BishopAccountability.org
	Commentary & News Briefs Agape Press [Washington DC] October 13, 2006 http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/132006h.asp ...In Rome, Georgia, a Muslim cleric has pleaded guilty to charges related to providing financial support for the terrorist group Hamas. The U.S. Justice Department release says 42-year-old Mohammed Shorbagi has pleaded guilty to charges related to supporting Hamas through donations to the "Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development." Authorities say Shorbagi was well aware of where those donations were going and, in fact, attended meetings of the Holy Land Foundation at which high-level Hamas officials made presentations condemning Israel. They say he also hosted high-level Hamas officials at the Rome, Georgia, mosque at which he served as imam. Justice Department officials say this case points to the fact that people who illegally support foreign terrorist groups may be found anywhere in the United States -- even in quiet, pleasant places like Rome, Georgia. Shorbagi could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, but has apparently agreed to provide useful information in exchange for a possible lighter sentence. [Fred Jackson] ...An activist dedicated to exposing the threat posed by Communist China says no one should be fooled by reports out of Beijing that it is upset with the recent nuclear test by North Korea. D.J. McGuire, president of the China Support Network, says he does not believe a statement by China's foreign minister that North Korea's nuclear test would damage ties between the two allies. "The reality is Communist China is only interested in North Korea's survival," he asserts. "They want to make sure that the regime stays in place. They do not want Korea to be reunified and democratic, and that is their main objective." McGuire believes there could be something more sinister going on: an eventual annexation of North Korea by the Chinese. "They would be so determined to ensure that a pro-American Korea doesn't reach the Yellow River that they may be willing to cross into it themselves and just take North Korea and replace the Kim Jong Il regime with either something more malleable or just turn it into a fourth province of the northeast," he claims. McGuire bases his annexation theory on sources inside the Chinese academic community who have said the Communist government believes the area that comprises modern-day North Korea was historically Chinese territory. [Chad Groening] ...A retired Air Force pilot and former military attaché to Bill Clinton believes the former president should bear a great deal of responsibility for the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea. Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret.) Buzz Patteron knows a great deal about nuclear weapons. He carried the nuclear codes for the former president. But Patterson believes his former boss helped move the North Korean program forward when he sent then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang in 1994 to broker the deal that gave Kim Jong Il nuclear technology. "The Clintons never followed up on that. They never kept the North Koreans honest with what they were doing with our technology," Patterson says. "And now the Democratic National Committee talking points are, this is all Bush's fault. Well, heck, you don't build nuclear weapons over a five-, or seven- or eight-year period. You build them over a 15-year-period." Patterson says both Bill and Hillary Clinton must be held accountable for the current foreign policy crisis. "As does the war on terror, this goes directly to the debt of President Bill Clinton -- and his wife was involved in this, as she was involved with the decisions leading up to 9/11," he adds. "My goal in life is to keep the American public apprised of what happened so we don't go down that path again." Patterson believes the U.S. must take firm action against the North Koreans, but he concedes that any military intervention would be risky. [Chad Groening] ...Two liberal groups have dropped their lawsuit against a West Virginia school board over a portrait of Jesus Christ that had been on display for nearly 40 years in the hallway of a local high school. The groups -- the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- had sued the Harrison County Board of Education for allowing the picture to remain on the wall at Bridgeport High School. Not long after the suit was filed, the portrait of Christ was stolen from the school. Now the board has voted to settle the lawsuit and agreed not to display "any pictures, paintings, posters, prints, statutes, carvings, or other items with religious content." Americans United says the settlement sends a message to school officials nationwide "that they should respect the diversity of their students and not take sides on religious matters." Gary McCaleb, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents the school board, believes the lawsuit was frivolous. "This lawsuit never should have arisen in the first place, and [it] is now over and done with," he states. "The settlement conforms to the board's consistent position that school officials did not violate the Establishment Clause by having had a painting of Jesus Christ on one of its walls." The lawsuit, says McCaleb, "never would have seen the light of day if the First Amendment was applied today as it was intended to be by our founding fathers." [Jim Brown] ...Two cases currently in federal circuit courts for appeals of FCC rulings now have matching schedules for receipt of court briefs that will likely push any final rulings into next year. Both cases involve challenges CBS has made to Federal Communications Commission decisions, including the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident in 2004 and a March 2006 finding of indecency in four TV broadcasts. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, handling the CBS appeal of the Janet Jackson FCC ruling, has allowed delay of the network's initial briefings for the court in the case until November 20. That matches the first briefing due date for CBS and other networks that joined in an appeal of a non-penal profanity ruling by the FCC on four broadcasts that it issued back in March. That appeal is being handled in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The Second Circuit suit challenges rulings made by the FCC that words used on a 2004 episode of CBS's Early Show, on 2002 and 2003 broadcasts of the Billboard Music Awards, and on a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue were indecent and qualified by the FCC as "fleeting profanity." Briefings in both cases are now scheduled for November 20, December 4, and December 11, with any subsequent trials thought by most observers to likely last through at least February 2007. [Ed Thomas] ...A legal challenge has been filed against the provision of a Georgia law that bans sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of churches. The Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights filed a motion on behalf of nine anonymous elderly and disabled offenders. It contends the law would unfairly force them to be evicted from nursing homes, trailers or relatives' houses if the law is enforced. The law went into effect July 1. A relative of one elderly offender says the man is frail and no longer poses a threat to the community. [AP] ...Pro-life groups are challenging a new campaign launched by Ms. Magazine to promote women who are proud the had abortions. Operation Outcry, an organization of women who have suffered as a result of their abortions, is shocked at the Ms. Magazine online campaign that claims to have more than 5,000 signatures of women who are boasting about their abortions. Anne Newman of Operation Outcry does not trust the petition. "We are appalled," she says bluntly. "I believe it's a sham campaign, because anyone can go online and sign a fictitious name or several fictitious names and addresses, and no one would be the wiser." In contrast, Newman points out, Operation Outcry has more than 2,000 sworn and notarized affidavits of women who regret their abortions. She accuses pro-choicers of having a history of lying. "They have an agenda, and obviously they're in fear of losing their rights for mothers to kill their own children," she says, "and that's what they're defending." Ms. Magazine is a publication of the Feminist Majority. [Bill Fancher] ...Pro-lifers in Congress as shaking their heads over the contrast in how lawmakers act over pets as opposed to how they act regarding the unborn. It took the Senate only a few minutes to pass what is called the "Pet Protection Act" that mandates rescuers to save pets along with people in a catastrophic situation. However, special protection for the unborn has been languishing for decades in Congress. That bothers Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. "It does [bother me] very much," the Republican lawmaker shares, "but the issue of abortion has been a difficult one for us to accomplish things on. We have gotten a couple of things through." But it has taken years to do that, and the accomplishments have been rescinded by the courts. For Brownback and other pro-lifers, it is a frustrating situation. "You look at it, and you say, 'Can't we get something done here for the unborn?'" he laments. Brownback says they will keep trying -- but he concedes it will take a lot longer than it did to protect pets. [Bill Fancher] ...An advocacy group that represents victims of clergy abuse is publicly accusing Catholic church officials of preventing the criminal prosecution of a priest accused of abusing a teen in 2001 and 2002. A civil suit is pending against Catholic priest Aaron Joseph Cote which alleges he abused the teen at St. Dominics parish in Washington, DC, in 2001 and 2002. After the alleged abuse, Cote was transferred to a church in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was working at the time he was sued and then suspended. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents the accusing teen and his family, alleges that Cote "remains free to abuse" and that it is not clear where the church has placed the accused priest. "He had been serving in a parish in Providence, Rhode Island, and doing a youth retreat," says Anderson. "And the day that we filed the case in Washington, DC, they removed him from that parish. But we have no confidence that he still doesn't have access to youth." Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are demanding that the church make available information about a witness to an another alleged abuse by the priest in Ohio. [AP] ...A Vatican official says Pope Benedict has decided to loosen restrictions on use of the old Latin Mass. That is considered a major concession to ultraconservatives who split with the Vatican to protest reforms. The decision is part of Benedict's efforts to woo back Catholics who joined a rebel archbishop in protest over the changes. It is not clear when the pope will make his decision public, but the official says it is expected soon. The Times of London has reported that the pope has signed the order and it could be published in the next few weeks. Dating back to the 16th century, the name of the old Latin Mass was swept away by the so-called New Mass that followed the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
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