Sunday, June 16, 2013

Snoop Dad

Illustration (Courtesy) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

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Chelsea Clinton endorses mom: We need a woman in the White House





Charlie Spiering 


Published on Jun 14, 2013


Chelsea Clinton endorses mom: We need a woman in the White House

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Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria



World Exclusive: US urges UK and France to join in supplying arms to Syrian rebels as MPs fear that UK will be drawn into growing conflict

ROBERT FISK


SUNDAY 16 JUNE 2013





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Syria makes the Commons grow up


Editorial: Arms for the rebels is no solution to Syria’s crisis


Paul Vallely: The Russians will help us in Syria only if we help them




Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.

For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.

In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”.

America’s alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan – flooded, like so many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees – may also now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle. Up to 3,000 American ‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern Syria ‘no-fly zone’ – opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries – will turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war. So much for America’s ‘friends’.

Its enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power. Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces.

Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East. Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

For the real reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad. The Damascus regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of Qusayr, at the cost of Hizballah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for Assad to abandon power. Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed – unless they are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf – not to be sustained. Yet Russia has given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil war.

In the Middle East, there is cynical disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms – almost certainly including anti-aircraft missiles – only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army. The more powerful al-Nusrah Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy. They will be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with little effort.

From now on, therefore, every suicide bombing in Damascus - every war crime committed by the rebels - will be regarded in the region as Washington’s responsibility. The very Sunni-Wahabi Islamists who killed thousands of Americans on 11th September, 2011 – who are America’s greatest enemies as well as Russia’s – are going to be proxy allies of the Obama administration. This terrible irony can only be exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adament refusal to tolerate any form of Sunni extremism. His experience in Chechenya, his anti-Muslim rhetoric – he has made obscene remarks about Muslim extremists in a press conference in Russian – and his belief that Russia’s old ally in Syria is facing the same threat as Moscow fought in Chechenya, plays a far greater part in his policy towards Bashar al-Assad than the continued existence of Russia’s naval port at the Syrian Mediterranean city of Tartous.

For the Russians, of course, the ‘Middle East’ is not in the ‘east’ at all, but to the south of Moscow; and statistics are all-important. The Chechen capital of Grozny is scarcely 500 miles from the Syrian frontier. Fifteen per cent of Russians are Muslim. Six of the Soviet Union’s communist republics had a Muslim majority, 90 per cent of whom were Sunni. And Sunnis around the world make up perhaps 85 per cent of all Muslims. For a Russia intent on repositioning itself across a land mass that includes most of the former Soviet Union, Sunni Islamists of the kind now fighting the Assad regime are its principal antagonists.

Iranian sources say they liaise constantly with Moscow, and that while Hizballah’s overall withdrawal from Syria is likely to be completed soon – with the maintenance of the militia’s ‘intelligence’ teams inside Syria – Iran’s support for Damascus will grow rather than wither. They point out that the Taliban recently sent a formal delegation for talks in Tehran and that America will need Iran’s help in withdrawing from Afghanistan. The US, the Iranians say, will not be able to take its armour and equipment out of the country during its continuing war against the Taliban without Iran’s active assistance. One of the sources claimed – not without some mirth -- that the French were forced to leave 50 tanks behind when they left because they did not have Tehran’s help.

It is a sign of the changing historical template in the Middle East that within the framework of old Cold War rivalries between Washington and Moscow, Israel’s security has taken second place to the conflict in Syria. Indeed, Israel’s policies in the region have been knocked askew by the Arab revolutions, leaving its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hopelessly adrift amid the historic changes.

Only once over the past two years has Israel fully condemned atrocities committed by the Assad regime, and while it has given medical help to wounded rebels on the Israeli-Syrian border, it fears an Islamist caliphate in Damascus far more than a continuation of Assad’s rule. One former Israel intelligence commander recently described Assad as “Israel’s man in Damascus”. Only days before President Mubarak was overthrown, both Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called Washington to ask Obama to save the Egyptian dictator. In vain.

If the Arab world has itself been overwhelmed by the two years of revolutions, none will have suffered from the Syrian war in the long term more than the Palestinians. The land they wish to call their future state has been so populated with Jewish Israeli colonists that it can no longer be either secure or ‘viable’. ‘Peace’ envoy Tony Blair’s attempts to create such a state have been laughable. A future ‘Palestine’ would be a Sunni nation. But today, Washington scarcely mentions the Palestinians.

Another of the region’s supreme ironies is that Hamas, supposedly the ‘super-terrorists’ of Gaza, have abandoned Damascus and now support the Gulf Arabs’ desire to crush Assad. Syrian government forces claim that Hamas has even trained Syrian rebels in the manufacture and use of home-made rockets.

In Arab eyes, Israel’s 2006 war against the Shia Hizballah was an attempt to strike at the heart of Iran. The West’s support for Syrian rebels is a strategic attempt to crush Iran. But Iran is going to take the offensive. Even for the Middle East, these are high stakes. Against this fearful background, the Palestinian tragedy continues.


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China’s Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities


LEAVING THE LAND

China's Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities

By IAN JOHNSON

A 12-year plan to move hundreds of millions of rural residents into cities is intended to spur economic growth, but could have unintended consequences, skeptics warn.


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Google denies giving NSA 'direct access' to user data



News - Friday, June 14, 2013




by Daniel DeBolt


National Security Agency documents leaked to the press say Mountain View's Google has been cooperating with the United States government to spy on citizens on an unprecedented scale, allowing direct access to the company's servers. Google executives deny that to be the case.

According to bombshell reports in the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, an NSA program called PRISM allows the U.S. government to collect data directly from the servers of Google and others, including Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

The revelation that the NSA apparently has such unchecked ability to spy on the American public's internet activities came from a slide show presentation about PRISM, leaked by whistle-blower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. He has fled to Hong Kong, leaving behind a $200,000-a-year job and a home in Hawaii with his girlfriend.

"I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Snowden said in a video interview.

A slide in the leaked NSA presentation about data gathering described PRISM as "Collection directly from the servers of these US service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple."

The report was met with strongly worded denial from Google executives in a June 7 blog post titled "What the...?" by CEO Larry Page and chief legal officer David Drummond.

"The U.S. government does not have direct access or a "back door" to the information stored in our data centers," the executives write. "We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday."

The Google executives say they do provide the U.S. government with specific Google user data, but only when required by law, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don't follow the correct process," the executives write. "Press reports that suggest that Google is providing open-ended access to our users' data are false, period. Until this week's reports, we had never heard of the broad type of order that Verizon received — an order that appears to have required them to hand over millions of users' call records. We were very surprised to learn that such broad orders exist. Any suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users' Internet activity on such a scale is completely false."

Google's executives note that they have worked hard to be "transparent" about the data requests received, being the first internet company to publish a "Transparency Report" about government requests for data. The reports show a steadily increasing number of requests for user data, from 12,539 requests in last half of 2009 to 21,389 in the last half of 2012. Between 66 percent and 76 percent of the requests led Google to turn over some data, starting in 2011.

The executives also appear to oppose the laws that compel them to hand over user data, laws which apparently require a "level of secrecy" about the requests.

"We understand that the U.S. and other governments need to take action to protect their citizens' safety — including sometimes by using surveillance," the executives write. "But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish."

Google's chief architect Yonatan Zunger wrote his own response. "Owing to the nature of my work at Google over the past decade, it would have been challenging — not impossible, but definitely a major surprise — if something like this could have been done without my ever hearing of it."

He added his own concerns about the U.S. government's growing surveillance apparatus.

"I, personally, am by now disgusted with their conduct: the national security apparatus has convinced itself and the rest of the government that the only way it can do its job is to know everything about everyone. That's not how you protect a country. We didn't fight the Cold War just so we could rebuild the Stasi ourselves."


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G8 2013: Anti-G8 march takes place in Northern Ireland


Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Belfast on Saturday to protest against the G8 summit - but police had to move in to prevent disorder after pro-British loyalists tried to stage a protest in the same area.



4:00PM BST 15 Jun 2013

Environmentalists, trade unionists and other civil society activists paraded through Belfast city centre at lunchtime for what they bill as a march and festival for a fairer world.

US President Barack Obama is among the premiers arriving at the Lough Erne golf resort in Fermanagh for the two-day G8 meeting starting on Monday.

Campaigners behind the city centre march said: "We believe that achieving social, economic and environmental justice must be central to political decision-making."

Police had to move in to prevent disorder after pro-British loyalists tried to stage a protest in the same area.

Police and armoured vehicles created a barrier between the loyalists - Protestants who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom - and the G8 protesters.


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Pilgrimage to Ireland - Catholic Focus





saltandlighttv 


Published on Jun 13, 2013


When you think of religious pilgrimage, the Holy Land comes to mind, or perhaps the Vatican. But there's another pilgrimage destination where ancient ruins emerge from a dramatic landscape -- testaments to an over 1500-year-old Christian tradition. This destination is Ireland, whose heritage was celebrated at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress. Catholic Focus takes a trip to the holy sites of Ireland, while back in Canada, host Kris Dmytrenko speaks with guests Dr. Ann Dooley and Fr. John Reddy, CSB.


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Jesuit Superior General Says Pope’s Style is 100 Percent Jesuit



June 7th, 2013 | Author: bsindelar




Pope Francis is 100 percent Jesuit and his style shows it off, said the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás, in a recent interview with Rome Reports.

“I think we’re already seeing signs. … On Holy Thursday, he told priests that a shepherd should smell of sheep. It’s a great image which speaks to the pastoral mission of clergy, be it bishops or priests,” Fr. Nicolás said.

Fr. Nicolás also said he believes that the election of a Jesuit pope won’t have any repercussions on the Society’s members:

“It’s very clear to us, nothing has changed, nothing. The pope is the person the cardinals chose among themselves because they think he can lead the church. So we obey and work with him with the same intensity as we had with other popes.”

Even though the vow of poverty has always been a basic tenet for Jesuits, Fr. Nicolás believes this idea has gained importance within the church.

“That Cardinal Hummes told the pope the same thing [“Don't forget the poor”], means that it’s part of the church now. And that’s a good thing. It’s good because St. Paul mentioned it in one of his letters: we have to move with freedom because we are free with Christ, but we must never forget about the poor. He said this was one of the signs of being a Christian,” said Fr. Nicolás.

Watch the Rome Reports video with Fr. Nicolás below.





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Brad Meltzer's Decoded - Vatican


NOTE: The volume of the audio on this video is very low!



Vatican Conspiracy - Pope John Paul I



coorsman1962


Uploaded on Dec 29, 2011


Thumbs up if you like this Documentary.
What if I told you that the Vatican--seat of the Catholic Church--may be responsible for the murder of one of its own popes? Pope John Paul the First was in office just thirty-three days before he was found dead of mysterious causes and whisked away by Vatican officials with no investigation. Investigator travels to Rome and learns that the fallen Pope was at the center of a banking scandal involving Freemasons and even Mafia members operating from within the walls of the Vatican. Some even say that the scandal and the murder were foretold in a prophecy delivered by the Virgin Mary that the Vatican conspired to withhold from its followers. Could Pope John Paul the First, who vowed to reform corruption in the Vatican, have been murdered by the criminals he vowed to expose?

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211 (21) "Vatican" December 28, 2011

Brad's team goes to Rome to investigate rumors that the Vatican may have been involved in the death of one of their own, Pope John Paul I, who was in power for only 33 days before he was found dead of mysterious causes. They look into a possible cover up that he was about to expose a banking scandal involving the Freemasons and the Mafia operating inside the Vatican itself.
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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Earthquake strikes south of Mexico City, shaking buildings



Published June 16, 2013

Associated Press


MEXICO CITY – A strong earthquake has been felt in Mexico City, shaking buildings.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.8 and struck at 12:19 a.m. local time Sunday (519 GMT) about 122 kilometers (76 miles) south of the Mexican capital. The epicenter was 22 kilometers (14 miles) west of the town of Jolalpan.



Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/16/earthquake-strikes-south-mexico-city-shaking-buildings/#ixzz2WME6ti6S


Update:


5.8 magnitude quake strikes southwestern Mexico

CNN International - ‎17 minutes ago‎

(CNN) -- A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Mexico early Sunday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake took place 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Jolalpan, Mexico, and about 122 kilometers from Mexico City, the USGS said.



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Reuters - ‎7 minutes ago‎
MEXICO CITY | Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:15am EDT. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Power outages hit the Mexican capital of Mexico City on Sunday after an earthquake struck in the center of the country, and officials said there was no other damage reported.


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U.S. puts jets in Jordan, fuels Russian fear of Syria no-fly zone




Related Video

Rebels, government forces battle for Aleppo
8:33pm EDT









By Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT | Sat Jun 15, 2013 9:06pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria.

Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebels this week, citing what it said was the Syrian military's use of chemical weapons - an allegation Damascus has denied.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a Jordanian request for American F-16s and Patriot missiles to remain in the Western-backed kingdom after a joint military exercise there next week, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Western diplomats said on Friday Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but the White House noted later that it would be far harder and costlier to set one up there than it was in Libya, saying the United States had no national interest in pursuing that option.

Russia, an ally of Damascus and fierce opponent of outside military intervention in Syria, said any attempt to impose a no-fly zone using F-16s and Patriots from Jordan would be illegal.

"You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The idea of a no-fly zone was endorsed by Egypt, the biggest Arab nation. President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist more distant from Washington than his deposed military predecessor, made a keynote speech in Cairo throwing Egypt's substantial weight more firmly than before against President Bashar al-Assad.

Despite their differences, the United States and Russia announced in May they would try to convene peace talks involving the Syrian government and its opponents, but have set no date.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said chemical attacks by Syrian forces and Hezbollah's involvement on Assad's side showed a lack of commitment to negotiations and threatened to "put a political settlement out of reach".

Kerry had not previously expressed such pessimism about prospects for the conference, which has run into many obstacles.

These include disarray in the Syrian opposition and military gains by the Syrian army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies against rebels who have few ways to counter Assad's air power.

The involvement of Hezbollah fighters on the side of Assad, a fellow ally of the main Shi'ite power Iran, has galvanized Arab governments, including Egypt, behind the rebels, who mostly follow the Sunni version of Islam that dominates the Arab world.

That has hardened sectarian confrontation across the region, which some Arabs hope might be softened by the election of the moderate Hassan Rohani as Iran's president - though few believe he can truly influence Tehran's supreme leader.

Mursi, addressing thousands of cheering supporters at a stadium gathering organized by Egyptian Sunni clerics, demanded Hezbollah pull out of Syria and, after his Muslim Brotherhood joined calls for jihad against Assad and his Shi'ite allies, the president said Cairo had now cut diplomatic ties with Damascus.

Egypt's powerful, U.S.-backed army seems unlikely to involve itself in Syria, but religious passions are running high and more Egyptian volunteers could travel to join the rebels.

AIR STRIKES

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian jets and artillery had again attacked Jobar, a battered district where rebels operate on the edge of central Damascus.

It said heavy artillery was also shelling opposition fighters in the provinces of Homs, Aleppo and Deir al-Zor.

Western powers have been reluctant in the past to arm Syrian insurgents, let alone give them sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles that might fall into the hands of Sunni Islamist insurgents in rebel ranks who have pledged loyalty to al Qaeda.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander Salim Idriss told Reuters late on Friday that rebels urgently needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, as well as a protective no-fly zone.

"But our friends in the United States haven't told us yet that they are going to support us with weapons and ammunition," he said after meeting U.S. and European officials in Turkey.

A source in the Middle East familiar with U.S. dealings with the rebels has said planned arms supplies would include automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The United Nations says at least 93,000 people, including civilians and combatants, have died in the Syrian civil war, with the monthly death toll averaging 5,000 in the past year.

Abu Nidal, from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, said U.S. help was welcome, but questioned how effective it would be.

"I doubt the influx of weapons will significantly tip the balance into our favor," he said via Skype. "They might help push back regime offensives of the last few days."

SYRIAN OFFICERS DEFECT

Abu Nidal's faction is not part of the more moderate FSA, Washington's chosen channel for military aid, but he said the two groups fight alongside each other on the battlefield.

The FSA was set up by defectors from the Syrian military in August 2011, but many rebel factions operate independently.

Assad's armed forces have remained relatively cohesive, although a Turkish official said 71 Syrian army officers, including six generals, had just defected to Turkey, in the biggest such mass desertion in months.

Western nations have stopped short of arming Syrian rebels or mounting an air campaign as they did, with U.N. approval, to help Libyan insurgents topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Intervening against Assad is considered riskier because Syria has a stronger military, sits on the sectarian faultlines of the Middle East, and is supported by Iran and Russia, which has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria.

Yet an apparent shift in the military balance in Assad's favor, especially with the arrival of thousands of Shi'ite fighters from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, has made his swift removal look unlikely without outside intervention.

However, Israel's defense minister suggested the pendulum could still swing the other way, despite the capture this month of Qusair, a former rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border.

"Bashar al-Assad's victory in Qusair was not a turning point in the Syrian civil war, and I do not believe that he has the momentum to win," said Moshe Yaalon, who is visiting Washington.

"He controls just 40 percent of the territory in Syria. Hezbollah is involved in the fighting in Syria and has suffered many casualties in the battles, and as far as we know, it is more than 1,000 casualties," Yaalon said in a statement.

"We should be prepared for a long civil war with ups and downs."

Israel has not taken sides in Syria, but does not want to see any Western anti-aircraft missiles or other advanced arms reach Islamist militants hostile to the Jewish state.



(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Ankara, Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Mark Hosenball in Washington, Thomas Grove in Moscow and Tom Perry and Alastair Macdonald in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Roche)



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Lavrov and Rodham-Clinton in the recent 'good olde days'

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CIA will lead US effort to arm, train Syrian rebel forces, Fox confirms


Published June 15, 2013

FoxNews.com





The United States will supply Syrian rebels with weapons through a CIA-run program, FoxNews confirmed Saturday.

President Obama decided Thursday to supply rebel forces with small arms and ammunition, following confirmation that the regime of Syria President Bashar al-Assad's has been using chemical weapons in the 2-year-long civil war in which at least 90,000 people have been killed.

In addition to supplying the weapons, the CIA will train rebel forces, Fox News also confirmed.

Obama vowed last summer to take action should the Assad cross a “red line” by using chemical weapons but has been challenged in verifying whether his forces used chemical weapons and in determining which rebel forces can be trusted.

However, the rebels being supplied with only small arms has disappointed some Capitol Hill lawmakers and other Americas who want a more robust response and who say the administration’s actions might be too little, too late as Assad forces appear to be taking control of the war.

The White House has still not decided whether to send anti-tank weapons.

Arizona Republican John McCain, a military hawk, wants much heavier arms, including anti-aircraft missiles to go after Assad's air power.

Russia, for its part, question the evidence presented by the U.S. and says it does not meet stringent criteria for reliability.

Syria's state news agency is reporting that government forces have captured a suburb of Damascus near the capital's international airport.

SANA says troops killed several rebels and destroyed their hideouts in the Ahmadiyeh area on Saturday, two days after a mortar round landed near the airport's runway and briefly disrupted flights.

A local rebel commander who identified himself by his nickname, Abu Hareth, for fear of government reprisals, said soldiers and rebels have been fighting sporadically in the area since late Friday. He said two rebel fighters have been killed there since.

Ahmadiyeh is part of a region known as Eastern Ghouta, where government forces have been on the offensive for weeks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report



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Obama to bring own ship, cars to Africa


June 14 2013 at 10:37am
By Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura




Associated Press
President Barack Obama's upcoming trip to Africa is costing the US Secret Service a small fortune, according to a report in the Washington Post newspaper. File photo: AP



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Washington - When President Barack Obama makes his first extended trip to sub-Saharan Africa this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won't be taking any chances.

Hundreds of US Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma centre, will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president's airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.

The extraordinary security provisions - which will cost the government tens of millions of dollars - are outlined in a confidential internal planning document obtained by The Washington Post. While the preparations appear to be in line with similar travels in the past, the document offers an unusual glimpse into the colossal efforts to protect the US commander-in-chief on trips abroad.

Any journey by the president, such as one scheduled next week for Northern Ireland and Germany, is an immense and costly logistical challenge. But the trip to Africa is complicated by a confluence of factors that could make it one of the most expensive of Obama's tenure, according to people familiar with the planning.

The first family is making back-to-back stops from June 26 to July 3 in three countries where US officials are providing nearly all the resources, rather than depending more heavily on local police forces, military authorities or hospitals for assistance.

The president and first lady had also planned to take a Tanzanian safari as part of the trip, which would have required the president's special counter-assault team to carry sniper rifles with high-calibre rounds that could neutralise cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat, according to the planning document. But the White House cancelled the safari on Wednesday after inquiries from The Post about the trip's purpose and expense, according to a person familiar with the decision.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also made trips to multiple African nations involving similarly laborious preparations. Bush went in 2003 and 2008, bringing his wife on both occasions. Bush's two daughters went along on the earlier trip, which included a safari at a game preserve on the Botswana-South Africa border.

“Even in the most developed places of Western Europe, the level of support you need for mass movements by the president is really extraordinary,” said Steve Atkiss, who co-ordinated travel as special assistant for operations to Bush. “As you go farther afield, to less-developed places, certainly it's more of a logistical challenge.”

White House and Secret Service officials declined to discuss the details of the security operations, and administration aides cautioned that the president's itinerary is not finalised.

Obama's overseas travels come as government agencies, including the Secret Service, are wrestling with mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts. The service has had to slice $84-million from its budget this year, and this spring the agency cancelled public White House tours to save $74 000 a week in overtime costs.

Many details about foreign presidential trips are classified for national security reasons, and there is little public information about overall costs. A report from the Government Accountability Office found that Clinton's 1998 trip to six African nations cost the US government at least $42.7-million. Most of that was incurred by the military, which made 98 airlift missions to transport personnel and vehicles, and set up temporary medical evacuation units in five countries.

That figure did not include costs borne by the Secret Service, which were considered classified.

Obama's trip could cost the federal government $60-million to $100-million based on the costs of similar African trips in recent years, according to one person familiar with the journey, who was not authorised to speak for attribution. The Secret Service planning document, which was provided to The Post by a person who is concerned about the amount of resources necessary for the trip, does not specify costs.

“The infrastructure that accompanies the president's travels is beyond our control,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. “The security requirements are not White House-driven, they are Secret Service-driven... Part of this is the nature of making sure we travel to emerging areas in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. They are not as designed to facilitate the footprint of the United States president.”

But current and former government security officials involved in presidential trips said White House staff also help determine what's required, because they plan the visits and parameters. The Secret Service and military respond to that itinerary by providing what their agencies consider the required security.

White House officials said the trip was long overdue, marking Obama's first visit as president to sub-Saharan Africa aside from a 22-hour stopover in Ghana in 2009. The emerging democracies on the itinerary are crucial partners in regional security conflicts, Rhodes said.

Obama will hold bilateral meetings with each country's leader and seek to forge stronger economic ties at a time when China is investing heavily in Africa. He also will highlight global health programmes, including HIV/Aids prevention.

The first lady, who toured South Africa and Botswana without the president in 2011, will headline some events on her own during the week. The stops will add to the logistical challenges, because she will require her own security detail and vehicles, the planning document shows.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan declined to discuss details of the journey. “We always provide the appropriate level of protection to create a secure environment,” he said.

According to the Secret Service document, Obama will spend a night in Dakar, Senegal, two nights in Johannesburg, a night in Cape Town, South Africa, and then one night in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Among the 56 vehicles for the trip are parade limousines for the president and first lady; a specialised communications vehicle for secure telephone and video connections; a truck that jams radio frequencies around the presidential motorcade; a fully loaded ambulance that can handle biological or chemical contaminants; and a truck for X-ray equipment.

The Secret Service transports such vehicles, along with bulletproof glass, on most trips, including those inside the United States, White House officials said. But with quick stops in three countries, the agency will need three sets of each, because there is not enough time to transfer the equipment, according to the planning document.

One hundred agents are needed as “post-standers” - to man security checkpoints and borders around the president - in each of the first three cities he visits. Sixty-five are needed to meet up with Obama in Dar es Salaam. Before the 2-1/2 hour safari in Mikumi National Park was cancelled this week, another 35 post-standers had been slated to protect the Obamas and their two daughters there, according to the document.

In addition, 80 to 100 additional agents will be flown in to work rotating shifts, with round-the-clock coverage, for Obama's and his family's security details, counter-assault teams and logistics coordinators.

The planning document does not provide a total number of how many individual agents will be involved in the trip; some will work in more than one location.

Officials said the Secret Service does not want the president travelling anywhere without a top-rated trauma centre nearby. The White House medical unit makes decisions about which foreign hospitals meet its standards when it makes advance visits to the locations for planned trips, officials said.

For example, the unit concluded that local hospitals were adequate in Oslo when Obama visited the city in 2009 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

But in much of the developing world, the US Navy provides a “floating hospital” on an aircraft carrier or amphibious ship nearby, officials said. The US military also flies fighter jets around the clock to secure airspace in some regions where the president is visiting, including Africa, the person familiar with the planning operations said.

Atkiss, the former Bush administration official, said none of the requirements listed in the Secret Service planning document is outside standard operating procedure.

“This is what you need to support the American presidency,” Atkiss said, “regardless of who the president is”. - Washington Post

* Washington Post staff writer Alice Crites contributed to this report.


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Christian college expels lesbian, charges tuition



Published: June 14, 2013 Updated 2 hours ago




Danielle Powell, right, and her spouse Michelle Rogers are photographed in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, June 12, 2013. Grace University, a Christian college in Omaha, has revoked Powell's scholarship and expelled her because she was public about a same-sex relationship. The college also is demanding payment of tuition and won't send her transcripts to other schools until she pays off her bill.

NATI HARNIK — AP Photo

STORY PHOTOS:




By MARGERY A. BECK — Associated Press


OMAHA, NEB. — Danielle Powell was going through a hard time in the spring of 2011, just months away from graduating from a conservative Christian college in Nebraska. She had fallen in love with another woman, a strictly forbidden relationship at a school where even prolonged hugs were banned.

Powell said she was working at a civil rights foundation in Mississippi to finish her psychology degree when she was called back to Grace University in Omaha and confronted about the relationship. She was eventually expelled - then sent a bill for $6,000 to reimburse what the school said were federal loans and grants that needed to be repaid because she didn't finish the semester.

Powell is now fighting the Omaha school, arguing that her tuition was covered by scholarships and that federal loans wouldn't need to be repaid in that amount. She also notes she was kicked out even after undergoing months of counseling, spiritual training and mentoring insisted upon by the school following her initial suspension.

"I shouldn't have this debt hanging over me from a school that clearly didn't want me," the 24-year-old said.

The university insists that the $6,000 bill covers federal grants and loans that, by law, must be repaid to the federal government because Powell didn't finish her final semester. School officials declined to discuss specifics of Powell's case, citing federal student privacy laws, but through a public relations agency said it would provide Powell official transcripts and transfer her credits.

Powell is skeptical. She noted that nine months after she was expelled in January 2012, the registrar's office denied her request for her transcripts because of the bill, though she eventually received student copies of her transcripts.

Grace University's code of conduct for its students is strict: No kissing, no prolonged hugs and certainly no premarital sex. The school even monitors students' television habits, forbidding HBO, MTV, Comedy Central and several other channels "because of the values they promote." The rules are laid out in a student handbook and signed by students every year.

"No one was more surprised than me," Powell recalled of her relationship. "I had been very religious since I was a small child, and that did not fit in with what I thought I believed."

It's not unusual to see gay and lesbian students disciplined or even expelled from private Bible- and faith-based colleges, but Powell's case is unusual, said Ken Upton, an attorney at Lambda Legal. The national civil rights organization helps gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

"This particular case is unusual because there's this fear that they might not release her information and they are demanding payback," Upton said. "We don't see that very often. Usually, the school's just glad to be rid of them."

In response to questions about the case from The Associated Press that included Powell's financial aid letter, the U.S. Department of Education said in an email Friday that the issue of whether Powell owes money is between her and the school - but "it's not at all because of federal rules."

The department said it would need to analyze any case to determine if a school had violated federal discrimination regulations. But it noted that educational institutions controlled by religious organizations are exempt from some federal requirements that might conflict with the organizations' religious tenets.

Grace and other private colleges that accept federal student aid - sometimes called Title IV funding - must abide by the Civil Rights Act that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, sex, age or physical handicap. But sexual orientation is not included in that list.

"There's a long history of institutions of higher education that are faith-based participating in Title IV programs without having to compromise their institutional statement of faith or institutional statement of practice," said Ronald Kroll, director of the accreditation commission for the Association for Biblical Higher Education, which includes Grace University.

As required by the university after her suspension, Powell said she promised not to engage in sex and completed months of church attendance and meetings with Christian mentors, spiritual advisers and other groups. She was then readmitted, only to receive a letter days later from the university's vice president, Michael James, revoking her admittance.

James wrote that her re-admittance had been based on professions she made to various faculty and staff that she would change her behavior, but that "the prevailing opinion is that those professions appear to have been insincere, at best, if not deceitful."

"I was livid," Powell said. "I had done everything they asked me to do. I drove over to my mentors' house and just bawled my eyes out."

Powell legally married another woman in neighboring Iowa in December, but the couple still lives across the border in Omaha and has found support online. Her wife, Michelle Rogers, posted a petition on change.org asking the university to drop the tuition bill.

"Being kicked out of school for being gay would have been awful enough, but Danielle's nightmare didn't end there," Rogers wrote. "In addition to being expelled, school officials revoked her scholarships and are hounding her for $6,000 in back-due tuition for the final semester - which she was never allowed to complete - that her scholarships would have covered."

As of Friday, the petition had been signed by more than 35,000 people.


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Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/06/14/2542207/christian-college-expels-lesbian.html#storylink=cpy

"Moving Out of the Cities" by David Westbrook





Remnant SDA Church


Published on Feb 4, 2013


"Moving Out of the Cities"
Back to Eden's Country Living Seminars by Pastor David Westbrook
November 10, 2012

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Storms Don’t Diminish NY13’s ‘Revelation of Hope’ Opening



More than 500 pack Greenwich Village church for campaign kickoff  
(Posted June 9, 2013)


BY MARK A. KELLNER, News Editor, reporting from New York, N.Y.

The drenching rains of Tropical Storm Andrea, which deposited two inches of water on the streets of New York’s Greenwich Village, failed to dampen the enthusiasm of people who attended the initial “Revelation of Hope” campaign meeting on the evening of June 7, 2013.

Sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the meeting is one of hundreds being held in metropolitan area during June as part of the movement’s “Mission to the Cities” campaign.


​Already, officials of the Atlantic Union and the two area conferences say 1,100 people have been baptized as Seventh-day Adventists during the months leading up to the event. The NY13 campaign – which features 160 different evangelistic events across the region in June alone -- is expected to culminate June 29 at the Nassau Coliseum with a rally attended by more than 15,000 people. The overall effort includes the participation of the Atlantic and Columbia Unions, as well as the Southern New England, Greater New York, Northeast and New Jersey Conferences.

Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, General Conference president, served briefly at what is today the Historic Manhattan Seventh-day Adventist Church some 40 years ago when he first began his ministry. Following graduate education, Wilson also worked for several years as a leader of a city-wide ministry in the 1970s. He returned to the church to open the three-week evangelistic series, with his wife, Nancy, greeting visitors as they entered the lobby. Calling himself a “New Yorker at heart,” Wilson told the audience he had “started ministry right here.”

In recognition of the event, New York City’s public advocate, Bill De Blasio, sent his assistant Warren Gardiner to attend the opening meeting. Other public officials are expected to attend related NY13 events, said James Richmond, a community liaison for the Church’s Greater New York Conference.

Inside the 132-year-old church building, more than 500 people gathered in what master of ceremonies Mark Finley called an “oasis of peace” to hear a message which stretched beyond today’s storms.

Tatiana Featherstone, a 20-year-old woman originally from Barbados, said she attended in part because her father, a Seventh-day Adventist, invited her. She added the meeting met her expectations: “It was all good.”

Visitor David Tan, who called himself “a Singaporean retired and living in Thailand,” said Wilson’s message was a “good and clear” introduction to the book of Revelation.

In his message, Wilson declared: “The Bible is amazingly accurate. The Bible is filled with hope for the future.”

He added, citing Amos 3:7, “Surely the Earth’s events are not going to ‘sneak up’ on God. Unlike the dismal predictions of human beings, the Bible gives us hope.”


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Adventist soldier sues KDF over Saturdays



TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY JILLO KADIDA




A former army officer sacked and detained for 42 days for declining to work on Saturday which is considered the Sabbath by the Seventh Day Adventist church has sued the government citing violation of his rights.

Polycarp Miyogo Nyakora worked as a serviceman from 2002 until December 2012 when he was discharged. He says that he was discharged after he insisted on observing the true Sabbath day.

The Ministry of Defence is yet to respond to the claims. Nyakora says that for the ten years he worked with the military, he always sought permission in advance to go to church whenever he had been assigned duty on Saturday.

He told the court that he always attended church service on condition that if a distress call was made, he would be able to respond. His said his troubles began when on May 31, 2012 he sought permission to be absent from duty on June 2, 2012 for his usual day of worship.

His immediate boss, a sergeant, declined to grant him permis- sion. Aggrieved by the decision, Nyakora sought the intervention of a senior rank- ing officer.

He reported the incident to a warrant officer 1 who in turn promised to follow up the issue with the sergeant. When attempts by thewarrant officer to plead Nyakora’s case failed, the serviceman sought audience with a senior air traffic control officer who referred him back to his immediate boss.

Nyakora told the court that he then asked if one of his colleagues could stand in for him so that he could go to church but this too was refused by the sergeant.

Nyakora said he wondered why his boss refused to allow a colleague to stand in for him when he had on several occasions been called upon to stand in for others who were supposed to be on duty but who for various reasons needed to take time off.

Nyakora admits that after all attempts to get permission to go to worship failed, he still proceeded to church and reported to work in the evening. On his return, he was informed he had been discharged for absconding duty.

He was also punished with a pay cut equivalent to six days salary. Nyakora claims he was given manual labour punishment which he was forced to do on Saturday, his day of worship.

Nyakora says that while on manual punishment, he defied orders and attended church on two other occasions which saw him punished with 42 days confinement. He believes the confinement and sub- sequent discharge from service were a violation of his rights and is demanding compensation. Nyakora also wants a declaration that the 42-day confinement with a salary cut were illegal.

Also sought is an order that he be entitled to pension as he was willing to serve until his retirement but was discharged unlawfully. The Ministry of Defence is expected respond to the allegations before the hearing dates can be allocated.


Source: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123783/adventist-soldier-sues-kdf-over-saturdays#sthash.ZEfYn51U.dpuf

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Pocket-sized Pamphlet Allows Emergency Ministry Across Denominations



Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries (ACM) has compiled an effective communication tool for clergy of any denomination. Simply called Emergency Ministry, the pocket-sized pamphlet is a collection of services and prayers from distinct faith groups.

"The information contained in this resource does not constitute a theological endorsement of any kind," said Dick Stenbakken, ACM director. "The aim of this tool is to enable people to minister from their own religious perspective to people of various faiths." Emergency Ministry was originally distributed to military chaplains to provide ministry in extreme emergency cases.

"In many cases, chaplains find themselves for the first time ministering to those of different faiths in extreme situations such as death. This booklet can help lead them through these difficult situations," said Stenbakken. Copies have been sent to chaplains and troops in the United States military who are stationed in Iraq.

Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries endorses and works with the professional chaplains of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Currently, the Church has 45 chaplains serving on active duty with another 50 in the various reserve forces in North America.



Source

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SDA Church's opinion of the Antichrist today



cregen124


Uploaded on Jun 10, 2011


They are changing the truth into error and the ways of the world's understanding of things.

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World Revolution - James Arrabito Documentary






ReligiousMatrixTV


Published on Jul 13, 2012


World Revolution - James Arrabito Documentary

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SDA Tamil Christian Sermon





paristamilsda


Published on Mar 20, 2012

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The 7th Day - History Documentary (5 Episodes)



The 7th Day - History Documentary



ReligiousMatrixTV


Published on Jul 11, 2012


The Seventh Day: Revelations from the Lost Pages of History blends history and current events to conclude the chronicle of the seventh-day Sabbath. This is an epic story, worldwide in scope, ranging from the Taiping revolutionaries in China to the millions of Indigenous Sabbatarians of Africa to the remote village of Paruima in South America. It spans the centuries from Roger Williams' heroic stand for religious liberty in 17th-century America to the crisis of conscience faced by many of today's Sabbath-keepers. In this final episode of The Seventh Day, Hal Holbrook shares a 21st - century view of God's holy day and projects the gift of Sabbath rest into the eternal future.order button

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Celebrating Desecration of the Sabbath


CELEBRATING DESECRATION OF THE SABBATH

New complex called breakthrough that will revolutionize Saturdays

Published: 06/03/2013 at 12:24 PM



(HAARETZ) — The staff at the new Landwer Cafe that opened in Jerusalem’s old railway station compound braced for an influx of customers on its first Saturday in business by beefing up staff and stocking up on extra materials.

Thousands of people came to ride bicycles on the sparkling new bike path and eat in the newly renovated compound of the city’s 19th-century train station, now transformed into a cultural and culinary complex.

“I ordered 20 percent more merchandise,” says Elav Kislasi, Landwer Cafe’s owner.

He should have ordered even more. By 4:30 P.M. on Saturday afternoon, with the cafe packed solid and customers still queuing up outside for a table, the very last lettuce leaf was gone.

The kitchen dispatched a worker to hunt down more lettuce, which is no simple feat in Sabbath-observant Jerusalem.

It’s incredibly rare to see so many people publicly desecrating the Sabbath in Jerusalem, where most businesses shut down at sunset on Friday and streets are quiet until nightfall the following day. Secular Jerusalemites have hailed the new complex at the station as a breakthrough that will revolutionize Saturdays in Israel’s capital city. The ultra-Orthodox, however, are threatening to demonstrate until at least some of the activity is stopped.



Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/celebrating-desecration-of-the-sabbath/#AxBRKUwd5lyfxV8j.99

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