Israel's leaders praise troops on Independence Day
Israel's somber memorial day for fallen soldiers gave way to Independence Day celebrations at nightfall on Monday in a sudden, stark annual transition ceremony.
At Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel's national cemetery, Israelis kindled 12 huge torches to signify the start of the holiday marking Israel's 63rd birthday. Soldiers marched in formation, and fireworks lit up skies across the nation on a mild spring evening.
Speaking at the ceremony, Israeli Parliament Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Israelis are concerned that revolutions in the Middle East might lead to radical regimes, but noted that Israelis admire the "courage of those protesters who are taking their lives in their hands for liberation and freedom of speech."
Cities and towns set up outdoor stages for singers and dance troupes to provide entertainment late into the night.
In contrast to Memorial Day, when Israelis visit to cemeteries and share tales of survivors and sad recollections of wartime losses, Independence Day is a joyful celebration when people flock to picnics, parties and hikes in natural reserves. Fair, comfortable weather was forecast for Tuesday.
Military bases were opening for visits, and the Israeli air force planned flybys over much of the country as part of the festivities.
The country uses the occasion to award the Israel Prize, a prestigious recognition to top minds in the fields of entertainment and academia. Among this year's winners is Shimon Mizrahi, the legendary chairman of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team, which lost in the European championship's final game on Sunday.
Israel also holds its annual Bible Quiz, in which young Jewish scholars from around the world compete in the presence of the prime minister.
Government statistics showed that Israel's population grew by 155,000 since last year to 7,746,000. The Central Bureau of Statistics said 75 percent of the population is Jewish, 21 percent is Arab, with the remainder belonging to tiny minorities or immigrants who are not Jewish.
The grouping of mournful Memorial Day with Independence Day celebrations is intentional, to show the link between the costly wars Israel has fought and the establishment and survival of the Jewish state.
The state was founded on May 14, 1948, when the British mandate over Palestine ended, setting off a bloody two-year war. The Arab state envisioned by the U.N. partition plan never materialized, as the West Bank was captured by Jordan.
Israel celebrates its Independence Day according to the Hebrew calendar. Palestinians, in contrast, mark the occasion with a day of mourning, calling the creation of Israel "al-Naqba," Arabic for catastrophe, resulting in hundreds of thousands of refugees, lost land and houses _ issues that plague would-be Mideast peacemakers to this day.
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Israel restores graffiti from 1948 war
The Israeli government has restored 63-year-old graffiti alongside a busy highway decades after it was removed as an eyesore, saying the scrawled Hebrew words were worth preserving as an important remnant of the war that led to the country's independence.The graffiti, left on an old pumping station by an Israeli soldier during fierce battles around the road to Jerusalem, reads, "Palmach Baruch Jamili P.T. 1948!"
The Palmach was an elite Jewish strike force that fought in the two-year war that followed Israel's creation in 1948. Baruch Jamili was the soldier's name, and "P.T." stood for his hometown, Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv.
The exclamation mark, intentionally or not, appeared to express something of the urgency of the fighting, which saw the newly created state of Israel defeat Palestinian Arabs and the armies of surrounding Arab states at the cost of 6,000 men and women, 1 percent of Israel's Jewish population at the time.
The original graffiti was erased by the building's owner, Israel's national water company, in 1984. The restored version was visible in fresh black paint along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway on Wednesday.
The government and the company commissioned an artist to replicate the graffiti in time for the country's Memorial Day and Independence Day, marked earlier this week.
"We are happy to restore a historical icon that made its way into Israeli culture and sums up in one short sentence an entire period and a generation to which we owe the founding of the country," said Israel's Cabinet secretary, Zvi Hauser.
The graffiti, which served for years as a kind of unofficial landmark reminding passersby of the war, was made famous in 1974 when one of the country's best-known singers, Shlomo Artzi, wrote a hit song about it. It reflected the somber mood in the country after the devastating war of 1973 and its heavy casualties, contrasting the more upbeat atmosphere that preceded that conflict.
"Of the sadness of Bab el-Wad," the song goes, using the Arabic name for the spot, "only one name is left: Baruch Jamili and the Palmach."
The questions posed by the song _ "Who was Baruch Jamili? What did Baruch Jamili do? Where is Baruch Jamili?" _ were answered after it became popular: Jamili was an Israeli of Yemenite extraction who was 25 at the time of the 1948 war.
He was assigned to escort armored trucks trying to fight their way up to the besieged Jewish sector of Jerusalem, the burned-out shells of which have been preserved as memorials by the side of the road.
He unsuccessfully tried to fight the erasure of the graffiti that made him famous, and which he saw as a reminder of the battles that killed many of his comrades.
Jamili died in 2004 at age 81.
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NY Jewish paper sorry for altering White House pic
An Orthodox Jewish newspaper on Monday apologized for digitally deleting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a photo of President Barack Obama and his staff watching Navy SEALs move in on Osama bin Laden.A second woman, Counterterrorism Director Audrey Tomason, also was deleted from the photo, which captured a historic moment in the decade-long U.S. effort to apprehend the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Di Tzeitung said it has a "long standing editorial policy" of not publishing women's images. It explained that its readers "believe that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women, not the opposite."
The weekly said Clinton, a Democrat who represented New York as a U.S. senator, had won overwhelming majorities in the Orthodox Jewish communities because they "appreciated her unique capabilities, talents and compassion for all."
Di Tzeitung, published in Yiddish, is sold at city newsstands, especially in Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Borough Park neighborhoods, which have many Orthodox Jewish residents. It acknowledged it "should not have published the altered picture."
An editor at a Manhattan weekly that has covered Jewish issues since the 1890s addressed why the Brooklyn newspaper might have altered the image. The Forward's managing editor, Lil Swanson, said that removing women from photos is "in keeping with" the belief of some ultra-Orthodox Jews that showing images of the female form is "immodest."
In the original photo of the White House Situation Room, Obama and his national security team are gathered around a table, following in real time the operation that culminated in the killing of bin Laden at his Pakistani compound on May 1.
The White House, which issued the photo, had no comment Monday on the removal of the women from it.
Rev 2:9- I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and [I know] the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but [are] the synagogue of Satan.
Rev 3:9- Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Isaiah 3:11- Woe unto the wicked! [it shall be] ill [with him]: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
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Federal judge blocks Utah immigration law
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Utah immigration law that would have allowed police to check the citizenship status of anyone they arrest, citing its similarities to the most controversial parts of an Arizona law that seems bound for the U.S. Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center last week sued to stop the implementation of House Bill 497, saying it could lead to racial profiling. The civil rights groups submitted hundreds of pages of evidence and affidavits to prove their claims ahead of Tuesday's hearing.
Utah Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen said the ruling was "not a surprise."
Jensen said after the hearing that the law is "fully constitutional" and that his office plans to "argue it vigorously."
Utah's law is significantly different from Arizona's because it doesn't allow police to check the status of every person they encounter, Jensen said in court.
"They want to try the Arizona law, and they make allegations against Utah that may well have applied to Arizona," Jensen said. "But just because the Arizona law is unconstitutional doesn't mean the Utah law is unconstitutional."
The next hearing on is set for July 14, where both sides will be expected to argue whether the law is constitutional. Waddoups could then decide whether to allow the law to go into effect or overturn it because of constitutional issues. If he overturned it, the measure's fate could depend on the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion on the Arizona law.
Waddoups' decision comes a day after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced a plan to ask the nation's high court to overturn a ruling that put her state's immigration enforcement law on hold.
The state must file the appeal by a July 11 deadline. The Supreme Court has discretion on whether to hear the case.
"It seems like this is a big enough national issue that it will ultimately be determined by the United States Supreme Court," said Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Monday.
In its April ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the U.S. Justice Department is likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in its argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.
Brewer's lawyers have argued the federal government hasn't effectively enforced immigration law at the border and in Arizona's interior and that the state's intent in passing the law was to assist federal authorities as Congress has encouraged.
The federal government argued the law intrudes on its exclusive authority to regulate immigration, disrupts relations between the U.S. and Mexico, hinders cooperation between state and federal officials, and burdens legal immigrants.
The Utah law, signed by Republican Gov. Gary Herbert in March, would require police to check the citizenship status of anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony or class-A misdemeanor, while giving officers discretion to check the citizenship of those stopped for traffic infractions and other lesser offenses.
Class A misdemeanors include theft, negligent homicide and criminal mischief, while felonies range from aggravated burglary to rape and murder.
In a statement after the ruling, Herbert said he has told law enforcement officials the law is on hold but was confident the state would prevail.
"Utah's Attorney General and state Legislature worked hard to craft a bill that would withstand constitutional scrutiny," Herbert said in a statement after the ruling. "Utah will have ample opportunity in court to demonstrate this bill is on solid footing."
ACLU managing attorney Cecillia Wang said the law is potentially worse than the Arizona law because anyone stopped by police could be required to prove their citizenship status. Making it optional for lesser offenses makes racial profiling even more likely, she said.
"This violates the Constitutional right of every American," Wang said. "The times where officers have discretion are the vast number of times that people encounter police."
Police chiefs and county sheriffs have said very little will change in their handling of immigration laws. That was true on Tuesday _ for 14 hours, at least _ when no arrests were made based on the new law.
There has also been very little public outcry about the law, and no protests or rallies were reported Tuesday.
That is due in large part to the generally positive response from the public to the bipartisan immigration overhaul passed by the Legislature in March, said National Immigration Law Center managing attorney Karen Tumlin.
The package of reforms is based on compassion in immigration laws, and includes a guest worker program starting in 2013 to allow illegal immigrants to remain, live and work in the state, winning support from some liberal immigration advocates but has been criticized by opponents as an amnesty program.
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Arizona wants speedy ruling on immigration law
Arizona officials would like the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in sooner rather than later on a trial judge's decision to put the most controversial parts of the state's immigration enforcement law on hold.
"It seems like this is a big enough national issue that it will ultimately be determined by the United States Supreme Court," Horne said.
The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court's order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.
While Brewer said she is confident Arizona will prevail, several legal experts said the Supreme Court might be reluctant to take up the case at this relatively early stage.
"This is a hot potato that it doesn't have to grab hold of at this point," said Peter Spiro, a Tempe University law professor who specializes in immigration law.
University of Arizona law professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin said the justices likely will refuse to grant Arizona's request to review the trial judge's injunction unless the federal government urges it to do so.
Absent that, "the normal resolution of a case like this is that they would wait," Chin said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler declined to comment on the Arizona announcement.
The state must file the appeal by a July 11 deadline, and the Supreme Court has discretion on whether to consider it.
If the state opted to ask to have a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges hear the case, that would likely mean the case would not reach the Supreme Court in time to be decided during its 2011-12 term, and maybe not even the next one, Horne said.
Under the chosen course, there could be a Supreme Court ruling as soon as next winter or spring, he said.
In its April ruling, the three-judge 9th Circuit panel said federal officials are likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.
Brewer's lawyers argued the federal government hasn't effectively enforced immigration law at the border and in Arizona's interior, and that the state's intent in passing the law was to assist federal authorities as Congress has encouraged.
They also argued U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton erred by accepting speculation by the federal government that the law might burden legal immigrants and by concluding the federal government would likely prevail.
The federal government has argued that the law intrudes on its exclusive authority to regulate immigration, disrupts relations between the U.S. and Mexico, hinders cooperation between state and federal officials, and burdens legal immigrants.
State Sen. Steve Gallardo, a critic of the law, said Brewer and Horne should abandon their support for the measure, which he said is dividing the state and hurting its economy.
But Gallardo added it's good that the state is appealing directly to the U.S. Supreme Court because it accelerates the case. "We want to put a nail in this coffin," the Phoenix Democrat said.
Less than a day before the law was to take effect in July, Bolton blocked key provisions from being enforced, including requirements that immigrants carry their registration documents and that police _ in enforcing other laws _ question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. But Bolton let other parts take effect, such as a ban on obstructing traffic while seeking or offering day-labor services on streets.
The law was passed in April 2010 amid years of complaints that the federal government hadn't done enough to lessen the state's role as the nation's busiest illegal entry point. Its passage inspired protests and led to lawsuits seeking to overturn the law and a debate about whether the law would lead to racial profiling.
The Arizona law isn't the only one that has challenged federal primacy in immigration.
The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling arguments in an appeal by groups that are trying to overturn a 2007 Arizona law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
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Utah immigration law gets hearing on day of debut
People arrested for serious crimes in Utah will be required to prove their citizenship _ and those stopped for minor offenses may be too _ under a new immigration law that took effect Tuesday.The law had little immediate impact. Throughout Utah, no minor offenders were being held facing possible deportation, according to county jails contacted by The Associated Press.
Federal officials have not seen a noticeable increase in immigration holds either, said Lori Haley, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Outcry about the enforcement measure has been almost non-existent, as well. No protests or marches have been reported.
The law, signed by Republican Gov. Gary Herbert in March, requires police to check the citizenship status of anyone arrested for a felony or class-A misdemeanor, while giving them discretion to check the citizenship of those stopped for traffic infractions and other lesser offenses.
Class A misdemeanors include theft, negligent homicide and criminal mischief, while felonies range from aggravated burglary to rape and murder.
Civil rights attorneys who spent much of Monday trying to persuade state officials to voluntarily delay the law's implementation will now try to convince a judge to put the law on hold.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has a hearing scheduled in Salt Lake City where he could decide to halt enforcement of all or some of the law.
The crux of the argument against the regulation is that it's similar to Arizona's controversial immigration law, which officials say is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center warn the fallout from Utah's law could include racial profiling and the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens. The two groups filed a lawsuit last week challenging the measure's constitutionality.
Police chiefs and county sheriffs, however, said very little will change in their handling of immigration laws, and none of them expected a rash of immigration-related arrests. No department contacted by The Associated Press reported any special training or preparation.
"We're not going to be knocking on doors or rounding up people in the parks," Washington County Sheriff Cory Pulsipher said. "The people we're coming in contact with are already engaged in other criminal behavior."
The citizenship status of anyone booked into a Utah jail for a felony or drunken driving is already checked because of a law passed in 2008.
The new law goes further, allowing officers to arrest people for minor offenses if they can't prove their legal presence in the country, which has frightened many Hispanics, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said.
Already, the department is hearing from shelters and rape crisis centers about victims who refuse to talk to the police because they fear deportation.
"We do our job based on community trust," Burbank said. "When a segment of the community doesn't trust us, the rest of the communities lose trust in the police."
Despite claims by opponents that the law it is almost identical to the Arizona law, Utah leaders closely scrutinized their version for constitutional red flags, said the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Stephen Sandstrom.
Law enforcement has mostly been supportive of the bill, as well.
"They're going to use this as a tool," Sandstrom said. "They were confident they could implement it, because it's spelled out pretty clearly when a person would be checked."
Two other immigration laws went into effect Tuesday as well.
One law would allow people to sponsor immigrants to the country if they accept financial liability, such as medical costs, housing and transportation. Although legislative attorneys raised constitutional concerns during the lawmaking session that ended March 10, no lawsuits have been filed to overturn that law.
Another law will allow Utah employers to hire temporary workers from a Mexican state, although an agreement between the two states was still being negotiated.
Another immigration law that won't go into effect until 2013 would create a program that allows illegal immigrants to remain in the state.
All four measures have been touted as part of the Utah Compact, which was backed by religious and business leaders as a way to balance enforcement provisions with economic realities. The Compact also emphasized the importance of keeping families together.
The Compact is being emulated in other states, including Georgia, Indiana and Maine.
Critics argue the Compact is pushing amnesty laws, especially with the guest worker program.
Isaiah 10:1- Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness [which] they have prescribed;
Isaiah 10:2- To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and [that] they may rob the fatherless!
Isaiah 10:3- And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation [which] shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
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Yemeni security forces fire on protesters, 3 dead
Security forces backed by army units opened fire Sunday on protesters demanding the ouster of Yemen's longtime president, killing three, an opposition activist said.One protester was killed in the western port of Hodeida, and two were killed in the southern city of Taiz when elite Republican Guard forces tried to disperse protesters by firing in the air, according to activist Nouh al-Wafi.
In all, more than 140 people reportedly have been killed in the government crackdown on the protesters, who have nonetheless grown in number week after week.
Bushra al-Maktari, an activist in Taiz, said youthful protesters had taken over a main street in that city, setting up tents and expanding a sit-in which started on Feb. 11.
In the southern city of Aden, thousands marched against Saleh and demanded the release of detained protesters.
A deal for Saleh to step down _ negotiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council _ appeared close to collapse after the president said over the weekend that he would have aides sign it rather than doing so himself. The resulting deadlock threatens to plunge the already unstable nation deeper into disorder.
The mediation plan appeared close to success a week ago, with both opposition parties and Saleh agreeing to it, until the president balked just days before the signing ceremony. The plan called for Saleh to step down within 30 days, with a promise of immunity from prosecution, and for a national unity government to run the country until elections are held.
The violent crackdown on protesters has prompted several top military commanders, ruling party members and diplomats to defect to the opposition, leaving Saleh with dwindling options.
Yemen _ the souhtern neighbor of Saudi Arabia _ has been plagued in recent years by widespread corruption, a weak central government, a Shiite rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and one of the most active branches of al-Qaida operating in the remote hinterlands.
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17 killed in al-Qaida assault on Iraqi prison
The accused mastermind of a Baghdad church siege that killed dozens last fall nearly escaped from prison Sunday after wresting a gun from a guard and launching an hours-long assault that left 17 people dead, including a top Iraqi counterterrorism general.The midnight melee at what is supposed to be one of country's most secure jails heightens doubt about whether Iraqi forces are ready to protect the nation as U.S. troops prepare to leave by December.
"Where are the authorities? There is no government," shouted Dhia Raheema al-Taiee, nephew of the slain counterterror chief, Brig. Gen. Muaeid Mohammed Saleh.
"He was in a secure compound, and he is a high rank, and yet he was killed so easily at the hands of prisoners who were able to obtain weapons," al-Taiee said at his uncle's funeral Sunday afternoon.
Nearby, policemen defiantly unloaded their handguns and rifles into the air in a show of grief and anger.
Six police officers and 11 detainees were killed in the attempted jailbreak, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's top military spokesman.
Al-Moussawi and two Interior Ministry officials described a dramatic blitz by al-Battawi as he and up to 24 other prisoners were being taken from their cells to interrogation rooms.
Usually, guards unshackle prisoners as they are being interrogated, but al-Moussawi said the al-Qaida suspects should have been restrained since they are considered a top terror threat.
Al-Battawi's hands had just been unbound when he wrested a gun from a guard, killed him and freed his fellow prisoners. Another inmate then charged into a different room, killing a second guard and taking his weapon.
Other prisoners joined the fight, seizing an assault rifle and three other guns.
Inmates also obtained grenades, said Iraqi lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, who sits on parliament's security and defense committee.
The prisoners then entered Saleh's office and shot him, along with another officer who was in the room. Saleh oversaw counterterrorism missions and battled organized crime in eastern Baghdad.
"I was in the next room, and I heard shots fired and screams in the corridor. I opened the door and saw about four al-Qaida detainees moving around and I closed the door immediately," said Saleh's bodyguard, Jawad Kadhum.
"Then I heard one of them saying, 'This is the director's room,' and I heard a flurry of gunshots," he said.
At one point, al-Battawi and four inmates jumped into a car on the compound and fled toward an exit gate but were shot and killed by a guard before they could escape, al-Zamili said.
The brawl, which began around 10 p.m. Saturday, was ended by security forces five hours later. Aside from the dead, eight police officers and six detainees were wounded, security and hospital officials said.
The injured detainees were brought to Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital under tight security, treated and then taken away again by security officials to an unidentified location, officials said.
Al-Moussawi said the attack appeared to have been planned, and that inmates took advantage of lax security at the prison to overpower guards. "Tight security measures should have been taken," he said.
Al-Moussawi said the late-night interrogations sought more details about the Oct. 31 church siege. Militants burst into the church during Mass and gunned down priests and worshippers before detonating their explosives-packed vests. Half the parishioners were killed in the attack, which so scared Iraq's minority Christian community that thousands have fled the country, saying they hoped never to return.
In a statement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for an investigation of the nearly successful jailbreak, urging Iraqi forces to "not allow any failure or breach of security."
National security is a sensitive topic for al-Maliki, who barely won a second term last year and has so far failed to fill the top posts at the interior and defense ministries more than four months after he seated his government. Al-Maliki is reluctant to ask U.S. forces to remain in Iraq past 2011, which would require a new security agreement between Washington and Baghdad and anger anti-American Shiite allies who helped put him in power.
Sunday's prison assault marks the latest blunder by Iraqi forces, and raises questions about whether they still need training and other on-the-ground aid from U.S. troops.
"The measures used by Iraqi authorities to control and guard the prisons are still weak and inefficient, and shortcomings need to be fixed immediately," said Baghdad political analyst Hadi Jalo. "This is another indication that we should still be worried about the performance and capabilities of our security forces after the U.S. withdrawal."
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Al-Qaida says killing bin Laden 'serious sin'
Al-Qaida is warning that the U.S. has committed a "big mistake" and a "serious sin" in killing Osama bin Laden and is calling on Muslims to avenge his death.It acknowledges that President Barack Obama "is protected by armies," but asks Americans, "who will protect you from our assault?"
It also urges Muslims to use bin Laden's death as motivation to carry out attacks, according to a transcript provided Tuesday by the SITE Intel group, which monitors militant messages.
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Al-Qaida leader vows strikes after bin Laden death
The leader of al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoot has warned the U.S. that Osama bin Laden's death does not signal the end of the fight and threatened to carry out worse attacks in the future.Al-Wahishi warned Americans "the matter will not be over" with bin Laden's death and that "what is coming is greater and worse."
He said "jihad is glowing brighter" now than during bin Laden's life, according to a transcript provided Wednesday by SITE Intel group, which monitors militant messages.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is one of the most active affiliates of the terrorist network.
2 Esdras 6:24
At that time shall friends fight one against another like enemies and the earth shall stand in fear with those that dwell therein the springs of the fountains shall stand still and in three hours they shall not run
Mat 24:6- And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7- For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8- All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.
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Israel's religious gays battle for acceptance
A once unimaginable movement is emerging from within Israel's insular Orthodox Jewish community: homosexuals demanding to be accepted and embraced, no matter what the Bible says.A decade ago, says Yuval Cherlow, a heterosexual Orthodox rabbi, he would have dismissed the phenomenon as "two or four crazy people that are assimilating into Western world culture."
Then he was invited to a meeting of Orthodox homosexuals. More than 50 people turned up, nearly all graduates of Orthodox religious seminaries. Cherlow said he began to realize the issue had to be addressed, and he now advises religious gay groups.
In Orthodox Judaism, as with traditional streams of Islam and Christianity, homosexuality is generally frowned upon. Gay observant Jews may be ostracized by their families, while in the Muslim world, gays can face violence. In Iran, for instance, homosexuality is punishable by death.
Yet in Israel, homosexuals openly serve in the army, same-sex couples get some benefits, the country markets itself as a gay-friendly tourist destination, and Jerusalem has an annual gay parade. More liberal streams of Judaism embrace gay couples and even gay rabbis.
Now, the idea that one can be both gay and religious is catching on even at the fringes of Orthodoxy, a socially conservative, entrenched culture that prides itself on its differences from the modern secular world. Today, there are gay Orthodox prayer groups, support services and a large web presence.
In March, a religious gay group called Havruta celebrated Purim at a gay-friendly nightclub in central Jerusalem with a reading of the Megillah, the traditional scroll read on this Jewish religious holiday, drawing implicit parallels between the persecution of Jews in ancient Persia and the struggle of Jewish gays against intolerance today.
The event attracted about 40 yarmulke-clad men, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, and a handful of women. Like secular Israelis who celebrate Purim by dressing up, they donned elaborate costumes and sipped beer.
But religious gays know that to be taken seriously by rabbinical authorities, they must carefully frame their demands within the boundaries of Halacha, or traditional Jewish law. Most steer clear of asking for religious recognition for their relationships.
As a result, the movement is fractured and bogged down by internal clashes over where to draw the line between respecting tradition and appeasing intolerance.
Most conservative is decade-old Atzat Nefesh, "soul counseling," the first Israeli group to openly address same-sex attraction within the religious world. The group operates a hotline and website, and believes same-sex attraction can be overcome by so-called conversion therapy.
Its CEO, Rabbi Shlomo Goldreich, claims it works for more than 80 percent of those the group refers to therapists. But critics note that not all of its providers are licensed or trained, and that all major medical and psychological associations reject conversion therapy.
"We know of three people who tried, and eventually took their lives," said Ron Yosef, an openly gay Orthodox rabbi from the coastal city of Netanya.
In 2008 Yosef created Hod, a Hebrew acronym meaning "religious homosexuals," and compiled a referral list of therapists who are religious, licensed and compliant with modern mental health guidelines. The group's principles say gays shouldn't be blamed, ostracized, forced to marry women, or discouraged from observing other Jewish laws.
Yosef said Hod has received 3,700 phone and email inquiries _ the vast majority from people 25 or younger. He added that no one left his congregation when he declared his sexuality in April 2009.
Although Yosef fervently rejects the notion that gays should be "cured" or ostracized, he also insists that Jewish laws be respected and that gays abstain from biblically forbidden sex acts and same-sex marriage.
That approach has gained praise from some conservatives who previously avoided addressing homosexuality, and support from of Aharon Feldman, a prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbi. But it also stirs criticism from liberals that Yosef is caving in to homophobic rabbis.
A third group is Havruta ("fellowship"), which is trying to create a more pluralistic sense of community by holding social, cultural and religious events for Orthodox gays such as the Purim event.
"We stay religious because that's who we are, the way we were raised and want to raise our children," said Daniel Jonas, a 29-year-old board member. "But we won't stay in the closet, because we want to live."
Havruta considers itself a religious organization, but accepts all who respect Orthodoxy. It says more than 400 people subscribe to its email list.
Some, however, think Havruta goes too far. One of its founders recently broke away and founded a group called Kamoha ("like you").
The man, requesting anonymity, said that although Havruta was his home for years, he felt estranged once it started pushing Orthodox Judaism's boundaries by participating in a mixed-gender prayer group and Jerusalem's gay parade.
"I don't say that you need to stay in the closet and hide it all your life, but there is nothing to be proud of," he said.
Kamoha has about 100 members on its email list and is averaging 25 attendees at events.
In March it launched a therapy fund to help young Jews identify if they can become straight _ and if not, to help them cope with their homosexuality. It also hopes to offer a matchmaking service for gay men and lesbians seeking a normative family.
Havruta and other groups consider those types of services to be potentially harmful to the cause and bordering on self-hating.
One factor common to all the groups navigating the intersection between homosexuality and Orthodox Judaism in Israel is a robust Internet presence, with web forums, email lists and online libraries. The rise of the Internet has offered an inexpensive, uncensored and anonymous tool to organize a population that knows that being publicly outed could lead to rejection by their families or communities.
"These are people in our society who are really in trouble," Cherlow said. "This is a new question. We didn't face it before, and as rabbis, we are searching for the real thing to say."
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Group seeks immediate lifting of gay military ban
A Republican gay rights group is again asking a federal appeals court to immediately lift the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.Several Republican lawmakers have proposed amendments to a defense bill a House committee is set to consider Wednesday that would slow repeal.
A 9th Circuit panel is already considering the government's appeal of an order by a California trial judge barring enforcement of the ban. Log Cabin wants the panel to remove its hold on the order or put the case on a fast track.
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Cubans march against homophobia in Havana
Cubans have held a short but colorful parade celebrating sexual diversity to mark the International Day Against Homophobia.
Dozens of people waving rainbow flags and banging drums marched through the capital Saturday. One participant held a portrait of ex-leader Fidel Castro.
Castro's niece Mariela Castro campaigns for gay rights and heads the government-backed National Sexual Education Center. She says the march is meant to raise awareness about discrimination.
Cuba is far more tolerant of homosexuality than in the early years after the 1959 revolution, when many gays lost jobs, were imprisoned or sent to work camps or fled to exile. The government has even began paying for Cubans' sex-change operations in recent years.
Deut 23:17- There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
Lev 20:13- If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them.
Isaiah 3:9- The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide [it] not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
2 Peter 2:6- And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
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13 killed in lake gunbattle in northern Mexico
Mexican marines patrolling a lake along the border with Texas discovered a drug gang camp on an island, provoking a gunbattle that left 13 people dead, the navy said Monday.One marine and 12 suspected gunmen of the Zetas drug cartel were killed in the battle Sunday on Falcon Lake in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, the navy said in a statement.
The navy said the gunmen opened fire first when the marines discovered the camp, which the gang is believed to have used as a launching point for smuggling marijuana into Texas by speedboat. Marines seized more than 20 guns after the shootout, including several assault rifles.
Falcon Lake, a dammed section of the Rio Grande, is where U.S. citizen David Hartley was presumably chased and gunned down by pirates Sept. 30. His body has not been found and Mexican investigators have reported no leads in the case.
His wife, Tiffany Hartley, told authorities she and her husband were using personal watercraft on Falcon Lake when they were approached by pirates who shot and killed her husband. The couple, who lived in nearby McAllen, Texas, at the time, were returning to Texas after photographing a historic church on the Mexican side of the lake, Hartley said.
Mexican officials called off a search for David Hartley on Oct. 14, but the case remains open.
The search was hampered when authorities received threats, presumably from the Zetas. The Tamaulipas state police commander and chief investigator of the Hartley case, Rolando Flores, was killed while the search was under way, his decapitated head delivered in a suitcase to a local Mexican army post.
Mexican authorities say they don't know whether Flores' killing was related to the Hartley case because he had been in charge of several investigations.
The Zetas are locked in a fierce turf battle with the Gulf cartel that has turned much of Tamaulipas state into a virtual war zone. Last month, security forces discovered more than 40 clandestine graves containing 183 bodies. Many of the victims had apparently been pulled off passenger buses by Zetas gunmen trying to recruit them.
A similar discovery was made last month in the northern state of Durango, another drug cartel battleground. Soldiers unearthed 22 more bodies _ among them three women and 14 men _ from mass graves in the capital of Durango city over the weekend, bringing the rapidly mounting toll to 179, according to statements Monday from the Durango state attorney general's office.
The Mexican army will continue excavating at a mass grave site Tuesday.
President Felipe Calderon's security spokesman, Alejandro Poire, said Monday that "the finds were a result of a capture made by federal forces."
Poire said investigations into the mass grave sites revealed that the motives of the Durango killings were different than in Tamaulipas, but he did not explain or give any specifics.
Besides mass grave sites, there is public display of drug violence in the vast, mountainous state. The decapitated bodies of 11 men were found Monday in two places in Durango, the state attorney general's office said.
Agents first discovered six decapitated men across from a middle school in the capital, which is also named Durango. Investigators then found five decapitated men on a highway that connects Durango to the Pacific resort of Mazatlan. The heads lay next to the bodies.
The attorney general's office has not identified the bodies or the motives for the killings.
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Toll from mass graves in northern Mexico at 180
A Mexican security official says 180 bodies have been unearthed over the past month during excavations of clandestine graves discovered in a northern Mexico state besieged by drug-gang violence.He told Milenio television on Tuesday that the bodies have been recovered at several sites around Durango city, the state capital.
The state Attorney General's Office said in statement Monday night that 22 bodies had been recovered over the weekend, bringing the toll to 179. It is unclear when the 180th body was found. Phones rang unanswered Tuesday at the Attorney General's Office.
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Mexican forces unearth 17 more bodies; toll at 218
Mexican security forces have discovered another 17 bodies from mass graves found last month in the northern state of Durango.Durango's security agency said on Saturday that the excavation also turned up a bag of bones.
State investigators have not speculated on a motive for the killings, but drug cartels have been blamed for mass graves found in other states.
The Sinaloa, Zetas and Beltran Leyva cartels have been fighting for control in Durango
Proverbs 1:16- For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Proverbs 1:17- Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
Proverbs 1:18- And they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives.
Proverbs 1:19- So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Rev 21:8- But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
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FBI arrests long-sought Puerto Rican militant
A Puerto Rican nationalist who was one of two remaining fugitives sought for one of the largest bank robberies in U.S. history was arrested Tuesday as he took a morning stroll in a central town on the island, the FBI said."He seemed surprised" but did not put up any resistance, Fraticelli said.
Authorities did not disclose what led to the arrest.
Fraticelli said that he believed Gonzalez had been hiding out in Puerto Rico the whole time he was a fugitive and that the FBI is looking into who might have helped him elude authorities during the more than 25 years since his indictment. Later Tuesday, a judge in San Juan approved a search warrant for his house.
Gonzalez, 65, was living alone in a modest home under a false name, and authorities believe he still had an active role in the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for a series of robberies, murders and bombings in the name of Puerto Rican independence, Fraticelli said.
An older brother, Avelino, was sentenced last year to seven years in prison after spending more than two decades as a fugitive for his role in the heist. A third brother, Orlando, was also convicted of taking part in the robbery and has since been released.
James Bergenn, a Connecticut lawyer who represented Avelino Gonzalez after he was captured in 2008, said U.S. law enforcement had been closing in on Tuesday's arrest.
"There's heavy interest in this case. They wanted it done," Bergenn said. "It's been dormant, but then they started investigating again when they arrested Avelino."
Most of the violent activities of Los Macheteros took place in the 1970s and 1980s, but the FBI still considers the group a threat as younger members have taken on the leadership.
"As long as they continue to advocate the independence of Puerto Rico by force they will always pose a danger," Fraticelli told The Associated Press. He spoke in the San Juan federal building that was damaged when members of Los Macheteros fired an anti-tank weapon at the sixth floor in October 1983.
Gonzalez is expected to be extradited to Connecticut to faces charges that include bank robbery, transportation of stolen money and conspiracy. A nephew, Juan Gonzalez, said family members and supporters were arranging for a lawyer to represent him.
"The only thing he is guilty of is supporting independence for Puerto Rico," said Juan Gonzalez, a real estate broker.
Prosecutors have said Los Macheteros, whose name is variously translated as "Machete Wielders" or "Cane Cutters," are suspected of using the stolen money to finance bombings and attacks in their push for independence for the U.S. territory.
The 1983 robbery allegedly was carried out by Victor Manuel Gerena, a Wells Fargo driver recruited by the independence group. Authorities say Gerena took two co-workers hostage at gunpoint, handcuffed them and injected them with an unknown substance to temporarily disable them. Members of Los Macheteros allegedly helped spirit the money out of the U.S.
Fraticelli said that Gerena is alive and living in Cuba and that the U.S. still hopes to arrest him. He is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives.
The alleged leader of the Macheteros, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed in a 2005 shootout with the FBI at a remote farmhouse in Puerto Rico.
(RELATED)
Puerto Rico militant to face trial in Connecticut
A judge has ordered a 65-year-old Puerto Rican man sent to Connecticut to face charges in the theft of $7 million from an armored car depot in 1983.Judge Bruce McGiverin ordered Norberto Gonzalez Claudio held without bond Friday for his alleged role in one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history. He said Gonzalez was an "overwhelming" risk of flight given his more than 25 years as a fugitive.
The FBI says Gonzalez was part of a radical group that stole the money to aid their struggle for Puerto Rican independence. He was captured Tuesday while out for a morning jog. Inside his apartment agents found three loaded weapons near his bed. His lawyer said he poses no threat.
Psa 109:16- Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
Psa 143:3- For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
Lam 4:18- They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
Lam 4:19- Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
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Texas Senate approves guns in college classrooms
Texas senators have voted to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had been unable to muster the votes he needed under Senate rules to pass the issue as its own bill. After several failed attempts, Monday's vote tacked the measure onto a universities spending bill.
Supporters call it a critical self-defense measure and gun rights issue. Opponents worry concealed handguns could lead to more campus violence and suicide.
The measure has met stiff resistance from higher education officials, notably from within the University of Texas system
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Ohio man admits making kid porn at mom's day care
An Ohio man has pleaded guilty in federal court to 15 counts of producing child pornography at his mother's in-home day care.
The government says Keith took 15 photos of himself sexually assaulting a boy and swapped them with someone in South Carolina. Federal authorities say Keith took photos of more than one child and some were of infants being sexually abused. It's unclear whether the children were clients of the day care in West Chester Township, just north of Cincinnati.
An agreement calls for Keith to be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years to up to life in prison.
Keith's attorney hasn't returned a Tuesday phone call seeking comment.
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Neighbor charged with rape, murder of Pa. girl, 9
A 9-year-old girl who disappeared while playing outside her suburban apartment building was raped, choked and murdered by a neighbor who claimed he had a "whiteout" and just "snapped," authorities said Tuesday.Onlookers jeered as Troutman was led in and out of his arraignment at a courtroom across the street from the low-rise units where he and the victim lived.
Troutman became a suspect after a detective canvassing the building spotted what appeared to be blood on his sneakers, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. The detective then searched his apartment and found bloody clothes in a closet, Ferman said.
Detectives also found a pool of blood in the basement of the complex. They later found Skyler's body wrapped in a comforter in a parking lot trash bin, Ferman said.
Troutman eventually admitted to authorities that he strangled the girl with his hands and that her head hit the basement floor "a couple of times at least," according to the criminal complaint. Investigators said Troutman told them that "it was like whiteout" and that he "snapped."
An autopsy showed Skyler, for whom an Amber Alert had been issued, died of asphyxia and blunt-force trauma, Ferman said.
Troutman did not enter a plea at his arraignment or speak, except to acknowledge the charges. He is being held without bail.
He had been taken to the courthouse in a police SUV, and two police officers escorted him nearly 20 feet to its door. He was shackled and hid his face with his hands.
Across the street, a crowd of nearly 50 people yelled at him and screamed obscenities as he was led inside.
It was an unusual scene for Souderton, a borough about 30 miles north of Philadelphia that is surrounded by farm fields and newer upscale housing developments, residents said.
"The last thing I would have thought is that they would find this child dead. This is a safe little community," said Wendy Hansen, a 47-year-old mother of three girls who lives a couple of blocks away. "We're not going to tolerate this. ... It could have been any of our kids."
Josh Piston, 21, lives in the apartment building and knew Skyler, who shared a unit with her mother and grandmother. He described her as "a good kid" and "very rambunctious."
The suspect moved into the complex with his fiancee two or three months ago, Piston said, but he did not know them well.
"They were quiet, kept to themselves," he said.
Skyler's mother reported her missing around 7 p.m. Monday after she failed to come home for dinner. Police responded and began searching the area.
Troutman's fiancee told detectives that she was home Monday evening around 5:45 p.m. when she heard screams and cries of protest coming from somewhere in the building.
Troutman was not home at the time, she said. When she reached him on his cellphone to tell him about the screams, "he responded that he hoped 'everything's OK,'" according to the complaint.
Troutman returned home shortly after 6 p.m. and said he had been exercising, the fiancee told investigators.
Authorities said Troutman and Skyler had also crossed paths about three weeks ago.
Skyler and a friend were near Troutman's apartment on April 18 and needed to use the bathroom. He invited them in, but they got spooked when they saw pictures of naked women on the walls, according to the complaint.
Troutman then made a lewd comment, and the girls ran to leave, authorities said. Their parents reported the incident to police, but no charges were filed, a decision Ferman defended on Tuesday.
She also dismissed questions about whether the Amber Alert procedure went smoothly. Some media outlets reported a delay in receiving the notification.
"Everyone did what they were supposed to," Ferman said. "The crime took place very quickly, and the body was disposed of very quickly, and I can't say that there was anything anyone else could have done that would have been able to prevent this tragic event.
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2 charged with terrorism in alleged NY plot
Two U.S. residents, including one who complained that the world was treating Muslims "like dogs," bought guns and a grenade and wanted to carry out a terror plot against a New York synagogue, officials said Thursday.
But there was no indication that the plot, orchestrated as part of a sting operation, ever put New Yorkers in danger and no evidence that the men were affiliated with any terrorist organization.
Ahmed Ferhani, a 26-year-old of Algerian descent, and Mohamed Mamdouh, a 20-year-old of Moroccan descent, plotted to bomb a "major synagogue" in Manhattan and bought several weapons and an inert hand grenade from an undercover officer, city officials said in announcing the arrests.
Ferhani and Mamdouh were arraigned in Manhattan court late Thursday afternoon. Ferhani wore a pin-striped suit and carried a Yankees cap; Mamdouh was wearing jeans. They were being held without bail and face life in prison if convicted.
Their attorneys said the two denied the charges.
"Mr. Ferhani tells me he hasn't committed any crime at all," said lawyer Stephen Pokart.
Mamdouh's attorney, Steven Fusfeld, said that even under the prosecutors' version of the events, which he didn't say was true, Mamdouh's alleged involvement is less than Ferhani's and it wasn't right to treat them equally.
"My client says he is not guilty of these crimes," he said. "He's upset because he maintains he committed no crime."
Officials said investigators had been using an undercover detective wearing a wire to track Ferhani for several months. They said the detective heard Ferhani say he hated Jews and was fed up with the way Muslims _ especially Palestinians _ were treated around the world.
"They're treating us like dogs," Ferhani said once, according to Kelly.
Ferhani is also the one who expressed interest in the Empire State Building attack, Kelly said.
According to a criminal complaint drafted under state terror laws, Ferhani told the detective about "his intent to participate in jihad," meaning holy war, and that "he would become a martyr."
Over time, Ferhani "showed a pattern of growing anger," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.
"His plans became bigger and more violent with every passing week," Vance said.
The undercover detective and the men had several meetings during which Ferhani discussed the idea of attacking a synagogue, the complaint said. Mamdouh emphasized the need for proper training, the complaint said, so they would not get caught like "the one that put the car in Times Square" _ a reference to the failed bombing last year by Faisal Shahzad.
Ferhani was so aware of the possibility of getting caught he suggested renting a farmhouse upstate where they could shoot weapons to train and speak freely, police said.
Ferhani suggested disguising himself as a worshipping Jew so he could infiltrate a synagogue and leave a bomb inside, the complaint said. He also discussed using grenades, "and described pulling the pins and throwing them into the synagogue," it added.
"It was clear that they intended to do that bombing on behalf of Islam and to send a message to the Jewish population," Assistant District Attorney Margaret Gandy told a judge.
On May 5, the undercover detective introduced the men to another officer pretending to be an illegal gun dealer at a meeting where Ferhani stated he needed the weapons "for the cause," the complaint said.
"We gonna be victorious," it quoted Ferhani as saying.
At a roadside meeting Wednesday on Manhattan's West Side, one of the undercover officers handed Ferhani a bag holding three handguns, three boxes of ammo and the inert grenade.
As soon as Ferhani put the bag into the trunk of a car, he was arrested, the complaint said. Mamdouh, who had been dropped off nearby, was arrested soon afterward.
New York City police have been on high alert for potential threats to the city since the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden over a week ago, though Kelly said the men had no apparent link to al-Qaida.
"We are concerned about lone wolves acting against New York city in the wake of the killing of bin Laden," Bloomberg said. "Those perhaps are the toughest to stop."
Officials refused to give details on how the first undercover officer met Ferhani, who later introduced the officer to Mamdouh.
Ferhani, who had been arrested for a robbery in Manhattan last October at a Midtown hotel, was known to the department through intelligence before the arrest. Police said they shared the information with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which declined to pursue the case federally.
New York passed its own anti-terrorism law within six days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the statute has been rarely used.
"New York City is an international symbol of freedom and liberty, and for that reason we will always be a target," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "And we will always be on guard to protect the people of this city."
Authorities said Ferhani is currently unemployed but is an aspiring actor who may have worked at swank department stores. They say he moved to the U.S. in August 1995 from Algeria with two siblings and his parents, who claimed asylum. He has been living in Queens and had been granted permanent resident status, but is facing deportation because of some brushes with the law, Gandy said. Details weren't immediately available.
Mamdouh, a tall lanky man who is a native of Casablanca, is a taxi service dispatcher. He came to the United States with his parents in August 1999 and is now a U.S. citizen, officials said. His attorney said he attended a local high school and lives in Queens with his brother and sister, and his parents are local business owners.
He is also facing an unrelated burglary case in Queens, Gandy said.
Extra security had already been in place at local religious institutions since the death of bin Laden. David Pollock, who helps advise synagogues on security and emergency preparedness for the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York Inc., said there has long been a heightened awareness among local Jewish organizations that they could be targeted in terror attacks, citing the 2009 arrest of four people who plotted to bomb Bronx synagogues.
"The fact that (there are) people who wish to injure and kill Jews is not news," he said.
The case recalled another NYPD investigation that resulted in the conviction of a Pakistani immigrant on charges he plotted to bomb the subway station in Herald Square to avenge the wartime abuses of Iraqis.
The suspect, Shahawar Matin Siraj, had caught the attention of a police informant and an undercover officer _ both assigned to track Islamic extremists following the Sept. 11 attacks _ with his anti-American rants.
After plotting with the informant, Siraj and another man who later became a cooperator against him were arrested on the eve of the 2004 Republican National Convention carrying crude diagrams of the subway station situated below a dense shopping district that includes Macy's flagship department store.
Siraj was sentenced in 2007 to 30 years in prison.
Job 18:11- Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
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Jail time uncertain in Nazi death camp conviction
A retired U.S. autoworker who was ruled to have been a guard at a Nazi death camp and convicted in Germany of thousands of counts of being an accessory to murder will be free pending an appeal, and his health may keep him from serving time at all.The appeal will take at least a year, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is based in Los Angeles. At that point, Hier added, Demjanjuk's health may not allow putting him in prison. Demjanjuk, who suffers from a variety of ailments and has been imprisoned during the trial, needs daily medical attention.
"It doesn't seem likely that Demjanjuk will actually serve any more time in the end," said Hier.
The Ukraine-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942. He is accused of then agreeing to serve as a guard, but Demjanjuk has always maintained he was a victim of the Nazis.
He emigrated to the U.S. after the war, claiming to have spent much of it in a German POW camp. He became a U.S. citizen, but his citizenship was revoked in 1981 because the Justice Department alleged he was the notoriously brutal Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible."
He was extradited to Israel to stand trial, convicted and sentenced to death but freed when a court there overturned the ruling, saying the evidence showed he was the victim of mistaken identity. He returned to the U.S. and regained his citizenship briefly, then was deported again after German prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009.
Demjanjuk was found guilty Thursday of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder, one for each person who died during the time he was ruled to have been a guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison before he was ordered released pending an appeal, which is common in Germany.
One avenue for appeal may be a 1985 FBI report recently uncovered by the AP that challenged the authenticity of a Nazi ID card used as evidence in the German trial.
This week, a federal judge in Cleveland appointed a public defender to represent Demjanjuk and indicated the ID card could be used to reopen his citizenship case.
David Leopold, an immigration attorney in Cleveland, said he doubted the FBI report would help Demjanjuk because there was other evidence against him. In either case, Leopold said, "He's not coming back here if he's not a citizen."
The public defender, Dennis Terez, hasn't indicated how he might proceed on the ID card issue. He didn't respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
Allowing Demjanjuk to remain free pending appeal may help the Germans avoid having him die in prison, said Michael Scharf, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
"They are very concerned about that," he said.
Charges of accessory to murder carry a maximum term of 15 years in Germany, which does not allow consecutive sentences for multiple counts of the same crime.
Defense attorney Guenther Maull said it wasn't yet clear where Demjanjuk would go once he is freed, but he was likely to be hosted by the Ukrainian community in Munich.
Demjanjuk's family welcomed news of his release pending appeal.
"We're relieved that he is not going to any longer have to be in a prison," his son, John Demjanjuk Jr., told The Associated Press in an interview at his home in Richfield, Ohio.
Though scores of Nazi war criminals have been tried and convicted in Germany, in this case there was no evidence that Demjanjuk committed a specific crime.
His prosecution was based on the theory that if Demjanjuk was at the camp, he was a participant in the killing _ the first time such a legal argument was made in German courts.
Despite Demjanjuk's impending freedom, the conviction was an "important victory for justice," said Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.
"The verdict sends a very powerful message that, even many years after the crimes of the Holocaust, the perpetrators can be brought to justice," he said. "We're hopeful that this verdict will pave the way for additional prosecutions in Germany."
Presiding Judge Ralph Alt in Munich said Demjanjuk was a piece of the Nazis' "machinery of destruction."
"The court is convinced that the defendant ... served as a guard at Sobibor from 27 March 1943 to mid-September 1943," Alt said, closing a trial that lasted nearly 18 months.
Demjanjuk sat in a wheelchair as the judges announced their verdict, showing no reaction. He has denied the charges but declined to make a final statement to the court.
Demjanjuk's son said the defense would appeal. He asserted that "the Germans have built a house of cards and it will not stand for long."
In Cleveland, Bea Berger, 88, a camp survivor who lost her mother, her sister, her brother-in-law, a niece and a nephew in the Holocaust, said years of jail time would be "a death sentence" for the aging Demjanjuk.
Still, she said, "He deserves to be hung."
But Lana Barkov, editor of a Ukrainian newspaper in Cleveland, said the Ukrainian-American community would see the verdict as Germany trying to shift the blame for the Holocaust.
"They are trying to absolve themselves of a crime, a blame, a shame, and put it on the shoulders of others," she said.
Somerset, N.J.-based Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox of the USA, a longtime Demjanjuk supporter, said he is helping to find a home for Demjanjuk. His supporters hope he's allowed to return to the U.S., Antony said.
"I would hope the government would show some mercy; he's paid his dues," he said.
Antony said support in the Ukrainian community for Demjanjuk remains strong. "I don't know anyone who really believes the man has any guilt at all," he said.
Associated Press writers David Rising and Andrea M. Jarach in Munich; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Meghan Barr in Richfield, Ohio; and David Porter in Someret, N.J.; contributed to this report.
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Ind. Planned Parenthood extends imperiled services
Planned Parenthood of Indiana says it will cover the health care costs of current Medicaid patients for at least another week after losing much of its public funding under a new state law.The reproductive health care organization said Friday that donations will allow it to extend care through at least May 21.
Spokeswoman Kate Shepherd says it's received donations from at least 36 states since April 26. That was the day before the Legislature passed a law to withhold the Medicaid funding.
A federal judge refused this week to temporarily block the law while Planned Parenthood fights it.
Planned Parenthood says it serves about 9,300 Medicaid patients at its 28 Indiana clinics. It's not accepting new Medicaid patients while the court battle continues and is delaying some services.
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NJ crime increases raise issue of police layoffs
They ranged in age from 24 to 70 and are linked solely by the way their lives ended, in gunfire on Newark's streets.The killings over the long Easter weekend brought Newark's murder total to 28 in 2011, a 65 percent increase over the 17 killed in the same period a year ago and double the number for the first four months of 2009, according to statistics from the county prosecutor's office.
The increase has come after much-publicized layoffs that cut nearly 15 percent of the police force at the end of last year, creating an "I-told-you-so" moment for many observers inside and outside the law enforcement community.
It's a dilemma faced by cities and towns across the country as they struggle to provide public safety while budget gaps force them to trim staff.
Not everyone is convinced there is a direct link.
"No one can say with any certainty whether the layoffs or the lead-up to the layoffs are in and of themselves the cause of what's going on now," said Wayne Fisher, a former Newark police officer who heads the Police Institute at Rutgers University
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