California’s Firestorm!

Monumental, unfathomable, unbelievable, unimaginable, evil, utter devastation–just some of the words being used in news reports to describe the raging wildfires that have swept throughout parts of Southern California.

On October 23, 2007, USAToday.com published the following: “…the largest wildfire evacuation in U.S. history, and the biggest forced movement of people ever in California. Hurricanes such as devastating Katrina in 2005 have prompted larger flights from coastal areas, but wildfires usually scorch remote areas far from major cities.”

The numbers of displaced people are staggering–as are the statistics used to describe this disaster. CNN.com (10/24/07) describes the magnitude:

“Earlier Wednesday, officials told residents of De Luz, near Camp Pendleton, and of the Fallbrook area near Riverside County, to join an estimated 950,000 people already seeking refuge from the fires in shelters, hotels and at friends’ homes…

“More than 20 fires have scorched 400,000-plus acres from the Mexican border to northern Los Angeles County and inland into the San Bernardino Mountains since the weekend.

“The blazes have killed one person [according to later reports, at least three persons have been killed] and injured at least 70 more. Thirty-four firefighters have been hurt, authorities said.”

Various reports estimate that around 350,000 homes have been evacuated, while the number of completely destroyed homes is estimated to be approaching 2,000. The financial losses that will accompany this disaster are expected to easily soar over the billion dollar mark.

Even those not directly affected by evacuation orders are suffering from the broader effects of these fires.

Air quality for much of Southern California has been degraded by the acrid smoke that is overlaying the area.

As well, the financial implications that will grow out of this disruptive catastrophe will only become fully apparent in the days and weeks ahead.

One bright spot has been the cooperative mood and the neighborly spirit of the hundreds of thousands of people who have all suffered together in this tragedy. This event is being compared to 9/11 and to Katrina. However, Americans face even greater national trials in the near future! More frightening anguish lies in store for our people if we don’t begin to individually and collectively turn to God! Please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America“–available at www.eternalgod.org.

Turkey Moves to War Footing

Turkey is one of the largest U.S. allies and a powerful member of Nato, but this nation is rallying to calls for retribution against Kurdish soldiers in north Iraq. Time.com reported on October 22, 2007: “Dozens of Turkish military trucks rumbled towards the Iraqi border as Turks across the country took to the streets to demand retaliation for an attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists based in north Iraq that killed 12 Turkish soldiers. It was the third large-scale attack in recent weeks. Eight Turkish soldiers are still missing after the incident. Sunday’s attack may well prove the last straw for Turkey’s hawkish military — NATO’s second largest army after the U.S. — which has been readying to cross the border into north Iraq in pursuit of the PKK for several months. Public outrage over a mounting death toll finally led Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to approve an incursion last week. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi diplomats are trying frantically to come up with a non-military solution.”

The NYTimes.com (10/24/07) wrote about this additional development: “In unusual criticism, United States officials on Tuesday upbraided Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq for failing to curb the Kurdish guerrillas who operate unchecked in the autonomous region and use it as a safe haven for ambushes inside Turkey…

“Military operations continued near the Turkish border with Iraq. One Turkish newspaper reported that Turkish helicopters fired at targets near the border, while ground troops shelled several villages in northern Iraq.”

CNN.com (10/24/07) adds: “Turkish artillery units have shelled Kurdish separatist positions within northern Iraq, a Turkish government official said on Wednesday, amid continuing diplomatic efforts to avert a major cross-border incursion by Turkish military forces.”

As the United States faces an ever-widening conflict in the region, the threat of a Turkish invasion into northern Iraq looms as another potential to further weaken and erode U.S. influence.

Iran’s Nuclear Resolve

Following bellicose statements by both Vice President Dick Cheney and President George Bush concerning Iran’s nuclear ambition, an article in Reuters.com (10/23/07) reveals new diplomatic moves from Iran:

“Iran sees its nuclear talks with the EU as a way to improve diplomatic relations with Europe, the newly appointed Iranian chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said on Tuesday.”

This overture to the EU also serves to sidestep the strong statements recently made by France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urging sanctions against Iran.

EU Uniting

The EUObserver wrote on October 19:

“The European Union has overnight agreed the precise text of its new ‘Lisbon Treaty’ to be formally signed off on 13 December in the Portuguese capital.

“At around 02:00 local time on Friday morning – following shorter-than-usual discussions – Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates announced that a deal has been struck, describing it as ‘victory for Europe’.

“‘With this agreement we have managed to get out of stalemate…we will be ready to tackle the world’s challenges’, Mr Socrates said.

“European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso also branded the accord as ‘historic’, providing the EU with the ‘capacity to act’.

“The decision effectively ends a six-year long period of trying to internally reform… The new treaty will be formally signed by all European leaders in Lisbon on 13 December and subsequently go for ratification next year, with a view to coming into place by mid-2009, ahead of the next European elections.

“Among other things, the new treaty introduces an EU president, a post that can be held for up to five years, strengthens the post of its foreign policy chief and takes away national vetoes in areas such as terrorism. It also gives more power to the European Parliament.”

Anti-American EU Unification

On October 25, 2007, The American Thinker wrote the following:

“European Union leaders have reached agreement on a new treaty that many Europeans hope will transform the 27-nation bloc into a superpower capable of counter-balancing the United States in global affairs.

“The 250-plus page Reform Treaty, which EU leaders will formally sign in Lisbon on December 13, calls for a permanent EU president, a European foreign minister and a European Union diplomatic service. The agreement also calls for EU nations to surrender sovereignty in many areas to centralized decision-making; and it reduces national veto rights to allow more decisions to be made by majority voting instead of by unanimous consent…

“Only Ireland says it will submit the treaty to a popular vote. The other EU countries hope quietly to seek ratification in their parliaments, a far less risky way than direct democracy of getting the document approved. If the treaty is ratified by all 27 governments, it will take effect in January 2009…

“European elites are pushing the EU in a direction that should be deeply disconcerting to Americans concerned about international security and stability. The Reform Treaty will make Europe more centralized and far less democratic than it already is. In practice, this means that many foreign policy decisions that directly affect the United States, ranging from economics and trade to transatlantic cooperation on Islamic counter-terrorism, increasingly will be made by unelected anti-American bureaucrats in Brussels rather than by national governments.

“Europeans claim they are American allies, but increasingly their conduct says they are rivals. Americans should take another look and see if further European integration is really in the US interest. At the very least, Washington should send an unambiguous message to free-riding Europeans: future attempts at anti-American coalition building will be very costly. International security depends on it.”

Halloween–A Festival for the Devil

On the website of www.exsposingsatanism.org, the following is stated:

“… Halloween, All saints day, All hallows eve or All souls day is a festival. It was held to honor the Samhain the so called ‘lord of death’. It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Samhain, [the] lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals.

“It was a pagan belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these evil spirits would cast spells and cause havoc toward those failing to fulfill their requests.

“Sacrifices were offered on this night to the dead spirits because it was thought they visited their earthly dwellings and former friends.

“There was a prevailing belief among all nations that… the souls of the wicked men were left to wonder in the space between the earth and the moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living…But there were means by which ghosts might be exorcised.

“To exorcise these ghosts, that is to free yourself from their evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you.”

The article continued:

“The day [of All Saints’ Day] was officially authorized in 835 by Pope Gregory IV after it was moved to November 1 to coincide with Samhain. It began on the evening of October 31, which was called All Hallows Eve… Souls in purgatory appeared as witches and toads to persons who had wronged them. Halloween fires took on a new meaning and now were used to comfort souls in purgatory as people prayed while holding burning straw in the air.

“Even the idea of trick-or-treating by evil spirits took on an acceptable church flavor: costumed children went around on All Souls Day offering to fast for the departed souls in return for money or an offering…

“A pagan practice that was not eradicated upon the coming of Christianity was witchcraft. The word ‘witch’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon Wicca, or ‘wise one.’ Witches were thought to be possessors of magic… Black cats are the chief idol of the goddess of Wicca, Diana. In legend, she turns into a black cat to commit incest with her brother, Lucifer. Eventually the Druids themselves came to be regarded as witches. Witch hunting during Halloween became almost a national pastime in the colonial years of our nation. But that was yesterday. Halloween is regarded as the high ‘Sabbath’ for practicing witches today.

“Orange, black, and red, the devil’s colors, are the colors associated with Halloween. Black prefigures black magic and demonic influence. The black of night is when these forces of evil are busiest, using the cover of darkness for their sinister works.”

The article concluded:

“As you can see from all the above the real meaning of Halloween has been watered down. It is Satan’s objective to get all to worship him. God tells us to not have anything to do with this…  If you are a professing Christian, you have no reason to be part of this holy day of Satan. Don’t use the old cop out ‘well everybody does it’. No, everybody is not doing it. God will hold you responsible for what you do this Halloween. Will you go ahead and participate in it? Or will you pass along the word and let someone know what the real meaning is?”

Gore’s Film and the Nobel Peace Prize

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 13:

“The German government has come out in defense of former US Vice President Al Gore, who was named the 2007 Nobel Prize winner for his work on climate change education on Friday… German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel defended the use of the Oscar-winning climate change film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in classrooms.

“Gabriel praised Gore’s film for presenting the dangers of climate change in an accessible way. Earlier this year, the Environment Ministry distributed 6,000 copies of the DVD of the documentary film to German schools.

“Last week, a British high court ruled that Gore’s film could only be screened in classrooms with a warning message that the documentary contains nine factual errors. Scientists have criticized a chart in the film that shows the correllation[sic] between carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and global temperatures over the past 650,000 years. Gore’s conclusion that a higher concentration of CO2 will also trigger a rise in temperatures is incorrect, his critics maintain. At the end of the last ice ages, for example, temperature rises were not caused by increases in CO2 levels. In the film, Gore said the chart demonstrated an ‘exact fit’ showing that rising CO2 leads to rising temperatures. The judge said that while there may be general scientific agreement that there is a connection, ‘the two graphs do not establish what Mr. Gore asserts.’

“Nevertheless, the German government said it sees no reason to include any warning message when screening the documentary in classrooms. ‘A couple of errors in detail are no reason to disparage an entire film,’ an Environment Ministry source said. ‘We assume that teachers will encourage their students to view (the film) with a critical eye.'”

Der Stern Online stated in a commentary, dated October 12, that the decision to give the Nobel Prize to Gore was associated with criticism of President Bush’s policy on climate change and global warming, even though, according to AFP of October 13, “Nobel committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said the prize was not a slap at the Bush administration’s current policies. Instead, he said it was about encouraging all countries ‘to think again and to say what can they do to conquer global warming.'”

Der Stern Online disagrees, commenting that the prize to Gore was a challenge to action for the Bush Administration, while being careful not to appear anti-American.

AFP also reported that “Some in the shrinking community of global warming skeptics and those downplaying the issue, were dubious… ‘I think it cheapens the Nobel Prize,’ said William O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the conservative science-oriented think tank, the Marshall Institute. O’Keefe, a former oil industry executive and current consultant to fossil fuel firms, called Gore’s work ‘rife with errors.'”

Further Reactions to Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize — Pro and Con

On October 13, USA Today published the following reactions to the decision to give Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize:

“Power Line (conservative): ‘When did the Nobel Peace Prize go off the tracks? Today’s award to Al Gore and the IPCC … fits in with a subset of cosmopolitan frauds, fakers, murderers, thieves, and no-accounts going back about twenty years.’

“The Left Coaster (liberal): ‘Capping a year of prizes, this prize is a true statement of Al’s impact on the world stage. … Congratulations, Al! And, please, please, please, run!’…

“The Democrats who are actively running for president have begun to offer Gore their congratulations, and to use the news to make some other points as well.

“Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign website: ‘His dedication and tireless work have been instrumental in raising international awareness about global warming.’

“Sen. Christopher Dodd, in a statement released by his campaign: ‘Al’s tireless efforts to increase awareness of the threats of global warming have provided a powerful voice telling the world that we need to act now. I share Al’s conviction that it will take bold leadership to turn back the clock on global warming.’

“John Edwards, in a statement posted at his campaign website: ‘The Nobel Peace Prize rewards three decades of vice president Gore’s prescient and compelling — and often lonely — advocacy for the future of the Earth. His leadership stands in stunning contrast to the failure of the current administration to pursue policies that would reduce the harm of global warming.’

“Sen. Barack Obama, in a statement issued by his campaign: ‘By having the courage to challenge the skeptics in Washington and lead on the climate crisis facing our planet, Al Gore has advanced the cause of peace and richly deserves this reward.’

“Gov. Bill Richardson, in a statement released by his campaign: ‘Vice President Gore’s efforts on global warming are awe-inspiring. However, solving this problem will take more than the heroic efforts of one man. It will require sacrifice from every American. It will require the resolve of the world. It also will require bold Presidential leadership. I am ready to provide it.’…

“Former president Carter said this morning that he hopes the Nobel prize does spur Gore to get into the 2008 presidential race…

“Bush and McCain react. The Associated Press writes that:

“White House spokesman Tony Fratto said of President Bush that, ‘of course he’s happy for vice president Gore. … He’s happy for the International Panel on Climate Change scientists who also shared the peace prize. Obviously it’s an important recognition. And we’re sure the vice president’s thrilled.’

“Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said of Gore’s honor that ‘it’s well deserved. … I hope that the new Nobel Peace Prize winner will engage in serious activities with me and others’ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through use of nuclear power and carbon credits for industry.”

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote on October 14:

“One of the world’s foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize ‘ridiculous’ and the product of ‘people who don’t understand how the atmosphere works’. Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth. His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.

“‘We’re brainwashing our children,’ said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. ‘They’re going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It’s ridiculous.’… Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures – related to the amount of salt in ocean water – was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place. However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years… Dr Gray also said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were in error. He cited statistics showing there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed.”

Turkey and German Press “Respond” to US Genocide Resolution

AFP reported on October 11:

“Turkey on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Washington, deepening a diplomatic row over a vote in the US Congress to label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks an act of genocide… The Bush administration said it would lobby the full Democratic-led House against taking the measure further… France, Canada and the European parliament are among those that have labelled the Armenian killings as genocide. French military planes are no longer allowed to fly over Turkish airspace.”

Der Spiegel Online discussed the reaction of the German press and their dubious stance on the matter, as well as the role which politics plays in “world affairs,” in an article dated October 11:

“Commentators writing in Germany’s main newspapers Friday expressed concern at the deteriorating relations between the two allies [USA and Turkey].

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘The (congressional committee’s) decision could cause great damage, on two levels: on the one hand to fundamental realpolitik interests, but also to efforts to deal with the past in Turkey itself. … The United States and the West need Turkey as a reliable ally. The country has the second-largest army in NATO and is an important anchor of stability in an increasingly hostile and unstable region. … However, it is the timing which is fatal…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The timing for an uproar over history and etiquette could not be more inauspicious. American representatives appear little interested…’

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘From the Turkish viewpoint, yesterday’s resolution looks like a provocation. The reputation of the United States has long been at a low point. You have to go back a long way to find a similarly bad atmosphere — perhaps to 1974, when Washington and Ankara fell out over Cyprus. Since the US invasion of Iraq, the Kurdish PKK has operated from northern Iraq against targets in Turkey without being hindered by the US Army or its allied Kurdish militias. This is a catastrophic political failure on both sides. The United States — whether out of ignorance or calculation — has allowed its Kurdish allies in northern Iraq to play the PKK card…'”

Turkey Gives “Blank Check” for a New Iraq War

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 18:

“The Turkish parliament granted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday the right to order a military strike in neighboring Iraq. It’s potentially a blank check for a new Iraq war — but for now, the war drums are a way to underline Turkey’s demands… For the first time since the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the parliament has authorized a government to send troops into a neighboring country… Bush himself emphasized in public on Wednesday that sending troops to Iraq would not be in Turkey’s best interest. But the truth is that nothing could be worse for American interests than a new battle front in the only stabilized part of Iraq.”

EU Leaders Gather for Lisbon Summit

On October 18, 2007, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“EU leaders are meeting in Lisbon for a two-day informal summit in the hope of working out their differences on the Reform Treaty which is to replace the failed European Constitution. But Poland, once again, is threatening to cause problems if its demands are not met… Besides discussing the treaty, the meeting will be a chance for Europe to coordinate on climate change policy. In December, a new round of haggling over how best to solve the world’s pollution problems begins in Bali, and Europe wants to show a united face.”

AFP added on October 18:

“EU leaders deem the reform treaty essential because the bloc’s rules have not had a serious update since 10 mostly former communist countries joined in May 2004, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in January this year.

“Like the constitution, the treaty includes plans for a European foreign policy supremo and a more permanent president to replace the current cumbersome and expensive rotating presidency system whereby member states takes the helm for six months in turn. It also cuts down the number of EU decisions which would require a unanimous vote from member states.

“If the leaders back the new text in Lisbon, then they should formally sign it in December, leaving a year for all member states to ratify it individually so that it can come into effect, as planned, on January 1, 2009.”

Germany Will Stay in Afghanistan

The Associated Press reported on October 11:

“Germany’s lower house of parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved extending the deployment of 3,000 troops and six reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan for another year, despite mounting public skepticism about the mission. The vote in the 613-seat Bundestag — 454-79 with 48 abstentions — was the final step needed to extend the mission.”

Der Spiegel Online added on October 12:

“In total, the cost of the extended deployment for the next year is estimated at €487 million ($690 million). National opinion polls show increasing numbers of Germans oppose the mission in Afghanistan, particularly after recent kidnappings of Germans in the country.”

China Angry With the USA and Germany

Reuters reported on October 16:

“China expressed fury on Tuesday that the United States is to honor the Dalai Lama with an award… The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, is to receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday after being hosted at the White House by President George W. Bush.

“China, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and a traitor, pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss Iran in protest at the U.S. plan to honor him. China has also cancelled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show [its]displeasure over German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s September meeting with the Dalai Lama…

“Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that if the decision to honor the Dalai Lama was not reversed it would have an ‘extremely serious impact’ on bilateral relations.”

The Dalai Lama received, as planned, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday, in a televised ceremony, with President Bush in attendance.

Germany Jumps Ahead–Action Plan for the Middle East

Reuters reported on October 15:

“Germany proposed on Monday what it called an ‘action plan’ for fostering Middle East peace with new steps to bolster the Palestinian economy, security forces and state institutions. Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told counterparts meeting in Brussels there was no need to await the outcome of a U.S.-hosted conference on the Middle East next month and added he had already informed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the proposal…

“He said the measures could include EU help for… special economic zones in the Palestinian territories, and targeted assistance for small- and medium-sized companies. The EU calls itself the largest aid donor to the Middle East. Steinmeier put total financial and humanitarian aid from the EU and its member states to the region at 800 million euros ($1.14 billion) for 2007 so far.”

The End of the American and British Empires?

Le Monde wrote in its October 2007 edition:

“The ‘American Century’ only began 60 years ago. But it seems already to be over, with the disaster of Iraq forcing some of the United States’ ruling elites to realise that its hegemony has been severely weakened. But nobody seems to know what to do next, or even how to behave… The disastrous outcome of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused a crisis in the power elite of the United States deeper than that resulting from defeat in Vietnam 30 years ago… Transnational opinion surveys show a consistent and nearly global pattern of defiance of US foreign policy as well as a more fundamental erosion in the attractiveness of the US: the narrative of the American dream has been submerged by images of a military leviathan disregarding world opinion and breaking the rules…

“The invasion and occupation of Iraq is not the sole cause of the trends sketched. Rather, the war significantly accentuated all of them at a moment when larger centrifugal forces were already at work: the erosion and collapse of the Washington Consensus and the gradual rise of new gravitational centres, notably in Asia, were established trends when President George Bush went to war. Now, as the shift in the world economy towards Asia matures, the US is stuck in a conflict that is absorbing its total energies. History is moving on and the world is slipping, slowly but inexorably, out of US hands.

“For the US power elite this is deeply unsettling. Since the mid-20th century US leaders have thought of themselves as having a unique historic responsibility to lead and govern the globe. Sitting on top of the world since the 1940s, they have assumed that, like Great Britain in the 19th century, they were destined to act as hegemon – a dominant state having the will and the means to establish and maintain international order: peace and an open and expanding liberal world economy…

“As early as 1940 US economic and political elites forecast a vast revolution in the balance of power: the US would ‘become the heir and residuary legatee and receiver for the economic and political assets of the British Empire – the sceptre passes to the United States.’… Great Britain’s long exit from empire may shed some light on the present moment. At the end of the 19th century few British leaders could begin to imagine an end to empire. When Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in 1897, Britain possessed a formal transoceanic empire that encompassed a quarter of the world’s territory and 300 million subalterns and subjects – twice that if China, a near colony of 430 million people, was included. The City of London was the centre of an even more far-flung informal trading and financial empire that bound the world…

“The war that broke out in 1914 bankrupted and exhausted its European protagonists. The long end of the British era had started. However, the empire not only survived the immediate crisis but hobbled on for decades, through the second world war, until its inglorious end at Suez in 1956…

“For the US power elite, being on top of the world has been a habit for 60 years… The institutional realist critics of the Bush administration have no alternative conceptual framework for international relations, based on something other than force, the balance of power or strategic predominance.”

Will the United States go the way of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth–one from incredible power and influence to one of more or less obscurity and paralysis–never to revive from their demise? To learn more about this, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.” Also, please watch our new StandingWatch program, titled, “The Origins of America and Britain, Part 1.”

Iraq–No End In Sight!

The Associated Press wrote on October 13:

“The U.S. mission in Iraq is a ‘nightmare with no end in sight’ because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

“Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency — such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

“He called current strategies — including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year — a ‘desperate attempt’ to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq… Sanchez… did criticize the State Department, the National Security Council, Congress and the senior military leadership during what appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership to oppose them… ‘There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope’ that things are going to change, he said.”

Torture and Murder in Iraq

The New York Times published the following article on October 15, which was re-published by Der Spiegel Online:

“Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture… By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago.

“… two women, both Armenian Christians, were gunned down in Baghdad by contractors underwritten by American taxpayers. On this matter, the White House has been silent. That incident followed the Sept. 16 massacre in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where 17 Iraqis were killed by security forces from Blackwater USA, which had already been implicated in nearly 200 other shooting incidents since 2005. There has been no accountability…

“Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those ‘good Germans’ who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.”

Billions of Dollars Pilfered in US Election Campaign?

CNN reported on October 15:

“A wide-open presidential race and a willingness by candidates, interest groups, unions and corporations to buy TV time will lead to historic spending for political and issue-advocacy advertising in the 2008 election cycle, an analysis shows. The cost to try to influence the 2008 election could exceed $3 billion… This is nearly twice as much than what was spent in 2004 when political and issue-advocacy television advertising rang in at $1.7 billion. In 2006, $2.3 billion was spent on political and issue-advocacy TV commercials.”

But will this waste of money do any good–or at least accomplish the goal of the candidates’ intentions? Hardly. The article continued:

“What television advertising challenges do candidates and interest groups face in the coming months? Chances are, just as what happened in 2006, voters will be numb after watching [hundreds] and hundreds of ads,’ said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. ‘The sheer number of ads probably dilutes their importance. After a while, the ads just become lots of chatter and an ad will have to be really good to cut through the noise.'”

Russia and Iran vs. the West

AFP wrote on October 16:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday warned against military action against Iran and backed its right to nuclear energy, during the first visit to the country by a Kremlin chief since World War II…

“Along with the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, Putin declared the states ‘would not allow their territory to be used by a third country to commit military action against one of the parties.’

“The United States has never ruled out military action against Tehran but Iran’s northern neighbour Azerbaijan, a US ally, has repeatedly insisted it would not allow the US military to launch an attack from its soil. The declaration also supported Iran’s right to nuclear energy, which the United States claims Tehran only wants as cover for [an] atomic weapons drive…

“Putin’s comments highlighted the differences between Russia and the West, which is seeking more unilateral and UN sanctions to punish Tehran for its nuclear defiance.”

False Signs and Lying Wonders…

The Daily Mail wrote on October 15 about a strange story. Even though it appears to be laughable at first sight, it is rather indicative of an interesting and frightful development, considering the Biblical prophecies about increasing occurrences of false miracles and signs in the future. The article reported about a photograph, allegedly picturing an appearance of the late Pope John Paul II, waving in the flames of a bonfire from beyond the grave.

“The image, said by believers to show the [Pope] with his right hand raised in blessing, was spotted during a ceremony in Poland to mark the second anniversary of his death. Details appeared on the Vatican News Service, a TV station in Rome which specialises in religious news broadcasts. Service director Jarek Cielecki, a Polish priest and close friend of John Paul II, travelled to Poland after hearing an onlooker had photographed the image. [He] said he was convinced the picture showed the former pontiff. ‘You can see the image of a person in the flames and I think it is the servant of God, Pope John Paul II,’ he said.

“The pictures were being broadcast continuously on Italian TV and also posted on religious websites, some of which crashed as thousands logged on to see for themselves the eerie figure formed by the flames. The bonfire was lit during a service at Beskid Zywiecki, close to John Paul’s birthplace at Katowice, southern Poland, on April 2 – the second anniversary of his death.

“Hundreds had attended the ceremony. Gregorz Lukasik, the Polish man who took the photographs, said: ‘It was only afterwards when I got home and looked at the pictures that I realised I had something. I showed them to my brother and sister and they, like me, were convinced the flames had formed the image of Pope John Paul II. I was so happy with the picture that I showed it to our local bishop who said that Pope John Paul had made many pilgrimages during his life and he was still making them in death.'”

And More Perversion–Grey Squirrels for Pancakes

The Daily Mail reported on October 16 about another development in Britain, which makes us wonder how far human cruelty and perversity can go. The article stated:

“A top restaurant is serving up free grey squirrel pancakes to hungry diners. Peking duck-style squirrel wraps are being offered to diners at The Famous Wild Boar Hotel… Lord Redesdale’s Red Squirrel Protection Partnership specialises in trapping and despatching greys to protect the reds.

“The partnership has killed 4,521 greys since January, and Lord Redesdale said: ‘The problem is that when we catch and despatch greys, there is nothing we can do with them…  Our reds are disappearing, and perhaps the more greys that are eaten, the better it is for the reds…’

“Carri Nicholson, manager of the Save Our Squirrels project based at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said: ‘A number of places in Northumberland are thinking of having grey squirrel on the menu… The Americans have numerous recipes for grey squirrel, with the most popular being Brunswick Stew, which is casseroled squirrel.'”

Discrimination Against “Traditional” Marriages in California?

The Website of EQCA [Equity California] Legislative Center has posted the following press release, dated October 12, 2007:

“Six bills protecting and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians were signed on Friday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor put his signature on six of eight bills sponsored by Equality California this year, including two youth measures that provide important protections for students…”

The Website continues to state that the purpose of the bill, especially SB 777, was to prevent harassment of homosexuals, lesbians and others with “alternate lifestyles.”

WorldNetDaily alleged in an article, dated October 13, that SB 777, which will become effective on January 1, 2008, will have the following effects:

“‘Mom and Dad’ as well as ‘husband and wife’ have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose…. The bills signed by Schwarzenegger include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as negative toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices. There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however.”

U.S. Political Campaigns — What a Waste of Money!!!

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 9:

“The American presidential candidates are so busy drumming up campaign contributions and grabbing at opportunities to fly around on corporate jets that they have little time left for the people. Fundraising costs run into the millions…

“The road to the White House leads through the living rooms of Hollywood executives, Wall Street financiers, defense industry lobbyists, oil magnates and corporate strategists of every stripe and color. Indeed, groveling is practically a prerequisite for hitting the big time: the country’s highest office.

“In this early phase of the election campaign the candidates and their helpers are constantly busy organizing barbeques, fireside chats and candlelight dinners to collect both the money and the political wish lists of the wealthy. These major donors, known as ‘fat cats’ in the jargon of campaign managers, hold so much clout that they can sometimes make or break a candidate’s political career…

“Political fundraising is now the dominant campaign issue for the public. Who is raising the most money? Who is ahead of whom? What are the candidates’ fundraising strategies? It’s almost as if the Americans were gearing up to elect the chairman of a nonprofit organization, not a new president…

“Despite extensive legal documentation requirements, the identities of major campaign donors remain largely unknown… The history of campaign finance in the United States is one of endless scandals… So why is it that such a wealthy country seems incapable of introducing a clean, public campaign finance system untainted by the odor of corruption?”

Everyone should be able to see that such tactics are not pleasing to God. And so, this entire political system WILL be changed when Christ returns. No more collecting and spending millions of dollars for political “campaigns”–no more double talks, ignoring or even twisting the facts, suppressing the truth. GOD will APPOINT those who are CAPABLE of running a country. What a DIFFERENCE that will make!!!

Please make sure to read the Q&A in this Update, addressing the need for Christians to “come out of this world.”

U.S. Politics vs. the Truth

AFP reported on October 10 about a striking example of how “politics” is employed to suppress the truth:

“A bid by US lawmakers to label the Ottoman massacre of Armenians a ‘genocide’ will trigger Turkish reprisals and undermine Iraq, Afghanistan and Middle East peace, the administration warned Wednesday. President George W. Bush and his top lieutenants were unusually blunt in attacking what is a non-binding resolution in the House of Representatives, highlighting anxiety over the impact on a key diplomatic and military alliance. Bush said the resolution would do ‘great harm’ to ties with Turkey, a Muslim-majority member of NATO whose territory is a crucial transit point for US supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The article continued to describe “political” reactions to a long overdue condemnation:

“Rice said she sympathized with Armenians’ fate during World War I, when according to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in systematic deportations and killings under the Ottoman Empire. ‘But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be very problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally for this,’ she said… Turkey has already warned that passage of the House resolution could force it to bar the United States from a key military base in its south.”

Non-Binding Resolution on Genocide Passed

In spite of such political pressure, as described in the previous section, the non-binding resolution was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday by a 27-21 vote. It will now go to the full House for a possible vote. The Bush Administration stated that they regretted the passing of the resolution. Turkey’s reaction was predictable, by adding even more propaganda to suppress well-established facts.

The Associated Press reported on October 11:

“Turkey swiftly condemned a House panel’s approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, and newspapers blasted the measure on their front pages Thursday… ‘It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation,’ the statement [of the Turkish government] said. Turkish newspapers also denounced the decision… The U.S. Embassy urged Americans in Turkey to be alert for violent repercussions…

“Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest… After France voted last year to make it a crime to deny the killings were genocide, the Turkish government ended its military ties with that country.”

AFP added on October 10:

“According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed from 1915 to 1923 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and murder that later encouraged Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jews.

“… the resolution’s backers warned the issue could not be ignored as they drew parallels to the Holocaust and the present-day bloodshed in the Sudanese region of Darfur.’ We’ve been told the timing is bad,’ Democratic House member Gary Ackerman said in an emotional hearing that lasted nearly four hours. ‘But the timing was bad for the Armenian people in 1915.’ Republican Representative Christopher Smith said the resolution was not a slight on modern Turkey, adding: ‘Friends don’t let friends commit crimes against humanity.'”

The New York Times wrote on October 11:

“Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue. ‘Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,’ said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California and a sponsor of the resolution. ‘For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past.’

“The issue of the Armenian genocide, beginning in 1915, has perennially transfixed Congress and bedeviled presidents of both parties. Ronald Reagan was the only president publicly to call the killings genocide, but his successors have avoided the term.

“When the issue last arose, in 2000, a similar resolution also won approval by a House committee, but President Clinton then succeeded in persuading a Republican speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, to withdraw the measure before the full House could vote. That time, too, Turkey had warned of canceling arms deals and withdrawing support for American air forces then patrolling northern Iraq under the auspices of the United Nations…

“Representative Mike Pence, a conservative Republican from Indiana who has backed the resolution in the past, said Mr. Bush persuaded him to change his position and vote no. He described the decision as gut-wrenching, underscoring the emotions stirred in American politics by a 92-year-old question. ‘While this is still the right position,’ Mr. Pence said, referring to the use of the term genocide, ‘it is not the right time.'”

Is there ever a “right time” to suppress the truth???

Putin’s High-Risk Gamble

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 2:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin dropped a bombshell on Monday when he announced that he was running in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. The move will effectively allow him to hold onto power even after he gives up the presidency next spring. Putin had vowed that he would abide by the constitution which forbids a third consecutive term in that office, but it had been clear that the 54-year-old was not ready to shuffle off quietly into the sunset of retirement just yet… Analysts are already predicting that Putin will now place one of his followers in the Kremlin who would then answer to him. This could well be the newly appointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who has no power base of his own and who as president could be expected to fall in with whatever plans Putin has for the power structures in Russia.

“Commentators in Germany are critical of Putin’s bid to cling on to power and voice concern that instead of bringing stability to Russia these moves could end up achieving the opposite.

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘This plan is in stark contrast to the hierarchy of powers envisaged by the Russian constitution… As prime minister Putin would presumably dismantle the architecture of the constitution… The deal that Putin seems to be striking with his closest followers is also highly risky for him. He is basing it on the assumption that all of those involved will stick to the agreement and that the presidential puppet, who will be chosen as Putin’s successor, will not suddenly decide that he would like to be number one himself. If the puppet comes to life, then the situation in Moscow might not just become unstable, it could become dangerous.’

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘A society that is forced together by authoritarian centralism will inevitably develop countervailing forces again. Putin’s stability is only borrowed and, therefore, won’t last long.’…

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘… This has little to do with true democracy… Does Putin really have everything under control? There are some doubts… Putin is setting up his experiment like a laboratory technician. But he cannot always control the results.'”

And More Rumors of Wars…

Reuters reported on October 3:

“Russia’s military space commander vowed to retaliate with an arms race if any country started putting weapon systems into orbit, he said in remarks published on Wednesday… ‘if any country will place a weapon in space, then our response will be the same,’ [he said]… Tensions between Russia and Washington have deepened over U.S. plans to rekindle the stalled ‘Star Wars’ program from the 1980s with a new generation of missile defense shields.”

Russian Politics vs. the Truth

AFP reported on October 10 that “Russia has no evidence that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday after talks in Moscow with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy. ‘We do not have information that Iran is trying to create a nuclear weapon. We operate on the principle that Iran does not have those plans,’ Putin said.”

The Russian denial of Iran’s intentions is, of course, not mere naivety, but motivated and driven by strong Russian economic interests in Iran.

Germany’s Dark Past

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 1:

“Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office [Bundeskriminalamt or BKA], the equivalent of the FBI in the US, has invited historians to research its origins after World War II when many of its leading members were recruited straight from the ranks of Hitler’s police and security apparatus… It’s already known that when the BKA was formed in 1951, almost all its 50 top officers had a Nazi past — in SS units active in German-occupied territories, in the Gestapo, in the secret military police or the Third Reich’s criminal police force (RKPA).

“For example, the man in charge of manhunts at the RKPA, Kurt Amend, took up the same position at the BKA. Historian and former BKA officer Dieter Schenk said Amend sealed the fate of ‘hundreds of thousands who were put in a concentration camp or brought before a special tribunal as a result of his intelligent policing methods.’ Amend’s Nazi past was never investigated.

“Another example is Bernhard Niggemeyer, a senior officer in the BKA, who had the rank of Sturmbannführer or Storm Unit Leader in the SS and was in charge of several military police units responsible for thousands of executions during the war. In some cases former Nazi investigators remained in the ranks of the BKA well into the 1960s.”

Some striking parallels exist between the political conditions in Germany in the aftermath of World War II and Afghanistan and Iraq following the invasion of the Allies–these similarities should not be overlooked…

German Politics vs. the Truth

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 10:

“Germany’s parliament votes this Friday on whether to extend Berlin’s participation in the military mission in Afghanistan. The country is on the brink of disaster, but German politicians have chosen to ignore Afghanistan’s real problems.”

The article continued:

“Welcome to Afghanistan in the sixth year following the Western intervention. Welcome to a country that ranks, sadly, in eighth place in the 2007 edition of the ‘Failed States Index’ compiled by the US magazine Foreign Policy — just behind Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Zimbabwe…

“A troop withdrawal would be a ‘serious defeat for international law and the international community,’ warns Peter Struck, the floor leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), while German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that her country’s commitment to the operation in Afghanistan is ‘the only way to demonstrate that we fight terrorists, and that we do so with great resolve.’…

“This Friday, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, will vote on whether to extend two of the three German military mandates in Afghanistan, currently the Bundeswehr’s most dangerous mission. Twenty-one German soldiers have already lost their lives in Afghanistan, and last Friday three Germans were lucky to escape from a suicide attack with only minor injuries. The Bundestag will decide the fate of up to 3,500 soldiers and six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft operating in Afghanistan under the auspices of NATO’s ISAF force. Parliament’s approval of the mission is considered a done deal, with a broad majority in both the ruling grand coalition and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) likely to vote in favor of keeping the troops in Afghanistan…

“Relatively few members of parliament have traveled to Afghanistan in recent months to get a first-hand impression of the situation in the war-torn country, despite the fact that members of the German Bundestag are normally known for their love of travel. Apparently only very few of Germany’s elected representatives feel that Afghanistan is worth a visit… The news that reaches Berlin from Afghanistan these days is simply too horrific. Members of parliament who have visited the country describe a place on the verge of collapse. Instead of declining, the problems of poverty, corruption, violence and sheer hopelessness are on the rise. Government institutions are virtually nonexistent in many parts of the country, the police are corrupt and overworked and the military isn’t in much better shape. The effects of Western development aid go largely unnoticed by much of the population…

“There is an odd disparity between the reality in Afghanistan and the political debate in Germany. Seemingly oblivious to the information coming from the country, both the Bundestag and the political parties become embroiled in heated debates over technical details that are in fact irrelevant in Afghanistan… The important questions in the Afghanistan debate are also being ignored…

“The Germans are eager to distance themselves from the United States in public debates, insisting that, unlike the Americans, the Germans are mainly involved in civilian reconstruction assistance. But this is precisely where Germany has failed miserably…”

In spite of denials to the contrary, the invasion of the Allies in Afghanistan was as much a failure as the occupation of Iraq. This is not surprising for those who understand the Bible, as God clearly teaches us that man’s wars do NOT bring permanent and lasting positive results. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Should YOU Fight in WAR?”

New Treaty for Europe?

On October 2, BBC News reported:

“Legal experts from the 27 countries of the European Union have agreed on a draft reform treaty. The treaty is set to replace the defunct European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters. Portugal, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, hopes to get agreement on the treaty at an EU summit in Lisbon later this month. Possible domestic opposition to the treaty in Poland and Britain mean they may present the biggest hurdles. The treaty aims to streamline the workings of the EU bloc, which has almost doubled its membership in the last few years.”

The Paralyzed UN — “The Whole Week Was a Mess”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 1 about the meeting of the UN General Assembly as a “meeting of clueless leaders.” The article stated:

“A description of the week’s events might sound something like this: they met, they ate good food. There were some brilliant speeches, but no resolutions were passed. Or, in the words of one German: ‘It was all about money and who could manage to get what. It was all about massaging each other’s egos.’ Swedish-born Mats Karlsson, vice-president of external and UN affairs at the World Bank, put it a little more diplomatically: ‘I am worried about the calibre of our global leadership.’…

“Ambassadors and foreign ministers — at least, those who were brave enough to abandon the cliches surrounding the whole event — said there is something wrong, seriously wrong, with the UN. ‘Our entire system of international policy is falling apart,’ said one participant, a veteran at the UN… There’s just no other way of saying it: The whole week was a mess.”

The UN will NOT play a dominant role in the future. Rather, Europe is destined to fulfill this responsibility–but devastating consequences will be the result. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.“

The Building of the Holy Temple

IsraelNationalNews.com reported on October 7:

“On Wednesday, the last day of the Sukkot [Feast of Tabernacles] festival, a 34-person delegation from West Papua presented a large amount of gold to be used in the building of the Holy Temple. The delegation, including representatives of the nation’s government, explained that they study the Bible regularly and recently came upon a verse in Zecharia (6:16) [the intended reference is Zechariah 6:15] reading ‘And the distant ones will come and build the Temple of G-d.’ They discussed the passage among themselves and decided that their faith obligates them to fulfill the verse. West Papua, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, is rich in gold mines, so the delegation thought it natural to donate gold for the Holy Temple. The Holy Temple will be built in the place where the First and Second Temples once stood – on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount…

“The Temple Institute was established twenty years ago, and deals with research and education about the Holy Temple. The institute has published dozens of books and has prepared more than 70 of the gold, silver and copper vessels needed for Temple service. Just two weeks ago, the institute completed a large ‘King David’s Lyre.’ Its craftsmen are working now on the golden headpiece worn by the high priest. Some of the vessels prepared by the institute for use in the Temple include the golden menorah (candelabra), the show-bread table, the golden altar, Levite musical instruments and priestly clothes. The vessels are on display at the institute’s headquarters on the Old City’s Misgav Ladach street.”

The Bible strongly indicates that a Temple will be built in Jerusalem, prior to the return of Jesus Christ. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

“Human Life Begins With Conception”

Reuters reported on October 11:

“Pope Benedict appealed to scientists on Thursday to stop using human embryos in stem cell research… The Vatican supports stem cell research so long as it does not harm embryos, which the Catholic Church argues are humans from the moment of conception.

“‘The destruction of human embryos, whether to acquire stem cells or for any other purpose, contradicts the purported intent of researchers, legislators and public health officials to promote human welfare,’ the Pontiff wrote in a letter to South Korea’s new ambassador to the Holy See. The Church supports research on adult cells and promising alternatives to embryonic research, such as the use of amniotic fluid protecting fetuses in the uterus.

“The Pope said such research methods ‘harmonize with the aforementioned intent (to promote human welfare) by respecting the life of the human being at every stage of his or her existence.’ South Korea announced plans earlier this year to remove some of the blocks to human embryonic stem cell research in place since a 2006 scandal involving forged data in stem cell studies.”

The Dangers of Tattoos and Piercing

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 1:

“Self-enhancement — or self-mutilation — can be a hazardous pursuit. Those opting for tattoos and piercing can end up with allergic reactions or nasty infections, including hepatitis, while cosmetic surgery is also fraught with danger. The next stop can often be the doctor’s surgery or even the emergency room. And in Germany, where it is compulsory to have health insurance, it is the insurance companies that end up footing the bill for these damage-limitation exercises.”

France “Offers” Germany the Bomb…

Der Spiegel Online reported on September 17, 2007:

“Ever since Nicolas Sarkozy became French president, he has been bewildering the German government with one controversial idea after another. The latest shocker? The new man in Paris has offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel French nuclear weapons.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t mention the bomb right away. Instead, he took a little detour by way of atomic energy: Whoever is serious about averting global warming should build more nuclear power plants, he told Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during last week’s informal meeting in Meseberg palace, the German government’s guest residence north of Berlin. Then came the surprise offer.

“Seeing as they were discussing the benefits of all things atomic, the French president continued, he had another suggestion as well: Because the French nuclear umbrella protected France’s neighbors as well as La Grande Nation itself, perhaps the Germans would consider taking a political stake in the French atomic arsenal?

“Both the chancellor and her foreign minister were speechless. The idea of possessing nuclear weapons is taboo in Germany. Sarzoky’s predecessor Jacques Chirac cautiously brought up the issue 12 years ago, but he quickly realized it was pointless to pursue it. Steinmeier was the first to regain his composure, explaining that Germany did not seek to become a nuclear power, which is why the country had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1975. Merkel offered a friendly smile and backed up her foreign minister…”

Sarkozy Annoys Merkel

Press TV wrote on September 16:

“Four months after Sarkozy became president, a cool wind is blowing between Paris and Berlin as tensions appear in his relationship with Merkel. From a bruising European Union summit in June, through weeks of simmering discord over the independence of the European Central Bank to a patronizing remark on nuclear power last Monday, Sarkozy has repeatedly offended Merkel, observers in both capitals say. The German daily Rheinische Post spoke of a ‘deep crisis’ between the leaders of the two countries who regard themselves as the driving force of the EU…

“During a joint news conference on Monday, an impatient Merkel stood tensely as Sarkozy lectured her on the virtues of nuclear power, an energy source she favors but cannot foster because of a phase-out deal forced upon her by her coalition partners.

“Sarkozy is reported to have lost his temper with German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck in Brussels in July when he criticized France’s budget policy and to have waited in vain for Merkel to rebuke her minister. A guest editorial by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in Le Figaro on Friday said the chancellor should learn from former chancellor Konrad Adenauer who said that when dealing with the French, one must salute their flag three times before getting down to business.”

Germans, Be Watchful!!! — “Legal Considerations Would No Longer Apply”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 17:

“Germany’s Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung [of the Christian Democratic Union, CDU] has sparked fury by saying he would order a hijacked passenger jet to be shot down if necessary — even though the country’s highest court ruled last year that such a move would be illegal… The court in 2006 overturned the Air Security Act which empowered the defence minister to order a plane to be shot down even if innocent people were on board. The court ruled that weighing ‘life against life’ was in breach of Germany’s constitution. The debate has raged in Germany ever since the September 11 terror attacks and security has moved back to the top of the agenda ever since the arrest two weeks ago of three Islamists suspected of plotting bomb attacks.

“Jung’s comments outraged the opposition and met with strong criticism from members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which shares power with Merkel’s conservatives. SPD leader Kurt Beck said: ‘It’s simply inconceivable to take that course of action.’ Beck told reporters that if Jung ordered pilots to fire on an airliner, he would effectively be turning responsibility for the action over to them. ‘And after all we’ve taught people since the Nazi dictatorship … a German soldier would have to say No, this command isn’t compatible with the constitution.'”

“Germany’s organisation of army fighter pilots VBSK also rejected the idea. ‘I can only advise pilots not to obey the minister’s command in such a case,’ Thomas Wassmann, VBSK chairman, told the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper. He said Jung’s statement was akin to ‘calling on pilots to carry out an illegal order.’ Bernhard Gertz, chairman of the German Army Federation, a union representing the interests of military personnel, said pilots would make themselves liable to prosecution if they shot down a passenger jet that was being used as a missile.

“But a spokesman for the Defence Ministry defended Jung on Monday, saying it was conceivable that the GOVERNMENT COULD CALL OUT A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN WHICH LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS NO LONGER APPLIED — in that case, PILOTS WOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO DISOBEY THE COMMAND.”

This is extremely dangerous language! Legal considerations would no longer apply? Pilots would not be ALLOWED to DISOBEY an ILLEGAL order?

These kinds of developments in Germany are of great interest, as Germany is DESTINED to play a leading role in Europe. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.” Also, make sure to view our latest StandingWatch program, “The Mystery of Revelation–Solved.”

Euro at All-Time High

The Wall Street Journal wrote on September 20:

“The euro hit a new all-time high against the dollar, trading above $1.40 for the first time since the common European currency was introduced. The 13-nation euro bought $1.4023 in early European trading, up from its previous high of $1.3987, hit in New York late Wednesday.”

Getting Hot in the Middle East

Haaretz.com reported on September 16:

“The target of an Israel Air Force raid 10 days ago in Syria was a nuclear installation that was constructed in the northeastern corner of the country, with North Korean assistance, according to foreign media reports. Yesterday, The Washington Post published an article saying the strike was aimed at a shipment that had arrived in Syria aboard a North Korean vessel three days earlier, and may have included equipment and materials related to nuclear technology…

“Meanwhile, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported yesterday that a German naval vessel patrolling the coast of Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL mission identified two F-15 fighters penetrating Syria’s airspace on its radar 10 days ago. A Western military source, quoted in the report, claimed that the aircraft were on their way to attack a Syrian arms shipment to Hezbollah, but were surprised at the speed with which Syrian air defenses became aware of their presence.”

“Tensions Sky-High on the Golan Heights”

The Age.com.au reported on September 15:

“In recent months Syria has renewed its old alliance with the Kremlin, which lapsed when the Cold War ended. Over the past year President Vladimir Putin’s Government has sold Damascus large quantities of the portable anti-tank weapons which Hezbollah’s outnumbered fighters used to humiliate Israel’s invading army in south Lebanon last year.

“Syrian President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime has also bought new Russian anti-aircraft systems which could erode the Israeli air force’s long-prized ability to overfly and bomb its neighbours without encountering defences, as it did in Lebanon…

“While Russia views the eastern Mediterranean as part of a global chessboard, for both Syria and Israel the conflict is purely, intensely local. At its heart is control of the Golan Heights, 1250 square kilometres of mountain, farmland and scrubby uplands seized and colonised by Israel 40 years ago last June. Since then the focus of Syrian foreign policy has been to regain the Golan Heights and to return to their homes the descendants of the 50,000 to 80,000 Syrian civilians driven out in the fighting and whom Israel has since replaced with 16,000 of its own settlers…

“Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated this year that Israel will never return the Golan to Syria. Opinion polls suggest a clear majority of Israelis would not give up the Golan even [at] the price of peace… Amid renewed rumours of war, this summer Israeli tank brigades staged large-scale manoeuvres on the Golan Heights… Economically, the Golan is the source of about half Israel’s water resources, produces most of its wine grapes and has the country’s only ski resort. Cattle ranchers and hikers can roam in the upland plateau…”

For more information on prophesied events in the Middle East, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.“

America Preparing for War With Iran?

The Sunday Telegraph reported on September 16:

“Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran’s nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail… Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action.

“In a chilling scenario of how war might come, a senior intelligence officer warned that public denunciation of Iranian meddling in Iraq – arming and training militants – would lead to cross border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories… Under the theory… US action would provoke a major Iranian response, perhaps in the form of moves to cut off Gulf oil supplies, providing a trigger for air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and even its armed forces. Senior officials believe Mr Bush’s inner circle has decided he does not want to leave office without first ensuring that Iran is not capable of developing a nuclear weapon.”

Iran Ready To Strike Back

The Jerusalem Post wrote on September 17:

“Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday… According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted. The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.

“On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world ‘to prepare for the worst,’ and said that in this case it ‘is war.'”

“America’s Standing as a World Power Severely Damaged”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 12:

“Gen. David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker told the US Congress this week that the ‘surge’ could come home — but the rest of America’s troops in Iraq need to stay there indefinitely. German commentators reacted coolly to the news… [and] were typically skeptical of US policy and the future for Iraq…

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“‘… The various “reconciliation talks” between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are dominated by partisan jockeying for position and no progress has been made on the real issues. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is criticized for his close ties to Tehran, has proven to be incompetent or even worse. … In parts of the country, especially in the south, there is fighting among various Shiite factions. Millions of Iraqis have fled abroad, while hundreds of thousands are caught up in ethic and religious cleansing, driven from their hometowns or the lands Saddam Hussein settled them on and seeking refuge somewhere. The economic results, especially those from oil production, have hardly improved. Billions of dollars in contracts that the American government has pumped into the country have run into the sand or — to be more precise — landed in the wrong pockets.

“‘Whether the representatives and senators in Washington are realistically evaluating these facts at all is another question altogether. In the discussion about Iraq in Washington … the only real question is when the withdrawal will begin and how quickly it will be carried out… On this issue there are only two things which are certain: Iraq’s future will not be rosy, and the standing of America as a world power is severely damaged after this deployment.’

“Austria’s Der Standard writes:

“‘One feels like one has gone back in time to before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. After the US government’s recent PR campaign, the world is once again divided into believers and disbelievers when it comes to the US’s Iraq policy…'”

Chaos in Iraq Inevitable

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 15:

“President Bush and his Iraq team spent the week trying to change the nature of the debate over the war. But they failed to offer any new military or political strategy for extricating the United States from Iraq. And so countless hours of testimony by Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and an Oval Office speech by the president changed no minds… Americans are more bitterly divided than ever, politically and morally stalemated over our responsibility for creating and for resolving what can now only be called a quagmire. For chief among the president’s ever-shifting justifications for staying in Iraq is that it is far too dangerous to leave.

“Petraeus and Crocker did succeed in boxing in some moderates who want to end the war but are afraid to cut off funding. They did succeed in making us hope against our better judgment that military progress can yet produce stability. And they distracted the public from the underlying problem, which is that the United States has no power to compel an Iraqi cease-fire, let alone the necessary political reconciliation.

“To their credit, Petraeus and Crocker avoided offering promises, or even benchmarks for progress, which have so often disappointed in the past. They were wise enough to recognize the emptiness of each event that the war’s supporters have heralded as a turning point — the capture of Saddam Hussein nearly four years ago, the two national elections, the drafting of a constitution, the killing of Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi last year, the formation of a government and parliament, and most recently, the ‘surge.’ By contrast, Bush’s new rhetoric about a ‘return on success’ and defending an ‘ally’ that has requested U.S. help was twisted and misleading in the extreme.

“And while all this was going on in Washington this week, what was happening in Iraq? The civil war went on, as it always has, on Iraqi time and Iraqi terms. Sheik Abdul Sattar Rishawi, the tribal leader who became the key U.S. ally against Al Qaeda in Anbar province, was blown up with his bodyguards just 10 days after meeting with Bush. Hope that the dysfunctional parliament would agree to share oil revenue crumbled as a tentative agreement struck in February broke down, and lawmakers said no legislation could be passed any time soon. Similar gridlock was reported on legislation to re-integrate alienated former Baathists into the government. And sectarian slaughter continued, with an average of 10 corpses found dumped in Baghdad alone every day last week…”

Oil–the Prime Motive for the War With Iraq?

The Sunday Times wrote on September 16:

“America’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil. In his long-awaited memoir… Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

“… it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. ‘I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,’ he says… Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism.”

Subsequently, CNN reported on September 17 that Greenspan “clarified” that he did not want to imply that oil was the “motive” for the Bush Administration’s decision to go to war against Iraq.

The “Apocalyptic War”

The Daily Mail wrote on September 14, under the headline, “How the world was plunged into an apocalyptic war”:

“The total number of American servicemen and women killed in action already amounts to 3,826, with 168 British forces having been killed. And between 500,000 and 600,000 Iraqi men, women and children have died. What’s more, since Saddam fell, four million Iraqis have become refugees, either inside Iraq or beyond.

“Meanwhile this week, another two British soldiers have been killed by the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, bringing the total British losses since 2001 to 78… The truth is that despite Bush’s ‘war on terror’ and the American-led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamist terrorism has continued to seethe and bubble across the world – and sometimes explode, as in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.

“This summer, an attack on Glasgow Airport mercifully failed because of the terrorists’ own incompetence. And German counter-terrorism police foiled a plot (meant to mark the sixth anniversary of 9/11) which was aimed at truckbombing Frankfurt Airport and the US air base at Ramstein…

“Bush and his vicepresident Dick Cheney are fundamentalist Christians, while Bush’s own political base lies in his fellow fundamentalists of the American ‘Bible belt’. And tragically for Britain, Tony Blair passionately shared Bush’s belief that world policy must be inspired by religious faith. The grim truth is that when George W. Bush declared ‘a global war on terror’, he was really announcing a jihad of his own – a struggle to convert the whole world to American-style capitalist democracy…

“‘We’ are the righteous, while our chosen enemy is ‘the Axis of Evil’ or ‘the Great Satan’ (take your pick) with whom no compromise is possible, and against whom any violence is permissible. Al Qaeda and its associated jihadists massacre the innocent to the cry of ‘Allah Akbar’ (‘God is Great’). Meanwhile, President Bush launches ‘shock and awe’ aerial onslaughts on Iraqi and Afghan villages and cities in the sure belief that Jesus Christ wants him to spread democracy around the world.

“Yet belief in the righteousness of the cause is only the vehicle for something deeper and even more alarming. And that something is sheer emotion… Such emotion is terrifyingly dangerous. The great German philosopher on war, Carl von Clausewitz, pointed out that the intensity of a conflict is determined by the importance of the political object at stake…

“Today, Iran has become the prime target of Bush’s ideological mission. He recently trumpeted: ‘We will confront this danger before it is too late. Either the forces of extremism succeed or the forces of freedom succeed. Either our enemies advance their interests in Iraq, or we advance our interests.’ In this inflamed rhetoric, echoing his rants in 2002 and 2003 about Saddam Hussein and his alleged development of weapons of mass destruction, we can hear the louder and louder beat of war drums.

“… war, no matter how passionate the belief in the righteousness of the cause, is inherently uncontrollable, its outcome quite unpredictable…”

No matter what America is trying to do in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and in other countries, it will not succeed. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.” You might also want to view our recent StandingWatch programs, “God Warns America!” and “America–Wake Up!”

Pope Refused to Meet With Condoleezza Rice

Press TV reported on September 20:

“Pope Benedict XVI has refused a recent request by the US Secretary of State to discuss the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources say… Italian daily Corriere della Sera says the evident snub ‘illustrates the divergence of views’ between the Vatican and the White House over the ‘initiatives of the Bush administration in the Middle East.’

“Sources cite at least two reasons for the Pope’s refusal to have a private meeting with Rice:

“First, it was Rice who just before the outbreak of Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive. Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians.”

Will Putin Make a Comeback–Without Ever Really Leaving?

AFP wrote on September 14:

“President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia’s 2008 presidential race is wide open, with at least five candidates — including his surprise new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov. He also did not rule out making a comeback in the following presidential campaign in 2012… Putin’s decision to pluck Zubkov from obscurity just ahead of December parliamentary elections has fuelled intrigue over who will win the Kremlin in the March presidential vote, when Putin is required by the constitution to leave office. Most observers believe that the race will be minutely controlled by Putin’s entourage to ensure that a loyal candidate wins…

“Under the constitution the president cannot have more than two consecutive terms, but can in theory return after a break… Some analysts believe that Zubkov is a straw man promoted purely because of his loyalty to Putin. One theory is that Putin is weakening the already pliant government to concentrate further power in the Kremlin and lay the groundwork for him to retain power behind the scenes.”

Russia’s Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov — And The Russian Military

TheAge.com.au stated on September 16:

“Russia’s Prime Minister has pledged to boost the country’s military might, amid growing signs that he could emerge as President Vladimir Putin’s successor next year…

“Keen to demonstrate his allegiance to his boss, Mr Zubkov told deputies that he would dedicate his attentions to advancing Mr Putin’s favourite projects — the restoration of Russia’s military might and the resurgence of Russia’s energy-fuelled economy. Since Mr Putin came to power in 2000, the Kremlin has poured large amounts of cash into Russia’s rusting military in what appears to be an attempt to regain the nation’s superpower status.

“On Thursday British and Norwegian jets intercepted Russian military aircraft after they breached NATO air space close to Britain and Finland. Finland’s Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, demanded an explanation from Moscow over the violation of Finnish air space, the latest in a spate of recent incursions…

“Last night, Mr Putin was scheduled to revel in a military display of a different sort, taking the salute in Red Square from troops participating in Moscow’s first military tattoo… The presidential regiment band and the central band of the Russian Army were to be bedecked in imperial uniforms not worn since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.”

Inspection of Islamic Courses and Teachers in Austria?

Press TV reported on September 15:

“Austria’s controversial politician, Joerg Haider, has called for intensive inspection of Islamic courses in the country’s education system. The former head of the far-right Freedom Party and the hawkish governor of Carinthia told the reporters in a press conference that the government’s policy to converge with foreigners has not been successful yet and now the foreigners are to adapt themselves to the conditions in Austria.

“Haider has recently announced his plans to prohibit the construction of mosques in Carinthia and has emphasized that the contents of schoolbooks should be changed and the Islamic education in Austria ought to be brought under intensive inspection. He also stressed that the move should be initiated by inspecting the teachers of the Islamic courses.”

Tattoo Remorse

CNN reported on September 17:

“Laura Hathaway initially had no regrets after getting a tattoo on her lower back when she was 21. But now, 10 years later, she wants it gone… it doesn’t fit in with her current lifestyle as the mother of a 2-year-old boy who just started to talk…

“Dr. Scott Karempelis of Atlanta Dermatology Associates is performing a multitreatment laser procedure that will gradually erase Hathaway’s tattoo with little or no scarring. The process is painful, expensive and time-consuming… The American Academy of Dermatology reports tattoo regret is common in the United States. Among a group of 18- to 50-year-olds surveyed in 2004, 24 percent reported having a tattoo and 17 percent of those considered getting their tattoo removed…

“Hathaway expects to go through 10 sessions several weeks apart, each lasting less than a minute. She admits it’s a lot more painful than getting the original tattoo. ‘It’s prickly,’ describes Hathaway. ‘It feels like a bee is sitting on your back stinging time and time again. Afterwards, the pain does go away and you’re a little sore for a few hours.’ Patients with bigger tattoos are sometimes given the option to use a topical anesthetic, but Karempelis points out that it adds to the cost.

“Like other dermatologists, he charges by the square inch for the laser treatment. By the time Hathaway’s done, she expects to pay more than $2,200. There’s no guarantee that she won’t have a scar… Certain tattoo colors, such as green, yellow and purple, are harder to remove, Karempelis says.”

For a Biblical Discussion on Tattoos, please see our Q&A in Update #113, titled, “Does the Bible teach anything about the use of tattoos?”

Meteorite Hits the Earth–Causes Mysterious Illness

AFP reported on September 17:

“Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday. Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.
 
“Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a ‘strange odor,’ local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP. Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

“Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.  ‘Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned,’ he said.”

This episode might perhaps remind us of much greater catastrophes to come, as described in Revelation 8:8, 10-11: “The second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea… Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch… A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.”

USA–The Fading Superpower

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 9 about the United States of America as the “fading superpower.” The article explained:

“… all [U.S. politicians] seem convinced that the world works best with the United States at the helm, and that without American leadership, the world would soon become more dangerous and anarchic and less prosperous… But what if the Americans who hold these beliefs are not, in fact, clear-eyed observers of the world scene stripped of its anti-imperial mystifications? Instead, what if they are people who have fallen for the same self-delusion that the British ruling class entertained before World War I, which was that their empire was so essential to world stability and, at least when compared with the alternatives and with empires past, so just that its hegemony could and would weather all challenges?

“It is hardly farfetched to scan the historical record and conclude that self-love and imperialism go together, whether it was the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes insisting that British colonialism in Africa had been ‘philanthropy plus 5%’ or President Bush insisting that it was America’s special mission to spread democracy throughout the world. But what the historical record also shows is that imperial moments are, in fact, fleeting, and that hegemony has a shorter and shorter shelf life. The Roman Empire lasted more than 700 years (more than a millennium if you count the Byzantines); the British Empire lasted a little more than 300 years in India and less than a century in much of Africa. The economic challenges facing the U.S. at least suggest that America’s time as sole superpower could be shorter still…

“The war in Iraq has demonstrated the limits of even America’s vaunted military strength… None of this is to say that the U.S. will not continue to be one of the most important powers — only that its days of first dictating and then guaranteeing the rules are numbered in an era in which it has become a debtor nation. In any case, the post-World War II structures of international governance are crumbling…

“For the moment, the U.S. is the sole superpower. But instead of deluding ourselves that we will go on that way into the indeterminate future, an intelligently self-interested foreign policy would have us do everything in our power to shape, according to our most urgent priorities, the international rules that will govern relations between states after the American moment has passed — as it inevitably will… The real choice that confronts us is not between a second American century and anarchy but between a multipolar world in which we will play an important role and an anti-American century.”

U.S. Dollar at All-Time Low

AFP reported on September 12:

“The dollar sank to an all-time low against the euro Wednesday… The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3889 in afternoon European trading — breaking through its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. That compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday…
 
“The strong euro ‘is weighing on growth,’ French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said after a Cabinet meeting in Paris on Wednesday… the weaker dollar… diminishes the spending power of American tourists in Europe.

“The dollar, which has hovered within a few cents of its record low in recent weeks amid a crisis over U.S. mortgage lending, has come under new pressure since the U.S. Labor Department issued unexpectedly poor August jobs data Friday…

“The U.S. currency was lower against the Japanese yen, even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign, putting an end to his troubled year-old government. The dollar slid to 113.85 yen from 114.30 yen.”

USA Ready to Attack Iran?

FoxNews.com reported on September 11:

“Germany — a pivotal player among three European nations to rein in Iran’s nuclear program over the last two-and-a-half years through a mixture of diplomacy and sanctions supported by the United States — notified its allies last week that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to support the imposition of any further sanctions against Iran that could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council… The Germans voiced concern about the damaging effects any further sanctions on Iran would have on the German economy…”

“Political and military officers, as well as weapons of mass destruction specialists at the State Department, are now advising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that…  the administration must actively prepare for military intervention of some kind…

“Consequently, according to a well-placed Bush administration source, ‘everyone in town’ is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections.

“The discussions are now focused on two basic options: less invasive scenarios under which the U.S. might blockade Iranian imports of gasoline or exports of oil, actions generally thought to exact too high a cost on the Iranian people but not enough on the regime in Tehran; and full-scale aerial bombardment.

“On the latter course, active consideration is being given as to how long it would take to degrade Iranian air defenses before American air superiority could be established and U.S. fighter jets could then begin a systematic attack on Iran’s known nuclear targets. Most relevant parties have concluded such a comprehensive attack plan would require at least a week of sustained bombing runs, and would at best set the Iranian nuclear program back a number of years — but not destroy it forever.”

British Forces Move to Iran Border

The Independent reported on September 12:

“British forces have been sent from Basra to the volatile border with Iran amid warnings from the senior US commander in Iraq that Tehran is fomenting a ‘proxy war’. In signs of a fast-developing confrontation, the Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier.

“The UK operation, in which up to 350 troops are involved, has come at the request of the Americans, who say that elements close to the Iranian regime have stepped up supplies of weapons to Shia militias in recent weeks in preparation for attacks inside Iraq…

“The operation is regarded as a high-risk strategy which could lead to clashes with Iranian-backed Shia militias or even Iranian forces and also leaves open the possibility of Iranian retaliation in the form of attacks against British forces at the Basra air base or inciting violence to draw them back into Basra city. Relations between the two countries are already fraught after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized a British naval party in the Gulf earlier this year…”

Iraq–None of American Options Are Good

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 11:

“Gen. David Petraeus delivered his hotly anticipated progress report on Iraq to Congress on Monday and provided President George W. Bush with sorely-needed backing by saying the troop surge in the country is bearing fruit… He said a rapid withdrawal of US troops from the country would produce ‘a number of dangerous results.’

“German media commentators writing on Tuesday — the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — say that despite some evidence of progress with the troop surge, the overall US policy in Iraq has failed, and there’s no hope for any true improvement until Bush leaves office…

“Business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The bitter truth is that the US has only very few options, none of them good… Measured in terms of the original plan, the offensive has clearly failed: With additional troops and a changed military strategy, the Americans have managed to significantly reduce the number of attacks in Baghdad; but the expectation that this would pave the way for the big peace settlement among all important Iraqi players hasn’t been fulfilled. The government of national unity has collapsed, and central issues such as the distribution of oil profits remain unsolved. The fighting between Sunnis and Shiites, but also between rival Shiite groups, continues…’

“The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘The 9/11 attacks changed the world. But even a changed world finds its own normality. Osama bin Laden is still at large, apparently with a new beard, sending new video messages to mark the anniversary. Al-Qaida still carries out attacks, if not in the United States then in Europe and North Africa.

“‘From President Bush’s point of view, establishing a real democracy in Iraq — and letting the reformed nation serve as a beacon for the rest of the Arab world — is no longer a topic for discussion. The debate is now about how American soldiers might prevent a murderous civil war in the unhappy new nation, and whether they should go on fighting tribal militias and terrorists, or pull out and let the Iraqis fend for themselves…'”

“The US Will Lose the Iraq War Regardless What It Does”

On September 10, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with American military historian Gabriel Kolko. Kolko argues that the situation in Iraq is worse than ever and that the artificial nation, created after World War I, is breaking up. The “surge,” he says, is also failing. He was quoted, as follows:

“The civilian death toll last August was higher than in February. Geopolitically, as Bush senior feared after the first Gulf war in 1990-91, Iran is emerging more powerful than ever, increasingly dominant in the region. The many official Israeli warnings before the war that this would be the outcome of war against Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power have come true… The Bush Administration suffers from a fatal dilemma. Its Iraq adventure is getting steadily worse, the American people very likely will vote the Republicans out of office because of it, and the war is extremely expensive at a time that the economy is beginning to present it with a major problem. The president’s poll ratings are now the worst since 2001.

“Only 33 percent of the American public approve of his leadership and 58 percent want to decrease the number of American troops immediately or quickly. Fifty-five percent want legislation to set a withdrawal deadline. In Afghanistan, as well, the war against the Taliban is going badly, and the Bush Administration’s dismal effort to use massive American military power to remake the world in a vague, inconsistent way is failing. The US has managed to increasingly alienate its former friends, who now fear its confusion and unpredictability. Above all, the American public is less ready than ever to tolerate Bush’s idiosyncrasies…

“The US is losing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the very same reasons it lost… its earlier conflicts. It has the manpower and firepower advantage, as always, but these are ultimately irrelevant in the medium- and long-run… Political conflicts are not solved by military interventions, and that they are often incapable of being resolved by political or peaceful means does not alter the fact that force is dysfunctional. This is truer today than ever with the spread of weapons technology. Washington refuses to heed this lesson of modern history…

“The Army, especially, does not have the manpower for a protracted war and if the US maintains its troop levels after spring 2008, it will face a crisis. It will have to break its pledge not to leave soldiers in Iraq longer than 15 months, accelerate the use of National Guard units, and the like — and it will lose the war regardless of what it does… The Iraqi army and police that are to replace the Americans is heavily infiltrated by Shiites loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and others — estimates vary, but at least a quarter is wholly unreliable…

“There is utter confusion in Washington about how to end this morass. Goals are similar but the means to attain them are increasingly changing, confused, and as victory becomes more elusive so too does this administration look pathetic… In fact, it is disastrous.”

President Bush to Cut Troops in Iraq

AFP reported on September 12:

 “US President George W. Bush is to announce Thursday a cut of 30,000 soldiers from Iraq by next July and a top Iraqi official said another 30,000 may have gone by the end of 2008. Bush is expected to announce the cut in a televised address to the nation on the unpopular Iraq war…

“The US gradual withdrawal plan did little to appease the powerful Shiite movement led by fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. His movement demanded a complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq… Iran, Iraq’s neighbor and a US foe, also dismissed Washington’s strategy…

“More than four years after the US-led invasion, Americans see an Iraq gripped by violence, sectarian strife and political corruption — far from the model of democracy in the Middle East that Bush had touted. Anger is also rising over the cost of the war, with more than 3,700 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed since March 2003 and half a trillion dollars spent.”

Europeans Down On America

On September 7, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“A new poll released Thursday by the German Marshall Fund of the United States shows that Europeans are down on America right now and not seeing light over the horizon. The poll is part of the report ‘Trans-Atlantic Trends 2007’ that surveys 12 European countries in an attempt to gauge feelings about relations between the US and Europe.

“When it comes to Europeans’ views of US President George W. Bush, his war in Iraq, and his foreign policies, 77 percent disapprove of him and his policies, while 17 percent voiced approval. This compares with American views, which show an approval rate of 32 percent and disapproval rate of 63 percent, according to an August survey released by the Gallup Poll…

“To the question of whether relations will improve after the 2008 election, 42 percent of Americans said yes, while only 35 percent of Europeans shared that faith. Almost half of Europeans and more than a third of Americans thought things would stay the same.

“Another poll, released by the BBC on Friday, finds that almost two thirds of the world would like the US-led coalition troops to leave Iraq…”

Stalin No Innocent Victim?–Of Course Not!

On August 31, the Israeli news agency, haaretz.com, wrote the following:

“Mischa Shauli sat at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., completely beside himself. It had been years since the first time he heard about the existence of a document said to prove that Stalin, not Hitler, bore the main responsibility for World War II, and for years he had searched for it with all his skills as a professional detective. Shauli’s last position was as Commander Shauli, Representative of the Israel Police in Russia. Previous to that he had been head of the police fraud investigation unit for the Southern District.

“A few years ago Shauli read ‘Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War,’ by Bogdan Rozen. Rozen, who now lives in England, wrote it under the pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov. Shauli, impressed by the book, translated it into Hebrew and saw to its publication here.

“From out of the sea of details, a coherent thesis emerges: Stalin dragged Hitler into war to force Europe into chaos and facilitate a communist revolution on the continent. According to Shauli, there is evidence to back up this theory, including a speech by Stalin himself as well as a report obtained by the U.S. Consulate in Prague. The report has been mentioned here and there over the years, but it has never been published, because no one knows where it is today.

“Shauli, 59, believed that the definitive evidence was out there, hiding somewhere. He believed, and did not give up, repeatedly setting out to find it, going as far as Washington. No one is happier than he is today: The document is in his possession, and now the history of World War II may have to be rewritten: It was Stalin’s fault.”

The article continued to state that the authenticity of the document must still be verified. However, as “big” of a news item as this might be presented, it isn’t really “news” at all for many who have studied the history of World War II. It has been long known that BOTH STALIN AND HITLER prepared for war and an attack against each other. It was just a question of timing–who would first be ready to attack? Even though they entered into a “non-aggression pact,” both leaders felt that the treaty was not worth the paper it was written on.

We should also understand that the events leading to and occurring during World War II serve as a prelude to what we can expect to happen in the near future, at the time of the tenth and last resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire, which became known–due to its alliance with the Roman Catholic Church– as the “Holy Roman Empire.” We read in Daniel 11:40-43 that the final military leader of the future United States of Europe–called the “king of the north” or the “beast”–will invade many countries in the Middle East–as Hitler and Mussolini did in World War II. He will also occupy Jerusalem–something which Hitler and Mussolini WANTED to do, but were unable to. We also read, in Daniel 11:44, that “news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.”

That is exactly what Hitler did, when he received reports from Russia that Stalin was building a great army with the goal to attack Poland and ultimately Austria and Germany. These FACTS are well known by historians. The Bible says that something very similar will happen again regarding a United States of Europe and a Far Eastern power bloc under Russian and Chinese leadership. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Ex-German Chancellor Warns EU on Russia Summit

The EUObserver wrote on September 10:

“German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has urged EU powers to stop backing Poland on trade and to counter US missile shield plans, or risk another unfriendly summit with Russia next month. Speaking to press at a book-launch in Moscow on Saturday (8 September), he described Poland’s outstanding veto on a new EU-Russia treaty as ‘narrow-minded nationalism’ and called the US missile scheme ‘politically dangerous.’… ‘It is Germany’s responsibility…to persuade the United States to abandon these plans,’ he added…

“Russian first deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev – also attending the book-launch – echoed the statement, saying it addresses ‘real worries’ that Germany is no longer a ‘bridge’ in east-west relations.

“Mr Schroeder led Germany from 1998 to 2005, becoming a personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin and later taking a job in the Kremlin’s giant energy corporation, Gazprom. At the last EU-Russia summit in May, current German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Commission voiced solidarity with Poland and criticised Russia on human rights.

“The next summit, to be held in Mafra, Portugal on 26 October, comes amid other complications such as Moscow’s opposition to Kosovo independence, the Litvinenko spy row and aggressive posturing by the Russian air force… Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt hinted at deeper problems, saying ‘Everybody agrees that at the moment we don’t have a strategic relationship with Russia.'”

Putin Dismisses His Prime Minister and Government

AFP reported on September 12:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his prime minister and government Wednesday, paving the way for the Kremlin leader to handpick a successor when he steps down next year. The resignation of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the entire cabinet came three months before parliamentary elections and less than six months ahead of a presidential poll to replace Putin… Not one big beast of Russian politics has thrown his hat in the ring for the March 2, 2008 election, making it difficult to predict who will head the world’s leading energy producer and nuclear-weapons superpower — a process that can resemble Soviet-era ‘Kremlinology’… For many, Kremlinology remains as murky as the days when the line-up of leaders at Red Square parades was scrutinised for clues to politburo policy.”

The Associated Press added on September 12:

“After dismissing Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov — triggering the government’s automatic dissolution — Putin explained the shakeup was required to ‘prepare the country’ for forthcoming elections… Putin is wildly popular among Russians, having brought stability and relative prosperity after the often chaotic presidency of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. As a result, whoever is nominated for the presidency by Putin is expected to win easily.”

Militant Islamic Group Claims Responsibility for Attempted Terror Attacks in Germany

Der Spiegel Online reported on September 12:

“The German government is taking seriously claims by a militant Islamic group that it was behind a foiled terror plot. The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that an Internet announcement by the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) that it had plotted to bomb US and Uzbek targets in Germany was being treated as genuine. Three men were arrested on Sept. 4 in Germany on suspicion of planning to attack US and other facilities.

“Now the authorities know that the specific targets were the US military air base at Ramstein and US and Uzbek consular facilities in Germany, and that the attacks were to have been carried out at the end of 2007. The aim of the planned bombings was to put pressure on Germany to close its air base at Termez, Uzbekistan, near the Afghan border. The base provides logistical support to the 3,000 German soldiers serving with NATO forces in… Afghanistan.

“The IJU message was published at around 5 p.m. C.E.T. on Tuesday on a Web site that has been used by the group before. German intelligence agents quickly translated the announcement, which was in Turkish… The IJU is listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department and is described as an off-shoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. It is thought to have been behind the 2004 bombings directed at the US and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Uzbek militants have been establishing a presence in northern Pakistan in recent years.

“The three suspects arrested last week — Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, both German converts to Islam, and Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish man living in Germany — are all thought to have trained in camps in Pakistan and to have formed an IJU cell in Germany.

“Anti-terror investigators had been monitoring the men for months after the CIA alerted the German authorities in autumn 2006 to a possible plot after intercepting emails between Pakistan and Germany. Hundreds of police officers were involved in one of the biggest surveillance operations in post-war German history.

“The authorities knew that the men were living in a rented vacation house in the village of Oberschledorn and had obtained 730 kilograms of 35-percent hydrogen peroxide, enough to make massive bombs. But when local village police stopped the suspects for a traffic violation, they became jittery. The authorities decided it was time to move in and arrest the three men…

“The fact that two of the terror suspects were German has raised fears of home-grown terrorism and led for calls for increased monitoring of converts to Islam. Deputy CDU floor leader Wolfgang Bosbach has even called for a register of all converts to Islam. He told the Bayerische Rundfunk radio station on Tuesday that this would make sense ‘as we know that some who convert become radicalized. That does not mean a general suspicion, just a defense against danger.’

“The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, Ayyub Axel Köhler — a convert himself — warned against overreacting. ‘Where would the country drift towards if there were a converts register?’ he said, adding that Muslims were ‘reliable partners in word and deed in the fight against terrorism.'”

German Hypocrisy and Short-Sightedness

A recent example of hypocrisy and short-sightedness in German politics and the German media serves to illustrate what the utterance of “politically incorrect” opinions can do to prominent celebrities in a “free” country. However, the German people are getting sick and tired of such occurrences, and it stands to reason that they will soon show their frustrations in different ways.

On September 10, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“Eva Herman, a prominent talk show host and author, has been courting controversy over the last year by saying women should stay at home and bear children. Now she has been FIRED by the country’s premier TV network” over comments she made regarding the Third Reich.

This is what Herman said:

“‘It was a gruesome time with a totally crazy and highly dangerous leader who led the Germans into ruin as we all know. But there was at the time also something good, and that is the values, that is the children, that is the families, that is a togetherness — it was all abolished [in the 1960’s], there was nothing left.'”

Der Spiegel Online mentioned that “Herman told Bild newspaper… that she couldn’t understand what the fuss was about. ‘I expressly distanced myself from the “Third Reich” at several points. One has to put my statement into its overall context. This isn’t about Hitler’s values, but about basic human values… Those who know me and read the book know that I fundamentally reject far-left and far-right parties.'”

Herman’s stance against right-winged parties and Hitler in general is very well known in Germany. However, just to suggest that anything good might have happened during the Hitler era was already too much to accept for the German press and German politicians. In addition, feminists attacked Herman, and so did Jewish leaders and representatives who were also board members of the TV station which fired Herman.

What a foolish and short-sighted reaction–even from an historical perspective. If EVERYTHING had been bad, then Hitler would have not been elected by the Germans. And so we will see that another charismatic political and military leader will emerge in Europe–and people will actually WORSHIP him. However, he will arise because of the power of Satan (Revelation 13:4; 2 Corinthians 11:14)! Satan is transforming himself into an “angel of light”–thereby DECEIVING the masses (Revelation 12:9).

Britain’s Coming Credit Crisis

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 7:

“Could any country be more exposed to the current credit crunch than the U.S.? You bet, and that place is Britain. Unlike most of its European neighbors, Britain shares many of America’s financial traits–and problems. Access to cheap credit has fueled a decade of unprecedented growth, with home prices tripling over the past decade, a faster rise than in the U.S. Consumer spending has skyrocketed, now making up roughly two-thirds of the country’s total outlays. And the overall economy in Britain is more dependent on financial services than it is in the States.

“Add it all up, and ‘Britain is likely to suffer more severely than the U.S.’ if the current market turmoil continues, says Danny Gabay, director of Fathom Financial Consulting in London. How severely? Gabay and many other economists think annual growth in Britain could drop to about half the 3% or so it has clocked in recent years.

“Roughly half of Britain’s growth in the last 18 months has come from financial and business services–everything from accounting and legal advice to real estate. Together these sectors bring in 30% of Britain’s national income, far more than in the U.S., says Peter Spencer, an economics professor at the University of York. If a fall-off in financial services were to put the brakes on leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, and offerings of credit derivatives, thousands of jobs could be lost, primarily at banks, brokerages, and other financial outfits, the Centre for Economics & Business Research Ltd. estimates.

“… British consumers owe $2.7 trillion on credit cards, mortgages, and other consumer loans–or more than the country’s entire economic output. Household debt as a percentage of gross disposable income is 166%, compared with 127% in the U.S. So it’s hardly surprising that in the past year, British banks have had to write off $18 billion in bad debts, mostly consumer borrowing. Such write-offs could be just the beginning if housing prices start to fall. Despite little growth in incomes, consumer spending has remained strong as Britons have borrowed against the rising value of their homes… With the average home now costing $370,000–roughly 11 times the average salary–housing is less affordable than at any time in the past 15 years… Foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are up by 30% in the first half of 2007, compared with the same period last year. Says Jamie Dannhauser, an economist at Lombard Street Research in London: ‘The pain is only going to get worse.'”

Britain in Moral Decline

The Daily Mail wrote on September 8:

“Four out of five Britons think the nation is in moral decline, according to a poll published yesterday… The findings from the survey, which was carried out for the BBC, highlight growing worries over social breakdown and rising levels of crime… Most of those questioned thought the retreat of religious belief was a factor in moral decline… This week Church of England leaders expressed alarm over the moral direction of the Government, complaining that proposed equality laws will suppress religious belief and stop Christians from expressing their views.”

Ethiopia Celebrates Third Millennium

AFP reported on September 12:

“Ethiopia entered the third millennium seven years after the rest of the world Wednesday, amid lavish celebrations, religious fervor and messages of hope from the troubled country’s leaders. As the giant countdown board in central Addis Ababa flashed the year 2000 at midnight (2100 GMT), thousands of faithful from all over Ethiopia — which follows a unique, slightly modified Julian calendar — gathered in churches… Several heads of state also attended the ceremony, including Sudan’s Omar al-Beshir, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki…

“Ethiopia is the ONLY AFRICAN NATION NEVER TO HAVE BEEN COLONISED and is fiercely nationalistic, but the celebrations could not completely conceal the country’s divisions. Ethiopia was one of the first Christian kingdoms in history but around half of its current population of 81 million is Muslim and the millennium buzz was lost on many.”

Der Spiegel Online added on September 12:

“According to their unique Coptic calendar, which lags seven years behind the more common Gregorian calendar, Wednesday marks the first day of 2000… Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said… ‘A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium… [they] will say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in Ethiopia.'”

Christian Confusion Galore!!!

Zenit wrote on September 9:

“Going to Sunday Mass is not just a rule to follow, but rather an ‘inner necessity,’ [said] Benedict XVI… during the Mass he celebrated at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, on the last day of his three-day apostolic trip to Austria… The [Pope’s] homily centered on the mantra of the early Christian martyrs of Abitene: ‘Without Sunday we cannot live.’… Sunday, said the Pontiff, also calls to mind the day of the dawning of creation. He said: ‘Therefore Sunday is also the Church’s weekly feast of creation — the feast of thanksgiving and joy over God’s creation.’

In what way, may we ask, does Sunday picture a feast of creation? God made man and created the SABBATH for man (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is to be kept from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. And we are commanded in the Ten Commandments to keep the SABBATH holy–no word about Sunday!

The Denver Journal, Vol. 10, August 2007 edition, only added to the confusion, when it reported, with approval, about the new book by Pope Benedict XVI, formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger, as follows:

“In this context, Ratzinger interacts in detail with Jacob Neusner’s excellent little work, A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. Neusner has hit the nail on the head. Jesus’ program is more than a reformation or restoration of Judaism; it involves the recurring claim that all meaningful rituals and Laws of the Hebrew Scriptures are fulfilled in him. Christ is the true Sabbath offering eternal rest. Jesus’ community of disciples forms the new Israel and his true family. One obeys the Law by following Jesus, free from the responsibility to literally perform the 613 commandments of Torah. Neusner correctly recognizes that only one who is God has the right to make such claims of people, but he cannot accept Jesus’ deity. Ratzinger insists on it.”

This is incredible! Jesus became the “true Sabbath”–therefore, the Fourth Commandment does not need to be obeyed anymore??? What kind of a rationale is that? And WHERE does the Bible say that Jesus became the “true Sabbath?” Nowhere! Rather, we are told that Jesus is the LORD of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). Therefore, the Sabbath–not Sunday–is His day and MUST be kept today by His true followers. The allegation that we don’t need to keep anymore the “613 commandments of the Torah”–the LAW or the five books of Moses–is ludicrous. It would reject ALL of the Ten Commandments, as they are all found among the “613 commandments of the Torah” (compare Genesis 20; Deuteronomy 5). So, are we being taught now that NONE of the Ten Commandments are to be kept today? Are we now free to kill, steal, commit adultery, dishonor our parents, or lust after other people or things?

For a TRUE understanding of God’s requirements for us today, please read our free booklets, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” and “God’s Commanded Holy Days.”

A Core Europe Without Britain?

The Telegraph reported on September 4:

“British withdrawal from the EU is coming into sharper focus, with all the grave consequences that will ensue for the Atlantic order and the cause of market liberalism. For this we can thank those who recklessly – or mischievously – chose to revive the European Constitution after rejection by the French and Dutch people… Gordon Brown’s plan to slip it through Parliament is becoming untenable in the face of a backbench revolt by Labour MPs, a united Tory opposition, and likely calls for a vote by the Liberal Democrats… It is unlikely that British voters can be cajoled into endorsing this Putsch, once debate is joined…

“Hopes that the French people will rescue us a second time are fading. Mr Sarkozy has a crushing majority in parliament, and is better able to duck a referendum than Mr Brown… Holland remains eerily silent, watching us… British withdrawal – so obviously forced upon us – would [send] tremors through Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, among the oldest democracies in Europe as it happens, and the richest. It would traumatise Ireland, and dismay Finland… Where all this might end is anybody’s guess, but it is a fair assumption that Mr Sarkozy will quickly press for a core-Europe… What we take for granted as the permanent post-War order is more fragile than it looks.”

Vanishing Britain

On August 28, Townhall.com published the following article:

“Perhaps there will not always be an England. An exodus unprecedented in modern times, coupled with a record influx of foreigners, is threatening to erode the character of the land of William Shakespeare and overpowering monarchs, a land that served as the cradle for much of American thought, law and culture… Between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 British citizens chose to leave the country for a new life elsewhere. During the same period, at least 574,000 immigrants came to Britain. This number does not include the people who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the government…

“Britons give many reasons for leaving, but their stories share one commonality: life in Britain has become unbearable for them. They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of Britishness, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation to the next generation…

“Abraham Lincoln said no nation can exist half slave and half free. Neither can a nation be sustained if it allows conditions that result in mass emigration, while importing huge numbers of foreigners who come from backgrounds that do not practice assimilation or tolerance of other beliefs. When one factors in the high number of abortions (one in five pregnancies are aborted in England and Wales), the high birth rates of immigrants (15 times those of white Britons), it doesn’t take a population expert to predict that the days of the England we have known may be numbered.

“The problem for Britain and the United States isn’t just the change in demographics. It is the reluctance of both countries to inculcate the beliefs, history and, yes, religious ideals, which made our nations so successful that others wanted to come and be a part of them. The difference between many of the current immigrants and those of the past is that the previous ones wanted to become fully American or fully British. The current ones, in too many cases, would destroy what makes our countries unique. And the ‘leaders’ of Britain and America refuse to stop it.”

The Most Powerful Woman in the World

The Associated Press reported on August 31:

“Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel tops Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most powerful women for the second year in a row, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice slipped to fourth from second last year. Merkel ‘continued to impress the world with her cool leadership at two back-to-back summits,’ Forbes said.

“The magazine cited her work getting leaders at the Group of Eight summit to agree to goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and persuading European Union leaders to get moving on a treaty to replace their failed constitution. China’s vice premier Wu Yi was No. 2, and Ho Ching of Singapore, chief executive of Temasek Holdings, was third ahead of Rice.

“Several other female heads of state or government made the list, including Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at No. 23, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark at No. 38, Finland’s President Tarja Halonen at No. 50 and Philippines president Gloria Arroyo at No. 51. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was No. 25 and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was No. 26, while first lady Laura Bush was 60th.”

Please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “The Most Powerful Woman.”

Coming–Complete Isolation of the USA?

Der Spiegel Online reported on August 31:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday proposed the idea of basing a nation’s carbon emissions allowance on population size. German commentators on Friday say it’s another step on the path towards isolating the USA. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel may be the most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes magazine, but getting the world to agree on how to combat climate change has so far eluded even her. On Thursday, though, she made yet another proposal aimed at bringing developing nations like China and India on board: carbon dioxide emissions based on population size…

“Center-left paper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday writes: ‘Whether global climate protection continues — and whether a new treaty replaces and improves upon the Kyoto Protocol — depends largely on solving the problem of fairness. The greenhouse effect cannot be stopped without large developing nations, just as it cannot be stopped without the USA… It looks as though Merkel wants to continue following her G-8 strategy: that of isolating the US until it comes around. An American releases 20 times as much greenhouse gases as an Indian does — and the consequences are clear: Merkel’s proposal will not be well received. But America’s scepticism could soon result in its complete isolation.'”

The Creation of Human-Animal Embryos

The Guardian wrote on September 2:

“Plans to allow British scientists to create human-animal embryos are expected to be approved tomorrow by the government’s fertility regulator. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority published its long-awaited public consultation on the controversial research yesterday, revealing that a majority of people were ‘at ease’ with scientists creating the hybrid embryos.

“Researchers want to create hybrid embryos by merging human cells with animal eggs… Under existing laws, the embryos must be destroyed after 14 days… Opponents of the research and some religious groups say the work blurs the distinction between humans and animals, and creates embryos that are destined to be destroyed when stem cells are extracted from them.”

AFP added on September 5:

“Britain’s fertility regulator decided in principle Wednesday to allow scientists to create human-animal hybrid embryos for research purposes. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) gave the go-ahead to controversial plans to create ‘cytoplasmic’ embryos, which merge human cells with eggs from animals such as cattle.”

How deceptive the scientific approach is toward this incredible ethic violation, can be seen from the following statement, quoted in the AFP article: “The resulting embryos are therefore mostly human, with a small animal component.” But at the same time, it is being admitted that “The research involves transferring nuclei containing DNA from human cells to animal eggs that have had nearly all their genetic information removed.” So, however one wants to slice it, HUMAN CELLS are supposed to be transferred to an ANIMAL EGG. No sugarcoated language can deny the fact that what is being “envisioned” here is THE CREATION of a human-animal mixture. The long and the short of it is this: Scientists want to play God–again! HOW LONG is God going to allow such conduct to continue? Let us all pray that it won’t be TOO MUCH LONGER!!!

U.S. Blitzkrieg Against Iran?

WorldNetDaily reported on September 2:

“The Pentagon has formulated a ‘three-day blitz’ plan to annihilate Iran’s military that targets 1,200 sites, including Tehran’s nuclear facilities, in order to render its military incapable of conducting offensive, defensive or retaliatory missions… President Bush increased his rhetoric against Iran’s nuclear program last week, saying Tehran had put the Mideast ‘under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust’ and indicated action would be [taken] against the program ‘before it is too late.’… Revelation of a plan for a three-day blitz to destroy Iran’s fighting ability indicates the administration leans toward the use of rapid, overwhelming force if the military option is used.”

Times-On-Line added on September 2:

“One Washington source said the ‘temperature was rising’ inside the administration… Bush is committed for now to the diplomatic route but thinks Iran is moving towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. According to one well placed source, Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid, overwhelming force, should military action become necessary… Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, irritated the Bush administration last week by vowing to fill a ‘power vacuum’ in Iraq… Bush noted that the number of attacks on US bases and troops by Iranian-supplied munitions had increased in recent months…”

Austria’s Right-Wing Parties Unite Against Mosques

On September 1, 2007, “New Europe–The European Weekly,” reported the following:

“On August 27, Austria’s feuding right-wing parties, the Freedom Party and the Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZ), united to fight the construction of mosques in the country. Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache stressed his support for amendments to Austria’s constitution to that effect that were proposed by his arch-nemesis Joerg Haider on the weekend before last. Haider, governor of the province Carinthia and former leader of the BZ, a breakaway party from the Freedom Party, called for a ban on the construction of mosques and minarets, dpa reported. He was against a ‘clash of cultures’ or ‘radical-Islamic tendencies like in Cologne or Vienna’ in his province, Haider was quoted as saying on August 26. Haider called for a countrywide ban in order to protect Austria’s prevailing western culture, it was reported. He also demanded religious groups to be obliged to use German language in services and sermons.

“Going one step further, Strache demanded ‘measures against the Islamisation of Austria,’ including a ban on headscarves in schools, universities and the public service, the deportation of radical preachers and an annual ‘Islamisation report.’ The controversial remarks are expected to trigger another outcry by representatives of Muslim organisations in Austria, who stress the freedom of religion enshrined in the country’s constitution.”

Turkey Refuses to Recognize Assyrian Genocide–Exerts Pressure on Europeans

Eastern Star News Agency reported on August 31:

“Many people are today aware of the genocide the Assyrian people suffered during WWI at the hands of the Turks and… the Kurds. Many also know that this genocide, called Seyfo by Assyrians, is an incredibly controversial issue among Turks, who refuse to this… day to accept any accusations of genocide in spite of the conclusions made by independent scholars who have studied the issue.

“This Turkish-Assyrian issue caused many headlines in the Swedish media in the last two weeks. It started during a speech of the leader of the social democratic party, Mona Sahlin, in Stockholm on… August [12], 2007. When informed that Mona Sahlin was to hold a speech in town, an Assyrian group prepared a leaflet with the message ‘Recognize the genocide against the Assyrians.’ Also present during the speech of the social democratic leader was a Turkish group from the local area. Chaos ensued. The Turkish group started making threats and demanding that the leaflet of the Assyrian group be taken down. Feeling the pressure and the threats of the Turkish group, the social democratic representatives started demanding from the Assyrians to take down the leaflet. The Assyrians took down the leaflet reluctantly.

“The following day the uproar started in the Swedish media. The debate evolved around whether Swedish society should submit to threats made by Turks or other groups who do not respect the freedom of speech. Many influential persons expressed solidarity with the Assyrians and called for the Seyfo genocide to be recognized. The social democratic party was shaken by the event and the harsh criticism against it for not standing up for the freedom of speech. Several newspapers also criticized the party for not officially recognizing the genocide on Assyrians because of Turkish threats and diplomatic pressure.”

Iraq: Britain vs. USA — and Iran Rejoices

On September 4, 2007, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“Monday was a day of symbols in Iraq. Just as British forces were making their withdrawal from Basra in the south, US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Anbar province west of Baghdad…  Commentators writing in Germany’s main newspapers Tuesday had little positive to say about either the American or the British strategy.

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“‘The majority of Americans lost faith a long time ago that their GIs could use armed force to impose peace in the torn-apart country, especially since Iraq’s overwhelmingly Shiite government does more or less nothing to bring about the drastically needed reconciliation with the Sunnis and the Kurds…’

“The conservative Die Welt, in a piece headlined ‘Brown Versus Bush,’ laments the British decision to withdraw its troops from Basra:

“‘Britain could have waited another 10 days (until Petraeus officially hands over his Iraq report to Bush) before withdrawing to their base at the Basra airport. Instead, Brown chose to follow his own British way in order to boost his own popularity at the cost of trans-Atlantic relations… By acting on his own in Iraq, Gordon Brown re-focused the Iraq debate on withdrawal, when perseverance is actually called for.’

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“‘The end of the physical presence of British troops in Shiite Basra has great symbolism, which makes Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s justification for the withdrawal look like nothing more than an embarrassing rhetorical contortion. The withdrawal may have been planned and organized. But it does not look much like a success story, happening as it did during the night while a curfew prevailed. That makes the supposed withdrawal seem more like a retreat, if not an actual DEFEAT.”

“‘Such a verdict would more accurately reflect the situation in southern Iraq, the mood in the United Kingdom and the debate of the past months, which ended up this weekend in a BITTER BRITISH-AMERICAN RECKONING. London has failed, and completely — this is the verdict that Brown now has to hear, from the British opposition and from the ranks of his American ally. The assessment is partially justified, but it is also partially wrong: Washington is certainly more “responsible” for the situation in Iraq than London.’

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

“‘Even when the British were right in the center of (Basra), they couldn’t prevent the open struggle between the Shiite militias for control of the oil-rich province. The British have handed over the city to an Iraqi administration and security forces that have long become an instrument of the militia. They are now waiting in the wings to fill the vacuum. With all of these Shiite militias, Iran’s influence is growing in the region. It remains to be seen how big a mistake it was not to include Tehran in the search for a political solution in Iraq…

“‘TEHRAN WILL CERTAINLY BE DELIGHTED TO ACCEPT THE GIFT OF BASRA. But whether the mullahs will become a force for order or chaos in future, depends on the US attitude to Iran. The British diversionary tactics of recent days have been BIZARRE, with the former commander of British forces in Iraq Mike Jackson describing Washington’s Iraq policy as “intellectually bankrupt” — as if Tony Blair were dragged into the Iraq War against his will.'”

Germany Under Terror Attack

BBC News reported on September 5:

“Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a ‘massive’ terrorist attack on US facilities in the country, officials have said. Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 700kg (1,500lbs) of chemicals for explosives. She said the accused had sought to target facilities visited by Americans, such as nightclubs, pubs or airports. Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said the men had posed ‘an imminent threat’…

“The suspects, aged 22, 28 and 29, were alleged to be members of the German cell of a group she named as Islamic Jihad Union. Two of the men were German nationals who had converted to Islam, while the third was a Turkish man. Ms Harms said the al-Qaeda-linked group had set up the cell last year… Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany’s federal crime office, said the men had a ‘profound hatred of US citizens’. They had been under surveillance for six months, but the authorities decided to act when it became clear the men were planning to move their huge stores of hydrogen peroxide…

“Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called the men ‘very dangerous terrorists’. ‘They obviously planned these attacks on the orders of an international network,’ he said. Mr Schaeuble said one man was linked to a mosque in the southern city of Neu-Ulm that authorities had suspected for years was an extremist base.

“… there have been growing concerns that Islamist militants are operating in the country. Six years ago, the northern city of Hamburg was thrust into the spotlight after it emerged a cell had used it as a base for planning the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. Last summer, two identical suitcase bombs were planted on two commuter trains in the German cities of Dortmund and Koblenz but they failed to explode.”

Der Spiegel Online added on September 5:

“It would have been an inferno. The explosive material the men had would have sufficed to make bombs with a higher explosive power that those used in the attacks in Madrid and London… It is still not clear which targets the group actually wanted to attack in Germany. In wiretapped conversations, the men spoke again and again about possible targets. Frankfurt airport and other airports were discussed, as was the US airbase at Ramstein and other possible locations such as a nightclub.”

US Attorney General Gonzales Resigns

AFP wrote on August 27:

“US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he would resign Monday, after a scandal-tainted tenure marred by critics’ claims he was incompetent, hid the truth and may be guilty of perjury. Gonzales, an architect of contentious US ‘war on terror’ legal tactics, was also at the center of a row with Democrats over firings of federal prosecutors, and had lost the confidence of many top Republicans.

“He was the latest confidant to leave President George W. Bush’s inner circle, two weeks after political guru Karl Rove named his own departure date and 17 months before the US leader himself exits the White House. ‘Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle, and I have reluctantly accepted his resignation,’ Bush said in Waco, Texas after Gonzales’s sudden announcement… Democrats vowed to press on with congressional probes into the conduct of the Justice Department and the White House… Critics say Gonzales, a former White House counsel, signed off on ‘torture’ methods to interrogate ‘war on terror’ prisoners and say programs he backed like a warrantless wiretapping scheme infringed the US constitution. He also argued that terror suspects held at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had no rights under the Geneva Convention.”

Extra 50 Billion Dollars for Iraq?

AFP wrote on August 29:

“US President George W. Bush plans to ask Congress for an extra 50 billion dollars for Iraq… The request would seek to pay for the current troop ‘surge’ strategy and is a sign that Bush anticipates prevailing in a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Congress which has been pushing for troop withdrawal, the Washington Post said. If approved, the bid would bring US spending on the Iraq war to MORE THAN THREE BILLION DOLLARS PER WEEK… The 50 billion dollars would be in addition to the 460 billion dollars in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and 147 billion dollars in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Britons Die in U.S. “Friendly Fire”

AFP wrote on August 24:

“Three British NATO troops were killed in an apparent ‘friendly fire’ incident in Afghanistan when US jets dropped a bomb on them during fighting with the Taliban… The deaths are likely to spark anger in Britain, where a coroner ruled earlier this year that a British soldier was unlawfully [“criminally”] killed by US pilots in Iraq and criticised the Pentagon for failing to provide information… Britain has more than 6,000 troops in Afghanistan, a figure which will increase to over 7,700 this year. They are mostly deployed in the south. A total of 73 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.”

Afghanistan Almost Exclusive World’s Supplier of Opium

AFP reported on August 27:

“Afghanistan’s opium production [used to make heroin] has doubled in two years, reaching a new high in 2007, with the country almost the exclusive supplier of the world’s deadliest drug [accounting for 93 percent of the global opiates market]… Production [is] estimated to have jumped 34 percent this year over last with the number of heroin labs also increasing… The southern province of Helmand [has] meanwhile become the world’s biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries. This [is the case] despite a multi-million-dollar effort led by Britain and the United States to cut the opium trade which finances the growing Taliban insurgency that has killed thousands of people, including scores of Western soldiers… The amount of Afghan land used for growing opium [is] now larger than the combined total used to grow coca — the raw ingredient for cocaine — in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia…”

Bird Flu in Germany

The Associated Press reported on August 26:

“Tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some 160,000 birds were being slaughtered as a precaution… The virus was detected in ducklings at the farm near Erlangen, in northern Bavaria… More than 400 birds had died over a short period of time at the farm… Several cases of the virus have surfaced among wild birds in Germany this year. Last month, it was detected in a domestic goose in the east of the country. The H5N1 virus has killed more than 190 people worldwide…”

China Angers Germany

Times On Line reported on August 27:

“China has hacked into the computers of Angela Merkel’s Chancellery and three other German ministries in an extraordinary economic espionage operation… The claims, made in a detailed investigation by Der Spiegel magazine, were denied strenuously by the Chinese authorities yesterday, but there was no mistaking German anger.”

Merkel Meets With China’s and Japan’s Leaders

Deutsche Welle reported on August 29:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the start of a visit to Japan. The two leaders discussed global warming and economic issues, which the Chancellor and a German delegation travelling with her will also take up with business leaders. Japan takes over the presidency of the Group of Eight industrialised countries from Germany next year. Earlier, Merkel spent three days in China where she highlighted human rights, freedom of the press and the protection of intellectual property rights.”

China’s and Japan’s Defense Ministers Meet

AFP wrote on August 29:

“China’s defence minister was due in Japan Wednesday in the first such visit in more than nine years as the Asian giants work to repair their rocky relations. Defence affairs have been a key impediment in relations between the two countries, with Japan repeatedly joining the United States in voicing concern about China’s rapidly growing military budget… The two defence ministers may also discuss launching a hotline between the two nations amid Japan’s concerns over China’s military build-up, Japanese media said. China had said it will boost military spending by 17.8 percent this year and in January became only the third nation to shoot down an object in space.”

Confused Christianity–Passport to Heaven?

Zenit reported on August 26:

“Heaven is an equal-opportunity destination, but to gain entry one needs a ‘passport’ stamped with virtues such as humility, mercy and truth, [said Pope] Benedict XVI… in a reflection he gave on the “narrow gate’…  [The pope] said that the message of Christ is that everybody has an equal chance of entering through the narrow gate, ‘but it is “narrow” because it is demanding, it requires commitment, self-denial and mortification of one’s own egoism.’ Christ invites all to heaven, he said, ‘but with one and the same condition: that of making the effort to follow him and imitate him, taking up one’s cross, as he did, and dedicating one’s life to the service of our brothers.’ Benedict XVI makes the point that ‘we will not be judged on the basis of presumed privileges, but by our works.’ ‘True friendship with Christ,’ he added, ‘is expressed by one’s way of life: it is expressed by goodness of heart, with humility, meekness and mercy, love of justice and truth, sincere and honest commitment to peace and reconciliation.'”

Nowhere in the Bible do we read that humans go to heaven when they die. Rather, the saints are to inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Converted Christians will be resurrected from their sleep of death at the time of Christ’s return (1 Thessalonians 4:16)–to rule on the earth (Revelation 5:10). For more information, please read our free booklet, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?”

More Confusion in Orthodox Christianity

The German magazine, Der Stern, wrote on August 28 about Sunday papers. The following comments exemplify the utter confusion of many Germans and Europeans, as well as Americans, for that matter, about the Biblical command to keep the weekly SABBATH holy–not SUNDAY.  The article stated:

“You shall read on the seventh day… Turmoil on holy Sunday… active competition is big on the seventh day…”

Sunday is neither holy–in the eyes of God–nor is it the seventh day. Sunday is the FIRST day of the week–a day that God never sanctified or declared holy. The Sabbath–the time from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset–is the seventh day, and God made IT holy (compare Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

It is remarkable, however, that in Germany and other European countries, the CALENDAR was changed, following the lead of the Catholic Church. Calendars in the USA clearly identify Sunday correctly as the FIRST day of the week–not as the seventh day! This is NOT the case in Germany and other European countries, where SUNDAY is falsely designated as the SEVENTH day of the week, and Monday as the first day. Can you see the subtle–and not so subtle–deception?

This development was prophesied thousands of years ago. In Daniel 7:25, a religious power is mentioned, which shall “intend to change times and law”–that is, the LAW regarding which TIMES God has set aside as HOLY. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

No More Mosques in Carinthia, Austria?

On August 27, Reuters reported that “Austrian right-wing firebrand Joerg Haider said on Monday he plans to change building laws to prevent mosques and minarets being erected in his home province of Carinthia. Haider, Carinthia’s governor, said he would ask its parliament to amend the building code to… require towns and villages to consider ‘religious and cultural tradition’ when dealing with construction requests.

“‘We don’t want a clash of cultures and we don’t want institutions which are alien to our culture being erected in Western Europe,’ Haider said in a statement. ‘Muslims have of course the right to practise their religion, but I oppose erecting mosques and minarets as centres to advertise the power of Islam,’ he said.”

The article continued:

“Muslims in Europe are meeting increasing resistance to plans for mosques that befit Islam’s status as the continent’s second religion after Christianity, with petitions in London, protests in Cologne, a court case in Marseille and violence in Berlin. However, while all those places have significant Muslim minorities, Haider’s Carinthia has the second lowest share of Muslim citizens of all Austrian provinces — 11,000 out of a population of around 400,000.”

Britain an Embarrassment for the Entire EU?

The Telegraph reported on August 27, about Britain’s pending approval of the EU Treaty:

“Gordon Brown’s chances of ending a Labour revolt over the new EU reform treaty have been snuffed out after leading Euro-MPs made clear they would give no further concessions to Britain…  The Prime Minister is facing a mounting rebellion by his own backbenchers who are demanding a referendum on the treaty unless Mr Brown can extract fresh amendments at the eleventh hour. But representatives of the European Parliament who are directly involved in the last stage of negotiations insisted that Britain had already caused the EU enough problems by winning a series of ‘unacceptable’ opt-outs…

“Enrique Baron Crespo, a Spanish socialist and former president of the parliament, made clear Britain had already exhausted its goodwill. He said Britain’s opt-outs had ‘led to a situation close to humiliation and embarrassment for the entire EU’. Criticism also came from German MEP Elmar Brok, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said: ‘The European parliament is worried about the exact extent, definition and consequences of the opt-outs.'”

The paper also mentioned that “More than 60,000 people have signed a Daily Telegraph petition calling for the people to be given a say.”

Is Israel Going to Abandon Control Over the Temple Mount?

WorldNetDaily wrote on August 28:

“Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Egyptian government the Jewish state is willing to forfeit control over the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – to the management of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, according to an Arab media report… Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic sources said U.S.-brokered biweekly meetings between Olmert and Abbas are being utilized to draft the outline of a permanent status deal, ultimately yielding a Palestinian state, scheduled to be aired in public at the November summit…”

The article also said that “Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.”

“Middle East Turmoil Could Cause World War”

Reuters reported on August 27:

“Upheaval in the Middle East and Islamic civilization could cause another world war, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying in an Austrian newspaper… Zalmay Khalilzad told the daily Die Presse the Middle East was now so disordered that it had the potential to inflame the world as Europe did during the first half of the 20th century…

“Khalilzad was also quoted as saying Iraq would need foreign forces for security for a long time to come… Asked whether that could be 10-20 years, he said: ‘Yes, indeed, it could last that long. What form the help takes will depend a lot on the Iraqis. Up to now there is no accord between Iraq and the United States about a longer military presence.’ Khalilzad said the chaos in Iraq since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003 was not unavoidable but arose from mistakes in the initial period of occupation.”

Outspoken Sarkozy

ynetnews.com reported on August 27:

“In his first major foreign policy speech, [the] French president says [a] diplomatic push by [the] world’s powers to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program is [the] only alternative to [the] ‘Iranian bomb or bombing of Iran’…

“Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable and that major powers should continue their policy of incrementally increasing sanctions against Tehran while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities. ‘This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran,’ he said, adding that it was the worst crisis currently facing the world… Sarkozy criticized Russia for its dealings on the international stage. ‘Russia is imposing its return on the world scene by using its assets, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality,’ he said…

“Sarkozy had warm words for the United States, saying friendship between the two countries was important. But he said he felt free to disagree with American policies, highlighting what he called a lack of leadership on the environment… Breaking with the policy of his predecessor Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy said he was prepared to hold high-level talks with Syria… But he stuck to his predecessor’s stance in demanding that a timeline be drawn up for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.”

The Times added on August 28:

“President Sarkozy called Iran’s nuclear ambition the world’s most dangerous problem yesterday and raised the possibility that the country could be bombed if it persisted in building an atomic weapon… He did not say who would carry out such an attack, which has been suggested by policy experts in Israel and the US… President Sarkozy, the most pro-American French leader for decades, condemned the US invasion of Iraq…”

EU Greater World Rule–Under France?

The EUObserver wrote on August 28:

“As France prepares to assume the EU’s driving seat in July next year, president Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated he wants to turn the 27-nation bloc into a decisive player in the global arena – something he says would result in a fairer and more harmonious world order… ‘The European Union alone has accumulated, during the long process of building the community, the practical experience of a shared sovereignty that corresponds well to the demands of our times’, Mr Sarkozy told his audience of 180 diplomats, stressing the EU bloc has at its disposal a broad palette of instruments, ranging from military force to humanitarian and financial means. While outlining new ideas, Mr Sarkozy urged the 27-nation club to boost its common security strategy – namely to improve its conduct of joint military operations, to rationalize its arms procurement as well as boost countries’ contributions to Europe’s defence budget…”

German Reactions to Sarkozy’s Remarks–“Rambo in the Elysée”

Der Spiegel Online reported on August 28 on German reactions to Sarkozy’s first major policy speech. The magazine stated:

“In an editorial entitled ‘Rambo in the Elysée,’ the business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘The more poorly he speaks about certain things, the more seriously he takes himself. The speech that the head of state formulated yesterday was simply a manifold claim for French leadership, both in Europe and across the globe. The EU should formulate a security strategy under French leadership and one that will also reform NATO. Under Sarkozy’s personal leadership, the UN Security Council should find solutions in September for the crisis areas of Africa… The troublesome reality of France’s mid-sized power when it comes to foreign policy will catch up with this president, too.’

“The conservative daily Die Welt writes: ‘The aim is clear: With the help of a strong EU, which will be led decisively by France, Paris wants to assert itself as a player on the global stage. One can interpret his attempt to extend the European Union toward Africa as an answer to Germany’s increased influence following its reunification and EU expansion. The desire to secure a place for Germany on the Security Council belongs to the realm of rhetoric. It will stir the Germans up, but in the end it won’t lead to anything…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“The only thing that is clear is that France will embroil itself in many international conflicts under his leadership. To what end is unclear, unless of course it is just about gratifying Sarkozy’s craving for recognition. With refreshing clarity, the president has distanced himself from Russia and China. At the same time, he is trying to dispel the impression, which he brought about himself, that France’s foreign policy will be closer to that of the United States.”

Wildfires in Greece

AFP reported on August 25 about “the worst wildfires to hit Greece in a decade… More than 800 firefighters, along with about 400 soldiers, were supported by 11 planes and seven helicopters,” including in an area near Corinth. The article explained that “Greece has been battling multiple forest fires since June, fanned by three heatwaves, the latest this week, and months of drought.”

Der Spiegel wrote on August 27:

“Fires burn for the fourth day across Greece in the worst blazes the country has ever seen. At least 60 have died and help has arrived from across Europe. The authorities suspect that many of the fires have been set on purpose… Hundreds of villages have been completely destroyed all across the country and thousands of people are now homeless… ‘The destruction is of Biblical proportions,’ firefighter Nicholas Orphanos… told reporters according to Reuters. ‘There are villages we want to go to and we cannot because the roads are blocked. In 30 years, I have never seen such destruction.'”

The magazine continued:

“Karamanlis’ government has been accused of being unprepared for the intensity of this year’s fire season… judging by Monday’s headlines, his career at the head of Greece’s government may be over. Headlines were scathing, reading ‘Incompetent! Grief for the Dead, Rage for the Absence of the State,’ and ‘Shame for the Collapse of the State!'”

EU Standing Intervention Force?

The EUObserver reported about additional potential consequences from Greece’s wild fires. On August 28, the following was stated:

“The European Commission is considering new ways of how to boost EU emergency assistance to member states in crisis, prompted by the raging fires in Greece… The EU executive’s spokeswoman said several commission directorates are currently seeking ways to boost the bloc’s ability to react in similar situations as it seems the existing system ‘may not be enough to react as quickly as one wishes to.’

“Brussels is contemplating setting up some sort of ‘standing intervention force’ for different types of crises. The idea is to speed up joint actions so disasters can be tackled within hours of breaking out. She added that the new concept could be unveiled as early as this autumn and it would be worked out according to several scenarios on how to best coordinate the emergency teams from different countries.”

Turkey’s New President

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 29 about German reactions to the Turkish parliamentary election of their new president:

“Abdullah Gül’s election to the Turkish presidency is controversial in Turkey, mostly due to his roots in political Islam… The country’s military, which sees itself as the guardian of the Turkish secularism…, has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate any moves away from secularism. Even the fact that [Gül’s] wife wears a headscarf — a symbol of Islam banned in public buildings in Turkey — is seen as a strike against him. But Gül, who until Tuesday was Turkey’s foreign minister, has also helped Turkey make major strides toward the European Union and the West. He is well respected in EU capitals and the government of [Prime Minister] Erdogan has ushered through a number of reforms aimed at preparing the country to become a member of the EU. So what, exactly, is to be made of his election? German commentators on Wednesday take a closer look.

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung is enthusiastic about Gül’s victory: ‘There is no separation of church and state in Turkey. On the contrary: The country has reinvented the concept of secularism — the state has total control over religion. All mosques and imams are beholden to the Office of Religious Affairs — an office that even dictates the Friday sermon…’

“The financial daily Handelsblatt likewise sees Gül’s election in a positive light: ‘Gül’s election is an important step on the path towards emancipation from the military’s grasp. And that is an important step towards Europe…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The fact that the military is armed and ready to defend the foundations of secularism may be comforting for people who fear that their freedom to have the lifestyle they choose is under threat. But it is ominous for anyone who sees a greater evil in an authoritarian, military republic.'”

Concerns Over Turkey’s New Government

Not everyone shares the optimism expressed in the previous article. Deutsche Welle had this to say, on August 29:

“Abdullah Gül was elected Turkey’s next president on Tuesday. But calls by Prime Minister Erdogan for Gül’s critics to give up their citizenship have the media wondering what direction Turkey will take… Erdogan was commenting on an article by the prominent columnist Bekir Coskun from Turkey’s largest daily Hürriyet. Coskun had written that Gül’s presidency would mean the end of the secular state in Turkey — a fear shared by the country’s secular elite.”

The press report continued to point out:

“… according to Yüksel Isik from the Progressive Journalists Association, the prime minister’s statement showed that press freedom was still a major challenge in Turkey. ‘The prime minister is taking an exclusionary stance against a prominent journalist, Bekir Coskun, as if he is “the other”,’ Isik said. ‘If local governors follow the prime minister’s behavior and try to pressure journalists in local regions, this would mean the total terrorization of Turkey by this government.’

“In a separate move, the mass circulation Hürriyet fired columnist Emin Cölasan last week, who is known for his highly critical articles on the AKP-led government. According to Isik, these events showed that the problem of press freedom was more serious than it appeared. ‘Many of our journalist colleagues have been fired without any just cause, only for their criticism of governmental policies,’ Isik said… For Turkey’s journalists, the big question now is whether the Islamist-rooted AKP will use its majority power to continue criticizing the press or to open itself up to different views.”

Most Americans in the Dark

On August 22, AFP published the following shocking article:

“Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed… Global political knowledge was miniscule, with just three percent of women and 14 percent of men saying they are extremely knowledgeable on world politics.

“One reason for the knowledge gap is lack of interest, according to the poll. Well over half (57 percent) say they do not like learning about political issues in other countries…”

No wonder that the Bible predicts that the development of earthshaking political events, involving and caused by foreign powers, will take the vast majority of Americans, as well as the entire world, by utter surprise. Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ warned of the following, in Matthew 24:38-39, pertaining to our time:

“For as in the days before the flood [at the time of Noah, verse 37], they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and DID NOT KNOW until the flood came and took them all away, so ALSO will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Paul echoed Christ’s warning for us today, in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4:

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then SUDDEN DESTRUCTION comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they SHALL NOT ESCAPE. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”

For more information, please view regularly our Internet-video programs, titled, “StandingWatch,” and please read our free booklets, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,” and “Europe in Prophecy.”

Iraq in the News–Like Vietnam?

CNN reported on August 17:

“The number of coalition military deaths in the war in Iraq has reached 4,000… Most of the fatalities throughout the Iraq war have been U.S. military service members, with 3,705 deaths. That number also includes seven civilians working for the Pentagon.The nearly 300 others hail from countries, such as Italy, Poland and Ukraine, that have supported the U.S. effort, which began in March 2003.”

AFP reported on August 21:

“Iraqi political progress has been ‘extremely disappointing,’ the US ambassador in Baghdad said on Tuesday, two weeks before he and the top American military commander in Iraq are to report to Congress. Ryan Crocker warned that US support for the crumbling government of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was not ‘a blank cheque,’ delivering his most outspoken criticism to date. His comments came as Maliki held talks in Syria, one of Washington’s arch foes, in a bid to win support from Iraq’s neighbours to try to end the deadly violence engulfing the country.”

AFP added on August 22:

“US President George W. Bush in a speech on Wednesday will warn that a US withdrawal from Iraq could produce a catastrophe similar to what occurred in Southeast Asia after US forces left Vietnam… Bush’s speech ties anti-war forces in the Vietnam era to the hundreds of thousands of people killed in the aftermath of the US pull-out, and hints at a parallel disaster in Iraq if US forces leave too soon.

“‘Many argued that if we pulled out, there would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people,’ he said according to the advance transcript. ‘The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation, torture, or execution. In Vietnam, former American allies, government workers, intellectuals, and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea,’ Bush said, pleading for patience with the US-led security crackdown in Iraq…

“‘There was another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today’s struggle — Al-Qaeda,’ Bush said, pointing to speeches by Osama bin Laden and his number two Ayman al-Zawahiri in which they mention Vietnam in connection with US government weakness. ‘Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like “boat people,” “re-education camps,” and “killing fields.”‘”

President Bush’s comparison prompted sharp criticism from politicians, newscasters and historians. In NBC’s Today Show, Tim Russert stated on August 23 that President Bush’s equation was very risky as in the public mind, Vietnam was wrong and a lost war. He continued that historians point out that it was the Vietnam war–and not the US withdrawal–which CREATED the problems.

USA Today wrote on August 23:

“The president is drawing ‘the wrong lesson from history,’ said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. The United States lost in Vietnam, he said, ‘because our troops were trapped in a distant country we did not understand, supporting a government that lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people.’

“Military gains in Iraq are being wasted because Iraq’s government ‘is failing miserably,’ said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat. The U.S. military, he said, can only do so much, and if the Iraqis want democracy, ‘they must fight for it.'”

Military and/or political solutions will not end our problems in and with Iraq–simply because God has begun to withdraw His blessings from the USA. The reasons for this development are clearly described in our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

America’s Grim Economic Future

The International Herald Tribune wrote on August 17:

“The U.S. economy, once the envy of the world, is now viewed across the globe with suspicion. America has become shackled by an immovable mountain of debt that endangers its prosperity and threatens to bring the rest of the world economy crashing down with it.

“The ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis, a result of irresponsible lending policies designed to generate commissions for unscrupulous brokers, presages far deeper problems in a U.S. economy…

“As a banker working in the heart of the Muslim world, I have been amazed by the depth and breadth of anti-Americanism, even among U.S. allies, manifested in reactions ranging from fierce anger to stoic fatalism. Muslims outside the United States interpret America’s policies in the Middle East not as an effort to spread democracy but as a blatant neocolonialist attempt to solve its economic problems by force. Arabs and Persians alike argue that America’s fiscal irresponsibility has forced the nation to seek solutions through military aggression. Many believe that America’s misguided adventure in Iraq was a desperate attempt to capture both a reliable source of cheap oil and a major export market for the United States…

“… the Chinese… have threatened to retaliate against proposed U.S. trade sanctions by reducing their $1.3 trillion in dollar holdings. The U.S. debt situation is so grave that the Chinese would not even need to ‘dump dollars’ to precipitate a meltdown but could simply refuse to extend further credit… China has the far stronger hand… American economic decadence has become a source of Russian strength.

“What have Americans gained from their nation’s mountain of debt? A crumbling infrastructure, a manufacturing base that has declined 60 percent since World War II, a rise in the wealth gap, the lowest consumer-savings rate since the depths of the Great Depression, 50 million Americans without health insurance, an educational system in decline and a shrinking dollar that makes foreign travel a luxury…

“Current tensions between the United States and the rest of the world will continue as long as America’s military bark is louder than its economic bite… LET US HOPE AMERICA HEEDS THE WARNINGS…”

Terrible Weather Conditions in Mexico and the USA

The New York Times wrote on August 22:

“After hammering Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with blistering winds and heavy rain on Tuesday, a weakened Hurricane Dean was moving to strike again this afternoon as it rolled across the Bay of Campeche toward Mexico’s Gulf coast…

“On Tuesday, on its path across the Yucatán, it was rated as the ninth-strongest hurricane on record in the Atlantic. As a Category 5 storm, with winds in excess of 165 miles per hour, it ripped roofs off homes, flooded streets, downed power lines and snapped trees. It missed the prime tourist spots of the Mayan Riviera but caused damage in Chetumal, the state capital… [which] took the brunt of the storm. Streets were inundated and debris was everywhere. Hundreds of trees lay strewn along major thoroughfares, and thousands of people were without power and running water.”

The Associated Press reported on August 23:

“Dean hit the mainland as a Category 2 storm after regaining some of the force it unleashed on the Yucatan. Its first strike on the peninsula Tuesday as a Category 5 tempest with 165 mph winds was the THIRD MOST INTENSE Atlantic hurricane ever to make landfall.”

It added:

“Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time… Wednesday with top sustained winds of 100 mph. Its center hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla. The wide storm’s hurricane-force winds lashed at a 60-mile stretch of the Mexican coast in Veracruz state.”

It also said that “The remnants of Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico on Thursday, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland…”

In a related article, The New York Times reported on August 22:

“The death toll from two storm systems — one in the Upper Midwest and the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas and Oklahoma — reached 22 on Tuesday… In Wisconsin and Minnesota, thousands of homes were damaged… Flooding remained a problem Wednesday in parts of Ohio… In northern Iowa, widespread flooding continued as thunderstorms dumped more heavy rain across the already water-logged region Wednesday. Strong wind damaged buildings, and some roads and homes were underwater.”

The Associated Press added on August 23:

“More than 1,000 people were flooded out of their homes Thursday after heavy rain that swamped communities across the Midwest sent Ohio’s rivers spilling over their banks… A powerful thunderstorm hit Chicago with 50 mph wind late Wednesday, and another storm system was moving over Iowa and southern Minnesota on Thursday.”

Two Years and One Billion Dollars Later, New Orleans Still at Great Risk

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 17:

“New Orleans remains a very risky place to live… The entire flood system still provides much less protection than New Orleans needs, and the pre-Katrina patchwork of levees, floodwalls and gates that a Corps of Engineers investigation called ‘a system in name only’ is still just that.

“… the city still lacks a system that can stand up to that 1-in-100 storm, let alone one like Hurricane Katrina, which the corps calls a 1-in-396 storm. The work that could build the more robust system – originally estimated at $7 billion, and now at least twice that – will not be completed until 2011 at the earliest, and experts agree that even that level of protection will be less than the city needs.”

“There Will Be an Attack on Iran!”

Time wrote on August 18:

“Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it’s either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran’s nuclear facilities…

“As with Saddam and his imagined WMD, the Administration’s case against the IRGC is circumstantial. The U.S. military suspects but cannot prove that the IRGC is the main supplier of sophisticated improvised explosive devices to insurgents killing our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most sophisticated version, explosive formed projectiles or shape charges, are capable of penetrating the armor of an Abrams tank, disabling the tank and killing the crew…

“A second part of the Administration’s case against the IRGC is that the IRGC has had a long, established history of killing Americans, starting with the attack on the Marines in Beirut in 1983. And that’s not to mention it was the IRGC that backed Hizballah in its thirty-four day war against Israel last year. The feeling in the Administration is that we should have taken care of the IRGC a long, long time ago…

“And what do we do if… a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it’s not even a consideration. ‘… There will be an attack on Iran.'”

Russia Continues to Threaten the West

The Los Angeles Times wrote on August 18:

“Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday announced reinstatement of the Soviet-era practice of having nuclear bombers routinely make long-distance flights that bring them within striking distance of the United States and its allies.

“‘Today just after midnight, 14 strategic missile aircraft, with support and fuel planes, took off from seven airfields across Russia,’ Putin said in televised remarks. ‘Combat duty began in which a total of 20 planes are taking part. From today, combat duty of this kind will be carried out on a regular basis.’… Putin’s announcement came at the end of a joint military exercise conducted by about 6,000 troops from Russia, China and four Central Asian states. Analysts said the exercise was meant to send a signal to the West that it should not try to interfere in the affairs of the participating countries.

“The resumption of regular strategic bomber flights… reflected Russia’s growing economic strength, with high oil prices boosting the country’s ability to spend money on its military. Routine bomber flights were discontinued in 1992… Russian strategic bombers can carry nuclear cruise missiles with ranges of at least 1,800 miles.”

The Daily Mail added on August 18, under its headline, “Return to the Cold War”:

“Vladimir Putin has sent a series of potent political signals to Gordon Brown and other Western leaders that he is determined to restore Russia’s global clout. The Kremlin leader ordered his troops to stage a massive show of force through unprecedented joint operations with the Chinese military. He also revived the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on long-range flights far beyond his country’s own territory. And finally Mr Putin ordered that the BBC World Service be blocked from FM radio in Russia. All three steps are chilling echoes of the Cold War and come as relations between the Kremlin and the West are at their lowest since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“The symbolic decision to remove the BBC World Service from FM radio… came as a shock… The BBC will still be available in Russia on other wavelengths, but most listeners prefer to tune in to the higher-quality FM transmission… Critics accuse the Putin government of stifling the media as part of a broader effort to increase the Kremlin’s control over Russian politics. The authorities last year dramatically curtailed the number of stations broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America news programmes.”

AFP continued to report on August 21:

“President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pushed Russia’s military aviation industry as a global leader, just days after announcing the resumption of Cold War-era strategic bomber flights. ‘Russia has the task of retaining its leadership in fighting, military technology,” Putin said at the opening of the Maks 2007 airshow… [Russia has] already signed contracts worth 2.5 billion dollars this year for military aircraft and… it [is] supplying the air forces of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Venezuela.

“Russian arms exports have surged since the industrial slump that followed the Soviet collapse in 1991. Russia’s moves to regain Soviet-era markets in Asia, the Middle East and South America have raised hackles in Washington. But William Hobbins, commander of US air forces in Europe, who also attended the airshow on Tuesday, praised Russia’s military aircraft production and said air force cooperation between the two countries was strong.”

The Horrors of this World… Female Circumcision

Reuters reported on August 20:

“It was a routine procedure undertaken by thousands of Egyptian girls every year, but something went wrong and Budour Ahmed Shaker died while having her genitals cut in a rite known locally as ‘purification’. The death of the 11-year-old schoolgirl at a private clinic in the Egyptian village Mughagha in June prompted the government to outlaw the custom of female genital mutilation, which is so widespread in Egypt that 95 percent of the country’s women are estimated to have undergone the procedure. But the ban may be hard to enforce and activists fear the practice may go underground as the vast majority of Egyptian families still view circumcision as necessary to protect girls’ chastity. Most girls are cut by the time they reach puberty.

“Even in Mughagha, a village of low rise houses hemming the Nile, many women and girls say they want the procedure to be allowed but under more stringent medical supervision… The only girl who spoke against the practice was shouted down by her classmates until she conceded that genital cutting was a necessity. ‘No one can get married without it,’ said the girl…

“In Egypt, the cutting is done on both Muslim and Christian girls… Outside of Egypt and Sudan to the south, the practice is extremely rare elsewhere in most of the Arab world but is common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.”

WHO Warns the World

AFP wrote on August 23:

“The World Health Organisation on Thursday warned that a new deadly infectious disease like AIDS or Ebola is bound to appear in the 21st century… Since the 1970s, new diseases have been identified at the ‘unprecedented’ rate of one or more per year… Other centuries-old threats such as influenza, malaria and tuberculosis, were also thriving due to a combination of biological mutations, rising resistance to antibiotics and weak health systems…

“The report stressed that health threats were no longer easily confined within a country but could spread around the world swiftly, partly due to the expansion in passenger air travel over the past half century and to trade. It also underlined the threat from food-borne diseases, chemical, biological or nuclear accidents or attacks and industrial pollution…”

Jesus Christ clearly predicted that in these end times, there will be worldwide “pestilences” or disease epidemics (cp. Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11; see also Revelation 6:7-8).

Seif al-Islam Qaddafi Warns Europe

Sofia News Agency wrote on August 22:

“Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son, has warned European countries with military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan of the inevitable risk of more Islamic extremists terror attacks. ‘The only solution to contain radicalism is the rapid departure of Western troops from Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a solution to the Palestinian question,’ Seif al-Islam said, as quoted by the Austria Press Agency.

“Talking in Austria, where he is paying a visit at the invitation of Joerg Haider, former leader of the rightist Freedom Party, he said that even offers of economic or humanitarian assistance could subject Western nations to strikes by extremists. According to him radical Islam is invading Europe by recruiting young Muslims who are open to the message of militancy.”

Austria Warns the USA

The Associated Press reported on August 23:

“Austria’s defense minister said a planned U.S. missile shield defense system in eastern Europe was a ‘provocation,’ and called on Washington to abandon the project… Norbert Darabos told Die Presse that U.S. officials should instead seek a compromise with those who oppose the system, including Russia and some in Europe… He reportedly accused Washington of ‘unnecessarily reviving old Cold War debates.’

“The United States argues that the system, which would include 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar based in the Czech Republic, would help guard against a potential threat from Iran. Russia has voiced outrage at the plans and warned it could spark a new arms race. Opposition also remains high in the two former Soviet satellites, both of which are now members of NATO and the European Union.”

EU vs. USA

The EUObserver reported on August 22:

“The European Union has strongly criticised death penalties carried out in Texas, calling on its authorities to halt the 400th execution in the US state. But Texas officials indicated that Europeans should mind their own business.”

The article continued:

“‘We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights. We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane,’ Lisbon stated on behalf of the EU…

“Commenting on the EU’s appeal to call off [Ray Conner’s] death sentence [for killing a grocery store clerk in 1998], Governor Perry replied that it would be a ‘just and appropriate’ punishment for the murderer… ‘Two hundred and thirty years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination,’ he pointed out, adding ‘While we respect our friends in Europe, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.’

“Texas has carried out about a third of around 1,100 executions that have taken place in the US since the country’s Supreme Court lifted a ban on death penalty in 1976… For its part, the EU has abolished capital punishment throughout its 27 member states. The same principle is also applied across the wider Council of Europe organisation which links together 47 countries across the European continent.

“In February, the EU’s legislature adopted a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty, with several member states – particularly Italy – lobbying for the same initiative through the United Nations General Assembly. The death penalty is currently legal in 68 countries, although 30 of them have not used it for at least ten years.”

Strong European Reactions to Rove’s Impending Resignation

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 14:

“Karl Rove, Bush’s most important advisor and often called ‘Bush’s Brain,’ has announced his resignation. He leaves behind over a decade of success as a Republican strategist — and a number of enemies…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“‘Karl Rove is often described as the most important presidential adviser of all time, as a sinister Machiavelli, as a brutal political strategist, as the brain of George W. Bush…. Now, at the end of Bush’s presidency, the chief architect of the last seven years will have to answer many unpleasant questions. Little has remained of Rove’s grand predictions of decades-long Republican dominance, of the decline of the Democrats, of an eternal alliance between the rich, the right wing and the religious.

“‘Rove did what politicians have done since the days of Cicero — he constructed majorities by polarizing, by emotionalizing, awakening national pathos and creating dependency. But Rove was no Cicero, he wasn’t even a Clinton because he shunned the public and only felt comfortable among like-minded people. That’s cowardly but common among people who only see things in black and white and divide people into friend or foe.

“‘That’s why Rove is leaving behind only a weak legacy: There’s no trace of a coherent ideology, of an enduring dogma worth preserving. The Republicans face a heap of rubble. No domestic policy agenda, an unpopular war in Iraq, a president lacking approval, a defeat in mid-term elections and not very promising presidential candidates for the 2008 election year.’

“Vienna’s Der Standard writes:

“‘It’s not just his enemies, who see him as diabolical, who are convinced that his fingers were in every mess that took place in Washington in the last six and a half years…. George W. Bush always forgave Rove, because he has his fellow Texan to thank for everything. Rove has managed Bush’s election campaigns since 1978. He helped him with the Texas gubernatorial election in 1994. He also brought Bush presidential success in the 2000 and 2004 elections…. For a long time people have been saying that this administration is a lame duck. With the departure of ‘Bush’s Brain’ it is clear that this presidency has reached its end, well before its time.'”

Democrats On the War Path

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 14:

“The American people may want to get rid of Bush, but they in no way want to risk losing the war on terror. The consequences: America’s Democrats are seeking to position themselves as being more hawkish than the Republicans and Congress has just approved the biggest military budget ever…

“The wind has shifted in Washington. America, not just its president, is at war. The Democrats are still critical of the failed Iraq campaign, but they are no longer opposed to the ‘War on Terror’ in general. It has been accepted, and not just as a metaphor… The president is not faulted for his declaration of war against the terrorists, but he is blamed for having botched the war in Iraq. Ninety-two percent of Americans are opposed to an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and a majority doesn’t want to see the US’s special detention camp at Guantanamo Bay closed… The candidate Americans elect to be their next president in November 2008 will serve a parallel role as commander-in-chief of the US military, a position that affords the president virtually totalitarian powers to shape policy…

“Anyone who hopes to win the support of middle America — geographically, sociologically and politically — has to perform a balancing act of appearing capable of leading the country in war while at the same time not coming across as too eager to fight. Americans want a strong leader, a tough decision maker, not an adventurer. The worst charge one could hurl at a presidential candidate these days is that he or she is soft on terrorism.

“In this atmosphere, even the Democratic presidential candidates are lining up to show their support for the troops… Many Americans now despise Bush, who not only fabricated the reasons for going to war in the first place (‘weapons of mass destruction’) but also falsely claimed, with his now-famous ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech, that the war had ended when in fact it had not. Nevertheless, Americans are still loath to admit defeat.

“This is precisely what distinguishes Europeans from Americans. After experiencing the horrors of two world wars, the nations on the Old Continent prefer the power of diplomacy. The Americans favor the power of force, even in its crudest form, which explains why US military might is so superior to that of all other nations. The country spends 10 times as much on its military budget as Great Britain… Even the American left, which refers to itself as ‘liberal,’ has no fundamental objection to the men and women in uniform. Indeed, US liberals are especially fond of a strategy Germans consider obscene: preventive war.”

The U.S. Draft–When They Say, “No! No!”…

AFP wrote on August 13:

“The Pentagon sharply rejected Monday a key general’s assertion that a return to the military draft has always been ‘an option on the table’ and should be considered.

“‘I can tell you emphatically that there is absolutely no consideration being given to reinstituting the draft,’ said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. ‘The all-volunteer force has surpassed all expectations of its founders.’

“Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, a White House deputy national security adviser, discussed the draft in a radio interview Friday in which he said military leaders were right to be concerned about the impact of repeated deployments on military morale and readiness. Lute, who is in charge of coordinating the US war effort in Iraq, said the all-volunteer military is serving ‘exceedingly well’ and the administration has not decided it needs to be replaced with a draft. But he said, ‘I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table.’…

“Reinstating the draft has become a virtual taboo since it was ended in 1973 near the end of the Vietnam War, and replaced with a smaller, better paid all-volunteer force. The US military found that it preferred voluntary service to universal conscription because it drew better educated, more highly motivated recruits looking to make a career of the military.”

Strong Earthquake Hits Peru

AFP reported on August 16:

“A powerful earthquake has devastated several Peruvian cities, killing at least 337 people and forcing the government to declare a state of emergency on Thursday. The quake was the deadliest to hit the country in nearly 40 years. As many as 1,000 people were injured and tens of thousands of panicked residents flocked onto the streets fearing more tremors, after the 7.9-magnitude quake rattled the country for two terrifying minutes late Wednesday. The towns of Pisco, Chincha, and other areas in Peru’s southern coastal region were reported to be in ruins.”

Overdue Earthquake in California– What If… ?

DailyBulletin.com wrote on August 11:

“Scientists for the first time are figuring out in great detail just how bad it will be when the southern section of the San Andreas Fault, roughly between Palmdale and the Salton Sea, cuts loose…

“While 300 miles of the northern fault ripped in 1906, killing an estimated 3,000 people in San Francisco, and the middle part shook during the powerful 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, the southern section of the fault hasn’t popped since the late 1600s.

“There were six earthquakes in the 900 years before that, and none in the past 300… meaning the most devastating disaster in 100 years is long overdue.

“That’s why scientists got funding last year to study a potential magnitude 7.8 quake that would originate near the Salton Sea and race 200 miles up the fault to Lake Hughes, just west of Lancaster.

“That’s about the same distance San Francisco was from the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. That magnitude 6.9 quake knocked down a freeway, severely damaged the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and killed 63 people.

“A 7.8 quake would shake nearly 10 times harder. And it would shake for minutes. The magnitude 6.7 1994 Northridge quake lasted only seven seconds but killed 60 people…  What has surprised scientists is the level of destruction the earthquake would cause in Los Angeles, even though the fault is 60 miles away…

“Among the consequences:

“Thousands die, depending on what time of day the quake hits. Hundreds or thousands of older buildings collapse. Skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles could be badly damaged and some may fall. The 15 Freeway through the Cajon Pass will be severed, stranding tens of thousands of High Desert commuters. The 10 Freeway between Banning and Desert Hot Springs will be cut, possibly in several locations. The 14 Freeway north of Palmdale will be cut. Some communities could go months without water.

“Small businesses may fail if water and other utilities aren’t quickly restored. Pipelines will be severed, triggering fires and interrupting supplies. Older hospitals may suffer damage, causing remaining hospitals to be swamped with casualties.”

No “Church” Besides the Roman Catholic Church?

The Vatican’s official website published the following clarification, on June 29, 2007, regarding the Catholic Church’s position that it is the only and true Church of God. It was pointed out:

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one Church and instituted it as a ‘visible and spiritual community’ that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted… This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic… subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him…

“It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them… Nevertheless, the word ‘subsists’ can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith…

“It is through the celebration of the Eucharist of the Lord in each of these Churches that the Church of God is built up and grows in stature… However, since communion with the Catholic Church, the visible head of which is the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter, is not some external complement to a particular Church but rather one of its internal constitutive principles, these venerable Christian communities lack something in their condition as particular churches…

“According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery… cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called ‘Churches’ in the proper sense…”

For an evaluation of the claims and nature of the Roman Catholic Church, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.” Also, make sure to watch our recent StandingWatch program, “Why Do You Keep Sunday?”

U.S. Financial Mortgage Quake Reaches Europe and the Entire World

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 10:

“Germany had been hit by a version of the crisis that surprised French investors on Thursday, sending stock markets from New York to Tokyo into unexpected dives. Debts arising from America’s so-called subprime mortgage sector had just caused IKB to falter…

“The epicenter of this financial quake is the United States. Hardly a day passes now when an American mortgage lender or hedge fund doesn’t go belly-up. The world’s equity markets first plunged in response to the crisis in mid-July. Germany’s leading stock index, the Dax, lost over ten percent in a matter of days, and America’s Dow Jones dropped six percent.

“Another round of panic hit world markets this week after a French bank, BNP Paribas, had to freeze three investment funds worth €2.76 billion ($3.79 billion) because of American mortgage debts. The Dow Jones fell three percent on Thursday, and central banks in the US, Europe and Japan have injected money markets with billions of dollars to ease credit jitters…

“Rising house prices in America started a craze for ‘subprime’ mortgages, or housing loans offered to homebuyers below the prime lending rate. Typically these loans involve a low-rate grace period before a higher rate comes into effect. And as long as housing prices boomed, debts associated with these mortgages could be packaged as attractive investment vehicles for big institutions. But now the market has stalled and abundant credit for such risky investments has dried up — and anyone, apparently, can run into trouble.”

The EuObserver added on August 10:

“The European Central Bank (ECB) has poured around €95 billion into the eurozone banking system to calm market jitters following a credit crunch in the US market over high-risk mortgages… This is the first time the ECB has felt compelled to intervene in the markets since the days following the terrorist attacks in the US in September 2001. The move was prompted after investors panicked about the potential losses from the US subprime sector…”

AFP reported on August 16:

“World leaders on Thursday insisted that the US credit crunch would not cause an economic crisis but stock markets across the world plummeted yet again as investors remained unconvinced… stock markets… tumbled yet again, wiping tens of billions of dollars off share values in Asia and Europe. From London to Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney weary traders’ screens were awash with red again…

“Investors are worried about a global credit squeeze as more banks and investment funds around the world reveal their exposure to the slumping US subprime, or high-risk, home loan sector… Central banks across the world have since last week pumped tens of billions of dollars into the banking system, offering loans at lower rates to commercial banks to forestall a credit crunch that could damage economic growth. The Bank of Japan said Thursday it would inject a further 400 billion yen (3.4 billion dollars) into the system to calm frayed nerves…”

Anti-American Central Asian Summit

Bloomberg reported on August 16:

“Russia and China today host Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a summit of a Central Asian security club [Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or  SCO] designed to counter U.S. influence in the region… Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose country is battling a resurgent Taliban, is a guest at the summit… The SCO in 2005 called for a timetable to end the U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Within six months, Uzbekistan ordered out U.S. forces stationed at its Khanabad airbase…

“In another unwelcome development for the Americans, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov also accepted an invitation to attend the summit…

“Along with Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia have observer status in the six-member group [Its six members include Russia and China, as well as the four Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan].”

Georgia Asks EU For Help Against Russia

The EUObserver wrote on August 8:

“Accusing Russia of committing an ‘act of aggression’ against Georgia by firing a guided missile into its territory, Tbilisi said the EU should not appease Moscow, but send a ‘strong and clear-cut’ message of condemnation.

“‘This is not Georgia’s problem. This is a problem for European security and safety’, Georgia’s president Mikhail Saakashvili told Reuters news agency on Tuesday (7 August). Mr Saakashvili drew a parallel with the systematic cyber-attacks against Estonia’s government and private websites earlier this year – something Tallinn claimed had been orchestrated by Moscow…

“Georgian authorities claimed the missile had been fired by a Russian jet from a base in the North Caucasus – an accusation Moscow has strongly denied… The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest regional security organization, said it was ‘deeply concerned about the incident’ and appealed to ‘all parties to address this serious issue with restraint’… The incident has further increased the existing tension in relations between Russia and Georgia, a part of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991.”

“Peace, Peace”–And There Is No Peace

Reuters reported on August 16:

“The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defense grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a regional bulwark against Iran. At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.

“‘There is no question that, from an American point of view, the Middle East is a more dangerous region now even than it was 10 or 20 years ago and that Israel is facing a growing threat. It’s immediate and it’s also long-term,’ Burns told reporters. ‘The United States faces many of the same threats from the same organizations and countries as Israel does, and so we felt this was the right level of assistance.’

“The Bush administration said last month that it would also offer weapons worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allied Gulf states. Egypt stands to get $13 billion in defense assistance over the next decade, similar to present levels.

“The package — which awaits approval in the U.S. Congress — is designed to reassure Israel and Sunni Muslim Gulf nations of Washington’s commitment to the Middle East despite its problems in Iraq, as well as to strengthen them in the face of the growing clout of Shi’ite Iran and its nuclear program…

“Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives $2.4 billion in annual military grants, would not be conditioned on diplomatic progress or concessions though ‘one of the major priorities for our government … will be to help push forward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.’…

“Assumed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, Israel has vowed to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from acquiring the bomb. Iran denies its nuclear program has military aims… Israel is the only recipient of U.S. defense grants allowed to spend some of them — 26.3 percent — on domestic arms firms.”

“Peace, Peace”–And There Is No Peace

Reuters reported on August 16:

“The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defense grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a regional bulwark against Iran. At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.

“‘There is no question that, from an American point of view, the Middle East is a more dangerous region now even than it was 10 or 20 years ago and that Israel is facing a growing threat. It’s immediate and it’s also long-term,’ Burns told reporters. ‘The United States faces many of the same threats from the same organizations and countries as Israel does, and so we felt this was the right level of assistance.’

“The Bush administration said last month that it would also offer weapons worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allied Gulf states. Egypt stands to get $13 billion in defense assistance over the next decade, similar to present levels.

“The package — which awaits approval in the U.S. Congress — is designed to reassure Israel and Sunni Muslim Gulf nations of Washington’s commitment to the Middle East despite its problems in Iraq, as well as to strengthen them in the face of the growing clout of Shi’ite Iran and its nuclear program…

“Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives $2.4 billion in annual military grants, would not be conditioned on diplomatic progress or concessions though ‘one of the major priorities for our government … will be to help push forward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.’…

“Assumed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, Israel has vowed to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from acquiring the bomb. Iran denies its nuclear program has military aims… Israel is the only recipient of U.S. defense grants allowed to spend some of them — 26.3 percent — on domestic arms firms.”

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Disproved?

 The Telegraph reported on August 16:

“A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light – an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time. According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second. However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

“The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons – energetic packets of light – travelled ‘instantaneously’ between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart. Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences. For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving. The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.”

160,000 U.S. Road Bridges In Danger of Collapse

The Minneapolis disaster could have been avoided. And future disasters, which appear inevitable, might also be prevented if billions of dollars, which are being wasted, for instance in Iraq (see our reports in this issue), would be used to repair damaged bridges, tunnels, dams and dikes. Unfortunately, as press reports point out, such a drastic and immediate change in thinking is not to be expected from any political party or leader.

On August 3, 2007, Der Spiegel Online wrote:

“The Minneapolis bridge disaster is no isolated incident but a warning signal: More than 160,000 road bridges in the USA are considered to be in danger of collapse. Highways, tunnels, dams and dykes are in such miserable condition that engineers have long been ringing the alarm — so far in vain.

“On April 5, 1987 the Schoharie Creek Bridge in New York state collapsed. The 35-meter-wide highway bridge had only recently been examined. Nevertheless it suddenly gave way, caved in and fell crashing into the river. Five vehicles fell into the river 25 meters below, and ten people died.

“The tragic sequence of events bears grisly similarities to the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis Wednesday, more than 20 years later. The causes of the accident also seem identical after the preliminary investigation: Wear and tear, obsolescence, carelessness, sloppiness.

“It doesn’t surprise experts. ‘The crumbling state of our infrastructure poses a real threat to public safety and the nation’s economy,’ Bill Marcuson, the president of the American Society Of Civil Engineers (ASCE), wrote on his ASCE blog just a few days before the most recent disaster. ‘Financing the urgently needed repairs must become a priority for our nation’s leaders.’ In total, ASCE calculates, at least $1.6 trillion must be invested in order to avoid further disasters like the one that happened this week in Minneapolis.

“Take America’s bridges, for example… Repairing all of America’s bridges would take at least 20 years and would eat up some $10 billion — money which NO ONE WANTS TO SPEND.

“America’s road tunnels are not in any better condition — even the brand new ones… The situation is much worse with the approximately 83,000 dams and dykes in the US. The catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, which two years ago brought down the inadequate dyke system around New Orleans and caused over 1,800 deaths, revealed problems which are not limited to storm-prone Louisiana. According to the ASCE, the number of ‘unsafe’ dams and dykes has increased by a third to over 3,500 country-wide since 1998. Worryingly, ‘the number of dams identified as unsafe is increasing at a faster rate than those being repaired,’ according to the ASCE.”

The Superstitious Belief in Reincarnation

The following reads like a fairy tale. But sadly, many millions of people believe in the unbiblical concept of reincarnation–so much so that even atheist leaders try to capitalize on it.

Times on Line wrote on August 4:

“Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders… ‘The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,’ according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1. The 14-part regulation… is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing…

“China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet’s two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama’s announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet… had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing… Several sets of rules on seeking out ‘soul boys’ were promulgated in 1995… All Tibetans believe in reincarnation, but only the holiest or most outstanding individuals are believed to be recognisable — a tulku, or apparent body… The search for a reincarnation is a mystical process involving clues left by the deceased and visions among leading monks on where to look.”

Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain

The Associated Press reported on August 4:

“Britain imposed a voluntary ban on exports of livestock and livestock products [because of an outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease]… The ministry said the ban applied to animals with cloven hooves such as cows, sheep and pigs. It covers live animals, carcasses, meat and milk and is effective immediately… ‘Our first priority has been to act quickly and decisively,’ said [Prime Minister Gordon] Brown, who cut short a summer holiday to deal with the crisis, which prompted a European Union ban [on] livestock imports from Britain… Japan said earlier that it had banned British pork imports. Beef imports from Britain have been banned in Japan since the outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1990s.”

These outbreaks of diseases, affecting livestock, must have a devastating effect on the British economy.

Iraq’s Ongoing Collapse

The following report reveals the utter failure of the United States to try to create a better, safer and more prosperous Iraq for the Iraqi people.

AFP wrote on August 7:

“As Iraqis queue miserably for food and water, or swelter in homes and hospitals without electricity, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s coalition government is collapsing around him. The latest boycott — by four ministers from a non-sectarian party — brought to 17 the number of members of the Shiite-led coalition to have walked out, tendered their resignations or withdrawn from cabinet meetings… But Maliki further alienated himself from his Sunni political opponents — whose inclusion in government the Americans see as crucial to ending Iraq’s civil conflicts — by accusing them of being insincere and irresponsible… Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities, and left tens of thousands of civilians dead…

“But in the unbearable heat of Iraq, where temperatures frequently reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, many ordinary people are more frustrated with the lack of basic services than political squabbling. Last week, a report by Stuart Bowen, the US chief inspector of Iraqi reconstruction, painted a DAMNING PICTURE OF GOVERNMENT FAILURE, and described the effects of corruption as being akin to a ‘second insurgency’. Baghdad residents say they are sleeping on hard floors or roofs, suffering interminably without fans or air-conditioning, being forced to buy bottled water or drink contaminated water from purification plants without power.

“One of the lucky ones with a job in a country where unemployment stands at well over 50 percent, Yasser Ghazi said he still can’t afford to operate a generator to fill the gaps between the paltry few hours of electricity a day. ‘My sister is pregnant. I sent her with my mother, an old woman, to Syria to give birth because there’s no electricity or clean water. There’s not even a good hospital,’ said Ghazi…”

Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing

The following report sounds incredible, but it appears to be grim reality in a world which lives and dies by the sword.

The Washington Post wrote on August 6:

“The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

“The author of the report from the Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops.

“The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005

“… the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by American taxpayers.”

Democratic-Led Congress Approves New U.S. Wiretapping Law

This next story sounds equally unbelievable. It, too, is grim reality, showing the extreme influence and power of political pressure on all politicians, irrespective of party affiliation.

The New York Times wrote on August 6:

“President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants… For example, if a person in Indianapolis calls someone in London, the National Security Agency can eavesdrop on that conversation without a warrant, as long as the N.S.A.’s target is the person in London…

“The legislation to change the surveillance act was rushed through both the House and Senate in the last days before the August recess began… In fact, pressure from the telecommunications companies on the Bush administration has apparently played a major hidden role in the political battle over the surveillance issue over the past few months… Those companies were facing major lawsuits for having secretly cooperated with the warrantless wiretapping program, and now wanted greater legal protections before cooperating further.”

Joint Military Exercise of China and Russia

The Times wrote on August 6:

“Russian and Chinese troops are joining forces this week in the first military exercises by an international organisation that is regarded in some quarters as a potential rival to Nato… Scores of Russian and Chinese aircraft begin joint exercises tomorrow before a week of military manoeuvres from Thursday that will include Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. At least 6,500 troops are involved in what is described as an antiterror exercise…

“MPs on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee expressed fears last year that the West could be on a collision course in the struggle for energy resources with ‘an authoritarian bloc opposed to democracy’ that was based on an alliance between China and Russia. A newly assertive Russia, flush with oil and gas revenues, is moving rapidly to increase its military capability amid tensions with the West over missile defence and Nato expansion. Almost £100 billion has been set aside for rearmament over the next eight years.”

As the Bible foretells, Russia and China, as well as other Far Eastern countries, WILL become a military threat to the West, especially continental Europe.

The New European Superstate

The Daily Mail wrote on August 6:

“… the idea that we [Great Britain] should give up the power to make our own foreign policy in favour of an EU foreign ministry, with its own diplomatic service, is not even half of what this new [European] treaty proposes. Ploughing through its 145 dense pages, what we see emerging is nothing less than the grand design whereby Europe is to be given a new form of supranational government, with far more powers over the lives of the EU’s 480 million citizens than will remain with any national government.

“Nothing reveals this more vividly than the extraordinary new status to be given at the centre of this new government to a body known as the European Council. It is this body that has already agreed [on] the exact wording of the new treaty, and which has, in effect, ordered that it should be rammed through in less than three months without a word being changed. This in itself is wholly without precedent. All the previous treaties which built up the powers of the EU resulted from months of negotiation between national governments. But on this treaty, governments are given no choice. They are obliged simply to accept what they were told to accept by the European Council in June.

“… What is this mysterious body, the European Council? It has, in fact, been taking shape and waxing in importance for more than 30 years. Its meetings are normally described by the media as ‘summits’… Under the new treaty… the Council’s role is to act as the Cabinet of the new ‘government of Europe’. For a start, presiding over its meetings will be a new permanent President of Europe, serving for up to five years (who may also be president of the European Commission). Alongside him, acting as the Union’s foreign minister, will be… the official who will in effect be foreign secretary for all the EU’s 27 members, including Britain.

“But there is another highly significant change in the role of the European Council, which can only be grasped by looking at the treaty’s small print. Until now, when prime ministers attended a meeting of the Council, they spoke on behalf of their own country. However, when the Council becomes a ‘Union institution’, its members will no longer be allowed to do this. Like the members of all other Union institutions, their first loyalty must now be to the Union… And as the new treaty makes clear, the Union will now have the power to decide policy on almost every conceivable issue, from foreign and defence policy to how national economies should be run… The EU will be allowed [to]take new powers over anything it wants, in accordance with those new all-embracing ‘objectives of the Union’… What all this amounts to is that the EU finally wishes to set itself up as the supreme government of Britain and 26 other countries, with virtually UNLIMITED POWERS over every aspect of our lives. This is nothing less than an astonishing coup d’etat.”

A European Superstate is in the making… and no human being will be able to stop it!  For more information, read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Travelers from US Face EU Crackdown

More controversies are developing between the USA and the EU.

The Financial Times wrote on August 7:

“US business travellers and tourists flying to the European Union are facing the threat of the same laborious registration requirements that Washington has demanded of Europeans in the latest US security crackdown. In its first reaction to the new US visa law, the European Commission said it was ‘considering’ a so-called electronic traveller authorisation scheme – similar to the American plan – that would require foreigners heading to the EU to give notice of their travel plans before departure. The threat has been conveyed to senior US officials and lawmakers, with one letter sent last month stressing that a European system would ‘of course operate on a reciprocal basis’… the idea had received ‘new impetus’ by the adoption of a US counter-terrorism bill last week that requires travellers to give US authorities at least 48 hours’ notice of their plans to visit the country.

“George W. Bush, US president, signed the law last Friday in spite of [sharp criticism from and] repeated appeals by the Commission and European business groups to reconsider the measures. The law will tighten scrutiny of travellers from the 26 developed countries whose citizens do not at present require visas to enter the US, including Britain, France, German and most other western European countries… “

Floods Across South Asia Affect Millions

AFP wrote on August 6:

“Many of the millions of people forced from their homes by floods across South Asia were desperate for food and drinking water on Monday as aid workers and army battled to reach them. The flooding, described as the heaviest to hit the region in decades, has affected 31 million people and killed more than 1,600 others in India, Bangladesh and Nepal since monsoon rains began pouring down in June.

“India’s northern Bihar state has been hit hardest by the disaster, and some of the growing number of people marooned by the swirling waters have resorted to fighting for emergency food supplies. The state’s disaster management chief, Manoj Srivastava, put the total number of flood-affected at 11.5 million… ‘This has been an unprecedented flood,’ Srivastava said. ‘The data shows in Bihar in several districts the rainfall has been 250 to 300 percent higher than the average for the last 30 years.'”