Still ‘Feeding the Alligator’

Still ‘Feeding the Alligator’
Vol: 29 Issue: 29 Sunday, February 29, 2004

During the buildup to the war with Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in response to criticism of the administration’s policy with Saddam Hussein, told ABC News; “And the course of action that says, well don’t make Saddam Hussein unhappy or mad, or he might do something, is kind of like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you last.”

That phrase comes to mind with each new revelation of Saudi involvement with the al-Qaeda network. And there’ve been plenty.

The now-infamous Zarqawi memo, discovered after top al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq, was a plea for more help from al-Qaeda in attacking American targets.

Shortly after eliminating al-Zarqawi, US forces intercepted the original memo from al Qaeda member Hassan Ghul.

The memo made headlines, but most of the attention was focused on the part where Zarqawi told al-Qaeda that America was a tough enemy that wasn’t going anywhere. Clearly, it is evidence that we are winning, at least for now.

It was a significant military find, revealing the terrorist network’s command structure in the mountains along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan while calling for help in Iraq.

What gets less attention is the fact a copy of the Zarqawi memo later turned up in Saudi Arabia. The copy was discovered with Saudi financiers whom Defense officials believe were being solicited to fund terrorist operations inside Iraq.

All roads in the war on terror lead directly to the doorstep of one of our ‘allies’ in the war on terror. It’s been less than three years since a mostly Saudi band of terrorists financed by Saudi national Osama bin-Laden and inspired by official Saudi religious teachings, attacked and killed more than 3,000 American citizens.

The Treasury Department ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of the American branch of a Saudi charity last week. The Al Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc. is headquartered in Saudi Arabia and is one of that nation’s largest charities. Branches in six countries have previously been put on a separate US blacklist of terror financiers.

In July 2002, an influential analyst with the Rand Corporation told the Defense Advisory Board: “The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader. Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies [and is responsible for a] daily outpouring of virulent hatred against the US from Saudi media, ‘educational’ institutions, clerics, officials – Saudis tell us one thing in private, do the contrary in reality.”

In October 2002, the Washington Post reported that, “U.S. intelligence has identified about a dozen of al Qaeda’s principal financial backers, most of them wealthy Saudis.”

Saudi officials have vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying any allegations of links to the Sept. 11 attacks contained in the report are unsupported by the facts and are politically motivated.

They also denied allegations in the report that they allowed Saudi charities and other groups to raise money for Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations within their borders. But the links don’t point anywhere else.

That’s the problem.

Omar al-Bayoumi was an employee of the Saudi civil aviation authority who FBI agents said received “seemingly unlimited funding” from Saudi Arabia. Osama Bassnan and his family received significant charitable support from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Both are believed to have been conduits for financial aid for the 9/11 hijackers and other Saudi terrorists. The classified section reportedly concluded that Al Bayoumi received at least $3,000 a month from Saudi officials.

Al Bayoumi and Bassnan fled and are now believed to be in Saudi Arabia.

It’s hard to ignore Saudi Arabia’s top law enforcement officer, Interior Minister Prince Nayef ibn Abdulaziz. He remains a vocal supporter of radical Islamist causes and has stated publicly that Jews were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Prince Nayef is one of several top Saudi officials who, through individual efforts and in their roles as government overseers, funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to suspect charities and other front organizations that ultimately may have helped finance the September 2001 attacks and other terrorist strikes.

Since every single investigation of Islamic inspired terrorism — without exception –is in some way linked back to Saudi Arabia, some members of the administration are beginning to scratch their heads, rub their chins, and exclaim, “Heyyy. . . I think there’s something funny about those Saudi guys . .” Duh.

But better late than never. As long as it isn’t TOO late.

Assessment:

Although the administration is reluctant to admit it, it can no longer pretend that the Saudi royal family is the solution, rather than the problem. There is no choice but to admit that we have been doing exactly what Rumsfeld accused the Iraq appeasement lobby of doing. Feeding the alligator in the hope that it will eat us last.

No administration in the last thirty years has wanted to take on Riyadh directly. Especially after the Saudis showed us what they could do during the 1070’s OPEC Crisis.

The Saudis led an OPEC reduction in oil production, which led to a crippling recession that saw mortgage interest rates skyrocket to 24%. The West is TWICE as dependent of foreign oil today as it was in 1973.

The Bush administration is not unique in its reluctance to recognize the alligator, but is the unlucky one that ended up with the empty feed bowl.

Saudi Arabia has also been feeding its own alligator a steady diet of strict Islamic Wahhabi fundamentalism to keep it at bay so the thousands of Saudi royals can continue to control Saudi Arabia’s vast oil wealth and the international power it gives them.

But what it will change into is anybody’s guess, which is what has hamstrung successive US administrations since Nixon. The fall of the Saudi royal family won’t erase centuries of Wahhabi indoctrination from Saudi thinking. It will merely eliminate its sponsors and what little control they retain over it.

Wahhabism emerged in the mid-eighteenth century in Central Arabia from the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab.

Wahhab sought to rid Islam of foreign innovations that compromised its monotheistic foundations, and to restore what he believed were the religious practices of the seventh century at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors.

He rejuvenated the idea of the militant jihad, or holy war, which had declined as a central Islamic value to be applied universally. The previously dominant Sufi Islam had evolved it into a more spiritual concept.

Wahhab established a political covenant in 1744 with Muhammad bin Saud, the ruler of Diriyah near modern-day Riyadh, according to which he received bin Saud’s protection and in exchange legitimized the spread of Saudi rule over a widening circle of Arabian tribes.

This covenant between the Saudi royal family and Wahhabism is at the root of modern Saudi Arabia and at the heart of the Great Religious War of the 21st century between the Christian Crusaders, the Zionist Jews and the Islamic world.

In the last days, the Bible says the antichrist will seize control of the three pillars of global power; the global economy, the global government and the global religion.

There is a global economy — there is no question of its existence, or its centralization in the hands of the G-7. The antichrist will also seize control of the global governmental apparatus, currently embodied by the UN, closely modeled by the EU, with both rapidly merging into a single, global cooperative. The World Court at the Hague is one example. The current level of cooperation between the EU and UN in serving as a counterweight to US supremacy is another.

The battle to see who will emerge as the third sphere of global power is currently raging around the world. The UN has a plan in place to wait until the respective alligators have eaten, or at least taken a big chunk out of, their appeasers, before stepping with a new religious plan of its own.

According to the Apostle John, the eventual winner will be a kind of hybrid religion, one having ‘two horns like a Lamb, but spake as a Dragon’ (Revelation 13:11)

The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace is dedicated to the establishment of an Interreligious Council at the UN to oversee a more inclusive, peaceful religion based on the ‘best’ principles ‘among Christians, Muslims, Jews, Confucians, Hindus and other major religious groups,’ according to their website.

Presently at the United Nations there exists an ad hoc Committee of Religious NGOs that has more than one hundred members. Its chairman in 1994 was a Catholic priest working with an international interfaith organization. Its chairwoman in 1995 was a Korean Buddhist nun. It’s current chairman is Dr. Azza Karam, a Muslim.

Representatives of the IARF, which is primarily a non-Christian interfaith organization, chair the Committees on Freedom of Religion or Belief in both New York and Geneva.

The Final Countdown has already begun.

“So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till ALL these things be done.” (Mark 13:29)

Anatomy of a Rumor

Anatomy of a Rumor
Vol: 29 Issue: 28 Saturday, February 28, 2004

The Iranian news service reported that Osama bin Laden was captured by the combined forces of the United States and Pakistan in the tribal region of Pakistan s North-West Frontier Province.

The report was obvious propaganda — it also said bin-Laden’s capture took place ‘a long time ago’ and that President Bush wanted to announce the ‘big news’ personally.

It’s too perfect by half. If true, it would give the Democrats all the ammunition they would need to unseat George Bush in November. The Looney Left has been floating ridiculous conspiracy theories like Bush knew about 9/11 and did nothing, or that Osama is already in custody but it s under wraps so he can use it as an election stunt, etc., etc.

And all the presidential hopefuls have, at one time or another in their campaign, given the conspiracist rumors a wink and a nod to stir up the crowd.

It’s the old, ‘what did the president know and when did he know it?’ game John Kerry learned so well during the Nixon years. The question itself does almost as much damage as a direct accusation, but shields the questioner from any backlash. (“I didn’t accuse anybody; I was only asking a question”)

So, when the rumor of bin-Laden’s capture is so transparently false, why is it that it made pretty much every newspaper in the world? China’s Xinhua’s headline was “Osama bin-Laden Captured.” Bloomberg’s headline said, “Bin Laden Captured in Pakistan, Says Unconfirmed Iran News”.

The San Diego Union Tribune’s headline reads, “Iranian State Radio Reports bin-Laden Captured.” It was reported on all the major network news broadcasts and repeatedly on the cable news outlets. And everybody knew it wasn’t true.

They weren’t reporting the CAPTURE; they were openly reporting a RUMOR. They said it was a rumor, and in each of the reports I cited, in the body of the text they reported that it was clear there was absolutely no evidence to support the rumor.

Even Iran’s state news service, when questioned, said they were only reporting a rumor they said they overheard when monitoring a Pashtun language radio broadcast.

One report from Indolink.com quoted an Iranian journalist who said there was no official confirmation from Iran’s government, and that he didn’t believe anybody could keep bin-Laden’s arrest secret for long, anyway.

The news agencies who didn’t headline their stories with the news of Osama’s capture managed to cover the same ground under the headline, “US Denies Report of bin-Laden’s Capture.”

Assessment:

Believe it or not, there a millions of people out there who will read the reports, choose to believe that Bush is keeping Osama under wraps and will have one more reason to add to their list of why they believe there is a mad dictator sitting in the Oval Office.

Although there was no truth to the rumor from the beginning, and the mainstream media knew it, it gave them a chance to reinforce the Left’s propaganda charges that Bush is manipulating the war to benefit his re-election chances in November.

Fringe political sites like moveon.org, morons like Michael Moore, Jeanine Garafalo and Al Franken will pick up on the rumor and use the ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ trick to build the subliminal case against George Bush.

And use reports in the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the cable news outlets and even the Washington Times to make their ‘case’ that the administration is corrupt.

It doesn’t matter that it s a rumor started by the Iranian propaganda machine. The Democrats have embarked on a strategy not unlike the Oriental ‘death of a thousand cuts’.

They intend to pile so many charges on the Bush administration that, by November, they’ll have convinced the voters that Bush is guilty of something — even if they aren’t sure what it is.

I’ve been pointing out for some time what effect the Left’s campaign to destroy George Bush is having on America’s global image. There is only one place that people living in Iran, China or the Islamic world can turn for information about America. To American media.

The mullahs in Iran would like nothing better than to see Bush defeated in November. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that a Democratic administration would be less of a threat to their nuclear ambitions.

The rumor they spun did exactly what they wanted it to do. It added to the global image of an imperial American presidency. And they used the American media, the liberal Left and the presidential wannabes to help them.

On a related note, I was reading about Tony Blair’s political misfortunes, the most recent being charges leaked by a former government minister that the US and UK spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. She in one of a long list of what the media admiringly call ‘whistle-blowers’ that have leaked secret documents that have done serious damage to their governments.

The whole situation in general gave me pause to reflect on just how accurate Paul was in describing society as it would exist in the last days. What passes for American politics in 2004 would have been treason in 1944. That was wartime, but so is this.

And the stakes are arguably much higher in this war than that one was. World War Two threatened the global political order. This war carries with it the threat of global annihilation from rogue nuclear states and terrorists armed with biological and chemical weapons.

But what would have been treasonous conduct sixty years ago is politics as usual today. Selling out one’s country for money, political advantage or to advance a private agenda used to be a crime. Now it is evidence of some higher standard of personal integrity.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

Of all the words that come to mind, considering Iran, al-Qaeda, Iraq, Israel, the Middle East, Europe, Russia, etc., etc., ‘perilous’ describes things best.

It’s as if Paul had in mind the liberal supporters of gay marriage, the homosexual ‘movement’, supporters of abortion, euthanasia, taking prayer out of public life, etc., when he wrote Timothy of the last days.

“Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. . .”

America is the most hated and mistrusted country on the face of the earth, thanks in no small way to the constant repetition of how corrupt and dishonest our government is. The only country who comes close in the global unpopularity poll is Israel.

America is hated because it is perceived as being a Christian country headed by a Christian cowboy who is engaged in some kind of Christian crusade against Islam. Both those perceptions come directly from charges by America’s media and political elite leveled against the Bush administration.

Israel is hated because it is a Jewish country who claims its right to exist comes directly from God. The whole character of the war is religious, which is why the Left can’t see how dangerous the situation is.

“Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”

One of the goals of the Left is to advance more homogenous, UN-friendly, all-inclusive global religious structures. Religious leaders from all faiths have already created a UN commission to work toward that exact goal.

“The United Nations can never be the same again.” That was how Bawa Jain, Secretary-General of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, described last year’s Summit at the UN.

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

The half-time Super Bowl show this year accomplished more than al-Qaeda’s most skilled propagandists in convincing the world of America’s moral decadence. It spawned a new domestic debate over public decency, with the Left asking, ‘What’s the big deal?’ over Janet Jackson exposing herself on national TV.

To the Left, canceling Howard Stern for being a public pervert is ‘censorship’ but criticizing the homosexual agenda as being ‘immoral’ is ‘hate speech’ from ‘right wing neoconservative Nazis.’

“For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.”

And the movie, “The Passion of Jesus Christ” has the Left complaining that the move was ‘too violent’ and should never have been made. As writer Christopher Hutchens told an agreeing panel on PBS yesterday, “I’ll be damned if I want to be part of that kind of Christianity.” Hutchens and the other esteemed and learned panelists have no idea of the truth of that statement.

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2Timothy 3:1-7)

Justice, UN Style

Justice, UN Style
Vol: 29 Issue: 27 Friday, February 27, 2004

The World Court has concluded its hearings during which a formal panel of 15 judges in black robes and wigs listened to lawyers testify that Israel’s security fence was a violation of humanitarian law. It was a bizarre scene.

Israel is fighting a terrorist war. There is no common ground with regard to nearly every parameter traditionally applied to warfare. Israel’s enemy is a non-state whose “military” activities are wrapped around ideologies that legitimize acts of terror against civilian populations. The principles of Islam.

The Israelis are not fighting organized armed forces, but rather a loose, cellular structure of terrorist groups that blend among civilian populations. Their flexibility gives them the ability to materialize unexpectedly and use the Israelis’ own democratic systems against them.

This week’s deliberation at The Hague is an example of how far our world has come in accepting terrorist blackmail and giving it legitimacy.

Forty-four countries filed briefs with the court opposing the Israeli barrier fence. The Palestinian Authority, received as “Palestine” by the court, and two other non-states, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference, were also permitted to present their cases.

Other countries also argued their positions against Israel’s right to install the barrier. These included Cuba, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, South Africa, and Senegal. It is clear that these countries don’t object to a barrier fence so much as they object to an Israeli existence on one side of it.

Neither Israel, nor any Western country presented briefs. Not one Security Council member spoke nor was any Western country represented.

Assessment:

This is what passed for international ‘justice’. There were two scenes that simultaneously opened this week’s news cycles. The first was the specter of Yasser Arafat, appearing on TV to ‘condemn’ a suicide bombing for which his own people were taking credit.

The second was the World Court holding ‘hearings’ to decide if Israel’s decision to fence out Palestinian terrorists was a violation of international law.

The general consensus of the court is that Israel’s fence will hinder peace efforts with Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. It is as if the two events took place on different planets.

The latest bomber slipped into Israel from Bethlehem, where the security fence hasn’t yet been completed. While the World Court heard that the fence ‘wasn’t necessary’ and an ‘obstacle to peace.’

In places where the security fence has been completed, not a single suicide bombing attack has taken place since. The World Court heard instead that Israel’s fence makes ‘peace impossible’.

The fifteen-judge panel listened to one representative after another railing against Israel’s security fence. Among those making anti-Israel oral presentations were such bastions of democracy and human rights as Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Belize, Cuba, Indonesia, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Senegal, and Sudan. (Osama couldn’t make it and the Taliban sent regrets)

Among the JUDGES were representatives of such champions of the rule of law like, China, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, Jordan, and Egypt. (It should be noted the Egyptian judge pronounced Israel guilty before the court had even convened.)

Could it GET more bizarre? The logical argument wasn’t made before the court, but one would assume that argument wouldn’t be necessary, anyway. Indeed, following the logic, one would assume the TRIAL wouldn’t be necessary.

That line of logic goes like this: If it weren’t for the onslaught of Palestinian suicide bombings, there would be NO NEED for a barrier fence. Stop attacking and the fence will come down. Case closed?

Hardly. What is ‘justice’ before the UN for Jews is an entirely different standard of ‘justice’ than is applied to Arabs.

According to the UN’s own rules, international justice demands the following: the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, the right to equality and freedom from persecution, security of the person, the right to health and well-being, the right to safe working conditions, the right to work, freedom from incitement to violence or war, freedom of religion, the right to the protection of the family, the right to the protection of the child, the right to education, freedom of movement, the right to vote, freedom of association, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right of self-determination.

Not ONE of these rights have ever been fully enjoyed by Israeli Jews who have been in a constant state of war with the surrounding Arabs since 1948. The violation of human rights by suicide bombing, starting with the right to life, falls within the category of the gravest human rights violations in international law: crimes against humanity, specifically genocide.

The UN recently passed a resolution against Israel affirming the rights of Palestinian children and accusing Israel of violating them. The same UN, at the same time, refused to pass a resolution sponsored by Israel that affirmed the rights of Israeli children.

The World Court is supposed to PROTECT against genocide. It is also supposed to prevent ethnic cleansing, which it classifies as a lesser included offense within the definition of genocide.

Ethnic cleansing is defined as the systematic removal of a group of people identified by ethnicity from a certain area through killing or forced migration. Both suicide bombings and the dismantling of Jewish settlements are aimed at that same goal. The ethnic cleansing of Jews from the areas the Palestinians claim as theirs.

The World Court didn’t consider these issues. The World Court is wrestling with the difficult question of whether or not Jews should be allowed to defend themselves.

It isn’t the first time that question has bedeviled world leaders. The Book of Esther is about that exact question. The Feast of Purim is the celebration of the Persian decree that Jews WOULD be allowed to defend themselves that eventually resulted in the Jewish defeat of Haman and his forces.

It was a question that confounded world leaders during the 1930’s, and has been debated at the UN General Assembly following the wars of 1948. 1956, 1967 and 1973.

In each instance, the General Assembly’s ruling was effectively that Jews do NOT have a right to defend themselves.

In each of those wars, begun by Arabs, Israel captured territory that would have made its borders more defensible; with each cease-fire, the UN demanded Israel give it back, guaranteeing a new war.

Of all the nations in all the world, Israel is unique among its peers at the UN as the only nation with no inherent right to nationhood, and consequently, no inherent national rights.

The non-existent ‘nation’ of ‘Palestine’, run by, for, and at the pleasure of, an openly terrorist organization, is afforded greater access to the General Assembly than Israel.

That is the global status quo and the whole world knows it. Israel refused to even attend the hearing, having learned its lesson about UN impartiality and justice at the UN Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa.

The United States and even some members of the European Union argued the Court has no jurisdiction, but when the target is Israel, the UN gets tunnel vision.

Global anti-Semitism is completely out of the closet, openly and joyfully discriminating against Israel in favor of the Arab side, dismissing claims of bias BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE BIAS EXISTS, but promising to form a commission of some sort to ‘look into it.’

The stage is almost set for the final war in history. The war between the forces of the world against Israel and Israel’s God during the coming ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’.

Remembering the Former Things of Old

Remembering the Former Things of Old
Vol: 29 Issue: 26 Thursday, February 26, 2004

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:9-10)

The Bible contains sixty-six different books, written by forty different men, most of whom lived and died in different centuries, in different countries, many of them unaware of other prophets or other prophecies. The writers of the Bible were shepherds and kings, statesmen and beggars.

All the Bible’s writers were ‘non-profit prophets’ — being a prophet of God was not a sought-after job; most prophets lived miserably and died painfully. Most, like Jeremiah, tried to talk God out of hiring them.

Yet with all of that, every book blends seamlessly into the rest, both the books that came before, and those that came AFTER. Some books of the Bible quote other books not yet written at that time. Others quote earlier prophets or sacred writing, but all are harmonious with one another.

The writing of the Scripture is nothing short of miraculous in and of itself. Its preservation over the centuries is mind-boggling, if you let yourself think about it. You and I have both experienced discussions with non-believers convinced they can prove the Bible is wrong.

They rail and babble and quote everybody EXCEPT the Scriptures, and in the end, come away as convinced as when they went in. Or get mad and just go away.

Think how many times similar conversations take place around the world, every single day.

Then, take a look at the broader view: In every generation since its compilation, the Bible has been the subject of discussion between believers and non-believers. In every generation, non-believers have made it their mission in life to disprove the Scriptures.

Any discrepancy has been analyzed and re-analyzed by both friend and foe, read and re-read, argued and re-argued, in a million conversations over thousands of years.

Whoever successfully proved the Bible wrong on any point; doctrine, history, archeology, law, medicine, science, or geography would have single-handedly destroyed the basic foundation of the Judeo-Christian ethic.

The Bible says of itself, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Such a thinker and philosopher would be world-famous. Think of it! The man who proved God wrong! In all those generations, among all those thinkers over all those centuries, that thinker has yet to claim his prize.

The Bible is wholly consistent with known science. The book of Isaiah said the earth was round tens of centuries before Columbus.

“It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. . .” (Isaiah 40:22)

Ecclesiates 1:6 reveals that the winds move in cyclonic patterns and Job tells us that light is in motion (Job 38:19-20) thousands of years before weather satellites and Einstein’s calculations proved both to be true.

Medically, the Bible tells us the chemical nature of human life (Genesis 2:7, 3:19) that the life of creatures are in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), the nature of infectious diseases (Leviticus 13:46) and the importance of sanitation to health (Numbers 19, Deuteronomy 23:12-13, Leviticus 7-9) many thousands of years before doctors were still practicing blood-letting as a treatment for disease.

The list goes on. Every historical event described by the Bible has either been confirmed by other sources, or has yet to be confirmed. Not a single historical event described by Scripture has ever conclusively been disproved.

Sometimes, it is necessary to go back and take another look at the Source and meditate on just what a miracle it is in order to get a clearer understanding of what it says. It helps to reconfirm that everything it says is true. Despite thousands of years of editorial criticism, the Bible stands essentially unchanged from when it was first given.

A complete copy of the Book of Isaiah was unearthed as part of the Dead Sea Scroll treasures and is today enshrined in the Dome of the Tablets in Jerusalem. I have personally seen it and marveled at the fact its date could NOT be questioned. It could NOT be younger than the day it was buried in AD 70.

But, apart from grammatical changes made necessary by changes in Hebrew grammar over the centuries, it reads exactly the same way as the Book of Isaiah in your own Bible.

It makes sense to assume the rest of the Scriptures are equally accurate, since there is no evidence to the contrary and all the available evidence supports Scripture.

Assessment:

Where are we going with all this? The Bible’s accuracy is not limited to history, geography, science or medicine. It is equally accurate in describing the events that have not yet taken place.

The prophecies of the Bible are, from God’s perspective, ALREADY history. “. . .yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:11)

So not only does the God of the Bible know all things, but He has chosen to make known to us, through the Bible, what is still to come! In fact, even more than that, the God of the Bible CHALLENGES any so-called ‘gods’ to do the same.

“Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.” (Isaiah 41:21:23)

From God’s perspective, outside of space and time, everything is now, so to speak. God’s historical pronouncements are given from the benefit of Divine Hindsight. His prophetic pronouncements also enjoy the benefit of Divine Hindsight.

The Bible describes the future, but to God, it has already happened, if you can follow that line of reasoning for a minute. Since to God, it already happened, the events that remain yet future will be fulfilled as specifically as those events that have already come to pass.

Are you still with me?

Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 1:16, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

The Bible is also an eyewitness to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus.

Paul writes; “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (2 Timothy 2:12)

The mission of the Omega Letter is help to train an army of watchmen to declare what they see to a lost and dying world. And to recruit new watchmen to fill in the gaps in the line.

Isaiah writes, “For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.” (Isaiah 21:6)

Ezekiel warns, “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” (Ezekiel 33:6)

The mission of the Church is to sound the alarm and to warn a lost and dying world that there IS hope, that Jesus is real, the Bible is true, salvation is attainable and time is running short.

“Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:1)

“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9)

Editor’s Note:

Many of you support our efforts with your prayers as well as your finances. I thank God for your dedication to our shared mission.

Many others receive the Omega Letter from friends, or on forwarded private email lists. I’d like to talk to you for a moment.

If you believe in our mission, I’d like to ask for your support, if the Holy Spirit moves you and you are able.

Long time subscribers and readers know that I don’t make these pleas often and I take them very seriously. I wouldn’t ask if the need wasn’t there.

We are not a wealthy ministry — there are times when ten bucks one way or the other makes the difference between making expenses or falling into the hole. And the enemy seems to have dedicated a whole platoon to doing nothing but digging holes in front of us.

I pray the Holy Spirit will speak to those of you who can help, and that you will respond, and that He will grant you increase. Consider subscribing to the Omega Letter yourself or helping us out with a donation.

You can find more information on how you can help us financially at this link. http://www.omegaletter.com/subscribe.asp

If you can’t help financially, maybe you can help us by sharing your time. We are a small organization with a big mandate, and we wear many, many hats.

If you’d like to help us with your time and talent, please email bob@omegaletter.com.

And don’t forget to keep us in your prayers.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Maranatha! The King IS coming!

al-Qaeda’s Secret Weapon

al-Qaeda’s Secret Weapon
Vol: 29 Issue: 25 Wednesday, February 25, 2004

For most of the past nine months, the media consumer has been saturated with criticisms of the war in Iraq, the war against terror, US intelligence gathering capability and reasons why we should abandon Iraq, pull out of Afghanistan and withdraw from the Middle East.

The sentiments are far different today than they were during the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Back then, the prevailing attitude was ‘find ’em — and nuke ’em till the glow’ whereas last month, we heard presidential candidate Howard Dean caution America against condemning Osama bin Laden without a trial.

The tragedies of New York and Washington were so mind-numbing that somehow, the real impact never completely sunk into the American consciousness. Everybody was aware of a ‘new, post-9/11 reality’ at the surface level, but because it never sunk in, it also never really took hold. For many Americans, 9/11 has taken a back seat to Election 2000 and the effort to ‘make things right’ in 2004.

The Dixie Chicks and Sean Penn have been forgiven, and even Susan Sarandan and Tim Robbins are making movies again. Last night, I noticed that Michael Moore’s fake documentary, “Bowling for Columbine” was on pay-TV.

People aren’t interested in the actual threat posed by the terrorists, or in the number of attacks that have been prevented. What Americans really seem to want is a scandal.

‘What did the president know and when did he know it?’ is NEVER associated with the prevention of a major terrorist strike. (Until the strike happens, it isn’t ‘major’).

But it gets used all the time when questioning why the Bush administration, eighteen months into office and facing the stiffest domestic political opposition of any administration in living memory and equipped with a military and intelligence apparatus crippled by a decade of Clinton cut-backs, failed to anticipate the September 11 attacks.

The question is never answered, but just left lingering in the air, while the same critics continue to argue AGAINST efforts to prevent future attacks. This looking-glass view at reality is attracting an increasingly wide audience.

Assessment:

While the country is distracted by domestic politics, charges and counter-charges, sideshows like Howard Dean and now, Ralph Nader, and the almost palpable hatred around the country for George Bush, the threat to America from al-Qaeda seems oddly distant.

The muted public reaction to the testimony from FBI Director Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is a good example. In the months just following 9/11, it would have been covered gavel-to-gavel by the major networks. It wasn’t.

Mueller reminded the Senate that al-Qaeda historically revisits missed targets until they succeed. “And the list of missed targets now includes both the White House as well as the Capitol,” he said to the yawning panel of senators.

Recent flights from the UK and France to Washington have been diverted or canceled by the FBI. Mueller knows considerably more than he was telling in a public forum, but he might as well have given away all our secrets at the same time. The public wouldn’t have noticed.

CIA Director George J. Tenet told the committee that al Qaeda has been weakened but it has “infected” other radical groups with its ideology that depicts the “United States as Islam’s greatest foe.”

“The steady growth of Osama bin Laden’s anti-American sentiment through the wider Sunni extremist movement and the broad dissemination of al Qaeda’s destructive expertise ensure that a serious threat will remain for the foreseeable future, with or without al Qaeda in the picture,” Tenet told the largely empty Senate chamber.

Tenet said al Qaeda is continuing to recruit pilots and to evade new security measures in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

“Even catastrophic attacks on the scale of 9/11 remain within al Qaeda’s reach,” he said. “Make no mistake, these plots are hatched abroad, but they target U.S. soil and those of our allies.”

Critics of the administration have seized on Iraq as the safest policy to use to try and unseat the hated George Bush. The war was based on a lie, we shouldn’t have gone there, the world is NOT a safer place with Saddam deposed, etc., etc.

Tenet told the Senate in public, (which presumes the Senators have additional, supporting information from their classified files) that “Iraq has the potential to become a training ground for the next generation of terrorists if it is “left unchecked,” and that al Qaeda members have carried out some of the most deadly attacks on coalition forces in Iraq.

He also said the CIA believes Iraq’s stocks of weapons of mass destruction still may be hidden inside the country or were secretly moved abroad.

Not only has that revelation been ignored by the ‘Bush lied’ spin machine, it failed to elicit much of a public gasp at the prospect that those stockpiles and the terrorists who want to kill us may be hiding in the same cave.

The public seemed uninterested in the intelligence community’s testimony that Russian weapons of mass destruction materials remain vulnerable to theft or diversion.

Or that China is continuing an aggressive missile modernization program targeted against Taiwan that includes both cruise and ballistic missiles.

“Our greatest concern remains China’s military buildup, which continues to accelerate,” Tenet said. “What did the President know and when did he know it?”, thundered the useful idiots on the panel.

A half-dozen committee members ignored a suggestion made at the opening of the hearing by Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and committee chairman, that they focus on current threats around the world and not on the issue of flawed prewar intelligence.

They quoted from intelligence reports, compared them with assertions President Bush and others made about the need for war in Iraq and questioned parts of a speech Tenet gave recently at Georgetown University in defense of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Here’s an example of stupidity squared: “The question I am wrestling with is whether in fact we are as a country and as a people safer today than we were when the three of you were here a year ago,” Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat, said in opening statements, speaking to Tenet, Mueller and Admiral. Jacoby of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Is ‘stupid’ too harsh a characterization? Let’s see. . . One year ago, America had not been hit directly by terrorists in two years. Today, America has not been hit directly by terrorists in three years. Rockefeller ought to leave wrestling to the guys in the silly underwear.

It took al-Qaeda seven years of trying to bring down the World Trade Center, the symbol of American capitalism and economic power. They successfully struck the Pentagon, the seat and symbol of American military power. But they missed the White House and Capitol, the symbols of American democracy and freedom.

After the first WTC bombing, all al-Qaeda had to do was bide its time, wait for American complacency and political corruption to outdistance the country’s attention span, and try again. That is precisely what the FBI, CIA and DIA told the Senate Intelligence Committee al-Qaeda doing now. And getting bin-Laden won’t end the threat.

In assessing the weapons the enemy is planning to use against America, the intelligence left out, complacency, blind partisan hatred and a cadre of useful idiots from the liberal left.

But nobody is paying attention. They are so busy thundering, “What did the President know [prior to 9/11] that they can’t hear what the President is telling them that he knows NOW.

“The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.” (Ecclesiastes 4:5)

The Reawakening Bear

The Reawakening Bear
Vol: 29 Issue: 24 Tuesday, February 24, 2004

President Vladimir Putin dismissed the entire Russian government, ending weeks of speculation. Putin fired his Prime Minister, claiming that he purged the government in advance of the March 14 presidential elections. By firing the Prime Minister, Putin effectively removed the entire cabinet at the same time.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov served in the Soviet-era state planning agency Gosplan during the 1980s and after the Soviet collapse in 1991 began a steady rise through the economic and financial hierarchy.

He became finance minister under Yeltsin in 1999 and one of his main achievements in that post was persuading the Paris Club of creditors to reschedule some $8 billion in Soviet-era loans.

After Putin, who was Yeltsin’s prime minister, became acting president when Yeltsin resigned on Dec. 31, 1999, he appointed Kasyanov first deputy prime minister. After Putin was elected president in the spring of 2000, he appointed Kasyanov prime minister.

By firing the Russian government, Putin has silenced his critics — just in time for his reelection.

Putin has cultivated his image as a leader that is attempting to restore the country’s military power and global clout. He has repeatedly pledged to modernize the bloated, underfunded armed forces, which have struggled to maintain aircraft and ships in the decade that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The day before dismissing his government, Putin gave a speech in which he called for a stronger, more modern Russian military.

“We are strengthening and modernizing the armed forces, including the strategic forces, in order to reliably defend the nation,” Putin said at a reception Sunday on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day. He added, “We are not intending to threaten anyone.”

Assessment:

In terms of raw power, Russia is clearly inferior to the former Soviet Union. Russia is neither capable, nor interested, in full integration with the West.

But weakened as it is, Putin’s Russia still regards itself as a great power. The ruling elite rejects transforming Russia into a junior partner of the US or an unimportant member of the West.

Putin does not view closer relations with the West as an ideological imperative. Ideology and values play little role in the Kremlin’s gameplan. To Putin, good relations with the West are necessary only to boost Russia’s status.

Russian leaders no longer expect real assistance from the West. Self-help has replaced the discredited notion that foreign countries will come to Russia’s rescue.

The same sort of thinking holds true in military/strategic affairs. Because America only respects strong partners, Russia will modernize the components of its national power that make it comparable to the US, in particular its nuclear arsenal.

But, because an alliance of equals is impossible, a flexible combination of limited partnership and local rivalry seems the most likely course.

Russia’s leaders clearly recognize the country’s true current condition, so they accept the need to concentrate on vital interests. They remain convinced that Russia is a great power, but one that for now must act primarily as a regional one.

Putin’s regional plan is to revive the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) that replaced the collapsed Soviet Union but never really took off. Putin’s object is not to revive the Soviet Union, exactly.

CIS states will all retain their sovereign status, but will integrate economically with the Kremlin. In return for Russia’s economic support, CIS states will join a new Russian ‘security framework’.

According to a report to the Carnegie Moscow Center, Russian activism in the CIS will also bring it into direct rivalry with the EU.

“If the Kremlin uses force to establish its regional hegemony, Europe may again see Russia as a security threat, which would bring about a renewal of the Cold War/NATO policy of containment.

Likewise, China might oppose “Operation CIS.” Until recently, China feared that Russia’s withdrawal from the region would create a vacuum that the US would fill. Viewing the region as its strategic backyard and a source of energy, China is now expanding its influence.

Consolidation of Russian strategic power would limit the scope of China’s sway. But if Russia acts as a reliable rear guard and provider of energy and military hardware, China is unlikely to seriously object to expanding Russian influence.”

The Kremlin’s ultimate goal is to open up membership in the CIS to Middle Eastern non-aligned countries like Iran, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, etc.

Evidence of that can be seen in top secret reports that Russia provided Saddam Hussein’s regime with wide-ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war, including intelligence on private conversations between Tony Blair and other Western leaders.

Moscow also provided Saddam with lists of assassins available for “hits” in the West and details of arms deals to neighboring countries. The two countries also signed agreements to share intelligence, help each other to “obtain” visas for agents to go to other countries.

The documents detailing the extent of the links between Russia and Saddam were obtained from the heavily bombed headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad. A letter from the Iraqi embassy in Moscow shows that Russia kept Iraq informed about its arms deals with other countries in the Middle East.

Documents dated January 27, 2000, informed Baghdad that in 1999 Syria bought rockets from Russia in two separate batches valued at $65 million and $73 million

It also says that Egypt bought surface-to-air missiles from Russia and that Kuwait – Saddam’s old enemy – wanted to buy Russian arms to the value of $1 billion. The Russians also informed Iraq that China had bought military aircraft from Russia and Israel at the end of 1999.

While secretly working with Saddam Hussein, the Russians were openly working with Iran’s mullahs, building them nuclear reactors. Israeli intelligence reports indicate that Iran, which already has the ability to build long-range missiles, could have nuclear warheads in three to five years and threaten the entire Mideast.

In 2002, Putin played host to a secret meeting between Yasser Arafat and Iranian government officials. Israeli intelligence officials say Yasser Arafat forged a new alliance with Iran involvingIranian shipments of heavy weapons and millions of dollars to Palestinian groups that are waging guerrilla war against Israel.

All this sounds hauntingly familiar. A resurgent Russian bear, antagonizing its neighbors, developing secret alliances with the Arabs and Iranians, working specifically with Arafat against Israel, all as part of a larger plan to develop a Russian-led regional power bloc.

Ezekiel foretold a Russian-led regional alliance of nations would develop in the ‘latter days.’ Among its members Ezekiel named Persia (Iran), Libya, Ethiopia (Islamic North Africa), together with portions of Eastern Europe and northern Turkey. (“Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.” – Ezekiel 38:6)

That alliance, according to the prophet, would come together for the express purpose of annihilating Israel.

“After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.”(Ezekiel 38:8,11)

It is worth noting once more that Israel is currently being tried by the World Court for building a security fence to wall out Palestinian suicide bombers. According to Ezekiel, that ‘wall’ will eventually come down, making Israel a literal ‘land of unwalled villages’ — in this precise point in history. A coincidence?

But, according to the prophet, at some point, “thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 38:15-16)

The Russians are helping arm the Middle East with long range rockets, nuclear reactors and nuclear material. Eventually, these weapons will be turned back against them upon the mountains of Israel.

According to Ezekiel, “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. ” (Ezekiel 38:22)

The Dream Team

The Dream Team
Vol: 29 Issue: 23 Monday, February 23, 2004

The latest buzz from the liberal left is about a potential new ‘dream team’ that they think is their ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in November. The sound of it is like music: the ‘Kerry/Clinton’ ticket.

All the political gurus on the left say that Hillary is just waiting for the smoke to clear before offering herself for the vice-presidential slot to John Kerry.

Of course, to the liberal left, all things Clinton are desireable, but this ticket would make for an especially delicious upset. Something about Hillary Clinton avenging Al Gore’s defeat in Election 2000 just makes their eyes glaze. They can’t help it. But now Dick Morris is also talking about it as a very real possibility.

Dick Morris is the fast-talking con man who engineered the first Clinton dynasty in 1992, before eventually switching sides after a falling out with the Clintons over his own sex scandal.

Morris is not the kind of guy you’d want to have over for dinner, but he is the kind of guy who would know how the Clintonian mind works.

Morris argues; “Very few vice-presidential candidates can actually win votes for the top of the ticket: Hillary can. She is the most popular Democrat in the nation. And a woman vice presidential candidate – particularly Hillary – would electrify the Democratic base and guarantee a huge turnout. It would transform a campaign into a crusade.”

And, he points out, the only voters Hillary Clinton might alienate are already going to vote for George Bush anyway.

It makes sense. If Hillary were already vice-president in 2008, she’d be way ahead of the rest of the pack in challenging the incumbent for the top job. Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Mondale, Bush, Dole and Gore all served terms as vice-president before making their run for the top job.

Assessment:

It’s important to note that presidential elections aren’t decided by the major parties.

National elections are decided by the ones on the fence. Die-hard Republicans aren’t going to vote for a Democrat anymore than die-hard Democrats are going to vote for a Republican. In this election, even the moderates in both parties are likely to vote along strict partisan lines.

The ones that will decide who takes control of Good Ship America for the next four years are a tiny minority.

And most of them voted for Bill Clinton both times.

Frankly, I don’t believe John Kerry is electable. He’s too flaky, has too many chinks in his armor, and is too liberal. As a writer, I ALMOST hope he wins. I will have plenty to talk about for the next four years. If the country lasts that long, that is.

(As a Christian expecting the soon return of Christ, I believe it would certainly hasten His coming.)

With Hillary Clinton on the ticket, I’m not so sure Bush will keep his job.

This election is of critical importance, from the perspective of Bible prophecy. Although America plays no discernible role during the Tribulation Period, it remains a global player at the moment.

The world is teetering on the brink; Israel is being tried by the World Court over its security fence. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to the Islamic world means the next president, whoever it is, will preside over the most dangerous four years in recorded history.

America is at war with roughly one-sixth of humanity, and its only genuine ally is the most hated nation on the face of the earth. The global propaganda machine is well-oiled and functioning, ready to play its appointed role.

The next four years will certainly witness a changing of the guard at the Vatican. Whoever sits in the Oval Office for the next four years will preside over a brand-new global paradigm. Religion is already at the forefront of the global debate, just as the Scriptures predicted for the last days.

World War Three is a religious war, fought between believers in God and believers in Allah. Non-believers see all religious fundamentalists in the same light and want the UN to oversee the creation of a more inclusive, user-friendly, universal religion.

The dominoes are stacked precisely as the Bible said they would be; the Gog-Magog alliance continues to expand and develop, our European ‘alliances’ continue to crumble, anti-Semitism at the UN and in Europe threaten Israel’s continued existence. Once that first domino gets pushed, all the rest will topple on schedule.

Whether America IS the first domino — or whether it is America who pushes it over — may well depend on who is sitting in the Oval Office for the next four years.

For all these reasons, and more, we’ll be watching this election very closely. What an exciting time to be alive!

DoubleSpeak Re-spoke, Er, Something

DoubleSpeak Re-spoke, Er, Something
Vol: 29 Issue: 22 Sunday, February 22, 2004

The most shocking lie to emanate from the presidential campaign trail so far was uttered yesterday. Senator John Kerry complained that George W. Bush was exploiting Vietnam for political gain!

I call this the ‘most shocking’ lie because it is the boldest, most transparent, and most silly in a season traditionally known as the ‘silly’ season.

It is simply stunning in its scope. In a letter to Bush, Kerry wrote: “As you well know, Vietnam was a very difficult and painful period in our nation’s history, and the struggle for our veterans continues. So, it has been hard to believe that you would choose to reopen these wounds for your personal political gain. But, that is what you have chosen to do.”

For John Kerry to accuse George Bush of reopening the wounds of Vietnam is patently ridiculous. Kerry mentions Vietnam in every speech. His service in Vietnam is the answer to every difficult question.

Although Kerry slandered every Vietnam veteran during his anti-war activities (after he got an ‘early out’ from the Navy) and threw somebody else’s medals over the White House fence in protest, Kerry has made Vietnam service a litmus test.

And although Bush hasn’t said a word about Vietnam, Kerry is claiming the Bush camp is ‘reopening the wounds of Vietnam for personal political gain.’ This is John Kerry’s response to questions about his military VOTING record in the Senate, long AFTER Vietnam was over.

And the moment his clearly anti-military voting record was cited, Kerry responded by saying, “I don’t know what it is that all these Republicans who didn’t serve in Vietnam are fighting a war against those of us who did.”

What the heck does THAT mean? WHY are Republicans ‘fighting a war’ against Democrats?

John, John, John. For a Yale scholar, not too bright, are ya? It’s CAMPAIGN season! That’s what happens during political campaigns.

As to Vietnam, what does THAT have to do with anything? Anything at all? Anybody?

John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 that American Vietnam veterans were the scum of the earth — men who routinely decapitated, raped, pillaged and burned, ‘just for the fun of it’. Now he testifies to the public that anyone who was NOT a Vietnam veteran is not fit to lead America.

Logic time. If Kerry believes American Vietnam veterans are bloodthirsty, conscienceless, wanton killers, and that being a member of that group makes one fit to represent America, what is Kerry implying about America? That IS what he is saying, isn’t it?

Allow me to go on record as saying Kerry’s characterization of Vietnam veterans is a slander of monumental proportions. One so offensive that it is difficult for me to articulate without beginning to sputter. It is an insult to all veterans of all wars who ever volunteered to serve their country.

But, according to Kerry, only Vietnam veterans have the experience to lead, and any who didn’t serve in combat were somehow second class. So all you Guardsman, and all you military veterans who didn’t get Westpac orders, your military service meant nothing. Thanks, anyway.

And it was the White House who brought the whole thing up in the first place, according to Hanoi John.

Assessment:

It was John Kerry who first brought up Bush’s military record. It was John Kerry who contrasted his Vietnam service to Bush’s service as a fighter pilot in the Texas National Guard. To date, the only thing Bush has done is complied with requests for evidence that he served his term honorably.

But Kerry’s ridiculous charge that Bush is the one opening up Vietnam wounds has already made the airwaves on every network news program, largely without comment.

That the networks are deliberately airing anti-Bush propaganda as ‘news’ is easily proved.

From Feb. 1-16, ABC, CBS and NBC aired 63 National Guard stories or interview segments on their morning and evening news programs. That s far more coverage than Bill Clinton s draft-dodging scandal received in 1992, according to Media Research.org.

Back then, the three evening newscasts offered 10 stories on Clinton s complete evasion of service; this year, those same broadcasts pumped out 25 stories on whether Bush s acknowledged service was fully documented.

After the White House released documents on February 10 showing Bush had satisfied the Guard s requirements and received an honorable discharge, reporters wanted more evidence.

Dan Rather reported, “The White House did release some of what it called newly discovered documents today. But as CBS’s John Roberts reports, it did not put the issue to rest.”

The records showed Bush was never AWOL, exposing the baselessness of the Democrats original charge, yet none of the networks framed their stories around questionable Democratic tactics. Instead, they kept the onus on Bush: The issue is not going to go away, ABC s Terry Moran promised.

And it hasn’t — but the new twist on the story is to blame Bush for bringing it up in the first place.

This is the power of propaganda. It makes up look like down, black look like white, and it is convincing enough that even a weasel like John Kerry can be made to look like a patriot instead of an opportunist.

Propaganda used to be more subliminal than it is today. That is to say, the networks used to at least make an attempt to hide the fact that they are lying while trying to conceal the fact they even have an agenda. In the old days, that was called ‘journalistic bias’ and was a no-no.

In the New Reality, what used to be bias is now ‘an effort to balance against conservativism’ or some nonsense like that. Early on, John Kerry tried to egg on the media. Was he present and active, on duty in Alabama, at the times he was supposed to be? he challenged on February 8. Just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question.

Given Kerry s defense of the draft-dodging Clinton twelve years ago ( We do not need now to divide America over who served and how ), unbiased reporters would have pounded the candidate for his hypocrisy in at least not repudiating the other Democratic dividers, but it didn’t happen.

It’s been said that Ronald Reagan didn’t have as much to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union as Ted Turner did. CNN’s images of Western prosperity, full supermarkets and the benefits of free market capitalism did as much to bring down the Soviets as any US military or foreign policy did. Propaganda is an immensely powerful tool.

The Bible says that in the last days, the ‘whole world’ will be so convinced of the antichrist’s deity that he will become the object of global worship.

He will control the planetary propaganda machine with such exquisite detail that he will incorporate the economic, religious and political worldviews into a single platform — and nobody will even notice until it is an accomplished fact.

Never in history was it ever possible to propagandize the world. Until this generation. Today, the global propaganda machine is fully functional and is already in operation. If you doubt it, name the two most hated nations on earth. How did THAT happen?

“And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)

Special Report: America’s Conundrum

Special Report: America’s Conundrum
Vol: 29 Issue: 21 Saturday, February 21, 2004

There is sometimes a surprisingly fine line that manifests itself between what is true and what is propaganda or political correctness.

Take, for example, the question of Islam and terrorism. To some, because the Koran preaches conversion or death, that defines all Muslims as either terrorists or potential terrorists.

As I noted earlier, it is a fine line. It is a truth that Islam preaches conversion at the point of the sword. Most Islamic states include the sword in their national symbols. There are more than a thousand ways to say ‘sword’ in the Arabic languages.

But that is not the same as saying that ALL Muslims are terrorists. Not all Jews are pro-Israeli, either. In fact, the Kedash party in Israel is sending its Knesset representatives to the World Court to protest AGAINST Israel’s fence. There are Jewish religious and political parties in Israel who oppose Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

To say that not all Muslims are the enemy SOUNDS naive, or worse, an attempt to be politically correct. But not all Muslims interpret the Koran the same way.

It isn’t that surprising; not all Christians interpret the Bible the same way.

There are Christians who oppose the state of Israel on religious grounds, like the mainstream Churches who teach replacement theology. To them, the State of Israel is just another country with no more spiritual significance than India.

There are also Christians who, reading the same Bible, believe Israel is the most important country on the face of the earth and that the ingathering of the Jews is evidence of the soon return of the Lord.

To argue that all Muslims support terror, or even that all Muslims believe that the purpose of Islam is forced conversion is to deny the evidence of the differences that exist under the banner of Christianity.

Strict Calvinists do not feel a particular need to lead people to Christ. They believe that since it is predestined anyway, why bother? Very few mainline churches proselytize.

Yet there are Christians who read the same Bible and believe that it is the duty of each Christian to lead another to Christ. Both exist simultaneously, and to the non-Christian, especially a non-Westerner, there is no real difference between them.

This is not a defense of Islam. The Allah of Islam is NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, neither does Islam recognize the Lord Jesus Christ.

All that being said, not every Muslim is a terrorist. There are schools of Islam that embrace only the peaceful aspects of Islam — those same schools of Islamic thought made the Islamic Middle East the most advanced culture of the 10th century. That isn’t propaganda, it’s history.

Nevertheless, it poses a real problem for America.

Assessment:

It is not hate speech to speak the truth, provided the truth you speak is true. (Although it was recently ruled in Canada that the fact certain speech might be true is not an affirmative defense to hate speech legislation. So much for truth and freedom)

The problem is, while every Muslim isn’t a terrorist, we are at war with Muslim terror. And the danger is, that in our efforts to safeguard the rights of the non-terrorist Muslim, we open a door to terrorist attacks from Islamic terrorists.

There is considerable objection from many quarters, (including this one) about the depth, scope and inherent dangers of recent anti-terror legislation, such as the Patriot Act.

On the other hand, there is that whole question about non-terrorist Muslims.

Is it possible in the US to outlaw a religion? If so, then preaching that religion would be a crime. The Constitution would have to go out the window. And if a religion can be outlawed, Christianity would not be far behind.

But it seems possible that the only way to win the war on terror will be to shred portions of the Constitution. Listen to the politicians competing for the nomination. They don’t want to fight terror directly, they want to legislate it out of existence.

They promise to end the war on terror by rescinding the Patriot Act, raising our taxes and bringing the military home from Iraq.

Having accomplished that, what will they do if we are attacked again? History says they will immediately legislate something.

The point is, we are facing an enemy whose religion, by its very existence, is a threat to national security. In very real terms, it is the religion itself that is the enemy.

But America is a nation founded on freedom of religion. It is a conundrum.

In studying the prophecies of the last days, we find national representatives of Israel, national representatives of the Gentile world, national representatives of the Islamic world, (Gog-Magog Alliance, for example) but no existing national representatives of Christianity.

And no suggestion of a national superpower apart from the revived Roman Empire.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Corinthinians about what he called a ‘mystery’. In Scripture, a ‘mystery’ is a new revelation from God.

In arguing against the heresy that there is no resurrection from the dead, Paul writes; “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul explained that the Church was to; “wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the WRATH TO COME.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10)

“For this we say unto you BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-17)

Following Jesus’ Seven Letters to the Seven Churches in the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation, beginning in Revelation 4:1 we read; “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, COME UP HITHER, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

The Church is never again mentioned. Christians from that point forward are ‘Tribulation Saints’ — all of whom, it seems, are martyred.

Something has to explain the absence of the United States as a major player from the final hours of human history. Thoughout the Cold War, the only possible scenario was a nuclear war which would have destroyed the planet. And America faced no other risk to its national security apart from Communism.

I wish I could explain exactly what happens to America in the final hours of the last days that explains its absence. America is undergoing something of a spiritual revival, while at the same time, one senses a developing spiritual civil war between Christian America and the forces that represent abortion, gay rights, the porn industry, etc., etc.

At this point in history, there are dozens of ways one can reasonably guess America could collapse as a global power, from America’s spiritual civil war to Islamic terrorism to political implosion and absorption by the coming global government. (Every candidate for the White House has affirmed his faith in the UN as part of his particular election platform.)

Or, the Church could hear, ‘Come up hither’. That would explain everything, too.

Collective Madness

Collective Madness
Vol: 29 Issue: 19 Thursday, February 19, 2004

Jewish leaders are meeting with members of the European Union in Brussels for a conference on anti-Semitism. European leaders were embarrassed last year when a poll proved what Brussels has long denied.

European anti-Semitism is approaching the levels of the 1930’s — just before Europe began shoveling its Jewish population into ovens during World War II.

“The most important achievement that can emerge from this conference is recognition of an emerging truth: No longer is violent anti-Semitism the exclusive domain of extreme right-wing forces; today’s anti-Semitic agitators are largely those who would import the Middle East conflict to Europe,” World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman and European Jewish Congress leader Cobi Benatoff wrote in an article in London’s Financial Times on Thursday.

“We do not come to silence those who would criticize the policies of the Israeli government,” Bronfman and Benatoff wrote in the Financial Times. ” Criticism of Israel is not the issue. Rather, it is demonization of Israel as a Jewish state and as the state of the Jews.”

The EU’s European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia reported last year that the rise in anti-Semitic attacks was “committed above all either by right-wing extremists or radical Islamists or young Muslims mostly of Arab descent.”

But the study was kept under wraps until the European Jewish Congress published it on its Web site.

The Jewish group said the EU had suppressed the report because it linked Arab immigrants to anti-Semitic violence in Europe.

In an interview granted to a European political magazine, Ariel Sharon observed, “What we are facing in Europe is an anti-Semitism that has always existed and it really is not a new phenomenon,” Sharon said.

“This anti-Semitism exists and what pushes it is a ‘collective anti-Semitism that incorporates Israel into this equation.”

Interestingly, Sharon had nothing but praise for the current EU presidency, held by Italy.

He praised Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi s government for its loyalty and for fighting the tide of negative opinion in Europe. “Today, during the Italian presidency, we can say that Europe s policy is balanced,” Sharon said.

Assessment:

Once a particular concept is accepted into the collective mind, a collective madness seems to accompany it. One sees the same phenemenon regarding Iraq. The collective mind seems to have accepted the concept that not finding a stockpile of WMD is the same thing as ‘the administration lied to get us into an unjust war.’

After awhile, nobody is paying any attention to the thousand-odd other reasons for removing Saddam, and no amount of evidence will ever be enough.

It is the same thing about European anti-Semitism. Here we are, calmly discussing Europe’s rampant, almost genetic hatred of an entire ethnic group, and nobody really gives much thought to what they are really talking about.

I am trying to come up with something similar for contrast. There really isn’t anything. Imagine Washington inviting Silvio Berlusconi to discuss why Americans can’t help but hate Italians? Picture Bush explaining it’s just part of our nature?

Israel is a nation drawn from almost every nation on earth. The only requirement for citizenship is that one is a Jew. Black, white, brown, yellow, any nation, any ethnicity. The world calls THAT ‘racist’ and uses it to justify anti-Semitism and nobody gives it a second thought.

Israel has only existed for sixty years. But the European conference is discussing European anti-Semitic history that dates back centuries. What was their excuse then?

“Back then, we hated you for being Jews in OUR country. Now we hate you for being Jews in YOUR country.” You can’t have it both ways without admitting you hate the Jews, but can’t really explain why. That is what Europe is attempting to do now.

Why DOES the world hate the Jews? Why IS there a WORD for it? Think about it. John Kerry hid the fact his father was a Jew until only recently. Could you tell? Now that you know, do you hate him for it? How does a guy go from being just a guy to being a ‘Jew’?

Fredrick the Great was once allegedly holding a meeting of his ministers when he asked in despair for someone to provide him with proof that God existed. One of his ministers reported asked, “Have you considered the Jew, Your Majesty?”

Whether or not the story is true, the example is appropriate. Why does the world hate the Jew? Because the Jew, by his existence, is evidence of the existence of God.

There are people who do not WANT to recognize the existence of God, because they fear being accountable to Him. They are comfortable in their unbelief, prefer it that way. Paul described this mindset in Romans 1:28:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”

As you see, some people do ‘not like to retain God in their knowledge’ — the Jew is a constant reminder of God. That was part of God’s plan for Israel in the last days — to remind a Christ rejecting world that He is still in charge.

“And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:12)

Israel and the EU are discussing ‘antiSemitism’ which is a word especially reserved to describe hatred of Jews. That is the fulfillment of God’s promise.

“Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.” (Psalms 44:14)

AntiSemitism is so much a part of global culture and thinking that more than half of all UN condemnatory resolutions in UN history have been passed against Israel — but nobody cries ‘foul’. Nobody demands an investigation. It is simply how things are — they’re Jews.

“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (John 16:2)

The world hates the Jews because they stand as God’s Ensign, exactly as He foretold for the last days. They are reviled in every nation, yet no nation can explain why, exactly. Just something about the Palestinians, (who were created as a consequence of a war AGAINST the Jews, not one they started).

The Palestinian Authority, which has proved itself time and again to be a terrorist organization on a par with al-Qaeda, enjoys global support, but only because it opposes Israel.

It is no stretch to call collective antiSemistim a form of collective madness. A collective madness that one day will bring all the armies of the world to bear against Israel, and against Jerusalem, according to the Bible.

“In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.” (Zechariah 12:4)

That Day is fast approaching.