Before the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice ended her visit to Israel this week, defense minister Ehud Barak responded to her demand for “meaningful” Israeli steps to ease Palestinians’ lives, by promising to remove 50 West Bank “dirt roadblocks" and one checkpoint outside Jericho.

Israel military sources warned Thursday, April 3, after the removal of the first 10, that their elimination will provide Palestinian terrorists with unimpeded escape routes.

Rice thought this was a “good start” in her bid for progress before US President George W. Bush’s May visit to the region. She announced that the American general William Fraser would monitor the implementation of Israeli concessions.

 

The Al Qaeda-linked Palestinian “Army of the Ummah” was first to claim the sniper attack on internal security minister Avi Dichter, which missed him and injured his chief of bureau outside the Gaza Strip Friday, April 4. Next came Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and a Fatah faction. According to Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida, the minister was the target. Dichter’s visit was expected but his itinerary was unknown. When army forces and armored vehicles were sighted from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen decided he had arrived and opened fire.

The internal security minister’s party including a group of Canadian Jews on a tour of communities targeted for regular Palestinian missile attack. The firing caught the party on the Mari’i Lookout (named for Col. Nevi Mari’I who was killed in action in Gaza) while it was viewing northern Gaza, source of most of the missile attacks.

Israeli troops returned the fire and entered the Gaza Strip to chase the shooters. The party was evacuated to a nearby army base. The minister, who often spends Fridays visiting Sderot and other communities under fire, has been targeted before. Last month, a Katyusha rocket from Gaza hit the home of his next-door neighbor in Ashkelon. Later, one of his bodyguards was injured when he inspected missile damage at the Sapir College outside Sderot.

The beverage of open-borders used to be Miller Light. Now, it is Absolut Vodka. The vodka maker’s latest ad redraws the map of North America to please Mexican consumers. (Hat tip - Snapped Shot and Jim Hoft).

Reconquista? What reconquista? Oh, yeah. That reconquista:

 

 

 

I hear McCain campaign advisor Juan Hernandez and Hillary campaign advisor Dolores Huerta both approve.

Bottoms up!

4/3/2008 (Songkhla, Thailand) - An older man is murdered by Muslim gunmen while sitting in his truck.

4/2/2008 (Kupwara, India) - A man is shot to death in his home by Islamic militants.

4/2/2008 (Qansah Dhere, Somalia) - Islamists attack a government residence, killing at least three people.

4/2/2008 (Baghdad, Iraq) - Two women are among six killed in Jihad bombings.

4/2/2008 (Mahmudiya, Iraq) - Gunmen shoot a teacher to death and injure his son.

4/2/2008 (Muqdadiyah, Iraq) - Eleven Iraqis are murdered in Mujahideen bombings.

Al-Qaida stepped up its calls to kill Jews.

Ayman al-Zawahri, the Osama bin Laden lieutenant who last month urged Muslims to strike Jews "everywhere" in revenge for an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, issued an even more expansive threat Thursday.

"We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do the best we can to harm Jews in Israel and the world over, with Allah's help and according to his command," Zawahri said in an audiotape released online.

The remarks, which were in response to e-mailed questions from al-Qaida supporters and came with an English translation, linked the sought-after fall of Israel to the sought-after failure of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

"I expect the jihadi influence to spread after the Americans' exit from Iraq and to move towards Jerusalem," Zawahri said.

A fugitive from the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Zawahri predicted the demise of the pro-Western governments in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But he had especially hostile words for the United Nations, calling it an "enemy of Islam" for its vote on creating the State of Israel in 1948.

 

BEFORE READING ON, please note the date of this article's publication. Today is April 3, not April 1. In other words, what follows is no April Fool's Day celebration. 

With the Lioness of Tuzla's campaign taking on still more water and her path to victory looking all but impossible, Barack Obama has emerged as the overwhelming favorite. And you know what that means--soon everyone will be talking about who Obama should select as his running mate.

Let's first discuss what Obama requires in a running mate. Obviously, he desperately needs someone who will balance out his unprecedented lack of experience. The most important thing that needs addressing is his flimsy (i.e. non-existent) military bona fides. Chances are, the analysts will unanimously dictate that Obama needs a veteran on the ticket.

But Obama's credentials deficit runs much deeper. Obama is equally inexperienced in everything else that matters, too. For instance, there's no reason to believe that he's particularly economically literate, or that he's savvy in the ways of congressional dealings. We've learned this week that he certainly he doesn't know the way to the Senate's secret underground bowling alley.

But these are mere pragmatic concerns, and I know the Obama campaign likes to exist on a loftier plane. Therefore, I'll try to discuss things in terms that David Axelrod and perhaps even Obama himself will appreciate.

LESS THAN 48 HOURS AFTER Iraqi security forces began their campaign against militant Shia factions in Basra, the media had already declared the operations a failure. The operations, which were initiated on March 25, were designed to quell rogue factions of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. In covering the fighting, the press displayed its previously seen penchant for quickly throwing in the towel when a military operation does not instantaneously meet its goals.

Of course, the expectation of immediate success for an operation aimed at clearing densely-populated urban terrain is highly unrealistic. Recent history in Iraq shows this: it took months before Coalition efforts to clear and hold Baghdad showed progress, and even today only 75 percent of the capital city is considered fully secured. Last year the media declared the surge a failure long before the full contingent of forces was deployed, yet the press did not learn from its mistakes. Two popular myths have developed about the Basra fighting: that it constituted a complete failure for the Iraqi security forces, and that it resulted in a major political embarrassment for Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

VIRTUALLY EVERY MEDIA OUTLET declared the Basra operations a military failure before a week had passed. A New York Times headline blared that the "Iraqi Army's Assault on Militias in Basra Stalls" on March 27, two days after the launch of operations. Two days later--just four days after operations began--Britain's Independent noted that "the Iraqi army and police have failed to oust the Mahdi Army from any of its strongholds in the capital and in southern Iraq." And six days after the onset of operations, the Guardian was reporting that "the Iraqi army had made little headway in Basra and large swaths of the city remain under the Mahdi Army's control."

To be sure, the Iraqi security forces' performance in Basra is best described as mixed. However, they did not run into a wall. The Iraqi military was able to clear one Mahdi Army-controlled neighborhood in Basra and was in the process of clearing another when Sadr issued his ceasefire. The ceasefire came on March 30, after six days of fighting, and was seemingly unilateral in the sense that the Iraqi government made no apparent concessions in return. By that time, 571 Mahdi Army fighters had been killed, 881 wounded, 490 captured, and 30 had surrendered countrywide, according to numbers tabulated by The Long War Journal. Thus, an estimated 95 Mahdi Army fighters were killed per day during the six days of fighting. In contrast, al Qaeda in Iraq did not incur such intense casualties even during the height of the surge.

The Iraqi security forces were at their best in the smaller cities in Iraq's south. The Mahdi Army suffered major setbacks in Hillah, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniyah, Amarah, Kut, and Nasiriyah. The security forces drove the Mahdi Army off the streets in those cities within days. The casualties taken by the Mahdi Army in Baghdad, Basra, and the wider south surely played a role in Sadr's tactical decision to call a ceasefire. An American military officer serving in southern Iraq told us, "Whatever gains [the Mahdi Army] has made in the field [in Basrah], they were running short of ammunition, food, and water. In short, [the Mahdi Army] had no ability to sustain the effort." Time's sources in Basra paint a similar picture. "There has been a large-scale retreat of the Mahdi Army in the oil-rich Iraqi port city because of low morale and because ammunition is low due to the closure of the Iranian border," the magazine reported on March 30.

Three days after Muqtada al Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to withdraw from the fighting in Baghdad and the Shia South, the fighting has dropped dramatically. The Iraqi government has denied that it has agreed to Sadr's terms. But the government has softened its rhetoric against Mahdi Army, instead shifting its focus on the "criminal elements" just as the US military has done over the past year. Meanwhile, the Iraqi security forces are continuing operations in Basrah.

The Iraqi military has continued to target Mahdi Army elements in Basrah and in Baghdad and southern Iraq, but the government is now referring to them as “criminal elements” and maintains anyone breaking the law will be targeted. “The guarantees for the Sadr Trend and for all Iraqis say that the Iraqi government has law and everyone should abide by the law,” said Dr. Ali al Dabbagh, the spokesman for the Iraqi government in a press briefing on March 31. The Iraqi government “will not target a certain trend, but will target only the criminals. And this is what the Iraqi government is doing and what it’s committed to do.”

The Iraqi government has now essentially co-opted the same strategy of dealing with the Mahdi Army as the US military instituted in late 2006. The strategy works to divide the Mahdi Army into legitimate actors and criminal groups. This strategy allows for the government to target the illegal elements of the Mahdi Army in raids under the mantle of the law. US and Iraqi security forces have conducted numerous operations against the Special Groups using this method. This has caused schisms inside the Mahdi Army, with some elements breaking off to receive support from Iran and others defying Sadr’s orders to lay down their weapons.

While the intensity of operations against the Mahdi Army in Basrah and the South have decreased since Sadr called for his unilateral cease-fire, Iraqi security forces continue to conduct operations.

Pope Benedict’s choice to publicly baptize the most prominent Muslim in Italy, Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, highlights a quiet worldwide exodus from Islam. In recent years, millions have moved on. With this high-profile action, Pope Benedict demonstratively blesses this massive conversion from the highest levels of the Church.

Interviewed by al-Jazeera in 2006, Ahmad al-Qataani, leader of the Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, explains the decline:

Islam used to represent … Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non-Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century.

On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.

As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.

Allam’s public baptism came just ten days after the body of Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was found in a shallow grave after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda February 29. The ceremony came just three days after an al-Qaeda tape threatening the pope and condemning cartoons of Mohammed. Muslims who convert to other religions or abandon religion entirely are subject to a standing order of death for apostasy. The baptism of Allam is an act of defiance in the face of Islamic threats.

The baptism of Allam also comes in the midst of papal “dialogue” with Muslims. The dialogue began unpromisingly with the catcalls from Islam and its secularist allies which greeted the now-famous September 20, 2006, papal address at the University of Regensburg. In October, 138 Islamic leaders presented the pope with “A Common Word Between Us and You” — nailed by critics as a craftily written call for conversion. On March 4, Pope Benedict approved formation of a permanent “Catholic-Muslim forum” scheduled to meet in November. And now he has thrown his own call for conversion into the discussion. Islam’s secularist allies were quick to echo Muslims, calling the baptism “provocative.” While accepting the Islamic death penalty for apostasy as a given, they complain the pope’s action could set back dialogue.

While the secularists wring their hands, Allam writes that his mind “has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimizes lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny, permitting me to join the authentic religion of Truth, Life, and Liberty. … I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight, and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith.”

Allam, author of numerous books and deputy editor of Milan’s Corriere della Sera, joins a list of converts from Islam which includes many other public intellectuals and millions of average people from all over the world. This is more than the normal flow between two large religious communities. Islam can point to little in the way of recent conversions. Its claim to be the world’s fastest-growing religion stems mostly from the high birth rate in Islamic countries, whose infant mortality rates have been cut by the introduction of Western medicine. Christian growth is based on adult conversion. As leading Christian evangelist Wolfgang Simpson writes, “More Muslims have come to Christ in the last two decades than in all of history.”

FP: So tell us about the 'Active Denial' Program – the Ray Gun. What is it and what’s the issue? The Pentagon informed 60 Minutes (CBS) that the Ray Gun could not be used in Iraq . But your experience and evidence suggests that that is not true. What’s the story here?

Gaubatz: Before I discuss the Ray Gun issue I want to inform your readers that 60 Minutes (CBS) Producer Mary Walsh telephoned me last week to discuss my allegations pertaining to the false and very inaccurate report conducted by 60 Minutes. She asked for documentation to prove my knowledge of the system and why their report is false. I provided the documentation. She wrote back and wanted to know why the Pentagon had lied to her. I essentially informed Ms. Walsh that she should ask them since it has hurt the credibility of her and the 60 Minutes staff. Readers can view the documents on my site at www.kidsandterrorism.com.

FP: Ok. So tell us about the Ray Gun and what 60 Minutes did.

Gaubatz: It may be better to provide the 60 Minutes version of what it is, and its capability, and why the Pentagon informed Ms. Walsh the ‘Ray Gun’ could not be used in Iraq .

The following is from the CBS report. I have taken three of their first set of paragraphs and put the factual information under each of their statements. The readers will begin to see from my responses that the Ray Gun is exactly opposite from what 60 Minutes reported. Meaning- -The Ray Gun is a very lethal weapon and was designed to kill, not as a non-lethal weapon as described by 60 Minutes. The Ray Gun was designed at Kirtland AFB, NM, and had been tested there for many years prior to 2003. The weapon was operational in 2003 and should have been deployed to Iraq during the first month of the war. American lives could have been saved then. Now five years later the Pentagon is clearly attempting to cover up another error by using 60 Minutes as their voice piece to say the weapon is non-lethal and this is why it was not deployed. This major lapse in miscalculation is not a Republican nor Democratic problem, but a combination of both parties making mistakes. Below begins the CBS Report and my response:

(CBS) 1: What if we told you the Pentagon has a ray gun? And what if we told you it can stop a person in his tracks without killing or even injuring him? Well, it’s true. You can’t see it, you can't hear it, but as CBS News correspondent David Martin experienced first hand, you can feel it.

Gaubatz: The Pentagon has had an operational “Ray Gun” since early in 2003. The Ray Gun was designed to be a lethal weapon. It can kill, injury the person very badly, or just slightly depending on the setting of the mechanisms. if they want to show the ‘Ray gun’ to news media and some politicians who advocate non-lethal weapons, and are usually the same politicians who have advocated getting our troops out of Iraq months before they were even sent there, they bring in a journalist and ‘feed’ him/her the non-lethal story. Otherwise know as liberals who know less about the Ray Gun than they do basic fundamentals of war.

(CBS) 2: Pentagon officials call it a major breakthrough which could change the rules of war and save huge numbers of lives in Iraq. But it's still not there. That because in the middle of a war, the military just can't bring itself to trust a weapon that doesn't kill.

Gaubatz: The Pentagon officials have intentionally lied. Again the breakthrough was made in 2002/2003, at Kirtland AFB, NM. The Pentagon admits it could save huge numbers of lives in Iraq if only it were operational and a lethal weapon. The Pentagon official says this weapon can’t kill. This mystical Pentagon official purposely did not reveal his name, because he knows there are people like me who know the truth. The American public were simply lied to. The Ray Gun was designed at the AFRL/DE facility, Kirtland AFB, NM, was/is operational, and can kill.

From 2000 until I deployed to Saudi and subsequently Iraq in Jan 2003, I was the Special Agent in Charge for the protection of this technology. I was very surprised when I read the 60 Minutes article and then saw their report. This system required a Top Secret/SCI plus Security Clearance, just to get within a hundred yards of the building and adjacent field it was being tested and evaluated in. It bothered me the Government had spent millions and millions of dollars on this technology, and then released it. What wasn’t a surprise was the fact the Pentagons officials lied about the real intentions and capabilities of this weapon. AFRL/DE (Directed Energy) does not spend millions of dollars and have the worlds leading scientists develop a weapon that can only ‘hurt’ an enemy of war. The brightest scientist assigned to Kirtland AFB design weapons that are lethal (otherwise known as a weapon that can actually kill).

(CBS) 3: Col. Kirk Hymes, head of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, are in charge of the ray gun which is being tested at Moody Air Force Base in southern Georgia.

The targets at the base are people, military volunteers creating a scenario soldiers might encounter in Iraq, like angry protestors advancing on American troops, who have to choose between backing down or opening fire. Off in the distance, half a mile away, the operator of the ray gun has the crowd in his sights.

Unlike the soldiers on the ground, he has no qualms about firing away because his weapon won't injure anyone.

Gaubatz: Col Hymes was not in charge of the Ray Gun in 2003, nor several years prior to this. Director Bruce Simpson from Kirtland AFB, AFRL/DE was in charge of all DE technology, which included the Ray Gun. Col Kirk Hymes is a yes man. If higher Pentagon officials tell him to inform 60 Minutes the Ray Gun is a non-lethal weapon and was only recently operational, he is the man who will salute and say ‘Yes Sir’. After myself serving 20 plus years on active duty I can sometimes agree with Col Hymes.; unless it is an unlawful order that can put American troops in harms way and will lead many of them to unnecessary deaths. Then Col Hymes has a responsibility to put the security and best interest of the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan first. To do otherwise means 4000 current troops’ deaths will double and then triple.

I believe the loved ones of the fallen soldiers would tell Col. Hymes to either tell the truth or retire from service.

FP: Ok, so let’s crystallize this: the Ray Gun has been reported by 60 Minutes and Pentagon officials as a non-lethal weapon. You're saying this is completely false?

Gaubatz: The Ray Gun was designed as a lethal weapon. During my conversation with Ms. Mary Walsh, she advised she was told by Pentagon officials the Ray Gun had been tested on animals. I was very surprised to hear this because Pentagon officials have just confirmed animals are used for testing of weapons such as the Ray Gun at Kirtland AFB. I coordinated the security when the truck loads of animals were being brought in during the middle of the night. Dead animals can’t speak, but if a goat or 500 pound cow can be killed almost instantly with the Ray Gun, then I believe most readers can safely assume a 175 pound man or woman could also die instantly from the intense heat.

The weapon could have been used in early 2003. Before I left for Iraq I had numerous meetings with AFRL/DE engineers and scientists. I knew the capabilities of the weapons. The scientists and their Directors asked me to test and evaluate the DE weapons at Kirtland AFB. I did this immediately after 11 Sep 2001. For several months, the weapons were operational and ready for use in Iraq .

FP: You were the Special Agent assigned from 2000-2003 to oversee the protection of this technology. Expand for us on your personal experience in -- and knowledge on -- this matter.

Just in case Europe didn’t catch his drift with one new message, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden launched two audio taped broadsides on the Internet during the third week of March 2008. In them, he specifically threatened Europe with Jihad, apparently in response to recent stirrings of self-assertion on the Continent. It would seem that the republishing of some of the Danish cartoons, the release of a short film about Islam by Dutch filmmaker, Geert Wilders, and a sterner approach to the expansionist Islamist agenda by a crop of tough new European leaders have sparked a yelp of protest from the al Qaeda leadership.

To the Jihadi vanguard, it must have looked like Europe was well on its way to slipping back into a dhimmitude last seen centuries ago, when Jihadi warriors overran much of southern Europe, white women were prized features on auction blocks across the Caliphate, Christians and Jews knew their places in societies dominated by Islam, and it was ransom and tribute that flowed out of Christendom’s kingdoms, not impertinent caricatures of their Prophet. France already had cordoned off over 700 no-go zones where neither Napoleonic Code nor police were welcome. Belgian bishops had permitted North African illegal immigrants demanding sanctuary from threat of deportation to hold Muslim prayer services in beautiful Brussels cathedrals. A German judge had refused the desperate plea of an abused Moroccan-born woman for an expedited divorce, because, as she intoned from the bench, in the culture of Islam, it is permitted for a husband to beat his wife. The Archbishop of Canterbury had urged Britons to just accept the coming of Sharia in the UK. Theo van Gogh had been shot and stabbed to death because he stood unrepentantly for free speech, and his colleague, Ayan Hirsi Ali, had been hounded from the Netherlands altogether. Taxi drivers in Norway, the UK, and elsewhere were refusing blind passengers with Seeing Eye dogs, because they said dogs are deemed unclean animals in Islam. The newest architectural trend from Oxford to Cologne was the building of mammoth, Saudi-funded mega mosques. Yes, the establishment of Eurabia must have seemed well underway.

But then Europe began to push back and a new Pope mounted the throne of Peter, a “Panzer Pope” he’s been called, and gave a 2006 speech at the University of Regensburg in the sturdy Teutonic heart of this continent. He didn’t actually say anything about a crusade; in fact, Pope Benedict XVI, at Regensburg and since, has sought quite sincerely to present Christianity as a vehicle for discourse and reason among faiths. The 2008 establishment of a permanent council for dialogue between the Vatican and Islam was meant to build bridges, not spark fury and menace.

This is where the well-reasoned temperance of the Enlightenment falls flat, however. For the Islamic Jihad is not about reason, or temperance, or enlightenment. It is about conquest. And right now, al Qaeda and its Jihadi cohorts both home-grown and international, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Union of Islamic Clerics, the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and their smooth-talking spokesmen such as Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Tariq Ramadan, have set their sights on Europe. Europe is too liberal, too free, too open, too outspoken, too rich, and also nicely softened up by decades of inroads by concepts like multiculturalism, a paralyzing antipathy to discriminating judgment, and an abhorrence of self-defense.

Make no mistake: Osama bin Laden’s threat is real. Al Qaeda and the Jihadis, whose cultural references were formed in the searing sterility of the 7th Century Hijaz, are coming for Europe. In the Arab desert where Islam was born, the code of the tribes demands challenge, honor, and spoils. A society raised on the values of the strong, where nothing is ever produced but only seized from the weak, where concession and compromise are met with contempt, and where revenge and retribution define human interaction – a society such as this cannot abide a civilization of uninhibited intellectuality and tolerance. In such a milieu, Islam developed, inextricably, as both socio-political system and monotheistic faith. Both remain hard, unforgiving, and bent on global domination. The sacred and immutable doctrine of Islam is laid out for all time in the revealed scripture of the Koran, the hadiths (or sayings of Muhammad), and the Sunna (or accounts of Muhammad’s deeds). There is nothing in any of these about turning the other cheek, loving one’s neighbor as oneself, or the inherent equality of all human beings. Neither will you find virtues of non-violence, self-sacrifice, or truthfulness applicable among any people but Muslims themselves. For the infidel, there is only the choice of three: convert, submit, or die.

Europe needs to wake up, and quickly. The obligatory Islamic warning has been given, the Continent put on notice that unless it agrees to compromise on its liberal lifestyle and legal system, al Qaeda will unleash its Jihadi attackers.

 

Hold the potty humor, please, but archaeologists digging in a dusty cave in Oregon have unearthed fossilized feces that appear to be the oldest biological evidence of humans in North America.

The ancient poop dates back 14,300 years. If the results hold up, that means the continent was populated more than 1,000 years before the so-called Clovis culture, long believed to be the first Americans.

"This adds to a growing body of evidence that the human presence in the Americas predates Clovis," said Michael Waters, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the project.

DNA analysis of the dried excrement shows the people who lived in the caves were closely related to modern Native Americans. Their genetic roots reach across the Bering Strait to Siberia and eastern Asia.

"These are probably the ancestors of some of the Native Americans living in America now," said Eske Willerslev, director of the Centre for Ancient Genetics at the University of Copenhagen. He co-authored the report that appears in today's online Science Express.

The age of the finding also calls into question the theory that people who crossed the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska migrated south through ice-free corridors as glaciers began to break up. Geological evidence suggests the corridors weren't open 14,300 years ago, though the glaciers had pulled back from the coasts.

"People probably came either by boat or maybe even walking along the West Coast," Willerslev said.

Before the Oregon discovery, the oldest human remains in North America were two sets of bones about 13,000 years old from California and Nevada. Kennewick Man, the skeleton found on the banks of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington, dates to 9,400 years ago.

Willerslev acknowledged that working with feces lacks the cache of studies on skulls or spear-tips. He and his collaborators say their subject matter drew jokesters like flies are drawn to ... well, you know.

"I've heard it all," said Dennis Jenkins, the University of Oregon archaeologist who led the excavations. "My colleagues call me Dr. Poop."

TALLAHASSEE — State House Democrats locked horns Wednesday with the Republican sponsor of a bill that would force women wanting to have an abortion either to watch an ultrasound beforehand or sign a form saying they don't want to.

The bill, which was tentatively approved and now moves on to a final vote, would also require a judge to evaluate whether a minor who doesn't want her parents notified is "sufficiently mature," basing that evaluation on age, demeanor, and whether she shows that she understands the effect and risk of having an abortion.

The bill would require a judge to appoint a guardian ad litem counselor to give advice to minors who want to waive parent notification.

Democrats questioned whether women would have proper counseling under the bill (HB 257), with State Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, saying there's a shortage of guardian ad litem already.

They also suggested that the cost of the ultrasound would amount to an unconstitutional "undue burden."

The sponsor, Rep. Anthony Traviesa, R-Tampa, said it's just an attempt to keep women properly informed before they make their decisions.

"I believe we have an obligation to do that and there are ways that we can do that better," he said.

A comparable bill, SB 2400, is being considered in the Senate.

JERUSALEM – Was Sen. Barack Obama a Muslim? Did he ever practice Islam?

The presidential candidate officially rejects the claims, but the issue of Obama's personal faith has re-emerged amid conflicting accounts of his enrollment as a Muslim during elementary school in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Widely distributed reports have noted in January 1968, Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as "L Soetoro Ma," worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army.

Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students, but exempt them from studying religion. Obama's school documents, though, wrongly list him as being Indonesian.

After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled – also as a Muslim, according to documents – in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta.

The Loatze blog run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted, "All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school and a young 'Barry Soetoro' being a Muslim would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam."

Indeed, the Israel Insider online magazine points out in Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," he acknowledges studying the Quran and describes the public school as "a Muslim school."

"In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies," wrote Obama.

The Indonesian media have been flooded with accounts of Obama's childhood Islamic studies, some describing him as a religious Muslim .

Speaking to the country's Kaltim Post, Tine Hahiyary, who was principal of Obama's school while he was enrolled there, said she recalls he studied the Quran in Arabic.

"At that time, I was not Barry's teacher but he is still in my memory" claimed Tine, who is 80 years old. The Kaltim Post says Obama's teacher, named Hendri, died.

"I remember that he studied 'mengaji (recitation of the Quran)," Tine said, according to an English translation by Loatze.

Mengaji, or the act of reading the Quran with its correct Arabic punctuation, is usually taught to more religious pupils and is not known as a secular study.

Also, Loatze documented the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post caught up with Rony Amir, an Obama classmate and Muslim, who describe Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."

"We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house. If he was wearing a sarong (waist fabric worn for religious or casual occasions) he looked funny," Amir said.

The Los Angeles Times, which sent a reporter to Jakarta, quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did.

"We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," said Adi.

Obama's official campaign site has a page titled "Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." The page states, "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ."

But the campaign changed its tune when it issued a slightly different statement to the Times stating Obama "has never been a practicing Muslim."

An article last month by the Chicago Tribune seems to dispute Adi's statements to the L.A. Times. The Tribune catches up with Obama's declared childhood friend, who now describes himself as only knowing Obama for a few months in 1970 when his family moved to the neighborhood. Adi said he was unsure about his recollections of Obama

But the Tribune found Obama did attend mosque.

"Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia," states the Tribune article.

It quotes the presidential candidate's former neighbors and 3rd grade teacher recalling Obama "occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers."

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, notes the Tribune article – cited by liberal blogs as refuting claims Obama is Muslim – actually implies Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim and twice confirms Obama attended mosque services.

In a free-ranging interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, "with a first-class [Arabic] accent," the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.

Israel Insider's Reuven Koret notes the first few lines state:

"Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet... "

Some attention also has been paid to Obama's paternal side of the family. His father, described in some reports as an atheist, polygamist and alcoholic, was buried in Kenya as a Muslim. Obama Sr., also named Barack Obama, had three sons with another woman who reportedly all are Muslim.

Obama's brother Roy is described as a practicing Muslim.

Writing in a chapter of his book describing his 1992 wedding, the presidential candidate stated: "The person who made me proudest of all was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol."

Still, Obama says he was raised by his Christian mother and repeatedly has labeled as "smears" several reports attempting to paint him as a Muslim.

"Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding," he told the UK's Times Online earlier this year.

The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama.

In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

"It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said.

According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who flew in from Chicago with bags under his eyes - was classic old Bill at first, charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates who gathered in a room behind the convention stage.

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

"It was very, very intense," said one attendee. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."

When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.

At that point, a much calmer Clinton outlined his message of party unity.

"It was kind of strange later when he took the stage and told everyone to 'chill out,' " one delegate told us.

"We couldn't help but think he was also talking to himself."

When delegate Binah - still stunned from her encounter with Clinton - got home to Little River (Mendocino County) later in the day - there was a phone message waiting for her from State Party Chairman Art Torres, telling her the former president wanted him to apologize to her on his behalf for what happened.

Still, word of Clinton's blast shot all the way back to the New Mexico state Capitol, where Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley reiterated Tuesday that his boss had never "promised or guaranteed" Bill and Hillary his endorsement.

The year 2040 will find the world's crops dead, most of the people in a similar state of decay, and those few left alive will be cannibals, according to a prediction from Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting and CNN.

His comments came in an hour-long interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, and some remarks about the environment, the U.S. war on terror and the U.S. military were compiled by Newsbusters into an abbreviated video.

"Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state like Somalia or the Sudan," said Turner, calling future living conditions intolerable.

The media mogul was interviewed in his role as founder of the United Nations Foundation, to which he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars in pursuit of solutions to global "problems."

He said drastic action – immediately – is required to address global warming.

"Not doing it will be catastrophic. We'll be eight degrees hotter in 10, not 10 but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals," Turner said.

He said civilization will have collapsed and "the droughts will be so bad there'll be no more corn grown. Not doing it is suicide."

WND previously reported multiple challenges by top scientists and their organizations to the theory that global warming is caused by man and is ravaging the world.

The recent 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, for example, refuted repeatedly the contention promoted by Al Gore, the U.N. and Turner that there is an "established scientific consensus" humans are causing the Earth to warm catastrophically.

The conference was organized by the Heartland Institute and attracted hundreds of experts and scientists.

"The alarmists in the global warming debate have had their say – over and over again, in every newspaper in the country practically every day and in countless news reports and documentary films," a notice on the Heartland Institute website proclaims. "But they have lost the debate."

Environmental scientist S. Fred Singer kicked off the conference by releasing a report entitled, "Nature, Not Human Activity Rules the Climate," summarizing a three-year, international, scientific research project analyzing the claims of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, or NIPCC.

"There are many factors that affect the climate," Singer told WND. "What we can now exclude by scientific evidence is the argument that greenhouse gases are an important factor in causing global warming."

Singer and the NIPCC agree that global warming occurred in the 20th century, but disagree human activity is responsible. He argues instead that natural causes are likely to be the dominant cause of the scientifically observed global warming under discussion.

The NIPCC scientists contend the U.N. agenda "is largely hypothetical and not sustained by observations" driven by complex mathematical models.

Turner also said the population is another problem that must be handled.

"We've got to stabilize the population," he said.

Rose asked what is wrong with the population.

"We're too many people. That's why we have global warming. We have global warming, because too many people are using too much stuff. If there were less people, they'd be using less stuff," he said.

He also launched verbal offensives against the U.S. war on terror, describing war as senseless and suggesting a cutback in military budgets.