CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 30, 2014

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 30, 2014

In blistering UN speech, Netanyahu says Hamas, Islamic State share creed

UNITED NATIONS — In a blistering speech to the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that Hamas and the Islamic State group are "branches of the same poisonous tree," both bent on world domination through terror, just as the Nazis were.
Netanyahu also lashed back at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Israel last week of carrying out war crimes and waging a "war of genocide" during the fighting in Gaza. Netanyahu said Hamas committed "the real war crimes" in Gaza by using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, the Israeli leader argued that Israel's fight against Hamas and the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State are part of the same cause — the defeat of Islamic extremism.
Netanyahu railed against world leaders for simultaneously condemning the Jewish state for its war with Hamas and praising President Barack Obama for attacking Islamic State militants and other extremists in Syria and Iraq.
"They evidently don't understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree," the prime minister said, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its acronyms. He added: "When it comes to its ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas."
Netanyahu said ISIS and Hamas, as well as other Muslim extremist movements, from al-Qaida and Nigeria's Boko Haram to Somalia's al-Shabab and Lebanon's Hezbollah, share the goal of imposing militant Islam on the world. He likened them to "another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight decades ago" — Nazism.
To protect global peace and security, he said, "we must remove this cancer before it's too late."
Turning to another regional enemy, Netanyahu warned that the gravest threat to the world today is the danger of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. "It's one thing to confront militant Islamists on pickup trucks, armed with Kalashnikov rifles. It's another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction," he said.
Netanyahu said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's condemnation of the spread of terrorism last week amounted to "one of history's greatest displays of doubletalk."
He accused Iran itself of mounting terrorist attacks all around the world, and lumped the country in with Islamic extremist movements. "To say that Iran doesn't practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter never played shortstop for the New York Yankees," he said.
Netanyahu criticized the efforts of six world powers to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, saying: "To defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war."
He also launched a scathing attack on the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing it of continually singling out Israel for criticism when other parts of the world are awash in atrocities. He called the Human Rights Council's name "an oxymoron" and charged that the body has become "a terrorist rights council."
Netanyahu said the council's treatment of Israel reflects "the return of one of the world's oldest prejudices."
"It's called anti-Semitism. It is now spreading in polite society, where it masquerades as legitimate criticism of Israel," he said.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, said Netanyahu's speech was "a blatant manipulation of facts" aimed at misleading world leaders "through a combination of hate language, slander and argument of obfuscation."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki took issue with Netanyahu over the similarities between Hamas and Islamic State. She said that while the U.S. considers both terrorist organizations, "we obviously believe that (Islamic State) poses a different threat to the United States."
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said Netanyahu, in his remarks, "buried" the possibility of a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the pre-war borders of 1967. Erekat also complained that Netanyahu branded those who dare to stand up to Israel as anti-Semites.
In his address, Netanyahu questioned how Israel can be accused of genocide, saying no country has gone to greater lengths to avoid civilian casualties by warning Gazans before attacks on neighborhoods.
"In what world is genocide warning the enemy's civilians in advance?" he asked.
To make his point about the Palestinians putting weapons in civilian areas, Netanyahu held up a photo he said was taken by a French TV network showing two rocket launchers near an apartment building where three children were playing.
"Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles," he declared.
During the 50-day Gaza war, which ended Aug. 26, Israel launched thousands of airstrikes against what it said were Hamas-linked targets in the densely populated coastal territory, while Gaza militants fired several thousand rockets at Israel.
More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed — the vast majority civilians, according to the United Nations — along with more than 70 Israelis.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishiq told the AP: "We are not terrorists, we are victims of the Israeli occupation who took our land and expelled our people. We are fighting for freedom and independence. Israel is the one that targets civilians."

CBN TV - The Brody File: On The Border - Sept. 25, 2014

CBN TV - The Brody File: On The Border - Sept. 25, 2014

Death Threats Against Christian Leaders Emerge From Gay Rights Activists

                                                  By Jennifer LeClaire


       

I wasn't surprised when fellow culture warriors, like our very own Michael Brown, conservative blogger Matt Barber, Concerned Women for America's Janice Shaw Crouse and others landed on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) hate list.

The world's largest gay-activist organization last week issued a report called "The Export of Hate" that called out a network of American, conservative Christian leaders "who are working tirelessly to undercut LGBT people around the world at every turn."

People I work with day in and day out are on that list—and not a single one of them is a hate monger. Rather, they are painted as villains for being brave enough to lift up their voices for truth in a spiritual and cultural war for God's will as it relates to marriage, family—and souls. But some of the very souls these men and women of God are contending for are launching literal death threats against them.

The HRC has targeted Scott Lively—an American author, attorney, social activist, independent candidate for governor of Massachusetts in the 2014 election, and president of Abiding Truth Ministries—for murder. Lively is target No. 1 on the HRC's hate list. Lively says he has received two death threats since the report was published. That death-laced message also listed Barber and Liberty Law School Dean Mat Staver, among others.

"Not every 'gay' activist is physically violent, thankfully. Most limit their 'human rights advocacy' to harassment, intimidation and slander," Lively wrote on his blog. "But make no mistake, if they thought they could get away with killing every person on the HRC and SPLC hit lists, they would do it. They smolder with malicious hatred against anyone who stands in their way."

HRC contends that there's "nothing but shame and hatred" in Lively's work and accuses him of putting "LGBT Russian citizens in harm's way, who now face discrimination, jail or death. He also successfully advocated for a law in Uganda that sends LGBT people to prison for life."

Lively rightly points out that even in the most heated arguments he has distinguished the humanity of individuals in the LGBT movement from the inhumanity of their political goals.

"I care for all people who struggle with homosexual sin and want them all to be delivered from their bondage," Lively wrote on Barbwire. "I love them enough to tell them the truth, even though they hate me for it... None of my comments, taken in context, encourage hatred or violence against homosexuals."

I know what it's like to get death threats. It's unsettling, even if you have no real reason to believe the threat is viable. Some gay activists have misunderstood truth for hate. Although I agree there are some who speak hateful words in the name of Jesus, the men and women of God on the front lines of the culture wars are not among them. They are sharing truth that will set people free—and the devil hates that.

"The truth be told, it is the HRC that is engaging in destructive activism by spreading misinformation and inciting fear, and it is the HRC that must be exposed," says Brown, author of Can You Be Gay and Christian. "Thankfully, they got one thing right in the report, stating that our 'voices are being heard' and our 'impact is being felt.' By God's grace, as we continue to speak the truth in love, the real bigots will be revealed."
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/September29/292.html#hwyrXEEhIM2GLfu7.99

A Light In The Darkness

By Michael Plemmons

A little over two thousand years ago a baby was born whose birth was foretold by prophets of God since Moses. The celestial angels filled the heavens in a universal outbreak of joy, singing, and rejoicing, that this day had finally come.

Shepherds tending their flocks at night having beheld this spectacle made their way down the hillsides of Bethlehem, and having found him, stood in amazement as they beheld him in a manger wondering within themselves what it all meant.

  Jesus always had the ability to amaze as at the age of twelve he stood in the temple surrounded by the doctors of the law, and demonstrated by his words the power of God which he carried within him. Only someone who carried in his heart a connection with his Father could have told his exasperated parents that they should have known they would find him in his Father's house.

 John in prophetic wonder stood on the banks of the Jordan and proclaimed to one and all that another was coming. How marvelous that Jesus came to be baptized by John at the start of his ministry. Three years of miracles and wonders  followed all leading to one night.

 On that night the meek Nazarene made his way out of Jerusalem into the Judean hillside. This was a trip he had made many times before. This night was unlike any that had ever been experienced. As he made his way to the garden his disciples walked with him. They had spent many a night in the past three years with him but this time it was different.

 He who had given of himself to so many,  on this night carried an internal weight upon his heart. As he and his disciples entered the garden Jesus took Peter, James, and John and withdrew himself to pray. His spirit was consumed with an agony only God could understand or carry.

Only he and his Father truly understood what had to be done. The internal agony within his soul manifested itself in the great drops of blood that fell from his face to the dusty ground of the garden. Yet within his heart he could see beyond the agony he was soon to face.

The human race would through his sacrifice find the doorway open to the Father of love. No longer would mankind be doomed to live in the shadows filled with pain, sorrow , and fear. Ever since that day the Father has given the love, understanding, and direction of God to one and all because of the sacrifice of his son.

Jesus was a light to that generation and all that have followed. Today we see many things happening in our world that are causing great concern to millions around the globe. War, famine, and epidemic diseases have claimed tens of thousands of lives. Add to that the economic uncertainty and we can readily  understand the fear that grips the heart of so many today.

So fearful heart whatever your pain, sorrow, or fear, he is one whispered prayer away. He understands and stands ready to wipe the tears from your eyes, and the grief and fear from your heart.

CBN TV - September 26, 2014 Christian World News

CBN TV - September 26, 2014 Christian World News

China: 100 Christians Arrested in House Church Raid

                                           By  Carrie Dedrick   


            Over 100 people were arrested on Sunday (Sept. 21) in a house church raid in China’s Guangdong Province. The Christian Post reports that nearly 200 police officer interrupted a church service, arresting congregants for “illegal gathering.”

 

A member said, "We don't know exactly why they raided our church. The government does not want us to get together and worship as a church."

 

Most of the Christians were eventually released from authorities, but over 30 remain in custody. 

 

International Christian Concern (ICC) Regional Manager for Southeast Asia Sooyoung Kim said, "It is unbelievable that local authorities arrested over 100 church members, including children, in Foshan city. Even though most people have been released, the experience has been traumatizing.” 

 

"ICC urges local authorities in Guangdong Province to respect its citizens' rights to religious freedom, that the government of China says are upheld, and free these innocent Christians as soon as possible."

 

The raid was part of a larger government campaign against church assembly in the nation; only churches approved by the government are permitted to worship. At the same time, many churches that have government approval are now being ordered to shut their doors. 

                   

Still No Statement from White House on First Islamic Terrorist Beheading in U.S.

                                               
                                                By Rick Moran


       
It’s been 48 hours since Jah’Keem Yisrael — AKA Alton Noel — perpetrated a horrific terrorist attack on 54 year old co-worker Colleen Hufford, stabbing her repeatedly and then sawing her head off with a knife, and we have yet to hear any acknowledgment from President Obama of this worrisome incident.
Why not? All the elements of an Islamic act of terror are present: the savagery, the shouting of Islamic verses during the act, the stated determination to carry out jihad, and a fanatical belief in Islam that, in his mind, justified everything.

 

From a political standpoint, it’s a bad idea to bring attention to the attack. But we don’t pay presidents to do what is politically expedient. We pay them to lead. And leadership — so sorely lacking in this and many other incidences — is what President Obama is unable to give.
Instead, our president could be found, for the 198th time, playing golf today.
Keith Koffler:

Sometimes President Obama makes the right choice, and I think we try to note that here at White House Dossier.
Today was one of those times.
Obama analyzed the facts – 80 degrees, no humidity, and endless sunshine – and made the decision to go golfing.
He’s playing today at Fort Belvoir in Virginia with two junior White House aides and sports columnist Tony Kornheiser. It’s the 198th time he’s played as president and his 41st trip to the links this year.

Meanwhile, authorities continue to insist there is “no connection” to terrorism. It’s a useful fiction, but hardly the point.
Fox News:

Colin Clarke, a Rand Corp. terrorism expert, told Fox & Friends Saturday that the beheading was an act of terrorism and should be characterized as such.
“Calling it workplace violence is counterproductive,” he said.
Chad Sweet, CEO of the Chertoff Group and a former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff and CIA official, also appeared on Saturday’s Fox & Friends program. He said he expected the Obama administration to change its tune quickly and call it terrorism.
“You’ll see this change very shortly,” he said Saturday. “The only thing that is causing a pause I think is the fact that the triggering event was the termination of his employment.”
The police department issued a statement saying, “After conducting interviews with Nolen’s co-workers, information was obtained that he recently started trying to convert several employees to the Muslim religion. Due to the manner of death and the initial statements of co-workers and other initial information, the Moore Police Department requested the assistance of the FBI in conducting a background investigation on Nolan.”
Nolen, according to state corrections records, was convicted in January 2011 of multiple felony drug offenses, assault and battery on a police officer and escape from detention. He was released from prison in March 2013.

Incredibly, the FBI is refusing to call this terrorist act an act of terror, and they also say that there is “no indication that Nolen was copying the beheadings of journalists in Syria by the Islamic State,” and “that they are treating this as an incident of workplace violence.”
Where else would Yisrael have gotten the idea to behead people? And “workplace violence”? I suppose if a Christian beheads a Muslim, we’ll get around to calling it “terrorism.”
It’s this kind of politically correct obtuseness that will only get more Americans killed. Trying to spare the sensibilities of American Muslims by refusing to state the obvious and connect this terror attack to the thousands of others carried out by Islamic terrorists since 9/11 is dangerous myopia.
No doubt authorities worry about a violent response against Muslims for this act of terror. And this is an excuse to hide the truth from the American people? We are not to be treated as frightened children, with adults telling us soothing fairy tales to mask the horrors of the world. If we are really going to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, it’s not going to be accomplished by sticking our head in the sand and ignoring the reality of what’s happening in the world.
How many more of these lone wolf terrorist attacks will occur before our leaders begin to treat Islamic terrorism with the seriousness it deserves?

ISIS' Apocalyptic Magazine Vows To Attack Israel, US Troops As It Conquers Persia, Rome And Arab States

                                                  By Michael Gryboski

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is vowing to attack Israel over its most-recent conflict with Hamas, and to fight against U.S. troops and the anti-Christ as it conquers Persia and Rome.

"As for the massacres taking place in Gaza against the Muslim men, women and children, the Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path toward Palestine," reads an entry in the publication Dabiq, which has been distributed in numerous languages, including English.

"[The Islamic State's] actions speak louder than its words and it is only a matter of time and patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees — the trees of the Jews," the terror group threatens in Dabiq.

The magazine was named for a town believed to be where Muslims and Westerners will clash before the apocalypse, with the second issue focused on the story of Noah's flood.

It also includes photos and reports about actions being taken against Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq, with its final page promising future conquests by ISIS.

"You will invade the Arabian Peninsula and Allah will enable you to conquer it. You will then invade Persia, and Allah will enable you to conquer it," read the back cover.

"You will then invade Rome and Allah will enable you to conquer it. Then you will fight the Dajjal [Anti-Christ], and Allah will enable you to conquer him."

An offshoot of al-Qaeda, ISIS has garnered international attention for its military victories and extreme violence against civilians and religious minorities.

The extremist Islamic organization holds territory in both war-torn Syria and Iraq, with substantial funds being generated from oil sold on the black market and private donations.

Many have noted that ISIS has used social media and the Internet to reach out to young Muslims, both in the Middle East and Western countries.

Josh Kovensky of the New Republic wrote that ISIS might have already replaced al-Qaida "as the go-to organization for young jihadists."

"ISIS's tactics span all media, with devoted Twitter accounts and YouTube channels, including ones that showed the horrifying — and slickly shot — execution of photojournalist James Foley," wrote Kovensky. " … much of Dabiq's content focuses on a coming apocalypse, while pulling out the same glossy stops that one would expect from an American magazine."

In addition to the written publication, ISIS also released a video Tuesday warning the U.S. of future attacks against U.S. forces due to President Barack Obama's promise to "degrade and destroy" the terror group.

"The 52-second clip — the latest in a long line of well-produced propaganda videos — features slow-motion explosions and clips of attacks previously carried out against U.S. forces," noted NBC News.

"Images of Obama and then the White House at dark flicker and flames appear to engulf U.S. troops. 'Flames of War: Fighting Has Just Begun' flashes on the screen, before it ends with the words 'Coming Soon.'"
.99

CBN TV - The Watchman: The ISIS Caliphate - September 23, 2014

CBN TV - The Watchman: The ISIS Caliphate - September 23, 2014

5 Reasons Why The US Coalition Against ISIS Is An Empty Shell

                                                                   Elliot Friedland
               

As U.S. jets pounded Islamic State positions north of Baghdad this week, diplomats pondered their options in Paris. U.S. President Barack Obama has stressed the importance of a collaborative global effort to combat the Islamic State (commonly known as ISIS and ISIL) which has been rampaging across much of Iraq and Syria, slaughtering as they go.

The president said, “American military power is unmatched, but this can't be America's fight alone.” He want to build an international coalition which will come together to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State. But based on the reactions of international leaders, he has yet to receive any concrete commitments to take an active part in the military campaign against the Islamic State.

Representatives from 26 countries attended a conference in Paris on Monday to discuss the planned coalition. The conference included diplomats from Western counties, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada as well as the EU representative. Arab countries including Iraq itself Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE attended, as did the Arab League representative. The presence of Russia, China and the United Nations underscored the global nature of the threat posed by the Islamic State.

The representatives issued a joint, 10-point statement condemning the Islamic State, expressing their full support for the new Iraqi government and their grave concern at the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Iraq. They also committed themselves to joining “appropriate military action” in support of the Iraqi government.

For all this activity, there has been remarkably little offered in the way of concrete support. Here are five reasons why forming a committed coalition willing to donate troops has proven so difficult:

1. Arabs and Muslims Do Not Trust America

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in an effort to build much-needed support for the coalition among the U.S.’s key regional allies. Although he reported encouraging conversations, none of these three counties agreed to commit troops. Leaked reports from an anonymous Western diplomatic source said “there is a very real possibility that we could have the Saudi air force bombing targets inside Syria.” However, no such possibility has yet been made public.

Arab and Muslim nations regard Western policy, in general, and American policy, in particular, with great suspicion. One commentator on Al-Arabiya called the coalition “late, weak and badly planned” but still “better than nothing.” Middle East analyst Khaled Abu Toameh writing for the Gatestone Institute said that most reactions from Arab Muslims on joining the US led coalition against the ISIS was that, “This is not our war and we should not be fighting it.” 

They regard Obama’s foreign policy as vacillating and unreliable and not truly committed to the fight. They also blame America for creating the situation that led to the rise of the Islamic State in the first place, because of the 2003 Iraq war and the support for Nouri al-Maliki's divisive government in the aftermath of that conflict.

In addition, Egypt’s government regards the U. S. as a Muslim Brotherhood ally that is not committed to fighting Islamists. Toameh argues that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will never forgive Obama for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

2. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar Actively Support Jihadists

Saudi and Turkey are both Islamist states with much to lose by being associated with an American-led coalition to destroy the Islamic State. Saudi Arabia is worried about an internal uprising should it pursue an alliance with America against a group fighting for a very similar brand of Salafi Islam to its own state-sponsored Wahhabism.

Thousands of Saudis are serving in the Islamic State in all sorts of positions, and the Saudis have arrested recruiters for the Islamic State within its borders.

Turkey is slightly different, having been far more active in aiding the Islamic Sate and Sunni jihadists. Turkey's porous border with Syria serves as a conduit for fighters, supplies and money headed to serve the needs of the self-declared caliphate.

Oil from the Islamic State is smuggled the other way, from Syria into Turkey. A former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey said in the Wall Street Journal that Turkey is a “non-ally” that has been funding and arming Jabhat al-Nusra. Erdogan has stated that Turkey will provide only logistical and humanitarian support against the Islamic State and take no aggressive action whatsoever.

3. Conflicting Loyalties in the Syrian Civil War Make Unity Difficult

Assad has been an ally of Russia for years, to a large extent due to the Russian naval base at Latakia. Russia will not join any U.S.-led coalition without the involvement or support of Assad. Sunni and Western allies, on the other hand, will not be part of any coalition that does support Assad. Public opinion and government policy prohibit any action in Syria that could inadvertently help President Bashar al-Assad. Obama’s promise to arm the moderates leads to the question of who exactly those moderates are.

The majority of the forces aligned under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have been destroyed or have defected to other groups. The remnants openly cooperate with Islamist factions such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic Front. Finding an existing non-Islamist rebel army to support at this stage will be very hard.

4. The EU Does Not Want to Get Involved

Western countries other than America are perfectly happy for America to bear the lion’s share of the cost, trouble and fallout for any Western involvement. Feared backlash from Muslim populations are part of the reason why European countries do not want to get involved in what is now a regional Middle Eastern war.

France and Britain, in particular, have large Muslim minorities and have had serious problems with home-grown terrorism in the past. Europe is in the grip of austerity measures, and there is intense domestic pressure to reduce spending. France’s budget is already triple what the government predicted it would be, and thus has little appetite for further expenditures.

Britain is still scarred by the war in Iraq, which faced fierce opposition. Any attempt by Prime Minister David Cameron to put “boots on the ground” will face accusations of pandering to American adventurism. Furthermore the British parliament voted against conducting airstrikes against the Assad regime last year in a stunning rejection of the idea of liberal interventionism.

It is symptomatic of a viewpoint increasingly common – that the current Middle East conflict, however terrible, is none of Europe’s business and that involvement in any capacity will only make things worse. This attitude was succinctly summed up by Guardian columnist Giles Fraser, who wrote, “We are witnessing a shift in the political tectonic plates throughout the whole of the Middle East and beyond into Africa, and the west’s apparently surgical involvement will probably do little more than generate some short-term satisfaction that we are doing something.

It is not that I am morally squeamish about bombing IS fanatics. Rather, I think we ought to recognise that we are little more than bystanders to a war that is so much bigger than we ever imagined, and so much more complicated than the rhetoric of terrorism or limited conflict allows.”

5. No One Wants to Risk Their Own Soldiers

France has agreed to join U.S.-led airstrikes, but not to send ground troops. The UK may join airstrikes but may not. It certainly will not be sending ground troops. The only country so far to commit openly to sending troops is Australia which has already begun sending 600 soldiers to Iraq. They will be performing a variety of roles including logistical support, providing strategic and military advice assisting in training, and Super Hornet aircraft. No frontline combat soldiers were included in the contingent.

When taken holistically, the coalition seems to consist of the battered remnants of the Iraqi army and the Kurds bolstered by Shiite militia groups sponsored by Iran. U.S. and French air strikes -- and a firm commitment from the United States, France and Britain not to put their own troops on the ground -- are so far the extent of Western intervention.

It seems that everybody wants the Islamic State destroyed, but nobody wants to have to do it themselves. The coalition is fraught with mistrust before the campaign even begins.

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 26, 2014

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 26, 2014

An Overdue Exit

                                   By Augusta Chronicle (GA) September 26, 2014 6:50 am




           It wasn't all that surprising that Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation Thursday.
What is surprising is that he hasn't yet been arrested.
Speculation on Holder's precise departure has been swirling since February, when The New Yorker published an interview by Jeffrey Toobin in which Holder said he would stay at his post "well into 2014."
There's not very much in Holder's tenure as attorney general that could be described by the word "well."
Look at Operation Fast and Furious, the botched sting operation set up to track illegal gun sellers and buyers. The federal government allowed hundreds of weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, resulting in dozens of deaths, including the slaying of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Holder claimed in 2011 not to have even heard of Fast and Furious until "a few weeks" before testifying, even though internal Justice Department documents showed he knew about it months before.
House Republicans filed articles of impeachment against Holder last November. He also was found in contempt by the House of Representatives in June 2012 for failing to release requested documents regarding Fast and Furious. It marked the first time the House found an attorney general in contempt of Congress.
Let that sink in -- the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government, the head of the Department of Justice, obstructing justice.
Holder fully intended to try the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks in civilian court in New York City -- before immense public outcry forced him to reverse his decision and send the terrorists' cases to military court.
Holder called the entire United States "a nation of cowards" during a 2009 Black History Month speech, because he didn't feel enough Americans were engaging in his envisioned one-way conversation about our country's sensitive racial issues.
Yet he declined to pursue a federal case against armed New Black Panthers intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008.
Holder has had no problem wielding the power of his office as a political cudgel, partnering the Justice Department with other federal agencies to enact Operation Choke Point. Ostensibly designed to make it harder for fraudulent businesses to access financial services, the operation became a way to financially harass banks who did business with online gun and ammo dealers and tobacco sellers.
Holder is no stranger to partisan spin control. Earlier this month, one of Holder's top spokesmen called a congressman seeking help on leaking information about the Internal Revenue Service's pestering scrutiny of conservative organizations. The public knows about it only because the call was placed accidentally to U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee investigating that IRS skulduggery.
And lately when a state has attempted to meaningfully wield its power in defending its borders against illegal immigration, Holder's Justice Department would swoop in to stop it. Ask the legislatures in South Carolina, Alabama and Arizona about abuse of federal power.
And how utterly despicable it has been for Holder and the Obama administration to leave the families of Terry and the 2012 Benghazi attack victims in the dark and in the lurch these many, many months. How dare they.
Holder rightly was identified as a political lightning rod ever since he was first mentioned as a candidate for attorney general. America now has learned the full folly of letting this man head the Justice Department, and the illegal damage he has wrought in a tenure that was far too long.

CBN TV - Jerusalem Dateline: Fighting ISIS - September 19, 2014

CBN TV - Jerusalem Dateline: Fighting ISIS - September 19, 2014

CHINA AND IRAN PLAN JOINT EXERCISES IN THE PERSIAN GULF

                                       
            
Recent events in the Persian Gulf makes one take a second look at Revelation 16:12” “The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great Euphrates River. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.” (Revelation 16:12, ISV).
Iranian and Chinese naval vessels are planning joint drills focusing on “relief and rescue operations” in the Persian Gulf for the first time.
“Discussing and studying the two countries’ naval relief and rescue operations and drills, confronting sea incidents and accidents, and gaining the necessary technical preparedness, are among the actions to be practiced with the Chinese army forces,” Admiral Amir Hossein Azad, commander of Iran’s First Naval Zone said Saturday, according to the FARS news agency.
“The voyage of the Chinese army’s fleet of warships for the first time in the Persian Gulf waters is aimed at joint preparation of Iran and China for establishing peace, stability, tranquility and multilateral and mutual cooperation,” Azad said.

Iran’s Response

Last year Iranian ships traveled to the Sea of China “to deliver Iran’s message of peace and friendship to the Chinese,” FARS reported.
Many believe that the Chinese presence in the Gulf is only the first step of a concerted effort by the Chinese to establish a long-term presence in the Gulf and to make inroads with the various Muslim factions in the region. They are using Iran as a gateway to that presence.
As the Muslim influence in the area grows, talk is also beginning to grow about a pan Arab caliphate that would stretch from Lebanon to Pakistan and Afghanistan. China is just a stone’s throw away from those two countries.

The Caliphate

The caliphate, a system of government at whose head is the caliph, or vicegerent of God on earth. From its origins after the death of Muhammad in 632, the caliphate grew rapidly in stature concomitantly with the major conquests of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Iran during the reigns of ʿUmar and ʿUthmān. It is the dream of ISIS and other groups to reestablish that caliphate and bring Sharia Law back into the mainstream.
With the territory gains ISIS with Tehran’s help is making, Iran is poised to be the regional hegemon in the Middle East. China may be considering it prudent to cultivate the Iranians and become an influence in the area. They also hope that forming a relationship with Iran will help forestall any encroachment of a future caliphate eastward from the furthest reaches of a Muslim caliphate.
This strategy may already be bearing fruit.
A few days ago the Iranian Navy stopped pirates from attacking a Chinese vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the FARS news agency reported. The container ship was allegedly en route from Singapore to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) at the time of the attack.
The Iranian Navy has deployed ships in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, since November 2008 “to protect the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.” In 2008, an Iranian chartered cargo ship was attacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Yemen.

The Oil Equation

Beijing buys oil from Iran and advocates on behalf of Tehran at the United Nations Security Council, as well as during nuclear talks with the P5+1 (five permanent members of the Council plus Germany). China is one of Iran’s most reliable trading partners, according to The Diplomat, allowing Tehran to maintain its currency and evade damage from sanctions.
This year Beijing even increased its import of Iranian oil by 48 percent in the first half of 2014.
But the United States is partly to blame: the State Department issued an exemption from sanctions to China, in exchange for reduced purchases of Iranian crude oil. The waivers, renewed in mid–2014, appear to have encouraged the Chinese to increase their import of Iranian ultralight oil, rather than decrease their purchases. The two countries also trade other items, including arms.
What the Chinese fail to understand is that Islam considers the Chinese, who practice Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and to a growing degree Christianity, infidels. Under Islamic law, infidels are persecuted; their churches burned, and their people murdered because they are NOT worshipping the same God.
Iran may foster a relationship with China, only so long as Peking suits their needs. When their usefulness has ended and Iran has achieved their strategic goals, Tehran will turn on them as they have all the other alliances they have made.
How China responds to this turn of events may be a reaction of Biblical proportions

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 25, 2014

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 25, 2014

The Promise Of Light In The Time Of Darkness

The Promise Of Light In The Time Of Darkness

Computer Models Tell Us That This Ebola Pandemic Could Soon Kill Millions

                                                                                   

We could potentially be on the verge of the greatest health crisis that any of us have ever seen. The number of Ebola cases in Africa has approximately doubled over the past three weeks, and scientific computer models tell us that this Ebola pandemic could ultimately end up killing millions of us - especially if it starts spreading on other continents.

At first, many assumed that this Ebola outbreak would be just like all the others - that it would flare up for a little while and then it would completely fade away. But that has not happened this time. Instead, this epidemic has seemed to pick up momentum with each passing week.

Despite extraordinary precautions, hundreds of health workers have gotten the virus, and the head of the CDC says that the spread of Ebola is "spiraling out of control" and that it is "going to get worse in the very near future." For those that have thought that all of this talk about Ebola was just "fearmongering", it is time for you to wake up.

Right now, the World Health Organization says that we could see the total number of Ebola cases reach 20,000 nine months from now. But computer models created for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense are projecting that Ebola could soon be growing at a rate of 20,000 cases per month...

The Ebola epidemic affecting West Africa is predicted to last a further 12 to 18 months, according to U.S. scientists.

Epidemiologists have been creating computer models of the Ebola epidemic for the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department.

The model they have created is a far less optimistic estimate than that of the World Health Organization (WHO), which last month said it hoped to contain the outbreak within nine months and 20,000 total cases.

The New York Times reports that various researchers have said the virus could grow at a rate that could be closer to 20,000 per month.

The WHO is sticking to its estimates, a spokesman said Friday.
Other scientists are even more pessimistic.

For example, a model created jointly by a researcher at the University of Tokyo and a researcher at Arizona State University has produced a "worst-case scenario" of 277,124 Ebola cases by the end of this year...

The Eurosurveillance paper, by two researchers from the University of Tokyo and Arizona State University, attempts to derive what the reproductive rate has been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Note for actual epidemiology geeks: The calculation is for the effective reproductive number, pegged to a point in time, hence actually Rt.) They come up with an R of at least 1, and in some cases 2; that is, at certain points, sick persons have caused disease in two others.

You can see how that could quickly get out of hand, and in fact, that is what the researchers predict. Here is their stop-you-in-your-tracks assessment:

In a worst-case hypothetical scenario, should the outbreak continue with recent trends, the case burden could gain an additional 77,181 to 277,124 cases by the end of 2014.

That is a jaw-dropping number.
If we do see an explosion like that, how many millions of cases will we see by the time 2015 is through?

A different model has produced an even more jaw-dropping number.

An "econometric simulation model" created by Francis Smart at Michigan State University is predicting that a whopping 1.2 million people will die from Ebola in the next six months...

An econometric simulation model based on the assumption the World Health Organization and others will be unable to control the Ebola outbreak in West Africa predicts 1.2 million people will die from the disease in the next six months.

Six months is the minimum time the WHO projects will be necessary to contain the epidemic.

In his analysis, econometrics research assistant Francis Smart at Michigan State University took seriously the conclusions of Canadian researchers who proved the strain of Ebola in the current West African epidemic could go airborne.

The Ebola virus could be transmitted between humans through breathing, Smart says.

In developing the model, Smart began with WHO’s Aug. 28 statement that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa could afflict more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control.
That has got to be the worst possible number, right?

Wrong.

The other day a prominent German virologist came forward and declared that "it is too late" to stop Ebola and that five million people will die in Sierra Leone and Liberia alone...

A top German virologist has caused shockwaves by asserting that it’s too late to halt the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia and that five million people will die, noting that efforts should now be focused on stopping the transmission of the virus to other countries.

Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that hope is all but lost for the inhabitants of Sierra Leone and Liberia and that the virus will only “burn itself out” when it has infected the entire population and killed five million people.

“The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,” said Schmidt-Chanasit. “That time was May and June. “Now it is too late.”
So which of the numbers discussed above are accurate?

Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government is feverishly preparing for the worst.

This week we learned that Barack Obama is going to ask Congress for 88 million dollars for the purpose of conducting "a major Ebola offensive" in Africa.

Granted, Obama will ask Congress for money at the drop of a hat these days. He wants 500 million dollars to arm the allies of ISIS and his reckless spending has been one of the primary factors why the U.S. national debt has risen by more than a trillion dollars over the past 12 months.

But it is still noteworthy.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that the U.S. State Department has just ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits...

The U.S. State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, prompting concerns that the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread of a virus that has already claimed an unprecedented number of lives.

In a press release posted by Market Watch, Lakeland Industries, a manufacturer of industrial protective clothing for first responders, announced that it had signaled its intention “to join the fight against the spread of Ebola” by encouraging other suppliers to meet the huge demand created by the U.S. State Department’s order of 160,000 hazmat suits.

“With the U.S. State Department alone putting out a bid for 160,000 suits, we encourage all protective apparel companies to increase their manufacturing capacity for sealed seam garments so that our industry can do its part in addressing this threat to global health,” states the press release.

The huge bulk order of hazmat suits for Ebola has stoked concerns that the U.S. government expects the virus to continue to ravage countries in west Africa and may also be concerned about an outbreak inside the United States.
You don't order that many Hazmat suits unless you are anticipating an outbreak of apocalyptic proportions.

And the CDC has just issued a six page Ebola checklist to hospitals to help them spot potential Ebola patients in America...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warning hospitals and doctors that “now is the time to prepare,” has issued a six-page Ebola “checklist” to help healthcare workers quickly determine if patients are infected.

While the CDC does not believe that there are new cases of Ebola in the United States, the assumption in the checklist is that it is only a matter of time before the virus hits home.
Let us hope and pray that these precautions do not become necessary.

Because if Ebola starts spreading like wildfire in this country, we are going to see pain and suffering beyond anything that most of us have ever imagined.

Just consider what a health worker on the front lines is seeing on a day to day basis...

I wake up each morning – if I have managed to sleep – wondering if this is really happening, or if it is a horror movie. In decades of humanitarian work I have never witnessed such relentless suffering of fellow human beings or felt so completely paralysed and utterly overwhelmed at our inability to provide anything but the most basic, and sometimes less than adequate, care.

I am supervising the suspect tent, which has room for 25 patients who are likely to have Ebola – 80-90% of those we test have the virus. We administer treatment for malaria, start patients on antibiotics, paracetamol, multivitamins, rehydration supplements, food, water and juice while they wait for their results. Sometimes people have arrived too late and die shortly after arriving.

In one afternoon last week I watched five seemingly fit, healthy, young men die. I gave the first a bottle of oral rehydration solution and came back with another for the second. In the half a minute or so in which I had been away the first man died, his bottle of water spilt across the floor. The four others followed in quick succession.
Ebola is truly a terrible, terrible disease.

The moment that cases start popping up in the United States, all of our lives will instantly change.
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/September24/242.html#tidJCHp3JkyhEkmS.99

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 24, 2014

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 24, 2014

The Shemitah, Blood Moons, and God’s Seven Year Cycles

     

    The convergence of two very compelling events looms ahead and if the forecasters of these events are correct, the next year could be one of the most momentous in human history!

As Prophecy Newswatch has been reporting, the Shemitah year, or the Jewish Sabbatical year is set to begin on September 24, 2014, on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The Shemitah is the seventh year in the seven year agricultural calendar of Israel. According to the Torah, personal debts were to be waived and a sort of financial reset occurred in ancient Israel during the Shemitah. Time was set aside for the nation to rest and devote themselves to worshipping and fellowshipping with God. Disobedience to the Shemitah law brought God’s judgment! (Exodus 23; 10-11, 2 Chronicles 36:20-23)

Bestselling author of The Harbinger and the new book, the Mystery of the Shemitah, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has uncovered a startling connection between the Shemitah and the financial markets here in the US. Rabbi Cahn’s investigation reveals that since 1973, every US financial collapse combined with subsequent recession has occurred during the Shemitah 100% of the time! That includes the financial collapses of 2001 and 2008, the worst in US history!

But the evidence gets even more convincing because the pattern of seven year cycles can actually be traced back to the financial collapse that led to the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Interestingly, these seven year cycles concur with the Shemitah years on the Jewish calendar!

Rabbi Cahn is quick to admit that he is not predicting an economic meltdown during the next Shemitah year beginning September 24, 2014, but he does warn his audience to take note of the correlation he has uncovered. His caution has not prevented others from speculating how the financial markets may be affected, however.

Reportedly, billionaire investors like; Warren Buffet, John Paulson, George Soros, and Carl Icahn are unloading large shares of stocks in companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, and Kraft foods. ZeroHedge.com, the popular financial blog, recently disclosed the not so quiet preparations these billionaires are making for an impending market correction. In the past, such corrections have resulted in economic crisis and recession. Others have speculated on a possible dollar collapse and various potential scenarios related to the financial markets in the US.

The subsequent converging event possibly connected to the Shemitah is the Blood Moon Tetrad discovered by Pastor Mark Blitz. The first of the Tetrad occurred on April 15, 2014, and the next will appear in the night sky on October 8, 2014, according to the Gregorian calendar. Pastor Blitz, using the Biblical Jewish calendar and the NASA website, discovered that these Blood Moons or total lunar eclipses would occur on Jewish Feast days in 2014-2015. Most notable of these, in relation to the upcoming Shemitah year, will be the final Blood Moon, on the Feast of Tabernacles, September 28, 2015. This is also the date for the celebration of the end of the Shemitah year to be held at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and this final Super Blood Moon will be visible in Jerusalem! (Deuteronomy 31; 10)

Pastor Blitz’ investigation of the Blood Moon phenomena connected the tetrads to momentous dates in Jewish history such as the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the declaration Jewish statehood in 1948, and the Six Day War of 1967. Like Rabbi Cahn, Pastor Blitz is careful not to make predictions of what might occur during this period, but he does encourage a watchful attitude as we witness the progressive unveiling of the Blood Moon Tetrad.

In a recent exclusive article published in the WND, Pastor Blitz delivers what he calls a “bombshell” concerning the significance of the Shemitah and the Blood Moon Tetrad. In referring to the Biblical Tribulation, a seven year period of unprecedented peril and suffering on earth, he goes on to state, “what I am proposing is that it (the Tribulation) is simply a continuation of the Shemitah cycle that has been ticking along for ages. The Tribulation will not be any random sequence of seven years, but the first year of the Tribulation will begin with the first year of the seven-year cycle. This has huge prophetic implications when we realize this Rosh Hashanah is the seventh year of a seven-year cycle, and the fall of 2015 begins a new seven-year cycle.”

He continues, “In plain English, the seven-year tribulation could begin next fall. If it does not, then that means it will not start for another seven years since it is just a continuation of God’s orderly time clock. I am not saying the Lord will return next fall. I am not saying the Rapture will take place next fall. I am just saying regardless of where you want to put us on God’s time line, the seven-year tribulation is part of that timeline and will happen as part of the Shemitah cycle.”

Pastor Blitz reminds us that his theory is not based on a pagan calendar, like the Mayan’s but on the calendar given by the Creator of the Universe, the One who put the sun, moon, and stars in the sky, in part, to mark His “appointed times.” (Genesis 1:14-15)

Both Jonathan Cahn and Mark Blitz believe God is trying to send a message to mankind- repent and seek Him while there is still time! God is reaching out to an increasingly secular America, and to the rebellious world at large, to turn back to Him and be restored to His favor and blessings!

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/September24/241.html#geI13Q7iyoCm1Ebb.99

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 23, 2014

CBN TV - CBN News Today: September 23, 2014

Urgent Warning: ISIS Coming to America - The 'Gate of Hell' that has been opened - Rick Joyner Video | Prophetic Perspective on Current Events

Urgent Warning: ISIS Coming to America - The 'Gate of Hell' that has been opened - Rick Joyner Video | Prophetic Perspective on Current Events

The big question on ISIS: Does Obama really know what he's getting into?

President Barack Obama’s pledge to join Syrian rebels in their conflict against the Islamic State was viewed by many Democrats and Republicans on the House Floor last week as just another costly blunder by a commander-in-chief who has little idea of what he is getting into. This view was also corroborated by Middle East analysts.
"So who are the partners which the United States and the West are going to use to go in on the ground to destroy the Islamic State?” Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer asked CBN News. “If it's the Syrian rebels, as we're seeing, it may well be we should understand many of those same Syrian rebels are themselves Sunni jihadis, are themselves Sunni Islamists."
Spyer has little confidence that the president’s presumed good intentions of choosing the lesser to two evils in Syria will amount to anything good.
"So we're looking at a situation where we're going to partner with one group of Sunni Islamists to destroy another just because the other is a little bit worse, and they certainly are dreadful,” the Middle East expert pointed out from his own experience studying Syrian rebel groups within the war-torn nation. “I'm not sure what good can come of that."
He warns of the peril in aiding and abetting what are considered “moderate” Syrian rebels.
"There are moderates and secular, democratic even, maybe forces among the Syrian armed opposition, but they are small and not particularly powerful," Spyer continued. “They are engaged in a modus operandi in which they cooperate with the Islamists and the jihadis. They regard them as common fighters."
Spyer sees little rhyme or reason behind the decision to back the less-notorious jihadis.
"I think it cannot be stated enough times and it cannot be stated clearly enough that you cannot subdivide the Syrian insurgency into moderates and Sunni Islamists," argued Spyer. "They are mixed up and you cannot take the Sunni Islamists out of the game, which means if you want to make war against the Islamic State, making use of Syrian rebel fighters as your infantry, you will be pitting Sunni Islamists on your side against Sunni Islamists on the other side."
Skepticism against Obama’s Syrian ISIS crisis abounds
Shaky support for aiding the Syrian rebels’ ISIS crisis was seen across party lines, as 85 Democrats and 71 Republicans voted Thursday against Obama’s bill that was ultimately passed by the House to join their fight.
"We're going to pick a side — or try to pick a side — and same as we did when we went into Iraq, same as we've done in Afghanistan, and that hasn't worked well for us," asserted Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
Many have argued that that Obama’s track record of mishandling and exacerbating things in the region around the Middle East is reason enough to conclude that he will end up making things worse in Syria for all sides involved — other than the militant Islamists.
Some of Obama’s recent foreign policy failures brought up by critics included his destabilization of Libya, where the U.S. provided weapons for “moderate” jihadists, giving ISIS its new stronghold there. Also mentioned was the president’s assistance in ousting America’s long-time Egyptian ally Mubarak, which ushered in the Muslim Brotherhood’s militant upheaval that included the murders of innocent Christians within the Coptic Church. Obama’s indirect arming of ISIS, which is now armed with the weapons the U.S. gave to the Iraqi army, was one of the other arguments laid out to convince those on the fence as to why the commander-in-chief’s judgment in the Middle East cannot be trusted.
Here we go again?
Questioning Obama’s willingness to jump in the midst of another Middle East crisis and arm America’s enemies, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., posed U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a telling question Wednesday during a hearing over the matter.
“How do we know the rebels won’t align with ISIS when they have Assad in their sights?” Gillibrand asked.
In an attempt to justify any collateral damage, the defense secretary replied: “There will always be risk in a program like this, but we believe that risk is justified by the imperative of destroying ISIS — and the necessity of having capable partners on the ground in Syria.”
Obama’s plan to arm Syrian rebels was called into question by major advocates who originally supported the general idea of assisting them.
“You don’t think that the Free Syrian Army is going to fight against Bashar Assad, who has been decimating them?” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.” You think that these people you’re training will only go fight against ISIS?”
Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., also had her doubts.
“Many of the so-called ‘moderate’ rebels have already joined the cause of Islamic jihad, and President Obama has failed to coherently outline how he would prevent American weapons from getting into the hands of our enemies,” Bachmann insisted. “President Obama has asked the U.S. Congress to follow him in a Vietnam-style slow walked response. I will not.”
She asserts that America stands at a crossroads and needs to directly engage the enemy rather than indirectly arm it.
“Either the United States chooses to decisively defeat this brutal evil with all available resources, or we will have to answer the next generation’s questions regarding why we failed to defeat the totalitarian evil of our day,” Bachmann said.
Arming the enemy
This was along the same line of reasoning shared by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who stressed the grave danger behind arming the Free Syrian Army, whose leadership not only shares the religious beliefs of the Islamic State, but has expressed that it is willing to fight and kill alongside ISIS.
“The Islamists that President Obama wants to keep arming have also worked with al Qaeda affiliates in the past and will in the future,” the congressman stated on the House Floor Wednesday night.
Gohmert emphasized why he voted “no” on Obama’s plan of funding Syria’s ISIS crisis.
“[The Syrian rebels] the president wants to continue arming and training have strong ties to the very group the U.S. is supposedly fighting,” Gohmert stressed, calling the Obama administration “naïve” and pointing out that the “weapons this President has been sending to the ‘vetted moderate Free Syrian Army’ for over a year continue to end up in the hands of our sworn enemies.”
Gohmert noted what he considers a fatal flaw in the administration’s war tactics.
“One of the big problems when we go in and train, as this President wants to do for Syrians, they learn our tradecraft, they use it against us as they did at Benghazi,” Ghomert argued, reasoning that ISIS should be taken out by U.S. forces “without giving our enemies more weapons with which to murder us.”
Mideast analyst and former CIA operative Clare Lopez stresses that the politically correct stance the Obama administration has taken when it comes to Islam has led to the U.S. special forces training jihadis who they believed to be “moderates,” as they did in Jordan, where she says the U.S. “gave them tactics, intelligence and arms.”
“They vetted them and asked, ‘Did you ever belong to al-Qaida?’ and they said ‘Oh, no – not me!’” Lopez told WND. “But did they ever ask them what their ideology was? They’re not allowed to. We’re not allowed to define our enemy, so how can we even identify our enemy? So, we fall into things like this where we actually train future ISIS jihadis, according to the Jordanian security officials.”
Learn from the past
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also warns about jumping head-first into funding Syria’s rebels.
“Because we don’t know for sure who the groups all are,” Paul said Thursday while the Senate was considering the bill, noting that approximately half of the Free Syrian Army has already defected. “Even when we think we do, loyalties shift and groups become amorphous, with alleged moderates lining up with jihadists.”
Paul made it clear that America must learn from its mistakes.
“We prove time and time again we don’t know how to vet their leaders,” Paul stated before quoting the words of the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford. “We must understand two vital points going in, the moderate armed opposition’s biggest enemy is not ISIS, it is the Assad regime… moderate forces have and will tactically coordinate with the al Qaida-linked Nusra front on the ground.”
Paul reminded other senators of a major mishap last year that he believes characterizes the White House's lack of discernment on Middle East matters.
“[The administration] and its allies on both sides of the aisle wanted the United States to join this war on the side of ISIS, against the Assad regime,” Paul recalled.
The Kentucky senator ended making his point by stressing how what many considered to be “moderate groups” sold their weapons to ISIS-run jihadist forces, who have also been known to confiscate such arms from the “moderates.”
“ISIS has grabbed up U.S., Saudi, Qatari weapons by the truckload and we are now forced to fight against our own weapons,” Paul concluded, getting some of his information from Jane’s Terrorism Center. “Reports show that the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have supplied roughly 600 tons of weapons to the militants in Syria in 2013 alone … the transfer of Qatari arms to targeted groups has the same practical effect as shipping them to Al Nusra, a violent jihadist force.”

CBN TV - The Watchman: Silent Conquest of the West - Sept. 9 , 2014

CBN TV - The Watchman: Silent Conquest of the West - Sept. 9 , 2014

: Get Ready For The Real War

              
In recent weeks, the media are filled with reports on the international preparations for a war against the "Islamic State" and an International Conference was even convened in Paris in an attempt to enlist the cooperation of as many nations as possible in waging it.
In recent weeks, the media are filled with reports on the international preparations for a war against the "Islamic State" and an International Conference was even convened in Paris in an attempt to enlist the cooperation of as many nations as possible in waging it.
At the same time, US air force planes have intensified their attacks against "Islamic State" forces, especially in the vicinity of the dams in northern Iraq, this to prevent their being blown up and causing the deaths of many thousands of Iraqis.
This week we heard a short and decisive speech by US President Barack Obama, into which he inserted rhetoric elements that he has hardly used before, certainly in comparison to the speeches of his predecessor George W. Bush.
I have not heard all of Obama's speeches, but those I did rarely included the expression "our friends and allies". Bush used those words day and night when talking about the war against terror. Does this change in rhetoric express a change in Obama's approach? I am not sure if it does.
In his speech, Obama repeated several times that Iraq is an ally of the United States. And right at the start of his words, he said that the USA cannot do for the Iraqis what they must do for themselves. That sentence is a perfect example of Obama's erroneous strategic thinking – he continues to see the Iraqis as a single group. He has still not internalized the fact that the Iraqis have never succeeded in developing the sense of unity and solidarity that defines a nation. In Iraq the tribal divisions are alive and kicking and there are over 70 of them, as well as four ethnic groups and about ten religions, all divided among a not inconsiderable number of communal sectors. The possibility that the Iraqi government can function any better than those that preceded it is not great, and therefore the assumption that the Iraqi army can be more stalwart in its battle against the knife-wielding Islamic State fighters is yet to be proven correct.


It's tough trying to build an international coalition, because there are factors unconnected to the Islamic State that come into play. There is a war in eastern Ukraine playing out in the background and Russia is the main actor in that war. Russia does not support a war against the Islamic State, so not many European countries are lining up to join Obama's coalition against Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and his jihadists.
Regional questions also play a part, including the role that will be allotted to countries in the area such as Iran and the Assad regime, both of whom have a clear interest in joining the coalition. Iran will expect to be rewarded with an easing of demands for nuclear controls and Assad will expect an insurance policy to prevent his being deposed, even though he has been defined as a "war criminal".  The West is not interested in giving Assad this insurance policy, since he has already announced that any military activity by another country on Syrian soil or over Syrian airspace will be considered an act of hostility against Syria to which that country will respond. The bigger problem is not Syria, but Russia, as any incursion on Syrian soil would be interpreted as a green light for Russia in Ukraine.
Another country in the area that poses a problem is Turkey, which has been aiding the Syrian rebel forces from the very first anti-Assad demonstrations in 2011, those very forces that spawned the "Islamic State" over a three year period. Thousands of jihadists from many different countries arrived at the bloody battlegrounds of Iraq and Syria by way of Turkey. Turkey purchases oil from the "Islamic State" at a remarkably reduced rate, and resells it in the international market, so that Turkey is basically funding the "Islamic State" while raking in huge sums for its own treasury. It has recently been claimed that Turkey even gives weaponry to the "Islamic State".
Qatar is not enthusiastic about a war against the "Islamic State" either, having given it generous amounts of financial aid over a long period, knowing that its jihadists were anti-Assad. The Emir of Qatar is not eager to eliminate the "Islamic State" because he is afraid that his own state will then become the next goal of the Islamic State jihadists. In fact, he pays them off so that they expend their aggressive energies on other countries. Saudi Arabia is also not happy about destroying the Sunni Islamic State as it might further empower the Shiite axis headed by Iran. Those who identify with the Muslim Brotherhood certainly feel comfortable with the "Islamic State", even if they do not support all the brutal methods it employs.
Another point to be taken into consideration is the possible extreme reactions of Muslims around the world against the war and those taking part in it. The black flag of ISIS has been waved in country after country and the jihadist successes against the heretics of Iraq and Syria have made many Muslims around the world ecstatic, also causing many of them to identify with the "Islamic State", its goals, and first and foremost, the idea of imposing the rule of Islam on the entire world. Radical Muslims who identify with jihad, and who can be found just about everywhere, may carry out attacks, kidnappings, murder and even behead infidels in order to take revenge on the coalition which acts against the "Islamic State".
The war against the Islamic State looks like a rerun of the war fought against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan starting in 2001. Many of the elements that characterized that war are still around today, leading to the general feeling that the war against "Islamic State" will fail just as the war against al Qaeda did. The reasons are obvious: this is not a war against a state or an organization that will be defeated once its military might is destroyed. Here, we are first and foremost battling an ideology, fighting a faith vested in the hearts of millions of people who live all over the world.
The belief that Islam is the true religion and that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is a basic tenet of Islamic faith worldwide. The belief that Islam can and must rule the world is shared by many millions of Muslims. The belief that militant jihad is a legitimate tool for achieving Islamic supremacy over the world is anchored in Islamic history and the biography of Mohammed.  The belief that a Muslim must  mete out the revenge of Allah against every infidel that dares to lift his hand against a Muslim is a natural part of Islam. The belief that "Islamic State", the goal of the entire mission, reflects the real, pure and original Islam is shared by millions of Muslim worldwide.
It is clear that once al-Qaeda was destroyed, the "Islamic State" came to be – so that if the Islamic state is destroyed, another Islamic entity will take its place.and attract thousands of Muslims from just as many countries. Add to that those converting to Islam from Europe, America, and the four corners of the globe, those blond and blue-eyed men and women who will rush to join the group in order to observe all the beliefs associated with Islam.
This can also happen in Africa, under the Boko Haram, in the Saharan plains under the Libyan Jihadists, sponsored by the butchers of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis.The battle against the problematic tenets of the Islamic faith is not bound in place or time and like the genie that comes out of a bottle, cannot be put back in it. Muslim emigration to Western countries unsettles those governments internally due to the Islamic takeover of public space, politics, economics and its image in the politically correct media. In many parts of the world one can say that "Islamic State is here", in neighborhoods that the local police do not enter, in the cities where a Muslim majority forces Sharia on supermarkets, pharmacies, bars and churches – and in the parliaments where the presence of the Islamic State is becoming more and more influential and solidly based.

The really significant battle is not in Iraq or Syria, where what is happening is just the introduction that follows the preface acted out in Afghanistan 13 years ago. The real war, far-ranging and dangerous, will develop once "Islamic State" is eliminated and the vengeance resulting from that success begins to be exacted in America, Europe, Australia and every place where man-made laws are in force. Its goal will be to impose the law of Allah as it is spelled out in Islamic sources.

Anyone who thinks that destroying "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria will solve the problem had better think again, because the problem is not this or that organization or country. The problem is the ideology that today motivates one and half billion people who believe that the "religion of Allah is Islam" (Qu'ran chap.53, v.19). This ideology will not be eliminated even if we get rid of the jihadists in Iraq and Syria down to the last man. Their followers are to be found in most parts of the world and that world must be prepared to change the rules of the game, otherwise it will find itself putting out fires instead of apprehending the pyromaniacs.
Written for Arutz Sheva, translated from the Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky