-law. The operations vice president and CEO slots are both filled by Kenneth Copeland’s son, John. Other documents previously obtained by CBS indicate in addition to family members there are ten other members of the church’s board.
"My first reaction was that Kenneth Copeland was a control freak," says William Josephson, the former head of New York State’s Charities Bureau after reviewing the Kenneth Copeland Ministries bylaws.
"Because control is vested in him and his family to the exclusion of any alternative source of authority and it is very unusual," Josephson tells CBS News.
And the many donors to Copeland’s ministry ...   more »

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced today the re-establishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet and assigned Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, currently serving as commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, as its new commander. Fourth Fleet will be responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
U.S. Fourth Fleet will be dual-hatted with the existing commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO), currently located in Mayport, Fla. U.S. Fourth Fleet has been re-established to address the increased role of maritime forces in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of operations, and to demonstrate U.S. commitment to regional partners.
"Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, and signals our support and interest in the civil and military maritime services in Central and South America," said Roughead. "Our maritime strategy raises the importance of working with international partners as the basis for global maritime security. This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests. "
Effective July ...   more »

Congresswoman calls for probe
of all green-lighted by terrorist
Fearing the radicalization of U.S. soldiers, the leader of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus has called for a government investigation of all Muslim chaplains serving in the U.S. military to determine whether they have ties to radical Islamic groups.
Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., says the Pentagon has failed to properly vet the Muslim chaplains ministering to U.S forces since it first set up its Muslim chaplain corps 15 years ago.
The military chaplains were approved by a convicted terrorism supporter who at the time headed the American Muslim Council. Abdurahman Alamoudi is now serving a 23-year prison sentence on federal terrorism charges.
The U.S. Department of Treasury in 2005 announced in a statement that "Alamoudi had a close relationship with al-Qaida and had raised money for al-Qaida in the United States."
According to Myrick, the chaplains he sponsored have not been re-screened since his sentencing.
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"Alamoudi placed Muslim chaplains throughout the military. He is now in jail on charges of terrorism," she said. "The chaplains to my knowledge are still in their current positions."
Myrick added that "while there may be nothing wrong with the Muslim chaplains that he ...   more »

by Dina Coopersmith
Strengthening the life force of the nascent, fragile nation.
Most of the Passover mitzvot revolve around food. In fact, besides the telling of the story of leaving Egypt, all other commandments are eating-oriented: matzah, maror, the four cups of wine, vegetable dipped in salt water, leaning while eating, etc.
As much as we Jews tend to focus on food on the holidays, there are always other characteristics of the holiday that are more important: shofar on Rosh Hashana, building a sukkah and the four species on Sukkot, lighting the menorah on Chanukah, hearing the megillah and giving charity on Purim, etc. And yet, on Passover, the first holiday in the Jewish calendar, food takes center stage on Seder night.
What is the nature of food and its connection to Passover?
FOOD - THE LIFE-GIVING FORCE
Before eating you may feel weak, indicating a diminishing of life force and energy. Then, as you eat, your strength is restored and the life force is immediately infused into you.
God is the only Giver of life; He holds the key to life and we essentially have no power over His constant giving. Therefore we can deduce that eating most powerfully ...   more »

Video Played a Role in Israeli Raid
By Robin Wright
A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea's nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel's decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core's design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows "remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon," a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video "very, very damning."
Nuclear weapons analysts and U.S. officials predicted that CIA Director Michael V. Hayden's planned disclosures to Capitol Hill could complicate U.S. efforts to improve relations with ...   more »

By Yoav Stern and Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondents   
Tags: Israel, Golan Heights, Syria  
Officials following contacts between Israel and Syria say significant U.S. involvement will probably be necessary for negotiations to move ahead, and that Syria is still demanding such involvement.
Both Israeli and foreign experts on Syria told Haaretz Wednesday that a change in the American position was not on the horizon, and that no details on the Israeli position had been included in Wednesday's Syrian media reports on Israel's willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights.  
yrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Wednesday that if Israel were serious about making peace with Syria and withdrawing from the Golan, there was nothing to prevent the renewal of negotiations. But he added that Syria was not prepared for talks with Israel that would hurt the Palestinian negotiating track.
Speaking at a news conference in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, Moallem said the Syrian position was that Israel had to withdraw to the lines of June 4, 1967, not the international boundary. His statements were carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to arrive in Damascus over the ...   more »