Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Why President Obama's Concept of the Middle East will Fail: Just Listen to It
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsRubin Reports
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

To put it plainly, the press briefing supposed to indicate how President Barack Obama’s thinks about Israel on the eve of his trip here, is a combination of fantasy and insult. It is likely that the Obama Administration made such statements for show, to persuade the Arabic-speaking world on the even of Obama's trip that the United States is striving for peace, is not acting like a puppet (or should one say, ally? of Israel) and using its influence to change Israeli policy even as it does nothing of the sort.

As proof that Obama isn't going to do anything, he reportedly told Arab-American leaders before his trip that he wouldn't make some peace initiative because the government in Israel is not ready to make concessions and so there is no point in bringing pressure to bear at this time. I see that as a mixed statement. On one hand, he isn't going to pressure Israel because he knows that to be a waste of time. That's good.

Yet the premises on which this argument--as repeated in the public briefing of the media--is based can also be described as believing that what the Arab public really wants is progress toward peace with Israel and that the United States sees the ball as being in Israel's--not the Arabs--court.

The other premise is a strange hint that Washington has suddenly realized what Israel has understood since the beginning--that the "Arab Spring" isn't going well. Now it feels the need to explain to Israeli leaders what they have long known, and give bad advice on what to do about it.

To show how mainstream Israelis who follow these issues closely see these themes, let's quote how the Ynet reporter who covered the briefing--the respected and nonpartisan Yitzhak Benhorin--summarized what Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said. Here’s his lead:

“U.S. President Barack Obama will not be bringing a peace plan to Israel, but he will try to convince Prime Minister Benjamin and the Israeli public that after the Arab Spring, Israel cannot depend on autocrats holding everything together in the region..”

Here’s a president arriving at a moment when Israelis think the region is falling apart, with old autocrats being replaced by new ones and a more hostile environment, and the message is: You shouldn’t be complacent that everything is great?

Where does this come from? It is the American conception that the “Arab Spring” is a great thing, that old autocrats are falling and will be replaced by more democratic and moderate regimes. That is American; not Israeli thinking.

If that theme is based on fantasy, the second theme is insulting. Here is the second paragraph of Benhorin’s analysis:

“The U.S. believes that Israel must show it is serious about its peace efforts. It must convince the general Arab public, if nothing more than to maintain Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.”

These are Benhorin’s words, not Rhodes’ exact formulations. But I think Benhorin reads the message properly.

Let’s begin by discussing the idea that Israel must persuade the Arab public:

--The question should be posed as this: When will the Arab public, or Arab governments, show Israel they are serious about peace? In 2009 when Obama sought such assurances and demonstrations he was turned down flat. We know it and he should know it.

--How long a list do you want of the times Israel has shown the Arab public that it wants peace seriously?

--Do you think the Arab public cares or is going to be persuaded by any such behavior?

--Hundreds of Israelis died in the 1993-2000 period in the effort to show the Arab public Israel was serious about peace.

The idea that Israel needs to persuade its neighbors to accept its existence is a line we have heard almost daily since the 1980s or even 1970s. Yet curiously the Arab street pays no attention to the scores of such Israeli gestures and the West soon forgets each one. And indeed Obama has forgotten those that took place during his first term, for example the nine-month-long settlement construction freeze, just as before that were forgotten the Oslo agreement, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the 2000 Camp David offer (including the offer to redivide Jerusalem!) and many more. [See Footnote, below]

Guess what? If today Israel were to make a huge new concession, six months from now that would be forgotten in the West, which would also forget that there was no considerable Arab response. Israelis know this and so saying this kind of thing about Israel proving its decent intentions can only fall with a cynical thud. Such statements remind Israelis why they are NOT rushing to make new concessions or take new risks.

Note, too, that Western and European promises to give Israel a big reward if Israel takes a big risk or makes a big concession and the Arab side doesn't respond have also been repeatedly broken.

What Obama is in effect saying is “Mr. Netanyahu, tear down that [security, counterterrorist] wall.” When he should be saying to the other side: “Mr. Abbas, Mursi, et. al., tear down that wall of hatred against Israel!”

Of course, he won’t do so because that would make the Arab leaders and publics mad, not because they want Israel to move faster on peace or seek a better deal but because they don't want peace at all. And the Islamists coming into power have no intention of tearing down the wall. In fact, they are building it higher than ever. And there's nothing--absolutely nothing--Israel can do to change the course of events in that respect.

Moreover, in a context where the same point is not made loudly, clearly, and publicly to the Palestinian Authority, the idea that the burden is on Israel to prove its peace credentials is a veiled way of Obama saying--and signaling to his supporters--that Israel is responsible for the failure to achieve peace.

The very fact that Obama's visit is not about seeking to impose peace or even to press the issue. But why? The Obama Administration isn’t being honest about this. The reason is that the White House knows that such an effort will go nowhere. And it also not because of Netanyahu. After all, how well did six predecessors do in solving this problem? Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Tsipi Livni. Even if one can claim they all tried harder than Netanyahu why did they all fail?

While the ideas on the “peace process” show the problem with U.S. thinking on that issue, the idea on the direction being taken by the region shows the wider miasma of fantasy that surrounds U.S. policy.

This idea that Israel cannot depend on autocracies to maintain the status quo parallels Obama's view for U.S. policy: that to protect the region's stability, the United States must show its desire for good relations and the fulfillment of Arab and Muslim dreams by helping force out pro-American authoritarian regimes and to substitute for them (anti-American) Islamist authoritarian regimes.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is not 1980. Does Israel not understand that the region is already overwhelmingly ruled by autocracies hostile to itself? Here is the list: Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran, in particular. And one can add Tunisia and Turkey were elections do mean something.

What does Obama intend to convey by this idea? It seems as if he is saying: You better act now while the relatively friendly dictator Bashar al-Assad is running Syria before the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists take power! But that is absurd. How about: You better act now before we pass the window of opportunity of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood regime being eager for comprehensive peace with Israel? You better act fast before Hamas (which rules the Gaza Strip) and Hizballah (which rules Lebanon) change to a more hostile attitude?

What better time to make risky concessions than when the security situation is deteriorating and the new rulers of your neighbors are baying for your blood?

At any rate, the old autocrats are already gone for all practical purposes. The U.S. idea is an outdated one: Don't depend on being nice to Mubarak because one day he could be overthrown and there will come a pharoah who knows not Joseph. Thanks, but that's already happened and you helped bring about that problem.

Thus, Israel must prove that it is a nice guy to...the Muslim Brotherhood? The nonsense involved is clear when the concept is stated plainly.

In Jewish history this concept translates, for example, into saying that the Jews shouldn't put all their eggs in the basket of the Weimar Republic because it had just been overthrown by the Nazis, so the Jews had to prove to them that they wanted good relations. (I apologize for the over-used Nazi reference but it is appropriate to explain the situation.)

The problem is that the United States is under the illusion that even the United States can make friends with Islamist regimes. How all-the-more ridiculous is it to claim that Israel can do so by concessions or gestures? How can anyone with a straight face suggest that if Israel shows progress on negotiations with the Palestinians that regimes which have sworn to wipe it off the map will change their minds?

Rhodes added that in particular progress on the peace process required that Israel show Egypt it should keep the peace treaty by making concessions to the Palestinians. Perhaps Egypt should keep the treaty because it is an international agreement it is required to keep. Or that it is in Egypt's interests because Israel and the United States would make Cairo sorry if it abandoned the treaty completely. Notice that only concessions--not toughness, deterrence, or credibility--are a tool to keep treaties.

In these circumstances, a phrase often comes to my mind: Just because you are stupid, why should I kill myself?

Yes, it is intemperate of me to call these people stupid but they leave me no choice. Who does the Egyptian government support among the Palestinians? Hamas, despite their recent bickering. So how would progress on negotiations with the Palestinian Authority soften Egypt’s attitude? Is President Mursi going to say: Wow, that treaty with Israel is worthwhile because there is hope of a deal with the Palestinians that will ensure a non-Islamist government in Palestine and help to guarantee the existence of a Zionist state in the region? Yay!

No. He would say that such progress would indicate a betrayal by the PA and make it harder for the Islamist cause to flourish. Hence, any such deal must be stopped. Mr. Rhodes, let me explain. It was Mubarak who perhaps benefited from an advancing peace process; Mursi hates the idea.

Rhodes continued:

“I think there’s an opportunity, frankly, for there to be a deeper source of support for peace broadly across the region if there can be progress."

I will give Rhodes the benefit of the doubt by suggesting that he does not believe one word of that sentence.

Again, Obama’s trip is not about this issue. Yet by keeping the mythology alive about the state of the conflict the Obama Administration does another disservice to Israeli interests and American understanding of the region.

Oh, and let’s not forget something else.

Rhodes didn’t say that the PA, whose leaders Obama will also meet, must show Israel that it’s serious about peace. Supposedly, making peace is a one-way street in which the burden is always on Israel. Yet Israel’s behavior is not due to stubbornness, paranoia, or ideology.

It is based on experience.

Footnotes: Of course I am aware that there have been circumstances in which specific Arab factors were responsive to Israeli concessions. To act Arab leaders--autocrats or otherwise--must believe they can get away with defying Islamists, who will declare anyone wanting to make peace with Israel as enemies of Allah. That was most obviously true of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Mursi's ideological compatriots killed Sadat. That graphically sums up who is on which side and why Rhodes', and hence the Obama Administration's, formulations are absurd.

Why Europe is Still Ripe for a Dictator: Austrians Reflect on Hitler 75 Years Later
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Blaze
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues;Antisemitism

Seventy-five years after the Nazi invasion and occupation of Austria, a newspaper in country has asked citizens about their opinion of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi annexation during World War II. Jewish leaders who have been raising the alarm about anti-Semitism in Austria say the results were not surprising.

Forty-two percent said life was not all bad under Hitler, while 61 percent said they would be interested in a strong-armed leader who did not have to deal with democratic challenges like political opponents and elections.

The survey, published this weekend, is getting prominent play in the media in Israel, which is home to some 250,000 Holocaust survivors. That’s half the number of survivors who arrived in the country since Israel was founded in 1948.

Reuters reports:

Timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary next week of Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany, the Market Institut poll for newspaper Der Standard found 61 per cent of respondents, mostly the elderly, liked the idea of a strong man as leader.

Many Austrians wanted a union, or Anschluss , with Germany in 1938. A few Austrians put up resistance that grew over time.

In the latest poll, 53 per cent thought the Anschluss was voluntary and 46 per cent saw Austria as a victim. Forty-two per cent said “not everything was bad under Hitler” while 57 per cent saw no good aspects to the Hitler era.

Additionally, 54 percent said they believed neo-Nazi groups would succeed in Austrian elections this September if they were not banned there.

The poll also showed that most Austrians believe their country has dealt adequately with its Nazi history and that victims of the Holocaust have been fully compensated.

“If accurate, the results are extremely alarming, but not entirely surprising,” Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, told TheBlaze. “Austria is a country which has a long tradition of anti-Semitism and which produced some of the biggest Nazi war criminals.”

“In recent years, there are efforts to fight against anti-Semitism and more honestly face Austrians’ participation in Holocaust crimes, but there has not been a successful prosecution in Austria of a Nazi war criminal in more than 30 years,” Zuroff said.

The head of Vienna’s Jewish community said in January he’d seen a doubling of the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Austria in the last year.

Recent incidents include a rabbi’s report that he was verbally abused by neo-Nazi hooligans even as police stood nearby, while a far-right politician posted a cartoon viewed as anti-Semitic on his website.

Before the Nazis annexed Austria, its Jewish population numbered 195,000. According to figures cited by Reuters, two-thirds of them were exiled in the “Aryanization” program and besides 2,000 left behind, all the rest were killed in concentration camps.

The Anschluss anniversary will be marked Tuesday in Austria, the place where the Nazis tested their plan for the extermination of Europe’s Jews.

“Vienna was a very important place for the fate of all European Jews because the automated driving out of Jews was perfected here,” Joachim Riedl, the author of several books on Jewish history and Vienna, told Reuters.

Saxo Bank CEO:
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsAuthored by Lars Seier Christensen, CEO Saxo Bank
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

 It is difficult to describe the weekend bailout package to Cyprus in any other way. The confiscation of 6.75 percent of small depositors' money and 9.9 percent of big depositors' funds is without precedence that I can think of in a supposedly civilised and democratic society. But maybe the European Union (EU) is no longer a civilised democracy?

I heard rumours about this when I visited Limassol last week, but dismissed them as completely outlandish. And yet, here we are. The consequences are unpredictable, but we are clearly looking at a significant paradigm shift.

This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver. Although the representatives at the bailout press conference tried to present this as a one-off, they were not willing to rule out similar measures elsewhere - not that it would have mattered much as the trust is gone anyway. It is now difficult to expect any kind of limitation to what measures the Troika and EU might take when the crisis really starts to bite.

If you can do this once, you can do it again. if you can confiscate 10 percent of a bank customer's money, you can confiscate 25, 50 or even 100 percent. I now believe we will see worse as the panic increases, with politicians desperately trying to keep the EUR alive.

Depositors in other prospective bailout countries must be running scared - is it safe to keep money in an Italian, Spanish or Greek bank any more? I dont know, must be the answer. Is it prudent to take the risk? You decide. I fear this will lead to massive capital outflows from weak Eurozone countries, just about the last thing they need right now. Even from the EU as a whole, I suspect, as the banking union is in place in most countries already.

Another open question is what will happen to the huge number of brokerages based in Cyprus? There is about 100 or more FX and other brokers currently operating under the relatively light Cypriot regulation. How will this impact the trustworthiness of these many small institutions? What IS the exact impact on the client deposits they might be holding in Cyprus? Will anyone dare to do business with them going forward?

This is a major, MAJOR game changer and the fallout will be with us for a long time to come. I believe it could be the beginning of the end for the Eurozone as this is an unbelievable blow to the already challenged trust that might be left among investors. Talk about a possible own goal.

Market reaction? it must be very good for gold - and for safe-haven countries like Switzerland, Singapore and economically more healthy non-Euro countries in, for example, Scandinavia. I would think the EUR and associated markets will be undermined by increasing lack of confidence when the full implications become clear for investors.

Pope Francis Tells Vatican to Prepare for Change
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph - Nick Squires, and John Bingham in Vatican City
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Pope Francis - History's Final Pontiff?
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Commentary;Contemporary Issues

Note : Whenever looking at extra Biblical issues such as this we need to be careful. Only time will tell if Tom Horn's explanation on the new Pope fulfilling this final prophecy is correct but we share it here for your interest and research.

An author who predicted Pope Benedict XVI would be the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign believes the election today of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th Roman Catholic pontiff lines up with a medieval prophecy that would make him the “final pope” before the End Times.

Tom Horn, co-author with Cris Putman of the book “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here,” told WND today Bergoglio’s selection was a “fantastic fulfillment of prophecy.”

His book examines St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” said to be based on a prophetic vision of the 112 popes following Pope Celestine II, who died in 1144.

Malachy’s prophecies, first published in 1595, culminate with the “final pope,” “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the Roman,” whose reign ends with the destruction of Rome and the judgment of Christ.

Horn has said a pope of Italian descent would fulfill the prophecy, noting Bergoglio is the son of Italian parents and a Jesuit.

“Being a Jesuit is a very important aspect of our prediction in our book,” Horn told WND in an email.

Citing his book, Horn said the name “Petrus Romanus” in the prophecy “implies this pope will reaffirm the authority of the Roman Pontiff over the Church and will emphasize the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church above all other religions and denominations, and its authority over all Christians and all peoples of the world.”

Horn pointed out the Jesuits order was organized “to stop Protestantism from spreading and to preserve communion with Rome and the successor of Peter.”

As WND reported, Horn and his co-author, Cris Putnam, predicted in their book Benedict would step down, making way for history’s “final pope.”

The 2012 prediction

Remarkably, Horn told WND, more than 60 years ago a Belgian Jesuit theologian and academic named Rene Thibault came up with the date 2012 as the culmination of Malachy’s prophecies.

Horn points to reports that Benedict made his decision to resign last year, before announcing it in February.

Thibaut’s was published in French only four months before Thibaut died.

Horn and Putnam translated the Belgian priest’s rare 1951 book, “The Mysterious Prophecy of the Popes,” into English.

“Adopting the methodology of a mystic as well as a scholar,” Horn and Putnam write in the first chapter of their book, Thibaut “makes a compelling case that ‘The Prophecy of the Popes’ is a real supernatural prophecy.”

Horn noted Thibaut is among many Catholic leaders, including popes, cardinals and priests, who have affirmed Malachy’s work, which was kept in the Vatican archives for five centuries before it was first published.

He said Thibaut used a number of methods of cryptographic analysis to come up with the date 2012, including calculating the average length of papal reign up until the time he wrote his book.

“In other words,” Horn and Putnam write, “2012 was seen as an end-times ‘event horizon’ by at least one Jesuit priest before most readers were born.”

St. Malachy, an Irish saint and the archbishop of Armagh, who lived from 1094 to 1148, described the “final pope” this way: “In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people.”

As WND reported, he described the penultimate pope, which Horn believes is Benedict, as “Gloria Olivae,” or “Glory of the Olive.”

Benedict was not a Benedictine priest, yet he chose the name of the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict, which also is known as the Olivetans

The symbol of the Benedictine order includes an olive branch.

That Bergoglio--the final Pope on St. Malachy's list and the one prophesied to reign over the church as it enters the Great Tribulation period--named himself after Saint Francis of Assisi is intriguing given that shortly before his death Assisi prophesied that at the time of the tribulation a man would "be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavor to draw many into error and death… Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it…for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer” [Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), Washbourne, 1882 AD, 248].

Furthermore, in naming himself after Assisi, Bergoglio branded himself after an Italian (Roman) priest whose original name was Francesco di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardone -- literally, Peter the Roman.

Muslim Civil War? Iran Encourages Shiite Uprising in Saudi Arabia
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily Newsoilprice.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Saudi Arabia's anti-Shiite policies are leading the country closer to the worst clash of the Shiite and Sunni schools of thought in the history of the Kingdom, a clash which will branch throughout the rest of the Muslim world.

The Eastern Province (Ash-Sharq?yah), the largest province of Saudi Arabia, is dominated by a population of two million Shiites and is termed as a significant site of opposition against the Saudi monarchy.

Sources have revealed that Saudi higher-ups have raised the prospect of a Shiite insurgency in the Eastern Province and accused Iran for supporting the unrest.

The Saudi Government, including the King, recently held a meeting to lay out a strategy on diffusing the effects of any expected Shiite uprising in the Kingdom, as unrest has been fueled by Iran in retaliation for the Saudi support of the rebels against Bashir al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Shiites, as the minority sect at 17 percent of the total population of the country, face state-sanctioned discrimination fuelled by the Kingdom’s powerful Wahabi clerics: Shiites are banned from practicing their rituals in public, as well as from holding high positions in government, state-owned companies, and the judiciary.

They are very often turned away from the government employment, including police, army, and security services positions. Every year thousands of Shiites face unfair trials and are jailed for speaking against the monarchy. Shiites are closely watched and monitored by Saudi intelligence agencies for routine activities.

The Saudi government has even restricted certain activities in an attempt to discourage Shiites from showing their identity, including outlawing names specific to Shi'a Islam. Most appallingly, there is no cemetery for Shiites in Saudi Arabia.

In 2011, in the wake of the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch condemned Saudi Arabia's policies towards its Shiites citizens and urged on Saudi authorities to treat the Shiites’ minority as equal citizens.

However, Saudi Arabia is a major U.S. ally, and the U.S. has refrained from publicly criticizing violations of human rights or the Kingdom’s role in putting down pro-democracy protests.

By supporting the rebels against the Assad’s regime in Syria, attempting to make Iran the world's only Shiite country, Saudi Arabia has unbolted a new war inside in its own territory that could unearth grave consequences for the sovereignty of the Kingdom.

The monarchy of Saudi Arabia is already deeply concerned, as the Eastern Province is‎ home to most of Kingdom’s Shiite population and 90 percent of Saudi oil, not to mention it is just 30-minute drive across the causeway from Bahrain.

The aim of the recent conference called by the Saudi top officials was actually to gain support from Muslims countries, excluding Iran.

A Saudi state news agency quoted Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal as saying that King Abdullah has called for "an extraordinary Islamic solidarity meeting to ensure... unity during this delicate time as the Muslim world faces dangers of fragmentation and sedition".

Meanwhile as Syria heads towards the fall of Assad’s regime, retribution from Iran is gradually increasing in the form of support for a Shiite uprising in Saudi Arabia, creating an increasingly dangerous situation for the stability of the Middle East as well as to the Saudi monarchy.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have a long account of enmity, with centuries which have never witnessed good relations due to the Saudi hold on Holy Kaaba. But now, both have geared up to blow the Middle East, which could lead towards a severe sectarian battle categorically injurious for the entire Muslim world.

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Tony Blair: I do not believe we can or should stand aside from the global struggle against extremism
Look at what Assad in Syria is doing to his people following the Arab upheavals and the effect on the whole of the Middle East, and then think what Saddam would be doing in Iraq and the impact it would have. Yes, Iraq still has huge problems. The terrorists still commit their acts of terror. But that is not the whole picture. In the north, 90 per cent say security – and life – has improved.

UN reopens talks on NRA-opposed arms trade treaty
Negotiators will reconvene this week to try to hammer out a landmark U.N. treaty designed to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade amid objections from a bipartisan group of legislators and the most powerful gun-rights lobbying group in the U.S.

Americans get serious about impeachment
Not only have voters begun to connect the dots between the faltering economy and global insecurity to Obama’s administration in significant numbers, they also have begun to join him in calling for “change.” Only this is the impeachment type of change, not the type Obama has so often preached.

Israel Prepares To Preemptively Strike Syria
The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to a main northern city, and Israel’s premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran.

U.S. Would Take 'Very Seriously' Request for ODIHR Monitoring of Papal Election
“Does the United States regard the election of the Pope to--that election to have met international standards for the election of a world leader? He is, after all, a head of state, and a head of government. … You routinely criticize countries or governments for having elections where there is not universal suffrage, where there is not any possibility of appealing the results, where there is not--where there were no monitors, for example. I’m wondering if this meets the standard for a free and fair election in your mind?"

Pope Francis tells Vatican to prepare for change
Pope Francis has put the Vatican hierarchy on notice of sweeping changes as he prepares this week to study a secret report into skulduggery and intrigue within the Church's dysfunctional governing body

Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the government to stop issuing so-called NSLs across the board, in a stunning defeat for the Obama administration’s surveillance practices. She also ordered the government to cease enforcing the gag provision in any other cases. However, she stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Comet Follows Future Pope To Rome
I can't find out the exact date that Cardinal Bergoglio arrived in Rome but there is a photo titled "Italian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio arrives for a meeting of pre-conclave on March 9, 2013 at the Vatican" here: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/13/meet-the-new-pope-cardinal-jorge-mario-bergoglio/ I find this very interesting almost like the Star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of Christ. Could comet Panstarrs be announcing something much more sinister? Only time will tell.

Chilling Report: 10,000+ could die in major Northwest quake
Ore. (AP) - More than 10,000 people could die when — not if — a monster earthquake and tsunami occur just off the Pacific Northwest coast, researchers told Oregon legislators Thursday. Coastal towns would be inundated. Schools, buildings and bridges would collapse, and economic damage could hit $32 billion.

Aucklanders shaken, not stirred, as quake hits under volcano
The first quake, registering just over three on the Richter scale, hit just after 4pm and was felt in parts of Auckland. A bigger 3.9 quake centred on Motutapu Island beside the volcano Rangitoto sent many scurrying into the streets. Auckland is believed to be far from major fault lines, but the city is built on a field of more than 40 volcanoes, the youngest of which – Rangitot0 – blew up only 700 years ago.

Report: Israel to Seek US Attack on Syria, or Freedom to Do So
Syria promises to loom large in discussions between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack H. Obama when the latter visits Israel this week. And according to the Guardian newspaper in Britain, those discussions will entail an Israeli request for the U.S. to take military action against Syria.

Marapi volcano (Sumatra, Indonesia): small ash explosion
A small explosive eruption occurred this morning at around 08:05 local time, generating a small ash plume rising a few hundred meters above the crater. Marapi volcano, one of Sumatra's most active, has been producing intermittent explosions with ash plumes up to 1 km high frequently since August 2011.

Poll: 69% of Americans against US involvement in peace talks
Most Americans are against US involvement in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Somalia's capital Mogadishu hit by deadly car bomb
At least eight people have been killed a massive car bomb in the centre of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, police have said. A BBC reporter in the city says a loud explosion was heard near the National Theatre. Security has improved in Mogadishu over the past year following the withdrawal of the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab group.

Cyprus considers tax-free threshold for smaller deposits: government source
Cyprus is considering the introduction of a tax-free threshold for smaller bank deposits, a government source said on Monday, in an attempt to win over lawmakers hostile to a bank levy announced over the weekend that is needed to avert a default. "There is an attempt to mitigate the burden on smaller depositors, with a zero tax rate," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He said the tax-free level was still under discussion.

Syria opposition pushes to form interim government
Syria's main opposition coalition began a push Monday to form an interim government to provide services to people living in parts of the country now controlled by rebel forces. The effort is the most serious yet by the forces opposing President Bashar Assad to establish a rival administration and bring together all the factions fighting Assad's forces on the ground.

China criticizes U.S. anti-missile North Korea plan
China said on Monday U.S. plans to bolster missile defenses in response to provocations by North Korea would only intensify antagonism, and urged Washington to act prudently. "The anti-missile issue has a direct bearing on global and regional balance and stability. It also concerns mutual strategic interests between countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

Israel: Don't Expect Peace Process to Advance in Coming Years
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Staff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Former and future Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday said there was little-to-no hope that any significant progress would be made in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the near future, despite the high-profile appointment of Tzipi Livni as the new minister in charge of negotiations.

Speaking at an event marking the formation of Israel's new government, Lieberman said, "The Palestinian issue has not progressed in the past four years, and it will not progress in the next four years either."

Incoming Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon stressed that the reason for this lack of progress is Palestinian intransigence.

"We are prepared to talk and hold negotiations [with the Palestinians] without any preconditions," Danon told The Times of Israel. “But in the government there are many who believe that there is no one on the other side who is interested in advancing the peace process."

Both Lieberman and Danon said they would not allow false hopes of a breakthrough prevent Jews from building in their ancestral lands of Judea and Samaria, and therefore would fight any settlement freeze pushed by Livni.

A poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News revealed that the vast majority of Americans (69%) also have little hope in the peace process, and want Washington to stop meddling in the matter.

German Commerzbank Suggests Wealth Tax in Italy Next
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsTyler Durden
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

While some argue that Cyprus was "one of the biggest money-washing machines for Russian criminals," and others that Cyprus ex-Pat community and energy resources brough deposits (not to say their high deposit interest rates), it seems the European Union (IMF et al.) have decided that the route to crisis stabilization, just as we outlined here over a year ago and updated here, is through a wealth tax.

However, as Handelsblatt reports, the gross distortions of wealth distribution among both core and peripheral nations (evident in the chasm between 'mean' and 'median' net assets - or wealth) makes some nations more 'capable' of 'giving' and as Commerzbank's chief economist notes, median wealth in Italy is EUR164,000 (as opposed to Austria's median of around EUR76,000 and mean of around EUR265,000) meaning that in theory Italy has no debt crisis (with net assets at 173% of GDP) - significantly more than the Germans at 124% - "so it would make sense, in Italy a one-time property tax levy," he suggested.

"A tax rate of 15% on financial assets would probably be enough to push the Italian government debt to below the critical level of 100% of gross domestic product." So there you have it, the 'new deal' in Europe, as we warned, is 'wealth taxes' and testing the "capacity of Cypriots" appears to be the strawman on what the public will take before social unrest becomes intolerable.

Former U.S. Treasury Official - U.S. Financial System to Collapse
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsKing World News
Categories: Commentary

DHS Insider Update: It Has Begun
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily NewsCanada Free Press - Douglas Hagmann
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues;Warning

Our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design

Much like my high-level source within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined in a series of interviews beginning last year, the orchestrated collapse of the U.S. dollar and the entire world’s economic system has begun. The first shots in a global economic take-over were fired in Cyprus as my esteemed colleague and founding editor of Canada Free Press, Judi McLeod laid out in frank detail in her column yesterday and her follow up today.

Please read it and heed her advice, or suffer the consequences of your own normalcy bias that such an event will not happen in the United States, Canada, or from wherever you might be reading this. It will, and the plan appears to be on schedule for a shot across the bow later this spring here in the West, with a more aggressive take-over starting sometime this fall, according to my source.

The Plan

To those needing a quick refresher, the plan is quite simple and can be summarized by the Clinton-era quip attributed to political strategist James Carville, “the economy, stupid” and the June 9, 2010 statement by former Obama czar Van Jones, Socialist extraordinaire, “top down, bottom up, inside out.” It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the “middle class” will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus.

Based on the events in Cyprus, it should be quite clear to even the most vocal critic of the legitimacy of the information provided to me by my source within the DHS as published on this web site is no longer at issue. The U.S. dollar, the backbone of world currencies and the proverbial firewall preventing the erosion of our national sovereignty, is the ultimate target of a takedown by the global banking interests controlled by a handful of banks and families of the “royal elite.”

The plan for a global currency or a one world economic order is a matter that transcends political parties. Those who continue to argue in the Republican-Democrat meme are doing nothing more than providing entertainment to distract people from the real issue, that of the global elite versus the rest of us. The top of the pyramid in this Ponzi scheme is filled with members of both U.S. political parties who are systematically pillaging us and our future generations into financial debt, bondage and slavery. It is a plan that has been in the works for centuries. The problem, however, is that we have been conditioned not to think that big. Yet, the lie is that big.

The Parties

Our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design. The occupancy of Barack Hussein Obama as the putative President of the United States was a plan in the making long ago, to usher in this oppressive system where we will be left at the mercy of the global ruling class. It is not by accident that we have been prevented from knowing exactly who this man is, from the controversy of his birth records to his college transcripts and even his social security number. Contrary to what the state-controlled media wants you to believe, these questions have never been answered with any measure of authenticity.

For example, does anyone honestly believe that it is merely a coincidence that Obama’s alleged mother, Stanley Ann Dunham-Soetoro, just happened to work with Timothy Geithner’s father, Peter Geithner, at the Ford Foundation in Indonesia? Is it reasonable to believe that the Republican party had no knowledge of the background of Barack Hussein Obama? Yet not one word from the Republican establishment as they not only watched, but facilitated the takeover of the United States from within. As I’ve written before, our nation is a captured operation.

The plan was set into motion long ago, stemming back to the founding of the United States and the temporary resistance to the central banking system. In 1913, the creation of the Federal Reserve set the countdown clock in motion for the complete subjugation of the United States to the interests of the global bankers and the global elite. The secret supra-governmental cabals such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission worked behind the scenes, under the cover provided by the complicit media, to bring us to this point in history. Perpetual wars were induced to occupy the masses while the chess pieces were placed into their current positions. We are now about to pay the price for our inability or unwillingness to confront the establishment and incremental advancements leading to our own demise.

DHS source: Everything is not “coming up roses”

According to the most recent information provided to me from my source within the Department of Homeland Security known as “Rosebud,” the final preparations are being made to deploy heavily armed federalized forces onto the streets of America. They will be deployed under the pretext of “restoring and maintaining order from the chaos brought about by the economic collapse,” adding that “many will demand and embrace their deployment on the streets of America. They will get what they ask for, and more.”

Much like the security theater we have seen following the attacks of 9/11, we will be subjected to the jack-booted control of a federal army whose allegiance is not to the American people, but to the very architects of the chaos.

“This is the reason that drones are flying over U.S. cities and farmland, and gun control legislation is on the fast track for complete implementation,” stated this source. “How can people look at the situation in Cyprus and not think it won’t happen here? It will, and the blowback will be unlike this country has ever seen. Surveillance, disarming the public, and conditioning the people to believe it’s for their own safety is and has been part of the plan all along. Anyone owing a gun will be demonized and described as contributing to the problem.”

“What happens when the middle class loses much of their wealth, or it is confiscated, by the stroke of a pen or a keyboard? What will the stores look like when people, unprepared due to the damn lies of the corporate media and the shills for the ruling elite, run to empty out everything they can get their hands on as the world, as they know it, collapses around them?”

It was during my most recent contact with my source yesterday that he admitted that the situation will be blamed not on the bankers and the elected leaders who are raping us of our wealth and buying power, but on “right-wing, gun-toting Conservative ‘militia’ groups who believe that the situation is orchestrated.” And, of course, it is orchestrated.

“There is no Republican-Democrat argument to be made anymore. It’s all political theater to keep the majority of the masses occupied while the true enemy has already captured both parties,” he added. “They are all in on it, either knowingly or unwittingly, the takeover, that is. And it’s getting harder to believe that there are any who are unwitting accomplices at this point.”

“When the curtain is pulled back to reveal the true agenda of a single digital world currency, the people who have been yelling the loudest about such ‘conspiracy theories’ will be specifically singled out and demonized. They will be blamed for causing the panic we will see, and of course, dealt with by the army we asked for, accepted and even tolerated.”

Anyone who still believes that the information provided by this insider is “doom porn” or some self-created fantasy need to look at the events taking place in Cyprus. It’s coming to America. It has already begun.

China's Drone Swarms Rise to Challenge U.S. Power
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily Newstechnewsdaily.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

China is building one of the world's largest drone fleets aimed at expanding its military reach in the Pacific and swarming U.S. Navy carriers in the unlikely event of a war, according to a new report.

The Chinese military — known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) — envisions its drone swarms scouting out battlefields, guiding missile strikes and overwhelming opponents through sheer numbers.

China's military-industrial complex has created a wide array of homegrown drones to accomplish those goals over the past decade, according to the report released by the Project 2049 Institute on March 11.

"The PLA now fields one of the world's most expansive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] fleets," said Ian Easton and L.C. Russell Hsiao, researchers at the Project 2049 Institute and authors of the new report.

U.S. military forces still operate the largest drone fleet, with at least 679 drones in 2012, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported by the Guardian.

But the new Project 2049 Institute report estimates that China had 280 military drones as of mid-2011 — a number that has likely grown since then.

Chinese military drones have already entered the frontlines of China's territorial disputes with neighboring countries such as Japan by flying maritime patrols over disputed areas.

The Project 2049 Institute report warned that China could be tempted to use drones more aggressively without risking human lives, or even consider "plausibly deniable" drone attacks blamed upon mechanical failure or cyberhackers.

Chinese strategists have also discussed using swarms of drones to overwhelm the U.S. Navy's carrier groups in the unlikely possibility of a shooting war.

The drones could act as decoys, use electronic warfare to jam communications and radar, guide missile strikes on carriers, fire missiles at U.S. Navy ships or dive into ships like kamikaze robots.

"In particular, numerous authoritative studies indicate a strong emphasis on developing UAVs for locating, tracking and targeting U.S. aircraft carriers in support of long range anti-ship cruise and ballistic missile strikes," the Project 2049 Institute report says.

All the main branches of the Chinese military field operational drone units. The new report identifies those military units along with major academic, industry and military organizations involved in building Chinese drones.

The report goes on to examine the state of Chinese drone technology. China is developing drones such as the rumored "Dark Sword" stealth drone that have low radar profiles to escape radar detection.

It also wants to build "space" drones that could loiter at heights of 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the Earth to provide constant surveillance. (Scientists typically consider 62 miles (100 km) to mark the boundary for the edge of space.)

Chinese engineers have even begun working on drones that have the software brains to fly in formation, do aerial refueling and takeoff and land autonomously — capabilities that the U.S. military has also developed or begun testing for its own drones.

The risk of war between the U.S. and China remains low. But the report cautions that the U.S. military could prepare for the worst-case scenario by hardening its existing air bases in Asia and developing energy weapons (such as lasers) for better air and missile defense.

Assad to Beirut: Sack Lebanese Army Chief or More Air Raids. Jordan Feared Next
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Syrian conflict spread in earnest to Lebanon Monday, March 18, when the Syria Air Force carried out bombing runs over Syrian rebel jumping-off bases inside Lebanon that are used for their attacks on government forces.

debkafile’s military sources report that the warplanes also bombed Lebanese border valleys used for smuggling men and arms into Syria.
The targets, between one and five kilometers inside Lebanon, were the town of Arsal, where many of the Sunni Muslim inhabitants support the Syrian rebellion, and the outskirts of the towns of Khirbet Younin and Wadi al-Khayl in Arsal’s barren mountains. No casualties were reported.

debkafile can disclose exclusively that Saturday, March 16, Syrian ruler Bashar Assad sent an ultimatum to Lebanese President Michel Sleiman through intelligence channels consisting of three stipulations:

1. Sack Lebanese army chief Gen. Jean Kahwaji without delay. Assad accused the general of refusing to deploy the Lebanese army for cracking down on Syrian rebel bases of operation in Lebanon and so stemming the flow of rebel strength into the embattled country.
2. The Lebanese president, himself a former army chief, was required to take responsibility for army action to purge the Lebanese border region of rebel forces.
3. President Sleiman was given 48 hours to order the Lebanese army into operation against the Syrian rebels. When this did not happen, Assad made good on his threat. As soon as his ultimatum expired Monday afternoon, he sent his air force into action across the border into Lebanon.
debkafile’s military sources estimate that the air strike Monday was not a one-off event. Lebanon is probably in for expanding Syria air operations against its territory in the coming days.

It appears that the Syrian ruler timed his war action against Lebanon to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and Jordan, starting Wednesday, March 20. He may be planning further escalation as the week goes on.

According to some forecasts, Assad may be expected to launch attacks on Syrian rebel targets in Jordan as well as Lebanon..

5 Ways the Collapse of Syria Might be More Dangerous Than Most People Realize
Mar 18th, 2013
Daily Newsflashtrafficblog.wordpress.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The nation of Syria is collapsing into a bloody, chaotic, nearly genocidal civil war. The days of the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad are numbered. It is not a matter of if Assad will fall, but when. The countdown is underway.

Few Americans will be sad to see Assad go. The cruel tyrant deserves to be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity, and the people of Syria desperately need to be set free. Still, few realize just how dangerous the implosion of Syria really will be.

First, in desperation, Assad could use his stockpiles of WMDs against his own people. “Syria’s Baathist dictatorship developed and stockpiled a lethal arsenal of chemical weapons including blister agents such as mustard gas and even more dangerous nerve agents (VX and Sarin),” notes Dr. Steven Bucci, a Mideast foreign policy expert with The Heritage Foundation.

“These chemical munitions can be delivered by artillery, rocket launchers, Scud ballistic missiles, and aircraft. … U.S. officials believe that there are at least 50 chemical weapon production and storage facilities inside Syria.”

Ads by GoogleWashington is deeply concerned that Assad could use such weapons to defeat the rebels since conventional military means have not yet worked.

“The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable,” President Obama warned in December. “And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences, and you will be held accountable.”

Will Assad listen? Already, some 90,000 Syrians have died in the fighting. Many of them were killed at the hands of Assad’s forces. The regime is growing desperate.

Second, Assad could choose to transfer WMD stockpiles to Iran and Hezbollah. Assad is an Alawite, not a Persian or an Arab. But over the years, Assad has built a strategic alliance with the mullahs in Tehran and Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Assad has long allowed Syria to be a transit country for Iranian weapons headed to Nasrallah’s forces. If he feels cornered, he might cut a deal with these allies to take his WMDs in return for an extraction from Damascus and a safe haven elsewhere, perhaps in Iran itself.

Third, Assad’s regime could collapse and WMD stockpiles could fall into the hands of radical Islamic terror organizations, including Hezbollah and/or al Qaida. Events could move too quickly for Assad.

Rebel forces could gain control of the countryside and move into Damascus. This could force Assad and his senior team to flee before they get a chance to dispose of these weapons in an orderly manner.

Fourth, as Assad’s regime collapses, Syria — not just its WMDs — could fall into the hands of Iran and Hezbollah. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Sheikh Nasrallah are worried about Assad’s regime collapsing. But even as they are doing everything they can to prop up their ally in Damascus, they are preparing for the possibility that Assad will fall.

“About one-third of Hezbollah’s troops are now in Syria,” reports Haaretz, a respected Israeli newspaper. “This reflects a strategic decision on Iran’s part not to let Syria fall into the hands of radical Sunnis, the Muslim Brotherhood, or organizations affiliated with al Qaida, even if Assad’s regime falls.

Iran’s goal is to maintain its status in Syria, and hence in Lebanon as well, even after the regime falls.” This would give Iran a forward position on Israel’s borders in addition to its positions in Lebanon and Gaza.

Fifth, Syrian WMDs eventually could be used against the U.S. and/or our allies, including Israel and Jordan. What President George W. Bush feared could happen in Iraq under Saddam Hussein may happen in Syria instead. Terrorist states or groups could gain control of horrific weapons and fire them at Israel, use them against the pro-Western king of Jordan, and/or smuggle them inside the U.S. for an attack that would make 9/11 pale in comparison.

At the moment, “We have ideas as to the quantity and we have ideas as to where [Syria’s WMDs] are,” says Tom Countryman, the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.

But, he says, “We wish some of the neighbors of Syria to be on the lookout. … When you get a change of regime in Syria, it matters what are the conditions — chaotic or orderly.”

No one can predict precisely what scenario will play out. But Washington experts are deeply concerned about Syria’s future, and rightly so.