“These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.”
(1 John 2:26)

Trying To Deceive You

Manipulation and Deception

Posted on April 29, 2013 by INSPIRATION MINISTRIES

Colonel Wilhelm Stieber was a master manipulator. Called “one of the nastiest men who ever lived,” he revealed his character while a young member of the Prussian police, and he was dismissed from this position because of his abuses. Yet the Russian government liked his methods and hired him.

However, Stieber returned to prominence in Prussia when the Prussian ambassador in Russia, Otto von Bismarck, became Prussian president in 1863. He asked Stieber to head the Prussian police force, and this ushered in a new era of governmental manipulation.

Stieber learned that by controlling information, he could shape “reality” to his own design. He doctored telegrams and spread untrue rumors. During the Prussian-France war of 1870-1871, he planted a story that French troops were panicking and suffering “appalling losses.” The story was a complete fiction, yet it accomplished his objectives: encouraging the Prussians and discouraging the French.

In subsequent years, many in business and politics—including the Nazis in Germany— have applied Stieber’s ruthless techniques. Even today, believers need to realize the many ways that information is manipulated by the media.

The Bible warns us to be on the alert. We must be on guard, so that we’re not deceived “with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6) or “with well-crafted arguments” (Colossians 2:4 NLT). And we must realize that we even can deceive ourselves (1 Corinthians 3:18).

We also must remember that Satan is eager to deceive us. He constantly endeavors to plant ideas in our minds and manipulate our thoughts. As Jesus warned, “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Today, remember that you will face many forms of manipulation. This is why you must base your life on God’s Word and be rooted and grounded in His truth. Be alert, filled with the Spirit and sensitive to His leading and His warnings.

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HUFF POST

Pope Francis Warns The Global Economy Is Near Collapse

The Huffington Post | By Alexander C. Kaufman

The global economic system is near collapse, according to Pope Francis.

An economy built on money-worship and war and scarred by yawning inequality and youth unemployment cannot survive, the 77-year-old Roman Catholic leader suggested in a newly published interview.

“We are excluding an entire generation to sustain a system that is not good,” he told La Vanguardia’s Vatican reporter, Henrique Cymerman. (Read an English translation here.) “Our global economic system can’t take any more.”

The pontiff said he was especially concerned about youth unemployment, which hit 13.1 percent last year, according to a report by the International Labor Organization.

"The rate of unemployment is very worrisome to me, which in some countries is over 50 percent," he said. "Someone told me that 75 million young Europeans under 25 years of age are unemployed. That is an atrocity."

That 75 million is actually the total for the whole world, according to the ILO, but that is still too much youth unemployment.

Pope Francis denounced the influence of war and the military on the global economy in particular:

“We discard a whole generation to maintain an economic system that no longer endures, a system that to survive has to make war, as the big empires have always done,” he said.

"But since we cannot wage the Third World War, we make regional wars," he added. "And what does that mean? That we make and sell arms. And with that the balance sheets of the idolatrous economies -- the big world economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money -- are obviously cleaned up."

Pope Francis is gaining a reputation for pointed comments on the global economy. In April, amid feverish media coverage of French economist Thomas Piketty's bombshell book on income inequality, he made clear his stance on the widening wealth gap with a tweet saying: "Inequality is the root of social evil."

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CHRISTIANHEADLINES.com

Southern Baptists Condemn Transgenderism as 'Contrary to Gods Design'

Amanda Casanova | Religion Today Contributing Writer | Wednesday, June 11, 2014

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS CONDEMN TRANSGENDERISM AS 'CONTRARY TO GODS DESIGN'

The Southern Baptist Convention voted at their annual meeting Tuesday against the “moral validation” of transgender people.

The proposal says “God’s original design (is) to create two distinct and complementary sexes.”

“Gender identity should be determined by biological sex and not by one's self-perception – a perception which is often influenced by fallen human nature in ways contrary to God's design,” the draft said.

The resolution encourages transgender people to “trust in Christ and to experience renewal in the Gospel.”

Christian blogger John Shore criticized the proposal, writing that it calls people “crazy” and “delusional.”

Christian blogger and author Rachel Held Evans also criticized the vote. In a tweet, she said, “To those condemned by the Southern Baptists today: There are people & churches ready to welcome you with the open arms of Christ.”

The vote comes just after President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary condemned suggestion that there is a “third way” between rejecting or accepting homosexuality.

“There is no third way. A church will either believe and teach that same-sex behaviours and relationships are sinful, or it will affirm them. Eventually, every congregation in America will make a public declaration of its position on this issue. It is just a matter of time (and for most churches, not much time) before every congregation in the nation faces this test," he writes in a blog post.

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CHARISMANEWS

Why United Methodists Should Split Over Same-Sex Marriage

11:00AM EDT 6/13/2014 JENNIFER LECLAIRE

The United Methodist Church conference meets in June 2013. (Facebook)

There's a sharp division among the United Methodist Church—so sharp, indeed, that it threatens to slice the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States in half. And maybe that's just what needs to happen.

Don't get me wrong. I believe it would be a sad day, indeed, if the United Methodist Church split over an issue—same-sex marriage—that is so crystal clear in the Bible and is forbidden in the denomination (see Lev. 18:22; Matt. 19:5). I don't want to see this happen! And I'm glad that John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist movement, aren't here to witness what appears to be the deterioration of a denomination birthed in prayer in the 1700s. Although perhaps the story would be different if these bold intercessors were still among us.

We previously covered how a group of 80 pastors is suggesting the United Methodist denomination is facing an imminent split because of an inability to resolve long-standing theological disputes about sexuality and church doctrine.

"We can no longer talk about schism as something that might happen in the future. Schism has already taken place in our connection," said the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, a retired president of evangelical Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, who joined the statement.

However shocking it seems, Dunnam may be in the minority among his fellow Methodists. Would you believe, according to a survey from Corporate Research and Research Now of Dallas, more than 90 percent of the denomination's members agree that the church should not split over issues concerning human sexuality even though the Bible is clear on these issues? What's more, 63 percent of survey participants said the controversy was distracting the church from more important issues, including poverty, falling membership and engaging youth, USA Today reports.

Really? So we should focus on poverty, engaging youth and driving up church attendance and ignore one of the most important cultural issues in church history? What prevents us from focusing on all of these issues? Why do we have to exclude human sexuality for the sake of the others? I was shocked when I read Rev. John Hill, senior pastor of the 2,700-member Suntree United Methodist Church in Melbourne, Florida, say that "It's distressing to me that we're still focusing on minor issues—same-sex, homosexuality."

Wait, what? Minor issues? With perversion rising at mass proportions—polygamy is finding its place on TV, polyamory is being mainstreamed, and all manner of immorality is gaining a stronghold in our culture—how can any one who claims Jesus is Lord consider homosexuality's inroads into the church a minor issue?

Hill is one of several hundred United Methodist pastors who signed a proposal released last Friday that aims to keep the denomination from splitting over the homosexuality issue. The proposal, titled "A Way Forward," "offers churches and regional bodies the option to make up their own minds on issues like affirming gay clergy and same-sex marriage," reports The Washington Post.

Make up their own minds? It's not our place to make up our own minds about what the Bible clearly calls sin. It's our place to believe it, obey it and stand for it. We're supposed to do preach Christ to a lost and dying world, not invite gay clergy to preach in our sanctuaries and conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies in the name of Jesus.

I'm all for unity and I'd hate to see the United Methodist Church split. It would be tragic on many levels. But how can two walk together unless they agree? (Amos 3:3) How can some uncompromising Methodists who are standing on the unadulterated Word of God also stand in alignment with Methodists who are ready, willing and already ably compromising the will of God? They can't.

The Methodist Book of Discipline clearly states that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching in the denomination and forbids weddings or ceremonies celebrating same-sex unions. Yet some Methodist pastors are willfully breaking those codes. If those gay-affirming pastors won't repent, the Word of God—which is sharper than any two-edged Sword (see Heb. 4:12)—needs to do its work. Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword."

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma

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CNN

Presbyterians vote to allow same-sex marriage

By Dana Ford, CNN

June 20, 2014 -- Updated 1531 GMT (2331 HKT)

The Rev. Tony Larsen and his partner, Craig Matheus, are refused a marriage license by Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen, right, in the clerk's office in Racine, Wisconsin, on Friday, June 13. The county does not grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite a judge's ruling that the state ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: The church votes to change the language about marriage

To take effect, that change would need to be approved by a majority of 172 presbyteries

The presbyteries have a year to vote on the change

(CNN) -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted Thursday to allow pastors to marry same-sex couples in states where it is legal.

The church also voted, by an overwhelming majority, to change the language about marriage in the church constitution to "two persons" from a "man and a woman," according to More Light Presbyterians, a group that supports gay rights.

To take effect, that change would need to be approved by a majority of 172 local presbyteries, which have a year to vote, the church said in a statement.

However, starting Saturday, pastors can go ahead and begin marrying same-sex couples in the states that allow it, according to Toya Richards Jackson, a church spokeswoman.

"The church affirmed all its faithful members today. This vote is an answer to many prayers for the Church to recognize love between committed same-sex couples," said Alex McNeill, executive director at More Light Presbyterians.

"We will keep praying that the majority of our 172 presbyteries will confirm that all loving couples can turn to their churches when they are ready to be married."

Close to half of the clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) work in areas where same-sex couples can legally marry.

Same-sex marriage is legal in 19 U.S states and the District of Columbia: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

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BREITBART

PELOSI WARNS SF BISHOP NOT TO MARCH FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

by WILLIAM BIGELOW 15 Jun 2014 1151

(This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. Matthew 5:18)

In an astonishing challenge to traditional Catholic doctrine, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, nominally Catholic, has taken to telling San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that he should not attend the National Organization for Marriage’s June 19 march on the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.

Cordileone is scheduled to be a featured speaker at the event, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which is consistent with his championing of Proposition 8 in 2008. Cordileone helped raise $1.5 million for the initiative, which intended to ban same-sex marriage in the state. He once said, "The ultimate attack of the evil one is the attack on marriage."

Pelosi, who called the event “venom masquerading as virtue," wrote to Cordileone, "We share our love of the Catholic faith and our city of San Francisco," adding that the event would feature some participants displaying "disdain and hate towards LGBT persons,” and asserting, "If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?"

The March for Marriage, which was initiated last year, features thousands of people standing up for "traditional marriage" walking from the U.S Capitol to the Supreme Court. Among the speakers are Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.

Pelosi is not the only Democratic San Francisco politician sending Cordileone a letter decrying his participation in the march. Last week, San Francisco mayor Ed Lee and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsome issued a joint letter to the bishop protesting his participation. In the letter, cited by the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci, they wrote: "We ask that you will reconsider your participation and join us in seeking to promote reconciliation rather than division and hatred …” They said the march was “organized by some of the nation's most virulently anti-LGBT organizations and leaders.”

The National Organization of Marriage was also targeted by the federal government in the IRS scandal.

An online petition demanding that Cordileone cease and desist in his plans has been signed by roughly 20,000 people.

Cordileone is the head of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage for the U.S. Conference of Bishops. He has already referred to the March as "an important means to promote and defend marriage for the good of our culture, to pray for our federal and state governments, and to stand in solidarity with people of good will,” adding, "This is a critical time for marriage in our country, as marriage amendments are being struck down by federal courts and appeals of these decisions are being made."

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The Telegraph

A powerful and merciless force has emerged on the world stage

As Middle East borders are redrawn by jihadists, the West should regard Iran as an ally

Isis militants on the Iraq/Syria border: Iraq as we have understood it for the past century or so no longer exists Photo: AFP/HO/ALBARAKA NEWS

By Peter Oborne

6:00AM BST 12 Jun 2014

It is almost one hundred years since Sir Mark Sykes, an otherwise forgettable British politician, entered into an agreement with a French diplomat called François Georges-Picot (great uncle of the former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing) to carve up the Middle East after the end of the First World War.

The arrangement was kept secret, and for understandable reasons. In the United States, President Wilson was an enthusiastic advocate of national self-determination. He would have been appalled had he known that the British and French were determined to share out the remains of the collapsed Ottoman empire between them.

Of more immediate importance, Sharif Hussein of Mecca launched the Arab revolt against the Ottomans in June 1916. In return, the British had pledged the Arabs full independence, a promise that Lloyd George casually betrayed once it was over.

Though sordid and cynical, the Sykes-Picot arrangement endured far longer than anyone had a right to expect. Out of it arose the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (followed in due course by Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan).

Ninety-eight years later, however, Sykes-Picot is finally starting to collapse. Look at a map and (fortified by the notorious straight lines of the agreement) Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are all still theoretically present and correct. In practice, though, a series of spectacular events are steadily turning their maps into works of fiction.

Sir Mark Sykes, who with François Georges-Picot carved up the Middle East after the First World War

Yesterday’s fall of Mosul (ironically a key point of dispute between the French and the British 100 years ago, because oil had just been discovered there) shows vividly that Iraq as we have understood it for the past century or so no longer exists.

In the north, the Kurdish region has become an autonomous state, and it cannot be long before it declares itself formally independent. Kurdistan is guarded by a system of checkpoints and command posts that are impossible to penetrate. Indeed, any Arab who enters without proper credentials disappears, and so do all his friends and family. This may sound brutal, but it does explain why Erbil, the Kurdish capital, has been almost as safe from terror attack as London over the past decade.

Meanwhile the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is building a sectarian state around Baghdad and the south capable of commanding the support of most Shia Muslims. The fate of the remainder of his country, however, is of extraordinary interest, because it is falling very fast into the hands of a terrifyingly violent new entity called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).

Isis recognises none of the rules inherited from Sykes-Picot. Photographs on Facebook show its fighters dismantling border points and burning their passports, thus making a virtue of statelessness. However, Isis does levy taxes and controls a tranche of territory ranging from northern Iraq through to eastern Syria. No local army seems capable of confronting it. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, says he is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, thus claiming to be more than a mere political leader or general. According to one Arab observer, al-Baghdadi “has designated himself as a global leader of the jihad fighters in particular and Muslims in general, and as a herald of the caliphate”.

He has broken off former links with al-Qaeda. Bin Laden and his successor, al-Zawahiri, aimed their fire against what they called “the far enemy” – in other words, the United States and its local allies and clients. Isis, by contrast, more violent than al-Qaeda, is driven by merciless hatred of all sects and minorities that fail to endorse its bigoted and narrow ideology. This has started to terrify the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, the source of so much of its cash and arms.

Isis fighters deny the legitimacy of any secular power, including the Saudi King Abdullah. And the Saudis fear that one day soon, the Isis jihadists will return home with a vengeance. (As with Soviet Russia and apartheid South Africa, it is obvious the Saud regime will at some stage collapse, but impossible to judge when.)

Isis also has the range and power to strike at will in the West, because so many young Muslims have travelled from Europe to join up. Indeed, it has already started to do so. The recent murder of four people in the Jewish museum in Brussels was carried out by a young Frenchman called Mehdi Nemmouche, who had fought alongside Isis in Syria before returning home on his murderous mission.

These jihadists are able to move more freely and across a greater range than ever before. Their area of operations stretches from northern Iraq, through Syria and across north Africa to Libya and down towards Nigeria. For the first time, they directly control huge swathes of land. As with the Bolsheviks in 1917 or the fascists in the Thirties, a merciless new force capable of deploying horrifying violence has emerged on the world stage.

In order to understand this new phenomenon, it is essential to grasp what brought it into being. Its emergence can be traced straight back to the Iraq invasion. Some of its fighters (who bring formidable military capability) are former Ba’athist soldiers. Others learnt their trade with the so-called “Awakening fighting” groups created by the US to head off an all-out Iraqi civil war back in 2007.

The Western campaign to dislodge President Assad of Syria was another contributing factor. While our leaders were ready to call for Assad to go, they were unwilling to intervene directly to dislodge him. Instead, mainly through allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the West supported militant rebel groups which have since mutated into Isis and other al-Qaeda connected militias.

The comparison with the terrible mistakes made by Western intelligence agencies during the Afghan war against the Soviets is startling. We supported al-Qaeda, which later turned on us. Thanks to this policy, Pakistan now faces a permanent terrorist insurgency bordering on civil war. It is very likely that Turkey (and probably Jordan and Saudi Arabia) will face the same problem in due course as a result of the Syrian backlash. Meanwhile, jihadists have found a new terror base from which they can mount attacks on the West. All this was predictable at the start of the Syrian war – indeed, President Assad warned of it.

How can the West hope to contain the monster it helped to create? The countries we formed at the stroke of a pen in the Sykes-Picot treaty 98 years ago are being washed away. Only Egypt and Iran, states whose history stretches back for thousands of years rather than decades, are certain to survive intact.

With Egypt facing grave problems, Iran has emerged as the most stable and powerful country in the Middle East. Again and again since the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in 2001, the Iranians have offered cooperation against al-Qaeda and its allies. These entreaties have repeatedly been turned down. It is time for President Obama and David Cameron to acknowledge that we have been helping to sponsor terror for the past few decades. We have to choose new allies, and they must include Iran. If we carry on with our present deluded course, the threat to the West will only grow more dangerous.

(And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his brethren. Genesis 16:12)

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ZERO HEDGE

ISIS JIHADISTS RELEASE SHOCKING PHOTOS DOCUMENTING SLAYING OF 1700 IRAQI SOLDIERS

JUNE 16, 2014

Several days ago we showed “gruesome” footage of the ISIS jihadists as they engage all opposing forces with unspeakable brutality, clearly designed to demoralize any resistance in their remarkable blitzkrieg which has so far allowed them to steamroll virtually unopposed from northern Iraq all the way to towns located some 50 miles from Baghdad.

Just what ISIS/ISIL’s Baghdad strategy is remains unclear. According to Reuters, “in Baghdad on Sunday, a suicide attacker detonated explosives in a vest he was wearing, killing at least nine people and wounding 20 in a crowded street in the centre of the capital, police and medical sources said. At least six people were killed, including three soldiers and three volunteers, when four mortars landed at a recruiting centre in Khlais, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad.”

For now, the southern offensive appears to have been halted with Reuters reporting that “the rapid advance south towards Baghdad appeared to slow over the weekend”, however this has been offset by “fierce fighting in the town of Tal Afar 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul near the Syrian border.”

Sunday’s fighting in Tal Afar, a majority Turkomen town which is home to both Shi’ites and Sunnis, showed how volatile the deepening sectarian divisions have become.

Residents in Sunni districts accused Shi’ite police and army forces of launching mortar fire at their neighbourhoods, prompting ISIL forces stationed outside the town to move in.

“The situation is disastrous in Tal Afar. There is crazy fighting and most families are trapped inside houses, they can’t leave town,” a local official said. “If the fighting continues, a mass killing among civilians could result.”

More importantly, Iraq’s resistance movements appears to be gathering steam as “volunteers were gathered by army to join fighting to regain control of the northern town of Udhaim from ISIL militants.” As reported last week, the country’s most influential Shi’ite cleric urged his countrymen to take up arms and defend the country against the hardline insurgents, many of whom consider Shi’ites as heretics, resulting in thousands of volunteers.

Which is perhaps why, in order to further demorallize the local population, ISIS militants boasted on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, posting gruesome photos to support their claim, the NYT reported.

The authenticity of the photographs and the insurgents’ claim could not be verified, and Iraqi government officials initially cast doubt on whether such a mass execution took place. There were also no reports of large numbers of funerals in the Salahuddin Province area, where the executions were said to have been conducted.

If the claim is true, it would be the worst mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in recent years, surpassing even the chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian suburbs of Damascus last year, which killed 1,400 people and were attributed to the Syrian government. Remember that particular attack nearly culminated in a US land invasion of Syria,and led to a US vs Russia standoff in the military with dozens of warships prepared to fire at each other at a moment’s notice.

As the NYT adds, “the latest attack, if proved, would also raise the specter of the war in Iraq turning genocidal, particularly because the insurgents boasted that their victims were all Shiites. There were also fears that it could usher in a series of reprisal killings of Shiites and Sunnis, like those seen in the Iraq war in 2005-7.”

Authentic or not, the disturbing pictures appear to have had an effect with the office of the Shiites’ supreme spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Saturday night issued what amounted to a revision of the ayatollah’s call to arms on Friday, apparently out of concern that it was misinterpreted by many as a call for sectarian warfare. The statement, billed as “clarifying the position on taking up arms,” implored Iraqis, “especially those living in mixed areas, to exert the highest level of self-restraint during this tumultuous period.”

The claim of the mass execution appeared on a Twitter feed previously used for ISIS announcements, so whether or not the executions were genuine, the organization certainly intended to boast of them.

“We’re trying to verify the pics, and I am not convinced they are authentic,” said Erin Evers, the Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq. “As far as ISIS claiming it has killed 1,700 people and publishing horrific photos to support that claim, it is unfortunately in keeping with their pattern of commission of atrocities, and obviously intended to further fuel sectarian war.”

We find it somewhat ironic that when photos of gruesome execuctions in the middle-east do not support “developed world” interests in the region, they are to be doubted. However, when a YouTube clip appears of a “mass execution” by an “insane dictator”, the US Secretary of State promptly takes it as gospel and is used as a justification for invasion… almost worth a case study in hypocrisy.

So back to the ISIS picture dump:

The still photographs uploaded on the ISIS Twitter feed were bloody and gruesome, showing the insurgents, many wearing black masks, lining up at the edges of what looked like hastily dug mass graves and apparently firing their weapons into groups of young men who were bound and packed closely together in large groups.

The photographs showed at least five massacre sites, with the victims lying in shallow mass graves with their hands tied behind their backs. The number of victims that could be seen in any of the pictures numbered between 20 and 60 in each of the sites, although it was not clear whether the photographs showed the entire graves. Some appeared to be long ditches.

The photographs showed the executioners flying the ISIS black flag, with captions such as “the filthy Shiites are killed in the hundreds,” “The liquidation of the Shiites who ran away from their military bases,” and “This is the destiny of Maliki’s Shiites,” referring to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

Many of the captions were viciously mocking toward the purported victims. In one photograph, showing 25 young men walking toward an apparent execution site, where armed, masked men awaited, the caption read, “Look at them walking to death on their own feet.”

And another showed a couple hundred prisoners, all of whom had been made to stand, bent over from the waist with their hands clasped behind their backs, as armed men guarded them. All were in civilian clothes, and the caption claimed they had jettisoned their uniforms. “They were lions in uniform, and now they are just ostriches,” it read.

Other photographs showed prisoners, mostly young men, stuffed in large numbers in dump trucks and pickup trucks. They appeared extremely frightened.

A senior Iraqi government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make press statements, said news of the executions was slow to circulate because Twitter had been blocked. “I don’t doubt they are real, but 1,700 is a big number,” he said. “We are trying to control the reaction. They are trying to bring back the 2005 to 2006 days.” Sunni and Shiite militias engaged in a wave of tit-for-tat killings of civilians during that period, killing tens of thousands.

As a reminder, using social media outlets to display fabricated propaganda in the form of video clips and pictures is nothing new, and the only variable is who benefits. First there was Syria of course, where fake YouTube clips of a chemical attack were used to nearly launch a false flag war. Then it was Egypt, when as we showed before, the Muslim Bortherhood staged a protest crackdown by the military regime in order to shore up popular upport in “The Muslim Brotherhood: The Best Straight-To-YouTube Actors Money Can Buy?”

So is the ISIL al-Qaeda spin off merely the latest entity to use social media propaganda in order to achieve strategic goals, or is the picture dump truly an archive of the gruesome actions the extremist group has conducted in its Iraqi blitzkrieg? We will let readers decide.

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WND

ISIS SCORES BIG WITH IRAQI WMDS

Saddam's manufacturer also joins terror army

Published: June 20, 2014

F. MICHAEL MALOOF

Sarin stockpiles

WASHINGTON – The terrorists running amok in Iraq – members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham – may have access to a secret sarin poison gas production facility in northeast Iraq as a result of a new alliance with a top military commander who previously was an aide to executed Sunni Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, WND has learned.

And they also may be working with a man who’s known for his expertise in making sarin, a manmade toxin that was developed in Germany and can, according to the Centers for Disease Control, produce loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis and death in victims who are exposed.

The revelations comes as the State Department acknowledged that ISIS has captured a stockpile of old chemical weapons at the Al Muthanna chemical weapons production complex as its fighters sweep through Iraq’s Sunni- controlled region.

The access to a sarin poison gas production facility, and the man with the expertise to operate it, is the result of a new alliance between the brutal jihadist fighters and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was a top military commander and vice president to the deposed Saddam Hussein.

According to sources, Douri heads the Naqshbani Army, which is a coalition of Sunni groups in Mosul, a city which recently was overrun by ISIS. The sources added that representatives of Douri recently met with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISIS has swept through Iraq toward Baghdad, which is being defended by troops of the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in recent days. The coalition of terrorists has included Sunni jihadist groups, and now apparently members of the Naqshbandi Army after an alliance, sources said.

The Naqshbandi Army is a resistance group of underground Baathists and Islamist militant insurgency groups in Iraq. It emerged in December 2006 following the execution of Hussein.

Douri’s alliance gives ISIS’ Baghdadi access to a facility that produces sarin nerve gas under the direction of former Iraqi Military Industries Brig. Gen. Adnan al-Dulaimi.

Dulaimi was a major player in Saddam’s chemical weapons production projects. He has been working in the Sunni-controlled region of northwestern Iraq where the outlawed Baath party is located and produces the sarin.

A WND request to the State Department for a response to the revelation that ISIS may already have access to a working sarin poison gas production facility as a result of the Douri alliance with ISIS went unanswered.

Similarly, the State Department did not respond to a WND inquiry as to why old chemical weapons stockpiles at the Al-Muthana chemical complex were never destroyed before U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011.

The Iraqi production of poison sarin nerve gas recently was confirmed in a classified document from the U.S. intelligence community’s National Ground Intelligence Center, or NGIC.

The document was classified Secret/Noforn – “Not for foreign distribution.”

The document revealed that “AQI” had produced a “bench-scale” form of sarin in Iraq and had transferred it to Turkey.

AQI, or al-Qaida in Iraq, was the precursor to the al-Qaida splinter group ISIS, which Baghdadi created after he moved his fighters last year into Syria on the side of the Syrian opposition.

Sarin thought to be intended for use in Syria

However, Baghdadi and his ISIS jihadist fighters quickly fell out of favor with al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri after Baghdadi sought to include another al-Qaida group, the Jabhat al-Nusra, in ISIS.

The al-Nusra leadership opposed the merger and fighting ensued between ISIS and al-Nusra, leading Zawahiri to publicly disown ISIS as part of the al-Qaida organization.

A U.S. military source told WND that there were a number of interrogations as well as some clan reports as part of what the NGIC document said were “50 general indicators to monitor progress and characterize the state of the ANF/AQI-associated sarin chemical warfare agent developing effort.”

In May 2013, some of the sarin transferred to Turkey for al-Nusra’s use was intercepted and fighters in Turkey were arrested.

According to published reports, the sarin coming from Iraq but transported to Turkey allegedly was used in an attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo in March 2013 by Saudi Arabian-backed al-Nusra in its effort to overthrow the government of the Shiite-Alawite Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

The document further revealed that sarin production had been under way for more than a year.

“Future reporting of indicators not previously observed would suggest that the effort continues to advance despite the arrests,” the NGIC document said.

In acknowledging to the Wall Street Journal that ISIS had taken over the Al-Muthanna chemical weapons, the State Department quickly attempted to minimize the seizure by saying that ISIS wouldn’t be able to make use of the materials because it was too old, contaminated and difficult to move.

“We do not believe the complex contains CW (chemical weapons) materials of military value and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the WSJ.

“The majority of the Al-Muthanna complex was bombed during Desert Storm, completely incapacitating Iraq’s chemical weapon production capabilities,” according to a 2004 Central Intelligence Agency report. “However, large stockpiles of chemical weapons and bulk agent survived.”

Most of these munitions were later destroyed under supervision of the United Nations. Some of the partially destroyed materials were sealed in two bunkers at Al-Muthanna.

U.S. military officials say they never would have left chemical material after the 2011 pullout if it posed a security threat.

“The only people who would likely be harmed by these chemical materials would be the people who tried to use or move them,” a military spokesman said.

However, ISIS’ access to a sarin poison gas production facility operated by former members of Saddam Hussein’s military may be another story.

Sarin actually was used in terror attacks in Japan in 1994 and 1995.

***

CNN

Current fighting pushes Iraqi refugee population past 1 million

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN

June 19, 2014 -- Updated 1708 GMT (0108 HKT)

Iraqi Christian children gather inside the Church of the Virgin Mary for prayers in Bartala, Iraq, a town near Mosul, on Sunday, June 15. Militants seized Mosul last week, reportedly leading more than 500,000 people to flee Iraq's second-largest city.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The number of people fleeing their homes in Iraq nearly doubled overnight, U.N. says

500,000 people have been displaced from the northern city of Mosul

480,000 have left their homes in Anbar province

The cities of Irbil and Duhuk are hosting more than 300,000 internally displaced people

(CNN) -- The rapid sweep of Islamic militants from Syria into northern Iraq has sent the Middle East into crisis, caused alarm in capitals from Tehran to Washington and forced about half a million people to flee their homes.

The flood of Iraqis trying to escape ISIS fighters doubled the country's displaced population almost overnight. More than 1.1 million people -- nearly one out of 30 -- in Iraq are now displaced.

Ahead of World Refugee Day on Friday, CNN looks at where they came from and where they've gone.

From:

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in the past few weeks: 500,000

Tal Afar, a smaller city north of Mosul: 84,000

Tikrit and Samarra, cities on the road from Mosul to Baghdad: about 40,000

Diyala province, between Baghdad and the Iranian border: 6,000

Anbar province, west of Baghdad: 480,000

To:

Duhuk, a city in the north: 230,000 from Mosul and Tal Afar

Irbil, a city southeast of Mosul: 100,000 from Mosul

Displaced within the city of Mosul itself: 25,000

Sinjar and surroundings in the north: 54,000 from Tall Afar

Kirkuk: about 23,000 from Mosul and Anbar province

Sulaimaniya: More than 26,000 from Anbar and Diyala provinces

Tikrit: 83,500 from Anbar province

Displaced within Anbar province: 286,000

Baghdad: 46,800 from Anbar province

The cities of Najaf, Karbala, Al-Hillah, Mandali, Al Kut and Ad Diwaniya combined: Nearly 10,000

Source: United Nations, as of June 18, 2014

(As in the quote “Follow the money”, who would stand to benefit from the fragmantation and breakup of Syria and Iraq? “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Mark 3:25)

Map of "The Greater Middle East region" according to the US Chief of Defence published in 2006 by Colonel Ralph Peters.

***

MailOnline

No Mr Blair. Your naive war WAS a trigger for this savage violence, writes CHRISTOPHER MEYER, Ambassador to the US during Iraq War

• Iraq may cease to exist as a sovereign state due to current ISIS threat

• ISIS has driven through the US trained Iraqi army 'like a knife through butter'

• The country is on the verge of total civil war between Sunnis and Shiites

By CHRISTOPHER MEYER, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO WASHINGTON

PUBLISHED: 18:08 EST, 14 June 2014 | UPDATED: 18:08 EST, 14 June 2014

Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by American and British forces, Tony Blair sought to justify his decision to go to war by arguing that Iraq was a far better place for the removal of Saddam Hussein. ‘Think,’ he said ‘of the consequences of leaving that regime in power.’

In an echo of his former master’s voice, Alastair Campbell added for good measure: ‘Britain… should be really proud of the role we played in changing Iraq from what it was to what it is becoming.’

Today, neither Mr Blair nor Mr Campbell could utter such things without arousing the world’s bemusement and incredulity. Iraq is descending into such violence and disorder that its very existence as a sovereign country is under threat.

A savage, battle-hardened group of Sunni fundamentalists called ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) have seized great swathes of territory in northern and central Iraq and are threatening Baghdad itself. By the time you read this, they may be inside the city walls. They have driven through the Iraqi army – trained and equipped by the US at vast expense – like a knife through butter.

At Friday prayers last week, the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq issued a call to arms. The scene is therefore set for outright civil war. Meanwhile, the Kurdish people of the north have exploited the chaos to seize the oil-producing city of Kirkuk and take another step forward in their ambition to become an independent nation.

There are many reasons for this disastrous state of affairs. Perhaps the most significant is the decision taken more than ten years ago by President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair to unseat Saddam Hussein without thinking through the consequences for Iraq of the dictator’s removal.

Like the entire Islamic world, Iraq is divided between two historic branches of the Muslim faith, the Sunni and the Shia. Though there have been periods of relative harmony, today the two denominations are in brutal competition with each other around the world, especially in the neighbouring Syria, where civil war has been raging for the past three years. The Syrian dictator, Bashar Al Assad, is Shia. The Syrian rebels are Sunni. In Iraq the government is Shia-dominated.

There are many reasons for this disastrous state of affairs. Perhaps the most significant is the decision taken more than ten years ago by Bush and Blair to unseat Saddam without thinking through the consequences

Underwriting the violence in both countries is the intense struggle for advantage between the two Middle Eastern superpowers, Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shia).

The situation is not unlike the violent rivalry of the 17th Century between Catholics and Protestants, which led to the ravaging of central Europe in the bloody 30 Years’ War.

ISIS have emerged from the cauldron of civil war in Syria where they control much of the east of the country. Their declared aim is to create from this territory and the neighbouring Sunni areas of northern and central Iraq a single fundamentalist state or ‘caliphate’, lying athwart the frontier between Iraq and Syria.

ISIS have proved so violent that they have been disowned even by Al Qaeda, the Sunni terrorist group from which they have sprung. But it is not through fanaticism and violence alone that they have been able to scatter the Iraqi army with such ease. ISIS have been operating in fertile territory.

For years, the Sunni provinces of Iraq have become increasingly disaffected from the Shia-controlled central government in Baghdad. The authoritarian Prime Minister al-Maliki has trampled on Sunni sensitivities and denied them the spoils of government. This has gone down very badly, given that under Saddam and the old Ottoman empire it was the Sunni who were on top.

Without the world really noticing, ISIS and its Sunni allies had already seized the town of Fallujah (scene of epic battles between the US Marines and insurgents ten years ago).

ISIS have benefited also from something that takes us back to the earliest days of the US/UK occupation – and to one of its greatest blunders. It appears that ISIS are fighting alongside, or even partly comprise, former members of Saddam Hussein’s army.

In the summer of 2003, the American Paul Bremer, who ran Iraq as President Bush’s representative and head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, issued two orders: The first sacked 50,000 members of Saddam’s ruling Ba’ath Party from their jobs as civil servants, teachers and administrators.

This made Iraq well-nigh ungovernable since it had been impossible under Saddam to hold a job of any responsibility without being a member of the Ba’ath party. Bremer’s order went further than de-Nazification in Germany after World War II.

The second order disbanded the Iraqi army, throwing 400,000 angry men on to the streets with their weapons. The order directly fuelled the eight-year insurgency against American and allied troops.

Some of the former Iraqi soldiers were recruited by the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, have been fighting in Syria and have now returned to Iraq with ISIS.

So, we are reaping what we sowed in 2003. This is not hindsight. We knew in the run-up to war that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would seriously destabilise Iraq after 24 years of his iron rule.

For all his evil, he kept a lid on sectarian violence. Bush and Blair were repeatedly warned by their advisers and diplomats to make dispositions accordingly.

But, as we now know, very little was done until the last minute; and what was done, as in the case of Bremer’s edicts, simply made things far worse.

The White House and Downing Street were suffused with the naïve view that the introduction of parliamentary democracy would solve all Iraq’s problems. But you can’t introduce democracy like a fast-growing shrub. It takes generations to embed. Because political parties in Iraq have tended to form along ethnic and religious lines, democracy has, if anything, deepened the sectarianism.

The situation is full of ironies. The UK went along with the neocon claim after 9/11 that Saddam and Al Qaeda were collaborating, though there was not a shred of proof. Now an offshoot of Al Qaeda controls perhaps a third of the country and may yet enter Baghdad.

The unintended consequence of our invasion was to give Iran, a member of Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’, dominant influence in Baghdad. Yet, on the principle that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, we in the West should welcome any efforts by Iran to halt the advance of ISIS.

None of this is nostalgia for Saddam Hussein (though women and religious minorities like Christians might take a different view). But, if the past 13 years have taught us anything, it is that we mess in other countries’ internal affairs at our peril.

Even with meticulous preparation, deep local knowledge and proper articulation between political goals and military means – all absent in Iraq and Afghanistan – military intervention will usually make things worse and create hatreds which are then played out in our own streets.

In 1999, in a speech in Chicago, Blair proclaimed his doctrine of intervention abroad in the name of liberal values. It became the philosophical underpinning for Britain’s invasion of Iraq. The time has surely come to consign the Blair doctrine to the dustbin of history.

***

Sky News

Boris Johnson: “I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad”

June 16, 2014

Boris Johnson has launched a stinging attack on Tony Blair by claiming he has “finally gone mad” after insisting the current crisis in Iraq was caused by a failure to deal with the Syria conflict – not the 2003 US-led invasion.

Writing in his Daily Telegraph column, the Mayor of London said Mr Blair and then-US president George W Bush had shown “unbelievable arrogance” to believe toppling Saddam Hussein would not result in instability.

He went as far as accusing the ex-Labour leader of having sent British forces into the bloody conflict in part to gain personal “grandeur”.

He suggested there were “specific and targeted” actions that could be taken by the US and its allies to deal with the latest threat – as President Barack Obama considers a range of military options short of ground troops.

But he said that by refusing to accept that the 2003 war was “a tragic mistake”, Mr Blair was “now undermining the very cause he advocates: the possibility of serious and effective intervention”.

“Somebody needs to get on to Tony Blair and tell him to put a sock in it, or at least to accept the reality of the disaster he helped to engender. Then he might be worth hearing,” Mr Johnson said.

“I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad. In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.”

Speaking to Sky News’ Dermot Murnaghan, Mr Blair said the West’s inability to get tough with Syrian President Bashar al Assad and failure in Libya had allowed terrorism and chaos to spread across the Middle East.

Mr Blair told Murnaghan: “Some people will say ‘well if we hadn’t removed Saddam in 2003 we wouldn’t have the problem today in Iraq and the reason I think that is profoundly mistaken is this: since 2011 there have been these Arab revolutions sweeping across the whole of the region – Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, next door to Iraq in Syria – and we can see what would have happened if we left Saddam there in 2003.

“We have left Bashar Assad in Syria. The result is that there have now in the last three years in Syria been virtually the same number of people killed in Syria as in the whole of Iraq. You have had nine million people displaced from Syria, you have chaos and instability being pushed across the region.”

Clare Short, who quit Mr Blair’s cabinet in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, added her voice to the critical chorus saying he had been “absolutely, consistently wrong, wrong, wrong” on the issue.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage dismissed Mr Blair as an “embarrassment” who should hold his tongue – and demanded “an end to the era of military intervention abroad”.

And Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s ambassador to the US from 1997 to 2003, said the handling of the campaign against Saddam was “perhaps the most significant reason” for today’s violence.

***

THE INDEPENDENT

Robert Fisk: Now we see how his doctrine turns enemies into ‘allies’

Assad’s enemies, whom Blair’s bombing of Damascus would have helped, now threaten Iraq

How do they get away with these lies? Now Tony Blair tells us that Western “inaction” in Syria has produced the Iraq crisis. But since bombing Syria would have brought to power in Damascus the very Islamists who are now threatening Baghdad, it must therefore be a mercy that Barack Obama does not listen to the likes of Blair.

ROBERT FISK

Sunday 15 June 2014

Having just spent several days travelling between three cities in Syria – and let’s have no illusions about the brutality of the Assad regime – I find it instructive to contemplate what Blair’s rebel chums in Syria are up to. Take the five-mile Aleppo airport road.

It’s newly held by government troops, but the Islamists hold so much territory around the city that you have to first drive 16 miles in darkness to reach the city along dirt tracks and overflowing lagoons of untreated sewage and beneath a disused railway line where bright red tracer fire – from the men Blair would have us support – criss-crosses the road. Syrian troops hold checkpoints on this crazy snakes-and-ladders journey. Sometimes the Islamists are only 200 metres away.

So a snapshot of Aleppo today – which would be Mosul if Blair’s friends had won and if the West had shown “action” against the Assad regime. In the streets, I find government militiamen and civilians digging 20ft-deep ditches in the streets to hunt for the ubiquitous tunnels which the Nusra and Isis forces now use to attack their enemies. Entire government buildings have exploded in government-held Aleppo.

It’s a mirror world. While Assad’s helicopters drop barrel bombs on rebel bases – and lots of civilians – in northern Aleppo, the armed opposition fire mortars into the Christian district of the city. We wander along the front line; kids playing, an old man smoking a cigarette on a pile of rubble, the crash of mortars less than a mile away. A Syrian soldier removes a concrete breeze-block from an old stone wall – it is the edge of the old city – and I squint for a millisecond through the hole. A few feet away, behind rotting sandbags and broken beams, is another hole – where the rebel sniper presumably watches me. Personal history moment: almost exactly 96 years ago, my dad poked a camera above the 1918 front line in France and took a snapshot of rotting sandbags and broken trees.

Major Somer of the Syrian army describes the tunnel labyrinth dug by the opposition under the old city, and the day the minaret of the great Omayed Mosque, built in the age of the Abbasids, crashed to the ground – blown up by explosives in the rebels’ tunnels, he says, though the jury is still out on this one.

“When it fell,” he says, “I felt that 1,500 years of civilisation had died. I was on the front line and I heard it crash – all over Aleppo, the ground shook, like an earthquake. They had dug under most of old Aleppo. They wanted to take revenge, to destroy our infrastructure. Why do Muslims do this? Because they are not Muslims.”

This is bizarre, grotesque – certainly for his enemies a few metres away – but there is no doubting the explosions around us; 16 will die here in the next few hours. One will have his head blown off that night in a restaurant half a mile away from us, a witness running into a café where we’re eating a late-night snack, shaking his head and smiling with relief. Plenty of food since the army broke the siege of Aleppo. No water for six days since the Turks sealed off the watercourse from the dam north of the border. Children and old women carry plastic tubs of the stuff from government-delivered water tanks.

No need to ask why the army cannot retake the old city. “Not enough soldiers,” a Syrian journalist says bluntly. “That’s why the government agreed to end the siege of Homs peacefully and let the rebels go free to the north – they needed Homs under their control so the soldiers there could reinforce the men here in Aleppo.” I go to Homs, 200 miles away, an ocean of white ruins with miles of abandoned tunnels and a few Christians who shyly take me through the wreckage of churches to a small garden in which stands a pink plastic chair. “This is where they executed Father Frans,” one says. “They made him sit in the chair and shot him just above the left eye.”

Father Frans van der Lugt was a martyr of Homs, refusing to leave his Christian flock and Muslim friends throughout the years of siege, imploring the world to pity the innocent and the starving until, on 7 April this year, gunmen arrived in the church garden and murdered him. They came from the Nusra forces – the Assad regime called them terrorists, the opposition said, of course, that if Assad had not besieged Homs, the 72-year-old Catholic priest would not have died. He is buried a few metres away, his grave a cheap wooden cross surrounded by flowers. From a photograph, his bespectacled face stares at us. The Pope later prayed for Van der Lugt’s soul.

I suppose if the West had bombed Damascus last year – as Blair bombed Baghdad in 2003 – Father Francis might have lived. But then again, he might have been murdered much earlier by the Islamists we would have been helping.

But there you go. Assad’s soldiers hold the line where Iraq’s forces initially disintegrated. Assad’s enemies are the same Nusra and al-Qa’ida fighters whom Blair’s bombing of Damascus would have helped – and who now threaten Iraq’s existence. Will the Iranians send their soldiers to defend the Shia of Iraq?

A good question to ponder on a military flight from Aleppo to Damascus, in an iron seat on an old Antonov-26 among 60 Syrian soldiers, many of them wounded, the bodies of two 25-year-old conscripts in the cargo compartment, shot by snipers the previous night. A flicker of machine-gun fire comes from the darkness below, and by the time we land in Damascus, five of the “Syrians” opposite us shout a Shia prayer – in Persian. They tell us they are Afghans, Shia from the Hazara people. They are in Syrian uniform, holding rifles, an Iranian beside them. They were returning to Tehran next day. So now the Afghan Shia fight on Assad’s side – and Afghan Sunnis fight the rebels.

Ah Blair, thou shouldn’t be with us at this hour.

***

The Independent

Iraq crisis: Sunni caliphate has been bankrolled by Saudi Arabia

by Robert Fisk

Thursday 12 June 2014

Bush and Blair said Iraq was a war on Islamic fascism. They lost

So after the grotesquerie of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 suicide killers of 9/11, meet Saudi Arabia’s latest monstrous contribution to world history: the Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq and the Levant, conquerors of Mosul and Tikrit – and Raqqa in Syria – and possibly Baghdad, and the ultimate humiliators of Bush and Obama.

From Aleppo in northern Syria almost to the Iraqi-Iranian border, the jihadists of Isis and sundry other groupuscules paid by the Saudi Wahhabis – and by Kuwaiti oligarchs – now rule thousands of square miles.

Apart from Saudi Arabia’s role in this catastrophe, what other stories are to be hidden from us in the coming days and weeks?

The story of Iraq and the story of Syria are the same – politically, militarily and journalistically: two leaders, one Shia, the other Alawite, fighting for the existence of their regimes against the power of a growing Sunni Muslim international army.

While the Americans support the wretched Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his elected Shia government in Iraq, the same Americans still demand the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his regime, even though both leaders are now brothers-in-arms against the victors of Mosul and Tikrit.

The Croesus-like wealth of Qatar may soon be redirected away from the Muslim rebels of Syria and Iraq to the Assad regime, out of fear and deep hatred for its Sunni brothers in Saudi Arabia (which may invade Qatar if it becomes very angry).

We all know of the “deep concern” of Washington and London at the territorial victories of the Islamists – and the utter destruction of all that America and Britain bled and died for in Iraq. No one, however, will feel as much of this “deep concern” as Shia Iran and Assad of Syria and Maliki of Iraq, who must regard the news from Mosul and Tikrit as a political and military disaster. Just when Syrian military forces were winning the war for Assad, tens of thousands of Iraqi-based militants may now turn on the Damascus government, before or after they choose to advance on Baghdad.

No one will care now how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered since 2003 because of the fantasies of Bush and Blair. These two men destroyed Saddam’s regime to make the world safe and declared that Iraq was part of a titanic battle against “Islamofascism”. Well, they lost. Remember that the Americans captured and recaptured Mosul to crush the power of Islamist fighters. They fought for Fallujah twice. And both cities have now been lost again to the Islamists. The armies of Bush and Blair have long gone home, declaring victory.

Under Obama, Saudi Arabia will continue to be treated as a friendly “moderate” in the Arab world, even though its royal family is founded upon the Wahhabist convictions of the Sunni Islamists in Syria and Iraq – and even though millions of its dollars are arming those same fighters. Thus does Saudi power both feed the monster in the deserts of Syria and Iraq and cosy up to the Western powers that protect it.

We should also remember that Maliki’s military attempts to retake Mosul are likely to be ferocious and bloody, just as Assad’s battles to retake cities have proved to be. The refugees fleeing Mosul are more frightened of Shia government revenge than they are of the Sunni jihadists who have captured their city.

We will all be told to regard the new armed “caliphate” as a “terror nation”. Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, the Isis spokesman, is intelligent, warning against arrogance, talking of an advance on Baghdad when he may be thinking of Damascus. Isis is largely leaving the civilians of Mosul unharmed.

Finally, we will be invited to regard the future as a sectarian war when it will be a war between Muslim sectarians and Muslim non-sectarians. The “terror” bit will be provided by the arms we send to all sides.

***

LIBERTY BLITZKRIEG

BLOCKBUSTER REPORT FROM WND – JORDANIAN OFFICIAL CLAIMS AMERICANS TRAINED ISIS

Wait, it gets even crazier

by MICHAEL KRIEGER

JUNE 18, 2014

Just yesterday, I wrote what I think was one of my most important articles of 2014, titled: America’s Disastrous Foreign Policy – My Thoughts on Iraq. The key point of the entire article came at the end when I noted that:

So in the course of less than a year, the Obama Administration has proposed an alliance with al-Qaeda in Syria and now an alliance with Iran to fight those very same forces.

If you didn’t get a chance to read that piece yesterday, it’s important to do so before reading further.

Apparently, I didn’t go far enough down the rabbit hole in my observations. According to this blockbuster article fromWND, a Jordanian official who is terrified that ISIS will be coming for the Kingdom next, has insisted that the U.S. itself was instrumental in training some ISIS fighters. Wait, it gets even crazier. We learn that:

The source told WND that at least one of the training camps of the group Iraq of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria, the ISIS, is in the vicinity of Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey, where American personnel and equipment are located.

The source said that after training in Turkey, thousands of ISIS fighters went to Iraq by way of Syria to join the effort to establish an Islamic caliphate subject to strict Islamic law, or Shariah.

This is simply incredible. Our allies in the Middle East are now accusing us of intentionality arming and supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq. The children running things in Washington D.C. have no clue what they are doing and are about to blow up the world. They all need to go.

From WND:

JERUSALEM – Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials.

The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq.

In February 2012, WND was first to report the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region.

Last March, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported Americans were training Syrian rebels in Jordan.

Quoting what it said were training participants and organizers, Der Spiegel reported it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were with the U.S. Army, but the magazine said some organizers wore uniforms. The training in Jordan reportedly focused on use of anti-tank weaponry.

The Jordanian officials spoke to WND amid concern the sectarian violence in Iraq will spill over into their own country as well as into Syria.

WND reported last week that, according to Jordanian and Syrian regime sources, Saudi Arabia has been arming the ISIS and that the Saudis are a driving force in supporting the al-Qaida-linked group.

WND further reported that, according to a Shiite source in contact with a high official in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Obama administration has been aware for two months that the al-Qaida-inspired group that has taken over two Iraqi cities and now is threatening Baghdad also was training fighters in Turkey.

The source told WND that at least one of the training camps of the group Iraq of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria, the ISIS, is in the vicinity of Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey, where American personnel and equipment are located.

He called Obama “an accomplice” in the attacks that are threatening the Maliki government the U.S. helped establish through the Iraq war.

The source said that after training in Turkey, thousands of ISIS fighters went to Iraq by way of Syria to join the effort to establish an Islamic caliphate subject to strict Islamic law, or Shariah.

You don’t need me to tell you. This is bad. Very, very, very bad.

***

MailOnline

Ukrainian civil war looms as 49 die in plane shot down by rebels

• Pro-Russian militants have shot down an Ukrainian aircraft in Luhansk

• CCTV camera captures the moment plane hit the ground in huge fireball

• Amateur footage shows burning wreckage in which 49 soldiers died

• Militants said attack prompted after 'occupying' troops refused to leave

By WILL STEWART IN MOSCOW

PUBLISHED: 04:16 EST, 14 June 2014 | UPDATED: 19:23 EST, 14 June 2014

The Ukraine crisis was lurching into full-scale civil war last night after Kiev’s pro-Western forces suffered their worst setback of the conflict when a military plane was downed by pro-Russian separatists, killing 49.

The Ilyushin-76 military transport plane was shot down approaching Lugansk airport. It was carrying 40 special forces paratroopers and nine crew.

There were also reports last night that a Ukrainian Su-24 bomber was shot down near Horlivka. The pilot was said to have ejected and been detained by a separatist militia.

Scroll down for video

A pro-Russian separatist gathers ammunition from the site of the crash of the Ukrainian army transport plane in Luhansk

The attacks happened hours before energy talks were due to take place between Russia and Ukraine, which fears its gas supplies will be cut off from tomorrow morning, tipping the country into economic chaos.

And in Kiev, a potentially devastating bomb was left near the presidential administration offices of new leader Petro Poroshenko. A man fled from the scene without detonating the device. Bomb disposal experts found a note on the bomb which read: ‘Unless you stop the war, the war will come to you.

Mr Poroshenko yesterday vowed revenge on separatists for the Ilyushin attack as he declared a day of mourning today. ‘Those involved in this cynical act of terror on such a scale will certainly be punished. Ukraine needs peace. But the terrorists will receive an appropriate response,’ he said.

Vladyslav Seleznyov, a Kiev defence ministry official, last night expressed sympathy to the families of those killed on the transport plane.

‘The terrorists cynically and treacherously fired with a large-calibre machine gun hitting an Ilyushin-76 of the Ukrainian air force which was carrying troops on rotation and was about to land at Lugansk airport,’ he said.

Militants in Lugansk, who have claimed independence from Ukraine, said the aircraft was downed by a surface-to-air missile. The city is in the east of Ukraine, just 15 miles from the Russian border, and is the most prone to a Crimean-style occupation or annexation by Moscow.

Last week, there were reports of unmarked tanks and rocket launchers supplied to the rebels by Russia.

The claims were given credence by the US. ‘We are highly concerned by new Russian efforts to support the separatists,’ said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. ‘We are confident these tanks came from Russia.’

The US says a convoy of three T-64 tanks, several BM-21 or Grad multiple rocket launchers and military vehicles had ‘crossed into Ukraine’.

Nato yesterday released images showing Russian tank movements close to the Ukrainian border which ‘raise significant questions’ over President Putin’s intentions.

As Kiev continues to try to retake areas under the control of pro-Russian groups, they said more than 300 Russian ‘mercenaries’ had been killed in fighting in the eastern Donetsk region, with bodies piled up in villages, and Moscow seeking to evacuate its dead.

Military analyst Dmytro Tymchuk said: ‘These are Russian mercenaries, killed during the anti-terrorism operation. In Saur-Mohyla and Dmytrivka there are about 250 killed terrorists and 300 wounded.’

The latest developments are bound to increase pressure on Western leaders to impose new sanctions on Russia.

Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said Mr Poroshenko could ‘count on our support’.

The Il-76 is a Russian-built military plane used by Ukraine to transport soldiers and equipment (file pic)

Foreign Secretary William Hague last night condemned the downing of the plane and urged Mr Putin to stop arming the rebels.

‘This tragic incident again underlines the urgency of Russia taking further measures to prevent the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine by stopping support and the supply of arms for separatist groups.

‘The international community stands ready to impose further sanctions if Russia continues to provoke instability in Ukraine.’

*

RT

Ukrainian FM chants 'Putin - fker' at vandalized Russian embassy in Kiev

Published time: June 15, 2014 08:15

Edited time: June 16, 2014 11:45

In an incident that may be a first in diplomatic history, Kiev’s top diplomat publicly ‘effed’ the head of another state. Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa chanted “Putin’s a f**ker” with a cheering crowd that earlier vandalized the Russian embassy.

Deshchitsa arrived at the scene of the heated protest - which involved overturning cars belonging to embassy staff, the desecration of a Russian flag and pelting the building with firecrackers and paint - in an apparent attempt to defuse the crowd.

He confronted some of the protesters - or rather sided with them. Footage of the encounter shows the minister saying he is all for the protest and its goals.

“I would stand up here with you can say, Russia, get out of Ukraine,” he said. “Putin’s a f**ker, right!”

This treasure of Kiev-style diplomatic language was met with a joyous cheer among the crowd, which erupted in a concerted chant. The profane phrase comes from a chant of Ukrainian radical football fans and is very popular among anti-Russian-minded Ukrainians at the moment.

The minister looks a bit astounded by the overwhelmingly welcoming response and even sings a bit along with the protesters.

Later on Sunday, the minister turned very elusive, when grilled about the scandalous episode. He justified his actions with a need to protect the Russian embassy.

“People were very angry and we had to stop those people, not to let them go further, not to allow an attack and siege of the embassy,” he told Echo of Moscow radio. “They wanted to burn the embassy down.”

Deshchitsa didn’t explain why he thought that profane chants were better at providing security than a police guard, which Kiev was obliged, but failed, to provide.

Demonstrators stand on an overturned car during a rally against the Russian president in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev on June 14, 2014. (AFP Photo / Sergei Supinsky)

The Ukrainian government did not immediately comment on the spectacular work Deshchitsa demonstrated in building diplomatic bridges between Kiev and Moscow in front of the Russian embassy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Andrey Deshchitsa's using of the offensive language addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin was“beyond the bounds of decency.” He added that he doesn't know how to work with the acting Ukrainian FM further.

***

CNN

Russia cuts off natural gas supplies to Ukraine

By Charles Riley

June 16, 2014: 7:06 AM ET

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Russian state-owned gas firm Gazprom says it has cut off supplies to Ukraine after negotiators failed to resolve a payment dispute before a key deadline expired.

Representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the European Union held meetings over the weekend in an effort to avert the crisis, but no agreement was reached.

Gazprom said Monday that Ukraine's total debt is $4.5 billion. The state-owned gas firm will now only deliver gas that Ukraine has paid for in advance.

"At this moment no payments for old debt or June were paid," said Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov. "All charts show zeroes."

Both sides said they have filed claims with an international arbitration court in Stockholm.

While Gazprom hiked the price it charges Ukraine by about 80% to $485.50 per thousand cubic meters of gas in April, some concessions have been offered during recent talks. Gazprom charged European countries an average of $377.50 per thousand cubic meters in 2013.

Related: Europe leans more heavily on Russian gas

The gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev has escalated as relations between the two countries have deteriorated.

Europe and the U.S. have imposed sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea, while analysts have accused Russia of using natural gas supplies as a political tool.

In recent weeks, violence has again flared in eastern Ukraine as government forces clashed with pro-Russian militants. The military conflict was clearly having an effect on gas negotiations.

"We will not subsidize Russian Gazprom," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Monday. "Ukrainians will not take out of their pockets $5 billion annually for Russia to use this money to buy weapons, tanks and jets and bomb Ukrainian territories."

Europe relies on Russia for more than 30% of its gas, and half of that is pumped through Ukraine. Analysts worry that a disruption in supplies to Ukraine could hurt European companies and households.

Kupriyanov said Monday that "gas designated for European consumers is flowing in full accordance with the contract's figures."

-- CNN's Matthew Chance and Radina Gigova contributed reporting.

***

AMERICAN DREAM

THE CIVIL WAR IN UKRAINE HAS CREATED A MASSIVE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY BENEFIT RUSSIA

The brutal civil war in Ukraine has created a horrific humanitarian crisis

by MICHAEL SNYDER

JUNE 20, 2014

Every time the Kiev government conducts another airstrike or lobs more artillery shells into a city in eastern Ukraine, it loses more hearts and minds among the citizens of eastern Ukraine. The brutal civil war in Ukraine has created a horrific humanitarian crisis in the eastern half of the country, and at this point there seems to be little hope that the nation will ever be peacefully reunified. This suits Russia just fine, because the Russians are getting exactly what they want without having to take any military action. Eastern Ukrainians were pro-Russian even before this civil war began, but with each passing day anti-Kiev sentiment is rising in the areas where the fighting is raging. Every “anti-terrorist operation” is just pushing eastern Ukrainians even further into the waiting arms of Russia. Many have wondered why Russia hasn’t gone ahead and invaded Ukraine, but the truth is that the Russians are already achieving their most important strategic goals without even firing a shot.

Acting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently said that “Ukraine is in a state of war“, and that was not an overstatement. Fierce military battles are being fought all over eastern Ukraine right now. The following is an excerptfrom one recent article about the fighting…

An intense military operation is underway in the town of Artemovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a local militia headquarters spokesman told Interfax on Thursday. “The village of Zakatnoye, the town of Seversk and the outskirts of Artemovsk have come under fire. Militiamen are firing in response. Fierce fighting is underway using heavy military hardware on the part of Ukrainian government forces,” the spokesman said.

According to the local militia, “a Su-25 fighter bomber that conducted an airstrike against the town of Seversk has been hit by the militia’s fire, but it is still in the air.

As the fighting has raged, it has created a horrific humanitarian crisis unlike anything that Ukraine has experienced in decades…

Continued combat and army artillery fire have knocked out both water and electricity supplies.

“Almost all medical facilities are closed,” the Donetsk Region’s local administration said in a statement. “Ambulances do not respond to calls due to a lack of fuel.”

In addition, hospitals are not working in Donetsk, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk and a number of areas in the Slavyansk district.

Thousands of people have neither tap nor drinking water supplies as pumping stations were damaged in previous fighting between Ukrainian troops and anti-government self-defense forces.

“They’ve bombed everything,” a local woman told RT. “There’s no electricity, no water, no money, no work, nothing. We don’t know what to do. We’re not leaving, we want to live on this land.”

“Please help us,” said another woman. “Something must be done, we’re being killed in Slavyansk.”

The worse things get, the more the people of eastern Ukraine hate the government in Kiev.

For instance, just check out this excerpt from a recent Reuters article…

The military operation has hardened antagonism against the present government that came to power when President Viktor Yanokovich was toppled in February after mass protests in Kiev.

“Our Ukrainian army is not protecting us, instead it is attacking us. Thanks to them I have to flee my own land,” said Larissa Zhuratova, a Slaviansk resident piling onto a bus full of refugees bound for Moscow.

Once the fighting stops, do you think that those people will have any inclination to come back under the authority of the government in Kiev?

Of course not.

And as the casualties on both sides mount, the bitterness on both sides will continue to increase.

According to the Kyiv Post, Ukrainian military forces have been suffering “heavy losses” during this civil war…

The Ukrainian army and National Guard, which have been plagued by inadequate resources, have suffered heavy losses at the hands of pro-Russian militants in recent weeks, raising questions about their ability to stabilize the country’s eastern regions.

In fact, it has been reported that the Ukrainian army lost more than 1,000 troops in a single battle recently.

But the war has been quite brutal for the opposing side as well. According to USA Today, the forces of eastern Ukraine are “outnumbered” and “outgunned” and are in retreat…

Rebel chief Igor Strelkov, however, said in a statement on YouTube that his men were far outnumbered and outgunned by Ukrainian forces and were likely to retreat from their positions in Yampol and Seversk near Krasnyi Liman. He said the Ukrainian military advance would completely cut rebel supply lines to Slovyansk and issued a desperate plea to the Kremlin for military assistance.

“I hope that they have enough conscience left in Moscow to take some measures,” Strelkov said.

As this civil war in Ukraine has raged, the rest of the world has been watching and waiting to see if Russia will get involved.

At times Russia has moved troops toward the border, and at other times Russia has pulled troops back. This week, it appears that Russian troops are once again massing along the border with Ukraine…

Russia has resumed a military buildup near Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday, calling it “a very regrettable step backward.”

“I can confirm that we now see a new Russian military buildup — at least a few thousand more Russian troops deployed to the Ukrainian border — and we see troop maneuvers in the neighborhood of Ukraine,” Rasmussen said in London.

But unless something dramatic changes, I don’t think that Russia will attack.

In the end, this is not a battle for land in eastern Ukraine.

Rather, it is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people of eastern Ukraine.

No matter how this civil war turns out, they are the ones that are ultimately going to decide what the future holds.

And right now, each passing day is pushing them father away from Kiev and much closer to Russia.

Ultimately, that is precisely what Russia wants, and that is the opposite of what the Obama administration was hoping for.

***

The Telegraph

'Die is cast' for Jean-Claude Juncker to take the EU's top job as defeat looms for David Cameron

The "die is cast" for Jean-Claude Juncker's appointment as European Commission president after Angela Merkel turns on David Cameron amid British warnings of a looming political "train crash"

Mr Juncker was chosen as the leading candidate by the European People's Party Photo: BLOOMBERG

By Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels and Peter Dominiczak

1:58PM BST 16 Jun 2014

British diplomats have warned that a "battle royal is coming" that could hasten a British referendum on Europe if the former prime minister of Luxembourg is installed in the European Union's top job.

After talks between Herman Van Rompuy, the German Chancellor and Britain last week, Angela Merkel has decided "to proceed as soon as possible with the appointment" of Jean-Claude Juncker, inflicting a humiliating defeat on David Cameron at a meeting of EU leaders on June 27.

"As matters stand now, Van Rompuy sees no alternative to the appointment of Juncker," said a confidential report, seen by The Telegraph of talks that took place last Wednesday. "Short of a complete U-turn by the Chancellor, the die is cast in Berlin."

If Mr Juncker, an advocate of "ever closer union", is appointed, despite British opposition after a vote of European leaders in 10 days time, Mr Cameron faces a political backlash that could bring forward a referendum in Britain over whether to stay in the EU that is currently planned for 2017.

During a diplomatic dinner in Brussels last Tuesday, Ivan Rogers, the UK's Permanent Representative to EU, warned that Britain would not accept the appointment of Mr Juncker.

"He said that allowing the European Parliament rather that national governments to appoint the commission president is unacceptable and takes the EU to a different place. The UK would not accept the outcome of the process," said a senior European diplomat.

Britain's most senior EU diplomat then went on to warn that Europe was "sleepwalking into an institutional crisis", political "dynamite" that could push the British towards the exit door.

"He warned that Mr Juncker's appointment could accelerate a British referendum on leaving the EU and will completely change the political landscape," said the diplomat.

"Rogers warned that the appointment could lead to dramatic events in July and that it should be a priority for the EU to avoid such a train crash."

EU diplomats have been dismayed at British intransigence and Downing Street's refusal to hold any talks with Mr Juncker over his candidacy.

British officials have used high-level European diplomat contacts to emphasise that the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour are united in opposition to Mr Juncker. In one recent discussion, the UK warned that only Nigel Farage's Ukip and other campaigners against EU membership would benefit from his appointment in Britain.

Mr Juncker was chosen as the spitzenkandidat, or leading candidate, by the European People's Party (EPP), the biggest, centre-right grouping in the EU assembly, which is dominated by Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats.

MEPs, who have a veto over who is appointed, have insisted that Mr Juncker must be appointed to the job because the EPP won the most seats in European elections despite the fact its share of the vote fell and that over 90 per cent of voters did not know that he was a candidate.

Mrs Merkel is known to be privately hostile to the process of appointing Mr Juncker but faces demands from within her coalition government that she recognises him as the "elected" candidate for the commission.

According to European diplomats, Mrs Merkel has pushed for a quick appointment because she is concerned that the longer the row drags on, the more German support for Mr Juncker grows and becomes polarised with British public opinion against him.

"She fears a nasty and toxic Britain versus Germany row the longer the debate goes on. This means Merkel now wants to move very promptly to appointing Juncker at the latest at the European Council at the end of the month. She has told Cameron this," said a senior diplomatic source.

In a further blow for Mr Cameron, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, who has been a key ally in opposing Mr Juncker, signalled defeat. "I can imagine Juncker will get it, though we're not there yet," he said on Monday.

Mats Persson, the director of Open Europe, said: "It's hard to see any winners from this apart from the minority cult in Brussels and some other places that see Spitzenkandidaten as the great democratic hope, the German Social Democrats who can use it to corner Merkel and, of course, those who want the UK to leave the EU."

***

theguardian

Earth may have underground 'ocean' three times that on surface

Scientists say rock layer hundreds of miles down holds vast amount of water, opening up new theories on how planet formed

Three-quarters of the Earth's water may be locked deep underground in a layer of rock, scientists say.

Melissa Davey

Thursday 12 June 2014 23.53 EDT

Photograph: Blue Line Pictures/Getty Images

After decades of searching scientists have discovered that a vast reservoir of water, enough to fill the Earth’s oceans three times over, may be trapped hundreds of miles beneath the surface, potentially transforming our understanding of how the planet was formed.

The water is locked up in a mineral called ringwoodite about 660km (400 miles) beneath the crust of the Earth, researchers say. Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen from Northwestern University in the US co-authored the study published in the journal Science and said the discovery suggested Earth’s water may have come from within, driven to the surface by geological activity, rather than being deposited by icy comets hitting the forming planet as held by the prevailing theories.

“Geological processes on the Earth’s surface, such as earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are an expression of what is going on inside the Earth, out of our sight,” Jacobsen said.

“I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”

Jacobsen and his colleagues are the first to provide direct evidence that there may be water in an area of the Earth’s mantle known as the transition zone. They based their findings on a study of a vast underground region extending across most of the interior of the US.

Ringwoodite acts like a sponge due to a crystal structure that makes it attract hydrogen and trap water.

If just 1% of the weight of mantle rock located in the transition zone was water it would be equivalent to nearly three times the amount of water in our oceans, Jacobsen said.

The study used data from the USArray, a network of seismometers across the US that measure the vibrations of earthquakes, combined with Jacobsen’s lab experiments on rocks simulating the high pressures found more than 600km underground.

It produced evidence that melting and movement of rock in the transition zone – hundreds of kilometres down, between the upper and lower mantles – led to a process where water could become fused and trapped in the rock.

The discovery is remarkable because most melting in the mantle was previously thought to occur at a much shallower distance, about 80km below the Earth’s surface.

Jacobsen told the New Scientist that the hidden water might also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years. "If [the stored water] wasn't there, it would be on the surface of the Earth, and mountaintops would be the only land poking out," he said.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing...that is in the water under the earth.” Genesis 7:11 and Exodus 20:4

***

click here to read

***

NaturalBlaze

The Lancet: Fluoride IS a Neurotoxin!

Friday, June 13, 2014

by Catherine J. Frompovich

Who would have thought that it ever would have happened? Someone in mainstream medicine and peer reviewed literature and journals would publish the ‘unthinkable’: fluoride, the stuff they put into municipal water supplies supposedly to ‘protect’ teeth from cavities, is a neurotoxin. Wow! And congratulations to doctors Philippe Grandjean, MD, and Philip J Landrigan, MD, two researchers who published their findings in The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 330 to 338, March 2014. [1]

In the Summary published for their article, it states that

Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. [CJF emphasis added]

Probably nothing more can confirm that as scientific, demographic, and the horrible truth! And, everyone—not just children—are paying the consequences for all chemical exposures. Now let’s see if Drs. Granjean and Landrigan will have the scientific integrity to expose neurotoxins in vaccines for what they truly are. I’d like to give them a reference where to start looking for ideas: My 2013 book Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.

In that book I also mention fluoride. Why? Because what is not documented by peer reviewed ‘science’ journals is the chemical interaction(s) between fluoride and vaccine neurotoxins and other vaccine chemicals. Add to that list, the chemicals we are forced to eat in our food, especially glyphosate from inordinate spraying of genetically modified crops such as corn, sugar beets, soy, canola, alfalfa animal feed, and possibly squash and potatoes.

Add to that all the herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, etc. that are sprayed on fruits, vegetables, and animal feeds that get into the food chain BIG time. For more information about those “…cides,” which are intended to kill life forms, readers and both doctors may want to read my 2010 book Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick, also available on Amazon.com.

Any chemical whose purpose is to kill a life form must be considered as a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, or carcinogen – at a minimum – in my opinion as a consumer health researcher for almost 37 years.

Not to digress from the importance of this article about fluoride, but the USA can put a nation back to work by cleaning up the environment from toxicity once the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are exposed for what they truly are: Biohazards!

Here’s a short YouTube regarding fluoridation of water in other countries.

According to the British Fluoridation Society as of November 2012 [2], the following countries fluoridate portions of their population:

So, what has the addition of fluoride to municipal water supplies done for human health? Not very much, except cause health problems [3], including:

A Harvard study shows that fluoride lowers IQ in children. [4] [6]

Crippling bone disease, i.e., skeletal fluorosis [5]

Severe dental fluorosis, instead of protecting teeth.

One would think with the publication in 2010 that kid’s IQs are adversely and negatively impacted, federal, state and city governments would have stopped municipal water fluoridation immediately. No! they have not, and it’s now 2014. Does that mean that water fluoridation has a purpose which is not being acknowledged? Could it be the deliberate dumbing-down of the U.S. population? Or, could it be to make more business for dentists, doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry? What do you think?

Notes:

[1] http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(13)70278-3/fulltext#article_upsell

[2] http://fluoridealert.org/content/bfs-2012/

[3] http://fluoridealert.org/issues/health/

[4] http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/07/effects-of-fluoride-to-children.aspx

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_fluorosis

[6] http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ehp.1104912.pdf

Resource:

Dr. Rima Truth Reports / Fluoride Facts and Myths

http://drrimatruthreports.com/fluoride-facts-and-myths/

WND

STRANDED AIRPORT TRAVELER BECOMES ONLINE LEGEND

Exclusive: Andrea Shea King dares you not to laugh, cry at these web gems

Published: June 16, 2014

ANDREA SHEA KING

He did it all by himself

Ever been stranded at an airport? Flight canceled, nowhere to go, long wait ahead of you before you’re booked on the next available flight? Arggggh!

Here’s what one enterprising guy did when faced with exactly that situation – a long overnight trip to nowhere at Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport and a lot of time on his hands. Richard Dunn “documented” his travel travails and subsequent overnight layover at the airport by shooting a selfie video on his iPhone, lip-synching it to a dubbed-in Celine Dion cover of the song “All by Myself” that he was also listening to on his iPad. Clever, funny, and totally creative, the video was noticed by Glenn Beck and buzzed around on social media and talk radio. Originally posted on Vimeo, the 5:20 music video was quickly posted on YouTube where it has been translated in other languages:





It took about three hours to shoot and another four hours to edit. Here’s how Richard described it:

“I had a person behind a ticket counter give me a roll of luggage tape before she left. I then used a wheel chair that had a tall pole on the back of it and taped my iPhone to that. Then I would put it on the moving walkway for a dolly shot. I also used the extended handle on my computer bag and taped the iPhone to my handle. I would tuck different stuff under the bag to get the right angle. For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn’t hit the top and fall back down. Quite fun!”

In an effort to dispute naysayers who just couldn’t believe one guy with a moving walkway, luggage carousel, escalator and a camera could come up with something so well done, Richard Dunn even did a nine-minute long “behind the scenes footage” video showing how he did it.

“All by Myself” is brilliant. Look and see for yourself why 11 million-plus viewers have clicked on it. What did singer Celine Dion think of Dunn’s music video? “Hilarious and touching! I loved it!”

Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.”
(Proverbs 8:12)