Federal budget problems undermine future of U.S. nuclear leadership

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Ishmael•FYI: Ishmael is the son of Abraham through Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Ishmael is the Biblical father of the Arab nations.
•From these nations came Mohammad, who in approximately 632 a.d founded the Religion of Islam.
•The Religion is divided into two main groups, The Sunni’s and The Shiite’s. These two are engaged in a battle to gain control of the religion.
•The Shiite branch claims its right to control because Ali, its founder, was the nephew of Mohammad.
•While the Sunni branch claims its right to control because its founders were the generals in-charge when Mohammad died.
•It is reported that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni based organization.
•The battle continues to this very day.
•The verse below is speaking directly concerning Ishmael and the nations that would come from this direct descendent of Abraham.

“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 in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12

Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:2-5

Editors note about the words and Gog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Gog is the leader of the Russia alliance in the latter days., Magog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Magog, the descendant of Japheth, is identified as the Russian coalition in the latter days. and Persia•FYI: Persia in concert with Adolf Hitler, changed its name to Iran (Aryan Land) in May of 1935.

As developing nations begin building dozens of nu- clear reactors to meet growing energy demands, the United States is on the verge of losing its leadership in one nuclear segment that will weaken our national security: our ability to provide energy and our capacity to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons.

Right now, approximately 60 nuclear reactors are under construction around the world, many of them in developing countries. China plans to grow from 9 gigawatts to as much as 200 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2030, and the Gulf Cooperation Council is weighing growing from zero to 50 gigawatts over the same time period. That growth comes on top of the 104 reactors that provide about 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs and the 329 reactors currently operating in other parts of the world.

Those plants will need fuel made using uranium-enrichment technology, the same basic process that makes weapons-grade uranium. The ability of this technology to produce fuel for power plants as well as weapons is why it is closely guarded and why it becomes a major problem when it ends up in the hands of nations such as North Korea and Iran.

The United States has argued that emerging nuclear nations should forgo their own enrichment programs in exchange for an assured U.S. supply of enriched uranium to fuel their nuclear power plants. That is possible because the U.S. has maintained its own domestic sources of enriched uranium production for almost 60 years. While the one remaining U.S. enrichment plant operates at the end of its useful life, guzzling as much electricity every day as the state of Maine, the Europeans have moved to modern, energy-efficient centrifuge-based enrichment technology. One European facility already is operating in the United States, and another is proposed. Those plants are foreign-government owned and based on non-U.S. technologies.

Once the last U.S.-owned enrichment plant closes, our country for the first time will find itself completely dependent on foreign-controlled sources for all of its nuclear fuel. That will make 20 percent of U.S. electricity reliant on foreign sources of fuel, will rob the United States of its standing to provide an assured supply of enriched uranium to developing countries to fill their power needs, and will raise the odds of emerging nuclear countries seeking their own enrichment capacity.

The national security issues tied to the loss of U.S. domestic enrichment capability go beyond proliferation concerns, extending to the reliable operation of our own nuclear deterrent. Of immediate concern is our need to produce domestically a component essential to the working of certain weapons in our nation’s nuclear arsenal that deteriorates with time and therefore must be replenished periodically. The U.S. government has not produced any such material on its own since 1988 and instead has relied on reactors operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to produce it.

Because of peaceful-use restrictions on foreign enrichment technologies, the fuel for the TVA reactors must come from a U.S. source. Once the lone U.S.-owned enrichment plant closes, the nation will lack the domestic source needed to maintain the effectiveness of a substantial part of America’s deterrent nuclear force.

With energy and national security ranking high on our nation’s list of national priorities, it would be folly for the United States to back itself into such a corner.

Fortunately, there is a solution. The United States possesses its own centrifuge technology – developed and demonstrated by the Department of Energy in the 1980s and resurrected about 10 years ago by USEC Inc., a part of the Department of Energy privatized during the Clinton administration.

USEC has invested about $2 billion in upgrading the U.S. centrifuge technology using state-of-the-art materials and control systems so that the American Centrifuge, as it is called, has nearly eight times the output per centrifuge of the European technology while consuming 95 percent less electricity than the old U.S. enrichment technology. USEC seeks to install these centrifuges at a ready-made facility in rural southern Ohio, along the way creating nearly 8,000 jobs.

The Department of Energy and USEC have determined that the best path forward for commercializing the American Centrifuge technology is a cost-shared demonstration program to further reduce the technical project execution and financial risks by demonstrating and verifying key systems as they actually would operate at the scale necessary for full commercialization. Unfortunately, this demonstration program has become caught up in the federal budget quagmire. Unless this impasse is resolved soon, the project faces potential demobilization, and our nation faces the loss of this critical technology.

The American Centrifuge, like all development projects, has faced its share of technical and financial challenges, but it has accumulated hundreds of thousands of machine run-time hours, met key performance objectives for production and plant reliability, and generally enjoyed bipartisan support.

Since the beginning of the nuclear age, the United States has pioneered the peaceful use of atoms to light and heat the world while it has kept the peace through the power of a nuclear deterrent. Now, with the potential sunset of domestic nuclear fuel production, both of those principles are at risk.

Norman Augustine is the retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. and was a member of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Dictator’s death raises questions about future of oil-rich country

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Ishmael•FYI: Ishmael is the son of Abraham through Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Ishmael is the Biblical father of the Arab nations.
•From these nations came Mohammad, who in approximately 632 a.d founded the Religion of Islam.
•The Religion is divided into two main groups, The Sunni’s and The Shiite’s. These two are engaged in a battle to gain control of the religion.
•The Shiite branch claims its right to control because Ali, its founder, was the nephew of Mohammad.
•While the Sunni branch claims its right to control because its founders were the generals in-charge when Mohammad died.
•It is reported that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni based organization.
•The battle continues to this very day.
•The verse below is speaking directly concerning Ishmael and the nations that would come from this direct descendent of Abraham.

“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 in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12

Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:2-5

Editors note about the words and Gog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Gog is the leader of the Russia alliance in the latter days., Magog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Magog, the descendant of Japheth, is identified as the Russian coalition in the latter days. and Persia•FYI: Persia in concert with Adolf Hitler, changed its name to Iran (Aryan Land) in May of 1935.

Moammar Gadhafi, who brutally ruled Libya for more than four decades, died of gunshot wounds after he was captured in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, but his death leaves many challenges for the revolutionary council now ruling the oil-rich North African nation.

Graphic images of a bloodied but still living Col. Gadhafi being manhandled in a mob were aired on Arab television, raising questions about how the dictator died. Libyan officials said he was killed by a gunshot wound to head during a shootout with revolutionary forces.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,” Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told reporters in Tripoli.

Col. Gadhafi’s son and national security adviser, Muatassim, also was killed, and another son, Seif al-Islam, his onetime heir apparent, was wounded and captured in Sirte, revolutionary sources told The Washington Times.

Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council will announce on Saturday that the country has been fully liberated after an eight-month revolution that began in the eastern city of Benghazi, said Abdurraheem Al Keeb, a Tripoli representative on the NTC.

The NTC is expected to announce the formation of a transitional government within four weeks of the declaration of freedom, council sources said. Elections to the national assembly must be held within eight months, according to a Libyan road map to democracy, they said.

Mr. Jibril, Libya’s prime minister who has been a lightning rod for criticism from revolutionaries, will resign, keeping a promise he made earlier to leave office once Libya has been liberated, they added.

In Washington, Libya’s ambassador thanked the U.S., NATO and other foreign leaders for helping topple the Gadhafi regime.

“The era of abuse, the era of dictatorship, is over. The dream came true,” said Ambassador Ali Aujali. “Thank you, United States; thank you, NATO; thank you, Egypt; thank you, Qatar; thank you, Tunisia; thank you, the international community.”

Revolutionary sources in Libya gave conflicting accounts of the circumstances surrounding Col. Gadhafi’s death and whether he was mortally wounded when he was captured or had been shot afterward.

Al-Jazeera TV showed footage of a man resembling the 69-year-old Col. Gadhafi being jostled by a crowd of armed men chanting “God is great” in Arabic.

He was later seen lying dead or severely wounded, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as his captors rolled him over on the pavement. His body was taken to Misrata, a western city on the Mediterranean coast, where fighters posed for photographs with the corpse.

Mohamed Benrasali, a member of the revolutionary stabilization team for Libya, said anti-Gadhafi forces from Misrata had fired on a white Chevrolet in which Col. Gadhafi was attempting to make a getaway in Sirte’s heavily fortified “Neighborhood 2.” The dictator was wounded in both his legs and suffered a facial injury and died in captivity, he said.

According to another Libyan source, Col. Gadhafi was found hiding in a storm drain.

“He was captured in an underground drain by the freedom fighters. He was dragged away and then he was shot. It is not confirmed if he was injured or they just killed him,” said a Libyan source who spoke on background.

As news of Col. Gadhafi’s death broke, the mood in Tripoli turned euphoric.

“He’s dead. He’s dead,” Mr. Benrasali said in a phone interview with The Times, shouting to be heard over raucous celebrations. “I feel ecstatic. I am more euphoric than I was when Tripoli was liberated.”

The revolutionaries captured Tripoli late in August. On Thursday, they took control of Col. Gadhafi’s tribal stronghold and birthplace Sirte, where Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, the chief of Col. Gadhafi’s armed forces, also was killed.

World reaction came swiftly, as revolutionary officials confirmed Col. Gadhafi’s death.

“The reported death of Moammar Gadhafi marks the end of an era of despotism and repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long,” European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement.

They called on the revolutionary council to “pursue a broad-based reconciliation process which reaches out to all Libyans and enables a democratic, peaceful and transparent transition in the country.”

The fall of Col. Gadhafi leaves many questions and challenges for a future government:

• NATO operations. NATO established a no-fly zone over Libya in March and provided air support to revolutionary forces throughout the conflict, including an airstrike that disrupted a convoy carrying Col. Gadhafi in Sirte on Thursday.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military alliance in coming days will terminate its Libya mission in coordination with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council.

“With the reported fall of Bani Walid and Sirte, that moment has now moved much closer,” he said.

A NATO spokesman told The Times there are “various factors that will have to be taken into account — including the situation on the ground and the ability of the National Transitional Council forces to protect civilians themselves.”

• Transitional government. The NTC has been recognized as Libya’s legitimate representative body by most countries, including the United States.

However, the council is made up of unelected officials who do not agree on many key issues, and the panel has lost credibility among many Libyans.

Delays by the NTC in forming a transitional government have fueled resentment that largely has been directed at the U.S.-educated Mr. Jibril.

“Mr. Jibril is the sort of leader we don’t want. He is not inclusive and has the charisma of a carpet,” said Mohamed Benrasali, a revolutionary spokesman in Tripoli.

However, Mr. Al Keeb, the Tripoli representative on the NTC, said he has high regard for Mr. Jibril. “We are moving slowly but surely toward a democratic system that honors freedom of speech, so people will speak their minds,” he said.

• Frozen assets. The Treasury Department had frozen $34 billion in the Gadhafi regime’s assets. Some of that money has been released to the NTC.

Britain and France also have unfrozen some Libyan assets. A total of $1.5 billion has been unfrozen by the international community so far.

It is not known if Libya will reimburse NATO members for expenses incurred during the liberation effort.

Libya derives most of its wealth from its proven oil reserves, which are estimated at 43.7 billion barrels, the ninth-largest in the world, according to Oil and Gas Journal.

• Tribal conflict. Libya’s new rulers are faced with uniting a country sharply split among about 140 tribes. The depth of their loyalties were on display throughout the course of the eight-month conflict.

Col. Gadhafi’s tribal stronghold and hometown Sirte put up stiff resistance to the advancing revolutionaries and provided shelter to the Gadhafis until Thursday.

Meanwhile, groups from the city of Benghazi in the east, and Misrata, Zintan and Tripoli in the west have been vying for roles in a future administration.

• Weapons. Libya is awash with weapons, many seized by the revolutionaries from the regime.

In addition, there were reports that huge caches around the country had been breached and emptied of their weapons, some of which may have been taken by al Qaeda insurgents.

More important, Libya’s stockpiles of mustard gas require vigilant supervision.

Since 2004, Libya has been destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons. Libya still has 9.5 tons of mustard gas hidden in the desert, but it no longer has the missiles to deliver it, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

• Islamists. The role played by Islamists in the revolution has caused some concern among Libyans, who are mostly secular.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the top military commander in Tripoli, founded the now-disbanded Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

Mr. Belhaj’s role in the revolution has been the cause of much unease in Libya.

• Human rights. The revolutionaries’ treatment of members of the Gadhafi regime, pro-Gadhafi mercenaries and people accused of supporting the former regime has sparked concern among human rights groups.

Diana Eltahawy, a London-based researcher at Amnesty International, said the NTC must ensure that all those suspected of human rights abuses and war crimes are treated humanely and given fair trials.

“Video footage appearing to show Gadhafi alive when captured is a concern, and we have called on the NTC to make sure that they conduct an impartial investigation into his capture to establish the cause of death,” she said.

Col. Gadhafi is the first leader to be killed in the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that have swept the Middle East and North Africa.

He came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969, when he was 27.

His grip on power started to loosen after his regime cracked down on a protest in the eastern city of Benghazi in February. The brutality of the suppression served as the spark for the revolution that eventually led to his downfall and death.

Revolutionaries seized the eastern half of the country and turned Benghazi into their de facto capital early in the uprising. In the months that followed, they waged a seesaw battle with better trained and armed pro-Gadhafi forces for control of the rest of the country.

The revolutionaries, a ragtag group that had no military experience and was frequently derided by Col. Gadhafi as “rats,” were helped by sustained NATO air power.

Col. Gadhafi repeatedly vowed that he would fight to the death and not leave Libya.

Other members of his family — including his second wife, Sofia; two sons, Mohammed and Hannibal; and a daughter, Aisha — earlier fled to Algeria along with their families. Another son, Saadi, escaped to Niger.

The International Criminal Court in June issued warrants for the arrest of Col. Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, and the dictator’s brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi. All three were wanted for committing crimes against humanity.

Moammar Gadhafi, who brutally ruled Libya for more than four decades, died of gunshot wounds after he was captured in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, but his death leaves many challenges for the revolutionary council now ruling the oil-rich North African nation.

Graphic images of a bloodied but still living Col. Gadhafi being manhandled in a mob were aired on Arab television, raising questions about how the dictator died. Libyan officials said he was killed by a gunshot wound to head during a shootout with revolutionary forces.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,” Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told reporters in Tripoli.

Col. Gadhafi’s son and national security adviser, Muatassim, also was killed, and another son, Seif al-Islam, his onetime heir apparent, was wounded and captured in Sirte, revolutionary sources told The Washington Times.

Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council will announce on Saturday that the country has been fully liberated after an eight-month revolution that began in the eastern city of Benghazi, said Abdurraheem Al Keeb, a Tripoli representative on the NTC.

The NTC is expected to announce the formation of a transitional government within four weeks of the declaration of freedom, council sources said. Elections to the national assembly must be held within eight months, according to a Libyan road map to democracy, they said.

Mr. Jibril, Libya’s prime minister who has been a lightning rod for criticism from revolutionaries, will resign, keeping a promise he made earlier to leave office once Libya has been liberated, they added.

In Washington, Libya’s ambassador thanked the U.S., NATO and other foreign leaders for helping topple the Gadhafi regime.

“The era of abuse, the era of dictatorship, is over. The dream came true,” said Ambassador Ali Aujali. “Thank you, United States; thank you, NATO; thank you, Egypt; thank you, Qatar; thank you, Tunisia; thank you, the international community.”

Revolutionary sources in Libya gave conflicting accounts of the circumstances surrounding Col. Gadhafi’s death and whether he was mortally wounded when he was captured or had been shot afterward.

Al-Jazeera TV showed footage of a man resembling the 69-year-old Col. Gadhafi being jostled by a crowd of armed men chanting “God is great” in Arabic.

He was later seen lying dead or severely wounded, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as his captors rolled him over on the pavement. His body was taken to Misrata, a western city on the Mediterranean coast, where fighters posed for photographs with the corpse.

Mohamed Benrasali, a member of the revolutionary stabilization team for Libya, said anti-Gadhafi forces from Misrata had fired on a white Chevrolet in which Col. Gadhafi was attempting to make a getaway in Sirte’s heavily fortified “Neighborhood 2.” The dictator was wounded in both his legs and suffered a facial injury and died in captivity, he said.

According to another Libyan source, Col. Gadhafi was found hiding in a storm drain.

“He was captured in an underground drain by the freedom fighters. He was dragged away and then he was shot. It is not confirmed if he was injured or they just killed him,” said a Libyan source who spoke on background.

As news of Col. Gadhafi’s death broke, the mood in Tripoli turned euphoric.

“He’s dead. He’s dead,” Mr. Benrasali said in a phone interview with The Times, shouting to be heard over raucous celebrations. “I feel ecstatic. I am more euphoric than I was when Tripoli was liberated.”

The revolutionaries captured Tripoli late in August. On Thursday, they took control of Col. Gadhafi’s tribal stronghold and birthplace Sirte, where Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, the chief of Col. Gadhafi’s armed forces, also was killed.

World reaction came swiftly, as revolutionary officials confirmed Col. Gadhafi’s death.

“The reported death of Moammar Gadhafi marks the end of an era of despotism and repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long,” European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement.

They called on the revolutionary council to “pursue a broad-based reconciliation process which reaches out to all Libyans and enables a democratic, peaceful and transparent transition in the country.”

The fall of Col. Gadhafi leaves many questions and challenges for a future government:

• NATO operations. NATO established a no-fly zone over Libya in March and provided air support to revolutionary forces throughout the conflict, including an airstrike that disrupted a convoy carrying Col. Gadhafi in Sirte on Thursday.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military alliance in coming days will terminate its Libya mission in coordination with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council.

“With the reported fall of Bani Walid and Sirte, that moment has now moved much closer,” he said.

A NATO spokesman told The Times there are “various factors that will have to be taken into account — including the situation on the ground and the ability of the National Transitional Council forces to protect civilians themselves.”

• Transitional government. The NTC has been recognized as Libya’s legitimate representative body by most countries, including the United States.

However, the council is made up of unelected officials who do not agree on many key issues, and the panel has lost credibility among many Libyans.

Delays by the NTC in forming a transitional government have fueled resentment that largely has been directed at the U.S.-educated Mr. Jibril.

“Mr. Jibril is the sort of leader we don’t want. He is not inclusive and has the charisma of a carpet,” said Mohamed Benrasali, a revolutionary spokesman in Tripoli.

However, Mr. Al Keeb, the Tripoli representative on the NTC, said he has high regard for Mr. Jibril. “We are moving slowly but surely toward a democratic system that honors freedom of speech, so people will speak their minds,” he said.

• Frozen assets. The Treasury Department had frozen $34 billion in the Gadhafi regime’s assets. Some of that money has been released to the NTC.

Britain and France also have unfrozen some Libyan assets. A total of $1.5 billion has been unfrozen by the international community so far.

It is not known if Libya will reimburse NATO members for expenses incurred during the liberation effort.

Libya derives most of its wealth from its proven oil reserves, which are estimated at 43.7 billion barrels, the ninth-largest in the world, according to Oil and Gas Journal.

• Tribal conflict. Libya’s new rulers are faced with uniting a country sharply split among about 140 tribes. The depth of their loyalties were on display throughout the course of the eight-month conflict.

Col. Gadhafi’s tribal stronghold and hometown Sirte put up stiff resistance to the advancing revolutionaries and provided shelter to the Gadhafis until Thursday.

Meanwhile, groups from the city of Benghazi in the east, and Misrata, Zintan and Tripoli in the west have been vying for roles in a future administration.

• Weapons. Libya is awash with weapons, many seized by the revolutionaries from the regime.

In addition, there were reports that huge caches around the country had been breached and emptied of their weapons, some of which may have been taken by al Qaeda insurgents.

More important, Libya’s stockpiles of mustard gas require vigilant supervision.

Since 2004, Libya has been destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons. Libya still has 9.5 tons of mustard gas hidden in the desert, but it no longer has the missiles to deliver it, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

• Islamists. The role played by Islamists in the revolution has caused some concern among Libyans, who are mostly secular.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the top military commander in Tripoli, founded the now-disbanded Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

Mr. Belhaj’s role in the revolution has been the cause of much unease in Libya.

• Human rights. The revolutionaries’ treatment of members of the Gadhafi regime, pro-Gadhafi mercenaries and people accused of supporting the former regime has sparked concern among human rights groups.

Diana Eltahawy, a London-based researcher at Amnesty International, said the NTC must ensure that all those suspected of human rights abuses and war crimes are treated humanely and given fair trials.

“Video footage appearing to show Gadhafi alive when captured is a concern, and we have called on the NTC to make sure that they conduct an impartial investigation into his capture to establish the cause of death,” she said.

Col. Gadhafi is the first leader to be killed in the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that have swept the Middle East and North Africa.

He came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969, when he was 27.

His grip on power started to loosen after his regime cracked down on a protest in the eastern city of Benghazi in February. The brutality of the suppression served as the spark for the revolution that eventually led to his downfall and death.

Revolutionaries seized the eastern half of the country and turned Benghazi into their de facto capital early in the uprising. In the months that followed, they waged a seesaw battle with better trained and armed pro-Gadhafi forces for control of the rest of the country.

The revolutionaries, a ragtag group that had no military experience and was frequently derided by Col. Gadhafi as “rats,” were helped by sustained NATO air power.

Col. Gadhafi repeatedly vowed that he would fight to the death and not leave Libya.

Other members of his family — including his second wife, Sofia; two sons, Mohammed and Hannibal; and a daughter, Aisha — earlier fled to Algeria along with their families. Another son, Saadi, escaped to Niger.

The International Criminal Court in June issued warrants for the arrest of Col. Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, and the dictator’s brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi. All three were wanted for committing crimes against humanity.

Ynetnews special: Italian journalist examines Vatican’s submission to political Islam

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue words

The Falling Away

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away•Strongs 646: apostasia, ap-os-tas-ee´-ah; feminine of the same as 647; defection from truth (properly, the state) (“apostasy”):—falling away, forsake. first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
—2 Thessalonians 2:3

“For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted•Strongs 7725: shuwb, shoob; a primitive root; to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat; often adverbial, again:—((break, build, circumcise, dig, do anything, do evil, feed, lay down, lie down, lodge, make, rejoice, send, take, weep)) x again, (cause to) answer (+ again), x in any case (wise), x at all, averse, bring (again, back, home again), call (to mind), carry again (back), cease, x certainly, come again (back), x consider, + continually, convert, deliver (again), + deny, draw back, fetch home again, x fro, get (oneself) (back) again, x give (again), go again (back, home), (go) out, hinder, let, (see) more, x needs, be past, x pay, pervert, pull in again, put (again, up again), recall, recompense, recover, refresh, relieve, render (again), requite, rescue, restore, retrieve, (cause to, make to) return, reverse, reward, + say nay, send back, set again, slide back, still, x surely, take back (off), (cause to, make to) turn (again, self again, away, back, back again, backward, from, off), withdraw. thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.”
—Isaiah 47:10

False Prophets

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
—Matthew 7:15

It has been five years since gave his controversial lectio about Islam at the German University of Regensburg. On September 12th, 2006, Joseph Ratzinger claimed that the god of the Muslims is both transcendental and unreasonable and he severely condemned jihad and the use of violence in the name of Koran. It was the only public event in which a Pope told the truth about some aspects of Islamic religion.

Benedict XVI made himself a central player in the post-9/11 era: His speech against the link between religion and violence, typical of Islam today, was not a mistake or a false step, as some observers wrote at that time. It was, rather, a vigorous attack against certain aspects of Islamic fanaticism.

The reaction to the Pope’s speech was a familiar spectacle: Threats, riots, and violence. From the religious leaders in Muslim majority countries to the New York Times, all demanded the Pope’s apologies. In the Palestinian areas, churches were attacked and Christians targeted. In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, an Italian nun was executed. In Iraq, Amer Iskander, a Syrian Orthodox priest, was beheaded and his arms mutilated.

In Islamic forums, Ratzinger was depicted like Dracula. He received many death threats: “Slaughter him”, “pig servant of the cross”, “odious evil”, “Allah curse him”, “vampire who sucks blood” and so on. The highest Islamic representative in Turkey, Ali Bardakoglu, declared that Ratzinger’s speech was “full of enmity and hatred.” The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood pledged “reactions worst of those against the Danish cartoons”

Iran’s Supreme Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, accused the Pope of being part of “the conspiracy of the Crusaders.” Under pressure, and aiming to stop any further violence, the Pope apologized.

Benedict XVI recently visited again his native Germany, but this time with a different agenda. Five years later, the Vatican adopted a pro-Islam course and has capitulated to fundamentalists. In a recent book written by German journalist Peter Sewald, Pope Ratzinger expressed “regrets” about the Regensburg lecture. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, buried the Pope’s lesson about Islam as “an archaeological relic.”

“The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy’s default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War,” writes George Weigel, a leading US writer about the Vatican. The Vatican’s new agenda seeks “to reach political accommodations with Islamic states and foreswear forceful public condemnation of Islamist and jihadist ideology.”

Appeasement agenda
After Regensburg, the Vatican adopted an appeasement agenda. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is known for having a pro-Islam position, was appointed by the Pope as the head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Indeed, Dialogue with Iran’s mullahs is pivotal in the new Vatican agenda. Recently, a delegation of clergy members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly visited the Vatican, meeting with top Catholic officials.

In June, the Vatican sent Archbishop Edmond Farhat, who is the official representative of Vatican politics, to Tehran to attend an “international conference on the global campaign against terrorism.” Last autumn, Vatican representatives met with Muslim leaders from around the world in Tehran for “a three-day interreligious dialogue.” In Tehran Cardinal Tauran praised Iran’s “spirit of cordiality” and “the friendly Ahmadinejad.”

Last month, the Vatican published a letter written by Tauran, addressing his “Dear Muslim friends.” In the letter, Tauran asked for Islamic help to form an alliance against atheism.

In 2008, the Vatican promoted “Love of God, Love of Neighbor,” the first three-day forum with Islamic leaders. The Pope agreed to meet one the most dangerous Islamist in the Western world, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, Tariq Ramadan – the Swiss scholar who denies Israel’s right to life and who has been banned from entering the US because of his alleged association with extremists.

Pope meets Saudi King Abdullah (Photo: AP)

Last May, Bishop Mariano Crociata, secretary general of the Italian Episcopal Conference, announced that the Vatican is in favor of building new mosques in Europe. A month later the European Bishops met with European Muslims in Turin (Cardinal Tauran was also present) to proclaim the need for the “progressive enculturation of Islam in Europe.”

In Rimini, a seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, the Comunione e Liberazione movement, one of the most powerful in the Catholic Church, holds its massive annual “meeting” that usually draws some 700,000 people. The Catholic movement last month hosted the president of Al Azhar, the most important Islamic university in Cairo, and a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact that for the first time the US Commission on Religious Freedom recommended that Egypt be placed on a list of the “worst of the worst” countries for persecution of Christians.

Targeting Israel
The State of Israel is easily expendable in the new pro-Islam policy. In January 2009, thousands of Muslims marched in front of Milan’s Duomo to protest against Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. They burned Israeli flags and chanted anti-Jewish slogans. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s spokesman for 22 years, defended the “freedom of expression” of the Muslims who burned the Star of David.

Months later, Pope Benedict visited Bethlehem, where the Christian population has dropped from a majority to less than 20%. Benedict delivered a message of solidarity to the 1.4 million Palestinians isolated in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. He said nothing of the suffering of Gaza’s 3,000 Christians since Hamas took over that territory in 2007.

Benedict could have decried the bombings, shootings and other Islamist attacks against Gaza Christian establishments, the brutal murder of the only Bible-store owner of Gaza, or the regular intimidation and persecution of Christians there. Instead, the Pope stood beside Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian leader deceptively pointed to a concrete separation barrier in Bethlehem and blamed that barrier, as well as Israeli “occupation,” for the plight of Christians.

A few weeks later, the United Nations ran “Durban II” and on the first day of the conference, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the only head of state to attend, made a speech condemning Israel as “totally racist” and referred to the Holocaust as an “ambiguous and dubious question.” When Ahmadinejad began to speak against the Jews, all European Union delegates left the conference room. The Vatican delegation didn’t say a word.

To understand the new Vatican’s approach toward Islam, one should also read what happened in the historical synod on the Middle East hosted by the Pope last autumn. Nothing was said about Islamist persecution of Christians; indeed, every effort was made to show the Catholic Church’s sympathy to Muslim grievances, especially against “Zionism” – a word evoked as a symbol of evil.

Aside from Iraq, the only country singled out for criticism in the Middle East was Israel. Patriarch Antonios Naguib of the Egyptian Coptic church, who was the “relator,” or secretary, of the synod, expressed “solidarity with the Palestinian people, whose situation today is particularly conducive to the rise of fundamentalism.” The lesson was simple: Islamism is the consequence of Israeli policies. The synod was carefully prepared for a year, and it produced a rash of radical anti-Jewish statements on both political and theological issues.

Ethnic cleansing silenced
The rightful concern of the Vatican for co-religionists has also been silenced. Intimidation, thuggery and violence have succeeded in turning away criticism not only of Islam, but of violence committed in the name of Islam against Christians.

Over the past several years, Christians have endured bombings, murders, assassinations, torture, imprisonment and expulsions. The very roots of the Christian heritage in the Middle East are being extirpated. When last winter Christians were killed in Egypt, Cardinal Tauran and the Vatican foreign office requested to “avoid anger” and downplayed the Islamist role in the butchering.

In the summer of 2010, Bishop Luigi Padovese, Vatican vicar for Anatolia and president of the Catholic Episcopal conference of Turkey, was slaughtered by Islamic fanatics in Iskenderun on the eve of the Pope’s trip to Cyprus. Vatican diplomacy did its part to convince the Pope to immediately and preemptively rule out the idea that this was a “political or religious” murder.

Elsewhere, the number of Christians in Turkey declined from two million to 85,000; in Syria, from half the population they have been reduced to 4%; in Jordan, from 18% to 2%; nearly two-thirds of the 500,000 Christians in Baghdad have fled or been killed; in Lebanon, Christians have dwindled to a sectarian rump, menaced by surging Shiite and Sunni populations, and in Saudi Arabia Christians have been beaten or tortured by religious police.

It’s an ethnic cleansing of monumental proportions that makes it clear why the Vatican’s submission to political Islam, along with its religious anti-Israel stance, will be remembered as one of the greatest moral failings of the 21st Century.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism

A former student at a high school in Southern California recently filed a lawsuit against the school district after he had been suspended for sharing his faith.

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Hated for His Name’s Sake

“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world•Strongs 2889: kosmos, kos´-mos; probably from the base of 2865; orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants, literally or figuratively (morally)): — adorning, world. hate you.”
—1 John 3:13

About a year ago, Kenneth Dominguez, 16, was disciplined by Gateway East High School in San Diego County and was prevented from bringing his Bible to campus.

The lawsuit was filed after the Grossmont Union High School District refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, according to Brad Dacus, president and founder of Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing Dominguez.

Dominguez is a new believer. He surrendered his life to the Lord during Christmas break in the 2009-2010 school year.

When he returned to school in January, he began to tell his peers about his Christian faith.

He was “on fire” and “excited about his faith,” sharing “what happened to him and what God had done,” Dacus explained to The Christian Post.

But his grace sharing period came to a halt when an administrator reprimanded him. The school official told Dominguez that he was not allowed to share his faith because of the “separation of church and state.”

According to Dacus, Dominguez had not created any disruption when he was testifying about his faith to fellow students. He didn’t shout or preach out loud and he limited his talk to lunch breaks and the hallways, and not the classroom.

Additionally, there has been no record of any student or anyone else complaining, Dacus noted.

After being warned by the administrator, Dominguez continued to discuss his faith and bring his Bible to school. He was then told that he could not bring his Bible to campus either. A two-day suspension soon followed.

Defending the student, attorney Michael J. Peffer, who heads PJI’s Southern California office, contended, “No student should be forced to leave his faith and Bible at the gate when he enters school grounds. We are looking forward to this opportunity to vindicate Mr. Dominguez and protect students throughout California.”

The incident doesn’t come as a surprise to PJI attorneys. Among the 4,000 requests for legal assistance received last year alone, Dacus said many of them dealt with public school religious freedom issues.

“Particularly in a state like California where the teachers union has such great control over what goes on in public schools, we see a lot of hostility and bigotry against Christian students, sometimes under the cloak of ‘tolerance,’” he lamented.

Catherine Martin, spokeswoman for the Grossmont Union High School District, was unable to comment because of pending litigation.

[UPDATE] 3-31 7:12 p.m.

The Grossmont Union High School District released a statement today in response to the lawsuit:

The Grossmont Union High School District Governing Board and Administration fully supports and defends the Constitution of the United States, particularly the First Amendment provisions protecting the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech. It is also the firm commitment of the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) to provide a safe and orderly learning environment for all students and staff that is free of disruption to the educational process on each of its campuses.

Ankara follows through on threat to impose independent sanctions on Jerusalem following its refusal to apologize for deadly Marmara raid: Top-level diplomatic staff expelled, key military contracts suspended. Turkish FM: Time for Israel to pay the price

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.”
—Ezekiel 38:6

Editors note about the word Togarmah•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Togarmah includes the area of present day Turkey, Armenia & Georgia.

Israel-Turkey relations sink to a new low: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on Friday that following Jerusalem’s adamant refusal to apologize over the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, Ankara will be downgrading its diplomatic relations with Israel and suspending key military agreements.

In a dramatic turn of events, Turkey announced that it was expelling Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy from Ankara. Davutoglu said Turkey’s diplomatic representation in Israel would be further reduced to second-secretary level. In accordance, all lower Israeli diplomatic personnel above the second-secretary level have also been expelled.

The announcement followed a press conference, in which Davutoglu said that some of the UN’s Palmer Report findings on the raid were “unacceptable,” adding that it was “time for Israel to pay the price… The highest price it can pay is losing our friendship.”

“Today, we reached a point where Israel has, in fact, spent all of the chances that were given to them. The Israeli government, on the other hand, see themselves (as being) above international laws and human conscience,” the Turkish FM said.

Turkey withdrew its own ambassador to Israel immediately after last year’s raid.

Davutoğlu’s stated that Ankara views the Israeli government as responsible for the situation, and that Turkey will not revise its position on the matter until Israel reconsiders its stand on the flotilla incident. Davutoğlu added that despite the Palmer Report findings, Turkey does not recognise the legality of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul reportedly said Friday that as far as Turkey was concerned, the Palmer Report was “null and void.” Ankara is also said to be exploring its options against Israel with the International Court of Justice.

Earlier Friday, Turkey vowed that its demand for an apology from Israel would remain unchanged, stating that it is powerful enough to protect the rights of its citizen. The statement was made in Ankara’s first official reaction to a leaked United Nations panel report on the Mavi Marmara incident.

Israel remains adamant over its decision not to offer Turkey an official apology. A senior official told Ynet that while Israel is aware of the implications of its decision to refrain from issuing an apology, “we cannot conduct ourselves based on ultimatums.”

The Palmer Report does not demand an Israeli apology, establishing instead that Israel should express regret and pay reparations, the official said, adding that Jerusalem still hoped that the two countries could “return to the cooperation that was a cornerstone of regional stability.” Another senior official added that “the severing of ties goes against Turkey’s strategic interests.”

Jerusalem sources were unfazed by the move, saying that Israel’s military agreements with Turkey had previously been suspended – by Israel. “Military trade with Turkey was suspended a while ago… we didn’t want to risk any weapons made in Israel falling into the wrong hands,” a diplomatic source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other sources hedged that while Turkey may downgrade its ties with Israel, the US is likely to stop Ankara from severing its ties with Jerusalem completely.

Foreign Ministry Director-General Rafael Barak called for a situation assessment on Friday afternoon, following Turkey’s decision. The meeting was called after he conferred with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is currently on an official visit to Moldova.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Zaman news site reported Friday that Davutoğlu had spoken with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and that he raised The New York Times issue with him. Davutoğlu added that UN’s Ban was also surprised to hear about the publication of the leaked report.

AP, Reuters, AFP and Ronen Medzini contributed to this report

Intelligence agents tell of intimidation, smears of American officials, diplomats.

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter•Strongs 319: akh-ar-eeth´; from 310; the last or end, hence, the future; also posterity:—(last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant, residue, reward. days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen•Strongs 1471: gowy, go´-ee; rarely (shortened) y…Og goy, go´-ee; apparently from the same root as 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts:—Gentile, heathen, nation, people. may know me, when I shall be sanctified•Strongs 6942: qadash, kaw-dash´; a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self), x wholly. in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”
—Ezekiel 38:16

Editors Note about Gog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe the name (Gog) identifies Russia in the latter days.

In the past four years, Russia’s intelligence services have stepped up a campaign of intimidation and dirty tricks against U.S. officials and diplomats in Russia and the countries that used to form the Soviet Union

U.S. diplomats and officials have found their homes broken into and vandalized, or altered in ways as trivial as bathroom use; faced anonymous or veiled threats; and in some cases found themselves set up in compromising photos or videos that are later leaked to the local press and presented as a sex scandal.

“The point was to show that ‘we can get to you where you sleep,’ ” one U.S. intelligence officer told The Washington Times. “It’s a psychological kind of attack.”

Despite a stated policy from President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of warm U.S.-Russian ties, the campaign of intelligence intimidation – or what the CIA calls “direct action” – has persisted throughout what both sides have called a “reset” in the relations.

They have become worse in just the past year, some U.S. officials said. Also, their targets are broadening to include human rights workers and nongovernmental organizations as well as embassy staff.

The most brazen example of this kind of intimidation was the Sept. 22 bombing attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. A National Intelligence Council assessment sent to Congress last week confirmed that the bombing was ordered by Maj. Yevgeny Borisov of Russian military intelligence, said four U.S. officials who have read the report.

False rape charge

One example of such intimidation occurred in 2009 against a senior U.S. official in the Moscow office of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the congressionally funded nongovernmental organization that promotes democracy throughout the world. The Times has withheld the name of the official at the request of NDI.

According to a Jan. 30, 2009, cable from U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle disclosed by WikiLeaks, USAID employees received an email with a doctored photo of the NDI official reclining with an underage girl.

The email from someone purporting to be a Russian citizen accused the official of raping her 9-year-old daughter.

In the cable, Mr. Beyrle said the embassy thought the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind the smear attack, which also appeared in Russian newspapers. The FSB is the successor agency of the Soviet-era KGB.

Kathy Gest, the NDI director of public affairs, said, “The allegations recounted in the WikiLeaks memo are all false and were protested at the time. We consider the matter closed and NDI, which is legally registered in Russia, continues its programs.”

Former Sen. Christopher S. Bond, who served as the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence between 2007 and 2010, said he had raised the issue of Russian intimidation of U.S. diplomats with the Obama administration.

“We are concerned about the acts of intimidation as well as their record on previous agreements and other activities,” Mr. Bond said. “It’s a real concern, I’ve raised it. It’s not the intelligence committee that fails to understand the problem. It’s the Obama administration.”

Yevgeny Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, said accusations that Russian diplomats have stepped up intimidation of U.S. officials were false.

Egypt’s northern Sinai is a desert region of frequent lawlessness where the Bedouin tribesmen who live have complained of being neglected and oppressed by the central government. Tim Whewell went to find out if anything has changed since Egypt’s revolution.

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Ishmael•FYI: Ishmael is the son of Abraham through Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Ishmael is the Biblical father of the Arab nations.
•From these nations came Mohammad, who in approximately 632 a.d founded the Religion of Islam.
•The Religion is divided into two main groups, The Sunni’s and The Shiite’s. These two are engaged in a battle to gain control of the religion.
•The Shiite branch claims its right to control because Ali, its founder, was the nephew of Mohammad.
•While the Sunni branch claims its right to control because its founders were the generals in-charge when Mohammad died.
•It is reported that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni based organization.
•The battle continues to this very day.
•The verse below is speaking directly concerning Ishmael and the nations that would come from this direct descendent of Abraham.

“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 in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12

Perilous Times

“This know also, that in the last days perilous•Strongs 5467: chalepos, khal-ep-os´; perhaps from 5465 through the idea of reducing the strength; difficult, i.e. dangerous, or (by implication) furious:—fierce, perilous. times shall come.”
—2 Timothy 3:1-2a

”But evil•Strongs 4190: poneros, pon-ay-ros´; from a derivative of 4192; hurtful, i.e. evil (properly, in effect or influence, and thus differing from 2556, which refers rather to essential character, as well as from 4550, which indicates degeneracy from original virtue); figuratively, calamitous; also (passively) ill, i.e. diseased; but especially (morally) culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious, facinorous; neuter (singular) mischief, malice, or (plural) guilt; masculine (singular) the devil, or (plural) sinners:—bad, evil, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wicked(-ness). See also 4191.
•Strongs 4192: ponos, pon´-os; from the base of 3993; toil, i.e. (by implication) anguish:—pain. men and seducers•Strongs 1114: goes, go´-ace; from goa¿w goao (to wail); properly, a wizard (as muttering spells), i.e. (by implication) an imposter:—seducer. shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
—2 Timothy 3:13

Editors note about the word perilous•FYI: The Greek word (chalepos) (perilous) is only used one other time in the New Testament, Matthew 8:28. There it is translated as (fierce) when describing the nature of the devils that possess Legion and his cohort.

“This is me with my new Kalashnikov,” the young water engineer tells me as we sit by a hotel pool in El-Arish on Egypt’s north Sinai coast, clicking through snapshots on his mobile phone.
“Before the revolution I never needed one, but now I do. To protect my family. It’s getting much more dangerous here.”
With his slicked-back hair, t-shirt and jeans, Fouad (not his real name) looks like any young, middle-class Egyptian.

Like thousands of others he joined the crowds of protesters filling Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February.
But Fouad is not first and foremost an Egyptian. He is Bedouin, belonging to one of the tribes who for centuries have roamed the Sinai peninsula – the pointed tooth of wilderness that separates Africa from Asia.
Once the Sinai was a land bridge. According to the Bible, it is where the Children of Israel journeyed on their 40-year trek from Egypt to the Promised Land.
But more recently it has been a battleground in Egypt’s wars with Israel.
Arms smuggling
The Bedouin have been caught in the middle. And that is one reason, they say, why they have suffered discrimination in Egypt since it regained Sinai from Israeli occupation in 1982 – discrimination that has left them alienated and angry.
“If you are Bedouin you can’t join the army or the police. You can’t apply to be a diplomat,” another young man in north Sinai, Ahmed Salama tells me.
“Maybe they are suspicious we might have some connections with the Israelis, but we don’t.”
In the final years of President Mubarak’s regime, Sinai was the most restive part of Egypt. Policemen were killed in armed clashes with Bedouin as they tried to crack down on the lucrative smuggling routes carrying weapons and building materials into the Gaza Strip, and illegal workers into Israel.

There was also anger at the arrest of thousands of Bedouin after a series of bombings between 2004 and 2006 in Sinai’s Red Sea resorts that killed 130 people.
The Bedouin have said they were falsely implicated.
And though most Bedouin detainees have been released since Egypt’s revolution, local people say many are still being prosecuted unjustly on smuggling charges.
That is why even now the atmosphere in north Sinai, where most Bedouin live, is so tense that there is a threat that violence might break out at any moment.
“The situation is getting much worse in terms of security – there is a huge number of weapons, heavy weapons – machine-guns. It is really frightening. I feel we are going towards a civil war here in Sinai,” Ahmed Salama says.
Hidden trouble
Sinai has always been riven by tribal disputes. The fear now is that they will escalate because the peninsula is more awash with arms than ever, and because the police – driven from the streets in much of north Sinai during the revolution – are unable or unwilling to intervene.
Twice during the few days I spend in el-Arish, roads are blocked by armed Bedouin intent on avenging the kidnap of members of their clan by a rival tribe.
But I miss the stand-offs, confined to my hotel on the orders of the local army command.
Before leaving for Sinai, I had spent two weeks waiting for permission to film there. All the necessary documents were filed. No clear answer came back. But when we reach el-Arish, tourist police are guarding the hotel to prevent us even touring the town.

They say they are simply concerned for our safety, but it is clear the authorities do not want us to see what is happening in north Sinai.
The new openness promised by the revolution has not reached this part of Egypt.

“Because of the revolution there are no police anymore… So, how can you protect your life? You have to bear arms”
Bedouin arms dealer

After several days, I am allowed to visit the border with Gaza, specifically to cover its permanent opening after years of blockade.
But I go a little further, travelling down back roads, to visit an arms dealer.
He is a 34-year-old Bedouin living in a three-storey turreted mansion of coloured stone.
He wraps his face in a head-dress before we begin filming, and then assembles an example of his best-selling line, a Chinese-made AK-47 rifle.
Between 2000 and 2007, he says, he was one of five smugglers in charge of the arms trade in Sinai, each of them making four or five deals a month, each involving between 200 and 400 guns. The main source was Sudan, the main market Gaza.
Al-Qaeda threat
Now, he says, it has all changed. Gaza has all the guns it needs, and Hamas can manufacture its own rockets. The market now is internal, within Sinai.
“Because of the revolution,” he says, “there are no police anymore. And the people won’t allow the police to come back until there’s an amnesty for Bedouin who’ve been wrongly prosecuted. So, till then, how can you protect your life? You have to bear arms.”

His claims contradict information from Israeli and other intelligence sources that smuggling of arms through tunnels into Gaza is continuing.
Two years ago, in cables later released by Wikileaks, US diplomats reported intelligence from Egypt’s spy chief Omar Suleiman that Iran had been trying to recruit Sinai Bedouin to smuggle weapons to Hamas.
The reports are hard to verify. Egypt may have had an interest in playing up the threat. But Israel believes the growing lawlessness in Sinai since the revolution can only make it easier for smugglers and terrorists to operate.
Even the most prominent Bedouin rights activist, Musaad Abu Fajr, jailed under the old regime, does not dismiss that possibility.
The forces that might seek to take advantage of the current instability in Sinai, he says, are Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah – and even al-Qaeda.
But he adds: “I wouldn’t blame them. I’d blame those in charge of managing Egypt. If they develop Sinai properly, no outside forces will be able to penetrate and do the damage they’re doing.”
He may be right. But there is not much sign of Sinai developing properly yet.

OAKLAND, Calif. – They spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. And so they waited, vigilantly, on Saturday for the appointed hour to arrive.

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False Proplets

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
—Matthew 7:15

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned•Strongs 4112: plastos, plas-tos´; from 4111; moulded, i.e. (by implication) artificial or (figuratively) fictitious (false): — feigned.
•Strongs 4111: plasso, plas´-so; a primary verb; to mould, i.e. shape or fabricate: — form. words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
—2Peter 2:3

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try•Strongs 1381: dokimazo, dok-im-ad´-zo; from 1384 ;to test (literally or figuratively); by implication, to approve: — allow, discern, examine, x like, (ap-)prove,
•Strongs 1384: dokimos, dok´-ee-mos; from 1380; properly, acceptable (current after assayal), i.e. approved: — approved, tried. the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
—1 John 4:1

When 6 p.m. came and went across the United States and various spots around the globe, and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, some believers expressed confusion, while others reassured each of their faith. Still, some others took it in stride.
“I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God,” said Keith Bauer — who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.
He started his day in the bright morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years.
“I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth,” said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he “worked last week, I wouldn’t have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen.”
The May 21 doomsday message was sent far and wide via broadcasts and websites by Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction. According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although some believers said Saturday the exact timing was never written in stone.
In New York’s Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o’clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.
“I can’t tell you what I feel right now,” he said, surrounded by tourists. “Obviously, I haven’t understood it correctly because we’re still here.”
Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.
“It’s still May 21 and God’s going to bring it,” said Family Radio’s special projects coordinator Michael Garcia, who spent Saturday morning praying and drinking two last cups of coffee with his wife at home in Alameda. “When you say something and it doesn’t happen, your pride is what’s hurt. But who needs pride? God said he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.”
The Internet was alive with discussion, humorous or not, about the end of the world and its apparent failure to occur on cue. Many tweets declared Camping’s prediction a dud or shared, tongue-in-cheek, their relief at not having to do weekend chores or take a shower.
The top trends on Twitter at midday included, at No. 1, “endofworldconfessions,” followed by “myraptureplaylist.”
As 6 p.m. approached in California, some 100 people gathered outside Family Radio International headquarters in Oakland, although it appeared none of the believers of the prophecy were among them. Camping’s radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a modest building sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader’s business.
Christian leaders from across the spectrum widely dismissed the prophecy, and members of a local church concerned followers could slip into a deep depression come Sunday were part of the crowd outside Family Radio International. They held signs declaring Camping a false prophet as motorists drove by.
“The cold, hard reality is going to hit them that they did this, and it was false and they basically emptied out everything to follow a false teacher,” the Rev. Jacob Denys, of the Milpitas-based Calvary Bible Church, said earlier. “We’re not all about doom and gloom. Our message is a message of salvation and of hope.”
About a dozen people in a partying mood were also outside Family Radio International, creating a carnival-like atmosphere as they strolled in a variety costumes that portrayed monks, Jesus Christ and other figures.
“Am I relieved? Yeah. I’ve got a lot going on,” Peter Erwin, a student from Oakland, said, with a hint of sarcasm. “Trying to get specific about the end of the world is crazy.”
Revelers counted down the seconds before the anticipated hour, and people began dancing to music as the clock struck 6 p.m. Some released shoe-shaped helium balloons into the sky in an apparent reference to the Rapture.
Camping has preached that some 200 million people would be saved, and that those left behind would die in a series of scourges visiting Earth until the globe is consumed by a fireball on Oct. 21.
Family Radio International’s message has been broadcast in 61 languages. He has said that his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn’t come true because of a mathematical error.
“I’m not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature,” he told The Associated Press last month. But this time, he said, “there is … no possibility that it will not happen.”
As Saturday drew nearer, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.
Marie Exley, who helped put up apocalypse-themed billboards in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, said the money allowed the nonprofit to reach as many souls as possible.
She said she and her husband, mother and brother read the Bible and stayed close to the television news on Friday night awaiting word of an earthquake in the southern hemisphere. When that did not happen, she said fellow believers began reaching out to reassure one another of their faith.
“Some people were saying it was going to be an earthquake at that specific time in New Zealand and be a rolling judgment, but God is keeping us in our place and saying you may know the day but you don’t know the hour,” she said Saturday, speaking from Bozeman, Mont. “The day is not over, it’s just the morning, and we have to endure until the end.”
On Sunday, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near a group of South Pacific islands about 600 miles off New Zealand, but there were no reports of damage or risk of tsunami. The temblor struck under the Kermadec Islands, which has no permanent population.
New Zealand, shaken by a series of quakes and aftershocks since a Feb. 22 temblor devastated the city of Christchurch and killed 181 people, sits in an area where two tectonic plates collide. More than 14,000 earthquakes are recorded in New Zealand each year.
A much smaller earthquake also was recorded at 7:05 p.m. Saturday in the San Francisco Bay Area, a seismically active region of California that includes Oakland. There were no reports that the minor magnitude 3.6 temblor, centered 8 miles north of Berkeley, caused damages or injuries.
Camping, who lives few miles from his radio station, was not home late morning Saturday, and an additional attempt to seek comment from him late in the evening also was unsuccessful, with no one answering his front door.
Earlier in the day, Sheila Doan, 65, Camping’s next-door-neighbor of 40 years, was outside gardening and said the worldwide spotlight on his May 21 forecast has attracted far more attention than the 1994 prediction.
Doan said she is a Christian and while she respects her neighbor, she doesn’t share his views.
“I wouldn’t consider Mr. Camping a close friend and wouldn’t have him over for dinner or anything, but if he needs anything, we are there for him,” Doan said.
___
Associated Press reporters Terry Chea in Oakland, Don Babwin in Chicago, Mike Householder in Detroit, Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, David R. Martin in New York and video journalist Haven Daley in San Francisco contributed to this report.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s King Abdullah II, bowing to public pressure, fired his government on Tuesday and tasked a new prime minister with quickly boosting economic opportunities and giving Jordanians a greater say in politics

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Ishmael•FYI: Ishmael is the son of Abraham through Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Ishmael is the Biblical father of the Arab nations.
•From these nations came Mohammad, who in approximately 632 a.d founded the Religion of Islam.
•The Religion is divided into two main groups, The Sunni’s and The Shiite’s. These two are engaged in a battle to gain control of the religion.
•The Shiite branch claims its right to control because Ali, its founder, was the nephew of Mohammad.
•While the Sunni branch claims its right to control because its founders were the generals in-charge when Mohammad died.
•The battle continues to this very day.
•The verse below is speaking directly concerning Ishmael and the nations that would come from this direct descendent of Abraham.

“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 in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12

Perilous Times

“This know also, that in the last days perilous•Strongs 5467: chalepos, khal-ep-os´; perhaps from 5465 through the idea of reducing the strength; difficult, i.e. dangerous, or (by implication) furious:—fierce, perilous. times shall come.”
—2 Timothy 3:1-2a

”But evil•Strongs 4190: poneros, pon-ay-ros´; from a derivative of 4192; hurtful, i.e. evil (properly, in effect or influence, and thus differing from 2556, which refers rather to essential character, as well as from 4550, which indicates degeneracy from original virtue); figuratively, calamitous; also (passively) ill, i.e. diseased; but especially (morally) culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious, facinorous; neuter (singular) mischief, malice, or (plural) guilt; masculine (singular) the devil, or (plural) sinners:—bad, evil, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wicked(-ness). See also 4191.
•Strongs 4192: ponos, pon´-os; from the base of 3993; toil, i.e. (by implication) anguish:—pain. men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
—2 Timothy 3:13

Editors note about the word perilous•FYI: The Greek word (chalepos) (perilous) is only used one other time in the New Testament, Matthew 8:28. There it is translated as (fierce) when describing the nature of the devils that possess Legion and his cohort.

”And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter•Strongs 319: }achariyth, akh-ar-eeth´; from 310; the last or end, hence, the future; also posterity:—(last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant, residue, reward. days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog•See Editors Note Below, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;”
—Ezekiel 38:16-19

Editors note about the words and Gog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Gog is the leader of the Russia alliance in the latter days., Magog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Magog, the descendant of Japheth, is identified as the Russian coalition in the latter days. and Persia•FYI: Persia in concert with Adolf Hitler, changed its name to Iran (Aryan Land) in May of 1935.

The country’s powerful Muslim opposition, which had demanded the dismissal of Prime Minister Samir Rifai in several nationwide protests inspired by those in Tunisia and Egypt, said the changes didn’t go far enough.

Rifai, 45, who has been widely blamed for a rise in fuel and food prices and slow-moving political reforms, tendered his resignation early Tuesday to the king, who accepted it immediately, a Royal Palace statement said.

Abdullah named Marouf al-Bakhit, 63, as Rifai’s replacement. Al-Bakhit, an ex-general who supports strong ties with the U.S. and Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, previously served as prime minister from 2005-2007.

Abdullah ordered al-Bakhit to “undertake quick and tangible steps for real political reforms, which reflect our vision for comprehensive modernization and development in Jordan.”

“Economic reform is a necessity to provide a better life for our people,” the king said in the statement. “But we won’t be able to attain that without real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decision-making.”

Abdullah also demanded an “immediate revision of laws governing politics and public freedoms,” including legislation governing political parties, public meetings and elections.

Jordan’s most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, dismissed the changes as cosmetic.

“We reject the new prime minister and we will continue our protests until our demands are met,” said Hamza Mansour, leader of the Islamic Action Front, the Brotherhood’s political arm.

Mansour repeated his call for constitutional amendments to curb the king’s power in naming prime ministers, arguing that the post should go to the elected leader of the parliamentary majority.

Jordan’s constitution gives the king the exclusive powers to appoint prime ministers, dismiss parliament and rule by decree.

“Unlike Egypt, we don’t want a regime change in Jordan and we recognize the Hashemites’ rule in Jordan,” he said, referring to Jordan’s ruling family. “But we want to see real political reforms introduced.”

When he ascended to the throne in 1999, King Abdullah vowed to press ahead with political reforms initiated by his late father, King Hussein. Those reforms paved the way for the first parliamentary election in 1989 after a 22-year gap, the revival of a multiparty system and the suspension of martial law, which had been in effect since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

But little has been done since then. Although laws were enacted to ensure greater press freedom, journalists are still routinely prosecuted for expressing their opinion or for comments considered slanderous of the king and the royal family.

Some gains been made in women’s rights, but many say they have not gone far enough. Abdullah has pressed for stiffer penalties for perpetrators of “honor killings,” but courts often hand down lenient sentences.

Still, Jordan’s human rights record is generally considered a notch above that of Tunisia and Egypt. Although some critics of the king are prosecuted, they frequently are pardoned and some are even rewarded with government posts.

It was not immediately clear when al-Bakhit will name his Cabinet.

A government official said al-Bakhit was consulting with lawmakers, opposition groups, unionists and civil society institutions on the makeup of his Cabinet.

The official, who is involved in the consultations, said al-Bakhit may name some opposition leaders in the new government. He declined to say whether al-Bakhit may approach the Muslim Brotherhood and insisted on anonymity because he is not allowed to brief the media.

Al-Bakhit is a moderate politician, who served as Jordan’s ambassador to Israel earlier this decade.

Like Abdullah, he supports close ties with Israel under a peace treaty signed in 1994 and strong relations with the United States, Jordan’s largest aid donor and longtime ally.

In 2005, Abdullah named al-Bakhit as his prime minister days after a triple bombing on Amman hotels claimed by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

During his 2005-2007 tenure, al-Bakhit – an ex-army major general and top intelligence adviser – was credited with maintaining security and stability following the attack, which killed 60 people and labeled as the worst in Jordan’s modern history.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Leading American scientists Friday warned against Western complacency over Iran’s nuclear drive, saying in a study that Tehran last year boosted its capacity to build an atomic bomb.

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:2-5

Editors note about the words and Gog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Gog is the leader of the Russia alliance in the latter days., Magog•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe that Magog, the descendant of Japheth, is identified as the Russian coalition in the latter days. and Persia•FYI: Persia in concert with Adolf Hitler, changed its name to Iran (Aryan Land) in May of 1935.

The study, published by a body set by scientists from the top-secret Manhattan Project which built the world’s first atomic bomb, comes as the United States and five other powers hold nuclear talks with Iran in Istanbul.
And it follows claims by US and Israeli officials that international efforts have slowed Iran’s nuclear drive.

The Washington-based Federation of American Scientists said on its website that the gas centrifuges at Iran’s main enrichment plant in Natanz became more efficient in 2010.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium for fuel in either civilian nuclear power plants or for a bomb’s destructive power. Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent for a bomb, compared to five percent for power plants.
“Despite a drop in centrifuge numbers during 2010, the total enrichment capacity of Iran’s main facility has increased relative to previous years,” said the study authored by Ivanka Barzashka.
“The growth in enrichment capacity from 2009 to 2010 is greater than from 2008 to 2009,” it said, adding the calculations were made on data provided by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Contrary to statements by US officials and many experts, Iran clearly does not appear to be slowing down its nuclear drive. On the contrary, it has a greater enrichment capacity and seems to be more efficient at enrichment,” it said.
Barzashka estimated “it would take Iran anywhere from five months to almost a year to produce enough HEU (highly enriched uranium) for a single crude bomb, which does not seem like a viable breakout option.”
“Breakout” potential is the time it would take to build a bomb.
“We are still in a stage where the numbers of new centrifuges Iran installs and their effective performance have significant effect on its time to a bomb,” the author said.
During a January 10 visit to Abu Dhabi, on the opposite side of the Gulf from Iran, Clinton said international sanctions have made it “much more difficult” for Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
And Israel’s strategic affairs minister, Moshe Yalon, said last month that a series of “technological challenges and difficulties” meant Tehran was still about three years away from being able to build nuclear weapons.
The New York Times reported January 16 that US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop a destructive computer worm, known as Stuxnet, to sabotage Iran’s atomic bomb-making efforts.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, denying Western charges it seeks to build bombs.