Thursday, May 10, 2007

FASCISM AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Fascism and the Dominican Republic
~Karen Jaime
http://www.goshen.edu/sst/drsummer02/dr19.shtml. Viewed on 4/26/04/

With respect to fascism and the readings we have engaged with in this course a recurring issue was that of the appeal of fascism. What was its appeal to the people living under its oppressive regime? I seek to answer this question by applying the readings to the Dominican Republic during the era of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the Dominican dictator who "officially" ruled from 1930-1938, 1942-1952, later to be replaced by the "puppet presidency" of his brother from 1952-1960 and later by his staunch supporter Joaquín Balaguer from 1960-1961. The Dominican Republic while not a fascist country by definition, leaning more towards ultra-nationalism, exhibited many of the characteristics of fascism articulated in the readings. My entrance into this discourse begins with a song my mother learned as a child in the early 1950's close to the end of Trujillo's second term as "president" of the country. I have chosen this song, as I felt that it captured the imagery that I wanted to engage with more effectively than any of the images I came across.
"Trujillo es tu nombre el ideal
es símbolo del bien a la nación
lograstes poner fin a nuestro mal
trayendo el bienestar a la nación
nuestra nación
puede ofrecer
amplio campo a todo luchador
porque tu vida y todo tu ser
serán emblema de fervor
Duarte, Sánchez, y Mella admirarán
la obra que se extiende por doquier"
TRANSLATION:[Trujillo is your name, the ideal
A symbol of national well-being
You managed to bring an end to our misfortune
Our nation can offer opportunities for everyone
Because your life and all that you are
Will be emblems of fervor
Duarte, Sánchez y Mella will admire
All that you have done throughout the land]
A http://www.spotximages.com/dominican_republic.htm .Viewed on 4/26/04. A naval officer - even off duty the military persona is maintained.
Thematically, this song speaks to the perpetuation of the "mythic leader" ideal presented in our readings. Evidence can be found in the line that states: "lograstes poner fin a nuestro mal/you managed to bring an end to our misfortune", making Trujillo the savior of the Dominican people, for it was through him and only him and his political ideology that they were able to escape their prior socio-economic, and political situation. The concept of the leader cult and the ritualization of authority, discussed on page 15 of the Griffin readings is further evidenced by the requirement of everyone to stand during the playing of the national anthem in Trujillo's presence during mass gatherings, something that was absent from general comportment prior to Trujillo's entrance into power. Within this song itself, there is also a pointing towards the "historical destiny" (Griffin, pg. 15) of the Dominican people through Trujillo via the reference to Duarte, Sánchez y Mella--the forefathers of the Dominican Republic who were responsible for its "liberation" from the Haitian government of Toussaint L'Overture. The tone of the last line, speaks to the trajectory from the forefathers to Trujillo; similar to the forefathers, Trujillo is presented as the new "liberator" of the Dominican people. The song is calling upon a nationalist fervor based not only on Trujillo and his ideals, but also on the tangible results of his presidency. Foe example, on page 14, Griffin writes: "far from being a form of anti-modernism, cultural pessimism, nihilism, or 'resistance to transcendence', fascism is born precisely of a human need for a sense of transcendence, cultural optimism, and higher truths compatible with the forces of modernization." During the Trujillo era in the Dominican Republic, there was economic expansion, the foreign debt was paid off, the currency was stabilized, and there was an expansion of the middle class. Alongside this, the road system was enhanced, the port facilities were improved, and there was the construction of airports and public buildings and facilities (from "The Dominican Republic: U.S. Model for Third World Development", The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman). There was a movement towards modernization, through aesthetic beautification that viscerally appealed to the general population. In addition, Griffin points to the abolition of certain institutions, such as political parties, the creation of certain terror apparatus in order to punish those who deviated from the prevalent world-view, and the emergence of a new meritocratic aristocracy led "by an inspired leader" (pga. 16-17, Griffin). Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, abolished the Partido Comunista Dominicano (PCD, The Dominican Communist Party) in 1947 and had "La Banda" or secret police that served to enforce his laws and punish those who spoke ill of him and his government. Furthermore, those who benefited most from the Trujiilo regime monetarily and in terms of socio-political ascendance were his family members and "those who associated themselves with the regime both politically and economically" (http://www.workmall.com/wfb2001/dominican_republic/dominican_republic_history_the_era_of _trujillo.html). How does all of this relate back to the song? Well, fascism placed an emphasis on youth and their relationship with the "leader." This song represents the way in which the leader was presented to the youth, and how the youth were to engage with the leader. He was their mythic savior. The fact that more than 50 years after the fact my mother can still remember the lyrics and the affect produced by singing the song, speaks to the way in which it functioned as a symbol of Trujillo's constructed nationalism. My family in the Dominican Republic, as part of the upper middle-class who attended country club functions with Trujillo in attendance and knew him personally, did not feel oppressed by Trujillo and in fact were supporters. Until his death my grandfather, who had served as Trujillo's driver during his military days, kept pictures of Trujillo hidden behind his bed after the family was exiled from the island. My mother speaks of the safety, the cleanliness and the pride of being Dominican during the Trujillo regime. The current political climate of the country alongside its dire economic situation presently makes the Trujillo era one that is not easily criticized by those who benefited from "El Generalisimo." The current food scarcity and devalued peso were not a reality during that time period. The 1937 massacre of more than 20,000 men, women and children from the neighboring country of Haiti, was not a reality until after Trujillo's assassination in 1961 when Freddy Prestol Castillo published his book El Massacre Se Pasa A Pie. A book written during the Trujillo regime by Castillo, but buried in his backyard until after the Trujillo era ended. The appeal of fascism is one that only in hindsight can be understood when atrocities are uncovered and the reality of its application is felt, witnessed and attested to.

Source: http://hemi.nyu.edu/cuaderno/politicalperformance2004/fascism/webpages/fasIntl3.html

KNIGHTS OF DARKNESS

"The Catholic Right and the Knights of Malta, in particular Baron Franz von Papen (see sidebar), played a critical role in Hitler's assumption of power and the launching of the Third Reich's Twentieth Century Crusade."

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From ......... COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN

Issue title: SPECIAL: NAZIS, THE VATICAN, AND CIA

WINTER 1986 Number 25

Pages 27-38

[1 of 4 ....... 27-29]

KNIGHTS OF DARKNESS
THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF MALTA

INTRODUCTION
The Sovereign Military and Hospitaler Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, known also as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, or SMOM, is juridically, politically, and historically unique in the world today.
Representing initially the most powerful and reactionary segments of the European aristocracy, for nearly a thousand years beginning with the early crusades of the Twelfth Century, it has organized, funded, and led military operations against states and ideas deemed threatening to its power. It is probably safe to say that the several thousand Knights of SMOM, principally in Europe, North, Central, and South America, comprise the largest most consistently powerful and reactionary membership of any organization in the world today.
Although an exclusively [Roman] Catholic organization, in this century it has collaborated with, and given high awards to non-Catholic extremists in its current crusade against progressive forces in the West, the national liberation movements, and the socialist countries.
To be a Knight, one must not only be from wealthy, aristocratic lineage, one must also have a psychological worldview which is attracted to the "crusader mentality'' of these "warrior monks." Participating in SMOM Ñ including its initiation ceremonies and feudal ritual dress Ñ members embrace a certain caste/class mentality; they are sociologically and psychologically predisposed to function as the ''shock troops" of Catholic reaction. And this is precisely the historical role the Knights have played in the wars against Islam, against the Protestant "heresy,'' and against the Soviet ''Evil Empire."
The Catholic Right and the Knights of Malta, in particular Baron Franz von Papen (see sidebar), played a critical role in Hitler's assumption of power and the launching of the Third Reich's Twentieth Century Crusade.
SMOM's influence in Germany survived World War II intact. On November 17, 1948 SMOM awarded one of its highest honors, the Grand Cross of Merit, to Reinhard Gehlen, the Nazi chief of intelligence on the Soviet front. He was subsequently installed by the Americans as the first chief of West Germany's equivalent of the CIA, the Bundesnachtrichtdienst (BND: federal secret service), under West German Chancellor Adenauer, a devout Catholic who had received the Magistral Grand Cross personally from SMOM Grand Master Prince Chigi.
After the appointment of Knight of Malta William Casey as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, and another Knight, James Buckley, as head ot U.S. propaganda against Eastern Europe at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, several historians noted with interest President Reagan's call during the summer of 1982 for a "crusade" against the "Evil Empire" in Eastern Europe.
[ including Balkans ...... JP ]
In addition to Casey, and James Buckley, its current members, or Knights, after the feudal fashion, include Lee Iacocca, John McCone, William Buckley, Alexander Haig, Alexandre de Marenches (the chief of French Intelligence under Giscard d'Estaing, himself a Knight of SMOM), Otto von Hapsburg, and various leaders of the fascist P-2 Masonic lodge in Italy. While its organizational funding is relatively modest, its leverage is maximized by the presence of its Knights in key positions in other private and governmental structures throughout the world.
FRANZ von PAPEN
A leading figure in Hitler's coming to power was SMOM Franz von Papen, known as "the devil in a top hat." A devout Catholic aristocrat from an old family of Westphalian nobility, a former military attache and spy against the United States in 1915, von Papen became Chancellor in May 1932, with the support of the Nazis. In June he ordered the dissolution of the Reichstag, calling for new elections in July, in which the Nazis emerged as the largest party in the new Reichstag. After a meeting with Hitler, von Papen persuaded President von Hindenberg to offer Hitler the Chancellorship, which he assumed on January 30, 1933. Von Papen became his Vice-Chancellor.
In April 1933 von Papen was elevated to Knight Magistral Grand Cross of SMOM. After the murder of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in Vienna in July 1934, von Papen became Hitler's Ambassador to Austria, and, in March 1938 stood by the Fuhrer's side at his triumphal entry into Vienna. From 1939 until August 1944 he was the Nazi Ambassador to Turkey, and at the Nuremberg trials he was charged with conspiracy to wage aggressive war. He was one of several Nazi leaders acquitted, and subsequently received a generous pension from the first postwar Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.
Page 28
The President of the American Eastern Association of SMOM is J. Peter Grace, President of W.R. Grace Company, who was a key figure in Operation Paperclip, which brought Nazi scientists to the U.S. 1
SMOM's Sovereign Diplomacy
As its name suggests, SMOM is both a ''sovereign'' and, historically, a "military" organization. Its headquarters, occupying a square block in Rome at 68 Via Condotti, enjoys the extra-territorial legal status granted to an embassy of a sovereign state. The Italian police are not welcome on its territory, it issues its own stamps, and has formal diplomatic relations and exchanges ambassadors with a number of countries.
On November 13, 1951 Italian President Alcide de Gasperi recognized the diplomatic sovereignty of SMOM, although he held off formal exchange of diplomatic envoys.2 On January 11, 1983 the New York Daily News announced that,
"The Vatican and the order of the Knights of Malta, believed to be the smallest sovereign state in the world, have agreed to establish full diplomatic relations, a joint statement said today. "
President Reagan's Ambassador to the Vatican, William Wilson, is, coincidentally, a Knight of Malta.3
On September 5, 1984 French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson signed a formal protocol with SMOM for various cooperative projects includlng "aid to victims of conflicts."4 (See below on Americares.)
Historical Antecedents
Already in existence at the time of the first Crusade in 1099, in 1113 the Order of St. John was given its independence by Pope Pascal II, permitted to elect its own Grand Master, and soon the Order began military participation in the Crusades along with with the Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights. The Order of St. John recruited successfully among the Eurupean aristocracy and soon controlled extensive estates throughout the continent, assimilating those previously belonging to the Knights Templar which it had helped crush during the first two decades of the 14th Century, with the Templar leadership burned alive as heretics.
J. Peter Grace and Project Paperclip
On January 16, 1980 ABC-TV broadcast a special "News Closeup," "Escape from Justice: Nazi War Criminals in America" which discussed Grace's Role in Project Paperclip.
The transcript of the program, available from ABC on request, states,
"Project Paperclip ....... from the end of WW II to the mid-1950's brought more than 900 German scientists to the United States. ..... Otto Ambros ..... was a chemist and a Director of the notorious I.G. Farben Company which supplied gasoline and rubber for Hitler's war effort. Ambros ...... played a supervisory role in the construction of Farben's plant in the Polish village of Auschwitz. For I.G. Farben, Auschwitz concentration inmates provided a plentiful source of cheap labor. ..... The Nuremberg prosecution charged that each day at Farhen's plant one hundred people died from sheer exhaustion. ...... Otto Ambros was convicted of slavery and mass murder and sentenced to eight years in prison. But even while on trial at Nuremberg, Ambros was a target for U.S. recruiters from 'Project Paperclip.' His prison sentence was commuted after only three years by American officials and he was helped in a bid to enter the United States by ...... J. Peter Grace, President of W. R. Grace, a major American chemical company. .....
An internal State Department document describes how J. Peter Grace helped Otto Ambros in his efforts to enter the U.S. In a memorandum to the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Grace acknowledges that Ambros was a war criminal. But he adds that in the years he's known Ambros, ...... 'we have developed a very deep admiration, not only for his ability, but more important, for his character in terms of truthfulness and integrity.'
Today Otto Ambros does consulting work tor W. R. Grace and Company and lives here in Mannheim, Germany. In a recent telephone interview Ambros [said] 'I'm happy to still be working as a chemist ...... but it's funny. Now I'm helping the Americans.' "
In June 1981, largely in response to the efforts of well known war crimes researcher Charles Allen, Yeshiva University cancelled a $150-a-plate dinner it had organized to honor Grace. (See also, Joe Conason and Martin A. Rosenblatt, "The Corporate State of Grace," 'Village Voice', April 12, 1983.)
When the scandal broke in West Germany over the Flick company paying huge sums of money to various politicians and parties, it was learned that additionally Flick had taken improper tax waivers and used the money to pump millions of dollars into W. R. Grace Co., becoming a major shareholder. Friedrich Karl Flick himself sits on the Grace Board. As the Moscow New Times reminded its readers (No. 8, 1983, citing Der Spiegel), Friedrich Karl's father, Flick Sr., had poured money into the coffers of the Nazi party in January 1933, and, ''after Goering had promised the Ruhr magnates that "the March 5 elections will be the last elections in this decade and perhaps in this century,'' he contributed another 200,000 marks; this sum was handed to SS Reichfuhrer Himmler. Flick Sr. was subsequently sentenced at Nuremberg to seven years for using slave labor, spoliation and being an accessory to the crimes of the SS. To ensure a good beginning for his son, the war criminal sent him after the war for early training with W. R. Grace.
Page 29
In 1187 the Order was driven militarily from Jerusalem by Saladin. The Knights were forced to flee successively to Acre, Cyprus (1291), and finally Rhodes (1310) where they subdued the local population and establishcd a military dictatorship enjoying territorial sovereignty for the first time. In 1522 they were defeated by Sultan Suleiman's forces of 200,000 troops and 250 ships after a six-month siege. By 1530 under Grand Master Villiers de l'lsle-Adam, the Knights established their headquarters on the island of Malta which had been given to them by Charles V.
Martin Luther was born in 1483, the same year that Torquemada unleashed the fury of the Inquisition, and while the Knights waged war against foreign heresies, they were soon confronted by the liberalizing Reformation challenge to Catholic Orthodoxy.
In England Henry Vlll's assertion of an independent national policy was complicated by his marriage to Katherine who was the aunt of Emperor Charles V, patron of the Knights of Malta who in England were a militant bastion of Papal loyalty. By 1534 Pope Clement VII had excommunicated the King and two years later Pope Paul III published a Bull deposing the King and charging the Emperor with its execution. According to King and Luke's authoritative history 5 of the Order in England
The staunchest supporters of Papal supremacy were naturally to be found among the religious Orders, and ....... the Knights were the loyal servants of the Pope, whose claims to universal dominion [the King] had repudiated, ....... it was thus a sheer impossibility for the King to permit the existence in England of an Order so powerful and so highly organized unless it was prepared to renounce its loyalty to his most determined enemy. Inevitably the Knights would become a center of disaffection and a rallying point for all the forces of reaction. ......
In July 1539, after two of the Knights had already chosen the martyr's crown, the King wrote letters to the Grand Master which practically constituted an ultimatum, demanding that the Papal supremacy should cease to be recognized by the Order in England. ..... But it was impossible to accept the King's conditions. In April 1540 ..... Parliament passed an Act dissolving the Order in England and conferring its estates upon the Crown. ...... 6
Meanwhile on the continent and in the Mediterranean the wars against the infidels of the East continued. Since the military defense of Christendom required naval support, the Order created a powerful fleet and patrolled the seas of the Eastern Mediterranean fighting many naval actions.
Military operations ranged as far as Egypt and Syria, and by 1565 under Grand Master Valette, they resisted the Turkish siege of Malta. In 1571 SMOM's fleet participated in the defeat of the Turks at the naval battle of Lepanto, and remained a major military presence in the Mediterranean until 1789 when Napoleon defeated the Knights and occupied the island. The Order finally sought temporary protection under the Russian Emperor Paul I in 1797; in 1834 Pope Leo XIII established its headquarters in Rome.
- END QUOTE -
[ continue to 2 of 4 ]
COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN
P.O.BOX 50272 WASHINGTON, DC 20004
http://mediafilter.org/MFF/

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

THE CIA


The CIA

The Central Intelligence Agency was formed at the end of World War II in order to fight the new covert Cold War. It found its roots in the already formed OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the military intelligence organization that had reached a high profile with its control over the top-secret Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear bomb. The founding fathers of the CIA William "Wild Bill" Donovan and Allen Dulles, were both prominent Roman Catholics, and members of the secret society the "Knights of Malta". Recently declassified documents show that following the war the Knights of Malta were responsible for aiding the escape of many prominent Nazis, including Death Camp scientists and many from the inner circles of occultist Heinreich Himmler's Gestapo - the Nazi intelligence service. Many of these, including Knight of Malta General Reinhard Gehlen, went directly to work for the newly formed CIA, which at Donovan's insistence, was now a civilian organization. This kept the fervently anti-Nazi General Dwight Eisenhower and the US military out of the initial equation, which allowed the CIA to represent the interests of American industrialists and transnational Corporations, above and beyond the interests of the American people.A.B."Buzzy" Krongard's appointment to the top of the CIA pyramid by George Bush Jnr., after a long career in investment banking, once again illustrates who's interests the CIA is serving. The 68 year old Krongard recently boasted to the Washington Post "the whole OSS was nothing but Wall St. bankers and lawyers". He fails to mention that many of these bankers and lawyers were ardent political and financial supporters of the Nazis - who were perceived as an ally against the ideology of communism - regardless of their methods and beliefs.The Cold War created a new enemy in Russia, and as propaganda was allowed to run to fever pitch, the ambitious young CIA was given a free reign within the American government. Roman Catholics were favored as agents because of their attitude towards "Godless Russia". However, the true aims of the CIA's leaders were more complex than the simple cold war politics of "commie bashing". The Knights of Malta's intimate links with the Nazi movement found its ideological base in their common Rosicrucian belief system. This states that Man's evolution is held back by certain lower sub-races who must be removed for the process to continue. Through the CIA this feudal belief system had infiltrated the heart of democratic America. Under the cover of the cold war apparatus, the CIA became a global leader in biological and chemical warfare, mind control techniques, psychological operations, propaganda and covert warfare.Close links were forged with South American military dictatorships, many of whom were led by Catholic Knights of Malta. It is of no coincidence that these same countries played a major part in the escape of Nazis through the "Rat Run". These countries immediately saw a massive rise in neo-Nazi movements, led by leading German Nazi figures such as Klaus Barbie and Otto Skorzeny. The introduction of concentration camps complete with Nazi Swastikas saw hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples and political opponents tortured and murdered. Democracy movements were brutally smashed by these fascist governments who were backed by the CIA. Weapons, financial aid, and even American troops were given in support under the guise of fighting communism. The "School of the Americas" is an infamous CIA training school were many South American military personnel are still taught torture techniques.During the 60's, 70's and 80's peasant populations around the world, inspired by American ideals of democracy, rose up against their feudal and colonial overlords. But these nations suddenly found themselves at the center of the raging American Russian Cold War and their revolutions were unjustly labeled communistic. The CIA's fight against communism became a worldwide fight against the self-determination of indigenous peoples. As the CIA supported fascistic "anti-communist" regimes across the globe, and particularly in Africa, a constant state of war was created leading to the horrific sufferings of countless innocent men, women and children. Ordinary Americans saw this constant unrest through the distorting lens of cold war propaganda, giving the Rosicrucian hierarchy of the CIA unprecedented financial support and powers. The intimate ties with the Roman Catholic Church allowed the CIA access to intelligence from Eastern Europe and Latin America through the Church's own intelligence service, which is funded by the CIA and has operated from within the Vatican since World War II. Pope Paul VI prior to becoming Pope worked for this Jesuit unit "Pro Deo" (For God) and passed on comprehensive dossiers regarding politically active priests to the CIA. This policy continues to the present day, and the Vatican is well placed through it global network of churches and priests to gather information. An example of this is the murder of young American Ben Linder in 1987 in Nicaragua. Ben was living with an indigenous village high in the mountains. He entertained the children as a clown, and put his engineering skills to use by organizing the construction of a small water dam to provide hydroelectricity to the village. However, before the dam was finished Ben and two villagers were riddled with bullets in a right-wing Contra rebel ambush. Recently declassified CIA documents were able to provide the precise names of the ten Contras who murdered Ben. It was revealed the rebels had been instructed by the CIA to kill any foreigners helping the villagers in any way. Recently declassified documents state that the Contra rebels were informed of Ben's presence by the CIA, who were alerted to his whereabouts by their network of spy-priests opposed to the Socialist government, which had been democratically elected by the majority of the Nicaraguan people. Propaganda about "out-of-control" Third World populations became prominent and was illustrated and substantiated by the many famines of sub-Saharan Africa. Emotionally potent images of starving babies proved the Malthusian theories of "not enough food to go around" time and time again. Official government reports constantly stressed the desperate need for population control against the developing countries. Whereas recent United Nations' reports state that the richest 20 percent of the world, i.e. the Western developed countries, consumes 86 percent of the planet's resources. This same 20 percent causes 75 percent of all environmental destruction and pollution. The famines of Africa were clearly not caused by overpopulation and over-consumption, but were the direct result of covert foreign policies, and undoubtedly compounded by global warming. As Africa today finds little support for its insurmountable problems such as the AIDS epidemic, increasing environmental disasters such as floods and famines, and constant internal political upheavals and civil wars, it is clear that through cold war communist fears and subtle propaganda, "Wild Bill" Donovon and Allen Dulles's racist and elitist Rosicrucian beliefs have inadvertently been embraced by most of the white western world. Official admissions that the CIA were involved in the initial supply and distribution of "crack" cocaine were met with little interest from the population and mainstream media, regardless of the story being conveyed by a Pulitzer prize winning journalist (Gary Webb), and its documented links to the Iran/Contra scandal. From this it is clear that racist attempts at social engineering within the United States are tolerated by an indifferent or uninformed population. With the introduction of incredibly harsh drug laws simultaneously with the "discovery" of new and even more addictive drugs, is it apparent that the black population has become a target. With one in four African American men either behind bars or on probation, mostly due to minor drug related offences, it is not surprising that the black community is claiming a conspiracy of massive proportions. Even though recent statistics show that drug use amongst whites is five times greater than blacks, the massively disproportionate incarceration of blacks, with often a "three strikes you're out" life sentence being given for non-violent offences as trivial as "stealing a slice of pizza" or "a single bottle of vitamins" is disturbing. This obvious injustice creates a climate of fear and insecurity amongst black youth and their families. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the current "mandatory minimum sentencing" for drug related offences, which took away the right of judges to use their discretion in handing out prison terms, was introduced by David Rockefeller, heir of the Rockefeller empire and creator of the New World Order think-tank "The Trilateral Commission", a sister organization to the shadowy "Bilderberg Group".As the scientific community acknowledges, AIDS is being transmitted from high-risk prison populations into Black and Latino communities. This inevitable consequence of unjust social policies, which many would label a conspiracy, could indeed amount to a covert genocide. This would be in keeping with the aims of the Knights of Malta and their Rosicrucian-inspired secret agenda.


DID WE LEARN?







DATE OF PUBLICATION: JANUARY 2001
Did we not learn OUR LESSON THE LAST TIME?
The Second Evangelical Conferences
are about to begin

Most of our readers are acquainted with the notorious Evangelical Conferences which occurred from 1954 to 1956. (The most complete narrative on those unfortunate events, and what they led to afterward, will be found in our 146-page Evangelical Conferences and Their Aftermath, now in our Doctrinal History Tract­book (232 pp., $17.50 + $2.00 p&h).
Well, forty-six years later, it appears our leaders may try to finish what they started back then. The objective, in the 1950s, was the attainment of full acceptance by the Protestant denominations; the method used was partial compromise on several of our historic beliefs. What will our objective be during this second series?
The problem is that the only practical way we can buy peace with the Protestants is to push our own distinctive teachings further back into the shadows. It was the only way we could do it back then; it is the only way we will be able to do it now.
It is an astounding fact that the nation of modern Israel is willing to hand over most of its land in order to purchase peace with its neighbors. It is even more incredible that God’s last-day people are so willing to give away their beliefs, in trade for acceptance by the other churches.
Seriously, now: Why do we need acceptance by the other churches? For over a hundred years, prior to the 1950s, our leaders and workers did not worry about trying to appease the Sundaykeepers! We were heartily disliked back then because we obeyed the law of God and stood in defense of the Bible Sabbath. We still are.
What is this strange infatuation with the fallen churches that is driving our leaders in this direction?
“As the storm approaches a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side.”—Great Controversy, 608.
The following information is based on a news release by our General Conference and is accompanied by our comments:
On November 14, 2000, Seventh-day Adventist church leaders in Silver Spring, Maryland, disclosed that they are making arrangements to hold a series of “dialogues” with the World Evangelical Fellowship.
“ ‘A proposed series of meetings between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) will aim to break down stereotypes and foster greater understanding between the two groups,’ said Bert Beverly Beach, director of the General Conference Department of Inter-church Relations.
“The decision was the culmination of extended contacts with the WEF, which reached tentative finalization six days earlier, on November 8, at a meeting of several Adventist leaders and Dr. James Stamoolis, executive director of the WEF’s Theological Commission. The meeting, held at our General Conference, was hosted by Bert Beach.
“ ‘It’s primarily about getting to know each other,’ Beach said. He admitted that he began working on the idea with Stamoolis about a year earlier. ‘We want to move beyond false stereotypes, to see where we agree and disagree, and to explore areas where we could mutually benefit by working together, such as on religious liberty initiatives.’
Perhaps one of the “religious liberty initiatives” will be to convince the Evangelicals that they should not file amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the beleaguered group in Florida who is trying to defend their religious liberty rights,—or any of the other groups which the General Conference later sues in order to deprive them of their religious liberty rights.
But, at the heart of the matter, doctrinal emphasis has always stood between us and the other churches. As Beach said, we want to see where we can agree.
For quite some time, a concerted attempt has been made to make peace with the Sundaykeeping churches. Under the leadership of B.B. Beach, we gave a valuable gold medal to Pope Paul VI on May 18, 1977 (Gold Medal to the Pope [MB–54]).
Due to his brinkmanship and remarkable linguistic skills, Beach has, for years, been chairman of an ecumenical council at the World Council of Churches headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. He has served on that committee since 1965,—immediately after Vatican II cleared the way for that joint Vatican-Protestant-Orthodox-Adventist committee to begin holding ongoing discussions.
More recently, accords were signed with the Lu­theran Church. In addition, you will recall our discovery a year ago of a series of secret meetings, held at Geneva, between our leaders and several other denominations, at which time we agreed to tone down our public presentations of the Sabbath.
And now we learn of this latest series of discussions with representatives from the highest levels of the Evangelical churches! This is what we did back in the 1950s. Where we headed? Leaders are powerful. Look what our national leaders have done to America in the past eight years. R.A. Anderson, Leroy E. Froom, and Walter Martin had a powerful impact on our church nearly half a century ago. We are still living with the errors on the nature of Christ, finished atonement at the cross, downgrading of obedience by faith, and other doctrinal errors which they gave us—with the resultant lowering of standards that it brought.
For more information on our ecumenical contacts with Rome, the World Council of Churches, and the National Council of Churches, we refer you to our two-book set on this subject: Seventh-day Adventist/Vatican Ecumenical Involvement, Book I (History—80 pp., $6.00 + $1.50 p&h); Book 2 (Documents—146 pp., $11.00 + $2.00 p&h).
Here is additional information on this forthcoming series of meetings by General Conference leaders which, as you might expect, will be led by Beach and Evangelical leaders of their World Evangelical Fellowship:
The first meeting is slated to be held at Glacier View, Colorado, September 9 to 14, 2001. The dialogue-conversation will take the form of a series of papers, produced by both the Adventist Church and the WEF’s Theo­logical Commission. The papers are be presented at a series of annual meetings over a period of four or five years.
Beach says the meetings will help our church work with the other denominations on “religious liberty” issues. —But did you notice that our papers will be presented to their “Theological” Commission. Religious liberty is not theology.
The Theological Commission of the WEF, headed by Stamoolis, facilitates networking between Evangelical theologians and produces scholarly and popular works on Christian theology. Its stated goal, according to Beach, is to “encourage Christians around the world to develop and articulate a Biblical theology which takes into account the needs and opportunities of local contexts within a global perspective.”
What is the meaning of that statement? It sounds like the kind of talk which could include additional doctrinal concessions by us, to help “bring us together.” The phrase, “Biblical theology,” sounds ominous. That was what we were discussing with Walter Martin and Donald Barnhouse back in the 1950s, which resulted in gutting our teachings for the sake of “peace in our time.”
Our forefathers preached the truth, unpalatable though it might be. They laid the ax at the root of the tree of modern religious apostasy. Their descendants want to turn and lay the ax at the root of our own tree—and chop the truth into palatable pieces.
In order to alleviate any concerns conservative church members might have, George Reid, director of our General Conference Biblical Research Institute, commented that the forthcoming meetings will not be about forging agreements on theological or doctrinal issues. “There is no interest in ecumenism as such on either side,” says Reid.
Instead, he said, the two groups will produce papers aimed at establishing a profile of each group, in order to foster better understanding and to remove stereotypes. But, he added that parties to the dialogue will also review areas of doctrinal agreement and disagreement and discuss hermeneutics, or Biblical interpretation.
If both sides are not interested in “coming together” on theology, why will our papers be presented to their “Theological Commission”?
If both sides are not interested in working through agreements on theological or doctrinal issues, why will “areas of doctrinal agreement and disagreement” be carefully considered?
If all our leaders are concerned about are “religious liberty initiatives,” why will we be discussing areas of “Biblical interpretation”?
Are you aware of the fact that “the presenting of papers” was exactly that which got us into trouble forty-six years ago? Walter Martin would present us with a theological question and Leroy Edwin Froom would spend several weeks writing a subtly worded reply which would compromise our teachings in order to please Martin while trying to retain Adventist words and phrases which would hide the sellout to our members. This process continued for the better part of two years, during an extended series of meetings! The result was our 1947 book, the full title of which was Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine. Because of the churches which Martin and Barnhouse represented, these came to be know as the “Evangelical Conferences.”
Now, we are going to present papers once again, at a series of meetings to another group of leaders representing the Evangelical churches. The one in the 1950s was a little under three years in length. We are told that this forthcoming series will extend to “four or five years.”
Stamoolis, of the WEF, reportedly said that he hopes the outcome of the talks will be a “clear understanding between the parties in the dialogue regarding each other’s position. I would like to see respect and an honest agreement to disagree when, after examination and study, the two sides find themselves on opposite sides of an issue.”
Do not underestimate the influence of the World Evangelical Fellowship. With origins that go back to 1846, this organization represents Evangelical Christian denominations and organizations from 111 countries. It claims to serve a constituency of approximately 160 million Christians. Now is a time for prayer. —vf

U.S. PREPARES FOR CUBAN EXODUS


U.S. preparing Guantanamo for Cuban exodus

Military building a center intended for migrants who flee when Castro dies
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The United States, which has been planning for possible waves of fleeing Cubans when Fidel Castro dies, has hired a Florida company to build a temporary complex to hold migrants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the military said.
Islands Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., has won a $16.5 million contract to build a “migrant operations complex” at the base, a U.S. enclave in eastern Cuba, the U.S. Defense Department said.
The fenced complex would include showers and laundry facilities and is to be finished by May 2008, according to a Defense Department publication that announces contracts.

The announcement late Monday did not specify the capacity of the complex and a Defense Department spokesman said additional details were not immediately available. Bob Turnage, the president of Islands Mechanical, declined to discuss the project.
The contract announcement did not specify that the complex would be for Cuban migrants, but Navy officials told The Associated Press in January that they were preparing for a potential Cuban exodus because of Castro’s health problems and would hold migrants at Guantanamo, where the U.S. also has detained about 380 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
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Guantanamo was used to hold thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants in the 1990s. U.S. officials had said they would keep the migrants on the other side of the base from the detainees and would have to increase troop levels to provide additional security.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18561060/

FIRST NAMED STORM OF SEASON: ANDREA


First named '07 Atlantic storm forms near coast
Weather system appears 3 weeks before official start of hurricane season



Updated: 2 hours, 38 minutes ago
MIAMI - The first named storm of the year formed Wednesday off the southeastern U.S. coast, more than three weeks before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters said.
Subtropical Storm Andrea had top sustained winds around 45 mph Wednesday afternoon and didn’t appear to be much of a threat, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Still, a tropical storm watch was issued for parts of Georgia and Florida, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours.
“We’re not looking at this system strengthening significantly,” said Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist at the center.
The storm’s wind, however, has been blowing smoke from wildfires across Georgia and Florida.
It didn’t appear the wind would hinder firefighting efforts, said Jim Harrell, a spokesman for Florida’s Division of Forestry. But those battling the blazes won’t get much immediate help from rain — forecasters said no significant downpours were expected over land through at least Thursday morning. The storm’s lightning could also spark more fires, meteorologists said.

At 2 p.m. ET, Andrea was centered about 100 miles southeast of Savannah, Ga., and about 135 miles northeast of Daytona Beach. The storm was moving west at about 3 mph.
Some wave erosionWind-driven waves have been causing coastal erosion in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and the ocean has lapped at beachfront homes and condominiums.
Coast Guard officials in South Carolina said they had rescued one of two kayakers who had been missing since Tuesday when they were seen leaving Seabrook Island, S.C. Jeremy Scott, 28, of Atlanta, was found about five miles east of Fripp Island. Authorities were continuing to search for Stephen Lee, 27, of Atlanta.
Subtropical systems are hybrid weather formations that are usually weaker than hurricanes and tropical storms. They are kind of a half-breed, sharing characteristics of tropical systems, which get their power from warm ocean water at their centers, and more typical bad weather that forms when warm and cold fronts collide, Pasch said.
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Experts: Don't pin this storm on global warming
Forecasters said Andrea has the warm center characteristic of tropical storms but its core is not particularly well defined. In addition, its winds are farther out from the center than they would be in a tropical storm.
Typically, about one subtropical storm forms each year, but they often turn into tropical storms. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Andrea, senior hurricane specialist Jack Beven said. It only has a small area of warmer water to draw energy from and is facing dry wind.
Pre-season storms do happenHe said it wasn’t unusual for the storm to form in May, outside the hurricane season that starts June 1 and end Nov. 30. Eighteen tropical storms and four hurricanes have been recorded in that month since 1851; the earliest hurricane had made landfall on the U.S. was Alma in northwest Florida on June 9, 1966.
“What we call the hurricane season is a totally manmade creation. Nature doesn’t always pay attention to that,” Beven said.
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Private and university forecasters have predicted that the 2007 season will be especially active, producing up to 17 tropical storms and hurricanes and a “well above average” possibility of at least one striking the U.S. The federal government plans to release its predictions May 22.
The Atlantic basin has been in a busy period for hurricanes since 1995. Some federal forecasters believe this is part of a natural cycle. But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-sponsored group, says global warming caused by humans has led to an increase in stronger hurricanes.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

HATE CRIMES BILL PASSED


Religious leaders rip hate-crime measure
House passes bill extending coverage to sexual orientation



May 5, 2007WASHINGTON -- A hate-crimes bill passed Thursday by the House, extending coverage to people victimized because of sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, is attracting opposition from an unusual coalition of Christian leaders.Proponents say the bill--similar to one the Senate is expected to pass in the next few weeks--is a moral imperative.But some Christians are depicting it as a "thought-crimes" bill attacking 1st Amendment freedoms of speech and religion. A coalition of evangelical, fundamentalist and black religious leaders is mounting a furious assault on the bill, airing television ads and mobilizing members to stop its progress. And President Bush has said he may veto the measure.If the bill, approved 237-180, were to become law, opponents say, a pastor could be held liable for giving a sermon against homosexuality if a listener later attacked a gay individual."This legislation strikes at the heart of free speech and freedom of religious expression," said Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition. "Statements critical of sexual orientation or gender identity can be prosecuted if those statements were part of the motivation of a person committing a crime against a homosexual or cross-dresser. ... Pastors' sermons can be considered hate speech under this bill."The bill's supporters say this is nonsense, and that a sermon could never be considered an inducement to violence unless it explicitly advocated it."The only people who ought to fear this bill are people who would say to another human being, `You ought to do violence against someone else,'." said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who earlier added an amendment to the bill reaffirming the principles of the 1st Amendment. "I don't know of any man of God who would take to any pulpit and advocate that."In addition to broadening the federal definition of a hate-crime victim, the law provides funds so that local authorities can request federal assistance for prosecutions in the aftermath of a hate crime."We have to take action to make sure that a crime of one group against another can be quickly handled so it doesn't become a huge national problem," said Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a co-sponsor of the bill along with House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), and one of several moderate Republicans to join with Democrats in supporting its passage.For supporters of the bill, the measure is a natural extension of the march of civil rights, as voiced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)."It is too recent that lynching was rationalized in our country," Hoyer said. "It is too present in today's society that some across the sea and, yes, some here, rationalize violence because of membership in another religion. This is an important vote of conscience. A statement of what America is."`Where does the list end?'But opponents argue that the law is actually un-American, in that it effectively creates a two-tiered justice system. In defining only certain groups as legal victims of hate, many argued, the law's supporters were leaving out other categories of people deserving of protection, such as members of the military, pregnant women and the elderly. An amendment to add these groups to the hate-crimes law failed in the House shortly before the bill's passage."All violent crime is tied to hate in some way," said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, another conservative group opposing the measure. "The Virginia Tech shooter said in his diatribe that he hated rich kids. Well, rich kids aren't protected in this hate-crime bill. If we're going to start choosing categories of people for additional penalties when they're victimized, where does the list end?"But for some lawmakers, such as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who presided over Thursday's vote and is the only openly gay man in the House, there is a clear distinction."You're fighting this pattern of people being assaulted because of prejudice," he said. "An assault on someone because of who he or she is because of race, gender or sexual orientation, it disturbs a whole class of people."Concern for the ripple effect that hate crimes engender has been a factor in the passage of some of the 45 state laws against hate crimes, though not all protect against crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender and disability. But on the federal level, conservatives such as Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) argued that violent crimes are violent no matter the victim, making the House bill unnecessary."There are already laws to protect every man, woman and child from violent acts," he said, pointing out that in all violent crime cases assailants are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. "The laws are working. What this is trying to do is protect a class from any speech."100,000 hate crimes since 1991Just hours before the vote, the White House suggested the president was considering a veto along the same rationale, setting up yet another potential veto showdown between Bush and the Democratic-led Congress. The margin of passage in the House would not be enough to override a veto.Notwithstanding critiques of their efficacy, federal laws against certain categories of hate crimes have been on the books since 1969, and now cover cases where people or property are targeted on grounds of race, religion, color or national origin. The House measure would add sexual orientation, gender and gender identity and disability to the list. It also budgets $10 million over the next two years to supplement local authorities in prosecuting of hate crimes, and allows federal officials to participate in investigations.The Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group, argued that the availability of federal resources and support would have helped in investigating past cases, such as that of Nebraska transgendered rape victim Brandon Teena--depicted in the film "Boys Don't Cry"--who was murdered in 1993 after local law-enforcement officials refused to arrest the men who raped Teena. According to FBI statistics, there have been more than 100,000 hate-crime incidents nationally since 1991.The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and named after another well-known hate-crime victim, Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student tied to a fence and beaten to death in 1998, is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks.- - -How Midwestern lawmakers votedILLINOISDemocrats--Bean, Y; Costello, Y; Davis, Y; Emanuel, Y; Gutierrez, Y; Hare, Y; Jackson, Y; Lipinski, Y; Rush, Y; Schakowsky, Y.Republicans--Biggert, Y; Hastert, X (not voting); Johnson, N; Kirk, Y; LaHood, Y;Manzullo, N; Roskam, N; Shimkus, N; Weller, N.INDIANADemocrats--Carson, Y; Donnelly, N; Ellsworth, N; Hill, Y; Visclosky, Y.Republicans--Burton, N; Buyer, N; Pence, N; Souder, N.MICHIGAN, WISCONSINAll Democrats--YAll Republicans--N--Associated Press----------kdemirjian@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

SWARMS OF GNATS INVADE ILLINOIS



Gnats take folks and fowl by swarm


An invasion of biting bugs in central Illinois turns spring's outdoor joys into nightmares


By Bob Secter


Tribune staff reporter


Published May 9, 2007 Buffalo gnat has a big bite


PETERSBURG, Ill. -- Swarms of tiny buffalo gnats were so thick in Todd Knoles' yard last week that his chickens cowered in their covered shed. They ran in a frenzy when he finally flushed them out, but three of the birds dropped dead, including Knoles' favorite red rooster, Copper.The toll was worse across the road, where gnats attacked Sharon Mahon as she worked her hobby farm, raising nasty welts on her head. Bugs chomped around the left eye of her miniature horse, Ghostrider, and he scratched so hard the eye bled. Mahon's chickens freaked, madly fluffing their feathers as gnats poured out like smoke. All but five of 43 birds died.
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While the Chicago area braces for an invasion of ear-splitting 17-year cicadas late this month, central Illinois is already suffering through its own insect barrage. And their bugs are definitely meaner than our bugs will be.For reasons not fully known, this has been one of the worst seasons in recent memory in these parts for buffalo gnats, a.k.a. black flies. Pesky biters, they are smaller than mosquitoes but swirl around in hordes like the dust clouds that followed Pigpen in the Peanuts comic strip.Gnat attacks have turned gardening, ballgames and other joys of spring into nightmares. Doctors have been flooded with calls from patients about allergic reactions from gnat bites that can raise golf ball-size welts. Officials at Passavant Area Hospital in Jacksonville said their emergency room treated 10 people last week, though none was seriously hurt."I've never seen anything like this," said Knoles, who saved the bulk of his small flock by herding them back into the shed, then aiming a fan at them to blow away the swarms.Buffalo gnats are hardly new to the area, but state experts say they can't remember them being so prevalent and aggressive. "Our agency deals with a whole host of diseases and pests, but this is the first time I've encountered a situation like this," said Jeff Squibb, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.Squibb said the agency has gotten recent reports of dead fowl from the Springfield region west to the Mississippi River, and several were sent to a lab in Galesburg for testing. The tests ruled out bird flu, it's early in the season for West Nile virus, and nothing else infectious was found. "We suspect the buffalo gnat," Squibb said.Like mosquitoes, female buffalo gnats are on a constant, vampirish hunt for blood to bathe eggs in. They are attracted to carbon dioxide and cluster around the eyes, ears and noses of their hosts.Just how gnats are involved in the recent poultry deaths is not clear, said Colleen O'Keefe, manager of the Agriculture Department's food safety and animal protection division. But she offered several possibilities:Gnat saliva can induce a strong allergic reaction, annoying in humans and larger animals, but potentially fatal in birds; gnat swarms may be so thick that birds can die of asphyxiation; and with chickens running around as if chased by phantoms, they could simply be dying of exhaustion.Nuisance to peopleThe impact appears most acute in birds, but O'Keefe said the department has also received reports of distressed horses and other livestock. People are none too happy, either.Cathy Six spent a delightfully warm afternoon last week dividing hostas and moving plants around her yard in Jacksonville. Gnats swarming her head were a frequent nuisance, and they crept into her nose, mouth and eyes, where she couldn't put repellent. But Six said she didn't realize how bad she had been bitten until hours later."I was just one big red welt after another," she explained. "My right ear was throbby and swollen."Buffalo gnats derive their name from a hump on their back, and there are more than 100 species in North America. They are a frequent nuisance in parts of Canada, less so in the U.S.Linn Haramis, an entomologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health, said buffalo gnats spread river blindness in West Africa but pose no disease threat to humans in this country.They lay eggs in streams and ponds, and adults can travel up to 10 miles in search of a good blood meal. But warmer weather chokes off the development of larva into adults.Insect populations often cycle up and down, and the reasons are not always clear. But experts think the cold, wet spring in central Illinois may have played a part in the current gnat surge. "Right now the living is easy for black flies," Haramis said.Big poultry producers, who confine birds indoors, haven't been affected by the gnats. The story is different for smaller farmers and hobbyists. Frank Bowman lost nine of the 200 free-range chickens he has been raising on his farm in Pleasant Plains northwest of Springfield.


Oddly, he said, the gnats seemed to be attracted mostly to his lighter-colored birds. All the dead ones were white.Deadly to birds

Mahon also let the birds run loose during the day on her 16-acre farm near Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site at Petersburg. At night, however, she kept them in an uncovered coop.When she walked out to feed them early last week, she found a half dozen dead chickens in the coop. Her first instinct was to accuse a daughter of failing to give them water. The remaining birds were panting.By the next day, after giving the birds water, most of the rest were dead. And when Mahon tried to flush out two typically spirited guinea fowl who shared the space with the chickens, she watched in horror as the birds spasmed and keeled over."After they got done with my chickens, they started going after my horses," Mahon said.They also have been going after her. "You can't go out without inhaling them, and if you open your mouth, they fly in," Mahon said.The good news is that the life cycle of buffalo gnats is about three weeks. If the weather stays warm, experts don't expect another batch, and central Illinois can once again enjoy the outdoors.At least until mosquito season arrives."We'll get maybe a month," O'Keefe guessed.----------bsecter@tribune.com


Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0705090171may09,0,2298227.story?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

KNIGHTS OF MALTA


Knights of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, also known as the original Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, is a closed fraternity of the Roman Catholic Church. Its initiated members must be Catholic and have served in the military. They participate in secret ceremonies and feudal ritual dress, and embrace a strong class/caste mentality as part of their initiation into Rosicrucian dogma. The upper grades are fastidiously aristocratic and must be able to display a family coat-of-arms dating back at least 300 years in unbroken succession from father to son. The Sovereign Grand Master of the order is recognized as a head of state, and his authority is ensured by his secular ranking as a Prince, and his ecclesiastical ranking as a Cardinal. Under international law this organization has independent Sovereign status, which assures nationalistic loyalty from its members, above and beyond allegience to their own country--they also have Permanent Observer status at the United Nations. The current Grand Master, Andrew Willoughby Bertie, is descended from Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) which places him firmly in the Sion/Grail historical scenario.The order and its members have been proven to be linked with the "Rat Run", the post-WWII escape route used by high-ranking Nazis and death camp scientists from defeated Germany to the Americas. Sovereign Knight of Malta passports were issued with false identities that allowed escape from prosecution for war crimes. Perversely, after the war the order's highest decoration, the 'Grand Cross of Merit', was awarded to Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's Eastern Front intelligence chief, who was highly complicit in the atrocities carried out by the Nazis in Russia and Eastern Europe - mainly the unprecedented slaughter of Jews and civilian Slavs.The brotherhood's Catholic and aristocratic roots made the modern knights fervently anti-communist. The order has been largely responsible for the construction of the CIA, and many of its global covert operations. The founding fathers of the CIA William "Wild Bill" Donovan and Allen Dulles were knights, as were many other CIA hierarchy including Ronald Reagan's director William Casey and JFK's director John McCone. According to "Watergate" journalist Carl Bernstein, Casey gave Pope John Paul II unprecedented access to CIA intelligence including spy satellites and agents.In fact, one could blame the start of the Cold War upon "Wild Bill" Donovan personally. At the end of the First World War Donovan led a secret mission to Siberia to observe the Russian Revolution. Due to his reconnaissance an American unit was sent to fight the Russian Bolsheviks who were broadly considered Allies, as they were still fighting the Germans alongside the British and the French in the trenches of Europe. The American troops could not understand why they were being ordered to burn the villages and kill "these poor and hungry peasants, who've been treated so terribly by their rulers", as one "doughboy" wrote to his wife. It is historically un-American to side with the aristocratic powers of Europe against the common man. Donovan's motives for fighting the Bolsheviks could only have been due to his Vatican/Knights of Malta allegiances, as at this time the Russian Revolution was no threat to the American Republic. As a consequence in July 1944 Pope Pius XII awarded Donovan the 'Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester', the oldest and most prestigious of papal knighthoods, and the highest Catholic award ever received by an American. Less than one hundred men have received this award throughout history.The Knights of Malta's key spheres of control are Africa and Latin America, and include many dictators such as mass murderer General Pinochet in their ranks.Membership in Latin America includes Masonic lodge "P2" fascists and many surviving Nazi players, who are directly responsible for the formation of the modern neo-Nazi movement. Knight and Nazi escapee Otto "Scarface" Skorzeny, who led a commando raid on the Cathar region of France in search of occult artifacts including the Holy Grail, played a major role in the Vatican's "Rat Run". He was a close friend of Argentinian president and knight Juan Peron, who recent CIA documents prove was also involved in the laundering of Nazi gold through the Vatican Bank. Conveniently for Nazi members who did not escape Europe, William Donovan served as chief aide to the American prosecutor at the post-war Nuremberg trials, after handing over the reigns of the OSS/CIA to fellow knight Allen Dulles. As Roman Catholic author Penny Lernoux reveals in her "People of God": "After the war, the Vatican, the OSS, the SS, and various branches of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta joined to do battle against the common Soviet enemy - and to help Nazi war criminals escape... Baron Luigi Parrilli, an Italian aristocrat and Knight of Malta/papal chamberlain, took part in negotiations between SS leaders and the CIA's Allen Dulles."Prior to working for the OSS (he headed the OSS station in Switzerland during the war) Allen Dulles and his law partner John Foster had served as business managers and lawyers to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. They personally brokered the partnership between Standard Oil and I.G. Farben chemical corporation. I.G.Farben not only produced gasoline for the Nazi war machine, it manufactured "Zyklon B", used slave labor before and during the war (including their huge petro-chemical factory adjacent to Auschwitz death camp), owned Bayer Pharmaceuticals which according to a current lawsuit was directly involved in Dr. Josef Mengele's horrific Auschwitz experiments, and was spared from Allied bombings due to its Rockefeller interests. Leading war-time journalist George Seldes attempted to reveal this "unholy alliance" through his newspaper articles, but was rarely published at the time, and efforts were made to kill him. Joseph Heller's satirical novel "Catch 22" made light of this insanity with his "we agreed to bomb our own bases in return for the Nazis buying our chocolate covered cotton".As the Cold War intensified, former Vatican agent and knight Joseph H. Retinger, acting on behalf of the Vatican and the Priory of Sion, effectively forged ties with the European Council of Princes (the respectable name for the Dragon Sovereignty), the CIA, and Britain's MI6 to create the New World Order think-tank "The Bilderberg Group", of which Henry Kissinger is a permanent member. It's first chairman was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who held that position for the next 22 years, until a financial scandal forced him to resign. His daughter, Shell Oil co-owner Queen Beatrix regularly attends meetings, as do ample other European aristocratic players. The undemocratic "Bilderberg Group" continues to play a major part in international affairs, and remains closed to public scrutiny and participation.Documents show that New York's Cardinal Francis Spellman was directly involved in the 1954 right-wing military coup of Guatemala, which led to the murder of thousands, and of which the CIA has acknowledged complicity. He has also been linked to neo-Nazi group "P2" and the Mafia by his long involvement with "P2" member Archbishop Paul Marcinkus of Chicago, former head of the Vatican Bank, who was under serious suspicion by Italian authorities for the untimely death of Pope John Paul I. Cardinal Spellman was not only an old friend of CIA creator "Wild Bill" Donovan (who previously had a law firm in New York) but was the actual head of the Knights of Malta in America throughout the 40's, 50's and 60's, and was responsible for vast sums of money raised from its members, who have to pay thousands annually to remain in the order. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) are ideologically and historically allied with international Freemasonry, ultimately sharing the same goal of bloodline supremacy, whether their members accept this or not. The Masonic grades of The Knight of Malta and The Knight Templar are the Rosicrucian upper-degrees of Freemasonry, and clearly reveal their heritage. According to "Knights of Darkness" author Francois Hervet: "Freemasonry generally purports to be hostile to Catholicism... nevertheless in December of 1969 an exclusive meeting was held in the Rome office of Count Umberto Ortolani, the ambassador of the Knights of Malta to Uruguay, who has been called 'the brains' behind the "P2" Masonic lodge. In addition to Ortolani, the meeting included only Licio Gelli, Roberto Calvi, and Michele Sindona"; all of whom have been implicated in the death of Pope John Paul I and massive bank fraud.Ironically, in recent years a belief in the Catholic faith has not been an essential prerequisite for potential members who have the right connections. Non-aristocratic parties can now be initiated by the "Magistral Grace" of the Grand Master, although not in Britain, Germany and other European countries with a strong tradition of nobility. However, this has allowed many Americans to join, and an "Order of Merit" is bestowed upon those who have outstandingly served the Knights or their works. Past Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush are such honorary initiates, and Reagan was the toast of an extravagant dinner held by the Order in 1989. With more than 11,000 knights worldwide, the Grand Master and Sovereign Council remain based in Rome. Their goal of political Feudalism is clearly seen in the actions of Prince Hans Adam II, the Habsburg-supported ruling monarch of Liechtenstein, and a prominent Knight of Malta and member of the Vatican's Opus Dei, who in October 1999 was reprimanded by the European Court of Human Rights for claiming he had final constitutional authority over his country's Supreme Court. The Protestant equivalent of the Catholic Knights of Malta, also known as the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, gained greater credibility when the head of the British Empire HM Queen Victoria became their Sovereign Head in 1888. This Order of St. John, whose current Sovereign Head is HM Queen Elizabeth II, similarly use the Cross of Malta insignia as their emblem. While they too claim that charity and protecting the poor are their main cause, this has been used as a tool of Western Imperialism for the last 1000 years, and began with the first Crusades to occupy Jerusalem. These "charitable concerns" are unlikely to take precedence over their secret historical agenda--the fulfillment of the prophecies of St. John the Divine, whose Revelation acts as a political template for these historically-intoxicated and reactionary-minded organizations. It is additionally disturbing that the Protestant Order of St. John was recently granted non-Governmental membership of the United Nations. Like its Catholic counterpart, this UN position gives the Protestant Order greater access to UN decision-making and vulnerable developing countries. Undoubtedly, the interests of the Vatican, the British Crown, and its Rosicrucian fraternity, will take precedence over any genuine aid offered to the world's poorest and needy.The unusually shaped Cross of Malta was the original emblem of the controversial Knights Templar, who were based in Malta, and was adopted as the official insignia of the Knights of Malta, when the Knights Templar were forced to submit to the authority of the Vatican.Occult initiates will discover that just like the inverted pentagram or five-pointed star, the Cross of Malta is similarly a cryptogram for the Goat of Mendes, the androgenous Templar idol Baphomet, representing the goat's beard and horns.This is the symbol of ruling matter and spirit by the Will, and the controlled magickal direction of sexual energies.Past Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta, including Manuel de Fonseca, are known to have been initiates of the Templar tradition, and according to the Dragon Order's current Sovereign Grand Master Prince Nicholas de Vere von Drakenberg, who is a direct descendant of the originator of the Knights Templar Godfroi de Vere de Bouillon, the Templars were "a Satanic order, whose rituals included infanticide, sodomy and witchcraft".


GEORGIA, FLORIDA IS NEXT




Updated: 04:54 PM EDT
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Massive Georgia Wildfire Heads for Florida
By TRAVIS REED, AP

ORLANDO, Fla. (May 8) - Crews already battling more than 200 wildfires across Florida faced a new threat Tuesday as a huge blaze in Georgia moved toward the state line and a smaller fire crossed it.
Besides the sheer number of fires, high wind and tinder-dry conditions made it difficult to battle the Florida blazes, which had covered about 78 square miles, or 50,000 acres. Authorities evacuated about 200 homes in north Florida on Tuesday and hundreds more residents were on evacuation standby.
"The weather expected is red-flag conditions for all of Florida," said Jim Harrell, a state Division of Forestry spokesman.
Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency for Florida last week.
In southeastern Georgia, crews were battling two fires less than 10 miles apart - one that had blackened about 100,000 acres, or 156 square miles, and another that had covered 30,000 acres.
The smaller fire crossed into Florida on Tuesday and was threatening Taylor, a small town with one store and no cell phone coverage, said Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson.
"All the homes are scattered about various roads in the county," he said. "We are just getting prepared for the fire to come into this area."
The bigger Georgia wildfire, that state's largest on record, was being pushed by northeasterly wind deeper into the Okefenokee Swamp and toward Florida, said Devon Dartnell, a spokesman for the firefighters' joint information center in Georgia.
In the Upper Midwest, a wildfire near the Canadian border in northeastern Minnesota had burned nearly 26 square miles, destroying more than three dozen buildings and forcing more than 100 people to evacuate. Authorities said they believe it started at a campsite just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
"There are some houses up there where all there is left is the foundation," said Leif Lunde of the Cook County Sheriff's Department. No injuries were reported, but Lunde said about 30 of the burned buildings were homes or cabins; the rest were outbuildings.
Elsewhere in Florida, evacuations were ordered late Monday after three fires grew together in north-central Alachua and Bradford counties, forming a 16,000-acre group. Also on Monday, 30 homes in Walton County in the Panhandle were evacuated under an advancing 1,200-acre fire.
Associated Press writer Daniel Yee in Atlanta contributed to this report.
05/08/07 14:58 EDT
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.


WOLFOWITZ'S OUSTER


Euro Leaders Call for Wolfowitz's Ouster
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer



WASHINGTON — European officials voiced fresh concerns Tuesday about World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's leadership, increasing pressure for his resignation amid revelations that he broke bank rules in arranging a pay package for his girlfriend.
As questions mounted about Wolfowitz's ability to continue to run the poverty-fighting institution, the White House appeared to take a bit of a hands-off approach, with presidential spokesman Tony Snow directing most questions about Wolfowitz to the World Bank.
Snow reaffirmed President Bush's support for Wolfowitz, but would not say whether he is insisting to allies or others that Wolfowitz remain on the job.
Critics _ including many European countries, many on the bank's staff, aid groups and others _ want Wolfowitz to resign. They contend the controversy has tarnished the institution's reputation and could hobble its ability to raise billions of dollars from countries around the world to bankroll a bank program to provide financial help to poor nations.
"What we need is a president with a good reputation and integrity," Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said at a meeting of European finance officials in Brussels, Belgium. Bos went on to say that he has "serious doubts" about the integrity of Wolfowitz.
Belgium's Finance Minister Didier Reynders struck a similar chord, saying: "It is impossible to go around the world speaking about good governance without good governance at the World Bank."
By tradition, the World Bank has been run by an American. President Bush tapped Wolfowitz, a move that was approved by the bank's board. The United States keenly wants to keep that tradition firmly intact.
"We still support President Wolfowitz," Snow said Tuesday. But he added that Bush "is not getting directly, personally involved to my knowledge. ... The conversations right now are not between the administration and the World Bank. I think it's proper to let the process work itself out rather than trying to insinuate ourselves in it."
While acknowledging the Bush administration's continued support for Wolfowitz, "the focus here really should be on poverty alleviation and the core mission of the bank," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "The issue of development and poverty alleviation around the world is too important to allow us to be distracted by these proceedings that are ongoing internal to the World Bank. Everybody's focus should be on how best to do this and let the World Bank internal processes play out," he added.
Later, McCormack said his comments weren't intended to signal any weakening of the administration's support for Wolfowitz.
A special panel at the World Bank, which has been investigating the matter for a month, has found that Wolfowitz ran afoul of bank rules in securing the 2005 promotion and pay package for bank employee Shaha Riza.
The report was not made public, but a person familiar with its findings confirmed that violations were cited but did not provide any details. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been released.
Among the things the special panel has been looking at is whether Wolfowitz violated bank rules, including conflict-of-interest rules, in getting involved in Riza's promotion and compensation package.
Wolfowitz' attorney, Robert Bennett, stated anew that it is "terribly unfair" that Wolfowitz won't have more time to respond to the special panel's report. Bennett said Wolfowitz received more than 600 pages of materials to review on Sunday night.
"While we all recognize this matter needs to be resolved in a timely fashion, it is also important that it be resolved correctly and in a manner that is fair," Bennett said. "More time, would also permit everyone to review and analyze the record with cooler heads."
The bank's 24-member board will decide what action should be taken, if any. A decision is expected soon.
A range of disciplinary options has been discussed. The board could fire Wolfowitz, ask him to resign, signal that it lacks confidence in his leadership or reprimand him. It seemed unlikely that no action would be taken.
Wolfowitz has maintained that he acted in good faith in arranging Riza's pay package and has accused his critics of launching a "smear campaign" against him.
Riza worked for the bank before Wolfowitz took over in June 2005. She was moved to the State Department to avoid a conflict of interest but stayed on the bank's payroll. Her salary went from close to $133,000 to $180,000. With subsequent raises, it eventually rose to $193,590.
Before he took over the bank, Wolfowitz was the No. 2 official at the Pentagon. He helped mapped the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2007May08/0,4675,WorldBankWolfowitz,00.html
*Highlights added.

MINISTER FOUND WITH CRACK


Monday, May 7, 2007, 1:29 pm
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Police charged the Rev. David Brian Anton, 70, of Tampa, with possession of crack Sunday.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)


Tampa minister found with crack in church parking lot, authorities say


TAMPA -- A 70-year-old minister was arrested after police found him at his church with 16 rocks of crack cocaine and a pipe to smoke them, authorities said.Acting on a tip that a minister at Living Word Fellowship was using cocaine, an officer approached the Rev. David Brian Anton in the church parking lot Sunday morning and struck up a conversation about drug dealing in the area, police spokeswoman Lisa Parashis said.During the course of the conversation, Anton made a point of saying he didn't use drugs and consented to a search. The officer pulled a plastic bag containing the crack out of Anton's front shirt pocket, Parashis said. A crack pipe was found in his pants pocket."He advised that it wasn't his but he did purchase it, and he was not willing to give up a supplier's name," Parashis said.Anton was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.He was being held Monday on $17,500 bail, according to jail records, which said he did not yet have an attorney. The church did not respond to a voicemail message left there Monday.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Emilio T. Gonzalez


Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services: Emilio T. Gonzalez









Emilio T. Gonzalez, PH.D, serves as Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an Under Secretary position within the Department of Homeland Security. Appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2005, Dr. Gonzalez leads an organization of more than 15,000 federal and contract employees responsible for the accurate, efficient and secure processing of immigration benefits.


Prior to joining the Miami based international law firm of Tew Cardenas, Dr. Gonzalez was Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, Washington, D.C. In this capacity he served as a key National Security and Foreign Policy advisor to President George W. Bush and Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

An international affairs specialist, Dr. Gonzalez has spent most of his professional career involved in foreign affairs and international security policy issues. He has served in or traveled to almost every country in the Western Hemisphere on numerous occasions, and has represented the United States Government on special diplomatic missions. Dr. Gonzalez remains active in international politics. He often meets with Heads of State, Foreign Ministers, Trade Ministers, ambassadors and political leaders from throughout the hemisphere. Additionally, Dr. Gonzalez is a noted commentator on Hispanic and international affairs and has appeared on local, national and international radio and television programs.

Dr. Gonzalez completed a distinguished career in the U.S. Army that spanned twenty-six years. During this time he served as a military attaché to U.S. Embassies in El Salvador and Mexico, taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and headed the Office of Special Assistants for the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Southern Command.

A graduate of the University of South Florida in Tampa with a B.A. in International Studies, Dr. Gonzalez also earned MA degrees in Latin American Studies from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and in Strategic Studies and National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Miami, where he also received the Graduate School Award for Academic Achievement. He has been awarded numerous decorations from the United States and has also been decorated by the governments of El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. Dr. Gonzalez is a Knight of Malta.

This page was last modified on September 19, 2006


Source: http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/biography_0148.shtm


Update: DHS link no longer exists, but Wikipedia still does: 

Dr. Gonzalez Garcia is a Knight of Malta and a Knight of the Sacred Constantinian Order of St. George. In 2010, he was inducted into the College of Nobles of the Principality of Asturias (Spain).
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