American Buddhist Net

8 July 2008

In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled ‘Preparing the battlefield', the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration's executive power, about the US recognition of Iran's overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK.

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NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq on Tuesday said it will reject any security pact with the United States unless it sets a date for the pullout of US-led foreign troops, a proposal turned down by US President George W. Bush.

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July 7, 2008
By MATTI FRIEDMAN

JERUSALEM - In a stuffy basement off an Old City alleyway in Jerusalem, tailors using ancient texts as a blueprint have begun making a curious line of clothing they hope will be worn by priests in a reconstructed Jewish Temple.

The project, run by a Jerusalem group called the Temple Institute, is part of an ideology that advocates making practical preparations for the rebuilding of the ancient temple on a disputed rectangle in Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

...If you are a descendant of the Jewish priestly class, a full outfit, including an embroidered belt 32 cubits (48 feet) long, can be yours for about $800.

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Andrew Bossone in Cairo
for National Geographic News
July 2, 2008

A well-preserved mud-brick settlement in southern Egypt is providing a rare glimpse into nearly 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian daily life, archaeologists announced Tuesday. (See photos.)

The Tell Edfu site includes a public town center that was used for collecting taxes, conducting business, recording accounting, and writing documents.

The discovery paints a picture of a relatively advanced system of society during ancient times, with commerce playing an intricate part of daily Egyptian life, according to the University of Chicago and the Egyptian Supreme Council on Antiquities.

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By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: July 6, 2008

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen: 'A Third Front ... Would Be Extremely Stressful'

By JONATHAN KARL
July 2, 2008

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, who was in Israel over the weekend, issued a strong warning today about the dangers of a military attack on Iran.

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Don't bomb Iran, Bush warns Israel

Makes good sense, worth reading.

Also, as for this looming conflict, why is there virtually no mention of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), which in Iran's case would be IAD (Individual or Iranian Assured Destruction)? MAD got us safely through the Cold War. Why does not MAD or IAD serve the same purpose now? ABN
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By Shlomo Ben-Ami and Trita Parsi Wed Jul 2, 4:00 AM ET

Washington and Jerusalem - Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? To listen to Iran's radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Israel's Iranian-born transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, or even recent reports that Israel carried out a major military training mission over the Mediterranean to rehearse an attack on Iran, you might be left with that impression.

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JERUSALEM (AFP) — Some 300 rare and valuable books confiscated from Iraq's Jewish community by Saddam Hussein's regime have been secretly spirited into Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.

The books include a 1487 commentary on the biblical Book of Job and another volume of biblical prophets printed in Venice in 1617, the Haaretz daily said.

The volumes are part of a massive collection of books confiscated by the secret police of the executed Iraqi dictator and stored in security installations in the Iraqi capital until the US-led invasion of 2003.

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One more step closer to war. ABN
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By AP/ANNE FLAHERTY

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Thursday to promote Gen. David Petraeus to become the top commander in the Middle East.

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June 20, 2008

France's Association of Copts plans to hold a demonstration on Sunday against what it calls "repeated and ferocious" attacks against members of the Coptic Christian minority in Egypt.

"The beating up of Coptic citizens are occurring daily in Egypt," the association said, adding that these attacks have been going on for years.

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20 June 2008

Hundreds of Jerusalem Christians are losing residency rights in their city due to the policies of the Israeli Ministry of Interior. The policy that aims to reduce the number of non-Jews in the city takes its toll on families and individuals who hold residency permits in foreign countries. No matter how long they travel abroad, no matter if they were born in Jerusalem before or after Israel occupied East Jerusalem, they are considered visitors in their own city.

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The Therapeutae (male, pl.) and Therapeutrides (female, pl.), according to the account in De vita contemplativa by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE - 50 CE) who appears to have been personally acquainted with them, were "philosophers" (cf. I.2) that lived on a low hill by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria in circumstances resembling lavrite life (cf. III.22), and were "the best" of a kind given to "perfect goodness" that "exists in many places in the inhabited world" (cf. III.21).

...The similarities between the Therapeutae and Buddhist monasticism, a tradition earlier by several centuries, combined with Indian evidence of Buddhist missionary activity to the Mediterranean around 250 BCE (the Edicts of Ashoka), have been pointed out.[5] The Therapeutae would have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and would have influenced the early formation of Christianity.[6] The linguist Zacharias P. Thundy also suggests that the word "Therapeutae" is only a Hellenisation of the Indian Pali word for traditional Buddhists, Theravada. In general, Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

From the standpoint of comparative religions, ascetism can be seen as a common point between Buddhism and Christianity, and is in contrast to the absence of asceticism in Judaism:

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Dharamsala, June 16: Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Sunday wrapped up a five-day Australia tour, which was highlighted by his meeting with Australian acting Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans.

Evans described his discussions with the Dalai Lama that took place on Friday as open and instructive. He said he conveyed the Australian Government's enthusiasm for continued talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama.

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June 14, 2008
by Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*

FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.

The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.

After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.

In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far.

Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.

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Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons

New discoveries in Syria suggest a little-known people fueled the rise of civilization

by Andrew Lawler
Volume 61 Number 4, July/August 2008

With its vast plaza and impressive stone stairway leading up to a temple complex, Urkesh was designed to last. And for well over a millennium, this city on the dusty plains of what is now northeastern Syria was a spiritual center for a puzzling people called the Hurrians. All but forgotten by history, their origin remains obscure, but excavations led by husband-and-wife UCLA archaeologists Georgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati over the past quarter century reveal that the Hurrians were far more than just another wandering tribe in the fractious Middle East. And during last year's season, they found compelling evidence that the Hurrians not only strongly influenced the language, culture, and religion of later peoples, but also may have been present 1,000 years earlier--just as nearby Mesopotamians began to create the first cities.

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2008-06-12
By Clara Moskowitz

Scientists have grown a tree from what may be the oldest seed ever germinated.

The new sapling was sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada, the site of a cliff-side fortress in Israel where ancient Jews are said to have killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders.

Dubbed the "Methuselah Tree" after the oldest person in the Bible, the new plant has been growing steadily, and after 26 months, the tree was nearly four-feet (1.2 meters) tall.

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By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Just over three years old and about four-feet tall, Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2,000 years ago.
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The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers.

Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about 2,000 years old _ the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.

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BAGHDAD, June 9 (UPI) -- A leading Iraqi Shiite cleric said Monday the status of forces agreement between Washington and Baghdad could lead to an uprising in Iraq.

"It is not to the benefit of the U.S. as a major power to lessen the sovereignty of Iraq. This treaty is humiliating to the Iraqi people, and might cause an uprising against it and those who support it," Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Modarresi told the Iranian state-run English-language service, Press TV.

...The current U.N. mandate for Iraq expires in 2009. The United States wants to establish 50 military bases in Iraq, provide immunity to security personnel from Iraqi law and maintain the right to conduct autonomous military operations as part of the legal framework defining the relationship with Iraq.

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Mon, 09 Jun 2008

Amman - Archaeologists in Jordan have discovered what they claimed to be the "first church in world" at Rihab, 40 kilometres north-east of Amman, the Jordan Times reported Monday. "We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33AD to 70AD," Abdul Qader Hassan, head of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies told the paper.

The discovery lying underneath Saint Gorgeous Church in Rihab is "amazing, because we have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians, the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ", he said.

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WARSAW (AFP) — Polish forces will be out of Iraq by the middle of October, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich confirmed in a radio interview Saturday.

"At the end of June, I will hand over to the Iraqis responsibility for the whole province" of Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, Klich told Radio RMF FM.

"It will be an important ceremony which will end our political responsibility for the whole region," he said, adding that the last Polish soldier will exit Iraq "in mid-October".

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Dan Williams
Reuters US Online Report World News
Jun 06, 2008 08:02 EST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday.

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Now recall all those times they said they did not want permanent bases in Iraq. The techniques politicians use to get what they want are almost always the same--lie, delay, obfuscate, keep redefining the issue, keep at it, use different speakers or groups, do it in pieces, do it in secret, and more. You can see this process at work in many other areas, including warrantless wiretapping, freedom of speech on the internet, net neutrality, torture, reasons for war, lobby and election reform, health care, and so on. Watch for it and you will be in a better position to understand what is really going on. ABN
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Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors

By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 5 June 2008

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Religious Affairs Directorate is strong enough to re-interpret the Koran every decade, a top cleric said yesterday, adding it is necessary to reinterpret the Koran and hadith every eight to 10 years.

Speaking during a program aired on CNN-Türk yesterday, Professor Ali Bardakog(lu, head of the Directorate, said its project of re-interpreting hadiths - Prophet Mohammed's sayings and actions - could bring a new vision to the Islamic world.

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Fri, May. 30, 2008
By ROBERT H. REID

BAGHDAD -- An American service member has been removed from duty in Iraq after receiving complaints that Marines were handing out coins promoting Christianity, the U.S. military said Friday.

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