Iran lays out legal case for genocidal attack against ‘cancerous tumor’

Israel in the Last Days

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
—Genesis 12:3

“And they shall no more be a prey•Strongs 957: z;Ab baz; from 962; plunder:—booty, prey, spoil(-ed). to the heathen•Strongs 1471: ywø…g 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., neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely•Strongs 983: betach, beh´takh; from 982; properly, a place of refuge; abstract, safety, both the fact (security) and the feeling (trust); often (adverb with or without preposition) safely:—assurance, boldly, (without) care(-less), confidence, hope, safe(-ly, -ty), secure, surely., and none shall make them afraid•Strongs 2729: charad, khaw-rad´; a primitive root; to shudder with terror; hence, to fear; also to hasten (with anxiety):—be (make) afraid, be careful, discomfit, fray (away), quake, tremble..”
— Ezekiel 34:28

The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.

The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues.

On Friday, in a major speech at prayers, Khamenei announced that Iran will support any nation or group that attacks the “cancerous tumor” of Israel. Though his statement was seen by some in the West as fluff, there is substance behind it.

Iran’s Defense Ministry announced this weekend that it test-fired an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile and boasted about successfully putting a new satellite into orbit, reminding the West that its engineers have mastered the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles even as the Islamic state pushes its nuclear weapons program.

The commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Brig. Gen. Seyyed Mehdi Farahi, stated in August that the Safir missile, which is capable of transporting a satellite into space, can easily be launched parallel to the earth’s orbit, which will transform it into an intercontinental ballistic missile. Western analysts didn’t believe this would happen until 2015. Historically, orbiting a satellite is the criterion for crediting a nation with ICBM capability.

Forghani details the Islamic duty of jihad as laid out in the Quran for the sake of Allah and states that “primary jihad,” according to some Shiite jurists, can only occur when the Hidden Imam, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, returns. Shiites believe Mahdi’’s return will usher in Armageddon.

In the absence of the hidden Imam, Forghani says, “defensive jihad” could certainly take place when Islam is threatened, and Muslims must defend Islam and kill their enemies. To justify such action, Alef quotes the Shiites’ first imam, Ali, who stated “Waging war against the enemies with whom war is inevitable and there is a strong possibility that in near future they will attack Muslims is a must and the duty of Muslims.”

The article then quotes the Quran (Albaghara 2:191-193): “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers] … and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.”

It is the duty for all Muslims to participate in this defensive jihad, Forghani says. A fatwa by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made it clear that any political domination by infidels over Muslims authorizes Muslims to defend Islam by all means. Iran now has the ICBM means to deliver destruction on Israel and soon will have nuclear warheads for those missiles.

In order to attack Iran, the article says, Israel needs the approval and assistance of America, and under the current passive climate in the United States, the opportunity must not be lost to wipe out Israel before it attacks Iran.

Under this pre-emptive defensive doctrine, several Ground Zero points of Israel must be destroyed and its people annihilated. Forghani cites the last census by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics that shows Israel has a population of 7.5 million citizens of which a majority of 5.7 million are Jewish. Then it breaks down the districts with the highest concentration of Jewish people, indicating that three cities, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, contain over 60 percent of the Jewish population that Iran could target with its Shahab 3 ballistic missiles, killing all its inhabitants.

Forghani suggests that Iran’s Sejil missile, which is a two-stage rocket with a trajectory and speed that make it impossible to intercept, should target such Israeli facilities as: the Rafael nuclear plant, which is the main nuclear engineering center of Israel; the Eilun nuclear plant; another Israeli reactor in Nebrin; and the Dimona reactor in the nuclear research center in Neqeb, the most critical nuclear reactor in Israel because it produces 90 percent enriched uranium for Israel’s nuclear weapons.

Other targets, according to the article, include airports and air force bases such as the Sedot Mikha Air Base, which contains Jericho ballistic missiles and is located southwest of the Tel Nof Air Base, where aircraft equipped with nuclear weapons are based. Secondary targets include power plants, sewage treatment facilities, energy resources, and transportation and communication infrastructures.

Finally, Forghani says, Shahab 3 and Ghadr missiles can target urban settlements until the Israelis are wiped out.

Forghani claims that Israel could be destroyed in less than nine minutes and that Khamenei, as utmost authority, the Velayete Faghih (Islamic Jurist), also believes that Israel and America not only must be defeated but annihilated.

The radicals ruling Iran today not only posses over 1,000 ballistic missiles but are on the verge of ICBM delivery and have sufficient enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs even as they continue to highly enrich uranium despite four sets of U.N. sanctions.

The Iranian secret documentary “The Coming Is Upon Us” clearly indicates that these radicals believe the destruction of Israel will trigger the coming of the last Islamic Messiah and that even Jesus Christ, who will convert to Islam, will act as Mahdi’s deputy, praying to Allah as he stands behind the 12th Imam.

BEIRUT (AP) – Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution backing calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, despite international outrage Saturday over a devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by his regime’s forces. Activists said more than 200 were killed in the bloodiest episode of the nearly 11-month uprising.

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Syria and Damascus

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous•Strongs 4654: mappalah, map-paw-law´; or mappelah, map-pay-law´; from 5307; something fallen, i.e. a ruin:—ruin( ous). heap.”
—Isaiah 17:1

The overnight onslaught on restive neighborhoods in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, signaled a willingness by Assad’s regime to bring a new level of violence to stamp out an opposition that has grown increasingly bold and armed.
Its timing, hours before a planned vote on the U.N. resolution, suggested Assad was confident of his ally Russia’s protection on the world stage.
STORY: Russia, China veto U.N. resolution on Syria
STORY: Obama urges international help for Syria
Residents of Homs on Saturday described a night of ceaseless bombardment by mortars and rockets that lasted until dawn, sending them fleeing to lower floors and basements. When daylight came, dozens of buildings were left punctured by shells, facades collapsed, and some streets were stained with blood.
Thousands gathered for a funeral ceremony for some of the victims in the worst hit neighborhood, Khaldiyeh, where more than 60 coffins and bodies in white shrouds were lined up in a park, according to footage of the scene.
“A few more nights like this one and Homs will be erased from the map,” Ammar, a resident, said, speaking on condition that only his first name be used for fear he and his family could be targeted. “We are being massacred.”
Activists’ reports of the death toll could not be independently confirmed, and the counts varied due to the confusion of tracking the dead.
The Syrian government denied any bombardment took place at all, saying the high death tolls were opposition propaganda aimed at pressuring the United Nations and the bodies were those of people who had been kidnapped previously by “terrorists.”
The bloodshed added heat to negotiations that have been going on for days, as Western and Arab nations tried to overcome Russia’s opposition to the resolution. The measure would have backed an Arab call for Assad to hand over his powers to his vice president and allow formation of a unity government.
“The Assad regime must come to an end,” President Obama said in a statement Saturday before the vote, calling on the Security Council to “stand against the Assad regime’s relentless brutality.”
But Russia demanded further changes be made, saying the draft did not make enough demands on the armed opposition in Syria and calls for Assad to step aside could wreck chances for a negotiated solution to the country’s upheaval. In the end, the resolution’s proponents pushed ahead with a vote, challenging Moscow to veto or back down.
After the veto, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said her country was “disgusted” by the vote.
“It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for Syrians and a sad day for all friends of democracy,” French Ambassador Gerard Araud said. He said Russia and China had “made themselves complicit in a policy of repression carried out by the Assad regime.”
Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change. Russia and China also used their veto powers as permanent council members in October to block a previous Western attempt to condemn the violence in Syria.
Assad has seen the Russian backing as crucial as he wages a crackdown that has killed well over 5,400 people since March, according to a U.N. estimate.
In a sign of Assad’s thinking, a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician who met with the Syrian leader last week told a Lebanese newspaper that Assad was “confident in the Russian position.”
Wiam Wahhab said Assad told him that the time had come to decisively put an end to the uprising. “The price of chaos is worse than the price of decisiveness,” he quoted Assad as telling him.
The regime has appeared more determined to crush army defectors who have joined the uprising and grown increasingly bold, trying to overtly establish control of pro-opposition cities and neighborhoods. Last week, regime forces carried out a heavy offensive to crush defectors who held sway in suburbs of Damascus, bringing them to the doorstep of the capital.
There were signs that the bombardment in Homs was in response to moves by army defectors to solidify control in several neighborhoods.
Residents reported that defectors set up new checkpoints in several areas, and two Homs activists said defectors attacked a military checkpoint in the Khaldiyeh district Thursday night, capturing 17 soldiers. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity to protect themselves from retaliation.
On Saturday, thousands protested across Syria in solidarity with the beleaguered city. “Homs, your blood will not go in vain,” read a banner held by a protester a Damascus suburb.
At least 21 people were killed in violence outside Homs on Saturday, including 12 shot when security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for victims of a shooting in the Damascus suburb of Daraya a day earlier, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Tunisia decided to expel Syria’s ambassador and end its recognition of Assad’s regime in response to what it called a “bloody massacre” in Homs. Angry Syrians stormed their embassies in Berlin, London, Athens, Cairo and Kuwait, clashing with guards and police and — in Cairo — setting fire to part of the embassy.
In Khaldiyeh, an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim district of Homs, residents checked on relatives after a night spent in hiding and cleaned streets of shattered glass, debris and bloodstains. As many as 30 buildings were left uninhabitable by the extent of the damage, said local activist Majd Amer.
Mohammad, a Khaldiyeh resident who like most in Homs declined to be further identified, said the shelling started shortly before midnight and lasted until early Saturday.
“We were sitting at home and the mortars just started slamming into buildings around us,” he said by telephone. “There was nothing that prompted it, not even protests … people are terrified today.”
“It’s a catastrophe, no other way to describe it,” he said.
Online video by activists taken during the onslaught showed chaotic scenes in a makeshift clinic set up in what appeared to be a Khaldiyeh mosque, the room filled with wounded men with gashes and broken limbs being bandaged as well as several dead bodies. In another video, fire ravaged a house that had been shelled, as people poured water on the blaze.
The videos could not be independently verified.
The Syrian Observatory said the death toll in Homs was at least 217, counting victims whose names it had collected. About 140 of the deaths were in Khaldiyeh, it said. The Syrian National Council, one of the main opposition groups, put the toll at more than 220.
“This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground.
The group’s figures could not be independently verified.
Residents said most shelling came from a military installation west of Khaldiyeh and Alawite-dominated neighborhoods to the east. Syria’s Alawite minority, which belongs to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, forms the backbone of Assad’s regime and the military leadership.
Homs has been one of the biggest centers of anti-regime protests since March and has seen increasingly large numbers of army defectors. It has been hit by near daily regime raids and fighting. It has also seen bloody bouts of tit-for-tat killings between its Alawite and Sunni communities, a harbinger of what many Syrians fear could happen if the country descends into an outright confrontation of armed forces.
Syria’s uprising began with peaceful protests around the country. But in the face of the regime’s withering crackdown, the opposition has increasingly taken up arms. Military and security forces have responded with progressively greater force.

The U.S. and Israel are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities, as that nation’s leader said it won’t back down.

Israel in the Last Days

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
—Genesis 12:3

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”
—Ezekiel 39:25-29

The U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from attack, Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, said today.
“There’s a growing concern — more than a concern — that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” he said in an interview.
The differing views were underscored by public comments this week by senior Israeli and U.S. defense officials.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that Israel must consider conducting “an operation” before Iran reaches an “immunity zone,” referring to Iran’s goal of protecting its uranium enrichment and other nuclear operations by moving them to deep underground facilities such as one at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom.
‘Nearing Readiness’
“The world has no doubt that Iran’s nuclear program is steadily nearing readiness and is about to enter an immunity zone,” Barak said in an address to the annual Herzliya Conference at the Interdisciplinary Center campus north of Tel Aviv. “If the sanctions don’t achieve their goal of halting Iran’s nuclear weapons program, there will arise the need of weighing an operation,” Barak said.
The U.S. holds the view that “there is still time and space to pursue diplomacy” with Iran over its nuclear program, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said today in Washington. He added that the U.S. “is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today that his nation won’t abandon its nuclear efforts and warned that a strike against the nuclear program would damage U.S. interests in the Middle East “10 times over,” according to the Associated Press. He said, without providing details, that he would disclose a letter that he said President Barack Obama sent Iran’s leaders.
Referring to Israel as a “cancerous tumor,” Khamenei said in his Friday sermon that “if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will help.” He said that Iran has assisted anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.
SWIFT Sanctions
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved yesterday a bill that would increase the economic pressure on Iran. The proposal targets Iran-related banking transactions, Iran’s national oil company and leading tanker fleet, joint ventures in mining and energy projects. It also would require corporate disclosure of Iran-related activity to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
One provision calls on the administration to provide a report to Congress within 60 days detailing Iran-related financial transactions facilitated by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the Belgian member-owned institution known as Swift, and its competitors. The measure would give the president authority to sanction Swift to cut off such services. A similar bill, with stronger language mandating the imposition of sanctions, was submitted in the House yesterday.
Within Israel, there isn’t consensus that striking Iran is either good or necessary. Ephraim Halevy, a former head of Israel’s Mossad security agency, is one of two former intelligence chiefs who have spoken against a strike.
Panetta’s Concerns
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declined to comment directly on a report by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius that Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June. Panetta and other U.S. officials have repeatedly warned Israel not to act alone.
“Israel has indicated that they’re considering this” through public statements, Panetta told reporters traveling with him yesterday in Brussels. “And we have indicated our concerns.”
Israelis think Iran will reach the immunity zone in “half the time the Americans think it will,” Miller said. “To take that difference and talk about a growing rift” between Israel and the U.S. “is by and large an overstatement,” he said.
Obama-Netanyahu Relations
Tension between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be complicating communications on the issue, a U.S. defense official said. “There’s no love lost between the two of them, and there’s a trust deficit,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the news media.
Defense officials have been concerned that Obama hasn’t warned Netanyahu directly enough about the risks of a Israeli preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, including for U.S. interests in the region such as bases in in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, according to the official.
James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said Jan. 31 that communication with Israel was good. “We’re doing a lot with the Israelis, working together with them,” he told the Senate intelligence panel.
Unknown Intentions
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has said it is “premature” to resort to military force because sanctions are starting to have an impact on Iran. In a Jan. 26 interview with National Journal, Dempsey said he delivered a similar message of caution to Israel’s top leadership during a visit to the Jewish state in early January.
U.S. intelligence agencies think Iran is developing capabilities to produce nuclear weapons “should it choose to do so,” said Clapper.
“We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons,” he said.
While leaders of both countries agree that time must be given to gauge the impact of the latest set of economic sanctions on Iran, Israel’s patience is shorter than that of the U.S., Ephraim Kam, deputy director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, said.
‘Too Late’
“It will take at least six months to see whether sanctions are effective and by then it may be too late,” said Kam, author of the 2007 book, “A Nuclear Iran: What Does it Mean, and What Can be Done.”
“We’re definitely using different clocks,” he said.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz told the Herzliya conference on Feb. 1 that his nation must be “willing to deploy” its military assets because Iran may be within a year of gaining nuclear weapons capability. Gantz said international sanctions are starting to show some results.
Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s vice prime minister and its former top military commander, played down Iran’s ability to shelter its activities from a military attack. “It’s possible to strike all Iran’s facilities, and I say that out of my experience as IDF chief of staff,” he said at the conference, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.
The U.S., its European allies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have challenged the government in Tehran to prove that its nuclear work is intended only for energy and medical research, as Iranian officials maintain.
Mehdi Khalaji, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in an interview that he doubts that the U.S. or Iran will launch a military strike this year. Rather, he cited the possibility than Iran might stage a provocation and use any response as an excuse to launch an asymmetrical attack against U.S. and Israel targets using proxies such as Hezbollah.

Exelon was working to restore operations at a nuclear reactor unit near Rockford, after a reactor went down Monday morning.

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

Divided Nation

“But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom•Strongs 932: basileia, bas-il-i´-ah; from 935; properly, royalty, i.e. (abstractly) rule, or (concretely) a realm (literally or figuratively): — kingdom, + reign. divided•Strongs 1266: diamerizo, dee-am-er-id´-zo; from 1223 and 3307; to partition thoroughly (literally in distribution, figuratively in dissension): — cloven, divide, part. against itself is brought to desolation•Strongs 2049: eremoo, er-ay-mo´-o; from 2048; to lay waste (literally or figuratively): — (bring to, make) desolate(-ion), come to nought.; and a house divided against a house falleth.”
—Luke11:17

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.”
—Isaiah 1:4

“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”
—Isaiah 3:12

xelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski said the problem started at 10:18 a.m. in reactor Unit No. 2 at The Exelon Byron Nuclear Generating Station, located in Ogle County, about 100 miles west of Chicago, near Rockford.

The supply of power from off-site (needed to maintain backup for safety systems) went down, forcing Exelon to take Unit No. 2 offline, according to Lopykinski.

She said the problem is officially described as an “unusual event.”

“This is the lowest of four emergency classifications that’s established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the reason they did that is because we had loss of off-site power,” Lopykinski said. “Also, our Unit 2 came offline as well.”

Lopykinski said depressurization of Unit 2 has required Exelon to release steam containing tritium – a radioactive isotope – into the air. She said the amount of tritium released was minimal and well within federal limits.

There has not been any evacuation at the plant an no injuries have been reported, according to Lopykinski.

Engineers were working to resume power production from the unit as of Monday afternoon.

Neighbors saw a single plume of steam rising from one of the giant stacks. Word quickly spread that something was going on.

Byron resident Patricia Carter grabbed her potassium iodide pills when she thought there could be an emergency at the station.

“Well I kind of panicked. And the first thing I did was go get those pills they’d given us,” she told CBS 2’s Pamela Jones.

The Byron nuclear plant has had its share of problems in recent years, WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Grzanich reports.

In 2008, a similar incident occurred involving electrical transformers at the plant after outside power to one of the reactors was interrupted.

In 2007, workers using a wire brush to clean corroded steel pipes broke through a pipe, causing a leak. Both reactors had to be shut down for 12 days.

And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last April it was investigating whether backup cooling pumps would be able to cool the reactors if the normal system wasn’t working. Exelon initially said the pumps would work but later concluded they wouldn’t.

In 2010, the company agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle lawsuits filed by the Illinois Attorney General for allowing tritium to leak outside three nuclear power plants, including Byron.

After the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years, authorities in Canada said people living here were safe and faced no health risks from the fallout from Fukushima.

Foretaste of Revelation

“And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter”
—Rev 8:11

“And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
—Revelation 8:9

They said most of the radiation from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant would fall into the ocean, where it would be diluted and not pose any danger.

Dr. Dale Dewar wasn’t convinced. Dewar, a family physician in Wynyard, Sask., doesn’t eat a lot of seafood herself, but when her grandchildren come to visit, she carefully checks seafood labels.

She wants to make sure she isn’t serving them anything that might come from the western Pacific Ocean.

Dewar, the executive director of Physicians for Global Survival, a Canadian anti-nuclear group, says the Canadian government has downplayed the radiation risks from Fukushima and is doing little to monitor them.

“We suspect we’re going to see more cancers, decreased fetal viability, decreased fertility, increased metabolic defects – and we expect them to be generational,” she said.

And evidence has emerged that the impacts of the disaster on the Pacific Ocean are worse than expected.

Since a tsunami and earthquake destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last March, radioactive cesium has consistently been found in 60 to 80 per cent of Japanese fishing catches each month tested by Japan’s Fisheries Agency.

In November, 65 per cent of the catches tested positive for cesium (a radioactive material created by nuclear reactors), according to a Gazette analysis of data on the fisheries agency’s website. Cesium is a long-lived radionuclide that persists in the environment and increases the risk of cancer, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which says the most common form of radioactive cesium has a half-life of 30 years.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which monitors food safety, says it is aware of the numbers but says the amounts of cesium detected are small.

“Approximately 60 per cent of fish have shown to have detectable levels of radionuclides,” it said in an emailed statement.

“The majority of exported fish to Canada are caught much farther from the coast of Japan, and the Japanese testing has shown that these fish have not been contaminated with high levels of radionuclides.”

But the Japanese data shows elevated levels of contamination in several seafood species that Japan has exported to Canada in recent years.

In November, 18 per cent of cod exceeded a new radiation ceiling for food to be implemented in Japan in April – along with 21 per cent of eel, 22 per cent of sole and 33 per cent of seaweed.

Overall, one in five of the 1,100 catches tested in November exceeded the new ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilogram. (Canada’s ceiling for radiation in food is much higher: 1,000 becquerels per kilo.)

“I would probably be hesitant to eat a lot of those fish,” said Nicholas Fisher, a marine sciences professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Fisher is researching how radiation from Fukushima is affecting the Pacific fishery. “There has been virtually zero monitoring and research on this,” he said, calling on other governments to do more radiation tests on the ocean’s marine life.

“Is it something we need to be terrified of? No. Is it something we need to monitor? Yes, particularly in coastal waters where concentrations are high.”

Contamination of fish in the Pacific Ocean could have wide-ranging consequences for millions.

The Pacific is home to the world’s largest fishery, which is in turn the main source of protein for about one billion people in Asia alone.

In October, a U.S. study – co-authored by oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., – reported Fukushima caused history’s biggest-ever release of radiation into the ocean – 10 to 100 times more than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

“It’s completely untrue to say this level of radiation is safe or harmless,” said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

Edwards, who is also a math professor at Vanier College, said Fukushima has highlighted how lackadaisical Canadian authorities are about radiation risks – the result, he says, of the influence of Canada’s powerful nuclear industry.

“The reassurances have been completely irresponsible. To say there are no health concerns flies in the face of all scientific evidence,” said Edwards, who has advised the federal auditor-general’s office and Ontario government on nuclear-power issues.

Other Fukushima impacts have been unexpected, too. The first debris swept into the sea by the tsunami reportedly started to wash ashore on the west coast in mid-December, a year earlier than scientists and authorities predicted.

Residents of Vancouver Island, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast have said they’ve found large quantities of bottles, cans, lumber and floats.

The debris is part of 18 million tonnes of debris from Japan floating across the Pacific – taking up an area thought to be twice the size of Texas.

The impact of the debris on the Pacific is unclear. Much of it is expected to eventually join an already massive patch of existing garbage floating in the Pacific gyre.

The arrival of the debris on the west coast also appears to have caught Canadian authorities off guard.

“What debris are you talking about?” Health Canada spokesman Gary Holub asked when contacted for a comment this week.

“Debris from Japan is not expected on the west coast of Canada for another year.”

He asked a reporter to email him media stories about the debris. Later, Holub emailed a statement saying “there has been no official confirmation that the source of this debris is from the tsunami in Japan.”

He said, “It is ‘highly unlikely’ the debris will be radioactive and that Health Canada will await scientific data before deciding whether to test any of it.”

It’s also unclear how the debris will impact fish in the Pacific.

But there is a good chance Canadians have already eaten some of the types of fish most likely to be contaminated with cesium, based on the Japanese fisheries data.

Japan exported $76 million of food products to Canada in 2010, including $13 million of fish and crustaceans. No figures were available for 2011.

The Gazette analyzed the Japanese fisheries data for 22 seafood species that Japan has exported to Canada in recent years.

Some cesium was found in 16 of these 22 species in November, the last full month for which data was available.

Cesium was especially prevalent in certain of the species:

73 per cent of mackerel tested

91 per cent of the halibut

92 per cent of the sardines

93 per cent of the tuna and eel

94 per cent of the cod and anchovies

100 per cent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

Some of the fish were caught in Japanese coastal waters. Other catches were made hundreds of kilometres away in the open ocean.

There, the fish can also be caught by fishers from dozens of other nations that ply the waters of the Pacific.

Yet, Japan is the only country that appears to be systematically testing fish for radiation and publicly reporting the results.

CFIA is no longer doing any testing of its own. It did some radiation tests on food imports from areas of Japan around the stricken nuclear plant in the weeks after the Fukushima accident.

Only one of the 169 tested products showed any radiation. CFIA stopped doing the tests last June, saying they weren’t needed.

“The quantities of radioactive material reaching Canada are very small and within normal ranges,” CFIA spokesperson Lisa Gauthier said in an emailed statement.

“They do not pose any health risk to Canadians, the food we eat or the plants and animals in Canada.”

In August, CFIA also tested a dozen samples of fish caught in B.C. coastal and inland waters. None of those tests found any radiation.

CFIA said it has no plans to do any other radiation tests on fish in the Pacific or imports from other nations that fish in the ocean, including Japan.

CFIA now relies on Japanese authorities to screen Japanese food exported to Canada.

But Japan’s monitoring of food has come under a storm of criticism from the Japanese public after food contaminated with radiation was sold to consumers.

A Canadian seafood industry official was surprised when told CFIA doesn’t plan any more tests of Pacific fish.

“It is certainly our expectation that the CFIA will test again this year,” said Christina Burridge, executive director of the B.C. Seafood Alliance.

The alliance is an umbrella of Pacific seafood harvesting associations whose member firms generate about $700 million in yearly revenues.

Burridge said CFIA promised her group last spring it would test Pacific salmon and tuna returning to B.C. fishing grounds in 2012 and 2013 because of the possibility those fish could have migrated close to Japan.

“We all agreed that if there was any risk of contamination, it would be in 2012 and 2013,” she said.

She wouldn’t comment on the Japanese fisheries data, which she hadn’t seen previously. But she said of the data: “It would reinforce our expectation that the CFIA would test this year.

“We want to be able to assure our customers that our expectation that there will be no increase in detectable levels (of radiation) is true,” she said.

She said she based this expectation on “a general belief that contamination will be limited to the coastal waters off Japan.”

But despite this belief and the importance of the Pacific fishery, few studies exist on how Fukushima affected marine life.

One of those studies found that fish and crustaceans caught in the vicinity of Fukushima in late March had 10,000 times more than so-called safe levels of radiation. The study, published last May in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, also said macroalgae had 19,000 times the safe level.

Those levels were measured before the Japanese utility that runs the crippled nuclear plant dumped 11,000 tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific in April and additional leaks that have released hundreds of tonnes more.

But since that early study, little research has been published on the topic.

“People want to know what’s happening with the cesium and how much is in the fish, but we don’t know. It’s frustrating,” said oceanographer Buesseler.

“It’s disconcerting how big of an event Fukushima was and how little data are out there. No one has taken responsibility for studying this in a single agency (in the U.S.), even though we also have reactors on the coast and other events could happen,” he said.

SUNY’s Fisher agrees: “In the U.S., it’s very difficult to acquire funding to do that work. A lot of people are very frustrated. Funding agencies are already spread incredibly thin, and they were not prepared for this,” he said.

After governments refused to provide funds, Buesseler, Fisher and other scientists secured funds from a private foundation for a research voyage in the Pacific to gather radiation data on fish, plankton and water.

Fisher can’t discuss his findings because they aren’t published yet. He expects to send them for publication in coming weeks.

Buesseler has already reported some results from the 15-day cruise last May and June.

He co-authored the study in October that said cesium levels in the Pacific had gone up an astonishing 45 million times above pre-accident levels. The levels then declined rapidly for a while, but after that, they unexpectedly levelled off.

In July, cesium levels stopped declining and remained stuck at 10,000 times above pre-accident levels.

It meant the ocean wasn’t diluting the radiation as expected. If it had been, cesium levels would have kept falling. The finding suggested radiation was still being released into the ocean long after the accident in March, Buesseler said in an interview.

“It implies the groundwater is contaminated or the facility is still leaking radiation.”

The Japanese fisheries data seems to support this conclusion. Far from declining, contamination levels in some species were flat or even rose last fall, including species that Japan exports to Canada like skipjack tuna, cod, sole and eel.

In November, the average Japanese catch had 111 becquerels of cesium per kilogram – above the new radiation ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilo that Japan has announced it will implement for food this spring.

The November level declined from a peak level of 373 becquerels per kilo last April. But it was an increase from the October average of 78 becquerels per kilo.

Such persistently elevated levels of radiation warrant more monitoring and research, Fisher said. “It’s not something we can easily dismiss.”

Continuing radiation leaks from Fukushima could be to blame, he said. Another culprit, he said, may be a phenomenon called biomagnification – the tendency for radiation concentrations to increase in species that are farther up the food chain.

About 2.7 per cent of the fish catches also exceeded Japan’s existing ceiling for food of 500 becquerels per kilo. That was also up from one per cent in October.

In November, 0.8 per cent of Japanese catches exceeded Canada’s ceiling of 1,000 becquerels per kilo, up from 0.2 per cent in October.

But food with radiation below these limits can still pose health risks, Edwards believes. “There is no safe level of radiation. They should be making every effort to monitor food.”

Thousands of US troops began descending on Israel this week. Senior US military sources told DEBKAfile Friday, Jan. 6 that many would be staying up to the end of the year as part of the US-IDF deployment in readiness for a military engagement with Iran and its possible escalation into a regional conflict. They will be joined by a US aircraft carrier. The warplanes on its decks will fly missions with Israeli Air Force jets. The 9,000 US servicemen gathering in Israel in the coming weeks are mostly airmen, missile interceptor teams, marines, seamen, technicians and intelligence officers.

Israel in the Last Days

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
—Genesis 12:3

“And he shall set up an ensign •Strongs 5251: nace; from 5264; a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:—banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.
•Strongs 5264: naw-sas´; a primitive root; to gleam from afar, i.e. to be conspicuous as a signal; or rather perhaps a denominative from 5251 (and identical with 5263, through the idea of a flag as fluttering in the wind); to raise a beacon:—lift up as an ensign. for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
—Isaiah 11:12

The incoming American soldiers are officially categorized as participants in Austere Challenge 12, the biggest joint US-Israeli war game ever held.
The maneuver was originally designated Juniper Stallion 2012. However, the altered name plus the comment heard from the exercise’s commander, US Third Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Gorenc, during his visit two weeks ago, that the coming event is more a “deployment” than an “exercise,” confirmed that Washington has expanded its mission. The joint force will now be in place ready for a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear installations or any war emergency.
Our sources disclose that it was decided at the last minute in Washington and Jerusalem to announce the forthcoming Austere Challenge 12 on Thursday night, Jan. 5, ahead of the bulletin released by Tehran about another Iranian naval exercise at the Strait of Hormuz to take place in February, although its 10-day drill in the same arena only ended Monday, Jan. 2.
The early release was decided in consultations among US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the two army chiefs, US Gen. Martin Dempsey and Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.
British Defense Minister Phillip Hammond, on a visit to Washington, was brought into the discussion.
The handout circulated to US correspondents from Hammond’s talks in the US capital affirmed that Britain stands ready to strike Iran if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
However, that phrase was omitted from the British minister’s remarks at a news conference, following a last-minute request from Panetta, signifying the Obama administration’s interest of keeping a low profile on plans for attacking Iran.
Tehran too is walking a taut tightrope. It is staging military’s maneuvers every few days to assuring the Iranian people that its leaders are fully prepared to defend the country against an American or Israeli strike on its national nuclear program. By this stratagem, Iran’s ground, sea and air forces are maintained constantly at top war readiness to thwart any surprise attack.
The joint US-Israeli drill will test multiple Israeli and US air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets, according to the official communiqué.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add that they will also practice intercepting missiles and rockets coming in from Syria, Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It will not be the first time a US aircraft carrier docks in Israel for joint operations with the Israeli Air Force. On June 9, 2010, the USS Truman dropped anchor opposite Israel to test a joint deployment against Iran and its allies. The carrier and its air and naval strike force then staged joint firing practices with the Israeli Air Force over the Negev in the South.
Washington and Jerusalem are doing their utmost to present a perfectly synchronized military front against Iran: American officers are stationed at IDF command centers and Israeli officers posted at the US European Command-EUCOM. At the same time, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that full consensus has not been reached on every last particular of shared operation against Iran, should one go forward.

According to its latest annual report, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) received $487.4 million in tax dollars over a twelve-month period and performed 329,455 abortions.

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Innocent Blood

“Yea, they sacrificed•Strongs 2076:zabach, zaw-bakh´; a primitive root; to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice):—kill, offer, (do) sacrifice, slay. their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent•Strongs 5355:naqiy, naw-kee´; or ayIqÎn naqiyi (Joel 4 : 19; Jonah 1 : 14), naw-kee´; from 5352; innocent:—blameless, clean, clear, exempted, free, guiltless, innocent, quit. blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted•Strongs 2610:chaneph, khaw-nafe´; a primitive root; to soil, especially in a moral sense:—corrupt, defile, x greatly, pollute, profane. with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions•Strongs 4611:mah-al-awl´; from 5953; an act (good or bad):—doing, endeavour, invention, work..”
—Psalms 106:37-39

In addition, the number of adoption referrals made by the organization continued to decline.

The latest annual report covers the period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the PPFA’s fiscal year. The report states that the organization received “government health services grants and reimbursements” totaling $487.4 million.

Previous Planned Parenthood annual reports showed total funding from “government grants and contracts” (which were $363.2 million in 2009), while this year’s report also accounts for payments from Medicaid managed care plans among the payments the group receives from government .

When compared with previous annual reports, the latest one shows an almost steady increase in the number of abortions performed at its clinics: In 2006, Planned Parenthood did 289,750 abortions; in 2007, it did 305,310; in 2009, it did 331,796; and, in 2010, it did 329,445–a small decrease from the previous year.

The annual report for fiscal year 2008-2009 does not include abortion or adoption figures, but a PPFA Fact Sheet posted on its Web site and said to be current as of September 2010, states that 324,008 abortions were performed at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country in 2008.

According to PPFA’s annual report for fiscal year 2007-2008, in 2007 Planned Parenthood’s “adoption referrals to other agencies” totaled 4,912. In Fiscal Year 2010 that number was 841, a decrease of 82.8 percent.

The PPFA Fact Sheet states that adoption is included in 1 percent of services in 2008 (primary care and “other services” are included in that 1 percent), or 2,405 adoption referrals.

The latest annual report claims that abortion services make up 3 percent of “medical services,” but PPFA states it served 3 million people and performed 329,445 abortions – numbers that show 11 percent of customers received an abortion.

The Fiscal Year 2009-2010 annual report also shows that PPFA’s net assets as of June 30, 2010 topped $1 billion, specifically $1,009,600,000.00.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life organization that lobbies Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, called the organization an “abortion giant.”

“With over a billion in net assets and a business model centered on abortion and government subsidies, it is time for Planned Parenthood to end its reliance on taxpayer dollars,” Dannenfelser said in a statement. “Despite an unprecedented effort by statewide and federal leaders to defund them, a wave of former employees willing to testify against them, and uniform agreement amongst Republican presidential candidates that they should be defunded, Planned Parenthood continues full-steam ahead.”

“They are unwilling to answer to the pro-life American majority that wants out of this business,” Dannenfelser said.

As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a spokesperson with Planned Parenthood told Bloomberg’s Businessweek last year that 90 percent of government funding the organization gets is from the federal government or from Medicaid.

Bloggers and talkers beware: The Obama administration is working to make Islam “bashing” a crime.

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

Divided Nation

“But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom•Strongs 932: basileia, bas-il-i´-ah; from 935; properly, royalty, i.e. (abstractly) rule, or (concretely) a realm (literally or figuratively): — kingdom, + reign. divided•Strongs 1266: diamerizo, dee-am-er-id´-zo; from 1223 and 3307; to partition thoroughly (literally in distribution, figuratively in dissension): — cloven, divide, part. against itself is brought to desolation•Strongs 2049: eremoo, er-ay-mo´-o; from 2048; to lay waste (literally or figuratively): — (bring to, make) desolate(-ion), come to nought.; and a house divided against a house falleth.”
—Luke11:17

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.”
—Isaiah 1:4

“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”
—Isaiah 3:12

Clare Lopez is a former CIA operations officer and strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, homeland security, national defense and counterterrorism issues. In an article published at Big Peace last week, she warned Americans to pay close attention to what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu did while in Washington last week.

According to blogger Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, “The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a religious and political organization. Close to the Muslim World League of the Muslim Brotherhood, it shares the Brotherhood’s strategic and cultural vision: that of a universal religious community, the Ummah, based upon the Koran, the Sunna, and the canonical orthodoxy of Sharia. The OIC represents 56 countries and the Palestinian Authority (considered a state), the whole constituting the universal Ummah with a community of more than one billion three to six hundred million Muslims.”

Back to Lopez: “From 12 to 14 December 2011, working teams from the Department of State and the OIC are going to discuss implementation mechanisms that could impose limits on freedom of speech and expression. The OIC’s purpose, as stated explicitly in its April 2011 Annual Report on Islamophobia, is to criminalize ‘incitement to hatred and violence on religious grounds.’”

In a follow-up, CNS News reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Wednesday “told the closing session of the meeting at the State Department that the adoption of [United Nations] Resolution 16/18 had ‘ended 10 years of divisive debate where people were not listening to each other anymore.’”

“Critics have been doubtful about the OIC’s sincerity, however,” CNS News reports, “noting the top priority it has given to the drive to curb speech and actions [that] it views as insulting to Islam – ranging from the Mohammed cartoons and threats to burn the Qur’an to anti-shari’a campaigns and post-9/11 security profiling.”

“U.N. Resolution 16/18, formally entitled ‘Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons based on religion or belief,’ is championed by the Obama administration,” the report concludes.

A glimpse into our online future?

New rules are now in place requiring microbloggers to register their real names with the government. Here? In the United States? Not yet. But what’s happening in China is a look into our totalitarian future unless we battle those in Congress who want to “protect” the Internet.

Congressional action on the SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act – has been postponed pending further review by the House Judiciary Committee, but authorities in Beijing are tightening the Chinese government’s grip on the Internet. With more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities in Beijing are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.

As of last week, Beijing’s city government now requires users of weibos – the Chinese version of Twitter – to give their real names to website administrators in an effort to establish a system of content censorship.

Internet architects oppose U.S. online piracy bills

Prominent Internet architects oppose legislation in the U.S. Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.

According to a published news report, “In an open letter to Congress, more than 80 engineers, inventors and software developers expressed concerns about the bills introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Their letter came a day after the founders of Google, Twitter, Yahoo! and other Internet giants voiced opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act being considered in the House and the Senate version known as the Protect IP Act.”

Among those supporting the legislation are Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Digital rights and free speech groups claim the measure will pave the way for the Feds to shut down any websites accused of online piracy, including foreign sites, without due process.

Homeland Security wants control over the Internet? PrECISEly.

From The Hill: Members of the House Homeland Security Committee have introduced the Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PrECISE Act, a cybersecurity bill that establishes a quasi-governmental entity to oversee information-sharing with the private sector.

Like other cybersecurity bills offered by the House GOP, this one encourages private firms to share information on cyber threats but stops short of mandating new security standards for sectors deemed critical to national security.

Bill sponsors include Peter King, R-N.Y., [Mac] Thornberry, R-Texas, Dan Lungren, R-Calif., Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., Candice Miller, R-Mich., Tim Walberg, R-Mich., Billy Long, R-Mo., Tom Marino, R-Pa., and Bob Turner, R-N.Y., of the Homeland Security Committee, as well as Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I..

Europe secured an historic agreement to draft a new treaty for deeper economic integration in the euro zone on Friday, but Britain, the region’s third largest economy, refused to join the other 26 countries in a fiscal union and was left isolated.

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

New World Order

“And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”
—Daniel 2:43

The outcome of a two-day European Union summit left financial markets uncertain whether and when more decisive action would be taken to stem a debt crisis that began in Greece in 2009, spread to Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain and now threatens France and even economic powerhouse Germany.

A new treaty could take three months to negotiate and may require losable referendums in countries such as Ireland. While nine non-euro-zone countries said they would join the euro zone in backing it, there were quickly notes of caution from some corners, including the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Two ECB sources told Reuters the European Central Bank would keep purchases of euro zone government bonds capped for now and take no extra firefighting action. Debt markets were wary. Interbank lending rates eased but Italian 10-year bond yields rose to around 6.5 percent.

Under the new treaty plan, the leaders agreed to pursue a tougher budget discipline regime with automatic sanctions for deficit sinners in the single currency area, but Britain said it could not accept the proposed treaty amendments after failing to secure concessions for itself on financial regulation.

“This is a breakthrough to a union of stability,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “We will use the crisis as a chance for a new beginning.”

After 10 hours of talks that ran into the early hours of Friday, Britain found itself without any allies around the table, diplomats said. All the other nine non-euro states said they wanted to take part in the fiscal union process, subject to parliamentary approval.

“Once Cameron said for sure he wasn’t in, it only took minutes for the other 26 to agree that they would push ahead with an intergovernmental treaty,” one senior official involved in the discussions told reporters.

The rift, which could widen into a permanent divide between London and the continental mainland, occurred 20 years to the day after European leaders agreed at the Maastricht summit to create the single currency, with Britain opting to stay out.

Prime Minister David Cameron insisted at a news conference that it remained in Britain’s interest to stay in the EU and take advantage of its single market.

One senior EU diplomat called Cameron’s negotiating tactics “clumsy.” Among other things, he had sought a veto on a proposed financial transaction tax, which may now be voted through by a majority over the objections of London’s financial centre.

NO BIG BAZOOKA

ECB President Mario Draghi called the EU’s decision a step forward for the stricter budget rules he has said are necessary for the euro zone to emerge stronger from the turmoil.

“It’s going to be the basis for a good fiscal compact and more discipline in economic policy in the euro area members,” Draghi said. “We came to conclusions that will have to be fleshed out more in the coming days.”

Two ECB sources said the bank’s governing council decided on Thursday to keep bond buying limited to around 20 billion euros a week and there was no need to review the decision in the light of the summit outcome.

“You will see some further purchases but not the huge bazooka that some people in the markets and the media are awaiting,” one central banker said on condition of anonymity.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the ECB’s move to provide unlimited three-year funds to cash-starved European banks would be more effective, by enabling them to continue buying government bonds.

“This means that each state can turn to its banks, which will have liquidity at their disposal,” he said.

Analysts said the notion that commercial banks could step up their purchases of government bonds looked optimistic given the same banks are being asked to deleverage and recapitalize.

“The lesson for banks from the stress tests was don’t buy Italian bonds,” said Berenberg bank economist Holger Schieding. “Buying Italian bonds is probably the last thing banks will do with this extra liquidity.”

“SEETHES, SULKS, GLOATS”

Merkel said the world would see that Europe had learned from its mistakes and avoided “lousy compromise.”

Sarkozy sounded elated at having united a big group around the euro zone as the EU’s core, long a French objective, and many diplomats perceived France as being the big winner.

“This is a summit that will go down in history,” he said. “We would have preferred a reform of the treaties among 27. That wasn’t possible given the position of our British friends. And so it will be through an intergovernmental treaty of 17, but open to others.”

One EU diplomat summed up the outcome as: “Britain seethes, Germany sulks, and France gloats.”

Active ECB support will be vital in the coming days with markets doubting the strength of Europe’s financial firewalls to protect vulnerable economies such as Italy and Spain, which have to roll over hundreds of billions of euros in debt next year.

Traders said the ECB bought Italian bonds on Friday to steady markets.

The euro rallied in Europe and U.S. shares gained, but analysts said the summit had done little to convince markets that a solution to the crisis was at hand.

Asked if the euro was safe now, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “I’m not sure.”

BRITAIN OUTSIDE?

Britain refused to allow its partners to amend the EU treaty, demanding guarantees in a protocol protecting its financial services industry, roughly one-tenth of the country’s economy. Sarkozy described Cameron’s demand as unacceptable.

Cameron hinted London may now try to prevent the others from using the executive European Commission and the European Court of Justice, saying: “Clearly the institutions of the European Union belong to the European Union, they belong to the 27.”

But European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who chaired the summit, said the EU institutions would be fully involved in the new treaty, which would be signed in early March at the latest. The euro zone plus nine may hold a summit without Britain as early as January, diplomats said.

The rift may increase pressure from Eurosceptics within Cameron’s Conservative party and outside it for Britain to hold a referendum on leaving the EU, which it joined in 1973. The prime minister strongly opposes such a course, which he has said would be disastrous for British interests.

Britain conducts more than half of its trade within the EU and could suffer on a broad range of financial regulation issues if the other countries decided to move forward as 26.

Van Rompuy said the summit’s key achievement was to tighten fiscal limits, including the need for countries to bring budgets close to balance.

“It means reinforcing our rules on excessive deficit procedures by making them more automatic. It also means that member states would have to submit their draft budgetary plans to the (European) Commission,” Van Rompuy said.

But a new treaty will take weeks of wrangling as countries like Finland and Slovakia oppose a Franco-German drive to take decisions on future bailouts by an 85 percent supermajority to avoid being taken hostage by a single small country.

LAST-CHANCE SALOON?

In a meeting billed by some as a last chance to save the euro, the leaders also took several decisions on the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which will come into force a year early in July 2012.

The ESM’s capacity will be capped at 500 billion euros ($666 billion), less than had been suggested was possible before the summit, and the facility will not get a banking license, as Van Rompuy originally had proposed, due to German opposition.

It also was agreed that EU countries would provide up to 200 billion euros in bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it tackle the crisis, with 150 billion euros of the total coming from the euro zone countries.

Cameron’s decision to stay out of the treaty-change camp could spell problems for Britain. Deeper integration on the continent could involve changes to the single market and financial regulation, both of which could have a profound impact on the British economy.

“Cameron was clumsy in his maneuvering,” a senior EU diplomat said. It may be possible that Britain will shift its position in the days ahead if it discovers that isolation really is not a viable course of action, diplomats said.

($1 = 0.7512 euros)

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer, Annika Breidthardt, John O’Donnell, Jan Strupczewski, Julien Toyer, Matt Falloon, Paul Carrel, James Mackenzie, Ilona Wissenbach, Justyna Pawlak and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Paul Taylor,; Editing by Mike Peacock)

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that he did not know that the 926-page Defense Department authorization bill that came through his committee and was approved by the Senate last week on a 93-to-7 vote included a provision that would repeal the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality if the bill becomes law.

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Days of Lot

“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;”
—2Peter 2:6

“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly•Strongs 808: aschemosune, as-kay-mos-oo´-nay; from 809; an indecency; by implication, the pudenda:—shame, that which is unseemly., and receiving•Strongs 618: apolambano, ap-ol-am-ban´-o; from 575 and 2983; to receive (specially, in full, or as a host); also to take aside: — receive, take., in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
—Romans 1:27

Please read Leviticus 18:22-30“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.” —Leviticus 18:22-30 to see the results of this lifestyle on a progressively decaying society, as it turns from it’s creator.

CNSNews.com asked McCain: “Senator, did you read the Defense authorization bill that was passed last week? Were you aware of the language that repealed the ban on sodomy and bestiality?”

“On what?” McCain replied.

CNSNews.com followed up: “The repeal of the ban on sodomy and bestiality in the military, were you at all aware of that?”

“I’ll have to ask my folks,” McCain said. “I—I will check on it and have, and he’ll get back to you.”

CNSNews.com then asked: “You don’t agree with that language?”

“I don’t, I don’t know what you’re—honestly. I read the bill. And I was there for many hours of deliberation and debate and amendments. And probably spent hundreds of, several hundred hours on it. But that particular provision I did not know. So we’ll have, we’ll get back to you. We’ll get back to you. Just call.”

As CNSNews.com previously reported, the bill that was first approved by the Armed Service Committee, where McCain is ranking member, and then on the Senate floor, where McCain voted for it, does in fact include a provision repealing the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality.

Page 174 of the bill includes a provision headlined in capital letters: “REPEAL OF SODOMY ARTICLE.” Click here to see a PDF of the page.

The provision states: “Section 925 of such title (article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) is repealed.” Click here to see the language of the provision as posted on Uniform Code of Miltary Justice website.

Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which anyone can find by doing a Google search, says: “(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

After the interview with Sen. McCain, CNSnews.com followed up with his office, as the senator suggested, asking why McCain had not been aware of the provision that woud repeal the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality and, now that he was aware of the provision, whether he supported it. McCain’s office did not immediately respond.

To see the full roll call on the 93 to 7 vote approving the bill that included the provision to repeal the ban on sodomy and bestiality in the military click here.