Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Will Obama's Executive Order Lead to the End of Christian Education?
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Obama recently signed an executive order making it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. Sounds innocuous enough, but an unintended consequence may be the closing of Christian colleges and schools.

The order doesn't directly affect private education, but its unprecedented refusal to exempt religious organizations surely will. Without this exemption the President has signaled to regulators that it's open season on faith-based institutions.

Here's one possible future: The order says if you want federal money you must hire gays. The US Department of Education decides that this applies to federal financial aid as well. Students are then prohibited from using their aid at colleges that do not hire gays. Christian colleges go out of business.

Here's another future: With the exemption gone, accrediting bodies take the cue and insist that all colleges include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in their non-discrimination policies, revoking accreditation for those faith-based schools that won't genuflect. Students are prohibited from using their aid at non-accredited colleges. Christian colleges go out of business.

Absurd? Alarmist? It's already happening to Gordon College in Massachusetts.

Gordon's president merely co-signed a letter requesting that this executive order exempt religious institutions. Enter the Secret Police. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges is now reconsidering Gordon's accreditation. As their decision goes, so goes Gordon. And as Gordon goes, so may go Christian higher Ed.

In this environment, Christian K-12 schools could also be fed to the lions. If religious exemptions disappear—which they now probably will—couldn't the Massachusetts Department of Education (or any state DOE) compel private schools to hire LGBT faculty to remain an approved school? Couldn't it mandate that school curricula promote LGBT acceptance?

It's not even hypothetical. On this same issue the government has strong-armed a Christian-run bakery in Colorado, a Christian-run florist in Washington, and a Christian photographer in New Mexico, among others. And as we saw in the recent Hobby Lobby case, HHS tried to require all businesses, including faith-based ones, to pay for abortifacients under Obamacare. They even got four Supremes to agree with them.

So is it really implausible that Christian education is next? The ultimatum for schools will be inescapable: comply or close.

Well "so what?" some would say. Just comply. What's the problem with non-discrimination?

Nothing, if you frame the issue in that one-sided manner. But what if it were framed this way: What's the problem with coercing a Christian school to teach that the Bible is wrong? Or hateful? Or discriminatory?

Set aside for a moment that Washington is not supposed to be Tehran. Could you really build an educational system on a Book like that?

Of course not. It wouldn't be credible and eventually people would abandon it. If you want evidence, just look at the empty pews in our dying mainline churches. The exodus correlates well with their de-legitimizing of scripture.

Empty desks will follow empty pews, at least if this capricious; destabilizing theology is foisted upon our Christian schools. It's time to take a stand.

The President is right to codify non-discrimination, but not at the expense of religious freedom. If we continue to sacrifice the latter for the former, as we have yet again with this executive order, we will someday see the end of Christian education.

U.S. Lawmakers Warn of ISIS Attack on American Soil, Urge Strong Response to Islamic Terrorists
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsNational Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty ImagesIraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters look on as smoke billows from the town Makhmur, about 280 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad, during clashes with Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham militants on August 9, 2014.

Islamic militants’ growing influence in Iraq and Syria is a threat to Americans, lawmakers from both political parties agreed Sunday even as they sharply disagreed on what role the United States should play in trying to crush them.

President Barack Obama last week approved limited airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham fighters, whose rapid rise in June plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the end of 2011, when U.S. troops withdrew from the country at the end of an unpopular eight-year war. Obama said the current military campaign would be a “long-term project” to protect civilians from the deadly and brutal insurgents.

I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorists’ ability to operate in Syria and in Iraq

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the militants threaten not just Iraqis but also Americans. He said Obama’s airstrikes were insufficient to turn back the militants and were designed “to avoid a bad news story on his watch.”

“I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorists’ ability to operate in Syria and in Iraq,” said Graham, a reliable advocate for U.S. use of military force overseas.

“They are coming here,” Graham later added about the militants. “This is just not about Baghdad. This is just not about Syria. It is about our homeland.”

MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty ImagesIraqi soldiers from the Abbas Unit gather in Jurf al Sakhr, 60 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, on August 10, 2014.

Graham added that if Islamic State militants attack the United States because Obama “has no strategy to protect us, he will have committed a blunder for the ages.”

The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also said the Islamic State militants pose a threat “in our backyard” and were recruiting westerners.

“Inaction is no longer an option,” she said in a statement as U.S. airstrikes were underway.

The rhetoric tracked closely to that used in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, lawmakers from both parties voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to take military action against Iraq in the hopes of combating terrorism.

At the time, many said the United States faced a choice of fighting terrorism on American soil or on foreign soil.

A close White House ally, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Islamic State fighters are a “growing and troublesome” threat. But he added, “We must not send the troops.”

“The big question is: What can the United States do to stop it?” Durbin asked.

American airstrikes have included fighter pilots and drones near Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, as recently as Sunday. The strikes are aimed at limiting Islamic State fighters’ advances and helping Iraqi forces take back control. U.S. and Iraqi aircraft also have conducted airstrikes and dropped humanitarian aid to help the minority Yazidis, thousands of whom have been under attack by Islamic militants and stranded on a scorching mountaintop since Islamic State forces seized Sinjar, near the Syrian border, last week.

SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty ImagesIraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position on the front line in Makhmur, some 50 km south of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq where clashes with Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham militants are ongoing on August 9, 2014.

A breakdown in talks between Washington and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki that would have allowed U.S. troops to remain in Iraq collapsed in 2008, and Obama withdrew troops in 2011 after eight years of war.

Al-Maliki now is under mounting pressure to step aside, including from U.S. lawmakers.

“The collapse of Mosul was not a result of lack of equipment or lack of personnel. It was a leadership collapse,” said Democratic Sen. Jack Reed. “And so in order to put the situation right, we have to begin at the fundamental core, which is leadership in Baghdad, Iraqi leadership.”

Critics say the Shiite leader contributed to the crisis by monopolizing power and pursuing a sectarian agenda that alienated the country’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

AP Photo/ Khalid MohammedDisplaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community arrive to the camp of Bajid Kandala at Feeshkhabour town near the Syria-Iraq border, in Iraq Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.

The Islamic State group, which some lawmakers refer to as ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, is “getting stronger all the time,” warned Republican Sen. John McCain, a leading critic of Obama’s foreign policy.

“They have attracted 1,000 young men from around the world who are now fighting on their side,” McCain added. “This ISIS is metastasizing throughout the region, and their goal, as they’ve stated openly time after time, is the destruction of United States of America.”

Lawmakers from both parties largely agreed that a war-weary America has little appetite to send military forces back to Iraq.

Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin said Iraqis need to handle their domestic security.

“There is not a U.S. military solution to this issue,” Cardin said.

“We will not become the Iraqi air force,” he added. “I don’t think we can take out ISIS from a military point of view, from the use of our air strikes.”

But Republican Rep. Peter King said popular opinion should not drive national security decisions.

“I am saying we should do whatever we have to do,” King said.

Graham and Cardin spoke to “Fox News Sunday.” Durbin and King appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Reed was interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” McCain was a guest on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Turkey Evacuates Wounded Gazans
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

AFP/File

Newly elected Turkish President and outgoing Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday night his country has started to evacuate wounded people from Gaza to Turkey for treatment, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Erdogan did not provide details, but the state-run Anadolu agency said a Turkish air ambulance left for Israel late on Sunday to transport four people to Turkey for treatment in hospitals in the capital Ankara.

The agency said a child was among the wounded.

Erdogan made the announcement during a victory speech hours after he was elected president in Turkey's first direct vote for the position.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this week that Turkey was working to establish an air corridor to bring the seriously wounded to Turkey, noted AP.

Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israel throughout its self-defense operation in Gaza, likening its operation to the actions of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

He has threatened to end the normalization process with Israel over "state terrorism", accused Israel of "lies" because "not enough" Israeli Jews have died in the conflict and has compared Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked to Hitler.

This is What is Going to Happen If Ebola Comes to America
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

If the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history reaches the United States, federal law permits "the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease". These individuals can be "detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary". In other words, the federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will, take them to detention facilities and hold them there for as long as they feel it is "reasonably necessary". 

In addition, as you will read about below, the federal government has the authority "to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill". If you want to look at these laws in the broadest sense, they pretty much give the federal government the power to do almost anything that they want with us in the event of a major pandemic. Of course such a scenario probably would not be called "martial law", but it would probably feel a lot like it.

If Ebola comes to America and starts spreading, one of the first things that would happen would be for the CDC to issue "a federal isolation or quarantine order". The following is what the CDC website says about what could happen under such an order...

Isolation and quarantine are public health practices used to stop or limit the spread of disease.

Isolation is used to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy. Isolation restricts the movement of ill persons to help stop the spread of certain diseases. For example, hospitals use isolation for patients with infectious tuberculosis.

Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms. Quarantine can also help limit the spread of communicable disease.

Isolation and quarantine are used to protect the public by preventing exposure to infected persons or to persons who may be infected.

In addition to serving as medical functions, isolation and quarantine also are “police power” functions, derived from the right of the state to take action affecting individuals for the benefit of society.

"Isolation" would not be a voluntary thing. The federal government would start hunting down anyone that they "reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease" and taking them to the facilities where other patients were being held. It wouldn't matter if you were entirely convinced that you were 100% healthy. If the government wanted to take you in, you would have no rights in that situation. In fact, federal law would allow the government to detain you "for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary".

And once you got locked up with all of the other Ebola patients, there would be a pretty good chance that you would end up getting the disease and dying anyway. The current Ebola outbreak has a 55 percent percent mortality rate, and experts tell us that the mortality rate for Ebola can be as high as 90 percent.

Once you contracted Ebola, this is what it would look like...

Sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. That is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function and internal and external bleeding.

The "external bleeding" may include bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and just about every other major body cavity.

So how is Ebola spread?

Well, medical authorities tell us that it can be spread through the blood, urine, saliva, stools and semen of a person or animal that already has Ebola.

If you are exposed to the disease, the incubation period can be from anywhere from two days up to 21 days. But the average is usually about eight to ten days.

In other words, you can be spreading it around for over a week before you even know that you have it.

There is no vaccine for Ebola and there is no cure.

Not everyone dies from the virus, but most people do.

Needless to say, this is about the last disease that you want to catch. And the doctors that are treating Ebola patients in Africa are going to extreme lengths to keep from getting it...

To minimise the risk of infection they have to wear thick rubber boots that come up to their knees, an impermeable body suit, gloves, a face mask, a hood and goggles to ensure no air at all can touch their skin.

Dr Spencer, 27, and her colleagues lose up to five litres of sweat during a shift treating victims and have to spend two hours rehydrating afterwards.

They are only allowed to work for between four and six weeks in the field because the conditions are so gruelling.

At their camp they go through multiple decontaminations which includes spraying chlorine on their shoes.

But despite all of those extraordinary measures, multiple doctors have already gotten sick.

For example, one of the doctors leading the fight against Ebola, Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, died on Tuesday...

A doctor who was on the front lines fighting the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has died from complications of the disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan fell ill early last week while overseeing Ebola treatment at Kenema Government Hospital, about 185 miles east of Sierra Leone's capital city, Freetown.

He was treated by the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres -- also known as Doctors Without Borders -- in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, up until his death, spokesman Tim Shenk said.

And two American doctors that went over to Africa to help fight the disease are now battling for their own lives...

Dr. Kent Brantly, who was treating victims of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, is currently being treated in an isolation unit in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, the AP reported Tuesday.

"I'm praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease," Brantly said in an email Monday to Dr. David Mcray, the director of maternal-child health at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. The Texas-born Brantly, 33, completed a four-year medical residency at the hospital, the AP said.

Brantly's wife and two young children left Liberia to return to Abilene, Texas, days before he began to show symptoms of Ebola. They are being monitored for any signs of fever, a City of Abilene spokeswoman told the AP.

A second American, aid worker Nancy Writebol of Charlotte, N.C., is also stricken with Ebola, according to CBS/AP. Writebol had been working as a hygienist to help decontaminate people at an Ebola care center in Monrovia.

This is not like other Ebola outbreaks.

Something seems different this time.

But instead of trying to keep things isolated to a few areas, global health authorities are going to start sending Ebola patients to other parts of the globe. For example, one German hospital has already agreed to start receiving Ebola patients...

A German hospital has agreed to treat Ebola patients amid widespread fears of a possible outbreak of the deadly disease in Europe. Over 670 people have already been killed by the disease in West Africa with doctors struggling to control the epidemic.

A German hospital in Hamburg agreed to accept patients following a request from the World Health Organization (WHO), Deutsche Welle reports. Doctors assure that the utmost precautions will be taken to make sure the disease does not spread during treatment. The patients will be kept in an isolation ward behind several airlocks, and doctors and nurses will wear body suits with their own oxygen supplies that will be burned every three hours.

Will Ebola patients also soon be sent to hospitals in the United States?

And of course there are many other ways that Ebola could spread to this country. For instance, all it would take would be for one infected person to get on one airplane and it could all be over.

Federal authorities seem to have been preparing for such an outbreak for quite a while. As my good friend Mac Slavo has pointed out, "biological diagnostic systems" were distributed to National Guard units in all 50 states back in April...

The Department of Defense informed Congress that it has deployed biological diagnostic systems to National Guard support teams in all 50 states, according to a report published by the Committee on Armed Services. The report, published in April amid growing fears that the Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus might spread outside of West Africa, says that the portable systems are designed for “low probability, high consequence” scenarios.

Some 340 Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System (JBAIDS) units have thus far been given to emergency response personnel. The systems are “rapid, reliable, and [provide] simultaneous identification of specific biological agents and pathogens,” says executive officer for the DOD’s Chemical and Biological Defense group Carmen J. Spencer.

Let us certainly hope for the best.

Let us hope that this latest outbreak fizzles out and that we won't even be talking about this by the end of the year.

But experts are warning that if a major global pandemic does break out that millions upon millions of people could die.

If that happens, many people will go crazy with fear.

And we got just a little taste of some of the paranoia that an Ebola epidemic in America would create in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this week...

A corridor of Carolinas Medical Center – Main’s Emergency Room was roped off on the first floor, near the entrance Wednesday.

A security guard was posted outside, to prevent anyone from crossing the line.

During a 4 p.m. press conference Katie Passaretti, who is an infectious disease specialist with CMC, said precautions were put into place when patient was brought in Tuesday night. The patient was traveling from Africa and arrived at the hospital around 11:30 p.m.

Around 3 a.m. the security precautions were put into place at the hospital, Passaretti said.

Passaretti said they determined the patient did not have Ebola. The patient has been discharged home.

It is not too hard to imagine forced quarantines and people being rounded up and shipped off to Ebola detention facilities.

In fact, if Ebola were to start spreading like wildfire in this country, many people would actually start demanding such measures.

For example, one member of Congress is already proposing that citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (and any foreigner that has recently visited those nations) be kept out of the United States...

In a letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat, proposed that citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as "any foreign person who has visited one of these nations 90 days prior to arriving in the United States" be kept out of the country. He urged the secretaries to "consider the enhanced risk Ebola now presents to the American public".,

The Hand of God - Miracles on the Modern Battlefield in Israel
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied.”(1 Samuel 17:45) These are the famous words uttered by David as he raced to battle the giant Goliath. With a stone and a sling, and the “LORD of Host’s”, David brought down the mighty Philistine hero. As David forewarned the Philistine warrior, “the LORD” delivered Goliath into the hands of David that day!

The Bible is filled with the history of battles won by the God of Israel on behalf of His chosen people. The conquest of the Promised Land and defense of the Kingdom of Israel were accomplished only by the supernatural power of God.
Today, Operation Protective Edge is a reminder of the days when Israel fought battles under the protective wings of the God of Israel.

In Biblical style prose, Col. Ofer Winter, commander of the Givati Infantry Brigade, recently encouraged his soldiers with these words, "History chose us to be the spearhead in the fight against the 'Gazan' terrorist enemy that defies, blasphemes, and curses the God of the armies of Israel." 

Winter added a brief prayer: "I lift up my eyes to heaven and call with you, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!'" The letter ended with a plea for the fulfillment of the verse "The Lord, your God, who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and gives you victory."

It is possible to imagine David motivating his armies with a similar message! 

Confirming his faith in the God of Israel’s ability to give the victory to His people, Col. Winter witnessed what he called a miracle.

When a predawn raid was delayed, the darkness used to conceal the soldiers was interrupted by approaching sunrise. With the imminent risk of exposure, heavy fog descended and shrouded the fighters, allowing them to complete the mission! The fog lifted when the soldiers were secured!

In spite of such reports, many secular Israeli’s continue to believe that Zionism is enough to motivate young soldiers to risk life and limb for national security. These secularists are outraged by references, like Winters, to the involvement of God in the current Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Since the Jews had been expunged out of Palestine for nearly 2000 years, the question can be asked: Was secularism enough to lead the Zionist movement to seek to reestablish a Jewish Homeland? Or was it the promise made by God to Abraham that his offspring, through his son Isaac, would possess the land of Israel forever? (2 Chronicles 20:7)

However, Israelis have been taught that the Israeli-Arab conflict is just a national struggle over territory and that it is best for all involved if God remains out of the picture. They argue that Israel's existence is justified on the basis of distant history and modern values.

But according to a recent article in Israel Today, ”over the past 10 years, a growing number of Israelis have come to the conclusion that Israel and God are in fact inseparable, and that the existence of the former depends upon that of the latter.”

Events like the following demonstrate how the “LORD of Hosts” defends His name and secures the existence of His people.

When an Iron Dome battery failed three times to intercept an enemy rocket headed for Tel Aviv, “the hand of God” diverted the rocket, according to an operator in the battery.

The commander reported that three interceptors failed to hit their target, an extremely rare event. With only four seconds remaining before the rocket would hit, emergency services were notified of the target location and that mass casualties would occur. The missile would hit a strategically important location in Tel Aviv; hundreds of lives were at stake!

“Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’
Even the enemy is witnessing miracles! Last month a terrorist from Gaza reportedly stated, when asked why they couldn’t aim their rockets more effectively: “We do aim them, but their God changes their path in mid-air.”

As in times past, God will intercede to fulfill His purpose and protect his people!

Just as in David’s day, wars between the native people of the land and the armies of Israel are not about Israel's right to exist as a Jewish democracy, but rather the Divine mandate of the “LORD of Hosts”, that the Jews will reside in the Promised Land forever and that He will be their Banner!

Stockman - Expect Historic & Worldwide Financial Destruction
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsKing World News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Today David Stockman warned King World News that investors need to brace themselves for historic and worldwide financial destruction.  KWN takes Stockman’s warnings very seriously because he is the man former President Reagan called on in 1981, during that crisis, to become Director of the Office of Management and Budget and help save the United States from collapse.  Below is what Stockman, author of the website contracorner, had to say in his powerful interview.

Eric King:  “David, the man who is counsel to big money around the world, Michael Belkin, just spoke with KWN and issued a dire warning for the financial markets.  I just wondered how you see things at this point with the Dow recently tumbling and everything that is happening across the globe?  What should we expect?”

Stockman:  “Well, the watchword at this point is stay out of harm’s way.  We are headed into a perfect storm of policy failures.  This is not simply a failure by the Fed, which has inflated this massive bubble and painted itself into a corner with no clue how to get out, but we are also seeing an absolute failure of American world dominance....

“Our foreign policy is collapsing everywhere and yet the Washington war party keeps wanting to do more of the same.  This confrontation with Putin is utterly out of hand and unnecessary.  Now we have a trade war going that is going to ricochet through an already fragile European economy.

We hear today that Obama is considering going back into Iraq.  What is he thinking?  If you layer that on top of an already fragile financial bubble that is waiting to burst, I think we are in a zone of extreme danger.  It’s hard to predict whether this will be the big, destructive bear market that inevitably has to come, or simply just another dip that encourages the robots and the trained seals on Wall Street to buy for another move higher.  But one of these times we are going to have a big failure and I don’t think it’s too far down the road.

If you look at the stock market it has gone straight up for the last 62 months.  If you look at the chart of the S&P 500 you can see that year after year the dips get shallower and more infrequent and that is not a healthy chart.  That is a sign of a market that is not discounting the actual real world future, but simply trading the word clouds and the liquidity that is being injected by not only our central bank, but central banks around the world.

The difficulty is that I don’t believe this central bank ‘act’ can be kept up.  We have had such tremendous expansions of balance sheets that even the central bankers are now beginning to second guess themselves, become divided among themselves, and begin to worry about how they get out of the corner they have painted themselves into. 

So those are the factors that will ultimately cause a major collapse.  It’s just a question of when the black swan comes flying in, or when the confidence in this whole central banking illusion finally breaks down in the markets.”

Eric King:  “Michael Belkin also told KWN that the Fed doesn’t understand the leverage they have created.  Their easy money policy and money printing funnels into all kinds of hedge funds in mid-town Manhattan and according to Belkin, ‘they leverage up the wazoo in all these weird, arcane derivatives.’  He warned a great deleveraging is coming that is going to feed on itself.”

Stockman:  “Yes.  I think the whole global financial system is booby trapped with both visible and hidden leverage.  The problem with the Fed, and Yellen in particular, is that they are looking at a very narrow set of indicators.  For instance, the nominal balance sheets of the big banks. 

But the biggest source of leverage in the economy today is the whole area of structured finance and options trading of one type or another.  It is inherently leveraged, and the market has been coiled up everywhere with that massive leverage.  Well, on the way up this forces assets values to continue to inflate and rise.  But on the way down, as these positions are liquidated, the adjustment can become very violent in the other direction.”

Eric King:  “It sounds like we have a train wreck in front of us.”

Stockman:  “Train wreck is a pretty good term to describe what is coming.  But this train wreck isn’t simply going to hit a wall because this has been forming and accumulating and expanding for many years now, and yet it has simply been ignored, particularly by the financial markets which have ridden this bubble to these extreme and historic heights. 

But when you take the balance sheet of the Fed from $900 billion to $4.5 trillion in less than 70 months, and when that pattern is replicated around the world, that is a train wreck in slow motion.  The only issue is, when does it hit the wall?  The answer to that question is it’s not very far down the road, and I can promise you that is when all hell is going to break loose.”

Report: Norway, Turkey Offered Gaza Seaport to Hamas
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Gaza coast (file)

Flash90

Turkey and Norway have expressed their willingness in principle to operate a seaport in the Hamas enclave of Gaza, according to the Palestinian delegation in Cairo. 

According to a report in Israel Today, the government in Ankara has already announced its intention to send to Gaza over 3,000 prefabricated houses to be quickly assembled, accommodating local Arab families whose homes were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge.

The seaport proposal gives international credence to Hamas's unprecedented demands for unlimited transportation and import access. The terror group has already demanded an international airport in Gaza, a demand which has been categorically denied thus far in the negotiating process due to its security threat on Israel.

Turkish Prime Minister and newly elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Hamas, and has heavily criticized Israel since Operation Protective Edge began 35 days ago.

Indeed, Erdogan's country has reportedly become Hamas's lead sponsor since 2013.

The premier has made a slew of anti-Semitic remarks over Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, and threatened to end the normalization process with Israel over "state terrorism."

He has also accused Israel of "lies" because "not enough" Israeli Jews have died in the conflict, and has compared Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked to Adolf Hitler.

In a speech Sunday night, he claimed he was beginning to evacuate the wounded from Gaza, in a claim later revealed to constitute of transporting four people to Turkey for medical treatment. 

Norway, meanwhile, called on Israel as an "occupier" to show "restraint" in the escalation leading up to the current conflict, claiming that reacting to the rain of rocket fire on Israel would be violating international law. 

“As the occupying power in the West Bank, Israel has a special responsibility under international law," Foreign Minister Borge Brende charged in July. "Neither statements of its intent to step up its settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which is in violation of international law, nor major offensives against Gaza are the way forward."

Radical Action Needed As Euro Zone Remains on Amber Alert
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsSouth China Morning Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

To get economy moving again, policymakers should go ahead with quantitative easing to boost liquidity and allow the euro to weaken

The euro zone's "softly, softly" approach to the financial crisis is not working. The economy is sinking into deflation, dragged down by a zombie banking system and spiralling government debt. It is slipping back towards recession. A future break-up of the euro zone remains a potent threat.

Policymakers can ill afford to keep kicking the can down the road. The bailout earlier this month of Portuguese lender Banco Espirito Santo was a sharp reminder to investors the euro zone was not out of the woods by a long stretch.

The root causes of the crisis have not been tackled. High unemployment, chronic underinvestment, poor productivity and falling competitiveness continue to hamper recovery. Banks saddled with toxic loans and tightening capital requirements are starving the economy of much-needed finance. Governments battling burgeoning budgets with tough austerity policies pose a drag on growth.

Radical action is required. The European Central Bank has tinkered far too long over quantitative easing - buying bonds and pumping cash back into the markets. In the past five years, it has missed a vital window of opportunity to bring the economy back to strength.

The United States and Britain both bit the bullet early on with quantitative easing and zero interest rates, fast-tracking their economies to quicker recovery. The benefits are clear to see.

By comparison, the euro zone is struggling with 0.9 per cent growth. Some economies like Italy have already slipped into recession. Even Germany's economy has lost drive. Fallout from the crisis in Ukraine and the European Union's sanctions against Russia are gnawing on economic confidence, spending plans and investment intentions. Recession could be on the cards for Germany by the third quarter.

This is bad news for the euro zone. Policymakers have long hoped that the worst of the financial crisis and the recession were behind them. A strong German economy was supposed to provide the vanguard for recovery. Those hopes seem to be going up in smoke.

Without stronger growth, the euro zone is unlikely to see a dent in unemployment levels, especially in Spain and Greece, where the jobless rate is running upwards of 25 per cent. It will become harder for these economies to break the spiral of low growth, rising budget deficits and huge public debt.

Policymakers need to start thinking outside the box. Shock tactics are needed. Fast-tracking quantitative easing, flooding the market with liquidity and pushing interest rates even deeper into negative territory are needed to get recovery flowing again. ECB president Mario Draghi needs to stop teasing the markets with the promise of easing and put words into action.

Banks need greater latitude on capital adequacy to free up lending. Legislation may be required to ensure banks lend the money rather than hoard the ECB's handouts. Loans to consumers and companies are still contracting. This must be reversed.

While debt deflation, deleveraging and balance-sheet restructuring take a toll on economic confidence, fiscal stimulus must be stepped up. There is a strong case for a temporary moratorium on the fiscal side of the EU's stability and growth pact to ensure growth takes a higher priority. The austerity cutbacks being thrust on the euro zone's beleaguered countries should be shelved until the battle for sustainable recovery is won.

A weaker euro should be marshalled to help boost recovery. The euro is probably 15 per cent overvalued. Policymakers could afford to let it weaken by as much as 20 per cent to give euro-zone economies a chance in boosting exports. A weaker euro would help in the ECB's fight to stave off deflation.

There is also a growing case that some euro-zone economies should be allowed to leave the monetary union and exit the euro altogether. For countries saddled with bailout costs, the temptation to opt out and drop the euro remains strong. Political opposition to the single currency continues to gather momentum.

For those countries in the hard centre of the euro zone pinning their hopes on the euro's continued existence, "survival of the fittest" may become a future rallying point for the currency. Less may mean better - or not at all.

Liberman Rejects Hamas Demands: 'Terror Must not Pay'
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Avigdor Liberman

Flash 90

As Israeli negotiators arrived in Cairo early Monday afternoon a 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas began the night before, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) stated that Israel must not allow Hamas's terror on Israel to pay off for the Gaza-based organization.

Speaking to Yedioth Aharonoth, Liberman declared "we must not blink, we must not allow even the smallest appearance that it pays to fight against Israel."

"It cannot be that the result of the clash between Israel and Hamas, which began with the abduction and murder of the three youths and continued in a confrontation in Gaza, will end with Hamas leaving with a feeling that terror pays," clarified the foreign minister.

Noting the numerous lethal Hamas breaches of ceasefires, Liberman stated that if the terror organization "receives its demands, and even if there is just an impression (that it has) among its leaders or the Palestinian public, all the terror organizations surrounding us will understand that terror pays, and we will pay dearly for it. We must not allow that."

During the operation, Hamas terrorists captured the bodies of Second Lt. Hadar Goldin and First Sgt. Oron Shaul. Regarding this, Liberman said "we must not finish the operation without the bodies of our soldiers being returned."

"It's unthinkable that all Hamas members, including 20,000 of the terrorists in Hamas's military wing, will receive their salaries in an orderly fashion, through the Palestinian Authority or any other way, while the bodies of IDF soldiers still have not received a proper burial in Israel," added the minister.

Reports revealed that two months' salary was paid in full to Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades on Sunday morning, with the money that seemingly appeared out of nowhere likely having come from Saudi and UAE donors.

Liberman also clarified his opposition to the release of any terrorists as part of truce talks in Egypt, saying "such steps at the current juncture would provide a tail wind and prize for terror."

"No seaport until Hamas is gone"

Regarding Hamas demands, which aside from freeing terrorists have included calls to open the Rafah crossing to Sinai, and build a Gaza airport and sea port, Liberman said "as long as Hamas rules there, there's no chance we'll agree even to discuss opening a sea port or an airport in Gaza. As far as I'm concerned that's not even open for debate."

The granting of a sea port is considered a grave security risk, as it would allow weapons to freely enter the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, and its construction would be a major political victory for Hamas. Turkey and Norway are reportedly behind the Hamas sea port initiative.

Aside from the Hamas demands, Liberman clarified that "even the reconstruction of Gaza can only be in parallel to the establishment of an effective inspection and supervision mechanism of the money and building materials entering there, so that they truly serve only to improve the lives of citizens of Gaza, and don't again serve terror against Israeli citizens."

Regarding supervision, Liberman said in an interview with a German newspaper last Thursday that "Germany and the EU must dispatch inspectors to Gaza to monitor the Palestinians' trade with the neighboring countries," suggesting that the Europeans and not the IDF monitor Gaza.

Liberman made another surprising statement last Monday, when he suggested that Gaza be turned over to UN control.

It should be noted that a clinic of the UN's UNRWA in Gaza reportedly was booby-trapped, causing the death of three IDF soldiers during the opeartion. Rockets were also found in at least three UNRWA schools, with the lethal missiles being turned over to the Hamas terror group.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Nature’s terror weapon
Although the Ebola virus might remain mostly confined to West Africa, it has infected the Western imagination. This eruption of uncontrolled nature into what developed nations consider serene modernity is more disturbing to the emotional serenity of multitudes than it is threatening to their physical health.  

Tonga Earthquake Today 2014 Strikes Off the Coast
A Tonga earthquake today 2014 has struck off the coast. The Tonga earthquake today August 11, 2014 began in the evening hours. Damage assessment is pending.  

Islamic State Stones 2 Women to Death for Adultery
Two women were stoned to death by Islamic State militants within a 24-hour period last month, the AP reports. Their alleged crime: adultery. "People were shocked and couldn't understand what was going on," says an activist witness to one of the stonings in northern Syria.  

Quantum Particles Take the Road Most Traveled
Many of the classic rules of physics don't seem to apply to these tiny particles. Instead, they are governed by the weird rules of quantum mechanics that even Einstein called "spooky." Quantum particles can exist in states where they are in multiple places at once — a phenomenon called superposition.  

Report: Hamas Executes Dozens of 'Terror Tunnel' Diggers
n an attempt to protect their secrets from being revealed to the Israeli security forces, Hamas has executed tens of Gazan tunnel diggers in the last few weeks. The mass execution is said to have taken place after attempts from Hamas to make sure that the excavators knew nothing of the locations in which they were digging.  

'Harbinger' author says loss of 'Tree of Hope' a warning
The author of “The Harbinger,” the inspiration behind the “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” documentary, says the seventh harbinger is no more. A tree that was placed at the site of the 9/11 Muslim terror attack in New York City has died, has been removed, and destroyed. “The ancient sign of nearing national judgment has been manifested. The erez tree has fallen. The seventh harbinger now speaks of impending judgment. The Tree of Hope, the symbol of America’s resurgence … is dead,” he explained.  

Obama vows to smash Isis caliphate
Obama yesterday announced a prolonged bombing campaign to prevent the creation of a terrorist “caliphate” in the Middle East — warning that the militants posed a direct threat to western countries, The Sunday Times writes.  

EU ambassadors to meet Tuesday on Iraq crisis: EU source
European Union envoys were to meet Tuesday for an emergency meeting over the deepening crisis in Iraq, an EU diplomatic source said, as cited by AFP.  

Nigeria reports tenth Ebola infection
A Nigerian female nurse has tested positive for the Ebola virus, bringing to ten the number of confirmed infections, including two fatalities, registered in Africa's most populous nation. "[She] has been quarantined in Lagos," Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told reporters in capital Abuja. He said the nurse was newly wedded and that her husband had since been placed under observation.  

Israeli delegation returns to Cairo after ceasefire maintained
While the fire may have been halted, Hamas has already threatened, even before the ceasefire began, that they would resume rocket fire if talks in Egypt don't reach a breakthrough by the end of the ceasefire's 72-hour period.  

David Gregory Slams Obama: ‘Big, Expansive Terrorist Threat Amassed On His Watch’
NBC’s David Gregory had some unpredictably harsh words for the White House during an interview with Senator Dick Durbin on Sunday, noting that “a big, expansive terrorist threat that has amassed” under President Obama’s watch.  

Islamic State beheads, crucifies in push for Syria's east
Islamic State has crushed a pocket of resistance to its control in eastern Syria, crucifying two people and executing 23 others in the past five days, a monitoring group said on Monday. The insurgents, who are also making rapid advances in Iraq, are tightening their grip in Syria, of which they now controls roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and east.  

Florida red-tide bloom biggest since ’06
The largest red-tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade has killed thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and might pose a greater health threat if it washes ashore as expected in the next two weeks, researchers said.  

IBM develops a computer chip...that 'functions like a human brain'
IBM has developed a computer chip which it says will function like a human brain in a giant step forward for artificial intelligence. TrueNorth is being hailed as the world’s first neurosynaptic computer chip because it can figure things out on its own. The chip also has one million ‘neurons’ and could cram the same power as a super computer into a circuit the size of a postage stamp.  

Battle to contain Ebola outbreak intensifies
A day after the World Health Organisation declared the epidemic an international health emergency, countries as far afield as India were scrambling to impose measures to prevent contagion of the virus which has claimed almost 1000 lives. The UN health agency stopped short of calling for global travel restrictions, but some countries on Sunday began imposing bans.  

IS militants: Our message to the entire world is that we are the soldiers of the Caliphate state and we are coming
armed militants of the Islamic State group stand by a tank, holding weapons as one declares to the camera: "Our message to the entire world is that we are the soldiers of the Caliphate state and we are coming."  

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hails new era for Turkey
Outgoing PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hailed his victory in Turkey's first direct presidential election as a new era for the country. He told thousands of supporters from the balcony of his AK Party's HQ in Ankara his victory was for all Turks, not just those who had voted for him. Mr Erdogan secured about 52% of the vote, to avoid any run-off.  

Central African Republic crisis: Muslim PM Kamoun appointed
The interim president of the Central African Republic (CAR) has chosen a Muslim prime minister to head a transitional government. It comes in the wake of an agreement signed last month between rival militias aimed at ending more than a year of religious conflict. Mahamat Kamoun, an economist, is the first Muslim prime minister in the Christian-dominated country.  

Michael Brown shooting: Riots erupt after vigil
Rioting over the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer has erupted in the US state of Missouri, police say. People looted shops, vandalised cars and stores, and set a building alight on Sunday as police tried to block off access to several areas of St Louis. Police say Michael Brown, 18, was shot on Saturday afternoon in Ferguson, a mainly black suburb of the city.  

EU and US warn Russia against 'humanitarian' invasion of Ukraine
EU and US leaders have warned Russia that more sanctions will follow if it “invades” Ukraine in the name of “humanitarian” aid. US president Barack Obama issued the threat on Saturday (9 August) following phone calls with German chancellor Angela Merkel and UK prime minister David Cameron.  

California sinking ONE FOOT each year from groundwater depletion
The drought-stricken state of California is sinking into itself at an alarming rate, suggests a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The continued over-pumping of groundwater in many parts of the state -- the direct result of a historic three-year dry spell -- is creating empty pockets of earth that are causing the ground to literally drop, in some places by as much as one foot per year.  

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki Orders Troops To Guard Baghdad Amid 'Coup' Talk
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki indicated that he will not drop his bid for a third term and accused the president of violating the constitution in a tough televised speech likely to deepen political tensions as a Sunni insurgency rages.  

Newspaper: Terrorist's son poses in gruesome photo
An Australian newspaper on Monday published a photograph of a child it said was the son of an Australian convicted terrorist holding aloft the severed head of a Syrian soldier.  

Europe's Huge Failure Is About To Be On Full Display
This might seem obvious, but it's worth repeating: European economic policy has been a complete failure. By every measure, things have been a disaster for years. Nobody is doing anything right. This coming Thursday we get the latest European GDP report, and the prognosis is really grim.  

US launches five more airstrikes Sunday, destroying four Islamic State armored vehicles
The United States launched another round of air strikes Sunday against Islamic militants in Iraq, destroying several armed vehicles, according to the Defense Department. The five attacks by U.S. fighter jets and drones destroyed four armed Islamic State vehicles -- starting with one that was firing on Kurdish forces near the city of Irbil.  

Az Sheriff: My Officers Have Arrested People Deported '12, 15 Times'
Pinal County, AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu reported that his officers have arrested individuals who have already been deported “12, 15 times,” and said the U.S. immigration system has become a “revolving door.”  

Junk Bond Bubble Bursting Sounds Warning for UK Shares
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Janet Yellen, the head of the US Federal Reserve, has told Congress that valuations of high-yield bonds “appear stretched” Photo: AP

ISIS Militants: Our Message to the Entire World is That We are the Soldiers of the Caliphate State
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In the north, the Kurds have been the main line of defence against the militants, but their fighters are stretched over a long front trying to fend them off.

The US has launched a number of military airstrikes in northern Iraq to hold off Islamic State forces advancing on Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

US President Barack Obama ordered the intervention after militants used artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil, which is home to a US consulate and about three dozen US military trainers.

The US also airdropped aid to thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority who fled to a mountaintop after the militants took control of Sinjar, a city far from the Kurdish seats of power in Irbil and Suliminiya.

ISIS Actively Joining Gaza Terror War on Israel
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

IS terrorists (illustration)

Reuters

As Operation Protective Edge holds in a temporary ceasefire, evidence has come out revealing the extent of the extremist Sunni group Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS) involvement in the terror war against Israel from the Hamas stronghold of Gaza.

Terror organizations associated with IS and Al Qaeda have been proven to be joining the fight against Israel in Gaza, firing rockets on Israeli civilian population centers and attacking IDF troops.

On Sunday the Abdullah Azzam Brigades declared it had fired a Grad missile towards the Israeli town of Mivtahim located near southern Gaza. The announcement comes after similar ones last month by the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and Majlis Shura al-Mujahidin organizations.

IS terrorists have already been proven to be active in Gaza in a video uploaded by the group in July, showing them firing rockets on Israel. Perhaps more troubling is a Channel 10 report which on Sunday exposed that in recent months black IS flags have been commonly seen in Arab-Israeli towns in northern and coastal Israel, notably in the cities of Nazareth and Akko.

Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, the IS and Al Qaeda-associated organizations in Gaza have announced the deaths of at least 13 of their terrorists in the fighting against the IDF and Israel.

The 13 include Abdullah Awani al-Fara, Ahmed Omar Abed al-A'al, Jaber Hamdan Abu Jaber, Saeed al-Lahawani, Usa Mohammed al-Sha'ar, Yusuf Jalal Barkat, Hamza Yusuf Muamar, Eyman Abed al-Rauf al-Sheikh, Hamza Halad al-Kadi, Mohammed Hamdan, Rasam Abu A'adra, and Mohammed al-Hamida.

The list repeats Abdullah Awani al-Fara's name to reach a total of 13, a technique being used rampantly in the manipulation of casualty figures being presented about the operation.

A video posted last Friday shows terrorists of the IS and Al Qaeda affiliated organizations active in Gaza. Masked terrorists can be seen making declarations in front of the black IS flag and firing mortar shells at Israel.

Iraq's PM: U.S. Supported Decision to Fire Me
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused that the United States on Monday of having supported the decision of the Iraqi president to remove Maliki from his post, reports Reuters.

Maliki said the president’s decision is unconstitutional and added, "We'll fix that mistake.”

IDF Spokesman: We're not Going Anywhere
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

IDF spokesman Brigadier General Moti Almoz

Flash 90

IDF spokesman Moti Almoz made clear in a television interview on Sunday evening that the IDF is “not going anywhere”, even with a new 72-hour ceasefire having been announced  in Gaza.

"As far as we’re concerned, any talk of a ceasefire will be tested on the ground," he said, emphasizing that the IDF had a duty to protect the people of the south.

"We're not going anywhere, and we will only go when it's quiet,” declared Almoz.

"Today, the Chief of Staff visited the Gaza Belt communities, met with residents and forces in the field and checked the readiness and the work being carried out,” said Almoz, adding that "if we will have to use force again - we will do so.”

He noted that ground phase of Operation Protective Edge came to an end after the IDF was able to destroy all the Hamas terror tunnels it had identified.

"The Chief of Staff provided the public with an update of the achievements of the operation, and they are many. The Gazan public and Hamas understand this as well," the IDF Spokesman said.

Almoz called on the public to maintain its patience. "Hamas had not planned to face residents who are so patient. The fact is that we continue to deal a blow to Hamas even at this moment and Hamas knows that. Anything Hamas says is a result of the difficult blow that was dealt to it by the IDF," he concluded.

Just moments before the latest ceasefire began at midnight Israel time, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets towards Israel, including Tel Aviv.

Hamas played a double game Sunday, with its negotiators reportedly agreeing to a ceasefire in Cairo, and its terrorists in Gaza launching missiles at Israel. Israel insists that it will not negotiate under fire, but Hamas appeared to be trying to make it do so anyway.

IDF 'Tunnel Shield' May be Deployed By 2015
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

IDF excavators near Gaza

Reuters

According to a senior IDF officer, the military is about to carry out comprehensive field tests of technological means for locating tunnels. The technology has already been successfully tested in laboratory conditions.

If the experiment is successful, the systems will be deployed around Gaza at a cost of a billion to 1.5 billion shekels.

The senior officer said that the IDF had received about 700 offers for anti-tunnel systems, and chose two.

The senior officer also spoke about the Iron Dome system and confirmed that the system worked well during Operation Protective Edge. However, he warned, “we cannot rest on our laurels: in the next campaign, the terrorists will try to improve the range of the missiles, the altitude of their trajectory and the amount of missiles launched each time. Therefore, the system must constantly update itself, and we are operating accordingly.”

The Trophy defense system that protects armored vehicles from anti-tank missiles also worked efficiently in the war, the officer said. Another 3 billion shekels are required to provide protection for all of the vehicles. “Money was never the issue,” he stressed, “only providing the proper means [for protection].”

Various media reports over the years have described possible solutions as including sensors that would detect tunnels as they were being dug, massive trench digging contraptions that could create a deep protective trench around Gaza, and robots that could dig their way into tunnels and blow them up.

Foreign Media Protest Hamas Harassment in Gaza
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Gaza casualties: civilians or terrorists?

Reuters

The Foreign Press Association on Monday lodged a strong protest accusing the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of harassment and of threatening foreign reporters working in Gaza.

The association for journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories said Hamas authorities and their representatives employed "blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods" against visiting international journalists covering the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

The FPA, in a statement, protested "in the strongest terms".

"The international media are not advocacy organizations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground," it said.

"In several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media."

Hundreds of foreign journalists travelled to Gaza during more than a month of fighting between Israel and the Hamas, with perhaps 10 percent reporting difficulties from the authorities, FPA said.

Those who experienced threats were reluctant to speak publicly for fear of repercussions.

It said one photographer spoke of being beaten up and having a camera smashed; a news photographer had a camera confiscated for three days and Hamas also asked people to remove tweets and YouTube videos.

A European company was also threatened in the middle of the street when filming an anti-Hamas demonstration.

The FPA said Hamas was also trying to put in place a "vetting" procedure that would, in effect, allow for the blacklisting of specific journalists.

"Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA," it said.

Several news organizations reported receiving a request Monday from Hamas for the name of journalists, their company, where they are based, their contact details and the name of their translator to "facilitate and organize" their work.

More and more reports emerging from Gaza in recent days back the Israeli government's claims that Hamas is deliberately carrying out attacks from within densely-populated civilian areas.

An Indian TV report exposed terrorists setting up and launching a rocket just meters away from a hotel where members of the international media were staying, in the middle of a crowded residential area.

Like the tiny handful of other journalists who have defied Hamas orders not to report anything negative about them, the NDTV report was only aired after the news team had left the Gaza Strip and were free from any risk of intimidation or worse at the hands of Hamas's security forces.

A France 24 TV journalist - who famously ducked for cover during a live interview when a Hamas rocket was fired right next to him - has also gone on the record to report how the rocket which caught him off guard was launched in a crowded civilian area and right in front of a UN building.

Forces Loyal to Iraqi Pm Nouri Al - Maliki Deploy in Baghdad Streets, Sparking Coup Fears
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Age
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to hold on to power. Photo: AP

Baghdad: Special forces loyal to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were deployed in strategic areas of Baghdad on Sunday night after he delivered a tough speech indicating he would not cave in to pressure to drop a bid for a third term, police sources said.

A bloc comprising Iraq's biggest Shiite parties is close to nominating a prime minister, the deputy speaker of parliament said on Monday, directly challenging Mr Maliki.

Haider al-Abadi's comments in a tweet came after police sources said special forces and Shiite militia loyal to Mr Maliki had been deployed in strategic areas of Baghdad.

An eyewitness said a tank was stationed at the entrance to Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses government buildings. 

In a speech on state television, Mr Maliki accused Iraqi President Fouad Masoum, a Kurd, of violating the constitution by missing a deadline for him to ask the biggest political bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a government.

"I will submit today an official complaint to the federal court against the president of the Republic for committing a clear constitutional violation for the sake of political calculations," said Mr Maliki.

Serving in a caretaker capacity since an inconclusive election in April, Mr Maliki has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shiites, regional power broker Iran and Iraq's top Shiite cleric for him to step aside for a less polarising figure.

The troop movements have raised speculation that they may mark the start of a coup by Mr Maliki to take full control of the government.

A western security expert based in Iraq said that Mr Maliki deployed militia and elite special forces units around the International Zone prior to giving the speech.

"He was clearly anticipating a negative, possible coup-like response," said the expert, whose employer does not allow him to speak openly to the media.

Critics accuse Mr Maliki of pursuing a sectarian agenda which has sidelined Sunnis and prompted some of them to support militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, whose latest sweep through northern Iraq has alarmed the Baghdad government and its Western allies.

Washington seems to be losing patience with Mr Maliki, who has placed Shiite political loyalists in key positions in the army and military and drawn comparisons with executed former dictator Saddam Hussein, the man he plotted against from exile for years.

A senior US official said on Sunday he fully supported Dr Masoum after Mr Maliki, who the United States has blamed for stoking Iraq's security crisis, criticised him.

"Fully support President of Iraq Fouad Masoum as guarantor of the Constitution and a [prime ministerial] nominee who can build a national consensus," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurk, the US State Department point man for Iraq, said on his Twitter feed.

US President Barack Obama urged Iraqi politicians on Saturday to form a more inclusive government that can counter the growing threat from ISIL, which recently changed its name to Islamic State and declared a "caliphate".

But Mr Maliki keeps digging in.

"Now we can see unprecedented deployment of army commandos and special elite forces deployed in Baghdad, especially sensitive areas close to the green zone and the entrances of the capital," one of the police sources said. "These forces are now taking full responsibility of securing these areas of the capital."

Iraq's Interior Ministry has told police to be on high alert in connection with Mr Maliki's speech, a police official said.

ISIL militants have capitalised on political deadlock and sectarian tensions that have made it easier for the group to make fresh gains after arriving in the north in June from Syria.

The group, which sees Shiites as infidels who deserve to be killed, has ruthlessly moved through one town after another, using tanks and heavy weapons it seized from soldiers who fled in the thousands.

ISIL militants have killed hundreds of Iraq's minority Yazidis, burying some alive and taking women as slaves, an Iraqi government minister said on Sunday, as US warplanes again bombed the insurgents.

Human rights minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani accused the Sunni Muslim insurgents - who have ordered the community they regard as "devil worshippers" to convert to Islam or die - of celebrating what he called a "a vicious atrocity".

No independent confirmation was available of the killings of hundreds of Yazidis, bloodshed that could increase pressure on Western powers to do more to help tens of thousands of people, including many from religious and ethnic minorities, who have fled the militants' offensive.

Brave UK Jews Bring Israeli Flags to Galloway 'Judenrein' Town
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

George Galloway

Reuters

A small delegation of British Jews bravely made their way to Bradford, UK on Sunday, after notoriously anti-Israel MP George Galloway proudly declared the area Judenrein ("Jew-free"; German). 

The delegation, bearing Israeli flags and passports, marched to the Bradford Town Hall. 

The move was organized by UKIP candidate Rabbi Shneur Odze, who took to Facebook to thank participants Sunday. 

"Well guys - we made it," Odze wrote. "Some Israelis from London, Mandy Blumenthal, I and others, went to Bradford Town Hall with flags, Israeli passports et al."

"I must confess to being rather anxious as to what kind of reaction we’d get," he continued. "However, I’m pleased to say, a few shouts from across the road aside, the reception was almost exclusively positive, with many coming over to wish us well, welcome us and almost everyone, unprompted seemed to know why we were there."

"Thank you to everyone that came and all those that worked hard to make it happen," he concluded, noting that another protest - "with a twist" - is scheduled for next Sunday. 

Galloway declared his hometown effectively Judenrein in an impassioned party speech last week, proudly stating that he chooses to live in an "Israel-free zone." 

"We don’t want any Israeli goods. We don’t want any Israeli services. We don’t want any Israeli academics, coming to the university or the college. We don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford if any of them had thought of doing so," he said. "We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. And you have to do the same."

The remarks sparked a police investigation into the MP, who has a long history of anti-Israel bigotry and heads the British pro-Hamas group Viva Palestina.

Bennett: in the End, We'll Have to Topple Hamas
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Naftali Bennett

Flash 90

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, who is a member of the Diplomacy-Security Cabinet, said Monday that in the end, there will be no alternative to decisively defeating Hamas in Gaza.

"At this point, the Cabinet took the turn that it took, but in the end, Hamas's declared aim is the destruction of Israel, so sooner or later we will have to go inside, into Gaza,” he told Channel 2.

As for cooperation with Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, and the possibility that control of Gaza will be handed over to the PA, Bennett said that “Abu Mazen is a partner for terror, he is a partner in a unity government with Hamas, which fired 3,400 rockets at us, and he funds Hamas terrorists in jail.

"The entire direction of a Palestinian state is over,” Bennett emphasized. “Hamas have ascertained the death of the Palestinian state. All of Israel's citizens know that a Palestinian state would crush Israel's economy and bring tunnels to Kfar Saba and rockets on central Israel.”

Bennett reminded viewers that the PA chairman is leading international lawsuits against Israel, and has turned to UN institutions in order to harm Israel.

Bennett implicitly criticized cabinet members for being overly optimistic at a certain point in the military operation. “I think there was a very big and baseless optimism in the initial phases, as if Hamas is down for the count. In the end, a decisive victory needs to be brought about, forcefully and continuously, without letup and without lulls.”

"I am leading a policy of victory, strength and deterrence, and not all sorts of technologies, but rather, a policy that will cause Hamas and all of our surroundings to understand that you do not mess with Israel," he said. "This has to be brought back, the deterrent approach, or we will not be here.”

Battle to Contain Ebola Outbreak Intensifies
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsHerald Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Countries are rushing to impose measures to prevent contagion of the virus which has claimed almost 1000 lives.

The battle to contain the Ebola outbreak continues, after Nigeria appealed for volunteers to help halt the spread of the virus.

A day after the World Health Organisation declared the epidemic an international health emergency, countries as far afield as India were scrambling to impose measures to prevent contagion of the virus which has claimed almost 1000 lives.The UN health agency stopped short of calling for global travel restrictions, but some countries on Sunday began imposing bans.

Zambia announced that it was denying entry to citizens from countries hit by the virus, while Chad suspended all flights from Nigeria. Nigeria along with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are the hardest hit countries by the epidemic, which the WHO has called the worst in four decades.

Authorities in Lagos, the largest city in Africa’s most populous country, said they needed volunteers because of a shortage of medical personnel.

“I won’t lie about that,” Lagos state health commissioner Jide Idris said on television, as the city, home to 20 million people confirmed nine cases of Ebola, including two deaths.

In Guinea, the government had announced that it was temporarily closing its land borders with neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone but later went back on its statement arguing that it wanted to avoid clandestine border crossings.

“We’re not talking about closing the borders between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but rather of coercive measures to better control cross-border movements, notably by people who risk carrying the virus,” said government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara.

India is also taking action. Airports in the Asian country of 1.25 billion people went on alert and the government opened an emergency helpline on Saturday.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan warned against spreading false information about Ebola which can lead to mass hysteria, panic and misdirection, including unverified suggestions about prevention, treatment, cure and spread of the virus.

Mauritania meanwhile stepped up health checks at its border with Senegal and Mali, a Mauritanian health ministry official said, but so far no suspicious cases had been detected.

Spread by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue, Ebola causes fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

The scientists who discovered the virus in 1976 have called for an experimental drug being used on two infected Americans to be made available to Africans.

Award - Winning Worship Leader Generates Controversy for Rejecting Genesis As Literal
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

An award-winning worship leader continues to generate controversy after revealing that he no longer accepts the Genesis account of creation as being literal.

Michael Gungor and his wife Lisa, who in 2006 formed a congregation called “Bloom” in Denver, are known for their the Dove Award-winning and Grammy nominated worship music, such as Beautiful Things, Say So and Dry Bones. In 2013, they won an award from the Independent Music Awards for their live performance album A Creation Liturgy.

But in 2012, Michael Gungor, the son of pastor and author Ed Gungor, revealed in a blog post entitled A Worshiping Evolutionist? that he had concluded that the Genesis account is only figurative.

“I guess I’ll have to come out of the closet and admit…no, sorry kid, I don’t believe in a literal six-day creation,” he wrote.

“In my Christian school growing up, we’d all snort and chuckle when a scientist in a documentary would mention evolution or talk about how this sort of animal existed millions of years ago,” Gungor said. “But now that I am a songwriter, I see this whole thing as absolutely absurd. Genesis is a poem if I’ve ever seen one.”

Upon posting the blog link to Facebook, fans were divided, with some expressing support and others feeling deep disappointment.

“Beautiful,” one follower named Alex wrote. “I think it is imperative that we remember that the Bible was inspired by God, yet written by human hands, trying to understand life just as we are today.”

“Creation matters for one reason alone: If there were no First Adam, how could there be a Second One?” added another named Jon.

“The fall of man and Christ’s death/resurrection have everything to do with each other,” chimed in Ben, who likewise disagreed with Gungor. “If Genesis is a poem (not literal) then the gospel might as well be, too.”

But earlier this year, Gungor revealed his thoughts even further, explaining in a blog post entitled What Do We Believe? that he “has no more ability to believe” in Genesis as being literal.

“I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago,” he wrote. “I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up.”

“I have no more ability to believe these things than I do to believe in Santa Claus or to not believe in gravity,” he continued. “But I have a choice on what to do with these unbeliefs. I could either throw out those stories as lies, or I could try to find some value in them as stories.”

Now, Gungor is involved with a collaborative project called The Liturgists, which features controversial author and speaker Rob Bell, singer Nichole Nordeman, writer Rachel Held Evans and others, who characterize themselves as being “decidedly Christian in practice.” One of the EP’s, entitled God Our Mother, explores moving past seeing God in the masculine, but also as a motherly, comforting figure.

“God our Mother/Leading us into peace/Drawing and comforting all those in need,” the song rings out.

Also included is an apophatic meditation that asks listeners to contemplate “who is God?”

“This meditation will consist of a series of phrases. The first will be a positive statement. Something like ‘God is our Father.’ … The second phrase will be a negation of the first: God is not our Father. The word father applies to a human male who either raises a child, contributes sperm for conception, or both. This is not the case with God,” it outlines.

“The third phrase will then negate the negation: ‘God is not not our Father,’” the meditative piece continues. “To the mystics, we perhaps are now present with God. Here in the lack of any understanding. Here in the murkiness of mystery, when we have stopped making an idol of God with our concepts and language… we are finally just present with the great ‘I will be who I will be.’”

Word of Gungor’s direction continues to sadden some Christians.

“He seems confused about what the word of God is and what he believes,” wrote one commenter. “It is impossible to believe only ‘part’ of the Bible. You either believe it all as truth and God’s word or none of it.”

Abbas's Fatah Falsely Claims Murdering 11,000 Israelis
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Mahmoud Abbas

Flash 90

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which has been presented by many as "moderate," sought to leave no doubts on Sunday about its terrorist nature as it declared having murdered "11,000 Israelis."

Palestinian Media Watch translated the statement from Fatah's official Facebook page, in which the fictitious claim of having killed 11,000 Israeli citizens was made. Fatah also claimed having "sacrificed 170,000 martyrs," similarly inflating the number of killed Fatah terrorists.

Fatah likewise asserted that it was the "first Palestinian faction to reach the nuclear reactor in Dimona." The curious claim refers to a terror attack in 1988, in which three working mothers were killed by three Fatah terrorists on a bus on their way to the Dimona plant.

Abbas's faction claimed being the first terror group to attack Israel in the first (1988-1993) and second intifadas (2000-2005), in the second instance bragging of a 2000 attack in Gaza.

In that attack, Baha Al-Sa'id of the PA security forces infiltrated Kfar Darom and murdered two IDF soldiers. He was shot by one of them in the exchange and died of his wounds.

At the end of its list of terror "achievements," Abbas's party wrote that it "led the Palestinian attack on Israel in the UN," referencing the diplomatic war it continues to wage against the Jewish state.

The very last "achievement" listed, after all the terror attacks and cases of murder, reads: "Fatah leads the peaceful popular resistance against Israel."

While Abbas has often been touted as a "peace partner," his Fatah party's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades military wing claimed a shooting attack on "a group of Zionists" near Bethlehem just this Sunday. It also claimed responsibility for a failed shooting attack last Sunday in Neve Tzuf, Samaria.

Abbas's Fatah faction has called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, and declared "open war" on Israel late last month.

The statements are in line with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) charter of 1968, which calls for "armed struggle" or "armed revolution," declaring "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine," and calling on local Arabs to "be prepared for the armed struggle." 

Following the charter, the PLO and Fatah were defined internationally as terror organizations, a status which was removed during the 1993 Oslo Accords process.

'Harbinger' Author Says Loss of 'tree of Hope' a Warning
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines

The author of “The Harbinger,” the inspiration behind the “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” documentary, says the seventh harbinger is no more.

A tree that was placed at the site of the 9/11 Muslim terror attack in New York City has died, has been removed, and destroyed.

“Harbinger” author Jonathan Cahn says it’s because of his book that the tree will not be replaced.

His work examines the nine harbingers, or warnings, recorded in the Bible that were delivered to Israel before the nation disintegrated. He contends God is giving the same nine warnings now to America to urge the nation to repent.

One of the harbingers was a sycamore tree at Ground Zero, which after the destruction of the Twin Towers was replaced by an evergreen, a move Cahn believes follows the Isaiah prophecy.

Now the replacement tree is gone, he said.

“The ancient sign of nearing national judgment has been manifested. The erez tree has fallen. The seventh harbinger now speaks of impending judgment. The Tree of Hope, the symbol of America’s resurgence … is dead,” he explained.

“The keepers of the Tree of Hope did everything they could to save the withering tree. They even changed the soil in which it grew. But no matter what they did, the tree continued to wither away and die,” said Cahn.

“Finally, in the spring of this year, the tree planted in the place of the fallen sycamore of Ground Zero, the symbol of a rising America, was uprooted. … The seventh harbinger is no more.”

He had written in his book a prophetic word concerning America’s Erez Tree, the Tree of Hope, saying, “…but when a nation such as this places its hope in its own powers to save itself, then its hope is false. Its true hope is found only in returning to God. Without that, the Tree of Hope is a harbinger of the day when its strong cedars come crashing down to the earth.”

Only recently did Cahn discover that “The Harbinger’s” prophecy has come true. The news came to him from those who had recently walked the grounds of St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City at the corner of Ground Zero where the erez tree had been planted in place of the fallen sycamore.

Unlike the planting of the Tree of Hope, which was done publicly and followed by a publicized ceremony, the tree was uprooted with little notice given, out of the public eye. In fact it was only after several inquiries were made as to the trees disappearance, that WND found out what happened. The Tree of Hope, the symbol of a resurgent America, was uprooted in the spring of this year. The day after its uprooting, it was entirely destroyed.

“In the Bible,” said Cahn, “the felling of the cedar, or the destruction of the erez tree, is a particularly stark sign given to a nation nearing the day of its judgment. It is one of several continuing manifestations of what appears in ‘The Harbinger’ – coming true after the book’s release. What these continuing signs signify is that America’s progression to judgment is continuing – if not accelerating. Combine this with the fact that America in indeed continuing on a rapidly accelerating course of apostasy from God and moral collapse – and it comprises an ominous warning: America is approaching a day of judgment.”

He said his source regarding the destruction of the tree also told him there would not be another tree planted because of “The Harbinger.” He said that because of the book, people have been coming from all over the United States to see the tree.

WND reported earlier on the Old Testament prophecy, the tree that was struck down and the replacement tree in New York. The roots of the sycamore tree were preserved as a memorial.

Isaiah 9:10 states, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” (King James Version)

The words were first uttered by leaders in ancient Israel in response to a limited strike by Assyria on the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. The prophet makes clear it was a limited judgment by God against apostasy. The purpose was not to destroy the nation, but to awaken it, according to most commentaries.

The northern kingdom of Israel did not repent of its rebellion against God’s commandments and was eventually conquered and removed from its land by the ancient Assyrians. Eventually, the southern kingdom of Judah also was overcome by the Babylonians after the Jews refused to repent as well.

Cahn, the pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, New Jersey, claims the prophecy’s statement the “bricks are fallen down” refers to the crumbling of the World Trade Center. The verse, he says, connotes an attitude of defiance, a desire to rebuild with stronger materials instead of acknowledging the hand of God and moving toward national repentance.

The verse mentions sycamore and cedar trees, and it’s here that things start to get eerie.

“After the cloud of dust began to clear, police officers, rescue workers and onlookers gazed at the little plot of land at the edge of Ground Zero,” Cahn writes in “The Harbinger.”

“There in the middle of the ash and debris that covered the ground was a fallen tree. It would soon become a symbol of 9/11 and of Ground Zero. And it was a symbol … but one much more ancient than anyone there could have realized and one carrying a message no one could have fathomed.”

“The tree at Ground Zero that was struck down on September 11 was a sycamore tree.”

Not only was a sycamore tree struck on 9/11, but it was replaced in the exact same location by another tree of the type mentioned in the original Hebrew, an “erez” tree, which is the same genus as the cedar.

“The most natural thing to have done would have been to replace one sycamore with another,” Cahn writes. “But the prophecy required that the fallen sycamore be replaced with a tree of an entirely different nature. So the tree that replaced the sycamore of Ground Zero was likewise not a sycamore. According to the prophecy, the sycamore must be replaced by the biblical erez. So it must be replaced by a conifer tree.”

And that’s what took place in 2003, as a conifer tree, the “Tree of Hope” as it was called, was planted in the spot where the sycamore was slammed on 9/11.

But Cahn now is warning that America is advancing down the path that Israel followed to destruction.

“One of the signs given in the Bible of national judgment is that of a tree withering away,” he explained, quoting Ezekiel 17:10, “Behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither away.”

And he said Jeremiah 11:16 also talks about it: “He has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.”

Cahn said the “breaking off of branches speaks of a nation whose glory and powers are to be removed.”

“If one went down to Ground Zero in the past few years, one would find the Tree of Hope withering away and its branches cut off,” he said. “But perhaps the strongest warning of judgment involving a tree is that of the destruction of the cedar tree.”

Isaiah 2:12-13 states: “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every thing that is high and lifted up … upon all the cedars of Lebanon.” And Zechariah 11:2 states, “For the cedar (erez tree) is fallen, as the mighty are spoiled.”

The loss of the tree “is another ominous sign concerning America,” said Cahn, because it appears to be following a known path.

“Before God judges a nation, He sends warning,” explain Cahn. “He sent warning to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance. God then gave nine harbingers of judgment, nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come. 

Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God’s will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance. And now the nine harbingers of judgment have reappeared and have done so on American soil.”

Cahn says America is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel’s behavior prior to its judgment and eventual fall.

'At Least 500 Yazidis Killed and Buried in Mass Grave As Thousands Rush to Flee Death
Aug 11th, 2014
Daily NewsExpress
Categories: Today's Headlines

Thousands of Yezidis trapped in the Sinjar mountains as they tried to escape from Islamic State (IS)[AP]

Kurdish peshmerga forces oversaw a mass evacuation of the persecuted minority whose suffering saw America order air strikes on the jihadists.

Distressing pictures showed hundreds ferried to safety through the barren and parched mountains but thousands more remain in grave danger.

Last night the Islamic State - formely called ISIS - threatened a fresh wave of violence against the Yazidi people, and it has been claimed 'at least 500' have been killed and buried in a mass grave.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraq's human rights minister said Islamic State militants had killed the families.

They have already taken hostage hundreds of Yazidi women and delivered a chilling warning they had “vicious plans” for their captives.

As many as 50,000 of the minority - considered apostates and devil-worshippers by the insurgents - have been holed up near the Turkish border for a week without food or water.

A little girl as the Yazidis are facing terror from the Islamic State [AP]

Aid has slowly started to trickle through after Kurdish and American forces intervened after an international outcry at their suffering.

Britain has lent its support to the humanitarian offensive, sending two Hercules transporter planes loaded with clean water, tents and tarpaulins for up to 75,000 people.

Prime Minister David Cameron has also pledged financial aid to support the worldwide humanitarian effort and gave his backing to US air strikes.

US President Barack Obama said more air strikes were likely around the mountains where the Yazidis are trapped but has given no indication as to how long the offensive might last.

He said the intervention was aimed at “preventing an act of genocide”, but added: “Ultimately only Iraqis can ensure the stability and security of Iraq. The United States can’t do it for them.

Thousands of Yezidis trapped in the Sinjar mountains [AP]

Iraqi Yezidi people flee Sinjar town of Mosul to Silopi district of Turkey's Sirnak city [AP]

“We will continue to provide military assistance and advice to the Iraqi government as they battle these terrorists so they cannot establish a safe haven.”

SAS units are working in the region, identifying potential targets for further air strikes aimed at stopping the advances of Islamists towards Kurdish areas or Baghdad.

Many SAS men speak Arabic and know Iraq’s mountains and cities well after two decades of missions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “The extremists’ campaign of terror against the innocent, including the Yazidi and Christian minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide.

“For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it.”

Yazidis re rescued by Kurdish peshmerga forces and Peoples Protection Unit (YPG) in Mosul, Iraq [REUTERS]

According to the United Nations more than 500,000 people have been displaced by the violence in Iraq since June, bringing the total this year to over one million.

Expanding from their stronghold of Mosul, Islamic State have captured a string of towns and Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam and reservoir in recent weeks.

The International Rescue Committee said it was providing emergency medical care for up to 4,000 dehydrated Yazidis, mostly women and children, who survived without food or water for up to six days.