Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Why the Earthquake Near San Francisco May Just be the Start of a Whole Lot of Shaking
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

If you thought that the earthquake that struck northern California on Sunday was something, just wait until you see what is coming in the years ahead. As you will read about below, we live at a time when earthquake activity is dramatically increasing. 

This is especially true of the "Ring of Fire" which runs roughly along the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Approximately 81 percent of all big earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and the entire west coast of the United States falls within the danger zone. Over the past few years, we have seen huge earthquake after huge earthquake strike various areas along the Ring of Fire, but up until now the California coastline has mostly been spared. However, there are indications that this may be about to change in a big way.

Early on Sunday, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck the heart of wine country. It was the largest earthquake to hit northern California in 25 years. More than 120 people were injured, scores of buildings were damaged and Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency.

It is being projected that the economic loss from this earthquake will exceed a billion dollars. Since the initial quake, there have been more than 60 aftershocks, and residents are very much hoping that the worst is over. The following is how the damage caused by the earthquake was described by CNN...

"Everything and everyone in Napa was affected by the quake. My house, along with everybody else's, is a disaster. It looks like somebody broke in and ravaged the place, room by room." said CNN iReporter Malissa Koven, who was awakened by the shaking at about 3:20 a.m.

"Anything and everything that could fall, did," she said.

The damage in Napa is "fairly significant," said Glenn Pomeroy, the CEO of the California Earthquake Authority, who surveyed the area Sunday afternoon.

"The downtown area is hardest hit, probably because of the age of construction down there," Pomeroy said. In the residential areas, he is "seeing a lot of chimneys that've come crashing down."

That sounds pretty bad, right?

But remember, this was only a 6.1 magnitude earthquake. As Wikipedia explains, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake would be many times more powerful...

The Richter magnitude scale (also Richter scale) assigns a magnitude number to quantify the energy released by an earthquake. The Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, which defines magnitude as the logarithm of the ratio of the amplitude of the seismic waves to an arbitrary, minor amplitude.

As measured with a seismometer, an earthquake that registers 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times greater than that of an earthquake that registered 4.0, and thus corresponds to a release of energy 31.6 times greater than that released by the lesser earthquake.

And the earthquake that happened on Sunday would not even be worth comparing to an 8.0 or a 9.0 quake. In fact, one study concluded that a 9.0 magnitude earthquake along the Cascadia fault could potentially produce a giant tsunami that would "wash away coastal towns"…

If a 9.0 earthquake were to strike along California’s sparsely populated North Coast, it would have a catastrophic ripple effect.

A giant tsunami created by the quake would wash away coastal towns, destroy U.S. 101 and cause $70 billion in damage over a large swath of the Pacific coast. More than 100 bridges would be lost, power lines toppled and coastal towns isolated. Residents would have as few as 15 minutes notice to flee to higher ground, and as many as 10,000 would perish.

Scientists last year published this grim scenario for a massive rupture along the Cascadia fault system, which runs 700 miles off shore from Northern California to Vancouver Island.

And when we think about "the Big One" hitting California, most of the time we think about southern California. The most famous fault line in southern California is the San Andreas fault, but the truth is that many experts are far more concerned about the Puente Hills fault line. According to one seismologist, that is the fault that would be most likely to "eat L.A." and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in economic damage...

Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.'s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.

According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.

So don't get too excited about what happened on Sunday. Scientists assure us that it is only a matter of time before "the Big One" hits California.

In fact, the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that hit northern California on Sunday was not even the largest earthquake along the Ring of Fire this weekend. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the area around Valparaiso, Chile on Saturday and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Peru on Sunday.

As I mentioned above, we have moved into a time when seismic activity is steadily rising. It has gotten to the point where even the mainstream media cannot ignore it anymore. For example, just check out the following excerpt from a recent CBS News report…

The average rate of big earthquakes — those larger than magnitude 7 — has been 10 per year since 1979, the study reports. That rate rose to 12.5 per year starting in 1992, and then jumped to 16.7 per year starting in 2010 — a 65 percent increase compared to the rate since 1979. This increase accelerated in the first three months of 2014 to more than double the average since 1979, the researchers report.

Something is happening that scientists don't understand, and that is a little scary.

As I wrote about the other day, earthquake activity seems to particularly be increasing in the United States. While the west has been relatively quiet, the number of earthquakes in the central and eastern portions of the nation has quintupled over the past 30 years…

According to the USGS, the frequency of earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. has quintupled, to an average of 100 a year during the 2011-2013 period, up from only 20 per year during the 30-year period to 2000.

Most of these quakes were minor, but research published by the USGS earlier this year demonstrated that a relatively minor magnitude 5.0 quake caused by wastewater injection after conventional oil drilling triggered a much bigger, 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague, Okla.

“We know the hazard has increased for small and moderate size earthquakes. We don’t know as well how much the hazard has increased for large earthquakes. Our suspicion is it has but we are working on understanding this,” said William Ellsworth, a scientist with the USGS.

What in the world could be causing this to happen?

Oklahoma, which used to rarely ever have significant earthquakes, has experienced over 2,300 earthquakes so far in 2014.

That is absolutely staggering.

And of course volcanic activity has been rising all over the planet as well. In 2013, the number of eruptions around the globe set a new all-time high, and right now persistent rumbling under Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano has much of Europe on alert...

For more than a week the earth has been rumbling beneath Iceland’s looming Bardarbunga volcano. The almost continuous small earthquakes led the government to activate its National Crisis Coordination Centre this week and block off access to the largely uninhabited region around the Bardarbunga caldera.

Major airlines are making contingency plans for a potential eruption that could throw dust into the atmosphere and disrupt flight paths between North America and Europe.

Some scientists are saying that if that volcano erupts, it "could trigger Britain’s coldest winter ever".

Clearly something is happening.

All over the world seismic activity is on the rise.

That means that the shaking in California (and in much of the rest of the world) may soon get a whole lot worse.

U.S. Welcomes Ceasefire Deal
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The United States gave full backing Tuesday to the announcement of a new long-term ceasefire between Israel and Gazan terrorists after 50 days of violence in and around Gaza.

"We strongly support the cease fire announcement," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, promising a statement from Secretary of State John Kerry later in the day.

U.S. Sources: Obama Authorizes Surveillance Flights Over Syria
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Robot Brain to Rule Them All
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsMail Online
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Researchers have begun work on a giant 'robot brain' they say could be used by millions of machines around the world.

It will be a central store for everything from images to details of how to change a plug.

Hosted on a server so any robot can access it, the system is currently downloading and processing 1 billion images, 120,000 YouTube videos, and 100 million how-to documents and appliance manuals.

'Robo Brain is a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available Internet resources, computer simulations, and real-life robot trials,' the researchers behind it say.

'It accumulates everything robotics into a comprehensive and interconnected knowledge base.'

Applications include prototyping for robotics research, household robots, and self-driving cars, the team say. 

The information is being translated and stored in a robot-friendly format that robots will be able to draw on when they need it.

To serve as helpers in our homes, offices and factories, robots will need to understand how the world works and how the humans around them behave. 

Robotics researchers have been teaching them these things one at a time: How to find your keys, pour a drink, put away dishes, and when not to interrupt two people having a conversation. This will all come in one package with Robo Brain.

'Our laptops and cell phones have access to all the information we want,' said Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University

If a robot encounters a situation it hasn't seen before it can query Robo Brain in the cloud,' . 

Saxena and colleagues at Cornell, Stanford and Brown universities and the University of California, Berkeley, say Robo Brain will process images to pick out the objects in them, and by connecting images and video with text, it will learn to recognize objects and how they are used, along with human language and behavior.

If a robot sees a coffee mug, it can learn from Robo Brain not only that it's a coffee mug, but also that liquids can be poured into or out of it, that it can be grasped by the handle, and that it must be carried upright when it is full, as opposed to when it is being carried from the dishwasher to the cupboard. 

'The Robo Brain will look like a gigantic, branching graph with abilities for multi-dimensional queries,' said Aditya Jami, a visiting researcher art Cornell, who designed the large-scale database for the brain. Perhaps something that looks like a chart of relationships between Facebook friends, but more on the scale of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Like a human learner, Robo Brain will have teachers, thanks to crowdsourcing. 

The Robo Brain website will display things the brain has learned, and visitors will be able to make additions and corrections.

Surveillance System Being Sold That Can Track Mobile Phones Across the World
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Sydney Morning Herald
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Illustration: Michael Mucci

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a mobile phone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all mobile phone networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people's travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

The world's most powerful intelligence services, such as the National Security Agency in the US and Britain's GCHQ, have long used mobile phone data to track targets around the globe. But experts say these new systems allow less technically advanced governments to track people in any nation with relative ease and precision.

Users of such technology type a phone number into a computer portal, which then collects information from the location databases maintained by mobile phone carriers, company documents show. In this way, the surveillance system learns which tower a target is currently using, revealing his or her location to within a few blocks in an urban area or a few kilometres in a rural one.

It is unclear which governments have acquired these tracking systems, but one industry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive trade information, said that dozens of countries have bought or leased such technology in recent years. This rapid spread underscores how the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar surveillance industry makes advanced spying technology available worldwide.

"Any tin-pot dictator with enough money to buy the system could spy on people anywhere in the world," said Eric King, deputy director for Privacy International, a London-based activist group that warns about abuse of surveillance technology. "This is a huge problem."

Security experts say hackers, sophisticated criminal gangs and nations under sanctions also could use this tracking technology, which operates in a legal grey area. It is illegal in many countries to track people without their consent or a court order, but there is no clear international legal standard for secretly tracking people in other countries, nor is there a global entity with the authority to police potential abuses.

In response to questions from The Washington Post this month, the US Federal Communications Commission said it would investigate possible misuse of tracking technology that collects location data from carrier databases. The United States restricts the export of some surveillance technology, but with multiple suppliers based overseas, there are few practical limits on the sale or use of these systems internationally.

"If this is technically possible, why couldn't anybody do this anywhere?" said Jon Peha, a former White House scientific adviser and chief technologist for the FCC who is now an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was one of several telecommunications experts who reviewed the marketing documents at The Washington Post's request.

"I'm worried about foreign governments, and I'm even more worried about non-governments," Peha said. "Which is not to say I'd be happy about the NSA using this method to collect location data. But better them than the Iranians."

Location tracking is an increasingly common part of modern life. Apps that help you navigate through a city or find the nearest coffee shop need to know your location. Many people keep tabs on their teenage children - or their spouses - through tracking apps on smartphones. But these forms of tracking require consent; mobile devices typically allow these location features to be blocked if users desire.

Tracking systems built for intelligence services or police, however, are inherently stealthy and difficult - if not impossible - to block. Private surveillance vendors offer government agencies several such technologies, including systems that collect cellular signals from nearby phones and others that use malicious software to trick phones into revealing their locations.

Governments also have long had the ability to compel carriers to provide tracking data on their own customers, especially within their own countries. The National Security Agency, meanwhile, taps into telecommunication-system cables to collect mobile phone location data on a mass, global scale.

But tracking systems that access carrier location databases are unusual in their ability to allow virtually any government to track people across borders, with any type of cellular phone, across a wide range of carriers - without the carriers even knowing. These systems also can be used in tandem with other technologies that, when the general location of a person is already known, can intercept calls and internet traffic, activate microphones, and access contact lists, photos and other documents.

Companies that make and sell surveillance technology seek to limit public information about their systems' capabilities and client lists, typically marketing their technology directly to law enforcement and intelligence services through international conferences that are closed to journalists and other members of the public.

Yet marketing documents obtained by The Washington Post show that companies are offering powerful systems that are designed to evade detection while plotting movements of surveillance targets on computerised maps. The documents claim system success rates of more than 70 per cent.

A 24-page marketing brochure for SkyLock, a cellular tracking system sold by Verint, a maker of analytics systems based in New York, carries the subtitle "Locate. Track. Manipulate". The document, dated January 2013 and labelled "Commercially Confidential," said the system offers government agencies "a cost-effective, new approach to obtaining global location information concerning known targets."

The brochure includes screen shots of maps depicting location tracking in what appears to be Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Congo, the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe and several other countries. Verint says on its website that it is "a global leader in Actionable Intelligence solutions for customer engagement optimisation, security intelligence, and fraud, risk and compliance" with clients in "more than 10,000 organisations in over 180 countries".

(Privacy International has collected several marketing brochures on cellular surveillance systems, including one that refers briefly to SkyLock, and posted them on its website. The 24-page SkyLock brochure and other material was independently provided to The Washington Post by people concerned that such systems are being abused.)

Verint, which also has substantial operations in Israel, declined to comment for this story. It said in the marketing brochure that it does not use SkyLock against US or Israeli phones, which could violate national laws. But several similar systems, marketed in recent years by companies based in Switzerland, Ukraine and elsewhere, likely are free of such limitations.

At The Washington Post's request, telecommunications security researcher Tobias Engel used the techniques described by the marketing documents to determine the location of a Post employee who used an AT&T phone and consented to the tracking. Based only on her phone number, Engel found the Post employee's location, in downtown Washington DC, to within a city block - a typical level of precision when such systems are used in urban areas.

"You're obviously trackable from all over the planet if you have a cellphone with you, as long as it's turned on," said Engel, who is based in Berlin. "It's possible for almost anyone to track you as long as they are willing to spend some money on it."

AT&T declined to comment for this story.

The tracking technology takes advantage of the lax security of SS7, a global network that carriers use to communicate with one another when directing calls, texts and internet data.

The system was built decades ago when only a few large carriers controlled the bulk of global phone traffic. Now thousands of companies use SS7 to provide services to billions of phones and other mobile devices, security experts say. All of these companies have access to the network and can send queries to other companies on the SS7 system, making the entire network more vulnerable to exploitation. Any one of these companies could share their access with others, including makers of surveillance systems.

The tracking systems use queries sent over the SS7 network to ask carriers what tower a customer has used most recently. Carriers configure their systems to transmit such information only to trusted companies that need it to direct calls or other telecommunications services to customers. But the protections against unintended access are weak and easily defeated, said Engel and other researchers.

By repeatedly collecting this location data, the tracking systems can show whether a person is walking down a city street or driving down a highway, or whether the person has recently taken a flight to a new city or country.

"We don't have a monopoly on the use of this and probably can be sure that other governments are doing this to us in reverse," said lawyer Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie who specialises in privacy and technology.

Carriers can attempt to block these SS7 queries but rarely do so successfully, experts say, amid the massive data exchanges coursing through global telecommunications networks. P1 Security, a research firm in Paris, has been testing one query commonly used for surveillance, called an "Any Time Interrogation" query, that prompts a carrier to report the location of an individual customer. Of the carriers tested so far, 75 per cent responded to "Any Time Interrogation" queries by providing location data on their customers.

"People don't understand how easy it is to spy on them," said Philippe Langlois, chief executive of P1 Security.

Senior Journalist: Hamas Gained a 'Huge Achievement'
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Roni Daniel

Flash 90

Hamas has achieved a major achievement in its long-term ceasefire deal with Israel that started on Tuesday at 7 p.m., according to Channel 2 News’ military analyst Roni Daniel.

Commenting on the rumored ceasefire shortly before it was confirmed by the government minutes before taking effect, Daniel noted that Knesset members previously threatened that Hamas will leave the current round of fighting without a single achievement.

"But indeed gentlemen, Hamas has a huge achievement. This terrorist organization stood for 50 full days against the most advanced and strongest army in the Middle East, and did not submit," noted Daniel.

The journalist acknowledged that Hamas has been seriously hurt in the fighting; the group's financial chief and three top commanders have been assassinated in the last week, as well as potentially Hamas's military chief.

"However even on the fiftieth day (Hamas) has the strength to argue about the conditions of the ceasefire, its time period, and apparently about the agreements that will come as a continuation to it," remarked the military analyst.

Hamas was indeed attacking until the very end, killing an Israeli and seriously wounding two others in a massive mortar and rocket barrage starting just over an hour before the ceasefire, and even breaching the ceasefire up to 15 minutes after it came into effect.

Regarding how residents of the south were forced to flee their homes during the operation and millions others likewise were forced into shelters under regular rocket fire, Daniel commented "basically, Hamas dictated our lives to us for 50 days."

"I'm very concerned about what they're learning from this incident in Iran, Hezbollah and other organizations. This needed to end with Hamas begging for its life, and it didn't," Daniel added.

"Less than two hours ahead of the declaration of a ceasefire I take the liberty of assessing that Israel once again will answer in the affirmative and Hamas can tell itself - when we wanted we fired at Jewish homes, and when we wanted there was a ceasefire," concluded the senior journalist.

Report: PA Says Israel Agreed to a Long - Term Ceasefire
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Mahmoud Abbas

Flash 90

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday night called together senior security sources to discuss a long-term ceasefire with Hamas and other Gazan terrorists as proposed by Egypt, Palestinian Authority (PA) sources on Tuesday afternoon claim Israel has agreed to the truce.

A senior PA official told AFP that a "permanent" ceasefire for Gaza has been reached with Israel.

"The contacts that have been going on have agreed a permanent ceasefire, a (deal to) end the blockade and a guarantee that Gaza's demands and needs will be met," elaborated the official on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli sources.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt are poised to announce the ceasefire in Gaza and the implementation of Abbas's "national initiative" on Tuesday, according to senior PA sources who spoke with Walla!.

The US has already voiced its opposition to Abbas's "plan," which essentially consists of asking the United Nations to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw behind the 1949 Armistice lines, and make way for the establishment of "Palestine."

Apparently Abbas intends to present his plan in Ramallah on Tuesday night.

As for the Egyptian ceasefire initiative, it reportedly will follow in the footsteps of the ceasefire reached after the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense.

Putin's Pride - Danger for the World
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

As the Obama administrations draws down our forces to pre-WWII levels, and even front-line military officers are dismissed when in action against the enemy, Russia is doing something quite different. Russian president Vladimir Putin is proudly boasting of his nation's "offensive and defensive" weaponry which is so advanced that "other armies in the world" do not yet have their equal, according to a Kremlin-controlled Russian-language website.

Russia's feverish military build-up began in 2008 and is projected to continue through 2020. The Kremlin is determined to rival the U.S. armed forces. Moscow is almost completely remaking its military, and has developed, or is process of developing, new models of jet fighters, bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, submarines, and surface ships. Putin has also shaken up the Russian top brass with a completely re-done command and control structure.

The Russian army itself is projected to become more of a volunteer, professional force, much less reliant on draftees. Military pay and housing are also improving as the build-up proceeds.

There are problems, however. Russian industry is having difficulty producing modern, technically sophisticated weaponry. Moscow has turned to the West for assistance, and the West has obliged. The most enthusiastic supporter of the Russian arms industry is France, which is building two Mistral-class helicopter assault carriers. The deal for the carriers was first struck in 2008, and the delivery dates for the ships, one in 2014 and the other in 2015, have remianed firm despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine's Crimean province.

The Mistral carriers are ideal for the rapid deployment of elite troops and support vehicles. One of the carriers is to be deployed in the Black Sea, possibly out of the recently captured port of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. The second carrier is slated to be used in the area around several Japanese islands occupied by Russia since the end of World War II. Tokyo wants the islands returned, Moscow refuses.

While France has decided to go through with its carrier deal with Russia, Western military aid has dried up following the Crimean invasion. The Russian military and political elite are now reviving the Soviet strategy of having all military equipment domestically produced.

How long Western nations can resist a lucrative Russian market and follow Fance's example is difficult to assess, but exporting military technology for short term gain is tempting to nations with weak or stagnant economies.
With or without Western assistance, Moscow is determined to field an armed force comparable to the U.S. and NATO in terms of training, technological expertise, and overall effectiveness.

Russian military prowess is only one part of the threat which the United States will be facing very shortly. While Putin and the Moscow elite are glowing with pride as the Russian military begins to compare favorable with what Russians increasingly regard as the legendary Red Army, the Kremlin is not prepared to go it alone against the United States.

Putin's pride does not blind him to the need for friends in his struggle with the United States, and in the same statement about Russia's military might, Putin also refers to "our partners," which, he adds, Russia is "glad to have."
Moscow's "partners" include the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), which is engagning in a military build-up of its own. Putin's Latin American"partners" may, in the future, supply bases for Russian aircraft and naval forces. In addition, Cuba is a floating spy base for Russia and China. Electronic signals broadcast from the U.S., especially from the north-east section of the nation, are intercepted and analyzed. Targets include political as well as military communications.

Cuban intelligence officers and their agents operate very effectively within the United States, and are also an important source of information for Moscow and Beijing.

Putin is particularly "glad" to have the PRC as a "partner." Moscow has stated that the political elites in both nations have nearly identical interests. One of the areas of common interest is the Asia-Pacific region.

Cooperation between Russia and China can make life very difficult for U.S. allies in the area. Japan is particularly vulnerable. Unfortunately for Tokyo, both Russia and China have reasons for weakening Japan Moscow does not want to see a strong Japan as a competitor for the Russian-occupied islands which Japan still claims. Moscow is building up its naval, air, and land forces near Japan, and Russian aircraft periodically violate Japanese airspace. China is ready to confront Tokyo over a chain of uninhabited islands (Senkaku to the Japanese, Diaoyu to the Chinese) in the South China Sea, and area which is also one of the world's most important shipping lanes.

If Russia and China are ever allowed to intimidate Japan and possibly reduce Japan to a dependent state, the United States would be seen as powerless, and unable, or unwilling, to protect its allies. If America retreats from the Asia-Pacific region, the independent island of Taiwan would fall to China's overwhelming might, and even the Philippines and Australia would find themselves in danger.

The United States would, in effect, no longer be a world power.

In such a situation, the United States would rapidly find itself as dependent on the will of Moscow and Bejing. Russia and China will then be the de facto arbiters of the world, and Americans would then find that even in domestic politics, the political elite of Moscow and Beijing would have a controlling interest.

Free people, in order to remain free, must remain loyal to each other. Any sign of weakness will bring on the most calamitous consequence. 

Pentagon Considers Options Against ISIS Targets in Syria
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsCBS News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Syria said today it's willing to cooperate with the United States to put down the Sunni Muslim terrorist group known as ISIS. But the foreign minister warned against any attacks against ISIS targets in Syria -- without Syrian permission.

President Obama has made no decision on that, but as CBS News correspondent David Martin reports, the U.S. military will be ready.

The Pentagon has begun planning for air strikes using both manned and unmanned aircraft to attack ISIS targets inside Syria. The strikes would be designed to disrupt ISIS operations and kill its senior leaders.

Current air strikes have been limited to ISIS forces in Iraq that threaten either American facilities in the cities of Baghdad and Erbil, or large segments of the Iraqi population such as the Yazidi religious minority. Those strikes have stalled the ISIS advance across northern Iraq, but left its center of power in Syria untouched.

Over the weekend, ISIS captured a Syrian air force base, solidifying its hold on the entire province surrounding the city of Raqqa. The area is far from the capital of Damascus and as a result Pentagon planners do not believe Syrian air defenses would pose a significant threat to American warplanes.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said Sunday there is no evidence ISIS is actively plotting to attack the U.S. or Europe and intelligence analysts do not believe ISIS has the ability to conduct a Sept. 11-scale attack.

But ISIS has already executed one American, journalist James Foley and has dozens of U.S. citizens in its ranks who are a threat to return to the states to carry out lone wolf attacks.

Whatever President Obama decides, airstrikes alone will only disrupt ISIS, not defeat it. This is just the beginning of what could be another very long war.

Ministers, MKs Critical Over Ceasefire With Hamas
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Tzipi Livni, Naftali Bennett

Flash 90

Harsh criticism has met the decision by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to accept a long-term ceasefire with Hamas starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, which was accompanied by a massive rocket and mortar barrage that left one Israeli dead.

Netanyahu informed members of the Security Cabinet about the decision through telephone calls, to which Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) reportedly expressed his opposition to the move.

Bennett argued that Israel should not be holding negotiations with a terror organization or make agreements with them. His position has in the past garnered a reprimand by Netanyahu.

Likud MK and former Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon - who was fired recently by Netanyahu for his outspoken criticism of the PM - was also quick to condemn the deal.

"In the Middle East restraint is interpreted as weakness," he said in a statement.

"Despite the heavy price we did not defeat Hamas. 50 days of fighting, 64 (soldiers killed), five civilians killed, 82,000 reserve soldiers drafted and at the end of the whole thing we return to the understandings of 'Pillar of Defense'," he continued, referring to the fact that the ceasefire deal is said to mirror that which followed Israel's last counterterrorism operation, Pillar of Defense, in 2012.

He added that Israel should have send a message "to the entire Middle East, including Hezbollah, ISIS and Iran, that you don't mess with Israel. I'm afraid that in this matter we did not do enough," he went on, calling for a period of "national reflection".

"The policy of restraint and hesitancy hampered Israel's deterrent capability. The next round is just a matter of time," he concluded, saying that next time Israel needed "to defeat Hamas".

Criticism from the left

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) likewise criticized talk of a ceasefire earlier on Tuesday, speaking at a legal conference in Ashkelon where a home suffered a direct hit in the morning hours.

"The end of the operation doesn't need to come with significant diplomatic achievements for Hamas," said Livni, defining the group as being "imbued with an extremist ideology that doesn't allow it to reach an agreement with us."

"A ceasefire in my opinion cannot be part of just another round (of fighting), but we must find the path through which the end to the operation will be part of a general agreement with those that want a two state solution," suggested Livni.

Livni was tasked as negotiator in the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) that broke down in April after the PA signed a unity agreement with Hamas.

Joining in on the criticism was MK Zehava Galon, chairperson of the far-left Meretz party.

"The ceasefire is coming too late and its conditions prove once and for all that Operation Protective Edge is a strategic failure for Netanyahu, who went to war without goals and gave an enormous achievement to Hamas to be borne by residents of the south," stated Galon.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Large Holes Forming Near The New Madrid Fault And A Giant Crack In The Earth In North Mexico
And did you know that the number of earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. has quintupled in recent years? We live at a time when earthquakes are increasing in frequency and severity. And we are starting to see some very unusual activity in places that have been quiet for a very long time.  

Top U.S. Military Officer: ISIS Has ‘Apocalyptic End-of-Days Vision’ That Must Be Defeated
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statements on Thursday as both he and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel discussed concerns about the group. “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated,” he said.  

White House at ‘tipping point’ on Islamic State
Signs the United States may strike Islamic State militants in their Syrian stronghold reveal a shift in the politics of foreign war in Washington, after the trauma of the post-Iraq era.  

ISIS Ethnic Cleansing: 670 Prisoners Murdered In Shia Prison Massacre, UN Reports
An estimated 670 inmates from Badush prison in the city of Mosul were reportedly murdered by ISIS militants on June 10, 2014, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement on Monday. The mass murder was cited by the accounts of some 20 survivors and 16 witnesses.  

Report: Hamas, Islamic Jihad accept Egyptian ceasefire draft
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal and are awaiting Israel's answer, Hamas official in Cairo, Mousa Abu Marzou told pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat on Tuesday.  

MINOR STORM WARNING
NOAA forecasters estimate a 15%-20% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Aug. 26-27 in response to an incoming CME.  

Iceland volcano: Bardarbunga hit by 5.7 earthquake
Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano was hit by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake on Tuesday morning, the largest since tremors began in the area last week. The country's Met Office said despite the shock - the fourth magnitude five quake in 48 hours - there is still no sign of a volcanic eruption. On Sunday, Iceland lowered the aviation risk to its second highest level.  

Captured Russian troops 'in Ukraine by accident'
A group of Russian soldiers captured in eastern Ukraine had crossed the border "by accident", Russian military sources are quoted as saying. Ukraine said 10 paratroopers had been captured and has released video interviews of some of the men. One is quoted as saying "this is not our war". The incident comes ahead of a key meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents.  

Saudi court jails 17 for up to 33 years on terrorism charges
The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced on Monday 17 members of a terrorist group to jail terms ranging from nine to 33 years, the Saudi Press Agency reported. They were convicted of embracing a deviant ideology, contacting and sheltering members of Al-Qaeda network, funding terrorist activities, illegal possession of weapons, undermining national security and forging ID documents.  

Libya crisis: US 'caught off-guard' by air strikes
The US was "caught off guard" by air strikes against Islamist militia in Libya, a senior official has told the BBC. The attacks on militia positions around Tripoli airport were reportedly carried out by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from bases in Egypt. Egypt has denied any involvement and the UAE has not commented.  

Ukraine crisis: Poroshenko and Putin set for Minsk talks
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is due to take part in talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at a summit in Minsk, capital of Belarus. The meeting comes amid rising tension between the two countries over Ukraine's military campaign against pro-Russian separatists.  

Fort Lee shooter turns gun on self, but reasons behind rage unclear
A shooter stormed a building at Fort Lee outside Petersburg, Va., barricading herself in an office before shooting herself in the head Monday morning. The unidentified shooter has been taken to the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Her condition is unknown at this time.  

Napa Valley quake could help forecast 'big one' – 5 seconds early
The earthquake that jolted California's Napa Valley in the predawn hours Sunday has left the city of Napa with a large cleanup job – and scientists with increasing confidence in an earthquake early warning system that they say could help save lives when the "big one" comes  

Liberia: Doctor given experimental Ebola drug dies
A Liberian doctor who received one of the last known doses of an experimental Ebola drug has died, officials said Monday. Separately, Canada said it has yet to send out an untested vaccine that the government is donating.  

Islamic State Setting a Dangerous Trend, Expert Warns
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Member of Islamic state

Reuters

Israeli security assessments of the threat posed by Islamic State (formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS) to the region indicate that its lawlessness, not the group itself, threaten the Middle East, according to a recent article.

Dr. Yoram Schweitzer, of the Institute for National Security Studies, served as a strategic consultant Counterterrorism Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Defense, and was formerly head of the Department Against International Terrorism.

According to Schweitzer, the IDF believes that the chances that IS constitutes a real threat to countries such as Jordan and Iran are slim to none. The real danger, he claims, is that IS's territory is serving as a breeding ground and refuge for terrorists in general, and that they are being trained to bring terrorism to Europe and North America. 

"The brutal actions of ISIS are not a novelty to those who follow its exploits since its establishment was announced six months ago," Schweitzer said.

However, says the new focus on the group in the media is a result of its takeovers of large swaths of land in Iraq.

"These moves were accompanied by killing campaigns unusual in their scope and cruelty, which reached new proportions in recent weeks with the massacre perpetrated against the defenseless Yazid," he added.

According to Schweitzer, the organization's secret strength is first and foremost in crushing weak opponents. He noted that IS has only taken limited areas in Iraq and Syria; elsewhere, they have been met with resistance.

"This is due to the fact that there are now two failed states, in which the central government suffers from a lack of legitimacy among citizens and the lack of effective control over parts of the territory," he said.

The instability allows IS to move in, he noted - with little to no resistance. "The army in Iraq failed and lacks fighting spirit, while the Syrian army is engaged primarily in maintaining the survival of the regime in the major cities of the country. With an empty government this leaves IS relative freedom of action in schools and in the cities of these countries."

Is IS limited to Iraq and Syria? Probably not, he said. According to Schweitzer, IS is likely to deepen its territorial grip in the heart of Jordan or Turkey - but only in rural areas. Close to major cities, they will encounter significant military opposition that will see their movement limited, he postulated.

Power is money, money is power

The main danger of IS, according to Schweitzer, is that the organization has the ability to channel money and advanced weaponry to other terrorist organizations in the Middle East - especially those close to the territory it controls.

In June, the group became the 'world's richest' terrorist group, having seized lands, weaponry, and assets worth roughly two billion dollars. 

"This can be used basis for promoting and distributing subversive activities of terrorism, that could deepen instability in the region," he says. 

"Such an area controlled by a radical element like IS gives the terrorists a messianic bent, which encourages jihadists and Salafists around the world to find shelter [there], use it as an exit point for terrorist activity and as a refuge afterward," he added." It will serve as the basis for training, mobility of people and weapons to and from it and fulfill the dreams Al Qaeda left two decades ago." 

This training, he said, makes Al Qaeda's training camps seem harmless by comparison. These young people, he said, who have gathered from around the world to train at the ground zero of IS terror will return to their home countries with terrorist cells that will be active within a relatively short time.

"IS has crossed red lines and raised the bar for brutality - which was already very high, as set by Al Qaeda and its affiliates - to new heights," Schweitzer said. "These may become the norm in future confrontations - not only from IS, but also on the part of other terror organizations, which are absorbing inspiration and ideas from it."

"The presence of thousand of young Muslims from around the world, including Western civilians being recruited in the war zones in Syria, who are participating in atrocities in Iraq and Syria, are being indoctrinated and gaining combat experience and skills in terrorist and guerrilla warfare - this is the true, serious threat," he added. "The accumulated experience is expected to be translated into terror attacks in their home countries."

As such, according to Schweitzer, "the concerns of recent leaders of the United Kingdom, United States and France from the export of terrorism from the Middle East to their home countries have a solid basis in fact."

"Presumably, even if the momentum of IS was curbed, as expected, by powerful forces, the phenomenon of global jihad by IS and its affiliates is expected to win the support of a new generation of jihadists," he added. "These seek to try and renew the system of international terrorism which was largely halted over the past decade and a quarter due to the 9/11 attacks."

"It is time for the international community to wake up and get back to work to curb the IS phenomenon, before it is required to do so in the heart of their own cities," he warned. 

Schweitzer's call to action surfaces hours after the US authorized airstrikes on IS in Syria, and weeks after airstrikes were carried out on the organization in Iraq. IS in response threatened to attack Americans "in any place" if U.S. airstrikes in Iraq hit its people.

Haniyeh Declares the Resistance Has Won
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Tuesday that “We are standing at the entryway to new diplomatic understandings.”

Haniyeh added that “The mighty stance of our nation has led to a victory, as did the acts of the resistance.”

Hamas Official: We'll Build Our Seaport Without Permission
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Mahmoud al-Zahar

Reuters

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar declared on Tuesday that the group would build a seaport and airport in Gaza, even without permission.

Al-Zahar hinted that any construction materials brought into Gaza for the purpose of its reconstruction will also be used for the construction of the seaport and airport.

"We will build our airport and our seaports and we will not ask for anyone's permission, and whoever will attack our ports and our airport we will attack their own ports and will once again attack again their airport," he said.

Al-Zahar, who spoke hours after a new long-term ceasefire in Gaza was announced, claimed that during the last round of fighting Hamas was able to topple Israel’s national security strategy by proving that Hamas is has the power to deter and not Israel.

He also called to reconstruct the Gaza war in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem and by this to prepare for “the liberation of Palestine”.

One of Hamas’s demands for a ceasefire was that a seaport and airport be built in Gaza. Both demands are seen as a security threat that would allow Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists to re-arm.

According to the contents of the ceasefire agreement, the Hamas demand for a Gaza sea and airport will be discussed in Cairo within the next month

For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around the Globe
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

The world’s most powerful intelligence services, such as the National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ, long have used cellphone data to track targets around the globe. But experts say these new systems allow less technically advanced governments to track people in any nation — including the United States — with relative ease and precision.

Users of such technology type a phone number into a computer portal, which then collects information from the location databases maintained by cellular carriers, company documents show. In this way, the surveillance system learns which cell tower a target is currently using, revealing his or her location to within a few blocks in an urban area or a few miles in a rural one.

It is unclear which governments have acquired these tracking systems, but one industry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive trade information, said that dozens of countries have bought or leased such technology in recent years. This rapid spread underscores how the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar surveillance industry makes advanced spying technology available worldwide.

“Any tin-pot dictator with enough money to buy the system could spy on people anywhere in the world,” said Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, a London-based activist group that warns about the abuse of surveillance technology. “This is a huge problem.”

Security experts say hackers, sophisticated criminal gangs and nations under sanctions also could use this tracking technology, which operates in a legal gray area. It is illegal in many countries to track people without their consent or a court order, but there is no clear international legal standard for secretly tracking people in other countries, nor is there a global entity with the authority to police potential abuses.

In response to questions from The Washington Post this month, the Federal Communications Commission said it would investigate possible misuse of tracking technology that collects location data from carrier databases. The United States restricts the export of some surveillance technology, but with multiple suppliers based overseas, there are few practical limits on the sale or use of these systems internationally.

“If this is technically possible, why couldn’t anybody do this anywhere?” said Jon Peha, a former White House scientific adviser and chief technologist for the FCC who is now an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was one of several telecommunications experts who reviewed the marketing documents at The Post’s request.

“I’m worried about foreign governments, and I’m even more worried about non-governments,” Peha said. “Which is not to say I’d be happy about the NSA using this method to collect location data. But better them than the Iranians.”

‘Locate. Track. Manipulate.’

Location tracking is an increasingly common part of modern life. Apps that help you navigate through a city or find the nearest coffee shop need to know your location. Many people keep tabs on their teenage children — or their spouses — through tracking apps on smartphones. But these forms of tracking require consent; mobile devices typically allow these location features to be blocked if users desire.

Tracking systems built for intelligence services or police, however, are inherently stealthy and difficult — if not impossible — to block. Private surveillance vendors offer government agencies several such technologies, including systems that collect cellular signals from nearby phones and others that use malicious software to trick phones into revealing their locations.

Governments also have long had the ability to compel carriers to provide tracking data on their customers, especially within their own countries. The National Security Agency, meanwhile, taps into telecommunication-system cables to collect cellphone location data on a mass, global scale.

But tracking systems that access carrier location databases are unusual in their ability to allow virtually any government to track people across borders, with any type of cellular phone, across a wide range of carriers — without the carriers even knowing. These systems also can be used in tandem with other technologies that, when the general location of a person is already known, can intercept calls and Internet traffic, activate microphones, and access contact lists, photos and other documents.

Companies that make and sell surveillance technology seek to limit public information about their systems’ capabilities and client lists, typically marketing their technology directly to law enforcement and intelligence services through international conferences that are closed to journalists and other members of the public.

Yet marketing documents obtained by The Washington Post show that companies are offering powerful systems that are designed to evade detection while plotting movements of surveillance targets on computerized maps. The documents claim system success rates of more than 70 percent.

A 24-page marketing brochure for SkyLock, a cellular tracking system sold by Verint, a maker of analytics systems based in Melville, N.Y., carries the subtitle “Locate. Track. Manipulate.” The document, dated January 2013 and labeled “Commercially Confidential,” says the system offers government agencies “a cost-effective, new approach to obtaining global location information concerning known targets.”

The brochure includes screen shots of maps depicting location tracking in what appears to be Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Congo, the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe and several other countries. Verint says on its Web site that it is “a global leader in Actionable Intelligence solutions for customer engagement optimization, security intelligence, and fraud, risk and compliance,” with clients in “more than 10,000 organizations in over 180 countries.”

(Privacy International has collected several marketing brochures on cellular surveillance systems, including one that refers briefly to SkyLock, and posted them on its Web site. The 24-page SkyLock brochure and other material was independently provided to The Post by people concerned that such systems are being abused.)

Verint, which also has substantial operations in Israel, declined to comment for this story. It says in the marketing brochure that it does not use SkyLock against U.S. or Israeli phones, which could violate national laws. But several similar systems, marketed in recent years by companies based in Switzerland, Ukraine and elsewhere, likely are free of such limitations.

At The Post’s request, telecommunications security researcher Tobias Engel used the techniques described by the marketing documents to determine the location of a Post employee who used an AT&T phone and consented to the tracking. Based only on her phone number, Engel found the Post employee’s location, in downtown Washington, to within a city block — a typical level of precision when such systems are used in urban areas.

“You’re obviously trackable from all over the planet if you have a cellphone with you, as long as it’s turned on,” said Engel, who is based in Berlin. “It’s possible for almost anyone to track you as long as they are willing to spend some money on it.”

AT&T declined to comment for this story.

Exploiting the SS7 network

The tracking technology takes advantage of the lax security of SS7, a global network that cellular carriers use to communicate with one another when directing calls, texts and Internet data.

The system was built decades ago, when only a few large carriers controlled the bulk of global phone traffic. Now thousands of companies use SS7 to provide services to billions of phones and other mobile devices, security experts say. All of these companies have access to the network and can send queries to other companies on the SS7 system, making the entire network more vulnerable to exploitation. Any one of these companies could share its access with others, including makers of surveillance systems.

The tracking systems use queries sent over the SS7 network to ask carriers what cell tower a customer has used most recently. Carriers configure their systems to transmit such information only to trusted companies that need it to direct calls or other telecommunications services to customers. But the protections against unintended access are weak and easily defeated, said Engel and other researchers.

By repeatedly collecting this location data, the tracking systems can show whether a person is walking down a city street or driving down a highway, or whether the person has recently taken a flight to a new city or country.

“We don’t have a monopoly on the use of this and probably can be sure that other governments are doing this to us in reverse,” said lawyer Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie who specializes in privacy and technology.

Carriers can attempt to block these SS7 queries but rarely do so successfully, experts say, amid the massive data exchanges coursing through global telecommunications networks. P1 Security, a research firm in Paris, has been testing one query commonly used for surveillance, called an “Any Time Interrogation” query, that prompts a carrier to report the location of an individual customer. Of the carriers tested so far, 75 percent responded to “Any Time Interrogation” queries by providing location data on their customers. (Testing on U.S. carriers has not been completed.)

“People don’t understand how easy it is to spy on them,” said Philippe Langlois, chief executive of P1 Security.

The GSMA, a London-based trade group that represents carriers and equipment manufacturers, said it was not aware of the existence of tracking systems that use SS7 queries, but it acknowledged serious security issues with the network, which is slated to be gradually replaced over the next decade because of a growing list of security and technical shortcomings.

“SS7 is inherently insecure, and it was never designed to be secure,” said James Moran, security director for the GSMA. “It is possible, with access to SS7, to trigger a request for a record from a network.”

The documents for Verint and several other companies say that the surveillance services are intended for governments and that customers must abide by laws regarding their use. Yet privacy advocates and other critics say the surveillance industry is inherently secretive, poorly regulated and indiscriminate in selecting its customers, sometimes putting profoundly intrusive tools into the hands of governments with little respect for human rights or tolerance of political dissent.

Refining the techniques

Engel, the German telecommunications security researcher, was the first to publicly disclose the ability to use carrier networks to surreptitiously gather user location information, at a 2008 conference sponsored by the Chaos Computer Club, a hacker activist group based in Germany. The techniques Engel used that day were far cruder than the ones used by today’s cellular tracking systems but still caused a stir in the security community.

From the lectern, he asked for help from a volunteer from the audience. A man in an untucked plaid shirt ambled up with his cellphone in one hand and a beer in the other. Engel typed the number into his computer, and even though it was for a British phone, a screen at the front of the room soon displayed the current location — in Berlin.

Two years later, a pair of American telecommunications researchers expanded on Engel’s discovery with a program they called “The Carmen Sandiego Project,” named after a popular educational video game and television series that taught geography by having users answer questions.

Researchers Don Bailey and Nick DePetrillo found that the rough locations provided by Engel’s technique could be mixed with other publicly available data to better map the locations of users. They even accessed the video feeds of highway cameras along Interstate 70 in Denver to gain a clearer picture of targeted cellphone users.

“We could tell that they were going a certain speed on I-70,” Bailey recalled. “Not only could you track a person, you could remotely identify a car and who was driving.”

An official for AT&T, Patrick McCanna, was in the audience when DePetrillo and Bailey presented their findings at a conference in 2010. McCanna praised the researchers for their work, they later said, and recruited their help to make it harder to gather location data.

Many of the world’s largest cellular networks made similar efforts, though significant loopholes remained.

As some carriers tightened their defenses, surveillance industry researchers developed even more effective ways to collect data from SS7 networks. The advanced systems now being marketed offer more-precise location information on targets and are harder for carriers to detect or defeat.

Telecommunications experts say networks have become so complex that implementing new security measures to defend against these surveillance systems could cost billions of dollars and hurt the functioning of basic services, such as routing calls, texts and Internet to customers.

“These systems are massive. And they’re running close to capacity all the time, and to make changes to how they interact with hundreds or thousands of phones is really risky,” said Bart Stidham, a longtime telecommunications system architect based in Virginia. “You don’t know what happens.”

Paired up with ‘catchers’

Companies that market SS7 tracking systems recommend using them in tandem with “IMSI catchers,” increasingly common surveillance devices that use cellular signals collected directly from the air to intercept calls and Internet traffic, send fake texts, install spyware on a phone, and determine precise locations.

IMSI catchers — also known by one popular trade name, StingRay — can home in on somebody a mile or two away but are useless if a target’s general location is not known. SS7 tracking systems solve that problem by locating the general area of a target so that IMSI catchers can be deployed effectively. (The term “IMSI” refers to a unique identifying code on a cellular phone.)

The FCC recently created an internal task force to study misuse of IMSI catchers by criminal gangs and foreign intelligence agencies, which reportedly have used the systems to spy on American citizens, businesses and diplomats. It is legal for law enforcement agencies in the United States to use IMSI catchers for authorized purposes.

When asked by The Post about systems that use SS7 tracking, FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said, “This type of system could fall into the category of technologies that we expect the FCC’s internal task force to examine.”

The marketing brochure for Verint’s SkyLock system suggests using it in conjunction with Verint’s IMSI catcher, called the Engage GI2. Together, they allow government agencies “to accurately pinpoint their suspect for apprehension, making it virtually impossible for targets to escape, no matter where they reside in the world.”

Verint can install SkyLock on the networks of cellular carriers if they are cooperative — something that telecommunications experts say is common in countries where carriers have close relationships with their national governments. Verint also has its own “worldwide SS7 hubs” that “are spread in various locations around the world,” says the brochure. It does not list prices for the services, though it says that Verint charges more for the ability to track targets in many far-flung countries, as opposed to only a few nearby ones.

Among the most appealing features of the system, the brochure says, is its ability to sidestep the cellular operators that sometimes protect their users’ personal information by refusing government requests or insisting on formal court orders before releasing information.

“In most cases mobile operators are not willing to cooperate with operational agencies in order to provide them the ability to gain control and manipulate the network services given to its subscribers,” the brochure says. “Verint’s SkyLock is a global geo-location solution which was designed and developed to address the limitations mentioned above, and meet operational agency requirements.”

Another company, Defentek, markets a similar system called Infiltrator Global Real-Time Tracking System on its Web site, claiming to “locate and track any phone number in the world.”

The site adds: “It is a strategic solution that infiltrates and is undetected and unknown by the network, carrier, or the target.”

The company, which according to the Web site is registered in Panama City, declined to comment for this story.

Feds Creating Database to Track
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

AP  BY: Elizabeth Harrington
August 25, 2014 3:30 pm

The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter.

The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online.

The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.”

The university has received $919,917 so far for the project.

“The project stands to benefit both the research community and the public significantly,” the grant states. “Our data will be made available via [application programming interfaces] APIs and include information on meme propagation networks, statistical data, and relevant user and content features.”

“The open-source platform we develop will be made publicly available and will be extensible to ever more research areas as a greater preponderance of human activities are replicated online,” it continues. “Additionally, we will create a web service open to the public for monitoring trends, bursts, and suspicious memes.”

“This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate,” the grant said.

“Truthy,” which gets its name from Stephen Colbert, will catalog how information is spread on Twitter, including political campaigns.

“While the vast majority of memes arise in a perfectly organic manner, driven by the complex mechanisms of life on the Web, some are engineered by the shady machinery of high-profile congressional campaigns,” according to the website.

“Truthy” claims to be non-partisan. However, the project’s lead investigator Filippo Menczer proclaims his support for numerous progressive advocacy groups, including President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action, Moveon.org, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, and True Majority.

Menczer, a professor of informatics and computer science at Indiana University, links to each of the organizations on his personal page from his bio at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research.

The government-funded researchers hope that the public will use their tool in the future to report on other Twitter users.

“Truthy uses a sophisticated combination of text and data mining, social network analysis, and complex networks models,” the website adds. “To train our algorithms, we leverage crowdsourcing: we rely on users like you to flag injections of forged grass-roots activity. Therefore, click on the Truthy button when you see a suspicious meme!”

The project also seeks to discover why certain Internet memes go viral and others do not. Funding is not expected to expire until June 30, 2015.

Fears Grow As Iran Speeds Up Hamas Arms Delivery
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsTrue News
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Tehran said it would “accelerate” its support for Hamas with weapons and missile-building technology after Israel allegedly deployed a spy drone over Iran.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said: “We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response.”

Iran has confirmed it supplied fighters from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad with the technology for the rockets being fired relentlessly into Israel from Gaza since July 8. 

Egypt, UAE Conduct Air Strikes Against Libyan Capital
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Egypt and UAE Strike Islamist Militias in Libya
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A building that witnesses said was hit by a rocket burns after clashes between rival militias in the Sarraj district of Tripoli, Libya, on Saturday. (Ismail Zitouny/Reuters)

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have carried out a series of airstrikes in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, U.S. officials said Monday, marking an escalation in the chaotic war among Libya’s rival militias that has driven American and other diplomats from the country.

The Obama administration did not know ahead of time about the highly unusual military intervention, although the United States was aware that action by Arab states might come as the crisis in Libya worsened, said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The airstrikes appear tied to fear over the growing muscle of Islamist militias. The region’s monarchies and secular dictatorships are increasingly alarmed about Islamist gains from Libya to Syria and Iraq. And the airstrikes may signal a new willingness by some Arab states to take on a more direct military role in the region’s conflicts.

Various groups in Libya have been battling for control of the main Tripoli airport, and the strikes may have been a failed attempt to keep the strategic facility from falling to extremists.

The United States shuttered its embassy in Tripoli a month ago as militia infighting erupted into gun battles in the streets.

An aircraft damaged by shelling sits at Tripoli International Airport on Sunday. (Reuters)

U.S. officials have long been worried about a proxy war in Libya, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE backing more secular militias against Islamist forces supported by Qatar. The United States says Qatar is arming and funding Islamists in Libya.

During the weekend, Islamist militias blamed the airstrikes on Egypt and the UAE. That prompted a denial by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. Egypt did not conduct strikes or other military operations in Libya, the state news agency MENA quoted Sissi as saying. The UAE government declined to comment.

After the first of the two air attacks in Libya, U.S. intelligence believed the claims of responsibility made by retired Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who is combating militia fighters. It was only after a second round of attacks, during the weekend, that intelligence officials began to focus on other actors.

The New York Times first reported on the strikes, which it said were carried out by Emirati planes from Egyptian air bases.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the departure of UAE jets from their bases would not have attracted notice and suggested that the planes were armed during a stopover in Egypt.

The Obama administration would not confirm the participation of Egypt and the UAE publicly nor discuss any details of the operation.

“Libya’s challenges are political, and violence will not resolve them,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “Our focus is on the political process there. We believe outside interference exacerbates current divisions and undermines Libya’s democratic transition. And that’s why our focus remains on urging all factions to come together to peacefully resolve the current crisis.”

Earlier this year, administration officials suggested to friendly governments in the Middle East that a direct, joint appeal from them for more substantive assistance in confronting regional threats might circumvent legal barriers to U.S. action such as the absence of a United Nations mandate.

The effort was delayed, and then set aside, as Arab governments questioned whether the administration could produce the requisite congressional backing for any joint operations with the U.S. military.

The role of UAE planes in the U.S.-European air attacks that helped drive Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi from power in 2011 allowed the Obama administration to characterize that operation as one in which Arab allies were closely involved.

Since then, the administration has pressed governments in the Persian Gulf region to commit to a more public partnership in supporting U.S.-backed rebels and defeating Islamist extremists in Syria’s civil war.

But it is not clear whether the administration’s desire for its Arab partners, particularly in the Persian Gulf, to assist efforts against Islamic State militants in Syria extends to trying to solve what it sees as essentially a political problem in Libya.

The Obama administration has helped establish and support an elected government in Libya, but no leader there has been able to control militants empowered in the wake of Gaddafi’s fall.

U.S. J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in September 2012 in an attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi. That restive eastern city had been the center of rising militia violence that has since spread widely, including to Tripoli.

At least some of the airstrikes during the past week were conducted using U.S.-made munitions, a Libyan militia commander said Monday. The UAE is a U.S. military partner with access to American munitions.

“The bombs were American-made, and as far as our information goes regarding that ammunition, it is only used by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel in the Middle East,” said Abubaker al-Huta, a militia commander.

Huta said that his men recovered part of an unexploded shell from the bombing raid and that a serial number on the shell confirmed that it was not part of Libya’s arsenal.

The strikes came amid spreading political chaos in the country. A rump Libyan parliament convened Monday and declared a June election invalid. That left the country with two rival leaders and assemblies, each backed by armed factions, Reuters reported.

The weak, Western-backed government has appealed for outside help to protect key infrastructure it says the state cannot defend.

“There are forms of international intervention” that could be possible, Reuters quoted Mohamed Jibril, Libya’s ambassador to Egypt, as saying on the sidelines of a meeting of Libya’s neighbors in Cairo. “Libya is unable to protect its institutions, its airports and natural resources, especially the oil fields.”

The United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint condemnation Monday of the fighting across Libya, “especially against residential areas, public facilities, and critical infrastructure, by both land attacks and air strikes.”

“Those responsible for violence, which undermines Libya’s democratic transition and national security, must be held accountable,” including consideration by the U.N. Security Council this week, the five nations said.

“We believe outside interference in Libya exacerbates current divisions and undermines Libya’s democratic transition,” the group’s statement concluded.

Fighting in Libya in recent weeks is the worst since the NATO-backed campaign to oust Gaddafi.

China's New Satellite is Said to Spot Pot Fields, Smuggler Routes
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Los Angeles Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Today's Headlines

China has poured billions of dollars into building a nationwide surveillance network – by one 2013 estimate, the country had 30 million surveillance cameras in parks, on highways and even in taxis.

Now, there’s one more very powerful eye in the sky allowing authorities to keep tabs on things: the Gaofen-1 satellite, which is capturing high-resolution images from 300 miles above the Earth.

Analyses of images captured by Gaofen-1 have enabled Chinese police to locate fields of opium poppy and marijuana in northern China and uncover dozens of routes used by smugglers at the border with North Korea and along the frontier in the restive Xinjiang region, the official New China News Agency reported Monday.

“Chinese scientists definitely did research before on utilizing satellite images to fight crimes,” Xie Tao, a professor who specializes satellite imagery at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, said in an interview. “But now, thanks to the high-resolution images provided by Gaofen-1, they’re finally confident enough to announce the results to the public.”

Gaofen-1 was launched in April 2013 and formally put into service in December. During the first few months of testing after its launch, the satellite (whose name means “high resolution”) provided data on earthquakes, floods and smog in China. Its cameras were capable of capturing objects as small as a bicycle, the news agency said.

But just because a satellite can photograph something doesn’t mean humans are always good at telling what the object really is. In the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 this year, for instance, multiple satellite images were offered up by different countries, including China, but the objects captured in photographs proved to be unrelated to the plane.

“To better analyze images captured by the satellite, a basic understanding of the conditions on the ground is essential,” said Xie. For example, when it comes to drug crops, “you need to know what other plants they have in the area before you can distinguish marijuana from the rest.”

Authorities may be having second thoughts about publicizing their capabilities. The China National Space Administration first posted a statement Friday detailing the satellite's usage in public security efforts. But after Chinese press reported on the marijuana field finds and other details Monday, the statement was removed from the space agency's website. And the Public Security Ministry on Tuesday denied the satellite found any cannabis farms.

Still, Chinese authorities say the country’s extensive terrestrial surveillance network helps to deter crime and maintain “social stability,” though critics say it constitutes an invasion of privacy and is often deployed to monitor dissidents.

Bo Zhang, who follows China's surveillance camera market for IMS Research, told National Public Radio last year that 30 million surveillance cameras may be operating in China. That’s one for every 43 people.

Authorities are rapidly adopting new surveillance technology. As part of a crackdown this month aimed at terrorism in Xinjiang, Chinese authorities used drones and satellite communication devices to pinpoint suspects, the space agency said on its website.

Drones also have been used to monitor pollution.

More satellite imaging capability is soon to go online. China launched the second-generation Gaofen-2 satellite last Tuesday. And according to the New China News Agency, five more are to be put into orbit before 2020.

Still, China is playing catch-up with the world’s top players in satellite technology, such as the U.S. -- both in terms of satellite capability and image analysis.

Gaofen-2, China’s most advanced satellite, is capable of capturing images of an object 3 feet long in full color; by comparison, GeoEye-1 -- launched in 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, provides a resolution of objects as small as 1.5 feet. And commercial satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe announced in July that it plans to launch WorldView-4, capable of capturing objects down to a resolution of about 1 foot, in mid-2016, after the U.S. Department of Commerce recently decided to allow DigitalGlobe to sell imagery with resolution as fine as about 10 inches.

As early as 2009, the U.S. authorities started using satellites to track the activities of drug cartels operating along the U.S.-Mexican border, the Associated Press has reported.

Pictures from space are being used along with other intelligence to pinpoint Mexican narcotics operations and anticipate smuggling attempts into the United States, R. Scott Zikmanis, a deputy director of operations with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told AP.

In China, as in the U.S., the government’s increasing ability to monitor people’s activities has raised some unease among ordinary citizens, though there’s little they can do about it, except maybe stay home.

“I can’t sunbathe on my rooftop anymore. This is really annoying!” said one of the most-liked comments about Gaofen-1 on social media when word of how its images were being used hit the Chinese news.

Ceasefire Begins, With Rockets Still Raining Down on Israel
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Israeli government has officially accepted an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal to go into effect at 7 p.m. Israel-time (16:00 GMT). Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu informed cabinet ministers of the decision via a telephone call, just minutes before it was to go into effect. 

Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) both opposed the truce decision, saying the government needed to crush Gazan terrorist groups. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas announced news of the ceasefire at a televised speech in Ramallah.

Cabinet Was Split Over Ceasefire - But Netanyahu Accepted Anyway
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Prime Minister avoided cabinet vote

Flash 90

Roughly half the cabinet was opposed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to agree to an open-ended ceasefire with Hamas - but the decision was passed unilaterally by the PM anyway.

Government sources told Walla! news that a legal technicality meant the Prime Minister did not need to gain the approval of his cabinet to accept the ceasefire on Israel's behalf - but that had he done so, it is uncertain it would have passed due to the extent of opposition to it.

Immediately following the announcement, it was revealed that Economics Minister and Jewish Home part leader Naftali Bennett had opposed the decision.

Bennett challenged senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office to demand the acceptance of the ceasefire be contingent upon a Security Cabinet vote, according to the source, but was informed that legally the PM was not required to do so since the deal did not technically affect any change of legal status vis-a-vis the relationship between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

And Bennett was not the only minister opposed to the deal.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) also staunchly opposed the move, as they believe the ceasefire will not bring an end to attacks and will eventually be breached again, as previous similar agreements were, a party source told Walla!

Indeed the truce is based upon the same conditions as the one which followed 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense - which was broken by Gazan terrorists soon after.

Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, a member of Netanyahu's own Likud party, was also opposed to the ceasefire, according to reports.

Atheist Churches Creeping Into the Bible Belt
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

What looks like a church, sounds like a church and behaves like a church but is not a church? It comes complete with music, instruments, singers, sermons and its own pastor and speakers. It attracts a gathering of hundreds of adherents each Sunday morning. It has social programs and seeks to help the local community. Yet it’s still not a church in the traditional sense. 

Its distinguishing factor is that it is one place where God Himself is not welcome – the “Sunday Assembly” secular church movement which is an umbrella body of atheist churches around the world. The organization is said to have 75 international congregations and will add another 25 in September.

Such are the atheistic or ‘faithless churches’ that are “good without God” –and are seemingly getting increasingly proliferated across the U.S Bible belt. Typically but unsurprisingly, they have no prayer, Bibles or worship songs. The National Post recently carried a report on this, using an example from a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee. In the article, Peter Foster quotes David Lyle, a founder-member of the Nashville branch of the “Sunday Assembly” movement: “I pass seven big churches between my house and the main road two miles away, there are plenty of churches in Nashville, but we needed a place for us.” 

Foster further explains that the Sunday Assembly concept offers a church experience but without the “God part” and, according to organizers, it is starting to catch on in America. It was reportedly started in London in January 2013 by a pair of British stand-up comedians. According to Sanderson Jones, one of the London co-founders, almost 400 towns from Sao Paolo to Singapore are now expressing interest in setting up an Assembly, and more than 150 of these are in America. 

In addition, the movement is non-profit and hopes to tap into a rising tide of secularization which — for all the continued power of the U.S. religious Right — means that almost a third of American’s under-29s now say they have no religious affiliation. These are the so-called “fuzzy faithful.” The Nashville group, conscious of the continued stigma attached to atheism in Bible-minded places like Nashville, also performs public works, providing a monthly meal for the homeless and rounding up volunteers to clean up a local creek.

The Dallas News also recently reported that atheist Sunday Assembly co-founder Sanderson Jones is due to visit Dallas, where the growing North Texas Church of Freethought is located. Freethought is an atheist church that has been in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 1994. They have monthly meetings, a youth group and social outings — programs usually reserved for traditional religious organizations. Its pastor, Tim Gorski, said: “We want to not only be a community for people who reject the supernatural, but also for people who need help dealing with life upsets.”

What does an average Sunday Assembly meeting entail? The Dallas News account of the first Sunday of each month perhaps summarizes what a visitor could expect. Gorski’s church meets in a conference room at the Sheraton Grand in Irving. The members, ranging in ages and background, grab coffee and send their children to Sunday school, where Gorski’s wife and kids talk about how to handle classmates who don’t accept their lack of beliefs. Gorski opens with a “moment of science” to talk about scientific innovations, followed by music appreciation, where the members listen to pieces such as Beethoven’s “Merry gathering of the country folk.”

Besides the collective mindset that “there is no God”, certain statements made by the Assembly faithful typify what your average atheistic Sunday Assembly member’s philosophy of life is:

• “It’s my personal opinion as an atheist that we should leave the word church out of our vocabulary.”
• “The idea is why not steal all the good bits about church — the music, the fellowship, the community work — and lose the God stuff.”
• “Just because I’m an atheist doesn’t mean I’m not moral…I’m a conservationist; I have dedicated my life to doing good things and helping others. I just do it for myself and not for God.”
• “Not having a church doesn’t mean I don’t have a moral code…I want to get away from this idea that you have to have God to be good. You don’t.”

So concludes the atheist: “I don’t believe in God, I want no association with the church but I will borrow what I think I can use from it. I serve myself only and I have my own moral standards without God.”

Clearly the self-professed atheist does believe in one god – the god of self. In so doing, he or she unwittingly bows to and serves the ultimate god of self – Satan himself. There is no real atheist today because God has already revealed Himself to them, as specified in Romans 1:18-20:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

No wonder the Bible also states:

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
There is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one (Psalms 53: 1-3).

10 Characteristics of Religious Church Systems Jesus Warns Us Against
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Every church and/or organization has a corporate culture with norms, rules and expectations that pressure participants to conform. Some cultures are good and some bad.

That being said, there are particular attributes that characterize false religions or become the norm during religious decline in a true faith such as Christianity. 

The Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Micah and Amos decried religious ritual that was without true righteousness, humility and love for neighbor (Is. 1:10-17; 58; Amos 5:21-24; Mic. 6:8). The line of prophets arose starting in the 8th century B.C. primarily because Israel had a tendency to focus more on adhering to the temple ritual worship of the Levitical system than the ethical lifestyle required by the Law of Moses as found in the Ten Commandments. For this, the prophets pronounced judgment upon the nation, and God dispersed the people and, on two occasions, let enemies destroy their temple.

We have the same issue in today's church, irrespective of the denomination or expression of the body of Christ. 

The following are 10 of the characteristics of false religious systems as taught by Jesus in Matthew 23:

1. There are onerous rules and regulations some call legalism (Matt. 23:1-3).

In the contemporary church, there are numerous man-made traditions and requirements that never arose from the Word, which have become an unnecessary burden upon believers. For example, in many Pentecostal churches the emphasis is on outward holiness related to attire, makeup, the cutting of hair, jewelry and other regulations. I have spoken to numerous young people who stopped attending church because these regulations made them feel weird in front of their unchurched friends. Fundamentalists in the past forbade any form of entertainment, including watching movies, listening to the radio, watching television, etc. These are legalistic efforts to bring holiness that have resulted in numerous churches losing their next generation.

2. The church leaders serve to receive prestige from men (vv. 5-7).

God makes it clear in His word that some religious leaders love the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:42-43). The judgment of God is against the leaders who are constantly posturing themselves within their denomination to attain the highest seats of authority and places of honor among men. Truly, some of the greatest people of God in the earth today are hidden from the public eye.

3. The leaders crave titles and moving up the ranks of hierarchical religious systems (vv. 8-11).

Today's church is replete with people who use titles to validate their ministries. I can't tell you how many people I have met with the title apostle, bishop, doctor or archbishop on their business cards who have very little influence in the church and secular world. Truly God doesn't care about an apostolic title; God looks more at apostolic function and fruit. I have found that, the more a person speaks about their academic achievements and ecclesial titles, the more insecure they are as a person and about their ministry accomplishments.

I say this as a person who has been consecrated both a bishop and apostle and who flows in circles with leaders who use these titles. There is nothing wrong with these titles (both are biblical) as long as we don't flaunt them, crave them and depend upon them for validation and/or to hide that we do not have real apostolic function and fruit. Many of the greatest leaders in the church world do not insist upon people referring to them with a title.

4. The leaders have an entitlement mentality (vv. 11-12). 

I believe in the biblical principle of serving the people of God as a prerequisite to being qualified to function in the same ministry as they do. For example, Joshua was called the servant of Moses; Elisha served Elijah; David served Samuel and Saul, and the 12 apostles served Jesus.

That being said, there has also been abuse of this principle since many people desire to become leaders partially because it enables them to be waited upon. I believe younger ministers should serve older, more mature ministers out of honor and proper protocol, but at the same time older ministers should not demand it or become abusive if they do not receive it. We do not receive titles in the kingdom so we can be waited upon but so that we can have greater opportunity to serve in the church.

The more mature a Christ follower is, the more they will celebrate service as the highest form of ministry and leadership. God resists those leaders who emotionally abuse and/or lord it over those under their care (1 Pet. 5:3).

5. The leaders become a stumbling block to others seeking the kingdom (vv. 13-15).

It has been evident the past 30 years in both the evangelical and Roman Catholic churches that leaders can become huge stumbling blocks instead of assets to the kingdom. Whether it is lavish lifestyles, sexual misconduct, abuse of power, or other forms of narcissism, many believers have been turned off from Christianity by those who are supposed to represent it. Truly those who handle the Word of God will receive the most scrutiny at the judgment seat of Christ (James 3:1).

6. The leaders value and love money and wealth more than anything else (vv. 16-17).

While I do not believe church leaders should live in poverty, nor do I believe they should receive salaries from their churches that are greatly disproportionate to the average income of their congregation and/or community. The religious leaders Jesus denounced seemed to value gold more than the glory and honor of God. Leaders should never serve primarily for money but for the love of God and His people (1 Pet. 5:2).

7. The weightier matters of the Word are neglected (vv. 23-24).

Although I believe and practice the principles of tithing, fasting, church attendance and the like, they should never be an excuse for me to think I have fulfilled all of my Christian duties. Jesus says here that we ought to continue to tithe but also include in our lifestyle the practice of treating others with justice, mercy and faithfulness.

For example, if we tithe but treat our spouse poorly, neglect the poor in our midst, or mistreat others, our tithe will not do us any good. Then we are just like the Pharisee Jesus describes in Luke 18:10-14.

8. Ritual is valued more than inner transformation (vv. 25-28).

In the church we all have our traditions and rituals; whether it is the high-church liturgies of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Anglican churches, and/or the more informal gatherings of the Pentecostals and evangelicals. The tendency for human beings is to fall into a routine and equate our routine with true worship. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that she worshipped what she did not know (John 4), which means that people can worship in ignorance and/or without a true experience with God.

Whether it is the sacraments of denominational churches or the shouting, shaking and tongue talking of the Pentecostals, human nature has a tendency to fall into habit patterns of outward worship bereft of the life-changing dynamic of encountering the living God. We do not have to do away with these rituals, sacraments and traditions but should integrate them with true heartfelt worship and passion for our Lord.

9. They honor the departed saints without living like them in the present (vv. 29-32).

I have found that it is much easier to study about revival than to actually work hard for it. It is much easier to study church history than it is to make history. Every denomination and expression of the church has its Christian heroes of the past, but very few denominations, churches and adherents attempt to emulate the life, passion and sacrifice of the saints of old (for example: Ignatius, Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Francis, Whitefield, Wesley, Edwards, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody, Hudson Taylor, John G. Lake, Wigglesworth, Maria Woodworth-Etter, Francis Schaeffer and more).

Jesus wants us to honor the prophets of old by living like them, not merely by building and revering their tombs.

10. They reject the prophets and wise men who confront their false systems (vv. 33-37).

Those who are captivated by a religious system will never listen to those speaking for God who are not of their denomination and/or do not have acceptable academic credentials. Sound familiar? The Pharisees and Sadducees rejected Jesus (John 7:14-18) and Peter (Acts 4:13) for the same reason. It is not an accident that in Luke 3:1-2 it shows that the Word of God came to John in the wilderness and not to an already established institutional leader. Thus, God bypassed the litany of prominent political and religious leaders and their systems (3:1) because they were so corrupt.

When a leader is captivated by their religious system or dead institution they become blind to the pure Word of the Lord. God has to bypass them and speak prophetically through those outside the dead institution. Those who are humble and have ears to hear (as Nicodemus in John 3) will recognize and receive the people God sends to them, irrespective of their institutional affiliation.

Truly, God cannot be contained in a temple, an institution, a denomination or any one religious system. He is Lord of all and will seek after those who worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

May God help us to avoid these 10 judgments!

'You are All Pagans and We will Kill You': Boko Haram Leader: Nigerian Town is Ruled By Islamic Law
Aug 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Sydney Morning Herald
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Boko Haram declares caliphate in Nigeria

Nigerian Islamist sect claims to have formed an Islamic caliphate in the northeastern town of Gwoza, more than four months after gaining international attention by kidnapping 200 schoolgirls.

Abuja: The leader of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram said his fighters  now ruled the captured north-eastern town of Gwoza "by Islamic law", in the first video to state a territorial claim in more than five years of violent insurrection. His message also contained taunts for Western governments and compared democracy to incest.

However, the Nigerian military denied Boko Haram had taken control of the town.

Abubakar Shekau, who leads the insurgents, said in a video that the group would enforce Islamic law in Gwoza, a town of about 250,000 people, in Borno state, about 850 kilometres north-east of the capital, Abuja.

Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram video shows fighting at an undisclosed location. Photo: AFP

His forces have killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009, and are seen as the biggest security threat to the continent's leading energy producer. 

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In the video, which was released late on Sunday, the militant, who says he is fighting to create an Islamic state in religiously-mixed Nigeria, said his forces had taken control of the hilly border town of Gwoza, near the frontier with Cameroon.

"Allah has granted us success in Gwoza because we have risen to do Allah's work," Mr Shekau said, reading out a statement off a notebook, with two masked gunmen on each side of him and three four-wheel-drive vehicles behind him in thinly forested bush.

People reportedly lined up before being executed by members of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Photo: AFP

"Allah commands us to rule Gwoza by Islamic law. In fact, he commands us to rule the rest of the world, not only Nigeria, and now we have started."

"The claim is empty," Nigeria's Defence Headquarters said on its Twitter account late Sunday. "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact."

Boko Haram has been intensifying its campaign of violence ahead of elections scheduled for next February. It killed more than 2000 people in the first six months of the year, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, most of whom had died in gun and bomb attacks on villages in the majority-Muslim north.

Fighting has displaced more than 400,000 people in Nigeria. Photo: AFP

Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said that fighting has displaced more than 400,000 people in the nation of about 170 million.

In an attack on Sunday in the remote north-eastern town of Gamboru, the insurgents killed 15 people, survivors said on Monday. The gunmen came in armed utility vehicles, throwing explosives and spraying the town with bullets. Many fled over the border into Cameroon, witnesses said.

"They were shouting 'Allah Akbar' [God is Greatest] and were shooting sporadically," Alice Adejuwon, a businesswoman and resident of Gamboru, said. "We saw corpses on the streets as we ran out of the town."

The video includes footage of what appeared to be an attack on Gwoza, showing fighters, backed by armoured personnel carriers, utility vehicles with attached machineguns, and one tank-like vehicle with track wheels and a large gun.

They unload salvos of gunfire across the town from trucks and on foot. The fighters are all armed with AK-47s or rocket-propelled grenades, some in military uniform, others in civilian clothes. 

They also fire into the hills at what appear to be fleeing security forces and civilians, and they help themselves to weapons and ammunition seized from security forces. It ends with scenes of executing captives in pre-dug mass graves, some of them beaten to death with spades.

Witnesses said Gwoza remained a battleground but that Nigerian forces had largely fled. A security source also confirmed that the insurgents were still laying siege to it.

Resident Hannatu John escaped the town during the attack, running into the hills as the rebels fired at them, fleeing eventually to the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri.

She has heard nothing of her father or sisters in the town since early last week, she told Reuters in Maiduguri.

"We are in the dark and full of despair," she said. "Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow."

Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said on Sunday that 35 policemen were missing after an attack on a mobile police training camp in Gwoza.

Mr Shekau also taunts France, Israel and the US in the video.

"Democracy is worse than homosexuality, worse than sleeping with your mother," Mr Shekau says. "You are all pagans and we will kill you, even if you do not attack us we will kill you ... Allah commands us to kill without pity."

Islamist groups across the world have become increasingly bold in making territorial claims in recent months. Sunni group Islamic State has declared a "caliphate" across large areas of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, while an affiliate of al-Qaeda said in July it aimed to set up an emirate in east Yemen, local media reported. Mr Shekau makes no mention of Islamic State in the video, although he does mention Iraq in the context of US intervention there.