Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

Top Iran officials recommend preemptive strike against Israel

2008-10-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

Last update - 12:05 22/10/2008

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel news, nuclear, Iran

Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.

The official, Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, said recent threats by Israeli authorities strengthened this position, but that as of yet, a preemptive strike has not been integrated into Iranian policy.

Safavi is head of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies in Tehran, and an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The institute is directly affiliated with Khamenei's office and with the Revolutionary Guards, and advises both on foreign policy issues. Advertisement

Safavi is also the brother of Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was the head of the Revolutionary Guards until a year ago and now is an adviser to Khamenei, and holds significant influence on security matters in the Iranian government.

An Israeli political official said senior Jerusalem officials were shown Safavi's remarks, which are considered highly sensitive. The source said the briefing in London dealt with a number of issues, primarily a potential Israeli attack on an Iranian reactor.

Safavi said a small, experienced group of officials is lobbying for a preemptive strike against Israel. "The recent Israeli declarations and harsh rhetoric on a strike against Iran put ammunition in these individuals' hands," he said.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in June that Israel would be forced to strike the Iranian nuclear reactor if Tehran continues to pursue its uranium enrichment program.

Safavi said Tehran recently drafted a new policy for responding to an Israeli or American attack on its nuclear facilities. While the previous policy called for attacks against Israel and American interests in the Middle East and beyond, the new policy is to target Israel alone.

He added that many Revolutionary Guard leaders want to respond to a U.S. attack on Iranian soil by striking Israel, as they believe Israel would be partner to any U.S. action.

Safavi said that Iran's nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only, and that Khamenei recently released a fatwa against the use of weapons of mass destruction, though the contents of that religious ruling have not yet been publicized.

Regarding dialogue with the United States and the West, Safavi said Iran's decision would be influenced by the results of the U.S. presidential elections next month, as well as by the Iranian presidential elections in June and the economic situation in the Islamic Republic.

Safavi also said that a victory by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would pave the way for dialogue with Washington, while a John McCain presidency would bolster Iran's extreme right, which opposes dialogue. If conditions are favorable following the U.S. election, he said, Iran could draw back from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that "the nuclear case is closed," and put it back on the agenda.

Safavi said he believed that U.S. sanctions on Iran have run their course, and that there would be no point in strengthening them. Tehran would therefore demand "firm and significant" U.S. measures in return for stopping uranium enrichment. He also said Ahmadinejad is not guaranteed victory in the June 2009 elections, particularly given the dire economic situation in Iran. Still, Iranian experts believe his only real competition is former president Mohammad Khatami, who has not yet joined the race.

Safavi said the inflation rate in Iran is similar to that before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but that unrest among civilians today is not as strong. This is because the current government uses oil revenues to help the poor, he said.

Russia threatens sale of offensive weapons to Israel's enemies

2008-09-28T17:25:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Russia threatens sale of offensive weapons to Israel's enemies
MOSCOW — Russian security officials threatened retaliation against Israel for its weapons exports to Georgia including eight different aerial drones.

Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Israel supplied at least eight different models of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Georgia. Nogovitsyn said Israel has also sold a range of weapons and sought to export main battle tanks to Georgia.

Russian diplomatic sources said the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was furious over Israel's refusal to impose a military embargo on Georgia. The sources said Putin's aides had urged Israel several times to halt weapons exports.

"We asked Israel not to sell offensive weapons to a hostile neighboring state, but they said they're a sovereign state," a diplomatic source said.

"Well, Israel shouldn't be surprised if we sell offensive weapons to Israel's neighbors."

Already, Russia, in wake of its military victory over Georgia, has scheduled a summit with Syria to discuss offensive weapons sales, the sources said. Syrian President Bashar Assad was scheduled to meet Putin in Moscow on Aug. 20.

Tbilisi has asserted that Israel continued to ship weapons and platforms to Georgia throughout the Russian war. But Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reported delays in the supply of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles to his country.

"The Israeli weapons have proved very effective," Saakashvili told a news conference on Aug. 13.

So far, the diplomatic sources said, Putin has been careful to limit Russian military sales to Iran and Syria to defensive systems. In 2007, they said, Putin, who remains in charge of defense export policy, vetoed efforts by the Defense Ministry and the state-owned arms agency Rosoboronexport to sell the Iskander-E long-range rocket to Syria.

"Putin will now offer Iskander to Syria," another Russian source said. "Whether this will be a serious offer or something just to scare the Israelis we'll know in another few months."

In December 2007, Israel agreed not to sign new contracts for offensive weapons to Georgia. But the Israeli Defense Ministry, supported by the United States, maintained it would honor existing arms deals with Tbilisi.

"We told the Israelis that this was a very unwise move and that Russians were being killed because of Georgia's policy," the Russian source said. "They didn't take us seriously, probably because they were encouraged by the United States."

"In 2007, Israeli experts trained Georgian commandos in Georgia, and there were plans to supply heavy weaponry, electronic weapons, tanks and other arms at a later date," Nogovitsyn told a news conference on Aug. 19. "But the deal didn't work out."

Officials said Moscow's assertion was based on a review of weapons and military installations captured in Russia's invasion of Georgia. They said Israel also trained Georgia's military, particularly its special forces.

At the news conference, Nogovitsyn did not identify the Israeli UAVs. Israel has acknowledged the sale of UAVs to Tbilisi.

The Russian deputy chief said Israel also exported bombs, mines and mine-clearing systems to Georgia. He said the systems were comprised of munitions that could explode landmines.

In late 2007, Israel agreed to end the sale of offensive military systems to Georgia. The decision by the Israeli Defense Ministry did not affect weapons already ordered by Tbilisi.

On Aug. 20, Russia and Syria were scheduled to begin a two-day summit meant to focus on defense and military cooperation. Syrian President Bashar Assad was scheduled to meet Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in what officials said could result in arms sales to Damascus.

"The significant military aid provided by Israel to Georgia in its war against Russia will affect in the future — probably in the near future — relations between Russia and Israel, as well as Russia's attitude toward Arab states," an unidentified Russian analyst said in an interview to Syrian state television on the eve of Assad's visit. "Russia will reassess its relations with Israel, and it is likely that Moscow will decide to increase its military aid to Arab countries in conflict with Israel, including Syria."

How An Iranian War Might Lead To WW3

2008-09-12T11:08:00.001-07:00

How An Iranian War Might
Lead To WW3 - One Analysts Worst Case Scenario

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iran-War--How-It-Will-Unf-by-Lord-Stirling-080905-143.html

I have served as a consultant to three very high tech aerospace
firms. My specialty is conceptualizing advanced warfare especially as
it relates to new cutting edge advanced weapon systems. What I see
unfolding with a war on Iran is the most frightening set of
circumstances I have ever seen; and I have been involved in advanced
theoretical weaponry strategy and design for over 20 years.

Sometime in the weeks to months ahead, there will be a war launched
against Iran. The war may be started by Israel, or by the United
States, or by a NATO/EU/US embargo, or by some 'false flag' attack.
What matters is that it will begin; and where it will take the world.

Regardless if the war begins with a limited number of air strikes
against Iranian military and nuclear targets, or if an all-out several
thousand target attack begins from day one, the probabilities of the
war becoming a major regional war within 48 hours are 90% or higher.

The Iranians will simply not allow Israeli and/or American military
forces to attack its territory without a major response. Any
significant counter-attack on Israel and/or American regional bases
will trigger a much greater counter-response.

The Iranians have equipped, paid for, and trained a massive unguided
rocket and guided missile force in Lebanon (the largest such force in
human history). These missiles are in place as a MAD force (a MAD ~
mutually assured destruction ~ force is one that is a doomsday force;
established to prevent the use of overwhelming military force by
allowing a return "punch" of overwhelming military destructive force
upon one's enemy). The total number of missiles and rockets in Lebanon
are variously estimated at between 40,000 and 110,000. While many are
unguided Katyusha rockets, many are longer ranged guided missiles. All
are operated by Hezbollah Special Forces launch teams.

The Hezbollah Special Forces are in effect a highly trained and
well-equipped Iranian commando force of at least a Brigade in size.
They man and protect a large number of mostly unguided and rather crude
rockets, generally Katyusha 122mm artillery rockets with a 19 mile/30km
range and capable of delivering approximately 66 pounds/30kg of
warheads. Additionally, Hezbollah are known to possess a considerable
number of more advanced and longer range missiles. During the 2006 war
Hezbollah fired approximately 4,000 rockets (95% of which were
Katyushas) all utilizing only "dumb" high explosive warheads. Some
Iranian-built and supplied Fajr-3 and Ra'ad 1 liquid-fueled missiles
were also fired. It is believed that the larger and longer range
missiles are directly under the control of Syrian and Iranian officers.

The combination of short to medium range rockets and guided missiles in
Lebanon, and the longer range guided missiles in Syria, the smaller
number of rockets and missiles in the West Bank and Gaza, and the
longer range guided missiles in Iran present a massive throw weight of
warheads aimed at Israel.

The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War (called the Second Lebanon War in
Israel) was an attempt by Israel at eliminating the MAD counter-force
in Lebanon. It was an attempt that failed. The Syrians had purchased
(and supplied to Hezbollah) a large number of very nasty, relatively
low cost Russian AT-14 Kornet solid fuel anti-tank guided missiles
(ATGM), and the Iranian-trained Hezbollah commandos dug in massive
numbers of concrete bunkers and firing positions. After over 50 Merkava
main battle tanks were hit, and the high tech American-made warplanes
and pinpoint weapons proved ineffective, the handwriting was on the
wall. Either use neutron bombs or lose a large number of Israeli
soldiers to remove the Hezbollah threat; or declare peace and walk away
for the time being ~ the Israelis chose the latter.

It now appears that Israel has given up on the idea of a ground assault
to remove the many rocket and missile launchers in Lebanon. A senior
Israeli general has resigned with the complaint that the Army is not
training sufficiently to fight in Lebanon. The alternative is the use
of FAE (fuel air explosive) technology weapons and neutron bombs (a
type of nuclear weapon that produces a higher short-term radiological
output and less blast output than normal nuclear weapons).

Any use of such WMD by the Israeli Army on the Hezbollah forces in
Lebanon will likely automatically trigger the use of WMD warheads on
whatever rockets/missiles remain operational (if their use has not
already been authorized due to the nature and scope of Israeli and/or
American attacks on Iran).

The bottom line of this is that Israel will face a truly massive number
of rockets and missiles from Lebanon with radiological, chemical,
biological and FAE "weapons of mass destruction" warheads.
Additionally, a sizable number of such weapons/warheads will be fired
from Gaza and the West Bank. The Syrians will be using larger, more
accurate guided missiles to shower WMD upon Israel as will the
Iranians. To counter this, the Israelis will be using their Green Pine
Radar system and a combination of Israeli and American anti-missile
missiles. They will have good success in knocking down many incoming
missiles but the sheer number of incoming weapons will totally overload
all defensive measures.

Large parts of Israel will be contaminated with radiation with
extremely long half-lives (many tens of thousands of years in some
cases), with a mix of chemical, FAE, and biological nightmares thrown
in for good measure. Total deaths will amount to one-third to one-half
of the Israeli population with a large additional number being injured.

The Israeli response will be the nuclear annihilation of Syria, Iran,
and parts of Lebanon with many tens of millions killed. Expect to see
every city of any size destroyed. There will be insufficient people
left in Syria, Iran, and large parts of Lebanon to even bury the dead.
Radiation will spread around the world from the nuclear bombs.

Iranian sleeper teams in North America and western Europe will begin to
"seed" the populations of these areas with a number (perhaps in the
several dozens) of different man made killer viruses. People in movie
theaters, churches, synagogues, shopping malls, subway stations,
airports, etc., will be exposed without anyone knowing it at the time,
to these advanced biowar viruses. About nine to ten days later the
computer reporting systems in the western countries will begin to
report back strange illnesses. That will trigger a host of measures to
contain the advanced biowar viruses but it will simply be too late to
prevent a massive outbreak of horrific illnesses. International travel
and trade will effectively stop. People will be ordered to stay home
from work and school with only critical job holders being allowed on
the streets. Hospitals will be overcome with sick and dying people of
all ages. The medical community will be among the first to die off.
Where temporary hospitals are established in school gyms and other
areas, the cross infection of several different genetically engineered
viruses will ensure 100% mortality of everyone in the temporary
hospitals.

In the event that other nations have sought to expand the Georgia war
by new attacks on Russian forces or by creating some naval incident in
the Black Sea, the probabilities of an quick expansion into a all-out
Third World War involving Russian and NATO nuclear weapons will be at
approximately 50%. Even without a global total war being initiated,
Russia is apt to "sweep" the Black Sea of NATO ships with considerable
loss of life on both sides.

The world will be in the worst economic depression in history as global
trade will be halted for at least several months due to fears of the
spread of the various advanced biowar viruses. If Israel releases the
Arab-specific designer advanced biowar viruses that many claim she has,
the Saudis are apt to fire their Chinese IRBMs (intermediate range
ballistic missiles) and send their very well-equipped air force against
Israel with the small number of nuclear weapons that they possess (they
have funded the Pakistani nuclear weapons program and have several
Pakistani made nuclear devices). Of course, what is left of the Israeli
forces will respond with additional nuclear attacks, this time on Saudi
Arabia and other Arab nations for good measure.

In North America and western Europe the total number of civilians,
after two months of advanced biowar illnesses, is apt to be at least a
third of the population - a total death count of well over 200 million
persons. Despite the best efforts of all nations, the man-engineered
super killer mutant viruses will spread throughout the world causing
total numbers of perhaps a billion or more to die.

The after effect of all of this may well lead to even more war as some
nations will be so incensed at the massive loss of life of their
citizens that total global war may be unstoppable.

U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.

2008-07-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:00 AM

By: Kenneth R. Timmerman

Iran has carried out missile tests for what could be a plan for a nuclear strike on the United States, the head of a national security panel has warned.

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee and in remarks to a private conference on missile defense over the weekend hosted by the Claremont Institute, Dr. William Graham warned that the U.S. intelligence community “doesn’t have a story” to explain the recent Iranian tests.

One group of tests that troubled Graham, the former White House science adviser under President Ronald Reagan, were successful efforts to launch a Scud missile from a platform in the Caspian Sea.

“They’ve got [test] ranges in Iran which are more than long enough to handle Scud launches and even Shahab-3 launches,” Dr. Graham said. “Why would they be launching from the surface of the Caspian Sea? They obviously have not explained that to us.”

Another troubling group of tests involved Shahab-3 launches where the Iranians "detonated the warhead near apogee, not over the target area where the thing would eventually land, but at altitude,” Graham said. “Why would they do that?”

Graham chairs the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, a blue-ribbon panel established by Congress in 2001.

The commission examined the Iranian tests “and without too much effort connected the dots,” even though the U.S. intelligence community previously had failed to do so, Graham said.

“The only plausible explanation we can find is that the Iranians are figuring out how to launch a missile from a ship and get it up to altitude and then detonate it,” he said. “And that’s exactly what you would do if you had a nuclear weapon on a Scud or a Shahab-3 or other missile, and you wanted to explode it over the United States.”

The commission warned in a report issued in April that the United States was at risk of a sneak nuclear attack by a rogue nation or a terrorist group designed to take out our nation’s critical infrastructure.

If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that would cripple military and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure, the report warned.

While not causing immediate civilian casualties, the near-term impact on U.S. society would dwarf the damage of a direct nuclear strike on a U.S. city.

“The first indication [of such an attack] would be that the power would go out, and some, but not all, the telecommunications would go out. We would not physically feel anything in our bodies,” Graham said.

As electric power, water and gas delivery systems failed, there would be “truly massive traffic jams,” Graham added, since modern automobiles and signaling systems all depend on sophisticated electronics that would be disabled by the EMP wave.

“So you would be walking. You wouldn’t be driving at that point,” Dr. Graham said. “And it wouldn’t do any good to call the maintenance or repair people because they wouldn’t be able to get there, even if you could get through to them.”

The food distribution system also would grind to a halt as cold-storage warehouses stockpiling perishables went offline. Even warehouses equipped with backup diesel generators would fail, because “we wouldn’t be able to pump the fuel into the trucks and get the trucks to the warehouses,” Graham said.

The United States “would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country.” except that we would have 10 times as many people with ten times fewer resources, he said.

“Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own assets and those we could reach by walking to them,” Graham said.

America would begin to resemble the 2002 TV series, “Jeremiah,” which depicts a world bereft of law, infrastructure, and memory.

In the TV series, an unspecified virus wipes out the entire adult population of the planet. In an EMP attack, the casualties would be caused by our almost total dependence on technology for everything from food and water, to hospital care.

Within a week or two of the attack, people would start dying, Dr. Graham says.

“People in hospitals would be dying faster than that, because they depend on power to stay alive. But then it would go to water, food, civil authority, emergency services. And we would end up with a country with many, many people not surviving the event.”

Asked just how many Americans would die if Iran were to launch the EMP attack it appears to be preparing, Dr. Graham gave a chilling reply.

“You have to go back into the 1800s to look at the size of population” that could survive in a nation deprived of mechanized agriculture, transportation, power, water, and communication.

“I’d have to say that 70 to 90 percent of the population would not be sustainable after this kind of attack,” he said.

America would be reduced to a core of around 30 million people — about the number that existed in the decades after America’s independence from Great Britain.

The modern electronic economy would shut down, and America would most likely revert to “an earlier economy based on barter,” the EMP commission’s report on Critical National Infrastructure concluded earlier this year.

In his recent congressional testimony, Graham revealed that Iranian military journals, translated by the CIA at his commission’s request, “explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States.”

Furthermore, if Iran launched its attack from a cargo ship plying the commercial sea lanes off the East coast — a scenario that appears to have been tested during the Caspian Sea tests — U.S. investigators might never determine who was behind the attack. Because of the limits of nuclear forensic technology, it could take months. And to disguise their traces, the Iranians could simply decide to sink the ship that had been used to launch it, Dr. Graham said.

Several participants in last weekend’s conference in Dearborn, Mich., hosted by the conservative Claremont Institute argued that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was thinking about an EMP attack when he opined that “a world without America is conceivable.”

In May 2007, then Undersecretary of State John Rood told Congress that the U.S. intelligence community estimates that Iran could develop an ICBM capable of hitting the continental United States by 2015.

But Iran could put a Scud missile on board a cargo ship and launch from the commercial sea lanes off America’s coasts well before then.

The only thing Iran is lacking for an effective EMP attack is a nuclear warhead, and no one knows with any certainty when that will occur. The latest U.S. intelligence estimate states that Iran could acquire the fissile material for a nuclear weapon as early as 2009, or as late as 2015, or possibly later.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld first detailed the “Scud-in-a-bucket” threat during a briefing in Huntsville, Ala., on Aug. 18, 2004.

While not explicitly naming Iran, Rumsfeld revealed that “one of the nations in the Middle East had launched a ballistic missile from a cargo vessel. They had taken a short-range, probably Scud missile, put it on a transporter-erector launcher, lowered it in, taken the vessel out into the water, peeled back the top, erected it, fired it, lowered it, and covered it up. And the ship that they used was using a radar and electronic equipment that was no different than 50, 60, 100 other ships operating in the immediate area.”

Iran’s first test of a ship-launched Scud missile occurred in spring 1998, and was mentioned several months later in veiled terms by the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, a blue-ribbon panel also known as the Rumsfeld Commission.

I was the first reporter to mention the Iran sea-launched missile test in an article appearing in the Washington Times in May 1999.

Intelligence reports on the launch were “well known to the White House but have not been disseminated to the appropriate congressional committees,” I wrote. Such a missile “could be used in a devastating stealth attack against the United States or Israel for which the United States has no known or planned defense.”

Few experts believe that Iran can be deterred from launching such an attack by the threat of massive retaliation against Iran. They point to a December 2001 statement by former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who mulled the possibility of Israeli retaliation after an Iranian nuclear strike.

“The use of an atomic bomb against Israel would destroy Israel completely, while [the same] against the Islamic only would cause damages. Such a scenario is not inconceivable,” Rafsanjani said at the time.

Rep. Trent Franks, R, Ariz., plans to introduce legislation next week that would require the Pentagon to lay the groundwork for an eventual military strike against Iran, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and EMP capability.

“An EMP attack on America would send us back to the horse and buggy era — without the horse and buggy,” he told the Claremont Institute conference on Saturday. “If you’re a terrorist, this is your ultimate goal, your ultimate asymmetric weapon.”

Noting Iran’s recent sea-launched and mid-flight warhead detonation tests, Rep. Franks concluded, “They could do it — either directly or anonymously by putting some freighter out there on the ocean.”

The only possible deterrent against Iran is the prospect of failure, Dr. Graham and other experts agreed. And the only way the United States could credibly threaten an Iranian missile strike would be to deploy effective national missile defenses.

“It’s well known that people don’t go on a diet until they’ve had a heart attack,” said Claremont Institute president Brian T. Kennedy. “And we as a nation are having a heart attack” when it comes to the threat of an EMP attack from Iran.

“As of today, we have no defense against such an attack. We need space-based missile defenses to protect against an EMP attack,” he told Newsmax.

Rep. Franks said he remains surprised at how partisan the subject of space-based missile defenses remain. “Nuclear missiles don’t discriminate on party lines when they land,” he said.

Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, a long-standing champion of missile defense, told the Claremont conference on Friday that Sen. Obama has opposed missile defense tooth and nail and as president would cut funding for these programs dramatically.

“Senator Obama has been quoted as saying, ‘I don’t agree with a missile defense system,’ and that we can cut $10 billion of the research out — never mind, as I say, that the entire budget is $9.6 billion, or $9.3 billion,” Kyl said.

Like Franks, Kyl believes that the only way to eventually deter Iran from launching an EMP attack on the United States is to deploy robust missile defense systems, including space-based interceptors.

The United States “needs a missile defense that is so strong, in all the different phases we need to defend against . . . that countries will decide it’s not worth coming up against us,” Kyl said.

“That’s one of the things that defeated the Soviet Union. That’s one of the ways we can deal with these rogue states . . . and also the way that we can keep countries that are not enemies today, but are potential enemies, from developing capabilities to challenge us. “

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

High Noon - Israel vs Iran

2008-05-30T22:08:00.001-07:00

High noon looms

By Joschka Fischer,
Project Syndicate/Institute for Human Sciences, 2008
Published: May 30, 2008

As a result
of misguided American policy, the threat of another military
confrontation hangs like a dark cloud over the Middle East. The United
States' enemies have been strengthened, and Iran - despite being
branded as a member of the so-called "axis of evil" - has been
catapulted into regional hegemony. Iran could never have achieved this
on its own, certainly not in such a short time.

A hitherto latent
rivalry between Iran and Israel thus has been transformed into an open
struggle for dominance in the Middle East. The result has been the
emergence of some surprising, if not bizarre, alliances: Iran, Syria,
Hezbollah, Hamas, and the American-backed, Shiite-dominated Iraq are
facing Israel, Saudi Arabia, and most of the other Sunni Arab states,
all of which feel existentially threatened by Iran's ascendance.

The danger of a major
confrontation has been heightened further by a series of factors:
persistent high oil prices, which have created new financial and
political opportunities for Iran; the defeat of the West and its
regional allies in proxy wars in Gaza and Lebanon; and the United
Nations Security Council's failure to induce Iran to accept even a
temporary freeze of its nuclear programme.

Iran's nuclear
programme is the decisive factor in this equation, for it threatens
irreversibly the region's strategic balance. That Iran - a country
whose president never tires of calling for Israel's annihilation and
that threatens Israel's northern and southern borders through its
massive support of proxy wars waged by Hezbollah and Hamas - might one
day have missiles with nuclear warheads is Israel's worst security
nightmare. Politics is not just about facts, but also about
perceptions. Whether or not a perception is accurate is beside the
point, because it nonetheless leads to decisions.

This applies in
particular when the perception concerns what the parties consider to be
threats to their very existence. Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's threats of annihilation are taken seriously in Israel
because of the trauma of the Holocaust. And most Arab governments share
the fear of a nuclear Iran. Earlier this month, Israel celebrated its
60th birthday, and President George W. Bush went to occupied Jerusalem
to play a leading part in the commemoration. But those who had expected
that his visit would mainly be about the stalled negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinians were bitterly disappointed. Bush's central
topic, including his speech to Israel's parliament, was Iran. Bush had
promised to bring the Middle East conflict closer to a resolution
before the end of his term this year. But his final visit to Israel
seems to indicate that his objective is different: he seems to be
planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear programme -
and to do so by military, rather than diplomatic, means.

Anyone following the
press in Israel during the anniversary celebrations and listening
closely to what was said in Jerusalem did not have to be a prophet to
understand that matters are coming to a head. Consider the following:

- "Stop the
appeasement!" is a demand raised across the political spectrum in
Israel - and what is meant is the nuclear threat emanating from Iran.

--While Israel
celebrated, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that a
life-and-death military confrontation was a distinct possibility.

--The outgoing
commander of the Israeli air force declared that the air force was
capable of any mission, no matter how difficult, to protect the
country's security. The destruction of a Syrian nuclear facility last
year, and the lack of any international reaction to it, are viewed as
an example for the coming action against Iran.

--The Israeli wish
list for US arms deliveries, discussed with the American president,
focused mainly on the improvement of the attack capabilities and
precision of the Israeli air force.

--Diplomatic initiatives and UN sanctions are seen as hopelessly ineffective.

--With the approaching
end of the Bush presidency and uncertainty about his successor's
policy, the window of opportunity for Israeli action is seen as
potentially closing.

Two factors

The last two factors
carry special weight. While Israeli military intelligence is on record
that Iran is expected to cross the red line on the path to nuclear
power between 2010 and 2015 at the earliest, the feeling in Israel is
that the political window of opportunity is now, during the last months
of Bush's presidency.

Although it is
acknowledged in occupied Jerusalem that an attack on Iran's nuclear
facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice
between acceptance of an Iranian bomb and an attempt at its military
destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel
won't stand by and wait for matters to take their course.

The Middle East is
drifting towards a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must
understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a
dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time
for serious negotiations to begin.

The most recent offer
by the six powers - the UN Security Council's five permanent members
plus Germany - is on the table, and it goes very far to accommodate
Iran's interests. The decisive question, however, will be whether it
will be possible to freeze the Iranian nuclear programme for the
duration of the negotiations to avoid a military confrontation before
they are completed. Should this newest attempt fail, things will soon
get serious. Deadly serious.

Joschka Fischer,
Germany's Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, led
Germany's Green Party for nearly 20 years.

Dividing The Land

2008-03-18T10:35:00.001-07:00

'Jewish party sold Jerusalem for $138 million'

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
'Jewish party sold Jerusalem for $138 million'
Rabbi blasts his father for remaining in Israeli leader's coalition
Posted: March 17, 2008
9:52 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – In unprecedented criticism of his father, the son of the spiritual leader of a major coalition partner in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government demanded his father's party immediately bolt the government amid rampant media reports Jerusalem is up for negotiations.

Rabbi Jacob Yosef accused the ultra-Orthodox Shas party of "selling Jerusalem" for 478 million Israeli shekels, or $138 million. Yosef's father, Rabbi Ovadye Yosef, serves as the spiritual leader of Shas, where he is also considered the party's more important and revered figure.

Earlier this month, the Knesset's Finance Committee approved $138 million in government funds to Shas' educational institutions as part of the party's coalition agreement with Olmert.

(Story continues below)

If Shas bolts, Olmert's coalition government could fall apart, precipitating new elections.

"How dare you sell out Jerusalem for 478 million shekels. Jerusalem is worth more than all monies in the world," said Jacob Yosef, rabbi of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood in Jerusalem, addressing his father's party.

Jacob Yosef is also a member of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.

The Israeli Shas party has stated it would bolt the prime minister's coalition if it becomes clear the Israeli government is negotiating to cede of any part of Jerusalem.

Olmert repeatedly has insisted Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are not dealing with the status of Jerusalem, but Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abba, and many Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, have said in recent weeks negotiations are covering all core issues, including Jerusalem.

Yosef accused his father's party of staying in the government until a formal announcement regarding dividing Jerusalem is made, by which time, the rabbi said, it will be too late.

"When someone brings a rope to hang your child, will you say 'oh, it's nothing, he only brought a rope?' Or if a killer is only sharpening the knife, will you say, 'it's nothing, he's only sharpening the knife?' You will stop him right at the beginning because by the time the knife is on the throat it will be too late. What is Shas waiting for? It must leave the government right now," Yosef exclaimed.

Shas denies Jerusalem is being discussed during weekly Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which commenced after last November's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit.

"Nobody is talking about Jerusalem. The moment Jerusalem is being discussed, Shas will leave the government – period," Shas Spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch told Israel National News.

A Rabbinical Congress for Peace statement issued earlier this month said: "Every novice journalist and anyone listening to the news in Israel knows that giving up large chunks of Jerusalem has been on the negotiating table for quite some time and is in its advanced stages. Only the representatives of Shas are burying their heads in the ground and pretend they know of nothing."

"They are lying to themselves and deceiving their electorate. The Shas ministers know that Olmert and Abbas have agreed not to make public any agreement on Jerusalem until after the final signature in order to keep Shas in the government," said the RCP statement.

The statement was signed by scores of prominent rabbinic leaders here.

Since the Annapolis summit, which aimed to create a Palestinian state before the end of the year, senior negotiating teams including Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia have been meeting weekly while Olmert and Abbas meet biweekly.

Unlike previous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in which both sides attended with about a dozen advisors each, Livni's and Quereai's teams are small, usually consisting at most of five people each. Media leaks from the current negotiations have been rare. Some momentum is highly expected before a visit Bush has scheduled to Israel in May, his second trip since Annapolis.

Olmert's government has hinted a number of times it will divide Jerusalem and reportedly has halted all Jewish construction permits for eastern sections of the city.

In December, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the country "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want."

"We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Ramon during an interview.

Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert's Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy.

Olmert himself recently questioned whether it was "really necessary" to retain Arab-majority eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, and many reside in illegally constructed complexes. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000.

Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem?

Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert's government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem.

But WND broke the story that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.

The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.

"He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank," said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. She spoke on condition of anonymity, because she still works for the municipality.

One former municipal worker during Olmert's mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert's city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel's state comptroller for investigation.

King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings.

"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes, because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."

King's report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished.

Local media reports investigating King's charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem's Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out.

The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes.

"During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints," the statement read.

King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units.

"We're talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it," King said.

The Antichrist Covenant

2007-11-20T23:46:00.001-08:00

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert after attending a press conference following their meeting in Sharm
el-Sheikh, Egypt Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

After the 'rapture' when the Christians are called to Heaven by Jesus Christ, the biblical 'Antichrist' will come to power in Europe on a platform of peace and enter into a 'covenant' with 'many' for seven years. The 'covenant' will be broken after 42 months and Russia, Iran and their allies will invade Israel. Russia will be defeated and then the Oriental armies shall march into the Middle East for their turn. This conference is part of the lead-up to all of it. -
Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

Courtesy of ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer - 2007-11-20>

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday it will inaugurate peace
talks between Israel and the Palestinians next week, ending a seven-year lull,
with a conference of leaders and diplomats the U.S. hopes will help shepherd a
final Mideast settlement.

Organizers said the meeting will take place Monday through Wednesday in
Washington and at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., but revealed few
other details, saying it was too soon to know which of the 49 invited nations
and organizations would attend.

The event is meant to commit Israel and the Palestinians to formal peace
talks that carry international backing.

President Bush will deliver a speech at the Naval Academy Tuesday to open a
one-day session there with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas. Bush's role is larger than U.S. officials had earlier
indicated, including meetings at the White House with the Israeli and
Palestinian leaders.

He also will address conference participants at a dinner Monday night at the
State Department. After the session in Annapolis, talks return to Washington on
Wednesday.

"This conference will be a launching point for negotiations leading to the
establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian
peace," White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said
Tuesday night.

Olmert said Tuesday he hopes a peace deal could be completed by the end of
next year.

With less than a week to go, organizers would not definitively promise that
the session will confront the issues that have shipwrecked past peace efforts —
the final borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of disputed Jerusalem, and
the rights of Palestinians and their descendants who left homes in present-day
Israel.

"There is a common understanding that this is the moment in which they can
change the picture and get serious negotiations started," Assistant Secretary of
State David Welch said. New talks to set up an independent Palestinian state
would begin immediately, U.S. diplomats said, but they gave no details. The
Annapolis conference and the new phase of Mideast peace it opens must overcome
obstacles including political division and weakness in Israel and among the
Palestinians.

Welch wouldn't elaborate on invitations to two Arab powerbrokers — Saudi
Arabia and Syria — whose participation is seen as crucial. Neither recognizes
Israel.

The lack of a firm agenda, guest list or even a date had long annoyed some of
the Arab nations that Bush hopes to attract as backbone for Palestinian
negotiators. Key U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt have said the session must
address the hard questions.

"We're hopeful and expectant that Arab countries will participate," Welch
said. "This is a serious effort; it's devoted to a serious purpose."

Welch had little to say about the breadth of issues on the table next week
and about contents of a joint declaration from Israel and the Palestinians that
the sides have had trouble drafting.

"I don't know exactly what they will say," Welch said. "I imagine they will
treat all the issues involved between them and the ones leading up to the
establishment of a Palestinian state."

He and other diplomats said the United States has painstakingly answered Arab
and other concerns about the scope and purpose of the conference Bush announced
in July, but doubts or questions remain.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was cautious Tuesday as he received Olmert
for a meeting ahead of the U.S. conference.

"I hope that there will be success in this negotiation to push forward the
peace process within a year of negotiations," Mubarak said.

"Let's wait for the Annapolis conference and let's not say it is a failure
until then. There are maybe obstacles, but we have to work towards overcoming
them."

Earlier Tuesday, Bush began reaching out to key nations that could be
spoilers for the U.S.-sponsored conference.

Bush discussed the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a
telephone call and called Saudi King Abdullah. It was not disclosed if the
Russian and Saudi leaders said whether their nations would attend.

In Egypt, Olmert appealed to reluctant Arab nations to support the upcoming
conference. He promised that negotiations would address all issues of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and take into account a Saudi-sponsored Arab peace
initiative — two key concerns of Arab states.

Olmert's comments were aimed at assuring Arab nations that even if the
conference glosses over the hardest issues, the ensuing negotiations will not.
It is not clear where or when those later bargaining sessions will occur. A
first step is likely to be a pledging session for the Palestinians scheduled for
Dec. 17 in Paris.

____

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Laurie Copans in Sharm
el-Sheik, Egypt, contributed to this report.

World War III (continued)

2007-10-18T14:50:00.001-07:00

Israeli PM Makes Urgent Trip to Russia to Discuss Iranian Threat

Israeli PM's Office Communiqué on Olmert-Putin Meeting

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Moscow
on Thursday (Oct. 18) to address Russia's
support of Iran's nuclear program and arms sales to Iran and Syria. The previously unannounced
trip, described by a senior Israeli official as "a last-minute, urgent
meeting," comes two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited
Tehran and vowed to support Iran's pursuit of nuclear energy.

During his meetings with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, [1]
Putin warned "outside forces" against using military means against
Tehran [2]
and told Khamenei that Russia was ready to "expand ties [with Iran]
without limitations." [3] A
joint statement issued by Moscow and Tehran spoke of "the
closeness of Russian and Iranian positions over the key world questions and the
development of cooperation to establish a world order that is more just." [4]

Putin also proposed a yet-undisclosed approach to resolving
the nuclear stand-off between Iran and Europe, the U.S. and the U.N. [5] In
addition, Russia closed a deal to sell Iran 50 jet engines for its air
force. [6] Putin's
visit to Iran
was the first by a Russian premier since 1943. [7]

Olmert is expected to lobby the Russian president to join European countries
and the U.S. in backing new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which the U.N. Security Council plans to discuss
before the end of the year. [8]
According to Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin, Olmert "will be
very clear on the Israeli position that in no way can Iran achieve nuclear capability, [and] that
Iranian nuclear capability threatens the world, including Russia." [9]

Iran's nuclear program, which has been described by French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner as "a real danger for the whole world," [10] is
now reportedly comprised of almost 3,000 centrifuge machines, enough to start refining
usable amounts of nuclear fuel.

Other European leaders also have voiced their concern about
a nuclear Iran.
"We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear
programme," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "Iran has
blatantly crossed the red line." [11]

During their meeting, Olmert and Putin will likely also discuss a reportedly
Iranian-funded arms deal in which Russia
would supply Syria
advanced surface-to-air and anti-aircraft missiles. [12]
During the defensive war Israel fought against Iran-backed Hezbollah in
the summer of 2006, Hezbollah received direct intelligence support
from Syria, using data collected by listening posts jointly manned by Russian
and Syrian crews. [13] Additionally,
Israel maintains that
Russian arms, sold to Iran
and Syria and passed on to
Hezbollah, were used against Israel
during that conflict. [14]
Iran
is the world's most active state sponsor of terror, providing funding, weapons,
training and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups. [15]

Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped off the
map," [16]
also threatening that "anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire
of the Islamic nation's fury." [17] Khamenei
has stated that, "Whoever threatens our interests will see the sharp wrath
of this people." [18]

According to Israeli government spokesman David Baker, in
addition to discussing Iran's
nuclear program and regional developments, Olmert is expected to address Russia's role
in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Olmert will likely air his objection
to Russian attempts to bring about a Palestinian unity government by mediating
between Fatah and Iran-backed Hamas. [19]

Russia's
deepening diplomatic and economic ties are in stark contrast to the policies of
France, Britain and the U.S.,
which are focused on curbing the Iranian nuclear program by imposing new U.N.
Security Council sanctions against Iran. [20]
Iran
has repeatedly breached its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty and flouted the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Russia is
a major provider of technology for Iran's
nuclear program [21] and
Iran
is the third-largest buyer of Russian arms. [22] Iran is
Hezbollah's main arms supplier. [23]

Footnotes

[1] "Israel PM heads to Russia over Iran nuclear
crisis," Agence France-Presse, Oct. 18, 2007, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPZ35HtiYg9VAS_GT5JyZNE4tXbQ

[2] Mirovalev, Mansur, "Olmert to Discuss Iran with
Putin," Time, Oct. 18,2007, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1672836,00.html

[3] Fathi, Nazila, "Putin Is Said to Offer Idea on Standoff
Over Iran," The New York Times, Oct. 18, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/middleeast/18iran.html

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] "Russia to sell Iran 50 MiG-29 engines," Reuters
via Yahoo.com, Oct. 16, 2007, http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071016/twl-uk-putin-iran-engines-bd5ae06.html

[7] "Putin delays Iran visit after assassination
report," Associated Press via MSNBC.com, Oct. 15, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21304257/

[8] "Israel PM heads to Russia over Iran nuclear
crisis," Agence France-Presse, Oct. 18, 2007, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPZ35HtiYg9VAS_GT5JyZNE4tXbQ

[9] Mirovalev, Mansur, "Olmert to Discuss Iran with
Putin," Time, Oct. 18,2007, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1672836,00.html

[10] "France warning of war with Iran," BBC News,
Sept. 17, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6997935.stm

[11] Conradi, Peter, "Iran as bad as Nazis: Merkel," The
Sunday Times, Feb. 5, 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article727156.ece

[12] Mirovalev, Mansur, "Olmert to Discuss Iran with
Putin," Time, Oct. 18,2007, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1672836,00.html

[13] Schiff, Ze'ev, "Hezbollah received intel from
Russian-Syrian listening post during war," Haaretz, Oct.4, 2006, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769512.html

[14] "Russian minister says Russia, Israel have settled
differences over Hezbollah arms," Associated Press via The International
Herald Tribune, Oct. 20, 2006, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/20/europe/EU_GEN_Russia_Israel_Hezbollah.php

[15] "State Sponsors: Iran," Council on Foreign
Relations Web site, Aug. 2007, http://www.cfr.org/publication/9362 /

[16] Penketh, Anne, "Iran's leader says Jewish state
'should be wiped from map," The Independent, Oct. 27, 2005, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article322539.ece

[17] MacAskill, Ewen; McGreal, Chris, "Israel should be
wiped off the map, says Iran's president," The Guardian, Oct. 27,
2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1601413,00.html

[18] "Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei: The U.S. Cannot
Guarantee the Flow of Energy in This Region," Middle East Media Research
Institute Clip No. 1160, June 4, 2006, http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1160

[19] Shiffer, Shimon, "Before it's too late," Ynetnews,
Oct. 18, 2007, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3461246,00.html

[20] "EU to leave open possibility of Iran sanctions,"
Agence France-Presse, Oct. 12, 2007, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071012/wl_mideast_afp/irannuclearpoliticseufrance_071012123309

[21] Mirovalev, Mansur, "Olmert to Discuss Iran with
Putin," Time, Oct. 18,2007, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1672836,00.html

[22] Oxana Antonenko, "Russia's Military Involvement in the
Middle East," Middle Eastern Review of International Affairs, Vol. 5, No.
1 (March 2001)

[23] Hughes, Robin, "Iran Replenishes Hizbullah's Arms
Inventory," Jane's Defence Weekly, Jan. 3, 2007

The
Israel Project is an international non-profit organization devoted to
educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security,
freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and
opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not
related to any government or government agency.

Board of Advisors: Senator Evan Bayh (IN), Senator Saxby
Chambliss (GA), Senator Norm Coleman (MN), Senator Ben Nelson (NE), Senator
Arlen Specter (PA), Senator Ron Wyden (OR), Congressman Rob Andrews (NJ),
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (NV), Congressman Tom Davis (VA), Congressman
Eliot Engel (NY), Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ), Congressman Jon Porter (NV),
Congressman Jim Saxton (NJ), Congressman Brad Sherman (CA), Congressman Joe
Wilson (SC), Actor and Director Ron Silver

World War III

2007-10-18T11:32:00.001-07:00

Olmert to discuss Iran with Putin

Courtesy MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer
October 18, 2007

MOSCOW - Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a surprise trip to Moscow
on Thursday to discuss Iran's
nuclear program with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, who just returned from talks with Iranian
leaders in Tehran.

The two leaders also were expected to discuss a reported arms deal that Russia is to sign
with Syria,
and Russia's role in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking efforts.

Olmert's visit, expected to last just a few hours, was announced only after
Putin had returned from Iran, where he vowed Tuesday to support Iran's pursuit
of nuclear energy and warned "outside forces" — hinting at the United States —
against using force against Tehran.

After greeting Olmert at the Kremlin, Putin
said, "We know how concerned you are about the situation surrounding the Iranian
(nuclear program). I am ready to share the results of my visit."

In response, Olmert said he would "be glad to hear from you about the results
of your trip to Iran and talk about other concerns."

Journalists were escorted out of the room after the brief remarks.

Earlier, Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Olmert would make
clear the Israeli position that an Iranian nuclear capability would threaten the
world.

According to Israel's Yediot
Ahronot newspaper, Olmert was carrying "an unequivocal message to the Russian
president: In a situation in which Iran has nuclear weapons and Syria has
sophisticated weapons from Russia, Israel will have to weigh its actions against
these threats."

Israel considers Iran to be a threat to its existence, while Russia is a
major provider of technology for Tehran's nuclear program, which Washington and
its Western allies suspect is directed at the development of nuclear
weapons.

Putin's meeting with Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was likely seen by both Iran and Israel as
a show of support for a president who has called for Israel's demise.

President Bush
said Wednesday he wanted to get a readout directly from Putin about his visit to
Iran, and to know whether Putin "continues to harbor the same concerns" as Bush
about Iran's nuclear
program. He also issued a warning that a nuclear-armed Iran could trigger
World War
III.

Russia has used its clout as a veto-wielding U.N.
Security Council member to water down two sets of sanctions against
Tehran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment — which can lead to the
development of weapons. Moscow has since
resisted a U.S. push for additional sanctions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said
Wednesday a new sanctions resolution was warranted, and that the need previously
to secure Russian and Chinese support "led to some compromises on the nature of
the sanctions. I hope this will not (be) the case this time."

Putin sought to assuage both Iran and the West during his trip to Tehran, a
delicate balancing act reflecting his reach for global clout and desire to
preserve warm ties with a Middle Eastern ally without angering Washington.

While offering support for Iran's right to nuclear energy and warning against
the use of force, Putin rejected Iranian pressure to set a firm startup date for
the nuclear power
plant Russia is building in Iran.

Putin also made an unspecified proposal concerning Iran's nuclear
program to the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported. Officials close to
hard-liners within Iran's ruling Islamic establishment said they believed the
proposal involved a "timeout" on sanctions if Iran suspends uranium
enrichment.

On Thursday, however, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Putin "did not say any word" about the nuclear
program during his meeting with the supreme leader, IRNA reported.

In addition to the nuclear situation, Olmert also was expected to address
Israeli concerns about reported Iranian-funded arms deals in the works between
Russia and Syria.

Yediot Ahronot reported that Russia plans to provide Syria with
surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft missiles that it has never before sold
to another country.

Russia disputes Israeli claims that Russian arms sold to Syria have made it
to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Moscow insists
its weapons deals with Syria and Iran
have complied with international law and have not disrupted the balance of power
in the region.

Another possible item on the agenda could be last month's airstrike deep into
Syria, in which the Israeli aircraft slipped past Russian-made Syrian air
defense systems, hit their target and then left unchallenged.

Syrian President Bashar
Assad has said Israel bombed an
"unused military building" in the Sept. 6 raid. Israel has been extremely
secretive about the affair and only recently relaxed censorship to allow
journalists to report that Israeli aircraft attacked a military target deep
inside Syria.

Eisin said Olmert and Putin would also discuss Israeli-Palestinian issues,
stressing that Olmert "emphasizes the need to continue to sideline (the
Palestinian militant group) Hamas."

Russia, a member of the Quartet of Mideast negotiators, argues that
engagement is more effective than isolation. Moscow attracted the anger of
Israel and Western nations by hosting the radical Islamic group's
leadership for talks last year.

Olmert's visit was announced as Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice met Israeli and Palestinian leaders as part of
preparations for a U.S.-hosted peace conference in November or December.

Rice was heading for London
seeking support from Jordan's King Abdullah II for the conference after telling
Israelis and Palestinians they have a new "moment of opportunity" to forge
peace, despite the obstacles.

The House of Togarmah of the North Quarters

2007-10-11T11:45:00.001-07:00

Ezekiel 38:6 (King James Version)

Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

Panel approves bill on Armenians

Courtesy DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 11, 8:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will try to soothe Turkish anger after a
House panel's approval of a measure describing as genocide the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians early in the last century.

The House
Foreign Affairs Committee defied warnings by President
Bush with 27-21 approval Wednesday to send the measure to the full House
for a vote. The administration will now try to pressure Democratic leaders not
to schedule a vote, though it is expected to pass.

Hours before the vote, Bush and his top two Cabinet members and other senior
officials made last-minute appeals to lawmakers to reject the measure.

"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO
and in the global war on terror," Bush said.

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul
criticized the decision to move the measure toward a vote in the House.

"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once again
sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to
commonsense," said Gul, according to the state-run news agency Anatolia. "This
unacceptable decision by the committee, like its predecessors, has no validity
or respectability for the Turkish nation."

In London for a
visit Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates reiterated his opposition to the resolution, telling reporters that
it could harm U.S.-Turkish relations at a time when U.S. forces in Iraq are
relying heavily on Turkish permission to use their airspace for U.S. air cargo
flights.

State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said passage of the resolution by the House
would gravely harm U.S.-Turkish relations and U.S. interests in Europe and the
Middle East.

"The United States recognizes the immense suffering of the Armenian people
due to mass killings and forced deportations at the end of the Ottoman Empire,"
McCormack said in a statement. "We support a full and fair accounting of the
atrocities that befell as many as 1.5 million Armenians during World War I" —
which he said the measure doesn't do.

Following Wednesday's vote, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said he
would call the Turkish ambassador to Washington, and that Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice would talk to Turkish leaders on Thursday.

U.S. diplomats have been quietly preparing Turkish officials for weeks for
the likelihood that the resolution would pass, and asking for a muted
response.

Burns said the Turks "have not been threatening anything specific" in
response to the vote, and that he hopes the "disappointment can be limited to
statements."

"The Turkish government leaders know there is a separation of powers in
the United States, that today's action was an action by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, that this was not an action supported by President Bush
and the executive branch of our government," he said.

The Bush administration has expressed concern that the vote could lead to
Turkey cutting
off crucial supply lines to Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates said ahead of the vote that 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for
Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in
Iraq.

"Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be
put at risk if this resolution passes, and Turkey reacts as strongly as we
believe they will," Gates said.

The vote also came as Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked
suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a possible prelude
to a cross-border operation that the Bush administration has opposed. The United
States, already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize other areas of Iraq,
believes that Turkish intervention in the relatively peaceful north could
further destabilize the country.

The committee's vote was a triumph for well-organized Armenian-American
interest groups who have lobbied Congress for decades to pass a resolution.

Following the debate and vote, which was attended by aging Armenian emigres
who lived through the atrocities in what is now Turkey in their youth, the
interest groups said they would fight to ensure approval by the full House.

"It is long past time for the U.S. government to acknowledge and affirm this
horrible chapter of history — the first genocide of the 20th century and a part
of history that we must never forget," said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of
the Armenian Assembly of America.

Ezekiel 38

1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

4And
I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring
thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them
clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers
and shields, all of them handling swords:

5Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

6Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

7Be
thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that
are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

8After
many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come
into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out
of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always
waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell
safely all of them.

9Thou
shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover
the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10Thus
saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time
shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

11And
thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will
go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12To
take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate
places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered
out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in
the midst of the land.

13Sheba,
and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions
thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou
gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to
take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

14Therefore,
son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that
day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

15And
thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many
people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and
a mighty army:

16And
thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the
land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my
land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee,
O Gog, before their eyes.

17Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my
servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many
years that I would bring thee against them?

18And
it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the
land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my
face.

19For in my
jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day
there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

20So
that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts
of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and
all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my
presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places
shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

21And
I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith
the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

22And
I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will
rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are
with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and
brimstone.

23Thus
will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the
eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Israel Strikes Syria

2007-10-07T01:13:00.001-07:00

Israel may have tricked Syria radars to conceal raid

October 7, 2007

WASHINGTON (Courtesy AFP) — Israeli fighter planes reportedly may have
managed to escape detection by Syrian radars during their September 6
raid by forcing the detection system to make a mistake.

US
defense and industry officials believe Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter
jets may have been equipped with the US-developed "Suter" airborne
network attack system, Aviation Week magazine said on its website.

The
technology allows users to invade communications networks, see what
enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator to
manipulate sensors into positions to hide an approaching aircraft, the
report said.

On Tuesday, Israeli military radio confirmed for the first time that a raid into Syria had taken place.

US
and British media have reported that Israeli planes struck a suspected
nuclear site, in which North Korean specialists may have been involved.

Gog

2007-10-01T16:16:00.001-07:00

Putin: From president to prime minister?

Courtesy STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer
October 1, 2007

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin, in a surprise announcement, opened the door Monday to

becoming Russia's prime minister and retaining power when his presidential term ends next

year.

ADVERTISEMENT

The popular Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in the March presidential

election, but has strongly indicated he would seek to keep a hand on Russia's reins after he

steps down.

Putin's remarks Monday at a congress of the dominant, Kremlin-controlled United Russia party

hint at a clear scenario in which he could remake himself as a powerful prime minister and

eclipse a weakened president.

Putin, 54, told United Russia that his name will top its ticket in Dec. 2 parliamentary

elections — a huge show of support from a president who has always sought to remain above

the grit of party politics.

He called a proposal that he become prime minister "entirely realistic," but added that it

was still "too early to think about it." For him to consider it, he said, first United

Russia would have to win the elections and Russia elect as president a "decent, competent,

effective, modern person with whom it would be possible to work in tandem."

Putin's name on the ticket will make the first task much easier. Laden with top officials

who can use the media, law enforcement and other levers to pressure opponents and influence

voting, the party already has a huge advantage. And Putin's powerful support could ensure it

retains the two-thirds majority needed in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, to

approve changes in the constitution.

Putin's move points to the possibility that the constitution could be changed to shift power

from the presidency to the government, which he would lead as prime minister.

"The most logical way for Putin's team to fulfill its main goal — to step down but stay in

power — is to change the constitution" to strengthen the prime minister and his Cabinet,

political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said in an interview. "The president would become a

decorative figure."

Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, a fierce Putin critic chosen by his opposition

alliance this weekend to run against the Kremlin-backed presidential candidate in March,

said Putin's move displayed "the antidemocratic and anti-constitutional nature of this whole

electoral process."

"In fact, Putin has done nothing more than decide to use United Russia as the main mechanism

for retaining power," Kasparov told Ekho Moskvy radio.

While transferring power from the president to the prime minister would on the surface

suggest a major change in the political system, the chief editor of Ekho Moskvy radio said

it would make little difference in reality, comparing Putin's power to that of the czars or

the Soviet-era Communist Party chiefs.

"In Russia — as before — a regime of personal power has been established: The power of one

person, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and whether he is called president or prime minister

... is meaningless," Alexei Venediktov said.

He said the power could be effectively shifted to the prime minister without touching the

constitution, by changing a law to transfer power over the Defense Ministry and law

enforcement from president to premier.

And even if the constitution is not changed, Putin as premier with United Russia behind him

could wield more clout with Russia's people and its army of bureaucrats than a new

president.

Part of the attraction of being prime minister instead of president, Oreshkin pointed out,

is that there are no term limits on the premier. And the prime minister replaces the

president if he dies or is incapacitated.

Oreshkin said Putin could yet have other plans up his sleeve, but that his decision to lead

United Russia into the elections ensured that he will not become a lame duck ahead of the

presidential vote. "He showed everyone that all the strings are still in his hands,"

Oreshkin said.

Putin said Monday he would not actually join United Russia, and leading the party's

candidate list does not oblige him to take a seat in parliament; prominent politicians and

other figures often are given the top spots to attract votes, but stay out of the

legislature after elections. There is no direct voting for individual candidates; the 450

Duma seats will be distributed proportionately among parties that receive at least 7 percent

of the vote.

Putin has amassed authority as president, but as he prepares to step down, he has been

setting up a system of checks and balances that would weaken his successor by putting him at

the mercy of rival centers of power — a strategy, possibly, of divide and rule. By leading

the United Russia ticket, Kremlin-connected political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky said, Putin

instantaneously creates the strongest such rival power — with himself as its head.

The move means Putin's successor "will not be a czar," Pavlovsky said on Ekho Moskvy. "There

will be a new center of influence outside the Kremlin."

If he is plotting to remain in power, Putin laid some major groundwork last month with

another stunning step — the nomination of an obscure ally known primarily for his loyalty,

Viktor Zubkov, as prime minister in a shake-up that had not been expected until after the

December vote.

With no power base of his own, Zubkov would likely play his preordained part in any Putin

plan. If he were to become president and Putin prime minister, Zubkov could be expected to

cede as much power as demanded to Putin or step down to allow him to return to the

presidency. Other top officials cast as potential successors, with stronger connections to

rival factions in the political elite, might be less likely to bend to Putin's will.

Osama bin Laden

2007-09-08T20:31:00.001-07:00

Osama bin Laden thinks he's one informed, chill dude. I would like to see the look on his face on Judgment Day when he stands before God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, just before he is relegated to eternal torment in the lake of fire.

Next few months seen as last chance for WTO deal - Revelation 13

2007-08-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: I found the following article interesting because it concerns a 'world trade deal'. I'm wondering if and how this plays into the scenario described in the bible in the book of Revelation concerning the Antichrist and the 'mark of the beast'.

Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

Revelation 13 (King James Version) And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Next few months seen as last chance for WTO deal

By Doug Palmer - Analysis - Wed Aug 29, 8:15PM WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - The last chance for a world trade deal could slip away in the next few months unless Brazil and other advanced developing countries offer meaningful commitments to open their market to more foreign goods, U.S. private sector experts said on Tuesday. "What is badly needed is political leadership in key capitals to get the job done this fall. Absent such leadership, my fear is the round will go into a deep freeze for a few years," said Mary Irace, vice president for trade and export finance at the National Foreign Trade Council. Negotiators will return to Geneva next week to dig into agricultural issues that have been the main stumbling block since the talks were launched in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar A week later, countries will resume negotiations on "nonagricultural market access" issues, known in World Trade Organization parlance as the NAMA talks and which basically cover all manufactured goods. In July, the Geneva-based chairmen of both the agriculture and
NAMA negotiating groups tabled a pair of draft texts they hoped would set the stage for a final deal. "While there are some major issues in the texts which require greater clarity ... the outlines of a solid Doha agreement are there," Irace said. One big issue for U.S. business is how much advanced developing countries would be required to open their markets in exchange for cuts in rich country farm subsidies and in tariffs on both farm and manufactured goods. That will largely be determined by a pair of key numbers, or "coefficients," that are to be inserted in a mathematical tariff-cutting formula for manufactured goods. The July draft proposed coefficients of 8 or 9 for developed countries, and between 19 and 23 for developing countries. AN 'IMPERFECT' DEAL A lower coefficient generates more new market openings by cutting tariffs, especially high ones, more aggressively. Whatever the coefficient used, it effectively becomes the new tariff ceiling for that country. The United States and the European Union pushed for coefficients of 10 and 15 for developed and developing countries, but ran into stiff opposition from the NAMA-11 developing country group, which wanted 10 and 35. U.S. business leaders say that
would generate few, if any, new export opportunities to advanced developing countries, while requiring the United States to open up sensitive manufacturing sectors, like textiles and clothing, which are protected by high tariffs. "It's very important for U.S. business that the (developing country) coefficient be under 20 percent," Irace said. At this point in the negotiations the United States has two options: "Accept an imperfect compromise, or accept a more costly failure that could damage U.S. economic interests and the international economic system," said Jeffrey Schott of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "When those are the options you have, then you go for the imperfect compromise," but the deal still has to generate enough new U.S. export opportunities to make it politically viable in Congress, Schott said. With U.S. lawmakers already losing interest in the talks and the 2008 presidential campaign heating up, negotiators must draw on the draft texts to stitch together the key elements of a deal over the next two months, Schott said. "If countries continue to play the blame game and maintain their past positions, nothing will happen and the window of opportunity for crafting an imperfect compromise will close. That will be it. The round will go into deep hibernation," Schott said.

Russia vs Israel Update

2007-08-01T19:43:00.001-07:00

Russia Foils Palestinian-Israeli Settlement
// Moscow won't refuse contact with Hamas
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks yesterday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Russia expressed its readiness to act as an intermediary between Abbas and his Fatah party and the radical Palestinian Hamas movement, which took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June. The attempt to make peace between Fatah and Hamas failed. After the negotiations in Moscow, Abbas declared that a renewal of dialog with Hamas would be possible only after Hamas admitted its guilt and apologized for its crimes against the Palestinian people.
“We have consistently defended the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent state,” Putin told Abbas. “And I want to assure you that we will continue to support you as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people.” At the same time, Putin made it clear that Russia does not like the American-European-Israeli plan to declare Palestinian independence not on all the territory of the Palestinian Autonomy from the beginning, but rather only on the West Bank, which is controlled by Abbas and Fatah. Moscow also intends to maintain contact with Hamas, in spite of Abbas's efforts to persuade Russian authorities not to.

After the victory of the Islamists in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006, Russia was the only member of the Middle East quartet (the Russian Federation, United States, European Union and United Nations) to declare the need to hold a dialog with the Palestinian radicals. The rest of the quartet boycotted Hamas due to its refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to existence or to acknowledge previously concluded Palestinian-Israeli agreements and because of its adherence to terrorism.

Moscow's position did not result in any serious results. Nonetheless, Russia is determined not to give up its “exclusive” relationship with the Palestinian radicals, even after Hamas rebels took control of part of the autonomy – the Gaza Strip – using armed force, leaving Abbas only the West Bank. In Moscow. they think that their contacts with the Islamists will at last bring them political dividends. Russia is hoping to take the role of intermediary and peacemaker between Fatah and Hamas. On Monday, Abu Marzouk, member of the Hamas political bureau and deputy head of the movement's political leadership, announced that Russia and Hamas had reach an agreement in principle on a visit by Hamas representatives to Moscow. “We will discuss it in the immediate future following the results of Mahmoud Abbas's trip to Russia,” he specified.

The problem is that Russia's plan goes against the plans of Israel, the West and Abbas. The division of Palestine into Hamas's Gaza Strip and Fatah's West Bank was seen in the world as a struck of unprecedented good luck and an opportunity for a long-awaited Palestinian-Israeli settlement. The idea is that a dialog can be held with moderate Abbas, ignoring Hamas and leaving it confined to the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has already reached an agreement with Abbas on concluding a so-called agreement on principles that imply the declaration of a Palestinian state on 90 percent of the West Bank. It was decided to leave the exact borders and the solution to several complexes problems for later.

Peace between Fatah and Hamas could only hinder all of that by leading to a national unity government in the autonomy and bring the radicals into the negotiating process. Knowing the position of the Hamas leaders, whose main goal is the destruction of Israel, it can be safely assumed that, with its main goal of destroying Israel, peaceful dialog will not continue for long. Therefore, the choice is between declaring independence on part of the Palestinian territory and Moscow's suggested “unification of the Palestinian people,” which would leave Palestinian statehood in an unknown future. Abbas chooses the first, and sdreams of being the first president of independent Palestine.
Alexander Reutov

'The Kings Of The East

2007-07-30T10:05:00.003-07:00

"You've nothing to fear from us", China's army says

PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY UNIT 196, China (Reuters) - China let in a
crack of light on its military modernisation on Monday, opening a camp
to foreign reporters to put out the message: we have nothing to hide
and you have nothing to fear.

The People's Liberation Army, the world's largest armed force,
guards its secrets jealously. Foreigners are almost never allowed on to
their bases, let alone foreign journalists.

But China is keen to dispel jitters in Washington that its growing
arms budget is far from transparent and that Beijing's rising military
spending may destabilize East Asia.

"What outsiders hype up the most is the military budget," said Wu
Yuzhang, a senior colonel and official at the Defense Ministry's
Foreign Affairs Department, after watching a drill involving martial
arts, marksmanship and artillery fire.

"We've already given a very clear explanation about that in our
defense white paper," he told reporters at Unit 196's base just over
Beijing's border in the neighboring city of Tianjin.

In March, China said it would boost defense spending by 17.8 percent
to about $45 billion this year, but a Pentagon report in May said
Beijing's total military-related spending could more than double that.

China and the United States have long sparred over the nature of
China's military development, with Washington saying it is trying to
project its growing power and Beijing maintaining that its armed forces
are geared towards self-defense only.

"I don't know what anyone has to worry about," said Unit 196's
senior colonel, Zhang Qingjiang. "I think we're very transparent. I can
tell you all the numbers for this base, including how much I earn."

Still, while other Chinese ministries have made real efforts in
recent years to set up a system of spokesmen and hold regular news
conferences, the Ministry of Defense is virtually uncontactable and its
officials rarely talk to the media.

But ahead of next year's Beijing Olympics and because this year is
the 80th anniversary of the army's founding, the ministry had decided
to open up a little, Wu said.

"The main aim is so everyone can have a clearer, more accurate
understanding of China's military, so that people don't get inaccurate
information from some other media outlets," he said, without
elaborating.

Part of the rare charm offensive included lunch in the mess hall
with startled looking Chinese troops, who smiled nervously while
politely answering questions on salary and housing, adding they had
only been told about the visit on Saturday.

Barely mentioned were the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy
activists in Tiananmen Square -- no, the unit was not involved -- and
Taiwan, the self-ruled, democratic island China claims as its own.

Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

"Just because you are getting stronger does not mean you are going
to become a bully," Zhang said, when asked if China's increased
military spending may destabilize the region.

"I just want to make the military the best it can be, so it can complete its mission," he added.

By Ben Blanchard

Commented by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

Courtesy of Yahoo news

Revelation 16:

12And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

16And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Revelation 9:

13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

US 'Iran Attack Plans' Revealed.

2007-07-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

Two triggers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.

Natanz, Iran
The Natanz plant is buried under concrete, metal and earth
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.

Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.

Deadline

Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.

Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.

Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.

Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.

Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.

If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.

Courtesy of BBC

The Roman Lie

2007-07-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Pope approves document that stirs Protestant criticism
By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press
Commented by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

"Roman Catholicism is not true biblical Christianity.
It is a satanic counterfeit, period."

Bad News For The Vatican - Peter's Tomb Found In Jerusalem

Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy | Pope Benedict XVI, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, has approved a document released Tuesday saying that other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches.

Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation, the document says.

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders.

“It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity,” said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.

“It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the reformed family and other families of the church,” the group said in a letter charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the era before the Second Vatican Council.

It was the second time in a week that Benedict has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-1965 meetings that modernized the church. On Saturday, Benedict revived the old Latin Mass — a move cheered by Catholic traditionalists but criticized by more liberal ones as a step backward from Vatican II.

Among the council’s key developments were its ecumenical outreach and the development of the New Mass in the vernacular, which essentially replaced the old Latin Mass.

Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers its erroneous interpretation by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Benedict headed before becoming pope, said it was issuing the new document Tuesday because some contemporary theological interpretations of Vatican II’s ecumenical intent had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.

The new document — formulated as five questions and answers — restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which riled Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church “has the fullness of the means of salvation.”

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” said the document, released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in Italy’s Dolomite mountains.

The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles — and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.

The Rev. Sara MacVane, of the Anglican Centre in Rome, said that although the document contains nothing new, “I don’t know what motivated it at this time.

“But it’s important always to point out that there’s the official position and there’s the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together that goes on at all levels, certainly between Anglicans and Catholics and all the other groups and Catholics,” she said.

The document said that Orthodox churches were indeed “churches” because they have apostolic succession and enjoyed “many elements of sanctification and of truth.” But it said they do not recognize the primacy of the pope — a defect, or a “wound” that harmed them, it said.

“This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an ‘internal constitutive principle’ of the very existence of a particular church,” said a commentary from the congregation that accompanied the text.

Despite the harsh tone, the document stressed that Benedict remains committed to ecumenical dialogue.

“However, if such dialogue is to be truly constructive it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants, but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith,” the commentary said.

The top Protestant cleric in Germany, Benedict’s homeland, complained that the Vatican apparently did not consider that “mutual respect for the church status” was required for any ecumenical progress.

Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber argued that “it would also be completely sufficient if it were to be said that the reforming churches are ‘not churches in the sense required here’ or that they are ‘churches of another type’ — but none of these bridges is used” in the Vatican document.

There was no indication why the pope felt it necessary to release it now, particularly since his 2000 document summed up the same principles.

Some analysts suggested the congregation was sending a message to certain theologians it did not want to single out. Or, it could be an indication of Benedict using his office as pope to again stress key doctrinal issues from his time at the congregation.

Live Earth Concert - A Lot Of Hot Air

2007-07-07T13:54:00.001-07:00

Without acknowledging and thanking our Creator, Jesus Christ, the whole 'Live Earth' effort is worth less than zero. While protection of the environment is a noble cause, all of the sin and wickedness that is simultaneously promoted by the sponsors, organizers and performers doesn't impress God. The notable, and noticeable, lack of reference to, or reverence for, the Lord Jesus Christ, amounts to yet another God-excluding effort to play God by a Christ-hating 'world'. And as the bible says, "The friend of the world is the enemy of God".

Christian Worship Song by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

2007-07-05T16:01:00.001-07:00

Praise you Jesus
You're my blessed Lord
Praise you Jesus
Now and forevermore
Praise you Jesus
My Savior and my King
Praise you Jesus
You're my everything

When I get to the end of my days
It's Jesus Christ that I will praise
And while I'm here, I'll try to be
All that the Lord would expect of me
I can't say I don't know wrong from right
And I was taught to always fight the good fight
And when I get to Heaven, before Him I will bow,
It kind of feels like I'm in Heaven right now

Praise you Jesus
You're my blessed Lord
Praise you Jesus
Now and forevermore
Praise you Jesus
My Savior and my King
Praise you Jesus
You're my everything

A Tribute To Lady Diana music and lyrics by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

2007-07-01T16:50:00.001-07:00

This may be a little off topic, but in honor of the music concert today arranged by Princes William and Harry to commemorate the life of their mom Lady Diana, I offer my own tribute, composed shortly after her tragic end.

GOODBYE SWEET DIANE
(A TRIBUTE TO LADY DIANA)

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY
KENNETH MONTGOMERY KEILLOR
NOVEMBER 21, 1997

GOODBYE SWEET DIANE
WE ALL MISS YA SO
AN' I HAD TO WRITE THIS SONG
JUS' TA LET YA KNOW

THAT WE JUS' CAN'T STOP CRYIN'
NOW THAT YOUR GONE
AN' WE'RE NOT EVEN SURE
IF LIFE CAN GO ON

YOU KNOW YOU STOLE OUR HEARTS
LIKE THE BABE IN THE WOODS
AN' I'D HOLD YOU IN MY ARMS
IF I ONLY COULD

'CAUSE YOUR LIFE RAINED DOWN UPON YOU
LIKE A FIRESTORM FROM HELL
BUT YOU TOOK SOMETHING SICK
AN' YOU MADE IT WELL

AN' I'LL ALWAYS BE PROUD OF YOU, BABY!

GOODBYE SWEET DIANE
GOODBYE SWEET DIANE

GOODBYE, GOODBYE SWEEEET DIANE
GOODBYE I I I I GOODBYE SWEEEET DIANE

Popes and Pedophiles - Who The Pope Really Is

2007-06-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the British Broadcasting Company
Sex crimes and the Vatican: Transcript
NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS-HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY.
PANORAMA

You can watch the video here for as long as the BBC continues to make it available:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/
panorama/5389684.stm

Or you can purchase it by phoning here:
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Sex Crimes and the Vatican
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC ONE
DATE: 1:10:06
Q: Can you show the camera how you think you look when you abuse. When you're actually doing the physical sexual act.
O'GRADY: Okay.
Q: Can you go to that person Oliver?
O'GRADY: That's that person now.
PAUL KENYON: This is Father Oliver O'Grady, a former Catholic priest. The church knew he was a child abuser.
Q: How about how you would greet that little girl you were grooming? Just use the name Sally.
O'GRADY: Hi Sally, how you doing? Come here, I wanna give you a hug. You're a sweetheart, you know that. You're very special to me. I like you a lot.
KENYON: Instead of reporting O'Grady the church hid him from the authorities. No mistake, but part of a secret church directive. The man responsible for enforcing it was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.. County Wexford in Ireland. The diocese of Ferns is a strip of towns and villages sprinkled along the rugged coastline. Four years ago this priest, Father Sean Fortune, was at the centre of Ireland's biggest child abuse enquiry. The scandal exposed details of a secret Vatican decree which seemed to shelter the perpetrators, and silence the victims of abuse. Colm O'Gorman was one of its victims. He returned to his home town in Ferns to try to come to terms with his past. When he was 14 years old Colm was raped by Father Sean Fortune.
On Sunday mornings, after Fortune had abused me, he'd leave me in his bed, in the bedroom in the house there, and come down and say first mass. And I remember that he used to come back after saying first mass, and... sometimes abuse me again. And then I'd have to go downstairs with him and have breakfast, and then come down here for the second mass, and sit and watch him say mass.
KENYON: The church knew Father Fortune was a paedophile, but failed to inform the police. Instead it moved him from Parish to Parish. He was finally exposed, and killed himself on the eve of his criminal trial. Along with the BBC, Colm began investigating who'd been responsible for helping him evade detection. It turned out to be the most senior church figure in the diocese, the Bishop of Ferns Doctor Brendan Comiskey. We confronted him.
SARAH MacDONALD: Bishop Comiskey.
COMISKEY: [singing to himself as he steps out of car] We will survive.... How are you?
McDONALD: I'm fine thanks. Sarah McDonald, BBC television. You're looking very well.
Dr BRENDAN COMISKEY
Bishop of Ferns
(smiling warmly) Sarah, how are you?
MacDONALD: I'm very well thank you. I've just come to ask you just a question about Sean Fortune. We just wanted to know....
COMISKEY: (smile gone he turns his back instantly and rapidly retreats) I'm going to have mass at half past..
MacDONALD: (calling after the retreating figure) Why didn't you stop Sean Fortune....
COMISKEY: I.. I.. I moved...
MacDONALD: ..abusing young boys? Bishop Comiskey?
COMISKEY: ... when it was brought to my attention I moved him out of the Parish, and sent him on treatment...
MacDONALD: Not for 6 years..
COMISKEY: ...for 2 years.
MacDONALD: Not for 6 years you didn't move him out of the Parish. Why didn't you stop him?
COMISKEY: Thank you very much.
MacDONALD: Why didn't you stop him Bishop Comiskey?
COMISKEY: (enters building and firmly shuts door)
KENYON: Within weeks of that denial Bishop Comiskey was summoned to Rome.
COMISKEY: (making public statement) On Thursday last I tendered my resignation as Bishop of Ferns to Pope John Paul. I travelled to Rome later this week in the furthers of that process.
KENYON: Bishop Comiskey had gone, but in Ferns more stories of abuse followed. Colm is now Director of one of Ireland's largest charities supporting victims of child abuse. He campaigned for a government inquiry, and got it. In October last year, when the Ferns report was published, it exposed a cover up involving more than just one priest.
COLM O'GORMAN
The Ferns report makes disturbing reading. It details allegations of the rape and abuse of over 100 girls and boys, made against 26 priests from this small, rural diocese. It says that there was a culture of secrecy, and a fear of scandal, that led Bishops to place the interests of the Catholic church ahead of the safety of children.
KENYON: The report was the first to link the churches behaviour to a secret Vatican decree for dealing with paedophile priests. The more Colm meets other Ferns victims the more convinced he's become that the decree has been used to silence their allegations of abuse.
AIDEN DOYLE
I'm looking here at the room that I was in 40... nearly 41 years ago. That's four decades, and I'm still remembering what happened inside, under that roof, in the peace and quiet of a Saturday afternoon in that room, behind that window.
KENYON: Aidan Doyle was educated at a Catholic school run by priests.
DOYLE: Terror struck at approximately 10 past 3 in the afternoon, when he decided to come in and, as he put it, help me with the practicing of my music. Then a moment later everything changes. I was hauled back down onto the bed, I was told to lie down on the bed with him, on the bed where I was made to grope his private area. I was then... oh... (struggling and distressed) I was then mauled really. It was: "You're going to be intimate with me, you're going to get closer to me, you're going to be my special person." I think all my hopes and dreams went then. It was just a question of when, how, will it ever stop.
KENYON: After the sexual assault Aidan ran from the room. He told another priest what had happened. But instead of going to the authorities the priests invoked one of the most powerful tenets of the Catholic faith - To bar Aidan or his abuser from ever speaking out.
DOYLE: He said to me 'I'm going to apply the seal of confession to you, so that you must never talk about this, and it will be kept secret.' And I remember saying that that evening. That why should I have to keep quiet about something that I hadn't initiated?
KENYON: Aidan didn't know it, but an oath of silence was part of the secret church decree called 'crimen sollicitationis' (crime of solicitation). The directive was written in 1962, and Catholic bishops worldwide are ordered to keep it locked away in the church safe. It instructs them on how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. But it also deals with any obscene external acts with youths of either sex. Child abuse. Originally written in Latin it imposes the strictest oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation, and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means instant banishment from the Catholic Church - excommunication.
AIDEN DOYLE
I was told that.. simply told you don't talk about this again. It's over, you'll get over it, it'll fade away in time, it'll go away, you've nothing to worry about. You know it's all about forgiveness, it's all about forgiving your offender as well as the offender forgiving me. They were judge, jury and everything else. I didn't have any opportunity to receive understanding. There was no understanding brought about. I didn't know what this meant other than that I must never talk about it again.
KENYON: Aidan was so intimidated he hasn't spoken of what happened for 40 years, until now. His abuser has never been punished. To uncover the significance of crimen sollicitationis Colm goes to meet Father Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer. Once a Vatican high flyer, then he criticised the church's handling of child abuse and was sacked.
Father TOM DOYLE
Canon Lawyer
Crimen sollicitationis is indicative of a world-wide policy of absolute secrecy and control of all cases of sexual abuse by the clergy. But what you really have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy, to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by churchmen. You've got a written policy that says the Vatican will control these situations, and you also have, I think, clear written evidence of the fact that all they're concerned about is containing and controlling the problem. Nowhere in any of these documents does it say anything about helping the victims. The only thing it does is say that they can impose fear on the victims, and punish the victims, for discussing or disclosing what had happened to them.
KENYON: The procedure was intended to protect a priests reputation until the church had investigated. But in practice it can offer a blueprint for cover-ups. The man in charge of enforcing it for 20 years was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the man made Pope last year. In 2001 he created the successor to the decree. In spirit it was the same, overarching secrecy with a threat of excommunication. He sent a copy to every Bishop in the world. But now he ordered that the Vatican must have what it calls 'exclusive competence'. In other words, all child abuse allegations must go exclusively to Rome.
FR. DOYLE: It's all controlled by the Vatican, and at the top of the Vatican is the Pope. So Joseph Ratzinger was at the middle of this for most of the years the crimen was enforced. He created the successor to crimen, and now he's the Pope. This all says that the policy and the systematic approach has not changed.
KENYON: Cardinal Ratzinger's new decree was a missed opportunity to modernise the church's approach just as its biggest scandal was about to break in America. Colm travelled there to discover whether these were isolated cases sadly mishandled, or a Vatican policy of cover up.
COLM: At the same time as the scandals were erupting in Ireland in 2002, hundreds of cases were emerging here in the United States. A US report tells us that almost four and a half thousand US priests have been accused of raping or sexually abusing children.
KENYON: Its epicentre was Boston. The same stories repeated time and again. The church quietly shifting accused priests from parish to parish. Allegations of a systematic cover-up. Colm tracks down Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk who became the Vatican approved enforcer of crimen sollicitationis in his Minnesota diocese.
PATRICK WALL
Former Benedictine Monk
I was part of the system that was getting chewed up and being used deceptively, and it was a real dark night of the soul. Everything that I had trained for, you know, well over a decade to do, I found out that I wasn't working for a holy institution but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself.
KENYON: When a priest was accused of sexual abuse, the abuser was slipped quietly away, and Father Patrick was moved in.
WALL: Cos most of the cases never saw the light of the day, hence we were successful. That is really the ultimate definition of success for the church, when it comes to a case of sexual abuse of a minor, that no one ever finds out about it, that it gets shut down, that it's kept quiet. If a pay off is needed, or if some kind of a settlement is needed, it's done. We had a $7 million budget in 1996 to do such things. And.. but the thing that we had to have was a confidentiality order where it absolutely had to be agreed that everything was quiet. And you work with the victims as best you can, but the ultimate desire is to maintain stability, peace and calm, and the biggest thing you have to do is absolutely shut down the scandal.
KENYON: Disillusioned, Father Patrick left the priesthood and joined lawyers acting for victims. One of its first cases was against prolific abuser Father Oliver O'Grady, ordained in Ireland but working in California.
March 2005
O'GRADY: I swear by Almighty God that the evidence that I shall give in this deposition will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth....
KENYON: He gave this deposition last year in a civil law suit where he was accused of sodomizing a child over a hundred times.
OLIVER O'GRADY
Former Catholic Priest
[giving evidence in court] If the boy was tall or fat, that wouldn't attract me. I tended to take boys that were rather slim built. I tended to be attracted to the genital area, and there was a part of me would kind of want to be in touch with that, or to discover that, to see that in this particular boy.
KENYON: He admits to at least 30 victims, both boys and girls, over 2 decades.
Q: What is it.. what about the little girls did you find attractive?
O'GRADY: If she had a short dress or something like that I might have been tempted to, and often did, maybe raise her dress in a kind of subconscious way, or should I say in a way that she's not aware that I'm doing that. But checking her out at the same time, you know. You'd get a glimpse of her underwear.
Q: And did you find that arousing?
O'GRADY: I did, yes. The viewing was more attractive actually than the touching in the girl's case.
Q: How about how you would greet the little girl you were grooming? Just use the name Sally.
O'GRADY: Hi Sally, how you doing? Come here, I wanna give you a hug. You're a sweetheart, you know that. You're very special to me. I like you a lot. She might respond 'I like you too'. And that would allow me to give a better hug to you.
KENYON: O'Grady was jailed for 7 years. He's now been deported and lives in Ireland. His victims have now set their sights on his Bishop, the Cardinal of Los Angeles, Roger Mahoney. He now stands accused of shifting O'Grady from parish to parish to avoid scandal.
Q: Well, the bishop knew that you had abused in '76, correct?
O'GRADY: Yes.
Q: And abused earlier, correct?
O'GRADY: Yes.
Q: So, knowing that, would you have appointed yourself a pastor?
O'GRADY: No, I would not.
KENYON: In 2002 the American Catholic church responded to mounting scandal by setting up an independent body called the National Review Board. Its first job was to study the scale of the problem.
Judge ANNE BURKE
National Review Board 2002-2005
One of the interesting pieces that the study found was that it wasn't epidemic in nature. It wasn't one diocese found to have more cases than another. It was endemic, in which from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean the same percentages of criminal sexual assault against minors occurred in every diocese.
KENYON: But the review board quickly hit problems, with its Chairman comparing the church's secrecy with that of the mafia.
CBS June 2003
Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating has resigned as head of a National Review Board looking into the Catholic church sex scandal after serving only one year in that capacity. The contentious departure followed Keating's interview with the LA Times, where he compared some church leaders to La Casa Nostra. In his resignation letter Keating said, quote: "To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, that is the model of a criminal organisation, not my church".
KENYON: The review board carried on, and drew up a child protection charter for the American Catholic church. Around the Western world similar allegations were prompting similar responses. In Britain the Catholic church has introduced a comprehensive regime of child protection guidelines. But such national policies have been piecemeal, and the Vatican has no global child protection charter in relation to abuse by priests. In America, despite the push for transparency, when media attention shifted away the church continued investigating allegations in secret, marginalizing the victims.
BURKE: We haven't seen sufficient evidence to show that we are satisfied with what has been done, and I think we're not able to trust. And that's getting reinforced periodically with the watering down of the charter, the failure of some diocese' to remove priests when there's an allegation. So I think we cannot trust at this point. We would have thought that the last four years would have taught us enough, and would have taught the Bishops enough to handle the situation. But we see every week, every month, something new happening that would lead you to believe that perhaps they didn't learn from the past mistakes.
KENYON: There's clearly a tension between the rule of law and the rule of the church, between child protection and the orders of Cardinal Ratzinger.
Father TOM DOYLE
Canon Lawyer
There's no policy to help the victims, there's absolutely no policy to help those who are trying to help the victims, and there's an unwritten policy to lie about the existence of the problem. Then, as far as the perpetrators, the priests, when they're discovered, the systemic response has been not to investigate and prosecute, but to move them. To move them from one place to another in a secret way, and not reveal why they're being moved. So there's total disregard for the victims, total disregard for the fact that you're gonna have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. Now this is just... this is not in the United States where this is happening. This is all over the world. You see the same pattern and practice no matter what country you go to.
KENYON: In some countries the Catholic church has little or no child protection procedures, and, as Colm discovers, the Vatican sex crime decree it all but fills the vacuums for some of its most trusting followers.
COLM O'GORMAN
I'm in Brazil, the largest Catholic country on the planet, home to 125 million faithful. It may look like paradise, but scratch beneath the surface and you'll find extreme poverty, illiteracy, sex tourism, and enormous child protection concerns. The Catholic church may have been forced to learn hard lessons in the Western world, but is it applying those lessons here?
KENYON: Six years ago a new priest arrived in the small rural community of Annapolis in Central Brazil. His new congregation didn't know it, but Father Tarcisio Tadeu Spricigo had been charged with child abuse by police in Sao Paolo.
COLM: The priest was first accused of sexual abuse in 1991. He was moved at least 4 times following that first allegation, and continued to abuse in each parish to which he was appointed. He finally ended up here in this tiny, and very, very impoverished community. The Bishop who appointed him to this parish knew that he was facing charges of sexual abuse in Sao Paolo. He has explained since that he felt, or believed, that the priest had been cured. But he hadn't. The abuse continued.
KENYON: The priest moved 3 doors away from Donna Elza and her 5 year old grandson Warley. He offered to give Warley guitar lessons.
ELZA DA SILVA
Early one Sunday morning he woke me up and said: "Granny, I know how to make love". I asked him: "What do you mean? You are so small, you're only 5, what are you talking about?" And he said: "If I try to tell Mummy and Daddy they will beat me, and I'm scared". And I said: "They won't beat you, tell me what has happened." And that's how I learned it was Father Tarcisio. We let the boy take guitar lessons with him because we thought he was in safe hands, with a good person, with a person who speaks the word of God every day in church. I trusted the Father because I have been Catholic all my life, and I never expected that this could have happened. When the kids accost him in the streets they call him "the priests little wife" and he feels so angry, so angry that he cries and cries. He tells me often that he just wants to die.
KENYON: This was during the period when Cardinal Ratzinger instructed all allegations of child abuse to be sent to the Vatican. So if it knew about the criminal charges against Father Tarcisio why did it allow him to continue working as a priest in close contact with young children?
COLM: We may be thousands of miles away from Rome, but this place is directly linked to the Vatican. What gets me is it's the same story every time and every place. Bishops appoint priests, who they know have abused children in the past, to new parishes and new communities, and more abuse happens. This boy was abused in 2002, think about that, 2002, at exactly the same time as the scandals are kicking off in Boston, in the United States, and in Ireland, at exactly the same time that bishops and the Vatican are giving us excuses for why it happened, and for what they're going to do to put it right. At exactly that time this boy is being raped here in Brazil. So now this boy talks about wanting to die, he doesn't want to stay alive any more. He can't handle it, he's being bullied at school. They tell him that he's the "priests little girl." And the church have done nothing. No therapy, no support, no connection, no outreach, nothing! I'm fed up of saying it's not okay. (emotional) It's not okay.
KENYON: Despite evidence that the priest had already abused a 13 year old boy in Sao Paolo, Donna Elza claims she was pressured by both the church and the community to drop the allegations over her 5 year old grandson.
ELZA: The church was angry with me, and people in the church, people in the street were running. They were running away from me. It felt like I was excommunicated from my own community. But I wanted them to believe, like I did, in my grandson.
COLM: That's the thing people don't understand. This family didn't have much, but they had their faith. Now they don't have that.
ELZA: There's such a great sadness inside us. (pause - struggling to retain composure but eyes full of tears) I fear my boy will grow with that sadness in his mind, the boy growing with problems in his mind.
COLM: It looked like the priest might get away with it again, and then this was found. It's his diary. In it he details the kind of child that he targets, and how to abuse them without getting caught. I'll read you a section. Age: 7, 8, 9, 10. Sex: masculine. Social condition: poor. Family condition: preferably a son without a father, only a lonely mother or a sister. Where to look: on the streets, in schools and in families. How to attract them: guitar lessons, choir, altar boy. Very important, ingratiate yourself with the family. Possibilities: a boy who's affectionate, calm, and is appreciative. Needy of a father, and has no sexual scruples. My attitudes: see what the boy's like, then ask the boy to give himself to me as payment for receiving a present.
KENYON: Father Tarcisio's decades of abuse were finally brought to an end. Not because of any action by Cardinal Ratzinger's Vatican office, but by the police. Last year Father Tarcisio was jailed for 15 years. The Catholic church has 50 million children within its world-wide congregation.
Father TOM DOYLE
Canon Lawyer
The Vatican has no child protection policy. The only policy they have is to protect the perpetrators, protect the.. to protect the Vatican, to cover this up, to keep it as deeply buried in secrecy as possible, and to prevent as much damage to the institution as possible. So it's damage control.
KENYON: Cardinal Ratzinger's instruction to send all allegations of child abuse to the Vatican is proving frustrating for police and social workers trying to catch and jail priests suspected of abuse. This is Father Joseph Henn, a choir master. The picture was taken during his first assignment as a young priest in Phoenix, Arizona. It was around the time he met 14 year old altar boy Rick Rivezo.
RICK RIVEZO
My parents knew that I was spending time with him, and we went.. he would come to our house a lot. I remember my father telling me that he had an open door policy with Jo, he can come over any time he wanted. He was part of the family.
KENYON: Once the relationship with Rick's family was secure, Father Henn's abuse began.
RIVEZO: What he would do with us is he would take us out, and we'd go to these different things. Whether it would be a funeral, or a wedding, or that kind of thing. And there were times when he would take us swimming. After swimming we would go into the rectory and he would ask me to.. he would ask me to remove my trunks so that he can put them in the dryer. And he would take his and put them in the dryer. And he'd give me a towel, and same for him. And he'd tell me to lay on the bed. So now he's sitting on me, facing me, and I'm facing up, and he would massage me on my chest. And when he would go down is when he would stroke me, and go back up and down again. And he just did that over and over again. I wouldn't want to look at him, I didn't want to see him, I didn't want to see anything below his stomach. I didn't want to feel anything that he was doing, so my concentration was constantly my eyes closed, and I would have my hands out cos I knew his legs were there and I didn't want to touch them. And I'd just turn my head and close my eyes and put myself somewhere else and wait for him to be done.
KENYON: The man who dealt with his case was Rick Romley, a high profile district attorney in Phoenix. Before retiring this year he convicted 8 paedophile priests in his diocese and, uniquely, forced a written confession from the local bishop admitting that he knowingly hid child sexual abuse from the police.
RICK ROMLEY
Former Phoenix District Attorney
I will tell you that the secrecy, the... I mean the obstruction that I saw during my investigation was unparalleled in my entire career as a DA here in Phoenix Arizona. It was so difficult to obtain any information from the church at all. In fact we knew of certain meetings that had taken place, and yet no documentation was ever produced to be able to, you know, show that that meeting had even occurred.
KENYON: The Vatican's official line is that it's sex crime code is purely for internal use, and not intended to hinder civil investigations.
ROMLEY: You know, when we started looking at it I mean it was really interesting. I mean we came across, in the canons for the church, that there are supposed to be secret archives to where this type of material is to provided and not given to civil authorities no matter what the circumstances. We had information that there is an instruction from the Nuncio, who is Ambassador status, to shift all this, you know, incriminating type of information to him because under our.. under the law we could not subpoena that material because he would have protected status as an Ambassador from the Vatican. I think that that's really what the story is. Is that the church.. the church's failure to acknowledge such a serious problem. But more than that, it is not a passiveness. It is a.. it was an openly obstructive way of not allowing civil authorities to try to stop the abuse within the church. I mean they fought us every step of the way.
KENYON: His toughest battle involved Father Henn and two other priests who fled abroad to escape American prosecutors.
I knew that these priests owed a vow of obedience to Rome, to the Vatican. And so I decided to write Rome and ask them, now that formal charges had been brought, to instruct them to follow their orders and to come back and surrender themselves so that the court system could take the case as we wanted it to. And I've got to tell you, I was very surprised. I'd written to Cardinal Sodano, who is the Secretariat of State, and I basically asked him could he instruct these priests to come back, and they just basically returned it, and they said they item's been returned because the sender has refused to accept the correspondence. They did not even open it, they didn't even acknowledge or give me any type of response. They just refused to accept it. A church with supposedly the moral authority to do what is right had miserably failed, you know, one of the most fundamental things, and that's to stop the abuse of children. And they had a real opportunity here to make a.. I mean to make a powerful statement to the world. To say 'everybody is accountable, to protect our children is important'. And they didn't even open the envelope.
KENYON: Father Henn, the priest whose outings to the swimming pool with Rick Rivezo ended in abuse, is now wanted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the United States. But he's no longer there. He's here in Rome, sheltered by the Vatican, and fighting extradition from the headquarters of his religious order, the Salvatorians. The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges.
COLM: The most extraordinary thing about this story is that Father Henn isn't alone. A US newspaper did a series of investigative reports recently called 'Runaway Priests', and it discovered that there are over 7 US priests who face allegations of child sexual abuse living with the support of the church here, in and around the Vatican.
KENYON: The Vatican, the moral compass of the Catholic church, may well be holding evidence of other child abusing priests from around the world. But instead of cooperation and transparency, many feel the church's directives create obstruction and cover up in practice. There's one man who has the power to change that.
FR. DOYLE: Cardinal Ratzinger, who now is Pope, could tomorrow get up and say 'here's the policy for throughout the church. Full disclosure to the civil authorities. Absolute isolation and dismissal of any convicted cleric. Complete openness and transparency. Complete openness of all financial situations. Stop all barriers to the legal process. Completely cooperate with the civil authorities everywhere.' He could do that.
KENYON: The Vatican has failed to respond to repeated requests for an interview about the cases featured in this film. Father Joseph Henn has lost his fight against extradition to the US. He's since fled the Salvatorian headquarters in Rome where he was under house arrest, and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Italy. There's an international warrant out for his arrest. Former Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady served 7 years in an American prison for child sex abuse. Despite American psychiatrists labelling him a serial abuser who needed lifelong monitoring he was deported to his native Ireland in 2001. Because he offended in the US O'Grady does not appear on the Irish Sex Offenders' Register, and there are no restrictions on his access to children.
[Court scene]
Q: So the abuse and the molestation was almost a full time avocation during your entire priesthood.
O'GRADY: I would say it was a significant part of the early priesthood.
Q: Of the victims you did molest what percentage do you think were boys, and what were girls?
O'GRADY: I think I'd say three quarters boys, one quarter girls.
Q: What else happened to you as a consequence of abusing?
O'GRADY: Actually nothing happened. Life continued.

Anglicans Vote On 'Blessing' Homosexual Unions

2007-06-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

June 23, 2007

The Anglican Church in Canada is ready to vote on the 'blessing' of homosexual unions.
I heard a spokesman for the 'pro-blessing' side today on CTV Newsnet say they were in the process of re-writing the Bible in order to remove the passages condemning homosexuality.
I would like to share a couple of scripture quotes with these folks, before they remove them too.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (King James Version)

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Revelation 22:18-20
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

In my humble opinion, the above-mentioned 'folks' are going to burn in Hell.

Here Comes The Antichrist

2007-06-23T14:10:00.001-07:00

EU leaders finally clinch reform treaty deal
Sat Jun 23, 7:23 AM

By Ingrid Melander and Francois Murphy

Commented by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

BRUSSELS
(Reuters) - European Union leaders clinched agreement on Saturday on a mandate to overhaul the 27-nation bloc after persuading Poland to end a stand-off that nearly torpedoed a marathon summit.

The leaders agreed to negotiate a reform treaty by the end of this year, to be ratified by mid-2009, replacing the EU constitution rejected in 2005 by French and Dutch voters.

The 4:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) deal could relaunch the political integration of Europe after two years of gloom and introspection since referendums sank the constitution, dramatizing public disaffection with a project seen as remote and bureaucratic.

Provided it is ratified this time, the treaty should give Europe stronger leadership, a streamlined decision-making process, a bigger voice on the world stage and more say for the European and national parliaments.

The deal opened the way for further enlargement of the Union, she (German Chancellor Angela Merkel) said, which would be impossible without reformed institutions. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who takes over the EU chair in July, said he hoped to have the treaty agreed as early as October.

"The treaty will preserve key features of the constitution such as the creation of a long-term president of the Union and a foreign policy chief with increased powers."

"The leaders agreed on a new position to run EU foreign policy, but without the constitution title of foreign minister.

It will combine the existing jobs of foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who does mostly crisis management, and External Relations
Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who controls the executive European Commission's big aid budget.

The new official will chair meetings of EU foreign ministers and head a combined external action service drawing on both national and EU
diplomats from 2009."

The antichrist is waiting in the wings.

Jesus Christ On The Endtime And His Return To Rule And Reign

2007-06-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

Matthew 24

1And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

25Behold, I have told you before.

26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

33So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

35Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

36But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

37But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

40Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

41Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

42Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

43But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

44Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

45Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

48But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;

49And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;

50The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,

51And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luke 21

1And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

2And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

3And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

4For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

5And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,

6As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

7And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?

8And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

9But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.

10Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

11And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

12But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

13And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

14Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

15For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

16And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

17And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

18But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

19In your patience possess ye your souls.

20And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

21Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

22For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

23But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

24And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

26Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

27And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

29And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

30When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

31So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

32Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

33Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

37And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.

38And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

Violence Filled The Whole Earth

2007-06-03T01:41:00.001-07:00

Jesus Christ said that the 'latter days' would be as they were in the time of Noah. If you read about the time of Noah in the bible, it says "violence filled the whole earth".

Russia vs Israel

2007-05-29T12:03:00.001-07:00

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer
with commentary by Kenneth Montgomery Keillor

MOSCOW - Russia on Tuesday test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and a top government official said it could penetrate any defense system, a news agency reported.

The new missile would modernize Russia's stockpile at a time of rising tensions with the West.

The ICBM was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia, and its test warhead landed on target about 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, a statement from the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia would continue to improve its nuclear weapons systems and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the ICBM, as well as a tactical cruise missile that also was tested Tuesday, can penetrate any missile defense system, Russian news agencies reported.

"As of today, Russia has new (missiles) that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," ITAR-Tass quoted Ivanov as saying. "So in terms of defense and security, Russian can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential candidate to succeed Putin in elections next year.

The U.S. has said its missile defense system is intended to deter Iran and other so-called "rogue nations."

The "United States has made clear to the Russians that this missile shield is directed at other nations that could conceivably affect the peace of Europe. We will continue to make sure that Russia fully understands our intentions," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Tuesday.

The ICBM, called the RS-24, is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of Russia's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.

The statement said the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the START-I treaty and the 2002 Moscow Treaty, which calls for reductions in each country's nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,000 warheads.

The RS-24 "strengthens the capability of the attack groups of the Strategic Missile Forces by surmounting anti-missile defense systems, at the same time strengthening the potential for nuclear deterrence," the statement said.

The statement did not specify how many warheads the missile can carry.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that that can carry multiple independent warheads, ITAR-Tass reported.

The first Topol-Ms were commissioned in 1997, but deployment has proceeded slower than planned because of a shortage of funds, and aging Soviet-built ballistic missiles remain the backbone of Russia's nuclear forces. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.

Alexander Golts, a respected military analyst with the Yezhenedelny Zhurnal online publication, expressed surprise at the announcement. "It seems to be a brand new missile. It's either a decoy or something that has been developed in complete secrecy," he told The Associated Press.

The new missile would probably be more capable of penetrating missile defense systems than previous models, according to Alexander Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations.

He said its development was probably "inevitable" after the U.S. withdrew from the Soviet-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 in order to deploy a national missile defense shield.

Russia adamantly opposes U.S. efforts to deploy elements of a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The United States says the system is aimed at blocking possible attacks by countries such as North Korea and Iran, but Russia says the system would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

Russia's military chief of staff has suggested repeatedly that Russia would regard elements of the system as potential targets.

Asked about the controversy Tuesday at a news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Putin said, "We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg."

On Monday, Russia called for an emergency conference next month on a key Soviet-era arms control treaty that has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and NATO.

The call for a conference on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty follows last month's statement from Putin declaring a moratorium on observing Russia's obligations under the treaty.

The treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe, was first signed in 1990 and then amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the Soviet breakup. Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Moscow withdraws troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia — an issue Moscow says is unrelated.

Putin warned that Russia could dump the treaty altogether if Western nations refuse to ratify its amended version, and the Foreign Ministry said Monday that it lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna, Austria, on June 12-15.

****************************************************************************************************************

*I would note that in addition to the above information, Russia is providing Iran with huge amounts of armaments and technical assistance. I remember how, for the last 25 years, when I would tell my non-Christian acquaintances that the bible says that in the "latter days", Russia, Iran and their allies would invade Israel, said acquaintances would say that Russia was washed up as a military power and would never pose a threat to anyone. They would ridicule me for saying it and laugh it off as a big joke. They're not laughing so much anymore. - KMK

Suicide Bombers

2007-05-26T08:40:00.001-07:00

The bible says "God is love". Just how deluded do these suicide bomber cowboys have to be to believe that after they slaughter a bunch of innocent women and children in somewhere like a market or pizza shop or whatever, that God is going to greet them as heroes in Heaven. God loves the very innocents that this psychopath has just murdered. The bomber, who has been brainwashed into believing that he and his bomb are doing God's work, must be shocked and saddened to discover that he is actually an enemy of God who is now going to burn in Hell for eternity for his trouble.

Why Hell?

2007-05-21T08:55:00.001-07:00

It isn't God who relegates us to Hell, it is our own sins. What is sin? The bible says that "sin is the transgression of the law". What law? The eternal law of God. Behind this physical world we see with our eyes and experience with our senses, there is a spiritual world. I will first establish a few facts. God is a Spirit. The God of the bible created everything. The bible, in fact, identifies Jesus Christ as the Creator (John 1:1). He created the physical universe, and everything in it. He created everything that has a soul including the heavenly angels, Satan, the angels that rebelled against God when Satan did, all of humanity, and possibly animals. I'm not certain animals have a soul, but I believe they do. Our souls, once created, will exist forever. God is holy, absolutely and eternally. Satan and the fallen angels are evil and oppose God. There is open warfare going on in the spiritual world. The prize is the souls of humanity. Why? Satan hates God, but he can't hurt God directly. Satan knows that God loves humanity. The most effective way Satan can hurt God is to wound God's heart by hurting humanity. The most effective way Satan can hurt humanity is to do anything and everything he can to make sure human beings die 'lost'. What does 'lost' mean? As I said earlier, God is holy. Mankind is sinful. Mankind has had a sinful nature since the fall into sin of Adam and Eve. Man's sins and sinful nature erect a wall of separation between man and God. If man dies with that 'wall' in place, it will be there forever. In reality, there are ultimately only two possible destinations. With Jesus in God's eternal paradise, or in Hell, separated from God by your sins, where the bible says you will suffer eternal torment. Ok, we have identified the problem. Now what is the solution? Jesus is the solution. Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of humanity with His own blood. He paid the full price for our sins. He tore down the 'wall'. Salvation is now a free gift offered to everyone. All we have to do is repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior while understanding that He was God come in the flesh to pay for our sins with His blood and that He rose from the dead, and lives forevermore. Why do we have to repent? Picture a wicked person in a perfectly holy environment. It wouldn't be holy for long. When we get 'saved', God changes our hearts, and our very nature. The bible says the human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful. God gave us a conscience to make us aware of this fact. When we get saved, God changes us from inherently evil beings who have to struggle to do good into inherently good beings who have to go out of their way to do evil. Doing evil is now against their very nature. What will ultimately occur is the eternal separation of good and evil. As I said, there are ultimately only two destinations. All those who die with a sinful nature will be excluded from God's eternal paradise. All those who die with a godly nature inherited through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ will be excluded from that place of eternal torment called the Lake of Fire that God prepared for Satan and Satan's angels.

God's Love

2007-05-19T18:34:00.001-07:00

Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God's love. God Himself came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ specifically to pay for the sins of humanity with His own blood. If a person will only repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their Savior, their sins will be forgiven and they will live in paradise forever. If they don't, their own sins will separate them from God and they will go to Hell where the bible says they will be tormented forever and ever. God's love is everywhere and available to everyone. The challenge is how to reach everyone on earth with the message and present it in a way that will lead them to faith in Jesus Christ.

Friend Of The World - Enemy Of God

2007-05-16T23:43:00.001-07:00

What does the bible mean when it says that the friend of the world is the enemy of God? It means that anyone who hasn't repented of their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, understanding that He was God come in the flesh to pay for our sins with His blood, is, technically, an enemy of God. Let's examine this a little more closely. If you are "of the world" as the bible puts it, you don't have faith in Jesus as your Savior, you likely enjoy, and even cherish, your sinful behaviors, and you would be livid at the suggestion that unless you get 'saved', you will suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire, as the bible clearly states you will. You reject Christ, you write off the bible, using one justification or another, usually without even reading it, you scoff at the God of the bible and you despise Christians for delivering the message. You are, as Christ said, 'of your father, the devil', and the devil is going to Hell, and if you don't get saved before you die, you will be in Hell forever with him. On a personal note, whoever you are, I would like you to know that Jesus really does love you, more than you know, and that I sincerely hope you find salvation. The eternal salvation that can only be found through repentance of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heaven Celebrates Jerry Falwell

2007-05-15T16:28:00.003-07:00

Love. It is the one word that best describes Reverend Jerry Falwell, who went to Heaven today. He loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all his heart, and served Him with all his strength for all of his days. He loved his fellow human beings enough to tell them the truth about salvation through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus, in spite of ridicule and repudiation. He was a beloved Christian saint and cherished Christian brother to every true Christian on earth. He was a man of honesty, integity, compassion, fiery faith and outstanding moral courage. The heavenly host celebrates the arrival of Jerry Falwell. When Jesus Christ returns at the Armageddon, brother Jerry and all of the beloved Christian brothers and sisters who preceded him into Heaven will be with Him. This isn't the end for brother Jerry. It is only the beginning of an indescribable eternity. In the meantime, the earth is darkened and diminished by his absence. He will be sadly missed, until we are all together again, in the presence of the Lord.

Taliban Vampire Bites It

2007-05-13T23:30:00.001-07:00

Taliban sources confirm killing of top commander (Reuters)
Reuters - Taliban sources confirmed on Monday that the movement's top operational commander Mullah Dadullah was killed in a clash with Western and Afghan forces, and said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was pondering a replacement.

Good riddance. Hopefully, Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Ansari al-Adel and Mullah Omar are next.

Archaeologist Finds King Herod's Tomb Near Jerusalem

2007-05-08T09:00:00.001-07:00

By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
Courtesy Yahoo News

JERUSALEM - An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.

The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.

The university had hoped to keep the find a secret until Tuesday, when it planned a news conference to disclose the find in detail, but the Haaretz newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 74 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem still stands, and he also ordered big construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Massada and other sites.

It has long been assumed Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations had failed to turn up the site. The 1st century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod's funeral procession.

Haaretz said the tomb was found by archaeologist Ehud Netzer, a Hebrew University professor who has been working at Herodium since 1972. The paper said the tomb was in a previously unexplored area between the two palaces Herod built on the site. Herod died in 4 B.C. in Jericho.

Herodium was one of the last strong points held by Jewish rebels fighting against the Romans, and it was conquered and destroyed by Roman troops in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Question: In what year was Jesus born?

Answer: It is good that we want to know about Jesus. One can never learn too much about the greatest man to have ever walked on earth.

The exact day of Jesus' birth is difficult to establish beyond all doubt. The fact of Jesus' birth, the place, the nature, and the purpose are clearly taught in the scriptures (Matt. 1; 2). However, God did not see fit to explicitly reveal the date. We do know that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the King (Matt. 2: 1). History informs us that this Herod died in 4 B. C. Hence, Jesus would have been born no later than 4 B. C. We also learn from the Bible that a census was being taken at the time of Jesus' birth, in fact, Joseph and Mary were at Bethlehem to enroll when Jesus was born (Lk. 2: 1-7). Quirinius, the Governor of Syria, conducted this census. Based on the believed date of this census, some place Jesus' birth at 6 B. C. Some scholars believe Jesus was born in 5 B. C. In the center column reference of some versions of the King James Translation, we read regarding the time of Matthew 2, "The fourth year before the common account called Anno Domini (A. D., dm)." This date, I believe, is the product of the work of Dionysius Exiguus, a sixth century monk.

The real matter of importance. The matter of great consequence is that Jesus was born of a virgin, just as prophesied 700 years earlier (Matt. 1: 23; Isa. 9: 6). Jesus lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial death (Heb. 4: 15; Matt. 26: 28). Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and proved that claim by many undeniable miracles (Jn. 20: 30, 31).

Christians celebrate the glorious death and resurrection of Jesus each Lord's Day when they observe the Lord's Supper (Matt. 26: 26-29, Acts 20: 7). Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life (Jn. 14: 6). This same Jesus who experienced such a humble birth is coming back as the exalted judge of all men (Matt. 25: 31-46).
(Courtesy - biblequestions.org)

Revelation 18 - The Destruction of the USA?

2007-05-07T02:27:00.001-07:00

There is a debate in Christian circles whether or not Revelation 18 is a prophecy of the apocolyptic destuction of the USA. My opinion is that it very well could be.

Revelation 18

1And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

7How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

9And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

10Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

11And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

12The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

13And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

14And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

15The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

16And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

17For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

18And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

19And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

20Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

21And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

22And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

23And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

24And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

The Two Witnesses

2007-05-05T13:13:00.001-07:00

As far as I can determine, the timeframe for the following scenario is the second half of the coming seven year so-called 'Great Tribulation Period'.

Revelation 11:
3And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

6These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

7And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

8And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

9And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

10And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

11And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

12And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

The False Prophet

2007-05-04T18:12:00.001-07:00

While the Antichrist is doing his thing (see previous post) there will be another character promoting him who the Bible refers to as 'the false prophet'.

Revelation 13:
11And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

12And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

14And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

15And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation 16:13
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Revelation 19:20
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The Antichrist

2007-05-03T16:32:00.001-07:00

Shortly after the 'rapture' (see previous post) a leader commonly referred to as the 'Antichrist' shall arise in Europe. He will become the de facto ruler of the world. He will champion a seven year treaty which will likely relate to mideast peace. Half way through the treaty period, he will violate the terms of it. This precipitates an invasion of Israel by Russia, Iran and their allies. Russia will lose. China and it's oriental allies will march into the middle east following Russia's defeat. The so-called 'mark of the beast' will be introduced under the reign of the Antichrist. He will be assassinated but miraculously live. He and his army will fight against Jesus Christ at the Battle of Armaggedon when Jesus returns at the end of the seven year 'great tribulation period' to rule the world for eternity.

2 Thessalonians 2:
1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Revelation 13

1And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

4And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

7And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

8And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The Rapture

2007-05-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

One of these days all those who have truly repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior are going to disappear off the face of the earth. They are being called to Heaven by Jesus for about seven years while all 'hell' breaks loose down here, and then they are coming back with Him when He returns to rule the world forever.

I Thessalonians 4:
13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Al-Qaida In Iraq Leader Reported Killed

2007-05-01T11:11:00.001-07:00

Iraq probes reports of al-Masri's death (AP)
AP - Iraq's government received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq had been killed but officials said Tuesday the information had not been confirmed, and an insurgent coalition insisted he was alive.
Courtesy Yahoo News (May 1,2007)

If al-Masri is dead, as a Christian, I know that Jesus loves him and would hope he got saved through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior. Beyond that, in terms of his motives and bloodthirsty activities, good riddance.

The House of Togarmah

2007-04-30T00:55:00.001-07:00

"Mass rally pressures Turk govt over president race (Reuters)
Reuters - Up to a million people rallied in a sea of red Turkish flags on Sunday (April 29, 2007), accusing the government of planning an Islamist state and demanding it withdraw its presidential candidate."
Courtesy Yahoo News

The Bible says Russia, Iran and their allies will ultimately invade Israel. One of those allies will be the "House of Togarmah of the north quarters". I understand this to be a reference to Turkey. For many years, Turkey has wanted to join the EU and has been snubbed. For twenty-five years I have been anticipating the emergence of an anti-Israel, Islamic government in Turkey and it is apparently happening.

Monkeys, Zombies and Global Warming

2007-04-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

Today I took exception to David Suzuki and Al Gore criticizing the Conservative Government of Canada for not doing enough to combat climate change. As a prominent member of the NDP stated, as opposed to the former Liberal Government, at least the Tories are doing something. David Suzuki believes that humanity started as sea slime that turned into monkeys. It takes a kind of faith I don't have to believe in that religion. When new ager Al Gore ran for US president, the media widely commented on how he looked and acted like three different persons during the three presidential debates. He was scarier than Dr. Strangelove. Enough said.

God and Prophecy

2007-04-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

As I understand the Bible, Jesus Christ is God. The Father is God and the Holy Spirit is also God. It may be difficult to fathom, but God is actually three unique persons in perfect harmony of purpose. Each has a unique role to fulfill. The King James Bible will be used as our text of reference. The cynic who, at this point, would scream that the Bible is not the authoritative Word of God needs to explain how the Bible has accurately foretold events for thousands of years. He also needs to explain why no other book in existence, religious or otherwise, has done the same. The explanation is simple. It was an easy way for God to prove the Bible is, indeed, His message to humanity. For those who might question why I rely upon the old King James version, I will elaborate later on. In Genesis 1:26, on the first page of the first book of the Bible, it states "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:. 1 John 5:7 declares "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. In John 1:1, in the New Testament, it identifies Jesus as 'The Word' and states:
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
The above passage clearly and indisputably identifies Jesus Christ as God. It states that He is both the Creator and the Savior. For those who wonder what, or who God is, God is a spirit, an invisible being. For those who wonder what God is like, the Bible tells us that "God is love". He is holy. God's heart is a heart of compassion and forgiveness, but it is also a heart that requires justice. In terms of the eternal picture, this makes perfect sense. There is no love without justice. They are inextricable. Our sins erect a spiritual wall of separation between us and an eternally holy, sinless God. The Bible explains that "The wages of sin is death" and "there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood". Neither is there any salvation without repentance. Part of salvation is understanding we are sinners, feeling repentant or 'sorry' for past sins and deciding to turn from sin in the future. You don't have to worry about faking repentance. When you are ready to be saved, you will feel it in your heart, and it will be real. That is why Jesus came from Heaven to die on the cross. To pay the price for our sins with his innocent blood so that we might be forgiven and reconciled unto, or 'reunited' with God, and made ready to spend eternity with Him. No one can force or coerce you into getting saved. The Bible says "Know ye not that it is the goodness of God which leadeth unto repentance? You will only be saved when your heart is ready. No one can decide for you. The best thing a Christian who cares about your salvation can do is keep you in their prayers and be a gracious and consistent example of a loving heart and a changed life. Christians are by no means perfect but you should be able to see Jesus at work in the lives and hearts of Christians. When we come to understand who Jesus was and accept Him as our Savior, we are changed forever. You may not see lightning in the sky or feel an earthquake, but something changes. God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in our hearts. We are 'born again' or 'born of the Spirit'. The Bible explains that, at that very moment, we are birthed into the family of God and washed of all our past sins and saved. You become the spiritual brother or sister of every other true Christian. Our bodies become the 'temple' of the Holy Spirit. It is, or should be, the start of a changed heart and a changed life and a 'godly' existence. God is omniscient, or 'all-knowing'. He knows everything and every detail of every event throughout eternity. This explains His ability to fill the Bible with prophecy. He knows our every thought, word and deed. This is necessary in order for Him to be the just judge of us all on Judgment Day, which we all will face at the end of our life. "It is assigned unto a man once to die, but after this, the judgment". This scripture not only refers to our day of judgment, but exposes and unequivocally rebuts the false eastern religious theory of reincarnation. God is 'omnipresent', which means He is everywhere at all times. If you are wondering if He is where you are at right now, the answer is yes. He is omnipotent, which means 'all-powerful'. He can do anything He wants at any time.

There was a time when I didn't believe the Bible was the Word of God, when I was told it was. I've always wanted to know the answer to life and was never afraid to find out. Instinctively, I knew that if I ever found the truth, it would have something to do with good and evil and eternity. I took it as a challenge and engaged in years of research. I investigated and challenged all of the subjects you all commonly raise and asked every question about life I could. I even asked the tough questions about the types of sin that were prevalent in my own life at the time. The Bible answered every question. I wasn't afraid of, or offended by, the answers because my desire to know the truth was more important to me than anything else.
Without realizing it, I fulfilled the condition of the following scripture:

Jeremiah 29:13 (King James Version)
13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I would never take anyone's word for it, nor would I stop searching until I had the answer. In terms of spiritual truth, I ultimately came face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Savior. Not a single thing has happened in the years since to ever make me regret it or change my mind. Nothing ever will. Once you know the truth, any amount of investigation only confirms it.

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

I sincerely hope you all find the truth and make it to Heaven.
That is my prayer.

1 John 4:8 (King James Version)
8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Question: Say, I don't believe in God. But then, I don't not believe in God either. Basically, I'm unsure about the whole thing. Even if I'm willing to accept the possibility of God, I do not truly have faith in Him. Firstly, following Christianity, am I going to hell?

What you have described is referred to as 'agnosticism'. Pertinent to the existence of God, you're not sure, but open-minded. As I understand it, in order to be saved, one must understand who God is. You must come to realize that there are three eternal persons commonly identified as the trinity or Godhead. These three eternal entities, together, constitute what we understand as 'God'. They are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They each have individual roles to fulfill and are in perfect unity of purpose. The nature, or character, of God is perfect holiness and love personified. God created Heaven and the universe and everything in them. God's love, and His desire to share His creation and His desire for interaction motivated him to create all life. Jesus Christ is the Creator. God created the angels. God created the world. He subsequently created humankind in His own image, meaning humankind inherently possessed the character, or personality, of God. Human beings are the crown of God's creation. God gave the angels and humankind a conscience and a free will, with which to make decisions freely and independently of God. One of the angels became prideful and reprobate and rebelled against God. That angel became the enemy of God. He convinced one third of the angels in Heaven to rebel with him. They were cast out of Heaven. We know them as the devil and demons. They hate God and would wish to hurt Him any way they can. God is eternal and omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, meaning all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever present everywhere. The devil and His demons are unable to challenge Him directly. In light of that fact, they deliberated upon how to most effectively hurt Him indirectly. They are aware that God loves humanity with a greater love than we can understand. They know that the most effective way to hurt God is to hurt those God loves most. God named the first two people He created Adam and Eve. They were holy beings in a perfect environment. God is perfect in holiness and unchanging. Perfect holiness is His very nature.The devil knew that if he could succeed in convincing Adam and Eve to disobey God, he knew that the act of disobedience would spiritually isolate them from God in the same manner as their own disobedience had separated the devil and his demons. God only forbade Adam and Eve from doing one thing, which was eating the fruit from the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' which God had placed in a garden where Adam and Eve were. The devil is a phenomenally intelligent being. He took advantage of Adam and Eve's free will to coerce them into an act of disobedience. This act of disobedience, or sin, separated them spiritually from God. The eternal laws of God, as dictated by the very nature of a Holy God demand that the wages of sin is death, both spiritual, and otherwise. This is how evil, or sin entered the world. As a result, humankind has been cursed with a fallen or sinful nature ever since. That is why you see all of the evil in the world. God, in His love for us, devised a way for humankind to be freed from responsibility for our sin and thereby be reconciled and reunited with Him for eternity. It is a tenet of the eternal law that remission of sin demands the shedding of innocent blood. All of humankind has a fallen, or sinful nature. In order to save humankind from the fate of eternal separation from God, Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sinless sacrifice. He paid the price for us. He was the propitiation for our sins. In order to be 'saved', or 'reconciled' to God, we must repent of our sins, which means to understand and acknowledge we are sinners and be willing to turn from our sinful ways. We must accept and trust in the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ which He provided as the price of our salvation. We are all eternal beings. Our bodies die, but our spirits live on forever. As part of His eternal plan, God is effecting the eternal separation of good and evil and the eternal separation of the redeemed from the damned. If you die saved, you will be given a new body and live with Jesus forever in a perfect paradise. If you die lost, you will suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire which God has prepared for the devil and his followers.

Question: Is the Bible really the Word of God?

There was a time when I didn't believe the Bible was the Word of God. I argued that it wasn't. I've always wanted to know the answer to life and was never afraid to find out. Instinctively, I knew that if I ever found the truth, it would have something to do with good and evil and eternity. I took it as a challenge and engaged in years of research. I investigated and challenged all of the subjects you all commonly raise and asked every question about life I could. I even asked the tough questions about the types of sin that were prevalent in my own life at the time. The Bible answered every question. I wasn't afraid of, or offended by, the answers because my desire to know the truth was more important to me than anything else. Beyond the above, I also discovered that the Bible has told the future with perfect accuracy for thousands of years, distinguishing it from any other book on earth. I sought God and searched for Him with all my heart.
Without realizing it, I fulfilled the condition of the following scripture:

Jeremiah 29:13 - And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

The Bible promises that we will find God when we seek Him and search for Him with all our heart.

I would never take anyone's word for it, nor would I stop searching until I had the answer. In terms of spiritual truth, I ultimately came face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Savior. Not a single thing has happened in the years since to ever make me regret it or change my mind. Nothing ever will. Once you know the truth, any amount of investigation only confirms it.

Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life and that no man can be reconciled with God except through Him.

I sincerely hope you find the truth and make it to Heaven.
I hope to see you there. You are in my prayers.

No doubt the usual assortment of blasphemers, scoffers, mockers, haters of God and other reprobates will instantly slither out of their snake pits and howl like rabid banshees when I say this. One of the primary proofs that the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God, is that it has told the future in numerous prophecies over the course of thousands of years with perfect accuracy. No other book in history can honestly make the same claim. I will now be assailed with all of the usual arguments against the Bible, such as accuracy of the Bible text, different versions, similar claims by other religions, Old Testament versus New Testament, etc., etc., etc. Suffice to say that I have investigated all of these arguments thoroughly and found them to be devoid of credibility. I have addressed myself to most, if not all of the contrary arguments, earlier in this thread. To address your question from the perspective of spiritual truth, or spiritual reality, I will repost the following for you. With all due respect, I do not expect you to understand it, or accept it, on the basis of the following scripture, but I would encourage you to read all of it with an open mind:

1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

After Noah's flood, there were only eight people left alive on the earth, and they all knew the one true God. Noah worshiped God, as do I. At some point, man chose to reject that one true God and go his own way. Whose fault is that?

Genesis 7:11 - In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Genesis 7:13 - In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

Genesis 7:15 - And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

Genesis 7:23 - And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 8:20 - And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 9:1 - And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

The following is my opinion, based on my contemplation of scripture. It is my understanding that those who have never heard of Jesus Christ will still be judged, but not in the same way we are who have heard of Him. God is revealed to every human being who has the mental capacity to understand.

Romans 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Now they might not be able to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior if they have never heard of Him, but they can still try to please the God that they know is out there. God is capable of revealing Himself to them if they are willing to accept Him. If they try to obey the laws that God has written on every human heart, I believe God will accept that. Jesus' blood would cover their sins even though they have never heard His name. Which makes this statement by Jesus Christ true: John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Even though they don't know who Jesus Christ is it is still by Him that they are allowed to come to God the Father. His blood covers them. I believe this is the same for those who don't have the mental capacity to accept or reject Jesus Christ. Whether that is because they were mentally retarded or because they died before reaching an age of accountability. Jesus Christ's blood still covers their sins, because God requires blood for the forgiveness of sins: Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

They are saved by God's grace just like a person who has understood and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior is saved by God's grace. Rejection of Jesus Christ once you know about Him, is an entirely different matter.

Since the advent of Christ, many people from other cultures, upon hearing the Gospel, have rejected the false religions of their fathers and accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

Genesis 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

God will be the ultimate Judge of each and every one of us, and for all of us who have heard the Gospel, each and every one of us have a decision to make.

How I think it should be is irrelevant. What's important is how it is. God made Hell as a place of eternal punishment for the devil and his demons, not people. Our sins have put a wall of separation between us and the eternal, sinless, Holy God. God is love, and He loves every one of us. He came to earth to pay for our sins with his own blood. All we have to do to be saved is repent of sin and accept Jesus as our Saviour. Our sins are forgiven. At the moment of salvation, God changes our heart which enables us to turn from sin. In the beginning of our Christian life, we will still be susceptible to sin but over time God helps us overcome it. He really does change our hearts, and that change makes us want to do good. I know. He changed my heart. If you're defining 'good person' as someone who doesn't sin, then we all deserve Hell, because we have all sinned. God's plan is to separate good and evil, and the damned from the redeemed, for eternity. It has to be this way. If God allowed us to go to Heaven with our wicked hearts, before long, Heaven would look a lot like Hell. We would make it that way, just like we have done to the earth. God's plan is perfect. I don't want to live with wickedness and evil for eternity, I want to live in God's perfect paradise, and those are precisely our options. When we get saved, we become one of God's children. Every other true Christian on earth is our brother and sister. I am going to Heaven, and I hope to see you there.

1 Corinthians 2:9 - But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

With regard to Buddha and ancient eastern religions, I have always found it fascinating that the most ancient Chinese pictographic language, which predates the Bible, tells the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

http://www.chinesebiblemission.org/documents/chinesegenesis.pdf#search='Chinese%20pictograph
(Copy and paste the entire URL above into your browser)
(Other articles pertaining to the subject of biblical themes in ancient Chinese pictographs are available.)

I have had quite a few requests for Bible prophecies. I posted a long list of specific Old Testament prophecies which were fulfilled by Jesus Christ, but the person who asked for them refused to read them. The truth can be of great offense when your losing the argument. Here is a specific prophecy from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, followed by a brief explanation of it's meaning. It was written by Daniel during the Babylonian era. Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar the prophecy concerned "the latter days":

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Daniel 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. 2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. 4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. 6 But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof. 7 They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it. 8 The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. 9 But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof. 10 The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. 11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. 12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. 14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: 15 He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. 16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation. 17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: 18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. 23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. 24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation. 25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. 26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. 31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. 34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. 39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. 46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. 47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. 48 Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar, of the Babylonian Empire, that he and his kingdom represented the 'head of fine gold' of the image. The 'breast and arms of silver' would be the kingdom that replaced the Babylonian empire. It is an historical fact that Babylon was replaced by the Medo-Persian empire. Daniel said the 'belly and thighs of brass' would be the kingdom that replaced the 'breast and arms of silver'. Historically, the Medo-Persian empire was replaced by the Grecian Empire. He said the 'belly and thighs of brass' would be replaced by 'a fourth kingdom, strong as iron'. The Grecian Empire was replaced by the Roman Empire. Daniel then refers to the 'feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron', and tells us 'the kingdom shall be divided'; This is precisely what happened with the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire has ultimately been replaced by the 'Revived Roman Empire', or European Union as we know it today. Daniel tells us that in the days of these end time kings, or rulers of the European Union, God shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that 'Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth". This is a reference to Jesus Christ returning to take over the world to establish the Kingdom of God and usher in the millennial, or, thousand year, reign of Christ over the earth. Other Bible prophecies describe to us in great detail, the events that are happening before our eyes today, such as '' And as he sat upon the mount of olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows'-Matthew 24:3-8 and 'there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;'. It reveals the events which will occur between now and the Millennium, such as an event referred to as the 'Rapture', where all true Christians are taken to Heaven by Jesus Christ during the seven year 'great tribulation period' on earth, the invasion of Israel by Russia and it's Arab and Muslim allies, a subsequent attack by China and it's allies, the advent of the end time world leader from Europe often referred to as the 'Antichrist', a false religious leader referred to as the 'false prophet' who works with the Antichrist, the 'mark of the beast' and '666', which requires that 'no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark', what will occur at the conclusion of the Millennium, such as the Great White Throne Judgment and the establishment of God's eternal kingdom on the 'new earth' and numerous other detailed prophecies.

Prophecy

As I write this many awesome events are taking place in the world. With regard to the future, based on Bible prophecy, I can tell you the following. One of these days, an event referred to as the 'Rapture' is going to occur, where all true Christians are taken to Heaven by Jesus Christ during the seven year, so-called 'Great Tribulation period'. A man will appear on the world stage and become the defacto leader of the world. He will come from the European Union. I could be wrong but my studies indicate that that man will likely be King Juan Carlos of Spain. The Bible refers to that man as 'the Beast'. He will be introduced as a man of peace. A seven year treaty or covenant will be introduced bringing peace to the Middle East and the Beast will affirm that covenant with many. The Beast will be on the world scene in his role as the 'Antichrist' world leader for about seven years. He will require everyone to receive a 'mark' in their right hand or forehead, and no one except those who have the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name will be able to buy or sell. His number is 666. At some point in the seven years, I believe about the mid-point, Russia and it's allies will invade Israel. This will cause a war of holocaust proportions. They will enjoy initial success, but Russia and it's allies will ultimately be defeated. After this, China and it's allies will march into the Middle East. Ultimately, all of the nations of the world will be gathered together to do battle over Jerusalem. At that time, at the end of the seven-year, so-called Great Tribulation period, Jesus Christ returns from Heaven with an army of his saints. Jesus Christ destroys the armies that are gathered to do battle and shortly thereafter the 'Millennium', or thousand year reign of Jesus Christ begins on the earth. The Bible says that near the end of the Millennium, Satan shall be loosed for a short season to tempt those upon the earth. Following that, Jesus Christ will rule for eternity.

To be continued.......In the meantime, if you have any questions about this subject, just ask.

The Secret About 'The Secret'

2007-04-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

Today my friend lent me a dvd called 'The Secret' and asked me to evaluate it. Well, in my opinion, although very smooth and seductive and even entertaining in it's presentation, in the final analysis it is an anti-Christ, new age, metaphysical lie of the devil. Within this context, by anti-Christ, I mean that any teaching that doesn't point you towards Jesus Christ inevitably points you away from Him, and this teaching definitely does not direct you to Jesus. While promising you everything, including peace and prosperity, 'The Secret' will ultimately lead you away from faith in Jesus and straight into Hell. That's the real secret about 'The Secret'. The source of eternal salvation and the only kind of peace and prosperity that truly matters is Jesus Christ, and that's no secret.

Luke 19:10
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. - Jesus Christ

I Peter 1:7-9 (King James version)
7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Philippians 4:6-8
6Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. - Jesus Christ

Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

2007-04-25T10:53:00.001-07:00

"Anglican head Williams says anti-gays misread Bible

The spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans has said conservative Christians who cite the Bible to condemn homosexuality are misreading a key passage written by Saint Paul almost 2,000 years ago." - courtesy Reuters via Yahoo! Canada News Apr 17/2007

First of all, Christians aren't "anti-gay" or anti anyone, from a spiritual perspective. Christians are anti-sin and anti-evil. Christians understand that God loves everyone and Christians hope for salvation for everyone through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus as their Savior. Here is the passage Mr. Williams refers to:

"Romans 1:26-28 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)

26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"

In my opinion, anyone who would suggest that the above passage is not a clear condemnation of the sin of homosexuality is either smoking something they ought not, or a willfully blind 'wolf in sheep's clothing'.

Roman Catholicism vs True Christianity

2007-04-25T10:22:00.001-07:00

"VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has revised traditional Roman Catholic teaching on so-called limbo approving a church report released Friday that said there was reason to hope that babies who die without baptism can go to heaven." - courtesy Yahoo News - April/2007

So much for 'papal infallibility'. It has long been my opinion that Roman Catholicism is not true Christianity. I read the King James bible from cover to cover and it teaches that the true way of salvation is through repentance of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior. Upon close scrutiny, Catholicism preaches 'another gospel'. Read my article 'Bad News For The Vatican - Peter's Jerusalem Tomb'.

The Big Lie - Satan vs God and Humanity

2007-04-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the truth. Faith in Jesus Christ and repentance of sin is the only way of salvation. This life is the only life we have ever lived, or will ever live, before we stand before God for judgement. The Bible says "It is assigned to a man once to die but after this the judgement". So much for theory of reincarnation. The sins of Christians have been paid for by the blood of Jesus but they will still be judged on their service and obedience to Christ since they were saved. The damned will bear all the responsibility for their sins. The Bible says "The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In this context "death" refers to eternal separation from God. After the judgement, we will either be forever secure with Jesus Christ or forever in torments in a place God has prepared for the devil and his followers. Satan doesn't want you to know this and has done, and will do, everything in his power to prevent you from realizing it. One tactic the devil will utilize is to try to convince you that God doesn't even exist. If you are somewhat religious-minded, he may try to make you believe you 'deserve' to go to Heaven because of your 'good deeds'. If you have enough spiritual knowledge to lend credence to the Bible, he may try to convince you that you can be saved by observing the 'ten commandments'. The Bible says that all our 'righteousnesses' are as filthy rags in the sight of God. This is because it took nothing less than the shed blood of Jesus Christ to redeem us and there could be no greater possible insult to God than to offer up our own 'good deeds' as a replacement. Satan may preach that your ancestors slithered out of the ocean before magically tranforming into monkeys who magically transformed into your great, great grandpa. Genetic scientists have recently determined that all of humankind originated from one woman. I'll stick with Adam and Eve. I understand that one of the major so-called 'Christian' religions is teaching that the theory of evolution is harmonious with the Biblical account of creation. A bald-faced devil's lie. Mankind is the crown of God's creation and God loves each and every one of us. Satan hates God and the only way he can hurt God is to hurt mankind. Satan hates you and wants you to suffer in Hell with him forever. He has concocted every conceivable device to deceive you. He has constructed a wall of lies and distractions and deceptions and illusions to lead you astray. He hopes and trusts that you will buy into one or more of said lies and distractions and deceptions and illusions and therefore die lost. An excellent example of one of his distractions is none other than Christmas itself. Christmas is supposedly about Jesus Christ. So much of Santa Claus and shopping and partying is thrown in our faces, few people can find time for Jesus. The darker aspects of Halloween are another device he uses to steal the hearts and souls of our children. What are some more of these lies? First I will point out that he has accomplished the aforementioned 'big lie' with a great deal of help from humanity itself. One of Satan's greatest accomplishments has been to convince men that he doesn't even exist. He then utilizes them to fulfil his evil agenda. The Bible calls Satan "the father of lies" and a "serpent" and "dragon" and tells us he has come to "steal and kill and destroy". It reads like today's news headlines. The inspiration for every act of war, murder, rape, molestation, theft, violence, fraud, treachery, vandalism, sexual perversion, drug abuse and even seemingly minor transgressions such as speeding and littering can be traced right back to the devil. He has convinced man that he stands to benefit, in some form or fashion, from commiting such acts. He would rather you not know that on judgement day you will be held accountable for every thought, word and deed in this life. Satan has encouraged the division of Christianity into a multitude of different factions so you will look at it and say none of them really know the truth. He has created Christian-style cults that use all the right biblical terminology but are about as Christian as Satan himself. He is behind all of the corrupted and watered-down modern translations of the Bible. He has masterminded all of the non-Christian religions in order to further cloud the issue. He is exceptionally fond of helping godless politicians into positions of influence where they can propose and pass laws that compliment his purposes. The legalization of abortion and homosexual marriage, abolition of the death penalty and the proposed legalization of drugs are prime examples. Creating a political and judicial environment wherein criminals often receive what is tantamount to a slap on the wrist and a free ticket to do it again are evidence of Satan's handiwork. Responsibility for a media which glorifies and promotes sex outside of heterosexual marriage and every imagineable perversion as perfectly normal and nice can also be traced to the devil's doorstep. Violence and drugs and criminal attitudes and behavior are promoted to our young people as some of the staples of life. Movies, television, music and video games are the primary mediums through which the message is conveyed. The recent, phenomenally popular children's books that promote witchcraft deserve to be mentioned here. They might as well be endorsed with Satan's signature. It is no coincidence that most of the people in media have nothing but loathing for Jesus Christ. The afore-mentioned are all elements of the wall of lies Satan has built to keep you from reaching the truth. Don't buy it. Satan knew the truth and still rebelled against God. Some people delight in evil practices so much that they wouldn't repent even if they could understand the truth clearly. The Bible says this type of person is of their 'father', 'the devil'. I believe most people, if they could only see the big picture clearly enough, would repent of sin and trust in Jesus and go with God. Some would do it because they truly want to do what is right. Many would turn to God for no other reason than they like to be on the winning side. When they realized their options are to either follow the devil to a place of eternal blackness and suffering and sorrow devoid of love and laughter and beauty and comfort and companionship or to follow Jesus to Paradise, they would go with Jesus. I hope they do. I will expand upon this theme over time.

Kenneth Montgomery Keillor