Filmmaker Tim Mahoney's The Exodus Conspiracy, due to be released within a few months, seeks to demonstrate the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt on the basis of recent archaeological discoveries and geographic explorations. A secondary thesis of the film is that the "Red Sea" crossed by the Israelites was the Gulf of Aquaba (called the Gulf of Eilat by modern-day Israelis), rather than "Sea of Reeds" in Egypt, as most Biblical scholars have always assumed, and that the true "Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb" of the Exodus narrative is in northern Saudi Arabia, and is not the Mt. Sinai shown to pilgrims and tourists over the centuries in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

At the same time, the film also documents the efforts of Arab governments, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to suppress, or at least to seriously impede, the discovery and publication of archaeological data that would confirm the historicity of the Biblical narrative. Is this a conspiracy to suppress the truth about the ancient history of the Middle East? And if so, who could possibly want to deny the reality of a 3,500 year old event, and why?The film's answer to these questions is that Arab governments and political circles wish to deny to the Jews the status of indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East; and above all, to deny the 3,000-plus years of continuous Jewish inhabitance of the Land of Israel (called "Palestine" by the Romans, the British, and now the Arabs). The entire Arab justification for 88 years of relentless war against the Jewish people in the Holy Land, and their efforts first to prevent the rebirth of the Jewish nation there, and then to destroy it, rests on the claim that the Jews are alien European "settlers" in the Holy Land, while the Arabs are the "indigenous" native population, who have lived there "since time immemorial." Archeology that confirms the accuracy of the Biblical narrative, and which documents the ancientness of the Jewish habitation of the land, is thus extremely inconvenient to Israel's enemies, even though (or rather because) it concerns events in the remote past.

 

[...]

 

However, Mr. Mahoney's description of a major propaganda effort to deny the reality of the Jewish people's three thousand-plus years' residence in the Middle East is undeniably true. This effort is documented in numerous reports in the daily press, and in nearly every Arab book, pamphlet or website devoted to the Arab-Israel conflict. It is also documented by the writings of numerous "revisionist" historians and archaeologists, many of them Jewish and some Israeli, who support the Arab side in the Arab-Israel conflict. The attempt to deny the reality of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt has even been joined by a well-known Los Angeles rabbi, David Wolpe. Indeed, Mr. Mahoney could have said much more than he has chosen to say about the non-Arab and non-governmental participants in this war against history.

Anyone familiar with the threat posed by the advancing American Fifth Column understands all too clearly that our Constitution is under attack. Whether it is the insistence that the Constitution is a living document meant to conform to the will of the times or the institution of political correctness - a shadow set of laws effectively usurping the laws of our Constitutional Republic - the American Fifth Column is slowly, incrementally, systematically, chipping away at the wisdom as set forth by our Founders and Framers. With news that a non-governmentally charged commission is introducing a measure that would impose "group think" on the Commander-in-Chief, it is evidenced that the American Fifth Column is on the march.

 

[...]

 

While many commissions and blue ribbon panels are seated by our elected officials, others are formed by private institutions, institutions of higher learning and philanthropic institutions. Where the recent story of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 is concerned, we are faced with a commission from all three.

It would appear that the Miller Center for Public Affairs, emanating from the University of Virginia, has assembled one National War Powers Commission. The commission is co-chaired by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher. Those seated on the commission include: Sen. Slade Gorton, US Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, Carla A. Hills, John O. Marsh, Jr., Edwin Meese, III, Abner J. Mikva, J. Paul Reason, Brent Scowcroft, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Strobe Talbott.

This commission, touted as non-partisan, has issued a report suggesting that the War Powers Resolution of 1973 be replaced with the War Powers Consultation Act.

 

[...]

 

When one understands the authorities granted to the Executive and Legislative Branches of the United States Government, it is painfully obvious that not only does the War Powers Consultation Act continue the unconstitutional usurpation of the Commander-in-Chief's authority to command our Armed Forces; it proposes a further encroachment on the separation of powers.

 

[...]

 

In fact, the only provision in this absurdly unconstitutional proposal, that exists within the boundaries of the Constitution is the right for "Congress to vote up or down on significant armed conflicts within 30 days."

That James Baker, Warren Christopher and the rest of the National War Powers Commission believe they know better how to vest constitutional powers than the Framers of our Constitution is a testimony to the definition of arrogance. That they would consider usurping the authority of the United States Constitution by allowing the partisan Congress to encroach upon the awesome and singular responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief places them squarely at the service of the American Fifth Column.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's state media says the country rejects South Korean president's proposal to resume reconciliation talks. 

The North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary Sunday that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak should stop resorting to a "deceitful" tactic to avoid responsibility for aggravated ties between the Koreas.

Lee offered Friday to resume stalled talks with North Korea in a speech to the new parliament. Tension between the Koreas flared anew after Lee took office in February with a vow to take a tougher line on the North.

 

A cross border incident that resulted in Pakistani and Afghan security forces casualties was launched by the Taliban with the intent to "to spark a border incident," the International Security Assistance Force reported.

"Insurgents simultaneously fired at targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the evening of July 10," ISAF reported in a press release. Afghan police in Paktika province and a Pakistani military unit along the border in South Waziristan reported taking mortar fire at the same time, the US military stated. Eight Pakistani soldiers and four Afghan police were reported wounded in the initial attack.

The US military determined the origin of mortar fire to have started at two points inside Afghanistan and returned fire with artillery and a laser-guided GBU-13 bomb dropped from an F-15. The US fires were "verified to have hit the origins of insurgent fire."

The initial reports of the incident were confused, and focused on the attack inside Pakistan. News reports speculated that the US military launched a Predator air strike or artillery attack on a Pakistani military outpost.

The Afghan Army and police and the US military have repelled a series of attacks in the border provinces of Paktia, Paktika, and Khost over the past three weeks. The Taliban are attempting to destabilize the eastern region and overrun Afghan government centers and Coalition bases. Attacks in the east are up by more than 40 percent from last year, according to the US military. More than 200 Taliban fighters have been killed during the clashes. Many of the attacks have originated from Pakistan.

Tensions along the ill-defined, rugged border have escalated since the Pakistani government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

At least six states have been taken over to one extent or another by the Gulf cartel, Sinaloa, almost entirely.

Since President Calderon has taken office, more than 4,200 people have been killed in the drug battles that are going on down there. That's, of course, more than we have lost in Iraq.

The State Department has issued a traveler's warning for Americans traveling to some of the border communities. There are kidnappings, almost on a daily basis, of people from the United States – people being kidnapped on our side of the line, taken to Mexico and held for ransom, sometimes $20,000, $10,000. You don't hear about it, but we are at war on our Southern border. It is a dangerous place to be.

There is a group called the Zadas. These are thugs that were originally hired by the Gulf cartel to be their enforcers. They've begun actually moving into the position of becoming their own cartel. They advertise on bridges. There are big signs placed on bridges down there saying, "Join this" – "Join us. We pay better than anything else." Who are these people, by the way? These were highly trained forces in the Mexican army, trained, many of them, by the way, at Fort Benning, Georgia by your tax dollars and mine. They went back and, of course, turned and are now part of the enforcement arm of the cartels, the Zedas, incredibly bloody organization, very, very dangerous and control a significant portion of the country itself.

There's a city about 90 miles south of El Paso that is presently under siege. It's about 600,000 people; 170 police officers simply fled when the cartels arrived to start doing battle. The military is there now trying to take the city back. This is happening just 90 miles south of our border. There's a camp near Matamoras, Mexico at which these people, the Zedas, are training people for a variety of things. We don't know. I mean it's supposedly to just bring drugs in and how best to smuggle drugs into the United States.

By the way, 300 tons of cocaine last year. We have no idea the number of tons actually of marijuana and other drugs. Ninety percent of all methamphetamine comes into the United States from Mexico, 90%.

Okay, so I was really just trying to focus on this and explain what was going to happen and why.

Of course, one of the first things any rational government would do under a circumstance like this is at least secure the border! We're talking about the Merida Initiative. That’s the way we're going to handle this. That's 1 billion 500 million dollars that we are going to appropriate – one part of it has already been – to send to the Calderon government to help fight the cartels.

Now, this is going to be in the form of training and supplies. And I have to tell you, we've gone this route before. We've sent money before. We've done training before. And what happened, we trained the Zedas because the government is so corrupt because there is no way to actually make sure that the use of the money or the equipment will be in the right hands.

So, first, you've got to secure your border, but we haven't.

We have a bigger enemy, that enemy being Radical Islam.

I don't know how many years to explain that, in fact, that's exactly why I am worried about this issue. We are at war with Radical Islam, absolutely true. I believe it with all my heart. I believe it's not just the United States at war with Radical Islam; it is Western Civilization at war with Radical Islam. I believe that is what is at stake.

You need two things to win any kind of battle, two things.

One, you have to know who you are fighting, what it is that motivates them, who are these people, what drives them.

And the other thing you must know is who you are. And I'm telling you, we are losing on at least that front. I don't know anymore if we know who we are, what the word American really means because massive immigration into this country, when it combines with the cult of multiculturalism that permeates our society, creates a cultural, political, and linguistic Tower of Babble, and we lose sight of who we are, and it becomes difficult for us to marshal the forces necessary to defend Western Civilization.

Look at the difficulty that our friends and allies in Europe are having today. So immigration alone is no big deal. Immigration with radical multiculturalism, a very, very big deal and very scary thing. It goes to the heart of whether we're going to be able to control this.

Last time I was here I was doing a little talk out in the hall, people had gathered, and somebody was there with a microphone from a radio station, and I mentioned that we were 60 miles away from a city that was really a third-world country. Whoa, did I get in a lot of trouble! I mean Jeb Bush sent me a nasty letter. There was a was a poll taken shortly thereafter. The Miami Herald published it, and most people agreed with me. Most people in Miami agreed with me.

And the point I wanted to make is that the danger we face with this phenomena I have described of massive immigration and this cult of multiculturalism creates this – a statement encapsulates the whole thing.

A guy in Miami considered himself to be, and they identified him in the Time magazine article as the head of the Cuban [Immigrais] in that area. That's the way they identified him. He's a professor at the University of Miami. And he said something that has got to be taken seriously. He said the thing he loved about Miami is that it was a city in which there was no pressure to become an American. That's what I am talking about. That's what I am worried about because when America is at war – when the military is at war but the rest of America is at the mall, you know, it's a bad thing. When the military is at war and the rest of America is at the Mercado, it becomes an even more dangerous thing.

We are losing sight of who we are. We are losing sight of what connects us as Americans. What does this term citizenship really mean? Does it have significance? Are we losing it?

When I was in Brownsville, Texas a couple of weeks ago we had a hearing down there on the border fence. People in Brownsville were absolutely against it. The mayor's against it. The town's against it. Everybody was up in arms. And they kept saying, "We don't want this fence." I said, "Why?" They said, "Because it will divide our community." I said, "Your community? No, no. You see, it divides two countries, the United States and Mexico, not your community. Your community is in this country."

But that didn't satisfy them, and they were very upset. And so I finally said, "Look, I'll cut a deal with you. You're so worried about this fence dividing your community. Why don’t we do this? Why don't we just build the darn fence around the northern part of your city?" It's okay with me, and you know what? A lot of them applauded, too, because, frankly, they're not connected to America. They're not. Emotionally, intellectually, politically, they are still connected to another country, and linguistically, certainly, it's also true.

This is not something that will help us in this clash of civilization as we face. Thank you very much.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea rejects South Korean president's proposal to resume talks.

NEW YORK (AP) - Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."

The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government's pursuit of peace deals with tribes in the region. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.

Tension between the U.S. and Pakistan have been high after Pakistan said U.S. aircraft killed 11 of its soldiers at a border post in June. U.S. officials have said coalition aircraft dropped bombs during a clash with militants.

Qureshi said he tried to reassure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their meeting Friday that his government was doing everything it can to combat militants in lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly exchange criticism about not doing more to fight extremists operating along their long, remote, mountainous border that is seen by the U.S. as crucial to stopping terrorism.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Green Party, which captured far less than 1 percent of the vote in the last presidential election, chose former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney as its 2008 presidential candidate on Saturday.

McKinney, 53, will be joined on the ticket for the November election by vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist and activist.

McKinney received 313 out of 532 votes cast at the party's nominating convention in Chicago, party spokesman Scott McLarty said.

In 2004, the Green Party drew 119,859 votes, or 0.1 percent of the total, finishing in sixth place behind the two major parties and three other third-party tickets.

The party's best performance came in 2000 when Ralph Nader headed the ticket, and won 2.8 million votes, or 2.7 percent of the total. Some political analysts say Nader, a political and consumer activist, may have drawn votes from Democrat Al Gore and helped tip the election to Republican George W. Bush. Nader is running for president again this year as an independent.

McKinney served six terms in Congress and lost her 2006 bid for re-election. She was the first black woman to represent Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Another former House member from Georgia, Bob Barr, who served as a Republican, is running as the Libertarian Party candidate for president. The major-party candidates are Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

The U.S. Green Party says it is a partner with the European Federation of Green Parties and the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.

"Green parties are the first parties to recognize that our role in the world is stewardship of Earth's natural resources rather than domination and unrestrained consumption of the goods of the Earth," the party said in its proposed platform for the 2008 election.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's official news agency is quoting the country's foreign minister as saying the United States and Israel are not in a position to attack Iran.

The IRNA report quotes Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying the U.S. and Israel "do not possess capacities to get themselves involved in a new crisis."

But he warns Iran will deal a "harsh and crushing response" if they do attack.

Saturday's report follows Iranian missile test this week, which Mottaki called "a display of Iran's capabilities." Iran says the missiles' range put Israel and U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf within striking distance.

VIENNA, Austria — World energy needs will spike by more than 50 percent by 2030 but adequate oil reserves, conservation and new methods of recovery mean supply will keep pace with demand, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday.

Still, OPEC's secretary general acknowledged that dangers to steady supply exist. Addressing one — the threat of a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran because of its nuclear defiance — he warned that his organization was unprepared — and unable — to make up for resulting oil shortfalls.

"It is impossible to replace the production of Iran," OPEC's No. 2 producer, Abdalla Salem El-Badri told reporters at the presentation of the organization's long term oil market outlook. “The prices would go unlimited ... I can’t give you a number.”

The United States and Israel have not ruled out a military strike on Iran as a last option if it does not give up uranium enrichment and heed other U.N. Security Council demands meant to dispel the fear Tehran wants to make nuclear arms.

Tehran produced just over 4 million barrels of crude a day last year — more than 10 percent of OPEC's total production.

In its report, "World Look Outlook for 2008," OPEC took issue with critics blaming present skyrocketing prices on the refusal of the organization to increase output, asserting that the weak U.S. dollar and market speculators were at least partly to blame.

In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed.

Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and threatening US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and Israel Air Force flights.

This development was serious enough for Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to repeat three times in as many days that the IDF is keeping a close watch on events in the northern front, especially the deepening ties between Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah. Barak travels to Washington this week.

Mt. Sannine, which dominates the roads connecting Beirut and Damascus, is one of the most prized strategic assets in the region. It was fought over for years by Syria and Israel, both seeking to control this ideal vantage point for an early warning station to command the eastern Mediterranean, the northern half of Israel and the Damascus region.

Its takeover on behalf of Tehran places Israeli security at a grave disadvantage. This topic is expected to figure large in the talks French president Nicolas Sarkozy holds with visiting Syrian ruler Bashar Assad this week.

DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that military movements carried out in the last two weeks by Hizballah in conjunction with Tehran and Damascus can only be interpreted as preparations for war. Lebanese sources have been saying openly that Syria, Iran and Hizballah are now in position for a new Middle East confrontation.

From CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Barack Obama is heading to Iraq later this month with two Senate colleagues, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Jack Reed, according to two sources familiar with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's plans.

The sources said the official Congressional delegation trip, known as a CODEL, will occur around the time Obama heads overseas for a previously-announced campaign trip to France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, and Jordan to help beef up his foreign policy credentials. Officials are keeping the precise dates of Obama's trip under wraps, however, for obvious security reasons.

The inclusion of Hagel on the official portion of the trip is guaranteed to further fuel speculation that Obama might pick a Republican as a running mate on a presidential ticket aimed at winning over independents. Hagel, who privately discusses foreign policy matters with both Obama and Republican presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, has publicly left the door open to a possible bipartisan ticket.

Aides to Hagel and Reed both refused to comment when asked by CNN about the upcoming trip.

The Nebraska Republican could also be a contender for a Cabinet post like Defense Secretary if either Obama or McCain wins, according to strategists in both parties, because of his friendship with both candidates.

Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, is an Army veteran who is respected in both parties for his knowledge of national security issues. Democratic strategists privately say Reed is highly-regarded by Obama and could also find himself on the short list for a variety of posts in a potential Democratic administration.

There has been speculation that the delegation may also stop in Afghanistan, but sources familiar with the trip would not confirm the possibility of a second stop.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A federal judge has overturned a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to allow oil and gas drilling near a forest and a river in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled Thursday the agency had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in 2005 by giving Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City a permit to drill an exploratory well near the Au Sable River's south branch.

The proposed wellhead would be located in the Huron-Manistee National Forest about three-tenths of a mile from the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre wilderness area prized by anglers and other outdoor recreationists.

Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy's application that the project wouldn't significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.

But the judge ruled the Forest Service didn't consider how degrading the area could harm tourism, and said the agency did a "woefully inadequate" job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, sued the government to halt the drilling. Joining the suit was Tim Mason, whose grandfather, auto executive George Mason, donated the original 1,200 acres to the state upon his death in 1954 and asked that it be maintained as wilderness.

"The ruling supports what my grandfather's vision was. It's a victory," said Mason, a Woodstock, Ill., businessman.

Huron-Manistee spokesman Ken Arbogast referred a request for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which represented the Forest Service in court. Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the department, said its attorneys were studying Lawson's ruling and had not decided whether to appeal.

A message seeking comment was left with Savoy.

Leaders of the environmental groups urged the company and the government to look for other places to explore for oil and gas.

"We've said from the beginning we didn't want to stop them from drilling," said Marvin Roberson, a forest policy specialist with the Sierra Club. "We want them to drill from a place that won't be harmful to the old-growth forest or the recreational experience."

Although the Mason Tract is state property, the federal government owns rights to minerals beneath it and leased production rights to Savoy. In 2003, the company filed for a permit to drill into one of its lease holdings.

The plan was to clear about 3.5 acres of forest for a well site on federal land, then drill beneath the Mason Tract at an angle. If enough gas or oil was found, the company intended to install a pipeline and build a production facility about a mile east of the well.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the project shortly after the Forest Service granted the permit. But it has been on hold since Lawson issued an order in December 2005 blocking the company from clearing land to get started.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Saturday tried to pin the blame on Congress for soaring energy prices and said lawmakers need to lift long-standing restrictions on drilling for oil in pristine lands and offshore tracts believed to hold huge reserves of fuel.

"It's time for members of Congress to address the pain that high gas prices are causing our citizens," the president said. "Every extra dollar that American families spend because of high gas prices is one less dollar they can use to put food on the table or send a child to college. The American people deserve better."

With gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, Bush and his Republican allies think Americans are less reluctant to allow drilling offshore and in an Alaska wildlife refuge that environmentalists have fought successfully for decades to protect. Nearly half the people surveyed by the Pew Research Center in late June said they now consider energy exploration and drilling more important than conservation, compared with a little over a third who felt that way only five months ago. The sharpest shift in attitude came among political liberals.

Democrats say they are for drilling, but argue that oil companies aren't going after the oil where they already have leases. So why open new, protected areas? they ask. Democrats say there are 68 million acres of federal land and waters where oil and gas companies hold leases, but aren't producing oil.

"Americans are fed up every time they go to fill up and they're right to demand action. But instead of a serious response, President Bush and his allies simply repeat the same old line more drilling," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in the Democrats' radio address.

"Democrats support more drilling," he said. "In fact, what the president hasn't told you is that the oil companies are already sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands with the potential to nearly double U.S. oil production. That is why in the coming days congressional Democrats will vote on 'Use It or Lose It' legislation requiring the big oil companies to develop these resources or lose their leases to someone else who will."

"But we know that drilling by itself will not solve the problem of high gas prices," Van Hollen said. "We cannot drill our way to energy independence."

EL PASO, Texas — Dozens of Mexicans — including police officers, businessmen, at least one prosecutor and a journalist — are asking for political asylum in the U.S. in a desperate and probably hopeless bid to escape an unprecedented wave of drug-related killings and kidnappings south of the border.

Under U.S. law, fear of crime is not, in itself, grounds for political asylum.

But the sharp spike in asylum applications from the areas wracked by drug-cartel violence — and the willingness of asylum-seekers to sit behind bars in the U.S. for months while they await a decision — are a measure of how bad things are in Mexico and how fearful people have become.

"It's hard. I've been doing this work for 25 years. I've been a reporter for 25 years," said newspaperman Emilio Gutierrez Soto, who is seeking asylum. "We had a life there, a house, my family. It's my country. But it's not safe for a journalist."

Between October and July, at least 63 people have sought political asylum at border crossings in West Texas and New Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That is almost double the 33 claims made for the entire fiscal year that ended in October. Elsewhere in South Texas, asylum applications are also up sharply.

In other sectors along the 1,969-mile border, asylum applications are coming in at the usual pace.

Immigration lawyers say they believe most of the asylum claims in the West Texas and New Mexico sector are motivated by the bloodshed in Mexico, the worst of which is just across the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez and surrounding Chihuahua state.

Juarez, a city of 1.3 million, has seen a record-breaking 500-plus murders so far this year. High-ranking police officers are shot in broad daylight. Businessmen who are not necessarily mixed up in the drug trade are kidnapped, held for ransom and gruesomely killed if their families don't pay up. Children have been caught in the crossfire.

"There's been nothing like this in terms of cartel activities," said George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert with the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "In the 1970s there were guerillas in several very poor southern states. But there's not been any kind of violence like this."

Immigration lawyers representing the El Paso-area asylum-seekers say they have never seen such a flood of people seeking a haven from violence in Mexico.

The majority bloc headed by the incumbent Fouad Siniora holds 16 portfolios in the new Lebanese government, the opposition led by Hizballah - 11. President Michel Sleiman exercised his prerogative to name three ministers. 

This lineup represents the national accord reached in Qatar earlier this year to end Lebanon’s political crisis. But the numbers, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources note, add up to the radicalization of the new administration.

The pro-Iranian Hizballah-led opposition has gained veto power and Damascus has solidified its grip on Lebanon’s center of power - both through the Shiite-led bloc and through a first-time cabinet member, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party – the SSNP, which is dedicated to a Greater Syria.

Tehran and Damascus have succeeded in thrusting aside American and French bids for influence.

According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, the shadowy SSNP was Syrian intelligence’s favorite terrorist arm in Lebanon for assassinations, attempted coups and bombings. Its operatives often worked with Hizballah (especially its military chief Imad Mughniyeh) and were believed implicated in the US embassy bombings in Beirut of 1982 and 1984.

The first known female suicide bomber in terrorist history was a SSNP operative who detonated a truck bomb which killed two Israel soldiers in 1985. Another member was accused of assassinating Lebanese president Beshar Gemayel in 1982.

The SSNP leader at the time, appointed by Damascus, was Ali Qanso, who now takes a seat in the new Lebanese government as minister of state.

The same Lebanese party also holds one seat in the Syrian parliament, having been granted legal standing by President Bashar Assad in 2005. The SSNP is now Syria’s largest party after the ruling Baath, while also represented in the Beirut government. It is thus faithful to its Greater Syria tenet which names Lebanon “Western Syria.”