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North Korea's nuclear program, 2005

By Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen
May/June 2005 pp. 64-67 (vol. 61, no. 03) © 2005 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

On February 10, North Korea announced for the first time that it possesses nuclear weapons. [1] The claim grabbed headlines, but it is difficult to substantiate. In the early 1990s, the CIA concluded that North Korea had effectively joined the nuclear club by building one or possibly two weapons from plutonium it produced before 1992. [2] Yet North Korea has never conducted a nuclear test, and although it has extracted weapon-grade plutonium, it has never conclusively demonstrated that it possesses operational nuclear warheads. (Nor has the United States been able to verify it.) It is known, however, that Pyongyang has a nuclear program. By cataloging the program's capabilities and quantity of separated plutonium, it is possible to estimate how many nuclear weapons Kim Jong Il's country might have.

North Korea's probable possession of nuclear weapons presents a serious and extremely complicated problem, with implications that could drastically affect Asian security and, by extension, U.S. interests as well. By violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), North Korea has weakened the treaty and sent signals that obtaining nuclear weapons has geopolitical benefits, at least when confronting the United States.

Nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. Nuclear weapons and Korea have been entwined for more than 50 years. During the Korean War (1950-1953), the United States threatened several times to use nuclear weapons. [3] After the armistice, U.S. military forces remained in South Korea (the Republic of Korea). The United States began deploying several types of nuclear weapons to the South beginning in January 1958, a time of extensive worldwide deployments (see "Where They Were," November/December 1999 Bulletin). The U.S. arsenal in South Korea was at its largest in 1967, with approximately 950 warheads of eight types. By the mid-1980s, only the 8-inch and 155-millimeter artillery shells, atomic demolition munitions, and gravity bombs remained, and the number of warheads dropped to about 150. With no formal public announcement, in the fall of 1991 President George H. W. Bush ordered the removal of all remaining weapons, which was accomplished in late 1991.

The threat of a U.S. nuclear attack both during and after the Korean War may have helped spur former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung to launch his own nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang started the program in the 1960s with Soviet help, and over the next two decades China provided various kinds of support. In 1986, the North began operating a newly constructed 20-megawatt thermal (MWt) reactor near the city of Yongbyon--a major milestone.

More recently, Pakistan has played a substantial role in the progress of North Korea's nuclear program. In the second half of the 1990s, Abdul Qadeer Khan, scientist and "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program, supplied uranium enrichment equipment and perhaps even warhead designs to North Korea, according to some news reports. Khan originally came to world attention for stealing centrifuge designs and equipment while working in the Netherlands in the 1970s. After returning to Pakistan, Khan used suppliers from around the world to build centrifuges capable of enriching uranium for Pakistan's bomb program. Those vendors and manufacturers became the foundation of an extensive and profitable black market run by Khan and others, which amassed hundreds of millions of dollars. U.S. intelligence agencies monitored Khan's network for years but did little to halt the traffic, so as not to compromise sources and methods or, later, jeopardize relations with Pakistan. Achieving short-term foreign policy goals took precedence over preventing widespread nuclear proliferation. [4]

Finally, in early 2004, Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf placed Khan under house arrest but pardoned him soon after. Neither the United States nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was permitted to interrogate him. On February 4, 2004, Khan admitted on national television that he was responsible for widespread nuclear proliferation. Later news reports described how Pakistani centrifuges were transferred to North Korea in exchange for ballistic missile technology. [5] In 2003, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh wrote that U.S. intelligence agencies believed that Khan had made at least 13 trips to Pyongyang, the last in June 2002. [6]

Fissile material. The center of North Korea's nuclear program is at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of Pyongyang. In addition to a 20 MWt reactor, Yongbyon's major facilities include a chemical separation (reprocessing) plant and a fuel fabrication plant. The 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States halted the construction of a 200 MWt reactor in Yongbyon, as well as the construction of a 700-800 MWt reactor near Taechon. Although North Korea pulled out of the agreement, there is no evidence that it resumed construction of either plant. North Korea operates uranium ore processing facilities at Pyongsan and Pakchon.

Intelligence analysts and nuclear experts widely believe that North Korea has produced and separated enough plutonium for a small number of nuclear warheads. Most or all of the plutonium came from reprocessed spent fuel from the 20 MWt reactor at Yongbyon, which went critical on August 14, 1985, and became operational the following January. [7] The U.S. intelligence community believes that during a 70-day shutdown period in 1989, North Korea secretly removed fuel from the reactor and separated the plutonium. Estimates vary as to how much plutonium was obtained. The State Department believes about 6-8 kilograms; the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency say 8-9 kilograms; the Institute for Science and International Security estimates as much as 14 kilograms. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian analysts estimate a much larger quantity, ranging up to 24 kilograms.

In October 2002, the United States publicly accused North Korea of operating a secret uranium enrichment program; North Korea denied it. In response to the U.S. claim, Pyongyang in December 2002 removed the IAEA safeguard seals at Yongbyon, shut down the monitoring cameras, and ordered the IAEA inspectors out of the country. On January 10, 2003, Pyongyang announced that it would withdraw from the NPT; it is the only country ever to do so. North Korea restarted its 20 MWt reactor and reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, and by June 2003 scientists had extracted plutonium from the 8,000 spent fuel rods kept at the site, according to North Korean officials. Western analysts estimate that this reprocessing would have resulted in 25-30 kilograms of plutonium.

Little is known about North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment program--where it might be located, its state of development, or how many centrifuges might be operational. The United States has not provided any public information that substantiates its existence. Following the U.S. manipulation and distortion of intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, some countries and analysts are now skeptical of any U.S. allegations regarding other nations' nuclear programs. [8] A March 20 Washington Post report that the White House misrepresented intelligence on the supposed transfer of nuclear material from North Korea to Libya may have further undermined the Bush administration's credibility, even though the White House denied the report.

Technical capability. The precise amount of plutonium, or uranium, needed to build a bomb depends upon two variables: the desired yield and design, which hinges on the technical capabilities of the scientists and engineers. (The IAEA and some nongovernmental institutes use a different analytical approach, assuming that the necessary quantity is some fixed, arbitrary amount.) [9] With approximately 1 kilogram of plutonium, designers with high technical capabilities could make a bomb with a 1-kiloton yield; with approximately 3 kilograms, a 20-kiloton yield is possible. Designers with low technical capabilities would need about 3 kilograms for a 1-kiloton yield and about 6 kilograms for a 20-kiloton yield (see "Approximate Fissile Material Requirements,"). The Trinity test and the Nagasaki (Fat Man) bomb each used 6.1 kilograms of plutonium and produced yields of approximately 21 kilotons.

No one knows the skill level of North Korean bomb designers. In the 60 years since the Manhattan Project, a large amount of information on nuclear weapons design has become available, and a medium capability certainly seems possible. This would mean that building a bomb with a 1-5 kiloton yield would require about 2 kilograms of plutonium. Weapons with a 10-20 kiloton yield would require approximately 3 kilograms. For several weapons, 8-9 kilograms of plutonium could be enough. During the 1994 North Korean crisis, then-Defense Secretary William Perry said, "If they had a very advanced technology, they could make five bombs out of the amount of plutonium we estimate they have." With 25-30 kilograms of additional plutonium from the 8,000 fuel rods, North Korea could build approximately 6-8 more warheads. A reasonable estimate of the number of assembled North Korean nuclear weapons is up to 10.

The potential capacity of North Korea's nuclear program is unsettling. The CIA estimates that the 200 MWt reactor at Yongbyon and the 700-800 MWt reactor at Taechon would generate about 275 kilograms of plutonium per year if completed and operated at full capacity. Even if North Korea resumed work at these unfinished reactors it would take several years to complete construction and more time to operate them and reprocess the fuel.

North Korea could make more bombs if it produced highly enriched uranium and manufactured it into weapon cores. If it used a composite-core design, which features a smaller plutonium sphere encased in a shell of highly enriched uranium, the North could make even more bombs than if it used plutonium or uranium in separate weapons. (The United States successfully tested the composite-core design in Operation Sandstone during the spring of 1948.)

Ballistic missiles. North Korea retains a very active ballistic missile program (see "North Korean Ballistic Missiles,"). [10] Beginning in the 1960s, the Soviet Union supplied various types of missiles, supporting technologies, and training to North Korea. China began supplying North Korea with missile technology in the 1970s.

In 1979 and 1980, Egypt supplied Pyongyang with a small number of Soviet Scud B missiles, launchers, and support equipment. North Korea reverse-engineered the Scuds and built the industrial infrastructure to produce its own missiles. In 1987 and 1988 it was producing Scuds at a rate of eight to ten per month. It sold approximately 100 to Iran, many of which were fired at Iraqi cities during the Iran-Iraq War. North Korea first test-launched an extended-range version of the missile, known as the Scud C, in June 1990 and achieved a 500-kilometer range by reducing the payload from 1,000 to 770 kilograms. The North had produced a total of 600-1,000 Scud B and Scud Cs by the end of 1999, according to some estimates. It sold half of them to foreign countries.

Driven by a desire for longer missile ranges, North Korea developed what is known in the West as the Nodong (also Rodong), which has a maximum range of 1,480 kilometers (depending upon payload) and is capable of hitting Japan and U.S. bases in Okinawa. Pyongyang deployed 100 Nodongs in the mid-1990s and sold another 50 or so to foreign countries. The missile is known as the Ghauri-I in Pakistan and the Shahab-3 in Iran.

The North is working to build a missile with an intercontinental range. The two-stage Taepodong-1 is intended to carry a 1,000-1,500 kilogram warhead up to 2,300 kilometers. Pyongyang launched a three-stage space-launch version of the missile, intended to place a North Korean satellite in orbit, on August 31, 1998, from the facility at Musudan-ri. The missile flew over Japan, causing much consternation. Its first and second stages separated and landed in the water, but the third stage broke up after traveling more than 5,500 kilometers, and the satellite did not reach orbit.

Depending on the payload, the as-yet-untested Taepodong-2 may have a range greater than 6,200 kilometers, sufficient to strike parts of Hawaii and Alaska in its two-stage variant, and all of North America in a three-stage variant.

It is reasonable to assume that North Korea wants to put nuclear warheads on its ballistic missiles, but whether it has achieved this capability is unknown. Most other countries that have developed nuclear weapons chose airplanes as their initial delivery method, followed in most instances by the development of ballistic missiles of various ranges.

Although there is no evidence that North Korea has modified aircraft for nuclear delivery, such a capability would be easier to develop and more difficult to detect than ballistic missiles. North Korea maintains underground aircraft hangars within a 10-20 minute striking distance of Seoul and has bombers and fighter aircraft that had nuclear strike roles in the Soviet Air Force.

U.S. policies. The current administration's hope that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons seems fanciful at this point. [11] What incentives could possibly persuade it to give up its weapons program, dismantle its nuclear complex, and agree to an intrusive verification regime? It seems highly unlikely that North Korea would agree to abandon the very thing that gives it leverage with its neighbors and the United States.

President George W. Bush's first-term policies failed to move North Korea toward the goal of disarmament and instead proved to be counterproductive. Admonitions that North Korea is an "outpost of tyranny" and part of the "axis of evil" have tended to increase the North's already substantial fear and paranoia of the United States. The hardliners around Bush believe that isolation, pressure, and sanctions will cause North Korea to collapse and that it should not be rewarded for any positive steps it might take. The six-party talks, held in August 2003, February 2004, and June 2004, have yielded little. The United States proposed a step-by-step process for further talks, but North Korea recently rejected further negotiations.

The United States and the other parties involved in the negotiations disagree on how to deal with Pyongyang. Perhaps the sharpest differences are with South Korea. In a speech that must have shocked the Bush administration, South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun said that, "North Korea professes that nuclear capabilities are a deterrent for defending itself from external aggression." While in many cases its claims and allegations are hard to believe, Roh said that, "In this particular case it is true and undeniable that there is a considerable element of rationality in North Korea's claim." [12]

A nuclear-armed North Korea could trigger an arms race in East Asia and beyond. This prospect has already prompted the United States to expand its nuclear targeting doctrine, enlarge missile defense programs, and plan the development of new nuclear weapons, such as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. A nuclear North could further harden the U.S. posture toward the country and reinvigorate extended nuclear deterrence strategies in the region. Worse, Japan might decide to build its own nuclear weapons program, which would surely provoke a Chinese response and in turn cause reverberations in India and Pakistan. There could also be repercussions in Taiwan and South Korea, both of which built fledgling nuclear weapons programs before U.S. pressure shut them down. Recent public disclosures of secret South Korean nuclear research do little to increase trust and allay fears. [13]

Perhaps the greatest danger of all would be North Korea selling its plutonium, highly enriched uranium, or finished weapons to other countries or terrorists. Its track record with ballistic missiles is not encouraging. It has sold missiles to Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan--lucrative sources of income to the impoverished country. Fissile material and nuclear weapons would be even more lucrative and would have a far larger impact on regional and international security.

1. Korean Central News Agency, "DPRK FM on Its Stand to Suspend Its Participation in Six-Party Talks for Indefinite Period," February 10, 2005.

2. CIA, untitled estimate provided to Congress, November 19, 2002. According to the estimate, "The U.S. has been concerned about North Korea's desire for nuclear weapons and has assessed since the early 1990s that the North has one or possibly two weapons using plutonium it produced prior to 1992."

3. Bruce Cumings, "Nuclear Threats Against North Korea: Consequences of the 'Forgotten War,'" Le Monde Diplomatique, December 20, 2004.

4. Douglas Frantz, "A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout," Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2005, p. A1. Leonard Weiss, "Turning a Blind Eye Again? The Khan Network's History and Lessons for U.S. Policy," Arms Control Today, March 2005, pp. 12-18.

5. Weiss, "Turning a Blind Eye Again."

6. Seymour M. Hersh, "The Cold Test," The New Yorker, January 27, 2003.

7. Some of the plutonium may have come from a Russian supplied research reactor that first went critical in 1965. It was upgraded from 2 MWt to 4 MWt in 1974 and to 8 MWt in 1987.

8. Joseph Kahn, "China Questions U.S. Data on North Korea," New York Times, March 7, 2005, p. A5. See also: Joseph Kahn and Susan Chira, "Chinese Official Challenges U.S. Stance on North Korea," New York Times, June 8, 2004, p. 12; Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt, "Intelligence about Iran for Bush is Called Weak," New York Times, March 9, 2005, p. A1.

9. The IAEA uses 8 kilograms of plutonium and 25 kilograms of HEU as threshold amounts for a single nuclear device. The International Institute for Strategic Studies assumes 5-8 kilograms of plutonium and 20-25 kilograms of HEU to calculate the North Korean arsenal.

10. The program is carefully documented by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., A History of Ballistic Missile Development in the DPRK, Occasional Paper no. 2 (Monterey: Center for Nonproliferation Studies, 1999).

11. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States, 109th Cong., 1st sess., February 16, 2005. On p. 10, Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says that, "Kim Chong-Il may eventually agree to negotiate parts of his nuclear weapon stockpile and program and agree to some type of inspection regime, but we judge Kim is not likely to surrender all of his nuclear weapon capabilities."

12. Roh Moo-hyun, "The U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance and the Situation on the Korean Peninsula" (speech, Los Angeles World Affairs Council, November 12, 2004).

13. Jungmin Kang, et al., "South Korea's Nuclear Surprise," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 2005, pp. 40-49.

Nuclear Notebook is prepared by Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Inquiries should be directed to NRDC, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 20005; 202-289-6868.

May/June 2005 pp. 64-67 (vol. 61, no. 03) © 2005 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

North Korean ballistic missiles
MAXIMUM RANGE
(kilometers) PAYLOAD
(kilograms) COMMENT
SCUD B 320 1,000 Reverse-engineered
Soviet Scud B
SCUD C 570 770 Conventional explosives, chemical, and cluster
warheads
NODONG 1,480 1,200 Test-fired in May 1993; flew 500 kilometers. Fewer than 50 launchers deployed. Designed to carry a nuclear warhead
TAEPODONG-1 2,300 1,000-1,500 Test-launched August 31, 1998. Not yet deployed
TAEPODONG-2 6,200+ 700-1,000 Not yet tested
TAEPODONG-2
(three-stage) 15,000 unknown More than a decade away. May be capable of striking all of North America

Source (for range): NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE INTELLIGENCE CENTER

Approximate fissile material requirements for pure fission nuclear weapons
TECHNICAL CAPABILITY YIELD
LOW MEDIUM HIGH (KILOTONS)

WEAPON-
GRADE
PLUTONIUM
(KILOGRAMS) 3 1.5 1 1
4 2.5 1.5 5
5 3 2 10
6 3.5 3 20

HIGHLY
ENRICHED
URANIUM
(KILOGRAMS) 8 4 2.5 1
11 6 3.5 5
13 7 4 10
20 9 5 20

www.thebulletin.org | Copyright 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

1,581 posted on 08/23/2006 1:43:37 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

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Global nuclear stockpiles, 1945-2006

By Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen
July/August 2006 pp. 64-66 (vol. 62, no. 4) ) © 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Excessive secrecy prohibits the public from knowing the exact number of nuclear weapons in the world. Each nation shields the details of its own nuclear arsenal and generally knows few precise details about the size and composition of other countries' stockpiles.

Despite the uncertainty, we know that the total global nuclear weapons stockpile is considerably smaller than the 1986 Cold War high of 70,000-plus warheads. Through a series of arms control agreements and unilateral decisions, nuclear weapon states have reduced the global stockpile to its lowest level in 45 years. In the same period, the number of nuclear weapon states has grown from three to nine.

We estimate that these nine states possess about 27,000 intact nuclear warheads, of which 97 percent are in U.S. and Russian stockpiles. About 12,500 of these warheads are considered operational, with the balance in reserve or retired and awaiting dismantlement. We are able to make our estimates by monitoring all known nuclear weapon developments, by studying long-term trends, and by tracking the implementation of arms control treaties.

Estimating the arsenal sizes of the smaller nuclear powers--Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea--poses special difficulties, considering how minuscule they are compared with Russian and U.S. stockpiles. India and Pakistan have about 110 nuclear warheads between them, fewer than the number of warheads carried on a single U.S. Trident submarine, and the North Koreans could have around 10. Though Israel has not acknowledged it possesses nuclear weapons, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) estimates it has between 60 and 85 warheads.

More than 128,000 nuclear warheads have been built since 1945, according to our calculations, and all but close to 3 percent were built by the United States (about 55 percent) and the Soviet Union/Russia (about 43 percent). Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have moved an increasing percentage of their warheads from operational status to various reserve, inactive, or contingency categories, as arms control agreements traditionally have not required the destruction of warheads. For example, the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (the "Moscow Treaty") contains no verification provisions and ignores nonoperational and nonstrategic warheads altogether. With any number of warheads in indeterminate status, nuclear stockpiles are becoming more opaque and difficult to describe with precision. It's a situation that will only worsen after 2009 if the United States and Russia do not extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I, which requires biannual reporting on the status of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and bombers.

United States. The Pentagon has custody of approximately 10,000 stockpiled warheads, of which about 5,735 are considered active or operational. The remaining are categorized as reserve or inactive. Details from an Energy Department 2004 stockpile plan indicate that some 4,000 warheads will eventually be retired, returned to Energy's custody, and disassembled at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, though that task could take many years to accomplish. Refurbishments and upgrades to existing warheads will take priority over disassembly in terms of man-hours for the foreseeable future.

Of the more than 70,000 warheads produced by the United States since 1945, more than 60,000 have been disassembled by mid-2006. More than 13,000 of these warheads have been taken apart since 1990, but Energy retains more than 12,000 intact plutonium pits from dismantled warheads and stores them at Pantex.

Russia. Moscow has released very little information about the size of its stockpile, and its future plans are not known with a great deal of certainty. We estimate that since 1949 the Soviet Union/Russia produced some 55,000 nuclear warheads and that about 30,000 warheads existed in 1991 at the end of the Cold War. A few statements from Russian officials provide an occasional benchmark to help roughly calculate stockpile size and trends. But these statements typically lack detail, and the referenced dates are often ambiguous. In 1993, Victor Mikhailov, then minister of atomic energy, revealed that in 1986 the Soviet Union had 45,000 warheads in its stockpile. A decade later, Mikhailov said that nearly half of these warheads had been dismantled. [1]

The Defense Department and the CIA estimated that Russia dismantled slightly more than 1,000 warheads per year during the 1990s, though how firm those estimates were is unknown. Of the 16,000 intact warheads we estimate to be in Russia's possession today, around 5,830 are considered operational. Because Russia has removed warheads from its deployed and operational forces faster than it could dismantle them, there is a backlog of warheads awaiting dismantlement. The Moscow Treaty limits Russia's "operationally deployed strategic warheads" to no more than 2,200 by 2012, but its arsenal could shrink below this limit. Russia's production of new systems has been slow, and it is uncertain whether it can maintain such a large number of warheads because of limited resources and funding. Russia had previously pressed for a limit of 1,500 operational strategic warheads as part of the treaty, but the United States rejected this limit.

Britain. Since 1953, Britain has produced approximately 1,200 warheads, according to our estimates. The British arsenal peaked in the 1970s at 350 warheads and has mostly declined since. The current stockpile consists of some 200 strategic and "sub-strategic" warheads for delivery by Trident II SLBMs aboard Vanguard-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). The Labour government declared in July 1998 that it would maintain "fewer than 200 operationally available warheads," of which 48 would be on patrol at any given time on a single SSBN.

France. The current French stockpile includes approximately 350 warheads, down from some 540 in 1992. We estimate that France produced more than 1,260 nuclear warheads since 1964. In the past decade, France dismantled its land-based ballistic missiles and retired its nuclear bombs intended for delivery by naval strike aircraft. France initially planned to arm its M51 sea-launched ballistic missile, which is scheduled for deployment in 2010, with an entirely new warhead, the Tête Nucléaire Océanique (TNO), but the missile will instead be equipped with a more robust version of an existing design, probably the TN-75.

China. We estimate that China has an arsenal of some 200 nuclear warheads, down from an estimated 435 in 1993. This change is due to new information about the arsenal. China is thought to have produced some 600 nuclear warheads since 1964, and U.S. intelligence and defense agencies predict that over the next decade, China may increase the number of warheads targeted primarily against the United States from 20 to about 75-100.

India and Pakistan. Neither India nor Pakistan has released any official information to the public about the size of its nuclear arsenal. Combined, the two are thought to possess as many as 110 warheads, some of which may not be operationally deployed. Independent experts estimate that India has produced enough fissile material for between 60 and 105 nuclear warheads but may have assembled only 50-60 warheads. In contrast, these experts believe that Pakistan has produced fissile material sufficient for between 55 and 90 weapons and has assembled 40-50 warheads. [2] Both countries are thought to be increasing their stockpiles.

Israel. Although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it possesses nuclear weapons, the DIA concluded in 1999 that Israel had produced 60-80 warheads. Israel is estimated to have produced enough fissile material for between 115 and 190 warheads. The DIA projected that Israel's stockpile would increase only modestly by 2020.

North Korea. North Korea has a 5-megawatt-electric (MWe) graphite-moderated, gas-cooled reactor that began operations in 1986. Independent experts estimate that it has produced about 43 kilograms of separated plutonium, give or take 10 kilograms. [3] Depending upon the North Koreans' technical capability and the desired yield of the bomb, Pyongyang could have as few as five weapons or as many as fifteen. Ten weapons seems to be a reasonable estimate, with the addition of about one weapon per year. It is unknown if North Korea has weaponized its nuclear capability and made a deliverable or usable weapon that can be mated to a missile, for example. If North Korea completes an under-construction 50 MWe reactor in a few years, it could produce about 60 kilograms of plutonium per year, which could potentially grow the stockpile by 10-15 weapons per year.

The future. All five original nuclear weapon states continue to insist that nuclear weapons are essential to their national security, which translates into substantial global nuclear weapon stockpiles for the foreseeable future and the possibility that more nations will want the Bomb as well. India has committed to possessing a triad of nuclear forces including land-based ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, and sea-based missiles that will probably require an arsenal of 100-150 warheads. Not to be outdone, Pakistan will likely keep pace with a similarly sized arsenal. Whether Israel's nuclear arsenal remains opaque will likely depend on the development of Iran's nuclear program, which appears to be about three to ten years away from joining the nuclear weapon club. Despite nuclear weapon states' progress in reducing global stockpiles, convincing nations to abandon their nuclear arsenals altogether remains a formidable task, one that will likely remain impossible until the nuclear powers themselves renounce their weapons.

1. Interfax, "Country Dismantles Nearly Half Its Nuclear Arsenal," April 27, 1997 (transcribed in FBIS-TAC-97-117).

2. Estimates of fissile material production are from David Albright, Institute for Science and International Security, "Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials: Summary Tables and Charts," revised September 7, 2005 (http://www.isisonline.org/global_stocks/end2003/tableofcontents.html).

3. Siegfried S. Hecker, "Technical Summary of DPRK Nuclear Program," presentation at Carnegie Non-Proliferation Conference, November 8, 2005.

Nuclear Notebook is prepared by Robert S. Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Hans M. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists. Inquiries should be directed to NRDC, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 20005; 202-289-6868.

July/August 2006 pp. 64-66 (vol. 62, no. 4) ) © 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Nuclear weapons states*, 1945-2006
Year

U.S.

Russia

Britian

France

China

Total
1945
6

6
1946
11

11
1947
32

32
1948
110

110
1949
235

1

236
1950
369

5

374
1951
640

25

665
1952
1,005

50

1,055
1953
1,436

120

1

1,557
1954
2,063

150

5

2,218
1955
3,057

200

10

3,267
1956
4,618

426

15

5,059
1957
6,444

660

20

7,124
1958
9,822

869

22

10,713
1959
15,468

1,060

25

16,553
1960
20,434

1,605

30

22,069
1961
24,126

2,471

50

26,647
1962
27,387

3,322

205

30,914
1963
29,459

4,238

280

33,977
1964
31,056

5,221

310

4

1

36,592
1965
31,982

6,129

310

32

5

38,458
1966
32,040

7,089

270

36

20

39,455
1967
31,233

8,339

270

36

25

39,903
1968
29,224

9,399

280

36

35

38,974
1969
27,342

10,538

308

36

50

38,274
1970
26,662

11,643

280

36

75

38,696
1971
26,956

13,092

220

45

100

40,413
1972
27,912

14,478

220

70

130

42,810
1973
28,999

15,915

275

116

150

45,455
1974
28,965

17,385

325

145

170

46,990
1975
27,826

19,055

350

188

185

47,604
1976
25,579

21,205

350

212

190

47,536
1977
25,722

23,044

350

228

200

49,544
1978
24,826

25,393

350

235

220

51,024
1979
24,605

27,935

350

235

235

53,360
1980
24,304

30,062

350

250

280

55,246
1981
23,464

32,049

350

274

330

56,467
1982
23,708

33,952

335

274

360

58,629
1983
24,099

35,804

320

279

380

60,882
1984
24,357

37,431

270

280

415

62,753
1985
24,237

39,197

300

360

425

64,519
1986
24,401

45,000

300

355

425

70,481
1987
24,344

43,000

300

420

415

68,479
1988
23,586

41,000

300

410

430

65,726
1989
22,380

39,000

300

410

435

62,525
1990
21,004

37,000

300

505

430

59,239
1991
17,287

35,000

300

540

435

53,562
1992
14,747

33,000

300

540

435

49,022
1993
13,076

31,000

300

525

435

45,336
1994
12,555

29,000

250

510

400

42,715
1995
12,144

27,000

300

500

400

40,344
1996
11,009

25,000

300

450

400

37,159
1997
10,950

24,000

260

450

400

36,060
1998
10,871

23,000

260

450

400

34,981
1999
10,824

22,000

185

450

400

33,859
2000
10,577

21,000

185

470

400

32,632
2001
10,527

20,000

200

350

400

31,477
2002
10,475

19,000

200

350

400

30,425
2003
10,421

18,000

200

350

400

29,371
2004
10,358

18,000

200

350

400

29,308
2005
10,295

17,000

200

350

400

28,245
2006
10,104

16,000

200

350

200

26,854
*As outlined in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

www.thebulletin.org | Copyright 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

1,582 posted on 08/23/2006 1:57:42 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.strongangel3.net/

Anticipating Complexity | Exploring Responses | Cultivating Resilience

THE SCENARIO

A Complex Contingency: A lethal and highly-contagious virus gradually begins to spread around the globe. Infection rates are high, deaths are frequent, and no vaccine is available. Cities all over the world fall under quarantine. Emergency services and medical centers are stressed and national government agencies, affected just as severely as the cities themselves, cannot provide assistance. And then the situation goes from bad to worse.

A terrorist cell, having long waited for such an opportunity, launches a wave of successful cyber attacks in a medium size city somewhere in the developed world, bringing down grid power, Internet access, land and cellular telephones. Other, more subtle, attacks follow, and it's difficult to sort out the mess.

If there were ever a time to work effectively together, this would be it.

Recognizing that a comparable scenario might one day unfold in real life, a diverse group of disaster responders, technologists, and community leaders will assemble in San Diego in August of 2006 for an event designed to simulate a truly complex disaster. Over the course of seven days, on the grounds of the San Diego Fire Training Academy, the campus of San Diego State University, and in the streets of the city, we will explore techniques and technologies for responding effectively when the response itself must adapt to cascading losses. By demonstrating what is possible through public and private-sector partnerships within a community, we intend to develop approaches to cultivating local resilience that may be useful for any city, here or abroad.
International Partners

We are welcoming colleagues participating from around the world, including Afghanistan, Canada, China, England, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and more.

There is much here, interesting.....................

1,583 posted on 08/23/2006 2:02:16 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows.
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
INVASION USA
Illegal immigration sparks
'race war' in cities, prisons
Hispanic, black gangs battle
amid shifting demographics
Posted: August 23, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Member of Hispanic gang MS-13 (photo: News 14 Carolina)
WASHINGTON – Four members of a Hispanic gang in Los Angeles are convicted of federal hate crimes for the cold-blooded slaying of a black man in their neighborhood.

In Maryland, state corrections officials have begun a new study of prison gangs, including the growing numbers of Spanish-speaking gang members, amid mounting violence against prison workers.

A war between Hispanic and black prison gangs set off a series of riots across California this year leaving two dead and more than 100 were injured.

Pat Buchanan, WND columnist and author of the new best-selling book, "State of Emergency," sees them as symptoms of out-of-control immigration into the U.S. mainly from Mexico and Central America.

"The country club Republicans may not recognize what is happening here, but those in America's cities do," he said. "Why are we risking the destruction of our country over this? How many unskilled workers do we need here?"

National crime statistics released by the FBI show homicides up 5 percent last year. But the real story, say experts, is what is happening in urban pockets across the country, where murders – increasingly across racial lines – are way up.

In Philadelphia's 12th Police District shootings have almost doubled over the past year.

In Boston, the homicide rate is soaring.

In Orlando, the homicide count has reached 37, surpassing the city's previous record.

All of this follows a national trend of decreasing violent crime through 2002.

The biggest increase in violence is in smaller cities where gang and drug problems are relatively new. In 2005, jurisdictions with populations between 50,000 and 250,000 saw homicide increases of about 12.5 percent – far larger than the big cities, says David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Those numbers tell only part of the story," he said. "Serious crime is concentrated in certain areas within poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods. For people who live in the Trinidad area of Washington, in the Nickerson Gardens housing complex in South Los Angeles and on Magnolia Street in Boston, the citywide statistics have always been meaningless. Their neighborhoods are war zones."

More people are noticing that much of the violence is at least partly racially motivated and tied directly to the rapid increase in Hispanic population over the last decade – much of it due to illegal immigration.

Last month, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca cited tensions between black and Hispanic gangs for his decision to redeploy deputies to the Compton area, where four people were killed in 20 gang shootings during one July weekend.

In one high-profile example of what's happening on the city streets of Los Angeles, Alejandro "Bird" Martinez and three other Hispanic gang members were joyriding in a stolen van when they came upon a black man parking his car. According to court testimony, they decided to kill him. Three of the four shot Kenneth Kurry Wilson with a .357-caliber revolver, a 9 mm semiautomatic and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Earlier this month, Martinez and three other members of the Avenues, a Hispanic gang, were convicted of federal hate crimes. It is believed to be the first case in which the U.S. Justice Department has prosecuted a minority gang as a hate group, using laws traditionally employed to go after white supremacist groups like skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan.

Recently, a Hispanic teen was murdered by a black assailant who, witnesses said, yelled a gang name as he fled. On June 30, a pair of black gunmen killed three Hispanics, prompting black and Hispanic leaders to call an emergency summit on how to call a halt to the bloodbath in the streets of L.A.

Observers suggest the situation on the streets is complicated by the numbers of gang members returning from prison, where joining a race-based gang is often a matter of survival.

In the case of the Avenues gang, an informant told the FBI members had received an order from the Mexican Mafia prison gang to kill all blacks on sight in their mainly Hispanic neighborhood. Leading up to Wilson's murder, members of the Avenues terrorized other blacks, shooting a 15-year-old boy on a bike, pistol-whipping a jogger and drawing outlines of human bodies in a black family's driveway, according to news reports.

Gang feuds were historically intra-racial rather than interracial. But that situation began to change with the heavy influx of Hispanics in some previously predominantly black neighborhoods.

For instance, in the late 1990s, newly arrived Hispanics began moving into the traditionally black communities of Compton and South Los Angeles. An area that was 80 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic is now 60 percent Hispanic, 40 percent black.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations' latest human rights report said there were 41 recorded cases of interracial gang-related hate crime in 2004. But commissioners agreed the real number would be much higher if victims were not afraid to go to the police.

"In the overwhelming number of these cases, Latino gang members spontaneously attacked African-American victims who had no gang affiliation," the commission wrote.

It said conflicts between racially based prison gangs like the Mexican Mafia "can have a significant impact on racialized gang violence in L.A. County and contribute to the levels of hate violence involving gangs."

Meanwhile, in Maryland, officials are increasingly concerned about the impact of growing numbers of Hispanic gang members in state prisons.

Karen V. Poe, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the newly arrived Hispanic gangs – like MS-13 – pose a new set of problems in prison.

"They're not your Bloods and Crips," Poe said. "We need to look at communicating with them, understanding what they're saying to one another."

Inside the prisons, tensions are higher than ever because of turf wars between the competing gangs, said Ronald E. Smith, a former Maryland correctional officer who is now a labor relations specialist with a prison workers' union.

"Crips, Bloods, the Black Guerrilla Family, MS-13 – all these gangs are in there and they're all fighting for territory and control of all the drugs that come into the prison, the flow of money – anything they can take to show that they have the authority there," he told the Associated Press.

Smith said about two dozen inmates from competing gangs were involved in a riot inside the medium-security Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown July 26. Meanwhile, the rate of assaults on correctional officers in the state's maximum-security prisons nearly doubled from about 3.4 per 100 inmates in 2004 to 6.6 in 2005, according to a budget analysis by the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services.

Related offers:

Get Pat Buchanan's new best-selling book, "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America."

Get "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders," by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist

Get Rep. Tom Tancredo's "In Mortal Danger" direct from the people who published it – WND Books.

Michelle Malkin's "Invasion"

Illegal aliens invading U.S.: Expose puts you on southern border as citizens battle human flood

Previous stories:

Illegal aliens linked to gang-rape wave

Gang expert backs Tancredo charges

Mexican drug cartels take over U.S. cities

Tancredo's tome strikes chord

Tancredo blasts Senate 'amnesty'

Tancredo leads presidential poll

Tancredo wins GOP presidential poll

1,584 posted on 08/23/2006 2:29:03 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows.
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006
INVASION USA
Illegal aliens linked
to gang-rape wave
The crime epidemic no one will talk about?
Posted: August 22, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Member of gang Mara Salvatrucha (NPR.org)
A wave of illegal-immigrant gang rapes is sweeping the U.S. while public officials and law-enforcement authorities fear drawing the link, experts say.

Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, a Ph.D. researcher of violent crimes, told WorldNetDaily, "It appears as if there is a fear that if this is honestly discussed, people will hate all illegal immigrants. So there is silence. … But in being silent about the rapes and murders, it is as if the victims never even existed."

Schurman-Kauflin, who runs the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta, participated in a 12-month, in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders from January 1999 through April 2006. The study found approximately 240,000 illegal-immigrant sex offenders reside in the United States – while 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders come across U.S. borders illegally every day.

Schurman-Kauflin said, "Gang rapes by illegal immigrants appear to be gang related. Many of the cases I reviewed involved gang members. As part of being a cohesive group, they offend together. Inflicting brutal gang rapes brings them closer together as a group. It is a way to demonstrate their power. And it sends a message to anyone who dares to cross them."

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC told WND it now is tracking 12 gang rapes by illegal aliens within America's borders since Oct. 2004.

ALIPAC's president, William Gheen, said, "These are just the ones we know of. The real number is much higher."

Gheen told WND he believes the number of gang rapes is increasing as the population of illegal aliens in the U.S. increases.

"Many illegal aliens have a rape and pillage mentality toward America," he said. "The government has shown them they can break our laws on many levels without much fear of enforcement. Why should they think of rape or gang rape any differently?"

Gheen said, "Illegal aliens are more likely to engage in these crimes because rapes and gang rapes are much more common in the gang-rule Third World areas they come from."

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, a highly organized and well-funded Central American gang, is infiltrating at least 33 states across the U.S., according to law-enforcement authorities. The gang is well-known in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., for excessive brutality. Any person suspected of cooperating with authorities is hunted down, tortured and killed. Initiation rites include kickings, beatings and gang rapes.

Gheen said, "These gangs are forcing new female gang members to undergo gang rape to enter the gang and they are asking their male initiates to gang rape American women to become an official member of the gang."

MS-13 relies on metropolitan areas with highly concentrated populations of illegal aliens to boost its spreading membership. Chapters require that initiates perform random acts of violence, such as participating in gang rapes, to gain acceptance, confirm law-enforcement officials.

Three MS-13 gang members were charged in the brutal rapes of two deaf girls, one 14, the other 17, in a Massachusetts park in 2002. One victim, who also suffered from cerebral palsy, was pushed out of her wheelchair before being raped repeatedly.

Illegal alien rapists often maintain several aliases, making escaping justice easier.

Jorge Villa-Gutierrez, 25, is in prison for the gang rape of an 18-year-old Douglas County, Colorado woman. He claimed to have paid only $100 for a fake ID and Social Security number.

Manuel Cantu, 28, pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court February 2005 in Cambridge, Mass., to six counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old. Cantu also went by the aliases Angel Meza and Angel M. Salvador, according to court documents.

Gheen said, "Illegal aliens have been walking out of American prisons after serving their time at taxpayer expense without being deported. Our government can't or won't find the hundreds of thousands of known felon illegal aliens walking America's streets tonight much less stop the new felons coming in tonight across our unsecured borders."

The Violent Crimes Institute study established a pattern of escalating offenses among illegal aliens, whose first offense was illegally entering the U.S.

Schurman-Kauflin told WND, "Illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes first cross the U.S. border illegally, then gradually commit worse crimes and are continually released back into society or deported. Those who were deported simply returned illegally again. There is a clear pattern of criminal escalation. From misdemeanors such as assault or DUI, to drug offenses, illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes break U.S. laws repeatedly."

Most of the offenders reported in the study were located in states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California was No. 1, followed by Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Florida. The 1,500 offenders studied had a total of 5,999 victims – averaging four victims each. Of those studied, 525, or 35 percent, were child molestations, 358, or 24 percent, were rapes, and 617, or 41 percent, were sexual homicides and serial murders.

Schurman-Kauflin said, "We need to know who is coming into this country. It is a matter of security, life and death. … Our borders should be secured so that those with evil intentions cannot enter. We need more Border Patrol agents, more training for these agents and a commitment that we will not tolerate predators coming into this country. There must be security and a return to the rule of law."

Last year, officials of the House Judiciary Committee said that U.S. immigration officers and police are not always on the same page. Police do not always inform immigration authorities about arrests of undocumented aliens, and immigration officers are often too late to identify the aliens before they are released on bail.

New York's arm of the Department of Homeland Security is only interviewing 40 percent of foreign-born inmates at Rikers Island – "a failure that puts criminal aliens back on the streets instead of deporting them," according to the New York Post.

"Gang rape is a form of terrorism. It has been used throughout history as a weapon of terror," Gheen said. "Most Americans do not see the war that is already upon us in our communities and neighborhoods."

Some high-profile gang rapes by illegal immigrants include:

* December 2002 – In New York, several criminal aliens, who had passed in and out of Rikers and other jails without being detected by immigration officials, brutally beat and gang-raped a Queens mother of two near Shea Stadium. Three of the five rapists were illegal Mexican aliens with multiple prior arrests for crimes including assault, weapon possession and armed robbery.

* January 2004 – Four illegal aliens were among the five men who brutally gang-raped a New York City woman. "They punched me so hard that I was knocked to the floor," the 43-year-old victim wrote before Supreme Court Justice Randall Eng sentenced one of her attackers, Victor Cruz, to 21 years in prison. Cruz, Luis Carmona, Carlos Rodriguez, Armando Juvenal and José Hernandez pleaded guilty in December to rape and kidnapping charges in exchange for sentences of 20 to 23 years.

* October 2004 – a 37-year-old North Carolina woman was gang raped by at least seven illegal aliens in Huntersville, N.C.

* Oct. 4, 2005 – In Immokalee, Fla., 14 field laborers, ranging in age from 18 to 56, broke into an 18-year-old woman's home, dragged her across the street and then took turns raping her. The victim said the men choked and hit her until she became unconscious. When she awoke, a man poured alcohol in her mouth. The men removed her clothing and each one raped her.

* June 28, 2006 – Texas' Waco Tribune Herald reported illegal immigrants Javier Guzman Martinez, 18, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, have been charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated sexual assault of an 18-year-old Tehuacana woman. The girl had been cut with a piece of glass or "other unknown object."

* July 10 – In Sayre, Pa., the Evening Times reported "Gasper Almilcar Guzman" was among a group of men who were found July 10 to be in this country illegally following a routine traffic stop in Athens Township. Guzman had been convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in Alabama in 2005. Guzman was deported before he could begin serving his five-year sentence.

* July 13 -- In Noblesville, Ind., an illegal alien named Miguel Gutierrez, 20, faces two counts of rape for taking a 14-year-old into a garage and participating in a four-man gang rape on the girl. Following the gang rape, the girl was forced into a car and raped again, according to news reports.

* July 17 – In Greenville, N.C., Fernando Cruz, 41, Walter Ramires, 26, Luis Morales, 24, and Pedro Vasques, 27, were charged with first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping of a woman. They drove the woman to a field path on the edge of town and took turns raping her.

* July 21 – Sinoe Salgado Garcia, a 28-year-old Fontana, Calif., man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 4-year-old girl, was sentenced to a 30-year-to-life prison term, according to the Riverside Press Enterprise. The child was found hours later inside a shed, thrown over a 6-foot-tall block wall, investigators said. She underwent surgery to repair damage caused by the rape and sodomy, court records show. The site reported that she also suffered three facial fractures.

* Aug. 3 – Two young illegal aliens living in Charlotte, N.C., were charged with gang raping an Asheville teenager at the Red Roof Inn. They are 22-year-old Pablo Vasquez Osorio and 23-year-old Marcos Guerrero Fuentes. Both were charged with first-degree rape and kidnapping of a 17-year-old Asheville girl at a Red Roof Inn.

Related offers:

Get Rep. Tom Tancredo's "In Mortal Danger" direct from the people who published it – WND Books.

Michelle Malkin's "Invasion"

Jon Dougherty's "Illegals"

Previous stories:

Aliens among us? Don't ask, don't tell

Study: 1 million sex crimes by illegals

Gang expert backs Tancredo charges

Mexican drug cartels take over U.S. cities

Tancredo's tome strikes chord

Tancredo blasts Senate 'amnesty'

Tancredo leads presidential poll

Tancredo wins GOP presidential poll

Chelsea Schilling is a WND intern based in Texas and currently in Washington.

1,585 posted on 08/23/2006 2:31:25 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3294557,00.html

Assad: No UN troops on Lebanon-Syria border

Syrian president rejects Israeli demands for deployment of international troops on Lebanese-Syrian border to stop what Israel says is smuggling of arms to Hizbullah
Reuters

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday rejected Israeli demands for the deployment of international troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop what Israel says is the smuggling of arms to Hizbullah.

"This would be a withdrawal of Lebanese sovereignty and a hostile position," Assad said, according to advance excerpts of an interview to be aired by Dubai Television on Wednesday.

Opportunity?
Turkey: Lebanon war could lead to peace / Reuters
Following meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says 'after this catastrophe there is an opportunity to achieve peace'; adds Assad shares his view
Full story

The United Nations is trying to assemble a force of 15,000 to monitor a truce in southern Lebanon after a 34-day war between Israeli and the Shiite Muslim terror group Hizbullah , which ended eight days ago with an uneasy truce.

Israel wants UN troops to police border crossings between Lebanon and Syria to prevent weapons smuggling.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said stationing some of the international force at border crossings and Beirut airport would enable Israel to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said on Tuesday that there were indications from senior Lebanese officials that they would request help in monitoring the crossings and that the international community would heed any such requests.

He said about 2,000 Lebanese forces had deployed along the border with Syria, but the United Nations was having difficulty attracting contributions for the international force.

Many countries have demanded a clearer mandate for the expanded UN force, authorised by UN Security Council resolution 1701 establishing the ceasefire.

That resolution also demands that Lebanon's borders be demarcated, particularly to solve a dispute over the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-occupied strip near the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Border demarcation

Assad said, however, that his country would not draw the border until Israel withdrew from the area.

"There will be no drawing of the border in the Shebaa Farms before the Israeli forces leave it," Assad said.

"Hizbullah's victory was enough to teach Israel a lesson, that the isolation of Syria has failed and that anyone who tries to isolate Syria isolates himself from basic issues."

The Shebaa Farms is a small patch of land claimed by Lebanon, but occupied by Israel since it captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The United Nations deems the territory Syrian until such time as Syria cedes it to Lebanon.

Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation, but remain in Shebaa Farms.

After 29 years, Syria pulled out of Lebanon last year under intense world and Lebanese pressure following the killing of a former prime minister which many blamed on Damascus.

Assad said there was still a chance that peace could be achieved in the Middle East but that the window of opportunity could close within weeks or months.

Olmert this week rejected suggestions from within his cabinet that Israel should talk to Syria, saying peace negotiations could only be held if it stopped backing groups like Hizbullah.

1,586 posted on 08/23/2006 2:34:44 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3294666,00.html

Russia ready to seek negotiated settlement on Iran

Published: 08.23.06, 09:53

Russia is ready to pursue contacts with all sides to achieve a negotiated settlement to Iran's differences with the West on its nuclear program, the Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

"Russia will continue with the idea of seeking a political, negotiated settlement concerning Iran's nuclear program, maintaining the role of the IAEA and rejecting dilution of the principles of non-proliferation," Interfax news agency quoted ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying. (Reuters)

1,587 posted on 08/23/2006 2:37:50 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3294430,00.html

Sinai: 10 Israeli tourists killed in bus accident

(VIDEO) Bus carrying Israeli Arab tourists overturns Tuesday afternoon between Nuweiba and Taba in Sinai; Egyptian authorities: At least 11 tourists killed. Magen David Adom ambulances receive injured at Taba Terminal
Meir Ohayon

VIDEO - Ten Israeli passengers were killed Tuesday afternoon and dozens were injured as a bus overturned near the Egyptian town of al-Saada near Nuweiba in Sinai. Egyptian authorities and official sources in Sinai reported that 11 people were killed about 50 were injured led in the accident, some of them Israelis from Arab communities in northern Israel.

* Eyewitnesses: People died in our arms

Two passengers who sustained serious wounds, four who sustained moderate wounds and another 23 who were lightly injured in the accident crossed the Taba border terminal and were treated by Magen David Adom crews that were waiting in the area for many hours, since the accident occurred.

The injured were evacuated to the Yoseftal hospital in Eilat for medical treatment.

Scene of the accident (Photo: AP)

The accident occured at around 4:30 p.m. The bus, which belongs to the Egyptian RANO company, was one of eight driving Israeli Arabs on an organized tour. The tour was arranged by the Bassel Tours company from Nazareth.

Several passengers who sustained serious injuries were evacuated to the hospitals in Nuweiba and Sharm al-Sheikh. Passengers who sustained light injuries boarded buses making their way to the Taba Terminal.

High alert at Taba Terminal (Video: Haim Weingerten)

Workers at the Bassel Tours office told Ynet that the bus carried Israeli tourists from Sharm to Israel and back on a daily basis.

Leviv, one of the company managers said: "The tourists were families who were on their way home from Sharm to Israel. They were families from Nazareth, Kafr Manda and Kafr Yasif.

Referring to the Egyptian company, he said: "It's a very reliable company. We have been working with them for eight years now, and the bus which overturned was of a 2006 model."

Another manager in the company turned to the Egyptians through Ynet: "I turn to you and ask that you let the MDA ambulances enter. We view this as humanitarian aid."

Eilat District Police Commander Bruno Stein said that the bus overturned as a result of a puncture.

The Egyptian police officer also said that the accident was apparently caused by a flat tire, but added that "the authorities are also looking into the possibility that the driver lost control as a result of reckless driving at high speed. All the signs point to the fact that an explosion in one of the tires caused the bus to overturn. There are several casualties on the scene."

According to the officer, Israel was exerting efforts to allow the entry of Magen David Adom ambulances into Sinai. Army officials have contacted the Egyptian authorities to look into the possibility of sending crews to assist in the rescue efforts.

Ambulances wait at Taba Terminal (Photo: Haim Weingerten)

The MDA spokesman said that MDA Director-General Eli Bin issued an order to boost Eilat with mobile intensive care units and send ambulances to the border terminal in order to prepare for a possibility of entering Egypt or receiving the casualties on the border.

The MDA manager in the Negev district, who was on his way to the Taba Terminal, said: "We received information from people who were on the other bus. Two helicopters also arrived at the terminal, and the injured will be first evacuated to the Yoseftal hospital and then to other hospitals in Israel."

Popular tourist destination

About 40 Magen David Adom ambulances prepared to receive the injured at the Taba Terminal on the Israel-Egypt border. The Israel Defense Force is expected to fly paramedics to Eilat via helicopters to boost the crews there.

"We provided blood units to the Yoseftal hospital in Eilat. At the moment we are collecting additional details," MDA Spokesman Yeruham Mandola told Ynet.

The Eilat Police set up a command post headed by Eilat District Police Commander Bruno Stein. The Yoseftal hospital was preparing for a mass-casualty event with crews of doctors and nurses, and the hospital workers were preparing at the hospital to receive the injured from the accident.

The Foreign Ministry reported that a team from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo left for the field to see whether any assistance was needed. The Interior Ministry enabled Israelis to return from Sinai and enter Israel even without a passport.

Many Israelis, especially young ones, continue to travel to Sinai in spite of the two terror attacks that hit the area in recent years. Many beaches have become very popular due to the cheap accommodation prices. Nuweiba is considered one of the popular destinations.

Ali Waked, Sharon Roffe-Ofir, Roee Nahmias, Vered Luvitch and Meital Yasur-Beit Or contributed to the report

1,588 posted on 08/23/2006 2:44:16 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3294745,00.html

MK Hilou: Don't go to Sinai

Following difficulties Egyptians made for injured Israeli bus passengers, Labor Knesset member calls to boycott trips to Egyptian peninsula
Roee Nahmias

Knesset Member Nadia Hilou, responding to difficulties encountered by Israeli casualties of a bus accident in Sinai, Egypt, called on Israelis to stay away from the area.

Fatal Accident
Sinai: 10 Israeli tourists killed in bus accident / Meir Ohayon
(VIDEO) Bus carrying Israeli Arab tourists overturns Tuesday afternoon between Nuweiba and Taba in Sinai; Egyptian authorities: At least 11 tourists killed. Magen David Adom ambulances receive injured at Taba Terminal
Full Story
"I am calling on all Israelis, Arabs and Jews, to boycott Egypt in protest of the failed treatment and blunders shown by the Egyptian authorities towards those injured and killed," MK Hilou (Labor) said.

The overturned bus was packed with travelers – most of them from holidaymakers from northern Israel who hoped to find some respite after a month of war and sitting in bomb shelters.

Many of those injured said that the evacuation of the wounded was clumsy, and that the Egyptians made it difficult to transfer injured people to Israel .

Members of the Juwamis family, of Beit Zarzir, were taken to the Nuweiba hospital, and returned to Israel furious. "The situation at the hospital is very bad. People don't have water, infusion, there are no sheets on the beds, the bathrooms stink – it all looks simply shocking. People are lying on the floor in the hospital, it's simply unbelievable. The injured told the Egyptians that they want to go to Israel to receive treatment at the hospital there, and the Egyptian's didn't agree," he recounted.

Family members added: "On the ground no one helped either, people died on the spot because there wasn't first aid. Foreign tourists from Europe helped us rescue the wounded, it's a disgrace what happened there, with all the injured children around. It hurts to see these scenes. That's the last time we are traveling to Sinai."

Difficulties

Khusam Omar, an eyewitness to the accident, spoke about the difficulties in evacuating the wounded and the disorder at the scene.

Scene of accident in Sinai (Photo: AP)

"We pushed people into trucks, so they take them to the hospital," he said. "Egyptian ambulances only arrived after half an hour."

Hilou called for the immediate transfer of injured people and bodies to Israel. "Overnight I spoke with every possible source in order to allow Israeli ambulances to go in and help," she said.

She says she also spoke with the hospital and police in Egypt. "I was very angry that the Israeli ambulances had to wait for hours at the border and that Israeli authorities didn't let them in. Many children bled throughout all that time, and by the morning they hardly knew the names of those killed. We can't return to normal after hearing about a mother whose son bled to death for hours. If that's the situation, I would like to ask all potential tourists not to travel, because when a disaster happens I am expecting cooperation and better treatment, a higher level of humanity, and not for all kinds of procedures when human lives are at stake," added Hilou.

The Knesset member added that this was not the first time Egyptian management has proved to be a failure: "The movement of tourism to Egypt, especially during this month, and especially to Sharm el-Sheikh, is large, mainly due to Arab Israeli tourists. If this is the treatment, I call on them not to travel. This is not a singular incident. In one of the last terror attacks Arab Israelis from Jaffa were injured and the treatment failed then too."

1,589 posted on 08/23/2006 2:46:48 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: All; milford421

http://www.news10.net/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=19490

Fair Oaks Church Fire Ruled Arson
Written for the web by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer
Written for the web by Kristi Mattes, News Producer

Fire investigators have determined a fire that caused substantial damsge to Grace Baptist Church in Fair Oaks early Tuesday morning was arson.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department crews were called out to the blaze just after 1 a.m. The church's roof collapsed after the fire spread from the back of the building into the attic. No one was inside at the time and there were no injuries.

After spending the day examining evidence, investigators from the fire department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced the blaze was deliberately set. Their investigation continues into finding who set the fire.

"The evidence we've looked at, we're confident that this is a crime," said Sacramento Metro Fire Capt. Jeff Lynch. "We're confident that this was a deliberate act. It's important that you understand that now that it's a criminal investigation."

Continued............................

1,590 posted on 08/23/2006 6:21:36 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: All; Velveeta; milford421; DAVEY CROCKETT

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=40678&provider=top

U.S. Airplane Escorted Back to Airport by F-16's

Posted by: Greg Borowski, Producer
Created: 8/23/2006 7:04:17 AM
Updated: 8/23/2006 8:09:49 AM

Aiport officials in Amsterdam confirm that a Northwest Airlines flight was diverted back to Amsterdam and several passengers have been taken off the plane for questioning.

The Associated Press is reporting that two Dutch F-16 fighter jets escorted the plane back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, where the plane had taken off.

Stay with WGRZ.COM for continuing updates on this developing story.

WGRZ/AP

Northwest Airplanes

1,591 posted on 08/23/2006 6:27:19 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

Update:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688550/posts

Terror Raid in Western New York
WGRZ.com ^ | Updated: 8/23/2006 7:06:52 AM | Lynne Dixon

Posted on 08/23/2006 6:13:01 AM PDT by freeperfromnj

The FBI says it's all part of an ongoing investigation into a group of Sri Lankans with terrorist plans. The FBI says there were no plans to attack Americans, but that the group, known as the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" was targeting their home country of Sri Lanka. Officials say that terror group is responsible for assassinating a former prime minister of India.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force raided the Amherst home. Neighbors say three men were taken out in handcuffs. They say the task force also removed files, a computer and suitcases.

While it's not clear what role the three men arrested in Amherst allegedly played, the FBI says they've been watching the entire group, the Tamil Tigers, for years. The FBI's Leslie Wiser Jr. says the group was trying to purchase ten shoulder-fired surface to air missiles that can be used to bring down airplanes, and at least 500 A-K 47 assault weapons. According to Wiser, the terror group also asked for other sophisticated devises used in military operations.

Again, the FBI emphasizes there's no indication the weapons were to be used on U-S soil and it's still not clear what role the three men arrested in Amherst allegedly played.

1,592 posted on 08/23/2006 6:31:51 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: All; milford421; Velveeta; DAVEY CROCKETT

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688517/posts

Dutch F-16s escort plane back to airport
Yahoo News ^ | 8-23-06 | AP

Posted on 08/23/2006 5:21:59 AM PDT by standingfirm

24 minutes ago

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch F-16s escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for India back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday, and authorities detained several passengers for questioning, an airport spokeswoman said.

The pilot of the aircraft radioed Schiphol for permission to return and a military escort as it was flying over Germany shortly after leaving Amsterdam, said spokeswoman Pamela Kuypers.

Rick Hirs, a spokesman for the customs police at Schiphol, said it was not clear why the plane had returned. "We don't know yet. We are interviewing passengers and crew members," he said.

Hirs said nobody on the plane had been arrested, and there were no injuries.

The Dutch National Terrorism Coordinator's Office had been informed of the incident but said there was no cause to raise the national threat level, said spokeswoman Judith Sluiter.

"It is the same as it was before — light threat," said Sluiter.

It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on board the plane, but a Northwest DC-10 has a seating capacity of 273, and Kuypers said the plane was full "as far as I know."

Kuypers said the aircraft parked at the gate when it returned to allow all other passengers to disembark.

Last year, a British Airways flight returned to Schiphol in similar circumstances, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

1,593 posted on 08/23/2006 6:39:08 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: nw_arizona_granny

Aiport officials in Amsterdam confirm that a Northwest Airlines flight was diverted back to Amsterdam and several passengers have been taken off the plane for questioning.

They're discussing this on FOX news now.
Pilot had to dump fuel in order to return.
Reporter said this happens so infrequently in Amsterdam that they feel the pilot must have been justified in his decision. (Not much of an update)

1,594 posted on 08/23/2006 6:40:51 AM PDT by Velveeta

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688510/posts

Bali bomber 'planned attack online from jail'
news.com.au ^ | 23rd August 2006

Posted on 08/23/2006 5:15:10 AM PDT by naturalman1975

ONE of the 2002 Bali bombers used a laptop smuggled to him in jail to help organise the triple suicide blasts that rocked the resort island last year, Indonesian police said today.

Police say Imam Samudra used a laptop with a wireless connection smuggled into his prison cell to chat with Islamic militants and raise money for last year's October 1 blasts at Kuta and Jimbaran Bay, which killed 20 innocent bystanders, including four Australians.

“Imam Samudra ... directed the fund-raising for the second Bali bombing,” the national police chief of the cyber crime unit, Petrus Golose, said in Jakarta.

“The laptop allowed Imam Samudra to chat without restrictions in Ahlussunnah and CafeIslam chatrooms,” he said referring to religious chatrooms.

“This took place before the second Bali bombing.”

He did not say whether the militant used a mobile phone to connect to the internet.

Imam Samudra and two other militants, Amrozi and Ali Gufron, have been on death row for more than two years after courts convicted them of playing leading roles in the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

While they were in prison, suicide bombings ripped through three restaurants in Bali last October.

Golose said the information was obtained after police arrested two men this month who ran a website to raise funds for attacks through online credit card fraud.

One of the men smuggled a laptop to Samudra with the help of a prison official at the request of Noordin Top, Southeast Asia's number one fugitive and the master bomb maker for the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Samudra, Ghufron and Amrozi have since been transferred to an island prison off the southern coast of Java island, where they await executions.

The attorney general's office said this week the executions of the three men had been delayed, citing a judicial review planned by defence lawyers.

In an interview aired on Indonesian television ANTV today, Ghufron said his one regret was that he only has one life to surrender in the pursuit of jihad.

Ghufron said he was proud to have been among those brave enough to carry out the 2002 Bali bombings, which he said were a payback aimed at the United States.

Asked why he chose to join the deadly plot, Ghufron told Indonesian television ANTV: “Why? Because America invades Indonesia in all aspects.

“Economically, culturally, all been invaded. We, thank God, are the ones (who) came out to be brave.”

In the interview, recorded before the executions were delayed, Ghufron said he wished he had more lives to give up in the pursuit of jihad, or holy war.

“If only I had life as the number of my hair, then I want each one of it be put to death,” he said.

“I come back alive again, make another jihad and be put to death again, then back alive again and I want it that way.

“But, life is only one, so ... just surrender to it.”

None of the three condemned convicts have expressed remorse over their roles in the 2002 attacks.

Their appeal will be based on a constitutional court ruling that anti-terror laws introduced soon after the bombings, and which were used to convict the three, could not be applied retroactively.

1,595 posted on 08/23/2006 6:41:54 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688508/posts

Sail to the U.S.A. in a Chevrolet - (the real story behind the Cuban 'truckonauts')
CAR and DRIVER ^ | August 2006 | JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN

Posted on 08/23/2006 5:11:45 AM PDT by The Bronze Titan

How Luis Grass turned some very old Detroit iron into a seagoing escape vehicle. Twice.

In the ’60s, at the height of the Cold War, communist Cuba seemed dangerously close to the United States. After all, 90 miles is no distance at all for a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.

But the Florida Strait is treacherous — a tough 90 miles to cover in any boat. With the Gulf Stream surging through along with the strong Florida Current, it’s usually windy with heavy swells. In hurricane season, the murderous storms seem to head right into it. Of course, there are plenty of sharks, too.

But it’s vastly more perilous crossing it in a Chevrolet, Buick, or Mercury.

“In the ocean the biggest boat is still, like, a little thing,” explains Luis Grass, now 38, who in July 2003 took 11 of his family and friends and almost made it to the U.S. aboard a green 1951 Chevrolet two-ton truck he had made, if not strictly seaworthy, at least seaworthy enough.

- read the rest of the story... here

1,596 posted on 08/23/2006 6:45:44 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688502/posts

Persons Associated with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) Arrested
Royal Canadian Mounted Police ^ | 2006-08-21 | (press release)

Posted on 08/23/2006 4:55:21 AM PDT by Clive

Ottawa - August 21, 2006— In recent days, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has executed two search warrants and arrested one person under authority of a provisional warrant in Canada. The arrest is part of a joint operation involving the RCMP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Canadian resident, Suresh Sriskandarajah, age 26, arrested under the provisional warrant is awaiting extradition to the U.S.

Generally speaking, the RCMP does not reveal details regarding operational police matters in order to protect the privacy rights of individuals; to protect our investigations; and most importantly, to protect all Canadians.

Nevertheless, the following information can be confirmed: the investigation is a joint operation of the FBI and RCMP, specifically, the RCMP national security program and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) in Toronto, Ontario, and other US law enforcement partners. Several persons associated with the LTTE have been charged in the US for terrorist procurement activities. According to U.S. authorities, those persons are:

Sathajhan Sarachandran, age 26
Sahilal Sabaratnam, age 27
Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, age 37
Nadarasa Yograrasa, age 52
Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, age 57
Nachimuthu Socrates, age 54
Vijayshanthar Patpanathan, age 44
Thirukumaran Sivasubramaniam, age 27
Of these eight, three are Canadian residents.

The RCMP is continuing to pursue the Canadian component of this investigation with the potential to lay criminal charges in the future. There is no known direct threat against Canada.

These arrests demonstrate how integrated policing and international cooperation enhance the ability of the law enforcement community to protect the safety and security of the public. This has been and continues to be a complex and intensive investigation involving many partners.

As this investigation is ongoing, it is inappropriate to provide additional details at this time.

-30-

1,597 posted on 08/23/2006 6:47:57 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: All; DAVEY CROCKETT

1,598 posted on 08/23/2006 7:09:07 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

To: All; milford421; Founding Father

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688588/posts

Al Jazeera releases Tape of Centanni & Wiig
FNC ^ | 8/23 | Staff

Posted on 08/23/2006 6:56:21 AM PDT by txroadkill

Gives 72 hour deadline to release all muslim prisoners.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...

1,599 posted on 08/23/2006 7:14:50 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

August 23, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News

Poll: Most think bin Laden planning another U.S. attack
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/22/osama.poll/index.html

British Officials May Charge 11 More Airline Terror Plot Suspects -
will decide at a closed-door hearing Wednesday whether to charge 11 more
suspects
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209937,00.html

(British Terrorist Plot) Suspects charged over airline bomb plot 'will
deny all the allegations'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2324931,00.html

(UK) Minister warns of a 'perpetual battle' with Islamist Terrorists
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2324925,00.html

(Iraq) Woman killed, 10 injured, by Mosul suicide bomber
http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=82594282&p=8z594584&n=82594662

Tuesday: Iraq attacks kill 13 as British troops snatch terrorist
http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/August/focusoniraq_August121.xml&section=focusoniraq

NATO bomb kills 11 Taliban in Afghanistan
http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/August/subcontinent_August896.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

(Afghanistan) Suicide bomb kills Canadian - Three soldiers injured
after Taliban attack on patrol
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060823.AFGHANSB23/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/

(Australia) Pak-born Australian Faheem Khalid Lodhi gets 20-year jail
term for terror plot
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200608230958.htm

(Netherlands) F-16s escort Northwest Airlines jet bound for India back
to Schiphol
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/23/schiphol.ap/index.html

UN force will police Lebanon arms embargo: France
http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/August/middleeast_August624.xml&section=middleeast&col=

(Israel) IDF arrests Jihad operative south of Bethlehem
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525928476&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(UK) Targets film a joke: terror accused - Tablighi Jamaat admirer Rauf
Mohammed claims video of UK targets for terror attacks were "joke"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20224546-1702,00.html

German police close in on second train bomb terrorist
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=32465&name=German+police+close+in+on+second+train+bomb+terrorist

(India) Pakistan national killed in Mumbai, another held on terror
charge
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/11227.html

(India) Pakistan ISI continues to support terror groups active in J&K
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200608231311.htm

Pakistan arrests "Indian" over alleged runaway train terror bid
http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/August/subcontinent_August892.xml&section=subcontinent

Two arrested in Indonesia for cyber terrorism charges
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/23/content_4998504.htm

(Indonesia) Bali bomber 'planned attack online from jail'
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20230076-1702,00.html

Al-Qaeda-linked gangleader killed in Philippines
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1775561,00050004.htm

Civilians' bodies used to conceal bomb in Algeria - two civilians
killed by terrorists and bomb placed under bodies
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/08/23/2003324484

(Canada) Tamil used student status here to mask terrorist work
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=9ed2f53f-9285-473d-893c-3f50c6955dcc

(Turkey) One Person Slightly Injured In Bomb Explosion In Izmir
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=138731

1,600 posted on 08/23/2006 8:37:22 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (A good week for getting on your knees and doing a lot of heavy praying, to God!!!)

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