Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Peace for the troubled heart



      This coming April I shall be celebrating my fifty-second spiritual birthday. On that day in 1960 a six year old boy sitting on the back of my dad’s car gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to say that everything in my life has been wonderful since that day but as with everyone else I have had my share of challenges.


The hardest challenge that life can throw at us is to be put in the position of facing our greatest fear. I found myself having to deal with that fear when my Doctor told me three years ago that I needed open heart surgery. Eleven years before I found out I had heart trouble and knew that someday this day would come. Based on all the sleepless nights of mind-numbing fear I had suffered through I expected to be overwhelmed with fear.

Instead the night before my surgery the Spirit of God filled my heart with the peace of God. The next day as they prepped me for surgery, and later as they wheeled me into the operating room, I never experienced the slightest hint of fear. I knew that Father had placed a peace in my heart greater than my fear.

The apostle Paul had come to the end of his time and he knew it. He wrote his spiritual son timothy a final letter where he poured his heart out about many things. Yet when he turned to his own ordeal he told timothy he had fought a good fight and in so many words that he was ready to die for the Lord (II Timothy 4:7). Paul I do not believe was just demonstrating great courage, but rather I am convinced the peace of God had been infused in his heart. God gave him what he needed when he needed it.

In this world we have a menagerie of human emotions and stresses that life brings to us. We have suffered under the jarring emotions of rage, rejection, and the many other sorrows that life has so often deposited on our doorsteps. Yet believer in Christ I believe that Jesus longs to give us a higher revelation of the nature and God given ability that the peace he offers us actually is. Peace is not an emotional state.

Peace is a state of being. We have I now realize a very superficial understanding of what peace actually is. It is the bedrock and ally of faith. It is almost impossible to walk in faith while we are being buffeted by the winds and storms of this life. Satan and his minions know the power and authority that the peace of God affords the human heart.

We can know a peace so profound that no matter what life may be throwing at us at any given moment we cannot be moved. Peace is the very atmosphere of heaven and the kingdom of God. It is also a fruit of the Spirit and as such has a divine origin. Peace is a divine personality trait or attribute of Father God. It is not a human emotion.

Emotions require circumstances to be right to work. The peace of God that Father has made available is a free gift all we have to do is ask him for it. No matter what we may deal with in this life, including death itself is no match for the peace of God. Father God is making available to every wounded heart or heart filled with fear a peace that allows us to see the situation and the world as he sees it. We can stand victorious in Christ no matter what we may face because our hearts have been transformed by the kingdom power and authority of peace.

Tehran Forces Iranian Jews To Join Anti-Israel Global March

                                         Story taken from
                                         http://debka.com/



          The Islamic regime in Tehran was not satisfied with the public support the Iranian Jewish community’s was forced to confer on the Global March to Jerusalem for which Iran is recruiting Islamists worldwide.


Now, the event’s organizers, Majlis Speaker Hossein Sheikh-ol-Eslam and Salim Ghafouri, have ordered the community to send a Jewish delegation to march with the Islamist groups in Lebanon, debkafile’s Iranian sources disclose.

The delegations are scheduled to mass on the Lebanese and Jordanian borders with Israel and at West Bank and Gaza checkpoints on March 30, when Israeli Arabs mark Earth Day every year.

Iran’s ancient Jewish community of around 15,000 souls (9,000 in Tehran, 4,000 in Shiraz and 1,300 in Isfahan) has been living in fear of reprisals should Israel or the United States carry out a military operation against the country’s nuclear facilities.

Now, they face a fresh danger of murder and abduction by Hizballah and Palestinian gunmen and terrorists in Lebanon.

Jewish communal leaders were instructed by the Iranian authorities this week to have at least 10 young men aged 18 to 22 ready for the march.

They were to be given “the honor” of acting as vanguard for breaking through the Lebanese-Israeli border fence and leading a mass incursion across the border.

They suspect that this ploy is meant to prevent Israeli soldiers from firing on the trespassers for fear of killing the Jewish contingent, while at the same time, exposing them to violence when the event is over at the hands of al-Qaeda linked Palestinian groups under Hizballah protection.

The Salafi doctrine held by the al Qaeda killer Muhammad Merah who murdered four Jews, including three children, in Toulouse Monday, is rife in the south Lebanese Palestinian Ain Hilwa refugee camp.

The most active are two Palestinian jihadist groups, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which now and then shoots rockets into northern Israel, and Jund al-Sham, which is closely tied to al Qaeda branches in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where they call themselves Osbat al-Ansar.

The two terrorist groups are the bosses of the Safouri Quarter of the camp.

Our sources report an Iranian scheme to send the Jewish marchers on a visit to Ain Hilwa to show their solidarity with the most radical Palestinian cause.

Last week, Jewish leaders were obliged to sign a declaration of solidarity with the Global March and condemnation of Israel.

The text put before them for signing was as follows: We the Jews of Iran strongly condemn the barbaric crimes of the occupation regime in Palestinian and declare the Zionist state in violation of the principles of Our Teacher Moses and the Will of God.

We are totally at one with the aspirations of the heroic Palestinian people.”

Signed: Dr. Syamak Mare Dedeq, Jewish Member of Parliament, and Rabbi Mashallah Golestani-Nejad, described as the Chief Rabbi of Iran.

debkafile’s Iranian sources add: Tehran is the main bankroller and live wire of the Global March against Israel’s borders and claims to have rounded up Islamist delegations from five continents to support the Palestinians.

Seventy sympathizers are on their way to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan from India, Malaysia, Pakistan and other Asian countries.

To mark the event, Tehran staged a cartoon contest. The winner drew around the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem a wall modeled on the fences of Auschwitz.

Both the organizers are members of the Ministry of Intelligence MOIS with long experience of managing Iranian activities on behalf of Arab and Palestinian terrorist groups.

Sheikh-ol-Islam, while holding the post of Deputy Speaker of Parliament, also coordinates Tehran’s relations with the Lebanese Hizballah.

On Feb. 26, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaimed the launching of the Global March to Jerusalem an expression of Iran’s policy for strengthening “resistance operations” against Israel and guarding Palestinian interests.


                                                            

Jerusalem Dateline: Israel’s Possible War with Iran

Jerusalem Dateline: Israel’s Possible War with Iran

Calif. Pastor Who Believes in 'One God, Many Paths' to Hold Easter Services at Mosque

                                        Rev Michael Moran 

                                           Story taken from
                                    http://www.christianpost.com/


        A plan to hold Easter service at a Sacramento, Calif., mosque is drawing a mixed reaction from the Christian community.


Some are commending the event, especially the generosity of the Muslim community to provide a place for a Sacramento community needing space, as a needed expression of mutual respect between cultures. But the good news of a resurrected Christ won't be part of the service.

"I know that I don't believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus but I do believe his spirit ascended and his teachings are very valid and transformative," the Rev. Michael Moran, senior minister of The Spiritual Life Center, told The Christian Post over the phone.

SLC will be holding all of their upcoming Easter services at a mosque owned by the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims (SALAM) – the result of an expiring lease on their building at Pioneer Christian Church.

The church is part of the Unity movement, founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, which holds beliefs not in line with traditional Christian teaching. Their ministry embraces the controversial "one God, many paths" belief and desires to create peace and harmony among all the world religions. Though they see Jesus as a great teacher, they do not see him as the only way to eternal life.

"I graduated seminary from the Unity School of Christianity," Moran told The Christian Post. "It's s a very liberal form of Christianity and so Jesus is very central to my spiritual path but I would not pass the litmus test of very fundamental Christian beliefs. But for me, Jesus is the most important teacher of my life and he is the one that I strive to be like."

When asked why then he was holding an Easter service in April, which celebrates a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, he responded, "I think there are many ways to look at that."

While many of his own congregants believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus, he does not.

"I believe it was more of spiritual resurrection and that it's symbolic of what everybody does when they rise above old beliefs and that we all can have a personal resurrection experience whenever we overcome the world."

During the Easter service, Moran will be speaking to that effect. "I'll mention that there are many different beliefs in our congregation. That there is the physical belief, looking at the story as a metaphor for personal resurrection and ... that Jesus showed us a different way of living life."

Professor Erik Thoennes, chair of Biblical & Theological Studies at Biola University, however, asserted that "an Easter service where the physical resurrection of Christ is not believed, is not an Easter service in any sense, biblically or historically."

"A church that does not follow the risen Christ is not a true church," he told The Christian Post in an email.

Because the SLC would be out of a home by the end of March, the leaders knew they would need to plan ahead and secure a separate area for their Easter service, which draws more than 1,000 people –twice as many attendees as their regular services.

While their regular Sunday services will be held inside a small auditorium at a country club during the month of April as they look for a new building, only their Easter service is set to take place within the Islamic center.

Though some question SLC's views on what to celebrate on Easter, many are receptive to the idea of holding Easter service in a mosque, according to Moran.

"It's almost overwhelmingly positive except when you read the little blogs. But within our community and within the Sacramento community we're getting tremendous feedback."

Moran said the idea to hold the Easter services at SALAM's mosque all started with a vision. "In my dream state when I was wrestling with this problem I actually saw a newspaper on my kitchen counter that said 'Easter at the mosque' and I thought, 'oh boy that's really far out, that will never happen,' but the next morning as I was driving into work it ran across my mind again," Moran expressed to CP.

Calling up his friend Dr. Metwalli B. Amer, who co-founded SALAM, he asked him if his church could use their building to worship during Easter.

Amer, a professor emeritus at California State University asked Moran to give him some time to think and pray about it. After a few days, he called back and said that SALAM would love to welcome him, his choir, and his congregation to use their facilities during Easter and all for no cost.

When asked how Moran reconciled many of his beliefs with what was in the Bible, which he taught from along with other religious scriptures on Sundays, the senior pastor said, "I don't believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. I believe over the years it's been changed, politicized, but I believe that in the Bible that there is great truth and there is also a lot of misstatements in it."

Selecting passages that focus on Jesus' teachings of love, generosity, acceptance, and forgiveness, Moran chooses to speak on "beautiful scriptures of love," and not hate and condemnation.

In regards to the afterlife and heaven, he teaches that no matter what someone's belief system is whether in heaven or in reincarnation, "where you go and what happens to you is determined by how you live your life now."

"I trust that whatever is waiting for me will be good and that it will be as good as I am able to live now on a daily basis. If I can be more Christ-like then I don't think I have a whole lot to worry about."

Thoennes rejected those views. "A pastor who redefines the Christian faith to fit with contemporary sensibilities, rather than the whole counsel of God's word, is not a pastor, but a false teacher."

"We live in an age where people feel great freedom to use weighty words with vapid content," he concluded. "Moran may call himself a Christian, but Jesus still gets to define what Christianity really is."

"Tolerance without truth is profoundly unloving. Christ told us to speak the truth in love, and make disciples of all nations. Love should typify our lives, but the church's most loving what is faithful to its calling as the pillar and buttress of truth."

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

News Channel Morning Edition: March 27, 2012

News Channel Morning Edition: March 27, 2012

Israelis Grow Confident Strike on Iran’s Nukes Can Work

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu arives for the weekly Cabinet Meeting

                                        Story taken from
                                  http://www.bloomberg.com



       In 2005, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then Israel’s finance minister, made an official visit to Uganda.


For Netanyahu, visits to Uganda are weighted with sadness. It was at the airport in Entebbe that his older brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, was shot dead by a Ugandan soldier. Yonatan was the leader of an Israeli commando team dispatched by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in July 1976 to rescue Jewish hostages held by pro-Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists had diverted an Air France flight to Uganda, where the then-dictator, the infamous Idi Amin, gave them refuge.

The raid was a near-total success. The hijackers were all killed, along with dozens of Ugandan soldiers posted to the airport by Amin to protect the terrorists. Only three hostages died; 102 were rescued. (A fourth was later murdered in a Ugandan hospital.) Yonatan was the only Israeli soldier killed.

In his 2005 visit, Benjamin Netanyahu was welcomed by the current president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, who was an anti- Amin guerilla leader at the time of the Entebbe raid. Museveni accompanied Netanyahu to the airport, and unveiled a plaque in his brother’s memory.

The Ugandan president told him that the Israeli raid on Entebbe was a turning point in the struggle against Amin. It bolstered the opposition’s spirits and proved to them that Amin was vulnerable. Amin’s government would fall some two and half years later.

A widely held assumption about a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is that it would spur Iranian citizens -- many of whom appear to despise their rulers -- to rally around the regime. But Netanyahu, I’m told, believes a successful raid could unclothe the emperor, emboldening Iran’s citizens to overthrow the regime (as they tried to do, unsuccessfully, in 2009).

You might call this the Museveni Paradigm. It’s one of several arguments I’ve heard in the past week, as I’ve shuttled between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, that have convinced me that Israeli national-security officials are considering a pre- emptive strike in the near future.

Last week, I argued that Netanyahu’s campaign to convince the West that Iran’s nuclear program represents a threat -- not only to his country but also to the entire Middle East and beyond -- has worked so well that it could represent the perfect bluff. After all, on his recent visit to Washington, Netanyahu managed to avoid discussing the Palestinian issue with President Barack Obama, and he heard Obama vow that the U.S. wouldn’t be content to merely contain a nuclear Iran.

After interviewing many people with direct knowledge of internal government thinking, however, I’m highly confident that Netanyahu isn’t bluffing -- that he is in fact counting down to the day when he will authorize a strike against a half-dozen or more Iranian nuclear sites.

One reason I’m now more convinced is that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are working hard to convince other members of the Israeli cabinet that a strike might soon be necessary.

But I also heard from Israeli national-security officials a number of best-case scenarios about the consequences of an attack, which suggested to me that they believe they have thought through all the risks -- and that they keep coming to the same conclusions.

One conclusion key officials have reached is that a strike on six or eight Iranian facilities will not lead, as is generally assumed, to all-out war. This argument holds that the Iranians might choose to cover up an attack, in the manner of the Syrian government when its nuclear facility was destroyed by the Israeli air force in 2007. An Israeli strike wouldn’t focus on densely populated cities, so the Iranian government might be able to control, to some degree, the flow of information about it.

Some Israeli officials believe that Iran’s leaders might choose to play down the insult of a raid and launch a handful of rockets at Tel Aviv as an angry gesture, rather than declare all-out war. I’m not endorsing this view, but I was struck by its optimism. (A war game held by the U.S. military this month came to the opposite conclusion, according to the New York Times: A strike would likely lead to a wider war that could include the U.S.)

Another theory making the rounds was that Obama has so deeply internalized the argument that Israel has the sovereign right to defend itself against a threat to its existence that an Israeli attack, even one launched against U.S. wishes, wouldn’t anger him. In this scenario, Obama would move immediately to help buttress Israel’s defenses against an Iranian counterstrike.

Some Israeli security officials also believe that Iran won’t target American ships or installations in the Middle East in retaliation for a strike, as many American officials fear, because the leadership in Tehran understands that American retaliation for an Iranian attack could be so severe as to threaten the regime itself.

This contradicts Netanyahu’s assertion, first made to me three years ago, that Iran’s rulers are members of a “messianic, apocalyptic cult,” unmoved by the calculations of rational self- interest. It also contradicts the results of the U.S. war game. But it does make sense if you believe that regime survival is an important goal of the ayatollahs.

Finally, and even more disquieting, was the contention I heard repeatedly that an Israeli strike in the next six months - - conducted before Iran can further harden its nuclear sites, or make them redundant -- will set back the ayatollahs’ atomic ambitions at least five years. American military planners tend to think that Israel could do only a year or two worth of damage.

Could Human and Computer Viruses Merge, Leaving Both Realms Vulnerable?

                       
                                     Story Taken From
                              http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/


          Mark Gasson had caught a bad bug. Though he was not in pain, he was keenly aware of the infection raging in his left hand, knowing he could put others at risk by simply coming too close. But his virus wasn’t a risk for humans. Gasson, a cybernetics scientist at the University of Reading, was walking around with an implanted microchip he had intentionally infected with a computer virus. If he got too close to a computer, he could in principle infect that machine.


Although this possibility may sound like a foray into science fiction, information security experts believe the blurring of the boundaries between computer and biological viruses is not so far-fetched—and could have very real consequences.

As TechWorld reports, Axelle Apvrille and Guillaume Lovet of the network security company Fortinet presented a paper comparing human and computer virology and exploring some of the potential dangers at last week’s Black Hat Europe conference.

Both computer and biological viruses, they explain in their paper, can be defined as “information that codes for parasitic behavior.” In biology, a virus’s code is written in DNA or RNA and is much smaller than the code making up a computer virus. The DNA of a flu virus, for example, could be described with about 23,000 bits, whereas the average computer virus would fall in a range 10 to 100 times bigger.

The origins of each virus are strikingly different: A computer virus is designed, whereas a biological virus evolves under pressure from natural selection. But what would happen if these origins are switched? Could hackers code for a super-virus, or a computer virus emerge out of the information “wilderness” and evolve over time?

Apvrille and Lovet argued that both scenarios are possible, with a few caveats to each. Scientists have already synthesized viruses such as polio and SARS for research purposes, so it’s conceivable that someone could synthesize viruses as bioweaponry. That said, Apvrille and Lovet observed that viruses are notoriously difficult to control, and it’s hard to imagine anyone could use a viral weapon without it backfiring.

As for computer viruses speciating and evolving, Apvrille and Lovet believed that with enough data the code for a single computer virus might form spontaneously. Chances are slimmer, however, that it would include the necessary details to adapt and evolve. So far this scenario has only occurred in viruses in which researchers have encoded genetic algorithms to mimic evolutionary processes.

But there are more immediate possibilities for computer-biology crossovers. Synthetic biology uses computers to store genetic information, and Apvrille and Lovet explained that hackers could infect these devices or the software used for DNA sequencing, thereby modifying whatever biological product is being synthesized.

For now, Mark Gasson’s example of an infected implant may spark the most concern, as it illustrates how cybernetic technologies leave humans vulnerable to unprecedented attacks. Just as a PC can download a virus after visiting a new website, cybernetic devices, such as cochlear implants or pacemakers, could be threatened when they connect to an external system. Once infected, the implant can then spread the virus to other systems.

Inevitably, as we rely more on computers, the impact of viruses grows. After all, our favorite technologies are extensions of ourselves, storing memories, expanding our knowledge and increasing our reach. As Gasson put it on his online Q&A about the study, even though the experiment had no effect on his health, it was still “surprisingly personal,” because “part of ‘me’ had been compromised.”

Stakelbeck on Terror: Islams War on Jews

Stakelbeck on Terror: Islams War on Jews

As Christian Persecution Grows In Iran So Does The Church

                                                                      
                                             Story taken from
                                         http://mnnonline.org/


           Open Doors staff members recently reported that church growth is “explosive” in Iran; they even speak of a revival.


Iran is the fifth country in the world on Open Doors’ World Watch List for the persecution of believers. The president and the supreme leader of the country openly speak against the growth of house churches, and persecution against Christian converts is highly prevalent.

Interestingly, though, these two government leaders are nearly alone in their disdain for Christianity as a “Western religion,” says one Open Doors staff member. “In the past, Christianity wasn’t popular; it was seen as a Western religion. Now only the government sees it as a Western product, or better: a Western political system,” says the staff member.

Iranians have seen the corruption of the Islamic Revolution in their own country and are looking for something more. This yearning combined with a bold Christian presence is causing church growth like never before.

“Iranians are very outgoing and want to speak about their faith,” a staff member states. “That is why discipleship training (with elements of outreach and communications) for Iranian believers is successful. If you tell them that a Christian should share, the Iranian Christian shares.”

Offering discipleship training is one of the ways Open Doors works to strengthen the Iranian church. It is estimated that about half of the new Christians are open about their new faith while others are keeping their conversion a secret.

As a result of this willingness to take risks, there are hundreds of thousands of believers in Iran. About 40 years ago, approximately 200 Christians from a Muslim background were living in Iran. Today some estimate that there are as many as 370,000 Christian converts. Besides these new believers, Iran also has a traditional Armenian and Assyrian church with about 80,000 members.

These Christians face daily harassment for their faith. The government’s abhorrence of house churches has caused house churches to cut membership down from around 15 members to more like five or six.

Open Doors staff say that in the last several months, the Iranian government has prohibited several churches from offering services in Farsi on Fridays, the official day off in the country. The Iranian government also forbids the selling of Bibles or New Testaments.

And persecution comes from society, too. “Based on the information that we get from people, we believe that persecution by family members is growing; but this kind of persecution is less visible than, for example, arrest by police.” But, the staff member adds, “Even though persecution is growing, people becoming Christians continues to grow.”

The growth can only be explained by the power of the Lord. Pray that He would continue to work through the church, and to give dreams and visions to seeking Iranians. Pray for boldness and safety for believers as they proclaim the name of the one and only God.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Walking in the heavenly realms Part Two


                 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.


(John 17:22 NLT)


           The night before Jesus died he and his disciples left the upper room where they had celebrated the Passover feast together. Slowly as they had done many times before they made their way to the Mount of Olives. The mood I believe in this small crowd was electric but solemn. The disciples were sad because Jesus had revealed to them he was leaving them. Jesus was beginning to feel the weight of what was coming on the morrow.


We can only imagine what thoughts occupied the mind of the Nazarene at this time. His mind could have drifted in reflection back over the work of the past three years. In that time he had demonstrated the heart and mind, and yes the power of God. Yet from the beginning it had been a journey destined to bring him to this moment.

He may have thought of standing on the banks of the Jordan River listening to the thundering voice of the Baptist, John who under the anointing of the Holy Spirit proclaimed to all that would listen that he had been sent to prepare the way for the one who was coming. He was baptizing them with water but the one who was coming would baptize with fire.

Jesus stepped into the water with all the other broken, wounded seekers of truth to be baptized by John. He in so doing proclaimed to the whole world that for once and all time he was going to take upon himself the sins of the whole world. He identified himself with the lost all around him that day and the Father and the Holy Spirit spoke of their divine approval of his act.

Yet three years later we find him ready to die in the place of every human being who had ever been born. He stopped and I believe raised his voice to Father and uttered the most anointed prayer that has ever been recorded. Today I would just like to focus on just one sentence of that prayer.

In this sentence we see the divine purpose of the Father in sending his son to die for the sins of the entire world. Father knew that man had been corrupted and fundamentally changed on the inside by sin. Sin in the human heart produces lust in all its diverse forms, greed, hatred, and most importantly separated the human race from God.

The next day the divine sacrifice of Jesus would forever more break down the wall between God and man. Yet Father had a much higher purpose in mind than just forgiveness of sins. As our text shows Jesus came to give to the believers in him through every generation the glory of God within that they might be one with him. A divine union of God and man through the finished work of Jesus on the cross was to take place.

Jesus spoke what was I believe that which was uppermost on his mind and heart that night. Father God wanted the power of sin to be broken in the hearts of all believers in him that we might by grace be lifted into the heavenlies, and made a partaker of the glory of God, and thusly made aware that we share a holy union with the Father and Son on the same level that they share with each other.

So poor hurting soul where ever you may be found and whatever your circumstance, Jesus has opened to your heart a new divine reality he wishes to share with you. We in Christ have hope for tomorrow because of the divine witness in our hearts there is a better world coming, for the meek Nazarene is still speaking. As it is written Christ in you the hope of glory.(Colossians 3:4)

News Channel Morning Edition: March 26, 2012

News Channel Morning Edition: March 26, 2012

U.S. War Game Sees Perils Of Israeli Strike Against Iran

                              US General James Mattis
                                         Story taken from
                                     http://www.nytimes.com



           A classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American officials.


The officials said the so-called war game was not designed as a rehearsal for American military action — and they emphasized that the exercise’s results were not the only possible outcome of a real-world conflict.

But the game has raised fears among top American planners that it may be impossible to preclude American involvement in any escalating confrontation with Iran, the officials said. In the debate among policy makers over the consequences of any Israeli attack, that reaction may give stronger voice to those in the White House, Pentagon and intelligence community who have warned that a strike could prove perilous for the United States.

The results of the war game were particularly troubling to Gen. James N. Mattis, who commands all American forces in the Middle East, Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, according to officials who either participated in the Central Command exercise or who were briefed on the results and spoke on condition of anonymity because of its classified nature.

When the exercise had concluded earlier this month, according to the officials, General Mattis told aides that an Israeli first strike would be likely to have dire consequences across the region and for United States forces there.

The two-week war game, called Internal Look, played out a narrative in which the United States found it was pulled into the conflict after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials with knowledge of the exercise. The United States then retaliated by carrying out its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The initial Israeli attack was assessed to have set back the Iranian nuclear program by roughly a year, and the subsequent American strikes did not slow the Iranian nuclear program by more than an additional two years. However, other Pentagon planners have said that America’s arsenal of long-range bombers, refueling aircraft and precision missiles could do far more damage to the Iranian nuclear program — if President Obama were to decide on a full-scale retaliation.

The exercise was designed specifically to test internal military communications and coordination among battle staffs in the Pentagon; in Tampa, Fla., where the headquarters of the Central Command is located; and in the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of an Israeli strike. But the exercise was written to assess a pressing, potential, real-world situation.

In the end, the war game reinforced to military officials the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of a strike by Israel, and a counterstrike by Iran, the officials said.

American and Israeli intelligence services broadly agree on the progress Iran has made to enrich uranium. But they disagree on how much time there would be to prevent Iran from building a weapon if leaders in Tehran decided to go ahead with one.

With the Israelis saying publicly that the window to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb is closing, American officials see an Israeli attack on Iran within the next year as a possibility. They have said privately that they believe that Israel would probably give the United States little or no warning should Israeli officials make the decision to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Officials said that, under the chain of events in the war game, Iran believed that Israel and the United States were partners in any strike against Iranian nuclear sites and therefore considered American military forces in the Persian Gulf as complicit in the attack. Iranian jets chased Israeli warplanes after the attack, and Iranians launched missiles at an American warship in the Persian Gulf, viewed as an act of war that allowed an American retaliation.

Internal Look has long been one of Central Command’s most significant planning exercises, and is carried out about twice a year to assess how the headquarters, its staff and command posts in the region would respond to various real-world situations.

Over the years, it has been used to prepare for various wars in the Middle East. According to the defense Web site GlobalSecurity.org, military planners during the cold war used Internal Look to prepare for a move by the Soviet Union to seize Iranian oil fields. The American war plan at the time called for the Pentagon to march nearly six Army divisions north from the Persian Gulf to the Zagros Mountains of Iran to blunt a Soviet attack.

In December 2002, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, who was the top officer at Central Command, used Internal Look to test the readiness of his units for the coming invasion of Iraq.

Many experts have predicted that Iran would try to carefully manage the escalation after an Israeli first strike in order to avoid giving the United States a rationale for attacking with its far superior forces. Thus, it might use proxies to set off car bombs in world capitals or funnel high explosives to insurgents in Afghanistan to attack American and NATO troops.

While using surrogates might, in the end, not be enough to hide Iran’s instigation of these attacks, the government in Tehran could at least publicly deny all responsibility.

Some military specialists in the United States and in Israel who have assessed the potential ramifications of an Israeli attack believe that the last thing Iran would want is a full-scale war on its territory. Thus, they argue that Iran would not directly strike American military targets, whether warships in the Persian Gulf or bases in the region.

Their analysis, however, also includes the broad caveat that it is impossible to know the internal thinking of the senior Iranian leadership, and is informed by the awareness that even the most detailed war games cannot predict how nations and their leaders will react in the heat of conflict.

Yet these specialists continue their work, saying that any insight on how the Iranians will react to an attack will help determine whether the Israelis carry out a strike — and what the American position will be if they do.

Israeli intelligence estimates, backed by academic studies, have cast doubt on the widespread assumption that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would set off a catastrophic set of events like a regional conflagration, widespread acts of terrorism and sky-high oil prices.

“A war is no picnic,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio in November. But if Israel feels itself forced into action, the retaliation would be bearable, he said. “There will not be 100,000 dead or 10,000 dead or 1,000 dead. The state of Israel will not be destroyed.”

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President?

President Obama
Story taken from
http://www.wallbuilders.com



             When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct.


Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general and Israel in particular.

So perhaps the most accurate description of his antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical. And then when his hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor.

In fact, there have been numerous clearly documented times when his pro-Islam positions have been the cause of his anti-Biblical actions.

Listed below in chronological order are (1) numerous records of his attacks on Biblical persons or organizations; (2) examples of the hostility toward Biblical faith that have become evident in the past three years in the Obama-led military; (3) a listing of his open attacks on Biblical values; and finally (4) a listing of numerous incidents of his preferential deference for Islam’s activities and positions, including letting his Islamic advisors guide and influence his hostility toward people of Biblical faith.

1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith:

April 2008 – Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they “cling to guns or religion” and have an “antipathy to people who aren't like them.”

February 2009 – Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011.

April 2009 – When speaking at Georgetown University, Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name be covered when he is making his speech.

May 2009 – Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House.

April 2009 – In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three.

October 19, 2010 – Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence – an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions.

November 2010 – Obama misquotes the National Motto, saying it is “E pluribus unum” rather than “In God We Trust” as established by federal law.

January 2011 – After a federal law was passed to transfer a WWI Memorial in the Mojave Desert to private ownership, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the cross in the memorial could continue to stand, but the Obama administration refused to allow the land to be transferred as required by law, and refused to allow the cross to be re-erected as ordered by the Court.

February 2011 – Although he filled posts in the State Department, for more than two years Obama did not fill the post of religious freedom ambassador, an official that works against religious persecution across the world; he filled it only after heavy pressure from the public and from Congress.

April 2011 – For the first time in American history, Obama urges passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates without regard to the dictates of their own faith, thus eliminating conscience protection in hiring.

August 2011 – The Obama administration releases its new health care rules that override religious conscience protections for medical workers in the areas of abortion and contraception.

November 2011 – Obama opposes inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial.

November 2011 – Unlike previous presidents, Obama studiously avoids any religious references in his Thanksgiving speech.

December 2011 – The Obama administration denigrates other countries' religious beliefs as an obstacle to radical homosexual rights.

January 2012 – The Obama administration argues that the First Amendment provides no protection for churches and synagogues in hiring their pastors and rabbis.

February 2012 – The Obama administration forgives student loans in exchange for public service, but announces it will no longer forgive student loans if the public service is related to religion.
2. Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith:

June 2011 – The Department of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial ceremonies at Houston National Cemetery.

August 2011 – The Air Force stops teaching the Just War theory to officers in California because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine in the third century AD – a theory long taught by civilized nations across the world (except America).

September 2011 – Air Force Chief of Staff prohibits commanders from notifying airmen of programs and services available to them from chaplains.

September 2011 – The Army issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center stipulating that “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and/or facts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”

November 2011 – The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity.

November 2011 – The Air Force Academy pays $80,000 to add a Stonehenge-like worship center for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans.

February 2012 – The U. S. Military Academy at West Point disinvites three star Army general and decorated war hero Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin (retired) from speaking at an event because he is an outspoken Christian.

February 2012 – The Air Force removes “God” from the patch of Rapid Capabilities Office (the word on the patch was in Latin: Dei).

February 2012 – The Army orders Catholic chaplains not to read a letter to parishioners that their archbishop asked them to read.

3. Acts of hostility toward Biblical values:

January 2009 – Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations.

January 2009 – President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.

March 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit.

March 2009 – Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

March 2009 – Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations.

May 2009 – The White House budget eliminates all funding for abstinence-only education and replaces it with “comprehensive” sexual education, repeatedly proven to increase teen pregnancies and abortions. 31 He continues the deletion in subsequent budgets.

May 2009 – Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their “criminal” activities.

July 2009 – The Obama administration illegally extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of Foreign Service and Executive Branch employees, in direction violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

September 16, 2009 – The Obama administration appoints as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, who asserts that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, if they may negatively affect homosexual “equality.”

July 2010 – The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion.

August 2010 – The Obama administration Cuts funding for 176 abstinence education programs.

September 2010 – The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judge’s decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

February 2011 – Obama directs the Justice Department to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

March 2011 – The Obama administration refuses to investigate videos showing Planned Parenthood helping alleged sex traffickers get abortions for victimized underage girls.

July 2011 – Obama allows homosexuals to serve openly in the military, reversing a policy originally instituted by George Washington in March 1778.

September 2011 – The Pentagon directs that military chaplains may perform same-sex marriages at military facilities in violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

October 2011 – The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion.

4. Acts of preferentialism for Islam:

May 2009 – While Obama does not host any National Day of Prayer event at the White House, he does host White House Iftar dinners in honor of Ramadan.

April 2010 – Christian leader Franklin Graham is disinvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer Event because of complaints from the Muslim community.

April 2010 – The Obama administration requires rewriting of government documents and a change in administration vocabulary to remove terms that are deemed offensive to Muslims, including jihad, jihadists, terrorists, radical Islamic, etc.

August 2010 – Obama speaks with great praise of Islam and condescendingly of Christianity.

August 2010 – Obama went to great lengths to speak out on multiple occasions on behalf of building an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time he was silent about a Christian church being denied permission to rebuild at that location.

2010 – While every White House traditionally issues hundreds of official proclamations and statements on numerous occasions, this White House avoids traditional Biblical holidays and events but regularly recognizes major Muslim holidays, as evidenced by its 2010 statements on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.

October 2011 – Obama’s Muslim advisers block Middle Eastern Christians’ access to the White House.

February 2012 – The Obama administration makes effulgent apologies for Korans being burned by the U. S. military, 51 but when Bibles were burned by the military, numerous reasons were offered why it was the right thing to do.

Many of these actions are literally unprecedented – this is the first time they have happened in four centuries of American history. The hostility of President Obama toward Biblical faith and values is without equal from any previous American president.




The Brody File: March 22, 2012

The Brody File: March 22, 2012

US Lawmaker: Iran May Have Hundreds Of Hezbollah Operatives In US

                                    Congress man Peter King
                                         Story taken from
                                    http://www.voanews.com


    The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, said the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah may have hundreds of operatives based in the United States, and he said Hezbollah, and not al-Qaida, poses the greatest terrorist threat to Americans.King held a hearing Wednesday with former government officials testifying.


House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King of New York takes U.S. national security very seriously, and he says the terrorist threat to the United States may be shifting.

"Now, as Iran moves closer to nuclear weapons, and there is increasing concern over war between Iran and Israel, we must also focus on Iran's secret operatives and their number one terrorist proxy force, Hezbollah, which we know is in America," said King.

King said there are 84 Iranian diplomats in New York at the United Nations and in Washington, some of whom he said are likely to be spies.

One of the witnesses to the panel, Mitchell Silber, is the New York Police Department's director of intelligence analysis. He said since 2005, New York law enforcement officers have interviewed at least 13 people with ties to Iran's government who were seen taking pictures of New York City landmarks. Police consider the activity to be pre-operational surveillance.

Another one of the witnesses, former FBI official Chris Swecker, agreed that Hezbollah poses a real threat.

"While al-Qaida has gained attention and notoriety with a series of sensational attacks, Hezbollah has quietly and strategically operated below the radar screen by avoiding overt terrorist attacks in the U.S.," said Swecker. "But, nevertheless, Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. citizens, and including 241 Marines in the bombing of the Beirut barracks" [in 1983].

A former drug enforcement official, Michael Braun, said he fears the confluence of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and global drug cartels. He said Hezbollah and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are working with cartels.

"They are now operating and working in close proximity and collaborating with Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking cartels, not only in the Western Hemisphere, but other locations such as Guinea Bissau in West Africa," Braun said.

Several witnesses said Tehran may now be prepared to carry out proxy attacks on U.S. soil. They cited a failed plot, allegedly by Iran, to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. last October in a Washington restaurant.

The ranking member on the committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, urged caution, especially addressing those lawmakers who are calling for tougher action on Iran's nuclear program. He said, "But we should not engage in a public discussion that creates fear and delivers misinformation."

Thompson said if lawmakers have concerns about Iran, they should invite National Intelligence Director James Clapper to testify in front of them in a classified setting.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Christian World News: March 23, 2012

Christian World News: March 23, 2012

Jihadists "Liberating" Spain For Islam

                                                                         

                                           Story taken from
                                http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org


               Nine Islamists accused of planning terrorist attacks aimed at "liberating" Spain for Islam are standing trial in Madrid.


Spanish public prosecutors say the men -- Salafi-Jihadists who belonged to an Islamist cell known as the "Army of the Messiah" (Ansar al-Mahdi) -- sought to "free" the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in northern Africa, from Spanish rule and thus begin the Islamic re-conquest of Spain.

Salafism is a branch of radical Islam that seeks forcibly to re-establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, which Salafists view as a Muslim state that must be reconquered for Islam.

Much of Spain was ruled by Muslim conquerors from 711 and 1492; Salafists believe that the territories the Muslims lost during the Spanish Reconquista still belong to them and that they have a right to return and establish their rule there. This belief is based on the Islamic precept that territories once occupied by Muslims must forever remain under Muslim domination as part of the Waqf [detained or preserved] -- a religious endowment now implicitly owned forever by Allah.

Spanish prosecutors say the jihadist cell operated out of the Darkawia mosque in the El Príncipe Alfonso neighborhood of Ceuta. The ringleader of the group is a Moroccan imam named Mohammed Abdessalam, who prosecutors say "preached the most extreme version of Islam."

The jihadists are accused of plotting a series of bombings in Ceuta, including churches, the city's main port and other parts of the city's infrastructure, in an effort to "duplicate the train bombings that occurred in Madrid on March 11, 2004." The Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,800, are considered to be one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern European history.

Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of eight years for each of the suspects, whose trial is taking place at the Spanish High Court (Audiencia Nacional) in Madrid.

The trial comes as a leaked secret report prepared by Spain's National Intelligence Center (CNI) in January warns that Salafi Islamists pose the greatest threat to security in Spain.

The document warns of "alarming symptoms" of the presence in Spain of members and cells of an Islamist group, Takfir wal-Hijra, which subscribes to the "most radical and violent version of Salafi-Jihadism."

Takfir wal-Hijra doctrine promotes "jihad without rules" by accepting non-Muslim practices such as drinking alcohol and drug trafficking as a cover for extremist activities. The group aspires to subjugate the entire planet under a "global caliphate ruled exclusively by Islamic Sharia law," according to CNI. Members of the group are now firmly established in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga and Valencia, among other Spanish cities.

The CNI document states that police have detected Takfir activities in four mosques in Barcelona and two mosques in Valencia. The mosques are "led by radical imams from Algeria and Morocco" and are centers for "proselytization and recruitment of new members using religious instruction as a decoy."

The CNI report echoes earlier warnings by American and Spanish officials who contend that the autonomous region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain is "a major Mediterranean center for radical Islamists," according to diplomatic cables that were obtained by Wikileaks and published by the Madrid-based El País newspaper in December 2010.

The three cables, all of which are from the US Embassy in Madrid, say that Catalonia has become "a prime base of operations" for Islamic terrorists; and thanks to uncontrolled immigration the region, it now has a "large Muslim population susceptible to jihadist recruitment."

The documents also provide insights into the extent of the links between Islamic terrorists and organized crime in Barcelona, which the cables call a "crossroads of worrisome activities." The problem is so grave that the United States has proposed setting up an intelligence hub at the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona to counter the growing threat.

A five-page cable, dated October 2, 2007, for example, describes the link between mass immigration to Spain during the past decade and the rise of radical Islamism in the country.

The document, which is classified secret and apparently authored by then-Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre, states: "Heavy immigration -- both legal and illegal -- from North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria) and Southeast Asia (Pakistan and Bangladesh) has made Catalonia a magnet for terrorist recruiters. …

The Spanish National Police estimates that there may be upwards of 60,000 Pakistanis living in Barcelona and the surrounding area; the vast majority are male, unmarried or unaccompanied, and without legal documentation. There are even more such immigrants from North Africa. …

They live on the edges of Spanish society, they do not speak the language, they are often unemployed, and they have very few places to practice their religion with dignity. … Individually, these circumstances would provide fertile ground for terrorist recruitment; taken together, the threat is clear."

The cable also describes the "amorphous threat represented by the nexus of terrorism, crime and drug trafficking" in Catalonia, which the document says has become an international magnet for drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, illegal smuggling, prostitution, organized crime and counterfeiting.

"There is little doubt that the autonomous region of Catalonia has become a prime base of operations for terrorist activity. Spanish authorities tell us they fear the threat from these atomized immigrant communities prone to radicalism, but they have very little intelligence on or ability to penetrate these groups," the cable states.

The sad irony is that many of Spain's problems with Salafi-Jihadism are self-inflicted. Catalonia, for example, has a very active separatist movement that seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain. Catalan separatism is based on the idea that Catalonia is a separate nation with its own unique history, culture and language.

In an effort to promote the Catalan language, Catalonian pro-independence parties for decades have promoted immigration from non-Spanish-speaking countries, especially from Arabic-speaking Muslim countries, in the rather short-sighted belief that these immigrants would learn the Catalan language rather than speak Spanish.

The end result of this disastrous immigration policy is that Catalonia is now the "New Mecca of the Most Radical Islamism," according to the Catalan nationalist party Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC), which is having second thoughts about the wisdom of promoting Muslim immigration as a strategy to achieve Catalan independence.

In any event, Salafi preachers -- who do not believe in democracy and teach that Islamic Sharia law is above Spanish civil law -- are now calling on Muslims who are eligible to vote in Spain to support Catalan separatist parties as a means firmly to establish Islamism in Catalonia.

Abdelwahab Houzi, for example, is a Salafi jihadist preacher in the Catalan city of Lérida, where 29,000 Muslims now make up around 20% of the city's total population.

Houzi, who adheres to the radical Wahhabi sect of Islam, recently said: "Muslims should vote for pro-independence parties, as they need our votes. But what they do not know is that, when they allow us to vote, we will all vote for Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils and as we begin to accumulate power in the Catalan autonomous region, Islam will begin to be implemented."

Fear Not

Fear Not

Obama Restores Military Aid - As Egypt Designates Israel Its Top Enemy

                                                 President Obama

                                                    Story taken from
                                              http://frontpagemag.com/



       
      Egypt’s parliament, which is dominated by two pro-Sharia Islamic supremacist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, voted unanimously last Monday to expel Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, and signaled that the Camp David Accords would soon be a thing of the past: Egypt, the parliamentarians declared, would “never” be Israel’s ally.


In fact, Israel was Egypt’s “number one enemy.” And how did Barack Obama respond to this egregious trampling upon the agreement that has kept an uneasy peace between Israel and Egypt for thirty years? By announcing a resumption of military aid to Egypt.

From the beginning of the “Arab Spring,” I said repeatedly that it was not a democracy movement, as the Western press was claiming, but an Islamic supremacist takeover that would result in the creation of Sharia states that would be far more hostile to the U.S. and Israel than the Arab nationalist regimes they were supplanting.

This assessment was greeted with the usual scorn: the Islamic supremacist media machine charged “Islamophobia,” on Fox Juan Williams said I was “fearmongering,” and the usual suspects made the usual ad hominem attacks. Yet everything that has happened since then has shown that the “Arab Spring” is indeed an Islamic supremacist winter, ushering in repressive Sharia regimes with the enthusiastic blessing of Barack Obama.

Yet even as Egypt’s Islamic supremacists rattle their sabers, their spokesmen, allies and useful idiots in the American mainstream media continue to peddle their soothing lies. The Islamic supremacist and adolescent mudslinger Reza Aslan was at West Virginia University last week speaking about the developments in the Middle East, and heaping more steaming piles of what he calls analysis on the hapless marks in his audience. “Believe it or not,” Aslan said, and anyone with eyes in his head will opt for “not,” “the greatest single aspiration in the region at this moment is to achieve democracy.”

Slyly implying that those who have cast doubts on this alleged wonderful flowering of democracy are motivated by racism, he continued: “It does not matter where you pray or what skin color you were born with; democracy is a fundamental right of life.”

He also, according to the report on his talk in the campus paper, “aimed to debunk that the Arab Spring is an Islamic takeover. This myth is simply an American paradox due to the primary belief that we live in a secular country that easily separates church and state, he said.” Ah yes, of course. “There is not much difference between us and them,” Aslan said. “These groups now have the opportunity to come out of the mosque and to market ideas and see how they can come to life in reality.”

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Walking in the heavenly realms Part One


                  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

                  for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6



It does not take more than just a causal perusal of any morning’s headlines to be made aware that our world is in desperate trouble. Jesus warned his disciples and conversely through them all true followers of Jesus that these days of darkness and fear would come. The word of God tells us that the last days of human history would be punctuated by natural disasters, wars between nations, and kingdoms with differing world views in collision with one another.

Modern life today in every nation and country in some way or another bears the evidence we are living in those days. In such a day as this, can we have hope in our hearts for the future, and from what source would it come.

I would like, today, to take all of us back a little over two thousand years ago to a Judean hillside where a Jewish prophet and son of the living God addressed the crowd of followers and curious onlookers who had come to hear him speak. They never reckoned with the wisdom and authority with which he spoke.

On that Judean hillside he delivered the message which has come to be known by the world at large down to our day as the Sermon on the Mount. I should like to extract a single comment from that magnificent message and make it the center of our focus today. In a world torn by war, famine, lost faith and fear this message is more applicable to our day and the heart seeking for answers than ever before.

He or she that hungers and thirsts for righteousness shall be filled for this hunger of which Jesus is speaking begins in the human heart. The implication of the words that Jesus spoke of here is not just the normal desire to feed and drink but rather to be filled with a hunger and thirst for righteousness on the same level as in human terms would drive someone who is in the process of dying of starvation and thirst.

When we become consumed with a hunger for righteousness on par with the desire of a starving man would have for food we shall be filled.

With this writing today I am beginning a new work on walking in the Spirit with Father God, and his son Jesus Christ, facilitated by the Holy Spirit. I am a prophet called by God to walk in the heavenly realms. Yet in my heart of hearts, I believe Father is calling to all true followers of Jesus Christ to come to him in these troubled times.

I shall have more to share about this in the days ahead but to get where we are going we must start at the beginning. It all starts with a hunger for what Jesus called righteousness. This is nothing less than an internal hunger to know Father God. I would ask you dear reader does your heart hunger and thirst for Him? He is waiting for you.

If you do not know him ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you for all the sins you have committed and make him the Lord of your life. You have his promise that such a heartfelt declaration shall bring you to him and you will enter a new world of eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf.

To others who already know him, and your heart is yearning for a new higher revelation of our Lord and God, let us begin a new journey dedicating our hearts to him with a renewed vigor as we begin a search that shall take us to our destination a revelation and inward vision of the kingdom of God.

News Channel Morning Edition: March 15, 2012

News Channel Morning Edition: March 15, 2012

What Will Happen To The US If Israel Attacks Iran?

                                                      Richard Clarke
                                                   Story taken from
                                                http://news.yahoo.com


       President Obama is meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel at the White House today, trying to talk him out of an immediate strike on Iran's nuclear sites.


If Israel does decide to bomb Iran, however, what will it mean for the United States? According to former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, Americans should brace for a painful impact. Within a week of the first Israeli attack, says Clarke, a worst case scenario would bring soaring gas prices, terror attacks in U.S. cities, worldwide cyberwar, dead and wounded U.S. sailors, and the real possibility of broad American military involvement.

According to U.S. government estimates, about 20 percent of the oil traded worldwide passes through the Persian Gulf, bordered by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. If Israel were to bomb Iran, oil prices would immediately go up. If Iran responded by attacking oil tankers going through the Persian Gulf, says Clarke, gasoline prices for U.S. consumers could double.

"You could see very quickly Iranian commandos and their small boats attacking tankers, attacking oil platforms," said Clarke. "You could see mines being laid in the Gulf."

The result, said Clarke, "would be a huge crisis in energy." President Obama would tap the U.S.'s strategic petroleum reserve, alleviating some of the price rise. The spike in prices "might not last long if the U.S. and its allies are able to take control of the Gulf," said Clarke. "But that could take more than a week and under some scenarios it could take almost a month."

Terror Threat Against Americans

If Israel were to bomb Iran, American officials fear there could be a new wave of terrorism directed by Tehran, especially if the U.S. gets pulled in to the conflict.

"If we, the United States, we're bombing Iran, then I think they'd certainly want to try to do something on our homeland because we were bombing their homeland," said Clarke.

Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have already shown a willingness to act outside their own borders, both with deadly attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina in the 1990s and the apparent attempted hits on Israeli targets in a number of countries earlier this year.

"Both have strong inroads in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, where they could strike Israeli, Jewish, and U.S. targets," said Clarke.

Israeli embassies and consulates and Jewish places of worship in the U.S. have been put on alert.

The World's First International Cyberwar

An Israeli attack on Iran would likely set off the world's first international cyber war. Before striking, Israel will try to blind the air defenses of Iran and its neighbors with cyber warfare. And the U.S. might end up using capabilities it has kept secret until now.

"The United States has a very powerful ability to cause this sort of disruption to electric power grids, communications networks," said Clarke. "It hasn't done it because it doesn't like to expose its tricks as it's afraid once it does it, people will figure out how the United States does it. But in a war with Iran, they would be willing to run that risk."

Iran would also attempt to hit back. Said Clarke, "Iran also has a cyber command, which might try to retaliate by attacking U.S infrastructure such as the power grid, trains, airlines, refineries."

U.S. Navy Casualties in the Gulf

Should the U.S. become involved in the Israeli-Iran conflict militarily, says Clarke, it will be impossible to avoid American casualties.

"The Iranians have hundreds if not thousands of small boats, armed small boats, commando small boats, that will operate in the Gulf," said Clarke. "They can get in, they can swarm a U.S. destroyer. The Iranians now also have cruise missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles."

Clarke said there is a potential for the U.S. to sustain significant damage to a few ships and lose some sailors, just as it did during the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. Two U.S. ships were hit during that conflict, with a loss of nearly 40 American lives.

The U.S. Enters the War

According to Clarke, Israel can't do long-term, severe damage to Iran's nuclear infrastructure, so its chief purpose in bombing Iran would be to trigger Iranian retaliation and draw the U.S. into the war to defend Israel, and to finish off what Israel started.

If Israel bombs Iran, Clarke says the cascade of events will lead to attacks on Israeli cities. "Advisors to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak are saying that if Israel bombed Iran, the retaliation on Israel would be tolerable," said Clarke. "But if Hezbollah in Lebanon launched thousands of extended range, improved accuracy rockets on Israel, hundreds of Israelis would die. In such a small country, that would be devastating."

The casualties, in turn, would bring the inevitable call to Washington for help.

"You will very quickly see a phone call from Prime Minister Netanyahu to the President," said Clarke, "and he will say to him, 'Only the United States, Mr. President, can find and destroy these mobile missile launchers. Only you can save the lives of Israelis who are dying as I speak in our cities."

Clarke said that message would probably spur any U.S. president into action -- but especially one who is up for reelection within months. "It's likely to get a yes answer from the president," predicts Clarke, "and bring the U.S. into the war."

Jerusalem Dateline: Radical Islam and Egypts Future

Jerusalem Dateline: Radical Islam and Egypts Future

The Hundred-Billion-Euro Bomb

                                    German economist Hans-Werner Sinn
                                             Story taken from
                                           http://www.spiegel.de/


      More than a year ago, German economist Hans-Werner Sinn discovered a gigantic risk on the balance sheets of Germany's central bank. Were the euro zone to collapse, Bundesbank losses could be half a trillion euros -- more than one-and-a-half times the size of the country's annual budget.


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The crucial clue came from the same man whose signature once adorned the deutsche mark: Helmut Schlesinger, former president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank. He was the one who pointed Hans-Werner Sinn, an economist in Munich, in the direction of a strange entry in the Bundesbank's statistics: In late 2010, records showed claims on other euro-zone central banks totaling over €300 billion ($400 billion). Curious, Sinn began to dig deeper. What he found exceeded his worst expectations.

"In the beginning, all I had was this number, and I didn't really know what it meant," says Sinn, who is president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research. "The Bundesbank told me those were irrelevant balances. But that didn't reassure me."

Sinn spoke with specialists at various central banks and with colleagues in his field. "Each person knew a little bit," Sinn explains, "and I had to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. It was real detective work."

After weeks of work, Sinn had assembled enough pieces to create a picture that would make any one shudder: Since the 2007 financial crisis, immense imbalances have formed within the otherwise harmless payment system that exists between the central banks of the 17 euro-zone member states. While Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece, all hit hard by the debt crisis, show deficits totaling over €600 billion, the claims owed the Bundesbank have climbed to €498 billion.

'Caught in a Trap'

As long as the monetary union continues to exist, this isn't a catastrophe. The money is virtual, created by central banks, and its existence doesn't mean that an equivalent amount is lacking elsewhere. But as soon as a country leaves the euro zone, or the currency union collapses entirely, things get critical.

"We're caught in a trap," Sinn says. "If the euro breaks apart, we're left with an outstanding balance of nearly €500 billion, owed by a system that no longer exists." That figure, €500 billion, is more than one and a half times Germany's annual federal budget.

This, though, is the worst-case scenario, and would only apply if the euro zone falls apart entirely. A far more realistic possibility is that one country, such as Greece, would leave the monetary union. In this case, all of the other euro-zone central banks would have to bear the Greek central bank's debt together. Germany's Bundesbank, in accordance with its share of the European Central Bank (ECB), would assume about 28 percent. With Greek debt at €108 billion, Germany's share would be approximately €30 billion.

The Bundesbank's claims are set off by massive debts in crisis-stricken euro-zone countries.

Sinn loves to be provocative. In this case, though, it seems he truly has serious concerns. Sitting at a restaurant in Berlin's government quarter with his laptop open on the table in front of him, he uses the tip of his coffee spoon to trace the yellow and blue lines that snake across the screen. These lines are meant to show the extent to which the euro zone has gone off track.

"This is dangerous," Sinn says, his eyes flashing. These outstanding balances owed by other central banks open Germany up to blackmail, he explains. "Now everyone knows we have to save the euro, at almost any cost."

His thesis sounds dramatic, yet so far Sinn hasn't managed to get the general public interested in the problem, which is only slowly spreading beyond economic circles. He has made it into the major newspapers, but the mass-circulation tabloid Bild won't be publishing Sinn's discovery on its front page any time soon.

Sinn certainly isn't shy about making himself heard. He's a welcome guest on talk shows because he makes his case clearly and sums it up in pithy sound bites. But that approach doesn't work with Sinn's current subject, which is too complex for a talk show. Then there's the name of the payment system between the central banks -- "TARGET2" -- which sounds about as exciting as the title of an accounting seminar.

The Brody File: Super Tuesday and Beyond

The Brody File: Super Tuesday and Beyond

U.S. State Department Actively Promoting Islam In Europe

                               Alan Solomont US Ambassador to Spain 
                                               Story taken from
                                        http://www.stonegateinstitute.org




       The United States ambassador to Spain recently met with a group of Muslim immigrants in one of the most Islamized neighborhoods of Barcelona to apologize for American foreign policymaking in the Middle East.


U.S. Ambassador Alan Solomont told Muslims assembled at the town hall-like meeting in the heart of Barcelona's old city that the United States is not an "enemy of Islam" and that U.S. President Barack Obama wants to improve America's image in the Middle East as quickly as possible by closing the "dark chapters" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.

"There are things that the United States has done badly," Solomont said at the February 28 gathering organized by a non-profit organization called the Cultural, Educational and Social Association of Pakistani Women. "But now the Obama government wants to improve relations with Muslims," he promised.

During the one-and-a-half-hour question-and-answer session, Solomont asked those in attendance simple rhetorical questions, including: "Did you know that the United States sends a lot of money to Pakistan?" and "Did you know that the decision to destroy Osama bin Laden's house was made by the United States?"

After responding to queries about the "Talibanization of Pakistan due the war in Afghanistan" and the "demonization of Islam in the West," Solomont said Obama wants to end the long-time American practice of establishing alliances with dictators in the Middle East, a strategy which he said has failed to prevent the rise of "the bearded ones" [radical Islamists], this according to the Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia, which also interviewed Solomont on the sidelines of the event.

The Barcelona meeting, which was held in a Muslim ghetto called Raval (a.k.a. Ravalistan because Muslim immigrants now make up 45% of the barrio's total population), is an example of the Obama administration's so-called Muslim Outreach.

The U.S. State Department -- working through American embassies and consulates in Europe -- has been stepping-up its efforts to establish direct contacts with largely unassimilated Muslim immigrant communities in towns and cities across Europe.

Proponents of Obama's approach to public diplomacy -- some elements of which originated with his immediate predecessor -- say it is part of a "counter-radicalization" strategy which aims to prevent radical Muslims with European passports from carrying out terrorist attacks against the United States.

A key component of the strategy is to "empower" Muslims who can help build a "counter-narrative" to that of terrorists. In practice, however, Obama ideologues are crisscrossing Europe on U.S. taxpayer funded trips to "export" failed American approaches to multiculturalism, affirmative action, cultural diversity and special rights for minorities.

Further, American diplomats are repeatedly apologizing to Muslims in Europe for a multitude of real or imagined slights against Islam, and the U.S. State Department is now spending millions of dollars each year actively promoting Islam -- including Islamic Sharia law -- on the continent.

In Ireland, for example, the U.S. Embassy in Dublin recently sponsored a seminar ostensibly designed to help Muslim immigrants increase their influence within the Irish business and financial communities.

The opening speech at the event was delivered by Imam Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Center of Ireland, despite the fact that leaked U.S. State Department cables show that the U.S. government has known for many years that Halawi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and serves as the right-hand man of the radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Halawa, an Egyptian immigrant who has dedicated his life to the cause of introducing Islamic Sharia law in Europe, told those in attendance that the main purpose of the conference was to bring the Irish banking system into conformity with Islamic legal principles. U.S. Ambassador Dan Rooney, a lifelong Republican turned Obama acolyte, said at the same conference that the United States was a "solid partner" behind Halawa's venture.

In Austria, the U.S. Embassy in Vienna sponsored a film contest in February on the theme of "Diversity and Tolerance" aimed at teaching wayward Austrians that they should show respect for Muslim immigrants who refuse to integrate into their society.

Ambassador William Eacho, an Obama campaign fundraiser turned political appointee, awarded the first prize to a group of students in the northern Austrian town of Steyr who produced a one-minute silent film promoting tolerance for Muslim women who wear Islamic face-covering veils such as burkas in public spaces.

Obama and his team may think they know what is best for Europeans, but according to recent polls, more than 70% of Austrians are in favor of a law that would ban the burka.

In Belgium, U.S. Ambassador Howard Gutman, another Obama fundraiser turned diplomat, told lawyers attending a conference in Brussels in November 2011 that Israel is to blame for Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, Gutman, who is Jewish, showed conference attendees a video of himself receiving a warm welcome at a Muslim school in Brussels, which he said proved that Muslims are not anti-Semitic. Following a barrage of criticism for rationalizing the growing problem of anti-Semitism in Europe, the U.S. Embassy in Belgium removed the evidence by uploading an amended transcript of Gutman's remarks on its website.

In France, the U.S. Embassy in Paris co-sponsored a seminar to teach Muslims in France how they can politically organize themselves. Operatives from the Democratic Party coached 70 Muslim "diversity leaders" from disaffected Muslim-majority suburban slums known as banlieues on how to develop a communications strategy, raise funds and build a political base.

The French government -- which has been trying to reverse the pernicious effects of decades of state-sponsored multiculturalism -- expressed dismay at what it called "meddling."

The Obama administration's Muslim-oriented coaching sessions on community organizing come as the Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar is busy peddling the fundamentalist teachings of Wahhabi Islam -- which not only discourages Muslim integration into the West, but actively encourages jihad [holy war] against non-Muslims -- to hundreds of thousands of disgruntled Muslim immigrants in France.

As the Obamans and the Wahhabis compete for influence among Muslim immigrants, forward-looking analysts fret that France may yet end up with politically organized jihadists turning the banlieues into Islamic emirates.

In Norway, where Muslim immigrants already have more rights than native Norwegians, the U.S. Embassy in Oslo organized a "dialogue meeting" designed to "empower" Muslim immigrant women in the country.

According to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Obama's special envoy to the Muslim world, Farah Pandith, castigated the Norwegian government's integration policies as being insufficiently fair to Muslim immigrants. She also told Norwegians that Muslims are "more free to practice Islam in the United States than in any other country in the world." Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg said Norway has much to learn from the Americans.

In Britain, U.S. embassy employees in London frequently conduct outreach to help "empower" the Muslims across the country. According to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable, for example, Ambassador Louis Susman "engages with U.K. Muslim communities regularly…he has spoken to Muslim groups in Wales and Scotland, visited the London Central Mosque, and hosted an interfaith breakfast at his residence, among other activities."

Susman has come under fire for visiting another London mosque, namely the East London Mosque, which is one of the most extreme Islamic institutions in Britain. Built with money from Saudi Arabia to propagate Wahhabi Islam, the sprawling facility is home to the London Muslim Center, which the U.S. government has long known is a haven for Islamic extremists. During his visit, Susman spoke of his "great admiration" for the mosque and his enthusiasm for meeting its staff.

According to the leaked cable, "Having the U.S. Ambassador visit and listen respectfully to Muslim points of view has an enormous impact on groups that often feel marginalized and ignored."