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Ya'alon Declares 'Special Situation' After Rocket Fire
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon spoke on Tuesday about Operation Protective Edge, which was launched Monday night after Gaza highly escalated its rocket fire on Israel, causing sirens to be heard deep in central Israel.

The minister's comments came shortly after concluding a meeting with Maj. Gen. Eyal Eizenberg of the Homefront Command, Defense Ministry Director Dan Harel and the head of the National Emergency Authority.

Summarizing the meeting, Ya'alon said it was decided to declare "special situation" status for the communities and regional authorities up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Gaza security border.

"We are preparing for a campaign against Hamas, which won't end in just a few days. Hamas is leading the current clash to a point where it hopes to inflict a toll on our homefront," said Ya'alon.

"We need to take a deep breath. The proper conduct by the population has a decisive part in our ability not to suffer injuries," added Ya'alon, calling on residents "to listen to instructions of the Homefront Command about proximity and entering safe shelters."

Ya'alon related the early stages of the operation, saying "in recent hours we struck hard and hit dozens of Hamas assets, and the IDF continues in its offensive effort, in a manner that will inflict a very heavy toll on Hamas."

"We won't tolerate rocket fire on Israeli communities, and we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas," added Ya'alon, praising residents and community leaders of the south.

Sources said Monday it was possible that Hamas would expand the range of attacks against Israel, and could possibly target Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel; the news prompted the Security Cabinet to launch Operation Protective Edge, which has seen the IDF pummel over 50 terror targets in Gaza overnight, including the homes of four Hamas terror leaders.

Ya'alon's comments about expanding the operation mirror the words of Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu), who said Tuesday morning "we don't want to enter Gaza. But the current dynamics, if they don't change, will lead to that. We can't continue with small payments (i.e. small strikes on Gaza) - it needs to be much stronger."

White House Condemns Gaza Rocket Fire
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The White House on Tuesday strongly condemned the incessant rocket fire from Gaza towards Israel and reiterated that Washington supports Israel’s right to self-defense.

"We strongly condemn the continuing rocket fire inside of Israel and the deliberate targeting of civilians by terrorist organizations in Gaza," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

"No country can accept rocket fire aimed at civilians and we support Israel's right to defend itself against these vicious attacks," he added.

Earnest joined several foreign European dignitaries who earlier on Tuesday condemned the wave of rocket fire engulfing Israel, after the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge the previous night.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the rocket fire on Israeli civilian population centers, but stopped short of calling those firing the lethal projectiles at citizens "terrorists."

"I condemn the firing of rockets into Israel by Gaza-based militants. The UK calls on Hamas and other militant groups to stop these attacks," stated Hague.

Also commenting on the situation Tuesday was EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen, who visited southern Israel where he expressed "unreserved solidarity" with the embattled Israeli civilians living under constant rocket fire.

"Indiscriminate shooting of rockets against innocent civilians can never be a legitimate response," said Faaborg-Andersen.

Earnest’s comments on Tuesday were made a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and asked him to “act with restraint” in his response to Hamas's pounding of southern Israel.

With that, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the U.S. supported Israel's right to defend itself.

“We condemn the firing of missiles at Israel and support Israel's right to defend itself,” said Psaki.

U.S. Dollar As Worlds Reserve Currency Under Threat
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The US dollar seems to be snowballing towards its ultimate demise as the world’s reserve currency. This is for a variety of reasons, but it would seem that China is a major cause, exploiting U.S weaknesses and economic vulnerabilities in order to advance the position of the Chinese yuan as a preferable alternative.

Voice of Russia.com has recently reported that China is pursuing its quest to strip the US dollar of its global reserve currency status. After establishing the mechanisms for direct ruble-yuan trading and settlement, Beijing is now kicking the dollar out of its transactions with the Great Britain, something that was considered unimaginable just a few short years back. China has reportedly also had a string of successful attempts to establish direct currency trade with countries like Russia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada, with the UK being the latest and one of the most important additions to the list of China's successes in the global currency war.

Because most cross-currency trading is done via the US dollar, the US financial system becomes paramount for international trade, giving Washington the possibility to cripple most of the world's economies by simply restricting their access to dollar-denominated transactions. A prime example of a country suffering from such sanctions is Iran.

According to the report, Russia, China and other countries that are deeply concerned with the privileged position of the US currency are seeking opportunities to circumvent the established practices. During the visit to the UK by China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang, China's Foreign Exchange Trade System announced that it has established the framework that will allow Sterling and yuan to be directly swapped without using the US dollar as an intermediary. 

If implemented successfully, this move will be a massive diplomatic victory for Beijing, as it will have by-passed the U.S exchange system in order to deal directly with the UK. The UK in turn would potentially be rewarded by moving closer to its intention of making the City of London the most important global hub for trading offshore yuan at the expense of such competitors as Frankfurt, Paris and Luxembourg.

The dollar’s reserve currency position has also been threatened from several other quarters such as the lucrative international oil trade, commonly transacted in “petrodollars.” The end result is also likely to work further to China’s advantage. For instance, Currency Wars author and analyst James Rickards was reported to have pointed out in December that the petrodollar system is collapsing because the US has abused its privileged reserve currency position by printing trillions of dollars in an effort to create inflation, and that “maybe it won’t be long before we’re all talking about the petroyuan”.

Rickards further stated that there is also a newly emerging alliance among Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, and Russia that will have no particular use for US dollars and no reason to support them, marking the beginning of a significant diminution in the role of the dollar in the international monetary system. Certainly not good news for the petrodollar.

In a separate report, Voice of Russia recently interviewed Jacques Sapir, a French economist and the director of the Higher School of Social Sciences in Paris, and a prominent expert on the issue of international currency transactions and finance. Sapir concurred that Russia's and China's desire to get rid of the dollar in their gas transactions is quite likely to be fulfilled, and suggests that many countries, especially the producers of raw materials, would like to end their dependency on dollars for international transactions, depending instead on regional reserve currencies. 

In Sapir’s words: "Another path is to develop currencies, which at the regional level are beginning to play the role of the regional reserve currency. I believe that China’s goal is to make its national currency, the yuan, in a few years become the reserve currency at the level of the Asia-Pacific Region, perhaps along with the Australian dollar or even the Singapore currency. As we know, there is also a project to make the ruble the reserve currency for the CIS countries… And thus, it is quite possible that there will be many currencies, which will gradually undermine the positions of the dollar as the international reserve currency." 

Sapir’s comments, far from being isolated, have also been corroborated by other credible sources, such as the German Bundesbank Executive Board member Dr. Joachim Nagel. Mid last year, Voice of Russia reported that Nagel shocked the audience at a conference of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Frankfurt by saying that although the US dollar remains the most widely used global currency; the yuan is gaining popularity and could become a new global reserve currency. 

That viewpoint is still gaining traction today, not least due to Russia aggressively working to assist China’s efforts to surmount the dollar. The Bangkok Post recently reported: “Last week, the Russian energy giant Gazprom made headlines when it announced it would start accepting yuan for payments. Since Gazprom produces 17% of the world’s gas and a whopping 83% of Russian supplies, there has been renewed talk of the yuan as a global currency — some pundits even see the US dollar fading into the background… Most analysts see China overtaking the US in absolute terms to become the world’s No.1 economy within a decade. But if differences in purchasing power are taken into account, that may happen as soon as this year.”

So is the dollar as an international currency on its deathbed yet? Not so fast: the same report suggests that despite China’s growing dominance on the global economic scene, its currency remains far from world-beating status, and advances the following supporting reasons based on figures from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS): 

1. BIS data show the US dollar captures 87% of all transactions (in comparison with about 2% of global currency turnover for the yuan) implying that any currency, when exchanged, will almost always be with the dollar.

2. The rise of the yuan is said to mainly reflect moves to make it more easily convertible to the dollar, rather than to replace it. 

In addition the Bangkok Post report states that the dollar and yuan are not the only currencies competing for attention in the BIS league. Though at some distance, the euro is next in line to the dollar, trailed by the yen and the British pound. The charts show the yuan has a long and hard road ahead. 

Nonetheless, the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency is still clearly under sustained pressure from various quarters and will eventually crumble, as will all other currencies to pave way for a new economic world order - just as prophesied in the Biblical scriptures on the end times. These interim developments are just pieces in the overall puzzle, and it will be interesting to watch how further developments in global currency transactions will evolve towards this end.

Temple Institute Announces Discovery of Red Heifer in Anticipation of Third Temple
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a key prophetic event with tremendous significance. In addition to the actual building that is required, a tremendous amount of detail will need to be re-enacted, based on the specific requirements given by God in the Old Testament regarding both the numerous items, laws and rituals required to properly conduct the Temple worship, sacrifices and rites. One such key requirement is the slaughtering of a red heifer for its ashes, which would then be used in an ash water mix as a purification-for-worship prerequisite as recorded in the biblical book of Numbers Chapter 19.

A recent report by by Michael Snyder in End of the American Dream, explains why this is no mean feat: “A qualified red heifer has not been seen in the land of Israel for nearly two thousand years, and without one it would not be possible to resume Temple worship. But now a candidate has been found that could change everything. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem (dedicated to making preparations for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple) has released stunning video footage of a red heifer that they believe meets the Biblical requirements. 

This red heifer was born in the United States, and the owners of the red heifer contacted the Temple Institute in order to receive instructions about how to care for it. It is hoped that this red heifer will eventually be transported to the land of Israel and be used for the purification of the priests and the vessels that will be used in a rebuilt Jewish Temple”.

The Temple Institute has already successfully assembled other key requirements including: priestly garments made to Biblical specifications, musical instruments played by the Levitical choir, the golden crown of the High Priest, gold and silver vessels used in the incense and sacrificial services, a seven-branched Menorah made of pure gold, a golden Incense Altar and a golden Table of Showbread. They are currently on exhibit in Jerusalem’s Old City Jewish Quarter.

Michael Snyder explains that without the ashes of a red heifer, all of those preparations are in vain: before the Temple can be rebuilt and Temple worship can be resumed, a perfect red heifer must be found. This heifer is expected to also meet the following standards:

• It must never be yoked to work;

• It must never mate;

• It must be completely red—even two black hairs would render it invalid.

The heifer would historically be slaughtered and burned on a pyre, along with a cedar branch, hyssop sprig, and crimson wool. The ceremony took place on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple Mount.

A related story published in WND.com  quotes Institute spokesman Rabbi Chaim Richman saying that the heifer is being raised according to the laws of the Torah at an undisclosed U.S. location. The heifer is said to be an Angus mix was in January and is not being tagged, branded or “used for any activity.” According to Richman, the reason the color of the heifer was to be red was “not for humankind to know…the knowledge the red heifer represents is way, way beyond our spiritual capacities.”

Perhaps not entirely: One revealed significance in the Bible about the color red is that it represents sin. Isaiah 18:1 says: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. “ Wikipedia.com lists scarlet and crimson as being shades of red, hence red is the primary or parent color.

There are other Biblical comparisons that suggest that the Old Testament red heifer was also in many ways a type or shadow of the blood atonement for our sins in the New Testament or covenant, paid for by Jesus Christ in his sufferings and death before He rose again. Gospel Herald.com for instance, draws out parallels, some of which are as follows:

• The red heifer was to be "without spot" and without a yoke typifying Christ's voluntary coming to redeem us and His sinless character even though He took our sins as His own (Hebrews 4:15).

• The red heifer was similar to, yet different from, the other offerings for sin. Nevertheless, the purpose was the same. It was a sin offering (just as Jesus who was “made sin”: For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• The red heifer was a congregational, or corporate, offering (Numbers. 19:1). It was to be offered outside the camp as an impure thing, typifying Christ who was made to be sin and a curse for us. He suffered outside the established order of things (Hebrews 13:12). 

• The heifer was to be "totally consumed with nothing remaining but ashes… the burning to ashes represents the total consumption and destruction of sin and sinners (Malachi. 4:1, 3)…He became sin itself in order that He might destroy him who had the power of sin and death (Hebrews. 2:14, 15)."

• The ashes were sufficient for all the people. When a person or a family needed purification, a fresh heifer was not required to be sacrificed. One was sufficient for all, including the sojourning stranger (Numbers 19:10). So the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for everyone. It is everlastingly efficacious.

• The ashes were stored for all future needs. So the sacrifice of Christ is laid up for us as an inexhaustible fountain of merit to which we have daily access for the purging of our consciences (Hebrews. 9:13, 14; Zechariah. 13:1).

• The red heifer was offered alone. Christ was all alone. There is but one sin-bearer and He trod the winepress alone. He endured the contradiction (hostility) of sinners (those he came to save) against himself, alone (Hebrews. 12:3).

The significance to the salvation of mankind from sin during the Old Testament times when red heifers were sacrificed therefore becomes clear when compared and contrasted to the New Testament. 

However despite the significance of the recent red heifer find, from the Bible prophecies yet to be fulfilled, other hindrances to the rebuilding of the Temple still remain. The primary one seems to be the strong Islamic resistance to Jewish buildings around the Temple mount; however the Temple Institute and the many Orthodox Jews working towards this goal remain undeterred. 

Ultimately the prophecies will come true and God will undoubtedly take care of any seemingly insurmountable obstacles at the human level. We can count on it for “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).

So how should we react to the news of the red heifer findings? Perhaps Jesus would answer that question by reminding us of His words to us when on earth:
“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near (Luke 21:28).”

Special Homefront Situation Declared
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon decided, Tuesday to declare a Special Homefront Situation in communities and regional councils withing a 40-kilometer/26-mile radius of Gaza because of rocket fire originating in the Hamas-ruled area. Community leaders requested the status on Monday.

During a discussion with Homefront Commander Eyal Eisenberg and other security and emergency officials, Ya'alon said the confrontation with Hamas would not end in a few days. He said that in recent hours, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hit dozens of Hamas targets and was continuing efforts to take a heavy toll on the terror organization. He added that the IDF was ready to expand the campaign. He said the public's following the instructions of the Homefront Command was important for avoiding casualties.

Netanyahu Gives Orders to Widen Gaza Operation
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the citizens of Israel Tuesday evening, as the first day of Operation Protective Edge drew to a close.

"The state of Israel is in the midst of a campaign to bring back peace and security to our citizens,” he said. “We will not stand for rocket fire on our cities and communities; therefore I gave instructions to widen in a meaningful way the IDF operation against the Hamas terrorists and against the terrorists of the other terror organizations in Gaza.

"I did so only after all of the attempts that were made to restore quiet went unheeded, and Hamas opted for escalation. We do not go gleefully into battle, but the security of our citizens and children comes before everything else. We will do all that is necessary so that the calm that we have experienced here in recent years continues."

The prime minister also addressed the issue of civilian casualties, following an incident in which several Palestinians were killed while being used as human shields by terrorists.

"The IDF aims its actions against Hamas terrorists and not against innocent civilians,” Netanyahu stressed. “But Hamas purposely hides behind Palestinian civilians, and therefor bears responsibility when they are inadvertently hit.”

Since midnight last night alone, terrorists from Gaza have fired more than 130 rockets at Israeli civilians in southern communities, prompting Israel to launch a series of 150 airstrikes as part of Operation Protective Edge.

Gaza medical sources say 15 people - most of them Hamas terrorists - have been killed in targeted IAF strikes.

In addition, four Hamas terrorists were eliminated by IDF forces Tuesday evening after they infiltrated the border with Gaza via the sea. One IDF soldier was lightly wounded in that clash.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli Security Cabinet authorized the calling up of 40,000 reserve soldiers, in anticipation of a possible ground assault on the Gaza Strip.

Muslim Brotherhood Org That Met With Obama Will Call for Islamic War Against Israel
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsBreitbart
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi – the Secretary General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars – called on the Islamic and Arab peoples to rise up in all parts of the world for the sake of Palestine and Jerusalem since it is the central issue of the nation, and therefore pressure must be placed on the governments and institutions to carry out their duty towards stopping the Zionist terrorism that is occurring in the land of Palestine, stressing that the peoples are more powerful than they imagine and that they are capable of making the difference if they were to act to support the Umma’s just causes.

Al-Qaradaghi also declared that the Union stands with the popular outburst in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and condemns the crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and cautions the Zionist settlers who are raping the land from targeting Palestinians, and the Umma will not idly refrain forever from aiding their brethren that are being murdered by Zionist hands, which also usurps their lands and money.

IUMS was founded by Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader described by National Review’s Andrew McCarthy as “The most influential Sunni Islamist in the world.”

In 2003, Qaradawi issued a fatwa (religious declaration) that called for the killing of US soldiers in Iraq. He wrote:

Those killed fighting the American forces are martyrs given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will... Although they are seen by some as being wrong, those defending against attempts to control Islamic countries have the intention of Jihad and bear a spirit of the defense of their homeland.

In June 2013, Bin Bayyah, the Vice President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, met with members of the White House National Security Council. According to Bayyah, it was not his organization but the Obama administration that had initially reached out and sought a meeting. "We asked for this meeting to learn from you, and we need to be looking for new mechanisms to communicate with you and the Association of Muslim Scholars,” Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council, reportedly said about IUMS.

On July 4th, Qaradawi & Qaradaghi issued a joint statement calling for the destruction of Israel.

 The Union Condemns the International Silence Regarding the Murder and Burning of the Palestinian Youth and Martyr, Mohammad Hussein Abu Khdeir.The International Union of Muslim Scholars issued a report condemning the international silence towards the murder, and burning of the Palestinian youth and martyr, Mohammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, and stresses the right of the Palestinians to launch an intifada/rise up, and resist the Occupation through all possible means, and condemns the bloodthirsty Zionist instigation against the Palestinians, and calls on the Umma to defend Palestine: as a cause, and people, and holy places. Here is the text of the declaration:

Praise be to Allah, and prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions and those loyal to him (etc.)

The International Union for Muslim Scholars has followed with sorrow the incident of the murder and burning of the Palestinian youth and martyr Mohammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, at the hands of criminal Zionist settlers on occupied Palestinian land, amidst Islamic, Arabic, Regional and International silence, both official and popular, which points to a general lack of human conscience, and exposes supporting the Zionist Occupier against the Palestinian masters of the land!

Therefore the International Union of Muslim Scholars, regarding this matters, states and emphasizes the following:

1. The IUMS emphasizes and stresses the complete right of the Palestinian people to defend its occupied land, and to resist the occupier through all possible and available means, without exception, per the rules of Islamic Law, and the rules and principles of international law.

2. The Union condemns the international silence towards the occurrence of the murder and burning of the Palestinian youth and martyr Mohammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped by Zionist settler murderers, who killed him in cold blood and then burned his body, in the shadow of official Zionist intisgation, and the letting loose of bloodthirsty calls against the Palestinians, and which all indicates a large danger towards the Palestinian cause; and it requires the rejection of these racist aggressions towards Arabs and Muslims, and responding to it at all levels.

3. The International Union considers what the Zionist Occupation authority carries out in the Palestinian land: Extreme demonstrative steps; satisfying the bloodthirsty demands from a murderous occupier.

4. The International Union of Muslim Scholars calls on the Islamic and Arabic Umma: peoples and governments, to the Palestinian People, and to back the Palestinian Cause and the Palestinian People and their just rights, and the Palestinian holy sites that have fallen prey to the brutal occupier, and considers them completely responsible and accountable before Almighty Allah.“O you who believe, if you support Allah, He will make you victorious and make your foothold firm.” Surat Mohammad, Verse 7.

Let the Headlines Speak
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Quake rocks Kashmir
A medium-intensity tremor measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale rocked Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday evening but no damage was reported from anywhere, officials said.  

Vanuatu Earthquake Today 2014 Strikes Port Vila, Near New Caledonia
A Vanuatu earthquake today 2014 has struck Port-Vila. A 6.3 magnitude Vanuatu earthquake today July 8, 2014 has hit the region. Damage assessment is pending.  

3.16 Magnitude Quake Hits Carson
UNR's seismology lab reports it happened at 5:16PM, and KOLO 8 News Now has gotten dozens of reports from residents of Carson City and south Reno that they felt it.  

Moderate 5.6 quake hits northern Japan
The epicentre of the quake was located inland of northernmost Hokkaido at a depth of 37 kilometres (23 miles), close to the region's capital city Sapporo. The Japan Meteorological Agency put the quake's strength slightly higher at 5.8 magnitude, adding that there was no risk of a tsunami.  

Oxnard Earthquake Today 2014 Strikes Channel Islands, Port Hueneme
An Oxnard earthquake today 2014 struck the Channel Islands and Port Hueneme. The Oxnard earthquake today July 8, 2014 began in the morning hours in the Pacific Ocean. Damage assessment is pending.  

US senators ask President Obama to give Meriam Ibrahim asylum
US Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) called out President Barack Obama this week for not doing enough for persecuted Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim. The senators said that the White House should offer Ibrahim and her family asylum, and secure her safe transport into the US. Sen. Cruz told reporters Tuesday that the United States has displayed a lack of leadership in the case of Ibrahim, who is married to an American.

FLARE PROBABILITIES TICK UPWARDS
For the second day in a row, the odds of a powerful flare have increased. NOAA forecasters now estimate a 70% chance of M-flares and a 15% chance of X-flares on July 8th.  

China thinks it can defeat America in battle
The People's Republic of China now believes it can successfully prevent the United States from intervening in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan or some other military assault by Beijing.  

Israel launches military offensive against Gaza
The Israeli military launched what could be a long-term offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday striking nearly 100 sites in Gaza and mobilizing troops for a possible ground invasion aimed at stopping a heavy barrage of rocket attacks against Israel.  

Chinese hackers turned focus to U.S. experts on Iraq: security firm
A sophisticated group of hackers believed to be associated with the Chinese government...suddenly began breaching computers belonging to experts on Iraq as the rebellion there escalated... CrowdStrike Inc said that the group is one of the most sophisticated of the 30 it tracks in China and that its operations are better hidden than many attributed to military and other government units.  

Obama: Israel, Palestinians alike must show restraint
US President Barack Obama called for Israelis and Palestinians alike to show restraint and put an end to acts of retribution, in some of his first public comments on the matter since the murder of three Israeli teenagers touched off a new round of violence and deepening mistrust. ...Obama called it a "dangerous moment" for the region where a vaunted US peace effort recently collapsed.  

Newborn baby among three dead in earthquake in Guatemala and Mexico
A strong earthquake shook the border between Guatemala and Mexico on Monday, killing at least three people, including a newborn boy, damaging dozens of buildings and triggering landslides. Much of the damage from the 6.9-magnitude quake was reported in the Guatemalan border region of San Marcos, where it downed power lines, cracked buildings and triggered landslides that blocked roads.  

Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem fear more abductions, as rockets from Hamas fly
Jewish and Muslim parents here kept their children indoors Monday, as anxious residents formed neighborhood watch groups and monitored social media, alert for revenge attacks following the recent abductions and killings of three Israelis and a Palestinian, all teenagers. “It is the time of the ambush,” said Ahlam Kawasmi, 36, a mother of five who cares for the elderly.  

Mexican Flag-Wearing La Raza Militants Arrive in Murrieta
An image posted by an activist who is protesting against the arrival of illegal immigrants in the flash point town of Murrieta shows the arrival of La Raza militants adorned with the Mexican flag. According to Eric Odom, the La Raza members told him they were there to "protect the children."  

Ayatollah Khamenei calls for Iran to raise uranium enrichment capacity
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country needs to significantly increase its number of centrifuges, underlining a gap in positions between Tehran and world powers... Iran and world powers have less than two weeks to reach an agreement on the future scope of Iran's uranium enrichment program and other issues if they are to meet a self-imposed July 20 deadline for a deal.  

Netanyahu decides to expand Gaza operation, orders preparations for ground offensive
Following high level security deliberations Tuesday morning Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided to expand the military operation in Gaza, including beginning preparations for a ground operation. The deliberations took place following a Monday night rocket barrage on Israel and the feeling in Jerusalem that Hamas is interested in escalation.  

Part-Time Nation
Last Thursday, Obama-centric mainstream media trumpeted the creation of 288,000 jobs and the reduction in the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent. Lost in the manufactured euphoria are the sobering details: America is well on its way to becoming a nation where millions of workers can only find part-time, lower-paying jobs.  

Chicago Top Cop Blames Constitution for Gang Violence Shootings
If only it wasn’t for that pesky Constitution, all those gang members wouldn’t be shooting each other. Chicago’s police superintendent lashed out at what he called lax state and federal gun laws after a violent Fourth of July weekend that saw more than 60 people shot and nine killed in a city already known for frequent shootings.  

Muslims Banned From Forcing Shariah Law on People by India Supreme Court
Judge C. K. Prasad, who sits on the country's Supreme Court, explained that Shariah Law system is not legally binding in India. "No religion is allowed to curb anyone's fundamental rights," Prasad said, according to The Associated Press.  

Japan braced for Typhoon Neoguri
Japan is bracing for the arrival of a powerful typhoon fast approaching the southern Okinawa island chain. Typhoon Neoguri was forecast to pass over Okinawa's main island later on Tuesday, with strong winds and rain. In Okinawa, flights were cancelled and schools shut. Local television footage showed palm trees tossed by wind.  

Israel launches new air strikes on Gaza Strip
Israel has carried out more air strikes on the Gaza Strip, following dozens of rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. At least 15 Palestinians, including two women and a child, were reportedly hurt in the strikes. Hamas earlier said its members fired rockets to respond to "Zionist aggression", after accusing Israel of killing five of its fighters.  

United Nations recognizes gay marriages for staffers
The United Nations is recognizing the gay marriages of all its staffers, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Monday. Previously, the United Nations only recognized the unions of staffers who came from countries where gay marriage is legal, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.  

Bahrain to boot U.S. diplomat for Shiite meeting
Bahrain ordered a top U.S. diplomat to leave the country on Monday after he met with a leading Shiite opposition group. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski is not welcome in Bahrain. It said he intervened in the country's domestic affairs by holding meetings with some groups at the expense of others.  

Jews Consider Their Future As Europe Slides Back Into Anti - Semitism
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Recent developments signal that the prospect of Europe sliding into a new Dark Age is now a horrifying reality. It is as though all the elements negating the open society have been blended into a witches’ brew to undermine Europe’s liberal cultural ethos.

First in line to suffer are the Jews, attacked from all sides, isolated, friendless and unable to adequately defend themselves. Their greatest threat is the rabidly anti-Semitic Muslims supported by anti-Semites from the far Left. This unholy alliance of religious and secular extremists employs radical anti-Israelism as a surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism and is now a fixture at Hezbollah and anti-Israeli demonstrations, where they wave placards and shamelessly accuse Israelis of emulating Nazis.

In contrast to the post-Vatican ll Catholics, most Protestant denominations (other than the evangelicals) have revived their vicious efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. Spearheaded by the radical World Council of Churches, many are vigorously pressing charges of deicide against the Jewish people and resurrecting replacement theology asserting that by rejecting Christ, Jews are no longer the Chosen People.

They also collaborate with the Palestinians in promoting Jesus as a Palestinian rather than a Jew. Some even deny the historical link of Jews with the land of Israel, claiming that Jews are descendants of the Eurasian Khazars who converted to Judaism in the eighth century C.E., and that Palestinians are the truly indigenous people of the region.

Even non-governmental organizations promoting human rights have been hijacked by the radicals to demonize and delegitimize Israel, focusing far more attention on the construction of homes in exclusively Jewish suburbs of east Jerusalem than on the carnage and murder of tens of thousands in Syria and other Muslim-ruled countries.

Officially, most European governments condemn anti-Semitism but, because of a combination of cowardice in facing Islamic violence and fear of losing Muslim electoral support, they abstain from taking the tough action required to turn the tide.

Multiculturalism and diversity are admirable qualities for a democracy but can only apply if all parties are committed to an open society.

European governments failed to integrate Muslim migrants, enabling radical Islamists to create separatist educational and religious institutions. Their schools and mosques are directed by jihadists and frequently financed by Saudi Wahabi fanatics who brainwash the second generation of migrants into becoming more radical in Europe than their parents had been in their countries of origin.

It is from such incubators that children raised in Europe become engaged in hate crimes, with some graduating into jihadi terrorists.

Now there is a frightening additional development with the massive infusion of youngsters volunteering to fight in Syria with al-Qaida and who return to their countries as hardened killers. It is estimated that thousands of European Muslims are, or at one time were, engaged in the fighting in Syria. Most will return home seasoned killers, imbued with jihadi hatred and seeking new targets, primarily Jews.

Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people, including three Jewish children and their teacher, in Toulouse in 2012, and Mehdi Nemmouche, who murdered four people at the Brussels Jewish Museum, both had jihadi experience.

Regrettably, the culture of political correctness and fear of accusations of Islamophobia for criticizing any aspect of Islam or Muslim behavior prevents appropriate response. Neither the EU nor individual European governments are willing to take tough decisive action, which must include closing extremist Islamic schools, ruthlessly excluding jihadi mullahs from the mosques and aggressively prosecuting Muslim elements engaged in hate crimes, riots or law infringement.

An example of the pernicious extent of Islamic influence was the speech delivered by EU Middle East policy chief Catherine Ashton on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when, to avoid offending Muslims, she omitted any mention of the Jews – the primary victims of the Nazi genocide.

The recent mushrooming of popular support for radical right-wing political parties has intensified the problem.

Some Jews instinctively feel that the strengthening of the enemies of our enemies is to our benefit. They are wrong. The far Right has indeed been galvanized by those who feel threatened by Muslims. But many (not all) are equally anti-Semitic. Yet, while most individual Jewish voters are likely to avoid extremist parties – both Left and Right – Jewish community policy should be highly selective before officially confronting rightwing parties.

These range from the British UK Independence Party (UKIP), which shuns anti-Semitism, to France’s National Front, which “softly” distances itself from its anti-Semitic past, to Greece’s blatantly neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, the Hungarian Jobbik party and the National Democratic Party of Germany, whose anti-Jewish paranoia Hitler would have eagerly endorsed.

Golden Dawn and Jobbik must be confronted. However, Jews should be officially neutral about the UKIP which has assiduously dissociated itself from any anti-Semitism and refused to associate with parties tainted with Jew-hatred.

The National Front is more problematic. Officially, Marine Le Pen has dissociated her party from its former anti-Semitic past and condemned Holocaust denial.

Although most of the party’s supporters are not hostile to Jews it still carries some of its former anti-Semitic baggage and Le Pen’s father, a notorious and unrepentant Holocaust denier, remains the honorary chairman and an EU parliamentarian.

So long as leadership elements genuinely strive to discard former anti-Semitic associations and unless the party formally adopts anti-Jewish policies, it would be counterproductive to officially designate the largest political party in France as anti-Semitic. The challenge for Jewish leaders is to identify and expose the anti-Semites who are obsessed with insane theories about a global American-Zionist conspiracy, such as Aymeric Chauprade, one of Marine Le Pen’s foreign policy advisers.

It should also be noted that although 70 percent of the French population fear Islamic domination, that has not stemmed the tide of traditional anti-Semitism, as evidenced by the popular support enjoyed by comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala with his “quenelle,” the inverted Nazi salute.

The writing is clearly on the wall. Hostility is intensifying with renewed efforts to ban circumcision and kosher slaughter by hypocritical societies that respect hunting as a sport.

In a sense, it is even worse for Jews today than during the 1930s when at least the liberals and the Left combated anti-Semitism. What is more depressing is that, as a rule, the public is even more anti-Semitic than the government and perceives Israel as the principal source of global evil – no different to the Middle Ages when the Jews were regarded as the source of all natural disasters such as plagues and famine.

Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Islamophobia, it is Jews and not Muslims who require armed guards at their schools and houses of worship. And the hate crimes, now including murder, perpetrated against Jews are infinitely more acute than those suffered by Muslim minorities. Indeed it is preponderantly Muslims who are engaged in violence against Jews.

The two major European Jewish communities react differently. The vast majority of French Jews are under no illusion about their future and many are planning to leave. Their leaders speak out, courageously protest against anti-Semitism and defend Israel.

In contrast, much of Anglo Jewry remains in denial, deluding themselves that their lives are unaffected by anti-Semitism despite what they read and see in the media and what their children endure on university campuses. Their leaders, the traditional “trembling Israelites,” believe primarily in “silent diplomacy” and seem to have only marginal influence in the corridors of power.

Most Jews cannot be expected to live like pariahs. To continue to live a Jewish life in which anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism occupy such dominant roles is soul-destroying, especially for youngsters.

There are today about 1.5 million Jews in Europe – just one-seventh of the prewar numbers. There will always be Jews in Europe, but the communities will shrink to tiny enclaves unless the tide is turned. Those in a financial position to do so will voluntarily leave or at least encourage their children to leave. Many will come to Israel.

In this highly depressing European environment, we can begin to visualize how Jews felt in the 1930s, unable to obtain entry visas from any country to escape the Nazis as the Holocaust approached. It should make us appreciate more than ever how blessed we are to have a Jewish state powerful enough to defend us from the barbarians at our gates and able to provide a haven and assistance to Jews in need.

ISIS to Destroy Ancient Biblical Artifacts in Northern Iraq
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Daily Caller
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Directors of a Mosul museum housing biblical relics are warning that they won’t be able to protect them from radical Islamic militants, The Daily Beast reports.

Iran 'Needs' 19 Times More Nuclear Centrifuges
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said Iran "needs" 19 times more nuclear centrifuges than the amount being offered by world powers in ongoing talks seeking a permanent agreement by July 20.

"Their aim is that we accept a capacity of 10,000 separative work units, which is equivalent to 10,000 centrifuges of the older type that we already have," said Khamenei on his website, reports Al Arabiya.

However Khamenei, who makes all final decisions in Iran, added "our officials say we need 190,000 centrifuges. Perhaps not today, but in two to five years that is the country's absolute need."

The number Khamenei cites is ten times the current 19,000 centrifuges possessed by Iran.

Many have warned about the danger of a nuclear deal being reached in the negotiations which does not remove the centrifuges, arguing that such a situation would leave the Islamic regime with a sudden breakout capacity of six to seven weeks in which it could enrich uranium quickly and achieve a nuclear bomb.

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

Khamenei's statement comes after Western diplomats said last week that Iran has reduced demands for the size of its future nuclear enrichment program, even as they added it would not be easy to clinch a deal by the July 20 deadline.

Similarly, Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said last week that Israel does not expect world powers to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran by the deadline.

Shedding further doubt on the nuclear talks, a United Nations report in May revealed Iran is bypassing the sanctions which were meant as an economic incentive to force the Islamic regime to abandon its nuclear program. Indeed, Khamenei in January revealed that the negotiations were merely a stalling tactic.

Also in January, Iranian lawmaker, cleric, and Majilis (council) member Mohammed Nabavian said "having a nuclear bomb is necessary to put down Israel."

In NSA - Intercepted Data, Those not Targeted Far Outnumber the Foreigners Who are
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post.

Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or “minimized,” more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans’ privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or U.S.residents.

The surveillance files highlight a policy dilemma that has been aired only abstractly in public. There are discoveries of considerable intelligence value in the intercepted messages — and collateral harm to privacy on a scale that the Obama administration has not been willing to address.

Among the most valuable contents — which The Post will not describe in detail, to avoid interfering with ongoing operations — are fresh revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.

Months of tracking communications across more than 50 alias accounts, the files show, led directly to the 2011 capture in Abbottabad of Muhammad Tahir Shahzad, a Pakistan-based bomb builder, and Umar Patek, a suspect in a 2002 terrorist bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali. At the request of CIA officials, The Post is withholding other examples that officials said would compromise ongoing operations.

Many other files, described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained, have a startlingly intimate, even voyeuristic quality. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless.

In order to allow time for analysis and outside reporting, neither Snowden nor The Post has disclosed until now that he obtained and shared the content of intercepted communications. The cache Snowden provided came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA content is generally stored in closely controlled data repositories, and for more than a year, senior government officials have depicted it as beyond Snowden’s reach.

The Post reviewed roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts.

The material spans President Obama’s first term, from 2009 to 2012, a period of exponential growth for the NSA’s domestic collection.

Taken together, the files offer an unprecedented vantage point on the changes wrought by Section 702 of the FISA amendments, which enabled the NSA to make freer use of methods that for 30 years had required probable cause and a warrant from a judge. One program, code-named PRISM, extracts content stored in user accounts at Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and five other leading Internet companies. Another, known inside the NSA as Upstream, intercepts data on the move as it crosses the U.S. junctions of global voice and data networks.

No government oversight body, including the Justice Department, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, intelligence committees in Congress or the president’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, has delved into a comparably large sample of what the NSA actually collects — not only from its targets but also from people who may cross a target’s path.

Among the latter are medical records sent from one family member to another, résumés from job hunters and academic transcripts of schoolchildren. In one photo, a young girl in religious dress beams at a camera outside a mosque.

Scores of pictures show infants and toddlers in bathtubs, on swings, sprawled on their backs and kissed by their mothers. In some photos, men show off their physiques. In others, women model lingerie, leaning suggestively into a webcam or striking risque poses in shorts and bikini tops.

“None of the hits that were received were relevant,” two Navy cryptologic technicians write in one of many summaries of nonproductive surveillance. “No additional information,” writes a civilian analyst. Another makes fun of a suspected kidnapper, newly arrived in Syria before the current civil war, who begs for employment as a janitor and makes wide-eyed observations about the state of undress displayed by women on local beaches.

By law, the NSA may “target” only foreign nationals located overseas unless it obtains a warrant based on probable cause from a special surveillance court. For collection under PRISM and Upstream rules, analysts must state a reasonable belief that the target has information of value about a foreign government, a terrorist organization or the spread of nonconventional weapons.

Most of the people caught up in those programs are not the targets and would not lawfully qualify as such. “Incidental collection” of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, but in other contexts the U.S. government works harder to limit and discard irrelevant data. In criminal wiretaps, for example, the FBI is supposed to stop listening to a call if a suspect’s wife or child is using the phone.

There are many ways to be swept up incidentally in surveillance aimed at a valid foreign target. Some of those in the Snowden archive were monitored because they interacted directly with a target, but others had more-tenuous links.

If a target entered an online chat room, the NSA collected the words and identities of every person who posted there, regardless of subject, as well as every person who simply “lurked,” reading passively what other people wrote.

“1 target, 38 others on there,” one analyst wrote. She collected data on them all.

In other cases, the NSA designated as its target the Internet protocol, or IP, address of a computer server used by hundreds of people.

The NSA treats all content intercepted incidentally from third parties as permissible to retain, store, search and distribute to its government customers. Raj De, the agency’s general counsel, has testified that the NSA does not generally attempt to remove irrelevant personal content, because it is difficult for one analyst to know what might become relevant to another.

The Obama administration declines to discuss the scale of incidental collection. The NSA, backed by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., has asserted that it is unable to make any estimate, even in classified form, of the number of Americans swept in. It is not obvious why the NSA could not offer at least a partial count, given that its analysts routinely pick out “U.S. persons” and mask their identities, in most cases, before distributing intelligence reports.

If Snowden’s sample is representative, the population under scrutiny in the PRISM and Upstream programs is far larger than the government has suggested. In a June 26 “transparency report,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence disclosed that 89,138 people were targets of last year’s collection under FISA Section 702. At the 9-to-1 ratio of incidental collection in Snowden’s sample, the office’s figure would correspond to nearly 900,000 accounts, targeted or not, under surveillance.

U.S. intelligence officials declined to confirm or deny in general terms the authenticity of the intercepted content provided by Snowden, but they made off-the-record requests to withhold specific details that they said would alert the targets of ongoing surveillance. Some officials, who declined to be quoted by name, described Snowden’s handling of the sensitive files as reckless.

In an interview, Snowden said “primary documents” offered the only path to a concrete debate about the costs and benefits of Section 702 surveillance. He did not favor public release of the full archive, he said, but he did not think a reporter could understand the programs “without being able to review some of that surveillance, both the justified and unjustified.”

“While people may disagree about where to draw the line on publication, I know that you and The Post have enough sense of civic duty to consult with the government to ensure that the reporting on and handling of this material causes no harm,” he said.

In Snowden’s view, the PRISM and Upstream programs have “crossed the line of proportionality.”

“Even if one could conceivably justify the initial, inadvertent interception of baby pictures and love letters of innocent bystanders,” he added, “their continued storage in government databases is both troubling and dangerous. Who knows how that information will be used in the future?”

For close to a year, NSA and other government officials have appeared to deny, in congressional testimony and public statements, that Snowden had any access to the material.

As recently as May, shortly after he retired as NSA director, Gen. Keith Alexander denied that Snowden could have passed FISA content to journalists.

“He didn’t get this data,” Alexander told a New Yorker reporter. “They didn’t touch —”

“The operational data?” the reporter asked.

“They didn’t touch the FISA data,” Alexander replied. He added, “That database, he didn’t have access to.”

Robert S. Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in a prepared statement that Alexander and other officials were speaking only about “raw” intelligence, the term for intercepted content that has not yet been evaluated, stamped with classification markings or minimized to mask U.S. identities.

“We have talked about the very strict controls on raw traffic, the training that people have to have, the technological lockdowns on access,” Litt said. “Nothing that you have given us indicates that Snowden was able to circumvent that in any way.”

In the interview, Snowden said he did not need to circumvent those controls, because his final position as a contractor for Booz Allen at the NSA’s Hawaii operations center gave him “unusually broad, unescorted access to raw SIGINT [signals intelligence] under a special ‘Dual Authorities’ role,” a reference to Section 702 for domestic collection and Executive Order 12333 for collection overseas. Those credentials, he said, allowed him to search stored content — and “task” new collection — without prior approval of his search terms.

“If I had wanted to pull a copy of a judge’s or a senator’s e-mail, all I had to do was enter that selector into XKEYSCORE,” one of the NSA’s main query systems, he said.

The NSA has released an e-mail exchange acknowledging that Snowden took the required training classes for access to those systems.

At one level, the NSA shows scrupulous care in protecting the privacy of U.S. nationals and, by policy, those of its four closest intelligence allies — Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

More than 1,000 distinct “minimization” terms appear in the files, attempting to mask the identities of “possible,” “potential” and “probable” U.S. persons, along with the names of U.S. beverage companies, universities, fast-food chains and Web-mail hosts.

Some of them border on the absurd, using titles that could apply to only one man. A “minimized U.S. president-elect” begins to appear in the files in early 2009, and references to the current “minimized U.S. president” appear 1,227 times in the following four years.

Even so, unmasked identities remain in the NSA’s files, and the agency’s policy is to hold on to “incidentally” collected U.S. content, even if it does not appear to contain foreign intelligence.

In one exchange captured in the files, a young American asks a Pakistani friend in late 2009 what he thinks of the war in Afghanistan. The Pakistani replies that it is a religious struggle against 44 enemy states.

Startled, the American says “they, ah, they arent heavily participating . . . its like . . . in a football game, the other team is the enemy, not the other teams waterboy and cheerleaders.”

“No,” the Pakistani shoots back. “The ther teams water boy is also an enemy. it is law of our religion.”

“haha, sorry thats kind of funny,” the American replies.

When NSA and allied analysts really want to target an account, their concern for U.S. privacy diminishes. The rationales they use to judge foreignness sometimes stretch legal rules or well-known technical facts to the breaking point.

In their classified internal communications, colleagues and supervisors often remind the analysts that PRISM and Upstream collection have a “lower threshold for foreignness ‘standard of proof’ ” than a traditional surveillance warrant from a FISA judge, requiring only a “reasonable belief” and not probable cause.

One analyst rests her claim that a target is foreign on the fact that his e-mails are written in a foreign language, a quality shared by tens of millions of Americans. Others are allowed to presume that anyone on the chat “buddy list” of a known foreign national is also foreign.

In many other cases, analysts seek and obtain approval to treat an account as “foreign” if someone connects to it from a computer address that seems to be overseas. “The best foreignness explanations have the selector being accessed via a foreign IP address,” an NSA supervisor instructs an allied analyst in Australia.

Apart from the fact that tens of millions of Americans live and travel overseas, additional millions use simple tools called proxies to redirect their data traffic around the world, for business or pleasure. World Cup fans this month have been using a browser extension called Hola to watch live-streamed games that are unavailable from their own countries. The same trick is routinely used by Americans who want to watch BBC video. The NSA also relies routinely on locations embedded in Yahoo tracking cookies, which are widely regarded by online advertisers as unreliable.

In an ordinary FISA surveillance application, the judge grants a warrant and requires a fresh review of probable cause — and the content of collected surveillance — every 90 days. When renewal fails, NSA and allied analysts sometimes switch to the more lenient standards of PRISM and Upstream.

“These selectors were previously under FISA warrant but the warrants have expired,” one analyst writes, requesting that surveillance resume under the looser standards of Section 702. The request was granted.

She was 29 and shattered by divorce, converting to Islam in search of comfort and love. He was three years younger, rugged and restless. His parents had fled Kabul and raised him in Australia, but he dreamed of returning to Afghanistan.

One day when she was sick in bed, he brought her tea. Their faith forbade what happened next, and later she recalled it with shame.

“what we did was evil and cursed and may allah swt MOST merciful forgive us for giving in to our nafs [desires]”

Still, a romance grew. They fought. They spoke of marriage. They fought again.

All of this was in the files because, around the same time, he went looking for the Taliban.

He found an e-mail address on its English-language Web site and wrote repeatedly, professing loyalty to the one true faith, offering to “come help my brothers” and join the fight against the unbelievers.

On May 30, 2012, without a word to her, he boarded a plane to begin a journey to Kandahar. He left word that he would not see her again.

If that had been the end of it, there would not be more than 800 pages of anguished correspondence between them in the archives of the NSA and its counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate.

He had made himself a target. She was the collateral damage, placed under a microscope as she tried to adjust to the loss.

Three weeks after he landed in Kandahar, she found him on Facebook.

“Im putting all my pride aside just to say that i will miss you dearly and your the only person that i really allowed myself to get close to after losing my ex husband, my dad and my brother.. Im glad it was so easy for you to move on and put what we had aside and for me well Im just soo happy i met you. You will always remain in my heart. I know you left for a purpose it hurts like hell sometimes not because Im needy but because i wish i could have been with you.”

His replies were cool, then insulting, and gradually became demanding. He would marry her but there were conditions. She must submit to his will, move in with his parents and wait for him in Australia. She must hand him control of her Facebook account — he did not approve of the photos posted there.

She refused. He insisted:

“look in islam husband doesnt touch girl financial earnigs unless she agrees but as far as privacy goes there is no room….i need to have all ur details everything u do its what im supposed to know that will guide u whether its right or wrong got it”

Later, she came to understand the irony of her reply:

“I don’t like people knowing my private life.”

Months of negotiations followed, with each of them declaring an end to the romance a dozen times or more. He claimed he had found someone else and planned to marry that day, then admitted it was a lie. She responded:

“No more games. You come home. You won’t last with an afghan girl.”

She begged him to give up his dangerous path. Finally, in September, she broke off contact for good, informing him that she was engaged to another man.

“When you come back they will send you to jail,” she warned.

They almost did.

In interviews with The Post, conducted by telephone and Facebook, she said he flew home to Australia last summer, after failing to find members of the Taliban who would take him seriously. Australian National Police met him at the airport and questioned him in custody. They questioned her, too, politely, in her home. They showed her transcripts of their failed romance. When a Post reporter called, she already knew what the two governments had collected about her.

Eventually, she said, Australian authorities decided not to charge her failed suitor with a crime. Police spokeswoman Emilie Lovatt declined to comment on the case.

Looking back, the young woman said she understands why her intimate correspondence was recorded and parsed by men and women she did not know.

“Do I feel violated?” she asked. “Yes. I’m not against the fact that my privacy was violated in this instance, because he was stupid. He wasn’t thinking straight. I don’t agree with what he was doing.”

What she does not understand, she said, is why after all this time, with the case long closed and her own job with the Australian government secure, the NSA does not discard what it no longer needs.

IDF Operation Likely to Include Entry to Gaza
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) on Tuesday morning spoke about Operation Protective Edge, which was launched the night before in response to the relentless barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas enclave of Gaza.

"We don't want to enter Gaza. But the current dynamics, if they don't change, will lead to that. We can't continue with small payments (i.e. small strikes on Gaza) - it needs to be much stronger," said Landau to Yedioth Aharonoth.

Landau added "if we enter Gaza it won't be a matter of a day or two, but rather with the goal of completing the job, so that there won't be a terror infrastructure."

The decision to launch the operation was made after the rocket fire escalated dramatically on Monday; as of 10:30 p.m., the number of rockets fired towards Israel stood at over 80, including over 30 rockets that were fired in a ten-minute period between 8:00 p.m. and 8:10 p.m.

In response, Israel struck 50 terror targets in Gaza, including the homes of four officials of the Hamas terrorist organization actively involved in the rocket fire.

Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz of the IDF Spokesperson Unit also spoke to Yedioth Aharonoth on Tuesday about the operation.

"We are very firm, and we have a very significant plan of strikes on the Gaza Strip. We are conducting that at levels that will increase in the coming days. Residents of the south need to follow the orders of the Homefront Command," said Almoz.

The Homefront Command released a short video showing a map of the different levels of preparedness required in 31 different areas of Israel.

The video, which has yet to be released in English, takes the example of the town Ofakim near Gaza to illustrate how the regions work. Ofakim is in the Be'er Sheva area according to the Command's breakdown, and residents there have 45 seconds to reach safe areas or bomb shelters.

Residents of a region that receives a warning are asked to take shelter within the time frame given for that region, adds the video, and to stay in shelter for ten minutes.

IDF Kicks Off Operation Solid Rock With 50 Gaza Strikes
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The IDF’s Operation Solid Rock opened Sunday night with attacks on 50 Palestinian targets, 10 of them Hamas infrastructure - after more than 100 rockets hit Israel in 24 hours.  Most strikes were conducted from the air – two by the Israeli Navy. The IDF describes the operation as a long-range “rolling” offensive, its stages escalating up to and including a ground incursion, for which additional reserves will be called up as needed. The length of the operation and its stages will depend on how quickly Hamas gets the message. The population has been warned it may take some days. Iron Dome batteries are in place. Beersheba University and colleges are closed and end-of-year exams postponed at outer edge of 40-km radius.

IDF Calls Up 40,000 Reservists, is Told to 'Hit Hamas Hard'
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Security Cabinet has approved IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz's request to call up 40,000 reservists to the Gaza border, in the clearest signal yet that the IDF is planning a ground offensive into the Hamas-controlled territory in response to ceaseless rocket-fire on Israeli civilians.

"We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard," chief military spokesman Major General Moti Almoz told IDF Radio earlier, saying the operation would take place "in stages."

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned it was likely to be a protracted campaign. 

"We are preparing for a campaign against Hamas, which will not end in just a few days," he said in a statement after meeting security chiefs, which defined the aim as being "to exact a very heavy price from Hamas."

"We will not tolerate rocket fire on Israel cities, and we are preparing to expand the operation with everything at our disposal to strike Hamas," he said.

The IDF said that three terrorists were killed Tuesday when an Israeli aircraft attacked a vehicle in central Gaza.

The IDF Spokesman said that the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) attacked a vehicle in which a Hamas terrorist named Mohammed Shaaban, 24, of Jabalya, had been traveling.

Shaaban is a trainer and commander of Hamas's naval commando force in northern Gaza. Two other people were inside the vehicle when it was struck, the IDF said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours into the operation, the IDF has attacked about 90 Hamas targets, including buried launchers, attack tunnels, launching arrays, training camps and other terror activity sites.

The cabinet has approved the callup of 40,000 or 45,000 reservists as part of Operation Protective Edge. Most of these will replace mandatory-service soldiers in various routine security jobs, so as to free up the younger soldiers for Protective Edge operations.

About 60 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza since the morning hours Tuesday.

Diplomatic sources said Tuesday morning that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has told the security establishment to prepare for a protratcted, serious and aggressive campaign against Hamas, and “to be prepared to go all the way” if necessary, in his words, in order to restore quiet to Israel's south.

In a security consultation at Tel Aviv's Hakirya district, with the prime minister, defense minister and other senior officials present, various operational options were discussed, including a ground offensive.

"Entry on the ground is one of the options that was discussed,” said the diplomatic source.

The objective, he said, is to make Hamas pay a heavy price and create a meaningful offensive that will bring about deterrence. In the course of the last 24 hours, the prime minister spoke with world leaders and updated them on the situation.

"Four people were killed in a Zionist strike on a civilian car in the Daraj neighbourhood in the center of Gaza City," a Hamas emergency services spokesman said.

A total of 29 Palestinian Arabs were injured on Tuesday, two of them seriously.

Early on Monday, three Palestinian terrorists were killed in a series of raids across Gaza. Two of them belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees and one was a member of Hamas.

At the same time, another five Hamas terrorists died and a sixth was left in critical condition when a tunnel collapsed on them near the southern city of Rafah.

Hamas blamed Israel, but the military denied conducting a raid in that area and blamed the deaths on the militants mishandling their own explosives.

The IDF released on Tuesday black and white video footage showing missiles fired by the IDF Navy, and scoring hits on thre targets – Hamas training facilities in southern and central Gaza, as well as a training facility of the “Al Aqsa Defenders” in northern Gaza.

Hamas Warns Israel: You will Pay a Heavy Price
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas has no intention of caving in to Israel and allowing the Jewish state to “impose conditions on the Palestinian people”, its spokesman said on Monday evening.

Directly addressing Israeli citizens, the spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, “Our people will not give in to your crimes. You will pay a heavy and painful price.”

He continued by saying that the rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel were a natural response to the “Israeli aggression.”

"Your threats do not frighten us and we will respond to all the crimes you have committed if you do not stop your actions," said Abu Zuhri, who added, "Israel must understand that message and internalize it."

The comments come in the wake of yet another escalation in the rocket fire from Gaza. As of 10:30 p.m., the number of rockets that were fired towards Israel stood at over 80, including over 30 rockets that were fired in a ten-minute period between 8:00 p.m. and 8:10 p.m.

Shortly before midnight, the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a rocket that had been fired towards the city of Sderot.

The barrage follows the Security Cabinet decision to prepare for escalation in the South, including a possible military campaign. 

At least 1,500 reserve soldiers had been called up for preparatory training for a possible operation, security officials stated earlier Monday. Hours earlier, photos surfaced showing tanks and IDF forces gathering close to the Gaza border.

Hamas Vows to Continue Rocket Fire, Bloodshed
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum vowed his terror organization will continue firing rockets on Israel Tuesday, dismissing claims of de-escalation.

"Today there is no intention of relaxation and calm," Barhoum stated. "Palestinian blood has been spilled."

"There is no place for talking about peace with the Israeli occupation," he added. "If they want to protect their entity from Hamas's missiles, they will have to put an Iron Dome [missile defense system - ed.] on every home in Israel." 

"The person who determines the price of conflict with Israel is Hamas, who is doing so with its capabilities and arsenal," he added.

Barhoum also addressed Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's calls for a truce earlier this week. 

"Whoever wants to talk about calm with Israel must bring teenager Mohammed Abu Khder back to life," he fired. Abu Khder was found dead in the Jerusalem Forest on Wednesday; allegations that the crime was nationalistically-motivated have been linked directly to the increase in rocket fire.

"Anyone who wants to get close [to a ceasefire] must stick to Palestine and Palestinian issues," Barhoum added, smearing Abbas and Fatah.

Hamas fired over 85 rockets into Israeli soil on Monday, causing "Code Red" alarms to be sounded deep into central Israel. 

Sources said earlier Monday it was possible that Hamas would expand the range of attacks against Israel, and could possibly target Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel; the news prompted the Security Cabinet to launch Operation Protective Edge, which has seen the IDF pummel more than 50 terror targets in Gaza overnight. 

As of 10:00 am Tuesday, over 170 rockets have been fired into Israel over a 24-hour period, according to the IDF.

Hamas Vows Revenge After Use of Human Shields Goes Awry
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas has vowed revenge after an attempt to use Palestinian civilians as human shields resulted in several fatalities, as Israeli Air Force planes targeted the home of a Hamas commander.

Gazan emergency services claim Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 12 people on Tuesday and wounded 80 others, as the military began an aerial campaign against militants in the Strip and prepares for a potential ground offensive.

It was the most serious flare-up in and around the Islamist-controlled territory since November 2012, and came as Israel's cabinet reportedly authorized the army to call up 40,000 reservists for a possible assault on Gaza.

The deadliest single airstrike was on a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis belonging to a Hamas commander, killing seven people and wounding 25 others, medics said.

The attack "targeted the house of the al-Kaware family," emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, saying children were among the injured.

The events leading up to the strike offer an insight into the difficulties facing IDF forces in combating Gaza-based terrorism. It also provides a revealing glimpse into the way Hamas and other terrorist groups violate international law through the use of human shields. Israeli leaders have in the past referred to such tactics as a "double war crime": firing missiles at Israeli civilians, while using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Witnesses said an Israeli drone launched a warning flare prior to the strike, in a bid to allow innocent civilians to evacuate the area. Instead, relatives and neighbors gathered at the house to act as human shields, but shortly afterwards an F-16 fired a missile which leveled the building.

Earlier, four terrorists were killed in a separate strike on a car in the Daraj neighborhood in the center of Gaza City, Qudra said.

Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV showed gruesome images of charred body parts being loaded onto ambulance stretchers.

Family members said all of them were Hamas militants, identifying one as Mohammed Shaaban, 32, a senior commander in Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades. He was also head of the group's naval operations, they said.

Israel's army confirmed targeting Shaaban, describing him as "a senior Hamas operative".

In a separate strike near Nusseirat refugee camp, another man was killed, with witnesses telling AFP he was also a Hamas operative.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned Israel was "playing with fire" and would pay for its ongoing operations.

The deaths came hours after Israel announced the start of Operation Protective Edge, a military campaign aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure.

Army figures show that since midnight, terrorists have fired 130 rockets at southern Israel, prompting the air force to strike 150 "terror targets" in Gaza.

Israel must 'wave the white flag'

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail al-Askar, who serves as a "member of parliament" for the group's Gaza-based government, reiterated previous Hamas demands that the only way they would agree to stop the current barrage of rockets against Israeli civilians would be for Israel to agree to several conditions.

The first would be to end its air strikes against terrorists in Gaza, which he termed "aggression"; the second would be to end the limited blockade on the Strip, which Israel imposed to stop Hamas and other terrorist groups smuggling in weapons. The third condition, he said, was that Israel release the dozens of terrorists who were initially freed during the 2011 Shalit Deal, but rearrested during the IDF's recent operations in Judea and Samaria after they broke the terms of their release.

If not, Askar warned, Hamas was ready for a protracted war with Israel which could last months or even years.

"The resistance will not raise the white flag, and will not put down its weapons until the occupation waves the white flag and surrenders to the terms of the resistance.

Hamas Hits Back for Operation Solid Rock
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Border Crisis Could Provide Cover to ISIS Operatives, Say Experts
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Big Israeli Port of Ashdod Shut Following Gaza Rocket Fire
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Israel Tuesday suspended work at the southern port of Ashdod after the city came under Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Beersheba University is also closed and end-of-year exams postponed. In the north, Israel has closed the Quneitra crossing from Syria.

Bad News for Big Bang Proponents
Jul 8th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The Higgs Boson, also known as “the God particle,” detected in 2012 and confirmed in 2013, was widely heralded as a key to understanding the origins of the universe. However, scientists with King’s College in London announced in June 2014 that Higgs boson physics cannot account for the universe’s existence, in what is considered to be a major setback to the secular Big Bang theory.

These developments were covered in a recent report published in Christian News.net which further reported that the scientists came to this conclusion after modeling the hypothetical conditions of the universe immediately after the Big Bang. Robert Hogan, a physicist with King’s College, reportedly told LiveScience: “During the early universe, we expected cosmic inflation—this is a rapid expansion of the universe right after the Big Bang…this expansion causes lots of stuff to shake around…if we shake it too much, we could go into this new energy space, which could cause the universe to collapse.” Hogan’s findings were due to be presented to the Royal Astronomical Society for review in June.

LiveScience elaborated: “What the scientists found was bad news for, well, everything…the newborn universe should have experienced an intense jittering in the energy field, known as quantum fluctuation. Those jitters, in turn, could have disrupted the Higgs field, in essence rolling the entire system into a much lower energy state that would make the collapse of the universe inevitable.” Based on these findings, incorporating “the God particle” into the Big Bang model only made matters worse, leading to the final conclusion that these findings prove that the Big Bang theory is a flawed model which cannot account for the origin of the universe.

The Christian News.net report also references other researchers who arrived at the same conclusions independently. For instance, Dr. Danny Faulkner, an astronomer with Answers in Genesis, says the Big Bang theory has repeatedly conflicted with observational evidence: “When we hear the term big bang theory, many people assume it was conceived in its present form and has remained unassailed ever since...in reality it is a very pliable model. Several assumed variables in the equations have been changed to make the numbers match new findings. Today’s big bang model little resembles the one your grandfather learned, and it is likely to continue morphing. Are these improvements, or just rescuing devices?”

According to the same report, Drs. Jake Hebert and Jason Lisle with the Institute for Creation Research similarly propose that a belief in God—not the Big Bang theory—is ultimately foundational for understanding the universe’s existence, suggesting that God may simply have chosen to set the masses of all particles, now known scientifically as the Higgs field. They concluded: “The fact that such physics is possible or even meaningful would only make sense in a created universe that is controlled by the mind of God anyway. The study of how God upholds the universe today is the very essence of science.”

This is not the first time either that the secular Big Bang theory proponents have painted themselves into a corner. In an article published in CNN.com earlier this year, Leslie Wickman wrote: “The prevalent theory of cosmic origins prior to the Big Bang theory was the “Steady State,” which argued that the universe has always existed, without a beginning that necessitated a cause. However, this new (gravitational waves) evidence strongly suggests that there was a beginning to our universe. If the universe did indeed have a beginning, by the simple logic of cause and effect, there had to be an agent – separate and apart from the effect – that caused it. That sounds a lot like Genesis 1:1 to me: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” 

Wickman further reported that atheist-turned-agnostic astronomer Fred Hoyle, who coined the term “Big Bang,” famously stated, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics. "As Hoyle saw it, the Big Bang was not a chaotic explosion, but rather a very highly ordered event – one that could not have occurred by random chance.

So does the Big Bang theory hold any water at all? Three PhD qualified researchers have concluded that even those who assert that there was a Big Bang, but that God initiated it, are still stretching the truth because the Bible suggests otherwise. In their article titled ‘The Big Bang theory – a Biblical critique’ published in Apologetics press.org, Branyon May, Bert Thompson and Brad Harrub argue strongly in favor of the following observations from the scriptures:

1. Creation was accomplished through divine fiat, not by a “chaotic explosion.” God’s design, and method, of creation are evident: “By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6). God spoke, and by His utterance, creation occurred. Nowhere in the Genesis account (nor anywhere else in Scripture, for that matter) is reference ever made to some sort of “primeval explosion.” 

2. The Bible and evolutionary theories paint very different pictures of the creative process. In the Big Bang scenario, there was an explosive beginning, which was marked by the slow and gradual collection of matter that eventually formed the stars, Sun, Moon, Earth, etc. Furthermore, the Big Bang teaches that the Sun was formed long before the Earth, which makes the Earth a relative newcomer to the solar system, compared to the Sun… The Bible thus teaches that the Earth and the sidereal heavens (minus the heavenly bodies that now reside in them) were created first , while the Sun, Moon, and stars were created later on the fourth day of Creation (Genesis 1:1,14-16). This quite obviously places the Sun’s creation after that of the Earth, while, once again, the Big Bang Theory advocates exactly the opposite. Those who are sympathetic to evolutionary cosmology purport that God was the Initiator of the Big Bang, but then allowed the creation of celestial and terrestrial objects to follow their “naturalistic” course. But again we ask: Is this what the Bible says? Hardly. The Bible designates both the design and the order of Creation (Genesis 1 and 2)—neither of which correlates with the Big Bang Theory. And that brings us to our next point...

(3) Even a small child recognizes the difference between fire and water. When the initial, infinitely small singularity of the Big Bang erupted, it allegedly sent a primeval fireball hurtling outward through space. Estimated to be at a temperature of 1032 degrees Celsius, the fireball expanded, slowly cooled, and eventually coalesced into the planet Earth. How, exactly, does this compare with the Biblical account? Genesis 1:1-2 records that the Earth, from the moment of its creation, was enshrouded with water. Is there any difference between a beginning in fire and a beginning in water? If so, then there also is a difference between the origin that the Big Bang offers and the origin that the Bible presents. 

In view of all the evidence disproving the Big Bang and pointing to intelligent creative design, why do so many still cling desperately to such weak and unproven theories that, in the words of Dr. Danny Faulkner, are in constant need of “rescuing devices”? Cherily Nottaway offers the apt explanation through the blog cherilynottaway.wordpress.com: 

“Ever wonder why secular “science” is constantly changing, contradicting itself, after claiming adamantly that their models are the only way, and after trying to make creationists seem like fools? Why do their new findings constantly contradict “sure” old ones? When the foundations are bad to begin with and faulty, should we really expect them to stand? My hope is that they will get the right foundation of the word of God, which takes humility, and stop trying to erroneously explain away things…their numerous faulty new theories in support of their secular evolutionary mindset is only an attempt to try to escape the fact that they too are sinners before a Holy God, that they cannot depend on their intellect and craftiness to save them, and that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved, and the only way to know God the Father. They do not want to admit that God’s word, the Bible, is true because they know inside the consequences.”

Evolutionists, Big Bang theorists, atheists, secular humanists and others of their ilk should take note of God’s warning to them while they are still alive on earth with the opportunity to embrace truth:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1: 20). Or as the Psalmist would put it: The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalms 19:1).