Sunday, November 13, 2011

6.6.-magnitude quake hits eastern Indonesia

November 13, 2011 11:55 PM





(IStockPhoto)






(AP)JAKARTA, Indonesia - A strong earthquake hit waters off eastern Indonesia on Monday, sending people along coastlines fleeing to high ground in panic. Officials said, however, there was no threat of a tsunami.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered 12 miles (20 kilometers) beneath the Molucca Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Many people in Ternate, the town in North Maluku province that was closest to the epicenter, ran from their homes and offices as the ground rattled beneath them, said George Rajaloa, a resident.

"I ran with everyone else," he said.

Fearing a tsunami, those living near the beach also fled to high ground.

But Suhardjono, from the Indonesian meteorological and geophysics agency, said there was no danger of a seismically triggered wave.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.


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Rival Libyan militias clash near military base

By RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI, Associated Press – 6 hours ago

WARSHEFANA, Libya (AP) — Rival militias clashed on the outskirts of the Libyan capital for a fourth day Sunday in the deadliest and most sustained violence since the capture and killing of Moammar Gadhafi last month.

Fighters attacked each other with rockets, mortars and machine guns, witnesses said. The fighting, which has killed at least 13 people since late last week, raised new concerns about the ability of Libya's transitional government to disarm thousands of gunmen and restore order after an eight-month civil war.

Libya's interim leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said his National Transitional Council brought together elders from the feuding areas — the coastal city of Zawiya and the nearby tribal lands of Warshefana — over the weekend and that the dispute has been resolved. "I want to assure the Libyan people that everything is under control," he said Sunday.

However, as he spoke, fighting continued.

Heavy gunfire and explosions of rocket-propelled grenades were heard over hours Sunday in the area between the Warshefana lands, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Tripoli, and Zawiya, another 10 miles (15 kilometers) to the west. White smoke rose into the air.

At one point, the two sides were battling for control of a major military camp of the ousted regime, said a fighter from Tripoli. The camp, once a base of elite forces commanded by one of Gadhafi's sons, Khamis, is located on a highway midway between Tripoli and Zawiya.

In all, at least 13 people were killed in the fighting, including four from Zawiya and nine from Warshefana, according to gunmen and a hospital doctor in Warshefana. More than 100 people from Warshefana were wounded since Saturday, said Dr. Mohammed Sawan, adding that casualties stemmed from gunshots as well as shrapnel from rockets and mortar shells.

On Sunday evening, a Warshefana field commander, Ashraf Borwais, delivered a severely burned fighter to the local hospital. He said the man was wounded when his vehicle was struck by artillery and exploded. Borwais said fighting had stopped in the evening. "The dogs have retreated," he said, referring to the Zawiya militiamen.

Zawiya fighters, meanwhile, manned roadblocks on the outskirts of their city at intervals of about 200 yards (meters). Groups of jumpy armed men, some brandishing RPGs, crowded around the checkpoints. Fighters searched trunks of cars and checked IDs.

The reason for the initial clash remains unclear, though accusations have been flying, including that some of the Warshefana had links to the old regime. At one point last week, fighters from Zawiya entered Warshefana and seized weapons. In retaliation, Warshefana fighters set up random checkpoints and fired at the main highway.

Abdul-Jalil said the NTC has established a committee to address the grievances of both sides. He said the fighting was sparked by young men behaving irresponsibly, but he did not elaborate.

Since the Oct. 20 death of Gadhafi, there have been a number of violent clashes between fighters, including a deadly shootout at a Tripoli hospital. Residents of the capital have also become increasingly annoyed with fighters from other areas of Libya who have taken over prime locations in the city, including a gated seaside resort village.

Despite the growing tensions, Abdul-Jalil and other NTC leaders have said they cannot disarm the fighters quickly.

Noting high unemployment among the armed men, Abdul-Jalil said the new government must offer alternatives first, including jobs, study and training.


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The Anti-Christ Revealed! The Beast Exposed!



Uploaded by on Apr 3, 2008

Who or what is the Anti-Christ? When will the Anti-Christ appear or... is he already here? Where does this mysterious Beast power come from? Does the Bible tell us anything about the relevance of modern day events? Is America part of prophecy? Is the Anti-Christ the New World Order or the European Union? Are national ID cards part of the mark of the beast? What does the book of Daniel say about our past, present and future? Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, the EU, United Nations, North American Union, RFID's, The New Age Movement, Satanic cults, scientology, mormonism, islam, ronald reagan, george W. bush, saddam Hussein; all have been accussed of being the "man of sin", "the false prophet" or the bearer of the dreaded 666 symbol. How can you know who the is right and who the Anti-Christ really is? If you desire the truth watch this video and then visit our website for further study (www.maranathasda.tv) where you can access free videos via our webcast 24/7. Discover the truth about prophecy, end time events, the "rapture", health, relationships and God's plan for YOU!


Lincoln's "Greenbacks" (And Why That Killed Him)


Lincoln's "Greenbacks"
(And Why That Killed Him)

Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 11 Num. 34


Writes Dr. R.E. Search in Lincoln: Money Martyred (Omni Publications, PO Box 900566, Palmdale, CA 93590), "The struggle that was to rid the country of human slavery of the black race, however, was also to fasten upon the whole nation an economic or money slavery, which has endured to the present time..."

Abraham Lincoln and his Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase (Chase Bank later named after him) went to the New York bankers "and applied for loans to the Government to carry on the [Civil] war; the bankers replying, 'Well, war is a hazardous business, but we can let you have it [the loans] at from 24 percent to 36 percent.'" (Dr. R.E. Search)

Appleton Cyclopedia (1861), page 296, states: "The money kings wanted 24 percent to 36 percent interest for loans to our government to conduct the Civil War." (qtd. in Search's book)

President Lincoln and Secretary Chase were outraged at the usurious interest, and refused the offer.

Lincoln wrote to an old friend, Colonel Dick Taylor in Chicago, and asked for advice. His friend told him to "get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes or greenbacks." (qtd. in Search's book)

60 million dollars of full legal tender greenbacks were issued. "All were taken at par and never appreciably fell below par at any time..." (Dr. R.E. Search)

Lincoln referred to these greenbacks as "the greatest blessing the people of this Republic [have] ever had." (qtd. in Search's book)

But as soon as Lincoln began issuing the greenbacks, "the bankers and money changers saw that unless they could stop that sort of thing they were 'sunk' as far as ever being able to issue money again themselves." (Dr. R.E. Search)

The banksters "had been able to fool and hoodwink England, and keep her in bondage for 168 years, and they wanted very much to continue, and to add the balance of the world to their conquest; making the people everywhere economic serfs, working for them." (ibid.)

From the London Times:

If this mischievous financial policy [greenbacks]... should become endurated down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debts. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe. [qtd. in Search's book]

The Bank of England/Rothschilds (do not be deceived by name, "Bank of England"; Bank of England was/is a private bank) issued, and distributed to American banksters, the following document, quoted in part below:

The Hazard Circular

Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, and chattel slavery abolished. This, I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor, and carries with it the care of labor, while the European plan, led on by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages.

The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the [Civil] war must be used to control the value of money. To accomplish this, the Government bonds must be used as a banking basis.

We are now waiting for the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States to make this recommendation. It will not do to allow greenbacks, as they are called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that, but we can control the bonds and through them the bank issues. [qtd. in Dr. Search's book]

Slavery is but the owning of labor, and carries with it the care of labor.

A "new, improved system" of slavery was being born. Gustavus Myers (a "leftist") corroborates this in his book, History of the Great American Fortunes: "...chattel slavery could not compete in efficiency with white labor... more money could be made from the white laborer, for whom no responsibility of shelter, clothing, food and attendance had to be assumed than from the Negro slave, whose sickness, disability or death entailed direct financial loss."

"The perfect slave thinks he's free." That was the "new, improved system" for exploiting labor. (Currently, a further refinement is the use of temporary labor.)

Abraham Lincoln was "the man who first proved that government could issue its own paper money, legally, honorably, and rightfully, and make it full legal tender for all debts, both public and private..." Was Lincoln "a dangerous man from the [bankers] point of view? Could they have continued their knavery, trickery, bribery, and destructive work... if Lincoln had lived?" (Dr. R.E. Search)


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A Patriot-News Special Report: Who knew what about Jerry Sandusky?

There were many missed chances to investigate as early as 1995

Published: Friday, November 11, 2011, 12:19 AM Updated: Friday, November 11, 2011, 8:02 AM

What did they know and when did they know it?

Jerry Sandusky arraignment
EnlargeFormer Penn State coaching legend Jerry Sandusky is arraigned on sex abuse charges Saturday, Nov. 5 in State College, Pa.Jerry Sandusky arraignment gallery (11 photos)
The Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case has already cost the jobs of football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier. State and federal investigators continue to unravel the case and might bring additional charges.

More than one tip has already come into the tipline that police have set up for potential victims.

But in the end, it’s going to come down to credibility. Stories contradict each other. Grand jury testimony clashes.

Who was telling the truth? Who was trying to keep the truth silent?

And what part did that silence play in the fact that Sandusky is alleged to have sexually assaulted young boys for 10 years after the first boy stepped forward?

In early 2010, before The Patriot-News broke the story of the Sandusky investigation, the newspaper confronted Spanier and asked him if he was aware of a grand jury investigation into Sandusky. His answer was no.

By his own testimony before the grand jury, Spanier knew as early as 2002 that Sandusky and a young boy had been witnessed “horsing around” by a staff member in the locker room of the football building.

It’s not clear if Spanier also knew about a six-week investigation by his university’s police force that centered around similar touching in a shower in 1998 that never led to charges.

However, now-resigned Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the campus police in 1998 and in 2002, did know about both reports, and in his grand jury testimony, he acknowledged that they were similar — they both involved young boys and allegations of sexual misconduct in a shower at the football building.

Mike McQuearyView full sizePenn State assistant coach Mike McQueary.
Right now, the case against Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley — both charged with perjury and failure to report a crime — hinges mainly on the word of that eyewitness, then-graduate student Mike McQueary. McQueary is now a Penn State assistant football coach.

McQueary is a guy who once stepped in and broke up a player-related knife fight in a campus dining hall — a fight police admit could have been very ugly. But this week, he is getting blasted by the public for doing too little.

That same public sentiment led to an abrupt exit for legendary coach Paterno and Spanier.

But if gossip, rumor and speculation have been rampant this week about Spanier, Paterno and McQueary, the facts are more complicated — and much more disturbing.

EARLY CONCERNS

The earliest documented report of possible abuse at the hands of Sandusky is in 1995, when his now-legally adopted son was still a teenage foster child in his home.

The adoption file for Matt Sandusky, who had a different name at the time, contains letters of concern from his mother to children and youth officials and to a Centre County judge.

Matt’s biological mother, Debra Long, testified before the grand jury.

Matt, 33, is not one of the victims in the grand jury presentment, but he did testify before the grand jury.

Sandusky’s attorney, Joe Amendola, said Long is upset with Sandusky for helping her son and her allegations are not based in fact. Matt went to live with the Sandusky family after he was caught setting fire to a barn in 1995.

Children and Youth Services placed him with the Sandusky family at Jerry Sandusky’s request. He knew Matt through The Second Mile.

In his book, “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story” several pages are devoted to Matt.

“He became an instant challenge for me,” Sandusky writes.

Debra Long was allowed to visit her son only one-half day per month after he went to live with the Sanduskys.

About four months after he went to live with Jerry, Matt attempted suicide with a girl who was also staying at Sandusky’s house.

“The probation department has some serious concerns about the juvenile’s safety and his current progress in placement with the Sandusky family,” wrote Terry L. Trude, a school-based probation officer, days after the suicide attempt.

The letter, addressed to Centre County Judge David Grine, also said Long was concerned about Matt’s safety and mental condition, and asked that Matt go to a different foster family.

Trude finally recommended that Matt’s placement in the Sandusky house be reviewed within two months.

The night of the suicide attempt, Matt wrote a letter to the probation officer dealing with his case.

It read, in part: “I would like to be placed back with the Sanduskys. I feel that they have supported me even when I have messed up. They are a loving caring group of people. I love both my biological family and the Sandusky family.”

The day Jerry Sandusky was arrested, Matt brought his kids over to Jerry’s house. The mother of Matt’s children almost immediately went to court to prevent future visits. A judge’s order now prevents Sandusky from having unsupervised contact or overnight visits with his grandchildren.

THE FIRST VICTIM TO ASK FOR HELP

The travesty and tragedy of botched attempts to investigate Jerry Sandusky began in 1998.

Though the grand jury indictment includes four previous victims, an 11-year old boy in 1998 was the first to come forward. He is called Victim Six in the grand jury presentment.

The boy told police that Sandusky had showered naked with him. A second boy was in the showers at the time, but did not testify before the grand jury.

Ray GricarView full sizeFormer Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar
Then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar set up a sting in the mother’s home. Sandusky had requested to meet with the mom, and Gricar had officers hide in another room and listen to their conversation.

One of those officers was Detective Ron Schreffler, the lead investigator in the case.

According to the presentment, Sandusky asked the mom for forgiveness.

“I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness from you. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead,” Sandusky said.

Gricar knew the results of the sting before he made his decision not to prosecute.

The Centre County Office of Children and Youth Services also was investigating that case.

Investigator Jerry Lauro said this week he didn’t feel there was enough evidence for abuse charges solely based on interviews with the boys.

“At that time, the information that we had wasn’t sufficient enough to substantiate a case,” Lauro said. “I don’t want [the mother)] to think we didn’t believe their kid back then. We did, but we didn’t have enough.”

Lauro said Schreffler never told him the details of Sandusky’s confession at the victim’s house.

“I remember my last conversation with him concerning him hiding in that room,” Lauro said. “He didn’t tell me details. All he said was, ‘There’s nothing to it — we’re going to close our case.’ And I said, ‘That’s fine, I’m going to close my case, too.”

They never had another call regarding Sandusky, Lauro said.

Gricar disappeared suddenly in 2005. He remained missing and was declared dead earlier this year. Tony Gricar, family spokesman, said his uncle had developed a “bitter taste” for the football program and Paterno.

“So, I wouldn’t imagine he’d give favorable treatment to anyone associated with the team for any reason,” he said.

Schreffler has repeatedly declined to comment on the case.

According to the presentment, Lauro testified that he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky. Sandusky admitted hugging the boy in the shower and admitted it was wrong, Lauro testified.

WHAT JANITORS SAY THEY SAW

Another golden opportunity to report and investigate Sandusky for child sexual abuse came just two years later, in 2000.

A group of janitors were cleaning the locker rooms late at night in the Penn State football building.

One of them, Jim Calhoun, witnessed Sandusky in a shower performing a sex act on a young boy who was pinned up against a wall, according to the grand jury report.

A second janitor, Ronald Petrosky, witnessed a boy leaving hand in hand with Sandusky after Petrosky heard the shower running.

The grand jury presentment calls them Victim Two and Victim Eight.

Calhoun approached Petrosky, crying and very upset. He told Petrosky what he’d seen and said it was something he would never forget.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbet talks about the Penn State sex scandalPennsylvania Governor Tom Corbet talks about the Penn State sex scandalPennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett holds a press conference at State College, to talk about the sex scandal at Penn State University, and the firing of president Graham Spanier and long-time football coach Joe Paterno. VIDEO BY ANDY COLWELL, The Patriot-NewsWatch video
All of the employees working that night were relatively new, and decided to tell Calhoun how he could report the incident, according to the grand jury presentment. There is no record that he or any of the others did that.

Twice that night, Petrosky testified that he saw Sandusky slowly drive through the parking lot of the football building. The first time was two or three hours after it happened, and the second was very early in the morning, between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.

Calhoun was a temporary employee who left the job after about eight months.

He has dementia and won’t be able to testify. Attorney General Linda Kelly said that should not hurt the investigation because they have other witnesses.

However, Sandusky’s attorney says he’ll try to stop the prosecution of both cases because the alleged victims themselves have never been identified.

WHAT DID McQUEARY SAY?

Two years later, there was yet another missed opportunity.

And this is the incident that, according to testimony, eventually involved Paterno and Spanier.

This is the second case, in which the victim hasn’t been identified.

It was about 9:30 at night on a Friday before spring break. McQueary testified that he came to the football building in order to drop off a pair of new sneakers and pick up recruiting tapes. Instead, he testified that he walked in on Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in the shower.

McQueary testified that the boy was pinned with his hands against the shower wall — just like Jim Calhoun had seen two years earlier — as Sandusky stood behind him.

McQueary was shocked. Both Sandusky and the boy — who remains unidentified — saw him, he testified.

Instead of taking action to stop what he was watching, McQueary testified that he left immediately and told his father. The next morning, McQueary said, they went to see Paterno.

And what did McQueary say?

We don’t know. The grand jury presentment that has been given to the public, simply says that McQueary “reported what he had seen.”

According to Paterno’s testimony, McQueary told the coach he had witnessed Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature” to the boy.

Two days after the report was released, Paterno issued a statement saying he wanted to correct the impression left by the presentment.

Even though Paterno himself had told the grand jury that McQueary saw “something of a sexual nature,” Paterno said this week that he had stopped the conversation before it got too graphic. Instead, he told McQueary he would need to speak with his superior, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and with Schultz.

That meeting did not happen for 10 days.

What was said at that meeting is in dispute.

McQueary testified he told the men in specific detail exactly what he’d seen, and what he testified to before the grand jury.

Curley and Schultz say nothing criminal was described. Instead, Curley says, it was characterized as “inappropriate conduct” or “horsing around.

Schultz said it seemed like “not that serious.”

But Schultz also admitted to the grand jury that McQueary had reported seeing “inappropriate sexual conduct” between the older man and the young boy, and possibly Sandusky “inappropriately grabbing the young boy’s genitals.”

Neither man called the police. Instead, they decided to tell former President Graham Spanier.

Spanier testified that he was only told there was “horsing around” in the shower — between Sandusky and a boy. And that had made a member of Curley’s staff “uncomfortable.” Spanier told the grand jury he didn’t hear that the incident was sexual.

Spanier never asked to speak with McQueary.

Spanier signed off on their decision to ban Sandusky from bringing children from his charity, The Second Mile, into the Penn State football building.

The ban, Curley admitted, was unenforceable.

And in fact, Sandusky attended Second Mile football camps with kids on other Penn State campuses as recently as 2008.

What about The Second Mile itself? Second Mile President Jack Raykovitz was told about the incident and the ban in 2002, the report says.

Raykovitz, too, never contacted the police.

When Raykovitz testified before the grand jury, he said Curley had merely told him an employee was “uncomfortable” about seeing Sandusky in the locker room shower with a boy, but that an internal investigation revealed no wrongdoing.

“At no time was The Second Mile made aware of the very serious allegations contained in the grand jury report,” Raykovitz said in a statement after the indictments. Raykovitz’s statement said the new details “bring shock, sadness and concern,” but said they had no indication any of the alleged abuse happened within charity programs and events.

According to the grand jury, then, here is how McQueary’s eyewitness account became watered down at each stage:

McQueary: anal rape.
Paterno: something of a sexual nature.
Schultz: inappropriately grabbing of the young boy’s genitals.
Curley: inappropriate conduct or horsing around.
Spanier: conduct that made someone uncomfortable.
Raykovitz: a ban on bringing kids to the locker room.

When The Patriot-News first reported details of the investigation in March, Raykovitz said he was assured by prosecutors that The Second Mile and its programs were not targets of the investigation.

Kelly will only say that the investigation is ongoing. However, Gov. Tom Corbett — who as attorney general began the Sandusky investigation — said Thursday night that the new attorney general will look into what The Second Mile knew.

Sandusky retired from the charity in August 2010. Raykovitz has said recently that Sandusky had no contact with children in the program after November 2008, when Sandusky notified them that he was under investigation.

A MOTHER'S SUSPICIONS

The alleged victim who finally kicked off a full-scale investigation — the one that led to Sandusky’s indictment — came forward in late 2008. He was a freshman at Central Mountain High School, where Sandusky was a volunteer football coach.

In an interview with The Patriot-News, the boy’s mother said that she began to suspect something was wrong when her son asked about a database for “sex weirdos” and when Sandusky began demanding to discipline her child.

She called school administrators, and voiced concern about Sandusky taking the boy out of class without permission.

The principal decided to ask her son if anything was wrong.

The boy broke down, confessing that Sandusky was abusing him, the mother said.

But there were earlier signs.

When a grand jury convened in 2009, two school officials testified that they had witnessed strange behavior from Sandusky while he was spending time at the school.

First, the football coach, Steve Turchetta, characterized Sandusky as being very controlling with Second Mile students, and often was alone with them. That included the alleged victim in this case.

Turchetta also testified that Sandusky could be “clingy” and “needy” when a boy would try to distance himself.

And the wrestling coach, Joe Miller, said he walked in on Sandusky lying face to face in physical contact with a boy on a wrestling mat one night in 2007 or 2008.

Miller also testified that Sandusky jumped up and said, “Hey, Coach, we’re just working on wrestling moves.”

Miller also noticed that Sandusky and the boy frequently hung out and often used the wrestling room.

Sandusky was barred from the school as soon as this victim made allegations against him, and Kelly praised the school district for acting appropriately.

The mother has told The Patriot-News she was upset to hear the district being commended.

“They told me to go home and think about what I wanted to do, and I was not happy,” she said. “They said I needed to think about how that would impact my son if I said something like that. I went home and got [my son] and we came to [Children and Youth Services] immediately.”

SO MANY CHANCES MISSED

1995.
1998.
2000.
2002.
2008.

These dates spanning 13 years share two common threads that run through the entire grand jury presentment. At each stage, boys voiced concern or pain or alarm at the conduct of Jerry Sandusky — or adults witnessed behavior they found troubling or alarming.

And at each stage, other adults dismissed, minimized or failed to act upon those concerns.

It remains to be seen whether any of these actions, or the statements behind them, are a matter for the courts. For now, only two things are certain:

Many of the accounts in this tragic and tangled history conflict with one another.

And everyone cannot be telling the truth.


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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Religion gives way to economics

3:19 p.m. Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ray Newman has been studying a state map since last week’s Sunday alcohol sales referendums. A pastor and lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, Newman can cite one town after another where voters overturned blue laws.

Griffin, Pooler, Kingston: There, and elsewhere across the state, voters overwhelmingly embraced Sunday sales.

Georgia has diversified, said Newman, meaning the devil’s breath — alcohol — doesn’t smell quite as foul as it once did. Booze isn’t as widely stigmatized today. “People have come to Georgia from all over the United States and the world,” Newman said. “We’ve seen a cultural shift.”

Two decades ago, said Newman, voters never would have gotten the chance to decide whether alcohol could be sold on Sunday, the “Lord’s day.” Lawmakers would have heeded the exhortations of pastors and killed any legislation that proposed changing alcohol laws, he said.

This time around, voters — knowing their communities face hard economic times — decided to lay aside questions about the morality of alcohol sales in favor of the sales-tax revenue proponents argued it would raise.

“We’re struggling down here,” Said Sewell, a political science professor at Fort Valley State University, said. “This [enhanced alcohol sales] is a great opportunity for small towns.”

Ministers who could have preached against the proposal were largely quiet. Opponents of Sunday sales also believe it would have been easier to contest the issue if it been on the ballot statewide. Effectively fighting more than 100 local elections, they said, was difficult. Making it even harder was the economic challenges cities and towns are facing.

On Tuesday, Fort Valley voters approved liquor by the drink — the Sunday measure wasn’t on the ballot — by a comfortable margin. Voters in nearby Byron just as easily approved mixed-drink sales and Sunday purchases. The sales proposal also passed in neighboring Centerville and Warner Robins.

Frances McDaniel, who greets travelers coming off I-75 who stop at the Byron Welcome Center, was succinct.

“I’m not a drinker,” said McDaniel, who said she voted for Sunday sales and liquor by the drink. “I look at the economics of it.”

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade organization representing more than 5,000 brands of liquors, estimates that Sunday sales of distilled alcohol across Georgia will raise $4.8 million in extra sales taxes.

Derrick Lemons, an anthropology and religion instructor at the University of Georgia, agreed that rural Georgians who cast ballots for Sunday sales voted based on economic concerns.

“Money was definitely an influence,” said Lemons, an ordained Methodist minister who’s studied religious practices in rural Southern communities. “With our economy struggling the way it is, cities and counties are trying to bolster their bottom line.”

Tuesday’s votes also show “the decreasing importance of religion in American society,” said Edwin Jackson, a Georgia historian who’s retired from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government in Athens. “Much of the opposition to Sunday sales is probably associated with opposition to any sale of alcoholic beverages.”

Lonzy Edwards, a Macon pastor and Bibb County commissioner, agreed that alcohol isn’t as stigmatized as it once was.

“This is just a legal reality. It’s a legal product,” he said. “We tried Prohibition, and we know how that turned out.”

Prohibition, America’s experiment with teetotaling, began in 1920 and ended in 1933. Georgia laws forbidding the sale of alcohol on Sunday remained on the books.

Selling alcohol wasn’t the only practice blacklisted on Sunday, recalled former Gov. Carl Sanders.

“Back then, they wouldn’t even let you go fishing on Sundays,” said Sanders, governor from 1963-1967. “Of course, people went fishing anyway.”

And legislators, said Sanders, would drink at night, only to turn down proposals to loosen alcohol laws in the sober light of day. They didn’t want to antagonize pastors and constituents, Sanders said.

“They drank wet and voted dry,” said Sanders, first elected to the House of Representatives in 1954. “Those boys, the last thing they’d want to do is vote for a bill for mixed drinks or Sunday sales.”

The Sunday sale of alcohol is more than just a moral issue, said Jerry Luquire, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition. The organization ran a low-level campaign against Sunday sales, appealing to preachers and arguing that an additional day of alcohol transactions would increase traffic accidents and domestic violence.

Two decades ago, the organization campaigned against the creation of the Georgia Lottery. And, though that campaign failed — voters approved the lottery in 1992 — pastors across the state heeded the coalition’s request to use their pulpits to condemn gambling.

This time, said Luquire, few pastors answered that call.

“I think pastors today are more concerned about being looked upon as relics,” he said. “They’re too worried about their image.”

Ministers have an obligation to speak about alcohol sales, said Bryan Myers, an associate pastor at Central Baptist Church in Americus. The Sumter County city’s voters turned down Sunday sales.

“I was against it,” said Myers. “I told [church members] where I stood, and told them to vote their conscience. If the vote was for alcohol sales on Saturdays, I’d have voted against that, too.”

Sunday shouldn’t be sullied by alcohol sales, said Daniel Graves, an Elberton banker and president of the Elbert County of Chamber of Commerce. Elbert County, 110 miles northeast of Atlanta, voted down the measure by more than a 2-1 margin.

“The world is getting bigger, faster, stronger every day,” he said. “But Sunday is a day of rest. For me, it’s a day of faith.

“Elberton is different from Atlanta,” he said. “We’re a little slower in the pace of life here.”

Downtown Elberton also is a 15-minute drive from South Carolina, where the Sunday sale of beer and wine is legal. Does Tuesday’s vote mean Elberton imbibers will take their money across the state line once a week?

Graves laughed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t drink.”

Officials in Glynn County and Brunswick are watching to see what Tuesday’s referendums will mean to different bottom lines. Voters in the coastal county 270 miles south of Atlanta approved Sunday sales. Brunswick, its county seat, turned down the proposal.

M.H. “Woody” Woodside, president of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, struggled to explain the different outcomes. A chamber membership survey indicated the measure would win approval in both jurisdictions, he said.

“I know the city could have used the revenue this would have generated,” he said. “That’s not going to happen,”

But Woodside did see a plus in the vote: Neighboring McIntosh County didn’t have a Sunday sales referendum. It’s as dry as a cast-off beer can.

“On Sundays,” he predicted, “they’ll be running over here.”


Source


Ye Have Rebelled - Russell Standish



From: mkencrl | May 1, 2011


Proof Rome owns the NSA

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Proof Rome owns the NSA



Please find below another great find from "Vatican Assassins" author Eric Phelps, showing the lightly-veiled truth behind the symbolism of who controls the NSA (not too mention the CIA, or even British Intelligence, to name but two of the many nations subject to the same system): Rome.

Note that "to bind" is the definition of the Latin term "religion". The references to "supreme power and authority" evoke the Papal pontif-icating proclamations.

Also note that the head of the NSA (now the current head of the CIA) during 9/11 was:

MICHAEL HAYDEN

15th Director of the National Security Agency (1999 – 2005)

20th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006 – present)

Roman Catholic; trained at (the private Catholic) Duquesene University of the Holy Spirit

For more on Rome's 9/11 orchestration see:

http://troyspace2.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/partial-list-of-vatican-loyal-suspected-911-orchestrators-executors/

http://troyspace2.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/vaticanassassinsorg-ny-attack-911-orchestration/

http://sabbathrock.com/jesuitswtc.aspx


For more on SIGINT (referred to below) see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIGINT

- TS

http://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/about_nsa.shtml#about9


9. Can you explain the NSA and CSS seals?

National Security Agency Seal The NSA seal was designed in 1965 by direction of NSA Director LTG Marshall S. Carter, United States Army. The seal shows an eagle within a circle, holding a key. The eagle - a symbol of courage, supreme power, and authority - represents the national scope of NSA's mission. The shield on the eagle's breast is drawn from the Great Seal of the United States, and represents the states drawn together under a single chief that unites them and represents Congress. The key in the eagle's talons represents security. It evolved from the emblem of St. Peter the Apostle, and his power "to loose and to bind." The circular shape of the seal is a symbol of eternity.

Central Security Service Seal The 1996, at the direction of NSA Director Lt Gen Kenneth A. Minihan, an emblem was created for the Central Security Service, which includes the elements of the armed forces that perform codemaking and codebreaking work along with NSA. The current version of the seal includes the Naval Network Warfare Command, Marine Corps, the Army Intelligence and Security Command, the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Each is equally balanced around a five-pointed star that bears the symbol of NSA, which provides the funding, direction, and guidance for all of America's SIGINT activities.

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH NOTES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Security_Agency#History

The creation of NSA resulted from a December 10, 1951, memo sent by CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith to James S. Lay, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council.[7] The memo observed that "control over, and coordination of, the collection and processing of Communications Intelligence had proved ineffective" and recommended a survey of communications intelligence activities. The proposal was approved on December 13, 1951, and the study authorized on December 28, 1951. The report was completed by June 13, 1952. Generally known as the "Brownell Committee Report," after committee chairman Herbert Brownell, it surveyed the history of U.S. communications intelligence activities and suggested the need for a much greater degree of coordination and direction at the national level. As the change in the security agency's name indicated, the role of NSA was extended beyond the armed forces.

The creation of NSA was authorized in a letter written by President Harry S. Truman in June 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952,[7] and officially came into existence on November 4, 1952. President Truman's letter was itself classified and remained unknown to the public for more than a generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Security_Agency#cite_note-NSACreated-6

In a footnote on p. 30 of Body of Secrets (Anchor Books 2002), James Bamford mentions the classified CIA memorandum "Proposed Survey of Intelligence Activities" (December 10, 1951).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Bedell_Smith#Post-war_career_and_retirement

From 1954 to 1957 he was a founder member of the influential Bilderberg Group.[5][6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Bedell_Smith#cite_note-4

# ^ "The Real Aims of the Bilderberg Club". BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. April 6, 1982.
# ^ Jasper, William F. (July 12, 2004). Rogues' gallery of EU founders: the emerging European superstate, now moving forward under the EU, is the result of a deliberate scheme put into motion many years ago by powerful planners and plotters. 20. The New American. p. 15. ISSN 08856540. "Attendees at the founding Bilderberg meeting (1954), for example, included: David Rockefeller, global banker and later chairman of the CFR; Dean Rusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and later U.S. Secretary of State; Joseph E. Johnson, president of the Carnegie Endowment; C.D. Jackson, head of Time, Inc.; Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, former head of the OSS, precursor to the CIA; and Lord Dennis Healey, Labor Party leftist and later British Chancellor of the Exchequer.".

http://www.scottishrite-stl.org/library.html
... the admonition of the late P. G. M. Brother Harry S. Truman, 33°, in his introduction to the four volumes of "10,000 Famous Freemasons", he wrote:

"We know that research is the most important step in the study of history. Comprehensive and accurate information must be available for those who would interpret trends in world happenings".

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/List_of_Freemasons_-_Famous_Freemasons/id/1599798

President Harry S. Truman, 33° Belton Lodge No. 450, Belton, MO; Past Grand Master of Missouri

Source

God's Promise On Food & Water - David Kang



God's Promise On Food & Water - David Kang.avi
From: mkencrl | Nov 11, 2011
2011 by Pastor David Kang


Ecclesiastical Megalomania by John Robbins


The Economic and Political Thought of the Roman Catholic Church

The noted English political philosopher A. P. D'Entrèves argued that "it is hardly possible for the modern man to accept the system which St. Thomas (Aquinas) founded...without renouncing the notion of civil and religious liberty which we have some right to consider the most precious conquest of the West." Ecclesiastical Megalomania explains the conflict between Roman Catholicism and freedom in detail, relying on official Vatican pronouncements to demonstrate that Roman Catholicism is hostile to constitutional government, political and economic freedom, and the private property order. The "Mother Church" is the mother of feudalism, the corporative state, liberation theology, the welfare state, and fascism.

Contents: Part 1: Envy Exalted; Private Property; The Universal Destination of Goods; Rerum Novarum: On the Condition of the Working Classes; Subsequent Encyclicals; Feudalism and Corporativism; Liberation Theology; The Redistributive State and Interventionism; Has the Pope Beatified Ayn Rand?

Part 2: Autocracy Adored; Lord Acton on Roman Catholic Political Thought; Roman Catholic Political Theory; The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas; Persecution, Inquisition, and Slavery; The Nineteenth Century; The Magisterium; Solidarity, Subsidiarity, and the Common Good; Fascism and Nazism; Totalitarianism; Strategy for Subverting a Republic; World Government; 2000: Jubilee, Punctuated by Apologies; Appendices: The Donation of Constantine; The Vatican Decree of 1870; Bibliography; Index; Scripture Index

Product Details

Trade Paper: 326 pages
Publisher: The Trinity Foundation
Language: English
ISBN: 0-940931-78-8



$14.95

List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $14.95



Jesus and Interrogation - Bob Trefz



Uploaded by on May 3, 2011


Problem viewing site on Internet Explorer


For the last hour there have been problems visiting EndrTimes with Internet Explorer.

Will continue researching the issue. Thanks,

Sorry for any inconvenience.

I noticed that with Google Chrome I'm able to view the site.


Arsenio.
Update....Update....Update:
Problem Solved!
I reset Label category to previous format and it corrected the anomaly . I had recently changed the appearance of the Label listing.... It seems that with a "Cloud" display the blog page loads slower.
Eureka, problem solved.

President Obama's Adventist Connection



President Obama's Adventist Connection
.
Submitted Oct 9, 2011
By Monte Sahlin


No president of the United States since Warren G. Harding has a closer family connection to the Seventh-day Adventist Church than Barack Obama. A recent book by BBC journalist Peter Firstbrook documents these connections. It is entitled The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Familyand the story is illustrative of the increasingly multicultural reality of America and the Adventist movement.

A key player in the story is President Obama’s grandfather, Onyango Obama. The family is still centered in Kendu Bay on eastern shore of Lake Victoria, today part of the nation of Kenya. They are part of the Luo people.

In 1906, Onyango was nine when Adventist missionaries arrived in the area. The missionaries were led by Arthur Carscallen, a Canadian. The first thing the missionaries did was start a school where literacy in English was taught as well as Bible.

“An accomplished linguist, Arthur Carscallen soon mastered the Dholuo language [and] went on to create the first written language and dictionary for the Luo people. He even imported a small printing press, which he used to produce a Luo grammar textbook, and spent several years translating parts of the New Testament into Dholuo.” [p 126]

The missionaries also began medical work and public health promotion. “Adventists... stress the importance of good diet and health” and started “a free clinic where they treated malaria, cholera, and other diseases. They even made house calls.” [p 126]

Firstbrook describes how the arrival of the Adventist missionaries brought change to the Luo community. It was not without conflict, but it also resulted in economic development. “Carscallen was joined by his fiancee Helen...an accomplished seamstress [who was] troubled by the lack of any clothing worn by the locals. Determined to change the situation, she began to grow cotton, and made her own fabric.” He quotes a memoir of an aging resident of the area who says that the missionaries “tried very hard to get people to wear [European clothes] by giving us sweets and sugar. But people refused.” [p 126]

The Adventist missionaries’ “focus on corporeal as well as spiritual matters brought them into conflict with some of the local traders,” writes Firstbrook. He quotes Richard Gethin, the first British businessman to settle permanently in the area, who complained that the Adventist mission got involved in trading buffalo hides and provided competition to Gethin’s commercial enterprise.

For Onyango “the arrival of the white missionaries provided an exciting diversion from the monotony of village life.” He was later described by relatives as a serious child whose curiosity drew him to the new religion. Many of the residents of this area were baptized as church members, and Onyango was among the first wave. He went off to an Adventist boarding school and “after several months’ absence... returned...dressed like a white man [in] long trousers and a white shirt.” Onyango’s father was convinced that he had broken a strict taboo against circumcision and told the family to ostracize him. [p 127-28]

Onyango adopted the ways of the missionary more fully than did most of the Luo people at the time. This resulted in the family ostracism and eventually further change. He traveled to another town in the region and during World War I, Onyango converted to Islam. This “was anathema to his family back home, who were adopting Christianity under the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventists.” [p 142]

“Like many Africans at the time” he found it difficult to reconcile “the Christian message of love and compassion toward all men...with the white man’s apparent willingness to go to war.” That is one reason Islam appealed to him. He also “appreciated the structure and discipline it brought to his life.” [p 142]

Members of the family also say “he had a liking of the Muslim ladies... he knew how to treat them...The Christians...believed that polygamy was wrong. But Muslims...gave you the assurance that you can have even five wives.” [p 142]

Today the Obama family in Kenya is split between Adventists and Muslims. Firstbrook reports he spent the inauguration celebration with the Adventist side of the family while most of the international press was with the Muslim side. He was in the town of K’obama. The K in front of the family name means that the literal translation of this town is “home of Obama.”

He tells of the feast celebrating the new president. They slaughtered “a cow and several goats, and they welcomed my offer to bring a dozen crates of soft drinks, but definitely no beer, as they were all Seventh-day Adventists.” A small generator was brought out and television sets were rented so they could watch the official ceremony half way around the world. [p 8]

Firstbrook enjoyed his time with the “wonderfully diverse mix of people, from six-year-old schoolchildren to great-grandmothers in their eighties,” noting that the young are becoming more and more educated and the quality of life is improving even in this rural area of a developing nation. He also reports that he suspected “that some of the revelers were not conforming to the strict lifestyle expected of Seventh-day Adventists.” It appeared to him that some had local beer secreted on them. He was unsure of which individuals were actual relatives and which were neighbors attracted by the party.

Connections that span the globe; inter-religious relationships; ethnic diversity; education, new technology, and change. The world in which the Obama family and other Adventists live today is so different from the world a century ago in which the Harding family celebrated one of their own becoming president of the United States.


Note: The page references are all cited from The Obamas by Peter Firstbrook published 2011 in the U.S. by Crown Publishers, a division of Random House in New York City. It is distributed by the major bookstores and online booksellers. You will save money if you get your copy from a used book store


Source: http://www.atoday.org/article.php?id=872

Lorna Linda Victoria Church Ordains Woman Pastor

Adventist Today January-February 1996, page 19:

Sheryll Prinz-McMillan, pastor of the Victoria Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, was ordained to the gospel ministry in her church on Sabbath, December 2. Jerry Davis, director of chaplaincy at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, delivered the sermon, reminding the ordinand that she is a needed flute in a band of loud trombones. Fritz Guy, professor of theology at La Sierra University, played a key role in organizing this ordination, and he offered the ordination prayer.

Prinz-McMillan responded to her ordination by inviting all to live by the Spirit in lifting one another up for the common task of ministry.

"In a sense this ordination is more significant than those at Sligo and La Sierra in that it represents a small, predominantly working class church choosing to ordain its woman pastor," commented La Sierra University church historian Paul Landa. The sanctuary, which seats only 125 comfortably, had twice that number in attendance, with little standing room. The three women ministers recently ordained at the Sligo Church in Maryland were present, as well as many visitors and some 25 ordained ministers who joined in the laying-on-of-hands in ordination.

According to Steve Daily, chaplain at La Sierra, these two local ordination services on December 2, at La Sierra and at the Victoria church, have been in the planning stages for several months, and were not intended to defy the world church. Rather, like the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church ordination which preceded them, they were meant to recognize the calls to ministry received by the women who were ordained until those calls are acknowledged by the world church.

pdf file


Detroit prayer event puts Muslim community on edge

By JEFF KAROUB - Associated Press | AP – 11 hrs ago

The exterior of Ford Field in Detroit is shown Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, the day before …


DETROIT (AP) — A group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation began a 24-hour prayer rally Friday evening in an area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States.

The gathering at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lionsplay, is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as TheCall has said Detroit is a "microcosm of our national crisis" in all areas, including "the rising tide of the Islamic movement."

Leaders of TheCall believe a satanic spirit is shaping all parts of U.S. society, and it must be challenged through intensive Christian prayer and fasting. Such a demonic spirit has taken hold of specific areas, Detroit among them, organizers say. In the months ahead of their rallies, teams of local organizers often travel their communities performing a ritual called "divorcing Baal," the name of a demon spirit, to drive out the devil from each location.

"Our concern is that we are literally being demonized by the organizers of this group," said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, which last week urged local mosques and Islamic schools to increase security. "And given the recent history of other groups that have come into Michigan ... we're concerned about this prayer vigil stoking up the flames of divisiveness in the community."

TheCall is the latest and largest of several groups or individuals to come to the Detroit area with a message that stirred up many of its estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims. Recent visitors have included Florida pastor Terry Jones; members of the Westboro Baptist Church; and the Acts 17 Apologetics, missionaries who were arrested for disorderly conduct last year at Dearborn's Arab International Festival but were later acquitted.

As with many other Christian groups, TheCall and its adherents believe Jesus is the only path to salvation. While they consider all other religions false, they have a specific focus on Islam, largely in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, terrorism overseas and fear that Islam, which is also a proselytizing faith, will spread faster than Christianity.

TheCall is modeled partly on the Promise Keepers, the men's stadium prayer movement that was led in the 1990s by former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney. TheCall's first major rally was in September 2000 on the national Mall in Washington, drawing tens of thousands of young people to pray for a Christian revival in America. Co-founder Lou Engle has organized similar rallies in several cities, including a 2008 event at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium two days before Election Day to generate support for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

Theologically, Engle is part of a stream of Pentecostalism that is independent of any denomination and is intensely focused on the end times. Within these churches, some leaders are elevated to the position of apostle, or hearing directly from God.

Muslims weren't the only ones concerned about Friday's event. A coalition of Detroit clergy led a march of about 150 people from a city park to the football stadium Friday evening, around the time the rally inside was scheduled to start.

"We chanted 'Stop the hate, spread the love. Stop the hate, spread the jobs,'" the Rev. David Bullock told The Associated Press after their hourlong march and prayer rally.

He described the outdoor prayer rally as "very non-violent, very peaceful," and said there was no trouble with anyone entering Ford Field for TheCall.

Bullock said he and other Detroit area clergy have received calls this week asking about TheCall. He said he has told them to research Engle.

"They didn't know. People are really shocked by the rhetoric in his sermons. We are going to send a different message that the God we serve loves everyone."

Engle declined interview requests from the AP, and one of his representatives referred calls to Apostle Ellis Smith of Detroit's Jubilee City Church. Smith, who appeared with Engle and other Detroit-area clergy in promotional videos filmed at Ford Field, considers himself a point-person for TheCall in Detroit.

Smith told the AP that fears of the event taking on an anti-Muslim tone are overblown. He said attendees won't be "praying against Muslims," but rather "against terrorism that has its roots in Islam."

"We're dealing with extremism," he said. "We're against extremism when it comes to Christians."

Still, in a pre-event sermon he delivered Oct. 9 at a suburban church, Smith called Islam a "false," ''lame" and "perverse" religion. He said it was allowed to take root in Detroit because of the city's strong religious base. That's why TheCall event is "pivotal," he said.

"That's why I believe it's by divine appointment: Detroit is the most religious city in America," Smith said in the sermon, adding later, "What I'm saying to you is Detroit had to happen because we have to break these barriers that have hindered in so many ways."

The sermon was archived on the online sermon library Sermon.net.

Smith on Thursday said he was offering his personal perspective that Islam is "a false religion, as many others are."

He said the main focus of Friday's gathering is "loving God, loving God's people."

Dawn Bethany, 43, said she is attending with about 70 others from Lansing's Epicenter of Worship, where she is the church's administrator. Bethany said she believes the event will be a "monumental spiritual experience," and "the negativity is a distraction from seeing who God is." God, she said, "is love."

___

Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit and AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.

___

Jeff Karoub can be reached at http://twitter.com/jeffkarou



Source


Iran explosion at Revolutionary Guards military base

12 November 2011 Last updated at 07:45 ET

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Fifteen people have been killed in a huge explosion at a military base near Iran's capital of Tehran, officials say.

The blast occurred when troops were moving weapons inside a Revolutionary Guards depot, an official told state TV.

Windows in nearby buildings have been shattered and the blast was heard in central Tehran, 40 km (25 miles) away.

A helicopter and ambulances have reportedly been sent to the scene.

Local MP Hossein Garousi said "a large part of an ammunition depot exploded," parliament's website reported.

It is not clear what caused the explosion in the village of Bidganeh, near the city of Karaj.

Karaj resident Kaveer told the BBC's Newshour programme that the sound was "deafening".

"We were kind of shocked. I just ran out of the house and looked around," he said.

Economic force

An elite military force, the Revolutionary Guard was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system.

It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran.

The Revolutionary Guard has been targeted by UN sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment.

There have been occasional unexplained explosions in Iran before.

Eighteen people were killed in a blast at a Revolutionary Guards base in the north-western Lorestan province in October 2010.

The latest blast comes at a time of heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The UN's nuclear watchdog the IAEA released a report on Tuesday which, correspondents say, prompted new fears that Iran's nuclear programme has a military objective.

There has also been speculation in Israel's media that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering ordering strikes against Iran's nuclear sites, in the hope of stalling or ending its programme.

Iran says its nuclear programme has purely civilian aims.


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15705948