From: Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: News of Interest

                                 News of Interest
                                 July 12-25, 1999


SYRIAN-ISRAELI MOVES TOWARD PEACE RAISE CONCERNS IN TURKEY
July 15, 1999 By Louis Meixler, Associated Press Ankara, Turkey (AP)

The prospect of talks between Israel and Syria is stoking Turkish
fears that peace could lead Israel to cut its military ties with
Ankara and leave Syria in a position to send more soldiers to its
northern border.  Turkish President Suleyman Demirel was in Israel
Wednesday meeting with Israeli leaders.  He was the first foreign
leader to visit since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak took office
on July 6.  His visit had been scheduled long before Barak took
office.  Demirel was expected to tell Israeli leaders that
"Turkish-Israeli relations should not be sacrificed,'' the Star
newspaper said.

Ties between Israel and Turkey, Syria's southern and northern
neighbors, have grown sharply during the past few years, raising
fears in Damascus.  Israeli pilots train in Turkish airspace, and
Turkish warplanes fly over Israel during exercises.  Warships of the
two navies have held exercises together, and Israel is refurbishing
50 F-4 Phantom warplanes for the Turkis h air force. In October,
Turkey hinted it was ready to take military action if Syria did not
force Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to leave the country.  Many
Turks say that the growing military ties between Syria's two
neighbors were instrumental in convincing Damascus
to give into the Turkish demands.

SYRIA TELLS PALESTINIAN RADICALS TO DROP ARMS
Reuters July 19, 1999 Jerusalem

Syria has asked Palestinian radical groups based in Damascus to end
their armed struggle against Israel because it intends to make peace
with the Jewish state, members of the groups said Monday.  "Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad's vice-president, Abdel-Halim Khaddam, met
leading officials from PLO opposition groups and told them they now had
to drop armed struggle and form political parties and work on social
issues, and that will include Hizbollah in Lebanon,'' said one
official, who declined to be identified.  The meeting took place in
Damascus in early July, the official said.  The Damascus-based
radical groups oppose the peace deals with Israel  signed by Yasser
Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization since 1993.  Syria,
traditionally Israel's arch-foe, has embraced the groups.  Another
official said Khaddam told the Palestinian groups that Damascus "was
keen on renewing talks with Israel'' now that Labour Party leader
Ehud Barak had ousted rightist Benjamin Netanyahu in a May election.

DRUMBEATS OF WAR

TAIWAN IS HEADING FOR DISASTER, SAYS CHINA
By Oliver Poole, and Ben Fenton in Washington London Telegraph 7/14/99

Taiwanese troops were put on alert yesterday after China told the
government of the is land, which it regards as a rebel province, that
demands to be treated as a separate state would l ead to a
"monumental disaster".

Lee Teng-hui, the president of Taiwan, repudiated the One China
policy, the pretence of a common goal of unification which has
maintained peace for 50 years, at the weekend.  The announcement,
which was reiterated, caught Washington and China off-guard and sent
Taiwan's buoyant stock market into a tailspin.

China has said repeatedly that it might use force if moves were made
towards independence.  The official Xinhua news agency gave a warning
in a commentary splashed across newspapers yesterday that: "Those who
play with fire will get burnt."

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Zhang Qiyue, said Taipei was taking
"extremely dangerous steps" and repeated that Beijing was ready to
use force to block formal independence f or the island.  She said: "We
hope the Taiwan authorities will not under estimate the firm resolve
of the central government to safeguard the sovereignty, dignity and
territorial integrity of our country and will not underestimate the
strength of courage of the Chinese people in the fight against
separatism and Taiwan independence."

CHINA PUTS ITS SOUTHERN REGIONS ON MILITARY ALERT AGAINST TAIWAN
Copyright   1999 Nando Media   1999 Agence France-Press Hong Kong July
16, 1999

Furious at what it sees as separatist moves by Taiwan, China has put
its southern military regions on alert to go onto a war footing, Hong
Kong newspapers reported Friday.  Chinese President Jiang Zemin
signed a military order on Tuesday telling forces in the southern
cities of Nanjing and Guangzhou to be on alert for war preparations,
the Sun daily said, citing unnamed sources.  The sources said naval
and air forces in the Taiwan Strait were also directed to go to
combat readiness.   Jiang, who is also head of the powerful central
military commission, made the orders, saying it was "meaningless" to
carry out talks with Taiwan following comments last Sat urday by
Taiwan President Lee Ten-hui.

CHINA PUBLIC OPINION POLL BACKS TAIWAN INVASION
July 20, 1999 Beijing (Reuters)

Nearly 90 percent of China's people would back any government decision
to invade Taiwan if the island declared independence, according to a
public opinion poll published Tuesday.  The poll in the
English-language China Daily showed 86.9 percent of the 1,957 people
interviewed in seven cities agree the government can resort to force
if necessary.

PREPARATION FOR WAR

MISSILE TESTS AND NORTH KOREA'S STRATEGY OF SURVIVAL
STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update Weekly Analysis July 12, 1999
Summary:

North Korea has sort of announced that they are about to test a new
missile in August, a missile able to reach parts of Alaska.  The U.S.  has a carrier battle group
in Pusan, South Korea.  The Japanese are pleading with the Chinese,
the Mongolians and anyone else who will listen to get the
North Koreans to stop the test.  A report is being prepared by a
former U.S.  Secretary of Defense on the whole North Korean problem.
For a country that was supposed to starve to death during each of the
past five winters, the North Koreans have done remarkably well in m
aking themselves the focus of major powers.  That achievement was not
accidental.  It was part of a skillful strategy we call the "Crazy
Fearsome Cripple Gambit." In its own way, it is a work of art.

MISSILE PARTS SENT TO NORTH KOREA BY CHINESE COMPANIES
By Bill Gertz The Washington Times July 20, 1999

Chinese companies transferred missile components to North Korea last
month in a sign Beijing is stepping up arms sales in response to the
NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgr ade, The Washington Times
has learned.  "We are concerned about Chinese entities providing
material for North Korea's missile program," a senior administration
official told The Times. "In our judgment, the Chinese government has
no interest in seeing North Korea develop its missile capability."

RUSSIAN HACKERS STEAL US WEAPONS SECRETS
by Matthew Campbell Washington London Sunday Times 7/25/99

American officials believe Russia may have stolen some of the nation's
most sensitive military secrets, including weapons guidance systems
and naval intelligence codes, in a concerted espionage offensive that
investigators have called operation Moonlight Maze.  The intelligence
heist, that could cause damage to America in excess of that caused by
Chinese espionag e in nuclear laboratories, involved computer hacking
over the past six months.  This was so sophisticated and well
co-ordinated that security experts trying to build ramparts aga inst
further incursions believe America may be losing the world's first
"cyber war".

Investigators suspect Russia is behind the series of "hits" against
American computer systems since January.  In one case, a technician
trying to track a computer intruder watched in amazement as a secret
document from a naval facility was "hijacked" to Moscow from under
his nose.  American experts have long warned of a "digital Pearl
Harbor" in which an enemy exploits America's reliance on computer
technology to steal secrets or spread chaos as effectively as any
attack using missiles and bombs.  In a secret briefing on Moonlight
Maze, John Hamre, the deputy defence secretary, told a congressional
committee: "We are in the middle of a cyber war."

Besides military computer systems, private research and development
institutes have be en plundered in the same operation.  Such
institutes are reluctant to discuss losses, which experts claim may
amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.  "We're no longer dealing
with a world of disgruntled teenagers," said a White House official,
referring to previous cases of computer hacking in which pranksters
have been found responsible for incursions.  "It is impossible to
overstate the seriousness of this problem.  The president is very
concerned about it."

APOSTASY AND ECUMENISM

HEAVEN IS NOT PARADISE IN THE CLOUDS, SAYS POPE
London Telegraph 7/23/99

The traditional Christian interpretation of heaven as a kind of
paradise "in the clouds" is wrong, according to the Pope.  Instead,
he said, the word referred to a state or dimension of fullness of a
person's encounter with God.  The Pope said: "The heaven or bliss in
which we will find ourselves is not a physical place, nor even an
abstract concept." Rather, he said, addressing 7, 000 people in his
first audience since his return from holiday, the word heaven referred
to what he called a "living and personal relationship with the Holy
Trinity".  The Pontiff's intervention was being seen yesterday as in
keeping with other public audiences, which he has used to update other
interpretations of the Catechism.

ANTI-SEMITISM

PROMINENT MOSCOW JEWISH LEADER ATTACKED
July 13, 1999 Moscow (AP)

A young man identified as a neo-Nazi stabbed a prominent Jewish leader
several times t oday in one of Moscow's main synagogues, a synagogue
spokeswoman said.  Leopold Kaymonovsky, t he 52-year-old director of
the Jewish Cultural Center at Moscow's Choral Synagogue, was in
serious condition in a Moscow hospital after the attack, said Tamara
Griboyedova, spokeswoman at the synagogue.  The attacker, a man
estimated to be 18-20 years old, entered Kaymonovsky's office
at the synagogue and stabbed him several times in the stomach and arm,
Griboyedova said.  The attacker was detained by guards at the
synagogue and was later arrested.  Russia's chief rabbi, Adold
Shayevich, told The Associated Press that he saw swastikas and the
initials RNE which stands for Russian National Unity, a prominent
neo-Nazi movement   tattooed on the you th's chest.  According to
Shayevich, the young man told him, "We will strangle you anyway.
We are 50,000 people strong.''

GUN CURBS HAVE SOUTH AFRICANS UP IN ARMS
By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg London Telegraph 7/18/99

Anger is mounting among South Africa's gun owners over new laws that
will ban nine out of 10 legally held guns while, they say, failing to
cut the four million illegal weapons held by criminals. Housewives
who pack pistols in their handbags as protection against rape and car
hijac king have joined demonstrations against the Bill.  Martin Hood,
of the South African Gun Owners' Association, said: "As it stands the
draft Bill will make it extremely difficult for l aw-abiding citizens to retain
their registered weapons while making South Africa an even safer en
vironment for the heavily armed criminals."

The Firearms and Ammunition Control Bill, part of the government's
pledge to topple So uth Africa from its position as one of the world's
most trigger-happy nations, will compel all 2.5 million registered
gun owners to re-apply for their licences.  Applicants must undergo
tests to decide whether "main character traits and behavioural
patterns" make them suitable to be owners. Those with convictions for
violence-related crimes or with "an inclination to violence " will be
denied a licence.

Y2K PROBLEM

Y2K CONSPIRACY GOES MAINSTREAM
by Declan McCullagh 15 July 99 Washington

For many Y2K fanatics, the scariest threat on 1 January 2000 is not
technology at all. It's the far more sinister specter of a power-mad
president imposing martial law.  Dark visions of US Marines stomping
through backyards on New Year's Eve 1999 are a staple of innumerable
Y2K discussion groups.  A typical post: "There is nothing secret
about the fact [that the] US, UK and Canada are preparing for martial
law."

These sorts of ruminations are no longer the sole domain of fringe
conspiracy buffs. They got a boost Wednesday from a conference hosted
by the staid US Reserve Officers Association, an
eminently respectable organization that Congress chartered in 1920. 
During the full- day meeting, titled "National Conference on
Presidential Powers and Executive Orders," and organize d by an
anti-UN advocacy group, legislators and lawyers warned that President
Clinton could see Y2K disruptions as a convenient excuse to call out
the troops and declare martial law.   " President Clinton might take
that opportunity?" asked an audience member from Concerned Women for
America.

"That is my fear," replied Representative Jack Metcalf (R-Washington).
 "It seems to me that the only emergency that we might see coming is
the Y2K.  [With] a power-hungry president, who knows what he might
do."  Conference organizer Cliff Kincaid agreed: "It appears we don't
have a President anymore.  We have a king." Kincaid is head of
America's Survival, which is devoted to combating global
organizations in general and the UN in particular.

Y2K Glitch Likely To Disrupt Trade: U.S.  Official
July 22 Washington (Reuters)

The 2000 computer glitch is likely to disrupt the worldwide flow of
goods and services , perhaps sparking havoc and unrest in some
countries, a top State Department official said in r emarks prepared
for Congress and obtained Wednesday.  With less than six months left
before t he technology-challenging date change, "the global picture
that is slowly emerging is cause for concern," said Jacquelyn
Williams-Bridgers, the State Department's inspector general. "Our
assessments suggest that the global community is likely to experience
varying degrees of Y2K-related failures in every sector, in every
region and at every economic level," she said.

Y2K is short for the glitch that may cause computers to mistake 2000
for 1900, the result of an old programming shortcut that used only a
two-digit date field.  Simulations have shown that some systems may
crash or cause errors starting on Jan. 1.

In some unnamed countries "there is a clear risk that electricity,
telecommunications and other key systems will fail, perhaps creating
economic havoc and social unrest," Williams-Br idgers said. She made
her comments in written testimony prepared for a hearing on global
corporate readiness Thursday before a special Senate panel looking
into the problem.  An advance copy was obtained by Reuters.
"Y2K-related disruptions in the international flow of goods and
services are likely," she said, adding that "a breakdown in any part
of the supply chain would have a serious impact on the U.S.  and
world economies."

The international economy is "vulnerable" because Y2K-related failures
in the supply chains of one country or region could disrupt others'
ability to keep factories working, transpo rtation systems running,
food supplied and people employed, the State Department's inspector
general added.  Calling for contingency planning on a global scale,
Williams-Bridgers said authorities should apply "lessons learned from
recent disasters" such as the 1996 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, to cope
with potential disruptions.


COMING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

CRACKS EMERGE IN FA=80ADE OF ASIAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY
July 15, 1999 Stratfor.com

Malaysian opposition parties are accusing the current government of
misrepresenting th e economic situation in Malaysia in order to boost
the ruling party's chances in the nex t election.  In China,
government officials continue to deny rumors of an imminent
devaluation of the yuan. Other officials are warning of a slump in
economic growth for the second half for 1999 Europe's
Fitch IBCA rating agency has warned that many of Thailand's banks have
underestimated the extent of their loan losses.  And Japan continues
to pump out disappointing economic s tatistics. As these and other
reports continue to trickle out of Asia, it is becoming more appare nt
that the economic recovery many Asian countries are claiming is more
of a very narrow plateau, and that the economies may have yet to reach
the bottom.

FEDERAL RESERVE INSTRUCTIONS TO BANK

It WAS at the following Federal Reserve Bank location:
http://www.frbsf.org/fiservices/cdc.local/cash/contingency.html

The Federal Reserve sent a Y2K warning letter to banks on Friday.  In
that letter they advised banks to:

1.  Sell securities - anything maturing after 12/31/99 should be sold.

2.  Raise liquidity - call in loans, sell assets, raise and store cash
in the bank vau lt.  ( Yes, they said store cash!!! )

3.  Close extended lines of credit - shut off potential drains of
capital.  Let busine sses know now that their may be no liquidity
after Y2K.  Cut off their lines of credit now.

4.  Find collateral to use to raise more cash.  ( Including bank real
estate, office f urniture - anything that can be pledged now to raise
cash.  )

The Federal Reserve is warning bankers to plan for the worse case Y2K
scenario.  They say get out of the market now to avoid the turmoil at
the beginning of the year.

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