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READ ISAIAH CHAPTER 17, VERSE 1
Message to SyriaUSS Cole heads toward Lebanon
Move reflects growing concern by Bush administration over Syrian meddling in runup to March 11 election in Lebanon*********************************************************************************
Some 55 missiles fired at Ashkelon and Sderot on second day of massive Palestinian offensive
February 28, 2008, 7:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
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FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 28, 2008
McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out
WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.
Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.
Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”
Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.
But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.
“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”
The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a natural-born citizen could be president.
Ms. Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of Mr. McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.
Ms. Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.
“They ought to have the same rights,” said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. “There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what ‘natural-born citizen’ means.”
Mr. McCain’s situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare Mr. McCain goes more to the interpretation of “natural born” when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.
Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.
It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.
Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.” But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the “natural-born” phrase.
Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.
“I don’t think he has any problem whatsoever,” said Mr. Nickles, a McCain supporter. “But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win.”
Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.
In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be “unpredictable and unsatisfactory.”
“If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain,” Ms. Pryor said in a recent interview. “But it is certainly not a frivolous issue.”
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'Virtual Fence' Along Border To Be Delayed
U.S. Retooling High-Tech Barrier After 28-Mile Pilot Project Fails
Thursday, February 28, 2008; Page A01
The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday.
Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee.
Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol.
The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush in May 2006 called "the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history." The virtual fence was to be a key component of his proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration policies, which died last year in the Senate.
Investigators for the Government Accountability Office had earlier warned that the effort was beset by both expected and unplanned difficulties. But yesterday, they disclosed new troubles that will require a redesign and said the first phase will not be completed until near the end of the next president's first term.
Those problems included Boeing's use of inappropriate commercial software, designed for use by police dispatchers, to integrate data related to illicit border-crossings. Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project, and in December, the DHS gave the firm another $65 million to replace the software with military-style, battle management software.
In an interview, Gregory L. Giddens, the department's executive director for the border effort, confirmed that "we . . . have delayed our deployment as we work through the issues on Project 28. While there is clear urgency of the mission, we also want to make sure we do this right."
Boeing has said that the initial effort, while flawed, still has helped Homeland Security apprehend 2,000 illegal immigrants since September. It estimated in 2006 that it would spend $7.6 billion through 2011 to secure the entire 2,000-mile southern border, an ambition that was meant to win support from conservatives for legislation creating a guest-worker program and a path to legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants.
But officials said yesterday that they now expect to complete the first phase of the virtual fence's deployment -- roughly 100 miles near Tucson and Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Tex. -- by the end of 2011, instead of by the end of 2008. That target falls outside Boeing's initial contract, which will end in September 2009 but can be extended.
The virtual fence was to complement a physical fence that the administration now says will include 370 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers to be completed by the end of this year. The GAO said this portion of the project may also be delayed and that its total cost cannot be determined. The president's 2009 budget does not propose funds to add fencing beyond the 700 or so miles meant to be completed this year.
"The total cost is not yet known," testified Richard M. Stana, the GAO's director of homeland security issues, because DHS officials "do not yet know the type of terrain where the fencing is to be constructed, the materials to be used, or the cost to acquire the land."
The pilot virtual fence included nine mobile towers, radar, cameras, and vehicles retrofitted with laptops and satellite phones or handheld devices. They were to be linked to a near-real-time, maplike projection of the frontier that agents could use to track targets and direct law enforcement resources.
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Some 35 missiles fired at Ashkelon and Sderot on second day of massive Palestinian offensive
February 28, 2008, 5:16 PM (GMT+02:00)
An Ashkelon scene shared by quarter of-a-million Israeli civilians February, 2008
Eight extended-range Grad or Katyusha rockets blast several Ashkelon districts leaving 18 people injured, mostly shock victims, reaching the northernmost point in the town reached so far. A house was hit directly, another first. Eight missiles struck Sderot, two exploding in the town’s main square and its banking center.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Israeli air force continued to pick off armed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with no perceptible effect on their blitz against Israeli civilian locations around the territory’s perimeter. Six missile teams were hit Thursday. They fire from Gaza’s school buildings, rooftops, playgrounds and underground pits, using civilians and children as human shields.
Efforts are being made to preserve a semblance of normality in those towns and villages in the face of the constant assaults amid persistent questions as to why the IDF is not summoned to battle.
Schools opened Thursday morning for classes, although children were not permitted to play outside. Studies resumed at the Sapir College along with the registration of students for the next academic year. In the afternoon, students and faculty attended the funeral of the student Ronnie Yihya, who died on campus from a direct missile hit. He was buried at Moshav Bitchah, where he lived with his wife and four children.
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Ariel Sharon Dead at 77
 | James Joyner | Friday, January 6, 2006 |
World Tribune is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died at 1 p.m. Israeli time [6 a.m. EST].
Note: They seem to be alone in reporting this. Scroll down for updates. As of 1243 EST, the best guess is that Sharon is alive but in a coma.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the most powerful Israeli leader in 50 years, has died. He was 77.
Sharon was declared dead by physicians at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital before 1 p.m. Israeli time [6 a.m. EST], Middle East Newsline reported. Authorities have already been notified of the death, and a government announcement was expected to be issued over the next hour.
WHY ARE THEY KEEPING HIM ON MACHINES ALL THESE YEARS ???
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Temple Mount Wall Collapses
 | After centuries with no structural problems, suddenly walls in the southern area of the Temple Mount are collapsing. Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazal, who heads a committee for preventing the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, said that the collapsed wall looks terrible and might cause a series of collapses.  It is not the first time that something critical has happened recently on the walls of the Temple Mount. On Tisha B’Av 2001 a huge bulge formed on the southern wall of the Temple Mount. The bulge measured 25 meters [82 feet] high and tens of meters wide running westward from the south-eastern corner (the Pinnacle of the Temple) to an area below the El Aqsa mosque, which is built on the southern wall of the Temple Mount. The ancient Herodian wall bulged as much as 90 centimeters [3 feet]. The archaeologists and engineers who checked the bulge said that there is a great danger that the wall will completely collapse and, together with it, the El Aqsa mosque which stands on it. This could happen when the Moslems are praying in the mosque. They also stated that even if the bulge is repaired it will not hold for long and the wall will collapse in any case. However, Jordanian engineers were finally brought in to repair the southern wall. It was so special that the bulge happened immediately after the Temple Mount Faithful carried the cornerstone for the Third Temple to the area in front of the southern wall of the Temple Mount. There is no doubt that this was the Hand of G-d. He will no longer permit the foreign pagan Arab Islamic existence on the Temple Mount, their terrible desecration of His holy hill, and their efforts to destroy the holy remains of the First and Second Temples. They are trying in this way convert the holy hill of the G-d and people of Israel to an Islamic site and deny the existence of the Temples on the Temple Mount. For this reason they also changed the so-called Solomon’s Stables and the Hulda hall and entrance from the Second Temple complex into Islamic mosques. We should mention that not long before the appearance of the bulge on the southern wall, a crack appeared in the eastern wall not far from the original, real Eastern Gate which is also called the Shushan Gate or Golden Gate. In their 2002 diggings from the inner side of the eastern wall, G-d surprised them by revealing the Shushan Gate. The Arabs who were digging there understood the significance of the appearance of this G-dly gate through which they knew so well that Mashiach ben David would enter. As a result they immediately covered it up again. In recent years water suddenly appeared in the historical area of the Temple. Water again appeared in 2002 on one of the stones of the Western Wall. The Moslems on the Temple Mount who could not stop the water redirected it under the ground. Through this water the prophecy of Ezekiel 47 concerning the water which would come out from the Temple Mount and flow to the Dead Sea area as a sign of redemption in the end-times, started to become a reality:
"And he brought me back to the door of the house; and, behold, waters flowed from under the threshold of the house eastward; for the front of the house faced to the east, and water run out from beneath the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. ... And by the stream, upon its bank, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for food, whose leaf shall not wither, nor shall its fruit fail; it shall bring forth fresh fruit every month, because the waters for them flow from the sanctuary; and their fruit shall be for food, and their leaves for healing." (Ezekiel 47:1,12) Since the Arab Islamic foreign occupation of the land of Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount — after building the mosque and Dome of the Rock, it was a Jewish tradition that in the time of the redemption of Israel when the people of Israel again dwell in the land and the State of Israel is re-established, the G-d of Israel will cause a strong earthquake which will completely remove these foreign houses of pagan worship from the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount will be ready for the rebuilding for the building of the Third Temple. A few days ago, scientists stated that a very strong earthquake will occur in the coming future and the epicenter of the earthquake will be on the Temple Mount and the Old City. The prophet Zechariah prophesied about an earthquake which would take place in the end-times:
"And his feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in its midst toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall be moved toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal; yes, you shall flee, like you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the L-rd my G-d shall come, and all the holy ones with you. And it shall come to pass on that day, that there shall not be bright light nor thick darkness; But it shall be one day which shall be known to the L-rd, not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light." (Zechariah 14:4-7) Zechariah also prophesied about the water that would go out from Jerusalem as another sign of redemption and then G-d would be the One G-d of all the universe and all the nations who will accept Him and then strangers will no longer be on the Temple Mount:
"And it shall be on that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the L-rd shall be king over all the earth; on that day the L-rd shall be one, and his name one. ... and on that day there shall not be Canaanite any more in the house of the L-rd of hosts." (Zechariah 14:8,9,21b) The collapse of walls on the Temple Mount, and all the other signs that were mentioned above, are very clear signs that the foreign pagan presence on the Temple Mount is about to be removed. G-d has started to prepare His holy hill for Israel to purify it and to build the Temple. The Hand of G-d continues to appear again and again in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, as well as over all the land of Israel, calling the Israeli Government to do what He expects of them to do: to purify the Temple Mount and immediately rebuild the house of G-d. This will open the Eastern Gate for the coming of Mashiach ben David. I call on the Israeli Government to fulfill its main endtime task which will bring Israel and all the world to the highest level of their history. Israel and its government cannot run away from their G-dly task. G-d is determined to accomplish all His redemptional endtime plans with Israel and all the world. As in the Biblical history of Israel, when G-d did not allow the people and their leadership to run away from the task which He gave this nation more than 4,000 years when He created them, He will not allow Israel and its governments to run away from their G-dly tasks at this exciting and critical G-dly time in which we are now living. As was prophesied thousands of years ago, the redemption of Israel and all the world will come to pass, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will return to Jerusalem to dwell there and, from Jerusalem, spread and establish His kingdom all over the world:
"Again the word of the L-rd of hosts came to me, saying, Thus says the L-rd of hosts; I was zealous for Zion with great zeal, and I was zealous for her with great fury. Thus says the L-rd: I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth; and the mountain of the L-rd of hosts the Holy Mountain. ... Thus says the L-rd of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their G-d, in truth and in righteousness. Thus says the L-rd of hosts: Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke on the day that the foundation of the house of the L-rd of hosts was laid, saying that the temple might be built. ... Thus says the L-rd of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities; And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to entreat the favour of the L-rd, and to seek the L-rd of hosts. I will go also. And many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the L-rd of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the L-rd. Thus says the L-rd of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men from the nations of every language, shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that G-d is with you." (Zechariah 8;1-3,7-9,20-23) |
