The Week in the News

We begin reporting on the rising tidal waves and tsunamis of Anti-Americanism smashing through the countries of Germany and South America, following the continuous earthquakes of ongoing revelations about the atrocious behavior of US worldwide spying activities—coupled with the realization, especially by German citizens, that their German government is unwilling to confront the US—perhaps because of passive or even quite active participation. We also report about Hungary’s warning against German leadership in Europe.

We continue reporting on the trial and acquittal of George Zimmerman, following the untimely death of Trayvon Martin. We are focusing on the fabricated story of the mass media and radical commentators pertaining to the myth of racial profiling, while most are ignoring the real, but uncomfortable crux of the matter.

We point out America’s apparent repeated and ongoing unwillingness to obey its own laws prohibiting military aid to Egypt (notwithstanding that America CLAIMS to be a nation of laws); speak of European anti-Semitism; Israel’s repeated announcements that it might attack Iran militarily; Israel’s desire to build a Third Temple; and a possible collaboration between Iran and North Korea.

We report on gay marriages in Britain and Wales; and conclude with France’s celebration of its Bastille Day on July 14, 2013, showing that the French people might be in error regarding the origin and nature of their national holiday.

Anti-Americanism on the Rise…

The Financial Times wrote on July 12:

“Outside the US, [Snowden’s] revelations have revived a narrative about the dangers of a world dominated by an untrustworthy superpower that had been dormant as debate raged instead about American decline. Already criticised for its extensive use of drones, the international image of the administration has taken another heavy hit by the documents about extensive US surveillance.

“Many Latin American governments were angered when the plane carrying Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, was diverted to Vienna airport on suspicion that Mr Snowden was on board – a tip that Spanish officials said this week came from the US. The disclosures about US surveillance in Brazil have prompted a new round of indignation in a region with a strong anti-US sentiment…”

Anti-Americanism is prophesied to increase—some, if not much of it, is due to America’s own conduct.

A Flop and Total Disaster

Deutsche Welle reported on July 13:

“German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich says he is satisfied with US assurances about spying activities. Weeks ahead of a federal election though, the opposition are not about to let the issue go.

“Neither of Germany’s main opposition parties was satisfied with the assurances Friedrich… said he received during his meetings with senior US officials in Washington on Friday. Thomas Opperman, the parliamentary floor leader of the Social Democrats, said Friedrich’s trip had not achieved much. ‘Minister Friedrich is returning empty-handed,’ Oppermann said in an interview published in the Saturday edition of the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper: ‘We have not moved a single step forward on any of the key points.’ Konstantin von Notz, the Green Party’s interior affairs spokesman described Friedrich’s trip as a complete flop…”

In a related article, dated July 13, Deutsche Welle quoted opinions and statements from German politicians and newscasters, as follows:

“The election campaign has officially begun, and the NSA surveillance scandal is emerging as a key issue along the way. Now… it will fall to the opposition parties to come up with clear proposals on how they intend to treat the matter. Furthermore… the federal government has not yet comprehended what is at stake with respect to the data scandal… the governing coalition has put too much emphasis on the fact that official German delegations were potentially the victims of surveillance, whereas the core of the issue… is that 80 million German people’s communication was being monitored.

“… what’s at stake in the NSA affair is the balance of political power between the US and Germany… Germany is letting itself be lulled by ‘security nonsense’ – a reference to claims that the NSA’s surveillance activities have been able to stop terrorist attacks… Although German media have featured much discussion and criticism of the NSA’s activities, there have yet to be any major public demonstrations in response to the disclosures in recent weeks… this ‘lethargy’ [is blamed] on the fact that, due to the nature of the intelligence agencies’ surveillance, people remain unaware of the act as it is occurring…”

Friedrich’s “results” won’t satisfy the German people. Their distrust of America and their own governmental leaders is growing. And if the “lethargy” of the Germans in this matter is criticized, what word should be used to describe the deafening silence and the appalling lack of interest of a majority of the American people? One is reminded of ancient Rome before its fall—as long as the government provides some bread and a lot of games or distractions to the people, they can be kept in ignorance and a fragile state of “happiness.”

“America Is Sick”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 16:

“America is sick. September 11 left it wounded and unsettled — that’s been obvious for nearly 12 years — but we are only now finding out just how grave the illness really is… The global spying scandal shows that the US has become manic, that it is behaving pathologically, invasively. Its actions are entirely out of proportion to the danger…

“An American government that gives its blessing to a program like Prism respects nothing and no one. It acts out its omnipotence, considers itself above international law — certainly on its own territory and even on foreign ground… Did Obama, the Harvard Law student, even believe what he was saying in his speeches about the return of civil liberties? Can someone be so cynical that they promise to heal the world, then act in such a way all the while giving the xenophobic explanation that only foreigners would be monitored?…

“The German government has shown devastating weakness. Merkel should say, ‘You are manic, and what you are doing is sick’… Instead she weighs every word to avoid annoying the Americans…”

In an accompanying article, Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 16:

“The United States has massively and systematically violated the civil rights of people who have no possibility of voting against its practices in elections. After all, the NSA and CIA and whatever the other organizations are called aren’t operating under German laws when they’re supposedly protecting the security of the free world… Europe and Germany aren’t powerless against American encroachments. The European Union’s data protection directive includes provisions to force US firms to adhere to our rules…”

The expression, “America is sick,” is quite interesting in light of an end-time prophecy about the modern house of Israel—including the USA—in Isaiah 1:5-6.

America’s Worst Nightmare

Reuters reported on July 12:

“Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst. ‘Snowden has enough information to cause [more] harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,’ Greenwald said…

“‘The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen[s] to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.’… Greenwald said… that documents Snowden has tucked away in different parts of the world detail which U.S. spy programs capture transmissions in Latin America and how they work. ‘One way of intercepting communications is through a telephone company in the United States that has contracts with telecommunications companies in most Latin American countries,’ Greenwald said, without specifying which company.”

Did German Government Know?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 17:

“The German government has so far claimed that it knew nothing of the United States’ Prism spying program, revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last month. But parts of a confidential NATO document published by daily Bild on Wednesday show that the German military, the Bundeswehr, was probably already aware of the National Security Agency’s operations in 2011.

“The document, reportedly sent on Sept. 1, 2011 to all regional commands by the joint NATO headquarters in Afghanistan, gives specific instructions on working together with the foreign data surveillance program. According to Bild, the document was also sent to the regional command in northern Afghanistan, for which Germany was responsible at the time under General Major Markus Kneip.  Should the media report be confirmed, Berlin’s claims of ignorance will prove to have been false… if it turns out that Berlin knowingly tolerated and participated in the NSA activities, many would see it as a betrayal by the government.”

The Local wrote on July 17:

“The news reports add to pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of September 22 elections because she has said she only learnt through the media of the US online and telecom surveillance programme. Many Germans are angry that their emails, phone calls, web searches and other data have been captured and stored under the NSA programme, details of which were leaked by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.”

Hungary Warns Against German Leadership in Europe

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 17:

“The latest remarks by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are unlikely to improve his fractured relations with Germany or the EU. Speaking on Tuesday, he invoked the memory of World War II to warn against German leadership of the European Union. ‘When a person reads about a rapprochement between Russia and an EU led by Germany, he looks out to see whether his children are still in the yard,’ Orbán said…

“Many people in Central and Eastern Europe are wary of any signs of closer ties between Moscow and Berlin because they remember the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact which carved up much of Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence… In May, Orbán had made a remark about Nazi tanks in the context of Germany’s policy towards Hungary, drawing an unusually sharp rebuke from German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.”

Our Lying Media on “Racial Profiling”—The “Trial” of George Zimmerman

On July 13, the jury of six mostly white women found Hispanic George Zimmerman not guilty of murder or manslaughter of black 17-year old teenager Trayvon Martin. The mainstream media and radical proponents had created a nationwide circus and resorted to falsehoods and lies in order to invent and create a case of racial profiling to be able to convict Zimmerman in the eyes of the public.  Sadly, the real crux of the matter—whether we should have laws allowing us to have and use guns to shoot and kill others who are unarmed, when we are not in fact threatened, but feel that we might be (“Stand Your Ground” law)– took back stage in view of the hype and hysteria of unsupported allegations of racial discrimination and profiling. 

Breitbart wrote on July 13, before the verdict had come in:

“As we await the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who claims to have shot and killed teenager Trayvon Martin in self-defense, this seems the perfect time to reflect on the media’s cynical and dishonest role in turning a local crime into a national obsession… the mainstream media did everything in its still-potent power to not only push for the prosecution of Mr. Zimmerman (the police originally chose not to charge him) but also to gin up racial tensions where none needed to exist.

“It all started with the [black] anchor of a major television network (Al Sharpton) inserting himself in the story to spread division and hate; it continued straight through to the closing days of the trial when another major news network, desperate to keep a fabricated racial narrative alive, propagated the portrayal of Zimmerman as part of a racial group that doesn’t exist — the ‘white Hispanic.’ In-between, there has been an astonishing amount of malicious fraud and lies, all in an effort to serve a president, stir racial hatred, and influence the justice system… A small detail that the Obama administration and the media apparently missed was that the white versus black racial narrative they were preparing to invest so much into was missing just one thing: a white person…

“In their venomous zeal, the media and Democrats likely assumed that someone with the last name Zimmerman had to be white. But they were wrong, as Zimmerman is Hispanic. Never [once] to back off a good narrative, rather than use this revelation to tamp down tensions or correct their reporting, the media simply made up out of whole cloth a new racial category: the ‘white Hispanic.’… [On March 19] CNN went to extraordinary lengths to claim Zimmerman had uttered the racial slur ‘coon’ when he had not… CNN wouldn’t officially retract their defamation until April 5th, long after it was too late…

“President Obama made huge news when he stepped before the cameras, demanded action in the Zimmerman case, and famously said, ‘If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.’ In just two days, a network news anchor [Sharpton] and an American president had blasted the Zimmerman case into the nation’s top story and did so based on a racial narrative without a shred of evidence to support it. Almost every other major news outlet would now commit every journalistic sin imaginable to fabricate evidence… By late March it was widely known that George Zimmerman was Hispanic. This did not stop the Boston Globe from using its pages to describe him as ‘a white neighborhood watch captain’…

“Even though Zimmerman is Hispanic and there was no evidence of any racial motivation behind his actions, the media’s racial-hysteria was, at this point, in full bloom… Desperate to keep a non-existent racial narrative alive, during a broadcast of the PBS Newshour Gwen Ifill falsely stated: ‘Martin, who was black, was on his way to a convenience store in a mostly white gated community when George Zimmerman, who is white, shot and killed him after a disputed altercation…’ After the arrest, and as the trial date neared the following year, NBC would allow Al Sharpton to turn his primetime MSNBC show into a platform dedicated to convicting Zimmerman…”

The myths of “racial profiling” in this case continues. As Fox News reported on July 13, 2013: “‘Today, justice failed Trayvon Martin and his family,’ said Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of the NAACP in a statement. ‘We call immediately for the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the civil rights violations committed against Trayvon Martin. This case has re-energized the movement to end racial profiling in the United States.’ ‘We are outraged and heartbroken over today’s verdict,’ said Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, in another statement… ‘we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed.’”

Al Maurer of The Washington Times agreed with the sentiments expressed in the article of Breitbart, quoted above, and stated on July 14:

“From the beginning the media sought to play the story as white-on-black violence. It fits the narrative of the white man oppressing the black man. The only problem is that Zimmerman isn’t ‘white’; he’s Hispanic. Alter the facts… The media creates a new racial category, ‘White Hispanic.’

“For the story to work, however, the black man as victim must be innocent. Trayvon Martin was pictured as an innocent young teen. Youthful pictures of him were released; more recent ones suppressed. To fill the role of oppressor, Zimmerman had to be made to look like one. While flattering pictures of Martin were used, the most unflattering ones of Zimmerman accompanied them. Zimmerman was portrayed in the popular press as a vengeful vigilante just looking for the opportunity to shoot someone.

“As time wore on, Zimmerman didn’t appear so menacing. Martin didn’t appear so innocent… In contemporary America it is not just the media who push the narrative. The president himself commented on the case well before all the facts were known. But facts don’t matter, after all. The narrative does. Recent press reporting indicates that the Justice Department has been involved as well.

“The race-baiters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have been prominent in pushing the narrative too. Ominous warnings of riots in case of an unfavorable (i.e., ‘not guilty’) verdict were sounded… Six women had the courage to decide ‘not guilty’ when the mob screamed ‘guilty.’”

If one repeats a lie often enough, it will finally be believed as being the truth. So be careful when you are confronted with statements which are not based on proven evidence, and if you want to receive fair and objective accurate news reports from our mainstream media. In all likelihood, you will not get it.

Jury Duty and Questionable Law the Real Issue

According to the New York Post of July 14, 2013, Donald Trump made these statements: “Zimmerman is no angel but the lack of evidence and the concept of self-defense, especially in Florida law, gave the jury little other choice.” Similar sentiments were expressed by Piers Morgan, according to Beitbart, dated July 14: “I don’t critisize the jury—I critize the law that enabled them to find George Zimmerman not guilty of anything.” He added: “If George Zimmerman had not had a gun, he’d never got out of his car that night, and Trayvon Martin would still be alive.”

Maybe. But here we are getting to the crux of the matter: While the focus is detracted from the essentials and placed on concocted non-existing issues of race and racial profiling, we are really dealing here with questionable laws and the jury’s duty under the legal system to uphold these laws during their deliberations and decision-making. That is one of the many reasons why true Christians should not sit on a jury under any circumstances.

Why It Is Unlawful to Give Military Aid to Egypt

On July 12, The Washington Post published the following editorial by Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Homeland Security committees:

“Egypt has undergone a coup, deposed its leader and the military has installed a new president. The situation is unpredictable, unstable and volatile. The country remains in a state of unrest… U.S. law states that we can’t send military and other types of aid to any country whose duly elected head of state is deposed by a coup. U.S. law clearly says that we cannot send such aid where the military plays a decisive role in the coup. This law allows no presidential waiver. Aid cannot be reconsidered or restored until a democratically elected government is elected.

“Yet, as President Obama has so often done with other laws and even the Constitution, he ignores it. The Obama administration has refused to acknowledge that the military takeover in Egypt is a coup. When asked directly to spell out the State Department’s definition of a coup, spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused… we have a president who denies a coup has taken place in Egypt when, by any conventional definition, it most certainly has. The president of Egypt was placed under house arrest. The military took over the television stations. The military took control of local police and all forms of local and national government.

“Still, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN, ‘If this were to be seen as a coup, then it would limit our ability to have the kind of relationship we think we need with the Egyptian armed forces.’ Thursday morning, it was reported that this relationship included delivering four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the next few weeks in addition to the eight we sent in January. Another eight are scheduled to ship later this year… In January 2011, some of the jets we gave to President Hosni Mubarak were used to intimidate protesters — the same people whose protests helped to overthrow Mr. Mubarak and replace him with Mohammed Morsi. Not surprisingly, Gallup reported in February 2012 that 71 percent of Egyptians opposed U.S. foreign aid to their country. When both Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Morsi were overthrown, protesters held signs criticizing U.S. aid to ‘dictators.’

“It should also be noted that when the Egyptian military helped oust Mr. Mubarak — the classic definition of a coup d’etat — the Obama administration also declined to acknowledge even then that a coup had taken place. When we continued giving F-16s to Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood after Mr. Mubarak, I offered an amendment to stop military aid to Egypt. It was defeated 79-19.

“The United States has cut off weapons aid in the past after military officers overthrew civilian governments in the Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic, Fiji, Honduras and Mali. In Egypt, however, where the regimes are constantly changing, our foreign-aid policy never does. This week, I introduced legislation again that would cut off foreign aid to Egypt. We either have a nation of laws, or we don’t. If we are a nation of laws, foreign aid to Egypt should immediately end. If instead, we are now just governed by popular prejudice and unlimited executive ability to contravene the law, then perhaps we should be looking at Washington to determine whether or not a coup has occurred.”

To predict the outcome, U.S. military aid to Egypt will most likely continue… even though a coup has CLEARLY occurred WITHOUT ANY DOUBT… which, with the words of Senator Paul, would mean that ours is not (any longer) a nation of laws. This is almost ironic as, following the verdict in the Zimmerman case, President Obama issued the following statement, according to CNN, dated July 14:

“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken…”

Egypt Might Become Even More Radical

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 16:

“After the massacre last Monday of more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood supporters, Egypt has become all but ungovernable. The new unity government in Cairo is already crumbling, and now it’s the ultra-conservative Salafists who stand to benefit… Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been filled with anger and frustration. The bloody clash between Brotherhood supporters and the military destroyed any hope that a peaceful settlement could be reached…

“In this overheated mood, precisely what the military sought to prevent with its coup could in fact happen: The Islamists could become radicalized. Last week, Egyptians experienced a taste of what that could mean, when a 60-year-old Coptic Christian was beheaded and a priest was shot on the Sinai Peninsula. In a village in Upper Egypt, a mob beat a Christian supporter of the Tamarud movement to death, while other Copts were stabbed to death and about 20 houses owned by members of the religious minorities were torched…”

Europe’s Anti-Israeli Wares and America’s Silence

Al Jazeera wrote on July 16:

“Guidelines revealed on Tuesday make clear that, from next year, Israeli ‘entities’ operating in the territories will not be eligible for EU grants, prizes or loans. The measure will apply to Israeli companies, universities or other bodies operating in areas occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, including the Golan Heights, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. ‘The EU has made it clear that it will not recognise any changes to pre-1967 borders, other than those agreed by the parties to the Middle East peace process,’ a copy of the guidelines seen by the Reuters news agency said… The guildelines say that all Israeli groups applying for financial assistance, scholarships and funding must prove they do not operate in the occupied territories.”

The Washington Post wrote on July 16:

“Europe… never miss[es] the [chance] to display their anti-Israeli wares. The Wall Street Journal reports: ‘Israel reacted angrily Tuesday to an effort by the European Union to keep EU funds from flowing to Israeli organizations operating in the occupied territories, the latest bump in the sometimes-rocky relationship between Israel and Europe.’… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the EU should focus on the ‘more pressing’ issues of Syria’s civil war and Iran’s nuclear program rather than Israeli settlement activity… The EU already charges customs duties on Israeli imports that originate in the occupied territories that would otherwise enjoy free-trade exemptions…

“The EU has long sought to play a role in Middle East peace talks… This is an old story for the European Union — it strives for relevance but its anti-Israeli tendencies make it particularly unsuited to play any constructive role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… If the United States made clear that such behavior is entirely unacceptable, some of the Israel bashing might stop. Whether at the United Nations or in direct conversations with our European ‘friends,’ this should be a topic of conversation. It is evidently not…”

The global influence of the USA is diminishing. Even when America speaks, not too many listen any more. It will indeed be Europe which will speak loudly, and nations will listen and heed. It is prophesied that Europe will play a decisive role in Middle Eastern politics.

Israel May Have to Address Iran Before USA Does…

Bloomberg wrote on July 14:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is moving ahead toward nuclear weapons capability and warned that his country would act by itself if necessary to prevent that from happening. ‘We’re closer than the United States,’ Netanyahu said Sunday… ‘We’re more vulnerable. And therefore, we’ll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does.’…

“Netanyahu has said Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons that would pose an ‘existential threat’ to Israel and ‘all options are on the table’ to stop it, including a military strike… Netanyahu dismissed speculation that [Iran’s new political leader] Rohani’s victory last month signals a possible change in Iranian nuclear policy… Rohani’s strategy ‘is [to] be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Smile and build a bomb,’ the Israeli leader said…”

Building the Third Temple

JTA wrote on July 9:

“No praying. No kneeling. No bowing. No prostrating. No dancing. No singing. No ripping clothes.These are the rules that Jews must abide by when visiting the Temple Mount, the site where the First and Second Holy Temples once stood, located above and behind the Western Wall in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Although the area is under Israeli sovereignty, the mount — known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif — is controlled by the Islamic Wakf, a joint Palestinian-Jordanian religious body. As the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, whose golden dome overlooks the city, the Temple Mount attracts daily crowds of Muslim worshipers…

“Rabbi Chaim Richman… is the international director of the Temple Institute, an organization based in the Old City with a singular goal: to rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem… Following the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 C.E., most rabbis adopted the position that Jewish law prohibits reconstructing the Holy Temple prior to the age of messianic redemption, or that the law is too ambiguous and that the messiah must come first.

“The Temple Institute takes a different position. ‘There are no Jewish legal barriers’ to rebuilding the temple, Richman says, only political ones. The institute isn’t shy about advocating what many see as a radical goal: replacing the mosque at the Dome of the Rock with a new Jewish Holy Temple… The organization has formulated a program for where the temple will stand and what its vessels will look like, aided by 20 men who study Temple law full-time. The products of this research — 40 ritual objects — are on display in Plexiglas cases at the institute’s headquarters in the Old City.

“Silver trumpets to be blown by priests and a wooden lyre are perched next to two deep pans with long handles — one for collecting blood from small sacrificial offerings and another for large sacrifices like the Passover lamb. In another room, mannequins with beards wear the respective vestments for deputy priests and the high priest. The high priest’s outfit, with azure weaves, gold thread and a breastplate with 12 precious stones, took 11 years of research and $150,000 to complete…

“The institute’s crowning achievement — the Temple’s golden, 200-pound, seven-branch menorah — stands outside in a case overlooking the Western Wall. Unlike art or history museums, the institute’s goal is to remove the objects from their cases and bring them to the mount for use as soon as possible… Though observant Jews pray thrice daily in the Amidah prayer for the Temple to be rebuilt, few do anything about it…

“Richman says support for the institute’s goals is growing. For him, the issue involves far more than politics, archaeology or even Jewish legal research. The Temple Institute, he says, is doing God’s work. ‘The point is that we can’t live without the Temple,’ Richman says…”

In regard to Tisha B’Av, a Jewish fast day in memory of the destruction of the Second Temple, Times of Israel wrote on July 15:

“The Talmud in Sukkah tells of the beauty of the Second Temple that Herod rebuilt. It is hard to imagine such beauty when we see the above ground Western Wall today. Erosion and time have taken its physical beauty. But underground the stones are a pristine white and appear good as new… What we see of the Wall today, is a fraction of the size of the original Wall… There is a section of floor from the Second Temple era that has been excavated… walking and sitting on the floor where our grandparents sat 2000 years ago is very powerful…

“On this Tisha B’Av, remember that we are not crying over a dead Temple. If it were so, we would have stopped crying eons ago. The stones are alive. They are kept alive by the promise that we will see a Third Temple. They are kept alive by the souls of the Jewish people yearning for their Temple to be rebuild. And they are kept alive by the tears we cry on Tisha B’Av every single year.”

North Korea’s and Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Programs

Reuters wrote on July 17:

“Stanford University’s Siegfried Hecker… said the North had ‘everything in place’ for what would be the fourth [nuclear] explosion since 2006. The impoverished country conducted its third nuclear test in February, prompting stiffer U.N. sanctions against it… Hecker said North Korea ‘needed additional tests in my opinion to miniaturize’, referring to the effort to develop a bomb small and robust enough to fit onto a delivery vehicle such as a missile…

“But China’s displeasure was an important reason ‘why I think they are hesitating now…’  China is North Korea’s most important economic and political backer, but the two are uneasy allies and tensions have grown. Some Chinese banks have frozen out North Korea’s main foreign exchange bank amid frustration in Beijing over the North’s continued pushing of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs…

“Hecker… said he was concerned about the possibility of cooperation between North Korea and Iran… Any sharing of the North’s test data would be dangerous, he said, adding: ‘That would be very, very troublesome and indeed could give the Iranian program a significant boost’… Hecker said he believed Iran had developed a nuclear weapon option. ‘Iran … has put all the things in place to be able to develop the bomb should it decide to do so,’ he said.”

“Gay Marriage” Legal in Britain and Wales

Salon.com reported on July 16:

“Britain’s lower house of parliament voted Tuesday to pass a measure legalizing gay marriage in England and Wales… ‘It’s impossible to express how much joy this historic step will bring to tens of thousands of gay people and their families and friends,’ Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, a gay rights group, said in a statement. ‘The bill’s progress through Parliament shows that, at last, the majority of politicians in both Houses understand the public’s support for equality, though it’s also reminded us that gay people still have powerful opponents.’”

The Associated Press reported on July 17:

“The French like to make fun of the British, joking about their repressed ways in matters of the heart. But when it came time to debate same-sex marriage, it was France that betrayed a deep conservative streak in sometimes violent protests — while the British showed themselves to be modern and tolerant. With little fanfare or controversy, Britain announced Wednesday that Queen Elizabeth II — hardly a social radical — had signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriages in England and Wales. France has also legalized gay marriages, but only after a series of gigantic protests attracting families from the traditional heartland that revealed a deeply split society.

“Official word that the queen had approved the bill drew cheers in the usually sedate House of Commons. ‘This is a historic moment that will resonate in many people’s lives,’ Equalities Minister Maria Miller said in a statement. ‘I am proud that we have made it happen and I look forward to the first same sex wedding by next summer.’ There were British political figures and religious leaders vehemently opposed to gay marriage but the opposition never reached a fever pitch, in part because the same-sex marriage bill had broad public support and the backing of the leaders of the three major political parties. In fact, it was Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the tradition-minded Conservatives, who proposed the legislation in the first place.

“The public seemed to take it for granted that gay marriage should be a part of British life… The law was also written in a way that allowed the Church of England — which is opposed — to sidestep the controversy since it is explicitly barred from conducting same-sex marriages.”

The French Bastille Day—Truth And Error?

BBC wrote on July 13:

“When the French parade on Sunday [July 14] for their national day, they will be marking the fall of the Bastille prison-fortress on 14 July 1789. Everyone knows that. Or do they? In fact there is a surprising twist in the story of this proud Republican anniversary. Without realising it, what the French may technically be celebrating is not the storming of the Bastille but an event that took [place] exactly one year later, on 14 July 1790: the Fete de la Federation…

“There was Napoleon; then the restored Bourbons after Waterloo; then King Louis-Philippe; a brief republican interlude starting in 1848; and then the second empire under Napoleon III. Not until 1870, after defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, did France establish a lasting republican system. And even then, in the Third Republic’s first elected Assembly, there was a clear majority of members who actually favoured a return to monarchy. The forces of anti-revolutionary conservatism remained strong…

“By the end of the 1870s, the situation had moved. Most monarchists had become reconciled to the Republic; there was a Republican majority in the Assembly; so now was the time to anchor the new order with a set of national symbols. And one of the first questions was the choice of national day. After looking at various options, the left settled on 14 July. They reasoned that the taking of the Bastille was what triggered the French Revolution – the moment an angry people began to throw off its chains. But the trouble was that 14 July was also a day of bloodshed. The governor of Paris had his head cut off with a pen-knife…

“For the ex-monarchists – now late converts to the Republic – this was all too much. A national day should be a day of reconciliation, they argued, not a celebration of class hatred. And so eyes turned to the Fete de la Federation… And to mark it, the authorities organised an extraordinary outdoor event on the Champs de Mars – where the Eiffel Tower now stands… On 14 July 1790, it poured with rain. But delegations of the newly-created national guard from across France paraded through the city, led by the Marquis de Lafayette… On the Champs de Mars there was military music; oaths were made to the King, who in turn swore to uphold the decrees of the National Assembly; Mass was celebrated. And in a scene straight out of today’s celebrity culture, there was a roar of excitement as Queen Marie-Antoinette held up the baby dauphin – heir to the throne – to the crowd.

“In the words of historian Georges-Henri Soutou, it was a moment when ‘it was still possible to imagine that a new regime could be established – one that did not offend the religious sensitivities of the majority and had the support of the King.’ It did not last, of course. Within a year, the revolution was on course towards its bloody conclusion. But a century later, the Fete de la Federation had the huge distinction of being an occasion on which just about everyone – from Bourbon loyalists to proto-Socialists – could agree. For the Senator Henri Martin – who drew up the National Day law – ‘14 July 1790 is the most beautiful day in the history of France, possibly in the history of mankind. It was on that day that national unity was finally accomplished.’ Passed in 1880, the law was deliberately ambiguous. It did not say which 14 July was being celebrated. And today, of course, everyone thinks of it as Bastille Day.”

As it is so often the case with human traditions and the celebration of humanly devised holidays, we see in the observation of the “Bastille Day” a mixture between perhaps some truth and a lot of error and misconceptions.

Building the Third Temple on the Temple Mount

The Times of Israel reported on July 5:

“A government minister from a nationalist religious party called Thursday for the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The statement from Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) breaks a long-standing taboo on high-ranking government officials speaking about changing the fragile status quo on the holy and contested esplanade, and will likely draw ire from official Israeli circles and anger the Arab and Muslim world… Ariel called for a third Temple to be built on the site, which today is home to the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque and is considered Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest…

“The Jerusalem site was home to Judaism’s first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed, the second one in 70 CE… Last year, Jewish Home MK Zevulun Orlev also called for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, saying that removing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque would mean that the ‘billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.’ However, he added, ‘everything political is temporary and there is no stability.’

“Jews are currently banned from praying on the Temple Mount by the Jordanian department of endowments, known as the Wakf, which administers the plaza surrounding the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.”

The Bible indicates strongly that the third temple will be built in Jerusalem, prior to Christ’s return.

Pope’s Waivers for Sainthood in Catholic Church

Thomson/Reuters reported on July 5:

“Pope John Paul II… who led the Catholic Church for nearly 27 years, and Pope John XXIII, who called the reforming Second Vatican Council, will be declared saints… The Vatican said Pope Francis had approved a second miracle attributed to John Paul, a Pole who was elected in 1978 as the first non-Italian pope in 450 years and who died in 2005. His progression to sainthood is the fastest in modern times.

“The Vatican also said Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963… would be made a saint even though he has only been credited with one miracle since his death… Francis waived the customary rules requiring a second miracle after beatification… John XXIII was beatified in 2000…

“John Paul went down in history as the ‘globe-trotting Pope,’ visiting every inhabited continent in more than 100 trips outside Italy. His successor, Benedict, waived a Church rule that normally requires a five-year waiting period before the preliminaries to sainthood can even begin.”

Popes are Popes and can therefore do whatever they want—it seems.

“Vatican Issues First Text Co-Written by Two Popes”

AFP wrote on July 5:

“The Vatican on Friday issued an unprecedented religious text co-written by Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI in which the two popes… restated their opposition to gay marriage. Francis paid tribute to pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the encyclical, saying that the ex-pontiff had ‘almost completed’ the text before stepping down in a historic resignation this year and that he himself had merely added ‘further contributions.’

“Francis and Benedict, who both live within the walls of the Vatican City and wear the white papal vestments, met publicly on Friday at a ceremony in the Vatican for the unveiling of a new statue. [Zenit reported on July 5 that the statue, sculpture or monument represented “Saint Michael the Archangel, patron of Vatican City State.”] Benedict became the first pope to resign of his own free will in 700 years in February and Francis was elected to succeed him in March as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years…

“Encyclicals are papal circular letters addressed to the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church that are intended to summarise a pontiff’s thoughts on a particular aspect of Church life. Some of them have gone down in history as significant landmarks in Church history.

“Pope Leo XII in 1891 published ‘Rerum Novarum’ in which he undertook to engage the Catholic Church in social issues, denouncing living conditions for the working class and encouraging workers to organise themselves into associations. In 1914, Benedict XV denounced the horrors of World War I in ‘Ad beatissimi apostolorum principis’ and Pius XI in ‘Mit brennender Sorge’ in 1937 condemned Nazi racism. In Paul VI’s ‘Humanae Vitae’ in 1968, Paul VI condemned all forms of contraception, while John Paul II in ‘Evangelium Vitae’ in 1995 called for opposition to laws legalising abortion and euthanasia.”

Pope Angers Establishment

ABC News reported on July 6:

“It appears Pope Francis truly wants to change the Catholic Church. He’s reforming the Vatican Bank first, but he’s also circumventing the old guard wherever he can. The establishment is up in arms… When, in autumn 2010, fresh suspicions of money laundering to the tune of triple-digit millions emerged, then Pope Benedict XVI promised stricter rules for his financial managers. In fact, though, nothing changed. In the so-called Vatileaks scandal, secret documents that had been smuggled out of the Vatican shed light on bizarre intrigues inside the papal state. Often, the Vatican Bank [IOR] played a role in those intrigues. Benedict XVI was appalled, but also overwhelmed. He failed to prevail over the powerful cardinals who backed the IOR. His resignation was the logical outcome.

“His successor is taking more decisive action. First, he fired Nunzio Scarano, the top accountant in the Vatican office that oversees Vatican property and investments, after he was accused of money laundering and corruption and arrested. Then, practically overnight, he forced out IOR Director Paulo Cipriani and his deputy. Now the bank will be led by Ernst von Freyberg, a German baron and former consultant, member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the president of the IOR supervisory board since mid-February… ‘Did we actually vote for someone who really believes in what he preaches?’ some within the Curia are now whispering.

“Once again, Francis has taken them fully by surprise. In an almost demonstrative manner, he has been excluding the Vatican apparatus in every way he can. Most recently, this happened with the trip the pope announced he would take on Monday to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, first learned of the planned trip through a papal press release. And instead of the kind of months of advance-team work used by heads of the Catholic Church for trips in the past, Francis has dispensed with that. Instead, the eccentric Argentinian pope ordered his staff to prepare a plane so that he could fly there in the morning and be back by midday… The pope has announced that he doesn’t want to meet with the mayor or other authorities. He also ordered church officials to stay away.”

Obama’s Waiver of Lack of Waiver for Egyptian Aid

JTA reported on July 5:

“When it comes to foreign assistance, American law couldn’t be clearer: A coup d’etat suspends funding, period. But that directive, which has persisted for years in federal appropriations bills, is now clashing with another congressional priority: the apparent desire to foster an alternative to Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected Islamist president who was removed from power this week by the Egyptian military.

“In recent months, Congress has intimated that it would be happier if his secular foes in the military were running the country. But the law ties Congress’ hands. On July 3, President Obama said he would ‘review’ what the coup means for American aid…The United States provides some $1.55 billion in aid to Egypt annually, most of it defense assistance conditioned on Egypt’s observance of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Congressional leaders cited those circumstances in suggesting that the Obama administration work with the interim government. But other lawmakers… underscored that the language in the appropriations bill left virtually no wiggle room…

“Unlike many other spending provisions, the language regarding a coup d’etat does not include a presidential waiver. That leaves the Obama administration three options for working around the provision: Obtain congressional agreement to add a waiver within the next few weeks; accelerate the democratic replacement of Egypt’s interim government; or use executive privilege to work around the lack of a congressional waiver…

“The first two options are unlikely. Congress can barely agree on a budget, let alone a waiver on a sensitive issue like Egypt. And with Egypt already roiling with violence, its military would be loath to facilitate the return of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood to power through a hastily arranged election. The third option — exercising the prerogative of the president to advance foreign policy — could undercut U.S. credibility overseas, conveying an impression Obama has tried to correct: that the United States supports the powers it prefers, regardless of the will of the people.”

The Daily Caller added on July 5:

“The $1.5 billion in U.S. foreign aid slated for Egypt next year is in jeopardy after the Egyptian army deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday. Section 508 of the decades-old Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that ‘none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by a military coup or decree.’ A clause in the 2011 omnibus bill strengthens the provision, excluding from American aid any nation experiencing a ‘coup d’etat or decree in which the military plays a decisive role.’

“Although events in Egypt appear to conform perfectly to these criteria, it’s unclear whether the Obama administration will cut off revenue to the strategically important nation anytime soon… the president also refused to call the takeover a coup, indicating his administration’s wariness to label events in Egypt before deciding how to proceed.

“Time reports that the $1.3 billion marked for the Egyptian military in 2014 is around 20 percent of that organization’s total budget. Without that money, the army may be unable to keep the peace should an extended confrontation develop between Morsi’s supporters and opposition activists. ‘The Egyptian military has long been a key partner of the United States and a stabilizing force in the region, and is perhaps the only trusted national institution in Egypt today,’ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said… The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee echoed that sentiment… Their comments indicate that the administration would face little protest from congressional Republicans if they decide to ignore or circumvent the law on foreign assistance.

“But politicians from the president’s own party may be less forgiving. ‘Our law is clear: U.S. aid is cut off when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree,’ said Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the budget committee which oversees foreign aid.”

Somehow, it can be expected that Congress and the Obama Administration will be able get around the “clear language of the law” to do what they want to do–if they can agree on WHAT to do.

America Clueless on Egypt

On July 5, CNN published an editorial by Christian Whiton, former State Department senior advisor from 2003-2009:

“That’s twice Washington was caught slack-jawed amid revolution in the world’s biggest Arab-majority state. But don’t blame the Obama administration exclusively for twice being on the losing side of events in Egypt. Reality in Egypt has also eluded Beltway Republican foreign policy mavens and America’s dysfunctional and distracted intelligence bureaucracies. That makes shaping events in Egypt nearly impossible.

“The first shock for Washington came in January 2011, when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians demanding secular democracy filled town squares. According to Washington and its $80 billion-per-year intelligence bureaucracy, these people did not exist in the Middle East…  Even as it became clear that Mubarak would not survive, Vice President Joe Biden said supportively, ‘I would not refer to him as a dictator.’ Of the nation that historically has been the political bellwether of the broader region, then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton said, ‘We’re not advocating any specific outcome.’

“These officials should be afforded some pity. The information and advice they were getting came partially from State Department experts who are perennially wrong about major developments in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the CIA was distracted. Originally created for the crucial tasks of stealing secrets and waging political war on America’s foes, the CIA has spent the last decade becoming a second military. With what amounts to a second American air force around the globe and a ground force now focusing on arming Syrian rebels – inexplicably so for a mission that isn’t conceivably covert – the CIA drifts ever farther from helping policymakers grasp and influence foreign political developments.

“And so the first Egyptian revolution came and went. Despite being caught flatfooted before the uprising, surely officials across Washington would be excited at the emergence of a bloc in Egypt that wanted a modern democracy, wouldn’t they? Unfortunately, Washington has a way of not allowing new facts to tamper with long-held assumptions. If Egyptian secular liberals did not exist in theory then they couldn’t exist in practice.

“So when Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham went to Cairo in February 2011, they held high-profile meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood, lending it credibility. According to the Wall Street Journal, Graham remarked, ‘After talking with the Muslim Brotherhood, I was struck with their commitment to change the law because they believe it’s unfair.’ Later, in April 2012, White House spokesman Jay Carney cited the McCain-Graham engagement with the Brotherhood as justification for the Obama administration’s own engagement with the Islamist group…

“Enter Egypt’s second revolution.  Is it any wonder that the Obama administration has chosen to remain reticent about the matter?  Egypt’s Islamist president is gone, but his supporters still exist and their secular opponents don’t yet appear to be more organized.  Worse still, the will for America and its allies to help them organize, and the tools to do that with, both appear to be in mothballs. So once again the most titanic political contest of our era takes a dramatic turn – one that will have an impact in every Muslim-majority nation and beyond, but with America largely on the sidelines. Washington will again leave crucial matters to chance.”

That is the picture which is being painted increasingly by Washington—when it comes to world affairs, it seems to be clueless, standing on the sidelines, leaving it to others to lead. The time when America was respected as a leader in the world is gone. See also the next article.

Obama’s Mideast Policy Ineffective

The Los Angeles Times added on July 5:

“The military overthrow of the democratically elected government in Egypt, for decades America’s most important Arab ally, has rekindled a fierce debate about whether the Obama administration’s Mideast policy has been too passive and ineffective…

“The critics, who include Democratic foreign policy stalwarts as well as Republicans, say the upheaval in Egypt, on top of the administration’s inability to stem the civil war in Syria or persuade Iran to curb its nuclear program, adds a blot to Obama’s foreign policy record. They blame, in part, Obama’s desire to reduce America’s overseas commitments after a decade of war, along with his apparent effort to pull back from a leadership position in favor of a more supporting role in the Middle East…

“Critics now say the U.S. focus on security meant the White House was unwilling to push back when Egypt’s military abused human rights, including ordering military trials for 10,000 civilians accused in connection with the 2011 protests, and when the Morsi government began trying to monopolize power. ‘Washington was embarrassingly quiet,’ said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan think tank…

“Martin Indyk, a former U.S. diplomat and advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the administration’s failure to object more loudly was a serious mistake. ‘Our failure to stand against Morsi when he began trampling on minority rights convinced the secular opposition that we were now in his corner,’ Indyk wrote in Foreign Policy magazine. ‘We appeared to be shifting our support from one authoritarian Pharaoh to the next.’…

“U.S. officials and European governments, in particular, talked about developing an international aid framework to assist Egypt’s struggling economy, but it never got off the ground. Egypt ultimately turned to Qatar for a $3-billion annual subsidy.”

Kerry on Yacht—Why These Constant Lies?

CNN reported on July 5:

“After the emergence of photographs showing Secretary of State John Kerry on his 76-foot yacht ‘Isabel’ on Nantucket Sound on Thursday, the State Department issued an embarrassing correction Friday morning, back-tracking and acknowledging that the Secretary was in fact on the yacht on Wednesday, the day the Egyptian military staged a coup against democratically-elected Egyptian President Mohamed [Morsi].  Originally, State Department officials were quick to deny a Wednesday tweet from CBS News’ Mosheh Oinounou that: ‘A CBSThisMorning producer just spotted Secretary of State Kerry on yacht in the Nantucket Boat Basin…’

“State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki issued a statement Wednesday saying ‘any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate. Since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 am, Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt… He participated in the White House meeting with the President by secure phone and was and is in non-stop contact with foreign leaders, and his senior team in Washington and Cairo.’

“But overnight, photographs emerged showing Kerry on ‘Isabel’ and taking in some kayaking on Thursday… On Friday morning, Psaki issued a second statement, acknowledging that Kerry was ‘briefly on his boat on Wednesday.’…”

This is just another nail in the coffin of the lack of trust in the American government’s truthfulness.

The Important Role of Egypt’s Military

Deutsche Welle reported on July 5:

“Within two years and with the help of the army, the Egyptians have overthrown two presidents… The period between Mubarak’s fall and the election of his successor, Mohammed Morsi, was marked by continued unrest. Initially, some people welcomed the role of the army, but the Supreme Council soon found itself accused of maintaining the old power structures and of carrying out numerous human rights abuses…

“From the start, Morsi’s presidency was marked by a battle for power with the military. In August 2012, he suspended articles of the constitution which limited his power in favor of the military… Morsi’s attempts to increase his powers led to increasingly vocal protest from society and the opposition. In the course of his presidency, he found himself accused of turning Egypt into an Islamic state…

“The Egyptian army is one of the most important actors on the country’s political stage. Since the end of the monarchy in 1952, all the Egyptian presidents have come from its ranks: Mohammed Nagib, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar al-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. At the same time, it was the military which was crucial in Mubarak’s overthrow…  The military has once more played an important role and taken the upper hand in the fall of Morsi… it… announced Morsi’s arrest and appointed the president of the constitutional court, Adli Mansour, as interim president to replace him.”

On July 5, the Huffington Post published the following comment by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Emmy-Nominated Producer/Host:

“I understand why so many (namely President Obama) are careful not to call this a coup. But whatever we call it, we must acknowledge the basic facts: A president elected in unprecedented free and fair elections was overthrown by an ever-powerful military that took its cues from an unprecedented mobilization of millions of Egyptians challenging his rule. Morsi failed at nearly everything the Egyptian people had hoped and entrusted him to do, chief among them, uniting a divided Egypt. But Egypt’s military has failed for far longer, with a lot more blood on their hands. And no one is more ruthless in suppressing the rights of others in Egypt than the American-made military.”

Egypt’s Turmoil Ongoing

Fox News and The Associated Press reported on July 10:

“Egypt ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and nine others for allegedly instigating violent clashes with the military this week that left more than 50 Brotherhood supporters dead…

“Newly appointed Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi was to begin forming a Cabinet on Wednesday, and has said he will offer the Brotherhood — which helped propel Morsi to the presidency — posts in a new government. But a Brotherhood spokesman dismissed any talk of joining a military-backed administration, and said talk of national reconciliation is ‘irrelevant.’…

“Interim President Adly Mansour called for a reconciliation process called ‘One People’ to begin in Ramadan, traditionally a period for Muslims to promote unity. It called for parties and movements to hold meetings. But there was no sign the Brotherhood and its allies would attend, much like Morsi’s opponents rejected his calls for dialogue, which were dismissed as empty gestures…

“Egypt still remains deeply polarized with heightened fears of violence, especially after Monday’s shootings… Tens of thousands of Islamists massed on Tuesday for another day outside a Cairo mosque.”

Persecution of Christians in Egypt

F24 wrote on July 6:

“Violent clashes across Egypt have been taking place not just between the supporters and opponents of deposed President Mohammed Morsi of late. During times of upheaval, the Coptic Christians in Egypt always suffer abuse, and now is no exception. The Coptic community comprises roughly 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million. They belong mostly to the Coptic Orthodox Church although some subscribe to Greek Orthodoxy. The Copts live primarily in Egypt’s largest cities, Cairo and Alexandria.

“Since the beginning of the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, they have suffered constant harassment, and dozens have lost their lives to violence. Their churches have been torched. Coptic women have been beaten, forced to wear hijabs, or forcibly converted to Islam, according to human rights organizations. The Muslim Brotherhood has taken a public stance against the targeting of Copts. Not only did Morsi condemn violence against the group during his presidency, he appointed numerous Copts as ministers and advisers in his government. The main group antagonistic to the Copts has been the Salafi movement, a conservative Islamic group that recently joined the liberals in coalition against Morsi.”

The New York Times reported on July 11:

“The military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi has unleashed a new wave of violence by extremist Muslims against Christians whom they blame for having supported the calls to overthrow Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first Islamist elected leader, according to rights activists.  Since Mr. Morsi’s ouster on July 3, the activists say, a priest has been shot dead in the street, Islamists have painted black X’s on Christian shops to mark them for arson and angry mobs have attacked churches and besieged Christians in their homes. Four Christians were reported slaughtered with knives and machetes in one village last week.  The attacks have hit across the country, in the northern Sinai Peninsula, in a resort town on the Mediterranean coast, in Port Said along the Suez Canal and in isolated villages in upper Egypt.

“After Mr. Morsi’s ouster, Islamist mobs in the village of Dagala in that province looted one church, burned a building belonging to another and surrounded Christian homes, shattering their widows with rocks and clubs, EIPR said.  After one Christian man shot at the attackers from his roof, they dragged his wife from the house, beat her up and shot her. She is currently hospitalized, according to EIPR.  ‘The police came the day after the events and they didn’t do anything,’ Mr. Ibrahim said [Ishaq Ibrahim documented the violence for the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR.] ‘People prevented the fire engines from coming in so they couldn’t do anything.’

“In the village of Naga Hassan near Luxor, Muslim mobs invaded Christian homes and set them alight while besieging other Christians in their homes. Security forces arrived to evacuate the women, but left the men, four of whom were subsequently stabbed and beaten to death, Mr. Ibrahim said…  Dozens of Christian homes were reported burned in the Naga Hassan attacks, and most of the village’s Christians have fled or are believed to be hiding in the local church.”

“NSA and the Germans ‘In Bed Together’”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 7:

“SPIEGEL reporting… indicates that cooperation between the NSA and Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, is more intensive than previously known. NSA, for example, provides ‘analysis tools’ for the BND’s signals monitoring of foreign data streams that travel through Germany. Among the BND’s focuses are the Middle East route through which data packets from crisis regions travel. In total, SPIEGEL reported that the BND pulls data from five different nodes that are then analyzed at the foreign intelligence service’s headquarters in Pullach near Munich. BND head Gerhard Schindler confirmed the partnership during a meeting with members of the German parliament’s control committee for intelligence issues.”

The EUObserver added on July 8:

“The German intelligence service (BND) has been co-operating ‘for decades’ with the US, but only within legal boundaries, a German government spokesman said on Monday (8 July)… Liberal politicians in Germany have demanded for Snowden to be granted asylum – but not the Liberal foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, who points out that the US is a democracy and the justice system there is independent, which gives no grounds for political asylum… An opinion poll carried out by Emnid end of June showed that 50 percent of Germans consider Snowden to be a hero and 35 percent would hide him in their homes.”

Trust in US at Lowest Level Since Bush

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 5:

“Ongoing revelations about the NSA spying scandal have pushed German trust in the US to its lowest level since the presidency of George W. Bush… Early in [Obama’s] first term, some 78 percent of Germans saw the US as ‘a country that could be trusted.’… A survey released late on Thursday found that only 49 percent of Germans now view the United States as trustworthy… Fully 78 percent agreed with the statement that German Chancellor Angela Merkel ‘must protest more unequivocally to the US.’

“The reputation of the United Kingdom — which was also revealed to have been engaged in tight Internet surveillance — has also suffered according to the survey. Only 63 percent of Germans now see the country as a trustworthy partner…”

The Frightening Militarization of US Police and Increasing Criminal Prosecution of US Citizens for Noncriminal Acts

The website of timesdispatch.com wrote on July 5:

“Elizabeth Daly went to jail over a case of bottled water. According to the Charlottesville Daily Progress, shortly after 10 p.m. April 11, the University of Virginia student bought ice cream, cookie dough and a carton of LaCroix sparkling water from the Harris Teeter grocery store at the popular Barracks Road Shopping Center. In the parking lot, a half-dozen men and a woman approached her car, flashing some kind of badges. One jumped on the hood. Another drew a gun. Others started trying to break the windows. Daly understandably panicked. With her roommate in the passenger seat yelling “Go, go, go!” Daly drove off, hoping to reach the nearest police station. The women dialed 911. Then a vehicle with lights and sirens pulled them over, and the situation clarified: The people who had swarmed Daly’s vehicle were plainclothes agents of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The agents had thought the sparkling water was a 12-pack of beer.

“Did the ABC’s enforcers apologize? Not in the slightest. They charged Daly with three felonies: two for assaulting an officer (her vehicle had grazed two agents; neither was hurt) and one for eluding the police. Last week, the commonwealth’s attorney dropped the charges. The agents’ excessive display of force is outrageously disproportionate to the offense they mistakenly thought they witnessed: an underage purchase of alcohol. But in a sense, Daly got off easy. A couple of weeks after her ordeal, a 61-year-old man in Tennessee was killed when the police executed a drug raid on the wrong house. A few weeks later, in another wrong-house raid, police officers killed a dog belonging to an Army veteran. These are not isolated incidents…

“They are, however, part and parcel of two broader phenomena. One is the militarization of domestic law enforcement. In recent years, police departments have widely adopted military tactics, military equipment (armored personnel carriers, flash-bang grenades) — and, sometimes, the mindset of military conquerors rather than domestic peacekeepers. The other phenomenon is the increasing degree to which civilians are subject to criminal prosecution for noncriminal acts, including exercising the constitutionally protected right to free speech…

“[Remember] the case of Jeff Olson, who chalked messages such as ‘Stop big banks’ outside branches of Bank of America last year. Law professor Jonathan Turley reports that prosecutors brought 13 vandalism charges against him. Moreover, the judge in the case recently prohibited Olson’s attorney from ‘mentioning the First Amendment, free speech,’ or anything like them during the trial. In May, a Texas woman was arrested for asking to see a warrant for the arrest of her 11-year-old son. ‘She spent the night in jail while her son was left at home,’ reports Fox34 News. The son never was arrested…

“Federal prosecutors also recently used an anti-terrorism measure to seize almost $70,000 from the owners of a Maryland dairy. Randy and Karen Sowers had made several bank deposits of just under $10,000 to avoid the headache of filing federal reports required for sums over that amount. The feds charged them with unlawful ‘structuring.’ Last week, they settled the case. Authorities kept half their money to teach them a lesson.

“‘I broke the law yesterday,’ writes George Mason economics professor Alex Tabarrok, ‘and I probably will break the law tomorrow. Don’t mistake me, I have done nothing wrong. I don’t even know what laws I have broken. … It’s hard for anyone to live today without breaking the law. Doubt me? Have you ever thrown out some junk mail that … was addressed to someone else? That’s a violation of federal law punishable by up to five years in prison.’ Tabarrok notes that lawyer Harvey Silverglate thinks the typical American commits ‘Three Felonies a Day’…

“As The Wall Street Journal has reported, lawmakers in Washington have greatly eroded the notion of mens rea — the principle that you need criminal intent in order to commit a crime… ‘What once might have been considered simply a mistake,’ The Journal explains, is now ‘punishable by jail time.’ And as 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly has now learned, you can go to jail even when the person making the mistake wasn’t you.”

The Huffington Post added on July 10:

“Despite campaign promises to the contrary, Obama has not only continued the Bush and Clinton administration policy of sending SWAT teams to raid medical marijuana growers, shops, and dispensaries in states that have legalized the drug, he appears to have significantly increased enforcement. Just two years into his presidency, Obama’s administration had conducted about 150 such raids. The Bush administration conducted around 200 medical marijuana raids over eight years. Obama has also stepped up the heavy-handed raids often used to enforce immigration laws. In 2012, his administration deported more people than in any prior year in American history. He’s on pace to deport 2 million people by 2014, a figure equal to the total number of people ever deported from America until 1997…

“In 2011, an armed team of federal agents raided the floor of the Gibson guitar factory in Nashville, Tenn. The raid made national headlines and picked up traction in the tea party movement, largely because it had been conducted to enforce the Lacey Act, a fairly obscure environmental law — not the sort of policy most people would think would be enforced by armed federal agents. The same year, a SWAT team from the Department of Education conducted a morning raid of what they thought was the home of a woman who was suspected of defrauding federal student loan programs — again, not the sort of crime usually associated with a SWAT action. (They also got the wrong house — the suspect had moved out months earlier.)

“The Obama administration has defended the use of aggressive, militaristic police actions in court. In the case Avina v. U.S., DEA agents pointed their guns at an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old during a drug raid on the wrong house. The agents had apparently mistaken the license plate of a suspected drug trafficker for the plate on a car owned by Thomas Avina. Obama’s Justice Department argued in federal court that the lawsuit should be dismissed before being heard by a jury because the agents’ actions were not unreasonable… there was a time in America when even the original tough-on-crime administration was appalled enough at the idea to hold such overly zealous drug cops accountable…”

This incredible injustice in the land of the free and the brave is most certainly an abomination in God’s eyes… But this should come as no surprise because God prophesied in His Word that we would reach the time when there is NO MORE JUSTICE in the land (compare Isaiah 59:9-15; Hosea 4:1). It appears more and more that time HAS arrived.

Largest Joint Naval Drill Ever Between China and Russia

The Washington Times reported on July 5:

“Chinese and Russian navies have partnered for the countries’ largest joint naval drill in history… Military analysts see the joint drill as yet another sign of the countries’ growing friendship… The drill… [is] aimed at giving the countries the chance to practice anti-submarine warfare and naval maneuvers at a close range. The drills are the largest in scope that China’s ever held with a foreign nation. The country has been actively building up its navy, AP reported.”

The New York Times wrote on July 10:

“An armada of Chinese and Russian warships sailed in ceremonial formation in the Sea of Japan, off the port of Vladivostok, on Wednesday in what was the high point of joint naval exercises intended to show the growing unity between [the] two countries…  State-run news media gave widespread coverage to the action, which included live firing drills…

“From Beijing’s point of view, there was a message for Washington, too: As China rapidly builds its maritime power and the United States begins to deploy more of its naval and air assets back to the Pacific Ocean as part of its new focus on Asia, China will not stand alone… ‘This shows unprecedented good relations between China and Russia,’ said Professor Wang Ning, director of the Center for Russian Studies at the Shanghai International Studies University. ‘It shows that the two countries will support each other on the global stage.’ Both countries want a more multipolar world in which the United States is less dominant, he said.”

The Bible speaks of an end-time military collaboration between Far Eastern countries, including China, Russia, Japan, India and others, which are referred to as the “kings of the East.” For more information, please read our free booklet, “Biblical Prophecy—From Now Until Forever.”

Latvia to Be 18th Member of the Eurozone

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 9:

“The European Union has officially approved Latvia as the 18th member of the eurozone, which uses the bloc’s common currency. The Baltic country is set to adopt the euro on January 1, 2014. European Union finance ministers from the 28-member bloc gave their final approval for Latvia to join the eurozone…  Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed the news… adding that it was ‘good news not only for Latvia but also for Europe and the eurozone.’”

The “Euro Zone Beast” May “Bite”

Reuters wrote on July 3:

“Portugal [and] Greece risk reawakening [the] euro zone beast… EU officials have been at pains to talk down any unrest, buoyed by the tranquility in financial markets since European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made good on his pledge last summer to do whatever it takes to protect the euro via a bond-buying program. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has spoken of the worst of the crisis being over, and the economic affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, has often dismissed ‘doomsayers’ who once predicted the euro would collapse.

“But despite the desire to project calm, EU officials quietly acknowledge that all is not well and that any number of problems could throw the region back into turmoil. ‘There are always issues simmering under the surface,’ said an EU diplomat who has been dealing first hand with the crisis since it erupted in Greece in early 2010. ‘It’s far from over. The immediacy may have ebbed away, but I think we’re all aware that under the surface, there’s still a lot of stuff that can come back to bite us.’”

We are not quoting the article because we believe that a major euro crisis will throw the region back into turmoil, or that the euro will collapse. The Bible shows otherwise. But the language used in the article is quite revealing: the euro zone is a beast that may bite. According to the Bible, it is indeed a beast—the last revival of the ancient Roman Empire, referred to as the “beast” in Scripture, which will finally consist of ten core nations or groups of nations that will in turn give their authority to a military leader who is ALSO called the “beast” in the Bible. This last revival of the ancient Roman Empire will at first be a collaboration between the Catholic Church and the states, but the ten nations or groups of nations—the “beast”–will subsequently turn against the church and “bite” it.

Croatia the 28th Member State of the EU

Deutsche Welle reported on July 1, 2013:

“Croatians are celebrating their entry into the European Union as the once war-torn nation becomes the bloc’s 28th member… At the stroke of midnight on Sunday, Croatia joined the EU, the first expansion of the bloc since 2007… The country of 4.4 million becomes just the second of the former Yugoslav states to enter the EU, following Slovenia’s entry in 2004… Serbia just learned last week that they can begin negotiations in January 2014 for their own future entry in the EU…

“Last year, Croatians voted through a referendum for EU membership, the final hurdle to Sunday’s accession to the bloc… Despite questions over timing and its economy, thousands gathered in Zagreb on Sunday to celebrate the culmination of 20 years worth of change, reform and success. Revelers were joined by 170 foreign officials, 15 heads of state, 13 prime ministers and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council. Croatia’s President Ivo Josipovic pointed to the historical significance of the occasion. ‘In the history of a nation, there are few events such as this one,’ he said.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 1:

“As of midnight on Sunday, Croatia is officially the 28th member of the European Union, following a decade of overhaul aimed at casting off the remnants of war and Communist rule. The small Adriatic country briefly set aside its economic troubles to celebrate its accession with fireworks, cannon-fire and church bells… The country of 4.4 million people is only the second of seven countries carved out of Yugoslavia to join the EU, following Slovenia in 2004. ‘I look at the future with much optimism,’ Josipovic said, welcoming a group of seven other Balkan leaders ‘on the first European morning.’

“The festivities in Zagreb lasted well into the night and included concerts, dance performances, street parties and massive projections narrating the mostly Catholic country’s history. At midnight, EU flags were raised and customs posts were removed from the country’s borders with EU members Hungary and Slovenia. Several top EU officials were on hand for the celebration, including European Commission President Jose Barroso and EU Parliament President Martin Schulz, who spoke of a historic day. ‘It’s good when a family grows, especially our family, which is committed to the values of democracy, justice and rule of law,’ Schulz told the crowd… Croatia still has to fulfill more criteria before it will be allowed to join the EU’s Schengen Zone of border-free travel.”

Egyptian Carousel … Morsi Ousted… Now It’s the Military Again

Deutsche Welle reported on July 3:

“The Egyptian army has said that President Mohammed Morsi is to be removed from his post and that the constitution has been suspended. Fresh troops have been deployed around Cairo, with anti-Morsi protesters jubilant. Egyptian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi announced on national television on Wednesday evening that the head of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court would act as president…

“One of the Islamist Egyptian president’s top advisers earlier on Wednesday had condemned action by the country’s army as a ‘military coup’ after an ultimatum for Morsi to forge a deal with opponents expired… Meanwhile, the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the military had placed several leaders of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood under surveillance and imposed a travel ban on them. The news agency DPA reported sources at Cairo airport as saying that a travel ban on Morsi himself was related to the president’s 2011 escape from prison during the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak…

“In a last minute statement before the deadline expired between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time (1400 to 1500 GMT), Morsi himself criticized the military for ‘taking only one side’… Opposition spokesman Mohamed ElBaradei, along with Egypt’s top Muslim cleric and a Coptic pope had met General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for talks on measures that the military threatened to impose on Wednesday. Those discussions came to an end on Wednesday evening…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 4:

“Leaders in Europe and elsewhere have expressed dismay at the coup which saw the Egyptian military topple the country’s president on Wednesday night. Some are warning that it sets a ‘dangerous precedent’ that could happen again… German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the country must return to constitutional order as quickly as possible… In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron called on all parties to end the violence in Egypt, where nearly 50 people have been killed in clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents since Sunday… Foreign Secretary William Hague also told the BBC: ‘We don’t support military intervention as a way to resolve disputes in a democratic system. It’s of course a dangerous precedent to do that, if one president can be deposed by the military, then of course another one can be in the future — that’s a dangerous thing.’…

“In a statement released by the White House on Wednesday evening, President Obama said Washington ‘is deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsi and suspend the Egyptian constitution.’ The president called ‘on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters.’

“The response from Turkey, where mass protests have targeted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was even stronger, not least because Morsi had been a very close ally of Ankara. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the military coup as ‘unacceptable.’ He said: ‘You can only be removed from duty through elections, that is, the will of the people. It is unacceptable for a government, which has come to power through democratic elections, to be toppled through illicit means and even more, a military coup,’ he told reporters.”

Egypt’s future is predestined and clearly revealed in the Bible. It won’t matter who is going to be in charge—the Muslim Brotherhood, President Morsi’s opponents or the military. All this nonsense and the West’s ill-conceived enthusiasm about the “Arab Spring” just cloud the real issues. For the truth and the clear understanding as to what is happening and going to occur in Egypt, and why, please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”

Syria—a Foretaste of Things to Come?

The Blaze wrote on June 30:

“Syrian Catholic priest Francois Murad killed last weekend by jihadi fighters was beheaded, according to a report by Catholic Online which is linking to video purportedly showing the brutal murder. As The Blaze reported last week, Murad, 49, was setting up a monastery in Gassanieh, northern Syria. Last Sunday… extremist militants trying to topple President Bashar Assad breached the monastery and grabbed Murad. While earlier reports suggested Murad may have been shot to death, Catholic Online reported Saturday: ‘The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23.’

“The Catholic news service quotes local sources who report that the radical Al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, or Al-Nusra Front, was behind the savage killing. In [a] video posted by Live Leak purporting to show the execution, dozens of men and boys are seen cheering on as three men are seated on the ground awaiting their grisly fate. The men are methodically beheaded one at a time by men holding what appears to be a simple kitchen knife after which the heads are placed on top of the bodies. According to Catholic Online, the first victim was Murad.

“A frenzy ensues, with dozens drawing out their smartphones to capture the bloody scene, as a chorus of Allahu Akbar (‘Allah is the greatest’) are  (is) sung with jihadi rapture. Several observers are seen moving within inches of the bodies in an effort to capture close-up photos.

“Catholic Online is raising alarm that western nations are providing support to the rebels who have shown a proclivity toward persecuting Christians: ‘This should make it clear to Christians around the world what jihadists are about. Make no mistake. Catholics and [other] Christians around the globe are under dire threat, particularly from the spread of militant Islam. Until the threat is recognized and taken seriously, martyrdoms like this will continue.’

“Vatican Radio reports that Gassanieh, a village with a majority Christian population, had been under attack by Islamist fighters for the past few weeks, forcing most residents to flee for safety. It quotes Custos of the Holy Land, Franciscan Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa who says, ‘The world must know that the support of gunmen by the west is helping extremists in killing Syrians. With such stances, not a single Christian will remain in the East,’ he added.

“Vatican Radio writes, ‘Fr. Mourad was just one of the many men and women… putting their faith on the front line in Syria, refusing to abandon the communities they serve, Christian and Muslim. They stay because they want to be a sign of hope, light and comfort to people in the midst of destruction.’”

God is not the author of rebellion, which is as bad a sin as witchcraft, and what is happening in the Middle East is of course not godly. Rather, Satan is the god of this world and the author of rebellion, murder, religious fanaticism and anarchy. However, God allows these events to take place to bring about His purpose, as explained in our free booklet, “Biblical Prophecy–From Now Until Forever.” 

Germans and Europeans Furious With Obama’s America

The Associated Press reported on June 30:

“Senior European officials expressed concern Sunday at reports that U.S. intelligence agents bugged EU offices on both sides of the Atlantic… The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was ‘deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices’ made in a report published Sunday by German news weekly Der Spiegel… Schulz said that if the allegations that the NSA bugged European Union offices were confirmed ‘it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations.’…

“In Germany, where criticism of the NSA’s surveillance programs has been particularly vocal, a senior government official accused the United States on Sunday of using Cold War methods against its allies by targeting EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels… Also Sunday, German federal prosecutors said they were examining whether the reported U.S. electronic surveillance programs broke German laws… [They] said private citizens were likely to file criminal complaints on the matter, but didn’t comment on the possible legal merits of such complaints.”

Der Spiegel added on June 30:

“Europeans are furious. Revelations that the US intelligence service National Security Agency (NSA) targeted the European Union and several European countries with its far-reaching spying activities have led to angry reactions from several senior EU and German politicians… Elmar Brok, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in European Parliament added his opprobrium. ‘The spying has reached dimensions that I didn’t think were possible for a democratic country. Such behavior among allies is intolerable.’ The US… once the land of the free, ‘is suffering from a security syndrome,’ added Brok, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats. ‘They have completely lost all balance. George Orwell is nothing by comparison.’…

“A… Merkel ally in European Parliament, Markus Ferber, accused the US on Sunday of using methods akin to the feared East German secret police, the Stasi… ‘A democratic constitutional state that uses Stasi methods sacrifices all credibility as a moral authority,’ Ferber told the German daily Die Welt on Sunday. ‘It has destroyed trust.’…

“Green Party officials in Brussels are demanding far-reaching consequences. ‘This is meltdown of the constitutional state,’ said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a Green Party representative in European Parliament… and demanded that the EU open proceedings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Green Party floor leader in European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit went even further. ‘A simple note of protest is not enough anymore. The EU must immediately suspend negotiations with the US over a free trade agreement,’ he said…”

The Associated Press reported on July 1 that “French President Francois Hollande is demanding that the United States immediately stop its alleged eavesdropping of the European Union.”

The Verge wrote on July 1:

“… a new report from German news weekly Der Spiegel provides some more insight into the size of Washington’s telecommunications dragnet, claiming that US intelligence compiles metadata on half a billion German data connections (including phone calls, emails, and text messages) every day. The report points out that the NSA’s interest in Germany is much higher than that of other EU countries like France, whose communications the NSA only logs a tenth as often.

“… the report states that the NSA’s spying efforts in Germany are comparable to the attention it spends on China, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. And pointing to one top secret document, Der Spiegel writes that Germany is considered a ‘third party foreign partner’ by the NSA, unentitled to the freedom from spying exclusively granted to the most prestigious group of US partner nations: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.”

If all of these claims are true, the cold war between Europe and the USA is back, which could (!) even escalate into a hot war. The German mass tabloid, Bild, asked on July 1: “What do the Americans want from the Chancellor?”, in light of the alleged revelation that even Angela Merkel had been spied on by the Obama Administration. This made the German Chancellor very unhappy, as the next article shows.

Europe Threatens USA With Dire Consequences

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 1:

“Europeans are deeply unsettled… EU diplomats, with the active involvement of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, spent much of Monday coming up with a joint response and reaction to the possible US spying. According to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, Westerwelle spoke at length with Catherine Ashton, chief of EU foreign affairs, on Monday. ‘Both were in agreement that such activity among partners and friends [is] unacceptable,’ the statement read… In Berlin, the German Foreign Ministry called in US Ambassador Philip Murphy on Monday for consultations. Brussels likewise called in the US ambassador to the European Union, William Kennard…

“Merkel’s unusually sharp words seem to have opened the gates for more reactions from her cabinet in Berlin… The US, meanwhile, is biding its time. US President Obama said on Monday in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania that his government is still looking at the revelations published in SPIEGEL. He said that once that examination is complete, the US will provide its allies with all of the information they are seeking.”

If one wants to believe THAT!!!

Germans Don’t Trust Obama

In an accompanying article, Der Spiegel wrote on July 1:

“Revelations that the US has spied extensively on the EU and European countries have infuriated leaders in Brussels and Berlin — and could endanger the trans-Atlantic free-trade agreement. Important American voices are demanding that Obama come clean. Leading trans-Atlantic analysts have reacted with shock and horror…

“Sources familiar with the ongoing discussion in the White House regarding the revelations say that the Obama administration will attempt to make clear that the surveillance measures were carried out in coordination with the secret services of other countries. It remains questionable, however, whether any countries will want to admit to such cooperation. European politicians, it seems certain, will have no interest in making such an admission…

“Green Party politician Malte Spitz attracted attention over the weekend with a guest editorial in the New York Times in which he reminded readers of the demonstrations in Germany against data retention for six months in accordance with a European Union directive. ‘Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when the government knows too much about someone.’ The title of his piece: ‘Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don’t Trust Him.’”

This debacle is bound to continue; especially if European secret services collaborated with the Americans and would now be unwilling to admit this.

How Much Did the Germans Know?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 3:

“While the Chancellery appears to be outraged by the NSA’s spying tactics in Germany, the opposition doubts the revelations came as a surprise to Angela Merkel. Just how much could she have known?

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have to be pretty clear with US President Barack Obama the next time she has him on the line. At least that’s a reasonable assumption, based on the anger she has expressed about American spying operations in the European Union and Germany… But others say that the chancellor will probably be friendly to Obama during their next talk, and not because this is what diplomatic conventions call for, even amid tensions. No, it’s because there is some question as to whether Berlin’s dismay about the espionage by the National Security Agency (NSA) is really as great as it claims. Could some of the indignation be feigned? Did the revelations really shock the chancellor? And if it did come as a surprise, has German counterintelligence failed miserably?

“The opposition doesn’t believe that Merkel was unaware of the situation. In an editorial for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week, Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), openly aired the suspicion that Merkel was familiar with at least some of the spying activity. The government has vehemently rejected this accusation as crude campaign bluster. This isn’t totally unjust — the opposition has seized on the opportunity to portray Merkel as a traitor to citizens’ freedoms, a strategy that could gain support among a population particularly sensitive to data protection issues.

“The election campaign aside, there are good reasons to ask critical questions of not just the Americans, but the German government too. Intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom says that Gabriel’s suspicion is ‘at least tendentially’ correct. ‘According to my estimation, the authorities knew about this,’ he told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

“That’s because the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which is responsible for protecting government networks, compiles threat analyses for the Interior Ministry. And adversaries include ‘not only China or Russia, but also the Anglo-Saxon services,’ Schmidt-Eenboom said. Additionally, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) is familiar with the capacities of allied intelligence agencies, he added. In turn, the BND briefs the Chancellery, or more precisely its chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, who is responsible for coordinating the intelligence agencies. He then shares this information with the chancellor when he sees fit…

“The SPD, however, cannot hide behind Merkel’s conservatives. After all, it was current opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier who occupied Pofalla’s post from 1999 to 2005, in the delicate time after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when US intelligence agencies were certainly not idle. One thing is obvious: No one believed that the NSA was steering clear of Germany…”

These are indeed troubling developments, and Germany’s refusal to grant asylum to fugitive Edward Snowden might have to be seen in this light. See the next article.

“Ashamed of Germany”

The Local reported on July 3:

“Michael Grosse-Brömer, of the Christian Democratic Union’s parliamentary faction [Merkel’s party], said it had been a ‘legally founded’ decision. ‘We have clear pre-conditions for an asylum process and for asylum entitlement, and those pre-conditions were not in place for Mr. Snowden,’ he said on state TV channel ARD Wednesday morning. ‘I don’t see that the man is being pursued politically,’ Social Democratic Party interior policy spokesman Dieter Wiefelspütz [Steinmeier’s party] told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. ‘He may have breached state secrecy for reasons of conscience. He may be a hero of freedom. But that is no protection from legal consequences.’

“The Green party, which had called for Snowden to be taken in, strongly criticized the government. Leading candidates Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Jürgen Trittin released a joint statement on Tuesday evening that said, ‘Angela Merkel’s decision to deny asylum to Edward Snowden exposes all the hypocrisy of this government. It says it is outraged, but doesn’t do anything.’

“Meanwhile Katharina Nocun of the Pirate Party accused the government of putting Snowden under threat, adding that Snowden could expect inhumane treatment or even the death penalty if deported to the US. ‘Germany is even holding the door open for these human rights abuses,’ Nocun said. ‘Today I am ashamed of our government.’”

“Snowden, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency, applied for asylum to 21 countries after releasing details of the scope of its surveillance activities. Most have denied him access.”

Is this so because all are involved; all have something to hide; and no one is without sin? Take France as another example.

Worldcrunch wrote on July 4:

“The revelations of the controversial U.S. domestic surveillance program PRISM have provoked massive indignation through much of Europe, but France has been rather quiet. There are two simple explanations: Paris was already aware — and does exactly the same. Le Monde has confirmed that the ‘Direction Générale de la Securité Extérieure’ (DGSE, the French secret service) systematically collects the electromagnetic signals transmitted by computers and phones in France, as well as the digital streams going back-and-forth between the French and abroad. All communications are being spied on: emails, SMS messages, phone records, Facebook and Twitter updates, which are all then stored for years.”

Guenther Grass in Hot Water—Again

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 28:

“Nobel laureate Günter Grass has become a master at stepping on his tongue lately. This week, he did it again, casting aspersions about Chancellor Merkel’s East German past. Critics have blasted Grass, pointing to the author’s own prior membership in the SS.”

This was of course an incredibly stupid and incomprehensible move by Grass, which is even more regrettable, as he did say a few more things which are worth noting. The magazine went on to state:

“Grass didn’t limit his criticism to Merkel on Wednesday. Calling her elimination of conscription ‘shameful,’ he said that the German military had devolved into nothing more than an ‘army of mercenaries that gets sent on missions abroad.’ He said it threatens to become a ‘state within a state’ as did the German army during the inter-war Weimar period.”

With that statement, Grass earned criticism from Conservatives and Liberals alike. Nobody wanted to hear that.

New Information Contradicts Denials from Tech Companies

CNET wrote on June 30:

“The Washington Post has published a new set of slides regarding PRISM, revealing more details about the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program and how it operates. The new slides… appear to confirm that the NSA and FBI have the ability to perform real-time surveillance of e-mail and stored content.

“The slides also seem to contradict denials from tech companies such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Microsoft about their level of participation in the program. The program ‘uses government equipment on private company property to retrieve matching information from a participating company, such as Microsoft or Yahoo and pass[es] it without further review to the NSA,’ The Washington Post reported.”

US Postal Service Is Spying on You!

The New York Times reported on July 3:

“Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images… postal mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail.

“… At the request of law enforcement officials, postal workers record information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered. (Opening the mail would require a warrant.) The information is sent to the law enforcement agency that asked for it. Tens of thousands of pieces of mail each year undergo this scrutiny.”

Obamacare—Major Defeat for Obama

Newsmax, The Associated Press and Reuters reported on July 2:

“The Obama administration’s move to delay until 2015 a requirement that employers offer health insurance or else face stiff penalties is yet another indication the embattled law is a failure and should be repealed, Republicans and Conservatives said Tuesday… On Tuesday, the White House made its most significant concession on the healthcare law since President Barack Obama signed it in 2010, delaying the requirement that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face heavy fines.

“The law requires companies with 50 or more workers to provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting government-subsidized insurance. Companies would have had to pay the Internal Revenue Service $2,000 for each full-time employee who did not get health coverage, beginning Jan. 1, 2014, when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was scheduled to take full effect. Business groups have complained that the provision was too complicated…”

Still, the injustice of the implementation of this new botched law is apparent, as correctly pointed out by humanevents.com, on July 2:

“Looks like someone finally read the bill. The Obama administration is postponing the ‘employer mandate’… until 2015. The move delays implementation of at least one component of the unpopular law until after the next mid-term elections. A coincidence, no doubt.

“Individuals? You’re still on the hook… the decision prompts several questions. Among them: 1 -Can the administration unilaterally decide when and how a law is implemented?  If so, can Congress decide when and how to fund it? 2- Why is the employer mandate delayed but not the individual mandate? 3 – Why is it that the populist Obama administration acts on complaints from large companies but fights all the way to the Supreme Court to levy fines on individuals?”

Good questions!

Same-Sex Marriage—HOW “Law” Is Made

The International Business Times wrote on July 1:

“The Supreme Court denied a request by California opposition groups to block same-sex marriages on Sunday. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who handles petitions from the Western states, issued a brief statement that read: ‘Justice Kennedy denied the application on his own, without further comment.’…

“The Ninth Circuit [Court of Appeals] usually waits 25 days before acting on a case that was recently decided by the Supreme Court. But in a surprise move, a three-judge panel that included liberal jurist Stephen Reinhardt lifted a hold it had placed on a 2010 injunction ordering state officials to stop enforcing the gay marriage ban [in California]…

“Kennedy wrote Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling that required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. Kennedy’s decision means gay marriages can resume in California.”

According to the Rasmussen Report of July 1, 2013, “The U.S. Supreme Court finished its term with big decisions on voting rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage. Following those rulings, public approval of the court has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded in more than nine years of polling.”

Same Sex Marriage—WHY “Law” Is Made

On June 28, Canada Free Press wrote the following:

“Designated by Congress as the ‘National House of Prayer’ and often identified as the church of our national leaders, the National Cathedral in Washington DC celebrated Wednesday’s Supreme Court decisions regarding same-sex marriage by ringing its bells for 45 minutes at noon ET, followed by a celebratory prayer service that evening. After being notified of the Supreme Court’s ruling, our putative president made a congratulatory call from Air Force One to the plaintiffs in California’s Proposition 8 case, a call that was also broadcast on MSNBC, the unofficial mouthpiece for the administration.

“Welcome to American Babylon, 2013.

“Those who have been paying attention to the systematic attacks on the moral fabric of our nation understand that what is taking place in America has absolutely nothing to do with ‘equal rights’ or ‘gender equality.’ This should be especially evident in light of the fact that [confessing] homosexuals comprise a mere three percent of our population, yet have somehow managed to cause an entire nation to redefine traditional marriage between a man and a woman. How is this possible? The answer lies in the larger picture.

“America has become a captured operation. Forced acceptance of same-sex unions is part of a larger plan that was outlined and detailed nearly a century ago by Antonio Gramsci, a well-known Marxist. Through his theory of cultural hegemony, a method for a Marxist takeover of a capitalist nation like the United States was only possible from within. A key component to this takeover was – and continues to be – radically changing the culture and moral sensitivities of our country. Destroy traditional and sacred moral values based on Judeo-Christian principles and replace them with immoral and un-Godly laws and evil disguised as tolerance…

“Socialism calls for government control of industry, including the nationalization of key industries and national resources. The terms Communism and Marxism are interchangeable, and are hard-core forms of socialism… Socialism, Marxism and Communism are mere stepping stones to the larger agenda of a unified world or system of global governance… Many of the… [Communist] goals have been accomplished with little to no resistance right in front of our eyes, by our own self-proclaimed moral leadership.

“A very important aspect of those goals focuses on breaking down all cultural standards of morality, including the promotion of all forms of homosexuality, promiscuity and degeneracy as ‘normal and healthy.’ To assist with this task, all religious institutions were and are to be infiltrated by those adherent to the Marxist-Communist Mindset, the Holy Bible is to be discredited, and traditional doctrine replaced by a mandate of inclusion and tolerance of behavior which was once considered abhorrent. Removal of the Judeo-Christian obstacles in America would sufficiently soften the population to the ultimate acceptance of a global Mindset and ultimately, the subjugation to a single global authority. This process, however, could not be done overnight as the Americans of the 1950’s would never accept it or allow it to happen.

“The children of the United States were and are considered to be one of the most important ‘resources’ for the takeover of America. Accordingly, schools had to be infiltrated by the agents of the Marxists-Communist Mindset, today called the Progressives, and the minds of the children ‘prepared’ or educated in accordance with a tolerance and blind acceptance toward Marxism and Communism…

“It is no wonder that the U.S. Educational system from the 1960’s forward has promoted immorality under the guise of tolerance, and has not only allowed, but forced parents to accept curriculums of abhorrent behavior be permitted to pollute the minds of our young people. At the same time curriculums of moral corruption are being taught in our schools, the removal of God was necessary as it is antithetical to the debauchery of tolerance and acceptance. Like a cancer, this process has spread not only through our public elementary and secondary schools, but exponentially into our colleges and universities… As we are busy working multiple jobs just to put food on the table, we have been deliberately distracted away from what is being taught to our children…

“The normalization of homosexual marriage is a sin against God and nature and historically, one that does not go unpunished. We did not, however, arrive here overnight. It was in 1986, a mere 27 years ago, that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state’s rights to enact sodomy laws in the landmark case of Bowers v. Hardwick. Citing then Chief Justice Warren Burger, ‘To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.’ That fragile thread of morality lasted only 17 years. In 2003, the Bowers v. Hardwick was overturned by the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in other states.

“Although it was contended at the time that the latter case had nothing to do with same-sex marriage, Supreme Court Justice Antonion Scalia astutely saw through the smoke screen and during oral arguments, flatly admonished anyone who would listen that the decision would open the floodgates toward the recognition of same-sex marriage. And so it did. Legalizing same-sex sexual activity and marriage is but one of numerous attacks against America from within…”

It is so very true that before the United States of America can be destroyed by an enemy from without, it will have permitted its destruction from within. Notice the next article as well.

Altered Attitudes

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 2:

“Two US Supreme Court rulings last week bolstering same-sex marriage are symptomatic of shifting public opinion in the West in favor of gay rights. Attitudes have changed so fast in recent years that politicians can hardly keep up…

“As of this August, 585 million people in the world will live in regions where true gay marriage exists… roughly twice as many as in August 2012. And just 12 years before that, at the turn of the millennium, gay marriage didn’t exist anywhere in the world…

“Several countries have changed their laws just in the last half year. One example is France… Three American states, as well as New Zealand and Uruguay, have also joined the ranks in 2013. But it is Brazil’s over 190 million inhabitants who account for the largest segment of that number…

“The losers in this trend, in every country, are religious forces. In France, it was conservative Catholic circles… But the resistance in France was directed at far more than just gay marriage — it was also about fundamentally questioning the legitimacy of the country’s Socialist president…

“Baptist minister and former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee met the Supreme Court’s ruling with the words, ‘Jesus wept.’ But even… radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh conceded earlier this year that the gay marriage movement would no longer be stopped, saying, ‘This issue is lost.’”

Historic Pride Sabbath?

JTA wrote on July 1:

“At 5:00 P.M. this past Friday, a line of visibly excited people, many decked out in rainbow regalia, gathered outside Congregation Beit Simchat Torah Shabbat [CBST] services. Synagogues generally don’t garner lines for services, especially lines that wrap around the block. But then again, it’s not every Shabbat that you can celebrate Pride weekend with Edith Windsor and Roberta Kaplan.

“Windsor, of course, is the lesbian woman whose Supreme Court petition resulted in the historic overturn last week of the Defense of Marriage Act. Kaplan is her lawyer. Both women are CBST members. Over 600 people — including mayoral candidate Christine Quinn — came to the synagogue to celebrate the ruling; some stood outside listening in through speakers. The services were extended and included the recitation of the Hallel prayer normally reserved for holidays. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum dedicated the night to Thea Speyer, Windsor’s deceased partner, and said that, while there may be reasons not to fully celebrate the court’s decisions last week, we should still celebrate this momentous occasion. And celebrate they did. With a full choir, the synagogue was full of joy, music, and hugs.

“Kaplan and Windsor spoke together at the end of the service, comparing their efforts in securing equal rights for same-sex marriages to the efforts of the biblical daughters of Zelophehad, who fought for their inheritance rights and won. The high point of the night came at an unexpected moment. As the services started, a diminutive, elegantly dressed woman walked in slowly. No one noticed her at first, but then one person recognized the smiling [woman] as Edith Windsor, and the cheering and clapping turned into a sustained standing ovation. Her entrance felt like the triumphant return of a battle-worn hero waving to the crowd.”

It might come as a surprise to some, but many American Jews have manifested an incredible amount of liberalism and anti-biblical standards (as this can also be observed for many American Catholics and Protestants). But this is of course not true for all. Notice the next insightful article.

“Rabbi: Only Messiah Can Straighten Out Gay Ruling”

JTA wrote on June 28:

“The National Council of Young Israel wasn’t quite as eloquent as the Orthodox Union, nor as elegiac as Agudath Israel of America, but the essential view is the same. ‘We oppose homosexual marriage and are disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision that strikes down portions of the Defense of Marriage Act. Pursuant to the tenets of the Jewish faith and in accordance with Torah law, we believe that marriage should only be recognized as a union between a man and a woman, just as it always has been throughout history.’…

“Orthodox rabbi… Yoel Schoenfeld… the Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills in Queens [said] that this decision… has brought humanity so low that it can only herald the End of Days. Maybe, the rabbi says… the messiah will soon come and ‘straighten us out.’”

Indeed, He will have to…

Deadly Arizona Fire

Fox News reported on July 1:

“Eighteen members of an elite Hotshots firefighting crew and one other person who were killed Sunday in an Arizona wildfire tried to protect themselves by deploying tent-like structures before they were overtaken, a state forestry spokesman says. The lightning-sparked fire, which spread to more than 8,000 acres amid triple-digit temperatures, destroyed at least 50 structures and threatened 500 people in Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents that sits 85 miles northwest of Phoenix, the Yavapai County Emergency Management said Monday… It was zero percent contained as of Monday morning local time.

“The fire killed 18 members of the 20-member of the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots crew, which were known for battling the region’s worst fires. The average age of the men in the crew was 22-years-old…  It was the most firefighters killed battling a wildfire in the U.S. in decades.”

This tragedy is truly heart-breaking, and our condolences go out to the families of these brave young men who gave their lives to protect others.

The Atlantic Wire wrote on July 1:

“It’s hard to process yesterday’s deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona… But there is one worrisome trend: fires are getting bigger and often deadlier… The number of acres burned per fire reached a new high last year… One reason for last year’s devastation was last year’s massive drought. The Southwest has been consistently dry for several years, but last year — and into this year — the drought reached levels not seen since the Dust Bowl era.

“The wildfires seen so far in 2013 largely track with the drought… As New York City’s Firemen’s Memorial says, the lost firefighters are ‘soldiers in a war that never ends.’ Yesterday’s loss is a reminder that even with our modern advantages, the war is still a struggle.”

Discovery of Australia’s East Coast

AFP wrote on July 1:

“The centuries-old skull of a white man found in Australia is raising questions about whether Captain James Cook really was the first European to land on the country’s east coast. The skull was found in northern New South Wales in late 2011, and police initially prepared themselves for a gruesome murder investigation. But scientific testing revealed that not only was it much older than expected, but possibly belonged to a white man born around 1650, well before Englishman Cook reached the eastern seaboard on the Endeavour in 1770…

“Australian National University expert Stewart Fallon, who carbon-dated the skull… said the test used was quite accurate for dates after 1950 but for earlier samples it was more difficult, and the two samples yielded different dates…

“Historians were cautious. ‘Before we rewrite the history of European settlement we have to consider a number of issues, particularly the circumstances of the discovery,’ archaeologist Adam Ford told the Telegraph. ‘The fact the skull is in good condition and found alone could easily point to it coming from a private collection and skulls were very popular with collectors in the 19th century.’… Dutch explorers made the earliest European landings in Cape York in Australia’s far north and western Australia in the 1600s.”

We need to be cautious with reports like these, as especially the radio-carbon method is indeed very unreliable to determine the age of a fossil.

Belgium’s Future King

The Associated Press reported on July 3:

“Belgium’s King Albert announced Wednesday that he will abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Philippe on July 21… Frail at 79, King Albert will be handing over the throne to his son Philippe, who is 53… Belgium has had six kings since it came into being in 1830; Albert is the first to voluntarily abdicate from the throne… The nation celebrates independence day on July 21 and many have said that could be an ideal day to hand over the largely ceremonial post…

“After he succeeded his devoutly Roman Catholic brother Baudouin in 1993, Albert became embroiled in a major royal scandal when he had to acknowledge the existence of an out-of-wedlock daughter… and suffered a major crisis in his marriage with Queen Paola… ‘He is not alone. Many royals around the world have extramarital children,’ [one commentator said].”

British Spying

The Guardian wrote on June 21:

“Britain’s spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world’s phone calls and internet traffic and has started to process vast streams of sensitive personal information which it is sharing with its American partner, the National Security Agency (NSA).

“The sheer scale of the agency’s ambition is reflected in the titles of its two principal components: Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation, aimed at scooping up as much online and telephone traffic as possible. This is all being carried out without any form of public acknowledgement or debate. One key innovation has been GCHQ’s ability to tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days so that it can be sifted and analysed. That operation, codenamed Tempora, has been running for some 18 months.

“GCHQ and the NSA are consequently able to access and process vast quantities of communications between entirely innocent people, as well as targeted suspects. This includes recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, entries on Facebook and the history of any internet user’s access to websites.”

The Local wrote on June 22:

“German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger reacted with shock on Saturday to revelations by British newspaper The Guardian that the British spy agency GCHQ had been gathering even more communications data than the Americans. The paper published further material from whistle-blower Edward Snowden on Friday suggesting that GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables on British soil carrying email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories and calls, and shares this data with the US. ‘If the allegations are true, it would be a catastrophe,’ said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and demanded the European Union immediately look into the matter of British spying.

“Yet while concern in Germany over recent revelations showing the extent and scope of US and British online snooping capabilities has been widespread, most people do not personally see themselves as targets… Over 70 percent of German participants in the online survey said they believed the NSA had accessed telephone and internet data in Germany, yet just 30 percent believed their own communications data had been seen by employees of the recently-uncovered US secret service Prism program. Only 9 percent thought it very probable that the Americans had been spying on them and 21 percent fairly probable…  Fifty-eight percent said they thought Germany as a nation would feel the consequences of the revelations, which 70 percent believed would be negative.”

All in all, Germans seem to still be pretty naïve, as are many Americans. On June 24, International Business Times reported: “While the [American] public is divided over the NSA PRISM program itself, a majority of those surveyed said that the program probably helped prevent terrorism.”

The relationship between Europe and the USA and Britain is bound to deteriorate over revelations like these spying activities, as the next articles show.

German “Indignation” with Britain

Deutsche Welle reported on June 24:

“First Prism, now Tempora: the British security service GCHQ has been surveying electronic communications of hundreds of millions of people. German politicians are expressing frustration and seeking information. It’s ‘like a nightmare out of Hollywood,’ says German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger with respect to the British Tempora electronic surveillance program…

“It’s not clear how many Germans were affected, but there has been severe criticism from German politicians of all parties… Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, an expert on intelligence agencies, says he’s surprised that German politicians are so indignant. He told MDR that German authorities have long known that British and US services were tapping internet and telephone connections.”

“American and British Totalitarianism Must Come to an End”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 24:

“Overzealous data collectors in the US and Great Britain have no right to investigate German citizens. The German government must protect people from unauthorized access by foreign intelligence agencies, and it must act now. This is a matter of national security…

“At the beginning of last week, we thought after the announcement of the American Prism program, that US President Barack Obama was the sole boss of the largest and most extensive control system in human history. That was an error. Since Friday, we have known that the British intelligence agency GCHQ is ‘worse than the United States’…

“We have Edward Snowden to thank for this insight into the interaction of an uncanny club, the Alliance of Five Eyes. Since World War II, the five Anglo-Saxon countries of Great Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have maintained close intelligence cooperation, which apparently has gotten completely out of control. It may be up to the Americans and the British to decide how they handle questions of freedom and the protection of their citizens from government intrusion. But they have no right to subject the citizens of other countries to their control. The shoulder-shrugging explanation by Washington and London that they have operated within the law is absurd. They are not our laws. We didn’t make them. We shouldn’t be subject to them.

“The totalitarianism of the security mindset protects itself with a sentence: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. But firstly, that contains a presumption: We have not asked the NSA and GCHQ to ‘protect’ us. And secondly, the sentence is a stupid one: Because we all have something to hide, whether it pertains to our private lives or to our business secrets…

“Thus the data scandal doesn’t pertain just to our legal principles, but to our security as well. We were lucky that Edward Snowden, who revealed the spying to the entire world, is not a criminal, but an idealist. He wanted to warn the world, not blackmail it. But he could have used his information for criminal purposes, as well. His case proves that no agency in the world can guarantee the security of the data it collects — which is why no agency should collect data in such abundance in the first place. That is the well-known paradox of totalitarian security policy. Our security is jeopardized by the very actions that are supposed to protect it.

“So what should happen now? European institutions must take control of the data infrastructure and ensure its protection. The freedom of data traffic is just as important as the European freedom of exchange in goods, services and money. But above all, the practices of the Americans and British must come to an end. Immediately.

“It is the responsibility of the German government to see to it that the programs of the NSA and GCHQ no longer process the data of German citizens and companies without giving them the opportunity for legal defense. A government that cannot make that assurance is failing in one of its fundamental obligations: to protect its own citizens from the grasp of foreign powers.”

German Spying

On June 22, npr.org reported the following:

“Revelations of widespread U.S. spying on foreign Internet communications put a damper on President Obama’s first state visit to Berlin. The German chancellor and other officials there say they want to know more about what the National Security Agency is looking at. Yet the backlash has been more muted than expected. One reason is that the German government is doing similar surveillance.

“… the U.S. is actually doing German authorities a favor — especially when Washington shares what it collects. Just like the American government, German officials quietly justify increased surveillance as necessary to protect their country from terrorist attacks… Germany’s top court also recently upheld the right of security agencies to maintain an anti-terror database containing sensitive personal information about German citizens…”

The hypocrisy involved is dumb-founding.

US Drone Spying

The Washington Post wrote on June 20:

“The FBI has received clearance from federal aviation officials to conduct drone surveillance operations in the United States… The documents provide virtually no detail on where the FBI has operated drones in U.S. airspace, for what purpose or how long the missions lasted. But they shed some additional light on the origins and extent of the FBI’s secretive drone program…

“Drones, or unmanned aircraft, are generally prohibited from flying in U.S. airspace… The Department of Homeland Security flies large surveillance drones along the borders with Canada and Mexico. Congress has directed the FAA to open domestic airspace to drones by 2015…”

Even Obama a Target of NSA

Business Insider wrote on June 22:

“Russ Tice worked as an offensive National Security Agency (NSA) from 2002 and 2005, before becoming a source for this Pulitzer-Prize winning The New York Times article exposing NSA domestic spying…

“‘In the summer of 2004, one of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a forty-some-year-old senator from Illinois… That’s who the NSA went after. That’s the President of the United States now.’ Tice added that he also saw orders to spy on Hillary Clinton, Senators John McCain and Diane Feinstein, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, Gen. David Petraeus, and a current Supreme Court Justice. That sounds like a lot of abuse of the rules that govern NSA domestic spying. And that’s exactly what Tice is claiming…”

This shows how the US spying activities are being used—and have been used—against just about any person so desired.

Snowden–Major Embarrassment for Obama

Reuters wrote on June 23:

“Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden was seeking asylum in Ecuador on Sunday after Hong Kong allowed his departure for Russia in a slap to Washington’s efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.

“In a major embarrassment for President Barack Obama, an aircraft thought to have carried Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said he was ‘bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum.’…

“It was a blow to Obama’s foreign policy goals of resetting ties with Russia and building a partnership with China. The leaders of both countries were willing to snub the American president in a month when each had held talks with Obama.

“The United States continued efforts to prevent Snowden from gaining asylum. It warned Western Hemisphere nations that Snowden ‘should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States,’ a State Department official said. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely knew and approved of Snowden’s flight to Russia and predicted ‘serious consequences’ for a U.S.-Russian relationship already strained over Syria and human rights…

“Ecuador, which has been sheltering WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year, once again took center stage in an international diplomatic saga over U.S. data secrecy…

“In their statement announcing Snowden’s departure, the Hong Kong authorities said they were seeking clarification from Washington about reports of U.S. spying on government computers in the territory… A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it had allowed the departure of Snowden – considered a whistleblower by his supporters and a criminal or even a traitor by his critics – as the U.S. request for his arrest did not comply with the law…

“The issue has been a major problem for Obama, who has found his domestic and international policy agenda sidelined as he has scrambled to deflect accusations that U.S. surveillance practices violate privacy protections and civil rights. The president has maintained that the measures have been necessary to thwart attacks on the United States…

“Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about U.S. surveillance activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile phone firms and targeting of China’s Tsinghua University.”

Reuters reported on June 24:

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during a visit to India that it would be ‘deeply troubling’ if Moscow defied the United States over Snowden… Russian officials said Moscow had no obligation to cooperate with Washington, after it passed legislation to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russians accused of violating human rights. ‘Why should the United States expect restraint and understanding from Russia?’ said Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament.”

Reuters added on June 25:

“President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday a former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by the United States was in the transit area of a Moscow airport but ruled out handing him over to Washington, dismissing U.S. criticisms as ‘ravings and rubbish.’”

Whatever the US tries to do, it fails…

Do China and Russia Know About U.S. Nuclear War Plans?

The National Free Beacon wrote on June 26, 2013:

“Intelligence agencies in China and Russia gained access to highly classified U.S. intelligence and military information contained on electronic media held by renegade former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, according to U.S. officials… One of the biggest fears about the compromise is whether Snowden… gained access to new U.S. nuclear war plans…

“The nuclear war plans, among the most closely guarded U.S. secrets, were recently modified as a result of President Barack Obama’s shift in U.S. nuclear strategy. The president last week signed new guidance for the Pentagon limiting the use of nuclear weapons in U.S. planning and strategy. The shift is the first step in the president’s plan to cut deployed nuclear weapons by one-third to about 1,000 warheads. That plan was announced in Berlin June 19.”

An Innocent Mistake?

The Washington Post reported on June 22:

“In April 2011, Barack Obama, president of the United States, took the extraordinary step of releasing the long-form version of his birth certificate. As the New York Times wrote at the time, the idea behind the move was ‘to finally end a long-simmering conspiracy theory among some conservatives who have asserted that he was not born in the United States and was not a legitimate president.’ The certificate proved that Obama was born in Hawaii.

“Rachel Rose Hartman, a White House reporter for Yahoo! News, couldn’t possibly have missed the ‘birther’ story. It was unavoidable, after all, for an unhealthy chunk of the president’s first term. Yet: In her story yesterday on Obama’s Africa trip, Hartman managed to say that ‘he won’t be stopping in the country of his birth.’ From the context of the story, it’s clear she was referring to Kenya…

“A birther-oriented mistake of this magnitude cannot possibly be finessed, ignored or Daily Callered. So Yahoo! News went ahead and published a properly placed correction, complete with a clever save:

“‘Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the president’s birthplace. President Barack Obama makes the first extended trip to Africa of his presidency next week—but he won’t be stopping in his ancestral homeland.’

“The Erik Wemple Blog has a number of questions for Yahoo! Newsers:

“1) How on earth?

“2) Did someone forget that the president of the United States needs to be born in the United States (or fulfill other constitutional requirements)?

“3) Any editing over there?

“A spokesperson for Yahoo! News, however, said that there would be no comment beyond the correction.”

If that was an innocent mistake, then there would be a great deal of utter incompetency involved. But what if it was no mistake? Sadly, neither cowardly Republicans nor self-serving Democrats are willing to touch this hot potato—if Kenya is indeed Mr. Obama’s birthplace, the far-reaching consequences would be far too unpleasant.

Pelosi and Others in Hot Water With Catholic Church

Newsmax reported on June 24:

“A Catholic priest active in the pro-life movement said if Nancy Pelosi continues her refusal to condemn abortion, she should renounce her Catholic faith… Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, sent the House minority leader a strongly worded letter demanding she explain her position on late-term abortion.

“His letter followed Pelosi’s June 13 news conference at which Pavone contends she sidestepped the issue… Pelosi said during her news briefing, ‘As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.’

“Addressing her comments in his letter, Pavone wrote, ‘With this statement, you make a mockery of the Catholic faith and of the tens of millions of Americans who consider themselves ‘practicing and respectful Catholics’ and who find the killing of children — whether inside or outside the womb — reprehensible. Whatever Catholic faith you claim to respect and practice, it is not the faith that the Catholic Church teaches. And I speak for countless Catholics when I say that it’s time for you to stop speaking as if it were… for decades you have gotten away with betraying and misrepresenting the Catholic faith…’”

It is not only Nancy Pelosi who is in hot water with the Catholic Church. Other US Democrats, such as Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry, likewise approve of abortion, while claiming to be practicing Catholics.

Same-Sex Marriage—How the Tides Turn

The New York Times wrote von June 26:

“The Supreme Court issued a pair of rulings Wednesday expanding gay rights, ruling unconstitutional a 1996 law denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples and paving the way for California to legalize same-sex marriage…

“The rulings continue a rapid shift, in which public opinion and laws have become far more accepting of same-sex marriage, only a few years after a clear majority of Americans opposed it and it was legal almost nowhere. Today, same-sex marriage is legal in 12 states, not including California, and polls show that a majority of people support it.

“The decision on federal benefits was 5 to 4, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing the majority opinion, which the four liberal-leaning justices joined… Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was in the minority… The ruling overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, which passed with bipartisan support and which President Bill Clinton signed. The decision… will also raise a series of major decisions for the Obama administration about how aggressively to overhaul references to marriage throughout the many volumes that lay out the laws of the United States.

“The five-member majority in the California case was different than in the Defense of Marriage case… Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion…

“The decision on the Defense of Marriage Act does not alter any state laws governing whether same-sex couples can marry. It instead determines whether same-sex couples that are legally married in one state receive federal benefits that apply to heterosexual married couples…

“Public opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted sharply in the last decade. In President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, Republican strategists put ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage on several state ballots, believing it would help raise turnout and lift Mr. Bush’s chances. As late as 2010, polls showed that a majority of Americans opposed same-sex marriage.

“In the last three years, public opinion has flipped. Mr. Clinton has said he regretted signing the 1996 law that the court struck down Wednesday. President Obama reversed his position last year, in the midst of the presidential campaign, and said he now favored same-sex marriage.”

Time wrote on June 26:

“Seventeen years after a Democratic president signed a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down Wednesday, capping one of the fastest civil rights shifts in the nation’s history.”

ABC News reported on June 27:

“Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told ABC News he believes the Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act was appropriate…  The comments from Paul, a likely GOP presidential candidate in 2016, highlight how the [Republican Party’s] field could divide over gay marriage. Many Republicans have been unusually muted in their reactions to the Supreme Court rulings today.”

Newsmax reported on June 26:

“The U.S. Supreme Court decisions June 26 striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and refusing to rule on the merits of a challenge to California’s Proposition 8 mark a ‘tragic day for marriage and our nation,’ said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops…

“‘Today is a tragic day for marriage and our nation… The Court got it wrong. The federal government ought to respect the truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, even where states fail to do so…  Now is the time to strengthen marriage, not redefine it… When Jesus taught about the meaning of marriage – the lifelong, exclusive union of husband and wife – he pointed back to ‘the beginning’ of God’s creation of the human person as male and female (see Matthew 19)… we call upon all of our leaders and the people of this good nation to stand steadfastly together in promoting and defending the unique meaning of marriage: one man, one woman, for life…’”

Civil rights shifts, public opinion and political maneuvering do not define godly standards, nor do they alter biblical teaching. The Bible reveals that GOD created marriage and that He defines “marriage” as a union between a man and a woman, and no human law or definition can change that. It is interesting that polygamists hope now that the Supreme Court rulings will pave the way to decriminalizing polygamy and allow for multi-partner marriage, according to the Washington Times, dated June 27. So what is coming next?

Why the War in Afghanistan Is Lost

The German mass tabloid, Bild Online, stated on June 22 that the 10-year-old war in Afghanistan is lost; that the death of 3,340 NATO soldiers was in vain; and that the adventure in Afghanistan was destined to failure from the start. It also pointed out that there are no rights of women or democracy in the country, and that America’s decision to negotiate with the Taliban is, according to German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a “psychological victory” for the Taliban and an admission of defeat.

Bild gave the following five reasons why the Afghan war is lost:

Reason #1: Corrupt Partners, including President Hamid Karzai, who is not well respected by most Afghans who rather deal with the Taliban.

Reason #2: Wrong Strategy. Instead of concentrating on the war against terrorism, the West wanted to bring growth and peace to the country.

Reason #3: Tactical mistakes. President Obama announced the withdrawal of the troops by 2014. Since then, the Taliban is collecting money and weapons and is waiting to return.

Reason #4: Drugs. NATO never dealt with them. 90% of all heroin sold worldwide is originating in Afghanistan.

Reason #5: Proud Afghans. The West tried to win the heads and hearts of the Afghan people and overlooked that Afghans don’t like foreigners in their country. The armies of Alexander the Great, the British Empire and the Russians had to leave Afghanistan in disgrace. The same will happen to NATO.

America has still not learned its lesson. According to the Washington Post, dated June 24, “U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry assured India and other concerned partners in this volatile region Monday that the United States plans to continue supporting the Afghan military and to keep American forces in Afghanistan after the scheduled 2014 combat withdrawal, ‘under any circumstances.’”

Never mind the contradictory and inconsistent expressions of intent from the American government…

Egypt in Turmoil–Again

AFP wrote on June 23:

“Egypt’s defence minister warned on Sunday that the army will intervene if violence breaks out in the country where opponents of President Mohamed Morsi are planning rallies against him this month… Morsi’s opponents, who accuse him of hijacking the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s regime, plan a rally on June 30 to mark the day Morsi was sworn in as Egypt’s first civilian and Islamist president… Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters massed on Friday in a show of strength ahead of the June 30 protest…

“Egypt is deeply polarised. Morsi’s supporters say he is clearing institutions of decades of corruption, but his critics accuse him of concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood movement. Since taking office a year ago, Morsi has squared off against the judiciary, media, police and most recently artists.

“Leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, a former chief of UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged the president to resign for the sake of national unity… A campaign dubbed Tamarod (rebellion in Arabic) first called the anti-Morsi rally to coincide with the first anniversary of his taking office. Tamarod rapidly picked up steam, and organisers said they have collected 15 million signatures demanding that Morsi step down.”

The West applauded the Arab Spring, because politicians and governmental officials were struck with blindness.

Iran—a More Dangerous Place Than Ever Before

The Economist wrote on June 22:

“When a country has seen as much repression as Iran, outsiders hoping for a better future for the place instinctively want to celebrate along with all those ordinary Iranians who took to the streets. The smiling Mr Rohani’s public pronouncements encourage optimism, for he sounds like a different sort of president from the comedy-villain, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who precedes him. Yet even if his election bodes well for Iranians, it does not necessarily hold equal promise for the rest of the world. Iran’s regional assertiveness and its nuclear capacity mean that it is a more dangerous place than it ever was before…

“Yet the Persian lion has not lost its claws, nor has the theocracy suddenly become a democracy. Mr Rohani was indeed the most reformist of the candidates on offer at the election… The 64-year-old cleric has been a loyal servant of the Islamic Republic from its inception. For years he headed the national security council… He is constrained by a system that deemed just eight people fit to stand in the recent election and rejected 678 others (including a former president). The president’s power is limited by Iran’s other institutions, many of which are in conservative hands.

“While Iran’s politics have probably changed less than Mr Rohani’s election suggests, the balance of power between Iran and the rest of the world has been shifting in Iran’s favour for two reasons. First, thanks to heavy investment in nuclear capacity by the mullahs, and despite attempts by the West and Israel to delay or sabotage the nuclear programme, Iran will soon be able to produce a bomb’s worth of weapons-grade uranium in a matter of weeks… Iran has installed more than 9,000 new centrifuges in less than two years, more than doubling its enrichment capability. It is a short step from the 20% enriched uranium that the country’s facilities are already producing at an increasing rate to conversion into the fissile material needed for an implosion device. Although Western intelligence agencies think Iran is still at least a year away from being able to construct such a weapon, some experts believe that it could do so within a few months if it chose to—and that the time it would take is shrinking…

“But now it looks as though Iran will soon be in a position to build a weapon swiftly and surreptitiously. Should the West decide to use force, Iran could amass a small arsenal by the time support for a military strike was rallied… Despite its economic troubles, the Iranian state is a powerful beast compared with its neighbours, and is keen to assert itself abroad. The Iraqi government is now its ally. It has sway over chunks of Lebanon through Hizbullah… And it has sent Hizbullah into Syria, where its fighters have joined Iranian advisers, money and special forces to help turn the tide of the war in Bashar Assad’s favour. Ostensibly the reason why Barack Obama agreed last week to arm the rebels in Syria… was Mr Assad’s use of chemical weapons; but many believe that the greater reason was his reluctance to see Mr Assad hold on to power as a client of Iran’s…”

The article concludes with these words, perhaps without realizing that they might be prophetic, if applied to Europe—but not the USA or NATO:

“The West… has the economic and military clout to influence events in the region, and an interest in doing so. When Persian power is on the rise, it is not the time to back away from the Middle East.”

The Bible says that Europe will indeed intervene in the Middle East… with terrible consequences for the rest of the world. Please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Syrian Conflict Escalates

The Wall Street Journal wrote on June 14:

“The Kremlin criticized the U.S. decision to arm Syrian opposition fighters and said Washington’s evidence that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons was unconvincing… President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized the U.S. to arm fighters against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reversing a policy of giving only nonlethal support to the country’s opposition in the two-year-old civil war. The White House cited confirmation that Mr. Assad’s regime had killed up to 150 people with chemical weapons as the reason for its about-face.

“U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron… welcomed Washington’s assessment of Syrian weapons use. The U.K. and France were instrumental in ending a European Union arms embargo on Syria, paving the way for increased European assistance to rebel forces… U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that he opposed the U.S. decision to send arms…  The Syrian government on Friday dismissed U.S. charges that it used chemical weapons as ‘full of lies,’ accusing Mr. Obama of resorting to fabrications to justify his decision to arm Syrian rebels, the AP reported…”

Der Spiegel Online added on June 14:

“The United States has shifted its course on Syria following chemical weapons revelations, but international support is limited. Germany refuses to arm the insurgents, and Russia is openly critical of President Obama… Germany says it has no plans to deliver arms to the rebels… Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said it had no information of its own about the use of deadly poison gas by the regime in Damascus.”

The Local added on June 15:

“Rainer Stinner, the FDP faction speaker, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper on Friday that he was ‘exceptionally skeptical’ that the weapons delivery would help and thinks it would cause more problems than it solves. ‘The situation in Syria is completely unclear. No one knows who is going to end up with the weapons. They could be used against our partners. There is after all the danger that the conflict expands and spills over into other countries.’ The FDP, the junior coalition partner, is also the party of Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on June 16:

“The United States wants to provide additional military support to the Syrian rebels. Both sides in the conflict are already getting weapons from abroad. Will the weapons of war increase the chances for peace?… The German government… is against arming the rebels, fearing that this may lead to an escalation in the conflict… with Iran and Russia on its side, the Assad regime has no shortage of supplies…. Tehran is sending small arms and trainers, and there are rumors of Iranian fighters alongside government troops. Russia also remains a staunch supporter of Assad, supplying him with fighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles and helicopters.

“Ultimately, however, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia are all using the Syrian civil war to pursue their own ends. Syria has become an arena in which geopolitical power struggles are being played out – and it’s the Syrian people who are paying the price.”

USA Engaged in Arming Most Extreme Sunni Islamists in Middle East

The Independent wrote on June 15:

“Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region. For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

“The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.

“In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day…

“[America’s] enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power. Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces.

“Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East. Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction…

“In the Middle East, there is cynical disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms – almost certainly including anti-aircraft missiles – only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army. The more powerful al-Nusrah Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy. They will be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with little effort…”

Iran’s New President

Reuters wrote on June 14:

“Millions of Iranians voted to choose a new president on Friday, urged by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to turn out in force to discredit suggestions by arch foe the United States that the election would be a sham. The 50 million eligible voters had a choice between six candidates to replace incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but none is seen as challenging the Islamic Republic’s 34-year-old system of clerical rule.”

The Washington Post wrote on June 15:

“… early returns indicate a strong showing by the most moderate of the six candidates running for president of Iran [namely] Hassan Rouhani, the only cleric in the race… After some leading reformists were barred from running and other candidates dropped out, Iranians were choosing from among six presidential contenders…

“All six presidential candidates are considered to be loyal to [supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]… Khamenei… dismissed the importance of the U.S. view on Iranian domestic politics. ‘I heard recently that someone in America’s National Security Council said that we don’t accept Iran’s elections,’ Khamenei said, an apparent reference to a comment by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Kerry said last month that he did not expect the elections to ‘change the fundamental calculus’ of Iran’s nuclear policies, which he said are controlled by Khamenei, and not the president. ‘To hell with those who don’t accept it,’ said Khamenei.”

BBC News reported on June 15:

“Reformist-backed cleric Hassan Rouhani has won Iran’s presidential election, securing just over 50% of the vote and so avoiding the need for a run-off… Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated Mr Rouhani on his victory… Ayatollah Khamenei will ratify the vote on 3 August and the new president will then take the oath in parliament. Mr Rouhani… urged the world to ‘acknowledge the rights’ of Iran. He said: ‘The nations who tout democracy and open dialogue should speak to the Iranian people with respect and recognise the rights of the Islamic republic.’…

“The US said it respected the vote, although White House spokesman Jay Carney cited concern at censorship and lack of transparency… No foreign observers monitored this year’s election and there have also been concerns that media coverage in the run-up has been unfair. Many reformist newspapers have been shut down, access to the internet and foreign broadcasters has been restricted, and journalists have been detained.”

The Local wrote on June 16:

“German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Saturday welcomed the election of moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s new president as a vote for reforms and ‘a constructive foreign policy’”.

The same naive “hope” was expressed when Morsi was elected as the new President of Egypt, until he turned out to be a tyrannical Islamist of the Moslem Brotherhood. In  any event, notice the following insightful analysis.

Could Rowhani Deliver?

The Times of Israel wrote on June 15:

“In his public speeches, Rowhani — himself a conservative Shiite cleric –promised Iranians change both domestically and abroad. But Israeli experts on Iran said on Saturday that with no control over foreign policy and with the country’s economic situation dependent to a great extent on international decisions, the new president has precious little leeway. ‘An Iranian president largely serves as head of government for the supreme leader,’ Raz Zimmt, a research fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University told The Times of Israel. ‘He has no real prerogatives in foreign policy and his ability to provide solutions on the central issue, the economy, is limited.’…

“As secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (a position he filled from 1989 to 2005), Rowhani suspended the enrichment of uranium for two years, between 2003 and 2005. He was criticized for this during the election campaign, but repeatedly claimed that the decision was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei‘s, not his. The United States had just invaded Iraq, and the Iranian leadership was fearful of a similar fate.

“On Friday, Rowhani brazenly declared that he was running ‘to boot out the extremists,’ indicating to Western observers that unlike Ahmadinejad, he seemed to be set on change. But Meir Javedanfar, who teaches modern Iran at Herzliya’s Interdisciplinary Center, said that paradoxically [sic] Rowhani could be put to good use by Iran’s conservative decision-makers. ‘They could have falsified the elections, but chose not to do so,’ Javedanfar said in an interview. ‘Now the regime can use Rowhani to mend bridges with the West, because the cost of sanctions has become too high.’ Zimmt said that by falsifying the elections like it did in 2009, the regime would have risked another round of widespread protests, a price hardly worth paying considering that Rowhani‘s positions are not diametrically opposed to those of Khamenei…

“Rowhani can try to convince the supreme leader to engage in negotiations with the US, but cannot initiate such a move on his own, Zimmt said. Domestically, he will likely act to release political prisoners and stress the importance of freedom of expression…

“One thing was clear on Saturday: The Iranian public wanted change, fearing the continuation of status quo or worse… ‘We won’t let the past eight years be continued,’ Rowhani told a crowd last week. But his ability to deliver on that promise seems rather limited.”

Real change in Iran won’t come… as the next article shows as well.

Syria and Iran

The Times of Israel wrote on June 16:

“Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday congratulated Hasan Rowhani on his victory in Friday’s Iranian presidential election, calling on his new counterpart to upgrade ties between the already close countries. Iran has been among Assad’s most steadfast supporters during Syria’s two-year civil war, sending Damascus arms, money and fighters. Assad said first on the agenda for the two leaders would be ‘confronting the plots of hegemony and aggression against the national sovereignty in our region in a way that reflects positively on the peoples of both friendly countries,’ according to a report carried by Syria’s state-run SANA news agency…

“While Rowhani is considered to be relatively moderate compared to his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, [his hands are tied] by the ruling clerical regime in Tehran, which will keep a tight handle on Iran’s foreign affairs. On Sunday, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported that Tehran would be sending 4,000 troops to Syria to bolster Assad’s forces, which are already augmented by fighters from the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.”

Events in Syria (biblical Aram) and Iran (biblical Elam) are of great significance in the light of biblical prophecy. For more information, please read our free booklets, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America,”  “Europe in Prophecy,” and “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Prophecy.” 

Why the Uproar in Turkey?

The Globe and Mail wrote on June 15:

“Some say the nationwide protests that rocked Turkey’s government the past two weeks were only about a grove of sycamore trees in the middle of the country’s biggest city, a trifling issue for a local planning board to work out. But to the country’s unapologetic Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it was much more significant, and explains why he was willing to fight a large segment of public opinion and put his decade-long rule on the line.

“For more than 200 years, on this site now known as Gezi Park, adjacent to Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, there stood grand Ottoman-era military barracks – a testament to the power of the Ottoman Empire. Then came Kemal Ataturk, the father of the Republic, who wanted to Europeanize Turkey. In 1940, his successors had the barracks razed and the trees planted in their place.

“Mr. Erdogan, the most prominent Turkish leader since Mr. Ataturk, hopes to be in power in some capacity in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the modern state. And, just as Mr. Ataturk ushered out the Islamic order that had dominated Turkey for 13 centuries, Mr. Erdogan and his Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP), have ushered it back in, making Islam once again a significant component of Turkish life… He wants the Ottoman barracks rebuilt to their former glory – even if they only house a shopping mall instead of troops – and a grand mosque built on Taksim Square.

“Like a modern-day Peter the Great, who oversaw the design of Russia’s capital in St. Petersburg, Mr. Erdogan is seeing to every detail of his urban masterpiece, intended to Islamify parts of the city…”

Deutsche Welle wrote on June 16:

“Turkish police have been using tear gas and water cannons to clear protesters from the center of Istanbul ahead of Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit on Sunday. The move has done nothing to quell people’s outrage. In a full-scale operation on Saturday night (15.06.2013), Turkish riot police in Istanbul moved in to clear both Taksim Square and adjacent Gezi Park, where thousands of demonstrators had been camping out for more than two weeks… The leader of the German Green Party, Claudia Roth, was in Gezi Park to show solidarity with the protesters. She too was appalled by the behavior of the police, and said it had given her a sense of what war was like. Desperate protesters turned to Twitter to plead for help from the United Nations. Other eyewitnesses reported arrests and violent attacks by baton-wielding police. But the governor of Istanbul, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, justified the operation. ‘We asked the demonstrators to end their protests. We only went in after we had given the warning,’ he said…

“On Sunday night (16.06.2013) Erdogan was slated to attend a big political rally in Kazlicesme, a mostly conservative-Muslim part of Istanbul, and give a speech to his supporters. All over the city center there are advertisements in which the prime minister urges his constituents to demonstrate. The people of Istanbul are furious… Erdogan’s plan… is likely to backfire. The two main protest areas have been forcibly evacuated. The demonstrators are now preparing to march.”

For more information on Turkey’s future (which is biblical Esau or Edom), please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Prophecy.”

Where Is the Proof?

The Guardian wrote on June 13:

“Two prominent Senate critics of the NSA’s dragnet surveillance have challenged the agency’s assertion that the spy efforts helped stop ‘dozens’ of terror attacks. Mark Udall and Ron Wyden, both members of the Senate intelligence committee, said they were not convinced by the testimony of the NSA director, General Keith Alexander, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, who claimed that evidence gleaned from surveillance helped thwart attacks in the US. ‘We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA’s dragnet collection of Americans’ phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence,’ they said in a statement released on Thursday…

“Alexander also testified that the databases of Americans’ phones records [contain] safeguards governing its searchability to prevent the NSA from abusing it. But there is ambiguity about whether a court or any outside body must grant the NSA permission to search it.”

These assertions by the NSA director have also been echoed by Attorney General Eric Holder and an increasing number of vocal Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney. However, these “defenses” are highly suspect.

Newsmax added on June 18:

“Former state court Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Tuesday that officials from the National Security Agency ‘answered questions professionally’ in their testimony before Congress — ‘but I still think it’s bogus’… He was referring to comments from Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA’s director, on the agency’s two surveillance programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism… Alexander testified to the House Intelligence Committee that the programs have foiled 50 terrorist plots worldwide, including one directed at the New York Stock Exchange. ‘They can pick and choose which classified episodes they’re going to reveal,’ said Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge and Fox analyst. ‘Of course, they’re going to pick and choose the ones that make them look good.’

“In attacking Alexander’s broader testimony, Napolitano specifically cited the general’s response to a question posed by Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, the GOP chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Rogers asked whether the NSA had the “’ability to listen to Americans’ phone calls or read their emails under these two programs?’ Alexander responded, ‘No, we do not have that authority.’ Napolitano observed: ‘Of course, he doesn’t have the legal authority to [listen to] the phone calls. That’s not what the question asked. The question asked, “Does he have the practical ability to do so?” and he couldn’t answer that because the answer is “yes.” And the president and General Alexander are both saying, “trust us.” The same administration said “trust us” on Benghazi till we changed the story four times,’ Napolitano added. ‘The same administration said “trust us” on the James Rosen, Fox News search-warrant affair. The same administration said “trust us” on the IRS targeting conservatives. Why should we trust them?’ he asked Cavuto. ‘Why should we trust these people?’”

Yahoo Forced to Join PRISM Program

The Huffington Post wrote on June 14:

“Yahoo fought PRISM, and PRISM won. Court records obtained by The New York Times show that Yahoo had fought back against the National Security Agency’s broad requests for user data in 2008. The company, which provides email service to hundreds of millions of people, argued that the order violated Yahoo account holders’ constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures. The secret court didn’t buy Yahoo’s argument, and compelled the company to give the NSA digitally stored email and photos at its beck and call.

“Since the bombshell revelation of NSA’s so-called PRISM program last week, the public has learned more about how the nine participating Internet companies let the government collect broad swaths of personal information from Internet users for national security purposes. The secret 2008 decision seemed to put a dark cloud over Silicon Valley: cooperate with the government to fight terrorism abroad, or you’ll find yourself in court.

“One firm that more successfully resisted the NSA’s advances was Twitter. That’s partially because the young microblogging service has less data on users compared to Google or Facebook, according to The Verge, so it’s less desirable to government snoops. But that hasn’t stopped the company and its top lawyer, Alex Macgillivray, from fighting the government in court when it has asked for people’s private information.

“Though this case was previously known through a heavily redacted court order, it wasn’t until now that we knew Yahoo was the company behind the unsuccessful NSA challenge that would leave many companies less willing to battle the NSA on other surveillance requests. In the decision, the court had told Yahoo that their worries were ‘overblown.’

“Yahoo, like Google and Facebook, have denied involvement in PRISM. ‘Yahoo! has not joined any program in which we volunteer to share user data with the U.S. government,’ Yahoo General Counsel Ron Bell wrote in a Tumblr post Saturday. ‘We do not voluntarily disclose user information. The only disclosures that occur are in response to specific demands.’

“Moving past outright denial of participation, companies such as Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook and Google are now pressing the government for permission to publish more information about the number of secret requests it receives for customers’ data.”

All of this is also shocking in light of the fact that these new revelations are contrary to what was asserted earlier, as the subsequent articles show as well.

TechCrunch reported on June 17:

“Yahoo! has disclosed the number of government requests for data it has received over the past 18 months, becoming the latest tech company to do so after the fallout from the NSA spying scandal… the company said that Yahoo! received 12,000 to 13,000 requests from FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and U.S. law enforcement agencies during the period between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013… Facebook said on June 15 that for the six months ending December 31, 2012, it had received between 9,000 to 10,000 requests for data from U.S. law enforcement agencies. During that same period Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 requests.”

How We Are Being Lied To

The Verge wrote on June 16:

“Since the story broke last week of the NSA’s secret compilation of Americans’ phone call metadata, the overwhelming response from government has been ‘nobody is listening to your telephone calls’ — that the data being collected is limited to things like phone numbers and call durations. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it now looks like the feds are listening. Or at the very least, they don’t require a court order just to do so.

“CNET has posted text from a Thursday House Judiciary Committee hearing at which FBI director Robert Mueller… testified that the government would need a ‘special, particularized order’ from the secret FISA court in order to target a particular individual’s phone for a wiretap. After checking to make sure the details weren’t classified, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) challenged Mueller’s statement, saying, ‘we heard precisely the opposite at the briefing the other day. We heard precisely that you could get the specific information from that telephone simply based on an analyst deciding that… In other words, what you just said is incorrect. So there’s a conflict.’”

On June 16, cnet.com added the following:

“The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed ‘simply based on an analyst deciding that.’ If the NSA wants ‘to listen to the phone,’ an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. ‘I was rather startled,’ said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee.

“Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA’s formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically, it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls. Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, Nadler’s disclosure indicates the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.”

As was pointed out recently in the press, the spying activities of NSA, resulting in a huge collection of data, could be used or misused in case of a totalitarian government in the future. What was not mentioned is that this totalitarian government could be an occupying foreign power, as revealed in Scripture. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord”; “Is That in the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation”; and “Biblical Prophecy—From Now Until Forever.”

“Obama Tries to Ease German Spying Angst”

The Local wrote on June 15:

“The White House on Friday sought to cool German fears over a secret US Internet surveillance program, which threatens to detract from President Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin next week. Obama will speak directly to German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the PRISM program that was revealed in newspaper articles last week, and point out it is purely aimed at thwarting terror attacks, a senior aide said. ‘We understand the significant German interest in privacy and civil liberties,’ said Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national security advisor, adding that Obama would point out legal and political safeguards around the program. ‘I think our point is that this is focused very specifically on one goal, which is, you know, how do we disrupt terrorist activity, how do we mitigate security threats, both to us and to Germany,’ he said. Rhodes also noted that Germany had served as a ‘staging’ area for some of the hijackers who plotted the September 11 attacks in 2001.

“The German government said earlier in the week it was sending a list of questions to the Obama administration about the program. Under the scheme, the US National Security Agency can issue directives to internet firms like Google or Facebook to gain access to emails, online chats, pictures, files and videos uploaded by foreign users. The European Union has also expressed disquiet over the program and warned of ‘grave adverse consequences’ to the rights of European citizens. Germany had earlier Friday signaled disappointment that a meeting with US Internet companies Microsoft and Google over the PRISM program had not yielded sufficient answers.”

Obama Faces More Skeptical Germany

The Local wrote on June 16:

“Barack Obama will encounter a very different Germany – one that is more powerful and sceptical – than his famous predecessor John F. Kennedy did when he delivered his famous ‘ich bin ein Berliner’ speech some 50 years ago… Candidate Obama dazzled a crowd of 200,000 people in an open air speech in 2008 some months before his historical election. He will face a more modest reception this time around as talks center on trade and secret surveillance practices, observers say.

“President Obama appears ready to try to harness some of the alliance’s bygone sparkle by timing his visit one week ahead of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s speech… Leading news magazine Der Spiegel last week featured a cover picture of Obama in Kennedy’s shadow, the tagline ‘The Lost Friend’, and an angst-ridden report about fraying ties…

“Obama nevertheless enjoys a level of support here that even Merkel, Germany’s most popular post-war leader, could envy as she seeks a third term in September elections. Last November nearly 90 percent wanted Obama re-elected. But now revelations of a global Internet snooping operation run by the National Security Agency have shocked a country where memories of systematic spying on citizens by communist East Germany’s despised Stasi are still raw.”

President Obama in Germany

The Atlantic Wire wrote on June 19:

“Barack Obama returned to Berlin today, almost five years to the day from when he delivered his famous ‘Victory Column’ speech that cemented his reputation as an international rockstar. Unfortunately, his reception this time was a lot different. An estimated 200,000 people turned out in July 2008 to see then Candidate Obama deliver an address in front of one of Germany’s most notable landmarks…

“Fast forward to 2013, and many are now saying that Obama’s reputation is ‘tarnished,’ by his recent snooping scandals, his extensions of the war on terror, and the hard luck realities of failing to deliver on all your promises… He’s ‘demystified’ and ‘no longer a superstar’ in German eyes. Now he’s just another world leader on a state visit, and whatever problems people have with U.S. policy are on his shoulders. And instead of opening up the speech to the whole city, Obama spoke in front only about 5,000-6,000 spectators, all of them invited guests…”

The New York Times reported that only 4,500 invited spectators were in attendance.

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 19:

“German leaders have seemed eager to ensure that their concerns about the digital spying operation be taken seriously. Several have blasted both Obama and the National Security Agency, perhaps none as vociferously as Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. Wednesday, despite the day-long Barack-fest in the German capital, was no different. Philip Rösler, Angela Merkel’s vice chancellor and head of her junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, said on public television that he was ‘extremely unsettled’ by the spying program. Former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the opposition Social Democrats added that, while he understood US security concerns, ‘that can’t be synonymous with mass surveillance.’

“Merkel too voiced careful criticism of the program during the pair’s joint press conference at the Chancellery. She made sure to emphasize that Germany had received important intelligence from the US which played a role in thwarting planned terrorist activity here. But, she added: ‘I made clear that, despite the necessity, the issue of balance is an important one.’

“Obama was ready for questions about the Prism program, which has been likened in both the US and German press to George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother,’ made famous in his novel ‘1984.’ Rather than trying to dodge reporters’ queries, he took time to defend the program and explain its importance for US security. At the press conference, Obama also fielded difficult questions about some additional elements of US foreign and domestic policy that many in Germany find problematic, including Washington’s policy of using drones to hunt down suspected terrorist leaders in Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan, and the ongoing existence of the Guantanamo detention camp…

“Still, issuing an elaborate justification for a vast state surveillance program at exactly the same time as his wife and daughters were placing flowers at the remnants of the Berlin Wall is nothing if not ironic. East Berlin, after all, was the mother of all spy-states. Visitors to the Wall memorial learn that the state, known counter-intuitively as the German Democratic Republic, maintained a network of well over 100,000 citizen spies to keep close watch on their neighbors in addition to thousands of professional moles. Presumed enemies of the state were locked up… But it remains to be seen whether the president’s impassioned words in front of Berlin’s pre-eminent Cold War symbol will be enough to assuage deep German disappointment over the fact that Obama has failed to live up to expectations. Prior to the speech, Peter Thompson of the Guardian aptly summed up the feeling, tweeting: ‘Given PRISM will his speech become known as the “Ich bin ein East Berliner” speech?’”

The New York Times wrote von June 19:

“Yet the anticipation of the speech at the historic site was offset by attention to the dispute over the revelations of the breadth of American surveillance programs, which include both Prism, an effort to monitor foreign communications at American Internet companies like Google, as well as a vast database of domestic phone logs. The programs monitor the communications without individualized court orders. ‘We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information, not just in the United States but in some cases here in Germany,’ Mr. Obama said during the news conference. ‘So lives have been saved.’  He did not provide any details…

“That news has been controversial in Germany, where both the Nazi era and the postwar surveillance in Communist East Germany have fostered deep concerns about privacy and civil liberties, and the issue was expected to loom large in the meeting of the two leaders. Ms. Merkel said at the news conference that she and Mr. Obama had talked at length about the American programs, even indicating that the topic took precedence over their discussion of subjects like the global economy and the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan. She made clear that she had expressed her own concerns, despite her stated understanding of the need for such intelligence efforts…

“Mr. Obama, repeating defenses he has made to Americans, described how he had made sure when he took office that the intelligence programs ‘were examined and scrubbed.’… Ms. Merkel looked at him he spoke beside her, expressionless but seeming to listen intently. ‘It’s necessary for us to debate these issues,’ she replied. ‘People have concerns.’”

Of course, Angela Merkel would try to carefully “defend” the US spy program (having her own election in mind in 2014), in light of revelations of German hypocrisy, as the next article shows.

German Hypocrisy

The Local wrote on June 16:

“Despite the scandal over the US Prism spy programme, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is planning to invest €100 million to improve its internet surveillance, Spiegel Online reported on Sunday. The money is to be spent on new technology and on hiring as many as 100 new employees, the service wrote. The €100 million is to be spent over a five year period, but the federal government has already released €5 million for the first phase.

“The BND is moving forward with its plans despite criticism over the US spying programme. The agency, like the US National Security Agency, wants to be sure that it can survey cross-border data traffic. The story said that German law allows for spy agencies to monitor as much as 20 percent of communication between Germany and other countries, but due to technical limitations only five percent of such traffic is being monitored. These include emails, telephone calls, Facebook postings and Skype conversations.

“In contrast to the US, which can make a record of suspicious communications, German spies have tighter restrictions. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is calling for a loosening of those regulations. Friedrich also defended the US from German criticism of the recently revealed spying program, saying ‘That’s not how you treat friends who are our most important partner in the fight against terrorism.’ He made his comments to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“Friedrich said Germany is dependent on information delivered from the US and Der Spiegel noted that there has been a considerable exchange of information between Germany and the US and that many attacks in Germany have been prevented, in part, by US information. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sharply criticized the US actions and has called for a full explanation from Washington.”

Of course, since Germany wants to follow the lead of the USA in how to spy on their citizens, and since they are ALREADY COOPERATING with the NSA, then they WOULD try to “justify” and support these horrendous atrocities. At the same time, Britain is not doing any better.

The Independent reported on June 17:

“Britain was plunged into a diplomatic row tonight following claims that foreign politicians and diplomats were repeatedly spied upon when they attended two G20 summit meetings in London. The allegations provoked anger in Turkey, Russia and South Africa, whose dignitaries were reportedly targeted by the covert surveillance operations in 2009 while Gordon Brown was Prime Minister. The intelligence services were even said to have set up internet cafes at the summit venues which they used to read emails sent by visiting officials.”

German Reactions

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 20:

“He… managed to remind Germans why they are such big fans of this president. Even if Tuesday and Wednesday marked the first time Obama had visited Berlin as president — after fully five years in office — he was able to make it seem as though Germany and the Germans were near and dear to him… The audience ate it up. Sure there is concern in the country about Obama’s drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is widespread disgust with the mind-boggling extent of online surveillance undertaken by the National Security Agency. There is also a good bit of disillusionment stemming from Obama’s inability to close down the Guantanamo detention camp… But Germans like nothing better than to be taken seriously — and they are open to being charmed. Obama made a convincing show of doing both…

“But coming from a president that most in Germany continue to revere despite the shortcomings that have by now become obvious to all, Berliners were more apt to see the logic of proposing cuts to the nuclear arsenal in a city so marked by the Cold War. That, of course, was Obama’s intention. And he left the city having achieved the primary goal of his visit — that of putting a feel-good coat of paint on a trans-Atlantic relationship that had recently begun to show its age.

“German commentators on Thursday, however, seemed largely immune to the charm offensive.

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘(The speech) was a disappointment for those who hope for … for what actually? Clearly these phrases for the history books, which in themselves imply the claim of the US to lead the western World, don’t exist anymore… Obama used the Brandenburg Gate, he used Berlin, and he used Angela Merkel and her East German heritage to send a clear signal to Russia [regarding reduction of nuclear weapons] … The fact that this appeal to Russia was broadcast from Germany to the world shows what a central role Berlin still plays from America’s point of view in its relations with Russia.’

“Conservative daily Die Welt writes: ‘Barack Obama’s visit… didn’t touch the Germans, neither warmly or coolly… The indifference with which Obama was received is not an indication that Germans don’t like Obama anymore… America has become more foreign to us… But Europeans have also become more foreign to Americans. How should Americans know and understand that which we ourselves don’t know or understand? There is still a great lack of clarity about where the partially unified, partially divided continent of Europe is headed politically…’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… Europeans, especially the Germans, have their problems with both presidents. They despise Bush as a supposedly dim-witted cowboy. But in the meantime, they have become leery of the coldly analytical Obama, who kills suspected terrorists with drones and lets his government monitor the Internet.’

“Business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘Germany, once again, provided the TV-ready backdrop for a US president, but is the country really a partner to America?… The US government itself knows the importance of Berlin and would like to see Germany take on a greater global role…’

“Left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘Obama… spoke about a lot, without saying much… he had no plan… Possibly the most important politician in the world has nothing planned. That is terrible news.’”

According to The Local, dated June 20, “The Südwest Presse… questioned the German public’s faith in Obama… ‘do the Germans trust the Nobel Peace Prize winner to lead the way to a beautiful new world?’ it asked. ‘Unfortunately the lasting impression is that he is a man of big promises and little progress,’ the paper concluded.”

Deutsche Welle (on June 19) summed it up in this way: “US President Barack Obama came, saw – but did he conquer?… US-German ties have developed, changed and matured over the years. What they most definitely are not is ‘normal.’… Germany and the United States have grown apart since 1990… Unified Germany emancipated itself rather quickly from its former protecting power, pursued its own interests, worked to push European integration, distanced itself from President George W. Bush and his war against Iraq, stands dumbfounded when it comes to Guantanamo… The United States also went its own ways after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. They withdrew troops and funds from Germany… All the while, the generation of World War II that had breathed life into the special relationship between Germany and the United States was dying out…

“In the run-up to President Obama’s visit to Berlin there was a lot of talk about a rather diffuse but growing disappointment with the man and his presidency. He was no messiah, no shining light anymore… the hopes and expectations projected onto Barack Obama – and that he had willingly projected onto himself – were as unrealistic as can be. That is why the current disillusionment with President Obama follows a specific dynamic that largely grows from disappointed love. Somehow the United States has never managed to live up to the great hopes and expectations that Germans linked to it…”

Obama Offends Catholics in Ireland

Newsmax reported on June 19:

“President Barack Obama angered some proponents of Catholic education during his visit to Ireland this week when he told a Belfast audience that towns will remain divided ‘if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs.’ An article, which subsequently appeared in the Scottish Catholic Observer carried the headline, ‘U.S. President Undermines Catholic Schools after Vatican Prefect Praised Them.’ The article said that Obama ‘made an alarming call for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland,’ and quoted from recent remarks of the Vatican’s Archbishop Gerhard Müller, who had said that Catholic education was ‘a critical component of the Church.’”

“Vatican to Announce John Paul II ‘Miracle’”

The Telegraph wrote on June 20:

“The Vatican has secretly attributed a mystery miracle to the late John Paul II, clearing the way for him to be declared a saint. The Holy See has yet to reveal what the miracle was or where and when it took place but Vatican sources said it would ‘amaze the world’. It concerns the ‘extraordinary healing’ of a Costa Rican woman who was cured of a severe brain injury after her family began praying to the memory of the late Polish pope, according to reports in the Italian media… John Paul II was beatified — the first step towards sainthood — in a lavish outdoor ceremony in St Peter’s Square in May 2011.

“The second miracle — which is required in order for him to be given full sainthood — reportedly occurred on the very day of his beatification… John Paul’s first attributed miracle was the apparent healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre. Her recovery from Parkinson’s disease after praying for the late pope’s ‘intercession’ had no medical explanation, the Catholic Church maintains… ‘The canonisation of Karol Wojtyla will be the crowning glory of the recent history of Catholicism, linking the last three pontificates,’ Saverio Gaeta, who wrote a biography of John Paul II, told La Stampa newspaper.”

In case you missed it, the second “miracle” allegedly happened through the late pope AFTER his death—so supposedly, he worked this “miracle” from heaven. But the Bible condemns such beliefs which are rooted in paganism.

INS “Interprets” Rules for Conscientious Objector Status

The Huffington Post wrote on June 20:

“Margaret Doughty, an atheist and permanent U.S. resident for more than 30 years, was told by immigration authorities this month that she has until Friday to officially join a church that forbids violence or her application for naturalized citizenship will be rejected. Doughty received the ultimatum after stating on her application that she objected to the pledge to bear arms in defense of the nation due to her moral opposition to war. According to a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by the American Humanist Association on Doughty’s behalf, officials responded by telling her that she needed to prove that her status as a conscientious objector was due to religious beliefs. They reportedly told her she’d need to document that she was ‘a member in good standing’ of a nonviolent religious organization or be denied citizenship at her June 21 hearing. A note ‘on official church stationary [sic]’ would suffice, they said.

“Here’s how Doughty explained her refusal to sign the pledge: ‘I am sure the law would never require a 64 year-old woman like myself to bear arms, but if I am required to answer this question, I cannot lie. I must be honest. The truth is that I would not be willing to bear arms. Since my youth I have had a firm, fixed and sincere objection to participation in war in any form or in the bearing of arms. I deeply and sincerely believe that it is not moral or ethical to take another person’s life, and my lifelong spiritual/religious beliefs impose on me a duty of conscience not to contribute to warfare by taking up arms … my beliefs are as strong and deeply held as those who possess traditional religious beliefs and who believe in God … I want to make clear, however, that I am willing to perform work of national importance under civilian direction or to perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States if and when required by the law to do so.’…

“The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Citizenship and Immigration Services, calling the government request ‘illegal and unconstitutional.’ ‘It is shocking that USCIS officers would not be aware that a nonreligious yet deeply held belief would be sufficient to attain this exemption,’ Andrew L. Seidel, a staff attorney at Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote after laying out a list of Supreme Court tests that suggest a rejection would be unusual and improper. ‘This is a longstanding part of our law and every USCIS officer should receive training on this exemption … Either the officers in Houston are inept, or they are deliberately discriminating against nonreligious applicants for naturalization.’”

The IRS Scandal–FBI Knows Nothing

CNS News reported on June 13:

“While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today, FBI Director Robert Mueller could not name the lead investigator in the IRS case involving the targeting of conservative groups. It is now one month into the investigation. Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH): ‘Can you tell me who the lead investigator is?’ Mueller: ‘Off the top of my head, no.’ Jordan: ‘It’s the most important issue in front of the country in the last six weeks, and you don’t know who’s heading up the case? Who the lead investigator is?’ Mueller: ‘At this juncture, no, I do not know.’ Mueller also claimed ignorance when Rep. Jordan asked him if anyone had contacted the victims of the IRS scandal.”

IRS Has Been Targeting Religious Organizations for Many Years

Breitbart wrote on June 14:

“An article on the Fox News website delineates the intimidation tactics the IRS has used to bludgeon religious organizations and religious leaders for decades. The authors point out that the IRS targets the organizations or individuals in one of two ways: either by responding to a complaint by an anti-religious group and asking the religious group or individual to justify their non-profit status, or for the IRS to carry out the wishes of upper echelon federal government officials who find the religious perspective offensive.

“The article site various targets over the years:

“ 1. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950’s who was targeted with an audit for speaking out about civil rights;

“2. An Episcopal minister from Southern California who received a multi-year audit after excoriating President Bush for invading Iraq;

“3. The legendary evangelist Billy Graham, who was hit with an audit last fall after he supported a ballot measure in his home state of North Carolina that clashed with the White House.

“The authors close with a stinging condemnation of the IRS’s warning to religious people ‘Not to do it again.’ They write:

“‘But not do what again? Not preach about moral matters that have a political connection? That would mean that religious issues stop being religious once a politician starts talking about them. More importantly, where does the IRS get the authority to override the First Amendment? If freedom of speech and freedom of religion are to mean anything, government bureaucrats can’t be allowed to decide what rabbis, priests, imams, and pastors  can preach. Religious people can and do disagree over whether pastors, priests, or rabbis should preach about the political issues of the day. That is their right. But surely all Americans can agree — especially after the abuses that have come to light in the past week–that the time for the tax man to censor sermons must come to an end.’”

The Curse of Obamacare

The Los Angeles Times reported on June 18:

“Aetna Inc. said it would stop selling individual health insurance policies in California next month, and nearly 50,000 existing policyholders will have to find new coverage by January. The company’s announcement Monday comes a month after it opted not to participate in California’s new state-run insurance market for consumers, a key component of the new federal healthcare law… Starting in January, most Americans will be required to [have] health insurance coverage or pay a penalty.”

A reader wrote us: “[We] were going to try to get health insurance through AARP, since I am 55 now, but they said they no longer carried health insurance for the state of West Virginia as of June 1st! AARP contracted out with Aetna as well!!  Thank you Obamacare! The downfall of America is right before our eyes!”

How Much Worse Can it Get?

On June 16, today.com reported the following:

“When twin sisters Zea and Luna Weiss-Wynne, both 9, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama last year, they asked for his attention on a few things. Obama invited the sisters to join him at a reception at the White House to outline their requests in public. The girls, who asked for his support of marriage equality, spoke at the LGBT Pride Month reception Friday, which is part of the annual celebration dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The president made sure to give the third graders a turn in front of the microphone…

“Among the requests the girls outlined in their speech and their letter was… a commitment to gay marriage… The girls care about marriage equality because ‘we have two moms and they are just as good as other parents. They love us a lot.’… President Obama nodded his head and smiled as the sisters spoke to the crowd and outlined their requests… In his remarks at the event, Obama discussed various legislation he has passed that relates to the LGBT community, including a hate crimes bill, a national HIV/AIDS strategy and a policy that bans companies from denying medical care to LGBT Americans. ‘But part of the reason we’re here is because we know we’re not done yet,’ Obama said.”

This development is not restricted to the US, though. See the next article:

Europe’s Largest Gay Festival Held in Berlin

The Local wrote on June 16:

“Nearly half a million people in Berlin celebrated on Saturday the 21st annual gay-lesbian city festival – the largest gathering of its kind in Europe. Berlin’s mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is gay, took part in the festivities. He said the festival embodies the city’s openness to the world and its progressiveness, the Berliner Zeitung reported. The two-day festival, which wraps up Sunday evening, is expected to draw more than 400,000 spectators to the Schöneberg area of the city. Head organiser Dieter Schneider said that by Saturday afternoon the steady stream of visitors was larger than last year.”

For more information on a healthy and godly family life, please read our free booklet, “The Keys to Happy Marriages and Families.”

Colorado Fire Worst in State’s History

NBC News wrote on June 15:

“Firefighters made some progress battling a massive, deadly wildfire near Colorado Springs late Friday when cooler temperatures, rain and calmer winds swept in, allowing them to increase containment to 30 percent. Mandatory evacuation orders for thousands of Colorado Springs residents were lifted… More than 38,000 people were evacuated at the peak of the blaze.

“The fire, the worst in the state’s history, has killed two people and made ashes of 419 homes… The fire raged mostly uncontrolled for days, with a burn zone covering nearly 25 square miles. One of three major fires raging in Colorado, the Black Forest fire is now the most destructive on record in the state.”

“The Birds”

Breitbart wrote on June 14:

“The mighty endangered California condor has decided to take revenge on the people of California. The birds, which have up to a nine-foot wingspan, have descended Hitchcock-style on the town of Bear Valley Springs, ripping off roof shingles, clawing at air conditioners, and, of course, coating the town in condor feces. At one rental property, condors pried open a can of white paint, coating a deck with it; bit the wiring of the air conditioning; and tore apart the screens of two sliding doors…

“But residents can’t do anything about the delinquent condors, due to federal and state regulations. In fact, the California State Fish and Game Commission recently prohibited use of lead ammunition in areas in which condors nest. Actually, about the only thing you can do to the condor in California is kill it using a wind turbine.”

Armed Drones and Government Surveillance Are Linked

On June 8, the left-wing Huffington Post published an article by Peter Scheer. The author is “a lawyer and writer [and] executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. FAC has filed suit against the Justice Department for access to classified legal memos analyzing drone strikes”:

“First came news accounts of the government’s use of armed drones in the targeted killing of suspected terrorists abroad. Then came the revelations about government surveillance programs, breathtaking in their scale, tapping into data on phone calls, emails, Internet searches and more. These activities are, in fact, linked…

“The logic of warfare and intelligence have flipped, each becoming the mirror image of the other. Warfare has shifted from the scaling of military operations to the selective targeting of individual enemies. Intelligence gathering has shifted from the selective targeting of known threats to wholesale data mining for the purpose of finding hidden threats.

“The resulting paradigms, in turn, go a long way to account for our collective discomfort with the government’s activities in these areas. Americans are understandably distressed over the targeted killing of suspected terrorists because the very individualized nature of the drone attacks converts acts of war into de facto executions — and that in turn gives rise to demands for high standards of proof and adjudicative due process.

“Similarly, intelligence activities that gather data widely, without fact-based suspicions about specific individuals to whom the data pertain, are seen as intrusive and subject to abuse. The needle-in-a-haystack approach to intelligence gathering is fundamentally at odds with Americans’ understanding of the Constitution’s promise to safeguard them against ‘unreasonable’ government searches. There is nothing reasonable about giving government secret access, in real time, to phone calls and emails of tens of millions of Americans.

“Our fear of these changes is reinforced by the absence of transparency surrounding drone strikes-specifically, the protocols for selecting targets-and intelligence operations that cast a broad net in which U.S. citizens are caught…”

Another left-wing journalist and commentator, New York Times’ Paul Krugmann, said this (according to ABC News, dated June 9):

“… there are different kinds of surveillance states. You can have a democratic surveillance state which collects as little data as possible and tells you as much as possible about what it’s doing. Or you can have an authoritarian surveillance state which collects as much as possible and tells the public as little as possible. And we are kind of on the authoritarian side.”

“Obama’s Fundamental Flaw”

The Huffington Post published a follow-up article on June 11:

“If, as the U.S. president now argues ex post facto, it was okay on balance to have the NSA (National Security Agency) monitoring process put in place, why not have that discussion with the American people in broad daylight right after he took office?… His Harvard Law School-driven government is counting on the docility of the American people… Never mind that he had advertised himself in the 2008 presidential campaign as a professor of constitutional law. We all know by now that this is just one among the many qualification boxes he ticked off in order to secure his eventual rise.

“And forget about his principled utterances as a presidential candidate about having reservations about clandestine monitoring programs being conducted on U.S. citizens. People are used to politicians fidgeting with the truth to seek higher office. What is far more disconcerting is the utter political tone deafness of Obama, the (presumed) politician. Now, he has grandiosely okayed a fundamental invasion of privacy… his fundamental flaw as a politician has been firmly established. As has happened so many times before on other issues, he excels by doing his very own opposition’s bidding. Talk about disarming yourself.”

When even the left-leaning press publishes articles like these, then we know that the Obama Administration is in big trouble. According to Newsmax, dated June 12, “actor and liberal activist John Cusack” blasted Obama and the NSA, and even extremely “Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore delivered his unsurprisingly damning verdict, tweeting, ‘the administration has now lost all credibility.’ He implied hypocrisy on the part of the president by highlighting a 2007 Obama quote: ‘that means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more (spying) on citizens…No more tracking citizens…’”

For more information and analysis, please read our Editorial in this issue, and view our recent StandingWatch program, “How Your Government Is Spying on You” and “Prism Spying and Its Consequences.”  

Reaction of Obama Administration and Further Response by Rand Paul

Please note the reaction of the Obama Administration to the revelation of their secret spying and apparently unconstitutional activities on innocent American citizens, as reported by Fox News, dated June 9:

“The Obama administration has taken a first step toward opening a criminal investigation into the purported leaking of classified documents related to the federal government tracking Americans’ phone calls and emails, a source familiar with the high-level discussions told Fox News on Saturday. The source said James Clapper, the director of U.S. national intelligence, had filed a ‘criminal report’ with the Justice Department and the FBI, which begins the process…

“The FBI and Justice Department would likely be involved in such a probe, which is expected to focus on British and U.S. newspapers including The Guardian. The British newspaper reported late Wednesday that the U.S. government had collected the phone records of millions of Verizon customers.”

Others are not easily intimidated.

As Fox News reported on June 9, “Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he wants to mount a Supreme Court challenge to the federal government logging Americans’ phone calls and Internet activities. Paul, R-Ky., a leading voice in the Libertarian movement, told ‘Fox News Sunday’ he wants to get enough signatures to file a class-action lawsuit before the high court and will appeal to younger Americans, who appear to be advancing the cause of less government and civil liberties… ‘If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington.’…

“Paul, a first-term senator and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said he disagrees with President Obama’s argument that the National Security Agency collecting 3 billion calls daily and other information [is] a modest invasion of privacy…

“Washington officials have acknowledged all branches of the federal government – Congress, the White House and federal courts – knew about the collection of data under the Patriot Act. Paul also said the government should be using a specific warrant, not a general warrant, to get the data, arguing the Fourth Amendment prevents unreasonable search and seizure. ‘The Founding Fathers didn’t want that,’ he said….”

Rand Paul, a Republican, made headlines before when he became the lonely voice in refusing to cast his vote for one particular governmental appointee, speaking non-stop for hours in the Senate, until the government broke their usual silence and showed a touch of transparency by providing a few answers to his questions.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with his view points, at least here is someone who is willing to stand up for what he believes to be right, while most politicians don’t dare, are too cowardly or just too complacent to do so… behaving as proverbial “politicians” are expected to act. But since Rand Paul is willing to stand up for his convictions, there is virtually no chance that he will become the next President of the United States in 2016. Chances are, he would not even get the necessary support from intimidated or unconcerned colleagues in his own party.

Traitor or Not?

While many Republicans and Democrats declared whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed the clandestine worldwide spying activities of the NSA,  to be a traitor of the country, Newsmax reported on June 12:

“Former GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul insisted on Tuesday that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is not a traitor, but he fears the U.S. government may send drones or a cruise missile to kill the 29-year-old, who has fled the United States. ‘Everybody’s worried about him and what they’re going to do, and how they’re going to convict him of treason, and how they’re going to kill him, but what about the people who destroy our Constitution?’ the former Texas Republican congressman asserted. ‘What kind of penalty for those individuals who just take the Fourth Amendment and destroy it? What do we think about people who assassinate American citizens without trials and assume that that’s the law of the land? That’s where our problem is.’

“Paul said that ‘our problem isn’t with people who are trying to tell us the truth about what’s happening’ as in the case of Snowden, and he fears that the U.S. government may try to kill the former contractor. ‘I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a Cruise missile or a drone missile,’ Paul said. ‘I mean we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed, but the gentleman is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.’… He pointed to the case of a CIA agent who was imprisoned for acknowledging that torture takes place at Guantanamo.”

Another lonely voice, Republican Governor Rand Paul, also stated that he is reserving judgment as to whether or not Snowden is a traitor, but as reported above, he vehemently charged the Obama Administration and the NSA with breaking the law by acting illegally and unconstitutionally. According to Reuters, dated June 12, its poll revealed that “Some 23 percent of those surveyed said… Snowden is a traitor while 31 percent said he is a patriot. Another 46 percent said they did not know.”

German and European Reactions

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 10:

“29-year-old ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden has admitted to making one of the biggest intelligence leaks in history. He now faces severe consequences — but President Obama also has a lot to answer for.

“… the US’s virtual surveillance network is nearly all-encompassing — and that citizens are powerless against it… Obama now faces a huge public relations problem. Wasn’t it he who said that he welcomed the debate on government spying? And yet now he has decided to pursue the very man who triggered this debate…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 11:

“The world has been scandalized to learn about Prism, the broad data surveillance program used by the US at home and abroad. German commentators say that both Berlin and Brussels must defend Europe from this invasion of privacy…

“Germany, which has particularly strict data privacy laws, is reportedly one of the most heavily monitored countries in the surveillance program… European politicians are also worried about the surveillance…The scandal has revealed state surveillance of a previously unimaginable scope by the US both at home and abroad…

“Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘It may be that US citizens can defend themselves under the US Constitution. But that doesn’t apply to foreigners. Facebook users in Germany have as little protection from the US Constitution as those in Afghanistan. Germany is the country in Europe whose telephone and Internet communications are being spied on the most intensely by the US… The only good thing about the NSA spying is that it exposes the principle tenet of domestic security that has been used to justify the rebuilding of the security system since Sept. 11, 2001: That those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear. This is simply a stupid idea.’…

“Left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘Basic civil rights around the world, which are taken for granted far too naively in Western democracies, are being placed under attack by state “security architecture” such as the US spying program Prism…’

“Conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘Whether it’s with Facebook, Google, Yahoo or Microsoft — user confidence has been shaken… all users should be asking whether they themselves, and especially their personal data, are in good hands with these companies.’”

On June 11, der Spiegel Online published a Commentary by German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger:

“With its Prism spy program, the US has crossed the line… On the weekend, President Obama reacted by saying that it is impossible to have 100 percent security and 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. I don’t share this view. The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is. In a democratic constitutional state, security is not an end in itself, but serves to secure freedom…

“We should remember that the strength of the liberal constitutional state lies in the trust of its citizens. Constitutional guarantees protect this trust and pursue two objectives: to punish the guilty and to protect the innocent or those who are unjustly suspected of a crime against wrongful actions by the government. These are precisely the tenets Germany adopted in 1949 from the tradition of the American Constitution of 1776 — namely that in a free and open democratic process, it is important to avoid the impression that the protection of basic rights is not being taken seriously enough…

“The suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored. For that reason, openness and clarification by the US administration itself should be paramount at this point. All facts must be put on the table…”

AFP wrote on June 12:

“The EU has warned President Barack Obama’s administration of ‘grave adverse consequences’ to the rights of European citizens from a huge US Internet surveillance programme, officials said Wednesday.

“Viviane Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner, wrote a letter on Monday to US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding ‘swift and concrete’ answers about the spy scheme when they meet in Dublin on Friday… Her questions to Holder include whether EU citizens were targeted by the US programmes, whether Europeans would be able find out whether their data has been accessed, and whether they would be treated similarly to US nationals in such cases. The EU official also warned that the European Parliament ‘is likely to assess the overall transatlantic relationship also in the light of your responses’”.

Deutsche Welle wrote on June 12:

“The US government is using ‘American-style Stasi methods,’ Markus Ferber, a member of the European parliament, told Reuters, referring to the former communist East German secret police. ‘I thought this era had ended when the [German Democratic Republic] fell.’”

The EUObserver wrote on June 12:

“The German government is demanding explanations from the US after it emerged that its secret spying programme Prism collected more information from Germany than any other EU country… Data privacy is a very sensitive topic in Germany and the cluelessness of Merkel’s government about the affair may become an issue in September’s elections… The ministry of interior is working on a questionnaire for the US government to find out the extent and the legal basis for the collection of data from Germany…  Similar information requests will be sent to Internet firms such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Apple, which were targeted by Prism, but which deny that US security staff got unlimited access to their servers…

“German data protection chief Peter Schaar said on the WDR public broadcaster that Prism amounts to ‘almost total surveillance.’… The German opposition is also outraged by the news…  ‘This looks to me like it could become one of the biggest data privacy scandals ever,’ Greens leader Renate Kuenast told Reuters.”

These are strong words and reactions. America is really doing everything imaginable to make themselves unpopular in the eyes of the world.

Secrecy also in the UK

Mail On Line wrote on June 7:

“David Cameron is to attend a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg Group tonight – but will not say who he meets. The Prime Minister will take part in a debate on the global economy with an unknown group of ministers, business leaders and academics from around the world.

“But his attendance at the heavily-guarded event is certain to spark controversy after Mr Cameron once promised to lead the ‘most open and transparent government in the world’.”

Prime Minister Cameron sounds and behaves just like President Obama. As Deutsche Welle reported on June 6, “On his first day in office President Obama vowed to create the most open government in history. But after five years his administration has brought more espionage cases against leakers than all other presidents combined…”

A New Monarchy for Germany?

The Local wrote on June 6:

“Germans might not know it, but they desperately need the moral guidance of a re-instated royal family, the great-great grandson of the last Kaiser, Prince Philip Kiril of Prussia [said]… ‘Subconsciously, I think young Germans wants something they can orientate towards,’ said Prince Philip. The 45-year-old father of six may work as a Protestant vicar, but he has become one of the loudest voices out of those who want to see Germany revive its monarchy. Second in line to the throne Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918, Prince Philip believes that a royal family with divine right conferred by God could offer Germany what it is missing. ‘When a leader answers to himself, and not God, an atheist-led country ends in disaster. Look at Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin,’ he told The Local. Religion, ‘tames the selfishness naturally present in all of us.’

“For the prince, a country guided by politicians and a ceremonial president means not only is there no strong family to look up to, nor is there anyone to rally up enthusiasm for family life. ‘A presidential head of state is not enough…what Germany needs is moral guidance and a friendlier face,’ which, he added, ‘people do not get, and shouldn’t expect, from politicians.’ Indeed, this appears to be what [an] increasing amount of young Germans want, after a survey for news agency DPA revealed last month that as many as one in three 18-24-year-olds would like the Kaiser back on the throne…  ‘Looking up to a king or queen would be much better for Germany’s young people than to pop stars or football players,’ Prince Philip said. He lamented that people were putting too much value on consumerism and material goods…

“He cited the increasingly popular face of European royalty as being partially responsible for boosting interest among younger Germans…  For the prince, a presidential head of state simply does not cut it. Being voted in ‘doesn’t deign them the same respect’ as a king, who is chosen by God. This is why he thinks his career as a protestant vicar would mix well with being royal. ‘All people are born equal but some are born to lead, and others to follow. This is not a human made concept, but a God-made one.’ …

“Eventually, the country will need more than its finances and infrastructure being taken care of. It needs spirituality and religion and… God, Prince Philip added…”

This renewed interest in European monarchies, especially among Germans and Austrians, is worthwhile noticing. Revelation 17:9-10 speaks of the last ten leaders of the final revival of the Roman Empire as “ten kings.” Whether this is just a reference to ten “rulers,” who will give their power and authority to the beast, or ten literal “kings” or “emperors,” will remain to be seen.

Equal Rights for Gay Unions in Germany

The Associated Press reported on June 6:

“Gay rights campaigners won a victory over the German government Thursday as the country’s top court ruled that homosexual couples in civil unions should receive the same tax benefits as heterosexual married couples. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that treating the two forms of partnership differently for tax purposes violates the country’s guarantee of equal rights.

“Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right government had long resisted granting the same tax benefits to gay couples in civil unions. Those unions – officially certified by a notary and carrying similar rights and duties to wedlock – are widely accepted by Germany’s gay community as equivalent to marriage…

“Married couples in Germany are able to jointly declare their taxable incomes, which can significantly lower their overall tax burden especially when one partner has higher pay… The court ordered the government to retroactively amend the relevant laws dating back to 2001, when civil union status was first introduced by a previous center-left government… The government vowed it will seek to get the necessary legislation passed by this fall to implement the court decision…

“Granting more rights to homosexual couples is relatively uncontroversial among the wider public in Germany…”

This development might look, at first glance, as being in total contradiction with the previous article. But this only seems to be the case. As we suggested, it is very likely, based on a Scripture in Daniel 11:37, that the prophesied “beast” in the book of Revelation—the last leader of the final revival of the ancient Roman Empire–may be homosexual. We read in Daniel 11:37 that he “does not regard the desire of women.” The Elberfelder Bible translates that he does not care for the love of or towards women (“Frauenliebe”). This could be a reference to other than normal sexual preferences. The commentary of Henry speaks of “unnatural lust” in the context (compare Romans 1:24-28).

But longing for the return of a godly-appointed monarch who would allegedly give moral guidance and be a good example of strong family life, and supporting homosexuality is not viewed by most Germans as a contradiction. They know that other “respected” European and Roman emperors were homosexuals, while they were “married” and had children. In addition, many Germans had no problem with electing a homosexual foreign minister and a homosexual mayor of Berlin.

Gay Lobby in the Vatican

Newsmax wrote on June 11:

“Pope Francis has acknowledged the existence of a ‘gay lobby” in the Vatican and says he is consulting advisers on what to do about it.

“Speaking informally to a confederation of religious groups from Latin America and the Caribbean, he said…:  ‘The “gay lobby” is mentioned, and it is true, it is there… We need to see what we can do.’… Rumors over the existence of such a group in the Vatican have circulated for years and the extent of the problem is thought to have partly influenced Benedict to resign. But until now, successive popes never have publicly acknowledged it.

“Some Catholics believe such a lobby pervades much of the Church in the West, weakening its proclamation of the Gospel and compromising the Church’s integrity and authority.  They also blame bishops for not speaking out more forcefully against such groups… Informed Vatican sources tell Newsmax that Francis has been holding a series of brainstorming sessions with Vatican-based cardinals and other senior Vatican officials on how to reform the Curia.”

The homosexual lobby in the Vatican will not like any such reforms, and it will have to be seen what they will do to prevent the pope from going through with his intentions.

Aachen—the New Rome

The Local wrote on June 11:

“In 786 AD Charlemagne dreamed of creating a ‘new Rome’ when he ordered the construction of the Church of St. Mary and its Palatinate chapel in his main residence of Aachen. He thus laid the foundations for one of the most important buildings in Europe, making the city the focal point of his Roman empire in 800 AD.

“The cathedral is of universal importance in terms of art and cultural history. 30 German kings were crowned there over a period of 600 years (936-1531), and the cathedral treasury is one of the finest in Europe… Since the Middle Ages, Aachen Cathedral has been one of the leading pilgrimage sites in the Christian world because of its famous reliquaries – the four holy shrines.

“Charlemagne was buried in the palatinate chapel following his death in 814. His ancient sarcophagus can be found in the central drum of the Gothic chancel.”

Our recent series in our Q&As on the ten revivals of the Roman Empire sheds more light on Charlemagne and the city of Aachen.

Obama’s Newest “Change”: Now Morning-After Pills for Girls of Any Age

Newsmax wrote on June 10:

“The federal government on Monday told a judge it will reverse course and take steps to comply with his order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions. But the decision isn’t likely to end President Barack Obama’s troubles with the issue, as anti-abortion advocates are certain to be unhappy with the reversal.

“The Department of Justice, in the latest development in a complex back-and-forth over access to the morning-after pill, notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling. Last week, the appeals court dealt the government a setback by saying it would immediately permit unrestricted sales of the two-pill version of the emergency contraception until the appeal was decided… The government had appealed the judge’s underlying April 5 ruling, which ordered emergency contraceptives… be made available without a prescription, over the counter and without point-of-sale or age restrictions.

“It asked the judge to suspend the effect of that ruling until the appeals court could decide the case. But the judge declined, saying the government’s decision to restrict sales of the morning-after pill was ‘politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent.’ He also said there was no basis to deny the request to make the drugs widely available…

“It appears the Justice Department has decided it might lose with the appeals court and then would have to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court, The New York Times noted… Obama can expect to see a renewed political debate on the issues at a time when his administration already is beset with multiple scandals and controversies, the Times noted. The president, who has two young daughters, said last year he felt uncomfortable with the idea of them being able to obtain the drug without a prescription.

“The morning-after pill contains a higher dose of the female hormone progestin than is in regular birth control pills. Taking it within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent, but it works best within the first 24 hours. If a girl or woman already is pregnant, the pill, which prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg, has no effect.”

Rather than teaching young girls (of any age) not to have sexual relationships outside (future) marriage, this now makes it easier for unmarried girls of any age to sin, thinking they can get away with it. Surely, this world has it upside down and backwards.

Obamacare and IRS Absurdities

The Washington Post wrote on June 12:

“It is reassuring that amid so much government dysfunction, the Internal Revenue Service has resolved the question of when and whether to tax tanning beds under the Affordable Care Act… Obamacare… calls for a 10 percent sales tax every time some pale face exposes himself to potentially harmful, cancer-causing rays, thus affecting everyone’s health-insurance premiums… But, wait, there’s an exception:  If such beds are offered as part of a gym or fitness center at no extra charge, no tax will be imposed…

“Despite the IRS’s impressive resolution of the tanning bed conundrum, one is struck by the unfortunate timing of its several displays of (a) incompetence and/or (b) ideologically driven harassment — just when the agency is charged with implementing and overseeing large swaths of Obamacare… [it]  includes at least 47 new tax provisions. Also, recall that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ACA’s individual mandate (you must buy insurance or else) by categorizing the mandate as a tax.

“Which is to say, the IRS has some big work ahead… In addition to deciding which organizations qualify for tax-exempt status, as in the case of tea party and patriot organizations recently targeted for prolonged, special scrutiny,  our nation’s revenuers will also be redefining ‘religious.’ Determining whether a religious or charitable institution qualifies for tax-exempt status has always been part of the IRS’s dubious bailiwick, but Obamacare has upped the ante by requiring some religious affiliates to provide health care — such as contraception — that violates their conscience.

“Whatever one’s personal positions on reproductive matters, the historically higher standard of individual conscience has been scuttled by the Obama administration in deference to a universal health-care plan that leaves the definition of religious organization and, therefore, conscience to a bureaucracy of accountants… Those deemed not truly religious will be denied conscience protections, as has already occurred… freedom of conscience is fundamental to other freedoms we similarly take for granted. Obamacare largely dismisses such considerations…

“Come next January, as insurance rates climb and many businesses opt to pay government fines, sending their workers into government exchanges, all those people who believed, as promised, that they could keep the insurance they like will learn otherwise… At the center of these disappointments and revelations will be the nation’s new, expanded army of tax enforcers — this time examining not just your beliefs but also your medical records.”

Of course, there are still some… if not many… (uninformed) Americans who do not (want) to see the horrendously absurd problems with Obamacare.

Turkey in Deep Trouble

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 12:

“Tuesday’s crackdown has drawn criticism from the international community. ‘With its reaction to the protests so far, the Turkish government is sending the wrong signal — both within the country and to Europe,’ German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin on Wednesday…

“The developments come at an awkward time for the European Union, which is considering steps later this month to move forward accession talks with Turkey…  Editorialists at leading German newspapers and across the political spectrum are roundly critical of Erdogan’s heavy-handed response to the protests, with a number ridiculing the Turkish leader as an ‘autocrat.’

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“‘Ever since he became prime minister, an air of distrust has surrounded Ergodan. How democratic is this man? Initially, it was Erdogan’s religious roots that fueled this distrust, especially the religious character of his moderate Islamist AKP. Fears of an Islamization of Turkey dominated the first phase of a reign that has already lasted a decade. During this time, he used brutal means to subjugate the military stronghold of the generals to the primacy of politicians… Today, it is clear that Islam isn’t really Erdogan’s greatest temptation. It is power itself — a pure lust for power that has gone to his head. Erdogan has continuously expanded his power base. His party men now hold positions in the judiciary and in the business sector, and the media seem to try to outdo each other to glorify him. There doesn’t appear to be any opposition left within the apparatus. … Erdogan is playing a dangerous game. … At the most important moment of his time governing, he has decided to become a total autocrat.’ 

“Financial daily Handelsblatt addresses Erdogan’s claim that speculators are among those inciting the violence: ‘Whatever Erdogan’s motives may be, his wild attacks against investors, bankers and investors are a risky gamble… Erdogan is playing with fire on his path of confrontation. The prime minister threatens not only the political stability of his country, but also its economic future.’

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘Taksim Square will go down in history not as an environmental project, but as the scene of a clash of cultures that divides the Western-oriented secular Turkey from the Islamic-conservative Turkey. Here, tensions are being discharged that run right through Turkish history — before and especially after the founding of the Turkish state by Kemal Pasha Atatürk, a revolutionary act that shattered the country’s traditional forms and remains traumatic to this day.’”

Turkey will still play a major role in prophetic events. Their actions against the state of Israel will greatly anger the God of the Bible.

Israel’s Isolation

The Times of Israel wrote on June 11:

“In Jordan, perceived Israeli violations of the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, over which Jordan maintains a custodianship, have angered Amman, and the parliament there recently voted to expel Israeli ambassador Daniel Nevo — a symbolic but resonant step… Israel’s relations with Jordan are now at a low point, [an unidentified] diplomat said, though not the lowest they’ve ever been. He was likely referring to the crisis that followed Israel’s botched assassination attempt of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal in Amman in September 1997, when King Hussein came close to severing ties… ‘Israel and Jordan are on a strategic collision course,’ said Assaf David, who teaches Jordanian politics at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University…

“The situation in Egypt is even gloomier. Israeli officials tacitly indicate that Israel has grudgingly agreed to forgo the pleasures of normalization with Egypt… Yitzhak Levanon, who was serving as Israel’s ambassador to Cairo when the mob stormed his embassy, told The Times of Israel last September that the gradual deterioration in relations began as early as Mubarak’s rise to power in 1981, but has accelerated since the election of President Mohammed Morsi last June.”

The Invasion of the “Crazy Ant”

On June 10, 2013, Mail On Line reported the following:

“A new and annoying species of ant is terrorizing the U.S. and chemicals that kill off other types of the insect are proving ineffective against it. The ‘crazy’ ant, named for the erratic trail it leaves as it makes its way across the country, originated in Argentina and Brazil.

“But since it was first spotted in Houston in 2002, it has spread to some 21 counties in Texas, 20 counties in Florida and a few locations in Mississippi and Louisiana…. University of Texas researcher and co-author of a study on the creatures Ed LeBrun said the omnivorous ants attack and kill other species as well as monopolizing food sources to the detriment of the entire ecosystem. He said everything from cattle to songbirds are at risk of the tiny ants, despite them being at the bottom of the food chain…

“The insects, bizarrely, are attracted to electrical wiring and components and in one year alone caused $146.5 million in damages in Texas… The devastation occurs when one ant discovers the transformer then gets electrocuted when it touches it, and ‘waves its abdomen in the air’ omitting a certain scent. The scent lures for ants to the scene and they too are electrocuted, again sending the scent into the air to attract their friends. Eventually, there are so many dead ants that the electric switches get stuck or the insulation fries and the system shuts down.”

Little Hope for Nuclear Disarmament

The Guardian reported on June 2:

“All five legally recognised nuclear states as defined by the non-proliferation treaty – China, France, Russia, the UK and US – are either deploying new nuclear weapons and delivery systems or plan to do so, according to a leading international research organisation… If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possess a total of approximately 17,265 nuclear weapons… ‘Once again there was little to inspire hope that the nuclear-weapon-possessing states are genuinely willing to give up their nuclear arsenals…’ said the Sipri senior researcher Shannon Kile.

“Of the five ‘official’ nuclear states, China appears to be expanding its nuclear arsenal while India and Pakistan are expanding both their nuclear weapon stockpiles and their missile delivery capabilities… Sipri estimates that Israel has approximately 80 intact nuclear weapons.”

Germany Under Attack for Allowing US Drones

Deutsche Welle wrote on June 1:

“It looks like a computer game, but it’s deadly serious news in Germany: US soldiers control drone attacks with a joystick. According to new media reports, military bases on German soil play a key role in the drone war…

“According to reports from German TV news show ‘Panorama’ and the daily newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’  the US use their German military bases to conduct attacks and targeted killings… There seems to be not a lot the German government can do at the moment though, because of a statute that governs the presence of US troops in Germany… The German government seems to shy away from an open discussion on the actions of American troops in Germany…”

But this will change…

The Unpopular Use of German Drones

The Local wrote on June 3:

“Classified footage shows a German drone narrowly missing a passenger plane, it was reported on Monday… Weighing slightly under 40 kilos, German Luna drones have been used by the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan over the past ten years over sparsely populated areas. Yet in 2004, one nearly hit a passenger plane carrying 100 people.

“Footage taken by the drone itself emerged on YouTube, despite being strictly classified. Der Spiegel magazine reckoned it showed the machine flying less than two metres away from the left wing of an Airbus A300 passenger plane which was carrying 100 people. The Luna drone was then caught in the Afghan airline Ariana plane’s wake turbulence, before losing control and crashing to the ground over the country’s capital, Kabul.

“Despite being nine years old, the footage is only now getting widespread attention – particularly because last week Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière decided not to fit Luna’s much larger successor, the Euro Hawk drone, with anti-collision technology. It was, he decided, too expensive. Yet Germany will be sticking to its plan of buying up to 16 armed Euro Hawks for the army to use from 2016.”

Germans are becoming increasingly alarmed about their government’s use of drones… and Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière is facing strong criticism and condemnation for his policies.

Sunnis Against Shiites in the Middle East—With Deep Spiritual Meaning

The Globe and Mail wrote on June 2:

“Renewed sectarian killing has brought the highest death toll in Iraq in five years. Young Iraqi scholars at a Shiite Muslim seminary volunteer to fight Sunnis in Syria. Far to the west, in Lebanon, clashes have worsened between opposing sects in the northern city of Tripoli. In Syria itself, ‘Shiites have become a main target,’ said Malek, an opposition activist…

“The Syrian civil war is setting off a contagious sectarian conflict beyond the country’s borders, reigniting long-simmering tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, and, experts fear, shaking the foundations of countries cobbled together after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. For months, the fighting in Syria has spilled across its borders as rockets landed in neighbouring countries or skirmishes crossed into their territories. But now, the Syrian war, with more than 80,000 dead, is inciting Sunnis and Shiites in other countries to attack one another…

“The Syrian uprising began as peaceful protests against Assad and transformed over two years into a bloody battle of attrition. But the killing is no longer just about supporting or opposing the government, or even about Syria. Some Shiites are pouring into Syria out of a sense of religious duty. In Iraq, random attacks on Sunni mosques and neighborhoods that had subsided in recent years have resumed – a wedding was recently hit – as Sunni militias fight the army…

“In Lebanon, perennial clashes between Alawite and Sunni militias in Tripoli have reached their worst level in years as each side blames the other for carnage in Syria…

“Many devout Shiites have also come to view the Syrian civil war as the fulfillment of a Shiite prophecy that presages the end of time: a devil-like figure, Sufyani, raises an army in Syria and marches on Iraq to kill Shiites…”

For more information as to what is really going to happen in the Middle East, according to the Bible, please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”

US and Europe “Warn” Russia and Iran

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 31:

“German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and US Secretary of State John Kerry say Syria’s war may be prolonged if Russia provides the Assad regime with advanced air weapons. They say peace talks could also be at risk… The talks between Westerwelle and Kerry came a day after claims from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that his regime received a first shipment of the sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft system…

“On Tuesday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov defended his country’s decision to provide the system to the Assad regime, which came a day after the EU lifted its arms embargo against rebel groups… The US has said it supports the EU’s decision, but the Obama administration is against sending US weapons to rebels…

“Kerry and Westerwelle also discussed Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry said international patience was waning over what Iran asserts is a program meant for peaceful purposes. ‘Every month that goes by gets more dangerous,’ said Kerry. He said he did not have high expectations that the upcoming presidential election in Iran would change the program, and repeated that it was unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Russia’s Weapons Sent to Syria Pose Threat to Russian Soldiers

The Business Insider wrote on May 31:

“The S300 anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has reportedly started sending to Syria don’t just pose a threat to Israeli or American pilots; they also pose a threat to Russians on the ground. If Israel or the U.S. bomb the S300 weapons in Syria, there’s a good chance they ‘will kill a lot of Russians,’ Robert Hewson, editor of IHS Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, said to the Guardian. Hewson’s conclusion comes from the fact that these weapons systems are far more advanced than what Syria already has. Russian operators would need to be on the ground to oversee the weapons…

“Russia’s decision to arm embattled president Bashar Al-Assad is another step toward a more overt proxy war with the West. At stake is the prospect of regime change in Syria, which America supports and Russia doesn’t.”

Those who take the sword will die by the sword… Note the next article.

America Sends Patriot Missile Battery and F-16 Fighters to Jordan

AFP wrote on June 3:

“The United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria’s civil war, officials said Monday… The deployment of a Patriot anti-missile battery comes after warnings from Washington to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against shipping advanced missiles to militants in Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite group, which is now openly taking part in the war in support of Damascus.

“Israel has carried out air strikes in Syria in a bid to disrupt the possible delivery of missiles to the Hezbollah movement. The decision to possibly station F-16s and missile batteries in Jordan will fuel speculation on a potential US military intervention, which the White House so far has described as a remote possibility.

“The US Patriot batteries are designed to shoot down Scud or other short-range missiles, known to be in the Assad regime’s arsenal, and could also be employed as part of a no-fly-zone umbrella or other air operation. The Pentagon already has sent about 200 troops to Jordan, including an element of a US Army headquarters, to help the country prepare for possible military action in Syria, including scenarios to secure the regime’s chemical weapons stockpiles.”

Iraq Ready to Explode

BNO News reported on May 31:

“With the wave of recent attacks in Iraq and hundreds of deaths in the last weeks, the United Nations (UN) on Thursday urged for immediate action as the country is ‘ready to explode.’ The increasing violence in the Middle Eastern country may re-ignite widespread sectarian strife unless the country’s leaders take immediate action… Over 100 people have died since Monday, when a number of bombings in Baghdad killed more than 50 people. In May alone, estimates of over 500 deaths have been reported in such attacks…

“Martin Kobler, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)… voiced his dismay at the horrific toll of lives lost following the ‘new criminal wave of attacks against innocent civilians,’ particularly targeting the capital… ‘The country stands at a crossroads,’ he stated, calling for a stronger European Union role in dealing with the developments unfolding in the country…”

And since America has failed to bring peace to Iraq, Europe will indeed try to do so… but peace won’t come this way either.

Turkey in Turmoil

Deutsche Welle wrote on June 3:

“Turkey is witnessing its most violent protests in more than a decade. In the beginning, demonstrators marched against a construction project in an Istanbul park. Now they’re fighting against the government.

“A festival-like atmosphere was the mood in Istanbul’s Gezi Park on Sunday. Tens of thousands gathered at the site where violent clashes between police and protesters first broke out. Demonstrators enjoyed picnics with music and candlelight. Volunteers provided food and helped clean up the chaos from previous days. Social Democrats, Communists, young and old, gay and lesbian have come together to occupy the park. Together, they chant slogans such as ‘Taksim belongs to us; Istanbul belongs to us’ and ‘We fight shoulder to shoulder against Fascism.’

“But in the neighboring district of Besiktas, demonstrators fight on. They have set up barricades – made of flowerpots, benches, torn-down streetlights and buses – in the streets around Taksim Square. Demonstrators there want to block the police from entering the area. In the early evening, demonstrators and police will engage in heavy clashes involving rocks and tear gas. Nor is the fighting limited to Istanbul. In the capital city of Ankara and in the city of Izmir, clashes between police and protesters continue.

“What began as a demonstration against the felling of trees as part of a construction project in Istanbul’s Gezi Park has evolved into a nationwide protest against the center-right government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And anti-government epithets are growing louder and louder…

“Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler has estimated the damage from the protests at more than 8 million euros ($10.4 million)….”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 3:

“For a decade, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a tight grip on power. But it suddenly looks to be weakening. Thousands have taken to the streets across the country and the threats to Erdogan’s rule are many. His reaction has revealed him to be hopelessly disconnected… And it is beginning to look as though the prime minister, the most powerful leader Turkey has seen since the days of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, might be losing control…

“Success made Erdogan even more power-hungry, thin-skinned and susceptible to criticism. Indeed, he began governing in the same autocratic style for which he had bitterly criticized his predecessors. And now, he is faced with significant dangers to his power from several quarters… In Istanbul, people have begun whispering that the military is distributing gasmasks — but to the demonstrators rather than to the police. The message is clear: The military supports the protests… Erdogan certainly cannot rely on them remaining in their barracks.”

Egypt Pushes at Germany

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 4:

“An Egyptian court found dozens of nonprofit workers guilty on Tuesday and closed down the offices of a number of NGOs. The German government called the verdict an outrage. An Egyptian court on Tuesday handed down a harsh verdict in a trial against foreign-funded nonprofit organizations, and sentenced 43 NGO workers to up to five years in jail. The German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which is associated with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, was among the organizations affected, with former KAS branch head Andreas Jacobs likewise convicted on Tuesday. The court ordered that assets be seized from several of the NGOs as well, including three from the US.

“Most of the foreign defendants had long since left Egypt by the time the sentence was handed down on Tuesday and will face no time behind bars. The organizations’ Egyptian employees, however, will likely be taken into custody, though they can appeal the verdict. Hans Pöttering, the former European Parliament president who is now head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, said that he will do everything he can to contest the verdict.

“Tuesday’s convictions come after a year-long trial which damaged Cairo’s relationship with the US and Germany. In March 2012, a ban on leaving the country imposed on two German defendants was lifted after Berlin paid a €250,000 bond for each of them. The US also managed to pull most American defendants out of Egypt against a bond payment… ‘The absurd verdicts against our employees concern me deeply,’ said Pöttering on Tuesday. ‘The trial has nothing to do with the rule of law. During the course of the entire trial, it became more than obvious just how untenable and unfounded the accusations are.’…

“German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle criticized the verdict on Tuesday. ‘We are extremely outraged and disturbed to a great degree by the harsh verdict passed against employees of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the forced closure of its office,’ he said… Former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was even more direct. ‘The verdict is a difficult burden for bilateral relations and is inacceptable,’ he told the daily Die Welt. He said the trial was ‘scandalous’ and demanded that NGOs be allowed to continue their work ‘without fear of harassment.’”

Pope Francis and Vatican on Collision Course?

The Washington Times wrote on May 30:

“The Vatican has issued a new statement running counter to Pope Francis‘ recent suggestion that good deeds can earn atheists entrance to heaven… Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said in what was described as an ‘explanatory note’ that those who know about the Catholic Church ‘cannot be saved [if they] refuse to enter her or remain in her’… Those ‘who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ and His church, but sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, try to do his will as it is known through the dictates of conscience, can attain eternal salvation.’

“Some see Father Rosica’s statements as running contrary to what Pope Francis said on May 22. Then, the pope said that redemption was available to all — ‘not just Catholics,’ but ‘even the atheists. Everyone’… He then went on to speak of doing good to others, talking specifically to atheists when he added: ‘But do good — we will meet one another there [in heaven]’…”

The sad truth, they are all wrong. Please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

Anti-Semitism in Europe over Circumcision

The Times of Israel wrote on May 29:

“Jewish groups on Wednesday sharply condemned Norway’s third-largest paper, Dagbladet, for publishing a cartoon that one group said was ‘so virulently anti-Semitic it would make Hitler and Himmler weep tears of joy.’ In the cartoon, printed by the paper on Tuesday and meant to oppose the Jewish ritual of circumcising baby boys, the mother of a Jewish child is seen holding a blood-soaked Torah while saying, ‘Mistreating? No this is tradition, an important part of our belief!’ At the other end of the child, who’s sprawled on the table, a Jewish man — either the boy’s father or a rabbi — is in the midst of stabbing the boy in the forehead with a three-pronged devil’s pitchfork while cutting off his toes. A policeman who comes through the door responds to the mother by saying ‘Belief? Oh yes, then it is all right,’ and the second officer apologizes for the interruption. A statement by the Wiesenthal Center denounced ‘the blood libel cartoon published in Dagbladet.’…

“The past year has seen a sharp uptick in anti-circumcision activity in Europe. In March, 38 physicians from the continent wrote a paper alleging that ‘cultural bias’ was behind the pro-circumcision stance of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Approximately half of the physicians were from Scandinavian countries, where several political parties have stated their view of circumcision as a form of ‘child abuse.’ Last year, a local German court criminalized the rite and started a nationwide and international controversy about religious ceremonies versus children’s rights. Three months later the German government approved a bill that legalized ritual circumcisions, if performed by a medical professional.”

The issue is not going away…

The Curse of Highly Unpopular Ill-Conceived Obamacare Legislation

CNBC wrote on June 3:

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans who currently lack health insurance don’t know yet if they will purchase that coverage by the Jan. 1 deadline set by the ACA, a new survey revealed Monday. And less than half of those in the survey…  think they’ll get better health care after Obamacare takes full effect. Nearly 50 percent believe the ACA will make it more difficult for them to get tests and procedures done in a timely manner…

“And a whopping 68 percent of low-income Americans aren’t sure they qualify for tax credits that would subsidize their purchase of health insurance—despite the fact that they almost invariably will qualify, the survey found… Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com, said public uncertainty about Obamacare—particularly a lack of commitment to signing up—could end up driving up health-insurance costs under the program because not enough healthy people will participate to offset benefits payouts… Obamacare in California will increase individual health insurance premiums by 64-146 percent…

“A total of 61 percent of the uninsured… don’t hav[e] insurance because they can’t afford it, the survey found… Under the ACA, uninsured Americans have until the beginning of 2014 to purchase insurance through health-care exchanges being set up nationwide or other venues—or face a financial penalty. That penalty is equal to $95 per adult, and $47.50 per child, up to a maximum of $285—or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater. Those penalties will escalate in future years.”

The disastrous consequences of the ill-conceived and foolishly enacted Obamacare legislation will only be fully realized, beginning with 2014. It will be another nail in the coffin of America’s sick economy.

Washington’s Scandals Heating Up

Newsmax reported on June 2:

“The IRS agents in Cincinnati who were involved in the targeting of conservative groups were ‘being directly ordered from Washington,’ Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Sunday. Issa, who is heading the House investigation into the affair, accused the White House of lying about the involvement of IRS headquarter officials in the scandal. He also called White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a ‘paid liar.’… ‘The administration is still trying to say there’s a few rogue agents in Cincinnati, when in fact the indication is they were directly being ordered from Washington,’ he said… Issa denied trying to tie the wrongdoing at the IRS directly to the president. ‘What we’ve tried to do,’ he said, ‘is to get the kinds of transparency we were promised, which we’re not getting.’

“In a separate controversy, Issa was asked whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath in the targeting of Fox News reporter James Rosen. ‘He certainly could have been more candid if he remembered. And he should have remembered,’ Issa said… It would be kind to say that Holder misled Congress when he said he had never been personally involved in prosecuting the journalist who received a leak of classified material, Issa said. ‘It would be less kind and more accurate to say that would rise to be a lie by most people’s standards.’”

Trust in the government? Gone!

Get Rid of the IRS

The Washington Post wrote on June 3:

“Hours before the House Appropriations Committee held a hearing on political targeting at the Internal Revenue Service, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had a simple solution to the agency’s problems — get rid of it altogether… ‘I think we ought to abolish the IRS and instead move to a simple flat tax where the average American can fill out taxes on postcard,’ he explained in a Fox News interview over the weekend. ‘Put down how much you earn, put down a deduction for charitable contributions, home mortgage and how much you owe. It ought to be a simple one-page postcard, and take the agents, the bureaucracy out of Washington and limit the power of government.’… Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has frequently called for the abolition of the IRS. He would have gone further than Cruz by also eliminating the income tax.”

The voices demanding the abolition of the IRS are getting louder. Former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate, Mike Huckebee, had also said that if he were elected president, the IRS would be gone. Newsbusters.org wrote on June 4 that “Media members thinking the Republicans are overplaying their hand with the Internal Revenue Service scandal should pay attention to what happened on NBC’s Tonight Show Monday. When host Jay Leno joked that President Obama should close the IRS rather than the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, the audience erupted in thunderous applause.”

The Washington Times added on June 5:

“The latest hit to the agency involves a new report that finds it spent $50 million on conferences and retreats for workers — in a two-year time period. ‘They would have investigated sooner, but it turns out, you know, they don’t belong to any conservative groups,’ Mr. Leno said during his Monday-evening show.”

In the world tomorrow, no more IRS agencies will exist.

Obama’s Big Brother

The Guardian wrote the following on June 5, showing the incredible intrusion of the American government into the privacy of the lives of potentially every American citizen:

“The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April. The order… requires Verizon on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

“The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing. The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

“The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government’s domestic spying powers. Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

“The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday. All declined…

“It is not known whether Verizon is the only cell-phone provider to be targeted with such an order, although previous reporting has suggested the NSA has collected cell records from all major mobile networks. It is also unclear from the leaked document whether the three-month order was a one-off, or the latest in a series of similar orders.

“The court order appears to explain the numerous cryptic public warnings by two US senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, about the scope of the Obama administration’s surveillance activities. For roughly two years, the two Democrats have been stridently advising the public that the US government is relying on ‘secret legal interpretations’ to claim surveillance powers so broad that the American public would be ‘stunned’ to learn of the kind of domestic spying being conducted…

“The law on which the order explicitly relies is the so-called ‘business records’ provision of the Patriot Act, 50 USC section 1861. That is the provision which Wyden and Udall have repeatedly cited when warning the public of what they believe is the Obama administration’s extreme interpretation of the law to engage in excessive domestic surveillance…”

How something like this can even be possible in a democratic country is beyond belief. But God is not amused, as the next article may show.

Tornado in Oklahoma Much Stronger Than First Thought

The Associated Press reported on June 4:

“The deadly tornado that plowed through an area near Oklahoma City last week was even larger and more powerful than previously estimated — a record 2.6 miles wide with winds that reached nearly 300 mph, just shy of the strongest winds ever measured.”

France and Germany for Full-Time Euro President

The EUObserver wrote on May 31:  

“French leader Francois Hollande and Germany’s Angela Merkel have called for the creation of a full-time euro ‘President…. [to] be created after the EU elections in 2014. It calls for: more frequent eurozone summits; a ‘specific fund for the euro area’ alongside the general EU budget; and new ‘structures’ in the European Parliament to oversee euro-level economic governance. It says eurozone countries should sign binding contracts with EU institutions on economic reform.”

In other words, core Europe is pushing ahead…

Europe’s Terrible Flooding

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 3:

“The death toll from flooding in central Europe has reached nine so far and more heavy rain is expected. In Germany, soldiers have been called out to help evacuate towns and pile sandbags while the historic old town of Passau is already under water… After a miserably long winter followed by a cold, rain-drenched spring, the start of summer has brought severe flooding in Germany and neighboring Austria and the Czech Republic… awakening unhappy memories of the disastrous deluge of August 2002.

“There’s no respite in sight, with Germany’s weather center warning of further heavy rainfall on Monday in the worst-affected regions of southern and eastern Germany.  Thousands of people have been evacuated from low-lying areas, historic town centers are under water, schools are closed and high-school exams have been postponed, all to the grim soundtrack of emergency sirens and the merciless rushing of water.

“Five people are reported to have been killed in the Czech Republic, including two men on a river rafting tour. Two people have died in Austria and two in Germany. Several more are missing. The federal army has been called out to provide assistance in Germany. States of emergency have been declared in a number of areas including the Bavarian city of Passau, where the Danube rose above 12.2 meters (40 feet) on Monday, its highest level on record…”

The German press compares the current flooding with the flood of the century in 2002, stating that the current situation appears to be worse. Deutsche Welle wrote on June 5: “As Germany battles severe flooding in parts of the country, the cost of the damage is hitting Europe’s biggest economy just as it has barely overcome a harsh winter that has driven it to the brink of recession.”

Christ warned that natural disasters would increase in frequency and magnitude, prior to His return.

Escalations Over Syria

Al Jazeera reported on May 29:

“Israel has said it will act if Russia delivers promised anti-aircraft missiles to its ally Syria, in an apparent allusion to another air raid on the neighbouring country. Moshe Yaalon, Israeli defence minister, issued his warning on Tuesday shortly after a senior official in Moscow said the Russian government reserved the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defence missiles… Yaalon’s comments were made before Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, ordered his cabinet to stay silent on the issue, according to public radio.

“Earlier this month, Israel launched air raids inside Syria targeting what sources said were arms destined for the Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah, whose fighters have entered the conflict alongside the Syrian army. Tensions were further stirred after the EU decided in a meeting in Brussels on Monday to lift an embargo on supplying weapons to Syria’s rebels. Syria’s government joined its ally Russia in condemning the EU decision as an ‘obstruction’ to peace efforts, while accusing the bloc of supporting and encouraging ‘terrorists’. The US, however, said it supported the EU move as a show of ‘full support’ for the rebels, despite its own refusal to provide arms it fears will end up in what it believes to be extremist hands in Syria…

“Both Russia and Iran remain Syria’s main weapon suppliers… In a related diplomatic development, Russia said on Tuesday it was imperative for Iran to join the so-called Geneva 2 peace conference on Syria. France has already rejected the idea of Iran taking part, while the US has responded to Russia’s proposal with skepticism… Opposition leaders have said they will only participate in talks if Assad’s departure from power tops the agenda, a demand Assad and his Russian backers have rejected.”

Russia, Syria and Iran vs. Israel, USA and Europe. This volatile situation is bound to explode. And when it does, the consequences will be disastrous.

Iran’s Cyber Attacks Against U.S. Corporations

Newsmax wrote on May 24:

“Iran has stepped up a campaign of cyberattacks against U.S. companies and has successfully hacked the computer networks of several American energy firms. In the latest cyberassault, Iranian hackers accessed control-system software that could permit them to damage or destroy oil and gas pipelines in the future, reports The Wall Street Journal, quoting a former U.S. official who said the attacks had proceeded ‘far enough to worry people.’

“The fear in Washington is that the Iranian action is potentially more dangerous than cyberattacks by Chinese hackers, who have reportedly accessed the intellectual property of several U.S. corporations.”

But Chinese hackers did not only target intellectual property of US corporations, as the next article shows.

“Chinese Hackers ‘Access Sensitive US Weapons Systems’”

The Telegraph wrote on May 28:

“Designs for some of the United States’ most important and sensitive weapons systems have been ‘compromised’ by Chinese hackers according to a confidential report. The document, which was provided to the Pentagon by the Defence Science Board, an influential advisory body, said that more than two-dozen key weapons systems had been affected, including missile defense systems, fighter jets, helicopters and navy vessels.

“… senior military sources pointed the finger directly at Beijing, telling the [Washington] Post the security breaches were part of a ‘widening Chinese campaign of espionage against US defence contractors and government agencies.’ Such information could help China speed up the development of its own weapons system while also giving the Asian giant an advantage in any military conflict with the US, the Post reported.

“Mark Stokes, the executive director of the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank that focuses on Asia security issues, described the list of affected systems as ‘staggering’. ‘These are all very critical weapons systems, critical to our national security. When I hear this in totality, it’s breathtaking,’ he told the newspaper. A senior military official who declined to be named added: ‘This is billions of dollars of combat advantage for China. They’ve just saved themselves 25 years of research and development…’”

The Bible does not speak of a war between China and the USA, but a war will break out between China and other Far Eastern nations, including Russia, and a unified Europe, during which Europe will be greatly crippled and major European cities, such as Rome, will be destroyed. China’s military advantages over the West are therefore of great biblical importance. So is Europe’s and Germany’s weapons’ industry, as the next article shows.

Small Arms—“Passed from War to War”

Der Spiegel wrote on May 27:

“German weapons manufacturers are making more money than perhaps ever before when it comes to exporting small arms, raking in the highest sales since government record-keeping began in the late 1990s… Among the small arms contracts approved in the record year of 2012, Berlin approved some €6.5 million in exports to Saudi Arabia — a sum that amounted to more than half of such weapons sent to the Middle East and North Africa…

“‘The export of small arms is particularly controversial internationally because, compared to heavy weaponry, they kill far more victims worldwide,’ the [Süddeutsche Zeitung] wrote. This is of special concern in developing countries, where such weapons are easy to come by and often subsequently end up in war zones as a result of illegal trade.”

Homosexuality Increasingly Popular in Europe

The Associated Press reported on May 29:

“In a historic ceremony broadcast live on French television, the first gay couple to marry in France said, ‘Oui’ and then sealed the deal with a lengthy and very public kiss. Hundreds of invited guests, including a government minister, gathered for the moving ceremony Wednesday inside City Hall in this southern French city. Hundreds more flocked to the square outside the building… The politically charged ceremony was held under tight police surveillance — a stark reminder of the months of bruising opposition to the new gay-marriage law that French lawmakers passed earlier this month…

“News of the marriage will not be welcomed in every corner of France. Just last Sunday, tens of thousands of people protested fiercely in Paris against the new gay-marriage law, demonstrations that ended with riot police shooting tear gas. A plan to legalize same-sex marriage and allow gay couples to adopt was a liberal cornerstone of Socialist Francois Hollande’s election manifesto last year… The law became a political hot potato that exposed bitter divisions between urban France, where homosexuality is widely accepted, and the Catholic heartland, where conservative attitudes hold sway…

“Paris police estimated that 150,000 people took part in the demonstration, but march organizers claimed on their Twitter account that more than a million people did. At the same time Sunday, on the shores of the Mediterranean, the prestigious 66th Cannes Film Festival gave the Palme d’Or, its top honor, to ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele,’ a graphic French film about a tender, sensual lesbian romance. France is the 14th country so far — and the biggest in political and economic weight — to recognize gay marriage.”

The homosexual movement is getting more and more momentum, recognition and support in Europe. Bild Online reported this week about a new American movie, “Behind the Candelabra,” with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, depicting the life of homosexual entertainer Liberace (Douglas) and his “love affair” with his “partner” (Damon). The movie was shown in Cannes, but while critics “praised” Michael Douglas for his “performance,” he could not be given an Oscar for it, as the film was not produced by a movie company, but by HBO, an American TV cable station, which will also show the movie on American TV. This disqualifies the movie as being included at the Academy Awards, according to Bild.

The tabloid wrote that no big American movie company was willing to produce the movie, because it was “too sexually explicit,” and so HBO decided to do so. Bild wrote that Europe was “further ahead” than “prudish” Hollywood, as it was not only willing to show the production in Cannes, but numerous movie theaters will show it across Europe. This development is rather surprising in respect to the USA, but it is most certainly in line with biblical prophecy, as it applies to Europe, since there are strong biblical implications that the final charismatic and highly popular European leader of the European power bloc—the “beast”—will be homosexual (compare our ongoing series on the revivals of the ancient Roman Empire in our Q&A’s.)

In this context, Mail On Line wrote on May 30, 2013, that “The Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nicholas Holtam, suggested it was time to ‘rethink’ attitudes towards allowing same-sex couples to marry, as Christians did with slavery and apartheid. He argued that attitudes towards homosexuality have changed ‘considerably’ over the last fifty years and that the development of gay marriage would be a ‘very strong endorsement of the institution of marriage’.” Even though the Church of England is officially opposed to “gay marriages,” the opinion by Nicholas Holtam is in line with an opposite trend even within that church. As the article states, “A Church of England spokesman said Bishop Holtam’s letter was a ‘helpful contribution to the debate’.”

Ethiopia and Africa’s Future

On May 25, xinhuanet.com wrote the following:

“The celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Africa Union (AU)… have kicked off in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa Saturday, amid rising optimism over Africa’s future.

“Zambian President Michael Sata said in the last 50 years, most African countries managed to achieve valuable progress in their national development, including achieving higher economic growth rates. ‘Addis Ababa was not what it is today 50 years ago,’ President Sata told journalists a day before world leaders joined the leadership of the AU to hold the commemoration of the continental Jubilee… African leaders, who gathered here to usher in yearlong celebrations, are insisting on propelling the voice of Africa to a more prominent role in the international scene…

“The celebrations being marked here have been styled to honor veterans for Africa’s struggle against colonial rule.”

Sadly, European attempts to establish “colonial rule” will reoccur. Please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.” 

No Reprieve from Natural Disasters

CNN wrote on May 29:

“Increasingly, it feels like there is no reprieve from the assault of natural disasters. Month after month, we go from winter storms to spring floods, to tornado and hail storms, to hurricanes, to wildfires, with an earthquake thrown in every so often just to remind us that the seasons don’t always dictate the disasters. As a hazard scientist, I am in tune daily with the looming threats of nature and the places that are most susceptible. Many people, however, don’t realize the full extent of the risk they face in their own hometowns and neighborhoods. All it really takes is one catastrophe, like Hurricane Sandy, or the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, to turn everyone’s attention to the true reality of hazard risk.

“No place in the United States is risk-free. Some regions of the country are more prone to certain events than others, so in those cases it is never a question of ‘if,’ but rather a question of ‘when’ and ‘how severe will it be?’ We hear about earthquakes and wildfires in California, hurricanes in Florida or Louisiana, floods along the Mississippi, and probably most well-known, tornadoes in the Midwestern states that make up ‘Tornado Alley.’ But it would be shortsighted to think these regions have cornered the market on natural hazards. A deeper investigation reveals just how widespread these natural disasters can be.

“Wildfires burned more than 9 million acres in the U.S. last year. Although California certainly felt the heat with nearly 900,000 acres burned, three other states each lost more than 1 million acres to wildfires in 2012 as well. Idaho had 1.6 million acres scorched and in both Montana and Oregon, 1.2 million acres burned. Yet we don’t hear as much about the fires in those states as we do about the blazes near San Diego or Los Angeles. In fact, 49 states are listed on the National Interagency Fire Center website as having lost acreage to wildfires in 2012. Even Hawaii lost 3 square miles of land in 2012, though few people would likely consider the islands to have any wildfire risk.

“Hurricane-driven storm surge was the lead story when Hurricane Sandy pushed ashore in New York and New Jersey in 2012. But Manhattan had braced for the threat of Hurricane Irene just the year before, a reminder that nature does not space these events to fit our expectations of how often surprising weather events happen. Aside from our heightened awareness of risk in the Northeast, 19 coastal states along the Gulf and Atlantic shorelines all have some degree of flooding risk from hurricane-driven storm surge, stretching from Texas to Maine. Not a single one of these states has less than $2 billion worth of residential property located in a storm-surge zone. The potential of a devastating hurricane is not limited to the states we think of as traditional targets…

“And of course, there are tornadoes. They hit with less warning than wildfires or hurricanes and are capable of producing tremendous, almost instantaneous damage. It would be comforting for us who live outside Tornado Alley to think that won’t happen to us. But the numbers tell a different story. From 2000 to 2011, about 6,700 tornadoes hit in the eight states typically identified as Tornado Alley: Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota and North Dakota. But 8,800 tornadoes touched down in at least 16 other states during the same time period, in Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Tornado Alley states lost $2.5 billion in residential property damage from 2000 to 2011 — but consider that the 16 states outside the Alley suffered nearly $15.5 billion in damage during that same time…

“Are there more severe weather events now than in the past? There’s no clear answer. Media coverage has made us more aware…  Because disasters are reported more extensively now than ever, it might skew our perception of their frequency. But whether the number of tornadoes, fires, hurricanes and the like is on the rise, it’s a sure thing that the population has risen, and continues to rise each year by about 2.5 million a year, according to the Census Bureau. This means that more people will be living in areas at risk, and the number of homes, buildings and infrastructure will be greater. The value of the properties has increased over the years, so any disaster will cause more damage in dollars and cents…”

Jesus warned that we will HEAR more and more about wars, rumors of wars, and natural disasters, including earthquakes. Our media is indeed eager to report about these events, so these days, more and more people can “hear” about them, even IF they had not increased in frequency. But it seems that they indeed increased in frequency, and also in magnitude.

WHY is America under such continuing curses with disaster after disaster from “Mother Nature”? The answer is that this country has brought upon itself the punishment God warned would come if its people rejected Him and His immutable laws! Our booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America,” reveals the ominous future of the English speaking nations—even including national destruction and captivity!  There is hope, there is good news, but that will only occur following tumultuous events that will lead the English-speaking nations of the United States and the former British Commonwealth to repentance and a turning to the God of the Bible—it is time to WAKE UP and to individually turn to God, to seek His will, and to begin to walk in His perfect way of life! Note also the next article.

America’s Changing Views on Pot

Business Insider wrote on May 28:

“It has been six months since Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, and the momentum for changing the way states handle pot has never been stronger.  May was a huge month for marijuana reform supporters…  Coloradans can buy an ounce of [“recreational”] pot from specially licensed stores.

“There’s also been significant movement in other states in pursuing a similar system… On the whole, the political success for marijuana in May is really just the implementation of American’s changing views on pot.”

Woe unto those who “pervert justice” and “call evil good”… Since the entire world does, the entire world is under God’s curse.

New SARS Virus Threat for Entire World

CNN wrote on May 28:

“A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is ‘a threat to the entire world,’ according to the director-general of the United Nations’ World Health Organization. The so-called novel coronavirus ‘is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself,’ Margaret Chan said Monday… ‘We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,’ she said…’We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond,’ she said… The virus had infected 44 people worldwide as of last week, most of them in the Middle East… Half of them have died…

“Novel coronavirus acts like a cold virus and attacks the respiratory system… But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea have also been seen… Cases have been identified in eight countries including France and Saudi Arabia… Other European countries include Germany and the United Kingdom. No cases have been reported in the United States, but infectious disease experts have said it would not be surprising.”

Worldwide disease epidemics are prophesied, and God’s Word is sure. It is also available, so that “they have no excuse.” Note the next article.

Oldest Complete Scroll of Torah Found

The BBC wrote on May 28:

“The University of Bologna in Italy has found what it says may be the oldest complete scroll of Judaism’s most important text, the Torah… after carbon dating tests, the university has said the text may have been written more than 850 years ago.

“The university says that in 1889 one of its librarians… had examined the scroll and dated it to the 17th Century… when Prof Perani recently re-examined the scroll, he realised the script used was that of the oriental Babylonian tradition, meaning that the scroll must be extremely old. Another reason for the dating is that the text has many features forbidden in later copies under rules laid down by the scholar Maimonides in the 12th Century, the university says.”

God has promised that His Word—including those words recorded in the Old and the New Testament—would never disappear, but they would be preserved for all time. They can serve as a guiding light for those willing to obey Him, or as a witness against evildoers.

Oklahoma’s Killer Tornado

The Associated Press reported on May 21:

“Everything had to come together just perfectly to create the killer tornado in Moore, Okla.: wind speed, moisture in the air, temperature and timing. And when they did, the awesome energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima… Wind speeds were estimated at between 200 and 210 mph. The death count is 24 so far, including at least nine children. The United States averages about one EF5 a year, but this was the first in nearly two years…

“Several meteorologists contacted by The Associated Press used real time measurements, some made by Schumacher, to calculate the energy released during the storm’s 40-minute life span. Their estimates ranged from 8 times to more than 600 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb, with more experts at the high end. Their calculations were based on energy measured in the air and then multiplied over the size and duration of the storm…

“The United States’ Great Plains is the ‘best place on Earth’ for the formation of violent tornadoes because of geography… Scientists know the key ingredients that go into a devastating tornado. But they are struggling to figure out why they develop in some big storms and not others…”

Pope Francis an Exorcist?

The Associated Press reported on May 21:

“Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The question has been swirling ever since Francis laid his hands Sunday on the head of a young man after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, and he then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him. The television station of the Italian bishops’ conference said it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed there was ‘no doubt’ that Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.

“The Vatican was more cautious Tuesday. In a statement, it said Francis ‘didn’t intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him.’ Fueling the speculation is Francis’ obsession with Satan, a frequent subject of his homilies, and an apparent surge in demand for exorcisms among the faithful despite the irreverent treatment the rite often receives from Hollywood…

“Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 — near the same spot where Francis prayed over the young disabled man on Sunday.”

You might want to read our Q&A on the issue of exorcism.

“Pope Francis Elected after Supernatural ‘Signs’”?

The Telegraph wrote on May 14:

“Pope Francis elected after supernatural ‘signs’ in the Conclave, says Cardinal. The surprise election of Pope Francis came about because of a series of supernatural ‘signs’, one of the leading Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church has claimed…

“Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, who was himself widely tipped as a possible successor to Pope Benedict, said he had personally had two ‘strong signs’ that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ‘the chosen one’ in the run up to vote. He said only divine intervention could explain the speed with which the Argentine Cardinal – who did not feature on any of the main lists of likely candidates compiled by Vatican experts – was elected.

“Speaking to an Anglican conference in London, he also said the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, had a ‘strange similarity’ to the new Pope. He said that the two elections were a ‘little miracle’ and a ‘sign from the Lord’ that the two churches should work towards closer unity…”

And they will hear of signs and wonders… and many will be deceived…

The Pope and Merkel

The Associated Press reported on May 18:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mindful of the importance of Christian voters in September elections, met with Pope Francis on Saturday during a quick trip to Rome… Merkel spoke privately for 45 minutes with the pope…

“Her Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters… For its part, the Vatican is eager for allies in its campaign to win over more Catholics… The chancellor said the pope had stressed the world needs a strong and just Europe…”

The mass tabloid, Bild, added on May 18 that the “two key figures for the future of Europe seem to have found a good connection, and that not only in just a few similarities… The Swiss Cardinal said on Friday that Europe needs a ‘unified spiritual currency.’ [Angela Merkel, the daughter of a Protestant minister, said that] the Catholic Church has a ‘central role’ in light of the Christian roots of Europe.”

In Revelation 17, we read about a woman (a religious power) riding a beast (a political power). This picture is also drawn from European mythology, according to which the maiden Europa was carried away by the Greek god Zeus, who had changed into a bull. Now we see again the political power under German leadership collaborating with the religious power. In due time, things will become more focused. To what extent, exactly, we don’t know, but we might consider an article in the Austrian press (news-at), dated May 8, 2013, to the effect that more than 60% of Austrians would again like to see a king ruling over them. However, in case of a monarchy, Austria would not have a king, but an emperor and an empress—Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen (son of Otto von Habsburg, who died in 2011), as well as Karl’s wife, Francesca von Habsburg-Lothringen.

Coronation of the Monarch–Church of England to Be “Hospitable” to Other Faiths

The Telegraph wrote on May 19:

“The coronation of the next monarch will include a role for people of other faiths besides Christianity, in a break with a thousand years of history, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt… Church of England leaders have accepted the need to be ‘hospitable’ to other faiths within any future service at Westminster Abbey, in order to reflect the spiritual diversity of modern Britain… Senior church figures told this newspaper that it was now accepted that other faiths should be recognised within the coronation service for the first time. It will not, however, be a ‘multi-faith’ service in the sense of a ceremony that treats all faiths as equal.
 
“Representatives of other religions are likely to be asked to participate in a neutral symbolic act such as the lighting of candles, or to read from a text expressing shared values, rather than praying out loud or reading their own sacred texts.

“The Church considers the coronation to be a royal ordination, setting apart the monarch for a sacred purpose under God, and will resist any compromise of that. The ceremony contains elements dating back to 963, and is always written by the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently the Most Rev Justin Welby. The service is held at Westminster Abbey under the leadership of the Earl Marshal, currently the Duke of Norfolk, with the assistance of the Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr John Hall.

“The Coronation Oath Act of 1689 requires the monarch to swear to uphold the Protestant faith, and the ceremony includes Christian sacraments such as Holy Communion and the anointing of the monarch by the Archbishop. Those will remain intact.

“Any changes will, none the less, be a dramatic break with the past. Dr Robert Morris of the constitution unit at University College London said: ‘Essentially, the last coronation… was an Anglican Christian service. No Popery allowed, etc. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to give space to any of the other Churches, let alone faiths.’… There was some consternation in the Church seven years ago when it was reported that the Prince of Wales would like a multi-faith service to follow the Christian one, with readings and prayers by people of the Muslim, Sikh and Jewish faiths.

“Dr Hall went further in 2006, saying: ‘The coronation service needs to find the right way of including people of other faiths. It must be different in some ways because of the nature of society and how things have changed.’ The archbishop at the time, Dr Rowan Williams, was opposed, saying: ‘I am not a believer in multi-faith services..’”

Rabbanites vs. Karaites

In our last Update, we pointed out that the Karaites were celebrating Pentecost this year on the correct day (Sunday, May 19), while the Rabbanites (orthodox Judaism) observed it on wrong dates (Tuesday, May 14 and/or Wednesday, May 15). The article below shows a major controversy between the Rabbanites and the Karaites. It must be said that in quite a few cases, both parties are wrong, but the Karaites are correct on the issue as to when to observe Pentecost. They say it must be celebrated, in counting fifty days from that Sunday which falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread, following the weekly Sabbath. This is clearly correct, as Leviticus 23:15-16 commands to count “fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.” This means, obviously, fifty days after the Sunday following the seventh weekly Sabbath. Pentecost therefore must be kept on a Sunday. The Rabbanites kept it this year on a Tuesday (May 14) or a Wednesday (May 15). By no stretch of the imagination can it be said that Tuesday or Wednesday is a day after the seventh SABBATH.

The Economist wrote on May 18:

“When is a Jew not a Jew? When he’s a Karaite. Or so says Israel’s chief rabbinate, which, after 65 years of relative harmony with an ancient Jewish sect, is reopening an old and bitter schism. In recent months, rabbis working for Israel’s ministry of religion have deemed Karaite marriages invalid, fined their butchers for claiming to be kosher, and demanded that Karaites marrying Orthodox Jewish women should convert, sometimes having to undergo tavila, or baptism…

“For over 1,300 years Karaites have battled with Rabbanites (adherents to mainstream Judaism) over their rejection of the Talmud, the corpus of an oral tradition that Rabbanites claim God gave Moses with the written Torah on Mount Sinai. Clinging to the biblical word alone, Karaites regard skullcaps, phylacteries (little leather boxes containing Torah scrolls), matrilineal descent and non-biblical festivals, such as the Festival of Lights, as pagan accretions. Like Muslims or—as they prefer to say—like Temple-era Jews, they prostrate barefoot on carpets…

“Once almost as numerous as Rabbanites, today’s Karaites make up less than 1% of Israel’s 6m Jews. Persecution has whittled their number down. The greatest classical Jewish theologian, Moses Maimonides, denounced them as minim, or heretics, and banned them from public prayer; others termed their children bastards, since their parents married in weddings which diverged from the Orthodox rite. The rabbinate recently slapped a fine of 1,000 shekels ($280) on a Karaite butcher for calling his meat kosher. The chief rabbinate, Israel’s state religious authority, reluctantly began legitimising their marriages again after a recent order by Israel’s Supreme Court, but it continues to argue that since Karaite rites are not Jewish, Karaites have lesser Jewish rights, too. ‘Israel is a Jewish state and Jews have superior rights,’ says the chief rabbinate’s spokesman. ‘But the Karaites are not Jewish.’

“Karaites… have… stopped lighting candles on Friday nights, in line with a biblical injunction against burning flames on the Sabbath…”

Of course, the Bible nowhere prohibits to light a candle on the Sabbath. Since both parties are wrong in so many instances, the confusion as to what the Old Testament really teaches is enormous, and they are no lights shining in the darkness.

Darwin Doubted His Own Theory of Evolution

The Examiner wrote on May 16:

“Charles Darwin’s ‘tree of life,’ which shows how species are purportedly related through evolutionary history, is wrong and needs to be replaced… Modern scientists and geneticists are now saying that representing evolutionary history as a tree is misleading… ‘The tree of life is being politely buried,’ said Michael Rose, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Irvine. ‘What’s less accepted is that our whole fundamental view of biology needs to change.’

“It is interesting to note, too, that Darwin, evolution’s best-known advocate, when advancing his theory of evolution, had his own doubts about mankind’s origin and indicated an awareness of his theory’s limitations.

“In his conclusion to The Origin of Species, he wrote of the grandeur of the ‘view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one,’ thus making it evident that the subject of origins was open to further examination. And Darwin conceded in Chapter 9 of his book that ‘the distinctness of specific [living] forms and their not being blended together by innumerable transitional links, is a very obvious difficulty.’”

But even those scientists who doubt Darwin’s explanation of evolution do not doubt the concept of evolution. They are still as atheistic or antagonistic towards God, if not more, as Darwin was.

Russia’s True Goals in Syria

The Wall Street wrote on May 16:

“Russia has sent a dozen or more warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Syria, a buildup that U.S. and European officials see as a newly aggressive stance meant partly to warn the West and Israel not to intervene in Syria’s bloody civil war… Russia supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the U.S. has called for his removal…

“Hezbollah and its chief sponsor, Iran, also have rallied around Mr. Assad, sharing Russia’s interest in keeping the regime in place. Recent Israeli airstrikes inside Syria have targeted missiles believed to be bound from Tehran to Hezbollah… Russia has strongly protested previous Israeli strikes in Syria.

“Amid the strategic turmoil, U.S. and European defense officials say Russia appears to be trying to project power to deter outside intervention in Syria, which it sees as its foothold in the Middle East. U.S. and European officials believe Mr. Putin wants to prevent the West from contemplating a Libya-style military operation inside Syria…”

The Times of Israel added on May 18:

“On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would proceed with its planned delivery of the highly sophisticated S-300 air-defense system to Syria, despite pleas from Israel not to do so and a reported warning by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the delivery could lead to war. According to a report published in the New York Times Thursday, Russia has also sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to bolster Assad’s forces… An Israeli source told Channel 2 on Friday night that Israel had ‘made clear’ that it would not allow advanced weaponry to be transferred from Syria to Hezbollah.”

France Wants to Intervene Militarily Around the Globe

Defense News wrote on May 17:

“In a wide-ranging speech during a visit here, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian,… emphasize[d] three priorities: defending the French ‘homeland,’ maintaining a nuclear deterrent and ensuring France can intervene militarily around the globe… 

“He also plugged the strategy’s call for greater emphasis on cyber capabilities and special operations forces, as well as urging ample investments in intelligence and power-projection forces. The latter, he said, is needed so France can repeat its recent mission in Mali, where it sent combat forces to fight al-Qaida-affiliated elements in the northern part of that country…

“Le Drian said France will maintain a force in Africa in case it has to return to Mali, but also to intervene ‘in neighboring countries … to intervene in any terrorist activity.’”

“Europe Can Survive Without Britain”

The Telegraph wrote on May 16:

“François Hollande launched a three-pronged attack on Britain saying that Europe would survive without the UK, while claiming David Cameron risked splintering the EU and that his austerity policies were failing… Mr Hollande told 400 journalists gathered at the Elysée Palace: ‘Europe existed before Britain joined it.’

“France, Germany and four other nations were long part of the European Economic Community before Britain joined fully in 1973… There were overtones of Charles de Gaulle in his warning that Britain would not slow down European construction. De Gaulle twice vetoed Britain’s entry to the EEC, claiming its ‘deep-seated hostility’ towards European construction would result in the break-up of the community…

“Mr Hollande promised to lead the bloc towards ‘political union’ within two years – implying treaty change.  ‘Germany has several times said it is ready for political union, for a new phase in integration. Well France is ready to give body to this political union and gives itself two years to do so … It is a question of European urgency. If Europe does not advance it will fall or even be wiped out from the world map … My duty is to bring Europe out of its lethargy.’”

The EUObserver wrote on May 16:

“Hollande has called for the creation of a eurozone government as a solution to the wide-spread recession that threatens ‘the very identity’ of Europe.’”

“Economists Warn Against German Euro Exit”

The Local wrote on May 18:

“While a third of Germans would rather pay with the old Deutsche mark than the euro, economists warn that a German exit from the currency union would result in a disaster. ‘A German exit would be an economic and political catastrophe of the first degree,’ warned Holger Schmieding, the chief economist of the Berenberg Bank. ‘Even a believable rumour that Germany would exit the euro would result in a massive capital flight from the countries of southern Europe to Germany.’…

“A Prognos study showed that the German economy would grow by 0.5 percent less annually if it used its own currency. That would cost the country 200,000 jobs. On the other hand if you add up the expected growth advantages of euro membership between 2013 and 2025 there would be a profit of nearly €1.2 trillion – or about half Germany’s gross domestic product in a year.

“Thomas Straubhaar of the Hamburg HWWI economic institute thinks a return to the D-mark would be ‘a worst possible scenario.’… Actually during the D-mark years money in Germany was not better off than it is today. The 1990s saw average inflation increases of 2.2 percent. In the 1980s the rate was 2.8 percent. Germany’s inflation rate has dropped to a yearly average of 2.0 percent ever since the European Central Bank took over following monetary union in 2002.”

While Britain, in all likelihood, will exit Europe, Germany will not—and neither will it abandon the euro.

US Government and Appeals Court Deny Christian Homeschoolers Asylum

The Local wrote on May 16:

“An American appeals court has denied a fundamentalist Christian family from Germany the right to asylum in the US. The family claimed they were being persecuted for not being allowed to homeschool their children.

“In its Tuesday ruling, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, said there was a difference between the persecution of a group and prosecution of violators of a law that is applied across the board – in this case, Germany’s rule on mandatory schooling…

“An immigration judge in the state of Tennessee initially ruled in 2010 that parents Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, and their five children, were free to remain in the United States, where they had been living for the past five years. But the US government successfully appealed the decision two years later, and on Tuesday the Cincinnati court upheld that ruling.

“The Romeikes, originally from Baden-Württemberg, said they decided to homeschool their children because public schools were teaching children to adopt an ‘anti-Christian worldview,’ AP said. The German school curriculum was ‘more about vampires and witches than it is about God,’ Uwe Romeike was quoted as saying. Those who do not comply with Germany’s compulsory school rules face fines and jail time. By the time the Romeikes left for the United States in 2008, they owed the German government €7,000.

“The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the Romeikes in court, said Germany’s policy on homeschooling is tantamount to persecution, and called Tuesday’s ruling ‘inexplicable’. ‘We believe the Sixth Circuit is wrong and we will appeal their decision. America has room for this family and we will do everything we can to help them,’ HSLDA founder Michael Farris said in a statement on the organisation’s website.”

The decision of the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court sounds rather odd and unintelligible, and reminds us painfully, in principle, of the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany and America’s refusal to grant them asylum.

Why Do Many Jews Observe Pentecost on the Wrong Day?

This year, Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) is to be observed, according to the Bible, on Sunday, May 19, 2013. But many Jews observe this Festival on May 14 (if living in Israel) and/or on May 15 (if living outside the state of Israel). Why is this?

In our free booklet, “The Meaning of God’s Spring Holy Days,” we write the following:

“…the Church of God determines the correct date for Pentecost by counting 50 days from the Sunday [after the weekly Sabbath], which falls within the annual Holy Days of Unleavened Bread, as instructed in the Bible (Leviticus 23:11).

“The wave sheaf was offered on the Sunday during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The wave sheaf pictures Jesus Christ, who ascended to heaven on a Sunday, even though He was resurrected on Saturday evening, just around sunset. Exactly 50 days later, He poured out the Holy Spirit from God the Father on His New Testament Church. This was the Day of Pentecost.

“In other words, we are not to count 50 days from the weekly Sabbath that falls within the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, but from the SUNDAY on which the wave sheaf was offered—and it is that SUNDAY, that must fall within the seven Days of Unleavened Bread (compare Leviticus 23:14–15; Joshua 5:11).”

The following article from the website of karaite-korner.org/shavuot.shtml gives interesting information as to why many Jews are confused today on the issue:

“Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost) is the Biblical harvest-festival celebrated 50 days after the Sunday which falls out during Passover. These fifty days are called the Counting of the Omer. The Rabbis incorrectly celebrate Shavuoth on the 6th of Sivan… In late Second Temple times a debate arose between the Boethusians and the Pharisees about whether the ‘morrow after the Sabbath’ [Heb. Mimohorat Ha-Shabbat] refers to the Sunday during Hag HaMatzot [Feast of Unleavened Bread] or the second day of Hag HaMatzot (i.e. the 16th of Nissan). Like the Boethusians and Ancient Israelites before them [including the Sadducees], the Karaites [a movement within Judaism] count the 50 days of the Omer from the Sunday during Hag HaMatzot and consequentially always celebrate Shavuot on a Sunday.

“The Rabbanites claim that in the phrase ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ the ‘Sabbath’ referred to is the first day of Hag HaMatzot. In the Rabbanite reckoning the 50th day of the Omer (=Shavuot) would NOT be on ‘the morrow after the seventh Sabbath’ as commanded in Lev 23,16. Instead it would be on the morrow after the 7th Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday or whatever day it happened to fall out after… The only way for the 49th day of the Omer to be a Sabbath, thereby making the 50th day ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ as commanded in Lev 23,16, is if the 1st day of the Omer is on a Sunday.”

It will need to be said that most Jews not only observe Passover on the wrong day (they observe it one day too late, erroneously claiming that the Passover lamb was sacrificed at the end of the 14th day of Nisan, while it was actually sacrificed at the beginning of the 14th day of Nisan, “between the two evenings” of sunset and nightfall), but they also observe Pentecost on the wrong day(s) as well.

The Benghazi Affair—A Cover Up?

Newsmax reported on May 10:

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tells Newsmax that the Obama administration is guilty of disseminating ‘deliberate misinformation’ regarding the Benghazi attack and continues to ‘stonewall’ efforts to uncover the facts behind the tragedy. The 2008 Republican presidential candidate also reiterates his earlier prediction that the Benghazi affair could lead to President Barack Obama’s impeachment… ‘even members of the mainstream press who have done everything possible to ignore this story are having to pay attention, because as new information comes out and as the hearings really validated this week, there was deliberate misinformation that was given out by the White House and by the State Department as to what happened that night…’”

NBC News reported on May 12:

“House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman… Darrell Issa,  who heads a panel probing the assault on the diplomatic outpost that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, said [that the] interagency process of modifying talking points in the wake of the attack scrubbed the fact that the incident was ‘a terrorist attack from the get-go… The American people were effectively lied to for a period of about a month,’ he charged…”

World Net Daily added on May 12:

“House Republicans allege the U.S. government knew of a terrorist threat but ignored it. After the attack, critics charge, the administration blamed the deaths on reaction to an obscure anti-Muslim video, despite evidence from the beginning that it was a premeditated terrorist attack. Locked in a tight presidential race, a deliberate assault on American assets and the murder of Americans by al-Qaida on a date as significant as 9/11 would have damaged Obama’s campaign claim that his administration had al-Qaida under control.”

The Washington Times added on May 12:

“Sen. John McCain said the Obama administration is lying when it denies it scrubbed the official talking points regarding last year’s Benghazi assault. ‘I’d call it a cover-up,’ Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, said Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ ‘I would call it a cover-up to the extent that it was willful removal of information, which was obvious.’”

Fox News reported on May 13, 2013:

“President Obama delivered a defiant defense Monday of his administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack, calling the revived controversy over the matter a ‘sideshow’… [He] denied any suggestion that there was a cover-up, questioning recent reports that showed a State Department official trying to water down the administration’s initial story-line on what happened the night of Sept. 11…

“Despite claims that the White House and State Department were not heavily involved in editing the intelligence community’s narrative, emails show State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland pushed to remove references to Al Qaeda and to the intelligence community’s prior warnings about security in the region. Based on those talking points, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice went on five Sunday shows to claim the attack was prompted by a protest over an anti-Islam film.

“Further, three State Department whistle-blowers testified last week, with one claiming he was shocked and ‘embarrassed’ to hear Rice’s comments since he knew it was a terror attack all along.”

On May 14, The Washington Post gave President Obama four Pinocchios for his claim Monday, allegedly stating from the outset that Benghazi was an “act of terrorism.” The article stated:

“Notably, during a debate with Republican nominee Mitt Romney, President Obama said that he immediately told the American people that the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya ‘was an act of terror.’ But now he says he called it ‘an act of terrorism.’… Whatever the reason, when given repeated opportunities to forthrightly declare this was an ‘act of terrorism,’ the president ducked the question… In fact, as far as we can tell from combing through databases, Monday was the first time the president himself referred to Benghazi as an ‘act of terrorism.’”

This entire affair is becoming more and more a huge problem with perceptions of veracity and truthfulness. Trust of many US citizens in their government is almost totally gone, and the President’s unconvincing and contradictory “explanations” regarding the mishandling of Benghazi did not help to restore trust. Combine this with the incredible IRS mess, the Justice Department’s conduct towards The Associated Press, and the Obamacare debacle, as reported below, and America’s failure to send a clear message to Syria, and you can see why this nation is in such terrible shape, and why it is felt by many commentators that the President and his Administration are becoming more and more a “lame duck” for the remainder of the second term. During a time when we would need to see American leadership domestically and in the world, we are seeing a country being dragged down and paralyzed by its own, self-made problems.

Jewish Groups Targeted by IRS in Addition to Political Groups?

National Review wrote on May 11:

“Along with targeting tea-party groups, the IRS may also have given extra-special attention to the tax-exempt status of some Jewish groups for political reasons.”

Quoting from the Jewish Press, the article continued:

“The passionately pro-Israel organization Z STREET filed a lawsuit against the IRS, claiming it had been told by an IRS agent that because the organization was ‘connected to Israel,’ its application for tax-exempt status would receive additional scrutiny.  This admission was made in response to a query about the lengthy review of Z STREET’s tax exempt status application. In addition, the IRS agent told a Z STREET representative that the applications of some of those Israel-related organizations have been assigned to ‘a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.’ . . .

“And at least one purely religious Jewish organization, one not focused on Israel, was the recipient of bizarre and highly inappropriate questions about Israel.  Those questions also came from the same non-profit division of the IRS at issue for inappropriately targeting politically conservative groups. The IRS required that Jewish organization… state ‘whether [it] supports the existence of the land of Israel,’ and also demanded the organization ‘[d]escribe [its] religious belief system toward the land of Israel.’”

Did the IRS Go After Billy Graham?

Politico wrote on May 14:

“The IRS came after Billy Graham, too, his son charged Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama. Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a ‘review’ of their activities for tax year 2010… With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of ‘targeting and attempting to intimidate us.’

“The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association urging of voters to back ‘candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel’ during last year’s presidential race was the reason why IRS agents visited the North Carolina offices of both Graham groups, the letter accuses. ‘While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,’ Graham wrote in the letter… ‘I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it “un-American.”’ Graham said that ‘in light’ of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, ‘I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.’…

“Graham, who last week attended a White House meeting for religious leaders to discuss gun control, said the IRS story threatens to engulf all manner of non-profit organizations. ‘Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,’ Graham wrote. ‘We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?’

“The IRS review, which Graham wrote involved an IRS agent visiting the two agencies last October, followed the Billy Graham ministry publishing newspaper ads in North Carolina backing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment passed in May.”

High-Ranking IRS Officials Knew

The Associated Press reported on May 14:

“Congress was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, even after acting agency Chief Steven Miller had been briefed on the matter. Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny, the IRS said Monday. Also… IRS officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed.

“The Post reported that IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups. At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny — despite being asked about it…”

Did the President Know?

Newsmax wrote on May 14:

“Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington’s most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency’s campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials.  And she thinks the president knew about the practice, too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense… Mitchell said she doesn’t believe the president or the White House was uninvolved in the IRS activities, as the administration has claimed. ‘I’ve thought for some time that this is politically motivated and that’s the reason it was happening. And, as I said, I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this until 2009, 2010… We know the White House used the Department of Health and Human Services to try to silence critics about Obamacare. So if we know they used HHS, why wouldn’t they also use the IRS or other federal agencies to try to silence political critics?’…

“Mitchell said the IRS practices are in violation of federal law. She said it’s ‘a criminal offense to misuse information submitted by a taxpayer or an entity, anybody who submits anything to the IRS. The IRS agents are limited in what they can do with it, the scope of what they can say and do with it. So, clearly, the federal law has been broken.’

“Asked whether it would be an impeachable offense if it emerged that the president or his officials were behind the IRS’ practices, Mitchell said, ‘Well, it certainly was for Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week.’ She added, ‘Isn’t that ironic? The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week on May 18, and one of those was misuse of the IRS to go after political enemies.’”

These developments are indeed reasons of great concern. Due to mounting pressure, CNN reported on May 16 that “President Barack Obama named Danny Werfel, an official in his budget office, as the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Thursday. Obama demanded the previous acting commissioner resign Wednesday after revelations the tax agency was applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups asking the government for tax exempt status.” At the same time, President Obama “rejected calls for a special counsel to investigate [the] Internal Revenue Service.”

The Unrecognized Curse of Obamacare

National Review wrote on May 10:

“Democratic senator Max Baucus is retiring because he is ‘fed up’ with the Affordable Care Act, according to his Republican colleague Chuck Grassley. Speaking at Friday night’s Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa, Grassley told the audience the Montana senator is leaving office ‘because he’s so fed up with the possibility of the implementation of Obamacare being a train wreck.’ Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, played a key role in writing the 2010 law.

“Grassley said that dissatisfaction with the health-care bill exists across party lines, describing a ‘bipartisan coalition in Washington’ that considers the implementation of the law a disaster.”

In this context, we are quoting here excerpts from a revealing article which was already published in early April of 2013. Forbes wrote on April 7:

“The biggest political problem faced by so-called ‘liberals’ and so-called ‘progressives’ in President Obama’s second term is how to prevent voters from holding them politically responsible as the public comes to realize how badly they were lied to during the first Obama term to win passage of Obamacare. Most supporters of Obamacare embraced it because of a principled belief that everyone should have access to essential healthcare. But even the establishment, still Democrat dominated, CBO admits that after 10 years of implementation, Obamacare will still leave 30 million uninsured…  that is a woeful underestimate…

“Just wait until the broad realization dawns that the harsh reality of Obamacare is that tens of millions will lose their employer provided insurance because of the perverse incentives under the program. Even the establishment CBO admits that at least 7 million, and as many as 20 million, will lose their employer coverage…

“The Obamacare employer mandate requires all employers of 50 or more full time workers to purchase the expensive insurance… Moreover, workers who do not receive employer provided coverage are eligible to purchase their health insurance on the state Exchanges with extensive taxpayer subsidies to help cover the cost. Indeed, in the Exchanges, low and moderate income workers can even get subsidies covering their out-of-pocket expenses. Employers can terminate their employee coverage, give their workers a raise with part of the savings, and let the taxpayers bear the cost of subsidizing their coverage in the Exchanges…

“Obama campaigned in 2008 on a promise that Obamacare would reduce the cost of health insurance by $2,500 for average families. But since Obamacare passed, the cost of an average family policy has already increased by $3,000.

“… individuals… could just skip the insurance and pay the penalty at a savings of at least 50% to 75% or more… So millions, including myself, will pursue this strategy next year to avert the costs of Obamacare, which will mean millions more uninsured. And that will mean more costly, sicker and older folks left covered in the insurance pool, which will cause premiums to soar further, which will cause still more individuals and employers to drop coverage, which means still more uninsured, and the chaos of a financial death spiral for private insurers…

“All of this health insurance cost chaos will just further feed the labor market chaos that is already starting as the darkening cloud of Obamacare approaches. Already employers are replacing full time employment with part time employment paying lower wages and no benefits. Already small businesses with less than 50 employees are freezing hiring, and those with just above 50 workers have begun layoffs. Moreover, under the Obamacare law, the employer mandate does not require employers to cover the family dependents of their workers. So the trend towards losing that coverage is already beginning as well…

“Obamacare is going to be causing chaos for seniors as well… almost half of Obamacare is paid for over the next decade by draining $716 billion out of Medicare… That leaves Medicare growing at only about half the rate of health care in the rest of the country…”

Gullible and uninformed people have failed to recognize that Obamacare is just one of the many avenues and inventions through which this country is nearing its prophesied downfall. God is withdrawing His blessings from this nation because of our many sins and our self-righteous attitudes and our unwillingness to repent. Rather, we proclaim with pride our liberal concepts and transgressions, following the example of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. Please also note the next article.

Gingrich: “Almost Madness” to Entrust the IRS with Obamacare Fines

Newsmax reported on May 13:

“The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups raises serious questions about how it plans to handle the taxes and penalties associated with Obamacare, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says… Gingrich raised the issue because the IRS will be responsible for administering the mandate on health insurance by tracking taxes and fees associated with the law and levying penalties on Americans who don’t purchase coverage…

“The former speaker, who ran for president last year, insisted it would be ‘almost madness’ to put the responsibility for enforcing the requirements of Obamacare under the IRS, given the circumstances now… Gingrich said that one of the most disturbing aspects of the IRS scandal is that agency heads apparently knew about the targeting of conservative groups in 2011 and lied about it during testimony to Congress in March 2012…

“Gingrich also sought to compare the IRS scandal with developments in recent days concerning changes that were made in administration talking points about the terrorist attack in September 2012 on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. ‘The parallel between Benghazi and the IRS story is amazing,’ he said. ‘Lying, then lying about lying, and then hiding from the fact that they’re lying. Then seeking to apologize for the lies they claim they didn’t tell.’”

The Latest Scandal—AP Spied On By Justice Department

Newsmax reported on May 14:

“Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called the scandal involving the Department of Justice securing telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors a ‘nuclear event.’ ‘This is outrageous,’ Bernstein said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’ ‘It is totally inexcusable. This administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning. The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters,’ he said. ‘This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event, and now it’s happened.’

“The AP reported late Monday afternoon that the ‘Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press.’ The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggest they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the CIA’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner, The New York Times reported.

“The development represents the latest collision of news organizations and federal investigators over government efforts to prevent the disclosure of national security information, and it comes against a backdrop of an aggressive policy by the Obama administration to rein in leaks, according to The New York Times. Under President Barack Obama, six current and former government officials have been indicted in leak-related cases, twice the number brought under all previous administrations combined. ‘The numerical thing doesn’t matter,’ said Bernstein, a former Washington Post reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. ‘What matters is, this is a matter of policy. It is known to the president of the United States that this is the policy. To say that there was no knowledge, in quotes, specifically about this in the White House is nonsense.’…

“That the Justice Department sought records of phone calls made over congressional phone lines could also raise a separation of powers issue between the administration and legislative branches of government…”

President Obama “Being Drunk on Power”?

Infowars.com (as linked by The Drudge Report) wrote on May 14:

“[Kentucky] Senator Rand Paul responded to the barrage of scandals to hit the Obama administration, from Benghazi, to the IRS targeting conservatives, to the Justice Department spying on Associated Press reporters, by accusing President Obama of being ‘drunk on power’… Paul said the President was ‘using the power of his government to investigate his enemies, he’s tapping the phones of the press, and it turns out last year he signed legislation that allows him to detain an American without a trial and send them to Guantanamo Bay…

“With the White House already reeling from its complicity in the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS controversy, it emerged last night that the so-called ‘most transparent administration’ in history had, via the US Department of Justice, ‘secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.’…

“After the Justice Department responded by claiming it valued ‘the freedom of the press’ and was ‘always careful and deliberative’ in its actions, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa reacted by remarking, ‘This is obviously disturbing. Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone…’”

Obama’s Fight With the Press

Fox News reported on May 14:

“Brushfire season has come early to Washington. The Obama administration had been trying to stamp out persistent complaints over Benghazi. On Friday, a second fire broke out as we found the IRS lied and deliberately targeted conservative groups for special investigation… Then, a third blaze caught everyone – especially the media – off guard. The poorly named Justice Department ‘used a secret subpoena to obtain two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors without notifying the news organization’… such ‘subpoenas of records from news organizations must be approved personally by the attorney general.’ In other words, this attack on press freedom goes all the way to Eric Holder…

“The Obama administration has been at war with the media since before it was elected the first time… The administration went after Fox News, Drudge, Tea Party inspiration Rick Santelli and even liberal CNBC host Jim Cramer… The federal government locked out the press from the disastrous BP oil spill – so much so that CBS, Associated Press, Mother Jones and The Times-Picayune all complained… The press can no longer say the Obama scandals are a case of smoke but no fire because they are getting burned, too… If Obama can’t contain it, the fires will merge into one mighty conflagration – and light up just how awful his administration has been to the press and opponents.”

Did the White House Know?

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 15:

“The US Department of Justice secretly seized two months of telephone records from the Associated Press (AP) in 2012. This comes amid a crackdown by the Obama administration on whistleblowers and leaks. AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt has accused the Justice Department of infringing on the freedom of the press, after the department revealed that it had seized records from more than 20 separate AP phone lines… Pruitt said the Justice Department informed the AP of the seizures in a letter received on Friday. But the notification came after the subpoena had already been issued and the phone records seized. That means the AP had no chance to challenge the Justice Department’s move.

“‘To be secretly seizing two months of phone records for reporters and editors at the AP is a[s] just a serious interference with First Amendment, freedom of the press, and constitutional rights that are enshrined in our constitution,’ Jesselyn Radack, the national security and human rights director at the Government Accountability Project, told DW…

“The Obama administration, for its part, has denied that it had any prior knowledge that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed AP phone records… But Radack said it’s hard to believe that the White House had no prior knowledge of the case. She represented Thomas Drake, a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who was accused of leaking classified information to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. While the Justice Department does in theory operate independently, Radack said that President Obama knew about the details of the Drake case. At the very least, the attorney general had to sign off on the subpoena of AP phone records, she said. ‘If Obama did not know, then he should fire Eric Holder as attorney general and the Justice Department should destroy all the materials that it collected from the AP,’ Radack said…”

The Washington Times reported on May 15 that “Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday described the leak about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen to The Associated Press as a ‘very, very serious’ matter that ‘put the American people at risk,’ but he did not remember when he recused himself from the investigation into it, did not put his recusal in writing and never told the White House.” President Obama subsequently expressed his confidence in Mr. Holder and stated in vague terms that America’s security must be protected, while conceding that the freedom of the press must not be violated.  This position on the matter will not satisfy either side.

Iran to Chair U.N. Arms Control Forum

The Washington Free Beacon wrote on May 13:

“Iran will preside over the United Nations arms control forum this month, despite the fact that it is under U.N. sanctions for illicit nuclear activities and routinely supplies arms to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in violation of international law. The U.N.’s annual Conference on Disarmament, which Iran is slated to lead from May 27 to June 23, is the organization’s primary multilateral forum for negotiating arms control agreements. The forum has given way to major international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation, prohibitions on chemical weapons, and bans on nuclear tests.

“UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group, blasted the decision to allow Iran to chair the conference. ‘This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,’ said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer in a statement. ‘Iran is an international outlaw state that illegally supplies rockets to Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, aiding and abetting mass murder and terrorism. To make this rogue regime head of world arms control is simply an outrage. Abusers of international norms should not be the public face of the U.N.’…

“Neuer called on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and EU High Commissioner Catherine Ashton to ‘make clear that when the United Nations imposes four rounds of sanctions on Iran for illicit nuclear activities, condemns it for illegally arming the murderous Syrian regime, and denounces Tehran’s massive abuse of human rights, this kind of appointment just defies common sense and harms the U.N.’s credibility.’

“U.N. officials say Iran is simply the next country in rotation for the conference chair slot, according to UN Watch. The U.N. Secretary-General’s office and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

“Iran has not halted its nuclear weapons efforts despite international sanctions and condemnation. The country is a top benefactor of the Syrian regime, which is suspected of using chemical weapons against rebel forces. Iran also supplies rockets and other arms to its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah.

“The United Nations has previously hosted the Holocaust-denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at its World Conference Against Racism, where he has equated Zionism with racism and claimed Israel exploits the Holocaust to persecute Palestinians…”

Is there no limit to the UN’s foolishness?

“Hypocrisy over Israel”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote on May 13:

“It didn’t take long after news that Israel had bombed military facilities inside Syria for the Arab League to demand that the U.N. Security Council ‘act immediately to end Israeli attacks on Syria’ over what the League called a ‘dangerous violation of an Arab state’s sovereignty.’ By contrast, the group – still made up mostly of dictators – hasn’t found time in its presumably busy schedule to say anything about the massacres in Syria of 77 mostly civilians, including scores of women and children in the coastal city of Banyas and scores more in al-Bayda, which sent thousands of people fleeing in the last few days, adding to the millions displaced by the civil war and the tens of thousands already killed…

“Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rightly raised the alarm, saying Assad has launched ‘Plan B,’ a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’… This, of course, garnered little interest from other Arab regimes, occupied with accusing Israel of violating Syria’s ‘sovereignty.’…”

Israel will never receive approval from Arab nations for any actions directed against any Arab country.

Israel Unhappy with Germany

The Times of Israel wrote on May 14:

“Israeli officials are reportedly raising hackles with Germany over the fact that the two countries are competing for a spot on the United Nations Security Council. The fact that Berlin is throwing its hat in the ring complicates Jerusalem’s chances of ascending to the two-year non-permanent rotation on the council for the first time. Although Israel has been planning its opportunity to get the seat for several years, Germany only just recently announced its candidacy, which means that three countries — Belgium, Israel, and Germany — are competing for two possible slots.

“Germany ended a two-year stint as a non-veto-wielding member of the panel in December. Channel 2 news, citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Jerusalem was ‘critical’ and ‘upset’ by Germany’s decision… An unnamed Israeli source was quoted by the channel saying Germany, of all countries, shouldn’t try to deny Israel a spot…

“Candidacy to the body requires approval from two-thirds of the UN General Assembly, or 128 countries. Israel, which has repeatedly faced censure from the international body, would have to wage an uphill battle to garner enough support. In 2010, Canada lost a bid for one of the seats, which some blamed on Ottawa’s friendly stance toward Israel, among other things. Germany ultimately won that seat, gaining its fifth term on the panel.

“Germany is also seeking a permanent seat on the council, along with India, Brazil and Japan. Five countries are currently permanent members: the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain.”

Syria—Time for the West to Act

Der Spiegel Online wrote on May 13:

“Turkish officials announced Sunday that nine people had been arrested in connection with a double car bombing in Reyhanli, a town near the Syrian border. The attack, which killed at least 46 and injured 100, has increased fears that the conflict in Syria is spreading into neighboring countries… Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that those allegedly responsible for the attacks — all of them Turkish citizens — belong to an ‘old Marxist terrorist organization’ with ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s administration…

“On Monday, German commentators decried the bombing, as well as the failure of the West to take a unified position on the worsening situation in Syria… Left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘… the attack is primarily a consequence of the shameful inability of the international community to pacify the Syrian drama…’ Leftist daily Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘The bombing attacks also show that no scruples remain in the war over Syria. It is possible that those who have been arrested and presented by the government actually are guilty. But it’s just as possible that Islamist opposition fighters laid the bombs.’”

EU’s Response to Hezbollah Falls Short

The Jerusalem Post wrote on May 12:

“The EU plans to endorse the UK’s model of proscribing Hezbollah’s military wing as a terror entity while permitting the Shi’ite Lebanese group’s political arm to operate as a legal organization, sources well-versed in the inner workings of EU discussions on the matter told The Jerusalem Post last week. British Labor MP Michael McCann, however, said in a House of Commons debate last week that this falls short of the necessary punitive response to Hezbollah and its chief sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“‘And they retain a clear and present military danger to millions of Israeli men, women and children, with tens of thousands of missiles pointed at major population centers,’ McCann told Parliament in a debate on Thursday. ‘Missiles which could be launched with one word from their venal, anti-Semitic paymasters in Tehran…’

“Dividing Hezbollah into military and political wings prompted McCann… to vehemently oppose the partial listing. The MP… called on the British government to proscribe the ‘whole of Hezbollah’ as a terrorist organization.”

It is doubtful that Europe will prohibit Hezbollah in their entirety. This would mean that they can continue, through their “political wing,” to launch or finance terror attacks without hindrance from Europe.

Iron Lady Wins Charlemagne Prize

The EUObserver wrote on May 10:

“Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Thursday (9 May) was awarded the Charlemagne Prize for her ‘oustanding’ merits in European politics, just as her country prepares to take over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July. Coinciding with Europe Day, the award ceremony took place in the German city of Aachen and was dubbed the ‘EU Oscar’ by Lithuanian media. It was attended by top EU officials such as council chief Herman Van Rompuy and European Parliament chief Martin Schulz, as well as German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who won the prize last year.

“Grybauskaite, 57 years old, is a former EU budget commissioner and minister of finance in her country before being elected the first female president of Lithuania, in 2009. She has a black belt in judo and has been nicknamed the ‘Iron lady’ for her tough negotiating style and the harsh austerity measures her government imposed to get Lithuania out of the economic crisis, without external assistance…

“Often compared to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also won the Charlemagne Prize in 2008, Grybauskaite praised Germany for its leadership on European level. ‘Today Germany plays the leading role in ensuring European stability and does not allow us to wander from the path of trust in Europe. That is why it is Germany which gets the strongest criticism – and also our deepest respect,’ she said.”

The news agency published the following astute comments to the article from one of their readers:

“The Charlemagne Prize; that sounds familiar. Oh yes, I know, what is being referred to here is the Aachen Charlemagne Prize, not just that ‘the award ceremony took place in the German city of Aachen’ – no, no. It is called the Aachen Charlemagne Prize to be absolutely correct… Who was Charlemagne? Called the ‘Father of Europe’ Charlemagne’s empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. He was protector of the papacy, put Saxon pagans to death (for not converting to RC) and was crowned as ‘Emperor’ by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800AD. He issued a pan-European coinage and monetary systems… He was laid to rest in his capital which was today’s Aachen in Germany.”

Brazil’s Deutschland-Year

Deutsche Welle reported on May 14:

“Joachim Gauck is in Brazil seeking to strengthen trade ties with a key German partner; he and President Dilma Rousseff have officially opened a special Germany-themed year in Brazil. German President Joachim Gauck and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff started Brazil’s ‘Deutschland-Jahr’ year-long schedule that incorporates as many as 400 cultural, economic and scientific appointments in the coming months. Gauck and Rousseff appeared at the opening of a German-Brazilian trade conference in Sao Paolo late on Monday.

“The German president praised long-standing and stable bilateral trade ties. Gauck said that Volkswagen’s partnership with Brazil had proved so successful over the years that many in Brazil considered VW a ‘domestic legacy brand.’ He also lamented that too few Germans knew that author Thomas Mann should dedicate ‘his artistic streak to his mother who was born in Brazil.’

“Brazil is Germany’s seventh-largest trading partner by volume and is soon set to overtake Britain and France. Trade figures have roughly tripled in the past decade, hitting $21.5 billion (16.6 billion euros) in 2012. Gauck said further progress could be made, with ‘our shared values the foundation for this.’ He also issued a carefully-worded appeal to ‘continue to improve the conditions for free trade and exchange’ in Brazil, saying that Brazilian companies operating in the EU already profit from the bloc’s open trading policies.

“Rousseff referred to trade ties between the two countries as among the ‘most successful’ in the world… Prior to his trip to Brazil, Gauck visited Colombia.”

Germany—and Europe—are getting more and more involved in South American countries…

Don’t Eat Pork

The Jewish Daily Forward wrote on May 9:

“… pigs are remarkable. They are extremely intelligent… Physiologically they are also extraordinary; they convert carbohydrates into protein faster than any other mammal, often going from infant to ready-to-slaughter in about six months. They can even subsist on food scraps, making them nature’s composter… There is no clear answer for why we avoid swine, just a couple of lines in the Torah about split hooves and cud chewing that are further expounded upon in the Talmud and a whole slew of theories that span disciplines from social anthropology to medicine to theology.

“The question of why pigs are taboo isn’t relevant here. The prohibition is tied up in the complicated historical relationship between pigs and Jews and has helped define Jewish identity over the course of millennia. When Greeks invaded ancient Judea, they desecrated the holy altar by sacrificing the forbidden animal. Spanish inquisitors tested Catholic loyalty by forcing Jews to eat pork… the very term for crypto-Jews, Marranos, means pig. The list of historical associations and humiliations goes on and on, but it’s this context that helped make avoiding pork more than just a kosher rule and, instead, the kosher rule…

“I just think eating pork, if one chooses to do so while also identifying as a Jew, should be a transgressive act… Some Jews will continue to eat pork, as many have done throughout Jewish history… [but the] suggestion that we shed the guilt that comes with eating pork — the guilt that, whether we like it or not, is a critical component to the Jewish experience — would make for… a less meaningful Judaism.”

As Christians, we are spiritual Jews. The dietary laws are still in force and effect today. Many years after his conversion, Peter still refused to eat pork or any other unclean food. Even though the author in the article above does not understand the reason for the dietary laws, it is clear to us that these are health laws given by God for the benefit of mankind. But people—Christians, Jews and others—are confused on the issue, as the next article shows as well.

Don’t Eat Unclean Insects—Never Mind the U.N.

The Associated Press reported on May 13:

“The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilized food for people, livestock and pets.

“A 200-page report, released at a news conference at the U.N. agency’s Rome headquarters, says 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diets with insects, which are high in protein and minerals, and have environmental benefits. Insects are ‘extremely efficient’ in converting feed into edible meat, the agency said…

“The agency noted that its Edible Insect Program is also examining the potential of arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions, although they are not strictly speaking insects. University biologists have analyzed the nutritional value of edible insects, and some of them, such as certain beetles, ants, crickets and grasshoppers, come close to lean red meat or broiled fish in terms of protein per gram (ounce)… The report noted that some caterpillars in southern Africa and weaver ant eggs in Southeast Asia are considered delicacies and command high prices.”

Even though some grasshoppers and perhaps some crickets are considered clean and can be eaten, none of the other insects are. The consumption of spiders and scorpions are of course also forbidden by God. The U.N. is simply ignorant and wrong, and it is deceiving people.