NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES            ALL THE NEWS FOR OCTOBER 2005

SUMMARY OF HEADLINES

*White House denies Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and create Palestinian state.              *President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy.                                            *U.S. warning allies of Hamas takeover of Palestinian Authority.                                                           *Bush says the United States is sending cash and helicopters to Pakistan.                                               *New York subway terror threat remains uncorroborated, concerns ease.                                           *Israel denies 'spying against US' .

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Black Muslim leader says delayed help for New Orleans was 'criminal neglect?

Photo: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan addresses the crowd attending the Millions More Movement rally gathered on the National Mall in Washington Saturday.

WASHINGTON, DC- Railing against the delayed relief for victims of hurricane Katrina, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said Saturday the U.S. government should be charged with "criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans." "For five days, the government did not act. Lives were lost," Farrakhan said at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. "We charge America with criminal neglect." ...

U.S. briefs multiple nations on Iran's nuclear warhead program

LONDON - Diplomatic sources said Iran installed an empty nuclear warhead on  the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile for two tests in mid-2004.  The warhead appeared similar to a Soviet-based ICBM that Moscow deployed in  the 1960s. The United States has briefed several nations and the International Atomic  Energy Agency on an Iranian program to develop a nuclear warhead for the  Shihab-3. The sources said the U.S. briefers asserted that from 2001 to 2003  Iran designed and developed a circular warhead that could detonate at an  altitude designed to ensure optimal damage. The sources said that in August the U.S. delegation briefed such countries  as China, India, Russia, and South Africa ahead of last month's IAEA board  of governors meeting in Vienna. The briefing helped persuade some members to  either support or abstain in the vote on a British resolution to refer the  Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council. India supported the British resolution, which did not set a date for the submission of the Iranian file. The Iranian program, termed Project 111, was commissioned by the Islamic  Revolutionary Guard Corps, the sources said. They said the Iranian Defense Ministry's Aerospace Industries Organization conducted work on the Shihab-3 warhead. Iran has designed a Shihab-3 circular warhead that would explode at a height  of 600 meters, the sources said. They said the IAEA and several member nations were shown Iranian blueprints as well as data on tests of the Shihab-3 warhead's so-called black box. In July the U.S. gave IAEA Director-general Mohammed El Baradei the first briefing concerning Iran's purported nuclear warhead. The U.S. delegation  urged El Baradei to demand information from Iran on the warhead and  interview the purported chief of Project 111, Mohsen Fakrizadeh.
 

US Internet Hosting Company Stops Hosting PLO Office's Website

GAZA, (WAFA - PLO News Agency)- The National Office to Defend the Land and Resist the Colonization, a PLO body, said its website stopped working on the internet because of intervention from the hosting American Company. Taysser Khaled, PLO Executive Committee Member and Head of the National Office, said the website will remain closed unless the Office reaches a settlement with the hosting company. Khaled revealed that the American company subjected to Israeli pressures to  stop hosting the Website after those Israeli organizations failed to hack it.
 

President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy

U.S. warning allies of Hamas takeover of Palestinian Authority. Bush officials and congressional sources said the administration has been quietly bracing for a Hamas takeover of the PA. State Department officials have been briefing Arab and Western allies about the prospect that Hamas would dominate either the Palestinian government or PA areas by mid-2006. "There is a very serious risk that unless we make much more progress on the peace process than I now think is likely, that regardless of Hamas we may see the Islamists take over there," Anthony Cordesman, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the House Armed Services Committee.

White House denies Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and create Palestinian state.

Office of the White House Press Secretary. Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room


Q: Have you ever heard the President say that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, and I've been in many meetings with him and never heard such a thing.

Q: Are you aware of the -- there's a BBC broadcast tonight that's quoting the Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as saying that they were in a meeting with the President in June of '03, and there are some very detailed quotes here, saying that the President said to them, "God told me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,' and I did," and then "God told me, 'George go and end the tyranny in the Iraq'" and so forth and so on?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's absurd. He's never made such comments.

Q: Were you in the meeting when that took place?

MR. McCLELLAN: I've been in meetings with him with President Abbas; I didn't travel on that trip, if you're talking about to Jordan. But I've been in many meetings with the President with world leaders where he's talked about this.

Q: So you don't know about the June '03 meeting?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I checked into that report and I stand by what I just
said.