The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday that Iran still is training and equipping Iraqi insurgents but is shifting its focus to influence the upcoming Iraqi elections and exerting “soft power” over its majority-Shiite neighbor.
Iranian meddling “is more targeted now than it has ever been,” Gen. Ray Odierno said following meetings with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. “They are focused on their attempt to influence the national elections that will come up. They will be very focused on trying to support a government that will be more friendly to Iran.”
Mr. Gates was getting a firsthand look at U.S.-Iraqi cooperation following the formal handover of control of Iraqi cities to Iraqi security forces. He met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad over Iraqi requests for more military hardware, including state-of-the-art fighter jets.
The timetable for withdrawal of approximately 130,000 U.S. forces is keyed to the national election calendar, with most combat forces remaining through August 2010.
Gen. Odierno said he believed the Iranians “have done a reassessment” following Iraqi adoption of a security pact with the United States late last year. Iran opposed the pact, which would leave U.S. forces in Iraq through 2011, and urged Iraqis to refuse it as a point of national honor.
Mr. Gates expressed satisfaction with the pace of U.S. disengagement. “Gen. Odierno and I are confident the Iraqi forces are up to the task of securing these urban areas and soon their entire nation, but we stand ready to assist if called upon,” he said.
Mr. Gates sidestepped questions about whether American forces might stay beyond their 2012 departure deadline.
Mr. al-Maliki suggested last week that if Iraq needs more security help, it might ask for an extension of the U.S. military’s commitment.
“What happens beyond 2011 is a subject best left to the end of 2010 or 2011 itself,” Mr. Gates said.
Mr. al-Maliki has given Mr. Gates a shopping list of U.S.-made military equipment he wants to acquire, including marquee fighter planes. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Mr. Gates and Mr. al-Maliki discussed equipment sales again Tuesday.
“They also want to give Iraq part of what they already have in Iraq as a form of aid to arm the Iraqi army,” Mr. al-Dabbagh said, and would “facilitate payment installments.”
Iraq wants to buy more F-16s or other fighters than U.S. officials think it can afford, and Gen. Odierno said Iraq needs better air defenses faster than new F-16s could be delivered.
Iraq also is expected to consider French- or Russian-made planes.
“We’re looking for creative solutions” that might include the “loan” of decommissioned U.S. planes, Gen. Odierno said.
A special U.S. Air Force assessment group will be in Iraq soon to help figure out a solution, Gen. Odierno said. Without more equipment and help, Iraq will not be able to defend its own air space when U.S. forces pull out completely in 2011, Gen. Odierno said.
U.S. military officials in Iraq downplayed what they called minor misunderstandings and hitches since the handover, which brought an end to solo U.S. combat patrols inside turbulent cities such as Baghdad and Mosul.
Gen. Odierno said that, after a few early problems, he ordered an enormous video conference involving about 500 U.S. and Iraqi officers to go over the new rules. Problems dropped off sharply after the session in early July, he said.
Mr. Gates met earlier Tuesday with U.S. soldiers serving in a model unit organized to help and advise Iraqis instead of leading the fight themselves. The Iraqi general in charge of his half of a joint military base in Talil asked Mr. Gates for more surveillance equipment to keep an eye on the nearby Iranian border.
Mr. Gates also made a point Tuesday of saying that the United States is “ready to help resolve disputes over boundaries and hydrocarbons,” a reference to widening tensions between Arabs and Kurds. Gen. Odierno called the Arab-Kurd rift his No. 1 security worry.
Mr. Gates is expected to visit Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday. Kurdish leaders are squabbling with Iraq’s central government over oil-rich territory.
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.
Pakistan – and not Afghanistan – stands to be the greater threat to U.S. strategic interests and offers the best chance through its military to align with al-Qaida while maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
And analysts say the result ultimately could be U.S. military intervention inside Pakistan – an invasion.
This is due to Pakistan being considered “beyond retrieval” from state-failure despite massive U.S. strategic, political and economic assistance over time, including support for the Pakistan Army that remains “sluggish” in going after al-Qaida and the Taliban which it helped create.
This assessment emerges as security analysts undertake a comparative risk forecast between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It comes as the U.S. puts the final touches on its Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy, now called the Af-Pak Policy, which reportedly dwells on Afghanistan but doesn’t address the more dire threats from Pakistan.
In essence, regional security analysts increasingly believe the Af-Pak Policy will not address the threats the U.S. seeks to eliminate. Instead, they believe approaches toward both countries need to be decoupled, with a greater emphasis placed on the dangers of a quickly eroding, failed-state that Pakistan is becoming.
Last March, President Barack Obama announced his Af-Pak Policy with a greater focus on Afghanistan, an effort to work with less radical elements of the Taliban there and a greater development of civilian institutions such as schools, roads and clinics in the tribal areas in the south. It also calls for greater Pakistani Army cooperation with the U.S. in going after the more radical Taliban elements, and al-Qaida. U.S. aid to Pakistan would be intricately tied to such cooperation.
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“Afghanistan has a vested positive interest in the success of the U.S. Af-Pak Policy,” said Subhash Kapila, an international relations and strategic affairs analyst with the South Asia Analysis Group.
“Contrarily, the Pakistan Army has a vested interest in impeding the successful implementation of the U.S. Af-Pak Policy as it doubly neutralizes Pakistan Army’s doctrine of ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan and liquidation of Pakistan Army’s strategic assets, usable against Afghanistan and India, namely, al-Qaida and the Taliban,” he said. “If ever the United States faces a Vietnam-like situation in the Af-Pak Region, it will not be in Afghanistan but in Pakistan.”
In this connection, Kapila and other analysts say that the next 12 to 18 months will be critical for the success of the Af-Pak Policy. They see the Pakistan Army “with its propensity to indulge in ‘minimal military operations’” against al-Qaida and the Taliban coming under mounting U.S. pressure to deliver on “U.S. strategic end-aims.”
“Sustained pressure from the United States could once again prompt the Pakistan Army to divert attention by military adventurism against India, a repeat of Mumbai 9/11 and a possible repeat of 9/11 in the United States,” Kapila said.
Kapila is one who does not dismiss the notion that the Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI, had some knowledge of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., given its closeness to al-Qaida.
He expects within the next 12 to 18 months, the likely direction will be that the Pakistan Army will face U.S. ultimatums of direct military intervention within Pakistan, should it be sluggish in its operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Street fair features nudity, despite police ‘warnings’
Editor’s note: This report and its images will be objectionable to some readers.
Posting warning against inappropriate behavior (Photo by Americans for Truth)
A sex party in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district is maintaining its XXX-rated character – with full nudity and public sex acts – despite promises from police that they would not allow participants to violate the various indecent exposure laws that are on the books.
The San Francisco homosexual newspaper Bay Area Reporter had documented about three months ago San Francisco police promises to restrict public sex acts. They warned organizers if they do not control participants, the future of the festivities would be in doubt.
According to the report the promise from police came after two people filed multiple complaints with the city’s Office of Citizen Complaints against more than a dozen officers assigned to the 2008 event.
The complaints raised questions about the officers’ refusal to cite those who violated city laws by appearing nude and participating in public sex acts.
One website called Zombietime previously published a series of disturbing, explicit photographs of the events on San Francisco’s streets.
Americans for Truth, run by Peter LaBarbera, also has documented the situations previously.
San Francisco street fair participant (Photo by Americans for Truth)
So this year, LaBarbera, accompanied by a volunteer, visited the “Up Your Alley” event.
“Men walked around in full frontal nudity and even engaged in oral sex acts on the streets of San Francisco at a sadomasochistic street fair here Sunday – belying reports that police and city authorities would crack down on public nudity and lewdness,” he reported.
A volunteer, “Ron,” with the St. Joseph’s Men Society, took pictures of the event, he said.
“Ron’s photos show that despite the reports that anti-nudity and -lewdness laws would be strictly enforced at this year’s Up Your Alley street fair, they were not,” LaBarbera’s report said.
According to the volunteer photographer, who has documented the last two Up Your Alley events, “Last year, police were patrolling the UYA street fair. I encountered several police that were walking past men masturbating and exposing themselves, many completely nude. I asked the police why they were not enforcing the law. One policeman stated they were there to protect the attendees, not to enforce the laws, and were passive for political reasons. Another said that as long as the fair attendees were inside the fair they could do whatever they wanted – yet at that time I could clearly see nudity from across the street.”
“This year, I did not see one policeman patrolling inside the fair. I did see several police talking amongst themselves at one entrance as though they were at a cocktail party. There was no attempt to patrol or enforce the laws against public nudity, sex and drug-use. One policeman told me that they were on ‘fixed posts.’ I did see one guy with a ‘Folsom Security’ vest wearing a skirt patrolling the area doing what the police were doing last year: nothing,” he said.
This happened even though posted signs said, “Lewd behavior is illegal and will be interrupted.”
JERUSALEM – A series of failed tests of a joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile system raised new questions Thursday about the U.S. goal of providing an “umbrella” to defend its allies against an Iranian nuclear attack.
The technological setbacks also drew renewed attention to Israel’s concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran and the possibility that it might lean further in the direction of a go-it alone strike against the country’s atomic facilities.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s offer this week of a “defense umbrella” over its Gulf Arab allies to prevent Tehran from dominating the region “once they have a nuclear weapon” was widely seen in Israel as an acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran. She later tried to dispel that view, but her comments sparked criticism by Israeli officials.
Israel considers Iran its most dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program, long-range missile development and repeated references by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Israel’s destruction. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Israel and the U.S. reject that.
Adding to the urgency was word Wednesday from the head of the Russian nuclear agency that Iran’s new atomic power plant will be switched on later this year.
For a decade, Israel has been presenting its “Arrow” anti-missile system, developed and jointly funded with the U.S., as an answer to medium-range Iranian missiles that might carry nuclear warheads. Tested repeatedly, the Arrow system has often succeeded in intercepting dummy incoming missiles, to great fanfare.
But just as Clinton worried Israelis by speaking of an umbrella over U.S. allies threatened by Iran, word came of three test failures in the Arrow system over the past week. The latest was in California, where a test was aborted before the Arrow missile could be launched because of a communications failure, according to Israeli defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests.
Experts played down the importance of the failures. “Arrow has had a pretty successful test program,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. “I wouldn’t be overly concerned about a problem like this.”
Uzi Rubin, former director of the Arrow project, agreed. “It’s really not a very serious glitch in the system that would require going back to the drawing board,” he said.
But the failures underlined the complexity of the whole anti-missile concept, which has been compared to throwing a rock in the air and trying to hit it with another rock. Israeli media personalities wondered if any system could protect Israel if multiple rockets were fired together.
If Clinton’s “umbrella” offer, made in a television interview in Thailand, was meant to reassure nervous Israelis, it had the opposite effect.
Dan Meridor, Israel’s minister of intelligence and atomic energy, was critical of Clinton’s implications.
He said it appeared “as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran. I think that’s a mistake.” He told Army Radio, “I think that at this time it is correct not to deal with the assumption that Iran will obtain nuclear capability, but to prevent that from happening.”
Ever since President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to explore diplomatic contacts with Iran, Israeli officials have voiced concerns that talks would give Iran more time to develop nuclear weapons. Israelis have also suspected that the Obama administration was planning for a future Mideast that included a nuclear-armed Iran – something Israel would consider a threat to its existence.
Hours after Meridor spoke, Clinton clarified her remarks, saying she was “not suggesting any new policy” on Iran and continued to believe that “Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.”
U.S. officials have not defined what Clinton meant by her original “umbrella” comment.
Analysts offered two contrasting explanations: a threat of retaliation for any Iranian nuclear strike, or supplying U.S. allies with defense systems aimed at preventing such an attack.
The umbrella formulation did not appear to include Israel, though about 150 American soldiers have been training with Israeli soldiers in the southern Negev desert for several months on advanced radar installations that could be used in missile defense, according to Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project.
Israel has pointedly not taken the option of a military strike off the table, recalling Israel’s lightning 1981 airstrike that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor.
Experts doubt Israel has the capability of wiping out all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, which are said to be scattered around the country, some of them hidden. But hitting well chosen targets could set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions for years.
Political analyst Gerald Steinberg, a professor at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, said a perception that the U.S. was backing away from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons “could add to Israeli decision makers’ concerns that the U.S. isn’t going to take action, and so Israel should.”
But Israel has not broadcast an urge to attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long urged concerted international action, including tougher sanctions, and hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Israel would not attack Iran just to do the work of others.
Lieberman is visiting South America, and the Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem refused to comment on the issue of the “umbrella.”
Associated Press writers Ian Deitch and Jen Thomas contributed to this report.
Tests of a missile-defense system meant to shieldIsrael from Iranian attack were aborted over the past week on three occasions because of various malfunctions, Israeli defense officials said Thursday.
In the latest case, an upgraded version of the Arrow II – a system being developed by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Chicago-based Boeing Co. – was tested off the coast of California on Wednesday, they said.
But communication glitches between the missile and the radar led U.S. defense officials to abort the test before an intercepting missile could be fired, they said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests, which were carried out in the U.S. because that would allow for greater distances than would be possible in Israel, Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said.
The Arrow is part of a multilayered missile defense system Israel is working on to protect it from all forms of attack, ranging from short-range rocket fire from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to longer-range threats from Iran.
Dror said tests of the same Arrow system in Israel earlier this year were “very successful.” He said malfunctions of systems still in their experimental stage were to be expected and said other tests were called off on Friday and Monday.
The defense officials said the improved Arrow II was meant to intercept a dummy Iranian Shihab missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. But U.S. officials blocked the launch of an intercepting missile because of the communications glitch, the Israelis said.
Iran’s Shihab-3 has a range of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel well within striking distance.
Isaac Ben-Israel, a retired general and weapons expert, said the interceptor wasn’t fired because it is too expensive to use in a test that isn’t expected to go according to plan. He said such glitches are common when developing new systems and he did not consider it a significant setback.
“I expect that within a short period of time, after they determine exactly what happened, they will repeat this experiment and then we will know if it works or not,” Ben-Israel said.
Israel sees Iran as its biggest threat, because of its nuclear program and development of medium-rangeballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s persistent anti-Israeli rhetoric.
Israel, like many in the international community, rejects Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is only to produce energy.
An operational version of Arrow II is partially deployed, and the U.S. and Israel are in the preliminary stages of developing an upgraded Arrow III.
The homegrown “Iron Dome” system is designed to bring down short-range rockets of the kind Palestinian and Lebanese militants use. Last week, Israeli officials reported a successful live test of the system.
The Arrow project was spurred largely by the failure of the U.S. military‘s Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud rockets that struck Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
Homosexuals planning for tomorrow’s Pride Charlotte festival in Charlotte, N.C., are enraged because the Coalition of Conscience has set up a Christian event, called “God Has a Better Way” nearby at the same time.
Michael Brown, who is director of the Charlotte-based coalition, said hundreds of people from area churches are coordinating the rally that will be unique.
“Nothing like this has ever been done in conjunction with a gay pride event in any city before, and those who join together on this day will be part of history in the making,” he said.
Brown told WND that when his ministry moved into Charlotte several years ago, his goal was to reach out to individuals with compassion and resist homosexual activism with courage.
Since the strategy was adopted, the homosexual event has been moved out of a public park and onto private property, and the goal now is to say, Brown said, “This [pridefest] is not welcome, but at the same time we care about you as individuals, friends and neighbors.”
But homosexual activists apparently aren’t listening.
At the pro-homosexual TruthWinsOut.org, a commentary said, “Brown has since launched an online initiative titled ‘God Has A Better Way,’ in which Brown claims that his agenda is ‘Spirit-birthed’ – a statement of sheer, unapologetic blasphemy.”
The website’s attack continued, “Brown refers to his crowd’s ‘biblical convictions’ but his ‘convictions’ in no way resemble the message of the Gospels or, for that matter, much of Hebrew Scripture. Brown appeals for gay people not to be mean-spirited – but he fully intends to remain as mean-spirited and warlike.”
Another site, InterstateQ, said, “This time, Brown’s twisted logic won’t be enough to save him from his own words. The disturbed and maniacal history of his verbally violent, militant and extremist rhetoric serves as its own ironclad indictment. He can no longer hide or run from this history, and neither can he sweep it under the rug.”
Sarcasm ruled on Lavender Liberal, which wrote, “‘We understand, of course, that in your eyes, our biblical convictions constitute hate, and it is hurtful to us that you feel that way.’ Awwwwww! It’s ‘hurtful’! Mikey’s dainty little feelers are hurt!“
The commentary continued, “If there is a god, or a thousand gods, or no god, you know nothing of the ‘love’ you have twisted, corrupted, and aborted from that Holy Book of yours. Your ‘message’ no more resembles that of your fabled Jesus than Pat Boone resembles Big Mama Thornton.”
Several of the condemnations of the Christian rally went further, too:
On the BoxTurtleBulletin site, “jimmy” said, “I will have my pepper spray, spring loaded baton and taser if these nutcases even get near me! I have used them before and will use them again on these nutjobs!”
Another comment on the “joemygod” site was, “Nail them all to crosses and let the corpses rot as a warning to other Jesus-pig people.”
Brown told WND that his event is supported by Lou Engle, the national director of “The Call to Action,” seeking to bring cultural change through prayer and fasting.
He also said other national ministries are looking at the model being used in Charlotte.
Brown said his “God Has a Better Way” rally will require participants to sign statements affirming, “I will not engage in hate speech, name-calling, or angry rhetoric; I will seek to befriend those who oppose me; I will seek to overcome bad attitudes with good attitudes; I will seek to be a living example of Jesus; I will not violate the law.”
“We have great love for the gay and lesbian community,” Brown said, “and have always treated them with dignity and respect; at the same time, we take strong exception to the gay activist agenda and will be sending a message to the city and the nation that God Has a Better Way.”
Rally participants will meet at Charlotte’s First Baptist Church at noon and will talk together to the Pride Charlotte rally. The group has a permit for an event on property across the street from the homosexual celebration.
Time may be running out to resolve the dispute between Turkey and Greece over Cyprus before the scheduled year-end referendum that will try to reunify the divided island, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
In an ominous warning, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said negotiations under way between Turkish and Greek representatives either will end the island’s division or “we would all have to consider alternative ways.”
“Everyone should fully understand that the negotiations offer the last chance,” Davutoglu said. “We do not want the status quo to linger on the island. Turkish Cypriots can live no more under economic isolation. There is an expression in English: ‘Enough is enough.’ The European Union needs to see Turkey’s efforts, and international actors must weigh in the next few months.”
A United Nations-sponsored peace plan in 2004 was rejected by Greek Cypriots, although it was accepted by Turkish Cypriots.
Since September 2008, discussions have been under way between Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat and Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christoflas to end the division.
Their meeting follows a four-year hiatus.
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“Unfair embargoes on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus cannot continue,” Davutoglu said. “Either the status quo changes at the end of the talks and we build a peace and a security zone in the eastern Mediterranean or we would all have to consider alterative ways.”
In an apparent “good-cop, bad cop” approach, however, Turkish President Abdullah Gul sounded more conciliatory.
“Our sincere wish is that the leaders would reach a lasting settlement in their talks, and as part of this settlement, a referendum would be held by the end of this year,” Gul said.
He emphasized the need for a Turkish-Greek balance between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders.
“Our ultimate goal is to reach a lasting settlement on the island and to devise a separate area of cooperation in the European Union with Turkey, Greece and the entire island,” Gul said.
Talat pointed out there has been progress in certain areas in the talks but differences remain.
“We have no solid agreement as to when to conclude the talks but the goal is to devise completely a comprehensive solution,” Talat said.
Secretary of state warns Iran that the United States would extend a “defense umbrella” over its allies in the Persian Gulf if the Islamic Republic obtains a nuclear weapons capability.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran Wednesday that the United States would extend a “defense umbrella” over its allies in the Persian Gulf if the Islamic Republic obtains a nuclear weapons capability.
Appearing on a Thai TV program, Clinton said the U.S. would also take steps to “upgrade the defense” of America’s Gulf allies in such an event, a reference to stepped-up military aid to those countries.
Clinton’s reference to a U.S. “defense umbrella” over the Persian Gulf represented a potentially significant evolution in America’s global defense posture. Washington already explicitly maintains a “nuclear umbrella” over Asian allies like Japan and South Korea, but seldom, if ever, has any senior U.S. official publicly discussed the concept in relation to the Gulf.
The secretary’s remarks also suggested the course the Obama administration might pursue if, as many analysts predict, an unchecked Iran succeeds in obtaining a nuclear weapons capability before President Obama’s term expires — in effect, how the United States might live with a nuclear-armed Iran. Clinton’s comments evoked a vision of the U.S. countering such a threat by bolstering regional defenses and reminding Iran of the dangers of mutually assured destruction — but not by seeking regime change in Iran or by taking military action to destroy the country’s nuclear apparatus.
“We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment that if the United States extends a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to support the military capacity of those in the Gulf, it’s unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer because they won’t be able to intimidate and dominate as they apparently believe they can once they have a nuclear weapon,” Clinton said.
A senior aide to Clinton, speaking to reporters on background while the secretary’s traveling party flew from Bangkok to Phuket, said Clinton’s comments did not reflect her acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran nor a literal accounting of what the U.S. would do if Tehran did acquire nuclear weapons.
Rather, the aide said, the secretary was only articulating what arguments the Obama administration makes to influence Iran’s calculus. The aide also said Clinton’s use of the term “defense umbrella” was not synonymous with the term “nuclear umbrella,” even though the context of her comments centered on Iran’s potential acquisition of nuclear weapons.
In Jerusalem, though, Dan Meridor, Israel’s Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, told Army Radio: “I was not thrilled to hear the American statement from yesterday that they will protect their allies with a nuclear umbrella, as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran. I think that’s a mistake.”
Asked about the Obama administration’s attempts to engage Iran, Clinton said she “had hoped we would get a positive response … but then their elections happened.” Clinton told her Thai TV interviewers there was “no doubt” that “irregularities” occurred in Iran’s disputed presidential election and that the regime then “brutally repressed” those citizens that protested the announced outcome.
Because of these events, the secretary said, the Iranian regime has been “preoccupied” and thus not responded to American overtures. “The nuclear clock is ticking,” she said, noting that Tehran has continued to pursue its nuclear programs and adding that the U.S. and its allies in the nuclear diplomacy surrounding Iran “will not keep the window open forever.” She repeated previous pledges to work to impose “crippling” sanctions if Iran does not halt its enrichment of uranium.
The leader of an Arab Christian evangelical group filed suit against the city of Dearborn, Mich., claiming the city violated his First Amendment right to distribute literature on public property.
The incident occurred last month at the city’s annual Arab International Festival, an event that attracted 300,000 visitors and has provided a favorite evangelizing venue for the group, Arabic Christian Perspective, whose members have attended for the past five years.
George Saieg, Arabic Christian Perspective’s founder, says trouble started when he called the Dearborn police to let them know his group would be returning to the festival.
City police told Saieg that, unlike in previous years, his group would not be allowed to distribute material on the sidewalks, and that Arabic Christian Perspective could either rent a stand at the festival or be assigned a specific location at which it could distribute its literature.
“I told him, we are between 70 to 90 people. We cannot be in one corner of the festival,” Saieg told FOXNews.com. “But he did not give me any choice but that.”
With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian legal group, Saieg sought a temporary injunction to stop the city from preventing his group from distributing materials on the sidewalk. But the petition was denied, and the group was permitted to distribute literature only at one location within the festival.
Saieg alleges in his complaint that the spot was a particularly bad one, and that his group was able to distribute only 5,000 packets of literature and Bibles — a fraction of the $50,000 worth of materials that they had prepared. In past years, he said, when they were allowed to distribute on the sidewalks, they were able to give out most of their literature.
Now Saieg is suing to get the city’s action declared unconstitutional and to make sure that it has access to the sidewalks at next year’s festival.
But city officials say they acted correctly.
“One federal judge has already agreed with us and denied a temporary injunction,” Mary Laundroche, Director of the Dearborn Office of Public Information, told FOXNews.com. “The judge agreed with us that what normally would have been public sidewalks were actually part of the festival life during the festival.”
She added that members of Arabic Christian Perspective were free to preach on the sidewalks, just not to distribute materials.
“They were free to go throughout the crowd and talk with people at any time. They were just prevented from distributing materials, which was a public safety issue — they could block vehicle and pedestrian traffic.”
She said the city allowed all groups to rent tables at the fair, and several local Christian groups did so.
“They [Arabic Christian Perspective] could have followed the guidelines and rented a booth,” Laundroche said. “Another Christian group had come to volunteer at the festival, and they were very well received. The organizers said how much they appreciated their services.”
Organizers also said there have been complaints about Arab Christian Perspective in the past.
“They are very aggressive. A lot of our participants felt that they were trying to convert the younger generation, and they did not appreciate that,” Fey Beydoun, the executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event, told FOXNews.com.
She said that restricting Arabic Christian Perspective members from the sidewalks was not a matter of discrimination.
“There were no groups at all that were allowed to pass out materials on the sidewalk. We had approximately eight other Christian groups that were allowed to pass out materials at their tables,” she said.
Saieg said he has photos in his legal complaint that show other groups handing out literature on the sidewalks. Beydoun said if that is true, “it could have been an oversight on our part.”
She added that some local Christian leaders have taken issue with Saieg’s brand of evangelizing.
“They littered this place with their literature,” the Rev. Haytham Abi Haydar, who heads the Arabic Christian Alliance Church, told FOXNews.com.
“Just look at the conclusion of these guys — that Muslims are trying to create Shariah Law in the U.S., [which creates] fear with Christians. But Muslims are not here to radicalize or evangelize the U.S. … [Saieg's] philosophy and his ideas are not welcome here.
“It is unfortunate that we have another Christian person who is not welcome here, but the Christian community here — believe it or not — has told George Saieg that he is not welcome.”
Whether Saieg is welcome or not, two First Amendment experts said sidewalks are usually considered “traditional public fora” in which distributing materials is considered protected speech, and the city’s defense of its action does not appear constitutionally strong.
“It is a bedrock First Amendment principle that public sidewalks must generally be open for the exchange of information and ideas,” said Tim Zick, a law professor at the College of William and Mary and author of “Speech Out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places.”
“Distributing literature is, without question, a form of protected speech,” Zick said. “Indeed, some of the earliest free-speech cases upheld the right to distribute literature on the public streets and sidewalks, to audiences that were not always pleased with the messages.”
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh said allowing religious groups to rent stalls did not preclude them from distributing literature on the sidewalks.
“The existence of an option to rent a stall doesn’t let the city take away a group’s right to leaflet,” he said. “Leafleting can reach a broader audience than the stall can, since leafleters can walk around.
“Leafleting is also free. City of Ladue v. Gilleo, a 1994 Supreme Court precedent, makes clear that such cheap means of speech generally can’t be restricted on the grounds that the speaker can still use other, materially more expensive (and less effective) forms of speech,” Volokh said.
Aaron Caplan, a law professor at the Loyola Law School Los Angeles, said the case is ultimately likely to turn on many factual questions.
“I think it turns on whether access is controlled — are there gates, tickets, booths, do we expect certain patterns of traffic? I think the central question on both of these theories is going to be, is this really a non-exclusive license that [organizers] get at festivals, or is it a non-exclusive license that [organizers] often get for street fairs?” Caplan asked.
Saieg alleges in his complaint that the sidewalks were not fenced off, and that Dearborn never specified in their permit that the sidewalks were to be part of the festival.
“If you go to the city’s actual ordinance about public fora, it provides for open access, and would have allowed Arabic Christian Perspective to conduct its activities there,” Saieg’s attorney, William Becker, said. “But the restrictions adopted by the city are unconstitutional on their face, and as applied.”
The city will file its response to Saieg’s complaint next month.
“Often times, these cases become very fact specific,” Caplan said. “I think the judge is going to have a lot of factual questions before the case really begins.”
MOSCOW, July 22 (UPI) — China and Russia Wednesday began a five-day joint military drill, their third since 2005, in what was called an effort to up their ability to fight terrorism.
This year’s drill, dubbed “Peace Mission 2009,” was being conducted in Russia’s far eastern city of Khabarovsk, Xinhua reported. Part of it will also be held in China’s Taonan tactical training base bordering Russia’s Far Eastern region.
The drill comes in the wake of deadly riots between Muslim Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwest Xinjiang-Uighur province near Afghanistan and Pakistan.
More than 190 people died in the riots, the worst ethnic violence since the Communists took power in China in 1949. Chinese authorities have blamed the violence on Muslim Uighur separatist groups overseas.
The drill also marks the growing ties between the two powers.
The start of the drill was jointly announced by the Chen Bingde, chief of the general staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army, and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Makarov, Xinhua reported.
About 1,300 army and air force personnel from each side were taking part in the exercise. There will also be 22 Russian aircraft, including Su-27 fighters, Su-24 and Su-25 attacker aircraft, and several helicopters, the news agency said. China will send more than 40 aircraft, including attackers, fighter-bombers, armed helicopters and transporters, as well as surface-to-air missile defense system and radar teams.
