Battle Cry for Theocracy! - Meet the Shock Troops of the Christian Youth

Battle Cry, the youth arm of the Christian Reconstructionist (also called Dominionist) movement, is holding a rally in Philadelphia this weekend. They've already had events in San Francisco & Detroit. Create your own Battle Plan or just chat with other soldiers in God's Army. But not everyone is happy about it.

If you've been waiting until the Christian fascist movement started filling stadiums with young people and hyping them up to do battle in "God's army" to get alarmed, wait no longer.

In recent weeks, Battle Cry, a Christian fundamentalist youth movement, has attracted more than 25,000 to mega-rally rock concerts in San Francisco and Detroit and this weekend they plan to fill Wachovia Stadium in Philadelphia.

They claim their religion and values are under attack but, amidst spectacular lightshows, hummers, Navy Seals, and military imagery on stage, it is Battle Cry that has declared war on everyone else! Their leader, Ron Luce, insists: "This is war. And Jesus invites us to get into the action, telling us that the violent--the 'forceful' ones--will lay hold of the kingdom."

A glimpse at Battle Cry's Honor Academy, which trains 500 youth each year and preaches that homosexuality and masturbation are sins, reveals a lot about what kind of society they are fighting for. Interns are forbidden to listen to secular music, watch R-rated movies or date. Men can't use the internet unsupervised and the length of women's skirts is regulated. The logic behind this, that men must be protected from the sin of sexual temptation, is what drives Islamic fundamentalists to shroud women in burkhas!

Behind their multi-million dollar operation that sends more than 5,000 missionaries to more than thirty-four countries each year, are some of the most powerful and extreme religious lunatics in the country. Their partners include Pat Robertson (who got a call from Karl Rove to discuss Alito before the nomination was made public), Ted Haggard (who brags that his concerns will be responded to by the White House within 24 hours), Jerry Falwell (who blamed September 11th on homosexuals, feminists, pagans, and abortionists), and others. Their events have been addressed by Barbara Bush (via video) as well as former President Gerry Ford. This weekend's event will include Franklyn Graham who has ministered to George Bush and publicly proclaimed that Islam is an "evil religion."

What most of these figures have in common is their insistence that the Bible be read literally and obeyed as the inerrant word of God. And, as Ron Luce leads youth to pray, "I will keep my eyes on the battle, submitting to Your code even when I don't understand.outside my comfort zone in the battle zone," it would be foolish to expect that there is any part of the Bible's literal horrors this movement would be unwilling to enforce. That includes stoning disobedient children and non-virgin brides (Deuteronomy 21:18-21 and 22:13-21), executing gays (Leviticus 20:13), and keeping slaves (Peter 2:18).

Already they staged a protest on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall precisely because they were "the very city hall steps where several months ago 'gay marriages' were celebrated." Their answer to the scourge of rape and violence against women is to end divorce, spread ignorance, insist on virginity--the very things that will more entrap women in these nightmares. And this Friday, they are planning rallies at fifty City Halls nation-wide.

Of course, like the President who gave Ron Luce an appointment to the White House Advisory Commission on Drug-Free Communities, Battle Cry tells its share of bald-faced lies. For one, they claim that "a society fortified by biblical principals and a strong moral code...is the heritage our forefathers fought and died to secure for us." But the word "God" never appears in the Constitution. After three-and-a-half months of debate about what should go into the document that would govern the land, the framers drafted a constitution that is secular.

Battle Cry also claims America has been "set aside for God's purposes--a country established for good and fruitfully blessed so that we might take God's message to the ends of the earth." It is revealing that for all their talk about the value of life and the evils of violent imagery, Battle Cry never speaks against the real violence and loss of life being inflicted by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Still, there is one thing that Battle Cry gets right: this country is in the midst of a deep moral crisis. We are indeed living through times when business-as-usual is unconscionable.

As the Bush regime wages unjust wars and conducts torture in our names, as they leave New Orleans to rot, and drag us closer each day to a theocracy where abortion and birth control are banned, science is pulled under, and gays are persecuted, it is no wonder that young people are searching for meaning and morality.

The truth is, however, youth will not find the morality they need in a stadium listening to Ron Luce preach about religious war and intolerance. And they won't find it while buying Battle Cry's keepsake dog-tags.

These young people need to be challenged to look around them and think for themselves.

I am confident that if they do, many of them may find that the truly moral way to live is to throw their tremendous energies and dreams of a better world into stopping this madness and driving out the Bush regime.

This generation--and their counterparts all around the world--will have to live with the consequences of this culture war, one way or another.

Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of The World Can't Wait / Drive Out the Bush Regime. Here's a clip of her debate with Ron Luce on the O'Reilly Factor. She can be reached at: sunsarasworld@yahoo.com

Asia looks for plants to use as fuel

researchers make breakthrough in use of Jatropha plant to solve energy crisis

Indians know better than to eat the plum-size fruit of the wild jatropha bush. It's poisonous enough to kill.

But with oil prices surging, the lowly jatropha is experiencing a renaissance of sorts -- as a potential source for fuel for trucks and power stations.

The government has identified 98 million acres where jatropha can be grown, hoping it will replace 20 percent of diesel consumption in five years.

"We have found that we can produce biodiesel from it. If we can keep the price down, the future looks bright," says R.K. Malhotra, who oversees the Indian Oil Corp. research center that is testing the oil.

The Indian government says it has run dozens of trucks and buses on jatropha-based biodiesel.

All across Asia, governments are searching for crops that can help them offset a dependence on imported oil that can only skyrocket as their economies soar.

Palm oil and sugar cane are the dominant crops in the region, but everything from coconuts to castor oil to cow dung is being tested for fossil-fuel alternatives such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Most experts also believe that, with current technologies, there isn't enough land to make a serious dent in oil consumption.

Some scientists say production will consume more conventional energy than it will save, and environmentalists came out this month against plans by Indonesia to convert millions of acres of rain forest on the island of Borneo into palm-oil plantations.

Georgia Tech professor Arthur Ragauskas, who co-authored a study of biofuels published in Science magazine, sees other pitfalls.

"One criticism of biofuels is that if you want to go from 2 percent to 20 percent, you would have to direct so much of that agriculture from food to fuel that there would be real competition between the two," he said.

"Even worse, if we have a famine in part of the world, we would have to make a decision as a society between food or fuel."

For now, alternative fuels are less than 1 percent of current usage in most of Asia.

Still, "every country in Asia is trying to commercialize and put up legislation on biofuels," said Conrado Heruela, a renewable-energy specialist with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency.

"Right now, the target is not that big, but it will be very significant in the long term," he said.

Ethanol, distilled mostly from corn in the United States and from sugar in Brazil and Asia, is mixed with gasoline.

Biodiesel comes mostly from rapeseed in Europe, vegetable oil in the U.S. and palm oil, coconut oil and jatropha in Asia, and is mixed with diesel.

Ethanol produces 13 percent less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, a study published recently in Science found, while the U.S. Agriculture Department says biodiesel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent.

Net neutrality - Keeping a Democratic Web

"Net neutrality" is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause.

One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access, and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.

That would be a financial windfall for Internet service providers, but a disaster for users, who could find their Web browsing influenced by whichever sites paid their service provider the most money. There is a growing movement of Internet users who are pushing for legislation to make this kind of discrimination impossible. It has attracted supporters ranging from MoveOn.org to the Gun Owners of America. Grass-roots political groups like these are rightly concerned that their online speech could be curtailed if Internet service providers were allowed to pick and choose among Web sites.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated a good Net-neutrality amendment last week. But the amendment got more votes than many people expected, suggesting that support for Net neutrality is beginning to take hold in Congress. In the Senate, Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, are drafting a strong Net-neutrality bill that would prohibit broadband providers from creating a two-tiered Internet. Senators who care about the Internet and Internet users should get behind it.

Markey introduces Net Neutrality Act

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) threw down the gauntlet just moments ago, introducing the Network Neutrality Act of 2006 [full text HERE], which "[offers a] choice between favoring the broadband designs of a small handful of very large companies, and safeguarding the dreams of thousands of inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. This legislation is designed to save the Internet and thwart those who seek to fundamentally and detrimentally alter the Internet as we know it." read on....

India, China or Chindia ? which is Asia's real sleeping giant?

Chindia, where the world's workshop meets its office. By 2050, China and India will make up half of the global economy....read on

THE conventional wisdom is that efficient and rigidly controlled China will leave unsteady, plodding India in the dust. That certainly was the buzz at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Two decades from now, a very different outcome may befall Asia's two nascent superpowers - one that investors should consider carefully.

Just look at Chennai. The southern city of 4.2 million is India's fourth largest and, like Mumbai and New Delhi, it is experiencing a retailing boom.

Chennai's proliferating malls are abuzz with fashionably dressed 20-somethings showing off their growing affluence. They're sipping pricey espressos, buying Italian handbags and text-messaging each other on hyper-modern mobile phones. Upscale eateries are popping up everywhere, as are apartment buildings.

India or China?

It's scenes like these that have economists such as Stephen Roach at Morgan Stanley saying: "India is on the cusp of something big." As a share of gross domestic product, its burgeoning consumer sector is outpacing China, Europe and Japan. Economists are also noticing that India's economy is looking less like those in East Asia and more like those in the West.

True, even the most superficial look at Asia's second and fourth-biggest economies - China and India, respectively - argues in China's favour, given its world-class infrastructure, glistening skyscrapers, massive supply of cheap labour and ability to direct resources anywhere they're needed.

India is Asia's tortoise, plodding along as China races off with a leading chunk of the world's direct foreign investment. Its infrastructure is an embarrassment, its bureaucracy a major economic headwind and its crushing poverty a reminder of challenges facing the world's second-most populous nation.

For all its warts, India boasts a level of ground-up entrepreneurship China's top-down model can't match. It has created world-class, globally competitive companies and a real stock market, unlike the financial casinos that pass for equity bourses in China.

India also has a liquid bond market and its banking system isn't bogged down by bad loans.

Education policies, an ever-increasing pool of English speakers, demographic trends and political stability also are strengths.

Democracy can be an inefficient, messy process and nowhere is that truer than in India. Yet it is civil society, a free press and accountable government that offer stability. China's transition from a command economy to capitalism poses many risks, including social instability.

Also lost in the debate are the increasing ways in which Asia's two giants complement each other. As Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in India last month: "People ask me what about India versus China?. But I ask them what about India plus China. It's being called Chindia."

For India, there is no time for complacency. It must use the window of opportunity provided by today's growth.

If it can, India may prove true something Aesop wrote long ago: "Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing."

Australian Federal Budget - Riding high on commodity pig's back

Peter Costello has piles of cash to give away this year, but the future is a very different - and potentially scary - story, writes Alan Kohler.

This is a gloriously irresponsible, amazingly profligate budget. A sort of cross between Alan Bond and Zsa Zsa Gabor - whooping it up while things are great and who cares about tomorrow.

Having correctly warned that the commodities boom can't last forever, the Treasurer, Peter Costello, has behaved as if it will, scattering $100 tips and smoking fat cigars - except the budget has made another interest rate increase much more likely, if not inevitable, and raised the likelihood of large deficits and a budget crisis in future.

Imagine Costello's, and Treasury's, delight when they sat down to prepare the 2006-07 budget and discovered another $11.2 billion in revenue forecast for that financial year, in addition to what was there last time they looked, in December.

It's mostly from company tax and mostly from the commodities boom - an absolute windfall (otherwise known as "parameter variation" in the budget papers) and entirely unrelated to their policies.

They then proceeded to spend every last cent of it, almost entirely on permanent largesse: huge tax cuts and welfare.

Despite all the talk about the need to invest in the nation's infrastructure, almost none of it was. Of the $11.2 billion in policy spending decisions covering 2006-07 (yes, that's right: exactly $11.2 billion), only $264 million is to be invested in infrastructure. There's a bit for roads, a bit dished out to local councils for streets and a bit for the Murray-Darling Commission.

Since 2002 the total of parameter variations - that is, the John Howard windfall - is now $177.6 billion, of which $146 billion, or an average of 82 per cent, has been spent.

The percentage of this commodities boom windfall spent on vote-catching welfare and tax cuts, as opposed to nation building, has increased every year, from 42 per cent in 2002-03 to an estimated 100 per cent in 2006-07.

Actually the estimate is quite meaningless; it will be completely wrong. Since 2002 the budget outcome at June 30 has been, on average, 64 per cent higher than the estimate in the budget presented just six weeks earlier in May (an average of $9.7 billion, compared with an average forecast of $5.9 billion).

Think about that. The estimate in yesterday's budget for the 2005-06 cash surplus - that is, for the year due to finish in six weeks - is $14.8 billion, which itself is $5.9 billion more than the estimate in last year's budget. If the usual mistake between the May budget and the June year end were to apply this time, the 2004-05 cash surplus will really be $24.3 billion.

Which, presumably, is why the otherwise conservative Treasury boffins are shrugging their shoulders and spending every cent of this year's parameter variation of $11.2 billion, because they have lost all confidence in their ability to forecast tax revenue, and so has the cabinet.

Treasury has been so wrong for so long that it has had to capitulate to the spenders. It has lost all credibility.

The trouble is that, at some point, Treasury will be wrong the other way, and there will be a crisis. As the Treasurer has warned, one day the commodities boom will end and the river of cash will suddenly dry up.

Meanwhile, lips will be pursing furiously this morning in the Reserve Bank offices at Martin Place in Sydney.

In fact, if the Treasury secretary, Ken Henry, had fully briefed the reserve's board on the contents of the budget, Costello would have been responsible for last week's rate rise, let alone the next one.

Costello says this budget will not make another interest rate increase more likely because the budget is still in surplus, because the Government is still saving. This is disingenuous at best. As he well knows, a budget is stimulatory or contractionary according to the change in the bottom line, not the size of the surplus or deficit itself.

It is entirely irrelevant to the future course of interest rates whether the budget is in surplus or in deficit. What matters is whether the budget takes money out of the economy or puts it in during the course of a year.

The 2006-07 surplus as estimated in yesterday's budget (which, as we know, will be wildly wrong anyway but let's go along with it for the moment) is $10.8 billion; the estimated 2005-06 surplus is $14.8 billion.

That means the Government will inject a net $4 billion into the economy. This will definitely make another interest rate increase more likely.

As for the momentous superannuation changes announced yesterday, or rather the plan that was announced, these will be hugely popular and, in many ways, a tremendous advance in simplifying the system.

Apart from anything else, retirees will have much less need to submit themselves to the hazards of the financial advice system to navigate the jungles of retirement tax and reasonable benefit limits, which is very good indeed.

However, these reforms also cap off Costello's appalling profligacy: simply by lasting until 60 we get to stop paying tax. Hallelujah! Vote No. 1 P. Costello.

The trouble is that more and more of the population will be older than 60 from now on, and while they will no doubt be happily voting Liberal, they won't be contributing to the massive family benefits, low tax rates that ensure you don't have to start paying tax until you earn more than $40,000.

To put it mildly, this could be a bit of a problem when the commodities boom ends.

Gold price to kick into full gear - Marc Faber

Video of Marc Faber talking with Bloomberg's Matt Nesto in New York about the outlook for gold and oil prices, currencies, Federal Reserve monetary policy and the appeal of Asian markets.

ALAN KOHLER: Well, the death of the Greenback, gold at $US6,000 an ounce with commodity and energy prices rising vertically, spurred on by growing international tensions and war - no, that's not the background to the latest sci-fi pot boiler, but the tentative vision of one of the world's most respected contrarian economic forecasters, Marc Faber. Dr Faber must be taken seriously though because of his record in predicting, among other things, the global stock market crash of 87, Japan's collapse in 1990 and the Asian meltdown of 1997 - forecasts that earned him the moniker Dr Doom. He's also the editor and publisher of the influential The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report. And, as you'll hear, he has some very interesting views on the relative merits of the Australian and US central banks. I spoke to Marc Faber from New York this week.

Marc Faber, just to put this week's interest rate increase in Australia into a global perspective, do you think the developed world in general is in a process of increasing interest rates and reducing liquidity that has a way to run yet?

MARC FABER, 'THE GLOOM, BOOM AND DOOM REPORT': Yes, I think so because we have a global boom and interest rate increases have been very slow. In other words, in the US, we went from 1 per cent on the Fed fund rate in June 2004 to 4.75 per cent, but I think that inflation is higher than 4.75 per cent. And if you look at long growth in the US and credit market growth, then we haven't had tight money yet because if money was tight, then asset markets wouldn't rally as they do at the present time.

ALAN KOHLER: There is a lot of debate in the financial markets about whether the US will have a pause in its interest rate tightening cycle. What do you think?

MARC FABER: Well, I basically think that Mr Bernanke is a money printer and it's interesting to see that since he was appointed Fed chairman, the price of gold has risen by 42 per cent so the market is not very happy with his bias towards money printing.

ALAN KOHLER: Do you think that Mr Bernanke is losing control of the situation, in fact? I mean, I notice the markets are testing him now.

MARC FABER: I think that on his recent comments that the Fed might pause, immediately the US dollar became very weak, the bond market sold off and gold prices shot up another $20, $30, so that is a lesson for him that the market begins to see through his inflationary monetary policies.

ALAN KOHLER: What do you think of the Australian central bank and its decision this week to increase interest rates?

MARC FABER: I think actually that the Australian central bank is probably relatively better than others in the sense that they have further tightened monetary policies and so we have in Australia an interesting situation. The economy is kind of weakening, but there are some inflationary pressures and the Australian Reserve Bank has increased interest rates so I find it is actually quite courageous.

ALAN KOHLER: What do you think it means for the Australian dollar?

MARC FABER: Actually what has happened, the Australian dollar along with the New Zealand dollar was weakening recently but in the last, say, two weeks the Australian dollar has again strengthened from 70 cents to 76 cents, so I would say the Australian dollar is supported by relatively high interest rates.

ALAN KOHLER: What do you think about the length of the current commodities boom? You've written recently about firstly how the long wave of commodities could last for another 15 to 20 years and you've also talked about the impact of India on commodities, so where do you see prices of commodities going from here?

MARC FABER: Basically we had a bear market in commodities between 1980 and 2001, or 1998 and 2001, so we had more than 20 years bear market in commodities. By the late 1990s in real terms, in other words inflation-adjusted, commodity prices were at the lowest level in the history of capitalism in the last 200 years and now they have risen substantially - the price of copper from around 60 cents to over $3 a pound, the price of gold has more than doubled. But in real terms, commodities are still relatively low compared to equities and therefore, also given the length of the cycle - the cycle for commodities lasts usually 45 to 60 years peak to peak or trough to trough - in other words the upward wave in commodities lasts around 22 to 30 years and we are now in year 2006. The bull market started in 2001 so we are five years into the bull market. I do concede that the markets are overbought and there is a lot of speculation and I expect a correction but I think longer term from here onwards commodities will outperform the Dow Jones and financial assets.

ALAN KOHLER: You've been reported as predicting that the price of gold will rise to $US6,000 per ounce. Is that correct - is that what you said?

MARC FABER: What I said is that if Mr Bernanke prints money, it is entirely conceivable that the Dow Jones goes to 33,000 or 40,000 or 100,000 or 1 million. All I am saying is if the Dow Jones here goes up three times because of money printing by Mr Bernanke and we have examples in financial history where a central bank printed money and everything went up, but in this instance I think that gold would significantly outperform the Dow Jones. So if someone says to me the Dow will go to 33,000, I say yes, it's possible but it will decline against the price of gold which will go up to $US5,000, $US6,000 an ounce.

ALAN KOHLER: Did you notice that Steven Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley, who has been a bear for a very long time, seems to have changed his tune now, saying he's feeling better about the world than for a long time. Do you think that the fact that Steve Roach has kind of thrown in the towel is a sell signal or do you think he's onto something?

MARC FABER: Well, Steve is a good friend of mine and he gave already a sell signal two years ago. He suddenly turned bullish about bonds and since then the bond market has been weak. And I agree with him that we are in a global boom but it doesn't change the fact that it is an imbalanced boom and it's driven largely by credit creation in the US, leading to overconsumption, leading to a growing trade deficit, current account deficit, the accumulation of reserves in Asia and a global boom. But it is nevertheless an imbalanced boom and one day there will be a problem, certainly with the US dollar. The US dollar is a doomed currency. Doomed? Doomed. Will be worthless. Actually each one of your listeners should buy one US Treasury bond and frame it - put it on the wall so they can show their grandchildren how the US dollar and how US dollar bonds became worthless as a result of monetary inflation.

ALAN KOHLER: You made at least three great calls - you warned of the 87 crash just before it happened, you warned investors to get out of Japan in 1990 and out of Asia in general in 1997. So what specifically is your call right now?

MARC FABER: I think we are in a bear market for financial assets. There's a bear market where the Dow Jones, say, would go from here - 11,000 to 33,000. It would go up in dollar terms but the dollar would collapse against, say gold or foreign currencies. That's what I think will happen with Mr Bernanke at the Fed because he has written papers and he has pronounced speeches in which he clearly says that the danger for the economy would be to have not deflation in the price of a fax machine or PC, but deflation in asset prices. And so I believe that he is a money printer. If I had been a university professor, I would not have let him pass his exams to become an economist. I would have said, "Learn an apprenticeship as a money printer."

ALAN KOHLER: (Laughs) So, a big mistake putting him in charge of the Fed then?

MARC FABER: I think it's very dangerous, very dangerous.

ALAN KOHLER: You've talked in the past about the links between the commodity price cycles and political tensions in the world and you've pointed out that when the Soviet Union collapsed, commodity prices were weak and you've said that rising commodity prices leads to the conditions for war. Now that we're in a commodities boom - which you now say is going to go for a long time - do you think that we're in for a period of rising political tension as well?

MARC FABER: Basically the way we economists have business cycles theories, the historians have war cycles theories and I don't want to go into all of them, but when commodity prices decline, countries are not concerned about getting supplies of vital commodities, whereas when commodity prices go up, it's a symptom of shortages. America needs oil for consumption and China and increasingly India need oil for their economic growth. If you are growing your industries at a production of 15 per cent per annum, as China, you need increasing quantities of oil and China was self-sufficient until 1994 and today they are the largest consumer of oil and import most of it from the Middle East. So the tensions of course arise and I can see that some people have become very powerful whereas the balance of power in the 80s and 90s shifted to the industrialised countries of the West that consume a lot of oil, now the balance of power has shifted to people like Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Mr Putin - Mr Putin is the most powerful man in the world, it's not Mr Bush because Mr Putin controls a production of oil of 10 million barrels, plus he controls all the pipelines going to Europe. And it has also shifted to Mr Ahmadinejad. Mr Ahmadinejad of Iran would be very quiet, as well as Mr Chavez, if oil prices were at $12. But at $70 they have a lot of leverage and so the tensions have also increased. It doesn't mean that it comes to war but the conditions for war have improved and I think that eventually this commodity cycle will last so long until there is a major war and during war times, the best hedge is to be low in commodities, then commodities really go up vertically.

ALAN KOHLER: Bit of a grim way to make money, I suppose?

MARC FABER: Hedge funds make money anyway. It doesn't - morals are not the most important issue.

ALAN KOHLER: Well, on that note we'll have to leave it there. Thanks very much, Marc Faber.

MARC FABER: It is my pleasure.

Highbury era ends in style

Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick as Arsenal said goodbye to Highbury with a 4-2 win over Wigan which also guaranteed a place in the European Champions League next season.

Henry, linked with a post-season move to Barcelona, fired home the ninth treble of his Gunners' career as Arsenal geared up for this season's Champions League final against the Spanish giants on May 17 in spectacular style.

Manager Arsene Wenger was delighted at the way in which his side brought down the curtain on the club's 93-year stay at Highbury.

"For the history of the club and for the history of this building here, to finish on a high I am very proud," the Frenchman told reporters.

Henry, who finished the season as the Premiership's top scorer with 27 goals, added: "No-one now can say we didn't deserve it. We are fourth and we are going to play the final of the Champions League.

"At the end of 38 games the table does not lie."

When Henry completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot he fell to the floor and kissed the turf. "It was a kiss goodbye to the stadium," he said, refusing to comment on the Barcelona speculation.

As Wenger spoke, out on the pitch Arsenal fans remained behind for a 90-minute party that included music and a parade of former Gunners' heroes, including Ian Wright and another successful manager, George Graham.

Bob Wilson and Charlie George, stars of the 1971 side that won the league and FA Cup, made an appearance as Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who and one of Arsenal's many celebrity fans, sung a specially composed song about the history of the old stadium.

Arsenal's victory, coupled with a defeat for Tottenham against West Ham, saw the Gunners snatch fourth spot and with it the final qualification place in next season's Champions League at the expense of their north London rivals.

This was the last match at Highbury before the stadium is redeveloped as luxury flats and Arsenal take up residence at a new 60,000-capacity venue in nearby Ashburton Grove.

Wigan had the historic game's first chance with midfielder David Thompson shooting over from outside the box in the third minute.

After Henry had a shot blocked, Arsenal opened the scoring in the eighth minute.

Fellow France international Robert Pires, finding himself free in the box, fired home a close-range shot after his first effort was saved by Wigan goalkeeper Mike Pollitt.

The crowd at a ground often derided as the 'Highbury library' by visiting fans responded by turning up the volume in honour of Arsenal greats, past and present.

The music died temporarily, however, as Wigan interrupted the party with a tenth-minute equaliser.

The Lancashire side, looking to end on a high during their first season in the top flight, had defender Paul Scharner to thank for latching on to a free-kick whipped into the penalty area by Thompson.

Looking to regain the ascendency, Arsenal drove forward, but Pires failed to score his and Arsenal's second after being set free by Ashley Cole mid-way through the first half.

Wigan then took a shock lead in the 33rd minute, Thompson driving home a direct free-kick from about 30 yards. The ball deceived Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, bouncing over the German international.

But the crowd only had to wait two minutes again for the equaliser, Henry slotting the ball past Pollitt after running on to a through ball as Wigan's defenders looked to play him offside.

Wigan began the second half in similar bright fashion, with Lee McCulloch and Henri Camara going close.

But Arsenal fought back and with an hour almost played, Henry intercepted a misplaced back pass by Thompson, rounded Pollitt and nudged the ball into the empty net.

With a little over 15 minutes remaining, Wigan sent on Andreas Johansson and Arsenal gave a run-out to Freddie Ljungberg.

What followed was extraordinary, as Johansson immediately brought down the Swede in the box. Johansson was red-carded and Henry scored his hat-trick from the resulting penalty.

The biggest cheer was saved until last, however, as Dennis Bergkamp came on for his last ever Arsenal league match before retirement - a substitution that coincided with news that West Ham had taken the lead against Spurs.