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Iraqi policemen shot dead four US soldiers and their local interpreter in the main northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, an interior ministry official said. "Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by two Iraqi policemen who opened fire at them in the Dawasa district of (central) Mosul and then fled," the official told AFP, declining to be named. The incident took place during a US army visit to the Mosul headquarters of the Iraqi police in charge of protecting the city's bridges, police said. The bullet-riddled body of the interpreter was taken to the local mortuary. It...

Chapter 9, part 2 of The Blessings of Abraham:  Becoming a Zion PeopleBy E. Douglas ClarkA few years hence, [1] to celebrate the weaning of Isaac, Abraham put on what Genesis calls “a great feast” (Gen. 21:8) or “a great banquet” (NJB Gen. 21:8). It was a sumptuous spread, a lavish offering open to all and attended by a great multitude, including, as Jasher reports, “all the great people of the land” who “came to eat and drink and rejoice.” [2] The event was also a harbinger, says Jewish tradition, of things to come, for “the Holy One ... will...

Just heard anchorette report this on pMSNBC

One of my favorite stories is of famished Samaria under siege. "Hear the word of the Lord," Elisha said in 2 Kings 7, "Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria." He was announcing imminent bargain prices on a starvation day when "a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver" and some dove's dung for five shekels (2 Kings 6:25). Sure. No way. Who will not pity Saul? Nothing was happening. The brave hero, having waited seven days...

I recently set out to learn more about Islam. I had no agenda at the time except to broaden my knowledge on the subject. What I have learned sickened me. I had previously been accepting of the notion that Islam was a peaceful religion and that the Muslim terrorists who inflict so much pain and death around the world represented a fringe element outside of mainstream Islam. I was wrong. The Islamic deity, Allah, is a false god. While the term "Allah" does indeed carry the same meaning as "God," Mohammed's Allah is nothing more than a construct of a...

UNITED NATIONS Oct. 4, 2004 — Arab nations demanded in a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Monday that Israel immediately halt its incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, where fighting has left at least 65 Palestinians dead. The draft resolution, submitted to the 15-nation council in an emergency meeting convened at the request of Arab nations, calls for an immediate halt to a major Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip. It also urges Israel and the Palestinians to immediately implement the internationally backed road map peace planAlgeria's U.N. Ambassador, Abdallah Baali, the only Arab member of the council, requested...

Evangelicals outraged over Bush's 'same god' remark Christian leaders express dismay: 'He is commander in chief, not theologian in chief' Posted: November 24, 2003 11:26 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Many Evangelical Christians in the U.S. say they are outraged over President George Bush's statement that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The statement was made Thursday, during the joint press conference in England with Prime Minister Tony Blair. A reporter noted that Bush has frequently expressed the view that freedom is a gift from "the Almighty," but questioned whether the Bush believes "Muslims worship the same Almighty" as...

Ishmael Ishmael, from the Hebrew word meaning God hears, was the son of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian maid of his wife Sarah. When Sarah had found herself not having children, she arranged to have a child with Abraham by Hagar acting as a surrogate mother (Genesis 16:1-4), even though God had specifically stated that a child would be born to Sarah in due time (see Isaac). The result was bitter conflict between Ishmael and Isaac, and their descendants, that has gone on right to the present day. Ishmael was born at Mamre, when Abraham was 86, 11 years...

Abraham and Sarah were childless. Sarah wanted a child so badly she asked Abraham to take her servant Hagar and have relations with her and thus, de facto, she could have a child that way. In the Middle East, a barren woman at that time might strip down and the newborn child would be placed on her to symbolize that she had "given birth". In this way, she would be honored by having a "child". This was apparently an attempt to practice this very thing. However, it backfired horribly. Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children,...

The author is a former political-military analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense and terrorism analyst with the State Department. He is currently a security consultant, focusing on the mitigation of post-Cold War patterns of terrorism and political violence. Definition of Terrorism "the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives." -- U.S. Department of Defense publication In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the threat of militant Islamic terrorism --...

At a classified briefing last month , a top Pentagon advisory panel was told Saudi Arabia is an enemy to the United States and a backer of terrorism. "The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader," stated the briefing prepared by Laurent Murawiec, a Rand Corporation analyst. The briefing was presented on July 10 to the Defense Policy Board, a group of prominent intellectuals and former senior officials that advises the Pentagon on defense policy, the report said, adding that it appeared to be linked...