Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Young, Successful Brits Joining ISIS Jihad in Syria
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Reyaad Khan once dreamed of becoming the UK’s first Asian prime minister. Nasser Muthana was a star medical student who was accepted to four universities to study medicine. These are just two of the British-born jihadis who, after joining the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (ISIS), have recently been identified as the jihadis who appeared in a disturbing recruitment video aimed at young, British Muslims.

Khan and Muthana, both 20, spent the last two years of high school together at St David’s Catholic. Muthana’s younger brother Aseel, 17 and still in high school, was lured by his sibling and has joined him in Syria. Khan now can be seen holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle sitting next to his fellow British jihadis and urging his other Muslims to join them. 

“What prevents you from obtaining martyrdom and the pleasure of your lord? Ask yourself what prevents you and keeps you behind,” asks Khan in the video. “If it’s your wealth … when death reaches you and it’s a certainty, your wealth won’t be able to delay death.”

“Know that if you fear death, death will reach you anyway but it will be more painful for you. So death is what they fear for you, it will be worse … The brothers that gave their lives, their bodies will be shown in front of you. Allah will ask, ‘Where were you?’ “

South Whales police confirmed that both traveled to Syria with two other men. Police have since arrested the other two, who returned to the UK, but believe that Khan and Muthana are still in Syria.

British authorities estimate that more than 500 young Brits who become radicalized in the UK have travelled to join the jihadis in Syria. Possibly more concerning is that close to two-thirds have returned, with most having escaped the eyes of the authorities. Avoiding police is easy. Young, radicalized Brits travel through Turkey, a common vacation destination, which arouses no suspicion.

“We are increasingly concerned about the numbers of young people who have or are intending to travel to Syria to join the conflict,” said an official from the South Whales police. “Travelling abroad for the purpose of engaging in terrorist related activity is an offense and we will seek to prosecute anyone engaged in this type of activity.”

Khan, who was recognized on the video by his school friends, described him as an A student who loved sports. ‘‘He was clever and loved watching his sports, which is why we got on well. He was a Muslim but nothing this extreme, although over the last couple of years you could see he was becoming more of a stronger Muslim through his Facebook posts.”

Muthana disappeared last November after asking father for some pocket money and saying that he was going to a Muslim seminary in Shrewbury to attend a meeting from a visiting imam. After five days of not hearing from his son, Ahmed Muthana, originally from Yemen, went to the police and reported his son missing.

A few days later, the police told Ahmed that they had tracked Nasser down to Turkey. Ahmed thought he had run away to get married. What he didn’t know was that Nasser then crossed into Syria to join the jihadis.

Later, police came to show him the video and asked him to identify his son. “I was shaking and in tears,” Ahmed said. “My wife fainted and has not recovered from what she saw … I feel sick and devastated that my son is caught up in this. He was brought up to love and respect my country which is Britain.”

“They don't represent me now and I don't want to see them again,” Ahmed said angrily about his sons, adding. “I would love to see them go to jail if they return to the UK alive, if they ever come back.”

Ahmed has purged the house of all the family pictures of his sons, throwing them in the garbage. “It's a Muslim thing,” he says. “You don't keep the devil in your house.”

As a father, Ahmed says he is naturally worried about the safety of his sons, “But I am also worried about the evil messages he is spreading in this video. I am concerned that other boys may follow him there.”

Ahmed believes his sons become radicalized after they started attending a different mosque than him, although he doesn’t knew which mosque they began attending. Both grew beards. “Both my sons have been influenced by outsiders, I don't know by who.”

Ahmed described Nasser as “a calm boy, very bright and a high achiever … why he left his family I don't know. It's devastating for me and my family.” 

His younger son, Aseel, was studying for his matriculation exams and had dreamed of becoming an English teacher.

One day, three months after his older brother left for Syria, Aseel left the house, telling his father he was going to a friend’s house for the night. Ahmed later found out that Aseel had procured a fake passport with an older age, had travelled to Cyprus and from there, to Syria.

World Leaders Condemn 'Cowardly Murders'
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

French President Francois Hollande

Reuters

French President Francois Hollande on Monday led foreign leaders in condemning the "cowardly murder" of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found near Hevron three weeks after they went missing.    

Hollande "strongly condemns the cowardly murder of Eyal Ifrach, Naftali Frankel and Gilad Shaer and offers his sincere condolences to their families as well as to the Israeli authorities," the presidency said in a statement.

Shortly after his statement, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron branded the murders an "inexcusable act of terror", and said Britain will back Jerusalem as it seeks justice.

"I am deeply saddened by the news that the bodies of the three Israeli boys kidnapped on 12 June have been found this evening," Cameron said in a statement. "This was an appalling and inexcusable act of terror perpetrated against young teenagers. Britain will stand with Israel as it seeks to bring to justice those responsible."

"Tonight my thoughts and prayers are with the families of Gilad, Naftali and Eyal," Cameron added. "No parent should have ever to suffer such heartache or grief."

Will ISIS Open the Door for Turkey to Reclaim the Ottoman Empire?
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

For most Westerners, Turkey is a hard nut to crack. 

How can you understand a state sponsor of terrorism that is also a member of NATO?

How can you explain Turkey’s facilitation of Kurdish independence in Iraq in light of Turkey’s hundred-year opposition to Kurdish independence?

What is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan trying to accomplish here?

Is he nuts?

On the terrorism support front, today Turkey vies with Iran for the title of leading state sponsor of terrorism.

First there is Hamas.

Last week an Israeli security official told the media that the abduction of Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah was organized and directed by Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas commander operating out of Turkey.

Turkey has welcomed Hamas to its territory and served as its chief booster to the West since the jihadist terror group won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Erdogan has played a key role in getting the EU to view Hamas as a legitimate actor, despite its avowedly genocidal goals.

Then there is al-Qaida. As Daniel Pipes documented in The Washington Times last week, Turkey has been the largest supporter and enabler of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Erdogan’s government has allowed ISIS fighters to train in Turkey and cross the border between Turkey and Syria at will to participate in the fighting. Moreover, according to Pipes, Turkey “provided the bulk of ISIS’s funds, logistics, training and arms.”

Similarly, Turkey has sponsored the al-Nusra Front, ISIS’s al-Qaida counterpart and ally in Syria.

The Assad regime is not the Turkish- sponsored al-Qaida-aligned forces’ only target in Syria. They have also been engaged in heavy fighting against Rojava, the emerging Kurdish state in northwest Syria. Yet the same Turkey that is sponsoring al-Qaida’s assault on Syrian Kurdistan is facilitating the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In breach of Iraqi law that requires the Kurds to sell their oil through the central government and share oil revenues with the central government, earlier this month Turkey signed a 50-year deal allowing the Kurds to export oil to the world market through a Turkish pipeline. The Kurds are currently pumping around 120,000 barrels of oil a day to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Top Turkish officials have in recent weeks come out openly in support for Iraqi Kurdish independence from Baghdad.

Following ISIS’s takeover of Mosul, Huseyin Celik, the spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling AKP party told the Kurdish Rudaw news service, “It has become clear for us that Iraq has practically become divided into three parts.”

Blaming Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for Iraq’s instability Celik said, “The Kurds of Iraq can decide where to live and under what title they want to live. Turkey does not decide for them.”

To date, most Western analyses of the Erdogan regime’s behavior have come up short because their authors ignore its strategic goal. In this failing, analyses of Turkey are similar to those of its Shi’ite counterpart in Iran. And both regimes’ goals are wished away for the same reason: Western observers can’t identify with them.

Iran is not a status quo power. It is a revolutionary power. Iran’s goal is not regional hegemony per se, but global supremacy. As Lee Smith recently noted, two decades before al-Qaida and its goal of establishing a global Islamic caliphate burst onto the scene, Ayatollah Khomeini had already made the Islamic division of the world into the House of Islam and the House of War the basis for Iran’s foreign policy. He viewed his Shi’ite theocracy as the rightful leader of the Islamic empire that would destroy all non-believers and their civilization.

Iran’s first act of foreign policy – the takeover of the US Embassy in Teheran – was a declaration of war not only against the US, but against the nation state system as a whole.

Iran uses terror, irregular warfare and subversion to achieve its ends because such tactics induce chaos.

As Iran expert Michael Ledeen wrote last week, to defeat the US in Iraq, “the Iranian regime provoked all manner of violence, from tribal to ethnic, because they believed they were better able to operate in chaos.”

The US failed to understand Iran’s strategy because the US was unable to reconcile itself with the fact that other actors do not seek stability as it does.

Like Iran’s mullahs, Erdogan and his colleagues also reject the nation-state system. In their case, they wish to replace it with a restored Ottoman Empire.

Spelling out his goal in a speech in the spring of 2012, Erdogan described Turkey’s mission thus: “On the historic march of our holy nation, the AK Party signals the birth of a global power and the mission for a new world order. This is the centenary of our exit from the Middle East [following the Ottoman defeat in World War I]. Whatever we lost between 1911 and 1923, whatever lands we withdrew from, from 2011 to 2023 we shall once again meet our brothers in those lands.”

To achieve this goal, like Iran, Turkey seeks to destabilize states and reduce peoples to their ethnic, sub-national identities. The notion is that by dividing societies into their component parts, the various groups will all be weaker than one unified state, and all of them will feel threatened by one another and in need of outside support.

This is the same model Erdogan is following in Turkey itself as he remakes it in his Ottoman mold.

As Amir Taheri explained last October, Erdogan has been encouraging members of ethnic groups that long ago melted into the larger Turkish culture to rediscover their disparate identities, learn their unique languages and so separate out from the majority culture of the country. At the same time he is repressing the Kurds, Alevis and Armenians, minorities that have maintained their identities at great cost.

In parallel to his attempt to subsume the Kurds, Alevis and Armenians into a wider morass of separate sub-Turkish ethnicities, Erdogan has been assiduously cultivating hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood associations to enable their takeover of mosques and other key institutions to build a countrywide support base for Islamic supremacism.

By fragmenting Turkish society into long-forgotten component parts while uniting it under radical Islam, he wishes to unite the country under his Sultanate rule while dividing its various factions against one another to maintain support for the regime over the long haul.

A large part of repressing the Kurds at home involves denying them outside assistance. By acting like Iraqi Kurdistan’s best friend, Erdogan hopes to attenuate their support for Turkish Kurds.

While Turkey and Iran are rivals in undermining the international system, their goals are the same, and their strategies for achieving their goals are also similar. But while their chaos strategy is brilliant in its way, it is also high risk. By its very nature, chaos is hard, if not impossible to control. Situations often get out of hand. Plans backfire.

And what we are seeing today in Syria and Iraq and the wider region demonstrates the chaos strategy’s drawbacks.

As Pinchas Inbari detailed in a recent report for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the Syrian civil war is causing millions of Syrians to leave the country and their migrations are changing the face of many countries.

For instance, their arrival in Lebanon has transformed the multiethnic state into one with a preponderant Sunni majority, thus watering down Hezbollah’s support base.

The Kurds in Iraq may feel they need Turkey today, but there is no reason to assume that this will remain the case for long. Kurdish unity across Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran will destabilize not only Turkey, but Iran, where Kurds make up around ten percent of the population. Iranian Kurdistan also abuts the Azeri provinces. Azeris comprise nearly half the population of Iran.

As for ISIS, it is scoring victories in Iraq today. But its forces are vastly outnumbered by the Baathists and the Sunni tribesmen that defeated al Qaida in 2006. There is no reason to assume that these disparate groups won’t get tired of their new medieval rulers.

Many commentators claimed that Erdogan’s recent foreign policy setbacks in the Arab world convinced him to abandon neo-Ottomanism in favor of more modest goals. But his cultivation of Iraqi Kurdistan, and his sponsorship of ISIS, al-Nusra, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas tell a different story.

Erdogan remains an Islamic imperialist.

Like Iran he aims to destroy the global order and replace it with an Islamic empire. But like Iran, if his adversaries get wise to what he is doing, it won’t be very difficult to beat him at his own game by using his successes to defeat him.

Were not Afraid of Israels Threats, Declares Hamas
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas terrorists

Flash 90

The Hamas terrorist group declared on Thursday that it was not afraid of Israel’s threats, after Israel delivered an ultimatum to Hamas to stop rocket fire from Gaza within 48 hours or deal with an Israeli attack on Gaza.

A spokesman for Hamas’s “military wing”, the Al-Qassam Brigades, responded to the Israeli ultimatum by saying that the campaign of the Palestinian people against the "occupier" is not bound by time, and called Israel “a racist enemy who permits the blood of others and relates only to Jewish blood as holy.”

He further said that the Palestinian people aim to release the "land of their fathers and grandfathers," and that the Al-Qassam Brigades have become an army that cannot be defeated.

In a direct message to the so-called “Zionist occupiers," the spokesman declared that "you will not dance on our blood over a long period of time” because the Palestinians will not remain indifferent to the "aggression of the enemy army and the hordes of plunderers (the Israelis -ed.).”

He further said that the Palestinian people in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem know well how to extract a high price from “the arrogant enemy", adding that “the resistance knows its obligation very well."

Referring to the possibility of an Israeli attack in Gaza, the spokesman declared that Israel can decide on the beginning of such an attack but its conclusion will be determined by the Al-Qassam Brigades. In any case, he claimed, the Palestinians are not afraid of the Israeli threats.

Earlier, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at a Fourth of July reception at the U.S. Ambassador's residence that Israel is preparing for two possibilities.

“One – that the fire will stop and then our operations will also stop; and the second, that the fire will continue and then our forces will act forcefully.”

The verbal exchange comes as Gaza terrorists continue the constant rocket fire on southern Israel.

Over 15 rockets, part of the roughly 40 that have been fired from Gaza in the last two days, were fired at southern Israel in a salvo Thursday afternoon, causing two fires to break out.

Another two rockets were fired towards the Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regions shortly after 11:00 p.m. Thursday night.

The rockets exploded in open areas. There were no physical injuries or damages.

U.S. to Increase Security At Overseas Airports
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Airport security

Reuters

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is increasing security measures at airports overseas amid deepening concerns that terrorists in war-ravaged Syria are trying to develop a new generation of bombs that could be smuggled onto commercial planes, ABC News reported.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said his department has been assessing “the global threat environment,” and he has directed the Transportation Security Administration “to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States.”

Sources told ABC News that DHS was planning to issue a series of urgent directives to airport authorities and airlines operating in Europe and elsewhere, requiring them to further scrutinize U.S.-bound passengers’ electronics and shoes, set up more explosives detection machines, increase random screenings of travelers, and take a series of secret actions the public would never see.

 “We will work to ensure these necessary steps pose as few disruptions to travelers as possible,” Johnson said in his statement. “We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry.”

One source said such a decision to enhance security measures overseas “is never a decision that [DHS] makes lightly.”

“It’s something that has to be warranted,” the source said. “It has to be something particularly serious for [DHS] to even consider increasing security.”

Announcement of the new measures comes several days after it was reported that U.S. officials had learned that associates of the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria - the Al-Nusra Front - and radicals from other groups were teaming up with elements of the Yemen-based group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which built such innovative devices as the "underwear bomb" that ultimately failed to detonate in a plane over Detroit in 2009.

While intelligence obtained by the U.S. government has not indicated a specific target or a specific timeline, one source called the threat “different and more disturbing than past aviation plots.”

Asked Monday by ABC News whether his European counterparts were doing enough to address the threat emanating from Syria, FBI Director James Comey said European authorities are “doing a tremendous amount of work” but that it was “hard for [him] to say” if it’s enough.

U.S. officials have been outspoken about the dangers posed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and – separately – the threat of foreign fighters in Syria, the latest intelligence shows that the two threats have bonded in an unusually powerful way, essentially creating a sum more worrisome than its parts, according to ABC News.

Western powers have already expressed concern that some of their citizens have traveled to fight in the civil war in Syria, some of them joining extremist groups that might one day seek to strike their home countries.

It has already been confirmed that one American citizen carried out a suicide bombing within Syria; in February it was estimated that at least 50 U.S. citizens are fighting in Syria against Assad, and are liable to bring terrorism back to their home country once the war is over.

U.S. Privacy Board Defends Conclusion That Foreign Surveillance is Legal
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsPC World
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A U.S. National Security Agency surveillance program targeting foreign terrorism suspects does what Congress intended it to do, members of a government privacy oversight board said Wednesday, defending their report that finds the spying legal and effective.

The NSA’s surveillance program, focused on collecting electronic communications related to foreign terrorism and other intelligence, works as described in the FISA Amendments Act, a law that was debated in public, the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) said in its report, released late Tuesday.

The surveillance program’s “inadvertent” collection of some U.S. communications means the agency must consider the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the country’s residents against unreasonable searches by the government, but the Fourth Amendment does not protect foreigners, PCLOB members noted.

Although some privacy advocates have criticized the report, the FISA Amendments Act, “as originally written,” doesn’t give the same privacy protections to foreigners as it does to U.S. residents, said PCLOB member Patricia Wald, a retired federal judge. “It’s oriented toward getting foreign intelligence information.”

The FISA surveillance program provides some privacy protections, added David Medine, the PCLOB’s chairman. The law requires the NSA to target its surveillance at specific people or groups, with the agency focusing on 90,000 targets in 2013, he noted.

“While that’s not an insignificant number, it’s tiny, compared to the billions of people around the world,” he said.

Spying considered effective

The PCLOB also plans to weigh in on President Barack Obama’s proposal from January to add more privacy protections for foreigners into the NSA’s surveillance programs, Medine said.

Board members also defended the foreign surveillance program as effective, in contrast to a separate NSA program collecting U.S. telephone records. The PCLOB, in a January report , said the telephone records program had “only limited value” and violated the Constitution.

But the foreign surveillance program has been a valuable piece of the U.S. government’s counterterrorism efforts, said board member Elisebeth Collins Cook, a lawyer.

The program has helped government agents learn “about the membership, leadership structure, priorities, tactics and plans of international terrorist organizations,” she said. The program has also “allowed the discovery and disruption of plots against the U.S. and foreign countries, she added.

The new report provides the most comprehensive examination of the NSA’s foreign surveillance programs, board members said. It also dispels several misconceptions about the programs, one being that foreign surveillance, like the U.S. telephone records collection, indiscriminately collects electronic communications in bulk, Medine said.

Targeted electronic communications

While the NSA has said it collects millions of foreign emails, telephone calls and other electronic communications, the program is not a “bulk” collection program because it targets specific suspects, Medine said. Asked how he would describe the surveillance, if not “bulk” collection, Medine said, “It’s a big program, but it’s not a bulk program.”

The PCLOB’s report makes 10 recommendations for changes to the NSA’s foreign surveillance programs. Among the recommendations: The NSA should specify the expected intelligence value of a target before collecting communications, and the FBI, which can query the NSA’s database in U.S. criminal investigations, should better describe its data minimization practices related to the NSA’s database.

The report cautioned that the incidental collection of communications of U.S. residents raises privacy concerns. The report’s recommendations should help push the NSA surveillance programs “more comfortably into the sphere of reasonableness,” Medine said.

Some privacy advocates slammed the report, saying it ignores concerns about a lack of judicial oversight for the NSA’s foreign surveillance.

“As the board itself explains, that law has been used to authorize the NSA’s wiretapping of the entire Internet backbone, so that the NSA can scan untold numbers of our emails and other online messages for information about tens of thousands of targets that the NSA chooses without individualized court approval,” said Kevin Bankston, policy director of the New American Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, by email.

The reforms proposed by the board “essentially boil down to suggesting that the government should do more and better paperwork and develop stricter internal protocols as a check against abuse,” he added.

Just weeks after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the NSA’s query of U.S. communications caught up in its foreign surveillance efforts, the board’s endorsement of “warrantless rummaging through our communications,” is disappointing, Bankston added.

Sderot Mayor: Declare War and Put An End to This
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Mayor of the southern city of Sderot, Alon Davidi, called to the government to declare war on terror and bring a clear solution to the insurgency.

“A military operation must be enacted against the terrorists,” Davidi said in an interview with Kol Israel radio.

Saudi Arabia Deploys 30,000 Soldiers on Iraqi Border
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Saudi Arabia announced Thursday the deployment of 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area (on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.) The Saudi-owned Al Arabia satellite channel had a video showing some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after they quit their positions, leaving the border area with Saudi Arabia and Syria unguarded. DEBKAfile first reported Saudi military deployment on the Iraqi border in DEBKA Weekly on June 27 and on its site (with map) on June 28 after ISIS seized the Ar Ar border crossing.

Rabbi Kanievsky: Prayers for Murdered Teens Weren't in Vain
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Prayer for the teens, Talmon

Reuven Shimelman

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered one of the foremost rabbinical authority in the hareidi yeshiva world, said Monday night that despite the fact that kidnapped Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16), and Gilad Sha'ar (16) were found murdered, the hundreds of thousands of prayers that had been recited over the past several weeks for their return were not uttered in vain. In their deaths, he said, they brought many Jews closer to G-d.

“They had a great merit to spiritually strengthen thousands of Jews,” the rabbi said. “It is a great merit for their souls.”

While full details of the circumstances of the deaths of the three teens have yet to be released, analysts said that it was probable that they had been murdered soon after the kidnapping 18 days ago. The bodies of the youths were taken to the Israel Forensic Center in Tel Aviv in order to enable officials to learn about the circumstances of their deaths, and when they were murdered.

Parents of the three kidnapped teens had met with the rabbi days after they went missing, with one of the mothers arriving at his house on Friday, just one day after their abduction.

Pro - Life Group Calls Out Presbyterian Church U.S.A for Its Failure to Condemn Abortion Industry
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Apostasy

While the biggest news to come out of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 221st General Assembly in Detroit last week was the decision to allow clergy to officiate same-sex weddings in states where gay marriage is legal, pro-life groups are calling out the denomination for its weak stance on protecting babies who survive botched abortions.

By a wide margin last Thursday, the PCUSA's General Assembly voted 465 to 133 against a measure asking its members to reflect, for two years, on the plight of unwanted children, both the born and preborn.

The measure, brought before the members by the Presbytery of South Alabama, was spurred by the murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, as well as abortion clinic employees going public about unsafe and allegedly illegal practices that led to the temporary closure of a Delaware Planned Parenthood facility, among others.

"Evidently, denouncing infanticide and praying for children born after an abortion fails doesn't fly in today's Presbyterian church," asserted pro-life group Live Action. "All the measure was asking for was prayerful reflection, and to denounce the practice of killing babies born alive after abortion."

While the PCUSA's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy stated that the church's concern for the unborn is clearly stated in its current policy on problem pregnancies and abortion, titled, "Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly" (204th General Assembly, 1992), it also stated that members of the denomination "do not have substantial agreement on when human life begins."

The Presbytery of South Alabama stated in its measure that the "blood of little children cries out to God and to Christ's Church for protection and justice." And further noted that Gosnell's trial has forced Americans to look into Planned Parenthood and the abortion business for "tolerating medical abuse of both mothers and infants."

The measure that was brought before the General Assembly for consideration but ultimately failed, reads as follows:

1. Call for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and member congregations to enter a two-year season of reflection upon the plight of children unwanted by human society, both born and not-yet born; and to purposefully seek to enter the pure worship of God by offering aid, comfort and the Gospel to those responsible for the care of our most desperate orphans (including those who survive abortion procedures): parents, siblings, church and community leaders and the medical profession.

2. Direct the moderator of the General Assembly and the stated clerk to issue statements that denounce the practice of killing babies born live following an abortion procedure, such as was revealed in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell clinic in Philadelphia.

3. Direct the moderator to appoint a special committee on abortion review, carefully balanced with members representing both pro-life and pro-choice viewpoints to:

a. Conduct a thorough assessment of the financial, in-kind, lodgment, publicity and staff support that the PC (USA) provides to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and other abortion providers or pro-choice organizations. A similar review should be made of denominational support provided for pro-life organizations and pro-life crisis-pregnancy support centers.

b. Review existing policies and, if needed, propose new policies that will more accurately represent the PC(USA) in its breadth of conviction about abortion, taking into account our churches' desire to worship God in purest form (James 1:27). Any new policies shall incorporate more fully the voices of pro-life Presbyterians, who have to this point largely been kept silent in denominational advocacy.

Officials: Iran Eased Its Demands, But Deal Still not Close
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Bushehr nuclear reactor

Reuters

Iran has reduced demands for the size of its future nuclear enrichment program in talks with world powers, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing Western diplomats close to the negotiations.

The diplomats, who spoke to the news agency at the start of a two-week round of negotiations between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, said that despite some movement from Tehran it would not be easy to clinch a deal by their self-imposed deadline for a deal of July 20.

Tehran's shift relates to the main sticking point in the talks - the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges Iran will maintain if a deal is reached to curb its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual end of sanctions.

"Iran has reduced the number of centrifuges it wants but the number is still unacceptably high," a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity and without further detail.

On Wednesday, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran has refused to back down from its demand to maintain 50,000 operational centrifuges, a figure deemed by Western officials to be out of keeping with Iran's stated need for a strictly civilian nuclear energy program.

"Iran needs at least 50,000 centrifuges and not 49,999," the Iranian official told Reuters. "We will not compromise on that ... The other party is talking about a few thousands and this is unacceptable for Iran."

Those comments are in line with ones made following the last round of talks by Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said that Iran rejected the West’s "excessive demands".

The Western diplomats, however, said that behind closed doors Iran was no longer insisting on 50,000 machines. It had signaled it would settle for a lower figure but declined to be specify the number so as not to disrupt the negotiations.

Iran now has over 19,000 centrifuges, though only around 10,000 of those are running. The powers want that number cut to the low thousands, to ensure Iran cannot quickly produce enough high-enriched uranium for a bomb, should it choose to do so.

Iranian officials declined to comment directly on the reported concession on centrifuges.

"As we said, we are ready to assure the world that we are not after the bombs," another senior Iranian official told Reuters. "We have shown our goodwill but will not yield to demands that violate our rights.”

Iran and the six powers, also known as the P5+1, have been striving to turn an interim deal signed in November into a comprehensive settlement by July 20.

Iran has previously insisted that it will never give up on what it sees as its right to uranium enrichment.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran that a nuclear deal is still possible, but time is running out.

In an editorial piece which appeared in The Washington Post, Kerry wrote, “All along, these negotiations have been about a choice for Iran’s leaders. They can agree to the steps necessary to assure the world that their country’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful and not be used to build a weapon, or they can squander a historic opportunity to end Iran’s economic and diplomatic isolation and improve the lives of their people.”

New Combat Robot is Russian Armys Very Own Deadly Wall - E
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsRussia Beyond the Headlines
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Mk Chetboun: Submissiveness Now Could Mean Intensifications
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home) reflected upon the intensification of attacks in the south and said that an end has to be put to the indecision. “Israel must embark upon another Operation “Defensive Shield” in Judea and Samaria to bring an end to terrorism and to take out terror organizations’ leaders and officers.”

Chetboun made is clear that “The Knesset will give its full backing and legitimacy to the Prime Minister and Cabinet members should they choose to embark upon such an essential and urgent Operation.”

Ministers Demand 'Whatever Needed to Destroy Hamas'
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and Finance Minister Yair Lapid visited Sderot on Thursday, shortly after a Kassam rocket fired by terrorists in Gaza hit a summer day camp moments before children were set to arrive.

The building was the second to be directly hit in Sderot since Wednesday night, as the rocket barrage from the Hamas enclave continues to escalate.

Lapid noted that he had just been at the home of Naftali Frenkel (16), who along with Eyal Yifrah (19) and Gilad Sha'ar (16) was abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists on June 12.

Connecting the incidents, Lapid indicated the Sderot wreckage, saying "this is a house in which five children live in and which was bombarded by Hamas missiles during the night."

"Any sane country will not tolerate a situation in which their kids are being killed on a daily basis," remarked Lapid, threatening the terrorist organization Hamas with a firm response.

For his part, Danon called on the government to "do whatever is necessary to protect Israel even if it means that the children will be in shelters for the next two months, the people of Sderot are ready to do it" in order to achieve long term stability.

When asked about the possibility of an IDF ground operation in Gaza, Danon repeated that Israel must "do whatever is necessary...from the air, from the sea, from the ground, whatever is necessary."

"Do whatever it takes to destroy the Hamas organization," emphasized Danon.

The statements comes as Israel carried out a troop deployment of reserve officers at the "headquarter, not field level" near the Gaza border on Thursday, and as rockets from the Hamas enclave continue to fall in a recent escalation of attacks.

Sderot has been particularly hard-hit by the recent Gaza rocket escalation; on Thursday a rocket hit open area right next to the Sderot industrial area, causing no injuries.

Sderot's industrial area took a harsh blow on Saturday night, when a direct hit was recorded on a plastics factory, burning it completely to the ground.

Let the Headlines Speak
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

6.3 earthquake strikes north of NZ
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck off the Kermadec Islands, north of New Zealand, this morning.

Armageddon on the doorstep: the ISIS conquest of Iraq leads to Jerusalem – are you ready for the next world war?
As we witness the brutalization of Iraq by the ISIS terror organization consider this: this Islamic march of death leads to Jerusalem. The leading result of the call of the people in the Arab world for the overthrow of unsatisfactory leaders has been their cause being hijacked by insurgent jihadist terrorists.  

Israeli air strikes, Palestinian rockets heat up Gaza border
The Israeli air strikes hit at least three Hamas training facilities in Gaza, said a source in the Islamist group, which dominates the Palestinian enclave.  

Judge Rejects Kentucky’s ‘Gay Marriage’ Ban, Says Constitution is Above God
A federal judge appointed by former president George W. Bush rejected Kentucky’s ban on ‘same-sex marriage,’ declaring that the U.S. Constitution is the final authority on marriage, not its author, God.  

TV Preachers Glowingly Describe Meeting with Pope to Tear Down ‘Walls of Division’
Two controversial TV preachers recently met with Pope Francis late last month in an effort to continue tearing down the “walls of division” between Catholics and Protestants. Kenneth Copeland and James Robison are two religious leaders in northeast Texas known for drawing huge crowds to their services and events.  

Fear, cash shortages hinder fight against Ebola outbreak
The outbreak has killed 467 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, making it the largest and deadliest ever, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  

Arthur becomes first hurricane of 2014 Atlantic season
Tropical Storm Arthur became the first hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic season on Thursday after sparking evacuations, closing beaches and tourist sites and disrupting Independence Day celebrations along parts of the U.S. East Coast.  

Independence Day? 79 Percent Of Americans Are Completely Okay With The Current Level Of Tyranny
But who in the world are we trying to kid? Our founders intended to create a society where freedom and liberty would be maximized, but that is not what America looks like today. Instead, we live in a country that literally has millions of laws, rules and regulations. We have a government that is obsessed with spying on the entire planet and that tries to watch, monitor, track and record as much information about all of us as it possibly can.  

‘Color Red’ Sirens Heard in Sderot, Ofakim
A ‘Color Red’ siren was just heard in the Ofakim region, in the Negev. About an hour earlier, a ‘Color Red’ siren went off in Sderot. Following the sounding of the siren in Sderot, a rocket landed and detonated in an open field near the city’s industrial zone.  

MORE SUNSPOTS
The sunspot number, already high, ticked upward again today with the arrival of another large active region over the sun's eastern limb.  

CHANCE OF FLARES
NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of M-class solar flares today. The likely source would be big sunspot AR2104, which has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong eruptions.  

Huffington Post: Too many Catholics on the Supreme Court
One of the most notable bits of fascist commentary appeared in the Huffington Post by an anti-religious bigot named Ronald A. Lindsay, The Uncomfortable Question: Should We Have Six Catholic Justices on the Supreme Court?  

Ebola 'out of control' in West Africa as health workers rush to trace 1,500 possible victims
Hundreds of West Africans could be carrying the deadly Ebola virus and not know it, potentially infecting hundreds more, as cash-strapped governments and overwhelmed aid agencies struggle to contain the virus's spread. At least 1,500 people have not yet been traced who are known to have come into contact with others confirmed or suspected to be infected with the haemorrhagic fever, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told The Telegraph.  

IDF initiates limited deployment of forces toward Gaza amid increased rocket fire
The IDF has initiated a limited deployment of forces toward the Gazan border. The move came amid an uptick of rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel's southern communities. Civilians have seen buses with soldiers and military vehicles making their way down South. Despite the limited deployment, a senior military sources maintained that "quiet will be answered with quiet."  

Obama The ‘Worst’ President Since WWII? See How He Stacks Up
President Obama is considered to be the worst president since World War II, narrowly beating out George W. Bush, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released today. Obama was the choice of 33 percent of those polled for the selection of worst president, the largest percentage of any of the 12 presidents since 1945 when the war ended.  

China, South Korea Summit to Deepen Economic Ties
The economic relationship between China and South Korea looks like it couldn't be better as Xi Jinping arrives in Seoul Thursday for his first presidential visit to the Korean Peninsula. Yet expectations are high that the summit between Xi and South Korea's president Park Geun-hye will deepen those ties with a string of agreements including direct trading between the won and the yuan, which could boost the already substantial trade between the two countries.  

Police arrest 511 after Hong Kong democracy rally
police in Hong Kong on Wednesday arrested at least 511 demonstrators who refused to leave city streets following one of the largest pro-democracy protests in the former British territory since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.  

US Teen Allegedly Falls in Love Online, Tries to Join ISIS Fighters in Syria
A suburban Denver teen fell in love with an ISIS fighter online, vowed to aid his cause in Syria, then was arrested at an airport, federal authorities said. Shannon Maureen Conley, 19, of Arvada, Colorado, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization after FBI agents arrested her at Denver International Airport on April 8 as she tried to board a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, according to a U.S. criminal complaint and a supporting affidavit. She allegedly had connecting flights to Istanbul, Turkey, and then to Adana, Turkey, just a few hours' drive from the Syrian border.  

The BRICs Are Morphing Into An Anti-Dollar Alliance
While numerous massively indebted administrations around the world hope to divert the attention of what's left of their struggling middle class away from its daily impoverished existence and distract it with flashing lights and glitzy animations showing another all time market high on a daily basis, a significantly more important shift taking place behind the scenes is appreciated by very few: the ongoing de-dollarization of the world.  

Store Closures May Send More Mid-Market Retailers Into Spending Spiral
Empty malls are sending a message loud and clear – as shoppers migrate increasingly to the web, retailers must make do with fewer and smaller stores. While the downward spiral of nationwide chains like RadioShack and American Apparel grab the latest headlines, a rash of retail bankruptcies in the middle market show just how hard it is for smaller chains to steadily close stores and also stay afloat.  

Kentucky Baptist Church to Hold Gay Wedding
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsThe Christian Post
Categories: Contemporary Issues;Apostasy

A Baptist congregation in Kentucky has garnered national headlines for its intention to hold a gay wedding at its facility, despite most of their fellow Baptist churches' disapproval.

Highland Baptist Church of Louisville recently announced their intention to hold a same-sex wedding for David Bannister Jr., 29, and Steven Carr, 25. It is scheduled for next May.

Joseph Phelps, pastor at Highland Baptist, told The Christian Post that the gay couple "have been active and faithful members of the congregation for over five years."

"Our deacons concluded that conscience would not allow us to welcome gay and lesbian members as full members of our congregation … without also granting them both the responsibilities and rights of all our other members," said Phelps.

Highland Baptist is officially affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship.

The Rev. Laura Barclay, spokeswoman with the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, told CP that her organization does not have an official position on gay marriage.

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"Because we represent autonomous congregations, we only take official positions on the matters in which we all agree," said Barclay.

"Therefore, KBF does not have an official position on marriage definition. Our organization promotes churches coming together for mission and ministry … We welcome any churches who want to partner to further the Kingdom of God."

Barclay added that "Highland Baptist Church is exercising their right as a free, autonomous church to act on their beliefs."

"They are expressing freedom of religion, a crucial tenet of the Baptist faith. We also know they have spent a great deal of time in prayer and reflection and have been very intentional about their process," said Barclay.

Likewise Jeff Huett, associate coordinator of Communications and Advancement for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, told CP that no official position either way existed.

"The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does not issue official positions on homosexuality because it violates the Fellowship's mission as a network of individuals and churches," said Huett.

"CBF values and respects the autonomy of each individual and local church to evaluate and make their own decision regarding social issues like homosexuality."

News of the wedding at Highland Baptist came around the same time as a ruling by a U.S. District Court declaring Kentucky's state marriage amendment unconstitutional.

On Tuesday Judge John Heyburn in Louisville concluded that the ban violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The decision was the most recent of over 20 across the country declaring various state-level bans unconstitutional.

ISIS Captures Largest Oil Field in Syria
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

ISIS fighters at Syria's largest oil field

Screenshot

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) continues to roll forward, adding to its collection of captured resources the Al-Omar Oil Field, the largest oil field in Syria located in the eastern Deir al-Zour province of the war-torn country, near the Iraqi border.

The Islamist group has already amassed great assets during its blitz offensive in Iraq, seizing Iraq's largest oil refinery, a chemical weapons facility, and becoming the "world's richest terrorist organization" by looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars ($425 million) from banks in Mosul.

Now, video footage uploaded to YouTube shows armed ISIS jihadists at the entrance to the field with their flag flying high, after having wrestled the field away from the Al-Nusra Front, a rival opposition force in Syria that is linked with Al-Qaeda, which ISIS broke off from.

The International Business Times reports that while it remains unclear if the field is fully operational and how much oil it is producing, before the war Syria was exporting 370,000 barrels a day.

ISIS's lightning series of victories have given it control of a corridor on the Euphrates River ranging from the far-eastern Syrian town of Bukamal, located on the border with Iraq, on through the provincial capital of Deir al-Zour to the northwest from the border.

Additionally ISIS, which on Sunday declared itself an Islamic "caliphate" and proclaimed its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as "Caliph," has succeeding in winning pledges of alleigance by numerous rebel factions in the area.

Among those factions are clans in Sheheil, an Al-Nusra Front stronghold for the moment, and nearby Ishara village.

ISIS's rapidly expanding control has put Israel in its sights as well; video this week revealed that ISIS has transferred seized weaponry from Iraq into Syria, including long-range Scud missiles, which ISIS members threatened were "heading towards Israel."

International Community Call for 'Restraint' Despite Arab Riots
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Arab riot in response to murder

Flash 90

The United States condemned the killing of a Palestinian Arab teenager on Wednesday, assuming that Israelis did kill the teen in an apparent "revenge killing" as has been claimed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). 

"There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

President Barack Obama's national security advisor Susan Rice said on Twitter that the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder was "heinous" and called on both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs to avoid a cycle of retribution and revenge.

16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder was found in the Jerusalem Forest earlier Wednesday after allegedly being forced into a black car outside Beit Hanina. 

In his statement, Kerry condemned the killing in "the strongest possible terms."

He said it was sickening to think a young boy could be "snatched off the streets and his life stolen from him and his family."

Kerry noted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had condemned the killing and urged Israelis not to take the law into their own hands.

"Those who undertake acts of vengeance only destabilize an already explosive and emotional situation," Kerry said. "We look to both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary steps to prevent acts of violence and bring their perpetrators to justice."

"At this tense and dangerous moment, all parties must do everything in their power to protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not recrimination and retribution," he added. 

Nationalistic or criminal?

Israeli leaders - including the mayor of Jerusalem and Prime Minister Netanyahu - rushed to condemn the murder, after rumor circulated that it was the work of Jewish extremists looking for "revenge" over the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Sha'ar and Eyal Yifrah. 

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, as well as some in the international media, have since repeated those claims as fact. But Israeli police have said it is far from clear at this point whether the attack was "nationalistic" or "criminal" in nature, and urged "responsibility" over reporting on it. without specifying further.

One retired police officer familiar with the family involved and the Beit Hanina area who spoke to Arutz Sheva on condition of anonymity Wednesday afternoon stated that in his opinion the murder is most likely the work of internal clashes within the boy's family. 

But those claims remain unconfirmed as well, and the police investigation into the killing is still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the news has led to an immense show of violence, with Israeli Arabs rioting throughout Jerusalem and lobbing bombs and projectiles at police officers.

Hamas rocket fire on Israel has increased as well, with six rockets being fired since 4:30 pm Wednesday and ten since Wednesday morning. 

Rejecting hype

British officials also condemned the murder on Wednesday, but did not assume that Israelis were responsible for the teen's murder. 

"I'm appalled by the murder of a Palestinian teenager," Cameron wrote on Twitter. 

"The loss of four boys this week is a terrible reminder of the need for lasting peace."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing of the Palestinian teen and said it was "vital that the people responsible for this crime are held accountable."

French President Francois Hollande, while also calling for "the utmost restraint," also refrained from assigning blame.

A statement released from the Elysee Palace said Hollande "condemns in the strongest possible manner this heinous crime and sends his condolences to his family." 

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for justice over the "despicable act", while joining British Prime Minister David Cameron and the International Committee of the Red Cross in condemning the killing.

"At this critical time, the ICRC calls on all sides to stand unequivocally against the abduction and murder of civilians," said Red Cross president Peter Maurer. "The current spiral of violence, loss and suffering must stop now."

Inside the Ring: Power Politics Behind PLA General
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

China shows a mock up of a next generation attack submarine at a military university. (International Assessment and Strategy Center)

By Bill Gertz

IDF Deploys More Troops on Gaza Border Amid Airstrike
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Light flare over Gaza after airstrike

Flash 90

Israel carried out a troop deployment towards the Gaza border on Thursday, as rockets from the Hamas enclave continue to fall in a recent escalation of attacks.

"We are moving and we have moved forces in order to serve defense activities and forward preparation, but we have no interest in escalation," IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP.

The spokesperson added that the reinforcements consist of reserve officers at "headquarter level, not in the field," adding the move was intended defensively.

"We have no interest in deepening the conflict with Gaza," said Lerner.

In response to the rocket escalation, the IAF conducted an airstrike on southern Gaza Thursday afternoon, targeting several suspicious areas near the Rafiah border crossing to Sinai. The IDF announced the airstrike was meant as an act of deterrence against the rocket fire.

Over 30 rockets have peppered southern Israel from Gaza during the course of Wednesday and Thursday. The most recent fell Thursday afternoon in open area in the Merhavim Regional Council area, after a rocket hit open area right next to the Sderot industrial area mere hours earlier. No injuries were reported in either incident.

Sderot's industrial area took a harsh blow on Saturday night, when a direct hit was recorded on a plastics factory, burning it completely to the ground. Another rocket hit a summer day camp on Thursday, only moments before children were to arrive.

While there has been an ongoing rocket escalation since the three Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha'ar (16) were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists on June 12, the recent blitz since Wednesday began the day that Mohammed Abu Khder of Beit Hanina, Jerusalem was found burned to death after having been abducted.

There have been wide accusations of Jewish "revenge" being behind the murder, but a senior former police official familiar with Abu Khder's family told Arutz Sheva it was a family with a long police record, known for violent internal clashes, adding "I have no doubt that as time passes it will be clarified that the murder was criminal and nothing more."

In a little-noticed report on Channel Two Wednesday night, reporter Moshe Nussbaum cited contradictory statements by the youth's parents, who both told police different stories about another attempted kidnapping – that of Muhammad's nine year old brother – that may or may not have taken place.

During the ensuing riots in Beit Hanina and Shuafat after the announcement of the murder, several Arab residents reportedly attacked a young local Arab, possibly indicating the internal clashes the source spoke of.

Hamas: We'll Remind Israel of the Days of Fear
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Spokesman Abu-Obeida of Hamas's military wing said, Thursday, "The enemy's threats against Gaza don't scare us and don't do anything but prepare our bank of targets."

Addressing a news conference in Gaza, he added, "The enemy knows that the next round will be serious."

End Time Believers Warn of Desensitization Leading to 666 Mark of the Beast
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsBreathecast
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

(Photo : screen-grab)

Technology continues to advance as radio frequency identification device (RIFD) chips are often used and even implanted inside of people to make life easier. Based on a new study, most people are now open to using biometric identification to make traveling easier.

The study carried out by Accenture surveyed people in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the US and revealed that 89% of citizens are willing to provide details such as fingerprints to speed up traveling and make it more convenient.

These new findings have end-time theorists believing that it is all part of a ploy to desensitize the masses for the mark of the beast spoken of in scripture. Technology, which evolves to provide the consumer with easy access and results, has now allowed RFID chips in phones, credit cards, and other things to monitor ones weight, their bank accounts, locations, and more.

Along with the masses allowing RFID chips to be implanted on their personal belongings, the survey revealed that many have opted to give up their privacy and share their biometric information to make life easier. More than half (62%) agreed to it to help make the country's borders more secure, 58% said they would give the details if it sped up customs and border control processing, and 56% would do so if it made travel more convenient.

The head of Accenture's global Border and Identity Services business, Mark Crego, said, "The strong support by citizens for technologies that can improve travel and secure borders demonstrates how important it is for border management agencies to continue to adopt new tools that meet the demands of citizens and better manage the transit of people across borders."

"Increasing the use of biometrics and introducing registered traveler programs can make traveling faster, safer, and more convenient, and strengthen both border and national security through improved intelligence gathering," Crego continued.

Although only 23% of those questioned had used automated border clearance solutions such as e-gates at airports and border crossings, 80% said they too would like to use an e-gate, but the device may invade freedom to privacy rights.

Accenture reported that 68% said that prior to sharing biometric information, they would want to know what security measures were in place to protect the data, and 67% would want to know how it was going to be used.

A number of biblical end-time theorists and believers on social media have been outspoken against the new technology, with some even strongly feeling like the fingerprints identification and the RIFD chip are associated with the 666 mark spoken of in Revelation. The scripture concerning the Mark of the Beast states that people will not be able to buy or sell without the mark, leading some to relate the Bible verses to the publicized technology. They have warned Christians not to take the mark because of the Bible scriptures; other believers have been more skeptical about the claims.

"And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

Revelation 13:16-18

Armageddon on the Doorstep: the ISIS Conquest of Iraq Leads to Jerusalem
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

As we witness the brutalization of Iraq by the ISIS terror organization consider this: this Islamic march of death leads to Jerusalem. The leading result of the call of the people in the Arab world for the overthrow of unsatisfactory leaders has been their cause being hijacked by insurgent jihadist terrorists.

We saw that in Libya with the fall of Gadhafi. We saw it in Egypt where Mubarak was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood, in this case an in-house jihadist movement. We see it in Syria where the people’s cry against Assad has led to an influx of Al-Qaida type groups vying for dominance. Now we witness the conquest of Iraq by a vicious Islamic terror regime against which Al-Qaida pales into moderation.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) is headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He transformed a few small terror cells into the most brutal and lethal terror group on earth. Mercy is not in this man’s vocabulary. Abu Bakr picked up the mantle after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in 2010. Al-Qaida in Iraq was under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who, in a 2005 letter to the head of Al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, put the aims of Al-Qaida in Iraq into four stages;

1. Drive America out of Iraq.

2. Create a Caliphate in Iraq.

3. Use that as a base to attack other countries.

4. Attack Israel.

When both al-Zarqawi and al-Baghdadi were killed by American forces it looked as if Al-Qaida was decimated in Iraq, but Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reformed a weakening terror group by leading it in battle, honing its fighters’ training and experience in Iraq and Syria, and by using political savvy to link his growing group to local and tribal demands and interests. 

It became both a fighting force and a social benefactor, winning local hearts and minds along a bloody path of victory. He absorbed the al-Nusra Front terror group in Syria into his ranks, demanding their obedience. Seeing the growing threat, Al-Qaida’s al-Zarqawi, from his hiding place somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan, criticized ISIS for not concentrating on Iraq. In response, a confident ISIS hit back, accusing the Al-Qaida chief of “Sheikh Osama (bin Laden) gathered all the mujahedeen with one word, but you divided them and tore them apart.”

ISIS has attracted thousands of foreign fighters to its ranks, increasing its power and size. The shockwaves caused by its Iraqi Blitzkreig in seizing the towns of Mosul, Tikrit, and Fallujah was met by a mocking response by ISIS.

“The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. Put on your belts and get ready” as they contemptuously called Iraqi leader, Nouri al-Maliki, an “underwear salesman.”

Clearly, the battle for Iraq is along sectarian lines with the Sunni ISIS, representing the majority of Iraqis, challenging the Shia al-Maliki rule. Clear also was al-Maliki’s refusal to allow American forces to stay on in Iraq, but the ISIS victories were enhanced by the military vacuum in Iraq following the American pullout, and this responsibility can be put at Obama’s White House door.

Obama’s self-proclaimed foreign-policy “achievements” have been U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, and “Al-Qaida has been decimated and is on the run!” These two boasts have now come back to haunt him. Al-Qaida has morphed into a bigger monster that is about to take over Iraq. And what was President Obama’s response?

“We don’t have the resources. Let the local leaders deal with them.”

This is shortsighted weakness, and dangerous. This was emphasized on Friday, June 13, when Obama, confronted by the deteriorating situation in Iraq, decided to head off to California for a fund-raising event and some golf. America spilled blood and treasure in Iraq including 4500 lives, $17 billion in military training to Iraqi forces, and $15 billion in military equipment. Now ISIS terrorists are seen driving around in American military Humvees.

The United States embassy in Baghdad is the largest global American embassy. It has 15,000 workers. It would be a mistake to think that they did not pick up intelligence on the gathering Islamic terror storm. They did, and it fed it up the chain to the State Department and the White House, for months. Neither of those bodies acted on the intel. As one staffer told Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters,

“We couldn’t convince the President that this is serious!”

Now the Baghdad embassy could be under ISIS fire, making Benghazi look like child’s play. And the attack on Americans will not end there. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was captured, imprisoned, and then released by America in Iraq, just as Obama recently released the five top Al-Qaida/Taliban prisoners at Gitmo.

America, and others, will pay for both these foolish gestures. As Ken King, the commander of the Bucco Camp that was ordered to release al-Baghdadi, related on the Fox News “Kelly Files” program, as a parting shot the ISIS leader glared at King and warned:

“I’ll see you in New York!”

In a strange twist on “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Republican lawmakers called for a partnership with Iran to stop ISIS from attacking Baghdad. Senator Lindsey Graham warned that ISIS “will eventually march on Jordan and Lebanon. They’re going to take the King of Jordan down.” The unspoken implication is that Israel will be next. ISIS is now pumping Iraqi oil. It grabbed half a trillion dollars when it seized Iraq’s central bank in Mosul making it the richest terrorist organization in the world. ISIS has been called too extreme for Al-Qaida with justification. Al-Baghdadi is being crowned “the next Bin Laden.”

ISIS is guilty of wholesale massacres in Syria, leaving the bodies to rot for all to see. It beheaded a top rival rebel commander, leaving his head in the middle of the market. Amnesty International listed a few of their atrocities in their 18-page report “Rule of fear;ISIS abuses in detention is northern Syria.”

“They have conducted hundreds of executions, beheadings, even crucifixions in Mosul, Iraq. They destroy anything that is not Islamic, such as the Assyrian Church in Mosul. Hundreds have been slain for being “infidels.”

Once Islamic ISIS establishes its permanent presence in Iraq, as Hizb’allah has done in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, it will strengthen its grip on Syria. While looking down on Israel from the Golan Heights, it is likely to turn its attention to a militarily weak Lebanon, seeking to remove the Shiite Hizb’allah from power, taking over its armory of a hundred thousand rockets, and taking control of that country.

From its northern stronghold in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria it will target Jordan with the intention of deposing, or killing, the Hashemite king, as a preliminary step to taking over his country. If America, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia do not immediately move to strengthen the kingdom, King Abdullah will be exposed to mortal danger, granting ISIS control over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in their march to a global Caliphate, and Stage 4 of their original plan. Israel would be advised to keep a sharp eye on future moves by ISIS to attack or infiltrate Jordan via Syria.

Who is to say that radical Palestinians and Islamists in Jordan will not open the gates of that country to ISIS, just as Syrians reached out to them at their cost? 

When that scenario is achieved, Israel will be exposed to a threatening and powerful terror enemy stretching from Rosh HaNikra on the northern Mediterranean to Mount Hermon in the northeast of Israel, sweeping through the Golan Heights and down the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea and the Red Sea in the south. In the turmoil that is the Middle East, where regimes are falling and nations are toppling, who is to say that such a nightmare scenario is not possible unless ISIS is stopped in its tracks now?

Are We Mad to Have Let a Maverick Scientist Create a Virus That Could Wipe Out 400 Million People?
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsMail Online
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

No vaccine: If the new strain of swine flu was released, it could kill up to a billion people

What was extraordinary about the great flu pandemic of 2018 was not only that it came exactly 100 years after the Spanish flu of 1918, but that it also killed 5 per cent of the world’s population.

In 1918, that proportion meant some 100  million people. In 2018, nearly 400 million fell victim.

Of those, some one million were in Britain. Nearly every family lost a loved one, with children and the elderly being particularly vulnerable.

The NHS was unable to cope with the sheer numbers infected, which ran to around ten million — almost a sixth of the population.

With no vaccine available, all that doctors could do was to send people home and tell them to hope for the best.

It was the worst natural disaster the world had ever seen. But the virus was no random creation of Mother Nature — it was man-made, produced by an obscure professor at a university deep in the heart of the U.S.

This may sound like a science-fiction scenario that would strain credulity but, terrifyingly, it is all too possible.

Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has created a deadly new strain of the 2009 swine flu virus — for which there is no known vaccine.

If the virus escaped from Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory it could kill hundreds of millions — perhaps even a billion. Worryingly, scientists seem as alarmed as the general public.

Professor Kawaoka revealed what he had done at a secret meeting held earlier this year, and his fellow virologists appear to have reacted with despair.

‘He’s basically got a known pandemic strain that is now resistant to vaccination,’ said one scientist who did not wish to be named. ‘Everything he did before was dangerous, but this is even madder.’

So what exactly has Professor Kawaoka done before?

Only last month Kawaoka revealed in a scientific paper that he had also synthesised a bird flu virus — called ‘1918-like Avian’.

He had created, through a process called ‘reverse genetics’, a flu virus extremely similar to that which caused the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.

Kawaoka and his team declared that they had made the virus to assess whether variants of the 1918 flu were as deadly to humans as the original virus.

After testing it on ferrets, the team found that what they had created, in the dry words of academia, ‘may have pandemic potential’. 

A patient is given a swine flu vaccination. Compared to the outbreak in 1918, H5N1 has so far been relatively merciful. To date, only some 400 people worldwide have died from the virus

An earlier experiment looked at making another lethal bird flu strain easier to catch.

The idea that scientists blithely create deadly flu viruses, essentially to see how deadly they are, caused outrage in the scientific community and the world at large.

‘The work they are doing is absolutely crazy,’ said Professor Lord May of Oxford, a former president of the Royal  Society.  ‘The whole thing is exceedingly dangerous.’

Marc Lipsitch, Professor of  Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: ‘I am worried that this signals a growing trend to make “transmissible” novel viruses willy-nilly. This is a risky activity, even in the safest labs.

‘Scientists should not take such risks without strong evidence that the work could save lives, which this paper does not provide.’

Other scientists used stronger language.

‘If society understood what was going on,’ thundered Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, of the Virology Department at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, ‘they would say “What the  F are you doing?” ’

It’s a good question. Professor Kawaoka did try to justify his research last month.

He explained that wild birds continue to harbour many variants of the influenza A virus — the strain of virus that can be transmitted from birds, including domestic poultry, through to humans.

One of the subtypes of influenza A is called H5N1 — a name familiar to many.

Not only was a form of H5N1 behind the 1918 outbreak, but its variants have started to emerge over the past ten years, and are now collectively known as ‘bird flu’.

Compared to the outbreak in 1918, H5N1 has so far been relatively merciful. To date, only some 400 people worldwide have died from the virus.

However, this is not to say that a new form of H5N1 could not be more deadly, and there are many virologists around the world working on ways to deal with potential pandemics.

Professor Kawaoka argues that ‘foreseeing and understanding this potential is important for effective surveillance’.

Kawaoka and his team create new forms of H5N1, then study how they function and how easily they can spread. Naturally, the experiments are carried out in extremely secure conditions

To do this, Kawaoka and his team create new forms of H5N1, then study how they function and how easily they can spread.

Naturally, the experiments are carried out in extremely secure conditions — although it is alarming to learn that

Professor Kawaoka’s Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin is not rated at the most secure level.

Laboratories that work with deadly biological agents are graded with increasing levels of biosafety, which range from BSL-1 up to BSL-4.

Establishments rated at BSL-4 include the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire, and the new National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Maryland in the U.S.

Professor Kawaoka’s lab is rated at BSL-3. Under the strict guidelines, the entrance to the laboratory must be through two sets of self-closing and locking doors, and no air must escape from it.

All procedures must be carried out inside a closed biological safety cabinet, into which scientists insert  their hands and arms cased in latex gloves.

Often, respirators must be worn, and all staff members are medically screened, and immunised when possible. However some scientists are adamant that the risks are still too high.

In a paper published in 2012, Lynn Klotz, a Senior Science Fellow at the U.S. Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, stated that 42 institutions were working with any number of three potentially deadly disease-causing substances — smallpox, the SARS virus, and H5N1.

Klotz estimated there was an 80 per cent likelihood of one of these diseases escaping from one of these laboratories in just under every 13 years.

‘This level of risk is clearly unacceptable,’ Klotz said.

However, Klotz’s work did not take account of another danger — one that makes the risk of a genetically manipulated virus breaking free from a lab even more likely: terrorism.

Even though the idea that, say, militant Islamists, might break into laboratories to release strains of H5N1 seems far-fetched, it is taken very seriously by policymakers.

A visual representation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Even though the idea that, say, militant Islamists, might break into laboratories to release strains of H5N1 seems far-fetched, it is taken very seriously by policymakers

In 2011, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity called for scientific papers on H5N1 to be censored, which caused fierce debate among scientists.

Because of such fears, in 2012 many scientists voluntarily halted research on H5N1. The moratorium lasted for a year, after which the virologists lifted it, stating that the risks from not studying the virus were greater than those raised by the virus falling into the wrong hands.

However, many scientists remain deeply uncomfortable with the way some research is carried out on H5N1. Those doubts are sure to be repeated with the latest revelations about Professor Kawaoka.

Some, such as Professor Marc Lipsitch, advocate what he calls ‘ethical alternatives’ to the type of approach used by Kawaoka, in which more rigorous risk assessments should be made.

‘In the case of influenza, we anticipate that such a risk assessment will show that the risks are unjustifiable,’ Professor Lipsitch states in a paper he published last month.

But despite such calls from their academic colleagues, Kawaoka and other scientists, such as Professor Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, insist that what they are doing is right, and maintain that their work is safe and therefore ethical.

But as every scientist knows, there is no such thing as a sure bet. There is always a chance that, one day, someone will walk out of Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory in Wisconsin feeling under the weather.

If that happens, then we must hope and pray that those same scientists find a cure —before millions die.

'We're not Afraid of Israel's Threats', Declares Hamas
Jul 3rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas terrorists

Flash 90

The Hamas terrorist group declared on Thursday that it was not afraid of Israel’s threats, after Israel delivered an ultimatum to Hamas to stop rocket fire from Gaza within 48 hours or deal with an Israeli attack on Gaza.

A spokesman for Hamas’s “military wing”, the Al-Qassam Brigades, responded to the Israeli ultimatum by saying that the campaign of the Palestinian people against the "occupier" is not bound by time, and called Israel “a racist enemy who permits the blood of others and relates only to Jewish blood as holy.”

He further said that the Palestinian people aim to release the "land of their fathers and grandfathers," and that the Al-Qassam Brigades have become an army that cannot be defeated.

In a direct message to the so-called “Zionist occupiers," the spokesman declared that "you will not dance on our blood over a long period of time” because the Palestinians will not remain indifferent to the "aggression of the enemy army and the hordes of plunderers (the Israelis -ed.).”

He further said that the Palestinian people in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem know well how to extract a high price from “the arrogant enemy", adding that “the resistance knows its obligation very well."

Referring to the possibility of an Israeli attack in Gaza, the spokesman declared that Israel can decide on the beginning of such an attack but its conclusion will be determined by the Al-Qassam Brigades. In any case, he claimed, the Palestinians are not afraid of the Israeli threats.

Earlier, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at a Fourth of July reception at the U.S. Ambassador's residence that Israel is preparing for two possibilities.

“One – that the fire will stop and then our operations will also stop; and the second, that the fire will continue and then our forces will act forcefully.”

The verbal exchange comes as Gaza terrorists continue the constant rocket fire on southern Israel.

Over 15 rockets, part of the roughly 40 that have been fired from Gaza in the last two days, were fired at southern Israel in a salvo Thursday afternoon, causing two fires to break out.

Another two rockets were fired towards the Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regions shortly after 11:00 p.m. Thursday night.

The rockets exploded in open areas. There were no physical injuries or damages.