A message from above? Lightning strikes Vatican after Pope Benedict resigns

By Megan Levy

Feb. 12, 2013, 10:05 a.m.




Pope Benedict XVI's resignation came like a bolt from the blue overnight.

And the weather around the Vatican was eerily appropriate, with lightning striking St Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic sites, on the same day that Pope Benedict announced he would be stepping down.

Global news agency Agence France-Presse published an image of lightning striking the basilica's dome, which it said was taken "on the day the Pope" announced his resignation.

AFP said the striking image was captured by photographer Filippo Monteforte, who works for Italian national news and photo agency ANSA.

Monteforte's website shows that he has photographed the Pope extensively for for more than a decade. He is also listed as a AFP photographer, with a portfolio of his work on the news agency's website.

The image was doing the rounds on social media overnight, with some people questioning its authenticity.

Fairfax Media photographer Nick Moir said the image looked genuine.

"It's probably not that rare for St Peter's to get hit," he said.

"The bolt is hitting a lightning rod to the side of the cross, it seems."

Although Moir said there was no way to verify when the photograph was taken.

Pope Benedict's resignation is the first by a pontiff for almost 600 years, and his decision stunned the Roman Catholic church.

In an address read out in Latin letter to his Catholic brethren,the 85-year-old said his advanced age and the pace of change in the modern world had left him unable to “adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me”.

He will step down as head of the Catholic church on February 28.

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said he had made up his mind nearly a year ago after trips to Mexico and Cuba tired him out.

His 89-year-old brother, Georg Ratzinger, said: "Age is weighing on him. My brother would like more rest at this age."

Once he stands down, Benedict will be taken to Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer retreat near Rome, and will subsequently live in a cloistered monastery.

Previous Popes have stayed in the role until their death, despite physical and mental decay, in the belief that their prayer and suffering as they approach the end are a part of their role.

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII in 1415, to help resolve a dispute between the three people who claimed to be the Pope.

Source

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Pope greets US defense secretary following general audience

Pope greets U.S. defense secretary following general audience

romereports


Published on Jan 16, 2013


http://en.romereports.com

On his week-long tour through European capitals, U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stopped at the Vatican to meet Benedict XVI.

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Clinton named Father of the Year

Former President Bill Clinton delivers remarks during the Samsung key note address at the 2013 International CES, a trade show of consumer electronics, at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 9, 2012. UPI/Molly Riley
License photo


Updated Jan. 10, 2013 at 2:25 PMPublished: Jan. 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM

Former President Bill Clinton walks his daughter Chelsea Clinton down the aisle during her wedding to Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday, July 31, 2010 in Rhinebeck, New York. Chelsea wed her longtime boyfriend at a Beaux Arts riverside estate called Astor Courts. Photo released by President Clinton's office. (One Time Editorial Use Only) UPI/Genevieve de Manio/HO



NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The National Father's Day Council has named former President Bill Clinton as its 2013 "Father of the Year."

The group cited Clinton's work as president and with the William J. Clinton Foundation since he left the White House in 2001. It also mentioned the Clinton Global Initiative and his position as U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti after the country had been battered by hurricanes and the devastating 2010 earthquake.

"With the profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations, President Clinton exemplifies the attributes that we celebrate through the father of the year award," said Dan Orwig, head of the Father's Day Committee.

The group did not mention the sex scandals that dogged Clinton during the 1992 campaign and in the White House.

Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have a home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Chelsea Clinton, their only child, married Marc Mezvinsky, the son of two former members of Congress, in 2010.

The award is to be presented June 13 in New York. Previous recipients include Gen. Colin Powell, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/01/10/Clinton-named-Father-of-the-Year/UPI-65811357841277/#ixzz2IA60DuFt

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The character assassination of Hillary Clinton

Kathleen ParkerOpinion Writer


By Kathleen Parker, Published: January 1


The new year began not with a cannonball off the “fiscal cliff” but with an outbreak of conspiratorial cynicism.

This time it’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose fall and concussion, followed by a blood clot between her brain and skull, has prompted an embarrassment of theories. The gist: That woman will do anything to avoid testifying about Benghazi.

Several commentators on the right opined via Twitter and TV, those most deadly hosts for the parasites of rumor and innuendo, that Clinton was faking her concussion to duck out on her appearance before congressional committees investigating the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

An independent report published last monthplaced substantial responsibility for the deaths on the State Department. Not only was security at the Benghazi compound weak, relying heavily on local forces with conflicting loyalties, but requests for additional security apparently were ignored or denied.

The sentiment that Clinton might not wish to testify on the matter is not without reason. It is hard to imagine the agony of knowing that one’s lack of vigilance may have contributed to four deaths. But the attacks on Clinton during her illness, essentially attacks on her character, have been cruel and unfair. What must the world think of us?

Clinton, who fainted as a result of dehydration after a bout of flu, hit her head and suffered a concussion, after which a blood clot was discovered. She had to be hospitalized while blood-thinning medications were administered and monitored.

Although her critics backed off once the clot was reported, initial responses ranged from “She’s faking” to demands for proof of her concussion.

One writer demanded her medical records. John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations, called Clinton’s affliction a “diplomatic illness” to avoid testifying about Benghazi. Later he suggested that details were skimpy in an effort to protect her potential 2016 presidential run.

“I think it’s the too-cute-by-half approach that’s reflected in the absence of transparency that’s going to end up damaging her and damaging her credibility,” he said on Fox News.

Again, Clinton may well prefer to miss her day before the firing squad, but it is unlikely that doctors or a hospital would assist a secretary of state — or anyone — in concocting a fake affliction.

Besides, you can’t have it every which way. Immediately after the Benghazi attacks, Clinton took full responsibility for the events and was accused by Republicans of falling on her sword to protect President Obama. Now that she’s temporarily indisposed and unable to elaborate on her admitted responsibility, those same critics insist she’s trying to avoid taking personal responsibility.

The viciousness of the pundit class is disheartening and disgusting. And these days everyone’s a pundit. Got an opinion? Why, step right up to the microphone. If you’re “good TV,” you too can be a “contributor.”

Out in the hinterlands, where Americans consume “news” that suits their political proclivities, opinions are formed on the basis of what-he-said. Reputations and lives are ruined on the tines of pitchforks glimmering in the light of torch-bearing mobs. And those are just the “news” shows.

One doesn’t have to be a fan of Hillary Clinton, though a Bloomberg poll says that two-thirds of Americans are, to feel tainted by the relish with which she and many others have been attacked — unfairly and disproportionately. Susan Rice, who was Obama’s favorite to replace Clinton as secretary of state, comes to mind.

But this isn’t a problem only for women or Democrats. The rush to character assassination seems to be our only bipartisan imperative and is a blight on our political system. In this brooding age of superstition and portent, every misspoken word is a lie, every human error a hanging offense.

This is to suggest not that we be naive or credulous but that we seek some balance in our approach to discovery. At the moment, we seem to be ricocheting between hysteria and delusion.

Eventually, Clinton will have to step forward and take her medicine. She is slated to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in mid-January, though the date hasn’t been set. The nation clearly needs answers on what happened in Benghazi, and no doubt Clinton will provide them.

This is not blind faith in a favored politician but respect for a process that relies on accepted rules of order. We owe our representative to the world — which is to say, ourselves — at least this much.

kathleenparker@washpost.com

Source

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War on the Generals?

What's with the spontaneous scandals having to do with the Armed Forces?  

Why is there a war directed specifically at the GENERALS? 

Why is the government (powers that be) turning its back on its top warriors? 

As we observe with horror the relentless attack upon the upper echelon of the U.S. Armed Forces: we wonder why?  

Before our eyes we see the New World Order cannibalizing itself, discarding or moulting its skin.

What exactly is happening behind the scenes? What is really behind this military WITCH HUNT is the great question mark. ?

And, most puzzling of all:  Why this barrage of scandals roughly a week after the re-election?

Just asking!

These men were at the top of the heap?  They commanded the troops involved on the endless war on terror? 

• Brigadier General Stanley A. McChrystal 
• General David Howell Petraeus
• General John R. Allen
• Lieutenant General William E. "Kip" Ward (Just lost a star)

Arsenio.

Related:

U. S. Navy Seals punished


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Voters say ballot cast for Romney came up Obama on machine

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Was the Batman movie shooting imitated from scene in 1986 comic?

July 20, 2012

Sean Higgins

The Washington Examiner

The horrific shooting at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado late last night bears eerie similarities to a scene in the 1986 comic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In the comic, a crazed, gun-toting loner walks into a movie theater and begins shooting it up, killing three in the process. The passage concludes with the media blaming Batman for inspiring the shooting, though he is not involved in the incident at all.

The 1986 comic, written and drawn by Frank Miller, was a key inspiration for the Chris Nolan Batman films. It helped to reimagine the character away from his Saturday morning cartoon image and into a dark, grim avenger. The point of this particular scene in the comic was to show just how far Gotham has fallen since Batman had retired.

Was the shooter imitating this scene from the comic? Maybe, although in the scene the shooter is portrayed as inspired by his disgust at pornography and heavy metal music. The police’s investigation will surely reveal more in the near future.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect the correct date of the 1986 comic, The Dark Knight Returns.

Source

The Georgia Guidestones (Sinister Sites)

By VC | November 15th, 2010 | Category: Sinister Sites

Georgia Guidestones is a mysterious monument on which are carved ten “commandments” for a “New Age of Reason”. The first commandment? Maintaining the world population under 500 million people. Another sinister fact: the authors of what we now call the American Stonehedge are still a “mystery”… except for those in the know. We will look at the numerous features of this monument, its message calling for a New World Order and explain how it is the work of an occult secret society.

Note: One of the first articles I ever wrote on this site, back in late 2008, was about the Georgia Guidestones. I removed the article about a year ago, however, when I came across some vital information: the explanation of the rules written by the hidden authors themselves as well as other documents. So if you are a long-time reader of this site, please keep reading as I’ve re-written the entire article.

The Georgia Guidestones is an enigmatic granite monument situated in Elbert County, Georgia. Also known as the American Stonehedge, the gigantic structure is almost 20 feet high and is made of six granite slabs, weighing in total 240,000 pounds. The most astonishing detail of the monument is however not its size but the message engraved into it: Ten rules for an “Age of Reason”. These guides touch upon subjects that are associated with the “New World Order”, including massive depopulation, a single world government, the introduction of a new type of spirituality, etc. The authors of those rules have requested to remain totally anonymous and, until now, their anonymity has been duly preserved. However, this mysterious group left a text explaining the reasoning behind the rules, a text that was not discussed online before. With this new information, the purpose behind the Guidestones become very clear, leaving little room for hypotheses. The Guidestones describe the ideal world, as envisioned by occult Secret Societies. The monument is therefore proof of an existing link between secret societies, the world elite and the push for a New World Order.

The Monument

Quietly standing in Elberton county, the Guidestones will probably gain in relevancy in the next years

Made of Pyramid blue granite, the Georgia Guidestones are meant to withstand the test of time and to communicate knowledge on several levels: philosophically, politically, astronomically, etc. It consists of four major stone blocks, which contain ten guides for living in eight languages: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. A shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient languages’ scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is important to note that those last four ancient languages are of a great importance in the teachings of occult mystery schools, such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, organizations I will discuss later.

The four major stones are arranged in a giant “paddlewheel” configuration which are oriented to the limits of the migration of the sun during the course of the year and also show the extreme positions of the rising and setting of the sun in its 18.6 year cycle. The center stone has two special features: first, the North Star is always visible through a special hole drilled from the South to the North side of the center stone; second, another slot aligns with the positions of the rising sun at the time of the summer and winter solstices and at the equinox.

Source: Wired

At the base of the Guidestones lies an explanatory tablet listing some of the details of the structure. It also mentions a time capsule buried underneath it. The contents of this time capsule (if it exists) are a total mystery.

The explanatory tablet explains some of the features of the monuments and its authors (more on them later). The opening date of the time capsule has been left blank.

Astronomical features are of a great importance in the design of the Guidestones. In a relatively “new” nation such as the United States, monuments that are aligned with celestial bodies are often the work of secret societies, such as the Freemasons. Drawing their teachings from the Mystery schools of Ancient Egypt, Greece or the Druidic Celts, they are known for embedding into monuments some of their “sacred knowledge”.

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‘UFO’ over Middle East reportedly a Russian missile test

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By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – 18 hrs ago

A mysterious light seen over several countries in the Middle East on Thursday night has been confirmed by multiple sources as a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile test. There had been speculation that the strange sight, which was seen over countries in the region including Syria, Israel and Iran, might have been some sort of unidentified aircraft.

The object was first seen when journalist Rob Stevens posted an image to his Twitter account. Stevens wrote, "Just Seen a strange UFO over Fheis. It hovered, and then made a swirl and disappeared."

Ynet News reports that the missile test resulted in hundreds of calls to Israeli police stations. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the missile test originated in the Astrakhan region in central Russia and was spotted in several other countries along the way, including Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

"It most likely spun out of control and its remnants and the fuel was what people saw," Israeli Astronomical Association Chairman Dr. Yigal Pat-El told Ynet News. "It reached a height of 200-300 kilometers and that's why it was seen from so many locations."

The Jerusalem Post Yaakov Lappin also confirmed the test, tweeting: "Mysterious light explained. Russia announces it carried out successful inter-continental ballistic missile test."

You can view several other videos of the missile sighting taken from Syria and one allegedly shot in Iran.

Video game players may appreciate the observation of one particular YouTube commenter, who said of the video Alan Wake: "IN SPACE!_ Great flashlight."

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Know Your Enemy: The New World Order From a Christian Perspective

Item Name:
Know Your Enemy: The New World Order From a Christian Perspective
Item #:
KYE-DVD
Price/ea:
$39.95 $29.95


“From a cosmic/federal perspective there are only two people on this planet: the first Adam and his seed and the Second, or Last Adam, and His. And as Augustine pointed out, there are ultimately only two metropolises: the city of man and the City of God. Mark does an incredible job of dusting history for the signs. symbols and detritus of the first, which the Bible calls 'mystery Babylon .'” Eric Holmberg, The Apologetics Group; R3FORMATION MEDIA



VIEW CLIP HERE

The name Babylon occurs in the Bible almost three-hundred times. The majority of those references are in the Old Testament - and with good reason. It was the first great city of the world and the capital of the first kingdom. In fact, it may well have been the greatest empire of all time. However, Babylon is much more than this. The Bible clearly and intriguingly states that "Mystery Babylon" is also the source of all abominations of the Earth (Rev. 17:5) – a fountainhead of evil that began flowing through history thousands of years ago and which profoundly impacts the world today… in ways most don't realize. Indeed, Revelation tells us that Mystery Babylon will survive until the end of time when God finally judges it with terminal violence.

This series is a walk-through history that follows the threads, exposes the idolatry, the symbolism and the perverted thought-processes that originated in Babylon. We discover its influence in all false religions including Catholicism and Islam, astrology, freemasonry, world-famous landmarks, the theory of evolution, philosophy, the United Nations, the European Union and much, much more. We discover that ever since God scattered the Babylonians back in Genesis 11, it has been Satan's intention to reverse the process and bring the whole world back together again under a single world system, ruled by the Antichrist. Above all we learn how to recognize our enemy so that we will not be deceived and instead live with faith, hope, love and courage in the face of Babylon’s demonic schemes.


Product Details

Format: Color, NTSC, Full-Frame
Rated: NR
Studio: The Fuel Project
Video Release Date: Aug. 24, 2011
World-Wide Distribution: The Apologetics Group
DVDs – 4, Region Free (will play anywhere in the world)
Runtime: 10 Hours, 45 Minutes

Chapters:

1. Introduction

2. Lucifer

3. Adam to Nimrod

4. Babylon

5. Semiramis

6. Tower of Babel: The Mountain

7. Tower of Babel: Heaven

8. The Mysteries

9. The Birth of Tammuz & Polytheism

10. The Scattering

11. God's Masterplan

12. The Plagues

13. The Desert Years

14. Plan A & Plan B

15. Ahab & Jezebel

16. God v Baal

17. The Jezebel Spirit

18. Neo-Babylon

19. The Four Kingdoms

20. The Pergamos

21. Caesar

22. Jesus

23. Roman Catholicism

24. Catholic Symbols I

25. Catholic Symbols II

26. Islam & Muhammad

27. Allah

28. The Kabah

29. The Islamic - Catholic Connection

30. The Dark Ages

31. The Information War I

32. The Information War II

33. The Jesuits

34. The Spiritual Exercises

35. The Jesuit Oath

36. Jesuit Deception

37. The Rise & Fall of the Jesuits

38. The Enlightenment

39. Deism

40. Freemasons

41. The Illuminati

42. Illuminati Themes

43. Masonic Symbols I

44. Masonic Symbols II

45. Republics

46. Science Dictatorships

47. Evolution

48. Population Control

49. The Hegelian Principle

50. The French Revolution

51. The American Revolution

52. The Hidden Hand

53. The Capitol

54. American Symbols

55. Lilith

56. Bohemian Grove

57. The Rothschild Era - Usury

58. The Rothschild Era - 19th Century Timeline

59. The Fed, The Jews & Three World Wars

60. Are The Jews To Blame?

61. The European Union - Rome Reborn

62. European Symbols

63. The United Nations Background

64. The Spiritual United Nations

65. The World Core Curriculum

66. Alice A Bailey

67. The War on Parents

68. Truth v Unity

69. Tolerance

70. The United Religions

71. Israeli Supreme Court

72. Mormonism

73. Jehovah's Witnesses

74. The Emerging Church - Christianity + Postmodernism

75. The Emerging Church - Road to Rome

76. The Emerging Church - Road to the One World Religion

77. God Wins

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Breitbart is Not the Only Mysterious Death

Uploaded by RowellRichard on Mar 11, 2012
CREDITS: ATLAH Worldwide
Original Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HLiVRg4MYw&feature=plcp&context=C40b3...

Previously on THE MANNING REPORT:

Breitbart's Death Needs to be Investigated

Uploaded by ATLAHWorldwide on Mar 1, 2012
http://www.atlah.org The Manning Report
Andrew Breitbart died after he tells the CPAC audience he has film of Barack Hussein (The Long Legged Mack Daddy) Obama during his young, radical college years. Recorded on 1 March 2012.

"ATLAH: THAT'S WHAT GOD SAID."
Anointed to establish families, churches and businesses, unlike any the world hath seen. Indeed the final product of the land, ATLAH, will boast of being the seat of the world's banking, business, and education centers.

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Breitbart @ CPAC

Uploaded by KMRATHELL on Feb 10, 2012

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart claims to have film of US President Barack Obama during his young, radical college years. He tells the CPAC audience that he will release them during the upcoming presidential campaign to expose the president's radiCal roots.

Uploaded by Mind88Music on Mar 1, 2012

This Video is from Before It's News http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1837/474/Was_Andrew_Breitbart_Murdered.html but you can also catch an article at Alex Jones Infowars http://www.infowars.com/media-trailblazer-andrew-breitbart-dies-aged-43/ concerning the untimely death of Andrew Breitbart at age 43, who reveals in this video that he has college-era footage of Barack Obama that would ruin his election run in 2012....

*FULL SPEECH: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0573AD0C79081BAE

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Andrew Breitbart Just Another Weird Death

(0 Rating)

Caution: Some vulgar language used.

The Titanic Disaster (1912-2012)

Uploaded by worcesterjonny on Mar 24, 2011

A video produced for the centenary of the Titanic Disaster (1912-2012). On 10th April, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. By the 15th April this great ship had sank (SUNK) with a loss of hundreds of lives.

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Another shooting at Virginia Tech?

Explosions rocking Tehran spark warning of 'big event'

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GLOBAL INSECURITY

Suspicions grow that Iranian blast targeted Khamenei

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Posted: November 28, 2011
8:44 pm Eastern

By Reza Kahlili
© 2011 WND

Editor's Note: The writer is the author of"A Time to Betray,"a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Two massive blasts on Nov. 12 that hit near Tehran, the Iranian capital, and rocked the city may have been an attempt to assassinate the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been scheduled to be there at the time of the explosions, sources suggest.

Now the question is whether the Iranians will retaliate.

At the time of the explosions, Iranians found themselves wondering if Israel had attacked. The International Atomic Energy Agency's recent report on Iran's nuclear weapons program and the warnings of military action by Israeli officials have alarmed Iranians about the possibility of war.

The simultaneous explosions, which hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' base 28 miles west of Tehran, not only shook the surrounding area but were heard and felt throughout Tehran, even breaking car and building windows.

Read more:Explosions rocking Tehran spark warning of 'big event'http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=372341#ixzz1fLUolnaG

China: Google Earth spots huge, unidentified structures in Gobi desert

Vast, unidentified, structures have been spotted by satellites in the barren Gobi desert, raising questions about what China might be building in a region it uses for its military, space and nuclear programmes.

All of the sites are on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang... some less than 100 miles from Jiuquan, the headquarters of China's space programme and the location of its launch pads
Photo: GOOGLE EARTH

By Malcolm Moore, Shanghai and Thomas Harding, Defence correspondent
1:50PM GMT 14 Nov 2011

In two images, available on Google Earth, reflective rectangles up to a mile long can be seen, a tangle of bright white intersecting lines that are clearly visible from space.

Other pictures show enormous concentric circles radiating on the ground, with three jets parked at their centre.

In one picture from 2007, a mass of orange blocks have been carefully arranged in a circle. In a more recent image, however, the blocks, each one the size of a shipping container, appear to have been scattered as far as three miles from the original site.

Another image shows an array of metallic squares littered with what appears to be the debris of exploded vehicles while another shows an intricate grid that is some 18 miles long.

All of the sites are on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang, some less than 100 miles from Jiuquan, the headquarters of China's space programme and the location of its launch pads.

The two reflective rectangles lie 70 miles from the nearest main road and there is no sign of any surrounding activity. However, Ding Xin military airbase, where China carries out its secret aircraft testing programme, is relatively nearby, at a distance of some 400 miles.

400 miles in the other direction is Lop Nur, the salt lakes where China tested 45 nuclear bombs between 1967 and 1995.

The purpose of the structures is unknown, but some experts suggested that they might be optical test ranges for Chinese missiles, to simulate the street grids of cities.

Tim Ripley, a defence expert from Jane's Defence Weekly, compared the structures to similar grids in Area 51, the secret United States military test base in Nevada. "The picture of the circle looks very like a missile test range, with target and instrumentation set out to record weapon effects. The Americans have lots of these in Nevada – Area 51!" he said.

Conspiracy theorists believe that Area 51 is home to the remains of an alien spacecraft found at Roswell, and there was no shortage on Monday of similar hypotheses about the Chinese sites.

"It looks like our own Area 51," said one commenter on Baidu, a Chinese website. "Can it be an alien base," asked another. "It looks like solar energy facilities, with a walkway along the side," said a third.

Source

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Vatican Murder Mystery: Was It a Gay Love Triangle?

Nov 14, 2011 6:31 AM EST

AUTHOR

Barbie Latza Nadeau

A salacious crime in the pope’s backyard has gone unsolved for almost 14 years. Barbie Latza Nadeau on the double homicide—and the rumored gay love triangle that could be behind it.

On May 4, 1998, five shots rang out inside a private apartment tucked within the fortified walls of Vatican City in Rome. Dead were Alois Estermann, the newly appointed commander of the elite Swiss Guard army that protects the pope; Estermann’s Venezuelan wife, Gladys Meza Romero, a former model; and Cedric Tornay, who was a corporal in the Swiss Guard. No one heard the shots, according to neighbors who were interviewed after the murders, but the three bodies were enough proof to solve the crime, at least according to the Vatican. The Holy See’s official line was that corporal Tornay had killed Estermann and his wife before putting his 7mm pistol into his mouth and blowing his brains out. The motive was simple, they said. Tornay had been passed up by Estermann for a promotion and could not contain his rage.

But the truth behind the Vatican’s Swiss Guard murders is far more complex, says Tornay’s mother, Muguette Baudat. Earlier this month she pleaded to Pope Benedict XVI to reopen the case and clear her son’s name. In a brief interview with The Daily Beast, she says her son was the victim of a cover-up, not the perpetrator of a murder-suicide. “My son is not the man behind such a murder,” she said. “He was not crazy and vengeful. He was actually a victim in this crime.”

Baudat has written a letter to the current pope in the hope he will reopen the case. She believes that because Benedict was a key administrator in the Vatican hierarchy during her son’s murder investigation, he may be willing to reinvestigate the case for the sake of transparency. “He might want clear his conscience,” she says. “It would be the right thing to do.”

When it happened, the Swiss Guard murder shook Rome to its core. Because Vatican City is a sovereign nation, it has its own police and investigative units. The pope is the head of state, and no one in the papal administration has to answer to anyone outside the Vatican walls—even though the tiny nation is tucked inside the city of Rome. Secrecy shrouded the case from the moment the news broke. In the hours after a Vatican insider leaked the news of a murder, local Italian journalists speculated that then–pope John Paul II himself had been the victim of a gunman’s wrath. It took nearly 24 hours for the Vatican to clarify that it had been the head of the pope’s protective arm who had been killed in a murder-suicide and not the pope himself.

Pope John Paul II greets Swiss Guard Alois Estermann and his Venezuelan wife, Gladys Meza Romero, during a private audience at the Vatican in this May 6, 1997, file photo. Estermann, nominated commander of the Swiss Guards by the Pontiff on May 4, 1998, was found shot only 12 hours later with his wife and another noncommissioned member of the elite corps, Cedric Tornay, in his apartment inside the Vatican., AP Photo

In the years that followed, reporters followed several leads in a yet- unsolved quest for the truth about what may have really happened that night. Several books have been penned about the case, but none so far have truly solved the crime. It was no secret within the Swiss Guard that Estermann was a bisexual who had a weakness for young recruits and had allegedly just ended a sexual relationship with Tornay, who was 23 at the time. One theory is that when Estermann turned his affections to another young recruit, Tornay allegedly lost his temper and killed Estermann and his wife in a jealous rage. In a book written on the case called Verbum Dei et Verbum Gay ("God's Word, Gay Word"), author Massimo Lacchei writes that in the days before the murders, he had observed Estermann and Tornay at what he describes as a gay brunch and had later interviewed Tornay, who he said was clearly attached to his superior. He says, ''They were so intimate and friendly for a subordinate and a captain.”

Another theory is that Estermann was at the core of a power struggle within the Swiss Guard itself. On one side was the über-conservative Opus Dei movement, and on the other a Masonic sect with growing strength within the elite guard. Estermann, who was appointed as the guards’ new commander just hours before he was murdered, was caught in the middle, according to a book calledBlood Lies in the Vatican, written by anonymous authors who claim to be priests and insiders who live inside the Vatican walls. They maintain that Tornay was attacked and dragged to the Vatican cellar, where he was “suicided” by commandos and then later placed in Estermann’s apartment after the real assailants did their dirty work. They conclude, “The element that undermines the official truth is the fact that no one heard the five loud shots fired by the powerful pistol found under Cedric Tornay’s body.”

One theory is that Tornay lost his temper and killed Estermann and his wife in a jealous rage.

Tornay’s mother believes the second theory more than the first, but knows the truth could lie somewhere in the middle. She says her son was the pawn of more powerful entities and got caught in the crossfire in a situation he likely knew nothing about. She denies her son’s homosexual affair with his boss, but concedes that he may have been too trusting and therefore easily taken advantage of. Either way, she is determined to find the truth about her son.

Pope Benedict XVI has not yet responded officially to Tornay's mother’s letter. Her lawyer Luc Brossollet says she will not let it go. “The case is full of suppressed evidence, contradictions, and lies,” he said recently. “It’s time to find the shameful truth.”

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