The bloc, now of 27 countries, is still in a state of disarray 18 months after French and Dutch voters issued their clear "No" to the Union's draft constitution.

And the constitutional impasse has contributed to a growing "enlargement fatigue" not only over Turkey - whose membership talks are now partially suspended - but also over the various western Balkan states queuing up to join. Some senior EU officials in Brussels admit, off the record, that the atmosphere remains miserable.

And a senior French diplomat agrees: "It is really miserable. The mood could change? but there's not much concrete going on at the moment."

Krzysztof Bobinski of the Unia & Polska think tank in Warsaw is a pessimist too. I can't see the EU picking up momentum in 2007," he says. "Too many political leaders see Europe through a national perspective? of how to play 'Europe' to their own political advantage at home. Complacency is the name of the game."

But others disagree, pinning their hopes on Germany, which has said it will re-open the constitutional debate during its EU presidency (from now until the end of June) and on this year's elections in France.
Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, co-editor of BlogEuropa.eu in Madrid, says that: "The key event is the French presidential elections. No matter who wins, Royal or Sarkozy will have a mandate to fix the constitution."

Some even foresee rapid developments in the second half of the year, under the Portuguese presidency. A senior French diplomat envisages the EU's June summit launching an inter-governmental conference (IGC) to produce a cut-down version of the constitution. But few expect the way ahead to an IGC to be smooth.

Mr Torreblanca says: "My guess is that reaching a deal, say, among Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain is not going to be that difficult? but the difficulties will arise in: first, 'selling' it to the Poles, Dutch, Danes etc and second, to the citizens, thus risking a second ratification failure."
A senior British diplomat argues: "It would be a real stretch to do the IGC under the Portuguese? and it would have to be a much more modest proposal and if France opens up the question of Commission size, and Poland and Spain the question of double-majority voting, it will take at least 18 months."

He also points out that Segolene Royal, France's Socialist presidential candidate, has committed herself if she wins to holding a new referendum on the constitution, "something she will want to put off to 2009 or later".
David Kral, director of the Europaeum think tank in Prague agrees that an extended timetable is more realistic, doubting even that the end of 2008 is feasible.

"If there's a new treaty to come? to have it in place by the French EU presidency (in the second half of 2008) is just not workable," he says. And while rescuing a more modest version of the constitution remains up in the air, the EU at 27 is not going to find it easy to agree on any more enlargement.

Some suggest that Germany - and France - would like to draw the borders of Europe more clearly, perhaps slowly bringing in the western Balkans but leaving the rest (apart from any fudge over Turkey) as neighbours, not candidates. Sparks could fly over this.

Martin Koopmann, European expert at the Germany Society for Foreign Policy in Berlin, sees "a growing reluctance in the EU concerning new enlargements". He says the German EU presidency will focus on reforming the EU's eastern neighbourhood policy away from a set of bilateral agreements - "which is very close to the logic of enlargement policy" - to a more multilateral approach.

Mr Koopmann goes on: "As a kind of important side-effect, any reform in this direction would take away pressure from the constitutional crisis". But defining Europe's borders divides the current EU members.

As Krzysztof Bobinski says: "Fairly obviously those who want the EU as small as possible will want borders defined, once and for all, and the enlargers will want to leave the process vague and see who manages to slip in - Ukraine, Georgia, others from the Caucasus, even something Central Asian maybe." David Kral is strongly opposed to stopping enlargement.

"Drawing a priori borders of Europe would be the most damaging thing one could currently do - this would be a symbolical building of fortress Europe," he says. And Jose Ignacio Torreblanca says the EU is not about hard borders, it is about soft boundaries. "Creating dividing lines will not help the EU," he adds.

A French diplomat agrees that this divides the EU. France, Belgium and Mediterranean member states want to keep a clear distinction between the enlargement policy and the neighbourhood policy, he says.
But other member states - those in the east, but also Sweden and the UK - want to open a "European perspective" in particular for Ukraine, in the new enhanced agreement with that country.
"Germany is in between, in the longer term it is ready for new eastern enlargements, but in the short term it has other priorities such as the constitution," he says.

Meanwhile, the senior British diplomat warns that any move on borders would be "doomed". "Lots of the Central Europeans support staying open to enlargement, as well as the UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Finland," he says.

And though some in the UK - not least Britain's putative next prime minister Gordon Brown, and even Conservative leader David Cameron - argue that the EU should turn outwards and focus on key issues such as climate change and global poverty, for now the EU looks set to carry on arguing over its internal divisions.

At the earliest, a new constitution might be agreed and ratified by 2009 and such a new deal might release enough energy to reduce enlargement fatigue and lessen the dividing lines over whether or not to build a Fortress Europe.

But the odds are not high for seeing a re-energised, newly confident and dynamic EU in 2007.

In the Palestinian Authority-controlled Gaza Strip and the parts of Judea and Samaria under its rule, a full-scale civil war is likely to erupt among the local Arabs, with unpredictable consequences.

This time around, the talk of "brotherhood" will likely be finally exposed for the myth it is. Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other assorted terrorist gangs will participate, while outside sponsors such as Iran, Syria, and Jordan will supply the bullets, rockets, money and ill-will.

International and American sanctions against Iran and Syria will likely increase, as will defiance by the two nations. Will George Bush unleash an attack on Iran to foil its ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons? Judging by America's dismal performances in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel will be left holding the bag forced alone to face an existential threat in which the options are all bad.

Damascus and Tehran will team up to destabilize Lebanon by activating their proxy, Hizbullah and their allies - the 400,000 Arabs who left Israel in the 1948 and 1967 wars. The bigger powers will push Israel's northern neighbour into a second civil war, one likely to be far more vicious than the 15-year conflict that ended in 1990.

Like the PA Arab battle, Lebanon's civil war will attract support and weapons, drawing in Western and Middle Eastern sponsors to supply the country's Christians, Shi'ites, Sunnis, Druze and Armenians. Jihadists, always on the lookout for training spots, also will flock into Lebanon to establish new bases of operations.

In Iraq and Iran, but also in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Pakistan, and at least one major country in the Persian Gulf jihadist Muslim fundamentalists will become the main agenda-setters, emerging from the shadows to dictate the tempo of events, war, and peace.

The flow of refugees from Iraq, which now stands at two million, will double. Meanwhile the trickle of educated Arabs leaving the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria will continue to grow, resulting in a brain drain of the region's best and brightest.

In America, a Democratic-controlled Congress will turn the Iraqi mess into a full-blown tragedy by opposing any proposals advanced by the Bush administration short of a total and immediate withdrawal of American troops. The American population will progress toward a total rejection of further overseas involvements.

Somalia, which has disintegrated into a vast morass sheltering international jihadist Muslim fundamentalists, will continue its descent into bloody chaos, drawing the Horn of Africa down with it.

The presence of American military personnel already involved in Somalia, as well as the CIA and other semi-military American outfits, will increase with more western advisors to the local army. The flow of weapons to Christian Ethiopia will explode, as will Western satellite and surveillance outposts there. With the Indian Ocean thus wide open, the U.S. Navy and NATO will have to double their presence to block incoming mayhem from the sea.

In Israel - which in the summer of 2006 painfully discovered the limits of its military prowess against Hizullah's guerrilla-style warfare in Lebanon - politicians and the military will find that their enemies have been further emboldened.

Hamas and Hizbullah rockets aimed inland from Gaza and from Lebanon will test Israel again. Prime Minister Olmert's unwieldy coalition government once more will be pushed to the edge. The government is widely expected to remain in place, but its ability to develop effective responses will be as incomplete and as incompetent in 2007 as it has showed itself to be this year.

More important, PM Olmert and his feckless Defence Minister Amir Peretz as well as Israel's entire opposition will continue to exhibit a shocking lack of vision, failing to put forward a strategy to deal with the tide of Islamic fundamentalists and the consequences of Egypt's failed government. The total collapse of the Palestinian Authority will increase the internal challenge for Israel.

On the macro-economic front, the price of oil will continue to slip, as more alternative sources, from coal to oil sands to ethanol, grab a larger share of the world's markets.

The role of Russia as the world's major new supplier of "conventional energy"- now bigger than that of Saudi Arabia - will grow remarkably. Russia is already Europe's main supplier of natural gas, and it is moving to become a major supplier of oil and gas to Asia, as well. Canada, with its endless reserves of oil sands in remote northern Alberta, will join Russia as a major new energy power. The strategic consequences of these two countries' advances for American influence have yet to be calculated by think tanks, NATO, and the OECD.

Where does all this leave the Israeli man in the street? The slight cut on December 31 of the government-set price for gasoline, together with the Bank of Israel's decision earlier last month to slash interest rates by half a percent to 4.5 % - three quarters of a point below the Federal Reserve Bank's rate suggest continued strong growth in the Israeli economy and an ongoing reduction in the unemployment levels.

Want some unsolicited investment advice? Park your dollars in Israeli shekels, and watch as the greenback continues to shrink.

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., decided to use the centuries-old Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in on Thursday after he learned that it is kept at the Library of Congress. Jefferson, the nation's third president and a collector of books in all topics and languages, sold the book to Congress in 1815 as part of a collection.

"It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Quran," Ellison said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"A visionary like Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of a different belief system," Ellison said. "This just shows that religious tolerance is the bedrock of our country, and religious differences are nothing to be afraid of."
Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead. Ellison was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college.

Ellison said an anonymous person wrote to tell him about the Quran, and he arranged with the Library of Congress to use it. The chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division, Mark Dimunation, will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and bring it back after the ceremony.

Ellison's decision to use Jefferson's Quran was first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Jefferson was born in Albemarle County, in what is now Goode's congressional district in central Virginia. Goode's office did not return phone and e-mail messages left Wednesday.

An English translation of the Arabic, Jefferson's Quran was published in 1764 in London, a later printing of one originally published in 1734."This is considered the text that shaped Europe's understanding of the Quran," Dimunation said.It was acquired in 1815 as part of a more than 6,400-volume collection that Jefferson sold for $24,000 to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in the War of 1812."It was a real bargain," Dimunation said.

The Quran survived an 1851 fire in the Capitol. Dimunation described it as a two-volume work, bound in leather with marble boards."As a rare book librarian," he said, "there is something special about the idea that Thomas Jefferson's books are being walked across the street to the Capitol building, to bring in yet another session of governmental structure that he helped create."

Although most in the media regard the notion of a merger agenda as sheer conspiracy theory, an increasing number of high-level voices including congressmen like Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul, and newsmen like CNN's Lou Dobbs who calls the government's actions on this issue "unconscionable" and "Orwellian" are sounding the alarm over recent moves in the direction of a de facto North American Union.

For example, confirmation has surfaced that the U.S. government will indeed provide full Social Security benefits to Mexicans which critics predict will bankrupt the already-shaky system. And a report by the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, regarded by many as something of a "shadow government," has called for a massive transfer of wealth from the U.S. to Mexico and the establishment of a "security perimeter" around North America rather than securing America's borders with Mexico and Canada.

Last month, for instance, WND reported that more Americans were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began.

In another disturbing expose, WND reported that a wave of illegal-immigrant gang rapes is sweeping the U.S. while public officials and law-enforcement authorities fear drawing the link.

As Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, a Ph.D. researcher of violent crimes, told WorldNetDaily: "It appears as if there is a fear that if this is honestly discussed, people will hate all illegal immigrants. So there is silence. But in being silent about the rapes and murders, it is as if the victims never even existed."

Even on the nation's highways, record high numbers of unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured drivers many of whom are illegal aliens are driving up the numbers of highway deaths in the U.S.

The last two paragraphs of his remarks revealed once again his steadfast and driving conviction, as reported in WND, that a messianic figure known as the "Mahdi" to Muslims is poised to reveal himself after an apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead.

"I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet," Ahmadinejad said at the U.N. "Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause."

With Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons and already in possession of sophisticated medium-range missiles, mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah is of particular concern because of Iran's potential for triggering the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon"). Some interpretations of the events that precede his coming include a war that wipes out most of the world's population.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace?

Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York's NYMEX and the London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests.

It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum and accelerate, the interests that matter those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the exchange's operations:

Sabotaging the Exchange this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.
Coup d'état?this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d'etat fail, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

Joint U.N. War Resolution this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other members of the Security Council. Recent rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

Unilateral Nuclear Strike this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The American will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

Unilateral Total War this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will alienate other powerful nations. Third, major reserve countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions.

Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop.

Whatever the strategic choice, from a purely economic point of view, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum, it will be eagerly embraced by major economic powers and will precipitate the demise of the dollar.

"The dollar could lose as much as 30 percent of its value in 2007," econometrician John Williams, who publishes the website Shadow Government Statistics, told WND. "In 2007, we are likely to see the economic downturn of 2006 develop into a structural recession and yet we have international trade and federal budged deficits careening out of control."

Williams explained, "U.S. interest rates are still relatively low, compared to Europe. This will make it increasingly attractive for central bankers to consider moving foreign exchange reserves out of the dollar."

The dollar, which began January 2006 at 88.86 on the FOREX international currency index ended the year at 83.67, a drop of approximately 6 percent. For the year, the dollar fell approximately 11.5 percent versus the euro, 13.6 percent versus the British pound, and by 7.3 percent versus the Swiss franc.

China, the second largest holder of U.S. debt, reduced purchases of U.S. bonds 1.7 percent in the first 10 months of the year. Central bankers in Venezuela, Indonesia and the UAE have said they will invest less of their reserves in dollar assets. Iran's switch to euros is the greatest threat yet to dollar supremacy. The usage of the euro is now universal in Iran and it will spread to other Islamic oil-producing countries as well. The share of dollars as a percentage of OPEC foreign reserves has fallen from 67 percent to 65 percent in the first half of 2007.

Iran's decision to hold only Euros may prompt a U.S. decision to launch a pre-emptive attack, Chapman speculated, with the public argument being Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

"Saddam Hussein signed his death warrant," Chapman argued, "when he got the U.N. to agree that he could hold his oil-for-food reserves in euros. Ahmadinejad appears determined to go down the same path."
Chapman expects the Chinese to take advantage of a strong commodities market in 2007, investing an increasing percentage of their foreign exchange reserves in gold.

"Remember," Chapman said, "all you hear about is the Dow being up 16 percent this year, but you do not hear that gold is up 23 percent. As the dollar continues to decline in 2007, we expect gold to continue increasing in value. Gold in 2007 could easily exceed $780 an ounce."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who defeated Kollek as Jerusalem's mayor in 1993, issued a statement saying that Israel mourned the loss of "one of the giants of its founding fathers."

Olmert, who characterized Kollek as "the builder of the new Jerusalem after the Six Day War," noted that when Kollek was elected Jerusalem's mayor in 1965, it "was a divided city that did not enjoy the credit it was worthy of. When he finished his term in 1993, Jerusalem was a large, modern city, united and blessed with many residents. Teddy Kollek spread Jerusalem's fame around the world."

Olmert said that Kollek had a deciding influence on Jerusalem's way of life, culture, and inter-relationship between its residents. He fashioned its vistas, Olmert said, and built its institutions.

"Kollek's name will forever be a part of the glory of Jerusalem," he said.

Olmert said that Kollek did not only work on behalf of Jerusalem, and cited his days as David Ben-Gurion's long-time adviser during which he "had a decisive contribution to the diplomatic and military efforts that brought about Israel's independence in 1948."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz issued the following statement: "Teddy was a symbol of this nation's building and the cohesion of the Jerusalem. He set a personal example to all public figures."

Nazareth, considered one of the holiest cities for Christians, is described in the New Testament as the childhood home of Jesus. It contains multiple important shrines and churches, including the famous Church of the Basilica of the Annunciation, the site at which many Christians believe the Virgin Mary was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that she had been selected as the mother of Jesus.

The Islamic Movement, the main Muslim political party in Nazareth, said it organized yesterday's march to celebrate Eid ul-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, which commemorates the Muslim belief Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah.

Christian and Jewish faith dictates it was Isaac, not Ishmael, whom Abraham almost sacrificed.

Spain's Islamic Board wrote to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, calling on him to grant them permission to worship in the cathedral, parts of which were built as a mosque during Spain's period of Islamic rule.

The group said in their letter: "What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity."

The Roman Catholic cathedral had originally been a mosque but was converted into a cathedral in the 13th century. The mosque itself was built on the site of the earlier cathedral of St Vincent which was demolished by Cordoba's Muslim rulers following the Islamic invasion and occupation of parts of southern Spain in the eight century.

In December, Spain's Catholic Bishops Conference released a statement, quoted by newspaper ABC, saying it "did not recommend" Muslims prayed at the Cathedral and was not prepared to negotiate the building's shared use with other faiths.

Spain's last Muslim territory fell with the conquest of Granada in 1492 after almost eight centuries of Muslim rule.
Today, more than a million of Spain's 44 million people are Muslims, many of them recently arrived immigrants from North Africa.

In late January, masked Palestinian gunmen took over a European Union office in Gaza City to protest publication of a dozen cartoons about Islam, Mohammed and self-censorship in the Danish newspaper the Jyllands-Posten.
They stormed the building, burned Danish flags and spearheaded an international boycott of Denmark's products.
The rage was manufactured pretext. The cartoons had been published four months earlier with little fanfare.
It wasn't until a delegation of instigating Danish imams toured Egypt with the cartoons - plus a few inflammatory fake ones - that the fire started burning.
The mainstream media fell for the ruse and were slow to acknowledge it after American bloggers and Danish television exposed the scheme.
What was really behind Cartoon Rage? Muslim bullies were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for continuing its nuclear research program.
The chairmanship of the council was passing to Denmark at the time.
Western journalists, analysts and apologists were too clouded by their cowardice and conciliation to see through the smoke.
More than 800 were injured in the ensuing riots and 130 people paid with their lives.
The innocents included Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, who was shot to death in Turkey on Feb. 5 by a teenage boy enraged by the illustrations.
The Muslim gunman shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" as he murdered Santoro while the priest knelt praying in his church.
Several brave moderate Muslim editors who stood up to the madness were jailed, fined and convicted of crimes related to insulting Islam. The Danish cartoonists remain in hiding.
The world soon tired of Cartoon Rage, but the Muslim ragers were just warming up.
They found excuses large and small to riot and threaten Western infidels.
In India, they protested the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Mecca and also burned Valentine's Day cards. An insult to Islam, they screamed.
In Spain, they protested a Madrid store for selling a postcard with a mosque on it with the words "We slept here." An insult to Islam, they protested.
In Pakistan, they burned down a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and Pizza Hut, and toppled Ronald McDonald. In Jakarta, they smashed the offices of Playboy magazine. You know why.
In June, a trial against journalist Oriana Fallaci for insulting Islam commenced in Bergamo, Italy. She had been charged by Muslim rager Adel Smith of the Muslim Union of Italy of "vilipendio" - vilifying Islam - in her post-9/11 books slamming jihad.
A judge had refused to throw out the case. She faced a pile of death threats and accusations of "Islamophobia" for speaking truth to Islamo-power.
Fallaci's death from cancer during the fifth anniversary week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pre-empted the trial in Italy, but her passing did nothing to pre-empt the eternal rage of the perpetually outraged.
The day she died, the grievance-mongers were shaking their fists and calling for the head of Pope Benedict XVI for his speech that made reference to a 14th century conversation touching on holy war and jihad.
For engaging in open, honest intellectual and spiritual debate, he was condemned, lit afire in effigy and targeted anew.
The ragers bombed Christian churches in Gaza City and Nablus. They murdered Italian Sister Leonella Sgorbati, an elderly Catholic nun shot in the back by a Somalian jihadist stoked by Pope Rage.
"Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," a Somalian cleric had declared. The Vatican made nice with Muslim leaders.
In September, it was a Berlin production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that featured the decapitated head of Mohammed.
Then, it was former British foreign secretary Jack Straw, who had the audacity to make the obvious observation that full Muslim veils impede communications between women and Westerners. Offensive.Disturbing. An insult to Islam.
Not to be outdone, a delegation of extortionist imams boarded a U.S. Airways flight in Minneapolis in November and tried to manufacture an international human-rights incident. They clamored for a boycott and threatened to sue.
The good news: The fire didn't catch this time. The bad news: As Fallaci warned before her death:
"The hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. The clash between us and them is not a military one. It is a cultural one, a religious one and the worst is still to come."

In separate comments to the station's English program, Lombardi said that capital punishment cannot be justified "even when the person put to death is one guilty of great crimes," and he reiterated the Catholic Church's overall opposition to the death penalty. Executing Saddam "is not a way to reconstruct justice" in Iraqi society, the spokesman said. "It might fuel the spirit of revenge and sew seeds of new violence."

Lombardi expressed the hope that leaders "do everything possible" so that "from this dramatic situation ways might open to reconciliation and peace."
The Vatican's top official for dialogue between religions, Cardinal Paul Poupard, said: "We pray to the Lord and for the dead and the living so that this will not become an occasion for new violence."

"We are always sad when men take lives which belong to the Lord," Poupard told the Italian news agency ANSA. In an interview published in an Italian daily earlier in the week, the Vatican's top prelate for justice issues, Cardinal Renato Martino, said executing Saddam would mean punishing "a crime with another crime."

People who thought he was a monster who had brought disaster to his country had their beliefs confirmed. And so did those who looked back on his reign with nostalgia, as a time when Iraq was stable, and the streets were safe as long as you supported his regime. Iraq today is in the grip of a series of terrible wars. Most people have other things to worry about than the fate of their old dictator.

The Iraqi people, who suffered grievously under Saddam Hussein, continue to suffer. The one point of agreement in Washington about their position in Iraq is that it is bad. Even President George W Bush now says "We're not winning, we're not losing" in Iraq.

In the New Year, he has promised to make some decisions about what the US does next in Iraq. It looks as if he may not take the advice that was in the recent report by the foreign policy grandees led by the former Secretary of State James Baker and the former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton.
Their opening line was succinct, and more accurate than the president's description: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating."

The Baker-Hamilton report, at first, seemed to offer the Americans a way out. It recommended switching US forces from combat to training Iraqis - and asked for a diplomatic initiative that would engage all the countries of the region. But the report was also a polite, but firm denunciation of the ideologically driven foreign policy of the Bush administration.

By the week before Christmas, it looked as if swallowing it would be too much for the White House. There was even talk of sending more troops to Iraq.
What also emerged much more clearly towards the end of 2006 was the capacity of the killing in Iraq to pull in its neighbours.

The Saudis have been gravely concerned about the impact of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq since before it happened, and that feeling has deepened. A number of recent reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia would intervene in Iraq to protect its Sunni minority, with whom there are strong tribal and religious ties, if the US decided to get out. That may be one factor pushing the Americans to stay the course.

The Saudis are acutely conscious of the way that Iran has been, so far, the big winner in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The US obligingly removed Saddam Hussein, Iran's biggest enemy in the region, and broke the Sunni ascendancy in Iraq. Thanks to the US, Shia Iran has Shia Muslim allies in top jobs in the Iraqi government and military.

Iraq is now a major exporter of instability.

The US-led invasion threw a big rock into the pool of the Middle East. It has kicked up waves, not ripples, which will wash around the region long after Saddam Hussein is dead and buried.

Two groups of Iraqis, the Kurds and the Shias, make up a majority of the population and since the US-led invasion of 2003, they have taken control of the government. Before then, they were the oppressed as Saddam Hussein ruled with absolute ruthlessness through his Sunni-dominated military and intelligence services.

The plight of the Kurds became well known around the world in 1988 when the Kurdish town of Halabja in eastern Iraq was gassed. The atrocity was but part of a wider campaign against the Kurds, which had its own name - the "Anfal". Saddam Hussein did not trust them. He accused them of wanting a separate state and of helping the Iranians with whom he was at war.

Reporters who penetrated the Kurdish region of northern Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait in the first Gulf War of 1991 found a wasteland. Village after village had been destroyed. Piles of rubble told where houses had been. In the midst of the destruction there lay a splendid palace built by Saddam Hussein for himself.

In the south, the Shias, encouraged by a call to arms by the then US President George Bush senior, rose up. But there was no help from outside and Iraqi helicopter gunships established the control by violence that was the hallmark of Saddam Hussein's rule. It is no wonder therefore that the Kurds and the Shias will not shed tears for him.

Some, many even, among the Sunni population will. Saddam had his power base among them and they powerfully support the insurgency. To them he was an Iraqi hero who had overthrown the old ways and had given them pride.

Others, especially the middle classes of all backgrounds - might look back to the days when they could walk the streets and drive around the country with no fear of being blown up.
Saddam Hussein never ruled over a land at peace and at ease with its neighbours and the world.

His execution marks the end of a chapter. But it does not mark the end of the chaos that Iraq faces. His fate has become almost a sideshow in the great struggle now unfolding in Iraq. His dying wish, expressed in a letter written in jail, called for Iraqis to unite. They are unlikely to listen.

The Bush administration, struggling to set a new course in Iraq, will try to make capital out of Saddam Hussein's removal. But it was thought when he was captured in December 2003 ("We got him," declared the American administrator Paul Bremer) that it would demoralise the insurgency. It did not.

And nor will his death. The future of Iraq and its place in the Middle East remains to be determined by players other than Saddam Hussein.