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Pope On Death Camp 'Hell'
Roine/JTA — Pope Benedict XVI
called Nazi death camps "extreme
symbols of evil" and hell on earth.
Speaking Sunday to the faithful
Gathered at his summer home at
Castel Gandolfo near Rome, the pope
made his remarks in a blessing in
which he recalled Catholic saints cel-
ebrated in the liturgy this month.
They include two saints who were
killed at Auschwitz: St. Maximilian
Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest killed
there in August 1941, and St. Teresa
Benedicta of the Cross, better known
as Edith Stein.
Stein was a German Jewish convert
to Catholicism who became a nun but
was deported to Auschwitz in early
August 1942 because of her Jewish
origins. She was believed killed there
on Aug. 9.
"All saints, especially martyrs, bear
witness to God, who is love," the pope
said. "The Nazi camps, like all exter-
mination camps, can be considered
extreme symbols of evil, of the hell
that opens on earth when man forgets
God."
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Washington/JTA — Iran won't have
the capacity to produce highly
enriched uranium until 2013 and
has yet to decide to produce a bomb,
according to U.S. intelligence.
The assessment appeared in
answers produced in April by the
director for U.S. national intelligence,
Dennis Blair, in response to congres-
sional inquiries. The document was
declassified this week through the
efforts of the Federation of American
Scientists' Secrecy Project.
Blair said that in 2007 and 2008,
Iran made significant progress in
installing and operating centrifuges,
but the country's capacity to enrich
uranium to levels necessary for a
nuclear device will not be ready before
2013.
Blair also noted that one of the
intelligence agencies, the State
Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, "assesses that Iran is
unlikely" to produce highly enriched
uranium, "at least as long as interna-
tional scrutiny and pressure persist:'
Iran remains a threat to regional
stability because of its backing for
radical groups like Hezbollah and
Hamas; the anti-Israel terrorist groups
are integral to Iran's efforts to build
influence in the Middle East and chal-
lenge Israeli and Western influence in
the region, Blair said.
Iran has provided Hezbollah with
significant amounts of funding, train-
ing and weapons since its 2006 war
with Israel, and also has bolstered
Hamas' strike capability in recent
years.
Blair said that Hamas and
Hezbollah appeared unlikely in the
short term to relaunch attacks on
Israel; such attacks would corrode
their popular support because of the
prospect of retaliation.
Nonetheless, Hezbollah "remains
the most technically capable terrorist
group in the world" and would attack
U.S. interests "should it perceive a
direct U.S. threat to the group's sur-
vival, leadership or infrastructure, or
to Iran," Blair said.
AIPAC Raps Obama Pick
Washington/JTA — The American
Israel Public Affairs Committee is
"deeply disappointed" by the Obama
administration's choice of Mary
Robinson to receive the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.
"AIPAC respectfully calls on the
administration to firmly, fully and
publicly repudiate her views on
Israel and her long public record of
hostility and one-sided bias against
the Jewish state,' said the pro-Israel
lobby in a relatively rare public state-
ment.
As the United Nations high
commissioner for human rights,
Robinson has been criticized by sup-
porters of Israel for her role in the
2001 Durban anti-racism conference.
She presided over the conference and
was seen by Jewish groups as not
doing enough to stop the expressions
of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hostil-
ity at the event.
"In addition to Robinson's dishon-
orable role in the Durban debacle,
her tenure on the UNHRC was deeply
flawed, and her conduct marred by
extreme, one-sided anti-Israel senti-
ment," AIPAC said."Among the many
outrages was a 2002 vote by the com-
mission under her leadership that
sought to condone Palestinian suicide
bombings and terrorism as a legiti-
mate means to establish Palestinian
statehood."
Robinson, the first female presi-
dent of Ireland, was one of 16 hon-
orees scheduled to receive the award,
the highest civilian honor in the
United States, in a White House cer-
emony Aug. 12.
The Anti-Defamation League and
Zionist Organization of America also
questioned the Robinson pick.