Transatlantic Times

Transatlantic Times March/April 2006

COVER STORY
Avian Flu Pandemic: Imminent?
by Dan Austin

A health hazard of huge magnitude is slowly gathering momentum in the Far East. We are referring to the much talked about Avian flu commonly known as Bird flu. With 45 deaths among humans to its credit, and millions of chickens destroyed thus far in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many other Asian countries, the economic toll is causing havoc to the agricultural economies of those areas. Nothing however causes more apprehension worldwide, than the fear of a global pandemic. The concern is real and most of the countries that are affected are taking the possible spread very seriously.

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

the Adventures of Danny Mccain, an American born missionary in inland tribes in Nigeria.

Preaching to the President of Nigeria
By Danny Mccain

Greetings from Jos in Nigeria.
As some of you know, I have had a friendly relationship with Nigeria's head of state, President Olusegun Obasanjo, since he was in prison in Jos in 1995. I have had the privilege of being with him four or five times since he became president. I have been much closer to the chaplain of the Aso Rock Villa Chapel, the church inside the presidential villa where the president and other high government officials attend. Rev. Dr. William Okoye was the deputy chaplain to the president for six years or so but has been the substantive chaplain for the last eight months.
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Okoye called me and asked me if I could come down to Abuja and preach at the Aso Rock Villa on March 5th. It is amazing how you can clear your schedule when you are asked to preach for the president.
I was happy that Mary was free and could go with me to this special occasion. Not only did I have the privilege of preaching in the chapel to the president and so many other top government officials, I also had the privilege of praying the "birthday prayer" for the president. In addition.......

Read the rest HERE

San Francisco call to impeach Bush has no pull
Another in a long line of resolutions by liberal council

Updated: 5:32 p.m. ET March 3, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has spoken: President Bush must be impeached. It’s a political earthquake that is shaking the establishment across the country.OK, maybe across San Francisco Bay, to Berkeley.

Some critics of the president welcomed the latest attempt by San Francisco’s governing board to insert itself into national and world affairs. Others rolled their eyes.
“This should certainly force a special convening of Congress,” San Francisco’s Democratic mayor, Gavin Newsom, said sarcastically. “I’m surprised the president himself didn’t shorten his trip to India to deal with it.”

San Francisco this week became the biggest of the scattered Left Coast bastions to pass such measures. Others include Santa Cruz and Arcata.

The resolution continues a long tradition of antipathy between Bush and San Francisco, a city he has never visited as president.

Read the rest of this story at MSNBC.com

London court OKs Dubai Ports purchase
Acquisition of London-based company fuels U.S. ports controversy
Updated: 2:51 p.m. ET March 2, 2006

LONDON - Britain’s High Court on Thursday approved a Dubai state-owned port operator’s takeover of British shipping company P&O, a deal that has caused an uproar in the U.S. among lawmakers concerned about port security.

Justice Nicholas Warren dismissed a last-minute appeal by U.S.-based Eller & Co. as he gave the required go-ahead for DP World’s $6.8 billion acquisition of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

“The objections of Eller do not persuade me that I should not sanction the scheme,” Warren said.The judge agreed to place a stay on his ruling until 3 p.m. Friday to allow the U.S. company time to take its case to the Court of Appeal.

Eller, which provides cargo-handling services to 90 percent of cruise ships at the port of Miami, had argued that U.S. concerns about a United Arab Emirates company owning significant operations at six major U.S. seaports could substantially harm its business.

Read the rest of this story at MSN BC .com

Reality check: Who said what about Katrina?
New video contradicts former FEMA head’s recent statements

By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 7:35 p.m. ET March 2, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - NBC News has now obtained the videotape of a key private meeting between federal and state officials on Monday Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Though Michael Brown has been critical of President Bush, the tape shows Brown praising the president that day, saying they'd already talked twice.

“He's asking questions about reports of breaches,” Brown says in the video. “He’s asking about hospitals. He's really engaged, and he's asking a lot of really good questions.”

Read the rest of this story at MS NB C .com

Affidavit gives few hints to CIA name leaker
Filing suggests official other than Libby discussed Plame to reporters

By Joel Seidman
NBC News Producer
Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET March 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - In a filing Thursday at U.S. District Court in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby CIA/Leak case, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- in a 19-page affidavit -- offered few clues about the identity of the official or officials involved in the leak of former CIA employee, Valerie Wilson Plame's name to reporters, other than Libby himself.

Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned Plame’s identity and when he told reporters.

The affidavit does not unravel the mystery of who Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's "official" source was. Woodward revealed last year that on June 27, 2003 he had conversations with Libby as well as another un-named government official with whom he spoke about Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joe Wilson.

Read the rest of this story at MS NBC.com

Capture the Flag
by MARTIN BURCHARTH

THERE seems to be some surprise that the Danish people and their government are standing behind the Jyllands-Posten newspaper and its decision to publish drawings of the Prophet Muhammad last fall. Aren't Danes supposed to be unusually tolerant and respectful of others?

Not entirely. Denmark's reputation as a nation with a long tradition of tolerance toward others — one solidified by its rescue of Danish Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps in 1943 and by the high levels of humanitarian aid it provides today — is something of a myth.

What foreigners have failed to recognize is that we Danes have grown increasingly xenophobic over the years. To my mind, the publication of the cartoons had little to do with generating a debate about self-censorship and freedom of expression. It can be seen only in the context of a climate of pervasive hostility toward anything Muslim in Denmark.

There are more than 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, a country with a population of 5.4 million. A few decades ago, Denmark had no Muslims at all. Not surprisingly, Islam has come to be viewed by many as a threat to the survival of Danish culture.
See the rest of this story at http://www.edo-nation.net/

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
The Islam the Riots Drowned Out
by EMRAN QURESHI

IN a world of wrenching change, the Danish cartoon affair has widened a growing fissure between Islam and the West. The controversy comes at a time when many in the Islamic world view the war on terrorism as a war on Islam. They draw on memories of colonization and of the Crusades, when Western invaders ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad as an imposter.

Sadly, the recent polarization obscures a rich humanistic tradition within Islam — one in which cosmopolitanism, pluralism and a spirit of open-minded inquiry once constituted a dominant ethos.

European Muslims for the most part have protested the Danish cartoons but kept their protests peaceful. That is good. Stigmatized European Muslims are often the targets of right-wing attacks and feel increasingly beleaguered. But the lesson many have learned from this affair has not been the utility of freedom of speech so much as that their continued presence is an affront to European identity.

Within the Muslim world, the cartoon imbroglio has given ammunition to the two entrenched forces for censorship — namely, authoritarian regimes and their Islamic fundamentalist opposition. Both would prefer to silence their critics. By evincing outrage over the Danish cartoons, authoritarian regimes seek to divert attention from their own manifold failures and to bolster their religious credentials against the Islamists who seek to unseat them.
See the rest of this story at http://www.edo-nation.net/

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
OIL RICH SOUTH NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA HOLD SUMMIT IN USA

The South South Niger Delta Consortium and organization of the oil rich South Niger Delta region of Nigeria is scheduled to hold a leadership summit in Washington DC, USA on March 31st, 2006 at the Radisson Hotel, Largo, Maryland USA. Sources from the leadership group disclosed this to Transatlantic Times magazine this week. Leaders and governors from all the Nigerian States in these region with leaders in technological and development groups from the regions in the United States will be meeting in the events. Acceptance is only by invitation of the Board of the South South Niger Delta Consortium as sources disclosed to Transatlantic Times magazine last week. Leaders like two time Governor Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, Navy Com. Akhigbe, Gov. Donald Duke, Gov. Jonathan, and governors of River State, Delta State, Akwa Ibom with other prominent leaders in the region have been invited.

This indeed is very significant and particularly because of the presence of many multinationals like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell BP, Agip, Conocco-Phillips in this regions, who also have been invited to the technology section of this event. The group leading organizer Dr. Bright Aregs of Boeing Corp. in California, USA, revealed that the particular coming to recognition of this event underscores the social political and economic significance of this region. Our interest is the need to transfer the oil economic interest into a full blown technological development of the region in areas of manufacturing, IT, high tech industries and the much needed political development in leadership of the region in Nigeria. We the leaders in the United States and diaspora have much to offer in catalyzing this technological development and that's why the significance of this summit here in the USA. The organizational website is www.ssndc.org and interested parties may register online. We will follow up on this summit.

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY The Islam the Riots Drowned Out by EMRAN QURESHI

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
The Islam the Riots Drowned Out
by EMRAN QURESHI