EU: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 Says Report Pew Research Center

Note EU-Digest: this figure is in total contrast to the nonsense European Populist politicians are saying, which is that the EU will become a Muslim Political Entity by 2030


Read more: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 | Pew Research Center

Mexico: US border authorities block Central American migrant caravan

US officials have told would-be asylum seekers at the Mexican border that the crossing is too full to process their cases. The migrants have already drawn the wrath of US President Trump during their trek through Mexico.

More than a hundred migrants from Central American countries have camped out at the US-Mexican border after being told by US border inspectors on Sunday that a crossing facility had no capacity for them

It was not immediately clear whether the migrants, who have traveled 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) through Mexico to the border at Tijuana, would be turned back or allowed in later.

"We have reached capacity at the San Ysidro port of entry," US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement. He added that the asylum seekers might need to wait temporarily in Mexico.

Organizers of the caravan expressed surprise that border inspectors were not ready to receive the group.

"They have been well aware that a caravan is going to arrive at the border," Nicole Ramos, a lawyer working on behalf of caravan members, told a news conference. "We can build a base in Iraq in under a week. We can't process 200 refugees. I don't believe it."

Read more: US border authorities block Central American migrant caravan | News | DW | 30.04.2018

Poll: Americans: Optimistic for country, but deep skepticism- by Dante Chinni

For all countries, there is a tension between the idea of what they’d like to be and the reality what they actually are. A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the gap between America’s idealized vision of itself and its reality is especially wide right now.

Americans seem very sure of the vision they have for United States: A righteous, respectful nation of laws where everyone is treated equally. But they also seem to believe they are falling short of that idea – by quite a bit.

The Pew survey covered a wide range of topics concerning how people in the United States view their democracy, but one particular set of questions used the same phrases and asked whether they were “very important” to the country and whether they “describe the country well.” Some of the splits were remarkable.

Read more: Americans: Optimistic for country, but deep skepticism

USA: The NAFTA talks take on a new urgency - by Don Lee

The Trump administration appears to be closing in on a deal on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, but is up against a very tight political deadline to meet its goal of forcing a congressional vote on a new pact by the end of the year.

After months of making little progress, high-level trade officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico indicate that negotiations have been gaining momentum, and analysts monitoring the talks the last several days said Friday that there was a fair chance of reaching an agreement in principle in weeks or even days.

The president’s chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, plans to continue discussions with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Washington on May 7. They need to close gaps on sensitive matters including trade in autos and farm goods and rules for handling investment disputes.

Canada and Mexico, rather than make politically unpopular concessions, may decide it better to prolong the talks, even at the risk of a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.

Moreover, Mr. Trump’s practice of lumping different issues together for bargaining leverage has increased uncertainties about the fate of negotiations.

Last month, Mr. Trump gave an exemption to Canada and Mexico on hefty steel and aluminum tariffs, but only until May 1, saying what happens afterward would depend on how rewriting NAFTA comes along.

On Monday, Mr. Trump suggested that a NAFTA overhaul should include another one of his goals, tighter control of people entering from the southern border.

“Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S.,” the president said on Twitter. “We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA agreement.”

Read more: The NAFTA talks take on a new urgency | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

EU Budget: Brussels begins big battle on post-Brexit budget

The EU will this week unveil its first formal plans for a larger, one-trillion-euro-plus long-term budget after Britain’s departure, which threaten to further deepen divisions in the bloc.

From slashed farm funds that will anger French farmers, to development cash tied to respect for democracy, and demands for greater national contributions, the 2021-2027 budget promises to be an explosive mixture.

EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger, who will present the plans in Brussels on Wednesday (2 May), says that tough steps are needed to fill a 12 to 14 billion euro hole left by Brexit.

A race against time will follow, especially as the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, wants the budget agreed before the next European Parliament elections in May 2019, two months after Britain leaves.

EU states say it is “impossible” given the rifts between east, west, north and south, with countries anxious not to put their hands in their pockets at a time when populism on the march.

Read more: Brussels begins big battle on post-Brexit budget – EURACTIV.com

Communications Industry: German owned T-Mobile to acquire Sprint Corp in $26 billion deal

Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US agreed on Sunday to buy out Sprint Corp for $26 billion (€21.4 billion).

If approved, the deal will combine the third and fourth largest US wireless carriers, bringing competition down to three major cellphone companies.

Some of the specifics of the deal include: 

• The two companies expect to complete their deal by the first half of 2019.
• Deutsche Telekom, which controls T-Mobile, will own 42 percent of the combined company, and will control the board, nominating nine of the 14 directors.
• The proposed all-stock deal values Sprint, owned by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, at about $59 billion and the combined company at $146 billion, including debt.
• The transaction is at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.10256 T-Mobile shares for each Sprint share, or the equivalent of 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile US share. 

 
Read more; German owned T-Mobile to acquire Sprint Corp in $26 billion deal | News | DW | 29.04

The Netherlands: Power failure closes Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport

Passengers using Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport have been told to expect major delays after a total power failure overnight led to the airport being closed.

Although the problem has been fixed, there were long hold-ups with some people abandoning their cars and heading to the airport on foot.

An airport spokesperson said: "It`s one of the busiest days at Schiphol airport. And then something like this happens. A power outage which knocks out your check-in systems. It goes downhill from there. But the safety of the passengers comes first. It is an unfortunate decision to close the airport."

The power outage, shortly before one o'clock on Sunday morning required Schiphol terminals to be evacuated. Passengers have been talking about their experiences.

Read more: Power failure closes Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport | Euronews

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Rouhani and Macron in talks to save the Iran Nuclear Deal

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, say they have agreed to work together over the next few weeks to preserve the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal despite threats by U.S. President Trump that he will pull out of it.

Following an hour-long phone call between the two leaders, Macron also said he hoped to broaden the discussions to include Tehran’s missile programmes, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 and the regional crisis in the Middle East.

The United States has been trying to drum up support for new sanctions against Iran, and has repeatedly threatened to tear up the agreement negotiated between six world powers.

Read more: Rouhani and Macron in talks to save the Iran Nuclear Deal | Euronews

North Korea US negotiations: Could Trump Win The Nobel Peace Prize? Peace in Korean Peninsula Would Be Significant Foreign Policy Achievement

With the unthinkable now cautiously possible, peace between North and South Korea, speculation about President Donald Trump becoming a Nobel Peace Prize winner has begun. If peace in the Korean Peninsula truly happens, the Nobel committee could be left with a difficult choice regarding Trump’s candidacy.

Recognizing those who helped bring peace to the region would seem like an easy choice, but a decision to give Trump the award could force the Nobel Prize committee into a fierce political debate on whether a man who has openly mocked foreign leaders, launched multiple airstrikes and has threatened war, deserves an award for peace.

But, if the reconciliation happens, how could Trump’s apparent achievement not be recognized? Donald Trump Jr. said regardless of what unfolds, his father won’t get the credit. “Remember who decides this stuff,” he tweeted. “... The globalist elite would never give him that win.”

Note EU-Digest: Let us not go overboard or jump to conclusions on this one. The meeting between the US and North Korean leaders has not had taken place yet, and "one meeting is a step in the right direction, but does not mean peace has been achieved". Regardless, the person who should get the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts is really the PM of South Korea, Lee Nak-yeo, who organized this upcoming meeting meeting and already held a meeting with the North Korean leader.

Read more: Could Trump Win The Nobel Peace Prize? Peace in Korean Peninsula Would Be Significant Foreign Policy Achievement

USA: Trump Tariffs: EU ready to hit back if Trump presses ahead - by Charles Riley and Alanna Petroff

The leader of Europe's largest economy will lobby Trump for a reprieve during a brief working stop at the White House on Friday. 

The same appeal was made earlier this week by French President Emmanuel Macron, who failed to secure concessions on trade during a high profile visit and state dinner. 

Observers say there is little chance of a breakthrough before tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU take effect on May 1. After announcing the tariffs in early March, the United States granted a number of temporary exemptions, including to the European Union. 

Unless the exemption is extended, or made permanent, the tariffs could spark a new trade fight between Europe and America, hurting business, the economy and jobs.
"We continue to be in constant contact with the US administration," a spokesperson for the European Commission said this week. "We expect a permanent and unconditional exemption from the US tariffs."

If it doesn't get want it wants, the European Union stands ready to retaliate. It has already published a list of hundreds of American products that it could target if Trump moves forward with the tariffs. The list runs to 10 pages and includes US cigarettes, sweetcorn, ovens, sailboats, lipstick and stainless steel sinks.

The response from Europe could come within days.
"Our expectation remains to be exempted, but we are ready if necessary," said the Commission spokesperson.

US exports worth €6.4 billion ($7.8 billion) are in the firing line. That's roughly equal to the value of steel and aluminum shipped each year from the European Union to the United States.

The worry is that the spat won't stop there. Trump has threatened to respond to any new EU trade barriers with a tax on vehicles made by European carmakers.

Read more: Tariffs: EU ready to hit back if Trump presses ahead

Chemical Industry - Pesticides Use in Europe: EU To 'Completely Ban' Outdoor Use Of Neonicotinoids, Blamed For Devastating Bees - by Bill Chappell

Citing concerns for food production, the environment and biodiversity, the European Union is set to "completely ban" the outdoor use of neonicotinoid insecticides that have been blamed for killing bees, and for keeping other bees from laying eggs.

"All outdoor use of the three substances will be banned and the neonicotinoids in question will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where no contact with bees is expected," the EU announced on Friday.

An EU committee approved the plan to tightly restrict use of the insecticides, acting upon scientific advice from the European Food Safety Authority to tighten existing restrictions and protect bees, crucial pollinators.

The EFSA said in February that it had confirmed risks to both honeybees and to wild bees such as bumblebees posed by neonicotinoid pesticides.

"There is variability in the conclusions, due to factors such as the bee species, the intended use of the pesticide and the route of exposure," the head of EFSA's pesticides unit, Jose Tarazona, said at the time. "Some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed."

Reacting to Friday's decision, Bayer CropScience, the biggest seller of neonicotinoids, called it "a sad day for farmers and a bad deal for Europe." Bayer added that the new rules "will not improve the lot of bees or other pollinators."

Bayer and another pesticide company have already challenged the EU's existing restrictions on neonicotinoids that were enacted in 2013. A verdict in that case is due next month.

 Read more: EU To 'Completely Ban' Outdoor Use Of Neonicotinoids, Blamed For Devastating Bee : The Two-Way : NPR

German-US Relations: Despite warmth, Merkel and Trump still differ on trade and NATO - by Jeff Mason and Andreas Rin

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump aired differences over trade and NATO on Friday at a White House meeting where they tried to put on a show of warmth and friendship despite tensions between the two allies.

With Trump poised to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum soon that will impact European exports, Merkel said the decision is now in Trump's hands on whether to grant exemptions to European Union nations.

"We had an exchange of views. The decision lies with the president," Merkel told a joint press conference after Trump complained about the U.S.-European trade imbalance, particularly in regards to automobiles.

Merkel's quick trip came the same week as a three-day state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, who, like Merkel, pressed Trump on trade and urged him to keep the United States in a multi-national nuclear deal with Iran. Neither leader appeared to make significant progress convincing Trump on either issue.

Read more: Despite warmth, Merkel and Trump still differ on trade and NATO

Germany - To be or not to be? :Germany’s Populist Temptation - by Sławomir Sierakowski

Because populism is not an ideology in itself, it can easily appeal to mainstream political parties seeking to shore up flagging electoral support. There are always politicians willing to mimic populist slogans and methods to win over voters, even if doing so divides their own party. This has been proven by Republicans in the United States, Conservatives and Labourites in the United Kingdom, and Les Républicains under the new leadership of Laurent Wauquiez in France.

But the most ominous manifestation of this tendency can be found in Germany’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union. The CDU/CSU’s weak showing in last year’s parliamentary election, combined with the unprecedented gains by the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), has created new schisms within the party grouping.

Other than in the former communist states of East Germany, the AfD’s strongest performance was in the CSU’s stronghold of Bavaria, which will hold local elections in October. Defending its right flank against the AfD has thus become the CSU’s foremost concern.

But the most ominous manifestation of this tendency can be found in Germany’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union. The CDU/CSU’s weak showing in last year’s parliamentary election, combined with the unprecedented gains by the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), has created new schisms within the party grouping.

Other than in the former communist states of East Germany, the AfD’s strongest performance was in the CSU’s stronghold of Bavaria, which will hold local elections in October. Defending its right flank against the AfD has thus become the CSU’s foremost concern.

But Seehofer has always come across as something other than a German conservative. In fact, he has served as a sort of political godfather to Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán. And now he sees his own opportunity.

Since the day the new German government was sworn in, it has been clear that Merkel’s trademark tactic of neutralizing potential critics by including them in her cabinet would no longer work. Seehofer immediately launched a cold war within the governing coalition.

Read more: Germany’s Populist Temptation

USA: Trump’s Washington: Drowning In Conflicts of Interest? - by Frank Vogl

Not a single day passes without new tales of the ganefs in the Trump Administration. “Ganef” in Yiddish means swindler. These are mostly small-time crooks, but not always.

The New York Times just highlighted the activities of Elliott Broidy, the deputy finance chairman of the Republican Party National Committee and a wealthy old friend of Donald Trump.

Broidy seems to have taken some lucrative payments for helping friends associated with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to see that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired (he was), to influence U.S. foreign policy against Qatar, and to strengthen personal ties for the Saudi and UAE rulers with Trump.

When it comes to lobbying and the expense accounts of government officials, not to mention conflicts of interest, U.S. law — which is generally described as very tough in many other domains — is often as flexible as a rubber band.

At a minimum, the Trump team is unified by questionable ethics – small, big and sometimes ridiculous.

The Veterans Affairs Administration runs U.S.-based hospitals. Nevertheless, its chief, David Shulkin, needed to go on business to London and Copenhagen last summer with his wife. One of the highlights was a day watching tennis at Wimbledon.

The entire trip was billed to the Veterans Administration at a cost of over $100,000. When the details leaked, Shulkin first claimed that there were misunderstandings. Then he agreed to make a reimbursement.

Efforts at excuses or repayments are not, however, the style of his Trump cabinet colleagues, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency chief Administrator Scott Pruitt. They just feel entitled.

Note EU-Digest:  Sad - Corruption in Government circles now not only seems limited to Dictatorships, Third World Counties, or Banana Republics

Read more: Trump’s Washington: Drowning In Conflicts of Interest? - The Globalist

Middle East - Syria - the Blame Game: Russia ‘won’t allow’ another US military action in Syria based on false flag says OPCW envoy

Russia’s envoy to the OPCW said it was crucial to avoid new false-flag attacks in Syria and that Moscow “won’t allow” US military action there, as he described details of Russian findings on the site of the alleged Douma incident.

New false-flag operations against Damascus are “possible, since our American partners are once again threatening to take military action against Syria, but we will not allow that,” Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aleksandr Shulgin, said during a press conference in The Hague on Thursday.

The meeting was called by Russia’s OPCW mission and featured witnesses of the April 7 alleged chemical incident in the city of Douma. It highlighted the findings of Russian military experts, who were among the first to reach the site of the purported attack and locate the “munitions” that supposedly hit the residential buildings.

“Russian experts performed a detailed analysis of the information on the ground,” Major-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection (RKhBZ) Troops, said. “Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments.”

The cylinders and the damage they supposedly caused did not fit the tale of an airstrike entirely, Kirillov said. One of the cylinders lacked any makeshift upgrades, such as fins, to make it usable as an aerial munition, and, surprisingly, it was not even deformed.

“An empty gas cylinder found at the top floor. The apartment was partially destroyed earlier by an aerial bomb explosion, parts of roof and outer wall were missing,” Kirillov stated. “Other walls were sprayed with shrapnel. It’s quite peculiar that the cylinder was not deformed, which doesn’t fit its purported fall from a big altitude on concrete floor.”

Read more: Russia ‘won’t allow’ another US military action in Syria based on false flag – OPCW envoy — RT World News

Global Warming: 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention - by Patrick Barkham

e’re doomed,” says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. “The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so.”

Hillman, an 86-year-old social scientist and senior fellow emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute, does say so. His bleak forecast of the consequence of runaway climate change, he says without fanfare, is his “last will and testament”. His last intervention in public life. “I’m not going to write anymore because there’s nothing more that can be said,” he says when I first hear him speak to a stunned audience at the University of East Anglia late last year.

From Malthus to the Millennium Bug, apocalyptic thinking has a poor track record. But when it issues from Hillman, it may be worth paying attention. Over nearly 60 years, his research has used factual data to challenge policymakers’ conventional wisdom.

 In 1972, he criticised out-of-town shopping centres more than 20 years before the government changed planning rules to stop their spread. In 1980, he recommended halting the closure of branch line railways – only now are some closed lines reopening. In 1984, he proposed energy ratings for houses – finally adopted as government policy in 2007. And, more than 40 years ago, he presciently challenged society’s pursuit of economic growth.

When we meet at his converted coach house in London, his classic Dawes racer still parked hopefully in the hallway (a stroke and a triple heart bypass mean he is – currently – forbidden from cycling), Hillman is anxious we are not side-tracked by his best-known research, which challenged the supremacy of the car.

“With doom ahead, making a case for cycling as the primary mode of transport is almost irrelevant,” he says. “We’ve got to stop burning fossil fuels. So many aspects of life depend on fossil fuels, except for music and love and education and happiness. These things, which hardly use fossil fuels, are what we must focus on.”

Read more: 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention | Environment | The Guardian

US Economy: An American recession may come just in time for Trump’s re-election bid - by Rich Miller

Here’s another reason to circle the 2020 election year on the calendar. It may well be the year of the next U.S. recession.

Hefty tax cuts, stepped-up government spending and robust global growth should help insulate the economy against a downturn over the next two years, in spite of last week’s stock market swoon. That would allow the expansion that began in 2009 to become America’s longest ever.

But after that, watch out, economists warn. Fading fiscal stimulus, higher and rising interest rates, and cresting world demand could leave the economy vulnerable to a contraction — just in time for the presidential campaign.

“2020 is a real inflection point,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc., in West Chester, Pa.

It’s not only President Donald Trump who needs to worry after claiming his policies of deregulation, deficit-widening fiscal measures and trade protectionism will lift the world’s largest economy out of a decade of mediocre growth. Investors should fret, too. A recession — or more accurately, the anticipation of

Read more: An American recession may come just in time for Trump’s re-election bid | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

France - US Relations: French President Emmanuel Macron rocks US Congress with great speech

French President Emmanuel Macron hit on the issues of climate change, nationalism, trade and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in his speech to a joint session of US Congress, calling on the United States to engage more with the world.

After what has been seen as a friendly state visit to Washington, Macron's speech laid out a view of global leadership starkly different from US President Donald Trump's "America First."

What Macron said

• The United States and France have a long history together
• He criticized Trump's isolationist principles
• Climate change is real. We have no Planet B
• Macron is sure the US will someday come back to to the Paris Agreement
• We must fight against fake news
• Iran will never have nuclear weapons nuclear weapons
• At a press conference later, Macron said he believed Trump would pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal

"We have disagreements between the United States and France. It may happen, like in all families," Macron said.

Read more: French President Emmanuel Macron rocks US Congress with speech | News | DW | 25.04.2018

EU Economic Review - Future Shape of Europe: Macron Vs. the Germans? - by Holger Schmieding

French president Emmanuel Macron travelled to Berlin for serious negotiations about the future shape of Europe. Will he achieve much?

Almost everybody would like to support him, partly to strengthen his hand against his anti-European adversaries at home. But hardly anybody in Berlin seems ready to breach “red lines“ drawn in the past.

Macron probably knows by now that he will have to settle for some modest changes for the time being, with only baby steps to be agreed by the time of the next EU summit on June 28-29, 2018.

Money isn’t the key issue. Germany is ready to spend more and put more of it at risk. But it would come with three key strings attached.

1. Berlin will insist that commitments involving serious amounts of money will remain subject to approval by the German parliament, as is currently the case for support programs of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). For those who love unwieldy German words, get used to “Parlamentsvorbehalt.“
2. Upon gradually completing the banking union, Germany will insist that each step to share risks comes after a step to reduce risks.
3. Partly because the Eurozone economy is doing fine at the moment and Germany is reluctant to endorse a major change in the governance of the Eurozone, Germany puts significant emphasis on changes for the EU rather than just the Eurozone level. For instance, this means improving controls of external borders (including significantly increasing the funding for FRONTEX), controlling migration and beefing up joint defense projects.

Read more: Macron Vs. the Germans? - The Globalist

Christianity: are some Christian NGO's on the payroll of the US Government?

A Christian Church Service in Vietnam

In March 1996 the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) adopted a resolution at its convention condemning collaboration between missionaries and intelligence agency employees.

In 1977, the CIA was prohibited from the recruitment of journalists, academics, clergy, and missionaries. However, speaking before a Senate intelligence committee, John Deutch, who was the CIA director during that time  testified that the spy agency could waive the ban in cases of "unique and special threats to national security."

The NAE has requested that Congress "correct this intolerable situation" of soliciting religious workers for covert activity. "For intelligence agencies to seek any relationship whatsoever with our religious workers must be unequivocally prohibited," says the  NAE.

Allowing such a loophole, endangers missionaries as well as church, relief, community development, and refugee workers in politically sensitive areas abroad.

The NAE has also urged missions organizations, not to provide information to any intelligence agency, although many already have such restrictions in place.

"Any foreigner living in a foreign culture already comes under a natural suspicion," says the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board. "If this policy is reversed, it would totally erode the ministry of missionaries."

Regardless, however, statements by the Baptists or the NAE , a Christian non-governmental organization funded by the Pentagon was used to smuggle spy equipment into North Korea.

Investigative journalist Matthew Cole of the The Intercept has done lots of work in

ferreting out the details, of what must surely be one of the most ill-conceived military intelligence operations of all time, and that is saying quite a lot.

And Congress was reportedly fully briefed on North Korea , though that has been denied by at least one member of the Intelligence Oversight Committee, who accuses the Pentagon of never pausing to consider the potential blowback that it might produce.

NGOs are fair game for infiltration and cover by intelligence organizations, but their exploitation in that fashion is extremely uncommon. That is because it is impossible to control all the unwitting players in an NGO and any such operation would be susceptible to eventual exposure, with the damage derived from potential blowback far exceeding any possible gain. 

The United States government does in fact impose a ban on recruiting certain categories of individuals as spies. Clergymen are off limits partly for ethical reasons, but more because the exposure of such a relationship would be devastating both to the religious organization itself and to the United States government. Use of the U.S. taxpayer-funded Peace Corps is also banned because exploiting it would potentially turn its volunteers into targets for terrorists.

Recruitment of journalists whose reporting potentially might appear in the U.S. media is also forbidden because the distribution of intelligence agency-produced stories could be construed as an attempt to covertly influence opinion and policies inside the United States. Ironically, the federal government officially opposes spy agency disinformation even though it does the same thing through the judicious leaking of information from the White House and Pentagon.

Bottom-line: whatever way you want to look at it, NGO's, including religious ones, which operate overseas still remain one of the best resources for Government intelligence services as a collection point for intelligence information. From the ground level right up to the top political hierarchy.

In order to avoid this from happening, all Christian NGO's, wherever their global headquarters are, should make sure that they include in the preamble of their statement of purpose the wording "to bring the Gospel without any external , political, or foreign interference.

EU-Digest