And so, another Palestinian President graces the White House lawn, another photo op for an American President to 'show the world' that he is committed to Middle East peace, another fob to the Palestinian people, another chance for Sharon to show the world who really calls the shots in terms of the US' Middle Eastern policy.

A few weeks back, when Sharon visited Bush at his Texas ranch, Bush made the same demands that Israel should halt all illegal settlement activity in the Palestinian West Bank territory. Within a day of returning to Israel, Sharon publicly ignored Bush's demands and ordered that the construction of new West Bank settlements should go ahead. The silence that issued from Washington was deafening, highlighting for all the world to see (apart from the victims of the Israeli-dominated and censored US mainstream press) that Bush and Sharon are on the same page in terms of the future of a Palestinian state - there will be none.

The last serious effort that were made towards peace between Palestinians and Israelis was back in October 1993 when Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo peace accords and famously shook hands on the White House lawn, with Clinton pictured as peacemaker.

Rabin had gone further than any other Israeli PM in extending a just peace offering to the Palestinians, and throughout the encounter in Washington, the frequently anguished look on his face spoke of a man who realised that he would be lucky to get out of this alive. Peace, you see, does not go down very well with the bloodthirsty "Zionists" that dictate Israeli policy towards the Arabs that live in their 'god-given' homeland.

After Olso, Arafat returned triumphantly to Palestinian territory and was later elected president of the Palestinian National Authority. Right on cue however, bomb attacks by "Palestinian militants" against Israelis heightened tensions between the two sides. As regards the bizarre way in which 'Palestinian militants' always seem to launch attacks against Israeli targets at moments where a peace appears within reach, consider this recent report out of Baghdad:

“A few days ago, an American manned check point confiscated the driver license of a driver and told him to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license. The next day, the driver did visit the camp and he was allowed in the camp with his car. He was admitted to a room for an interrogation that lasted half an hour. At the end of the session, the American interrogator told him: ‘OK, there is nothing against you, but you do know that Iraq is now sovereign and is in charge of its own affairs. Hence, we have forwarded your papers and license to al-Kadhimia police station for processing. Therefore, go there with this clearance to reclaim your license. At the police station, ask for Lt. Hussain Mohammed, who is waiting for you now. Go there now quickly, before he leaves his shift work”.

The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.

The only feasible explanation for this incident is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad. The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated “hideous attack by foreign elements”.

And lest we forget, Israel's intelligence and military have been training the Americans in Iraq on the finer points of Urban warfare and how best to counteract (read demonise) guerilla warfare tactics.

A little over two years after Oslo, and just in case he had any ideas about further 'peace mongering', Rabin was assassinated for his efforts by Israeli intelligence in a cover up that was very similar in essence to the murder of JFK. Barry Chamish details the findings that prove, more or less categorically, that the official version of rabin's murder is a lie.

In 1996, Rabin's replacement, Binyamin Netanyahu, headed a coalition government, which was unsurprisingly split over the peace process and subsequently collapsed. Netanyahu was succeeded by Ehud Barak, who was the next to visit the White House and meet with Arafat in 2001, again with Clinton as match maker.

Barak could afford to smile, he knew his offer to Arafat was not something Arafat could bring home to the Palestinian people. Read Clayton Swisher's The Truth About Camp David : The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process for the full story, but in essence, the talks were doomed to failure because of Barak's refusal to offer any substantial concessions to Arafat in return for assurances of peace. Of course, at the time, the Israeli-owned press informed the American public that the exact opposite was true, but then, there's nothing strange or unusual about that.

Unsurprisingly then, any prospect of further talks between the Israelis and the PA receded. In the impasse, the veteran right-winger and war criminal with a insatiable appetite for Palestinian blood, Ariel Sharon, toured Jerusalem's Muslim holy site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with an entourage of 1,000 armed men on September 29, 2000 - a flagrant provocation to the Palestinians. Sharon's belligerence paid of, provoking a second Palestinian intifada and soon thereafter propelling him into government in April 2001 - just what the Doctor of Death had been hoping for. Sharon further capitalised on the results of his provocation, using the Palestinian uprising to justify turning his back on the 'land for peace deal' and ordering the IDF to re-occupy the West Bank.

Not satisfied with their virtual stranglehold on the Palestinian territories and their 2 million haggard and impoverished people, Israeli intelligence decided the time was right to implement their long established plan to create the conditions that will ultimately allow them to wage all out war on their defenseless Palestinian hostages.

9/11 was the Israeli false-flag operation par excellence, as then Israeli foreign minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu stated on the morning of the attacks in response to a question from a radio interviewer about his opinion of the atrocity: "It’s very good.” Then correcting himself and adding: “Well, it’s not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy [for Israel from Americans].”

Coincidence? Hardly.

Which brings us to today and the two year old, and now stalled, "Roadmap for Peace", published in April 2003. It is clear to all those with a minimal understanding of the history of the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" (a misnomer if there ever was one) that Sharon will never consent to Palestinian statehood. The glee with which he ordered the butchering of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women and children refugees in the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1983 gave a clear indication of his intentions.

Sharon has remarked that: "anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends people to kill Jews, is a marked man. Period." In doing so, Sharon is merely stating what Jewish law has stated for thousands of years: that the life of a 'Gentile' is worth less than the life of a Jew. Jewish law teaches that Jews alone are human, and that the rest of us are something less than human. Once this is understood, the brutality of Israeli murders such as the death by missile of Sheikh Yassin or the gunning down of Palestinian children who throw rocks at the occupying IDF soldiers can be understood. Once the Jewish teachings are understood, the hopelessness of the Palestinian position can be understood. We suggest our readers read Israel Shahak's book, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, especially the chapter on The Laws Against Non-Jews.

Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

Murder and Genocide

ACCORDING TO THE JEWISH religion, the murder of a Jew is a capital offense and one of the three most heinous sins (the other two being idolatry and adultery). Jewish religious courts and secular authorities are commanded to punish, even beyond the limits of the ordinary administration of justice, anyone guilty of murdering a Jew. A Jew who indirectly causes the death of another Jew is, however, only guilty of what talmudic law calls a sin against the 'laws of Heaven', to be punished by God rather than by man.

When the victim is a Gentile, the position is quite different. A Jew who murders a Gentile is guilty only of a sin against the laws of Heaven, not punishable by a court. To cause indirectly the death of a Gentile is no sin at all.

Thus, one of the two most important commentators on the Shulhan Arukh explains that when it comes to a Gentile, 'one must not lift one's hand to harm him, but one may harm him indirectly, for instance by removing a ladder after he had fallen into a crevice .., there is no prohibition here, because it was not done directly: He points out, however, that an act leading indirectly to a Gentile's death is forbidden if it may cause the spread of hostility towards Jews.

A Gentile murderer who happens to be under Jewish jurisdiction must be executed whether the victim was Jewish or not. However, if the victim was Gentile and the murderer converts to Judaism, he is not punished.

All this has a direct and practical relevance to the realities of the State of Israel. Although the state's criminal laws make no distinction between Jew and Gentile, such distinction is certainly made by Orthodox rabbis, who in guiding their flock follow the Halakhah. Of special importance is the advice they give to religious soldiers.

Since even the minimal interdiction against murdering a Gentile outright applies only to 'Gentiles with whom we [the Jews] are not at war', various rabbinical commentators in the past drew the logical conclusion that in wartime all Gentiles belonging to a hostile population may, or even should be killed. Since 1973 this doctrine is being publicly propagated for the guidance of religious Israeli soldiers. The first such official exhortation was included in a booklet published by the Central Region Command of the Israeli Army, whose area includes the West Bank. In this booklet the Command's Chief Chaplain writes:

When our forces come across civilians during a war or in hot pursuit or in a raid, so long as there is no certainty that those civilians are incapable of harming our forces, then according to the Halakhah they may and even should be killed... Under no circumstances should an Arab be trusted, even if he makes an impression of being civilized ... In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians, that is, civilians who are ostensibly good.

This discussion of Jewish laws towards non-Jews puts Israel's denial of food to the Palestinians, discussed in the article above, in a different light. The Jews who follow Jewish law have no moral or religious duty to help the Palestinians. On the contrary, because they are convinced that every Palestinian is a threat to Israel and to other Jews, their religious duty is to kill them all.

We will be clear. We do not think that all Jews agree with this teaching. There are many non-religious Jews who may not even be aware of it and there are many others who are taking a stand against such inhuman teachings, (which the mainstream media conveniently ignores). However, such teachings appear to us to be an accurate description of the policies of the State of Israel, whether or not the individuals involved are aware of the teachings.

These teachings appear to form the foundations of the culture within which the genocidal policies of a Sharon are acceptable to a significant portion of Israel's Jewish population. We note, moreover, that these policies are acceptable as well to a significant proportion of US fundamentalist Christians. We raise the issue of US Christians because it is clear that their attitude towards non-Christians is very similar, and historically, Christians have treated non-Christians, especially those who did not have white skin, as little more than "beasts walking on two legs" as former Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, once called Palestinians.

What is the basis of this sense of superiority? Religion, the supernatural ravings of an arrogant and bloodthirsty pseudo-divinity. Unfortunately, billions of people the world over, including Christians and Moslems, are influenced by these psychopathic delusions, as the legitimacy of their own beliefs rests upon the legitimacy of Jewish beliefs.

As for the Jews, for a people with a population of approximately 15 million world-wide, they appear to have an inordinate influence over the future of the planet. The survival of under 5 million of them, the Jewish population of Israel, could put in danger the survival of the other 6 billion of us alive today. It is the worst kept secret on the planet that Israel has nuclear weapons. It would be consistent with the Jewish law mentioned above for Israel to be willing to destroy the rest of the world if its leaders felt that there was a threat to Israel's continued existence. That Israelis have admitted that this is the worst case scenario is extremely troubling but not surprising.

But this discussion raises the issue of the modern bogeyman -- anti-Semitism. Is it "anti-Semitic" to say such things about Israel? We are not discussing Jews as a whole, and our criticisms of religion apply to the other world religions as well. We are discussing the State of Israel, their genocidal policies towards the Palestinians, and the apparent consistency between certain Jewish teachings and that policy. We also underline that the attitude of US evangelicals, and of much of the history of the Christian Churches, is in accord with these ideas even if the "chosen people" differ from case to case.

Defenders of Israel will label this argument as "anti-Semitic."

The manipulative tool that is monotheistic religion and those that have wielded it against humanity for thousands of years, appear destined to bring the world to the brink of a holocaust, and beyond, simply because they refuse to allow a wholly attainable peace settlement between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. With this year's assassination of Arafat by Israeli intelligence, the last hope for peace expired also. The world has now entered the final phase of a despicable plan that has been decades, or even centuries, in the making and which has as its goal the utter destruction of hundreds of millions of people on this planet.

While awareness of this reality is difficult to bear, it can at least help us to resolve the confusion we may have up to now experienced when we read the headlines that Bush has yet again called Sharon a a "Man of Peace." Deception, insidious and all-encompassing, is the name of the game that the controllers of this planet are playing. If you carry within you even the embryo of a vision of a different and better future for humanity, please take a stand, now, and refuse to be lied to any longer. Your children's future will undoubtedly depend on it.

Bush demanded Israel to stop the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The U.S. President George W. bush demanded Israel on Thursday to dismantle illegal settlement outposts and stop the expansion of existing settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes roadmap obligations or prejudice final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem," Bush told a joint news conference after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Therefore, Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion,” he added.

Bush also reiterated his commitment to the implementation of the roadmap peace plan and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

"We remain committed to the roadmap as the only vision of two states living side by side," he said.

Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could pave the way for a return to the roadmap, he added.

The so-called roadmap peace plan, brokered by the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia, has been largely deadlocked since it was launched two years ago. It is a phased plan that aims at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within two years and establishing a viable independent Palestinian state.

The U.S. President also pledged a $50m in aid for the Palestinian Authority to help build houses and other projects in the Gaza Strip.

"These funds will be used to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians living in Gaza, where poverty and unemployment are very high," Bush said.

The new aid is part of a $350m package earmarked for the Palestinians.

Bush also demanded other Arab countries to help create a supportive environment by providing financial aid to the Palestinians, saying that the Middle East has reached a moment of opportunity, and this could be transformed into real momentum.

Abbas’s visit to the United States is the first since he took office in January.

After meeting with Bush, Abbas expressed his confidence about the U.S. role in achieving peace in the region, but said that time was short.

“Time is the greatest enemy of peace in the Middle East. And the time for half-solutions, interim agreements and partial accords is over. It is no longer enough to simply manage the conflict while Israel unilaterally acts.

“For the sake of peace and democracy, it is time to end the conflict.” Abbas said.

The Palestinian leader also criticized the real motives behind Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip this year.

“It is not a gesture of peace, rather it diverts attention away from Israel’s expansion of the West Bank,” he said, noting that Israel wants to control Gaza’s borders, airspace and coast after the withdrawal.

“Palestinians fear that the Gaza Strip will become a large prison,” Abbas said.

JERUSALEM - Israel put on a brave face after Mahmud Abbas won crucial backing from Washington, but seethed beneath the surface, blaming the Palestinian leader for not wiping out armed groups.

After his first-ever talks with a Palestinian leader since being elected in 2001, US President George W. Bush on Thursday reaffirmed US support for a Palestinian state, praised Abbas and pledged 50 million dollars in direct aid.

He also urged Israel to halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, dismantle illegal outposts and withdraw troops to positions held before the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.

While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office presented the summit as business as usual, the right-wing branded it a failure for Israel and left-wing Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres clamoured for more settlements to be dismantled.

"Bush's speech was a defeat for Israel," said chairman of the parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committee, Youval Steinitz.

"He praised Abu Mazen (Abbas), but he has done nothing against terrorism and allowed terrorist organisations to continue to rearm," said the MP from Sharon's right-wing Likud party.

The Israeli government has repeatedly accused Abbas of failing to disarm militant groups despite a de facto truce, which has been in place since the Palestinian leader was elected in January.

Furthermore, said Steinitz, the Abbas-Bush summit made "worthless" a 2004 letter from Bush that signalled clear support for Israel holding onto large West Bank settlement blocs under a final status agreement.

To appease settlers and the right-wing, up in arms over his plan to uproot all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip this summer, Sharon has claimed Israel will cement its grip on settlements in the West Bank with US support.

From mid-August, the Israeli government is to dismantle all 21 settlements in the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as another four in the northern West Bank.

But Israeli officials appeared unfazed, saying the warm welcome laid out for Abbas was only to be expected after Washington boycotted his predecessor Yasser Arafat for years.

"Disappointment does not come into it because President Bush has not changed position," one Sharon aide told AFP. "The president made no concession on the need to fight terrorism," he added.

The Israeli press was unconvinced.

"He (Bush) adopted the democratic and peace loving aspect of Abu Mazen's regime, but disregarded what Israel views as a dangerous failure on the war on terrorism," said the Yediot Aharonot daily.

"It can be said that the Palestinians gained a few points yesterday, and Israel lost some," added the newspaper's editorial.

Despite the criticism, Sharon's office again refused to be drawn.

"Mahmud Abbas got good grades, but he doesn't have his diploma yet," said an aide of the premier, seeing the summit as a blessing for the Palestinian chief to continue his mandate but a warning there is still a long way to go.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) has begun to do things, but you can't say he's done enough to start the negotiations on the roadmap," added the source.

Nevertheless Peres, whose left-wing Labour party joined the Sharon coalition primarily to shore up the Gaza pullout, said Israel must dismantle more settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"Facts will not allow Israel to rest on its laurels after the Gaza pullout, we must evacuate other settlements. It is inconceivable that all settlements remain," he said.

On August 14, at 9 PM, Israeli television station, Channel Ten, broke all convention and exposed the ugliest secret of Israel's Labor Zionist founders; the deliberate mass radiation poisoning of nearly all Sephardi youths.

The expose began with the presentation of a documentary film called, 100,000 Radiations, and concluded with a panel discussion moderated by TV host Dan Margalit, surprising because he is infamous for toeing the establishment line.

Film Details:

100,000 Radiations, released by Dimona Productions Ltd. in 2003.

Producer - Dudi Bergman
Directors - Asher Khamias, David Balrosen

Panel Discussion Participants

A Moroccan singer was joined by David Edri, head of the Compensation Committee for Ringworm X-Ray Victims, and Boaz Lev, a spokesman for the Ministry Of Health.

Subject:

In 1951, the director general of the Israeli Health Ministry, Dr. Chaim Sheba flew to America and returned with 7 x-ray machines, supplied to him by the American army.

They were to be used in a mass atomic experiment with an entire generation of Sephardi youths to be used as guinea pigs. Every Sephardi child was to be given 35,000 times the maximum dose of x-rays through his head. For doing so, the American government paid the Israeli government 300 million Israeli liras a year. The entire Health budget was 60 million liras. The money paid by the Americans is equivalent to billions of dollars today. To fool the parents of the victims, the children were taken away on "school trips" and their parents were later told the x-rays were a treatment for the scourge of scalpal ringworm. 6,000 of the children died shortly after their doses were given, the many of the rest developed cancers that killed them over time and are still killing them now. While living, the victims suffered from disorders such as epilepsy, amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, chronic headaches and psychosis.

Yes, that is the subject of the documentary in cold terms. It is another matter to see the victims on the screen. ie. To watch the Moroccan lady describe what getting 35,000 times the dose of allowable x-rays in her head feels like.

"I screamed make the headache go away. Make the headache go away. Make the headache go away. But it never went away."

To watch the bearded man walk hunched down the street.

"I'm in my fifties and everyone thinks I'm in my seventies. I have to stoop when I walk so I won't fall over. They took my youth away with those x-rays."

To watch the old lady who administered the doses to thousands of children.

"They brought them in lines. First their heads were shaved and smeared in burning gel. Then a ball was put between their legs and the children were ordered not to drop it, so they wouldn't move. The children weren't protected over the rest of their bodies. There were no lead vests for them. I was told I was doing good by helping to remove ringworm. If I knew what dangers the children were facing, I would never have cooperated. Never!"

Because the whole body was exposed to the rays, the genetic makeup of the children was often altered, affecting the next generation. We watch the woman with the distorted face explain, "All three of my children have the same cancers my family suffered. Are you going to tell me that's a coincidence?"

Everyone notices that Sephardi women in their fifties today, often have sparse patchy hair, which they try to cover with henna. Most of us assumed it was just a characteristic of Sephardi women. We watch the woman on the screen wearing a baseball-style hat. She places a picture of a lovely young teenager with flowing black hair opposite the lens. "That was me before my treatment. Now look at me." She removes her hat. Even the red henna can't cover the horrifying scarred bald spots.

The majority of the victims were Moroccan because they were the most numerous of the Sephardi immigrants. The generation that was poisoned became the country's perpetual poor and criminal class. It didn't make sense. The Moroccans who fled to France became prosperous and highly educated. The common explanation was that France got the rich, thus smart ones. The real explanation is that every French Moroccan child didn't have his brain cells fried with gamma rays.

The film made it perfectly plain that this operation was no accident. The dangers of x-rays had been known for over forty years. We read the official guidelines for x-ray treatment in 1952. The maximum dose to be given a child in Israel was .5 rad. There was no mistake made. The children were deliberately poisoned.

David Deri, makes the point that only Sephardi children received the x-rays.

"I was in class and the men came to take us on a tour. They asked our names. The Ashkenazi children were told to return to their seats. The dark children were put on the bus."

The film presents a historian who first gives a potted history of the eugenics movement. In a later sound bite, he declares that the ringworm operation was a eugenics program aimed at weeding out the perceived weak strains of society. The film now quotes two noted anti-Sephardi racist Jewish leaders, Nahum Goldmann and Levi Eshkol.

Goldmann spent the Holocaust years first in Switzerland, where he made sure few Jewish refugees were given shelter, then flew to New York to become head of the World Jewish Congress headed by Samuel Bronfman. According to Canadian writer Mordecai Richler, Bronfman had cut a deal with Prime Minister Mackenzie King to prevent the immigration of European Jews to Canada.

But Levi Eshkol's role in the Holocaust was far more minister than merely not saving lives. He was busy taking them instead. From a biography of Levi Eshkol from the Israeli government web site:

"In 1937 Levi Eshkol played a central role in the establishment of the Mekorot Water Company and in this role was instrumental in convincing the German government to allow Jews emigrating to Palestine to take with them some of their assets - mostly in the form of German-made equipment."

While world Jewry was boycotting the Nazi regime in the '30s, the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem was propping up Hitler. A deal, called The Transfer Agreement, was cut whereby the Nazis would chase Germany's Jews to Palestine, and the Labor Zionists would force the immigrants to use their assets to buy only German goods. Once the Jewish Agency got the German Jews it wanted, those they secretly indoctrinated in the anti-Judaism of Shabtai Tzvi and Jacob Frank, they let the Nazis take care of the rest of European Jewry. The Holocaust was a eugenics program and Levi Eshkol played a major role in it.

The Moroccan lady is back on the screen. "It was a Holocaust, a Sephardi Holocaust. And what I want to know is why no one stood up to stop it."

David Deri, on film and then as a panel member, relates the frustration he encountered when trying to find his childhood medical records.

"All I wanted to know was what they did to me. I wanted to know who authorized it. I wanted to trace the chain of command. But the Health Ministry told me my records were missing."

Boaz Lev, the Health Ministry's spokesman chimes in, "Almost all the records were burned in a fire."

So let us help Mr. Deri trace the chain of command. But now I must intrude myself in the review. About six years ago, I investigated the kidnapping of some 4500, mostly Yemenite immigrant infants and children, during the early years of the state. I met the leader of the Yemenite children's movement, Rabbi Uzi Meshulum, imprisoned for trying to get the truth out. He was later returned home in a vegetative state from which he has not emerged. He told me that the kidnapped children were sent to America to die cruelly in nuclear experiments. The American government had banned human testing and needed guinea pigs. The Israeli government agreed to supply the humans in exchange for money and nuclear secrets. The initiator of Israel's nuclear program was Defence Ministry director-general Shimon Peres.

Rabbi David Sevilia of Jerusalem corroborated the crime and later, I even saw photos of the radiation scars on the few surviving children, and the cages the infants were shipped to America in.

Just over five years ago I published my belief on the internet, that Israel's Labor Zionist founders had conducted atomic experiments on Yemenite and other Sephardi children, killing thousands of them. Almost three years ago, I published the same assertion in my last book, Save Israel!. I suffered much scorn for doing so. However, I was right.

We return to the documentary. We are told that a US law in the late '40s put a stop to the human radiation experiments conducted on prisoners, the mentally feeble and the like. The American atomic program needed a new source of human lab rats and the Israeli government supplied it.

Here was the government cabinet at the time of the ringworm atrocities:

Prime Minister - David Ben Gurion
Finance Minister - Eliezer Kaplan Settlement Minister - Levi Eshkol
Foreign Minister - Moshe Sharrett
Health Minister - Yosef Burg
Labor Minister - Golda Meir
Police Minister - Amos Ben Gurion

The highest ranking non-cabinet post belonged to the Director General Of The Defence Ministry, Shimon Peres.

That a program involving the equivalent of billions of dollars of American government funds should be unknown to the Prime Minister of cash-strapped Israel is ridiculous. Ben Gurion was in on the horrors and undoubtedly chose his son to be Police Minister in case anyone interfered with them.

Now, let's have a quick glance at the other plotters, starting with the Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan. He handled the profits of the operation and was rewarded for eternity with a hospital named after him near Rehovot.

But he's not alone in this honor. The racist bigot Chaim Sheba, who ran Ringworm Incorporated, had a whole medical complex named after him. Needless to say, if there is an ounce of decency in the local medical profession, those hospital names will have to change.

Then there is Yosef Burg, who the leaders of the Yemenite Children's movement insist was the most responsible for the kidnappings of their infants. As Health Minister, he certainly played a pivotal role in the Ringworm murders. That would go a great way to explaining the peculiar behavior of his son, the peacemaker, Avraham Burg.

Let us not forget Moshe Sharrett, who had Rabbi Yoel Brand arrested in Aleppo in 1944 for proposing a practical way to save 800,000 Jews trapped in Hungary. Sharrett's most cited quote is, "If Shimon Peres ever enters this government, I will tear my clothes and start to mourn." Several Yemenite Children activists told me Sharrett was referring to the kidnapping of the Yemenite children when he made this statement.

And other amateur historians have told me that Levi Eshkol openly and proudly announced his belief in the tenets of Shabtai Tzvi, but try as I have, I haven't tracked down a citation. However, we do know of Eshkol, that during the period of the radiations, he served first as Settlement Minister, then took over from Kaplan as Finance Minister. From his bio:

"In 1951 Eshkol was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Development, and from 1952 to 1963 - a decade characterized by unprecedented economic growth despite the burden of financing immigrant absorption and the 1956 Sinai Campaign - he served as Minister of Finance. Between 1949 and 1963, Eshkol also served as head of the settlement division of the Jewish Agency. In the first four years of statehood, he was also treasurer of the Jewish Agency, largely responsible for obtaining the funds for the country's development, absorption of the massive waves of immigrants and equipment for the army."

In short, Eshkol was the person most responsible for Israel's immigrants, the ones he sent to radiation torture chambers.

Finally, there is Golda Meir. We don't know her role, but she was in on the secret and rewarded for it. Note that every prime minister thereafter until 1977, when the honorable Menachem Begin was elected, came from this cabal. And note also, that no one from what is called the Right today, was privy to the slaughter of the Sephardi children.

Apply that lesson to a contemporary fact: It is the descendants of these butchers who brought us the Oslo "peace" and are determined to wipe out the settlers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza as surely as they had dealt with the inferior dark Jews who came into their clutches fifty years before.

Now try and imagine it is 1952 and you are in a cabinet meeting. You will be debating whether to send the Yemenite babies to America for their final zapping, or whether to have them zapped here. That is what the Luciferian, satanic Sabbataian founders of our nation were prattling on about when they got together to discuss the affairs of state.

After the film ended, TV host Dan Margalit tried to put a better face on what he'd witnessed. Any face had to be better than what he had seen. He explained meekly, "But the state was poor. It was a matter of day to day survival." Then he stopped. He knew there was no excusing the atrocities the Sephardi children endured.

But it was the Moroccan singer who summed up the experience best. "It's going to hurt, but the truth has to be told. If not, the wounds will never heal."

There is one person alive who knows the truth and participated in the atrocities. He is Leader Of The Opposition Shimon Peres, the peacemaker. The only way to get to the truth and start the healing is to investigate him for his role in the kidnapping of 4500 Yemenite infants and the mass poisoning of over 100,000 Sephardi children and youths.

But here is why that won't happen. It is a miracle that 100,000 Radiations was broadcast at all. Clearly though, someone fought for it but had to agree to a compromise. The show was aired at the same time as the highest-rated show of the year, the final of Israel's, A Star Is Born. The next day, there was not a word about 100,000 Radiations in any paper, but the newly-born star's photo took up half the front pages. That's how the truth is buried in Israel, and somehow, these tricks work. The same methods were used to cover up the Rabin assassination.

However, a few hundred thousand people saw the film on their screens and they will never forget the truth. If the Rabin assassination doesn't bury Labor Zionism for good, then 100,000 Radiations eventually will.

end

A decent background piece on the subject of the Ringworm Holocaust is found at:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/458044.html

I cover the subject and explain the motivations for the evil on my new audio CD and video called The Dirty Secrets Of Oslo.

I'm getting my first reactions and they are strong. Here are two:

"I've listened to your CDs twice so far, and will do so again. You speak truth. I know that."

"Hi Barry,
I have listened to your CD twice now. You need to somehow get this word out. I don't know how. After listening to this, I have more admiration and respect for you than ever. You have managed to put things together in the right perspective. You have broken into something that answers many questions that I have always had. We have to get this word out somehow. If you can think of anything that I can do to help you, please do let me know."

To see or hear my 90 minute lecture last May in Denver on the real "peace" process, just write me at chamish@netvision.net.il $20 will get you one, $32, both.

And as usual, you can order my English books, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Betrayed, The Last Days Of Israel and Save Israel! by writing me at the same address.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The United States closed all its diplomatic offices in Indonesia on Thursday because of an unspecified security threat, and it issued fresh warnings of possible terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Police also said two of the country's most-wanted terror suspects may be planning more attacks. The two Malaysian suspects - Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top - are believed to have masterminded the attacks on the Australian Embassy last year and on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003. They are also suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

The U.S. warning was e-mailed to American citizens in Indonesia. The message said the government had closed its embassy in Jakarta, its consulates in Surabaya, Medan and the island of Bali, and all other U.S. government offices in the country until further notice.

"Attacks could occur at any time and could be directed against any location, including those frequented by foreigners and identifiably American and other Western facilities or businesses in Indonesia," the statement said.

The U.S. actions came a week after Australia urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Indonesia because of a warning by police in Jakarta about possible suicide bombings, particularly at embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls.

The renewed terror warnings in Indonesia will not affect the planned one-day visit of former President Clinton to Aceh, Indonesia, on Monday, according to United Nations spokeswoman Imogen Wall in Aceh. Clinton, who was recently named U.N. special envoy for tsunami recovery, was visiting India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand and Indonesia to review progress by these countries in rebuilding tsunami-hit areas. Wall said the terror threat does not extend to Aceh.

Police said they did not know of any specific threats against Americans but they have picked up intelligence indicating the terror suspects Azahari and Noordin might be planning more attacks.

"We are unclear about the location of their target exactly but our intelligence analysis have identified communication from the perpetrators about an attack," National Police Chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said.

Azahari and Noordin have been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, considered al-Qaida's arm in the region. The group, which wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia, is suspected of a string of terror attacks in Indonesia since 2000.

Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the Bali attack, the Aug. 5, 2003, bombing of the Marriott in Jakarta that killed 12, and the Sept. 9, 2004, attack at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed 10.

Azahari, a British-trained engineer and top bomb maker dubbed "the demolition man," and Noordin are the alleged masterminds of the Australian Embassy bombing.

The bespectacled 46-year-old Azahari, who taught bomb-making in Afghanistan and the Philippines, is the most wanted of the two. He is believed to have assembled one of two bombs used in the Bali attack - the worst act of terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. He is also suspected of masterminding the Marriott attack.

Noordin is also accused of helping finance the Bali blast and helping build the bomb used in the Marriott attack.

Noordin and Azahari, known for recruiting the suicide bombers, were last seen in Jakarta before the embassy blast and are still believed to be in Indonesia. Police have put up wanted posters, dropped fliers from helicopters and set up roadblocks to try to catch them.

Police say the men have used various aliases while disguising themselves as everything from scholars to beggars. They also have taken advantage of a network of hard-line mosques, Islamic boarding schools and charitable foundations whose members consider them "heroes."

Indonesia has arrested dozens of Jemaah Islamiyah members. But police say they have narrowly missed the two Malaysian militants three times because of their ability to blend in.

An advisor to the Indonesian government claims the armed forces may have been involved in the recent car bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. A car bomb killed at least 10 people and injured scores more at the luxury hotel.

The advisor, Jawanda, has told our South East Asia correspondent Peter Lloyd that attempts to blame Muslim extremists for the suicide bombing may be premature.

He says Indonesia's naval intelligence has launched an informal investigation into the possibility the attack may have been part of a campaign to undermine the president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

"That is already in the works," he said. When asked if there are people who want to undermine President Megawati, Jawanda said yes. "Undermine, but at the same time to make a path for them taking the power, so, creating the political tension," he said.

Indonesian prosecutors were due later to recommend a sentence for alleged terror group chief Abu Bakar Bashir, as the Muslim cleric accused US intelligence of carrying out deadly bombings in Bali and Jakarta.

Bashir, a Muslim cleric who allegedly leads the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), faces 20 years if convicted of trying to topple the government through terrorism and to establish an Islamic state.

In a radio interview before the hearing, he said his trial has produced no proof of his guilt. "The issue now is the extremely high likelihood that foreigners have intervened in it," Bashir told Elshinta radio.

The 64-year-old cleric alleged that the US Central Intelligence Agency was behind last week's car bombing of the American-run JW Marriott hotel, which killed 11 people. [...]

Indonesian prosecutors have filed terrorism charges against cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in a major step towards a new trial of the accused leader of South-east Asia's Jemaah Islamiya network.

"It has been submitted to the south Jakarta court today," Didik Istiyanta, south Jakarta state prosecutor, said on Friday.

Asked whether the charges related to terrorism, he said, "Something like that," adding, "but for details, wait until the trial".

Another prosecutor, Andi Herman, confirmed the charges were related to terrorism. "Yes they are," he said, but declined to elaborate.

Herman said normally a trial would be convened within two weeks of the charges being submitted.

The attorney general's office had said earlier Bashir would face charges of helping to plot the August 2003 blast at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 people and of involvement in a conspiracy to hide large amounts of explosives in central Java.

Charges denied

Authorities believe Bashir inspired fighters who bombed nightclubs on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 and who carried out the Marriott bombing and other attacks.

Bashir, who denies any connections with Jemaah Islamiya or terrorism, was first arrested days after the Bali blasts that killed 202 people, amid suspicions he led Jemaah Islamiya and had links to violent acts.

However, following a trial using the ordinary criminal code, the court said there was not enough evidence to prove Bashir led the group, and ultimately only convictions related to immigration violations were upheld in appeals courts.

After he had served time on those convictions, Indonesian police detained Bashir under a tough anti-terror law passed
in the wake of the Bali bombings.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir does not cut the terrifying figure expected of a man accused of being a leading figure in the murky world of international terrorism.

He is a frail, 65-year-old man with a wispy beard, embroidered white skull cap and heavy glasses perched on his aquiline nose.

Before his arrest a week after the 2002 Bali bombings, Mr Ba'asyir was a teacher at an Islamic school in Solo, central Java. He still insists he is just a simple preacher.

But according to the Indonesian and foreign governments, Mr Ba'asyir was also the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a shadowy group accused of the 2002 Bali bombings.

Prosecutors accused Mr Ba'asyir of plotting to assassinate Indonesian leader Megawati Sukarnoputri when she was vice-president in a bid to turn the country - the world's most populous Muslim nation - into a hardline Islamic state.

He was also accused of orchestrating a series of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000.

The problem for the authorities is that Indonesia's courts have not found the evidence compelling.

First the courts acquitted him of being JI's spiritual leader, after judges said there was not enough proof. Then an appeal court overturned a subversion conviction, cutting his original jail term from four years to 18 months, since his only remaining offence was immigration-related.

Denial

Despite his outspoken support for Osama Bin Laden, Mr Ba'asyir denies having personal links with him or with terrorism in general.

The cleric has repeatedly denied all the charges against him, and condemned the Bali bombing as a "brutal act".

Most of the case against Mr Ba'asyir has been based on statements made by a Kuwaiti man, Omar al-Faruq, who was arrested in Indonesia last June and is now in US custody.

Comment: Today as he sits in his jail cell of over 3 years, the charges against Bashir over involvement in the 2003 bombing of the US-owned Marriott Hotel in Jakarta have been dropped due to lack of evidence, but was found guilty in March of this year for "conspiracy" in the Bali bombing in 2002.

The strange thing about is that, for an "crazed Islamic fundamentalist" he tends to condemn terror attacks rather than support them...

Nine people died on September 9 when a car bomb detonated outside the Australian mission in the Kuningan district of central Jakarta. About 180 people were wounded in the attack blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a South-East Asian militant network allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.

"I personally condemn the bombing (and) I am deeply sorry and express my condolences to the victims," Abu Bakar Bashir said according to his lawyer Wirawan Adnan who had visited the cleric in his cell in Cipinang Prison.

Bashir has been in jail since 2002, when he was convicted for minor immigration infractions. Prosecutors say they now plan to charge him with heading Jemaah Islamiah, and for a deadly bombing last year at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12.

There has been speculation that he could also be charged over the latest embassy attack.

Bashir has repeatedly denied any involvement in terrorism and claimed that Jakarta buckled under pressure from Washington to arrest him as part of a crackdown on Islamic activists in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"I deny all accusations that connect the bombing with me," Bashir said. "I had nothing to do with the Kuningan bombing, the Marriott bombing or any other bombing."

"Terrorists must be punished and eliminated for good," he said.

Adnan told reporters that Bashir was convinced that the police were trying to make him a scapegoat to cover up their failure to prevent terrorist attacks.

"At the time of the Marriott bombing I was locked up for eight months. How can that be?" Bashir said, according to his attorney.

Comment: It might be important here to note a few things about the bombing of the US-owned Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003 for which Bashir was tried and then acquitted.

At the time, every Western news source blithely parroted the official story that a "suicide car bomber" has caused the blast which killed 12 people, yet according to eyewitnesses there were 4 blasts, two of them in upper stories INSIDE the hotel...

The Jakarta Post quoted an eyewitness as describing four separate blasts at the hotel, including two smaller explosions on the upper floors of the hotel.

''I was going to take some pictures after the first blast when suddenly the second blast hit after about 10 minutes. The second was the largest of four,'' the eyewitness, a journalist, reportedly told the daily. He said the second blast was the one that caused a crater in the hotel's Sailendra Restaurant.

Earlier, Jakarta Gov. Sutiyoso had told reporters it appeared that a suicide bomber drove a car to the entrance of the hotel and detonated an explosive device. Antara quoted a source as saying the bomb or bombs were brought by a taxi.

Comment: Furthermore, a hotel employee claimed that a booking for the hotel by the US embassy was cancelled just a short time before the attack. Just really good luck perhaps?...

There was something interesting happened just hours before the explosion shocked the JW Marriott Hotel, Mega Kuningan, South
Jakarta. The US Embassy cancelled the booking of 10-20 rooms in that hotel. The cancellation was on 8.00 West Indonesian Time, Tuesday, or only 4.5 hours before the explosion.

This information is from employee of Marriot Hotel who refused to be identified. He explained that the booking was made several days ago.
The US Embassy's guests were planned to stay for 3 days. And the ceremony was planned on Wednesday.

For information, when there was the explosion, the security of US Embassy directly came to the Marriot Hotel in Mega Kuningan. JW
Marriot Hotel is known to be used frequently by US Embassy. On 4 July 2003, the Independent Day of US was celebrated on this hotel. Last year, it was also celebrated there.

Comment: Not only that, but it seems that Indonesian police knew in advance that the hotel would be a target...

Jakarta police seized documents last month showing terrorists were planning an attack in the area around the Marriott Hotel, where 14 people died yesterday in suicide car bombing. [...]

Comment: ...but for some reason the police decided (or were told) not to take any preventative action. Luckily for them, they had the Australian foreign minister to intervene and deny to the world that anyone knew anything...

FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer today rejected claims that Indonesian police had discovered a list of terrorist targets, including the JW Marriott Hotel, in recent raids on terror suspects.

Mr Downer said he had heard such media reports and immediately checked with Australian authorities to see what was known.

"I understand now more recently that there wasn't information that was so specific that would identify the Marriott Hotel," he said on ABC radio.

"It was just more general information of possible terrorist attacks and plans to develop terrorist operations. I have been told that it wasn't specific to the Marriott Hotel.

"There wasn't a list which included the Marriott Hotel."

Comment: And it seems that Mr Downer is no stranger to denials...

Downer Denies Vanuatu Spying

Downer Denies Receiving Bali Warning

Downer Denies Police Spying

Downer Denies Knowledge of Indonesian Summit

Downer Denies Butler Report Damages Case For War

Downer Denies Intel Clash

Downer Denies Hicks Move An Election Ploy

Getting back then to the Muslim cleric in question, Bashir has made no secret of his anti-Israel anti-US opinions and his goal to promote Islam throughout South East Asia.

Over the course of many years, US intelligence agencies and their controllers have learned that as they pursue their goal of global economic and political control, there is little or no chance of negotiating the take over of a country with any but the most amoral of leaders. As such, any moral opposition must be taken out before any taking over can be achieved. The "opposition" includes any religious or political leaders who are wise to the game that is being played and are no inclined to play along.

In the present climate, as the US and Israel go about the task of demonising Islam in the minds of all westerners (and in the minds of Islamic people themselves), there is certainly no room for anyone attempting to unite Arabs or Asians and, god or allah forbid, present a moderate face of Islam!

The goal of Israel then, in conjunction with US intelligence agencies, is to continue to provide "evidence" of the need to continue the "war on terror". Naturally, this "evidence" will involve the use of false flag "terror attacks" on Western targets. The blame is then assigned to some Islamic or Arab "terror" group, which can be invented if needed, as a way to divert attention from the real perpetrators and to provide justification for the subsequent targeting of specific countries or regimes. It is a self perpetuating dynamic, or a positive feedback loop, although, from the point of view of the world public, there is certainly nothing positive in such acts.

Evidence for the fact that at least some faction of the US government is aware of and sanctions such covert operations, is to be found in the public pressure that is subsequently put on governments of Islamic countries who are victims of these attacks to make greater efforts to "stamp out the menace of terrorism".

As the above BBC article notes, most of the previous cases against Bashir are based on the testimony of Omar al-Faruq, who was arrested for the Bali bombing and turned over to the CIA. A former Indonesian intelligence officer has some interesting ideas on al-Faruq and his role with the CIA

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaitd citizen Omar Al-Faruq, a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited agent.

Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups.

"When Al Faruq finished his assignments, the CIA created a scenario that he had been arrested," Manulang told Tempo News Room in Jakarta on Thursday afternoon (19/9).

Manulang made this analysis based on the pattern used by Al Faruq, that of having Kuwait citizenship but holding a Pakistani passport, entering Indonesia as a refugee and marrying an Indonesian woman.

This kind of operation is aimed at starting conflicts in Indonesia and creating the image that Indonesia is a land of terrorists.

"After the CIA obtained complete data on this matter, they then made Al-Faruq disappear. It's common in intelligence world," said Manulang.

Manulang said he considered several matters in the arrest of Al Faruq last July to be odd, such as the denial of National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar over the police's involvement in Al Faruq's arrest, and the lack of official documents in Al Faruq's handing over to the US.

"In the handing over of a detainee to other country, there should be an announcement or deportation document. Al Faruq's case indicated a lack of coordination between the Indonesian police and intelligence agencies," said Manulang.

As for Al Faruq's testimony in Time magazine that he had masterminded the plan to murder Indonesian President Megawati and several bombings in Indonesia, Manulang considered this as an attempt to making Islamic groups the scapegoats for all terrorism incidents.

"Anti-Islam intelligence agencies committed the bombings in Indonesia. They have been trained for this and they are very organized," said Manulang.

Therefore, he added, it was useless to arrest the bombers.

"We must arrest the mastermind of the bombings in Indonesia," stated Manulang.

According to Manulang, it's possible that Al Faruq recruited radical people from Islamic groups for his plan.

In regards to the murder attempt on Megawati, Manulang did not consider this as a serious matter.

"Megawati does not need to be worried. She's not the real target in this matter," said Manulang.

Manulang requested the government immediately verify the CIA report on Al Faruq.

"Such a report could only be a dummy or false intelligence information that is aimed at misleading the public," stated Manulang. (Sapto Pradityo-Tempo News Room)

Comment: The story of Al-Faruq is an interesting one, and gives us an insight into how the CIA and Mossad go about recruiting, and perhaps even mind programming, their "terrorist" patsies. For those who balk at the idea of mind-programming, we remind you of the publicly admitted US government program "MK Ultra"

From a March 9 2003 New York Times article:

Omar al-Faruq, a confidant of Mr. bin Laden and one of Al Qaeda's senior operatives in Southeast Asia, was captured last June by Indonesian agents acting on a tip from the C.I.A. Agents familiar with the case said a black hood was dropped over his head and he was loaded onto a C.I.A. aircraft. When he arrived at his destination several hours later, the hood was removed. On the wall in front of him were the seals of the New York City Police and Fire Departments, a Western official said.

It was, said a former senior C.I.A. officer who took part in similar sessions, a mind game called false flag, intended to leave the captive disoriented, isolated and vulnerable. Sometimes the décor is faked to make it seem as though the suspect has been taken to a country with a reputation for brutal interrogation.

In this case, officials said, Mr. Faruq was in the C.I.A. interrogation center at the Bagram air base (Afghanistan). American officials were convinced that he knew a lot about pending attacks and the Qaeda network in Southeast Asia, which Mr. bin Laden sent him to set up in 1998.

The details of the interrogation are unknown, though one intelligence official briefed on the sessions said Mr. Faruq initially provided useless scraps of information.

What is known is that the questioning was prolonged, extending day and night for weeks. It is likely, experts say, that the proceedings followed a pattern, with Mr. Faruq left naked most of the time, his hands and feet bound. While international law requires prisoners to be allowed eight hours' sleep a day, interrogators do not necessarily let them sleep for eight consecutive hours.

Mr. Faruq may also have been hooked up to sensors, then asked questions to which interrogators knew the answers, so they could gauge his truthfulness, officials said.

The Western intelligence official described Mr. Faruq's interrogation as "not quite torture, but about as close as you can get." The official said that over a three-month period, the suspect was fed very little, while being subjected to sleep and light deprivation, prolonged isolation and room temperatures that varied from 100 degrees to 10 degrees. In the end he began to cooperate.

And we have to wonder just what the nature of Faruq's cooperation with the CIA was.

At least 20 people have been killed by a suspected bomber at a Muslim shrine in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, an intelligence official and a witness said.

But the number of dead could be more than 30, other witnesses told Aljazeera's correspondent in Pakistan.

The blast occurred at 11.20am (0620 GMT) on Friday at the Bari Imam shrine, which is close to Pakistan's main government buildings and the diplomatic enclave, where many embassies and diplomatic residences are.

Thousands of devotees from the majority Sunni Muslim and minority Shia Muslim sects gathered to mark the anniversary of a Sufi holy man's death in the area at the time of the explosion, the private Geo television station said.

The shrine was seen as a symbol of harmony between the two communities.

An AP photographer at the scene counted at least 20 bodies, many of them in pieces, making it hard to give an exact figure. An intelligence official said at least 20 were killed and 150 wounded.

Varying figures

Eyewitnesses told Aljazeera's Pakistan correspondent Ahmad Zaidan that at least 30 people were killed and 100 others injured in the explosion. Zaidan said most of the casualties were Shia.

Police officer Mohammed Sadique said the bomb exploded inside the shrine, where many Muslims have congregated this week for a five-day festival ending on Friday.

He said mutilated bodies and body parts were scattered inside.

"There is blood all around," Mohammad Javed, who lives nearby, told AFP by telephone.

Mukhtar Kazmi, who was running a clinic at the shrine, said they treated about 200 people.

Police cordoned off the shrine and blocked access roads after the blast.

Clashes

Hundreds of worshippers staged protests at the shrine and clashed with police after officers baton-charged the crowd to clear the way for ambulances.

Many of the protesters also chanted, "Down with America".

"Our initial information suggests it was a suicide attack," Islamabad police chief Talat Mehmood Tariq told Reuters.

"A man came into the congregation and apparently blew himself up," a witness said.

Ali Ahmad, 50, a worshipper who was injured in the blast, said he had seen a man whom he suspected was the bomber, dressed in a police uniform, walk inside as worshippers recited the Quran.

Police at the shrine tried to stop the man but failed to prevent the attack, he said.

Differing accounts

But eyewitnesses and Pakistan's information minister told Aljazeera that the explosion was not a "suicide" operation and that a bomb may have been planted inside the mosque.

The explosion came after Sunni and Shia religious scholars had issued a fatwa, or religious decree, prohibiting "suicide" operations targeting particular sects, Zaidan reported.

Some think the explosion was intended to influence the demonstrations to be staged on Friday after the noon prayer to protest against the reported desecration of the Quran by US troops, Zaidan said.

Earlier attacks

The Sunni custodian of the shrine and two other people were shot dead near the compound in February. Early this month, police said they had killed the suspects in custodian Raja Akram's death.

Both sects claim the shrine is theirs, but it has been controlled by Sunnis for the past two decades.

Shias make up a 20% minority of Pakistan's predominantly Muslim population of 150 million.

BAGHDAD - Two US soldiers were killed when insurgents shot down their helicopter, the military said, as the Iraqi government sealed off Baghdad in a bid to quell mounting attacks on the capital.

Meanwhile, speculation continued over the fate of Al-Qaeda's ringleader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, reported to have been badly wounded and the focus of a spate of conflicting Internet claims.

The dead US soldiers were flying in one of two helicopters attacked by insurgent gunfire which crashed as they were carrying out a support mission for coalition troops near the rebel stronghold of Baquba late Thursday.

The second chopper managed to land at a US air base after sustaining damage, it said, with US forces securing the area around the crash site.

With car bombs exploding almost daily in the capital, the government has started a vast operation to seal off Baghdad using tens of thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers and setting up hundreds of extra checkpoints.

"We're going to set up a security cordon around Baghdad ... and it will be impossible for terrorists to cross," said Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi, adding that the plan would soon be extended to the provinces.

"The objective is to pass from a defensive position to an offensive one and to put the capacities of defence and interior ministry forces to the best use."

In the northwest, around 1,000 US and Iraqi troops continued their operation in the Euphrates Valley town of Haditha in a bid to rout insurgents loyal to Zarqawi who fled an earlier operation near the Syrian border. [...]

The United States wants Britain's proposed identity cards to have the same microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents.

The aim of getting the same microchip is to ensure compatability in screening terrorist suspects. But it will also mean that information contained in the British cards can be accessed across the Atlantic.

Michael Chertoff, the newly appointed US Secretary for Homeland Security, has already had talks with the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, and the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, to discuss the matter.

Mr Chertoff said yesterday that it was vital to seek compatibility, holding up the example of the "video war" of 25 years ago, when VHS and Betamax were in fierce competition to win the status of industry standard for video recording systems.

"I certainly hope we have the same chip... It would be very bad if we all invested huge amounts of money in biometric systems and they didn't work with each other. Hopefully, we are not going to do VHS and Betamax with our chips. I was one of the ones who bought Betamax, and that's now in the garbage," he said.

Mr Chertoff also proposed that British citizens wishing to visit the US should consider entering a "Trusted Traveller" scheme. Under this, they would forward their details to the US embassy to be vetted. If successful, they would receive a document allowing "fast-tracking" through the US immigration system.

A pilot scheme will start within a few months between the US and the Netherlands, allowing Dutch visitors to use a Trusted Traveller card to enter the US without being subjected to further questioning or screening.

Britain is one of 27 countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter the US if they intend to stay less than 90 days. The American government has said it wants 27 to issue new passports by 26 October this year containing a computer chip and a digital photograph.

Mr Chertoff said compatability and the checking system was intended purely to track down "terrorists and criminals" and the main aim was to provide a "fair and reasonable system".

US diplomatic sources stated later that Washington did not wish to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.

"When we screen based on names, we're screening on the most primitive and least technological basis of identification - it's the most susceptible to misspelling, or people changing their identity, or fraud," he said.

The scheme will also, say diplomats, ease confusion over who exactly constitutes a suspect. The most high-profile case was that of Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, who was barred from entering the US because his activities "could be potentially linked to terrorism". The British government is insistent that Mr Islam had no such links.

However, this is the latest controversy to surround Britain's proposed combined identity card and passport due to be introduced in three years' time. Rising costs have pushed the cost up to £93 each after the overall estimated 10-year cost of the project grew from £3.1bn to £ 5.8 bn.

There have also been problems over the effectiveness of the biometric technology which is supposed to safeguard the security of the cards. There were also verification problems with 30 per cent of those whose fingerprint was taken during an enrolment trial of 10,000 volunteers.

The recent massacre in Uzbekistan's northeast city of Andijon is strikingly similar to the bloody crackdown in China's Tien An Men square: no cameras, and no access to verify the number of dead.

Back in 1996, I heard a Peace Corps volunteer in Feghana exclaim that if American workers were not paid their salaries on time, there would be riots all over. But his Uzbek colleagues, university teachers, did not see their salaries for months and waited patiently. They would say at least they have jobs, when so many are unemployed.

By 2004 people could not stay silent any more. They have been picketing their factories, organizing impromptu demonstrations in the bazaars when government decided to raise taxes yet again. Finally, the biggest demonstration involving thousands of people in Andijan ended in a massacre of hundreds of men, women and children.

The US's main Central Asian ally in the "war on terror," and designated torturer for suspects handed over by Washington, has just refused Kofi Annan's request to allow a UN inquiry team into the massacre of 800 peaceful demonstrators shot dead in the main square in Andijan. So far, there have been no threats of intervention by Washington.

Instead, "balanced" statements by the State Department say that Uzbekistan should open up and work toward democracy -- and that both sides should show restraint -- putting the massacred and their murderers on a par. Even calls for an independent inquiry are unenthusiastic.

The massacre reminds many of events in Tien An Men square more than 15 years ago -- no cameras, no access to verify the number of dead. Only eyewitnesses who fled to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan tell of the horrors of that day.

Where's Uzbekistan?

While Westerners know where China is, for many Uzbekistan is another obscure country with a Muslim population. Since it gained independence in 1991, Uzbekistan's economy, as well as its human rights record, has been steadily deteriorating. More than half of the population lives in rural areas, where they work year-round and are paid in flour and oil instead of cash. Their children are poorly fed and are forced to pick cotton, unpaid, when the harvest time comes instead of going to school.

The situation in the cities is not much different: the average salary is $15 a month, enough to feed a family of four for a couple of days. As a measure of how desperate living standards are, when the international community wanted cheap labour to build reactors in North Korea, they hired Uzbek construction workers. Undercutting Kim Jong Il is quite a feat.

Uzbek President Islam A. Karimov, who often scolds the journalists for not being bold and writing about social issues, has never tolerated a free press. Today, Afghanistan has more independent newspapers and TV stations then Uzbekistan. After the events in Andijan, authorities expelled all journalists from Andijan, taking away their tapes, notebooks, and equipment, and none have been allowed back in. The local media -- which the government controls -- has been reporting the tragedy as a small incident organized by a bunch of armed criminals and that all is under control now.

The information blockade has proved very effective. I have spoken to people in towns only 30 miles away who are unaware of what happened in Andijan. Local TV stations and newspapers ran transcripts and showed hours of footage of press briefings by Karimov, taking their cue from his speeches. With Uzbekistan's long track record of ignoring deaths in custody and gruesome torture reports, I cannot be very optimistic about the attention span of its Western allies.

No one can be sure of the death toll, but it is certain that official figures, and indeed official versions of what happened, can be completely discounted. While the Uzbek government is adamantly denying that this kind of massacre occurred, claiming that "only" 169 people were shot, an army source told the BBC that 500 were killed when troops opened fire on protesters on May 13. This figure was echoed by a city doctor who was observing the bodies dumped in a local school and eyewitnesses interviewed by journalists and human rights groups.

The door-to-door account by Nigora Hidoyatova, a brave member of the Ozod Dexkon (Free Farmers) party revealed more than 800 dead. Many more are said to be dying of wounds in a local hospital due to the lack of necessary medicines -- a perennial condition in Karimov's police state. Meanwhile, countless graves with small numbered plaques sprang up in the city cemetery, indicating that the authorities have been hastily burying the dead.

While for many years observers have been predicting a bloody confrontation in Uzbekistan, nobody expected even Karimov to order shootings of innocent men, women and children.

"How can I give an order to shoot my own dear people!" he exclaimed at a press briefing, blaming journalists for reporting allegedly false news about peaceful demonstrators. He further went on to blame "Islamic extremists" who want to create another Taliban-like regime.

Under pressure from the international community, the government allowed a group of diplomats and journalists to visit Andijan. However, since they were not allowed to speak to anyone, except for the chosen and "trained" few and were escorted to their plane after only two hours of "observing" the city, it was a fruitless exercise.

Uzbekistan emerged as a close ally in the war on terror after it allowed Americans to set up a military airbase near the Afghan border at the time the U.S. was planning to fight against the Taliban. Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan since 1986, first, as a Communist Secretary, and later, as elected president. Subsequent elections were moslty rigged and no serious opponent has run against him, since he banned their parties and exiled their leaders. The Parliament rubber-stamps all of the president's decrees. They held an emergency session after the events in Andijan and have repeated the "facts" already aired by the authorities and condemned the "criminal acts of those who want to derail Uzbekistan from its democratic path."

Since 2001, Uzbekistan has received hundreds of millions in aid to improve its security -- army and police. Even though the U.S. State Department has verbally criticized the regime's human rights record, the Bush Administration turned a blind eye to the "friendly" dictator and kept the military aid flowing. Last year, when the State Department cancelled 11 million in aid due to the abysmal human rights record, the Pentagon reissued it from a different budget under a different name.

As long as Karimov labeled those who opposed him as "religious extremists and terrorists," he got away with the imprisonment and torture of thousands of dissidents. By some estimates Uzbekistan has over 7,000 political prisoners, while the rest of the population is plunged into extreme poverty. Unemployment is high and corruption is a part of ordinary Uzbeks' lives. Private enterprises are heavily taxed and draconian laws on convertibility of the local currency make foreign investments unprofitable.

Not a single political opposition party is registered, and any independent media outlet is closed as soon as it opens. Intrepid journalists as well as human rights activists are silenced by threats, jailing and beatings. Government and secret police recruit minders to report on their neighbors, colleagues and fellow students in return for social privileges. And as we know, the regime has enough clout to secure the recall of a British ambassador who refuses to toe the Tashkent line.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that there have been many deaths in Andijan and excessive use of force by the government troops but fell short of directly asking Karimov for an explanation. Unlike Jack Straw, who condemned the violence and called on the government of Uzbekistan to conduct a full independent inquiry, Ms. Rice appealed to Uzbekistan's government to open up its political system and to reform.

This is either naïve or cynical and implies continuing support for Karimov. He, on the other hand, has already declared openly that no other power in the world can dictate how he should bring about democracy to his country.

To be fair, Washington's prevarication has been put in the shade by neighboring powers such as Russia and China who have dismayed human rights organizations by expressing their support for Karimov's regime, and condemning a group of "Islamic fanatics" for destabilizing the region.

The European Union and NATO took a different position, condemning excessive force by government troops and calling for a full independent inquiry into the bloodshed. Even so, both EU and NATO officials expressed hopes that both sides on the conflict would restrain from using force.

While the international community waits in hope that it can persuade Karimov to open up, hundreds or possibly thousands of innocent Andijanis are being imprisoned, tortured and their human dignity and spirits crushed because they wish to stand up for their fundamental human rights. Weeks before the Andijan massacre, President Bush said "We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability." It will be interesting to see if he was serious.

Anora Mahmudova is an Uzbek journalist based in the U.S.

Editor's Note: Andrew Borene served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a First Lieutenant during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2000, Borene deferred his matriculation at the University of Minnesota Law School and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He graduated with honors from the Marine Basic Officer Course in Quantico, Virginia, and participated in the first 100 days of the war, coordinating military personnel from multiple agencies and nations during major combat operations. He is now pursuing a J.D. degree at the University of Minnesota Law School.

From what I recall learning in a class at Quantico, during W.W.II the White House communications team made it a point to include images in the newsreels of dead Marines on the beaches of the Pacific. They wanted to remind the American people of the sacrifice they were making, and what was on the line. They refused to let the public forget exactly what it was their sons and brothers and fathers were doing overseas.

Anyone who does a little reading will learn the Nazis, the Japanese and the Russians denied honest disclosure of war casualty numbers and misled their own people about the costs of combat. That's hardly the kind of war policy model the U.S., the world's last, best hope for democracy, should be following.

The current majority in Washington is doing everything it can to avert the public's attention from Iraq and Afghanistan. They don't want to ask for real sacrifice in support of the global war on terror, much less spending to support the troops.

Comment: This last comment is rather interesting. Just yesterday, the US House passed a bill authorizing another $49.1 billion for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. An $81 billion chunk of change was approved only a few weeks earlier for the same purpose. In fact, obscene amounts of money have been continually dumped into the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. If the money isn't getting to the troops, where is it going?

They are more than happy to maintain the perception that the biggest issues in America are Social Security reform, Tom DeLay's ethics investigation and judicial filibusters.

The kind of examples they set for future leaders to emulate are guys who skipped out on military service and served as tie-wearing, pamphlet-passing, college cheerleaders for the conflict in Vietnam. The hypocrisy of senior citizen draft dodgers talking tough about national security and combat should be exposed in a time of war. Instead, we promote them to the highest levels of American diplomacy.

All of this perpetuates a growing "chickenhawk culture" in which young Americans with the most to offer in uniform feel quite comfortable taking civilian jobs or going to graduate school without so much as a thought about taking care of the young soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors who are fighting a very real and growing war.

A continued refusal to honestly show the real human cost of the war will only alienate the troops from the American people and civilian leadership. This is hardly what we need at a time when North Korea actually has nuclear weapons, Iran seems hell-bent on obtaining them, and Russia is busy crushing any semblance of freedom within its borders.

Last I checked, the reason we all were willing to fight for America was a commitment to Constitutional freedom and the principles of government by the people. We must not be afraid to show the truth to the American people. If we support the war, then we will accept the casualties and get behind the effort. And if we don't, then in our free society we had better be prepared for a real national debate about what exactly our leadership is doing with the lives of our troops.

McClellan, George W's mouthpiece to the media, piled up a mountain of ironies when he lashed out at Newsweek recently for its piece about the desecration of the Quran by US guards at Guantanamo Bay prison. Scottie was outraged, he said, because Newsweek editors initially refused to retract the story after finding a factual flaw in it. Filled with righteous indignation, McClellan lectured reporters about standards of truth, about relying on only one source, and about credibility.

Hoo-boy...where to start? How about with the entire pack of lies that the Bushites used to plunge American troops into the war and ongoing occupation of Iraq? Even though the White House has now been forced to admit that it couldn't find any Weapons of Mass Destruction or a link between Al Qaeda and Saddam--we still have received no retraction of their story or apology for damaging US credibility all around the world.

Also, you might recall that the Bushites' untrue story about a "mobile biological weapons lab" in Iraq was not only based on a single source, but the source was a guy that US intelligence never interviewed! And when Scott wails in outrage about Newsweek relying on only one source, he didn't add that the source is a top-ranking official in Bush's own Pentagon, or that Pentagon officials were shown the story before publication and raised no objection to its truthfulness.

Then there's the general tone of White House glee over getting to beat up on Newsweek, part of the despised "liberal media." But wait--the author of Newsweek's piece is a hero to the right wing, the guy who broke the Monica Lewinsky story that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment trial!

Oh, one more irony: While Scottie is piously browbeating Newsweek for a glitch in it's story, note that he does not and cannot say that the desecration charge itself is untrue.

Jim Hightower is the best-selling author of "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush," from Viking Press. For more information, visit jimhightower.com.

San Francisco police are preparing to offer a reward for a prominent doctor found stabbed to death last week.

Dr. Robert Lull's aid found him dead in his Diamond Heights home on Thursday. His assistant went to his house to look for him when he did not show up for work at San Francisco General Hospital.

Lull was the chief of nuclear medicine in the radiology department.

Police are still searching for his car, which they believed was stolen. It is a four-door beige 1995 Geo Prism with license number 3KOA282.

PARIS - With the latest polls suggesting an easy win for the "no" camp in France's referendum on the EU constitution, treaty supporters desperately targeted undecided voters on the last day of campaigning.

Following up on President Jacques Chirac's last-ditch effort late Thursday to shift the momentum back to the "yes" camp, his ruling center-right Union for a Popular Movement and the opposition Socialists launched a campaign blitz.

"A French nation that says yes to Europe will be a French nation that will bring all its weight to bear in this new Europe," Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told France 2 television.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were due in France late Friday to lend a helping hand to the stumbling "yes" bid, but polls suggested their efforts might come too late.

Two new opinion polls released Thursday said treaty rejectionists would win Sunday's referendum with 55 percent of the vote -- a 10-point advantage over constitution backers, and a rise of two points from earlier this week.

In a last-ditch effort to salvage the "yes" campaign, and with his political legacy on the line, Chirac urged France's some 42 million voters to say "yes" this weekend in order to preserve the country's influence in Europe.

"On Sunday, each one of you will have in his hands part of the destiny of France," he said in a ten-minute address carried on national radio and television from the Elysee palace.

The 72-year-old leader sought to persuade undecided voters -- estimated at about one in five -- that the constitution will enhance French force in the EU, protect the country's social model and improve EU institutions.

"It is an illusion to think that Europe will start out again happily with another plan. There is no other plan. Europe would be broken down -- searching for an impossible consensus. Meanwhile the world would move on, faster and faster.

"France would be in a less strong position to defend its interests," he said.

Seeking to pre-empt voter temptation to transform Sunday's referendum into a protest vote against his increasingly unpopular government, Chirac said he would give a "new impetus" after May 29, hinting at a government reshuffle. [...]

A "no" vote on Sunday would badly undermine Chirac's political authority, but he has said he will not resign, no matter what the result.

PRESIDENT CHIRAC of France is preparing to throw Europe into confusion and put Britain on the spot by backing moves to keep the European constitution alive if it is rejected in Sunday’s referendum.

French diplomats say that M Chirac is expected to urge other countries to proceed with ratification because France does not want to be seen to be blocking the European project. Any attempt to persuade other countries to go ahead will dash the hopes of those in the British Government who believed that a French rejection would make a British referendum unnecessary.

British ministers argue that it will be impossible to hold a referendum next year because the final shape of the treaty on which the British would be voting will be unknown.

President Chirac was still insisting last night that renegotiation was out of the question if the French vote "no". British ministers believe that the only way that the French could get eventual approval would be to amend the constitution in a way that would make it unacceptable in Britain. [...]

BERLIN - Germany became the ninth country to ratify the EU constitution in a move designed to help the flagging "yes" campaign in France ahead of this weekend's referendum.

The upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the treaty by 66 votes out of a possible 69 with three abstentions.

Germany followed Austria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain in approving the text.

All 25 EU member states must approve the constitution before it can take effect.

German political leaders have expressed grave concerns about the consequences of a "no" vote in France, which is the other half of the so-called motor of European integration.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told the upper house that if the constitution was rejected it would make the continent "weaker" and hinder its ability to compete in an increasingly globalised world.

"The world will not wait for Europe," Fischer said.

Germany did not put the constitutional charter to a popular vote. [...]

Moscow - The Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade has endorsed a draft space plan for 2006-2015 that calls for a significant increasing in spending.

The Itar-Tass news agency said the proposed space program includes building the Kliper manned shuttle spacecraft, completion of the Russian segment of the International Space Station, and launch of a research craft to Phobos, moon.

Also up for funding is expansion of the Global Navigation Satellite System, or GLONASS, which is based on active satellites that continuously transmit coded signals on two frequency bands to pinpoint position and velocity on Earth in real time, the agency said.

Anatoly Perminov, head of Roskosmos, was quoted by Itar-Tass in April as saying 305 billion rubles or $11 billion will be needed to implement the space program for 2006-2015.

In April, the Duma's committee for industry, construction and high technologies recommended no less than 24.4 billion rubles or $900 million for the program in next year's federal budget.

A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

Comment: So does a baseball bat, a sturdy chair, a pipe, a heavy lamp...

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.

In contrast, a pointed long blade pierces the body like "cutting into a ripe melon".

The use of knives is particularly worrying amongst adolescents, say the researchers, reporting that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives.

The study found links between easy access to domestic knives and violent assault are long established.

Comment: Let's see if we have this straight: First we are told that long pointed kitchen knives are widely available in kitchens everywhere. Now we are informed that the links between easy access to such knives and violent assaults are "long established". So, how many people do you know who have used a readily-available, long, sharp-pointed knife from their kitchen to stab someone?

French laws in the 17th century decreed that the tips of table and street knives be ground smooth.

A century later, forks and blunt-ended table knives were introduced in the UK in an effort to reduce injuries during arguments in public eating houses.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime. [...]

Comment: We are reminded of the attacks that occurred in Japan not so long ago. Since guns weren't available, violent individuals used knives instead. Does anyone think that if knives were also banned in Japan, that such people would not find some other way to harm their victims?

Anyone prone to violence will not be deterred if only a short knife is available. The victim can be stabbed multiple times. A blunt heavy object could be used to beat the victim to death. The point is that instead of trying to ban everything that could possibly be used as a weapon, why not simply address the issue of violent behaviour in a truly useful way?

To really get to the crux of the matter would require a thorough investigation into the state of the world, the human condition, psychopathy, and perhaps even the idea that there are two different types of "human beings". Perhaps these issues cannot be allowed to be addressed by those in power because they hit a little too close to home.

Government response

Home Office spokesperson said there were already extensive restrictions in place to control the sale and possession of knives.

"The law already prohibits the possession of offensive weapons in a public place, and the possession of knives in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of a folding pocket knife with a blade not exceeding three inches.

"Offensive weapons are defined as any weapon designed or adapted to cause injury, or intended by the person possessing them to do so.

"An individual has to demonstrate that he had good reason to possess a knife, for example for fishing, other sporting purposes or as part of his profession (e.g. a chef) in a public place.

"The manufacture, sale and importation of 17 bladed, pointed and other offensive weapons have been banned, in addition to flick knives and gravity knives."

A spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "ACPO supports any move to reduce the number of knife related incidents, however, it is important to consider the practicalities of enforcing such changes."

THE Chernobyl nuclear disaster has spawned a generation of ‘mutant’ super-brainy children.

Kids growing up in areas damaged by radiation from the plant have a higher IQ and faster reaction times, say Russian doctors.

They are also growing faster and have stronger immune systems.

Radiation from the Ukrainian Chernobyl plant swept the globe and affected more than seven million people.

Professor Vladimir Mikhalev from Bryansk State University, has tracked the health of youngsters growing up in areas hit by the fallout since the 1986 accident.

He compared their mental agility and health to those in unaffected areas and found they came out top in tests.

The kids had been exposed to radiation in the atmosphere and their food supply.