A tipping point for biometrics?

The Department of Homeland Security is about to embark on an ambitious project to add biometrics to its smart card identification system. Other government efforts have demonstrated that such projects can go horribly awry, but it also has the potential to profoundly change DHS for the better.

The exact path the agency takes, analysts say, depends on how well it prepares itself and possibly on how well it incorporates some new technical guidance.

In May, DHS issued a request for proposals to add facial, fingerprint and iris recognition capabilities to its ID system as part of a $102 million upgrade. The agency is seeking a new contractor to take over the ID management project currently overseen by XTec and establish a new biometric-based card system that complies with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). The contractor would replace 161,924 personal identity verification (PIV) cards by the end of 2013 and another 116,172 in 2014, DHS officials said.

According to the agency, the winning contractor would also install enrollment and issuance stations at as many as 300 DHS locations to manage at least 300,000 PIV cards. Those locations could include sites outside the United States.

Accenture Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton,Deloitte, General Dynamics Information Technology, Northrop Grumman, Science Applications International Corp. and Unisys have all expressed interest in the project.

Biometric challenges

Many agencies are meeting HSPD-12's requirement for physical and logical access to their buildings and computer systems, but few have been adequately incorporating biometric capabilities. DHS' project takes that bull by the horns, but not without risk.

Heidi Shey, an analyst at Forrester Research who covers security and risk markets, said the relatively short timeline for completing such a large project could lead to big problems if sound planning is not done upfront. For the agency to avoid trouble down the road, it should be working on — or, better yet, completing — programs that establish enrollment processes for employees, define what kind of information each employee needs embedded in his or her card, and create backup plans in case of failure, she added.

DHS is hard at work on that kind of due diligence, said Jim Williams, senior vice president of business development at Daon. The software and professional services company is helping India's government develop and manage a national biometric-based ID program. The project, which aims to issue identity cards for roughly 1.4 billion people, enrolls about 1 million people a day, taking fingerprint, iris and facial images from each. Those images are stored in a massive central database.

FCW

Homosexuality is Death, and I choose life!

Joseph Herrin (08-21-2013)



I have examined one aspect of homosexuality that is antithetical to the character and nature of God. It is sterile, devoid of life, and a spreader of death to mankind. It has been observed that Yahweh’s plan for man is that humanity might be conformed to His own image and likeness. Yahweh is a source of life, and there is no death in Him. We are also told that Christ is a life-giving spirit. A very well known Scripture declaring the nature of Christ is the following.

John 14:6
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

In this post I want to focus on another aspect of homosexual behavior, demonstrating that it not only deviates from the “life” found in Christ, but it also is devoid of “truth.” In this series I have shown that many lies are being spread by the proponents of homosexuality. Two days ago, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law legislation that is similar to that which Governor Jerry Brown of California has made the law of his state. It is now illegal in New Jersey to offer change counseling to anyone under the age of 18 who identifies as a homosexual. I would like to examine a news report posted to the Fox News website on this new legislation in order to identify the lies that are being propounded. The article is titled:

NJ Gov. Christie signs ban on controversial gay conversion therapyPublished
August 19, 2013
[Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/19/nj-gov-christie-signs-ban-on-gay-conversion-therapy/]

One of the implicit lies of this news articles is that Governor Christie has arrived at this decision on his own. Chris Christie is a puppet being controlled by unseen masters. Like the President of the United States, he follows the script that has been delivered to him. There is an unseen hand guiding Governor Christie’s policies. It is a work of deception to portray his legislative acts as something he arrived at independently after conscientious consideration. Nothing could be further from the truth.

(For those unfamiliar with the depths to which Americans have been deceived about their government and who truly controls it, I recommend the book Dragon Flood.)

The article begins with the following statement.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed into law on Monday legislation that bars licensed therapists from trying to turn gay teenagers straight, though the Republican said in a statement he did so "reluctantly..."

"Government should tread carefully into this area," he said in the signing note, "and I do so here reluctantly."

The media is an instrument in the hands of a global elite to portray before humanity a deceptive image of the world.




It suits them to portray Governor Christie as a public servant who is concerned for the welfare of the citizens of his state. This image is a thin facade to mask the ambitious, self-serving motives that truly drive this man. There was no “reluctance” in this act. Chris Christie has sold himself to do the work of globalists who are pressing forward an agenda inspired by Satan. The apostle Paul pulls back the curtain and exposes the true character of such men.

II Corinthians 11:14-15
Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.

Governor Christie pretends to be concerned about the health of the young people in his state, and the media which is owned by the same global masters he serves, is complicit in fostering an image of a man who is acting on behalf of the people’s welfare. The article continues:

Christie said the health risks of trying to change a child's sexual orientation, as identified by the American Psychological Association, trump concerns over the government setting limits on parental choice...

Christie said on "issues of medical treatment for children we must look to experts in the field to determine the relative risks and rewards," citing a litany of potential ill effects of trying to change sexual orientation, including depression, drug abuse and suicide.

"I believe that exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate," he said...

This series has shown that homosexual behavior is intrinsically unhealthy. Let Governor Christie go view the AIDS quilt the next time it is displayed in Washington, D.C.. As immense as it is, the quilt represents only a fraction of the people who have died as a result of contracting this deadly virus that is spread by homosexual behavior. The number of young people who suffer depression, and attempt suicide, is far higher among homosexuals than heterosexuals. Drug use among practicing homosexuals is also higher than that of the heterosexual population.

Matt Barber, a columnist for World Net Daily, provided an analogy to reveal the dishonesty of the pro-homosexual lobby. After citing a recent CDC report that reveals that one in five homosexual males is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, he states:

As the CDC has once again verified, if you affirm or defend homosexual behavior as “normal, natural and good,” you also defy science. You’re on the wrong side of history, let alone reality.

What is it about this particular PC-protected practice that causes so many otherwise intelligent people to become blinded blathering buffoons?

Let’s say we had a group of people who defined their identity based upon a penchant for running headlong into brick walls. Oh, we’ll call them, “Wallies.” (Wally pride, baby!)

As significant percentages of Wallies began to drop dead, or suffer irreversible brain damage, do you suppose the Left would demand tolerance for such behavior? Do you think they’d begin handing out bicycle helmets in elementary schools, telling kids to practice safe walling? With liberals, anything’s possible, but I’m more inclined to think that even the moonbat Left might agree that people tending toward such behavior would be best served to simply avoid running headlong into walls altogether.

I don’t mean to be flip (okay, maybe a little flip) but can someone please tell me why on earth the Left insists that we “tolerate” homosexual behavior while – as the CDC has once again confirmed – it continues to have results similar to brick-walling?

We throw paper-thin latex condoms at kids who struggle with same-sex attraction and tell them: “You’re gay! Embrace who you are. Gay pride, baby!”

We push them out onto a paper-thin latex tightrope with a one-in-five chance they’ll plummet to their death.

What in the name of all things sacred are we doing? One-in-five with AIDS? Seriously? If five people got into a car and were told that one of them wasn’t going to survive the drive, how quickly do you suppose they’d scatter?

Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences. Scripture admonishes: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.
[Source: http://www.wnd.com/2010/09/208869/]

A very big lie is being spoken when men in government cite the health risks of changing a person’s sexual orientation back to that which God created to be normal. Abnormal equals unhealthy. Unnatural actions lead to sickness, depression, and death. The human conscience informs an individual of the deviancy of their actions. Violating one’s conscience leads to depression, for a person cannot feel good about themselves morally as long as their conscience condemns them.




It was sodomites within the American Psychiatric Association who removed homosexuality from the APA’s list of mental illness and deviant sexual behavior. Yet Governor Christie would put greater weight upon the opinions of sodomite men than he would upon the word of God. Of course sodomites are going to say that it is unhealthy to try to change the sexual orientation of a homosexual. Yet, such a claim is an example of telling a big lie. Yahweh declares that turning away from unnatural and immoral behavior is the ultimate act of health, and it is life giving.

Ezekiel 33:11
“Say to them, 'As I live!' declares Yahweh God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die?”

James 5:19-20
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:14-16
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.

Governor Christie is espousing lies when he says that it is unhealthy to turn a homosexual away from their behavior. Satan is a liar. There is no truth in him. You will recognize his servants by the lies they tell and by their opposition to the word of truth.

The Fox News article continues:

The decision marks the third time this month that Christie has staked out a moderate position on a hot-button social issue as he seeks a second term in a Democratic-leaning state.

Christie found middle ground on medical marijuana for children when he agreed Friday to allow growers to cultivate additional strains, and for marijuana to be made in an edible form for chronically ill children. But he would not lift an oversight provision that could require as many as three doctors to sign off on a prescription.

Satan is cunning like a Fox. Many readers will accept the characterization of Governor Christie’s actions as “moderate,” and a “middle ground.” These words are intentionally used to defuse any criticism of his actions being extreme. The media masters would have readers to perceive the Governor’s actions as mainstream, while depicting attempts to restore people to sexual normalcy as extreme. There is nothing moderate about this legislation. It is radical in the extreme. It is a blatant example of rabid homosexual advocacy.

The article further states:

In signing the ban, Christie reiterated his belief that people are born gay and homosexuality is not a sin, a position he first stated in a 2011 interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. That view is inconsistent with his Catholic faith, which teaches that homosexual acts are sins.

Here are more lies, for men and women are NOT born gay, and homosexuality is a sin. Notice carefully that the view that people are born gay is described as a “belief.” There is no scientific evidence that people are born as homosexuals. Yet, by referencing the APA both before and after this statement, the impression is given that there is some scientific basis for this false view. Governor Christie might be surprised, or dismayed, to know that there are members of the homosexual community who stridently deny that people are born gay.




Camille Paglia, who is a practicing lesbian, nevertheless rejects the deception and outright lies that the media, medical, and scientific communities have used to advance the spread of homosexuality. Coming from a self-professed lesbian pagan, her scathing exposure of the lies of homosexual advocates is an anomaly. In her book Vamps and Tramps, Paglia shares the following statements. (My comments will be in parentheses.)

For the past decade, the situation has been out of control: responsible scholarship is impossible when rational discourse is being policed by storm troopers, in this case gay activists, who have the absolutism of all fanatics in claiming sole access to the truth...

In the Eighties and early Nineties, displaced anxiety over the horror of AIDS turned gay activists into rampaging nihilists and monomaniacs, who dishonestly blamed the disease on the government... AIDS did not appear out of nowhere. It was a direct result of the sexual revolution, which my generation unleashed with the best of intentions, but whose worst effects were to be suffered primarily by gay men. In the West, despite much propaganda to the contrary. AIDS is a gay disease and will remain one for the foreseeable future...

Homosexuality is not 'normal.' On the contrary, it is a challenge to the norm; therein rests its eternally revolutionary character Queer theorists - that wizened crew of flimflamming free-loaders - have tried to take the post structuralist tack of claiming that there is no norm, since everything is relative and contingent. This is the kind of silly bind that word-obsessed people get into when they are deaf, dumb, and blind to the outside world. Nature exists, whether academics like it or not. And in nature, procreation is the single, relentless rule. That is the norm. Our sexual bodies were designed for reproduction... no fancy linguistic game-playing can change that biologic fact...

ACT-UP won substantial practical victories in its mobilizations against the political and medical establishment, but its most crazed extremists also did enormous damage to the public image of gay men that will take a generation to undo. Flashed across the nation's television screens were contorted male faces, raging, ranting, bawling like infants - 'Me, me, me!'

Total attention and an instant cure were demanded, even though science had failed to find a cure for any virus, even the common cold...

ACT-UP's hysteria made me reconsider those vilified therapists and ministers who think change of homosexual orientation is possible and whose meetings are constantly disrupted by gay agitators. Is gay identity so fragile that it cannot bear the thought that some people may not wish to be gay. Sexuality is highly fluid, and reversals are theoretically possible. However, habit is refractory... a phenomenon obvious in the struggle with obesity, smoking, alcoholism, or drug addiction... Helping gays learn how to function heterosexually, if they so wish, is a perfectly worthy aim...

Heterosexual love is in sync with cosmic forces. Not everyone has the stomach for daily war with nature...

(Joseph’s Comment: As a pagan, Ms. Paglia identifies the divine presence in, and divine order of, creation as “cosmic forces.” Yet she rightly concludes that people must wage daily war to deny what is obviously the proper order of nature. This is the main reason why there is so much mental illness, depression, and drug use among homosexuals. The stress resulting from embracing an unnatural sexual order bears down upon individuals until many break from the strain.)

The sexual segregation of gay bars following Stonewall was bad for everyone. The men slid into orgiastic narcissism, and the women entombed themselves in a gigantic burrow, the clogged honeypot of lesbian feminism... Now that twenty-five years have passed, it's time to admit that lesbian feminism has produced only the ghettoization and miniaturization of women...Women never grow from the moment they enter the lesbian world. Hence one is deafened in bars by the juvenile whooping and hollering of packs of lesbians greeting each other like screeching teens arriving at a slumber party...

(Joseph’s Comment: The charge of immaturity was similarly leveled by Simon Fanshawe, a male homosexual, who produced the documentary The Trouble With Gay Men. Fanshawe asked, "Why do we seem hell bent on behaving like eternal teenagers?" I think there is much more truth in Mr. Fanshawe’s statement than he realized. Homosexuals are “hell bent” in more ways than one. Not only are they destined to experience a fiery judgment, but their lives are twisted by the very being for whom hell was created. Immaturity is a characteristic of all who give themselves over to a pursuit of sin. No man or woman can arrive at the fulness of the stature that belongs to Christ as long as they are pursuing immorality.)

When women withdraw from men, as has been done on a massive scale in lesbian feminism, we have a cultural disaster on our hands. In such a situation, men are divided from themselves and women simply fail to mature. Lesbian feminists, for all their ideals of sisterhood and solidarity, can treat each other with a fickleness, parasitic exploitativeness, and vicious spite that have to be seen to be believed...

Today, when a freshman has an affair with another girl all the campus social-welfare machinery pushes her toward declaring herself gay and accepting and 'celebrating' it. This is a serious mistake... It is absurd to say that one, two, or more homosexual liaisons make you 'gay' - as if lavender ink ran in your veins. Young women are often attracted to each other during a transitional period when they are breaking away from their parents, expanding their world-views, and developing their personalities. To identify these fruitful Sapphic idylls with a permanent condition of homosexuality is madness, and the campus counselors who encourage such premature conclusions should be condemned and banished. They are preying, for their own ideological purposes, on young people at their most vulnerable.




(Joseph’s Comment: In describing lesbian encounters as “fruitful Sapphic idylls” Ms. Paglia is revealing her aberrant personal view that homosexual experiences are beneficial. Nevertheless, she recognizes that the psychiatric and counseling communities are pushing a demented ideology upon youths who experiment sexually, by seeking to convince them that they are homosexuals, locking them into an identity that they are told cannot be changed. The author then speaks to the issue of lesbians increasingly employing sex toys modeled after the male body in order to stimulate themselves. She suggests that such women reject men for reasons other than sex, and they need to deal with the true root of their rejection. She reasons that if a woman is not antagonistic toward men, and is stimulated by toys modeled after the male sex organ, they might as well get a real man. Her arguments are quite rational and reveal a cognitive dissonance, and underlying dishonesty, among the homosexual community.)

Visiting the elite schools on my lecture jaunts I am struck by how the most militantly gay, Foucault-addled male students look like orphans, with 12-year-old Huck Finn clothing styles and haunted, starved eyes. My friend Robert Caserio says, 'Queer theory isolates them from reality.' This is one reason why gay studies in its current separatist form, must be opposed...

It is ridiculous to assert that gay men are interested only in other gay men and would never ogle straight men in barracks showers. When I heard this on TV I burst out laughing. Anyone who belongs to a health club knows better. Sexual tension and appraisal are constants, above all among gay men, who never stop cruising everything in sight. Seduction of straight studs is a highly erotic motif in gay porn...

Do we want the sexes forever divorced, in a state of permanent alienation? Lesbianism is increasing, since anxious unmasculine men have little to offer. Male homosexuality is increasing, because masculinity is in crisis... Current gay cant insists that homosexuality is 'not a choice,' ... but there is an element of choice in all behavior, sexual or otherwise. It takes an effort to deal with the opposite sex; it's safer with your own kind.

(Joseph’s Comment: The author here touches on a subject that I believe needs further exploration. A leading contributor to homosexual behavior among both men and women, is an absence of true masculinity among males. Men are not living in conformity to Yahweh’s design for men. They are failing at being the spiritual leaders, moral shepherds, and the defenders of truth that they were designed to be. Adam was not deceived in the Garden of Eden (I Timothy 2:14), which makes his participation in sin all the more egregious. His was a true moral failing. When men fall short of the image and likeness of God, they become less desirable to the soul of the woman. If Christ is the image of the perfected Bridegroom, the ultimate husband, then antichrist must be an undesirable image for woman. Those males manifesting this spirit would logically have less desire to enter into a holy and complete union with the woman, a union that includes, but transcends, the sexual relationship. The prophet Daniel describes one antichrist ruler in the following words. “And he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women...” Daniel 11:37)

We should be aware of the potentially pernicious intermingling of gay activism with science, which produces more propaganda than truth. Gay scientists must be scientists first, gays second...

Midway through the AIDS epidemic, the media, having ignored homosexuality or treated it in a lurid manner, did a quick flip-flop under activist pressure and now continues its policy of unthinking cant by parroting the gay establishment party line on every occasion. Gay activists have earned a reputation as conspirators and casuists, because of their amoral tactics of deceit, defamation, intimidation, and extortion...

These are the words of a lesbian as she looks at the dishonesty of the homosexual movement with an insider’s view. With charge after charge, she exposes the lies, fraud, and deception of homosexual advocates. Homosexuality is an altogether dishonest lifestyle. Homosexuals lie to themselves as they say they did not choose their behavior. They lie to one another and to the world as they say they were born homosexual and cannot change. They are disingenuous in depicting homosexuality as normal and wholesome when it is unnatural and unhealthy mentally, spiritually, and physically.

We are increasingly seeing the government and media act as the “intimidation, and extortion” arm of the homosexual agenda. By introducing extreme laws that even forbid offering counseling to a person who wishes to overcome same-sex attraction, the government is placing its jackboot on the necks of those who have rational arguments, and compassionate concern, for those who are held in bondage to a destructive behavior. The Fox article ends with the following statement that is intended to vilify all who disagree with the government’s immoral and destructive policies.

Conversion therapy has increasingly drawn criticism for its methods. Last year, four gay men sued a Jersey City group for fraud, saying its program included making them strip naked and attack effigies of their mothers with baseball bats.

This is a further example of the deceit being employed to defend the actions of the pro-homosexual advocates. A more extreme, unorthodox, example of conversion therapy can hardly be imagined. Rather that providing an honest description of the practices employed by the majority of counselors, whether they be Christian or secular, Fox News chose an egregious example of bizarre methodology in order to defame all counselors offering conversion therapy.

Homosexuality is not only a culture of death, it is one of lies and deception. Homosexuality is championed by liars. Its claims are predicated upon fraud and deception. It portrays itself in a false light as people seeking wholesome and committed long term relationships. It stifles all honest discourse, and it is now criminalizing the proclamation of truth, even when it offered with compassion. The practice of homosexuality is altogether incongruous with the divine nature.


Joseph Herrin

German municipalities face collapse

The counties and municipalities for years are already close to bankruptcy.Now the threat of collapse in many regions. About ten million people live in cities that are almost incapable of action. The taxpayer will be asked to pay.


Topics: Bailout , Bertelsmann


Development of the municipal budget balance in 2007 to 2011 million euros. (Graphic: Bertelsmann Foundation)

The Ruhr Oberhausen has debts of 1.8 billion euros. This makes it the most indebted city in Germany. But by far not the only one. "The financial situation of many municipalities escalates dramatically," writes the Bertelsmann Foundation in its municipal financial report.

The financial situation is so tense that the municipalities are offset almostparalyzed with shock. Around 50 to 60 of the municipalities with around ten million inhabitants are so deeply in debt that they "are scarcely able to act," says René Geissler, municipal expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation. The total debt has increased from 2007 to 2011 from 111 to 130 billion euros.

On its own, the municipalities can no longer get out of this situation. The debt from the cash advances are a dangerous level increased (from 29 to 44 billion euros).

The Bertelsmann Foundation writes:
"The cash advances are the symbol of the increasing incapacity of cities and towns, as well as cash advances with increasing the space for investment loans and thus construction and maintenance of roads, school buildings and other urban infrastructure is close"

As a result, the gap between rich and poor communities increased. Especially bad is the situation in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Hesse.Saxony, however, has relatively good gewirtschaftet.

Given the low interest rates, the financial position of the municipalities could look worse. Higher taxes, fees and taxes are already on the horizon for the citizens in the affected areas.

A debt brake at the local level is for regions such as Oberhausen too late. Experts believe that the federal government must intervene with cash infusions. Shortly after the election, it could be so far.



German Economic News

France says force needed if Syrian chemical attack proved true

PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Thursday that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians proved true.

"There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community, but there is no question of sending troops on the ground," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television network BFM.

If the U.N. Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways," he said, without elaborating.

Opposition activists accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of gassing hundreds, including women and children, in Wednesday's attack.

What would be the world's most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s led to an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York.

The council did not explicitly demand a U.N. investigation of the incident, although it said "clarity" was needed and welcomed U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's calls for a prompt investigation by a U.N. inspection team already in Syria.

The council's statement was watered down to accommodate objections from Russia and China, diplomats said. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed previous Western efforts to impose U.N. penalties on Assad.

Fabius, who had a working dinner with his British counterpart William Hague in Paris on Wednesday night to discuss Syria, said the alleged attack had come almost exactly a year after U.S. President Barack Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a red line.

The attack highlighted the sense of impunity within Assad's government, he said.

Fabius said that if Assad refused to let the U.N. inspection team investigate the site, he would have been caught with "his hand in the till."

Yahoo News

Russia suggests Syria ‘chemical attack’ was ‘planned provocation’

Reports by “biased regional media” about alleged chemical weapons use near Damascus might be “a provocation planned in advance,” says Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich.

“It draws attention to the fact that biased regional media have immediately, as if on command, begun an aggressive information attack, laying all the responsibility on the government,” Lukashevich said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, citing its sources, said that a homemade rocket carrying unidentified chemical substances had been launched from an area controlled by the opposition.

“A homemade rocket with a poisonous substance that has not been identified yet – one similar to the rocket used by terrorists on March 19 in Khan al-Assal - was fired early on August 21 [at Damascus suburbs] from a position occupied by the insurgents,” Lukashevich said.

Earlier on Wednesday, conflicting reports emerged of recent chemical weapons use in Syria. This comes on the same day that the UN inspectors arrive in Damascus to investigate allegations of use of toxic arms. The casualty figures range from dozens to almost 1,300 deaths.

The Russian diplomat stated that it seems as though it was “a provocation planned in advance.” The “criminal action” near Damascus coincided with the beginning of UN experts’ work in Syria - which speaks in favor of such a conclusion.



A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children wrapped in shrouds laid out on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, 2013.(AFP Photo / Daya Al-Deen)

Lukashevich pointed out that similar reports about Syrian authorities allegedly using chemical weapons have popped up before. However, the information has never been confirmed. 

In Moscow’s view, the latest possible “provocation” might be the opposition’s attempt to get support from the UN Security Council and undermine the Geneva peace talks on Syria.

Russia believes the incident should be thoroughly investigated by professionals. It urged everyone who has influence on armed extremists to do everything possible to finally put an end to such provocations involving chemical poisonous substances.

Meanwhile, Washington said it has no independent verification about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The US is planning to consult the UN Security Council about the allegations, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, as cited by Reuters.

The chief UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom discussed the alleged chemical attack with the Syrian government. The organization’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was shocked by the report of the alleged attack, his press office said.

UN Security Сouncil gathered for an emergency meeting on alleged Syria gas attack at 1900 GMT on Wednesday.


The UK, one of the five permanent members of the body, will demand that the UN team of investigators gets “unrestricted access” to the area of the alleged attack, Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters.

If reports are verified, it would mark “a shocking escalation” of the use of chemical weapons in Syria,” he said, adding that “we are determined the people responsible will one day be held to account.”



A view shows bodies of children whom activists say were killed by gas attack in the Ghouta area, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus August 21, 2013.(Reuters / Mohamed Abdullah)

The Syrian government has no information regarding opposition forces using chemical weapons in the Damascus area, the country’s information minister told RT Arabic. Omran Al-Zoubi mentioned that the pro-Assad army has suffered no losses because of such weapons. He did not rule out, however, that the poisonous substances could have been used against civilians – as was the case in the Khan al-Assal incident outside Aleppo, in which over 30 people died.

In Al-Zoubi’s opinion, the goal of Wednesday’s “collateral” reports about the alleged chemical attack by government forces was to undermine the work of UN investigators who arrived in Syria after receiving a request from Damascus.

If the UN commission successfully completes its work, investigators will discover that chemical weapons were used in Khan al-Assal and that the Syrian army did not use such arms, the minister stated.

RT

Presidential Meeting Signals Catastrophic Event? “There Is a Crisis Unfolding Somewhere in the Background”

If there’s one thing we know about how the US government operates, it’s that the American people are often the last to know about serious problems that may be taking place behind the scenes.

This week, in a move that has spooked a lot of economic and financial analysts, President Barack Obama held a special, closed door meeting with the heads of the U.S. government’s financial, monetary and oversight agencies. It included members of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the CFTC, the SEC, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

This has left many wondering what is really going on – and if a serious event is about to take place yet again.

I guess I’m always unnerved as a result of what happened in April, the last time the President of the United States had a meeting with all of the bank heads, and two days later the price of gold was smashed for over $200.
Now, the President is meeting with all of the heads of the various agencies, institutions, the Fed, and all of the other key money entities in the United States today. What’s that all about?
But clearly if the President is having this meeting, there is a crisis unfolding somewhere in the background, and it could very well relate to the dollar, interest rates, and the massive derivatives market associated with interest rates…

This surge in interest rates may have already seriously destabilized the entire financial system, and that’s why there is this meeting taking place in the White House today. The fact is that the vast majority of derivatives in the global financial system are related to interest rates.
Now, the entire financial system may be on the precipice of some sort of catastrophic event unfolding because of what we have already seen in the bond market, and how the derivatives are so heavily intertwined. Meaning, we may be on the verge of another disastrous derivatives meltdown. 

  

John Embry – King World News via Steve Quayle Ahead of the 2008 collapse, as the pillars of our financial system were undergoing a controlled detonation, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve assured us the crisis had been contained. Experts and pundits on television werescreaming to investors that everything was fine and to keep buying the dips.

Behind the scenes, however, President Bush, the Federal Reserve, and the world’s leading financial institutions were scrambling to figure out how to keep the whole thing from falling apart. As former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson noted, we were on the brink of a historic collapse, and they knew it well ahead of time.

The American people were not as fortunate. Most of us came to the realization things had taken a turn for the worse only after 50% of our wealth had been wiped out in a stock market and housing crash.

Today, like before, all of the experts in Washington and the mainstream media are making a point to reassure us that we are in the midst of an economic recovery. However, key economic indicators suggest otherwise. We are seeing a plunge in global shipping, a halt in consumer spending, and perhaps most importantly, a significant rise in interest rates and the US government’s borrowing costs.

Now, as the President meets with a veritable who’s who of government finance, lending and monetary policy one can’t help but think something is amiss.

Are we on the brink of another global disaster?

Activist Post

THOUSANDS EVACUATED AS RECORD FLOODING RAVAGES PHILIPPINES TUESDAY PARALYZING CAPITAL